Smoothie Days

There's a scene in Orange Is the New Black (don't worry, this isn't a spoiler, but if you haven't seen it, you should probably remedy that, stat) when Piper, the main character, is on the prison pay phone with Jason Biggs (who plays her husband, but I can't remember his name on the show). Jason Biggs is unloading groceries from Whole Foods in their kitchen while Piper is stuck in prison for a crime she committed years and years ago. When she asks what he bought, he lists off some items and says "I got some cherry juice for my smoothies" to which Piper sighs longingly and says "Oh, God, smoothies." There are no smoothies in prison.

Piper definitely can't get a smoothie in the prison chow hall.

When I watched that episode, I'd only recently broken my foot. And I was getting adjusted to a life of not running. It sucked. Hard. I also wasn't having the three or four Vega protein smoothies a week that I'd gotten so used to having after my runs. No need to waste my expensive Vega stash when I wasn't working out hard enough to need all that protein. But I could relate to Piper's longing for a smoothie.

At that time, I thought I'd be up and running again in a few weeks. The doctor told me my stress fracture was likely to heal in two to four weeks, and he expected I'd still be able to run the half-marathon I'd signed up for in October.

Fast forward to now — five months later. I'm still recovering from the same stress fracture, plus a new one that magically popped up in the same foot last month. I'm still not running, and thus, I've not had many smoothies. I removed my walking boot this week, and although I'm having some residual pain in my foot, I think it's finally getting better.

My crazy bone growth stimulation machine! I have to wear it 10 hours a day!

I'll still have to wait a few weeks before I can even attempt to run. But I'm not waiting around for a smoothie any longer. As part of my post-Crazy Sexy Diet plan, I'm going to alternate fresh juices and smoothies for breakfast. I downloaded Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Juice & Succulent Smoothies for ideas. The ebook is 25 percent off through the end of January if you use the code VIBRANT2014. You might wanna snatch one up now!

I'm not having Vega smoothies yet since I'm still saving my protein powders for when I start back to running again. But I will have fresh fruit and veggie-filled green smoothies. This morning, I turned all of this ...

(Nevermind that brown banana. Frozen bananas aren't very attractive). 

 ... into this Strawberry Fields Smoothie.

It was fruity and refreshing, and it even kept me full until 11-ish. Then I snacked on some almonds. I probably won't be buying the Engine 2 almond milk again though. It only has 2 percent of your RDA for calcium! Who makes almond milk without fortifying with calcium? Seems a little pointless.

But anyway, go check out Kris Carr's ebook! And while you're at it, download the free ebook from Vega's #onechange campaign. It's loaded with recipes using Vega protein powder. I'll definitely be referring to that book as soon as I'm fully back on my feet.