It finally happened!!

I bet by now you were thinking this face/butt/boob lift for the blog would never happen right? Well, how wrong you were, cos it has!!

The dot wordpress has been dropped (thank goodness) and I’m now all lovely and self hosted – plus, recipes have been updated, the About page has been updated, and there will soon be QUESTIONS answered in the FAQ page! Expect a post about that soon, so if you have anything you wanna ask, write it down now or forever hold your peace 🙂

Sooo anyway, update your google readers, blogrolls, cross out the ‘.wordpress’ on all the Post-Its you have stuck round your house reminding you of my blog, and for my single fan who has http://www.britchickruns.wordpress.com tattooed on himself? Well…you’re beyond help.

I also have to give a MASSIVE shout out to my beloved Jess, who has helped me SO much with this – I can’t thank her enough! (cue Oscars-speech worthy crying)

—–

Onwards and upwards 🙂 (and excuse the mega length of this post – it’s been 2days, what’s a blogger to do!?)

Oh gawsdshshdhs! Was it really only Thursday when I last blogged?? Judging by the amount of photos on my camera, you’d think whole lifetimes had passed. Instead, there’s just been many, many bowls of oatmeal:

Ok, two.

Two is enough.

Cinnamon overripe pear though – you can never have enough of them!

Did you know I eat the core and all? The ONLY bit I don’t eat is the stick at the top 🙂

—

Ok, now let’s take a journey back in time; you may recall my socca FAIL on…Thursday? Well, I am not one to be beaten by bad food, oh no. I will fight back, fight hard, and fight dirty. In the case of the aforementioned socca, it did NOT get thrown away. Instead, I mixed it with the remains of my curry soya mince….

Served alongside….what else, roasted veggies!!

HA! The socca was TASTY! Take THAT, world!! I think the flavah-flaves infused overnight or something, cos it really was faboosh 🙂 In fact, I decided to make yet more socca today for lunch 🙂 This time, I loosely followed Ashley’s socca recipe, although I adjusted the measurements cos there’s only one o’ me. Oh, the life of a singleton ay?

You know what that is? GREASE. Yes, I GREASED my pan today. Non-greased pan = one messed up messy load of mess (shan’t be making that mistake again).

Ummmm…did it work?

I baked that early in the day, and then just let it sit and hang around for a while whilst I did other things (*cough-play007JamesBond on the Wii like a little boy – cough*). Theeen I served it, with a brussels sprouts/shallots/garlic stir fry (using the same spices + tomato puree, thrown in for good measure)

I got a bit carried away taking pictures 😛

It WORKED! It

was

delicious

🙂

I really can’t describe the texture – kinda like seitan, but…more dough-y, less chew-y….honestly, I think the best thing would be if you just made the darn stuff. It’s so easy! Chickpea flour is pretty common (it’s called gram flour too) – Waitrose have it, I’m preeetty sure Tesco have it, and loads of independent shops/probzably ethnic stores have it. Make it your Sunday mission! My Sunday mission will be to make more of it, fo sho – I think it’d make a hotdiggity quick nutritious lunch to eat at uni (I normally only have a 10-minute midway lecture break to eat lunch). Sooooortttiiiiddddd.

—

Twas an odd start this morning. I rented a film last night (The Switch – I LOVE Jennifer Aniston, she be my girl crush, but the film…? Hmm…not so much. It was ok, but the ending bugged the hell outta me. Plus I think the lead bloke had an annoying face. Heh.) so I drove into town quickly this mornin’ to return it. When I got up though, the appetite had vamooshed, so I forwent (forgoed?) breakfast (:O that NEVER happens!) and instead treated myself to a lovely cappuccino 🙂

By the time I’d got home, I was ready for oats!

*insert picture of oats here*

I also did hay-unloading, which I think made my injured ankle very angry; it felt faaairly OK this morning, but after lugging big old hay bales about, it’s felt much more sore all day 😦 It’s been a week since I did it!! Gah. I am SO fed up with being injured, #stoopidcrankybody. I NEED it to be healed by Weds-ish, so I can go for a short run to report back to Mr FF (Mr Fit Physio, in case you forgot) about how my legs are feeling – we have another date (fine, APPOINTMENT) on Friday yee see…

Oh well.

I’m a firm believer that good food can heal.

So I made some more 🙂

Roasted celeriac, parsnip and butternut, with a 1/2 serving of peanut flour, mixed with cocoa powder and agave nectar…

…for the dippeh-dippeh, obvs.

5 stars 🙂

(FYI – chocolate peanut blob stuff goes REALLY well with curry socca!! – and that’s for realz yo!)

Now, this afternoon, I was craving oats in a jar. Problemo = no empty jars. So, I decided to bake my mum some peanut buttery bars, purely so I’d have an empty jar ready and waiting 😀

Bars:

Jar:

Mission: accomplished.

I didn’t actually have OIAJ this eve tho – I had YIA1/2C for a snack instead!

You didn’t think I’d let my peanut buttery measuring cup used for the PB bars go to waste did you!!??

That’s be yogurt in a 1/2 cup, for you lay folk :p

Noowww – I feel this post is approaching the heck-I-don’t-wanna’read-anymore stage (if it hasn’t already), so I’ll leave you with two other fabulous eats 😀

Item One: A beautiful Green Monster (kale, soya milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, banana)

Item Two: Blackened tofu (marinated in cocoa balsamic, ketchup, mirin, soy sauce)

Highlights of my weekend 🙂

Tell me, my lovelies – who do you have a crush on? I have a BIG crush on my physio, but other than him – Channing Tatum, Josh Hartnett (circa Pearl Harbour & Lucky Number Slevin) annnd…..hmm….one more…that’s a toughie. OH! R-Patz!! I am very Team Edward, he has stolen my heart 🙂

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No Gaga, No.

I’m really not feeling the new Lady Gaga song. Like, really, reaaally not feeling it. In my own nasty little way, I’m highly relieved she isn’t number one today. But seriously – does anyone else find that she annoys the heck out of them, or is that just me!!?? Heh.

——- AAANNNYYWWAAY ———–

My Heidi-Montag-esque makeover shoooould be coming tomorrow, I’m hoping – but we shall see 🙂 In the meantime, I’ll do a normal, pre-surgery post 🙂 And let me tell youz – there’s a lorra food photos I want to show y’all! I know that can be boring sometimes, but och ay, there’s been some scrummy stuff 😛 Let’s start from the beginning shall we? Walk with me….

(Now I totally have images of Hugh Hefner, walking through his Perv Mansion smoking a bubble pipe and wearing a dressing gown. Oh my mind is bleary, late on a Sunday eve!)

