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