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Hi everyone hope your week is going well!

I’m back for another WIAW! These are my eats from yesterday. I started the day with my usual warm water and lemon which I sipped on while getting washed and dressed, then I made breakfast! I had a big bowl of strawberries, banana and some cacao chai chia pudding:

I also had a cup of black cinnamon and hazelnut coffee sweetened with stevia:

So glad that the mornings are getting a little lighter now!

Mid morning I had a couple of carrots with some cashew butter for dipping for a snack:

I love carrots with nut butter! I also had this amazing rosehip and cherry tea:

My work colleague had returned from a break in Scotland and brought a few different teas back for me from her hotel. This was so good I might have to track down that brand, it tasted like cherry drop sweeties! Of course I drank a lot of other tea during the day too including green and rooibos.

Lunch was a big salad made from lots of random things from the fridge:

It included spinach, brown rice, marinated tofu, home grown alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, red cabbage, red pepper and some braggs liquid aminos. This was lovely but it reminded me why I usually go easy on the carbs at lunch, I definitely had a mid afternoon slump! To pick me up again I had a snack of a pear, an apple and some salt and pepper Popchips:

I love those those Popchips, they are my favourite flavour and remind me of posh crisps!

As I had my yoga class later that evening I just wanted something light for dinner. I had a bowl of my lentil soup with a big pile of my home made raw curried crackers:

When I got home from yoga I fixed myself a great snack. I had found some of my favourite fresh figs in the reduced section on Monday so had three of them, a chopped apple and some raw tahini and honey along with a kuricha green tea:

That really hit the spot!

I really enjoyed my yoga class last night…

It was a packed class and was really good fun, the teacher used me to demonstrate some of the poses and commented on how good my posture was! I felt a bit embarrassed but simultaneously chuffed that I was doing well. I think I’m starting to embrace the slower more relaxing style of yoga now :-)

Yesterday wasn’t quite as full of greens as my eats usually are, in the lead up to pay day I’m trying to manage on what I have in the fridge, freezer and cupboards as I’m determined to stick within my grocery budget. Fresh veggies are probably the most costly thing I buy so I have to cut back a little. I was able to get a huge bag of spinach which is a good deal for me as I can use in salads, smoothies and cooked meals plus James loves his spinach too. More on healthy eating on the cheap to come tomorrow!

Are you affected by carbs at lunch time? I find that if I have too much, especially bread, rice or pasta I get a bit sleepy later on! Quinoa seems to be ok though, perhaps because it contains more protein? That’s why I tend to just have salads with veggies, protein and fat and save the carbs for later in the day. I know people that are the complete opposite so I guess it just goes to show how different we can all be!

Hope you enjoy the rest of your week :-)

Hi guys, how’s 2012 treating you so far? So far so good for me, I’ve been eating some of the most delicious simple, fresh and healthy food and my tummy almost feels back to normal. I’ve also had a couple a great workouts to get my sweat on! These are my eats from yesterday, I can’t believe that WIAW is 50!

I started the day off with some very early morning yoga – I did a 20 minute Challenge Detox flow from Yoga Download. Breakfast was a gorgeous chia pudding banana split:

I made up some cacao chai chia pudding with 1 tbsp of Viva Pure Cacao Chai Chia mix and 1 tbsp of chia seeds mixed with water and honey which was left in the fridge to thicken up. I poured that on top of a banana and added lots of pomegranate seeds (plus more unpictured, it was a big pomegranate!) I also had a mug of Dr Stuarts Detox tea which I love!

The cupboards were a bit bare yesterday so for a snack I just had some sliced cucumber that needed using up and some soaked walnuts and hazelnuts:

I soaked the nuts overnight as this makes them more digestible by removing the enzyme inhibitors, they also have a nice texture when they’ve been soaked.

For lunch I had a big salad beast:

I’ve really missed these! This contained a full head of cos lettuce, cucumber, raw beetroot, chickpeas and a generous amount of my green goddess dressing. I had cooked the chickpeas from scratch before Christmas and frozen them up in single servings – so convenient!

Before I left work for the gym I had the last couple of my raw chocolate orange brownie balls with a mug of green tea:

Those balls are seriously amazing, they taste gorgeous and I’m so glad I can have them when I need a sweet chocolate hit while I’m eating cleaner over January!

After work I hit the gym and did 10 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer, 10 minutes of intervals on the step machine and 10 minutes steady state on the rowing machine before doing my Body Pump class which after a 2 week break was a killer!

