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Well thank god its Friday, with the bank holiday and having Tuesday off work for the blogger meet up its been a great but strange week! I am really looking forward to the weekend.

I have had a pretty quiet few days, the calm before the storm, as now that we are into September things at work get crazy again!

I’ve fitted in my usual workouts and even got in another treadmill run – I did 3.5 miles in 28 minutes almost pain free on Wednesday morning followed by some extra cardio on the machines and some abs and core. Yesterday I started the day with some free style yoga and popped to the gym after work for a sweaty hour on the step machine, cross trainer, bike and rowing machine followed by abs and core. This morning I did my NRoL workout – doing 3 sets of all the moves again, however my knee was not happy during the very slow 5 minute treadmill warm up!

Food wise I’ve been craving the usual green smoothies and salads:

Wednesday’s green smoothie containing kale, spinach, frozen strawberries, strawberry hemp, msm, maca powder, barley grass powder, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gum topped with bee pollen, peanut flour sauce and some freeze dried berries.

This morning I wanted to try out another fruit free green smoothie. This contained spinach, cos lettuce, 2 scoops of vanilla protein powder, maca, spirulina, msm, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums topped with goji berries and raw almond butter sauce:

This was so creamy and mildly sweet! Delicious :-)

I enjoyed another fabulous hummus topper salad containing some of my very own home grown alfalfa sprouts!

I bought some seeds last weekend and have had them sprouting, I only used a quarter cup of seeds and ended up with 2 large jars full! This will save me a lot of cash on buying them from the shop – they usually cost £1.30 for a tiny pack!

I’ve also been loving these ‘cheesy’ salads:

Cos lettuce, pea shoots, alfalfa sprouts, pepper, carrot, cucumber, red onion, raw cheesy crumbles and some raw cheesy spicy pumpkin seeds plus a bit of Braggs liquid aminos.

I welcomed in September by eating some seasonal spaghetti squash!

Stir fried veggies including spring greens, carrot, mushrooms and broccoli with edamame on top of spaghetti squash ‘noodles’ with a spicy lime peanut sauce (peanut flour, lime juice, red chilli, ginger, shoyu). These stir fries have been hitting the spot!

Tonight I really wanted something fresh tasting so made my favourite raw courgette spaghetti with raw pasta sauce topped with nutritional yeast, olives and basil:

I can’t tell you how much I love this, light but filling! I’ve also been craving cereal too:

Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise Cereal, rice milk and strawberries.

I’ve been snacking on a lot of these too:

Home made cheesy raw kale chips! These taste utterly wonderful. I made a cheesy coating with cashews, nutritional yeast, garlic and onion powder and dehydrated them, they are so good!

Tasty sweet treats have included this ‘frappe’ made with Mint Chocolate Teecino, rice milk, stevia and crushed ice:

I treated myself to this Starbucks cup at the weekend, I just can’t help myself! I also tried out a sachet of Cherries Jubilee Spiru-tein powder to make some protein ice cream:

This was the bomb, even James commented on how good it was. I’ve had this flavour before a long time ago - I think I may have to indulge in a full tub!

So I have to admit I’m getting a bit more worried about my knee. I’ve booked in for a sports massage so I’m hoping that will help to loosen up my IT Band. In the meantime I’m continuing to stretch, foam roll and occasionally ice it. I’m planning on trying out a 6 mile treadmill run at the weekend – I think it hurt so bad this morning because I didn’t wear my knee support. Fingers crossed I’ll be ok!

As for the rest of the weekend I have a lovely one planned, tomorrow should be pretty relaxed with a bit of grocery and bedroom accessory shopping, seeing my Mam and Dad, kitchen pottering and chilling out! On Sunday it will mark 7 years since me and James met (I was chief bridesmaid and he was best man at my sisters wedding – cheesy I know!) Hope you all have a great weekend planned too!

Have you had a sports massage before? Did it help you? Any tips for me in terms of what to wear and what to expect?

Hi everyone, have you had a good weekend? Mine has been very relaxed, we’ve barely left the house and have enjoyed pottering around at home which has been lovely.

