Weights - AnnaTheApple

August 15, 2012August 15, 2012

WIAW #4 – and the beginning of a change?

Happy WIAW! Wow these things come around so quickly, don’t they?

This week I’m feeling really good. Really positive and happy. Things with the wedding are ticking along nicely. I’ve not woken up in a cold sweat worrying or struggled to get to sleep for ages. Everything seems to be in hand. Hurrah! I’ve got my hen do to look forward to [dread?] and then the weekends aren’t as jam-packed as they previously were. Whew.

It’s my fourth WIAW (my little blog is getting a bit older!).

I love being involved in this, it feels like one massive community. During my lunch breaks at work (and maybe a few times through the day sneakily if I feel my concentration waning) I love perusing other blogs that I don’t usually read or just checking out people’s food. It always makes me think I eat such boring food and I’m always inspired to change things up a bit or try a new recipe. So thank you Jenn!

Sooo…breakfast:

My porridge made with oats and hazelnut milk and a tsp of wheatgrass. It looks like sludge, I know. It’s the mix of wheatgrass and the brown hazelnut milk. Still tasted good though (I promise!).

Lunchtime (at the weekend) was a bit samey I’m sorry, but I’m really enjoying my salads right now (*desperately clings on to the last dregs of our British summer*):

Chicken fried in a Moroccan spice blend, mozzarella, cashew nuts sliced pear, beets, tomatoes, cucumber and leaves. Whew! Quite a variety I guess. I love meals like that though where you just bung everything in them. It’s great that every forkful is slightly different. [Although Ben, the strange guy that he is, leaves all his mozzarella to the end – apparently he likes to get through the ‘boring’ healthy stuff and leave the good stuff until the end *sighs*]

And dinner last night was my favourite meal of the week.

In comparison to lunch, this is obviously a lot less varied. However, I love love this meal right now. Crunchy no-added sugar peanut butter, sweet potato, Brussels sprouts and broad beans. Usually I have carrots alongside this but I forgot. I was ~~a little bit~~ devastated when I sat down and realised my mistake. I almost ran back to the kitchen in a deranged panic. But then calmed myself down and convinced myself it was fine without. But carrots and sweet potato are a match made in heaven…

Snack-wise I have been loving my smoothies (still).

I take my green monster smoothie to work with me and drink it surreptitiously, hoping no one will see. Though sometimes when I make the smoothie too thick it’s really hard to sneakily drink it. It has the consistency of sludge, meaning I have to tilt back my head so far to drink the damn thing…It’s cool, no one’s noticed. All is fine. *Looks round furtively*

And in the evening I’ve been experimenting with different chocolatey-style smoothies:

This one contained a handful of frozen berries, 100g (1/2 cup) of Alpro Soya yogurt, 1tbs P2B and 1 tsp carob powder and a little splash of hazelnut milk.

I ate it straight out of my blender container to save washing up (yep, presentation score of 10/10). Yum! I always need a snack in the evening. Even if I’m not hungry (a cardinal sin, I know). I just have to have something. I can’t bare to think that dinner is my last meal before breakfast (that’s hours away!! I’ll die of starvation in my sleep!)

And for fitness side of things. My usual running.

I love running (you might have guessed) but I’ve started to have a think. Nothing dramatic as of yet, but I’ve been reading quite a few blogs and the benefits of doing more strength training. I enjoy using weights as you really feel the burn the next day. The thought of reducing my running down makes me nervous (I’ve always done something cardio-based) and I couldn’t not run. I love the feeling, the effort of pushing yourself (OK maybe I enjoy that afterwards) and the feeling of accomplishment at the end of a long run. But something keeps niggling me at the back of my mind that running isn’t everything. Reading Meg’s blog and Sara’s blog and hearing them reap the benefits just makes me think. I’m a fairly healthy person, I’m a fairly fit person, but I (like all girls) I know there are some improvements I could make (call me a perfectionist, I know). A bit more toning maybe. And running just doesn’t seem to help. My thoughts are all over the place at the moment, but I’m starting to wonder if I should give it a one week trial of doing less running and more weight training…

Oh I’m in such a quandary! Any advice would be much appreciated!!

P.S. I just had to upload this photo of Alfie:

He just loves Smallville!

