My go-to fast-food refuel if I’m at the house is a banana and mixed fruit smoothie. I generally put 3-4 types of fruit in my smoothies, most often with banana and always with a few extra trimmings ‘n toppings chucked in; depending on whether I’m working out that day or not, I’d add a scoop of Sunwarrior Vanilla Protein powder which is super delicious.
Yesterday I did my usual 8km run on the treadmill at the gym, and then tentatively made my way around the weights areas. Normally I’d stick to the ‘normal’ weights area, and keep a wide berth of the black floored arena where ab-and-bicep-bulging beasts claim their territory lifting astronomical loads on padded benches. However, it has become necessary that I breach this field of intimidation in order to use a metal contraption called “The Smith Machine.” Basically, this is a stand which holds the barbell at different levels of height, so you can load on the kilos and simply duck yourself under the bar to place it on your shoulders for squats. This sliding rack is a mandatory perk in my case, as I can lift over 20kg with my legs but getting a bar of that load onto my shoulders just isn’t going to happen with the aid of my tiny arms. Thankfully yesterday the gym was scarcely populated so I had a bit of space to find my feet and confidence. There’s a lot more technique involved in weight training than I thought; I’m so used to throwing myself at the treadmill and letting rip (stress steam steaming!) for 40 minutes without having to think about anything! The gym trainers know me fairly well at this stage and give great advice; yesterday one guy was helping me out with the Smith Machine and really sold the weight training to me. I’m mad excited to get started! Only wish I’d started sooner!
As I was chatting to the guy for a while I only got time for a few squats (also, mixing an 8km run with a session of weights is not ideal) and headed home for a refuel. College has finished up now (I’ve made it to the end of 2nd year!) so its all study study for the upcoming exams. Or in some people’s cases, time to get down to reading some of those novels and post-colonial theories…
I’d left the pineapple and berries to defrost in the morning, though I don’t think that was long enough as the smoothie turned out a lot thicker than usual. Though I always freeze my bananas for smoothies, it makes them really creamy and smooth! Anyway, I wasn’t complaining about the unexpected thickness this time around. It’s always a sign of decadence when you end up scoop drinking most of your smoothie-turned-sorbet with the straw.
~1/2 Pineapple
~2 cups of Berries
~2 bananas (frozen)
~1 scoop raw vegan protein (optional)
I plan on doing a post soon on the amazing Sunwarrior raw vegan protein power (before it completely runs out and I end up having a photo-shoot with an empty packet!). This is such a summer sorbet, thick and ice cold, refreshing and cleansing. Gobbled it up. Literally, had my face inside the glass. Also, minimal effort required on my part: dunk slam blitz and there you go! Serve with a bit of sorbet smoothie weather…and pretty petals.
Aoibheann Schwartz Photography 