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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!

Hi everyone, hope your having a great week! I can’t believe its Wednesday already. I thought I’d give you another weekend WIAW for a change, these are my eats and goings on from last Sunday.

As always click on the link above to check out all the other WIAW’s and join the party!

I had a nice lie in until 8am and made myself the usual lemon juice and warm water and ate a banana for gym fuel:

I headed to the gym for it opening at 9. I had been planning on running on the treadmill for 30 minutes but after 15 minutes I was losing the will to live so switched it up and did 30 minutes on the bike set to random. Then it was off to Kettle bells! After that I came home, got showered and made an incredible breakfast:

Pancakes! I haven’t made pancakes in ages, these were chocolate protein pancakes with fresh blueberries, peanut flour sauce and maple syrup, holy yum! I made the pancakes with 1/4 cup of chocolate hemp protein powder, 1/4 cup of spelt flour, 1 tsp of baking powder and 3/4 cup of kara coconut milk. They turned out really well although I made them too big so they broke in half while flipping, still they tasted amazing! I also had a cup of amaretto coffee with kara coconut milk and stevia:

After that I was off out to do the rounds – I visited my two best friends where I drank copious amounts of green tea and we had a great catch up it, was so good to see them and we started to make 30th Birthday celebration plans! Then it was off to see my Grandma and then to my Mam and Dad’s before coming home. I was pretty hungry by the time I got back and since I had some veg in the fridge that needed eating up I decided to make an epically massive green smoothie:

This contained kale, spring greens, 1/2 avocado, 1 pink lady apple, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca powder, midori greens, 3 chlorella tablets, matcha green tea, ground flax, water, ice, vanilla stevia and then I went a bit mental with the toppings and added raw shoyu ‘roasted’ almonds, roast salted edamame, raisins, dried mixed berries, goji berries and bee pollen. It was gorgeous and sorted my hunger out a treat.

Later for dinner I had some baked tofu (tofu that had been frozen and defrosted then marinaded in shoyu, maple syrup, mirin, ginger powder and garlic powder) swede chips, roast brussel sprouts, steamed purple sprouting broccoli and ketchup:

That tofu was spot on, I love it baked until crispy like that! Later on I wanted an evening snack / dessert but couldn’t decide what to have so made a mini snacking plate:

A sliced pink lady apple, tahini with thyme honey swirled in, Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter and some The Raw Chocolate Company plain raw chocolate plus a Cosy Camomile tea.

All in all a great day of eats!

I was glad I decided to make pancakes again, I used to make protein pancakes on a regular basis when I was eating more eggs but I just got out of the habit. Those turned out so well and are so easy to make I have no excuse not to make them more regularly. How often do you have pancakes? When I was younger we only ever had pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, I think its a shame so many people only have them once a year! What’s your favourite pancake recipe?

Today has just been one of those great days when I have been able to do exactly what I've felt like, cook good food and enjoy myself. I've basically spent most of the day lying in bed watching TV off the BBC iPlayer and 4On Demand and reading old cookery books. That sounds so bad! I feel like I should be doing something constructive with my time, but I think a bit of relaxation is what I've needed.

Thanks for the comments on my last post about me being in Health and Fitness Mag!

The hubby was off work today (and for the next two days) which is very rare as he usually has to work bank holidays, this meant that we could both have a lie in! When I did eventually surface I had my weekly weigh in and was happy to have lost 1lb. This puts me at 10st 1 which is the lightest I've ever been in my adult years. I'm still trying to figure out this weight maintenance stuff, I always seem to be gaining or losing but the trend over the past couple of months has been that I'm getting lighter. I don't actually want to get any lower than 10st, however I still freak out when I gain, even though I need to recognise that my body changes and my weight is going to naturally go up and down. I think I might still be addicted to the elation that follows a weight loss and this is something I'm going to have to keep an eye on if I ever want to successfully maintain my weight and have a healthy attitude towards it! I think the acceptance of being happy with my weight is what is leading me to enjoy exercise more for the sake of fitness rather than weight loss. I do still exercise to maintain my weight, but I'm increasingly enjoying it for how it makes me feel and for my increased fitness and strength. A good example of this is my running!

