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Hi everyone, hope your all having a wonderful relaxing Sunday! I’m busy trying to get organised ready for our week away! I said in my post on Friday I was looking forward to doing something I’ve been wanting to do for ages…

I dyed my hair red! I’ve been trying all weekend to get a picture that actually shows the colour properly but this is the best I’ve managed. I dyed it a reddish brown a few months ago but decided to buy a bright red colour this time. I had my hair bright red when I was younger and had been thinking of going back to that colour for ages. This is probably about as bright as it will go without lightening my natural colour first. I love it though, its great for a change!

Other than that its been a pretty quiet one, I spent most of yesterday just enjoying watching the snow! There have been several good meals to be had though. On the way home from work on Friday I stopped in town to go to the green grocers and while I was there I had a look in one of the Asian supermarkets. I got a bag of goji berries, millet, dried mango and this unusual sesame peanut butter:

Considering that I adore both peanut butter and tahini (sesame paste) this tastes incredible, its like peanut butter and tahini got together and made a beautiful tasty baby! Half the jar is already gone! I mixed it with some sweet white miso and water to make a dressing for this Buddha bowl meal:

This was stir fried kale, courgette, brown rice, roast butternut squash, chickpeas and the sauce, it was fantastic. I also used some of the sesame peanut butter in this protein pudding snack:

I had a bit of a protein craving so mixed a scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder with water and added a swirl of the sesame peanut butter then topped with raw cacao granola, yum!

Yesterday morning I enjoyed a lovely lie in, my first in such a long time! I decided to treat myself to breakfast in bed and made a big bowl of Kashi Go Lean with chopped apple and kara coconut milk topped with a few pumpkin seeds:

I had a couple a mugs full of coffee with this, perfect Saturday morning! For lunch I made a big salad:

This included romaine lettuce, cucumber, raw beetroot, avocado, hemp seeds and some of my home made rosemary and almond juice pulp crackers. For dinner I decided to raid the freezer and found some of my stuffed seitan roll. I had it with swede chips, roast brussel sprouts, steamed purple sprouting broccoli and ketchup:

That seitan roll tasted just as good as when it had been freshly made. Delicious!

As I’ve come to realise that I get extra snacky on a Friday and Saturday evening I’ve decided that instead of fighting it I’m going to just go with it so I’ve started making bigger snack plates that I can pick on over the evening:

This one included a fresh fig with some of the leftover sesame peanut miso sauce, grapes, russet apple, yellow plum, dried mango and mixed dried berries. I did end up eating more of the dried fruit but this is good for me to nibble on while I’m watching TV.

Are you a weekend nibbler?

Right I am off to get myself sorted out! I’m glad that we didn’t decide to travel this morning with all the snow we’ve had, I’m hoping it will all be melted by tomorrow. Have a great one!

Well I wasn't very good after I posted last night, I had a major raid of the kitchen cupboards due to the hunger monster. I was just ravenous! I kind of binged, but not on anything unhealthy so I don't feel really bad about it, but I still feel I bit guilty. I started off with a small bowl of brown rice puffs and chocolate rice milk, then when I had finished them I went back for another bowl, and then another bowl which finished the packet of rice puffs. After I had them I decided to finish off the last few dates in the cupboard. Still hungry, so I went back and had a handful of raisins and goji berries, still bloody hungry! So I chopped up a carrot and sprinkled with cinnamon and ate that too. I took these pics to remind myself of what I had eaten as well as trying to make sure that I didn't blow things out of proportion when I would undoubtfully feel guilty the next day. Looking back at the pics it wasn't too bad but I was a total glutton with the rice milk and rice puffs.


Unsuprisingly I went to bed with a bit of a food baby in my tummy!

Anyway, I'm not going to dwell on it, I haven't had a little binge like that for quite a while so I think perhaps my body just needed it, or I just couldn't resist that chocolate rice milk!

This morning I was up nice and early and had a cup of green tea and a Trek Oat Crunch bar for pre run fuel.


This tasted really good, just like the Trek Cherry flap jack it has more sugary ingredients, however I think this just makes it perfect for pre workout. This was the last of my products from Natural Balance Foods, I'm gutted! I think I'm going to make a purchase from their website. A full review post and GIVEAWAY to follow in the next couple of days!

I then headed out for my run. It was really good, I can feel my confidence growing each time I run. I did 9 miles this morning in 1hr 27, I can't get my exact breakdown as I lost GPS signal around mile 3 and that just completetly knocked everything off. At least I know I'm still coming in under 10 min a mile, however I really want to improve this for the Great North Run.

