Smoothies vs. Common Cold

Today I woke up feeling awful. I am full of cold. Whenever I'm not 100% I try to avoid dairy, luckily I had lots of non-dairy milks lurking in my cupboard to choose from...

I decided to use Kara coconut milk today, and have got through about half a carton! It's really shown me how much of my protein comes from dairy normally - cows' milk, Greek yoghurt etc - I like using non-dairy milks, but I do miss the protein content.

Anyway, I'd been really looking forward to a smoothie this morning, and despite the cold, I stuck with my plan.

Cold Fighting Pineapple-Berry Smoothie

• 1 medium banana
• 40g spinach
• 75g frozen raspberries
• 150g pineapple (I buy fresh, then freeze in portions once chopped up)
• 100ml Kara milk
• 25g raw honey (I figure raw honey is good for you right?!)

Topping:

• a few fresh strawberries, sliced

I'm sure this would taste good. My taste buds aren't really up to scratch today so I couldn't really pick out any distinct flavours, for me it was mainly cold and refreshing. I liked the sweetness of the fresh strawberries though, I could taste them :)

I need to make this again soon once my taste buds have recovered. I deliberately made my quite liquidy/soupy, but you could reduce the liquid and/or add some xanthan gum if you want a thicker smoothie.

Most of the morning was spent wallowing in illness (baby decided to have a 2.5 hour morning nap so at least I could relax a bit) and before I knew it, it was lunchtime. So weird not having an appetite - not like me at all - normally I'm counting down the minutes until 12 o'clock whereas I didn't end up eating until almost 2pm! I still didn't really fancy solid food, so had another smoothie. Same base, different frozen fruits.

Cold Fighting Smoothie #2 - Mango-Blueberry

• 1 medium banana
• 40g spinach
• 100g frozen mango
• 80g frozen blueberries
• 125ml Kara milk
• 20g raw honey

I'm glad I stocked up on the 3 for £5 frozen fruits in Tesco last week!

I was getting my taste buds slightly with this smoothie, although the main taste I got was the banana. Odd. I'm still blaming the cold!

Despite not feeling 100%, I decided I would still go to circuits this evening. Neither my Mum nor the other woman we normally go with were able to make it, but another of my Mum's friends was going for the first time, so I didn't want her to have to go alone and have no one to work with.

So about 4.30pm, I had a mini-meal. The rest of the sesame smoked tofu needed eating, plus I wanted to up my protein intake a bit. Half a pack of tofu fried in coconut oil, with some fresh strawberries on the side. (I was feeling too sluggish to cook the planned quinoa to go with it!!)

This was really good. I love the sweet juiciness of the strawberries, and it went really well with the crispy crunchy tofu. I ate a bit of each on each forkful, yum.

I also had a cold latte sweetened with a bit of agave nectar...

I normally make my (hot) lattes by heating a mug of milk in the microwave and then adding coffee and agave, but I wasn't sure how well the Kara milk would heat. Have any of you tried heating Kara milk before?? Success or not so much? The cold latte was good anyway, I quite often have cold ones when I'm more thirsty, but hot lattes are nice for comfort sometimes.

Before heading out to circuits, I grabbed a small handful of almonds/apricots to keep me going...

and then it was time to exercise! I found today much tougher than the previous weeks. I think because I now know what I'm doing with the routines, I was able to push myself more. My arms and legs were really aching by the second time round the circuit! Annoyingly next week there is no class as it's a Bank Holiday, and then the week after there will be a new routine to learn. Ah well, I quite enjoy this class regardless...never thought I'd say that about exercise!!!

Once home, I wasn't overly hungry so, as I'd had a "proper" (by today's standards!) meal at 4.30pm, I just had what I really fancied...

Medjool dates stuffed with peanut butter. Yum. My taste buds seem to be coming back! Fingers crossed I'll be able to eat slightly more normally tomorrow, I think I'll be avoiding dairy for another day though - my head is still all foggy/blocked up. Yuck.

What do you do to prevent/fight a cold? Any tips for me?? I've inadvertently upped my fruit intake through my smoothies, and I've avoided dairy. Would appreciate any other things to try though, if only to keep my mind busy/feel like I'm doing something to help myself!