What I've been eating post splurge :)

Hey everybody!

So I had the most amazing weekend away full of relaxation, love and you guessed it EATING

When I say I enjoyed myself I really really enjoyed myself!

I totally let go and ate whatever I wanted for breakfast, lunch and Dinner and had a few chocolate snack in between! :P

By Monday I felt like a stuffed turkey at christmas!

 

But did I regret it? Absolutley not!

Even when you're dieting you need to let loose and enjoy yourself!

Don't regret what you didn't have.

For example we had a huge meal of tapas and wine on Saturday night and enjoyed myself so much and didn't feel the need to worry about calories or fats :)

But all good things come to and end and by Tuesday I was actually craving some fresh fruit and veggies! :P

Here's a quick recap of what I've been eating the past 2 days!

So Tuesday morning I went to the gym early and didn't feel like a huge breakfast so I had a naked juice!

They are super refreshing and actually surprisingly filling! They are also full of antioxidants!

Post gym I had a nakd cocoa loco bar which is a raw fruit, nut and oat bar with some cocoa but full of goodness and really satisfying at only 100 calories a bar how bad ;)

A little pre gym selfie ( can we make a gelfie a thing? :P)

In the library I had my standard Library lunch box of fruit! Honestly I love nibbling on fruit in the library and I think it help pass the time :P

As usual I had my grapefruit, grapes and half a mango! :)

For Dinner I had roast salmon with some roasted veggies and sweet potato mash but as usual I forgot to take a photo (oopsies! )

Today for lunch I had a salad with turkey breast, leftover roasted veggies. avaocado, feta and sunflower seeds! It was honestly really good and it had loads of textures from the crunchy seeds and smooth avocado!

The leaves I used were an organic mix leaf bag from tesco's with rocket, spinach and watercress :)

Again I had another fruit box today with grapefruit, mango and grapes!

I went to Starbucks with my friend Joanne for a break and a chat but wanted to try to avoid caffeine ( I already had a large cup of coffee with lunch) So I opted for a raspberry blended juice which was basically juice blended with ice and to be honest I would get it again! It lasted ages, was very refreshing and  didn't make me feel like I was missing out by not getting a coffee!

For dinner I made a delicious honey and soy salmon with kale, mushroom, green beans and fried rice!

It was actually do good I'm going to have to put up the recipe for you all!! :)

**I know it doesn't look too appetising but it was delish!**

So that has basically been my last 2 days! :)

I'm currently relaxing drinking a Gin and Tonic and painting my nails and before anyone eats the head off my for drinking alcohol (empty calories etc etc.) We're all allowed our little treats every now and again and as alcohol goes a Gin and Slim with a wedge of lemon is as good as it gets! :P

Hope everyone's having a good week so far! :)

xxxxxx

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

Seven day slim down challenge: Day 2

So guys...

Woke up this morning, still a bit sore from the kettlebells yesterday, but eager non the less to go to the gym for a morning session!!

Before I went I made my kale and spinach smoothie as planned!

I love my smoothie cups because they're really hand to drink from in the car or on the go. 

I use the kenwood smoothie-go machine which usually sells for about €30 in most shops, it an AMAZING smoothie maker and come with 2 cups but most importantly its soooo easy to clean! 

It totally gets my approval! :P

At the gym I started off by doing a very handy 4km, I ran at about 10.5km/hr for 3km and sprinted at 13km/hr for the last kilometer. I also did a quick warm up/warm down!

It was a very handy pace as I was a bit sore and needed an easy cardio session! :)

Afters I went down to the weights room which is thankfully quiet in the mornings!

I'll save my fully weights room routine till my thursday post as I haven't any photos of any of the equipment or how many reps I did today but here's a guide-line if your interested!