When I got back I stretched, showered and then made breakfast, I was starving! I started off with a slice of toasted rye bread with crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jam followed by my best green monster smoothie in a bowl to date, made with loads of spinach, chocolate rice milk, scoop of chocolate whey, frozen banana and a few mixed frozen berries. This blended really well but stayed thick and creamy. I felt like I was eating a fruity chocolate ice cream, yum!


I spent the rest of the morning trying to chill out a bit and started to go through my old magazines in preparation for my inspiration board. I didn't realise that I had so many old magazines to sort through, I usually go through them after a couple of months to tear out any bits of inspiration, but its been a while!

For lunch I had more turkey, hummus and lettuce wraps with carrot and cucumber followed by an apple and a little peach.


I popped to see my Mam and Dad and then my friends Claire and Kate before heading into town to meet up with the Hubby. I snacked on a banana bread nakd bar I had popped in my bag mid afternoon. I picked up a few bits and pieces at the shops including some cropped running tights, and anti blister socks, a beaded and embroidered top for my holidays, some hazelnut and almond rice milk, posh new teas to try out and some new bras for my much smaller boobs! (due to the weight loss)

For dinner I made some baked salmon with ginger, soy and a little maple syrup and served it with a load of stir fried veggies including brocolli, savoy cabbage, courgette, carrot, mushrooms and red onions.


For desert I had more of my chocolate tofu pudding which was utterly delicious!


I then thought I would try out one of my new teas. I bought a box of tea pigs chocolate flake tea, I had read about tea pigs stuff in a magazine then checked out their website and knew I would want to give this flavour a try.


It tasted lovely, just like regular tea with a slightly chocolately taste, yum!

Drinks - water, green tea, chocolate flake tea.

He's a quick goofy pic of me, I haven't put a recent pic of me on the blog since I first started it so I thought I should pop one on!


Sorry, this post seems to have ended up really long! Hope you are all having a really good weekend what ever your up to. I'm just chuffed that I still have another two days off, woo hoo! x

Hello lovely people! How we all doing this fine Wednesday? I have to admit I’m glad that the weather is a bit cooler and has returned to something more in keeping with the season!

Today’s WIAW is yesterdays eats and happenings. I started my day with 20 minutes of Yoga for Runners then made a great breakfast:

Blueberry porridge in a big almond butter jar and a black vanilla coffee (plus unpictured oats overflow). I made the porridge with 1/2 cup of oats and 2 1/2 cups of water using Katie’s method the night before, then just heated up with some vanilla stevia and frozen blueberries. There was plenty of almond butter in the bottom of the jar too, yum!

I decided to liberate my wardrobe for work again by wearing one of my nicest dresses, OOTD:

Necklace: H&M, blush coloured coat: H&M, floral dress: French Connection, grey tights: H&M, shoe boots: Nine West

I had a dentist appointment before work as I’ve been having some mild but annoying pain the last few days, looks like I’m going to have to go to the dental hospital and have my wisdom teeth out!

Mid morning I checked out my newly stocked snack drawer at work:

There’s also crackers, pumpkin seeds etc hidden under everything! In addition to this I also had a bag of apples, bag of carrots and pot of hummus in the fridge. As I was saying in this post, I’m really looking to embrace snacking as a way of helping me to maintain a healthy weight and avoid late evening overeating occurrences. I decided to make myself a big plate of 2 chopped carrots, my raw juice pulp crackers, hummus (Aldi, 65p and it tastes lovely!) and a big pink lady apple:

This kept me going for ages. I wasn’t hungry for my lunch until well past 1.30 which is crazy for me, loving bigger snacks! As I’ve been feeling a bit of a cold coming on before lunch I had a Berroca tablet in some water for a vitamin boost:

Lunch was a rid-onk-ulous sized salad containing romaine, carrot, cucumber, yellow pepper, raw beetroot, chickpeas (that I cooked myself from scratch!) topped with some of my basil, pine nut and hemp pesto. I also had two pears:

As lunch was eaten so late I didn’t fancy a large snack before the gym so I had a RAW Health Lemon Chia Energy Ball:

This tasted fab, lemony and coconutty :-)

At the gym I stuck to my new plan and did 10 minutes of intervals on the step machine and cross trainer followed by Body Pump. We did the new release again and my word the triceps and abs tracks are tough!

I’ve been extra organised this week: on Sunday I had a huge cook up session for the week ahead when I made two grains of the week – brown rice and amaranth, roasted a butternut, made pesto and cooked the chickpeas. For dinner I decided to combine some of the amaranth with the butternut along with some defrosted edamame and steamed broccoli:

I added some fresh parsley and a drizzle of tahini mixed with a little water, ume vinegar and shoyu as a sauce. This was so gorgeous! I love how thrown together meals taste so great, saying that I think the addition of butternut and tahini would make anything taste good :-)

For a dessert / late evening snack, I made a bowl of protein ice cream with a sachet of blueberries and cream spiru-tein, ice, water and xanthan and guar gums topped with flaked almonds:

I was still a bit hungry so I also had a big apple:

Apologies for the crap photo’s I’ve been using my camera phone for ease, plus with the dark mornings and evenings everything is being photographed in bad light!