For dinner I just went with my cravings and made a green smoothie in a mug (SIAM?) This contained cabbage greens, a pear, chocolate hemp protein powder, ground flax, midori greens, water and ice:

I had two big mugs of it, looks like swamp water but tastes lush! After that I wanted to make sure I was getting some more calories in and had a craving for lots of fruit so I had a chopped pink lady apple with maca powder, an orange, a nectarine and a persimmon along with a couple of tbsp of coconut butter for extra healthy fats:

You just can’t beat a plate full of fresh fruit sometimes! After that I had a glass of water with some aloe vera juice to settle my tum:

Honestly I can’t tell you how much better I’m feeling after a couple of days of eating better, it just goes to show how much what you eat affects your general wellbeing.

In other news:

• I was chuffed yesterday when I received my Matcha kit ready to start my Tea Pigs Matcha Challenge. I’m especially looking forward to trying it as a shot, in smoothies and my favourite lattes!

• The Great North Run 2012 ballot has opened yesterday. I have a guaranteed place already – it would be lovely if some of you joined me in running it this year. You can enter the ballot here!
• I entered my Carrot, Orange and Ginger Soup recipe into the New Covent Garden Soup Co Soup of the Month Competition – please check it out and give me a vote if you like what you see!

So how is 2012 going so far for you? If your making a focused effort to be more healthy how’s it going? I’ve been loving my workouts but even though I exercised pretty consistently over Christmas they have been extra tough, how are your usual workouts feeling?

Hi guys, happy Wednesday! I’m having such a great week, last night I did my healthy eating workshop with the young people and it was very successful! I’ll tell you more about it later in the week but its such a relief that it all went well :-)

Of course today its all about the WIAW party! These are my eats and goings on from Monday. I got up after pressing the snooze button a couple of times and then had the usual warm water and lemon before hitting the gym:

It was nice and quiet first thing which I love! I did 5 minutes warm up on the cross trainer, 25 minutes of strength training from Female Body Breakthrough then 10 minutes of HIIT on the step machine and then on the bike.

I was working from home so I could get my End of Project report completed which gave me a bit of flexibility with my day. James has just started working late shifts so I decided to have an easy morning and get most of my work done in the PM. After a quick shower I made breakfast – a green smoothie with spring greens, three kiwi’s, a scoop of vanilla sun warrior protein powder, maca powder, ground flax, vanilla stevia, ice and water:

I topped the smoothie with some goji berries and a few of my raw tamari ‘roasted’ almonds which are utterly delicious. There was also the usual smoothie over flow and extra toppings of course. Then it was time for coffee:

I’ve started to develop a habit of getting the big coffee press out and drinking 3 cups instead of the usual 1 cup! I’m going to have to try and curb that as it left me with a bit too much of a caffeine buzz! This was some vanilla coffee that I drank strong and black.

I spent the rest of the morning simultaneously catching up on TV shows with James while I answered work emails, planned my healthy eating workshops and did some blog work. For lunch I made a big pan of my favourite lentil soup. I thought I would blog the recipe as although I have my similar lentil and spinach soup recipe this is the one I’m making all the time now. I just love all of the celery in this version:

Laura’s favourite lentil soup (vegan, makes 4 servings)

• 1 large onion, finely chopped (I love onions so I use 2)
• 1 large clove of garlic, minced
• large pinch of salt
• 3-4 carrots, chopped
• 1 head of celery, chopped
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup of red lentils
• 2 tsp of vegetable bouillon powder (I used Marigold vegan bouillon or you could use veg stock cubes)

In a big pan, fry the onions and garlic in a small amount of oil over a medium heat with the pinch of salt (this should stop the onions burning). When the onions have softened add the carrots and celery and continue to fry for 3 – 5 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and the red lentils and mix well then add the vegetable bouillon and enough hot water to cover everything. Simmer for 15 – 20 minutes until the vegetables have softened and the lentils are cooked. You can either keep this chunky or blend until smooth. I prefer part blended and part chunky so I just use a hand blender and pulse it a few times until it reaches a texture I like.

 

I just love this soup! I’m a bit funny with celery, I hate it raw but love it juiced and really love it cooked. It adds a great flavour to this simple and cheap soup. I had mine with some of my raw juice and nut pulp crackers. I’d made the crackers at the weekend and had added a lot of dried oregano and thyme, they tasted great!

James headed off to work after lunch and I got my head down to work on my report. During the day I drank lots of tea, I made up a big pot in the morning with a green tea bag and a Cosy blueberry tea bag, then again in the afternoon with chai green tea:

Definitely one of the perks of working from home!

