A week of eats

To go with my running mission I’ve been focussing on eating cleaner. As I love reading what people eat I thought I’d show you a selection of meals, breakfasts and snacks.
I work a selection of shifts so I can either be going to work at 6am or finishing at 9pm or working overnight. On really tough days it can be all of the above in one!
Breakfast is really important to me as I’m fairly active throughout the day and lunch can be hours away. If I don’t have breakfast there is a danger I might eat a member of the general public.
My go to breakfast at the moment is raw porridge oats mixed with berries and fat free Greek yogurt sometimes with a bit of Baobab powder mixed it.

On days off it might be something like eggs on rye toast or this fruity fiesta of lime spritzed papaya.

Or just fresh berries and yogurt.

If I need to snack during the day then I rely on rice cakes, Bear fruit yoyos, alpen light bars and Nakd bars.

I was working overnight shifts a week or so ago and made myself up a little snack box of a chopped up fruit peeler, some toddler rice cakes and some dried apple. Successfully kept me out of the sweetie drawer.

Given my shifts lunch can either be at 10am or 4pm and doesn’t generally look good enough to take a photo of! It’s nearly always lettuce, tomato and cucumber with raw peppers and then either cottage cheese or chicken breast.
Now onto dinners! I tend to throw a lot of things into a pan and serve with some protein. Last night was peppered mackerel and roasted veg, the night before a massive smoked salmon salad. Anywhere here are some of my creations.

Griddled veg topped with low fat feta and lemon and basil.

Pan cooked asparagus, courgettes and tomatoes with low fat feta again.

Tenderstem broccoli and mushrooms with a steamed chicken breast.

Lazy girls dinner of crudités and dip.

Monster salad.

The lovely Gemma’s pizza rolls
Because of all this clean eating there have been none of these which is frankly criminal….

Running up that hill

I think I mentioned recently that I started the couch to 5k programme so I thought I’d give an update on my progress.
I am now on week 4 of the programme and so far we have a kind of love hate relationship.
I started running at the beach in week 1.
At this point I was running for 1 minute then walking for 1 and a half.
I started taking photos to track the programme so here is week 1.

I then went to stay at my parents for 2 weeks so wasn’t near the beach so had to run on the roads. Uneven ground is my nemesis and I found it pretty tough.
At this point I was running a minute and a half and walking the same.
Here is week 2.

Week 3 involves running 2 x 1.5 minute runs and 2 x 3 minute runs. By this point I had really started to struggle running on the road as I found it quite hard to moderate my pace. The final day of week 3 I did at the gym.

I started week 4 a few days ago and have so far done 2 sessions. Both on the treadmill. I have got my pace about right and am finding it much better. This week is 2 x 3 minute runs and 2 x 5 minute runs.

I have started to continue running after the programme ends and have managed 3 x 5k runs which makes me pretty happy.
I’ve never liked running but I have enjoyed the structure that this programme gives me. I’m interested to see the progression in my fitness and I feel like this method will really help me.
I do find running outdoors more fun but really much tougher so for now I’ll stick to the treadmill.
I’ll update again in 4 weeks when hopefully I’ll be running continuously for 25 minutes….. Excuse me while I hyperventilate at the thought!

Surprise Sunday

I was expecting to be working today so was nicely surprised to get the day off last thing last night.
Here is how I filled my day!
Papaya

Gym

Pretty flowers on the way to and from the gym

Summer dresses

Quick gin and tonic

Dreamy walk home

Bourjois Bronzing Primer and Bronzing BB cream

So this post is fairly scary as it involves my naked face, cue breathing into a paper bag….anyway here goes….

Bourjois have just released a couple of new bronzing products which I was very interested in. I bought them in Boots where they are currently a couple of pounds off.

First up is the bronzing primer which is a fairly scary dark looking matte tan colour. Can be used for contouring I’d imagine or just to warm your whole face.

Also in the range is the bronzing BB cream. Claims to bronze and conceal blemishes in one. As the aforementioned overnight shifts have rendered me paler than Caspar I decided to try them this weekend.
First off I applied the BB cream over my normal make up base. I used the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush with a tiny tiny amount to avoid the scary orange face look.

This was the amount I used for my entire face. I blended it out a lot. As such it didn’t offer much coverage but to be honest I wasn’t really looking for that.
So on the left is naked face, on the right after the BB cream.

I then buffed on a small amount of the bronzing primer

Subtle right?
I think powdered over the whole lot and added blusher and the rest of my make up.

