Races and surprise weekend!

As I mentioned I had some social events this week….

On thursday we had student race day! 

It was soooo much fun betting €1-€2 euros on any random horse (mainly a name we liked!) :P

I went with my housemate Jenny and our friends Shauna, Karen, Ellen, Nicole, Sarah and Claire

                                            

This is me and my housemate Jenny! :)

My dress is from misguided and belt is topshop!

Jenny's dress and necklace are both Zara

                                

                                       

Me with Megan, Ellen and Karen!

 Later that night we went clubbing to celebrate the end of college!
Here is what I wore going out!
My skirt is from Tobi (online shop)
My top belongs to Jenny and it was from berska!

I really liked this outfit because it was so summery!
The white skirt as swell was really flattering!

This is me and Joanne my other housemate taking bathroom selfie!!

 Aine , Joanne and Maria( of swearbytheblonde fame!) and I taking photos in the Photo Booth using our phones because we're too cheap to pay :P

As a TOTAL surprise this weekend my AMAZING boyfriend Tim decided to give me an early anniversary present for our 1st year as a couple! Our actual anniversary is in May but we are packed with exams that week so He decided to organise a weekend away in a 4 star hotel! :)

Our lovely complimentary package of strawberries, chocolates and Pressco!

Yuuuum delicious Lily O Briens chocolates! Whihc I might have munched! :P

Tim and I enjoying our glass of Presseco ,lounging in bed!

I'm just after the most amazing deep tissue massage and have an indian head massage in a while now! :)

We're also going out for tapas tonight!

EEEEPP excited!! :D

I'll keep you updated :)

What I ate this week :)

Hello all! :)

Apologise for the lack of posting this week but its been really hectic between finish college, exams, assignments and going out with friends!

So this week I had loads of college work to finish up before we stop for study month! I had a lot of meals on the run so only took some photos of special stuff :P

Here's some chargrilled pepper and tomato soup I bought! Its actually a telco's finest range and it was really nice and rich and I added some goats cheese on top and had a low-fat yoghurt too!

All week I bought lunch boxes of fruit to the library with me. They were a good snack that gave me energy but also something to pick at (other than sweets and chocolate!! :P) 

 This lunch box was all orange fruit :L I had nectarines, cantaloupe, mango and papaya, but really you can use any fruit you have lying around!

Here is a really simple Asian style chicken broth I made late one night! It took 15minutes and lasted me 3 days! 

• I basically fried off half a chilli, some ginger, 2 cloves of garlic in a little coconut oil. 
• Then I added about 1 litre of good low sodium chicken stock, added my 2 chicken fillets , a goooood dash of soy sauce, some more chilli and garlic. 
• I cooked this at a high heat till my chicken was cooked.
•  Then I removed the chicken and shredded it. 
• While doing this I placed some noddles in  the stock, added back in the chicken and some bak choi and Voila!! 

Really filing, hearty and very budget friendly!

And of course we all deserve our treats! :P
Here is mine- a delicious chocolate creme egg cupcake!
To be honest I much preferred the icing and the inside surprise to the actually cupcake itself! :P

I promise I'll post more food next week with some more recipes!

Much love xx

Diets! : What works and what doesn't!

This is a huge topic especially going into Summer and Bikini Season so I thought I'd give my opinion!

There's always that one day when everyone looks in the mirror and sees that bloated belly, wobbly thighs and saggy bum and immediately deicide's "Thats its I'm making a change!"

Fair play if you've got the motivation to change your lifestyle but it is important that you go about this the right way and make it sustainable in the long run!

Many people want to loose weight as fast as they can but don't realise that with many of these faddy diet's you put the weight straight back on once you begin eating normally!

Being healthy and fit is a serious commitment that doesn't come easy! It's something that is painstaking and doesn't always give immediate effects and will sometimes leave you feeling gutted that you haven't lost weight but TRUST ME in the long run if you work at it you'll get much better rewards than from a faddy one month diet!

I've tried looooads of diets in my the last 2 years ( 5:2 diet, atkins, liquid diet , Paleo etc.) , have had people telling me how their moher's sisiter's son's girlfriend lost 3 stone by eating only cabbage and broccoli and have read so many stupid articles on websites boasting that "experts" say the new way to loose weight is blah blah blah!!

YOU JUST GET SICK OF IT!

But lets be realistic here guys, I'm going to break it down on a scientific level:

Human physiology is built on the basis of SURVIVAL

Our brain's are trained to eat lots when food is plentiful (traditionally the summer months) to compensate for when food is scares (in the winter) !

