The Advantages of Making Smoothies

We are seeing a rising trend in drinking juice and/or smoothie for aiding weight loss and for other health reasons. In today's post I want to talk about the advantages that I find in drinking smoothies.

I must say the word "Smoothie" is definitely being over hyped and people tend to associate smoothies with a healthy diet and lifestyle. However, there are good smoothies and bad smoothies. In my opinion bad ones are those that contain chemical ingredients like additives, preservatives and other ingredients that is not the real fruit or vegetable; some smoothies are made from purée.  Good ones shouldn't contain these and should only contain raw fruits and/or vegetables, water, milk (non-diary or diary), natural fresh juice, and other natural ingredients. If I was to add juice into my smoothies, I would use the juice I made myself. For example, I would squeeze my own orange juice. Yes, it's time consuming therefore I only use juice when I have plenty of time. Also, some smoothies contain high levels of added sugar which doesn't make it healthy. Fruits naturally contain sugar and some smoothies that you buy contain added syrup/sugar.

I started drinking and making my own smoothies three years ago and I still have them daily. I have become more creative with them as I get a lot of inspirations from the healthy food related accounts on Instagram. Anyways, moving on to the advantages of smoothies.

Advantage 1 & 2- Quick & Highly Nutritious Breakfast

Me and my smoothie on the go

Many people skip breakfast either because they don't have time in the morning or they are trying to lose weight. If its the latter, I can go on all day moaning at you about it. All I will say for now is that you are making a massive mistake! If it's the first one, then smoothie can be a solution. You can drink the smoothie on your way to work. The process of making a smoothie still requires a bit of time, so maybe make it before going to bed and keep it chilled. I prefer my smoothies fresh so I always make time for it in the morning, but I wash my vegetables and fruits the night before. That does make a different, every minute counts right?

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day so you want to make it as nutritious as possible as your body will absorb the nutrients more effectively on an empty stomach. So add about 3-5 or more ingredients into your smoothie to charge your body before lunch.

I always put lots of ingredients in my smoothie. That doesn't mean I drink 2- 3 glasses of smoothies, my smoothie usually is about 500 ml. I tend to add a lot of so called "superfood" with some other fresh fruits and vegetables and sometimes nut butter. The superfood includes baobab powder, maca powder, hemp protein powder, spirulina, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds,gojiberries, etc.

Advantage 3- Feel fuller (than juice)
Smoothie contains all the bits which are the necessary fibers that your body needs for good digestion and makes you feel full. A meal high in fiber keeps you fuller for longer. 

Advantage 4- Sneak in what you don't like

A smoothie is a good for sneaking in anything you don't like, but happens to be good for you. Also a good way to get your children to have more fruits and vegetables. I hate avocado, but it contains so many health benefits so I sneak it into my smoothies every morning. My favourite combination is avocado, banana, almond milk, almond butter, kale and baobab powder. I cannot taste the avocado at all and the smoothie is so delicious. Score!

Sneaky avocado smoothie

For those who avoid avocado because of its high fat content, don't worry! It contains healthy fat known as monounsaturated fat, which speeds your metabolism up, gives you a feeling of fullness, nourishes the skin and joints, soothes the gut and digestive system. Helps burn belly fat!

Lean challenge Day 5, 6 and 7

Hi guys, this weekend has gone so fast. Hope you all had a good one and enjoyed the lovely weather.

Have I been slacking with my challenge? Not with food but yes with working out. Only a little bit though hehe. I didn't workout on Friday as I thought I need to let my body rest =). I went for a run in the hilly park on Saturday morning (running on an incline is good right? That's twice the workout. lol)  followed by 100 squats and today I did this little exercise that was suggested by Yogababe_life. This exercise looks simple but the burpees makes you sweat and those push ups are a killer if you have weak arms. 20 squats was too little for me so I did 40 instead.

I didn't get round to making a green smoothie on Friday. But Saturday I made a green shake.

The shake had:

- handful of spinach

- 1/2 a pineapple,

-1 cup of oat milk

- 1 tsp of baobab powder. 

Today I made the same thing with the other half of the pineapple but added a banana to it. It tasted even better! I even decorated it with some gojiberries, milled sesame seeds, raspberries and blueberries. Do you think it looks pretty? lol

I've been having a lot of tomatoes this weekend as my parents went to the market and bought a box of yellow cherry tomatoes for £1. Yes £1! They also got a bag of red peppers for £1 too.

