Hi everyone, I know its suppose to be a bad thing to constantly blog about the weather but I’m sorry, its just been too gorgeous not to mention it!

Driving home in the sun!

I don’t think I could have planned a better week for my Green Smoothie Challenge, they have been the perfect refreshing breakfast for this warm weather! Today I am here for WIAW of course, these are my eats from Monday.

I’ve decided that alongside the green smoothie challenge I’m having a bit of a healthy feasting week as I’m feeling completely caffeine and sugared out. I’m just sticking to simple foods, no coffee, no refined or processed sugars and I’m giving stevia a miss for a while so my taste buds can normalise again. I’m making sure that I’m eating plenty of nuts and fats as I’m not doing this to lose weight, just to try and re-steady my energy levels :-)

I got up, had the usual warm water and lemon and headed to the gym. I did 5 minute warm up on the cross trainer, strength training from Female Body Breakthrough and finished up with HIIT for 10 minutes on the step machine and then 10 minutes on the bike. For breakfast I had a not so green smoothie!

It contained spinach, celery, frozen berries, chocolate hemp protein powder, maca, ground flax, a couple of chlorella tablets, water, ice and then topped with goji berries and pistachios. I also had a green tea. It was like eating a bowl of chocolate berry ice cream! I had some celery in the fridge so decided to add a couple of stalks for extra goodness.

Lunch was a big salad with cos lettuce, red onion, cucumber, basil tofu, olives and lots of green goddess dressing:

I know I love my salads anyway but they’ve been even more enjoyable so far this week. That basil tofu is a real treat for me, its a little expensive to buy all the time so when I have it I really enjoy it!

Mid afternoon I snacked on a few chopped carrots with some mixed nuts and seeds that included sunflower seeds, walnuts and pecans:

I had also brought a nakd bar with me to work for a snack but I wasn’t hugely hungry so didn’t force myself to eat it. I decided to have the raw whole nuts as a change from the usual nut butters as I’m building up quite the stockpile and they need eating up!

For dinner I had some adzuki beans with quinoa and parsley alongside some roasted broccoli and cauliflower in tahini dressing:

I’d had this exact same meal on Sunday evening and enjoyed it so much I repeated it. I had some home cooked adzuki beans in the freezer so it was easy to throw together with the leftover quinoa. I also made a jar of tahini dressing up at the weekend which is delicious, I just blended some garlic, lemon and ume vinegar together with the tahini and it tasted great, it really made the roast veggies pop!

As it was so warm all I was craving after dinner was fresh fruit so I had a sliced Asian pear and two massive pink lady apples:

I also had a sleepytime tea and drank the usual gallons of water and green tea throughout the day.

Green smoothie challenge

How’s everyone coming along with their green smoothie challenge? I seem to be feeling more simple cleansing smoothies than I did the last time I did this – no chocolate peanut butter ones this time around! I’ve also been alerted to the fact that Katherine at the Real Food Runner and Jen at Peanut Butter Runner are also hosting a green smoothie challenge this week, talk about great minds! Check out those links for more great green smoothie recipes and ideas.

Here’s a couple of my green smoothie highlights so far:

Chocolate ginger pear topped with pumpkin seeds, flaked almonds and cacao nibs – I’m going to blog the recipe for this one soon as it has been a favourite of mine for a while now!

Spinach, frozen blueberries, scoop of chocolate amazing grass powder, celery, agave, water, ice topped with coconut and bee pollen

So far I know that Tam, Jemma and Sarah are joining in and have posted about the challenge. I’ll probably do a full round up on Sunday so let me know via comments or email if you’d like to include a link.

If your joining in the challenge, how’s it going?

What’s your favourite way to enjoy warm spring weather? When I still have to keep up my usual daily routine I love driving home from work with my sunnies on, good tunes on the radio and the windows down :-)

This weekend I have mostly been doing this:

I’ve had such a blissful weekend eating gorgeous tasty foods and lots of relaxation.

Yesterday after doing a monster grocery shop which left my fridge looking like this…

…I went to the gym to do my usual weekend workout of 30 minutes of speed intervals on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the step machine, 20 minutes on the cross trainer and 20 minutes on the bike – all at a steady state while catching up with some magazines. I then used the sauna and steam room at my gym for the first time! I’m not sure why I haven’t bothered with them before but after enjoying it so much at the Sanctuary Spa last week I knew it was a habit I could get into.

