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What a great week its been so far, I’m just loving this spring weather :-)

Breakfast on Monday was a big bowl of fresh mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries) with a huge portion of my home mixed muesli and sesame milk:

This muesli is awesome. I basically mixed together lots of random nuts, seeds and dried fruits that needed to be used up with some jumbo oats. This included: dried figs, dried apricots, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, raisins, dried pineapple, dried cherries, dried strawberries, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, goji berries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds and chia seeds. I have a massive jar of this which should last me for a while I hope! The sesame milk is also particularly good, will definitely become a new staple in my diet along with almond milk.

Monday’s lunch was a hummus topped salad containing romaine lettuce, carrot, cucumber, red pepper and yellow pepper then some watered down home made chickpea hummus (I mixed it all in as a dressing) topped with some viva pure spicy pumpkin seeds. I also had two sweet white nectarines:

Mid afternoon I snacked on a lemon cashew hemp bar before hitting the gym. I did my usual 30 minute HIIT session on the cross trainer and step machine plus abs and core and 30 minute spin class.

Dinner was two veggie loaf stuffed baked mushrooms with swede and parsnip mash, raw carrot and steamed savoy cabbage with shoyu:

I still love these stuffed mushrooms, so tasty! Dessert was some healthy heart conscious raw chocolate and two chopped apples:

This chocolate contains maca, vanilla and blue-green algae – I wasn’t sure what to expect taste wise but it was gorgeous as always.

This morning I was up at sun rise to fit in a quick Yoga for Runners podcast. Its so worth getting up a few minutes early to be able to fit this into my day! Breakfast was similar to yesterdays – mixed fresh berries with 2 packs of Bear coco cherry pie granola and sesame milk:

Lunch featured hummus again – this time I made some courgette and carrot veggie noodles plus sliced red and yellow pepper with a hummus and nutritional yeast sauce (hummus, nutritional yeast and water) on top of some spinach:

I also had another two juicy white nectarines.

Mid afternoon I snacked on a Peppermint Stick Luna Bar then hit the gym for Body Pump. I was a little early for my class so I snuck in a quick 10 minute interval session on the cross trainer and 10 minutes steady state on the cross trainer. The class was excellent as usual and left my muscles quivering!

Dinner was inspired by my Sausage and Tomato Rice recipe but morphed into more of a Buddha Bowl: chopped baked seitan sausage with pearl barley in a tomato sauce with onions, garlic, peas, steamed broccoli and fresh basil:

That seitan recipe is so good, this had been defrosted from frozen and still tasted great. It is especially good in recipes like this as it softens and absorbs the liquid, delicious!

Dessert was some protein ice cream made with Fruitein powder, rice milk, ice cubes and xanthan and guar gums topped with goji berries:

Now I’m officially stuffed!

I got some great news yesterday when I received the email to tell me I’d passed my first assignment on my Diet and Nutrition Advisor course. I was chuffed to bits! I’m also really looking forward to my two days off at the end of the week – and pay day! My fridge and cupboards are looking pretty empty, at least by my standards ;-)

I’m still thinking of how tasty my home mixed muesli was. Are you a fan of muesli? I love it so much – it was always my go to ‘binge’ food – I would happily eat three large bowls of it then still go back and eat it straight from the box! Now I have a little more constraint but I still love a full to the brim bowlful! If you could make your own muesli mix what would it include?

Even though it was bitterly cold this morning the sunshine certainly made it feel like spring is on its way!

I started my day with 5 minutes of yoga / meditation. I’ve been doing this for the last few days and it has been amazing. I just sit in child’s pose and go over the day ahead and try and focus my mind a bit. Then I do a few yoga poses, whatever feels right each morning. This morning I went into down dog, then low lunge, warrior 2, bound side angle pose, chaturanga, up ward facing dog and back into down dog to repeat on the other side. I finished off in child’s pose again and just said a few affirmations. Honestly it makes me feel so much better taking that 5 minutes to start my day.

