Happy Friday guys! Are you all set for the weekend? How’s your week been?

Despite the swelling and pain from having my wisdom teeth extracted I’ve been able to maintain a pretty consistent workout schedule, mainly because working out has made me feel better! The only thing I’ve had to avoid has been running, I tried a 5 minute treadmill run on Wednesday and the high impact made my face giggle – which felt uncomfortable, but today I felt more like my normal self and did some speed intervals:

• Saturday – gym, 1 hour light cardio on bike, step machine, cross trainer
• Sunday – 45 min Kettlebell class
• Monday – gym, 5 min warm up cross trainer, new strength plan based on Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial it in’ phase, 20 min HIIT on bike
• Tuesday – 10 min light yoga stretching am, pm gym, 30 min HIIT on cross trainer, step machine and bike, Body Pump class
• Wednesday – gym – 5 min treadmill, 10 min rowing machine, 15 min HIIT on each: step machine, bike, cross trainer
• Thursday – am detox challenge yoga flow, pm – gym 30 min bike random, 10 min cross trainer HIITs, 10 min step machine HIIT, 10 min abs
• Friday – gym 5 min warm up cross trainer, new strength plan based on Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial it in’ phase, 15 min HIIT on treadmill

It felt so good to run again this morning, even just for 15 minutes!

My eats have continued along the blended theme this week, but I’ve actually really enjoyed some of these!

I decided to experiment with a couple of raw soups:

This was just based on my raw pasta sauce recipe but made in the blender with added hemp oil and fresh basil, it was really creamy and so good! I also made a Curried Carrot and Coconut Soup:

Carrot and Coconut Soup (makes 2 servings, almost raw, vegan)

• 500g of carrots, chopped
• 2 tbsp of grated ginger root
• 1 heaped tbsp of coconut oil
• 1/2 tbsp of toasted sesame oil
• 1 tbsp of shoyu or soy sauce
• 1 tsp of garam masala or to taste
• Water to desired consistency
• Desiccated coconut and sesame seeds to serve

I used my blender for this recipe, but its pretty tough so if yours isn’t you may want to grate the carrots first. Start by blending the carrots with a little water until they become pureed. Add the other ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy adding more water as needed. Serve topped with the coconut and sesame seeds.

This was really yummy, the ginger and spices give it a lovely earthy warmth. I served mine at room temperature rather than chilled, just delicious!

Of course, there has been more smoothie action:

Spring greens, frozen cherries, raw beetroot, chocolate hemp protein powder, maca powder, ground flax, berries powder, water, ice topped with bee pollen and coconut

Simple green smoothie with spinach, pineapple and kiwi

 Utterly lush raw chocolate coconut smoothie! Thai young coconut (from an Oriental supermarket, sold in a frozen bag) with raw cacao powder and water. Tasted ah-maz-ing!

Romaine lettuce, apples, vanilla sun warrior, vanilla stevia, water, ice

Greens, 2 small pears, chocolate hemp protein powder, ground flax, maca powder, midori greens, water, ice, bee pollen

I have to admit, after a week of smoothies I am starting to get a bit sick of them but they are the easiest thing for me to eat right now.

I have tried some other things though, including some raw chocolate avocado mousse:

Some of the avocado was going off I also added a banana to the mix and then froze the other half of the mousse in silicon cups with a blob of raw almond butter inside. Earlier in the week I had more delicious cauliflower mash (without the broccoli added that time) with some of my Lentil and Spinach Soup well blended and topped with a little parsley:

For dinner last night I felt like my teeth could handle a bit more chew so I combined some quinoa cooked in veg stock with a grated carrot and a grated courgette, home made hummus, nutritional yeast and a splash of shoyu:

It was really good and felt nice to be able to get my teeth into something! Snack wise I’ve been enjoying more raw blended apples with either chia seeds or like this with a blob of tahini and honey:

I’ve been eating a lot of tahini and honey these last few days, as well as protein pudding made with a scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder mixed with water and coconut flour cream (coconut flour mixed with water and stevia), in fact my stomach has been like a bottomless pit! The lack of bulky chewable foods has left me feeling unsatisfied, thankfully I seem to finally be improving fast. Today I’m enjoying the excuse to have breakfast for lunch – pumpkin spiced porridge with tofu cream!

