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Hi everyone! Hope you are all having a great weekend so far. I’ve had a lovely relaxed day getting myself ready for the Great North Run tomorrow! My kit bag is all packed, my running gear is all laid out ready, I have safety pins, timing chip, powerade, tissues, a big bag of dried dates, my stop watch and my fully loaded iPod shuffle (I’m not taking my iPhone in case it rains!)

This morning I was up and off to Sainburys for it opening to stock up on fruits and veggies. When I got home I enjoyed a lovely big breakfast of Dorset Cereal Really Nutty Muesli with a chopped apple, some fresh raspberries and soy milk.

This may just be my favourite muesli out of all the Dorset Cereal muesli I’ve been sampling. Its packed with big chunks of almonds, brazil nuts, cashew nuts, hazelnuts and big fat raisins, dates and pieces of dried apricots.

For lunch I toasted a thick slice of my home made soda bread and smothered it with proper butter (got to love buttered toast!) I also had an omelette made with 1 egg, 2 egg whites and filled with two sliced babybel light. I also had some sugar snap peas on the side.

I then made myself a berry smoothie using frozen strawberries, frozen mixed berries, a heaped tablespoon of Greek yoghurt, soy milk and a couple of ice cubes. I topped the smoothie with another big spoonful of yoghurt, some agave syrup and a few fresh raspberries.

Just delicious!

Mid afternoon I had a mug of teapigs chocolate flake tea along with a mystery flavoured Nakd bar!

Oh my this was good! I wish I could tell you what flavour it was but basically its one of my favourite flavour combos and it was everything I was hoping it would be. I can see me bulk buying some of these when they come out, delish!

Dinner was of course, pasta! I made up some wholemeal pasta and added some sautéed courgette, spinach and red pepper along with some chopped basil and tomato, beef mince and mushroom sauce which I’d had stored in the freezer. I also had a salad of cos lettuce and sugar snap peas that I couldn’t finish from lunch.

For desert I made my now ritual pre long distance run favourite of banana softserve made with two frozen bananas, soy milk, 2 ice cubes, some matcha green tea powder and 3 chopped dates all blended up and topped with a further two chopped dates.

Rocket fuel! I’m now pretty stuffed :-)

Thanks for all your well wishes and advice to yesterdays post. I really feel I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. The plan tomorrow is to be up bright and early, breakfast on porridge with banana then make my way to my parents house who will drop us at the metro station so we can make our way to the starting line. My hubby and parents are going to meet me at the finish line and one of my friends is coming to cheer me on – I just hope I spot her! After the race we are all going out to my parents favourite Italian restaurant for a meal. I think the thought of a proper Italian thin crust veggie topped pizza will be more than enough to get me through the race!

I’d forgot to mention this before but if anyone is interested in sponsoring me here is my Just Giving Page. I’m running for Cancer Research UK, a cause very close to my heart as we lost the Hubby’s Mum to cancer 3 years ago (she was only in her Forties). I’ve also lost a good friend to breast cancer. Right now my cousin is fighting Lymphoma – she’s only 29 years old. I’m honoured to be running in memory and in celebration of these people.

Completing the Great North Run is not only achieving one of my ‘life goals’ but its almost the culmination of my healthy living journey so far. I never dreamt I’d be fit enough to run 13.1 miles. I know I’m certainly not the fastest runner, and never will be (lets just say I don’t have a typical runners figure!) but just getting to that finish line will be a huge achievement for me. Like I said yesterday I’m not going out with any target time in mind as I just want to enjoy the day. I’ll save setting my PB for another race…oh my god I just said another race! I think I may be hooked on this running thing ;-)

Good night everyone, wish me luck x

Hi everyone hope you’ve had an amazing weekend! I apologise if this post is very hyper, I’ve eaten a full bag of cinder toffee followed up with a packet of energy bites, you could peel me off the ceiling!

Today I joined 54,000 other people and ran the greatest half marathon on Earth and it was bloody awesome! I completed it in 1hr 52 minutes and 11 seconds, and considering that I’ve been dealing with an injury for the last month and have only run a few miles I am utterly elated! That time is also 15 minutes faster than my time last year!

Last night I got in some quality carb loading with this huge bowl of whole wheat spaghetti and courgette noodles in some of my Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper sauce with some brown noodles mixed in served on top of steamed savoy cabbage and topped with nutritional yeast and fresh basil:

Nom!

This morning I fuelled up with my favourite pre race breakfast of banana porridge with nut butter:

I went for some drippy almond butter and added some coconut nectar as a sweetener and for extra energy!

My work colleague helps to run a youth football team and some of the parents were running the race to raise money for them so we ended up being able to get a lift on their mini bus. James accompanied me as my official supporter bless him!

