Sugar: The Bitter Truth

This video is so interesting and eye opening, I think everyone would benefit from watching this and becoming a bit more informed about what we put in our bodies and what the consequences are. When you understand more about the way your body works and how different types of food affect it I think it becomes easier to look after ourselves through nutrition and make better food choices. 

For anyone who's ever told me that avocados are bad for you because they have a lot of calories and are high in fat.... HA no.

The Body Book

A while ago I read Cameron Diaz’s The Body Book, which is ‘the Law of Hunger, the Science of Strength, and Other Ways to Love Your Amazing Body’. It’s divided into three sections: Nutrition, Fitness and Mind.

I personally found the book incredibly inspiring and interesting (oo alliteration). Her voice throughout it is friendly and relatable and the way she describes the science behind what we eat, how we move and our mentality towards health and fitness makes it very easy to follow and genuinely fun to read. She really focuses on the importance of positive body image and self-acceptance, exclaiming in the first few pages 'YOU ARE MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN YOU HAVE EVER IMAGINED'. She writes that The Body Book is 'a guide to accepting what you have and loving it with everything you’ve got, to appreciating how incredible this physical vehicle is. It’s a guide to maximizing your strength and endurance so that your body can take you everywhere you want to go in life: to all of your success, to the love of your life, to your passions and adventures.' To me this is a really important message in a world where women are constantly expected (and expect themselves) to look like the airbrushed, photoshopped, unrealistic pictures we are presented with on a daily basis.

What is great about the ‘Mind’ section is that the psychology behind bad health habits is addressed. I think by finding out why we do certain things and why it can be so hard to form new, healthier habits is firstly quite fascinating and secondly pretty fundamental if you want to change the way in which you eat, exercise and think.

The Body Book also provides loads of helpful but also really easy tips, which are all tried and tested by Cameron, they’re her personal habits for staying healthy. For example, her idea of filling up a big bottle of water at night and leaving it by the sink to drink as soon as she wakes up in the morning is a really great idea – and it’s so simple. That’s another thing I like about this book.. other than the scientific facts collected from extensive research, the information regarding tips and tricks for staying on track with health are all things that Cameron says have helped her personally – the book doesn’t say that one thing is right for every person, but encourages the reader to find what works for them, and in this way it doesn’t come across preachy and annoying like many health-related books and articles can do.

If you need some inspiration to get healthy, or just want an interesting read, I really recommend picking up a copy of The Body Book. I honestly couldn’t put it down.

Hank Burger

Tucked away on Rue des Archives, the Marais, my friend Georgie and I found this little organic vegan burger restaurant, Hank (Have a Nice Karma), so we obviously had to give it a try.

It's really tiny, only fitting about 10 people at a time, but Georgie and I managed to get a table quite easily (I don't think the demand for vegan food in Paris is extremely high...), but they also do burgers to take away if you don't want to wait for a table.

All the food is organic and vegan, including the mayonnaise! Georgie had the 'L'allumé' burger, which was a veggie burger with roasted peppers and bbq sauce, whereas I had the 'Tata Monique', which had a tomato and basil sauce and black olives. And we both had chips :D Although this food is great because it's fresh, homemade and totally vegan (with a gluten-free bread option for the burger buns), it's not a typically healthy meal, especially with chips... BUT it's cheat day Sunday so we decided to treat ourselves, and it was so worth it.

I definitely recommend this to any vegans/veggies in Paris, or to anyone who wants to try out something a little different to a normal hamburger.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Let's Run Paris

Salut salut!

I've been wanting to join a running club for a while now, so I thought moving to a new city would be a great opportunity to join one as I obviously don't know the good running routes and it's a fun way to meet new people.

I found Let's Run Paris on meetup - a really good website where you can find so many different clubs..I'm going to investigate a yoga group soon.

I did my first run with Let's Run Paris last night. It was a 10k in the pouring rain which I know doesn't sound hugely appealing but it was great, the people were all really friendly and I got to see some pretty parts of Paris I hadn't been to before.

So, if you're in Paris (even if it's just for a week) and love to run, I really recommend joining. It's free and there are runs organised several times a week - you just have to look on the meetup site or join their Facebook group for details.

PARIS

I've moved to Paris!

This is a photo I took from the restaurant on the 6th floor of the Pompidou Centre - I definitely recommend dinner there - Amazing food and an amazing view, what could be better!?

My mum and I went to visit the Sacré Coeur in Montmartre. I couldn't believe how blue the sky was.. and the walk up to it was a great little work out!