Friday

Bah, mucho stresso came on Fritag. I originally thought I was going to have a lovely relaxing day, going into town, getting a cappuccino, looking in the charity bookshops…til I got a phonecall which changed my life forever. Well, it changed my Friday plans at least. To cut a long story short, I ended up standing around the PC World carpark for a half hour, holding a laptop to give to my dissertation partner. Not fun times.

Breakfast was ace though! I tried out some new oatmeal that my delightful friend Jess sent me!

Maple Apricot Walnut oatmeal, to be precise! Full of chunks of walnut and a maple-y flavour and bits of plump dried fruit – it was the BOMB!

9g protein per serving too 🙂

That milkyish blob in the middle? Why, it was maple cream of course! Fresh from a cardboard box which was fresh from the hills of Vermont – tedious link, I know 😀

One word – ohmygod.

A pear was also consumed –

– why you need to see a picture of a half eaten pear is beyond me.

Equally so for a picture of tofu:

My only explanation is that the glaze on it (tomato puree, balsamic, maple syrup, cinnamon, soy sauce, and apple cider vinegar) was out of this WORLD!

Green Monster:

Craving: satisfied.

Saturday now 🙂

Well, the Holly’s Oatmeal oats yesterday kept me full for hours and hours and hoooouuurrrsss. Normal oatmeal on Sat – I was a Starvin’ Marvin’ after about 1.5hrs!

What’s with that!?

Despite the addition of melted banana with Mighty Maple PB & Co. And a Snackimal, for good measure :p

Oh well, the stomach gods demanded food, the stomach gods received food – in the mighty fine and dandy form of KALE CRISPINS and BLACK BEAN BROWNIES!!!

It was my fourth time making these, and I seriously love them more and more each time 😀 I even cut the sugar down on this version – 1/4c., not a 1/3rd (or maybe that was the agave I cut down..I forget) and they still turned out SO moist (errh), gooey and rich and delicious!

I’ve already had three 🙂

Now, here’s something else I made:

Wtf right? It iiissss:

Kabocha Squash and Peanut Banana Soft Serve!

Quite the moutful, to say and to eat, but ohholywozer was it iiiiiinncredible.

• roasted kabocha squash – 1/2 c. maybe? I left the skins on :p
• 1 frozen banana
• approx. 1/4 – 1/3 c. frozen melon
• 1/2 serving (15g) peanut flour
• a dash of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2-4tbsp water (maybe more – it depends on your blender and how thick you like it)

Put everything in the blender, starting with the liquid at the bottom and the hardest thing on top, and BLEND.

Simple but oh so good! I wish my pictures could do it justice – I took a whole bunch, but the nasty yellow lighting in the kitchen + yellow food made for bright orange pics 😥

See? Bah.

There’s also been OIAJ action this weekend:

And more chocolate :p

Sunday now yah? (wow, I cannae believe how long it’s been since I last did a proper post..sheesh.)

Oh, today was a Bad Day. After the success of last Sunday’s 6mile run, and a random one in the week, I was feeling pretty pumped for today! I ate a huge massive apple, wehatgerm and a few other bites before I left, then set out on my merry way. Merry it was NOT.

The Angry Legs were back with a vengeance! Shin pain at times, calf pain at times, alternating the area and amount constantly. One minute my left shin hurt, then that would be ok and my right calf would hurt. It was nasty! There were a lot of tears on that run, a lot of tears…

By the time I got back, I was ready for some stir fried pear, yogurt and date syrup:

(that was really yummy!) And some good ol’ oats:

Whilst the oats were setting, my mum and I went on a 1mile cool down/stretch out walk, and do you know what she did? She offered to pay for a sports physio for me! I almost cried when she offered!!! So yes, this means that I have officially declared war on my blasted legs. Next week will be my 6th week of pain, and really – the joke is wearing thin. Tomorrow morning, I gather my ammo! (ie, make an appointment).

After breakfast, my mum and I decided to take the dawg for a walk in the forest. We thought we’d do about an hour/3miles.…but we got lost. Alone, we can navigate fine. Together? Not so much! We are masters of getting lost 😛 I’m surprised we don’t need a map to navigate our own kitchen sometimes.

So anyway – 5miles/1hr45mins later, we made it back to the car 🙂 We were both hangry for lunch when we got home!

I whipped up a pear-melon-vanilla-banana soft serve:

As well as other bits and bobs, but apparently that is the point where I forgot to photo anything else – abrupt finish, I know!! Other eats did include black bean brownies though, you can be sure of that 😛

Anyway – I have blog work, uni work and sleep work to do now 😀 so I be off. Fare yee well my loves 🙂

Question: Are you good at getting lost?

Best thing you ate this weekend? Mine was the kabocha peanut banana s-s, without a doubt :p orrrr the black bean brownies…..

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Fill Me Up

Seriously, legs? SERIOUSLY!?

You know I said yesteryear that the pain in the old shins seemed a little less? Well, have I got a tale for you!

Actually, I don’t, I just like that phrase 🙂 but anyway – when i went to bed last night, a NEW PAIN arose! This time, if I flex my left foot up or down, there’s a slight weird niggly odd feeling in the [tendon?] verticle to about my 3rd toe. Gah. It doesn’t feel like it’s ohemgee-need-an-operation serious (though saying that, it’ll probably turn out to be gangrene, and this time next week I won’t even have a left foot to moan about), but I sure am thankful I’ve got a doctor’s appointment tomorrow! Finger’s crossed Mr Doc can solve my woes 🙂

In the meantime, I’ll settle on other, less scary ways to make me smile:

MM…more oats in a jar.…(and I still have another empty jar waiting! Hooray!)

Howevz, the problem with these tiny 227g jars is that they hardly fit a darn thing in them! Hence why the overflow was served up with a side of melon:

Overflow:

Melon:

Yes.

I tried to be different today, and mixed in some carob powder and maple syrup – a combination I normally love – but it did NADA today! I could barely taste it! Alas, I still did a sweet as job of cleaning the jar:

hehe! My thumbnail looks so neat and tidy in that pic! If ONLY you could see the state my nails are really in 😛 I try and grow them and file them and make them look preddy, but horses + cold weather + haynets + rug buckles = skanky nails. BOO HISS.

—

So, at the weekend, my stepdad made something using chopped tomatoes (hear me out). Since that day (Satdee), the half empty can – NO! Scrap that! The half FULL can (positivity folks!) has been sitting in the fridge, looking sad and lonely. Every day, i’ve said to my mamma, those tomatoes need using up…but nothing happened. So, today, i TOOK. CHARGE. I had beets on my mind, cocoa, and tomatoes – which called for only one thing; a beet cocoa tomato sauce!

