With January and all the New Year’s resolutions being a real deal at the moment, and especially after all the festive eating, it was about time for me to start a bit of a January detox. Let’s face it, the beginning of a new year’s always the time when we’re all the most motivated to approach a healthier lifestyle, and although it’s not great to lose the habit during the course of the year, this is surely the perfect time to embrace it at its fullest and try and build a good habit and purpose to bring with you during the rest of the year.

It was then with perfect timing that I was introduced to Indigo Herbs, offering plenty of natural health solutions, guides and recipes, but in particular selling a huge selection of 100% organic natural supplements, superfood blends and all kind of natural healthy ingredients I’d like my kitchen pantry to constantly be jam-packed with.

As I mentioned before, to me healthy eating is more of a habit than anything else. Last year I loved reading Jolene Hart’s Eat Pretty and discovering each season new seasonal healthy foods and why they are good for my body, and this year I’m planning to keep working on it while introducing new discoveries in my diet.

I’ve been wanting to introduce the habit of having a green smoothie almost everyday in the morning or in the afternoon for ages, but truth is I’m not the biggest fan of raw green veggies at all. This is exactly why I loved the idea of the Indigo Herbs Kick Ass Vegan Smoothie Mix*, which, including a mix of amazingly healthy superfoods, makes putting together a “green” smoothie such a quick and easy task without involving any raw green veggie (which I rarely have in my fridge) but still providing a huge amount of health benefits to your body.

At the very moment, I’m proud to say I’ve been having a “green” smoothie every day in the middle of the morning and it’s actually a step in my routine I’m always looking forward to! My smoothies are pretty basic, usually including banana, apple, honey, orange and anything fresh I have lingering around, plus a tablespoon of said Kick Ass Vegan Smoothie Mix that makes everything green and a source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Win this same selection of organic superfood sachets here!

A couple more superfood I’m planning to implement into my diet are: Barley Grass, which apparently is rich in antioxidant and B vitamins, Spirulina, great for brain health and promoting natural body’s cleansing and detox (which I’ve heard is great sprinkled on top of salads and in baked treats) and Matcha Tea, that detoxifies the body and support the immune system between the rest of its health benefits. I’ll make sure to keep you posted on how it’ll go!

In the meanwhile, if you too are planning a January detox and to implement more organic superfoods in your lifestyle, make sure you pop over my Instagram (here) for a chance to win the previous selection of Indigo Herbs goods!

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How is your January detox going so far? x

You might remember a few months back I said I was trying to up my fitness game and especially walk a lot more during my days, by implementing the Jawbone Up Move Fitness Tracker into my daily life to keep track of my steps and sleep. Well, as of today, I’m already three months in and, yes, although I was very sceptical, I’m still keeping it going, so I figured it was about time for an update and to share the love on here!

But first, let’s delineate a little background: I, as you might know, am a freelance web designer and in particular I work from home every single day. Let’s say there’s not a lifestyle that is more sedimentary than mine really! I guess when that’s your routine, you can’t even realize how much you’re *not* moving throughout the whole day.

I was sceptical of any fitness trackers in general when thinking about implementing one in my lifestyle, because I knew it was going to be shocking once I realized how little I dedicated myself to my own health. But on the other hand I believe that is exactly what pushed me to get one, because I wanted a change, and when you have a busy life and you feel like you should be working all the time, you need someone (or something) telling you to get out of that office and do things!

The Up Move is basically the answer to all my fitness dilemmas. I am never very consistent when it comes to sports in general, I like a very small amount of activities, but still I would commit to one for a month or a little more and then favor my desk all day long day in day out until dinnertime. I got it in summertime, and that was the perfect time to get started and get me in the right mood to make a change into my lifestyle that would have stuck.

It allows you set your own fitness and health goals and keep track of them daily, steps and hours of sleep especially, being these two pretty linked together according to my Up app and the base of a healthy lifestyle in general. I remember thinking I wasn’t ever going to reach the goal daily when I firstly entered my 7000 steps per day goal! It might seem such a small goal, but for someone who stays at her desk all day, even half of it can sound a lot.

I was as shocked as I thought I would be when I discovered that I was basically doing a max of 2k steps per day, in the WHOLE day. I guess the fact that I don’t have an office to head to, lots of stairs to take or any recurrent errand that needed me to walk somewhere daily, didn’t really help either! But I must say I have took my goal very seriously ever since I got my Up Move and have been able to change it to 7.5k and then 8k steps in less than a month, without ever losing one single day!

I have come to a point now, where my daily 1h walks are my favourite part of my routine! I switch my tech off and just enjoy walking: preferring calm and peaceful paths, it really can be such a treat for the soul too! I feel a tiny bit gutted now that it’s cold outside, but that means I am finding lots of new ways to implement walking in my lifestyle that I feel are going to stick with me.

