dinner - AnnaTheApple

September 1, 2015September 2, 2015

Feeling a bit drained and flat

There is nothing like a long weekend to really kick start out back into life. Though I know not everyone got to enjoy a day off yesterday!

It was a fairly quiet weekend I must say – but sometimes you just need a bit of ‘downtime’ to try and recharge your batteries and, in my case, get into gear with sorting and organising the house. I still don’t have a date for when I’m moving, which is annoying. Especially because it’s already September now and my weekends coming up are getting booked up with seeing university friends, races and a holiday at the end of September. Whoops.

Anyway, rolling back to Saturday I went to parkrun as normal. Because I spectacularly positive splitted last week I wanted to have a strong negative split this time. I find it really hard in a 5k to pace myself. It’s funny because in a marathon I’ve found I can stick to my set paces almost perfectly and have a really controlled race, but when it comes to any shorter races it all goes to pot.

It was quite a chilly start to the day as we set up all the flags for the course, but at 8.30am the sun came out and it suddenly heated up. I wore my new skort (only £12 from Forever 21 – and very comfy and flattering, it has proper shorts underneath as well) and my Paris marathon T-shirt but by the time we got ready to start I decided to forgo the top and just run in my sports bra (I noticed a few others had done the same so I didn’t feel quite so naked). This was perfect.

I started the first lap slightly more conservatively than I would usually but still found it tough going. I managed to hang on to one of the guys from the running club, Berni, who does a lot of our coaching and leading runs. He was great as his pace was so consistent and we chatted a bit which kept my mind off the effort. On the final lap he told me to push on and I suddenly felt I had more energy knowing I only had one more lap to go.

Check those splits out! A nice negative royal flush. OK only three miles worth but I’ll take it! I came second female with 21:14. Happy days.

I also tried my very first blondie afterwards which honestly rocked my world. I think I’ve never gone for them as they’re white chocolate and I’m not a huge white chocolate fan but when a small child offers you a blondie, you take the blondie. And I’m so glad I did!

Later on I needed to pop to the shops quickly to top up on apples and came back with…well, more than apples.

I spotted some tasty looking pork belly and lamb koftas which I just couldn’t say no to, and then spotted the Ben and Jerry’s BLONDIE brownie core. And some frozen berries which I always love having with Greek yogurt at work.

That evening I was round my parent’s house for dinner with family friends. We had smoked salmon to start and steak Diane and roasted sweet potato wedges for main. If you’ve never had steak Diane it is AMAZING. My dad doesn’t even follow a recipe anymore he’s made it so often. The sauce is a cream based sauce with brandy, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce with fried onions and mushrooms. It was delicious.

For pudding there was a choice of Carte D’or ice cream or my Ben and Jerry’s. I went for the B&Js and it was just as good as it sounded.

The next morning was my long run and I was meeting running club guys to join them on a 10 miler. I ran to the meeting point and back to make it up to 14 miles. I’m still trying to be gradual in my build-up for Bournemouth as I’ve only just run Cheddar Gorge. Next week I’m hoping to run 16-17 miles and then 18 the week after and then taper.

It was really humid and from the start I found the run quite draining. I don’t know if it was the heavy meal the night before, tired legs in general or the humidity but it just felt tough. It was nice running with the others though as chatting to them took my mind of my fatigue. I need to be careful to not overdo things as I know recently I’ve done so much. After Bournemouth (providing I get there – I never take these things as a given!!) I’m planning on taking a break from the longer distances. In fact I might take a couple of weeks entirely off of running to just chill and then focus on some 10 milers and a half marathon race instead.

The route we took was fairly undulating as well in the middle section so this was tough going. Thankfully I’d taken water with me as it was really warm!

The photo on the left is before I headed out – I look very fresh and unsweaty!

For the rest of the day I felt drained and tired. I’d made sure to have something before I went running (which I never normally do) to help keep my nutrition topped up for the day as I struggle with long run days to refuel. It was one of those Chia Pods which had an ‘interesting’ texture but tasted nice.

I ate lots through the day and think I refuelled like a pro. For dinner I had the pork belly and roasted sweet potato and it was delicious.

