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I just want to start by saying thanks for the comments to last nights post. I was really torn about the whole thing, however I think the event is going to be a very interesting experience for me either way. Thanks for the comments about my yoga class too, I was feeling a bit inadequate about my abilities but I can only get better in time!

For breakfast today I made some millet porridge as I had some cooked millet in the fridge to use up. I warmed it through with some oat milk, a chopped pear, raisins, cinnamon and a teaspoon of sweet freedom. It was surprisingly tasty! I also made myself a fresh juice with 2 beets, 2 carrots, cucumber and a large chunk of ginger.

I don’t know what it is but I’ve been craving beetroot like crazy these last few days. This juice tasted fab too, I think the cucumber stopped it from becoming too tart. I also added a shot of acai berry juice to it along with milk thistle and echinacea tincture.

Mid morning I had a mug of miso and ginger soup. Lunch was a new to me combo. I used to make hummus and turkey wraps with cos lettuce ages ago (before veggiedom) and recently I’ve seen other bloggers making wraps with cabbage leaves. As I had both tasty hummus and cabbage in the fridge I thought I’d give it ago!

My wraps were made with a spring green cabbage leaf with the stem removed. I added a layer of my broccoli, courgette and olive hummus then some yellow pepper, cucumber, lambs lettuce and olives. These worked quite well but I think they would have been better with larger leaves as they were quite messy to eat!

 

These tasted fab though, will certainly be making these a regular lunch option. I was quite surprised at how filling these were too. I also had an orange and some passion fruit.

Before heading to the gym I snacked on one of my leftover cookies and an apple.

I did 30 minutes of speed intervals on the treadmill followed by 30 minutes of my new HIITs on the step machine, bike and cross trainer. I then did my abs and core exercises. My 1 minute planks nearly killed me!

For dinner I decided I was long overdue a good stir fry. I stir fried some courgette and carrot ribbons, asparagus, spring greens, mushroom and yellow pepper in coconut oil then added some mung bean noodles I’d picked up a while ago from an Asian supermarket. I made a sauce for the stir fry using some of the left over cashew ginger pate (from the nori wraps) by watering it down and adding a little more soy sauce and sweet white miso paste.

This was the bomb! Such a great stir fry, full of veggies just how I like it and I loved the mung bean noodles. The sauce worked very well to. That cashew ginger pate has lasted really well, there’s still more left that I think I may use on some baked tofu, yum!

Dessert was some raw chocolate, this time from the Conscious Chocolate Company. They produce various flavours of raw chocolate based on raw cacao powder, cacao butter and agave, all organic and soy, dairy and gluten free. I had half a small bar of mint chocolate.

Oh. my. god. This tasted utterly amazing! It has the most fabulous soft creamy texture and the mint flavour is perfect. I honestly can’t tell you how fabulous this is! I ordered this from Goodness Direct as part of my Christmas pressie but you can also order direct from the website. I can feel another order coming on!

Have you tried cabbage or lettuce wraps before? I was very happy with mine, a great way to get extra raw greens into your diet.

Have any of you tried conscious raw chocolate before? I’m really getting hooked on raw chocolate, I just love the texture and taste and the fact that you can argue that its a health food is just an added bonus!

Hope your all having a fab week, catch you later!

Hi everyone, hope you are all feeling awesome! I’ve had a busy couple of days and have a busy week ahead ending in an exciting trip to London! More on that in a moment…

I started Monday morning with a bowl of granola, fresh blueberries, chopped pear and home made almond milk.

I used two bags of Bear granola. This was a lovely breakfast, it was nice to eat a full bowl of granola as I usually only use it as a topping.

Mid morning I had a mug of miso soup. Lunch was another nori cashew ginger wrap with carrot and cucumber. I just cut the wrap in half instead of making ‘sushi’ so it was easier to take it to work without falling apart. I also had some more carrot sticks on the side and some pomegranate and passion fruit.

Mid afternoon I snacked on two cherry bakewell babies and an orange.

