Today has just been one of those days! I returned to work to find a huge pile of documents on my desk and what seemed like a zillion emails to be dealt with. I could feel the stress starting to rise but instead of letting it get to me I’ve managed to just breathe through it and figure out a plan of action to deal with it. In the past I’ve really allowed stress to get to me but I’m just not going to let that happen any more. I’ve cancelled some meetings, arranged to work from home and now feel much more in control. Do you suffer from stress? How does it affect you? How do you deal with it?

At least my day did get off to a good start with another green smoothie!

Chocolate Cherry Beet Green Smoothie (makes 1 large serving)

• 3 cups of kale and spring greens with the tough stems removed
• 1 cup of frozen cherries
• 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder / cocoa powder (I used sun warrior)
• 1 beet it shot / cooked beetroot / beetroot juice - I used a beet it shot
• 1 tsp of maca (optional)
• 1 tsp of ground flax (optional)
• Water (to desired thickness)
• Xanthan and guar gum to add thickness (optional)

Toppings:

• Fresh berries
• Rude Health Granola
• Carob flakes (nom!) 

Unfortunately due to the clocks going forward I had no lovely daylight to photograph this tasty treat and had to resort to the flash. Such a shame as it was so pretty!

Lunch was a big salad beast containing romaine, spinach, yellow pepper, red onion, carrot, sugar snaps, cucumber, basil tofu and some of my squash dip:

I watered the dip down a little then mixed it in like a dressing, yum! Honestly, I never thought a big bowl of vegetables would make me so happy! I also ate two nectarines. Mid afternoon I snacked on a cocoa orange nakd bar before heading to the gym. Exercise really is a great stress reliever! I did my usual interval session 15 minutes on the cross trainer then 15 minutes on the step machine followed by my abs and core and then my 30 minute spin class.

Dinner was a delicious mix of wheat grains, lentils, asparagus and carrot in a citrus dressing (clementine juice, cool oil, apple cider vinegar) served with steamed purple sprouting broccoli with a chilli, ginger and shoyu dressing:

Dessert was inspired by Marias cinnamon maple peanut butter – I made a quick version using 2 tbsp of peanut flour mixed with a little water, cinnamon and maple syrup until it formed a lovely sauce then poured over two chopped apples and a few strawberries:

This was so delicious!

I hope you don’t mind but I wanted to share a few random musings I’ve been having recently:

Veganism

source

I think I may be ready to ‘go’ vegan. Apart from some feta cheese, the Total Greek yoghurt pots, vegetarian pesto and trace amounts of diary in dark chocolate I haven’t eaten any animal products since the start of the year and I really don’t miss them – I feel the best I have ever felt in terms of my health and the more I read on the ethical, environmental and health benefits of veganism the more I feel like its right for me (I don’t make any judgements on others dietary choices, its such a personal choice). I am a bit concerned about using the ‘vegan’ label. Although I’m in a place were I’m happy to not eat animal products I don’t think I’m at the point of avoiding all trace products – for example the small amount of dairy in Lindt Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt or some honey in a snack bar. I think I would gradually stop buying those products but can I still adopt the vegan label while I’m not being that strict? I also still wear leather but I am more aware of trying to seek out alternative materials when I’m buying new stuff although I’m not perfect here either. I guess there is no such thing as a perfect vegan in any case but for some reason I feel reluctant to adopt the label – what are your thoughts on dietary labels?

Calorie Counting

Over the past week I’ve been doing a little experiment in calorie counting. I’ve been logging my eats with Livestrong after the concerns I’ve been having that I am not eating enough. I’ve learned several things from this experiment:

• Calorie counting on a regular basis is not for me – I found it such a pain in the arse!
• I eat on average 1800 – 2200 calories a day
• My fibre intake is through the roof
• I’m having no problem meeting my protein requirements
• I may be a little low on sodium

This, coupled with a sneaky weigh in which has shown that I’m currently maintaining my weight, has given me a bit of reassurance that I’m at least on the right path. Although my fibre intake is high, my body seems to handle it very well and because I’m feeling good I don’t think that the fibre is having a detrimental affect on my absorption of nutrients.

