Happy Sunday everyone! Hope your all having a great day, Sunday’s are the best aren’t they :-) I’ve had a really great weekend just so chilled out and relaxed. This morning I got in a great workout at the gym. I hadn’t been looking forward to running on the treadmill (and although it was bright, it was freezing outside!) so I made up a really simple relaxed treadmill workout:

5k treadmill workout

• 0.25 miles: 6.2mph
• 0.25 miles: 6.7mph
• 0.25 miles: 7.2mph
• 0.25 miles: 7.7mph repeat x 3 (to reach 3 miles)
• 0.1 mile sprint: 8.2mph (to reach 5k)

This was a great little run getting in 5k in just under 27 minutes. The regular speed changes stopped me getting bored and the speeds I used challenged me a bit, but left more than enough energy for my 15 min bike and 45 min Kettlebell class afterwards.

Yesterday I didn’t quite end up getting my intended lie in but I did have my lazy breakfast! Usually I know what I’m going to have for breakfast before I get up, but yesterday I decided to just see what I fancied. I really wanted something a bit bready that I could smother in nut butter but we don’t buy bread very often. Instead I decided to make a fat socca bread! I mixed half a cup of gram flour with half a cup of water, cinnamon, vanilla extract and a touch of stevia then fried the batter in coconut oil in my small frying pan. When it was cooked on both sides I topped it with with cashew butter, fresh blueberries and lots of maple syrup:

Perfection! This was just what I had been craving and was absolutely delicious. I decided to stick with the breakfast theme later in the day and made some oats in a jar for a snack after returning home from seeing friends and family:

I needed warming up as we’d been out for a walk and I couldn’t think of anything better than oats! I filled a near empty sunflower seed butter jar with oats cooked with water in the microwave and a heaping tbsp of Clearspring naturally sweetened blueberry jam.

This mornings post workout breakfast was a raw protein buckwheat bowl with vanilla sun warrior, chopped apples, raisins and cinnamon:

Yum! I enjoyed this with an Indian Chai tea with coconut milk, delish!

Other tasty bits and pieces this weekend include my usual weekend green juices, however as I was going out I didn’t think just juice would hold me over so taking inspiration from what I’ve been reading in Crazy Sexy Juices and Smoothies I made a smoothie with cucumber, celery, parsley, basil and orange blended with water, ice, maca powder and a little stevia to sweetened it up, all drank in a pretty mug of course:

This tasted very refreshing and nourishing!

Last night’s dinner was based on my Roast Broccoli, Brussels and Chickpea and Cranberry Couscous recipe – I roasted some broccoli, and for the first time some savoy cabbage (delish by the way) in coconut oil and then topped with the chickpea and cranberries but made with quinoa instead of couscous:

For dessert I tried one of my new chocolate almond puddings on top of frozen cherries with some peanut flour sauce swirled on top:

Heaven in my mouth!

This afternoon I’ve been having a party in my kitchen, I’ve had the radio blasting while I’ve been cooking and doing the laundry and I’ve even had a bit of a dance ;-) I’ve cooked up some brown rice for the week, made a special dish (which if it works will be incredible – will blog the recipe) and a giant pan of Lentil soup – based loosely on this recipe but I added some celery and left out the spinach because I didn’t have any. I had a huge bowl with some organic blue corn chips on the side for lunch:

Proper lush, I dipped the chips in the soup for extra noms :-)

Please don’t tell me I’m the only one that dances in my kitchen? Hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend and have a great week ahead!

Hi everyone, hope your having a great week! I’m just busy trying to get back into a routine after being on holiday last week. Coming back to reality sucks but I do like to have a routine, and being able to be home and make my favourite green smoothies has been great. After a few days I had a serious craving for greens! I love that WIAW has a theme this month, I kind of missed it last week with me being away so but I’m definitely up for it now, goodness knows I love my veggies! I thought it would be interesting to do a portion count of how many veggies I eat in a day. These are my eats from yesterday:

I was back to my usual Tuesday routine so got up early to get in a quick yoga podcast before work. I did the 20 minute Yoga for Runners and boy did I need it, I was feeling so stiff! After that I had my warm water with lemon juice, got ready and decided to celebrate my recipe being in the new release of Kris Carr’s e book Crazy Sexy Juices and Succulent Smoothies by starting the day with a big green juice!