High in calories, fat and protein it went down nicely! I know there’s some dispute about animal protein and fat being the best thing for you, but it definitely filled a hole and left me satisfied. I’ve been tracking my calories and macros using MyFitnessPal to keep me on track of my goal which has been really helpful. I won’t use it forever or get too fixated on it but I need something to give me an idea of what I’m eating as I don’t track calories or macros normally. It also links to my Garmin account so gives me a good idea of how much food I need to refuel after a run. I’ll do a post about it later on what I’ve been eating and how I’ve been tracking things if people are interested!

As I had Monday off (as it was a Bank holiday in the UK, apart from Scotland) I had a luxurious lie-in (I woke up at 7.30am naturally and lazed about until just before 8am, how indulgent) and then headed to the gym at the far more reasonable time of 9am (not my usual 5.30am!).

I’m still following the New Rules of Lifting for Women and I’ve probably got about two-three weeks left (I tend to do three sessions, sometimes two a week) of Stage 1. I’m so pleased with the progress I’ve made. My deadlift and squat weight has gone up significantly and I feel really strong. I still supplement the listed workouts though with my own stuff though as I want to cover running-specific strength training as well (click the link for a great list of moves).

Then the rest of the day was spent doing the fairly depressing task of sorting through some stuff in the loft and house bits and pieces. Nothing like sifting through wedding cards and old photos to really end your long weekend on a high!

How was your weekend? Did you have the Monday off?

What do you eat before a long run or workout?

Do you track calories and/or macros?

August 12, 2015

Rants and Raves #17

I do enjoy writing my Rants and Raves post because I often have a collection of little thoughts or events that occur during the week that I want to share but don’t always cohesively fit into a good narrative. If you’re bore of the Rants and Raves though, please let me know!

Rant: I work in an office and it drives me mad when people come in ill. I’m not a particularly tolerant person it must be said – I don’t have a lot of patience and I know I need to work on it but this is surely not an unfair complaint. When people come in and spend the entire day coughing up their lungs (not just a little cough, a real lung-blasting one) within a rather enclosed space, well it takes a lot of mental willpower to not yell “GO HOME”. Work is not that important that you need to come when you’re really not well. It’s not good for them and it’s not great for us either!

Rave: Food parcels from the parents. It’s like being 18 again and my parents are sending me back on the train to Cardiff University with a bundle of food.

Ahh university. Those were the days that I was too cheap to buy magazines, chewing gum and quilted loo roll. Small luxuries I still cherish to this day. But back to the food. This time it was more that they were going to throw away this food if I didn’t take it because it would go off.

My parents, I’m sure they don’t mind me saying, are notorious for wasting food. They both have dinners at different times in the week because of when they finish work so what usually happens is my mum randomly buys a load of food from M&S despite my dad buying a load of food from the supermarket. Not all of it will get eaten. This is a rant in itself because I hate wasting food. They do have the best intentions and never set out to waste it, but often as not something will get left behind in the week. And I’m more than happy to take if off their hands.

So I received a half roast chicken, a Cumberland sausage and two slightly iffy looking salad boxes (once the soggy cucumbers where picked out it was fine. I’m not fussy when it comes to eating food past it’s best!).

From this I had a delicious BBQ sauce chicken stir-fry (yes, I know BBQ sauce is practically just sugar…that’s why it tastes so good).

I literally put the entire half a chicken in there and it was massive. I was fairly full!

I used the Cumberland sausage to do something similar but this time used balsamic vinegar and some herbs to flavour it and included some roasted butternut squash and chickpeas.

This was so good! Definitely need to repeat it. At the weekends at the moment I tend to be eating rather random meals as I’m slowly eating my way through the freezer ready for the move (still no date). This also means the hardship of eating all the cake in there too. *Sighs* it’s tough.

Rant: I’m an animal lover through and through but I will always prefer dogs to cats. Sorry but it’s true. I’m sure if I ever owned a cat I would feel differently (though from speaking to other cat owners, you never really “own” a cat…). I own a dog though and I’m pretty sure he would not be happy knowing what was happening right outside his front door.