...Just for ten months. I've been here almost a month now and am already in looove with this city. Before I came out here I was a little worried about how I would cope being a vegetarian - I've always found France to be the least veggie-friendly place. However, I don't know whether it's because Paris is a capital city and so has more of an international influence than other parts of France or whether it's because times have changed since I used to visit when I was little, but I've actually found that there is so much choice for vegetarians and also vegans when eating out.

So, I'm now making it my mission while I'm here to find as many health related / vegetarian and vegan friendly shops, restaurants, cafés and juice bars as I can to try and keep up a healthy lifestyle - with the occasional pain au chocolat or macaroon thrown in there...

I'm incredibly lucky to be living in le Marais, which is really central so everything is so easy to get to! Including this amazing fruit market just down the road from me which sells the most delicious fruit and veg ever - it all tastes 10 times better than the supermarket produce.

Such a smiley lady at the market!

For anyone visiting or living in Paris, this market is open on Saturdays from about 10am til 2pm and is really close to Hotel de Ville metro station.

Nama - Vegan Raw Food Restaurant

On Sunday I went to Nama, a raw vegan restaurant in Notting Hill, with three of my lovely friends Lucy, Frankie and Georgie. This was my first trip to a fully raw vegan restaurant - very exciting!

Having been a vegetarian pretty much my entire life, it was a new (and really amazing) experience for me to be able to pick absolutely anything from the menu - usually I just give it a quick scan for the little v sign.. Anyway, so Nama had me at the menu. There is a huge choice of a range of different foods, from wraps and salads to pizzas, curries and spaghetti dishes - and ALL the food is unprocessed, free from dairy, wheat and refined sugar.

I had the 'Italian Pizza'. The base was made from courgette and walnuts and it had the most delicious tomato sauce topped with a nut and seed 'cheese', caramelised onions, mushrooms, olives and sun dried tomatoes. It was amazing.

The Italian Pizza

Frankie had chilli which was made from walnuts, carrot, mushroom and pepper, with guacamole, vegan sour cream and corn chips - so yummy!

Frankie's chilli

Lucy and Georgie went for zucchini pasta with tomato sauce, caramelised onions, sun dried tomatoes, olives and mushrooms which was also really yummy (I tried them all..)

Beautiful Lucy with her zucchini pasta

After my unprocessed, raw, vegan pizza I felt like something sweet so I had a lovely little bottle of chocolate nut milk. Frankie ordered the chocolate ganache tart which we all had a little taste of - it genuinely tasted better than any other sugar-filled, processed chocolatey tart I've had in the past; the coconutty base made it incredible.

Chocolate ganache tart

Gorgeous Georgie with her chai tea, almond milk and coconut sugar (she was obsessed with that teapot)

I definitely recommend Nama to anyone who is interested in trying out some amazing raw vegan food!

Oat & Banana Energy Balls

I made these a while ago when I did the London to Brighton bike ride to keep my energy up for the 56 miles!

They're really quick and easy to make and you can either bake them or eat them raw, both options are really yummy.

This recipe makes about 15 energy balls but obviously this depends on how big/small you want to make them.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of gluten free oats
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp agave nectar
• 1 tsp Organic Burst's Maca powder (for an extra energy kick)
• Handful of dried cranberries or any other dried fruit (optional) 

Method

1. Mash the bananas into a bowl
2. Add all the other ingredients and mix well until it forms a doughy kind of mixture
3. Shape the mixture into bite-size balls
4. To bake place on a baking tray greased with a little coconut oil
5. To eat raw, refrigerate them for about an hour

These were a great snack during the ride as you can just pop them in your mouth. Also it's a common misconception that snacks that are high in refined sugar like haribo and many types of cereal bars are good for energy - they are at first but then because of all the sugar you are likely to have an energy 'spike' and then crash after a little while, which is not ideal.

Enjoy!

Home-Grown Strawberries

These are my home-grown strawberries! There's nothing better than knowing exactly where your food has come from, that it's completely organic and that you've grown it yourself.

As well as being pretty easy to grow yourself, strawberries have loads of amazing health benefits. They are a great source of vitamins C and K and are thought to be able to improve digestive health, to aid teeth whitening and cure skin irritations.

Also they taste sooooo good!

Low-Fat Vs. Full-Fat

It is unfortunate that the word fat has two meanings: one being the healthy and vital part of our diet that provides us with essential fatty acids and vitamins, and the other being the negative term used to describe someone who is unhealthy and overweight/ the extra and unwanted padding on our bodies.

