Louisa's Weight Loss Blog

I sometimes appear a bit aggressive and hard-nosed at times. Having been raised in a family of strong women who won’t stand for any messing, I am very confident in asserting my beliefs and opinions whether they are requested or not. Underneath this no-nonsense exterior, I am an absolute sucker for looking after the vulnerable and one of the things that makes me really sad is elderly people alone in the world with no one to look after them. After all, nobody actually sets out in life to be Eleanor Rigby!

I set out this morning intending to review Innocent smoothies but something else on their website caught my eye…

Innocent have launched a campaign called ‘The Big Knit’. Basically, Innocent and Sainsbury’s have teamed up with the intention of donating 35p per bottle of smoothie sold to Age Concern and Help the Aged. They want to raise £250,000 so that these charities can fund projects and advice centres that enable older people to cook nourishing and yummy food, even living on just a state pension. It is a crime that 10% of the UK population over the age of 65 is malnourished. It doesn’t have to be that way and with better education and information made available to our more vulnerable citizens, this can be turned around and it is everyone’s responsibility to get involved.

How do you know that you are buying a special pack? This is the fun bit, the bottle will be wearing a knitted hat!

Behatted Innocent Smoothie - look out for and buy these!

Innocent are even having a competition, asking people to knit little hats and to send pictures of their designs to their Flickr page. They are doing a ‘hat of the week’ contest that starts this month. If you want to enter your own knitted designs, the closing date is 16th October. (For more information, click on the picture to your left.)

I’m not making any money from this, so why am I raving about The Big Knit and asking that you buy little bottles of smoothies with the cute hats on?

Nutrition is not just an issue that effects the elderly. People who are malnourished are more likely to become ill in the old winter months. This includes dieters who are trying to lose weight but not taking into consideration the value of the fewer calories that they eat.

It is so easy to become carried away with dieting, you cut the ‘naughty’ foods out of your diet or you reduce your consumption massively. When dieting, the biggest thing to remember is: EAT FOR NUTRITIONAL VALUE. Foods like rice cakes are low in calories but they have a very high Glycemic Index (or GI) and they are not filling and have as much nutritional value as paper. Empty calories are worthless and you should make the calories you eat count. Your body needs fibre, fat, carbohydrate, protein etc and this is never going to change. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: there is no point in being thin if you are not healthy. Your health is reflected in your skin, your hair, your nails and even your eyes and smile. Losing weight is meant to improve your life and your health, if this is not your aim then maybe you should reconsider your motives for weight loss.

Yesterday I went to the supermarket especially to buy Jonny some beer. This is because I love him very much so when he is happy, I am happy. Women tend to automatically come to this conclusion about happiness whereas Homer Simpson in the Simpsons movie had to have what appeared to be an LSD trip. I suspect there are lots of men out there who probably need a similar experience to come to the same conclusion about the happiness of their loved-ones!

Anyhoo, whilst I was playing the dutiful girlfriend, I was intending to be naughty and buy some orange juice for me… until I happened across a 2 for £4 offer on the 1 litre Innocent smoothies at Tesco. They were the ‘super foods’ ones and I decided to treat myself to smoothies and review them on the website. Of course, anything in the name of research for my beloved TotalChunk!

When I got home, I tried the pomegranate, blueberry and acai first with a low expectation. I have had Innocent smoothies before and whilst they are nice enough, I’ve thought them rather expensive for what they were… until now. The pomegranate, blueberry and acai smoothie was fecking amazing!! I am not a woman who is easily impressed but a small 250ml glass made my stomach feel satisfied as if I’d eaten a hearty snack and the taste was incredible.

What is in this ‘wonder drink’?

• 76 red and white grapes
• 2 1/2 mashed bananas
• 1 1/2 crushed pomegranate
• 2 squeezed oranges
• 160 crushed blueberries
• 100 acai berries
• a squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Innocent Pomegranate, Blueberry and Acai Smoothie is yummy!

A 250ml glass (or quarter of the carton) is worth 2 of your five recommended fruit and veg portions in a day. I would suggest however that you limit yourself to one glass a day because of the high sugar content. Even though the sugar content is naturally occurring in the fruit, you should be aware that sugar ought to be limited by people on calorie controlled diets. Saying this, Innocent do not add sugar to their smoothies and the benefits far outweigh this negative aspect if you stick to one 250ml glass per day.

I am yet to try the guava, mango and goji berry smoothie but this one has almost 10% more fibre than the acai, blueberry and pomegranate one so I am very much looking forward to opening the bottle! If you are on a diet and trying to get antioxidants and other good vitamins into your body, this is a good way to do it. I highly recommend this product and if I see it on offer at the supermarket, I will DEFINITELY buy it again.

9/10 – I love the taste and a 250ml glass is beautifully filling, particularly at 10am but it should be drunk in moderation and this makes me sad because I can’t get enough of the yumminess!