Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish

GIVEAWAY Winner and Sponsor this March!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 12:50:00 +0000

Hi everyone, hope your having a great Saturday! Just a quick post with the winner of my House Plant GIVEAWAY:

The winner is Katy Aubery! Please email me at laura@keepinghealthygettingstylish with your address and I’ll get your plant sent out!

Are you looking to promote your healthy living or fashion blog or brand? Sponsor Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish this March!

Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish is an up and coming healthy living blog that has recently been featured on the Channel 4 Food website and Channel 4 Beauty Website and has been ranked as one of the Top 10 Health Blogs in the UK by Cisson PR.

I am interested in supporting other healthy living and style bloggers, Etsy businesses and small ethical brands whose ethos are in line with my own. All income generated via sponsorship opportunities are reinvested in making Keeping Healthy Getting Stylisheven bigger and better!

The blog attracts a variety of readers interested in healthy living, vegetarianism, fashion and style. Sponsorship of Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish is a great way to promote your blog and attract new readers, your Etsy business or your healthy living brand.

Existing sponsors have confirmed that sponsorship has helped them to attract new readers and customers.

Sponsorship is available on a monthly basis and involves a 200x150 pixel ad for your blog or business with embedded link placed on the blog.

For blogs or Etsy businesses I offer an introductory offer of just £5 a month, for all other companies and brands £10 a month or a £10 discount on your products alongside a range of products for use in a monthly sponsorship giveaway competition.

Don't worry if you don't have a blog button, I can design you a tailor made blog button for just £5! That’s just £10 for a month sponsorship and a tailor made blog button!

If you are interested please email me laura@keepinghealthygettingstylish.com thanks!

Yoga on tap

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:15:00 +0000

I’ve had a fun and busy week including a really positive business meeting, a great yoga class, a very exciting tap installation (sounds random but more explanation on that to come!) and getting my application to register with the Federation of Holistic Therapists sent off. I love feeling productive!

I’ve had some super eats this week so I’m just going to give you a photo dump of them all:

Carob, coconut and raspberry ‘ice cream’ topped with tofu cream and cacao nibs and coconut, delish!

Salad beast with black beans and avocado

For breakfast on Shrove Tuesday: Chocolate protein pancakes (made with spelt flour, chocolate hemp powder and kara coconut milk) topped with chopped pears and chocolate hazelnut butter sauce, mmm!

Post yoga smoothie of Spiru-tein chocolate chip cookie dough flavour topped with cacao nibs (not totally crazy about this new to me flavour, just tastes like vanilla!)

Chocolate pear and ginger green smoothie with spring greens, 2 pears, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, raw cacao powder, maca, ground flax, fresh ginger root, water and ice topped with more pear and raw granola

Badly handmade nori rolls with leftover cooked brown rice, avocado, carrot and cucumber – tasted great though!

Grilled smoked sesame tofu with brown rice, stir fried broccoli and brussel sprouts and peanut sauce

Montezuma Dark Chocolate turtles (so cute!) with chopped apples

Honey and hemp muffin from the freezer with 2 chopped pears and a sachet of Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter for spreading, yum!

Persimmon slices topped with coconut butter and goji berries

Green smoothie with spinach, frozen mango, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, maca, ground flax, water and ice topped with popped amaranth, cashews and flame raisins

So quite a varied and delicious week!

I’ve also had a pretty varied workout out week including finally finding a half decent yoga class!

Sunday – AM gym workout – 5k treadmill run, 15 min random bike, Kettlebell class
Monday – AM Yoga podcast, PM DVD mash up
Tuesday – PM Yoga class
Wednesday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
Thursday – PM Yoga class
Friday – AM 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I went to a new yoga class on Tuesday night at my local community centre and I loved it! Its still not a fast flowing class but I really liked the teacher who does a mix of Ivengar and Ashtanga styles and the whole vibe of the class was really great. Although I didn’t get a major sweat on I got a really good stretch, my muscles could certainly feel it the day after! It was also really good to have a teacher adjusting my pose and explaining things in more detail, it made me realise that although DVD’s and podcasts are great there’s no substitute for attending a class. I find that a class improves my practice so that I get more out of the yoga I do at home. I also realised that my focus on finding a faster flowing sweaty class was a bit daft considering the whole reason I wanted to do more yoga was to relax and help firm up a bit! As this class is on the same night as Body Pump, I’m going to alternate classes every two weeks.

To end this post I’m taking inspiration from one of my fave bloggers – Bonzai Aphrodite (such a shame she’s stopped blogging) and doing a weekend send off love list!

Loving my sexy new tap installed today complete with a built in Brita filter!

A little while ago I was contacted by Brita to see if I would like to trial one of their tap water filters. I’ll blog more about this in future but its brilliant! The actual tap is such an improvement on our last one and has really made the whole kitchen look more stylish. I’ve always used a jug Brita filter in the fridge but this is so much more convenient. Other things on my love list this week:

Pig tails (the only way I can tie all of my hair back without bits falling out) // yoga of course! // listening to ‘Some Body I Used To Know’ by Gotye on repeat // getting tickets for Kendal Calling (so excited!) // stripes and polka dots // not stuffing myself on an evening anymore // feeling full of gratitude

What have you been loving this week? If your a yoga fan what’s your thoughts on classes v’s DVD’s and podcasts? Hope you have a brilliant weekend!

You still have a few hours left to enter my house plant GIVEAWAY, check it out!

WIAW– Re working leftovers

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Happy Wednesday, hope your week is going fabulously! Ready for another veg packed WIAW? These are my eats and happenings from Monday, enjoy!

I’m kind of playing about with my workout schedule at the moment while I’m exploring the yoga class options in my area so instead of going to the gym first thing like I usually do I just got up and did a quick yoga podcast to start the week off right. I did a 20 minute detox challenge flow from Yoga Download which was a great way to start the day. After the usual warm water and lemon I made a very tasty breakfast:

I had some plain tofu cream leftover from making the Spicy Sweet Potato and Almond Butter Gratin (so glad you guys are loving that recipe!) so mixed it with a touch of stevia then combined with a small chopped apple, frozen blueberries, uncooked oats and topped with some bee pollen and pumpkin seeds. It tasted amazing, I am crazy about the multiple uses of silken tofu right now! I also enjoyed an amaretto coffee with kara coconut milk:

Mid morning at work I snacked on some sugar snap peas, sliced red peppers and raw maca dip:

I also had a mug of miso:

I used to drink miso all the time but had fallen out of the habit. On Monday I just fancied something savoury and that did the trick. For lunch I had leftover quinoa with chickpeas, cranberries and parsley on top of a big bowl of mixed salad greens and home sprouted alfalfa:

Mid afternoon I snacked on a couple of pink lady apples:

I can’t get enough of these at the moment!

I had been planning to try to get into the gym Monday night Body Pump class as I had decided to try a new yoga class which is held on a Tuesday evening when I would have went to my usual Body Pump class. Unfortunately the Monday night class had been fully booked and I was on the reserve list but instead of showing up and not getting a place I decided to go with the flow and head home for a DVD workout mash up!

I did 30 Day Shred Level 1, Davina Fit Top fit (minus the warm up and cool down) and half an hour of core conditioning Yogalates:

I’m very glad I have such a varied DVD collection, this was really good fun for a change!

For dinner I just kept it simple with some leftover lentil soup, organic blue corn chips and some steamed broccoli with soy sauce and nutritional yeast:

A bit later in the evening I decided to treat myself for dessert and raided the freezer for a slice of my raw salted caramel pecan cake:

I keep forgetting how truly delicious this is. It tastes so buttery it is amazing!

Before bed I had a mug of spicy liquorice and cinnamon tea:

As usual, throughout the day I drank several cups of green tea, green tea with chai and rooibos.

So most of my eats on Monday were made up of leftovers from the weekend re worked. I used to spend a lot of time making up single serving meals (as James usually eats differently to me) but now I make things with multiple portions and reuse the leftovers in different ways. I find that a grain and protein type meal like the quinoa and chickpeas can be made lunch friendly by throwing on top of salad greens. The leftover tofu cream was easily combined with the oats and fruit just like you would do yoghurt, but could have just as easily been mixed with nutritional yeast, garlic and lemon juice and used as a sauce for veggies. The soup was made into a more substantial meal by adding the blue corn chips and the big bowl of broccoli – I need my green veggies!

What’s your favourite way to re work leftovers?

Don’t forget to enter my lovely House Plant GIVEAWAY if you haven’t checked it out already!

Spicy Sweet Potato and Almond Butter Gratin

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:51:00 +0000

When I first looked through River Cottage Veg Everyday after getting it as a gift from my best friend for Christmas, I knew immediately which recipe I just had to make:

Sweet Potato? Peanut Butter? Hell yes! However the main ingredient in this after sweet potatoes is double cream, not exactly vegan friendly, so I decided to do a Laura version of the recipe. I changed up some of the flavours adding ginger along with the garlic and extra chilli instead of the lime, using silken tofu to replace the cream and because I’m such a fan of the sweet potato and almond butter combo, switching up the nut butters.

While this is still a rather rich recipe, the omission of the oil and cream from the original recipe reduces the amount of fat, and the inclusion of the tofu brings some protein to the party to balance out the carbs from the potatoes. A healthy makeover indeed!

Spicy Sweet Potato and Almond Butter Gratin (Adapted from Sweet Potato and Peanut Gratin: River Cottage Cook Veg Everyday, vegan, serves 2)

Approximately 500g of sweet potatoes
1/2 block of mori nu silken tofu
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, minced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp of finely chopped red chilli (I used lazy chilli from a jar)
2 tbsp of almond butter (add a little salt if your nut butter is unsalted)
salt and pepper

Pre heat the oven to 190c. Begin by making the tofu cream – blend the silken tofu in a food processor or blender with 1/2 a cup of water and combine with the ginger, garlic and chilli. Peel the potatoes and slice into thin rounds about 2-3 mm thick. Add the potatoes to the tofu cream along with some salt and pepper and mix well.

