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Hi guys, happy Friday! Hope you’ve had a fantastic week. I’m flying high as a kite right now as I got this fab delivery of vegan cakes!

Some of you might remember me mentioning that at last weeks tea party the caterers had promised vegan cakes but had let us down. This lunchtime the manager called into our office with this box of vegan treats to say sorry. How sweet is that? They included oatmeal cookies, orange mini cup cakes, almond viennese swirls and a slice of sticky toffee pudding (I’m saving that for later). I shared them with my colleagues and they tasted amazing! What a great treat for a Friday afternoon :-)

I’ve really been enjoying my green smoothie challenge and healthy feasting this week and feel miles better for giving myself a little break from caffeine and refined sugar, at least until those cakes showed up! There have been some delicious salads:

Chickpea and quinoa with veggies and green goddess dressing

Baked tempeh with veggies and tahini dressing

Last night I made a big pan of roasted courgette, pepper and red onion and had that with some of the baked tempeh and tahini dressing:

This was seriously good for such a simple meal! I’ve also been snacking on lots of fresh fruit and nuts as well as coconut butter and tahini to keep those fat levels up. For a snack I made a fab chocolate chia pudding with strawberries for more healthy fat action:

This was 2 tbsp of chia seeds, 1 tbsp of raw cacao powder, water and agave. So good!

I won’t list all of this weeks workouts but its been the usual apart from Tuesday as I was working late and couldn’t make Body Pump I did level 3 of the 30 Day Shred and this challenging 30 minute vinyasa flow which was great!

As I said I’ve been loving the Green Smoothie Challenge. I’m going to save pics for a wrap up in Sunday’s post – I’ve got recipes for Chocolate Ginger Pear, Chocolate Cherry Almond and Strawberry and Peanut Butter smoothies coming up for you, and they are amazing! If anyone has any posts they’d like me to link too leave me a comment or email me :-)

March wrap up

I can’t quite believe that another month is almost over but it really has been a good one. I love doing these little monthly reviews and goal setting as I find it very motivational to focus on what I have achieved and to set my intent for the coming month. In March I have:

• Had my tattoo done
• Enjoyed more yoga at home including trying out some different you tube videos
• Progressed some work towards getting my community business off the ground including scheduling some important meetings.
• Gained a several lbs! 
• Stuck to my new strict grocery budget
• Have given the flat a good de clutter and spring clean (although I’ll be doing more of that this weekend)
• Started doing planks again as part of my workouts and improved my push ups
• Became a member of the Diary Free Dream Team!
• As of today, became the owner of a brand spanking new iPad 3!

My tattoo was the first very early 30th birthday gift to myself, and now I’ve got my iPad! I’ve wanted one forever and had enough saved up already so thought I’d get one now. Makes saving that money on groceries and clothes all worthwhile!

Update on ‘lady problems’

Pinterest, I love you but you but I’ve accepted I ain’t ever going to look like that (source)

I haven’t seen any major improvement in that area but I really feel like the reduction of long periods of intense exercise (running over 4 miles) and my weight gain (I currently weigh over 21lbs more than I did in August last year!) has me on the right track. I know some of you will have noticed that I’ve become much more relaxed around my eating than I used to be. The fear of gaining weight and ballooning up is slowly subsiding as I have started to accept that I’m never going to have that skinny, muscular physique or bikini body and be healthy at the same time.  Some women can look great that way and be perfectly healthy but that just isn’t natural or sustainable for my body. Positive comments from James, my friends and family and you amazing people have really helped me too. It hasn’t been easy though and there has been the weekend evening snackies / overeating stuff to deal with as well as a few tears as I got rid of a lot of clothes now too small for me. However I’m more determined now than ever to try and forget what society dictates is healthy in terms of weight, size and appearance and instead honour my body as best I can. Now that my BMI is over 23 its a case of playing a waiting game hoping that my body will trust me enough to start functioning again as it should. I’m planning some more posts on this as well as how to gain weight in a healthy way as I’ve had some emails requesting them and I think its a really important topic to highlight so stay tuned!

