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I’m completely buzzing at the moment, we had some fantastic news yesterday – my husband has been offered a new job! He’s been trying to get out of his current job for a few years so this is just massive news for us. It also means that he will go from working all sorts of crazy hours to working a 9-5 week day job. This is going to impact on us in a huge way – we will actually have weekends together now! Anyway, I’m feeling extremely grateful for all the good things in my life right now!

Yesterday kicked off with my usual 45 minutes of strength and cardio from my Davina DVD followed by a massive kabocha squash smoothie:

I had a fair bit of left over squash so put in a little more than usual plus some ice cubes, vanilla soy milk, water, vanilla protein powder, ginger, cinnamon, wheat germ, ground flax and xanthan gum. This nearly overflowed the bowl! I topped it with a crumbled homemade gingerbread cookie and also enjoyed a cup of black Christmas tea. It was just amazing, so smooth and creamy, I can’t imagine life without kabocha!

Lunch was another hummus topped salad beast same as Monday plus two small pears. I decided to use some overtime hours at work and finish early so I popped to the gym for a quick workout – yes, two workouts in one day! I had loads of energy so I thought I might as well use it! I did 45 minutes of HIITs on the treadmill, step machine and cross trainer. Post workout snack was a delicious jammy Almond and Quinoa Muffin:

This one was from the freezer and I can report that they freeze very well. Dinner was some P’s Curry from the freezer served with a big side of steamed greens with soy sauce:

This curry really is tasty and so healthy, I must make up some more soon!

Desert was some Rachel’s Organic Coconut Greek Yoghurt with two sliced organic braeburns:

I also had another two apples after these. I think the additional hunger was no doubt due to the extra cardio. I’m certainly not going to sweat about eating an extra couple of apples when I’m hungry! The hubby ate what was left of the Coconut yoghurt, luckily he wasn’t a massive fan so I can keep this flavour to myself in future!

Today I’ve been officially working from home, but I decided just to do a few hours and use overtime hours again. This meant I could enjoy a little lie in and a relaxed breakfast. I made a peanut butter and apple seeded egg white and spelt wrap with a Christmas Coffee:

The Christmas Coffee was amazing! I was going to wait and do my last bit of grocery shopping tomorrow but the snow has started here and I knew I would just spend all day stressing in case the car got stuck so I decided to just go and get what I needed. My organic veg box should be coming tomorrow but I stocked up on a few other bits and pieces including organic apples, pomegranates, fresh figs, passion fruits, satsumas, maple roasted nuts, dark chocolate for baking and some milk and English muffins for James.

Mid morning I hit the gym and did 15 minutes on the tread x 2 plus 15 minutes of HIITs each on the bike and step machine plus abs work. I had wanted to do 30 minutes straight on the treadmill but it looks like my iPod shuffle has died a death and there’s no way I could run for that long on the tread with no banging tunes!

Lunch was some basil tofu, swede chips, kabocha squash and steamed greens with ketchup:

I also had a couple of un pictured pears. I’ve just snacked on a slice of tasty Couscous cake too:

Tonight's dinner will probably just be some toast with marmite and carrot and cucumber sticks and perhaps a couple of oranges as I have a friend popping round for coffee. Can’t believe we only have a few days left before Christmas, I’m so excited, especially for some of the tasty meals I have planned. Today I have done some cleaning and ironing and tomorrow will be lots of cooking. After much thought I’ve decided to make a veggie loaf as my turkey alternative for Christmas day. Thanks to you all who suggested lovely dishes, I’ve gone for this as it seems fairly straightforward and will make for yummy boxing day leftovers! I’m also going to make a chocolate orange cake which I will bake tomorrow and then decorate on Christmas Eve. At the moment I’m feeling pretty well organised although I have no idea what I’m going to wear on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I feel an emergency shopping trip on the cards! Do you dress up on Christmas day or go casual? I like to make sure I have an outfit with some room for a food baby!

As the office is officially closed this week I can basically come and go from work as and when so I took the opportunity to have a relaxed morning, even though I was up early. I made a gorgeous bowl of hot 10 grain cereal with soy milk and water then added egg whites, 2 small chopped pears, sweet mincemeat and topped with some mixed fruit and nuts.

I also had a yummy gingerbread coffee. Just what was needed for some warmth this morning!

I’m trying to get my fair share of raw veggies in this week so lunch was a salad beast containing little gem lettuce, spinach, carrot, cucumber, red onion, red pepper and olives topped with a large dollop of roasted red pepper hummus.

I love hummus topped salad beasts! I also had an orange.

My mid afternoon snack was a slice of my easy spiced fruity couscous cake that I made yesterday. I had seen this recipe in the Cook Yourself Thin book and thought it sounded remarkably easy to make. When I got all the Rachel’s Organic yoghurt to use up I knew I had to try the recipe out, with a few adjustments of course:

Easy Spiced Fruity Couscous Cake (makes 6 – 8 servings) based on recipe in Cook Yourself Thin

• 200g of couscous prepared to pack guidelines and mixed with a few sprays of oil.
• 450g tub of low fat yoghurt – I used Rachel's Organic Low Fat Rhubarb Yoghurt
• 70g – 100g of dried fruit of choice – I used a mix of raisins, dried cranberries and chopped unsulfured apricots
• 1 teaspoon of mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger

Pre heat the oven to 200C. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased 20 x 20cm cake tin. Smooth the top and bake in the oven for 35 – 40 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly and serve immediately or cool completely then store in the fridge to serve chilled.

This recipe is super easy and really healthy. It tastes nice and doughy too. If you like things sweet I would definitely increase the amount of dried fruit in this or add some additional sweetener, as it is its not overly sweet (which personally I prefer). You could experiment by adding different dried fruits or even chopped fresh or frozen fruits and different spices – I wouldn’t mind trying out apple, date and cinnamon!

After I shared the cake with my workmates I finished work and headed to the gym. My spin class wasn’t on so I decided to make up my own 30 minute interval routine on the bike in the gym. I speeded up, increased resistance or cycled standing up in time with the chorus / verses of the tunes in my playlist. I really enjoyed it! The 30 minutes few over and I felt like I’d had a great workout. I then did a further 30 mins of HIITS – 15 minutes each on the cross trainer and step machine followed by my usual abs exercises.

Dinner was basil tofu with swede chips, roast kabocha squash, steamed cavolo nero and ketchup, yum!

Desert has been 3 small chopped apples and some hazelnut dark chocolate:

I’ve missed my dark chocolate fix these last few days!

Tomorrows my last proper day at work – I think I’m just going to work a short day and then another short working from home day on Wednesday. I can’t wait to be off, I really feel like I need the break! Is Christmas time relaxing or stressful? I make every effort to ensure things are as stress free as possible! I like the period between Christmas and New Year for being able to get my head straight for the New Year to come, I love that anticipation of what’s to come!