Balance and Yoga

Hi all!  I hope you are all having great weekends! Currently Alfie and I are freaking out over the Murray vs. Federer match at Wimbledon, it’s so exciting to finally see a British player in the final!

We’ve actually not long got back from Church and town, just in time to catch the start of the match.

OOTD: Brown mac: Zara, Bretton stripe jumper: Zara, beige skinny’s: H£M, red pumps: Mimco, gold bow earrings: Forever 21.

Enter food porn…

This was my post run breakfast of Blueberry and Raspberry Wholemeal Pancakes, super fluffy and super delicious!  I will be posting the recipe soon!

I’ve fitted in some pretty great workouts this week:

Monday: 3.5 run followed by abs and core work

Tuesday: REST

Wednesday: 20 minutes of HITTS on the cross trainer and bike and strength workout A

Thursday: Body Balance

Friday: 20 minutes of HITTS on the cross trainer and bike and strength workout B

Saturday: REST

Sunday: 4 mile run and yoga stretches

I had my midweek rest day earlier than normal as it was necessary after Monday’s house hunting. I’m loving this new happy and healthy approach and actually listening to my body where my workouts are concerned as well as with my eating too.

This week I thought I would try out a new class to fill the void of my beloved Body Pump class being cancelled for the summer holidays. It feels like forever that I have wanted to try out a Bikram yoga class but there is just isn’t a studio closer to me, but they have the Body Balance classes at my gym which I went to on Thursday night. OMG, I adore this class! With a complete mix of Tai chi, Pilates and yoga made it a fantastic opportunity to experience the different style of movements in one class. I’m all ready and set for next week’s class right this minute!

This weekend I have been really getting stuck in to delicious eats, as always!

On Friday night I was already dreaming of overnight oats for breakfast the next day so I made sure to prepare some before going to bed.  I mixed oats, almond milk, desiccated coconut, frozen cherries and vanilla stevia and left them in the fridge to mingle over night.  In the morning I was left with plump and creamy Cherry and Coconut Overnight Oats.  This was heavenly!

My Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie, always good! 

Last nights dinner was amazing!  I made some oven baked Chinese style salmon with coconut and lime brown rice and stir fried baby corn, mange tout, purple sprouting broccoli, edamame beans and red peppers with dried chilli, honey and soy sauce.  Alfie loved this so much that he polished off the whole plate!

Late night snackage: Lindt dark chocolate, a chopped apple and honey roasted peanuts.

I picked up a punnet of these super cute doughnut peaches at the green grocers on Thursday for a bargain 99p!  They are really juicy and sweet and made a perfect snack with some almonds on the side.

Yesterday I ran out of time to make lunch, but luckily there is a big Sainsbury’s near my work place and I popped along and treated myself to a salad bowl.  It was a complete mix of everything: giant cous cous, Mediterranean cous cous, chickpeas with sweet potatoes, a bean salad, salad leaves, sweet peas and edamame beans.  Perhaps not taking lunch with me to work may become a regular thing as this was lovely!

Going to my first Body Balance class has definitely got me craving yoga classes now. Yoga is a regular part of routine anyways but I have never actually been to a yoga class before, usually I just rely on DVDs or podcasts to get my yoga fix. It’s probably because I’m too scared that I might fall flat on my face in front of everyone, but I realised after Thursday night that I can move through most of the moves confidently and actually didn’t look like a complete idiot doing them. I’ve definitely got the craving for yoga classes now!

Have you tried any new fitness classes recently?  Ever been to a Body Balance class?

Are you currently screaming at the TV like a mad woman watching the tennis right now?

Bad things turn good

So I decided to call to scrap calling my Sunday posts “Sunday Catch Up:” just because I love doing my weekly review of my goings on Friday in my “Week that was..” posts and I just thought it was getting a little bit repetitive.

This mornings breakfast was potentially a disaster.  My morning run got rained off so I decided to take my time over breakfast before going to Church.  I have been crazy over socca this past week I thought I would have one for breakfast. 

I had visions of cinnamon and vanilla socca wrap loaded with banana, fresh apricots, with a dusting of coconut and dried cherries sitting pretty on my plate waiting patiently for me to inhale it.

Instead I got a collapsed socca fail that crumpled when I tried to flip it.  I don’t know why, but whenever I try to add anything but fresh herbs to my socca they always fail…hmph!

It did taste pretty darn good though!  The house smelt of cinnamon and vanilla too, which I imagined the house would smell like if I had just made French toast, which is on my bucket list of things to make.

Yesterday morning’s breakfast was a a great success from the off…

I made this smoothie for breakfast on Friday and just had to have it again yesterday before work.  It’s made using a huge banana, chocolate and peanut butter swirl protein powder, smooth peanut butter and and almond milk, really creamy and delicious!

For yesterday I packed a wholemeal bagel filled with vegan spread, buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil with some carrot sticks.  This time last year I was getting really excited about going to Florence, so thought I would bring a bit of Italy to my lunch time break and it was fab!

Later I snacked on some fresh fruit at my desk…

…and could resist a slice of banana loaf that my work colleague had bought in, yum!

For dinner I made stir fried some kale, mushrooms, broccoli and some baby sweet peppers with some soft boiled eggs and a super soft plantain which meant that it was really sweet. I adore plantain!

I had to pop out to Sainsbury’s to get some supplies for the office and whilst I was there I picked up some goodies for myself…

These made for a perfect dessert as I settled in for the night with some nibbles of pretzels, a chopped persimmon and some Lindt Coconut Intense dark chocolate with a chai almond milk latte and a movie.

I just had to have a try of the bar of caramel and sea salt bar too!

After church I wondered around town for a little while and checked out the sales and stocked up on some wardrobe basics like tank tops, tights and leggings.

When I got home I made a salad of little gem lettuce, raddishes, tomatoes, courgettes, carrots, cannellini beans and a red pesto dressing.

I even got to go out for my run in the end as the rain finally cleared.  It was a leisurely 10k run that I really enjoyed and another example of bad things turning good this weekend.

Monday: evening Yoga session

Tuesday: 3.5 mile run and ab and core work

Wednesday: REST

Thursday: Body Pump class, which was freaking awesome!

Friday:  a mix of strength workout A and B with 20 minutes of intervals on the cross trainer and bike.

Saturday: REST

At the moment I have a little something something baking in the oven.  I will blog the recipe if they turn out well as it’s a little bit experimental and will post a pic on my Instagram feed later too.

I have a vlog coming up for you this week and a recipe so look out for those.

Has anything that was bad at the beginning turned out good in the end for you recently?

My socca fail looked awful but tasted amazing in the end and I was so disappointed that it was raining this morning for my run, but at least I got to go out there in the afternoon instead.

What did you get up to this weekend?