Learn To Love Your Body

HUMP DAY!! At long last 🙂

In honour of the Operation Beautiful book release by Caitlin, and Change the Way You See, Not The Way You Look week…

….I’m doing a post on bodies! Or, more specifically, why we hate our bodies and how to overcome that hate.

First up – why do women (and men) have so little love for their bodies?

I was thinking about this whilst running this morning, and I came up with a few reasons why:

1) The dreaded MEDIA! Magazines, films, websites..they all portray an image of what the ‘perfect’ body should look like – slim, sleek, wrinkle/cellulite/blemish free. It’s no wonder real women feel they aren’t good enough. But we have to remember – the images we see, they’re not real! Think about things like Photoshop and airbrushing….

Kate Moss:

Britney Spears:

Jessica Alba:

The seemingly ageless Madonna:

More Britney:

Km Kardashian:

See what I mean? Yet the [horrors] of airbrushing are so rarely highlighted (except in Britain’s version of Marie Claire magazine, which refuses to use airbrushed photos, anywhere in the magazine). So all day long, women are presented with these ‘perfect’ images – of course we’re going to feel bad about our bodies, because we’re often trying to aim for an impossible standard! I know media images affected me and my ED – In fact, when I was recovering, I banned myself from reading my Vogue magazines; I ended up with a stack of 4 or 5 months! But I just didn’t want to be brainwashed by the images and the idea that it was somehow OK to be freakishly skinny.

2) There are unreal expectations about what our bodies should look like. We see images of and hear about Madonna, or Paula Radcliffe, or Jennifer Aniston – but these folk have an army of people to look after them! Personal trainers, expensive beauty products mere mortals couldn’t afford, chefs, masseuses, and however many other people in their entourage. Heck, I know if I had my own personal Tracy Anderson clone following me about, my body would look a lot different! But would working out 4hrs a day, so I felt like this:

…actually make me like my body any more? Noooo.

3) Punishment. I think women as a whole, are pretty gluttonous about punishing themselves. I shouldn’t have eaten that biscuit, now I have to work out for 1hr more in the gym…My ass looks so giant in those jeans…I don’t deserve to wear those shorts, my legs are too fat…etc etc. We punish our bodies, we punish ourselves, by restricting food, bingeing, over exercising, fat-talking, or anything else. Again, if we’re always mean to ourselves, we’re not gonna feel the love for our bodies are we!?

Of course, there are a billion and one other reasons why we hate our bodies, but I don’t have the space to go through them all. Instead, let’s look at how we can reverse the hate, and learn to LOVE our bodies!

1) Recognise our strengths; we all have bits of ourselves which we don’t like, or that we’re self conscious about. But the trick is to find something – even if it’s just one thing – that we DO love about our bodies. If we can learn to love one thing, than other stuff will follow, or we’ll at least learn to accept our ‘flaws’. Take my sister – she thinks she has chunky legs, but there is one thing she can’t deny; she has the most amazing stomach. Ever. It’s flat and toned, without her needing to do a single sit-up. I am soo envious of her stomach! So, next time you look in the mirror, find one thing to love 🙂

2) Understand that the images we see everyday are NOT real and are NOT the ideal. As I’ve just shown, airbrushing is so amazingly common, that we basically can’t really believe a single thing we see in the media. And besides; maybe blokes do like Megan Fox’s body and would gawp if they saw her on a beach. But at the end of the day, your friends, your family, your partner – they shouldn’t like you because of your body, they should like you because of you. Who cares if you have the odd bit of cellulite!? If they won’t be with you for that reason, they’re not worth their salt. We can be beautiful whatever our shape, fat or thin!

3) Respect our bodies – look at the amazing things we can accomplish! Having a baby, overcoming an illness, running a marathon….it’s all amazing! Since I started running, I’ve developed SO much more respect and love for my body. After all, it got through the 2 years of starvation I gave it, yet it’s still here, it’s still strong, and it can run at least 16miles – soon to be 26.2! Sooo – Respect leads to love, dude! (Said in a crazy hippie voice :p). Respect your body – IT’S AMAZING!

