Info all Articles

Happy Wednesday everyone, hope your week is going very well!

I’ve decided to show you my eats from last Friday as I remembered to take pics of almost everything, plus my eats fitted in nicely with this months WIAW theme of greens! I started the day with a mug of warm water and the juice from half a lemon plus an orange as a pre gym snack:

I headed to the gym and did a 5 minute warm up on the cross trainer followed by a Base phase workout from Female Body Breakthrough and 20 minutes of HIIT on the step machine and bike. I came home and got ready for work then made some breakfast. I’d been feeling a bit tired the last few days and wanted to make sure I was eating plenty of iron so I made an ‘iron bomb’ smoothie:

This contained kale, 2 nectarines, a scoop of vanilla sun warrior, 1 tbsp of black strap molasses (for added iron), maca powder, ground flax, water and ice then topped with a chopped dried fig (for more iron), hemp seeds and goji berries (goji berries are high in vitamin C which supports iron absorption). I had that bowl plus another half a bowl full! I also made a cup of Bi Luo Chun green tea, kindly sent to me from my sponsors Teavivre:

This has a lovely deep almost smokey taste and its the most beautiful loose leaf tea that looks almost like moss! I know that tea and coffee can hinder the absorption of iron but I’m never sure if that’s the same with green tea – will have to check that one out!

We had decided to set a day aside at work to have a good spring clean of the office which meant that we could all come in our scruffs. I wore my boyfriend jeans and fave Converse!

For lunch I had a big salad of romaine, green pepper, red cabbage and carrot topped with some of my leftover Magic Mix crumbled on top:

I got 6 meals out of that recipe and it kept very well in the fridge all week! Mid afternoon I stopped for a snack of roast salted soya nuts and a pink lady apple:

Once the office was all organised and the bags of rubbish and recycling sorted out I headed into town to stock up on fruit and veggies for the weekend. I went to my favourite green grocers, they have a brilliant selection of fruit and vegetables for excellent prices:

I actually didn’t get those blueberries in the end but got a box of strawberries for 99p instead! Here’s my haul:

All of this for £12! It included:

• bananas
• 6 pink lady apples
• 4 coxes apples
• a huge piece of fresh ginger root
• bunch of beetroot
• cauliflower
• box of strawberries
• broccoli
• celery
• cucumber
• a head of kale
• spring greens
• romaine
• large bunch of parsley
• big savoy cabbage

Of course my haul included a lot of greens! I decided to make use of the kale in my dinner, I ate it raw and just massaged it with a dressing made from sweet white miso and hemp oil. To go with it I roasted some butternut squash, cooked some millet and rescued some chickpeas from the freezer mixed them all together and added some dried cranberries and parsley to the mix:

It tasted wonderful! For dessert I had two sliced persimmon, a chopped apple and half a bar of conscious orange raw chocolate:

I also snacked on several un pictured apples while watching New Girl and reading my book!

I ended up eating kale twice that day which is fine by me as I love it so much! As someone that eats a mostly vegan diet I like to have at least one serving of leafy greens a day to ensure I’m getting plenty of calcium and iron. My favourite way to eat my greens are:

• Green smoothies of course!
• Steamed and sprinkled with soy sauce
• Juiced up with lemon and ginger
• Raw with some kind of nut or seed based dressing like tahini
• Stir fried – my current favourite being stir fried and then simmered in full fat coconut milk with ginger and spices

As someone who needs a lot of volume in what they eat to feel satisfied, greens are perfect for adding to meals for additional fibre and satiety for not too many calories. I just can’t get enough of my greens!

What’s your favourite green veggie?

Happy Friday! How has your week been? Mine has been good although I’m really ready for the weekend now. I had a weird day yesterday where I ended up doing a lot of deep thinking about things. Do you ever have those day’s where your thoughts are just all over the place? Anyway it’s all good, I’ve had some big realisations and reached some major conclusions that have been a long time coming, onward and upward!

Here’s a recap of my workouts for the week:

• Sunday – 5k relaxed treadmill run, 15 min bike set at random, Kettlebell class
• Monday – 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – AM Yoga for Runners 20 min podcast, PM 10 min HIIT cross trainer, 10 min HIIT bike, Body Pump class
• Wednesday – 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Thursday – New yoga class! (1hr 15 min)
• Friday - 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I tried out a new yoga class last night and as I suspected it was another slower paced Iyengar class. It actually wasn’t too bad and I did find some of the poses more challenging than I had expected, I certainly got an excellent stretch. I have another class to try on Tuesday and then I’ll probably make a decision about which of them I’ll continue with or if I’ll go for DVD’s and podcasts instead. I’ve also increased my strength workouts this week from two to three which has been great!