In a separate bowl mix the almond butter with 2 tbsp of hot water until smooth.

Grease a baking dish (I used two individual ones) and fill half full with the sweet potatoes. Spoon the almond butter on top:

Layer on the rest of the sweet potatoes pouring on any remaining tofu cream in the bowl.

Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes then remove the foil and bake for another 40 minutes. The potatoes should be tender and browned on the top. Serve!

This is rich, sweet and spicy with a lovely hit of salty creaminess from the almond butter. The topping becomes slightly crispy and caramelised, so good! Due to the ginger, garlic and chilli this has quite an Asian flavour and would go really well with some stir fried veggies like broccoli or a fresh green salad. Obviously this isn’t as creamy as the original recipe would have been, but you could add more of the tofu cream if you wanted a more creamy result.

Delish!

Are you a fan of the sweet potato and nut butter combo?

Learning to follow your bliss

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:34:00 +0000

I mentioned in last Friday’s post that I’d had one of those days where I’d done a lot of deep thinking. I thought about what my priorities in life are, which direction my life is going in and ultimately what is going to make me happy, you know nice light hearted topics like that ;-)

I’ve found that a couple of times a year I get these occurrences of very intense deep thoughts which at the time can feel quite uncomfortable (usually because I’m facing some home truths), but ultimately are very positive and help me to move my life forward. I have a bad habit of putting big changes into effect and then gradually starting to let them slide, forgetting about them and coasting along until the shit hits the fan.

Strangely enough I’ve had a lot more of these ‘deep thoughts’ since I’ve become more healthy. I think that since I’ve lost weight, improved my diet and achieved things I never thought I’d physically and mentally be able to do, its made me more confident, ambitious and determined to follow my dreams.

Last week I had some major realisations. I won’t bore you by going too in depth into them, but here’s a few things I discovered:

No matter how much I want to be I am not Super Woman and can’t do everything
I need to prioritise my time according to what is ultimately going to make me happiest and help me to achieve my goals
I really need to sort my finances out once and for all
Deep down, a big part of me is scared I’m just not good enough to achieve my goals
Deep down, a big part of me is flicking the V’s at the other part of myself that thinks I’m not good enough because I can achieve anything I set my mind to god damn it!

The upshot of much of this is that I’m considering handing back the keys for the allotment because I don’t realistically have the time or money to put into it, cancelling my organic veg box delivery because I can’t afford it, and generally giving myself a kick up the arse when it comes to spending money (ironic I know considering what I spent in Brighton). I’m also determined to make some major progress with my business plan for my holistic health coaching for communities ideas no matter how scared I am that I might ultimately fail, because remember, I can do anything I set my mind to right?

Like I said, although uncomfortable to begin with, I need to have these deep thoughts to push me forward because they help me to focus on following my bliss.

source

‘If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time’

I truly believe that by pursuing the things in life that light me up and make me happy I’ll be ok in the end. Sometimes though, you need to be able to identify those things that make you happy. Here’s some things that have helped me:

Writing this blog!
Journaling – sometimes I just write. I don’t set out to write about anything in particular I just get a pen and some paper and write whatever comes into my head.
Using mind maps – I like them to help sort out my thoughts and generally organise myself!
Yoga – I guess it sounds a bit clichéd that yoga helps with enlightenment but because I’m useless at meditating its one of the only things I can do that helps to quieten my mind.

How good are you at following your bliss? Do you use any tools to help you think?

Party in my kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:49:00 +0000

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope your all having a great day, Sunday’s are the best aren’t they :-) I’ve had a really great weekend just so chilled out and relaxed. This morning I got in a great workout at the gym. I hadn’t been looking forward to running on the treadmill (and although it was bright, it was freezing outside!) so I made up a really simple relaxed treadmill workout:

5k treadmill workout

0.25 miles: 6.2mph
0.25 miles: 6.7mph
0.25 miles: 7.2mph
0.25 miles: 7.7mph repeat x 3 (to reach 3 miles)
0.1 mile sprint: 8.2mph (to reach 5k)

This was a great little run getting in 5k in just under 27 minutes. The regular speed changes stopped me getting bored and the speeds I used challenged me a bit, but left more than enough energy for my 15 min bike and 45 min Kettlebell class afterwards.

Yesterday I didn’t quite end up getting my intended lie in but I did have my lazy breakfast! Usually I know what I’m going to have for breakfast before I get up, but yesterday I decided to just see what I fancied. I really wanted something a bit bready that I could smother in nut butter but we don’t buy bread very often. Instead I decided to make a fat socca bread! I mixed half a cup of gram flour with half a cup of water, cinnamon, vanilla extract and a touch of stevia then fried the batter in coconut oil in my small frying pan. When it was cooked on both sides I topped it with with cashew butter, fresh blueberries and lots of maple syrup:

Perfection! This was just what I had been craving and was absolutely delicious. I decided to stick with the breakfast theme later in the day and made some oats in a jar for a snack after returning home from seeing friends and family:

I needed warming up as we’d been out for a walk and I couldn’t think of anything better than oats! I filled a near empty sunflower seed butter jar with oats cooked with water in the microwave and a heaping tbsp of Clearspring naturally sweetened blueberry jam.

This mornings post workout breakfast was a raw protein buckwheat bowl with vanilla sun warrior, chopped apples, raisins and cinnamon:

Yum! I enjoyed this with an Indian Chai tea with coconut milk, delish!

Other tasty bits and pieces this weekend include my usual weekend green juices, however as I was going out I didn’t think just juice would hold me over so taking inspiration from what I’ve been reading in Crazy Sexy Juices and Smoothies I made a smoothie with cucumber, celery, parsley, basil and orange blended with water, ice, maca powder and a little stevia to sweetened it up, all drank in a pretty mug of course:

This tasted very refreshing and nourishing!

Last night’s dinner was based on my Roast Broccoli, Brussels and Chickpea and Cranberry Couscous recipe – I roasted some broccoli, and for the first time some savoy cabbage (delish by the way) in coconut oil and then topped with the chickpea and cranberries but made with quinoa instead of couscous:

For dessert I tried one of my new chocolate almond puddings on top of frozen cherries with some peanut flour sauce swirled on top:

Heaven in my mouth!

This afternoon I’ve been having a party in my kitchen, I’ve had the radio blasting while I’ve been cooking and doing the laundry and I’ve even had a bit of a dance ;-) I’ve cooked up some brown rice for the week, made a special dish (which if it works will be incredible – will blog the recipe) and a giant pan of Lentil soup – based loosely on this recipe but I added some celery and left out the spinach because I didn’t have any. I had a huge bowl with some organic blue corn chips on the side for lunch:

Proper lush, I dipped the chips in the soup for extra noms :-)

Please don’t tell me I’m the only one that dances in my kitchen? Hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend and have a great week ahead!

Breakfast on the go and another slow yoga class

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:48:00 +0000

Happy Friday! How has your week been? Mine has been good although I’m really ready for the weekend now. I had a weird day yesterday where I ended up doing a lot of deep thinking about things. Do you ever have those day’s where your thoughts are just all over the place? Anyway it’s all good, I’ve had some big realisations and reached some major conclusions that have been a long time coming, onward and upward!

Here’s a recap of my workouts for the week:

Sunday – 5k relaxed treadmill run, 15 min bike set at random, Kettlebell class
Monday – 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
Tuesday – AM Yoga for Runners 20 min podcast, PM 10 min HIIT cross trainer, 10 min HIIT bike, Body Pump class
Wednesday – 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout B from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike
Thursday – New yoga class! (1hr 15 min)
Friday - 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength workout A from Base phase of Female Body Breakthrough, 10 min HIIT step machine, 10 min HIIT bike

I tried out a new yoga class last night and as I suspected it was another slower paced Iyengar class. It actually wasn’t too bad and I did find some of the poses more challenging than I had expected, I certainly got an excellent stretch. I have another class to try on Tuesday and then I’ll probably make a decision about which of them I’ll continue with or if I’ll go for DVD’s and podcasts instead. I’ve also increased my strength workouts this week from two to three which has been great!

Its been a bit of a busy week where I’ve need to start work early so a couple of breakfasts have had to be eaten on the go. For this I’ve been making green smoothies and storing them in a jar in the fridge ready to drink as soon as I get back from the gym. This one contained kale, spring greens, frozen banana, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca powder, ground flax, midori greens, ice and water:

Luckily I did have time to enjoy one in my usual ‘in a bowl’ style. This contained kale, frozen blueberries and strawberries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, berries powder, maca, ground flax, water, ice topped with Dorset Cereals Simply Muesli and sunflower seed butter:

I’m doing well with not needing to add any additional sweeteners or gums to them at the moment, they are certainly turning out thick enough on their own! I also enjoyed another late breakfast nut butter plate of banana, apple, roast kabocha squash and raw almond butter:

This was eaten later in the morning at work after a green juice first thing. I have to say there’s nothing quite like starting your day with a green juice although I don’t think I’ll be making a regular habit of it, I like my breakfast foods too much!

For lunches I’ve been back on the salads, firstly topped with Gourmet Raw beetroot crisps…

…and then topped with home made high protein hummus:

I also remembered to sprout some alfalfa to add in, I just love hummus topped salads!

Today I made myself some raw wraps by wrapping a mix of grated carrot, raisins and raw tahini in spring green leaves:

So delicious, I haven’t made raw wraps in forever and these tasted wonderful, I’m crazy for the tahini and raisin combo! For dinner the last couple of nights I’ve had a massive portion of veggie chilli with a baked sweet potato and steamed greens:

This has been perfect warming meal, I love that chilli it really is such a simple recipe and so easy to throw together!