August 3, 2012August 3, 2012

Almost the weekend

Wow I’m so glad it’s Friday. This week has been fairly hard-going. I’ve been trying not to stress about the wedding and I’ve been doing some delegating so things are better. But getting up for working out has been really hard. I’m usually wake up a bit tired but after giving Alfie, our dog, a quick walk I can snap myself into focus mode. But I’ve been like a zombie walking him. Which isn’t so great when he suddenly sees a cat and I’m not prepared and he almost rips my arm out of its socket.

So my runs this week haven’t been great in terms of how I feel when I’m running. I’ve just felt so tired. But I managed to do some yoga (albeit an attempt). After some good tips from Maria and Becks, I’m going to check out some podcasts and see what they’re like as trying to do it all on my own didn’t work out the best. Anyway, here’s what my week looked like:

Monday – 5 miles (42.38mins)

Tuesday – yoga

Wednesday – 5.2 miles (43.37mins)

Thursday – weights (5 sets of 15 squats 5kg weight, 2min plank, 3 sets of 15 triceps kick backs 2.5kg per arm, 3 sets of 12 ‘cleavage creator’ and 3 sets of 30 sit-ups 5kg weight)

Friday – today I ran 3 miles as I want to improve on my speed.

Really chuffed with how it went. I woke up today feeling less sleepy and just went as fast as I could. It was really tough, I’m not gonna lie. I couldn’t have maintained my speed for a longer run. It was good though to push myself in a different way as I usually just try and run further. Mentally it went well because I knew it’d be a lot shorter than my usual runs. It just zoomed by. I was surprised by how much it knackered me though at the end. I was pooped!

I won’t do a short and fast run every week as it’s quite tough and doing 5 work-outs during the week days was hard-going, especially as I’ll still do my longer run at the weekend. But I’ll try to do it every other week as it’ll show me any progress and help push myself that bit more.

I’ve been enjoying some good smoothie puddings in the evening as well. I’m calling them smoothie puddings because they’re too thick to be smoothies but not massively indulgent to be a pudding. I don’t have any photos as I was too busy chomping (whoops). But my favourite is low fat yogurt, 1tbs carob powder, 2 tbsp PB2, frozen strawberries and a pinch of xanthan gum. Delicious! PB2 is something I’d come across in blogs but didn’t really know what it was. However, on researching it I found it was powdered peanut butter and 85% less fat and calories than usual peanut butter! Amazing.

Now, don’t get be wrong. I adore normal peanut butter. You can’t beat it. However, when you just fancy a slightly ‘lighter’ smoothie but still with a yummy PB taste, this is perfect! In an evening I don’t want anything too heavy as I tend to go to bed quite early (yes, I know, I’m like an old lady) so it’s perfect for fullness factor. And with the carob powder it tastes very indulgent but without a heavy feeling on your tummy afterwards.

So addicted to the Olympics right now. I’m currently sneakily streaming the track events at work. I’m just blown away with how amazing they all are. Jessica Ennis is our big British star and I’m just in awe of her. These women (and men, of course) are so inspiring to me to push myself that little extra. I know this sounds cheese, but I just think they’re amazing!

I’m looking forward to this evening as I’m meeting up with my close friend to talk wedding and eat Indian take-away. She’s kindly agreed to make me cupcakes for my wedding and sing during the ceremony, I’m so grateful to her! She’s an amazing singer and an amazing baker, so it’s a win-win situation

Hope you all have a great Friday night and lovely weekend!

July 28, 2012

Proud To Be British

Woohoo it’s the weekend! Off to a good start: Friday night TV was great (crazy party animal that I am). Ben and me watched the Olympics opening ceremony. Now, originally I wasn’t fussed about the Olympics. It’s been soo over-hyped and you can’t go a day without hearing something about it. However, I thought we best watch the opening ceremony because, well, let’s face it. The Olympics only happen every four years and it’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever see Britain hosting the games again.

So we watched it. Well, not all of it – it went on until midnight! And I have to admit, it was pretty good. Off the wall, yes. But quite a show. Best part? Mr Bean playing the keyboard sketch. That was hilarious. I loved that the Queen got on board with some funniness as well. Danny Boyle did good and made me proud to be British

Source: arthouse.com via Anna on Pinterest

Alfie also enjoyed it too, though he did fall asleep after about ten minutes:

Dinner was very late on Friday night as I attempted a cauliflower pizza. Not a pizza covered in cauliflower as my dad thought, but a cauliflower based pizza – i.e. the base is made out of grated cauliflower. I mentioned to Ben that that’s what we were having for tea and he looked at me as if I’d told him we were eating Alfie. He was horrified. But I managed to persuade him by assuring him there would also be mozzarella in the base and it would be very cheesy. He looked slightly less scared. I’m really trying to get Ben to eat more healthily and lose a little bit of weight before the wedding. He’s not fat by any means. But, and he would agree, he has a little excess he’d like to get rid of. So hence the cauliflower pizza.