The absolute audacity of this cat. And when I (gently) shooed it along before opening the door, it sloped off slowly with an indignant air. When I later walked Alfie it was still within proximity to the door and Alfie attempted to do the Big Dog thing of barking at it but then, when the cat simply glowered back, Alfie quickly backed off into the road. *Sighs* My little hero.

Rave: Ahh watermelon. How I adore you.

Such a refreshing and tasty snack. And you can eat so much without filling up as it’s practically water! And it’s so good for you with it’s great anti-inflammatory and antioxidant support.

Rant: I wore a dress to work yesterday. Big mistake.

Bargain dress from H&M; cardigan from New Look; belt not sure

My bare legs were rather chilly. But I refuse to accept that summer is over. I realise I can’t stay in denial forever but it’s August.

And finally this really made me laugh:

Quite amusing! I relate most to Belle I think in terms of nerdiness and book-reading. And I did used to have a boyfriend at college that my friends weren’t keen on – though I wouldn’t have called him at beast!

What Disney character do you most relate to? I think we all knew a Jasmine at school!

What’s your favourite summer food?

Do your parents give you food parcels? One birthday when I was at university my parents surprised me with a hamper of goodies, like sweets, beauty products, chewing gum, magazines and food. It was one of the best presents I’ve had, so random but so useful and appreciated.

June 10, 2015September 18, 2020

What I’m loving lately…

Today I have a bit of a random post with some bits and pieces that I’m loving lately.

(FYI none of the products mentioned below were sent to be reviewed or that I got anything in return for – I’m just giving general opinions on things I’m loving!)

Hello Fresh: I know I keep harping on about it, but I’m still going strong with Hello Fresh. Only cooking for one now (start the violins…) means I can plate up two meals and not worry the next day. I try and plan it so I always have that spare meal when I’m going running or know I’m going to be late home for some reason. Very handy to then just get in and microwave my already prepared dinner.

A really tasty meal I had recently was a risotto with prawns and asparagus. SO good.

I never normally buy prawns as they’re quite expensive and I never think to make risottos so this was quite the fancy meal for me! I also like how it uses seasonal ingredients.

Another noteworthy meal was a chickpea and butternut squash curry made with coconut milk.

The portion was massive but perfect for my hungry appetite! What was good about this meal was I could easily freeze the second meal so didn’t need to panic about eating the other portion in a certain amount of time.

Birthday present to me: As it’s my birthday in a couple of weeks my parents asked what I would like…so I said money towards a DNA test. Yes, you read that right. My parents were a little shocked…But keep reading, it’s not like that! 😉

I first heard about it in the RunnersWorld magazine and my interest was instantly peaked. It’s basically a DNA test which tells you your fitness genetic profile: DNAFit.

My swab that I sent away

Yes, yes I know, sounds a load of hogwash but it’s a genuine thing. I went for the slightly less expensive test which would tell me:

Power and endurance potential
Post-exercise recovery speed
Injury risk profile
Recovery nutrition needs

I’m not expecting any real eye-opening discoveries here because, let’s be honest, I know my own body pretty well. But I’m intrigued as to what my genes really say about me. I’m pretty much expecting a high injury risk result and more of an aptitude towards endurance than power…but we shall see I guess. What it will give me is an idea of really how best I should train and how many recovery days I really need. Or at least confirm what I already know. Perhaps a waste of money but frankly there was nothing else I wanted for my birthday. I’ll share my results when I get them through.

New foam rollers: Check out these bad boys!!

No these are not props from Fifty Shades of Grey as someone in my running club said 😉 They are foam rollers! The ball is about the size of a tennis ball so the cylindrical one in comparison is also very small. Handy travel sized. I’m a big fan of foam rolling and I’m sort of deflating my usual tennis ball by using it too much (and this makes Alfie sad…) so I thought I would splash out for something a bit more exciting and, er, aggressive. I’m using with caution though. They’re great for my calves and bum.