Before you go getting those knickers in a twist over my sheer genius at the combination, I can’t take credit for it 😥 In fact, it was a recipe over at (Never)Home Maker that created it. Howevverrr, when I stopped by there today, i could find no trace of said recipe. OH! So here’s what went in the mix:

1/2 can chopped tomaddoes

2 tsps cocoa powder

salt to taste

a squeeze or so of agave (to taste)

a lorra dried mixed herbs

a scrunch of pepper (yep, to taste)

a lorra mixed spice

1 giant and 1 small cooked beet (aka 2 medium beets!)

I shoved it all in Vincent:

Made him do that blendy thing he does oh-so well, and voila!

One gloriously rich tasting sweet lovely sauce!

I had a load of it mixed with chickpeas, alongside perfect roast veggies and stir fried cabbage with soy sauce and garlic:

I can’t decide…..

Very scrumptious! My mum finished off the other half of the sauce with some pasta this evening 🙂

Talking of this evening – mine was finished off with a healthy dose of textbook and chocolate:

NOW – moving on.

I’ve received a few comments recently about – yet again – portion size (some more politely put than others! :() and I feel I need to address the issue. It’s something which has been brought up on other blogs before (see Emily’s post, and Katie’s brief referral at the end of her post) and I have actually talked about it on here before, but I shall do again.

I do have big portions! And I’m not ashamed to admit it! I can look at some blogs and envy the tiny delicate neat plates..but that’s not me. I just don’t feel satisfied without a good load of food in my stomach 😀 In an ideal world, I would like to eat smaller portions cos yes, sometimes I do feel uncomfortably full after a meal. But as Katie said in her post – sometimes it’s worth it! I LOVE roast veggies (like, seriously) and I LOVE taking my time over meals, savouring every bite. Ergo, i tend to make a lot of my favourite foods, and spend ages enjoying them 🙂 Tis how I roll! At some point, I would like to reduce my portion sizes (we’re talking about veg here) just so my vision of what is ‘normal’ doesn’t get TOTALLY skewed, but for now – I like eating lots of veg, and that’s what I’m gonna keep on doing.

At least until my supply of parsnips and/or squash runs out – they’re the only veg worth really pulling the boat out for 😛

Question: How do you judge portion size? Do you like large portions, or small portions?

—–

Lighten the mood a bit, shall we?

Blog searches (everyone seems to be doing these atm!)

– old cereal

– foods that take 2days (2 days to what, I say??)

– wonder woman photoshop

– swap your wife.com (my post entitled ‘I’d swap my wife for peanut butter hummus’ or something, written about 10months ago, is still haunting me then….)

– eat live run green monster (eerrr wrong blog – I think you either want here or here)

– kate moss smoking (x 2 – why does that phrase get me so many hits!?)

And my personal favourite:

– fully nakd girles (whoever searched that clearly needs to check his/her spelling, if they want to get what they’re REALLY looking for!)

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Dairy Debate Part Deux + Roast Veg 101

Holla holla!

Aight? How’s Humpday treating you? I’ve had a tiring one! And a cold one, and a wet one, and a busy one and a jar-filled one. Let’s start from the top:

Woke up from a terrrrible night of sleep; at 3.30am, I awoke thinking I had a runny nose. I touched my nose, and it turned out I had a nose bleed!!?? And not just any old one, a real bad one! Wtf? I hadn’t banged my nose, I don’t have a cold…I just got a nose bleed, randomly in the night. I got one randomly the other day too :s eek!

Anywayz, that kept me up for a good 1/2hr +, so I was not a happy camper when the old alarm buzzed this morning. Nothing an apple, wheatgerm and Jillian won’t solve :p I put on my shin sleeves today, to see if they would fall off/cut off circulation to my foot and turn it blue. As it turns out, the latter was the case – they were too tight, and I think they actually CAUSED me pain! Sooo I’ll be sending them back 😛 Nice try, sleeves, nice try.

Post Jillian, I went for a walk/run (whilst feeling very, very sorry for myself. I just want to RUN! Properly! None of this pain-faff). Now, if before, the pain was 8/10, today it was maybe 6/10! That’s LESS!!

LESS!!!!!!!!

Still there, and still stopping me from running….But

LESS!

I’m still gonna see the doc though. I’m not convinced I’m healing…..(oohh – do you think a lack of sleep + stress could be causing me problems?)

Breakfast came in the form of melon, frozen grapes and coffee:

Why oh why do my photos look dark on here? They’re BRIGHT on my camera! Booooo hiss.

Alongside 1/2 c. oats, cooked wiiiith salt, cinnamon, vanilla and lots o’ water, with a soya yogurt and milk swirl at the end:

There are oats in there :p

Very scrummeh 🙂 (hating the dark camera work. Seriously.)

I spent the morning doing animal instinct research – the topic of my coursework for my animal behaviour module (the ONE module I actually LIKE at uni!!!). I feel like I accomplished soo much, it was fab! Don’t you love being on a work-related role!? And it was the perfect day to be stuck inside – outside was cold and wet and windy and looked like junk. I’ll take a warm kitchen and a laptop any day 🙂

At lunch, I really wasn’t very hungry, but that’s besides the point – I decided to do a roast veg tutorial! See, one of the most common email questions I get from readers is how do I roast my veggies? So today, I’ve decided to reveal my method….

Step One: Get a roasting/oven tray, and grease it/spray it/do whatever you want to it so crap doesn’t stick to it (dang I know how to phrase things well!)

Step Two: Gather your veg together:

Today, I went for celeriac, parsnip (the best thing to roast!), butternut squash, leek and aubergine.

Step Three: Cut up all your victims into little bite-size ish chunks (if you want a quicker cooking time, like me) that are all roughly the same size:

Now – with parsnips, I do something different – I alllllwaaaaays cut out THIS bit:

The core-y section. For some reason unbeknownst to me, that bit never seems to cook and always stays hard, so I just cut it out (and eat it whilst I’m cutting – I love raw parsnip :p)

Step Four: Season!

Salt, pepper, cinnamon, thyme, dried herbs, cocoa, agave nectar…whatever you want! I went for salt, pepper, mixed herbs, and HP sauce 🙂

Spray/drizzle oil/etc and then you’re good to go! I bake mine in the Aga hot oven, which is…er…hot. I don’t know the exact temp! I’d reckon it’s probably 180degrees/350F plus, but I’m not sure. The Aga is also a genius at keeping in moisture, whilst the fan oven we have is a NASTY piece of work and dries food out. So you’ll have to experiment 😀

I roast for abbbout 20-25mins, turning and spraying half way through. You’ll know everything is done cos if you stab it all with a knife, it’ll be soft (and hopefully gooey, if you like ’em like me :p). Then – serve!

There you have it, a plate of perfect roast veg 🙂

Soooo good!

Oh – that jar on the side? An empty PB jar….I ate the WHOLE thing JUST by dipping my knife in it whilst cooking! Holy cow. There was basically zero PB left, but even so, I stuffed in some lightly boiled sprouts and broccoli:

What can I say, I had a green craving. (FYI – cinnamon raisin PB residue and Brussels sprouts DOES work! You heard it here first.)

