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Hi everyone with any luck I should be welcoming you to Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish.com! The blog is still transitioning so you may still be on the blogspot site but over the next few days you should automatically be redirected to the new .com address!

I decided to change the ‘slim’ to ‘healthy’ as I felt that slim wasn’t the right word any longer and that healthy better reflects my ethos and what the blog is all about. I also wanted to make the move to my own domain. I’ve added some new pages to the right hand side of the blog to give links to posts on recipes, healthy eating, fashion, workouts, home style etc as well as links to key posts in my About page – please check them out and let me know what you think!

I’ve had a busy but fun weekend, Saturday started with a tasty breakfast, chocolate mesquite porridge with pear and hazelnuts:

I used 1/2 cup of scottish oats, 1 tbsp of oat bran, 1 tbsp of chia seeds, 1/2 cup of kara coconut milk, 1 cup water and cooked on the stove adding raw cacao, mesquite, sweet freedom, 2 chopped pears, hazelnut butter and hazelnuts.

We had a short trip to Newcastle to pick up a couple of things. Here’s a quick outfit of the day:

 Trench: Debenhams, denim dress: Mango, tan leather belt: Topshop, floral tights: Accessorize, tan boots: ASOS, tan bag: Dune, diamante anchor necklace: Accessorize

While we were out we enjoyed a cuppa at one of our favourite little cafes. I had a delicious chai soy latte:

I also stocked up on fresh produce from the market including these unusual round courgettes…

…and this massive jar of organic smooth peanut butter (only ingredients peanuts and salt):

Can’t wait to be making oats in a jar in that!

Lunch was a slice of toasted quinoa amaranth bread with marmite accompanied by 2 chopped carrots, a chopped russet apple and cherries:

Mid afternoon I made a fab green juice from Crazy, Sexy Diet: Make juice not war:

This included 1 pear, cabbage, celery, cucumber, romaine lettuce, broccoli and ginger. I felt alive after drinking that!

Dinner was inspired by a recipe in the brilliant Super Natural Cooking, Wheat Berry Salad with Citrus Dressing. I topped some baby spinach with cooked wheat grains mixed with parsley and a citrus dressing made with orange juice, cool oil and apple cider vinegar, then topped with toasted pine nuts and organic feta:

I have to say I loved these wheat grains, so chewy and tasty. The dressing was also really good, I’ll have to use it on other salads too. Dessert was some booja booja truffles:

Heavenly as always. I also snacked on a few unpictured apples.

This morning I fuelled up with a blood orange and two sweet and chewy neglect dates before heading out on my run:

I used my Garmin for the first time, it was excellent! I did 6.18 miles in 1 hour, average pace 9.45. I was happy enough with that pace as it gives me a good baseline to work up from. After the run I hit the gym for 30 minutes of constant rate cardio while catching up with some magazines.

Breakfast was just the most fabulous smoothie in a bowl! It included: cabbage, frozen banana, 2 small nectarines, frozen mixed berries, scoop of peanut chocolate swirl spirutein protein powder, coconut water, kara coconut milk, spirulina, maca, matcha green tea, ground flax, raw cacao and xanthan gum. I topped it with a spoonful of my new peanut butter, grape nuts cereal, gojis and flaked almonds:

I had this bowl plus about another half a bowl full. It was amazing, so full of goodness!

Lunch was a bowl of Spicy Black Eye Bean Soup followed by grapes:

I also made myself another green juice mid afternoon, I’m just addicted to these at the moment, wish I had more time to make them during the week.

Dinner was one of my round courgettes stuffed with some of my Veggie Loaf and baked in the oven. I served it with steamed swede mashed with some sweet white miso and almond milk plus steamed kale with shoyu:

Dessert was one of my sinless chocolate brownies from the freezer topped with coconut flour paste ‘icing’:

This was so good! The chocolate and coconut together was delicious.

Hope you don’t mind this photo packed post! I’ve been having fun this weekend playing with my new camera. I think my photos are looking ok but unfortunately even the best camera can’t make good pics using the flash, can’t wait for the longer summer days so I can photograph in daylight!

