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Hi everyone, Hope your having a good week! Mine is going ok but I’m fighting an awful cold, I hate feeling poorly!

Yesterday I did my first Monday early morning gym workout in a while, now that I have changed from my usual Monday evening workout / spin class. I was feeling a bit under the weather I decided to do a reduced intensity workout than the one I had planned. I ended up doing 15 minutes each on the treadmill, cross trainer, bike and step machine – I still did intervals but at a lower intensity and skipped the planned speed work on the treadmill. I also did my abs and core exercises. Yes, I could have skipped the workout all together but I didn’t feel that ill, and I know I would have felt worse if I hadn’t got my body moving!

Today I did the usual Yoga for Runners when I got up and then Body Pump this evening. I even managed to increase my weights for the squats so I must be on the mend!

As I’m fighting this cold, eats have tended to be easy to prep comfort food. Yesterdays breakfast was a cup of the Kashi Go Lean Crunch I got in NYC with 1/2 cup of brown rice puffs for chew, sesame milk and lovely blueberries:

This was so tasty and just hit the spot! I think I will really enjoy eating that Kashi cereal! I also tried out a cup of the Chocolate Mint Caffeine free Teecino – another NYC purchase. It tasted wonderful, not exactly like coffee but in a good way!

Yesterdays lunch and snacks:

My appetite wasn’t massive so I just had a bowl of Pea, Broccoli and Mint Soup I’d made at the weekend, a pear, plums and the last of my NYC cheesy kale chips :-(

Dinner was out of the freezer – Roast Vegetable Curry with millet, steamed greens, sugar snap peas, mixed salad leaves:

Love how curry tastes better after its been frozen!

I decided to go for a smoothie for dessert:

I had some romaine to use up so blended it with a small fresh banana, ice, water, 3 tbsp of peanut flour, gums and stevia then topped with some freeze dried berries and flaked almonds.

Today’s breakfast was the return of tofu yoghurt! I had some with a fresh batch of rhubarb compote. I was out of oranges so instead of my usual recipe I added some fresh minced ginger and brown sugar to make a Rhubarb and Ginger Compote!

I also had a chopped apple and some treacle granola, so good!

This evenings dinner has been another freezer raid – Kabocha Squash with Adzuki beans, millet, spinach, steamed asparagus and lots of fresh chopped parsley and mixed seeds:

Followed by a Smore’s flavour Spiru-tein protein ice cream creation topped with cacao nibs:

Delish!

Today I have been on a training course with work and it has been the first time I have attended an event like this as a ‘vegan’. Just to clarify – I see myself as mostly vegan but use that label with a lot of flexibility – I do eat things with trace dairy in and occasionally I may consider eating local free range eggs, yoghurt or goats cheese but its something I’m trying not to stress about. I basically eat what makes me feel my best, which at the moment is about 98% vegan.

I would usually just take along a snack bar and some chopped fruit and veggies in a bag to these kind of things and discretely eat them but this was a full sit down meal affair and I didn’t want to appear ignorant by eating my own food or leaving the room to do so. I was really chuffed with what they served me:

Stuffed pepper with roasted vegetables in a tomato and herb sauce with rice. This was very tasty!

Luckily my cold seems to be improving – I think all the fruit and veggies are working their magic! I’ve also been pleased that my freezer has been full of healthy and easy to cook meals which alongside a couple of things I prepped at the weekend has made sorting out dinner the last couple of days stress free so I’ve been able to spend some time relaxing and fighting this cold!

What’s your favourite comfort / easy to prep food for when your feeling under the weather or short on time?

If your vegan / veggie what’s the best / worst thing you’ve been served for your veggie option?

Hi Everyone, hope your day has been good!

Breakfast this morning was really wonderful. I had two small slices of the German Fruited Rye bread I brought home from Majorca with cashew butter and sliced banana. I also had a bowl of fresh fruit – the rest of the banana, blackberries and blueberries.

 

Just so delicious!

Mid morning I snacked on some cottage cheese with pecans and a little agave syrup.



Lunch was a bowl of Pea, Broccoli and Mint Soup followed by some strawberries.



I also snacked on 2 fun sized apples during the day at work, I was just so snacky! Before I left to go to the gym I ate a little bag of Lemon Nakd Raisins for workout fuel.



I did a 5 minute warm up followed by 30 minutes of intervals on the step machine, cross trainer and treadmill. I would have usually gone on the bike rather than the treadmill but they were all busy so I took it as a sign to start running at the gym again! I also did 2 sets of my usual abs exercises before popping home and doing my 20 minute Yoga for Runners session.

