All-in-one shake? (simplified diet)

[Luxferre]

Ok, so, I'm looking for something as simple as possible so I can improve my diet without devoting much time. I don't care about what food I have to eat, I just want to get healthy.

Anyhow, I read about shakeology, a meal replacement drink that contains tons of nutrients. I'm not sure it works (surely it's not the same as eating fresh food, right?), but they don't even sell it in my country so that's not an option. I'm looking to get a homemade recipe for it. I would buy a powerful blender and just throw everything in there.

Is that possible? I don't care if it has a bad flavour (although good flavour would be a plus), but I do care about texture (I can't drink a bunch of leaves, it needs to be liquid and drinkable)

That way I would eat meat, fish, eggs, nuts, almonds, etc; but I wouldn't have to worry about fruits and vegetables, as I would drink my blend (or two or three blends; whatever), and that's it. What I need is a trustable recipe.

Thanks in advance. Also, if you can recommend me anything else that can help me to build a healthy diet spending as little time as possible preparing and eating the food I would be grateful. Basically I would like anything I can read regarding a simplified diet.

[IvyW]

check out "the ultimate meal" shake. it taste like ass but its very worth it.
If you mix 2 bananas in with the ultimate meal its not too bad.. It also has a good amount of protein, You can have that for every meal.. But i don't believe in relying on shakes for everything.. so i would recommend also eating your raw whole foods.

[meggarz]

I mix kale, spinach, flaxseed, half a cup of skim milk, a small handful pistachios, and a few strawberries, or blueberries, anything really. You can get creative. Maybe google detox smoothies or green smoothies for wider selections. It's much better served chilled so throw in some ice. They don't take long to make and if you blend enough at one time you can refrigerate the rest to drink for another meal or just sip throughout the day. Sometimes I'll just buy a frozen bag of fruits if I'm not drinking as many and don't want any fresh fruit to go to waste.

[Andrew Gubb]

If you can tolerate bananas, you could do banana/spinach smoothies as your basic meal. That has so many nutrients it's not even funny any more.

So long as it's not much more than 50% of your diet long term I don't think the lack of variety will matter too much. If its at about 50% though, I think the lack of variety will be overshadowed by the immense benefits it has on your body. You can always throw some variety into the mix by changing the fruit around every so often. Like peach/spinach smoothies or whatever. Or have some blended melon sometime. Yum.

I think preprepared syntho-meals must be really bad for you. I don't know, I'm just thinking that. Real food is way better than fake food hands down. I think if you want something staple that's easy to do and requires no originality, a high nutrient solution like that above would be the best option all round.

By the way, a medium banana is about 100 calories. To get a full meal of calories from a smoothie and not feel hungry later you may want to count calories and put in the number of bananas your body will more or less need (say 7). It's a bit more than people are used to, but in smoothie form that's manageable for bananas. Hey, that's part of the reason you get so much nutrients for your calories this way.

[cassiopeia]

Spirulina powder is great as a diet add-on as it is very, very dense in nutrients. It's a meal in itself. Just mix two tablespoons with some apple juice in a blender. I tend to add half a teaspoon of a warming herb like cinnamon or ginger, otherwise the spirulina makes me a little too gassy. Mix in some other stuff too if you want, but spirulina is great not only because it is one of the most super superfoods out there, but since it comes as a powder it lasts for ages. I always buy fruit and veg and forget to eat them so they go rotten, but a tub of spirulina lasts forever.

[Luxferre]

Thanls everyone for the answers. Andrew: how much spinach and how much banana? I mean, what's the ratio so it's drinkable.

[superfoodist]

I'd say the ultimate nutrition packed shake would consist of the following :

Organic Coconut Water
Organic Banana
Organic Powder Spirulina
Organic Powder Chlorella
Organic Raw Cocoa (nibs/powder)
Bee Pollen

Look into those things. Spirulina is one of the most nutrition packed foods on the planet. Bee Pollen is also LOADED with nutrients. Well, everything listed above is. Check it out.

[Andrew Gubb]

Originally Posted by Luxferre

Thanls everyone for the answers. Andrew: how much spinach and how much banana? I mean, what's the ratio so it's drinkable.

I haven't done it too much, as I'm allergic to bananas, but I remember that about 40% spinach and 60% bananas was about right. In one of Boutenko's books, she says you can start there and gradually work towards 60% spinach and 40% bananas as you get used to the taste.

[LauraJane]

I make "green smoothies" in my blender every morning. Here's my fav recipe:

3 large bananas (peeled)
2 medium oranges (peeled – use a knife, cut generously around the edges to remove a lot of the white rind as well as the skin)
1 cup spinach
1/2 cup to 1 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 sprinkle cinnamon

Tastes best if you have a high-speed professional blender, like a Vitamix/Blendtec.

Much better to make them at home yourself. It's not so bad if you make the same thing every morning because then you get into the routine. Also, always rinse out your blender immediately. Don't let it sit otherwise you'll be lazy and not wash it and then your routine gets all out of whack

[cassiopeia]

This thread has actually inspired me. I am not a breakfast person (yesterday it took me 5-6 hours after I woke up to remember to eat!) and my diet is not great, because I am lazy.