For desserts / evening snacks I’ve had big bowls of frozen berries with some home made sunflower seed milk. This bowl had frozen raspberries, apple and some almond butter:

I also treated myself to some sharon fruit the other day and enjoyed a few of them chopped up and accompanied by some raw chocolate covered raisins:

Those raisins are seriously addictive, it took a lot of will power not to eat the entire bag!

Well I’m sitting here feeling nice and relaxed ready to start the weekend. I’m going to make a big bowl of popcorn later as me and James are having a movie night and I can’t wait to enjoy a lie in tomorrow followed by a relaxed breakfast and a giant mug of coffee!

What have you got planned for the weekend? What are your favourite on the go breakfasts? I like smoothies as I can drink them while I’m getting ready, not sure what else I could have for breakfast that is quick to make and eat? I might start experimenting with just having a small snack and then something bigger once I’m at work. Any ideas would be much appreciated! Hope you all have a great weekend whatever your up to! :-)

GIVEAWAY–House plant love!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:02:00 +0000

When I was contacted by the Flower Council of Holland to receive one of their house plants and the ‘Me and My Plant Book’ I was intrigued! I am a massive fan of house plants and I have one in every room of my house, I can’t imagine not having them there! I’m a firm believer in the health benefits of plants (they help to oxygenate the air) as well as them being an attractive interior design accessory. I just love having something green and alive in my space! I was very kindly sent this stunning Cyclamen, his name is Charlie ;-)

It has pride of place in my living room! I also have a peace lily in the bedroom, an ivy type plant in the bathroom and herbs in the kitchen.

The Me and My Plant website, along with the book are a great resource for helping you decide which plant is best suited to you and lots of tips about how to best take care of your plants.

The guys at the Flower Council of Holland have kindly offered to send a lucky reader their very own house plant, a Kalanchoe!

‘Kalanchoes belong to the Crassulaceae family, a genus that includes many succulents. With their thick, sebaceous-like leaves, these house plants require little or no upkeep. A splash of water now and then is good enough. Of the many varieties with small, single or double flowers, Kalanchoe blossfeldiana is probably the most common. The new Bells series are real designer plants. They have decorative racemes with light-green air cushions resembling Chinese lanterns, from which small, bell-shaped flowers bloom. Besides flowering Kalanchoes, there is an attractive assortment of foliage Kalanchoes, which have wonderful, thick, glossy leaves’.

To enter (each of these counts as a single entry – please leave a separate comment for each one):

Leave a comment to this post with why you would like your own house plant!
‘Like’ my Facebook page and leave a comment below stating that you have done so
Follow me via Google Friend Connect (link under the ‘follow me’ section on the right) or follow me on Blog Lovin or Twitter and leave a comment below stating that you have done so
Tweet about this giveaway: ‘check out @keephealthstyle GIVEAWAY’
Sign up to receive blog updates via email using the link to the right and leave a comment below stating that you have done so
Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on your blog and leave a comment below stating that you have done so

Giveaway open to UK residents only and closes at 12am GMT Friday 24th February 2012 , good luck!

WIAW–Veggie Count

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:02:00 +0000

Hi everyone, hope your having a great week! I’m just busy trying to get back into a routine after being on holiday last week. Coming back to reality sucks but I do like to have a routine, and being able to be home and make my favourite green smoothies has been great. After a few days I had a serious craving for greens! I love that WIAW has a theme this month, I kind of missed it last week with me being away so but I’m definitely up for it now, goodness knows I love my veggies! I thought it would be interesting to do a portion count of how many veggies I eat in a day. These are my eats from yesterday:

I was back to my usual Tuesday routine so got up early to get in a quick yoga podcast before work. I did the 20 minute Yoga for Runners and boy did I need it, I was feeling so stiff! After that I had my warm water with lemon juice, got ready and decided to celebrate my recipe being in the new release of Kris Carr’s e book Crazy Sexy Juices and Succulent Smoothies by starting the day with a big green juice!

This was 1 cucumber, 1 head of romaine lettuce, 4 stalks of celery, kale stems, ginger and lemon (3 portions of veg) it tasted lovely! I’ll promise I’ll stop going on about Crazy Sexy Juices and Smoothies but I’m just so excited! Seeing my name in amongst others like Gena Hamshaw and Chad Sarno is just crazy. I got my copy of the e book last night and it is really fab, I have loads of ideas for tasty juices and smoothies I can’t wait to enjoy. In addition to the juice I decided to use some sunflower seed milk I’d made the night before in a matcha green tea latte:

I’d made the milk using sunflower seeds (1/2 cup soaked 8 hours, drained, rinsed and blended with 2 cups of filtered water then strained) and added some lucuma powder and vanilla stevia drops for sweetness. It frothed up pretty well!

I also took all my supplements and drank a couple of cups of green tea. Once I’d settled in at work I had breakfast no 2. I really enjoyed the simple breakfasts I’d had in Brighton of just fruit with nut butter for spreading so I made one again:

This was 1 large banana, 2 apples, a bowl of cherries and about 3 tbsp raw dark tahini and honey for spreading along with a mug of chai green tea, I just love spreading the nut butter on the banana:

Nom!!!! That raw dark tahini tastes amazing!

For lunch I had a bowl of Kabocha and Adzuki Bean Stew which was leftover from the weekend, accompanied by some of my home made almond and rosemary raw crackers:

Delish! (about 2 portions of veg)

Before I left work for the gym I snacked on some dried prunes and apricots for a little pick me up:

It was the usual Tuesday evening gym session of 20 minutes of HIIT on the cross trainer and bike followed by my Body Pump class which was my first in two weeks. I decided to try and stick with my usual weights and it was tough!

Once I got home I fixed a tasty dinner of baked tempeh with stir fried veggies:

I’m just in love with tempeh at the moment. I’d marinated it in shoyu, honey, ground ginger and garlic powder then baked for 30 minutes at 200c flipping once. This was actually baked on Monday night so all I had to do was warm it back up. The stir fry included broccoli, courgette, carrot, red cabbage and spring greens which I just added a little fresh ginger and shoyu for flavour (at least 3 portions of veg).

While we were watching TV after dinner I snacked on a couple of jazz apples:

Then later on I fancied something chocolaty so made up some double chocolate protein pudding by mixing a scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder with water and swirling in a chocolate sauce made from raw cacao powder, agave syrup and water then topped it all off with some cacao nibs and gojis:

I also made a delicious chocolate mint rooibos tea:

I love that tea, it has such a good flavour and reminds me a bit of the Teapigs chocolate flake tea but caffeine free!

So I think I had a fairly veggie packed day, I had at least 8 portions of veg including:

Cucumber
Celery
Romaine
Kabocha Squash
Broccoli
Red cabbage
Carrot
Courgette

I love eating a variety of veggies! I think I probably must average about 7-8 portions of veg a day, sometimes more if I’m having a green smoothie plus a salad. I know that when it comes to my leafy greens I don’t feel quite right after a few days of not having them!

How many portions of veg do you tend to eat in an average day?

All you need is love…and smoothies

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:04:00 +0000

Happy Valentines Day! I hope your enjoying yourself whether your in a relationship or otherwise. I don’t mind Valentines Day although I can’t say me and James are celebrating it much this year, but he did get me those tasty heart chocolates from Montezuma’s last week!

I was thinking about the celebration last week and thought how great it would be if as well as celebrating our love for other people, we celebrated our love for ourselves.

Far too often we engage in negative self talk, comparing ourselves to others, wishing we were different and generally hating on ourselves. I also think that it can sometimes be very difficult to be positive about yourself whether that’s your personal traits, achievements, appearance or personality without feeling like your being big headed. I’m not sure if that’s a bit of a British thing? Either way, we are seriously lacking some self love!

So to celebrate Valentines Day this year I’ve decided to remind myself of some of the things I like about me:

I’m a fair person and I hate injustice
I have nice lips and a nice smile
When I want something I go for it 100%
I have awesome nails that grow really well
I’m good at public speaking
I always try to empathise with other people
When I make mistakes, I never shy away from them
I always try and see the positive in everything

Now its your turn! Leave me a comment with at least 3 things you love about yourself, no excuses!

I’m also super excited today as my Apple Pie Green Smoothie recipe is featured in the amazing Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Juices and Succulent Smoothies!

I can’t tell you how completely honoured I am to have had my recipe included. I’m such a massive fan of Crazy Sexy Diet and Kris is so inspirational. Check it out!

The food and the fashion: Brighton buys

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:22:00 +0000

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?

A week in Brighton

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:42:00 +0000

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!

WIAW: (Almost) Perfect Pancakes

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone, hope your having a great week! I can’t believe its Wednesday already. I thought I’d give you another weekend WIAW for a change, these are my eats and goings on from last Sunday.

As always click on the link above to check out all the other WIAW’s and join the party!

I had a nice lie in until 8am and made myself the usual lemon juice and warm water and ate a banana for gym fuel:

I headed to the gym for it opening at 9. I had been planning on running on the treadmill for 30 minutes but after 15 minutes I was losing the will to live so switched it up and did 30 minutes on the bike set to random. Then it was off to Kettle bells! After that I came home, got showered and made an incredible breakfast:

Pancakes! I haven’t made pancakes in ages, these were chocolate protein pancakes with fresh blueberries, peanut flour sauce and maple syrup, holy yum! I made the pancakes with 1/4 cup of chocolate hemp protein powder, 1/4 cup of spelt flour, 1 tsp of baking powder and 3/4 cup of kara coconut milk. They turned out really well although I made them too big so they broke in half while flipping, still they tasted amazing! I also had a cup of amaretto coffee with kara coconut milk and stevia:

After that I was off out to do the rounds – I visited my two best friends where I drank copious amounts of green tea and we had a great catch up it, was so good to see them and we started to make 30th Birthday celebration plans! Then it was off to see my Grandma and then to my Mam and Dad’s before coming home. I was pretty hungry by the time I got back and since I had some veg in the fridge that needed eating up I decided to make an epically massive green smoothie:

This contained kale, spring greens, 1/2 avocado, 1 pink lady apple, strawberry hemp protein powder, maca powder, midori greens, 3 chlorella tablets, matcha green tea, ground flax, water, ice, vanilla stevia and then I went a bit mental with the toppings and added raw shoyu ‘roasted’ almonds, roast salted edamame, raisins, dried mixed berries, goji berries and bee pollen. It was gorgeous and sorted my hunger out a treat.

