My weekend starts today and I’m so pleased – I really feel like I need and extra couple of days off this week!

I started my Wednesday at the gym with an awesome treadmill workout. I’ve gradually been increasing my speeds each week so it now looks like this:

• 5 min – 6.0mph (warm up)
• 5 min – 6.6 mph
• 5 min – 7.1 mph
• 5 min – 6.8 mph
• 5 min – 7.3 mph
• 5 min – 30 second intervals 6.8/7.8mph

I was a sweaty mess after this! I then did 30 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my abs and core – I’m still rocking that 2 minute plank!

Breakfast was wonderful! I made a delicious porridge with 1/4 cup of oat bran, 1/4 cup of viva pure raw chia super food porridge mix, 1 cup of home made sesame milk, 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of blueberries then topped it with 2 tablespoons of cashew butter and a few fresh sliced strawberries:

This was so good, I loved the creamy texture of the porridge and the flavours from the super food mix tasted amazing.

Lunch was a bowl of my Pea, Broccoli and Pesto soup, a RAW Italian cracker, a pear and an orange:

Mid afternoon snackies were some hummus and carrot and cucumber for dipping. Dinner was last nights Tomato Pearl Barley Seitan Buddha bowl with spinach, raw carrot and basil:

Loving this Buddha bowl meal!

Dessert was two frozen chocolate peanut butter avocado cups and 2 chopped apples:

I added a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter to the usual avocado, agave, raw cacao mix and these tasted divine!

I plan on enjoying my extra couple of days off this week getting caught up on a few things around the flat, doing a monster grocery shop, a big cook up and spending some time just relaxing and reading. I have quite a few books at the moment from the Library:

The China Study:

I’ve always wanted to read this as its been referred to on so many vegan blogs. I’ve started reading some of it and its so interesting. It basically discusses a large body of research that shows how eating a mainly plant based diet can help to prevent a range of illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Babycakes:

I’m in love with this book already! So many fantastic recipes for vegan baked goodies: cupcakes and brownies here I come!

The Everyday Vegan:

I love Dreena Burton’s Eat Drink and Be Vegan cookbook so fancied checking this out as well.

I also have a book on Vegetarian Sports Nutrition from the lovely Alison to read – I’ve had a quick flick through and know I’m going to find it very useful. I also have some reading to do for the next assignment for my course.

For some reason I tend to enjoy reading cookbooks and more factual books at the moment, I must get back into reading some good fiction!

What’s the last book you read? Have you read any of the books above? What did you think?

Thanks for all your lovely comments to yesterdays post! So glad that you are digging the new blog name :-)

Yesterday I made up a batch of my home made almond milk and now that I have some raw cacao I thought it would be fun to make some raw chocolate almond milk! I had some for breakfast with fresh strawberries, Bear Coco Cherry Pie Granola and brown rice puffs plus a vanilla coffee:

This was so good – kind of reminded me of coco pops!

Lunch was leftover wheat berry and feta salad from the weekend with baby spinach and alfalfa sprouts:

I also had a nectarine and grapes:

Mid afternoon I snacked on half a 9 Bar. I didn’t go for the full bar as when I ate the full size last week it felt a bit heavy in my stomach while I was at the gym:

At the gym I did 30 minutes of HIITs and my abs and core exercises including a 1 min 45 sec plank (!), 40 sec side planks then 20 x full sit ups, bicycle crunches, regular crunches, side reaches and mountain climbers x 2 sets. I also did my 30 minute spin class.

Dinner was spiralised courgette with spelt spinach tagliatelle and a tomato and green lentil sauce with garlic, basil and nutritional yeast:

So delicious and filling!

Dessert was two frozen chocolate avocado cups topped with a little blob of almond butter and two sliced apples:

The almond butter tasted great with these, got to love all those healthy fats!

February review and aims for March

February has been a bit of a funny month. It started with some controversy after I posted about my January detox and continued weight loss. I responded with my Finding Balance post. My aim this month was not to lose any more weight and I’m glad to report that I have maintained last months weight of 8st 11lbs (123lbs). I did have a sneaky weigh in mid month and I had gained a couple of pounds probably due to eating out a few times but obviously by the end of the month that has dropped off again.

I have tried to make an effort to eat a little differently including adding in a few more carbs. I’ve ate more pasta and couscous this month than I have in the last year! I’m not going to lie, I have found it difficult and I am still struggling with anxiety when the numbers on the scale increase. I think the more I focus on health over size and weight the better. Next month will see me doing more running and therefore fuelling myself better along with having a crazy appetite after runs so I do hope to see a gain.