My eats for both yesterday and today have taken a similar form. Yesterday I had a couple of oranges before I went to the gym then had my green monster smoothie after the gym, this morning I had it first thing.

Saturday’s green smoothie: 3 savoy cabbage leaves, 1 frozen banana, frozen mango, 1/2 a fresh pineapple, home made almond milk, almond meal (left over from making the milk), spirulina, matcha green tea, milk thistle tincture, echinacea tincture, maca and mesquite topped with coconut and goji berries

Sundays green smoothie: Spinach and chard leaves, frozen peaches, frozen mixed berries, a clemintine, water, almond meal, almond butter, maca, spirulina, matcha green tea, milk thistle tincture, echinacea tincture topped with dried pineapple, dried cherries and flaked almonds

I’ve also had an acai and pomegranate vita coco water each morning:

Around mid day I’ve been making myself a gorgeous green juice:

 

Both containing an apple, a pear, cucumber, celery with spinach and ginger on Saturday and mint on Sunday. I’ve also been snacking on apples – yesterdays with a drizzle of sunflower seed butter and cinnamon and today’s with raw brazil nut cacao bliss.

A little later each day and I’ve gone with another fresh juice: 2 beetroots, 2 carrots, cucumber and ginger plus another apple and some nuts. I went for walnuts yesterday and hazelnuts and dried apricots today:

 

Dinner both days has been the ultimate salad beast:

This giant bowl of goodness included lettuce, watercress, rocket, cucumber, carrot, yellow pepper, red onion, avocado, alfalfa sprouts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and a very generous amount of green goddess dressing. So delicious!

Then I’ve finished off each day with a fruit smoothie:

Coco-berry Smoothie in a bowl: Frozen strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, clemintine, coconut water, acai berry juice, ground flax, 2 tablespoons of dried coconut, cacao nibs and more coconut for topping

Passion for Cherries smoothie in a bowl:  1 small frozen banana, frozen cherries, 2 passion fruit, almond milk, almond meal, acai berry juice, mesquite, topping of passion fruit and cacao nibs

Both of those smoothies were amazing, I really loved the passion for cherries one, the crunchy little passion fruit seeds with the sweet cherries, oh so good! I’ve also been drinking lots of warm water with lemon (which I drink first thing every single day anyway) Dr Stuarts detox tea, water, other herbal teas including lemon and ginger and sleepytime tea.

I’ve tried to ensure that I’ve been eating a rainbow of fruits and veggies and have included lots of nuts and seeds for a little protein and fat as well as the good fats in avocado and the goddess dressing. I also included the coconut water for added hydration. I’m feeling really great from having a couple of days of just gorgeous fresh foods – I have no idea of the amount of calories I have consumed but I honestly haven’t felt hungry – probably cause I’ve loaded up on the nuts and fats. I wanted to do a more focused detox than just my January plan and I’ve really enjoyed this weekend – its been more than just eating those foods, its also been about focusing on myself a bit and I feel really energised like my batteries have been recharged!

Today I did some pottering in the kitchen and made my first attempt at cashew cream, cooked up a big pot of pearl barley for my grain of the week and made the most gorgeous high protein hummus – recipe tomorrow!

I’ve also spent some time doing a few updates around the blog – please check out my updated about this blog, why I eat what I eat and recipes pages. I’d love to know what you think!

What do you do when you need a little ‘me’ time? I’m going to relax in a lovely warm bath now with a cup of tea and get myself prepared for the week ahead. Hope you’ve had a good one!

Hello, hope your having a great week! This week I am healthy feasting alongside my ‘set back’ week in my training plan. The last time I healthy feasted I did it for 5 days, this time I’m going for the full week. I’m mainly avoiding caffeine and refined sugar but I’m also not using stevia as for me I find that it alters my taste buds after a while and I need things to be sweeter and sweeter. Having a break from it and using dates or agave syrup when needed almost ‘resets’ my taste buds. I’m also having a break from using the gums in my smoothies as well as loading them up with ‘super foods’ – I’m trying to keep things nice and simple. Obviously I’m also ramping up the fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds and trying to get lots of them in raw when I can. Happy WIAW!

These are my eats and happenings from yesterday (Tuesday). Quick OOTD:

Bird necklace: Oasis, Floral Tea Dress: Tesco, dark purple zig zag patterned tights: Accessorize, black suede effect turn over boots, H&M.

