Fuelled by a banana

I RAN THE LONDON WINTER RUN 10K!!!

And boy does it feel like there's a weight off my mind. 

I'm going to do a separate post recapping the event but there's a bit more detail below. 

Happenings

This week was set to be a good one as it way my boyfriend's birthday. We had a lovely dinner with his family planned at the amazing Toto's restaurant in Kensington, and I'd organised a special day out on Saturday to celebrate properly. The reality was a lot of cancelled plans and a lot of time with me in bed in pain. 

Toto's - Source

I managed to get myself out to the family dinner but spent most of the time trying not to pass out. I haven't had pain that bad for a long time, even walking was a challenge. I probably came across very rude to his family (and to the staff at the restaurant since I ate about 2 mouthfuls...). Things weren't too bad for the rest of the week until Saturday when I woke up feeling nauseous and with stomach pains. I managed to make it to my therapy appointment, though struggled not to throw up when talking about food, and then went to a coffee shop where I sat very still as any movement made me feel in pain. When I met up with my boyfriend we got as far as lunch before he took me home where I spent the rest of the day asleep in bed.

I felt so awful. I completely ruined his birthday...twice in a week! And the worst girlfriend ever award goes to...me... 

I did make him a cake though (one that I couldn't even eat as it had wheat in it - sacrifice right there). One positive brownie point against a lot of minuses. So I've got a lot of making up to do. 

By the time it got to race day I'd only eaten a banana, 2 slices of toast and some popcorn the day before. Not exactly fuelling! So I scoffed a banana a few hours before the race and got the adrenaline going. Thank god for adrenaline! 

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This would have been a particularly effective adrenaline stimulant.

But after a super cold start, and a shaky start, I did it :)

(Not the best photo...I may have accidentally temporarily broke my phone camera by smashing a perfume bottle over it. Lesson learned: never try and be fancy shmancy and take perfume with you to a race).

The rest of the Sunday was spent warming up on the sofa, eating carbs, and then going to support my boyfriend at an exhibition stand he'd organised for his work. 

Eatings

As you can imagine, food has been all over the place this week with stomach pains. A lot of plain foods such as popcorn. A lot of low fodmap foods such as eggs (so many eggs). And a few spoonfuls of the amazing food at Toto's - melanzane parmigiana followed by truffle risotto. 

The more exciting meals included a quinoa stuffed pepper with pinenuts, spinach, mint and sundried tomotoes. With a side of THE BEST homemade gluten free bread and salad.

Banana, chia and nuts with the remaining peanut butter - best breakfast on the go!

HAZELNUT BUTTER! Oh dear lord, where have you been all my life? Obvs with banana because you just can't beat that combo. Oh, and raw cacao. Raw cacao makes chocolate at breakfast acceptable.

Movings

Zero yoga = sad Emma. But 2 5ks and a 10k (woop woop!) = super happy Emma!!

Thinkings

Most of my week was spent thinking "I hate my job" and "I hate my stomach". C'est la vie...it'll get better. Friday I'm probably heading back to the Dr. to see if they'll do any tests to rule out other nasties and confirm IBS. I imagine they'll send me away again empty handed, but I owe it to myself to try.

As for the job, I'm considering alternative careers. I wonder whether there's such a thing as professional duvet tester?

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I've also been reflecting on my January goals. I'll be doing a run down of each goal in blog posts for the next few days, but I'm pretty proud of my achievements! I'll also be listing out my February goals to keep my accountable.

Have a great week everyone!

E x

What did you do this weekend? What's your favourite nut butter?

Back at it and throwing away the scales!

Did Christmas actually happen?! It already feels yonks ago that I was lying on the sofa watching Christmas specials and eating my body weight in chocolate. Can every day be Christmas please? Hope everyone isn't feeling too exhausted after their first week back.

Happenings

So much to catch up on!