For dinner I chopped a turkey breast into strips and covered with hot chilli powder then fried off in a little oil and served with a big salad of cos lettuce, spinach, red pepper, green pepper, red onion, cucumber and carrot. I also added a little bit of spicy peri peri salad dressing too.



For desert I quite fancied a protein mocha shake so I combined a scoop of chocolate whey with some soy milk, teaspoon of decaf coffee and a couple of ice cubes.



This has managed to satisfy my hunger so far this evening!

The last couple of days I’ve felt particularly snacky. I tend to have at least one planned snack, but sometimes I just feel so hungry I start to snack on other things. Luckily its nearly always something healthy like nuts, dates, raisins etc. Recently I have tried to make apples my go to snack as I heard Tosca Reno saying that these are good to snack on as they are low calorie and contain pectin, a type of fibre that should help to keep you full. I used to feel really guilty for snacking, but as long as my snacking isn’t down to boredom or stress, and as long as I’m snacking on healthy food I don’t beat myself up. What’s your view on snacking? How many snacks do you eat each day? Do you plan your snacks? Do you have a ‘go to’ snack?

I’m going to finish watching Celebrity Master Chef and then I need to try and make myself a home made head band to wear for the wedding I’m going to on Friday. I’ll post some pics of it tomorrow! Bye for now x

Hello everyone, hope you are having a good week! I’m just happy that the sun has decided to make an appearance today. Of course it is Wednesday, the day I share with you a full day of my eats!

These are my eats and goings on from Monday. It was a killer getting up so early to start a new week but at least we had a little sun! I made my usual mug of warm water with lemon juice before hitting the gym:

Once I was at the gym I did a 5 minute warm up on the cross trainer, my strength training from Female Body Breakthrough, some mountain climbers and push ups followed by some intervals on the step machine and bike. I do make a bit of a mess of the weights area once I get started:

When I’m going straight to the gym from home I just use my little patterned bag to take my lifting gloves, towel and water bottle with me. It was a great workout, I’m really enjoying all the variety in the Fine Tune phase. When I got home I got showered and ready for the day. I decided to wear my new floral top again, this time paired with my bright yellow cardigan:

OOTD: yellow cardigan: H&M, floral shell top: New Look, collar necklace: Topshop, black ankle length pants: Zara, cream flats: Next

Breakfast just had to be a green smoothie! I blended romaine lettuce, frozen banana, frozen mango, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca powder, ground flax, water and ice then topped it with goji berries, cacao nibs and coconut:

It tasted really fruity and was perfect for cooling off and rehydrating after the gym. I also had coffee:

Oh how I love this coffee! I’ve just bought a new brand of rich dark Italian blend that I like to drink strong and black with a few drops of vanilla stevia, that cheered my Monday morning right up! I headed into work and spent most of the morning in a meeting, I was starving by the time lunch came round:

At the weekend I made up a big pan of my Pea, Broccoli and Mint Soup. I had some with a large pile of my home made raw juice pulp crackers, it was delicious. That soup is excellent for this time of year, light and fresh but still comforting and warm!

Just on time after lunch we received a parcel from the lovely Becky who also works at Teapigs! Our office had been sent a range of samples to try:

I decided to have a Crème Caramel after lunch, I think I had tried that tea before but I’d forgot how lovely it was. After another long meeting I practically inhaled my snack of roast salted almonds, dried mango, sunflower seeds and an apple:

For dinner I just wanted something lazy and easy to prepare. I had a bunch of random things in the fridge that became this:

Steamed spring greens and kale topped with brown rice, black beans, pinto beans and red onion along with a dollop of Piri Piri hummus. It tasted great! The hummus has such an unusual flavour that went really well with the rice and beans. I do need to stop buying the pre made stuff though and get back to making it at home from scratch again!

For dessert I’d defrosted a very old batch of Rhubarb and Orange Compote which I warmed up in the microwave and then topped with semi frozen summer berries, soy yoghurt and a sprinkle of granola:

I love the hot / cold combo and this worked really well! To relax at the end of the day I made myself another cuppa:

Pukka Vanilla Chai in my unicorn mug :-) I also drank lots of water and green tea throughout the day.

Another pretty tasty range of eats me thinks! How is your week going? Are you a coffee drinker and if so how do you like it? I tend to like mine either super creamy like a latte or really strong and black. I don’t drink coffee all the time so when I do I like it to be the best I can afford, plus it means I get more of a caffeine hit from it ;-)

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Have a great rest of the week!

P.S. Please check out my guest post over on the AXA PPP healthcare blog with my tips for running your first 5K!

Hi Everyone, hope your Mondays have been good! Mine hasn’t been too bad but it was so difficult to get up for work this morning! Even though I didn’t really sleep in much over my hols 6am felt way too early. I had a nice near empty jar of smooth peanut butter so breakie was Oats in a Jar. I filled it with porridge made with Scottish oats, chia seeds, a mashed banana and water. I topped it off with a few cacao nibs.



