Strangely, I Keep Having Popeye Flashbacks
Okay, honestly, I've procrastinated on this enough - it's time to post again. (The problem with getting out of the habit of posting is that then you have to get back into it.)
I had actually gotten to the point where I'd forgotten that tiredness and brain fog aren't the same thing. It took a comment in a post by
darkemeralds to remind me. First off, let me be clear: while we may be experiencing some of the same issues, I don't believe they're for the same reasons. Still, it reminded me of the term 'brain fog' and, by coincidence, I experienced something of a lifting of said fog within a day or two of reading that post.
This is one of those facepalm moments - one of my medications had its dosage increased in the spring and it takes a few months to feel the full effects, so that makes the timing about right to explain why I've been feeling muzzy headed for a few months. Arrgh. I'm still on said medication and I really do need to make a doctor's appointment since I, uh, missed my last one in September, but I haven't decided on whether or not I'll request to change meds or to try and combat the tiredness with other meds. The thing is, it's working for its prescribed use, the tiredness and brain fog are "just" side effects, and I usually have to switch every 1 1/2 to 2 years anyway due to increasing/changing tolerances. I may lobby to return to taking Provigil (a narcolepsy alertness medication) to alleviate the worst of the tiredness rather than switch the more addictive medication.
BUT, I mentioned that there's been a bit of a lift on the brain fog, didn't I? It's only been a few days, but I'm going to tentatively credit this to my new routine (for almost two weeks) of breakfast smoothies - more specifically, what are popularly being called "green monster" smoothies, because they contain spinach and other green, leafy vegetables that usually end up turning it, yep, green. :) You can't taste the spinach! Or, in my case this morning, spinach with some kale and chard.
Green, leafy vegetables are very good for you but they've always been difficult for me since I didn't grow up eating them and haven't developed a taste for them cooked alone as an adult, plus I'm not a big fan of salads. I can mix them into soups just fine, but that really doesn't cover a lot of my diet. When I heard about green smoothies, I was intrigued, but we don't keep ice cube trays in the freezer (I always run out of space) and lukewarm smoothies don't appeal to me, so it was all very... eh. THEN, I ran across a blog post by backtoherroots.com wherein she made "smoothie booster packs".
These are essentially just the leafy green veggies, some liquid, and any other standard additives you want to include, all blended up, portioned out into a muffin tin, and frozen. When you're ready to make a smoothie, you just pop a couple in the blender along with your other ingredients of the day, and you're good to go - no extra ice needed and no spinach or other greens going bad in the crisper!
The basic recipe usually includes a banana along with the greens, but from there, it's up to your imagination. My "smoothie booster packs" have the greens (spinach and kale from the store, plus whatever kale and chard I can glean from the garden), coconut water, chia seeds, and ground flax seed. My body doesn't process liquid particularly well - as in, I dehydrate relatively easily - so binding the liquid up with solid food slows down the processing and seems to help significantly. The coconut water isn't a cheap ingredient, but has some lovely electrolytes, and I'm sure it tastes much better in this context than something like Gatorade would and doesn't have the extra sugar. The chia seeds also help with actually absorbing water and thicken it a bit while they're at it. The flax primarily adds fiber.
In the morning, I've been tossing two of the green cupcakes into the blender along with a frozen banana and then usually about 8 ounces of orange juice. Sometimes I'll also add 1/2 - 1 cup of Greek style yogurt and some additional fruit, either frozen or canned. Without any additional fruit, it usually tastes like orange soft serve ice cream and I typically eat it out of a bowl with a spoon. NOMMMMM. It's brilliant, lazy nutrition and one meal a day wherein I don't have to think about what I'm eating. Whoo-hoo!
So far, my own booster packs haven't diverged too far from the original recipe. From the store I picked up 2 bunches of organic spinach and 1 bunch of organic, curly kale, then I picked what I could of (Red Russian) kale and (Bright Lights) swiss chard from the garden. There's really only a half dozen leaves each of the latter two, but it seemed silly not to use them! All those greens were washed and chopped - stems and all - before going into the blender in two batches, each of which had approximately 8 ounces of coconut water and 1/2 cup each of chia seeds and ground flax. I haven't used the protein powder since it feels unnecessary for me at this point and is expensive (not that the chia seeds are cheap, but I was already interested in them for other nutritional reasons and they're a little more identifiable as "real" food). The two batches rendered a total of 23 "muffins" this last time.
