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Hi everyone, how’s it going? I‘m back from my amazing trip to NYC!

Big thanks to the lovely Nicky and Emma for their wonderful guest posts on  the theme of travelling, staying healthy and eating vegetarian, and thanks to those that left comments – they make for a really interesting read!

As I’m sure you can imagine I certainly didn’t have too many problems eating veggie in NYC, I have enjoyed some delicious food!

Breakfasts while travelling and whilst in NYC have mainly consisted of snack bars like such as nakd bars (and after a trip to Whole Foods then Clif and Lara bars - love these!) soy vanilla lattes and fruit pots:

On Saturday we took a walk down to Soho and stopped off in a cafe / deli called Cafe Duke on Broadway which we had actually visited on our last trip to NYC. I had my usual fruit pot but also enjoyed a white toasted bagel with grape jelly and a kombucha:

I really loved the kombucha, I think I drank 3 bottles of the stuff over the weekend! On the Sunday morning we stopped at another cafe / deli near Times Square for breakfast:

I had some home fries with another fruit pot:

These kind of places were good for myself and James as usually I could find a vegan option while James could enjoy something more meaty!

One of my favourite indulgences on the trip has been Mocha Coconut Frappuccino (with soy milk of course) from Starbucks:

 

I love how they write your name on the cup! I had several of these, I’m going to try and recreate the mocha coconut combo in a smoothie at home these were just so good.

Of course another place I wanted to visit was Whole Foods!

As well as getting lots of foodie goodies to bring home (more on that in a future post!) I enjoyed a couple of salad bar boxes:

I just love these kind of mixed salad boxes, they were huge and I loved every single bite! I tried this So Delicious Chocolate Coconut Milk Yoghurt and it was heavenly:

I wish we could get these in the UK! We enjoyed a couple of take out meals like this back in our hotel room for convenience mostly, James would get something from a local deli while I would have my salad option – it was handy that the Columbus Circle Whole Foods was just a couple of blocks from our hotel!

The biggest food highlight of the weekend was probably my trip to One Lucky Duck:

I got the Mediterranean Salad with kale, rocket, cherry tomatoes, olives, raw ‘parmesan’ and a balsamic mustard dressing followed by a raw chocolate caramel bar:

All enjoyed on a park bench in the sun at Union Square :-) The chocolate caramel bar was amazing but for the price I had expected a bit more from the salad, it was tasty but nothing special.

We also paid a visit to Peanut Butter & Co:

I was sorely tempted to try something for the menu but was still stuffed from breakfast! I stocked up on lots of nut butters though.

I can honestly say I have really enjoyed my food on this trip, I’ve ate a huge quantity – mostly due to being tired from jet lag and therefore having a massive appetite!

Of course I can’t forget to mention the gig we went to which was the whole reason for the trip - in case anyone missed it, my husband won this trip in a competition to see the band Rise Against. Yes, we did not have to pay a single penny for the flights, hotel or limo airport transfers (oh yes!) which was a damn good job considering how much I have spent on shopping!

The gig was at Terminal 5 which was a fab venue, unfortunately we didn’t get to meet the band as planned due to some mix up at the venue but we did have access all areas passes and enjoyed the performance from the VIP balcony:

We really enjoyed the gig even though we were both exhausted as we had been awake for over 24hrs by that point! I did enjoy waking up to this view the next morning though:

Other places we visited included Central Park:

I got some serious runners envy here – they were even running a charity race! Next time I may have to pack my running shoes and join them! We actually ended up walking every where during our trip including the 30 odd blocks from our hotel to Soho / Greenwich Village and back! I like walking when visiting cities like this anyway as I think you get too see a lot more that way.

I’m missing NYC already, definitely one of my favourite places on earth! I just love the whole vibe of the city. Next time I visit I would like to try and go to a few more vegan food destinations such as Pure Food and Wine, Babycakes and Candle Cafe as unfortunately we just didn’t have the time or funds for during this visit.

I’ll be back over the next couple of days with posts on all my foodie and fashion buys – I have returned home with some awesome finds!

