Alpro #deskfest – a week of healthy breakfasts

Just before Christmas, I was invited to be an ambassador for Alpro as part of their #Deskfest campaign. My duty was simply to have five healthy breakfasts using Alpro products – things like soy and nut milks, as well as a new pouring yoghurt substitute. They would also send me some nice bits to use – bowl, glass, notebooks, accessories... all sorts. Since my goal was, as mentioned, to get healthy in the new year, I said I would love to! My usual breakfasts consist of a snatched piece of Marmite toast or a bowl of Rice Crispies. Not the most filling or the most nourishing.

There was only one minor catch – the idea behind Deskfest is, of course, to eat your breakfast at your desk.

Well, I am freelance, and I tend to work in different places all week, depending on where I am and what I am doing. While this did make for a variety of different settings and 'desks' (some real, some makeshift), it did mean I had to be quite organised. Which is not one of my (many) strengths.

I soon realised balancing liquids on my laptop was not a good idea...

Case in point – day one arrived and though I was in a real office for the day, I had so much to do that I didn't have time to eat my breakfast until lunchtime. It was so snatched that a simple bowl of Cheerios with plain soy milk was the extent of my non-culinary creation skills for the day. It was a nice introduction though... plus I had a glass of the hazelnut milk, which was absolutely delicious. Recommended! The quirky vintage and retro furniture in the Bourne & Hollingsworth events office made for a nice setting for photos, which is always a bonus.

Day two, I was at my boyfriend's house. I had writing and blogging to do from his dining table, so my makeshift desk housed a slightly more substantial Deskfest of mixed berry granola with Alpro pouring yoghurt, and an elegant cup of tea (the cup came from the Atrixo event and now lives at his). 

My 'Turn Over a New Leaf' book has had some 5:2 diet recipes (see my post last week) jotted in it.

On my third day of Deskfest, I was back in a real office again, and working on Bourne & Hollingsworth's new/old decoupaged desk. For my breakfast I made cinnamon-nut porridge using a sachet of Oat So Simple Sweet Cinnamon and Alpro hazelnut milk. Topped with fresh raspberries and some dried fruit plus a glass of almond milk, it kept me going all day while I skipped lunch (I wasn't able to do a full fast day).

The fourth instalment fell on a Friday, and I was back at the man's abode, writing some blog ideas down in a real notebook in lieu of a laptop, before heading to work at the Sprizzato head office. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the done thing to make breakfast there, especially since the place would make an excellent photo location! I had a seedy, fruity muesli with more pouring yoghurt. Tasty.

The blurry brown thing is actually a vintage football! Appropriate.

Last but not least, after a weekend of egg-based breakfast (boiled eggs and soldiers on Saturday and scrambled eggs on Sunday... no reason for me to tell you this except that I feel oddly compelled to full breakfast disclosure), it was back to Deskfest yesterday for one last hurrah...

And this time I was working at my own house! Hurrah indeed! I don't have a proper desk at my house, though. I work on my sofa or, when feeling particularly lazy, from the Boffice (bed-office). So here's my last faux-deskfest from my kitchen counter! The last of the yoghurt topped with granola, a coffee with hazelnut and a glass of almond milk.

I also got the chance to fill up my rather lovely tiffin set that the guys at Alpro sent me, with portions of different cereals and breakfast bits to take in for my next few days in the B&H office. It's almost too nice to take out of home, though, might stick to boring old tupperwares instead...

I had so many plans for beautiful yoghurt/fruit creations in recycled jam jars and frozen fruit smoothies but the realities of my hectic freelance life meant that carb-based breakfasts were king. I actually love how using the Alpro Deskfest products upped my protein intake, though. I really recommend the nut milks on cereal and in coffee, as well as in your cereal, of course. I'm going to continue the good example set to myself in this week as I carry on my healthy eating crusade. I actually haven't lost any more weight this week sadly. But I feel great - energised and positive! I'd forgotten how much I like breakfast as well. Move over marmite toast, I'm going to be eating more substantially in the mornings from now on.

Fleur xx

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