How Smoothies Saved Me After a Digestive Scare

It was a Saturday morning. My wife was waking up, and I was in pain. I said the words you never want to hear in the early hours of a fresh weekend: "I think I need to go to Urgent Care."

After a night of restlessness and abdominal discomfort, I was struggling to get out of bed. Every movement came with sharp pains in my side. Two hours and one x-ray later, the diagnoses was in. The tenants in my digestive tract had stayed past their welcome, and the only solution was to evict them.

You know what I mean.

For most of my life I've been eating whatever I want with reckless regard. Thankfully, I've been genetically blessed with a pretty high metabolism, but age catches up with all of us. That metabolism has started to slow, and my tolerance for certain foods has dwindled as well. This was not new information to me, but the trip to Urgent Care hammered it home.

I certainly don't have a terrible diet–I eat fruits and vegetables every day. But like the vast majority of Americans, I'm not eating enough. In an effort to get more greens and fiber-rich foods in my diet, I decided to start making a smoothie every morning. It's become one of my favorite routines, and it's legitimately helped.

Here's a general breakdown of what I'm currently putting in my smoothie each morning.

Fruit: About 1/2 cup of mixed frozen or fresh berries. Right now I'm scooping from a big bag of frozen strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. I also add about 1/4 cup of frozen cranberries and half of a banana.

Greens: Spinach and kale have both been in the mix, but right now I'm just using one handful of fresh spinach. I've gone back and forth between frozen and fresh spinach. I'm not really sure which I prefer.

Extras: I add one scoop of Orgain Plant-Based Vanilla Protein Powder, which is half of a serving. The most recent addition is a scoop of beetroot powder. It's allegedly good for circulation, and I have chronically suffered from cold hands and feet. Well, my wife has suffered from my cold hands and feet.

Liquid: Plain ol' unsweetened almond milk.

Now, the real secret to sticking to the habit is meal prepping. I portion out 8 smoothies at a time in zip-top sandwich bags and keep them in the freezer. This makes it super easy to dump a bag in the blender, add my extras, top it off with almond milk, and blend. I even picked up a NutriBullet so I didn't have to keep using my full-size blender.

In the future, I'd like to mix it up with some variations. I've been thinking about getting a silicone mold to make frozen peanut butter pellets that I can portion out. I'd also like to try boiling the spinach and freezing it into individual servings with an ice cube tray.

All in all, I've been very happy with my morning smoothie. It feels good knowing I'm starting the day with a healthy serving of greens and fiber-rich fruits. A Trojan Horse to sneak good stuff into my body. But I'm not using the smoothie as an excuse to eat like crap otherwise. I've also replaced some of my nightly snacking with apples and peanut butter (as you know if you've read my apple reviews).

Sadly, drinking seven cans of Mountain Dew and housing an entire group-sized platter of nachos with no ill effects is not something I can do anymore. As much as I miss those days, I'd rather not end up feeling embarrassed in Urgent Care again. If you find yourself in a similar situation of intestinal distress, smoothies might be worth a try.

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