Later for dinner I had some baked tofu (tofu that had been frozen and defrosted then marinaded in shoyu, maple syrup, mirin, ginger powder and garlic powder) swede chips, roast brussel sprouts, steamed purple sprouting broccoli and ketchup:

That tofu was spot on, I love it baked until crispy like that! Later on I wanted an evening snack / dessert but couldn’t decide what to have so made a mini snacking plate:

A sliced pink lady apple, tahini with thyme honey swirled in, Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter and some The Raw Chocolate Company plain raw chocolate plus a Cosy Camomile tea.

All in all a great day of eats!

I was glad I decided to make pancakes again, I used to make protein pancakes on a regular basis when I was eating more eggs but I just got out of the habit. Those turned out so well and are so easy to make I have no excuse not to make them more regularly. How often do you have pancakes? When I was younger we only ever had pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, I think its a shame so many people only have them once a year! What’s your favourite pancake recipe?

Products for ‘detox’?

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000

After eating lots of richer foods over Christmas I started 2012 feeling rather bloated and icky! I decided to focus on eating simple un processed foods during January, as well as avoiding coffee and alcohol. I wanted to just try and nourish myself as best as possible.

Towards the end of the year I had been sent products from Pukka Herbs and The New Zealand Honey Co to review, and I thought they would be perfect to save for use in January. As well as the products from these two companies I also included a couple of other products (purchased myself) to help with getting myself back on track:

Pukka Herbs sent me their Aloe Vera Juice and Chlorella tablets to try. I also bought some Linwoods Milled Flaxseed and some Dr Stuarts Tea as well as The New Zealand Honey Co products which came as part of this package full of natural immune boosting goodies:

Linwoods Organic Milled Flaxseed

I’d actually been using this for a long time anyway, but over January I made an effort to eat 1 tbsp a day, usually by adding some to one of my smoothies. Flaxseed is a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids which because our body can not produce, means we need to obtain them via our diet. As a mostly vegan I can’t get my essential fats from the traditional oily fish so this is a great product for me. It is also high in dietary fibre which can help you to feel fuller and when mixed with water makes an excellent vegan egg replacer. As this is cold milled it is suggested that you store it in the fridge to prevent it going rancid. I also like that you can easily buy this from most supermarkets not just health food stores!

Dr Stuarts Detox Tea

I’m usually not a fan of anything that brands itself a ‘detox’ product in its own right but I love this tea! It has a really ‘clean’ flavour and I found that drinking it made my stomach feel better and less bloated. It includes dandelion and burdock root, milk thistle, sage, peppermint and liquorice. It was a really nice relaxing drink before bed.

The New Zealand Honey Co: Thyme, Manuka and Beech Forest Honey Dew Honey

I included honey in this delicious ‘black sesame jewel’ smoothie

Until I received these products I had not been aware of the health benefits of honey. I already knew it could be a great natural sweetener but these honey’s all have their own specific properties and health benefits. The thyme honey is high in antioxidants and is scaled against other foods like spinach and blueberries. The manuka honey is anti bacterial and anti inflammatory and the Beech Forest Honey Dew is high in natural sugars that feed the good bacteria in our gut (see the website for more information on how all these claims are established). All the honey’s are also 100% raw so will include their natural enzymes.

I was really impressed with these products. Each of them has a very unique flavour and I enjoyed including them in smoothies, porridge, yoghurt messes etc as well as just sucking on a spoonful at a time to give my general health a boost and with a hope of keeping any January colds and flu away. Due to its anti bacterial and anti inflammatory properties I also made a special effort to include manuka honey while I was recovering from my wisdom teeth extraction. Of course I can’t say it was just down to the honey but I didn’t get any infections in my mouth (I wasn’t on antibiotics either) and I also avoided the colds that were doing the rounds at work, yey!

Pukka Aloe Vera Juice

I really wasn’t sure what to expect with this product, I was concerned that it was going to taste awful but it certainly didn’t! Aloe Vera juice is reputed to aid digestion and beauty. The suggested intake is 5-6 tbsp a day taken before food. I tended to take 1-2 tbsp mixed with filtered water before bed. The taste was kind of light and grassy and quite pleasant. I definitely felt that this was soothing my digestive tract and tummy. I was also very impressed at the quality of this product compared to other brands of aloe vera I’ve seen since. The Pukka brand is free from synthetic preservatives and is cold pressed and unfiltered.

Pukka Chlorella Tablets

I had heard of chlorella before I received these tablets having been a long time fan of spirulina, a similar naturally derived algae. Chlorella is one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet containing antioxidants, proteins and essential fatty acids. Its high chlorophyll content makes it very alkalising and good for detoxification as well as supporting the immune system. The suggested dose is working up to 6 tablets a day taken 3 times a day. I don’t like carrying tablets around with me so I tended to have two in the morning and two in the evening taken with my aloe vera juice. I also started chucking a few tablets in with my green smoothies. At first I wasn’t sure how I would enjoy these as in the past I’ve always used powders and added it to smoothies but now I would always go for the tablets as its much easier to take them than just being able to include it in your diet when your having a smoothie. Like the aloe vera juice, these are excellent quality, they are organic and cracked cell wall which means that they are easier to digest and assimilate the vitamins and minerals.

Of course I was also including my daily dose of Matcha Green Tea as part of the Tea Pigs Matcha challenge!

The results?

I don’t always think that one month is long enough to establish if your seeing benefits from a product, and of course this is no clinical trial, many other factors could have affected how I felt during and at the end of the month. Saying that, I did feel some instant benefits with the Dr Stuarts Tea and the Aloe Vera juice, it could also have been the improvement in my diet but I felt a lot less bloated and when drinking the tea or juice it was an almost instant relief and ‘cooling’ feeling in my body. The other biggest thing I noticed was an improvement to my skin:

Me, make up free (and yes I have non existent eyebrows and a big nose!)

I’m not sure if this pic does it justice but my skin has been amazing recently! I haven’t had a spot since before Christmas, but the best thing I’ve found is that the texture of my skin has improved. I used to have a greasy t zone and dry cheeks along with very visible pores and black heads on my nose and fore head. Now my skin is much finer and a lot less greasy. As I said this may not be just down to the products I’ve been using (I also started to use virgin coconut oil as a evening moisturiser) but either way I’m happy with the results!

As I always tend to say when I’m reviewing products, the Pukka stuff and honey ain’t cheap – see the links to the websites for prices (I think the ground flax and tea is pretty affordable and excellent for what you get). Apart from perhaps the chlorella, I wouldn’t be looking to use them on a frequent basis anyway, I would definitely get the aloe vera juice again if I was feeling particularly bloated and out of all the honey’s I would get the manuka again as I preferred the taste of this one, as well the benefits – I think it would be brilliant to have in the cupboard in case a cold or sore throat was threatening!

Overall, these products are great but none of them are a replacement for a good solid diet full of vegetables, fruit and other whole foods. It is worth noting that these products are actually whole foods in themselves though, I like these as little extras that are great to include from time to time to give me a boost when I can afford them.

Have you tried any of the products mentioned above? Would you ever try any of them? What are your thoughts on products such as these that often come with health claims?

The Female Body Breakthrough and my approach to strength training

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Back in 2010 I purchased a copy of Rachel Cosgrove's Female Body Breakthrough to help me get my head around weight training. I used it for a while but eventually it ended up being lost in my collection of healthy living books.

After all the blogger buzz surrounding the New Rules of Lifting for Women, I bought it and gave the plans a try but I had found that the programmes in NRoL were not easily adaptable for the equipment available in my gym and did not provide me with a challenging enough workout. Recently I decided to re visit Female Body Breakthrough to see what it could offer me now (it might be worth noting that Alwyn Cosgrove that developed the programmes for NRoL is Rachel’s husband and business partner!)

What really comes across in this book is that it is written by a woman for women. The book includes chapters that help to address food and body issues, nutrition, the actual fitness plan itself and maintaining your results. Rachel has written the book in a very friendly tone which makes it enjoyable to read. She tells us that we should be aiming to be a BITCH - Be Inspiring Totally Confident and Hot!

She does writes very convincingly about the benefits of strength training over cardio, especially running – with regards to creating that more muscle defined look. She encourages the focus to be on the strength aspect, only adding in cardio in the form of high intensity interval training (HIIT) if you have time. The nutrition plan suggests that you should eat 6 meals a day to keep blood sugar levels staple and to keep the body well fuelled. She also says that you should always eat before a work out – and within 15 minutes of waking up. Predictably, the nutrition programme focuses on clean foods with lots of protein - adopting a 90 / 10 clean and splurge spilt. The nutrition plan becomes more restrictive as you progress (if you choose to do so) introducing carb cycling and specific timing of consuming carbs with the aim of shedding excess fat.

The workout plan itself is split into 4 stages, each lasting 4 weeks for a 16 week programme. Each phase get's progressively more challenging by changing the rep range, performing a more challenging variation of the same exercise and in the latter stages, by adding in 'finishers', 'complexes' and metabolic circuits. Each stage has two workouts mostly made up of about 8 exercises with some core work then upper body and lower body exercisers paired together in super sets. Each exercise is clearly shown and explained how to perform correctly. When you've completed the programme you can go back and repeat the stages as you wish but making sure that you continue to progress by increasing the weight over the last time you performed the stage and never doing the same stage back to back.

