My lovely friend, Emma, from Nanny on the Run inspired me to write this post. I love a good “currently” post.
Drinking: so my gym has this water machine that has nice flavours and “added vitamins”. I like to have exciting Yanga water at the gym because, well, anything that helps make the gym a more enjoyable and happy thing is good in my eyes. I’ve been a strong advocate of BCAA’s but buying a tub every three months is quite expensive. So I decided to up my gym membership cost a few pounds to get unlimited “special water”. This should save me money in the long run (and plastic, every little helps).
Eating and Cooking: I’m the master of throwing meals together in an evening. As I was basically only cooking for myself I was happy with a hodge podge of different ingredients. I’d be the human dustbin for my parents as well, eating up any stuff they weren’t going to use or was about to go off. However, as Kyle and I see each other so frequently during the week I have to think a bit more creatively about dinner. Though, bless him, he says he’d be fine with my random meals I’d rather have the excuse to flex my culinary abilities and make more of an effort. I love cooking and I love being able to do new recipes again.
Recently we had steak with a cream cheese and mushroom sauce and roasted new potatoes. We also had a creamy chicken meal with a rosemary foaccica (I bought that, Jesus, I’m not Mary Berry yet).
It’s been really nice being able to cook “proper” meals again. Though we struggle at the weekend not to get lured into the temptation to eat out and get takeaways… baby steps eh.
Watching: Well Kyle and I go to the cinema every week now. I can’t tell you how much I fricking love this. How did I ever survive not seeing ALL THE FILMS before? With our shiny Unlimited cards, the cinema is our oyster. I didn’t hugely enjoy The Mule but I did love Beautiful Boy (well, I ugly sobbed my way through it). We saw Green Book last night and it was so good. Very heart warming, funny and fantastic acting.
On the series side of things, I’m loving You for all it’s weird creepiness and also Killing Eve (late to the game on this one).
Reading: I recently loved The Tattooist of Auschwitz. It gave such an insight into the concentration camps, but it was chilling. For work I’m reading Sprint, which is from the a guy from Google talking about how to solve and test problems. Very interesting.
Using: I go through a lot of moisturiser. I always moisturise my legs after I shower and I’ve recently been using two different kinds that have been sent to me to review from e’lifexir Natural Beauty
Elifexir Fitness Body Contouring Gel (£15.99)
It contains a host of ingredients designed to “shape and tone” the body. There’s caffeine to help tighten the skin, dragon eye extra to protect the skin and black elder to calm the skin and vitamins to help encourage collagen production. I don’t believe this help you lose weight or really tighten up your skin in a dramatic way, but I do love the smell and feel of the cream on me. My skin does feel a bit more supple after using it so that’s a bonus to me. Plus they’re vegan and cruelty-free.
Elifexir Actidren Revitalising Leg Cream (£15.99)
This cream aims to soothes and relax your legs, relieving them of the heavy feelings and anti-redness. Olive oil and Rutin, a citrus flavonoid found in plants help reduce that tired leg feeling.
I love using this cream after a hot shower after my long run. It’s quite soothing and my legs are so smooth afterwards. I love it. You don’t need a huge amount either and, most importantly, it’s not greasy or thick! It glides on and rubs in well.
Playing: I love chilling out with my Nintendo Switch. I’m addicted. It helps me use my phone less in an evening which is good. I’m currently glued to Skyrim, but I also love Crash Bandicoot (though I’m appalling at it). Yes, I am a little nerd at heart.
Craving: I need to lessen my chocolate consumption I swear. I can power through a big bag of peanut M&M’s like it’s nothing. Peanut M&M’s aren’t actually that great for my tummy either it seems. I get quite bad stomach pains the next day. It’s worth it though… I’m also still craving that Jayne Salad again. IT WAS SO GOOD.
I’m also currently addicted to these Flipz. Weirdly the “Unicorn” flavour is incredible. The white chocolate fudge flavour was too sweet but these are just right. Of course the dark/plain chocolate variety are a solid selection too.
Have you tried any “unicorn” flavoured foods? It’s a bit of a mental craze…
What book have you recently enjoyed?
Do you moisturise regularly?
**Full Disclaimer: I was sent the moisturisers for free in return for a review on my blog. All opinions are my own honest ones.**
Not only did we go to the cinema last week but we also went out for dinner and then saw Jurassic Park in Concert. Basically this is a showing of Jurassic Park on the big screen with a live orchestra on the stage below the screen playing the soundtrack as the film played. It was INCREDIBLE.
The orchestra were amazing. Like you could forget that they were’t actually part of the film. It was fascinating to watch them play as the film went on (though I imagine they’re so sick of Jurassic Park now having toured around the country doing this!). They were perfectly in sync and it was just so all-encompassing. 
Dinner was pretty good as well. Before the showing, we went to 7Bone Burger. I had the Triple-D burger (which comes with blue cheese sauce and bacon) and halloumi fries…
And a cheeky side of chicken wings. Kyle had a fried chicken burger with halloumi fries and a chocolate milkshake. It was goooood. The milkshake (as I did help Kyle out a bit with it…*cough*) was SUPER thick. Personally I’m not a huge milkshake fan but if I were to have one myself it would be a thick one. It was delicious.
Podcasts: I listen to a number of podcasts every week: BBC Five Live Film Review, Marathon Talk, Empire Film Review, TED Radio Hour, My Dad Wrote a Porno – and dip in and out of other ones that take my interest. But I’ve recently been finding myself running out of them (I listen to them in the car, walking Alfie or when I’m doing boring chores around the house). My lovely friend, 
I listened to the Gary Barlow one first and found it really interesting. It’s amazing how celebrities who are so famous, earning so much money and seemingly living their “best life” can be taken down by depression or body image issues. I’ve since listened to the interview with Mel C and Stephen Fry and both were just as good. Heartily recommend.
