Eating healthy and getting plenty of fresh fruits and veggies into your diet isn’t always easy. We’re busy living our lives, working long hours, and raising a family. Who has time to prepare healthy meals that include plenty of fresh produce and real food?
Yes, in an ideal world, you’d cut up plenty of fresh fruit and enjoy it with a spinach and tomato omelette for breakfast. Reality is that you’re doing good to get out of bed and eat anything before you have to start your day.
Healthy food prep that takes more than a few minutes just isn’t an option. So you grab a protein bar or fix a bowl of instant oatmeal.
In this short report, we’re going to explore another option – smoothies. Think of them as the fast food fare of fresh healthy food. You can mix them up in minutes and save even more time by preparing ingredients ahead of time or even mixing your smoothie the night before.
Best of all, you can pack a lot of fresh veggies and fruits into each smoothie and get a nutritional boost you can sip on the go. Whip up a breakfast smoothie, pour it into a blender bottle and drink it on your commute to work. It doesn’t get much easier than this to eat healthy.
Switching just a few high sugar, high calorie meals full of process foods for healthy smoothies is a great way to improve your health and slim down. Enjoy them as a healthy breakfast, portable lunch, or a snack when you need a boost in nutrition and a little something to tie you over until your next meal.
Throughout this report, we’ll explore the different types of smoothies out there, what they can do for you and what to watch for. Smoothies can be a great healthy addition to your diet, but they can also increase your sugar intake and be almost as bad as a milkshake for you.
Keep reading to learn more about incorporating healthy smoothies into your diet and your healthy lifestyle.
Fruit Smoothies, Green Smoothies, Red Smoothies …
There’s a smoothie out there for anyone. That’s great news. Once you start to look for smoothie recipes, you’ll hear people talk about fruit smoothies, yogurt smoothies, protein smoothies, green smoothies, red smoothies…. The list goes on and on.
Variety and options are a good thing. They help you find smoothie recipes that you’ll enjoy drinking that also help you fulfil your nutritional needs. Let’s run through some of the basics to give you a basic understanding of the types of smoothies out there. This will also help you find recipes that will work for you as you start to make your smoothies.
Fruit Smoothies
These are usually the first types of smoothies people try. You blend up fresh and frozen fruit with either water, coconut water, milk, juice or yogurt. There are thousands of recipes out there, but feel free to experiment and come up with something you like. For creamy smoothies add some yogurt or banana. For lighter smoothies, stick with frozen berries and coconut water.
You can easily adjust the consistency of your smoothies by adding more or less liquid. Mix and match fruit and try different smoothies until you find a few you enjoy. Try adding things like cocoa powder or peanut butter for different flavors.
Green Smoothies
The big benefit of green smoothies is that they incorporate lots of fresh veggies in addition to the fruit. Think of them as a big drinkable salad. They can be sweet or savory. For best results add lots of leafy greens like spinach, lettuce, kale, and chard to your smoothies.
The color of your smoothie will be bright green. This can take a little getting used to, but once you take your first sip of a good green smoothie, you’ll never look back. The trick in the beginning is to add plenty of fresh fruit.
As time goes by, you may choose to reduce the amount of fruit in your smoothies and increase the greens. For a delicious and simple green smoothie blend one banana with one head of romaine lettuce. Add enough water or coconut water to get the consistency you like and drink up.
Red Smoothies
Red smoothies are similar to green smoothies but add lots of delicious “red” foods like red beets, berries, raw cocoa powder etc. They also include lots of fresh greens. The idea with red smoothies is to add lots of nutrients that help you detox and nourish your body. They make a great addition to “regular” green smoothies.
Protein Smoothies
Last but not least, let’s talk about protein smoothies. These are fruit smoothies that you add a scoop of protein powder too, or use natural sources of protein like peanut butter, hemp, or Greek yogurt. They make for a filling meal and a great recovery drink after a hard workout.
Of course you can mix and match and come up with your own variations and combinations that please your taste buds and fulfil your nutritional needs.
Don’t Turn Your Smoothie into a Milk Shake Equivalent – Watch the Sugar
Smoothies can be a great addition to a healthy diet and even help you lose weight. Or they can turn into nothing more than a milk shake that should be considered a rare treat. What’s the difference? Mainly the amount of sugar you include in your smoothie.
Let’s say you start out with a cup of low fat vanilla flavoured yogurt. (34g carbs, 34g of sugar). Then you add a banana (27g carbs, 14g sugar), 1 cup of strawberries (12g carbs, 7g sugar), and 1 cup orange juice (26g carbs, 20g sugar).
That’s a total of 75g of sugar in something that sounds like a fairly healthy smoothie, doesn’t it? That’s roughly the same amount of sugar (and carbs) as a small chocolate milk shake at McDonalds.
Yes, you’re getting some vitamins and nutrients and this smoothie is certainly better for you than a chocolate milk shake, but it isn’t going to help you lose weight, and you’d do better with a smoothie that has less sugar in it.
The first thing I want you to notice is that most of the sugar is coming from the vanilla flavoured yogurt and the orange juice. What if you switched the yogurt for plain Greek yogurt and used water instead of orange juice. The yogurt has 7g of carbs, all of them sugar.