On my way to the start having just got off the bus

After a long wait at the toilets and eating some dates, aka my rocket fuel, I made my way to my starting area. Last year I ended up right at the back as I’d missed the gates closing so I made sure I went with plenty of time to spare. This year I was placed much further up the field so I was hoping that I would miss a lot of the congestion I’d experienced last year (unfortunately it made no difference, I spent the whole race dodging people!)

We were really lucky with the weather too, it was a perfect bright autumn morning! The gun went off and it took about 10 minutes to cross the starting line. I was so happy to wave to the amazing Mo Farah!

I was happily running along just about to get onto the Tyne Bridge when someone tripped me up. I went flying on to my face and hit my injured knee pretty badly.

Can’t believe my fave running pants are ruined. Good job I was wearing my knee support as that fall could have been a lot worse without it to cushion the blow!

If I hadn’t been wearing my gloves (I have terrible cold hands) I would have had very badly scraped hands too. Some lovely woman helped me up, and for a fleeting second I wondered if I should continue. But when you get knocked down, sometimes you just have to get back up and keep on going!

Obviously with my injured knee I was really worried that I was going to get the bad pain and tightness back, but I’m very happy to report that apart from a painful stinging from my fall, I didn’t even get a single twinge!

I managed to keep to a pretty solid pace for the whole race and when I checked my pace at 7 miles I knew that only a serious problem would prevent me from finishing in under 2 hours. The rest of the race just flew by, I enjoyed it so much! We did get some heavy rain but it had been getting quite warm so the rain was lovely and refreshing!

Crossing the finish line in the time I did, after dealing with my injury and having that fall at the start was just amazing. I felt invincible!

Cheesy pic alert!

After the race we waited with the guys from the football club for all the other runners to come in. I downed a carton of coconut water, more dates and a Clif Bar but when I was still hungry I had only one thing on my mind – chips! I also got a bag of my old favourite sweet treat, cinder toffee. It was delicious although I feel like all my teeth might fall out ;-)

I’ve just eaten this delicious Thai Red Tofu and Vegetable Curry with whole wheat noodles (none of my usual greens as I just didn’t fancy them for a change):

I’ve also has this amazing and very tasty smoothie:

This contained a frozen banana, frozen strawberries, vanilla rice milk, vanilla sun warrior, a lot of peanut butter and for toppings some PB&Co White Choc Wonderful and chopped Reece’s Dark Chocolate Miniature cups. Since I’m already high as a kite off the sugar I’d might as well enjoy it!

I’ve had an absolutely amazing day, I never thought I’d be able to top last years race but I think the fact that I’ve had a few obstacles to over come has made this years race even more special to me.

I’m off to soak in the bath now and have a lovely early night (plus eat more chocolate!) Hope you have a great week ahead :-)

The Red Arrows display was amazing, I loved this so much!

Well what a crazy month September has been! I’m happy to say that I’ve achieved all the goals I set for myself, plus some extra!

• Completed the Great North Run in 1hr52!

• Started my Big Budget Challenge

• Did my ‘Healthy Feast’

The highlight for me without a doubt has to be completing the Great North Run. The fact that I did it in the time I did, after being injured and only two weeks before hand considering pulling out, and then tripping over during the race, its one of my biggest ever achievements! I also feel much more balanced after my healthy feast!

Its also been a strange month with regards to my eating and diet, but as the title of this post hints – I do feel like I’ve turned a huge corner recently.

I’ve blogged about how the last couple of months I have started to snack a lot more, particularly on an evening. What I gradually came to realise was that I probably wasn’t fuelling myself as well as I should be (along with stress and boredom issues) which was leading to me craving higher calories foods like dried fruit and nut butters. I’ve also came to realise that the lower weight I’ve generally been maintaining these last few months, although perfectly healthy, is not sustainable for me in the long term.

The fact that I’ve really accepted that I want to gain weight, and therefore eat a little more, is a massive turning point for me. I know I’ve said it before, but if I’m completely honest I don’t think I fully embraced it. I have been, and still am, afraid of gaining back all the weight I lost and and having it spiral out of control, but that’s a fear I’m going to have to deal with. This month I have gained about 4lbs, its been difficult to get my head around but I know look better for it.

With all of this in mind my attitude to snacking has completely changed. I’m a big fan of meal planning for a number of reasons, and I also plan my snacks and after dinner desserts. What I have found is that I haven’t planned for myself to eat enough or I may have planned something that doesn’t satisfy what I may be craving in that moment – I think this also links closely with intuitive eating.

Fave snack – pb and honey with bee pollen on rice cakes

What I plan to do from now on is not plan out my snacks but to make sure I have a few healthy (and not so healthy sometimes!) foods available at all times, and to try and train myself to listen to my body a bit more. At the start of each week I’m going to buy some apples, carrots, hummus, dried fruit, nuts, crackers etc to have at work so I can eat when I feel hungry.

