Mood Boosters this Winter – Smoothie time

So OK they say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I think they are right! I wont allow myself to buy cereal, as will quite happily sit and eat the whole box and I don’t think that is what they mean by ‘healthy’ but there are so many different options to choose from to suit every different taste!

Breakfast quite literally means ‘break the fast’. Between your last meal and breakfast there can be between 8 to10 hours where your body has not had any food and more importantly glucose, waking up feeling nauseous and weak can be the result of low blood sugar level. Our brains and central nervous system run on Glucose and fuel all activities from thinking through to exercising. By kick starting your metabolism early and setting up your energy levels with a good intake of nutritional food, you help your body to get you through the day. 

It’s a perfect excuse to also try to get some of your key vitamins, minerals and nutrients in early, although I wish it was true Cider does not count as one of your five a day or in fact Mulled Wine with slices of orange! So although tasty for some I don’t think a fry up is always the best choice. Eating breakfast has also been proven to improve concentration, problem solving ability, mental performance, memory, and mood and little and often food then throughout the day helps keep these up.

Some people believe that skipping breakfast may help with weight loss. Not so! Skipping any kind of meal often leads to overeating later, like they say never do your food shopping starving! Becoming over hungry often leads to a lack of control and distorted satiety signals (meaning it’s hard to determine when you’re full).

So I know not everybody pings up and out of bed at 7.30am sprightly and ready to eat but there are some simple steps that can help and quite a few different options?

A few ideas for a balanced breakfast on the run:

• Add sunflower, pumpkin seeds, raisins or passion fruit to small pot of plain yoghurt (great if its one with Pro-biotic cultures in too)

• Boil an egg the night before and eat it in the morning

• Rye bread with spread banana on, trust me my mums recipe!!

• Granola with plain yoghurt

• Breakfast smoothie (see recipe below)

• Oats porridge with chopped fruit, seeds and a dollop of honey

• Soak porridge the night before with some dried fruit, the next morning you can add some juice, milk or yoghurt and your breakfast is ready to eat in seconds

In each of these you have protein, fat, carbohydrates and fibre; this combination will cause the slower release of glucose into your blood stream.

Get organised:

• Plan what you want to wear the night before!

• If you are taking breakfast in to work with you, ensure you have all you equipment, containers and ingredients ready before you go to bed.

• Keep your refrigerator stocked with healthy options, this is the difficult yet worthy task!

• Get up 10 minutes earlier to prep breakfast

• Determine how important it is to you to eat and be healthy

Put everything in it smoothie!
Of course a good smoothie maker is needed to create a great smoothie, if not add it all to yoghurt or porridge oats and mix.

Below is a fave of mine! Play around with the ingredients to create your own according to your likes and dislikes.

Ingredients:
1 banana
1 cup frozen berries (or fresh), passion fruit amazing!
1 tbsp maple syrup
4 tbsp plain organic yoghurt (low fat options just as good!)
The following is optional, but with huge health benefits
2 dessert spoons superfood (any good health store will sell it)
1 cup rice/Soya/goats/oat/cows milk/water
½ cup real fruit juice of your choice
1 teaspoon coconut oil
2 tablespoons flax oil
1 tbsp wheat germ (contains vitamin E, a great antioxidant)
2 tbsp dried oats

You can thin the smoothie by adding more liquid or keep it thicker, the beauty of them is that you add whatever you wish! Great for using up leftovers too.

Optional extras or variations:
• Bananas and peanut butter (omit other fruit)
• Try different fruits
• Add soaked dried fruits such as prunes, dates or figs.
• Flaked almonds

Im going to try and add some tasty tried smoothie recipes here and perhaps a photo or 2….but in the meantime, experiment and have a look around, there are so many recipes out there!

Categorised in: Healthy Treats

This post was written by Laura Avery