Kicking Fear ... and Smoothies

Well, today I woke up feeling positive. I rolled out of bed with a groan, stumbled blearily around looking for my glasses and ducked into the bathroom to take care face washing, teeth brushing etc. etc.

Still half asleep, I grabbed my grey fleece housecoat from behind the door - it’s super comfy, has a hood and white sheep on it, I think. The hood is my favourite part. I also have a white one that has pockets on it and is covered in pink kisses - and trundled to the kitchen. I’m not normally a breakfast sort of person. Usually it consists of a cup of coffee and a granola bar. This morning however, I had it in my head that I was going to start the day with something delicious.

Now, before I go any further, I should tell you that under no circumstances am I awake early enough in the morning to prepare myself a breakfast, which is why I eat on the run. I love sleeping. I love my big, cozy, warm bed. I am not a morning person under any circumstances, so the fact that I had a plan this morning to make breakfast is … crazy.

But. of course, it had to be not only delicious but I had to be able to take it with me - eater on the run, remember? Well. I did a little looking around on the internet last night and looked up different options for breakfast smoothies. I don’t have a lot of fancy ingredients in the house - and it’s generally fairly difficult to get really good health food options this far north anyway, so I have to make do with what I can get at the grocery store - so it had to be simple and down to earth.

What I found was the most basic recipe for a peanut butter and banana smoothie (follow the link to get it). Bananas I knew I had, and I just bought a jar of chunky peanut butter when I did the shopping on Saturday. Milk, we always have - I’m a 1% kinda girl. I even have some protein powder in the cupboard! And that was all I really needed. There were a few other variations posted by different people that included Greek yogurt, almonds and flax seed, and natural peanut butter - which I don’t have.

I added a single banana, two teaspoons of crunchy peanut butter, some skim milk, and a scoop of my vanilla flavoured protein powder, and just turned on the blender. It was so good! I’m not even kidding when I say that it tasted like I was drinking liquid Reese Pieces! Absolutely delicious! And the kicker - it fit into a single serving glass so I could drink it on the way to work!

Tomorrow I might try a strawberry banana smoothie …

The food journal is, thus far, working out. Well, it’s only been my second day but still! And I did a little yoga yesterday courtesy of a Jillian Micheals YouTube video and discovered that I’m not all that flexible anymore, so I’m going to try and commit to doing this video every day on top of any other workout.

I also checked in with a friend of mine here in town who’s an MMA fighter. Not a big time guy or anything, and his fights are mostly held in Quebec. He’s pretty good from what he says - after four or five fights, he’s undefeated, which isn’t too shabby. I asked him about the gym where he trains, and it turns out they offer a women’s kickboxing class.

I have done this before, back home with a really great dojo and I lost SO much weight! Me and the girl I was living with at the time went three or four times a week and it was great! Every session was followed by a marathon soak in a hot, hot bath - though most days it was a toss up between that or diving face and eyes into a big ole steak. The bath won every.single.time. So, if this class is anything like that, then I’m going to commit to it, once I get back the details how just what is involved in the class and how much it’ll cost me, and if there’s any equipment that I’ll need. This gym offers the lady’s kickboxing class twice a week, so I should be able to manage that.

So, today I’m feeling pretty positive. Scared … but positive. Doing this class by myself kinda scares the crap out of me, and I’m overwhelmed (a little) about doing it alone and not knowing anyone in the class. Which is weird, ‘cause I’m not normally a shy person so I have no idea where this is coming from. So maybe being scared is a natural thing and the only way to deal with it is to just “woman up!” and fuckin’ do it.