I started the day off with Davina again! I'm quite happy that this is the last time I'll be doing this particular DVD for a while, as its feeling very repetative now! I'm due to review my training plan at the weekend and will be moving on to a new DVD for my strength workouts, although its highly likely to be another one of Davinas. Its a good job I like her or else I'd be pretty sick of the sight of her by now!

After doing the DVD and showering I made myself a lovely smoothie in a bowl with spinach, frozen blueberries, scoop of vanilla whey, vanilla rice milk and a spoonful of smooth peanut butter. I topped it with a sprinkling of grape nuts for added crunch.

I really enjoy having the smoothies in a bowl as I feel I can sit and enjoy eating them a lot more than having to chug them down from my shaker cup whilst getting dressed in a rush. Definitely worth trying to spare the time to sit and enjoy.

I had almost back to back meetings today, so I took a Trek Cocoa Brownie Bar with me to snack on in the morning. This was lovely and tasty, just like the nakd coco loco bar but with added soya crispies.

One of the meetings I attended were offering a buffet for lunch, but the Trek bar had really filled me up so I was happy to just snack on some fresh strawberries and grapes.

When I eventually got back to the office I had a late lunch of a wholemeal pitta stuffed with hummus, turkey and spinach, some carrot and cucumber and finished off with two small peaches.

I think that because don't eat bready stuff that often, this pitta bread tasted extra yummy!

Before I left for my late meeting I snacked on some cottage cheese and a little container of grapes and a chopped kiwi.

On my way home I hit the shops to stock up on my fresh produce to keep me going over the weekend and then headed home. I was so glad to get home I just crashed out for half an hour! I then had four rice cakes topped with savory cottage cheese (cottage cheese mixed with nutritional yeast) and an apple topped with cinnamon and maca.

I'm definitely getting more converted on the taste of the nutritional yeast, the extra savory flavour of the cottage cheese seemed to make this even more filling. I also plan on eating this vanilla chia seed pudding before bed.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Thanks for all the comments to my last post about my little job and life crisis! I actually started the day feeling quite down about stuff, then something happened in one of my meetings when I had to address an issue with someone which had been bothering me. I had expected that person to be really defensive, however they totally accepted what I had to say and even apologised! I think that has kind of restored my faith in my job a bit and left me feeling much better about things.

Well I'm going to head off now and make my lunch ready for tomorrow and get sorted so I can sit and watch American Idol when the hubby gets in from work. Tomorrows weigh in day and I also plan on making a lovely chicken and vegetable tikka massala curry for dinner tomorrow, I can't wait! So happy its Friday tomorrow as well, bring on the weekend! x

What a fantastic day I’ve had! I’ve been getting far too excited about all the wonderful fruit and veggies contained in my food co op box, along with discovering a brilliant local food wholesalers, but more on that in a minute…

Breakfast was heaven in a bowl: a twist on the peanut butter and jam combo. I started by making some porridge using quinoa flakes, scottish oats and jumbo oats mixed with some chia seeds (for healthy fats) and water. I added a little agave to sweeten it up. I then topped the porridge with some defrosted strawberries all mashed up and topped that with a portion of peanut butter mousse. I added a few grape nuts for crunch.

A-maz-ing!

Lunch was a bit of a mish mash of random things that needed using up. I crumbled two of my lentil, feta and spinach muffins and added some tomato and basil passata which I warmed in the microwave and served with some cos lettuce, spinach and carrot salad.

This was surprisingly tasty and satisfying. I also had a peach and an apple.

Mid afternoon I snacked on another of the brand new Nakd Bars. I had forgot to mention that the first one I tried was the cocoa mint and it was absolutely delicious! This one was the cocoa delight.

It tasted very chocolately and had a lovely texture, very nice but the cocoa mint is still my favourite!

Today I’d decided to change up my routine. I usually head to the gym on a Friday morning which I’ve been doing for a few months now and always find myself rushed, which I hate. I like being able to sit down and really enjoy my breakfast. So today I thought I would try going after work. I did 35 minutes of HIITs on the step machine, bike and cross trainer as well as getting my induction on the Vibro Plate. It was really weird! I’m not yet convinced but I will try it again next week and see how I go. I also did some back and chest exercises and some core work with the stability ball.

