After I drink my lemon water to aid in waking up my digestion, I like to drink smoothies. I like to pack as much nutrients into them so that I can have a great start to my day. An example of a smoothie that I make is my Berry Protein Smoothie.
It provides:
- 27g of whole vegetarian protein
- Daily serving of probiotics, Vitamin B-12, and Omega 3-6-9
- 3 servings of fruits and vegetables
Not only does it give me a boost of energy, sustaining me throughout the day, but it also helps me to make better food choices throughout the day.
When you go searching for the ingredients necessary for this smoothie, you will discover that they are pricier than one might expect for a budget-friendly meal but they will last you at least the entire month if you were to drink one every day. You also can lower the amounts of some to make yours last even longer.
Living Wholly On A Budget 
Thanks for your post this week. I liked the information about the Berry Smoothie. I was wondering on your take on mixing vegetables and fruits in a smoothie. Also I have heard that it is not a good idea to put melons with other fruits and vegetables in a smoothie. I have gone on a smoothie craze with fruits in the morning and have gained weight like crazy. I do have the hemp protein powder and I do take my probiotics each morning along with my enzymes, but I have stopped the smoothies because of the weight gain. What do you think? CS5711
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Thanks for checking out my blog! I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability:
First off, my initial suspect of the weight gain may be that you are not accurately counting the calories in your smoothie. We sometimes have a mindset that if they are liquid that it’s less but this is not true. That’s why some weight loss experts suggest that overweight people cut out their soda because they were drinking their daily calorie intake in liquid and, so when they do cut it out of their diet, they lose weight quickly. Our liquid calories can add up fast. For instance, my smoothie came in at 595 calories. A typical calorie range for a woman is 1500-1800 calories a day so my smoothie makes up for roughly 1/3 of my daily calories. So, I have to make choices for the rest of the day based on that information. A great idea, that I have personally used, is keeping a food journal. Furthermore, I believe from studying the modern literature that not all calories are the same. If you eat a lot of high carb, high sugar, or highly processed foods, these can be turned into fat instead of being burned for energy. So, along those lines, although I had never heard of needing to avoid melons in smoothies, I may have found a possible answer: glycemic index. It is important if you are trying to lose weight to focus on foods low on the Glycemic Index. Here are two links for a quick overview (perhaps not the most scientific of sources but I have researched this a lot and these two run close to the science, these just gave an easier to digest overview): http://www.livestrong.com/article/379508-the-glycemic-index-table-of-fruits-vegetables/#page=1 and http://fullplateliving.org/sites/default/files/glycemic_index_table_latest.pdf. And, as you can find out at these links, melons are high on the glycemic index which is not good for a daily smoothie whether you are trying to lose weight or not. I would recommend eating melons for a special treat and stick to the low GI foods on a daily basis. Along those lines, you may want to make sure that the protein powder that you use does not have added ingredients like sugar. Many of the popular protein powders have added preservatives and sugars which I recommend steering clear away from.
I am an advocate for blending veggies and fruits because I think you lose nutrients like fiber when you juice it even though juicing is lower in calories. Unfortunately, I do not have a top of the line blender so, unless I use the kale powder (you can search out other whole vegetable powders on the Internet), it does not blend very well so I get chunks of vegetable. So, if you want it more easy to drink and do not own a top line blender, use the powders. And, I absolutely recommend vegetables because I think most Americans do not get enough and this is an easy way to get them in right at the start of your day, most vegetables are also low GI. Also, another reason I prefer blending over juicing, is that it allows you to drink it more slowly so that you do not get blood sugar spikes.
Lastly, I take probiotics either by drinking kefir in my smoothie or taking it in pill form, not both at the same time. I think it’s unnecessary.
