10 Common Smoothie Mistakes | What NOT to do!

Oh, I got rid of my spoon, come here, come here, come here, hey, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, good job, juicy. Hey HealthNuts, welcome back to my channel. My name's Nikole. If you're new here, hello, welcome to the channel. If you are new here, you may not know that I love me a good smoothie. Mostly green smoothies, that's Cashew in the background with a squeaky toy, Cashew, Cashew, we're filming, we're filming. And you guys have actually titled me the green smoothie queen because I love them that much. And today's video, I thought I would talk about some common mistakes that people are making when they make a smoothie at home. By the way, we actually have a full free downloadable guide to how to make the perfect green smoothie, which I'll have a link down below. You guys can grab that, it's free. You just enter an email and you'll get it right to your inbox. So that is your resource to make the perfect smoothie, but I'm gonna share 10 common mistakes that people are making, or that I think people are making when blending up a smoothie. So let's hop right in. Number one, the first common smoothie mistake, in my opinion, by the way, these are all just in my opinion. I'm not a professional or a doctor or a nutritionist. These are just things that I've learned over the years of making lots of smoothies. So just take what you want, leave what you don't want. But yeah, anyways, the first tip is that I think people are adding in too much boxed nut or seed milk, or just like plant-based milks, or regular milk. I prefer to do more of like a half and half style with my smoothies, so I'll do half nut milk or oat milk, and then I'll do the rest filtered water. You could also do just filtered water. I think it's fine to add water into your smoothies, especially if you're adding fruits like banana or mango, or you're adding in a protein powder. That's gonna give you that milky texture and taste that you want without adding so much boxed plant-based milk. My next tip is to not overdo it with the fruit. I feel like people are adding in way too much fruit into their smoothie. It's making it way too sweet and sugary, and honestly, it's not necessary. You can cut it down. You can use vegetables. It doesn't all have to be sweet fruits. You can use things like celery, cucumber. You can, of course, add in some greens, ginger. You can just add in more ice if you want it to be that texture and still cold, but you don't wanna add too much frozen fruit. I also use steamed and frozen cauliflower and zucchini. That is my go-to. I'm not about a super sweet smoothie. Then it's more like a dessert than a breakfast to me, so switch it up. Try to add in more of those vegetables that you may think are more savory, but aren't gonna add nutrients and texture to your smoothie without overdoing it with the sugar. I actually have some awesome veggie smoothies that I will link down below if you guys wanna check them out. There are some unexpected vegetables that you may not think of using, but zucchini and cauliflower are definitely my go-tos. The next common mistake with smoothies that I personally find is people are not adding in healthy fats and fiber. These are two things that are gonna actually make your smoothie filling and satiating when you drink it. When people are like, oh, I have a smoothie and I'm hungry two seconds later, it's because you're not adding substance to your smoothie. Yes, protein is important, but fiber and healthy fats is what's gonna help keep you full and also just help move things along. My go-tos are flax and chia seed for fiber. For healthy fats, I love avocado. You can put in some flax oil in there. Even chia seeds and flax, they have healthy fats in them too, so they're kind of like a duo combo. Even just adding those in are gonna be amazing. Nut and seed butters are awesome, so just think about healthy fats and fiber. Add those into your smoothie and they will keep you full longer. My next common mistake when it comes to smoothies is adding in liquid sweeteners. There is no need. If you're using nice ripe fruit, which I'll talk about in my next tip, you don't need extra sweeteners. You don't need honey, maple syrup. You don't need sweetened yogurt, sweetened almond milk. Even juice. I don't think you need to add juice. Sometimes if I'm craving a sweeter treat for a smoothie, I'll add in a little bit of fresh squeezed orange juice, not boxed orange juice. I'll add that in, but for the most part, I'm not adding any liquid sweetener. Fruit is sweet enough and I don't feel like you need to add any more. You may see on my channel, I may, time to time, add a little bit of maple syrup or something if I'm trying to make it more of a dessert smoothie, but we're talking about healthy breakfast smoothies here and I don't think you need liquid sweeteners. The next