Well I think I may have spoken too soon when I said I thought I was on the mend yesterday. I went out for my run this morning and bearly got down the road before the pain in my knee started! I am not a happy chappy! Before I went out for my run I had a breakfast of toasted rye bread with almond butter and strawberry jam.

I think I managed to run for about 1.5 miles - I decided to just come home and then try and have a really good run next weekend instead. I don't think I realised just how much I've started to enjoy and rely on my runs to make me feel like I'm getting a really effective workout. Instead I decided to walk to the gym and do some steady state cardio on the cross trainer, step machine and bike, all of which don't cause any problems with my knee (thank goodness, if I couldn't work out at all I'd go crazy!) I ended up doing about 1hr 30 mins of cardio between my short run and the gym, I wanted to make sure I was still getting a good calorie burn, as well as keeping my endurance up.

I headed home and made myself a post workout smoothie using a scoop of chocolate whey, a frozen banana and some skimmed milk.

I love how creamy these get!

I then did some catching up on blogs and some research on runners knee treatment strategies. I'm not going to do any running until Saturday, I'm going to continue to ice it, take anti inflamatories and strap it up when possible. I've also ordered a knee support from Amazon that got some good reviews so I can try that. Fingers crossed it works! While chilling with my computer I had a glass of grape, pomegranate and raspberry juice.

I made myself a lovely late lunch of lemon baked chicken breast with hummus and a big salad of spinach, tomato, cucumber and grated carrot with a little balsamic vinigrette.

I followed it with a bowl of cherries. These were half price and I just had to get them, I love fresh cherries and these were wonderfully sweet.

I made a start on my summer confidence challenge by having a long shower, deep conditioning my hair, exfoliating my body, having a mini facial and using my various creams. My skin feels softer already!

Dinner was one of my favourite foods that I haven't had in ages - halloumi cheese! I griddled it in my new pan with some courgette, red pepper and red onion.

So simple, so delicious!

For desert I made a fantastic Tofu Berry Pudding which I had thought up after being inspired by various different recipes I've seen lately.

Tofu Berry Pudding

Frozen blueberries, half a cup
Frozen cherries, half a cup
Frozen mixed berries, half a cup
3 tablespoons of Goji berries soaked in grape, pomegranate and raspberry juice
1 block of mori nu silken tofu
2 tablespoons of agave syrup

Add all ingredients to a blender, including the goji berries and the juice they've been soaking in and blend till smooth.

This is gorge! I love the taste of silken tofu, its creamy but in a different way from milk, just yummy!

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Can't believe the bank holiday weekend is nearly over, its gone so fast! Hope you have all had fun whatever you've been up to.

I have a pretty busy week ahead, I have two late nights at work. At least its a short week! I'm just hoping that my knee will be better by next weekend, I'm itching to get out on a long run! Hope you all have a good evening, catch you tomorrow x

Hello everyone, happy weekend. So glad it has finally arrived! Hope you’ve all had a great week.

Big thanks to those that commented on my ‘just not feeling the running’ post. Your comments were so useful. I’m going to see how I go, I seem to change how I feel about it from one day to the next at the moment! I have a 10k run scheduled for the weekend so we shall see how I get on.

Highlights of my eats over the last few days have included two amazing breakfasts:

Creamy chocolate berry porridge with berries topped with cacao nibs and a mug of Starbucks VIA with vanilla rice milk. I used 1/2 cup of Scottish oats, 1 tablespoon of oat bran (a new to me product picked up from the Tesco wholefood section), rice milk, water, egg whites, chia seeds, raw cacao powder, agave syrup and defrosted mixed berries. This was a bowl of heaven!

Today I made a chocolate cherry green monster with kale, rainbow chard, spinach, vanilla rice milk, chocolate Sun Warrior and maca powder. I topped it off with some goji berries and granola.

Still can not get over how delicious these taste – and so full of amazing goodness. I feel like I’m fighting off a cold at the moment so I thought adding the goji berries with their vitamin C would be great, plus they help with the uptake of iron from the leafy greens!

Yesterdays lunch was some of my Veggie Chilli with lots of romaine, cucumber and spinach plus a satsuma and organic apple.

Snackies have included some more of my tofu with pear and blueberries mixed with some Bear Apple Crumble Granola and a pear on the side.

Trek Peanut and Oat bar and organic apple post Yoga (which was awesome by the way – my increase in flexibility is amazing).

Nakd Cocoa Orange bar and apple this afternoon.

