Ridiculously Nutritious Protein Shake

Welcome to my first installment of the Ugly Pictures of Beautiful Food feature!

I dont care about how my food looks but what it can do to:

1. Make me not hungry
2. Heal and restore
3. Provide nutrition
4. Keep my heart healthy
5. Lower cholesterol
6. Be yummy
7. Be relatively simple to prepare

Food is fuel. Say it with me! Food is fuel!!! It cannot be anything more than that. What you choose to fuel is up to you.

I also am not a photographer. My house is old and my kitchen is too. You don't need fancy shit or a lot of money to eat healthy and take care of yourself. So, this blog will bot have photos of the most gorgeous food visually. It will have photos of beautiful food, food that will nourish and fuel your body and brain.

I was a comfort food addict.  I was making giant meatloaf, fried chicken, giant portions of mashed potatoes or french fries,  buttery pancakes or syrup soaked French toast constantly.

My body was hurting, my cholesterol sky rocketed and I, naturally, got fat and tired and sick. Rather than continue on that path, I changed things up. Slowly.

Change is hard, pick one thing to change and wait at least 2 or 3 weeks before choosing the next change. I started with calories. It didn't matter what I ate, as long it was a certain calorie count. Then I cut all fast food. Then red meat, then pasta and rice and later bread. Out of everything I cut, the rice and bread wete very hard. I also dont drink alcohol very much at all (recent festivities excluded).

I would have never been able to do all of that at once. My mantra has been, "Do one thing."

What you eat is as important as what you don't eat. If you are adding in exercise, then add an extra 100 or 200 calories on the days you're busting a move.

Here is one very yummy One Thing.. a super delicious shake to help heal muscles and give your circulatory system a reason to love you very much.

Ingredients:

* Scoop of protein powder (I love Optimum Nutrition Strawberry Banana, this will work with any flavor though)

* 3-4 strawberries, defrosted or fresh is fine

* Handful of blueberries

* Tablespoon Chia Seed

* 3 Tablespoons ground flax

* 8 ounces unsweetened coconut milk (can use water or almond milk, the almond milk is very thick so you might want to add water, also the coconut milk tastes better)

* Teaspoon of stevia or honey if you need to sweeten it up.

I plop it all in a big measuring cup and use a stick blender to whip it all up.

This could be a meal replacement as well. Its pretty filling.

Enjoy!