Its been a bit of a busy week where I’ve need to start work early so a couple of breakfasts have had to be eaten on the go. For this I’ve been making green smoothies and storing them in a jar in the fridge ready to drink as soon as I get back from the gym. This one contained kale, spring greens, frozen banana, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca powder, ground flax, midori greens, ice and water:

Luckily I did have time to enjoy one in my usual ‘in a bowl’ style. This contained kale, frozen blueberries and strawberries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, berries powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice topped with Dorset Cereals Simply Muesli and sunflower seed butter:

I’m doing well with not needing to add any additional sweeteners or gums to them at the moment, they are certainly turning out thick enough on their own! I also enjoyed another late breakfast nut butter plate of banana, apple, roast kabocha squash and raw almond butter:

This was eaten later in the morning at work after a green juice first thing. I have to say there’s nothing quite like starting your day with a green juice although I don’t think I’ll be making a regular habit of it, I like my breakfast foods too much!

For lunches I’ve been back on the salads, firstly topped with Gourmet Raw beetroot crisps…

…and then topped with home made high protein hummus:

I also remembered to sprout some alfalfa to add in, I just love hummus topped salads!

Today I made myself some raw wraps by wrapping a mix of grated carrot, raisins and raw tahini in spring green leaves:

So delicious, I haven’t made raw wraps in forever and these tasted wonderful, I’m crazy for the tahini and raisin combo! For dinner the last couple of nights I’ve had a massive portion of veggie chilli with a baked sweet potato and steamed greens:

This has been perfect warming meal, I love that chilli it really is such a simple recipe and so easy to throw together!

For desserts / evening snacks I’ve had big bowls of frozen berries with some home made sunflower seed milk. This bowl had frozen raspberries, apple and some almond butter:

I also treated myself to some sharon fruit the other day and enjoyed a few of them chopped up and accompanied by some raw chocolate covered raisins:

Those raisins are seriously addictive, it took a lot of will power not to eat the entire bag!

Well I’m sitting here feeling nice and relaxed ready to start the weekend. I’m going to make a big bowl of popcorn later as me and James are having a movie night and I can’t wait to enjoy a lie in tomorrow followed by a relaxed breakfast and a giant mug of coffee!

What have you got planned for the weekend? What are your favourite on the go breakfasts? I like smoothies as I can drink them while I’m getting ready, not sure what else I could have for breakfast that is quick to make and eat? I might start experimenting with just having a small snack and then something bigger once I’m at work. Any ideas would be much appreciated! Hope you all have a great weekend whatever your up to! :-)

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from lovely blog reader Sam, requesting my ultimate green smoothie recipe, the most nutritious and filling one I could come up with!

For more information on green smoothies check out The Green Monster Movement and my Green Smoothie Loving post.

Green smoothies are a fantastic way of getting more leafy green vegetables into your diet (which I feel are some of the most nutritious foods available), as well as being the perfect vehicle for adding various nutritional powders. One of the great things about green smoothies is that they are endlessly customisable – you can make them as cleansing or as decadent as you like but they will always be pretty healthy!

As you can imagine it was hard to come up with an ‘ultimate’ recipe as depending on how I feel I make my smoothies lighter, sweeter or more filling. What I have came up with is both very healthy and very tasty, as well as being filling. As always you can very easily change up the components to suit your own tastes:

Laura’s Ultimate Green Smoothie (vegan, serves 1, can be raw)

• 100g of chopped kale (or greens of choice – if in doubt or if your blender isn’t too great go for spinach or romaine)
• Quarter of a cucumber, chopped
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 scoop of protein powder of choice – (optional, my choice here would always be vanilla sun warrior)
• 1 1/2 cups of water or non diary milk – personally I find the protein powder adds enough creaminess so just use water
• 6 ice cubes
• Sweetener – optional and probably depends on the sweetness of your protein powder. You could try adding 1 tbsp of agave syrup, honey, stevia or a couple of chopped dates
• 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum – available in the ‘free from’ sections at the supermarket: xanthan gum adds creaminess and thickness
• 1 tsp of maca powder – available from Holland and Barrat – I love maca powder, its supports the adrenal gland and helps to balance hormones 
• 1 tbsp of ground flax – adds essential fats
• Other powders as desired – I went with a scoop of midori greens 