4) Learn how to nourish your body and treat it well. Eat lots of fruits, veggies, grains, healthy fats, legumes. The better you eat, the better you feel. I for one am finding the better I eat, the more I like my body. I’m nourishing myself, and I feel like I’m developing a ‘glow’ almost, from the inside out. Eat crap and you’ll feel like crap. Eat well and you’ll feel well! Positive feelings, thoughts, you’ll feel stronger, brighter..the benefits are endless 🙂 (But still have treats!)

5) Finally – accept what you’ve been given body-wise. Maybe you have large arms. Maybe you have a flat butt (I know I do – hurrumph!). Maybe you’re not built like Giselle. But unless you want to look like this:

..or plan on doing a Heidi Montag, accept who you are. Your body is yours, it’s the only one you’ve got. Life is too short (or too long?) to go through it hating yourself. You, and your body, are fabulous!

So, there you have it 😀 In the spirit of loving out bodies…..Tell me one thing you love about your body. I like my hair, and my eyes 🙂

————-

Looong post, so I’ll shoot through the food today. First up – apple/wheatgerm/square of chocolate –> RUN!

5K as per the marathon plan. I got fab negative splits today!!

8.35   -   8.24   -   7.51

BOO YEAH!

Breakfast was a woooonnderful EGM – all the usual suspects (cereal, milk, yogurt, chia seeds, vanilla, banana, xanthan gum) but with the addition of some pear – WELL good! Toppings = grated cacao, puff cereal, homemade gooseberry jam, granola & dates:

One.

Of.

The.

Best.

Ever.

Lunch was pretty awesome too – I attacked two of these babies:

I scraped the insides out, then seasoned them and baked for 25-30mins:

For the stuffing, I cooked up a mix of red quinoa and buckwheat, with dried mixed herbs, dried basil, seasoning and sundried tomatoes:

Meanwhile, I stir fried the courgette innards (!) with some balsamic vinegar til it was caramelizing:

Theeeen, I added that to the grains along with some more balsamic vinegar, mixed it up, stuffed it into the courgette, and served it with some squash, celeriac and parsnip:

Oh man. The mix was BEAUTIFUL!

Loved. It.

I also had some Fake Cake – cereal blended with a pear, cocoa powder and agave nectar, then nuked in the microwave:

Tasted JUST like chocolate cake!!

I’ll skip posting dinner today and do it tomorrow instead, or this post will reach epic lengths 😛

Don’t forget – Tell me one thing you love about your body!

—–

Of course, I haven’t forgotten it’s Horsey Humpday, so here’s your horsey hit for the day 😀

Read Full Post »

Three Words

Actually, there’ll be more than three words (although still not many – I have lots of pictures!) – but I just wanted an excuse to make y’all listen to this song:

One of my ultimate favourites 😀

Ok, now onto my Sunday! As I say, more photos than talk 😛

The day started with my usual snackage, then a super five mile run (which totally put me on a runner’s high for the day!), done in 43minutes. It went well!! I’ve been doing some walking recently whilst running (30 seconds a mile), but I did NONE today; twas tres pleasing 🙂 When I got back, I cooled off with a quick 1mile walk with my mamma and Poppy 🙂

Breakfast:

HOORAY!

Then, I had a lesson on both Chika and Tig today. Wanna see some Chika and I photos!? They’re not the best, but considering she’s been back in work for about 2 weeks after a 3 month ish break, she’s doing alright 🙂

It took me ages to work out, but we are actually walking in the next photo – at first I thought it was some weird trot canter hybrid 😛

Lol, there we go…my mum missed us!

Chika, Poppy and I – Chika didn’t smile and Poppy was scared of Chika…but still, a cute photo!

I love Chika! Of course, she was super 😀 And Tig was a good boy too. Two horses behaving in one day…a rare thing!

Lunch – very repetitive I’m afraid…

BUT – the SUPER DUPER part of lunch was my dessert…Ohmygosh it was amaze! Worthy-of-its’-own-recipe-page-amaze in fact. Let me introduce you to:

Pear and Papaya Pudding!

• 1 very ripe pear
• some chunks of papaya – maybe 1/3 cup ish
• approx 120g silken tofu
• a splash of milk – 1/8th – 1/4cup, depends on your preference
• nutmeg
• 1 tsp agave/maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Blend blend blend, chill for 25mins or so (in every sense of the phrase :p), and VOILA!