What do you think of the new blog name and do you like the photographs?

I’m off to relax for the rest of the evening before the busy week ahead. Hope you’ve all had a great weekend!

Hi everyone, how’s your weekend going? I’ve had a great weekend so far, lots of chill time which has been needed!

Yesterday I had a lovely lazy morning. Breakfast was a big bowl of muesli (1/2 cup of Dorset Cereal Cherry Cranberry and Almond muesli, jumbo oats, quinoa flakes and wheat germ) with frozen raspberries and hazelnut and almond rice milk.

Mid morning I had my first Peppermint Stick Luna Bar:

This was delicious! Its made of 70% organic ingredients and is choc full of great nutrition. It has a similar texture to an oaty flapjack, yum!

For lunch I made myself some soup based on this recipe:

Smokey spicy black eyed bean soup with greens (makes 3 large servings)

• 1 onion finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 tin of black eye beans
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons of vegetable bouillon powder
• 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
• 1 teaspoon of hot chilli powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon of chipotle ketchup (optional but adds a smokey flavour)
• 1 head of spring green cabbage, finely chopped

Begin by frying off the onion and garlic in a little oil. Once the onions have become transparent add the carrots and continue to fry for a few minutes. Add the beans and tomatoes then fill the empty tomato tin with hot water and add this to the pan (do this twice – so two tins worth of hot water). Then add the vegetable bouillon, tomato puree, hot chilli powder, cumin and chipotle ketchup if using. Simmer the soup for 5 minutes then add the spring greens and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Serve.

This is a great tasty soup! Low in calories and fat and with a little bit of protein from the beans, plus lots of good stuff from the spring greens. The strong flavours are so warming too which makes this a perfect soup for this time of year. I had a bowl of this for my lunch along with three satsumas.

I got all ready to head out in my new coat:

Coat: H&M, Breton stripe top: Warehouse, Bag: Topshop, Skinny Jeans: Topshop, Black boots: H&M, Earrings: Scarlet Ribbon Vintage Durham. Still getting used to my new hair!

I visited my parents, sister, brother in law and my little nephew (my sis and family are living with my parents while they are in the process of buying a new house). I don’t think I’ve mentioned on the blog that my sis is pregnant with her second child, she’s due in January and I can’t wait to meet my next nephew! I then met up with my best friend and we went for a lovely long walk round her local park with the dog, it was so lovely and relaxing and great to be able to have a proper catch up with her.

Last nights dinner was leftover Squash and adzuki bean stew with steamed kale and chard plus soy sauce, ume vinegar, toasted seeds and parsley and coriander.

Completely delicious again! For desert I had two squares of the most amazing chocolate in the work aka Lindt Dark Chocolate with sea salt plus two apples sliced with maca and cinnamon.

This morning I snacked on some nakd cherry raisins before heading off on my run. I haven’t ran outside for a few weeks and boy was this tough. I choose a fairly hilly route and my pace was well off my usual but I did it – freezing hands and all! My iPhone died 5 minutes from home so my tracking was off but I think I did about 6.5 miles in 1hr5mins. To all you runners – do you have any tips for motivating yourself to run outdoors in cold weather? I think I need to invest in some good quality gloves and a warm long sleeved running top as I have real difficulty staying warm, when I sweat I just seem to get colder, even when I’m giving it my all :-(

Breakfast was two slices of toasted linseed rye bread with marmite and a big mug of English breakfast tea with rice milk.

I picked up a little jar of marmite last week and today was my first try of it in ages. Yum, I thought it was delicious! A little later I made a green monster (1 frozen banana, spinach, organic soy milk, maca powder, peanut butter, guar and xanthan gums) in a bowl topped with gojis and cacao nibs.

Loving my green monsters at the moment :-)

A little while ago I blogged that I had taken Nigella Kitchen out of the library. I came across an amazing sounding recipe in the book that I knew I would have to try:

Peanut Butter Hummus (inspired by recipe in Nigella Kitchen)

• 1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of smooth peanut butter
• 1 clove of garlic
• Juice of half a lemon
• pinch of ground cumin

Chuck all ingredients into a food processor and blend. Taste and check consistency adding water if you prefer a ‘looser’ texture or more lemon juice or garlic as required. I ended up adding an extra clove of garlic and a little water. Transfer to a bowl and chill before serving.

