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Today has just been one of those great days when I have been able to do exactly what I've felt like, cook good food and enjoy myself. I've basically spent most of the day lying in bed watching TV off the BBC iPlayer and 4On Demand and reading old cookery books. That sounds so bad! I feel like I should be doing something constructive with my time, but I think a bit of relaxation is what I've needed.

Thanks for the comments on my last post about me being in Health and Fitness Mag!

The hubby was off work today (and for the next two days) which is very rare as he usually has to work bank holidays, this meant that we could both have a lie in! When I did eventually surface I had my weekly weigh in and was happy to have lost 1lb. This puts me at 10st 1 which is the lightest I've ever been in my adult years. I'm still trying to figure out this weight maintenance stuff, I always seem to be gaining or losing but the trend over the past couple of months has been that I'm getting lighter. I don't actually want to get any lower than 10st, however I still freak out when I gain, even though I need to recognise that my body changes and my weight is going to naturally go up and down. I think I might still be addicted to the elation that follows a weight loss and this is something I'm going to have to keep an eye on if I ever want to successfully maintain my weight and have a healthy attitude towards it! I think the acceptance of being happy with my weight is what is leading me to enjoy exercise more for the sake of fitness rather than weight loss. I do still exercise to maintain my weight, but I'm increasingly enjoying it for how it makes me feel and for my increased fitness and strength. A good example of this is my running!

Friday would be my normal rest day but as me and the hubby are going to be out for the day tomorrow I switched. Before I headed out for a run I had a cup of green tea and the last of my home made fuel bars.


I ran 3.86 miles in 40.47 which is the longest distance I've ever ran, I felt really good on this run and I enjoyed the route I took, it had a good mix of uphill, downhill and flat sections. My times weren't as good as I'd hoped (not as good as last week), however I know that I could have easily pushed myself harder, I think in the back of my mind I was worried about the extra distance and didn't want to push too hard then not be able to finish, which is just daft as I was totally fine!
To reward myself for my run I made a fabulous breakfast. I made some vanilla pancakes using 3 egg whites, a scoop of vanilla whey, a tablespoon of spelt flour and a little rice milk (makes two pancakes). When the pancakes were made I spread them with almond butter and a dollop of 100% fruit strawberry jam and served them with two chopped pears. These were just so tasty!


Lunch was a huge bowl of chilli bean soup followed by an apple.


Mid afternoon I had some cottage cheese with lemon flavoured Nakd raisins and an orange.

I decided to mix the raisins in with my cottage cheese.


Yum! Out of all the flavoured raisins these were the ones I was expecting not to like but they were great and went very well mixed into the cottage cheese, it kind of reminded me of lemon cheesecake filling! For my reviews of the other Natural Balance Food products I posted about yesterday I'm going to try (or rather taste!) them out over the next month then I'll do a proper review (I will also give them mini reviews as I go, like above) and a giveaway! I'm really excited to be able to have a giveaway, and its not going to be just some of the Natural Balance stuff, I'm going to get creative! Just to note as well that I will be completely honest in any reviews I do.

I decided to have myself a lovely relaxing bath before dinner. Theres something so decadent about having a bath in the middle of the day, love it!

For dinner I made up some more Sesame Ginger Maple Tofu and served it with stir fried brocolli, pak choy, orange pepper and carrot with added soy sauce. So good!


And since it is now officially the Easter break I thought I'd treat myself to some chocolate for desert. I had a few squares of Green and Blacks Hazelnut and Currant Chocolate, the first of lots of chocolate this weekend!


Drinks - water, sparkling water, green tea, decaf tea, hazelnut and almond rice milk heated up with a peppermint tea bag.

So have you any big plans for the Easter weekend? Me and the Hubby are getting the train into Newcastle tomorrow to have a browse around the shops then meet up with my in laws for lunch (probably Italian) and some drinks. Then Sunday its lunch at my parents. I'm really looking forward to it, I just hope the weather holds up! Hope you have all had a lovely day and have a great weekend planned! x

Happy Easter everyone, I hope you have all had a great day. My day has been totally filled with chocolate, which I'm guessing many of yours will have been too! I'm posting a bit earlier than usual today so I can spend a bit more time with the Hubby before he's back at work tomorrow.