common mistake is adding a protein powder that is full of sugar. You do not need it. Look for ones that are low in sugar, low on the GI index, and are either sweetened with a little bit of coconut sugar or stevia or monk fruit is another awesome sweetener that I'm really liking right now. And this is just going to help it still give your smoothie sweetness, but without spiking your blood sugar. So just look at the ingredients in your protein powders and make sure you know what's in there because it can be chock full with a lot of kind of different processed ingredients. So know your ingredients, know the brand, trust the quality of the ingredients that they're sourcing it from, and just do your research on ... like protein powder is expensive, so make sure you're buying a good one. My next smoothie mistake I think people are making is not adding in real fresh leafy greens. I know that there's all these awesome green super powder, power, powders, that was a tongue twister. I know that there's all these awesome green powders out there that are great for if you're traveling or if you just ran out of greens that day, but guess what? Just fresh, raw, beautiful leafy greens are amazing to put into your smoothies. And I always have either spinach or kale or romaine or just a spring mix or something because you want to rotate your greens. I will always have something in the fridge to add into my smoothies. I personally, I feel like I only really make green smoothies. I have non-green smoothie recipes on my channel and on the blog, but I personally think you should add greens to every smoothie if possible. So try to get those fresh leafy ones, obviously in a pinch you could use frozen if you have ones that are about to go bad, but yeah, the powders, there's a place and time for them, but I don't think that they should completely replace the real raw stuff. The next mistake is not having a variety with your smoothie ingredients. So same thing, like I was just talking about putting greens into your smoothie. Even myself, I can get into a rut of only using baby spinach because it's just easy to buy and throw in, but you really want to rotate your ingredients, rotate your greens, and have a variety of ingredients when it comes to making your smoothie. So some weeks I'll do chia seeds for my fiber and healthy fats. Some other weeks I'll do flax. Sometimes I may add a handful of dried coconut. Then for my greens I'll alternate between kale, spinach, romaine. With my fruits I'll alternate between berries and mango and banana. You don't always want to be doing the same thing. I definitely have my go-to ingredients that I'm even known for just repeating, putting them in my morning smoothie because it's just so good, but I really do try to swap out turmeric for ginger or swap out zucchini for cauliflower as my base. So just have fun with it. You can use my smoothie guide. There's lots of different ingredients for different sections of your smoothie when it comes to fruit, vegetables, milks, and fats and protein and fiber. It's all there so you can kind of just rotate each week and try different ingredients and different superfoods and just have fun with it. Spice it up. You're going to get bored if you're drinking the same thing every day. Okay, this next tip is so important. You guys ask me all the time how I get a super smooth smoothie and really it's all in the blender. Having a good blender is so important when it comes to making a good smoothie, in my opinion. Honestly, like I have, my mom, I won't say what blender it is. My mom has a blender. It's not my favorite and every time I make a smoothie there I feel like I'm a smoothie snob at her house because it is so pulpy and I can just feel the texture still from all the greens. I get like kale in my teeth and I don't want that when I'm drinking a smoothie and it's just too fibrous. Like it's too, there's too much texture and I personally love a smooth smoothie and honestly it's in the blender and I will actually link a higher end blender as well as a affordable blender because I know not everyone can just go out and buy like a $600 blender. I get it. I waited years before investing in one and even still I was like, okay, should I make the, should I make the investment and honestly it was the best thing ever, but there are definitely options for depending on what your budget is. So I will link my two favorite down below for you guys to check out. So yeah, smoothie matters. A lot of people ask me that. Yes, get yourself a good smoothie. If you know, if you know you're going to be making a smoothie every day or salad dressings or soups or like, I mean ice cream, you can make so many things in a good high speed blender. So check the links down below, get yourself a good smoothie maker blender. Yeah, that's what they're called. The next common mistake is not using ripened fruit. So if you