This morning my work colleague brought in my food co op box. I’d ordered the £7 premium box. There had been a bit of miscommunication as we thought this was a mixed fruit and veg box but it was actually only veg. As a sign of good will they added in some additional fruit. Check this out:

I couldn’t believe how much I got for £7! It contained:

• Aubergine
• Butternut Squash
• 2 garlic bulbs
• 2 limes
• 3 small sweet potatoes
• 1 green pepper
• 2 pointed red peppers
• A stack of runner(?) beans
• Huge bag of mushrooms
• 2 large red onions
• vacuum packed cooked beetroot
• 2 apples
• 2 pears
• 4 plums
• 2 oranges

We also decided to pay a trip to what we thought was a meat wholesalers. When we got there I was amazed at the place. Not only did they sell meat but also fish, fruit and veg, eggs, cheeses, fresh bread and pastries, all at excellent prices. I was in foody heaven! For £20 I got:

   

• Pack of stewing beef steak
• 3 turkey steaks
• Pack of stir fry turkey
• 2 huge chicken breasts
• 3 leeks
• 6 Royal Gala Apples
• Spinach
• New Potatoes
• Baking Potatoes
• Cauliflower
• peppers
• Broccoli

I have plenty of ideas on how I will be using all these amazing ingredients over the next few days. Watch this space for lots of recipes!

When I got home I was also surprised to see that the lovely people at Natural Balance Foods had sent me a package. This was totally unexpected and I was chuffed to bits as I’m loving the new bars:

For dinner I put some of those veggies to good use. I made a stir fry using chicken, sliced runner beans, broccoli, red onion, green pepper and mushrooms. I made a sauce using lime juice, fresh ginger, sesame oil and soy sauce.

For desert I whipped up a giant bowl of double chocolate protein ice cream (scoop of chocolate whey, tablespoon of cocoa powder, soy milk, ice cubes, xanthan gum, dark chocolate chips)

I do have a bit of an addiction to this stuff, it just seems to satisfy my hunger like nothing else!

I’m so happy that the weekend is here. I don’t really have any big plans apart from a lot of cooking. The hubby is working all weekend so I’ll just see how things go. I may make a trip into town and make a start on shopping my wish list! I’m also itching to get out for a run and I’m determined that any bad weather won’t be putting me off. I think a relaxed 6 miles followed by some yoga should do the trick. Have you got any big plans for the weekend?

Have you ever tried getting some of your groceries from a community food project? Do you ever shop at wholesalers?

I also got paid today so I have officially finished my Big Budget Challenge! I’ve learned a lot about how to better manage my finances. I’ll be doing a full post on what I’ve learned very soon so watch this space! I’ll also be posting details of my awesome blog GIVEAWAY in the next few days – I’m really happy to be able to offer some brilliant prizes.

Hope you have all had a great week and have a fabulous weekend ahead of you! Catch you later :-)

I started the day with another cup of warm warm and freshly squeezed lemon juice before doing my Davina DVD plus extra back and chest exercises. As usual the lunges and squats killed me and I was nice and sweaty by the finish!

For breakfast I made a smoothie containing frozen blueberries, scoop of vanilla whey, hazelnut and almond rice milk, a little water and a tablespoon of pumpkin and sunflower seeds for a hint of nuttiness. I topped the smoothie with a few seeds as well.

This was delicious but I found that I missed my spinach and the added bulk it gives to smoothies. Just shows how hooked I am on green monsters now!

I headed in towards work dropping my car off at the garage for its service and MOT, luckily it wasn't too bad but it still needs a few things looking at at some point in the next few months like brake pads and new tyres.

