Well heres a quick recap of my adventures yesterday - I'm definitely fully recovered now, I was up nice and early to do my workout DVD, it felt good to lift a few (light) weights!

Breakfast was a yoghurty mess with natural yoghurt mixed with a scoop of vanilla whey, two chopped peaches and some of my home mixed muesli.

This hit the spot!

Work was really quiet in the morning, I had managed to get out of going to the event we were hosting as there wasn't much I would be gaining from it and I have a to do list a mile long. I was extra happy as my laptop has been returned, but it has been given a new hard drive so its likely that I'll have to sit and reload everything on to it at the weekend. All I have to do now is decide between the netbook and laptop for day to day blog reading, writing and general internet surfing. The laptop is bigger and has rubbish battery life but the netbook is much slower. Decisions decisions...

Lunch was 5 turkey, hummus and spinach roll ups with carrot and cucumber on the side followed by an orange.

I got a lovely big pot of caramelised onion hummus from Tesco which I have never tried before. I'm so happy to have hummus back in my life, I'm so addicted to this stuff! I also bought a hummus 'stack' with a few different varieties to try (also from Tesco, they have a much better range of reduced fat flavoured hummus than Sainsbury's).

Mid afternoon I snacked on an apple and two babybel light.

I had a quick change and freshen up at work before heading straight over to Newcastle to meet up with the hubby. We went to Subway and I had a 6 inch wheat bread with chicken teriyaki and sweet onion, a little cheese and plenty of veggies.

It was very tasty but not really that filling! I popped to Boots and bought a couple of snack packs - yoghurt coated raisins (which I ate so quick they never touched the sides) and some dried apricots which were delicious.

I also had a bottle of Bud before we went to the gig, I love a nice cold bottle of beer every now and again!

We headed up to the gig and when we got there they told us that one of the acts - Joanne Shaw Taylor had pulled out for some reason so I was a bit disapointed as out of all the acts it was her album I'd been listening to. Anyway, I was really pleasantly suprised with the gig, it was brilliant! The venue was tiny so it had a really intimate atmosphere. The first act were called Virgil and the Accelerators and were excellent, the lead singer / guitarist looked just like Robert Pattinson!

Oli Brown Band, the main act were awesome, especially when he came off stage with his guitar, walked up to me and started basically serenading me! I went bright red and they pointed the spot light on us, I just didn't know what to do! He's quite cute in a geeky way! I was hoping the hubby would have got a photo but I think he was just in awe.

We were buzzing after that! When we got home I snacked on a little peach before bed.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, decaf coffee, beer, soda water

All in all a great gig! Right, I am now off to get ready to go to the Dr Who Exhibition, will catch you later and I promise not to be too geeky! x

Don't know whats wrong with me this week but every morning I'm waking up just wishing I could stay in bed for the rest of the day! After about two hits of the snooze button I got up had a cup of warm water and jumped into Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred Level 3 and the last circuit of Level 2. As always this DVD kicked my arse, I was knackered! For breakfast I thought I would go oat free again so I tried out a sample I'd been sent with an old order of Maximuscle products from a while ago. It was a sachet of strawberry flavoured Cyclone.

It looks like pretty hardcore stuff with 30g of protein and over 200cals per serving plus it contained creatine which is also suppost to do good things for your muscles. I blended it up with some frozen blueberries and skimmed milk. It made a yummy shake, but its not something I would buy as it wouldn't fit my needs as well as my regular whey protein powder.

Work wasn't too bad this morning but I have been finding it very difficult to focus for the last couple of days. I have Friday booked off so hopefully that will give me sometime to get my head together for next week. I was starving by lunch time and scoffed down my apple and Asian Chicken Broth in no time!

After losing the will to live in my afternoon meeting I had some greek yoghurt with orange and green grapes, simple but really delicious!

I had another semi late night at work again - this time I needed to man a display at the 100 Days of Learning Event being held in the local Leisure Centre. Luckily I managed to get away a bit earlier than expected. My dinner was more yummy turkey hummus lettuce wraps with some carrot and cucumber followed by a bowl of frozen raspberries with vanilla rice milk

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Been having more of a think about my wish list and what I'm going to prioritise from it. I think the running shoes are fairly essential now that I'm doing more running, as the last thing I want to do is get injured or bugger my knees up by continuing to run in my cheapo trainers. If I find a shop that sells a good top and leggings for a good price then I'll probably get them too. I need to get my dermologica face wash as I'm nearly out and even though I probably don't need the superfoods stuff, I really want it, so I can try them out and see what all the fuss is about! I could also really do with the tea towels and canisters for the kitchen as what I have at the moment is crap. So there I go, my priority purchases for next month!

