Good Monday Morning!
I hope that ya’ll had an excellent weekend!
The BOY and I were super low key, which meant that I was in bed every night between 10-11pm and sleeping until 8am. I must say 9+ hours of sleep per night does a lot for your energy levels. I am feeling refreshed after a crazy work week and ready to tackle the day. This is easy for me to say, remember, because I don’t work on Mondays : )
My first job was to tackle breakfast. For me breakfast is the hardest meal of the day to figure out on Passover. I didn’t prep anything last night and just wasn’t in the mood to make pancakes. Smoothies for breakfast don’t typically fill me up (especially since I couldn’t add oats), but I decided to try making a hearty Chocolate Almond Butter and Banana Green Smoothie.
Mostly because I had the ingredients in the house and because a smoothie sounded refreshing this morning.
I may have gone a little overboard in an attempt to fuel myself through this mornings workout, so feel free to adjust ingredient quantities as desired. I will tell you that this smoothie comes out thick which is perfect to sip slowly while you check email and prepare for the day ahead.
I was able to find a similar recipe on the blog for a Chocolate Peanut Butter Green Smoothie. It was just over 1 year ago, and I can’t believe it was warm enough for me to exercise in the back yard!!!
After breakfast, it was off to tackle ‘Barbara’…
Five rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats
Rest precisely three minutes between each round.
I chose to do ‘Barbara Lite’ as recommended for those doing CrossFit less than 2 months. I think I’m right at that 2 month cusp, but 150 pushups just seemed, what’s the word…oh yeah, impossible!
Barbara Lite
10 Pull-ups (I used the green band)
20 Push-ups
30 Sit-ups
40 squats
5 rounds with precisely 3 minutes rest in between each round.
This was a really challenging workout but thus far one of my favorites. No heavy weights to lift and a busy group of people getting their work done while cheering each other on. I may feel differently in the morning when I can’t move…I’ll let you know.
The last task of the day (because I got a lot of laundry and boring house stuff done yesterday) was meal planning. And this week’s planning was fairly simple. Tomorrow night is the end of Passover and the BOY will be ordering a pizza the moment he walks in the door with or without me. Plus, I have dinner plans for Thursday. I wanted to make a Sweet Potato and Kale Soup today for lunch this week, but the grocery store was out of one ingredient and a few others didn’t look so fresh, so I scratched that idea.
Sunday: Beer Can Chicken
Monday: Grilled Flounder with Broccoli (Hooray for grilling season!)
Tuesday: Pizza for the BOY/Thai Veggie Burgers for Me
Wednesday: Grilled Garlic Pepper Shrimp (from the BOY’s BBQ book)
Thursday: Out to Eat
Friday: As always, we shall play it by ear
Lunch: Strawberry Balsamic Quinoa Salad
Snack: Coconut Fudge Balls
Do you drink smoothies for breakfast?
What is your favorite one?
Anyone play an April Fool’s prank today?
Chocolate Almond Butter
and Banana Green Smoothie
Ingredients
1 handful of kale
1 banana, chopped
1 cup of almond milk
2 tbsp (14g) of cacao powder
1 tbsp (10 g) ground flax seed
2 tbsp (32 g) of almond butter
Ice
Directions
Place all ingredients except ice in the blender. Combine well. Add ice and blend to desired consistency.
You can’t go wrong with almond butter, cacao and banana. Best. Combo. Ever. 🙂
Agreed!!!
Good call on going with Barbara lite… I’ve done regular Barbara and it didn’t end well 🙂
That smoothie looks awesome, perfect to refuel tomorrow morning after my hour treadmill run!
I have heard that about Barbara from numerous sources so I was happy with my decision. I felt strong when I was done, not sick, which is really why I lift weights and go to CrossFit in the first place. Good luck with that hour on the TM!
I seriously have a similar smoothie everyday! BUT just like you, I generally don’t have them for breakfast.. I am super hungry about an hour or two later, so I always have a smoothie around noon or something after I’ve had breaky at 8. Delicious!
Agreed! I am always hungry after a workout, and start to crave a smoothie. I usually go with more fruit but I love the almond butter cacao combo too. Thanks for the comment!
I love smoothies for breakfast and this one looks really good!! I didn’t play any april fools jokes this year….kinda wish I had though. All the jokes I’m hearing about are so funny!
I agree there were some good ones. I didn’t come up with anything but I have to save some of these ideas for next year : )
This smoothie looks good. I have almost all of the ingredients too and I’ve wanted to try a pb/almond butter smoothie for a while now. Such a good combo!
One of the best combos! I love eating almond butter from the spoon sprinkled with chocolate chips. YUM!
Great combo 🙂
A classic for sure!
[…] was an awesome workout with some well-deserved hot tub time at the end. I am super sore from ‘Barbara Lite’ yesterday, and I am hoping to get registered for my triathlon this […]
You don’t work on Mondays?! I think you have my dream job!
I do 4 ten hour days (although sometimes they are longer) so Mondays are all about recovery! They are long days but totally worth it by the time Monday rolls around!
My company doesn’t let us do that, but I wish we could! I’m sure the days are long, but totally worth it when every weekend is a long one. Lucky girl!
Puttin almond butter in smoothies alwyas brings it to a whole other level… So good! Awesome job on Barbara lite! I can’t do pull-ups but I see people doing it with the band I’m just to chicken to try It lol
You should definitely give it a go with the band. I actually find it fun bouncing around (I can’t do pull ups either!) and it’s a great arm workout!