On Friday night I had a total snack attack, I made some lovely snacks including millet puffs with peanut flour and melted Lindt Sea Salt chocolate, melted cherry almond dark chocolate with a spoonful of almond butter stirred in and bowls of Peanut Butter Puffins. I’m not feeling guilty for it or anything, but I did go to bed with a major food baby and ended up wide awake at 4am feeling like I’d been out partying with Keith Richards. It seems that my body now reacts to overeating sugar and chocolate by making me feel hung over! I know its down to the chocolate and sugar as I’ve had the same reaction in the past couple of months when eating the same way. I didn’t eat anything for ages on Saturday morning as I felt sick, and when I did all I fancied was a green juice:

All organic – cucumber, celery, broccoli, rainbow chard and lemon, I love my weekend green juices! After a while my appetite came back and I really fancied a fruity, nutty smoothie:

Frozen banana, blueberries, apples, raw almond butter, pumpkin seeds, msm, maca powder and water topped with more apples and blueberries, pumpkin seeds, raw almond butter sauce and some bee pollen. The bee pollen is really growing on me, I wasn’t sure at first but I really love its mild chewy sweetness.

We went grocery shopping on Saturday morning and I fell foul of the 3 for 2 offer on organic veg at Tesco so I ended up buying a lot of leafy greens. To use them up I’ve been eating yummy salads and green smoothies:

Lovely salad with red lettuce, romaine, home grown alfalfa sprouts, carrot, cucumber, pepper, beet, olives, crumbled RAW cracker and a dressing made with hemp oil, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar and dijon mustard, yum!

Apple pie green smoothie with spinach, frozen banana, apples, vanilla sun warrior, spirulina, maca, msm, cinnamon, ginger, mixed spice, vanilla stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums topped with treacle granola. This was utterly delicious, so autumnal!

Carob Cherry Green smoothie containing romaine, spinach, frozen cherries, carob powder, stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums and topped with a few spare cherries and some buckwheaties. The carob made a nice change to the usual cacao

For dinner tonight I had half a baked sweet potato with almond butter, sautéed rainbow chard with chickpeas, raisins and shoyu and some roast broccoli and runner beans:

This was a plate of heaven! Why have I only just had sweet potato and almond butter now? So good! I’ve also been eating lots of fruit:

I loved this antioxidant filled plate of blackberries, black grapes and a tiny discovery apple.

I’ve also spent some time this weekend making up a big pan of Leek, Greens and White Bean Soup, some of my home made version of of sweet and salty popcorn bagged up for snacks, and my first attempt at fermenting veggies – Kimberly Snyder’s Probiotic and Enzyme salad, basically home made sauerkraut!

I’ve decided that after Friday evening I’m going to take a little break from chocolate and anything else too high in sugar that sets me off such as dried fruit and PB&Co nut butters, cereals etc. I just feel completely sugared out and I don’t think that’s doing me any favours with the snacking! I’m definitely feeling a bit out of balance at the moment, I’m swinging from craving chocolate and nut butters and then feeling stuffed, to probably not eating enough! I think at the end of September when I have some time off I’m going to treat myself to a mini ‘detox’ (I hate that word, but what I really mean is a couple of days of eating really well) to try and feel a bit more balanced. Of course, some of this ‘out of balance’ feeling may come down to stress being caused by this…

Running Injury update

I’m going to ramble on a bit here, so please skip this if you like! This morning I managed 4.3 miles in 39 minutes on the treadmill. By the time I had finished I was in a lot of pain, I managed a further 30 minutes on the bike but my knee was screaming at me when I tried to go on the cross trainer and step machine. I knew it was going to happen eventually and today I completely broke down and had a good cry. After two weeks my injury is getting worse not better, and with only two weeks to go until the Great North Run, I have to start admitting to myself that I may not be able to do it. I hate that. I am not a quitter and to have to drop out of the race makes me feel like I’m letting everyone down. The worry I have is that if I try and do it I may not be able to finish it, and for me, that would be worse than not doing it at all. I would also be gutted if I didn’t complete it in a better time than last year. I talked things over with James and I’m not going to run at all for the rest of the week and then I’m going to try a run next weekend and make a final decision then. I have my sports massage on Wednesday and I’m trying to stay as positive as possible, I know a week without running could make a big difference and if worst comes to worst there will be other races and I can try again next year.

Have you ever had to drop out of a race due to injury? What do you do to regain balance when you feel out of wack?

Hope you’ve all had a brilliant weekend, and because I hate ending things on a negative note I’m going to leave you with a few things that make me smile:

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups:

Bright red lipstick:

Source

Sunrises:Source

Have a great week people!

Well what a funny month August has been! For the first time in a while I can’t say that this month has been totally awesome, its definitely been a mixed bag of good and bad stuff!

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However, I am choosing NOT to focus on the negative and instead try and find the ‘silver lining’ of my clouds!

