The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (and the plain old upsetting)

Hooray hurrah huzzah huzzah! I did my last exam yesterday!! Well, I still have ALL my exams in the summer, the 3 I just had were silly ones instead of coursework for those particular 3 modules…but still! I have no more til May, so I’m happy 😀 To celebrate, I had a complete day off from aaaall forms of work or reading or revision. And it was good 🙂 I even had time for PlayTime with my Chika – but more on that later. First – The Good:

1) No more exams for 6months. Do I even need to explain why that is good? Yeshyesyeys, I still have a dissertation project to do, 60 children to do an experiment on, a Visa to sort out (yes, a VISA! Keep readin’), 3 more modules to learn, and then all my end of year exams that will – hopefully – give me a degree in psychology….but small steps.

2) I tried a faboosh new Luna bar flavour pre-run t’other day:

Er, SCRUMMY. That would be chocolate raspberry flavah, for those of you that don’t have x-ray vision and can’t see the writing behind the bar 😛 I don’t know if it was quite my favourite, but it was right up there 🙂 Though, ha, I did have to inspect it somewhat thoroughly after reading posts by this lady – she found a dead bug-worm thing in one of her Luna bars! Or maybe it was a Larabar..I forget now. But either way, I now have to inspect food before I munch it! Talking of animals in food, i read about a lady who found a frozen dead mouse in her oven chip bag…another one who found a dead mouse cooked into her loaf of sliced bread (after she’d eaten half the load)…the list goes on. ANYWAY!

3) Epic Green Monsters:

Always, always a good thing. And before y’all ask:

1 cup cereal, 1/2 c. milk, 1 banana, spinach and/or kale (I’ve been going for kale recently, 2 big handfuls), approx. 1 small tsp xanthan gum, 1 tsp maca powder. Depending on what I fancy, I might add in vanilla extract or almond extract, a pinch of salt, a tsp of coffee – go mad!

4) Christmas plates!! (note: we still don’t have a tree. I NEED this Christmas cheer!)

I’m not sure if this should go in the Good section, or the Ugly section – I think my mamma would choose the latter :p

5) Delicious lunches, served on said christmas plate:

That’s aubergine mash, in case you were curious 🙂

6) Puff cereal!!

I’ve always been a firm hater of puffy type cereal – but since I discovered that it’s darn tasty with a splash of soya milk – I’m sold.

7) Chika (and Carter):

I wanted her to run about the school after I’d worked her, so i could take cute pictures – instead, she thought she’d just stand there and gawk at me (no doubt wondering why I was making silly noises and running about in circles round her :p)

‘What are you doing Mum?? I want my hay and warm stable!’

8) Next summer!!! Here’s the thing – I’ve applied to go to a summer camp in the USA, and – provided I don’t become an alcoholic/drug addict/[insert bad thing here] – I’m definitely going!!! Crazy! I’ll be there June-September (hence the need for a Visa), and then after, I might go travelling round the States for a bit (and hopefully meet some of you readers :p). At the moment I don’t know what sort of camp I’ll go on – it could be a fitness camp, a horsey camp, or anything in between. But one thing is for sure, it’ll be active and fun and amazing! 😀

Now onto The Bad:

1) Tuition fees in England…now you can only go to uni if you pay £9000 a year?? No thank you! There’s going to be a big class divide in England now (in my opinion) – the rich will go to uni, the poor won’t. I know I sure wouldn’t have gone to uni if that’s how much I was going to pay. Heck, I’m leaving uni with £25,000 of debt – and that’s with tuition fees of £3,000. Awful.

2) Chika (I swear she’s smiling in that pic!)

Yep, this sucks. Every single year since I was 15, when it’s come to my final exams of the year, i stop riding. I normally stop around April time, and pick it up again in June when they’re over. It’s purely cos I get mega stressed, and I don’t want to take it out on Chika, or not do her justice. Plus, she gets a little holiday, so it works well. But – next year, I’ll be stopping in April…then going to the USA. And after camp, i don’t know what will happen. I might travel, I might get a job and leave home, there’s just no telling. On top of that, Chika is not a horse that likes to sit in a field and not do anything. She puts on weight over summer (which is potentially lethal in horses – so many nasty killer diseases happen to fat horses on lush grass) and no-one will be able to work her, and she’ll be bored.

So I’ve made a decision – in March/April time, I’m going to loan her out. It is heartbreaking, like I’ll be losing a part of me. But I just can’t leave her sitting about – she’s only 12yrs old, and she’s a lovely super mare, and will make someone happy. Luckily, I’m not going to SELL her – she means too much to me, she’s priceless, and she’s helped me SO much in my recovery. She IS my family! If she’s loaned, it means if it goes wrong, she can come back (as opposed to being sold on and on and on…like in Black Beauty. I don’t want to see her skinny and sad at a horse sale in 15rs!), and it means I can take her back at any time. But it’s the most sad thing I’ve ever had to decide 😦 every time I think about it, I get a lump in my throat 😦

Annnd The Ugly:

Roast aubergine – such a gooey, gross veggie!

At least the taste makes up for it 🙂

Question: Tell me, what have been your Goods, Bads, and Uglys recently!?

(Ps – I do still have my important post to come, but I wanted to say all this first :))

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Desert Island Questions And TWO recipes!

YO!

My New York based tall blonde American friend Gabriela tagged me in that quiz that’s been going round – so here goes!