So, I've done a bit of shopping on ebay and here are the ingredients I am going to be using in my morning shakes:

Spirulina - This is the 'base', as it is the most whole food of all the ingredients, IMO
Matcha (this is basically green tea on steroids, as you consume a powdered version of the whole leaf, not just the extract. Loads and loads of antioxidants)
Bee pollen
Home-made kefir for ultimate probiotic power and additional nutrients
MSM - which I already take, it has made my hair and nails grow super fast
Cinnamon
And maybe some frozen blueberries, bananas, or any other fruit I have at home.

[firenexx]

The nice thing about this forum is that almost everyone is very knowledgeable about foods and nutrition but the downside (not really a downside) is that in this thread you will get over 9,000 suggestions of various foods and things to put in your smoothie. It would take a long, long time to make that smoothie! Find out what's important to you and what's in your budget. Maybe you could use matcha in your smoothies for a month, then next month use that money to put fresh blueberries in your smoothie (berries are important for antioxidants) then after that you try out chlorella for a while.
Remember that you don't have to make the same exact thing every day. That will get boring, eventually.
Here are some things that come to my mind:

-Do you consume dairy? If you plan on including dairy in your smoothie, try homemade kefir or find a local organic farm that supplies raw milk. Pasteurized, store-bought dairy products are very bad for you and are the opposite of nutritionally dense. Searching for CSAs with your postal code may show some in your area that will provide this. Of course, if you do not eat dairy or the nutritional value of dairy just doesn't make the cut for your dream smoothie, then you don't need to worry.

-Spinach was mentioned above. Don't just do spinach - use different leafy greens. One week try spinach, then try kale, then try something else - there are dozens of varieties of leafy greens. Oh, carrots are good in smoothies - that might sound weird, but they are very sweet, remember - and banana and other flavors are enough to override the "carroty" flavor. And one medium carrot has 110% RDA the plant form of vitamin A.

-Dates and other dried fruits such as prunes and apricots are great for sweetening smoothies, allowing you to put even more raw leafy greens in.

-Bananas are pretty much the essential smoothie base. Try using 6-8 bananas (that's only 600-800 calories, remember.) But diversify your fruits as well. Mangos and pineapples are good. Melons are great! Sometimes I make "applesauce" - I put 8 apples in a blender with a few sticks of Ceylon cinnamon, some nutmeg, ginger, cloves and allspice. Be creative. You don't have to make the same thing every day.

-Some people put a pinch of loose leaf tea in their smoothies for antioxidants and minerals. Matcha was mentioned.

-Be wary of "superfoods." Some of them are certainly good, but they are expensive and I have my doubts about a powder. Sure, 1 teaspoon of camu-camu powder might have 1,000% vitamin C, but I'd rather eat the raw berries, and if I can't get the berries, I'm not paying $14 for 8 ounces of the stuff. My nutrition is important but I'm not rich.

-Herbs and spices! Along with spinach you can put in fresh parsley, basil, etc, which are of course growing in big pots on your windowsill. Why spices? They are PACKED with antioxidants and other important compounds. Cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, basil, parsley, etc. If you find user stanmrak's signature he has a link to his website which has a good amount of info on the antioxidants found in herbs and spices. Some will not work that great in smoothies, but some do and the ones that don't can often be "covered up" by including more sweet fruits or extra dates/other flavors.

-Chia seeds and hemp seeds are pretty darn nutritious, as well as many other seeds. Seeds should be soaked or sprouted before using to increase the availability of the nutrients they contain.

[Sekret Weapon]

The healthiest shake in the world is a Spirulina Shake.

But in order for it to honor its title you will have to use about an ounce of the swampy tasting slime per shake.

A couple or grams are worthless - so break out the big serving spoon

I am glad to hear that you dont care how it tastes because taste is not a virtue of spirulina.

But here is how you can make it taste better:
Drink it with Raw Whole milk ($12 a gallon)
Add flavored protein to it to make it taste more vanilla.
Slam it down

This shake provides you with:
The complete spectrum of Amino Acids
Tons of antioxidents
A complete spectrum of balanced organic minerals.


Spirulina is the healthiest food on this planet as well as the first food on this planet.

Joshua

[cassiopeia]

Originally Posted by Sekret Weapon

The healthiest shake in the world is a Spirulina Shake.

But in order for it to honor its title you will have to use about an ounce of the swampy tasting slime per shake.

A couple or grams are worthless - so break out the big serving spoon

I am glad to hear that you dont care how it tastes because taste is not a virtue of spirulina.

For the past few days I've been drinking an improved version of my spirulina shake and I wish I had done this before as the taste is so different! Before, I'd often gag when drinking spirulina, but now I actually savour the taste!

2 tablespoons of spirulina
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
half a glass of kefir
half a glass of orange juice
2 teaspoons of honey
a handful of frozen raspberries

I think the honey and the raspberries really make the difference in the taste. It's actually so delicious now that I look forward to drinking it!