I’ll get onto lunch part two in a minute 🙂

Firstly – oh yum:

Oh yes:

Oh yay!

Baked for Mamma-Bear’s place of work 🙂

Next up on the OhYum-OhYes-OhYay scale? OATS IN A JAR! Lunch’s veg-in-a-jar just didn’t cut it, so I did it the reaaaal way 😀

• 55g oats
• salt
• agave
• vanilla
• cinnamon
• 1 serving peanut flour
• water
• an empty-ish (crunchy!) PB jar

Bowl for overflow:

I’m so grateful my Mamman AND my sister eat peanut butter now – a steady stream of empty jars comin’ my way 🙂

More squishy roast veg (cooked in apple balsamic, cinnamon, agave, mixed herbs, salt)

Dessert:

Stellar ingredients list!

The last of my frozen grapes! *sadface*

Yum yes yay 🙂

———-

Now, back to lunch. This bit links up to the Dairy Debate Part Deux! I’m sure y’all remember the Dairy Debate Part Une (I don’t have a link…gah, just scroll down the blog a bit :p), and I think this picture explains my conclusion:

Greek yogurt (and a banana).

I’ve actually been pretty…worried? about writing about this on the blog, but now’s the time. Here’s the thing:

I decided to TRY having a pot of Greek yogurt a few weeks back. The first time I had it, it was like ‘oohh yes, I needed that’. Since then, I’ve had a handful of pots, but already I don’t feel the need for it as much (today, it was a bit blah). However, at this time in my life, I don’t feel quite confident enough in my food choices (if that’s the right phrase) to branch out more into new foodie-territories. TBH, I’m so stressed and all over the place right now that my diet is pretty limited and ‘safe’ cos I’m not in the right head space to go mad experimenting, which is a shame; mentally, half of me does NOT want to eat that yogurt (ethics). But the other half knows I need non-soy protein, and is telling me to eat it. I’m not happy as such about eating it, and I can’t wait for the day when I feel calm/collected/brave enough to venture out into non-soy related proteins and use them to my advantage….if that makes any sense. But right now, I’m just not brave enough! I’ll get there soon.

I do however still think of myself as vegan. Ok, a lot of you may disagree with me there – but I will ONLY eat the odd pot at home, and on rare occasions (literally, once a week). If I went to a restaurant or was on a plane or whatever, I would describe myself as vegan, and I still believe in veganism. I’m just trying to do what’s right for me RIGHT NOW, and sometimes that means stepping away from the label and following what I need.

It’s a weird one!

Any thoughts?

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The Curious Case of the Painful Shins

Don’t forget to enter my give away!

Sorry for the wordy post..better wordy than nothing right!!?? At least I hope so…

I swear this week I don’t know if I’m coming or going! The work has piled up already, and I’m having THE hardest time trying to sort out schools and nurseries for going in with my trusty laptop to test the children. All these darn rules and regulations – they all seem to think I’ve come to kidnap the children, or at least cause them serious physical or mental harm (fyi – I won’t be doing either). Gah.

Onwards and upwards right?

Well, actually not really 😦 So, last week was a strange one, running wise. I did a Grande Total of 40miles (equal to the toughest week in my novice training plan for the marathon last year) – 2 x 6milers (one of which was broken down into two, 3miles), 1 x 5miler, 2 x 6.5milers, plus 1 day off and a 10mile run on Sunday. I’ve been building up to this mileage for a while now, keeping the old 10% rule in mind – but my runs on Saturday and Sunday (two three milers on Sat, 10miles Sun) were…..hellish, to say the least.

In fact, I almost had to give up completely on Sunday. Why?

PAIN!

Lots n lots of PAIN!

Down the front of my shins….ie, I think I have shin splints.

Which is crap.

Especially since:

• I have brand new running shoes (same as the ones I got professionally fitted)
• I haven’t disobeyed the 10% rule (don’t increase mileage more than 10% week to week)
• I haven’t suddenly upped my pace
• I haven’t stopped eating right
• I’m not dehydrated
• I have rest/easy days
• ….get my drift?

I seem to be following the rules, so why is this happening?? On Saturday, I had to stop – literally – every .3 of a mile to relieve my legs. On Sunday, I desperately wanted to do a long run, so I decided to go for it and arranged to meet my kind hearted mumma at the 6mile point, so if I felt awful, she could drive me home. Sadly, I did feel awful. The pain down the front of my legs was intense! But ONLY when running, and after about .1 or .2 of a mile did it kick in. The second I walked, the pain would go. When I met my mum at mile6, I was only 3miles from home, so I arranged to walk for 2miles (I needed the headspace time!) and then meet her again.

I think mentally, knowing I was going to see her helped, cos I ran walked those 2miles, at about a 12min/mile pace, walking as soon as I felt pain. I got to our meeting point early, so I ran/walked another mile or so, at about a 10.30pace, then I met her and she dropped me off 1/2 mile from home, so i could finish bang on 10miles. I have never, ever EVER not done the mileage I set out to do, hence why i sooo badly wanted to finish!

My total time was 1hr40, averaging a 10min/mile pace – but that time doesn’t include all the stopping to stretch, talk to my mum etc. I was actually out of the house for just over 2hrs.

I’m not really sure where to go from here…

My mum suggested I go see a physio, cos maybe my style of running is at fault and is causing stupid pressure points and so on, each time I hit the ground(after all, the trainer foot people, when I went to get gait analysis for my Brooks, told me I had a really weird gait!) – suuuucks, cos they cost a BOMB!

My other option is to start focusing on doing some more core work, to improve my running style; Runner’s World told me core work is very, very important for runners, and DOES lessen the chance of injury, cos you’re more stable and strong as you run- sooo maybe it’s my (sloppy?) style that is putting my legs out of whack? (holy batman I have a gum craving right now, as I type this…)

The other option is, of course, to stop running. Buuutt, i am really not happy about that – I’m entered for a half marathon in a few weeks, I have a marathon planned later in the year, and to be honest- I NEED my running right now! For stress relief, for a sense of freedom and accomplisment,..running has become so much a part of ME that I would really struggle if I had to stop for weeks on end! Naaa wha’ ah meeen?

The other thing which I learnt from Runner’s World (I love that magazine – seriously though RW, why the big bucks in cost!!? Not fun!) was about symptoms of overtraining.…

Poor performance during training (apparently so, if Sunday was anything to go by)

Persistent muscle soreness (when running – yes)

Altered sleep patterns (YES – I’ve had many 2am cereal snacks recently…)

Reduced appetite (yes – ironic considering what I just typed above :p)

Elevated pules (no idea, I’d love to start keeping track!)

Mood disturbances (yes)

Am I overtraining?