My last few days of holiday were nice and relaxed. I was back home in London and whilst some of it was spent cleaning out rooms and de-Christmassifying the flat (does anyone else feel guilty leaving their part-of-the-family-for-the-last-month Christmas tree outside to be picked up?!) we did do a few nice things.

We went for a lovely walk along the river into Richmond where we had a coffee - or in my case a delicious spiced apple drink. Exactly what I needed to warm my frozen hands!

We also went to the ZOO!! I haven't been to the zoo in yeeeears. I'm always very dubious about zoos and am worried that the animals haven't got enough space or nice enough living conditions. On this occasion everything seemed great on the whole.

I was also amazed at just how many situation there were the animals were roaming free! There were ants roaming free, a bird house which you could walk through, and a monkey enclosure you could walk through. The monkeys were so much fun and so cheeky! I had one jump on me and try and steal my headphones from my bag! They certainly weren't shy.

And there were some times just chilled out on the sofa with a blanket and a good film.

Maybe the most significant life event that happened though was....throwing away my scales! These things do so much more damage than good. I've not weighed myself for a good few months, but for some reason had been putting off throwing them away. Well, now they're gone!

The week back at work has been a bit of a culture shock. I'm back working away from home again which has meant living off all that M&S provides. I've missed the South Coast sunrises though!

Movings

I RAN A 10K!!!! The first week I was back in London I really wasn't feeling the runs. I missed the beautiful countryside from back at my parents' and I was craving sleep. So on the Sunday I left my garmin at home and decided to go out for a nice, easy 5k rather than pushing a longer one. Somewhere along the way I had a huge mental shift and ended up running 2 loops. It was tough, but SO GOOD! I'm putting it down to new running gear (who said you need to be colour coordinated?!)! I'd forgotten how much I love the longer runs - that extra time gives my brain that bit longer to unwind.

In fact I was so excited by the whole I signed up to the Cancer Research Winter Run 10k on 1st February! Little bit scared...

Unfortunately (and kind of unsurprising) my muscles weren't a fan and I've got some pain in my foot. I still got out for 2 4-5ks over the week (and returned to this gorgeous sunrise) and did a couple of yoga sessions, but today I decided it was getting worse. So I'm sulking, looking out at the beautiful weather and wishing I was out there training for the event. Never mind...I know deep down it's the sensible option.

Eatings

A lot of buckwheat and rice porridge. Favourite combination so far is coconut milk, sultanas, cinnamon and maple syrup. Yum!

Some cereal bowls when I've been in a rush

Some amazing smoked tofu

Home made miso soup

M&S provisions

Canteen surprises - this bean chilli was amazing!

Thinkings

This week has been a bit tough on the old grey matter. I missed the ability to follow my meal plans and having the stress of deciding what to eat removed. I really had to try hard when living off M&S to try and go for balanced meals and meeting my calorie needs. And there were times at the end of the week where I was at home and hadn't meal planned, and my eating went haywire. I am getting there though...slowly. My therapist had to remind me this week that the meal plan was a guide to help get my eating back on track - not a law of what I had to follow for the rest of my life. I needed to hear that!

My anxiety hasn't been tooooo bad this week :) My therapist gave me a form to fill out when I had anxious foods which was really helpful to use. It gets you to talk about the situation, the thoughts going through your head, the physical sensations, what thoughts would have helped balance out the negative thoughts, and how I tried and could try to reduce the anxiety. Really useful to try out - makes me feel so much more control. Something else that really helped was my therapist saying anxiety is just a weigh up of the potential danger versus the control we perceive we have. And perceptions can always be changed!


Anyway, hope you've all had a fabulous first week back and are still full of all the motivation and hope that January brings.

Restaurant review: RAW at La Suite West

Saturday was mine and my boyfriend’s three year anniversary. It didn’t get off to the best start, when my boyfriend bit into his pain au chocolat that I’d lovingly bought him to find maggots dropping out. Way to say “I love you”.