1. What is your biggest fear? (It can be silly or real) Dying alone, fire, drowning, my horse/mum/sister getting hurt or injured, spiders, the end of my garden when it’s dark.

2. If you were onstage at a karaoke bar, what would you sing and why? Oh heck…probably that song that Bridget Jones sings [really badly] in the film, so I could re-live the moment :p

3. Do you write in print or cursive? In all honesty, I don’t know what that means :p is it like, do I write in capitals!? If that’s the question, then no.

4. Have you ever been fired from a job? Nope 🙂

5. If you could go to the Olympics for any sport, which would you choose? Dressage, or gymnastics, cos it would AWESOME to be that bendy!

6. How many cell phones have you owned? Hmm…my first one, a tiny Nokia, a pink flip phone, another phone, my current phone. You count.

7. What’s your sign (wink wink)? Gemini 🙂 And if you’re Chinese, I’m also a dragon! Or a horse…I can’t remember which….

I now tag the first seven commenters to answer the same questions 🙂

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Bah, I have TWO recipes today! TWO! TWO!

But I’ll get to them later.

Firstly, I want to make y’all go to this link, cos it’s funny 🙂 and it reminded me of a) being boyfriend-less (running is better than a bf – read the link and the world’ll make sense :)) and then it made me remember b) why I should be GLAD I am lonely and single – I can cook whatever I like, I can turn the light on in my room when i get up early, as opposed to worrying I’ll wake up Mr Boyfriend with the light, I can choose to travel round the world [if the desire strikes…], I can see chick flicks in the cinema without moaning, I can use my passenger seat in my car to seat my bag (aka junk and rubbish) instead of a lump of human. And above all – I can have a Huskey dog named Princess PuffleBomp*, and no-one will complain 🙂

*it goes well with my alter ego, don’t you think? ‘Princes Freya the Third, PhD’ <- as I’m known by Amazon :D)

How about you? Are you a single lady, or did someone put a ring on it?

Moving on – Recipe time!

Chocolate lentil and chickpea stew:

Chocolatey, nutritious, and ever-so comforting 🙂 (makes one serving, although the more veg you add, the bigger the meal…)

– 100g cooked chickpeas (I got mine from a can)

– 25g uncooked red lentils

– approx. 1tbsp cocoa powder

– 1/3 ish of a stock cube

– 1-2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

– approx. 1tbsp tomato puree

– 1 tsp maple syrup (or agave, or whatever)

– 1-2tsps dried thyme or mixed herbs (I can’t actually remember what I used…!!)

– 1-2 tsps molasses (optional)

– veg! As much or as little as you want. I used a mix of butternut squash, carrot, parsnip, leek and broccoli, all cut into small-ish, even sized chunks.

Also, do note that I don’t measure spice/flavouring ingredients, I just wing it, so measurement are approximate 🙂

1) Chop all the veggies:

Ugly parsnip optional:

And gather stuff together:

2) Throw everything into a saucepan:

3) Put it on a medium-high heat (I used the ‘less hot’ of the 2 Aga hot plates), mix it all around and cook it for a few mins, stirring lots and lots so it doesn’t catch.

When it’s all fragrant (it should be fragrant – alternatively, just give it a few mins then move on :p), add in enough water to aaaaalmost cover, but not quite:

4) Put a lid on it (maybe leave a little crack open for steam escape purposes), have it on a medium ish heat (you want it simmering) and let it do its’ thaaaang for about 40mins, or until the lentils are cooked and the veg is very soft, almost mushy! Keep stirring it during that time every now and then, so everything gets cooked evenly, and if it runs out of water, add more. After all, a little too much water is better, because you can always put it onto a high heat and steam the water away.

5) Serve!

Yes, it is an ugly dish, and probably not something you’d want to cook for a crowd to impress them with your incredible culinary skills – purely cos they’ll think you just sicked up on a plate and called it dinner. BUT, it IS delicious! So much so, I made it the next day too 🙂

I used aubergine and brussels sprouts instead of leek and carrot and broccoli, which was fine – but I did forget the garlic, and it wasn’t quite as nice without it. Remember those cloves, folks!

Recipe Two time 🙂

Spicy Pumpkin, Red Lentil and Chickpea Smush:

Is it a soup? Is it mush? I’m not sure. It’s yum though! I wanted something lentil-y for lunch, and I also had *40g* of chickpeas from my can left over (from yesterday), so I made this 🙂

– 50g red lentils

– 40g cooked chickpeas (ie the rest of the can, if you made the previous recipe twice :p)

– 1/3 ish crumbled stock cube

– a large 1/2 tsp mild curry powder

– 1/2tsp – 1 tsp cinnamon

– 1/2 tsp ish garam masala

– 1 garlic clove, minced or finely chopped

– 100g canned pumpkin (English people – go to WAITROSE for your pumpkin!)

– approx. 1 tsp molasses

1) gather:

2) Fry the chickpeas and garlic in spray oil/oil for a few mins on a medium heat:

3) Then add the lentils and spices, and fry til fragrant. Then, add in the stock cube, dissolved in hot water. I don’t know how much water you add, but it needs to be enough for the lentils to cook in. They should cook for about 20-25mins or so, and the mix will look something like this:

4) Get yo’ pumpkin and molasses:

And stir them in:

Heat it up again, and serve it in a big old mug, a la me 🙂

I actually can’t believe how delicious that was!! Spicy, comforting, full of flavour – absolutely perfect for the minus–degree day! I was a sad, sad woman when I finished it 😦

———

I’ve been on a cooking kick actually 🙂 Tonight I made a majorly modified version of Mama Pea’s pumpkin tofu curry, which I’ll show y’all next time 🙂 I’ve also been making a ton of frothy cappuccinos, using good ol’ Vincent the Vita Mix! With this fabby coffee:

Er, yum.

