Juice Me Up Before Bikni Deadline! :D

Well, fancy meeting you here....

Okay I know... it's been a while :P

As you all know exams just took over my life recently :( 

For the last 2 months I've been preparing and sitting 11 college exams and I've been so stressed that I've really had no time to workout or come up with new recipes let alone blog :O

But tomorrow is my last exam so I thought I'd get back on the bandwagon :D

A bit of a last minute decision but at the beginning of the month we decided to take a weeks holiday after the exam, The date has crept up on me and suddenly the holiday/bikini wearing extravaganza is happening..... THURSDAY!!

Yeah that's right Thursday :(

Now don't get me wrong I'm dying to get away for a bit of rest and relaxation, but this whole bikini wearing situation?

Not going to be the highlight for me >:(

I haven't completely let my general healthy lifestyle go over study month but It's the coffee breaks, late night energy drinks, Chocolate comforting and lack of gym that have but me back a step.

I've gained 1kg on the scales (which I'm not delighted about but it could be worse) but I feel like my abs (especially obliques) have seriously suffered!

So the past 2 weeks I've really been sticking to my blogilates workouts and they've worked but I need to do something I hate and "crash diet" in the healthiest way possible...

Basically A JUICE CLEANSE!

Juice cleanse's have really become the it thing of 2014 with celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Lauren Conrad and Millie Mackintosh all being fans and admittedly this isn't my first juice cleanse this year either!

I did my first cleanse in January as a kinda new year new me attitude and  My worry about  it at the time was, am I going to put all the weight back on again?

I dropped 2 kgs and over the space of a month of normal eating only put 1/2 a kg back on, so its not only water weight your loosing!

I Know I preach about not using the fadding diets but people forget that even on a juice cleanse your consuimg 1200 calories a day and for only 3 days

And to be honest I'm just feeling a bit "meh" after all this study and I need a bit of a reboot!

I'm following the reboot with go 3 day plan that you can find here! It has loads of free advice, recipes and guidelines and it's the plan I followed for my previous juicing!

I've decided to make my own juices because:

a) I have a good quality juicer to hand

b) It's much much much cheaper(all the fruit cost me €22 in lidl!!)

c)It's kind of satisfying making your own juices and deciding which ones to drink!

So here's my break down of the day's Juices so far:

Morning: Detox juice from Jump Juice (apple,carrot,celery,cucumber and beets)

Lunch: Garden Variety

Mid afternoon snack : Apple-Carrot-Ginger

Dinner :Garden Variety

Dessert: Pine-lime-lemon

Water : 3litres throughout

The great thing about reboot with Joe's recipes is that a lot of them make double so I currently have my leftover apple-carrot-ginger for the morning!( it was definitely my favourite juice of the day! :P)

So how am I doing?

Mood:

Have to be said I'm pretty good! not feeling cranky off caffeine withdrawals or sugar lows so no complaints yet!

Energy:

A bit of a slump at 4 o clock but I had a pick me up after my afternoon juice!

Hunger:

There's this weird hunger you get on a juice cleanse, its not a physical belly rumbling hunger but it's more like you really miss food? Like I'm mentally hungry for food but my body doesn't need it! I especially get cravings when people eat around me but in general I haven't caved yet!!

To be honest I've kept myself really busy all day and as a result haven't even noticed feeling hungry or think about food etc! 

It might be the new way to help through the cleanse?

Il keep you updated on my progress ;)

 

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 :)

Tone it up seven day slim down!

Hope everyone had an awesome weekend!! 

This week i decided to give myself a bit of a challenge...

I've decided to do the Tone it up 7 day slim down!!


Its a tough regime of a low fat, low carb, low sugar diet that focuses on high protein and lots of vegetables and fruits and 2 workout sessions a day!

EEEEEPPPPPP!!! :O


I hope it goes well! :P

Here's the basic schedule to fill!

M1( or meal 1) = breakfast
M2= mid morning snack
M3= lunch
M4= mid afternoon/ pre- gym snack
M5= dinner


You are also supposed to fit in 2 workouts, one being a 30 minute cardio workout (preferably in the morning as an AM burn,this can be running, walking, cycling,cross trainer, stepping machine.... ANYTHING!)  , the second being a hour long strengthening/toning workout (in the evening). For my second workout il be focusing on kettlebells, body conditioning and tone it up workouts!

I'm going to find it hard to fit in 2 workouts but I'll try getting up early to go for a run and then maybe do a class in my local gym before dinner!


You can sign up for membership to the tone it up nutrition plan which has 100's of good recipe's to follow and exercise routines but they also have lots of free material on the Tone it up website(link here!) as well!

Here my meal schedule for tomorrow! :)

Day 1

1.       M1-Kale smoothie

2.       M2- 2 rice cakes and almond butter

3.       M3- broccoli, turkey, feta and beetroot salad

4.       M4- yoghurt, 1 piece fruit

5.       M5- baked hake, tomato basil topping with asparagus +green beans

  

My fitness will be a 30 minutes run in the morning and a kettlebell class in the evening!

I hope it goes well and il keep you up to date with a new blog post tomorrow! :)

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 :)

Let's Move it Monday!!

Hey guys!

Hope no one's suffering from Monday blues!

I love Mondays (unlike most people :P)

I think Monday is always such a great day to start fresh and forget about the gym session you skipped last week or the overindulgence of the weekend (or week :P)

I always love having a really good gym session on a Monday to get me moving for the week!!