Because of this double meaning of the word 'fat', many people seem to think that to lose fat from your body you need to have a low-fat diet. In this post I'm going to talk about low-fat vs. full-fat in terms of yogurt. Yogurt is just about the only dairy product I eat at the moment and it can be a really healthy addition to your diet, especially for vegetarians who need a little extra protein, and it contains probiotics which promote a healthy digestive system.

However, if I'm going to eat yogurt I never eat low-fat varieties. The fat that is reduced in low-fat yogurts is usually replaced with lots of refined sugar - trust me.. next time you're in a supermarket pick up a low-fat yogurt pot and compare the sugar levels to the full-fat pot. Sugar is added to make low-fat yogurt taste better, which for me is just more of an incentive to eat the full-fat version - why eat something that needs a load of sugar heaped into it to make it edible when the alternative tastes great naturally?

Although fats contain the most calories per gram, not all of the fat you eat is stored as body fat - but refined sugar is! So if you're going to avoid anything, avoid refined carbs not fat. However, in saying this it is important to remember that saturated fats from animal products (e.g dairy - doesn't mean you should never eat it but probably not all the time) and trans fats (chemically engineered to extend shelf life of products) aren't great for us.. so it's better to stick to plant fats in foods such as avocados and nuts.


Sources: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/truth-about-low-fat-foods
The Body Book, Cameron Diaz

Staying Healthy During Exam Time

For all of you out there who, like me, are piled high with work and feeling like you may as well just move into the library....this post is for you.

These couple of months can be really quite stressful with the run up to exams and assignment deadlines, but it's also the run up to, in my opinion, the BEST time of the year.. SUMMER! So during this time you may find yourself wanting to be even more fit and healthy so that you feel great in your bikini on the beach (or shorts for any boys out there...)

So anyway... The first thing I'm going to post about is something that I know a lot of people already do but I personally find it such a good way to stay healthy and that's to make sure you have a large supply of food that you have prepared so that you can just pop it in a tuppawear and take it to the library to avoid buying any of the processed rubbish they might sell in there or nearby. Or even if you're revising at home it can be a real time saver so that you can spend your revision break relaxing and enjoying your delicious food.

The other day I roasted an array of my favourite vegetables - butternut squash, peppers, sweet potatoes, beetroot and carrots - with a little drizzle of olive oil and some seasoning. I then cooked up a big batch of grains to have with them (quinoa, brown rice, bulgar wheat, whatever takes your fancy). And then I made lots of paprika hummus (literally one of my favourite foods ever and this homemade version is, if I may say so myself, much tastier than shop bought versions and by making it yourself you know that no nasty chemicals or added sugars are hidden in it). I'll put a recipe up for that soon!

Having healthy food available so you can make quick and easy but still fabulously nutritious meals is really handy in busy times. So keep filling yourself with goodness - it can be just as convenient as buying a quick bag of crisps and your body will be much more thankful for it.

Happy revising..... xx

Personal Challenge

Since I got back from my skiing holiday with my family a few weeks ago, I decided to set myself a challenge of running three times a week. Last summer I was running pretty regularly and was able to run quite far but I let it slip a bit over the winter as I've been concentrating a bit more on toning than cardio.

My first run after my holiday was really hard - I felt like I was running through quicksand. I've heard that you can lose your fitness after three days, so having not been to the gym in 1 and a half weeks I was really struggling. I kept at it anyway and in the first week I did three 3.5 mile runs. The next week running suddenly felt so much easier. I found that I could keep running for much longer and was starting to enjoy it again. I believe the more you do something, the better at it you become and then the more you enjoy it so you continue to do it.

Yesterday I ran 6 miles (I know it doesn't sound like much especially to any amazing people who ran the marathon last weekend!!) and I felt great after. This morning I have just been for a run with my little sister who is a really good cross-country runner. I definitely think running with someone who is a little faster/better than you really helps to push you out of your comfort zone and improve - it really helped me anyway! At the moment I'm running 9 minute miles which is a whole minute quicker than when I started a couple of weeks ago. I'm also gradually building up my distance - this week I'm running between 5.5 and 6 miles and next week I will run between 6.5 and 7.

I really think setting yourself simple challenges like this can help to improve any aspect of your life, whether it's exercise related like this one, or eating 100% healthily during the week, or challenging yourself to read more instead of watching TV - the feeling of succeeding at your challenge and seeing improvements in yourself is one of the best feelings out there.

