VITAMIX IS HERE!

I'm so excited! Our Vitamix blender arrived yesterday. It is so cool!

We haven't done that much with it yet but we did make smoothies and I really was amazed at how well it worked.

We threw the following into the VitaMix (well washed of course):

i) Strawberries (uncut and with tops attached. It advises you to do this as the tops are edible and apparently full of nutrients).
ii) Kiwi Fruit
iii) a peach
iv) A Mango (with skin still on)
v) Carrots
vi) Celery
vii) Ice

This wasn't an official "recipe". Just things we had that were in danger of going bad.

A 64 oz blender was packed full. I turned the thing on for only 30 seconds and everything turned into a really smooth drink. Not a lump in the whole drink and it tasted surprisingly good. The fruits mask the vegetable taste. I am looking forward to getting more vegetables in this way.

There is a danger with something like this though. When you have a new "toy" you want to make and try everything and no matter how healthy it may be everything does have calories. It would be so easy to become fat and healthy real quick.

Weight Watchers also advises you that fruits in whole form are better than fruits in liquid form. There are good reasons for this (maybe a topic for tomorrow's blog as the blog will be way too long if I try to cover it off here) but the Vitamix does alleviate the concern to a certain extent. Still...caution is the word of the day.

Speaking of "getting fat" I FEEL fat this morning. I am not sure how real it is but I have that bloated feeling in my stomach. Why? Because we went out to eat last night with our neighbours.

There were five of us and a baby going for Indian Food and I thought I had prepared myself really well. I went on-line and read websites like "the survival guide for Indian food". I figured out exactly what I was going to have before we went.

The problem, however, was that I didn't do any analysis of alternate options. I had simply narrowed in on Chicken Tandoori and decided that was what I would have, with one slice of Roti (made with whole wheat flour).

I quickly found out we were all sharing and The Chicken Tandoori was a "Kabob" which wasn't really suitable for sharing. When I looked at the other items on the menu I recognized the names from my research but for each item I looked at the only thought in my head was "ok...this one was either really good or really fattening".

I know I should have just asked, but sometimes I think people get tired of hearing about my health kick and just want to have a nice dinner out. I probably shouldn't have cared but I simply allowed someone else to order all the food. To be honest it didn't bother me in the least. I didn't have a clue what to order so I actually encouraged my neighbour to do the ordering.

Everything actually looked reasonably healthy. There were certainly lots of vegetable options, but I have no idea what was in the ingredients or what the fat count was.

I had a slice of Roti and reasonable, but not excessive, portions of the other foods. I didn't feel like I ate too much at all. Right now, however, 12 hours later, I feel fat and bloated. Interesting how the body gives you feedback.

I am off to Hamilton today. My car is being recalled on a couple of items so I am taking it in, and I am seeing a friend about Real Estate business in the evening. This means I won't be back until late so no VitaMix playing today.

I am going to soak some raw almonds though so I can make Almond Milk tomorrow morning. Looking forward to trying it.

Be healthy!

Alan