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Hi everyone, hope your enjoying yourself this Wednesday!

As always I’m joining in the WIAW party! These are my eats from Monday, I like to try and do different days for WIAW as I tend to eat different things / amounts depending on the day. I thought that since the theme is green this month I’d look at one of my green loves – green tea!

I got up and had my usual mug of warm water with lemon juice then tried to get as organised as possible before going to the gym. Every other week we have a team meeting first thing on a Monday morning so I need to get into work a.s.a.p. I made sure I had my lunch and snacks ready in the fridge and laid out my outfit for the day:

T shirt: Primark (only £3!), black skinny trousers: Gap, white vest: H&M, heart patterned socks: Accessorize, black exposed zip boots: New Look (not pictured)

That’s my current favourite tee, I love the summery print!

Then I headed to the gym. I started a new phase of Female Body Breakthrough starting with 5 minutes warm up on the cross trainer followed by strength training (including planks again!) and finishing with 20 minutes of HIIT on the step machine and bike. As I didn’t have time for a proper breakfast I made a very quick but extremely delicious vanilla protein frappe:

This was just ice, instant coffee, a scoop of vanilla sun warrior protein powder, a pinch of xanthan gum and water blended up. It was lush, cheaper and more convenient than Starbucks and was enough to satisfy my hunger and get me out the door. Once I was at work I made a big mug of green tea before the team meeting. After the meeting I had breakfast no 2:

A pink lady apple and a Gourmet Raw cacao cocobanana chocolate brownie plus you guessed it, another mug of green tea! I love that I can eat a brownie for breakfast as these are just so healthy. Lunch was a great salad based on my Confetti Quinoa Salad:

I mixed some leftover quinoa with hemp oil, apple cider vinegar, parsley and dried blueberries and added to a salad of cos lettuce, carrot and red cabbage. After lunch I had a green tea with chai.

For my afternoon snack I had brought some carrots and raw almond butter but I was feeling pretty hungry so when I saw a banana going spare in the kitchen I nabbed that too:

I also had yet another green tea!

Dinner was a big stir fry. I had picked up veggies from the green grocer at the weekend including choi sum and diakon. I also added some broccoli, carrot and mange tout to the mix along with a generous amount of the peanut lime sauce I’d made at the weekend and some leftover baked tempeh:

For a delicious dessert I had two plums topped with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut butter plus a liquorice and cinnamon tea:

They were amazing! That Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut butter should come with a warning label its so addictive! The one time I don’t drink my green tea is in the evening as it does have a little bit of caffeine in it so I tend to go for my fave herbal blends.

I realised when I looked in my drawer at work that I may have a minor green tea problem:

I have a lot more at home too, at least I won’t be running out of that any time soon!

I started drinking green tea about 4 years ago and as of about 3 years ago I completely swapped my regular milky black tea for green tea. I love my spiced and herbal blends but some times I just want something that tastes neutral and fresh. The benefits of drinking green tea are numerous and include:

• High in catechins which have been shown to halt oxidative damage to cells
• Reduced risk for several cancers, including, skin, breast, lung, colon, esophageal, and bladder
• Can improve insulin sensitivity
• Can provide bone density benefits similar to exercise
• Promotes fat loss
• Increases exercise endurance

source

I always feel healthier for drinking green tea! As well as drinking as a tea, brewed and cooled tea makes a great liquid base for smoothies and even as the cooking water for grains like rice and oats to impart a delicate green tea flavour.

My favourite brands are:

• Clipper - my everyday green tea
• Clearspring’s Kuricha – has a lovely roasted taste and is very low in caffeine
• Pukka Green tea with chai
• Twinnings
• We Are Tea
• Cosy Tea jasmine and lemon green teas
• Teavivre loose leaf greens that I’m currently sampling
• Tea Pigs amazing matcha!

Are you a fan of green tea? Do you have a favourite type or brand?

Don’t forget to check out my Chocolate Hemp shake GIVEAWAY!