Anyway, with all that aside it has been a good month! My training plan has worked well for me and dropping the yoga class mid month was definitely the right thing to do. I have also enjoyed my dumbbell workouts – I’m very happy with the definition in my arms and shoulders:

Yes, I have some mini guns ;-) I feel a bit weird posting pics of my little muscles but I’ve worked hard for them!

February achievements:

• Maintained weight
• Gained muscle definition
• Started running outdoors again
• Signed up for Diet and Nutrition Advisor course
• Changed blog name :-)

Next month I’m looking to increase my outdoor running mileage in preparation for starting a proper half marathon training plan, start body pump classes and work yoga into my general routine. Here’s a rough plan, but as always this is flexible depending upon circumstances, how I’m feeling, work commitments etc:

• Monday – gym workout: 30 min HIITs, 30 min spin, abs and core
• Tuesday – AM – Yoga Podcast (20 min), PM - Body Pump 50 min
• Wednesday – gym workout: 30 min speed work on treadmill, 30 min HIITs, abs and core
• Thursday – AM – Yoga flow from Slim, Calm, Sexy Yoga (20 min), PM gym upper body dumbbell workout, 20 minutes HIITs
• Friday – AM – gym workout 30 min HIITs, abs and core
• Weekend – Long outdoor run – working up from current 6 miles to 8 miles, optional yoga DVD workout

I’m just going to focus on upper body weights in addition to the body pump class as now that I’ll be back to running seriously I don’t want to max out my legs.

Stats for February:

• Weight: 8st 11lbs
• Measurements same as last month
• Average pace on long runs: 9.45
• Total mileage (outdoors): 18 miles

Aims for March:

• Gain or maintain weight
• Continue working towards my overall 2011 goals
• Focus on health over weight or size
• More outdoor running
• Learn to meditate – more on this to follow in a coming post!
• Increase my plank and side plank hold times (currently 1 min 45 sec / 40 sec)

How has February been for you? What have you achieved? What are your aims for March?

At the weekend I ended up with a big bunch of ripe banana’s. As I had eaten the last of my wonderful banana coconut bread I decided I wanted to make some form of baked banana goodness to keep in the freezer for when the fancy takes me. I wanted to make something healthy and hearty enough that it could be eaten for breakfast, but still sweet and tasty for afternoon snacks and even dessert:

Banana ‘Sunshine’ Muffins (vegan, makes 12 muffins)

• 1 cup of spelt flour
• 1 cup of brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup of non dairy milk plus 1/2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
• 2 mashed bananas
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup of zylitol or natural caster sugar
• 1/3 cup of rapeseed / coconut oil
• 2 tbsp of sunflower seeds
• 10 dried apricots, chopped (I used dark un sulphured apricots)

Pre heat the oven to 170c. Mix together the non dairy milk and vinegar and allow to sit for a few minutes. In a large bowl combine the bananas, sugar and oil. Add the flour and baking powder followed by the milk / vinegar mix and combine well. Stir in the sunflower seeds and apricots. Spoon into muffin cases – these don’t rise that much so fill them close to the top for big muffins (you will probably only get 10 out of the mix). Bake in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes until lightly golden:

These are very dense, hearty muffins filled with banana flavour, sweetness from the apricots and a slight nuttiness from the sunflower seeds. I enjoyed one crumbled on top of a simple green smoothie for breakfast yesterday and it was divine!

I actually went for a very basic green smoothie (by my standards at least!) which included spinach, frozen banana, vanilla hemp protein powder, rice milk, maca, mesquite, spirulina, xanthan and guar gums. As well as the muffin on top I added some freeze dried berries and granola. It was lovely to enjoy a simple banana / spinach green smoothie for a change!

Last night I finally got round to trying out a cheesy tofu sauce. I blended some silken tofu and mixed with 2 tbsp of nutritional yeast, 1 tsp of vegetable bouillon powder and about 1/4 cup of hot water then warmed through on a low heat. I had it as a sauce for spelt pasta, spiralised courgette and steamed asparagus then added a giant serving of steamed purple sprouting broccoli on the side:

This sauce is fantastic! So creamy and cheesy, perfect filling comfort food. In fact its so good I actually think James would eat this!

Dessert was a couple of frozen chocolate avocado cups:

Perfect as always :-)

This morning I had a craving for muesli so I had some of my home mix with chopped strawberries and rice milk:

Erm, I really don’t do small bowls of muesli do I?