Gah bajeezahs, am I doing too much??! Am I doing the right amount for me? Is my pain an INJURY or just tiredness? Should I see a physio? Should I take a week off from running (do DVDs instead) and see what happens? Should I crawl into a dark hole, slice off my own legs, and re-grow them, alien style?

HEELLPPP!!

*UPDATE* (the next day – I write some of my posts in advance)

I watched this video (actually, the first two) about running form and heel striking (I have crap form), posted by (the hilarious and fabulous blog lady!) Marie, on Tuesday night, and decided to try out the running tips on Wednesday. I did 1mile, making sure to flick my heels up and have my wheel behind me (it would make sense if you watched the videos!). I THINk there was less pain, but there was still pain…so I’m not really sure what to do. Time for a physio?

—–

To ease my mental pain on Sunday, my late lunch consisted of one of the best dishes on earth – Oats in a jar. It was the ONLY thing that could even slightly lift my ground level mood….

Spill over on the side :p (it was a mini jar)

Sadly, it wasn’t as spezzal as I remembered it to be! WHY Why!!???? Boooo.

Maybe it was just my mood? Even Stinky Chika outside couldn’t put a smile on my face:

She was a naughty pony – full of spooks and freshness. Blasted horses! Normally she can read my mood like a book, and knows when she need to be angelic, and when she can mess around and I’ll just chuckle. Obvs today, we were a bit out of sync! Alas.

There have been two cheery things of late though!

1) A very belated Christmas present from my mum arrived the other day:

SO many chickpea recipes – riiiight up my street.

YAY! I’ve been wanting this cookbook for SO long, and really, I am tremendously excited now 😀 Cooking passion = reignited! (In fact, as I type, I have some tofu marinating in a modified recipe :D)

2) This stuff, which I picked up on my London trip last Friday:

SO worth the £12 (though my poor, sad bank balance doesn’t think so :'()

Chocolate and balsamic? oh yes.

I used it to marinate some tofu (mixed with extra cocoa powder):

Which was then fried up:

Delish! It was nice to eat something other than cereal and yogurt, or oatmeal…..

(bang on 0.250kg!! And that was just chance! wowzer)

[my step dad’s car died, hence the car adverts, FYI]

Being extra busy means less time for proper cooking 😦 Oooooh well.

Anywayz, this post has been long enough right!? Please please do help me out with any running advice y’all might have..I really need it at the moment! OH – and if anyone British would like to do a food swap with a lovely American girl (who has PEANUT FLOUR) shoot me an email, and I’ll get you in touch 🙂 * someone found! So don’t worry 🙂

Ps – that darn gum craving is STILL here – why why whhyyyy do I have to run out of gum now!?

PPS – the search term (to get to my blog) ‘brit chick, keep on running!!!’ was too cute ;p as was ‘I desperately want to move to the uk’ – eerr why?

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Clubbin it

Yawwwww, you guys are the bestest!! Thank you all SO much for every single comment left on my last post. Seriously! I’m sorry I haven’t been able to reply to them all, but I did (and always do) read every single one. It was really interesting to read everyones’ opinions on the matter, and it has helped me make a decision – I’ll post about it another day though, cos I want to show y’all some tasty food eats from the past few days 😀

I really love just posting pictures of my food – it is SO useful to look back on when I’m having inner turmoil and confusion over what to eat for dinner or lunch or breakfast :p There’s still a definite theme going on though….

– oats [in a jar x 2, + multiple times randomly for dinner. I don’t do oats for breakfast anymore, it’s ALL about the dinner]:

– Oats (Irish steel cut, cooked with salt and Nooch) with pumpkin chickpeas, and roast puff parsnips:

Snow! Snow! Snow! In the background! Crikey, it was like, -a billion degrees today. SO COLD.

Served with a side of soy sauce stir fried cabbage and brussels, sprinkled with Nooch:

Bro, yo, it was sik.

– Green Monsters that are super duper thick:

With or without the green 🙂

That grape-one one was made with cereal, soya milk, banana, pumpkin, (ohemgee my favourite J.Lo/ LL Cool J song just came on the radio!! Ha), cinnamon, vanilla and it was freakin GROOVY.

I’ve also been making lots of roast veggies, OBVS:

The day I do a food post without roasted veg featuring is the day that Brad and Jen get back together/Arnold circa 1990 comes and marries me.

Check out this Brussels sprout:

That’s a whole one! How adorable!! I just couldn’t resist taking a picture, which I now realise probs make me a liiiiittle bit of a loser…but oh well.

The other day though, wowzer, I did this really cool mix – roast aubergine (roasted til it turns to that gross mushy goo), scraped out of the skin [note: I did still eat the skin; I LOVE roast aubergine skin!!]

Then mashed with maple syrup, cinnamon and PUMPKIN, then spread on a toasted English muffin:

Ohhhhh yeah. That’s where it’s at my lovestuds!!

Talking of amazingly delicious foods – try coating roast veg in a mix of sweetener (honey, agave, maple, whatever you like), with dried thyme, a tsp+ of wholegrain mustard, and a tiny tiny tiny bit of stock, like so:

Then bake it all in the oven – I normally do 10mins in the super hot bit of the aga, then another 10 in the slightly-less-hot bit of the aga (I realise that is SUPER unhelpful). It gives the veg a lovely puffy sweet inside, with a slightly crispy inside, epsec parsnips. Best thing ever!

In other tasty news – I broke out the soya mince t’other lunchtime. I know it’s pretty naughty stuff, but once in a blue moon, I like it 🙂 To jazz it up, I fried a mini onion with a tomato and balsamic and dried thyme, with a splash of stock, then mixed it all with the soya mince. Served on a slice of toast (which went mushy, and I loooooved the mushy toast the moast <-see what I did? A typo that I decided to keep 😛)

It was rather yummy, and verrrry comforting for a hungry cold ladyface 🙂

More tasty news – I mastered the art of a delicious pumpkin cappuccino:

1/2 cup soya milk, 1/2 c. hot water, 1 tsp coffee, a tiny tiny tiny BABY size pinch of sugar, a shake of cinnamon, approx. 2tbsp pumpkin, blend blend blend.

Thick, creamy and deeeeeelicious!

OH! More news – I joined a running club!! I went to my first run Tuesday last, and although it took them HALF AN HOUR to get started (I got v cold, it was pitch black and 7pm) it was good 🙂 No-one my age…I ran with a middle aged woman (x3) and a retired GP – but still fun! When I got home, I made the tastiest chickpea red lentil pumpkin curry:

So warming after such a cold evening 🙂 (YES Matt (above) won X Factor!!!! I voted abooout 13 times. It makes up for the fact that Rhydian didn’t win, nor Olly, in previous years)

But here’s the biggest news – ever since I saw my step brother eat a bowl of milk, with floaty bits of cereal, when I was about 8years old, I have hated cereal and milk. The idea, the look, the smell, the texture: it made me gag. A few months ago though, after realising that I LIKED soy milk as is, I tried a splash of it on my cereal. It was ok….since That Day, I have repeated the process. Today, I went one step further – I had a proper bowl of cereal, with a sliced banana, cinnamon, and a full up 1/2 cup soya milk!!!