Goals for April

source

• Enjoy some baking, cooking new recipes and try my hand at making proper bread with yeast
• Spend lots of time with my family and friends over Easter
• Maintain my current weight
• Get booked on to / do my food hygiene training
• Arrange my first healthy eating workshop with a community group (eeek!)
• Have fun with my iPad!
• Start extending my weekend runs to 10k in anticipation of Great North Run training

This weekend is going to be a baking, cooking and general domestic goddess weekend! I really want to try my hand at baking some bread so fingers crossed it will turn out ok! I’ll also be doing some experimental cooking for Easter that will hopefully result in a couple of new recipes here on the blog. Of course I’d like to maintain my weight while still enjoying a more relaxed attitude to eating. I also need to update my food hygiene training before I can start delivering my healthy eating workshops so I’d love to get that done, and hopefully as a result of linking with some of my contacts I’d like to have my first ever workshop booked in! The final goal is to gradually increase my mileage on my weekend runs. Despite those lady problems I’m registered to do the Great North Run for the third time this year and its something I’d still like to achieve. However I will be taking a much more relaxed approach to training and the race itself, enjoying myself will come before trying to get another PB!

Now on to the weekend send of love list…

Reiki stones in my water bottle!

My manager at work is a Reiki Master and has charged some red jasper stones with healing energy for me. She suggested putting them in my water bottle. I’m not sure if I’m 100% sold on reiki but it won’t do me any harm! I have to say its pretty awesome to have a Reiki Master as your boss, she gave me a guided meditation this afternoon too, love my job! Also…

This fab new blog discovery Messy Nessy Chic // The weather!!! Its been incredible this week // wearing my new pink sleeveless top from H&M // getting the summer sandals out of the cupboard

What have you been loving this week? How has March been for you? Do you have any goals for April?

Happy Friday everyone! Have you had a good week? The best thing about my week has without a doubt getting my tattoo started! Here’s a sneak preview:

I’m back for another 2 hour session in two weeks time to add more colour and to extend the design down my arm and shoulder. When its finished I’ll explain more about the design, its meaning and why I’ve chosen to have it done. The tattoo itself really didn’t hurt that much thankfully. I already have 3 tattoos so I knew what to expect but it wasn’t half as bad as I remember it! I absolutely adore it :-)

In addition to that awesomeness I’ve enjoyed some lovely food this week. I’ve had lots of salads:

1. Cos lettuce, red cabbage, carrots, red onion, raw beet, pinto beans, crumbled blue corn chips, dressing of hemp oil, lemon juice and hot chilli powder 2. Romaine, lentils, peppers, parsley and home made balsamic dressing (blueberry balsamic vinegar, agave, Dijon mustard, hemp oil, garlic powder, water) 3. Romaine, raw beetroot, avocado, chopped salted almonds, dried cherries and balsamic dressing. 4. Romaine, carrot, red cabbage, cucumber, crumbled Raw Health Italian cracker and balsamic dressing

I’ve also had the usual green smoothies, here’s a couple of my faves from this week:

Chocolate Cherry Beet (spring greens, beet greens, beetroot, frozen cherries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, ground flax, maca powder, water, ice) topped with more cherries, buckwheaties and peanut flour sauce

Chocolate Ginger Pear (spinach, pear, chocolate hemp protein powder, small piece of fresh ginger, maca, ground flax, chlorella tablets, water, ice) topped with raw cacao granola and pumpkin seeds

On Monday we had a planning day at work which meant lunch was at Oldfields again. I had the usual butterbean hummus with epic amounts of fresh warm bread to start and then this wonderful dish with spinach, mushrooms and fennel in a tomato sauce:

It really was so good, I have to try recreating this as fennel is something I’ve never tried much before. I also had lemon sorbet for dessert.

The last couple of evenings I was on raid the freezer mode so used up some soya mince mixed with mushrooms and frozen peas in a tomato sauce (passata, garlic powder, dried oregano and fresh basil), firstly with some courgette ‘spaghetti’:

Then with a baked sweet potato and tons of spinach and nutritional yeast:

Various snackies have also been had…

dried apricots, almond butter and dark chocolate turtles

Raw coconut flour mixed with water, chopped apple and raisins with some agave syrup

Trail mix (inspired by Jemma): roast lemon salted almonds, dried mango, dried cherries and pumpkin seeds (for iron!)

Yesterday I had a fabulous breakfast of a slice of my Banana Coconut Bread made with chocolate chips (slice taken from the freezer) and topped with maple peanut butter (made from peanut flour) and two chopped pears plus coffee of course:

That bread is awesome, I swear it is the best banana bread ever!

Workouts this week have just been the usual:

• Sunday – AM gym – 30 minute relaxed treadmill run (3.25 miles ish) 15 minutes cross trainer, kettle bell class
• Monday – AM 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
• Tuesday – PM Yoga Class 
• Wednesday – AM 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
• Thursday – PM Yoga class
• Friday – AM 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

The yoga has been fun again, in last nights class we were doing poses that all had to be done against the wall. I have to admit I used to think that using blocks and straps were only for people who weren’t very flexible but now I realise that they actually help you to get deeper into the pose and stretch more.