Our body is also trained to like sugar and crave sugary foods as glucose is our bodies favourite source of energy! Our body "treats us" to a release of dopamine ( this is a kind of pleasure chemical released from the brain that gives us a happy/uplifted feeling. The brain also releases it in a response to certain drugs like heroin) once we ingest foods like chocolate to give us a reward for providing it with glucose.

Obviously though too much glucose is a serious issue! Any leftover glucose not used for energy is converted in to adipose fats which remain in our body!

Another issue with human physiology is starvation. From neolithic times our ancestors were able to withstand long periods with little to no food. Why?

Because of something called starvation mode.

Once we begin to eat below a certain amount of calories a day (usually 1000) our body will work extra hard to process and extract all the energy in the little amount of food we eat which in turn leads to less fat being converted to energy and therefore very little weight loss! Our bodies will also become accustomed to surviving on small amounts of food that the minute we begin to introduce more calories our body immediately converts them to fat because it thinks it's "saving" ourselves from starvation!

So how does that scientific information translate to everyday life?

Well it basically tell us that even though we might loose weight on 2 week or one month diets, inevitably we will begin to crave sugary/fatty foods again, cave into our cravings and our body will use all this extra food and calories to produce more fat!

So basically after working so hard at trying to loose weight for a month you usually end up the same weight or weighing more!

Totally disheartening isn't it?

But should we give up?  NO!

The reason why most of these diets don't work is because we deny ourselves soo much food! Eating tiny portions of disgusting foods will get you no where!

That's why I firmly believe in a balanced diet similar to what The tone it up plan promotes, Taralynn Mcnitt and any qualified nutritionist will tell you to follow!!

You should be eating 5 small meals a day mainly made up of fruits, vegetables, complex cards, nuts , seeds and proteins!

These meals will fill you up and not make you feel miserable and like your denying yourself from all of life's treats!

You might not loose weight fast but you will loose weight that will stay off most importantly!

And here another dieting tip: 

Enjoy a cheat or YOLO meal every once in a while! 

You can't keep yourself from all of life's little treats so one bad meal or one dessert is not going to outdo you eating well 90% of the time!

The only diet we should follow is a balanced healthy one along side with exercise! There's no quick fix method to loose weight only a very simple one that involves patience and dedication!

So that's my little rant over!

I hope I didn't bore you all too much but I feel this is an important topic that people really need to educate themselves on! :)

**One more quick Link**
My friend Maria has a seriously amazing fashion blog callled swear by the blonde! It has amazing outfits, bargain buys and loads of trend watching too. So any fashionista's out there serrriously have to check out this blog here! 

Much love all
xxxx

Seven Day slim down results!

So I finalllly got a break fro college to post my seven day slim down result.....

Lets start with the actual stats of what I lost:

In 7 days  I managed to loose 2kgs which I felt was pretty impressive!

Given that I didn't push it to an hour a day of cardio and I also managed to sneak in a few coffee's I was impressed!

My legs muscles feel very solid as do my abs!

I also don't know what muscle mass or fat mass I lost/gained over the week as we don't have a (cheap) body fat calculating facility in Cork!

Here are a few after pictures ;) ( I was after lunch so excuse the abs :P)

So lets start with the pro's :)

• The diet allowed you 5 meals a day at regular intervals which I liked as I wasn't starving throughout the day
• By following the steps it really made you take notice of what you actually normally eat through out the day!
• I generally had enough energy to do hard gym sessions and didn't feel particularly weak
• I lost 2kg's (most importantly :P)
• Now that I've finished the plan I don't crave unhealthy foods as much!

And now the con's :(

• Around day 3 and 4 I felt really drained and tired and I'm not sure was that the diet or the fact that I was sick with a headcold!
• Meal prepping took A LOT of time! I had to know what I was going to eat a day in advance!
• 2 workouts a day was also time consuming! they were difficult to fit in around college and study but I usually had to wake up super early to fit one in!
• My muscles got really stiff half way through the week and this held me back from the gym I wanted to do!
• It was expensive to buy lots of fruit and veg on the diet plan! I recommend using more seasonal green's that are cheaper!

Now the main question..

Would I do it again?

To be honest I probably would! I mean I lost weight, I wasn't too miserable and it was a balanced healthy diet

Would I do it soon? not a chance!

You need to have a lot of spare time to fit in the workouts and meal prep but I would defiantly do it again in the future! ( maybe pre-summer holiday detox?)