With the cherry tomatoes my dad made a tomato stew topped with stir fried egg. This was lovely, the tomatoes were really sweet. 

My dad made tomato stew again on Saturday. Other dishes he made were (top right) pan fried salmon with red peppers, stir fried mixed vegetables in some salty beancurd sauce (not sure what it's called in English), and some chicken wings. I've never been a fan of chicken wings so I didn't have any and plus they are too fatty for my lean challenge. 

With the cherry tomatoes and red peppers I added them to my quinoa salad which also had grilled halloumi cheese, corn on cob (I scrapped it off the cob), edamame beans, sunflower seeds and almond nuts. This was lovely, no need for salad dressing as the corns were really sweet. 

Today, I made pasta (whole meal) with tomato and spinach sauce for lunch. Made the sauce with a bit of white wine; wine has become a favourite ingredient when it comes to cooking. For Chinese food, I love adding Shaoxing cooking wine (Taiwanese cooking wine) to my stir fried dishes, it adds amazing flavour and aroma to the food. 

I've been baking over the weekend. Saturday, I made cinnamon buns. I found a vegan recipe and 

no rising time is required. I made it half organic (half of the ingredients are organic lol) and used wholemeal flour instead of white.

The photo below is split into two. The top half is before baking, the bottom is after baking. Not sure what you think of the presentation but if you think it looks good, you've been deceived by the looks lol. They were rock hard. I think I must have over baked it. However, it tasted ok though. 

Sunday, I decided to make quiche. I found this crustless quiche recipe from Celery and Cupcakes. I found it a bit too eggy for me, my brother said it tasted like food on the aeroplane but my dad happened to like it. 

Tomorrow is Monday that means it's hardcore workout day- weight training and spinning-, it also means I will show you the progress of my abs and arms. Lol.

What you been up to during the weekend? Have you made cinnamon buns or/and quiche before? Can you share your recipe please? :) 

WIAW- dissertation taken over my food and workout

Hi my lovely people!
There isn't much for What Ate This Wednesday this week as my dissertation has taken over. That doesn't mean I haven't been eating healthy and having my daily smoothies but it does mean I have slowed down on my workout.  I only worked out briefly on Saturday morning with my friend. I was supposed to train her but I was just out of energy. However, I've been doing 5 minutes worth of leg raises before bed every night. I could see instant results!

No matter how busy I am, I will always make time for my breakfast and smoothies. Lol. Breakfast is the meal that I put the most effort on. Don't understand how some people can go without breakfast. I love my smoothies so much that I just don't feel complete if I don't have it in a day.

My smoothies have a been slightly different this week. I mentioned in my previous post that I bought some aloe vera juice from Holland & Barratt, well I've been adding them to my smoothies. But I can't really taste the juice, actually I don't even know how it tastes, lol. Maybe I should have a taste on its own first.

First its my Sunday smoothie, a detoxing one. Carrots, ginger, lemon, aloe vera juice, baobab powder and manuka honey. I'm really glad that I put some manuka honey to it because I put too much ginger and it was so spicy! The honey helped...a bit. I just downed this one.

On Monday I made a mango shake with hemp milk. Didn't add aloe vera juice though. I haven't had hemp milk in a while, I did miss the taste. The shake had one mango, cup of hemp milk, baobab powder, manuka honey and lemon juice.

Tuesday, I made a mucky looking smoothie. I used some home grown green apples (golden delicious), a cup of blueberries, aloe vera juice, lemon juice and water. The colour of this smoothie was quite interesting, to me it was anyways. When I first turned the blender on, the mixture was pink. When I blended it for another 10 seconds it was purple. When I poured it out it was brownish purplish. I didn't drink it straight away, I rinsed the blender then it was brownish redish, I think its to do with the apples turning brown. I realised that our home grown apple turn brown really quick when cut open compared to the ones you get in supermarket, when I say quick I mean in seconds. I think its because our ones are organic and the supermarket ones might have some preservative or something.

This morning I didn't have any idea what kind of smoothie to make as there wasn't much in the kitchen. So I just grabbed whatever I can see.

Banana, carrots, blueberries, gojiberries, plum, milled seeds, aloe Vera juice and water. No need to put any kind if sweetener as banana is sweet anyway. This actually tasted quite good.

What kind of smoothies have you been making this week? What's the weirdest combination you've made and gone wrong? 

