Hey loves!

I thought I’d just drop in and say hello and that I am still alive if you are still reading? I’m sure any other uni student can appreciate that this time of year is no fun…I have been working like crazy lately and with several deadlines looming, I have been stuck inside and when the weather decides to be so beautiful?! Not fair.

However after I handed in one of my final pieces of work along with a presentation, I finally decided to enjoy a bit of the sun for a walk along the River Tyne by where I live. I sometimes forget how beautiful it is here when I get to see it all year but after working hard and being quite stressed recently, it made me see the beauty in it again.

Other than that, I have only made time for food and to have my hair done. I only go to the hairdressers once or twice a year because I don’t like them cutting my hair haha!

To be honest life recently hasn’t been so happy as it has been. I don’t deal with stress well anyway but on top of that my body image issues are really taking over again. I have gained weight recently, and although part of it is muscle building as I am suddenly becoming a lot stronger in my weight workouts which feels amazing…but I have had periods of eating too much because it makes me so hungry some days and also just lack of control I suppose. I do have a tendency to binge, and when I do it gets worse because I hate myself anyway, I just think ‘fuck it’ and carry on doing it. Which only makes the problem worse of course. So both uni and my body image have been on my mind and really quite torturing me every single day. I’ve not been getting to sleep until the early hours and then waking up at 5am for the past week just thinking negatively and I know it’s all my own doing and my own mind.

The past few days I have been getting a grip of it all though, changing the way I eat and I was restricting still in the day, just with being so busy, hence provoking night time binges (hello how many times have I told myself not to do this?!) and going back to my cardio workouts for a bit just to try and cut back and ease my mind a little. I guess what I’ve been finding particularly difficult, via Instagram in particular, is the whole image of bodybuilding and being ‘lean’. I admit, this is what I wanted to achieve now that I’ve moved away from the ‘skinny’ ideal. But you know what? It’s just another extreme. Just another body image issue for me to become obsessed with. And I cannot solve my problem areas unless I take things to the extreme which will not be healthy for me personally. Whilst I am happy that I have improved how my body looks in some ways, I cannot take it to that next level without being obsessed and I don’t think that’s a road I want to go down.

I know that the way that I live is healthy and I’ve never been so healthy in fact. I’m physically fit and eat healthy and well. Even when I feel like I ‘overeat’ it’s never on unhealthy junk food. And I know I need to accept the way that I am because I can’t be an extreme and be ‘well’ mentally. I cannot go on for the rest of my life trying to be this ‘ideal’ that I set myself up for. God, life is too short! And it’s only me torturing myself with these thoughts every.single.day. I don’t need to live like this and all that I need to be is healthy and part of that comes with enjoying life, being with friends and family and not stressing myself out all the time with body image issues because they’re not important. Well they are. But body image is massively confidence. And it is only that, that I lack.

Anyway. Enough of a rant. I am getting myself back together again and I only have two weeks left at uni, then I’m moving apartment right after that (to a bigger place so kinda exciting…after the whole moving process!) and then I have so much to share. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen me posting so many things I’ve created and I have been mean and waited to share them on here haha. And I will! SO hopefully lots to share in the near future

Protein Garlic Bread

Toffee Apple Protein Muffins

Protein English Muffin (my fave!)

Raw Goji Almond Fudge <3

Oh and one last thing.

If you can get your hands on these, DO. And put them in the oven and bake them. Seriously, I didn’t want to believe people that these actually tasted like a real baked cookie..but they do. I am in love.

Wow that was a long post Anyways! I shall be back soon! x

Ahhh Friday. I’ve been busy this week as you may have seen from my absence as I started back at uni after my Easter break. This week has just been filled with more projects to add to the ones I already have. Just great. But, just one month left and then I am on my summer break woohoo!

Today I just wanted to drop in and talk to you guys about something. I was looking through my stats and how people find my blog through searches etc, and one of the most common searches that gets people to my blog is ‘too much exercise is making me fat’ because of this post I did over a year ago! I actually find this really sad that so many people are struggling with this, so I wanted to go over it a little more now that I’m in a more healthy position than a year ago and have also learnt a lot!

In that post I was very much down about my body image and you know what? I still am. But I can also tell you that I’ve been through a journey in over that year in terms of exercise and finally actually believed that ‘too much exercise is bad for you’. I now do the least exercise and eat more than I ever have done, and yet I’d say I’m probably at my fittest and healthiest. That’s kinda saying something eh? I realised that it really was true that doing hours on end of cardio, even over an hour, was just stressing my body out and I wasn’t giving it time to recover because I’d be doing the same thing everydaaaay. How dull.

Now I am in and out of the gym in max 45 minutes, on HIIT days I do 20 minutes. That is it. I also have 2 or 3 rest days a week. Why does this work? Well I work hard in that time, and in the end, no matter how much you exercise, you cannot exercise out a bad diet. So I do eat healthy most of the time. And doing too much cardio was not only increasing my cortisol levels, giving me no chance of slimming down and toning up, but it also made it easier for me to binge either because my body just wasn’t recovering so was dying for too much fuel or I was in the mindset that I’d done ‘x’ amount so it was okay to eat more. Wrong. Then the binges were adding stress on top of the cortisol produced from the stress of too much exercise so it was just a never ending stress on my body. Now I don’t get that over hungry binging everyday because my body isn’t stressed out to the max, not to mention I eat more throughout the day to build the muscle anyway.

