Fitness Friday: Food Cheats

Hello there! Apologies for the super late post today - I didn't get home from work until 10.30 last night. Writing posts in the week is getting harder and harder!

I don't know about you but regardless of how hard i work at the gym I need to keep my diet in check with good food and staying strict.

Any kind of cheat is helpful, and a food cheat is even better right?? Here's a few things to add to your diet to help your body throughout your fitness journey:

1) Coconut oil. Probably listed in every 'must have' list of foods for the fit and healthy, coconut oil really is a wonder food. You can use it to cook with, on toast, in cakes and generally you can smother yourself in it too! 

Adding this to a protein shake will boost your metabolism and elevates growth hormones,so this stuff simultaneously burns fat and builds muscle. Sounds pretty super to me!

2) Cottage cheese. I love this stuff, its really versatile. You can use it in salads (it then doubles up as dressing too), and as a replacement for cheese on top of pasta bakes for some melted stringy goodness. It's high in protein, low in fat and high in calcium so it packs a good punch into your body as it is, helping you to boost muscle mass. I also find it easy to snack on too, straight from the fridge with a spoon....the one with pineapple is the best!

3) Cinnamon, cayenne pepper and ginger. They all have a thermogenic effect, i.e. they increase your bodies temperature and therefore its metabolism and fat burning level. Adding cayenne pepper to savoury food and cinnamon to sweet food you can boost your fat burning rate, who doesn't love cinnamon on things?? I'll be adding this to my protein pancakes for sure!

4) Quinoa. Long have I been eating this amazing grain, higher in protein than others it can double its magic by being your carb portion and adding more protein to your meal.Not only can it be used in salads but also to replace rice and pasta and even oats. I regularly cook a bag and store it in the fridge and use it in whatever I want throughout the week - replacing my oats with greek yogurt and fruit, in salads and also to make my own version of egg fried rice.

Try swapping some of these foods into your diet and see what happens! I will be trying to add cinnamon to my diet as I can't stand cayenne pepper....!

Do you have any other suggestions to add to this list?


L xxx

Fitness Friday: Motivation and Inspiration

Evening!

I didn't plan anything for this weeks Fitness Friday post so this is an impromptu post written after a long hard week at work and with a full tummy after my tea of poached eggs, beans and mushrooms. It was exactly the comfort food I was looking for and I managed to forgo any toast so it was all in all a healthy meal. I may treat myself to some greek yogurt later too!

I though I'd give a general update and try to inspire myself and hopefully others too to get back on track. Last weekend I had some bad news which left me feeling quite rubbish, not only that but work has been getting me down for a few months and with lots of people off on Easter holidays with their kids I knew it wasn't going to get any easier. I spent the majority of my weekend sleeping as I genuinely couldn't get up, I was 'exhausted' I suppose, physically and mentally. This meant I did the best thing possible; I ate healthily and slept as much as I could whilst forgoing any exercise of any kind. It was the best thing, although I was tired going back to work on Tuesday I managed to survive the day which seemed impossible initially.

I've been getting quite bored with my exercise routine and meals. I am always looking for new things but my serious lack of funds restricts my capability to go out and try rock climbing, canoeing and every other outdoors task that I would just love to try. Even though I need to keep adding distance to my runs I find running so boring and its ten times more of a mental battle with me. I'm so proud when I complete a run but its like climbing Everest to get myself going!

Because of this I have instead started to search online a lot more, reading articles and peoples posts on other fitness and meal ideas. I thought I'd share some of the things I've been reading and what has inspired me to change a few things and get myself back on track. Enjoy!

1) Emily Skye - if you haven't heard of her already then a quick google will show you everything you need to know. She's gorgeous, has the BEST accent and is super friendly, how much do you want to be her?

Her amazing set of abs and arms are what makes me particularly want to be like her. If I could ever get halfway to having a body is beautiful as hers I'd be so happy, which is why i have bought her Ab Shred program when it was on offer a few weeks ago .

I plan on following as much of the meal plan as much as I possibly can and incorporating some of her ab exercises into my routine to blast more ab fat. I'm sure I'll dedicate a whole post to this program soon but in the mean time you can check her out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and her website itself by searching on Emily Skye. She has the normal shred and a specific ab shred for you to choose from.

