1 year of daily smoothies

1 year of daily smoothies, sounds like a lot. It was never my intention to do it. In June 2015 I’ve started a Colourful Smoothie Challenge with an American blogger. During that month she wasn’t as keen to keep us on track. I did the first 10 days, then the next 10 days. After that I had another couple of smoothies and I stopped.

The next year, in June, I thought I should make my own Smoothie Challenge: 30 days of smoothies, my husband joined in. I’ve mentioned about it on a forum I’m active on and went from there. Someone else said she wanted to do a similar challenge, but not with smoothies every day, but smoothie or soup. As it offered more flexibility, after I successfully finished the first 30 days of the challenge, I continued with the smoothie/soup option. I didn’t set up a target from the begining of going for 1 year, but only after 5-6 months or so. There were days when I had soup and smoothie, there were days when I had 2 soups and a smoothie.

I’m so happy I took the challenge again. This year I had more than 500 soups and smoothies. If I consider, in average, 2 portions of fruits/vegs per smoothie/soup, that means I had more than 1000 fruits and veggies. That is impressive. A small bowl of soup has 1 portion of vegetables. I would add another portion by tossing in some roasted mushrooms in a mushroom soup, for example.
When it comes to smoothies, I usually make them like this: 1 banana + 150ml juice (no added sugar) + 1 fruit or 80g of frozen fruit/veg. That means a total of 3 portions in a glass like the ones in the picture. To that I add Chia seeds or oats. As an extra healthy kick, I would add spirulina, cinnamon, turmeric, cocoa powder, pollen, hemp seeds. It’s so easy and the taste is amazing.

To celebrate the year of smoothies, I made these 7 smoothies in the colours of the rainbow. You can see all the ingredients on my food blog: Rainbow of smoothies.

Two years ago I wasn’t keen on smoothies. I liked them, but it felt hard to do, a lot of hassle and I didn’t think of many options. I looked into it last year, I got a lot of frozen vegetables like carrots, spinach and lots of lots of frozen fruits. This way it’s much easier. It has been a great option, as a light dinner after a huge lunch (pizza and cake for example), it’s an option when I’m out.

During the last year, when I was away, I would buy smoothies. I even got a smoothie on date night. I also ordered soup for lunch in the restaurant and that is something I never thought of before. It can be convenient with so many options out there.

What am I doing now? Well… I keep drinking smoothies and soups every day. I enjoy it too much to stop. Yesterday I had a soup and a smoothie, today I will have a smoothie before going out. A new behavior can take up to 6 or 8 months to form. So, now, after over 1 year, having smoothies/soups daily it became a habit for me. This is one of those habits that I want to nurture. These smoothies and soups help me to have at least 5-a-day portions of fruits without any fuss.

Do you like smoothies? Would you like to try a Smoothie Challenge?