But I eat YOGURT for breakfast and I’m still not skinny, WTF?

Ugh. Despite what the latest fitness magazine is telling you – you don’t have to eat a super-big breakfast right after you wake up, and eating yogurt and berries for breakfast won’t necessarily help you lose weight.

Two big reasons:

1)     Yogurt is generally quite processed, with tons of sugar (or chemical fake sugar-free sugar), artificial flavors and colors. For many reasons – processed food is not ideal, especially as the first thing that enters your body in the morning!

2)     Yogurt is made from dairy – which has high levels of the protein “casein” and sugar “lactose” that are very hard for the body to process, lactose-intolerant or not.

These things lead to poor digestion, and it is extremely hard to feel your best or lose weight when your digestion is not functioning properly.

The first thing you want to give your body in the morning is an easy meal, that doesn’t require a whole lot of work to process. Your body spent all night cleansing (and likely still is when you wake up in the morning). Ease your body into the day with whole foods, full of fiber, vitamins and minerals. If your body is focusing less on digestion – it is focusing more on keeping you healthy and beautiful. Also - you want to feel energized and light in the morning. Do you feel amazing 30 minutes after you’ve had yogurt, or a bagel, or cereal? Probably not. Drinking a green smoothie or juice will give you powerful nutrition without weighing you down.

I’ll go into fake sugars, dairy and eating 'light to heavy' in upcoming posts. For now, try switching up your breakfast for a few days and see how you feel. You can even do a Breakfast Experiment like I do with my clients – try something new each morning and note your symptoms. I’m willing to bet that you feel much better on fruit and greens than you do on dairy or refined carbs in the morning!

Try one of my favorite green smoothie recipes below before the summer comes to an end. What’s your favorite smoothie combination?

Tropical Green Smoothie

Ingredients

·       1 cup coconut water

·       2 cups leafy greens (spinach/romaine/kale/etc.)

·       1 pear, cut into chunks

·       handful of pineapple

·       5 mint leaves

·       1 banana (frozen in chunks, or fresh)

·       ½ lemon

Instructions

1.  Add liquid and greens to blend first – really well!

2.  Next, add pear, pineapple and mint and blend.

3.  Last, add banana and lemon and blend. Frozen banana will give you more of a “smoothie” consistency.