Well that it really! Challenge completed! 

Did you enjoy my posts? 

Do you think I could improve them? 

Comment below!

Much love!

xxxx

Seven day slim down: Day 6 and 7

I'm so sorry I couldn't actually post these on Sunday and Saturday but my internet at home was awful! So without further ado....

For breakfast on Saturday I had a bowl of alpen no added sugar museli with some almond milk which comes in around 180 calories!

For whatever reason I was really craving some kind of cereal with milk for a change! I think I got a bit sick of smoothies and fruit all the time :P

My cat mittens was not impressed at me eating all the cereal without her! :p

For my mid-morning snack I had half a grape fruit! They were really sweet and delicious but if you prefer it sweeter than I recommend sprinkling some stevia over it :)

After my afternoon snack I decided to do my usual 5 km uphill run because the weather was absolutely smashing and I needed to get out of the house!

Here's a picture I took at the top of the hill after 2.5km! 

I also put it on my instagram page as well! There's a link for it just above my bio and you can follow it to see photos of my day-to-day life!

For Lunch, I went out with my sister to a local cafe called Jim's and we sat outside because it was so sunny!

I got a sweet chili prawn with a peach salad! It was light enough but gave me a really good kick too!

I made some plum, soy and ginger chicken for dinner!

I was craving some Chinese takeaway but obviously couldn't afford the calories so I made his healthy but just as delicious version! (many thanks to my housemate Joanne for this recipe!)

Sunday I started the day with Alpen again because I enjoyed so much Saturday morning!

For my mid-morning snack and afternoon snack I had a half a grapefruit!

I went for a 3.5 km run Sunday as well followed by a tone it up bikni series workout!

My muscles were really sore after the week long of running and exercise :/

However I struggled on with it as it was my last day! 

For lunch I was in a rush but my Mom had picked up an innocent noodle pot on Friday shopping. I was tempted to try it as it looked really good and at only 197 calories I had to try it!

It was really delicious and the shitake mushrooms and miso sauce gave it a rich almost meaty flavour! 

I must say I'd recommend it for anyone to try and I'd like to try more stuff from there range!

Like any traditional Irish family my mother was adamant we were to have a nice roast dinner!

She made a roast chicken but I opted for healthy sides! Instead of fatty mashed potatoes or stuffing I had wilted spinach, mashed carrots and parsnips, broccoli and brussell sprouts!

So it goes to show just because your dieting doesn't mean you have to avoid eating with your family or friends in case of breaking your dieting!

I celebrated St.Patricks day with a wild and rather unforgettable night with my friends last night! :P This is me and my friend Ellen celebrating our Irish-ness! :P

And so there it is folks!

My 7 day slim down completed!!

Its been really long and tough for only 1 week but I managed it!

I'm going to do a post tomorrow about weight loss results and after pictures.

Sorry I couldn't post them all tonight I just don't have time!

Much love!

xxxxx

Seven Day slim down: update!

Hey guys!

Apologises for not posting day 6 last night and I also won't be able to post day 7 today because I'm at home and the internet is SHOCKING!

I'll be posting a joint day 6 and day 7 on Monday so I'm so sorry you'll have to wait :P

Much love!

xxx

Seven Day Slim down! Day 5

Good evening!

I'm winding down my seven day slim down and I can defiantly see results!

I can' wait to show you all photo's of my progress!

**The tone it up plan recommends to cut back salt and water intake for the last 3 days if your sliming down for a big event like a wedding or ball but since I'm doing this purely as a "health kick" I haven't cut back on my water intake!**

So today I've been feeling a bit sick with a cold and stuffed nose and I was waaay too tired to go for a run this morning at seven so, Alternatively I went for a brisk walk for 40 minutes just before lunch! 

I thought that as long as I do some cardio it was better than doing nothing!

For breakfast, I made a smoothie with blueberries, mango, kiwi, banana and pineapple juice and had it as I was running out the door to college because I was in such a rush!!

I had to drive home from college today so by the time I actually was home it was lunch time and I had some of my leftover turkey burgers grilled with some salad and natural yoghurt! 

The burgers tasted just as good as they did on Wednesday so I thought my lunch was delicious!

 I was staying on the couch for most of the evening to try combat my cold and me and my sister watched the horse racing at Cheltenham!

As my mid-afternoon snack I ate an orange an about 6 GORGEOUS strawberries! 
They tasted so good and reminded me that Summer is so close! 8-)

For dinner, Orla made fish, crab and sweet potato cakes that were scrumptious and I had them with a side salad and a bit of sweet chilli sauce!