Friday would be my normal rest day but as me and the hubby are going to be out for the day tomorrow I switched. Before I headed out for a run I had a cup of green tea and the last of my home made fuel bars.


I ran 3.86 miles in 40.47 which is the longest distance I've ever ran, I felt really good on this run and I enjoyed the route I took, it had a good mix of uphill, downhill and flat sections. My times weren't as good as I'd hoped (not as good as last week), however I know that I could have easily pushed myself harder, I think in the back of my mind I was worried about the extra distance and didn't want to push too hard then not be able to finish, which is just daft as I was totally fine!
To reward myself for my run I made a fabulous breakfast. I made some vanilla pancakes using 3 egg whites, a scoop of vanilla whey, a tablespoon of spelt flour and a little rice milk (makes two pancakes). When the pancakes were made I spread them with almond butter and a dollop of 100% fruit strawberry jam and served them with two chopped pears. These were just so tasty!


Lunch was a huge bowl of chilli bean soup followed by an apple.


Mid afternoon I had some cottage cheese with lemon flavoured Nakd raisins and an orange.

I decided to mix the raisins in with my cottage cheese.


Yum! Out of all the flavoured raisins these were the ones I was expecting not to like but they were great and went very well mixed into the cottage cheese, it kind of reminded me of lemon cheesecake filling! For my reviews of the other Natural Balance Food products I posted about yesterday I'm going to try (or rather taste!) them out over the next month then I'll do a proper review (I will also give them mini reviews as I go, like above) and a giveaway! I'm really excited to be able to have a giveaway, and its not going to be just some of the Natural Balance stuff, I'm going to get creative! Just to note as well that I will be completely honest in any reviews I do.

I decided to have myself a lovely relaxing bath before dinner. Theres something so decadent about having a bath in the middle of the day, love it!

For dinner I made up some more Sesame Ginger Maple Tofu and served it with stir fried brocolli, pak choy, orange pepper and carrot with added soy sauce. So good!


And since it is now officially the Easter break I thought I'd treat myself to some chocolate for desert. I had a few squares of Green and Blacks Hazelnut and Currant Chocolate, the first of lots of chocolate this weekend!


Drinks - water, sparkling water, green tea, decaf tea, hazelnut and almond rice milk heated up with a peppermint tea bag.

So have you any big plans for the Easter weekend? Me and the Hubby are getting the train into Newcastle tomorrow to have a browse around the shops then meet up with my in laws for lunch (probably Italian) and some drinks. Then Sunday its lunch at my parents. I'm really looking forward to it, I just hope the weather holds up! Hope you have all had a lovely day and have a great weekend planned! x

I was up way to early for a bank holiday due to the hubby having to be up for work so I decided to make the most of it and get in an early run. I had a green tea and one of my new home made fuel bars before I went out.


I made these fuel bars yesterday and this one tasted yummy! I had made these ones here a while ago but fancied trying something different this time.

Laura's fuel bars No 2

2 scoops of chocolate whey
1 1/2 cups of oats
4 tablespoons of peanut butter (I used smooth but you could try crunchy)
1 mashed banana
2 tablespoons of dried sour cherries
2 tablespoons of raisins
2 tablespoons of agave syrup
a little bit of water

Mix all of the ingredients together well, wait until you've given it a really good mix before deciding if its too dry as it took me a while to get everything to combine and then it was nice and sticky. Push the mixture into a baking tray (I lined mine with clingfilm to make it easier to cut later) then top with clingfilm and pop in the freezer for about an hour.


Remove from the freezer before it freezes solid and cut into squares. Wrap in foil and keep in freezer for quick snacking!

Then I went out for my run, I chose a fairly hilly route of 5 miles. It looked lovely and sunny from the flat but when I got out it was freezing cold. I didn't have my wooly gloves I sometimes wear so my hands went numb about 5 minutes in. Then the rain and wind started. It was awful, I was worried about getting my iPhone wet (which was strapped to my arm), I stopped at one point to try and make sure it was ok, but luckily the strap does a good job of keeping it dry. I did 5 miles in 47.30. There were two big hills in the last couple of miles that nearly killed me, but at least the bad weather gave me the will to move faster in order to get home quicker. I did the last mile in under 9 minutes (8.55 and this was on the flat) - a definite personal best for me.