I can definitely say that I am feeling so much more in balance this week as a result of my healthy feast and allowing myself additional and bigger snacks. My workouts have also been fantastic, I think that 4 days of just yoga has done me good!

Do you have a snack drawer at home or work? What’s in it?

Have a great day and see you tomorrow for a Big Budget Challenge round up!

Thanks for your comments to yesterdays post about how you deal with stress. It was really interesting hearing about the different ways that stress effects our eating. Apart from a few spoonfuls of Greek yoghurt before bed time I avoided any major blow outs. I also got my work done and was happy to hit the ‘submit’ button this morning!

Before I went to work I headed to the gym for a quick workout – 30 minutes of HIITs with a 5 minute warm up on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by some sit ups on the stability ball and a plank and side planks.

For breakfast I had some chopped melon topped with 0% Total Greek Yoghurt and some of my new Dorset Cereals Tasty Toasted Spelt Muesli.

I really liked this muesli, it seemed a lot less ‘dense’ than other muesli as the spelt flakes were very light. It was also packed with dried fruit, nuts and seeds including yummy dried pineapple chunks.

It was a busy morning as we were preparing for our big event to celebrate our organisations 10th Birthday. I snacked on an unpictured apple as I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t be hitting the buffet starving as this would usually lead to me making some less than healthy choices! As it turned out the buffet was pretty healthy anyway. I had 3 small wholemeal wraps, 2 with smoked salmon and cream cheese and one with tuna. I also had a small wholemeal ham sandwich and lots of hummus with cucumber, carrot and pepper for dipping.

I also had a glass of watered down orange juice. The event went very well, we had an amazing group of young people perform as the entertainment – they were incredibly talented! The event was a great celebration of the 10 years of work my charity has done with the community and was such good fun!

Mid afternoon I had some of the birthday cake with strawberries.

I had this little bite sized slice x 2 plus more strawberries.

Unfortunately all the refined sugar in the cake gave me a crazy sugar high and then left me crashing and completely starving by 5pm. I came home and instead of waiting to have dinner I just made it straight away. I had some of my Summer Bean Stew that had been defrosted from my frozen stash with a little added tomato sauce, some kallo rosemary crackers and a few spicy roasted chickpeas thrown on top.

I’d picked the spicy roasted chickpeas up from a market stall last week and they were gorgeous added to the bean stew.

I then had another apple, chopped and sprinkled with cinnamon.

I had to really stop myself snacking on anything else as I was just ravenous. I managed to hold off until 7pm then made myself this energy giving green monster. I’m planning a big run in the morning so I decided to fill it full of energy giving ingredients:

Energising Green Monster (makes 1 big serving)

• 1 frozen banana
• handful of spinach
• 4 chopped dates
• Soy milk (or any other milk)
• 1 tablespoon of smooth peanut butter
• 3 ice cubes
• 2 tablespoons of muesli as a topping (or your choice of topping)
• 1 tablespoon of wheat germ (optional)
• 1 teaspoon of maca powder (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon of matcha green tea (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum (optional)

Chuck all the ingredients in a blender and wizz till smooth. Top with the muesli.

A bowl full of green goodness, I didn’t want it to end! In case anyone was wondering, the reason why I eat my smoothies in a bowl is firstly because I like them extra thick, and secondly because it takes me longer to eat them that way and makes them feel more filling. I have a tendency to just knock back smoothies in a glass in 10 seconds!  While I’ve been training I’ve really found that bananas and dates are my super fuel and eating them the night before a long run tends to do the trick, so I’m hoping that this smoothie will leave me well charged up in the morning.

I’m still feeling extremely snacky – I’ve just stood in the kitchen and ate more muesli straight from the box with a spoon! I’m not going to be too hard on myself as I haven’t had a snack attack like this for a while, and at least I should be able to burn some of it off with my run tomorrow.

Yesterday I mentioned that I had been sent some more goodies to sample:

Beet It Organic Stamina Shots – kindly sent to me by James White Drinks. This is an unusual product and I’m really looking forward to trying it. Basically these are small shots of pure concentrated organic beetroot juice cut with some lemon juice. Beetroots are naturally high in nitric oxide (NO). Here’s some info from the website:

So what does NO do?

• regulator of blood pressure;
• a gatekeeper of blood flow to certain organs;
• a stamina enhancer via oxygen usage efficiency;
• a weapon against infection;
• a signal molecule in the nervous system.

