May 20, 2015

Unusual breakfast smoothie

I wasn't able to go to my regular Weight Watchers meeting today, because I had a physical therapy appointment at 9:00. I'm going to try to go to Weight Watchers tomorrow or Friday, even though it'll be a different meeting than the one I'm used to. On my home scale, however, my weight was unchanged from last week. I'm not surprised, because I wasn't 100% on-program all week. After writing yesterday's post, however, I feel fired up to stay on program all week!

Lately, I've been making a very unusual smoothie for breakfast. A few months ago, I would occasionally make a smoothie with just three ingredients: milk, banana, and peanut butter. It was really good! Anyway, I recently bought a four pack of cartons of egg whites at Sam's Club, because I was planning to make breakfast sandwiches with English muffins like I used to. I tried the breakfast sandwich, and just wasn't feeling it the way I used to, so I was looking up other ideas for egg whites (because I had a lot of them to use up!).

I discovered that people make smoothies with them! That's sounds so odd to me, but because the egg whites are pasteurized, you can use them straight out of the carton without cooking them. I decided to give it a try, and perfected it a few days ago.

1/2 cup pasteurized egg whites
1 frozen banana
2 Tbsp. natural peanut butter

Blend it all together, and it makes about 1 cup of a very thick smoothie. If you wanted more volume, you could add more egg whites or another liquid, but I prefer it the way I just wrote.


And here's the thing: this keeps me full for HOURS. I drink it at 8:00, and lunch doesn't even start to sound good until around 12:30 or 1:00. I still feel a little weirded out about the egg whites, and I wish that I didn't know they were in my smoothie (if someone else made it for me and handed me the smoothie, I would have no idea that there were egg whites in it). But it tastes fantastic, and it's pretty darn healthy.

After I got the kids off to school, I headed up to Novi for my physical therapy appointment. While I was driving, the weirdest sensation came over me, and I started to have an anxiety attack. If the expressway wasn't super busy with rush hour, I would have pulled over to let the feeling pass, because I was that anxious. Instead, I just put the window down and tried to sing along with the radio so that I wouldn't focus on the anxiety (which would make it worse). I have no idea what triggered it, because I was happily just listening to music and I wasn't rushed or anything. It just hit me out of nowhere. After a minute or two, I felt fine again. So weird!

My appointment went well. My PT (Dave) had me do the exercises that I've been doing at home, because he wanted to see if there was any improvement in my form. He also had me do some new exercises. He explained the findings of my gait analysis, and he showed me some still photos from the videos he took of me running and walking. It was really interesting! I tend to push my left knee inward, which forces my left foot out a little, and it raises my left hip. When looking at the photos, you can clearly see the asymmetry.

When I was doing the exercise where I step up, it was really noticeable that my left hip is off. I can see that I push my left hip outward when stepping up, but I don't do that on the right side. So, the goal is to make me move symmetrically--I really have to focus on strengthening my left hip. Also, I have very tight calves (one of the stretches Dave had me do for that was excruciating!).

By the end of the session, my legs were shaking SO badly. I feel like I definitely worked the hell out of them today, so I'm going to try to replicate that at home. I go back in two weeks, but for now... still no running :(

Memorial Day is the Wins for Warriors Detroit 9K that I helping to fundraise for. I'm super bummed to have to do this, but I'm going to have to switch to the 1-mile walk instead of the 9K run. (I would walk the 9K, but because it specifies that it's a run, I'd better not; it would take too long). I'm still really looking forward to the race, though! The Wins for Warriors is an awesome cause that I wrote about on this guest post by my brother. If you haven't read it, please do so! And if you can, consider donating to Wins for Warriors--just in time for Memorial Day :) Thank you again to all of you that donated already!

Fundraising Websites - Crowdrise

15 comments:

  1. Egg whites in a smoothie. I'm nervous, but I'll try it :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting idea, I'll give it a try! I recently tried a new smoothie - you should give it a try! She has some really great tips on how to make the spinach not so... spinachy (that's a word. ;)) http://www.michelesgreensmoothies.com/#!orange-creamie-greenie-smoothie/c1zu6

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  3. Have fun with the walk! It's such a good cause. I'm sure you'll have a great time whether you run or walk, just take care of yourself.

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  4. There's no milk in the smoothie? The egg white is what makes it "liquidy"?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's correct--no milk. The only liquid is the egg whites. Strange, I know!

      Delete
  5. Keep up the good work Katie! PT (along with not being able to run) is one of the toughest things I've ever done. Stick with it and do what your PT is having you do!

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  6. That sounds like an interesting idea.

    Sorry about dropping down in the race. I'll be running the 9K and will look for you. You're number one on the leaderboard for raising funds right now!

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  7. AnonymousMay 21, 2015

    Is that like 5 points? Do egg whites have points?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's 6 PointsPlus, because when you use 1/2 cup of egg whites, they do have 1 PP. So the egg whites are 1 PP, the banana is 0, and the peanut butter is 5 PP.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMay 22, 2015

      Thanks! I made it this morning and it was yummy! I really did have to psych myself in to it (because of the eggs), but it was good. :) My hubs, who didn't know what was in it, loved it right off. When I told him it had eggs in it, he gave me that "my wife and her crazy WW stuff" look. :)

      Delete
  8. AnonymousMay 21, 2015

    Have you seen a doctor for your anxiety? Having an anxiety attack in traffic is not only dangerous to you but to other drivers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I see a doctor for my anxiety. This had never happened before, so I'm hoping it was a one time thing.

      Delete
  9. AnonymousMay 21, 2015

    Just be careful. You can be infected with Salmonella from eating raw egg whites. http://www.safeeggs.com/eggs/salmonella-eggs. It's rare, but not unheard of.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pasteurized egg whites are safe, because they are technically not raw. If you scroll to the bottom of the link you posted, you'll see where it talks about pasteurized eggs :)

      Delete
  10. I'm not sure if this is true but I've heard egg whites have biotin in them which can cause hair loss?? I have hair loss so I'm aware of that. :)

    FYI don't let the naysayers get you down. They are so damn critical of you on another website. You couldn't please them if you tried to be honest. :)

    ReplyDelete

I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

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