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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!

Hi guys, hope your having a great Wednesday and a great week!

I had been planning on posting my eats from Monday but I ended up having a total stress day. Things were going a bit crazy at work, I had to work on something once I got home in the evening and I ended up forgetting to take pictures, stress eating carrots dipped in tahini dressing plus bowls full of raisins, cacao nibs and roast salted almonds. I guess it could have been a lot worse and I managed to chill myself out later on in the evening but it just reminded me how awful I feel when I let stress get to me. Anyway these are my eats and goings on from Tuesday!

I started the day with some yoga. I didn’t follow a podcast or anything I just did a quick 10 minutes of sun salutations, tree pose, boat pose and finishing in child’s pose, I felt a million times better after that. I had the usual hot lemon and warm water then made breakfast:

I had some leftover brown rice in the fridge so decided to make some grain porridge. I didn’t have any milk open so I just added 2 tbsp of coconut flour with some water to a pan and warmed through then added a mashed banana and half a scoop of vanilla sun warrior protein powder. I topped it with some coconut butter and almond butter. Absolutely lovely, I love the texture of brown rice porridge for something a bit different. I also had a cup of cinnamon and hazelnut coffee sweetened with stevia.

I decided to face the day ahead with red lipstick, my statement necklace from Topshop and my favourite striped tee:

I feel like I can handle anything when armed with red lipstick! Luckily work was much calmer than it had been on Monday.

Mid morning I stopped for a snack of cucumber with some spicy chickpeas:

Those are some very spicy chickpeas they nearly blew my head off!

Lunch was a salad with lettuce, carrot, red cabbage and home sprouted alfalfa topped with some of my Magic Mixture baked lentil balls and tahini dressing:

This was delicious, the magic mix baked into the balls very well and tasted gorgeous with the tahini dressing, almost like falafel.

Before leaving work for the gym I snacked on 3 dates stuffed with a raw savoury ‘roasted’ almond:

Sweet and salty combo never fails!

At the gym I did 10 min HIITs on the cross trainer, 10 min HIITs on the bike and my Body Pump class which was great as always. Those planks at the end are killers through, I’m looking forward to getting a stronger plank in March!

For dinner I stir fried some spring greens and broccoli with ginger, soy sauce and gomasio and topped with some maple ginger garlic baked tempeh:

I’m still not sick of tempeh, it tastes so good when baked like that. This I had actually baked on Monday so I just had to warm it back up. Of course I just had to have a big bowl of my favourite greens along side it!

Dessert was a scoop of cookies and cream spiru-tein protein powder made into a thick smoothie with water and ice and mixed with some peanut sauce made from peanut flour, sea salt and stevia then with a few cacao nibs on top for added crunch:

Love these smoothie bowls especially when peanut sauce is involved :-) Later on in the evening I relaxed with a mint chocolate rooibos tea while reading Eat Pray Love:

I actually started reading that book while on holiday almost two years ago! I decided it was about time I finished it but I thought it would be worth re reading from the beginning. The chapters in Italy always remind me of my wedding (which was in Italy) and all the amazing food we ate while we were there!

What makes you feel like you can handle anything? Yoga + red lipstick + killer outfit + coffee = my magic combo ;-)

Happy Friday everyone! This Friday comes with an extra bit of happiness for me as I am now on holiday for a week, bring it on! I am pretty ready for the weekend after being ill mid week. Luckily I’m feeling much better but poor James also caught whatever it was so he’s been ill too. Here’s a look at my workouts for the week:

• Sunday – 30 minute treadmill run, 15 minute bike, Kettle bell Class
• Monday – Yoga class 1 hour 30
• Tuesday – Unexpected rest day – ill :-(
• Wednesday – AM gym workout – 5 min warm up cross trainer, strength from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ phase, 20 min HIITs on bike
• Thursday – AM – Yoga for Runners podcast, PM Gym – 321 workout
• Friday - AM gym workout – 5 min warm up cross trainer, strength from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ phase, 20 min HIITs on step machine

Thanks for all your comments about the yoga class. I’ve been looking at what other yoga is being offered in my area and it all seems to be Hatha style yoga which I understand to be pretty slow paced. I don’t mind doing one class like that a week but I couldn’t do two! With that in mind I’m probably going to experiment with a couple of different classes at the gym and some DVD’s and podcasts and then re jig my workout week.

