Back on Track… Kinda

Apologies for my lack of posts recently, but it has been an absolutely hectic time for me in the last few months. I started uni in September and have had a lot going on, what with moving, studying and partying. This has proved an extremely difficult time health-wise. It turns out that it is a massive challenge to avoid all the junk and crappy foods most students indulge in daily. 

However, in the last week or two I feel I have finally got back into a more regular eating pattern which is healthier. To begin with I was living off of baked beans and fish fingers, which isn't terribly bad, but there is a bit of a tradition which has started with my flat mates of cooking a load of fish fingers after a night out. So I was eating technically 4 meals on these days. That along with the drinking, means I have put on quite a bit of weight. I have found this quite difficult to accept, but I understand now that life is also for living, and I don't want to miss out on the fun of student life just so I can be a few pounds lighter. I am going to do my best to stay on track as much as possible though. 

I have found the cheapest and healthiest dinner I can make is literally lightly frying some chicken breast with mushroom, onion & pepper, seasoned with some spices. This is what I tend to have pretty much every day at the moment, and lunches are usually a small baked sweet potato topped with tuna and sweet chilli sauce. 

The gym routine is getting back into the swing of things too. I am focusing more heavily on cardio to burn those extra calories I am consuming at the moment, but still incorporating some weighted exercises. 

Typical dinner: chicken, mushroom, onion & broccoli 

Thanks to those of you that have still be checking out my blog. I will try and post more often to keep you updated on my progress!

Lucy x

Roast Veg

I recently visited my best friend's house, and her mum gave me a tonne of fresh vegetables from her garden to take home. How lovely is she?! I had a selection of red pepper, aubergines, string beans & tomatoes. I was trying to figure out what to do with them & Ella's mum suggested roasting them so I thought that might be tasty. I had some sweet potato & mushroom to use up in the cupboard as well so I chucked that in too. The outcome was possibly one of my favourite dinners, and it left me with plenty of leftovers for a lunch box the day after. It's a brilliant way to use up any spare veg you have in such a healthy & easy way. Recipe is below...

Roast veg fresh out of the oven

Veggies topped with roast chicken and feta cheese

Leftovers for lunch the day after

Ingredients

1 sweet potato

1/2 large aubergine

1 large tomato chopped

1/2 red pepper

handful of mushrooms

handful of string beans

+ any other veg you have

1 tbsp oil (I used carotene oil)

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

salt & pepper to season

1 chicken breast

20g feta cheese

Instructions

1. Pre heat oven to gas mark 6

2.  Chop vegetables into chunks

3. Put vegetables into a baking tray and drizzle the oil over the top

4. Season with the spices, salt & pepper. Mix the veg around to spread the oil and spices evenly

5. Put into the top shelf of the oven for 40 minutes

6. Whilst the veg is cooking, grill your chicken breast for 20 minutes, turning once

7. Place a pile of the cooked veg in the middle of your plate and put the chicken breast on top, then sprinkle the feta over the top

Devour!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

Lucy x

Who am I?

I have just realised that I haven't actually posted any pictures of myself on this blog yet. This is
mainly meant to be a food blog, but I think it's important to show the progress I have made during my clean eating journey. It's also super helpful for myself, to be able to see how far I have come. We all have days where we think we are making slow progress, or no progress at all & pictures are a really useful way to pick yourself up when you feel demotivated.

September 2009

August 2013

February 2013

August 2013

I will have a six pack I will have a six pack I will have a six pack I will have a six pack I will have a six pack

I will not give up!

Lucy x

Update

So my food has been a little bit boring recently. This is due to me trying to keep it all as simple and clean as possible. What with the heat wave in the UK at the moment, I am finding myself a bit put off food. Which for me is revolutionary, my life pretty much revolves around food, so for me to not be that bothered about it is amazing. I have reduced my portion sizes significantly; I am only having 20g (instead of 40g) oats for my breakfast at the moment, and my lunches are fairly minuscule, because I just don't really feel hungry. I actually found myself leaving food at the end of a meal the other day (that NEVER happens). Maybe this is what it is like to be a normal person and not a food crazed maniac...?

