Health update and before and after

Hello!

It's been a long break for the health and lurkers but we are back! (Well one is, the other is busy being a preegnant lady and we have recruited a new fitty (See her being all fit on instagram @healthandlurking). Life got busy and hectic and our healthiness took a back seat. However, since a holiday in March, I am on a healthy path of joy that has continued for 3 months which is the longest time I have ever not fallen off the wagon. I am feeling the best I ever have, and that includes how I felt when preparing for my Wedding day nearly 2 years ago. I have finally, finally found the balance in life and don't have uncontrollable binges!

The main difference is I am actually eating a lot of good food and exercising regularly rather than exercising less and eating less which resulted in a short term untoned weight loss result that I could not keep up. I am much more toned and have a better butt, something that I am always striving for! I will post more about what I used to eat and what I now eat on a standard day in a few post times. For now, I must go as the dog is calling and by calling I mean barking in my face cos Im not paying her attention.


Ps.  Here's a photo of a before and after so far......
Pps. Yes, that is a towel on my head.

CL
x

Our Top 10 Favourite Yummy-And-Good-For-You Snacks!

We both have loads of yummy snacks we love, so we thought we would compile them into a list!

Our top 10 tried and tested, which we have usually between breakfast and lunch and then lunch and dinner.


1. Fruity Protein Bars. 
The absolute fave. Try not to eat them all at once. 
1/2 cup almond butter, 1/2 cup of honey, 2 scoops protein powder (I use choc). 1 1/4 ish cups of oats, half cup of dried apricots, cranberries and sliced almonds. Mix altogether, sprinkle a few mixed seeds in and put in a baking tray and squish down with a fork, put in fridge until a bit set. Wrap them up individually in foil and keep in fridge. Usually makes about 12.

2. Apple Slices with Almond Butter. 
Easy to prepare and tastes sooo good: 
Yum yum.

3. Protein Powder Peanut Butter Balls. 
Very Moreish!
Makes about 12. 2 cups almond butter, 2 scoops of protein powder (again I use choc,) 2 ripe bananas mashed, 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds. Makes walnut sized balls, place in container, put in fridge, wrap individually once a bit set.

4. Graze Box
This is a bit cheating but you don't have to prepare them and they are delicious. Order a graze box,  it's relatively cheap and you have 4 snacks prepared for you straight away! Our favourites are flapjack, chocolate pudding, and chocolate brownie.

5. Turkey Muffins

Don’t forget, like I did, that they are meat based and not just muffins and leave them out of the fridge for days.... Go to eat one and find it’s extremely sweaty and nearly makes you sick... Results in a lot of wasted muffins. Woopps.

I left out chipotle pepper spice (I had no clue what it was)

Celery (I didn’t have any and don’t like it)

Added 1 tsp of mustard for extra flavour.

Also will get you boyfriend points (if you don’t give them gone off ones...)

6. Tone It Up Protein Bars
So yummy and a good way to use protein powder other than having a shake.
(see post on top 5 ways to use protein powder)

7. Greek Yoghurt Pancakes

Make lots, eat cold.

Add honey/almond butter/fruit/nutella for extra yuminess.

8. Greek Yoghurt with Honey and Fruit
(I like strawberries best) - so simple but very delicious.

9. Frozen Nutty Banana Nibblers
These are AMAZING. Such a good snack and one serving allows 7 which is actually really generous and you feel very satisfied afterwards. However I didn't put the 2 halves on top of each other, I kept them separate and topped them all with the mixture.

10. Cottage Cheese with Pepper and Cucumber or Reduced Fat Hummus with Cucumber and Grapes. 
I've tried a couple of different cottage cheeses and found that the plain one is definitely the best, but there are a few to try out there if you don't like one, don't be put off!

If all else fails and you don’t like any of those, then these really-not-good-for-you-but-so-good-and-ok-for-a-treat cookies are THE best cookies in the world. Loads of people have said so. Got the recipe from Tanya Burr (beauty you tuber/blogger/lots of other things. Check her out). She got it from Anna's cookie blog post and Anna got the recipe from here (I def can’t get sued.)  Just don’t eat them all at once.... you may be sick and will definitely get fat. Makes 12...

• 200g unsalted butter.

• 300g caster sugar

• 1 large egg (protein... they must be quite good for you then.....!)

