In the past, I have scoffed at, made fun of and even justified my reasons for not dieting. It never appealed to me. I never thought it was for me. But after trying all kinds of things, the weight that I had put on during my second pregnancy was just not coming off. I didn’t have the time to exercise (I honestly don’t) for the amount of time it would have taken me to start shedding pounds. Moreover, I felt, more than exercise, I needed to control what I put in my mouth. Being a hard core foodie and an amateur food blogger makes this part all the more difficult. I was not able to find the right balance between cooking and controlled eating.
But there comes a time in everyone’s weight loss journey where they feel enough is enough. They don’t like how they look in the mirror or in the pictures of them among a group of friends. They hear some one else’s weight loss story and feel a twinge of sadness and wish they were that person. I have been through all of that and when my moment of ‘enough is enough’ arrived, I was ready. I started slowly and steadily. I did not give up everything on the first day. I just started with some simple rules.
1. Replacing breakfast with a weight-loss smoothie. My breakfast on most days used to be a cheese(lightly spread) and vegetable sandwich.
2. Eat as less oil as I possibly can. I wanted to make my veggies in less oil rather than no-oil so as to not torture my rest of the family.
3. Absolutely no Sugar and no fried stuff. This was difficult coz I make quite a bit of sweets for the blog. It also meant that I drink sugarless tea. So I gave up on tea completely. Best decision I ever made. Without tea, all the snacks that go along with it, went away too.
4. No Maida/ All purpose flour. This was little easier for me than the others as I don’t eat food made out of Maida much anyways.
I did not switch to brown rice, brown bread, low-fat milk or multi grain roti. My family is not very fond of the brown stuff. I wanted to lose weight in a way that was more of a lifestyle change and that I could continue for a long time without craving for the restricted food. I did not do any soup and salad diet. That’s not for me at all. I also didn’t give up on yogurt or mango and things like that.
I also did a few things that I feel helped me immensely. But more of that in another post.
This weight-loss Coffee smoothie is something that I liked the most among all the smoothies that I tried. (It is not a miracle smoothie though. Unless you practice control over other food you eat, this won’t help you.) It keeps me full, it is not too sweet and it doesn’t taste of banana. Yay!!
Ingredients
- 1 Banana
- 3 Dates, pitted
- 1/4 cup Milk (I used full fat, else double the amount)
- 1/4 cup Yogurt (I used full fat else double the amount)
- 21 gm Instant Oat ( I used half of the small instant oats packet)
- 2 tsp Chia seeds
- 1 tsp roasted and powdered Flax seed
- 5 raw Almond
- 1 tsp Cocoa Powder
- 1 tsp Coffee Powder
- 1 and 1/2 cup water (If doubling milk and yogurt then reduce this to half)
Instructions
- Add everything except 1 tsp chia seeds and almonds into blender and blend well.
- Crush the almonds and set aside.
- Pour the smoothie into a tall glass and garnish with almonds and remaining chia seeds.
Notes
There is no limit on amount of coffee, cocoa powder, flax seed and chia seed. You can add or reduce as per your taste.
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Swati Purohit
Nidhi boss…u r a saviour…..
I have a very bad addiction of cold coffee….n was in a phase to shun it completely….but now I will love u all my life for dis recipe….
I have also started smoothies for breakfast n was getting bored of the banana n Apple flavour…..
I hope I may continue the weight loss journey….
Luv ya…
Loved d recipe more 😉
morethancurry
Aww am glad u liked it..all the best!