I had started out the day with good intentions. I was due Tae Bo, strength and yoga workouts today but I knew that I would be pushing it on the time front as I wanted to make sure I spent some quality time with the Hubby as well as going to my parents for lunch. Instead I decided that I would do a quick 2 mile run followed by just 2 sets of each of my strength routines. Before I headed out I thought I would try out one of the Nakd Cocoa Orange bars as fuel along with a cup of green tea.


This was delicious! It was not what I was expecting at all, it was soft and had a beautiful chocolate orange flavour. I could easily replace a chocolate bar with one of these and still feel satisfied. I will definitely be buying some more of these! However, delicious as it was, it didn't make the greatest pre run fuel, I think it was just a bit too heavy.

I headed out for my run and the weather was beautiful. I really pushed myself as it was only the two miles, and I did it in 18.23. My runkeeper app was a bit glitchy so I didn't get my mile times but they must have been somewhere around 9 minutes a mile which isn't too bad for me, especially as my tummy felt a bit off. When I got back I did my strength routines followed by some stretching.

Breakfast was really good, I had been inspired by a recipe for a smoothie I had seen which included blueberries, pecans and maple syrup. I made up some porridge with water and added a scoop of vanilla whey along with some frozen blueberries then returned it to the microwave for a minute to warm through again. I then topped it with pecans and a drizzle of maple syrup. Yum!



After breakfast me and the Hubby just chilled out and watched a couple of old episodes of Lost. While watching that he got the Cadburys Creme Eggs out! I had two (!)


I felt like a totally piggy after eating them (and a bit bloated and sickly), although Easter wouldn't be Easter without Creme Eggs. I eventually got myself ready and dressed and headed to my parents for lunch. My Sis and Bro in law also came along with my little Nephew Harry and my Grandma came along too. For lunch I had two thick slices of roast beef with gravy and some steamed brocolli and carrots (I passed on the mashed and roast potatoes).


Followed by a slice of lemon meringue roulard with some fresh raspberries (I went back for more raspberries)


I also had a couple of spoonfuls of homemade triffle! After lunch my Mam made up an Easter Egg hunt for my little Nephew. He was running around the house finding mini eggs and just chucking them everywhere! I had two of them, they were chocolate with a praline filling and absolutley gorgeous!


I was also given a Lindt Dark Chocolate Bunny from my parents as my Easter gift.


It didn't last very long!



I thought that I might as well have my chocolate blow out today and just get it all eaten in one go however, one thing about dark chocolate is that I just can't stomach great quantities of the stuff like I can with milk chocolate so I only managed to decapitate the bunny (I took its whole head off after taking the pic!), saving its body for another time.

After I'd eaten that I had a bit of a tummy ache (unsuprisingly!) I drank loads of water and green tea and snacked on an apple to prevent me from going back for more chocolate!


Right now I'm really not hungry but I expect that I will be a bit later, even after my day of total over eating! I think I might have a bowl of miso soup, some rice cakes and a bit of fruit if I fancy it.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

As I feel like I've really overindulged this weekend, I'm going to try and be extra good for the next few days, watching my carbs and trying not to snack between planned meals.

I also had some fantastic news today, my cousin and close friend Catherine got engaged today! Her Fiance had 'Will you Marry Me' iced on to a chocolate egg! How sweet! I'm totally made up for her, she really deserves happiness so a big congratulations to Catherine and Gareth!

How has all of your Easter Sundays been? I hope you've had a good one and have enjoyed plenty of chocolate just like me! x

Can you believe its Wednesday already? I think I could get used to these short weeks! I hope that getting back to normality after the Easter break is going well for you! Today I’m dropping in to join the WIAW party as usual, I thought I’d share my eats from Monday which for us in the UK was a bank holiday (not sure if other countries had Monday off too?)