Meditation and yoga

I’ve been continuing to include at least 5 minutes of yoga / meditation at the start of each day and it really is having a calming affect on me – I know my ability to deal with today’s stress has been helped by this.

Any random musings you’d like to share?

Hope your week has got off to a good start! I have some super exciting news that I can’t wait to share with you all soon! In the mean time its back to work for me, I have a late meeting tomorrow so I’m trying to be my most organised self! Catch you later x

Well I have had a bit of a nightmare 24 hrs. My laptop has decided to give me the blue screen of death! I've only had it since August so its still within warranty but I'm worried that I'm going to lose stuff that I haven't backed up. I feel totally lost without it! There's been tears and tantrums from me while the hubby has been trying to fix it, I didn't realise how much of my life is on that thing. Luckily the hubby has been kind enough to set me up on his laptop so I can still work and blog. Then, this morning when I went on his laptop to start working I hadn't copied my files over properly on to my memory stick so I had to drive all the way to work and sort that out. I've just had one of those days when everything has went wrong!

Anyway, I'm not going to dwell on it. I read a wonderful quote on Ellies blog this week 'Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional' - I like this way of looking at things, bad things happen, but its up to you how you deal with them. I know thats easy to say when its just about something silly like a laptop but it makes me feel better anyway! I've spent all day comforting myself with food and relieving stress through cooking so I'm begining to feel much better now.

I started the day with a cup of warm water and lemon and then did my Davina DVD for 40 mins. For breakfast I made myself a wonderful smoothie in a bowl with frozen cherries, spinach, chocolate whey and vanilla rice milk. It was so thick and creamy, just wonderful.

Since I was working from home today I thought I would go and do my food shop first thing so that it was out of the way. I ended up with a huge haul:

Plenty of fruit and veggies including strawberries, blackberries and a big pineapple as a treat, milk, edam cheese, natural yoghurt, hummus, regular oats and jumbo rolled oats, frozen fruits, rice cakes, decaf coffee, red lentils, red kidney beans and a couple of new things to try: soba noodles and some Dorset Cereals! The Dorset Cereals were on special offer and I just couldn't resist them. I hope I don't fall foul of the snackies with these, we shall just have to see!

I then sat down to start doing some work and realised my mistake with my files so few in to work and back as quick as possible.

For dinner I decided to indulge in making a big pan of soup:

Pea, Brocolli and Mint Soup (makes 4 servings)

1 large white onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 large head of brocolli broken into florets
About 700g of frozen peas
a large sprig of fresh mint, leaves finely chopped
Hot vegetable stock

Fry of the onion and garlic in the oil on  medium heat. When the onions have softened add the brocolli followed by the hot stock and half of the chopped mint. Simmer for ten minutes then add the frozen peas. Continue to simmer for another 5 minutes until the peas are cooked through and the brocolli is tender. Remove from the heat and blend using blending applicance of choice. Return to pan and heat through, checking seasoning and adding more chopped mint if required. Serve topped with a little more chopped mint.

Another simple and delicious fresh soup, just what I needed today. I had a lovely big bowl of this soup along with a fruit plate of 1 chopped kiwi, 2 strawberries and an orange.

I managed to get a good bit of work done in the afternoon before I took a break for my mid afternoon snack. When I had been shopping earlier I had picked up some blackberries on special offer and had started to dream up this smoothie creation:

Braeburn Apple and Blackberry Smoothie (serves 1):

1 braeburn apple sliced and half chopped
1 small punnet of blackberries
1 small bottle of pressed organic apple juice
4 tablespoons of natural yoghurt

Reserve some slices of apple and a few blackberries if your feeling in the need for something pretty to look at, then blend all ingredients into a smoothie. I served mine with the sliced apple and reserved blackberries as a garnish, what can I say, I find pretty looking food a comfort!

