Smoothies.

Many of you have had my emails on this, and as always there are naysayers, of course, from those who haven't tried them (everyone who has has of course has liked them). There are many reasons for the smoothies, for you as the client, to get fruit and vegetables a couple of times a day more than you're getting, more protein, more food into your system to stimulate your metabolism (hence increase fat loss). All you need is a blender, 2 shakers and a few ingredients and you have a meal replacement (handy for when you're at your desk) during work and a post workout shake, full of vitamins, minerals and protein!

Here is an ingredient list for your smoothies. . .

1: Mixed berries, about a handful
apple x1
cinnamon powder
banana x1
nuts (walnuts, cashews, peanuts, but unsalted and raw), little less than a handful
cherry flavoured low fat, low carb yoghurt, about quarter of a 1kg tub
low fat cottage cheese, about half a tub
broccoli, couple of stems
cherry tomatoes, about a handful
water

This should top your blender up, you can substitute fruit for others you like, just try to make the flavours complimentary. When you're making them, chuck some skim milk powder in the one you plan to use for  your post workout shake, this will give it some more carbs and protein to help replenish depleted muscles after a workout, this will speed up recovery, stimulate metabolism and help you drop some fat. Do I need to do an article on the benefits of post workout shakes? Because we're talking make or break with these things, if you're not having a high protein/ carb meal after your weight training workout, stop training right now!
Now these are obviously the best options for people who work hard and then go straight to training, easy to carry, easy to store and they give the body all it needs. Honestly, this is a no brainer, find what works for you, but make this happen, when I hear clients not eating right, I roll my eyes because there is NO excuse. I don't care how much you work, how tired you are, what activities you have on, if you can't spend 10 minutes at night in front of a blender, then you have bigger issues.

If you're having 6 meals a day and you make 2 of these, that's 2 meals covered right there, quick to prepare and it gives you so much. Some of you have commented on the taste? That you don't like specific ingredients? Fine, find what works for you, don't like dairy? Replace it with a protein supplement, the point is not any one of the ingredients are essential but the sum of the parts make it worth it. I get my protein from a site called www.myopure.com.au in my experience they sell the cheapest Whey Protein Isolate (WPI), pick up a couple of kgs an you have NO excuse not to be getting all your protein and nutrient values!

If you're doing the aforementioned smoothies already, and you have an aversion to eating vegetables as I do, you might like to consider a vegetable smoothy, for most of you drinking one of these will not be a problem as vegetables don't make you gag (as they do me). I put in mine, though you don't have to put in yours:

x1 carrot
1/2 cup corn
1/2 cup peas
1/3 cucumber
handful of alfalfa
couple of stems of broccoli
cherry tomatoes
handful of spinach
handful of beans

 You end up with the above. They taste like grass, but they're likely to be more vegetables than you could or would consume in a day, as long as you vary the ingredients you will get a raft of benefits.

Seriously guys, there's a reason I've been harping on about this for so long . If I could get you eating 2 of these a day and not touch the rest of your diet, that would still represent a huge step in the right direction!