Has anyone grated an entire head of cauliflower? It takes flipping ages! I vaguely this recipe tweaking some of the quantities and toppings.

Anyway, so two bowls of cauliflower later and some grated mozzarella and we’re almost good to go.

Mix together with egg and herbs.

Then I separated it into cake tins as that seemed like the perfect utensil. Then cooked in the oven for 15 minutes. Then add some amazing toppings and put back in for about 5 mins until everything is lovely and cooked. Nom nom nom.

Mine’s on the left. I had beetroot, red bell pepper and diced quorn chunks and some grated Babel Bell cheese. Ben had the same but without beetroot and a lot more cheese.

These were amazing. OK they didn’t really taste like pizza (or look like pizza really). But they tasted like something else just as tasty. And they were so filling. But a lot of effort! I think we’ll be having these occasionally as they took so damn long. And Ben’s opinion? He really enjoyed them. He said they wouldn’t replace pizza (what can) but he’d have it again. That, my friends, is a top 8/10 on the Benjamin Scale.

I did my weights in the morning. I’m really struggling with finding new moves to do. I like to mix it up every week to work different muscles but I’m finding it hard to find stuff. I only have dumbbells so my equipment is fairly limited. Here’s what I did:

5 sets of 12 lunges on each leg with 5kg

3 sets of 12 bent over rows

3 sets if 12 lateral raises with 2.5kg per arm

3 sets of 12 sit-ups with 2.5kg weight

3 sets of 12 triceps presses

3 sets of 10 press-ups

1min45sec plank

60 sit-ups

I think I just need to hunt through the Internet to find some inspiration. I never really know what to do with my legs other than lunges and squats.

Anywho, hope you’re all having a lovely weekend. I’m off to choose my bouquet for my wedding. Oh and as a side note, I’m glad to inform you that I managed to drink my smoothie at work yesterday without any spillage issues. Happy days.

July 27, 2012

Wedding-related panic

Good morning! I mentioned in my last post how I really hated people commenting on my food when I’m eating or making derogatory remarks, which often makes me feel embarrassed or insecure to eat in front of people. I had a few comments form readers agreeing with me, which was lovely! I think this is why I love reading and writing blogs. You’re surrounded (albeit virtually) by like-minded people. I love my family and friends obviously but sometimes they really don’t understand my quirky food loves or ‘healthisms’ (like getting up stupidly early to run). It’s definitely a community feeling in the blog world and you never feel embarrassed to post some weird recipe or try some strange food. This just makes me happy

On a similar note…because I’m embarrassed by some of the stuff I eat (and I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m working on it), I bought a flask especially for my smoothie to take into work so people couldn’t see that I was drinking a bright green smoothie. Brilliant idea, I thought, it also keeps it lovely and cold! So I was feeling rather smug with myself as I unscrewed the lid. Unfortunately as I tipped it back to drink, it was less thick than I originally thought and it rushed out and spilt all down my front. Bright. Green. Smoothie. I’m now sat in the office covered in what looks like thick green snot. Brilliant idea, Anna.

But it’s Friday! And it’s 8 weekends until I get married. And honestly, I am stressed. So many things left to do. The most pressing being choosing my sister’s bridesmaid dress. I know the colour but that’s it. I bought one online but it looked dreadful on her. Now we need to go for a shopping trip – probably better than buying online. I’m only having one bridesmaid for my wedding as it’s quite a small affair. Originally I was going to have my girlfriends from university but they live all over the country (and one in Germany) so it’d be a nightmare to coordinate (not to mention expensive) and in the end it would have been five bridesmaids in total and I think it wouldn’t have looked right as it’s a very small affair. So just my older sister, Rachel. But the point is that every weekend is now critical to some part of the planning of the wedding.

