Super Wonderful Superfood Smoothie recipes #1

Hi everyone :)

So as promised, here are some great tried and tested superfood smoothie recipes for you to taste and love. They are the result of an 18 month Superfood journey which keeps growing and expanding. Get ready for a more vibrant, more healthy and more energised you!

Remember the rules with your smoothies:

RULE #1- Start with small amounts and build up to larger amounts over time (eg. TEAspoons not TABLEspoons to start)

RULE #2-  Use more water for smoother, thinner smoothies and less water for more thicker smoothies (its all about your preference)

RULE #3- Experiment with the flavours! Get to know the tastes of each superfood so you can get a 'feel' for what you like. Mix it up! Make your own recipes!

My high speed blender has a litre jug, so these recipes make around 750ml.

 Every Day Morning Power Smoothie #1
- 2 tall glasses filtered water
-1 tbspoon Spirulina
- 2 tbspoons shelled Hemp seeds
-1 tbspoon Barleygrass or Wheatgrass powder
- 1 banana 
- 1 quarter of a large cucumber
- a few fresh leaves of spinach, beetroot leaves or whatever green leaves you have in the fridge
and
- 1 thick slice of honeydew melon.

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Every Day Morning Power Smoothie #2 
- 2 tall glasses filtered water
-1 tbspoon Spirulina
- 1 tbspoon Sun Warrior Protein either natural or vanilla
- 2 tbspoons shelled Hemp seeds
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1 banana and
- 2 slices of honeydew melon.

--------------------------------------

 

Treat Yourself Power Choc Smoothie
- 2 tall glasses filtered water
- 1 tbspoon Sun Warrior Protein either natural or vanilla
- 1 tbspoon shelled Hemp seeds
- 1 tbspoon cacao powder 
- 1 teaspoon of Maca
- pinch of nutmeg
- pinch of cinnamon
- about 12-15 cashews or almonds
- 2 small bananas or fruit of choice

ENJOY!

Much love,



Leona
Helping you to create the life you've always wanted
http://www.createyourtruelife.com

My first year with Superfoods!

I am super excited! I have now been taking Superfoods* for well over a year and I wanted to share my experience with you.

*Superfoods to me means any food that goes above and beyond normal nutritional values eg, plants that have high percentage of protein, rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and polyphenols.

When I first started taking Superfoods I took them in tablet form. I steadily increased my dose until I found that tablets were just a bit frustrating. So I changed to powdered form. This enabled me to get both a higher quality of superfood plus I could now increase my dose much easier.

When I switched to powder form I bought a really gorgeous high speed blender. Since then I have been having a superfood smoothie every morning. As soon as I wake up I have a slice of lemon, fresh ginger or fresh nettles in hot water (depending on the time of year) and then after around half an hour to an hour later, I have my smoothie.

I cannot recommend having a superfood smoothie every morning enough!
There are SO many benefits. Here are my top 3:

1- Ease. Put everything in the blender, whizz for 20 seconds, drink, rinse out glass and blender - 10 minute breakfast - done.

2- Digestion. Superfoods are often high in protein and this protein (and all the other good stuff too!) gets absorbed into your bloodstream super-fast, unlike the slow amount of time that meat protein takes to digest.Because of this quick apsorption rate you'll feel energised, so superfood smoothies are great energy boosters too!

3- Optimum Nutrition. Your Superfood smoothies are so loaded with vitamins and minerals that you're unlikely to find a higher nutrition based meal than a smoothie first thing in the morning (compared to eggs, toast, muffins, cereals and other common breakfast foods).

There are plenty of other good reasons too! Improved memory, stronger nails, skin and hair, improved circulation, anti-ageing, boosts immune system, reduces allergies, anti-inflammatory, hormone balancing....oh, the list goes on and on! You can also SEE the difference in my face - the photo with me in the orange scarf on the left was taken 18 months ago. The one on the right was taken a month ago.

BEFORE SUPERFOODS

AFTER A YEAR WITH SUPERFOODS

 

My Superfood Smoothies are always water based, although adding rice, oat, hemp or almond milk can be really tasty, depending on what flavours you want to mix together. This is what I love about Superfoods, you try all these new tastes and then you get to experiment with them to find the combinations that taste great and feel great for you! 

http://www.createyourtruelife.com

My favourite Superfood without a doubt is Spirulina and is the one I have been taking right from the start of my 'detox lifestyle'.

