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W30 approved smoothie?


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I hate to bag on somebody going through the journey, but they lost me at "pinch of spinach."

We did smoothies almost the entirerity of our Whole30, but they looked more like this:

1/2 cup of coconut milk or coconut cream

1 whole egg

1 tablespoon egg whites

1/2 tablespoon almond butter

cup of frozen berries (we liked blueberries and strawberries, but did cherries, blackberries, raspberries, etc.)

1/2 a banana

a HUGE handful of something green (typically spinach, but lately more and more kale)

Cinnamon

That is a ton of calories, but my thought was always: "it's breakfast and I just didn't eat for 9 hours." We typically had a morning workout as well and did these right after.

(This is one serving, double it all for two people).

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You are right that this smoothie is not Whole30-compliant, but it gives us an opportunity to discuss several issues. One is the use of coconut milk from a carton as shown in the picture. No coconut milk in a carton is Whole30-compliant. The stuff in a carton comes with additives that should be avoided. The second problem is the use of juices as the material of the smoothie. It would be okay to add apples, carrots, or beets, but using the juices to make a drink is like drinking the juice as a drink. Drinking a cup of juice is not a Whole30 kind of thing to do. It is okay to use some apple juice as a sweetener, but not as a drink. Also, the recipe warns against adding more than a pinch of spinach (which is surprisingly sweet in a smoothie) to avoid making it taste like wood chips. Please! With the big load of fruit in this smoothie, you could put a ton of spinach or kale in the mix and still get an extremely sweet drink.

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I used to do smoothies quite often for breakfast... usually a combination of blueberries, banana, chocolate whey protein, full fat greek yogurt, almond butter, ice, and water. They were delicious, but I found that I leaned out some (3-4 lbs) over the course of a month or two just by switching from that staple to real foods for breakfast. It really is true that drinking calories can make it tougher to drop excess weight.

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I think this a good time to mention, as well, that not every Whole30 on a blog out there is actually a Whole30. I, like Dan, hate to knock on a fellow traveler, but this blog especially (I've seen more than one of their posts) uses an incredibly liberal standard to judge the Whole30. And, while it may be restrictive or challenging to the poster (and props to them for making changes), it is definitely not a standard by which to measure your W30.

I'm fairly certain they also have a post for W30 Banana Muffins....

#missingthepoint

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Do you know I actually felt aggreived on behalf of Mellissa & Dallas that people out there are totally mis-represnting their programme. I think I will say something, stir some paleo pot :D

I find a LOT of paleo baking on pinterest, in fact some people have only "treats" on their "paleo" boards, #missingthepoint indeed Robin!

eta so I was a busybody and stuck my oar in, half expecting to get flamed, but they were very nice :)

Derval, thanks for the head's up! i had no idea. I will work on getting my images / ingredients changed ASAP!

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  • 2 weeks later...

New here... I'm on day 26 for the whole 30 and have been tracking/logging my progress on my blog daily (www.carljavier.net). My wife and I were given a recipe for a smoothie and before I got in this forum I would have the smoothie about 5 days a week. Now, should I completely avoid it and restart my whole 30? I didn't feel it was that bad. It was mid-morning meal if you call it that because my day starts so early, 6:30am. We call it the "green monster smoothie".

Ingredients:

Flash frozen whole fruits (Costco bag) (roughly 1-cup)

  • Papaya
  • Mango
  • Pineapple
  • Strawberries
  • 3/4 of a medium banana
  • 2 handfuls of spinach
  • 1-cup of water

All blended together in a magic bullet. So is this too much fruit in my diet? I then proceed to have some fresh berries after I eat lunch (protein and veggies) and maybe half a mango and some kiwis after dinner (more protein and veggies). Most meals can be found on my blog.

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I think that this is a prime example of "some Fruit" being open to interpretation! For people like me who come off of a Weight Watchers diet where UNLIMITED amounts of fruit are ENCOURAGED!! "some fruit" is definitely more than others might consider. I had to learn this lesson as well after regularly eating some 4 servings of fruit per day..

Not to be critical but its just kind of vague for beginners, and like all of us are told, read your body, and see how it reacts....

Honestly if this person is seeing good results from her whole30, i'm leaning more towards "hey its a lot better than a lot of other options out there", but if this person is constantly fighting sugar addictions, then yeah its a bad idea.

Just my two cents.. im obviously no expert, but i see where they're coming from.

PS: im still trying to learn exactly how much "some fruit" is right for my body.... though i've limited it now to 1-2 servings.

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  • 2 weeks later...

c29-

Sorry I didn't jump in sooner! There's no reason to start over because of the smoothie - it won't have a necessarily detrimental effect on the process of the W30 in your body. There are a few reasons we recommend avoiding liquid foods (like smoothies):

1. Your body is designed to process liquid and food differently and combining the two can confuse processes a bit

2. It's really easy to get a lot of fruit in a smoothie. Most people end up with more in a smoothie than they could or would eat normally in one sitting.

