I wasn't too excited when my registered nutritionist told me I had to add fruit to my breakfast. I'm an egg & cheese sandwich kind of guy.
Adding fruit to my diet felt like it would be an uphill task. The thought of painstakingly cutting apples and pears every morning made me want to pop a breakfast sandwich in the microwave all the more.
The good news was I didn't have to skip my egg & cheese sandwich. The eggs and cheese are good for protein, and the whole grain bread is a nutritious carbohydrate. I only needed to add the fruit.
But...
"I'm not big on fruit," I told my nutritionist. I never hated eating bananas, oranges and apples, but it certainly wasn't my thing.
She encouraged me to make a breakfast smoothie each day instead. So I bought some frozen blueberries, mango, strawberries, peaches, and dark cherries. In addition, I purchased some apples (which are an excellent prebiotic), some nutrient-rich bananas, spinach, kale, rolled oats and ground flax seed.
Each morning, I would toss some cut-up apples and bananas with a pinch of spinach, kale, rolled oats, and ground flax seed into my Ninja smoothie blender. I drenched it with some oat milk. That was the base of every smoothie I made for the next few weeks.
On top of that, I would add some random combination of frozen fruit. The blender doesn't accommodate adding all my various fruits at once, so I changed it daily.
The smoothies were incredible; totally worth the chore of cutting up the apples and bananas. (The other fruit was in bags in the freezer. Buying and storing frozen fruit is very convenient.)
Drinking the blended fruit was much easier and more enjoyable than just eating it. I was hooked. Every morning I had to have my smoothie!
But was it doing anything?
A few days into making my breakfast smoothies, I noticed a significant improvement in my energy levels. I felt happier and more satisfied throughout the morning. I stopped drinking coffee and black tea (I still have turmeric tea here and there), and the heavy-headed fogginess disappeared. I felt alive in the mornings!
I made other changes to my diet that contributed to this, but I noticed I was having an easier time in the bathroom. The cruel joke of nature is that irregularity can be a huge problem when we age if our diet is out of whack. The fiber-rich fruits and vegetables I added to my diet fixed the constipation issue.
And there are more benefits.
My nutritionist allowed me to have gelato a few times a week but informed me that the refined, added sugars could impact my health and weight loss journey. Added sugars should be avoided or limited.
Interestingly, my desire for gelato and other sweets completely vanished with the incorporation of the breakfast smoothies. I stopped buying gelato and have had zero cravings for it.
My nutritionist explained that the smoothies and a balanced diet regulated my body's biochemistry. My hunger hormones were in check, preventing the wild sugar cravings at the end of the day. Whenever I crave something sweet, my mind gives me images of a frozen smoothie. And that isn't bad.
In conclusion, I would say that the smoothies changed my life. I've never felt better. There's an infinite variety of smoothies you can make that are rich in micronutrients. So, if you're someone like me who doesn't like to eat fruit, consider blending them into a nutritious, creamy, delicious smoothie!
If you enjoyed this, you may also like, '6 Reasons Why You Should Eat Kiwifruit Every Day.'
