WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS, MAKE SMOOTHIES

When life gives you lemons, make smoothies. Well not literally as I am yet to find a delicious lemon smoothie recipe, but my key learning over the past few weeks is when everything is out of control, try to control one thing that can have great impact. That one thing for me is as simple as breakfast.

For me, the last few weeks have been hectic with work and life in general. Throw in a sick kid, whirlwind drive interstate and new clients for my biz and things are a little overwhelming. I seem to repeat the same pattern when this kind of thing happens - give my all to everyone else and forget about myself.  Amongst the chaos, I knew I had so little child free time to concentrate and the more I tried to concentrate the less I could. I was running off the smell of an oily rag, not stopping to eat or to hydrate. My brain was getting foggier and foggier so I stopped, took a breath and went outside in the sun.

I sat in the fresh air thinking about what are my fundamentals and basics that make things work (I know this sounds so basic, but we sometimes forget). Sure I can’t control sleep at the moment, how tired I feel or my workload, but what I can control is my mornings. I can control how I feel and how I approach the day. There is a saying that goes something like “run the day or the day runs you”, it is so on the money. Instead of starting my day after a morning of chaos, I decided it is time to get ahead of it all in order to feel less anxious and more focussed.

So I made a plan - rise early enough to have breakfast first (ideally I'd love to turn myself into a 5am morning person, but baby steps). The focus was to allow enough time to not rush and to minimise the stress levels. It is making a huge difference to my mental state in approaching the day. Although I still haven’t convinced myself I am a morning person, starting the day with a nutrient loaded smoothie is now my thing. Some people tell you to make your bed, I am choosing to look after my body.

My go to delicious smoothie that packs a punch is below.

CHOC PEANUT BANANA PROTEIN SMOOTHIE

INGREDIENTS

• 1 x medium frozen banana
• 1 - 1.5 cups of almond or coconut milk 
• ½ tbsp of collagen powder
• 2 x tbsp of protein powder (I use vanilla or chocolate whey)
• 1 x tbsp of cacao (sometimes more depending on how my chocolate cravings are going)
• 1 x tbsp of peanut butter (I used Mayvers protein)
• 1 x cup of ice

METHOD

Chuck everything into a blender and blend. Add more milk to get it to your desired consistency.

TIPS

1. I slice bananas and freeze in reusable zip lock bags ready to go.
2. In the morning I get all my ingredients ready to go in the blender (except the ice/banana and milk) these I throw in just as I blend once my daughter is awake as I am making her breakfast.
3. I love smoothies in my Real Active glass bottle, perfect to take in the car for school drop off.
4. Sometimes I also make this to share with my daughter, I just make it without the protein and collagen powder, pour hers out then add mine in