This weekend I hope to make progress in the sweet buffet I hope to have. I want something like this or this basically. I’ve got some jars and glass pieces so I now need to work out what’s going in them, some decorative labels and things like that…Any tips or suggestions are very welcome

And we hope to have Ben’s outfit in the bag as well this weekend. He finally got around to booking his fitting (the one task he had been assigned) – cutting it a bit fine I think! Men! Honestly, I swear there wouldn’t be a wedding if he’d have had to organise it! How do programmes like Don’t Tell The Bride manage?? But anyway, we’re off tomorrow to get him suited and booted.

My run yesterday was OK.

I’ve decided to mix up my workouts a bit. I usually run three times a week (usually one longer run at the weekend and two 5 miles in the week) and do a strength training session as well. But I’m really enjoying running at the moment and really want to improve my speed. So every other week I’m going to add a 3 mile run and try and run as fast as I can. It’s shorter so mentally it seem possible. But we’ll see. I’ll start that next week. And sometime I want to add yoga. There doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day! I think it’ll have to be at the weekend as I just can’t get up earlier in the week and I need one day in the week where I have a ‘lie-in’ and don’t do anything exercise-related. I think yoga will be important for me as I run so much and often feel my muscles are a bit tight. It would be good for my body to stretch properly, you know? So I have a few ‘beginner’ positions to try. I hope to try this at the weekend. I’ve never done yoga before so this could all go wrong!

As it’s Friday, I thought I’d leave you with a funny photo that might make you smile:

Source: piccsy.com via Anna on Pinterest

Have a lovely weekend everyone and finger’s crossed the sun keeps shining!

July 21, 2012January 5, 2017

Some new experiences

So nice to wake up late Friday morning. I had that lovely experience of naturally waking up when my alarm would have gone off and rolling back over to sleep for a few more hours. Then waking up and feeling like I’d slept forever. I don’t lay in for that long (until 9am really) but it’s so much longer than when I usually get up.

Lo and behold! The sun was shining and it looked like summer. Only downside of that is that it meant my run this morning was a bit tough due to the temperature. But it was nice to get out there anyway.

I went a bit further than my normal weekday runs and chose a different route which mixed things up a bit. I really ached from yesterday’s weights though. I worked on my arms and every time I bounced along the pavement I really felt it.

Here’s my routine for yesterday:

5 sets 12 squats (5kg)
3 sets of 12 bent-over row (5kg)
3 sets of 12 triceps push
3 sets of 12 ‘cleavage creator’ [Not my naming I hasten to add!! It was from a magazine…*mumbles quietly* not blessed in that department…]
1x 1min30sec plank
1x 1min side plank on each side
50 sit-ups
50 cycling sit-ups

I’m really trying to focus on my arms a bit more. But I’m not very good at varying it up. I used to go to Body Pump and I loved it. But I don’t go to a gym anymore so have to make do at home, which is never the same. So I plough the internet for ideas of different exercises. I have some weights but that’s it so I’m limited with equipment. I really miss the gym and the different classes there. Don’t get me wrong, I love running but I miss the choice of doing other things, like the rower or the elliptical machine. I wonder if I should have a look at DVDs…?

On another note, on Friday my package had arrived, which I was quite excited about:

OK, not a massive package but enough to make me happy. I want to get back into making more smoothies so I’d made a couple of purchases from Holland and Barrett’s website to jazz them up a bit. After my run I decided to have a smoothie as it was too late to eat breakfast and too early for lunch. I don’t usually eat anything before runs as it makes me feel quite unwell. So I made my first ever green monster smoothie. I used Angela’s recipe here. I didn’t have any ice which was a bit annoying but I had some frozen banana chunks. And instead of using flax I used a couple of teaspoons of wheatgrass. I used non-sweetened almond milk as my choice of milk:

I was really dubious about what it was going to taste like. But, honestly, it was so yummy! I could have drunk it all day. I got Ben to try a mouthful as I thought he might like it. Nope. Ah well, can’t win ‘em all! He had a banana and fruit smoothie with cow’s milk and seemed quite happy with that.

I can’t wait to make different variations of the smoothie. I want to take it to work but (and I’m ashamed to admit) I’m worried people will look at me strangely. See, I work with a bunch of men who’s vision of ‘healthy’ is choosing a jam donut over a cream cake because the donut has fruit in it. Well, I’ll see. The point is, I need this in my life!!

Also wanted to share my first ever peanut butter-based meal:

Sweet potato and a dollop of crunchy no-added sugar PB and a load of veg. It was so good. Thank you blogging world for opening my eyes to this possibility!

Has anyone else had any new experiences lately?