What a great week its been so far, I’m just loving this spring weather :-)

Breakfast on Monday was a big bowl of fresh mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries) with a huge portion of my home mixed muesli and sesame milk:

This muesli is awesome. I basically mixed together lots of random nuts, seeds and dried fruits that needed to be used up with some jumbo oats. This included: dried figs, dried apricots, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, raisins, dried pineapple, dried cherries, dried strawberries, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, goji berries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds and chia seeds. I have a massive jar of this which should last me for a while I hope! The sesame milk is also particularly good, will definitely become a new staple in my diet along with almond milk.

Monday’s lunch was a hummus topped salad containing romaine lettuce, carrot, cucumber, red pepper and yellow pepper then some watered down home made chickpea hummus (I mixed it all in as a dressing) topped with some viva pure spicy pumpkin seeds. I also had two sweet white nectarines:

Mid afternoon I snacked on a lemon cashew hemp bar before hitting the gym. I did my usual 30 minute HIIT session on the cross trainer and step machine plus abs and core and 30 minute spin class.

Dinner was two veggie loaf stuffed baked mushrooms with swede and parsnip mash, raw carrot and steamed savoy cabbage with shoyu:

I still love these stuffed mushrooms, so tasty! Dessert was some healthy heart conscious raw chocolate and two chopped apples:

This chocolate contains maca, vanilla and blue-green algae – I wasn’t sure what to expect taste wise but it was gorgeous as always.

This morning I was up at sun rise to fit in a quick Yoga for Runners podcast. Its so worth getting up a few minutes early to be able to fit this into my day! Breakfast was similar to yesterdays – mixed fresh berries with 2 packs of Bear coco cherry pie granola and sesame milk:

Lunch featured hummus again – this time I made some courgette and carrot veggie noodles plus sliced red and yellow pepper with a hummus and nutritional yeast sauce (hummus, nutritional yeast and water) on top of some spinach:

I also had another two juicy white nectarines.

Mid afternoon I snacked on a Peppermint Stick Luna Bar then hit the gym for Body Pump. I was a little early for my class so I snuck in a quick 10 minute interval session on the cross trainer and 10 minutes steady state on the cross trainer. The class was excellent as usual and left my muscles quivering!

Dinner was inspired by my Sausage and Tomato Rice recipe but morphed into more of a Buddha Bowl: chopped baked seitan sausage with pearl barley in a tomato sauce with onions, garlic, peas, steamed broccoli and fresh basil:

That seitan recipe is so good, this had been defrosted from frozen and still tasted great. It is especially good in recipes like this as it softens and absorbs the liquid, delicious!

Dessert was some protein ice cream made with Fruitein powder, rice milk, ice cubes and xanthan and guar gums topped with goji berries:

Now I’m officially stuffed!

I got some great news yesterday when I received the email to tell me I’d passed my first assignment on my Diet and Nutrition Advisor course. I was chuffed to bits! I’m also really looking forward to my two days off at the end of the week – and pay day! My fridge and cupboards are looking pretty empty, at least by my standards ;-)

I’m still thinking of how tasty my home mixed muesli was. Are you a fan of muesli? I love it so much – it was always my go to ‘binge’ food – I would happily eat three large bowls of it then still go back and eat it straight from the box! Now I have a little more constraint but I still love a full to the brim bowlful! If you could make your own muesli mix what would it include?

Even though it was bitterly cold this morning the sunshine certainly made it feel like spring is on its way!

I started my day with 5 minutes of yoga / meditation. I’ve been doing this for the last few days and it has been amazing. I just sit in child’s pose and go over the day ahead and try and focus my mind a bit. Then I do a few yoga poses, whatever feels right each morning. This morning I went into down dog, then low lunge, warrior 2, bound side angle pose, chaturanga, up ward facing dog and back into down dog to repeat on the other side. I finished off in child’s pose again and just said a few affirmations. Honestly it makes me feel so much better taking that 5 minutes to start my day.

Breakfast was some quinoa porridge (1/2 cup of quinoa flakes, 1 tsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp of oat bran, 1/2 cup of vanilla rice milk, 1 cup of water and brown rice syrup) with 1 chopped apple, fresh blueberries, pecans and maple syrup:

I also enjoyed a maple walnut coffee, so good!