Not only does too much cardio cause stress on your body keeping the weight on, but also look at your life, at work, at home, your personal life. If these are stressful too, you are just set up to have a hard time losing weight or losing fat before you even think about exercise. Then I tend to find that people who have this stressful life are the people that tend to do a lot of cardio…adding to the problem! Exercise is a great stress reliever, no doubt about it, but making it the only way to deal with stress is just adding to the stress of life in terms of cortisol. Therefore you need to find more effective ways to de-stress sometimes rather than it always being exercise. Whether it’s just things like having a lie in (something that I do well ), having a bath, reading a book, having a massage, even meditation or stretching. And trust me, having a good intense shorter session can give you that relief just as much as a long session when you are dripping with sweat.

So what to do if you’re struggling with losing weight/fat and feel like exercise is making it worse. Well simple:

1. Make your workouts shorter, less than 30 minutes for cardio and look at using weights for the longer workouts.

2. Make your weight training workouts more intense. Increase the weights you are using or do more reps for a more cardio effect.

2. Incorporate more HIIT type cardio sessions for 15-20 minutes a day. Fast effective way to burn fat but only do these a couple of times a week to keep your cortisol levels in check.

3. Have more rest days and find other ways to release the stress. If you are continually exercising everyday you will not be seeing the effects of your hard work, trust me.

4. If you feel tired or sluggish, take a rest day even if it’s unplanned. Rest time is sometimes more important than exercise as this is the time when your body is recovering and burning the fat.

5. Keep a good diet. If your cortisol levels are out of control even a few days of indulgences can significantly make the problem worse.

6. Eat enough. Nothing worse than your hard work in the gym is put to waste because your body is in starvation mode. You need food to burn fat, build muscle..whatever your goal, without enough neither will happen. You can’t start a fire without that energy to keep it alight.

What do you do to relieve stress?

Fave healthy meal?

Hey hey people! Hope you’re all having a good week so far…almost Friday which means almost the weekend woop woop! So after I said I don’t do many reviews, okay, turns out I have just one more for now. But it’s worth a read because again, another amazing product that I will continue to love and support!

I’ve been on a mega coconut kick recently. You name it, if it’s to do with coconut, I will love it. Coconut flour, coconut butter, coconut oil, even right down to my current shampoo and moisturizer haha! Not to mention the healthy fats are so good for you So it’s kinda obvious that I would love these macaroons from Good Puds, particularly because they’re raw which is my love in terms of food <3

Good Puds is a fairly new small company which again, I found via Twitter and got really excited about. I really am glad to see more and more raw companies starting up in the UK, we need more! Being raw they are dairy and wheat, sugar and gluten free and not to mention guilt free They are also handmade and heated to nothing more than 40.5 degrees C which means all of the good nutrients are kept intact which keeps them extra healthy

Why else do I love them? Few ingredients and the only ones used are good quality nutritious ones as you would expect from raw food. Just almond flour, dried coconut, coconut butter, maple syrup, and some sort of flavourings for the different flavours. All of the ingredients are also organic except for the vanilla extract which is fairtrade so they have done an amazing job of sourcing quality ingredients.

I was kindly given the chocolate coconut macaroons to try and being the chocoholic I am, they lasted minutes! That saying, if I wasn’t such a greedy thing, just one would be enough to satisfy that chocolate craving because the chocolate flavour is really deep and rich and well, bloody amazing…just saying

They also have more amazing flavours that I will definitely be trying in the future because these were just incredible; chocolate mocha, coconut lime, raspberry ripple, vanilla almond and mint chocolate. You can order them from their site here and they will be handmade just for you

Do you like coconut?

Fave coconutty snack?

Hey lovies!

I hope you’ve all had a good weekend. I’m sure many of you will have heard that here in the UK we’ve finally got some sun which totally makes a difference to how happy everyone is. It’s amazing what the weather can do eh?!

Anyways. If you follow me on Instagram you’ll have noticed that I’ve been making lots of snacks recently, including raw (of course) as well as protein type ones too. Why do I like making these so much? Well they’re both equally quick and simple which is the only kind of food preparation that I do being the lazy thing that I am. But it also means that if it’s simple, it means it’s healthy as I don’t like too many ingredients and faffing around

So today I thought I’d just share one of the many quickie protein ball snacks that I make multiple times a week at the moment. Most of my protein snacks at the moment contain Pulsin’s Pea Protein. I cannot recommend this protein enough. It is just amazing! Okay so it doesn’t taste great on it’s own but that’s because it’s completely natural and unflavoured with no sweeteners, is vegan, gluten free, low carb, low fat etc etc. It just works really well in everything from balls to baking to smoothies.

