Subway Orchard Chicken Salad Sub

Holy smokes! I am eating this right now and it's delicious!

Subway just came out with this sub and it's on the menu until July. It's my new favorite sandwich (except when I get that spicy-food craving!) from Subway AND it's shockingly nutritious. Coming in at only 261 calories (for a 6-inch) and 4 grams of fat, it's a great deal for your waistline. The only downside is that it's pretty high in sodium, but isn't pretty much any kind of deli meat sandwich you're going to get from Subway? Anyway, my favorite part is that it's made with light mayonnaise. I don't know about anyone else but I did NOT see that one coming. It seems like it's impossible to find a light-mayo chicken salad anywhere unless you want to make it yourself. The rest of the mix has chicken, apples, raisins, and cranberries. It's got quite a bit of flavor so honestly I didn't even see the point in putting my usual vices on it: chipotle sauce and cheese. That alone saved me about 160 calories on my meal. All you need is a little lettuce and maybe some cucumbers and you're good to go. Add a light lemonade and some apple slices and you have a full meal for about 300 calories... and not some gross low-fat meal, but one that will actually leave you satisfied in stomach AND taste buds.

I mean, DAMN.

PS I didn't post a picture of it since all the online ones were from other restaurants and I didn't want to misrepresent, but I assure you it makes you feel like this:

Love,

Lula Mae

Cinco De Thinko.

I suspect that my entry today will seem pretty long, just as a warning. I just finished watching "The Price of Beauty," a VH1 show by Jessica Simpson, and my heart is full. It's pretty amazing how many women out there feel less than beautiful. And I know that I, for one, can relate to it because I have always struggled with my sense of self-acceptance. I normally don't try to post personal photos on here, in order to be more professional with this blogspot in particular. Today, however, I feel that I need to make myself vulnerable to the strangers out there who may be reading this- in order to explain the points I'd like to make.

As far back as I can remember, I have had self-confidence issues. I felt ugly or fat. Always. It was ALWAYS something. I look back on it now and just roll my eyes because I am in a much better place than I think I have ever been in that arena. It's funny how maturity will give you that gift. Because the reality of it is that I am no less heavy and no more attractive than I have ever been in my life... I think I am just getting better at accepting my flaws and for that reason they are disappearing, as flaws, in my mind. Let me emphasize this point: They are disappearing AS FLAWS. My weight isn't changing significantly, my skin imperfections aren't going away, and my nose isn't getting smaller. I simply choose to see them as "parts of me," rather than "flaws of mine," and for that they seem more in place. I think that often-times, people hear that someone has accepted their flaws, and sees it as laziness. Like that person was finally like, "Alright, look. I've been working my ass off at the gym and I'm tired of it. I want to quit... I'll just accept that I'm not naturally skinny." I call bull crap. I go to the gym MORE now than I ever have in my life. I've simply changed my outlook on my body. I don't want to be the skinniest girl on the planet anymore. I don't want to eat Granola Bars and water for a week to lose 5 pounds. I want to be healthy from the inside. And I'm not trying to come off as some "spread joy and fairy dust" person here... I want to actually be healthier. I want my internal organs to function at their best. I want to get the right vitamins in my diet to have shiny hair. I want to work out and get the right nutrients so the chemicals in my brain allow me to live my life with joy and not depletion. I don't want to "deplete" from my life at all- I want to add to it! And you know something? I'm not the skinniest I've ever been. Do you want to see me at the skinniest I have ever (in my adult life) been? This is me around Halloween maybe 5 years or so ago:

I look pretty good, right? Well guess what? I wasn't eating! This was an emotionally low point in my life. I know a lot of people who read my blog are LDS and I normally don't talk about this kind of thing out of respect for that- but I was drinking A LOT. And I was drinking a lot every single day. My boyfriend of 2 years and I had just broken up and I was so depressed that all I wanted to do was get drunk and forget about it. Even my Dad, who has never talked to me about my weight, told me that I needed to start eating something. I mean I am by no means emaciated in this photo, but I was really, really not in a good place- health wise. A few months later was a Christmas party at my house... check this one out:

I am exhausted. And tiny. And EXHAUSTED. My poor little body was just so tired of running on no fuel and no nutrients. Even my hair looks stringy and kind of unkempt. See, ladies, this is what happens when you forget to take care of yourself!