This morning I only added a frozen banana, 2 green muffins, and some orange juice because I'm saving the remaining yogurt for a recipe and I was too lazy to go to the outside fridge and get some frozen black raspberries. Was still yummy. :D
Crossposted to Dreamwidth where there are
comments. Comment here or there. ♥ Blue :)
I had actually gotten to the point where I'd forgotten that tiredness and brain fog aren't the same thing. It took a comment in a post by
darkemeralds to remind me. First off, let me be clear: while we may be experiencing some of the same issues, I don't believe they're for the same reasons. Still, it reminded me of the term 'brain fog' and, by coincidence, I experienced something of a lifting of said fog within a day or two of reading that post.
This is one of those facepalm moments - one of my medications had its dosage increased in the spring and it takes a few months to feel the full effects, so that makes the timing about right to explain why I've been feeling muzzy headed for a few months. Arrgh. I'm still on said medication and I really do need to make a doctor's appointment since I, uh, missed my last one in September, but I haven't decided on whether or not I'll request to change meds or to try and combat the tiredness with other meds. The thing is, it's working for its prescribed use, the tiredness and brain fog are "just" side effects, and I usually have to switch every 1 1/2 to 2 years anyway due to increasing/changing tolerances. I may lobby to return to taking Provigil (a narcolepsy alertness medication) to alleviate the worst of the tiredness rather than switch the more addictive medication.
BUT, I mentioned that there's been a bit of a lift on the brain fog, didn't I? It's only been a few days, but I'm going to tentatively credit this to my new routine (for almost two weeks) of breakfast smoothies - more specifically, what are popularly being called "green monster" smoothies, because they contain spinach and other green, leafy vegetables that usually end up turning it, yep, green. :) You can't taste the spinach! Or, in my case this morning, spinach with some kale and chard.
Green, leafy vegetables are very good for you but they've always been difficult for me since I didn't grow up eating them and haven't developed a taste for them cooked alone as an adult, plus I'm not a big fan of salads. I can mix them into soups just fine, but that really doesn't cover a lot of my diet. When I heard about green smoothies, I was intrigued, but we don't keep ice cube trays in the freezer (I always run out of space) and lukewarm smoothies don't appeal to me, so it was all very... eh. THEN, I ran across a blog post by backtoherroots.com wherein she made "smoothie booster packs".
These are essentially just the leafy green veggies, some liquid, and any other standard additives you want to include, all blended up, portioned out into a muffin tin, and frozen. When you're ready to make a smoothie, you just pop a couple in the blender along with your other ingredients of the day, and you're good to go - no extra ice needed and no spinach or other greens going bad in the crisper!
The basic recipe usually includes a banana along with the greens, but from there, it's up to your imagination. My "smoothie booster packs" have the greens (spinach and kale from the store, plus whatever kale and chard I can glean from the garden), coconut water, chia seeds, and ground flax seed. My body doesn't process liquid particularly well - as in, I dehydrate relatively easily - so binding the liquid up with solid food slows down the processing and seems to help significantly. The coconut water isn't a cheap ingredient, but has some lovely electrolytes, and I'm sure it tastes much better in this context than something like Gatorade would and doesn't have the extra sugar. The chia seeds also help with actually absorbing water and thicken it a bit while they're at it. The flax primarily adds fiber.
In the morning, I've been tossing two of the green cupcakes into the blender along with a frozen banana and then usually about 8 ounces of orange juice. Sometimes I'll also add 1/2 - 1 cup of Greek style yogurt and some additional fruit, either frozen or canned. Without any additional fruit, it usually tastes like orange soft serve ice cream and I typically eat it out of a bowl with a spoon. NOMMMMM. It's brilliant, lazy nutrition and one meal a day wherein I don't have to think about what I'm eating. Whoo-hoo!
So far, my own booster packs haven't diverged too far from the original recipe. From the store I picked up 2 bunches of organic spinach and 1 bunch of organic, curly kale, then I picked what I could of (Red Russian) kale and (Bright Lights) swiss chard from the garden. There's really only a half dozen leaves each of the latter two, but it seemed silly not to use them! All those greens were washed and chopped - stems and all - before going into the blender in two batches, each of which had approximately 8 ounces of coconut water and 1/2 cup each of chia seeds and ground flax. I haven't used the protein powder since it feels unnecessary for me at this point and is expensive (not that the chia seeds are cheap, but I was already interested in them for other nutritional reasons and they're a little more identifiable as "real" food). The two batches rendered a total of 23 "muffins" this last time.
This morning I only added a frozen banana, 2 green muffins, and some orange juice because I'm saving the remaining yogurt for a recipe and I was too lazy to go to the outside fridge and get some frozen black raspberries. Was still yummy. :D
Crossposted to Dreamwidth where there are
comments. Comment here or there. ♥ Blue :)