Bargain fitness gear: Fitness clothes from Tesco (UK supermarket)! These leggings were a bargain (£8!) and fit SO well. They are very comfortable and I think quite flattering. I’m all over cheap and good quality gym/running gear!

Random 5: And on the subject of running gear…I won a competition at the Hackney Half Marathon! In the race village Brook’s had a chalk board which was about why you’re thankful for running and the most inspiring ones (or interesting) would win some Brook’s goodies. Always keen to win free stuff I put my message on there…and, amongst a few others, won!

Mine says “Thank you running for all the cake”…seemed fitting, you know? 😉 My friend, Karen, from the running club also won (hers said that running helps her “escape from the nappies” as she’s a mum of two youngsters).

The prizes arrived this week. I didn’t really know what I’d won beforehand but we had to give our clothing and shoe size so I hoped for the best. In the package there were a pair of trainers, capris and a T-shirt. Not too shabby, eh!

Ravenna Trainers:Infiniti capris:

Short-sleeved running top:

The top is a little big on me though which is annoying but the capris are WONDERFUL. The trainers are also very cool looking. I love the colours!

Standing desk: And my standing desk is still going strong. I’m on a new project so had to switch to a different office but my set-up is still pretty good.

It’s nice because I can look out of the windows easily as they’re quite high if you’re sat down. My chair comes in handy as a shopping bag holder as well (and so no one pinches it as I sit down for lunch!).

And that’s all for now! For tomorrow’s post I hope to do a sort of summary of my marathon training, what I’ve learnt and the good and bad things. I guess I won’t know really how well my training has gone until the Big Day though…

Do you foam roll?

Where do you usually buy your fitness gear from?

Would you take a DNA test to find out more about yourself?

May 14, 2015September 18, 2020

Yoga, food and a buff review

The day after the Hackney Half Marathon my legs felt surprisingly OK. I had a strong sense of tiredness and runger which followed me through the day but it was no different really than how I’ve felt any Monday morning after doing a long run on the Sunday.

This is good news! I still took Monday off as a complete rest day though. Let’s not risk anything. I gave Alfie a lovely walk in our local field in the morning before work and in the evening too.

It’s lovely to see him racing around while I can just walk around the field and listen to the radio (I feel old because I now listen to BBC5 Live in the morning – I like keeping up to date with the news and opinions). There’re always the regular dog walkers which is nice as well.

That evening I had a really tasty Hello Fresh meal of quinoa, lentils, feta and chorizo. It did take a while to make (about 30 mins) and created a lot of washing up but the results were fantastic.

Basically it involved cooking the quinoa separately in vegetable stock while frying onions, chorizo and diced peppers and tomatoes. Add pre-cooked lentils (from a tin) and the quinoa with chopped coriander and crumbled feta. Done! It’s the prep that’s the laborious part really.

The next morning I got up at 5am for my usual strength training at the gym. All, except the press-ups, I use weights for these moves:

Squats
Romanian deadlifts
Cross body chop with dumbbell
Walking lunges
Single leg deadlifts
Single leg squats
Hot salsa
Russian twists
Press-ups

I go twice a week now and it’s far more manageable (my second session is more plyometric-based – box jumps, lunge jumps, etc.). I still think it’s important I keep maintaining my strength. To be honest I find it so hard to motivate myself to go (it’s not running is it!) but the fear of injury gets me up in the morning. And strength I’ve found is like most things, you have to consistently do otherwise you’ll lose it.

Tuesday evening I went for an easy run with the running club. I haven’t been to training in ages and it felt good to be back. Though I’m still cautious about it as I want to stick to my (vague) training plan. Otherwise I know I’d happily run silly miles at a silly pace if I went every week and I need to be sensible. After the marathon I’ll be back regularly!

I ran with Mike and Mark and a few others who didn’t want to do the planned hill session that the other guys were doing (hills were not going to happen for me!) and it was lovely. We chatted the whole time and just took things slow – though probably not as slow as we should have but my HR was low and the effort was easy so I was happy. In the end we got 5.5 miles in and I barely felt out of breath.

