Hi everyone, happy Friday! I’ve had a jam packed couple of days including some tasty eats and great workouts:

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I kicked off Thursday with a yoga flow from Slim Calm Sexy Yoga. I did the full body toning flow. It only took me 15 minutes and was a great way to start the day. After work I hit the gym for my upper body workout / intervals. I started with a 5 minute warm up on the cross trainer then did the following routine:

• Dumbbell pullover on stability ball x 8 reps with 9kg db
• Chest flye on stability ball x 8 reps with 2 x 6kg db
• Lower back raise on stability ball x 10 reps

x 3 sets

• shoulder press – 6 reps with 2 x 6kg db
• bicep curl – 6 reps with 2 x 6kg db
• lateral raise – 8 reps with x 4kg db

x 3 sets

• tricep dip x 15reps bw
• bent over row – 8 reps with 2 x 8kg db
• upright row – 8 reps with 2 x 6kg db

x 3 sets

• push up on bench x 10 reps bw
• dumbbell wood chop – 10 reps each side with 8kg db

x 3 sets

I finished off with 20 minutes (2 x 10 mins) of HIITs on the step machine and bike. This morning I was back at the gym for a quick 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my abs and core exercises.

Thursdays breakfast was some porridge topped with fresh pineapple and coconut flour sauce. I used 1/2 cup of Rude Health Fruity Date Porridge with 1 teaspoon of chia seeds, water and rice milk:

I love how much coconut sauce you can make from just one teaspoon of coconut flour, it just eats up water!

This mornings breakie was a delicious smoothie containing romaine lettuce, frozen banana, frozen peaches, vanilla sun warrior, spirulina, matcha green tea, mesquite and a generous amount of peanut butter, topped with gojis and cacao nibs:

This was another monster smoothie! I love adding lots and lots of greens (I used almost a full head of lettuce in this) to give plenty of bulk so that I get really filled up. This was the nicest tasting smoothie I’ve had in a while too, got to love that peanut butter!

Lunch has been the same the last two days – a big salad beasty containing lettuce, carrot, cucumber, red and yellow pepper, red onion, mixed beans, braggs seasoning and some nutritional yeast flakes:

Yesterday I also had some grapes and a nectarine and today I enjoyed a juicy pear and an orange.

Snackies have included the last of my leftover cookies and an apple:

I also tried another Total split pot today, this time the honey variety:

The honey was set which I wasn’t expecting but it still tasted lovely.

Yesterdays dinner was a serving of my Moroccan Tagine with mixed rice and steamed spring greens with shoyu, ume vinegar and mixed seeds:

Loved this! So glad I remembered I had some stashed in the freezer. Last nights dessert was some of my pumpkin protein pudding with graham cracker crumbs and when that didn’t satisfy me I also snacked on a couple of apples and a pear.

Tonight I had a grilled wild garlic tofu fillet in a wholemeal pitta with some of my high protein sundried tomato hummus, lettuce and alfalfa sprouts plus some raw carrot and a side of steamed kale with shoyu:

This was so satisfying, like eating a big burger! I made the hummus using my original high protein hummus recipe but with an added 1/2 cup of sun dried tomatoes in oil drained and with the 2 tbsp of oil left out – I ended up with a huge portion – I’ll be eating hummus for the rest of the week :-) Dessert was two chopped apples and half a bar of conscious raw chocolate:

This variety contained lucuma and yacon root. It tasted ok but not as nice as the other varieties I have tried so far.

As I’ve been working from home today I took advantage of the opportunity to be near the kitchen and baked some bread for James and made some baked Seitan sausage for me! I’ll share the Seitan recipe soon, but wow it looks so good! Seitan is a meat alternative made some gluten flour in case you were wondering - I had no idea what it was when I first heard about it!

I also got my organic veg box delivery today as well as a trip to the farm shop and the supermarket. I think I may have gone a little overboard with the fresh produce yet again:

Includes: swiss chard, kale, cos lettuce, round lettuce, celery, courgettes, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, spinach, spring greens, bananas, apples, pears, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, lemons, broccoli, carrots, beetroot, butternut squash, parsnips, avocado, sugar snap peas.

