Post-run cooling and carb restoring Frozen Blackberry Honey Lemonade 🍋 ! Are you hitting the streets and trying to beat the heat!? This clean recipe will cool you off and tastes like an amazing mocktail! At a tablespoon of honey per serving – this recipe is best for those who need the carbs like endurance athletes (and you’ll probably need even more!). You can half the honey though if you’re not active and/or watching your sugar intake! Tested after a HOT run 🏃♀️ in our midday Florida heat!! ☀️Stay cool my friends!
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Ingredient Selection Tips
Lemon
A nice-looking yellow lemon, with a characteristic “lemonade” smell, guarantees that you are looking at fresh, mature fruit. Avoid tinges of green as these are probably under ripe, and also very pale ones. The best lemons for juicing are those with smooth, thin skin.
Blackberries
Dark blue almost black looking fruit, with a sweet and sour taste, is a perfect choice and can be found in your local grocery store during summer. Fruit with more red berries than black has a more sour taste. If the fruit is softer, and darker in color it is sweeter and more mature.
Honey
Be sure to look for honey that is only one ingredient, and raw is most preferable as pasteurized honey likely removes antioxidants, antibacterial properties, and more.
The recommendation below is local to me in Central Florida. You will want to try to find honey that is local to you.
Noteworthy Health Benefits
Lemon
This yellow fruit is widely used throughout the world, primarily for its juice. Lemon peel can also be used for culinary and non-culinary purposes. Fruit with a beautiful floral scent is rich in vitamin C, fiber, and various plant compounds. Lemons are often promoted as a weight-loss food and can prevent kidney stones. Lemons contain some iron, and because they contain vitamin C and citric acid, they protect against anemia by ensuring that you absorb as much iron as possible from your diet.
Blackberries
Blueberries are full of essential nutrients and antioxidants. Rich in vitamin C, they provide almost 35% of an individual’s recommended daily intake of this vitamin. Vitamin K, along with vitamin A supports the immune system, bone, and eye health. Consuming blackberries can improve cognitive and motor skills.
Balanced Plate for Performance Goals
While any food can fit into your menu for performance goals, some recipes can contribute to a better strategized menu than others. Below you can see how this recipe can fit into your goal. If this recipe has unique benefits, it is best cut out for the goal(s) with a star next to it.
The chart below changes dynamically based off the goal you have selected.
Goal:
LEAN PROTEIN | HEALTHY FAT | HEALTHY CARBS | VEGGIES |
1-2 palms | 1-2 thumbs | 1-2 cupped handfuls | 1-2 fists |
More Info
However, everyone is different! Use the Precision nutrition calculator I use with my clients to calculate suggested macros custom for you. For more information on using this hand estimation system, click here.
For more info on types of foods for proteins, fats, carbs, and veggies, read my article Formula for the Perfect Healthy Meal. This article will also help you figure out what foods to eat more and less of.
As this recipe is only intended to be a beverage, it is lacking in many macronutrients that would yield a healthy, balanced meal.
Protein: Need to Supplement
This lemonade contains a negligible amount of protein.
Fat: Need to Supplement
No fat in this recipe. 🙂
Carbs: Honey
Honey is the largest container of carbs in this This Frozen Blackberry Lemonade, followed by blackberries and lemon. Honey is still metabolized as sugar, though there are more nutritious benefits to honey. Even with it’s high sugar content, it is far better than most store bought lemonade. With it’s high quick releasing carbohydrate content, this drink is best suited for endurance athletes, and active individuals with sugar tolerance.
Consider this beverage as a whole, as a serving of carbohydrates for the balanced plate, since most of its calories come from carbs.
Veggies: Need to Supplement
There are no veggies in this recipe.
Additional Meal Tips for Weight Loss
While this may not be the best choice beverage for weight loss, it is a much better alternative to most other caloric, sugary drinks such as soda and store or restaurant-bought lemonade. While you should aim for more weight loss conducive foods (foods that are as nutritious and filling as possible), having less than ideal foods and beverages on occasion is totally okay! This Frozen Blackberry Lemonade is low in calories as well, so as long as you drink it in moderation and do not have a sensitivity to sugar, it should not impede your efforts.
Additional Meal Tips for Endurance
This Frozen Blackberry Lemonade is an excellent source of quick sugars before and/or after moderate to intense workouts. It’s also very cold, helping you cool down. The lemon juice is full of electrolytes to help hydrate you! Be sure to have a little protein as well to help you aid in recovery.
Additional Meal Tips for Building Muscle
This recipe isn’t very conducive to building muscle (it is lacking protein), but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy this beverage to cool off after a great workout! It is definitely better to aid cardio workouts, versus strength training.
Additional Meal Tips for Improving Health
The best health benefits from this beverage are from fruit, but raw honey has many benefits as well. However, like most sugar (honey breaks down into sugar), you should consume in moderation. The American Heart Association’s recommendation is to limit your sugar to 25 – 36 grams daily, while the USDA has a higher recommendation.
Diet Preference Tweaks
Vegan / Fully Plant-Based
You can easily turn this drink into a vegan by replacing the honey with some other healthy sweetener like Agave or Grade A Maple Syrup.
Frozen Blackberry Honey Lemonade
YumIngredients
- 2 lemons juice
- 1/2 cup blackberries
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 cup ice
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Blend in blender and serve!