This will make a pretty big thick smoothie which will be perfect for eating out of a bowl. I love thick smoothies in a bowl as I tend to gulp down smoothies from a glass, so these are more filling for me. If your having yours from a bowl its fun to add some toppings. Here are my favourites for taste and nutrition:

• 1 tbsp of goji berries
• 1 tbsp of raw cacao nibs
• 1 tbsp of nut butter (you can mix with some warm water to create a more creamy texture)
• 1 tbsp of bee pollen 
• Plain raw nuts and seeds

Start by washing the greens and placing in the blender followed by the banana, cucumber and powders except the xanthan gum.

Add one cup of liquid and set to blend. It may take some time for the mixture to start blending depending on your blender. I usually stop and start mine a few times pushing the mixture down on to the blades in between. Once it has blended up a bit add the other 1/2 cup of liquid along with the ice cubes. Blend again until smooth. Stop and check for sweetness and thickness. If needed add your sweetener and if you want to eat from a bowl or just prefer something thicker add the xanthan gum.

Blend again leaving the motor going for a good 30 seconds so that its very well combined. Pour into glass or bowl and add toppings. Enjoy!

I topped mine with my favourite goji berries, cacao nibs and bee pollen. I use a very large bowl to fit it all in, if your just using a small bowl you will have some over flow!

I have also have a few more green smoothie recipes here including a carrot cake and apple pie green smoothie! I think the beauty of smoothies is that you can make them your own using whatever ingredients you have to hand so go and experiment!

This is my ultimate for taste and nutrition but I think my absolute favourite would have to be a simple greens, cocoa and frozen cherry mix – perfect every time! Have you ever tried a green smoothie? If your a green smoothie lover, what would be in your favourite combo?

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?

Hey everyone, hope you're having a great Wednesday! I’m having a good week so far, I had another great healthy eating workshop at the community centre last night. As its Wednesday that can only mean one thing:

These are my eats and goings on from Sunday. I started the day with a very early run, we wanted to go to the cinema to see the Avengers movie and make the early showing so that meant an early start, no Sunday lie in for me!

As usual I had my warm water and lemon then got all suited and booted for some where around 6 miles of horribly cold and windy running. Even though I had two pairs of gloves on my fingers were numb and ached. I can’t say I enjoyed the run much but the hot shower afterwards was great! For breakfast I decided to indulge in a slightly unseasonal squash smoothie:

This is quite an autumn / winter type smoothie but considering the weather we’ve been having you wouldn’t guess it was May! I had a bag of roast kabocha squash in the freezer that needed using up so I’d defrosted it overnight and blended it with ice, two scoops of vanilla sun warrior, ground flax, cinnamon, ginger and a little vanilla stevia. Then I topped it with some of my raw tamari ‘roasted’ almonds, dried cherries, dried pear and maple syrup. It was divine! Then I needed coffee:

I had that mug x 2. It was the last of my vanilla coffee and I must buy some more, its Wednesday and I’m already having coffee withdrawals!

I thought I’d save some money on the expensive cinema snacks by taking my own. I had two large chopped carrots, home air popped popcorn, pretzels and some dried mulberries plus a bottle of water:

Those snacks kept me going nicely! The movie was awesome, James is a self confessed Marvel fan and it was geekasms all round! Once we got home I was pretty hungry so grabbed some rice cakes and topped them with red pepper hummus. I also had a pink lady apple:

A little later on I would have usually made myself a green juice but I have to admit I just couldn’t be bothered to clean up the juicer afterwards. I also felt like I needed something a bit more substantial so I made a basic green smoothie instead:

Spinach, banana, water and stevia. Quick and easy and hit the spot! I had two big mugs full.

Dinner was absolutely fantastic! I just had a couple of slices of baked marinated tofu, half a giant baked sweet potato topped with almond butter and lots of steamed broccoli with soy sauce:

For something pretty simple it tasted so good! Then for dessert I decided to treat myself to a bar of Raw Dark Mint Chocolate from The Raw Chocolate Company:

This chocolate is the bomb! I put it in the freezer for 20 minutes so it was hard and crunchy, very good indeed! After that I made myself a hot chocolate:

This was 1 1/2 scoops of cococardio with water and stevia. It was perfect for such a cold and blustery evening!

