Feeling hot hot hot....

Oh.My.Days

It is warm here! It has been 25C inside just about all day, don't get me wrong I love the sunshine, but there is no air, no wind, no breeze. Nothing. Laying on the laminate floor is just about the coolest place to be at the mo. Phew.  However it does give me a change to wear my new size 10, oh yes, shorts :D.

By the way...we got the flat!!! :D Amazing!! Move in next month, I am so excited!

I moved onto level 2 of the 30 day shred last night, despite the heat. At one point she says 'I want you to feel like you are going to die!' and my god...I did. It is a fair step up from level one but I defiantly felt worked out! I have been loathed to exercise the last few days due to the heat and I can not condone going to a gym in this weather. Tomorrow morning though, I am going for a run, quite early so I don't get too warm. I really need to up this running, though now (I am sure I keep saying this) it will be easier to get back into a routine now I am back at uni. I think I might do a sort of lose plan this evening so I can get in some proper training before the Great North Run in September.


Today I tried making vegan muffins, I looked around for a good simple recipe on the web and found this one Basic vegan banana muffins though I must have done something wrong as I seemed to end up with too much flour and the mixture seemed really dry. I added some soy milk and water and popped them in the oven. To be honest I thought they would be really dry and taste awful (I also swapped sugar for sweetener to reduce the calories) but they weren't all that bad, a little dense but I can deal with that. Made some Vegan Chocolate Icing and overall they came to around 130kcal per muffin....so I had two. :)

Not looking bad!

With Icing -YUM

 Eurovision this evening, so cider is in the fridge! It seems to have gone down hill, there is less 'cheese'. I mean a slow, 'moving' isn't really going to get the votes now is it....

Still tracking calories though I have been going over (even above the 2000 mark eek) but my weight has maintained, well it has all been healthy stuff :) But that will be back on track again fairly soon.

All very exciting!

Very exciting last few days! Finished placement yesterday, I will miss it as it was a great experience and really pushed my towards becoming a nurse :).

On the way home I found £10 ek! So I was going to go to new look anyway so off I went... 'Shall I try on a size 10 in jeans and shorts?...I'll take a 12 just in case.'...OMG THEY FITTED! I haven't been able to fit into size 10 since my early teens! Now, I wont really say I am a size 10 until trousers with no stretch fit me, that is when I will really be convinced. But, it is still amazing, I am really starting to see changes in my body, it is brill!

Saw a £5 note when walking home from new look, didn't stop though, I thought that I had enough luck for one day and someone else can have the joy (or the person who lost it may come back and find it, even better!)

This morning went to view a flat, it is the perfect location so I really hoped that it would be nice...and it was. It is perfect for me and Nick. I rang the office to make an appointment this afternoon to put down a holding deposit at 4pm. I am really paranoid that someone will get in earlier as there was someone else looking around it at the same time as us. ARG. I really hope that doesn't happen. Worried much. On the other hand we did see 2 flats in the same building so if that one does go, we have the other for backup.

Weighed myself on Monday morning before breakfast. 9st 11lb. I haven't weighed myself since, I am being good!

Still continuing with the 30 day shred, though it is not getting done everyday due to work and gym etc. It feels much more effective with the hand weights I bought, using 1.5kg at the mo.

I'll update on flat news later. Wish me luck!!

Long days

Hello!

Sorry that it has been a while, last week I started doing long days 7:30am-8:30pm at placement so I could get all my required hours in and I haven't really had the time to do a lot else.

Since my last post..
Well I am on day 9 of the 30 day shred (few days missed due to lack of time/being too tired). I have decided that using two 500ml bottles of water just doesn't do it enough for the strength training, so I bought a set of weights this evening, 2 x 0.5kg, 2 x 1kg and 2 x 1.5kg. I will start off with using the 1kg and see if my little arms can take it. XD

I am drinking more soya milk and much less of cows milk. I went back to normal milk for day and felt ill, the other half says its because human adults are naturally lactose intolerant (he is a meat eater and milk drinker so no bias). I have tried soya a few years ago but couldn't get myself to like it but so far I've tried coconut milk, which was nice, alpro soya vanilla milk, which was amazing, now I am trying Morrisons own sweetened soya.

One of the down sides of losing weight is having to buy new clothes. Don't get me wrong I love buying new stuff but I don't have the money! Treated myself to a new sports bra today, even did the bounce test in the changing room.

I have good almost health food mad! Today (yeah today has been a shopping day) I bought some flaxseeds so I can sprinkle it on food and add it in cooking. It is full of good stuff such as omega-3, Iron, Protein, etc. Picked up some miso from the Chinese supermarket, it is used a lot in the recipes from the vegan books.

I think I may try either having at least one vegan meal a day or having at least 1 day a week vegan, to reduce the intake of saturated fat. I will have more of a think on that one and let you know.

Running again is at a bit of a stand still, but I will be going in the morning for a long-ish run. I am still going to the gym about once a week, this should increase when I get back to uni and have a little more free time (I say that now...) I might even get the chance to go swimming!

Weight loss wise...
I weigh myself far too much. Fact.
But I seem be hovering around the 9st 12lb - 10st mark.
I promise to not weigh myself until Monday morning. From then on Monday will be my weigh in day, more motivation to not overeat on a weekend like I usually do.
I do keep track of calories and I am aiming for around 1800 a day. Sometimes I go over. That's just life. :)

Hope you are all doing well and having a good time doing it! The scenic route of weight loss is a much better way!

