It’s a new year – time to start over everything you’ve been doing to lose weight and keep your body and mind in shape and sharp. It’s this time of the year when many New Year’s resolutions are made, but only very small part of them actually got fulfilled.
In order to avoid making unfulfillable resolutions, I offer you to start your new year’s weight loss journey by making a really small baby steps:
What would you say about making simple smoothie recipes and drinking them instead of some of your main meals or in-between them?
Now you may ask what I mean by saying “really helps” …
Well, what I have in mind, by saying that, is the case where you are making and drinking healthy fruit and vegetable smoothies, but yet without any weight loss effect.
If that’s your case – then you must be making one or more of the 5 smoothie recipes mistakes:
You add sweeteners – extra ones that your smoothie doesn’t actually need.
1 tablespoon of honey, or almost everyone’s favorite maple syrup, adds additional 60 calories to the smoothie and if it’s a sweet one made of naturally sweet fruits – your smoothie simply doesn’t need them.
Don’t forget that flavored yogurts, canned fruits and vegetables, as well as fruit juices also contain extra sweeteners. So please – avoid using them. Use plain yogurt and unsweetened milk instead. Almond and soy milk without sugar or sweetener is OK.
Your healthy smoothie offers you not enough fiber.
Fiber is one of the most important nutrients you get from your smoothie, so don’t forget it. Fiber is all beneficial, as you all know. It makes you feel full and makes you eat less.
Fruits and vegetables contain fiber – some more, others – less. It’s all about picking and choosing the right ones that contain lots of fiber and are suitable for making smoothies. Add more fiber-rich foods to your smoothies by adding more kale, kiwi, avocado, any kind of berries, pear, chia seeds… Plant protein powders rich in fiber added to your smoothie will also help you obtain enough fiber.
For example kale is twice more fiber-rich than spinach. And everyone smoothie junkie’s favorite – banana contains only 1.4 grams of fiber (at least 10 grams are needed in your smoothie). Of course that doesn’t mean to ditch bananas as ingredients for your healthy smoothies, but make sure you add more of the fiber-rich foods as well 😉
Your healthy smoothie recipe simply lacks proteins.
Your smoothie can be green and healthy, and tasty as well, but it might lack proteins (at least 10 grams per smoothie are needed) so you are not protected from snacking on smth more caloric and less healthy.
You need your smoothie to keep your optimal energy levels. Good protein-rich foods suitable for smoothies are Greek yogurt, soy milk, cottage cheese, beans, nuts, and of course protein powders.
For example Greek yogurt has more protein than regular one. Soy milk is more protein-rich than almond milk, etc.
You make your healthy smoothie too fruity and forget the proteins.
Fruits are healthy – no doubt about that. But if you add to many fruits in your smoothie and less or no additional proteins, you might get hungry sooner than you expected after drinking your great tasting fruity smoothie. Why?
Fruits are metabolized very quickly, so add some protein to keep you full until your next meal or you risk snacking on smth not very healthy within an hour after drinking your fruity smoothie.
Use milk (soy milk, almond milk), yogurt (Greek yogurt), tofu, protein powders, nuts, beans…
You don’t measure out your smoothie ingredients or don’t count their calories.
Filling up your blender’s container with all your favorite smoothie ingredients you can find in the kitchen is just not an option. This way you can easily make the most delicious smoothie in the whole wide world, but it would be a caloric bomb of 600 calories or more. So instead of losing pounds, you could gain some…
You better start measuring or calculating the approximate calorie count per fruit or any other ingredient you use (it’s easy with packed and boxed ingredients like milk and yogurt, protein powders and so on – calories are written on the box)
Try not to exceed 300 calories per smoothie serving especially when you combine your smoothie with a slice of dietary rusk or toast, or smth else… I’ll include a few simple smoothie recipes in my next post that include less than 300 calories per serving.
Check out how to make a delicious fruit smoothie under 300 calories.