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Thankfully after yesterdays bad day I'm feeling a bit better. I'm still not 100% but being busy at work today has kept my mind off things.

As I had a late meeting I decided to hit the gym early this morning before work. Before I went I fueled up with a cup of green tea and my last choco banana muffin which I had left to defrost from the night before. I think I might make some more of these soon, they're delicious and freeze so well (so no excuses for eating them all in one go!)


I did 50 mins of cardio on treadmill, cross trainer and step machine with intervals followed by usual abs sets. I'm really looking forward to giving my training plan a major review as I'm getting a bit bored of the gym at the moment. Breakfast was a chopped pear warmed up and softened in the microwave topped with honey, cinnamon, oats and natural yoghurt, it was lovely, especially the juicy warm pear!

At work we were running a coffee morning out in a community centre and there was muffins! I was so proud of myself for resisting them, especially with me feeling a bit sorry for myself and being stressed.

When I got back from the coffee morning I had an apple followed by a bowl of sweet potato and savoy cabbage soup.


My afternoon snack was more cottage cheese and raisins.


I attended my evening meeting then rushed home as I was starving! Wasn't in the mood for preparing anything fancy so settled for a tuna salad with balsamic vinegar, spinach, cucumber, carrot and red onion, followed by a bowl of frozen raspberries and vanilla rice milk.

Woke up really early this morning so was a bit grumpy as its the only day when I can really have a lie in! Thought that I might as well make the most of it so got up and watched TV and did a few jobs around the house. Breakfast was some muesli containing porridge oats, jumbo oats, quinoa flakes, ground flax, pecans and raisins topped with hazelnut and almond rice milk.

I find it much safer to make up my own muesli as and when rather than having a box in the cupboard as I would easily binge on it.

I popped to the supermarket to get a few bits and pieces then came home and decided to go for a run. The weather was beautiful although cold! I ran the same route as last week, its about 2.5 miles and has a few good size hills including a huge one right at the end. I loved it, it was tough for the first mile then I was away, feeling like I could run for miles. Next week I think I'm going to try a longer route. When I got home I did half an hour of yogalates to stretch and relax a bit, it was bliss.

Lunch and my post workout re fuel was two scrambled eggs on stoneground wholemeal toast with a small chopped apple


I was still hungry when I'd finished this so I thought I'd try out one of my fuel bars that I made yesterday. I ate it straight out of the freezer, it was delicious and chewy!

After pottering round the house for a bit and writing up my training plan, I had a mid afternoon snack of 2 babybel lights, some green grapes and a savory wholegrain rice cake. After I took the pic and ate it all I was still hungry so went back and finished off the grapes and had another rice cake!

I spend a bit of time prepping some meals and snacks for next week, including making some garlic pitta chips in the oven, chopping veg ready for salads etc.


For dinner I steamed a turkey breast and some brocolli and served it with roast carrot and swede (loads of the swede as James doesn't like it) topped off with some gravy. It was lovely and felt like a proper Sunday dinner type meal!

Desert was my favourite frozen raspberries with Hazelnut and Almond rice milk and then another little apple

I'm still bloody hungry! I might snack on another couple of rice cakes or an orange or something or try and put the hungry off by having a cup of tea. I think its partially due to boredom so perhaps I'll need to keep myself more busy!

Hope everyones had a good weekend too! xxx

I managed to avoid the snacking last night, yey! It was a tough one though. I can remember when I was in full diet mode I sometimes used to go to bed early just so I wouldn't stay up and snack. Now I think lifes a bit too short!

I felt the need for a nice warm breakfast this morning so I made a bowl of porridge with skimmed milk and mixed in some chopped apple, raisins and cinnamon then topped with some natural yoghurt, it was lush.


My mid morning snack was the last of my reduced fat red pepper houmous with carrot and cucumber sticks, shortly followed by a clemintine that I had planned on having with my lunch but I caved! I was feeling really hungry this morning, I was a bit stressed with work and I just couldn't focus so I'm wondering if that hunger was stress related.


