Hi everyone, hope you’ve been having a great weekend!

I was up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to get my weekend run out of the way. I decided to go for a slightly shorter distance than I’ve ran the last couple of weeks as I needed to be home, washed and dressed to meet up with my Mam. I thought it would be good to run 10k and see what kind of pace I could manage. I did it in 55 minutes! I was over the moon, for the first time ever my average pace was below 9 min miles – I got it down to 8.54 (last week was 9.25!) I was extremely happy with that :-)

The rest of the weekend has been quite relaxed which is just what I’ve needed. I’ve enjoyed two delicious green smoothies for breakfast each day as part of my 7 days 7 smoothies challenge:

Tropical Green Smoothie (makes one large serving):

• 3 cups of spinach
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 cup of frozen mango
• 2 tbsp of vanilla hemp protein powder
• 1 tbsp of mesquite (optional)
• 1 tbsp of desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp of maca (optional)
• 1 tsp of spirulina (optional)
• 1/2 cup of rice milk – coconut milk or coconut water would be better!
• water – to desired thickness
• 1/2 tsp of xanthan and guar gum (optional, adds thickness)

Toppings:

• Coconut flour sauce (made with 1 heaped tsp of coconut flour and water)
• Hemp seeds
• Goji berries

This was yummy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Green Smoothie (makes one very large serving):

• 3 – 4 cups of kale, romaine and lambs lettuce (I just used what greens needed using up)
• 1 frozen banana
• 2 nectarines
• 2 ice cubes
• 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder (I used sun warrior) 
• 2 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter
• 1 tbsp of cocoa powder or raw cacao powder
• 1 tsp maca (optional)
• 1 tsp of ground flax (optional)
• water – to desired thickness
• 1 tsp xanthan and guar gum (optional but adds thickness)

Toppings:

• Peanut flour sauce
• Chocolate peanut flour sauce (PB2+cacao powder + agave+water)
• Cacao nibs
• grape nuts cereal

This was seriously one delicious smoothie! As usual I ended up with a bowl and a half worth – so filling, tasty and nutritious! I find that nectarines / peaches give green smoothies a nice neutral tasting sweetness and bulk that won’t over powder the other ingredients.

I’ve also been drinking fresh green juices each afternoon for the last four days, my favourite green juice combo is pear, celery, cucumber, spinach / romaine, broccoli and lemon / ginger. It tastes delicious!

Other foodie highlights this weekend include this eggless veggie omelette:

I made up some standard socca batter and added two tablespoons of nutritional yeast and a pinch of salt. I then fried some red onion until it caramelised, yellow pepper and courgette and poured the cheesy socca batter on top of the veggies and fried up as usual. I served it up with a side salad and more nutritional yeast on top. This worked really well! I used to eat vegetable and cheese omelettes all the time before I decided to eat mostly vegan, I can see me making these regularly! 

Dinner both evenings has been a lovely combo of stir fried asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli and spring onion with millet and adzuki beans served with some of my squash dip and steamed greens / kale with shoyu:

This tasted really good, the squash dip on the side just made it all the yummier! I’ve really been enjoying making up one big dish with planned leftovers for the next day, its been saving me so much time in the kitchen!

Last night I satisfied my sweet tooth with strawberries, figs and Lindt 85% dark chocolate:

Loved the extra dark chocolate, I still want to try the 99% version!

I’ve also been buying a couple of spring wardrobe updates. On Friday I spotted this lovely  blush coloured simple coat and ultra skinny jeans in H&M:

I adore the jeans – they have a zip fastening up the back, they aren’t stretchy like jeggings but they fit like a glove. The coat is perfect for this time of year: warm but in a nice pale spring like colour. I’ve also been checking out eBay in search of second hand bargains. As I’m trying to save cash and wanting to try and be more environmentally friendly I thought I’d see what I could pick up second hand. I got this great floral print skirt for just £3.50 including postage:

I had seen a floral print skirt in New Look for £22 but I like this even better! It will look great paired with a simple t-shirt. Do you buy clothes from eBay? Its been a bit hit and miss for me in the past but I think I’ve developed a better skill for noticing items that will work for me.

