Smarter Fitter Smoothies

By Monica Shaw

This book is all about how to make delicious healthy fruit and vegetable blends that will rock your world and make you feel awesome! All of the smoothie recipes are vegan, dairy free, soy-free and gluten-free and contain a formulated blend of fruit AND vegetables designed to keep you satisfied and help encourage you to achieve your fitness goals, be it weight loss or simply a healthier approach to living. Just because there’s vegetables in the smoothies doesn’t mean they taste like vegetables - the smoothies in this book taste like sweet, creamy, happy wholesome goodness.

This book is for anyone who appreciates whole, natural ingredients in the food they eat. It’s also for anyone who is looking for a different approach to their breakfasts and snacks. A diet that includes fresh fruit and vegetable smoothies can help with weight loss and encourage better overall health, but the smoothies need to have a certain ratio of fruits and vegetables to make them effective - Smarter Fitter Smoothies will show you the way!

This book is perfect for anyone who’s dairy-free, soy-free or gluten-free. Looking for vegan smoothies or paleo smoothies? All of my smoothies fit the bill. It’s got greens smoothies too, and red ones, and purple ones. It really is a smoothie book for everyone!

Loaded with fruit and vegetables, these smoothies are packed with nutrients, vitamins, healthy fats and are low on sugar to keep you satisfied without the sugar crashes that many other smoothies cause. They’re also delicious, easy to make and fun to drink. Think recipes like Pumpkin Pie, Shamrock Shake, Pear and Avocado Thickie and a whole lot more.

In addition to recipes, the book also includes

* Health benefits of smoothies
* Money-saving tips and time-saving tips
* Nutritional information for all of the smoothie recipes
* How to improvise delicious smoothies of your own

Smarter Fitter Smoothies will have you thinking about breakfast and snacks in a whole new way. Prepare to feel awesome. And prepare to get hooked on smoothies!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monica Shaw
• Release date: Mar 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310670374

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

It started with breakfast.

We've all had those moments when it feels like we've over-indulged. Christmas parties...summer holidays...even just a few days in a row of rich food, sugary desserts and boozy elixirs can leave the body feeling like it needs a reset.

That's exactly how I was feeling last summer, perhaps one of the most joyous, celebratory summers of my life (no regrets!), but it left me feeling tired in the head and soft around the edges. This feeling inspired me to challenge myself to three weeks of clean eating. So I did some reading and set some ground rules based on what I learned. For starters, I would only eat food that was:

• Dairy-free

• Gluten-free

• Sugar-free

• Soy-free

• Free of processed ingredients

I also set this ground rule:

• Breakfast should be easy to digest and ideally liquid.

The first thing that came to mind? Smoothies!

How to convert a smoothie skeptic: go DIY.

I've never liked the idea of drinking my calories (unless there's craft beer or nice wine on the table) and I was worried that I'd find breakfast smoothies boring. But after a couple days, I realized that a good breakfast smoothie didn't making me feel like I was drinking my breakfast at all. In fact, a good smoothie is actually satisfying and interesting enough to qualify as food.

A lot of this comes down to improvising: I invented my own smoothies based on the ground rules above (and later share how you can improvise smoothies, too). This was huge fun! Mentally, the creativity was a rush and I felt really good about kick-starting my day with pure, whole food ingredients. With high-fiber fruits, vegetables and nuts, no protein powders or supplements were required (more on this later!).

Physically, I felt like a rock star. It was surprising how satisfying a breakfast smoothie could be - satisfying, but without the lethargy or late morning slump I've experienced with other breakfast foods. All of this awesome-feeling was enough to get me hooked on breakfast smoothies.

The other nice thing about smoothies is they're portable. I don't recommend eating at your desk or in the car, but if you must, a smoothie can make the experience all the more enjoyable.

Smoothies remain a staple of my breakfast repertoire and I find it great fun creating smoothie concoctions. I still have a smoothie for breakfast on most days, and often have a mid-afternoon perk me up smoothie to see me through until dinner.

I hope this book helps you on your way to creating delicious smoothies that make you feel awesome, too.

Why Smarter Fitter?

I've called this book (and my blog) Smarter Fitter because the phrase pretty much sums up my approach to living: use your brain, learn stuff, and use your new-found smarts to achieve