I’m trying to drink more miso soup so I started lunch with a mug of barley miso then had my salad which contained lettuce, spinach, carrot, sugar snap peas, beets, alfalfa sprouts and a sliced wild garlic tofu fillet:

I also had an orange and more blueberries:

Mid afternoon I snacked on a couple of delicious cookie dough balls:

I then hit the gym and did 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer and step machine followed by my abs and core – almost unbelievably I managed a 2 MINUTE PLANK HOLD! I was buzzing, I’ve met my goal of holding a 2 minute plank already! I then did my 30 minute spin class :-)

Dinner was 2 big mushrooms stuffed with some veggie loaf and baked in the oven. I also had some parsnip chips and steamed greens with braggs, mixed seeds and herbamare seasoning:

Dessert was 2 chopped apples and 3 strawberries topped with a Total strawberry spilt pot yoghurt and some grape nuts:

This was lush! I was worried the strawberry sauce would have been too sweet but it was perfect, especially with the fresh fruit.

Spring wardrobe review

Now that the weather should hopefully start to warm up I’ve been thinking about my wardrobe and what existing clothing and accessories I’ll be trying to get some wear out of as well as what wardrobe updates I’ll be on the look out for. As I’m on a budget I need to make the best use of what I have!

At the moment I’m living in leggings, boots, longer length tops, dresses and cardigans. I’m looking forward to breaking out of my style rut with a couple of new looks. Things that I love that I already own include my neutral colour blazer, my breton stripe tee (I adore breton stripe!), grey converse and my denim shirt dress. Matched up with a few new pieces and I should be set for spring!

 Loafers: Dorothy Perkins £32, Wide leg trousers: Topshop £42, Pointed pumps: ASOS £25, Red ballet t bars: urban outfitters £28, Floral skirt: New Look £21.99, Swallow bird earrings: Republic £4.99

I love wide leg pants as a change to all the skinny jeans and slim leg trousers I’ve been wearing. I also love the floral print skirt for wearing with the striped tee or plain vest tops, tights and cardigans until it gets warmer. I’m desperate for some new shoes and the pointed flats and red shoes have straps across the foot which is great as normal pumps just end up falling off my feet! I quite fancy a pair of cheap loafers too and I’m always looking out for animal themed jewellery like these swallow earrings!

What will you be wearing this spring?

Still buzzing from my 2 minute plank hold :-) Catch you later!

Hi everyone, how are you enjoying the last few days of 2011? I’ve been continuing to eat some gorgeous food but I have to admit I’m a bit stuffed and sugared out! Here’s just a few of the tasty treats I’ve had:

2 slices of my cider bread with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter and a sliced pear

Pitta sandwich with a slice of my veggie loaf, sabra hummus, spinach and vegan pesto, veggies and olives

Huge bowl of stir fried broccoli, savoy cabbage, red cabbage, carrot and soya beans with soba noodles and almond butter miso sauce

Dark choc covered homemade gingerbread cookies, persimmon, apple

Hot chocolate made with soy milk and cocoa powder sweetened with honey and spiced up with some Sailor Jerry Rum. Hersey’s Dark Chocolate Kisses snackies

Porridge with apple, homemade cranberry sauce, dark chocolate covered marzipan hearts (I buried more in there) and soy cream

Peanut butter cup smoothie – frozen banana, 2 scoops of peanut butter swirl spirutein powder, water, ice, gums, about half a jar of crunchy peanut butter topped with dark chocolate dreams pb sauce and peanut butter puffins

Big salad with cavolo nero massaged with lemon juice, small bag of mixed leaves, red cabbage, Taifun basil tofu, olives, sabra hummus watered down slightly and made into a dressing with some of the sweet pepper oil from the olives mixed in

Slice of veggie loaf with vegan pesto on top, swede chips, maple pecan brussel sprouts with added dried cranberries and ketchup

Simple fruit bowl with pear, apple and frozen grapes

I have to say I reached my limit yesterday after having the porridge for breakfast and the PB cup smoothie post workout, I absolutely stuffed myself! I still have some chocolate and a couple of treats to enjoy over the next few days but I’m trying to take it a bit easier with the amount of food I’m eating. I’m not feeling guilty or anything, I’m just sick of feeling so stuffed, although the food has been so delicious its been worth it ;-) I’m looking forward to eating simpler foods in January! I have managed to keep working out pretty well though and have been to the gym the last couple of days – 1 hour cardio HIITs on Wednesday and I’m planning that again this morning and some strength training and 30 minutes of cardio HIITs yesterday.

