Knee taping and recovery smoothie

Most likely, I'll be graduating physical therapy tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about this as physical therapy is incredibly time-consuming and painful. I do feel like my knee is slowly healing and my lower body is getting tons stronger.

Yesterday I ran with my knees taped for the first time.



I plan on posting a how-to video on this soon but please see a professional before you start knee-taping. It looks weird but the tightness of the tape nudges my kneecap into the correct place. My quads are nudging my patella out of place when I run. (Gross!)



Here's the tape that I bought. Not a ton but I don't plan on running with my knees taped forever. Eventually my body will be stronger and I will be able to prevent injury better. I might look into knee sleeves at some point, not sure yet.

I ran 2 miles in 27 minutes which I know it's breaking any records but it's the fastest I've got since my injury. I was STOKED! I would be happier than a fangirl at a Justin Bieber concert if I could finish the 5k in October running a 13 minute/mile pace. No shame in my slower-paced game.

The fastest mile I've ever ran is a 10 min/mile but that was before I injured my knee and developed plantar fasciitis. (The PF has disappeared! Knock on wood.)



Jay Robb's protein powder is amazing. I tried a scoop of pina colada in a green recovery smoothie today and it was magnificant.



And it was GREEN!



(ignore my dirty dishes, gah.) I mixed in one frozen banana, 2 frozen strawberries, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 huge handful spinach, 1/2 cup almond milk and 1/2 cup P.O.G. juice. (Passion, Orange, Guava)

So good!

Have you tried knee taping before? How did you like it?

Jay Robb Brown Rice Protein Smoothie

I've been feeling weird and totally not in the mood to eat the way I usually do. My schedule is also way nutty due to the end of the semester so I haven't been cooking nearly as much as I would like.

One easy thing though? Protein smoothies. I love them! I always make sure my fridge, pantry and freezer is packed with all my smoothie essentials.



Unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze. Almond milk is my favorite "alternative" milk. It's low in calories and sugar too!



Jay Robb Brown Rice Protein- Vanilla Flavor. I prefer Vanilla to Chocolate flavored protein powders as a base in my smoothies. I like chocolate it's too desserty for me to have in a smoothie most of the time. I find the brown rice protein to be a little chalkier than the whey protein. To combat this, I just blend the almond milk and protein powder together before adding anything else. Blending well is key!



1 cup of Trader Joe's Plain Greek yogurt has 22 grams of protein which is the highest I have seen. I like to throw in 1/4 cup to my smoothies to make them extra creamy. I don't always add it in but I love when I do!



I don't know if you can tell but this is an industrial-sized bottle of Pom Wonderful. We bought it at Costco for 8 bucks. I add it 1/4 cup to sweeten my smoothies with the natural sugars.



Then I add in ground flax seed, 1/2 cup mango, 1 frozen banana, 1/2 raspberries and sometimes 1/4 cup dry oats. You can't taste the oats...they just add some staying power. I love drinking these smoothies immediately after a workout and before I go to school. YUM!

What's your favorite smoothie? Or favorite protein powder? I'm always looking for new favorites.

I Should Have a Fan Club

Amanda tells me people want me to post more. I have a feeling Amanda is up to no good and just wants me to post. In any event, here I am. My name is Andy.

Edit by Amanda: Be nice to Andy and tell him to post more! haha

I am extra stressed this week for no real reason. Maybe it is anxiety. We are almost to spring break (we are going to Vegas, which they should rename Food City). And of course, food is comfort. But Amanda and I are trying to be good, working out and eating relatively healthy. We also have the 5K this weekend. Yikes!

Amanda mentioned that the nice folks at Jayrobb sent us a TON of protein powder, bars, and other goodies. So we tried another one last night. Pina Colada!(As I am writing this, Amanda is making a Chocolate Shake. That is called a teaser in the business).



This stuff is damn tasty. I won't even say it is tasty for a protein shake, it is just good. We mix it with Almond Milk and various fruit. We have frozen bananas(1 in smoothie), strawberries(6), and peaches(half a large peach) with the Pina Colada mix and a cup of Almond Milk. This makes 2 relatively large smoothies.

Here is the nutrition info. Like I said, we make two smoothies with one pack.



Sort of blurtastic, but you get the point. We had these with dinner after a run yesterday. Jay Robb makes the goods.



See? THE GOODS!

The main event for dinner was a quesadilla. We had some whole grain tortillas and some fully cooked chicken from Trader Joes. We added shredded pepper jack cheese, Pepper Plant Hot Sauce, and Spicy Black Bean Dip, again from Trader Joes. Put it in the skillet, split it, added a bit of guacamole(from Joes again! See a trend?) and we had magic. The star was the black bean dip from Trader Joes. It was amazingly tasty, spicy, and full of awesome.

Here is our slightly odd, but ever so tasty smoothie and quesadilla dinner.

Edit by Amanda: It was not odd, it was protein-filled and necessary!



So my chocolate smoothie is ready. But a thought...how amazing is Trader Joes? I really hate regular grocery stores. Mostly because I hate the club card system. I don't like being tracked, and I realize this is odd because I am currently on the internet seemingly being tracked constantly. But the club cards bother me. I don't have any, refuse to get them, and get dirty looks from cashiers who always swipe someones card for me to use. I should do this more and buy just foul combinations of things.... but I don't. Trader Joes is cheap, friendly, and has great quality everything. I made a friend at our local Joes. He always comments on my band shirt/hoodies. We are sort of BFF now.

So...do you love Joes? Ever been? Any club card irrational fear you want to rant about? I'd love to hear.

We'd love each other more if we were in Napa

haha. Andy and I are sort of obsessed with going to Napa and asking Thomas Keller to move in with us. I never said anything about us being normal. In fact, we are quite strange.

Andy and I are going to a blogger meet up today with Sophia and I am quite excited about it!



Let's talk about perfect couples now, shall we? This whole wheat roll, carmelized onions, turkey, spinach, sundried tomato aioli and avocado sandwich was perfect. I truly believe that avocado and turkey are a match made in heaven. Have you ever ordered a sandwich at Whole Foods? It's a worthwhile investment for sure.



And to think, I thought my sandwich was perfect...Andy's roast beef and arugula was out of this world good.



At Whole Foods, I picked up a Blackberry Wallaby Yogurt. Normally, I'm crazy for the "perfect couple" of granola and yogurt but this yogurt was too thin for my taste. Give me greek yogurt anyday!





The kind folks over at Jay Robb sent Andy and me some protein to try out. We ran a "practice" 5k at the park and definitely needed some protein to help our muscles recover. We chose the vanilla whey protein for today.



I made us 2 big shakes using almond breeze (unsweetened vanilla), frozen peaches, strawberries, one whole banana and 1 packet of Jay Robb Vanilla Whey Protein.



I'm thrilled to tell you that this protein shake wasn't chalky at all and tasted like heaven after a 3.5 mile run. I was in love. Now I can see why other bloggers rave about Jay Robb! I can't wait to try the other flavors. Whoop!!!!!! Seriously...it's the best tasting protein powder I've ever had!

Do you know of any "perfect couples?" Tell me about them. I'm always down to try out new things.

Have you tried Jay Robb's protein before?