What a beautiful day it has been! The sun has been shining and I’m feeling full of the joys of spring :-)

I was at the gym first thing for a speedy 45 minute workout – 10 minutes of HIITs on the bike, rowing machine and step machine followed by 15 minutes of abs and core exercises.

Breakfast was a fabulous green smoothie containing a whole 200g bag of spinach mix, frozen banana, 2 kiwis, frozen peach slices, vanilla sun warrior, hemp seeds, desiccated coconut, spirulina, maca, ground flax, water and the gums. I topped it with a coconut flour sauce swirl, rude health granola and more desiccated coconut and hemp seeds:

 

I had this bowl plus about another quarter bowl full it was that big! Really enjoying the hemp seeds – they add a lovely crunch and are so nutritious. This also kept me way fuller than yesterday’s cereal bowl. I’ve learned my lesson ;-)

Lunch was a bowl of barley miso and ginger soup, 6 nori wraps with cheesy avocado (1 small avocado mashed + juice of half a lemon + nutritional yeast flakes) carrot and cucumber, leftover carrot and cucumber, 2 delicious Clearspring sesame and tamari rice cakes and two plums:

Love nori wraps, especially with that easy cheesy filling!

Mid afternoon I snacked on last nights leftover tofu yoghurt with pomegranate seeds:

Dinner was some of my Thai Green Soya Bean Curry with mung bean noodles and steamed kale with ginger and shoyu:

I love mixing in noodles with Thai Green Curry, makes a nice change from rice!

Dessert was some Lindt Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt:

Still probably the best chocolate ever!

I really feel like Spring is beginning to kick in now. I love this time of year hearing the birds singing again, seeing the plants growing and the days getting longer. I like to freshen up things around the flat, not so much a spring clean, more of a de clutter – putting thick winter clothes away, changing cushions and things to be more spring like and sorting through my kitchen cupboards to see what’s past its best, what needs to be chucked out or used up and so on.

I have a couple of days off at the end of next week that I have put to one side to get everything done. I had been planning a trip to the Vitality Show with my best friend but we are both a little tight on funds so decided to give it a miss :-(

I can’t wait to make some budget friendly changes around the flat to bring the spring indoors. I plan on finding some new floral and patterned cushion covers for my living room. I saw these designs in Tesco of all places and love them:

Tesco Appliqué floral cushion, £10

Tesco Birds Appliqué cushion £9

I also want to change the patterned paper I have in my screen in the living room (this hides my gym equipment):

I’ve seen these beautiful papers in Paperchase (I snapped a pic of these on my phone) which will look fab:

I also want to change the pictures we have in these frames with something new, perhaps with some photographs I have taken myself:

I’m loving this new plant I bought last week for my bathroom and want to buy another one for my living room. Nothing says spring like yellow daffodils:

I also need to do a re stock of my kitchen cupboards with more tinned beans and nuts and other store cupboard items that have ran out. I think this time of year is good for checking the use buy dates on baking powders and flours and other store cupboard type ingredients. Nothing worse than getting the urge to bake and seeing that your flour is out of date!

Something else I fancy doing is ramping up the amount of raw foods I eat. I’m getting lots of cravings for green smoothies, big salads, raw wraps and so on. The benefits of eating more raw food are well described here. I never imagined in a million years I would actually crave greens! If I do eat more raw I will make a conscious effort to make sure that I’m getting the calories I need – no more apple binges! In fact today I feel like I’ve eaten really well, I feel satisfied in every way. That green smoothie really did set me up for the rest of the day!

So glad the weekend is here - I have a lovely relaxed one planned – off to town with James in the morning, then to visit to my parents and sis, I also have my best friend coming over and of course my weekend run and cooking session. Have you got plans for the weekend?

Do you have a spring clean? Do you mark the new season in any way? I love to bring the spring indoors with little plants and bright accessories!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Today’s breakfast was hot cereal with pears, apricots and cinnamon. I cooked 1/4 cup of hot cereal with 1/2 cup of hazelnut and almond rice milk and 1/2 cup of water on the stove top and added 1 chopped pear, 4 chopped dried un sulphured apricots, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of ground flax and nut mix and a teaspoon of apple and pear butter for sweetness.