Like I said before, at almost every point in my life, I have felt inadequate. When I was in middle school, my boobs weren't big enough. When I was in high school, I had braces. Even when I got my braces off, I had these two teeth (they're called your "eye teeth") that were smaller than the rest of my teeth. It's pretty common, actually. My point is, I was SO embarrassed of them that for YEARS I covered my mouth when I laughed or even smiled. People thought I was just plain rude. It wasn't until I was on my own dental plan that I finally got them fixed and felt comfortable enough to smile consistently without shielding it. It's amazing how much we care about the little things that no one else does. Look at these two photos, and tell me you can see a difference enough to tell me I deserved to cover my smile:

My point exactly. We, as women, spend so much time worrying about how much we weigh or how thin our lips are compared to Shiloh Jolie-Pitt's... that we forget what is the MOST beautifying thing of all: Self-love.

To close this out, I want to let you in on a little secret I recently realized. You know how people say that you "glow" when you're in love? It would seem that is because you have some kind of chemical/hormonal thing in your body that makes you just so happy all of the time. But do you know what I think the reason behind your glow d'amore? YOU. It's because you love YOURSELF, not some guy. Because if you do have a boyfriend, I'm guessing you must be pretty self-confident. Because lets face it, unless you're dating one of those total jerk guys who feeds off of your lack of self-esteem, guys like confident girls. Some Prince Charming didn't come along and magically make you start believing in yourself- he came along (and showed interest in you) because you started believing in yourself. No guy wants to date a girl who is constantly talking about how fat/ugly/flat-chested she is. This is why women rarely marry the guy they date when they're, like, 15. You just don't love yourself enough to let someone else love you too. And for some of us, it takes DECADES to get there. But trust me, it's worth the wait. I have, as I said before, never felt more comfortable in my skin. Sure, some days I will feel like a cow, and some days I spend WAY too long staring at that sneaky little worry line I'm afraid is coming to get me far too soon. But all in all, I love myself. For the first time in a long time. And because of that, I also feel in control of my body for the first time. I don't feel like how I see my body controls my attitude, I feel like my attitude determines how I see my body. And that's pretty freaking cool.

(self)Love,

Lula Mae

Step into a Slim Gym.

As the "scrawny kid" in high school, I never really saw much point in going to the gym. For starters, I absolutely loathed working out. I was on Swim Team all throughout high school and loved the fact that there was no running or throwing or catching involved in that sport. Mind you, it isn't that I am lazy! I love doing outdoorsy stuff like hiking or riding bikes or rock climbing. And between us girls, the larger I got in the brassiere, the more uncomfortable running became for me. Ditto with any other sport that involves jumping, hopping, or flipping upside-down for any period of time.

When I graduated high school, I stayed at a relatively similar weight as I had been for the past few years. Sure, I gained (and lost) some weight my Freshman year of college (who doesn't?)... but for the most part I stayed around the same number on the scale. But something happened that I DIDN'T expect or notice for a while: my clothes fit differently. While the scale comforted me with familiar numbers, the numbers on my jeans went up and up. Where I was once a size 0 or 1, suddenly I was buying size 7 and 8 jeans. It isn't that this is a large jean size, but for a 5'4" girl who hasn't gained any pounds, it's a pretty big leap. I chose to ignore it and remain satisfied that my beloved scale was still nice to me, at least. I dabbled in working out once in a while... 20 minute yoga videos, an evening walk. But I never really "exercised." And quite frankly, I never really wanted to so why should I, right? Wrong.
Studies show that women of all ages are looking to the wrong things to determine their health. We do daily weigh-ins, we yo-yo diet, we suck in our guts. But it isn't the women who eat diet food and weigh in every day that are healthy. In fact, it isn't the women who society deems "thin," that are healthy at all! Many women out there depend on coffee and cigarettes or diets consisting of lemon juice to lose weight. But guess what? You're not losing the RIGHT weight! When you diet and don't feed your body the nutrition that it needs, you aren't losing fat at all. The first thing your body is going to dispense of is the muscle in it. This is why my jeans weren't fitting after high school. I was losing weight, and also gaining it at the same time. I lost a lot of that lovely muscle I had gotten from years of swimming, and gained that weight back in fat. The scale showed the same amount because muscle weighs more than fat, so that I would lose a pound of muscle but I was gaining more volume of fat.