They were really easy to make basically just poach the fish in milk, boil the sweet potatoes, mash both together ,add onions,garlic and seasoning!!

They were scrumptious!  Really nice and light but completely filling at the same time.

Fish was a nice change from turkey or chicken that I've been having all week!

In the evening I did the Tone it up - best ab rountine! 

I did the routine twice and let me tell you by the second round my abs were burning!

I found the burpee and starfish crunch the 2 best exercises and I would totally recommend it as a workout you can do an home with no equipment!

You can find the full workout here!!

Today I've defiantly felt better than last night! Although I'm a bit sick, my energy is much improved and also I'm finding I have much less unhealthy cravings as we happened to have soooo many gorgeous fruits and veggies at home at the moment so there less sweets to distract me! :P

Tomorrow I'm hoping I'll feel better and be able to do more cardio and strength training!

Till then!

xxxx

Seven day slim down : Day 4

Gonna be a quick post tonight because I am soooo tired!!

Today I prepared none of my own meals, so I hope this blog can prove you can get food on the go that is still healthy!

Started off my day by going to the gym with Tim!

I was reallllly tired, this morning so we literally had to be hauled out of bed.

I was in a rush so I did a quick 25 miutes on the stationary bike and cycled 10km so I was happy with my cardio! 

I've gotten a bit sick of running after 5 days solid of running I needed a change!

I know I promised a full summary of my weights room routine but I'm honestly exhausted and have no time but i'll put up a nice long post with photo's and all next week when I have more time!!

I basically did 45 minutes of a very very quick

• Lunge across the room and box squat jumps
• Arms routine (weights, press ups, tricep dips, chin up's)
• Abs (15 mintues)

I did 2 of each of these routines so I had kinda a circuit going on in the end! :)

After the gym, I got a peach and strawberry smoothie in the gym as my breakfast/mid-morning snack. It was lovely and cold refreshing drink on a really warm morning and cooled me down after my gym sesh!

I had Lunch quiet soon after my smoothie (about an hour later) as it was our only break for about the next 3 hours!

I went with Kate, one of my college friends, to a canteen on campus!

I wanted to go for a soup option but they only had the vegetable option I had yesterday so I went for a really nice salad!

  

They have a gorgeous salad bar on campus so your able to pick and choose fro so many amazing options!

I had some :

-Broccoli and feta salad with pesto dressing

- 2 slices of roast turkey

-Carrot and sultana salad

-Moroccan couscous salad

-Mixed salad

-3 pieces of pesto pasta

It was a reaaaly delicious lunch and so cheap for the amount of food I got!

I finished my whole plate and was stuffed till dinner as it was really filling!

I did have one slip today :/ ....................

Instead of having an afternoon snack today I had a starbucks skinny caramel mocha :(

I know, I know.... TOTALLY NOT TIU APPROVED

 

but I really needed a pick me up and 140 calories altogether I think it was worth it! :) 

Starbucks make all their skinny drinks with fat free milk and sugar free syrup but they taste exactly the same as a full fat coffee so its totally worth the trade!

For dinner I went with Tim and his Mom to Nando's for dinner!

Nando's is a super restaurant for Dieters as the food is totally delicious and natural and as long as you avoid the very fatty sides like chips and the desserts you can have a perfectly healthy guilt free meal!

From the Nando's site you can get a calorie meal count so here's some diet friendly, guilt free, delicious options!:

1. Butterfly chicken breast with salad and corn on the cob
2. Chicken pitta/wrap with luso beans
3. 1/2 chicken with spicy rice and macho peas
4. Chicken Wings with ratatouille
5. Avocado and green bean salad
6. Mediterranean salad

I got the avocado and green bean salad and it was absolutely delicious!

 It was crunchy, tasty and rich with gorgeous creamy avocado and spice mango and lime chicken breast!

It tasted amazing and I really liked that it was so good that I actually enjoyed eating out in a restaurant rather than feeling jealous of other peoples food or miserable at the healthy options that look like rabbit food :(

Here's my plate afterwards :P

So other than my food and exercises how am I actually feeling today!

Much the same as yesterday to be honest  :(

Unfortunately I'm totally drained again and my motivation for gymming and eating healthy is decreasing :/

I also feel I'm spending so much time preparing my meals, going for runs and gym that I've had very little time to myself!

I've literally been out of the house from 7am- 10pm and then I crash in the bed!

