My ever evolving diet and workout routine...

Health update and diet experimenting:

I started this blog to document my commitment to getting my health on track at the start of 2010. I had hormonal issues, IBS, dry, prone to breakout skin, poor circulation and stubborn fat around my butt and legs. I thought a vegan diet and running would be the answer, so I blogged about my commitment to this new way of life. About 8 months into this experiment, my health wasn't much better (I'd lost over 7lb though), and in fact, got worse, and I had to spend a few days in hospital because of pancreatitis. Since then, I've been experimenting. I went to see a dietician, and cut down big time of whole grain foods and pulses, and that helped the IBS for the most part, but I still had dry skin and amenorrhea. In January this year, I added yogurt, eggs and fish back and since then I've been reading a lot about paleo/primal diets and have been gradually aligning my diet along these lines. The thing is, apart from a spell of about a year when I was 19/20, I haven't eaten meat since I was 12. And meat is a big part of the primal/paleo diet...and when you give up rice, bread, wheat etc you need something to fill you up besides lots of veggies...and there's kind of only so much fish and eggs you can eat. So I'm toying with the idea of adding some organic meat in once a week, to mix things up and to up my iron intake, because despite eating brassicas every day, my intake is a little below the RDA and I had low serum ferritin diagnosed a few months back and refused to take the iron tablets. I still have amenorrhea and dry, pale skin so maybe a little iron boost might help. This is all still part of the experimenting to find something that works for me. I will say though that the most amazing transformation in my energy levels has been ditching sugar and grains. I have held on to things like brown rice and the occasional slice of bread but I haven't eaten any grain based foods for 2 weeks now and I now seem to be free of the post prandial bloat and discomfort I would get. I'm still a little constipated but I think that's because I need to ramp up my greens intake some more, but I've been doing this gradually because of my intolerance of some types of fibre. In fact, I eat more vegetables since I started eating eggs and fish than I did when I was vegan! I've also put weight back on on the scales (I'm now 125 lbs) but I'm two inches smaller around the butt than I was when I weiged 117lb!

Here are some of my recent meals:

Still eating yogurt most days: berries and quark for breakfast

Quorn pieces chilli with lots of bell peppers, topped with plain organic yogurt

Experimenting with protein powder: unflavoured whey, cocoa, peanut butter and plain yogurt, I ate some straight up, but the PB made it sickeningly rich, so I baked the rest for 20 mins and it was easier to eat:

Voila- chocolate PB protein cake. I actually find the unflavoured whey quite sweet.

After saturday's run, I breakfasted on a berry, banana and protein shake (just using water) and it was pretty good- not too sweet, thick and really voluminous! Half a banana, half a cup of berries, 30g scoop of powder and a cup of water made 3 cups of shake (that's only 2/3 of the batch in that glass)!

I had the shake because the rest of the week breakfast was usually eggs or fish: lovely but you do need to switch it up a bit.

Saturday lunch: panfried salmon, pesto and 1/2 a cabbage each(!)

So good, the salmon was a beautiful colour

For Mother' Day lunch, I made a provencale prawn stew (red onion, garlic, orange pepper, mushrooms, collards, smoked paprika, herbs de provence, tomato passata, lots of parsley and lemon juice) and fried some organic lamb steaks my Dad got half price. The prawns were a gift from one of my Dad's patients who is a fisherman. I cooked rice for my family too. I had half of one of the steaks, my

first taste of meat in four years(!)

The stew is a bit like paella without the rice.

Last night's dinner: veg omelette (an onion, 1/2 red cabbage, a huuuge courgette, 2 carrots, 6 eggs, smoked paprika and some mature goat's cheese), topped with super hot hot sauce and Quorn sausage.

Monday evening treat: glass of red wine and two squares of dark hazelnutty chocolate (plus some new paleo/primal reading).

Today's breakfast: canteloupe melon, yogurt, half a tin of salmon.

On the workout front:

I'm still a little jaded with running, but I did take MrPeskyRunner out on saturday morning for an easy prebreakfast 5k. He really struggles to have energy without a big dose of carbs so he found this tough but didn't feel too bad after it was over.

On sunday I went for a walk with my sister, and we did 10mins of on/off 30 sec hard running/walking near the end.

Other than that, I have been following Bodyrock, usually a day or two behind the schedule as I usually rest on mondays. I've been doing some weight lifting as well.

I'm off work today to go to the opticians and MrPeskyRunner is having dental work done (nothing serious). We're going to go for a nice long walk in the afternoon and then do a bodyrock workout. I did the Abs for Christmas this morning, ouch, lots of squats, but other than that, probably the 'easiest' bodyrock I've done so far (I don't know if you can really use 'easy' and 'bodyrock' in one sentence, haha). In any case, I'm up for yesterday's workout later this afternoon.

