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Happy Friday! Have we all had a good week? Mine has been excellent…

Last week I had mentioned that I was looking forward to an event at work. The project that I manage was funded for a set period of time and it is finishing at the end of March (I work for a charity). Luckily I still have a job after this time, at least for a few months, but we wanted to hold an event to celebrate the project and decided to put on an afternoon tea with a bit of a 1940’s theme. We hired in lots of vintage cake stands, tea pots and tea cups, decked the hall out with red, white and blue bunting, had spring flowers on the tables and even had some entertainment from a lady singing old music hall songs by Judy Garland and Vera Lynn! It was a fantastic event…

I was a bit let down on the catering, I had been told they were going to make me some special vegan cookies but they hadn’t. I was still happy though as I got some hummus salad sandwiches and soya cream filled brandy snaps (I had those times at least 10!) Plus I shared a couple of pots of green tea with my colleague. Of course as it was 1940’s themed we all decided to dress up:

OOTD: vintage dress: Beyond Retro, black peep toe shoes: Office

I tried to do my hair in a 1940’s style with a ‘victory roll’ at the front, not sure how well I managed it but I was happy with how it looked considering I just did it myself in 15 minutes! It was just a fab event and everyone that attended said they had enjoyed themselves!

Other tastiness from this week includes:

Vanilla Cookie Dough Green Smoothie (spinach, scoop of vanilla sun warrior, scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough spiru-tein protein powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice) topped with walnuts, figs and bee pollen

Chocolate Cherry Green smoothie (kale, frozen cherries, chocolate hemp protein powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice) topped with peanut flour sauce and cacao nibs

 Honey and hemp muffin, pear, plain Coyo, honey

Seitan Sausage (made with Italian herbs and sundried tomatoes) with brown rice and broccoli

Stir fried veggies with edamame, ginger, soy and sweet chilli sauce

My veggie chilli with added soy mince and steamed greens

Strawberries and plain Coyo yoghurt (tasted like strawberries and cream, so decadent!)

So lots of amazing eats!

Workouts have just been my usual:

• Sunday – AM treadmill run 5k, 20 minute bike, kettlebell class
• 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 – Yoga class
• 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 – Yoga class
• 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 feel like I’m getting into a really good routine now :-)

On my weekend send off love list this week…

Getting ready to be inked!

Yesterday I got my tattoo finished off. Its still a little red so I’m waiting until its better healed before I post a picture but lets just say it looks fantastic and I’m very happy with it! Also…

 The Little Paris Kitchen, not the most vegan friendly cooking show but I love the whole style of everything in it! // Becoming a member of the Diary Free Dream Team – please check it out, I’ll be writing regular articles! // yoga, I’ve enjoyed my classes so much this week

Before I go, next week I’m planning on doing another green smoothie challenge for at least 7 days. I did one about the same time last year and really enjoyed it! This lovely fresh spring weather is making me crave them and I’m feeling the need to get back to basics with some of my eats, to me there’s no better way to start that than with a daily dose of green. If your up for it feel free to join in and let me know if you’d like me to link to any of your posts. I’ll be starting on Sunday I think!

What have you been loving this week?

Happy Friday! How has your week been? Mine has been good although I’m really ready for the weekend now. I had a weird day yesterday where I ended up doing a lot of deep thinking about things. Do you ever have those day’s where your thoughts are just all over the place? Anyway it’s all good, I’ve had some big realisations and reached some major conclusions that have been a long time coming, onward and upward!

Here’s a recap of my workouts for the week:

• Sunday – 5k relaxed treadmill run, 15 min bike set at random, Kettlebell class
• Monday – 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
• Tuesday – AM Yoga for Runners 20 min podcast, PM 10 min HIIT cross trainer, 10 min HIIT bike, Body Pump class
• Wednesday – 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
• Thursday – New yoga class! (1hr 15 min)
• Friday - 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

I tried out a new yoga class last night and as I suspected it was another slower paced Iyengar class. It actually wasn’t too bad and I did find some of the poses more challenging than I had expected, I certainly got an excellent stretch. I have another class to try on Tuesday and then I’ll probably make a decision about which of them I’ll continue with or if I’ll go for DVD’s and podcasts instead. I’ve also increased my strength workouts this week from two to three which has been great!

