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Hi everyone, hope your all getting through the first week of 2011 ok. I’ve had a funny couple of days as yesterday I was working at home again due to the burst pipe and broken heating system at work but today I have been back as thankfully it has been fixed!

As I was working from home yesterday I decided to go to the gym first thing. I did 30 minutes on the treadmill doing 5 minute speed changes followed by 10 minutes of HIITs on the step machine, cross trainer and bike. I then did my abs and core exercises:

• Plank – I managed to hold it for 1 minute, gives me a good starting point to work from to meet my 2 minute goal!
• Full sit up x 20
• Bicycle crunches x 20
• Regular crunches x 20
• Side reaches x 20
• Mountain climbers x 20

x 2 sets

I came home and made breakfast which I practically inhaled, 2 slices of organic sprouted wheat bread (only ingredient is sprouted wheat) one slice with almond butter and one slice with apple pear spread plus a detox tea.

I also made myself a super green juice containing two small apples, 2 celery sticks, cucumber, kale, ginger, spirulina, acai berry juice and milk thistle tincture.

Energy in a glass!

Mid morning I had a mug of sweet white miso soup. Lunch was another basil tofu and rice salad beast with green goddess dressing.

I also had half a sweet juicy mango and a sliced kiwi.

Mid afternoon I snacked on two cherry bakewell babies and an apple.

Dinner was courgette pasta with red peppers and mushrooms in a tomato and garlic sauce topped with some fresh basil.

This was so delish! After I posted about this meal at the weekend a few of you were curious about how to make the courgette pasta. I use this spiraliser which is just fantastic. If you don’t want to fork out for this then you can use a veggie peeler to make long ribbons which you could use in a similar way, although its not quite as good as getting the proper spirals!

Dessert was a big slab of my RAW Very Cherry Chocolate.

This tasted fabulous. This slab is half of the full size bar and is less than 200 calories. Its a shame this stuff is so expensive as I’m seriously hooked. Its fine to eat as part of my detox too as it has a very simple ingredients list and is only sweetened with agave so no refined sugars. I also ate another apple and drank a sleepy time tea.

This morning I got up and did my new yoga / core strengthening routine. I started with a 5 minute warm up of jumping jacks, bum kicks and skipping then did a 20 minute Yoga for Runners podcast. After the podcast I did the following exercises:

• V ups x 20
• Side plank – 30 seconds on each side
• Bridge with leg raise – 20 raises on each leg
• Side to side on all fours – 20 each side
• Donkey kicks – 20 each side

The side to side exercise was so tough! Breakfast was inspired by Averies Chocolate Brownie Oats. Last night I mixed 1 mashed banana with 1/4 cup of oats, 1/4 cup of quinoa flakes, 1 scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder, 1 teaspoon of ground flax, 1 tablespoon of chia seeds, hazelnut and almond rice milk and a little water. I left this in the fridge overnight then topped with walnuts this morning for a delicious and quick breakfast. I also had a cup of detox tea.

Mid morning I had a mug of brown rice miso soup with ginger. Lunch was a bowl of Spicy Sweet Potato, Leek and Coconut Soup with mango and kiwi.

Mid afternoon I snacked on a big pile of raw veggies with what was left of my green goddess dressing for dipping.

Dinner was a roast veg and sunflower seed patty fried in a little coconut oil on top of some caramelised onions with balsamic, swede and parsnip mash and steamed cavolo nero.

This was a wonderful dinner, I would usually add ketchup for flavour but as ketchup is pretty sugary I opted for the onions – they tasted great! For dessert I whipped up an amazing smoothie – Strawberry and Peanut Butter! I combined some frozen strawberries with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, hazelnut and almond rice milk and 4 ice cubes. I also added some xanthan and guar gum for thickness then topped with a little granola.

Fabulous!

Do you do specific exercises to work your abs and core? What’s your favourite exercise? I love bicycle crunches!

Today is my little sisters due date, she’s expecting a little boy.  She already has one little boy called Harry. I can’t wait for her to have my second nephew! I love being an Auntie :-) I went to the shops earlier and bought some cute little outfits for him. Do you have any nieces or nephews?

