Going Bananas!!!

    As a kid I HATED bananas. Thought they were the nastiest thing I had ever eaten and honestly that didn't change until I decided to train my palate to enjoy the foods that were good for me. Now I eat bananas every day. Either straight up peeled or in a recipe. They are so good for you and they are pretty cheap to buy which is always good!

Some of the benefits are:

    There are much more benefits than these 10 but these are 10 great reason to start adding bananas to your diet. I'll touch on a few personal reasons as why I now don't mind and actually crave them on occasion. 1) Helps over come depression- bananas have a high levels of trytophan which turns into serotonin which makes your brain happy! Who doesn't want their brain to be happy? After my divorce I was down for a bit and I'm not claiming that bananas brought me my happiness BUT I'm glad I was eating them to help with making my brain happy. 2) Helps protect against cramps during workouts and leg cramps at night. Being a personal trainer I work out all the time. I love working out and don't know what I would do with my time if I didn't.... what is it that people do that don't work out? I guess that's a topic for another post... 3) Improves PMS symptoms. Bananas help regulate blood sugar and produces stress relieving relaxation. Now I don't deal with serious PMS symptoms (other than wanting to eat EVERYTHING) but the stress relieving benefits I'll take all day! 4) High in potassium and low in salt. Great combo because just about all bodily functions depend on potassium to some extent. 5) High in fiber so that helps if you are dealing with any constipation. I don't have that issue however when I was pregnant it was a serious issue and I found relief through eating bananas. Thank goodness because being pregnant is already full of discomfort so you don't want to add constipation on top of that! Ask any pregnant women I'm 99% sure they will agree. 6) Bananas help in preventing anemia. I have a very big problem with this and have to take iron supplements to help with that so when I found out that bananas helped with that I was all for it! Pass a banana please! 7) Provides us with energy!!! Bananas have B6 in them so that will give you some energy....being a single mom and having two kids and two jobs I need all the energy I can get! (I also have coffee that helps with that, not sure where I would be without it! Matter of fact I have my iced coffee right beside me as I type.) 
    So those are some of the benefits and personal reasons why you should incorporate bananas (or nanas as my 3yr old use to call them) into your diet. If you are an absolute hater of bananas then try putting them in smoothies, or spread some all natural peanut butter on them, or dip them in some dark chocolate if you need to! No one is saying you have to eat them all day every day but you should try to eat them and don't give up on them, maybe one day you will bite one and be like hhhhmmmm I guess this isn't THAT bad. 

   One of my fave things to do with bananas is slice a banana and melt all natural peanut butter and drizzle on top then sprinkle some unsweetened coconut on top. YUUMY!!! Every now and then I will also drizzle some melted dark chocolate on top and some times I also add chia seeds. Just depends on my mood but that is a snack I have often! So try it out and hopefully that will help you get them down if you aren't the biggest banana lover.