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Well I’m now on to day three of my crazy work week and so far I am coping well. I had a late meeting last night but I had plenty of tasty eats throughout the day to see me through it! As I wouldn’t be able to make my body pump class in the evening I squeezed in a Davina DVD (Davina Super body Super Pump Workout) followed by a Yoga for Runners podcast. Breakfast was fantastic! I made up an overnight breakfast pudding using 2 tbsp of chia seeds, 3 tbsp of vanilla hemp protein powder, 1/4 cup of quinoa flakes, 1 tbsp of raw cacao powder (regular cocoa powder would also work) 1 tbsp of agave syrup, 1/2 cup of rice milk and about 1/2 – 1 cup of water all mixed together and left in the fridge overnight. In the morning I layered it up in a bowl with lots of fresh blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries then topped with a little coconut:

So good! I love the taste of raw cacao – so deep and bitter, just delicious!

Lunch was leftover wheat grains, lentils, carrot and asparagus with some spinach dressed with braggs and gomasio plus a couple of bashed up pears:

Mid afternoon I snacked on 2 pumpkin oat ryvita with squash dip and assorted veggies:

I also ate a nectarine before my meeting. When I eventually got home I knew exactly what I wanted – my perfect comfort food as part of my 7 days 7 green smoothies challenge!

Carrot Cake Green Smoothie (makes one large serving)

• 3 cups of spring greens with thick stem removed
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 large shredded carrot (I shredded mine in the blender before adding the other ingredients or you could grate it first)
• 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (I used sun warrior)
• 2 ice cubes
• 1 tsp of maca (optional but good for my stress levels at the moment!)
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1 tsp of spirulina (optional)
• Water or milk to desired consistency
• Xanthan and guar gums (optional but adds thickness)

Toppings:

• Coconut flour paste cream ‘cheese’ icing
• Walnuts
• Raisins
• Cinnamon

Blend all ingredients and serve with toppings. So so good! I also inhaled a couple of jazz apples :-)

Today I was up and at the gym first thing for more speed work on the treadmill (30 minutes) and intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike (30 minutes total) followed by abs and core. Then it was time for green smoothie no 2!

Nutty Berry Not So Green Smoothie (makes one large serving):

• 1 head of romaine lettuce
• 1 1/2 cups of frozen mixed berries
• 1 scoop of nutty berry spiru-tein powder (optional or add protein powder of choice)
• 2 tbsp of smooth slightly salted peanut butter (I realised the other day that I prefer slightly salted pb in my smoothies as sometimes the taste of unsalted pb gets lost in the other flavours)
• 1 tsp of maca powder (optional)
• 1 tsp of mesquite (optional)
• Water to desired thickness
• Xanthan and guar gums (optional but add thickness)

Toppings:

• Peanut flour sauce
• Goji berries
• Flaked almonds

This was gorgeous, I love the combination of berries and peanut butter! Lunch was another veggie and tofu packed salad with braggs and two persimmons that I picked up from the reduced section:

Holy yum! It was the first time I’d eaten a persimmon and my god they are lush! I think I’ll be eating these all the time, so sweet and delicious. I also snacked on a couple of cookie dough balls mid afternoon.

For dinner I had some steamed spring greens with shoyu, a small baked sweet potato and a mix of black beans, red pepper, courgette, avocado and lime juice:

Dessert was some ‘The Nutty One’ Conscious raw chocolate and two chopped jazz apples:

Thanks for all your comments on my last post – especially on the topic of labels. It seems that most of you agree that labels aren’t helpful and that we should be able to live our lives in a flexible manner without the pressure of living up to a particular set of rules. I think I will be calling myself vegan when I’m in the position of having to describe my dietary requirements to others – i.e. when attending conferences or at restaurants. Its a lot easier than giving them the long version!

I did say in my last post that I had some exciting news, and yes I am a very lucky girl indeed - my husband James has WON A TRIP TO NYC! He entered a competition to see and meet the band Rise Against at Terminal 5 in NYC this May. We went to New York for our honey moon and I am absolutely buzzing that we will be going back! I’m sure you all know what I’m thinking – Whole Foods and Trader Joes haul! We are only there for a couple of days but I’m hoping to hit Babycakes and Peanut Butter Co at the very least, as well as getting my hands on some US brands and products I’ve seen in the blog world including Lara Bars, Vega and Amazing Grass Powders, Artisana nut butters, Justin’s Nut Butter to name but a few! I just hope I’ll be able to carry it all back!

What are your favourite US products you think I should be on the look out for on my visit?

I am so unbelievably excited!!!!