This was bloody gorgeous, so fruity and sweet, just delicious!
For dinner I really fancied a stir fry but I wanted to try something a bit different, so I thought up this recipe:

Chilli Ginger Lime Chicken Stir Fry with Cashews (serves 1 hungry person)

1 chicken breast, chopped into bite sized pieces
Selection of favourite stir frying veggies chopped into bite sized pieces or made into ribbons using peeler
2 teaspoons of grated ginger
2 teaspoons of chopped red chilli (I use lazy chilli from a tube)
1 lime
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
handful of cashews

Create a marinade for the chicken with 1 teaspoon of both the ginger and chilli, the juice of half the lime and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Leave the chicken to marinade for a few hours. When ready to make, start by quickly toasting the cashews in a dry wok for a few seconds. Put cashews to one side and fry the chicken in a little oil, adding the veggies depending on how long they take to cook. I used brocolli, asparagus, kale, carrot, courgette and red pepper. Make up a sauce for the stir fry using the rest of the chilli, ginger, lime juice and soy sauce. When the veggies and chicken are cooked transfer to a plate and top with the cashews followed by the sauce. Start eating!

This was really good, the chilli, lime and ginger worked really well. It was a huge portion from all the veggies, but I do like to add extra bulk to my meals that way, so it was just the right size for me. Would work brilliantly with pak choy, bean sprouts and steamed fish as well. Total foodgasm!

For desert I decided to try out Ellies suggestion and microwave some of my Berries and Cherries Dorset Cereal with a little water and serve with some greek yoghurt.

Thanks for the tip Ellie, this was gorgeous!

Drinks - water, green tea, jasmine green tea, decaf tea, decaf coffee

Well what a day! My cooking antics are all that has kept me me sane. I'm just so worried about being without my laptop, I hope that it can be repaired quickly.

Tomorrow I'm going to have to work extra hard to make up for the time I lost today trying to sort out the laptop! At least theres only one day left of the working week. Hope you are all having a good one, send me positive vibes for my laptop! x

I managed to avoid the snacking last night, yey! It was a tough one though. I can remember when I was in full diet mode I sometimes used to go to bed early just so I wouldn't stay up and snack. Now I think lifes a bit too short!

I felt the need for a nice warm breakfast this morning so I made a bowl of porridge with skimmed milk and mixed in some chopped apple, raisins and cinnamon then topped with some natural yoghurt, it was lush.

My mid morning snack was the last of my reduced fat red pepper houmous with carrot and cucumber sticks, shortly followed by a clemintine that I had planned on having with my lunch but I caved! I was feeling really hungry this morning, I was a bit stressed with work and I just couldn't focus so I'm wondering if that hunger was stress related.

For lunch I had the other clemintine and two little plums followed by some sweet potato and cabbage soup from my frozen stash. Its total pot luck what I end up with after diving in my tiny little freezer, all the bags of soup look the same!

I had a couple of work meetings and then before I drove to the gym I stuffed down one of my fuel bars, I have to say I'm really loving these, either hard and chewy straight out of the freezer or soft and melty after its been in my bag a while, yum!

Had an excellent workout at the gym doing my 1 hour of cardio intervals and my abs sets as described in my training plan. My treadmill intervals were at 5.6mph to 6.6mph, cross trainer intervals level 8 and 12, stepper intervals levels 10 and 15 and bike interval levels 5 and 10 (that was a killer as I don't usually use the bike).

I was famished when I got in and dinner was another hoi sin chicken pancake wrap. I'm definitely going to experiment with using the pancakes as an alternative to more carby wraps and try out some different fillings.

Desert was some protein cookie dough made from a scoop of chocolate whey, some hazelnut and almond rice milk mixed in until gooey and topped with some hazelnut and cashew nut butter.

