Chocolate Strawberry & Raw Cashew Protein Smoothie Recovery Drink #LowCarb

I love mornings. Whoa? Where did that come from? I am the most nocturnal, super-cranky-in-the-mornings person I know! And yet, somehow over the period of a the last few months, I have been slowly making peace with my mornings. So much so that I am actually loving them. What paradigm did I shift to reach to this new space? In a word, me.

It wasn’t until we both started to dedicate our mornings to working out that things started to really evolve for us. As an expatriate chef family, it was hard to find the time to take care of ourselves when we were the only caregivers to our infant son.He was our first and only priority. Something had to give when we were operating from such scarcity (of time, finances and support systems).  While we embraced the joys of parenthood, we were both always exhausted and really just fighting to make it to the end of the day. Since our child didn’t sleep through the night, days and night merged together as we walked around in a bleary eyed, semi-zombie state, happy but utterly exhausted. It was only when we made a commitment to getting help that things started turning around. We knew where we needed to be and we fought to get back our health and to live from a place of wellness of mind, body and spirit. And we are well on our way!

These days we workout six days a week at home in our dining room cum Chef and Steward Studio office.  We are completing our first round of p90x in 4 weeks and are excited. Chef Lij started a month ahead of me and is currently at his 60 day point but I just jumped in an began at my own level and will finish this 90 day round with him, then we will both start over together for the full 90 days.

Since we are doing such an intensive physical conditioning programme, recovery nutrition is essential.  Here is how you can go about making your own recovery drink from scratch without nut milks and with readily available ingredients.

We have added glutamine to reduce muscle soreness so that we are ready to bring it everyday without been too sore to get out of bed! Others may add other supplements like Creatine for muscle building, power and endurance and  BBCAA (branch chain amino acids).

The best part is that it takes only FIVE minutes to prep and a few minutes to drink but keeps you full until your next meal. Plus the flax meal is very high in omega 3 (nature’s best source) and fibre so you will feel good inside and out. Just remember to drink LOTS of water throughout the day as you will need to keep the digestion moving and you don’t want to stop things up due to the additional fibre.

Here’s a recipe for a plain chocolate protein smoothie with raw almonds.