Those of you who follow me on twitter (@mizzworthy) and chat with me regularly on there might know I work as a nurse, which means I work shifts. Over the last year or so I have noticed that I’ve been really susceptible to getting every cough and cold doing the rounds. I put this down to stress, which lowers immunity, as well as simply not eating a healthy diet because I struggle to get up in the morning (obviously low energy levels are also probably due to  not eating properly!) in time to prepare healthy breakfasts/lunches as well as getting to work on time. Not eating in the morning means I frequently don’t eat until four or five pm, by which time I am ravenous, and grab whatever food I can find, usually something from a packet. Forget five portions of fruit/veg a day, I was lucky to eat three or four a week. Not good!

The final straw came this Christmas – I had a nasty bought of tonsillitis as well as a chest infection. That meant I was off work for ten days, as well as having to take not one but two courses of antibiotics.

That was basically the final straw. I realised that I had become one of those people who eats too many calories, in the form of convenience foods, but had very little intake that had any actual nutritional value. I was overweight but probably undernourished.

I’m not one for New Year Resolutions – I find that often people “ban” themselves from doing something they love, which is absolutely destined to failure (Wot, no chocolate cake ever again!?). I decided to make a positive change by adding to my life rather than taking away. I made myself a promise that I’d start to look after myself better by fuelling by body with healthier foods, rather than just grabbing whatever I could muster up the energy to throw in the microwave/oven… I also have to say that after about ten years of my weight being up and down like a bride’s nightie, that I don’t believe diets really work in the long term – I’ve lost weight, but I always put it back on. Again this goes back to the mentality involved in diets – banning yourself from “bad” food (and again, I have a problem with the grouping of food into “good” and “bad”), just makes you want it more, and makes you resent every time you have to forego it. The times I’ve felt best in my life are the times I’ve actually listened to my body, and provided it with the nutrients it needs first and foremost, and not banning myself from anything. I usually find that my desire for more fatty and sugary foods wanes over time anyway. My weight is also tied in with my mood – I actually do experience bouts of clinical depression and the poor self esteem that accompanies those bouts tends to be accompanied by comfort eating…

So I’d already made up my mind to add more to my life in the form of more fruit and veg in my diet (for a vegetarian it’s amazing how unhealthily I ate), so I was both surprised and pleased to be approached by Alpro to participate in their “DESKFEST” challenge this January. They have set me the challenge of creating five healthy breakfasts which can be eaten “on the go” or at work (hence the Deskfest bit!). They have also kindly provided me with various dairy-free plant-based milk and yogurt alternatives to do this. As I’ve mentioned, I am a vegetarian because I dislike animal cruelty and I do like to also avoid dairy and eggs as well for this reason – I already use almond milk regularly, so I’ll enjoy trying the other varieties such as hazelnut and their pouring yogurts. They also sent me a food blender so I expect smoothies will play a bit of a role for me – I can easily shove a few bits of fruit and a bit of yogurt in the blender and whip up a quick smoothie to drink at work…

I’m looking on this as both a bit of a personal challenge, as well as a way to get my own promise to treat myself better, off to a great start – I’ll share any recipes for the things I make, as well as my thoughts on how much I enjoy the “deskfest”, and whether I feel better at the end of it…

Now, the bits and bobs for this challenge arrived on Friday, and I don’t “officially” start the challenge until tomorrow, but there was no way I could resist having a go at a few smoothies this weekend… I hit up the supermarket and got a load of fresh and frozen fruit as well as lots of cheap bananas which I chopped up and froze, as frozen bananas turn a smoothie into a delicious creamy but still healthy concoction, full of nutrition.

My first smoothie attempt was a blueberry, strawberry and banana blend…  utmost patience was required to wait for the banana’s to freeze overnight!

I simply placed a handful of blueberries, and chopped around half a punnet of strawberries (they are both pricey at this time of year, but I couldn’t resist…), as well as a frozen banana and good slosh of Alpro soya milk (scientific measures or what!). I used the blender to “pulse” and break up the frozen banana’s a little before blending it properly so it didn’t jam the blades…

The result was a rather lurid purple smoothie…

The smoothie was actually really nice and felt like a reasonably substantial breakfast because it was so thick and creamy tasting. The berries didn’t actually add as much flavour as I hoped, but I think this is probably due to the time of year and the fact that they are out of season. Yummy nonetheless though, and it definitely made me want to try to make more smoothies. I’ll be experimenting with adding oats etc to them too to make them even more filling and keep me going until I either finish work or have lunch…

I’m also planning to try a few smoothies involving frozen spinach, and even avocado, as I have heard that they are both a great way to get more and more nutrients packed in – I’m not sure how tasty they will be but I’m up for trying anything. I’ll be tweeting pictures of my deskfests so if you want to you’ll be able to see my creations on twitter too…

Have you got any awesome smoothie recipes or portable breakfasts you swear by? I need all the ideas I can get!  Wish me luck!

Disclaimer – The Alpro products and blender were provided to enable me to take part in this promotion.