Doesn’t that granola look good? It’s my foodie highlight of the week without a doubt, Sweet and Salty Peanut Butter Granola, mmm! If you’d like the recipe it’s going to be in my newsletter going out on Monday so if you haven’t signed up already then hop to it – plus you’ll get a free copy of my Alternative Healthy Living Manifesto!
It’s been a great week for me, I’ve had lots of wonderful client sessions and generally been busy. As I’ve been saying in other posts, this time of year is my absolute fave, and now that we are past Bonfire night I feel like I can justify feeling Christmassy, starting with the sweet mince pie filling in oats!
This also had in some egg whites (for protein and staying power) a sliced pear and almond butter.
Green smoothies have made a reappearance too, although I have to admit I think this will be the last of them on a morning for a while, it was getting too cold even for me! This was kale, pears, vanilla protein powder and gojis, pumpkin seeds and bee pollen on top.
Just cause Hallowe’en has gone too, doesn’t mean I’m sick of pumpkin yet. I had a whole one that needed using up so I roasted it in coconut oil and some maple syrup to caramelise and then made a salad with goats cheese, pumpkin seeds and balsamic:
Warm melty goats cheese just can’t be beaten!
I’ve also been making use of the slow cooker to make a simple beef stew (using some of the bone broth I made at the weekend as stock) to eat along with brussel sprouts fried in coconut oil and some steamed greens. Such a good meal as it’s been very cold here all of a sudden!
As the title of the posts suggests I’ve been at the gym a lot this week!
- Saturday: Rest
- Sunday: Spinning class (at the gym lol!)
- Monday: 30 minutes cardio on cross trainer, step machine + bike, plank hold, squats, deadlifts, chest press, shoulder press
- Tuesday: Rest
- Wednesday: 30 minutes cardio on cross trainer, step machine + bike, plank hold, squats, spilt squats, rows, dumbbell pullovers
- Thursday: 30 minutes cardio on cross trainer, step machine + bike – but tried some high intensity intervals on the bike
- Friday: 30 minutes cardio on cross trainer, step machine + bike, plank hold, random light weight high rep exercises
I think the gym sometimes gets a bad rep to be honest. Of course I would prefer some more variety, but at the moment I’m working out on auto pilot and as my gym is just two minutes away it’s the easiest thing for me to do right now. I still enjoy it when I’m there, although I know I’ll start and get sick if I don’t change it soon. Plus my body is shouting out for some yoga, I am going to try yet again and see if I can find a local class that works for me. Although I can do it at home, I do believe that every so often going to a proper class is very worthwhile.
One thing that made the gym a little more interesting this week was trying this out:
I’ve only ever had a heart rate monitor on my Garmin back when I was running so this was very interesting! I’ll share most of my thoughts on this when I write my review (it has been gifted to me for review purposes), but it has been interesting to see the calories I burn which are a lot more than I thought!
On the Love List this week…
I’ll be blogging more about this next week, but I’ve been having a lot of fun with a new app called Dayre. It allows you to create almost mini blogs each day. You can find my profile here which is www.dayre.me/lauraagarwilson – the app is free so please follow me! If you like my WIAW posts you’ll probably like this, as that’s the kind of style of posts I’m doing! I will be doing a fuller post on the Dayre app soon (please note my work with Dayre is sponsored, but I really am loving using this!) Also…
I had some awesome news earlier in the week that a healthy eating project working with young people coming out of the care system has been approved for funding! Looking forward to getting to work on that next year // KHGS sponsor FOM Cosmetics Christmas shop – I have spotted a few nice gifts in there already, great that they are all natural products // chilli with cheese and salsa, yum // the smell of bonfires // wrapping up cosy warm with my big wooly scarf // James moustache for Movember coming in nicely // magazines filling me with ideas for Christmas recipes and Christmas gifts!
In case you missed it:
- Improving your mood with food (and other things)
- Recipe for Thai Chicken, Pumpkin and Spinach Curry in the slow cooker
- What I learned doing the Super Conscious Living Programme
What’s on your Love List this week? Did you do anything for Bonfire night? There’s no longer a fireworks display near us (damn Council cuts!) but I did enjoy listening to them popping all night. Hope you all have the awesomest of weekends!
I have been eyeing up polar heartrate monitors and garmins, possibly to go on the christmas list! I think I’d like one with a mileage/gps function, so I guess a garmin would be better.
And you’ve made me feel festive now, will embrace it!
Yep a garmin will be better as that will give you mile breakdowns / distance etc, I used to love mine for when I was running, so satisfying seeing all the stats!
I’m back in the gym a bit more this week due to not running (taking a bit of time to let my niggles just calm down – snore). It is a struggle to stay on a machine though I have to say – jeeze is it boring or what! I much prefer the classes as having someone tell me what to do is so much better for me haha.
