Spinach and Fruit and Polar Watch

      Well….no doctor’s appointment tomorrow. They had to postpone it until Wednesday probably because my doctor was stuck and could not get a flight home. When I told the women that I needed to get cleared for dance, she was happy to accommodate me and give me an appointment on Wednesday which was great because dance lessons are Wednesday so I should be on track still!! So as much as I would have liked to hear “You are cleared to dance” tomorrow, I can wait until Wednesday. What will be very is if he said that I couldn’t dance yet but I am not expecting to hear that. He pretty much hinted last time that I would be cleared at this appointment!

I was excited to use my Polar Watch for the first time today. For those who are unfamiliar with the Polar Watch, it is a watch that has a strap with electrodes that attaches to you and when you put it in training mode, it tracks your calories and heart rate. What is cool is that if you use most of the cardio machines, your heart rate will automatically display on the machine. I highly recommend the watch because it can help you track how efficient your workout is by tracking your heart rate and showing you if  you stayed in the targeted zone and for how long as well as your average heart rate and maximum rate. It is a great training tool in my humble opinion. It comes in a variety of colors. Mine is pink of course!  My time and calories were as follows:

Not my best time and calories burned, but considering I am coming off of surgery, I will take it! I did a 5 minute elliptical warm-up, a 6.5 minute run, and then various leg and ab workouts followed by a minute run on the step (to test my foot) and a lot of stretching after. I cannot wait to see the numbers on the watch when I get back to cross fit type workouts and dance!!  Even so, I had a blast doing my workouts!!

Spinach and Fruits

So I had my first fitness question that one of my followers would like me to answer. Yes okay so it was my mother who asked me, but hey I am still excited about it!! She wanted to know if it was true that you should eat leafy greens with fruits. Well the answer is yes if that leafy green is spinach and that fruit is loaded with Vitamin C. According to a few sources I have read, (and here is a link to one of them) http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/vitamins/iron.html Vitamin C helps absorb the iron in the spinach especially if they are eaten at the same meal. This is so important because most women do not get enough iron in their diets and this is a surefire way that the iron you do ingest gets absorbed properly!

The easiest way this can be done is be having a green smoothie. Now if you haven’t tried these, than you may be wary of putting spinach in your smoothie, but trust me, you will not regret it. The smoothie will take on the green color of the spinach, but trust me, spinach has such a mild taste, that you will not be able to taste it.

Here is a recipe for one of my favorite green drink concoctions. Now every meal should have a healthy carb, fruit/vegetable, healthy fat, and protein and this is no exception. Avocado’s are great in smoothies because they make them creamier and again you will not taste it. You will just get the taste of the Strawberry and Chocolate. Here you go. I hope you enjoy!!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Green drink

½ C of Strawberries

1-2 cups of fresh spinach

1 Cup of Water or Milk of choice (I either use all Almond milk or half water and half Almond Milk)

¼-½ of an avocado (skin removed) (Optional, but I would keep it in!)

1 scoop of chocolate protein powder

1-2 packets of stevia or natural sweetener of choice* (optional)

Ice

Directions.

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until completed mixed. Serve immediately.

*Natural sweeteners include 100% pure maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar, or anything that is not artificially sweetened or regular white sugar.

If you make this recipe with one cup of almond milk, two cups of spinach and half an avocado, it is about 300 calories. Feel free to adjust as needed. Perhaps you already know you are getting a higher amount of good fats in today, you can always use ¼ of an avocado. I have other alternatives for green drinks and will devote a whole blog segment in what I believe should be in a green drink at a later date. Something for you all to look forward to!!

Question of the day…..Do you have a nutrition question you would like me to answer? Comment below with your question and I will do my best to answer it in a future post!!