Luckily I’m back to my normal self now but mid week I had very little appetite due to that mystery illness, however chocolate and peanut butter makes everything better:

This was one of the only things I managed to eat on Tuesday, it contained spring greens, banana, lots and lots of peanut butter, water and ice then topped with peanut flour sauce and dark chocolate chips. Also accompanied by several spoons of peanut butter straight up with dark chocolate chips stuck on. Speaking of nut butter and spoons…

My order of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter arrived from iHerb! I did just about manage to eat some of this ;-)

I’ve also continued to enjoy my current favourite snack of almonds and raisins:

These were some extra special almonds that I’d soaked overnight then coated in shoyu and ‘roasted’ in the dehydrator to make raw salted almonds. They are gorgeous, I can’t get enough of the sweet and salty combo! I just had to add some on top of a butternut squash smoothie too:

I decided to get one of these in while I still craved it. This was roast butternut, kara coconut milk, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, ginger, cinnamon and ice topped with maple syrup and those almonds all chopped up. Heaven!

I also made a pretty awesome dinner that I had a couple of nights in a row – baked tempeh with stir fried purple sprouting broccoli and greens in a ginger coconut sauce:

I marinaded the tempeh in a mix of shoyu, honey, ground ginger and garlic powder then baked. For the veggies I just stir fried them in a little coconut oil then once they were tender I added about 3/4 cup of full fat coconut milk, fresh minced ginger, shoyu sauce and 1/2 tbsp of coconut flour (to add thickness) then cooked off for a couple of minutes to thicken up even more before serving. I haven’t had full fat coconut milk in ages and it was so good. I was even more surprised when the leftover milk that had been left in the fridge turned into a very thick cream. I had a sudden moment of inspiration and decided to use it to top a gooey baked sweet potato for my lunch today:

I also added some peanut flour sauce for a bit of protein. You can’t tell me that doesn’t look amazing right? I’m a full fat convert now!

Other meals that have helped me get my appetite back include:

Big salad with romaine, red onion, yellow pepper, cucumber, black beans and avocado

Green smoothie with spinach, persimmons x 3, 1/2 banana, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, water, ice, maca powder, ground flax topped with Dorset Cereal’s fabulous ‘Simply’ muesli and more sliced persimmon

My obsession continues… four fresh figs topped with tahini (watered down a bit for more pourability), black strap molasses and thyme honey. Can not get enough!

I’ve been loving my fats this week. I used to always go for the low fat versions of everything such as hummus, light coconut milk and yoghurt (when I was eating that). I know that when you are seeking to lose weight reducing fat can be a good strategy, however fats are essential in our diets for so many things including the absorption of some fat soluble vitamins and good skin, hair and nails. I know there are ‘good’ fats (poly unsaturated and mono unsaturated fats) and ‘bad’ fats (saturated and trans fats) but for me I don’t worry too much about that and enjoy plant sources of fats even though coconut milk, butter and oil contains some saturated fat. There is some evidence that the medium chain fatty acids (MCFA’s) present in coconut milk are processed by the body in a different way to saturated fat from other sources and that they can provide energy and help to maintain weight by increasing satiety. As long as its not the nasty trans fats, and that the fat in whatever form is coming from whole unprocessed foods, I’m happy! Are you a low fat or full fat person? I definitely think there’s a balance to be had between the two.

Have you got anything exciting planned for the weekend? Tonight I’m doing something I’ve wanted to do for ages, if it works out ok I’ll share on Sunday! Other than that I think its going to be a pretty chilled weekend just catching up with friends and family, a bit of gym time and of course getting set to travel down to Brighton next week. Hope whatever your up to you have fun, and manage to stay warm!

Hi everyone, hope your enjoying your Sunday evening and have had a lovely weekend! I feel like I’ve barely stopped but I have had a great time :-) Today I’ve been Christmas shopping with my Mam, we’ve had a wonderful day!