That, my friends, was DELICIOUS!! Make it now, please 🙂

After luncheons, my mum and I took a huge giant road trip. In fact, it took a full TWENTY FIVE minutes, can you believe…why the epic journey? To go see Chahara’s foal of course!

Good news guys – HE’S GOING TO BE OK!! The Powers That Be made his leg much, much straighter 🙂 My aunt actually has a theory – Chahara is a little mare, and Mr Foal (no name yet) was born 8 days early. His leg has straightened out in about 8 days…sooo, it seems he could well have been squished in the womb and came out a little ‘undercooked’ as my aunt called it. Seems reasonable! Anyway – FOAL PICS!

So proud looking:

Hehe, he wanted to go play with the big herd!

Attempting to graze….he looks like a giraffe!

And some more…

Trying to run!

A bit of the other guy…

Cute huh!?

Other afternoon stuff – mucking out, short reading walk, snack:

Then dindins!! Ultimate favourite meal was on the cards – tempeh, with a banana-peanut sauce, durum wheat (yes, *sigh*, AGAIN….I’m so dull :p), cocoa-agave veggies (including yellow courgette, which is DELICIOUS):

LOOOVEEEEE IITTTT!!

Dessert – banana bread and yogurt [later on]. The banana bread was lovely, BUT I think I used too much banana cos it was very very banana-y on the inside…I almost thought it was undercooked! But the flavour was there so that’s the main thing 🙂

And that’s Sunday done!

Monday

Woop woop, I had my first day of volunteering at the charity shop today! I’ll get onto it later though. First up in the day was my 3mile run, as per the marathon plan. It went pretty good- I did 5k as usual, and did it in 26.10, which is a good minute faster than I have been going! To cool off I just did a 1mile speed walk.

Breakfast was a Fake Cake of sorts; 1/2 cup yogurt, 1 cup cereal, 1/2 banana, cocoa powder, all blended up and topped with 2 tbsp Grape Nuts and some tree bark:

Gets better every time!

I took Poppy out for an hour’s speed walk after breakfast, as well as doing some hair washing and packing my lunch….

First up was my new favourite smoothie!

• 1/2 banana
• 1 very ripe pear
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• BEET LEAVES!

Yes, it looks like swamp water..but it was seriously delicious!! The beet taste really came through, but in a wonderful way 🙂 *sigh*. Disaster did strike though – I blended it, took the lid off, thought ‘aaah I’ll give it one more whiz’……but didn’t put the lid back on!

Doh.

2nd part of lunch was this load:

A seitan sandwich – 1 piece of my favourite bread, with cranberry and caramelized onion chutney, cinnamon, salad leaves and seitan:

As well as some baby carrot sticks and courgette:

Good lunch 😀 The afternoon was spent at my first day at work 🙂 I would talk about it, but this post is already very very long so I’ll leave it…

Snack wise, I was pretty hungry when I got back! Enter an unpicturerd apple, and a cereal/yogurt combination:

And now dinner – smoked almond tofu, cocoa rice/spelt/barley, and nutmeg/cinnamon coated kabocha,turnip, parsnip:

Fantastique folks, fantastique!

Dessert – wait til tomorrow! It will be a good’un though 😛

Sorry for the epic length post and for the quick finish! But my computer is MAJORLY threatening to crash with all the info in the post :s soooo, good night!

Read Full Post »

Farewell

Good gracious, I can’t believe that a) it’s the weekend already, and b) it’s JULY! This year is actually flying by…next time I blink I’ll probably be 30 and married with 10 children (though I sincerely hope not). Oooh let me add a c) to stuff I can’t believe – the fact that I’m typing a post out at all! I actually thought either my laptop or myself would have melted away today..it has been SWELTERING (praise be it was a designated no running day!!).

Which is why I was up tres early to get both horses ridden before the real heat kicked in 🙂 I had a quick breakfast before I went out:

That would be another ‘cake’ – ie, 1/2 cup yogurt blended with 1 cup cereal mix, and sprinkled with tree bark and grated cacao:

SOOOO GOOODDDDD!!