This was 1 cucumber, 1 head of romaine lettuce, 4 stalks of celery, kale stems, ginger and lemon (3 portions of veg) it tasted lovely! I’ll promise I’ll stop going on about Crazy Sexy Juices and Smoothies but I’m just so excited! Seeing my name in amongst others like Gena Hamshaw and Chad Sarno is just crazy. I got my copy of the e book last night and it is really fab, I have loads of ideas for tasty juices and smoothies I can’t wait to enjoy. In addition to the juice I decided to use some sunflower seed milk I’d made the night before in a matcha green tea latte:

I’d made the milk using sunflower seeds (1/2 cup soaked 8 hours, drained, rinsed and blended with 2 cups of filtered water then strained) and added some lucuma powder and vanilla stevia drops for sweetness. It frothed up pretty well!

I also took all my supplements and drank a couple of cups of green tea. Once I’d settled in at work I had breakfast no 2. I really enjoyed the simple breakfasts I’d had in Brighton of just fruit with nut butter for spreading so I made one again:

This was 1 large banana, 2 apples, a bowl of cherries and about 3 tbsp raw dark tahini and honey for spreading along with a mug of chai green tea, I just love spreading the nut butter on the banana:

Nom!!!! That raw dark tahini tastes amazing!

For lunch I had a bowl of Kabocha and Adzuki Bean Stew which was leftover from the weekend, accompanied by some of my home made almond and rosemary raw crackers:

Delish! (about 2 portions of veg)

Before I left work for the gym I snacked on some dried prunes and apricots for a little pick me up:

It was the usual Tuesday evening gym session of 20 minutes of HIIT on the cross trainer and bike followed by my Body Pump class which was my first in two weeks. I decided to try and stick with my usual weights and it was tough!

Once I got home I fixed a tasty dinner of baked tempeh with stir fried veggies:

I’m just in love with tempeh at the moment. I’d marinated it in shoyu, honey, ground ginger and garlic powder then baked for 30 minutes at 200c flipping once. This was actually baked on Monday night so all I had to do was warm it back up. The stir fry included broccoli, courgette, carrot, red cabbage and spring greens which I just added a little fresh ginger and shoyu for flavour (at least 3 portions of veg).

While we were watching TV after dinner I snacked on a couple of jazz apples:

Then later on I fancied something chocolaty so made up some double chocolate protein pudding by mixing a scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder with water and swirling in a chocolate sauce made from raw cacao powder, agave syrup and water then topped it all off with some cacao nibs and gojis:

I also made a delicious chocolate mint rooibos tea:

I love that tea, it has such a good flavour and reminds me a bit of the Teapigs chocolate flake tea but caffeine free!

So I think I had a fairly veggie packed day, I had at least 8 portions of veg including:

• Cucumber
• Celery
• Romaine
• Kabocha Squash
• Broccoli
• Red cabbage
• Carrot
• Courgette

I love eating a variety of veggies! I think I probably must average about 7-8 portions of veg a day, sometimes more if I’m having a green smoothie plus a salad. I know that when it comes to my leafy greens I don’t feel quite right after a few days of not having them!

How many portions of veg do you tend to eat in an average day?

Happy Valentines Day! I hope your enjoying yourself whether your in a relationship or otherwise. I don’t mind Valentines Day although I can’t say me and James are celebrating it much this year, but he did get me those tasty heart chocolates from Montezuma’s last week!

I was thinking about the celebration last week and thought how great it would be if as well as celebrating our love for other people, we celebrated our love for ourselves.