Breakfast was some quinoa porridge (1/2 cup of quinoa flakes, 1 tsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp of oat bran, 1/2 cup of vanilla rice milk, 1 cup of water and brown rice syrup) with 1 chopped apple, fresh blueberries, pecans and maple syrup:

I also enjoyed a maple walnut coffee, so good!

I’m trying to drink more miso soup so I started lunch with a mug of barley miso then had my salad which contained lettuce, spinach, carrot, sugar snap peas, beets, alfalfa sprouts and a sliced wild garlic tofu fillet:

I also had an orange and more blueberries:

Mid afternoon I snacked on a couple of delicious cookie dough balls:

I then hit the gym and did 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer and step machine followed by my abs and core – almost unbelievably I managed a 2 MINUTE PLANK HOLD! I was buzzing, I’ve met my goal of holding a 2 minute plank already! I then did my 30 minute spin class :-)

Dinner was 2 big mushrooms stuffed with some veggie loaf and baked in the oven. I also had some parsnip chips and steamed greens with braggs, mixed seeds and herbamare seasoning:

Dessert was 2 chopped apples and 3 strawberries topped with a Total strawberry spilt pot yoghurt and some grape nuts:

This was lush! I was worried the strawberry sauce would have been too sweet but it was perfect, especially with the fresh fruit.

Spring wardrobe review

Now that the weather should hopefully start to warm up I’ve been thinking about my wardrobe and what existing clothing and accessories I’ll be trying to get some wear out of as well as what wardrobe updates I’ll be on the look out for. As I’m on a budget I need to make the best use of what I have!

At the moment I’m living in leggings, boots, longer length tops, dresses and cardigans. I’m looking forward to breaking out of my style rut with a couple of new looks. Things that I love that I already own include my neutral colour blazer, my breton stripe tee (I adore breton stripe!), grey converse and my denim shirt dress. Matched up with a few new pieces and I should be set for spring!

 Loafers: Dorothy Perkins £32, Wide leg trousers: Topshop £42, Pointed pumps: ASOS £25, Red ballet t bars: urban outfitters £28, Floral skirt: New Look £21.99, Swallow bird earrings: Republic £4.99

I love wide leg pants as a change to all the skinny jeans and slim leg trousers I’ve been wearing. I also love the floral print skirt for wearing with the striped tee or plain vest tops, tights and cardigans until it gets warmer. I’m desperate for some new shoes and the pointed flats and red shoes have straps across the foot which is great as normal pumps just end up falling off my feet! I quite fancy a pair of cheap loafers too and I’m always looking out for animal themed jewellery like these swallow earrings!

What will you be wearing this spring?

Still buzzing from my 2 minute plank hold :-) Catch you later!

Hello everyone, hope your all having an amazing weekend! I can’t believe its just a week until Christmas I’m so excited!

On Friday night I got all dolled up for my work Christmas Party:

I used my Urban Decay Naked Palate for my eye make up going for a black and silver combo along with my Girl’s Aloud Nicola false eyelashes!

 Black sparkly wool dress: Primark (only £15!), statement necklace: Topshop, earrings: Swarovski, gunmetal metallic clutch bag: Accessorize, watch: Nixon, Costume ring: Warehouse black peep toe shoes: Office   

I don’t dress up like this very often with my nails done and false eyelashes on! It was wonderful, I actually felt really great and confident in myself :-) We went to a nearby hotel that was doing a dinner / disco type deal. It was such good fun! The food was nice: tomato and basil soup, tomato garlic mushroom dish with rice and a fruit salad plus after dinner dark choc mints and several large glasses of red wine!

