Smoothies! One of the most beloved healthy-living cliches, they sounds like a simple, quick way to get in a healthy meal or snack. And they can be! That said, two of the biggest nutrition mistakes I see clients make involve smoothies.

Mistake #1 : Packing too many healthy-but-caloric ingredients into the blender

Mistake #2: Skipping protein in meal-replacement smoothies or after workouts

Another way of looking at it is that many people, without realizing it, are making a meal-sized snack, or a snack-sized meal. Proper nutrition is important for fueling for exercise and for recovering after.

Speaking of workout fuel, have you entered my Chia Warrior Bar giveaway yet? You still have until tomorrow night! 

I was recently interviewed for a FitnessGoals article about the perfect pre-workout smoothie, where I share a few recipe ideas. If you’re working out shortly after sipping that smoothie (less than a hour), you can get away with a simple combo of fruit and milk,maybe half a scoop of your go-to protein powder if you’re using non-dairy milk or coconut water. If it’s going to be a few hours, then you want to make sure you’ve  got some protein in there.
For snack smoothies, I like to keep it to one cup fruit max. Here’s a green version as well as a pumpkin pie version back from when I didn’t have problems eating tree nuts. I would call them the good old days, but it was actually, like, the most unhappy time in my life, so hey. I’d rather be happy and have to stick to peanut butter and dairy instead of almond-everything ; )

*Here’s a good example of a post-workout snack smoothie, where you’re getting in a mix of carbs and protein without going overboard on calories.

*When it comes to post-workout and meal-sized smoothies, here’s one of my all-time favorite recipes. You can customize by mixing up what you put on top.

*You can also make it even more of a meal by blending in some cereal. If you don’t eat cold cereal, raw or soaked oats work too. Sounds weird, but I swear it’s good!

*When you need a little caffeine and don’t have time for breakfast and coffee, this mocha smoothie works great!

Do you like smoothies? What’s your favorite?