Using the peanut butter gives the hummus a slightly milder taste than if it had been made with tahini. I had a big serving of the hummus with 3 seeded crackers and cauliflower, carrot and cucumber for dipping for my lunch followed by a plum and a satsuma.

I’ve also made up a big pot of brown basmati rice for my ‘grain of the week’ and roasted up a huge butternut squash. Tonight I plan on making a simple coconut vegetable curry for one – recipe to be posted tomorrow along with details for bloggers Secret Santa!

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Hi everyone, hope your having a good week! This week is a pretty crazy one for me, yesterday I worked from home while we got our new carpet fitted in the bedroom. As we are in a little one bed flat this has meant that the whole place has been turned upside down! We also headed to Ikea last night and bought a new bed and mattress, it gets delivered tomorrow and I can’t wait!

Here’s a few images that I’m using for bedroom decor inspiration:

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I really love the mix of different patterns and bright colours in each of these pics. See my Tumblr page for more inspiration!

As I said in Sunday’s post, I’m experiencing some IT band / sore knee issues right now. I’m trying very hard not to panic, the Great North Run is less than a month away and when I had this injury last year it took me a month to get running again. I don’t think its that bad this time but I’m still giving running a miss for a couple of days although I may try a short treadmill run tomorrow. 

Yesterday morning instead of my usual 5k treadmill run I did 1 hour of cardio on the gym machines including the cross trainer, step machine, bike and rowing machine. I did 2 minutes medium intensity : 1 minute high intensity intervals. I finished up with my abs and core including my first ever 3 minute plank! My knee was fine apart from a bit of a twinge while on the cross trainer.

Breakfast yesterday was a delicious bowl of sweet fresh strawberries covered in some chocolate chia pudding (1 tbsp of chia seeds, 2 tbsp of viva pure chia porridge mix, 1 scoop of chocolate sun warrior and water):

For lunch I raided the freezer and had a bowl of my spicy black eye bean soup along with some raw juice pulp crackers:

It was nice to have soup for a change!

As I was working from home while the carpet got fitted I thought I’d make use of the blender and have a green smoothie as a snack:

Spinach, frozen banana, soy milk, ice, stevia, maca, spirulina, msm crystals topped with coconut and freeze dried berries. This was such a great filling snack, it felt like a nice treat being able to have a smoothie!

As this week is shaping up to be a bit hectic I decided to take some of my own advice and make up a huge bean and veggie mix that I could use in several meals to save time:

I mixed a tin of soya beans, frozen edamame, carrot, cucumber, radish, spring onion, red pepper, parsley and coriander in a big bowl and popped it in the fridge. For dinner I’ve eaten it with some wholegrain rice pilaf from a microwavable pouch alongside steamed rainbow chard and broccoli with shoyu:

This was delicious, but unfortunately I’m worried that something in it made me poorly. Last night I spent several hours throwing up! Not fun :-( Luckily this morning I felt much better. I had a big bowl of peanut butter puffins, chopped apple, a spoonful of smooth peanut butter and some soy milk for breakfast:

It felt good to get something back on my stomach. As I only had that bean and veggie mix prepped for lunch, I decided to risk it and eat it again. I had a big portion on top of some greens with my damson and balsamic dressing:

Luckily it didn’t make me poorly so I risked another portion with the rice again for dinner. I have to say it really did save me a lot of time having that prepped, all I’ve needed to do is wash and chop greens to go with it!

I also managed to fit in my gym session and body pump tonight, thankfully this Luna Bar gave me enough energy to get through the workout!

I really liked this flavour, although I couldn’t taste many macadamias.

Tonight for dessert I had the usual post body pump bowl of protein ice cream:

1 scoop of smore’s spirutein, water, ice, stevia and some chocolate sauce made with cocoa powder, water and agave. Perfect!