Since I’ve been eating more of what I’m craving (good example being the banana and nut butter combo) I’ve definitely been feeling a little more satisfied. I have still been snacking on some evenings, but its not stuffing myself like before so I’m ok with that.

I’ve been reading a few wonderful blog posts that have helped me around this change of mind set including:

Oh She Glows – Our Weight, when is it happy?

Choosing Raw – Out with the old – ditching clothes that don’t fit

Welsh Girl Eats – Practising Kindness

Stop Chasing Skinny – pretty much every post!

I feel that if I’m working out like I do and eating a good balanced diet then even with the odd indulgence or over eating episode I’m not going to end up gaining a significant amount of weight. I’m hoping that by staying active, trying to listen to my body and eating generally whole foods I should be able to find my bodies true happy weight!

October Goals

I’m so excited about October, its such a great month and I’m feeling really organised and focused so bring it on!

• Stick with The Big Budget Challenge
• Stick to my new training plan
• Blog as part of Vegan Mofo
• Gain or at least maintain current weight by listening to my body
• Practice intuitive eating with my snacks
• Practice kindness
• Enjoy all the amazing autumn foods in season right now!

October sponsors

This month I’d like to welcome new blog sponsor Sarah from Every Day’s a Picnic – check out her wonderful blog! She blogs about all sorts of really interesting topics including her running and eats. She’s also currently working on the Olympic Gold Challenge! I’d also like to welcome back Sarah from Sweet Potato Sarah and Cat from Knitting, Running Eating – why not pop on over and check them out too?

I’d also like to welcome new sponsors Kara Diary Free and Clearspring. I’m a huge fan of both of these companies. I love Kara Coconut Milk, and the range of products available from Clearspring is amazing. I have a great giveaway featuring these companies products coming soon!

I’d also like to welcome back long term sponsors Viva Pure, Goodness Direct and iHerb – the discount codes are all still valid so if you haven’t taken advantage of them yet go for it!

Don’t forget – if your interested in sponsoring check out the details on my sponsor page. Don’t worry if you don’t have a blog button or suitable company logo, I can design one for you!

How was September for you? Do you have any goals for October?

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?

Thanks for all your great comments on yesterdays post regarding ‘plus’ size models. It seems that we all wish that a variety of body shapes and sizes could be represented on the catwalk. Hopefully one day things will change, and using models that differ from the standard size 0 will become the norm rather than something that still grabs the headlines!

I think that yesterdays assault on my cold must have done the trick as I've felt much better today! I got up and went to the gym and did 30 minutes of gentle cardio – just enough to work up a sweat, followed by some chest and back weights a couple of side planks and some work on the stability ball. This is my last workout before the Great North Run on Sunday and it felt good to gently work my legs. I came home and made myself a lovely carb filled breakfast:

 

A standard green monster (frozen banana, spinach and soy milk) along with two slices of my home made soda bread from the freezer toasted and smothered with almond butter and naturally sweetened black cherry jam. I just adore this bread, so dense and filling. It was also nice to have a ‘plain’ green monster for a change, however I did have to use a spoon to fish out lumps of banana. I really need that new blender!

Lunch was a big salad including cos lettuce, green pepper, red onion, carrot, tuna and two crumbled kallo rosemary crackers (for additional carbs) plus a tablespoon of balsamic salad dressing.

The crackers added a lovely flavour and crunch! I also had two plums and a nectarine.

We have a new member of staff at work and this was the end of her first week so she bought some cream cakes in. I would have usually passed but I thought it would be rude to say no ;-) also if I’m ever going to be able to relax on the eating front its now! I had a chocolate covered cream filled éclair which tasted delicious.

Unfortunately it left me with a head ache and a bloated tummy – its interesting how my body reacts to unhealthy food now. I used to be able to eat stuff like this all the time with no problem but now its like my body says ‘you must be kidding putting that crap into me!’ and rebels.

When I got home from work I was extremely excited to see that I had received some goodies from the lovely people at natural balance foods:

New Nakd bar flavours! They haven’t fully announced the new flavours yet so I won’t spoil the surprise, all I will say is that they all sound delicious. My husband thought I was a bit crazy as I literally let out a little squeal of excitement, I’m such a child sometimes :-)I really had to stop myself from launching into these and stuffing my face! All in good time…

For dinner I had some of my delicious falafel bites in one of my home made seeded spelt egg white wraps with spinach and ketchup along with some carrot, yellow pepper and cucumber on the side.

 

My wrap was so tasty, love the falafel bites!

I had been planning a chocolate peanut butter mousse desert made with the last of my Total Greek Yoghurt stash but after the éclair at lunch I decided to try and go with something a bit lighter. I made a huge bowl of vanilla matcha green tea protein ice cream (1 scoop of vanilla whey, 1/4 teaspoon of matcha powder, soy milk, 8 ice cubes, 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum) instead which I knew would fill me right up. I topped it with a few dark chocolate chips and some agave syrup.