That's all for now, folks!

Pizza fuelled pacing run

Phew, I am tired today. I was back at work after two days off this week, and two last, so lots of catching up and we're short staffed. Not only that, when I got home I was determined to pace myself over 5k. I looped the park around the corner from me twice, exactly 5k and did it in 22:10min, 7:20min/mile pace and it was hard going- I stopped for a bit after the first loop just to let my heart rate drop a wee bit. Into the last kilometer I really struggled to keep the pace up, and I know I started too fast. Next time I pace, I'm going to start much slower! I used a poster tube as a substitute for a foam roller after my run as my calves felt really leaden, and they're fine now. No running tomorrow though, just some light strength training.

I did start my day well though, with a take on Ashley's choc cherry smoothie- mine was a small banana, 1/2 cup frozen cherries, 1 cup unsweetened soya milk, 1T cocoa powder and 1T oat bran.

In MrPeskyRunner's Grand National glass.

I snacked on an apple and a small slice of seeded toast with PB, and lunch was a repeat of yesterday but I hadn't as much rice left. I snacked on a PB stuffed banana in the afternoon, and tonight was a lazy Quorn fillet and a hummus topped baked potato. Oh, and half a jam doughnut...yeh, there was sugar in there. It was a treat from my boyfriend so I didn't want to be rude.

Oh, I forgot to say, we had socca pizza last night- socca baked (lots of oregano in the batter), then flipped onto a baking tray, topped with tomato passta with garlic, Quorn pieces, green pepper and cheddar cheese. Sooo goood. Even nicer with arugula and goat's cheese though.

Well, I am off to my bed!

Pacing

Good afternoon!

We have been enjoying our day off. We've spent the time tidying the house and taking advantage of the time to make lots of nutritious food. We have been doing a little experimenting with our diets and we're tracking our intake (by putting everything into NutritionData at the end of the day) for a couple of days to check for any obvious deficiencies/excesses and then tweak accordingly. I'll post about the results, but so far my Vitamin E seems to come out rather low, and we're both eating more carbs than we though, even though we're trying to eat more protein.

Today's run was to determine MrPeskyRunner's pace for the 10k we're doing in April. We ran exactly 10k in 59:50 so he is hoping to maintain this and keep his time around an hour for the race on April 10. I am still aiming for sub-45; going on last year's results, this will probably mean I'll finish in the top 20 women! I only have two proper week's of training left, the week of the race I'm just going to do a bit of aquajogging. I'll probably run another 3 times this week and 3 times next week, with plenty of pacing work and two long slows.

Today's munches:

Breakfast- banana stuffed with PB, set yogurt with oat bran and cinnamon. + coffee, obvs.

Lunch- leftover brown rice with Quorn, spinach, pepper and a few olives, a spoonful of yogurt. I mixed it all up to eat. Mr PeskyRunner had extra rice, some mango chutney and a slice of bread with sunflower spread.

Afternoon snack: low fat plain yogurt, 1/2 cup raspberries, 1 T cocoa powder. So yummy! I love cocoa powder:D I only really started eating with without sweetener this month. I'm quite happy with sugar free eating and don't think it should be too hard to keep it quite occasional in my diet. I'm going to treat myself to a bucket of ice-cream if I finish in the top 20 women on April 10 though!

I'm away to do the last of the tidying, maybe some Bodyrock (although I don't know if I can be bothered with a second shower) and then fix dinner. I'm thinking socca pizza...

Bodyrockin

I'm back to the grindstone, two days have already gone by in a flash! It's good to be busy but sometimes it's so exhausting. Nevertheless, I dragged myself out for a quick 3.5 miles last night. I don't think I would have gone if I hadn't agreed it early in the day with Eamonn. By the end of the run I was sprinting, it was great to shake the day off. I wasn't particularly hungry though, as I'd had a big pile of sunday dinner leftovers at lunch, so I had a tiny bowl of Quorn (fake 'chicken' made out of microscopic fungi) in tomato sauce, topped with nooch.

Later on I was peckish though, and that resulted in cake. Not the healthiest thing to eat in the evening, but it's sitting there!

Today started with Ready Brek made with soya milk and topped with frozen berries and a scoop of plain yogurt.

I had a really great lunch with a grated carrot and red pepper (I meant to turn the grating plate over to slice, but I was rushing so got grated pepper!), lots of lettuce, some Quorn and a scoop of cottage cheese, oh, and a few sundried olives, mmm.

I snacked on bananas (2) and had a few cups of coffee and lots of water.

