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

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