When it comes to home decor do you prefer the minimal look or do you like a lot of print and pattern? I have quite eclectic taste, I love to mix and match prints and patterns and different styles. I can’t wait until the whole room is finished, just curtains, bedding and accessories to get now :-)

Please check out blog sponsor Cat’s awesome giveaway over at Knitting, Running Eating – such a fab set of prizes, especially the teapigs, nakd goodies and hand knitted coasters!

See you tomorrow for What I ate Wednesday!

I’m currently blogging during my lunch break at work, these couple of days have been crazy busy as I had a late night meeting last night, another tonight and then I have my last yoga class on Thursday evening. This doesn’t leave much time for being creative with my eats so I tend to fall back on good old favourites!

Yesterdays breakfast was a delicious green smoothie containing 3 big savoy cabbage leaves with stalk removed, a frozen banana, frozen mango chunks, a scoop of vanilla sun warrior, maca powder, ground flax and nut mix, tablespoon of peanut butter, xanthan and guar gums and almond milk. I topped my bowl with some muesli. This was lovely and sweet, I think the almond milk goes so well with all the other ingredients.

Lunch was some basil tofu with brown rice, carrot, cucumber, red pepper and spinach mixed with a little green tomato chutney and a couple of chopped kiwi on the side.

Mid afternoon snackies were carrot and green pepper with red pepper hummus – this combo never gets old!

Before leaving the office for my meeting I had a bowl of my Spicy black eye bean soup which was utterly delicious and just hit the spot!

By the time I got home I only wanted something small so I made up a bowl of chopped plums and apple with some Bear Apple Crumble Granola and almond milk. I quite like being able to have this kind of thing for dinner sometimes!

Todays eats are going to be very similar! I’ve also managed to fit in my usual planned workouts – my Davina DVD yesterday morning working my legs and upper body and my treadmill run at the gym this morning (1.6 miles on tread then 10 minutes of HIITs on step machine followed by another 1.6 miles on tread followed by abs and core exercises). I was at Sainsbury's for it opening at 8am this morning after being at the gym – running around a freezing cold supermarket with my hair slapped under a head band trying to find lemon and ginger tea and russet apples was not much fun, but I try and fit in as much as possible when these busy times are upon me instead of letting my healthier habits fall by the way side.

I know you probably already do these things yourselves anyway but I find these little tips really helpful when I simply start running out of time:

My tips for keeping up healthy habits when things get crazy

• Have a freezer full of home prepared curries, soups and stews – this just makes it easier to grab something from the freezer, pop in a lunch box and let defrost then have at work for lunch or dinner.
• Schedule your time according to your priorities – Over these few crazy days, although I can’t be bothered I’ve made keeping to my exercise schedule and eating healthy priorities – this means I have got up early to fit some exercise in and have spent time earlier in the week chopping veggies for my lunch but it has been worth it – I know how crap I’d feel if I missed working out or had to try and find something to eat at work – especially when I probably wouldn’t have time to go further than the Greggs across the street!
• Make up multiple portions and store in the fridge – For the tofu salad above I had made up a big portion of cooked brown rice at the weekend, then I just added chopped veggies and tofu to make up two lunches to keep me going. Brown rice will probably feature in tomorrows lunch too as there’s still plenty left in the fridge.
• If all else fails then go for healthier pre prepared foods – my faves are fresh soups like Covent Garden, Innocent Veg Pots and the salad bar at my local supermarket. They do the most amazing Moroccan chickpea salad!

What are your tips for sticking to healthier habits when things get crazy?

Yey its Friday! I am now all officially registered on my Diet and Nutrition Advisor course and my camera and Garmin have been delivered so I’m buzzing!

