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Happy Friday! I’m ecstatic that it is the weekend and only 2 weeks till Christmas, bring it on! This week has been fairly quiet as things wind down at work for Christmas so not as many meetings to attend. Workouts have all been pretty great:

Monday – AM Gym, 5 min cross trainer warm up, 25 min strength training from Female Body Breakthrough, 20 min HIITs treadmill

Tuesday – AM Detox challenge flow 20 min Yoga Podcast, PM 10 min HIITs cross trainer, 10 min HIITs step machine, 10 min rowing, Body Pump Class

Wednesday – AM – Gym, 5k treadmill interval run, 10 min HIITs step machine, 10 min HIITs cross trainer, 10 min HIITs bike

Thursday – AM – 15 min freestyle yoga, PM 30 min random bike, 10 min HIITs step machine, 10 min rowing, 100 stability ball sit ups

Friday – AM Gym, 5 min treadmill warm up, 25 min strength training from Female Body Breakthrough, 20 min HIIT bike

I think the most exciting thing for me eats wise this week has been creating the perfect tofu cottage cheese! I had tried making it with crumbled firm tofu but it wasn’t that good. This week I gave it a try using silken tofu and it was perfect!

Tofu Cottage Cheese (vegan, makes 2 servings)

• 1 pack of mori nu silken tofu
• 1/2 tbsp of sweet white miso paste
• 1 tbsp of nutritional yeast flakes

Place the tofu in a bowl and scramble it using a spoon in a ‘chopping’ motion, mixing thoroughly until it resembles cottage cheese. Add the miso and nutritional yeast and stir through. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I had mine as a snack with some damson compote (that I’d made and frozen a couple of months ago) and pumpkin seeds. This is the bomb! The texture is really good, obviously its not exactly like cottage cheese, but for me I actually like the taste of this better, but I’m a real fan of the bland creaminess of tofu. It will be perfect mixed with red onion and cucumber as a baked potato topping or mixed with cereal, fruit and nut butter for a cottage cheese mess. Yum!

Other tasty eats from this week:

Raw breakfast: buckwheaties, plums, apple and spiced raw almond milk with a vanilla nut teeccino

Green smoothie containing spinach, frozen banana, vanilla sun warrior, midori greens, berries powder, maca powder, ice, water and gums and topped with home made mixed roasted maple nut butter and goji berries

One of Maria’s pumpkin spice cakes with plums, damson compote, peanut flour sauce and maple syrup 

Big salad with lettuce, finely shredded spring greens, carrots, red and green pepper, roast salted edamame, raisins and tahini miso dressing

Broth topped with raw aubergine ‘bacon’

My Moroccan Tagine with brown rice and quinoa and steamed spring greens 

Raw Cookies and Cream Tart

Just looking at all of that again is making me hungry! Actually I’ve just eaten the most amazing seasonal raw salad ever, I can’t wait to share the recipe but that will have to wait until my next post!

What is your favourite way to eat tofu? I’m thinking of stepping up my protein intake a bit and that easy to prepare tofu is going to be a great way to do that. I also love my tofu yoghurt, baked tofu, scrambled tofu, fried tofu, I think however it comes I love it!

Do you have a busy weekend planed? I’m going to be shopping, wrapping Christmas presents, seeing friends, running, cooking, eating lots of lovely food and depending on the weather, digging at the allotment!

Hope whatever your up to you have a great one!

Hello everyone, Happy Friday! I am sooo ready for the weekend :-)

My week hasn’t actually been too bad, I just think the darker days are taking some getting used to. This has been the last week in my training plan so I’ve been giving it my all, especially in my strength workouts.