However the culinary moments of the day definitely ended on a high when I found out he’d booked for us to go to RAW at La Suite West in Bayswater for dinner. He’s made some pretty big sacrifices for me in the past, but coming to a vegan/partly raw restaurant is definitely up amongst them – no nicely cooked steaks here (though there was at least Coca Cola...).

And holy cow this place was inspiring!

 

From the alcohol-free drinks list (including the RAW smoothie which is THE yummiest drink to ever have graced my lips) to the 50% raw menu, it really highlighted how vegan food (and getting your 5 a day) could not only be downright delicious, but also jaw-droppingly beautiful.

 

 

I had the pumpkin soufflé to start which looked so stunning that I could have forgotten about eating it and just stared at it all night. However, just for the record, it tasted just as good as it looked. The “soufflé” was made of layers of delicate pumpkin and mushroom and was served with a sesame-herb emulsion which was So. Good. My boyfriend had the beetroot falafels with a thai BBQ sauce. These were also ridiculously yummy.

 

 

For main I had the raw zucchini tagliatelli almond and coconut pad-thai. I’m always a bit dubious about how satisfying I’ll find a small dish of raw vegetables, but this was both delicious and filling. What I would do for the recipe for the coconut sauce it was in! It’s not your traditional pad thai, but it was super good. The boyfriend had a mushroom and quinoa burger in a sweet potato bun. The burger was actually basically the same as the falafel (containing beetroot) so was obviously still good but I think he found it a bit repetitive, but the bread was amazing.

 

 

For dessert we shared the raw cacao and ginger cookies. These were good, but probably the only think I felt disappointed by (probably because the rest of the meal had been so insanely good) as they lacked a bit of flavour.

The service was excellent with it being attentive but not obtrusive. The atmosphere was quite subdued, with the restaurant being fairly quiet for a Saturday night. I quite liked it not being so busy but if you like a “buzz” you might have felt something was missing (though I recommend you go at least for the food!). Price-wise the main courses were pretty reasonable (about £12), and the drinks, whilst some were expensive (my smoothie was £6.50), were totally worth the price. The starters (£8-9) and the desserts (£6-8) were a bit more on the pricy side though.

So all in all, I loved this place! Not only was the food great, I left feeling I’d had a truly healthy eating out experience which was great. The restaurant also does an afternoon tea: I’m currently searching for any excuse to give it a go!

Meals and gratitude #21

I am in a ridiculously good mood!

As soon as I packed up my stuff at work I was literally skipping out of the door!

Maybe it's all the good food I've had?

Breakfast: unpictured cherries and nuts - unpictured because I was all over the place with meetings, people stealing my desk...

Lunch: a repeat of yesterday but with popcorn (although I ended up having this as an afternoon snack) - salad, houmous, spanish omelette. Good combo if you ask me. It felt like a whooooole lotta food though.

If someone tells me how to rotate an image in Blogger, I'll be your biggest fan.

Dinner: A rice, aubergine and lentil salad which was possibly one of the most garlicky things I've ever eaten. Just as well I'm eating alone tonight...and I love garlic. And I also had some more strawberries. THIS ADDICTION HAS TO STOP.

 

 

Gratitude:

- I imagine a lot of my good mood was due to the beautiful surroundings. I sometimes honestly can't believe how stunning this place is. It just makes me completely forget any troubles I have and feel like the luckiest gal alive. Plus I get to run along that - that makes one happy runner.

- Ed Sheeran's new album. Love. Love. Love.

- A productive work meeting this morning.

What was the highlight of your day?

E x

Meals and gratitiude #20

Hi guys!

Am just dropping in for a really quick post whilst I eat my dinner and watch Wimbledon. I always feel there's a lack of womble presence at the tournament. I want more wombles.

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Meals today have been:

Breakfast: rye bread peanut butter sandwich and frozen raspberries which were super mushed and difficult to eat by the time I got to eating them on the train.