Have you visited NYC before? What is your favourite area of Manhattan? We just love the Village / Soho area and all the little shops, as well as the bigger shops on 5th! If you haven’t visited New York before is it somewhere you would like to go?

Yesterday I was off down to London for the My Special K website event. I’ll post more about the actual event and website next week (as I have lots of notes to go through and lots of my thoughts to tell you!) but I just wanted to catch up with some of my eats, and of course a Wholefoods haul!

I won’t post pics of Thursdays eats as they weren’t that interesting – chocolate banana green monster for breakfast, lentil and root veg stew with greens plus two plums and an apple for lunch, broccoli, courgette and olive hummus with a RAW cracker, carrot and cucumber for a snack and then as I had a late meeting, just 2 packs of bear granola and many many apples for dinner! I also did yoga and core exercises in the morning.

Friday morning I was up at 5am to catch the early train to London. I was going to have a 9 bar for breakfast but then I remembered that there’s sugar in the carob topping (not inline with my monthly kick start plan!) so I swapped it for a Berry Trek bar which I ate along with two apples and a green tea.

When I got to London I had some time for a bit of a look around and passed the Wholefoods branch in Soho – I decided to pop in and get a fresh juice:

This was a small Green Machine juice and it tasted amazing!

After the Special K website presentation we went to the Sanctuary Spa for lunch and our pampering session. All I can say is oh my god, if you ever get the chance to go to the Sanctuary Spa go, it was amazing! Here’s a quick pic I caught of the reception area. The place was beautiful:

I asked for the vegan option and got some roasted vegetables with avocado and rocket on a white bagel. I left the bagel but the roast veggies were delicious!

After a couple of hours in the spa including a dip in the Jacuzzi and sauna plus a fabulous back, neck and shoulder massage, I made the journey to the big Wholefoods on Kensington High Street. I snacked on some unpictured nakd raisins I had in my bag as I was feeling a little light headed after the sauna! Here’s what I purchased from Wholefoods:

Spelt pizza bases, wheat berries, orange and coconut tea, kukicha tea, organic Japanese shoyu, tempeh

 Siesta carob bars in mint and orange flavour, pulsin raw chocolate brownie, Broadberys rose flavour raw chocolate, crunchy peanut butter clif bar, booja booja raw chocolate truffles

Raw cacao nibs, organic mesquite meal, organic maca, braggs liquid aminos, sunflower seed butter, raw brazil nut cacao bliss, spirutein sachets

These are all random bits and pieces that caught my eye that I’ve read about in other blogs or in cook books and fancied trying out. Unfortunately there was no Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter (the horror!) so the raw brazil nut cacao bliss caught my eye instead and actually looks pretty damn tasty! Really looking forward to eating my way through this lot!

I also hit the infamous salad bar. I went for the biggest box available (obviously) and filled it with a range of stuff including chickpeas, wild rice, quinoa, couscous, edamade, carrots, cucumber, red lettuce, sweet potato, mung beans, spinach, rocket, curried cauliflower, pumpkin seeds, olive oil and braggs. This was a true salad beast. I ate half at Wholefoods and the other half on the train.

 

I enjoyed every single bite! I also picked up a pot of mixed berries and pineapple which I ate on the train home along with two unpictured apples and a banana bread nakd bar.

All in all a very good day. I found the whole experience very interesting and it was especially nice to meet fellow bloggers Becky from Becky Blog and Helen from Clear Your Heart amongst others. I’ve been reading Becky’s blog for a while and it felt like we already knew each other! I also got on really well with Helen. I have to say that the girls from Kelloggs were very lovely too.

Have you been to a spa before? If so what was your favourite thing to do? I loved the deep clean I got from the sauna! Have you visited Wholefoods before?

Tomorrow will be Keeping Slim and Getting Stylish 1 year anniversary! I will be posting details of a celebratory GIVEAWAY including some of my favourite products plus some new things to try, so don’t forget to check back!

Hope your having a great weekend! :-)