Mid morning we had a little get together at work for someone who is leaving. They had some supermarket bought scones thick with butter to dish out, and naturally I declined - if I'm going to have a treat I'll have something I really fancy. In fact I've come to find that stuff like that just doesn't do it for me anymore. Has anyone else found that too? Since I've started eating more 'clean', things like shop bought cakes, scones, crisps, cream cakes etc just don't bother me, I can take them or leave them. I think its cause I know they won't be doing me any favours or nourishing my body. However a homemade wholemeal scone with dates and walnuts warm and covered in butter and jam would have me very happy! I think I tend to crave better quality versions of the stuff that I used to gorge myself on, instead of gallons of some low fat cheapy vanilla ice cream I'd rather have a small portion of extra delicious Ben and Jerrys. Talk about having champagne taste on a lemonade budget!

For lunch I had a kale and chickpea salad. As I now know that kale in green monsters doesn't float my boat I was trying to think up another way to use it. I stir fried it off for a minute or so in some garlic olive oil then mixed it with some chick peas, cucumber, red onion and grated carrot followed by some sea salt.

This was really tasty, it was the first time that I've eaten chick peas raw as well and they were delicious so I'll be using them a lot more in the future. I followed my salad with my new addiction - chopped apple with maca and cinnamon, yum! I totally cover the apple with the maca and cinnamon mix, delicious!

Mid afternoon I had half a pot of cottage cheese with some nakd orange infused raisins. These were also lovely, totally loving all the nakd flavoured raisins!

I had a semi late one at work then headed home via the shops to pick up some groceries for the weekend. Why is it that my shopping list always goes out the window when I get to the shop? I ended up getting a random jar of apple sauce and some cashews - I can't help myself when I see stuff that takes my fancy.

I had a chicken breast defrosted in the fridge to be used up so for dinner I made a quick and tasty stir fry with Pak choy, brocolli, red pepper, carrot and red onion with soy and ginger.

For desert I had some chia seed pudding made with hazelnut and almond rice milk and a tablespoon of agave syrup topped with a strawberry. I like this better than the vanilla version I made earlier in the week. The hazelnut and almond rice milk goes so well with the chia seeds.

I'm probably going to have a couple of plums as well before bed. I've been snacking on these every night for the last couple of days after I've posted but I'm not stressing about any snackiness as long as its just little plums I'm going for.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Its my weigh in day tomorrow and I'm not sure what to expect, every four weeks I have a gain and then lose the week after which makes me think its connected to my monthly cycle. This should be my heavier week, so I'm expecting a gain. I'm not obessing over the weight thing, I just think it would be good for me to get a handle on how my body works for once! I've been looking back through the blog at what I've eaten the past week and how I've exercised and I have to say both have been very good. I'm out at the weekend so I won't be too worried if I end up hammering the red wine since I've been so healthy. I'll just have to make sure that it doesn't turn into an excuse to binge. I think that after my summer holiday in June I'm going to try and stop the weekly weigh in's and just weigh myself once a month as a check in to try and make me a bit more balanced in my approach.

Well I'm off to watch the politians fight it out in the UK's first ever live TV debate. Personally I think there all as useless as each other! Hope your all having a good week x

After my recipe dreaming yesterday I thought I'd try something a little different for breakfast, so I made some overnight oats! After posting last night I had tucked into a couple of plums whilst watching Sophie Dahl and Heston Blumental's (the edible house was amazing!) cooking shows and they were so nice and perfectly ripe that I knew I fancied them for breakfast too.

Overnight Oats with Pecan Plum Crunch Topping

Regular oats and Jumbo oats
Tablespoon of chia seeds
Water to cover the oats and chia seeds
A dash of hazelnut and almond rice milk

Mix together in a bowl and cover, then leave in fridge overnight.

In the morning add the topping:

2 tablespoons of grape nuts
2 chopped plums
6 Pecans crumbled
Drizzle of maple syrup

This was lovely! The oats and chia seeds absorb the water and rice milk and go all creamy. It saved me a bit of cooking time this morning too.

Mid morning I had a chopped apple sprinkled with cinnamon and maca powder and 2 babybel lights.

The maca powder and cinnamon with the apple was amazing! I'll be eating my apples like this all the time now!

Lunch was more lovely quinoa salad followed by a pear.

After my last meeting and before heading to the gym I had an apple pie nakd bar.

First time I've had this flavour before and its definitely my favorite flavour of the nakd bars, I love the cinnamon spice taste with the apple, delicious.