Lunch was some Clearspring soya ramen noodles with some leftover spiralised courgette from last night plus lots of veggies – carrots, green pepper and sugar snaps:

I also had some melon and more strawberries – still in love with fresh fruits!

I made a really quick dinner tonight using up some of my Roasted Vegetable Curry from the freezer with millet and steamed greens with shoyu and mixed seeds:

The curry was fantastic again, I love how the flavours improve when it has been frozen and the texture of the aubergine was wonderful. I couldn’t resist more chocolate for dessert so I had some Fruit Fantasy Conscious raw chocolate:

This contains dried dates and figs and was just gorgeous as usual!

Exercise over the last couple of days has been great, I did Yoga for Runners yesterday morning and Body Pump last night (I think I’m almost ready to increase my weights!) and this morning I was at the gym for another tough sweaty 30 minutes of speed work on the treadmill followed by 30 minutes of intervals on the gym equipment plus my abs and core.

I realised after I made those muffins that I almost never just eat a muffin on its own, I love them with fruit and tofu yoghurt or crumbled into smoothies. A big spoonful of nut butter on top never goes a miss either! What’s your favourite way to eat muffins?

I started the day off in a terrible mood. I felt really down about things – particularly feeling very disconnected from people. I’m lucky in that I’m usually a pretty cheerful person (at least I hope I am!) but when I get down I usually get quite low (there were tears involved) but then I pull myself round and feel better.

I’m putting today down to the dreaded PMT but to help me get back to my normal self I just tried to think about all of the things that I’m really grateful for: My husband, my health, my job and even being able to share my passions and interests through this blog!

I have noticed that I’m becoming more content to spend time alone doing the things that I enjoy that others in my life aren’t as fussed with, i.e. exercising and cooking. In many ways my blog is my outlet for all of the things that I love that I don’t hold in common with others in my life. Can anyone else relate to this?

Anyway, I’m feeling much more my usual self now, as is so often the way with hormonal mood swings. On to today's eats! For breakfast I sliced and chopped a jazz apple and micro waved it for a minute then topped with some pumpkin yoghurt and a crumbled banana walnut muffin.

It was heavenly, such a great combo!

Mid morning I snacked on some hummus with cauliflower and carrot for dipping. Lunch was some soup that I’d made up at the weekend. It wasn’t anything special so I didn’t bother to blog the recipe but it was basically a mix of leeks, cabbage and haricot beans. I also had two yummy pears.

Before heading off to the gym I enjoyed a slice of pumpkin spice cake with a cup of green tea.

This pumpkin spice cake is so good, it has gone even stickier and sweeter as its been left, delicious! At the gym I took it a little easier, still doing half mile speed intervals but not pushing myself quite so hard after my rough day. I also did 10 minutes of intervals on the step machine and some abs exercises.

For dinner I defrosted a couple of my lentil and feta muffins and crumbled them into some tomato pasta sauce along with some shredded cabbage. I served this with two slices of olive and feta bread toasted and made into croutons and some fresh basil.

This was so tasty, just another reason why I’m not missing meat a single bit. Desert was two frozen chocolate peanut butter avocado cups with a couple of small sliced apples.

Oh my god these were amazing! After I eaten the apple I softened them in the microwave for a few seconds and they were like chocolate peanut butter puddings, just delicious!

Today I also got some goodies:

Jacc’s flavoured coffee:

I bought a decaffeinated Butterscotch flavour and a regular Gingerbread flavour. Huge thanks to Stella who blogged about Jacc’s. I can’t wait to try these out!

On my lunch break I had a scout around some charity shops and I found this stoneware casserole dish for £2 and in a kitchen store some round plastic tubs for less than £2:

Bargain! I thought the small tub would be good for taking yoghurt to work in, and the large tub for storing cooked grains like rice in the fridge. For some reason I prefer round containers instead of square, weird!

I also received my books from Amazon:

I joined The Kind Life website today and actually got a response from Alicia herself! I’m also looking forward to relaxing for the rest of the evening while flicking through La Dolce Vegan.

Hope your all having a good week, I hope you don’t mind my little ramble at the start of the post, just keeping it real! Have a great evening :-)

Hello everyone, how are we doing on this fine (but utterly horrible and rainy) Sunday?