How I've made the plan work for me

I haven't followed any of the nutrition plan - veganism doesn't exactly sit that well with a more protein focused approach, however I do think with a few tweeks, the essence of the base phase nutrition plan would be achievable for a vegan. Plus I was never seeking to lose weight or fat.

I love my gym, but its really not that brilliant in the strength training department. It has a small area with free weights, a couple of benches, stability balls, bars of various weights up to 14lbs, a 5lb medicine ball, a barbell with weights plus a small range of stationary machines. It doesn't have any squat racks or cable machines or any really heavy weights available (it is a ladies gym – still no excuse though!).

What I’ve done is use the plan as a loose framework sticking to it as closely as I can but then subbing in other exercises that work the same group of muscles when I don’t have the equipment available. Due to my other workouts which previously included lots of cardio (because up to now I never considered not focusing on cardio), I’ve just been performing these workouts twice a week (Rachel recommends at least 3 times a week) and over 5 – 6 weeks rather than the 4 weeks in the plan.

This is my training log from the base phase

I’ve found that I’ve had to increase my rep range past the suggested range in the plans for some exercises to make them more challenging when I’m using the heaviest weight my gym has available (and therefore can’t increase it). I’ve also been doing these plans and adding on 15 – 20 minutes of HIIT which I actually based off the plans from NRoL: 1 minute hard and 2 minutes moderate repeated.

I feel like I have a reasonable knowledge of strength training but I like following an experts plan so that I know I’m not missing out any muscles or creating a muscle imbalance. This book has provided an excellent basis for that, however if I want to progress for the future then I’m going to have to get a bit more creative!

My future strength training plans

As I’m currently seeking to gain some weight I really want to make sure that I have some decent muscle there as well so that its not just ‘flab’. As I’m also looking to reduce my cardio down a notch, focusing on strength training right now makes a lot of sense. I think I’m going to re start the programme from the base phase and possibly start performing 3 of these workouts a week rather than just two. I was also planning on making sure I’m getting plenty of protein in (tofu, tempeh and protein powders) along with my increase in fats. I also need to consider how I can make them more challenging in ways that do not necessarily involve increasing the weight. I came across a great article in the February issue of Ultra Fit magazine about resistance training variables which basically describes a few of the ways in which you can increase the ‘stress’ on your muscles:

Increase the weight
Perform more reps with same weight
Complete more sets
Reduce rest period between sets
Perform more exercises per muscle group
Choose more challenging versions of exercises

Up to a certain point I think I’ll be fine with the plans in Female Body Breakthrough and just increasing reps, sets and reducing rest, however after a while I like the idea of starting to perform more exercises per muscle group, which I think is how Jamie Easton’s LiveFit is structured so I may start looking into those plans.

Do you currently do any strength training? What’s your approach? Do you like winging it or following a plan? Have you came across Female Body Breakthrough and if so what did you think?

Turning red and the weekend nibbles

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:03:00 +0000

Hi everyone, hope your all having a wonderful relaxing Sunday! I’m busy trying to get organised ready for our week away! I said in my post on Friday I was looking forward to doing something I’ve been wanting to do for ages…

I dyed my hair red! I’ve been trying all weekend to get a picture that actually shows the colour properly but this is the best I’ve managed. I dyed it a reddish brown a few months ago but decided to buy a bright red colour this time. I had my hair bright red when I was younger and had been thinking of going back to that colour for ages. This is probably about as bright as it will go without lightening my natural colour first. I love it though, its great for a change!

Other than that its been a pretty quiet one, I spent most of yesterday just enjoying watching the snow! There have been several good meals to be had though. On the way home from work on Friday I stopped in town to go to the green grocers and while I was there I had a look in one of the Asian supermarkets. I got a bag of goji berries, millet, dried mango and this unusual sesame peanut butter:

Considering that I adore both peanut butter and tahini (sesame paste) this tastes incredible, its like peanut butter and tahini got together and made a beautiful tasty baby! Half the jar is already gone! I mixed it with some sweet white miso and water to make a dressing for this Buddha bowl meal:

This was stir fried kale, courgette, brown rice, roast butternut squash, chickpeas and the sauce, it was fantastic. I also used some of the sesame peanut butter in this protein pudding snack:

I had a bit of a protein craving so mixed a scoop of chocolate sun warrior protein powder with water and added a swirl of the sesame peanut butter then topped with raw cacao granola, yum!

Yesterday morning I enjoyed a lovely lie in, my first in such a long time! I decided to treat myself to breakfast in bed and made a big bowl of Kashi Go Lean with chopped apple and kara coconut milk topped with a few pumpkin seeds:

I had a couple a mugs full of coffee with this, perfect Saturday morning! For lunch I made a big salad:

This included romaine lettuce, cucumber, raw beetroot, avocado, hemp seeds and some of my home made rosemary and almond juice pulp crackers. For dinner I decided to raid the freezer and found some of my stuffed seitan roll. I had it with swede chips, roast brussel sprouts, steamed purple sprouting broccoli and ketchup:

That seitan roll tasted just as good as when it had been freshly made. Delicious!

As I’ve come to realise that I get extra snacky on a Friday and Saturday evening I’ve decided that instead of fighting it I’m going to just go with it so I’ve started making bigger snack plates that I can pick on over the evening:

This one included a fresh fig with some of the leftover sesame peanut miso sauce, grapes, russet apple, yellow plum, dried mango and mixed dried berries. I did end up eating more of the dried fruit but this is good for me to nibble on while I’m watching TV.

Are you a weekend nibbler?

Right I am off to get myself sorted out! I’m glad that we didn’t decide to travel this morning with all the snow we’ve had, I’m hoping it will all be melted by tomorrow. Have a great one!

Full Fat

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:21:00 +0000

Happy Friday everyone! This Friday comes with an extra bit of happiness for me as I am now on holiday for a week, bring it on! I am pretty ready for the weekend after being ill mid week. Luckily I’m feeling much better but poor James also caught whatever it was so he’s been ill too. Here’s a look at my workouts for the week:

Sunday – 30 minute treadmill run, 15 minute bike, Kettle bell Class
Monday – Yoga class 1 hour 30
Tuesday – Unexpected rest day – ill :-(
Wednesday – AM gym workout – 5 min warm up cross trainer, strength from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ phase, 20 min HIITs on bike
Thursday – AM – Yoga for Runners podcast, PM Gym – 321 workout
Friday - AM gym workout – 5 min warm up cross trainer, strength from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ phase, 20 min HIITs on step machine

Thanks for all your comments about the yoga class. I’ve been looking at what other yoga is being offered in my area and it all seems to be Hatha style yoga which I understand to be pretty slow paced. I don’t mind doing one class like that a week but I couldn’t do two! With that in mind I’m probably going to experiment with a couple of different classes at the gym and some DVD’s and podcasts and then re jig my workout week.

Luckily I’m back to my normal self now but mid week I had very little appetite due to that mystery illness, however chocolate and peanut butter makes everything better:

This was one of the only things I managed to eat on Tuesday, it contained spring greens, banana, lots and lots of peanut butter, water and ice then topped with peanut flour sauce and dark chocolate chips. Also accompanied by several spoons of peanut butter straight up with dark chocolate chips stuck on. Speaking of nut butter and spoons…

My order of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter arrived from iHerb! I did just about manage to eat some of this ;-)

I’ve also continued to enjoy my current favourite snack of almonds and raisins:

These were some extra special almonds that I’d soaked overnight then coated in shoyu and ‘roasted’ in the dehydrator to make raw salted almonds. They are gorgeous, I can’t get enough of the sweet and salty combo! I just had to add some on top of a butternut squash smoothie too:

I decided to get one of these in while I still craved it. This was roast butternut, kara coconut milk, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, ginger, cinnamon and ice topped with maple syrup and those almonds all chopped up. Heaven!

I also made a pretty awesome dinner that I had a couple of nights in a row – baked tempeh with stir fried purple sprouting broccoli and greens in a ginger coconut sauce:

I marinaded the tempeh in a mix of shoyu, honey, ground ginger and garlic powder then baked. For the veggies I just stir fried them in a little coconut oil then once they were tender I added about 3/4 cup of full fat coconut milk, fresh minced ginger, shoyu sauce and 1/2 tbsp of coconut flour (to add thickness) then cooked off for a couple of minutes to thicken up even more before serving. I haven’t had full fat coconut milk in ages and it was so good. I was even more surprised when the leftover milk that had been left in the fridge turned into a very thick cream. I had a sudden moment of inspiration and decided to use it to top a gooey baked sweet potato for my lunch today:

I also added some peanut flour sauce for a bit of protein. You can’t tell me that doesn’t look amazing right? I’m a full fat convert now!

Other meals that have helped me get my appetite back include:

Big salad with romaine, red onion, yellow pepper, cucumber, black beans and avocado

Green smoothie with spinach, persimmons x 3, 1/2 banana, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, water, ice, maca powder, ground flax topped with Dorset Cereal’s fabulous ‘Simply’ muesli and more sliced persimmon

My obsession continues… four fresh figs topped with tahini (watered down a bit for more pourability), black strap molasses and thyme honey. Can not get enough!

I’ve been loving my fats this week. I used to always go for the low fat versions of everything such as hummus, light coconut milk and yoghurt (when I was eating that). I know that when you are seeking to lose weight reducing fat can be a good strategy, however fats are essential in our diets for so many things including the absorption of some fat soluble vitamins and good skin, hair and nails. I know there are ‘good’ fats (poly unsaturated and mono unsaturated fats) and ‘bad’ fats (saturated and trans fats) but for me I don’t worry too much about that and enjoy plant sources of fats even though coconut milk, butter and oil contains some saturated fat. There is some evidence that the medium chain fatty acids (MCFA’s) present in coconut milk are processed by the body in a different way to saturated fat from other sources and that they can provide energy and help to maintain weight by increasing satiety. As long as its not the nasty trans fats, and that the fat in whatever form is coming from whole unprocessed foods, I’m happy! Are you a low fat or full fat person? I definitely think there’s a balance to be had between the two.

