I gave up milkshakes for this?!

Okay, to be honest, I will still have the occasional milkshake. But it's more like one a month tops, rather than one or two a week. What am I having instead?

Zach's Peanut Butter Smoothie:

1 banana
1 cup ice cubes
1/2 cup chocolate milk
1 handful baby spinach (about 1/2 cup)
1 big spoonful of peanut butter (probably about 2 TBS)
A squirt of honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Blend and enjoy. Yum.

428 calories
20 grams fat
52 grams carbohydrate
35 grams sugar
6 grams fiber
13 grams protein


Compared to my usual chocolate PB milkshake:

969 calories
62 grams fat
83 grams carbohydrate
6 grams fiber
29 grams protein

I think I'm coming out ahead!

Here's another of my favorite smoothie recipes:

Zach's Citrus Smoothie:

1 banana
1 cup ice
1/4 cup diced pineapple
1/2 cup orange juice
1 handful baby spinach
1/2 tsp vanilla
squirt of honey

211 calories
1 gram fat
51 grams carbohydrate
4 grams fiber
3 grams protein
158% of your daily vitamin C

Good stuff. Have a favorite smoothie recipe? Include it in the comments!

Shameless contest entry

I really want one of these cool body composition scales, and it just so happens that a certain triathlete is giving one away on his blog. Check it out.

January's progress

So my annual goals, broken down by month, average out to:

1. Exercise at least 300 hours. That's 25 hours per month

(Goal 2 is long term. I will say that I lost about 2 lbs in January, or so it appears.)

3a. Run 800 miles in 2011. That's 66 miles a month.
3b. Bike 2500 miles. That's 208 miles a month.
3c. Get in the gym 100 times, or 2x / week avg. That's 8.3 (call it 9) times a month.
3d. Swim. At least some. Yeah.

-----------------------------------

So how'd it go? Well...

1) 26 hours, 15 minutes, 52 seconds. Ahead of scheduled pace. A+

3a) ran 45.5 miles. This is going to be higher in the warmer months when I can get outside and make daily runs more like 6 miles on average than the 3-4 I manage on the treadmill most times. So whereas that's only 68% of the pro-rata goal, I'm giving it a solid B.

3b) biked 149.2 miles. That's again going to be lower in the winter months than the summer months anyway, so even though here it's only 71.7% of the average goal total, I'm going to give it a solid B+.

3c) Did weights 7 times. 7 of 8.3 per month is 84%, or a B. However, my employer has also started a "wellness program" that includes weekly group fitness classes. These generally aren't killer workouts and end up being more aerobic than strength, but I'm counting them towards this goal... and that means I'm going to have to modify this goal, since I get to go to 3-4 of these per week. So for now, I'm sticking with a B.

3d) Didn't swim at all. None. Fail.

So overall, I'm going to give the month a solid B to B+ average grade. On to February!