Attachment Living

The best peaches are ripe and bursting, with juice that runs all over the place. Messy sweetness. I live in the Pacific Northwest where it's been cold and rainy until last week, so the peaches I procured were tender to the touch, but turned out the be firm, even a little crunchy. Despite that disappointment, for my first green smoothie of the challenge I used three medium- to large-sized organic peaches, peeled and chunked into the blender, a generous dollop of local honey, two handfuls of small-sized fresh spinach leaves (organic, local, and fresh from the farmer's market), and a handful of ice cubes. The result was a bright green slushy that tasted sweeter and more delicious than a slurpee from 7-11. I made it in the evening, and when I took it into the dusk-filled living room to drink, my daughter and my mate both wanted sips. Their sips were long and frequent, becasue they couldn't see it was green. It was a family hit. (I liked it in light and dark rooms.)

The smoothie pictured above has a banana in it, maybe some apple too. I'm using the smoothie challenge to finish off remains of forgotten fruit my daughter leaves throughout the day. Our compost bucket is lighter, but it's a better habit I'm sure. Over the past week I've slurped rainbow chard, spinach and kale in various proportions with strawberries, peaches, bananas, apples, honey, ice cubes, cranberry juice and chocolate hemp milk. I don't think I've had the same smoothie twice, unless I'm drinking leftovers. The best smoothie was the purest, the one described above. Of those I tried, the easiest green to drink, if you're afraid of drinking your greens, is spinach. It tastes light and sweet when blended with fruit.

In the original green smoothie challenge a health improvement was promised. This past week has not seen a change in my health. I'm still combating some annoying airborne allergies, my back is still tight from all this baby carrying, and I've developed some mouth sores (too many strawberries? chocoloate sensitivity? something else?) Mentally, I am proud of the fact that I'm definitely consuming more raw, leafy greens. Otherwise, no health changes yet. It should be noted that being the mother of a teething infant is more physically challenging than some other lifestyles, so it might take more than a green smoothie to get me feeling top notch. One day I will sign up for the "Sleep 8 Hours in a Row Challenge", but for now I'm growing a baby and sleep will come later. I'm still open to the idea that drinking my greens will improve my health, but so far no changes.

Rachel