After Wednesday’s shortened workout and hellish DOMS I was glad to wake up feeling refreshed and less achy on Thursday morning. I did my Thursday morning yoga and core workout with a few changes for progression:

• Warm up – jumping jacks, bum kicks, running on the spot, skipping (5 minutes)
• 20 minute Yoga for runners podcast
• plank (as I didn’t do my plank last night – 1 min 25 sec)
• side planks (40 sec hold each side)
• v – ups (20 reps)
• twisting windmills (20 reps)
• stability ball leg raises (20 reps)
• stability ball leg curl (20 reps)
• Side to side (20 reps each side)
• Donkey kicks (20 reps each side)

I could really feel my core and shoulder muscles after this! Breakfast was a massive green smoothie containing 1/2 frozen banana, spring greens, 2 nectarines, 2 ice cubes, 2 tbsp of vanilla hemp powder, 2 tbsp of peanut butter, spirulina, matcha, ground flax, mesquite, xanthan gum, soy milk and water:

It was a bowl of absolute awesomeness! I topped it with half a bag of Bear apple crumble granola.

Lunch was a second portion of Quinoa, grape and walnut salad with lettuce followed by 2 plums and a kiwi.

Mid afternoon snack was one of my Almond and Quinoa Muffins I’d rescued from the freezer:

I made these back in December and froze some – they still taste amazing!

I then needed to do my 30 minute run I’d ditched from my Wednesday evening workout. I spent all day pondering one big question: to run outdoors for the first time in almost three months or to just go back on the treadmill. It got to 4pm and the weather was beautiful outside, a bright clear crisp day. I knew what I had to do. I rushed home, got changed straight into my running tights, vest top, thermal top and hoody and set off. I decided not to use my Run keeper App and just go out and run for the love of running, and boy did I love it! I had been so worried about getting back outdoors after such a long break, I thought it would be unbelievably tough, that I wouldn’t be able to run all the way, that I’d collapse with exhaustion after half a mile. But I didn’t. I ran for 45 minutes without stopping and it was wonderful, it reminded me why I love running so much. I have no idea what kind of pace I did but it didn’t feel ridiculously slow. I was just so chuffed!

Dinner was some Lentil Dahl with a big pile of greens with shoyu and mixed seeds:

Dessert was a full punnet of blueberries, a chopped pink lady apple with unsweetened soy milk and the other half of the pack of Bear Apple Crumble granola:

This morning I was in the mood for socca! I had socca filled with almond butter and fruit sweetened black cherry jam plus a big green juice:

The socca tasted amazing – I love nut butter and jam in any form and this was lush! The juice contained 3 apples, 1 cucumber, big bunch of parsley, ginger and lemon.

Lunch was some spicy sweet potato and leek soup with parsley and a gorgeous blood orange and pink lady apple:

I then hit the gym for my second strength workout of the week. I did a very similar routine to my home workout I did on Tuesday but warmed up for 5 minutes on the treadmill, used the gyms heavier weights and dropped the reps. I even managed 1 full push up! I couldn’t do any more after that though so went back to doing them on an incline. I also did my lateral raises and squat as two separate exercises so that I wasn’t dropping my form with using the heavier weights. Then I did 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike. 

To refuel after my workout I had a vanilla chai protein shake made with vanilla spiru-tein, cooled vanilla chai tea, soy milk, xanthan gum and ice:

As spiru-tein contains spirulina it came out a greeny colour so I thought I might as well add some matcha green tea powder to the mix. I also topped this with cinnamon, yummy!

Dinner was roast kabocha squash and adzuki beans with a huge pile of steamed kale with ume vinegar, shoyu, mixed seeds and chopped parsley:

Dessert was some vanilla freedom iced dessert with a teaspoon of graham cracker crumbs:

This was just as good as the chocolate version, it has a lovely vanilla flavour and a great creamy but light texture, I’m officially hooked on this!

