I've said it before....

...and ima say it again. If putting spinach in your smoothie is wrong, then I don't wanna be right!
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Today I made it so thick, it was just like eating soft serve! Seriously good. Here's how I make mine.

Charlotte's SUPERPOWER smoothie:
- handful of frozen strawberries
- handful of frozen spinach
- 1/2 to 1 cup almond milk (because there is no sugar and I like the taste)
- 1 scoop chocolate flavored protein powder

Mix it like the dickens in the magic bullet, or whatever you use to blend stuff.

I'll admit it seems strange to put spinach in a berry smoothie. But here's the deal, between the sweetness of the berries and the chocolate protein powder, you don't even TASTE it! I'm not exaggerating either. I'm still trying to convince my husband of this fact. But he's so hung up on the protein powder that the fact I add spinach isn't even an issue with him. He is so anti protein powder. I don't know why, maybe he associates it with bodybuilders or people who walk around all puffed out in a perpetual flex. Or maybe he just thinks it tastes weird.

But I'm here to tell you why he shouldn't knock it. Whey protein is good for you. Why? It contains BCAAs (branched chain amino acids) which help you burn fat, beautify your skin, promote liver health (which detoxifies the body), and build/maintain lean muscle mass. And if you aren't doing something to build muscle or at least maintain what you have, you should be (more on that later).

Ok, it's later, so I'll tell you...
Why should you strength train? Because every decade after you reach 35 you lose 5% of your muscle mass and your metabolism slows. By the time you are 45, you could be gaining 8-12 lbs a year if you are doing nothing to keep your metabolism up. And crash dieting isn't helping folks! Those people who think they'll just starve the extra weight off are seriously fooling themselves! Sure, you'll starve the weight off. But it won't be fat, it'll be mostly muscle. And you'll have seriously wrecked your metabolism so it's going to be slow and sluggish, which means you'll have to eat less and less to maintain your weight and eventually you will end up gaining all the weight back, and then some. Keep your metabolism burning tons of calories...by weight training. For every 3 lbs of muscle you build, you burn an extra 120 calories a day, doing nothing! That's like, 10 lbs of fat a year. NO BRAINER, people.

I think that some people have this opinion of bodybuilders; that they are stupid, that they are vain or self obsessed, or that they are ugly even. Well, there are many different levels to being a bodybuilder. You can be professional competitor or you could be someone like me who lifts for health. If you lift a weight, even if it's a 5lb dumbbell, you are building your body. All I'm saying is that you shouldn't discriminate when it comes to protein! Protein powder is not just for "muscle heads". My 73 year old mother drinks it!

Seriously, I could devote MANY posts to this stuff. Really, all I wanted to do was share my smoothie recipe with you.