I add a couple of cups (as you can see above – the cup doesn’t come with the salts FYI) in the bath and just relax and enjoy. I’ve found it can really decrease how much I’ll ache the next day. I don’t know about injury prevention but it definitely makes me feel better anyway.
Oh my god they were good. There were M&M ones, Hershey’s Cookies and Cream ones and another type that I think were Kinder Bueno that were awesome.
There’s something about blondies that I so love. I mean I do prefer brownies I think but blondies are a nice change now and again.
He’s very much a “I’d rather sleep than do anything else” kind of dog. Well, actually he’d rather eat than do anything else but sleep is a close second. I mean, let’s be honest, I think we all have a little Dylan inside of us all.
The colder weather definitely helps me to run faster and the 10k route I take is super flat so this helps. I should probably do a 10k race and give it some welly to make it official (as I’ve now beaten my official PB twice on a training run). But at the same time, I don’t want to enter a 10k race this side of Christmas before my next marathon… aaaaand I hate 10ks. Though I do have Stubbington 10k mid-January. Not really a goal in my head though if I’m honest. I’m just happy to know I’m a bit faster.
I also liked the front. It was a very thoughtful and lovely gift. I wore it with pride at Netley parkrun the week after I got back from Zary. Everyone was impressed 🙂 It’s a niche challenge, I grant you, but I’m so proud of myself and it’s so nice to have something to commemorate it.
Compression socks: I was recently sent some compression socks from 
However, I personally like to wear them during long runs as I find it reduces cramp and I feel more supported. This might all be a placebo but I like to wear them. I think it helps.
Anyway, the compression socks from Rymora are good. They’re tight and provide decent support to my calves. However, they are not as tight or give as much compression as my favourite pair from CEP. I think the cost reflects this (CEP are upwards of £30 whereas Rymora are around £10). That said, some people prefer less compression. They’re also A LOT easier to get off after the run – which with my CEP socks can be an absolute nightmare.
The Rymora socks are a little long for me as well. They come just over my knees. But nothing that a bit of rolling down doesn’t solve. All in all, a very affordable option for a “milder” pair of compression socks.
I know I need to get better and I annoy myself for what I’m like. I do like to think I’m good in other ways though. I don’t use baby wipes, I don’t wear make-up, I use the “hard” shampoo from Lush, I buy loose fruit and vegetables where I can and try not to buy too many fizzy drinks in small bottles. I know I have a long way to go but at least I’m conscious of my actions. I just wish society also made things easier as well. Excuses, excuses I know.
Literally I was the first one at the cakes when the email was sent around and I loaded my plate up. For my first round, I had a slice of Victoria sponge (heavenly. Normally I’m not that big a fan as I find it a bit dull but my god this was a good one), a salted caramel cupcake and a white chocolate cookie.
The salted caramel cupcake was very gooey and so delicious. Post lunch I had round two, another salted caramel cupcake (it was just so good the first time), another slice of Victoria sponge and a salted caramel crepe (which I heated in the microwave). 
And in the afternoon, PURELY to be polite to my friend, I tried his chocolate cake… gahhhh so good.
So I definitely think I’ve caught up with what I burnt the day before 😉
She’s always been rumoured to not eat much and be super conscious of unhealthy food (and is super slim) so I’m not entirely surprised but COME ON. Just have a slice of cake. (Obviously I’m making a snap judgement here purely on what she projected to social media and have no idea if she did eat cake in her own time blah blah blah so this might be an unfair comment, but whatever).
Now I am a big fan of apps that track stuff. I track my running, my steps, my sleep, sometimes I’ll have a mosey on MyFitnessPal if I want to know the nutritional value of something (I don’t track meals or food though – that would probably trigger me to become overly obsessed, which I certainly don’t want to be). But anyway, I like stats and data.
Apparently they did Bridget Jones’ Diary and actually had blue soup. The food looks amazing. I would so love to do this at some point. My only issue is it’s only in London… standard.
Mary wrote 
Now that’s fine. They can set whatever criteria they like – it’s their race. What I object wholeheartedly to is that they changed these times mid marathon season. It’s like changing where the goal posts are half-way through a football match. For example, James was aiming for a sub 3:05 at Brighton so he could then do London next year. If he’d have gotten 3:04:59 he’d have been super pleased – as of Sunday the GFA still stood that his age group with a sub 3:05 could get in. Then a day or so later, the times changed and suddenly he needed a sub-3. Luckily for him he did get a sub 3…but how devastating for people who didn’t but were momentarily happy thinking they had qualified? Or that they’re entire training had been focused on sub 3:05 and NOT sub 3? Five minutes is quite a chunk!
I also emailed 
Rave: Running at lunchtime (runching if you will). It’s so much nicer to run at lunch than it is after work. I’m so much more motivated to run when it’s not as cold and definitely not as dark. It also means I can toddle off home quicker after work.
Don’t get me wrong, I find I do ‘fear’ these workouts and begin them with some trepidation. I know it’s going to feel hard and the temptation to sack it off and do a standard 8min/mile run is SO tempting. But I know this is good for me and the feeling I get when I finish is fantastic. I just need to make sure I stay motivated. I need to mix things up as well so if anyone has any good marathon-focused speed workouts for around 6 miles I’d be grateful for the inspiration…