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Don't know whats wrong with me this week but every morning I'm waking up just wishing I could stay in bed for the rest of the day! After about two hits of the snooze button I got up had a cup of warm water and jumped into Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred Level 3 and the last circuit of Level 2. As always this DVD kicked my arse, I was knackered! For breakfast I thought I would go oat free again so I tried out a sample I'd been sent with an old order of Maximuscle products from a while ago. It was a sachet of strawberry flavoured Cyclone.

It looks like pretty hardcore stuff with 30g of protein and over 200cals per serving plus it contained creatine which is also suppost to do good things for your muscles. I blended it up with some frozen blueberries and skimmed milk. It made a yummy shake, but its not something I would buy as it wouldn't fit my needs as well as my regular whey protein powder.


Work wasn't too bad this morning but I have been finding it very difficult to focus for the last couple of days. I have Friday booked off so hopefully that will give me sometime to get my head together for next week. I was starving by lunch time and scoffed down my apple and Asian Chicken Broth in no time!


After losing the will to live in my afternoon meeting I had some greek yoghurt with orange and green grapes, simple but really delicious!


I had another semi late night at work again - this time I needed to man a display at the 100 Days of Learning Event being held in the local Leisure Centre. Luckily I managed to get away a bit earlier than expected. My dinner was more yummy turkey hummus lettuce wraps with some carrot and cucumber followed by a bowl of frozen raspberries with vanilla rice milk


Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Been having more of a think about my wish list and what I'm going to prioritise from it. I think the running shoes are fairly essential now that I'm doing more running, as the last thing I want to do is get injured or bugger my knees up by continuing to run in my cheapo trainers. If I find a shop that sells a good top and leggings for a good price then I'll probably get them too. I need to get my dermologica face wash as I'm nearly out and even though I probably don't need the superfoods stuff, I really want it, so I can try them out and see what all the fuss is about! I could also really do with the tea towels and canisters for the kitchen as what I have at the moment is crap. So there I go, my priority purchases for next month!

Well I'm heading off now to make a cuppa, catch up on some blogs and get ready to watch Sophie Dahls cooking show on BBC2. I love her cook book, and suprisingly a lot of her recipes are on the healthy side such as spelt flour pear and ginger muffins, goats cheese, spinach and watercress salad etc. In the cook book she talks a lot about her life and her perspective on food, she even went raw diet for a while! I don't know if the recipes on the show are also going to be on a more healthy theme, I guess I'll have to wait and see! Anyone else planning on watching Sophie Dahl? Who is your favourite of the TV chefs? I do like Nigella and Jamie as well. Hope all of your weeks are going well!

Wow its really feeling autumnal at the moment, its been dull dark weather all day but at least the trees are turning a beautiful colour. I really do love this time of year, I’m even starting to get excited about Halloween!

I started my day with my usual hot water and lemon (I always have a mug of warm water with the juice of half a lemon everyday when I wake up) and then a yummy bowl of Dorset Cereal Tropical Fruit and Fibre Cereal with two chopped figs, a chopped plum and soy milk.

This tasted really good! I’m not that fussed on cereals usually but this hit the spot. Probably something to do with the fact I ate twice the recommended serving amount, haha!

Mid morning I snacked on some carrot and cucumber with a little home made white bean dip (1/2 can of cannellini beans, juice of half a lemon, 2 garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, water, blended in food processor for two servings)

This was really tasty, will be making my own dips and hummus a lot more often me thinks!

Lunch was a beautiful salad including kale (massaged with garlic olive oil), quinoa, spring onions and flaked almonds mixed with grated carrot, courgette and apple. I dressed it with a little bit of apple cider vinegar.

This was really tasty and filling, the apple added a lovely sweetness. I also had an orange.

Before heading to the gym I had a Beet It Shot (review to come soon!)

At the gym I did 30 minutes of HIITs on the step machine and cross trainer followed by my abs exercises and my spin class. We had a new instructor today and she was great, it was a much tougher class, I really felt the burn!

For dinner I made an Asian Chicken and Vegetable Noodle Broth (serves 2):

• 2 chicken breasts (I used 1 super big one)
• 3 cups of hot chicken stock
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 chilli, finely chopped (I use the pre chopped chilli from a tube)
• thumb size piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
• juice of one lime
• 2 carrots made into ribbons using a veggie peeler
• 1 courgette made into ribbons using a veggie peeler
• handful of mushrooms sliced
• 4 spring onions, chopped
• 2 heads of pak choy sliced length ways
• Egg noodles (optional)

Heat the pan of chicken stock and add the soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, chilli and ginger. Slice the chicken into strips and add to the pan to poach in the hot stock. While the chicken is cooking make the noodles according to the packet instructions (or if like me your going for the veggie ‘noodles’ make into ribbons using vegetable peeler). When the chicken is cooked through add the mushrooms, spring onions and pak choy to the pan. Place the noodles or veggie noodles (or both) into a bowl then ladle the chicken and broth on top. Serve with more lime juice or soy sauce if desired.