I started my day by doing the 20 minute Challenge Detox Yoga Flow from Yoga Download. I’m so glad I did it, I was so tired when I got up I almost ditched it but I felt so much better after I’d done it. I had my usual mug of warm water and lemon then had a large fresh green juice and a Vanilla Amaretto Teeccino (caffeine free) with home made almond milk:

The green juice was made from 1 cucumber, half a head of celery, two bunches of spinach, a large bunch of parsley, ginger and lemon. It tasted really good, and amazingly, didn’t leave me wanting to eat my own arm. The teeccino was really good too, usually I would have added stevia but it actually tasted fine as it was!

Mid morning I started to get hungry so I ate a pink lady apple, a giant persimmon and a big handful of cashew nuts:

I don’t often eat nuts plain like this as I love nut butters so much but these tasted lovely!

Lunch was a large salad with cos lettuce, carrot, home sprouted alfalfa, red pepper, raw beetroot and red onion. I chucked on a mix of pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds and nutritional yeast and a good amount of my green goddess dressing:

It was delicious! I think the mix of pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds and nutritional yeast is one I’ll be using lots of in future.

Before I left work for the gym I ate another pink lady apple and some sweet and sticky dates:

Instead of my usual high intensity intervals I took it easy and just did 20 minutes of steady state cardio at a relaxed pace.  My body pump class was great as always. I had thought about ditching the class during the set back week but I’ll be missing it next week as I have to work late so I wanted to enjoy it while I can!

Dinner was some Kabocha and Adzuki Bean Stew topped with chopped parsley with some garlic sautéed cabbage and leek in tamari:

I love that stew but it tasted a little burned as I had managed to let the pan boil dry when I cooked the adzuki!

A bit later I made myself a smoothie in a bowl with 2 scoops of chocolate sun warrior protein powder, water and ice. I topped it with cacao nibs and goji berries:

Not as creamy or thick as usual without xanthan and guar gums but tasty all the same! Plus lots and lots of peppermint tea throughout the day, I’m on a total peppermint tea kick right now.

I was actually quite surprised I wasn’t starving after eating this (I would have eaten more if I’d felt like I needed to) but I think I’ll only be having juice for breakfast on one more day, I much prefer to have a smoothie! I am feeling better already after just a couple of days, I think drinking coffee everyday and over doing it even slightly on the sugar seems to build up and build up and leaves me feeling a bit meh, so eating like this every once in a while is a nice way to give myself a break.

Do you find your body gets affected by too much caffeine and sugar? Do you use stevia and have you found that it affects your sweet taste buds? Do you ever ‘take a break’ from certain foods?

Hello guys, glad you enjoyed my birthday and birthday party posts! I’m still riding the buzz from the weekend, it was so much fun! I do feel a little different now I’m the other side of 30, but in a really good way. I think the change has given me the momentum to kick off a lot of exciting personal projects and its been go go go so far this week.

These are my eats and goings on from yesterday. I had warm water with a squeeze of lemon, a glass of water with a dash of apple cider vinegar and then made breakfast. I’ve been obsessed with this combo for breakfast the last few days:

Two whole organic eggs scrambled in coconut oil and topped with half an avocado and sea salt plus half a melon chopped on the side. I just can’t get enough of this at the moment it just seems to hit the spot. I also had some organic dark roast coffee blended up with a little full fat coconut milk, vanilla bean paste and stevia:

I love how creamy it gets!

I decided to wear one of my birthday presents for work:

You know I love my statement necklaces, this was a gift from my colleagues at work :-)

Mid morning at work I snacked on a little pot of smoked almonds:

For lunch I had a salad with romaine, cucumber, carrot, pepper, red onion, chickpeas and some green goddess dressing:

I had a meeting close to home in the afternoon so finished a bit earlier than usual. As a mid afternoon snack I had a crunchy jazz apple straight from the fridge:

Followed by an iced coffee with unsweetened almond milk:

It was so hot yesterday afternoon that iced coffee was much needed! After that I got ready and headed to the gym. I did some cardio on the machines and then went into my Body Pump class which was like a sauna!

After the class I came home to make dinner. I had been planning on making a stir fry but with it being so warm I just wasn’t feeling it. I decided to make some raw noodles with a massive courgette and some carrots and tossed them in a sauce made with 1/4 cup of peanut flour, sweet white miso, toasted sesame oil and a pinch of ground ginger. Then I pan fried the tofu I’d pressed and marinated in the morning (using the same technique as perfect tofu but just cutting into cubes) wacked it on top and added a bit more of the sauce:

This was a fantastic satisfying semi raw meal!