I then made the long, winding trek from my front door to the yard to get Chika ready. Bless the horses, they were both in bed when I went out:

I don’t think they felt like working 😛 but anyway, after some huffing and puffing, I managed to drag Fatty out of her slumber and threw some tack on her:

Gotta love the nose net! It helps control her ‘hay fever’ 😀

Anyway, Mrs was very good 🙂 Next up was Tig, who was equally good – but I only managed about 25minutes with him cos the heat was crazycats.

Needless to say I was proper hot when I got in, and although I wasn’t hungry I wanted ice cream…aka BANANA SOFT SERVE! Except, disaster struck….my mini grinder/blender died!

You know it’s bad when you can smell burning rubber and quite literally, a scream coming from the machine. Oh dear. Farewell, little guy. Farewell. Anyway, my banana wasn’t very well blended in the big smoothie maker, but I did the best I could:

And it still tasted FABULOUS, and was super refreshing!

My next mission was a trip into town – remember that job interview from Monday? Yeah, I didn’t get it 😦 BUT, a new Sue Ryder Care charity shop has just opened, so I’m going to volunteer in there 🙂 I figure all experience is good, and plus, I’ll be helping people 😀 Soo I went into town to fill in a few forms etc.

While I was out, I snacked on an apple – no photo, I’m sure y’all know what it looks like 😛

Lunch was truly scrummy! A 2 parter again – Part 1) 40g dry weight lentils cooked up, and mixed with roast parsnip, carrot and broccoli, on a bed of salad, tomatoes and spinach:

I let everything cool a bit, then topped it with balsamic. It was soo lovely and filling 🙂

For an extra protein/fruit/dessert kick, I blended together a whole load of strawberries with some silken tofu, cinnamon, 1/2 tsp xanthan gum and a tsp of agave, then sprinkled it with cinnamon and cocoa powder:

WOWZERS! It was like a deeply rich, fruity, thick mousse type thing….wonderful!!

Rest of the arvo – the usual. Dog walk, mucking out, and practicing my Ball Boy stance whilst watching Nadal v Murray. Anyone else think Andy Murray is kinda cute?

Yes:

No:

Yes:

Verdict? Have a vote 😀

Snackwise, I’ve had a whole load of strawberries…

…. and 2 tsp wheatgerm 🙂

Now, for dinner, I just had to do some repetition – After my chickpea fail yesterday, I wanted to redeem their reputation 🙂 Sooo I did roasted smoked paprika/cinnamon chickpeas, with seitan, broc-broc and agave coated kabocha and parsnip:

Reputation saved 😀 I like chickpeas again!! Super fabulous meal 😀

So what is everyone up to tonight? I’ve got a date with a Big Brother eviction – after all, NONE of my friends are home at the moment, so I’m somewhat alone 😥

Question: Do you think Andy is cute, or am I mad!?

——

Random Update A) Obama ran away a few weeks ago 😦 She didn’t like Poppy..so that was that 😦 😦

Random Update B) You know how I always bang on about how pathetic Carter is about hunting, and how he likes butterflies and bugs? Well, he’s TURNED!! He caught, tortured, and half ate a PIDGEON today!! My baby has gone to the Dark Side 😥

Random Thing C) Hehe, normally, I get  a lot of searches from search engines which are just ‘brit chick runs’, that kinda thing. Yesterday though, I didn’t have any of them – check out what I had instead:

LOL!! Gotta love search engines/the people who search in them 😛

Read Full Post »

Stale Tastes

I have a new horse to introduce you to later! Note the word ‘later’ though – you have to wade through all the food stuff first 😛

—-

An apple, a square or 2 of rather odd hemp chocolate and 2 tsps of wheatgerm were quite delightful fuel before a Davina/Jillian date this morning 🙂 I had cross training pencilled in today as per the marathon plan, so I just take that to mean I get a DVD day 😀

Now, I’m going to shock you all with my rather surprising breakfast:

Yes! That is an EGM!! They don’t appear round these lonely parts often do they? OH no. Twas mighty fine tasting, I think I might be having one of them again pretty soon….

