Getting back on track… and Blueberry Pancake Batter Smoothie
Even after years of eating healthy and trying hard to make better food choices, it’s easy for one to lose track sometimes and drift a little bit… or a lot!
You start making “less optimal” food choices. You start “loosening up” a bit.
After all, everyone around you is there to tell you that you are being way too stiff, that you should live a little, that body image isn’t everything and that a little “this” or “that” once in a while never killed anyone.
So you finish up your plate just because what’s in it tastes so good, even if you’re no longer hungry. You say yes to that piece of cake and not only do you eat it all, you even come back for seconds. You enjoy a beer or two every day, just because you’re on vacation and it’s nice and warm out, you know…
Oh, you don’t do it all the time, but all these little things add up!
So I’d known for a couple of months now that I’d gained “a little bit of weight”. Oh, not that much you know… my clothes still fit me, so I was fine!
But the pounds, they just crept up on me and I didn’t want to see it.
I was in denial.
I just looked at myself in the mirror and could clearly see that my body had changed. There was a little bit less definition now than there used to be. But it still looked good, didn’t it?
Not that big a deal, was it?
Sure, my clothes still fit, but they WERE getting tighter. Those jeans that I used to love so much I’d started avoiding, because, well, they were feeling a little tight.
But they’d always been like that, hadn’t they…
I knew I had to step on that scale. I’d stopped doing that long ago. At first, because I had bought the idea that I didn’t need to do that anymore. But after a while, it was simply because I was too afraid to face the truth.
I did NOT want to know.
Last week, I finally worked up the courage and did it. OMG! The damage is worse than I’d anticipated.
I am now 10.5 kilos heavier than I was at my lightest. That’s 23 solid pounds.
That’s INSANE!
But tell you what. Stepping on the scale that day was the best decision I made in a long time. I decided I need to get back on track. Start counting calories again. Calories in AND calories out.
My goal is to drop 8 kilos by Labor Day.
To help me keep track and reach my goal, I’ve decided to join My Fitness Pal this time.
The good news is, since I crunch in the numbers for everything I eat, I will be able to post them here. Not the full nutritional contents, but at least calories and macros.
I still have to figure out how I will work that in, but bare with me, it will happen.
Also, you can expect to see a lot more low cal recipes for the next couple of months.
Even this Blueberry Pancake Batter Smoothie is a bit on the heavy side for me now. It’s close to one third of my current daily allowance!!!
See these gorgeous blueberries? For the time being, I think I’ll be enjoying a little bit more of these, on their own!
But as soon as my daily calorie allowance goes back to normal, I will be making this incredible smoothie again, you can be sure of it.
It might not look like much, but trust me, it taste just like drinkable pancake batter.
Drinkable pancake batter that’s good for you.
Hey, it’s pancakes in a bowl, for those mornings when you’re in a rush and don’t have time to cook them. They’re almost as good, but as an added bonus, you only get a fraction of the carbs!
Trust me, if you’re a batter lover like me, you will go plain ga-ga for this smoothie, I can guarantee!
And when you do make it, have a sip for me, will you?
Blueberry Pancake Batter Smoothie
Ingredients
- ½ cup cononut water
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup 1% fat cottage cheese
- ¼ cup fat free Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp coconut flour
- 2 tbsp date paste
- 1 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
- ½ tsp baking soda *See note
- ¼ cup fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Add all ingredients except blueberries to your mini food processor or blender and process until smooth, about 30 seconds.
- Add blueberries and pulse once or twice, just to break them up a little bit.
- Transfer to drinking glass, or bowl, garnish with a few more fresh blueberries if desired and enjoy.
Notes
Nutrition
If you’ve tried this recipe, please take a minute to rate the recipe and let me know how things went for you in the comments below. It’s always such a pleasure to hear from you!
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Pancakes in a bowl!
You guys go ahead and enjoy some of that…
Don’t forget to have a bite for me, alright?
As for me, I’ll stick to these for the time being. They’re still darn delicious!