I’m pretty happy with my eats but I feel like I should have probably ate a bit more after running that morning. It is good to notice some different habits are forming though. Usually I would have just had one scoop of protein powder in my smoothie but after seeing how low the calories would have been I made sure I added the extra scoop and additional almonds on top to give it more saying power. I would also never ever have eaten a full bar of chocolate like that either. Even though those are small bars, I would have only allowed myself half. Boy did I enjoy eating the full thing! I think this shows me the difference between eating to lose weight and eating to maintain weight, and how for a long time I didn’t make that shift.

What’s your favourite cinema snack? Do you take your own or buy it at the theatre?

I absolutely loved that tofu, broccoli and sweet potato dinner! What’s your favourite simple but really tasty meal?

Hello everyone and happy Independence Day to my US readers! Hope you are having a fab week! Today’s WIAW are my eats and random things from yesterday, enjoy:

I had the usual warm water with a squeeze of lemon juice while I got ready then made breakfast. I had a bowl of Dorset Cereals High Fibre Flakes with kara coconut and a massive green smoothie:

The green smoothie contained spinach, two fresh peaches, vanilla sun warrior, water and ice. There was also coffee with coconut milk and vanilla stevia:

For work, I decided to wear my wardrobe staple skinny black pants from Gap with a lovely loose fitting white vest with zip detail up the back (H&M), layered with another vest and a pretty scarf:

Add some day old dry shampooed hair, my cream H&M blazer and tan leather sandals and I was good to go! On the way to work I listened to a bit of Lana:

I have to be in the right mood for this album but listening to it makes me think of late hot summers – I can dream right? ;-)

Mid morning at work I snacked on some carrot with hummus for dipping:

I’ve been buying hummus rather than making my own recently as I just haven’t had time, luckily this plain hummus from Tesco was just 50p for a pot.

For lunch I had a big salad including romaine, cucumber, red pepper, red onion and green lentils with a balsamic and hemp oil dressing:

I’d had a real craving for lentils so cooked some up at the weekend, this was a really simple but tasty meal.

I had a meeting for work in the afternoon that was close to home, so I got back early. I snacked on a pink lady apple and one of my raw nutella brownie bars:

So yum! It was quite warm and I really fancied an iced coffee before Body Pump so I used a little sachet of this Cafe Ceps Organic Coffee Blend I got as a freebee in an iHerb order:

I added some stevia and lots of ice. Hit the spot!

Then I headed to the gym for Body Pump which was great as usual:

For dinner I’d cooked some chickpeas at the weekend and quinoa on Monday so combined the leftovers with some steamed broccoli and a tahini sauce (tahini, apple cider vinegar, shoyu, water) to make a Buddha bowl:

I love me a good Buddha bowl! For a little dessert I had a bowl of strawberries with a rice cake topped with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter:

Later on I made myself an evening snack of some blueberry chocolate protein ice cream:

This is just frozen blueberries, chocolate sun warrior, ice, stevia, xanthan gum and water all blended up. I really look forward to finishing my day with one of these! I also added a few buckwheaties for a crunchy topping.

Then I spent the rest of the evening relaxing with a cup of Sweet Coconut Thai Red tea while I listened to some of the Fundamental lectures from IIN, yes I have formally signed up for my Health Coach Course!

I’m already finding the content I have access to extremely interesting. I’m going to learn so much on this course I just can’t wait! Classes officially start on 16th July, excited!

As I’ve been saying recently I’m really happy with how I’m eating right now. Its probably the closest I’ve come to eating intuitively while still meal planning for convenience and organisation whilst being mindful of eating the right amount for my body. I really try and listen to what my cravings are and give my body what it wants even if that is a bit repetitive. All I seem to fancy at the moment is smoothies and salads. Interestingly, I’ve moved away from the green smoothies in a bowl for breakfast and I’m now preferring them in a glass as a side to something else. Its so interesting how your tastes can change and evolve depending on different factors like the weather, time of year, what’s in season and just what your body wants! For example, I used to try and not eat 3 hours before bed because I thought that eating late at night was ‘wrong’. What I’ve found is that I need that extra meal later on, its stopped me binging and feeling generally deprived and I even think I sleep better!

Do your tastes change now and again? How have they changed? Do you listen to your cravings?