I mostly spent the day like this:

That would be lying in bed with my pj’s on and my iPad attached to my knees while watching random bank holiday movies like The Mummy 2 and Knocked Up. I did manage to make it out of the house for the gym and more food – I do have some priorities you know ;-) Anyway, once I’d managed to drag myself out of bed I made myself the usual lemon and warm water:

Then I had breakfast -  porridge made with 1/2 cup of oats slow cooked in 2 cups of water with some frozen blueberries, pecans and a drizzle of maple syrup on top:

Blueberries, pecans and maple syrup go really well together and are one of my favourite flavour combos! I also had a big mug of this green tea and earl grey mix:

The gym doesn't open until 10am on a bank holiday so before I went I popped to the shops for a few groceries and then got my workout in. For some stupid reason they have totally rearranged the gym so the tiny weights area with dumbbells is pretty much right on top of the mats for doing core work. Talk about an accident waiting to happen! I did my usual 5 minute cross trainer warm up followed by a strength session – my first workout from the next phase of Female Body Breakthrough and then followed by HIIT on the step machine and bike.

Once I got home, un packed the groceries, had a shower and changed right back into my pj’s I was starving and all I wanted was a big fat green smoothie! Don’t ask me where I’ve come across the pineapple and carrot combo before, but something in my mind made me think it would be delicious, and I was right! Into the blender went a load of spring greens, half of this massive pineapple (I said I was hungry) and two of those carrots…

..plus a scoop of vanilla sun warrior protein powder, ground flax, maca, water and ice. My toppings of choice were sunflower seed butter, coconut and raisins:

This tasted awesome! I had that bowl times two including double the toppings to fill me right up. Pineapple and carrot, who would have known? I drank green tea all afternoon and then a while later I started feeling snacky so had a couple of apples from the fridge:

Then a bit after that I decided I wanted some chocolate! I had about half of my Green and Blacks Dark Chocolate egg along with some pretzels and another green tea:

I really enjoyed that chocolate. The chocolate and pretzels eaten together at the same time tasted fantastic, gotta love the sweet and salty combo! For dinner I warmed up some of my lazy courgette and pesto tart and served it up with some green beans roasted in balsamic vinegar and sea salt and some steamed broccoli:

That tart really does taste good, there’s something incredibly naughty about flaky puff pastry! Those roasted beans tasted pretty epic too. I was quite stuffed after the chocolate from earlier plus that dinner but I still wanted something sweet to finish the day. I ate a few sliced strawberries and a mug of liquorice and cinnamon tea:

I have to admit a lazy day like that was just what I needed. I know it wasn’t really that lazy, I did go to the gym after all, but compared to how I spend most days it was definitely much slower paced and relaxing. I love just lying in bed watching movies sometimes!

How do you like to spend ‘lazy days’?

P.S please check out my Coyo Coconut Yoghurt GIVEAWAY!

Happy WIAW! Today I have been waiting for my new bed and mattress to arrive from Ikea so I have been working from home! I love being able to work from home sometimes as I can be so much more productive.

I kicked off my day with a super workout. I decided to test out my dodgy knee with a treadmill run. I was very happy to be able to do my usual 5k speed interval workout with only a small amount of discomfort! I followed that up with 3 x 10 minutes of intervals on the step machine, bike and rowing machine plus my abs and core exercises.

After swinging by the shops for a few groceries I came home and made this wonderful antioxidant packed smoothie:

This included kale, cucumber, apple, frozen blueberries, scoop of chocolate sun warrior, spirulina, maca, purple corn powder, msm, stevia, ice and water and topped with some creamy cashew butter sauce and a sprinkle of Alara in the garden muesli. With working from home I also had the time to brew up a mug of my favourite Hazelnut and Cinnamon Coffee:

I drank this black and sweetened with stevia, delicious and perfect for a bright but chilly morning!

Lunch was a salad beast using up the last of my soy bean and veggie mix with some more damson balsamic dressing and a juicy peach:

Mid afternoon I made myself a snacky plate with lots of carrot, cucumber and sugar snaps plus some of my raw juice pulp crackers topped with sauerkraut:

These crackers were flavoured with lots of herbs and tasted so lovely, not bad for something that would have ended up in the bin!