Trained my friend during a rainy weekend

Happy Sunday! How has your weekend been? We've had some rainy days in the last couple of days here in the UK. I'm not going to complain though because we needed it, it was a bit too humid before and now we can breathe. However, the humidity isn't as bad as Hong Kong, its like a sauna out there.

Yesterday, I managed to drag myself out off my bed to go gym at 8am. It was a good time to go, as it was pretty empty (no need to fight for equipment and machines) and lots of parking spaces. I trained my friend and that was partly my motivation to get up that early lol.  I like it when I train someone because I feel like a real personal trainer and usually I'm the one who's being trained (by my boyfriend). The best thing was, my friend said she likes it when I train her and then feel the pain the following day. lol. We did a full body workout consisting 8 exercises.

We started off with about 15 minutes of cardio; that definitely woke me up. Then I did 2 sets of 20 power cleans, my friend tried to do it but she couldn't lift the bar, lol, so she skipped that. Maybe next time when she has stronger arms. After the power cleans, I challenged us to 5 minutes of squats whilst holding a medicine ball in our hand (I remember I once read about Mariah Carey's workout in a magazine, it says that she does 45 minutes of squats. The 5 minutes of squats we did was a killer, how on earth does she manage 45?!). Then about 3 minutes of walking lunges with a medicine ball. My friend wanted to work more on her arms so I introduced her to a couple of arm exercises; throwing and catching a medicine ball (not sure what you call this workout) against a mini trampoline to work the triceps and shoulders. We did 2 sets of 30 of that. I also introduced her to the lat pull down, this is actually one of my favourite upper body exercises because I can feel my triceps working instantly. From that we moved back down to our lower body by using the hip abductor and finished off with some ab workout on the captain chair.

Prior to the workout I made a shake as a light breakfast and for some energy boost.

 I added;
-1/2 a cup of oat (fibre)
-1 1/2 cup of soya milk (protein)
- 1 tablespoon of chia seeds (omega 3)
- 1/2 scoop of hemp protein powder (protein)
- 1 tablespoon of goji berries (antioxidant)
- 1 teaspoon of baobab powder (energy boost)
- 1 teaspoon maca root powder (energy boost)

It doesn't look very pleasant at all when its all blended together lol but it tasted good.



After the workout I made another smoothie and a small breakfast number 2.

Smoothie made from:
- 1 cup of frozen blackberries
- 1 plum
- 1 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice

Mini breakfast:
- coconut yoghurt
- a handful of grapes
- a handful of blueberries
- a cup of granola.











I mentioned in last post that I've been picking tonnes of cherries from our back garden and so I've been eating them a lot. I snack on them almost every day. My dad is allergic to them, my mum and brother is in Hong Kong for a month so I'm the only one eating them. We have given lots away too. Did you know cherries is known as a superfruit? It is packed with antioxidants which aid in the reduction of heart disease and help fight cancer. They are high in vitamin A- Chinese people say cherries gives you a healthy glowing skin with that natural blush- and good source of fibre of course like any other fruits

My dad and I couldn't be bothered to get out of the house to do food shopping, luckily we found a frozen mini chicken, 2 fillet pieces of salmon, and a sirloin steak in our freezer. My dad marinated the chicken and steak and I cooked. I steamed the salmon the Chinese way and pan fried the steak (my dad diced it lol) with some onions and worchester sauce. As for the chicken, my dad only marinated the skin and I felt like making a roast chicken. So I stuff some fresh thyme and half a lemon into the chicken. I chopped some carrots, peppers and garlic and placed them under the chicken. After roasting it for 30 minutes (the chicken as tiny didn't take long to cook and we were in a rush to go to work), the vegetables were coated with the juice from the chicken. So yummy. The chicken tasted so good too. And guess what? It was my first time making a roast chicken. ^.^

The presentation doesn't very good but its all about the taste lol

As a person who don't eat much meat that was a lot for me and because my dad don't eat beef I had no one to help me to finish the sirloin steak. So had to leave it.

This morning, I was thinking of going gym at 8am again but wanted a lay in. As usual made a very fruity breakfast and a green smoothie.

I made the green smoothie for me and my dad, spinach, banana, gooseberries and 1 1/2 cups of water. The gooseberry made it really refreshing. I have developed a new love for them.

More fruits in my breakfast; granola soaked in soya milk, topped with chopped strawberries, gojiberries, cherries and more gooseberries.

So what did you do in this rainy weather? What time do you usually go gym?

