Energizing Green Smoothie & Embarrassing Fitness Experiences

I’m linking up today with Sara @ Lake Shore Runner for Tried It Tuesday!

A couple weeks ago, I won an EBOOST giveaway from Debi @ 14 in 2014 and a sampler bag of 5 of each of EBOOST’s flavored powder packets (Acai Pomegranate, Natural Orange, and Pink Lemonade). EBOOST is a blend of vitamins, minerals + super-nutrients that’s packed with vitamins B6 (pyridoxine), folate (folic acid) B12 (cyanocobalamin), C, D, resveratrol, green tea + green coffee. Each powder packet contains all the vitamin B6, B9, C, D, folate, zinc and chromium that you need in a single day!

Since I rarely talk about the med-school part of my life in this blog other than in my Reflections On… series and the like (I’ve been dreaming up ways to remedy this and the solution is rather time-consuming, so suffice to say, I’ll get there eventually), I thought I’d do a somewhat-watered-down discussion on the vitamins found in these powder packets, and why they’re so awesome and important for you!

• Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) is necessary for making ATP, which means that pretty much every tissue in your body needs it! It contributes to proper brain development/function, and also helps to make melatonin (which regulates your circadian rhythms, aka internal clock), serotonin + norepinephrine.
• Vitamin B9 (folic acid) is used to make tetrahydrofolate (THF), which is necessary to make nucleotides (for your DNA)! Folate deficiency can occur in alcohol abuse, poor nutrition, and increased bodily requirements (e.g. in pregnancy; deficiency in pregnancy can lead to neural tube defects!).
• Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) is needed by enzymes (if you care, it’s homocysteine methyltransferase + methylmalonyl-CoA mutase) and is also used to make THF (which, again, is vital for your DNA)! Deficiency can lead to megaloblastic anemia and neuropathies.
• Vitamin C is the main antioxidant in the GI and hydroxylates amino acids (proline + lysine) in collagen and elastin. It also prevents iron oxidation (iron is pretty much useless to your body if it’s oxidized).
• Vitamin D is necessary for bone + teeth formation, and also stimulates osteoblastic activity (bone growth!). Deficiency can lead to rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.

You can mix it up with a glass of water, but you know how I love to experiment with recipes! It makes for a rather nice addition to a delicious green smoothie!

My phone camera stopped working and all the apps have been crashing on me lately. All my notes and reminders were spontaneously deleted yesterday morning, so I suspect it’s on its last dredges of life. :[ I resorted to my old-old phone to take this picture, haw haw. This applies less to most of you since I don’t know you IRL, but if I should fall off the face of the planet, hopefully it’s just because my phone died and not because I died.

Energizing Green Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 EBOOST packet (Acai Pomegranate, Natural Orange, or Pink Lemonade)
• 1/2 banana
• 1 cup spinach
• 6 oz. orange juice
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (some kind of fruit-flavored one would probably work even better!)

Instructions:

1. Blend all ingredients until smooth!

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I’m also joining in on this week’s Fit Dish is on Embarrassing Fitness Experiences!

I’m probably gonna have to somewhat-disappoint you with this, because I tend to laugh off all my embarrassing moments, which effectively negates the embarrassing-ness of it all. I assure you, they still happen, but somehow it’s not so bad if you’re the first one to laugh at yourself.

The one that tops my list is actually not in fact a fitness experience, but I just had to share it because it paints a pretty nice picture of how spastic and highly ungraceful I am: once upon a time, as I was running out of the house to get the mail, I tripped over the sprinkler head on the front lawn and rolled down the driveway.

Yes, rolled.

(At least I didn’t get hurt?) I’M AWESOME, I TELL YOU.

My most embarrassing fitness moments revolve exclusively around…the bench press.

I’ve almost always worked out alone because my controlled-chaos schedule never really mutually aligns with anyone else’s (and for me, working out alone is a whole lot more efficient!). This is unfortunately also the reason as to why my bench press has historically always been the slowest to improve. I don’t really harbor any desire to be crushed by a barbell with a bunch of weights on it, so I don’t tend to pile on as many plates when I’m lifting alone (which is 99.5% of the time).

Back when I was training for a powerlifting competition, I’d occasionally be able to talk Mike or Isaac into running over to spot me, but on the whole, it’s just me.

I have been saved a couple times by observant and awesome passersby though, for which I am rather grateful!