After breakfast, I had DEUX horses to ride – Chika and Tig. As Hannah is in Uganda, she wants someone to keep her horse fit, so I’m going to be riding him for the next few weeks. It’s so odd riding a different horse, when you are SO moulded to one horse (Chika). Something else just feels so wrong! And the view from the top was so different….Tig has little weeny ears, Chika has donkey ears, Tig has a long giraffe-like neck, Chika has a shorter thicker neck, Tig has a thick full mane, Chika has a quite pathetic excuse for a mane! Very, very weird. Anyway, both horses behaved very well for me, despite that NASTY HORRIBLE HORSE FLIES that decided to come out and play 😦 GRR! I smacked one that was feasting on Chika’s shoulder, and got blood all over my hands 😦 sick people, sick.

After riding, I got to making mon lunch 🙂 First up, I baked a spaghetti squash, and then gutted the helpless thing:

Theeen, I made some oatmeal, with 1/2 cup mix of barley flakes and oats. I cooked it with 3 tbsp ish of Noosh, the spaghetti squash, and mixed spice:

And then when it was almost done, I stirred in some roasted parsnip and turnip, and stir fried fennel and pear (very random right!?). I then served it in the shell:

OIASS (Oats in a squash shell) if you will! Twas deliciously yummsom.

For my dessert, I made one of my cereal/yogurt ‘cakes’ with cinnamon:

So goooood!

For the rest of the day, I took Poppy out for a bit and bimbled about, made some phone calls, all the usual…then snacked on – yet another – pear, cinnamon and cereal mix combo:

The pear was nuked in the microwave first 🙂 I think all it’s juiced seeped into the cereal and made it really soft…almost stale like! And I LOVED IT. Apparently I like stale, soft, soggy-ish cereal 😛 It’s one of my favourite snacks! Each to their own right?

Dinner was another favourite – tempeh! I will never, ever get bored of tempeh. It’s overtaken tofu, chicken, salmon and trout in the Utimate Favourite Protein Lump stakes (yes I’m vegan – but I used to LOVE the taste of salmon and trout, and the texture of chicken). I just can’t get enough 😀 Anyway yes, I had the tempeh with veggies and some homemade hummus type stuff:

The ‘hummus’ was just a serving of chickpeas, blended with cinnamon, nutmeg, water, s+p, cocoa and date syrup. Tres simple ay? Also tres delicious? No not really!It actually wasn’t very nice at all 😦 Oh well…I learn from my mistakes 🙂

Ok, it’s that time of day again…Poppy walking calls me 🙂

Question: What’s your favourite snack? I’m all about the cereal with just about anything 😀

—-

Horsey Photo Of The Day Time!

Let me introduce y’all to LILY!

Lily actually has quite a sad tale – she was Hannah’s first ‘proper’ horse; we got her in 2004 I think. Her and Hannah were SO suited, as in they were both MENTAL – They liked to go fast and gallop everywhere 😛 So obvously, they loved cross country….

…But that’s the sad part 😦 During one of their events, Lily injured her hindleg, something right in the tendons and ligaments. Over the next 2 years or so, Lily kept going lame randomly, and then getting better again. She’d also jump fine, then randomly stop at jumps for no apparent reason. Then after one particuarly successful event, Lily went lame again. This time, she was sent to Newmarket (Horse vet central) and had the works done – scans, x-rays, various tests etc, and although she was only a tiny tiny bit unsound at the time, as it turned out, her original injury all those years before had been far worse. In fact, her leg was basically a ticking time bomb – at any time, it might suddnely break down, and she’d be very very lame, and in a heck of a lot of pain.

So, the decision was made to put her down. It was so gutting – her and Hannah were like Chika and I (soul mates, totally in love!), and so to lose her was terrible. But it wasn’t fair to keep her alive; her leg could have gone any second, she wouldn’t be able to work anymore anyway and she’d have to live in the stable. Lily was a mental mare – she NEEDED work, and she NEEDED her field.

Chika and Lily were best friends:

And I think it’s only recently – 2years later – that she’s really gotten over Lily’s death. But, there are positives! If Lily hadn’t gone, Hannah never would have got Tig. Although Tig isn’t a replacement, she is having so much fun with him and she’s learnt a lot. Plus, wherever Lily is, she’s much happier now 🙂

Lily was probably Hannah’s first truly special pet – do you, or have you, ever had a really, really special animal, one that isn’t just a pet? Chika is mine – I actually got a lump in my throat and tears welled in my eyes today..why? Cos I was just gazing at her!! I love her SO much lol 😛

Read Full Post »

Angry Days

Rawhrhgthgy!?*&%!.