This is a great recipe if you have a cold or feel a cold coming on. The garlic, chilli and ginger are excellent for making you feel better and the warm broth and chicken are so comforting. I wouldn’t use pak choy in this recipe again though, it went a strange chewy texture in the hot broth, yuk!

For desert I decided that I would make some protein pancakes. I combined a scoop of chocolate whey with 8 tablespoons of liquid egg whites, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder and a few drops of natural orange flavouring. I made 5 little mini pancakes by frying the batter on a medium high heat with spray oil and flipping when the underneath of the pancake becomes set.

These are great, the inside stayed gooey – yum! They’re a bit like having a protein cake from the microwave but I found these a bit more filling. I ate them plain with some cacao nibs but as this recipe is less than 200 calories you could add some nut butter, yoghurt or agave syrup too. I also had an un pictured apple with cinnamon.

Talking of protein filled deserts…

Protein Ice Cream

I’ve had a couple of emails and comments from readers about the protein ice cream I’m currently addicted to so I thought I’d include a bit of information for you all. I got the idea from Heather Eats Almond Butter – she did a great ‘how to’ post here. This gives a great breakdown of how to make it including a video so if your really interested check this out. I’ve had to amend the recipe slightly to suit as I don’t have all those ingredients but what I end up with is still very tasty!

This is how I make my double chocolate protein ice cream:

To the blender add: 1 scoop of chocolate whey powder, 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon of agave syrup or sweetener (to taste) and then about 1/2 cup of soy milk. I then add 4 ice cubes. You really need a decent blender with an ice crush function for this to work really well. I then blend this for a few seconds until smooth. Then add another couple of ice cubes, blend, add another couple of ice cubes and blend again. I tend to use about 8 ice cubes in total. Then I add 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum, blend and then check the thickness. If I want it thicker I add a 1/4 of a teaspoon more then blend, and so on (be careful not to over do it with the xanthan or it can go a bit of a strange texture)

Scoop the lovely thick mixture into a bowl and add the topping of your choice, my favourite is a few dark chocolate chips.

Holy yum!

I’ve found that the volume in this along with the xanthan gum makes me feel really full and has helped me to beat the Friday night snackies.

Heather also advises using guar gum but I am yet to find somewhere that sells it. I get my xanthan gum from the gluten free section of the supermarket.

Have you tried making protein ice cream before? What’s your favourite recipe / toppings?

Oh and before I go I read this fantastic article with Jamie Oliver, his show 30 Minute Meals started tonight on C4, I didn’t realise it would be shown so early so I’m going to have to catch up on 4OD. I’m such a big fan of what he’s trying to achieve, getting more of us to eat home made food. Are you a Jamie fan? I think you either love him or hate him!

Was totally knackered when I woke up this morning, I could have easily just stayed in bed for another couple of hours! But unfortunately that was not an option so up I got and in to the kitchen I went to have my green tea / fuel bar combo.


I then hit the gym. As I only have 45 mins for cardio when I do the gym on the morning I tend to just do 15 mins of cross trainer, step machine and treadmill but after my run yesterday I thought I'd change it up and do the bike instead of the treadmill. It was tough, I did my usual 1 minute intervals and added in the 30 seconds of really high resistance / up out of the saddle that I tried last week. It totally exhausted me! I also did the usual 15 mins of intervals on the cross trainer and step machine followed by two sets of my abs exercises.

For breakfast I fancied something a bit different to what I would usually have so I mixed a scoop of chocolate whey with some greek yoghurt and topped with flaked almonds, it was lovely, you can't get better than chocolate at breakfast! Its very rare that I don't have oats in some form for breakfast so I was suprised at how filling this was too.


Lunch was a crunchy golden delicious apple followed by my Asian Chicken Broth that I made yesterday.


The broth isn't the most attractive looking stuff, but it tastes good!