When I got home I could bearly open the door my hands were so numb, I really need to invest in some proper running gloves if such things exist! I did some stretching, my new abs workout (I also managed a personal best in my plank - 1 min 20 secs!) and a few yoga poses to stretch my hips out.

Breakfast was lovely pancakes, perfect for a rainy bank holiday! I made up a pancake batter of 1 scoop of vanilla whey, 2 tablespoons of oats, 3 egg whites and a few blueberries and served the cooked pancakes with more blueberries, natural yoghurt, maple syrup and chopped pecans.


These were fat and filling little pancakes, just gorgeous!

For lunch I had a bowl of speedy soup - sachet of miso soup,  tsp of vegetable bouillion, red onion and torn spinach leaves with two savory rice cakes.


Followed by a chopped apple with cinnamon and maca and an orange.


We were supposed to be having a barbeque today at my parents with my sister, bro in law and nephew, but due to the typical British bank holiday weather we ended up just having a lovely feast indoors!


My Mam is a wonderful cook and made some home made quiche and cheese scones. There was also a pizza and some steamed new potatoes added to the table after I took this pick. I had a slice of quiche and a slice of thin crust pizza, a cheese scone with butter, loads of salad, a little bit of coleslaw and some carrot sticks with onion and garlic dip.


I then had two big bowls full of fresh strawberries, raspberries and grapes for desert (avoiding the chocolate cake and cream!) I went and picked the hubby up from work and brought him through so he could have some food too.


I had another cheese scone with butter as these were just delicious!

I decided to finish the day off with a simple green monster - spinach, frozen banana and hazelnut and almond rice milk.


Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Well I have managed to get most of my to do list done, all thats left is getting my box of DIY stuff out ready to paint my window sills and doing my inspiration board! I still have a big pile of magazines that I'd like to sort through before I make it and as I'm not working any really late ones I should get this done by the end of the week. I also did my review of Natural Balance Foods and my GIVEAWAY post - check it out if you haven't done already! The comments have been great, I've already got loads of beauty tips!

At least this week is going to be a short one, I'm looking forward to next weekend already! Hope your all having a good week, and if you've had today off for the bank holiday in the UK I hope you've had a good one! x

Hi Everyone, this is a bit of a monster post so please bear with me! Hope you’ve all had a great weekend so far. Saturday morning I was up bright and early for my first run since last weeks Great North Run. I have to admit when I looked out the window and saw the howling wind I very nearly decided to just leave it and go to the gym instead. I stuck at it, fuelled up with some orange nakd raisins and went out and did 6.66 miles in 1hr03.

It was so cold my fingers were actually really sore and aching. It was not the most pleasant run but I’m glad I didn’t let the weather stop me! I think I’m going to continue running shorter distances (4 – 9 miles) and doing speed work on the treadmill at the gym over the winter to keep my fitness level up. I came home and did 15 minutes of yoga stretch (from a Davina DVD) then made breakfast. I had some delicious protein pancakes made with egg whites, cookies and cream spiru-tein, baking powder, soy milk and apple and berry fruit puree. These didn’t cook properly for some reason but I covered them with hot berries and almond butter sauce and they still tasted great!

Lunch was a salad with cos lettuce, spinach, cucumber, red onion, carrot, green pepper, 2 goats cheese babybel and some balsamic dressing. I also had a 2 small chopped apples and a sliced pear with cinnamon.

I had an afternoon of catching up with the family then hit the town for some shopping. I picked up some goodies from Waitrose:

I was chuffed that I managed to find some of the 2% Total Greek Yoghurt to try and some of the Lindt Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt (more on that in a mo). I also got some organic brown pitta breads to pop in the freezer and two packs each of basil tofu, sesame almond tofu and some tofu sausages that I fancied trying out. I also picked up some natural almond flavouring.

