Please join me in welcoming our newest blogger Vishal Sandesara! Vishal will be blogging about men’s health and wellness. I know I need some o’ that in my life!
Here’s To A Great Start
Good day fellow MLDC readers.
I’ve decided to title my premiere posting as such because it has such great meaning. Sure this is the first time Aninda has allowed my words out in public on his well curated lifestyle blog, but also because I believe that every day we spend on this planet should start strong. You’ve all heard it before, and I’ll repeat it with fervor….breakfast is indeed the most important meal of the day. Starting from now, don’t skip it. I can hear the usual grumblings now.
“I don’t have time”
“I’m never that hungry in the morning”
“I don’t have any breakfast items to nosh on”
“I wake up at lunch time”
I too spent a countless number of days rolling out of bed and frantically rushing to school/work/Walmart on Black Friday for that ridic iPad Mini. It all comes at a cost. Your body and mind need a well portioned and decently nutritious pick me up in the first few hours of you waking up. Think about it. You just spent hopefully between 6 to 8 hours in good quality sleep without hydrating or nourishing yourself. And contrary to the popular belief that sleep is all about rest, it is also all about rebuilding and healing. In restoring your internal self during these hours, your body uses energy and it needs to refuel upon awakening. Even moreso if say the night before was dollar pint night at the Booze-a-Rama.
Now you don’t need to (nor should you) go cray and crush a truckload of breakfast sandwiches or toaster pops, but you should certainly nourish yourself in some healthful fashion. I’ll share what I have been doing for the last almost 3 years now.
Everything you need is available at any grocery store. Too lazy/busy/important to go grocery shopping? Instacart it my friends. Go to any freezer aisle and pick up some bags of frozen fruits and berries. Get a few bananas and peel and cut them in half and freeze so they don’t get all soft and smooshy on you during the week. All this frozen goodness is enough to provide the right amount of thickness and consistency you need in a smoothie without having to add ice.
Research suggests that frozen fruits and veggies can in fact have more of a nutritional punch than their room temperature cronies–as frozen produce is picked at peak ripeness when micronutrient concentrations are highest. Get some unsweetened almond milk. Get a bag of raw spinach or kale or some other greens. This stuff keeps in your fridge/freezer really well. Have some peanut butter or protein powder or even Greek yogurt to scoop in there? Awesome. Do you even lift, bro?
Try this in the mornings: blend all this goodness up in a regular blender or a personal blender if you have (much easier to clean and you can drink out of it). It takes all of 2 minutes to compile your ingredients and blend them up into a fresh and delicious breakfast. Take it to work. Drink it at home. Crawl back into bed if you want– with all the time you saved you deserve it.
Do this once daily. Switch up fruits. Try new vegetables. Profit in life.
Do This:
- 10 oz. unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- Handful of baby spinach
- 1/2 frozen banana (peeled and cut in half prior to freezing)
- 1 cup frozen mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries….etc)
- Scoop of your fave low sugar protein powder (unflavored or vanilla)
Blend until all the ingredients are pulverized a decent amount. Chunky smoothies? Ain’t nobody got time for that.
One serving = 165 calories (plus protein) and 19g sugar. Add another half of banana (50 calories and 7 g sugar) for more sweetness if needed.
Don’t Do This:
- Add extra sugar or sugary mixes to your smoothies (like ice creams or sorbets or high fructose corn syrup based juices)
- Mix citrus and dairy
- Add too much fruit
- Add excessive amounts of peanut butter or other nut butters