• Being injured – so yes, being injured totally sucks and has pretty much screwed up my running training. However I’m confident I’ll still be able to do the Great North Run this month and being injured has just reminded me that I need to take more care with stretching and icing after runs.
• The bed breaking – this was a right pain in the arse – literally! Especially as we had to spend a week sleeping on the floor, but it has now given me the opportunity to re decorate which is one of my favourite things. I’ll be sharing with you the finished room very soon :-)
• Having a couple of minor ‘over eating’ episodes – having these has really made me look at how I’m fuelling myself and has even made me completely re assess what even constitutes ‘over eating’. I’m actually happier that I am listening to by body and eating when I have genuine hunger.

On the completely positive side, this month has included:

My Birthday!

Birthday cake green smoothie

Lots of dehydrator experimenting:

My cousins Hen Party:

Me and my gorgeous Mam!

An amazing bloggers meet up:

My weight has also remained staple this month despite a couple of added indulgences!

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I’m really happy we are now in September, I love the autumn and have already enjoyed getting my autumn wardrobe together!

  source 1,2,3

For me, autumn is the time of cosy warm jumpers and boots, beautiful colours as the trees turn, squash, pumpkin, Halloween and Bonfire night and I can not wait!

Goals for September

• I’m going to go all out and say my big goal is to complete the Great North Run – preferably in under two hours! I need you all to send me lots of positive and healing thoughts!
• Get back on track with my Diet and Nutrition course – it has fallen by the way side again!
• Get a new training plan developed post Great North Run that includes a bit more strength training
• Keep on fuelling myself with tasty healthy foods!
• Stick to my grocery budget and use up some of the stuff I have hoarded in the cupboards

September Sponsors

I am so excited about my sponsors this month! First up the lovely Sarah and Cat are continuing to sponsor this month – make sure you check out their blogs as they are both awesome!

I’d also like to welcome two new bloggers:

Liz blogs over at I <3 Vegetables – I love her funny writing and great veggie filled recipes! Laura blogs over at Box, Run, Eat – I’ve been reading Laura’s blog for well over a year – check it out, especially for some hard core boxing inspired workouts!

Current sponsors and partners Viva Pure, Goodness Direct and iHerb are continuing to work with me and I would like to welcome my new sponsor: Good Hemp!

I reviewed some Good Hemp products and I am a genuine fan – I love that they use British grown hemp and that the majority of their products are vegan.

If your interested in sponsoring Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish check out my sponsorship info or drop me an email: laura@keepinghealthygettingstylish.com

Don’t forget, I can also design you a tailor made blog button!

This month I will be hosting not 1 but 3 fantastic giveaways that I’m sure you will all be excited about so stay tuned!

Are you a silver lining seeker like me? How was August for you? What are you looking forward to this September? Don’t forget to send those positive healing vibes for my knee!

Well I'm not gonna lie, I've had a tough 24 hours. The Volunteer Awards Evening was great, we had 8 main awards including Volunteer of the Year and then all of the volunteers who come along also get a certificate. The night finished with a boogie on the dance floor, such good fun and such amazing people. I loved all your comments about the volunteer work you have done, and how important you feel volunteering is. Its so great that so many of you have volunteered before!

When I got home my knee and leg were really tight, I decided that I should have really listened to my body and stopped any exercise last week when it first felt painful. Although working out at the gym and to DVD's doesn't hurt like it does when I run, they are obviously still irritating my knee, hence why its getting worse instead of better. I had a good old cry about it all last night, I feel like I've worked so hard to improve my fitness, especially my running and now this has happened.

I'm petrified that the weight is going to pile back on (more on that later) and that I'm going to lose all of this fitness I have built up and that I'm going to be unable to do the Great North Run in September. I know its early days to get so worried about things and that I should wait and see what the physio says tomorrow but I just feel so worried about it. I didn't workout this morning and this is the first time I've missed a planned workout in months (apart from my illness last week). I think looking back I have pushed my body too hard with the running (I have increased my distance and times quite a bit over the last couple of months) and now its rebeling on me!

I'm going to throw my June training plan out of the window from now and just see what the physio says tomorrow regarding what exercise I can continue to do. I'm really hoping that I can still continue for the next two weeks as I will be on holiday after that when I'll be getting a full weeks rest anyway. I had been planning on some working out while on holiday, but thats totally out as well. So for the rest of June my fitness programme is a clean slate.

