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 ;)

 

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

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: 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! 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 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 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