My Summer Essentials 2016 — William Charleton

I was just texting my friend who’s going to the beach. I said “Have fun! Don’t wear too much sunscreen!” He said, “why not?” So I thought to myself, well this is too much to text. I decided I want to put together a presentation for him. Then I realized I could turn it into a blog post. Then I remembered I covered sunscreen briefly in a post last year!

I pulled up the article, My Summer Essentials, and found what I was looking for. I also found that my summer essentials are essentially the same. Still all about juice and berries for the same reasons:

“I like to prepare for summer with juice. I find juice to be very cooling, and really cut it back in winter. Now that summer’s quickly approaching, I’ve been adding more green juices. It’s been slightly chilly recently, but I know it’s going to be beach weather soon so I’m incorporating more colored juices like carrot and beet. Eating more colors, I believe, helps protect you from burning.* *not approved by the FDA, or whatever.

Once summer arrives, I love to indulge in berries. Berries are my favorite fruit. One thing to note about berries, it’s good to eat them with a fat, and really important they are well chewed. Try to break up the seeds. If you put them in a smoothie, blend to grind up the seeds, and chew it before you swallow it. This prepares your body to receive food. I generally use frozen fruit for convenience, but don’t like cold food, so blending for longer also helps warm it up a little. Berries are also a good source of nutrition! Full of colors, fibers. Did you know strawberries are the only fruit with their seeds on the outside? It’s a very unique fiber that glues them on, that’s great for your intestinal tract!”

The post about the sun will follow. Here's my updated summer post. I’m still wearing the same Sandals, Shorts and Long Sleeve Shirt. The shorts have a hole, the sandals I had to repair with key rings, and a button broke on the long sleeve shirt. What can I say, it was an active year!

The speakers are still going strong, can’t recommend them enough. Although, I did see that Bang & Olufsen came out with a new bluetooth speaker, the A1. I have yet to see it in person.

One thing that has changed, is the playlist. I’m going into this summer with a much more “chill” attitude. When I was in Los Angeles, I didn’t have my desktop with all of my music. Coming back and putting 12,000 songs on shuffle has been very exciting. I’m rediscovering so much.

Here’s a link to my playlist on Spotify.

Something new thing I’m really digging this summer, is Sweetgreen. I don’t think the Back Bay is really known for it’s food. There are a handful of good spots, but on the whole it’s a lot of touristy stuff. Sweet green saved my life. I get lunch there often enough I’m a gold member, working my way up to black, because I want to throw a party on Boylston.

I always make my own, and get the same thing:

Arugula, Quinoa, Avocado, Onions, Carrots, Tomatoes, Parmasean, Parmasean Crisps with Pesto Vinaigrette

I’m going to finish this off with a recipe. Last Summer Essential recipe was for a pink lemonade. This year’s recipe is also a drink, and pink. Strawberries and Cream Smoothie. Really easy to make, tastes great. Probiotic Strawberries and Cream!

2 cups of water (the good stuff)

1 hefty handful of frozen strawberries

1/4-1/3 cup of coconut butter

1/4 cup coconut kefir

1 tbsp raw honey

pinch of sea salt

pinch of vanilla

Throw everything into the Vitamix, water last. That’s incase you make a mistake, the whole thing isn’t awash. Blend!

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!