Happy Halloween! Hope you are having a great day and enjoying the Halloween festivities. I wish I had more planned as I love Halloween but the best I can do this year is use it as an excuse to eat pumpkin all day long! Oh, and I did make myself up a Halloween playlist for my workout this morning, I quite enjoyed doing my interval training to Michael Jackson’s Thriller!

This is what I ate yesterday. I had warm water with the juice from half a lemon as always and then made breakie! I’m a little bit in love with the ‘courgette (zucchini) bread’ thing – so made a big bowl of courgette bread porridge:

Adding a grated courgette gives the meal so much more volume! I cooked 1/2 cup of oats on the stove with 1 1/2 cups of water and 1/3 cup of egg whites adding the grated courgette, vanilla stevia, a pinch of salt and cinnamon. Then I added 2 big tbsp of sunbutter and some dried cranberries. There was also coffee:

I made some strong black almond amaretto coffee, heaven in a mug!

Mid morning at work I snacked on an organic apple I got from the farm shop:

Then for lunch I had a salad with rocket, spinach, goats cheese, pear, walnuts and balsamic vinegar:

Such a great salad combo!

Mid afternoon I snacked on one of my Raw Super Fudgy Protein Brownies:

That gave me some workout fuel and I was off to the gym for a bit of cardio on the machines and Body Pump class. The class was really quiet with it being half term. Still doing ok with keeping up my increased weights!

Dinner was a High Protein Spelt Wrap filled with black beans, red onion and a smooshed baked sweet potato with some steamed broccoli:

Dessert was pumpkin protein pudding – simply some tinned pumpkin mixed with a scoop of vanilla sun warrior, cinnamon, ginger and almond milk until it turned into a pudding like consistency:

I topped it with a few caramelised pumpkin seeds, delish! Then there was a cococardio hot chocolate:

After that I had a lovely Skype date with my IIN friend Nathalie then had to get back to work as I had a deadline!

Yesterday was one of those stop and start busy days, but it was good to be able to get lots of things sorted. I’m happy that I seem to be back in a good groove of eating well – if I can manage to eat like this when I have a busy week then I know I’ve found my groove because eating healthy shouldn’t feel like hard work and should be almost automatic. How do you know when you’re in a good groove?

Happy Friday! How we all doing? Hope you have had a good week. My week has been pretty good – much less stress than last week which I think has been helped by having a more realistic to do list!

While I was doing the shopping I spotted an old favourite ingredient:

Two Chicks liquid egg whites come from free range eggs and are so much more economical than wasting precious yolks. I used this a lot before I became vegan, particularly for making my famous egg white and spelt wraps. Of course I just had to try them out again, and oh my word it was delish and even better than I remembered!

Laura’s high protein egg white and spelt wrap (makes 1 wrap)

• 7 tbsp of liquid egg whites (or 3 large egg whites)
• 1 slightly heaping tbsp of wholegrain spelt flour

Just whisk the ingredients together with a little seasoning if desired – could also add some herbs and spices or even mixed seeds are nice too. Heat a large frying pan to a medium high heat and add a little oil / spray oil. Fry the mixture like a big pancake, flipping when the underside is cooked and slightly golden.

Filled with hummus, spinach, red pepper and olives

These are similar to the socca wraps I also like but just that bit softer and obviously higher in protein. Usually I’m a whole egg person but I do think the liquid egg whites will come in handy from time to time for that protein boost, especially as I now feel like I do better with a little more protein in my diet. Just like the socca, these are great for me as if I bought a pack of regular tortillas they would end up getting wasted as neither myself or James eat that much bread.

Other tastiness…

• Wild Alaskan Salmon with roasted broccoli and cauliflower and a sweet potato with coconut oil
• Creamy custard oats (made with an egg added) with roast figs and plums and topped with a cube of frozen full fat coconut milk
• Black bean and sweet potato chilli with spinach and half an avocado
• Pumpkin seeds and raisins for a snack
• Perfect breakfast – a slice of my raw millionaires shortbread with a pumpkin spice smoothie
• Harissa Spiced Chickpeas and Courgettes with lemon tahini sauce and steamed broccoli
• 2 scrambled eggs and egg whites with avocado and sea salt and an orange on the side
• Salad with tinned wild salmon, yellow pepper, red onion, black olives and balsamic
• Protein pumpkin pudding (2/3 of a tin of pumpkin blended with 1 pack of mori nu silken tofu, a scoop of vanilla sun warrior protein powder, cinnamon and ginger and a little water for 2 servings)

Plenty of yumminess right there!

Work outs this week:

• Saturday – REST
• Sunday – 30 minutes cardio on cross trainer, step machine, bike, Kettlecise class
• Monday – 5 min warm up on cross trainer, new strength training workout 1, 10 min HIIT on bike
• Tuesday – 30 minutes cardio on cross trainer, step machine, bike, Body Pump class
• Wednesday – REST
• Thursday – Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown Level 1 via You Tube
• Friday – 10 min warm up on cross trainer, new strength training workout 2 10 min HIIT on bike

I think I ought to finally share the new strength routine I’ve been doing these last few weeks! Pretty much like usual, I tend to go for a 3 x 3 x 3 format. I.e three sets of three exercises repeated three times. I have generally tried to make sure I’m working my whole body, and of course as well as this I am also getting in some great full body workouts in Body Pump, Kettlecise and Yoga.

*Please bear in mind I am not a qualified PT and this is just what I have made up for myself!

I start off using a weight – either dumbbells or bar - that challenges me and then gradually increase the reps and then increase the weight again. I have been doing this for three weeks now and have increased the reps to 12. The 3 x 3 x 3 seems to be a good format as if you wanted to you could do lower body, upper body, core for each set as a way of balancing it out.

 On the Love List this week …

Wrapping up warm in my fake fur scarf!

I just love fashion at this time of year more than any other. I have got all my hats and scarves out ready for wrapping up cosy and warm! Also…

my work colleague giving me some wild Salmon her partner caught // this gorgeous Berlin apartment // chocolate and peanut butter smoothies // hot water bottles // making a start on organising my redecorating project // dreaming about interior design // increasing my weights in Body Pump – and feeling strong // potentially finding a new yoga class in Durham // texts from my best friend making me laugh // photo messages of my best friends baby making me smile // remembering that life is pretty bloody awesome sometimes :-)

In case you missed it

• Baby I was born this way (another wordy post) – thank you again for all your awesome comments! 
• Squash and Chard Frittata Recipe

Sooo looking forward to this weekend, going to have a trip into town and there is a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte with my name on it!

What’s on your Love List this week? Do you make up your own workout routines? I really do find the 3 x 3 x 3 formula works for keeping it simple with strength. What is your favourite strength exercise? I love squats and deadlifts! Hope you have a great weekend!