 My current favourite Superfood smoothie recipe is this:

- 2 tall glasses filtered water
-1 tbspoon Spirulina
- 2 tbspoons shelled Hemp seeds
-1 tbspoon Barleygrass
- 1 banana and
- 2 slices of honeydew melon.

Blitz in a high speed blender for 20 seconds. Drink and enjoy!

If you are going to give this a go, I recommend that you start off with teaspoons instead of tablespoons, increasing the dose after around 30 days and maybe even put a little natural sweetener in there too such as melted honey or dried fruit (choose dried fruit with no added vegetable oil or preservatives).

There are SO many fab Superfoods that I am going to write a blog post on my favourite Superfoods over the next few weeks.

I look forward to sharing with you the wonderful world of Superfoods!

With much love



Leona x
Helping you to live the life youve always dreamed of
http://www.createyourtruelife.com

The Cacao Dilemma - with Cacao recipes!

The Cacao Dilemma ..... includes some simple Cacao recipes! 

I felt compelled to write a blog post on cacao, having read and heard so much about raw chocolate.

My reason for getting attracted to it recently was that After 5 months of being on wheat free/dairy free/sugar free 80% of the time, I was still getting chocolate cravings! I'd kept on with my dried figs and fresh fruit on all sweet cravings, but chocolate just has that smooth, velvety texture that it couldn't help but creep back into my imagination.
 
I had heard mostly good things about Cacao and only one negative, so I decided to buy some Cacao powder. I had been feeling really tired one day after my workout as I was about to come on my period. I was looking for something I could take that could balance out my hormones. So I made a Cacao, hemp seed, lucuma, banana, manuka honey and water smoothie. I've got to say that it was powerful stuff! whoa! You definitely can have too much of it! I listened to my body for the next few hours and noticed a significant improvement in my energy levels. By the evening I felt back to my usual self. My Conclusion - what a fab pick me up! I think this is due to the high content of magnesium in cacao which is what most women start lacking during the time of their period.

5 days later I had a cacao, lucuma, manuka and soya *warm* mug of chocolate. It was good!

5 days after that I had a water, cacao 1tbsp, hemp 2 tbsp, lucuma 1 tsp, mace had tsp, banana, melon smoothie :0) :0)

2 days later I tried this mousse: water, cacao 1 tbsp, 1 avocado, 1 banana, 1 tbsp hemp seeds, 1 tsp lucuma, half tsp maca - YUM! Oh this one is SO recommended!

A few weeks later I was looking online and for some reason everyone seemed to be talking about how cacao is this amazing health food and how it can cure illnesses. For me, it seemed like something good, but I couldn't see how having a cacao smoothie over a spirulina smoothie (for example) could be just as beneficial for my health. Something didn't seem right. So I decided to call up some nutritionist friends and ask their opinions. I was speaking to one particular nutritionist friend and he was saying that cacao can stimulate the adrenals and thus some people can have a hyperactive response to consuming it.

One month later I had been considering this cacao dilemma and in the process wanting to experiment with some new superfoods. So I bought some wheatgrass powder and barleygrass powder. In 2007 I had experimented with growing wheatgrass, but didn't keep it up for any length of time due to the technicalities of growing it. Instead of using cacao when I came on my period, I decided to use spirulina, wheatgrass and barleygrass in my morning water based smoothie. 2 days before I was due on, I was feeling my typical energy slump, so I made this smoothie. That evening, I had so much energy that I went for an extra workout! I never usually work out on that particular evening, but I just felt driven to do so! It was really amazing. This was the turning point for me, I realised that simply eating more superfoods is all you need to do to keep your energy levels up.  
Now that its been nearly a year since I've been consuming superfoods on a daily basis, I can say that without a doubt, superfoods have massively contributed to my consistent energy levels and wellbeing.

Since then I have still made my own raw chocolates and cacao based smoothies. Cacao is obviously a million times better for you than the 'chocolate' that is sold on the mass market as it contains no dairy and no sugar. So if you want guilt-free chocolate, then this is the only way to go! Food is both nutritional and social isn't it? So its fun to have fun with it and not be so serious all the time. Once you've got into the swing of your new way of life (for me it was 90 days no wheat no dairy no sugar) its great to live by the 80/20 rule - eat the high nutrition based foods and foods you grow yourself 80% of the time, and then enjoy the odd glass of wine, raw chocolates etc, 20% of the time. 

