Tips for a basic smoothie!

Have you ever been stopped by TSA to have your bag searched at the airport?

You’re in full robot mode, going through the motions like you’re on Seinfeld trying to get soup, trying not to alarm anyone or forget something in your pocket. Despite your efforts, you see them pull your bag off the belt and take it to the side.

I’ve had this happen at least 3 times and in one instance 11 years ago, I was on my way to Florida and when the TSA agent unzipped my bag, they found…the base of a blender.

I smile sheepishly, my bag is returned to me, and I continue on my journey to spend an extended weekend learning all about smoothies and “food healing”.

I’d learned about the food healing certification while at a continued education class for my massage license and even though I’d been making smoothies at home for many years, I was ready to take my smoothies up a notch or 20.

This class promised to elevate my smoothie-making and teach me on a deeper level about why they were good and how they could benefit our health. I really downplayed the messaging there, it was borderline cult-level “without these smoothies you will suffer and be unable to know vibrant health” kind of stuff. *insert cringe*

It’s one of those tricky things, a double-edged sword of sorts. I don’t know if I’d be right here in my life and in my work without having gone down the raggedy rabbit hole of orthorexia that was really set ablaze by this food-healing class in Florida. And, those can be some cringe memories to revisit. We all have cringe memories, right?

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Now that I’ve recovered from orthorexia and come to find food neutrality, balance with my eating, and recognize that there are so many things that factor into overall health than just what we eat, I can be hesitant to talk a lot about smoothies because I was a bit (a lot) of a zealot about them for a while.

This inkling towards “throwing the baby (smoothies) out with the bathwater (things about that class that I no longer align with)” is something that also goes along with letting go of the dieting. We wonder if we should have zero framework, rules, and values about eating if we are to remove ourselves from the clutches of diet culture. What I have found, with my own journey and my clients, is that we do get to keep what serves us, and we get to determine what that is, for ourselves. (side note, this can be a big part of what I help my clients with, through my process of learning how to Eat On Purpose).

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Let’s get to the Three Things!

a: what I kept from my smoothie mania days:

smoothies can be an easy way to get more fruit and vegetables into your diet.

it’s the miracle of blending together things that you might not pair otherwise with delicious results! you can hide things in them to help people who don’t like certain foods include them in their diets. I did this a lot when my son was younger, he had his first smoothie around age 9 months old.

if I’m not in the mood to make a salad, I can quickly chop and blend plants together to serve my family fresh food with little fuss. smoothies can be versatile, fun, and a great way to mix up your veggie intake.

2: what I left behind:

-the idea that smoothies are totally health-protective.

there’s no disputing that having a diet that includes fresh fruit and vegetables is a positive thing for health and well-being. but we give food too much credit, ask too much of it if we expect it to be actual magic in our bodies. the fiber can help you poop, the vitamins and minerals will benefit the bodily processes that keep us functioning, and the flavors will delight our tongues! and, there is no food that will let us totally avoid the real things that come along with being a human in a body, like illness and change.

I can sometimes find myself making a smoothie to try to control health outcomes and when I do, I respond to myself with compassion. of course we want to keep everyone close to us as well as possible. of course we want to protect people from illness. that we can really do that is a myth though, and I remind myself of what I can do: love my people, share meals with them that we enjoy, expand my view of well-being beyond food, and work hard to decrease the harm of disordered eating and diet dogma. healthy eating is not without its benefits but when the fears tip towards hypervigilance and obsession, it’s time to reassess, get grounded, and assess what activated those fears.

-smoothies are also not a whole meal, or a replacement for a meal unless you really beef it up with protein and fat.

-also-if you have digestion that is moving too quickly, smoothies will likely not be great for you until you can do some soothing of your system, so be aware of that.

d: My go-to standard many-times-per-week smoothie recipe:

12 ounces of water

3/4 -1 cup pineapple

1/2 cucumber

1 large carrot

large knob of ginger

1/2 lemon, with zest removed

1/2-whole bunch of greens like kale or spinach.

small chunk of raw beet

blend it all together with ice if you’d like and enjoy! this makes three 8-ounce smoothies.

optional to add to thicken: fresh or frozen cauliflower, frozen mango, banana, or avocado. I’m on a mango kick lately. I don’t add avocado because it doesn’t agree well with my belly and I don’t add bananas because I find the flavor overpowering, like celery. I like cauliflower though and don’t find that it alters the flavor at all. I used to use apples but I just like pineapple more. and that’s all the reason needed, ya know?

other recipes if you want to have a little razzle dazzle: beware of food-shaming language in some links! have the cereal and the real orange julius if you so desire!

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Smoothie that is LEGIT.

Orange Julius copycat that is super tasty!

Pumpkin Pie Green Smoothie is a nice seasonal choice!

Almond Cherry Smoothie that I’ll be making soon.

Thank you so much for reading! Let me know if you blend anything up!

this is how I love

Melissa