I think I’m still buzzing from my outdoor run. I do need to try and find some good gloves as I suffer from extremely painful hands when they get cold – that was one of the reasons I took my runs back indoors in the first place but thankfully the weather is getting warmer. Anyone have any running glove recommendations? Has the winter affected your running schedule? If you moved your runs onto the treadmill how do you make the move to outdoors running again? I think I’ll be trying a few more runs without tracking my mileage or pace until I’m fully back into it.

Tomorrow is the hubby’s birthday, he’s not really fussed on big celebrations so we will probably just have a nice relaxing day and head out for lunch somewhere. Hope you all have a good weekend!

Are we excited yet people? I can not wait for the festivities to start! Today I have been cooking up a storm, but more on that in a mo…

This morning I was up bright and early to do my Davina DVD as usual. I then made myself an amazing breakfast: Chocolate Cherry Green Monster topped with a crumbled white chocolate and cranberry cookie and white chocolate stars:

I thought I’d start getting festive with a few little fun decorations on my breakie! I also added an extra teaspoon of cocoa powder to my usual spinach, frozen cherries, chocolate whey and soy milk mix for extra chocolate flavour. This tasted sinful but contained a huge amount of healthy spinach that I couldn’t taste one bit!

Lunch was some Lentil and Root Veg Stew with steamed savoy cabbage:

I really adore this stew, so delicious and warming. I also had an orange.

I’ve been feeling in need of a good stretch for a few days now and as I had managed to do most of my to do list for the day I thought I’d do a quick Yoga for Runners download. I did a 30 minute flow and felt so much better after doing it, like all the knots in my muscles had been eased out.

Mid afternoon I had a decaf Butterscotch Latte with vanilla soy milk and agave plus two apples:

Dinner was just a quick bowl of Spiced leek, sweet potato and coconut soup as I’m off out shortly:

Today I have made a wonderful Veggie loaf as my veggie turkey alternative, Chocolate Orange Cake and some quick and easy cranberry sauce. I’m especially happy with the veggie loaf, its came out really well and smells like stuffing! Its vegan, so I was worrying that it may not hold together but it has turned out beautifully:

The chocolate orange cake is looking good and will be topped with chocolate cream on Christmas day, and if the cake batter I ate from the sides of the bowl is anything to go by it should taste amazing! I have also roasted some potatoes with rosemary ready to make up some Leek, Roast Potato and Rosemary Soup. Tomorrow morning I’m going to prepare some maple and honey roasted carrots and parsnips and mulled wine. I love getting busy in the kitchen! All of these dishes are going to be taken through to my parents ready for Christmas Lunch. I’ll share the recipes soon too. I was also happy to get my organic veg box – I’m planning on making up a big pan of mixed vegetable soup for healthy lunches between all the chocolate!

This will be my last post until Boxing Day when I shall be sat in my pj’s eating leftovers and will be more than happy to recount all my eats and outfits with you. Speaking of outfits, I’m just about to head off to Newcastle to pick James up from work and do a bit of shopping. I’ve decided to return a couple of recent purchases and treat myself to a new outfit for tomorrow and Christmas Day. I quite like the idea of a pretty top like this (Topshop, £50) to wear with jeans and some sparkly jewellery:

I shall see what I can find – knowing me I’ll get something completely different ;-)

Anyway, this is me signing off till Boxing day. Hope you all have a truly wonderful, peaceful and fun filled Christmas!

I’ve been feeling super festive this weekend, I can’t wait for the rest of the week to come! My weekend started with a bowl of Clemintine and Cranberry Porridge.

I used 1/2 cup of powder porridge, some oat bran, soy milk, water and the juice of two clemintines all cooked up on the stove. I added some dried cranberries, 1 clemintine broken into segments and some flaked almonds, delish!

I did a big grocery shop as soon as the shops opened. We haven’t had the bad snow here yet, but my motto for the next few weeks is going to be prepare for the worst. I don’t want to find myself snowed in on Christmas eve with no ingredients to make mulled wine. Yes, that is how I organise my priorities! ;-)

Since I had some time and some new magazines to read I decided to pop to the gym for a relaxed hour of cardio on the cross trainer, step machine and bike.

