First Time At Body Pump...

Morning all! I'm feeling really energised this morning! I went to Body Pump yesterday evening for the first time, and my body must have needed extra recovery time as I slept until 10am this morning!! That's unheard of for me - Liam and I take it in turns to give each other lie-ins at the weekend, but even on my lie-in day I normally only sleep until 8.30am latest! I'm glad I did get extra sleep though - my body is feeling pretty sore this morning!! :-D

Let's go back to yesterday though. I had a pre-exercise snack a few hours before Body Pump of a couple of slices of malt loaf with peanut butter and strawberries:

This was really tasty. I normally just eat malt loaf with butter, but I liked the new topping!

Then at 6.30pm my sister, her boyfriend and I headed off to Body Pump. I was looking forward to it, but didn't know what to expect. The instructor didn't arrive until just before the class started but luckily there were other people there who helped us set up.

I can't remember what weights I used for everything, but my warm-up weight was 2.5kg on each side, and I went down as light as 2kg on each side for shoulders (as I'd twinged my left shoulder at the end of the previous track so didn't want to do more damage - glad I did this anyway as I was getting tired by then!!) and up to 4.5kg on each side on one of the tracks - one of the legs tracks I assume. I saw someone had a little notebook to write down the details - I wish I'd done that as it'd be interesting to see how I improve - by the time we got back in the car my mind had gone blank!!

I really enjoyed Body Pump - my whole body was like jelly by the end but I kind of liked that - shows I've actually worked my muscles for once!! There's no way I'd have worked on weights for that long in the gym on my own so it was really good to focus on a different aspect of fitness - and I definitely needed the instructor to tell us there was only 4 more reps left to keep me going by the end of most some of the tracks!! This morning I feel stiff and achey - particularly my thighs and upper arms - but I can walk which is a relief - I was a bit worried as I was so sore last night and thought I'd stiffen up even more whilst I was sleeping!

When I got home from Body Pump I had an easy dinner of half a pack of fresh pasta (pumpkin and pine nut stuffed fiorelli from Waitrose) with salad.

I wanted some kind of sauce but couldn't think of what to put on it (and was too hungry to take time to make anything!) so I just added some ketchup and grated cheese after these photos. Slightly boring way to finish it off perhaps, but it still tasted really good.

I hadn't been planning to eat anything else as I ate dinner really late for me, but after I'd finished the pasta I fancied something sweet. An evening snack plate it was. This was Urban Fresh dried pineapple, almonds and a couple of squares of Lindt dark mint chocolate:

The dried pineapple was my favourite part of this plate. I sometimes find dried pineapple to be too dried and chewy, but this Urban Fresh version is the best I've ever tasted. Really soft and, well, fresh tasting. Yum! I just wish I could get it more easily than going to "big" Tesco half an hour away...think I might have to do an online order sometime soon!!

After my lovely night's sleep, I woke up this morning fancying a smoothie. When Liam went to Waitrose on Thursday evening he'd got a bit confused by my shopping list ("2 bags of salad, preferably not spinach" = 2 bags of salad + a bag of spinach?!!) so I had a green smoothie for the first time in ages. Well, kind of - adding spinach makes the smoothie lose it's pretty colour, and this one didn't even go green - just a kind of sludgy colour!

This was half a banana, a couple of large handfuls of spinach, frozen strawberries, milk and a tiny bit of agave nectar. I'd never had frozen strawberries before (another Tesco purchase that we can't get in our little town!) and was really pleased with how strong their flavour was. I was expecting to have to add a lot more sweetener than I did, but the strawberry flavour really shone through.

This smoothie made 2 big glasses, but I only got to drink 1.5 of them as the children took a liking to it! Izzy had a few mouthfuls but then Toby decided the rest was for him...!

After he'd finished it all, he tried to "cook" it in his toy oven, haha, he wasn't too impressed that it didn't produce more smoothie!!

