Sunshine and Olly

by Jonathan Blaustein

My health journey went exponential when I signed up for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at the beginning of February, 2023.

(Having taken my free class at the dojo in late January.)

As I’ve written before, the cardio portion of the exercise is so intense, (frankly, it’s all intense,) that I lost about 40 lbs over the course of 8 months. 

Looking back, it left me feeling weak, as I was also not eating a lot, to try to burn off my fat.

All that excess, dead weight. 

By January 2024, I was living on Mr Goodbars, with their peanuts and crappy Hershey’s chocolate.

It wasn’t sustainable, and once I read the ingredients and saw they were using artificial flavor, I knew I had to move on.

Candy bars, intermittent fasting, and overtraining left me looking gray, and wan. (According to Jessie.)

What to do?

I couldn’t keep my weight on, much less add muscle to deal with the rigors of regular 3-4 days a week BJJ. 

A little research, and it was clear: time for protein powders.

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My sprained knee led me to the gym, where I’m now lifting seriously, 3x a week. 

These morning smoothies, (which I began making 6 or 7 weeks ago,) have been the perfect tonic, in addition to 2x daily muscle milks I make. 

As to the secret recipe we’re here to discuss…

Admittedly, it will take an outlay of about $100 to get started with these ingredients, and you need a Nutribullet, or decent blender. 

But once you’ve bought everything, ingredient-wise, the smoothies are actually very affordable, given how little of each item is included.

Here we go:

With respect to portion, I make each batch for Jessie and me. (The kids get their own modified version now before school too.)

So it’s a 2-person recipe.

I start with 1-2 oz of water, and then add 5-6 oz of unflavored, no-sugar added Silk soy milk

Then

1/2- 1 whole banana, depending on size 

10-15 peanuts

1 T whey protein isolate

1 T pea protein 

1 t collagen peptide

1/2 t flax seed

1/2 t chia seed

A few flakes of coconut 

Several T frozen fruit mix (organic strawberries, blueberries and mango)

Then a last splash of water, and blend it up.

The whole process takes a couple of minutes, and sets us up for the day with lots of healthy protein, (of various sources,) omega 3s, vitamins, minerals, and even a little healthy fat in the coconut. 

The collagen is meant to help with skin, but joints in particular, which aids with the lifting and BJJ. (It’s not vegetarian, though, so feel free to skip if it doesn’t appeal to you.)

They’re super-tasty, and very clean.

For the kids, I leave out the powders, substitute cow milk for flavor, and use almonds instead of peanuts, b/c of allergies.

The new routine has made a dramatic difference in our lives, as it stabilizes blood sugar, and sets us up for the day with great nutrition.

(The kids leave for school more relaxed now too.)

As for me, I’m up to a healthier weight, with more muscle, as the lifting and creatine I’m also taking have helped me put on about 10 healthy lbs since I bottomed out. (146 to 156.)

You might consider starting your day off with one of these as well.

Highly recommended!

See you Friday.