Happy Sunday everyone, hope you are enjoying your weekend! Mine has been pretty bloody fantastic starting off with the most amazing run ever! Last week I thought I had ran my best ever run – but this week I blew that out of the water:

Yes, I did a sub 2 hour half marathon! 13.1 miles in 1.58.30 with an average pace of 9.02. I had been planning on doing 12 miles but I was in my groove and decided to continue to do the full 13.1. It was not an easy run, in fact I almost cut it short at several points as it was raining and I was worried about my Garmin getting wet and broken (anyone know if Garmin’s are rain proof?) but the weather improved and I stuck with it. I’m still in shock! The last half I ran was the Great North Run in September with a time of 2.07. A part of me never believed I would ever achieve a sub 2 hour half. This just means so much to me I can’t really put it into words!

Anyway, I was on cloud 9 after my run, I got ready and we headed into town for a celebratory Starbucks ;-) Outfit of the Day:

Trench coat: Debenhams, brown cross body bag: Mango, Floral tea dress: Forever 21, pink v-neck sweater: H&M, black tights: M&S, black chunky boots: New Look

Rubbish weather yet again so I went with my trench and had to dig out a jumper! I got lots of lovely fruit and veg from the market – but I’ll share that that in a separate grocery shopping post.

I have had some wonderful eats this weekend:

Kashi Go Lean Crunch, blueberries, kara coconut milk, chopped adora chocolate calcium disc:

Loved the added hit of chocolate from the adora!

Epic Tutti Fruity Smoothie with romaine lettuce, frozen banana, mango, blueberries and strawberries, vanilla sun warrior, peanut flour, acai and pomegranate coconut water, maca, mesquite, water, gums topped with crunchy peanut butter sauce and goji’s:

This was immensely good!

Vanilla decaf with stevia and coconut milk:

This was just delicious. I usually drink my coffee black but as I had a carton of kara coconut milk open I decided to make it a milky one!

Giant hummus topped salad: romaine, mixed leaves, olives, radish, red onion, cucumber, china rose sprouts, braggs and herbamare seasoning, high protein hummus:

More hummus but this time in nori wraps with china rose sprouts, olives, chopped carrots and a persimmon on the side:

Quickest and easiest stir fry noodle bowl: pak choy, broccoli, spring cabbage, asparagus, green onion, mushrooms, carrot, edamame, all stir fried in coconut oil with Clearspring brown rice shoyu ramen noodles plus the broth with added fresh ginger:

Herbed socca pizza with tomato sauce, roast peppers, asparagus, courgette and red onion topped with vegan mozzarella slices, olives and fresh basil. I had this with a big side salad of little gem lettuce and sprouted seeds:

This was delish! The socca just makes the best pizza crust and the vegan cheese was pretty good too. I love how colourful it is!

For a delicious dessert I had hot apple in near empty almond and sunflower seed butter jars topped with soy yoghurt:

This was fab, I just chopped up an apple then microwaved it in the jars (so the nut butter softens too) and then topped with the yoghurt. I have a small collection of almost empty nut butter jars to get through that are just too small for oats but perfect for yoghurt and fruit.

Plus I’ve been having my usual green juice and lots of fruit!

So glad we have an extra day off tomorrow. I decided to move my usual Monday workout to this morning so I could have my rest day tomorrow. I did 20 minutes of speed intervals on the treadmill (between 6.5 – 8 MPH) followed by 4 x 10 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer, step machine, bike and rowing machine followed by abs and core.

Do you have any plans for the bank holiday tomorrow? I think I’ll be just relaxing at home, having a lie in I hope, and getting caught up on a few things. Hope you have a good one!

I’m still buzzing from my run yesterday. A few years ago I would have never imagined I would feel so healthy and fit, be able to cook like I can, lose so much weight, complete the Great North Run and now run a half marathon in under two hours! What have you achieved that you never thought possible?

Hello lovelies, hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Taken on my walk this morning, so beautiful!