So, set yourself a little challenge and enjoy it! x

Eat Your Breakfast!

Hi hi!

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while.. Just thought I'd take a little time to write about my absolute favourite meal of the day: BREAKFAST! I literally go to sleep thinking about what I'm going to have for breakfast and it's the first thing on my mind when I wake up!

Eating breakfast is so important for staying healthy because it fuels your body so it can do all the amazing things you need it to do throughout the day. It not only fuels you physically but eating breakfast has also been proven to help improve memory and concentration levels - so in the run up to this busy exam period breakfast can be your best pal. I have so many different breakfast ideas that I love so for now I'll just tell you my standard one and follow up with posts about different breakfast ideas soon.

I always start my morning with a big glass of water (sometimes with a little slice of lemon in) before I've even had anything to eat. This is really helpful for your body as it flushes out toxins, purifies your colon and speeds up your metabolism.

My standard breakfast is usually almond milk with granola and berries. At the moment I'm obsessed with Lizi's Granola - it's so delicious and uses agave syrup which is the lowest glycaemic sugar, I love it! For an extra health kick I add Linwoods ground flax and goji berries and half a teaspoon of Organic Burst maca powder. This breakfast is great if you're in a bit of a rush because you literally just throw it in the bowl and it's ready - no excuses to skip breakky!

No matter what I'm having for breakfast, I always have a green tea, lots of water and my daily vitamins with it.. and then I'm all set for my day.

Enjoy your breakkie! x

Vegan Gluten-free Banana Bread Squares

Hey guys!

Yesterday I looked in my cupboard and realised I had some very overripe bananas that I wouldn't have been able to eat in time... so I decided to make these little treats for my housemates. They were really quick and easy to make - I literally just whipped them up whilst I was cooking some soup.

Here's the recipe I used:

Ingredients:

• 150g brown rice or buckwheat flour
• 120ml pure maple syrup or honey (if you use honey they won't be vegan, but I'm not actually a vegan so I'd use either)
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 tsp cinnamon 
• 2 very ripe bananas 

(feel free to double the quantities - this only makes a small loaf as I only had 2 bananas)

Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C

2) Mix the flour, maple syrup, chia seeds and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.

3) Mash the bananas and add them to the mixing bowl.

4) Mix everything together to make a sticky mixture.

5) Grease a baking tin with coconut oil and spread the mixture evenly into it.

6) Bake in the oven for about 50 mins.

Once it was baked, I then cut it into small squares, cut these squares in half horizontally and filled the middle with peanut butter and melted dark chocolate - but you can fill it with whatever you want. It's Friday, anything goes!

Enjoy!!

Big Bowl of Goodness

Hellooo!

Just thought I'd quickly share with you what I made for lunch today because it tasted so good!

I chopped one small avocado, a quarter of a sweet red pepper, and a small handful of cherry tomatoes. Then I baked some kale in the oven (just popped a few handfuls in a small baking tray and drizzled with olive oil and a bit of salt) and steamed some tender stem broccoli. Then there are some puy lentils from one of the Merchant Gourmand packs (really quick and useful).

I made the houmous earlier by blending 1 400g tin of chickpeas, 2 teaspoons of tahini, 5 tablespoons of cold water, 1 teaspoon of cumin, the juice of 1 lemon and a dash of paprika and salt - I definitely prefer making my own houmous rather than buying it from a shop because it tastes better (if I may say so myself) and you know exactly what has gone in it (some shop-bought dips contain so much unnecessary sugar or other nasties that it's definitely worth making your own). 

To top it off, I sprinkled on a little bit of feta and some sunflower seeds.

This simple but delicious salad kept me full all afternoon and is full of vitamins and other goodness.

Happy Friday everyone! x

Quinoa Flour Pizza

Hi!

I was back in Oxford today so I just had to make another little trip to the Organic Deli Café that I blogged about a few weeks ago. I bought some quinoa flour so when I got home I decided to make a pizza with it.

I was really excited to use this flour for my pizza base as quinoa is full of protein, which pizzas are often lacking. It is also gluten free, dairy free and suitable for vegans.

It was fairly easy to make but there's definitely room for improvement on mine! I think I made the base a bit thick so it was very filling but still tasty. I recommend rolling the dough as thinly as you can to avoid this.

Here is how I made it...