Thursday morning I did 5 minutes cardio (jumping jacks, bum kicks etc) followed by a 20 minute Yoga for Runners podcast then some core and abs work. Breakfast was fantastic! I made up some porridge using 1/4 cup of oats, 2 tablespoons of oat bran and 1 1/2 cups of water on the stove. I then added 1 heaped tablespoon of my Viva Pure Chia Super food porridge mix and another tablespoon of my vanilla hemp protein powder. I also added some sweet freedom sweetener. I topped it with fresh blueberries, some of my tofu yoghurt, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and goji berries. I also had a maple walnut coffee with kara coconut milk:

Such a good breakfast, I love oaty yoghurty layer ups! I was very impressed with the chia porridge super food mix. I actually think its designed to be made into a porridge in itself but I really liked the taste it added to my oaty porridge – plus it will last longer being used this way!

Lunch was a bowl of heaven, i.e. the yummiest soup I’ve made in a while:

Pea, Broccoli and Pesto Soup (inspired by Nigella Lawson recipe, makes 4 portions)

• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 large head of broccoli, chopped into florets
• Hot veg stock or bouillon powder and hot water (I use marigold vegan vegetable bouillon whenever I make soup)
• 450g of frozen peas
• Half a small jar of basil pesto (I used la sacla organic vegetarian pesto)

Begin by gently frying the onion in a little oil until transparent. Add the broccoli and cover with hot vegetable stock. Allow to simmer for 10 – 15 minutes or until the broccoli is tender. Add the peas and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and blend the soup until smooth using a hand blender or regular blender. Add the pesto and either blend again or stir well.

This soup is the bomb! So simple and easy to make and really full of flavour. You could make a vegan version using vegan pesto if desired. It also freezes very well too.

I also had a kiwi and nectarine:

Mid afternoon I snacked on a dried apricot, dried fig and some brazil nuts and pistachios:

Last night we went out to see KT Tunstall play a gig in Newcastle. Before we went I had a quick dinner of a herbed socca wrap (usual socca recipe but with added chopped fresh basil and parsley) filled with roasted beets, carrot and broccoli and some organic feta. I also had raw carrot, cucumber and an apple and pear:

The wrap was delish! I loved the herbs in there, so tasty.

The gig was brilliant, I have a huge girl crush on KT Tunstall! Here’s a quick OOTD hastily shot in the loos at Cafe Nero ;-)

Jacket: H&M, floral jacket: River Island, grey vest top: Topshop, scarf: Dorothy Perkins, jeans: Next, Bag: H&M, cocktail ring: Topshop

This morning I had a big bowl of Dorset Cereal Tasty Toasted Spelt Muesli with blackberries and kara coconut milk. I also had a butterscotch coffee with sweet freedom:

Lunch was some of my super tasty Spicy Black Eye Bean Soup followed by plums and kiwi:

Mid afternoon I decided to treat myself to a 9 bar:

I haven’t had one of these in ages, so good!

I then hit the gym for my strength and HIIT workout. It was a bit of a half arsed workout to be honest, I did do mostly all I’d planned to but I know I could have put more effort in! I did my usual 5 minute treadmill run warm up followed by my usual full body strength workout and 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike.

Dinner was inspired by the Rainbow and Super food salads recipes in Leon: Ingredients and Recipes:

I mixed roasted broccoli, carrot and beetroot with some red cabbage, quinoa, alfalfa sprouts and feta then added some fresh chopped parsley, viva pure spicy pumpkin seeds and a quick squeeze of lemon juice. This was so so good! I loved this salad, so full of goodness and taste.

Dessert was double chocolate coconut protein ice cream! I blended up a scoop of chocolate sun warrior, tablespoon of raw cacao, tablespoon of coconut flour, kara coconut milk, ice cubes and xanthan and guar gums then topped with coconut and cacao nibs:

Awesome!

I really enjoyed the gig last night. James is a huge music fan so we like going to see live music when we can. Are you a fan of live music? What was the last gig you went to?

So happy its the weekend! I have another fun one planned including a trip to town so I can stock up on fruit and veggies at the market, catch up with the family and my gorgeous nephews, play with my new camera and Garmin, finish reading Crazy, Sexy, Diet (which I just can’t put down) and a run!

I also may be making an attempt to change up the blog a bit and move over to a new domain so if you visit and things look a little funky please bear with me.

Hope you have all had a great week and have a fab weekend planned! I’m off to play with my new toys, catch you later x