Saturday 19 January 2013


Welcome to rule # 4 – Green means GO!
Got it? Like lights? I’m so smart, I know… Lol
So what does green food mean to you? For me it’s mostly green leaves but also other green veggie and fruits with lots of nutrients like: broccoli, kiwi, Granny Smith apple, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, okra, green beans, avocado, limes etc.
Of course, I don’t use spices like you do (spoiler alert to rule #5). when I’m cooking, because I don’t like to use processed stuff, I’m using stuff like: basil, mint, rosemary, parsley etc. (once again rule # 5 is all about it so you’ll have to wait and seeJ)
I know you want to know what kind of green leaves I am talking about, so here you go: kale, spinach, chard leaves, beet leaves, Chinese broccoli, Asian greens, arugula and watercress.
You have a big list now so let’s talk about what to do with that.
DO NOT do cleanse and just eat green for a week. Don’t get me wrong: you will lose weight this way but you will gain it back sooner than you want to believe.
You want to EAT THE CAKE AND NOT GET FAT? Use lots of it but not just that (we’ll talk about why not just greens when we’ll talk about rule #6).
Before we talk about boring facts let’s talk about the mental reason for eating green foods.
It looks healthier when there’s a lot of green in your food, so it makes you feel good; when you feel good you look good. And that, my friends, is also a factJ.
Now let’s talk for real why it’s so good for you and why I’m using so much of it (warning: you are going to hear about some of the fruit and veggie here again when we’ll talk about other rules because they are so amazing).
I would like to break it to 3 parts just like we did in the beginning of the post: leaves, fruits and veggie and spices.
Leaves:
I use all kind of leaves because all of them have tons of nutrients and they are low in sugar and high in fibre. We hate sugar (not really hate. I think the word that suits better is we are in love with sugar) and love fibre because fibre make us poop the food our body doesn’t want or need.
What I do is: if I’m making myself a wrap with eggs in the morning I’ll fill it with spinach so it can be a huge wrap with only 2 eggs and spinach.
What’s the harm in this wrap? Nothing!
Trust me: it will fill you up like you won’t believe. You can even have 2 of them (in this case I’ll suggest using one egg in each wrap or 2 eggs white for each wrap)!
It won’t make you fat.
Fill your plate with leaves so it will fill you up and give you the nutrients you need without eating too much food that makes you fat (like wheat).
You can use leaves in your eggs, sandwich, salad, rice, pasta, fish, meat etc.
The more you use those amazing superfoods the less you need to worry about getting fat.
Before I forget I have to tell you that I don’t count calories anymore because calories = energy.
If you want to have energy to do stuff in your life you have to eat, calories are just a way to tell you how much energy you’re getting from your food  - not how fat you’re getting, it’s getting to be a problem when you have too much energy and you sit and play video games all day.
The most amazing thing in those leaves is that they give you crazy amounts of nutrients and you don’t need to worry about too much energy and how to get rid of it so you can eat as much as you want from it!
Eat Eat Eat!
It’s so funny! You won’t believe what just happened! Right now (while I’m writing this post) the amazing Bob Harper (biggest loser) put that as a status on his Facebook page “No one has ever gained weight by eating leafy greens. What greens are on your plate today?”  Haha… I guess I’m in good company…
Now…Veggies and fruits
Each veggie and each fruit has vitamins that are good for you and/or other nutrients that you need and we will look more into it in every post because the list above each and every one of them is a superfood.
All the veggies and the fruits on the list are good for different reasons.
Avocado is good for you for the fat in it (remember rule #1?).
Green beans are good for you for the protein and the fibre in them. (a rare combination, usually you have high protein or high fibre).
Brussels sprouts are good for you because of the vitamin C in them.
Kiwi fruit is good for you because it is high not just in vitamin C but also in vitamin K and E, that are difficult to get from food (rule # 6 will be about vitamins).
Lime is good not just for the crazy amount of vitamin C in it (30% of your daily intake!), but also for helping to regulate your liver activity (especially if you drink it first thing in the morning with warm water; I never have the time to do that but I should try harder).
Now for our last part….spices!
This part is very short. All those spices are anti-inflammatory and antioxidant and every time you cook, all you need to do is just put some of them and you’re good!
You can drink them, cook with them or eat them as they are!

And that’s it for now. You got the list and I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it and I’m sure you’re dying to go and try to cook something now. So go and do and I’ll stop mumbling.
P.S.
Here’s a nice dressing I use it for salad/rice/grilled veggie etc.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil (I prefer extra virgin)
1 cup chopped parsley
4 tbsp lime juice
Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth
Enjoy J

Researched and Written by Dana Gat  2013 ©

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