Lunch: I used an M&S santini tomato salad as a base and then added a bit of their spanish omelette and a good dose of houmous. Really wanted some olives to go with but they're coated in lots of crazy preservatives. Not. A. Fan.

 

Afternoon snack: Some antioxidant-rich blueberries. Nom nom nom. In fact I nommed them too quick to take a photo.

Dinner: My fave nutty wholegrain salad from M&S packed with lots of protein. Plus strawberries so I can pretend I'm physically at Wimbledon. I'm becoming ridiculously obsessed with strawberries, and it needs to stop...they're so much more expensive than the good old reliable apple!

Gratitude:

- I got a new laptop at work! My last one was ooooold: it took more than 30 minutes to boost up, constantly froze, was impossibly slow to do ANYTHING, sounded like it was about to take off, was always super overheating... This one whizzes along like noone's business and it's all brand new. And it felt good that the company was willing to invest in new technology for me :)

- THE WEATHER! I could have totally done with my factor 50 sun cream today. I sat outside at lunch for 5 minutes and my cheeks have gone pink. Not good.

- A dark and dismal hotel room. Yes, it's dark and dismal, but that means the sun hasn't been beating down on it all day so must be a hell of a lot cooler than the other rooms. That's not saying it's cool - my yoga session was practically done bikram styley...

- Meeting my colleagues wife. She's moved over from Burma, and I've heard a lot about her, so it was lovely to meet her and fully understand just how friendly and amazing she is

- Brothers dressed in matching outfits. Isn't that the cutest?!

- A food and drink festival on in the town centre. The food looks amazing (one day I will be comfortable enough to throw caution to the calorie wind and go grab something yummy from one of the stalls...) as does the things they're selling it from. Yes, that's a double decker bus.

Weekend round-up: revision - it's not fayre

Hi everyone!

I hope you have had wonderful weekends. The weather here has been so wonderful!

I've done something crazy this weekend - I've not calorie-counted! Yesterday it was more just because it wasn't practical, today it was a conscious decision. I wanted to really focus on plain old clean eating. And that's exactly what I've done :)

There were some dubious cakes and biscuits yesterday, and a few too many tortilla chips, but I also had good balanced meals of blueberries and yoghurt and big Pizza Express salad.

It was a local summer fayre yesterday which I went along to with the bf. I LOVE country fayres, they're just so cute. There were horse shows, dog shows (sooo cute), lots of food stalls, a fun fayre. I'm not a big fan of rides (nor am I sure that either of us would have fit in any of the seats - they were very kid orientated!), however the 2p and 10p slot machines...well that's a different kettle of fish!

We did pretty well, keeping going for a good half hour with just a couple of pounds (and at the rate we were shoving the coins in that's not bad!). We didn't get the £5 note though :(

We went to our usual Pizza Express for lunch, and then to a Sugarpova. This is a sweet shop owned by Maria Sharapova, selling some very brightly coloured sweets!

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 I'm so excited for Wimbledon starting tomorrow! The sweets looked like quite good high-end sweets, however obviously full of a lot of rubbish. And quite pricey at £4 a bag! I didn't try one, but the smell of watermelon coming from one of the sweets my boyfriend tried was amazing, so I'm sure they're worth the price for a special Wimbledon-themed party or the like if you're fancying a treat :)

Yesterday evening I had the flat to myself, and in the Wimbledon spirit I had some frozen strawberries and...well, ok, yoghurt. I flavoured it with vanilla extract and agave and added some nuts to add a bit of extra yumminess.

