Raspberry Smoothie

This was so yummy, but a bit seedy, good for brekkie though :)

Ingredients
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 tinned pear
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup raspberry/cranberry juice
1 tablespoon wheat bran
1 peach yogurt pot

Nutritional Info
219 calories
2.9g fat
37.4g total carbs
8.0g fibre
8.3g protein



For lunch I found this amazing recipe on the Be Food Smart app and made it for me and Rob.
2 slices of brown toast, 1 onion, green pepper and tomato chopped and grilled. Then top the toast with the grilled veg, add a little cheese and grill again :D. 207 calories per portion.

I also went to the gym today, cycled for 20 minutes, did some interval walking/running on the treadmill then did a ton of weights. Then me and Rob went for a 30 minute walk.

And I weighed myself. I've lost another 4lbs :)

Workouts

My fiance has decided that he too wants to lose some weight, which is awesome because it means I don't have to do this on my own anymore :D

Now, he could totally do some of the workouts that I do, but he's a bloke and he's 6 feet and rather broad, so really he needed workouts that would push him a bit harder and will help him build more muscle. Same when it comes to the food he'll be eating. I've been feeding him, because otherwise he'd just forget bless him, and I've been making sure what he's eating is healthy, but he wants to fit into this suit for 3 weeks time. So I've come up with a 'diet plan' too, so hopefully he'll succeed :).

Both of these workouts are perfect for us, as there's no jumping about included, which when you live on a top floor flat is just want you need. But they're also strenuous, make sure to use a weight that pushes you (women ~ 2-5kg, men ~ >5) but doesn't make you hurt.

Use weights from the weighted sit ups down

Raspberry, Blueberry, Coconut Milk Smoothie

Today I restocked my freezer of frozen fruit :D and also bought some coconut milk. I've heard some really good things about it, it's got both calcium and vitamin D in, which is always good. I wasn't sure how well it would go, because I hate malibu and other coconut drinks, but I can't taste it!

Reckon I'll be adding coconut milk to all my smoothies this week :)

Ingredients
1 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 tinned pear
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup apple juice
1 tablespoon wheat bran
squidge of honey

Nutritional Info
139 Calories
2.2g fat
25.3g total carbs
6.8g fibre
2.7g protein
Vitamin C 11.2%

Cleaning Out The Freezer

Weekends are for shopping, though I'm not sure when I'll manage to go this weekend, what with work and a wedding fair to go to. So I've been using up some of the left over portions of frozen fruit, so I have enough space to buy more punnets.

Forest Fruits smoothie

Raspberry, blueberry smoothie

 Yesterday I made a super purple, thick smoothie. It was really yummy!
Ingredients
Approx. 1 1/2 cups of frozen forest fruits
1 pot cherry yogurt
1 banana
1 tablespoon tinned peaches
squidge of honey
1 tablespoon wheat bran
~100mL cranberry/raspberry juice

And today I've made an equally delicious raspberry, blueberry smoothie.
Ingredients
1 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 raspberry yogurt pot
1/2 cup porridge oats
~100mL cranberry/raspberry juice

Sausage Casserole

I'm going to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show tonight at Sunderland Empire, and I'm so excited! I have my costume - Columbia - which I made myself. Plus it's been cold lately, so me and Rob wanted something warm, but filling, so we wouldn't want to snack in the theater.

This recipe is something I've come up with myself, taking inspiration from a few recipes on the Be Food Smart website, but adjusting them accordingly for what we have in our cupboards and coming up with this :).

Ingredients for 2 people
4 reduced fat sausages
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion - chopped
1 crushed garlic clove
1 apple cored and chopped (keep the skin on)
Can of chopped tomatoes
Can of haricot beans
1 tablespoon tomato puree
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
pinch of black pepper

Cook your sausages under the grill, and in the meantime, heat up a pan with the oil in and fry the onion and garlic, until the onion is tender.
Then add all the other ingredients and cook through for about 15-20 minutes - or until the sausages are cooked under the grill.
Chop up the sausages into quarters then add to the pan and cook for a further few minutes.
We served ours with sweet potatoes.

Nutritional Info (per portion)
480 calories
12.6g total fat
65.4g total carbs
15.9g fibre
28.4g protein
438.9% vitamin A
48.4% vitamin C
6% calcium
7.4% iron

Mango Smoothie

This is basically a one fruit smoothie. It's not! But it might as well be. It was very liquidy, and I didn't blend it entirely so there were lumps of fruit it in, which isn't always pleasant. It was very tasty though :) and made for a good breakfast.