Anyway, these are some of my recent dinners, excuse the repetition:

Turkey mince with taco seasoning & sweet potato chips

Chicken breast, salmon fillet & veg

Smoked haddock, fillet of basa, scrambled egg & veg

Salmon fillet, smoked haddock & veg

Turkey mince with taco seasoning, olives & salad

Chicken salad seasoned with peri-peri seasoning

Turkey mince with taco seasoning, rocket, olives & tomatoes

Turkey mince with taco seasoning, olives, avocado & tomatoes

As you can see, I am rather fond of turkey mince with taco seasoning at the moment... This is such a simple and quick tasty meal. I fry some onions, mushroom, red pepper and the mince in Canola oil. Add the taco seasoning (I use Old El Paso), then add chopped tomatoes, tomato purée and kidney beans. 

And here are some of my lunches:

Chicken fillet with peri-peri seasoning, veg and quinoa

Salmon with brown rice & veg

Chicken breast with garlic peri-peri, broccoli & kidney beans

Example of my food prep for a day at work

Major overload of pictures, but hopefully that gives you a good idea of what I consume on a daily basis! I know it's not perfect, but I think I am gradually getting closer to perfect. I certainly never feel hungry these days so I must be doing something right.

Over & out.

Lucy x

Home-Made Granola

Packaged cereals are really a big no no for when you are trying to eat clean & healthy, as there is such a large amount of added sugar and other nasties hidden in these enticing boxes/bags. I remember when I first started to make an effort to eat healthily (before I discovered clean eating), I had Kellogs Bran Flakes for breakfast. I was completely conned by the healthy branding and assumed that it was good for me, but in actual fact when you look at the sugar content, it is incredibly high! None of these packaged cereals (no matter how healthy & natural the packaging may look) are actually good for you, as they have to add so much sugar in order to make the cereal tasty. This is because once they have processed the grain  to the point of it having no nutritional value, what is left has the taste and texture of cardboard. So to actually make it edible, they have to add so much cr*p like sweeteners, flavourings, artificial colour & preservatives. Even the vitamins and minerals that they claim the cereal contain, have been added artificially. Only once you  have cut out sugar from your diet, can you taste how unnaturally sweet these products are. I love granola, and think that it is absolutely delicious, especially to top Greek yoghurt and fruit, or with oatmeal. So, I decided to create my own home-made granola instead of buying packaged fakery, so I know EXACTLY what has gone into it. The results were delicious!

Ingredients

1 cup Scottish thick oats

1/2 cup organic honey

3 tbsp olive oil

Large handful of mixed chopped nuts

 Handful of sunflower, pumpkin & brown linseed

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5

2. Combine the oats, nuts & seeds in a bowl and mix to distribute evenly

3. Stir in the honey & oil. Make sure all of the mixture gets a good coating

4. Spread the mixture in a thin layer on a baking tray

5. Put in the pre heated oven for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally 

6. Leave on the side for 10 minutes or so to cool. The granola will still be a bit moist when you take it out of the oven, but it will harden once it has cooled

7. Once it has hardened, break the chunks up and put in a jar to store

Done!

Oat Mug Cake topped with my Home-Made Granola

   

I enjoyed my granola on top of some overnight oats this morning for breakfast. It was absolutely incredible, and added a lovely crunch to my normal oats. It's also very pleasant to munch on on it's own, but I will have to try not to munch my way through it too quickly - as I want to try it with a few other things as well. But to be honest, it is so quick and easy to cook up that I think I will make sure I have a constant supply of it!

Lucy x

New Daily Meal Plan

Last week I decided that I am going to follow a more structured and thought out meal plan to make sure I am eating right. I spoke to a personal trainer in my gym who really knows his stuff, and he told me I was not eating enough! I never thought I would hear someone say that. So on his advice, I plan to eat 6-7 small meals a day, leaving no more than 2-3 hours between eating. Eating this much does sound like it would be counter-productive to losing weight, but he told me that by doing this, your body never enters starvation mode where it stores food as fat. You also will not feel as hungry when it reaches meal time, so you are a lot less likely to overeat. As long as I am eating the correct things at the right time, then it will help me to get leaner and lose excess fat. I will also be aiming to increase my water intake as this helps to flush the body, and I will be forcing myself to enjoy green tea, as the health benefits are huge - it is a great natural metabolism booster.