On my weekend send off Love List this week…

Teavivre dragon jasmine green tea pearls

I am obsessed with this tea! I go through tea ‘phases’ sometimes its chai, then peppermint or perhaps liquorice (regular green tea is a daily staple for me though – at least 4 cups a day!). Right now it’s this fragrant and beautiful tea that transforms in your mug. Love it! Also…

The tattoo obviously ;-) // 8 Tracks (James music obsessed that he is, has introduced me to this check it out for a wealth of unique mixes to suit your every mood) // managing to do 14 push ups for the first time ever this morning!

What are you loving this week?

I’ve had a fun and busy week including a really positive business meeting, a great yoga class, a very exciting tap installation (sounds random but more explanation on that to come!) and getting my application to register with the Federation of Holistic Therapists sent off. I love feeling productive!

I’ve had some super eats this week so I’m just going to give you a photo dump of them all:

Carob, coconut and raspberry ‘ice cream’ topped with tofu cream and cacao nibs and coconut, delish!

Salad beast with black beans and avocado

For breakfast on Shrove Tuesday: Chocolate protein pancakes (made with spelt flour, chocolate hemp powder and kara coconut milk) topped with chopped pears and chocolate hazelnut butter sauce, mmm!

Post yoga smoothie of Spiru-tein chocolate chip cookie dough flavour topped with cacao nibs (not totally crazy about this new to me flavour, just tastes like vanilla!)

Chocolate pear and ginger green smoothie with spring greens, 2 pears, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, raw cacao powder, maca, ground flax, fresh ginger root, water and ice topped with more pear and raw granola

Badly handmade nori rolls with leftover cooked brown rice, avocado, carrot and cucumber – tasted great though!

Grilled smoked sesame tofu with brown rice, stir fried broccoli and brussel sprouts and peanut sauce

Montezuma Dark Chocolate turtles (so cute!) with chopped apples

 Honey and hemp muffin from the freezer with 2 chopped pears and a sachet of Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter for spreading, yum!

Persimmon slices topped with coconut butter and goji berries

Green smoothie with spinach, frozen mango, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, maca, ground flax, water and ice topped with popped amaranth, cashews and flame raisins

So quite a varied and delicious week!

I’ve also had a pretty varied workout out week including finally finding a half decent yoga class!

• Sunday – AM gym workout – 5k treadmill run, 15 min random bike, Kettlebell class
• Monday – AM Yoga podcast, PM DVD mash up
• Tuesday – PM Yoga class
• Wednesday – AM 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 – PM Yoga class
• Friday – AM 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 went to a new yoga class on Tuesday night at my local community centre and I loved it! Its still not a fast flowing class but I really liked the teacher who does a mix of Ivengar and Ashtanga styles and the whole vibe of the class was really great. Although I didn’t get a major sweat on I got a really good stretch, my muscles could certainly feel it the day after! It was also really good to have a teacher adjusting my pose and explaining things in more detail, it made me realise that although DVD’s and podcasts are great there’s no substitute for attending a class. I find that a class improves my practice so that I get more out of the yoga I do at home. I also realised that my focus on finding a faster flowing sweaty class was a bit daft considering the whole reason I wanted to do more yoga was to relax and help firm up a bit! As this class is on the same night as Body Pump, I’m going to alternate classes every two weeks.

To end this post I’m taking inspiration from one of my fave bloggers – Bonzai Aphrodite (such a shame she’s stopped blogging) and doing a weekend send off love list!  

Loving my sexy new tap installed today complete with a built in Brita filter!

A little while ago I was contacted by Brita to see if I would like to trial one of their tap water filters. I’ll blog more about this in future but its brilliant! The actual tap is such an improvement on our last one and has really made the whole kitchen look more stylish. I’ve always used a jug Brita filter in the fridge but this is so much more convenient. Other things on my love list this week:

Pig tails (the only way I can tie all of my hair back without bits falling out) // yoga of course! // listening to ‘Some Body I Used To Know’ by Gotye on repeat // getting tickets for Kendal Calling (so excited!) // stripes and polka dots // not stuffing myself on an evening anymore // feeling full of gratitude

What have you been loving this week? If your a yoga fan what’s your thoughts on classes v’s DVD’s and podcasts? Hope you have a brilliant weekend!