My meals after lunch became a bit erratic as I was working late (again!), I had been asked to present an award at an event for young volunteers. The event was brilliant, the young people did some performances and they were so talented. There was a buffet on, but I've had far too many bad experiences with buffets recently so I decided to eat around the event. I had two afternoon snacks one at 2.30 and the other at 4.30 before I went, both the same, of - a babybel light, a turkey and hummus lettuce wrap (a la Tamzin) and an orange.


Once I got home I ate another couple of turkey hummus wraps with an apple followed by a pot of Tofu Vanilla Cream Pud. I am so loving this pud, its lick the bowl delicious!


Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

I'm very happy that I'm succeeding in keeping the evening snackies at bay at the moment. Im telling myself that I need to try and avoid any additional food in take as I know I'll be eating quite a bit over the Easter break! I'm also looking forward to pay day coming up. I have a wish list of various bits and pieces (including food!) that I'm after this month, more on that tomorrow! Has anyone else got a pay day wish list? What's on it? Hope everyones Monday hasn't been too bad xxx

Yey the nice weathers back! Was very pleased to wake up to sunshine this morning. Got up and had a bowl of homemade muesli with jumbo oats, quinoa flakes, brown rice puffs, ground flax, grape nuts, chopped apple and skimmed milk with a cup of green tea.


I got all my run stuff together and headed out to attempt my first 3 mile run.
I did it! Its the longest I've ever ran without stopping and even better, I managed to improve my time and I actually got quicker towards the end!

Heres my times:
Mile 1: 11.05
Mile 2: 10.26
Mile 3: 9.58

I was well chuffed. I got home, showered and then my Mam and Dad called in for a cuppa along with my little Nephew Harry. When they went I hit the shops for my groceries. Was not best pleased as my local Sainsbury's is closing tomorrow for a week due to refurb and had therefore decided not to bother restocking their shelves. This meant I had to buy some different stuff to what I was after but luckily I could find alternatives that would work.
When I got back from the shops I made a Creamy Mint Choc shake. I have had a bit of a craving for something like this since seeing some variations on different blogs. I made up a mug of peppermint tea and let it cool. In the blender went a scoop of chocolate whey, about three tablespoons of greek yoghurt, 3 ice cubes and the peppermint tea.

It was lovely and refreshing, although it was a thinner consistancy than I would have liked.
Lunch was two scrambled eggs on stoneground wholemeal toast with a pear and a cup of green tea.


Dinner was a huge chicken stir fry with brocolli, cabbage, kale, carrot and red onion with ginger and soy sauce.


Desert was some Tofu Vanilla Cream Pudding -

Tofu Vanilla Cream Pudding (taken from Chocolate Covered Katies Blog which is a fab blog!)

• Silken tofu - I used one pack of mori-nu silken tofu which I randomly managed to find in the shops this morning, which is typical as I could have done with it last week for my chocolate mousse.
• Vanilla rice milk - about 3 tablespoons
• Vanilla Extract - about 5 teaspoons
• Agave Syrup - about 2 tablespoons

I just wizzed all of the above in my food processor till it went all smooth. It has a lovely gentle vanilla flavour and creamy texture.


Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

I also made some bits and bobs for meals next week including -

Asian Chicken Broth (my own weird creation)
I decided to make this as I fancied something a bit lighter for lunch next week than my usual potato or bean based soups.

• 1 chicken breast sliced thinly or some left over cooked chicken
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 2 teaspoons of minced ginger
• orange or red pepper finely sliced
• bag of chopped leek and cabbage (or you could just chop your own cabbage and use spring onions as an alternative to the leeks)
• Kettleful of boiling water
• chicken stock cube
• 2 teaspoons of vegetable boullion
• half teaspoon of hot chilli powder
• 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce 

I fried off the ginger and garlic in some spray oil for a few seconds before adding the chicken, followed by the pepper and then the leek and cabbage. After frying it all for a couple of minutes I covered the chicken and veg with boiling water and added the stock, boullion, chilli powder and soy sauce. I then let it simmer until the chicken had cooked through and the veg was tender.

This is a really good broth to have if your ill or think your coming down with something as the garlic and ginger are excellent for your immune system and the strong flavours are great when you have a cold. If you wanted something more substantial you could add some noodles to the mix.
I'm going to have a big bowl for my lunch tomorrow, yum!

I've also updated the blog with a 'My Story' page, just in case anyones interested in reading a bit about the journey I've been on with my health and fitness. I'm also going to do a Recipes page at some point.

The weekend has gone way too fast again! I'm already looking forward to the Easter Bank Holiday weekend for some time off with J. Hope everyone has had a good weekend and has a good week ahead xxx