• 275g self raising flour

• 75g cocoa powder

• 2 big bars of chocolate (one milk, one white, or whatever you like best)

• Splash of milk if mixture too dry.

Put the butter in a bowl and mix to make soft. Mix in the sugar until creamy.Crack the egg and mix that in. Throw in the dry ingredients. If dry add few drops of milk. Line 2 baking trays. Scoop mix into 12ish balls (about a handful). Place far apart on tray 200 degrees centigrade in the oven for only 10 mins.... they will look super sloppy but after half an hour will be at the perfect consistency to eat! I suggest inviting some friends round as soon as you get them out of the oven, or there is a massive chance you may devour them all in one go.

CW. CP. x

My experience of the introductory session at the gym & a yummy summer salad recipe

After pretending to know what I'm doing when it comes to free weights for a while now, I finally decided to do an Intro session at my gym! This was offered free of charge when I first joined but I felt like I didn't need it / couldn't be bothered to book it. The trainer I spoke to was really nice and I didn't feel nearly as embarrassed as I thought I would! Plus I really needed to go to the gym after creating what we thought was a healthy smoothie for breakfast but ended up being over 800 CALORIES!!!!!!!

Goals
The first thing he asked was what were my goals and I said 'to tone up my arms and stomach' (classic girls response). Of course he said I have to have a good diet and do cardio for the second of those areas and never to do a crunch again! YAY to the crunch ban! 

Arms

• Tricep extensions - 3 sets of 10 reps
• Bicel curl - 3 sets of 10 reps
• Arm press - 3 sets of 10 reps
• Kickbacks - 3 sets of 10 reps
• Hammer curls - 3 sets of 10 reps

Resting for about 45 seconds between sets

Abs

• Leg raises - 3 sets of 12 reps - I HATE these!! They burn so bad and you look a bit of a nutter doing them.
• Spidermans - 4 sest of 10 on each leg - imagine climbing up a wall like spiderman.. but on the floor... with less grace
• Russian twists - 4 sets of 45 seconds - I did like these before doing them for 45 seconds non-stop. Now they are not my friend.

Again resting for about 45 seconds between sets

Cardio
Since I am so lazy when it comes to the gym (I'm talking 15mins on a bike and that's it), he suggested classes which suits me! I like to go to classes because once you are in there, it's hard to sneak out without looking like a quitter or a lazy fart!!

• Tuesday - Body Attack
• Thursday - Spin

I also play stoolball every Monday and Wednesday AND he knew what it was. No one knows what stoolball is!!

Diet
He was impressed with the use of almond milk but said I should stop eating so much M&S Guilt Free Sweet and Salt Popcorn. That stuff is so flipping good I usually have more than one bag a day and then end up defeating the object of them being in low calorie bags! He said that I need fat in my diet to lose weight (what?!) and suggested snacking on almonds instead. 

Overall I'm really glad I went to the session and now feel like I know what I should be doing when I go to the gym rather than wondering round aimlessly half the time!

To reward myself I had one of my favourite dinners:

Italian Mozerella Salad
Be Good To Yourself Mozerella
Baby leaf spinach
Organic tomato
Cucumber
Green pesto

For pudding we had home grown strawberries from our garden with a cheeky bit of sugar (my boyfriend put this on before I could stop him)!

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CP x

Refreshing green smoothie and a bit of meal prep

After have a little (massive) slip up food-wise at the weekend, I think both CW and I dropped the ball a bit with our food planning, prepping and eating. Normally we would plan our food for the week on a Sunday but that defo did not happen since we were both hungover messes!
It's been a bit more of a struggle without everything ready to eat with work during the week but I caught up this evening and somehow created a yummy green smoothie that is really refreshing and filling too! Although I may have drunk a bit too much and now I feel sick...

Berry Nice Green Smoothie (see what I did there?)
I didn't use any measuring apparatus since I am a lazy fart so everything is approximated:


1 big handful of spinach
6 inch piece of cucumber
3 satsumas
1 large glug of almond milk
4 small strawberries
1 small handful of blueberries
1 tablespoon of flaxseeds

You could probably add some kale into this smoothie to make it even greener. I decided not to since I've one off kale following a bad smoothie that tasted like cumin when I didn't clean my blender out properly (whoops)!