Beside the whole take-the-stairs and walk-instead-of-the-bus (which is great but not really my everyday thing being at home all the time), I loved the little suggestions in my Up app, saying to walk while talking to the phone, brushing your teeth, or stand up and take a break every now and then if you’re working from a desk.

I never really thought too much about it, although I do have had some periods when sleep was a bit difficult, but I wasn’t having some good resting at all. As soon as I started to keep track of it I realized I was waking up several times through the night and most of the times I wasn’t able to fulfill my goal of 8h of sleep per night even though, calculating the hours I’ve been in bed, it definitely looked like so!

It took a lot of time actually, to get into a routine where I feel well-rested and I can actually say I’ve slept enough, but right now I realize it makes all the difference during the day. I am more aware and my mind works better, I can get a lot more things done in less time as well, and I’m starting to believe it really is linked to the fact I’ve been walking a lot too. And beside the weight loss (that was well welcomed but not my main goal), this is the best result I have seen in my body so far!

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I also loved to keep track of the food I was eating and the calories I was consuming in the beginning, but at some point I have stopped doing that once I got an idea of what works and what doesn’t, as I never feel like I want to be too constricted in my lifestyle by counting calories at all. However it’s nice to know I can still do that if I feel like!

At the end of the day I’ve learnt a fitness tracker shouldn’t be something for the sport-lover only at all! I would totally suggest implementing one in a sedimentary routine especially, as it helps so much in seeing how much you’re not moving and how you can change that so easily!

Have you ever considered implementing a fitness tracker in your routine? x

I’ve never been one who have found some sort of interest into supplements by any means, so I was a little reluctant when I was firstly introduced to the new VITL Greens. But I knew the brand since a while and have had the pleasure of working with them at a couple of recipes in the past, and after having a quick look at the ingredients, I was sold even before coming to the “all-natural, vegan, gluten free” point!

VITL Greens are in fact all-natural supplements to help you implement extremely good for you superfoods into your diet. Each sachet contains up to 19 superfoods, extremely healthy and good for both immune health, energy levels but also skin, nails and hair health, including between the others maca, tumeric, goji berries, seagreens, spirulina, green tea, kale leaf and much more!

The one thing I was quite concerned about at first was the extra dark and deep green colour of the powder and ‘what will it taste like?’. I’ll be honest when saying I wasn’t the biggest fan of the taste at first, but I was surprised that it didn’t taste bitter in the slightest! But with some testing and trials, I’ve actually come to enjoy the taste quite a bit! Especially into very cold water, maybe with the addition of a couple of ice cubes – just perfect for this Summer heat!

I’ve been having one dose of Greens every single day since a I got them 3-4 weeks ago, and I’m extremely happy about them. I’ve been experimenting with recipes (especially smoothies) to have them with, and what I love the most is that they’re giving my body a chance to digest some of the foods I wouldn’t otherwise ever eat, like kale or broccoli, that are surely not my favourites, but also seaweeds and beetroot, that I don’t think body have ever known before!

My number one favourite way of implementing VITL Greens in my diet though, is by popping them in my smoothies. I rarely enjoy green smoothies, so anything that could make them taste a little bit better is totally up my street and the fact that VITL Greens are vanilla flavoured gives them a whole bunch of brownie points! I’d blend them with some banana, dates and some other fruits and I’d be good to go.

Recently though, after some more testing, I’ve come up with the most delicious vegan chocolate smoothie recipe of them all, and I couldn’t refrain me from sharing it in this post today! This recipe makes for the best indulging and intense chocolate smoothie, only featuring all-natural ingredients, good for your body and health! Thick, chocolate-y, dark but sweet! The dates naturally sweeten the mixture, but if you like things on the sweet side I’d suggest to add a splash of agave syrup.

This recipes is for one serving.

Print

Chocolate Vegan Greens Smoothie

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Serving Size: 1

Ingredients

• 1 ripe banana (from the fridge)
• 3 dates
• 3 teaspoons raw cocoa powder
• 6-7 almonds
• 1 teaspoon of coconut oil
• 1 sachet of VITL Greens
• 100ml soy or almond milk (from the fridge)
• (Optional) A splash of agave syrup

Instructions

01 :: Slice your banana into big chunks and pop it into your smoothie blender, add in the stoned dates, the cocoa powder, the almonds, coconut oil, VITL Greens and your non-dairy milk of choice.

02 :: Blend on high speed for a few seconds until smooth. Taste and add a splash of agave syrup if you fancy some extra sweetness!

03 :: Serve into a tall glass with a straw and enjoy fresh!

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http://www.miel-cafe.com/2016/08/daily-dose-of-greens.html

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What is your thought on food supplements?
If you are curious to give VITL Greens a go yourself, they’re kindly offering all Miel Café’s UK-based readers a free pack of 6 sachet: you’ll just pay for shipping and they’ll be on your way! (Only via *THIS* link) x

Some of the products mentioned have been kindly sent to me as a gift, but I wasn’t paid to write this article and
all the opinions and love of healthy foods are my own as always.