Oh. My. Days. It was actually tasty! I LIKED the taste. The cereal went soggy, and I LIKED it. It was AMAZING. A momentous day, a day I will think back on with fond memories. And you know what? This happened:

And it was the BEST BIT! I’m a changed woman! What’s become of me!!??

Tell me – do you like soggy cereal? (I do) Mushy food? (I do)

Are you a member of any clubs?

———-

Totally random – but my mum went to her work Christmas do today – look how lovely she looked!!

Isn’t she beautiful!? I hope I look that good when I turn 26 🙂

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Talk of the Town

Hello hello hello!

Is it possible to overdose on oatmeal? Cos I think i have:

You wouldn’t believe how long I’d been waiting to use that jar!! It was quite possibly, the best meal ever. And enjoyed whilst watching X Factor (Saturday night, breakfast for dinner = perfection).

The very next night, I had oats again – 1/2 c. oats, salt, cinnamon, 1/4c. peanut flour (16g protein, wam bam!), 1 banana. BLISS! In fact, it was so good, I had the exact same mix on Monday night too:

Yez, that’s a Starbucks coffee holder.

My aunt asked my mum to let out her dogs whilst she was away on a business trip, but my poor old mama didn’t get back from work til 7. 1/2hr drive to my aunts + dog walk + 1/2hr drive back meant it’d be a very late dins…so I packed it up 😀 genius right!?

Funnily enough, my mum got home early, and I actually didn’t break into my oats til we got home..so bowl it was:

Something wasn’t right. It wasn’t til the last mouthful when I realised what was wrong – NO PEANUT BUTTER! Oats without nut butter is a sin, A SIN!! Needless to say, I sorted it out pronto 🙂

Much better. [Note: I may have had oatmeal the next night too :p]

What else has happened….oooh! After a week of snow and absolutely ZERO running, by Saturday it had thawed enough for me to venture out – 7 blissful miles later, I was cold and had wet feet, but was very happy 🙂 On Sunday, I did NINE miles! My longest run since the marathon a month ago, and let me tell you – it felt GREAT. I wanted to go further, but I ran out of fuel. Originally I hadn’t thought I’d go that far, so all I had before I left was an apple. Needless to say, by the end of 9miles, I was flagging somewhat, which was a shame 😦 I can’t wait to get my mileage up again though – all this talk of marathon training and recaps floating about the blog world is inspiring me 😛

Talking of…er…talking….anyone noticed the pumpkin trend seems to be on its’ way out? Boooo to that! Especially since I ate the most yummiest pumpkin dish EVEr t’other night!

I used Mama Pea’s pumpkin tofu curry as a base, but made a few alterations and totally altered the technique…and now it’s been about 5 days since I had it and I can’t for the life of me remember what I did different!! D’oh. Anywhoooo, look:

Tofu:

Millet + durum wheat pumpkin curry mix:

Added together:

= pure yum!

I was very proud of my inspired-and-altered creation. I just wish I could remember what I’d done!!?? Meh.

Just randomly – tofu and pear goes well together 🙂

You heard it here first!

You also got reminded of peanut butter and nooch covered parsnip fries here first:

Oh yeaaaah. Best thing ever! Served alongside a roasted veggie sandwich, and toast+yogurt:

I’ve been maaajjorly craving dry, burnt toast recently. Weird right? Does anyone else like dry toast, or am I alone!!??

—

Other talks of the town recently (besides oatmeal and pumpkin :p) have been SNOW! England came to a standstill last week with all the crazy ice and minus-temperatures. – so much so, my exam got cancelled! It’s now rescheduled for tomorrow 😦 But anyway – [post] snow pics!

So creepy and foggy…this was about 3pm!

Bored yet? I don’t care, there’s more :p

herro Chika!!

Spot the dog!

The end 🙂 Of the photos and of the post – I have a heck of a lot of work to get through 😦

Buuuut I do have a topic I really really want to blog about in my next post! It’s quite..important? to me – a big thing! But until then, I’ll leave you with some proof of my sheer stupidity – About a 1/2hr ago, I smashed an ENTIRE jar of runny honey, all over the floor. I then proceeded to slam my knife down on the counter, which bounced and smashed the sugar jar too. Wahey.

Have you ever done anything like that?

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Next time you hear from me, I’ll be a MARATHONER!

PHEW what a busy day! In this order:

Eat, run, eat, pack, ride, burn, eat, iron, muck out, wash hair, pack, eat, blog. I haven’t stopped!! Starting from the top:

1) Pre-run fuel:

2) Run! 8miles, my third from last run before the marathon….crazy! Despite being blustery and proper cold, the sun was shining and I had one of my best ever runs 🙂 An even 9.26 min/mile pace, done in 1hr15 (and not a single step of walk :p). Enjoyable 🙂

(Dirty hair, no make-up, freezing cold, just ran 8miles. That picture took some bravery to put up!! :p)

3) Breakfast! An EGM:

• kale
• melon
• banana
• cereal
• soya milk
• xanthan gum
• Vega chocolate smoothie mix
• maca powder
• almonds and dates

Oh, I have missed them so! It’s been probably well over a week since my last one…it went down a treat 🙂

4) I packed, no pictures :p

5) Ride – my mum gave me a lovely lunge lesson on Chika, who – of course – was an angel. I’m going to miss her 😦

6) BURN! I was baking some munchkins in the oven, took them out with the oven glove on one hand, then thought ‘ah I’ll put them in the other hand….’. OUCH. I squeaked! The pain was intense!! After a thorough run under the cold tap, my mum bandaged a leaf of aloe vera plant onto it:

The goo in the leaves of aloe vera plants is the BEST stuff ever – totally natural, but amazing healing properties. The relief of it touching my burn was instant 🙂

7) Lunch – Operation Clean the Fridge Out of Veg Before We Leave! In honour of the operation, I had a small bowl of ketchup/bbq roasted veggies:

Aubergine, parsnip, acorn squash (hate it), brussels sprouts

As well as a baked munchkin for oats:

I scraped out the insides of the smaller one, and added it to a 1/3 cup oats, along with nutmeg, cinnamon and maple syrup:

It then got all cooked up, and put in a JAR!

I’ve been saving that jar for AGES, and today was the perfect day for it….

Before the unveiling….

Ta da!

My mum loves the crunchy peanut butter in sandwiches 🙂

….bliss. I also had an unpicturerd carby energy bar thing, that was foul 😦

8) No pictures of me washing my hair, shockingly.