Its a good job I love my fruits and veggies! I have to say nothing makes me happier than a fridge full of fresh mostly organic produce, I’ll enjoy eating my way through all this over the next week.

I have a very busy weekend ahead, I have to study for my course, catch up with some work, see friends and family, fit in a run and go on the hunt for a new car!

I’m searching for a new car to replace my little 8 year old Ford Ka, I’m just looking for another small, economical and environmentally friendly run around. Do you drive? What kind of car do you own? Any favourite models? I quite like the Peugeot 107:

Fingers crossed I find something that doesn’t cost a bomb!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend planned! :-)

Thanks for all the comments to my last post on unusual ingredients and where to find them, I’m so glad the post was useful! Keep a look out for Part 2 as well as a post on tofu as requested. One thing I realised that I didn’t mention in relation to some of those products was the cost. A lot of them aren’t exactly cheap. I tend to try and use discount codes whenever possible and time my purchases accordingly when offers are on the go. Another aspect for me is that experimenting with food and ingredients, along with spending money on clothes and magazines brings me immense pleasure! You have probably guessed from reading the blog I have little social life to speak of ;-) so my ‘disposable’ income gets spent on stuff like that, although I have to say I am due another budget challenge as I have been hammering the old credit card a bit too much recently!

Tuesday kicked off with my home strength workout. I did the same reps as last week, and worked up a good sweat! Breakfast was chocolate mesquite overnight oats with 2 chopped pears:

The other pear is hiding underneath all that chocolately goodness! I mixed 1/2 cup of oats with some chia seeds, a tablespoon of mesquite, a scoop of chocolate sun warrior, some ground flax, 1/2 cup of oat milk and a cup of water then left in the fridge overnight to thicken up. I served it at room temperature. I’m quite liking the overnight oats / breakfast puddings at the moment although they don’t compare to lovely hot porridge! I think they come in handy when I want to get some sun warrior protein in but I don’t want a smoothie.

Lunch was an awesome salad which included lots of rocket, alfalfa sprouts, pearl barley, carrot, red onion, red pepper, avocado and a sweet miso dressing (flax oil, apple cider vinegar and sweet white miso). I also had half a honeydew melon:

I ate the melon before the salad as I know that melon digests very quickly and is sometimes best eaten before other foods. I wish I had chopped this up as it was a bugger to eat with a spoon!

Mid afternoon I snacked on some of my delicious high protein hummus with red pepper and cucumber for dipping – so loving this hummus!

Before I left work for yoga I had one of my leftover cookies taken out of the freezer along with a mug of yerba mate tea for an energy boost:

Yoga was really good. I seem to be getting better each week, I constantly amaze myself at how flexible I can be. It does help that we have an awesome instructor who adjusts our postures and helps us to move into postures more deeply. I’m still not able to do some of the tougher poses like crow or plough like the others in the class but I can put out a damn good boat pose! As it is Ashtanga yoga we are moving through the postures quite quickly so it gives me a great workout, I was shattered by the end and had wobbly leg syndrome again!

When I got home I refuelled with a massive green monster that included spinach, savoy cabbage, mixed frozen berries, an orange, tablespoon of peanut butter, oat milk, spirulina, matcha green tea, milk thistle and echinacea tincture. I topped it with some goji berries and flaked almonds:

I also snacked on three apples.

This morning I had a late start at work so I headed out to the gym first thing. I did 30 minutes of speed intervals on the treadmill then 30 minutes of HIITs (high intensity interval training in case anyone wasn’t sure what that stands for) on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed by my usual abs and core exercises. I had to use the stability ball for my full sit ups as I have a really sore tail bone area at the moment for some reason!

Breakfast was a bowl of porridge made with the last of my power porridge mix made up with some added oat bran for creaminess, oat milk and water. I topped this with some cashew cream and a sliced juicy nectarine. I also made myself a fresh carrot, beetroot, cucumber and ginger juice:

The cashew cream was so good with the hot porridge and nectarine, it kind of went all melty!