Here are a couple of shots of the meal prep I managed to do this evening too

Chicken | cucumber and bell pepper / spinach and red pepper | baked sweet potato

Greek yogurt, strawberry, blueberry, cinnamon and flaxseeds | Berry nice green smoothie

I love the feeling of finishing off my meal prep for the week and that I don't need to think about cooking for a few days! Yay! I have been watching meal prep videos on YouTube and for some reason they are mesmerizing! I ended up watching about 5 of them back to back in bed last night at 11pm... I need a life! You can get some really good tips from them on shortening the amount of time you have to spend fannying around in the kitchen which is always a bonus!

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CP

Top 5 Super Scrumptious Sexy (sometimes smelly) Smoothies

I LOVE a smoothie.  Especially in the morning as it is easy to take with you, which means more time in bed.  I always get 10 minutes extra on a smoothie morning, which is definitely worth it.... They are always packed with loads of fruit and/or veg which means you don't have to worry as much about getting your 5 a day as most of them are probably in your smoothie.

CP and I have tried a few and find that the recipe often makes 2 and then because it’s so yummy we often drink all of it, which I don’t think you’re supposed to do... So I halve the recipes so I can’t drink the world in smoothie. Also, depending on how thick/sloppy etc you like it, I always make it how it says then work out what I can do next time to make it nicer, eg add a few more oats for a more oaty/thicker texture. (Don’t forget to write it down otherwise you will probably forget, if you have a fish brain like me).

1. Almond Butter Smoothie (This is for 1glass)

Half a banana

3 ice cubes

74 mls (my stupid measuring jug is in US fluid ounces.... bought by my mum... I bet it was the cheapest. If it is, 2.5 US fluid ounces)

2 desert spoons of low fat greek yoghurt

About ½ cup of oats (I just pour it out of the packet until it looks right... not sure how accurate that is..)

Squirt of honey for sweetness

Half a table spoon of almond butter (myrotein.com)

Shove it all in and blend. Yum. It is also quite filling which is pleasing.

2. Kale and Spinach Smoothie.

It sounds disgusting but it is sooooo delicious! You can literally hardly even taste the veg, but it looks good because it’s green and is reallllly refreshing. If you are going out that night, have one. It’s so good for you it will practically counteract the alcohol...

Again this is for 1 glass:

1 cup of spinach

1 and a half cups of kale

½ cup strawberries (I use frozen ones so you can keep them for ages in the freezer)

½ cup of orange juice (I use Tropicana... maybe use an actual orange if you want to be super healthy)

½ cup of low fat greek yog.

I cup of ice.

I cut the stalks off the kale as you don’t want gross stalky bits floating around in your mouth.

3. Apple and Cinnamon Smoothie

(from pinterest, see post below...)

This is really delicious, think it may be CP’s fave.

4. Get Well Smoothie (www.toneitup.com)

Another one of CP’s favourite.

4 clementines

1 banana

1 cup of spinach

1 cup of kale (think CP leaves the kale out)

1/3 cup almond milk.

Similar to the other one (which I prefer).

5. Banana and Strawberry (Bawberry... Strawbana...) Smoothie

This one is from laurenconrad.com

Quite sweet and very fruity.

Half cup of ice (I use 3 ice cubes...)

½ cup of frozen strawberries

½ cup low fat greek yog

1 banana

½ cup oats

1 table spoon honey.

NB If there is a p missed out in any words it is because my silly computer has decided to not like the p key today...

Go and try a different one every day!

CW.

Diets, Diets and MORE DIETS!

I think I have spent most of my life from my late teens up until now consciously thinking about my weight and how I look as most girls/women do! CW and I spent many a time at university trying out new things at the gym, doing Davina workouts in the living room to hilarious effect and attempting to be healthy food-wise but nothing ever really stuck. Although spending most weekday evenings out at the union bar doing shots and living opposite a corner shop in our final year probably wasn't the biggest help! At one point we were having a chocolate bar a day which I would like to blame on one of our friends for starting as she is one of those lucky people who doesn't seem to gain weight! Anyway, we seemed to be constantly trying new things including some rather scary diets that, looking back on them, were mental! One of them had me only eating 500 calories a day and taking a herbal spray (what was I thinking...). They all seemed to work at the time but none were something I could stick to in the long run and the weight slowly sneaked back on. My love of food was too great to deny eating a whole bag of chocolate raisins!