They are incred 😀 who needs Starbucks right?

I also made THE most delicious pancakes the other night! i mean, really:

Heaven!

And to go with lunch today, I had soya yogurt with mushy pear (a baby ripe pear, cooked with vanilla essence, maple syrup and water, til it went soft and caramel like):

As well as ketchup roasted veg:

BUT the biggest event the past few days has been the SNOW! And lots of it!!

Ok, so fair play – if you live in the Arctic, or Canada, this is nothing. But to England it’s a Big Deal 😛 Heck, Chika’s whiskers were frozen the other morning!!

Hannah – no more complaining! That’s TIG rolling in the snow!

Snow pony!

Snow mummy!

Snow land 🙂

Below – standing – full weight – ON the water bucket, showing how thick the ice was!

Horse people – have you ever tried that trick of putting a ball or something floaty in water, to stop it freezing? Does it work?

Deep!

And to round off this epically long post – here are the usual cat pics 🙂 Until next time!

Bless 🙂

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The Month Of Hannah’s Birthday

In just a matter of hours, I can scream:

Pinch, Punch, First of the Month!

So, sooo rarely do I ever remember to say that on the actual first, so let’s just say I’m excited 🙂 In fact, I’m excited about December in general!

– Christmas. The little kid in me just LOVES everything to do with Christmas! Presents (receiving AND giving <- more so the latter, as I get older, uglier and wiser :p), time off from uni (it’s still so manic), time spent with my beautiful Chika, and with my beautiful boys:

Sick of cat photos yet!?

– Hannah’s birthday! Yep, my sister is turning 22years old on Dec 16th…sadly, she won’t be home, as she’s still on her gap year. BUT she does arrive home at stupid o’clock on Christmas Eve morning! I’m secretly quite excited about that…though I know it’ll wear off soon enough :p

– cooking! I cannot WAIT to have more time to cook and be creative and generally have more fun with my food 🙂 I feel like my meals have been somewhat repetitive recently – and very, very babylike*

Yeah, no sooner do I say that Im sick of green monsters, do I start having them again :p

*ie, mush!

i did make an aaaamzaing tomato and lentil soup t’other day though:

  

It’ll be going on the Christmas day lunchtime menu 😀

Other note-worthy eats? Hmm…butter beans cooked with vanilla and soya milk and maple syrup and cinnamon and thyme:

Attractive? No. Delicious? Yes.

Pumpkin cappuccino!!

Coffee, milk, pumpkin,mixed spice – bing bam bang bong!

Carob pancakes 😀

With a peanut butter sauce…holy yum.

Chocolate peanut butter on a wholemeal English muffin:

New Cif bar flavour pre-run the other day:

Hmm…The jury is out – I’m not sure about this flavour. It was OK…but it sure wasn’t brilliant 😦

– Playing in the SNOW!

We’ve had so much of it here!!

It was so heavy today that I didn’t have to make the 1hour drive into uni 😀 bliss!

—

Just 3 more weeks or so, then I’ll be off for almost a month…so. excited.

Question: What are you getting excited about? Asides from the obvious (Christmas!) of course 😛

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Sometimes…

….all you want is a big plate of veggies!

More than once too:

Below would be shredded brussels sprouts stir fried with hoi sin, garlic, soy sauce and roasted parsnip:

Quite possibly one of the best plates ever.

Plates of veggies can be in blended form too – pear, leek, garlic, maple syrup, celeriac, parsnip + mixed spice:

All cooked of course 🙂 [sometimes these good combos get repeated…three times!)

Sometimes, I get bored of Green Monsters for breakfast (actually, that is happening A LOT – I can’t remember the last time I had one!), so I venture out….

I saw an idea on Gena’s blog, so I ran with it 🙂 This morning’s mix was simply pumpkin, water, salt, agar powder (yeah, that did NOTHING. Fail.), mixed spice and cinnamon and molasses, heated up on the stove and topped with 1 tsp maple syrup:

Oohh my! Served with a side of puff 🙂

Sometimes, it’s good to just honour what your body craves. Even if it is a plate of roast veg at 5pm. And even if it does ruin your appetite for dinner! But it’s all about balance – I know that if my ‘lunch’ ends up being only a small English muffin at 2pm and some veg at 5pm, because that’s all I’ve had time for, that’s ok – cos I can make up for it with different meals later on! A whole cup of oats for dinner, cooked with roasted and mashed squash, for example…or one too many cappuccinos whilst running errands in town 😛

Balance, and listening to what my body really wants, is something I’ve struggled with post-marathon. During marathon training, it was all eat eat eat, to fuel for the marathon. But when I got home afterwards, I felt lost! No more marathon to fuel for…and it’s been..4 or 5 yrs? since I’ve had to eat ‘normally’ (no starving, no gaining, no marathon-eating – just maintaining), and let me tell you – it’s been tough! Am I eating too much? Too little? I’m still running about 20miles a week, and doing workout DVDs, but knowing how much to eat….WHAT a kerfuffle.