Think of it like a pound of bricks vs. a pound of feathers. The pound of bricks can fit in a relatively small bag, right? Now think of a pound of feathers. That pound of feathers is going to need a lot of volume to weigh that much, so it takes a much, much bigger bag. Your body is that bag. Need me to be more specific? Your ass is that bag. Your body can weigh the same and either have that pound of bricks in it, or that pound of feathers... your choice.
Interestingly enough, I still wasn't motivated to change anything in my diet. I wasn't "fat," so why bother? It wasn't until I had an unrelated surgery that I started to really take an interest in what I was putting in my body. As I was saying before: women can be teeny-tiny thin and ultimately MUCH more unhealthy than what some people might consider "heavy." Try not to think of foods as "high-calorie," "low-fat," or "the all-evil carbohydrate!" Your body is a delicate system of give and take. You need energy to complete your daily tasks. Believe it or not: you actually need fat too!

Just be careful which carbs, sugars, and fats you put into your body. I'm working on a book by Dr. Oz called "You On A Diet," in which he goes over a lot of this information. No- I am not on a diet. I'm simply trying to make sure I take care of my body and am as informed on it as possible. In the chapter I'm on he tells you the 5 things to steer clear of: Simple Sugars, Enriched-bleached-or refined flour, high fructose corn syrup, saturated fat, and trans fat. These are foods that "trick" your body. They turn down the volume on the little speaker in your body that says, "Okay, I'm full!" and add more sugars to your body than necessary. AKA- bad girl. Don't do it! I will go over the why and how on this in my next post.

But this post is about the stuff going on in the outside part of you: get your lazy bum to the gym! I have, after literally years of refusing to do so, gotten myself a gym pass. No more procrastinating for this young thing. I've discovered the most awesome part of going to the gym: being alone in a room of people. Yea, this sounds like a recipe for depression, but I absolutely love it. It's exactly what I've been needing for the past few years.

Every day I go to work. At my job, I am told what to do. I am told how to do it. I am so busy sharing my time, in fact, that I have had to answer the phone IN the bathroom. I transfer the phones to my cell phone on my lunch break and have to answer with a mouth full of food. My time is someone else's time for 8 hours of my day, 5 days per week. I get off work and go home. Usually I end up meeting up with my boyfriend or roommates or friends. We sit and chat about every one's days. We listen to each other's little dramas. I try, as much as possible, NOT to hog the conversation. My ears become my friend's. My shoulder becomes theirs. I chime in on their lives and meet up at their houses and places of work to talk. My time is their time. But when I go to the gym a wonderful thing happens. My time is MY time. I set the pace. I listen to my iPod and control exactly what mood I will have for the next hour or two. I can go when I want and stop when I want. And it's lovely, and it's selfish, and it's exactly what I need.
To close out the longest blogspot EVER, here are a few pump UP songs to download for your (hopefully) new thirst for gym time, and a few cool down ones as well! (Ps- if you hate running like me, I have fallen in love with the bikes there. Try it!)

PUMP UP:

AFI: Beautiful Thieves

ALICE IN CHAINS: Would

AUDIOSLAVE: Show me how to live

BEYONCE: Sweet Dreams

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE: Tears don't fall

CHEVELLE: Send the pain below

DEFTONES: Minerva

FINCH: What it is to burn

JAY Z/ RIHANNA/ KANYE WEST: Run this town

JUVENILE: Numb Numb

A PERFECT CIRCLE: Judith

RISE AGAINST: Dancing for rain

WIND DOWN:

THE BLACK KEYS: Psychotic girl

BRAND NEW: Sic transit Gloria... Glory fades

CALEXICO: Two silver trees

THE CARDIGANS: Explode

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: I'm on fire

THE DECEMBERISTS: Summersong

DEFTONES: The chauffeur

ERYKAH BADU: Bag lady (remix)

MURDER BY DEATH: Three men hanging

A PERFECT CIRCLE: 3 Libras

QUEENSRYCHE: Silent lucidity

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS: Wet sand

REGINA SPEKTOR: Eet

SHINY TOY GUNS: Putting on the ritz

Love,

Lula Mae

Me, myself, and moi.

I believe that no matter what your physical appearance looks like, no one can be complete without having some kind of emotional and spiritual balance in their lives. I know that when I lose that balance I usually end up running myself into the ground, completely frazzled. Trust me, I am not here to preach any kind of religious belief to you- I have always felt that was personal within people. But there is ONE extra special person whom I feel you must make an emotional connection with in order to live your life completely and spherically: YOU.