I had almost forgotten how gorgeous the cocoa orange bar is – just like a healthy Terry’s Chocolate Orange! I’m also currently snacking on a plate of carrot sticks and sliced pear and apple.

This morning I popped to the gym and did 10 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike. I also ran a mile on the treadmill in just over 9 minutes (just for the hell of it!) followed by some core work on the stability ball and some upper body weights.

Tonight I’m off out to celebrate my cousins 30th Birthday at an Italian restaurant. I’ve started to get into the habit of checking out the menu’s of places I’m going to help me make healthier choices while I’m there so I know I have something tasty and reasonably healthy to look forward to!

I’m also really excited as the hubby has the whole weekend off (which hardly ever happens!) so we have plans to head into town for lunch tomorrow and we have a gig on Sunday night. Good times!

I’m also planning on finishing off these two books I’ve been reading:

Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

Both books delve into the issues with factory farming (although in very different ways). Eating Animals is based on the writers research around what kind of diet he should feed his new Son. I found the Eating Animals book a very interesting but depressing read – I have to admit that animal welfare hasn’t been my highest priority when deciding what I eat but it is after reading this book!

The Skinny Bitch book is really a diet book that advocates veganism, alongside avoiding artificial sweeteners etc. to lose weight and be healthier. I have skipped the chapters on factory farming as after reading the Eating Animals book I feel I have a pretty good idea of what issues they’ll be covering (these are very USA specific anyway). The most interesting thing I found about this book is its approach – very straight talking with a large dose of ‘tough love’ including the use of expletives throughout the book. I found most of it quite funny really – I’ve kept reading out sentences to the hubby and we laugh our heads off, although I don’t know how some readers would take to being spoken to in such a way!

Have any of you read these books? What were your thoughts? Its worth stating again that I make no judgement whatsoever on what or how people choose to eat. I’ve chosen to become a vegetarian that eats vegan when possible based on very personal choices around health, environment and ethical reasons. I think we all have to make the best choice for us as individuals and respect that. Its quite sad really that the food that sustains us has to be the source of so much controversy!

Anyway, I’m off to my meal, will be lovely to see all my family! Have a great weekend whatever your up to!

I woke up this morning with a renewed positivity, I will run on Saturday, I will run on Saturday......

I have some serious DOMS action going on today - no doubt due to the Jillian DVD I did yesterday and the leg and knee strengthening moves I've been practising.

I had my water and lemon and headed to the gym. I wanted to get my workout in this morning as I had an evening meeting to attend. I managed to get a late start at work so I could get a full hour of cardio in. I had a great workout. I did 20 minutes each on the cross trainer, step machine and bike doing my new tougher intervals. I got a really good sweat on and I was quite happy with my energy levels as sometimes I can be rubbish at the gym first thing. I finished off with plenty of stretching and 2 sets of my abs exercises.

Breakfast was a yummy yoghurt mess with a scoop of vanilla whey, a few tablespoons of Rachels Organic Low Fat Black Cherry Yoghurt, a chopped apple and some Dorset Cereals Berries and Cherries Muesli.

Just what I needed to re fuel!

Lunch was a salad beast - grilled halloumi, spinach, quinoa, spring onions, red pepper, courgette, cucumber and chopped mint.

Very tasty and filling!

I followed this with two fresh apricots and a punnet of fresh cherries.

These were both on special offer, although still not that cheap. They just taste so good so I don't mind paying a little more while they are at least semi affordable!

My mid afternoon snack was a portion of my Tofu Berry Pudding.

Not very pretty looking in my little plastic pot, but still so tasty. I love silken tofu it can be used in so many recipes and adds a good filling protein punch.

Before I headed to my meeting I had a mini dinner of salmon on wholegrain rice cakes with carrot and cucumber. For the salmon topping I just mixed some tinned salmon with a little light mayo, mustard and black pepper.

This was actually suprisingly tasty, I'll be buying tinned salmon a bit more often I think.
When I got in from my meeting I had a big bowl of grapes and an orange.

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

I've had such a fab day at work, I took my net book into one of our meeting rooms and locked myself away, listened to a few podcasts and got loads of work done. After the problems I was having with my focus at work I feel like I've found something that works for me. I think I'll be trying to have a day a week working like this without distractions.

I think I've ate far too much fruit today, I actually feel a little sugared out! I just can't help buying bucket loads of fruit at the moment as so much of it is in season and looking so tasty. Whats your favorite fruit? My favorites are strawberries, cherries, crunchy golden delcious apples straight from the fridge and fresh pineapple. Yum!