• Sunday – Outdoor run – 6.7 miles in 58.13
• Monday – AM gym workout, 5 minute warm up, 30 minutes strength – from Base Phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 15 minutes HIITs on treadmill
• Tuesday – AM Yoga for Runners Yoga Download 15 minutes, PM gym workout 20 minutes HIITs on cardio machines, Body Pump
• Wednesday – AM gym workout, 5k speed intervals treadmill, 30 minutes HIITs cardio machines
• Thursday – Anything goes workout! AM – 10 minutes of random yoga, PM gym workout – 30 min random bike, 20 minutes cross trainer based on this workout by Emma, 10 min cool down on recumbent bike while reading Elle Magazine, 2.40 plank hold
• Friday - AM gym workout, 5 minute warm up, 30 minutes strength – from Base Phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 15 minutes HIITs on bike

I really got my sweat on this Wednesday morning:

I do like a good sweaty workout for feeling like I’ve really worked hard but I don’t think grey probably is the best colour to wear! It was the first time I’ve tried doing Tabata intervals as part of my anything goes workout on Thursday and I loved them, will definitely be incorporating them on a more regular basis.

I think a lot of the meals I’ve enjoyed this week seem to fit quite well with the theme of comfort food – well at least my interpretation of it. I’ve enjoyed the usual smoothies which rank very highly as comfort food for me!

Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut Smoothie containing spinach, 3 plums, mixed frozen berries, Vega Choc-o-lot protein powder (has quite a milk chocolate taste I think!), maca powder, spirulina (the last of it!), water, ice, stevia, almond extract, gums topped with raisins, flaked almonds and cashews:

Another Creamy Pumpkin Squash Pie smoothie but without the pumpkin and just lots of kabocha squash instead:

I also had my first ever try of the Natures Path Maple Sunrise Cereal and my word I now see what Nicky and Jess mean when they say it is delicious! I had a big comforting bowl with some chopped plums, coconut milk and some peanut flour sauce on top for some added protein and sticking power!

Although they are not typical comfort food for most, I love my giant salads, especially this one that included kale massaged with a maple Dijon dressing!

It also contained romaine, rainbow chard, carrot, red pepper, nutritional yeast, hemp seeds and a crumbled RAW Italian cracker. That maple dressing is amazing, I’ve been using maple syrup in so much I’ve used almost a full bottle in less than a month!

I also indulged in a big bowl of raw courgette pasta with my raw pasta sauce and lots of nutritional yeast and basil:

I think I’ve said before how surprised I was that a raw dish like this satisfied my comfort food craving but it does!

Saying that, I’ve also had more traditional comfort food. Leftover broth from the weekend with some seitan sausage cooked in and steamed greens topped with nutritional yeast and shoyu roasted squash seeds:

I have a bit of a thing about sausages and broth / lentil type dishes together so expect to see this kind of combo a lot more!

For lunch one cold day I made myself some Clearspring Soya Sauce Ramen Noodle Soup with some edamame served with raw kale chips and a chopped carrot:

Noodles are very high up my comfort food list, as are chips:

I got a few massive parsnips in my veg box today and I couldn’t resist making them into chips to enjoy with ketchup!

I also did some experimenting this week in attempting to make a tofu cottage cheese. It was ok but the recipe isn’t blog worthy just yet. I ate it for breakfast mixed with vanilla sun warrior protein powder, chopped plums and cinnamon:

I’ve also ate some as snacks with Clearspring cherry jam and sunflower seed butter:

This was very yummy and filling due to the protein!

I’ve had a lovely week full of parcels too. I won a giveaway the lovely Maria was running and received these goodies:

Marias home made pumpkin spice cakes and seed stacked bars

Teapigs mug and English Breakfast and Peppermint teas

Thanks Maria! I also got this lovely hand cream to review:

It came in the most lovely packaging! This is from a local Newcastle based company called Yes Nurse. The hand cream is full of natural ingredients – and its not just for nurses! I’ll be giving a try for a month and then doing a review.

I’m really excited about this weekend as its my best friends 80’s themed 30th Birthday party! I’ll be helping her get set up and then Sunday will probably be spent nursing a hangover! Have you got any exciting plans this weekend? Have you been eating more ‘comfort foods’ recently? What does comfort food mean to you?

