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 Smile

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 Smile

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.

26.07 Run

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!

WIAW – #3

Beware, I’m about to have a bit of a rant. Apologies in advance.

It’s so lovely and warm. The sun is shining. It’s amazing. Everyone is so much more happy. I get to work. I AM FREEZING. Apparently there is the need to crank up the air con to MAX and turn it into winter into our office. I look longingly out of the window at the beautiful sunshine and gentle warm breeze swaying the trees. And I’m sat with my cardigan on and jeans shivering. Shivering. I walk out of work in the evening (even at 6pm) and the heat hits me. My car is roasting. And yet I’ve spent 95% of the day shivering. Now I know I don’t have a huge amount of insulation going to provide some benefit against this, but that is not the point. It’s finally summer and I’m still cold.

OK, I’m done. Whew. I feel better now.

Sooo, WIAW. It’s that time of the week where I ‘enlighten’ you the fascinating (mildly interesting?) meals that I’ve had today (well, Tuesday). As always, hosted by Jenn from Peas and Crayons.

 

So for breakfast:

25.07 breakfast

Yep, that is green porridge. I added half a teaspoon of wheatgrass to my oats before cooking them. It didn’t impact the taste at all which was nice. I’m really into my wheatgrass at the moment and want to get it in where I can. I might make a green smoothie sometime this week to take to work and put in the fridge. I’m just concerned that they might think I’m a bit strange with my bright green smoothie…

Does anyone else get worried about what people think of what you eat? I eat quite healthily and get a few comments about my lunch or snacks and it really bothers me. I hate people looking at my food and judging me. I know I shouldn’t care but it makes me nervous eating around other people (except for close family and friends who know me well enough). I hate feeling like I have to justify what I’m eating. There are always the questions about why I eat so healthily and how I don’t need to eat all that salad, I’m skinny enough. I’m not eating it to get skinny I’m eating it to keep healthy and because I enjoy it! I eat rubbish as well but not all the time. I’m very conscious of what I put into my body and I like to feel good about myself.

Anyway, for lunch I had some quorn chilli that I’d made the other night and took some in to work with me [Check me out being a bit more adventurous with meals!]:

24.07 Lunch

This is an appalling photo, sorry. I was trying to take a photo on the sly so my work colleges didn’t think I was crazy. They’re not from the “take a photo of your food” era. This lunch was really yummy. A bit of quorn, a handful of haricot beans, chopped bell pepper, chopped courgette, diced onion, bit of garlic, chilli, mixed herbs and a tin of chopped tomatoes. This made two very yummy portions. Very easy ‘bung it all in a saucepan’ meal.

Dinner was even better:

IMG_1788

Goat’s cheese, chicken, chopped pear, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce and pecan nuts with a balsamic dressing. I am loving salads at the moment. And I’m loving goat’s cheese. And surprisingly so is Ben. Another win!

Throughout the day I munched on some apples (obviously), a banana, Snack a Jacks (I am literally addicted to these) and a home-made jelly. No pictures as these are fairly dull. Well, maybe one photo:

photo8

Ahh, perfection.

Here’s what I wore (yay summer outfit!):

25.07 outfit

OOTD (outfit of the day): top is from Forever 21, jeans are soo old (from Topshop) and necklace from Accessorize. Can’t remember about the bracelets – probably Accessorize knowing me.

And for my fitness… I did my usual 5miles in the morning. I’m pleased with how it went. It was a nice cool temperature to run:

24.07 Run

Not sure why my Garmin showed a different view today. I only recently jumped on the Garmin band wagon last month so I’m still getting used to it, and to be honest I’m not sure how to navigate through it. I just jab random buttons and hope for the best. I could read the manual. That would be the most sensible approach. But that’s an effort really, isn’t it?

Hope you’re all having a great WIAW. I love noseying (sp?) on people’s meals Smile

Monday again??

I can’t believe it’s Monday again. Even though I had three days off it seems to have zoomed by. The weather was gorgeous though. Now I know us Britains are going on a bit about the weather (some may say whining…) but seriously, it’s been pretty bad. Yes our summers aren’t amazing, but we usually get some sunshine and warmth. Anyway, rant over. The sun is out…for now.

We had a pretty good weekend. Ben and I drove up to Cardiff to spend the afternoon with our friends. It’s a 2 and a half hour journey so we topped up on some amazing smoothies after breakfast:

Smoothies

Mixed summer berried, cow’s milk and banana on the left for Ben. And another spinach, banana, wheatgrass and almond milk one for me. Nom nom nom.

Smoothie

There’s me, chugging down my green monster as fast as I can. We are always late. It’s always a mad dash around at the last minute (OK taking photos probably didn’t help either…).