If you haven't read it already, here's my 6 month update: http://createyourtruelife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/6-months-on-detox-lifestyle.html
My One year update is coming shortly!

Thanks for reading, till next time, 

Much love,








Leona x
 Helping you to live your most authentic life
http://www.createyourtruelife.com

90 Days of the Detox lifestyle!

I've been on my detox lifestyle for 90 days = 3 months! 

It started with just 10 days, then 30 days, then 60 days and then last week I reached 90 days of my detox lifestyle!

Wow! What a ride its been. Its been so much fun! The highs have been loosing weight after just 20 days and then more after 60 days. The lows have been when I repeated a few meals and things seemed samey, but then I just got creative and found new ways of doing things!

As a reminder, days 1-30 were full-on 100% wheat-free, dairy-free and sugar-free and since day 31 I've been doing this 90% of the time.

My main piece of advice here is, please don't try and be perfect - its too much work!
Go easy on yourself, do the best you can and you will still reap the rewards!

With Much love,

Leona xx

www.createyourtruelife.com

SO...Here's my 60-90 day diary!

Day 62 - The Sun came out in London! Had the smallest pot of Gu you can possibly buy - thats about 45g of chocolate. It was SO nice! Still amazed that this and half a bar of chocolate is the only chocolate I've touched in 62 days. Considering I was eating it at least 4 or 5 times a week before that. After eating the Gu it was like, yeah - this is cool! I can eat chocolate now and again because I've committed to being healthy and I wont ever binge on anything ever again, it just wouldn't feel right.

Day 63 - Celebration! I've gone down 3 notches on my belt!!! 3 whole notches in 63 days! Guys if I can do this - so can you! Go for it! Make your changes today! Remember its all about replacing old foods with new ones, thats all. Make it easy for yourself xxx

Day 65 - While watching the olympic torch run through north london, someone gave me some cake! Such a nice lady I couldn't turn her down so I ate a couple of mouthfuls then put it on the side and a dog came up and finished it off! He must have known he was doing me a favour!!!

Day 68 - Fist time eating cheddar cheese since Day 32 or 35 - I wasn't impressed - so tasteless. Got back to beans quickly! ;0) "Falling off the wagon" re-enforces my love for this new way of life - the tastes are far nicer!

Day 72 - Been working full on days and evenings and must say this was the biggest challenge of this detox lifestyle so far, I was still keeping up the superfood smoothie breakfasts. Managed to stay (mostly) clear of sugar, but bread and cheese made a couple of appearances here - in Borek form (Boreks are turkish feta and spinach pastries). The main thing I noticed was that after eating wheat and dairy, the food didn't give any fuel, it almost felt like a waste of eating something! When I got back to eating rye, beans and salads again I felt an almost instant energy boost. I was so happy to be back to the good stuff.

Day 75 - Feels so much easier now to make better choices with food. Before I started this, it used to be easier to pick up bread and cheese and now it feels harder to do this. I know that it doesn't help my body so eating it has become almost pointless - just a texture sensation in my mouth.

Day 78 - My Boyfriend bought me Superfoods book by David Wolfe. I am absolutely loving it! SO, so, good to have all this information in one place now. Leaning so much more about Spirulina. Mace and Hemp, which I have now on a daily basis. Also learning about new Superfoods that I haven't yet heard of.

Day 80 - Having taken Spirulina for over 3 months already I decided to increase my daily intake from 5g to 10g = double the amount. Watch this space guys! Will report with more info!

Day 83 - Went out with the family so wine was consumed. Feel so completely different towards wine than before I started this whole process. Its so good to have broken old habits. Its also great to not be bound by new decisions - its OK to have wine now and again! I'm chilled about it!

Day 84 - Toast round my boyfriend's mums. First bit of wheat bread in 80-something days! Tasty, just not as full as rye but I must say the warmth is a nice change. Will look out for breads that are no wheat - maize bread tastes practically the same!