Quick reminder – UK bloggers, you only have until 12pm tomorrow to register for Secret Santa if you’d like to take part! Check it out here.

Welcome to the weekend everyone! Hope your week has been good, I can’t believe we are already over half way through January already! Thanks for all your lovely comments on my ‘loose skin’ post, it was really nice that you guys appreciate my openness!

This morning my huge fruit and veg box arrived:

I put in two extra orders of kale so I can make up a load of raw kale chips. I have some in the dehydrator covered in a cheesy, spicy cashew and red pepper coating right now!

Workouts this week have been great, now that I’m back to feeling 100% I’ve really enjoyed some tough ones!

• Sunday – 5.2 mile treadmill run, Kettlebell class
• Monday – AM Gym – 5 minute treadmill warm up, strength training from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ phase, 20 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – AM Yoga for Runners, PM Gym 10 min HIIT cross trainer and 10 min HIIT step machine, Body Pump
• Wednesday – AM Gym – 5k treadmill speed intervals (between 6.7 – 8.5mph – this killed me!) 10 min HIITs on each – step machine, bike, cross trainer
• Thursday – AM DVD – Nell McAndrew Maximum Impact, PM Zumba Exhilarate Activate DVD
• Friday – AM Gym – 5 minute cross trainer warm up, strength training from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ phase, 15 min HIIT treadmill

I doubled up on DVD’s yesterday as I’ve just bought all the Nell McAndrew ones plus I have the Zumba and a Pilates one to review so I’m fitting them in where I can!

Some foodie highlights from this week include a couple of the usual smoothies:

Greens and kale, chocolate sun warrior, 2 oranges, maca powder, ground flax, midori greens powder, matcha green tea, xanthan gum (this one needed it as it was very watery and I really fancied a thick one), water, ice topped with cranberries, bee pollen and popped amaranth

Quickie in a jar smoothie – kale, pears, chocolate hemp protein powder, ground flax, maca, midori greens, matcha green tea, water, ice topped with bee pollen

I’ve also enjoyed more chia pudding:

 Frozen raspberries with cacao chai chia pudding topped with gojis and buckwheaties

I had a really great salad for lunches this week too:

I made up some of my tofu cottage cheese and mixed with lemon juice, chopped red onion, cucumber and carrot on top of romaine with braggs. This was so good, I used to eat regular cottage cheese mixed with those veggies all the time before veganism came a calling and this tasted exactly like it!

For a lovely little snack I had some dried figs with tahini, black strap molasses and honey for dipping:

Totally packed with calcium and iron and tastes fab!

For dinners I’ve been having a socca made with some fresh basil and parsley in the batter filled with mashed butternut squash, red onion and cannellini beans mixed with nutritional yeast and served up with some roasted broccoli:

I’ve also been loving lattes made with my home made sunflower seed milk and teeccino:

I was quite surprised by how foamy the seed milk went!

I also tried something a bit experimental. I had seen on some US blogs that you could get an Apple Cider Vinegar drink so I thought I’d try making my own by mixing some of my RAW Apple Cider Vinegar with some Pukka Aloe Vera juice and water:

This is raw unpasteurised vinegar so it contains lots of good bacteria. I did a little bit of research on the benefits of raw apple cider vinegar and it appears its a bit of a super food in its own right! As well as being good for the digestion it has also been said that it can help weight loss and balance glucose levels. It can also be used externally as a skin toner or to add shine to the hair. You can read more about apple cider vinegar research, benefits and how to use it safely here. This drink tasted lovely, really nice and tangy. I’m thinking it would be great diluted with some fruit juice, with honey added or even in my fresh veggie juice.

I was also pretty chuffed earlier in the week when my Diet and Nutrition Advisor certificate came through, very exciting!

I can now go ahead and register with the Federation of Holistic Therapists and get my insurance in place!

