Cliff Bar Energy Bar

Hey All

A few weeks ago L and I were contacted to see if we wanted to try out some Cliff Bars as they'd also launched a new flavour for spring Coconut Chocolate Chip. As we both love these type of bars as a treat or pre/post gym snack we couldn't wait to try them. I was especially excited as I've currently got a thing for coconut. 

These are different from the normal bars we have like trek and bounce balls as the texture was more cakey due to them being made out of rolled oats. We both love porridge in the mornings so really enjoyed this texture. It also makes it feel more like a cake treat which is always a bonus. 

Cliff bars are great for workouts as they are packed with protein (10 grams in the coconut one) and carbohydrates to help sustain energy during long extensive work outs or they're great for pre workout boost. I know L has especially liked having them in between work and the gym. They're also packed with vitamins that contribute to the release of energy in the body.

We were sent a selection to try pit and none of them disappointed. I'm especially a fan of the chocolate coconut flavour and it's also made using dairy free chocolate! I've mainly enjoyed having half a bar as a snack in the day to fill me up when I'm feeling especially peckish!!

Clif bars are available from lots of places on the highstreet now including boots (it's a snack in the meal deal as well), asda and tesco and they retail for £1.60 each. I've been and grabbed extras since as I need to try the white chocolate macadamia one.

Do you have energy bars as snacks or pre gym workouts?

Love M

xxx

Fitness Friday: Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars

Hi there!

I've been a bit more adventurous with food recently - not that I've been eating weird things but just trying to vary it a bit more than usual.
I've been doing well making eggs with veggies for breakfast and replacing usual carbs with quinoa and cauliflower rice, but snacking is something i need to work on.

I found this recipe on The Daily Hiit blog (link here) and after reading it i knew that I had to try it.

I'm by no means a baker - I am so much better at cooking meals and proper food, when it comes to cakes I am (luckily!) rubbish so don't generally bother.
This recipe however involves no baking whatsoever, its a freezer only type bake - winning.



Here's the main ingredients - almond milk, protein powder, almond meal, coconut oil and peanut butter.
For the topping you need coconut oil and chocolate chips - as well as some kind of chopped or flaked nuts for sprinkling on top.
(For amounts you can read the original recipe, i won't bore you with that!)





Melting the ingredients in a microwave took about 1.5 minutes with regular stirring. I'm always wary of using the microwave to melt things but this didn't seem to cause any issues.

Adding in the dried powders and mixing thoroughly gave a batter type mixture that easily filled the square tin. So far so good, no issues and nothing that i can do wrong:





Next you just have to melt the coconut oil and chocolate chips together to create a super glossy mixture that you just want to dunk marshmallows in!

Pour this on top and you might get something that looks like this:



The instructions then suggest 20 minutes in the freezer.....I would say mine needed more like 2 hours. Not sure why this was but at 20 minutes it was still very gooey like the image below, and after 2 hours it was much more like the bottom image and had set:

Small setting issues aside, these are 100% amazing - if I say so myself.

After I made them on a Sunday around 11am I ended up eating about 4 throughout the day....oops!

I wouldn't recommend it as I felt extremely sick afterwards but OMG you need to make these!!!

I think maybe I'd add a little more almond meal to the mixture next time and it would set better, but these taste so good I don't care that I'll have to eat them out of the fridge.

Do you make your own snacks and bars like these? Do you have any other similar recipes?

I really want to make some more snacks like these - cleaner than shop bought and even more tasty!

L xxx

Fitness Friday: Top 10 Tips for Clean Eating

Hi all!

It's been a little while since I've written a Fitness Friday post, but I felt compelled to write one this week after continuously seeing posts on Facebook, tweets on Twitter and comments on Instagram about how hard it is to eat clean and find time to make things, to find recipes etc etc etc. 

EVERYTHING IS HARD.

Let's just get that thing right out there. Life generally is hard and you go through it having to work for things you want and quite often, there are setbacks.

If you want a holiday, you save hard and give things up for it knowing that the end result will be worth it, why don't people treat eating in the same way?

You can always come up with excuses; I ran out of time, the ingredients are expensive, it's too much to cook all the time, I don't like eating x/y/z......

All it takes is a bit of preparation and effort on your part and you can have meals quite easily. Here's my top 10 tips to help you out.

1) Write a meal plan - plan 7 evening meals, plan 7 lunches, and plan a variety of breakfasts and snacks. If you plan it all out and know what meals you have available to choose from then you have no room to deviate, and can actually look forward to meals knowing what you are having. To eat clean you will have to cook, accept it now!