Mid afternoon I took a break and had a snack:

Earlier in the day I’d prepared this chocolate chia pudding made with 2 tbsp of chia seeds, 1 tbsp of raw cacao powder, stevia and water. I had it with a bowl of frozen blueberries and some more goji berries for a tasty afternoon treat!

After that I hit publish on my raw protein brownie recipe post and got ready to pop out for an appointment. I thought I’d better change out of the yoga pants I’d been in all day so chucked on a dress with some leggings and my boots to look at least semi presentable:

OOTD: cardigan: Topshop, floral dress: H&M, owl necklace: H&M, black leggings: H&M, black knee high boots: M&S (from about 4 years ago!)

After my appointment I came home and did some more editing of my work report again before making dinner. I had a lovely combo of home made sundried tomato seitan (based on this recipe) with onions, brown rice and a bit of Zest pesto on top of a pile of steamed greens:

For dessert I had a chopped pink lady apple with a cup of my raw almond and sunflower seed milk and half a bag of We are bear cherry coco granola:

Then it was back to work for the rest of the night while drinking more tea, this time some caffeine free sweet chilli. I picked James up from work late and promptly crashed straight into bed exhausted!

Not a bad day of eats, plenty of veggies as per usual! I was also happy that I ate ‘meals’ rather than just eating little bits constantly as I sometimes do when I’m at home for most of the day. I never seem to feel satisfied when I ‘graze’ like that, having 5-6 meals suits me better!

I think I must have been working on and off for about 10 hours but I quite like being able to work in a flexible way like that, I seem to be more productive especially when doing ‘chunky’ pieces of work like report or funding bid writing. It does require some self discipline not to waste the day on Pinterest though ;-) I am lucky to have the option of working in flexibly as my job requires some evening working for meetings so its handy that I can structure my work week in the most productive way. However, as much as I enjoying working from home, sometimes I prefer the structure and interaction I have when I go into the office.

Do you have a preferred work style? Do you like flexibility or prefer more structure?

I started the day off with Davina again! I'm quite happy that this is the last time I'll be doing this particular DVD for a while, as its feeling very repetative now! I'm due to review my training plan at the weekend and will be moving on to a new DVD for my strength workouts, although its highly likely to be another one of Davinas. Its a good job I like her or else I'd be pretty sick of the sight of her by now!

After doing the DVD and showering I made myself a lovely smoothie in a bowl with spinach, frozen blueberries, scoop of vanilla whey, vanilla rice milk and a spoonful of smooth peanut butter. I topped it with a sprinkling of grape nuts for added crunch.


I really enjoy having the smoothies in a bowl as I feel I can sit and enjoy eating them a lot more than having to chug them down from my shaker cup whilst getting dressed in a rush. Definitely worth trying to spare the time to sit and enjoy.

I had almost back to back meetings today, so I took a Trek Cocoa Brownie Bar with me to snack on in the morning. This was lovely and tasty, just like the nakd coco loco bar but with added soya crispies.


One of the meetings I attended were offering a buffet for lunch, but the Trek bar had really filled me up so I was happy to just snack on some fresh strawberries and grapes.

When I eventually got back to the office I had a late lunch of a wholemeal pitta stuffed with hummus, turkey and spinach, some carrot and cucumber and finished off with two small peaches.


I think that because don't eat bready stuff that often, this pitta bread tasted extra yummy!

Before I left for my late meeting I snacked on some cottage cheese and a little container of grapes and a chopped kiwi.


On my way home I hit the shops to stock up on my fresh produce to keep me going over the weekend and then headed home. I was so glad to get home I just crashed out for half an hour! I then had four rice cakes topped with savory cottage cheese (cottage cheese mixed with nutritional yeast) and an apple topped with cinnamon and maca.


I'm definitely getting more converted on the taste of the nutritional yeast, the extra savory flavour of the cottage cheese seemed to make this even more filling. I also plan on eating this vanilla chia seed pudding before bed.

Hi everyone, welcome to the new look Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish, I hope you like the new design! I decided that since I was going to be out of normal action for a while due to the wisdom teeth coming out, I would make the most of things and spend some time updating the blog. I felt that the old design was a bit out of date and I wanted it to feel a bit more ‘me’. I also wanted to streamline the side bar and links and arrange my sponsors logos better to give more space for bigger images within my blog posts. I would love your feedback on the new design! I have also updated my ‘About Me’ page, please take a look and let me know what you think :-)

On Friday evening I felt really poorly but yesterday I started to pick up and even decided to make a trip to the gym. I actually felt so much better for some light cardio. I just did an hour on the bike, cross trainer and step machine. I would have loved a run but anything high impact is well and truly off the agenda for now. This morning I decided to suck it up so I could make my new kettle bell class. This is a new class that my gym is offering.