So amazing and so filling! I left my morning snack of fromage frais with blueberries and honey till later as I wasn’t hungry and that never happens!



Lunch was a bowl of Pea, Broccoli and Mint Soup.



Followed by a couple of peaches.



I also had an un-pictured little clemintine left from a work buffet. Before I left work to head to the gym I snacked on a small apple and a Raspberry We Are Bear Fruit YoYo.



The raspberry is probably my favourite flavour YoYo so far, these taste far too much like sweets to be healthy!

I had a tough gym workout. I warmed up for 5 minutes on the recumbent bike and then did a total of 60 minutes of high intensity intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike. I also did 3 sets of abs exercises including 3 x 40 second planks that were so hard my arms were shaking!

For dinner I made a really amazing salad inspired by the Marks and Spencer Whole Food Salad Shaker I’d ate last week (readers in the UK might have seen it on the new M&S advert):

Laura’s Whole Food Salad (makes two servings)

• Approximately half a cup of cooked quinoa (I cook mine in veg stock)
• Approximately half a cup of cooked brown rice
• A selection of roasted veggies – I used a small head of broccoli, 1 yellow pepper, half a courgette, a small carrot and a red onion
• 2 cups of spinach
• 2 tablespoons of sunflower and pumpkin seeds

For the lemon, garlic, tahini dressing:

• 1 tablespoon of garlic infused olive oil (or olive oil and a minced clove of garlic)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 heaped teaspoon of tahini

Mix the quinoa, brown rice, roasted veggies and seeds together and divide into two portions. Make up the dressing my adding the dressing ingredients to an empty screw top jar and shake together. Pour out equal amounts of dressing for each portion and mix with the quinoa, rice and veggies. Serve this mix on top of a bed of spinach and top with a few more seeds. Enjoy!



This tasted so good and is so good for you! I love this mix of healthy grains, veggies, seeds and healthy fats from the dressing, perfect. I added a handful of chopped sugar snap peas to the salad as I have some in the fridge plus a few slices of cucumber. I made my salad up yesterday and kept it in the fridge so I ate mine cold but I think this would taste good warm too.

For desert I made myself a creamy protein shake with a scoop of cookies and cream spiru-tein, soy milk and a couple of ice cubes. I also had an apple.



Ok now I’m officially stuffed!

Today I came across another great post on (never home)maker about living a budget friendly life. Lots of good budgeting tips for my Big Budget Challenge! I think that even though my spending during my holiday was ‘allowed’ as part of the challenge I need to step things up a bit, luckily I have loads of ideas, especially around making things for the flat which should be fun to do as well!

Well I’m still sitting here thinking about how good that salad tasted! Have you ever been inspired by something you’ve eaten at a restaurant or from a supermarket and tried to make your own version? What was it, and was it as nice as the original? I often try and recreate things I’ve had before but with my own spin on it!

Well it looks like I have a full blown head cold! I had a rubbish nights sleep and feel really groggy. Luckily I tend to be able to shake these things off quite quickly by making sure that I drink plenty of hot fluids, lemon and ginger tea or fresh lemon with ginger and honey being my favourite, get some rest and eat lots of fresh fruit and veggies. I always have my pack of tissues with me, as well as my wonder product - Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream, which I use on my dry lips and the end of my nose to prevent the skin getting dry and cracking.

This morning I had my hot lemon water and then decided that I would still do my DVD workout. I usually find that some light exercise makes me feel better rather than worse when I have a head cold. I took it easy, but did level 2 and 3 of the 30 Day Shred back to back, I just did low impact versions of moves but I was really chuffed as I managed to do one of the plank exercises with the dumbbell row and leg raise in the full plank position rather than on my knees!

After sweating it out I made breakie. I had a yoghurt mess containing - a pot of greek yoghurt mixed with a scoop of vanilla whey, 2 chopped plums, brown rice puffs and grape nuts.


Work was a real drag today, I just kept going and getting myself cups of green tea and lemon and ginger tea. I had thought I'd be ok to stick it out all day but I ended up giving in and coming home mid afternoon. Mid morning my lovely work mate went to the chemist and bought some effervescent Vit C tablets so I had one with my bottle of water.

Lunch was a bowl of my home made Brocolli, Pea and Mint Soup which I'd defrosted from my frozen soup stash.


Followed by an orange (for more Vit C) and a small apple with cinnamon and maca.


I was so glad I chose to have soup for lunch today, it was good to have something lovely and hot. I must make some more soups up when I get back from my holidays as my supplies are starting to run low!