Day 87 - Loving having doubled my intake a spirulina. My breakfast smoothie lasted me for 4 hours today which is definitely a record, usually I have to have something before lunch to keep going, but not today! I cannot express tot you how much I'm loving replacing wheat, dairy and sugar with healthier alternatives, I feel so much more alive. Meeting with a friend I hadn't seen for a while, she was shocked at how much I'd changed. In particular with my eyes and skin which she both said looked brighter than ever before. With 90 days approaching I'm full of gratitude for the centredness that I feel more and more each day. 

Day 89 - Due to my schedule, I've been missing a few workouts so I did a double one today - an hour of aerobics followed by an hour of pilates, which Ive never done before. I did all the advanced pilates options which was great even though a couple of them were really challenging. 

Day 90 - Ive done it! Ive reached 90 days! SO, so amazing. I'm so pleased with myself. I don't think I need to count the days anymore - this is a lifestyle for me. I'll jump off the wagon now and again (usually when going out with friends) but then I'll jump straight back on. Life is interesting like that :0) 

Its great not to be bound by a set of rules, but to choose the heathy option over the unhealthy one, because it feels so much better. 
A conscious choice down to experience of how if feels having done both. This has all been about liberation from constraints, while at the same time being on a health mission! 

I truly recommend you go for it - try 20 days at a minimum and go from there.
You will feel and see the benefits!!!! 

If you need some help (and lets face it we all do from time to time), then I'll be there. 
Whether you have a health, emotional or personal issue, I'd love to help.
Go to my website Create Your True Life for more info.

With Much love 

Leona x

www.createyourtruelife.com

60 days on the detox lifestyle! :0)

www.createyourtruelife.com

The journey doesn't end at 30 days!

To those who have been following my blog - I've been living a sugar free, wheat free, dairy free and alcohol free for the 30 days originally and now 60 days, whoop! Before that I'd been a non meat eater for 12 years and had became bored with the lazy option of bread and cheese for many meals. It was time to make a change! I'm so excited to share my progress with you, with the intention to inspire you to do something similar - you can do it! :0)

The major thing I've learnt is that you can't be perfect! Trying too hard is doomed to failure so my new approach is definitely do the best I can do 100% of the time and feel good about my decisions 100% of the time. That means if I actually do the wheat free, sugar free, alcohol free and dairy free only 90% of the time - then I can live with that!

www.createyourtruelife.co

So here's my progress....enjoy x

Day 31 Immediately after my 30 days I felt excited and wanted to carry on with what I'd put in motion in regards to my diet. I chilled out a bit in regards to having some feta cheese (yummy!) and tried some cheddar, but ended up throwing it away as the taste was very strange - Haven't touched cheese since.

Day 34 Had my first chocolate bar in 34 days! It was green and blacks 70% with unrefined sugar so I felt cool with that. Had half the bar. Haven't had one since. Dried figs are too good!

Day 35 I had a routine going with my food but realised the meals were getting a bit samey. What was needed here was a bit of variety to keep up my enthusiasm and I started to look around for more recipes and research into nutrition online.

Day 38/39 I was working somewhere where I hadn't prepared some food and there was only a newsagent nearby. I ended up having the only available thing - samosas and sandwiches! The next day to avoid this happening I had sushi for breakfast! (I don't recommend it though!) flaffels for lunch and fish for tea. I felt back on track.

Day 41 - 40 Celebration! I decided that it was about time to celebrate all the achievements I had made over the last 40 days - getting out of my old pattern and into a new and exciting one! Went out for a meal with my parter and for the fist time had some deep fried food in a beautiful Thai restaurant. It was delicious. We shared a creme brulee but I had two spoonfuls and couldn't eat anymore - it was too dense. The wine however was lovely :0) I realised that I will always love food! Its just a case of getting a daily healthy eating plan going and so going out for treats now and again, doesn't seem like a huge stray from the path.

Day 43 I made my first purchase of maca powder and had my first banana, maca and hemp seed water based smoothie. WOW! It was so delicious! I was also on about the 60th day of taking Spirulina, so today was a massive superfood day for me! It was also the day that my lettuces and rocket lettuce was ready to pick and so I had a extra super nutrient salad. My experience with spirulina is that as it contains vitamin b12, it saves you having to be concerned about eating eggs. Secondly, I think it curbs your appetite a bit which is a bonus!