Hence to say I did feel a little delicate yesterday morning but it was nothing a green smoothie and a gingerbread latte from Starbucks couldn’t fix! While I was in town I had a look round the shops, I managed to resist Topshop, however I could not resist these ankle boots from New Look:

I utterly adore them! I don’t wear heels for every day wear very often and I fancied a change. At £20 I think these are fantastic! I’m a huge fan of New Look foot ware, I have several items from them and they’ve all lasted very well. I also got a nice top I’m planning on wearing on Christmas Eve :-)

I did have a walk down to the allotment but there was snow on the ground and it was freezing cold. I really don’t think there’s a lot I can do down there until the New Year now. I also finished wrapping my Christmas pressies while watching Nigella Christmas on TV. Lets just say I have some inspired foodie ideas for over the festive period although if I were to attempt them all I’d probably be drunk before lunch ;-)

This morning I did my weekend run at the gym on the treadmill due to the frost (10k in 53 minutes) then came home and made a fab smoothie:

This was frozen blackberries, chocolate amazing grass powder, soy milk and ridiculous amounts of almond butter topped with some flaked almonds and a couple of dark chocolate chips. A little later I decided to treat myself to a scrumptious slice of my Banana Coconut Choc Chip Bread (this recipe with 1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips added):

I had a slice fresh and warm from the oven topped with a smear of smooth peanut butter and accompanied by a large mug of Tea Pigs Chocolate Flake Tea:

Absolute heaven! The peanut butter melted on the warm bread, it was delicious :-) and of course James very much enjoyed several slices of his favourite baked treat!

For lunches I was craving veggies so made a big salad topped with some of my creamy dreamy avocado dressing (with basil instead of parsley), pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds:

Yesterday I decided to make my Veggie Loaf. I have to say I think this is one of my best ever recipes (along with the banana bread above), it is gorgeous. If you like sage and onion stuffing and sausage type flavours you will love this! I under cooked it slightly but I actually love it all moist like that. I served it with a mound of swede chips and ketchup and maple pecan brussel sprouts:

I toasted a few pecans then shredded my sprouts and stir fried in a little coconut oil until they started to brown, then added some maple syrup and a dash of shoyu sauce. Cooking them this way is my current favourite way to eat them as its quick and you still get that nutty flavour you get from roasting them, so good! For a cheeky dessert I had some frozen cherries layered up with some peanut flour ‘fluff’ (1/4 cup peanut flour, 1/2 cup ice, 1/2 cup water, pinch of salt and stevia and gums all blended up) topped with dark chocolate chips:

Yum, cherries + peanut butter + chocolate and you can’t go wrong really!

If any of you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you will probably already have heard my exciting news about being featured in Healthy Magazine!

A little while ago a blog reader had tweeted me about the Healthy Hero competition and had encouraged me to enter. I can’t believe that I was chosen as a healthy hero and its quite scary and surreal to see pictures of me in a magazine like that! I know they are still seeking more entries for Healthy Heroes so if you think yourself or someone you know should be nominated you can see the details here (I nearly died when I went to that web page and saw that huge pic of me – eeek!) or the magazine is on sale in branches of Holland and Barrat. I guess this post is a good example of my healthy living philosophy – a bit of exercise, lots of fruit and veggies and healthier foods balanced with dark chocolate, coffee and the odd glass (or three) of red!

Are you all ready for Christmas? I now have my presents wrapped and all that’s left to do is some cooking, baking and enjoying myself! I’m working until Wednesday but I’m doing shorter days and flexible hours. I’m hoping to still be able to fit in some regular workouts this week despite the gyms shorter opening hours too. What are your plans for the week leading up to Christmas?

I’m loving having this week off work – the week between Christmas and New Year is always the best! I had a relaxed Boxing Day starting with some yoga. I woke up feeling a bit stiff and thought a quick bit of yoga would do me good. I did a 20 minute Yoga for Runners flow that worked up a little sweat and helped wake me up! Breakfast was another indulgent bowl of porridge. This one included scottish oats, oat bran, orange juice, vanilla soy milk, egg whites, left over cranberry sauce, a tablespoon of marmalade, chopped macadamias, a drizzle of soy cream and a crumbled white chocolate and cranberry cookie:

I also had a Christmas coffee with amaretto liqueur. I’m going to miss these sugary and alcoholic breakfasts come January!

Lunch was Christmas day leftovers – some Veggie loaf topped with chilli jam and local organic chilli cheese baked in the oven until melty plus a huge pile of roast sprouts and parsnips and a little ketchup:

The Veggie Loaf with cheese was amazing, it tasted wonderful, almost like a cheese burger! My eyes were too big for my belly as I didn’t finish all those roast veggies even though I really wanted to.