2) Bulk buy everything in - clear out the old (or use it up if you wish) and then bulk buy in everything that you will need for a few weeks of meals. Obviously you can't buy fresh foods in for that long and if you don't have much cupboard or freezer space then this may be a challenge but the less you have to go to the shops the less you will be tempted. Also it means that you can....

3) Have a cooking day - doing this is essential for me! I make sure all ingredients are available and batch cook meals, snacks etc all on one day, i.e. a Sunday. If you cook a chilli, bolognese and a curry in one go with enough for a few portions of each it will take you a large part of the day, but will save you hours during the week. I also roast some veg, cook a whole chicken, a packet of quinoa and bake some muffins using this recipe here so that I have lunches and snacks for the week. It's tiring sure, but saves so much time and effort in the week it's worth it.

4) Swap things slowly - Or as fast as you like! Some people prefer to go cold turkey and others are all about a gradual change, but the easiest thing you can do is to swap your foods, that way you can still have them. For example, swap your white rice for cauliflower rice, swap spaghetti for strands or courgettes (courgetti?!) or even simpler, just swap chocolate and crisps for fruits, nuts and yogurt. There are always alternatives and fresh produce is always a better choice than anything that comes in a packet. There are so many small changes you can being to make that I can't even begin to list them!

5) Plan the freezer and cupboards - there are a lot of alternatives to save you running out of fresh ingredients. Frozen fruit and vegetables can be lifesavers and you can stock up on meat and fish if you have the room when it's on offer. Tins are also great, chickpeas go in almost any meal to bulk it out cheaply as well as loads of different types of beans, plus fruit and veg. Tuna is also something that can be bought quite cheaply and be added last minute to a salad.

6) Variety is everything - batch cooking is great but don't fall into the trap of eating the same thing, variety will keep you enthusiastic and motivated and finding new recipes to try is fun, especially when you find a recipe for brownies or muffins that contain clean ingredients!

7) Always take snacks in your bag - NEVER leave home without a snack. My bag is constantly full of food; fruit, nuts, pretty much anything like that that can help when hunger strikes and will stop you from buying crisps or sweets when in a weak moment. I get laughed at for always having food, but I've saved so much money and stopped myself from eating unnecessarily bad foods so many times it has been worth it.

8) Increase the number of meals you eat - Eating more often but smaller amounts is a much better option than bigger meals less often. Eating more regularly will stabilise your blood sugar levels and keep your metabolism going which are all positive things! Never skip a meal, eating because you are hungry is vital, don't cut down on what you're eating just swap it for something else. It's also quite exciting to eat 4-6 meals a day don't you think?!

9) Keep your motivation going - Create Pinterest boards, follow 'fitspiration' accounts on twitter and buy fitness and health magazines. Seeing everyone else working out and looking healthy and happy will want you to do the same; it's also invaluable for new recipes, workouts and exercise ideas to boost your enthusiasm and dedication.

10) Don't sabotage your hard work - I believe in rewarding yourself for your hard work, and over time have changed this from a bar of chocolate to magazines, books, shoes, anything that isn't going to add calories to my day. Of course I have treats, I go out with friends for food and cocktails and I have bad days that mean I end up on the kitchen floor with a jar of nutella and a spoon. I try to work off my daily problems and frustrations to help with this but avoiding adding additional salt, sugar, alcohol and bad fat to your day can only help. A cheat meal once a week is ideal, look forward to it and work hard knowing you can reward yourself at the end of it, but as they say, one cheat meal won't make you fat, but one salad won't make you skinny!

What do you think of my tips for eating clean? Have you been trying and failing to eat healthier?

What would you add to the list?

I'm always looking for inspiration so send blogs or pinterest boards my way if you have favourites!

L xxx

Bounce Energy Balls

Happy Friday!

I've double posted today as I normally do a Fitness Friday post, but this is related. Bounce balls are something that I've previously mentioned in posts where I've detailed my snacks that I have in between meals.

If you haven't heard of them they're great for a pick me up and are really quite filling.

A few weeks ago i tweeted at them because where i buy them in Waitrose, they've recently gone up in price by 30p per ball which is quite a lot when they were already £1.79 each which is quite expensive for one snack. I tended to buy them as a treat anyway unless they were on offer which was rare but that was ridiculous!

Bounce Energy Balls were shocked at the price increase as they hadn't been made aware they would increase that much and kindly sent me a variety box to apologise and thank me for making them aware of it. It was a really nice touch and shows that a great customer service can change everything!

I was really excited to try some of them out as I hadn't tried the purple ones, the Fudge and Walnut.

The flavours have a great range, Coconut and Macadamia is a great sweet treat and seems to curb my cravings for cake. The Cacao Mint Protein Bomb is perfect for the chocolate cravings and the Peanut Protein Blast is ideal for when you are really hungry or have a heavy gym session coming up.

