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Today’s post is a bit of a two day recap as I was working late last night. Breakfasts have been yummy: Nutty Berry protein smoothie (scoop of nutty berry spiru tein powder, some mixed frozen berries, ice cubes and soy milk) with 2 crumbled apple, blueberry and cinnamon protein muffins.

Love how the muffins get all gooey in the smoothie.

Today was the last of my Total Full Fat Greek Yoghurt :-( with a sliced peach and some Dorset Cereals Muesli – tasty toasted spelt.

Delicious as usual!

Yesterdays lunch was a huge salad including a crumbled lentil, spinach and feta muffin with a pot of M&S tomato and mozzarella salad, half a M&S rainbow salad bowl and additional spinach leaves.

I also had more berries. Today I was in a meeting so had a buffet lunch. I didn’t get any snaps but it was wonderfully healthy – couscous, salad, veggies and hummus plus a gorgeous fresh fruit salad with a little bit of double cream

Yesterday I had a 9 Bar Flax as my mid afternoon snack.

This tasted just as good as the regular 9 Bars, I couldn’t really tell any difference in terms of taste but I know the additional flax provides extra beneficial omega oils. This bar also did a great job at keeping me full!

Last night when I got home from my meeting I had some we are bear apple crumble granola along with a chopped apple and a chopped pear with skimmed milk.

Tonight I made a really wonderful veggie chilli:

Laura’s Veggie Chilli

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 courgette, chopped
• 1 yellow pepper, sliced and chopped
• 1 green pepper, sliced and chopped
• 1 400g tin of Kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 large jar of passata (I used tomato and basil)
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon of paprika
• 1 teaspoon of hot chilli powder

Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Fry the onions and garlic until softened then add the courgette and peppers. Continue to fry the veggies for 5 minutes then add the beans. Fry for a further minute then add the passata and spices. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes then serve. This would taste great with a baked sweet potato or brown rice. I served mine with some salad – spinach, beetroot, carrot and cucumber.

This tasted great and very spicy! Its the first time I’ve tried experimenting with adding some other spices. It was extremely filling and considering its just full of healthy veggies, beans and metabolism boosting spice it can’t be very high in calories either. I have another portion of this left over for lunch tomorrow and I can’t wait to eat it!

For desert I made a big bowl of cookies and cream protein ice cream topped with agave syrup and raw cacao nibs.

I woke up yesterday morning and my legs felt great (having felt rather tight on Monday!) so I did my usual strength DVD for 45 minutes. Today I headed to the gym after work. I had a Beet It Shot for a little fuel then did 45 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by some abs exercises. I’m still trying to write myself a fresh fitness plan up – I’ve been following some of the tips from the Fitnessista in this post which has been really helpful.

I feel like I have loads of things I want to blog about so here’s a few updates:

Exercise classes – I couple of weeks ago I blogged about being nervous of signing up for a fitness class on my own – today signed myself up for a spinning class at my gym! I used to love spinning so I can’t wait to start it again. I also have a session booked to try out the Vibro Plate – has anyone else tried it? I don’t really know a lot about it to be honest so should be interesting!

Great North Run – I got all my official splits and placing through:

I came 16,140 out of about 40,000 finishers so that’s not bad!

Big Budget Challenge Update – I get paid on Friday (thank god) and that will be the end of my three month Big Budget Challenge. I’ve learned so much about managing my finances and spending over the last three months and I’m looking forward to doing a post about all the tips I’ve picked up!

Food Co op project – My work colleague has found a food co op that is being run in her community. It provides fruit and veggie boxes. I’ve ordered a big mixed fruit and veg box for £7 which I’ll receive on Friday. I can’t wait to see what I’ll get. I’m looking forward to the challenge of coming up with recipes to use what turns up!

Low GL recipe book – I went to the library on Monday and took out a book on eating a low glycemic load diet. Some of the recipes sound really great and I can’t wait to try them. I also want to do a blog post on the glycemic index and glycemic load to explain what it is and why I think its a good approach for me, so watch this space for more info and yummy recipes!

Blog Award – Thanks to Kate from Embrace Nutrition for this lovely blog award!

Ten things I like (in no particular order!):

• chilling out with my hubby
• shopping
• eating
• exercising
• cooking
• looking around markets and vintage shops
• reading magazines
• going for walks round the park with my best friend
• spending time with my gorgeous little nephew
• shoes!

I love so many blogs that I couldn’t possibly choose just a handful for this award. If your reading you must be awesome ;-) so take the award if you wish!

Hope you are all having a good week. I’m glad Wednesday is almost over, bring on the weekend!