Lunch was a bowl of very tasty soup that I had made last week to use up some veggies from my organic box and others that were on their way out. I made up a big pan then froze in portions:

Spiced Leek, Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup (makes 4 servings)

• Olive oil for frying
• 4 small leeks – chopped and sliced
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, chopped into small squares, skin on
• Hot veg stock
• 2 green chillies, seeds removed and finely chopped (or more or less to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 200mls of reduced fat coconut milk

Begin by heating the oil in a large pan on a medium heat. Fry the leeks until tender then add the chopped sweet potatoes and cover with veg stock. Simmer until the sweet potato is tender. Take off the heat then blend the soup until creamy using a hand blender. Add the chillies, ground coriander and coconut milk then blend again. Serve immediately or portion up and freeze for quick and tasty lunches!

I love how seemingly random combos of veggies that need to be used up can create something really special, this was truly inspired! This soup has a great spicy kick to it which is perfect for this weather. Delicious, creamy and healthy.

I had a mine topped with some seeds and a side of chopped apples.

Mid afternoon I had a decaf Butterscotch Latte with a couple of small apples. I had a lovely time wrapping gifts while watching Elf! I also needed to use up a couple of ripe avocados and there’s only one thing I wanted to make with those:

Chocolate avocado cups! I froze these babies for yummy deserts come January when I’m detoxing but still need a chocolate hit – I used raw cacao powder instead of regular cocoa powder for that purpose.

For dinner I roasted up my lovely Kabocha squash and made a version of my Butternut and Quinoa Risotto minus the peas, spinach and greek yoghurt and using soy milk instead. This was lovely and creamy and so full of flavour. I had a side of steamed cavolo nero with shoyu too.

Desert was some Rachel’s Organic low fat Strawberry yoghurt along with some defrosted frozen cherries and some flaked almonds.

I was very impressed with the yoghurt, considering that its low fat it was surprisingly creamy. The hubby really liked this too, he ate the rest of the pot and has asked me to start buying it on a regular basis!

This morning I was up bright and early to head to the gym. I ate a pack of nakd lemon raisins and then did and hour and a half of cardio: 30 minutes on the treadmill running between 6 – 7mph then 20 minutes on the step machine, cross trainer and bike. I was in need of a big breakfast after all of that so I made a pumped up green monster. I blended cavolo nero, spinach, 1 frozen banana, soy milk, several ice cubes, water, frozen mango, 2 very large tablespoons of smooth peanut butter, cinnamon, maca, ground flax, agave and xanthan and guar gums. This smoothie was huge!

I topped it with some rude health granola, goji berries and flaked almonds. Yum.

Mid morning I made a very tasty but super healthy cake! More on that tomorrow…

Lunch was some roast tomato, red pepper and chilli soup plus three clemintines:

Dinner was a tofu stir fry made with a mushroom stir fry veggie mix plus added cavolo nero and carrot noodles. I added lots of soy sauce and fresh ginger too:

Desert was two small sliced apples and some Rachel’s Organic Coconut Greek Style yoghurt:

This yoghurt tasted amazing, so creamy with a lovely coconut flavour. It also has pieces of coconut in the yoghurt which gives it a nice texture.

I’m so excited about the rest of the week, I may be at work for a few days but its nice and relaxed as the office is officially shut. I also have lots of cooking and baking to look forward to, Christmas movies to watch and fingers crossed if this snow doesn’t get too bad I’ll be out to the shops, getting my organic veg box delivery and then out on Christmas Eve, love it! Do you still get excited for Christmas?

Before I go I’ll leave you with a few amazing images from the blog What Katie Ate. After looking through her e-zine of Christmas recipes and photos I’m completely in love. If your a fan of lifestyle and food photography or graphic design you must check this out. I have gained lots of festive food inspiration from this blog. Where have you gained some food inspiration from recently? I want to go out and spend ££££ on a decent camera just so I can attempt to create images like these. Enjoy :-)

:-)