My running club have started running-focused yoga and Pilates sessions so a few weeks ago I booked myself in for a yoga session after the run as I thought after Hackney it would be ideal. I quickly changed into leggings and got my mat and was good to go. I’ve done yoga before so it was very familiar to me and I felt (for once!) one of the most experience yogis in the room as the majority were all beginners.

In my other yoga classes I’ve been to I was always one of the newbies so this was a nice change for the books! It felt blissful after running as well.

But it did mean that it was past 9pm when I got home and I hadn’t had dinner yet – no chance of that before running when I get home at 6pm, have to walk Alfie and be ready to run at 6.45pm. I inhaled my dinner and wasn’t in bed until 11pm. This is a seriously late night for me considering I’m normally asleep by 10pm!! Luckily dinner was already cooked as I had made two portions of the quinoa meal the day before. It was just a case of reheating and shovelling in.

I must say that as good as I felt after yoga and my run on Tuesday night, I woke up Wednesday with really aching glutes and hamstrings. I’m pretty certain this is from my gym session and not the run! But luckily I’d planned another rest day and some foam rolling in the evening. Then intervals in the morning (which were tough I must say!).

On to a little review…I was kindly sent two buffs from the kind people at Kitshack.com. One buff for me and one buff for Alfie, my dog. Alfie felt very chuffed to be included in a review for once 😉

High UV Protection BUFF® (find HERE)

My buff was from the High UV Protection range that they have. It’s interesting because my first thoughts about wearing buffs are that they are just for winter and to keep you warm. But these buffs are more to protect you from the sun, which is fantastic.

It’s made with a wicking fabric which helps suck the moisture away from your skin quickly. It can be worn as a neckerchief, headband, wristband, mask, hair-band, balaclava, scarf, scrunchie, saharaine, pirate cap, beanie or bandana…personally I like the sound of the pirate cap 😉 It’s also treated with Polygiene so will remain fresh as the silver ions prevent the build up of bacteria in the fabric. There are also no seams or hems to irritate your skin. And it has the UV protection obviously.

Thoughts? I love the colour! They have a whole range of different patterns and colours which is great if you like matching things, like me. Initially I was confused what to do with it and how to wear it but it was fun to experiment. The video HERE’s is definitely worth a watch as honestly I wouldn’t have had a clue otherwise and there are so many different ways to wear it – it’s very multi-functional. For example…

Cycling – use over your mouth if it’s cold or there’s lots of pollution, or under your helmet.
Running – use it like a scarf it’s cold or as a sweat band.
Long walks – protects my scalp from burning.

It’s very soft and comfy to wear and I quite like wearing it as a headband to keep my hair out of my eyes. I’d probably wear it more often in the winter for running and more as a headband when walking or going to the gym.

Terrible photo but it was the best angle I could do I’m afraid!

Don’t wear it like this though unless you’re hiding from someone:

Having fun while trying the different ways to wear it

Dog BUFF®

I’m sorry but this just tickled me that Alfie could wear one of these too – how cute. They have a range of coloured patterns and are available in two sizes: standard (which fits most medium to larger breeds) and small (for terriers and smaller dogs like Alfie).

It has a handy Scotchlight reflective strip which offers retro-reflective visibility from a distance of 150 metres and is made from the same stretchy material as the, er, human buffs.

As happy as Alfie was to be part of this review, he’s not very good at staying still for a photo!!

Thoughts? Alfie thought he looked cool in it 😉 I quite like that it has the reflective bit so in dark evenings or mornings he’d be easier to spot – and to be honest the colour makes him easier to spot as well when he’s off his lead. I’m not sure how comfortable he’d be with it over his head though like in the picture below.

All in all I am a fan of the buffs! They look cool, they’re multi-functional and Alfie and me can match 😉

Have you ever worn a buff to run/walk/cycle in?

Do you do yoga or Pilates?

How much effort do you spend on your evening meal?

**Full Disclosure: I was sent the buffs for free to review. All opinions are Alfie’s and my own.**

April 23, 2015September 18, 2020

Two Chicks Review

I haven’t really done a blog post about my recent eats for a while now. Mainly because it used to be exceptionally dull. I’d eat the same rota of meals week in and week out.

