Today Downtown Dad and I start a healthy eating and exercise program, and this time, it’s gonna work!

What makes you so sure this one will work? Didn’t you just spend a whole year on the “Healthy Lifestyle” plan? What is this foolproof plan? Why now?

Whoa! Hold it right there with the questions. As the glowing green Wicked Witch of the West said in the Wizard of Oz, “All in good time my pretty, all in good time…”  Read on to find out why that is the perfect segue to my explanation:

Last week, on our RIP Roarin’ Roadtrip/Second Honeymoon, we stopped in to visit some friends and were amazed at how healthy and wonderful they looked. Craig, down at least 50 pounds, and Pam’s formerly white hair, was now sprouting new dark growth. We speculated that retirement had been really good for them, but they quickly started to tell us about their new healthy eating and exercise plan.

Their newfound youth and vitality they said, was all because of GGS.

Beg pardon? GGS?

Yes! Glowing Green Smoothies they both testified, with the shiny eyed look of a born again Christian.  That name, coupled with the evangelical way their words started to rush forth, I must admit, gave Downtown Dad and me pause. Why, the poor dears had gone ’round the bend we thought.  Their 401K must have already run out and now they were starving, having to resort to drinking some sort of radioactive slime.  We started to back toward the door…

But they kept talking, and handing us serious looking books and studies, and as we listened, we started to hear components of things we already understood about nutrition, and clean eating.  Pretty soon, we were nodding in agreement.

Let me back up for a moment.  Yes, last year I participated in a program, sponsored by the hospital we work for. It included a nutritionist, a personal trainer, and a psycologist.  In the beginning, I had a vision that I would be so successful at going to the gym twice a week and making sense of nutritional labels, and understanding my eating triggers, that Downtown Dad would be inspired to join me! What a waste of time.  I lost exactly 12 pounds in the first six months, and gained them all back in the second. I hated going to the gym, and only cajoled DD into joining me one time.

That clearly didn’t work.  But we knew we had to do something different. I am at least 40 pounds overweight, and my joints ache, and poor DD suffers from asthma, and has a swollen gut from visceral fat. (Sorry honey, but it’s true, and part of why we’re doing this).  Before our trip, we’d made the decision to cut out added sugars, corn, potatoes, and wheat, which I did cold turkey. It had an immediate positive effect on my joints. But the problem was, I just couldn’t explain to DD the reasons why potatoes at breakfast, or just one sandwich, would unbalance the entire chemical house of cards we were trying to build.

Enter Craig and Pam, The China Study, and Kimberly Snyder‘s book. We got the Readers Digest encapsulation from Craig and Pam, and I have yet to actually read the books, but I’ve been all over their websites, and what they say makes a lot of sense!  Basically, the aim is to eat only healthy, whole foods, drink lots of water, and exercise moderately, but regularly.

So, while we’ve been dabbling in eating right, we were also on vacation.  But here we are at day one of diving in to the whole program.

We start the day with a cup of hot water with the juice of 1/2 a lemon to raise the alkaline level of our digestive systems.

Then, once we’re hungry we have a Glowing Green Smoothie, the recipe is on the Kim Snyder website, and pictured here.

Everything here makes enough for 4 smoothies, and you can keep it in the fridge in tupperware containers.  They’re not bad. It turns out pretty thick, and tastes kind of like applesauce.

We will also firm up our resolve to walk, either outside, or on the trusty treadmill at least 40 minutes a day.

I need to go read up on more of the details, and what happens beyond breakfast, but I will try to document our journey here.  Wish us luck, and cheers to glowing good health!