I also made myself a wonderful juice with apple, carrot, celery and ginger. I added some spirulina, acai juice and milk thistle and echinacea tincture.

This was a great start to the day!

Lunch was a big bowl of home made vegetable soup and 2 sliced kiwis.

I’m experimenting with leaving the furry skin on and I quite liked it!

Mid afternoon I snacked on two cherry bakewell babies and an orange.

I then hit the gym and did 30 minutes of HIITs on the cross trainer, step machine and bike. I then did my strength routine the same as Tuesday but with a couple of changes, additions, heavier weights and fewer reps:

Incline push up on bench (body weight, 7 reps, 6 reps, 5 reps)

Stiff legged dead lift (10 reps x 3 with 18kg barbell)

Chest fly on stability ball (10 reps x 3 with 2 x 5kg db)  

Bent over row with tricep kick back (10 reps x 3 with 2 x 4kg db)

Shoulder press with squat (7 reps x 3 with 2 x 7kg db)

Forward lunges with bicep curl (5 x each leg x 3 with 2 x 4kg db)

Backwards lunges with bicep curl (5 x each leg x 3 with 2 x 4kg db)

Upright row with sumo squat (10 reps x 3 with 2 x 6kg db)

Weighted sit up on stability ball (15 reps x 3 with 1 x 8kg db)

Lower back extension on stability ball (10 reps x 3 body weight)

Instead of going through this like a circuit as I did on Tuesday I did 3 sets of each exercise with a minute rest between the sets.  I didn’t go too high with the weights as I wanted to be sure that I was keeping good form – next week I might increase again. This was a great workout, I know I’ll have DOMS tomorrow! It felt good to be challenging my muscles and I was really chuffed I managed a few incline push ups.

For dinner I made a Thai Green Soya Bean and Veggie Curry:

Thai Green Soya Bean and Veggie Curry (vegan, makes 3 servings)

• 2 heaped tablespoons of Thai Green Curry Paste (I bought a vegan version without fish sauce or sugar)
• 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 2 cups of frozen broccoli and cauliflower
• 1 inch piece of ginger minced
• 1 tin of reduced fat coconut milk
• 1 carton of organic soya beans
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce

Begin by lightly frying the curry paste, ginger, onion and pepper in a little oil (I used coconut oil) on a medium low heat. When the veggies have softened a little and the paste has become fragrant add the coconut milk and frozen veggies. Let the curry simmer until the veggies are tender and cooked through. Add the drained soya beans and the soy sauce. Simmer for a further 2 minutes or until the beans have warmed through then serve.

I served mine with some stir fried cavolo nero and a brown and wild rice mix.

Dessert was a big bowl of Vanilla Matcha Protein Ice Cream. I blended a scoop of vanilla sun warrior, oat milk, 1/2 teaspoon of matcha green tea powder, ice cubes, vanilla extract and xanthan and guar gums then topped with goji berries.

Yesterday I bought myself a new sports bra along with some vest tops for the gym. I was getting desperate as two of my sports bras are far too big for me, I really needed something with better support. I went with this shock absorber one:

I wish they weren’t so expensive! This was still pricey even though it was on sale, however I know how important a good sports bra is for working out so I don’t mind spending a bit on a decent one. I now have one running specific sports bra, one cheaper Marks and Spencer sports bra that I’m wearing for my lower impact home workouts / yoga and now I have this one for everyday gym wear. I may have littler boobs now (I’ve gone from a 38DD to a 34C) but I still like a lot of support!

What’s your favourite brand of sports bra? I do like the shock absorber brand but I get tempted to try other stores and brands that are cheaper.

So glad that the weekend is here having survived the first week of the year! I have a busy weekend ahead visiting family and friends (still no sign of my Sisters baby arriving!) and lots of time in the kitchen I hope. Hope your first week of 2011 has gone well!