Day 45  I read somewhere that it takes 20 mins of aerobic activity to burn of a glass of wine (prob due to the amount of sugar), so now my mantra is - if I drink a glass of wine during an evening out at the weekend - the next day I'll go for a workout. It feels good to have a plan about this - it feels like I respect myself and my body. And it also feels like I can chill out about it all and not be concerned about it. Nice!

Day 47 Sugar and wheat intake. Felt SUPER dehydrated because of it and cant wait to work it off and get back to the better lifestyle tomorrow.

Day 48 One of the best workouts ever! think this has to do with my new superfood super-intake :0) Just wanted to keep going and was getting into a really good breathing rhythm whilst doing it. Feeling a real progression!

Day 53 Day of noticing how things are changing work wise. Lots of things growing from seeds I sowed 53 days ago. Also looking back over the year and realising one of my major goals has nearly been achieved - so close!

Day 56 Bought some Quinoa and am loving it. I bought it years ago but never really got on with it, but now it feels exciting! So many different flavours you can add to it. Really enjoying it with fresh Mange Tout from my veggie garden :0)

Day 59 Still focusing on work, more phone calls, more opportunities, really exciting. Feeling really high, but in a balanced way. I used to get highs and lows but now it all feels great, all the time. I think its because I'm on this mission, nothing can stop me, only myself.

Day 60 Got my goal sheet out and re-did my goals. Last time I did them (in detail) was in March and really great to see how the major ones are still in place but have shifted slightly. Got myself a proper plan in place for the next 30 days, feels really good.

So there we go! I've reached 60 days of my detox lifestyle - amazing! I'm keeping going! I've made so many new discoveries and I still feel like there is so much to discover. I'm definitely on the road for 90 days and beyond....

www.createyourtruelife.com

Although I don't talk about weight loss much, I am excited about my new body :0) It feels lighter generally and if you look back at my 30 days blog post you'll see that it was just within 20 days where I felt the weight coming off. Its a really nice feeling to know that you CAN shift weight but it is so much more than that - its really about balancing your emotions and having respect for yourself. Respecting your body, respecting yourself enough to treat yourself in the best way you can.

Once you find this respect for yourself - you'll only ever look forward at the possibilities and consistently ask yourself 'What's next?'

Need help with your journey? I'd love to be there for you! I offer a 3 session programme called "Make Change Happen" that deals with any situation you are in and changes your approach for the better. We can meet in person or talk via Skype.

Please go to my website for more info and get in touch!

With much love


Leona x
http://www.createyourtruelife.com

30 Day Challenge

Some of you may know I've been on a 30 day Challenge to be wheat free, dairy free, sugar free, 'bad' fat free, caffeine free and alcohol free. I'm pleased to say - I MADE IT! and am feeling lighter, brighter and clearer as a result!

Motivation
I've been regularly working out for over a year and was looking for a new and improved way of looking at my diet to compliment this. Since I committed to my new plan of aerobics 3 times a week I noticed that days after I had eaten a lot of heavy food the workouts would be harder than days where I had eaten lighter. I've been a non meat eater for over 12 years now and regularly have relied on both bread, cheese and pasta as a kind of quick solution for many meals. I also had been getting into the habit of a nice glass of red wine and a bar of chocolate at the end of the day. I became aware that these patterns were just like emotional patterns and they had become tiresome. There must be another way I thought - so I was looking out for it.

I came across this new approach to food after a four day seminar I participated in which really got my attention. I don't believe in diets and workout more to feel good than to look good, so I wasn't interested in a quick fix - but something more sustainable and most importantly - ENJOYABLE! This diet was all about increasing your energy - getting you to move more, drink lots more water and eat 70% live foods. I figured that as I had the exercises down, the water and food bit should be easier and you know what - is WAS!