The weekend can't come soon enough and I need a really good rest!!

Till tomorrow!

xxxx

Seven day slim down : Day 3

Almost at the half way point!

Hey guys!

So I have day three done and dusted and here's a run down of what I did and ate! :)

To begin, this morning I went for a 5km run with my boyfriend Tim. It was ssooooo hard to get up this morning and my body is stiff from the last 2 tough days of gyming but once I was up and going I felt much better!

Here's a little pic of us before our run (Tim not impressed at being hauled out of bed :P)

I enjoyed the run I have to say! We went a bit slower than we normally would but it was easier to run when you have someone with you to pace or talk to! :)

After my run I had some scrambled egg whites with spinach!

As nice as the eggs tasted I didn't find them very filling! I was quiet hungry again after, so in future I think I'll add some gluten free bread to make it a more substantial meal!

On my way to college I had my mid-morning snack which was a handful of blueberries. They were a really nice sweet boost but I could have done with more of them!

For lunch I forgot didn't have time to pack my stuffed mushroom for college!

So I went to the main restaurant in college for lunch. 

They have a lot of really nice dinner options but they were roughly around 600 calories which I thought was too much for my lunch option so I went for a vegetable soup which was less than 100 calories and nicely filling! I had a green tea also with lemon and a canderel (I always use honey but they had no honey today :( )

From lunch I learnt I reaaally have to pay more attention to meal prepping and planning as it took a lot of will power to avoid all the nice, rich options in the restaurant!

In the evening I had a Pear for a snack as I was having an early dinner so didn't want to fill up too much!!

Today I decided to make my favourite diet recipe of allll time!!

It is **drum roll please**

Turkey burgers with feta and spinach!!

I have converted soooooo many people to these totally-delicious-can't-believe -there-not-bad-for-you burgers!!

They are very simple to make.

• Basically fry 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic in olive oil till translucent, add some fresh spinach and cook for  further minute or until the spinach is wilted
• Put one packet of turkey mince (I use thigh mince as I find its a lot less dry!) into a bowl, add seasoning (lots!), 1 1/2 teaspoons of harissa paste (adds a kick), one egg, 2 table spoons of flour, approx 30g of feta and the spinach mix
• Using you hand's mix up all the ingredients squeezing between your fingers!
• Once there all mixed, start forming patty shapes out of the mice mix and coat with a little bit of flour!
• You can fry, roast or grill the burgers until there cooked all the way through!

I grilled my burgers in my George foreman grill and they were done in literally 15 minutes!

I also had some salad with beetroot, sunflower seeds, (more :P) feta, and balsamic vinegar and for my carbs for the day I had some sweet potato cumin chips!

I lovvvve harissa paste as it gives a gorgeous roasted/smoky warm kick without being insanely hot on your tongue!

I put it in my turkey burgers and it gives it an unreal flavour!

I also make a really nice dip/sauce with it by simply adding some harissa paste to some 0% fat unflavoured natural yoghurt!! Its so delicious and is totally healthy!

so here's my favourite healthy dinner in the world!!

I did another kettle bells class this evening and this one buuuuurned!! 

We did, and I kid you not, 1100 squats in the 1 hour class!!

Our instructor Eammon is amazing! He makes the class interesting, dynamic, tough but you don't actually realise how much you've done till afterwards!

I felt amazing after it and can't wait for next Wednesday again!

So here's my last new top and sports bra that I bought!

Top: €3 (penney's finest ;))

Bra: €12.95 (H&M)

Here's a shameless selfie! ;)

Here's a picture I took during a water break in out kettle bell class!

Also as a warm up I did a pretty fast 15minutes on the cross trainer at level 11 so I've done altogether 40 minutes of hard cardio today that I'm pretty proud of! :)

After the gym I ate the yoghurt I was supposed to have for my afternoon snack and a light laughing cow triangle as I felt like something creamy!

So at , approximately , the halfway point the big question is : How do I actually feel?

Well to be honest the first two days were alright, I was peckish but could never say I starving! I also felt the gym sessions were okay as I wasn't too stiff 

However.....

Today I felt drained! I was lacking a lot of energy and felt like crawling into bed all day! Getting out of bed was soooo tough this morning!

My body felt heavy and I was slightly less motivated to actually run :/

I will say though, after only 3 days I can see a noticeable change in my body. I have more defined muscles on my abs and arms and my legs feel super firm!

Hopefully the second half of my journey will be equally successful!  

Goodnight folks!

xxx