This recipe also includes mesquite. I only recently purchased it to try for the first time and I am already in love (but not as much as lucuma of course..) because it really works well with chocolatey flavours to give like a malty kick to it. So good!!

 Raw Chocolate Hemp Protein Balls

Ingredients (makes 15-20)

1/2 cup pea protein

4 tbsp shelled hemp

2 tbsp almonds

2 tbsp mesquite

4 tbsp raw cacao powder

2 tsp liquid stevia

1 tsp coconut oil

1/2 cup water

Combine the dry ingredients in the food processor. Melt the coconut oil in the microwave. Then add the wet ingredients and mix until a dough forms. Roll into balls and keep in the fridge to set. That. is. it.

What did you do this weekend?

Do you make your own snacks or do you prefer store bought?

I am not one to do many reviews on my blog because I only talk about products that I really like. However this is an exception because this is one product that needs talking about

I found UpRaw through my Twitter on the ‘Who to follow’ bit on the side and was obviously drawn to their name because of my love of raw foods. It turned out that they seemed to be a really cool company who did these healthy protein discs made of all natural ingredients. The owner, Sol, who is just lovely and even spoke with me on the phone (I am a big fan of talking with company owners, so much more personal) had started the brand after he was out hiking on what turned out to be a very dangerous trip where he had no control over the events or anything really, except his nutrition and he was fed up of having to keep buying bars and gels that were loaded with crap basically. Because they are. Sports companies advertise their products and people fail to read what is actually in them which is normally a tonne of chemicals and sugars along with the protein and carbs they provide..just totally unnecessary.

‘Well so what?’ you might say when yeah, there are plenty of companies who make bars and snacks out of natural ingredients. But they will often either a) not have protein in them, b) will have plenty of sugars in them, even if they are natural and c) have plenty of carbs in them too. Whereas UpRaw do have protein in them and their sugars are low and their carbs are low which is a win win in my books! I don’t know of any other bar in the UK that has such good nutritional stats when that kind of thing is important to you.

And not only do they have great stats, but they taste amazing too. Not too sweet but you still have the chocolatey coconutty goodness, and you can’t go wrong with chocolate and coconut! They’re also gluten free,  really fulfilling but don’t bloat you at all because of the low sugar and carbs. Perfect for my troublesome digestive system…

Even though I was kindly given some UpRaw bars they have definitely become my fave protein snack out there and I will be making them a regular in my diet so I’m so glad I was introduced to them

Have you tried UpRaw?

What do you look for in a snack?

So I’ve been lacking in the recipe department recently although I have been making lots of yummy stuff so I promise I will try my best to share more with you soon! Most of the things I have been making are either raw or quick protein recipes because well, they’re easy and quick. You might see from most of the stuff I make – I don’t like it to be complicated! And you can still make really yummy stuff from simple recipes

Last week I decided to make some raw shortbread, something nice and simple, yet so damn tasty so decided to see what I could rustle up using what I had in my kitchen. Oh and it just had to include lucuma of course! So if you’re still looking for another excuse to buy lucuma..here it is

Raw Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 cup almonds

1/8 cup melted coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp coconut sugar

2 tbsp lucuma

1 tbsp water

Grind the walnuts and almonds in the food processor until they’re a crumbly texture. Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and mix until combined. Roll the ‘dough’ into round balls and flatten onto a teflon sheet and dehydrate overnight.

Notes: I chose coconut sugar as my sweetener of preference (LOVE this stuff) but you can use agave/maple syrup/sugar/powdered stevia. If you don’t have a dehydrator these could work in the oven at a low temperature for a few hours.

Happy Friday lovelies!

Phew, I think I’ve finally recovered from feeling poorly. I thought I was better on Sunday but then Monday I felt even worse than before, not good when I had a presentation to do at uni as well as sitting through 60 others…This week has been really stressful with deadlines before the Easter break but I am now officially on Easter break for 3 weeks woohooo!!! Definitely very much needed, I always get signs when my body is just tired from life like getting ill, I also get eczema on my palms when I’m stressed (weird!) and my sleep and fitness is always affected too. So hopefully this break will give me that boost to see me through until Summer

Earlier in the week I decided to try the new Meridian almond butter. They’ve just released a new line which has no palm oil in and it just purely nuts and sea salt. This is the reason why I’ve been buying Biona’s nut butters because they are just nuts but since Meridian is sold in Holland & Barrett it will be easier to get hold of to feed my current addiction

Today I braced the freezing cold weather and headed into town to purchase a few little things to cheer me up to start off my Easter holiday. Also my wardrobe has space now that I am selling loads of stuff that doesn’t fit me on eBay so that only means I have to fill it back up right?!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I pretty much always have my nails painted. It’s something that I started doing almost every 2 days when I was in hospital purely out of boredom and since then it’s just what I do. I have an entire professional’s big makeup box just full of polishes..you can never have too many colours to choose from right?! These really caught my eye in Urban Outfitters and they were 3 for £15 so it was meant to be

Oh and if you want to follow me on Instagram you’ll probably get to see more of what I’m doing behind the blog