32 Comments on “Getting back on track… and Blueberry Pancake Batter Smoothie”
Was just going to log off when the bell heralded your post. A smoothie: never have them! Or almost never, said I!! But remember you asking me on the ‘Nutella page’ didn’t I trust your judgment, SO . . . OMG, we are trying to do the same thing: I am on my 15th day of slowly trying to lose 10 Kg, with perhaps another 5 Kg by summer. No diets, just no wine with lunch at the moment [horrible!] and entree plates filled rather than dinner ones! No seconds! More steaming, less stirfrying! Less time working on the computer and enforced 15-20 minute walk etc breaks every 2-3 hours!! Well, 3 1/2 Kg down in a fortnight!! I knew my time had come in June: for my birthday I dear gf gave me a most beautiful, fashionable jumper, quickly stating: ‘Oh, you can change it, you can change it!’ looking sheepish – well the size said ‘L’ and I laughed and it fitted, darn it!!! Love blueberries: awfully expensive here/ Like your smoothie recipe too 🙂 !
Alright! Kudos on working towards shedding a few extra pounds, Eha, that’s really awesome! And congrats on the 3½ kilos that you already left behind!
Sorry to hear blueberries are expensive there. I would be awfully sad if it were the case here. Love the little blue gems. So fresh and tangy and sweet… I really hope you get to try that smoothie, still! 🙂
I know all about getting of track… I was doing so very well with the 12wbt program but this last week has been less then perfect to say the least. I so have to get back on track too! I have been using my fitness pall for a long time! We can be buddies there if you want? If you want to find me I am called sugardreams over there….:) good luck on the calorie counting thing. I hate it but it’s sometimes necessary !
You can’t beat yourself up for a week of not doing so great, Simone. It happens to all of us, you know. Just get back on that horse and keep going. The trick is to never give up.
I too, hate counting calories, but like you said, it’s necessary and it’s the only way to become conscious of what really goes into your body. After a while, you get sort of used to it and don’t have to be so religious about counting every single one of them, but I feel that it’s necessary for me to do that for a little while. I think I need a good reality check! 😉
Of course, I looked you up and added you on MFP. 😀
This sounds absolutely incredible. Can’t wait to try this recipe! Thanks for sharing.
The first step is always the hardest. Indeed, stepping on that scale and facing the situation is the best decision you have made (as opposed to just ignoring the situation) This looks like a real comfort recipe. A smoothie doen’t have to be all green and monstery…This is a real heavenly smoothie. But then again, as what you said, you can enjoy these berries by themselves and I am pretty sure, very soon you will be able to taste and enjoy this smoothie again. Thanks for sharing.
By the way, this is Myfudo. I’d love to share our newest launch with you, I hope you don’t mind? Now that we are getting a new look…Myfudo is moving to a new domain http://www.yumgoggle.com This has been a project we have been working on for almost a year now. We just launched our new gallery submission site, and we are just thrilled. We’d be proud to have your work as part of our growing collection to continue to have a larger reach and further inspire all fellow food lovers out there! Please sign up and check us out (it’s free) http://www.yumgoggle.com/gallery
We look forward to seeing your wonderful pictures, as always.
p.s. We are hosting a Kitchen Aid Mixer Giveaway to celebrate our new Yumgoggle site, coming soon in our launch post, we hope you’ll participate =)
Completely agreed! I also believe that the more a person is afraid to step on the scale, the more they probably NEED to do it! 😉
I’m all for comforting smoothies, too! Green and monstery is great if you need to get more veggies in you, but if it’s not the case, then sweet and comforting is always a good option!
Checked out your page and I LOVE it! Wow, it’s gorgeous. So nice and clean, beautiful design, gorgeous pics. I will definitely take a tour and sign up as soon as I can get my head out of the water here. And thank you so much for your lovely comments on my work and pictures.
And seriously? A KitchenAid mixer? Is this also opened to Canadian residents? I would more than gladly participate!!!!
This..looks…amazing!!
Hey!!! Thank you Kris! Long time no see! Real good to see you and thanks for stopping by! 🙂 Hope you give it a try, I’m sure you’ll really like it!
You don’t know how excited I am that you will be starting to post low-cal recipes with nutritional information! I’ve been calorie counting since February (20 pounds lost!!) and it’s so helpful. I’m also using myfitnesspal – it really is a great website/app. Good luck! It takes a lot of courage to look in the mirror or get on that scale and make the decision to change what you see.