A bit later for ‘dessert’ I made a smoothie using up some stuff from the fridge – spinach that was on its way out and a couple of juicy plums, plus a scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder, raw cacao powder, stevia, ice and water:

I topped it with some bee pollen, goji berries and raw cacao nibs. It was very nice and refreshing. For the first time in a while I even skipped my usual evening cup of hot herbal tea before bed!

Whether you call it a rut or a groove I’m definitely having a moment with the eggs and avocado combo as well as the salads and evening smoothies. Ever since I’ve re introduced eggs I’ve actually surprised myself with how much I’m enjoying them. Scrambling them like that is so quick and easy too. I’ve also found myself making repeats of that salad most days for lunch and just changing up the beans. Of course smoothies are a constant in my diet and I can’t imagine ending the day without one, although I think as the weather starts to get cooler I’ll be looking for different options.

Looking back I think that I didn’t allow myself to get into a food groove for want of trying new things. Even though I generally like variety in my diet, sometimes I develop favourites and as long as I continue to enjoy them I don’t worry about getting stuck in a rut!

What’s your view on food ruts and grooves? What current food groove are you in right now?

Hello everyone, hope you’ve all had a great weekend! Last night was my best friend Claire’s 30th Birthday Party. She decided to go with an 80’s theme so we had lots of 80’s music and 80’s food like vol-u-vents, cheese and pineapple on sticks and lots of sweeties:

The buffet was fabulous! My other best friend Kate and I bought her this amazing birthday cake:

It was wonderful – all decorated in an 80’s theme! I’m sure your all dying to know what I went as ;-) may I introduce Laura the Punk:

Pulling my punk attitude face! My costume was mostly home made. I bought the plain t-shirt for £2.50 and painted the union jack and ‘destroy’ logo myself, as well as ripping all the seams up and ripping some holes in it. I got the tartan skirt from a charity shop for £2.99 and just cut it short. I ripped up and old pair of tights and wore them with my big boots. I got the wig and the spiked collar from a fancy dress shop. These two pics were my inspiration:

 

 

Vivienne Westwood and Siouxsie Sue

James went as an 80’s rocker (I enjoyed putting some ‘guy’ liner on him!) and my Mam and Dad looked fantastic as the Blues Brothers:

Here’s me, Claire and Kate striking a pose:

We’ve been friends since school, I love these two so much they are like family :-) I enjoyed a couple of glasses of red wine and lots of picked onions, salted nuts, veggie sticks and sweeties. I woke up feeling a bit worse for wear this morning – even just two small glasses of red don’t sit with me well these days - but if you can’t indulge at your best friends party when can you?!

We stayed at my Mam and Dad’s last night so I prepared some overnight oats ready for breakfast:

1/2 cup of oats, 1 tbsp of chia seeds, raisins, cinnamon and stevia with a chopped apple. I love how the raisins get so plump and juicy. We’ve spent most of today lying around on the sofa and all I could face for lunch was a smoothie so I blended up some beet greens, frozen blueberries, chocolate hemp protein powder, water, ice and gums then topped with cashew butter and muesli:

This totally hit the spot! I had a fridge full of veggies from my organic veg box so for an early dinner tonight I had a bit of a random mix of roast kabocha, parsnip and red pepper mixed with some lentils, parsley and topped with some green goddess dressing. I served it up with some broccoli and leek stir fried in ginger, chilli and tamari:

Yum, so random but good.

I was very glad that I got my weekend run in yesterday morning as there’s no way I would have been able to manage one today! I did another random route that included a few hills – 7 miles in 1.01 average pace 8.51, this time I managed to remember my mittens so my hands were toasty warm :-)

So a brilliant weekend has been had! How was your weekend? Next week is my ‘set back’ week in my training plan and I’m planning on doing a bit of healthy feasting again to give my body a break from caffeine and sugar and to really give it some TLC with lots of simple foods. 

I enjoyed the party so much and it started to make me think of what I would like to do for my 30th Birthday celebrations next year. If you were having a party what theme would you chose? As my birthday is in August I’d love to have an English Summer Garden Party with Pimms, vegan cupcakes and lots of candles and fairy lights!

I’ve also spent today sending out all the emails for UK Bloggers Secret Santa, so excited! Hope you all have a great week!