I finished work at 2.30 and headed home via the shops to pick up more lemons! When I got back I made a chocolate berry protein smoothie. I blended a scoop of chocolate whey with some mixed frozen berries, ice cubes and water. It blended up really thick so I couldn't resist eating it from the bowl.


This big bowl full can't have been more than 150 cals and it was de-lish!

I then ran myself a lovely hot bath and soaked in it for half and hour while sipping hot lemon with ginger and honey. My little tea making kit -


For dinner I made a big stir fry with chicken, red pepper, spring onion, spinach, carrot, savoy cabbage and a few left over sugar snap peas. I made a sauce using plenty of garlic, ginger and chilli as these are all good for the immune system along with a sprinkle of chinese 5 spice and some soy sauce.


I needed those lovely strong spicy flavours just so I could taste something! For desert I tried out something new. I have seen the Fitnessista make egg white puffs a few times so I thought I would try out making a sweet egg white puff.

Sweet Egg White Puff

2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of mixed spice
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of agave syrup

Mix together the egg whites, vanilla and spices in a bowl. Microwave for 2 minutes (or until done, it will start to pop, just keep checking all the liquid has gone). Serve topped with agave syrup.


This was suprisingly tasty, it certainly filled me up as it contains so much protein. It could perhaps have done with being more sweet, I guess if you had sweetener like Stevia that would work really well.

Drinks - water, green tea, lemon and ginger tea

I'm due my weigh in tomorrow but I'm not expecting great things. The snackies have really had me the last couple of days and although the only time I've gone over my planned eating has been 3 small bowls of muesli and an orange and two plums I 'feel' a bit heavier. Probably due to impending TOTM, we shall see what the scales say tomorrow.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night as me and my friend will be attending the NewcastleGateshead EAT Festival Launch Party. I can't wait, we get to sample loads of tasty food including cocktails and local beers and other lovely tasty goodies. I'm so looking forward to it! Have you ever been to a food festival?What was it like? Well I'm going to call it a day, I think I need an early night, I'm hoping to wake up revived tomorrow! x

Well today has been the best day so far this week - a good weigh in and gym session, interesting work meeting and its now offically the weekend (thank god).

I had my usual Friday weigh in and I've lost 2lbs so I'm back down to 9st 12lbs (138lbs). Thats 5 lbs of my 6lb holiday weight gain lost! I'm looking forward to putting those pounds back on when I'm in Brighton!

I hit the gym nice and early for 20 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer and step machine then did my upper body free weights routine. I'm really noticing some muscles now!

Breakfast was really, really good this morning (I know I say that about breakfast pretty much everyday, but I do love my breakfasts). I made some Toffee Apple Porridge. I made up some porridge with scottish oats, chia seeds and water with half a chopped apple added during cooking. When cooked I added a splash of skim milk, a sample sachet of Toffee Fudge Whey and topped it with the rest of the apple and some chopped dates.


Totally amazing! Lunch was a Tuna Salad with spinach, mixed leaves, cucumber and red onion plus some balsamic dressing followed by a nectarine.


Mid afternoon I snacked on a pink grapefruit topped with quark and agave syrup.


When I got in from work I went into cooking mode and made some Brocolli, Pea and Mint Soup (as well as some other tasty treats - more on that tomorrow!) to stock the freezer with and there was a little bit left in the pan after portioning it out so I had a little yummy bowlful.


Dinner was some Thai Red Tofu and Veggie Curry with sugar snap peas and steamed spring greens with soy sauce and ginger.


Desert was this little bowl of tropical flavoured heaven - Mango, Banana, Coconut Softserve (frozen mango, frozen banana, kara coconut milk blended and topped with desicated coconut)


I was happy to come home to a couple of deliveries today. Yes, I have been on the scrounge for some freebies (all in the name of my Big Budget Challenge, every little helps right?) and the lovely people at Tea Pigs and Wear are Bear have sent me some goodies to review.


All be reviewing these over the next few weeks. Some of these goodies will also be finding their way into a blog giveaway goodie bag!

So whats everyone got planned for the weekend? I've got my 5 mile run planned for in the morning, then cleaning and tidying the flat and heading out to visit my friend. Sunday will be grocery shopping, visting my Sis - in - Law and then chilling out for the sports fest on TV (British Grand Prix and World Cup Final).

Tonight and over the weekend I think I'm going to spend some time doing a re design of the blog. I've been inspired by some of the blogs I've been reading and I want mine to look a bit more 'me'. I'm also thinking about changing up how I post, I might not post all my eats everyday, but we'll see how that goes. I think I might include more fashion, beauty and home posts. I hope everyone will stick with me until I figure it out ;-) One things for certain, I'll always be posting my most delicious eats!