I'm finally free from exams and revision and all I want to do is sleep!!

I'll start my workouts again tomorrow and from Monday I'm hiring my best friend as my personal trainer and he has designed a workout schedule for me to do for the next 2 months -- he's an amazing personal trainer and really just knows how to make exercising fun for his clients and he knows that get bored easily so we'll do  things like basketball, football, sprints etc..to keep it interesting. I know it's going to be tough but I want to get to 78-75kg (174-165lbs) by August and right now I am about 185 lbs.

I'm also looking to buy a bike but I didn't realise how expensive they are!! So might look through eBay or second hand bike stores but it would be nice to buy something new! I'm determined to find one because the weather is great at the moment so I need to enjoy it.

How cute is this bike by Pashley -- £500 ($780) - might as well buy a car!

 

source: vogue, hanneli.com

Exam week... :(

My first set of exams are over!!!! They went well and I'm just relieved I have 2 exams left. So instead of taking the bus or train I decided to walk home because I haven't exercised for over a week.

London aka the rainy city has been blessed with beautiful hot weather but I haven't enjoyed any of it because I'm revising but hopefully it stay like this after Tuesday. So my for my walk I used two apps (iphone) today. One I use as a pedometer and estimate calorie burner (left) and the other I use to measure distance walk/jogged - so today I burnt about 244.7 cals walking 3.35 miles - I'm happy about that.

Breakfast -- Oats + semi skim (lactofree) milk

Lunch -- 1 aubergine (roasted), bulgar, tilapia, spicy crayfish sauce

Dinner -- pasta with mixed veg, tomato sauce + chicken
Snacks --2 slices of bread with almond butter

 

Anyway have to hit the books but I hope those of you in the USA are having a great memorial day xx

What I've eaten....so far this week...

 

Wash + soak almonds for a few hours -- Drain and place almonds in blender, for 1 cup of almonds add 3 cups of water -- using a sieve or cheesecloth separate and collect the milk in a container. Seive twice and store in air tight container in the fridge. 

 

I accidently deleted the pictures of making my almond butter ...next time I'll post them.

I'm in full revision mode as my exams are next week so I dont have time to blog, but I will try and keep posting pictures. I made some almond milk and almond butter yesterday so will post pics. Hope your all having a fabulous week xx

Juice Fast!

I ate like a pig today and went over my calorie allowance by 400 calories because of stupid addictive pasta! Anyway for the past few days..I've been feeling congested and blocked up..my whole system is in a rut, so I've decided to do a 1 day juice cleanse tomorrow. 

I have a juicer so all juices will be homemade with natural sugars and nutrients.

Juice fast recipe ideas ( will modify depending on ingredients I have).

• Orange juice
• Green juice - Spirulina powder, cucumber, celery, pear, lemon juice + kale. 
• Turmeric tonic - lemon juice, ginger, water, turmeric, cayenne pepper, black pepper + salt.
• Veggie juice - carrots, cucumber, beets, celery, ginger + lemon juice. 
• Spicy avocado soup - avocado, water, spinach, lime juice, celery, garlic, salt, chilli + cumin.
• Red delicious - beetroot, ginger, apples
• Carrot juice - (and you can add a small piece of ginger for a little kick).
• Tomato soup juice - Tomatoes, apples, 1 clove of garlic, 1 sprig of parsley.
• Watermelon punch - watermelon, lemon juice, oranges, pineapple
•  Pineapple mocktail - pineapple, carrot, apple, celery stalk. 
• Afternoon delight - Orange, strawberries, grapefruit, banana, vanilla essence, ice cubes.

I will post pictures tomorrow! Goodnight x

NO LOSS + NO GAIN THIS WEEK...PHEW!! SURPRISED BECAUSE I ATE THAT HUGE PANCAKE BUT I GUESS WALKING IT OFF HELPED. I NEED TO GET BACK ON THE 2LB PER WEEK HORSE!

Day 30: Run, Read + Juice

Today was my first outside run in months...and boy! I'm not as fit as I thought I was, but I loved it! I did the interval running method of running then walking so I ended up running for 15 mins and walking for 15 mins. Next time I'll try and increase running tim...emphasis on try. 

So anyway after that I got home and made some juice and an low fat cheese omelette with wholewheat toast. I am in love with our new Philips juicer - it's AMAZING!!!

Ingredients for this deep red concoction are : 1 beetroot, 3 medium/large carrots, 2 apples, ginger and 1 red pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. This would taste amazing with vodka...but I'm on a diet so imaginary vodka will have to do.

Breakfast -- 382 calories

Lunch --  White Rice (!!) with chicken in a tomato stew with plantains (521 calories)

*Went overboard with the fried plantain portions - but it's my mum's food....sooo irresistible!! Next time I can only have boiled or roasted plantain!

Dinner -- Tilapia with quinoa and a veg salad 

I'm keeping it light and cheerful as I have about 580 calories left for the day so need to use it wisely!

DAY 27: No rest for the wicked..

It has been a busy ass week! Preparing for exams is probably the worst time for me and my eating. In the past I would usually have some candy on the side then take a break and get more candy and this time around I am staying away from the candy though I did have a little hiccup yesterday and had a chocolate bar but I am exercising and burning it off - something I never would done in the past.

So on Friday I went for lunch with the boyfriend and had this huge apple pancake...not sure of the calories but I knew it wouldn't be pretty. So after lunch I walked everywhere and logged a massive 11,000 steps on my pedometer and also did a bit of running and in total I burnt 983 calories that day....bye bye pancake!

I don't know what is going on at the moment..my sweet tooth is in over drive but luckily my 1kg loss this week was not affected by my binging! I'm going to keep an eye on it before it throws all my hard work out the window....(fingers crossed).