I’ve had a pretty brilliant day thanks to the Great North 10K this morning! I was a bit worried when I woke up and saw the horrible rainy weather and to be honest I was on a total downer on the way there and was just not feeling it, especially as I had told my Mam and Dad to just stay home due to the weather.

Perfect pre race breakfast: oats and 10 grain hot cereal mix cooked with water and home made hemp milk, one chopped banana, 2 crumbled raw chai almond energy balls and some agave syrup

Luckily the pre race excitement kicked in and made me feel so much better! The race has been set in Sunderland the last few years has moved to a new home, starting and finishing at Gateshead Stadium.

Gateshead is really my home town and I was especially looking forward to running along the Gateshead quayside past the Baltic Art Gallery (one of my favourite spots) and the Tyne Bridge. James was accompanying me and we parked a short walk from the Stadium. I made a beeline for the toilets as soon as we got there, finding an empty disabled loo to avoid the long lines. I have to say this aspect of race organisation was pretty poor, most of the toilets within the stadium were out of order! After that I made my way to my starting area, I was in the second wave, and unlike the Great North Run I managed to get there in plenty of time! It was chucking it down and quite cold at this point, James was able to wait with me on the other side of the barrier with an umbrella to keep me dry as long as possible!

Once the race got under way I thankfully warmed up and really got into my stride. The first 3k was spent fighting the urge for the toilet, but after that I was ok. I just focused on keeping a good strong steady pace. The rain also let off which made it a whole lot more enjoyable! Towards the end I saw that my pace was pretty good, and entering the stadium I could see that a sub 50 minute time was achievable (which I had never dreamed I could manage, all my times have been around the 54 minute mark). I absolutely sprinted as fast as I could across that line, finishing in 49.57!

James managed to catch a shot of me on my way to the finish line!

I actually felt ready to puke after that! When I looked at my Garmin and saw that I had managed it I was so completely elated :-) According to the Bupa Great Run site I came 66 in my age group and gender which I think is bloody brilliant!

So there we have it, my first successful 10K! I have to say that I really enjoy the 10K distance, obviously I loved the Great North Half Marathon but the 10K seems like the perfect distance to test speed and endurance, at least for me!

Since coming back from Brighton I have been craving raw foods, especially green smoothies, in fact I’ve had one each day! I have been craving less sugary foods so they have tended to include hemp protein or sun warrior and topped with raw nut butters rather than the more indulgent PB&Co nut butters and sweeter spiru-tein protein powders:

Spinach, frozen banana, 2 scoops of vanilla sun warrior, coconut water, barley grass powder, mesquite powder, ice, xanthan and guar gums and topped with raw nut butter sauce using 2 tbsp of raw almond butter mixed with water, goji berries and pistachios.

Today’s post run ‘green’ smoothie containing spinach, beet greens, 1 small raw beet, frozen cherries, home made hemp milk, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, raw cacao powder, barley grass powder, maca, ground flax, ice, xanthan and guar gums and topped with flaked almonds, freeze dried berries and raw brazil nut bliss sauce.

I’ve also been enjoying the usual big salads:

Salad containing romaine, carrot, red pepper, spring onions, sugar snap peas, cucumber, basil tofu and sauerkraut (which I am loving right now!)

Salad containing romaine, red onion, sugar snaps, peppers, carrots, cucumbers, raw crackers and green goddess dressing.

I’ve also been experimenting with some of the squash I brought back from Brighton, first up spaghetti squash!

Spiralised courgette, roast spaghetti squash, roasted tomato and red pepper sauce with lentils and yellow pepper, steamed broccoli and spring greens with shoyu all topped with fresh basil.

I really loved this squash! I don’t see how anyone could realistically use it as a spaghetti alternative, but in its own right I thought it was delicious. I also roasted up the glorious giant kabocha squash I found, so happy to have some to keep me going!

Lots and lots of roast kabocha with adzuki beans and millet, steamed broccoli and spring greens with shoyu and a delicious drizzle of green goddess dressing.

Even though my cravings have tended towards the green and leafy variety I’ve also enjoyed some lovely raw desserts:

Double decker raw tart: frozen sesame chocolate tart on the bottom and frozen chocolate avocado tart on the top, nom!

‘Super food’ pudding: frozen blueberries, home made hemp milk, raw cacao powder, purple corn powder, ice, xanthan and guar gums topped with cacao nibs.

I made the most amazing batch of raw hemp milk using Lana’s quick and easy method with new ingredient sunflower lecithin and sweetened with coconut nectar and it has been amazing!