I know it may sound selfish but I have always been one of my number one priorities. I don't see that kind of behavior as self-absorbed, but rather outwardly concerned. I feel that one can never give fully of themselves to the world in need if they don't have themselves relatively figured out. You have to be at peace within yourself in order to bring any kind of joy or peace to the people whom you care about. But herein lies the modern woman's dilemma... where on Earth do you find time for YOU?

I find it fascinating how busy I am, and I mean really amazing. I am young with relatively few health problems, no children, no spouse, and while I try to involve myself in the community- I'm not exactly heading up any PTA boards if you catch my drift. So why is it that I seem to be running around like a chicken with my head cut off at almost all points of my day? A typical day for me looks something like this:

Wake up, rush to get ready for work, commute 30 minutes to my office, work all day (usually without a lunch break), get off work, commute 30-45 minutes home, take a shower, tidy up the house/my room/what appears to be my boyfriend's indoor tornado, help cook dinner/help eat dinner that my loving boyfriend has cooked while I clean up his tornado, watch a TV show, fall asleep.

You will notice that nowhere in there does it say, "Take a relaxing bath surrounded my Lavender candles," or, "Brush my hair 100 strokes." It rarely even says anything like, "Go to the grocery store," because there never seems to be the time or energy to do any of those things. And it took me some time, but I finally realized why. It isn't that I have no time on my hands, it's that I don't have any ENERGY left to give to doing much towards the end of my day. I have nothing left to give once I have been answering phones and assisting customers all day. And the reason? Because I need to take some "me time" before I can give anyone or anything else my time.

Me time is important because it gives us a chance to stop and breathe. It allows us to collect ourselves and therefore have a better "us" to present to the world. If I don't have a chance to stop and connect my thoughts together I will inevitably proceed with scrambled thoughts until I do.

Interestingly enough, Me Time doesn't have to be spent in solitary confinement. You can squeeze in some small amount of self-meditation in the darnedest of places. I read an interview with a Tibetan Monk who emphasized the ability to basically stop and smell the roses no matter where he was. In Tibetan culture, they take over an hour to drink their morning tea. This is because it is about so much more than drinking tea for them. It's the process of enjoying the tea. Taking sip by sip, rolling the flavor around in your mouth, and considering what you like about the tea itself. This may sound unheard of to most Americans, but it sounds just lovely to me. We all know better than to think life is about anything else but the ride.

I'm not saying that we ought to disregard our jobs and families and sit around dwelling on the meaning of Tea all day. I simply think that if we can find a few moments to clear our minds and focus on enjoying the things around us that we can subconsciously collect our thoughts and throw out the unimportant things clouding our minds. I, for one, have two things that I do to relax and meditate: showering and laundry. Showering to me isn't just a way to get clean. It's a way to rinse off the troubles of my work day and start my personal day fresh and worry-free. I have a difficult time going from work to play without mixing in a shower first. Laundry to me is the same thing. I enjoy the organization of separating laundry, and better yet the smell of it when it's clean and fresh. I take that time to have some "me time," and not think about the world at large. If I have an hour to spend on nothing in particular, reading or painting serve as my Me Time. It's all about what you can fit into your schedule that day. Spa days at home are also excellent when you have the time to commit to it. No matter what I do, my goal is to come out of it clear-headed and refreshed. And I usually do.

I highly recommend spending time with yourself. At the risk of stealing a line from L'Oreal: You're worth it!

Love,

Lula Mae

Reccessing riches

So as a girl who loves fashion, fashionista if you will, I love nothing more then finding that perfect shirt, bracelet bag etc. (okay its kind of an addiction) But as we all know all to well, times are tough and cutting back is something we've all got to do. But lets face it, I don't want to stop shopping! With the majority of my paycheck going to bills and student loans I need to get creative with my money so I still can afford to spend some money towards clothes. I recently discovered the BEST solution for a girl (or boy!) looking for some extra cash- Buffalo Exchange!! This place is awesome! I may be a bit late jumping on the bandwagon, but better late then never! I have to give a special shout out to the costa mesa location, the workers are friendly, and they keep the line to sell moving! I never realized what a profit there is in selling old clothes. For those of you like me that are new to this whole buy trade sell thing, the way it works is they go through each item you bring in, and if they think they can sell it they put a retail value. You then have the option of taking 50% of the total value in store credit, or 35% cash. Needless to say, I took the cash. I ended up with an extra hundred bucks that went towards those oh so cute new Tory Burch sandals I have had my eye on for months, which make me so much happier then some old clothes taking up space in my closet.

