NOT YOUR TYPICAL SMOOTHIE…

NOT YOUR TYPICAL SMOOTHIE…

By definition “smooth·ie”

/ˈsmo͞oT͟Hē/

noun

INFORMAL
(1) a man with a smooth, suave manner. “I love to see him gliding his way round a dance floor, he is such a smoothie!”

(2) a thick, smooth drink of fresh fruit puréed with milk, yogurt, or ice cream.

Although both of the definitions can be part of a healthy and fit lifestyle; and hopefully are!

Today we are talking about a thick, smooth drink of fresh fruit puréed with milk, yogurt, or ice cream.

All too often we confuse smoothie with healthy eating. Not all Smoothies equal healthy eating. To the contrary, many smoothies can actually derail ones fat loss goal. Yes, fresh fruit has nutritional benefit and each kind of fruit brings forward different health benefits. The problem is that most smoothie chains use fruit that contains added refined sugar and not just the natural sugars fruits already contain.

For most humans, dairy and dairy products reduce the bodies ability to lose fat especially in certain areas such as back, hip, and waist.

Lastly, for those who have fat loss goals especially those at 30% fat or higher too much sugar even natural sugar in fruit and/ or fruit eaten at the wrong times of day can derail or slow progress.

There is a method/ timing for eating that promotes the highest percentage of fat loss and muscle building in the less time than just eating whatever whenever.

You have heard me say…. what we do in the gym sculpts our body, what we put in our mouths determines how quickly we reveal what we sculpted! If we work on sculpting and nutrition simultaneously we reach that “sweet spot” of body fat to muscle percentage that takes our metabolism to new levels! We can train our bodies to be fat burning machines! I went into detail on this fact in my blog series “Why Lift Weights” by going to http://www.onebadassbitch.com/blog.

Smoothies are a staple in my daily nutrition plan and part of living a healthy and fit lifestyle. When I travel, my Ninja Blender, Vega Protein, and Supplements travel with me! Not just because I am dedicated to and passionate about feeling my best; they are so fucking yummy I literally miss them when I don’t have them. Not only yummy, they are packed full of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, collagens, and other nutrient rich ingredients which heal the body from the inside out and fuel the body with energy to do what you want when you want!

When you have health and fitness goals, fat loss goals, weight management goals, muscle building goals, toning goals, better skin goals etc it is imperative to be mindful of the fuel you put into the precious machine you were born with.

So lets talk about a truly healthy and powerful smoothie!

For anyone with fat loss goals, fruits should be consumed in the earlier part of the day. So fruit smoothies are great for breakfast and lunch and/ or post workout.

Protein is imperative to maintaining bone density and building muscle. I am not vegan and I do use vegan protein powder. Why? Because I believe Vegan protein it is one of the best for digestion especially for those who have digestive issues or disorders. There are different benefits in different types of proteins and what they do for the body and best use of the different types such as whey. I will cover this in my next blog for those who do not have sensitive digestion systems.

To maintain bone density and build lean muscle a person needs to eat 1 gram of protein for each lb they weigh. I weigh 118 lbs; therefore, I should be eating no less than 118 grams of protein and would not want to eat more than 1.5 grams per lb so no more than 177 grams. Not going to lie… that does not come easy for me. So one of my tricks is I put two scoops of protein in my smoothies.

You have to eat to lose, you have to eat to fuel your workouts, you have to eat protein to build muscle, and you have to eat healthy fat to lose bad fat!

In addition to protein, my morning smoothies contain organic frozen no added sugar strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and banana which give me 4 servings of fruits plus I add organic ACAI powder adding an additional serving giving me 5 servings of fruits towards my 4 to 6 serving requirements each day for optimal health. On the veggie side, I add organic frozen spinach, organic powdered Kale, and organic powdered beet root which give me 3 servings of veggies towards my 4 to 6 serving goal each day. Lastly, I add Organic Maca Powder, Liquid Zinc, Liquid Yohimbe, 5 types of collagen, and a dash of raw and unfiltered honey.

My healthy fat added is whole organic Greek yogurt.

Once all ingredients are in the blender I add unsweetened almond milk and/ or water until fill line if reached and blend away.

I am actually drinking one as I write this blog. So delicious! Every person that has ever had one of my smoothies has told me I need to open a smoothie shop or bottle it and sell it through retail. Maybe one day and that is not where my passion lies right now.

Right now my passion and dedication is waking up as many people as possible to the importance of proper nutrition- and what proper nutrition really is versus the bullshit we are fed (yes, pun intended) for the sake of making money aka as politics behind food, companies behind food, insurance companies benefitting from poor health and nutritional habits, pharmaceutical companies benefitting from poor health and nutritional habits, doctors who are trapped and handcuffed in the insurance traps medicine has become versus the best interest of their clients (not all doctors and more than it should be), etc.

More importantly, I want you to wake the fuck up because you have more control over how you feel and your health than you want to believe. And why feel tired, lethargic, and live with aches and pains if you do not have to.

Wake up people! If there is one thing COVID times have taught us is that our underlying health and fitness matters. How we take care of ourselves not only has a direct impact on our quality of life day to day… and how many years we have quality of life each day. How we take care of our health and fitness ultimately has a direct impact on our ability to ward off altogether and/ or survive a cold, virus, flu, disease, etc. Not only survive- move forward living without life altering impact.

Not all fruits and veggies are created equal. Neither are proteins including the same type of protein because its quality and benefits or lack thereof to health depends on how it was raised and what it was fed and pumped with before it came to our plates. Not all supplements are equal as some are pure and some are pumped full of fillers. I will be breaking down why I choose what I put in my smoothies and what they provide the body.

Reminder: life is not perfect! This is about awareness and choice… making better choices where and when we can. Controlling what we can when we can and not obsessing.

Am I not going to eat a filet at a restaurant if they cannot tell me it was organic pasture raised and never pumped full of antibiotics or supplements to make it get bigger faster for the benefit of making bigger profits? No, however, I know that if I focus 85% of my eating on clean organic foods the 15% of my eating that falls into the I don’t know the origin of where it came from and what it was given or I know it bad sugar such as the cookie dough I love and/ or I know it is loaded with bad fats such as the Mexican I eat out won’t harm me. Does that mean I would be better not eating the 15% of bad- probably- well not probably- that would be a yes. Is your car going to run as good as it should if you put the wrong oil in it?

Life is not perfect and neither am I. I am perfectly imperfect. I control when I can and don’t obsess when I cannot because a healthy and fit lifestyle is about less stress not creating more obsessing!