Ate that whilst watching Celebrity Masterchef, and looking at new flats for when I have to move out. I also did some summer clothes shopping because the flights to Bali are officially sorted! I can't believe it's happening - I've never been somewhere quite as exotic as this so I'm ridiculously excited :)

Today started off in the most amazing way possible. Got up early and headed out for a short run. I decided to mix it up a bit and run a different route, mostly making it up as I went along. However it got to the point where I was going to turn off the Thames path to head home, and I just didn't want to. The weather was gorgeous, I was feeling ok, and so I kept on going. In the end I did 10k with 14 minutes of walking in there, and there were points I felt on top of the world. Such a great way to start my Sunday morning :)

I also refuelled with this beauty of a breakfast (and a lot of H2O since I'd not taken a water bottle with me on the run). Just the cooling meal I needed: frozen banana and raspberries with chia seed and peanut butter, and some rye bread with coconut oil on the side.

Today I had to do some revision for a project management exam I have tomorrow. Definitely not as fun as being out in the sun at a fun fayre! Made sure I rewarded myself with lots of dates dipped in peanut butter, and made this yummy salad for lunch.

I also nipped out for a wander to stretch my legs and picked up this coconut water. Perfect post-run refuel.

After lunch I don't know what happened but I couldn't keep my eyes open so had a bit of a siesta before cracking on with revision with this to keep me going.

I've now off to go and make myself a nice dinner :)

What have you been up to this weekend?

Do you like the slot machines?

Do you watch Wimbledon?

E x

Meals and gratitude #19

Hi everyone!

I'm writing this to you with the World Cup match on in the background. I'm normally really not a footie fan, but have always watched at least 1 England match during each World Cup over the years, so this is my token watching!

It's been a fairly good eating day today!

It started off with some 0% fat greek yoghurt and frozen strawberries (they're just not as good frozen!).

 At lunch I had a salad containing lettuce, olives, pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, courgette and yummy houmous. Love the houmous.

I also had an apple just after.

On my way to my therapy session this afternoon I used my Holland and Barrett voucher and picked up these crisps and YoYo fruit rolls.

 Houmous in form 2! I barely got chance to open these before my appointment (plus I always feel guilty for eating just before I go to the sessions, which I realise is crazy!) so I finished them off on my tube journey home. So good.

Because I'd just eaten these and I got back late I didn't want to do huge amouts of food prep so I had this 2 minute dinner.

I know it looks like mush in a bowl, but it's one of my favourite evening treats. Frozen berries warmed in the microwave with cocoa powder and agave. The cocoa and agave mix with the berry juices to form a sauce :) On the side was rye toast.

  

A bit over on sugar, but my carbs, protein, and fat ratio was almost spot on today!

Gratitude

- Yoga for runners - my legs and hips are so stiff it's unbelievable!

- Cutest little girl on the train into work waving at everybody :)

- Being at home

Do you watch the World Cup?

E x

Meals and gratitude #18

Geez Louise it's hot!

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I'm definitely missing my room that had air con from last week - I'm having some serious "moisture control" issues right now!

Thankfully it was much cooler when I went for my run this morning!

Eats today have been pretty good, bar one slip up at lunch.

Started my day with a delicious simple breakfast of strawberries and nuts.

 Why eat out of a bowl when you can eat out of a mug right?! (Plus I don't have a bowl...)

Lunch was a rainbow salad which had all kinds of goodness: couscous, seeds, salad, veg, pomegranate. Yum. I also had a cheese and onion roll (I couldn't find them on My Fitness Pal but they work out as about the same nutritional information). That's what happens when you go food shopping hungry. Was pretty annoyed with myself!

 I had the popcorn as an afternoon snack.

Dinner was a greek salad which is always such a great dinner when the weather's like this :) Also had some medjool dates, just because - felt bad about just randomly eating them.

The roll blew my fat out and the dates had a massive impact on the sugar! Far, far too much!

 

Still got a long way to go in terms of getting balanced.

Gratitude

- As always when the sun's out - the weather!

- Making new connections at work with really lovely people

- Seeing the seagulls this morning dropping closed shells on to the ground from where they were flying to crack them open for the goodies inside - I've never seen that before!

What made you smile today?

E x