Info all Articles

Hi everyone, happy Friday! I’ve had a jam packed couple of days including some tasty eats and great workouts:

source

I kicked off Thursday with a yoga flow from Slim Calm Sexy Yoga. I did the full body toning flow. It only took me 15 minutes and was a great way to start the day. After work I hit the gym for my upper body workout / intervals. I started with a 5 minute warm up on the cross trainer then did the following routine:

• Dumbbell pullover on stability ball x 8 reps with 9kg db
• Chest flye on stability ball x 8 reps with 2 x 6kg db
• Lower back raise on stability ball x 10 reps

x 3 sets

• shoulder press – 6 reps with 2 x 6kg db
• bicep curl – 6 reps with 2 x 6kg db
• lateral raise – 8 reps with x 4kg db

x 3 sets

• tricep dip x 15reps bw
• bent over row – 8 reps with 2 x 8kg db
• upright row – 8 reps with 2 x 6kg db

x 3 sets

• push up on bench x 10 reps bw
• dumbbell wood chop – 10 reps each side with 8kg db

x 3 sets

I finished off with 20 minutes (2 x 10 mins) of HIITs on the step machine and bike. This morning I was back at the gym for a quick 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my abs and core exercises.

Thursdays breakfast was some porridge topped with fresh pineapple and coconut flour sauce. I used 1/2 cup of Rude Health Fruity Date Porridge with 1 teaspoon of chia seeds, water and rice milk:

I love how much coconut sauce you can make from just one teaspoon of coconut flour, it just eats up water!

This mornings breakie was a delicious smoothie containing romaine lettuce, frozen banana, frozen peaches, vanilla sun warrior, spirulina, matcha green tea, mesquite and a generous amount of peanut butter, topped with gojis and cacao nibs:

This was another monster smoothie! I love adding lots and lots of greens (I used almost a full head of lettuce in this) to give plenty of bulk so that I get really filled up. This was the nicest tasting smoothie I’ve had in a while too, got to love that peanut butter!

Lunch has been the same the last two days – a big salad beasty containing lettuce, carrot, cucumber, red and yellow pepper, red onion, mixed beans, braggs seasoning and some nutritional yeast flakes:

Yesterday I also had some grapes and a nectarine and today I enjoyed a juicy pear and an orange.

Snackies have included the last of my leftover cookies and an apple:

I also tried another Total split pot today, this time the honey variety:

The honey was set which I wasn’t expecting but it still tasted lovely.

Yesterdays dinner was a serving of my Moroccan Tagine with mixed rice and steamed spring greens with shoyu, ume vinegar and mixed seeds:

Loved this! So glad I remembered I had some stashed in the freezer. Last nights dessert was some of my pumpkin protein pudding with graham cracker crumbs and when that didn’t satisfy me I also snacked on a couple of apples and a pear.

Tonight I had a grilled wild garlic tofu fillet in a wholemeal pitta with some of my high protein sundried tomato hummus, lettuce and alfalfa sprouts plus some raw carrot and a side of steamed kale with shoyu:

This was so satisfying, like eating a big burger! I made the hummus using my original high protein hummus recipe but with an added 1/2 cup of sun dried tomatoes in oil drained and with the 2 tbsp of oil left out – I ended up with a huge portion – I’ll be eating hummus for the rest of the week :-) Dessert was two chopped apples and half a bar of conscious raw chocolate:

This variety contained lucuma and yacon root. It tasted ok but not as nice as the other varieties I have tried so far.

As I’ve been working from home today I took advantage of the opportunity to be near the kitchen and baked some bread for James and made some baked Seitan sausage for me! I’ll share the Seitan recipe soon, but wow it looks so good! Seitan is a meat alternative made some gluten flour in case you were wondering - I had no idea what it was when I first heard about it!

