I can’t believe its Friday already! They say time flies when your having fun and this week has flown over, it doesn’t seem like we’ve actually done a lot, but we have relaxed and re charged our batteries which was top of the list! I also can’t believe we are almost into October!

On my list for this week has been some baking. I made those delicious Super Charge Me Cookies on Tuesday and on Wednesday I made some bread using a bottle of fruit cider which I enjoyed with almond butter, apple and pear spread and plums:

I’ll be blogging this recipe soon as it is ultra quick and easy and has delicious results! I also made another batch of my simple seitan to stash in the freezer. I did use some for dinner in a pilaf type dish with onion, carrot, courgette, peas and millet:

I served on top of some steamed greens with shoyu, delicious!

The other day I also enjoyed a yummy raw sandwich with the aubergine bacon I made at the weekend:

This was so good! I used 4 raw juice pulp flatbreads with mashed avocado and nutritional yeast and the ‘bacon’. I had the sandwiches with loads of chopped veggies for a lovely lunch.

Big Budget Challenge

I have to admit this week has been a struggle, with us being on holiday it feels like we have spent a fortune although we have had to buy a few more expensive items like washing powder. We also decided to pay £3.50 for a giant 3kg bulk bag of pasta for James, really good value!

I did actually get a few things done this week such as getting a load of things up on eBay. I returned a pair of trousers I bought ages ago and hadn’t worn and exchanged them for a beautiful dress and cardigan that I know I’ll get plenty of ware out of! The trousers were also a snug fitting size 8 and now that I’m committed to gaining a little weight I didn’t want them hanging about my wardrobe making me feel bad! I also spent some of my monthly budget on a necklace and bracelet to wear on Saturday night for my cousins wedding celebration – looking forward to showing you my OOTD!

Other bloggers taking part in the challenge so far:

Sarah @ Every Day’s a Picnic

True Penny @ Cool Beans

Jemma @ Celery and Cupcakes

Don’t forget you can also join in any time too! See this post for more details.

Healthy Feast Plan

Yesterday I started my ‘Healthy Feast’ and it has been wonderful! I kicked off with some MTV Power Yoga. It was my first run through of this DVD even though I’ve had it for ages. It was so tough, I was sweating buckets by the end of it!

I’ve had some lovely eats so far and have really been enjoying keeping things simple. This green smoothie was delicious:

This was just spinach, half a ripe frozen mango, coconut water, 2 dates and ice topped with home made raw macadamia butter and gojis. I was really worried that I would miss the stevia and the thickness from my usual xanthan and guar gums but I really didn’t! The ripe mango and dates where perfectly sweet. Today I had another smoothie for lunch. This contained beet greens, spinach, 1/2 avocado, mixed frozen berries, 2 dates, ice and coconut water topped with raw almond butter, goj'i’s and bee pollen:

Again, this was sweet and thick, without the need for stevia or the gums!

I made a big batch of green goddess dressing and I’ve been using it on huge salads:

This one contained romaine, finely sliced spring greens, home grown alfalfa sprouts, beetroot, carrot, orange pepper, red onion and hemp seeds. That dressing is so good I could eat it with a spoon!

I’ve also been eating lots of simple fruit plates with melon and apple etc and this morning I made a batch of agave sweetened pumpkin seed milk which I drank straight up, it tasted amazing! I’ve also made a couple of tasty fruit and nut smoothies:

Fig and almond smoothie (2 fresh figs, handful of soaked almonds, 2 pitted dates, water, ice)

Plum, walnut, raisin smoothie (3 plums, handful of soaked walnuts, 2 tbsp of raisins, water, ice)

Lots of green juice has also been consumed:

I do genuinely love this stuff! This contained 1 large cucumber, 1 large head of celery, 5 romaine leaves, 1 bunch of spinach, 1 handful of parsley, half a lemon and a knob of ginger. That makes about 1 1/2 litres or 6 cups of green goodness, Today I drank 4 cups early on then the other 2 cups mid morning followed by the pumpkin seed milk and fruit.

I also made this fab bowl of courgette ‘spaghetti’ with a luscious avocado basil cheesy sauce based on my dreamy creamy dressing recipe and topped off with some cheesy pumpkin seeds:

I followed it with my current favourite snack: banana split with home made raw salted cashew almond butter, honey and bee pollen:

So good!

I went for a lovely walk this morning to enjoy this gorgeous Indian Summer weather and took a few lovely photos:

 

Is it warm where you are? I’m enjoying it while it lasts but will be happy when it gets a little cooler and feels more like autumn again!

We have a nice relaxed weekend ahead, I’ll be continuing my healthy feast, so lots of yoga, green juice and fruit and veggies to come! We also have my cousins wedding celebration on Saturday night which will be lovely. Any exciting plans for the weekend?

Hope whatever your up to you have a good one!

I thought it would be a good idea to a bit of a round up of how my last 6 week training plan has gone and how I found my week of healthy feasting and ‘set back week’.