To make matters worse I had my weigh in this morning and I've gained 4lbs since last week! I'm back up to 10st 1 (141lbs). I know that most of the loss from last week was due to my illness but it still sucks. That, combined with a reduced or possibly non existent workout programme means I'm going to have to be very careful about what I eat for the next two weeks if I want to lose a few pounds so I can fully enjoy my holiday. I'll be focusing on watching my carbs and increasing my protein which also has the added benefit of helping my muscles repair, hopefully speeding up my recovery. Ok, so thats enough of my moaning! Onwards and upwards...

For breakie this morning I had my first try of Quark (very low fat cream cheese). It was really good, I love the creamy texture. I mixed half a tub with a little vanilla rice milk and a scoop of chocolate whey and then topped it with mixed berries and some Dorset Cereals Roasted and Toasted muesli.


Very tasty indeed! I love these mixed berries, I get a bag of them frozen for under £2, much cheaper than getting them fresh.

I had a late start for work as I had to attend a meeting in Newcastle. Luckily my boss suggested that I just work from home for the rest of the day so I headed back, did a whole load of stretching for my legs and then had lunch. I had a bowl of my African Inspired Sweet Potato Soup with added spinach leaves for green goodness.

Mid afternoon I made myself a vanilla frappuccino protein shake (scoop of vanilla whey, skimmed milk, water, ice cubes, teaspoon of instant decaf coffee).


This really hit the spot!

For dinner I made my Lime, Ginger and Chilli Cashew Stir Fry, just with out the cashews! I stir fried a lovely chicken breast with brocolli, spring onion and a bag of mixed vegetables and made a delicious sauce with lime juice, fresh minced ginger, chilli and soy sauce.


A huge plate full of veggies and lean protein, just how I like it! I haven't had beansprouts in ages, I love them so much in stir fries. The bag of mixed veggies was reduced to £1 and I'm glad I decided to get them, just so delicious. I followed that with a juicy orange.


Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

I apologise for my whinge at the start of this post, I just find it therapeutic to be able to get my feelings out through the blog.

So what does everyone have planned for the weekend? I have my physio appointment then I'm planning a trip into town to get some bits and pieces ready for my holiday. On Sunday its my Nephews 2nd Birthday and my parents are having a little party for him which will be lovely. I think I might try and get to the gym on Sunday, even if its just for an upper body and abs strength session.

Hope you have all had a great weekend and have a fab weekend ahead of you! x

Last night I had my sports massage!  Big thanks to Jess for recommending a therapist, she was excellent and very knowledgeable. She talked through my injury with me, gave me some suggested stretches and corrective exercises and then massaged my legs. It didn’t hurt as bad as I had been expecting but she did say that my legs were very tight. She explained that I had some muscle imbalances and that my glutes probably aren’t ‘firing’ properly and that my inner thigh muscle is a little under developed. She also said that I should be able to do the Great North Run! I’m still going to try a short run on Sunday and obviously if I still have a lot of pain I’m not going to risk things getting worse, but overall things are looking up!

I’ve still be working out this week, as thankfully my usual exercise doesn’t hurt my knee. I’ve had a few light cardio sessions at the gym and my usual body pump class and yoga podcasts.

I’ve also had some lovely eats this week including the usual suspects:

Green smoothie containing assorted leftover greens: spinach, romaine, spring greens, frozen banana, kiwis, hemp protein, maca, spirulina, msm crystals, vanilla stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums topped with lots of almond butter sauce, goji berries and bee pollen.

Salad with romaine, cucumber, carrot, yellow pepper, beet, green olives, Lydia’s raw organic crackers, cheesy pumpkin seeds and braggs liquid aminos

On Tuesday evening I made the most luscious bowl of protein ice cream:

This was made with some frozen watermelon, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, stevia, ice, water and xanthan and guar gums. It was divine!

As I had a busy evening on Wednesday I decided to treat myself to something from the salad bar at Sainsbury’s. I was pleasantly surprised!

This was half butternut and lentil salad and half ‘seventeen salad’ containing quinoa, bulgar, edamame and I think there were also pear and cranberries in there! All served up on top of a bag of mixed spinach, watercress and rocket. Yum, I can totally see that becoming a lazy evening habit!

I’ve also been experimenting with a new way of cooking tempeh. I made a Tempeh and Quinoa Stir Fry based closely on this recipe which crumbles the tempeh rather than frying, baking or grilling it in slices:

I made mine with shredded cabbage and sliced runner beans and served with steamed greens. This was really delicious, I will definitely be cooking tempeh in this way again!