Thanks Amy! I’m real excited too and real happy that I joined MFP. I’m really liking it so far and I also believe that it’s helping me loads! HUGE congrats on the 20 pounds lost! That’s just plain awesome! Keep up the good work! Oh, and by the way, if you want to connect with me on MFP, you can find me there as TheHealthyFoodie.
I don’t think the smoothie was making you gain weight, unless you ate more than that for breakfast–lots of good-for-you ingredients in that! If you think you’re eating too much, try walking or running at the end of the day, after dinner. That will not only burn off those excess calories, but put back that definition you think you’re missing, and prevents the loss of lean body mass (AKA muscles)!
You’re quite right Karla, the smoothie was not the problem at all and I’m not permanently giving up on enjoying such smoothies. Like you said, there ARE a lot of “good-for-you” ingredients in there. However, I will be tossing them to the side while I am in weight loss mode and replace them by other “less elaborate” smoothies that contain a little fewer calories.
Like I said, my weight gain was mostly caused by letting my guards down and overindulging in “less optimal” food over the last year. And perhaps munching a little too much on this and that, especially when cooking (which I do A LOT of…) Mindless eating can add up quite a few calories to your daily intake… 😉
As for exercising to burn off the extra calories, that’s not an issue for me… I’ve been working out 6 times a week for over 3 years now, and that is something I’ve always been extremely rigorous about. I simply do not skip workouts unless I have a VERY good reason to. And I do mean VERY good. 😉
Thanks a bunch for taking the time to leave such a great and insightful comment! I truly appreciate that! 🙂
I know a lot of people that use My Fitness pal, seems to be a nice program. I love the creativity in this recipe. A pancake batter smoothie? Awesome!
Yeah, MFP is not bad indeed. Has its flaws, but works wonders as far as tracking calories is concerned.
Hey… batter lover here! Sometimes, I wonder why we even bother baking / cooking batter to turn it into cookies, cakes or pancakes. There’s been many an occasion when I found the batter to be soooo much better than the finished product!
I’m actually surprised I hadn’t come up with a “batter” smoothie wayyy sooner! Glad you’re with me on that one! 😉
I can’t believe how good this looks! I’m kicking myself for using up all our blueberries in something else yesterday. I love love love all your smoothies and cannot wait to try this one too!
Thank you so much, Kalie! Luckily, blueberries season is in full swing, so getting some more won’t be a problem! 😉
I’m curious… what did you use up all your blueberries in? Was it some kind of yummy dessert?
I totally understand about getting off track with your weight. I have gained and lost a million times. It got up to where I was the heaviest ever had ever been. I’m excited to read about what you eat while trying to lose weight!
First off, Erin, please allow me to make a teeny weeny little correction to your comment. I just need to change one word, but one that’s very important to me: TRYING.
As in “trying to lose the weight”.
I know a lot of people use that expression when talking about how they want to shed some extra pounds. I personnaly think that losing weight actually starts with having the right mindset and using a word like TRYING actually sets one up for failure before they’ve even started working towards their goal.
While seemingly innofensive, the word TRY actually suggests some sort of an escape door. If one doesn’t succeed, they can always tell themselves that it’s not such a big deal, since they were only TRYING after all… That’s, why I prefer to say that I am working towards losing weight.
Just a small change that can make a world of difference! 😉
That being said, thank you very much for your support and I sincerely hope that my journey will inspire you and help you get and stay on the road to a healthier (and lighter) you! 😀
Good luck for your plans. Determination is everything. And with all those healthy recipes from your blog at hand, I don’t see why you shouldn’t reach your goal. I never really did calorie counting. I actually believe that the perfect weight for a person can be reached by dropping certain foods that don’t agree with you. I know people who did really well by leaving out gluten and dairy. I seems to be doing very well with little to no grains.
Another question: I never really made smoothies and don;t have a smoothie maker. Which one do you use? I actually would love to try them. My food processor will not smoothen enough.
Thanks Anja! That’s real nice of you to say!
I tried removing grains from my diet, but haven’t seen a real dramatic change . I’m also wanting to do the test with dairy, but I’m not ready just yet… I know I will be giving it a go sometime in the future, though. Who knows, maybe it’ll turn out to be the answer for me?
