The Perfect Smoothie Formula
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The way I see it, you only need to eat healthy twice during the day.
While you’ll certainly eat more than twice a day, just two healthy
meals make it pretty hard to screw up the rest of them.Once is in the afternoon, when a big salad loaded with greens, other raw vegetables, and nuts will fill you up and give you more veggies than most people eat all day. And as a bonus, it’ll give you the chance to get even more good stuff, when you dress it with quality oil, lemon juice, and a little sea salt.
The other time is in the morning, when a smoothie made from fruits (and even vegetables) will not only set the tone for the entire day, but act as a vehicle for other superfoods or supplements you want to work into your diet.
That’s it. Just two healthy meals.
Even if you ate whatever you wanted the rest of the day, I’d be willing to bet you wouldn’t get fat, as long as you made sure to drink a smoothie and eat a big salad every single day.Sure, if you were to eat at McDonald’s for lunch and Outback for dinner the rest of the time, you could probably succeed at packing on a few pounds. But here’s the thing.
The smoothie and salad act as “anchors” that keep you on track, to remind you just how great it feels to put real, fresh fruits and vegetables in your body. After you start the day with a smoothie, McDonald’s for lunch doesn’t seem so good anymore. And when it’s time to start thinking about dinner, the salad does the same.
In this way, those two healthy meals become three or four—which doesn’t leave much time for junk.
Why people suck at making smoothies
Most people are alright when it comes to the salad. But there’s something about the alchemy of throwing a few fruits, ice, liquid, and whatever else into a blender and ending up with a perfectly smooth and delicious drink that causes lots of people to struggle.Since nearly everyone has a blender (I use a Blendtec myself, I suspect that the reason most people don’t make smoothies consistently is that it’s overwhelming. There are too many possible ingredients, and too many variables to tweak to get the proportions just right. And if someone should stumble upon a good recipe, they end up making it so often that they get sick of it and never drink it again.
We need a formula
Over the past few years, I’ve had a smoothie almost every single day. I’ve constantly tweaked it, experimented with new ingredients, and kept track of what worked and what didn’t.What follows is my version of the smoothie genome project. It’s a formula you can follow to create nearly endless variations. And the best part is that the uncertainty has been taken out of it for you. You’ll need to experiment with different flavor combinations, of course, but the guesswork about proportions has largely been removed.
The recipe below specifies general amounts and types of ingredients (like “2 tablespoons binder”) and then below, you are given a menu of several recommended ingredients of each type from which to choose to make your smoothie.
The Perfect Smoothie Formula
(makes 2 smoothies)- 1 soft fruit
- 2 small handfuls frozen or fresh fruit
- 2-4 tablespoons protein powder
- 2 tablespoons binder
- 1.5 tablespoons oil
- 1.5 cups liquid
- 1 tablespoon sweetener (optional, less or more as needed)
- optional superfoods, greens, and other ingredients
- 6 ice cubes (omit if soft fruit is frozen)
Recommended Soft Fruits
- Banana
- Avocado
Recommended Frozen or Fresh Fruits
- Strawberries (you can leave the greens on if you have a powerful blender)
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
- Raspberries
- Peaches
- Mango
- Pineapple
- Hemp
- Sprouted brown rice (tastes chalkier than hemp, but packs more protein per dollar)
- Pea
- Vega Sport (combines all three for complete amino acid profile)
- Lifetime Life’s Basic’s Plant Protein (an affordable hemp, rice, pea, and chia protein blend)
Recommended Binders
- Ground flaxseed
- Almond butter or any nut butter
- Soaked raw almonds (soak for several hours and rinse before using)
- Rolled oats, whole or ground
- Udo’s Wholesome Fast Food
- Flaxseed oil
- Udo’s Blend or other EFA blend
- Hemp oil
- Coconut oil
- Almond, macadamia, or other nut oil
- Water (my favorite)
- Almond milk or other nut milk
- Hemp milk
- Brewed tea
- Honey (not technically vegan)
- Agave nectar (high in fructose, so choose this only before workouts)
- Stevia (sugar-free natural sweetener, the amount needed will vary by brand)
- Cacao nibs (1-2 tablespoons)
- Carob chips (1-2 tablespoons)
- Ground organic cinnamon (1-2 teaspoons)
- Chia seeds, whole or ground (1-2 tablespoons)
- Greens powder (1-2 teaspoons)
- Whole spinach leaves (1-2 handfuls)
- Maca powder (1-2 teaspoons)
- Jalapeno pepper, seeds and stem removed (one small pepper)
- Ground cayenne pepper (small pinch)
- Sea salt (pinch)
- Lemon or lime juice (1 tablespoon)
Also, note that which ingredients you use from one category often dictate how much you need from another. For example, if you’re using avocado instead of banana as your soft fruit, you’ll need more sweetener than you would with the banana, and you’ll probably want to go light on other fatty ingredients, since avocado provides plenty of good fats.
So be creative, and don’t worry if at first you like more of the sweet ingredients and not so much of the healthier ones. Over time as you eat less and less processed and sugary foods, your tastes will change and you’ll actually crave the healthy stuff.
PS – This is an excerpt from my vegetarian guide to your first marathon.
PPS – If you like the formula idea, check out the Ultimate Energy Bar Formula!
31 Action-Focused Days to Take Charge of Your Life
The actions include concrete, practical steps like:
- Find and start your anchor habit
- Create a “Victories” list
- Decide what must change and what you will no longer tolerate
- Find the motivation and inspiration to think big
- Set massive, “unrealistic” and obsession-worthy goals (and understand why they’re the ones you’re most likely to achieve)
- Decide who you need to become
- Install the habits to ensure you follow through on your plans
- Figure out where your time is going, using the 80/20 principle, and learning to say “no” to create more time than you ever knew you had
- Break through the procrastination that holds you back
- Upgrade your energy, environment, and mindset to remove barriers to creativity and action
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