The Epic Smoothie: for people with high blood sugar and/or low iron!

This past winter, I recieved bloodwork results more suited to a woman 40 years older than me, and it freaked me out! (Low iron, low thyroid levels, pre-diabetic blood sugars, and high cholesterol! I no longer wonder why I was falling asleep on the way IN to work!) Instead of immediately putting me on a handful of pills to supplement the ones I already take, my doctor prescribed a new diet and excercise routine. My first challenge: revamp the breakfast.

I came up with the epic smoothie after reading a buttload of smoothie recipes to see what usually goes in one, and reading up on super foods, and diabetic diets. Now, I can't gaurantee this as diabetic friendly; I have no medical knowledge whatsoever--I even skipped high school biology! Anyway. I do know that no breakfast is bad for levelling out the sugars. So I eat a small bowl of bran cereal, then take this guy with me to work:

Epic Smoothie:
Handful of baby spinach
About 2/3 cup frozen mixed berries (blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries are apparently best for high blood sugar)
2 tbsp sunflower/pumpkin seeds (this is mostly to tone down the potential tartness of the berries)
1 tbsp chia seeds (keeps you full longer)
1 serving greek yogurt (I use the individually packaged stuff because who has time for measuring cups??)
Approximately 1 cup of juice (which has a tonne of sugar, I know; I haven't been able to give up my juice habit yet, and it makes the smoothie sooo smooth!)

Blend until smooth, pour into your to-go cup, rinse out the blender (trust me, it turns green and slimey if you let it sit while you're at work), and away you go! Grab your keys and run out the door!

To save myself time and money, I actually buy most of these ingredients in bulk and package them up into freezer bags in individual serving sizes. That way, I pretty much dump it in the blender and blend, rather than getting all these things out of the fridge every morning. Also, my spinach can't go bad on me in the freezer!

To pre-package, get your spinach, berries and seeds out, and prop up as many baggies as you have room for. Dump the berries in first and the seeds and spinach on top, so they stick to the berries instead of your bag. Seal up your baggies, and put them in your freezer. If you buy packages similar to the first photo, you should get roughly 20 servings.

I also buy a bulk variety package of greek yogurt cups. The different flavours change the taste of the smoothie very subtly each day, which could help if you get bored easily! I just store the yogurt in the freezer and take out enough to do me a week at a time. As for the juice, since it's already a compromise if sorts, I aim for the purest stuff I can find, usually orange juice. I tried a watery watermelon kind once and it drastically changed the taste of the smoothie, so that's another way to change it up on occassion. Also, I pour my smoothie into a mason jar so I can shake it up at work; the chia seeds like to go a bit glumpy. And don't let it sit too long (like, more than an hour or so) or the spinach will take over and turn it green instead of berry pink! Not appetizing.

Confession: I sit here writing this, hypocritically, after inhaling a fast food supper. That's what I turn to after a rough day. The need for junk is so strong when I'm stressed that I can't relax, my jaws are clenched, and I can feel a pressure in my temples. So I caved tonight, because it's only Monday, and I know I've got another 4 days to get through before the weekend. (I've got one of those 'living-for-the-weekend' jobs.) In other news, Despicable Me 3 is in theatres!

Hope these are useful tips for someone out there! Let me know if you have a good alternative for the juice, eh? Here's to a better Tuesday! :)