For the time being, I feel I need to go back to calorie counting, which I haven’t been doing in a long time. I know that my recent weight gain comes mostly from allowing too many “less optimal” meals, as well as sweet treats.
As for what I use to make smoothies, it’s nothing more than a simple Magic Bullet. I’ve had it for years now and simply couldn’t do without it anymore. It’s very well worth the investment! 🙂
Pancake smoothie? That sounds and looks just fascinating!
I still have no guts stepping on the scale…my husband has been pushing me to do it…he said I don’t have to look at the numbers…he will do it for me. I said NO.
I think you should do it, Angie! Honestly, I think the more afraid we are of stepping on the darn thing, the more we actually NEED to do it. I sure am glad I worked up the courage to do it myself and stop the damage right in its track. Time to hit reverse!
I think you should look at the numbers yourself, that way nobody else but you will know. Then you decide whether or not you want to share the information.
Glad you like the smoothie recipe! 🙂
Aw, I know exactly what you mean! It’s not so much the weight(you know I still have a little extra right now too!), but the change in habits! I loosened up with my diet so much while I was pregnant and now getting back to good habits(you know, like stopping after one piece of cake, LOL) is so hard! You can do it though! If you’ve done it once, you know you can do it again 😀 Delicious looking smoothie!! I’m not a huge fan of batter, but my hubby loves blueberries and pancake batter. Win!
I gained so much weight during my pregnancies, I’m not even gonna go there… trust me, I know what you are talking about re: changes in habits and getting back to your good ones. I think that as soon you get pregnant, all sense of self control just leaves out the window. Thank goodness it eventually does come back! 😉
Thanks a bunch for your kind words of encouragement. You are right: I’ve done it once, I can do it again. So far, so good! I’m extremely pleased with myself and my progress! Are you on My Fitness Pal too?
See, what I don’t like is that this is so healthy and totally guilt free but it still comes out to be so many calories. When food is nutritious like this, I tell myself, “Whatever… it’s healthy. I can eat as much as I want.” But that’s not really reality. Oh well.
And this looks fantastic! Yum. And did you know you posted the first blueberry pancake smoothie ever? 🙂 When you posted it on Facebook, I googled it and found 0 results!
Let’s be weight loss partners! I need to lose that medicine weight + the weight I had added prior to the medicine because I haven’t been able to exercise for a year. I just signed up on My Fitness Pal and added you. Hopefully it’ll be easier when you have someone you have to check in with!
Sadly, that is a fairly popular misconception that because something is healthy, one can eat as much as they want.
Food ALWAYS has to be enjoyed in moderation, no matter how healthy it is. There even is such a thing as drinking too much water!
For the record, that smoothie isn’t that heavy in calories. For someone who is cutting down in a effort to lose weight, it might be little too much for a single meal, but really, it’s not even so bad. For someone who is on a more “standard” regimen of about 2000 calories per day, it really isn’t too much at all. Plus, like you said, it’s super nutritious.
It’ll be a pleasure to be your weight loss partner! Thanks for joining me on MFP. We’ll have a big weight loss party! 😀
Looks awesome! Sonia, thanks for this amazing recipe! Any substitutions for the date paste? Palm sugar, honey or?
Thanks Iris, I appreciate that! Sure, you could use honey or palm sugar, no problem. You could even use plain dates, if you happen to have some on hand that are rather soft, like the Medjool variety. Just throw one or two in there… maple syrup, stevia, a piece of banana? Why not! You could probaly even omit it altogether and the recipe wouldn’t really suffer all that much. It would only be a little less sweet… 😉
This looks absolutely delicious! I have a pancake batter smoothie on my blog as well, and I can’t stay away. I knew when I caught myself eating half of the raw pancake batter by spoon, I needed to make a smoothie flavor just like it 🙂
xoxo Sarah Grace, Fresh Fit N Healthy.
HAHAHA! Too funny, Sarah! 🙂
This blueberry pancake batter smoothie sounds like the perfect way to get back on track. Delicious and nutritious, it’s a win-win for busy mornings. Cheers to healthy choices and delicious starts to the day. I love how this recipe incorporates the taste of pancakes into a healthy smoothie, making it a fun and satisfying way to stay on course.