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!

Just Like a Holiday...

Only not quite as good!

So my parents are away at the moment- in Singapore!

The lucky duo are spending a long weekend over there, and won't be back until Tuesday next week (hopefully with a few pressies for my sisters and I, but that's a story for another day ;D)

While this is absolutely lovely for them, it does mean that the manbeast and I had to spent last night house/babysitting at my parents place last night.

Their house is a beautifully modern single-story place on a lifestyle block in what is essentially the middle of nowhere, so it wasn't too much of a challenge to do the house-sitting part :p

As for the babysitting part, we were keeping my youngest sister company (she's 17, and MUCH taller than I am, so there wasn't all that much sitting going on :p), because she hates being on her own at night. I can relate! A year or so ago, when the manbeast spent the week in Auckland for work, I went to stay at my parents place. That said, we live next door to a drug dealer and across the road from members of a well-known gang... So I can kinda justify it ;)

So my parents' house is an absolutely lovely place to stay, but I had the worst sleep last night! I just kept waking up every hour or so and I'm super sleepy now!

In order to remedy the situation, I jumped out of bed and made myself a smoothie, my favorite! This one was made with a banana, some frozen blueberries, 2 cups of coconut water and a little almond milk, all courtesy of mum and dad's pantry ;) Don't look at me like that- free food is the best kind of food! Don't act like y'all don't agree with me ;)

I tried to take a picture of my smoothie for you guys, but the camera on my phone was playing up! It was doing it yesterday too, but seems to have fixed itself now. All you need to know is that my smoothie was tall, purple, frosty and delicious! So instead of today's breakfast, take a look at what I had yesterday:

 A delicious Mahana Red apple (just 1/2), chopped up and served with 2 tbs of lite Greek yoghurt, 2 tsp of ground flax and 1 tbs of almonds, and a piece of gluten free toast and almond butter! Totally delicious and filling.

Yesterday's lunch was leftover roast veggie salad, and before heading to rehearsals I had the other 1/2 of an apple spread with a little peanut butter and sprinkled with chia seeds. This was at 4ish, and I didn't end up getting back to my parents' place until 9pm! So nothing to have in between. Talk about starving!

When I got there, the manbeast and little sister had made a chili con carne with brown rice and lots of cheese. While this wasn't exactly clean eating, I wasn't going to complain! Especially that late at night, when someone else had cooked ;) So I avoided the cheese entirely, had a small serve of the chili, and sprinkled a little rice on top. I'll tell ya what, that hit the spot nicely!


I've just dropped my sister at school (much to her disgust), and I'm about to go and jump in the shower and get ready to head into town. I'm meeting a friend for lunch, who I haven't seen in ages, so that'll be nice :) He wants to go to a food court and "cheat on his diet," but there's no way I'm joining him in that! I know there's a great sushi place there called Maki Mono, so I'll be treating myself to one of their brown rice veggie sushi rolls. Nom!

I'm thinking I'll have a piece of toast with almond butter before I head off too, since I'm starting to feel my tummy rumble!

After lunch I'll be heading to a university class, so I'll take some apple slices to keep me going until I get home at about 5pm tonight :)

I can't wait to pop my iPod on when I get into town, and go for a walk to meet my friend! Hopefully that will distract me from the freezing cold weather we're having today!

Hope y'all are having a great day!

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 :)