My running times have been ACE – my pace is back to about 8.25 min/mile!!!! – which suggests that I’m eating right. BUT I think I’m eating far, far less than I used to! It’s somewhat confusing. Somewhat being an understatement…I feel like I’m running through a wood blind! Plus, I seem to have NO appetite at the moment – I’m so extrrrrremely stressed at uni, and busy, and food feels like an inconvenience atm! I just never, ever want to eat, which makes it 10x harder to listen to my body and eat naturally. Hurrumph.

Do any of you lose your appetite when your stressed? What do you do? Do you think it’s better to just eat when/if you get hungry, or do you think it’s better to make yourself eat at set times/meals? Advice appreciated!

Random other happenings – we totally lost ALL our electricity the other day!! Some cable blew underground, so on pretty much the coldest night this year, I was lying in bed, shivering and cold- I even had to resort to a massive hoodie to keep warm! Drastic measures for someone who normally wakes up too hot 😛 The next morning wasn’t fun either – it was still pitch black at 6am, and all I had was my phone light and a candle* to get dressed, do my hair, do my make-up, and get out the door! Gah. Anyway, we now have a generator (a massive ugly thing that sounds like a tractor is sitting in our drive) to give us power til the problem is fixed…..it better not break. There is SNOW on the ground right now!

HOW we lived without electricity is beyond me……

*Don’t leave candles alone – they drip wax EVERYWHERE:

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I’ve been on cat-kick 🙂 Carter and Kovac looked SO adorable the other day, I couldn’t resist taking a ton more photos!! Enjoy 🙂

Old man face!!

Carter?

Or paw?

i swear I should re-name this blog CrazyCatLadyRuns,,,,

🙂

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I Love My Boys

Seriously. How could you not love these two?

Carter:

I don’t care how many similar photos I put up – you can never have too many cat pictures :p

He’s my little fatty kitten who sleeps on my bed (so close that his whiskers touch my face!), walks across my face if he wants attention when I’m asleep, burrows under my quilt, pounces on my feet, cries at my door if it’s shut, plays with his prey (for ages..and ages…and ages…). He’s always sneezy (thank you, kitten cat flu, for that), he has poor self cleaning skills…

….but I adore him!

Kovac:

I’m sad..I didn’t get many of him! Some older ones..

He’s my supermodel 🙂 He has the silkiest coat known to Cat World, he’s an incredible hunter (birds, rabbits, voles, SQUIRRELS), he’s gorgeous, he’s precious and delicate, especially since he got hit by a car when we first had him, he likes to ride on people’s shoulders, wrapped round your neck like a scarf, he likes to lick all the gravy off his cat meat but leave the chunks….

…and I adore him just as much 🙂

Gah, I’m totally going to have to do a post dedicated to my favourite lady sometime soon too –

– she’s been PERFECT recently!

Talking of perfection – I love food, and ohmydays did I eat some good stuff recently! I know it’s probably boring to just see endless pictures of meals with little content, but..well, whatever :p My meals were good enough to share, so SHARE I WILL!

Chocolate lentil stew thing with grilled aubergine rounds:

I’m suddenly on an aubergine kick – it’s so GOOEY!

Tofu, marinated in soy sauce, maple syrup, smoked garlic, veg stock, mixed spice (I think…), cocoa powder and a few other bits (again, I think – I can hardly remember now):

Looks gross right?

Fried with spelt/wheat:

Oh. My. Days.

This morning, I had THE most delicious pumpkin bowl! I saw the recipe on Gina’s blog, but I had to change it slightly – I didn’t use Vega mix, subbing instead with 1 spoon of pea protein powder, a spoon of cocoa powder, 1 tsp agave and extra cinnamon.

It was still totally delicious!! And filling too 🙂

Lunch today – wowzers!

You know what the below photo is?

Why, it’s brussels sprouts. Roasted. Then fried. With soy sauce. And..BANANA!

I originally saw the idea here the other night, and HAD to try it!!! It was so so worth it – amazing tasting! I only used soy sauce with my version, but it was proper incred 😀 Sounds weird, but I really do recommend you try it, oh yes 🙂

Other than eating weird food combos, what have I done…christmas shopping!! I even bought all my tags today, in prep for wrapping. I’m so excited! My excitement almost went overboard when I got a cappuccino today, and the takeaway cup was in CHRISTMAS colours! Seriously, there was one major happy dance in my head 🙂

Anyone else excited about Christmas!!??

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My Favourite Things

Good evening my lovelies 🙂

Firstly, thank you to every single one of you who commented on my last post – you are all so kind and wonderful and lovely and understanding! I swear, the people who read my blog are the best readers our there :p you guys kick ass!! I don’t really want to write what’s bothering me at the moment, although i will just say that, for once (!) it has nothing to do with food, weight, eating disorders or anything to like that – which in itself is a blessing in disguise I suppose!

