Remember how I was vaguely writing about times of change ahead of me, and the times of turmoil I was currently experiencing? Well, I can happily (and nervously) tell you that I’ve quit my full-time job as manager of Vancouver’s best cheese shop and am now dedicating my time to freelance writing. There are definitely aspects of the job I’ll miss a lot, it was hard saying goodbye to my favourite customers and especially hard to say goodbye to my wonderful team of workmates. Luckily, most of my former coworkers are friends of mine so I’ll still get to see them regularly. In fact we all went out for dinner last Saturday night to celebrate “Ashley’s Foray into Freelancing as Celebrated Through the Enjoyment of Korean BBQ” (my friend Lela thinks of the best names for events).

I’m three days into the freelancing life at this point and I’m finding the amount of solo, unstructured time daunting. I’ve been reading lots about the importance of routine and it totally makes sense, routine is what keeps me thriving and my moods have always oscillated back and forth when I have little to no structure in place. Previously, getting up for work was the perfect time reminder to make myself breakfast, especially since I often walked to work (about 45 minutes of walking). Now, even more than before, I find I need something extra fast to make so that I can dive right into the work that needs to get done that morning (writing, cleaning, going for a walk, job searching, etc.). I had abandoned smoothies a couple of months ago in favour of whole pieces of fruit and some sort of protein that I could take with me on my commute. When I make a smoothie my goal is to make it taste bright and delicious, but also be crammed full of as many nutritious ingredients as possible. Avocado is an ideal foil, it’s buttery texture adds creaminess without compromising the flavour of the smoothie. Baby kale is an excellent alternative to spinach, but you could use any green that you prefer. I sometimes add protein powder to make the smoothie more filling, but it’s not necessary and to be honest I find most protein powders have an unpleasant bitter aftertaste.

mixed berry smoothie with avocado and baby kale:

1 cup of frozen mixed berries

1 ripe banana

1/4 avocado

2 cups of baby kale

1 cup of coconut water

2 heaping Tbsp. Greek yogurt

1 scoop protein powder (optional)

Add all ingredients to a blender and blitz until completely emulsified.

What can I say? It’s been wet and gloomy in the mornings and Spiritualized seems as good a band as any to get my day off to a productive start.

Spiritualized – Stay With Me