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Happy Wednesday guys, hope your all enjoying the week between Christmas and New Year! I always find this week a bit strange, but not in a bad way. I tend to think a lot about the year that has past and the year that is about to start.

Poor Jenn isn’t well this week (get well soon!), but I’m still joining the party! These are my eats from Boxing day, plus a few things I had yesterday. I love Boxing Day, we always make that a day for us to completely relax, eat good food and watch TV. I had been planning on having an additional rest day but I decided that as I was going to be sat on my arse all day long it would be good to move my body a bit, I did Davina’s Aerobic Fit 30 minute workout. For breakfast I had a lovely big bowl of Dorset Muesli with frozen blueberries and vanilla soy milk:

I love muesli! Mid morning I made the most amazing coffee: a latte with a Christmas coffee blend, vanilla soy milk and a shot of amaretto then topped with some soy whip and some caramel sauce leftover from my salted caramel chocolate mousse cake:

How good does that look? It tasted divine! For lunch I made myself a massive snack tray:

This included carrots, red pepper and cucumber with sabra hummus, olives and thai sweet chilli crackers. I also had a chopped apple with honey peanut butter for dipping, 4 dates stuffed with roast salted almonds and a sliced persimmon.

Mid afternoon I had some fresh figs with vanilla soy yoghurt, cashew ginger granola and more caramel sauce:

That caramel sauce is amazing, so glad I had some leftover! Dinner was Christmas Day leftovers:

Sage and Onion Stuffed Seitan Roll with ketchup and roast carrots, brussel sprouts and parsnips.

For dessert I had lots of chocolate! I made a tasting plate with some Hotel Chocolat dark chocolate reindeer, hazelnut truffles, Hersey’s dark chocolate kisses, dark chocolate covered marzipan hearts and some mint dark chocolate:

I was stuffed after all of that but I enjoyed every bite! Goodness knows how many calories I must have eaten over the day, oh well!

In addition to my Boxing Day eats I thought I’d share a few things I had yesterday too. I got up feeling pretty bloated but I did my planned workout – the 30 Day Shred levels 2&3 back to back (so tough!) For breakfast I made a green smoothie:

This contained cos lettuce, frozen banana, a scoop of vanilla sun warrior, water, ice and gums then topped with PB and Co Mighty Maple Peanut Butter, raisins and choc covered sunflower seeds. I ate way more peanut butter and toppings than pictured here – I kept adding them on top as I ate them off!

We headed into Newcastle for some sales shopping. Before we got started we met our friend Nathan for a coffee, I just had a plan soy latte. After a monster shop (pics to come!) we came home and I had the strangest urge to run! It was the first time in a while that I have wanted to go out and run just because I wanted to and not because it was part of my training plan.  I went out without the garmin and ran for about 30 minutes. I have no idea on my pace, it was just wonderful to enjoy running!

When I came back I made a gorgeous lunch:

A Food Doctor seeded pitta with sabra hummus, spinach and Taifun basil tofu, carrot sticks, cucumber and olives. That pitta was amazing, best sandwich ever! Mid afternoon I snacked on an apple, satsuma and a gingerbread nakd bar.

For dinner I made a big salad:

This included a bag of mixed leaves, finely shredded red cabbage and carrot, pomegranate seeds, roast red kabocha squash, dried cranberries, lots of maple roasted nuts and a dressing made from blueberry balsamic vinegar, hemp oil and dijon mustard. Absolutely gorgeous!

Dessert was the last slice (sob) of my salted caramel chocolate mousse cake with soy whip and extra leftover caramel:

I also ate several extra squirts of soy whip ;-) A bit later I snacked on a few more maple nuts, hazelnut truffles, mint dark chocolate and some frozen grapes plus a cheeky cocktail:

Some of you might remember a few months ago when I went and foraged some damson plums? Well I gave a big bag to my manager at work and she made some damson gin with them! I made a cocktail using the gin, amaretto and pomegranate juice. It was delicious!

I have no idea how my eating compares to others, and to be honest I don’t care! For me, I feel like I’ve indulged in much richer foods and in larger quantities than usual and I’ve enjoyed every single bite. So far I have no guilt at all! Even though I’ve definitely overeaten (my poor body and digestive system are not happy!) I haven’t ‘binged’ or eaten uncontrollably and I’m very happy about that! So far so good.

How did you spend your Boxing Day? What’s the tastiest foods you’ve been enjoying over the holidays?

Happy WIAW everyone! Hope you are having a good week. I had a wonderful day yesterday when I travelled down to Manchester to meet several lovely blogging ladies :-)

Before I left I wanted to get a workout in so I did a Davina DVD – Super Sculpt with the added upper body section followed by Yoga for Runners.

Breakfast was an unusual green smoothie. I had loads of greens that needed using up so I blended kale and spinach with fruit-ein powder, ice, water, xanthan and guar gums and topped with a cup of Kashi Strawberry Fields cereal (I kept adding more topping on as I ate):

Considering this green smoothie contained no fruit it was delicious!

On the train down I met up with Jess and had a green tea. The train journey was delayed by almost 2 hours so I snacked on the emergency bag of Apple and Watermelon Fruity Flakes I’d stashed in my bag:

Once we finally got to Manchester we met up with all the girls. It was wonderful but kind of strange to see everyone in ‘real life’! We made our way to the 8th Day Cafe and Health Food Store. I had a Chickpea and Aubergine Curry with brown rice followed by a raw ball and a green vegetable juice:

The curry was lovely and the raw ball tasted just like a spiced carrot cake! After lunch we hit the health food shop. Here’s my mini haul!

Bee pollen (I know this isn’t strictly vegan but I fancied trying it out), lucuma powder, millet, goji berries, black cherry dairy free yoghurt, raw chocolate brownie, kara coconut milk mini’s, Fruit-ein sachets

After some wondering around town we went for cocktails. I had a French Martini and a Passion Fruit Martini which was pretty strong!

Both tasted amazing, I love a good cocktail!

Left to right – me, Ffion, Laura, Sarah, Emily, Ali, Jemma, Leigh, Jessica and Sarah who was taking the pic!

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone, they were all so lovely and just as nice as they all come across in their blogs! This was my fifth blogger meet up and yet again I have met some amazing people who I share so much in common with – who else can you have a deep conversation about hummus! ;-) I do feel that I can count all this lot as true friends! Here’s to the next meet up!

On the train journey home I had fab Marks and Spencer Couscous Salad which contained butternut squash, broccoli, roasted pepper and asparagus:

I also ate an apple I’d picked up at the health food store and a mixed fruit salad I forgot to photograph. Once I got home I had an attack of the snackies so had another couple of apples, some dark choc covered pomegranate seeds and these two rice cakes with Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter…

…plus several additional spoonfuls to finish the jar!

Talk about a healthy balance – green juice at lunch followed by cocktails in the afternoon :-)

It was so refreshing to be able to talk openly and passionately about healthy living stuff with people who share that interest! If your into healthy living do your friends and family ‘get it’ or do they struggle to understand what the fuss is all about?