Lunch was the other half of the melon (chopped this time!):

Followed by a big bowl of Kabocha Squash Soup:

This is so easy to make, just roast the kabocha with its skin on then add to a pan, add veg stock and some fresh parsley then blend using a hand blender. You get this amazing sweet velvety soup.

Mid afternoon I snacked on some raisins, walnuts and brazil nuts:

Sometimes a simple cheap snack like this is just as nice as a pre packed snack bar.

For dinner I made a meal based on an Anthony Worrall Thompson recipe in Cook Vegetarian! Magazine:

Italian Leek Stew (makes 2 servings)

• Olive oil
• 2 large leeks, washed and chopped
• 1 tin of cannellini beans
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 carton of olives, preferably pitted then chopped
• Handful of fresh basil

Begin by frying the leek in the olive oil on a medium low heat until softened. Add the beans and chopped tomatoes. Simmer on a medium low heat for 15 minutes then add the olives. Add a good handful of chopped fresh basil and serve:

I served mine with some steamed tender stem broccoli.

Dessert was half a bar of Conscious Goji and Coconut Raw Chocolate with two sliced pink lady apples:

This flavour raw chocolate tasted amazing! I loved the coconut and goji combination.

I’m still feeling really buzzed off last nights yoga class. Although I’m no where near as good as most of the others in the class, I know that I am improving. I used to really compare myself to others, especially in relation to running speed, distances and times, then I realised how pointless that is (although I know that some people can use those feelings in a positive way, for me they always left me feeling inadequate). Everyone is different and the only person you can truly compare yourself to is you! As long as I know I am making progress, I’m happy that I’m achieving something, no matter how that may compare to others. Have you ever found yourself comparing your performance to others? How did that make you feel?

Thanks for your comments to my last post regarding products for review. It seems that some of us like reviews and others aren’t bothered, however we all seem to agree that we have discovered some great products via blogs! As I said in the post I will continue to try and seek out more unique products when possible, however I obviously don’t know what other bloggers are planning to feature so some of my more unique products may end up not being that unique! It was also nice to hear that I have inspired other bloggers to seek out the same products for them to review. One thing I can say is that I won’t be posting review after review, and when I do post reviews I will include that in the post title if you would prefer to skip it. I have a few other bits and pieces in the pipeline – everything seems to be coming along at once, but I’ll try to ensure that the blog doesn’t get bogged down with it all!

Tuesday morning I was up to do my strength workout, it kicked my ass as usual! Luckily I had the thought of this super tasty breakfast to get me through it:

Based on my vanilla chia wheat germ breakfast pudding I made up a chocolate chia wheat germ pudding with raspberries. This tasted so good! I mixed in frozen raspberries last night when it went in the fridge and this morning they had defrosted and melded into the luscious pudding. I topped my bowl with cacao nibs for added crunch. Delish!

Lunch was a repeat of Mondays tofu salad with Asian dressing and a nectarine. I had a large mid afternoon snack as I had been planning on going to yoga later on so I had two pumpkin oat ryvita with lots of carrot sticks and cucumber for dipping in my amazing squash dip!

Squash dip (makes 1 1/2 cups)

• 2/3 cup of roast or cooked squash (I used kabocha of course!)
• 1/2 cup of parsley, packed
• 1 tbsp of tahini
• 1 tbsp of oil (I used cool oil)
• 1 tbsp of sweet white miso
• 1 clove of garlic
• water to thin

Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend. Gradually add the water until you get your desired consistency. It does firm up a bit in the fridge so perhaps make it a touch thinner to take this into account.

 

This dip is the bomb! It tastes amazing and has the most creamy texture. I think it would also work well with other herbs in place of the parsley and using a different squash such as butternut would make it sweeter.

