My entire adult life, I’ve had awful breakfast habits in that I’ve had no breakfast habits. Aside from my morning cup of coffee, I usually don’t eat anything substantial until lunch. The older I get, the more I feel the negative effects of this throughout the day. I’m often sluggish and hangry for all the chocolate by 10 A.M. I’m realizing that in order to fuel my body and keep my energy level going, I need to start the day with more nutrients.

The problem is that I’m never really hungry when I wake up so things like cereal, oatmeal or eggs don’t tempt me. But, since I’ve been good about drinking 8 ounces of water first thing in the morning, I decided to step up my liquid intake game by drinking green smoothies in the morning. This weekend, I spent an hour packing single serve bags of smoothie ingredients so when I wake up, I can quickly blend up a healthy nutrient packed drink. The bags contain equal parts greens (like kale, swiss chard and spinach) and fruit (like pineapple, blueberries, and strawberries) plus a banana. I made enough to freeze eight days worth of smoothies and each bag is a little different so I don’t get bored. When I wake up in the morning, all I need to do is take a bag out of the freezer (or refrigerator if I remember to thaw it the night before), dump the contents into my blender with two cups of juice or non-dairy milk and blend it up. While this sounds easy, my 5 A.M. brain may disagree so I even included the ingredients and instruction for blending on each bag.

I did a test drive of a couple recipes over the weekend. They were delicious and I felt an immediate change in my energy levels throughout the day. I’m looking forward to getting up this week and trying a new, delicious smoothie each day and reaping the benefits of proper morning nutrition!

And now, on to the rest of today’s musings!

Handmade soap

There are so many creative soap makers that inspire me. Check out some of my favorite finds on Pinterest! (Are we pinning buddies there? We should be.)

• Marshmallow Root Shampoo Bar – I’ve been reading a lot about how to make shampoo and shampoo bars. I like the look of these rustic bars from Sustain, Create and Flow. 
• Natural Rosemary Mint Shampoo – This recipe from Soap Deli News is for a more traditional cream shampoo and it looks easy enough that anyone could make this at home!
• Tea Tree Shampoo Bar – When I’m researching new types of soap to make, I always end up with The Soap Queen. This luscious looking bar of soap is made with tea tree oil, which is great for scalp issues!

Good, clean fun

If you’re not following Emmet Street Creations on Twitter, here’s some of the fun you missed:

• The sixth great extinction – We’re going through it now. One photographer is trying to photograph as many species as possible before they are lost forever.
• Unnatural balance – See how our food waste affects not only humans but many other species on the planet.
• Dog with a selfie stick – Maybe those last two links weren’t so much “fun” as they were informative in a, “holy crap the world is ending,” way. To make it up to you, here’s a dog running with a selfie stick.

Previous musings from Emmet Street you might have missed

If I’m going to eat a healthy breakfast, I might as well follow it up with a healthy lunch! Salad is easy to take to work when it’s packed ahead of time in a jar. Soup is another favorite lunch treat and my favorite soup recently is Kelly’s creamy mushroom soup (it’s vegan and surprisingly filling).