I absolutely love smoothies. I love getting up just a few minutes early so I can make a fresh smoothie (and that says something because I value sleep like nothing else). Last school year I think I managed to make a smoothie almost every single morning before classes, even in the winter! I have never been a huge breakfast person, in fact, for a long time I couldn’t eat breakfast. Breakfast is key to having any kind of energy in the morning, especially when you are not a coffee drinker, like me. I realized that smoothies were the perfect breakfast food for me because they are light, still filling, and full of nutrition. I tend to get hypoglycemic, so smoothies were a great way to get my blood sugar up (in a healthy way) first thing in the morning.

Unfortunately, making smoothies every morning becomes very difficult when you are traveling. I could have traveled everywhere I went with my blender and all of the ingredients, or I could have just put smoothies on hold; which I did. Summer traveling kicked off just two weeks after the semester ended and continued through the day before the fall semester picked up. Throughout the Summer I traveled to Virginia Beach (twice), North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, New York City, the Cat Skills in New York, and road tripped through Canada. Needless to say, I spent more time on the road then I did in the comfort of my home.

I tried to maintain a some what healthy diet while traveling, but it was so difficult. When a friend of mine and I road tripped through Canada, we tried to pack somewhat healthy food for two reasons: 1. We didn’t want to have to eat fast food. 2. We knew we would be too broke to eat out often. The trip was only nine days long, but man was my body mad at me by the time I got home. There were days when we would eat relatively well; an apple as a snack, cheese and crackers for lunch, and a hearty meal for dinner. Then, for more than half of the trip, we had days filled with chips (because they were cheap) and reese cups (because we were two girls who loved chocolate and peanut butter). Basically, one day we would consume more than enough calories and the next we would be lucky if we consumed half of what we should have. I had two weeks to recover from my Canada-trip-diet and then I was off to Florida where I ate out every meal for four days. There were two days in between Florida and New Jersey/New York City where I ate my weight in chocolate covered almonds. Then, I had a whopping three days to prepare for the Cat Skills of New York where I spent six days eating glorious camp food; and I swear that this camps only food group was carbs…

After three months of traveling, my body accepted the travelers diet. When the fall semester started back up my diet did not change. Unfortunately, I continued to eat terribly.

Here I am now, about to go into the spring semester and final semester of my undergrad career, ten pounds heavier, and finally trying to get back to where I was seven months ago. I really don’t care so much about the number until the number goes up enough that my pants are too tight. I am at that point.

Yesterday, I broke out my blender again and started my morning smoothie ritual. I went to the store last night and purchased coconut milk, vanilla yogurt, frozen fruit, and some fresh vegetables. I actually really enjoy eating healthy. I love trying to find new recipes to change things up and I love just eating raw fruits and vegetables.

I just finished my morning smoothie and am looking forward to a healthy, vegetable filled lunch; however, I am currently really craving a good greasy pizza….

Here’s to trying to get healthy in the midst of busy, crazy semester!