Later that afternoon when my appetite returned I made up a big bowl of fruit including fresh figs, satsumas, pomegranate seeds and passion fruit topped with a large serving of Rachel’s Organic Greek yoghurt with honey plus flaked almonds:

For dinner I made an awesome snack plate including 4 sesame ryvita crackers, 2 topped with cream cheese and chilli jam and 2 topped with bousin garlic cheese, 4 dates stuffed with goats cheese and pistachios and maple roasted nuts. I also had more fresh figs, another satsuma, an apple (plus another unpictured one later) and a big slab of Green and Blacks Milk Chocolate with hazelnuts and raisins. Instead of more alcohol I made up a drink of POM juice with soda water:

I thoroughly enjoying eating all of this! Unfortunately after I’d polished all that off I went back to the kitchen and ended up having a little binge episode – I had more maple nuts, dates, a full size tub of low fat mango, pineapple and passion fruit yoghurt, dark chocolate and a slice of cheese. I got that awful out of control feeling when I knew I was physically very full but couldn’t stop myself eating. I did beat myself up about it but at the end of the day these things happen and I haven’t had a binge episode in a while. It did give me terrible indigestion and this morning I woke up feeling almost hung over!

I did make the extra effort to ensure I did my Davina DVD for a 45 minute resistance based workout when I got up. Even after last night I still fancied a bit of an indulgent breakfast – chocolate peanut butter smoothie with white chocolate stars:

This contained one large frozen banana, scoop of chocolate whey, 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder, 3 big tablespoons of peanut butter and soy milk. I also had a Christmas tea with soy cream.

James had the day off so we headed over to Newcastle for a little sales shopping and to see Tron Legacy at the Tyneside Cinema as we both like our sci fi. I had a very successful shopping trip - I’ll have to post some pics of what I found but I got pretty much everything I was after and some fantastic bargains! We both really enjoyed the movie too. I took an apple and 2 satsumas along with me to snack on.

When we got home I made us an early dinner of sausage and mash – pork sausages and mashed potatoes for James and veggie sausages and mashed swede for me!

I also had some steamed broccoli and carrots plus some red onion gravy.

For dessert I mixed together a large tub of Rachel’s Organic low fat rhubarb yoghurt with a tin of Libby’s pumpkin puree and a teaspoon of ground ginger. I poured this mixture into 2 glass bowls and allowed to chill for an hour then topped with some chopped crystallised ginger and a gingerbread cookie:

This was fab! A great tasty dessert and not too sinful. I also ate 2 pink lady apples and some POM juice with soda water while we watched Scott Pilgrim.

How’s your festive eating going? I felt really crappy after stuffing my face last night but in the long run I think I’ll actually end up eating fewer calories over the next few days because I sickened myself so much! I’m glad the gyms open tomorrow to as I could do with some cardio burn. Unfortunately I think I may be coming down with a bit of a cold so I have my fingers crossed that it won’t get any worse!

Have you been sales shopping yet? Do you like shopping in the sales? I’m looking forward to sharing with you the bargains I picked up!

I have a bit of a jam packed post for you, so get comfy! I’ve honestly never stopped today, I’ve been cleaning, baking and cooking. I’ve cooked up rice and quinoa, made hummus, soup and cookies! This morning I decided that it has been far too long since I’ve had pancakes for breakfast, plus I wanted to try out my new coconut flour so I made some of Oh She Glows Spelt Pancakes for one (less all the add in’s and plus one tablespoon of coconut flour and two tablespoons of additional almond milk). I also made up a delicious creamy sauce by mixing one tablespoon of coconut flour with some water. I served mine with mango, blueberries and some desiccated coconut:

The coconut flour seems to be a great ingredient! Its full of fibre and when mixed with water turns into a paste (perhaps a little like peanut flour?) or the sauce shown above. It absorbs a lot of liquid so could be great for adding to smoothies for thickness and coconut flavour or even in porridge.