• Lunges on a medium step with 8 kg weights ( 20 each leg)
• Double leg Lunges across the room followed by squat jumps on step (x3)
• Squat bar- 20x 20kgs and 50x 25kgs
• assisted chin lifts (x30)
• Arm weights rountine (press ups, tricep and bicep exercises with 4kg weights)
• Core/Ab work

All in all I spend about 55 minutes in the weights room and I was happy with what I did :)

**Not the best picture but this is my new top from H&M and it cost €9.95**

After gym I had my blueberry, banana and almond butter bites :)

They were absolutely delicious and tasted like a dessert and were exactly the pick me up I needed after the gym and before college! :)

I had college today till 2pm so afters I came home and reheated my stuffed mushrooms I made last night! They were pretty simple to make, I basically  mixed my tomato topping from last nights dinner, added some goat cheese and baked for 15 minutes :)

And Hey presto!

I had it with some rocket and watercress salad :)

I didn't have any afternoon snack today mainly because I forgot to bring one to the library but trust me I was starving before dinner!!

Finally, I was making dinner for myself and my boyfriend Tim tonight.

It was basically the same tomato topping as last night but I put mine on chicken instead of hake for a change.

I also made a simple salad with my watercress and rocket leaves, feta, sunflower seeds and a balsamic reduction.

I love putting sunflower seeds into my salads recently! They add a really nice crunch and are so rich in protein and unsaturated fats, I can't resist! :P

To finish it off I made some simply roasted courgettes, mushrooms, onions, garlic and peppers :)

I made Tim some cumin and paprika spiced sweet potato chips too but since I had already had a starchy carb today I decided to give them a miss

Tim's plate:

My plate:

Here's my meal plan for tomorrow:

1. M1- egg whites with spinach

        Run

2. M2-handful blueberries

3. M3- 1 mushroom with rice salad

4. M4- yoghurt, 1 piece fruit

        Gym(kettlebells)

5. M5- turkey burgers, salad

Planning on runing a 5km tomorrow morning with Tim (should be fun :P) and a kettlebells class in the evening! :)

More updates tomorrow :)

xxxxxx

Seven day slim down challenge: Day 1!

Well.......

Today was day 1 of the seven day slim down!

I found..........okay

I'm used to a relatively healthy diet, going day to day eating healthy won't be a struggle for me but I'll find it hard to last the whole week without one treat!

So lets start at the start!

Before my breakfast I fitted in my AM burn!!

I woke up at 7.20, got my ass out of bed and hit the road!!

It was actually so pretty this morning, here's a picture of the lake I run around in cork

I was so happy with my run!

I did my fastest 5km and also did my fastest ever kilometre at 4.53!! 

So I guess you could say it was a pretty good start ;)

                                                                                                                                                         

For breakfast I had my Kale smoothie I made the night before and then to ran away to lectures!    

As my mid-morning snack I had almond butter on 2 slices of unsalted rice cakes! 

I found them surprisingly filling and a really nice treat to have before lunch!!

I use Meridian almond butter as its completely natural with only almonds and a pinch of salt! You can find it at any health food shop!

                  

For lunch I had my broccoli, turkey, feta, beetroot, sunflower seed salad!

It was delicious and easy to make but I was too busy eating forgot to take a photo(awks sorry! :P)

While I was studying in the library I had a pear and before the gym I also had a low fat Glenisk blueberry yoghurt!!

For my second workout today I did a kettle bell class!

It was perfect for strengthening and toning and a class is useful as you are pushed by the instructor! 

I also did some shopping today for new gym gear as I'm sick of wearing the same clothes every day so I thought I'd treat myself!!

Here is one outfit I bought!

Pants: €19.95

Top: €9.95

Sports bra : €12.95

I bought another top and sports bra too that I'll probably wear tomorrow!

After kettle bells I had my dinner which was Baked Hake with a tomato,basil and garlic topping, roasted green beans, steamed asparagus and some leftover boiled rice :)

It was a really filling ,satisfying dinner that was sooooo tasty!!

After dinner I had a sneaky slice of melon, to help fix my sweet tooth! ;)



Another thing I found difficult today was going for coffee with my friends!
I was dying for a skinny mocha but settled for green tea that was actually pretty good!
Tomorrow I think I'll try making iced green tea because the weather is so good! :)

Here is my diet schedule tomorrow:

1.        M1-Kale smoothie

      Gym ( 4km run, 1 hour of weights training)

2.       M2- Banana + almond butter + blueberries 

3.       M3-2 mushroom stuffed with rice + tomato topping

4.       M4- fruit salad

5.       M5- baked hake, tomato topping with courgette, peppers and mushrooms

    To save on time I'm going to fit in my cardio AM burn and toning workout into one gym session!!