For lunch I had the other clemintine and two little plums followed by some sweet potato and cabbage soup from my frozen stash. Its total pot luck what I end up with after diving in my tiny little freezer, all the bags of soup look the same!


I had a couple of work meetings and then before I drove to the gym I stuffed down one of my fuel bars, I have to say I'm really loving these, either hard and chewy straight out of the freezer or soft and melty after its been in my bag a while, yum!


Had an excellent workout at the gym doing my 1 hour of cardio intervals and my abs sets as described in my training plan. My treadmill intervals were at 5.6mph to 6.6mph, cross trainer intervals level 8 and 12, stepper intervals levels 10 and 15 and bike interval levels 5 and 10 (that was a killer as I don't usually use the bike).

I was famished when I got in and dinner was another hoi sin chicken pancake wrap. I'm definitely going to experiment with using the pancakes as an alternative to more carby wraps and try out some different fillings.


Desert was some protein cookie dough made from a scoop of chocolate whey, some hazelnut and almond rice milk mixed in until gooey and topped with some hazelnut and cashew nut butter.


Drinks - water, green tea, coffee, decaf tea, regular tea

Glad that my I'm sticking to my training plan and that I'm managing to workout at increased speeds and levels of resistance. It just goes to show what your body can achieve. I can remember when I first started exercising and I could hardly run for 30 seconds, thats why I like to be able to record my workouts on the blog, hopefully I can look back in a few months and see how far I've come! Got Jillian Michaels to look forward to in the morning though, eek!

Well I'm going to watch the footy now and catch up with some blogs (and try to avoid snacking again!). Hope everyones weeks going well xxx

I don't know what's been with me the last couple of days but I have been feeling so hungry! On Sunday night I ended up snacking on rice cakes, babybels, raisins and brazil nuts. Last night (ok so all I had for my dinner was a 9 bar at 5.45 so I shouldn't be too hard on myself) I came in from the Theatre and had an apple, then a bowl of jumbo oats with hazelnut and almond rice milk, then three rice cakes and a thick slice of edam, I was ravenous! I just hope it doesn't show on the scales on Friday.

Anyway, the Theatre night was really good. The play was excellent and really got you thinking as it was looking at terrorism and the effects of terrorism, the involvement of the media and Islam. The buffet was crap, soggy white bread sandwiches, crisps in bowls and rotten looking sausage rolls, yuck! Hence I ended up just sticking to my 9 bar.

This morning I had my first go of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, Level 1 and the first circuit of Level 2 to bring it up to just under 30 mins. My. God. I had watched it through over the weekend and had thought it looked ok but I was totally knackered! I even thought I might have to go down to lighter weights as I was having difficulty holding my form when performing some of the moves! I did enjoy it though, and I love that it really tested my body. After that I needed a seriously yummy breakfast to recover so I made a chocolate cherry smoothie with some frozen cherries, scoop of chocolate whey, hazelnut and almond rice milk, skimmed milk, oats and ground flax. It was wonderful!


Have been really rushed off my feet at work at the moment, more overtime is calling me thinks. I was glad to break for lunch and I had another apple and bean salad.


The salad really filled me up but when I popped to the fruit and veg shop to pick up another cucumber to go with my dinner tonight they had some delicious looking fat clemintines on sale so I bought 4 of those and had one after my dinner.


I was stuck in a boring meeting most of the afternoon and some evil person had stuck the plate of chocolate chip cookies right in front of me. All I could smell was them, they were calling my name! I resisted the urge though, I try and tell myself that if I'm going to eat something unhealthily then at least make it something you really really want, and make it a cheat worth having!

My mid afternoon snack was more reduced fat red pepper houmous with carrot and cucumber sticks and a couple of pitta chips.