9) Nor of me mucking out. No-one wants to see horse poop.

10) Nor of my packing…

11)…and nor of my eats (my camera is charging :D) – but they consisted of an apple, cereal and yogurt. No surprises there! To make up for it, here’s a pretty picture of a pumpkin yogurt cereal swirl mess from yesterday 😀

LOVE. PUMPKIN.

And now for the second part of my post, which I wrote yesterday 🙂

—————–

Here’s something crazy – I fly to Washington DC to run to my first ever marathon on TUESDAY! I don’t have time to blog on Monday (though whilst I’m gone, I may well be tweeting from the iPod Touch – BritChickRuns is my name :)) , so I thought I’d do a kinda recap post today.

I did my final long-ish run today – 8miles. Just a 4miles and a 2miles left to go, 3 days off, then MARATHON! Training has been tough, and there’s been a lot of runs:

Early 8milers back in June here

11milers...

13 milers...that went really, really well!

And 13milers that didn’t go quite to plan….

I tried new methods of running here

And ran 15milers here! (ps – the stripy-ish crazy squash in that pic? Still haven’t eaten it :p it’s getting riper by the day!)

There has been really tough 16 mile runs…

That have skewed my view of what a ‘long’ run is!

I’ve also run 18miles in training, which were brilliant!!

And 14milers which were awful.

But, my final LONG training run – 20miles – was one of the best runs ever. It’s good to finish on a positive note!

Training was nothing like I thought it’d be – I thought it would take up much more time mid-week than it did, but I also thought I’d find those long runs easier than I did. Yep, some of them were fab, but some were crap too. I didn’t anticipate my reaction to the heat (praise be for my CamelBak, or I may not even be writing this post :p), or the effect loooong runs would have on my speed! In fact, when I started my training, I wanted to do the marathon in about 4hrs. That soon changed to 4hr15 as training progressed, then to 4hrs30. My current goal? 1) Finish! 2) Finish in sub 5hrs 3) Finish in 4hrs30. Goal 1 first, then we see how it goes 😀

Also – I don’t know if – at this moment in time – I’d ever want to do another marathon. If Marine Corps goes well, and I do finish, I doubt I’ll do another one, at least not for a few years! Though knowing me, if I’m not happy with my time, or I can’t finish it, you can be sure I’ll be signing up for another one!! Post-marathon though, my plan is to just stick to 3 and 4mile distances for a while. I want 6miles to be a LONG run, not a short training one!! I want 3miles to be a good workout, instead of finishing it and thinking ‘where’s the next 4miles?’. I also want to do a bunch more half marathons. Going by my training runs, I think that 13mile distance is my favourite. Of course, nothing compares to the AMAZING feeling of completing a 20miles..but a half marathon is pretty cool too :p

But anyway – I’ll stop looking back, and look FORWARD! For the next week, my life is about 2 things, and 2 things only:

• thinking positively (I WILL kick ass in this Mary!)
• eating carbs! This week is going to be carb loading week. Lots of oats 🙂 Oh, what an effort :p

It’s also about rest…and packing…and working…so with that in mind, I need to get on with it all!!

WISH ME LUCK!!!!

(PS – I doubt I’ll be blogging in DC – bar Twitter – but I’ll take lots of photos, and hopefully do a fab post – or 10 – when I get back, on November 3rd.)

(PPS – I have to say, thank you all SO much for your support. I’ve had some tough runs, but you guys have always had the best and most encouraging things to say. I appreciate it!! xo)

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Did someone say pumpkin?

Goooood Gosh. Literally, every single post I’ve read the past 2 days (from US bloggers) has been to do with pumpkin. Pumpkin oats, pumpkin yogurt, pumpkin smoothies, pumpkin scones, pumpkin lattes…. ARGH!

England. Does. Not. Sell. Pumpkin.

Okay, maybe the odd online US-import online store, or London Whole Foods. But basically, you can’t get it here. It’s infuriating! I’ve tried one can of Libby’s Pumpkin in my life (thank yooouuu Jess for that can :D) and it was iiiincredible. I made the most wonderful pumpkin muffins…but anyway. What’s a girl to do? The next best thing, blates 🙂

See I’ve had two great big squashes open for a week now, which weren’t reaaaally up to scratch for eating in huge quantities (like my kabocha). So, I’ve been roasting random loads, and today, I roasted a bunch ready for a muffin baking extravaganza!

Don’t you just want to dive right in!?

I used a blueberry & oatmeal muffin recipe from Happy Herbivore, but altered it somewhat. Instead of whole wheat pastry flour (another item that does not exist in England), I did a mix of white and wholemeal flour. I also used freshly picked blackberries instead of the blubes, and used 1 cup of mashed up squash in place of the apple sauce:

I aslo used a whole load more spices 🙂 The result:

2 ugly muffins:

9 un-ugly muffins:

And 3 baby muffins 😀

It goes without saying that I had a baby muffin for an afternoon snack 😀

—-

In other news! I took the advice of 95% of you commenters yesterday, and did just the 5miles (instead of 9miles). I had an apple, 2 tsp wheat germ and 2 rice cakes before i left, and then did the whole thing in 45mins. It was a pretty slow run, but I thought it was better to go slow and steady and ease myself back into it 😀 I felt pretty good though – not top knotch, but certainly 90%, which is good enough for me 😀

Breakfast was…no words….amazing. My all time favourite – OATS IN A JAR!!

       

I look forward t o the rare occasions a peanut butter jar is finished more than I look forward to Christmas 😀 Into my jar:

• 1/2 c. oats
• 1/2 c. milk + 1/2 c. water + a bit more water
• cinnamon
• vanilla extract
• 1 sliced and ripe banana
• 3 chopped dates
• topped with cereal nubbins

Bliss bliss bliss! Wowzer. If you’ve never done OIAJ, then DO. There is simply no logical reason not to, it’s that good!

After breakfast, I managed to fit in a sneaky schooling session on Chika, before the clouds burst and that was the rest of the day written off. Booo 😦

Lunch was fah-bulous! I baked a sweet potato, roasted some veggies (turnip, celeriac, parsnip and a few tiny chunks of odd squash), fried some spring greens in soy sauce, had some smoked roasted almonds and had a piece of toast with hummus. Nothing incredible…except, I put a) hummus and b) [soya] YOGURT on the sweet potato!

Holy cow! Yogurt and sweet potato is easily the most delicious thing, EVER!! The beautiful sweetness contrasting fabby-ness-ly with the tart/sour flavours from the yogurt. I was blooowwwwwnn awaaaay. Yum 🙂

Afternoon eats included an apple and a fig:

And of course, a little baby muffin 🙂 I made a mistake making them though..the recipe called for salt, which I added – but it wasn’t ground salt, it was like, salt granales which are pretty big and chunky…with every bite, there were random tastes of salt 😛 Certainly not a bad thing, cos I like salt – but it stopped them from being as good as they could have. Alas! Lesson learnt.