We took loads of burgers, sausages and buns. It was perfect weather for a BBQ. However, when I got there my friends looked at my raw food selection quizzically. It wasn’t a BBQ, it was a picnic. I’m not sure how I came round to think we were having a BBQ, especially when it was confirmed several times of it’s picnic status. Hmmm. Well Ben and I bought a little throw-away BBQ and had ourselves a small BBQ while they munched cold selections of finger food (I’m sure they were jealous of our sizzling delights…well I’ll tell myself they were). Note to self: read invitations properly. It was quite funny though…Ben obviously blamed me as well *sighs*.

Regardless of our poor choice of food, it was a great day. Over the weekend I also had a bit of an attack of the Hunger Monster. The Hunger Monster is when you JUST NEED SOMETHING NAUGHTY TO EAT, NOW! We had Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in the freezer. I hate an entire litre of frozen yogurt chocolate brownie. I’m not proud of myself. It wasn’t my finest hour. But it was damn tasty. Ben managed 3/4 of his Oh My Apple Pie. I feel a sense of achievement to have finished a litre. In retrospect I was starting to feel a bit sick towards the end, but I’m no quitter. Stomach of steel.

So this fuelled me nicely for a very warm run on Sunday morning:

22.047 run

I’m really loving running at the moment. I feel myself improving as well which is a great feeling. And I’ve jazzed up my playlist a bit more (which I hadn’t done in ages) and I find this always helps. Ben is coming running with me more which is nice.

Then to finish off the weekend nicely, we had a really tasty meal:

22.07 dinner

It was a chicken stir-fry with sliced courgette, bell peppers, red onion, cashews and kelp noodles with Chinese Five Spice and soy sauce. Delicious! It took me a while to convince Ben to eat the kelp noodles and also to keep him away from the kitchen while I prepared them as though they looked fine to me, I reckon it might have put Ben off. He’s not big into trying new and ‘strange’ food, especially if it’s healthy food. However, after trying it he proclaimed “Yeah it’s not bad actually”. Success!! Hurrah!

Hope you all had lovely weekends! Was anyone else attacked by the Hunger Monster? Winking smile

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.

Running 20.07

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:

Package 19.07

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:

Smoothie 20.07

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:

19.07 dinner

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?

That love-hate thing

Hello! Almost Friday which means my long weekend is almost here, woohoo! I’m in such a good mood. It’s going to be a hectic Friday and weekend but I love being busy and ticking things off my to-do list and, of course, a nice long sleep and the chance for an extended run. During the week I can only really run for about 50 minutes as I need to get ready and drive the million miles to work (OK, it’s not that far, but sometimes it feels like it). And as much as I love running, getting up earlier than 5.30am is just not going to happen. I love sleeping much more.

I don’t really run in the evenings because I find that after finishing work I’m shattered and just want to cook dinner and then flop onto the sofa (in a very attractive and graceful way…*cough*). Then a short-time after that, I go to bed (yep, I’m that cool, people). Plus running for me is one of the best ways to get my energised and ready for the day. I’m in such a better mood after running and have so much energy. Not so good before bedtime!

So I can only run just over 5 miles in a morning in the week. Though saying that, I usually don’t want to do more than that anyway as I don’t have as much energy for it as I do at the weekend. The week runs are always a bit of a slog and generate a lot of self-hatred of “whhhhy am I out here when everyone else in the world is in bed??”. Whereas I see my weekend run as an unconstrained run where I can run as long or as little as I want and that sort of mentality really helps with the run. And getting up at 9am is a bit more of a friendly time!

Wednesday’s run went OK but, like I said, it’s always tough. The first mile is just me thinking of how I could just go home and then the other miles are me continuously pushing myself. I’ve never quit a run but psychologically it’s tough to keep the momentum going. The last mile is always the best and it’s that sense of achievement of finishing is always worth the pain (at least that’s what I’ve brainwashed myself into thinking!).

18.07 Run

Do other people have this constant battle and happiness associated with working out? You love doing it but not necessarily while you’re doing it??

On another note, I wanted to share my MAMMONTH meal last night:

dinner17.07JPG

That’s chicken with a ‘sprinkle’ on it (a spicey mix of herbs and, er, spice), half an avocado, some cannellini beans stir-fried with some bell pepper and onions and a whole load of veg on the side. In retrospect, it probably was too much. Maybe I didn’t quite need the side of veg. I massively overestimated my hunger levels and stomach capacity. However, I did finish it. I did go to bed massively full and bloated though. It was damn good though.

And here’s what I wore yesterday:

clothes18.07

The belt definitely came off post-meal…

Anyone else have the problem when they can’t stop eating something even when they’re full just because it tastes way to go to leave?