OOTD: knitted headband: Primark, black hooded leather jacket: Topshop, jumper: Primark, panther pendant necklace: Primark, black bag: H&M, skinny jeans: H&M, black suede effect boots: H&M

I got plenty of presents bought and picked out a couple of things for myself from my parents, I am an exceptionally lucky girl! I got to try the Starbucks Praline Mocha (with soy of course) and it was delicious. We also had lunch at the Chinese Buffet:

Spicy cucumber pickle, sesame carrot salad and some other kind of pickle! 

My favourite Mapo Tofu (check out those massive chunks of tofu!) crispy fried greens and wantons which unfortunately after biting into them I discovered contained cheese. I had this plate x 2 :-)

Fruit plate for dessert

I do like the Chinese buffet but I have a pretty laid back approach to my veganism, I think if you worry about cross contamination of your foods it would definitely not be for you. I had thought the wantons were vegan but I didn’t freak out when I tasted the cheese, I just know not to have them again! That tofu and those pickles are worth going back for though!

Yesterday I started the day at the gym. I had been hoping to run outside but it was wet and windy and quite frankly I couldn’t be arsed so I went to the gym to run on the treadmill. In typical fashion, as soon as I arrived at the gym the sun came out! I was actually happy that I managed to stay on the treadmill as long as I did. I did 10k in 52.20 doing 0.25 mile speed changes and sprints between 6.7 and 8.2 mph. I finished off with 10 minutes on the bike to cool down.

Last night we went to see a guitarist called Aynsley Lister play at The Cluny. We went early so we could have some dinner. I had the vegan chilli with a few chunky chips some salad I pinched off James plate:

It contained chickpeas, mushrooms, peppers and spinach and it was hot hot hot! Perfect for a blustery night! On the way out of the gig we bumped into Simon King from the Hairy Bikers at the bar! He is so tall, I really like the Hairy Bikers cookery shows, I wish I could have stopped and talked to him properly!

Other tasty eats from this weekend include:

Creamy orange, cranberry and macadamia porridge (made without the greek yoghurt or rice milk) – so gorgeous!

Millet bread with home made mixed roasted and salted nut butter (one with Clearspring Cherry jam and one with honey) carrots and pears

Teriyaki marinaded and baked tempeh with stir fried shredded brussel sprouts and broccoli in a sesame oil and chilli dressing, roast kabocha squash and roast beets

The leftover baked tempeh crumbled in a salad with cos lettuce, carrot and red cabbage with a dressing made from sesame oil, braggs, lazy chilli and agave

Yum yum! Well I am sitting here writing this listening to Christmas songs, I’m definitely well and truly into the Christmas spirit! I see that people are starting to receive their Secret Santa gifts – it is absolutely wonderful that I’ve been able to spread a little happiness! I have had a few emails from people who have had issues getting them out, so please don’t panic if you haven’t received yours yet! I’ll be trying to chase up all my emails this evening and will hopefully get caught up with responding to comments and my Google reader tonight and tomorrow. Busy weekends like this always leave me playing catch up!

Have you had a good weekend? Buffet restaurants, yey or nay? I was really pleased with myself as its the first time ever I’ve been to a buffet restaurant and a) haven’t hugely over eaten and b) haven’t felt guilty for what I did eat. Even though I had 4 plates of food I didn’t leave with a food baby, result!

Right, I’m off to try and get myself organised for the week ahead! Hope you have a great one!

Last night I had my sports massage!  Big thanks to Jess for recommending a therapist, she was excellent and very knowledgeable. She talked through my injury with me, gave me some suggested stretches and corrective exercises and then massaged my legs. It didn’t hurt as bad as I had been expecting but she did say that my legs were very tight. She explained that I had some muscle imbalances and that my glutes probably aren’t ‘firing’ properly and that my inner thigh muscle is a little under developed. She also said that I should be able to do the Great North Run! I’m still going to try a short run on Sunday and obviously if I still have a lot of pain I’m not going to risk things getting worse, but overall things are looking up!

I’ve still be working out this week, as thankfully my usual exercise doesn’t hurt my knee. I’ve had a few light cardio sessions at the gym and my usual body pump class and yoga podcasts.

