I'm baaaaaaack!!!!

Hello strangers!

I know it's been a long time but here I am! While I was setting up my business I ended up far too distracted to keep a regular blog (or any blog, who am I kidding?!) and though I appreciate that would have been a great way to document our business start up, I just had so much on my plate and didn't have much motivation/energy to do much else.

I keep a blog for my juice and smoothie bar 'Applebar' but I wont really be able to post everything I want to say as its a bit too personal, so the obvious outlet for those posts is here!

So, the best way I can think of updating you about the food and fitness things in my life is a quick list!

I don't know about you but so often I find myself in a position where I recycle the same ingredients and cooking methods for a couple of weeks, get a bit bored of them and move onto something else. But right now, love food-life is ALL about the following few things:

- My slow cooker! Happy to just go about its business while I'm in Applebar, I can just bung in some veggies, pulses and spices, and come back to a warming healthy dinner with plenty of leftovers to save for another day.

- Pumpkin purée! I read a lot of healthy living blogs, most of which are American! They go mad for pumpkin from about mid-October onwards, typically purée-ing it and using it for soups, chilies and baking. I got the bug in November, made a huge batch of the stuff (in the slowcooker!), froze it and only just got brave enough to use it.

- Brussels sprouts! I think I'm the only person in my family who would be gutted of they didn't make our Christmas dinner table. But forget the boring tradition of boiling them to death, roast or sautée them until they deliciously start to caramelise. Toss them in a salad or pasta dish, add them to a sandwich and reap their nutritional benefits too (hello vitamins C and K!)

- Homemade raw bars! When I'm on the go, I love to grab a raw food bar. Like Nakd or Pulsin'. They taste so sweet and indulgent but they are actually filled with nothing but good. When I have time to make my own, I blend equal volume of dates and nuts to make a dough, pimped up with natural flavourings like cacao, vanilla, cinnamon etc....these recent bars also had goji berries and made use of the pulp from making nut milk...

- Yes, nut milk! I'm not wholly opposed to dairy, but in the morning it's just a bit much for my tum and I've since turned to making my own nut milks using guides such as this and whatever nuts I can my hands on (oh you know what I mean!!! Tut tut you dirty minds!)

- Coconut oil. I'm sure I'll do a whole post on this soon. It's so good for you and I'm loving putting it in and on my face.

So these are things that have been IN in my kitchen recently...but undoubtedly if you check back with me in a week or two it may be a slightly different story!

For fitness, the coldness has been keeping me indoors, either at the gym or in our flat. I've been enjoying:

- Interval sprints. These have me thinking 'oh god I'm gonna vom' and attract a few stares due to me thundering along on the treadmill, but they are a good way to sneak in a good cardio burst, and I hope they will improve my pace when I'm able to get outside for some 5-10k runs next year. I run for 30-45 seconds at at least 18km/h, take a breather for 45-60 seconds, repeat 8 times.

- Spinning class. A 60 or 45 minute class always challenges my endurance and I prefer the variance on the bike compared to the same time spent on the treadmill. Good music is a must though. A few weeks ago I had to endure an entire Flo Rida album. Just no.

- Weights, as always. I love being strong, though it's a shame I'm nearly always the only girl in the weights area.

- Tabata. This is my latest favourite and I will do a whole post on it soon.

- Occasional yoga stretches on waking. I can't make a class anymore but when I have time in the morning I find a few sun salutations and downward dogs centre me and remind me to take care of my body.

Thanks for coming back and reading, I hope it was worth the wait!

Cheers!

Hannah xx