One of the suggestions from RealAge is to try to get in the habit of eating a similar breakfast and lunch each day. Of course, I eat breakfast each day for the simple fact that research says thinner people eat breakfast.

Currently, I am eating a strawberry banana smoothie. Here’s the recipe if you’re interested in trying it:

• 1 banana (90 calories)
• 4 strawberries (50 calories)
• 1 cup of skim milk (90 calories)
• 1 cup Danon Light & Fit Vanilla Yogurt (80 calories)
• 2 Tbsp of ground flaxseed (80 calories)
• 3 ice cubes

Put all that in a blender and mix until smooth. I like mine really cold, so I normally go with a couple of extra ice cubes. The strawberries I use are frozen too and that helps as well.

Now, the total calories for this is 390. At first, that really sounded like too much to me. Then I compared it to a meal you could pick up at McDonald’s on the way to work. (I’ve been notorious for this.) The one I looked up was 735 calories with 44 grams of fat and 75 grams of carbs. Of course that had no fruit nor flaxseed, basically useless food.

The smoothie is a really filling and at the start of the day, I get two of my five servings of fruit or vegetables out of the way. A hidden benefit is the flaxseed. It does not impact the taste at all and provides me with Omega-3. I seriously lacked that before since I don’t eat fish, and I am happy to put it in my diet this way.

Let me know if you try it!