2) The Tone It Up girls. Who hasn't heard of these absolutely stunning girls before? Beautiful and lean beach bodies, they're the perfect motivation to get bikini ready and right now they're allowing you to sign up for their Bikini Series for FREE! You can find more information on their site HERE but also you only need to type Tone It Up or KarenaKatrina into the search boxes on instagram, twitter or just about anything to find them. Serious bikini envy!

(I've signed up for their bikini series so you should make sure you get involved too!)

3) Chocolate Covered Katie - a SERIOUSLY amazing healthy dessert blog, Katie is an absolute genius who seems to have converted all of my favourite treats into perfectly acceptable recipes. Why would you EVER consider giving up desserts when you have people like Katie to create healthy versions for you?!

I can see me spending a lot of my weekend on that website! Not only are her recipes amazing but she has also calculated all of the nutritional info for each of them, now you know EXACTLY how many calories and how much your macros are in each serving.

4) Peanut Butter Fingers - It was love at first sight even with the name of the website, any girl that thinks its ok to stick her fingers in a jar of PB for a snack is ultimately my best friend. Written by Julie the blog is designated for general lifestyle, food and fitness and as a writer and a personal trainer (with a gorgeous dog called Sadie) I can see me wanting to experiment with her recipes and her love of Body Pump is almost on par with mine! Though I imagine she lifts a better weight than i do ha. Trust me, you'll get sucked in by her enthusiasm too!

5) Oh She Glows - My last blog link goes to Angela of Oh She Glows. She's a write of a vegan food blog with to die for recipes, Instant Chocolate Chia Pudding anyone?? Not only are they dairy and meat free but most are also free from gluten, soy and processed foods which sounds pretty damn good to me. 

Her photography is pretty epic in itself (I love a good photo and when it's of food it rates highly with me!) but she also has a list of popular recipes if you're overwhelmed by choice. Not to mention she's award winning and has her own cookbook out, I mean how much more inspirational can you get!

So how gorgeous are all of those ladies?? If that doesn't motivate you i do not know what will.

I hope these links have inspired you during a dull and dreary time. The weather here has been rather grey again and suiting my mood, but tomorrow I vow to be back on it and working hard for my weigh in with my trainer in 10 days time (EEK).

I've signed up for a body pump class at 9am and I already know I'll be having pancakes to start my day, after that with these new sites to drool over....who knows?!

Have you tried the Ab Shred or the Tone it Up programs before? Do you have an favourite recipes from Katie, Julie or Angela?

Is there anyone else you can recommend for me to read? I'd love to see some more!

L xxx

Fitness Update

Hello!

I thought I'd start today's Fitness Friday off with my own personal fitness review. A few weeks ago i attended a session with my trainer and I'd been working so hard to get a few pounds off. 

If you've never read a fitness post of mine before then let me fill you in. I'm 5ft 9 so quite tall for a female and a few years ago I weighed a little more than I do now. A few years of uni binge drinking and late night take aways meant I'd piled on about 14-20 lbs (I'm unsure exactly as I've never been someone who weighed herself).

Due to stress i found myself feeling ill after every meal and kept getting stomach cramps so I ended up changing my diet completely cutting out crap food, dairy and bread, and citrus fruits as they were too acidic for me. I lost 17lbs and ever since have been OBSESSED with food in a good way and I absolutely love going to the gym, planning my meals, and generally eating as who doesn't love that?

Obviously i love a binge like everyone else but I've totally changed my lifestyle over time and now i don't crave bad food unless I'm hungover, I combat stress with exercise and I'm generally enthusiastic about the whole thing, reading and researching new foods, recipes and workout routines.

However as with all stories that go along this line, even with my relatively healthy diet and regular exercise, usually 4/5 times a week I've been finding it hard to shift some pounds. I'm not overweight by any means, my BMI is 22 and I regularly do weights so probably have more muscle than others but I'm really conscious of trying to get my fat % down. 

I actually can't remember my specific percentage as my trainer keeps it all recorded for me, but i was OVER THE MOON when I had lost 3lbs of fat the last time I was weighed. It was a huge confidence booster and I was so unbelievable happy.

I've got a long way to go to getting where I want to be as I'd like to lose a further 10lbs of fat before the summer but I'm clearly doing something right this time.

Moving on from that my trainer also gave me my new program which is AMAZING! I'm so into it at the moment that I could scrap all my classes and running just to do it, but I need to keep up my stamina in the others too.

This routine incorporates box step ups with weights, mountain climbers, lunges and lat raises with weights, and squat and press with weights.