It was 45 minutes made up of a warm up followed by an exercise done repeatedly for 1 minute before moving on to another, then some of the toughest abs moves I’ve ever done and a cool down. I really enjoyed it! You use the kettle bell in swinging motions or passing it around your body or similar to a dumbbell for tricep kickbacks and rows etc. Its definitely going to become a regular part of my training plan!

I have to admit I’m feeling a bit down in the dumps with my recovery, its a lot worse than I expected it to be. I had worried that working out would make things worse, but I’ve worked out twice now and felt better for it each time so I’m going to try and keep to my usual training plan but just dial it down a bit and ditch the high impact running for a while. I also can’t see me being able to eat solid foods for at least a few more days yet :-( The pain seems to come and go but its the swelling that’s really getting to me. Oh well, I might as well make the most of it and keep on enjoying making delicious smoothies – as they say ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade’! I hope I’m not boring you with these smoothie combos, but here’s a few I’ve had over the weekend:

Spinach, frozen banana, frozen mango, midori greens, plain hemp powder, manuka honey, bee pollen, water topped with more bee pollen and honey

Based on the ‘Bunny Spice’ recipe from Raw Food Real World: home made almond milk, carrot and ginger juice, cinnamon, maple syrup – so delicious!

Greens, half a large pineapple, Thai young coconut, bee pollen, honey, water, ice – very tropical!

Based on the ‘Black Sesame Jewel’ recipe in Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen: frozen banana, 2 tbsp of tahini, 2 tbsp of black sesame seeds, 1 tbsp of manuka honey, water topped with more sesame seeds, bee pollen and honey. This was utterly delicious, so creamy and full of good stuff!

Cabbage, courgettes, 2 scoops of vanilla sun warrior, maca powder, midori greens, ground flax, water, ice, maple sugar – this was way better than it looked, very creamy!

Kale, frozen cherries, cacao nibs, cacao powder – topped with coconut - so sweet with no need for additional sweeteners

Greens, apple, pineapple, nectarine, dates, coconut water, water, ice – tasted lovely and cleansing

I’ve also added in some different things including some protein pudding:

Just 1 scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder mixed with water, a teaspoon of cashew butter and some agave syrup.

This morning for breakfast I defrosted some frozen raspberries and mashed them with some Viva Pure cacao chai chia pudding and agave syrup:

This was perfect, just the right consistency, I’ll be eating more mashed raspberries me thinks! 

I’ve also been having juices, just my fave green juice blend and beet, carrot, cucumber, ginger blend. I’ve started to try and eat some of the smoothies with a spoon out of a bowl as I read that sucking through a straw may not be best when your gums are healing. I have to say its a bit strange, on one hand I feel awesome from all the goodness I’m getting from the juice and smoothies, then I feel crap when I feel how swollen and sore I am!

Today I’ve made a big pan of my Lentil and Spinach Soup and blended it down so I’m going to have that for dinner plus I can’t wait to make a shake with my remaining Thai young coconut and raw cacao!

I also wanted to mention that I have a new Goodness Direct discount code for you – so even if you’ve used my old code, you can use this one. It gives you £10 off and free delivery on all orders over £35 – just use code 322345GH at the check out!

So what do you think of the new blog design and my ‘About Me’ page? I really hope you like it and would love any feedback! Hope your all having a brilliant weekend!

Anyone else feeling a bit out of sync after the bank holiday weekend? I do love an extra day off but I don’t know if I’m coming or going at the moment! Thankfully I have the routine of good old WIAW to keep me right…

These are my eats and goings on from yesterday and as the title of this post suggests I feel like I was on the go all day! I got up, had the usual warm water and lemon and headed out for a quick run. I put the Garmin on again to track my distance and pace and did 3 miles in 28.20 with an average pace of 9.26 which was a big improvement from Saturdays run. As I said then, I’m not really that concerned about my pace, I’m no longer going out running and half killing myself in the process. It’s just nice to enjoy running and the weather yesterday morning was lovely too!

For breakfast I’d prepared a big chia pudding made with 1/4 cup of chia seeds, raw cacao powder and stevia mixed with water and left to gel overnight in the fridge. I had that with some semi frozen summer berries and a sprinkle of buckwheaties on top for crunch:

As it was a warm morning I thought I’d follow that up with another icy vanilla protein frappe:

I can’t get enough of these at the moment! I just blended up ice, water, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, instant coffee, stevia and a pinch of xanthan gum for creaminess. So so good.