Cherry picking and Exploring smoothies

Hiya, summer holidays have officially started for some people, teachers and students. If that's you, what you got planned for the summer? I mentioned about going on a triple date to Amsterdam in August but that isn't happening now as we couldn't find a cheap apartment to rent. So now my boyfriend and I are planning to go to Paris, we've said that for months in fact. Lol.

I've been picking cherries with my dad this morning at our back garden. We spent an hour and a bit getting all those cherries down. It was too hot to carry on. There are still a lot on the trees. These are just 1/5 of the cherries. The best thing about them is that they are organic! Look at those beauties.

I immediately used some of the cherries to make my morning smoothie,  I also added some frozen blackberries, strawberries and soya milk. I even snacked a big bowl of them later on in the afternoon.

In the last couple of weeks I've been trying out different fruit combination, some turned out very nice but some turned out not so nice. 

The one below consists of a pear, 1 cup of papaya, a bit of fresh ginger and black soya bean milk. This tasted weird. If you like ginger and spring onion sauce then you will like this because that's exactly how it tastes like. lol. 

This one below is made with 2 small oranges, 1 cup of cantaloupe and semi-skimmed milk. I got this recipe from a smoothie app by Martha Stewart and it was quite nice This is suppose to aid weight loss, so if you're on a diet give this a try.

I've made a very nutty and seedy post workout drink; hemp protein powder, raw almond nuts, black sesame seeds, baobab powder, maca root powder and soya milk (sweetened). Not only was this full of goodness, it was delicious! 

I mentioned in my previous post about adding watermelon to my smoothies. This one consist of watermelon (obviously), frozen strawberries, fresh ginger and a cup of water. This was very refreshing and helps detox.

A new green smoothie combination; romaine lettuce, kiwi and pear. This was ok but I didn't like the prickly texture from the kiwi. It would taste better if I added some sort of sweetener. I actually need to make green smoothies more often. I can feel the result the next day every time I have a green smoothie. 

That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed it.

What kind of smoothies do you make?What's your favourite combination?

What I Ate Wednesday- My first WIAW

Hello lovelies! As a fitness fanatic and healthy foodie, I read a lot of other fitness and health blogs. I realised that most of them blog about 'What I Ate Wednesday' (WIAW). I did a bit of research on what it is and who started it. WIAW was started by Pea & Crayon for her reflect on her eating habit and for other bloggers to see what each other are eating. So you blog about the meals that you had any day of the week. I love the idea however and I have got many healthy food ideas from other bloggers.

So Imma start my first WIAW.

Sunday breakfast started off with some wheat bran served with coconut yoghurt, a chopped banana, gojiberries, baobab powder and agave nectar. I've recently started adding whole gojiberries into my breakfast. My mum used to steam some gojiberries for me and my brother to have with our dinner because they are good for your eye sight. Then she moved on to brewing it with some chrysanthemum which is also good for your sight. In fact, goji berry is a commonly used ingredient by Chinese, they add it a lot to soups. Btw, the kind of soup I'm talking about isn't the chicken sweetcorn kind of ones you order from Chinese restaurant. Proper Chinese soup are very watery and are made from various plants (fruits, vegetable, nuts and fungus) and sometimes meat for a sweeter taste. 

I spent Sunday afternoon with my boyfriend and I made him a quick but nutritious lunch. It was semi- healthy, the unhealthy part was the stuff Yorkshire pudding and the white rice. You know Yorkshire pudding is quite oily and white rice is refined carbs so no good. I stuffed the Yorkshire pudding with some minced beef that was stir fried with some mushroom, tomatoes and onions. Then topped it with some cheese and popped it in the oven about 20 minutes. I cooked the white rice with some quinoa and a bit coconut cream (For a bit of Carribean flava lol). The yellow mushy thing is mashed sweet potatoes, Charlotte potatoes, cauliflower and sweet corn. I added some coconut milk to make it more creamy. And to complete the meal, I made a green smoothie with 2 kiwis, 1 honey dew melon, handful of spinach, 1 apple and 1 banana. 

Didn't take photo of my dinner as it was not interesting. So moving on to Monday. I decided to go to gym earlier well a bit earlier than usual, I went at 9am. Ok, I know that's not early for some of you and I know some of you probably work out at 6am. lol. Since I'm going earlier I didn't want to have a big breakfast so I made a pre-workout oatmeal; oat, hemp protein powder, baobab powder, strawberries, maca powder, 1 tbsp peanut butter and skimmed milk. Plenty of protein and a great energy booster. 