My lunch was comprised of sliced red pepper, a little tub of peanut butter, a handful of dried apricots and a banana :)

Ingredients
1 cup frozen mango
1 tinned pear
1 tablespoon yogurt
1 teaspoon peanut butter
squidge of honey
~200mL mango juice

Nutritional Info
284 calories
6.1g fat
51.5g total carbs
3.3g fibre
50% vitamin C

Two Very Different Smoothies

I was sick of just making up smoothies on the fly, so the other night I sat and wrote out 9 recipes for me to use this week. I'd been to asda and got some different juice - Mango and Raspberry/Cranberry, and we now have peanut butter in the flat I've got some interesting smoothies :D

strawberry mango smoothie

blueberry strawberry smoothie

Strawberry Mango Smoothie
3/4 cup strawberries
1 tinned pear
1 tablespoon wheat bran
1 strawberry yogurt
~200mL mango juice

Blueberry Strawberry Smoothie
3/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup strawberries
1/4 cup low fat natural yogurt
1/3 cup porridge oats
~100mL cranberry/raspberry juice

Sunshine Smoothie

The suns been out a lot here lately, makes me hopeful for spring :)

This morning I've made a rather yellow smoothie, made from yummy tropical fruits to get me through my morning lectures.

 Ingredients
1 banana
1 tinned pear
2 tablespoon tinned peaches
1 tablespoon low fat natural yogurt
1 tablespoon wheat bran
~200mL mango juice

To make it vegan, just take out the yogurt, up the amount of fruit, or reduce the amount of juice so it's not so runny.

Nutritional Info
265 calories
7g fibre
62g total carbs
4g protein
15% vitamin C                     6.9% iron

Yummy Smoothie!!

This was a brilliant smoothie! Tinned fruit makes smoothies so easy. When I buy my fruit, I go for the cheapest, simply because it's going to be mushed up, so who cares what it looks like?!

Ingredients
3 tablespoons tinned peach slices
1 tinned pear
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 teaspoon low fat smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon low fat natural yogurt
~200mL apple juice

Nutritional Info
183 calories               4.7g protein
6g fat                         5.8% vitamin C
1.8g fibre                   27.3g total carbs

One Month In

It's been about a month since I started this little venture, since then I've drank approximately 50 smoothies of different flavours and thicknesses. I've reduced my daily calorie intake to 1,200 calories/day, aside from my evening meal I've almost eliminated fat and 'bad' carbs from my diet. Yet for all this I haven't lost as much weight as I'd hoped. In four weeks there is the potential to lose 8lb (assuming 1-2lb per week is healthy), I've lost half that.

My original goal was to get into my new jeans by my birthday, but that would have required dropping a dress size in 3 weeks, I'm aware it's doable, but difficult. It was a naive goal, but I'm glad I chose it, because in doing this pretty radical diet (for me) I've learned an awful lot about health and fitness, and what it means to be happy.

I may not have lost as much weight as I wanted, but I have gained other things. I feel good. Just...good. My moods are turbulent at the best of times, and stress generally equates to horrible unhappiness, and I'm often very stressed. But the past four weeks have been much happier and calmer. My energy has shot up and I just feel good!

My skin and my hair too, my hair's grown a lot since Christmas, more than I would have expected. And while my skin isn't generally prone to breakouts, it happens more than I'd like, but aside from the usual around where I wear my glasses, my skins been lovely and clear :).

So I still want to get into my jeans, and I still want to lost weight, but I'm okay with taking it slow and just enjoying being happy.

Yummy Breakfast Smoothie

Oh wow, this smoothie was soooo thick! and perfect, because I drank a bottle of beer and half a bottle of wine last night and I haven't drank in like 6 weeks so when I woke up this morning I felt a bit like crap. This smoothie fixed me!!

Ingredients
1/2 cup frozen mango
1/4 cup frozen raspberries
1 1/2 tinned pears
tablespoon full tinned peach slices
1 peach weight watchers yogurt
1 tablespoon wheat bran
1/2 cup juice from tinned pears

Nutritional Info
129 calories
23.8g total carbs
5.5g fibre
26% vitamin C

I couldn't believe how thick was, it was so yummy!! Can you see those straws just standing up in it!

Lunch Time!

Had another lie in this morning, it was heavenly! I really shouldn't be so excited about getting to sleep in, but I suppose that's what happens when you're an adult *sigh*.

Got friends coming over tonight to play board games and things, which will probably result in the ordering of a take away, more likely than not Indian or Pizza. So I walked to uni today, had a small bowl of cereal for my breakfast (no sugar) and now I'm having a super fruit packed lunch

Ingredients
1 cup frozen mango chunks
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/3 cup frozen blueberries
1 raspberry yogurt pot
1 tinned pear & 4 tablespoons of juice
~100mL apple juice

Nutritional Info
256 calories
3.1g fibre
53.8g total carbs
57% vitamin C
26% calcium

Mid-day Workout

I didn't go to the gym again today, because I have enough work to be doing at home tbh, so instead, when I was sick of watching New Girl and trying to work out my pharmaceutics report I did a little workout in my flat :)

I started with a sort of dance/cardio workout of my own that went to Taylor Swift - 22. I can't remember exactly what I did. There were side lunges and speed skaters, but I kept my arms moving. Basically I just moved for 4 minutes and got my heart rate up. If I manage to I might video it one time...maybe.