Today I did a spinning class in my local gym the mardyke!

It was the perfect high intensity workout that I needed and honestly the hour flew by!

We did 

• 12 minutes of sprints (30 seconds sprint and 30 second recover)
• 15 minutes of resistance "standing" cycling and hoovering (30 seconds on, 20 seconds off)
• 15 minutes of hill training (1 minute high resistance 30 seconds low resistance)
• 2 minutes of arm push up's while standing cycling
• 5 minutes warm up and 5 minute warm down also!

I didn't feel very tired leaving the gym but my legs are starting to stiffen up now so I had a Perfect Fit Protein shake. 

Perfect fit protein is an AMAZING vegan, organic protein shake made by Tone it Up! 

Not only is it good for you but it also tastes delicious!!

You can also use it in loads of recipes such as waffles, pancakes, smoothies and even CAKE!! I'll put up more recipes using it in the coming weeks!

Here's a quick snap of my dinner tonight 

Really basic!! Some grilled turkey breast, sweet potato mash, roasted veggies (mushrooms,green beans, cauliflower,peppers and onion) with some feta and relish too!

Totally delicious, high in protein and packed with vitamins+fibre  from my roasted veggie mix!!

Tomorrow (as we all know) is pancake Tuesday a.k.a the best day ever!!!

I am a FIRM believer that a little bit of what you fancy won't hurt you! So of course I will enjoy a pancake tomorrow (with loooots of nutella :D) because I have eaten clean and gone to the gym all last well and hell yeah I deserve a treat! :P

So enjoy your tursday because I know I will ;)

sweet dreams xxxx

Tapas Friday and Saturday Fitness :)

Hello weekend!! <3

It's the weekend (finally)!! 

Last night one of the friends organised a night out for us at a local Tapas Bar!

It was such a fun night!!

We tried loooooads of different dishes, including meatballs, crab claws, garlic peri peri prawns, bread and dips, patatas bravas ( potatoes cooked in a spicy tomato sauce it was delicious!), chicken wings, chorizo and red wine and a cheese board!

The food was scrumptious 

We all picked away at different dishes, drank wine and chatted it was a lovely girls night!

It was also a great meal out for dieter or someone watching their weight!
Mainly because instead of being presented with a large plate of food you feel obliged to eat your allowed to pick and choose what you'd like to eat, for example I limited my intake of the breads and nacho's and then ate more of the shellfish and meatballs, but at the same time I could try everything in small amounts without feeling guilty about the calories because the portions were tiny!
Also you didn't feel like you had to eat loads or finish a portion as there were 8 other people to share it with!!


All in all I really enjoyed it and I will definitely go again and post more photos of the food (I didn't get many photos of the food as it was gone so fast :P)

Today  after last nights small indulgence I did a 5km run today
I was quite slower than normal (about 5.30 minutes a kilometre)  but 2kms of my run were steep uphill, it was a lot of climbing and quiet hard!! However I enjoyed it!

Just a pretty photo I took while running of where I live! :)

Also I thought it would be nice to post up some photos of my body and what I look like since I'm trying to advise you on what to eat and exercise! Here a few pictures my sister took with me this morning and I know I'm not the thinnest or toned but I think I'm quiet athletic and have got some muscle definition and never judge anyone who puts themselves out there :P

                               **Ignore my messy hair and hallway :P**

 These are my Nike LunarGlide 5 in pink! I'm obsessed with them!! They are great for running (road and treadmill) and are flexible enough for gym work and classes! Also they suit my foot type as the have built in floating heel-support clip which helps keep the back of the foot from rolling inward or outward upon landing!! I would seriously recommend investing in a pair!

Chai and Almond milk Porridge

So here’s my first recipe :)

EXCITEDDDD!!

This is a really super simple recipe for a cold morning or a day where you need loads of energy before a hard gym session. :P

Porridge is an excellent slow energy releasing complex carbohydrate!

Its so handy in college because its quick and easy to make! 

Recipe:

50g of porridge oats (I use flahavans orgainc porridge oats)

100mls of almond milk

100mls of water

1 tablespoon of Chai seeds

Method:

Put all the ingredients into a medium sized saucpan on a medium heat and bring to the boil and then allow to simmer for 3-4 minutes! 

AND THAT’S IT!!!

So simple and warming! You can add dried fruit like raisins or some chopped date, or drizzle some 0% fat Greek yoghurt over it! I personally love it with maple syrup or honey over it. Delicious!

Chai Seeds the highest known vegetarian source of OMEGA 3, and also  are high in Fibre, Protein, & Antioxidants. So by simply adding tiny, tasteless chia seeds to your favourite foods, you can improve your health! I love them and they make an amazing pudding! :) Thats All for now guys. Enjoy! xx

First Post!! (Eeeep!)

So excited to Finally start a Blog! Fitness and Healthy eating are a passion of mine and I’ve been inspired by so many great blogs in my own journey like Taralynn Mcnitt and Karena and Katrina’s “tone it up” that I thought its about time I started my own! :)  December 2012 I began my weight loss journey,after I took a long hard look at myself in the mirror and wanted to change! By June I had loss 30lbs and couldn't believe how my life had changed! I was more positive, had lots more energy and most importantly was happier in myself! :)To date I’m down 36lbs and I intend to keep it off! :)  And this blog is not only about health and fitness, I believe we should all indulge in the sweet things in life too, so I'll be posting some recipes for cheat meals and some baking (nobody's perfect! ;)) :) hope you guys enjoy!! xx