I hit the gym and did my usual hour of cardio intervals still maintaining my increased resistance and speed from this months training plan plus my abs exercises including the plank which although I can't time myself in the gym, I'm sure I'm able to maintain for longer now.

Dinner was a turkey steak covered in hot chilli powder and stir fried in strips served with mixed salad leaves, carrot, cucumber and spring onion with some light mayo on the side.

For something I'd pretty much thrown together this was really good, the chilli powder coating made the turkey extra yummy. Desert was more protein goo, chocolate mint flavour tonight!

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Well I'm not going to hang around tonight, I have to do dishes and tidy up the kitchen sort out my dinner for tomorrow and perhaps tackle a pile of ironing :-( I'm also a bit worried as tomorrow my cars going in for its MOT and service, I'm praying it doesn't result in a giant bill as I'm sure there's going to be a few things wrong with it! Keep your fingers crossed for me! Hope your week is going well, 3 down 2 to go! x

Thank goodness its Friday! I know I’ve had a short week but I am ready for the weekend already!

I’ve been continuing to focus on raw clean foods over the last couple of days:

Breakfast on Thursday was just wonderful – organic blueberries, viva pure raw granola and home made almond milk:

Simple and perfect!

This mornings breakfast was some pudding made with 1/4 cup of viva pure chia super food porridge mix, additional tbsp of chia seeds and 1 cup of almond milk (combined and left to thicken overnight) with fresh strawberries and blueberries:

More salad beasts have been consumed:

Spinach, rocket, little gem, red onion, spring onion, courgette, cucumber, sprouted lentils and beans with tahini miso dressing.

Tonight I made my Tofu and Sweet Potato Hash for dinner but used spring greens, cauldron marinated tofu and lots of fresh basil and parsley:

Such a huge plate of yummy stuff!

Last night, after eating my leftover black beans with brown rice and tomato less guacamole for dinner I made a giant bowl of double chocolate protein ice cream for dessert:

I had a bit of an accident while making this due to leakage from the bottom of the blender so it turned out a bit weird, still tasty though! This contained 1.5 scoops of chocolate sun warrior protein powder, crushed ice, water, stevia, 1 tsp of raw cacao powder, xanthan and guar gums and cacao nibs for topping.

For dessert this evening I made the most amazing raw cacao coconut frappe!

Raw Cacao Coconut Frappe (serves 1)

• 1 cup of almond milk (could use coconut milk too)
• 1 cup of water 
• 1 tbsp of raw cacao powder
• 2 cups of crushed ice
• 1 tbsp of coconut nectar or agave nectar or sweetener of choice (I used 1 tbsp of coconut nectar and a few drops of stevia)
• 1/4 tsp of coconut extract or 1 tbsp of coconut butter
• 1/2 tsp of xanthan and guar gums

Blend all ingredients in high speed blender till smooth. Enjoy!

I had this in my new shake cup and it was absolutely delicious and genuinely tastes like the Starbucks Mocha Coconut Frappe I enjoyed so much in NYC! I will be addicted to these from now on! You could easily use chocolate protein powder or cocoa powder instead of the raw cacao or add a tablespoon of desiccated coconut too. So so yummy!

Workouts have been pretty good. On Thursday I did some freestyle yoga when I woke up then headed to the gym for a 3,2,1 workout after work. This absolutely killed me! My muscles were so tired for some reason I could do no where near my usual reps and weights! This morning I was back at the gym for a quick workout – 30 minutes of intervals on the usual gym equipment followed by abs and core exercises.

Well I have a pretty relaxed weekend planned catching up with family and friends, a long run and hopefully some chill time! Hope whatever you are up to its a good one!

May Sponsor Giveaway!

I am very happy to announce my first ever blog sponsor giveaway! The wonderful Viva Pure, Nakd and The Raw Chocolate Company have kindly supplied the following products for you my lovely readers!

Main prize:

• Complete set of Nakd bars – Gingerbread, Cocoa Orange, Pecan Pie, Berry Delight, Cashew Cookie, Cocoa Mint, Cocoa Delight
• Range of The Raw Chocolate Company products including raw chocolate covered goji berries, mulberries and raisins, banoffe, pitch dark, lavish, minted, twilight and loaded raw chocolate bars
• Viva Pure packs of raw buck wheaties, raw granola and coconut sugar

4 runners up will also receive a full set of Nakd bars.

