The Ultimate Healthy Smoothie to Kick off Your Day
You are juggling a lot. I know you are. And I’m guessing you probably want to put energizing and healing nutrients into your body. But if you’re anything like me, even the idea of “eating healthy” can feel so overwhelming, especially when your life already feels like a tightrope balancing act.
If you find yourself wanting to eat better but have limited time and energy, I have a simple solution for you! It will allow you to get in fruits, veggies, healthy fat, and protein first thing in the morning, as well as set the tone for an energized, productive, positive-choices kind of day.
Sound pretty good? Let’s go!
Meet the “Super Shake”
You, my friend, are about to land at the intersection between healthy and convenient.
Super Shakes are basically a hulked-out smoothie. With little effort, you can get in a serving or two of vegetables, fruit, healthy fat, and protein. It almost feels like cheating. Well, almost.
The best part? These mega smoothies follow a simple plug-n-chug formula that is totally customizable to your preferences and taste.
“Super Shakes” were originally created by Precision Nutrition, an awesome nutrition research and coaching company. They created a very helpful visual of the Super Shake plug and chug formula here. I highly recommend printing it out and sticking it on your fridge, it’s so helpful.
How to make a Super Shake:
Use a decent blender
I have a Blendtec and absolutely love it but also don’t deny that they are way expensive. However, they typically come with a 7-year warranty and work so incredibly well.
If you are looking for a cheaper option, I have heard good things about the Magic Bullet personal blender as well.
Whatever you choose, just ensure it doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out every time you try to make a smoothie, or else you will never use it.
Choose a liquid
You can use any kind of milk or water. You could choose cow’s milk or alternative milk, like almond or soy. You could also use juice, but be aware that it will ramp up the sugar content a lot without adding fiber. Fruit juice is basically a bunch of sugar (even when there are “no added sugars”) without fiber. However, keep a “good, better, best” mentality here. If you’re currently eating a breakfast bagel from McDonald’s every morning and eating a juice-based smoothie would help you pivot, then heck yes choose juice.
Choose a protein powder
Protein powder can be really expensive and usually lasts a long time so I would recommend trying samples or buying a very small quantity at first.
Personally, I really like Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard 100% Vanilla Ice Cream Protein Powder from Costco.
I have also tried Orgain Organic Vanilla protein powder, also from Costco. In my humble opinion, it tastes truly awful.
Choose a veggie
The world is your oyster, however, I pretty much always stick with spinach because even though it hijacks the color of the smoothie, you really can’t taste it. I really don’t enjoy tasting vegetables in my smoothie and anyone that does is trying to make a statement, haha. Jokes, jokes.
Choose a fruit
Bananas are great for adding a creamy texture. However, I don’t like to put in more than one in almost any circumstance, or else it gets a little, how would I describe it? Gaggy. Unless they are frozen, then the gag factor is out. I also will sometimes also add frozen berries, such as raspberries or strawberries.
Choose a fat
I usually throw in ground flaxseed or some crushed walnuts (pre-crushed because who has time to chop walnuts?). Honestly, I can’t taste them at all in the smoothie (I mean I don’t think I would mind if I could, they’re walnuts). If you’re allergic to nuts you could use hemp hearts (these do have a distinct taste so use sparingly at first) or chia seeds.
Optional: Choose a topper
I usually don’t do this simply because I am plenty satisfied with the above elements in my smoothie, but you could add some greek yogurt, little bits of dark chocolate, some seasoning, etc. just a little something to zhuzh things up if you’re feeling it.
There you have it! A super positive, healthy, and convenient way to get in some fantastic nutrients in an enjoyable way. Literally, you can drink some variation of a Super Shake every morning if you want. It’s balanced, satisfying, and will set a sunny tone for your day. I hope this will help your breakfasts become easy, healthy, and basically automatic.
Happy blending!