The latest tipping point was when I met up with CW and some of our other uni housemates a few months ago and we all decided it would be a good idea to weigh ourselves. OH GOOD LORD. I nearly cried! CW had been trying out this snazzy new diet called the 5:2 diet which is basically 2 fasting/500 cal days a week and then 5 days of normal eating. This went well for a while until I thought it would be a good idea to have a bunch of chocolate on my fast day and then be really hungry the next day because my body hadn't got the goods it wanted. I would end up demolishing even more food than I normally would.

Then a few weeks ago, CW spotted a girl on Instagram who had an amazing body AND got to eat loads of food every day. We were sold at 'food'! Since then we have been eating whole/'clean' foods (raw foods, as they are or put into a meal) and trying to include weights into our exercise routine. I have to admit I live with a guy whose whole family run off this WOL (way of life) (minus the exercise) and not a single one is fat! I don't know why I didn't start doing this earlier?! Since starting this, CW and I have constantly been messaging each other with recipes and a LOT of photo's of our food/meals which I think has really helped us stay on track. 

Dinner tonight - Tomato and Red Pepper Omelette with Courgette

In summary, fad diets do not work as a long term lifestyle. All you need to do is eat the foods your body loves (no your body does not want a whole family sized bag of Malteasers) and get moving!

Some of the good points I have noticed since starting are:
- Increased energy levels
- Rarely hungry
- The bloated/food baby/stomach pooch has gone down
- We have lost weight without really thinking about it
- My skin is looking better (I think this might be the reduced amount of sugar in my diet)
- I look forward to going to the gym - WHAT?

I think the only downside is that you will end up buying more fresh produce which is more expensive than canned/processed stuff and the time you have to put into the meal prep but I think we secretly enjoy that, right CW? Sunday = Meal Prep Day = Yay! PLUS, once you have done all your meal prep you don't have to think about it for the rest of the week!

If you have any questions on how/what we are doing, feel free to comment below!

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CP

A Day of Food 10th June 2013

Today was the first day of week two of our new WOL (Way Of Life (ha)) and I had already prepped all but dinner the day before. Being this organised makes me feel like I don’t need to worry about maybe buying that sneaky chocolate bar on my lunch break on Monday morning when I would normally be stocking up my snack drawer with all sorts of processed junk from the shops. As CW said in her last post, the great thing is that another meal or snack is just around the corner which I think is why this suits us so well! 

Breakfast - Greek yogurt, cinnamon, blue berries and flaxseed

Mid-morning snack - an apple and a homemade protein bar

Lunch - Tuna, wholewheat pasta, cucumber and sweetcorn

Afternoon snack - Carrot sticks and Be Good To Yourself Red Pepper houmous

(Snack before cardio - Homemade turkey muffin)

Dinner - Grilled chicken, broccoli and sweet potato. There was a lot of food on this last plate which I didn’t quite manage to finish! 

I feel really full from all this food and I know exactly what’s gone into it since it’s all homemade (apart from the houmous!). All i drink during the day is water, although I am trying to get into green tea!

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CP

Protein Powder Review - Active Woman Refuel vs. MyProtein True Diet

I am totally new to the protein powder game so it’s really interesting to see the huge variety of different options out there! I’ve only tried out chocolate flavours so far and I prefer the Active Woman - Refuel which I found in Holland and Barrett during a lunch break last week while I was waiting for the True Diet to be delivered. It’s more chocolatey and sweet than the True Diet one but does that mean more sugar? I should really look at the ingredients!The True Diet one I have only tried once so far with almond milk which was still lovely so the jury is still out on this one.

I’m really enjoying having one after a workout at the moment and it feel almost like a reward for the hard work!

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CP

Meal Prep for Week Two

Breakfast and snacks

Turkey Muffins

Turkey Muffins, Lunches and Snacks

Food prep seems to be becoming my Sunday ritual and I love it because it makes me feel organised for the week ahead! I really struggle to not eat half the yummy stuff I am preparing though, especially those turkey muffins which I could demolish in under 2 minutes!

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CP

Green Smoothie

The best smoothie ever…. Can’t really taste the veg, it’s just refreshing and so good for you! 
1 cup spinach leaves
1 cup kale
Half a cup low fat Greek yog
Half cup orange juice
3 ice cubes
Half cup strawberries (I used frozen)
Half a banana! 
Amazeeee

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CW

Almond Butter

I changed my overnight porridge to boiled eggs on toast on Monday as I am already having almond butter that day and don’t want to have too much even though it's amazing!