I’m glad I’ve been able to have a relaxed weekend as I have a crazy busy week at work ahead including two late night meetings. I think I’ll be making up lots of ‘planned leftovers’ type meals to see me through – along with my green smoothies to keep my energy levels up of course! I’ll be sneaking in workouts when I can manage them too.

I’m also waiting to see how I react to the clocks going forward – I was really enjoying waking up to daylight but I guess I’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for the sun to rise at 6am again! At least we get nice bright evenings instead :-) Does the clocks going forward affect you?

As always, I couldn’t visit Brighton and not do some serious shopping! I like to try and save up some cash just so I can have a splurge while I’m there. As well as all the usual high street shops I love browsing the various independent shops in the Lanes and North Laines and of course I always make a visit to Infinity Foods and Taj as well as Wholefoods while I was in London. Here’s what I got!

Chocolate! Moo Free Caramelised Hazelnuts Milk Chocolate, Mr Popple’s 88% Strong Raw Dark Chocolate, The Raw Chocolate Company Dark Raw Chocolate with Mint, Montezuma’s dark chocolate turtles, 75% dark chocolate buttons and 54% dark chocolate buttons

The Raw Chocolate Company raw chocolate covered raisins, mulberries and goji berries, raw cacao powder and coconut palm sugar

Cashew butter, Raw Health Cacao Brazilnut Bliss, Carley’s raw almond butter and raw dark tahini

Spiru-tein protein powders in chocolate chip cookie dough and cookies and cream flavours, chocolate almond puddings

Raw Health crisp breads in Intensely Italian and Provençale varieties, Living Food Kitchen raw apple and cinnamon granola, InSpiral Loveberry raw granola

Taj spicy roast chickpeas, organic blue corn chips, green chia tea and sweet chilli tea

Goji berries, cacao nibs, dried mango and lemon salted almonds

Kabocha Squash!

I was chuffed that I found some kabocha squash in Taj to bring home with me, its been far too long! I actually got a few boxes of those teas as they were on offer and several bags of the cacao nibs as I’m snacking on them all the time at the moment. I’m very happy with the things I picked up, pretty much everything is something I’ve had before and know I’ll enjoy eating. The only experimental things I got was the coconut palm sugar which I’ve never tried before but have heard lots about, and the chocolate almond puddings which sounded nice!

Fashion wise I was looking forward to getting a few things in a bigger size (see this post as to why I’m trying to gain some weight) to reinvigorate my wardrobe. I also needed some make up as it is quite frankly embarrassing how long I’ve had some things in my make up bag!

Accessories – star bracelet: Silverado, heart pendant, statement collar necklace and pink jersey infinity scarf all Topshop

1940’s style floral vintage dress: Beyond Retro

Simple floral dress: H&M

Blue polka dot dress: H&M

Floral patterned blouse: Oasis

Slouchy pink jumper: Topshop (sale)

Purple slouchy vest top: Topshop

Black mid calf length boots: Oasis (sale), coral satchel: H&M, Bobble water bottle (on the recommendation of Tam): England at Home, Benetint cheek and lip stain, ‘they’re real’ mascara and brow powder and wax all Benefit, Tisserand deodorant roll on, Lush ‘angels on bare skin’ scrub

I also got some plain black slim leg pants from Zara and a sports bra and workout top from Sweaty Betty. I was so happy with the things I bought, that vintage dress is amazing! I usually never find anything vintage that suits me but the dress is perfect – the length is spot on and it has the best little lace up detail on each side of the waist which cinches it in to give a more hour glass figure. I was also chuffed to find that H&M had some knock off Cambridge style satchels – I had been eying up the genuine articles of these brightly coloured bags at a much higher price so to find one at £15 was great!

Suffice to say I will not be clothes or health foods shopping for a long time while my finances recover, but it was so worth it! Do you ever treat yourself to shopping sprees? What was the last treat you bought for yourself?