3. We want you to establish a habit of eating real, whole foods instead of convenience foods.

Hope that helps, and that you're enjoying your W30!

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New here... I'm on day 26 for the whole 30 and have been tracking/logging my progress on my blog daily (www.carljavier.net). My wife and I were given a recipe for a smoothie and before I got in this forum I would have the smoothie about 5 days a week. Now, should I completely avoid it and restart my whole 30? I didn't feel it was that bad. It was mid-morning meal if you call it that because my day starts so early, 6:30am. We call it the "green monster smoothie".

Ingredients:

Flash frozen whole fruits (Costco bag) (roughly 1-cup)

  • Papaya
  • Mango
  • Pineapple
  • Strawberries
  • 3/4 of a medium banana
  • 2 handfuls of spinach
  • 1-cup of water

All blended together in a magic bullet. So is this too much fruit in my diet? I then proceed to have some fresh berries after I eat lunch (protein and veggies) and maybe half a mango and some kiwis after dinner (more protein and veggies). Most meals can be found on my blog.

A good way to decide if this is too much fruit...Sit down and eat each piece individually...does it seem like too much? does it push other things off your plate like protein and veggies? If your answered no to both questions...then I would say that this is ok for you.

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  • 2 months later...
  • Moderators

I've found the Andi nutrition scores on fruits and vegetables that you can see posted in Whole Foods helpful in making decisions about what to eat. The top score is 1000. Kale scores 1000 and maybe a few other greens. I don't think any fruit scores above 150. Basically, vegetables have a generally high Andi score, while fruits have a comparatively low score. So any time you eat fruit instead of vegetables, you are getting less nutrition than you could be eating. This isn't calories. It's the nutritional substance of the food. What we eat makes us more healthy or less healthy. Veggies make us more healthy than fruit by a long shot.

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I enjoy making a green blender drink each morning for my husband and myself. I didn't during my W30 because I wanted to get the full bennies of the program. Now that I'm done with my W30, I'm back to our morning juice. I don't like the term "smoothie" because it usually means sweet with tons of fruit and/or full of empty calories.

Romulan Blood

2 tall servings

2 inch chunk of root ginger

1/2 English cucumber

1 kiwi fruit

handful of fresh herbs, I like mint or parsley

lots and lots of fresh spinach

1 cup of water and a handful of ice cubes

Everything into the VitaMix and blend on 10 until everything is liquefied and then on high for 30 seconds.

It's so refreshing and energizing!

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I've seen this blogger's pictures on Instagram. There are so many things on instagram that are tagged with the whole30 hashtag that are SWYPO or something similar. I just want to scream!!! I don't want to be the hashtag police, but people are giving out very misleading information on Instagram.

******

Check this out on her banana muffin blog post--

Andrew Trevors said...

You do realize that there is no such thing as a Whole30 approved muffin, right? It is right on the Whole30 guidelines website ... no Paleo-ifying desserts/baked goods/etc. Today's Letters said...

andrew, re: concept, yes. re: ingredients, no. clear conscience here eating whole30 approved ingredients, even thought the website encourages whole30 folks to try and not recreate baked goods or desserts.

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And I posted on the smoothie one but he did nothing about it....

he/she just doesn't get it. I reckon M&D need to get on that site and get them to stop sullying their programme.

Derval said...

It looks good & tasty and all but definitely does not fit in to Whole30 guidelines, because of the carton of the coconut milk and the fruit juice. May 15, 2012 4:38 AM <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/07806024118492673623" rel="nofollow">Today's Letters said...

Derval, thanks for the head's up! i had no idea. I will work on getting my images / ingredients changed ASAP! May 15, 2012 7:23 AM

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Oh and the ice-cream??? puhlease....and in the comments "My new husband and I have been doing the Whole30 with you and this just SAVED MY DAY. I have such a sweet tooth (LOVE sour patch kids myself), and this recipe was truly delicious"

They are just leading people astray by letting them belive that it's just about the ingredients, it's not.

I'm sure that couple have a great sex (with their pants on) life ;):lol:

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Oh ladies, you have no idea how I wish I could be the hashtag police. Sometimes, I want to just jump in there and give them a good what for. And you all should feel free to (kindly, respectfully, and without drama) refer them, and any readers following along, to the program guidelines whenever appropriate. But, in the end, we can't make everyone follow the rules (or I'd be working overtime!). We can spread the Good Food word and help as many people as we can make better choices every day.

ETA: Not that I expect anyone reading this to go out and purposely cause strife, but I want to reiterate that helping people make better choices is more important to us than policing what folks eat. We'd hate for anyone to go out there and cause drama for the sake of our name. That doesn't look good on you, us, or anyone else involved. :0)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some mornings I only have time for a smoothie. I make the same one 2x a week at least. and yes I could sit down and eat this but i don't have time so I throw it in my bullet and take it to go and drink it on my way to work. I feel I am Whole30 Compliant...or thought I was.

