Slim Shocker Garden Stalker Smoothie (A Prayer to The Pink Sisters of St. Louis)

I've had a love/hate relationship with my garden lately. Honestly, more of the hate sort has taken hold. My first vegetable harvest was nothing short of brilliant! I carefully plucked the tomatoes, gypsy peppers (I love this pepper by the way) and cucumbers (god love the cukes, when will they EVER stop coming)--snipped my chard and yanked my munchkin carrots and radishes from the ground--all to the delight of my proud green thumb. Then this ridiculous heat and humidity left my little piece of the veggie world in tatters. I even took down my "deer prevention" wall because I figure if I can't eat from it, the least I could do was release its last remnants to the fauna of my back woods. Sigh. You could call it veggie depression. I've felt like a "stalker" in the mornings when I walk out to inspect for new blossoms, growth spurts of any kind, h-e-l-l-o, can I get a tomato? Even my zucchini has lapsed this year--only produced blossoms--not a one zuke to my name. It shames me. It really does. 

Veggie harvest hey-day. Three weeks ago.

Veggie harvest left overs from this week--for my Slim Shocker Garden Stalker Smoothie.

Vitamix Blender to the rescue.

I don't know how to describe the feeling of just "get it over with" I have for this summer. I even found myself wandering into the much-too-early-it-should-be-a-crime Christmas display at the Hobby Lobby last week--feeling a slight tinge of hope for cooler weather, snowmen, reindeer--the whole nine yards. 

I've been doing smoothies in the morning lately. I love them for their staying power more than anything. I feel wonderful after sipping down a tall glass of everything-from-my-garden (which is dwindling fast). I don't find myself in a three o'clock slump. I feel more energized--more granola-ish. And best part of it all--I've dropped five pounds in the last two weeks! LOVE that part! Now, is it the smoothie helping with the shred or is it my utter apathy and dread of eating at all taking hold? To me it matters not as long as the numbers on the scale read: less. We've been noshing on some unique vegan and raw food creations lately, too. I've been to the dehydrator mountain and feel this itself may have somewhat been contributing to my happy scale moments.

What you see on the cutting board above (all except the apple and the knob of ginger) were grown ten feet from my back door. I don't know how much "greener" one can get. If you don't have a Vitamixer, perhaps you won't share in my joy in the morning smoothie moment, but it has truly made a huge difference in my life. I heart green smoothies.

And then there is my return to running. Two miles yesterday. Here's why that's a big deal. About six weeks ago, I felt a pain in my lower leg, just above the achilles tendon that nearly sent me to my knees in pain. I could barely walk up and down the stairs. Working in my yard was now a lesson in misery and pain management. I reluctantly visited a doctor of achilles specialty. Or so they said. I am a skeptic and probably the worst kind of patient when it comes to anything involving limiting my "movement". I've had both my knees scoped. I recovered wonderfully and did my own physical therapy and rehab at home. It amazed my knee surgeon. And pleased him, too. To this day, my knees have been little miracles for me (knock on wood). But then this achilles thingy kicked in. This unsympathetic doctor/man sat down, listened to my complaint and said: Rest. I was like, What?! Rest, he said--for at least four weeks. That made no sense to me. Don't you have a cast of some kind, a quick cure massage or something you can produce to promote FAST healing of my injured tendon? Nope. You must rest or the next time you come in, an "invasive" procedure may be called for. Well, that's all he needed to say: invasive. No thanks. I am through with knives and pokes and things entering the body for quite a while.

So I rested. I didn't sit here eating bon-bons, cathching up with On Demand programs. But as much as I could, I rested. I walked. . . a lot. And for a runner, the art of walking, well, it is almost foreign--to be outside walking. (Totally different for in-home workouts that call for Walk A Mile--things like that). Here I was on the same roads I would normally trot along happily, measuring distance, timing myself with a heel toe stride that clocked in at about 10:30 minutes per mile. Now I was like a turtle on the road. . . putting one foot in front of the other, lingering in front of houses I would normally breeze by as a runner, sensing things more. Dogs in yards barked at me longer. I had more time to think about the dime I just picked up (heads up--never tails up)--wondering how it found it's way on the side of a somewhat country road. It had an eerie feeling.

As I slowly return to running, maybe my prayer for cooler weather and pain free running will be granted. I realize the "pain free" part is very selfish of me. But the cooler weather part sort of balances it out--I wish for cooler weather for everybody. I literally have asked mother nature AND God for help on the matter. We have a cloistered nun group here in St. Louis (in case you weren't aware--St. Louis is also known as Little Vatican)--the nuns are called the Pink Sisters. Just go to this link, it will bring you peace, I promise. They are a contemplative and mission-based order living in silence and seen at masses in their pink habits, singing the Liturgy. Mention them to anyone in St. Louis, and they will know who you are talking about. Many stories have been written about how prayers to this order have resulted in "Providential" occurrences. They are truly divine and mysterious. So this summer, I have sought solice through them--in my walks, meditating on a prayer for "better"--better weather, better running. I think my prayer's been, if not answered, considered. I just wanted to say "thanks" here on my blog. I'm off to make another smoothie and go for a fast walk and maybe a jog, too, and praying for cooler weather.