Energy Diet For Recovery

We developed this one day energy diet because we just got back from an amazing adventure! We went on a four day rafting river trip through the Gates of Lodore to Split Mountain. The Canyon commences as the Green River departs Brown’s Park and cuts through the Uinta Mountains meandering eighteen miles until its end at Echo Park (Colorado), the confluence of the Green and Yampa River. It was named by the Powell Expedition after the English poem Cataract of Lodore. The take out was just past echo park and when the Yampa is dumped into the Green it was a fast fun ride through the rapids. Nothing huge but a great first time experience.

Being our first time going there were stresses that are hitting us now upon our return showing up as a feeling of exhaustion. We ate and drank like kings and queens on this trip. Each meal planned had an animal protein incorporated in it, then there were the carbohydrate snacks and processed trail mixes with triple chocolate, yum. The lovely libations flowed just like the river too! Today we are doing a simple diet plan to rebuild our energy and help our bodies get back into the swing of things.

So this morning I started us out with an energy smoothie, I am calling it :

Energy Diet Smoothie: River Rat Repent

Served at 9:30 am (we slept in till 8:20!)

• 2 bananas
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach
• 1/2 avocado
• 8 medium fresh strawberries (3/4 cup)
• 1 cup almond milk

Blend ingredients in blender adjusting milk for desired thickness.

Then we took about a mile and a half hike with the dog and stopped to get a juice at Blue Star Juice Cafe where we picked up a Paradise and a Cobra. I believe we had this at noon.

Paradise   Cobra

Pear          Carrot
Orange     Pineapple
Parsley     Beet
Celery       Ginger

Around 2:30 I was getting grumpy so Blair whipped up a juice with left overs in the fridge.
I added pinch of sea salt to mine, for some reason it felt right. Our last day on the river we wished we had this sunny day. We had a hard cold rain through the rolling rapids where you get drenched, our ponchos didn’t do much for us.

Sunny Day C Energy Juice

• 1 apple
• 4 carrots
• 2 cups spinach
• 3 stalks of celery
• 1 orange

At 3:30 the grumpiness returned so my answer to that was salad. We decided to call it:

Grumpy Girl Salad

• 4 cups baby spinach
• 1 cup butter leaf lettuce
• 1/4 cup blueberries
• 1 fresh mandarin orange
• 1/4 cup peas
• 1/2 cup raw walnuts
• 1/8 cup strawberry vinaigrette

Once we had that down the grumpiness went straight away and energy just flowed out. So this evening for dinner the plan is to have a high energy smoothie with protein that will keep us full through out the evening and give our bodies the replenishment it needs to return to every day life.

Boaters Delight

• 1 can (cooled) coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter or tahini
• 1 banana
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/2 cup raw macadamia nuts
• 1 tablespoon coco (optional)
• You can substitute 1 cup mango for the banana if you want it lighter

Blend ingredients and enjoy !

We also incorporated lots of water during the day. This 1 day energy building menu really brought up our energy from the trip. It is packed with nutrition your body needs after an active vacation like the one we just took. Honestly this really got us through the” day after” blues with flying colors. So much so we are planning our next active trip with the energy it gave us.