The Healthy Consumers Guide: 1 Trick & 1 Tip
A busy professionals guide to figuring out what is REALLY going to keep you healthy, energized and moving through an on-the-go lifestyle.
Life is busy. We are busy. The city is busy. As a working professional, we don’t typically have a whole lot of time or energy to spare. So what do we do? We learn how to maximize our energy, how to be efficient with it and certainly where not to waste it. But with hundreds of places popping up on each corner claiming to have the next best food, drink or workout to make life better, it’s hard to know who to trust.
Don’t worry. I got you covered. Bonus; I’ll keep it short. Because, well, busy.
Trick: Odawalla Grab-N-Go Smoothies This is a hard one. I love the company and I love their efforts to offer healthy products in an accessible manner- but the smoothies, fall under my list of “skips.” Why? Take their healthiest, Original Superfood smoothie; it’s basically made up of apple, peach, mango and banana with “natural flavors” (steer clear of these, FDA doesn’t regulate stringently enough). I am a big fan of fruits, and empathize with the bad reputation they seemed to have wrongly acquired, but fruit smoothies should be better balanced. You need proteins to fill you up, leafy greens to help your body function (c-ya brain fog) and fats to deliver and absorb all the goodness you are investing (time, money, calories) in. The drink is green only because of the tiny additions of kale and spirulina that make it appear way more nutrient dense than it is.
Tip: Energize Boston I’ve tried them all. Nothing compares. These smoothies are hands down the best in the city. THE BEST. Why? These guys (4 childhood besties from Bulgaria) refuse to compromise the integrity of their products and they are food combining nerds. Seriously. I have literally told them they could reduce the size of their salads and quantity of ingredients in their smoothies to up their profit margins- help a small business out, right? They simply smile back at me, dismissively. Ivo’s eyes will light up when he tells you that the recipe was designed with coconut oil to help deliver the detoxifying properties of spirulina. You don’t need to understand how or why their offerings work, just trust me, they do. My personal favorite, Super Nutrition with almond butter. It’s intense. Newbies, get your toes wet with a Happiness smoothie and add a little spinach for good measure. And yes, busy friends, you can order ahead on the app (energizeboston) or get delivery.
Melissa Dlugolecki is a writer, life-coach, yoga instructor and Co-Founder of MOVE. with Mooch & Mel. She is passionate about helping busy people find ways to access health without the gimmicks and “quick fixes.” She credits her daughter, Leyden, for her study and appreciation of gut health. You can typically find her chugging matcha, carrying cayenne pepper (just in case) and exploring the latest trends in the health world. Read more about her story and work at www.thrivewithmdl.com, her business at www.movewithmm.com or follow her on Instagram: @mel__d_l.