I’ll be back later with a 2011 review / goals for 2012 post – I’ve really enjoyed writing it, 2011 has been crazy!

I know I’ll be back to normal in January so it has been nice to enjoy more treats than usual – and even them haven’t been horribly unhealthy even if they do make me a bit bloated! How as this week been for you? Have you continued to enjoy your treats or have you been eating more normally?

I’m loving having this week off work – the week between Christmas and New Year is always the best! I had a relaxed Boxing Day starting with some yoga. I woke up feeling a bit stiff and thought a quick bit of yoga would do me good. I did a 20 minute Yoga for Runners flow that worked up a little sweat and helped wake me up! Breakfast was another indulgent bowl of porridge. This one included scottish oats, oat bran, orange juice, vanilla soy milk, egg whites, left over cranberry sauce, a tablespoon of marmalade, chopped macadamias, a drizzle of soy cream and a crumbled white chocolate and cranberry cookie:

I also had a Christmas coffee with amaretto liqueur. I’m going to miss these sugary and alcoholic breakfasts come January!

Lunch was Christmas day leftovers – some Veggie loaf topped with chilli jam and local organic chilli cheese baked in the oven until melty plus a huge pile of roast sprouts and parsnips and a little ketchup:

The Veggie Loaf with cheese was amazing, it tasted wonderful, almost like a cheese burger! My eyes were too big for my belly as I didn’t finish all those roast veggies even though I really wanted to.

Later that afternoon when my appetite returned I made up a big bowl of fruit including fresh figs, satsumas, pomegranate seeds and passion fruit topped with a large serving of Rachel’s Organic Greek yoghurt with honey plus flaked almonds:

For dinner I made an awesome snack plate including 4 sesame ryvita crackers, 2 topped with cream cheese and chilli jam and 2 topped with bousin garlic cheese, 4 dates stuffed with goats cheese and pistachios and maple roasted nuts. I also had more fresh figs, another satsuma, an apple (plus another unpictured one later) and a big slab of Green and Blacks Milk Chocolate with hazelnuts and raisins. Instead of more alcohol I made up a drink of POM juice with soda water:

I thoroughly enjoying eating all of this! Unfortunately after I’d polished all that off I went back to the kitchen and ended up having a little binge episode – I had more maple nuts, dates, a full size tub of low fat mango, pineapple and passion fruit yoghurt, dark chocolate and a slice of cheese. I got that awful out of control feeling when I knew I was physically very full but couldn’t stop myself eating. I did beat myself up about it but at the end of the day these things happen and I haven’t had a binge episode in a while. It did give me terrible indigestion and this morning I woke up feeling almost hung over!

I did make the extra effort to ensure I did my Davina DVD for a 45 minute resistance based workout when I got up. Even after last night I still fancied a bit of an indulgent breakfast – chocolate peanut butter smoothie with white chocolate stars:

This contained one large frozen banana, scoop of chocolate whey, 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder, 3 big tablespoons of peanut butter and soy milk. I also had a Christmas tea with soy cream.

James had the day off so we headed over to Newcastle for a little sales shopping and to see Tron Legacy at the Tyneside Cinema as we both like our sci fi. I had a very successful shopping trip - I’ll have to post some pics of what I found but I got pretty much everything I was after and some fantastic bargains! We both really enjoyed the movie too. I took an apple and 2 satsumas along with me to snack on.

When we got home I made us an early dinner of sausage and mash – pork sausages and mashed potatoes for James and veggie sausages and mashed swede for me!

I also had some steamed broccoli and carrots plus some red onion gravy.

For dessert I mixed together a large tub of Rachel’s Organic low fat rhubarb yoghurt with a tin of Libby’s pumpkin puree and a teaspoon of ground ginger. I poured this mixture into 2 glass bowls and allowed to chill for an hour then topped with some chopped crystallised ginger and a gingerbread cookie:

This was fab! A great tasty dessert and not too sinful. I also ate 2 pink lady apples and some POM juice with soda water while we watched Scott Pilgrim.

How’s your festive eating going? I felt really crappy after stuffing my face last night but in the long run I think I’ll actually end up eating fewer calories over the next few days because I sickened myself so much! I’m glad the gyms open tomorrow to as I could do with some cardio burn. Unfortunately I think I may be coming down with a bit of a cold so I have my fingers crossed that it won’t get any worse!