Well I'm heading off now to make a cuppa, catch up on some blogs and get ready to watch Sophie Dahls cooking show on BBC2. I love her cook book, and suprisingly a lot of her recipes are on the healthy side such as spelt flour pear and ginger muffins, goats cheese, spinach and watercress salad etc. In the cook book she talks a lot about her life and her perspective on food, she even went raw diet for a while! I don't know if the recipes on the show are also going to be on a more healthy theme, I guess I'll have to wait and see! Anyone else planning on watching Sophie Dahl? Who is your favourite of the TV chefs? I do like Nigella and Jamie as well. Hope all of your weeks are going well!

Was totally knackered when I woke up this morning, I could have easily just stayed in bed for another couple of hours! But unfortunately that was not an option so up I got and in to the kitchen I went to have my green tea / fuel bar combo.

I then hit the gym. As I only have 45 mins for cardio when I do the gym on the morning I tend to just do 15 mins of cross trainer, step machine and treadmill but after my run yesterday I thought I'd change it up and do the bike instead of the treadmill. It was tough, I did my usual 1 minute intervals and added in the 30 seconds of really high resistance / up out of the saddle that I tried last week. It totally exhausted me! I also did the usual 15 mins of intervals on the cross trainer and step machine followed by two sets of my abs exercises.

For breakfast I fancied something a bit different to what I would usually have so I mixed a scoop of chocolate whey with some greek yoghurt and topped with flaked almonds, it was lovely, you can't get better than chocolate at breakfast! Its very rare that I don't have oats in some form for breakfast so I was suprised at how filling this was too.

Lunch was a crunchy golden delicious apple followed by my Asian Chicken Broth that I made yesterday.

The broth isn't the most attractive looking stuff, but it tastes good!

My meals after lunch became a bit erratic as I was working late (again!), I had been asked to present an award at an event for young volunteers. The event was brilliant, the young people did some performances and they were so talented. There was a buffet on, but I've had far too many bad experiences with buffets recently so I decided to eat around the event. I had two afternoon snacks one at 2.30 and the other at 4.30 before I went, both the same, of - a babybel light, a turkey and hummus lettuce wrap (a la Tamzin) and an orange.

Once I got home I ate another couple of turkey hummus wraps with an apple followed by a pot of Tofu Vanilla Cream Pud. I am so loving this pud, its lick the bowl delicious!

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

I'm very happy that I'm succeeding in keeping the evening snackies at bay at the moment. Im telling myself that I need to try and avoid any additional food in take as I know I'll be eating quite a bit over the Easter break! I'm also looking forward to pay day coming up. I have a wish list of various bits and pieces (including food!) that I'm after this month, more on that tomorrow! Has anyone else got a pay day wish list? What's on it? Hope everyones Monday hasn't been too bad xxx

After I had posted last night I was feeling a bit snacky so I had some faux red wine in the form of a few glasses of red grape juice (watered down as its so sugary) with 3 little squares of dark chocolate. I just couldn't resist!

This mornings breakie was utterly wonderful. I crumbled a slice of my home made Date Carrot and Walnut Loaf cake with some greek yoghurt, chopped strawberries and a spoon of crunchy peanut butter. I also had a mug of English Breakfast tea with a splash of milk.

A-maz-ing! This just tasted so good!

I spent the morning just chilling out and trying to sort through some of my magazines. As the hubby was off today we decided to go to the cinema to see Iron Man 2. I made up three bags of snackies - the last of my lentil and bean sprouts, raisins and a few dates and a couple of savory rice cakes.

The movie was ok, not as good as the first Iron Man and the middle bit of the film was quite slow but we still enjoyed it though. To be honest it was just nice to get to the cinema for a change!

When we got home I took the hubby for a KFC (yuk!) and I made myself some lunch. I decided to use up all the random veggies in the fridge and do a stir fry with some wholemeal noodles. I stir fried asparagus, courgette, red pepper, carrot, red onion and spring onion with some garlic, ginger and soy sauce and served it with the noodles.

It was so tasty! I don't usually have noodles with my stir fries but as I had no chicken or salmon defrosted I thought I would have them for a nice change. I also had a chopped apple and orange.

For dinner I made some turkey and hummus wraps with cos lettuce and spinach and some chopped carrot and cucumber on the side followed by a huge bowl of chopped strawberries, kiwi and red grapes.

I feel like I've ate bucket loads of fruit and veg today, I must of had at least 10 portions!

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, English breakfast tea

Well another weekend bites the dust! I'm happy that I've had the opportunity to chill out a bit this weekend, I feel a bit more prepared for the week ahead when I haven't been rushing around like a headless chicken!

I finally managed to finish looking through all of my magazines and pulling out the bits I want to keep so I think I might spend the rest of this evening watching TV with the hubby whilst starting to get my inspiration board together. I'll definitely be posting some pics of that when its done!

