Shakes and smoothies can be a great way to get your nutrition in, and I put together a killer. Calling it The Panther Shake since, well duh what site are you on right, but also because the color is a dark purplish, almost black. Trust me it tastes a lot better than it looks!
Ingredients:
2 big leaves of Chard
1 cup frozen Kale (broken up)
1 Banana
2 Tablespoons Chia seeds
1 Apple (washed, cored & quartered)
1/2 cup of frozen berry mix (mine has blueberries, cherries, raspberries & blackberries)
1 cup cold filtered water (you can sub in coconut water)
1 cup cold almond milk
1 lemon (juiced)
a few ice cubes
In a large blender, pour in the lemon juice, apple & kale. Blend down a bit. It might be messy, use that lid! Next throw in the Chard, water and almond milk. Blend till smooth. Add berries, Chia and banana, blend till smooth. Add in the ice cubes to cool it down and smooth it out some more. That apple peel is going to want to be chunky so do what you can! Pour immediately into several large glasses or a serving beaker of some kind (you don’t want the acid from the lemon sitting in the blender).
Makes 2 large glasses of tasty but somewhat nasty looking power drink. If you set some aside for later in the fridge, make sure you mix it back together later before you drink it. There’s quite a lot of fiber in here and it is bound to settle a bit.
That was my post workout treat today, and a treat it is, even with all the “good for you” greens in there. The apple, banana lemon combo is absolutely refreshing and gives it a sweet/sour taste that is tough to beat. The greens add fiber and a very slight bitterness, and tons of nutrients.
The workout I fueled up after was my go-to home workout using my trusty 25lb kettle-bell While not to the level of one of SFF’s monster workouts, this one does hit a ton of the body and is a nice mid-week diversion.
I started with some kettle-bell swings, American style. You’ve probably seen these done, feet wide, both hands gripping the ‘bell, swinging out from between the legs and forward. In Russian style you come only to shoulder height. It is primarily a core movement. American style pushes the ‘bell up until it is above your head. This engages the shoulders, arms and upper back, but can be dangerous. I wanted the fuller engagement and ran through two sets of 25 swings for a total of 50.
I then moved to single arm military presses with a squat. You start holding the ‘bell with one arm, in a lowered squat. Pull the ‘bell up your chest, rotating it until it is sitting on the back of your wrist at shoulder level as you squat upwards. Then press up, tilting your shoulders so the pressed shoulder is slightly higher than the unpressed shoulder (activates your core). 10 of those, each side, twice for a total of 40 presses.
I then moved on to one of my favorite group movements. You lay down, arms extended holding the kettle-bell legs slightly bent. Keeping your arms mostly straight bring the bell over your head towards your core and stop when it is about 6 inches over your belly. Using the weight of the ‘bell as a counter weight, do a sit up, then immediately push the bell up and over your head. You can do that straight armed or as a military press style. Then reverse all of the motions, bringing the bell down, laying back down, then swinging the ‘bell back until it hits the ground above your head with your arms straight. That’s 1 rep. I did 2 sets of 15 reps for a total of 30 reps.
Nicely warmed up, I then hit the road for a 2.3 mile run around my local park in around 28 minutes. I managed all of that in under an hour, including making and consuming my tasty beverage. Get out there!