I bought it for £10 for a 1kg tub… (see below for website.) Not bad when I think how much that amount of pb would be from the supermarket and it’s better for you! (review coming soon...)

I love to have it with apple for a yummy snack and add it to my overnight porridge (Laurenconrad.com) for a bit of extra taste! Ohm.

I got almond butter from here…

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CW

CW's Meal Plan and Food Prep Week Two

Wow, meal plan looks good! Now all we have to do is…. Do it!!! Here’s mine for the week…. 

As u can see I have 2(ish) fast days, (a review on the 5:2 diet coming soon....) but if this week goes well I may reduce down to one! Also I’ve got a busy weekend which often proves problematic as I eat the world! Hopefully I can control my urges as I will have been eating high protein food and snacking, unlike usual where I’ll starve so I can eat the entire world at the weekend!

Meal plan and meal prep for some items!

Protein bar - http://toneitup.com/blog.php?ToneItUpand-039-s-Homemade-Protein-Bars-27

Overnight porridge - www.laurenconrad.com

Breakfast Smoothie (Peanut Butter and Banana) - http://www.self.com/fooddiet/2012/05/healthy-breakfast-ideas-slideshow?mbid=enws_row0430#slide=1

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CW

CP's Meal Plan For Week Two

I’m not sure how rigorously I’m going to stick to this meal plan this week but it’s worth a try! I’ve managed to go to Sainsburys and not buy any naughty stuff which is a good start! The next step went ok too which was meal prep! Now I have not much of an excuse to not stick to it!

Recipes used above:

Protein Bars - http://toneitup.com/blog.php?ToneItUpand-039-s-Homemade-Protein-Bars-27

Breakfast Smoothie (Peanut Butter and Banana) - http://www.self.com/fooddiet/2012/05/healthy-breakfast-ideas-slideshow?mbid=enws_row0430#slide=1

Green Smoothie - http://toneitup.com/blog.php?Stay-Healthy-This-Season-with-your-TIU-Get-Well-Smoothie-5644

Turkey Muffins - http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/video-jamie-eason-turkey-meatloaf-muffins.htm

4 Bean Chili - http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/clean-eating-4-bean-chili/

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CP 

Introduction

You may be wondering why we have started a blog (that is, if anyone is even reading it… it’s prob just you and me CP! ha). Well I, (and I think CP) have tried loads of faddy diets and I have never lost any weight and kept it off… not that I was fat to start with, I just would rather lose a bit of the excess, as I’m sure practically every girl would like to!

After scouring (lurking’s what we do best) the internet/pinterest for fun and diet-related things, we discovered that the girls that look best (in our opinion,) are those that are toned and not too skinny! We also found that these girls are ones that eat a high protein, low carb, (not no carb) diet and incorporate weight training in their work outs. So we started browsing recipes and getting ideas etc. 

The reasons we love this wol (way of life, a cringey term…) are:

1. You get to eat quite a lot and there is always a yummy snack juist round the corner to look forward to in a few hours!
2. Eating ‘clean’ feels really good. (God, I hate the phrase ‘clean’ but basically I think it means the less processed food the better!)
3. Making all the food/smoothies/sharing recipes with CP is really fun.
4. We are looking forward to the progress we are (hopefully) going to make, whether that be just having a healthier life style, or whether it also helps us lose a bit of weight/get toned! 

We are also trying to up our exercise and have found that there are loadsssss of weight training exercises/routines for people out there (www.bodybuilding.com) that are for beginners too. As we have only just started our new WOL we haven’t quite managed to get the weight training routine down, but as soon as we do we will share it with you. At the moment I am just trying to do as much exercise - mostly running with a bit of weights at the gym - as time allows.

The other girls that write these types of blogs already look amazing, which, in my opinion, is a bit disheartening as I feel like I will never get there. We are just two, ordinary looking girls trying to balance fitness and healthy eating whilst still enjoying busy lives.

We LOVE food, but want to feel good whilst being able to actually eat more than one lettuce leaf a day! The aim of this blog is to feel healthy, happy and more toned. If we lose weight along the way then that is a bonus and we are just beginners in this, who find all this really interesting so hopefully you can follow our journey with us!

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CW