Healthy Cravings, Magic Tricks

Thursday’s Bike Ride Commute and All-Around Healthiness (1/27/11)

After Wednesday’s upsetting and spirit-frazzling chaos, I decided to make Thursday as nice as possible.  The best way to do that was to pull all the healthy magic tricks out of my hat and then enjoy the results. 

The first trick: ride my bike to work.  This idea is nothing new around here, of course, but morning exercise often jumpstarts a happy mood for the day, plus it would give me another chance to do my commute the way I like to do it: on two wheels and round-trip.

The second trick: pack a green smoothie for my 3 PM snack.  This green smoothie was particularly delicious, as it included a good scoop of my new malt powder, which went surprisingly well with spinach.  On Thursday morning, into the blender went a banana, a cup of milk, a spoonful each of cocoa powder and malt powder, and two handfuls of baby spinach.  I can’t remember if I added any sweetener to this one; I think not because the banana was probably really ripe.  Buzz to smoothness, pour into a portable drink container (mine is an old plastic peanut butter jar, all cleaned out and kept specifically for packing smoothies into my lunch), and take it to go.  There’s something fun and novel to me about drinking my spinach—it makes me feel so healthy and well-nourished.

The third trick was to take a break outside to enjoy the beautiful weather we’ve had this week.  The first two photos up top were taken in our little courtyard between my work building and the medical sciences library.

The fourth trick was to take it easy in the evening.  I thought I would go running on Thursday evening, but as I was biking home, I got the worst craving for some time to putter in my kitchen.  Specifically, I wanted to make my Roasted Broccoli and Tofu, which I hadn’t made in I don’t know how long.  This recipe is one of my favorite weeknight options.  It’s fun to make, healthy, totally delicious, and gives me leftovers for a few lunches.  It also comes together easily and tastes far more complex and interesting than you might expect.  I surrendered to my craving and stopped by the grocery store to pick up fresh broccoli and some white rice.  Then I spent a happy evening chopping, stirring, and seasoning before sitting down to a satisfying dinner.  All together, my healthy tricks hit the spot, and by the end of the day, I was feeling like me again, only better.

Dear readers, what are your healthy tricks?