Making those two simple substitutions takes us from 75g of sugar to 28g of sugar. That’s a big difference and you end up with a much healthier smoothie that will keep you full longer.
What can you do to make sure you end up with a healthy smoothie that’s good for you and not loaded with added sugar? Start by checking all ingredients you add. Stay away from yogurts, juices and other add-ons that include sugar. That alone will limit your sugar intake.
Next, limit the amount of fruit, high sugar fruits like bananas, grapes and the likes in particular that you put in your smoothie. Choose low sugar fruits like berries instead. Use water or coconut water or even whole milk to thin out your smoothies instead of juice.
Last but not least add lots of leafy greens to up the nutritional value and fiber content.
If you’re looking for a creamy smoothie, try adding an avocado. It works in even the sweetest smoothies and gives it a delicious smooth texture, while adding healthy fat that will keep you full longer.
Ice is a great way to thicken your smoothies without adding extra calories. If you find you need a little extra sweetness in your smoothie, add a bit of stevia, a natural non-calorie sweetener, instead of adding more fruit or sugar.
These little tweaks can ensure that you end up with healthy smoothies that are good for you while helping you reach your weight loss goals.
Smoothies Make for a Healthy Portable Breakfast Option
Smoothies really shine in the morning when you’re looking for a healthy breakfast option. Start your day right with a big serving of fresh fruits and veggies. Best of all, they are quick and easy to fix and very portable. Just blend and go.
The quicker and easier you can make it in the morning, the more likely you will make a healthy smoothie part of your morning routine. Let’s run through a few tips that will help you fix your smoothie in the morning. Drink it while you’re getting ready, or even on your way to work.
Start by trying out a few different recipes until you find 2 or 3 smoothies you like. These will become your go-to smoothies for busy weekday mornings. Use the weekends or any other times when you have plenty of time to experiment to find new favorites.
Personal Blenders
If you’re making your smoothies in your large kitchen blender, you know that it can be a bit messy and that it takes a while to clean the blender when you’re done. Plus you have to pour the finished smoothie into a glass or bottle. One way to make the smoothie making process simpler and easier to clean up after, is to use a small, personal blender.
There are several different good models on the market that allow you to blend right in the cup you’re going to drink out of. As an added bonus, the cup can be put in the dish washer when you’re done. Rinse the blender blades and clean-up is done.
That’s a lot quicker and a lot less mess then using a larger blender. Perfect when you’re making your smoothies one at a time.
Blender Bottles
Blender bottles allow you to make your smoothies ahead of time. In the morning, grab your smoothie from the fridge, give it a good shake and breakfast is done. They are easy to clean and also dishwasher safe.
Blender bottles are also very portable and allow you to take your smoothie with you to the office. Buy a couple and have one smoothie ready for breakfast, and take a green smoothie with you to enjoy for lunch instead of grabbing a salad.
Prepped Ingredients
Your biggest time saver and the easiest way to make smoothies more convenient is by prepping the ingredients ahead of time. After you’ve made a few smoothies you’ll know that the bulk of the work is prepping fruits and vegetables.
Why not make it easier on yourself on busy workday mornings by having perfectly portioned bags of fruit and veggies ready to go.
When you bring home your produce, clean it, peel and chop it and get it ready for the blender. You can toss everything you need for each smoothie in a baggy and store it in the fridge or freezer. In the morning, grab a bag, add your yogurt, milk, water or whatever else you need and blend.
You can have a smoothie ready to go in under 2 minutes. That’s just as fast as pouring a bowl of cereal and so much better for you.
Find a few smoothie recipes you like, and then prep the ingredients for each and get them ready to use throughout the week.
A good blender and a little prep work will make smoothies for breakfast your new go-to meal.
Use Smoothies to Sneak More Greens and Nutrients into Your Diet
One of the best things about smoothies is that you can use them to sneak more fruits and veggies into your diet and that of every member of your family. This is, of course, particularly true for green smoothies.
Think of them as a condensed salad. You can blend up a big serving of spinach, kale, and other dark leafy greens that you know are good for you and drink it all in a smoothie.
Add a little fruit – particularly berries with high amounts of antioxidants and a little coconut water to replace much needed electrolytes and minerals and you have a healthy meal that’s hard to beat.
Best of all it is portable and you can sip it anytime anywhere.
Eating plenty of healthy fruits and vegetables isn’t always easy. Add to that the fact that we’re encouraged to eat our veggies raw, and frankly there are only so many salads you can eat in a given day.
Green smoothies are a great way to turn that same amount of greens and veggies and turn it into a yummy drink by adding nothing more than a bit of fruit and water – two ingredients we’re encouraged to consume more of as part of a healthy lifestyle.
Don’t give up your salad or your plate of steamed veggies. Instead, use smoothies as a way to add even more good nutrition to your diet and give processed and junk food the boot instead. You’ll feel better and it will have a positive impact on your waist line.
Don’t stop with just yourself. Get the entire family on board with smoothies. They are the perfect way to sneak healthy food into your kid’s diet and who couldn’t use a little more “real food” in their diet. Make smoothie making a family affair and everyone benefits.