How has your week been? Got much planned for the weekend? I’m looking forward to a little trip into town, seeing family and friends and some kitchen time, bliss!

Have you tried Apple Cider Vinegar before or used it medicinally? That drink was really nice and felt like it settled my tummy, going to enjoy it more often!

Oh, and don’t forget to check out my GIVEAWAY, it closes on Sunday!

Oh what a week it has been! It kicked off with a busy day of working from home, then on Tuesday I delivered my first healthy eating workshop with young people and the rest of the week has been filled with work, meetings and workouts!

Love cheap veggies!

I did find some time to get to the green grocers to fill the fridge on the cheap. I got some great bargains from the reduced bins again – aubergine, red pepper, cauliflower, cucumber and a bag of brazil nuts. I also got two big boxes of strawberries for 99p each, a huge bag of pak choy, apples, ginger and some purple sprouting broccoli. I have some big plans for all of that this weekend so watch this space!

Eats this week have yet again been of the ‘use it up’ variety until payday gets here. With working a couple of later nights I’ve been making very simple meals, including the ultimate lazy late nighter (other than cereal I guess) porridge!

I had a bowl with mixed berries and peanut flour after the youth club, very tasty! I also had some porridge for breakfast yesterday:

I decided to treat myself and add a sachet of Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter along with a mashed banana and some freeze dried berries. This was insanely good!

Last night after yoga I made a random meal out of things that needed using up – spinach, a baked sweet potato and some of my tofu cottage cheese mixed with the last of my Zest pesto:

Sorry for the rubbish pic but this was so good! I’ll definitely be mixing pesto and tofu together again! I had the other serving of tofu cottage cheese as a snack with an apple and raisins:

I had the apple and raisin combo again for breakfast with leftover cooked rice and wheatberries and raw almond sunflower seed milk mixed with vanilla sun warrior and cinnamon:

I’ve really been enjoying eating leftover cooked grains for breakfast.

Yesterday I had the most delicious salad. I’d made a similar version a few weeks ago but this time I added some chickpeas:

It contained:

• cos lettuce
• cucumber
• half an avocado
• chickpeas
• dried cherries
• my raw tamari ‘roasted’ almonds
• balsamic vinegar

It was the best salad I’ve had for a long time and boy did it fill me up! I love the mix of the creamy avocado with the sweet cherries and salty almonds.

Of course there has also been some tasty green smoothies:

This was my strawberry and peanut butter smoothie but made a bit more substantial by using a scoop of good hemp strawberry fit shake in the smoothie itself and adding the peanut flour as a sauce on top, yum! Today I had another smoothie with spinach, mixed frozen berries, chocolate sun warrior, maca, ground flax, water and ice topped with lots of muesli:

Check out the giant brazils and hazelnuts! There was a lot more muesli added to this :-)

Workouts this week:

• Saturday – REST
• Sunday – approx 5.5 mile run (continuing without the garmin at the moment)
• Monday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Dial it in phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – Pop Pilates Total Body Bangin’ Workout from You Tube and Yoga for Runners podcast
• Wednesday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Dial it in phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Thursday – PM yoga class 1hr 15 
• Friday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Dial it in phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I had been planning a short and relaxed run on Tuesday morning but the weather had other ideas! Unfortunately since my youth club is on a Tuesday evening I won’t be doing Body Pump or my other yoga class for a while so I’m going to play that day as a bit of an ‘anything goes’ day again and see what I can do on a morning.

On the weekend send off love list this week…

Most of the green smoothies had been drank by this point!