Secondly, this is a slightly weird post – I didn’t feel like writing a proper post today, cos…well, I just didn’t 🙂 So instead, I shall show y’all my favourite things today, and over the past few days, cos they make me happy 😀

1) This little ponyface:

  

  

If you’re not horsey, it’s hard to put across the feeling they give you..but I know a number of my readers are, so I’m sure they’ll understand how much just hanging out with a horse helps a mood 🙂 Last night, I remembered I hadn’t put Chika’s rug on yet (it was too warm when they went out), so at 10.30pm I put the floodlights on and went to the field. It was so peaceful – the light was shining through the trees, creating beautiful shadows, and all I could see was mist and Chika and her breath in the cold night. It was beautiful! She somewhat spoilt the moment however when I took her onto the driveway – she spotted her rug and assumed it was that pesky lion from the other day, ready to pounce, and in a split second she’d pinged away from me and was back at the fence…VERY nearly taking my finger with her!!! I didn’t actually lose my finger (believe me, that happens <- my mum’s friend had her finger ripped off when it got caught in the rope and the horse pulled back), but I broke 2 nails and it sure did hurt. Hurrumph. Still love her though :p After 5.5years together, there’s little she can do to stop the love!!!! *Le Sigh*

2) All my kitties together as one:

Do you know what momentous occasion brought them together? Dog meat.

Note: They have never, ever all eaten together. EVER.

3) Native American music!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug2TrGD7INY

It’s so full of emotion, I love it!

4) Dressage to music – I’m a big, biiig dressage fan anyway (that was what Chika and I did) but after watching the World Equestrian Games, my passion has been briefly reignited! – Ulla Salazgeber and Rusty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41bqwX8JExs

Edward Gal and Gribaldi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl2KxcSgobI

Even if you’re not horsey, you must watch! These 2 examples are far from the best – but I adore the music and I love love love the riders.

5) Shopping with my mamma. Exactly what I shall be doing all day tomorrow!

6) Delicious food!

cereal messes….

Quinoa mixed with garlic and kale, a sea cake tofu thing…

Cocoa-beet-tomato sauce with rosemary and garlic seasoning, sprouts, broccoli, kabocha…

Spiced veggie burgers…

A lot of cereal blended with pressed coconut milk and blackberries and cinnamon and cocoa powder, topped with date syrup

The spiced veggie burger with aubergine, leek, kabocha and parsnip…

Too much yummy food! (this isn’t all I had today, FYI. A cappuccino with my gran and some So Crispy Bites, amongst other things, went unphotographed..).

What are some of your favourite things at the moment?

(PS – gah – 14miles on Sunday…in the POURING RAIN! That’s what the weatherman is predicting – eek!)

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Sports Day

I used to haaaate Sports Day at school – I always sucked at it! Ironically, I was the worst at running. I did the 200m hurdles one year, and came last by about 180m….I also did a 4 x 100 relay (last again), a 200m (second from last) and a 100m sprint (last). The one time I attempted any sort of long distance running (the 800m! Aka, 1/2 mile…), I ‘collapsed’ from exhaustion at the other end. Mad right!? I wish I could go back in time, and tell myself that LD running is actually FUN! Alas!!

Why the Sports Day talk? Well, it’s only mildly related – but I had my follow up appointment with my sports nutritionist today 🙂 it was useful! We were mainly talking about race day strat, which was helpful. I thought I knew exactly what I’d need to eat during the actual marathon, but as it turns out, I think I underestimated how much fuel I will actually need to take in. On my 18miler on Sunday, I had one Powerbar, and 2ish bottles of Lucozade. Buuutt she recommended I should have about 40g carb per hour of marathon, which translates as about 2 Clif bars and 2 Powerbars, plus about 4 bottles of sports drink! Ha. At least it’ll give me something to look forward to whilst I’m running…’yaaay, in 10mins I can have a Clif bar!!’ kinda thing :p

She also asked how long I wanted to take – I reckoned on about 4.5hours, but she said I should think closer to 5+, cos of all the people at the start. In fact, she said I might end up walking for the first 20mins or so! Meep! Does anyone have any experience of this in big marathons? The Marine Corps is like, 3rd biggest in the USA with over 35,000 people….

Oh! And interestingly, you know if you’re really cold? Well that majorly affects your digestive system, as in it goes ‘screw this, we don’t need to digest, let’s keep you warm instead!’ – which could be why I had stomach issues on my half marathon a few weeks back. After all, I was shivering at the start, it was so cold! Tres interesting.

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In other Horsey Humpday news (I know I’ve been slacking on the HH..I’ll get back on track soon, I promise!), which has nothing at all to do with Horsey Humpday…I had food and ran today too 🙂

Pre-run – an apple, a big old Food Doctor cracker, and 2 tsps wheat germ. 5miles was on the cards today. I was feeling the need for speed, so I thought I’d try and do a faster run. Er, yeah. Fast for me 6months ago used to be 7.50/ 8min miles. Fast today? 8.53mile average!! And even that was hard work! I seriously underestimated how much marathon training would simply suck the speed out of me. Oh wellllll….post-marathon, i’m going to put the focus back on speed and shorter distances. I could maybe aim for a sub-49min 10k (I once did a 10k – unofficially – in 49.50 or something), or a sub-23 5k…we shall see 🙂

Breakfast was a big bowl of cereal:

With yogurt and cinnamon:

And sliced banana:

And half a scuffin!

And then of course, all mixed up, to truly obey the law of what a real cereal/yogurt mess should look like:

Photographed under the watchful eye (tongue!?) of Carter:

( PS -Don’t worry – I consumed the scuffin on the side. That baby was NOT being mushed into cereal!! Far too precious :p)

Post breakfast, I shot off to my nutritionist appointment, and had a brief stop in town to get a few bits and bobs. When I got back home, it was a) pouring with rain, and b) the farrier was there. Soo I held Chika for her last shoe (Hannah had been holding her before that) – a horsey manicure, if you will 🙂 – and then made a super quick lunch, which I was pretty hungry for!