I had been due to go to my yoga class but for some reason I was just not feeling it. I think I’m fighting off a bit of a cold and I haven’t been feeling 100% over the last couple of days. It was the last class that I was paid up for and after thinking about things I don’t think I’m going to re sign up for it. Although I have been loving the class once I’m there I’ve been finding the later night quite tiring and disruptive. I think the timing of the class (6.15 to 7.45) just doesn’t fit in with my schedule at the moment and one thing I need is as much flexibility as possible. There’s also the additional cost to consider too :-(

Instead I ate my pre yoga snack of a leftover cookie and a pink lady…

…and went home and did my Yogalates DVD for an hour. No comparison to an Ashtanga session but it did give me the opportunity for a good stretch!

I had a huge craving for a big green smoothie after that so I combined kale, frozen strawberries, carob powder, hemp protein powder, peanut butter, spirulina, mesquite and rice milk then topped with half a pack of cocoa cherry pie granola and some brown rice puffs to make it a little more filling:

This was so good, first time I’ve added carob to a smoothie – it tasted fab!

This mornings breakfast was orange and cranberry porridge with cashew macadamia cream:

1/2 cup of rude health fruity date porridge mix, tbsp oat bran, 1/2 cup of rice milk, juice and pulp from one orange, 1/2 cup of water, frozen cranberries, teaspoon of ground flax and extra dried cranberries on top of the cashew macadamia cream topping. I also had a cup of Christmas coffee.

Lunch was Leek, Greens and White Bean Soup with a bowl of red grapes:

Mid afternoon I snacked on a dried apricot, dried fig, some brazil nuts and pistachios before heading to the gym:

At the gym I did 30 minutes of speed work on the treadmill followed by 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike followed with my usual abs and core. I’ve now got my plank hold up to 90 seconds! Considering that before Christmas I could only do 30 seconds I’m well chuffed!

Dinner was a simple beans and rice mix made more exciting with some fruit and herbs: black beans with brown and wild rice, mango, coriander and lime juice dressing:

I served this with a large side of steamed kale. I have had some big cravings recently for just a simple bowl of beans, veggies and grains and this has satisfied it!

Dessert was some coffee flavour no added sugar vegan Plamils chocolate and two sliced pink lady apples:

The Plamils chocolate was gorgeous! Just the right amount of coffee flavour in a lovely dark crunchy creamy chocolate.

I know that I’ve made the right decision in stopping the yoga class although I’m sad about it. I think its been an incredibly useful class as I have a much better understanding of postures and positioning which has meant that my own yoga practice (using downloads and podcasts) has been improved. I absolutely love yoga for the added flexibility and strength it has given me so now I need to consider how I can incorporate it in to my training programme. I love the podcasts from Yoga Download which are 20 minutes long, they are perfect for fitting into a flexible programme so I may try and do one of these a few times a week. I also recently got the book Slim, Calm Sexy Yoga by Tara Stiles which actually goes through a lot of poses in good detail and suggests various 15 minute yoga flows that also could be useful.

I think if anything I’ve learned over the last couple of weeks is that my workouts have to be flexible for them to be effective, especially as I sometimes have late work meetings or if I’m just not feeling it (like last week when I swapped out my run to another day). Being flexible isn’t something that comes naturally to me – I know I can be a control freak and like having a set routine, but I’m embracing a more flexible approach and I think its doing me the world of good!

Do you take a flexible approach to your exercise and fitness or are you more structured? Does having a flexible approach come naturally to you or is it something you have to work at like me?

Happy Friday everyone, so glad that the weekend is here!

I’ve been liberating my wardrobe again!

 Yellow cardigan: H&M, grey jersey dress: Villa, skinny tan leather belt: Topshop, black tights: M&S, brogues: Topshop

This is a bit of an autumnal look, but considering the weather right now I’m all ready to bust out the jumpers and knee high boots! I decided to keep the accessories minimal with this outfit. I love the combo of yellow and grey and though it looked good kept simple.

Yesterday morning I kicked off my day with a challenge detox yoga flow podcast from Yoga Download. Breakfast was some buckwheaties, strawberries and vanilla home made almond milk:

Such a delicious, and surprisingly filling raw breakfast!

