Hi friends! Sorry it’s been a few weeks since I have blogged, between planning for my trip to Mexico (PS: recap of my trip coming soon!) and then actually going on my trip things have been a little crazy over here! But I am back, feeling re-inspired, rested, and ready to goooooo! Today I wanted to chat about this green smoothie combo I often post about on my IG stories, commonly known as a FabFour smoothie (as coined by the brilliant Kelly LeVeque)

It all started when I picked up Kelly’s book Body Love a few months back, I was mid-Whole30 journey trying to figure out why I was feeling so crappy when I (thought) was doing everything “right” when it came to food and exercise. By the 3rd page of her book I realized what I was missing, everything clicked and I truly couldn’t put the book down.

The 3 main reasons I choose to incorporate a FabFour smoothie every day:

1. I generally do not wake up hungry, so often times I was skipping meals until mid to late afternoon waiting until I was STARVING, and then wondering why I would eat/snack all night. By having a FabFour smoothie at some point in the morning I am able keep my blood sugar balanced so that by the time I am ready to eat lunch I am not trying to crawl out of a black hole of starvation/brain fog lol
2. Having a FabFour smoothie every morning helps me keep my hormones balanced, which allows my body to work properly, which allows me to live my best life! No seriously, balanced hormones are everything. I have been on a mission to balance my hormones and incorporating a FanFour smoothie daily has definitely been a great tool to help me do that (along with acupuncture and Chinese herbs!) When your body is getting what it needs, at the time it needs it everything starts to work in proper order.
3. Better digestion, less bloating and better skin health! This kind of ties in to what I said above, but when your hormones are out of whack and your metabolism is up and down- your body goes off the rails and everything wigs out. It doesn’t have to be complicated (which you’ll learn in Kelly’s book) The body is actually pretty simple when it comes to the basic things it needs to function properly, the hard part (for me at least) is getting into the habit of giving it what it needs.

To get alllllll of the info I highly recommend you read Kelly’s book, but in the meantime:

The FabFour Smoothie Formula

FabFour stands for: protein, fiber, fat and greens! This powerful four part combination turns off hunger hormones, helps reduce inflammation, balances hormones and provides the body with the perfect complete meal of essential nutrients. The idea of FabFour is an easy to remember basic “structure” for eating healthy without “eat” and “do not eat” lists. This idea goes beyond smoothies, you can even create meals with this formula, but starting off with a daily FabFour smoothie is a great place to begin implementing healthy changes!Protein ups collagen, muscle tone, and metabolism; fat benefits hormones, skin, and cellular health, fiber promotes gut microbiome proliferation and detoxification; and greens (or veggies deep in color) provide cancer and inflammation fighting phytonutrients. This combination is a fail-safe to turn off over 8 hunger hormones in the body so you stop fighting not to eat and instead easily go 4-6 hours without thinking of food or snacking on processed foods.

Kelly’s words on why she created the FabFour smoothie formula: “I created the Fab Four Smoothie formula to help my clients learn how to build a low sugar meal replacement smoothie. This is very different from the many juice shops, grocery smoothie bars and smoothie recipes online, which can be, loaded with sugar, specifically fructose sugar from excess fruit, agave, dates, and juice. When it comes to energy, skin health, and weight loss the #fab4smoothie is the key! For some new clients, I spare them the science and simply ask them to start every day with a Fab Four Smoothie and within the first week I am getting exciting texts about how their skin is glowing, energy is high and the scale is down. The Fab Four smoothie limits fruit and instead helps you fill up on protein, fat, fiber and greens which naturally help to elongate and balance your blood sugar curve.This combination keeps you from crashing before lunch and sabotaging your healthy eating efforts. When you arrive at your next meal “alive” you can easily make conscious decisions to put the Fab Four on your next plate. Looking to kick chocolate cravings? Start with a Chocolate Collagen protein, almond butter, and flax seed smoothie, sneak in a handful of spinach you won’t event taste it! Looking to increase nutrition? Make my spa smoothie the recipe includes vanilla pea protein, avocado, chia cucumber, spinach and a squeeze of lemon. Not a fan of super green smoothies? Opt for a small handful of microgreens they contain up to 14x the nutrition of the full grown plant without the bitter flavor. Looking for better Gut Health? Constipation? You need to keep things moving! Choose MCT oil to kill off candida or Flax oil to alleviate constipation.”

Makes sense, right? I know!!!! So simple yet so many of us are not doing it!

My go-to FabFour smoothie combo

This is my go-to fruit-free no fuss easy FabFour smoothie recipe, but I also included some great alternatives below as well! xo

PROTEIN: 2 scoops of plant based protein powder: I have been using 2 different vegan protein powders from Moon Juice and I LOVE them as they are wheat-free and also have adaptogens in them! Try to stay away from wheat as I have an intolerance to it so these protein powders have been great for me. I also like to add in or top off my smoothie with raw hemp seeds for added protein!

FIBER: 2 TBSP. of organic chia seeds

FAT: 1-2 TBSP. organic coconut butter or MCT oil ( or sometimes half and half!)

GREENS: 1 large handful of fresh organic greens: I always do either organic baby spinach or organic baby kale

I always do some sort of unsweetened organic nut milk and I also love adding in different adaptogenic mushrooms from one of my favorite brands, Four Sigmatic!

Other ingredient ideas and alternatives:

Protein: Organic Pea Protein or Collagen Protein

Fat: Avocado, Almond Butter (or other nut butter) MCT Oil or Coconut Oil

Fiber: Chia, Flax, Fiber Powders or Acacia

Greens: Spinach, Kale, Romaine, Super Greens, Baby Green Blends, Powdered Greens

Liquid: Water, Unsweetened Coconut Milk, Unsweetened Almond Milk, Fruit Free Green Juice or Coconut Water (go fruit free with coconut water)

Looking for more smoothie recipes? Check out Kelly’s book Body Love! It has a whole chapter of #fab4smoothie recipes including a number of completely fruit free smoothies !!

Ok, that’s all for today 🙂 My challenge for this this week is to start incorporating a FabFour smoothie every day this week! Just 7 days, then see how you feel. If you do please let me know what you think at the end of 7 days! That’s how I started, I committed to just 7 days to see how I felt and would either continue it from there or drop it, and well…. it’s been 2 months and I’m not stopping any time soon 😉