Anti-cancer smoothie

Several weeks ago, my dad officially found out that he has Lynch Syndrome. I'll give you a cookie (or a smoothie - heh) if you've ever heard of that before.

No one has heard of it, so, the quick explanation is that it's a gene that causes cancer. We already pretty much knew that cancer ran in our family, and it was actually one of my doctors who told me we should be tested for Lynch specifically. His diagnosis wasn't a surprise.

I'll get tested for Lynch soon, but there's a 50 percent chance that I have it. And even if I don't, living an "average" lifestyle in this world at this time is basically a cancer sentence anyway.

I'm not too worried about getting cancer, honestly. Especially if I do have Lynch Syndrome, I'll be screened for cancer so often that there's no way any problem could go unnoticed.

And this smoothie is one of my secret anti-cancer weapons. It has all kinds of good stuff that fights off the bad stuff, and this is how I like to start most of my mornings now.

Ingredients:
•1 scant cup frozen mangos
•1 scant cup frozen berries
•1 cup orange juice
•1/2 cup fresh strawberries
•1 cup spinach
•1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
•1 tsp gogi berries
•1 tsp chia seeds
•1/4 cup almond (or other) milk
•1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt
•1/2 a banana and/or avocado

Aaron makes fun of the long list of ingredients that go into this thing. He jokes that I throw everything in the entire kitchen into it. That's not true. But sometimes I substitute kale for spinach and if we have other fruit, sometimes I'll throw that in there, but this is the holy grail....

I mix the frozen fruit with the orange juice first to create a nice base, and then I add in everything else & blend until the mixture is super smooth.

I don't want to go too much into nutrition, but I have done research, and I can tell you that in moderation, everything in this smoothie is good for you. It fills me up in the mornings and keeps me energized until lunch.

I'm also not promoting this smoothie as a fix-all bandaid. You can't drink 16 ounces of this in the morning, have a bucket of fried chicken for lunch, a take-out pizza for dinner, never exercise and call it good.

I ride my bike to work almost every day. I exercise 5-6 days a week. And in my quest to be healthier in general, I've cut back on meat, alcohol, sodium & added sugar. ....and I still wouldn't say that I'm doing everything "right". My health and fitness is a work in progress. I try not to be too hard on myself. I allow indulgences. I'm happy! And I think that's the most important thing anyway!