So the lesson is-

I highly recommend going through your closet and take anything you haven't worn for 7 months take it, sell it, and go buy something you will wear! Have a hard time letting go? I use to have this problem, so what I would do is things I hadn't worn in over 7 months I would put in a container in my garage, and give it a month. If I didn't go out and use, time to get rid of it!

Enjoy selling!

x0x0

lula mae

Green Giant

I have a confession to make: I am a closet foodie. I love to talk about food, I love to watch people make food, I am borderline obsessed with looking through recipes for that oh so perfect meal. The problem is that I don't really cook. It isn't that I can't cook, mind you, only that I don't really do it. I have no doubts in my mind that once I decide to hone my cooking talents I will blossom into a gourmet chef... I've just been too busy with my comings and goings that I never try to make anything much.

Since I'm a young, unmarried gal, though, I tend to have a bit of solo meal time. I don't have kids and my boyfriend (the real chef here) usually does the cooking when we get together- but I DO have nights alone where it's just me making a plate for one. For the longest time I would rely on diet TV dinners, but the more I read about different real meals, the more grossed out all those preservatives and freezer-burned vegetables seemed to me. Today I want to talk to you about one major part of realistic meals for one (or two!).

The number one rule I have learned in my quest for good health is that hardly anybody gets enough vegetables. Think about it- did you really get your recommended 3-5 yesterday? And no, potato chips don't count as a veggie! Come on, lovelies, didn't you get the memo that vegetables give you better hair, skin, and overall health?

Studies are finding more and more that women in the US are getting plenty of meats and dairy in our daily meals, but no where NEAR as many of those little green monsters. Here's the great news: vegetables are one of the easiest things to cook for just you, yourself, and you! The tricks are: incorporating it into your meals and considering portion size. The "best case scenario" dinner plate looks like this:

You should have HALF of the plate filled with vegetables (or fruit, but really it should be veggies), and a quarter of it meat/protein, the other with a starch. Yes, I know you can see that already, I'm just sayin'. So your main course, per se, of your meal should be that veggie! The problem is that lots of people don't quite know how to cook vegetables that aren't boring and bland. There are lots of awesome things you can make that will light up your plate AND your palate. Another trick, too, is using what is in season. Trust me, it will be a lot fresher and yummier- not to mention more "eco-friendly," if they don't have to ship it from some Lab in Timbuktu. There are a few different basic ways to make vegetables. Number one is steaming. If you don't know how to do this- it is SO easy and takes almost zero hands on time. All you need is a pot and a strainer of some kind. A few of my favorite things to steam lately are: Asparagus, Bell Peppers (I recently fell in love with Orange ones), Sugar Snap Peas, Carrots, and broccoli. I like to either dust them with a bit of butter, seasoned salt, or some Parmesan cheese for flavor. The best part about this kind of cooking? You can make as much or as little of the vegetables as you need! It's not like with a casserole where you make a ton and feel like the lonely cat lady as you eat it alone. Another great way to make vegetables is to fry them in olive oil, perhaps with a little bit of lemon juice and some Sea Salt and Black Pepper. I just found an cooking article with Asparagus, lemon juice, salt, and lemon rind that Im pumped to whip up. This one sounds dangerous due to the whole "frying in Olive Oil," but as long as you don't cook out all the great antioxidants- you need not fear Olive Oil. The studies on this bad boy are getting better and better and with that Vitamin C from the lemon juice this one sits to be a heavy hitter in the benefit arena. Another option is to bake them in a thick and yummy sauce- but it's a little higher in fat and should be used sparingly. Broccoli in a cheese sauce or Asparagus (clearly one of my favorites) in a peanut butter sauce can be delicious if baked correctly. Want to get an even easier meal? Buy yourself a Spaghetti Squash. It sounds complex but it is one of the EASIEST ways to sneak veggies instead of a starch into your meal. And it's delicious too! The "how to" is usually on a sticker on the squash itself- no research required!