I have a pretty crazy return to work next week with a couple of late nights and lots of meetings, I think I’m going to enjoy the rest of my day and make the most of being able to chill out!

If your a runner, what’s your favourite race distance? Have you tried spaghetti squash and if so what did you think?

Oh and before I forget, I have been lucky enough to have Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish featured on the Channel4 Food website! How cool is that?!

Hope your all having a great weekend :-)

Hi everyone! Hope you have all had a good weekend. I've had a great one, just wish it wasn't Monday tomorrow...

Started the day with a fabulous breakfast as usual - Roasted Rhubarb and Orange with Strawberries, Fromage Frais and We Are Bear Apple Pie Granola.

 I had been inspired by a recipe in River Cottage Everyday for Roasted Rhubard - basically chopped rhubard roasted with orange juice and agave syrup. Unlike a compote the rhubard keeps it shape and texture better. This was delicious of course!

I did a quick grocery shop and snacked on a random unpictured carrot while putting the shopping away. Lunch was a slice of toasted rye bread with two scrambled eggs and spinach followed by two chopped apples with cinnamon and maca powder.

Before lunch I'd enjoyed a lovely bath with a cup of Tea Pigs Chilli Chai (my current favourite). It was bliss, I love having baths in the middle of the day for some reason! I also had a major de-cluttering session. I seem to have loads of crap all over the place and with us living in a 1 bed flat we simply can't afford to waste the space. I cleared out a cupboard of paperwork and books from my Masters Degree, it feels great to have a little bit more space!

Mid afternoon I wasn't hungry for my usual large snack so I just had a little oat and fruit bar.

Dinner was roast butternut squash with a turkey steak, steamed brocolli and steamed spring greens along with a little bit of gravy.

I had promised the hubby something that would resemble a proper Sunday dinner. He seemed happy enough!

After yesterdays amazing chocolate avocado pudding I wanted to do some experimenting. Something about the texture reminded me of the inside of a Feast Ice lolly. You know which ones I mean? They have the solid chocolate inside with chocolate ice cream and a nutty chocolate coating. This is what I came up with -

Frozen Chocolate Nut Avocado Cups (makes 4)

1 *ripe* avocado
2 heaped teaspoons of cocoa powder
3 tablespoons of agave syrup
3 tablespoons of walnuts
(this is the same recipe and measurements I used for the plain pudding yesterday - just omit the nuts)

Reserve a couple of the walnuts to top each cup then add the rest to a food processor and blitz until chopped. Put to one side. Add the avocado flesh to the processor along with the cocoa powder and agave and blend until smooth. Mix in the chopped nuts then spoon into muffin cases and top with half a walnut for decoration. Freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.

These are utterly amazing! There are no words to describe how gorgeous this tasted! Cold, dense chocolate nuttiness! Check out those walnuts in there, the texture was great as well and just like eating a feast bar (ok, if you close your eyes perhaps!) Unfortunatley the avocado didn't blend up all nice and smooth like yesterday's pudding. I think this comes down to the ripeness of the avocado, so be sure to use very ripe avocados to ensure a really smooth result. However, I wasn't too concerned for the cups as they have texture from the nuts being added anyway. As the avocado was only 50p and if you count the other ingredients as store cupboard ingredients thats less than 15p a frozen cup!

I had one of these with a couple of strawberries and 4 squares of the most gorgeous extra dark ginger chocolate.

God, I love chocolate...

Big Budget Challenge Update

This week as part of my money saving challenge I have:

• Shopped at discount supermarket Lidl twice for fresh fruit and veggies on the cheap
• Eaten in instead of dining out with my friend Helen
• Received some free goodies from We Are Bear and Tea Pigs to review
• To date I've only spent £10 of my £50 a month 'pocket money' - on flowers for my Mam last week

We have another two weeks of holiday time booked in, one week in July (we are going to stay with my Aunt and Uncle in Brighton) and one week in August. We had been planning to go away somewhere in August too, but we have decided to put most of what we had saved up for the time off into the Brighton week. This means that we can have a really good time and, more importantly, I can have a good shopping session! I built a week off from the Big Budget Challenge into my rules as I had already had some money put to one side for my trip to Brighton.

I really enjoyed getting rid of some rubbish earlier in my little mini de-clutter session. Do you have a de-cluttering session? How often? I'm going to try and make some money out of my de-cluttering if I finally master selling on ebay! I'm also nearly finished the blog re design, what do you think? Hope you have all had a fab weekend - catch you tomorrow!