Far too often we engage in negative self talk, comparing ourselves to others, wishing we were different and generally hating on ourselves. I also think that it can sometimes be very difficult to be positive about yourself whether that’s your personal traits, achievements, appearance or personality without feeling like your being big headed. I’m not sure if that’s a bit of a British thing? Either way, we are seriously lacking some self love!

So to celebrate Valentines Day this year I’ve decided to remind myself of some of the things I like about me:

• I’m a fair person and I hate injustice
• I have nice lips and a nice smile
• When I want something I go for it 100%
• I have awesome nails that grow really well
• I’m good at public speaking
• I always try to empathise with other people
• When I make mistakes, I never shy away from them
• I always try and see the positive in everything

Now its your turn! Leave me a comment with at least 3 things you love about yourself, no excuses!

I’m also super excited today as my Apple Pie Green Smoothie recipe is featured in the amazing Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Juices and Succulent Smoothies!

I can’t tell you how completely honoured I am to have had my recipe included. I’m such a massive fan of Crazy Sexy Diet and Kris is so inspirational. Check it out!

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!

Happy Wednesday everyone, hope you are having a great week! I’m into day three of a crazy work week, roll on the weekend!

Thanks again to Jenn for hosting the WIAW party! These are my eats from Monday.

Quick OOTD: gold bow necklace: Forever 21, jumper: New Look, tan woven belt: Miss Selfridge, floral midi skirt: Dorothy Perkins, black tights: M&S, brown brogues: Topshop

I started my day with a mug of warm water with lemon juice before hitting the gym at 7am. I did my first workout of my new plan – 5 minutes warm up on cross trainer, about 20 minutes of lifting doing just a couple of sets of my new plan based on Female Body Breakthrough followed by 15 minutes of intervals on the treadmill. I increased my speeds a little and was glad that I managed ok! For breakfast I made a big green smoothie:

This contained spring greens, a large persimmon, frozen peaches, vanilla sun warrior, midori greens powder, berries powder, gums, ice and water and topped with some of my honey and hemp granola and bee pollen. I also made myself a cup of green tea to drink in the car on the way to work.

We were holding a big event in which I had to give a couple of presentations and generally oversee everything. Luckily the event and my presentations went very well! We had a buffet lunch but the kitchen very kindly gave me some veggie soup as the vegan option:

This was really tasty! I also helped myself to lots of hummus, veggies, an apple and a couple of clemintines:

After we got back to the office I was straight into another meeting – it was just one of those none stop days! I managed to snack on one of my Honey and Hemp muffins along with another apple and clemintine I’d taken from the buffet earlier:

Those muffins are gorgeous, such a nice texture!

After a quick grocery shop I made a really tasty and quick dinner: Thai Green Coconut Kabocha and Edamame Noodle bowl!

This was seriously good, I enjoyed every single bite! I started by frying off some vegan Thai green curry paste and fresh ginger in a little coconut oil. Then I added some reduced fat coconut milk, a pack of Clearspring Ramen Noodles and some hot water. I simmered the noodles until cooked and added the sachet of soya sauce that came with them followed by some frozen edamame, shredded spring greens and roast kabocha squash. I adore Thai green curry and this was just perfect! 

For a little dessert I had some Green and Blacks 85% dark chocolate with two chopped apples:

Lovely sweet end to a busy day!

Yesterday I had another packed day and a late night meeting for work but my mood was improved no end by two very exciting bits of news!

I’ve been chosen to feature in Healthy Magazine as a Healthy Hero! A blog reader kindly suggested that I enter, and yesterday I got an email to say I’ve been chosen! It includes a trip to London, lunch, a make over and a photo shoot with a chance to appear in the magazine! The editors of the magazine are hoping that some other people will enter too – see here for the details if you’d like to enter yourself or someone you know and spread the word!

My other piece of amazing news is that one of my recipes has been chosen to be included in the amazing Kris Carr new e recipe book! Kris is a mega girl crush of mine and I’m a huge fan of her book Crazy Sexy Diet. Out of over 300 entries only 50 have been chosen and mine is one of them! I entered my Apple Pie Green Smoothie recipe and I could not be more chuffed that it has been chosen.

