Looking forward

January has been a bit of an odd month for me, not bad, just odd! I started the month by having my wisdom teeth out and that impacted on me a lot more than I had expected. I also realised that I needed to make some changes and made a plan of action to help myself get to a truly healthy place. In terms of my goals for the month I did ok:

• I completed my Diet and Nutrition Course with a distinction – yey!
• I got my lesson plan and costings written up for doing healthy living programmes with a local youth club. I’m just waiting to hear back from them
• Gave the blog a make over!
• Celebrated my 2nd blog birthday :-)
• Stuck to eating whole, minimally processed foods and avoided coffee and alcohol

I didn’t stick to my yoga / meditation challenge or get much done at the garden – I’m blaming all that on having the wisdom teeth out!

As for the simpler eating, it went very well. I ended up doing a pretty intensive juice and smoothie cleanse almost by accident after having my teeth out and after that I still continued to eat lots of raw, unprocessed foods and no coffee. It made me realise how good I feel eating that way - my skin and energy levels have been amazing - especially as this time round I've been properly fuelling myself. I think that for the future this is going to be my default way of eating – I didn’t miss things like cereal, pasta or faux meats at all. Once I’ve eaten up what I have I think they'll be making a rare appearance in my diet. I can't go without coffee though, that is definitely my treat!

I’m going to do a separate post on some of the products that I’ve been using during the month (such as chlorella, aloe vera juice and honey) to help with ‘detoxing’ as I’ve really enjoyed using them and have experienced some great results.

Goals for February

Now that January is done I'm really looking forward to February, at least we are one step closer to the spring!

source

• Have a great time in Brighton!
• Gain 5 lbs
• Get settled into my new fitness routine (see below)
• Start work on the garden finally!
• Cleanse my wardrobe
• Register myself with the Federation of Holistic Therapists
• Register my interest at becoming a tutor for the Workers Educational Association (WEA)
• Start doing yoga / pilates at least 3 times a week
• Get my kitchen organised and restocked with my essential ingredients

The Royal Pavilion, Brighton: source

We are off to Brighton in a few days time for a little break and I can not wait! We will be staying with my Aunt and Uncle again. I’m excited to be able to visit Aloka and all the other veg friendly eateries on offer, as well as a meet up with the fabulous Tam! I have no doubt that the visit to Brighton will help me reach that 5lb gain target, so much yummy food! I’m also going to take the opportunity to visit Infinity Foods and get stocked up on some of my favourite healthy ingredients and then sort out my kitchen. I’m going to give myself a budget to treat myself to some new bigger clothes then I’m going to cleanse my wardrobe of everything that is remotely tight fitting and put it in to storage for now.

My workout plans are also going to be different once I return from Brighton and I'm foreseeing that most weeks when I'm not working late, are going to look like this:

• Monday - PM Yoga Class - taught / DVD or Podcast
• Tuesday - AM Yoga podcast, PM Gym 20 min HIIT on cardio machines, Body Pump Class
• Wednesday - AM Gym, 5 min warm up, Strength training from Female Body Breakthrough, 20 min HIIT bike
• Thursday - PM Yoga Class
• Friday - AM Gym, 5 min warm up, Strength training from Female Body Breakthrough, 20 min HIIT step machine
• Weekend - REST DAY / Anything goes - 5k relaxed run, yoga, pilates, gardening, kettlebells etc

I have a post lined up looking in more detail at the Female Body Break Through book - I'm really enjoying using it to inspire my workouts!

February Sponsors

I have some wonderful sponsors for the blog this month! NukuNuku are offering a great discount on their haramaki belly bands, please check them out, especially with this cold weather we are expecting! I'd also like to welcome back Teavivre - please have a look at their website full of an amazing array of teas direct from China. Gourmet Raw are also offering a fantastic discount on their delicious raw treats - their brownies and crisps are amazing! Of course Tea Pigs are offering 20% off their Matcha until 12th February and long time sponsor Viva Pure are offering a great 7% off your first order. I have a refreshed Goodness Direct discount code as off the start of the year so if you used the last one you can now use this one too! iHerb continue to offer a saving of $5 on your first order.

I'd also like to welcome a new sponsor this month, The Flower Council of Holland:

They are promoting the benefits of having house plants, how awesome is that! I'm actually a massive fan of house plants - I have to have one in every room, so I was really delighted for them to sponsor the blog. I'll be running a great giveaway later in the month when you can win your very own house plant!

If your interested in sponsoring the blog please check out the details here.

How was January for you? Do you have any goals for February?