Instead of my usual workouts I dropped the intensity and the overall workout time as well as skipping one workout altogether and having an extra ‘active’ rest day, i.e. just 20 minutes of yoga. The aim of the set back week is to give my body and mind a bit of a break to help prevent burnout and so I can get back into it with renewed enthusiasm. This has definitely worked for me, I was raring to go yesterday! I’ve started on a new phase from Female Body Breakthrough with new exercises, heavier weights and less reps on some exercises plus I’ve increased my speed on the treadmill.

I also found that my week of healthy feasting worked very well too. I aimed to focus on whole simple foods and avoid caffeine and refined sugar. I loved the comments you left on my WIAW post from last week about sugar and stevia (which I was also avoiding). Your comments really made me think about things. What I’ve discovered this week is that most of my smoothies really don’t need any further sweetener added, stevia or otherwise. I think I’d become an ‘automatic’ sweetener and had started to add stevia without tasting for sweetness first. I had the most amazing chocolate cherry beet green smoothie on Sunday night with no sweetener what so ever and it tasted fab, so rich and deeply chocolaty. My hunger has been fairly staple although I did have a proper snack fest on Saturday! I’ve also discovered some new fave snacks and meals last week – raw granola with tahini and raisins, frozen raspberries with nut milk and raw granola and a salad topping of nutritional yeast, pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds – yum!



I have to say I have missed my coffee! I didn’t really experience any caffeine withdrawal symptoms even though I’ve also avoided green tea for most of the week – not particularly intentionally I’ve just had plenty of peppermint on the go! I think I enjoy the ritual of coffee making and the taste more than a ‘need’ for the caffeine hit which I’m happy about. Saying that, I can’t wait to hit Starbucks at the weekend!

This mornings glorious cinnamon and hazelnut coffee!

I have experienced a couple of ‘detox’ type symptoms in tiredness at the start of the week and I also got a massive spot after not having any spots for months! Towards the end of the week the tiredness lifted and I definitely had more mental clarity. Overall I really enjoyed taking a week to step back from my workouts a little, eat a bit simpler and be kinder to myself. Its definitely something I’m going to start doing every couple of months. I don’t think I’ll be using stevia as much as usual now that I’m more used to less sweet things.



I think the last 6 weeks has gone really well. I’ve kept to my ‘less than 1 hour a day’ workout rule and have enjoyed having a little more focus on strength training. I definitely feel like I’m keeping my fitness up, getting stronger and enjoying myself :-) My weight has also been pretty staple – I think I’m going to try and only weigh myself once every 6 weeks now to keep an eye on things. The scales are evil and I’m sick of them, but that’s all for another post me thinks!

I’m starting a fresh training plan for the next 6 weeks which is pretty similar to my last training plan but doing the new strength routine, increasing my speeds and levels on the gym machines and changing up my interval sessions. I’m going to try and continue my weekend outdoor run for as long as I can into the winter before I have to move it on to the treadmill. I’m continuing with ‘anything goes Thursday’ as I found it was a fun way to keep things interesting and varied!

Do you workout to a plan? Do you like to change up your workouts on a regular basis? How do you measure your progress if that’s one of your aims?

On Friday evening I visited the Durham Lumiere Festival. I live in a suburb of the beautiful medieval City of Durham, and the Lumiere Festival takes place right across the city featuring over 30 light installations by a variety of artists including Tracey Emin (I love her!).

Me and James met up with my Mam and Dad for a walk around the city. It really was a breath taking evening, especially the amazing ‘Crown of Light’ installation that projected images on to the side of the spectacular Durham Cathedral:

 

Other installations we saw included lots of glowing flying mesh figures, a brightly rainbow coloured lit tunnel, a giant glowing snow globe, another brightly coloured piece made from recycled plastic bottles and the beautifully lit Railway bridge arches:

 

 

  OOTD: fair isle hat and scarf: Next, Purple Princess Coat: Oasis, stripy tee: Zara, gold chain necklace: Topshop, Tan bag: H&M

I decided to bust out the warm hat and scarf, it was pretty chilly walking around outside!

I’ve still been healthy feasting over the weekend so have mostly been eating smoothies, salads and lots of fresh fruit:

Beet greens, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, strawberry hemp protein powder, water, ice topped with almond butter and freeze dried berries

Spring greens, pear, frozen blueberries, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, water, ice, flaked almonds and freeze dried berries on top

Spring greens, 1/2 frozen banana, courgette, roast kabocha squash, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, water, ice, cinnamon, ground ginger topped with more cinnamon, maple syrup, buckwheaties, shoyu roasted squash seeds

I got some giant persimmons from the green grocers that are so sweet and delicious:

Persimmon with clemintines

I’ve also been drinking the usual green juice:

Cucumber, celery, kale stems, ginger, lemon

Even though I’ve been healthy feasting I’ve still enjoyed getting a bit experimental. First up I tried making some ‘walnut lemon cheese’ to go on top of this beautiful salad with golden beets:

The salad included raw black kale massaged with hemp oil and lemon juice, romaine lettuce, alfalfa sprouts and regular and golden beets. I made the walnut cheese using 1/3 cup of soaked walnuts, lemon juice, garlic, sweet white miso and parsley. It worked well but as I only made one portion it didn’t blend so well in my processor. It tasted delicious though!

