Garden of Life mind/body rejuvenation challenge: update No. 3

Now that I’m half-way through my mind/body rejuvenation challenge (which you can read more about here, here and here), I have started to notice a bit of a plateau. The weight is no longer dripping off of me like it did the first few weeks and I’m not inching back into my old clothes as quickly.

I’ve been here before. This is normal.

For me, it’s in part that I notice all these amazing results and I start to cheat a little bit more often, drink less water throughout the day and skip a workout here and there. I am no stranger to this game of weight control.

My brother-in-law always follows our boot camp workouts in Pickering with a short nutritional chat. Last week it was about the importance of a food journal, and just the idea of the food journal has been enough to make me hyper-aware of what I’m eating and drinking.

When I have a chocolate craving (which is basically hourly but I limit it to once a day after dinner), I think to myself, “Self: do you really want to write down that you just ate four mini KitKats, or would you rather write down that you noshed on a square of dark chocolate with a few almonds?” Nine times out of 10, I’ll choose the latter.

If you’re struggling with food choices, give the food journal a try and see what happens.

A bunch of new Garden of Life products arrived on my doorstep today, and I experimented with one of them for my mid-afternoon energy-boost snack:

Mommy Gearest’s Suped-up Yogurt Smoothie

• Eight ounces of filtered water
• Half a banana (peeled, obvi)
• One scoop of Garden of Life Perfect Food RAW 100% Organic Young Wheat Grass Juice Powder
• One single-serve cup of LIBERTÉ 2% Greek Yogurt (any flavour; I used the peach and passion fruit)

Blend everything on high for about a minute so it gets really frothy and enjoy fresh.

Just one scoop of this Wheat Grass Juice Powder equals 13 wheat-grass shots that you’d get from a juice bar. Like all other Garden of Life products, it’s certified organic, non-GMO and processed raw. I’ve never had wheat grass juice before and had no idea it was one of the earth’s most nutritionally dense greens.

Wheat grass provides a whopping dose of vitamin K2. Labelled the “forgotten vitamin,” some experts believe it delivers more punch than the miracle vitamin we know as vitamin D. Discovered in the late-1920s, it was called “K” for “koagulation” because it was considered so important for blood-clotting. It supports strong bones, which is of particular importance to those of us who are concerned about limiting our dairy intake; has vascular benefits; helps fight premature aging; and enhances memory.

I think what I love most about vitamin K2 is that you need to eat fat to absorb it. YES!

I have to tell you that I tried the Wheat Grass Juice Powder mixed with water just to see what it would taste like as a juice, and it wasn’t bad. But not nearly as enjoyable as it was mixed into a yogurt smoothie!

Four weeks to go. Now it’s time to rock it.

DISCLAIMER: Garden of Life is providing me with the products I’m using for my challenge, but my results are reported honestly like all of my other posts. Writing this post also qualifies me for an entry into Garden of Life’s Vitamix Giveaway. Almond Fresh is providing eight weeks’ worth of my favourite almond milk.