To smoothie or not to smoothie?

If you follow me on twitter (if not, add me here: @Kirsty_LDN – shameless plug) you will know that in the beginning of the year I jumped on the proverbial smoothie bandwagon and decided to replace my normal every day breakfast of toast, porridge or cereal with a smoothie. Now, I am fully aware of what a jumped up pretentious twat I sound like but I really wanted to address the question that everyone asks me whenever the topic of smoothies is brought up…

Have I seen any benefits?

After making a smoothie every day for breakfast for a month I saw barely any differences whatsoever and to be honest I had no idea what I was looking out for.

Would I have more energy? Would my skin be flawless and goddess like? Would I sprout wings all of a sudden and have the ability to fly? The possibilities of changes were endless...

But no.

After a month, nothing had changed. No extra energy. No goddess like skin and sadly, no wings.

So why didn’t I give up then and there? Let’s face it; smoothies are not the cheapest new fad to get into. Machines can cost anywhere between £20 to £200 and along with buying an endless supply of fruit and veg, it's definitely tough on the ol’ purse strings.

However, I thought there must be some sort of positive in this whole process, right? I was getting more of my five a day in me, which can't be a bad thing and without sounding like even more of a pretentious bugger, I actually enjoyed making the smoothies and their taste.

(Even thought they didn’t turn me into a gorgeous super hero)

But skip forward a few more weeks and slowly but surely I started to notice a few positive changes...

Weight

As mentioned above, I have replaced my normal breakfast with a morning smoothie. Aside from filling my smoothies with an assortment of fruit and veg, I also include nuts, seeds and oats, which really help fill me up so I wasn't actually losing out on any calories.

But Kirsty, no one cares about that, how much weight have you lost?

Since I’ve started nearly 3 months ago to this very day, I have lost 9 pounds; so YAY for weight loss.

I'd like to add, this wasn't in conjunction with any exercise, it was weight loss completely from addressing my eating habits.

Skin

Without sounding like a walking stereotype, when it comes to that time of the month you can guarantee my face is going to explode with some awful looking volcanoes and not just any old spotty volcanoes, I'm talking about those monsters that hide underneath your skin and grow to the size of a 50p piece...I mean those beauties.  

But in the last three months I haven't had any sort of breakout (touches every bit of wood around me).

Along with the vanishing of the volcanoes, my skin tone has mildly evened out .

Energy

I’ve always been a morning person who can easily wake up at the crack of dawn with a spring in my step and a smile on my face but as soon as the clock hits 9pm, I’m done in. Even though I’m not the greatest fan of staying up late, after these last few months I have been able to do so without feeling like a complete zombie. Could it be the smoothies? I think so.

 

Since starting this whole smoothie malarkey, I have been so excited for my breakfast each day; I get to try out new fruits and veg regularly along with creating new concoctions every day and of course, I'm seeing such positive results!

Don't get me wrong, it's not all sunshine and happiness; it does take willpower to keep up with the new routine and to not binge on all the food in the world but the results are worth it....I think?

I've spoken to many people about their results and not everyone has seen as many positives as I have but I genuinely think it depends on how strict you are and how long you've been doing it for.

My only advice is to keep at it and to not give up. Remember, it will take time for you to adapt but if you still feel hungry, don't starve yourself! Have a healthy snack and don't feel bad about it.

If you're doing anything similar, have you seen any positive changes?