In total I use the cross trainer, bike, rower and treadmill for short bursts of cardio and i also have a circuit of exercises to do using TRX which I repeat three times.

It's an all over body blast and although i love it it does take a considerable amount of time. Sometimes i have to cut out the third circuit of TRX exercises because there just isn't enough time during the week.

How have your fitness routines been going lately? Have you got any new programs you'd like to share?

Do you have any running tips for increasing distance to 10 miles plus?

I'd love to hear any of them!

L xxx

Fitness Fridays: Cafe Pure Cardiff

Hey there!

This week's fitness friday post is a little different as me and M went to a local cafe this week that has been getting so many good reviews. Cafe Pure can be found right next to the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff Bay and is dedicated to serving healthy and protein rich foods

First off, apologies for the lack of pictures of the place itself, its a very clean looking white and grey shop/seating area with wheatgrass growing down the middle of the bench tables, how cool!

By the time we finally got there and ordered we were so hungry we couldn't contain ourselves so you should think yourself lucky we have any pictures at all!

The menus are pretty simple, easy to read and set out in sections depending on the time of day and what you're after. It was a hard choice picking a meal knowing we could only have the one, we're going to have to go back and try everything else over the next few months!



Not only is it a super healthy menu with easy ways to customise your meal they've got everything broken down into macro nutrients at the side of each dish, absolutely love this!
Makes it so easy to decide what you want based on what you want to feed your body and not just what you want with your eyes (which by the way was EVERYTHING as we walked through seeing everyone elses food)





It took a little while but as we'd missed the breakfast slot (next time pancakes you are mine!) we settled on a Hot Box and a Power Shake to satisfy our hunger. We were tempted by the absolutely huge and tasty looking salads but as it was horrible weather outside we decided we both needed something warmer instead.

In true style of ourselves we ended up getting the exact same food and shake, although I chose chicken and M had steak.



Once you've ordered you're given a dumbell as your order number to take back to the table, its little things like this that makes the place what it is and everyone was so friendly and helpful there. The staff were all super smiley, beautiful and tanned which just makes us want to spend even longer there, surely the food will make us look like them right?!



Onto our actual meals, this was the power shake:



A whizzed up mix of banana, peanut butter, almond milk, ice and chocolate protein powder.
It was absolutely divine and not a patch on anything I've made myself, I've been dreaming about it ever since and need to get another one soon.
As a firm fan of the definitely not so healthy Ed's Diner shakes I can honestly say I prefer the taste of this one which is better all round really!




M decided to eat hers so fast there was no chance of getting a picture of the steak hot box, but here is the grilled chicken version - I'm much more restrained:



It was super tasty, the teriyaki sauce was the perfect portion for the meal and as a self confessed sauce lover I definitely need to remember the portion size of this as I think it's my downfall!
The homemade slaw was also really good and contained a good mix of seasonal veg.

All in all it was a filling, tasty, healthy meal and both the hot box and the shake came to a total of £9. I think the meal was worth every penny and will certainly be going back for more.

They have tonnes of stuff on their menu I'd like to try including pretty much all of the salads, the steak and eggs, blueberry pancakes and anything else involving peanut butter! They also have wheatgrass shots which I've never tried but will have to just to see what they are like.
For a menu that contains everything i could ever want at decent prices I will certainly be making a return........very soon.


The only downside I can see to this place is the opening hours. Open from 7.30-3 Monday to Friday and 9-1 on a Saturday means that for people like myself I could only ever visit on a Saturday due to my working hours. I'd love to take friend there for a healthy meal during the week and I bet it would make a roaring trade on a Sunday with visitors to the bay especially over the summer. Pretty please Cafe Pure can you extend these hours?!
It is not surprising that this place was very busy when we were then on an average Friday lunchtime, imagine what it could be like in the future.

Have you tried Cafe Pure yet? Are you into healthy meals and reading macro contents?

I need to study this menu and incorporate it into my diet for my training for Tough Mudder, or maybe I'll just move in!

L xxx

Fitness Fridays: Meal Prep

Hey lovelies!

Hope you're looking forward to the weekend, I'm out for a birthday meal with some friends and then spending mother's day with my mum, 2 aunties and my nan for a shopping trip, the best kind of mother's day!

This week's Fitness Friday post is dedicated to Meal Preparation.

