Weight training smoothie

It's 9:20 a.m. and between the cold weather, the everyday aches and pains of this body and PMS, my diet has consisted of too much Halloween candy and too many potato chips.

My fitness goals have been challenged by the cold snap and my unheated work out space coupled with ankle pain that may be related to my cerebral palsy and/or preliminary phases of arthritis. 

So today I brought some weights inside. I did 20 minutes of yoga for abs and 15 or so of lower body yoga. I'd never done that routine. The results were indeed awkward. I added to that 15 minutes of upper body free weights while watching an old episode of ER and ended up getting more reps than usual in because I enjoyed watching TV.

I "rewarded" myself with a breakfast smoothie, vegan:

 It's sweeter than I expected. I used 4 ounces coconut water with pulp, 4 ounces very vanilla silk soy milk, one tablespoon unsalted organic almond butter from Wegmans (a friend hates it and passed it off to be knowing I do love almond butter in all shapes, sizes and varieties), a banana, and Biochem Sports vegan protein powder in vanilla.

Makes me feel stronger already.

Peanut butter banana smoothie for two

This peanut butter banana smoothie turned out to be a delight.

For two people, throw in the blender:

- two bananas

- about four ounces coconut water with pulp

- about two tablespoons peanut butter

- about one cup plain yogurt

- one packet carnation breakfast essentials vanilla

Fitness, Fitbits and coconut water

I have not been indulging in much cooking lately because I have been eating boring items as I bring my weight and general health back into line.

Salad, fresh fruit, lots of water and no more sweets have been the norm. And it's worked. I've shed between ten and fifteen pounds. Now my goal shifts to gaining muscle, strength, endurance and flexibility. I have health issues and I'm not getting younger.

So, I started walking, biking, doing 20-minute yoga routines, stretching and doing my physical therapy routines, lifting weights and punching the bag in my garage... Something... Every day.

Having a child helps this. When you say, "What are we going to do today?" you get ideas & someone to hold you accountable.

I use myfitnesspal to track my calories, mapmyfitness for cute little maps of distance activities, talabata lite to time intervals, freepedometer to track steps during housework & my job and I have a weight lifting one too. But I thought this was getting neurotic of me.

So I made myfitnesspal my "homebase," linked my mapmyfitness and bought a fitbit flex. Yup. A fitbit.

After that crazy breakfast and sending my daughter to her grandparents, I suited up with my laptop and my wallet for a morning walk. I planned on stopping at the corner market for sparkling mineral water as a bribe for myself and at the library. I had to head to the library to sync my fitbit as I don't have internet at home and my iPhone 4 is a dinosaur with no 'low energy Bluetooth' capabilities.

Coconut water starts here...

I headed to the corner store and they didn't have sparkling water as the neighborhood is more Hispanic than European. I tried coconut water, as coconut water has calcium just like mineral water. 

My friend Gayle has a fitness challenge where she pushes herself to try new things, I may start a food challenge...

I gagged after the first three sips. Lightly syrupy yet water with chunks of coconut and sweet yet not... Weird. But I kept walking and got thirsty. Tried another sip. Not appealing but not bad.

I continued this every five minutes for a half an hour.

Verdict: weirdly refreshing and staved off dehydration. Still don't like the chunks. Spit them out. Would certainly do it again for something different and not fake like sports drinks. Cannot chug it. 

Would be delicious as a smoothie base... Or with pineapple juice and light rum...