OUCH!..Quick update

Day 2 of Jillian Micheal's 30 day shred and I hurt. A lot. My bum and thighs mainly. But hey it must be working!

Went for a run this morning too, only 1 mile due to forgetting to take inhaler out and got wheezy due to the cold. Frick. Then once I got in to get my inhaler, I couldn't be bothered to go back out.

Made nut roast for the first time today :) Very nice indeed!

Ordered 2 vegan cookbooks last night, so hopefully more vegan cooking soon.

Went to a Chinese supermarket today, I was in awe! Such amazing stuff. I got myself some Lipton ice tea instant power YUM and some Milo, a chocolate drink powder that is full of B vitamins! :) I used to have it when I was younger, but tesco stopped selling it a long time ago. Tofu is sooo cheap in there! When I need more I am defiantly going there for my next lot! 

Going good :)

I said that I would update on Thurs but as I am sure you all know, life typically gets in the way.

On Thursday I generally stuck to the plan but with some necessary bits added in. Here's how it went..

Breakfast: Carrot cake porridge. YUM Oh my, sooo amazing. (Porridge sprinkled with grated carrot, cinnamon, sweetener and sultanas.  243 kcal
Snack: Carrot and pepper sticks: 30 kcal
Lunch: Wholemeal Bagel with 2 extra light laughing cow triangles and spinach 265kcal
Snack Pre gym: Apple 45 kcal Post gym: Malt loaf x 2 240kcal
Dinner: Roast Veg and quinoa (very nice!) 250kcal
Snack: Fat free yogurt 100kcal

So adding up at the end of the day it came to 1213kcal in total. Now I want to lost weight but not with this amount of cals! So I set a lower limit of 1500 and a rough max of 1800. I had some crackers and low fat cheese to bring my intake up to 1498.

Yesterday wasn't so healthy since the other half wanted to make cake with some eggs we needed using (and ended up using ALL one and half blocks of butter O_O). I had a small bit but made sure that I at least over estimated calories. But I still stuck to my plan. I won't bore you too much with all the details. I'll do it once or twice a week :)

On the upside I made some Surprise Brownies. YUM. Made with mainly dates (which I am not keen on) and NO SUGAR! So I cut them into 121kcal slices. I will include the recipe on a separate page but they are available on the VegSoc website.

Today is going well, not only did the Wii tell me I am no longer overweight (10st 1). YEY!!!! I started my 30 day challenge this afternoon, with the Jillian Micheal's 30 day shred. AMAZING but hard! It comes in 3 levels and you do the first 10 days level 1 and so on and so forth... Looking forward to a months time to see any difference!

Making Malt loaf today. Will be cutting that into 114kcal slices. I LOVE malt loaf. Good for energy release. 
Home-made pizza for tea tonight. YUMMMM :D

It's my run day tomorrow. I am still to get running during the week but I am still going to the gym. So its not all bad.

Happy Healthy Eating :)

Woman with a plan (run..quick!)

I was on the vegetarian society website the other night and they are currently doing a 7 day meal plan for healthy eating. Find it HERE. I looks really nice! I am adapting a few bit otherwise my shopping this week would have been a little too expensive (currently waiting for tesco delivery. I love getting them..is that sad?).
I have even planned out my breakfast and lunch to attempt to keep me on track, hopefully it will all go well!
Here is what I have planned for tomorrow(and I will let you know if I stick to it!)
Breakfast: Carrot cake porridge - porridge with grated carrot and apple plus sprinkled cinnamon
Snack: Pepper cut into sticks
Lunch: Wholemeal bagel with extra light laughing cow (and possibly spinach)
Snack (Pre gym) : Banana
Dinner: Vegetable Quinoa
Evening snack if needed: Yogurt or some nuts

Sounds pretty good if I'm honest :) I have never tried quinoa, but I have seen some recipes using it, so I think I'll give it a go. If you have used it, and have recipe ideas then please let me know!

I have also got myself some coconut milk to try as a milk alternative. Not because I want to give it milk, but because when I tried becoming vegan in my teens I tried soya, sweetened soya and rice milk and to be honest I was never really fond of any of them, and I like my cereal in the morning! Toast can be too dry at times!

(Shopping arrived)

I love it when the cupboards are full of nice things again!

Right.. so... running....
I need to get back into the habit of going during the week as one long run on a Sunday probably isn't the best thing for my training.

Fitness:
Gym tomorrow :)
I have bought Jillian's 30 day shred, so this will be my next challenge to do it for 30days on the trot. Hopefully with good results since I have put on a pound or two (a weekend of apple crumble followed by a Monday of chocolate fudge cake. Ooops)

Slimming world:
I have decided that it may be time for me to leave, as I feel I may work better with allowing myself small amounts of the good stuff (peanut butter..good for protein) and learning to limit my portion size, something that slimming world doesn't teach you about. So I have gone back to what I was doing before, calorie counting. Not obsessively, just so I am aware of how much is going in and what I am using during the day from exercise.

Overall I am feeling good, much more relaxed with having no job (besides having no money =/) and more confident during my nursing placement. I will post tomorrow to let you know how the plan went.

Planning on making some healthy brownies this week, will try and include pics and recipe when I'm done so watch this space!