I also got my organic veg box delivery today as well as a trip to the farm shop and the supermarket. I think I may have gone a little overboard with the fresh produce yet again:

Includes: swiss chard, kale, cos lettuce, round lettuce, celery, courgettes, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, spinach, spring greens, bananas, apples, pears, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, lemons, broccoli, carrots, beetroot, butternut squash, parsnips, avocado, sugar snap peas.

Its a good job I love my fruits and veggies! I have to say nothing makes me happier than a fridge full of fresh mostly organic produce, I’ll enjoy eating my way through all this over the next week.

I have a very busy weekend ahead, I have to study for my course, catch up with some work, see friends and family, fit in a run and go on the hunt for a new car!

I’m searching for a new car to replace my little 8 year old Ford Ka, I’m just looking for another small, economical and environmentally friendly run around. Do you drive? What kind of car do you own? Any favourite models? I quite like the Peugeot 107:

Fingers crossed I find something that doesn’t cost a bomb!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend planned! :-)

As per my new training plan Tuesday morning began with a very early yoga session. I did the Yoga for Runners podcast which lasts 20 minutes almost as soon as I had woken up. It was great, not so much a workout but just an opportunity to focus and relax my mind before my day started, although it did work up a little sweat!

Breakfast was a bowl of Dorset Cereal low fat flakes with blueberries, chopped apple, almond milk and some almond meal (leftover from making the milk). I also had a mug of yerba mate tea:

Lunch was a salad including spinach, romaine, lentils, carrot, cucumber, dried cranberries, spicy pumpkin seeds, cool oil and herbamare seasoning:

I also had a bowl of grapes. Mid afternoon I snacked on half a 9 bar before hitting the gym for my first ever Body Pump class! The class was fantastic, I absolutely loved it. I still need to figure out the best combo of weights for each track but I felt like I had an excellent workout. I’m looking forward to next weeks class already!

Dinner was Thai Green Vegetable and Soya Bean Curry with steamed greens, brown, wild and red rice, shoyu, ume vinegar and a sprinkling of mixed seeds:

I sometimes forget how much I love Thai Green Curry! I was so chuffed when I found a vegan curry paste – I still have some stashed in the freezer.

Dessert was a little experiment: pumpkin protein pudding! I blended a tin of pumpkin puree with 2 scoops of vanilla whey protein powder, cinnamon and ginger. I had half topped with grape nuts cereal:

This was nice but I wish I hadn’t used my old whey protein powder, it just goes to show how my taste buds have changed as this tasted way too sweet and artificial. Wish I had used Sun Warrior or even my vanilla hemp instead!

This morning I was off to the gym first thing. I did 30 minutes of speed work on the treadmill followed by 30 minutes of HIITs on the step machine, cross trainer and bike followed by my abs and core exercises. I really felt good during this workout, I think that I’m much better doing my cardio focused workouts on a morning when possible. I’m going to see how I can rearrange my days so I can do it more often.

Breakfast was a giant smoothie containing kale, spring greens, 2 nectarines, frozen mixed berries, vanilla hemp protein powder, matcha green tea powder, maca, spirulina, ground flax, 2 large tablespoons of almond meal (leftover from almond milk making), xanthan gum, rice milk and water. I topped it with some viva pure raw apple honey granola and goji berries:

I had this bowl plus more – it practically filled the whole blender, it was extremely filling. The granola tasted amazing – love the size of those huge crunchy chunks!

Lunch was some Clearspring miso and ginger brown rice ramen noodles with carrot, cucumber and red pepper plus 2 Clearspring tamari and black sesame rice cakes spread with tahini:

This was so good, I am in love with those noodles and the rice cakes with tahini tasted just amazing. I also had some fresh pineapple and blueberries:

For the first time in ages I wasn’t hungry for my usual afternoon snack, very weird especially after my workout this morning. I decided to just wait until dinner and make sure it was a big satisfying meal! I really fancied a sweet potato so I made a one pan, hash type dish that turned out to be so good I want to write it out as a recipe so I don’t forget!

Tofu, Sweet Potato, Courgette and Kale Hash (serves 1 hungry person!)