1/2 cup fresh blueberries, 4 strawberries, 1 cup spinach, 1/4 cup coconut milk (thai), 1 T vanilla pure extract, 1 cup water and enough ice cubes to give it the smoothie texture. It holds me over til lunch. i guess I didn't read the part about not having smoothies on the Whole 30. I am just starting week 2. Week 1 was a BI**H!!!

Breakfast during the week is a real problem for me. When you cut out all the usual breakfast foods (oatmeal, english muffin, grits, cream of wheat, bagels) it is hard for me to find substitutes. i CAN"T eat eggs everyday and even 1 or 2x a week is hard for me. I need grab and go breakfast.

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Some mornings I only have time for a smoothie. I make the same one 2x a week at least. and yes I could sit down and eat this but i don't have time so I throw it in my bullet and take it to go and drink it on my way to work. I feel I am Whole30 Compliant...or thought I was.

1/2 cup fresh blueberries, 4 strawberries, 1 cup spinach, 1/4 cup coconut milk (thai), 1 T vanilla pure extract, 1 cup water and enough ice cubes to give it the smoothie texture. It holds me over til lunch. i guess I didn't read the part about not having smoothies on the Whole 30. I am just starting week 2. Week 1 was a BI**H!!!

Breakfast during the week is a real problem for me. When you cut out all the usual breakfast foods (oatmeal, english muffin, grits, cream of wheat, bagels) it is hard for me to find substitutes. i CAN"T eat eggs everyday and even 1 or 2x a week is hard for me. I need grab and go breakfast.

I am lucky in that I ADORE (yes adore) my pastured eggs in the morning. I have 2 or 3 baked eggs every morning. I plop them on top of whatever leftover veggie from the night before or I quickly saute some spinach. When I simply have to run out the door with breakfast in my hand, I wrap it all up in a big lettuce leaf. I try really hard not to do that so that I am eating mindfully and somewhat slowly (eating fast is a very bad habit that I constrantly am trying to break), but in a pinch, it works. I usually sprinkle it with trader joes jalapeno hot sauce when I take it to go...taste like a yummy breakfast treat to me.

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Whenever I don't have time to eat breakfast at home, I just put it in a to-go container & eat it at my desk once I get to work. I know it's not optimal "eating within 1 hr of waking" but I'm getting a healthy breakfast in. :) I think I only did that a couple of times during my W30.

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I am lucky in that I ADORE (yes adore) my pastured eggs in the morning. I have 2 or 3 baked eggs every morning. I plop them on top of whatever leftover veggie from the night before or I quickly saute some spinach. When I simply have to run out the door with breakfast in my hand, I wrap it all up in a big lettuce leaf. I try really hard not to do that so that I am eating mindfully and somewhat slowly (eating fast is a very bad habit that I constrantly am trying to break), but in a pinch, it works. I usually sprinkle it with trader joes jalapeno hot sauce when I take it to go...taste like a yummy breakfast treat to me.

I wish I like eggs as much as you...They are so easy to have. The only way I like them is scrambled and even then I don't put both yolks in. (I don't like the yolk) or in an omlete but dont' know if i can stomach without cheese! LOL I am going to try some of these yummy recipes. Baby steps but I am getting there:-)

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I wish I like eggs as much as you...They are so easy to have. The only way I like them is scrambled and even then I don't put both yolks in. (I don't like the yolk) or in an omlete but dont' know if i can stomach without cheese! LOL I am going to try some of these yummy recipes. Baby steps but I am getting there:-)

Maybe you will grow to like them. I'd definitely give the yolks another try. So much of their nutrition is in that yellow globe. :)

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Maybe you will grow to like them. I'd definitely give the yolks another try. So much of their nutrition is in that yellow globe. :)

I think I just got a little sick! LOL I know I will NEVER eat the yolk alone! I think about it and I gag. look at it I gag. The only way I can eat an egg is beaten severely!! or my mom used to say I crucified them. And they have to be cooked ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Egg yolks, lima beans and liver will always be a gagger for me. Just can't get past that, but thanks anyway. I made some delish breakfast sausage last night and froze about 20 patties. That will be a good grab and go protien.

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I am quite confused about the whole fruit/smoothie issue. I thought that berries and melon and things are good for you, Dr Cordain certainly recommends them for breakfast with proteins in his eating plan which we have been following for some time. I often have an egg and some meat or fish at home (early, kids up early) and then grab some coffee and a smoothie for mid morning. Maybe its different here in the UK but the fresh smoothies I buy contain (my fave 2 choices) 1. Blueberry smoothie is a small handful of blueberries, fresh raw ginger chunk, half a banana and a dash of apple juice to thin it out or 2. raspberry and mango smoothie, small handful of raspberries, small handful of mango chunks and a dash of apple juice. How bad can that be?

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