Check out the volume in that! This was super delicious, has left me lovely and full, and this bowl couldn’t have been more than 200 calories.

Marks and Spencer Love

This morning while I was at the gym I saw the new Marks and Spencer advert:

I was really impressed with some of the pieces in the advert. I’m very much an M&S undies girl – I love their Ceriso range which is now being moved into their Limited Collection range. Obviously M&S food is one of my favourite things too. What do you think of their clothing? I have to say there’s quite a few pieces I would like to add to my wardrobe! I know they don’t go the whole way, but I also like that they use more realistically sized models in their promotions too.

Great North Run – Let the count down begin!

Less than 48 hours to the Great North Run, I’m so excited! I’ve checked the weather forecast and it looks like unfortunately for me, it will be cold with light wind and rain. I hate running in the rain! It may actually work for my benefit as I’ll run faster just to get to the end! After talking to a few people who have ran it before I’ve decided that I’m not going to go and worry about trying to achieve a particular time, they have advised me to just go and enjoy the whole experience. They said that some people who have gone and wanted to run a particular time and have then missed it ended up not fully enjoying the day and appreciating it for what it is. I know that I have ran that distance in 2hrs 5mins during training which is bloody good for someone like me so I have nothing to prove to myself.

Tomorrow I had been thinking about heading over to the big expo at the Quayside in Newcastle, but to be honest I think I would much prefer having a relaxed day at home getting mentally and physically prepared… and eating lots of carbs of course ;-) I also have grocery shopping and cleaning and tidying to do.

Any of you guys who have ran half marathons or marathons before got any last minute advice for me?

Hope you have all had a great week and have a good weekend planned too!

Look what arrived this morning!

 

That’s my race pack for the Great North Run. I love my pink racing number, my heart fluttered when I saw my name printed on it – I’m really going to be doing this! It may seem like I’m making a huge big fuss about this event, but its almost become the culmination of all my health and weight loss endeavours over the last two years. Doing the Great North Run is not only achieving one of my life goals but its doing something that if I’m honest, I never really thought I’d be capable of doing. It means a hell of a lot to me.

Today I have been working from home which is always good as I can focus much better and end up getting a lot of tasks done. I started with 45 minutes of strength courtesy of my Davina DVD. I then made myself a huge big chocolate cherry green monster smoothie (3 handfuls of spinach, frozen cherries, scoop of chocolate whey, coconut milk, teaspoon of maca powder and 1/4 teaspoon of matcha green tea powder) topped with some grape nuts cereal, cinnamon and a few cacao nibs.

This was very tasty as usual but I did add a bit more cinnamon as it tasted rather ‘grassy’ - I think I added too much spinach!

Mid morning I made myself a delicious hazelnut and cinnamon coffee using my new little gadget to make frothy milk. I had seen JAG using this to make her morning lattes and when I saw one on the cheap at the supermarket I had to pick one up.

My coffee was delicious and kept me going through the morning.

Lunch was another sesame and almond tofu salad same as last nights dinner but with red onion instead of spring onion.

Such a good salad, love all the colourful veggies in this. I also had a bowl of fruit: 1 sliced kiwi, blueberries and strawberries.

The beauty of being able to work from home occasionally is that you can be more flexible with how you spend your day. I may have a couple of half an hour breaks to do things around the house but then I’ll work until 7 or 8pm so overall I’m getting done what I need too for both work and home. I decided to have a break in the afternoon and do some Yoga for Runners. After the weekends 13 miles I really needed the stretch! For my snack I tried out something new. I mixed up a heaped teaspoon of almond butter with a pot of Total 0% Greek Yoghurt and a little agave then topped with a few whole almonds and another little drizzle of agave.

This was really tasty! Definitely a keeper.

Dinner was a big stir fry containing chicken, broccoli, red pepper, carrot, red onion, soya beans, spinach, ginger, chilli and soy sauce.

Delish! For desert I had 6 of my dark chocolate vintage buttons along with two sliced apples.

Food in season

As part of my attempts to save money I decided to do a little bit of research to find out what fruit and vegetables are in season, or about to come into season. I usually find that when something is in season and is more available its cheaper and tastier. Obviously there are loads of other benefits of eating fruit and veg in season such as the environmental benefit of lower food miles. I also feel more in ‘sync’ with nature and the yearly cycle when eating with the seasons, although I do love my frozen fruit for berries all year round!

The Love British Food website states the following fruits and vegetables are in season throughout September to November:Another fantastic website I came across was Eat The Seasons which is updated every Wednesday with the best of the seasons produce along with recipe ideas. Its really helped with my meal planning too. What new season fruits and vegetables are you looking forward to eating? I can’t wait to make leek and potato soup, apple and blackberry crumble and to have plums with my porridge!