For dinner I made chicken hoi sin pancake wraps. I had been inspired by FattoLean who has made omelette wraps which look totally yum and protein tastic! I have wanted to make these for ages and these didn't disapoint! I made up a pancake batter with 3 egg whites and a tablespoon of spelt flour and made a big pancake / omeletty type thing. I then spread some hoi sin sauce over the pancake, topped that with some shredded deli chicken and chopped spring onions and cucumber. Not quite the same as the little aromatic duck pancakes you get at restaurants but still a tasty healthy alternative.


Desert was some natural yoghurt with frozen raspeberries and a little bit of cocoa powder mixed in for a chocolate hit.


Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, regular tea

I'm going to try really, really hard not to snack tonight. I know its just boredom rather than my body needing the fuel so I think I need some distraction techniques. Its going to be tough as I'm still feeling hungry right now! How do other people deal with evening snacking?

I think my body has been harbouring a giant hunger monster today, my apetite has been unstoppable! I started off by eating a Cashew Cookie Nakd bar chopped into little pieces with a chopped apple as some pre gym fuel.


I hit the gym for a big cardio workout. I started on the treadmill by walking for 5 minutes to warm up then I ran for 25 minutes at a fairly slow pace. My knee was ok then it started to hurt about 15 minutes in. I kept going but I was disapointed that the pain has come back. I think that there must still be inflamation in the knee, I'm going to have to continue icing it I think. I then did 30 minutes constant rate on the cross trainer and 30 minutes constant rate on the step machine followed by some stretching. I'm doing these 90 minute cardio sessions at a steady rate to try and keep my fitness levels up while I'm not running longer distances.

When I got home I made a lovely big breakfast. I started with some porridge.


Then I added two chopped apricots and a chopped plum.


Followed by some Rachels Organic Rhubarb yoghurt with a scoop of vanilla whey mixed in.


All topped off with some grape nuts, flaked almonds and goji berries.


This was very satisfying and managed to sort my hunger out for a while at least! I love these layer ups and the change of temperature between the hot porridge and cold yoghurt and fruit.

I got myself ready and then headed over to my parents to see my Aunt and Uncle who have travelled up from Brighton for a few days. My sister, her hubby, my Nephew and my Grandma all came along too and we had dinner mid afternoon. I started with some roast chicken, salad and coleslaw.


Then I had another plate with a slice of thick ham, more salad and coleslaw.


I had a big bowl with grapes, an orange and strawberries topped with a big spoonful of my Mam's triffle.


I ended up having another bowl with more strawberries and a lot more triffle! The triffle wasn't too unhealthy as it was all sugar free jelly, low fat custard but proper cream, yum!

Over the afternoon, even though I felt full I couldn't help myself popping back into the kitchen and nibbling on more grapes and strawberries. I think all this fruit is probably knocking my blood sugar levels off and keeping me hungry!

I went and picked the hubby up from work, came home and made myself some sweet egg whites in an attempt to fill myself up. I mixed two large egg whites with some cinnamon and mixed spice and microwaved for a minute then served it with some apple sauce and agave syrup.


This did manage to satisfy me for a couple of hours. To try and make sure that I didn't get the evening snackies I decided to make myself a Mocha protein shake using a scoop of chocolate whey, some decaf instant coffee, ice cubes and water.


I am praying that this is going to stop me eating the contents of my kitchen this evening!

Do you ever have those days where you could literally eat everything in sight? I've just been so ravenous, I'm actually quite amazed that I managed to not give in and eat a big slice of chocolate cake, crisps, and quiche! I know that its not 'real' hunger as I've ate plenty of protein so I'm just trying to keep myself busy and out of the kitchen. Hows everyones weekends been? I'm not going to even mention the football, I'm actually quite enjoying the other matches but I find watching England very stressful!

Well I am now on count down for my holidays. In one weeks time I shall be lying by the pool chilling out in the sun and I can not wait! Do you have a holiday or vacation planned this Summer? Do you have any exciting plans? x