The benefits of vegetables are amazing. chock full of Vitamins and Minerals, don't ignore these little buggers! If you are in a huge rush or (like me) don't have a stove and 30 minutes on your lunch break at work, you can buy microwave steamable veggies. If you're REALLY lucky you have time to get to your BBQ and cook your vegetables on the grill. This can be one of THE most delicious ways to make them. Kabobs are an excellent way to get your fill of the whole shebang. And not that it's closing in on Summertime it's the perfect opportunity to fire it up and invite a few friends over for some good low-fat eats. And now I leave you, hopefully pumped on the greens (and Reds and Yellows), with some pictures of your potential new best friend: awesome (and healthy!) food- totally doable by the solo diner:

Dieters Be(A)ware!!

Today's post is about dieting. Now I have read a LOT about dieting, myself being a major magazine-aholic. I think that a lot of women, particularly one's who try to "wing it," don't know diddly squat about the way their body works. Now I am not a dietitian, but let me share a couple of things that I have learned from magazines, books, and personal experience.
1. Eat something! I know we women have our emotional roller coasters and sometimes lose our appetites. But not eating is one of the worst long term things you can do. I hardly ate for like 2 months one time (over some stupid breakup). I got into my size 1 jeans again, I looked good in my bikini... it was awesome. Or so I thought. I also had sunken eye-sockets from malnutrition and my hair looked like crap. I had zero energy and my brain wasn't functioning properly. But, hey! I looked skinnyyyyy!!! Unfortunately I didn't understand the way my body worked. I was skinny because my body was literally feeding on itself, mainly the muscle (and less of the fat than I had hoped). Not to mention that at some point, I got over that boyfriend and back on my feet. Aaaannd... back in the kitchen. My appetite was still small, and I wasn't eating junk food. But my metabolism was SO screwed up from adjusting to a smaller diet that any food I DID eat went straight to my no-longer-size-one ass! I'm not saying I got hugely fat, but my point is that your metabolism WILL have it's revenge. It took me months to get back to my normal weight AND metabolism. Trust me: the no food diet sucks.
2. Eat for your environment. Our bodies adapt to the environment we live in for a reason. Even the color of our skin adapts, as you will notice that people closer to the equator are taller, leaner, and darker. People further from it are shorter, heavier, and lighter skinned. The human body is an amazingly adaptive creation. We have existed for centuries based on the food the land provides for us. We have adapted to technological changes that have enabled us to not walk everywhere and to import food from around the world. And these are all awesome things. But it's important that we respect our environments as well. The fact of the matter is that if you live in a colder environment, you NEED to eat heavier food to keep your body warm. If you're living in, say, Southern California, there IS no real cold. Therefore you don't really need to eat a Porterhouse Steak to keep you insulated. Lean meats will do, and even then you should use sparingly in the summertime. I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy a good steak once in a while. I simply mean that there is a reason you crave juicy fruits and light meats in the warmer months and mashed potatoes when it's cold: your body knows what it needs. Respect the knowledge that has been genetically passed down to your body.
3. Drink lots of water. And I am talking LOTS. Hardly anyone gets enough water these days. Considering the fact that your body is made up of something like 92% water... it's important that you refill that or else it wont run properly. If food is your fuel to get you moving, consider water your oil. It enables the "flow" of your body and lubricates it to run smoothly. I don't really buy into that whole "it will fill you up" stuff. I DO know that it will clear up my pimples, make my brain function better, and get rid of those nasty dark circles under my eyes. I like to keep a few bottles in my car and refill them from my water jug to make some attempt to slow down the plastic use that's so bad for the environment.
4. Limit your white starches intake. This one is a "duh" situation. Sugary white foods like Weber's bread, sugar, and sweet-tooth cereals are a no-no. Get with the program.
5. Pimp your plate. There is NO reason your food needs to be boring, even if it's from a microwave. There are so many nutrient enriched foods out there it's doggone ridiculous. Bread with extra fiber, butter with Omega 3s... Why settle for something that ISN'T adding more to your intake of good stuff? And to top that idea off- don't settle for stuff from the can! Add something to everything you make. Sneak in those extra servings of veggies wherever you can! I taught my boyfriend (the smoothie KING) to add some spinach to a fruit smoothie. Not only could he not taste it, he LOVED the idea. And there you go, a sneaky super-smoothie! Make a microwave dinner (I like Lean Cuisines because they usually have no preservatives) and steam up some extra veggies. They usually sell them so you can even steam them in the microwave as well. You can add them to your food for a super-microwave meal!
I hope these are helpful tips! Have a fantastic day!

Love,

Lula Mae