I feel like I've been living in a bubble..why didn't I know you can make oil free popcorn in the microwave?? What is this new discovery? Well my mum (who is visiting from Nigeria) put some corn seeds in a bowl and cover it with another bowl then popped it in the microwave for 5 mins -- hey presto perfect popcorn (see above)!!!

Yesterday for dinner, I had some flame grilled chicken with some potatoes and garden peas (serving sizes)

This morning I'm focused on healthy eating:

Breakfast -- Oats with Oatbran + semi skim milk

Lunch -- Nothing

Dinner --
Snacks -- popcorn, 1 banana and almond butter. 

1 KG DOWN! ZOOOPPPP!

MAY 2012 PLAYLIST

I'm obsessed with these songs at the moment...some aren't up tempo but I like to use the slower ones for a cool down.

1. John - Lil Wayne + Rick Ross -- if I were a boxer this would be my entrance song, bad ass!!!
2. I look to you - Whitney Houston ft. Kim Burrell -- uplifting song that just takes me to a positive place.
3. Twilight - Cover Drive -- just a light hearted song with a great beat for cardio
4. The Weeknd - the entire album collection -- different songs for different moods and workouts!
5. Turn up the music - Chris Brown -- still loving this for cardio and just dancing around my house
6. Where have you been - Rihanna -- my fave track on the album and its a great dancing number
7. Stay Schemin' - Rick Ross + co -- just cool and I love listening to this on a bike
8. Bombs - Dawn Richard - love it!!!

Will add to it as the month passes. x

DAY 22: THESE SHOES WERE MADE FOR WALKING....

Ate super healthy today and I WALKED ALL DAY TODAY (NO PUBLIC TRANSPORT/CARS) ....AND I BURNT 936 CALORIES!! MY FEET ARE PAYING THE PRICE NOW BUT KNOWING THAT I BURNT OFF 900+ CALS TAKES THE PAIN AWAY,

Breakfast -- 2 egg omelette + 3 slices of 50 cal wholewheat bread + 1 slice of reduced fat edam cheese

Lunch -- Bulgar wheat, romaine lettuce, sun dried red peppers + tuna (with chilli powder)
Dinner -  Romaine lettuce, pickles, roast chicken, sun dried red peppers

Snacks -  1 large mango

Goodnight x

Day 20: one ingredient ice cream!

OK, so I went overboard on my grocery shopping this week and bought a ton of bananas and of course they also ripened up pretty fast so I'm in a race against time to find something to do with them. So I started browsing the web for healthy recipes. The Kitchn came to my rescue with a banana ice cream recipe that looked too good to ignore.

I was shocked how much it really tastes like ice cream but minus the guilt - I didn't feel like I was missing out on the real thing because this is better! I will make it again but with different flavours like dark chocolate chips, almond butter etc..

1 serving of this recipe (64g) is only 61 calories and 0.2g of fat and in comparison 1 serving of Haagen-Daz vanilla ice cream is 198 calories with 15.2g of fat!!

I would definitely recommend giving this recipe a try, it's inexpensive (£0.90/$1.50) and so yummy. Let me know how it goes!  ALSO...STAY TUNED FOR MY ALMOND, BANANA + OAT PROTEIN BARS ...lower calories than store bought ones and deliciously less guilty!! xxx

DAY 18: KEEP ON WALKING

Today is Friday which for me means no bus/public transport and I walk everywhere I need to go (unless its outside of the city). I'm going to try and walk 2000-3000 steps on my iphone's Pedometer Free GPS+ app.

Breakfast -- 2 boiled eggs with 1 grilled turkey sausage + 22g of avocado seasoned with salt and pepper (265 calories). 

 

Lunch -- Bean burger (about 450 cal) with flame grilled corn on the cob (69 cal)
Dinner -Nothing (not hungry at all!!)

Snacks - 2 bananas + 1 tablespoon of 100% peanut butter, vanilla frozen yoghurt (87 cal)

 

Total calories today -- 1145

I need to eat way more tomorrow...will aim for 1700 because for the last two days I've been under eating!

Day 17: The bop daily workout

I'm in exam mode at the moment so finding the motivation to workout is hard mainly because time is not on my side at the moment; so I've been browsing the tumblr fitness community for quick/time-saving workouts so I have no excuses for not working out.

On backonpointe.tumblr.com there is array of workouts from squat challenges to TV show themed workouts. So I thought I would try the daily workout (different workouts for everyday) and today's workout consisted of:

This took me about 30 minutes because I did 2 sets of each + took 30 second breaks (x3).

Breakfast -- 2 egg omelette + 2 slices of 50 cal wholewheat bread

Lunch -- 1 banana, orange + apple with 2 tablespoons of 100% peanut butter.
Dinner - Grilled jerk turkey breast with roast veg (red onion, broccoli, baby new potatoes) and sun dried tomatoes. 

Total calories today ---  1388

Goodnight x

DAY 16: PUMP IT UP

Keeping it fun today with the Ministry of Sound 'Pump it up'  30min workout - they are short and sweet and perfect for me today because I'm not really in the mood so I just want something fun. I will incorporate hand weights with this workout to kick it up a notch!

Here is part 1 on youtube (aka my wallets best friend):

Breakfast -- Turkey sausage + egg white omelette

Lunch -- Peanut butter, apple + jelly sandwich
Dinner - Grilled jerk turkey breast, roast butternut squash + bulgar wheat (370 cal)

 

Snack - Tea, 3 bananas, 3 oranges + 2 apples.

The funniest workout videos EVER!!!!

When did this happen? Why wasn't I told?....well I was 4 years old at the time but if saw Marky Mark + his fly honeys by the pool I would have bench-pressed my barbies!!

Then this...This woman is my new best friend! I love it when people have fun during gym sessions, but this woman is having a party on this treadmill.