Healthy Smoothie Recipes

Sports Injury Smoothie Recipe, or another way to take Turmeric!

Hello!

Well, I have never been athletic, but I have an injury that is common to athletes...I seem to have injured my rotator cuff. Carrying babies around and nursing them in sometimes not the best positions over the last 20 years has put a lot of strain in my rotator cuff. I had a flare up a year or so ago and then another that began last night as I was stretching too much to reach something in a high cabinet. I woke up this morning in a lot of pain. Showering and dressing were very difficult. Pain is minimal if I am careful about not moving my arm in a certain way.

So, my first thoughts are - comfrey to increase cell regeneration in the tissue and turmeric for the inflammation. I am not fond of swallowing capsules and wanted my comfrey fresh. I also don't like turmeric in milk and so I made up this recipe. I have made two of them so far and it is quite tasty! The turmeric is not noticeable at all.

Here is what I did:

• 2 small to medium cucumbers, cut into large cubes. (I had maybe 1.5 cups of cubed cucumber.)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (to make the turmeric work better.)
• 1/8 teaspoon celtic sea salt
• 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 1 large or two small fresh comfrey leaves
• 1/4 cup milk kefir (contains fat which helps the turmeric work better.)

Blend in blender until smooth.

This was a cool and refreshing drink. It was a bit odd tasting, but by the second one I was liking it a lot. I think I will try adding a few mint leaves next time. My ten year old said it was not bad. (That is a compliment! ) My 12 year old said it was weird. My almost 3 year old took a sip and made a face but didn't spit it out. :) I will let you know how the mint affects the taste.

~Mama to Many~

Good morning!

I made my green comfrey/turmeric smoothie this morning and added some mint leaves - a couple of tablespoons. (Fresh.) I could have added more. I like mint. But it does improve the flavor some, if you like mint, that is.

My shoulder is feeling improved this morning. I won't go suggesting that this smoothie will cure rotator issues overnight. I suspect my strain/injury/whatever was quite mild in the scheme of things. (Rotator cuff injuries are dreadful and the recovery from surgery (if you get to that point) is brutal.)

By the way, the only critical ingredients were the comfrey, turmeric, pepper and milk kefir. Bananas could be used instead of cucumber. (One banana.) And I would leave out the nutritional yeast if I used banana. Whole milk or some water with a teaspoon of coconut oil could be substituted for the milk kefir.

Have a great day!

~Mama to Many~

Mama, I have rotator due bad sleeping lying on one side, so is there any natural way to recover from rotator cuff, and can I start weight lifting after recovry, cause weight lifting is good for bone problem prevention.

Dear Yari,

I felt the comfrey/turmeric smoothie helped me very much. I don't know if you would have those ingredients available where you live.

Turmeric, alone, may work quite well. 1 teaspoon 2-3 times a day, with a full glass of water each time. Turmeric is a wonderful anti-inflammatory.

Rest your arm/shoulder as much as possible. I kept mine in a sling for a little while. Ice for 10 minutes at a time several times a day may help with the pain and inflammation.

Regarding lifting weights, I would wait until you have healed from your injury and then start very slowly and gradually work up to more, so that you do not aggravate your condition.

~Mama to Many~