Yesterday’s lunch was a blended salad soup with a slice of my raw sunflower seed and onion bread and a jazz apple:

The soup was leftover from Wednesday and after not being that impressed by it I decided to give it another try. It was ok, but I can’t see myself making it again!

As a snack before the gym I had a couple of these wonderful raw cookies:

I made these using this recipe and they turned out wonderfully. I took some into work and they went down very well, in fact I have none left now!

At the gym I did a simple workout of 10 minutes of high intensity intervals on the cross trainer, step machine, bike and rower followed by my usual abs and core exercises for nice 50 minute workout.

In more raw food experimentation dinners have included my first attempt at sprouting! I sprouted some quinoa and mixed it with edamame beans and chopped courgette. I served it Buddha bowl style with some roasted kabocha squash I’ve been saving in the freezer and some spinach and braggs liquid aminos:

Sprouting the quinoa was extremely simple and resulted in a more crunchy, nutty flavour. All I did was rinse and soak the quinoa for 4 hours then left in a sieve over a bowl to drain. I gave it a quick rinse every couple of hours and it sprouted really quickly, I love the little tails!

I have to say that I’ve been surprised by the simplicity of a lot of the raw food techniques I’ve experimented with recently, I had expected them to be a lot more complex than they have been. The cheesecakes from yesterday and this sprouted quinoa are great examples of simple recipes with great tasting results!

The process of sprouting makes the grain (or in the case of quinoa, seed) edible raw, but the process of germination also begins to convert some of the starches in the grain to simple sugars which are easier to digest. I’ll definitely be experimenting with sprouting a lot more from now on!

Dessert was some chocolate protein ice cream with freeze dried berries:

Last night I had a little bit of a overeating episode. I’m reluctant to call it a binge, but for me, that’s what it felt like. Basically I just couldn’t stop eating. I ate several dried apricots, handfuls of raisins, frozen grapes, roasted soy nuts, chocolate, handfuls of muesli and finally I hit the nut butters. I haven’t had an overeating episode like this for a while (although I have had similar ones recently when I was in Brighton, Kendal Calling and also when I hit the nut butters on my Birthday this Wednesday).

I’m certainly not wanting to be over dramatic but I did want to mention this as I think its important to share this stuff, I am not a perfect eater. I also know that we will all hit those bumps in the road of our healthy living journeys – and that’s exactly what they are, a journey rather than a destination. Although I know a few extra calories from what was all essentially healthy stuff isn’t going to do me any harm, the fact that I just couldn’t stop myself and that I woke up this morning feeling as sick as a dog, are signs that its not good for my body to let this kind of eating pattern continue.

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I’ve tried very hard not to feel too guilty over it and to try and look at it objectively to see why I may have acted this way when for so long I’ve been fine. To be honest, I’m really not sure. I’m still finding my food satisfying and filling, I think it could have been a case of my mind just saying f**k it, and once I start then its a case of ‘well you might as well enjoy it now and get back on track tomorrow’. I’m going to just try and move on from it but monitor things as I don’t want to fall back into old patterns.

This morning I still went to the gym despite feeling ill! I did my amended NRoL workout and felt much better after it! Breakfast was a restorative green smoothie:

This looks a horrid colour but tasted good I promise! It included kale, cucumber, frozen berries, apple, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca, mesquite, purple corn powder, barley grass powder, ground flax, msm crystals, stevia for sweetness, water, ice and the gums for thickness with gojis and coconut on top.

I love that green smoothies can be made to be more cleansing like this one or indulgent like my birthday cake green smoothie!

I’ve drank lots of water and rooibos tea plus snacked on lots of fruit during the day to feel better too. Lunch was a slice of my raw sunflower and onion bread with sabra hummus and veggies and a peach:

I can not get enough of that raw bread and hummus combo right now, so good! The raw bread has also kept very well in the fridge for 5 days, I’m definitely going to be making it on a regular basis now!