I broke open a Whole Foods purchase:

Sea cakes!

I served one with a toasted wholemeal English muffin, rosemary/garlic roasted brussell sprouts/celeriac/parsnip (sprinkled with nooch), and kale roasted with balsamic vinegar, salt, cinnamon and a pear:

I always have trouble deciding between photos…

Totally wonderfully DELICIOUS! It hit the spot 99% 😀 I hit the last 1% by having a bit of a scuffin 😛

After lunch, I went for a little walk in the rain (how woeful do I sound!?) – I was feeling pretty nnnaaaaarrrrrr-y [if that makes sense] and quite down and sad. Walks (+ wild blackberries :p) always make things better 😛

I wasn’t hungry at all for a snack, but I felt a bit low on..something (?) so I had some yogurt with a handful of cereal:

You just can’t go wrong with breakfast mixes. it’s not possible.

I also spent 15mins doing battle with a roll of cling film – I HATE THAT STUFF. Seriously! This roll was WAY too sticky and was all messy and sticking to itself and everything and getting tangled and…just…just….*insert bad word here* – *shakes fist at cling film*! I think they just make it difficult to handle so that people will be put off being environmentally unfriendly. Well, NOT ME! I’m determined, I WILL do all I can to pollute the world 😛 (note the sarcasm!!).

Moving on – for dinner last night, I had this:

No, it’s not meat…. it’s seitan! Love that stuff 🙂 Along with sweet potato roasted in maple syrup, dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar (thank yoooouuuu Jess for the idea!), as well as cocoa roasted veggies. No pic purely cos the light was so awful and orange that the pics didn’t really come out! After dins, I had some dessert too – yogurt and chocolate, oh yes 😛

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Question – did you like Sports Day at school? Were you any good at it?

Marathon runners – how have you found the starts of marathons? Were you much slower than you thought you’d be?

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The Dentist Will See You Now…

Goooood EVENING! And how are we all on this fine Monday?

I’ve had a busy day 🙂

Up bright and early for a little power walk 🙂 It’s lovely to stretch my legs on these running days off; it always feels SO good! Plus, I get to eat blackberries on the way 😛

However when I got home, I – totally randomly – felt tremendously nauseous for about 10mins. Like, for no reason. It was very odd!! But just as quickly as it came on, it left again, so I grabbed a quick breakfast. It was the epitome of a boring breakfast! Cereal and yogurt, with a little muesli sprinkle:

Imaginative? No. Tasty? Heck yes! And it only took 10mins to eat (plus an apple), which was good cos I had the vet coming.

No need to panic though 😀 He was just here to stab jab the horses (for flu), and do their teeth. FYI, non-horsey readers, horses teeth keep on growing as they age – they never stop. In the wild, all the roughage they eat wears their teeth down, but precious lil domesticated horses don’t have such groovy diets, so we have to get the dentist or vet out to rasp them 🙂 Sounds violent (and looks it!) but it’s ok 🙂 Besides – my sister and I love having the vet over, cos he is HOT!

Carter was a div though – he caught a vole, then proceeded to torture it and run about under the vet’s feet chasing it, having a great time. It was sad to see 😦

After the vet had been and gone, I set off for work. Whilst in town just before, I bought a delicious soya cappuccino <- I actually think I’m becoming addicted 😛 I love them! I also saw this Indian bloke (not Indian as in ‘from India’, but Indian as in ‘Hello, my name is Dances With Wolves [love that film!]’…I’m ignorant and don’t know the correct term, so please no-one take offence!! *EDIT* Native Americans! Thankyou Little Bookworm :)) playing great music in the street, so I bought his cd 😀

Lunch at work –

Roast mixed veggies (2 types of squash, carrot, parsnip, leek):

Lentils:

Salsa:

SO scrummy!!! I had to eat it real quick though; there was ton of steaming and hanging to do today….joy.

When I got home, I was getting rather haaaangry, so I chowed down quickly on Bear granola nibbles with yogurt:

Amaze. Except the little freeze dried pink bits. I HATE freeze dried fruit!! Anyone else with me!?

Question – now, before I forget, when I’m in the US running my marathon at the end of October, I won’t be able to blog (I don’t think..you never know). Sooo I was wondering if anyone wanted to do a guest post? I’ll probably need quite a few (I’ll be gone for 8days), so if you’re interested, leave me a comment on this post 🙂

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Ooooh – I’ll show you some of the pictures I took the other day now! I hope y’all like them 🙂 I was meant to edit some of them to make them better, but…well, I can’t be bothered :p so, in all their un-altered glory, here they are!

I took some flower ones too, but I won’t post them – I find flowers pretty dull sometimes…plus this post will probably crash my computer anyway :p

Have a good evening!

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Time for Twelve (again)

Wow, does marathon training skew your view of what an ‘easy’ run is – all I could think today was ‘aaah I’m only running 12miles, eaaasy’…I mean, wtf!? It’s TWELVE miles! I can’t wait for the day [post marathon] where 4miles is a decent hard workout again 😀 Oh well.