Hope you have all had a great weekend, catch you tomorrow! x

Happy Thursday everyone! Not long till the weekend now thank goodness. Seems that we all have a similar idea of what would be our perfect day!


Today has been a bit different as I’ve been able to work from home to get a few of pieces of work wrapped up. Of course, my day started with an awesome breakfast – toasted hazelnut rye bread with cashew butter and banana plus fresh strawberries.





Extremely yummy!


I worked away until the gym opened at 9 and then went and did my workout – 45 minutes of cardio intervals followed by abs and a few half push ups and tricep dips. I came home and made myself a tasty vanilla protein frappe with a scoop of vanilla whey, soy milk, ice cubes and a little decaf coffee. I also had an apple.

 


I always seem to work much more effectively from home for some reason, I managed to blast through my tasks for the day! Check out my little makeshift desk:





I love my inspirational desktop wallpaper!


Lunch was some turkey, hummus and lettuce wraps with some carrot and cucumber on the side. I do realise that this plate looks like something you would take out to give to your pet rabbit but turkey, hummus and lettuce wraps are great!

 


I followed that with this amazing bowl of 2 chopped peaches and some blueberries.





Mid afternoon I quickly snacked on another apple and a couple of babybel light to keep me going.





I also snacked on another apple and a few soya nuts, that’s the downside of working from home – too much food available for snacking!


For dinner I decided to get creative and make a big stir fry but with cauliflower rice and veggie noodles. This took a bit of prep but was good fun! To make cauliflower rice you just finely chop some cauliflower (or pop it in a food processor, but I didn’t want the extra dishes) then steam it for a few minutes and serve in the same way you would rice. My veggie noodles were made from carrot and courgette with my spiraliser – I also added some more quorn pieces, red pepper, spring onion and cauliflower leaves to the stir fry then topped it all with my favourite soy sauce and ginger.




Just so amazingly fresh and healthy tasting!


I must have been in a good ole fun loving mood this evening as I decided to get creative with my desert too. I made a layer up with some of my peachy tofu ‘yoghurt’ and blueberries then topped with some flaked almonds and a little of my honey comb.




I believe pretty food is good for the soul!






This week it is the launch of fellow blogger Caitlin's book – Operation Beautiful and to celebrate she has invited bloggers to write a post on the theme of ‘Change the way you see not the way you look’. I though it would nice for me to write a short piece on my big transformation – and that’s not what you might think!
Yes, I have lost a lot of weight, but I see my big transformation not in this weight loss, rather in the change from wanting to be ‘skinny’ to wanting to be healthy. This change in mindset happened after I had lost most of my weight and when I first started reading blogs.


Up until then I had been existing on lots of ‘fake’ foods – processed cereals bars, powdered cuppa soups (I shudder at the thought that I used to eat those!), frozen convenience foods and so on. Although I also exercised, the aim of the exercise was just to burn calories to lose the weight. I never really enjoyed my workouts when they were solely focused on weight loss. They were also always just cardio workouts with no resistance training at all.


When I started reading blogs, and blogging myself at the beginning of this year, it was like a light bulb had suddenly switched on in my head – here were other people – who were healthy, running marathons, eating real delicious food, keeping to a healthy weight, not comparing themselves to unrealistic standards. It was amazing. I had my eyes opened and decided that my quest to become skinny was pointless, I would never ever be satisfied or successfully maintain my weight loss while that was my focus.


Since I have changed my perspective from the pursuit of ‘skinny’ to that of healthy I can honestly say my life has been transformed. I have discovered a passion for eating and preparing delicious and nutritious food which satisfies me on a level that I never though possible. I have a new enthusiasm for exercise, I love my workouts and I see real results. Since starting on this new path I have lost even more weight and reached a truly healthy happy weight.


Although I still hit bumps in the road (such as excessive snacking, the associated guilt, and the occasional holiday related 5lb gain!) I feel for the first time ever that I won’t re gain the weight and that I will be able to maintain this healthy weight for the rest of my life.


Another added bonus of this change in perspective is that I’ve become more immune to the photo shopped images of women in magazines that used to make me feel so bad about myself. I now look at these images with a critical eye, and remind myself that being healthy is what is beautiful to me now.


Healthy isn’t a number on the scale.


Healthy isn’t a dress size.


Healthy is feeling great about yourself.


Healthy is filling your body with nutritious delicious food.


Being healthy is having energy and being able to use that energy.


I used to feel like my body didn’t belong to me. I had no connection to it because I felt uncomfortable in it, I abused it. Now I own my body, I feel connected to it and I value it.


Take a moment today to remind yourself that you are beautiful on the inside and out, just the way you are x