Veggies in my breakfasts (i.e. my carrot cake chia pudding!) have become a bit of a theme this week. This morning I had this amazing dish waiting for me when I got up:

Chocolate Courgette (zucchini) Overnight Oats (vegan, serves 1)

• 1/2 cup of scottish oats
• 2 1/2 cups of water (or milk, or half and half)
• 1 tbsp of chia seeds (optional)
• 1 large grated courgette
• 1 tbsp of cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp of agave syrup or sweetener of choice
• 1 tbsp of cacao nibs (or chocolate chips, or nuts) for topping

Begin by cooking the oats and water according to Katie’s Voluminous method. Once semi cooked and cooled slightly, stir in the chia seeds, grated courgette and cocoa powder. Once completely cooled transfer to fridge to chill overnight. The oats should thicken up nicely! In the morning add sweetener to taste and enjoy either cold, or reheat topped with the cacao nibs or other topping of choice!

I think I’ve been inspired by all the chocolate and courgette action going on in other blogs recently! This is a lot tastier than you may think, and is a great way of getting in an additional portion of veg! The cooking method, especially when combined with the chia seeds, gives you can amazing creamy bowl of oats.

Obviously I’m a lover of getting my greens at breakfast in my smoothies but my carrot cake chia pudding and this recipe are a new way of getting my fix! Are you a fan of veggies for breakfast?

I just want to start by saying a huge thank you for all of your comments to my last post. They were really touching and made me feel so much better, so thank you all!

It was strange getting up and being able to laze about on a Saturday morning for a change, I'm so used to getting up and going straight out for my long run. I actually really enjoyed just being able to have a lazy breakie and watch rubbish on TV. I made a brilliant breakfast having been inspired by Susan's layered creation. I started with some porridge made with water and a chopped apple...


...then added some semi defrosted blueberries...


...then some quark mixed with vanilla rice milk (so it has a more yoghurty consistancy) topped with...


...grape nuts and flaked almonds.


This was a super breakfast! I loved the change of temperature as you ate through the layers from cold to hot.

After breakfast I did some cleaning around the flat and got myself ready for the physio. Before I left I made myself a quick protein shake using a scoop of chocolate whey, a little skimmed milk, some water, ice cubes and a handful of fresh mint leaves. I blended it all up to make a chocolate mint flavour shake.



Using the fresh mint worked really well.

So I had my physio appointment, and I'm happy to report its good news! I don't have any serious damage but he thinks that my problem is due to my knee cap tracking out of line. He said it was due to bio mechanics, basically my knees and hips rotate inwards which is pushing my knee cap out of where it should be. He suggested that I check my running shoes are doing their job - it may be that I need to buy some inserts as I have high arches in my feet. He also gave me several exercises to do to strengthen the muscles in my quads and glutes which should help. He said that theres no reason why I can't go back to the gym and even try a little running, I just need to take it easy to begin with. He said I might also want to look at how much exercise I'm doing where my knees are under strain. When I think about it, all the lunges and squats in my DVD's as well as going heavy at the gym are all straining my knees. He also suggested that I try Pilates (thanks for that suggestion too Ilana!) So overall I'm very happy. The tightness in my thighs has almost gone but I can still feel a little pain in my knee so I think tomorrow I'm going to have a short session at the gym and see how I go. I feel miles better after the appointment, its really put my mind at rest.

After that I popped through to my parents to sit and enjoy the sunshine in their garden and meet up with my sis and nephew for a while. I made myself up a little packed lunch of tuna salad (spinach, cucumber, red onion, tuna and a little light mayo), two apricots and a carton of Vita Coco Coconut Water with mango and peach.


I ate this in my parents back garden, I love it when the weathers nice enough to eat outdoors! For the rest of the afternoon I snacked on strawberries and grapes before heading over to town to do a bit of shopping for my hols. I bought my sunscreen and some of the new Topshop Make up - two eye crayons and a cream blusher, there gorgeous! I also popped into Waitrose for some more smoked tofu, while I was there I spotted some Cashew Cookie Nakd bars so I can finally try them out!

When me and the hubby got home I was starving! I put a big tray of brocolli, red pepper, asaparagus and red onion in the oven to roast and then I steamed some salmon.


This sorted my hunger out!

I then had a little bowl of vanilla protein goo (scoop of vanilla whey, a little rice milk mixed until gooey) with a little apple sauce mixed in plus a couple of broken brazil nuts on top.


Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

I feel like a bit of an idiot for getting myself so worked up about my knee, but at the end of the day I'm just so glad that its nothing serious. I'm really looking forward to getting back in the gym again!

Hope you have all had a great Saturday, the weather here has been fantastic but I think we have thunderstorms ahead for tomorrow. Hope you've had a good one! x