The FastDay Forum

Hi Izzy, as long as the cals are counted on your fast day I can't think why they should be avoided, but perhaps someone else has more info:)

[janeg]

I love my breakfast smoothie and was very surprised when I worked out the calorie content!
I have a banana, an orange and a handful of raspberries, 3 dessertspoons of natural yoghurt and 3 seconds of semi skilled milk. Or a banana and a mango - yum.
It keeps me going for ages especially with 2 oatcakes added.
However, on my 2 fasting days I don't eat until the evening meal and forgo the smoothie as it is high calorie ( but very good!)
And I really look forward to it to break my fast.

[carorees]

Yes, that's the reason! Plus too much sugar for a fast day...most fruits are not advisable on a fat day because of their sugar content.

Check out The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Smoothies. It has tons of recipes, all with calorie counts and other nutritional information. There is a whole chapter on smoothies for weight loss, which are the low calorie ones. The regular ones tend to be a lot higher in calories, but still very good and healthy.

I love my smoothies and make them everyday BUT NOT when fasting. They are loaded with calories!! I make mine the day AFTER fasting...

I usually make a 16-oz smoothie with the following:
-- juice of 2 oranges
-- half banana
-- frozen blueberries, strawberries, blackberries
-- frozen mango (sometimes)
-- lowfat plain yogurt
-- flaxseed oil

As long as you're not juicing fruit/veg. into your smoothies... eat the whole fruit/veg. The fibre is so important.

Re: green smoothies

I am sorry but I cannot handle spinach in my smoothie. Makes everything look like mud. I just have it in my salad instead. I do not need my smoothies to be green.

I put a bit of spinach in a smoothie the other day and it was quite a nice green. It was surprisingly nice.

I've been dithering about having something to eat before exercise and I've now settled on a smoothie. However, I've increased the water content, decreased the banana and been adding things like kiwi.

I need to find some frozen berries but not having much luck.

[carorees]

Many supermarkets seem to do frozen berries. I've definitely seen them in Sainsbury and Waitrose and fairly sure I got some from Tesco once. I often get them from our local farm shop where they have freezers with loose fruit and veg you can bag up yourself. I try to keep blueberries and raspberries in stock. Sadly not often for smoothies...more likely for making cakes and muffins

I've been looking but not seen any. I need a trip to Farm Foods or apparently Lidl/Aldi are good for them.

Local Tesco/Asda and Iceland haven't had any. I'll find some on my travels, new to the area so not found the farm shops yet.

I bake a lot too, despite my chooks now being too old to lay and it'll be good when I have my own blueberries again. They seem (touch wood) to have survived being yanked up and moved 300 miles...

Research shows you feel fuller longer if you eat whole fruit and veg rather than drink them, which makes sense to me. Psychologically a smoothie is a drink and a drink is not a meal. Also whole fruit and veg contain more phytochemicals,which ward off illness, I believe. (Not sure about that last bit but it sounds scientific!)

Frozen berries at Tesco :-
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/ ... =266890396
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/ ... =260759194

Currently on offer, so maybe they had sold out.

Asda web site shows them too, but Iceland looks to be too much at the processed / junk end of the market. Have bought them in Lidl before.

Tesco do vary in their offer, according to location. I used to live near a central Edinburgh store and it had an entire section devoted to lettuce and lots of other whole foods. Moved to the sticks then and it was more family stuff and here it's aimed squarely at the more processed products offer...

I put whole fruit in my smoothies except for a bit of orange juice. Berries are full of antioxidants and sometimes it is hard to have fresh ones on hand all the time, so I use the frozen to make smoothies.