A couple of years ago, as I was bored one night, browsing through Netflix, I stumbled onto the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It's about an overweight guy who decides to live on just vegetables for 60 days. And as a means of eating these vegetables, he uses a juice extractor, and drinks them all as juice.

Sometimes I can get really inspired by documentaries, and in this case I got really inspired to eat more vegetables. But I didn't want to get a juice extractor, because I had owned one earlier and it had a million parts that needed to be individually cleaned after each use, which was a lot of work. Also, the machine made a terrible, extremely loud noise.

Instead I did some research on blenders, and which one gives you most bang for the buck. The day after watching the documentary I picked up a Philips HR2195 blender for $65. For some reason that blender is more expensive today, but I would still say it's an insanely good investment. The neat thing with a blender is that it is super easy to clean. After use I just rinse the glass canister and the lid under running water for a minute, and that is enough. Like once a week I run it through the dishwasher as well, but I'm not sure that's really needed.

What I ended up doing when I first bought the blender, was mixing random vegetables to make interesting smoothies. If you mix vegetables and add some protein powder (or include vegetables that are protein rich in themselves, like beans), you can get a really healthy and sometimes quite yummy meal in just 5 minutes. I did this a lot in the beginning, often switching out one of my regular meals during the day for a vegetable smoothie. An example of a good smoothie would be one banana and a green apple for taste, and then around 3-4 dl of some vegetable, like kale or celeriac, along with some water for the right texture. You can combine a banana and a green apple with pretty much any other vegetable and it will taste allright. The banana adds sweetness, and the green apple adds freshness. This is a great way to get more vegetables into your diet without the need to learn how to cook. You can also easily make a "lunchbox" by just putting the smoothie in a large thermos and bringing it to work.

The perfect breakfast

But over the months and years, the blender has made the biggest difference in what I eat for breakfast. I use the blender every day to mix a super well-tasting smoothie for breakfast. The recipe I use almost every time nowadays is the following. Still haven't grown tired of it, even after like two years of this breakfast every day.

1 banana

1.5 dl of water, milk or yoghurt

3 dl of random berries or fruits (mostly frozen strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mango, lingonberries or similar that I pre-heat in the microwave for the best taste)

1 dl of protein powder

If I want to stay full for longer, I add 1 dl of oatmeal

Blending the things above results in an amazingly delicious smoothie rich in fibers, protein and vitamins. The great thing with berries is that they are not that calorie-dense, but still taste great and make you feel quite full. By varying between water, milk and yoghurt, and between different berries, you have enough combinations to never grow tired.

I've spent a lot of time optimizing my daily happiness, and I have learned that food is an essential part. Eating more fruit, berries and vegetables has been an important component in my overall happiness. I love my blender, and I love the productivity and happiness I always enjoy after my smoothie breakfast. Another important and complementing component for my happiness has been learning to cook my own food, and to eat mostly vegetarian food, but that will be a later blog post.

Homework

Switch one of your meals tomorrow for a vegetable smoothie. Notice how it gives you a nice, healthy feeling of fullness, while containing fewer calories than a regular meal. Just make sure to make a big enough smoothie to make you feel really full.