Have you got anything exciting planned for the weekend? Tonight I’m doing something I’ve wanted to do for ages, if it works out ok I’ll share on Sunday! Other than that I think its going to be a pretty chilled weekend just catching up with friends and family, a bit of gym time and of course getting set to travel down to Brighton next week. Hope whatever your up to you have fun, and manage to stay warm!

WIAW–Yoga and a change of routine

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:22:00 +0000

Hi everyone, hope your all having a brilliant week and enjoying the first day of February! Here I am for yet another WIAW...

These are my eats and goings on from Monday. I had a completely different Monday to usual because I was going to yoga on the evening I didn't hot foot it to the gym first thing as usual. It was nice to be able to have a relaxed morning, plus I had even more time available as we had a planning day for work so I didn't need to be in until 10am. I started off with the usual warm water and lemon then made a big fresh juice:

This is my current favourite blend with beetroot, carrot, choi sum (my green grocer is selling this really cheap right now)cucumber and ginger. I added some matcha to it as well. After getting dressed I made a bowl of porridge:

This was just a simple bowl made with oats and water cooked slowly on the stove top. I added a little stevia and then topped with Clearspring blueberry jam and peanut flour paste. When I added it on top I thought it started to look like a ying and yang symbol so I added the dots, I'm so mature I know ;-)

I also had a lovely coffee:

This was cinnamon and hazelnut and hit the spot!

We had our planning day in the upstairs room of a local restaurant that we usually use for team building days called Oldfields. After a morning of planning we had a delicious lunch. I started with the butterbean hummus and rapeseed oil dipping board:

I had this the last time I was here and it was delicious! For my main I just had a plate made up of various side dishes such as roast root veg, roast new potatoes and greens. I added some of the left over hummus on the side:

For dessert I had an apple and sultana compote:

Yum! After we finished our day I went and got some fruit and veg from my favourite green grocer before coming home. For dinner I made myself a big salad:

This included romaine lettuce, crumbled nori, carrot, avocado, sea veggie sprinkles, pumpkin seeds, olives and braggs liquid aminos.

Then I headed off to my new yoga class! The class was very different to what I was used to, when I have done taught yoga before it has been Ashtanga so quite brisk. This class was much, much slower paced, I didn't break a sweat at all, which I know doesn't have to be the point with yoga, but for me I think I prefer something a bit more challenging. We did do some interesting partner poses, and I did feel extremely relaxed by the end of the class. I also enjoyed this class for being a bit more spiritual. I'm not sure if I'm going to make this a regular thing, at £5 a class its not cheap. I'm thinking I might occasionally visit this class when I feel like I need chilling out!

When I got home it was getting pretty late but I was a bit hungry so I made up a 'vanilla cookie' green smoothie with spinach, romaine, cookies and cream spiru-tein powder, vanilla stevia, water and ice. I also chucked in some maca powder and a couple of chlorella tablets in for good measure:

This was delicious but unfortunately things started to go down hill from there. I ended up in bed at 9pm shivering uncontrollably even when I had a hot water bottle. That was followed by a restless night and waking up yesterday morning feeling like I'd been hit by a bus. I have no idea what it was but I haven't felt that poorly in a long time, I spent most of yesterday unable to get out of bed. Luckily I started to pick up and have been much better today although my manager has just sent me home, I hate being ill!

So I’m thinking I need to look at some other yoga class options to find something that suits me better. I’ve been looking at my gym class time table and I’m thinking of doing more juggling to find classes that will fit in with my schedule. Are you a yoga fan? What kind of yoga do you prefer?

Looking forward

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:45:00 +0000

January has been a bit of an odd month for me, not bad, just odd! I started the month by having my wisdom teeth out and that impacted on me a lot more than I had expected. I also realised that I needed to make some changes and made a plan of action to help myself get to a truly healthy place. In terms of my goals for the month I did ok:

I completed my Diet and Nutrition Course with a distinction – yey!
I got my lesson plan and costings written up for doing healthy living programmes with a local youth club. I’m just waiting to hear back from them
Gave the blog a make over!
Celebrated my 2nd blog birthday :-)
Stuck to eating whole, minimally processed foods and avoided coffee and alcohol

I didn’t stick to my yoga / meditation challenge or get much done at the garden – I’m blaming all that on having the wisdom teeth out!

As for the simpler eating, it went very well. I ended up doing a pretty intensive juice and smoothie cleanse almost by accident after having my teeth out and after that I still continued to eat lots of raw, unprocessed foods and no coffee. It made me realise how good I feel eating that way - my skin and energy levels have been amazing - especially as this time round I've been properly fuelling myself. I think that for the future this is going to be my default way of eating – I didn’t miss things like cereal, pasta or faux meats at all. Once I’ve eaten up what I have I think they'll be making a rare appearance in my diet. I can't go without coffee though, that is definitely my treat!

I’m going to do a separate post on some of the products that I’ve been using during the month (such as chlorella, aloe vera juice and honey) to help with ‘detoxing’ as I’ve really enjoyed using them and have experienced some great results.

Goals for February

Now that January is done I'm really looking forward to February, at least we are one step closer to the spring!

source

Have a great time in Brighton!
Gain 5 lbs
Get settled into my new fitness routine (see below)
Start work on the garden finally!
Cleanse my wardrobe
Register myself with the Federation of Holistic Therapists
Register my interest at becoming a tutor for the Workers Educational Association (WEA)
Start doing yoga / pilates at least 3 times a week
Get my kitchen organised and restocked with my essential ingredients

The Royal Pavilion, Brighton: source

We are off to Brighton in a few days time for a little break and I can not wait! We will be staying with my Aunt and Uncle again. I’m excited to be able to visit Aloka and all the other veg friendly eateries on offer, as well as a meet up with the fabulous Tam! I have no doubt that the visit to Brighton will help me reach that 5lb gain target, so much yummy food! I’m also going to take the opportunity to visit Infinity Foods and get stocked up on some of my favourite healthy ingredients and then sort out my kitchen. I’m going to give myself a budget to treat myself to some new bigger clothes then I’m going to cleanse my wardrobe of everything that is remotely tight fitting and put it in to storage for now.

My workout plans are also going to be different once I return from Brighton and I'm foreseeing that most weeks when I'm not working late, are going to look like this:

Monday - PM Yoga Class - taught / DVD or Podcast
Tuesday - AM Yoga podcast, PM Gym 20 min HIIT on cardio machines, Body Pump Class
Wednesday - AM Gym, 5 min warm up, Strength training from Female Body Breakthrough, 20 min HIIT bike
Thursday - PM Yoga Class
Friday - AM Gym, 5 min warm up, Strength training from Female Body Breakthrough, 20 min HIIT step machine
Weekend - REST DAY / Anything goes - 5k relaxed run, yoga, pilates, gardening, kettlebells etc

I have a post lined up looking in more detail at the Female Body Break Through book - I'm really enjoying using it to inspire my workouts!

February Sponsors

I have some wonderful sponsors for the blog this month! NukuNuku are offering a great discount on their haramaki belly bands, please check them out, especially with this cold weather we are expecting! I'd also like to welcome back Teavivre - please have a look at their website full of an amazing array of teas direct from China. Gourmet Raw are also offering a fantastic discount on their delicious raw treats - their brownies and crisps are amazing! Of course Tea Pigs are offering 20% off their Matcha until 12th February and long time sponsor Viva Pure are offering a great 7% off your first order. I have a refreshed Goodness Direct discount code as off the start of the year so if you used the last one you can now use this one too! iHerb continue to offer a saving of $5 on your first order.

I'd also like to welcome a new sponsor this month, The Flower Council of Holland:

They are promoting the benefits of having house plants, how awesome is that! I'm actually a massive fan of house plants - I have to have one in every room, so I was really delighted for them to sponsor the blog. I'll be running a great giveaway later in the month when you can win your very own house plant!

If your interested in sponsoring the blog please check out the details here.

How was January for you? Do you have any goals for February?

The Tea Pigs Matcha Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:23:00 +0000

At the start of the year I was contacted by the guys at Teapigs to see if I would be interested in taking part in the Teapigs Matcha Challenge and I jumped at the chance!

For the sake of any new readers, I'll quickly give you a bit of an update on my lifestyle. I'm active, working out 6 times a week, mostly vegan and would consider myself pretty healthy. Over Christmas I had ate quite well but had certainly indulged in a lot of richer foods and lots and lots of caffeine! For January I decided to try and eat a mostly unprocessed vegan diet and avoid coffee. I am also a big green tea fan in general. I have used matcha before and had been really impressed with its nutritional stats which are described here, so I was looking forward to re introducing it again.

How did I enjoy it?

Over the last three weeks I've had a 1/4 teaspoon serving a day in various guises:

Matcha Shot (well kind of shot, just matcha whisked up with hot water in a small glass)

Matcha smoothie - this included frozen mango and coconut water, it was delicious!

As a hot tea (I sometimes added some manuka honey for sweetness and when I was feeling like I might be coming down with a cold)

Matcha lattes: I adore these! This was made with kara coconut milk

I even made some raw matcha cookies!

To make these I combined some soaked almonds, coconut, ground flax and agave syrup in a food processor then formed cookies and dehydrated until dried. You could easily make matcha cookies or even cakes by adding some matcha to an existing recipe - I would love to try adding some matcha to a vanilla cupcake recipe!

I actually like the taste and flavour of green tea so really enjoyed the hot teas and lattes - it also goes well in porridge which I tried the last time I had some matcha but never got round to trying it this time. I also regularly added matcha to my usual green smoothies. There are more ways that you can enjoy matcha listed in these lovely recipes.