I’ve also had some lovely eats this week including the usual suspects:

Green smoothie containing assorted leftover greens: spinach, romaine, spring greens, frozen banana, kiwis, hemp protein, maca, spirulina, msm crystals, vanilla stevia, water, ice, xanthan and guar gums topped with lots of almond butter sauce, goji berries and bee pollen.

Salad with romaine, cucumber, carrot, yellow pepper, beet, green olives, Lydia’s raw organic crackers, cheesy pumpkin seeds and braggs liquid aminos

On Tuesday evening I made the most luscious bowl of protein ice cream:

This was made with some frozen watermelon, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, stevia, ice, water and xanthan and guar gums. It was divine!

As I had a busy evening on Wednesday I decided to treat myself to something from the salad bar at Sainsbury’s. I was pleasantly surprised!

This was half butternut and lentil salad and half ‘seventeen salad’ containing quinoa, bulgar, edamame and I think there were also pear and cranberries in there! All served up on top of a bag of mixed spinach, watercress and rocket. Yum, I can totally see that becoming a lazy evening habit!

I’ve also been experimenting with a new way of cooking tempeh. I made a Tempeh and Quinoa Stir Fry based closely on this recipe which crumbles the tempeh rather than frying, baking or grilling it in slices:

I made mine with shredded cabbage and sliced runner beans and served with steamed greens. This was really delicious, I will definitely be cooking tempeh in this way again!

Veggies in my breakfasts (i.e. my carrot cake chia pudding!) have become a bit of a theme this week. This morning I had this amazing dish waiting for me when I got up:

Chocolate Courgette (zucchini) Overnight Oats (vegan, serves 1)

• 1/2 cup of scottish oats
• 2 1/2 cups of water (or milk, or half and half)
• 1 tbsp of chia seeds (optional)
• 1 large grated courgette
• 1 tbsp of cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp of agave syrup or sweetener of choice
• 1 tbsp of cacao nibs (or chocolate chips, or nuts) for topping

Begin by cooking the oats and water according to Katie’s Voluminous method. Once semi cooked and cooled slightly, stir in the chia seeds, grated courgette and cocoa powder. Once completely cooled transfer to fridge to chill overnight. The oats should thicken up nicely! In the morning add sweetener to taste and enjoy either cold, or reheat topped with the cacao nibs or other topping of choice!

I think I’ve been inspired by all the chocolate and courgette action going on in other blogs recently! This is a lot tastier than you may think, and is a great way of getting in an additional portion of veg! The cooking method, especially when combined with the chia seeds, gives you can amazing creamy bowl of oats.

Obviously I’m a lover of getting my greens at breakfast in my smoothies but my carrot cake chia pudding and this recipe are a new way of getting my fix! Are you a fan of veggies for breakfast?

Wow this weekend has flown over, wish I had an extra day off this week but no chance of that happening! Yesterday I was up early to go and do a grocery shop. I ended up buying far too much fresh produce as usual. I can’t resist those special offers!

I had a pack of nakd raisins and a mug of warm water and lemon before hitting the gym:

I did 30 minutes on the treadmill alternating between 6.5mph and 7mph every 5 minutes. I also did 20 minutes of steady state cardio on the cross trainer, step machine and bike for a total 1hr 30 minute workout.

When I got home I couldn’t decide if I wanted porridge or a smoothie so I had both! I made up some porridge with 1/2 cup of rude health fruity date oats and 1 1/2 cups of water. I then topped the porridge with some fresh blueberries and poured over a simple smoothie I made with half a gorgeous sweet mango and kara coconut milk. I finished off my layer up with flaked almonds and goji berries:

This was so so good! I used to make layer ups with yoghurt but this was even better!

As breakfast was eaten pretty late I wasn’t that hungry so later in the day I just made myself a green juice containing apple, pear, courgette, cucumber and parsley plus spirulina, matcha green tea powder and acai berry juice:

For dinner I decided to try the organic tempeh I picked up at Whole foods. I baked it in the oven covered with some cashew ginger pate and served it with steamed kale with soy sauce and parsnip chips with the last of the nut pate for dipping:

The tempeh was ok – I liked the texture but it definitely needs a sauce of some kind. Dessert was some heavenly hint of mint conscious raw chocolate:

I also had an apple.