• Half a standard block of tofu (mine had been frozen then defrosted which gives it a more spongy texture)
• Tofu marinade: 1 tbsp of dark soy sauce, 1 tsp mirin
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 1 sweet potato, microwaved for 5 minutes then chopped into 2 cm squares
• 1 courgette, chopped
• 1 cup of chopped kale
• Oil for frying (I used coconut)
• Seasonings – I used dried oregano, herbamare and shoyu, but you could play around and use what you fancy

Begin by cutting the tofu into strips or squares and marinating in the soy sauce and mirin for at least an hour. Heat some oil in a pan to a medium heat and gently fry the tofu until browned. Set aside. Add more oil to the pan and add the onion and courgette and fry on a medium heat until they are beginning to brown, then add the partially cooked sweet potato followed by the kale. Continue frying until the sweet potato has browned and the kale has wilted down a little. Add the tofu back to the pan along with the seasonings. Serve:

Seriously this was amazing. I love how thrown together meals can turn out so good!

Dessert was two chopped apples with Plamils Coffee Chocolate:

I’m really feeling the DOMS after yesterdays Body Pump – I can really see why so many of you love it! I’m so glad that I decided to give it ago. What workouts / fitness classes have you not tried yet but would love to give a go? I would love to try a proper Pilates class or a kettlebell class.

Hope your all having a good week, I feel like I’ve never stopped as work has been pretty busy. I’ll be back tomorrow with a review of Crazy, Sexy Diet, have a good one!

Happy Halloween! Hope you are all doing well and enjoying your day. I love Halloween but don’t really have much opportunity to celebrate it, we don’t even get trick or treaters where we live! :-(

Last night I made a delicious autumnal vegan dinner:

Vegan Lentil and Swede Cottage Pie (serves 1):

• 1/2 cup of brown lentils, rinsed
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1/2 onion, finely diced
• Vegetable stock
• 1/2 large swede, diced
• 1 tsp of pure sunflower spread
• 1 tablespoon of soy milk

Begin by frying the onion and carrot in a little oil in a small pan. When the onion becomes transparent and the carrot has softened a little add the lentils and enough vegetable stock to cover everything. Simmer, topping up the pan with more stock as required until the lentils are cooked (about 20 minutes). While the lentils are simmering steam the swede until tender then mash together with the pure spread and soy milk until creamy. In an individual sized oven dish pour the lentils in and then top with the swede mash. Bake in a 200c oven for around 10 minutes until warmed through. Serve with steamed greens.

 

This was so delicious! I made the hubby a traditional version with beef mince and potato mash and I think mine was far more flavourful. This was extremely filling too, especially as I piled on the swede! I served mine with some steamed red russian kale and broccoli.

Desert was some RAW zesty orange chocolate and an unpictured russet apple.

This morning I made a quick smoothie in a bowl using some frozen fruit salad mix, soy milk, agave syrup and ground flax and nut mix topped with granola.

I headed to the gym and ran 10k on the treadmill – the first 5k I ran 0.5 mile speed intervals between 6 – 7.5 mph then for the second 5k I did 0.5 mile hill intervals with a 2% incline. Great workout! I finished off with 10 minutes on the step machine.

When I got back I had a slice of toasted soda bread with peanut butter and black cherry fruit sweetened jam.

I also had two unpictured russet apples. Lunch was another bowl of roast tomato and red pepper soup, same as yesterday along with a satsuma.

For dinner I made a Roast Butternut, Radicchio and Goats Cheese Salad. Basically some romaine lettuce, one head of chopped radicchio, about a cup of roast butternut squash topped with organic goats cheese, balsamic vinegar and some toasted seeds.

Very seasonal and very delicious!

I had been hoping on making a pumpkin pie for Halloween but the Graham Cracker pie crust I bought a couple of weeks ago had crumbled in its packaging. Instead I made a Pumpkin Pie Smoothie based on Mama Peas recipe (without the nutmeg or garam masala) – poured it into a bowl and topped with the Graham Cracker crumbs, maple syrup and some mixed seeds.