When did I take it and what effect did it have?

I tended to have my matcha when I felt like I needed a boost, especially while I was off the coffee. I had it with breakfast or mid afternoon which is when I usually find myself needing a pick me up. I'm not sure if its a bit psychological but I tended to sense more of an increase in energy when I drank it as a shot or hot tea rather than in a latte or smoothie - perhaps it gets into your blood stream quicker that way? It was especially good pre workout for giving me a little kick! I also found that I had very minimal coffee or caffeine cravings. I wasn't a massive coffee drinker anyway, but I think the matcha just helped take the edge off my tiredness sometimes as well as giving me a 'ritual' to replace the coffee making on a morning.

I can't say if matcha has helped me with regards to weight loss as that has not been my goal. What it has helped me with is making me generally feel healthier and lighter. Again, this could be psychological, but drinking something that beautiful green just makes you feel like your putting something good into your body!

Overall verdict?

I just love matcha! For me that's to do with the taste and how it makes me feel - healthy and energised. It was voted as slimming product of the year by Your Healthy Living readers, I'm not sure if taking this on its own would make a lot of difference but I think that just including it in your diet makes you more likely to make wider diet and lifestyle changes which would result in weight loss if that was your goal.

Like I said, I am such a big fan of matcha and green tea and have really enjoyed that extra daily dose of green goodness! If you'd like to try the benefits for yourself Teapigs are offering 20% off using code MATCHABLOG12 (offer valid until 12th Feb 2012), don't miss out!

Have you tried matcha? What did you think? What is your favourite way to enjoy Matcha?

My new favourite outfit and a tasty chilli!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:40:00 +0000

Hello everyone! How's your weekend going? Mine has been great, I kicked it off on Friday night by making a lovely meal. Last weekend I had cooked up some pinto beans from scratch and really fancied something warming and comforting so I came up with this delicious chilli!

Pinto Bean and Aubergine Chilli (vegan serves 2-3)

1 large onion
1 aubergine
1 pepper (I used a yellow pepper)
1 courgette
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup of tomato passata
1 cup or 1 tin of pinto beans (black beans or black eye beans would also work)
1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp of cumin
1 tbsp of cocoa powder

Begin by chopping the aubergine into cubes, putting it in a colander and sprinkling with salt to remove the bitterness. After 10 minutes fry the aubergine until it is browned, set aside. Chop the onion and fry in a little oil over a medium high heat until softened then add the pepper and the courgette chopped into pieces. Continue to fry for a few minutes then add the aubergine. Fry for 3-5 minutes then add the chopped tomatoes, passata, beans, spices and cocoa powder. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes until all the veg has softened and the tomato sauce is thick and syrupy. Serve!

I ate mine with some roast purple potatoes, steamed greens and avocado. Its the first time I've tried adding cocoa to a chilli recipe but it works very well to add depth of flavour. The purple potatoes were unusual, they roasted up lovely (I used coconut oil) but I'm not sure I'd make an effort to buy them again, I much prefer sweet potatoes!

For a late night 'snack' I made a massive bowl of popcorn with melted coconut butter:

This was delish! Other tasty eats from the weekend include yesterday mornings breakfast:

Cherry oats with cinnamon topped with tofu cream and pecans, yum!

For lunch, a smoothie made with beet greens, banana, chocolate sun warrior, maca, ground flax, berries powder, water and ice topped with massive amounts of sunflower seed butter, muesli and extra raisins:

I totally added more muesli and nut butter as I ate it off the top, so good :-)

After a 30 min treadmill run, 15 min bike and my kettle bell class, I came home this morning and devoured another Protein Buckwheat Bowl:

So loving these! I made this one with chocolate sun warrior protein powder and some almond extract then topped it with raisins and dried mixed berries, it was gorgeous. I also ate a big bowl of grapes, I was ravenous!

Oh and I have to give a quick mention to these amazing raw flat breads from Viva Pure:

These are sweet onion flatbreads and I had them with veggies, avocado and olives. They are so tasty! I'll definitely be treating myself to those again. I can't forget this lovely snack I had too:

Fresh figs with tahini, tofu cream, honey and bee pollen, it was just utterly wonderful!

Last night we went out for a meal to celebrate my Dad's and my Sister's birthday:

OOTD: jewelled necklace: Topshop, stripy tee: Topshop, buckled wide belt: Dorothy Perkins I think?, green skirt: Urban Outfitters, black tights: M&S, ankle boots with zip detail: New Look, metallic clutch bag: Accessorize, chunky ring: Topshop

I really love this outfit! I can't wait to wear this combo again, of course it features my favourite stripes and I just adore that green skirt, I think its so unusual and very 'me'!

We went to a pub called The Old Mill and I had some Spicy Vegetable Enchiladas:

Delicious! These were packed with vegetables in a spicy tomato sauce and were super filling, although I still found room for plenty of chocolate when I came home! We had a fun night looking through some old photographs of us all when we were little and my Dad when he was a teenager, it was nice to be reminded of good times.

Yesterday morning we hit the shops as I wanted to return another of the dresses I had bought in the sales to exchange for something in a bigger size, no point in kidding myself if I'm aiming to gain weight right? I am really loving all the new season fashion, the colours are great! I ended up spending a bit more than the sale dress I was returning and bought this new season dress:

Warehouse: £42

Its blue polka dot with neon coral highlights on the arms and with the belt. I love it! I also got some jeans from Primark in black and dark rinse and some cropped workout pants from TK Maxx.

Do you have a current favourite outfit?

How's your weekend been? I'm looking forward to more of that chilli for dinner this evening! I also have an interesting week ahead, tomorrow we are having a planning day for work and I'll be going to my first taught yoga class in almost a year! I have to say I'm pretty glad to be seeing the back of January next week too, I can't wait for the spring! Hope you have a good one whatever your up to!

Want to promote your blog or business?

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:33:00 +0000

Are you looking to promote your healthy living or fashion blog or brand? Sponsor Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish this February!

Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish is an up and coming healthy living blog that has recently been featured on the Channel 4 Food website and has been ranked as one of the Top 10 Health Blogs in the UK by Cisson PR.

Existing sponsors have confirmed that sponsorship has helped them to attract new readers and customers.

Sponsorship is available on a monthly basis and involves a 200x150 pixel ad for your blog or business with embedded link placed on the blog.

Don't worry if you don't have a blog button, I can design you a tailor made blog button for just £5! That’s just £10 for a month sponsorship and a tailor made blog button!

If you are interested please email me laura@keepinghealthygettingstylish.com thanks!

Thank you

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:15:00 +0000

First off I would like to say a massive thank you to for all the supportive comments to my last post. I’m pretty overwhelmed to be honest! I was so nervous about pressing the publish button but I’m glad I’ve been able to share my feelings and plans for the future. Thank you all so much for your support! I’m feeling very positive about all of these changes right now.

A couple of today’s grocery shop highlights – cans of coconut milk from the Oriental store at £1 each, purple potatoes (can’t wait to try these!) bags of dried mixed berries and dried apple pieces just 45p each!

Following on from things I’ve been treating this week as a kind of ‘transition’ week in my workouts. I haven’t started my new yoga classes yet and I’ve still done a couple of runs because I don’t want to stress my body out any more by throwing big changes of routine at it:

Sunday – 5 mile treadmill run at steady comfortable pace, Kettlebell class
Monday – Gym, 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength A from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ Phase, 20 min HIIT on bike
Tuesday – 20 min Yoga for Detox, 10 min HIIT cross trainer and step machine, Body Pump class
Wednesday – 5k treadmill run at a steady pace, 10 mins HIITs on cross trainer, step machine and bike
Thursday – Zumba Exhilarate ‘Ripped’ DVD, planks, sit ups, push ups
Friday - Gym, 5 min cross trainer warm up, strength B from Female Body Breakthrough ‘Dial It In’ Phase, 20 min HIIT on step machine

I’ve enjoyed some lovely eats this week. I had a couple of late nights at work so I went with my trusty green smoothies when I got home:

Spinach, 2 frozen bananas, hemp milk, vanilla stevia, pinch of gums, water, ice, topped with dried figs, tahini and bee pollen. (I also put in a lot of add ins – maca, ground flax, chlorella tablets, pro biotic tablet)

Black kale, frozen cherries, chocolate sun warrior protein powder, tbsp of peanut butter, water, ice topped with a sauce made from peanut flour and cacao nibs plus the add ins above.

After Body Pump on Tuesday night I made an amazing chocolate peanut butter cup recovery smoothie:

This was 2 tbsp of Vega choc-o-lot powder, 2 tbsp of peanut flour, 1 heaping tbsp of crunchy peanut butter, water, ice, gums topped with cacao nibs. Yum!

I also busted out a Gourmet Raw brownie for dessert one night:

This was the Cacao Mint and it was delish! This tasted much more like a regular brownie than other raw brownies I’ve tried before, it had a lovely fudgy texture.

I’ve also had some super breakfasts:

Vanilla protein chia seed pudding with banana, apricots, goji berries and honey plus a vanilla nut teeccino with hemp milk

Large bowl of Dorset Cereals muesli with apples and hemp milk plus a teapigs matcha green tea with manuka honey

Vanilla courgette bread oats (1/2 cup oats and oatmeal cooked stove top with water, grated courgette and vanilla sun warrior) topped with pecans, cranberries and maple syrup

For lunches and dinners I’ve had salads:

This was based on my Confetti Quinoa Salad – quinoa with red onion, cucumber, carrot, parsley, dried apricots, hemp oil, apple cider vinegar plus romaine lettuce and home grown sprouts. I had been hoping to add avocado but they didn’t ripen in time!

