Peanut Butter and Banana Milkshake

Or the post exhausting workout, pre collapse ungracefully in a pathetic heap milkshake!

Last August I went to the most hard core exercise class I have ever been to in New York. I have never run a marathon but have done military fitness and army at school amongst other weird and wonderful activities but this tops everything. New York is renowned as a competitive and draining city and indeed, keeping with the city theme, so was this exercise class. I went with my Psychiatrist friend (she should check her own head) to her local gym for a class called “Straps” followed by trampolining. Not trampolining with moves with fun names like “Piked” but fast tempo aerobics on a rebounder.

So, this “Straps” class: the room has hooks knocked into the walls and posts with straps hanging from them. You then get into plank position and put your feet in the straps so that they are suspended about 50cm above the ground. Still in plank! Then the music starts umph-umph-umphing and the trainer starts barking “16 press ups!”, then “16 press ups and swing your legs from side to side!” and then there are the press ups whilst pumping your legs up to your waist. Then, there’s the break and by that I mean removing your, by now rock solid and throbbing, legs from the straps to do lunges!! This went on for 40 minutes and shamefully I started doing 14, then 12, then 10 of each exercise and occasionally just resting when he wasn’t looking. If he saw you he asked what the problem was: “Hey, you ok? You have a knee injury?” Not yet!

At the end our hyped up trainer gave us all a pep talk on how much he loves his life because he loves his job and it’s Saturday and he’s at his job but it’s all better than ok because…he loves it! And, we can love our lives too! So go out there and love your life! Be a winner! Love it! Win! Life! Love! Milkshake!

So, to cut a sweaty story short, my shrink pal and I went up to the cafe afterwards and had peanut butter and banana milkshakes and they were great! Here’s the recipe:

Per person:

1 good sized banana

about 200ml milk

2 dessert spoons of peanut butter (smooth is best! Especially if you’re using straws!)

A few cubes of ice.

Mix it all in a blender and find a deck chair and a patch of grass to drink it on.