Its been a bit of a busy week where I’ve need to start work early so a couple of breakfasts have had to be eaten on the go. For this I’ve been making green smoothies and storing them in a jar in the fridge ready to drink as soon as I get back from the gym. This one contained kale, spring greens, frozen banana, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca powder, ground flax, midori greens, ice and water:

Luckily I did have time to enjoy one in my usual ‘in a bowl’ style. This contained kale, frozen blueberries and strawberries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, berries powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice topped with Dorset Cereals Simply Muesli and sunflower seed butter:

I’m doing well with not needing to add any additional sweeteners or gums to them at the moment, they are certainly turning out thick enough on their own! I also enjoyed another late breakfast nut butter plate of banana, apple, roast kabocha squash and raw almond butter:

This was eaten later in the morning at work after a green juice first thing. I have to say there’s nothing quite like starting your day with a green juice although I don’t think I’ll be making a regular habit of it, I like my breakfast foods too much!

For lunches I’ve been back on the salads, firstly topped with Gourmet Raw beetroot crisps…

…and then topped with home made high protein hummus:

I also remembered to sprout some alfalfa to add in, I just love hummus topped salads!

Today I made myself some raw wraps by wrapping a mix of grated carrot, raisins and raw tahini in spring green leaves:

So delicious, I haven’t made raw wraps in forever and these tasted wonderful, I’m crazy for the tahini and raisin combo! For dinner the last couple of nights I’ve had a massive portion of veggie chilli with a baked sweet potato and steamed greens:

This has been perfect warming meal, I love that chilli it really is such a simple recipe and so easy to throw together!

For desserts / evening snacks I’ve had big bowls of frozen berries with some home made sunflower seed milk. This bowl had frozen raspberries, apple and some almond butter:

I also treated myself to some sharon fruit the other day and enjoyed a few of them chopped up and accompanied by some raw chocolate covered raisins:

Those raisins are seriously addictive, it took a lot of will power not to eat the entire bag!

Well I’m sitting here feeling nice and relaxed ready to start the weekend. I’m going to make a big bowl of popcorn later as me and James are having a movie night and I can’t wait to enjoy a lie in tomorrow followed by a relaxed breakfast and a giant mug of coffee!

What have you got planned for the weekend? What are your favourite on the go breakfasts? I like smoothies as I can drink them while I’m getting ready, not sure what else I could have for breakfast that is quick to make and eat? I might start experimenting with just having a small snack and then something bigger once I’m at work. Any ideas would be much appreciated! Hope you all have a great weekend whatever your up to! :-)

I’ve had one of those great days today, I feel high on life, really brimming with inspiration for the future and have been doing a lot of thinking about my career and things I would like to pursue. I love that feeling that anything could be possible!

This morning I was up and straight off to the gym before work. I warmed up on the treadmill for 5 minutes then did my strength routine followed by 30 minutes of HIITs on the step machine, bike and cross trainer. I’m loving my strength routines at the moment. They have made such a great change to the usual DVD’s and I feel like I’m getting a much more focused workout. I may even have to post a progress pic of my biceps sometime, they are looking pretty good!

Breakfast was a really tasty smoothie containing kale, frozen blueberries, frozen banana, vanilla sun warrior, spirulina, ground flax, matcha, maca, soy milk, water and xanthan gum. I topped it with some cocoa cherry pie granola and goji berries:

I was craving a big filling breakfast and this did the trick!

Lunch was a really simple but very tasty salad of lettuce, carrot, red pepper, red onion, roasted soya nuts and asian dressing:

I also had some mango and red grapes:

Mid afternoon I snacked on an cocoa orange nakd bar:

These are so awesomely good! I then went to get my hair cut. It was getting pretty desperate to be honest, I’ve certainly been having a few bad hair days recently and now that I have it shorter I really can’t be so lazy about getting it cut! The hair dresser actually said that my hair had grown a lot and that I had an unusual amount of new hair coming through which is great as I’ve always had fine hair. I wonder if all the fruits, veggies and healthy fats are doing their thing?

For dinner I made my veggie chilli with additional mushrooms and a few fresh chopped tomatoes thrown in for good measure. I served it up with a side of swiss chard sautéed in coconut oil and some organic blue corn chips:

Oh this was so good, I loved the corn chips and the chilli was just delicious, so hot and spicy!

Dessert was something I’ve been wanting to try for ages, an agar agar pudding!

Agar Agar (a seaweed derived ingredient popular in Japanese cooking which acts like a thickening agent and turns liquid into a jelly) is a bit special for me as my surname is Agar (well, since I got married and double barrelled my surname its now Agar Wilson – I didn’t want to lose the Agar!)