Can we all just say a quick hallelujah for eyeliner and mascara….
Overalls I was pleased with the results, you could add more product to make the effect darker apparently. If I ever get a tan I will try this out.
I’m not sure how this would work on much darker skins and in terms of coverage it’s pretty minimal. Both products lasted well and I will use them again.

Rodial Crash Diet Sticks

The other week I decided to try out Rodial Crash Diet Sticks. I’m a firm believer in healthy eating and exercise however I’d got myself into a bit of a rut of feeling rubbish and not wanting to exercise so I was desperate for a bit of a boost.
These products are incredibly expensive retailing for about £50 per packet. Frustratingly before buying them I couldn’t really find any reviews from anyone who’d completed the whole 2 course.

It’s suggested you take one stick per day for 2 weeks.
I’ve taken the last one this morning and I can report I have lost 8lbs. Now I do not credit these with producing that weight loss. They help eliminate excess water and to a certain extent help reduce your appetite but they aren’t a miracle. I’ve been sticking to 1200 calls per day and exercised around 5 days a week while taking them so I’d reckon that has helped more. I’ve also been using a weight loss hypnosis app which has helped my will power I think. Anyway on to the drinks.
The packet contains 14 sticks which you mix with 100ml of water.

Now you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that it looks like something you would use to increase plant growth….
The sticks are ‘peach’ flavoured. Utterly grim in my opinion, fake tasting and really really sweet ironically. The first time I made them I used cold water which made them gritty and really foul. Hot water seems to help them dissolve a lot more.
They contain a whole variety of things which are meant to aid weight loss such as green tea extract and caffeine as well as cherry stem which is meant to help with water retention.
I took them in the morning due to the caffeine content.
Overall they probably helped a bit with weightloss but I don’t think they at worth £50. The product Kilo Off has pretty much same ingredients for a fifth of the price (and tastes much nicer)
To sum up, take them if you need a boost but at the end of the day eat right and work out and you get results.
Crash Diet sticks are available direct from Rodial at a massive reduction of £19.99 so now is the time to try them if you want to.

Country file

So it’s been a bit quiet on here because I’ve been working overnight and not really getting up to much in the day.
Today we had a fairly sunny day so we decided to make the most it and behave like tourists. Normally you see the Bournemouth side of where I live but as I’m staying at my parents at the moment we headed out into the sticks a bit.
First stop was a local National Trust property Kingston Lacey. It has amazing gardens and woodland and a beautiful house.

James being attacked by a snake….

After we’d had a good wander around the grounds we decided it was probably lunchtime so headed to a local pub.
After that the sun properly came out so I felt that a trip to Poole Quay was in order for an ice lolly. There was a mini steam even on which involved very small steam engines, not as I first thought just a couple of big steam engines.

All in all a very pretty day, always nice to be a tourist in your home town. I’m now watching Here comes Honey Boo Boo and wishing I could go to the redneck games….

Floral colour clash nails

Lots of tutorials of this kind of thing around at the moment but I thought I’d show you how I did my nails last night.

Finished product.
So this is what I started with.

Revlon colour stay base coat (this stuff and the top coat are both amazing) China Glaze in Sweet Hook as the base, Barry M in Guava for the flowers and Essie Mint Candy Apple for the leaves.

Paint your nails with 2 coats of base colour.

Paint some roundish blobs on your accent nail.

Using a dotting tool or cocktail stick draw some swirls to define the petals and some blobs for leaves.

At this point I also decided I wanted to do the mint green as a fancy French type effect. I love the purple and green together.

This week I have been….

Well not doing much exciting really I’ll be honest. The week seems to have been a total blur.

Tuesday I decided to sort my fitness out again so joined Pure Gym
So far I’ve been very impressed. 24hr opening means I could go before work today and the amount of equipment is huge.

I also started couch to 5k and have done 2 runs so far! Now I truly hate running but it’s so good for you I want to crack it!

This Get running app is really good. I like the way it shows progress and also tells you when you are halfway through so you can turn round.

Running gear!
Forcing myself to run is much easier when the view looks like this….

Wednesday night we went out for a swanky dinner at West Beach
Lovely food but you do pay a bit for the view

Thursday and Friday were eaten up in a blur of work with a little trip to Salisbury for dinner.
Saturday was more work made brighter by these….

I also bought this amazing candle…. Rhubarb haters look away now!

We finished the day off with this ginormous salad

And some cava in these brilliantly retro glasses my mum rescued for me from my Grandad’s house…. Cheers!

So yeah, eating, drinking, running, stressing….busy week….
Have a bit of Game of Thrones for Sunday night!