My mother’s biggest advice to me has always been, “don’t marry a man expecting him to change”. Although I ultimately agree, geez my husband’s eating habits have changed! Yes, we have been living together for a little while, and no, it did not happen overnight. He has gone from eating 3 pieces of toast with a very large glass of sugary orange juice (cordial if we were out of juice) to a really healthy smoothie that keeps him feeling full until past lunchtime.
This brings me to fad diets. They’re called fad diets because that is exactly what they are – a FAD! I really believe that if you want permanent change, start small and work slowly – baby steps! It worked for us!
My first change was getting rid of the sugary juice, which I replaced with 100% orange juice. As he drank about 1 litre a day, this became really costly, but I had it in my mind that it MUST be better for you. But, he was probably eating the juice of about 20 oranges a day. So we got a nutribullet and he starting blitzing full pieces of fruit with ice. Baby steps!
Months later, he changed it to a diary based nutribullet in the morning as he liked having a “fruit crush” at night. If he had one both morning and night, he was probably having about 6-7 serves of fruit a day – way too much.
So, we started with banana, berries, Greek yoghurt and milk. After a while, we realised with his several cups of coffee each day, he was having way too much milk. We substituted it for almond milk (which truthfully, I have no idea if it’s that much better).
I am a big fan of oats in the morning. They keep me going. I literally eat rolled oats (now I add lupin flake) with a bit of milk, in the microwave for 3 minutes and throw some fruit on top. Being the doting wife that I am (pfft!) I made his breakfast one morning. And I sneaked some oats into his smoothie. I asked him how it tasted and he told me it was fine. So oats in the smoothie became the new trend and he found he didn’t need morning tea as early.
Now, he tries to steal my lupin flakes! That’s how good they are! We ran out of oats one morning so I told him to try some flake. He didn’t need to eat until 3 in the afternoon! They filled him up so much and kept him going for so long that he came home with food still in his lunchbox! I ordered some lupin supplies the other day and I had to break the news to him that I didn’t have enough for him to eat on a daily basis, otherwise I’d have nothing to cook with!
With these tiny little changes that probably took about two years, we are both living healthier lifestyles and loving it!
Makes 1
1 banana
1/4 cup blueberries
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 cup Greek yoghurt
1/4 cup lupin flake
Place ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Drink immediately.
Tip: Can be frozen and put into ice cream moulds for kids on hot days! Summer is coming!