Breakfast Fruit Smoothies and Portions (Need Advice)

Divide the calories you get per day by the number of meals you like per day and voila, number of calories per meal. Then make sure you have a good balance of carbs, fat, protein, and fiber.

I'm not a breakfast person either. I'd rather drink my calories in the morning, so I made a smoothie with frozen strawberries [1 cup, no sugar added], 5 oz greek yogurt, strawberry protein powder and almond milk. It's less than three hundred cals and keeps me full and energized for at least three hours.

My protein powder is from Amazon and cost $15 for twenty servings, which lasts about a month. You don't need expensive powder.

This is the most filling meal per calories I have made to date.

kshama2001 wrote: »

This is the most filling meal per calories I have made to date.

wow.. I need to try this!
that is my big complaint about smoothies... they are NOT filling for me... is it the chia? or the flax that adds the something for my chubby belly to do?

I was always a big kid too, and now in my late 20s I'm still working on reaching a healthy weight - so I know how you feel. Ten weeks ago I re-focused on a healthy lifestyle and have lost over 15 lbs. I've learned that it's about small and consistent steps. I would suggest starting exercise now (if you haven't already), even if it's only 10-30 min a few days a week. It's amazing how much of an impact walking on my breaks at work makes a different.

What is difficult for me, is that I viewed exercise as admitting failure. The culture I grew up in didn't include regular exercise for health. Instead it seemed that only unfit people needed exercise. I'm realizing that's not at all the case. I schedule exercise as an appointment for myself and it's helped me stick to it. I highly suggest www.fitnessblender.com for good (free!) at-home workouts. I have bad knees so all the squats they do can be difficult but you can usually go at your own pace with them. They're really good for building endurance and strength.

Luckily I've always loved breakfast. I tend toward making frozen breakfast sandwiches and muffins ahead of time and freezing them so they're quick and easy to take to work. I recently read a book that teaches that we should eat like it matters, meaning you should love what you eat and it must be healthy. It opened my eyes to some of the healthy things I would try to eat, that I didn't really enjoy. So I tried other healthy foods to find ones I love (most recent discovery is persimmons, yum!). It inspired me to be mindful about what I was eating, and that if I didn't like it, I shouldn't eat it. The book is Eat Like it Matters by Marilyn McKenna if you're interested.

On to your question, the basic smoothie recipe I use is:
1/2 c Liquid (coconut water or almond milk)
1 medium banana (usually frozen)
1/2 c frozen fruit (any, I like blueberries a lot)
1 c greens (baby spinach, kale)
1/3 c protein (non-fat plain greek yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, silken tofu)
1 tbs add-in (chia seeds, flax seeds, peanut butter powder)

When I first started I used non-fat greek yogurt for protein, but I would buy it and it wouldn't get used if I didn't feel like smoothies that week because I'm not a big yogurt eater. I do eat 1/2 c of low-fat cottage cheese every morning for protein so I thought I'd try that in my smoothie, and surprisingly it worked. I've never had or tried silken tofu, but if it's something you think you'd like, go for it! I think the important thing is finding what you like and making sure it works for you. Sorry, I have no insight to the protein powder. I tried it once but it didn't stick for me.

I grew up in Michigan and similarly had large quantities of poor food choices. Learning the right portions is really about re-training your brain. MFP taught me how many calories I need and how many calories are in various foods. My #1 suggestion to you would be to buy a food scale. It's a pretty cheap way to ensure yourself accountability and success. I still portion out my cottage cheese every morning, although after a while it should come naturally as to how much one serving is. Long-term I shouldn't need it, but I still need it right now to hold myself accountable.

At first it is hard to keep yourself to only one portion (or however many you need for a meal), but after a while it gets easier. Even though I finish what I portioned for myself and don't feel full, I realized that I don't feel hungry either. It was an important realization for me that I didn't need to eat any more. It's a big transition from the former lifestyle of eating all I wanted to, but it made me feel in control of my food instead of food having control over me.

I port over my nutrition information to Fitbit which analyzes it by % calories per meal as well as % calorie intake as carbs, fat, and protein (I think this is a premium feature though). Fitbit suggests having 30% or fewer of your total calories at dinner when trying to lose weight (which is really hard when most of us have been taught that dinner is the biggest meal of the day). And the calorie composition to be as below:

Protein: 10-35%
Fat: 20-35%
Carbs: 45-65%

I know this is a lot of info, so I hope it's not overwhelming. Feel free to friend me and good luck!
Stephanie

I drink smoothies in the morning b/c it's filling, quick, and it helps me meet my macros, as well as get nutrients I'd normally be missing. I'm someone who loves breakfast, but during the work week, I don't have time to make one. A smoothie takes me 15 minutes from start to finish (I pre-measure everything the evening before).

140g (1 serving) of Market Pantry Antioxidant Blend frozen fruit
8oz of Minute Maid Just 15 Calories Lemonade
85g of spinach
1T of flaxseeds
10g of Eidopro Protein Powder
Plus a splash or two of water to get the more liquid consistency

That's 181 calories, and fills me up until it's time for my post breakfast snack. I don't use a whole scoop of protein powder b/c I can meet my protein macro without using a whole scoop, which saves me calories.

Also, be aware that flaxseeds need to be ground/milled in order for the body to get the nutrients from them. If they're whole seeds, the body can't do much with them. So, you can either buy them already milled or you can buy them whole and grind them yourself with a coffee grinder or food processor. I grind them myself, put them in a airtight, opaque canister, and then put them in the fridge to maintain freshness. If you buy them milled, keep it in the fridge or freezer to maintain freshness and keep it from oxidizing.