You still have a few hours left to enter my house plant GIVEAWAY, check it out!

Oh I am so happy it’s the weekend, and an extra long one at that! Hope you have all had a good week!

This week I finished the final phase of Female Body Breakthrough, that’s 16 weeks of workouts! I wasn’t really doing it with the aim of seeing a lot of changes other than perhaps a small increase in strength and making sure that I maintained muscle, but the results have been great. I’ve certainly seen an increase in strength and I’m feeling a lot more toned, despite having gained weight over that period. Mission accomplished!

• Saturday – 8 miles
• Sunday – REST
• Monday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Fine Tune phase of Female Body Breakthrough – heavy weight / low rep, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – AM 4 mile run
• Wednesday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Fine Tune phase of Female Body Breakthrough – medium weight, mid range rep, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Thursday – PM yoga class 1hr 15 
• Friday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Fine Tune in phase of Female Body Breakthrough– light weight / high rep, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I’m now considering what I want to do with my strength training for the next few months, but it feels good to have finished the whole programme, even my amended version of it!

I’ve been all over smoothies again this week, even though the temperatures have dropped a bit I have still been loving them:

Spinach, melon, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, ice, water topped with roast almonds, mulberries, gojis and cacao nibs

Frozen raspberries, cocoa powder, water and ice topped with some flaked almonds

Kale, mixed frozen berries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, ice, water topped with raw cacao granola, gojis and pumpkin seeds

I’ve also enjoyed a couple of tasty breakfasts:

Burgen Sunflower and Chia Seed bread toasted and spread with sesame peanut butter and a sliced pink lady apple

Overnight muesli – Dorset Cereals Simply Muesli soaked in rice milk overnight and mixed fresh blueberries

Chocolate protein chia pudding with blueberries and mulberries

The other night I wanted to make something quick and easy for dinner so made up some of my Veggie Chilli and served it with steamed greens and Tesco mild free from cheese:

That chilli is one of my fave recipes as its just so quick and easy to make, tastes good and is very healthy! I also made up yet another socca:

This was stuffed with mashed black beans, red onion and that vegan cheese with some steamed broccoli on the side. Another fast, tasty and healthy meal! Of course there has also been the usual salads, this one in particular was delicious:

Romaine, cucumber, red onion, beetroot, olives, Raw Health crackers and some tahini dressing, yum yum! I’ve also been snacking on hummus:

The plain Popchips dipped into the hummus was delish! I also had some of the juiciest dried figs ever, along with a sliced apple and some almond butter for dipping:

The figs are Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference brand and I would highly recommend them, the best dried figs I’ve tasted!

On the weekend send off Love List this week…

Pink printed scarf from Mango

I said in yesterdays vlog that I was loving pink things, let this scarf be exhibit A. I really love it for adding some colour to just a plain t shirt and black trousers for work. Also…

These posts on Bangs and a Bun and The High Tea Cast regarding the Jessica Ennis ‘fat’ comments and the ridiculousness of having sponsors such as Coke and McDonalds sponsoring an event that should be promoting healthy living // this post from the always fabulous Gala Darling with 5 life lessons that I couldn’t agree more on // getting parcels – always a fave of mine but extra wonderful when you get a crate of grape juice! // getting some very validating feedback at work 

In case you missed it:

• I posted my recipe for an awesome Jubilee inspired Vegan Vanilla Cream Sponge Cake
• I talked about my thoughts on glasses and laser eye surgery and loved the variety of comments in response
• I rounded up May and posted a vlog with my May faves!

What are you loving this week? Do you have any big plans for the Jubilee weekend?

This is going to be a bit of a long post as I just have so much to share from this week!

I couldn’t not show you a picture of that cake! It was a work colleagues birthday so we decided to order something special. She’s gluten and dairy intolerant so we asked for a vegan gluten free cake that we could all enjoy. We ended up with this amazing chocolate cherry almond cake. It was to die for, so moist and the icing on top was deliciously creamy. I need to ask the cafe for the recipe!