‘The Beet It shot version is an organic concentrated beetroot 7cl bottle that delivers a comparable dose of dietary nitrate as a 25cl Beet It organic beetroot juice. It is cut with lemon juice to  reduce the sweetness of the beetroot and actually does not taste of beetroot (unlike the Beet It juice). So it is a quick easy dose for people that do not like beetroot juice!  We have only just launched it but the UK elites sports teams (UK athletics team took them to the July European Championships and both the England and Welsh rugby teams have been trialling them) are very interested’

I’m going to be trying these out before my gym workouts and seeing how I go. Each shot is one of your 5 a day too. I also have 2 shots to add to my big GIVEAWAY prize coming soon.

What’s your favourite exercise fuel? Alongside the bananas and dates I love my natural bars such as Nakd and 9 bars and any kind of dried fruit seems to work well for me too. Do you always fuel for a workout or do you ever workout without eating at all? I’m interested to see how the Beet It Shots will work as workout fuel for me.

So glad we’ve hit the weekend! What does everyone have planned? As I mentioned earlier I’m planning on running 13 miles in the morning as my final really long run before the Great North Run (only 2 weeks away!) I’m also planning more cooking and baking, cleaning and tidying, grocery shopping and sorting out some old autumn / winter clothing for ebay. Hopefully some chill time too! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend whatever your up to x

I don't know what was with me this morning but I was lying wide awake at 5.30, in the end I decided to get up just before 6 so I could head into work early and catch up on things.

I had my usual Friday morning weigh in and I've dropped another pound (now 10st) so I'm pretty happy with that. I thought I might have gained after eating pizza and chocolate last week so I'm happy that things seem to be balancing out.

For breakfast I made myself a big bowl of chopped fruit and muesli -




I ended up getting into work at 7.30 so I had a lovely hour and a half to myself in the office just being able to potter on and get things done.

Mid morning I snacked on some more red grapes and a pot of greek yoghurt.



Today I also experimented by trying a decaf coffee for a change. What can I say, I'm living on the edge!

For dinner I made some Chicken and Vegetable Tikka Masala with brown rice noodles. This recipe is inspired by a Jamie Oliver recipe in Ministry of Food.

Chicken and Vegetable Tikka Masala

2 chicken breasts, sliced into bite sized pieces
1 large head of brocolli chopped into florets
1 large head of cauliflower chopped into florets
1 chopped onion
1/2 jar of tikka masala curry paste (I used Pataks)
500g of chopped tomatoes or passata
400g tin of light coconut milk
2 tsp of minced ginger
Tablespoon of vegetable oil

In a large deep pan fry off the onion and ginger in the oil for a few minutes, then add the chicken, followed by the veggies, then add the curry paste. Continue to fry the chicken and veggies in the curry paste for a couple of minutes, then add the coconut milk and passata. I also added some water to thin the sauce out a little. Simmer gently for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the veggies are tender. Serve with rice or noodles of choice!

I served mine with some brown rice vermicelli noodles.


This was very rich and spicy. I still think I prefer thai green curry but this is nice for a change. This recipe made 4 large portions. 
 
For desert I made some Chocolate Tofu Pudding. I've made the vanilla version a few times and thought I should try making a chocolate version!

Chocolate Tofu Pudding

1 block of mori nu silken tofu
2 tablespoons of chocolate rice milk
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
2 tablespoons of agave

Blend all ingredients in a food processor then transfer to bowls / containers and chill in the fridge. Serves two.



Its also the first time I've tried the chocolate rice milk. It tastes amazing! Just like a proper chocolate milk. I can see myself drinking most of the carton tonight if I'm honest. My will power just isn't here right now, I'm sitting here really trying to resist a major raid of the kitchen cupboards! Don't know what it is but I could just stuff my face, even after eating that big curry and those bowls of pudding and raspberries.

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

So what does everyone have planned for the weekend? I'm so glad the weekend is here at last, this week has felt really long. I feel like I have loads of stuff to do, so glad that we have an extra day off here in the UK. Heres my weekend to do list, I'm taking the opportunity while blogging to get this all written down!

• See friends and family (hopefully including bbqs!)
• Run x 2
• Strength workout
• Training plan for May
• Natural Balance foods review and GIVEAWAY! post
• Make some fuel bars
• Grocery shop
• Clean flat and do laundry
• Sort out boxes under kitchen bench and get paint and brushes out ready to paint window sills
• Sort out old magazines and make inspiration board / file
• Chill out!

I hope I can get everything done, I seriously need a bit of chill time!

Well I'm still feeling hungry right now! I'm going to make a cuppa and hopefully that will give my body time to register that its full. Hope you have all had a great week and have a fabulous weekend planned! x