Since getting Hello Fresh (a delivery box system sending out ingredients and recipes – check out my review if you’re interested) things are a lot more exciting. I’m cooking for just me now (no pity please) so having Hello Fresh every two weeks, which is six meals, works out really nicely for me at the moment. It also means that there are quite a few meals that I just have to microwave as I cooked the entire meal the day before.

I think the biggest benefit is that it encourages me to eat more balanced meals. I have been known to overeat vegetables and go a bit salad crazy…this isn’t always a good thing, especially when marathon training. The below meal is a meal I often have for lunch at the weekend. It’s just a mix of stir-fry veg with cream cheese (such a good easy sauce!) with either fish, chickpeas or some other protein.

I would never normally buy potatoes as I find them quite dull (sweet potatoes are different, I could just eat them plain) but often the Hello Fresh recipes call for mash potatoes, roasted wedges or new potatoes and I’m actually really enjoying them. And even RICE [immediately makes me think of running injuries when capitalised…]. I’m not a rice fan, but when the recipe was jambalaya you can’t do much substitution on that front. I hadn’t swapped the meals in time and I’m not about to waste it!

It was very tasty and very filling. It contained prawns and chorizo and was just heavenly. I’m still not going to leap to Tesco and buy a kilogram of rice but it was a nice change.

Basically I’m eating more carbs. I’m not a fan of low-carb diets or anything like that, I just genuinely prefer to have more meat on my plate than things like bread, potatoes, rice or pasta. But I’m a realist and know I need to fuel appropriately for my mileage! It’s just to me meat (and protein in general) is more tasty and exciting.

And this segues nicely to a new snack I’ve been having lately. The cool people at Two Chicks sent me some of their new snacks to review, called Chirps. You might know Two Chicks from their liquid egg whites (I’ve had this before and really liked the concept of bulking out omelettes or what-have-you with more protein. I’d never forgo the yolk as hello that’s the best part but to beef out an egg meal it’s brilliant – or I guess if you need egg whites for baking).

So what are Chirps then? They’re basically high protein ‘crisps’ made from egg whites (“egg white bites”). They’re low in carbohydrates and fat and come in three flavours: Sour Cream & Onion, Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper and Smokey Jalapeno. Also:

They contain no GMO
Have 15% off your daily protein intake per bag (e.g. one pack contains approx 9g of protein)
Are low in sugar
Contain 50% less fat than standard crisps
Contain 30% less calories than other crisps

My thoughts: Now I’m a big fan of Snack a Jacks (especially the Sour Cream flavoured ones) so I was already liking the sound of these snacks, and I liked that they contained more protein and less sugar so would be more of a filling snack (Snack a Jacks aren’t filling at all, I just like how they taste).

I really, really liked these. I loved the Sour Cream & Onion flavour the most. It was very moreish. What’s also great is there seems to be a lot in a packet as the ‘crisp’ pieces are quite small. There’s LOADS of flavour to them as well. No they don’t taste like crisps or rice snacks, you can tell there’s something different to them, but it’s not unpleasant at all. Just different.

Smokey Jalapeno Chirps – loads of flavour

I’ll warn you though, the Smokey Jalapeno Chirps are quite hot! But for me it was a pleasant heat, but more sensitive palates might want to avoid this flavour.

I mentioned these snacks at work and I got a lot of interest. I gave a few packets out to colleagues so they could try them too and the feedback was very, very positive. They all really enjoyed them and were fascinated by them.

The Chirps not gluten free or suitable for vegans (obviously) and the ingredients list doesn’t look horrific but it’s not as ‘clean’ as it could be. Annoyingly they’re also only sold in selected stores and online at the moment, so I hope they pick up popularity and become more mainstream as they could easily replace my Snack a Jack love. Big thumbs up from me!

Do you enjoy snacking on crisp or rice crackers?

What do you look for in a snack: high protein, low sugar, filling, taste, etc.?

Do you like to vary your meals in the week or do you have a set rota?

***Full Disclaimer: I was sent the Chirps snacks for free to review. All opinions are my own honest ones.***