Saturday

Rest day! Woo hoo! Some days, I dread rest days, cos I’m..well..restless! But I felt like I needed one today 🙂 so it was a welcome addition. And heck, I sure made the most of it! I didn’t wake up til 8.25am, then read in bed for 15mins – bliss. Plus, it was a beautiful morning today; cold but sunny. I spent about a half hour whilst I worked up a breakfast appetite snapping Chika/Kovac/Poppy photos outside – I can’t wait to show y’all later in the week 😀

Breakfast – a spinach pear Epic Green Monster, topped with hemp seeds (I didn’t blend them in today), dates, Grape Nuts and cereal:

 

Nooo!! I’ve just realised there’s a tiny little (cat!?) hair on my spoonful in the photo below! Gah. I’ll have hairballs in my stomach now

 

Tres delicious. Despite the hair. In fact, I think it was the addition of the hair that made it taste so good.

I had a good schooling session with Chika after breakfast (despite Tig being away at a competition this weekend), and then decided to do something I’ve been meaning to do for the past week – homemade bean burgers!

• 2 cans of beans (butter beans and pinto beans, all I had)
• 1/2 c. salsa
• coriander seeds
• garlic granules
• 4 tbsp vital wheat gluten
• salt
• 1/2 c. oats

 

Blended the beans and salsa and spices roughly:

Tipped it all into a dish, mixed in the oats:

And the VWG:

Shaped into 5 burgers:

Baked for 20mins on 160degrees (fan oven), and then got them out to flip. And flip they did. Onto the floor:

A hand was burnt. A spatula was thrown. A tear (or 10) were shed. It was horrible! Though I thanked The Powers That Be that I’d put the burgers on two trays, so thankfully, two were salvaged. I baked them for another 10mins:

 

Hurrumph.

Sadly, the burger fiasco totally ruined my appetite for lunch 😦 but I stormed ahead, cos it was a good ‘un!

Apple and Onion Sauce

I made a ‘sauce’ by cooking (over a medium heat) a small chopped onion and a small chopped apple, with stock (a 1/4c. to start, and I added more water as needed):

Til it was mush:

Meanwhile, I roasted swede, aunt-grown butternut squash, and carrot, and boiled 60g wholewheat pasta. All together:

 

 

 

 

The onion/apple thing? Oh my!! Delish! Sweet yet savoury….LOVED. IT.

A fig (my last one!!) was consumed for dessert 😀

Dinner – I did a tempeh thing, with a cocoa peanut butter sauce and a cocoa-lentil veggie mix 😀

Look at that rich colour….wow!

What can I say – I LOVE THAT MEAL (made better by watching X Factor whilst eating it :p)! I was going to have a burger, but I’m freezing them so my mum and I can have them on Wednesday (when it’s just us two).

Sunday

12 mile day (aka a taper week)! I was sliiiightly dreading today, cos I looked at the weather forecast, and it said rain. ALL morning. Not cool! Howeverrrrz, when I did get up, there was no rain!! Sooo I made a super quick Fitnessista inspired breakfast cookie (but made in the morning and eaten immediately 😀 no overnight-hardening for me!):

50g oats

1 banana, mashed

a big forkful of peanut butter, mashed into the banana

I then mashed everything together, and topped it with a spoon of Grape Nuts and dates:

Sooo delicious! Why have I not made these before!? Good gracious. I really recommend you make one if you haven’t 😀

I let that go down for an hour or so, ate a rice cake, then headed out into the grey and miserable glorious cloud.

Splits:

9.01

9.01

8.50

8.46

8.59

8.51

9.02

8.49

8.46

8.50

8.53

9.15 (I decided to take it slow as I was a tiiiny bit wheezy on the last 1/4 mile of mile 11)

= 1hr46 & 12miles

You know what? It was brilliant!!! I felt ACE! My best training run to date 🙂 The hardest part was actually slowing myself down – I kept looking at my Garmin and seeing 8.00/8.15 splits – good, but bad, cos I didn’t want to burn out!! But yeah, it was a really, really good one. Was it the breakfast cookie? Or the amazing tempeh sauce? Or the super night of sleep on Friday? Or a positive attitude (after all, 12 felt like cake compared to the 18 this Sunday….)? Who knows….

Weirdly, the only fuel I had was 500ml Lucozade Sport, and 2 small dates! I just did not feel the need for anything, and I actually felt better for having a lighter stomach. Very curious.

Anyway, who cares – it was a fabulous run and I felt GREAT!

Brunch was an Epic Green Monster…once again, with a pear instead of spinach 😛

• 1 c. cereal
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. yogurt – soya yogurt, so it is vegan 🙂 I’ve had a lot of questions about that recently…
• 1 tbsp hemp seeds
• a pear
• frozen banana
• toppings: Grape Nuts, homemade jam, almonds, dates

That’s plum jam, made from our very own plums growing in the garden 🙂

Fantastique!

I was then a complete fool though – straight after that big meal, I had a lunge lesson on Chika (almost like yoga on a horse – it felt GREAT!), which was fab in itself. My mum gives us such difficult exercises to do, in trot and canter 😀 however…1/2 hour of sitting trot does NOT do wonders for a stomach! I felt SOO sick after!!! The whole of my brunch was just being bounced about and it was horrible :p I shan’t make that mistake again…..

I had an afternoon snack of cereal and yogurt:

As well as a small apple, blackberries and large (large) amounts of hummus whilst making my mamma’s lunch for tomorrow 😛

I also got some cuteeee pics of Carter 😛 (I put them up mainly for your benefit, Lily :p)

I love this cat SO MUCH.

And so he doesn’t feel left out..here’s Kovac too:)

He’s the supermodel of the family!!