Today I was back at the gym again for my strength workout. I would usually do this workout on a Friday evening but as I was doing it on a Sunday and therefore had a little more time I decided to warm up with a 5 minute treadmill run then do my cardio after the strength routine so that I would have more energy to input into the moves. I did the same routine as last week but increased my reps on some of the exercises:

• Incline push up on bench - body weight, 10 reps x 3 (up from 7 reps last week)
• Stiff legged dead lift - 12 reps (up from 10 last week) x 3 with 18kg barbell
• Chest fly on stability ball - 12 reps (up from 10 last week)  x 3 with 2 x 5kg db
• Bent over row with tricep kick back – 12 reps (up 10 from last week) x 3 with 2 x 4kg db
• Shoulder press with squat - 7 reps x 3 with 2 x 7kg db – same as last week
• Forward lunges with bicep curl - 5 x each leg x 3 with 2 x 4kg db – same as last week
• Backwards lunges with bicep curl - 5 x each leg x 3 with 2 x 4kg db – same as last week
• Upright row with sumo squat – 12 reps (up from 10 last week) x 3 with 2 x 6kg db
• Weighted sit up on stability ball - 20 reps(up from 15 last week)  x 3 with 1 x 8kg db
• Lower back extension on stability ball - 10 reps x 3 body weight – same as last week

I then finished up with 10 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and cross trainer for a 30 minute cardio workout.

To refuel I made a wonderful Tropical Recovery Smoothie. I added maca powder and matcha green tea powder to the recipe and topped my bowl with raw cacao nibs, dried pineapple and coconut:

Delish!

Lunch was eaten at my parents who were throwing a little party to celebrate the birth of my gorgeous little nephew last week. I took along a raw salad made up of carrot, courgette, cucumber, yellow pepper, alfalfa sprouts, mixed seeds and some braggs. I added some couscous with roasted vegetables and leafy salad from the buffet:

I also had a fruit salad with blueberries, mango and clemintine:

It took a lot of will power not to eat the chocolate cake on offer!

Dinner was more tempeh, this time I griddled it along with some asparagus and steamed kale plus some roast kabocha squash (nom!) I made up some sauce with sweet white miso paste, shoyu and water:

This was yummy, the sauce was fab. Sweet white miso paste is made from fermented soya beans – I found mine in Sainsbury's so its quite easy to get hold of. You can make all sorts of sauces and dressings with it. Its definitely one of my favourite new ingredients.

For a little dessert I had two sliced apples, one with mesquite powder and the other with the raw brazil cacao bliss I picked up from Whole Foods for dipping:

I really loved both the mesquite and the brazil cacao bliss! The mesquite has a sweet malty flavour and although the brazil nut bliss wasn’t that chocolately it tasted really good.

Alison over at Physically Philosophical tagged me with the Four Things list, so here it is!

Four TV shows I watch

• CSI
• Got to Dance
• Being Human
• Any cookery shows

Four things I'm passionate about

• Healthy food and cookery with fresh produce and good quality ingredients
• Fitness
• Fashion
• The Voluntary and Community Sector / charity sector

Four words/phrases that I use too much

• F*ck (and its variations) – I stole this one from Alison, but I’m the same!
• Eeee well… (that’s a geordie thing I think)
• Oh my god
• At the end of the day…

Four things I've learned from the past

• It will all work out for the best in the end
• You always have another 10% you can give
• Don’t be afraid to do things out of your comfort zone
• Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself

Four things I'm looking forward to

• Going to York with James in February
• Going to London in March with my bestie to the Vitality Show!
• Running outdoors again
• Seeing my new nephew get older and start to develop his features and personality

Four things I love about winter

• Fairy lights
• Jumpers, hats and scarves
• Big bowls of warming soup or stew
• Dark evenings in with James with all my candles lit

I know I’m suppose to tag another four people but I think most blogs seem to have got this one, however if your reading and you haven’t yet been tagged consider yourself tagged!

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend!

In case you’ve missed it I’m running a GIVEAWAY to celebrate one year of Keeping Slim and Getting Stylish – check it out here. Thanks for all the entries so far, its been great reading about how blogs have inspired you!