Then I did these:

I'm not sure of the source of these images, I found them on Pinterest through Backonpointe, but I'm pretty sure they're not hers. If anyone knows let me know so I can link please :)


I also did this arm thing, which is like 'Tone your arms in 7 days' and I've done it for 3 on the trot now, I haven't noticed a significant difference, but tbh I don't believe in these 'lose this much in this many days' and all that. It comes from hard work and perseverance. If you want a quick fix, then you're doing the wrong thing :)

Lunch Time!

Not having a smoothie for lunch, but having something equally as healthy to use up some of the shit in my fridge.

So it's lettuce, a tomato, half a tin of tuna, some tinned sweetcorn and mayonnaise :D


Nutritional Info
170 calories
16.8g total carbs
4.6g fibre
21.4g protein
20.5% vitamin A
26% vitamin C

Mango Berry Smoothie

I was really impressed with the smoothie I had yesterday, so I made a similar one today. T'was super yummy and kept me going all morning to lunch time.

 Ingredients
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/3 cup frozen mango
1 tablespoon wheat bran
squidge of honey
~100mL apple juice
1 cup water

Nutritional Info
130 calories
28.1g total carbs
5.5g fibre
2.3g protein
33.7% vitamin C

Mango Raspberry Smoothie

This is such a super yummy smoothie! It ended up really thick too, which was lovely. I left the frozen raspberries and mango chunks out to defrost for about 30 minutes, just to make it easier to blend.

Ingredients
1/2 cup mango
1/2 cup raspberries
2 tinned pear halves
1 tablespoon wheat bran
~150mL apple juice

Nutritional Info
153 Calories
5.8g fibre
29.1g total carbs
55.8% vitamin C
5.9% iron

Post-birthday Work Out

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday! I had an amazing day in Durham with Rob before coming home and eating  lots of chocolate and sweets and pancakes. Then we had caterpillar birthday cake with my friends and played Carcasonne and card games :)

Now it's the start of Lent, and I'm still not sure what I'm giving up. Last year I gave up bread, but I'm already not eating bread - pretty much - so there doesn't seem to be much point. I was thinking dairy, but I'm a student, without much money so it seems wasteful to say that I won't eat the many yogurts that I have in my fridge. I'm thinking like 'white carbs' - pasta, white rice etc. but I don't know. Maybe I'll just keep trying to be healthy and things - it's not like I'm religious.

I was going to go to the gym today, but it's snowing and cold and I don't want to. So instead I've done this workout:

backonpointe.tumblr.com

Strawberry, Mango, Berry smoothie

In my freezer I have a drawer full of frozen fruit, and when one packs getting low I buy another and pour whats left into another tub. So today I had a tub with some mango chunks, some strawberries and some random cranberries, blueberries and blackberries. Just enough to make a smoothie :)

Ingredients

1 raspberry yogurt

1 tablespoon wheat bran

1/3 cup mango chunks

1/3 cup strawberries

a few blueberries, cranberries and blackberries

~100mL semi-skimmed milk

Whiz it together and there you have it :) I have no skimmed milk left, so semi it is. But it's super yummy and quite thick. So hopefully it'll keep me going through lectures and the gym this morning :)

Forest Fruits Breakfast Smoothie

I bought a pack of frozen forest fruits, but I haven't been having much luck with them. They're just too tart for me, and I can't deal. Today, I had a breakthrough.

Being back home again, I packed some freezer bags with things to make smoothies out of, this morning was forest fruits. And it was divine!

Ingredients
1/2 cup frozen forest fruits
~5 red grapes
1 raspberry yogurt
1/3 cup porridge oats
squidge of honey
~200mL skimmed milk

This was a really thick smoothie, and it was really tasty. It properly kept me going all morning-ish (I made it at 11.30am, and was still drinking it at 1.30pm haha).

Re-Starting

When I decided to start this diet thing, I knew it would be hard. While I wasn't radically cutting my calories (I was already having about 1500), I knew it would be difficult to essentially cut out 'bad carbs'.

My daily diet before this went something like this:
Breakfast - some form of cereal (usually Shreddies) with semi-skimmed and sugar
Lunch - Sandwich, usually ham, cheese and tomato toasted. Always white bread (I'm a student, it's generally cheaper). Plus a packet of crisps and a piece of fruit.
Tea - generally chicken/fish/pizza from the freezer with chips.
Then there'd be crisps or cakes or chocolate after tea.
I've never been a big snacker, when I snack it's usually later on a night, rather than during the day.