Yum!

October Review

October has been one hell of a month for me! I feel like I’ve really being under going a lot of change – from my new vegetarian diet to getting all my hair cut off!

This month I have:

• Kept up with my weekly spinning and yoga classes
• Ran 15k each week (split between a 5k during the week and 10k on a weekend)
• Lost 4lbs and half an inch off my hips

Just the same as last month, the weight loss has really surprised me. I have lost a startling 9lbs since I did the Great North Run in the middle of September. I certainly don’t feel like I need to lose any more weight and I’m completely happy with my body and feel that I’m eating enough. I never feel starving and I haven’t had a bingeing episode in a long time. I guess that may be why I have lost weight. At the moment I’m really happy with what I’m eating although I plan to include more whole grains so this may help to balance things out for next month. I’m also happy with how I’m exercising so I’m going to just continue weighting myself once a month and see how things continue. If I’m still at a low weight (for me) after Christmas I will have to think about trying to gain (can not believe I just typed that!) I like to have a few curves! Ultra slim would just not suit me.

I’m very happy that I have achieved everything I wanted to this month. I’m also doing well trying to focus on being healthy rather than slim. I used to beat myself up if I ate an extra snack – but now as long as its something that’s going to nourish my body I let that guilt go.

Goals for November:

• Continue with spinning and yoga classes
• Continue to run at least 15k a week
• Increase some of my resistance levels / change up my HIIT sessions a bit so they are more challenging
• In line with my thoughts in this post, continue to try and eat a varied plant based vegetarian diet including more whole grains and organic foods and reducing diary products
• Continue with my basic training plan structure but change DVD to Davina McCall Davina Fit DVD - Top fit and Bottom fit workouts (both on a Tuesday, Top fit on a Thursday)

Current stats:

• Weight 9st 5lbs
• Waist: 27 inches
• Bust: 35.5 inches
• Hips: 34.5 inches

What have you achieved this month? Do you have any goals for November?

I can’t believe its the 1st November already, only a few weeks to Christmas!

I haven’t forgotten about organising the bloggers Secret Santa, I’m just waiting until after Bonfire Night (5th November for those not in the UK) as I refuse to do anything particularly Christmassy until after that date. Then I’m a full on Christmas fan!

Breakfast this morning was my first try of the Bob Red Mills 10 Grain Hot Cereal I ordered from iHerb. I used 1/4 cup of cereal with 1/4 cup of soy milk and half a cup of water. When cooked I added some frozen blueberries, chopped walnuts and a little brown rice syrup then topped my bowl with more walnuts and some maple syrup.

So lovely and filling. I’m also loving the brown rice syrup, it has a much more mellow flavour than agave or maple syrup. I can see this becoming my regular sweetener of choice.

Mid morning I snacked on some pumpkin yoghurt.

I should have mentioned last night that I had opened my first tin of Libby’s to make my pumpkin smoothie. I mixed what was left with some 2% greek yoghurt. The tinned stuff is amazing, such a lovely intense sweet pumpkin flavour, delicious!

Lunch was a repeat of last nights amazing Roast Butternut Squash and Radcchio Salad with Goats Cheese and Seeds followed by two plums. I also snacked on some orange nakd raisins before going to the gym.

In line with my refreshed training plan for this month I changed up my HIITs from my usual 1 minute medium intensity : 1 minute hard intensity to 30 seconds medium, 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds feel like I’m going to die. This certainly achieved my goal of making my HIIT session more challenging! I did 15 minutes of this on the cross trainer and 15 minutes on the step machine plus some abs and core exercises before heading into my 30 minute spin class. I was wrecked after all of that!

One of my goals for this month is to try and eat more whole grains. The Kind Diet really places whole grains at the centre of healthy eating and I recognised that I don’t really include as many grains in my diet as I could. To try and remedy this I will be having a Grain of the week. Each Sunday I will make up a batch of grain to sit in the fridge and be used within meals for a couple of days. This week I used a bag of mixed grains I had picked up in Tesco a few months ago.