As I’m still in ‘use up as much from the cupboards’ mode I decided to try out this jar of seitan in tamari:

I thought I’d serve it up with some stir fried veggies including spring greens, carrot, courgette, red pepper, mushrooms and radish. I made a quick sauce with the tamari, red chilli and fresh minced ginger:

Its been ages since I’ve had a veggie packed stir fry and this was delish! The seitan was really good too, it had a lovely chewy texture.

For a sweet end to the day I had some of this gorgeous blueberry and lavender dark chocolate with a big mug of Yogi Sweet Chai tea:

Yum! I’m slowly but surely working my way through my huge chocolate stash!

Do you ever work from home? I love being able to get on with work without the phone ringing every 5 minutes. Its also lovely having my all my home comforts handy such as my tea pot and blender! I love to sit and listen to BBC 6 Music on my digital radio station and today I’ve also been listening to Jillian Michaels Podcasts! Hope you’ve had a great Wednesday!

Happy weekend everyone! I'm just sitting here in my pj's eating a Trek bar before I go out for a run and thought I would do a quick recap of yesterday since I was MIA.

First of all, thank you for all the lovely comments to my post yesterday, I'm glad I'm not the only one that hates the changing rooms in shops!

So back to yesterday. I didn't have so much of a lie in, but it makes a big difference waking up naturally rather than to an alarm doesn't it? I made myself a lovely big bowl of porridge starting with a frozen banana warmed up in the microwave then cooked with some oats, chia seeds and water and topped up with a little hazelnut and almond rice milk and finished off with a couple of tablespoons of ground flax, cocoa powder and ground mixed berries (from a sample sachet out of a magazine), almond butter and some goji berries.


It was a great mix of stuff! I really like goji berries and hadn't had them in ages but when I saw them in the shops yesterday I just had to get some to add to my stash of nuts, dried fruits and seeds.

We spent the morning just chilling out and catching up on TV. Mid morning I snacked on an apple.


Lunch was some of my Asian Chicken soup followed by two chopped kiwis and two satsumas.


After lunch we headed out to visit my sis in law and then to see my sis and nephew. It was lovely to see them all, my nephew wasn't his usual self though as he's teething really bad and was in a bit of a mood!

Mid afternoon I snacked on another apple. I don't know what it is but I feel like I could eat loads of lovely crunchy apples at the moment, they just seem to be hitting the spot!

After doing the rounds we headed to our favourite Italian resturant in Durham but was shocked when we got there and saw that they had changed their name and were under new management! Luckily when we got in the menu was the same. I went for a small Rustica pizza (aubergines, courgettes, cherry tomatoes and rocket with goats cheese) served with a green salad.


The pizza was lovely, although it could have done with more veggies on the topping. I thought it looked really small when it came out but I was stuffed by the time I'd finished it! The green side salad was crap, just a few leaves with red onion and a bit of dressing. I did take a pic but it went blurry, not that your missing anything!
On the way home we stopped to rent out 'Men That Stare at Goats' with George Clooney and Ewan McGreggor. It was a totally mental film, but very funny! While we watched the film I got my chocolate fix with several squares of Green and Blacks 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate and Green and Blacks Hazelnut and Raisin 60% Cocoa Chocolate.


This was lush, I savoured every bite!

I was still a bit hungry after eating the chocolate so I had a big bowl of frozen raspberries and strawberries with some hazelnut and almond rice milk.


This just filled me up nicely.

Before bed we decided to open a bottle of wine. I only had one glass as I knew I'd be running this morning and didn't want to wake up dehydrated!

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, soda water with ice and lemon, red wine

It was so lovely to have a 'date night' with the hubby. We don't get loads of time to spend with each other at the moment as our days off from work fall at different times, although we are hoping that he's managed to change his hours so that he gets a Sunday off every couple of weeks which would be great.

Well I'm going to finish my Trek bar and get myself sorted for my run. I'm hoping to do at least 7.5 miles this morning. The weathers looking a bit dodgy here right now but I'm hoping that the sun will start to shine through by the time I head out! Hope you all have a great Saturday x