Bless him, he's still at the age where the colour of something doesn't put him off. So long as it tastes good, he's more than happy to eat/drink it!!

Right, that's all from me for now - typing this is making my left arm ache worse!! Liam thinks I need to "man up" but he's never tried Body Pump...I'm hoping it's not just me that aches this bad!!

Have you ever done Body Pump? Were you quite stiff & sore after your first time? Does your body get quicker at recovering if you go regularly?!! I'm definitely glad I went to Body Pump on a Friday evening - I don't think I'd have been ready to do the whole getting the children ready & school run this morning!!

It's A Smoothie Day...

As I posted yesterday, I had a bad smoothie experience earlier in the week, which gave me the final shove to buy myself a blender! :) I got it out of the Amazon box this morning...

After much comparing and reading of reviews, I settled on this Philips blender, I love the look of it, and the glass jar is heavy but reassuringly sturdy and easy to clean...so far so good! :) It's certainly been put to use today - back in January I had a day full of porridge, and today I decided to have a day of just smoothies...yum yum! :)

Luckily I'd been so distraught (!!) by my banana-less (and overly chunky!) smoothie earlier in the week, that I'd rushed out to Lidl to stock up on fresh fruit and veggies, so I had plenty of ingredients for these smoothies. I picked up bananas, a huge pineapple, a large cantaloupe melon, a mango, limes, pitted dates...

...and baby spinach, 2 avocadoes, a butternut squash, cherry tomatoes and a cucumber (the last 2 are more for packed lunches than smoothies!)...

...all for £10.71...I think that was pretty good value! :) as well as Lidl, we also have a Waitrose near to us, which I shop at for a lot of our chilled foods etc, but for quality of fruit & veg, Lidl easily wins...and it's a nice bonus that it tends to be a lot cheaper too!

Anyway, back to today...I started this morning with a simple smoothie I'd been wanting to try for a while, but had been waiting for my avocadoes to ripen...

Perfectly ripe! :)

and my blender to arrive...

In the mix...

Tropical Avocado Smoothie

• 1 ripe avocado
• half a mango
• approx 75ml milk
• agave nectar, to taste (I used 20g but have quite a sweet tooth!)

This was so creamy and thick, but smooth too, yey for my new blender! I topped this with a little desiccated coconut to continue the tropical flavour...

I loved the taste of this smoothie, sweet and creamy, yum :) it was slightly reminiscent of sweet guacamole...perhaps I should've saved it for my lunch or dinner smoothie, but whatever time of day it was delicious... I will definitely be featuring avocadoes in my smoothies again! :)

I then spent the morning completing most of my to-do list (Liam took baby out so I could have some time to make phone calls)...it is such a weight off my shoulders to have most of that done, just one or two more phone calls to make on Monday then I'm up to date (for now!). My morning ended with a trip to the post office to drop off a few parcels. This wasn't really a chore though as the weather was so lovely - I decided to walk the long way back from town...

I love this walk, especially when it's sunny...

blue sky...have to make the most of it while it lasts!

By the time I made it back home it was nearly time for my lunchtime smoothie. I wanted to try out my blenders abilities with spinach this time...

This one contained...

• 1 banana
• a couple of handfuls baby spinach
• last of my frozen exotic fruits (melon, mango, papaya, pineapple)
• 110ml milk (the frozen fruits made this thick and I wanted to drink it!)
• tbsp peanut butter

This smoothie was super green!

I didn't add any toppings to this one, just enjoyed it in a glass in the sunshine :)

this was really nice - a salty (from the pb) sweet combo. I tried it before adding the peanut butter and I could taste the spinach a bit too much for my liking (the first green smoothie I've even been able to taste the spinach in actually) but once the peanut butter was added it was delicious, and gave it a bit more substance too in terms of acting as a meal, yum :) I was also so pleased to see a pure green colour - no more spinach stems in smoothies for me!!