I delivered my first healthy eating workout with young people and it was brilliant! I worked with a group of boys aged 10 – 12. I didn’t know the group, or what facilities the kitchen had other than smoothie makers so smoothies it was. I bought some strawberries, bananas, mango, plain natural yoghurt, peanut butter, cocoa powder, apple juice and spinach. We also had some orange juice, tinned pineapple and peaches to use up. I started them off with a chocolate banana smoothie followed by a strawberry and peanut butter smoothie. After that I encouraged them to make their own recipes – with varying success! Finally I thought I’d see how far I could push it and make them a green smoothie! I made one with spinach, banana and orange juice and another with spinach, pineapple and mango. They surprised me by liking the green smoothies the most! Even the young people from the other groups and the parents at the end enjoyed the green smoothies, it was wonderful. Seeing them all drinking their green smoothies made me so happy, I just can’t explain it. I’m more determined than ever to find a way of being able to do this for a living! Also…

Finishing my End of Grant report for the project I’ve managed for the last 4 years // feeling excited about the future now said project is finished! // listening to mixes on 8tracks while I worked from home // painting my toe nails for the first time in weeks // Madonna’s MDNA on repeat in the car

How has your week been? What are you loving this week?

Hope you have a great weekend!

Happy Wednesday everyone! Hope your having an awesome day, I’m super excited as this is my last day at work until the New Year! As always, Wednesday means WIAW!

If your not familiar with What I Ate Wednesday hop on over to see Jenn at Peas and Crayons to find out more. I love being able to look back over my WIAW posts as a way of seeing if I’ve been eating in a balanced way and I love looking at other people’s posts for inspiration – sometimes its those randomly put together meals and snacks that are the most tasty!

These are my eats from Monday. As its the week before Christmas I decided to work a flexible week which means I can enjoy a couple of little lie ins (and I mean little, I was still up at 6.30!) and get to the gym in the morning as they have changed their usual 7am opening time to 9am this week.

I started my day as usual with a mug of warm water and fresh lemon juice, then I made a little breakfast. I had a bowl of peanut butter puffins with a chopped apple and unsweetened soy milk plus a frothy vanilla coffee with soy milk and stevia:

I love having soy milk in the house so I can make a proper frothy coffee! I pottered about the house until it was time to hit the gym. I did my regular Monday workout – 5 minutes warm up on the cross trainer, 25 minutes of strength training from Female Body Breakthrough followed by 15 minutes of intervals on the treadmill. I got home and showered then made a protein smoothie in a bowl to refuel:

This was made with 1 scoop of fruitein powder, half a persimmon, ice and water topped with the other half of the persimmon and some goji berries. It was delicious!

I headed into work and tried to focus and not let myself get into holiday mode just yet! I had a big salad as a late lunch:

Cos lettuce, carrot, cucumber, roast salted edamame, raisins and tahini miso dressing, it was delish!

When I got home from work I was starving so I raided the cupboards and fruit bowl. I started with a bag of Sweet Chilli Sun Bites and a few satsumas then went back for some apples:

 

I also had an un pictured handful of raisins and the last of the bag of roasted edamame that hadn’t made it onto my lunch. I was just ravenous all of a sudden!

After that snack attack I was pretty full so just had a smallish dinner (well, small for me) - I ate leftovers from Sunday nights meal – black beans and quinoa with some fresh parsley mixed in, served with raw kale massaged with lemon juice and braggs:

For dessert I made some tofu cottage cheese with frozen raspberries and flaked almonds:

I was glad I felt fuller after eating that as we went and did our Big Christmas Food shop and if I’d still been hungry goodness knows what I would have brought home with me!

I am trying to eat as normally and healthily as possible this week but I have to admit I’m definitely getting in the mood to relax and enjoy more of my treat foods, and in larger amounts! I’m also still getting in my workouts but it takes so much more effort to go to the gym at 9am after being up for a couple of hours and once I’m there I just want the workout done as quick as possible so I can get on with the rest of my day. I think it just shows that I’m truly a creature of habit and routine!

How are you doing this week? How long do you continue your healthy habits on the lead up to Christmas?

Oh, and the good news… Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish has been featured on Channel 4 Beauty’s selection of Best Health Blogs!

How awesome is that!!! Seriously I can not believe that the little blog I started almost 2 years ago has grown like this, its just amazing that people read my ramblings, thank you all!