Meal Plan

Meal 1 (Breakfast) - 7:30am :

40g oats made with water

+ 2 tsp Stevia

+ 1 scoop protein powder

+ 1 egg white

+ Frozen berries

Meal 2 - 10:30 am : 

1/2 cup Greek yog/cottage cheese/quark with berries

OR

1/2 can tuna

OR

Mixed nuts (handful)

Meal 3 (Lunch) - 12:30 am :

120g lean meat

+ Salad/broccoli 

+ 75g brown rice or 1/2 sweet potato

Meal 4 - 3:30pm : 

1/2 cup Greek yoghurt with stevia 

+ Banana

Meal 5 (only if going to the gym) - 5:30pm : 

1 serving of fruit 

e.g Grapefruit/dates/figs

Meal 6 (Dinner) - 8:30pm :

200g lean meat

+ Large portion of veg/salad

+ Optional: 1 egg (not every day)

Meal 7 (Optional) - 9:30pm  : 

100g quark with stevia

+ Frozen berries 

For lunches I will prep the food at the start of the week, so it is all cooked and ready to just put in to a lunch box in the morning. This will take a little time and effort one evening a week, but it's worth it to just be able to grab and go in the morning. Also, it removes the possibility of being tempted to have something I shouldn't. Fail to plan, then plan to fail. I have discovered that frozen meat is so much cheaper than fresh meat! Obviously it is not as tasty, but its great to be able to have a good portion of protein for lunch and dinner, as before I discovered this I could only afford chicken 2 nights a week.

I will be implementing a more comprehensive weekly work out plan to make sure I am incorporating every muscle group. Before, I was skipping chest & back in my routine as I was not looking to achieve muscle in those areas. But I now understand that it is important to work on every aspect of the body, and that it will help to lose all over body fat. Another important point the personal trainer pointed out to me, was to mix up the routine in the weights room every time you go. If you do the same routine every week then your body gets used to it and knows what is coming. So even if you change the order you do it in, make sure it is not the exact same thing each time.

Here are some examples of the dinners I have been having since starting my new plan. It's amazing how full you can make your plate look by just piling up the veg! I sprinkle Schwartz Piri Piri Seasoning on the meat/fish before grilling, and usually have some balsamic vinegar with the veg/salad.

Chicken breast, smoked mackarel, scrambled egg, mushrooms & broccoli

Chicken breast, mushroom, tomato, rocket, olives & avocado

Basa fillet, sweet potato chips, broccoli, avocado, rocket, tomato & mushroom

Basa fillet, scrambled egg, broccoli, salad, mushroom & tomato

I will let you know if I manage to keep this up for the first week!

Lucy x

Lemon & Lime Cheesecake Overnight Oats

My favourite overnight oats recipe so far. I absolutely love the tangy fresh taste mixed with the soothing, cool texture of the oats fresh out of the frdge. I made a lemon version last week, and decided I would try some lime with it as well. Previously when I made this, I mixed the quark up with the oats, but this time I did a layer of quark on top which made it feel even more like a cheesecake. I bought a pack of mixed seeds this week as well, so I thought I would throw some of those in as well for an added crunch!

Ingredients

40g thick Scottish oats

Water

2 tsp Stevia

1/2 lemon

1/2 lime

100g quark

Handful of mixed seeds (sunflower, pumpkin & linseed)

Goji Berries

Instructions

1. Put the oats in a jar and add just enough water to cover them.

2. Add 1 tsp of stevia, the mixed seeds and stir together.

3. Squeeze the half of the juice of the lemon and lime into the oats.

4. Grate the zest of the lemon and lime into the mixture and stir well to evenly distribute.

5. Put the quark in a separate bowl, squeeze in the rest of the lemon & lime juice, add 1 tsp of stevia and mix 

6. Spoon the quark over the top of the oats in an even layer.

7. Grate some more lemon & lime zest over the top.

8. Optional: Top with more seeds and goji berries.

9. Leave in the fridge overnight.

10. In the morning take them straight out of the fridge and eat them cold.

Topped with seeds

On a side note, I am thinking of doing some posts about my workouts, would this be of interest to anyone?

Lucy x