Again, I'm no nutritionist or dietitian but I do believe I eat a healthy and balanced diet. One of the main things that my work colleagues always say to me is 'how do you make lunch like that in the morning?' 'how do you have the time?' and then rattle off excuses of like 'it's hard to keep fresh ingredients in the house' etc etc etc.

There are SO many ways you can still eat healthily and really it is a poor excuse to say that you don't have time and can't keep fresh food in the house, and I'm hoping this will show you how.

1) Make better use of your freezer. I know that most fruits and vegetables are better fresh, but you can buy bags of frozen berries for smoothies, sweetcorn and soya beans for salads, and peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower etc for evening meals.

There is no way you can't find room in your freezer for a variety of these bags of fruit and veg and incorporate them into meals and snacks. Apart from if you've done the next step....

2) Choose and prepare your meals in advance. 

I know those days that you don't know what you want to eat, you've had a long day and want something comforting. 

I do live at home with my parents currently (just can't seem to get away!) so I'm lucky that my mum prepares amazing food. But when I lived out I spent 1 day a week making up meals for the week and separating them into portions. I'd refrigerate some and freeze the others, taking out a meal in the morning from the freezer when I needed to. 

It's the easiest way to have some 'fast food' knowing that you only have to cook some potato, rice, pasta etc and knowing that what you're eating is healthy and nutritious. It is hard work to do it this way, but being organised is the only way I can guarantee that I won't eat rubbish and fall off the wagon.

You can buy plastic tupperware to put meals into from places like asda or Tesco, or you can have one last Chinese/Indian takeaway and keep all of the plastic pots from that ;)




3) Make use of your cupboards and have tinned food at the ready. Tinned food always has a super long use by date.
In my cupboard we have tuna, chick peas, mixed bean salad and a fair few varieties of other beans.
All of these can be added to lunches and salads and doesn't need any special treatment for storing, and if you're running low on meat, chickpeas etc can be added to pasta, chilli and casserole dishes to bulk it out with protein and make it feel more filling.



I also have plenty of pasta, rice, noodles, cous cous and quinoa (wholegrain varieties of course!) in the cupboard and these can be added to the meals that you can heat up whenever you require.

It is a pain, there's no doubt about that, but its cheaper, less wasteful and guarantees you a decent meal that's going to fill you up and satisfy your cravings and hunger without sacrificing your hard work at the gym.



4) Spare some room in your fridge with easy foods that you can grab and go. Packets of chicken, pots of cottage cheese, even babybel for an easy bit of protein. I personally rarely eat cheese from cows milk as I'm dairy intolerant but I do love feta and mozzarella on occasion. Boiled eggs can also be kept in your fridge for a good amount of time and they're easy to snack on and add to salads with tuna and chicken.



Tomatoes and bags of salad leaves and spinach are also easy to grab to add to lunches.
When I make my lunch I honestly pour in chicken or tuna, grab tomatoes and sweetcorn/soya beans from the freezer, fill the rest of the lunch box with leaves and put salt and pepper on. Lunch sorted in 2 mins flat!


Do you follow a similar sort of thing to this for your meal plans? Do you pack your lunch the night before and prepare your meals on weekends?

L xxx

Fitness Fridays: Top Tips for Changing your Diet into a Lifestyle (1)

Hello!

A different type of post for today's 'fitness friday' theme. You can see the other posts I've written with this theme so far on this link.

Sometimes when talking to other people about losing weight, eating healthily and trying to get fit there are a lot of things we set ourselves that make it completely unrealistic to achieve which means you fail and more often than not end up going back to square one or worse.

Over the last few years I've slowly changed my diet and lifestyle which is how I believe I've been successful in losing some weight, getting fitter and maintaining it. So I thought today's post might be helpful to list a few things that I've found have made a huge difference and you could maybe try adding a different one each week or try something that you haven't before to try and make a difference.
I'm no fitness coach or nutritionist but I've found these have helped me, and maybe they'll help you too. I've split this up so there's 5 this week and 5 next week so it's not like reading an essay!

1) Never skip breakfast. This is my biggest hate, when people moan they're not losing weight when in reality their body is in slow mode because they didn't kick start it in the morning. Eat a banana if that's the only thing you can do but I'm a person that hates breakfast and I manage to eat it every morning at 6am so no excuses that there's not enough time in the mornings! Make time!
You have to train yourself but start with a piece of fruit and add in a yogurt or toast until you can eat a decent sized breakfast. This won't make you put on weight (as long as its decent food) but will kickstart your metabolism in the morning for the rest of the day.