You know those days where you just wake up in the most foul mood known to man, and nothing will make it go away? I’ve had one of those 😦 It’s been horrible. BUT, I shall put on a Big Cheesy Grin and recap the day!!

It began wiiittthhh…an apple, a square of chocolate and 2 tsp wheatgerm! OH how repetitive am I :p I then went out on another 5k run (in almost exactly 27minutes) as per the marathon training programme.

Now, I had left myself plenty of time this morning to run, cool off, pretty myself up, have breakfast etc and then leave my for job interview which was at 11am. However, the Powers That Be decided to send in some bloke to read the electricity metre today, which totally threw me! As Hannah was still asleep, I had to sort him out – he took aaggggeesss!! It was SO frustrating, cos I could see the clock ticking away…..anyway, he left, and I continued – somewhat hurridly – to get ready. I was just packing up my stuff when I realised my CV was missing – cue manic searching for it. In the end, I had to boot up my mum’s OAP-speed desktop to re-print it out That was another like, 15minutes wasted!!?? SOOO as a result – breakfast was tres rushed and very dull!!

Smoothie – a banana, 1 cup yogurt, 1 tbsp protein powder, cinnamon, 1tsp carob powder:

No time for toppings ;( but it was delicious in the 5 or so seconds I had to drink it :p

Other half of breakfast was eaten on my way, cos I ran out of time. Twas a blend of 1 cup of cereal with some cantaloupe melon and a splash of milk:

It looks gross, and I thought it would taste gross – after all I didn’t even have time to blend it properly! BUT, after the 1/2 hour or so it waited before it was eaten, it became a delicious cake-like mixture!! It was WONDERFUL! Moral of the story – don’t knock ugly food til you’ve tried it 😛

Next up was my job interview – quite informal, and the job looks AMAZING but to be honest, I don’t want to get my hopes up…so far I haven’t heard anything, so I’m going to try and put it out of my mind 😦

I then shot home at Superman-on-crutches speed, so I could change and take my gran out for a delayed birthday lunch 🙂 We went to a little farm cafe not far from us – the vegan selection was non-existent (as is the case outside of London…), but they did have a bean burger which was vegan apparently, so I had that with a salad of sweet potato, cous cous, beetroot and raisins:

Hmm..somewhat lacking on the sweet tater and cous cous!!?? There was like, one giant mouthful’s worth!! Alas :s The burger itself was just ok – just like something you could buy in Tesco, ie a bit processed tasting. But meh, that’s what you get for being vegan apparently!! Anyway, I ate all of it, bar the burger bun.

When I got home, I tucked into a very very delicious juicy pear for dessert:

If I had a way with the words, I’d write a poem declaring my love for the simple – yet BEAUTIFUL – pear….said poem will have to wait I think :p

What was left of the afternoon was spent doing Jillian part TROIS, sorting out the horses, having a mini freakout, and taking Poppy out for a half hour.

In between all that, I ate the most skanky, dusty (!?) apple ever (yes – it was dusty. That’s the only way I can think to describe it!!), and having another ‘cake’ snack:

That would be a cup of cereal blended with 1/2 cup yogurt and sprinkled with cinnamon (yes, I was hungry :P). Again, it looks gross – but believe me, it was SOO lovely!! TRY IT!

My dindins was very comforting – I seriously needed it today…Tempeh, with peanut butter/maple syrup parsnip fries, kabocha, celeriac and butter beans:

Gosh darn it, that meal was perfect – it hit the spot 100% and was just what I needed 🙂 Plus, those fries were SO darn crispy!! A true delight 😀

My mum and I are now going on a Poppy walk – I actually have a few problems at the moment which I really need her help on (actually, I could use all of you guys’ help! But I’m reluctant to blog about it, cos I’m not sure who reads my blog :s) so I better dash off! Have a nice evening 🙂

—-

Ok – I just said I wasn’t sure who read my blog right? So, I’m going to completely nick this lovely lady’s idea, and ask y’all, chat roomy stylee – A/S/L!?

(That’s age/sex/location 😛 tell me about yourselves! Come out of the woodwork! I want to know everyone :D)

Read Full Post »