All contain whey protein, are 100% natural and are GM free, gluten free and free from artificial preservatives.

The Almond Protein Hit is similar to the Peanut ball in which is protein heavy and great for those hungry days. Spirulina and Ginseng was very interesting in the first bite, it's a green/black colour and a little off putting on appearance but tastes great and really serves as a Defence Boost as the name suggests. The Fudgie Walnut Brain Storm energy ball was the only one I hadn't managed to get my hands on.

Here was the note that came with the variety box, so lovely of them to send me a box an although the snacks are expensive I won't be as put off as I was before!

I really enjoy Bounce Energy Balls in my morning break to stop me from eating cake in the staff room. Some such as the almond and peanut balls are quite chewy and dense meaning they fill you up a lot easier than the others and they've been very handy! I also tend to have one sometimes on my way to the gym straight from work if I'm feeling low on energy; the coconut and macadamia or cacao mint balls are a lovely sweet treat for times like these and I've tricked myself into thinking that they're just like chocolate or cake for me!

Have you tried a Bounce Energy Ball? Which one is your favourite?
Have you experienced good customer service recently?

I always think its lovely to share when companies go the extra mile.

L xxx

Fitness Fridays: Protein Pancake Mix

Afternoon!

I mentioned in a previous post that my brother had picked up a bag of Go Nutrition's Protein Pancake Mix. I know I've posted about other products from GN but I promise I'm on no commission! We made a huge order of products to try as they have such a wide range of protein and fitness related foods so there might be more in future too.

The protein pancake mix comes in a bag like this:

It's the typical style of GN as all of their powdered products come in bags with zip lock tops to them. This makes it a lot easier to store for longer periods and know that it will still be as fresh as it was when you first opened it.

The bag contains 1kg of product and is unflavoured. I've never tried an unflavoured protein product before so I knew this was going to be interesting! As each serving is 50g and the bag is 1kg, this will give you 20 servings. That's not bad for the £8.99 price tag. It works out at 45p per serving and you can add any kind of topping you like!

Here's the info on the back of the pack; you can see the ingredients are pretty simple.

GN say:

Protein Pancake Mix is a fantastic healthy snack suitable to support all training goals. For those that train and compete on a regular basis a diet high in protein is essential for muscle growth, repair and recovery and our Protein Pancake Mix can really help you increase your daily protein intake. Furthermore, our Protein Pancake Mix provides 10g of low GI carbohydrates from oats to slowly release energy, making them ideal any time of day. Each serving of Protein Pancake Mix also provides 2.5g of medium chain triglyceride (MCT) health fats and 1g of flax seed which is high in Omega-3 Linolenic Acid.

They recommend you use their Organic Coconut Oil to cook them in to ensure the maximum benefits from the meal.

They are super easy to make, all you need is two scoops of powder with 100ml of milk or water. Shake them together, they suggest you use a protein shaker but I've also used a jug and fork and achieved a pretty consistent batter.

This will create two pancakes, so all you need to do is add half the batter to a frying pan and bake it for 60-90 seconds each side and hey presto you're done!

I have made these a number of times and each one has been consistently good. I've added bananas and maple syrup, greek yogurt and fruit, and obviously slapped some peanut butter and nutella on them for a good old treat!

You can see my pictures of some of them below:

These were bought by my brother on a whim but I can honestly say that when they've run out I'll be buying them again, they're so easy for a nutritious, filling and fun breakfast on weekends.

You can buy this protein pancake mix in a maple syrup flavour as well as unflavoured, though I think I'd prefer to add my own separately and change it every time!

What do you think of the protein pancake mix? Would you try it?

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

Tough Training: Healthy Snacks

Morning everyone!

Having written about my fitness plan for the year in a post last week (see here) I thought I'd start sharing some of my meals and snacks that I have in order to give you some ideas and suggestions in case you're lacking in inspiration as sometimes it can be so hard. I'm no expert in this whatsoever but I've lost around 2 stone and got myself to a size 10 and even though I do have my binge moments I don't often put on weight so thought maybe this could help!

First off, my number one tip is to make sure that you always have some food on you. This will mean that you are never tempted to buy anything from a shop like chocolate, crisps, cake etc that are just far too easy to pick up. I've got a range of stuff in my handbag and there's always something there whenever I need it which has stopped me many times from legging it to the corner shop. I also ALWAYS have water on me too, I get my 2L a day ever since buying myself a proper plastic bottle and swigging it when I'm 'hungry', but that's for another day.

Here's a few of my favourite snacks!