I got some agar flakes in my foodie stash at Christmas and decided to try them out following Katie’s guide. I used a cup of rice milk and one tablespoon of agar flakes, boiled, simmered and cooled then popped in the fridge. At this stage it looked like this:

I then blended it with some fresh strawberries and agave syrup to make Agar Agar Strawberry Pudding!

I served mine topped with some raw chocolate covered mulberries. Such a beautiful colour and so delicious.

Have you cooked with agar agar before?

I’m so happy that the weekend is upon us, I have a night in with the girlies to look forward to, time with the hubby and plenty of cooking and pottering in the kitchen to keep me busy as well as another outdoor run, although at this point I’m really hoping that the temperatures rise a bit!

I’m also glad that we are approaching the last week in February, I am really feeling the need for the spring to get underway. I’m looking forward to seeing flowers growing, lambs in the fields, spring produce, being able to wear lighter clothing, running outdoors in warmer weather and lighter mornings!

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What are you looking forward to in the spring?

Oh I am so happy it’s the weekend, and an extra long one at that! Hope you have all had a good week!

This week I finished the final phase of Female Body Breakthrough, that’s 16 weeks of workouts! I wasn’t really doing it with the aim of seeing a lot of changes other than perhaps a small increase in strength and making sure that I maintained muscle, but the results have been great. I’ve certainly seen an increase in strength and I’m feeling a lot more toned, despite having gained weight over that period. Mission accomplished!

• Saturday – 8 miles
• Sunday – REST
• Monday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Fine Tune phase of Female Body Breakthrough – heavy weight / low rep, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
• Tuesday – AM 4 mile run
• Wednesday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Fine Tune phase of Female Body Breakthrough – medium weight, mid range rep, 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 A from Fine Tune in phase of Female Body Breakthrough– light weight / high rep, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I’m now considering what I want to do with my strength training for the next few months, but it feels good to have finished the whole programme, even my amended version of it!

I’ve been all over smoothies again this week, even though the temperatures have dropped a bit I have still been loving them:

Spinach, melon, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, ice, water topped with roast almonds, mulberries, gojis and cacao nibs

Frozen raspberries, cocoa powder, water and ice topped with some flaked almonds

Kale, mixed frozen berries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, ice, water topped with raw cacao granola, gojis and pumpkin seeds

I’ve also enjoyed a couple of tasty breakfasts:

Burgen Sunflower and Chia Seed bread toasted and spread with sesame peanut butter and a sliced pink lady apple

Overnight muesli – Dorset Cereals Simply Muesli soaked in rice milk overnight and mixed fresh blueberries

Chocolate protein chia pudding with blueberries and mulberries

The other night I wanted to make something quick and easy for dinner so made up some of my Veggie Chilli and served it with steamed greens and Tesco mild free from cheese:

That chilli is one of my fave recipes as its just so quick and easy to make, tastes good and is very healthy! I also made up yet another socca:

This was stuffed with mashed black beans, red onion and that vegan cheese with some steamed broccoli on the side. Another fast, tasty and healthy meal! Of course there has also been the usual salads, this one in particular was delicious:

Romaine, cucumber, red onion, beetroot, olives, Raw Health crackers and some tahini dressing, yum yum! I’ve also been snacking on hummus:

The plain Popchips dipped into the hummus was delish! I also had some of the juiciest dried figs ever, along with a sliced apple and some almond butter for dipping:

The figs are Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference brand and I would highly recommend them, the best dried figs I’ve tasted!

On the weekend send off Love List this week…

Pink printed scarf from Mango

I said in yesterdays vlog that I was loving pink things, let this scarf be exhibit A. I really love it for adding some colour to just a plain t shirt and black trousers for work. Also…

These posts on Bangs and a Bun and The High Tea Cast regarding the Jessica Ennis ‘fat’ comments and the ridiculousness of having sponsors such as Coke and McDonalds sponsoring an event that should be promoting healthy living // this post from the always fabulous Gala Darling with 5 life lessons that I couldn’t agree more on // getting parcels – always a fave of mine but extra wonderful when you get a crate of grape juice! // getting some very validating feedback at work 

In case you missed it:

• I posted my recipe for an awesome Jubilee inspired Vegan Vanilla Cream Sponge Cake
• I talked about my thoughts on glasses and laser eye surgery and loved the variety of comments in response
• I rounded up May and posted a vlog with my May faves!

What are you loving this week? Do you have any big plans for the Jubilee weekend?

Hello everyone, happy weekend! Hope you have had a fantastic week :-) Its been a crazy one for me, I feel like I have so much on my plate at the moment I’m just trying to hold it all together. I find that when I haven’t had my usual weekend to get stuff done I end up playing catch up all week, however I am going to…

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…and get on with what needs to be done!