Happy Friday everyone! Have you had a good week? The best thing about my week has without a doubt getting my tattoo started! Here’s a sneak preview:

I’m back for another 2 hour session in two weeks time to add more colour and to extend the design down my arm and shoulder. When its finished I’ll explain more about the design, its meaning and why I’ve chosen to have it done. The tattoo itself really didn’t hurt that much thankfully. I already have 3 tattoos so I knew what to expect but it wasn’t half as bad as I remember it! I absolutely adore it :-)

In addition to that awesomeness I’ve enjoyed some lovely food this week. I’ve had lots of salads:

1. Cos lettuce, red cabbage, carrots, red onion, raw beet, pinto beans, crumbled blue corn chips, dressing of hemp oil, lemon juice and hot chilli powder 2. Romaine, lentils, peppers, parsley and home made balsamic dressing (blueberry balsamic vinegar, agave, Dijon mustard, hemp oil, garlic powder, water) 3. Romaine, raw beetroot, avocado, chopped salted almonds, dried cherries and balsamic dressing. 4. Romaine, carrot, red cabbage, cucumber, crumbled Raw Health Italian cracker and balsamic dressing

I’ve also had the usual green smoothies, here’s a couple of my faves from this week:

Chocolate Cherry Beet (spring greens, beet greens, beetroot, frozen cherries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, ground flax, maca powder, water, ice) topped with more cherries, buckwheaties and peanut flour sauce

Chocolate Ginger Pear (spinach, pear, chocolate hemp protein powder, small piece of fresh ginger, maca, ground flax, chlorella tablets, water, ice) topped with raw cacao granola and pumpkin seeds

On Monday we had a planning day at work which meant lunch was at Oldfields again. I had the usual butterbean hummus with epic amounts of fresh warm bread to start and then this wonderful dish with spinach, mushrooms and fennel in a tomato sauce:

It really was so good, I have to try recreating this as fennel is something I’ve never tried much before. I also had lemon sorbet for dessert.

The last couple of evenings I was on raid the freezer mode so used up some soya mince mixed with mushrooms and frozen peas in a tomato sauce (passata, garlic powder, dried oregano and fresh basil), firstly with some courgette ‘spaghetti’:

Then with a baked sweet potato and tons of spinach and nutritional yeast:

Various snackies have also been had…

dried apricots, almond butter and dark chocolate turtles

Raw coconut flour mixed with water, chopped apple and raisins with some agave syrup

Trail mix (inspired by Jemma): roast lemon salted almonds, dried mango, dried cherries and pumpkin seeds (for iron!)

Yesterday I had a fabulous breakfast of a slice of my Banana Coconut Bread made with chocolate chips (slice taken from the freezer) and topped with maple peanut butter (made from peanut flour) and two chopped pears plus coffee of course:

That bread is awesome, I swear it is the best banana bread ever!

Workouts this week have just been the usual:

• Sunday – AM gym – 30 minute relaxed treadmill run (3.25 miles ish) 15 minutes cross trainer, kettle bell class
• Monday – 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
• Tuesday – PM Yoga Class 
• Wednesday – 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
• Thursday – PM Yoga class
• Friday – 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

The yoga has been fun again, in last nights class we were doing poses that all had to be done against the wall. I have to admit I used to think that using blocks and straps were only for people who weren’t very flexible but now I realise that they actually help you to get deeper into the pose and stretch more.

On my weekend send off Love List this week…

Teavivre dragon jasmine green tea pearls

I am obsessed with this tea! I go through tea ‘phases’ sometimes its chai, then peppermint or perhaps liquorice (regular green tea is a daily staple for me though – at least 4 cups a day!). Right now it’s this fragrant and beautiful tea that transforms in your mug. Love it! Also…

The tattoo obviously ;-) // 8 Tracks (James music obsessed that he is, has introduced me to this check it out for a wealth of unique mixes to suit your every mood) // managing to do 14 push ups for the first time ever this morning!

What are you loving this week?