As I said I feel like I’ve had too many nice things this week not to share them all so get ready for a bit of a photo dump! First up I had this lovely breakfast on Tuesday:

Teeccino caffeine free amaretto coffee with a slice of Burgens Chia and Sunflower seed bread toasted and spread with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter and a big bowl of strawberries, blackberries and a sliced banana

Then yesterday I used up the remaining berries with some cereal:

Dorset Cereals High Fibre Flakes with strawberries, blackberries and kara coconut milk plus a mug of Clippers Indian Chai tea with coconut milk and stevia

I absolutely love that chai tea its delicious! For lunches there has been salads:

Romaine, cucumber, brown rice, black beans, red onion, avocado

Romaine, cucumber, carrot, chickpeas, olives, balsamic and hemp oil dressing

At the weekend I decided to make a batch of my Summer Bean Stew (despite the weather being as far from summery as possible) I added some celery to the recipe and used some home cooked cannellini beans and pinto beans:

I had it with a Raw Health Italian cracker on the side. So tasty!

I’ve also had some amazingly tasty dinners:

Herbed socca fold over with red pepper hummus, baked tofu and spinach served with lots of roast broccoli

Buddha bowl with steamed greens, quinoa, edamame beans, roast red kabocha squash, a peanut sesame miso sauce and parsley on top

Snacks wise I’ve been enjoying lots of nuts, seeds and dried fruit:

Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds and dried figs

Pumpkin seeds and satsumas (good combo for iron absorption – iron in pumpkin seeds and vitamin C in the fruit)

The Raw Chocolate Company chocolate covered goji berries and frozen grapes

And eaten in the car between meetings:

A vegan chocolate chip cookie (from Cat as part of the cookie exchange) and a big pink lady apple

My other meals and snacks may have been good this week but my smoothies have been phenomenal! They’ve all turned out extremely creamy and satisfying:

Kale, mixed frozen berries, half an avocado, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, ground flax, maca, water and ice topped with goji berries and hemp seeds

Amazing chocolate chip peanut butter smoothie made with two scoops of spiru-tein peanut butter swirl powder, xanthan gum, water, ice and stevia topped with peanut sauce made from peanut flour and dark chocolate chips on top

Lots of spinach, frozen banana, two scoops of vanilla sun warrior protein powder, ground flax, maca, water, ice topped with some coconut and bee pollen (tasted like vanilla ice cream!)

Frozen blueberries, spiru-tein cookies and cream protein powder, water, ice topped with peanut butter & co smooth operator peanut butter and cacao nibs

They were all so delicious, the one with the avocado in was especially good!

Workouts wise I’ve been doing the last week of the Dial It In phase from Female Body Breakthrough (my amended version of it) so I’ve been giving it my all:

• Saturday – REST
• Sunday – 6 mile run (approx)
• Monday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Dial it in phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – 3 mile run (approx)
• Wednesday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Dial it in phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike, PM – Yoga for detox podcast
• Thursday – PM yoga class 1hr 15 
• Friday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Dial it in phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I keep a little note book with all of the weights I use and reps for each exercise so I’ve been looking back to see if I have improved. Its really motivational to see how well I’ve progressed. Even though I don’t have any specific aims to increase strength or build muscle, this month I do feel like I’ve started to see some added muscle definition which is always good! I’ve also been continuing to enjoy my yoga classes now that I’ve been going regularly and feel more comfortable in the group. We do a lot of assisted poses (thanks to this post I now get that this is in fact what we are doing!) which are fantastic for really stretching you out.

On the weekend send off love list this week…

That would be Tesco’s amazing ‘Free From’ range of products including soya yoghurts, desserts and vegan cheeses, also some very Free Range Chickens (although I think those are Cockerels) at my Farm shop

I called into to Tesco and remembered that Jess had mentioned that they did some amazing vegan cheese. I ended up getting some of their soy yoghurt (which doesn’t appear to contain any added sugar like most other brands), vegan cream cheese and vegan mild and medium cheese. The ingredients lists for these look very good with coconut oil being a main component and not a lot of other stuff, I’ll probably do a little review once I’ve tried them. I also paid a visit to my local farm shop to get some veggies and eggs. After I posted about my return to eggs I knew these would be the only eggs I’d feel comfortable eating and I have to say you can’t get much more free range than the chickens I saw, they were literally pottering around the whole farm, I had to make sure I didn’t run any of them over! Also…

Listening to James Brown in the car and having a little funky groove to it // seeing the Avengers movie (which was awesome!) // another brilliant healthy eating session with the young people – this week we made pizza’s on whole wheat muffins and tortillas //making an order with Goodness Direct to stock up on my favourite moisturiser (15% off right now!) and treating myself to some coconut water // knowing that we have a long weekend ahead, and god do I need it!

Do you keep any kind of workout log or note book to record your progress at the gym? Have you had anything particularly delicious this week you’d like to share? What’s on your love list this week?