2) Try and resist a snack in the evenings. The last thing you want to do is be really good all day and then ruin it by attacking the ice cream, crisps or chocolate at 9pm when you've got minimal chance of burning it off so it will be stored as fat. If you've been to the gym late and are having your meal late then that's fair enough, or if you are genuinely hungry try and eat some greek yogurt or something with nutritional value rather than going straight to the sweet cupboard. If you've got a sweet tooth try having a hot chocolate instead, Options do one for 42 calories per cup. Or if in doubt, clean your teeth, it will help to take the taste of sweet foods away.

3) Emotional eating - we've all been there, long hard day at work, stuck in traffic, plans are cancelled because of bad weather and you just feel crappy so you go straight to the cookie jar.
I read a quote once that was something along the lines of 'do not reward yourself with food, you are not a dog'.
I'm pretty sure we all understand that quote, filling yourself with stodgy carbs and high fat will only make you feel worse health wise and you'll feel guilty which will probably mean that you'll also decide to give up and 'try again on Monday'. Diets do not only start on Monday's, appreciate the day has been a useless one and start again in the morning, that's why there is more than one day in the week.

4) Change one meal at a time - by this I mean change breakfast or start eating breakfast, swap your crisps for fruit, chips for vegetables. If you vow to change your diet overnight it will NEVER happen. Give yourself some time to change everything and it will become habit. Change one meal or snack each week and don't forget to have a cheat meal every week so you can have a bit of what you really want without ruining your efforts.

5) Sleep! Apparently a study has shown (cannot find the source sorry) that most repair happens between 10 and 12 midnight so to maximise your body's repair you need to be asleep at this time. Not sure how true that is but we all know that 8 hours a night is the optimum time for sleeping, no longer or you'll feel sluggish and no less or you won't have recovered from the day before. I have to be up early for work anyway so an early night is usually a standard thing, but even if you're in bed earlier relaxing then that's a start.

Hopefully some of these tips will help you, I will be continuing this post next week with the second 5 tips that I've found helpful.

What would your number one tip be for changing a diet into a lifestyle? Are you a breakfast lover or skipper?

L xxx

Fitness Update

Morning everyone!

Hope you're having a great week so far. I am spending today with my mum at Swindon's Shopping outlet as we need to get a load of birthday presents for family members.....and I can't guarantee I won't pick up a little something for myself too! I need to be good though and hopefully not pick up any more than 1 product....

Anyway, my main reason for posting today is to give you an update on my fitness plans and goals so i hope I don't bore you too much with my waffling on but it's as big a part of my life now as blogging is and I'm sure I'll be mentioning it a lot in future.

I would imagine we've all been on a bit of a health kick after the gluttonous Christmas period and kicking up the exercise a notch was my first priority. I've put together a plan for myself to kick my metabolism back into action, drop the few (!) extra pounds I put on over Christmas and get myself fit and ready for the challenges I've set myself this year.

Let's list these first:

1) 10km run on March 1st
2) Dirty Dozen on June 22nd
3) Tough Mudder August 16th
4) Cardiff Half Marathon October 5th (this is provisional...depends on how TM goes!)

These are the physical tasks I've set myself this year. I'm not a runner by any stretch of the imagination but I've started on the treadmill so that I can force myself to learn! I need to increase my distance so that i can reach 10km by March, and increase this slowly to 20km for TM in August.

If you don't know what Tough Mudder (TM) and Dirty Dozen races are then give them a quick google....basically they're both obstacle courses that require you to run a certain distance and then also tackle a number of obstacles. These range from climbing walls, swimming through ice, running through fire and getting electrocuted all before a free pint and a big party!
They sound very fun and a massive challenge for me as I'd never run further than 5km before let alone completed any obstacles like this.


My current plan is the following:

Monday - Body Combat. This will help with cardio as it burns around 750 calories per class and will help me strengthen my leg and core muscles without high impact like running does. Plus i really enjoy it!

Tuesday-Friday - Gym program. I have one at the moment which is great but I'm planning on meeting with my trainer to update my program and therefore get some new exercises related to TM training. I will need some serious upper body and core strength to get me through it! I plan on going to the gym to do this program with 20 minutes on the cross trainer or a run twice during the week.

