Three Day Clean Eating Cleanse!

Long time no blog!

I feel like it's been such a long time since I've had the time to write anything!

There's been quite a bit going on for me at the moment, and I'm finding it all a bit hard to keep up with.

Last week, I had three major assessments due. One 3000 word essay, one 3500 word essay, and one two hour exam, which kept me incredibly busy with studying for all of them and trying to do a good job. Thankfully, it's all done now, and I'm one step closer to getting my degree! A conjoint Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) and Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies, in case you were wondering :p

Following all of this, I thought I would have five weeks off university to chill out, work on my fitness, and get ready for the stage production which I'm taking part in. Turns out the universe had other plans for me!

The Thursday afternoon after my exam, I got a call from an office where I've done some temp work before. They were offering me a full time contract for four weeks! Talk about perfect timing!

So I signed my contract pretty quickly and started work on Monday. The rest of this week has just passed in a blur!

I've also been keeping up my hours at the shop where I usually work, so that's meant I've worked the last 10 days in a row. Talk about tiring!

While I really wanted to spend my time off focusing on my health and fitness, I'm really happy to have the chance to earn a little (well actually, a lot. A whole lot!) extra money. But being so busy so suddenly has kind of caught me off guard, and has led me to make some pretty poor food choices, and left me with little time to hit the gym.

You know the kind of choices I mean- buying a chocolate bar for a snack because it's quick energy; grabbing takeaways on the way home because you're too tired to cook; getting energy drinks most days to help you stay alert; hitting the snooze button instead of jumping our of bed for some early morning exercise.

Making these kinds of choices has meant that my clean eating has fallen by the wayside, and I'm starting to feel really sorry for myself!

But it's time to get my act together now. Right now!

So to start with, I'm going to treat myself to a three-day clean eating cleanse!

For me, this cleanse will be all about re-setting my body and my metabolism to a comfortable level, and also about de-bloating and ridding my body of the junk that I've been putting into it! It's all about getting back into my great habits, and starting to feel great about myself again.

To help me do this, I'm going to keep to a simple kind of format.

Each morning, I'm going to start with a liver cleansing drink made from 2 tsp of apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp honey, and a large glass of water. To make it, dissolve the honey in a little hot water, add the vinegar, and top up with cold or lukewarm water.

This drink helps your liver to process any toxins which are floating around your body, and helps to get rid of any bloating too :) It can be kind of icky if you're not used to it, but the honey really helps!

Following this drink, I'll be having a coconut chia smoothie! Yum!

To make this smoothie, you'll need:

• 1 medium banana, chopped.
• 3/4 cup mixed berries
• 1 cup spinach
• 1 tbs chia seeds soaked in water
• 1 tbs coconut oil
• 1.5 cups of coconut milk

Throw everything in a blender, and blend until smooth :)

This tasty smoothie is full of healthy fats, electrolytes, protein, fibre, and antioxidants. Plus, it will keep you feeling full for ages!

For the next three days, I've made myself a batch of pumpkin, tomato, and quinoa soup for lunch!

I'll be posting that recipe up tomorrow :)

My snacks will be fruit- apples and mandarins, and carrot sticks with hummus, maybe with a babybel thrown in if I need a little extra protein.

This lunch and my snacks should keep me going right the way through until dinner, which I've planned to be high protein, low carb, low fat, and super yummy!

With all of this great eating, all I need is to get a little more exercise in, which I'll be doing in my lunch break! Just a little walk every day will be enough to make a real difference to how I feel :) I plan to also do 15 minutes of yoga each day, and 20 minutes of free weights and core work. So easy to keep up with!

So that's my three day clean eating cleanse in a nutshell! Keep an eye out over the next three days, when I'll be sharing more recipes and going into more detail about the cleanse and the foods that I'm using to heal my body.

I've taken my measurements and weight, and I can't wait to see a great improvement over the next three days.

Just so you know, my weight was at 72.9kg this morning, and my waist measured 83cm. Not ideal, but I can sure change that!

Thanks for listening in guys, I would love to hear what you think about this cleanse or if you have any ideas of your own for me!

Cleaning Up my Favorite Cookies!