As I said in my WIAW and Monthly review post, I’m currently focusing in a little on my diet to help me get my sparkle back after feeling a bit under the weather for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been enjoying lots of green smoothies and healthy fats to get that glow and it has been working really well! I have continued having an ACV drink each morning and I’ve also been incorporating in this oil and supplement which I was sent to review from Goodness Direct, for an added boost:

Alongside that I have been avoiding sugar, sweeteners and my beloved shoyu sauce for the last 5 days. The only sweet foods I have had has been in the form of fruit, sweet veggies, the odd bite of raw chocolate (a girl has to live!) and sun warrior protein powder which contains some stevia. I have to say I’ve been amazed at the results! My palate seems to have been refreshed and foods that did not previously taste as sweet now pop with flavour.

Smoothie with kale, blueberries, vanilla sun warrior, coconut oil, maca powder, Viridian skin oil

I’m certainly not about to ditch sugar, sweeteners or salty condiments altogether as I enjoy them too much, however I think I will be trying to be a touch more moderate about how I use them in future. As well as improvements in my sense of taste I also seem to have almost beaten this cold out altogether, my energy levels have been more staple and and I’m sleeping the best I’ve slept in ages! 

Smoothie with romaine, a peach, vanilla sun warrior, two tbsp of tahini, Viridian skin oil, maca powder

This weeks workouts:

• Saturday – At the festival so walking, squatting, walking, walking, squatting, walking
• Sunday – Ditto the above + carrying bags back to car
• Monday – REST - good heavens I needed it!
• Tuesday – 30 minutes cardio on machines in gym, Muscle Mix class
• Wednesday – Hot Yoga at Yogalilies 
• Thursday – Level 2 Full Moon Vinyasa yoga class from Yogaglo 
• Friday – Gym – this strength and HIIT workout with increased weights on some exercises

I can honestly say that using portaloos for 3 days straight does wonders for your quads, I have perfected my squatting technique put it that way ;-) I had thought about hitting the gym when we got back on Monday but that would have been really stupid, that day of complete rest was exactly what my body needed!

I was also super excited when I came back into work on Tuesday and found a few deliveries waiting for me, first up my welcome pack for IIN:

This is wonderful, it contained quite a few resources including a great journal for 3 months that helps you to look at your lifestyle, diet and well pretty much everything. I can’t wait to get started! I also had my first conference call with other IIN students and it was just incredible to hear what an amazing bunch of people I’m learning with!

I’ve also been starting to link with MyProtein. I used to purchase products from MyProtein a lot in the past and since then they have massively widened their product range. I was kindly sent some of their Coconpure oil (organic virgin coconut oil) and Almond butter to try out:

Oh my god, that almond butter! It is a huge bucket full of pure drippy almond butter heaven. No other added ingredients just pure almonds! I had to drive straight in and have some on a sweet potato with broccoli for my usual pre hot yoga meal:

Fab as usual!

A little while ago I was also invited to try out some salad veggies from Good Natured. Unfortunately my local Asda store only had the peppers in stock (the range includes tomatoes, cucumbers and aubergines too) so I also bought some strawberries:

The Good Natured range are free from pesticides but not certified organic, which I know for some farmers is a costly process even when they still do not use pesticides. I have to say those peppers tasted are the best I’ve tasted in a long time! I decided to make my Veggie Chilli with them and it was lovely:

I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of making a chilli sooner to help fight my cold! I added two cloves of garlic and a tonne of hot chilli powder to this, yum yum!

I’ve also been doing the usual salad thing:

And I’ve been eating a boat load of avocadoes (only 39p each in Aldi right now!) I made an amazing chilled soup, I’m going to perfect the recipe over the weekend and share it with you next week its so good!

On the Love List this week…

A shit load of veggies! (and tahini, going through almost a jar a week)

As I talked about at the top of the post, dialling up the green smoothies and veggies in general this week has been wonderful. I feel like I have a renewed appreciation for them this week as I’ve slowed down and really savoured their taste. Also…

snacking on raw nuts macadamias, walnuts and cashews, nuts have not been safe from me this week! // the home collection at Urban Outfitters, refreshing the decor in our flat is on my list to do soon! // The lovely Christina blogged about clothing brand Olive, so my style and pretty affordable! // just one week until my birthday!

In case you missed it:

• What I got up to at Kendal Calling music festival!
• My review of July and aims for August
• My July faves Vlog

How has this week been for you? What’s on your love list? How often do you stop and really take time to taste your food?