Whats the process?
Its basically removing wheat, sugar, alcohol, bad fats, meat, caffeine and preservatives from your body and getting more good fats and live foods in your body. I took to it straight away as I really felt this all made so much sense. We all know that in order to be healthy that we have got to move more and eat well - so this approach seemed like common sense to me. It also seemed a lot more simple than a 100% raw food diet - I had heard much about raw food over the years, but going 100% raw didn't feel right for me - hot soups in winter makes too much sense! I have my own allotment plot where I grow my own fruits and vegetables and have done for the past 9 years. Its these foods that have the highest nutritional content and I have felt the benefits of my own veg vs shop bought veg - there's no comparison!

http://www.createyourtruelife.com

Progression
I started it out as a 10 challenge, after a shopping trip to my local grocers and health food shop. My main feeling was - how am I going to live without CHOCOLATE?! but as soon as I found the dried fruit section in the health food shop I felt at ease. I got myself a couple of huge bags of dried figs and thought - every time I want some chocolate I'm going to munch on these. So that was that sorted! The second question for me was - what am I going to do without bread?! So I stocked up on Rye Crispbreads and that was that sorted! I also bought a ton of green leafy veg, but that wasn't unusual for me and also some good quality salmon from the fishmonger - done.

So the 10 days went really well. I felt really excited about my new diet and got into the swing of it easily. When the 10 days were up I was a bit like - is that it? and made a pact with myself to go for 20 days - this was a bit harder. After about 15 days I started getting a bit obsessed - what was I going to eat, when was I going to eat it? I felt like food was becoming all I was talking about and driving my partner crazy! I thought, I've got to relax more about this! Also around this time, emotional stuff started to come out. I was dealing with the issues of control - how could I control my life without becoming a control freak?! This was very important to me. I trusted that the answers would come and kept going.

Then I reached 20 days! I was so happy - this was a milestone for me. I had noticed that I had become more thirsty rather than more hungry a lot of the time. My portion sizes started getting smaller and my drinks started getting larger! It was also around this time I could feel my legs a little slimmer! A bizarre thing to notice, but its true!!! ;0)

As I got onto 22, 23 days I could really feel a difference, I had gone down one notch on my belt and I just felt more energised generally. I was on the home straight....30 days was approaching! I turned my control issues into excitement and getting it done rather than having to talk about it as much.

The hardest thing was keeping it up when I had to work long days. Most of the time I would make a brown rice, bean and vegetable medley, but when I hadn't come prepared thankfully the local supermarket stocked either mackerel, sushi or hummous and rye crispbread so I could eat that. One of the most frustrating things I found was misleading products - even such a simple thing like a Chinese 5 spice mix had sugar in it! And my favourite meat free sausages had sugar in them! I was amazed that when I went into the supermarket - everything there is either wheat, sugar or dairy based!

 http://www.createyourtruelife.com

However saying all this, the great thing about living today is that there is so much food available from different sources. Its just about getting your priorities right and shopping from multiple places rather than one. I have absolutely no problem with that and love giving my money to smaller companies who are growing. This makes more sense to me.

So I reached Day 30 today! I feel fantastic! I made a commitment and I stuck to it. But for those of you who know me, wouldn't be surprised by that at all :0) I've always been this way but now I have a plan with my food too and that feels LIBERATING! More weight is coming off, I have more muscle and more energy than ever before. I can do 8 press ups! Doesn't sound a lot, but six months ago I couldn't do 1!

More importantly than this though, I have seen a progression in my approach to life. I am more centred, more calm and my solution based attitude has strengthen ten fold. I feel more appreciative towards every thing and every one and its given me even more inspiration to support many more people on their own personal journeys in life. And I'm going to keep going - this is now a lifestyle for me.

If you are wanting to make a change to what you eat my advise would be to do it a bit at a time. Think how am I going to replace this food? rather than eliminate it. Focus on nurturing yourself rather than depriving yourself. It really is an approach to life, not an approach to food. You'll find that the emotional stuff could be the hardest bit to deal with, but this is the most important thing. Be the change you wish to see in the world - you can make a difference - today - now.

Can't do it on your own? No problem! We all need help from time to time!
If you have a personal, social, family, health, career, work or relationship issue you'd love to shift, then I'm here for you! I offer one to one sessions in person or via skype.

Get in touch for more information via my website: http://www.createyourtruelife.com





 Here's what a recent client said about their experience:

"If you need direction, motivation and encouragement, Leona will inspire you to achieve!! She is dynamic and rejuvenating, and her sparkle certainly rubs off! My project that has been on the back burner for the last 10 years and has finally had life breathed back into it. I forever grateful to Leona for making my dreams a reality!"

Vanya Silverten. North London.

http://www.createyourtruelife.com

Much love and Till next time,


Leona x
http://www.createyourtruelife.com