Smoothies.

Smoothies are cool. I love smoothies. They also can be very healthy. I haven't yet learned the basic skill of green smoothies (even healthier), but I've become pretty good at what I call protein-berry smoothies.

I've been having some of my protein-berry smoothies at least every other day. On the days that I make them I usually have 1-3 glasses, because I make extra incase I have friends or family that want some.

I'm a pretty fit and healthy guy... but because of my weak immune system I started eating much less sugar. One of the ways I did this was by having my sweet, yet processed-sugar-free smoothies. After less than a month I lost 5 pounds. In that month I only had two or three cardio days. I did some weight lifting, but not a lot. I highly doubt I lost muscle mass, so I believe I lost fat. Much thanks to eating probably 1/7th the sugar I used to eat.

I could go on a rant about eating no sugar is awesome and such, but many of you aren't dedicated enough yet or don't have the need to eat nearly no sugar. If you I you should, but can't yet, just cut down one thing at a time... For example if you have a dessert every day, cut down to every other for a month of so, then cut off your supply to soda slowly. Then cut off more desserts for a month... continue on until you are having dessert only once a week and almost no soda. Replace desserts with protein or fruit and veggies. As for soda, water, milk, orange juice, or something much more natural than soda.

Anyway, I'm getting off the main topic: smoothies. Maybe I'll rant some more on a different post about sugar... just not now.

So, what do I put in my smoothie? I usually put in blueberries, strawberries, yogurt, milk, protein powder, honey, and a banana. Once I learn more about green smoothies, I'll make those more. They have a bunch of cool stuff in them.

As for my current smoothie skills (the berry-protein kind) I mainly drink mine for the berry healthiness (berries), the potassium (milk, yogurt, banana), the protein (protein powder, yogurt, milk), and the awesome flavor (honey sweetens it up some while boosting your immune system).

It's quite filling. When Colleen has a full glass she eats half (or less) as much as she usually would for a meal (or doesn't finish the smoothie), I cut off probably 1/5th of my meal, most of which I cut off is sugar. So because of it's filling-ness (I just made that word up), it makes you eat less. Thus, aids in weight loss. It had protein, thus aids in muscle gain and repair. Its all pretty healthy, so that also helps lose weight.

So if you want to find easy ways to lose a little weight, try adding smoothies to your diet. The nice thing about them is that you can change it greatly every batch you make! Beware: if you enjoy fruit greatly, you may become addicted... as have I.

Just a little note, if you don't exercise, then take some of the protein out. You don't really need it. Then again, if you don't exercise, don't expect much weight loss, because you won't get much weight loss without it. My logic is to lose weight: eat healthy, run/bike/swim, and sleep with regular hours, as in 6-10 hours while hitting the sack before 11pm.