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Thanks for your comments to my last post regarding products for review. It seems that some of us like reviews and others aren’t bothered, however we all seem to agree that we have discovered some great products via blogs! As I said in the post I will continue to try and seek out more unique products when possible, however I obviously don’t know what other bloggers are planning to feature so some of my more unique products may end up not being that unique! It was also nice to hear that I have inspired other bloggers to seek out the same products for them to review. One thing I can say is that I won’t be posting review after review, and when I do post reviews I will include that in the post title if you would prefer to skip it. I have a few other bits and pieces in the pipeline – everything seems to be coming along at once, but I’ll try to ensure that the blog doesn’t get bogged down with it all!

Tuesday morning I was up to do my strength workout, it kicked my ass as usual! Luckily I had the thought of this super tasty breakfast to get me through it:

Based on my vanilla chia wheat germ breakfast pudding I made up a chocolate chia wheat germ pudding with raspberries. This tasted so good! I mixed in frozen raspberries last night when it went in the fridge and this morning they had defrosted and melded into the luscious pudding. I topped my bowl with cacao nibs for added crunch. Delish!

Lunch was a repeat of Mondays tofu salad with Asian dressing and a nectarine. I had a large mid afternoon snack as I had been planning on going to yoga later on so I had two pumpkin oat ryvita with lots of carrot sticks and cucumber for dipping in my amazing squash dip!

Squash dip (makes 1 1/2 cups)

• 2/3 cup of roast or cooked squash (I used kabocha of course!)
• 1/2 cup of parsley, packed
• 1 tbsp of tahini
• 1 tbsp of oil (I used cool oil)
• 1 tbsp of sweet white miso
• 1 clove of garlic
• water to thin

Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend. Gradually add the water until you get your desired consistency. It does firm up a bit in the fridge so perhaps make it a touch thinner to take this into account.

This dip is the bomb! It tastes amazing and has the most creamy texture. I think it would also work well with other herbs in place of the parsley and using a different squash such as butternut would make it sweeter.

I had been due to go to my yoga class but for some reason I was just not feeling it. I think I’m fighting off a bit of a cold and I haven’t been feeling 100% over the last couple of days. It was the last class that I was paid up for and after thinking about things I don’t think I’m going to re sign up for it. Although I have been loving the class once I’m there I’ve been finding the later night quite tiring and disruptive. I think the timing of the class (6.15 to 7.45) just doesn’t fit in with my schedule at the moment and one thing I need is as much flexibility as possible. There’s also the additional cost to consider too :-(

Instead I ate my pre yoga snack of a leftover cookie and a pink lady…

…and went home and did my Yogalates DVD for an hour. No comparison to an Ashtanga session but it did give me the opportunity for a good stretch!

I had a huge craving for a big green smoothie after that so I combined kale, frozen strawberries, carob powder, hemp protein powder, peanut butter, spirulina, mesquite and rice milk then topped with half a pack of cocoa cherry pie granola and some brown rice puffs to make it a little more filling:

This was so good, first time I’ve added carob to a smoothie – it tasted fab!

This mornings breakfast was orange and cranberry porridge with cashew macadamia cream:

1/2 cup of rude health fruity date porridge mix, tbsp oat bran, 1/2 cup of rice milk, juice and pulp from one orange, 1/2 cup of water, frozen cranberries, teaspoon of ground flax and extra dried cranberries on top of the cashew macadamia cream topping. I also had a cup of Christmas coffee.

Lunch was Leek, Greens and White Bean Soup with a bowl of red grapes:

Mid afternoon I snacked on a dried apricot, dried fig, some brazil nuts and pistachios before heading to the gym:

At the gym I did 30 minutes of speed work on the treadmill followed by 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed with my usual abs and core. I’ve now got my plank hold up to 90 seconds! Considering that before Christmas I could only do 30 seconds I’m well chuffed!

Dinner was a simple beans and rice mix made more exciting with some fruit and herbs: black beans with brown and wild rice, mango, coriander and lime juice dressing:

I served this with a large side of steamed kale. I have had some big cravings recently for just a simple bowl of beans, veggies and grains and this has satisfied it!

Dessert was some coffee flavour no added sugar vegan Plamils chocolate and two sliced pink lady apples:

The Plamils chocolate was gorgeous! Just the right amount of coffee flavour in a lovely dark crunchy creamy chocolate.

I know that I’ve made the right decision in stopping the yoga class although I’m sad about it. I think its been an incredibly useful class as I have a much better understanding of postures and positioning which has meant that my own yoga practice (using downloads and podcasts) has been improved. I absolutely love yoga for the added flexibility and strength it has given me so now I need to consider how I can incorporate it in to my training programme. I love the podcasts from Yoga Download which are 20 minutes long, they are perfect for fitting into a flexible programme so I may try and do one of these a few times a week. I also recently got the book Slim, Calm Sexy Yoga by Tara Stiles which actually goes through a lot of poses in good detail and suggests various 15 minute yoga flows that also could be useful.

I think if anything I’ve learned over the last couple of weeks is that my workouts have to be flexible for them to be effective, especially as I sometimes have late work meetings or if I’m just not feeling it (like last week when I swapped out my run to another day). Being flexible isn’t something that comes naturally to me – I know I can be a control freak and like having a set routine, but I’m embracing a more flexible approach and I think its doing me the world of good!

Do you take a flexible approach to your exercise and fitness or are you more structured? Does having a flexible approach come naturally to you or is it something you have to work at like me?