By Kathy Day, with Mary Pate of Powerful Living Health Coaching
Looking for a fun and easy way to start eating healthier this spring? Want to get some friends together to join you? Then how about organizing a “Smoothie Challenge” with some of your favorite people. This can be done by setting up a private group on Facebook or by group email. Decide if one person is going to do the daily posting, or if you want to break it up so that each person is assigned to post on a different day. If you want, gather some prizes and then give rewards for participants who comment or post during the challenge.
Mary Pate is the owner of Powerful Living Health Coaching in Anchorage and she offered to share her advice and some of her favorite recipes. Pate feels it’s a great idea to have a smoothie as one of your meals each day. Smoothies are a quick and easy way to get lots of nutrients into one meal. If you don’t really like eating vegetables or other healthy ingredients, you can hide them easily in a smoothie. The other great thing about having a smoothie each day is that it fills you up, so you won’t be inclined to snack in between meals. Make smoothies with the right things and you will feel better, and you might even lose some weight.
For purposes of these recipes, we suggest using the Complete smoothie mix by Juice Plus which is a product that Pate recommends and sells through her business. Contact her at mpate.jp@gci.net or call/text her at 907-351-4554 to purchase some Complete. Or, use your favorite protein powder from Costco, Target or other retail locations. Just be sure to do some research on protein powders and buy a brand that has a low amount of sugar (every 4 grams is 1 tsp. of sugar), lots of fiber, good quality protein and stay away from artificial sweeteners.
Let’s face it, eating healthy can be overwhelming. There are so many opinions about what is healthy – low carb, low fat, low calorie, paleo, keto, intermittent fasting, etc. On top of that, everyone’s body is different. Smoothies are a great solution because you can add protein or fat, skip the fruits, try all veggies or just experiment with what makes you feel stronger and satisfied.
Once you do your smoothie challenge, we hope you’ll come back and give us some feedback and let us know what did and did not work. Post your pictures, too!
Grocery list: Vanilla and chocolate protein powder, almond milk (unsweetened), peppermint extract, spinach, bananas, peanut butter or PB2 (found in the health section at your grocery store or Costco), frozen berries, chia seeds, honey, flaxseed, cinnamon, pineapple, ice. Use your blender or a smoothie bullet to blend ingredients.