Hi everyone, hope your having a great weekend! We’ve had a fantastic time in Brighton this week. We had been planning on coming home yesterday but we decided to stay another day as we were having so much fun! I haven’t enjoyed the weather very much though, I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold as I have this week!

The Royal Pavilion

We travelled the 330 miles down to the south coast on Monday night so woke up Tuesday morning feeling refreshed and ready for our holiday!

Tuesday

Me and Tam and tasty food from Aloka

I met up with the gorgeous Tam who very kindly took me to my first ever Bikram Yoga class. I absolutely loved it! I’m so sad that no where in the North East does Bikram Yoga, I would definitely be a regular if I had the opportunity. After the class we went for lunch at the wonderful Aloka. I had a big plate full of the delicious dishes available, the red lentil, tempeh and cashew cheese lasagne was incredible! We couldn’t resist the raw desserts either, and I had a tasty raw cherry and pistachio macaroon. After that I met up with James again and we hit the shops – I made a beeline for Infinity Foods of course!

We finished Tuesday by going back into Brighton for a few drinks with some of James twitter pals which was a lot of fun!

Wednesday

Vegan scone and strawberry jam for breakfast, tasty treats from InSpiral cafe and Wholefoods

We decided to make the trip up to London on Wednesday so we got up early and I enjoyed a delicious vegan scone I’d bought from Infinity Foods the previous day, it tasted so good! We got the train to London and headed to Camden for a look around. It was so cold we didn’t do much looking around the market but thanks to a tweet from Emma I knew that InSpiral Cafe was close by. James warmed up with a latte but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get a Green Goddess juice and a slice of the amazing chocolate peanut butter pie! I had a look at both the Camden and Soho Wholefoods as well as some of the shops on Oxford Street before came home. I got a totally lush salad bar box from Wholefoods to eat on the train which I also enjoyed with a huge vegan and gluten free peanut butter chocolate brownie that was to die for! Once we got back to Brighton we went to Fat Leos for an Italian meal and more red wine!

Thursday

Me looking half decent for once after getting my make up one at Benefit, Vanilla spice latte, chocolate chilli sorbet and a delicious Indian meal

On Wednesday we had a walk back into Brighton and had a big shopping day! I wanted to get some make up from Benefit and the staff wanted to show me some of the new products so I basically ended up having my whole face made up! We also stopped by Starbucks for about the 8th time that week to get a Vanilla Spice Soya Latte to warm up between shops. For lunch we stopped by Aloka again so I could get a take away box for lunch, but not before heading to Boho Gelato (thanks to Christina for the tip!) for a vegan sorbet. I got the Chocolate Chilli and my god that stuff had a kick, but it was very tasty! For our evening meal we came back into town and tried an Indian buffet restaurant. I had rice, tarka dahl, saag aloo, onion bhaji and naan bread, it was yummy! We also had more red wine:

We had found a bottle that we really liked in The Mesmerist so decided to go back and enjoy!

Friday

Tasty simple breakfast, Falafel sandwich from Infinity Foods Cafe, apple and maple cake and coffee from Iydea and an early valentines day gift from James

We had a nice lie in and I had a simple breakfast of banana, apple and peanut butter before we made our last trip to town. We got some gifts to bring home as well as stopping at Iydea for the most gorgeous apple and maple cake and a almond soy latte. The icing on that cake was incredible! I’d had a huge craving for falafel so we stopped by Infinity Foods Cafe and I got the Falafel sandwich with chilli hummus, tahini and red onion with salad which was lush. While looking in Montezuma’s chocolate shop James bought me an early valentines day gift of some dark chocolate hearts with cacao nibs and dates which were so delicious! Later in the day we had a walk around Hove and got some flowers for my Auntie before getting in an early night ready for our 5am alarm this morning so we could drive back and beat the traffic!

It’s lovely to be home but I am really going to miss Brighton! I feel like all I’ve done this week is drink coffee, eat vegan cake and guzzle red wine! Apart from the Bikram class I haven’t worked out at all, although we must have walked at least 4 miles a day just back and forth between Hove and Brighton! I did bring my running gear but it has been too cold to even attempt it. Overall I’ve really indulged myself this week, I’ve eaten delicious food with abandon, haven’t worried about exercise, and apart from a bit of twitter action I’ve been pretty unplugged from the internet too. I think its been just what I needed! Of course a lot of shopping has been done too, shopping haul post coming up soon! Now I’m just happy to start getting myself back into my routine again.