Today’s lunch! Spicy almond kelp noodles – raw green tea kelp noodles with carrot and courgette in a spicy sauce made from loads of home made raw almond butter, toasted sesame oil, coconut aminos (you could just use soy sauce), red chilli, ginger and sweet white miso topped off with a few goji berries, amazing!

My veggie loaf with some wonderful cauliflower mash and steamed purple sprouting broccoli, such a tasty meal!

In addition to those I’ve been snacking my little heart out all week. On Monday I bought a 200g bag of almonds and a 400g bag of raisins to snack on at work and they are almost all gone! I’ve also been eating carrots with lots of nut butter and home made raw kale chips.

Now I am feeling so ready for the weekend! Its my lovely Dad’s Birthday today (Happy Birthday Dad!) and my Sister’s tomorrow so we are going out for a bar meal to celebrate. I’m also going to finish up my ‘clean eating’ January tomorrow as I’ll be out for said meal, plus I need some coffee back in my life!

Tonight I’m going to relax by making a big pan of chilli (perfect for the cold night expected), roasting up those purple potatoes and watching movies on Netflix with a bowl of popcorn. Bliss! What do you have planned for your weekend? Hope whatever you are up to you have a good one!

Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:50:00 +0000

This is going to be one of my rambling posts, so please feel free to skip if this kind of thing bores the hell out of you, if not get comfy!

*Disclaimer – I will be discussing things that people suffering from an ED may find triggering as well as this being a generally wordy and for some, boring as hell post ;-)*

I’ve been umming and ahhing about whether I should write this post, but at the end of the day I can’t help but be a pretty open person and considering the nature of the blog I thought it would be important to share this with you.

Basically I’ve been experiencing some lady problems. I’m pretty certain that as I go on most of you will be able to read between the lines and know what I’m referring to but at this moment in time I don’t feel like spelling it all out (although I might explain this a bit more when I feel more comfortable discussing the details). I’ve been saying for a while now that I’ve shifted my mentality from that of skinny to healthy, and that is really going to be tested now!

I’ve blogged a few times in the past about my weight, here’s a link to my most recent ramblings to put things into context.

I’ve never had an eating disorder or been an unhealthy BMI, but I have been at the low end of the healthy range. After 2 months of ditching the scales I decided to bite the bullet and see where I was at. I have gained a considerable amount of weight since November! Now on one hand that’s great as most of my clothes still fit and I’m happy with the way I look although it is quite surprising how much I’ve gained from just eating when hungry and indulging in more evening snackies. My BMI is currently 21.3. It seems that despite being well within a healthy BMI my body is still out of balance. In my research on the issue I’m experiencing, it seems that two factors promote recovery: increase in BMI and a reduction of stress. As someone who was previously overweight and has lost more than one third of my body weight, it seems that I may have to get to the higher end of the healthy BMI range to make a difference (unlike women who have always been naturally slimmer, because my body’s ‘set point’ is higher).

I think what this has demonstrated to me is that I can be ‘technically’ healthy according to BMI, but not healthy for me. Clearly other women thinner and more active than me are fine, however my body is obviously not in its happy place – even though I feel great in all other respects.

Now that I feel like I’ve tackled a few of my food demons, gained weight and I’m happier with my eating I’m sure that this problem would sort itself out over time but I’m choosing to be proactive with this. I’ve decided that I’d like to increase my weight to at least a BMI of 22.5 which is a further weight gain of about 8lbs. I’m also going to really cut back my running even further. I currently run three times a week, two of which are tough treadmill runs doing speed intervals. I’m going to stop them and reduce my remaining run from 5-6 miles to 3 miles and just take it easy, or possibly ditch it altogether. I’m also going to replace a couple of workouts with yoga. I’ve already identified some yoga classes which I’m really excited about! I’m going to continue with my strength training and short HIIT workouts (not running), body pump and kettlebell classes. Diet wise I’m not going to force things but I will be eating more fats in the form of nut butters (obviously!), hummus, avocado, coconut milk, oils etc. I know that the reduction of cardio and the increase in fats should be enough to see a steady weight gain. I also can’t rule out that I may end up adding in some organic eggs and diary if I don’t see an improvement.

I have to be honest with you and say this scares the shit out of me. Gaining such a large amount of weight is damn scary, but I have to accept that my body just isn’t happy where I am right now – it seems that I’m just naturally meant to be curvier, and you know what? That’s fine. I’m happy to start and appreciate a more curvy shape, although I am in mourning for certain items in my wardrobe but I guess that’s what eBay is for!

However, there are lots of positives that come with this:

I can eat as much Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter as I like and not feel guilty – I’ve already ordered some from iHerb!
I can justify buying new clothes as I’ll need them in a bigger size – and goodness knows I love shopping!
Weekend lie ins – not dragging my arse out for a run!
Working out less means I have more time to do other things I enjoy, spending time with James, cooking more delicious things to eat and time on the allotment etc
I get to do more yoga!

I’ve never believed that you have to be super slim and a runner to be healthy and I need to keep reminding myself of this – my mission is to be the healthiest and happiest I can be and that is what is going to drive me forward. I also need to put things into perspective, even at a BMI of 23, I’m not going to be fat or unhealthy and its a vast improvement from where I was when I was almost 15 stone. I did feel this awful pressure, here I am calling myself a healthy living blogger and being in magazines as a ‘healthy hero’ and I’ve gained weight and will not be running. Then I realised something … if anything I’m more a healthy hero now than ever, I’m accepting something has to change for me to be truly healthy even when that is going to make me uncomfortable.

I’m aiming to be a strong, sexy, curvy, bendy, yoga goddess by the end of this! ;-) Anyone that follows me on Pinterest may have noticed I’ve been pinning a lot of curvy body and yoga inspiration to help me feel good about these changes too. Here’s a few of my faves:

1,2,3,4,5,6

Bring it on!

So yes, there are going to be some changes for me but I hope that you are all happy to keep on reading and joining me on this part of my healthy living journey!

WIAW–A different day

noreply@blogger.com (Laura) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:17:00 +0000

Hello everyone, hope your having a great week! I can’t believe its Wednesday already. I thought for WIAW this week I’d give you a different day for a change, so this is what I ate on Sunday.

My eating on a weekend does differ from my weekday eating as I feel like I have a little more time to prepare things (such as juicing), plus I tend to eat a bit more on a weekend – being home and in the kitchen I can’t help it! I love Sundays for being able to enjoy a nice lie in. I got up at 8am (yes, 8am is a lie in for me!) and had the usual mug of warm water with lemon juice and a banana:

I headed to the gym for it opening at 9am and did a little over 5 miles on the treadmill just running at a nice comfortable pace. Then I went into the Kettlebell class which I’m still really enjoying! I’m trying to balance out my breakfasts a bit so that I’m not having as many green smoothies so I made up something a bit different post workout:

Protein Buckwheat Bowl (vegan, serves 1)

1/2 cup of raw buckwheat soaked overnight then drained and rinsed
1 scoop of protein powder of choice (I used vanilla sun warrior)
1 tbsp of ground flax
Water or non dairy milk (enough to create a creamy consistency)

Combine all ingredients together in a bowl, adding a slow stream of water until a creamy texture is reached. Serve with fruit, nut butter or whatever your heart desires. I also added some maca and mesquite powder to mine and topped with a generous serving of tahini and Clearspring blueberry jam. It was utterly delicious, the jam and tahini went so well together! Buckwheat is also a great source of protein so even if you left out the protein powder and just used non diary milk it would be very nutritious. I also had a mug of black vanilla nut teeccino:

A bit later I was ready for some lunch. Last week I had been spent some samples from Gourmet Raw to review including these raw crisps:

I made up a snack plate with some home made raw cheesy kale chips, Gourmet Raw red pepper crisps, carrot, cucumber and basil, hemp and pine nut pesto for dipping. I also had a pink lady apple on the side:

Those crisps were fantastic! They reminded me of those ‘squares’ crisps you can get, but healthy and much, much more tasty. I think I have a new addiction! You can get 10% off your first order from Gourmet Raw with code GR001, check it out!

Late afternoon I made my usual weekend green juice:

This contained cucumber, celery, parsley, ginger and lemon. I also had a large bowl of grapes.

For dinner I decided to make use of some brussel sprouts. I know they won’t be in season for much longer and I love them so much so I want to make the most of them! I made them in my favourite way – stir fried with maple syrup, pecans and cranberries. In fact I love them like this so much I thought I’d note down the recipe!

Maple Pecan Stir Fried Brussel Sprouts (makes 1 – 2 servings)

About 2 cups of brussel sprouts
1/2 tbsp of coconut oil (or oil of choice)
2 tbsp of pecans
2 tbsp of dried cranberries
2 tbsp of maple syrup
1 tbsp of shoyu or soy sauce

Toast your pecans if desired in a dry pan over a medium high heat, set aside. Chop the ends of the sprouts and finely shred them with a knife or food processor. Heat the coconut oil over a high heat in a large pan or wok. Add the sprouts and stir fry for about 10 minutes until they have softened and started to turn brown and crispy. Add the maple syrup and shoyu and toss to combine. Continue stir frying for a couple of minutes so the maple syrup caramelises. Chop the pecans and add to the pan with the cranberries then serve:

I had the brussel sprouts alongside some parsnip chips and some grilled basil tofu. This was delicious! Without a doubt my fave way to enjoy sprouts.

For dessert I had half a bar of RAW Health Very Cherry Chocolate and three fresh apricots:

I also enjoyed a mug of my new licorice and cinnamon tea:

Before bed I snacked on some of these salted chocolate kale chips as they came out of the dehydrator:

So delicious, I have a big bowl full for a snack at work later today!

Does your eating differ on a weekend to how you usually eat during the week? In what way? I definitely snack more on a Friday and Saturday evening than during the week!

I’m in love with that Protein Buckwheat bowl, I really prefer raw buckwheat to cooked buckwheat. Have you tried buckwheat before, what did you think?