Hello lovelies, hope you are having a great Sunday! My week has been a good one, I got those lovely flowers from my colleague Donna on my last official day in the office on Tuesday. It’s also been a fairly busy week as I had the last session for one of my community groups on Monday, two of my regular community groups on Tuesday and then on Tuesday evening I put on a healthy pick n mix for a local art centre event. I had the chance to look round a Norman Cornish exhibition in the dark with just a head torch! I hadn’t been a huge fan of his work before as it’s very entrenched in local mining heritage which isn’t my thing, but I had not seen some of his more personal portraits of his family, they were just beautiful and I loved the unusual twist on viewing the exhibition. Then on Wednesday I was off to town, but more on that in a mo!
Eat
I’ve had some lovely food this week, here’s a few highlights:
Green smoothie with spinach, banana, coconut oil and almond milk
Brown rice puffs with home made hazelnut cashew chocolate nut milk and strawberries
Chia seed pudding with hazelnut cashew chocolate nut milk and strawberries
Chilli with beef and kidney beans on top of steamed summer greens and broccoli
Chickpea, green bean and new potato coconut milk korma
Salad with lentils, roast veggies and feta
Courgette crust pizza with roast veggies and cheese
Fresh beetroot, celery and apple juice
Doing some planning with a treat from Starbucks, light coffee frappe
Move
Workouts this week
- Monday – Gym, 10 minutes step machine, 10 minutes bike, strength training using machines, pilates pelvic exercises
- Tuesday – Rest
- Wednesday – Gym, 10 minutes step machine, 10 minutes bike, squats, seated chest presses, overhead extensions, pilates pelvic exercises
- Thursday – Yoga, just doing my own thing for about 20 minutes
- Friday – Rest
- Saturday – Housework, loads of it and according to Twitter that totally counts as a workout, especially when pregnant!
- Sunday – Walk
I ended up missing my usual Friday gym workout as I had to wait in for a delivery which was a pain in the butt! I’m looking forward to another walk later this morning, I really enjoyed my walk to the shops last week and it’s something I’m trying to incorporate more often.
Wear
Floral dress: Topshop Maternity, gold arrow necklace: Etsy, black maternity leggings: New Look, tan leather sandals: New Look
I wore my new Topshop maternity dress that I’d bought in the sales last week. I hadn’t been sure if it was worth buying a proper maternity dress in a style like this but having tried it on I can definitely say it was worth it as the cut felt really comfortable and flattering.
Love
On Wednesday I thought I’d treat myself to a morning out as I had been invited to the Yogalilles press day. I had some time in Starbucks to sit with my note pad and do some planning beforehand which was great. I used to go to Yogalilles, a great yoga and pilates studio in the centre of Newcastle, quite often a couple of years ago so it was lovely to go back. I was treated to some delicious food and a reflexology taster session and sent home with a little goodie bag! If you live in or around Newcastle I would highly recommend it and I’m hoping that post baby I’ll be able to fit in a class again. It was brilliant to connect with Lissa the owner and fingers crossed we might have some collaborative work coming up. Also…
Giving my desk a make over with a new big inspo board // my new drawers in the bathroom // so many kicks and movements from the little one // just one week left of my second trimester! // gorgeous baby boy clothes // recipe testing going well // generally feeling more organised and focused // sweet n salty popcorn and 85% dark choc
Link
- My pretty DIY kitchen shelving project
- My June reviews and a THE PROTEIN WORKS GIVEAWAY
- Recipe for blueberry, feta and buckwheat salad with orange dressing
- A practical way to meditate with the Mindfulness App – seriously check this app out because it’s great!
- Something for the weekend: home made nut milk
- The California Almonds 21 Day #snackhappy challenge
- Get your period back – a brilliant guest post from Laura from Ancestralize me on Chris Kresser.com
- Honeydew, mint and cucumber pregnancy pops from Pure Kitchen
- Marilyn Monroe’s Top Shelf from Into the Gloss, love how she was eating whole foods paleo style way before her time!
- How to be a better public speaker from Emma Cossey
This coming week is shaping up to be another busy one with more recipe testing and working at a school health and wellbeing day with 50 odd year 7 students, wish me luck! How has your week been? Have you been to see any unusual art exhibitions recently?
The Top Shop dress was definitely worth it, it’s gorgeous. We were just talking about maternity wear at work the other day, and how many of us have picked stuff up from that section without realising! We all agreed it would be totally OK to buy it anyway! That yoga studio looks amazing, I’ve never actually been to a proper yoga studio, I’ve just done classes at the gym, or in a classroom at work (random, but one of the other teachers is also a yoga teacher, so she gives us lunchtime lessons). I’d love to try.
Thanks Sarah! Oh I’ve done that a few times as well, a lot of it in Topshop doesn’t even look that much like maternity stuff, I think it’s just a bigger cut. I have to say theres something special about practicing in a studio like that, it’s a lovely experience. Lucky you getting classes at work!
Sounds like a great week, that exhibition sounds really original. Love the flowers!
Thanks Lauren, the flowers are such a gorgeous colour I’m hoping they last a while!
That dress is so pretty! So often I have picked up a dress only to find that it is maternity- there are so many good ranges in the shops now.
A morning to yourself sounds like bliss- last week we had a training day, so I actually managed to get out for 20 mins at lunch- I just sat in Starbucks and stared into space, but it was so nice to be quiet, and not to have to talk to anyone about lessons, meetings or whatever!
We just had a weekend away which was lovely too- recently work has been so busy (up to midnight marking most week nights) so time away to recharge my batteries was just what I needed. The tea and cake helped too!
Yeah Sarah was saying that too, there’s so many nice dresses and I think that other than them being cut a little bigger there’s not much difference. I bet that was lovely for you, sometimes I just like to people watch! Glad you got to recharge your batteries, sounds like things have been full on for you! x
Courgette crust pizza looks delicious. Do you have a recipe for this on your blog? Although I think it should be quite straight forward..
The dress is really nice and you look good in it!
I do, sorry I should have linked to it! http://keepinghealthygettingstylish.com/2014/06/recipe-low-carb-courgette-crust-pizza.html Enjoy :-)
Thanks Laura! I will definitely give this a try. I hope it comes out looking as good as yours! :)
That maternity dress really suits you! Good find!
I hope that your day with the year 7s goes well. I would love to be allowed to run that kind of workshop at my school. It’s such a shame that PSHE lessons have gotten such bad rep from years of teachers being made to teach topics they’re not interested in and therefore not transferring any enthusiasm over to the students. With your interest and enthusiasm for health and well-being I’m sure some of it is bound to rub off on the students!
Thanks Mary! I’m hoping I’m going to be able to manage the classes ok, we are looking at some you tube videos then I’ve got them making mini feel good journals, hope that keeps them entertained and educates them too!
The Topshop dress is so pretty and it really suits you, definitely worth splashing out! Plus it doesn’t too maternity (from what I can see) so you could totally get away with wearing it post-bump :)
Love a good goodie bag, especially on top of a fab day too!
That’s exactly what I was thinking, I know I’ll probably need some ‘transitional’ wear post baby for a few months!
You and your bump look great in the Topshop dress! x
Thanks Lily!
You look stunning in that dress! It’s beautiful and it really suits you. Definitely worth the splurge!
I’m not really an arty person…I am probably so very uncultured in that respect! I’m more of a movie-watchiig book-reading sort of person! Though I’ve always wanted to go see a show, just involves a stressful trip to London…
Ahh Laura you look so well – love the dress! Thanks for the links as always, love the Marilyn article. Where do you get the brown rice pops from?