GREEN JUICE

INGREDIENTS

a handful of frozen spinach cubes
a handful of frozen brocolli florets
100ml of orange juice
one whole medium banana
half an avocado
small handful of red grapes
small handful of strawberries
water
my special additions:
barleygrass juice powder
folic acid tablet
biotin tablet
vitamin c tablet
vitamin d tablet

METHOD

blend, blend, blend. Then pour into a glass of your choice. I opted for a kilner jar.

Christina x

Q's I expect to be asked:

Why are you supplementing?

I am constantly tired. That is down to my recently diagnosed anemia. I take folic acid, iron (not included in the juice) and vitamin d to combat this. I spent a lot of time in a kitchen with no windows last year. So I probably need the vitamin d for that too. Biotin is a form of vitamin B that promotes hair growth and health. vitamin C is so I don't get scurvy during winter (joke) and the barley grass juice powder is for added fibre, iron, and zinc since I probably need those too.

Why do you drink green juice?

It's an easy (and delicious) way to get lots of fruit and veg into your day without the added pressure of remembering to have them (separately) throughout the day.

How often do you drink green juice?

A few times a week. Just as often as I remember really, it's usually when I remember I haven't taken my vitamins for the day.

How much of each vitamin do you have?

As much as is recommended on the container. Take too many vitamins and you just end up with expensive pee. It doesn't stay in your system, so just take enough. I don't take two of one vitamin at once if I missed a day.

THE FINAL HURDLE

By the time you're reading this, I have finished my year placement at Peyton and Byrne, (yessssssssss!!!) and am probably well settled in to a new flat somewhere in Birmingham, sitting on my bed, enjoying a very frothy coffee, and counting down the days to the start of my third year of university.

Oh, what a year it has been. So much has changed, I feel I've grown so much, learnt a whole lot and am sad, but apprehensive about this coming year. It could be so great, but it might also end up being such a challenge - like this past year - that comes with pros and cons.

A large part of me cannot believe I'm 20. Yes, I understand that I've lived for twenty years, but in the eyes of society, that means so much more. This past year, I spent the whole time trying to prove myself to my colleagues - who are all much older than me - spurting rubbish like: "Yes, I'm twenty years old, but that doesn't mean I'm not an adult!", "I'm old enough to get married, old enough to have kids, old enough to take out a mortgage on a house... I'm just as able as any of you! Why do you treat me so differently?".. - I didn't actually realise how true those statements were, until today actually, until I started writing this post. And yes, it may seem a bit melodramatic saying that these things are a big deal and that I can't believe where I am, but to put things into perspective - most adults today could tell you where they were five years ago, and it would be mostly similar to where they are right now. I doubt they'd remember a lot, (haha) but they'd be able to recall some details. I, however, remember exactly where I was five years ago.

Five years ago today, I was (fairly, newly) fifteen, had just finished my first week of Year 10 - the second to last year of high school - and had just spent the summer trying to "re-invent" myself, that included my "look", my hair, my style, switching up my music taste, (had just started listening to The Weeknd, so you can only imagine how I looked) trying hard to portray a really (fake) "cool"  attitude and convincing myself that Year 10 was going to be my year. MY year.

You can see my priorities were completely different back then. And that's what shocks me so much about the present day. Things have changed so much in the past five years. It makes me so anxious about the future, I may have thought my last few weeks were my final hurdle at Peyton and Byrne, but it was just the beginning of adulthood for me, and that's so so scary. What a reality check.

Christina x