I stopped by Holland and Barrat for some nuts and nut butter:

Walnuts, brazil nuts, raisins, ground almonds, cashew butter, almond butter and some sprouted wheat bread that I’ve been dying to try. Its high in protein and only has one single ingredient – spouted wheat, sounds good!

I looked about for other items from my wish list but just couldn’t seem to find anything. I ended up in Peacocks and was very surprised to find these:

Grey flat studded ankle boots, charcoal grey skinny trousers and some soft and oh so comfy hareem style belted pants that I’ll be wearing round the house with big jumpers, so cosy! I just wanted some cheap boots and skinny trousers that I can sling on when its raining outside (hate wet trouser bottoms!) and that will do for work too, these seemed to fit the bill.

I also picked up my new blender!

Isn’t it pretty? I know its no Vita Mix but hopefully it should do me for a while.

After meeting up with the hubby and snacking on some dried apricots to keep me going, we came home and I made my first ever curry without using a pre made curry paste. I was very proud of myself :-)

Chickpea and Vegetable Curry (makes 4 portions)

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 finely chopped cloves of garlic
• 1 inch piece of ginger root peeled and grated
• 1 tsp of garam masala
• 1 tsp of hot chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp of ground coriander
• 1/2 an aubergine
• 1 small sweet potato
• 4 runner beans, chopped
• 1 tin of chickpeas
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of light coconut milk

Start by chopping the aubergine into bite size pieces and lightly stir frying in some olive oil for a few minutes until browned. Set to one side. To speed things up I also cheated a bit by microwaving the sweet potato for 3 minutes so that it was semi cooked. Chop the sweet potato into bite size pieces and set to one side with the aubergine. In a heavy bottomed pan (or frying pan – I actually just used my big wok) heat the oil over a medium heat. Fry the onions for a few minutes until translucent, then add the garlic and ginger, followed by the spices. Fry together for a few minutes taking care not to let them burn. Add the aubergine, sweet potatoes and chopped beans and fry for a minutes before adding the drained and rinsed chickpeas followed by the chopped tomatoes and coconut milk. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes then serve.

I served mine with some cauliflower ‘rice’ (cauliflower put through the food processor and them steamed) and a drizzle of soy sauce. It was delicious and so good for you! The beauty of this is that you could add any veggies you have hanging about in place of the aubergine, beans and sweet potato.

For desert I had some of my strawberry frozen yoghurt topped with agave syrup and flaked almonds.

This has kept so well in the freezer, such a great alternative to regular ice cream. I also couldn’t resist trying a square of the Lindt Sea Salt Chocolate.

Oh. my. god. This is the best chocolate I have ever tasted. I was divine. It took all my will powder not to eat the whole bar there and then. I love the sweet and salty combo and this is a perfect example of that. Yum! I’ll be stock piling bars of this every time I’m at Waitrose.

This morning I had a bowl of Dorset Cereal Fruit and Fibre style cereal with a chopped apple and some soy milk.

Was nice to have some cereal for a change, very tasty!

Mid morning I was just itching to try out my blender so I made a strawberry and mint smoothie using frozen strawberries, skimmed milk and a few fresh mint leaves.

The blender worked really well and the smoothie was delicious and refreshing.

I roasted a huge tin of veggies (broccoli, sweet potato, red pepper, red onion, aubergine, runner beans) to last me for a couple of days. For lunch I made a spelt wrap and filled it with hummus and some of the roast veggies.

I love roast veggies and hummus in wrap, perhaps my favourite filling! I also ended up making myself a big bowl of vanilla and matcha green tea protein ice cream topped with coconut and agave syrup.

I wanted to be sure the blender could handle the ice cubes and I’m very pleased to say that this bowl was perfect – no lumpy bits at all!

I’ve had a bit of a soup making day, I have a big pan of low carb Leek, Potato and Bean Soup on the stove right now. I’ll post the recipe up tomorrow or this will end up being the longest post ever!

Have you had a good weekend? What’s your favourite soup? I’ll be a soup making machine this autumn and winter – it makes the perfect healthy lunch when the weather is cold! I like to add beans to my soups to make them more filling too.

Oh, and in case you missed it yesterday I posted Part 1 of what I learned doing my Big Budget Challenge. Check it out!