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Hi everyone, we are almost at the weekend thank goodness! I’ve had a bit of a crazy work week so I’m looking forward to the break.

I kicked off Wednesday with an early morning gym workout. I did 30 minutes of speed intervals on the treadmill. I say speed intervals, I don’t follow a proper plan – I just start with a 5 minute warm up (6mph) then 5 minute intervals at different speeds: 6.5mph, 7mph, 6.7mph, 7.2mph then finish with 5 minutes of 30 second intervals at 6.7mph / 7.7mph. Today I actually discovered how to change the display to show the pace as well as the speed so that could help when doing tempo runs in the future! Laura recommended that I read Run Less Run Faster to help get my head around all that so I have ordered it in at the library. I then did 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my abs and core.

Breakfast was unsurprisingly a smoothie! This one contained romaine, some spinach / kale / cabbage mix that I’d picked up from the reduced section, frozen ‘forest fruits’ mix, vanilla hemp protein powder, peanut flour, maca, spirulina, matcha green tea, ground flax, vanilla rice milk, water and xanthan gum. Toppings were Bear apple crumble granola and some mixed seeds:

I also had another raspberry coffee – so in love with that stuff right now!

Today started with a quick 15 minute full body toning yoga flow from Slim, Calm Sexy Yoga then a big bowl of Dorset Cereals Low fat Tasty Flakes with 2 chopped plums, vanilla rice milk and a maple and walnut coffee sweetened with agave:

This was the last of the bag of cereal so I got all the little crumbs, which I love!

Wednesday’s lunch was courgette and carrot noodles with some of my cheesy butternut sauce and an orange:

This was so moreish, the butternut sauce is just so good you have to try it! Today’s lunch was some Lentil and Spinach soup with two sliced kiwis and several pink lady apples:

Before lunch I had started to feel a bit faint and shaky so I ate a little satsuma at work then on the way to the Library I popped to the shops and got a pack of pink lady apples. I ended up munching all 4 of them, they are just so sweet and crunchy!

Wednesday’s snack was a pumpkin seed ryvita with hazelnut butter plus some sugar snap peas and cucumber slices:

Today I snacked on one of my raw vegan brownie bites. I hadn’t actually tried one of these yet even though I’d made them last week and oh my god it was so good, the texture was just heavenly! Very glad I have several more stashed in the freezer!

I also fitted in a quick gym session after work. I did my upper body free weights routine and followed it with 10 minutes of HIITs on the step machine and 15 minutes of HIITs on the bike.

Dinner both evenings has been a new recipe. I picked up an aubergine at the green grocers last week and wasn’t sure what to make with it so I consulted my Evernote account and saw I’d book marked the Leon recipe for Hippy Beans. It sounded delicious so here’s my slightly amended version:

Hippy Beans with Rice and Greens (inspired by recipe in Leon Ingredients and Recipes, makes 4 large servings):

• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 2 fat garlic cloves, minced
• 2 peppers – I used one red and one yellow, roughly chopped
• 1 aubergine, roughly chopped
• 1 bunch of runner beans, roughly chopped
• 1 tin of mixed beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tin of kidney beans (could add whatever beans you fancy)
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup of water from a recently boiled kettle
• 3 tablespoons of sweet chilli jam / sweet chilli sauce
• 2 handfuls of spinach
• Rice and steamed spring greens / kale / cabbage to serve

In a large pan fry the onion and garlic in a little oil over a medium heat until softened. Add the aubergine, peppers and runner beans and continue to fry for a few minutes until the aubergine is lightly browned. Add the drained beans and chopped tomatoes. Add the hot water and the chilli jam. Cover the pan and allow to simmer for 15 minutes until the peppers and aubergine are tender and the sauce has gone syrupy. Add in the spinach and stir until it wilts down. Serve with the rice and greens and a sprinkle of mixed seeds:

This is just proper lush! The sweet chilli sauce adds a delicious syrupy sweetness and a touch of heat, so good :-) Tonight I had it with steamed kale, broccoli and cauliflower.

Wednesday’s dessert was some Conscious Cherry raw chocolate with chopped apples:

This was nice but I think I prefer the Conscious chocolate that is flavoured like the mint or orange rather than just containing dried fruits.

Tonight I whipped up a quick batch of tofu yoghurt (1 pack of mori nu silken tofu with 1 little jar of baby food fruit puree and vanilla extract, blended in food processor) topped with some pomegranate seeds:

So creamy, I really love this simple tofu yoghurt.

I enjoyed my little apple binge today (pink lady apples are my absolute fave) but I do know that in the past my excessive apple snackies have been a sign that I haven’t been eating enough and clearly that was the case today – especially when I started to feel shaky. I have to admit I’m still struggling with the balance of eating the right amount – I don’t calorie count at all and never have, but I’m finding myself drawn to the idea if only to give me some reassurance. I’ve tried to stop weighing myself all the time too and I’m going to wait until the end of the month and see what the scales say then. I really am trying to remember the healthy over skinny mantra as much as possible and eat when I feel hungry without feeling guilty afterwards. It may sound a little silly but changing the blog name from keeping slim to keeping healthy has made a huge difference to my mind set! I know I’ll get there eventually.

As for my running I know I’m going to have to get my head around a half marathon training plan soon if I want to improve my speed. When I trained for the Great North Run last year I just winged it but this year I’d like to try something a little more structured. To all you runners out there, do you do speed work / intervals / tempo runs? How do you approach your running training?

Hope your all having a great week, bring on the weekend!