Today I had my first try of kelp noodles!

I got these from Viva Pure ages ago and thought it was about time I tried them! I soaked them in warm water for 10 minutes to soften and then mixed with a spiralised courgette and carrot. I made a dressing using tahini, sweet white miso, fresh ginger, ume vinegar and water and topped with raisins and black sesame seeds. It was wonderful! You can’t really taste the kelp noodles but they have a nice texture, and of course they are very good for you!

This morning I went out for a relaxed run. As I’m on my set back week I decided to go out without the Garmin for a change. I think I did about 4 miles but have no idea what time I did it in. It was a mega misty morning and such a pleasant run! The rest of the day has been almost perfect: hot shower after my run, green smoothie for breakfast followed by a morning of baking (can’t wait to share the recipes!) and an afternoon movie. All that could have made it better would have been a cup of coffee!

November Giveaway winners

Good Hemp Oils:

 

Lara and Lauren!

Linwoods Super Foods:

Flaxseed and Gojs: Rachel, Flaxseed, Pumpkinseed and Sunflower seed: Jessica 

Congratulations ladies! Can you all email me at laura@keepinghealthygettingstylish.com with your addresses and I’ll get these posted out.

Next week I have a pretty crazy one with several events and work and a couple of late nights so I’m going to make the most of the rest of my Sunday! I’m also looking forward to getting stuck into my workouts next week, I’ll probably blog more about how my set back and week of healthy feasting has gone soon. Hope your all having a wonderful weekend!

Hi guys, how’s your Wednesday going? Its a chilly day today in North East England, but at least its bright and sunny :-) These are my eats and happenings from yesterday. Happy WIAW!

I started the day with Yoga for Runners then had a mug of lemon and warm water while I had a shower and got ready. Breakfast was a bowl of Kashi Go Lean with a chopped banana, some frozen blueberries and rice milk plus a lovely vanilla coffee, black and sweetened with stevia:

I was working from home around a morning meeting so it was great to have the time to actually sit and enjoy that coffee! Before I left for my meeting I had a chopped apple with some ‘burnt caramel’ dip and a mug of green tea:

I just mixed some tahini, molasses and lucuma powder up with some water to make a  dip – I added the lucuma and it was a good way to mellow out the flavour of the molasses and add a caramel flavour. I decided that it would probably be a good idea to change out of the hoody I’d been wearing all morning for the meeting ;-) and as it was so cold and windy outside I thought a jumper dress would be in perfect, OOTD:

Gold swallow earrings: Topshop, patterned and crocheted scarf: Urban Outfitters, mustard yellow jumper dress: H&M, grey cotton tights: H&M, black turnover top suede effect boots: H&M

I absolutely love jumper dresses for this time of year, I think I have about 5 of them! I got this one a couple of weeks ago when I returned a dress that was stained. I’m still loving that mustard yellow colour right now!

When I got home from my meeting I had a huge bowl of Healthy Feast Salad and a pear:

Mid afternoon I got one of my home made raw cookie dough bars out of the freezer as a snack and for some gym fuel:

Love these! I got to the gym a little early so I did 10 min of intervals on the cross trainer, 10 min of intervals on the step machine and an extra 10 minutes steady state on the rowing machine before going into my body pump class which was awesome as usual!

Dinner was nice and easy to prepare as most of it was sitting in the fridge just ready to warm up and assemble! I had some steamed spring greens with brown and red rice, roast onion squash, baked tofu and a coconut ginger sauce:

This was so delicious! The coconut ginger sauce was lovely – just some light coconut milk warmed with 1 tbsp of coconut flour and 1 tsp of corn flour for thickness plus some shoyu and fresh minced ginger, yum! The tofu had baked perfectly as well and had a wonderful meaty texture.

For dessert I had my usual post body pump bowl of protein ice cream:

1 scoop of smores spiru-tein with water, ice and gums topped with dried cherries and cacao nibs, delish! I then warmed myself up with a huge mug of Cococardio sweetened with stevia:

This hit the spot on such a cold and windy evening!

All in all a pretty good day, I got loads of work done and a report finished for work so I was happy. Another thing that made me smile today:

Kale! James picked me up some when he was in town, along with another of my current obsessions – Shogun apples! I’d never heard of this variety – they are a type of Fiji apple and they are huge and so sweet, plus I like the name ;-)

Are you a fan of the jumper dress? I love wearing them with thick tights, leggings or skinny jeans when the weather gets colder. They can look really good but still be comfortable and warm. I actually wore a knitted hat today for the first time this season it was so cold! What outfit do you turn to as the weather gets cooler?