A couple of quick bits of news:

• This week I’d like to thank the lovely people at NukuNuku for sponsoring the blog this month. I reviewed their Haramaki bands here, please check them out, especially if you feel the cold like me!
• Long term sponsor Viva Pure are offering a 7% discount on your first order using code VPFRIEND7. Have a browse of their site for a brilliant range of raw foods.
• One of my favourite brands Good Hemp have launched their Good Hemp Nutrition site for the sale of their hemp protein powders of which I’m a massive fan. They are offering 33% off your first purchase with the code GOOD11. Check it out!

Even though I’ve been off work for most of the week I’m still looking forward to the weekend and having some time to try and get back into a routine. I’ve been reading the Hunger Games books after several bloggers mentioned them and I love them. I’m hoping to finish Catching Fire over the weekend. I also have another Kettlebell class that I’m really looking forward to and hopefully another run!

Have you ever tried a raw soup? Have you read the Hunger Games books? Any big plans for the weekend? Hope whatever your up to you have a great one!

P.S – I just found out I passed my Diet and Nutrition Advisors Course with a Distinction! So happy and excited!

Hi everyone, hope your having a good week! I’m very excited to be reviewing a really unusual product for you today. I was contacted by NukuNuku to see if I would like to try out a Haramaki. Of course I had no idea what a Haramaki was so I looked on the website and was intrigued!

A Haramaki (translated as ‘belly wrap’ in Japanese) is a band of material that you wear around your waist. The wraps are popular in Japan having first been worn by Samurai under their armour. It is claimed that wearing a Haramaki can help to spread warmth through your body from your core, aid digestion and relieve menstrual cramps as well as being a practical piece of clothing useful for avoiding ‘builders bum’ syndrome, keeping you covered while practicing yoga or gardening and of course it would be useful for supporting the belly during pregnancy.

As someone who really feels the cold and suffers from poor circulation I was interested to see if it could help me stay warm.

I was sent a basic blue Haramaki to try out. I received the small size which fitted me comfortably, however I would have preferred it to be a little tighter and more snug so I would chose the XS size in future (for reference I have a 27 inch waist and 33 inch hips)

I wore the Haramaki under my clothing as shown in the images. I wasn’t sure how comfortable it would be but after the first day I was hooked! I wore it every day until I realised I really should wash it!

I found that it made me feel ‘snug’ and nicely supported. It worked especially well under tighter fitting trousers as a layer between them and my skin and gave a nice clean line under my clothing. I’m not sure to what extent it improved my circulation but it really did make me feel snug and warm, even more than if I was wearing a vest top. In fact this would be perfect for wearing instead of a vest to keep warm if you were going out and wearing a strapless top or something with an unusual neckline. It would also act in a similar way to shaping under ware if you got a suitable size that pulled you in!

It did remind me a bit of the ‘girdles’ my Nana used to wear and the infamous ‘Bridget Jones’ pants - but a lot more stylish of course! The website has a range of different colours and sizes of Haramaki in stock. A Haramaki costs £14 and postage within the UK is just £1.

I have to say I was sceptical at first but I have been completely won over. I actually missed wearing it today while it was in the wash! I think £14 is a pretty reasonable cost when you compare it to other good quality under ware and vests, and the cheap shipping is excellent too.

I think these would make really unique and unusual Christmas gifts for someone open minded who suffers from the cold! I also think a Haramaki could be good for people who have  loose skin on their stomach from weight loss or pregnancy – I have some loose skin and I felt really well supported and comfortable.

I know I’ll be wearing this a lot, especially once I start spending more time down the allotment on my knees planting veggies!

Have you ever heard of a Haramaki before? How are you keeping warm in this cold weather?