This mix includes spelt, barley, whole thaibonnet rice, kamut wheat and oats. The grains are pre cooked so they only needed to be boiled for 10 minutes.

I used them to make a fried grain dish by frying some leek, mushrooms and carrots  in a little garlic olive oil then mixing in the grain. I also steamed a big bunch of russian red kale and added some shoyu (Japanese soy sauce – another Kind Diet ingredient that I found in Sainsbury’s) and Ume vinegar plus some toasted mixed seeds.

This made an incredibly simple, healthy and tasty dish! For desert I blended a scoop of Fruit-ein powder with some soy milk, ice cubes, xanthan gum and guar gum to make a delicious bowl of protein ice cream. I topped it off with a few goji berries.

So good, the Fruit-ein reminds me of bubblegum flavoured sweets! I also ate a lovely little russet apple.

Do you include whole grains in your diet? 

Whole grains are packed with nutrients including protein, fibre, B vitamins, antioxidants, and trace minerals (iron, zinc, copper, and magnesium). A diet rich in whole grains has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and some forms of cancer. Wholegrain diets also improve bowel health by helping to maintain regular bowel movements and promote growth of healthy bacteria in the colon. To reap all these benefits its important to go for the unrefined grains – as close to their natural state as possible – so go for brown rice instead of white etc.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with more of these grains including brown and wild rice, quinoa, pearl barley, millet and bulgur. I’m also going to try and sneak some into my hubby’s meals too! What’s your favourite grain?

We had a great time last night seeing Joe Bonnamassa, he put on a really great show and his guitar playing is amazing. We had a Subway and a coffee while we waited for the gig to start.

 

I had a small turkey sub with lettuce, cucumber, green pepper, red onion and sweet chilli sauce on wheat bread and a massive skinny gingerbread latte from Costa. The coffee was delicious but perhaps a little too sweet. My outfit for the night:

Hat: Accessorize, Blazer: Topshop, Jeweled Bib Necklace: Topshop, Black T Shirt: Gap, Skinny Jeans: Topshop, Bag: H&M, Boots: Peacocks

For breakfast I had a bowl of Dorset Cereal Fruit and Fibre with a chopped nectarine, teaspoon of ground flax mix and some soy milk.

Really tasty and totally hit the spot. Mid morning I snacked on some hummus with carrot and cucumber for dipping.

This was the hummus I bought from the deli in Durham and it was delicious, the best I’ve tasted I think.

Lunch was some chickpea and olive salad followed by an orange.

 

Before I left work for the gym I had a some pieces of dried pineapple and a few almonds.

I had my usual Monday night gym workout of 30 minutes of HIITs, abs exercises and 30 minute spinning class which exhausted me!

For dinner I had half a large sweet potato with cottage cheese mixed with cucumber and spring onion plus some spinach on the side.

I really love this combo, sweet potatoes are the best! Desert was a smoothie in a bowl made with a scoop of nutty berry spirutein powder, soy milk and ice cubes topped with some coconut and a sliced braeburn apple.

Yesterday before the gig I had a bit of a mooch around Newcastle including calling into Fenwick the department store to tease myself in the food hall. I got so excited when I spotted these:

Canned pumpkin! I have only seen these available on the web for £3.99 a tin, these where £1.99 each and I bought three. I also got a graham cracker crumb crust. I’m thinking of trying to make a pumpkin pie!

I also bought the jumper dress I’d seen in Miss Selfridge on Saturday :-)

Today I received a little parcel of goodies from Goodness Direct:

RAW Spicy Orange Chocolate bar, dried figs and a mango and brazil bar. Can’t wait to try all of these. I really like Goodness Direct, they have a fantastic range. Once I’ve started to work on my stock pile of healthy goodies I’ll be placing an order.