Rightio, I hear the Call of the Cookery right now, so I’m gonna obey it and go cook me some dinner 🙂

Have a lovely evening (hopefully watching X Factor, if you’re British :P)

Oh! – I mentioned it in my last post, but in case you missed it – do you like the new header!? The wonderful Jess made it for me 🙂 She’s a super star!!

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Question – do you take rest days? How many do you take per week?

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ps – Listen to this song!! it’s only 1.30mins long, and is BEAUTIFUL!

pps – my current squash collection :p

Lol 😀

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Cruel to be kind

OH I am a cruel, cruel woman!

After last Carter’s escapades last night, I decided I had to ban The Beautiful One from my room, just for the one night:

It was so difficult..especially when I heard him crying and scrabbling at my door at 11.45pm…or when I woke up to find him curled up in a little ball outside my door in the morning!! Poor baby! But, which is more important – Carter’s happiness, or my sleep? Carter’s happiness My sleep, obviously 😛

Sadly, I woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning, despite the more peaceful night 😦 Partly due to my skankyass virus, and partly due to the skankyass weather – aka, extremely strong wind and grey clouds! NOT good for my 4mile run!

I ate an apple, wheat germ and a rice cake, and then set off (somewhat sniffily)

8.58

9.05

8.49

8.51

The 2nd mile was hell! I was out of the shelter from the trees, and was running directly into the [really reaally strong] wind…HORRIBLE! I just wanted to cry 😦 I mean seriously, it was so windy and loud I couldn’t even hear my music! Suffice to say I was relieved to finish…

I had a scrummy breakfast waiting for me as a reward – overnight oats 😀

1/2 c. oats

1/2c. milk + a bit

1/2 c. yogurt

1/2 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp Vega chocolate smoothie mix

I warmed the bowl up (I was cold) by a bit of microwave/Aga action, and mixed in melted hot banana:

On the side – freshly picked blackberries and a tiny bit of cereal, with almonds on top:

So, so lovely 🙂

I was going to have a lunge lesson on Chika after breakfast (to honour Horsey Humpday, obvs), but I just couldn’t face it 😦 Nothing against Chika (I luff her!), but I was just in one of those terribly sad moods 😦 my mum helped by a) giving me a huge hug, b) telling me she felt exactly the same when she was sick last week, and c) offering to lunge Chika for me. She’s the best!!!

I cheered myself up by going to Waitrose for the weekly shop (and then getting angry when the strong wind blew half my bags over, in front of a car, whilst I was walking with the trolley, resulting in my scrabbling to pick up loose garlic, an aubergine and some cereal, whilst an angry driver looked on), before coming home for a yummy lunch.

I attacked my crazy squash that’s been in hiding for a while!

I roasted it alongside some bbq-salt seasoned carrot fries, parsnip and broccoli. Along with all that, I mashed up 1/2 c. red kidney beans with hummus:

And spread it on a slice o’ toast:

A fig accompaniment:

Simply fabulous! Hummus is always a win IMHO 😀 As is the square of 85% Lindt which may or may not have been consumed too….

In the arvo, I spent an age and a half reading through a huge thick psychology research paper in prep for my dissertation (as fun as it sounds), as well as picking 491g of blackberries:

Hurrah!

I also had an unpictured snack of a fresh fig and a 1/4c. cereal <- I wasn’t hungry, but I’m worried (seeing as I never get hungry for snacks) that my metabolism will become snail-like, so I thought a lil somethin’ somethin’ would do me good 😀

Currently, I’m baking oatmeal bars for my mum 😀 Packed with oats, hazelnuts, buckwheat, raisins, dried figs, apricots, pecans and hazelnuts! Quite the mix. Then I shall move onto dinner…

Dinner – last night, it was sooo ace!

Buckwheat & lentils:

Basil tofu:

Roast veggies – broccoli, squash, parsnip.

 

I mixed the buckwheat/lentils with tomato puree, balsamic vinegar, stock and mixed herbs, and when it was done cooking, I stirred in the broccoli and parsnip:

Oohhh it was THE scrummiest meal in a loooooong time!! Seriously, like proper wow. I actually plan on having a total repeat of it tomorrow 😀 And hopefully I’ll be able to slow down and enjoy it a bit more – I had to eat fast cos I was going to my BFF’s house 🙂

My bestie and I had such a nice time 🙂 We just talked, non-stop! LIke, no background noise or TV..just talking 🙂 And a lot (A LOT) of facebook stalking too….grubby skinny lanky 17yr old boys who used to go to our school are now handsome buff mature 20yr old men! I can’t believe how much people change in 3yrs!

It makes me really, really want to go to a reunion in like, 10yrs…I’m hoping my healthy living will mean that I’ll have a (slightly orange, due to all the squash) glow and be fit and bouncy, whilst 99% of people I used to know will be puffed with one too many McDonalds and look 10yrs older than they are….am I being cruel? Maybe. But high school was NOT enjoyable for me, and I sure know the reason why. I’m allowed to dream!!!

Anyway, uh, I seem to have rambled somewhat….I’ll shut up now 😛

Question – have you ever been to a school reunion? What was it like? Orrr if you haven’t, would you want to go to one?

Did you like high school? I was sooo miserable there…my ED started during my last 2yrs there, and I think that place and the people had a lot to do with why 😦

Hmm…let’s finish with a happy note! A bad joke maybe?

Why was the chicken happy?

Everything was egg-cellent….ha!

Hmph.

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