I had a work meeting not far from where I live later in the afternoon so I was able to work from home for the day. I answered a few work emails and then took some time out for a quick grocery shop. I bought all the ingredients for my healthy eating workshop I ran later in the day, plus this lot for me and James:

The fridge was looking a bit empty so I thought I’d stock up! I bought kale, spinach, cucumbers x 3 (as they were on offer), romaine, lemons, papayas, strawberries, bananas, pumpkin seeds, organic braeburn apples, mushrooms, Italian seasoning, coffee, PJ Tips tea (I got two boxes as they were on offer), sugar, skimmed milk and tomato passata. That should keep us going for a while! I also bought a new coffee press as both of my other ones had cracked, and while I was getting that I noticed this funky teapot for brewing loose leaf tea:

I love making up a big pot of loose leaf tea, especially when I’m working from home so I decided to treat myself. This is so much less messy than using my other tea pot and pouring the tea through a strainer. I made up a pot of Teavivre White Peony Tea (review coming up!) and it was wonderful. I cracked on with some work, hit publish on my Bread Lasagne post and then took a break for lunch:

This salad was quite simply epic. Romaine, spinach, roast red kabocha squash, cooked beets, edamame, half an avocado and some tahini dressing I’d made at the weekend (tahini, apple cider vinegar, tamari, smoked garlic). It was an incredible salad with so much flavour!

After lunch I got ready to go to my meeting. It was just an informal meeting at a cafe close to wear I live so I thought I’d wear in my new jeans:

I got those jeans from Mango at the weekend. They were only £16.99 and have a great zip detail at the ankle. I love them to bits! They fit pretty well although I have been buying things in a size up so that I have some expansion room if I gain a little more weight – I’d rather my clothes be a touch baggy than too tight! I wore them with my Topshop purple tank, gold feather design necklace from Warehouse and my new bag from Accessorize. I’m so into hot / neon pink at the moment and I couldn’t resist this bag with its bright pink zip!

My walk to the cafe was lovely, we actually had some sunshine for a change!

I just had a little pot of green tea:

My meeting was very interesting and productive then I walked home and made myself a snack:

My Cherry, Pear and Almond Smoothie, hits the spot every time! After that I did a bit more work and got ready to make my way to the Community Centre for my healthy eating workshop.

Last night we made some granola, healthy parfaits with fruit, yoghurt, nuts, seeds and some of the granola plus green smoothies at the end. The granola went down very well! I thought I’d just show them a very simple one with oats, natural caster sugar and rapeseed oil with a few nuts and seeds mixed in. I’d also bought a load of fruit and some different yoghurts – natural plain yoghurt, plain fromage frais and some Alpro vanilla yoghurt which I thought would be interesting for them to try – it was their favourite! We layered the fruit, yoghurt, nuts, seeds / granola in plastic cups for healthy parfaits:

I made myself one with strawberries, blueberries, soy yoghurt, pineapple, coconut, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds then ate more pineapple and seeds during the session. I wanted to get a good variety of fruit, nuts and seeds for the young people to try. A lot of them had never tried blueberries before! This was my fourth session and my last for a few weeks so we did some evaluation with them and I made up a few green smoothies for us at the end since they loved them so much the first time. I just blended spinach, banana and orange juice, we all had a couple of cups each and they loved them yet again!

I was so tired by the time I got home, I felt like I’d been on the go all day! The parfait and smoothies had held me over quite well so I just wanted something quick and easy to take the edge off my hunger, enter Oats in jar!

I made up some oats with water on the stove and added some vanilla stevia and a pinch of sea salt (that was amazing BTW!) and poured into a near empty coconut butter jar. I it topped with a couple of tablespoons of St Dalfour Black Cherry Jam and it was perfect.

While finishing off the washing up and folding laundry I sipped on a mug of delicious Pukka Licorice and Cinnamon tea:

Lovely end to a busy day!

I’m actually really pleased I managed to eat so well considering how crazy yesterday was. I think having a few things prepped and then having good choices available really helps. I did miss my veggies though but at least I got a good portion of them in my lunch time salad. I’m also just so so happy with how well the healthy eating workshops have been going, last nights activity was fantastic and I really feel like I’ve introduced some of those young people (and a couple of parents) to how tasty healthy minimally processed foods can be.

I know I’ve blogged about this before, but how do you keep on top of healthy habits when you have busy days? I’m now quite used to getting up at 6am, working out, working most of the day and not stopping till gone 9 or 10pm, but I do have to make that extra effort to eat well. How do you approach it?