I headed to the gym after work and did 40 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer and step machine. I changed up my HIITs from the 3 x 30 sec intervals (medium, medium hard, hard intensities) to 1 minute medium intensity / 1 minute hard intensity, increasing the resistance levels and speeds accordingly. I then did my first spin class of the year! It was awesome as usual. I finished off with my abs and core moves including my plank which still remains at 1 minute – didn’t feel like trying to push my time after that workout!

Dinner was a tasty combo of roasted veggies (parsnip, brussels, red onion and broccoli) and millet on top of some rocket, lambs lettuce and little gem. I added some balsamic mustard dressing and a sprinkling of seeds.

So satisfying! I’m loving the roast veg and salad green combo at the moment. I also really liked the millet, it was my first time trying this little grain (technically a seed I think) and it was delicious.

Dessert was 2 chopped apples (which actually turned into several apples!) and fresh blueberries.

This morning I was up early for my strength workout. I did exactly the same as last week but on the advice of the lovely Alison I moved my push ups to the front of the circuit and the chest fly to the back. This is because I really want to improve my push ups and if I’m doing them at the end of the circuit I could be too tried to make a real difference.

The workout was awesome and I was sweating buckets by the end! I refuelled with a tasty breakfast: Vanilla Blueberry Green Smoothie. This contained a multitude of ingredients – spring cabbage leaves, frozen blueberries, vanilla sun warrior, spirulina, matcha green tea powder, acai juice, milk thistle and echinacea tincture and oat milk. I topped it with some goji berries and granola.

Lunch was leftover roast veggies, millet and salad, same as last night and two pears. Mid afternoon I snacked on the most delicious hummus with carrot and cucumber for dipping:

Spiced Broccoli, Courgette and Olive Hummus (inspired by recipe from Choosing Raw)

• 1 small head of broccoli, roughly chopped
• 1 medium courgette, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup of tahini
• 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon of cumin
• 10 – 15 pitted olives (I used some marinated Greek olives)

Begin by finely chopping the broccoli and courgette in a food processor. Then add the remaining ingredients and blend. I found that the courgette adds enough moisture to give the perfect creamy consistency but you could add water to thin it out.

This tastes just amazing – It makes a good amount and as it doesn’t contain oil or more calorie dense beans you can have a bigger portion (not that oil in hummus has ever stopped me having a bigger portion!)

I snacked on an orange before I headed to my new Yoga class. You may recall I did a beginners Yoga course at the end of last year at Newcastle Buddhist Centre. Tonight I started the level 2 course which luckily for me is being held in Durham so closer to home.

It was really tough. I felt like everyone else in the class was a lot more experienced than me. The tutor had to keep coming and correcting my posture as we were doing poses I’ve never tried before. I know I’ll get better in time, and although I felt a little out of my depth I still really enjoyed it. I don’t care if anyone else in the class thought I was rubbish, I gave it my best shot!

After my class I had a small bowl of Leek and Greens soup followed by two chopped apples.

My first bloggers event!

On Friday I will be hopping on the train down to London. I have been invited by the people behind Kellogg's Special K to come and find out more about their new website: www.myspecialk.co.uk. This is the first ‘bloggers event’ I’ve ever been to and I’m very excited. I have to say I did have a long think about whether I should accept the invitation as Special K as a product is not really something I would have in my diet. I much prefer eating unprocessed whole foods and Special K is not in line with this. However, I am interested in finding out more about the website and how that could help people lose or maintain their weight. I’m also looking forward to meeting other bloggers! As always I will be giving you my honest opinion of what I see and hear on the day.

As blog readers and bloggers how do you feel about the blogger / product / advertising / PR relationship? I know that the fashion and beauty blogs I read seem to be more into this. My feelings are that I’m more than happy to directly promote and advertise products that are relevant to the blog and that I personally use or believe in, whether that’s their company ethos or the quality of their product. That’s why I was so torn about going to this event. However, I can’t honestly say that I’m very well informed regarding Special K or the website so I have lots of questions to ask – then I can make a more informed opinion to share with you.

Have you ever been to a fitness / exercise class and felt like you were behind everyone else? How did you handle it?

On another note, this weekend its my Blogiversary! The blog will officially be 1 year old and I’m planning an awesome GIVEAWAY to celebrate so keep reading!