I also got my baking groove on with some fab cookies!

Almond Oatmeal Cookies adapted from Shutterbean (Vegan, makes approximately 16 small cookies)

• 1 cup of almonds (I used 1 cup of almond meal leftover from making almond milk)
• 2 cups of oats
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup of plain wholemeal flour
• 1/2 cup of grapeseed oil
• 1/2 cup of maple syrup
• Raisins or other dried fruit (optional)

Pre heat the oven to 175c and grease a baking sheet. If using the whole almonds chop them finely in a food processor, then put to one side. Add the oats and salt to the food processor and blend them until they resemble flour. Add the oats to the chopped almonds. Add 1/2 cup of flour, the oil, maple syrup and dried fruit if using and combine well. If the mixture seems a little too wet, add the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Take heaped tablespoons of the mixture and form into balls. Place on the baking sheet and press down to flatten slightly. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown:

I made some plain almond oatmeal cookies and some almond, oatmeal and raisin cookies. I had two of these mid morning with a cup of rooibos tea, they taste really good, sweet and nutty!

Lunch was a big bowl of kabocha squash soup with pumpkin seeds followed by 2 chopped apples:

Mid afternoon I made a big green juice: 2 small apples, 2 kiwis, cucumber, celery, lettuce, ginger:

Dinner was a slice of my veggie loaf with some cheesy leeks (sautéed leeks topped with vegan mozzarella and grilled), steamed purple kale, spring greens and carrot with shoyu:

This was so tasty, I love that veggie loaf and it went amazingly well with the cheesy leeks! Dessert was a couple of squares of RAW cherry dark chocolate and a mug of Japanese cherry sencha green tea:

Comfort versus style

Last week when I posted my outfit of the day I was interested in the comments that indicated that most of us prefer comfort over style. As the week has gone on and I have been out shopping I’ve been pondering that question myself. More recently I have definitely become more attracted to relaxed clothing, but I’d like to think that I can wear this stuff and still retain a bit of style! I seem to have a few basic items that I wear all the time, as soon as I get in from work or on a weekend I’m straight into my sweat / yoga pants, hoodies / zip up tops, leggings, cotton dresses, vest tops and baggy jeans.

It just goes to show how much I love those basics as look what I ended up buying this week!

Zip up top and black sweat pants from Peacocks:

I love these as the top has a few nice details like the roll over neck and roll up sleeves which make it look a little different than just a plain hoody. The sweat pants are sooo comfortable and I love the gathered bottoms of the legs. I could easily wear these with a smart top and ballet flats in the spring.

Denim dress from Mango on sale (£14):

Denim dresses seem to be everywhere on the high street in the new collections (and cost around £40 for a decent one), so when I saw this simple shift dress on sale I thought it was a great bargain. Will be fab with leggings and a little belt, and when the weather gets warmer bear legs and flip flops.

Cotton dress from H&M (£12.99):

So simple and comfortable to wear, will be great over tights, leggings, jeggings or skinny jeans.

My top tips to style up comfortable basics:

• Use accessories like a funky scarf or belt to dress things up a bit. I love wearing some long patterned or wooly socks just peeking over boots to add something different:

• Buy items that have an unusual styling detail like a roll over neck on a zip up top, a print or pattern, stitching or gathering detail.
• Use colour – I have a habit of going for neutral colours which can get a bit boring. I have loads of colourful vest tops which I wear under t-shirts and hoodies to add a bit of colour:

• Mix up smart and casual – my favourite thing to do is pair a hoody with a blazer – smart but oh so comfy and warm! You could even add a little belt around the waist too:

What are your favourite comfortable clothes? Do you think you can be comfortable and stylish at the same time?

Oh, and one more pic before I go, here’s some little postcards I picked up in York. I have the ‘keep calm and carry on’ in full size in my hallway but I loved the other sayings as well:

I’ll be sticking these up around the flat and at work. I especially love the ‘when in doubt brew up’! Speaking of which, a sleepy time tea is calling my name… hope you had a great weekend!