Dinner was more of the sprouted quinoa Buddha bowl and as a sweet end to the day I made a big mug of mint chocolate teecino with almond milk and stevia:

I definitely feel a lot more ‘balanced’ after eating better today!

I am now thinking bring on the weekend! I actually have another quiet one planned, me and James are going to spend the whole weekend together as a late birthday thing. We are going to have a movie fest and I’m going to make us a tasty Italian meal and crack open a bottle of red! What do you have planned?

Before I go I’d like to welcome my second blogger sponsor this month, the delightful Sarah from Sweet Potato Sarah!

She’s a student on a healthy eating journey – check out her wonderful blog! If you have any festivals to attend this summer you must check out her festival survival guide, I found it very helpful when I went to Kendal Calling!

I hope you don’t mind me sharing my thoughts on my overeating episode. Have you ever struggled with overeating or binging episodes? How do you deal with them?

I just want to start by saying thanks for the comments to last nights post. I was really torn about the whole thing, however I think the event is going to be a very interesting experience for me either way. Thanks for the comments about my yoga class too, I was feeling a bit inadequate about my abilities but I can only get better in time!

For breakfast today I made some millet porridge as I had some cooked millet in the fridge to use up. I warmed it through with some oat milk, a chopped pear, raisins, cinnamon and a teaspoon of sweet freedom. It was surprisingly tasty! I also made myself a fresh juice with 2 beets, 2 carrots, cucumber and a large chunk of ginger.

I don’t know what it is but I’ve been craving beetroot like crazy these last few days. This juice tasted fab too, I think the cucumber stopped it from becoming too tart. I also added a shot of acai berry juice to it along with milk thistle and echinacea tincture.

Mid morning I had a mug of miso and ginger soup. Lunch was a new to me combo. I used to make hummus and turkey wraps with cos lettuce ages ago (before veggiedom) and recently I’ve seen other bloggers making wraps with cabbage leaves. As I had both tasty hummus and cabbage in the fridge I thought I’d give it ago!

My wraps were made with a spring green cabbage leaf with the stem removed. I added a layer of my broccoli, courgette and olive hummus then some yellow pepper, cucumber, lambs lettuce and olives. These worked quite well but I think they would have been better with larger leaves as they were quite messy to eat!

 

These tasted fab though, will certainly be making these a regular lunch option. I was quite surprised at how filling these were too. I also had an orange and some passion fruit.

Before heading to the gym I snacked on one of my leftover cookies and an apple.

I did 30 minutes of speed intervals on the treadmill followed by 30 minutes of my new HIITs on the step machine, bike and cross trainer. I then did my abs and core exercises. My 1 minute planks nearly killed me!

For dinner I decided I was long overdue a good stir fry. I stir fried some courgette and carrot ribbons, asparagus, spring greens, mushroom and yellow pepper in coconut oil then added some mung bean noodles I’d picked up a while ago from an Asian supermarket. I made a sauce for the stir fry using some of the left over cashew ginger pate (from the nori wraps) by watering it down and adding a little more soy sauce and sweet white miso paste.

This was the bomb! Such a great stir fry, full of veggies just how I like it and I loved the mung bean noodles. The sauce worked very well to. That cashew ginger pate has lasted really well, there’s still more left that I think I may use on some baked tofu, yum!

Dessert was some raw chocolate, this time from the Conscious Chocolate Company. They produce various flavours of raw chocolate based on raw cacao powder, cacao butter and agave, all organic and soy, dairy and gluten free. I had half a small bar of mint chocolate.

Oh. my. god. This tasted utterly amazing! It has the most fabulous soft creamy texture and the mint flavour is perfect. I honestly can’t tell you how fabulous this is! I ordered this from Goodness Direct as part of my Christmas pressie but you can also order direct from the website. I can feel another order coming on!

Have you tried cabbage or lettuce wraps before? I was very happy with mine, a great way to get extra raw greens into your diet.

Have any of you tried conscious raw chocolate before? I’m really getting hooked on raw chocolate, I just love the texture and taste and the fact that you can argue that its a health food is just an added bonus!

Hope your all having a fab week, catch you later!