I had goats cheese, roasted squash and bacon this week and OMG was it good.
Oh I could only do quick workouts at the gym or I’d go loopy! I am thinking of trying to fit in more classes when I can, realised how much I prefer them now!
I sometimes miss the gym purely for the spinning classes but right now my running is keeping me busy! I downloaded that app yesterday and now you are talking about it, ha great minds! have a great weekend x
Oh follow me and I’ll follow you back!
Love the look of the HRM, I have a really old Polar one but I never use it anymore. I’m without a gym at the moment, and I really miss it!! Have a great weekend!
Are you thinking of joining one in London? It’s a funny one when you are running, I guess it’s good to know the treadmill is there in case of weather emergencies! Hope you are having a lovely weekend too!
Those oats sound divine!! I can’t get into the Christmas spirit just yet though despite the Fenwick’s window going up today :)…I find the whole build up just a bit much for one day these days (you can tell I’m getting older no?!) plus over Christmas I’ll have the most work ever with final year uni work sooo I’m kinda writing off this Christmas (plus my birthday) haha!
I use a Polar heart rate monitor everyday purely because it’s like my little personal trainer in a way telling me to push harder. Especially when lifting weights it’s easy to lift lighter than you could or give up on some reps here and there but if my heart rate isn’t high enough, it kinda shows that I need to try harder because my body still has some room to do better! :)
I didn’t do anything for Bonfire night, but it was nice just to sit in the warmth and watch the fireworks from my window :)
Oh no! Hope that you do have time to squeeze in some festive and birthday cheer :-)
I was amazed at how high my heart rate was using the weights, very pleasantly surprised! You are right though, it certainly shows you how much you can handle!
Yum to the goats cheese- I love it and it goes so perfectly with squash or pumpkin.
There was a fireworks display near us but it was while we were away so we didn’t go to one this year.
Also congratulations on your community project- it sounds amazing and it is so great to see all the fantastic things you are doing.
I have been starting to think more about Christmas- it will creep up on us! Although I am still feeling autumnal in baking- I am going to make some parkin/ gingerbread cake at the weekend I think.
Also I saw that Starbucks is bogof festive drinks this weekend 2-5pm,so I might just have to go there (orange hot choc or gingerbread steamer- sound good).
Thanks Maria, can’t wait to start the community stuff in the New Year! I had gingerbread last weekend, so good! Hope you have / going to have your Starbucks fix!
I’d like to get back into the gym. I used to love both the classes and solo workouts.
Love the sound of the mince pie oats with AB and pear! I’m actually not a big mince pie person but I really want to try this idea.
I’m not a huge fan of mince pies either, I think it’s the pastry, but that filling is sweet and spicy, just delicious!
Heehee I’m a slight gym bunny right now as well, whilst I recoup my thoughts on being able to run I’m sticking to spin & the rower …… I need to experiment more as well.
I need to get back on the rower! Spin is awesome though isn’t it :-)
Ooh, I’ve always wanted a Polar heart rate monitor. Jealous, much!? Are you going to do that 24 hour test for resting metabolism? I reckon those results are always the most intriguing of all. I don’t tend to trust the HRMs on Garmins because they always record mine as being really low. Like, elite runner low…and I’m certainly no elite!
That’s a cute app – I love all of the little blog posts you’ve made so far with it :)
xxx
Do you have any links for the 24 test thing? Is it just where you wear it for the full 24 hours to see how many calories you burn? That fitbit thingy I have tells me that, but based on the BMR calc rather than heart rate so I would be interested to see the difference. You bloody are elite! I need to see what my resting rate is – can you not test your garmin by comparing its reading to physically counting your pulse to see if they are similar? When I had the garmin my heart rate while running was very high, probably not a good sign!
Yes, it’s just the standard wearing for 24 hours to see how many calories you burn. I’ve never used a fitbit, so I didn’t realise it does essentially the same thing without the basis of heart rate.
I’ve never thought to test my Garmin that way! This is going to sound so lame, but I never could get the hang of physically counting my pulse…it was like patting my head/rubbing my stomach (which, ironically, I have no problems with co-ordinating) and my brain didn’t want to count properly. I have no idea why! I should try again though, since the last time I attempted that was when I was a kid, I think. Last time I had my resting heart rate tested at the docs it was pretty low, so I guess that could explain it. I might run as far as the elites per week, but I’m a good hour too slow at the marathon, and at least 20-25 minutes too slow at the half!
Laura, that granola jar is so cute! It would make a cute christmas gift, don’t you think?
x
Ooo interesting to see about the heart rate monitors, I’m often curious about how my body reacts to different exercises and it would be interesting to see which are the most cardio effective. That granola sounds so delicious, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hand out the bag!