I worked my upper body only because its time of the month and I'm a bit funny with doing core workout....just the thought of it..never mind lol. I did a lot of triceps and bicep workout and did higher reps. My arms aren't flabby but they are not toned enough.They still move a bit when I wave lol. I want to get them proper toned and defined. I did about 20 power cleans too, a good whole body workout. I also did some squats and lunges but made it harder by holding a bar behind my shoulders. 

I'm telling you, that pre-workout drink lasted me long. I wasn't hungry after 1.5 hour workout but I still made a small lunch. I made another smoothie with 1 apple, 2 tomatoes, and 1 beetroot. Doesn't sound too pleasant but it was nice.  

Swedish wholemeal cracker with light cream cheese and smoked salmon, 2 fried eggs in yellow pepper rings. 

A couple of hours later I snack on some Chinese dessert, sweet soup made with a mixture of beans and grains. My dad made it, it helps calm his hayfever apparently. 

I started Tuesday morning with a "green" smoothie. It was supposed to be a green smoothie but it turned out pink lol. I put a banana, a cup of strawberries and about 8 leaves of Romaine lettuce. 

For a proper breakfast meal I had granola served with coconut yoghurt and Greek yoghurt, goji berries, baobab powder, mixed milled seeds and peanut butter.

Today (Wednesday morning), I went gym "early" and worked only on my lower body. Lots of squats and lunges and worked on various weight machines for legs, glutes and hip. I finished the workout with a 1 minute plank, I'm getting better at it lol.

Usually people blog about a day for WIAW but I ended up doing 3 days lol. But there's no rules, and I want to share most of my food, its fun! ^.^

What did you eat? How was your week?

Great smoothies for breakfast!

Image from myrecipe.com

Hi Guys! In one of my old blogs (click to read) I mentioned about the smoothie that I drink every morning. I thought I'll share some of my recipes with you guys, so you can try it yourself at home. Of course, its really up to you what you prefer to have in your smoothie.

Porridge is the best breakfast to have for weight management and when you're on a diet. But of course it's too hot for the summer, ideally you would want something cool and refreshing in the summer.

Please note: The more ripe the fruits are the better they taste! Banana will make the mixture thick so add more milk to thinen it down.

Banana and Oat 
1 cup of oat
1 whole banana
1/2 cup of skimmed milk
1/2 cup of natural plain yoghurt
1 tsp of ground cinnamon (optional)
1 tblsp of honey/ brown sugar if you don't like honey

Put everything into a blender and blend until smooth

Strawberry and Bananna Oatmeal. (You can add a handful of blueberries too for a different taste)
1 cup of oat
1 whole banana
A handful of  fresh strawberries (5-6, depending on the size and your preference)
1 cup of skimmed milk
1/2 cup of natural yoghurt

Put everything into a blender and blend for 2 minutes or until smooth.

Peach and blueberries Oatmeal
1 cup of oat
1/2 cup of skimmed milk
1/2 cup of natural plain yoghurt
1 Peach (remove pit)
A handful of blueberries
1 Tablespoon of honey (optional)

Put everything into a blender except the honey, blend for 2 minutes or until smooth. Add honey if you like it to be sweeter. Peach with oat can create a soya milk taste, by adding the honey will get rid of that if you don't like the soya taste.

Peach and Strawberries
1 Peach
5-6 Strawberries
1 cup of skimmed milk
1 Cup of oat

Put everything into a blender and blend until smooth

Peach and Banana
1 whole Banana
1 Peach (pit removed)
1/2 cup skimmed milk
1/2 cup natural yoghurt.

Blend everything together, if the fruits are not ripe enough add 1 tbsp of honey for extra sweetness.

Berries Oatmeal
1 handful of raspberry
1 handful of blueberries
1 handful of Strawberries
1 cup of oat
1 cup of natural yoghurt
1/2 cup of skimmed milk (if the mixture is too thick add more milk)

Blend everything together, if the fruit are not ripe enough it could taste quite sour so add a tbsp of honey to sweeten it if you wish.

Recently, I've downloaded an app called Whole Living, it has more than 100 recipes of smoothies. It has 5 categories ranging from essentials to detox to weight loss. It's only £0.65 ($99) but when you first purchase it you will only have 3 categories and you will have to buy the other two. Each costing £0.65. Some of the recipes suggests using concentrated juice but I like to use fresh fruits.

I haven't tried the recipes myself yet because there's some ingredients I just can't be bothered to buy lol. The recipes I put up here are my own creation. Try it out the next morning or even now!