Drinks - water, green tea, coffee, decaf tea, regular tea

Glad that my I'm sticking to my training plan and that I'm managing to workout at increased speeds and levels of resistance. It just goes to show what your body can achieve. I can remember when I first started exercising and I could hardly run for 30 seconds, thats why I like to be able to record my workouts on the blog, hopefully I can look back in a few months and see how far I've come! Got Jillian Michaels to look forward to in the morning though, eek!

Well I'm going to watch the footy now and catch up with some blogs (and try to avoid snacking again!). Hope everyones weeks going well xxx

Well I'm not gonna lie, I've had a tough 24 hours. The Volunteer Awards Evening was great, we had 8 main awards including Volunteer of the Year and then all of the volunteers who come along also get a certificate. The night finished with a boogie on the dance floor, such good fun and such amazing people. I loved all your comments about the volunteer work you have done, and how important you feel volunteering is. Its so great that so many of you have volunteered before!

When I got home my knee and leg were really tight, I decided that I should have really listened to my body and stopped any exercise last week when it first felt painful. Although working out at the gym and to DVD's doesn't hurt like it does when I run, they are obviously still irritating my knee, hence why its getting worse instead of better. I had a good old cry about it all last night, I feel like I've worked so hard to improve my fitness, especially my running and now this has happened.

I'm petrified that the weight is going to pile back on (more on that later) and that I'm going to lose all of this fitness I have built up and that I'm going to be unable to do the Great North Run in September. I know its early days to get so worried about things and that I should wait and see what the physio says tomorrow but I just feel so worried about it. I didn't workout this morning and this is the first time I've missed a planned workout in months (apart from my illness last week). I think looking back I have pushed my body too hard with the running (I have increased my distance and times quite a bit over the last couple of months) and now its rebeling on me!

I'm going to throw my June training plan out of the window from now and just see what the physio says tomorrow regarding what exercise I can continue to do. I'm really hoping that I can still continue for the next two weeks as I will be on holiday after that when I'll be getting a full weeks rest anyway. I had been planning on some working out while on holiday, but thats totally out as well. So for the rest of June my fitness programme is a clean slate.

To make matters worse I had my weigh in this morning and I've gained 4lbs since last week! I'm back up to 10st 1 (141lbs). I know that most of the loss from last week was due to my illness but it still sucks. That, combined with a reduced or possibly non existent workout programme means I'm going to have to be very careful about what I eat for the next two weeks if I want to lose a few pounds so I can fully enjoy my holiday. I'll be focusing on watching my carbs and increasing my protein which also has the added benefit of helping my muscles repair, hopefully speeding up my recovery. Ok, so thats enough of my moaning! Onwards and upwards...

For breakie this morning I had my first try of Quark (very low fat cream cheese). It was really good, I love the creamy texture. I mixed half a tub with a little vanilla rice milk and a scoop of chocolate whey and then topped it with mixed berries and some Dorset Cereals Roasted and Toasted muesli.

Very tasty indeed! I love these mixed berries, I get a bag of them frozen for under £2, much cheaper than getting them fresh.

I had a late start for work as I had to attend a meeting in Newcastle. Luckily my boss suggested that I just work from home for the rest of the day so I headed back, did a whole load of stretching for my legs and then had lunch. I had a bowl of my African Inspired Sweet Potato Soup with added spinach leaves for green goodness.

I also had an apple sprinkled with maca and cinnamon.

Mid afternoon I made myself a vanilla frappuccino protein shake (scoop of vanilla whey, skimmed milk, water, ice cubes, teaspoon of instant decaf coffee).

This really hit the spot!

For dinner I made my Lime, Ginger and Chilli Cashew Stir Fry, just with out the cashews! I stir fried a lovely chicken breast with brocolli, spring onion and a bag of mixed vegetables and made a delicious sauce with lime juice, fresh minced ginger, chilli and soy sauce.

A huge plate full of veggies and lean protein, just how I like it! I haven't had beansprouts in ages, I love them so much in stir fries. The bag of mixed veggies was reduced to £1 and I'm glad I decided to get them, just so delicious. I followed that with a juicy orange.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

I apologise for my whinge at the start of this post, I just find it therapeutic to be able to get my feelings out through the blog.

