February Monthly Challenge: A Smoothie A Day
Yesterday was the last day of January and the last day of the 30 day thrifted fashion challenge. I enjoyed pushing myself to think a little outside of the box with putting together outfits, and thinking more about how I can be a responsible consumer when it comes to manufacturing ethics and taking care of the earth. I will be sharing my thoughts on everything I learned throughout that challenge as well as my best thrift shopping tips next week. Today I want to talk about what is coming up this month (Hello, February!), and I will also give you the schedule that I put together for the year ahead. I took into consideration all of the votes and opinions I gathered on instagram to plan these out, so I hope that they will interest and motivate you. You can also choose to participate or just follow along! My goal with all of these challenges is to improve myself and inspire others along the way. Because so many of these ideas will require a little more planning, I am starting with something rather simple for the February monthly challenge: a smoothie a day! (I am an Amazon associate, and make a small commission on purchases made through my links. I appreciate your support!)
Wilder drinking his morning smoothie
This summer, we struggled to switch Wilder over to milk, so I started making him smoothies every morning in my Ninja. It was a sure fire way to get him a big dose of spinach or greens, and whole milk for his growing body. (By the way, I hear the Vitamix is the way to go with smoothies, but I have been happy with the Ninja. Our blade broke and I replaced it with one I found on Amazon and it’s been terrible since then- the new blade lid leaks badly! I will be replacing the blade through Ninja’s own website because it’s still much more affordable than coughing up half our mortgage for the Vitamix, even if it is soooo beautiful and soooo highly rated.) Because we use our Ninja blender daily, I keep it our on our counter at all times as you can see below.
I had Wilder hooked on smoothies, and now it’s how he starts every day. However, I was not sold on them myself. I always thought of myself as someone who liked to eat real food for breakfast, and a smoothie didn’t feel like “real food.” My past experience with smoothies from smoothie shops is that although I was full, I was not satisfied. I did, however, like smoothie bowls, like this pumpkin pie smoothie bowl. However, this past fall that all changed.
After hearing about Body Love by Kelly Leveque on a podcast, by curiosity was piqued. This book is not about a fad diet or anything like that, but very much about the science of nutrition and the author really simplifies it for us. In the book, she also includes several smoothie recipes as well as others. She claimed that her smoothies should keep you full until lunch time, so I decided to give it a try. I will say, I spent a large amount of money at Whole Foods stocking up on several ingredients since I didn’t have protein powder or raw fiber or some of the other pricey ingredients, but once I was stocked I was good to go for a while, and now just replace items as they run out.
It’s been a few months now, and I am used to making my morning smoothie and I can honestly say that yes, I am not snacking in the morning anymore, and I am full until lunch time. However, I tend to rotate through the same few smoothies and I am getting a little bored with it. This month, I will be shaking it up (see what I did there? 😉 ) and trying a new recipe each day! I will be posting daily on my instagram stories, so be sure to follow along there. I will also share a recap at the end of the month here.
Why start with a smoothie each day? As I mentioned, they’re definitely keeping my snacking at bay, and they also help me squeeze in so many vitamins and antioxidants which benefit my hair, skin, nails, mental well-being and more! I am sure they help me keep my weight steady, though I haven’t actually researched that on myself.
In addition to all of the health benefits that can be added from clean whole food smoothies, they add so much convenience to my life… more than I ever expected! Now that I am chasing a toddler around, it’s much easier to walk around the house with my smoothie cup than it was to get up from the table, abandon my food, and come back to cold eggs for breakfast.
All of the smoothies that I try and share over the next month will be clean, healthy, and plant based. If you’re interested in following along, and want to grab some of the ingredients, these are some that I use on an almost day to day basis:
- Vanilla plant protein powder
- Chocolate plant protein powder
- Raw fiber
- Flax seed
- Chia seed
- MCT oil
- Natural nut ut butters- Almond, Peanut, Walnut
- Almond milk (unsweetened)
- Coconut milk (unsweetened)
- Frozen spinach
- frozen berries
- frozen bananas
- Avocados
- Coconut oil
- Canned pumpkin
- Raisins
There you have it, friends! Are you ready to jump on the smoothie wagon? I can’t wait to find some great new recipes to share with you, and I am excited to stick to my streak. I am even considering replacing lunch with a second smoothie just so I have more time to be productive. We will see where this month takes us! If I can find lots of great new recipes to help me mix it up more, I think that’s an attainable goal. Do you have any go-to smoothie recipes you would like to share or any you’d like to see me try? Leave me a comment or email me at [email protected].
Here’s what to look forward to the rest of the year.
February: new smoothie a day
March: no spend
April: minimal waste
May: organization
June: clean beauty
July: vegan
August: pushups 😬
September: simple recipes
October: craft a day
November: gratitude
December: random acts of kindness