Have you been sales shopping yet? Do you like shopping in the sales? I’m looking forward to sharing with you the bargains I picked up!

Hi everyone with any luck I should be welcoming you to Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish.com! The blog is still transitioning so you may still be on the blogspot site but over the next few days you should automatically be redirected to the new .com address!

I decided to change the ‘slim’ to ‘healthy’ as I felt that slim wasn’t the right word any longer and that healthy better reflects my ethos and what the blog is all about. I also wanted to make the move to my own domain. I’ve added some new pages to the right hand side of the blog to give links to posts on recipes, healthy eating, fashion, workouts, home style etc as well as links to key posts in my About page – please check them out and let me know what you think!

I’ve had a busy but fun weekend, Saturday started with a tasty breakfast, chocolate mesquite porridge with pear and hazelnuts:

I used 1/2 cup of scottish oats, 1 tbsp of oat bran, 1 tbsp of chia seeds, 1/2 cup of kara coconut milk, 1 cup water and cooked on the stove adding raw cacao, mesquite, sweet freedom, 2 chopped pears, hazelnut butter and hazelnuts.

We had a short trip to Newcastle to pick up a couple of things. Here’s a quick outfit of the day:

 Trench: Debenhams, denim dress: Mango, tan leather belt: Topshop, floral tights: Accessorize, tan boots: ASOS, tan bag: Dune, diamante anchor necklace: Accessorize

While we were out we enjoyed a cuppa at one of our favourite little cafes. I had a delicious chai soy latte:

I also stocked up on fresh produce from the market including these unusual round courgettes…

…and this massive jar of organic smooth peanut butter (only ingredients peanuts and salt):

Can’t wait to be making oats in a jar in that!

Lunch was a slice of toasted quinoa amaranth bread with marmite accompanied by 2 chopped carrots, a chopped russet apple and cherries:

Mid afternoon I made a fab green juice from Crazy, Sexy Diet: Make juice not war:

This included 1 pear, cabbage, celery, cucumber, romaine lettuce, broccoli and ginger. I felt alive after drinking that!

Dinner was inspired by a recipe in the brilliant Super Natural Cooking, Wheat Berry Salad with Citrus Dressing. I topped some baby spinach with cooked wheat grains mixed with parsley and a citrus dressing made with orange juice, cool oil and apple cider vinegar, then topped with toasted pine nuts and organic feta:

I have to say I loved these wheat grains, so chewy and tasty. The dressing was also really good, I’ll have to use it on other salads too. Dessert was some booja booja truffles:

Heavenly as always. I also snacked on a few unpictured apples.

This morning I fuelled up with a blood orange and two sweet and chewy neglect dates before heading out on my run:

I used my Garmin for the first time, it was excellent! I did 6.18 miles in 1 hour, average pace 9.45. I was happy enough with that pace as it gives me a good baseline to work up from. After the run I hit the gym for 30 minutes of constant rate cardio while catching up with some magazines.

Breakfast was just the most fabulous smoothie in a bowl! It included: cabbage, frozen banana, 2 small nectarines, frozen mixed berries, scoop of peanut chocolate swirl spirutein protein powder, coconut water, kara coconut milk, spirulina, maca, matcha green tea, ground flax, raw cacao and xanthan gum. I topped it with a spoonful of my new peanut butter, grape nuts cereal, gojis and flaked almonds:

I had this bowl plus about another half a bowl full. It was amazing, so full of goodness!

Lunch was a bowl of Spicy Black Eye Bean Soup followed by grapes:

I also made myself another green juice mid afternoon, I’m just addicted to these at the moment, wish I had more time to make them during the week.

Dinner was one of my round courgettes stuffed with some of my Veggie Loaf and baked in the oven. I served it with steamed swede mashed with some sweet white miso and almond milk plus steamed kale with shoyu:

Dessert was one of my sinless chocolate brownies from the freezer topped with coconut flour paste ‘icing’:

This was so good! The chocolate and coconut together was delicious.

Hope you don’t mind this photo packed post! I’ve been having fun this weekend playing with my new camera. I think my photos are looking ok but unfortunately even the best camera can’t make good pics using the flash, can’t wait for the longer summer days so I can photograph in daylight!

What do you think of the new blog name and do you like the photographs?

I’m off to relax for the rest of the evening before the busy week ahead. Hope you’ve all had a great weekend!