The week between Christmas and New Year's.........

The week between Christmas and New Year's.........is always a fun one. The parties are starting to wind down, but the New Year is still not here, so where's the motivation to keep up with our diet and fitness plan?

We've been to at least seven Christmas parties so far these past couple of weeks. The pies, the chocolate, the dancing, the fat, the sugar, the wine. Yes, I partook in all of it. But the program continues. This week we are focusing on some of the cancer preventing smoothies from Jeff Primack's book Smoothie Formulas.

This morning, after much chocolate and wine last night, I made the "Cancer Crusher V4" featured on page 9 of the book. It contains purple cabbage, beets, lime, apple, carrot, ginger and basil. I also threw in some fresh rosemary because my next door neighbor has this really big rosemary bush that I have been "pruning" for her over the past couple of weeks. Rosemary gives the drinks a nice minty taste. Rosemary also improves brain function, which I am going to need so I can remember "which party was it where I left my black coat"?

Of the many wonderful ingredients in this smoothie, I want to focus on beets. Beets work in your body to purify the blood, which is the core of healing any disease. Anyone who wants to stay healthy, but especially those who are dealing with cancer, need the healing power of beets.

The drink tasted wonderful. We've yet to come across one drink so far that hasn't tasted great. Tonight I am going to relax by the fire after a nice long hike and walk on the beach with the dogs. Gotta be rested up for tomorrow's dawn patrol surf session. My good friend Chris bought his first surfboard today and we are giving it a trial run in the morning. See you in the lineup!