One of the things that I've been most excited about since starting on this clean eating journey has been trying out new recipes! Especially baking recipes ;)

Baking is one of my absolute favorite things to do, especially when I get to eat what I've baked! Only, I always seem to go overboard with the eating part of the process, which isn't exactly conducive to a healthy lifestyle :p

So on Sunday, I decided to have a crack at cleaning up one of my all-time favorite cookie recipes- chocolate chip cookies!

A classic, but I'll never be bored with them!

To clean these up, I knew I would have to replace lots of ingredients like the butter, white flour, and tonnes of sugar. I did a little research (mostly on Pinterest!), and came up with a recipe which I think worked out absolutely deliciously :D

To make these cookies, you'll need:

• 2 cups of rolled oats, or quick-cook oats if you prefer
• 2 really ripe bananas, mashed 
• 2 eggs, whisked in a bowl
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 2 packets of stevia
• 2 tbs of ground almonds (optional- I love the texture and the taste!)
• 1/2 a cup of dark chocolate chips
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda

First, mix together your oats, bananas, eggs, and ground almonds together in a great big bowl

Your oats may appear a little dry at this point, but don't worry about it! As you keep mixing the oats will absorb more of the wet ingredients and will turn out fine. Don't do what I did and add in water! This made my dough become really sticky and hard to roll!

Secondly, add in your baking powder and baking soda and mix thoroughly. This helps the cookies to rise a little, and gives them more of a traditional 'cookie' texture.

Next, add in the good bits! The sugar, stevia, and chocolate chips! Mix the whole lot together, and your batter is all ready!

Line a baking sheet with baking paper, roll out tablespoon-sized balls and spread as many as you can out on the baking sheet. 

Flatten the cookies out a little bit, and then pop them into a 180 degree oven, on 'fan bake'. They won't spread out on the tray at all, so don't worry about that! These cookies will take about 10 minutes to bake, and should be left to cool on a wire rack (if you can wait that long!).

The end result is a delicious, chewy, chocolatey cookie which tastes nearly exactly like a banana chocolate chip muffin! But even better, these cookies are much kinder to your health than a muffin or traditional chocolate chip cookies!

There are so many variations you could make to this recipe! Adding spices, vanilla, grated apple, whatever takes your fancy!

I think next time I'll try mine with some peanut butter added in- yum!

These cookies are high in fibre and protein, and MUCH lower in fat and sugar than traditional chocolate chip cookies! What's not to love??

So you see, eating clean and healthy doesn't mean giving up desert, or missing out on your favorite treats! All it takes is a little thought, and a few clever swaps here and there, any you don't have to miss out on anything!

I'm off to enjoy one of these tasty treats with my evening cup of green tea :)

Hope you all enjoy these cookies as much as I have!

DIY: Sweet Cinnamon Almond Butter!

Perhaps the easiest thing in the world to make!

I kid you not! I had my doubts about how this would turn out, but it took very little effort on my part and almost no time at all!

Totally worth it for the result!

I decided to have a go at making my own almond butter yesterday when I ran out of my jar of store-bought Ceres Organics, and there was NO way I was going to pay up to $14.00 for another 200g jar.

To make your own sweet cinnamon almond butter, all you need is:

• 200g of roasted, unsalted almonds (you could try with raw, or roasted and salted, but I've no idea how it would turn out!)
• 2 packets of stevia
• 1-2 tsp of cinnamon (I used fair trade cinnamon- totally different flavor from what you'd normally find in the supermarket, but I love it!)

First, just throw all of your almonds into a food processor, with a blade attachment put in, and turn on to a low speed.

After 1-2 minutes, your almonds will start to resemble fine breadcrumbs, and will become slightly sticky.

While the food processor is running on low, pop in your stevia and cinnamon, and then turn the processor up to high :)

After 3-4 minutes, your almonds will start to stick together and begin to look like gingerbread dough. Scrape down the sides of the processor with a spatula if you need to at all :)

Give it another 1-2 minutes, and you'll end up with a lovely, thick, almond buttery paste! 

If you like your almond butter thick, then you're all done! But if, like me, you like things to be nice and smooth, let the processor run for another 1-2 minutes, and the almonds will begin to release lots of their natural oils, and the butter will become really smooth and creamy :D

Once you've got the almond butter to the consistency you want, scrape it out of the processor bowl and pop it in an airtight jar, where it will keep for ages!