And now..I’ve got to decide on dinner. TBH I hardly post about dinner anymore – they’ve been so similar the past few weeks!! I would feel bad…but I really don’t 😀 My mum has had the same breakfast (museli) for the past 10yrs…so why not have a similar dinner!? At least my lunches and dinners are different 🙂

Question: Do any of you find yourself repeating the same meal over and over? What is it?

Ps – wish me luck! I have EIGHTEEN MILES to run this Sunday! Suffice to say, I’m bricking it!! 18 is a personal record distance to me – 16 has been my longest so far. Plus, there is ‘heavy showers’ forecast for the whole day. Joy.

Pps – sorry for the crappy post today…I spent about 40minutes SCREAMING at my laptop cos it wouldn’t let me find the photos I’d just uploaded. I got very stressed and angry, and also lost a lot of time. GRRRR!!!!

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A Fun Fifteen

Hello!

I ran 15miles today 🙂 Buuuut as usual, I’ll do a quick foodie run through of Satdee first 😀

An Epic Plum Monster (with added kale) was my breakfast of choice:

• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. yogurt
• 1 tbsp flaxseed
• vanilla extract
• 1c. cereal
• 1 biiiig banana
• lots of plums
• a handful of kale

We have trees – literally – collapsing under the weight of all the plums currently growing, so I kiiinda needed to eat some!

It was luv-leh!

Post breakfast, I had a faaaabulous lesson on Chika! She came out with her I-want-to-be-a-silly/spooky-and-lazy-horse hat on, but with a tremendous amount of skill and knowledge (blatantly :p), we turned that energy into good, powerful, fancy dressage horse energy!! She finished sweaty and with a very pleased rider 🙂

Oh! I also picked up a squash at the store before my ride:

I think it wins the award for Prettiest Mystery Variety of Squash Ever??

Lunch was an awesome veggie/tofu sandwich. I marinated a few small slices of tofu in soy sauce, hoi sin, agave nectar, Japanese rice vinegar, smoked garlic and salt and pepper:

Then it was time to do some layering! Squash:

Panfried tofu, with a side of burnt crispyness:

Roast beets:

The lid!

Waitrose own-brand organic wholemeal bread <- preeeetty much (bar maybe one or two others) the only loaf of pre-sliced/mass produced bread I’ve EVER come across that has real ingredients – ie no glucose or random E-numbers. And cos it’s own-brand, it’s super super cheap! My heart flutters at the thought.

On the side, I had the rest of the beets and squash as well as a few chunks of parsnip and celeriac:

Annnnd as a final side, some stir fried kale and mushroom (done in apple cider vinegar and maple syrup):

All in all a simply DIVINE meal!

I had a little afternoon snack, of a small slice of that weird carrot/raisin sprouted bread from the other day:

And then it was time for dinner in front of X Factor 😀 From now until Christmas, I shall never leave my house on a Saturday or a Sunday night! X Factor is TOO important 😛

I made myself a portion of kabocha squash OIAJ –

• 1/2 c. oats
• 1/2c. milk
• 1/2 c. water
• salt
• a bit of cooked kabocha
• splash of maple syrup
• a bit extra PB
• A jar 😀

 

 

And on the side – yep, more roasted veggies! With yet more tofu :p

What can I say, I’m on a tofu kick…..!! It was all sooo good 😀

After dinner, I forced down a chocolate chip Clif bar for some extra carbs.

I felt somewhat overfull and sck after that…but I think the extra 44g of carb did me good!!

————–

FIFTEEN MILES! Meep, such a long way..but I did it!! I decided to be different today – in the actual marathon, there’s gonna be a big delay between getting up and starting the marathon. On my half marathon last week, I didn’t eat right cos I was unprepared for the time lapse between getting up and starting running (I normally am out the door 45mins after getting up). Soooo today, I was up at 7am, but I left it over 2hrs before I left.

As soon as I got up, I had 2tsps wheatgerm, and 2 pieces of toast, with half a banana and 4 types of nut butter:

SO darn delicious. And eaten whilst feeling (very) nervous and watching The Office (American version <- love that show!).

Before I left, I had a tiiiiny slice of that sprouty bread, and then I was off!

I started with a 6mile route that took me back home, where I drank a heck of a lot of Lucozade Sport, and one of my date/oat/carrot bars I made the other day. OHEMGEE!!! It was SO good! Not wanting to blow my own trumpet here..but heck, it tasted like sweet delicious cake! The best thing I’ve ever made, IMHO! I’ll make a recipe page for them 🙂

I then did another 5mile loop, back home, saw my mum (who was waiting at the end of the drive for me, sitting in a chair with the dog alseep on her lap, reading a book!) where I topped up my water, had the rest of the Lucozade Sport, and 2/3rds of the other of the homemade bars (I gave my mum a chunk of it).

The last 4mile loop was pretty crappy – I was fine up til 13miles (half marathon time – 1hr54! 4mins off last week’s time!!), but then my chest started to get tight. I actually think it’s mild asthma (my mum, sister, aunt and my great aunt all have/had it), so next week (16miles) my mum is going to lend me her inhaler. Fingers crossed it helps, cos I actually cried about 3 times in the last 2miles!!! It was a relief to finish – though I think I could have definitely kept going!

Splits:

1 – 8.26

2 – 8.42

3 – 8.35

4 – 8.08 (!)

5 – 9.12

6 – 8.32

7 – 8.44

8 – 8.58

9 – 8.59

10 – 8.53

11 – 8.43

12 – 8.44

13 – 8.52

14 – 9.15

15 – 9.12

= 2hr12

Average mile – 8.48 🙂 And, that was using the walk/run method! It works for me, for sure. I also stopped a few times for about 10secs to stretch, which doesn’t show in the splits.

When I finished, I kept on walking for 20mins or so, got inside, jumped in the shower, and eventually forced down ( I was NOT hungry) an Epic Kale/pear/plum Green Monster:

I went back for added cereal 😀

I felt pretty sick after that actually – my appetite just goes after a long run! But regardless, my mum and I took Poppy out for a half hour, then spent the afternoon watching Burghley Horse Trials on TV 😀 (I wanted William Fox-Pitt or Mary King to win <- we have friends who are verry good friends with William, and his ex-top horse is related to my aunt’s horse :P)

At about 4.45, I had a snack – cereal and yogurt, and an unpictured apple:

And now I’m going to go and wash my hair and then create a delicious dinner for myself!

Good night 🙂

Ps – I’m (hopefully) going to London on Wednesday! New running trainers and Whole Foods are calling my name….! Anyone else in Londres Town?

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