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Hello everyone, can’t believe its Monday again already! Today was the first day of my new training plan so I hit the gym first thing to do 20 minutes of cardio intervals followed by my 3 x 3 resistance exercises focusing on legs. Considering the DOMS from yesterdays run had started to kick in I did quite well. I did replace my last set with extra stretching to try and ease my muscles.

Breakfast was oh so delicious! Porridge made with oats, chia seeds and water mixed with a little rice milk and chocolate whey, then topped with some fresh blueberries and a crumbled Apple, Blueberry and Cinnamon Protein Muffin.



Fabulous!

Lunch was a repeat of Saturdays salad, I just enjoyed it so much I had to make it again! It contained little gem lettuce, spinach, beetroot, garden peas, soya nuts, carrot, cucumber, yellow pepper and a sliced goats cheese babybel. I made the same dressing too – lemon juice, garlic infused olive oil and dried oregano.



I followed my salad with some strawberries and raspberries.



Mid afternoon I snacked on some cucumber and red pepper sticks with spicy lentil dip.



I ate my dinner at work as I decided to pull a late one (need that over time cash). I had a bowl of Pea, Broccoli and Mint soup with a wholemeal rice cake.



I picked the hubby up and we went and visited his sister before returning home and attacking this little bowl of chocolate avocado pudding that I whipped up at the weekend.



Having extremely ripe avocado is definitely the trick to getting this so smooth and glossy! I’ve also made a couple more frozen chocolate avocado cups with the rest of the mixture. I also ate this crunchy apple.



I’ve being spending some time today packing and posting my sold ebay items, I can’t believe that I’ve made £50! My mind is already ticking over what I can spend it on. I’m going to try and sort out another few items to list this weekend, I’m going to try and see if I can make £150 by the end of my Big Budget Challenge which I will then use to purchase some of my autumn / winter wish list items. It may seem a bit premature to be thinking of autumn / winter fashion but I’m trying to be more ‘strategic’ with my purchases this year! At the moment I am currently coveting:

Lace up heeled boots, like these from ASOS


Gold pendant like this one from Zoe and Morgan:


I’m also tempted to try out the maxi skirt trend (Warehouse):


Still not 100% sold on this yet though! I would also like to find a blouse / shirt that I can wear tucked into my belted tapered trousers like this vintage one I spotted on ebay:



Fingers crossed I’ll make more ebay money!

Still in shock that its already August! August is one of my favourite months though – its my birthday and my 2nd wedding anniversary! Well I’m going to head off, I see a large mug of Yogi Rose tea in my near future. Hope your weeks got off to a good start! x

I’ve just had one of those great days today – everything I’ve done has been so enjoyable!

I started the day by lying in bed reading ‘The Kind Diet’ I started reading it properly last night and I couldn’t put it down! I’ll probably do a post soon on some of my thoughts around vegetarianism and veganism.

For breakfast I made myself a big mug of tea pigs yerba mate tea and some fabulous oats in a jar. I made the oats with 1/2 cup of rude health fruity date porridge, 1/2 cup of soy milk, 1/2 cup of water, an egg white and some defrosted raspberries.

I love oats in a jar, I had plenty of peanut butter left in this extra large one. Delicious!

I got all ready for a walk into Durham:

Hat – Accessorize, trench – Debenhams, breton stripe top – Topshop, tweed skirt – Warehouse, bag – mango, ribbed tights – H&M, brown leather boots – ASOS.

Its been a little while since I was in Durham – I had forgotten how great it is. I discovered two vintage shops I didn’t know existed:

I bought these little earrings:

and found a great deli:

I bought some hummus and olives – will be back soon for some of that bread!

Durham Castle:

I love Newcastle, but my trip into town today reminded me what a beautiful medieval city lies literally on my doorstep. Durham rocks!

I also hit up a green grocer for lots of fruit and veg and Holland and Barrat. I went a little crazy in there as it was buy one get one half price. I’ll post my haul tomorrow!