This afternoon (the last day of term - yey for all you teachers out there!) we went to see my daughter in her Easter parade. There was major panic last night when we realised she needed to take in a decorated Easter bonnet/egg this morning! Last night Liam and daughter papier mache'd a balloon to make an "egg", but when we went to decorate it this morning we discovered it was still soft, and even after a stint with a hairdryer it was not sturdy at all...fail. We then rushed round to my Mum's as she had a pink straw hat we could decorate...but after stapling many decorations to it, daughter decided it was too embarrassing to take in...aaaagh!! In the end, Mum drew a big egg shape on a piece of card and cut it out, which daughter decorated with a face and we stuck 'hair' and 'legs' to it...sorted! Of course, a lot of the children had bonnets but some just had painted hard boiled eggs so she didn't stick out too much...next time we will be more organised and not just skim-read the newsletters!

Once we got home, the children had a nap and then, after a quick dinner, daughter went off to her dance show and baby went to bed. Time for my final smoothie of the day! :) This time I fancied something chocolatey...

Carob powder and cacao brazil nut butter went into this, alongside spinach, banana and milk...

I added the brazil nut butter in last so it still had a bit of texture. This was a very sludgy colour...

Yummy though, I only wish there had been more of it!

I loved the texture of this - thick and creamy but with a slight crunch from the nut butter. Yummy tasting - 3/3 smoothie successes today!

Right, that's about it for today, time to get to bed! I've been really surprised today how I haven't felt hungry, and haven't had my usual cravings for multiple snacks mid-afternoon, I've even had a bit more energy than usual too, although that may be psychological! The smoothies filled me up and satisfied me, and were tasty and good for me too :) I will be back to solids tomorrow though - it's my Mum's birthday so my Mum, Grandma, sisters and I are going out for a girly lunch, really looking forward to it :)

Super Saturday

I'm currently waiting for a cake to come out of the oven (will share the details later if it's a success!) so it's the perfect time for a post about yesterday - a great day! It started off with a super green smoothie...

Tropical Green Smoothie

• 1 banana
• 1 pear
• 1/3 of a fresh pineapple
• 2 handfuls spinach
• 60ml vanilla rice milk
• xanthan gum

Topped with toasted coconut flakes...

I loved this! Will definitely be including more smoothies/green smoothies from now on - so refreshing and feels like a great start to the day :) I am however very envious of all of you with decent blenders that can make pure green smoothies - the best my food processor can manage is green with darker green flecks!

Lunch was a quick one as we were off to see her daughter in her dance show. I had wholewheat penne with some peas added for the last few minutes of cooking, served with a "sauce" of sun dried tomato houmous and nutritional yeast...

this was really tasty, and the houmous was such an easy way to make a sauce - I just stirred it and the nutritional yeast through the drained pasta whilst it was still on the hob to warm up, yum.

Then it was time to go to the dance show - daughter was so cute! She was in the second youngest group - the littlies always make the audience go "awww"! & her costume was a bright pink leotard and tiara with fairy wings and a crown, bless! She didn't know all the steps as she'd missed the rehearsals and first couple of performances, but she followed along a second or two behind everyone else...as she had a huge dressing on her neck I hope people wouldn't have thought badly, they all look so cute even if they don't know exactly what they're doing!! Daughter then joined us in the audience to watch Acts 2 + 3, which my sister was in. I was very good and just stuck to water in the intervals - daughter and Liam had ice cream in interval 1 and chocolate in interval 2!!

The reason I managed to resist anything was that Liam and I were going out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary :) We decided to go to a local restaurant we could walk to so we weren't so rushed. For my starter, I had lightly spiced butternut squash...

This was amazing, so thick and creamy, and the spice was delicate but not at all overpowering...I plan to recreate this very soon! :) I also had a mouthful of Liam's starter - roasted pepper and goat's cheese salad (what I would've chosen if the soup of the day hadn't been butternut squash!)...

this was tasty, although piggy that I am, I'd have wanted it to be double the size - my soup was definitely more filling!

