So, I had a little blip after my hospital escapade but I’m still going strong.

Total lost to date: 23.2 lbs

% to super goal: 18%

Doing the damn thing, I tell you.

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Today I wanted to tell you about one of my new favorite things, which is:

This Ninja personal blender is my new favorite thing. I have the 700 watt version which works well for most stuff I’ve tried blending, except it doesn’t do so great with frozen fruit. I would thaw the fruit a little before blending, or maybe get the more powerful version. This one is currently $45 on Amazon! I THINK you can get additional cups for it but be careful, some of the reviews I read indicated that the lids were wrong or didn’t work with this blender.

What I use it for is to make my morning (and sometimes afternoon!) smoothies!

It comes with two cups with lids (these are really secure, I’ve never had one leak on me). You just blend your smoothie in the cup and go! My morning routine takes like 20 minutes – five minutes to make the smoothie and 15 minutes to read and relax before starting work. It keeps me full easily till lunch or even after!

Here’s what I do:

  1. Fill cup about 1/2 way with fruit or smoothie ingredients.
  2. Add water (I usually fill to about 1/4 of the way up)
  3. Add about 5-6 ice cubes
  4. Blend
  5. Add yogurt (if that’s what I’m using) and protein powder
  6. Blend

Done!

It took me some trial and error to get them how I like them. I found that I needed the water because otherwise they were so thick that I couldn’t drink them easily. Sometimes I add yogurt and sometimes I just have the fruit and protein. Also I found that if I tried blending all the stuff at once it didn’t always get everything.

For protein powder, my favorite I’ve tried so far is Orgain Organic Protein Powder, in Creamy Chocolate Fudge! The serving size is 2 scoops and it’s 150 calories and 21g protein. It tastes really good! I’ve tried a few other brands and this is the most cost effective for best taste and lowest calories. It’s $14 on Amazon (as of this post). It adds a great chocolate flavor to the different fruit combinations I’ve tried!

For yogurt, if I use it, I use 1/2 a container of some sort of Dannon Light & Fit fat-free Greek yogurt. I eat the other half as I have my smoothie. Between the yogurt and the smoothie I get about 35g of protein, and the yogurt is only 80 calories!

Here’s some of the options I tried that I liked. These variations come in at around 280-350 calories depending on the yogurt and fruit I choose. I add protein powder to all of them, so they are chocolatey and fruity!

  • Blueberry, Peach (or Nectarine) and Peach yogurt
  • Mango, Peach, Strawberry, Pineapple, with plain yogurt
  • Strawberry and Strawberry Cheesecake yogurt
  • Banana, Strawberry, and Strawberry Banana yogurt
  • Nectarine and Raspberry with Peach yogurt
  • Peach with Cherry yogurt

I know I’m supposed to use leafy greens too but I haven’t gotten there yet. Maybe I’ll try some in time for my next post!