Two Healthy and Cheap Smoothies Designed For College Students

So how should we go about getting a healthy and nutritious start to our jam-packed day of lectures and working out? Thankfully, as these two healthy and nutritious recipes will attest to, the answer lies in the miraculous piece of technology known as The Blender. If you are in college, it is a small but needed investment for healthy eating. Here are the shakes themselves:

The Pre-Lecture Shake

When you’re trying to drag yourself out of bed and to your first lecture of the morning, things like showering, dressing, hair-styling and eating food become secondary in importance, and the idea of painstakingly cooking a nutritious, balanced breakfast seems completely out of the question. As a result, you rock up to your lecture with a clouded mind and a hungry stomach, and you spend the next few hours considering which one of your classmates would taste best. Thankfully, breakfast doesn’t have to be such a chore, and you can create a nutritious, low-calorie and high-energy breakfast smoothie from a handful of ingredients. Even better still, you can buy the ingredients, freeze them, and pull them out as-and-when you need them.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 Cup Fruit Juice of choice
  • 1 Cup 1% Milk
  • 3 Tablespoons Low-Fat Yogurt
  • Handful of Frozen or Fresh Fruit (Raspberries, Strawberries, a Banana etc.)
  • 2 Tablespoons of Oats

Both the fruit juice and the fresh fruit provide simple carbohydrates for a quick energy burst, as well as providing a selection of important vitamins, minerals and fiber. The oats provide slower release energy, perfect for leveling out any potential sugar-crash from the fruit, and excellent for fuelling your knowledge-hungry mind throughout the day. Finally, it’s delicious and incredible easy to make – pick yourself up a cheap blender and freeze all the necessary ingredients, so when you roll out of bed it’s a simple matter of blitzing your breakfast into existence.

Nutrition Information

  • Kcal: ~250
  • Protein: 12g
  • Carbs: 40g (about 20g of sugar)
  • Fat: 5g
  • Sat Fat: 0.5g
  • Fiber: 3g

The Pre-Workout Protein Shake

If the low-cal approach isn’t your idea of a proper breakfast drink, this recipe combines high-protein, high-calories and high-deliciousness, making it the perfect pre-workout protein shake. As well as providing energy to fuel your upcoming workout, it’s also important to have a sufficient amount of pre-gym protein and the quick-digesting whey used in this recipe means that you’ll be ready to hit the gym about an hour about drinking it. The nutty-raisin taste is also pretty reminiscent of trail mix, but better because of the chocolate whey – making it a pretty tasty WHEY to start the day… hahah..ha…ha.

Ingredients

  • 1 Scoop of Chocolate Whey Powder
  • 1 Small Banana
  • 3 Tablespoons of Low-Fat Yogurt
  • 1 Small Glass of Skim Milk
  • Small Handful of Almonds/1 Tablespoon of Peanut Butter (if you’re feeling really indulgent)
  • Handful of Raisins
  • 1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon

The great whey debate of isolate vs concentrate vs hydrolysate doesn’t matter here – so long as it isn’t casein, the whey will digest within an hour and provide the amino acids you need to maximize the anabolic effects of weight training. Casein is a slow-digesting protein, taking up to 8 hours to digest, so it’s best avoided for this recipe – unless you actually enjoy hurling mid-squat. The skim milk contains all the protein of whole milk, with less fat content to slow digestion; raisins and banana provide quick release carbohydrates, and their insulinogenic nature actually improves the efficacy of the whey protein. Nuts are rich in protein and essential fats, and even cinnamon helps maintain your energy, by improving the ability of the body to use glucose efficiently. Take this protein shake 1-2 hours before hitting the gym, and your body will be flooded with energy and amino acids to help make the most out of your session.

Nutrition Information

  • Kcal: 340
  • Protein: 40g
  • Carbs: 26g
  • Fat: 11g
  • Sat Fat: 2g
  • Fiber: 3g
  • Sugar: 30g

See you next week, bros,

Alex Nerney – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Lord of Broscience

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