So my weekend recap is a little delayed, but hey these things happen. Weekend’s are precious. Sleeping, eating, running (god willing!), cake (separate category to eating because it’s cake and amazing), friends, family…all the best things really!
After getting over the boredom that was pool running on Saturday morning I got home and pottered about waiting for Ben. He was out doing a 30 mile cycle ride. I was tempted to go with them instead of the pool running but I wanted to do something a bit more running-specific and frankly wasn’t up for a long ride.
After eating lunch we headed to go shopping in the wonder that is West Quay in Southampton. It’s like another world. It’s HUGE (I’ve blogged about the amazingness before HERE last Christmas). One of the main reasons I wanted to go is that it’s like the only place that sells frozen yogurt outside of London in Southampton.
I went in a few shops but just felt a bit…old. The fashion right now is just not me – all crop tops and weird skirts. I’m not a fashionista (can you tell? Ha!) and just like normal clothes. So Fatface is where I found success!
After that I was kind of done. We headed straight to the fro-yo!
Notice that my fro-yo has the fruit in it!
The server asked what size we wanted and we both went for the biggest – obviously 😉 And both chose salted caramel.
Embarrassingly as we were paying the lady went “you do realise your top is on the wrong way?”. Erm…nope I hadn’t been aware of this. Epic fail for a basic human skill: dressing oneself. Hopefully it was just after trying stuff on, otherwise it was a bit of an embarrassing day and my husband doesn’t look at me anymore 😉
Genius right there
On Sunday I ran 11 miles which went well. And then for lunch we went to Nando’s with our friend, Nathan. 
I just don’t get bored of that combo: whole chicken (medium spice), corn on the cob and salad. It rocks my world. I could go there every week (let’s pretend I don’t…).
The other week I was contact by the people at Uzuma to test out some of their newly released products. Uzuma are a Dutch company and have released a “green slow juice”. Basically they are vegetable (and fruit) juices that have been cold-pressed and processed under high pressure (HPP) in order to preserve the drinks and give them a shelf-life of 21 days without adding any preservatives.
“We add nothing extra to our green juices, meaning there are no preservatives, fragrances, colourings or flavourings. Nothing. What you experience from Uzuma green juice is the 100% pure power of nature. Our green juice allows us to bring you closer to a healthier lifestyle in a simple and convenient way. We do not use destructive traditional spinning extraction to produce Uzuma. All our vegetables and fruit are slow juiced using the latest innovative methods, allowing you to benefit from maximum vitamin and mineral retention.” Source
Zen flavour – broccoli, cucumber, kale, apple, lime, avocado etc.
How is it different to other juice drinks? Basically it’s the method they use in order to extract the juice from the vegetables and fruit. It doesn’t involve heat and so has a better nutritional value than regular juice drinks (i.e. it’s raw). Read more about it HERE.
Rise flavour – carrots, apple, pineapple, orange, lemon
What did I think? Well, I love vegetables so this is right up my street. Some of them tasted a bit better than others – mainly the ones with more fruit in them as this made them sweeter. But saying that, I quite enjoyed all of the flavours regardless of their sweetness.
I think the big test was how Ben found them. I made gave him one each day to take into work to drink. He is a vegetable dodger so these were more beneficial to him than me who loves veg and eats it regularly.
Shine – melon, mango, carrots and orange
He much preferred the sweeter ones and detested the one that had beetroot in it (Vibe) as he doesn’t like beetroot. But he said they were “alright” and that he could “endure taking them” to maximise his health.
Each one literally just contains vegetables and fruit. They’re dairy, gluten and soy free and they’re around 100 calories (some more, some less).
Personally I wouldn’t necessarily drink these everyday, only because I get enough veg already. Maybe I’d have some if I’d been on holiday and hadn’t eaten much veg and needed a bit of a health boost. I would definitely recommend them to people like my dad and Ben who don’t eat that much veg on a regular basis. It’s an easy way for them to get a lot of nutrition quick and easily.
Do you like juicing? What are your favourite ingredients?
What’s a restaurant you regularly keep going back to? We have many pubs we go back to, but Nando’s is the main chain we visit a lot.
Ever had an embarrassing shopping-related incident?
*** Full disclosure: I was sent the Uzuma products for free to review. But all opinions are my own***