   Hope you enjoyed my first post and keep reading my entries!! 

     xxx

Smoothie Recipes!!

Hey guys!

Sooo I haven't posted since Monday ... whoops :P

I've been really busy to be honest, I visited one of my friends in Limerick on Tuesday and then the last two days I've been focusing on studying for my summer exams in May :(

But hey I've some free time now so lets get cracking! 

Firstly I told you all to treat yourselves to a pancake on Tuesday so I thought I'd show you my GORGEOUS pancake

 It was absolutely delicious!! Mine just had caramel and chocolate sauce but It was so good! 


I love smoothies! They are so fast to make and delicious in the morning, as a desserts or a mid afternoon before the gym!

Here are my two favourite recipes!

Kale and Spinach smoothie(thanks aine for the recipe)
Ingredients:
Handful of Kale (stems removed)
Handful of spinach
1 banana
1 lemon (rind removed)
4 good slices of cucumber
250ml of apple juice


Simple blitz all the ingredients together!

This smoothie is totally simple but reallllly delicious!!!
The lemon gives it a really refreshing taste and the apple juice and banana acts as a sweetener!! 

You honestly cant taste the kale or spinach!

Tropical berry smoothie

                                         

  Ingredients:

Handful of mixed berries (I used raspberries and blackberries)

0% fat natural yoghurt

250ml of pineapple juice

1 banana

1 kiwi

Again blitz it all up, so simple!!

This is a really refreshing smoothie given a nice twist with the pineapple and kiwi!!

 Here's just a quick snap of the dinner I bought to Limerick!!
Its a really simple salad with some roasted veggies, cucumber, feta and turkey with some watercress, rocket ans spinach

Really simple and I like bringing my own food if I'm staying with someone!
That way I'm no burdening anyone and I can control what I eat :)

(Kinda) Nicoise Salad

Hey guys!!

So as any college student will know, Thursday night is a night for using up food that's going to expire over the weekend! :P

I've played around with lots of different recipes on my "Use it or loose it Thursdays" as I like to call them,  some good, some bad and some just ugly!

This salad can definitely be called GOOD!

I basically had some Asparagus and salad leaves I needed to use up so instead of the traditional green beans, I used steamed Asparagus!

It was delicious and crunchy! 

Here's the recipe 

1 bag of lamb's leaf and ruby chard lettuce

1/2 an avocado

1 red pepper

1 bunch of asparagus

1 egg

1/4 tin of sweetcorn

1 small tin of john west tuna drained

a few slices of cucmber

Dressing(optional)

2tblsp extra virgin olive oil

3tblsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp of dijon mustard

salt and pepper

Put the egg on to cook for 5-7mins in boiling water with a good pinch of salt

While the egg is cooking chop up the red pepper, cucumber and avocado

Place the lambs leaf and ruby chard into a large bowl (mine wasn't big enough! :P)

 For the last 4 minutes while the egg is cooking, place a steamer (or colander) on top of the boiling water ** BUT NOT TOUCHING THE WATER** Place a lid or plate on top of the steamer and let the egg and asparagus to cook

Turn off the heat and remove the egg from the boiling water. Place the hot egg into cold water for 1 minute. After the minute crack the egg shell and peel it and chop it up. Place all the vegtables and egg on top of the lettuce leaf, add the tuna and sweetcorn and pour over the dressing. Mix all the ingredients together well.

                          AND VOILÁ!!

It was completely delicious, fresh and filling!

This salad is also protein-packed, which is essential after a really tough gym session or run to help muscle recovery and prevent that stiff feeling!

Asparagus is an AMAZING veggie!!

As well as being packed with vitamins A,C,E and K and Packed with vitamin B12, it contains high levels of the amino acid asparagine, which serves as a natural diuretic, and increased urination not only releases fluid but helps rid the body of excess salts

Enjoy this recipe

much love xxxx