Saturday - Body Pump. I love this class and it will hopefully help me increase the weights i can use and therefore get stronger, i just need to be committed enough to increase my weights each week!

Sunday - Run day! Sunday's will be dedicated to an outdoor run around the parks near my house. This means I will be running outside in daylight instead of on a treadmill as it's currently too dark to do this when I've finished work at the moment. As the nights get lighter again I'll be running outside in the evenings.


Having been doing this loose plan for 2 weeks I can say that it is hard but achievable to go 5 times a week if you plan your life and put the effort into it whilst you are there. It's hard to be motivated all the time especially when you don't see any results. I've been trying to eat more veg than fruit recently and have been having soup instead of fruit on my morning breaks to fill me up. That combined with increasing my water intake and I've been feeling like a beached whale!

Luckily my body has got used to it not and hopefully I'll start seeing some results soon.


Aside from these challenges I am hoping that it will help me lose about 1 stone (14lbs) and tone up my arms and core where I could do with being a bit less wobbly! I'd like to be comfortable in a bikini in case the situation where I need to wear one arises!

If any of you have some tips for my diet or exercise plans, or anything that will help me in my quest to survive TM then I'd be grateful. If you have any challenges you've set yourself this year please share them with me below, I'd love to know of any others and of your plans :)

L xxx

Countdown to 'Class of 2012' (4)

So after my really good pledge to lose weight/tone up a few weeks ago, in order to look good at graduation I was full of the best intentions.

However after an alcohol fueled Halloween week causing me to miss last week's weigh in due to my horrific hangover and also a plethora of interviews to attend I've been pretty bad at going to the gym and eating healthily.

For those who follow us on twitter, you'll know that I got one of the jobs I was interviewed for and now work in Boots (hurrah!).

This means I have been sooooooooooooooooooooo busy this week starting I haven't had chance to think much about what I've been eating and keep forgetting to weigh before I eat.

However I have remembered to do it this week and ......... I have stayed the same.

This doesn't bother me too much, I'd rather maintain than gain so hopefully ill lose something over the next few weeks!

I have ended up buying some meal deals and also taking some pasta salads etc with me.

As my shifts are at random times it's a little hard to plan my meals and I'm hoping it will become easier when I have set shifts and know what I'll be doing with my day.

Do you have any tips for me about how to cope with random meal times and rushed breaks?

In order to cope with attempting to tone up, I have also upgraded my membership so that I can turn up to the gym whenever which increases my chances greatly of actually turning up!

I'm hoping next week will run smoother as I now have 5.5 weeks until graduation which is not a lot of time at all!

I need to find a dress too eek!

Do you have any other tips for me??

L xxx

Blogger unite to lose weight

This week I've well and truely lost it. I've been so tired all the time and just wanting bad food. I've also had no motivation to exercise as I've been tired and achey. I've just finished week 6 of my journey and think I just needed a break last week.

I still tried to eat well during the week. But exercise wasn't happening. I've been struggling to run lately. I went out on Monday and could only manage 20 minutes so came home and did sit ups and weights. Tuesday I just did sit ups and weight. With my holiday just over a week away I feel the weights work may be more beneficial for me. I've lost 11lbs but still feel big in all the same places.

I did gain 0.4lbs this week when I weighed on Tuesday. I did expect this as last week contained a lot of occasions for cake in work. And a girly night in with L. To be honest I'm pleased it wasn't more.

On Monday I decided to push myself and try to get back into it even though I was tired. But by Tuesday evening I was hit with another set back. As I walked back from the shops I had someone try to rob my phone. I was lucky I didn't give up my phone or get hurt really. But it left me more upset than I expected to be from it and with a sore foot which meant running wasn't going to happen this week.

It's onwards and upwards now though. I'm going to stick to it when I can and hopefully set myself a new goal soon. I always thought gettin down to 10 stone would be the weight I was happy with but as I edge nearer I want to lose more.

I'm hoping my holiday will relax me and when I come back I'll feel the push more. I'm really looking forward to being able to swim daily whilst on holiday as I really enjoy swimming.

So where am I heading for the next week. I need to find a new route to run. Where I had the guy grab my phone is where I always run. I'm thinking I may run through town now. I think runs will go faster through the town and be more distracting. I'm going out on Saturday night so bad food will he consumed. I'm going to try to do a lot of exercise to make up for this. My lovely parents are coming to visit tonight so that's involving a meal out. I'm emailing restaurants to get calorie counts so I can hopefully pick well and will have low calorie breakfast and lunch to be on the safe side.

