The world has gone crazy for smoothies! You only have to take a peek on Instagram (and the 4.5m posts!) to see our growing love for the humble smoothie. The global market, which is expected to hit £6b this year, is booming and someone who knows all about this is Ruth of Love Your Blender, the brand that gives your smoothies a little helping hand.

How did Love Your Blender come about? “The idea developed naturally from our own needs. I was buying lots of expensive super foods for my smoothies, which I didn’t really know how to use and they often ended up tasting ‘interesting’. I tried pre-mixed ‘all-in-one’ powder blends but felt that putting them in a Vitamix was like having a Ferrari and only driving it 20 miles per hour! So I started using whole nuts and seeds and much preferred the flavours and the feeling of connectedness with what I was drinking.

I finally developed a recipe I liked and my husband Nev took on the job of making the morning smoothies. This involved opening several packets of ingredients for one spoon of this superfood, one of that, a few of those nuts… you get the picture. To save time he started making up a larger batch of ingredients to last us the week, so all he needed to do was add that to fresh ingredients in the blender.

At the same time I began researching superfoods and searching for intense and unusual flavours as well as a good mix of health benefits. I was experimenting with the help of a nutritionist friend to develop a range of smoothies.

The results were so delicious and the individual pots so convenient that we decided to create the mixes into a range of sachets and share with blender fans everywhere. We always dreamt of running our own business together and as Nev had just taken voluntary redundancy, the timing was perfect!”

What does your typical food day look like? “I usually start with a Bright Greens smoothie with added apple and spinach, and an extra scoop of protein powder if I have an especially long morning at my personal training studio. I’ll drink half while I get ready for work and the rest throughout my morning. Sometimes I’ll have Super Berry instead – either the version with added oats and cinnamon if I fancy a creamy treat, or with pineapple and blueberries if I want something punchier.

We usually have our main meal at lunch as I’ll be back at the studio later that day. We might have a Thai curry cooked with coconut milk, fresh turmeric, chilli, lemongrass and garlic, along with lentils, mixed vegetables and tofu. We’ll add quinoa or brown rice if we’re planning on a workout or run that day, otherwise it’s topped with lots of steamed kale or broccoli and mixed seeds.

I try to make large portions when I cook so we have leftovers for a day or two – that way we are eating home-cooked but have the time-saving of a ready meal.

Snack wise we’ll have an apple, carrot and a couple of oatcakes with nut butter and I usually have an energy ball or bar stashed at the gym in case I need a little boost between sessions. I’ll make a Spicy Cacao or Sweet Lacuma smoothie to sip throughout the day.”

What are you looking forward to in 2016? We are looking forward to getting Love Your Blender more established, and enjoying being a little more experienced with running our own brand.

We launched in May this year after coming up with the idea in October 2014 so we’ve spent the summer working so hard to get the brand out there. As you can imagine it’s been a rollercoaster of a year, with very steep learning curves, huge highs but also some crashing lows (and some very, very late nights).

Everything was the first time for us as neither of us have a background in the industry. We’re looking forward to being back at some of the consumer shows we attended this year and to launching new flavours – watch this space!”