Gr33n 33gs and ham

In recognition of the fact that I'm starting out in a profession that encourages health and fitness, I figure I should be leading by example. Or at least trying. There are about a billion different products and supplements on the market, promoting all kinds of quick fixes, cures, and health benefits. Over the past few months, I've tried a number of them. A couple of supplements have appeared to work really well. Others don't seem to do much at all. Price doesn't seem to come into the equation on most of them.

I have found a couple of products that really do seem to work. One is a protein powder and I'd say it's the most expensive one on the market. It's certainly the most expensive one I've tried and seen. The other is a powder supplement that has a secondary use for aiding concentration (which I can do with right now), but its main use is to utilise stored fats better and release them for use as day to day energy, or when exercising. For now, I'll just say the little teaspoon of salty tasting powder before exercising really reduces tiredness and muscle soreness afterwards. I may even write to let them know how well I think it works. When these people start paying me to promote their products, I'll name them here.

It seems anything that is sold under the banner of health and fitness is automatically jacked up in price - a bit like when you put 'wedding' in a description. Red balloons for a party? Sure, 50c each. Oh, it's a wedding party? That will be $5 each! However, I literally stumbled into a non-descript health food store yesterday, which sells everything I want at much, much lower prices than I've seen anywhere else. Those people don't know it yet, but they're going to become some of my closest 'industry friends'.

Another part of me attempting to lead by example is that I've signed up for a two week challenge to eat green vegetable smoothies each day (in addition to regular meals etc). I recognise my diet is up the creek at the moment. I'm not at home long enough or often enough to even get enough proper rest, let alone cook well balanced meals. So, I've bought myself a blender and I've been making 'green smoothies' each day. Surprisingly, they taste ok. And it means I'm getting more fibre and more vegetables. Hopefully, that will translate to more energy, or a better digestive system, or something!

Smoothie #1 contains raw kale (which is a bit like cabbage and smells just like it, but looks like spinach), green apples, lemon juice and water. Smoothie #2, which I'll make tonight, contains bananas, strawberries and romaine lettuce. As much as I'm skeptical about the lettuce in that combo, I was about the kale, but it tastes better than it looks and sounds, so I'm being optimistic. There are others, with mint and pear, or spinach and mango, but I think I should let my poor insides adjust to healthy food slowly. I don't want to wake in the middle of the night with wars going on inside me.

The funny thing is I asked my housemate's evil spawn if they'd like to try some of the kale smoothie. They liked the damn stuff and even asked me to make more for them today when I started a new batch. Who'da thunk that?! Housemate is still very "Sam, I am" about it, but it's good to see the spawn like something that's actually good for them.

It's only been a few days and the novelty hasn't worn off yet, but I'd like to think the energy and health benefits will encourage me to stick to the challenge for the whole two weeks. I may even decide to continue with it once the challenge is over.