Hope you’ve all had a great week and are enjoying your weekend!

Happy WIAW everyone! Hope you are having a good week. I had a wonderful day yesterday when I travelled down to Manchester to meet several lovely blogging ladies :-)

Before I left I wanted to get a workout in so I did a Davina DVD – Super Sculpt with the added upper body section followed by Yoga for Runners.

Breakfast was an unusual green smoothie. I had loads of greens that needed using up so I blended kale and spinach with fruit-ein powder, ice, water, xanthan and guar gums and topped with a cup of Kashi Strawberry Fields cereal (I kept adding more topping on as I ate):

Considering this green smoothie contained no fruit it was delicious!

On the train down I met up with Jess and had a green tea. The train journey was delayed by almost 2 hours so I snacked on the emergency bag of Apple and Watermelon Fruity Flakes I’d stashed in my bag:

Once we finally got to Manchester we met up with all the girls. It was wonderful but kind of strange to see everyone in ‘real life’! We made our way to the 8th Day Cafe and Health Food Store. I had a Chickpea and Aubergine Curry with brown rice followed by a raw ball and a green vegetable juice:

The curry was lovely and the raw ball tasted just like a spiced carrot cake! After lunch we hit the health food shop. Here’s my mini haul!

Bee pollen (I know this isn’t strictly vegan but I fancied trying it out), lucuma powder, millet, goji berries, black cherry dairy free yoghurt, raw chocolate brownie, kara coconut milk mini’s, Fruit-ein sachets

After some wondering around town we went for cocktails. I had a French Martini and a Passion Fruit Martini which was pretty strong!

Both tasted amazing, I love a good cocktail!

Left to right – me, Ffion, Laura, Sarah, Emily, Ali, Jemma, Leigh, Jessica and Sarah who was taking the pic!

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone, they were all so lovely and just as nice as they all come across in their blogs! This was my fifth blogger meet up and yet again I have met some amazing people who I share so much in common with – who else can you have a deep conversation about hummus! ;-) I do feel that I can count all this lot as true friends! Here’s to the next meet up!

On the train journey home I had fab Marks and Spencer Couscous Salad which contained butternut squash, broccoli, roasted pepper and asparagus:

I also ate an apple I’d picked up at the health food store and a mixed fruit salad I forgot to photograph. Once I got home I had an attack of the snackies so had another couple of apples, some dark choc covered pomegranate seeds and these two rice cakes with Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter…

…plus several additional spoonfuls to finish the jar!

Talk about a healthy balance – green juice at lunch followed by cocktails in the afternoon :-)

It was so refreshing to be able to talk openly and passionately about healthy living stuff with people who share that interest! If your into healthy living do your friends and family ‘get it’ or do they struggle to understand what the fuss is all about?

Thanks for all your comments to my 2010 review post! I loved hearing about how your year has been and look forward to reading about what you have achieved. I can’t believe we are now into the final few hours of 2010! This year has been such a good one but I’m eagerly awaiting the start of 2011.

Yesterday I woke up really pretty rotten and full of cold. I decided I would still do my usual DVD for a little strength workout as all my symptoms were above the neck. I made a well tasty breakfast of apple and sweet mincemeat oats topped with pecans and a drizzle of soy cream.

My last sweet mincemeat oats!