So what does everyone have planned for the weekend? I have my physio appointment then I'm planning a trip into town to get some bits and pieces ready for my holiday. On Sunday its my Nephews 2nd Birthday and my parents are having a little party for him which will be lovely. I think I might try and get to the gym on Sunday, even if its just for an upper body and abs strength session.

Hope you have all had a great weekend and have a fab weekend ahead of you! x

Thankfully after yesterdays bad day I'm feeling a bit better. I'm still not 100% but being busy at work today has kept my mind off things.

As I had a late meeting I decided to hit the gym early this morning before work. Before I went I fueled up with a cup of green tea and my last choco banana muffin which I had left to defrost from the night before. I think I might make some more of these soon, they're delicious and freeze so well (so no excuses for eating them all in one go!)

I did 50 mins of cardio on treadmill, cross trainer and step machine with intervals followed by usual abs sets. I'm really looking forward to giving my training plan a major review as I'm getting a bit bored of the gym at the moment. Breakfast was a chopped pear warmed up and softened in the microwave topped with honey, cinnamon, oats and natural yoghurt, it was lovely, especially the juicy warm pear!

At work we were running a coffee morning out in a community centre and there was muffins! I was so proud of myself for resisting them, especially with me feeling a bit sorry for myself and being stressed.

When I got back from the coffee morning I had an apple followed by a bowl of sweet potato and savoy cabbage soup.

My afternoon snack was more cottage cheese and raisins.

I attended my evening meeting then rushed home as I was starving! Wasn't in the mood for preparing anything fancy so settled for a tuna salad with balsamic vinegar, spinach, cucumber, carrot and red onion, followed by a bowl of frozen raspberries and vanilla rice milk.

I'm now just trying to resist running into the kitchen and raiding the cupboards! This has certainly been a hungry hippo week!

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, regular tea

How do you guys cope when your feeling stressed / upset? Do you binge eat, exercise, or do something else to make you feel better? Yesterday I was proud of myself for turning to exercise instead of stuffing my face, although the last two days I have just felt constantly hungry. I know that I'll brighten up soon it just sucks at the moment, bring on the weekend when I can have some time to get my head straight!

Have had a really bad day. Had some very bad news about a family member which I don't really want to go into too much on the blog but its basically been a very stressful and upsetting day! Sorry to be on such a downer but I can't really avoid mentioning it.

Last night after I posted and while the others tucked into their take aways I ended up doing a bit more snacking, but at least it was healthy snacks in the form of an apple, some walnuts and some sweetened coconut slices. Breakfast this morning was a huge Green Monster made up of spinach leaves, a frozen banana, a few frozen blueberries, oats, ground flax, skimmed milk and vanilla rice milk. It was just what I needed!

Instead of my usual work day I had to go to a conference in Newcastle so I thought I'd best be prepared and took some healthy snacks with me. I had an apple and a babybel light in the morning break. Luckily the lunch buffet had plenty of healthy choices so I had two chicken and pepper kebabs, some carrot and cucumber sticks with a little hummus, two spinach and feta breaded nuggets and some strawberries and plums. I didn't manage to snap a pic with my phone as it was in my mouth and gone in no time! Just after I ate that I got a call from my Husband with the bad news and made the decision to come home. He had some stuff to sort out and calls to make then we spent some time talking about it all. I had a cup of green tea and a fudge baby while he had a large glass of rum!

With all the emotion and stress I could feel a binge coming on, but that was when I made the decision to try and use all that emotion and anger I was feeling and try and get something positive out of it. I had been planning on doing a DVD when I got back from the conference anyway but I was no longer in the mood for it. I decided to do what my body felt it needed and went for a short run but instead of just going at a steady pace I added a few sprints as intervals along the way. Those sprints were fueled by pure emotion. When I got home I got my big weights and mat out and did a few exercises including lateral raises, front raises, upward rows, bent over rows, lunges, squats, over head presses, press ups, the plank, full sit ups with weights etc etc. I just did what I felt like. I think I did 10 reps for most movements with more for my abs and I repeated the whole thing twice. I might end up regretting it when by whole body starts aching tomorrow, but for today it was what I needed to do. Afterwards I refueled with a scoop of chocolate whey powder in some vanilla rice milk.