I don't think anyone will argue with me when i say fruit can be a perfect snack....its low calorie (around 50 per portion aside from a banana at 100), contains vitamin and mineral goodness and also water to add to your bodies hydration. It can be boring trying to get your 5 a day, but now I regularly get 7/8 a day without even trying as I put fruit on my breakfast, have some as my mid morning snack, a piece at lunch and maybe on the way home if I'm hungry to stop me eating something else before my tea.

I tend to eat a banana mid morning to give me a boost and also give my body the chance to burn off the extra calories, though lets be honest at 100 it's not a big deal!




Sometimes I really want crisps. I'm mostly a fan of savoury foods so sometimes I need the salt and the crunch and fruit just isn't good enough!

Nairns oat cakes are what I turn to when this happens. There are a variety of flavours but I find the plain ones (rough, organic etc) are perfect for me. When I'm in need of a boost pre/post workout and am not near a meal time I eat 3 of these with some nut butter on to keep me going; then I get the crunch and the salty taste guilt free!





You can read the ingredients and calorie values on these pictures, plus the qualities such as high fibre and no hydrogenated fat. I also sometimes eat these with a salad if I'm on a 'hungry' day.
I try not to have carbs with my salad as I have a decent helping at breakfast and try to burn those off throughout the day, but sometimes you just have to eat and these are perfect at 45 calories per oat cake.

(is it anything to do with them being called 'cake' as well? Hmm....)



I found Nakd bars just over a year ago and haven't looked back. At around 100 calories these are one of the few bars that are completely natural (all the contain is 100% fruit, nut, oat or soya crunchies), contains no added sugar, are wheat and dairy free and count as one of your 5 a day.



There are a variety of flavours and types; the apple pie bars are the original type of bars with raw fruit, oat and nuts 'smooshed' together to create a bar and the ingredients are listed on the packaging below. You can buy them individually, in boxes like in the pictures or on their website they have 'taster' boxes where you can buy a selection of bars together to try them all out.



The newer crunch range has soya crunchies added into them so that they contain more protein which is always a good thing. More protein means you are unlikely to lose muscle after burning off calories at the gym and it also fills you up for longer.

The good news is on their website (see here) you can get some great deals, currently you can get 20% off using the code NY14 but this only until the end of the month so hurry! Otherwise there are plenty of deals on their site so look out for them.
The Find Your Favourite box is £7.99 but they also sell boxes in Asda and Waitrose and probably more places too.



Sesame Snaps are my go-to snack when I've had a long day at work and know i have the gym to contend with on the way home. I often eat an apple on the way home to keep me going through my hour long drive home as its easy to get peckish around the 5/6 o clock mark.
I eat these snaps when I'm on the way to the gym so that I've got a bit of a sugar boost to fuel me through my workout. I know that once i'm in the gym I'll do it justice but sometimes it can be hard to make the decision to go!



These are quite simple; sesame seeds, glucose syrup and sugar. Normally I avoid sugar like the plague, unless its in fruit or honey I avoid it but these really do help and for days when I need something extra these 3 little snaps can make all the difference. That and there's THREE in a packet, so I feel like I'm having a big treat!
Plus its 157 calories for the packet and you can get these from Waitrose for 75p for a packet of four.....much cheaper than a chocolate bar! If you're lucky too they also do a coconut version with desiccated coconut and they taste GREAT.




Last but not least is my latest find; Bounce Balls.

I found them on a trip to Waitrose just before Christmas in the 'Free From' aisle. Being filled with protein and containing peanuts i snapped up my first one and haven't looked back since...
There are 5 in the range but I am yet to try the walnut version. The Almond, Peanut and Macadamia are all protein based and contains some whey powder to bind the ball. I find the almond and peanut ones are quite chewy but this takes me longer to eat and therefore I feel fuller quicker.



The coconut and macadamia one tastes more like a sweet that you'd have after a meal so I save this one for when I'm having a sweet tooth moment. The spirulina and ginseng ball was a newbie for me having never tried either and was very surprised to see it as a black/green colour in the package but it tastes AMAZING and I've been back many a time to get these.

My only qualm with these is that they retail for around £1.50/£1.70 which is expensive in comparison to everything else in this post. At the moment Waitrose have a deal on them where you can get 3 for £4 and I will certainly be stocking up as I do like them as an alternative especially as they contain a good dose of protein. They're also higher calories at 150-200 per ball but I'm not too bothered about counting my calories as long they all come from good sources.


So what do you think of my suggestions? Have you tried any of the bars before? Do you have an suggestions of your own?


I'm thinking of doing a Fitness Friday series so I can write about something different each week, whether it be a recipe, training plan, meal suggestions and other handy hints, would you be interested in reading them?

Let me know as I'm completely obsessed with it all and have been for a while but I don't feel like it comes across on here. I spend 5 days a week in the gym/exercising so would love write about it more!


L xxx