I did see this jumper dress in Miss Selfridge:

I love it and feel that its very ‘me’. It reminds me of Missoni and I love the fair isle print. Its £40 and I’m thinking of getting it as I’ll be near a shop tomorrow, oh decisions, decisions! When I got home I went to talk to the organic food box company I mentioned yesterday as they were holding a little drop in at the end of the road. I asked quite a few questions and I have to say the scheme sounds good and very flexible. I definitely think I will try it when I get paid.

For lunch I made up a salad with spinach, lettuce, cucumber, beetroot and basil tofu followed by some strawberries and a chopped pear.

This afternoon I went and did the rounds visiting my best friends, parents, sis and nephew. I came home and made a tea pigs matcha green tea soy latte with two sliced russet apples for a snack.

For dinner I roasted some celeriac, butternut squash and brussel sprouts with maple syrup and honey then topped with some organic soft goats cheese and served with steamed broccoli.

This was really good but I left most of the celeriac, I didn’t like it at all but at least I tried it! Desert was more strawberries and some chocolate avocado pudding. I made up a couple of cups for the freezer and experimented with adding peanut butter in two of them. Should be yummy!

So good, I have another avocado ripening and I think I’ll be making that into frozen chocolate avocado cups too.

Hope you are all having a good weekend! What do you think of your closest city or town? I think I’ll be making a lot more trips to Durham in the future.

Well I’m off to finish reading ‘The Kind Diet’. Have a great evening!

I thought I'd better make it an early start this morning as I had loads I wanted to get done today, starting with my run. I had a hot water and lemon and this We Are Bear Peach Fruit Yoyo for a little bit of fuel before heading out. It was very tasty and reminded me of a sweet you would get in a mix up bag when you were a kid. Very retro!

I ran 5 miles and it was glorious! My knee is doing so well (I'm almost afraid to type that, I don't want to jinx it!) I did 5.03 miles in 49.04 with an average pace of 9.45, over a 10 second improvement since last week. It feels so good to be running again, bring on next weekend's 6 miles! I came home, stretched and used my wonderful foam roller then got to making breakfast.

I made a chocolate peanut butter smoothie (frozen banana, chocolate whey, teaspoon of cocoa powder, big tablespoon of smooth peanut butter and skim milk blended) then mixed in some oats and topped with a few grape nuts, cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup.


This was my 5 mile run celebration treat and it was oh so good!

I then spent the morning cleaning and tidying the flat, it was gross! Mid morning I snacked on an apple...


... then lunch was a tuna salad with mixed salad leaves, cucumber, red onion, sugar snap peas and balsamic dressing with a glass of fresh orange juice.


I also had a bowl of sweet strawberries.

I headed out to my best mates for a cuppa and a catch up and then on to my parents to say hi as well.

Mid afternoon I snacked on some veggies with salsa for dipping.


I had been planning on having a nakd bar or something but I'm proper craving veggies today!

For dinner I tried out my new spiralizer and made courgette 'pasta' with quorn mince in a tomato sauce with mushrooms, garlic and a side salad.


I'm over the moon with my spiralizer, I'm going to be using it for all sorts of things now!
Desert was something I've been dying to try out for ages - chocolate avocado pudding! I've never had avocado but I can safely say I'm now hooked. I had a try of it plain before making it into the pud and I'll definitely be using this in salads in the future. I used this recipe from Averie, but only used one avocado and didn't add the vanilla extract, to make it in to this beautiful bowl of chocolately heaven!


This tastes like, and has the texture of chocolate fudge cake icing, love it!

Other things I'm loving right now:

This cute necklace from Accessorize that I've had a while (don't worry I haven't been breaking my Big Budget Rules!) - I've been wearing it nearly everyday!

Flesh Tone by Kelis - I'm in love with this album at the moment and have been playing it constantly. Its also on my running playlist and really got me moving this morning!


Veggies - On my way home I popped into Lidl on the hunt for more bargains and picked up all these for £5.65


Mushrooms, brocolli, red, yellow and green peppers, red onion, spinach, italian salad, strawberries.

This Topshop make up cream blusher in Blush


My summer make up essential for making me look rosy!

...and Twitter!

I tend to fall in love with something - an album, song, piece of clothing, book or movie and then play, wear or watch it over and over! What are you loving right now?

- I'm still playing about with the design of the blog so the heading might change again! Should be sorted by Monday x