To enter (each of these counts as a single entry – please leave a separate comment for each one):

• Leave a comment to this post stating what you have enjoyed the most from Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish so far this month
• Follow me via Google Friend Connect, Facebook, Blog Lovin or Twitter and leave a comment below stating that you have done so
• Tweet about this giveaway mentioning @keephealthstyle and leave a comment below stating you have done so
• Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on your blog and leave a comment below stating that you have done so

Giveaway open to UK residents only (sorry International friends!) and closes at 12am GMT Friday 20th May 2011, good luck!

When I woke up this morning I was just craving a nice mug of warm water with lemon. I had woken up feeling a bit off and this just made me feel so much better, so I'm really glad I had those lemons in the house. I then got straight into my DVD, Davina's 3 30 Minute Workouts Pump Section with my added press ups and bent over rows to work my chest and back a bit more.

For breakfast I made my first ever green monster with kale. I used a couple of big handfuls of raw kale, some frozen cherries, a scoop of chocolate whey, a teaspoon each of maca and ground flax and hazelnut and almond rice milk and water to blend it up.

It still tasted really good but the kale didn't blend down completely so the texture was different, more chewy! I think I'll be sticking to spinach in the future!

Lunch was some soup I made up last week (as I had spinach to use up) and froze -

Lentil and Spinach Soup

2 carrots chopped
2 medium onions chopped
About 10 cherry tomatoes cut in half
2 garlic cloves minced
teaspoon of minced ginger
A little hot chilli powder
About 300g of red lentils
2 big handfuls of spinach
Veg Stock to cover

Saute the onions, garlic and ginger in a little oil until transparent, then add the carrots and continue cooking for a few minutes. Then add the veg stock, lentils and cherry tomatoes and simmer for 15 mins until the lentils are cooked. Add the hot chilli powder is desired followed by the spinach. Continue cooking for a minute until spinach is wilted down. Allow to cool and then blend if desired. I part blended mine so it still has a little chunkiness!

This was absolutely lush! I could have easily ate another bowl full, I'm so glad I still have another three portions in the freezer. I followed my soup with an apple.

Early afternoon I had two big juicy strawberries from a punnet that my work mate had bought from the green grocer across the road. Usually his produce is a bit hit and miss but these strawberries were very tasty, I think I'll be over there to buy myself a punnet tomorrow! I also had a small orange, totally forgot to take a pic of these, too busy getting them down my neck!

Late afternoon I had a Trek Cherry Crunch Protein Flapjack.

It was the first time I've tried one of these kind of Trek Bars. It was tasty and the 10g of protein per bar kept me very full. The bar doesn't actually contain any cherries but has some cherry infused raisins in there instead. The ingredients also included a bit of sugar in the form of raw cane sugar and golden syrup which if you were eating whilst out on a hike or something would be great for added energy. It was good but I think I prefer the regular Trek and Nakd bars where the energy is from dried fruits rather than sugar. 

I had a late meeting at 6pm so by the time I got home I was fairly hungry. Dinner was the second portion of my Roast Vegetable Bake with a mixed side salad. I didn't give myself such a big portion this time!

Desert was some of my usual frozen raspberries in hazelnut and almond rice milk. For me this is an easy little desert as it gives me something sweet after a meal and satisfies my sweet tooth a little. I love how the rice milk freezes around the raspberries almost like a yoghurty coating.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

I've spent a bit of time today dreaming up some great recipes for breakfasts, lunches, dinners and deserts. I want to make sure that my food doesn't get boring as I can get into the habit of just eating the same stuff day in day out which means I don't get the best range of nutrients, plus it makes this blog pretty boring! I was getting quite excited thinking of some of the smoothie / porridge combos I'd like to try out. Most of my ideas will have to wait for a couple of weeks as my food budget is disapearing fast so I'll be making the most of whats in the cupboards and freezer until pay day!

So glad that we are nearly half way through the week! Hope your all having a good one x