We both started feeling better about things as the day went on. What had happened had been a major shock so I think that was starting to wear off. Before dinner I snacked on a couple of spoonfuls of natural yoghurt whilst having a flick through the new maxitone magazine.

Dinner was a steamed salmon fillet with a mixed salad and a little light mayo

and then I had some more chocolate whey powder in the form of protein and peanut butter pudding by just mixing the whey powder with a little vanilla rice milk and some peanut butter. I got the idea from Susan at The Great Balancing Act although she usually adds sprinkles to make hers look much prettier than mine!

Drinks - water, green tea, peppermint tea, decaf tea

Feel like I've stuffed my face today, and I'm still hungry now! I might end up having another snack before bed but if I do I'm going to try and make it just a piece of fruit or something.

Sorry for the down in the dumps post, I should be back to my normal self tomorrow with any luck!

I was up nice and early this morning for my last date with Jillian for a while! I did Level 3 and the last circuit of Level 2 of the 30 Day Shred. As I'll be changing my training plan this week I'll be using a different DVD for my strength workouts. I was really craving a green monster after that so I made one using two big handfuls of spinach, frozen blueberries, scoop of vanilla whey, ground flax, hazelnut and almond rice milk and a little bit of water. It goes a bit of a funny colour but tastes very good!

I had a really stressful morning at work, I was ready to go mental at several points but I managed to chill out a bit by mid morning. It was one of the teams birthdays at the weekend so we all stopped for a tea and cake break. I didn't have any cake, it was one of those awful frozen chocolate gateux things, if I'm going to have cake I at least want it to be something extra nice! I had a quick look at the ingredients list and it was a mile long, nuff said really! I had an apple instead.

*polishes halo*
We did have quite an interesting conversation about food, healthy diet and children while having our tea. We all agreed how much we liked what Jamie Oliver has been doing both in this country and now in the US, we had all been shocked when he had visited a school very near us and all the kids had been eating chips and beans and pot noodles for dinner, its just scary.

For lunch I had some sweet potato and cabbage soup from my frozen stash, it was really tasty.

Followed by a juicy nectarine.

Mid afternoon I had another apple and two babybel lights.

I finished work a bit earlier, which makes a lovely change for a Thursday and headed to my newly refurbished supermarket. I think I'm really sad but I was quite excited to go! I got a load of stuff, including some trout and organic beef mince from the reduced to clear section. I also got some packs of miso soup to try out. I made myself a bowl when I got in to hold me over till dinner. It tasted really nice and savory so will be good for when I get those cravings for salty savory things, plus its only 26 cals a bowl so you can't go wrong!

For dinner I made a big stir fry with chicken breast, brocolli, pak choy, carrot, orange pepper, red onion, ginger and soy sauce. It was lush!

Followed by a bowl of frozen raspberries with hazelnut and almond rice milk.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Was nicely suprised when I got home when I found that I had recieved a lovely box of goodies from the people at Natural Balance Foods! I was so excited when I opened the box and saw all this stuff!

I'm really looking forward to trying all of these things out. When I have I might even have my first ever blog giveaway! Another bit of good news, as mentioned in a post earlier in the week, is that I got an email saying that I had been choosen as Health and Fitness magazines June Issue Reader of the Month! That means a little piece in the magazine about me and a photo, plus I get a little prize. I know its not a really big deal but I've never been in a magazine before so I was quite chuffed!

Well now that we are almost offically in the Easter weekend I thought I'd end todays post with something nice and spring like. I bought myself a big bunch of flowers so that even if its raining outside it would feel a little bit more like spring.

Hope you have all had a great week and are looking forward to the Easter break! x