Clean Living, I'm Still Going!!

This week I've been back to clean eating and LOVING it. I can't cope with regimented eating times, I should not be made to feel guilty about eating a bit of fruit if I'm hungry, which I always am... Just to clarify when I say hungry, I mean hungry with my eyes. I finish one meal and I'm looking forward to the next. At no point in the day do I allow myself to feel hungry and god forbid, lightheaded or dizzy. I'm constantly topping up and that's the way I like it and that's what works for me.

It was back to my delicious green vanilla protein shakes for breakfast this week. 1 frozen banana, 250ml almond milk, lots and lots of spinach, 1 scoop vanilla whey protein and a tablespoon of either flax of chia seeds - chia seeds are pictured here.

At this point I will mention that if you follow me on Instagram (Minnie_uk) you've probably already seen all these photos but here I like to provide little stories to go with them. I love it when I get positive feedback from readers and If what I'm writing about can make even one person feel more positive than I am one happy blogger :)

I met my boyfriend in London this week and ended up on an impromptu dinner date, lucky for me fajitas was on the menu and they were some of the nicest fajitas I've ever had. The presentation was cool and I love this photo because it emphasises the naughty burger and fries lurking in the shadows! The fajitas filling was cooked with peppers, onions and chillies and I'm sure they had soy sauce on them. They were incredible. Unfortunately I didn't have a choice of corn or flour tortillas so I had to have flour one but I'm not about to lose my head over that. I even shared a warm chocolate fudge cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Cheeky!

This has got me thinking today about my emotional eating habits. I've never considered myself to be an 'emotional eater' but I treated myself with food after both my job interviews. It's got me wondering why these things are hard wired inside me. If I go through something emotionally testing like an interview or a really shit day, why does food have to be my go to as a means to relax and make it up to myself? It's something I'm going to try to keep an eye on for sure!

Moving on...I tried a couple of new dinners this week, one of which I have absolutely no name for but it's so easy to throw together, delicious and would make a lovely weekend lunch too as well as dinner.

To make this 'thing' I toasted a corn tortilla in the oven for a few minutes, topped with chopped raw peppers and tomatoes. I had a small (100g) portion of chilli to use so I stuck that on too, fried 2 eggs, stuck them on top and then topped with coriander, fresh chilli and feta!

All week I have been inspired by a friend's blog. He's following the paleo diet (in Korea I might add) and has been uploading delicious burger recipes all week which really gave me a hankering for a tasty Friday night burger. I decided to go el mexicana on this one.

For the burger I used 250g (made 2 burgers - one for tomorrow)
1 egg
Salt, pepper & paprika
Handful of black beans
Small handful of onion

Just mix everything together, shape it and fry. I then used half a small sweet potato to make sweet tater fries. I tossed them in coconut oil and paprika and baked in the oven until they started to go crispy (about 20 mins at 200 - I think!) steamed some greens and made a little pepper and tomato salsa on the side.
I'm awful glad to have this again tomorrow, it was delicious. I'd forgotten how easy it is to make your own and they taste so fresh. I also made myself a little jalapeño popper which I wanted to put in the middle of the burger but it seemed like a lot of hassle! I hollowed out a jalapeño, stuffed it with feta cheese and then stuck it in the frying pan until it started to blister. Jalapeño + feta = great combination.

In the sweet department, I had a go at making my own version of one of my favourite graze boxes 'bounty hunter' after realising I had what I needed in my cupboard. I mixed together dried cranberries, coconut and cacao nibs. A nice sweet treat - although not as sweet as the original which uses little Belgian chocolates. Drool.

Finally, for puddings I tend to have Greek yoghurt with a variety of toppings. The bottom left photo shows strawberries with chia & pumpkin seeds and a drizzle of honey. The top right shows raspberries, 3 squares of 85% organic dark chocolate chopped up and 6 almonds chopped up and sprinkled over.

In other news I convinced myself to go outside and do some exercise. Hurrah! My shoulder is on the mend but I'm still taking it easy and trying to avoid using it as much as possible - I still get a shooting pain if I pull my steering wheel to hard! So, what better to do than use my legs and get to working on perfecting my box jumps and work those quads?! Thursday we had a brief spell of sunshine and so I ran 1 mile from my house to the park, it took about 5/6 minutes before my endorphins kicked in and I was genuinely happy to be outside doing something. I made a mental note of this to remind me every time I try to find some excuse not to go!

I had a lovely view of the park as the sun was going down and an audience of ducks to go with it. It was so refreshing and had me pining for some proper spring time weather! I managed to find a wall about the same height as the boxes we use at crossfit so once I got my breath back from my run I did my little workout which you can see in the bottom right. AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 10 minutes of: 10 box jumps, 12 sit ups and 8 squats. So you just keep doing these 3 things over and over. I managed 5.7 rounds - so I did it 5 times and ended on my 7th box jump if that's makes sense? I'm keen to do this again and go for 6 rounds!

This might seem easy to some of you reading this but I challenge you to give it ago if you can find somewhere safe and stable to jump! I think this wall is around 24". Don't over do it though because heading shin first into this will hurt. A LOT.

So after that I had a slow jog most of the way home and then walked the last length. It felt good to be out again but I am such a wimp and so easily swayed my the weather!

Well that's pretty much my week in a nutshell! I'm feeling so good and positive about myself which is awesome. I can't remember ever feeling this good about myself - but more of that to come in another post :)

Have a good weekend

Minnie
xXx