want your smoothie to be delicious and sweet and easy to digest, you want to make sure you're using ripened fruit. So at all times, yeah, I have one right there. I will have a bundle of bananas just ripening on the counter and I will just have them in like rotation. One's ripening. Then once they're ripe, I will just peel and chop them up and throw them into the freezer and then that way they're ready to go. I like a never out of frozen banana and you just want to make sure you're using nice ripe fruit. So a lot of times when you're buying frozen fruit, they are freezing them when they're nice and ripe. So that's the nice thing about getting frozen fruit. You don't have to worry about that. But with banana, you can't really buy frozen banana in Canada at least. It's really hard to find. So I just do it myself and it's like the most cost effective just to like bananas are so cheap and they're a great base for your smoothie. So yeah, I will never eat an unripened banana. I find it's a little, it's too starchy. It upsets my stomach and it's just not sweet and not delicious. So let your fruits ripen if you're going to freeze them or just buy frozen fruit. That's already right. Great. Last but not least, the final mistake is people are not adding in protein. Now I get it. Not everyone wants to add protein powder into their smoothies and I don't always add protein powder into my smoothies. I feel like I kind of go into phases where I like want protein powder depending on just like I'm going to the gym a lot or if I'm just feeling extra hungry. But you, it does not have to be a protein powder. There are other foods like technically protein isn't like so many foods, so many fruits and vegetables. But obviously you want something that's higher in protein if you're going to add it as a supplement to your smoothie. So things like hemp seeds are a great source of plant-based protein. Obviously protein powder is a great one. Even spirulina powder, it's one of my favorite superfoods. Now I'll have to double check this, but I believe spirulina powder actually has the highest amount of protein in plants. So it may look like a small thing you're adding to your smoothies and it makes it really green and fun, but it also adds a lot of nutrients and protein in there as well. If you're going to buy spirulina powder, make sure it's the, it's one from Hawaii. I personally find it's the best quality, best tasting. It doesn't have this like nasty fishy smell and taste. I throw it in my smoothie, I don't even notice it. Some other protein sources would be like nuts and seeds. You can throw in a small handful of some raw almonds or Brazil nuts. They're also going to add in some healthy fats. I also love to do collagen powder. That's like another go-to if I don't have protein powder on hand or if I just want my hair and skin and nails to look really awesome and strong, I will add in a scoop or two of some grass fed collagen. I'll link my favorite down below. And honestly it does work. Like I need a haircut so bad, I'm getting one on Sunday, but yeah. So make sure you're getting protein in your smoothie in some way, shape or form, whether it's in a whole food or it's in a powder form. Make sure the quality is good and that's what's going to keep you full. Protein, healthy fats, fiber. You want to get all of the food groups when it comes to your smoothie so that you feel refreshed, energized and full until lunchtime. There you have it. Those are my 10 common smoothie mistakes I feel like people are making when blending up their breakfast. So let me know if you liked any of these tips. Which one was your favorite? Maybe one that you were most surprised to hear. Maybe it's something you're doing. If you have another smoothie tip, I would love to know. Leave me a comment down below. Also, as I mentioned, the How to Make a Perfect Smoothie guide will be linked down below. It's free. You just have to enter your email and you will get it to your inbox. And I'm going to have a playlist of some smoothie recipes I have on my channel and blog. There's tons of green smoothies. Let me know if you guys want me to do a banana-free smoothie recipe. I know a lot of people are either allergic or don't like bananas. I know it's crazy. I don't know who you people are, but I love bananas. But I will happily make you a banana-free smoothie recipe. Or would you even be interested in a fruit-free smoothie recipe? I would love to know. I will have a poll here in the top right-hand corner. And I will definitely make that happen because I love filming smoothie recipe videos. As always, don't forget to subscribe to this channel. Hit that red subscribe button down below. I post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And I will see you guys in my next video. Happy smoothie making and good luck. Use these tips and do me proud. Okay. See you in my next one. Bye, guys.