This was why I knew having smoothies for two meals would be difficult. At first it wasn't. I was excited about it, it was something new and my life had got all a bit boring to be honest. So the first week was easy. The second week, however, not so much. And this week gone just went to hell. At least during the second week I was still walking to uni every day, and almost every day I had smoothies for two of my meals.

The first week was amazing. I lost 3lb, and felt so much better about myself. But then I got ill, it snowed really bad, and I got a cold, and it all went to shit.

So this is me restarting. I'm going to kill it this week with healthy eating (although Tuesday is both my birthday and Shrove Tuesday, so that doesn't count). I'm going to go to the gym as many days as I can manage, I'm going to walk to uni, and I'm going to be good.

Promise.

No smoothie today

Today has not been a fun day - although, I suppose it's picked up.

I was struck down with a rather pathetic cold two days ago, and last night was just unpleasant. So today I stayed home (for the most part), read The Perks of Being a Wallflower (see my bookclub blog) and now I'm knitting :).

I have lost another 2lb, which I'm pretty chuffed about, but I don't think I'll be getting into my jeans for my birthday.

That's not to say I'm giving up, I most definitely am not, but I think I'm going to have to re-evaluate when I want to fit into them for. I'm going to slow off on the smoothie thing, and only have them for breakfast, while still maintaining a low fat, low carb diet. And I'm still going to be going to the gym.

At this point, I'm not sure what my new target will be, probably around the time of my ball, which is the 16th March. I have a beautiful floor-length red dress, but losing weight shouldn't change the way it fits me, as it's tight on the top and skims my hips and thighs :).

Lunch time!

Still not very well, as though I'm going to get better in a day xD.
Fancied a smoothie for lunch, which is odd because most the time I have a smoothie because that's what I'm allowing myself, but yeah this time I really wanted it.
It was super tasty :)

Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1 chopped plum
4 halved strawberries
3 tablespoons low fat natural yogurt
Spoonful of pomegranate
~200mL apple juice

It's a pretty watery smoothie, more a juice really, but it was super lovely.

Yummy Breakfast Smoothie

This morning I am sick. I have a blocked nose, a headache and a slightly raised temperature. But I've got to go to uni. I wanted cereal this morning, but me and the fiance are lazy so there are no clean bowls - how lovely. I'm washing up this afternoon.

Ingredients
1/2 cup raspberries
1 whole banana
5 red grapes
3 tablespoons yogurt
1 tablespoon wheat bran
~200mL apple juice

Whiz it all together and voila, yummy breakkie smoothie. I only hope I can actually taste it!

Summer Fruit Smoothie

On Friday I made little freezer bags full of frozen fruit to make smoothies with while I was at home, which is great. Except I left them in my freezer and the flat, so over the weekend I was back to normal diet, which was difficult because I'm used to having smoothies, so deciding what I wanted for lunch in Morrison's was hard.

Anyway, this was one of my freezer bags :)
Ingredients
1/2 frozen banana
1 cup frozen summer fruits
3 tablespoons low fat natural yogurt
1 tablespoon wheat bran
~200mL apple juice

This was a super tasty smoothie, and perfect for a morning. It was a little sharp but not too much, enough to wake me up :)

Nutritional Info
193 Calories
42.3g total carbs
5.1g fibre
3.3g Protein
73.3% Vitamin C

End of Week 2

I've yet to weigh myself this weekend, but I've lost over 2 inches all over so far :D yay!

I also tried my jeans on, and whereas at Christmas I couldn't get them over my thighs, this time I got them all the way on! It was kind of hard, and I still can't fasten them, but they were on :D. And a dress I ordered came and it's a size 10 and it looks great.

Haven't been very good this week, well...I've been under my calorie goal every day, but I haven't been sticking to the smoothie thing, but I'm determined to this week, with only 10 days left till my birthday :).

Had a fun week though. Played Dungeons and Dragons and managed to finish the game I DM'd on, tomorrow I get to play my elven druid, who I haven't played in a while, so yay exciting :D. Didn't do well with exercise, but I'm going back to the gym this week coming, so that'll be good :).

And, I found this amazing site!! Ripley's Kittens. It's a live stream of this mum cat, Ripley, and her five kittens. They're so cute and I've lost so many hours to them haha.

Apricot, Mango, Raspberry Smoothie

Morning lovelies, time for another breakfast smoothie.

Ingredients
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/4 cup frozen strawberries
1/4 cup frozen mango
1 1/2 apricot
3 tablespoons natural low fat yogurt
1 tablespoon wheat bran
squidge of honey
~200mL apple juice

Nutritional Info
177 Calories
39.1g total carbs
5.2g fibre
3.0g protein
20.2% vitamin A
25.6% vitamin C