I started perking up a bit so I had a walk into town. While I was there I ended up having a splurge in Holland and Barrats on various bits and bobs that I intend to use as part of my January challenge as well as some other things:

I purchased:

• Vita Coco Coconut Water – I love this stuff, great for hydrating you. I’m going to try it blended in smoothies
• Dr Stuarts Detox Tea
• Cool Oil – this is a great source of omega fats that I’m going to use on salads
• Sweet Freedom sweetener – I’ve wanted to try this out for ages!
• Acai juice – this is full of antioxidants – I’m going to add a shot of juice to smoothies and juices
• Pure pear and apple spread – I’m going to add this to porridge and spread on top of sprouted wheat bread
• Spirulina Greens Powder – derived from algae this is chock full of vitamins and minerals, I’m going to add this to smoothies and juices
• Milk Thistle Tincture – milk thistle supports the liver and its role in the detoxing process, I’ll add a few drops to smoothies and juices
• Echinacea Tincture – this is believed to help against colds and support the immune system
• Vegan multi vits – as my plan for next month is vegan I thought it would be a good idea to take a multi vit to make sure I’m not missing anything
• Emergen-C sachets – these sachets contain a range of vitamins to support the immune system
• Bear fruit yoyos – love these!
• Pecan Pie nakd bar

I had a really tasty lunch – leftover roast veggies in a toasted wholemeal wrap with chilli cheese served with roasted broccoli:

This was so delicious! I had to use two wraps to hold it together as they had been in the freezer and had started breaking up. I also had 4 satsumas and some pomegranate seeds:

Mid afternoon I snacked on another serving of my Pumpkin, Rhubarb and Ginger mix topped with some Bear Apple Crumble Granola.

I also made myself a emergen-c drink with a few drops of Echinacea tincture to try and fight my cold:

Dinner was so so good! I saw a little bag of cubed butternut squash in M&S half price so I roasted it and made up a salad including a bag of mixed spinach, rocket and watercress, organic goats cheese, dried cranberries, chopped maple roasted nuts and a dressing made with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard.

This salad was seriously the bomb! For dessert I polished off the remainder of my violet creams.

I love these so much! Before bed I had a small glass of red wine.

This morning I woke up feeling miles better – those emergen-c sachets must be good! I had a lovely big bowl of Dorset Cereal Muesli Nutty muesli with a chopped apple and vanilla soy milk and a glass of fresh orange juice for an extra dose of vit C:

I also had a Christmas coffee with vanilla soy milk and agave. I did a bit of grocery shopping and picked up these magazines:

Yoga Magazine and Ultra Fit. I’ve never bought these magazines before and I picked them up on a whim hoping that they might give me a little added inspiration for next year – I have to say the Ultra Fit cover models body is amazing – I’d love more defined abs! I’ve only had a quick flick through them but I was very impressed. Have you read Yoga Magazine or Ultra Fit? If so what did you think?

Mid morning I headed to the gym for a 1 hour HIIT session on the treadmill, bike, step machine and cross trainer. I was really chuffed with the 20 minutes I spent on the treadmill, I increased my hard interval from 30 seconds to 1 minute for a few repeats and felt great for the whole workout. I finished off with some abs exercises.

Lunch was 6 oatcakes, 3 with garlic cheese and 3 with light cream cheese and chilli jam (nom!) plus some carrot sticks, marinated olives and 2 juicy plums:

I spent the afternoon clearing out my wardrobe of old clothes that no longer fit, sorting through my make up bag and washing my make up brushes. I had a bit of time so I thought I would have a run through of the Y Body Plan DVD which I had kindly been sent to review. I need to run through it a few more times before I do a full review but my first impressions were very good.

After my workout I snacked on half a tub of Rachel’s Organic Cherry Greek Yoghurt.

 

Dinner was fab - I had some spinach, rocket, watercress and carrot with Cauldron Moroccan Falafels, hummus and olives:

I love falafel and should really make it myself more often. For dessert I made up some extra indulgent cookies and cream protein ice cream with Spiru-tein cookies and cream protein powder, soy milk, lots of ice, 3 big scoops of tofutti vanilla ‘ice cream’, guar and xanthan gums then topped my bowl with my 2 of my fave oreo cookies:

Delish! I’m now happily stuffed :-)

I’m getting so excited for the New Year! What’s your plans for seeing in 2011? I’m meeting James when he finishes work and we are meeting some friends for drinks before going out for some food then coming home to watch movies with a bottle of wine.

I’m just so ready for the New Year to start – tomorrow I’m going to post all my goals for 2011, I can’t wait to get stuck in!