I chose to put mine in my empty Ceres jar, because recycling is sexy, and good for the planet! ;)

This recipe would be so easy to double, triple, halve, or whatever you need to do! It would also be excellent with additions such as vanilla extract, coconut oil, nutmeg, honey, or anything else you can think of adding!

Processing times will vary depending on your processor- mine isn't that flash, so it takes a little longer than most, but just keep your processor going until you get your almonds to the consistency you want. I promise, it will get there sooner or later! :)

I've eaten this almond butter on my gluten free toast several times since making it yesterday, and it's absolutely delish!

And who would have thought it would be so easy to do??

I'd really love to make this recipe again, and try it out with different flavors thrown in!

What flavors do you love in your nut butters? I'd love to know!

Keepin' it Clean at the Cafe!

So it's Tuesday, NZ time, and that means it's my weekend!

Working in retail and studying full-time means that I keep some very odd hours, but I'm just happy to have two days off in a row- the same days off that my manbeast has too!

The highlight of my day has definitely been going out for lunch with my lovely boyfriend, and spending the day walking around town :)

This morning didn't start off so well however- a nasty bout of nausea woke me up early and had me scrambling for a piece of gluten free toast and almond butter to help settle my tummy.

(I thought that I would find it hard to like almond butter at first- it's so different to peanut butter! But I have to say, that after a week or so of eating it, I've fallen in love with it! The only problem is that here in NZ it's not widely available. I know of only one brand which is sold here, and you end up paying around $10 for 200g! Talk about expensive. Still, it may be something that I start to shell out for a little more often now since it's so darn tasty, and healthy to boot!)

Thankfully that did the trick, and kept me feeling happy until manbeast and I got into town for our lunch date :)

We went to one of our favorite little cafe's on the Wellington waterfront, called Mojo. They do excellent coffee, and have really great food! I had my usual order of a soy latte (which had a cute heart on top!), and chose poached free range eggs on gluten free toast with organic tomato salsa, and a little basil in there too :) It was absolutely delish! And yes, it did mean that I've eaten three pieces of toast today, but I'm not too bothered, and it was the only item on the menu that I could order while being sure it was gluten free :)

After lunch the manbeast went to get his hair cut, and I took the opportunity to sneak in a little exercise and take a walk around the beautiful Wellington waterfront! Here are a few of the views that greeted me as I walked along:

Looking across the Wellington Harbour to Oriental Bay

The Boatshed, on the Frank Kitts' Lagoon, where one of my besties is having her wedding reception next year!

Looking across The Frank Kitts' Lagoon to downtown Wellington

I absolutely love the city that I live in! It's such a visually stunning area, especially around the harbours and the hills, and it's filled with amazing little cafes, restaurants, bars, boutique and vintage shops too! It's the only city I've ever lived in, but I've always thought this is where I'd like to buy my first house, and the manbeast agrees with me! Thank goodness, since it's looking pretty likely that we'll be buying together in the next two years :)

My little walk took me about half an hour, which I was really happy with, but I was walking pretty slowly so it was a rather low-intensity exercise session. About five minutes in, I started to feel a little light-headed and clammy, kinda like I was getting sick! I think this was partially because I'd taken some pain medication with lunch, and I hadn't had enough water to drink earlier in the day! Hello dehydration! I headed back to meet the manbeast as soon as he was done, and we came straight back home so that I could have a lie down!

That's where I've been for the remainder of the day! Curled up on the couch, watching Dr. Oz, then Rachel Ray, and now Entertainment Tonight! I'm feeling incredibly lazy ;)

But I'm giving myself a 'free pass' of sorts today. Feeling ill means I can't concentrate, so I'm going to take the evening to rest, and feel better again before I jump back into university assignments and learning lines :)

I'm starting to feel a little better now- a little hungry, which is a good sign! I haven't eaten since lunch at 12, and it's 5.30 now, which is absolutely crazy for me! I'm going to make up a berry and spinach smoothie with coconut water and coconut oil, and maybe watch some more trashy t.v ;)

Dinner tonight will be lamb sausages (yes, I know, not exactly 'clean', but they're free range, really lean, and direct from my parents' farm!), with steamed carrots and broccoli, and I'll probably do some mashed potatoes for the manbeast too.

As for tomorrow, it's another day off! Woohoo! I plan for it to be filled with study and assignment writing, and hopefully another walk!

I'll catch up with y'all tomorrow. Until then, take care :)