Very rambly all over the place with this update. I've really lost my mojo at the moment though and hope I find my inspiration again soon and can push myself.

Don't forget to check out

http://www.fashionfloozy.co.uk/?m=1 

and

http://hollys-beauty-box.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

For their updates. Hope they've had a better week than me. I'm hoping to get to 14lb total loss by my holiday. Not sure it'll happen but we will see.

Love M

Xxx

(Done on my phone so sorry if the photos are all over the place. No recipe this week but a sneak into my food diary.)

Bloggers Unite to Loose Weight No2

So 1 week has passed since my First post, found here if you fancy a read.

This week has been up and down for me if I'm honest. I seem to keep having busy weekends (not a bad thing) but I struggle to be good when I'm out with friends and celebrating.

This weekend was a huge one for me. One of my closest friends from home got engaged! I was so excited I spent Friday night making her a wedding planner so I skipped dinner and traded it for a peanut butter corenetto! It was amazing.

For me now I'm trying to be good during the week so at weekends I can let myself relax a bit. This seems to be working for me as I don't excessively over indulged at the weekend.

During the week if I crave something I have it.....But if it's bad for me I make sure I exercise enough to burn it off. On Tuesday I couldn't get fish and chips out of my head. So I went for a run with my debit card in hand and told myself unless I ran for 40 minutes I wasn't having it. I'm quite bad at bribing myself with things to exercise but it works for me.

Exercise

Exercise is now becoming a battle. I'm running further which I love but I'm now finding my hips are so painful it's stopping me going further rather than my fitness. I think a trip to the doctor is needed soon for a check up and maybe some new trainers. I was hoping I could last till Christmas without trainers but I'm not sure that's the case.

Food

Last week I picked up the hairy dieters cook book and for anyone dieting or trying to eat better I can not recommend it enough. It is full of amazing recipes. Most are pretty easy to cook too.

For me food wise the best thing I can do is eat as much food that I cook myself as possible. I tend to do a huge shop then cook a lot for a week and freeze a lot of meals so that when I'm lazy I'm not grabbing a frozen pizza or take away. I used to eat a lot of take away.

The hairy bikers have an amazing sweet and sour chicken meal which comes in around 450 calories with rice but today I wanted to share with you Chinese Yuk Sung. It's such an amazing dish and with the lettuce comes in at under 250 calories!! I've given this recipe to so many people and the hardest thing is chopping some veg. 

I'm finding Chinese a popular food choice to cook as their meals are reasonably low cal when cooked yourself.

Ingredients needed sorry for the blurry photo. I always use white wine vinegar for it as it's what I keep in the house.

To start with spray a non stick pan with fry light and crush the garlic into it. Add the grated ginger and finely chop the spring onions and add. 

Finely chop carrots (I tend to grate them as I like them small) celery and chop the water chestnuts in half.

Turn the heat to medium and gently fry the garlic, and spring onions for a few minutes. Then add the minced pork and cook until the pork is sealed.

Once the pork is sealed add the chopped carrots, celery and water chestnuts and cook for 4 - 5 minutes.

Next add the vinegar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornflour and Worcestershire sauce

Cook for a further two minutes until  vegetables are soft and meat is cooked (I forgot to add sweetener today and tasted no difference)

Spoon a quarter of the mixture onto a bed of iceberg lettuce or into little gem lettuce leafs.

Weight loss

This week even with a naughty weekend (yet again) I lost another 1lb. I'm happy with this as I'm still getting to enjoy my food while gradually losing weight and I'm hoping to adopt a healthier life style now more than a diet.

One thing I'm really noticing now is my jeans feeling baggy. I'm pretty sure that only started this week. So far I've found it frustrating that the scales were saying I'd lost the weight but I didn't feel it. Though I still look in the mirror and I'm not seeing much shred from my stomach and bum it's nice to have my jeans feel loser and it's pushing me more.

So that's this weeks update. Hope you liked the recipe in it. Would you like to see more healthy ones? How is your weight loss going if you're trying?

Love M

xxx

Don't forget to check out some of the other lovely bloggers doing this challenge

http://www.fashionfloozy.co.uk/

http://www.hollys-beauty-box.blogspot.co.uk/