As a special needs father to 3 boys on the Autism Spectrum and husband to wife that is chronically ill,  I have quite a bit on my plate. For that reason,  I need to take great care in what I put on my plate,  my dinner plate that is.

Over all I’m a healthy guy,  but that doesn’t there aren’t things I need to work on.  I need to get my cholesterol back in balance and a bit lower,  as well as lose weight.

Before I became a special needs parent,  I was is amazing shape.  I worked out with a trainer 6 days a week,  and was built like a tank.  That all changed after I hurt my back on a run as a paramedic back in 2001. 

I never fully recovered and coupled with all my added responsibility,  things kinda went down hill.  I started walking/running about 30+  miles a week last year and dropped a bunch of weight and managed my back pain.

However,  as things got more complicated at home,  I haven’t been able to get away to work out.  I used to walk the neighborhood but in light of everything going on around us now,  it’s no longer safe to do that. 

My inlaws loaned us their unused treadmill,  but something is wrong with the belt so that has been packed up again. 

So for right now,  I have decided to focus on improving my diet as that has a tremendous impact on my overall health and I should be leading by example. So I have decided to go back on my smoothie diet again.  It worked really well when I was walking all the time and helped cut my cholesterol by 30 points.

Like my kids,  I’m not a fan of vegetables,  as the texture has always bothered me.  However,  I can make a smoothie and drink them with no problem.  So I figured,  whatever works,  right?

Basically,  I’m going to have a smoothie for breakfast and lunch and then a sensible dinner. 

Typically, my smoothies contain the following:

Flax meal
Oatmeal
Blue berries
Strawberries
Bananas
Mixed Berries
Broccoli
Baby Spinach
Kale
Various other greens
Carrots
Dark purple grape juice
Water
Egg whites
Plain yogurt

I blend it all together and drink it throughout the day,  in place of breakfast and lunch.  The kids have even started having some with their meals as well. 

I try to find the super fruits and supper vegetables and included them.. As gross as this smoothie sounds,  it’s actually pretty good. Honestly,  after having a smoothie for breakfast,  I feel better than when I would have a bowl of cereal. 

It also curbs my appetite as well,  so I’m not snacking throughout the day. 

It can be sorta tedious,  but it really is helping me. 

For Dinner is cook thing like fish and whole grain rice or even chicken breast. Tonight,  I’m cooking two small chicken roasts,  with potatoes and carrots. 

Anyway,  I just thought I would share what I’m doing right now to help improve health.  My other goal is to either get a new treadmill or a treadclimber by bowflex.  Hopefully,  I can pull this off with tax return next month but a huge chunk of tax return with now be going to the van,  for the second year in a row. 
I’m not going to let that discourage me though.  Anything I can do to improve my health,  will allow me to be here longer more my wife and kids.  That is my motivation. I need to live as long as long as possible so that I can make sure my babies are cared for.  🙂

This has been posted to WordPress via Galaxy S2 Epic Touch 4G by Samsung, without the use of proper editing tools.