So far my weekend has been exactly what I’ve needed: relaxing! Yesterday I got up and did a couple of workout DVD’s, got some grocery shopping in, saw friends, watched a movie with James then stayed up late reading magazines (I decided to treat myself to Elle and Yoga Magazine) while watching the comedy special on Channel 4. Father Ted for the win :-) Today has been perfect, a lie in, pancakes and iced coffee and a walk in the sunshine.

I think I mentioned on Friday that I was looking forward to doing a big pay day grocery shop. I thought it would be nice to share with you what I got, I love noising at people’s grocery shopping! I visited 3 different supermarkets (over Friday and yesterday) to buy our usual faves and get the best value at the same time. This food is for myself and James and includes a couple of treats:

Tesco: tinned full fat coconut milk (on special offer), unsweetened almond breeze (on offer so stocked up!), dried adzuki beans, avocados, peppers, giant bag of almonds, kale, spinach, courgettes

Aldi – broccoli, sweet potatoes, tinned tuna, plums, blackberries, mushrooms, red onions, avocado, cucumbers, celery, romaine

Sainsbury’s – crisps, olives, strawberry yoghurts, full fat Greek yoghurt, organic brown rice, almond extract, hummus, organic goats cheese, small wholemeal loaf, cooked ham, mild cheese, tofu, 12 large organic eggs, skimmed milk

Sainsbury’s continued – crushed ice, frozen blueberries, frozen raspberries, frozen mixed berries, 14 inch thin and crispy pizza, banana’s, ginger, potted parsley and basil

All of that has well and truly stocked us up for a while, I love having a full fridge and freezer to make meals from!

I was very much looking forward to opening up one of those cans of coconut milk, I decided to refrigerate the can so that the milk goes extra creamy and I’ve been using it in different meals throughout the weekend, including my favourite blended coffee:

I had it hot yesterday morning and iced this morning. I just blend the coffee with about 1/4 can of the milk, vanilla bean paste and a little stevia. I’ve got a whole post on the blended coffee thing coming up really soon, so stay tuned. I also enjoyed it with a bowl of strawberries:

Heaven! Then last but not least I decided to try out some experimental pancakes and holy moly they were good!

Coconut Milk Pancakes (serves 1 hungry person, grain and sugar free, roughly based on and inspired by this version)

• 1 medium ripe banana
• 2 large organic eggs (I’m sure that flax eggs would work too for a vegan version)
• 2 tbsp of full fat tinned coconut milk or coconut cream
• 1 tbsp of coconut flour (or flour of choice, almond meal would also work well)

Pop a frying pan on the stove over a medium high heat to warm up. In a bowl, mash the banana with the coconut milk until smooth. In a separate jug beat the eggs then add the banana mix and flour and mix well. Pour some of the batter in to the greased pan and cook slowly until bubbles start to form and the underside is cooked. Flip the pancake and cook the other side (should only take a couple of minutes on the other side) then transfer to a plate and keep warm under the grill while you use the rest of the batter. I got 2 good sized pancakes and one smaller one from this mix. Enjoy with your choice of fruit, syrup or sauce.

I had mine with blackberries, figs and more coconut milk on top. The trick with these is to cook them very slowly. They puff up nicely and taste just wonderful with a beautiful bananary coconuty flavour. With only 4 ingredients they are so easy to make!

Other delicious things from this weekend must include this fabulous socca pizza:

I added fresh basil to the socca crust and topped it with fresh figs, organic goats cheese, thyme honey, grilled it and then added more basil. I have a great recipe featuring figs and goats cheese coming up for you tomorrow!

Another lovely simple meal was yesterday’s brunch:

Scrambled organic eggs and a peach sautéed in coconut oil inspired by Katie. The peach tasted amazingly sweet and tender.

Its been a very tasty weekend, I’m really enjoying my food right now!

How has your weekend been so far? Do you do a big pay day shop or just get in groceries as you go? We tend to do a mix depending on when we run out of things. If you have a bank holiday tomorrow do you have any big plans?