Have you had canned pumpkin before? I can’t wait to try out some different recipes: pumpkin porridge, pumpkin yoghurt, pumpkin bread the list goes on! I still have my big pumpkin to eat first though :-)

Hi Everyone, huge thank you to those that commented on yesterday’s post, thankfully I’m feeling completely back to my old self!

Today kicked off with Level 3 of the 30 Day Shred. I’ll be changing up my DVD’s for next month so this was my last shredding session for a while. I can’t say I’m going to miss it!

For breakfast I decided to make some super creamy pumpkin porridge on the stove. I used the same ingredients as the last time I made it but used plain scottish oats instead of the Rude Health Fruity Date and added a huge tablespoon of full fat greek yoghurt. I topped this bowl with two chopped dried figs and some flaked almonds. I also made a cup of my gingerbread coffee.

Such a great breakfast, the porridge was amazingly creamy but the coffee wasn’t as gingerbready as I’d hoped. I think I need to use a little more ground coffee to my cafetiere and add some agave to bring out the sweetness.

Lunch was some of my Chickpea and Vegetable Curry from the freezer served with some spinach and steamed cabbage with a little soy sauce. I also had a pear.

Mid afternoon I snacked on some hummus with carrot and seeded crackers plus a jazz apple.

I headed off to my yoga class which was brilliant again, we did a mix of standing and sitting postures and ended with a shoulder stand which I was really chuffed I could manage.

After yoga I went to Costas but since I had drank coffee this morning (and I knew anymore coffee would keep me awake until who knows when) I went for a green tea to drink along with the slice of apple and parsnip bread and jazz apple I’d brought with me.

Earlier today my iHerb order arrived, I was like a kid at Christmas! This is what I ordered:

Sun Warrior Raw Vegan Protein Powder in Chocolate and Vanilla flavour, Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten, Guar Gum and 10 Grain Hot Cereal, Spiru-tein Fruitein Rainbow Protein Powder, Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Eden Foods Ume Plum Vinegar, Luna Chocolate Peppermint Stick Bars, Lundburg Sweet Dreams Organic Brown Rice Syrup.

Ok, this cost a bloody fortune, however (I’m only justifying this spending to myself by the way) I had the money available, I’m selling my old stock of processed whey powder to my sis in law, and above all else - this makes me happy! Some people are into keeping horses, others are into motorbikes, this is my little hobby and its cheaper than either of those!  Ok justification over ;-)

I’ve always wanted to try Sun Warrior and as I’m trying to clean up my eats alongside eating a more plant based diet so I though protein powders would be a good place to start. This is made from brown rice protein, has an amazingly short ingredients list and is vegan. Yes, this is a lot more expensive than my usual whey but I’m planning on eating it in moderation anyway.

With the Bob’s Red Mill products I plan to try making my own Seitan with the vital wheat gluten, using the guar gum in my beloved protein ice creams (guar gum adds creaminess) and basically the hot cereal seemed pretty cheap and tasty!

As for the Fruitein powder, I had tried a sachet a few months ago and thought it was delicious. It’s still processed and not vegan (it contains bee pollen) but the nutritional stats are very impressive and it tastes lovely.

I’ve read about coconut oil across the blog world pretty much since I started blogging and I basically want to see what the fuss is about! I certainly plan to try making homemade chocolate with it!

The Ume Vinegar is an ingredient I read about in The Kind Diet and fancied giving it a try, along with the brown rice syrup which you in the same way as agave or maple syrup.

I’ve also wanted to try Luna bars for ages and the chocolate peppermint stick flavour sounded right up my street!

So with all of this stuff my kitchen is in serious need of re organisation. I’ll be spending the weekend doing a Monica from Friends impression. I’ll also report back as and when I try these products out.

I’m off out tomorrow night (yey!) with my sis in law so I’m going to take the night off from the blog. But hope you check back over the weekend as I have loads to blog about including my first organic veg box delivery, a new haircut (I’m still on the fence about going for a big change!) and I might even show you the state of my kitchen cupboards! Hope you have a great weekend :-)