I’m just super duper excited about everything right now! I’ve also been having some mega bolts of inspiration recently, everything seems to be coming together in my head at least and these two pieces of news are the cherry on top of my healthy cake ;-)

What are you excited about right now?

I first heard about Kris Carr and Crazy Sexy Diet via the blog Choosing Raw. I loved the sound of it and thought it would be something right up my street so I decided to treat myself on Amazon!

Kris Carr is also author of two other books: Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips and Crazy Sexy Cancer Survivor. Kris, an ex actress, was diagnosed with a rare cancer. After trying to work with conventional medicine she decided to study nutrition to help her over come her illness. Crazy Sexy Diet is basically a resource that explains her approach not only on nutrition, but a complete lifestyle that according to Kris will support you to feel amazing, protect your health and make you glow.

The beautifully illustrated book covers various topics including information on PH levels in the body and which foods are acid forming and alkaline, the affect of eating refined sugars, eating low GI foods, caffeine and animal products, the importance of eating raw food and the need for enzymes, detoxification, food combining for good digestion and supplements. The book also delves into meditation, using affirmations, making inspiration boards etc. It concludes with a plan for a 21 day ‘adventure’ cleanse that is pretty hard core, even for my standards! There is also a small selection of recipes.

Overall the book promotes a non processed vegan diet with a high portion of organic raw foods, green juices and smoothies.

I really enjoyed reading this book, firstly because I am a visual person I found the books beautiful design and illustrations made the content more accessible. I also enjoyed finding out more on the topics of PH levels in the body, the case for eating raw foods and enzymes and particularly the sections on meditation and affirmations.

Herby Carrot and Ginger Dip recipe from Crazy Sexy Life

I also really enjoyed Kris’s writing style which is very positive, friendly and non judgemental but still with a heavy dose of tough love.

Some sections of the book I skipped over a little – mainly the section on meat and dairy as once you have read books like The Kind Diet, Skinny Bitch and Eating Animals you get the picture that meat and dairy may not be the best for your health – I have to say that Kris struck a good balance between the research based stuff on this and the ethical and welfare aspects.

The book is also very much geared towards an American reader, however this didn’t stop me from enjoying the book.

I think this book would be great for someone who may be struggling with niggling health conditions (or obviously more serious ones) and are opened minded to converting to a vegan or near vegan diet, or someone who is already vegan and is looking to up their diet a notch in order to increase energy and improve their health and wellbeing. Here’s a link to 15 ‘top tips’ based on the information from the book and a recipe for the delicious ‘make juice not war’ green juice.

There are a few things in particular that I have taken from the book which I would like to incorporate into my lifestyle:

• Drink more green juice – I was already a big fan of green juices but after reading the book I will be making even more of an effort to drink my greens whenever possible!
• Eat a good portion of my food raw or lightly cooked – Kris explains the scientific basis for eating plenty of fresh raw foods and although I do eat some raw foods I would like to make sure that I keep this up
• Use essential oils – there is a great section in the book that talks about using essential oils not only on the body but also in food, I would love to experiment with this!
• Try meditation and affirmations – I already love making inspiration boards and have tried to meditate and use affirmations before. As I have some pretty big ideas for my future, and as I sometimes struggle with mental burnout I think trying these things out again would be beneficial for me.

source

Overall I found this a highly enjoyable and inspirational book. Kris Carr’s positive attitude is simply infectious! One day I may even try a modified version of the 21 day cleanse (modified because I don’t think it would sustain my physical activity level as it is described in the book).

Has anyone else came across or read Crazy Sexy Diet? If not, is this book something you think you would be interested in? Do you meditate or use affirmations?

You can find out a lot more about the book and Kris Carr at Crazy Sexy Life which is a great website regularly updated with useful posts on all sorts of healthy living topics.

This weeks affirmation: I am focused and productive at work :-)