Ingredients:

For the pizza base:

•  300g quinoa flour
• 3 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 60ml hot water
• 60ml extra virgin olive oil
• 11/4 tsp baking powder
• 180ml water
• A pinch of salt

For the tomato sauce:

• 1 clove of garlic - crushed
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of tomato purée
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Toppings:

I used red peppers, mushrooms, green olives, feta cheese and spinach - but anything goes really!

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. 

1. Mix the ground flaxseed and hot water in a small bowl and leave it to set for 5 minutes.

2. Combine the quinoa flour and baking powder, then stir in the water/flaxseed combo, olive oil, and salt.

3. Fold the cold water into the mixture and knead until it forms a ball of dough.

4. Leave the dough for 30 minutes to allow it to set and for it to get some air in it.

5. Drizzle a pizza tray with olive oil and place the dough on the tray.

6. Spread the dough into a pizza shape (remember not to make it too thick!)

7. Bake the dough for 20 minutes.

8. Make the tomato sauce by combining all the ingredients and heating in a saucepan. 

9. After the dough has baked for 20 minutes, place the tomato sauce and toppings on it and put it back in the oven to bake for about 15-20 minutes (until the toppings are sufficiently cooked to your liking).

10. Remove from the oven and enjoy your yummy, healthy pizza!

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Blueberry and Banana Muffins

Hello!

I have come home from uni for the weekend so yesterday my brother and I decided to have a day of healthy baking. I decided I wanted to make these yummy treats using a recipe inspired by Deliciously Ella (I changed it a little according to the ingredients/equipment I had).

The muffins are seriously good and the blueberries make them lovely and gooey. What made me want to make them is that they don't contain flour - you essentially make your own flour by blending almonds, oats and ground flaxseed.

Anyway, here are the ingredients I used to make 15 muffins:

• 85g oats
• 150g almonds (or ground almonds could be easier)
• 85g ground Flaxseed
• 4 ripe bananas
• 85g raisins (I used dried cranberries as I have an irrational hatred of raisins)
• 250g fresh blueberries 
• 180ml apple juice 
• 240ml water
• 6tbsp organic honey
• 2tsp cinnamon

Method:

If you have a food processor, put the almonds, oats and ground flaxseed in it and blend until it is nice and smooth. I don't, so I ground the almonds in a pestle and mortar (so old school, you might want to buy ground almonds instead) and then put those, the oats and the flaxseed in a blender and it worked just fine!

Add your homemade flour (be proud) to a mixing bowl, then slice the bananas into it. Next add the water, apple juice, honey and cinnamon and whisk into a smooth muffin mixture.

When this is done, stir in the raisins/any dried berry and the blueberries, pour into muffin cases in a muffin tray and bake for about 40 minutes.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Happy baking x

Gratitude

Treasure the people you love in your life!

I feel so blessed to have an incredible family and amazing friends.

Nighty night x

A Really Easy Healthy Snack

Snacks, for me, are really important - I like eating little and often as I get hungry quite quickly, especially on very active days and also healthy snacks keep your metabolism going. So it's really great to be able to whip up a yummy, nutritious and easy to make snack in a matter of minutes... like this one here!

This is one of my favourites: toasted rye bread with half an avocado, a few cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and puy lentils with a sprinkle of black pepper.

Rye bread is a great substitute for wheat bread (bread often makes me feel quite bloated and sick). It's full of fibre and really yummy. 

Have a great Monday!

Oxford Boy Gym

During my little excursion to Oxford last week, I was allowed no rest...

Tom took me along to where all the Oxford rugby boys gym - none of them were in there when we went though (thank God, I would have been quite scared). It was the most 'boyish' gym I'd ever been in (basically it was a bit grubby (in a cool-looking, rustic sort of way...) and had loads of weights in it - minimal girly weights). 

It was a great opportunity to get Tom to check my squat form. He does them all the time being a rugby boy and it's great to have someone to tell you if you're doing something wrong, as good form is so important to avoid injuries and work your body properly.

I'm in love with these Adidas leggings

Then I checked his too...

He also showed me how to do dead lifts which was really helpful - I love learning new things to do in the gym.

I also did some of my own gym favourites, such as swiss ball rollouts, lunges and step ups (as shown below) as well as bunny hops over the bench, sit ups on the bosu ball, russian twists, burpees, wall sits, jumping jacks and pushup planks.

Step ups

Swiss ball rollouts

Lunges with 2 5kg dumbbells 

Here's a little tip that really helps me when I'm doing hard stuff like squats: count down instead of up.. It really helps if you're starting to lose motivation to finish the set!

Have an amazing week!