For main, I didn't have a lot of choice! When we'd been to this restaurant before, there had been a large choice, with their menu including a pizza section, a salad section and a pasta section as well as more traditional mains. However it had been majorly cut down - to literally 6 items plus another 2 specials - 1 meat, 1 fish. There was only 1 vegetarian option so that's what I went for - artichokes, mushrooms and leeks in a creamy white wine sauce in a puff pastry case...

I hadn't ever had artichokes before and wasn't a fan (I think these were tinned ones which may not have helped?) but the rest of it was tasty, if a bit stodgy. I also had lots of broccoli and mangetout on the side. I was too full for pudding after this (and 2 Pimms & lemonades...summer's on its way!!) but Liam ordered one for himself and I ended up eating almost half of it!! Belgian waffle with fresh fruit and vanilla ice cream...

this was lovely, and lots more fresh fruit than I was expecting - raspberries, strawberries, half a passion fruit, star fruit and a physalis, delish :)

It was so nice to be able to go out for an evening and have conversation that didn't revolve around/get interrupted by the children for once!! And yummy food always helps :)

Today is the opposite - Liam is at work so I am spending time solely with the children - playing with baby, writing with daughter etc, and baking with daughter while baby sleeps...all good fun! :) Yummy smells are now coming from the oven so I better go investigate... have a great Sunday everyone!

Coffee and Cake

As we weren't going out for cooked breakfast until late morning, I decided 2 breakfasts were in order today. Breakfast number 1...my first ever green smoothie...

Look how green it is! No berries to mask the colour this time! This was made of half a banana, an apple, lots of curly kale, some dried plums for sweetness, Kara coconut milk and a little Xanthan gum for thickness...

topped with some almonds...

I really liked the taste of this! Not so keen on the texture - wish my blender would get it a bit smoother - not a huge fan of the kale bits in it! Still lovely though! Liked by the children too! :) Daughter wasn't sure at first - I think the colour put her off - but when she saw that baby loved it, she decided she liked it too...success!!

Good thing I did have the smoothie as we didn't end up eating "breakfast" until 11.30am! So this counted as lunch really. I had a skinny latte...

and poached eggs on granary toast...

a huge amount of toast compared to the eggs, but it was buttered & delicious so I "managed" to eat it all! :) apologies for the poor picture quality - I was trying to be discrete so my relatives wouldn't pick up on my photo taking, so only took one quick photo of each thing! No mention by anyone of my lack of meat either - I was clearly over-worrying! There were 10 of us in a tiny local cafe (as well as other customers!) so I don't think anyone was really paying attention to what other people were ordering!

Mid-afternoon I had my second latte of the day - flavoured with gingerbread syrup and further sweetened with a half tsp of molasses - a really good combo!

plus a small lemon drizzle cupcake...

yum yum...

coffee + cake = the perfect way to spend an afternoon! :)

For dinner, the others ate sausage and mash - not my favourite meal aside from the meat aspect, so I didn't have anything, then shared a chocolate-raspberry cupcake with my daughter once she'd finished her dinner - bad habit to get into!!

her plate sums her up perfectly - she never stops talking!!

Once the children were in bed, I decided I should have something healthy to eat. Not sure what happened to that idea as I ended up having a peanut butter & jelly (jam) sandwich...

and then another round after I'd eaten these! I wouldn't normally eat this much white bread but we are having a bread issue - I bought 3 loaves of white bread on offer in the Asda order and they are use by today - we still have a whole loaf yet and no freezer space, whoops. This took me over calories today - about 650 over my "lose 1 lb a week" calorie limit, although only 150 cals over my maintenance so not too bad. Not so bothered about the quantity of food I've eaten, but not too impressed with the quality...hopefully I won't rely quite so much on bread and cake tomorrow!!