One last bit of advice: if you are trying to lose weight, you may also not be consuming enough calories. If you cut out too many calories, you can mess up your hormones like your thyroid and this can lead to weight gain especially if you are susceptible (medical terms are “subclinical” or “borderline”). So, if you do not know your thyroid levels (TSH, T3, and T4 at minimum), I may recommend, if you can, seeing a doctor to get this checked. You may also want to do some research on groitrogen foods and hypothyroidism. These foods can inhibit thyroid function which may lead to weight gain. Unfortunately, kale is on this list so I do not use the kale powder daily. Personally, I would never recommend cutting any of these foods completely out of your diet but I would be aware and try alternatives. Also, if you cook kale or broccoli for instance instead of eating them raw, you reduce the groitrogen properties significantly. Even if you are not diagnosed with a hormone or thyroid condition, this may be a good idea. I know this from research and personal experience.
Of course, I am not a doctor or nutritionist, just someone who has done some homework. I know this was a long answer but I hope this helped to at least point you in a healthy direction.
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I like your blog, Melissa! It’s very important to have a healthy lifestyle and eat right. I always try to cut on carbohydrates and eat more vegetables and fruits. Your Berry Protein Smoothie looks very good! I used to make fruit smoothies long time ago, but for some reason I don’t do it anymore. Thank you for sharing the information and recipes! I’m going to make your berry smoothie, but I have to find all the ingredients first. Where do you usually buy them? CS5711
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Thanks for checking out my blog! I’m glad that you appreciate it and want to try to make my Berry Protein Smoothie. For the ingredients, I basically buy where there is a sale or where I can buy cheaper in bulk because you can basically find all of these ingredients at most stores (Oliver’s, Sprouts, and Whole Foods especially) and online. So, for example, I buy my bananas and frozen berries at Costco because their prices are consistently the cheapest for these items. I got most of my supplements last time there was a 25% off sale at Sprouts, they have a few times a year when they do this. A great place online to buy supplements inexpensively is Swanson Vitamins. So, just shop around. There are also different brands that you can buy but I personally prefer: Manitoba Harvest Hemp Pro Protein Powder, Barleans Organic Oils Flax Oil, George’s Aloe Vera, Gaia Herbs Gelatinized Maca Powder, and Nutrex Natural Spirulina. A couple of tips about supplements: 1. Spirulina can have an awful taste and smell like pond scum. I have tried many brands and Nutrex is the only on that has a neutral slightly sweet taste. 2. Be careful about aloe vera because, not only do many brands not taste good, but to cover up the taste they add a lot of unhealthy ingredients. George’s has no taste and it’s just the juice.
However, for the kale powder, I just stumbled across it at Costco. It lasts a long time and I am still on the same bag so I do not know if you could purchase this elsewhere, although if you search for vegetable powder there are several companies that powder different fruits and vegetables.
One last bit of advice: This smoothie recipe is delicious but, with all of the powders, it does have a sand-like texture. I have gotten used to it but, if you want a better texture, I would divide the hemp powder amount by half so 2 tablespoons instead of 4. It will also help it to last longer.
I hope this gives you a good starting place.
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Thank you for your advices and explanations, Melissa! I will try it!
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I used to make strawberry and banana smoothies everyday, they were really good and provided me with a lot of energy. I would like to add some greens and other things to get a super smoothie.
#cs5711
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Thanks for checking out my video and my blog!
Unless you have a very powerful blender or do not mind chewing your smoothie, if you want a green smoothie, I would highly recommend using powdered greens. In this video I used kale powder, but, there are many fairly affordable options out there.
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Berry protein smoothies are a great fast, healthy and cheap breakfast! I used to love berry smoothies in the morning before work or school. Now that I work early and house mates aren’t fond of being woken up by a blender, I usually throw some protein powder, yogurt, chia seeds in my blender bottle and bam breakfast on the go 🙂
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Thanks for checking out the video!
Blender Bottles are awesome! I use one a lot. They are very convenient. Since I love fruit in the mornings, if I use the Blender Bottle, I will omit the banana and frozen fruit, 1/2 the rest of the ingredients (the amounts used in the video are for 2 servings), and use berry or pomegranate juice.
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