I got home and tried some Bodyrock, the epic burpees one- I only got 200 reps done (half the workout) and it took me 35 mins which isn't too bad I guess although I did have to switch to press ups from the knees early on (I suck at press ups which is why I'm trying to do more strength training).

Dinner was baked brown rice, sauteed mushrooms and onions, boiled broccoli and a little blue goat cheese.

There was more cake...it was really tasty but I didn't feel so good after. I have been thinking of giving myself a break from desserts/sugar/refined carbs or something in March, but I haven't worked it out yet. I am happy with my main meals but I think my snacking could be 'smarter'. I am definitely going to challenge myself to improved eating habits next month so stay tuned!

Joys of (almost) Spring

Hello from a decidedly perkier Eimear! My winter blues seem to be lifting somewhat, and with that has come a renewed appetite for running/working out. I ran and aquajogged a few times last week and continued with that this week, throwing in session of Fitnessista's circuit training. I am so inept at any sort of strength training that I felt that half hour workout for two days! I ran and aquajogged through it, and two days later, even though I was still a little sore, I did some hamstring curls, stability ball press ups, planks and dumbell squats while watching a film and felt great. I was surprised at being able to do the stability ball press ups. I usually can't even do one! I managed 10 and could have done more but I didn't want to push it. I have been bitten by the strength training bug and I hope to incorporate two workouts a week into my schedule, at least to start with. I don't think I can fit in more than that for now. I decided to find out what on earth all the fuss over bodyrock is and I was very impressed with what I saw. I subscribed to the RSS feed and hope to try out a few of Zuzanna's workouts. I also really like the look of the Fitnessista's workouts and scribbled down her HTP Intro to Iron Pumping. At the moment I am running x3/pw and aquajogging x2/pw and if I'm strength training both the other days especially if one of those is core or upper body and therefore not tiring my legs I don't mind having no 'rest day'. At the moment I prefer to do something every day and think I've got a sufficiently good mix to avoid injury.

I haven't really done much forward planning with breakfasts this week as I went to work a bit earlier. I had a smoothie on monday (first in aaages) because I found frozen strawberries in the supermarket (mixed with blueberries). I froze a banana overnight and blended with the fruit, a handful of oats, a few tablespoons of yogurt and water to get the right consistency and carried it into work.

The rest of the week was mostly Ready Brek (kind of fortified creamed oat cereal made of oat flour and very fine oat flakes) made with hot soya milk and berries; although there was the occasional frozen berry/yogurt/sprinkle of crunch mess (this time with Quaker Oats Oat Granola, a bit less sugary-10g per serving and I usually have a half serving- than other granolas out there, although it's different from the US version, as there's no almonds in the UK one).

I have been snacking mostly on plain yogurt, bananas, plain oatcakes and peanut butter this week. I was eating very little bananas towards the end of last year but now I am eating one almost every day.

I had salads mostly for lunch this week with lots of veggies and leftover rice or pasta and cottage cheese or crab for a bit of satiety.

One evening I still had lunch salad left over so I had it in a wrap with a breaded Quorn fillet after an intense aquajogging session (I was soo hungry). I had another of the wraps for lunch one day with the egg salad I posted about last week.

Apart from a crab salad I hadn't had any fish this week, so fried off some trout in oatmeal and ate it with brown rice and loads of lemon juice.

After last night's aquajogging, and just because it was friday, we got pizza and beer (one bottle of Rekordelig cider for me). We eat takeout pizza so rarely (few time a year at most) that it's such a treat. We really enjoyed our lazy friday evening (especially because there were no pots and pans to wash up!).

After our pizza feast, we knew we'd be ready for a longer run today, so after a fruit yogurt breakfast mess and walk into town to do messages, we headed for the towpath. Last night was really wet and stormy, but it was lovely and sunny when we were out. We ran over 6.5 miles and had some veggies, Quorn and pasta for lunch and a generous scoop each of ice-cream a bit later on, then got all the cleaning done.

We are chilling out now before the Tudors and a wee beer/cider.

My tummy got a bit urgh mid-week, I think it might have been just a bit too much protein and not enough fibre, hence the brown rice on thursday evening and friday lunchtime and then carbs galore in pizza and pasta form. While I usually find eggs and fish etc make me less bloated, too little fibre can be a bit grim. I'm fine now though, and will just keep a better eye on my fibre intake. Unfortunately I can't get too much fibre from lots of veggies or beans as it makes me really bloated so it has to be brown rice or whole oats, or even wholemeal pasta. While I have been watching my carb intake I should really just make sure I eat little sugar and not worry too much about a plateful of brown rice once or twice a week.

Happy rest-of weekend!

Will run for ice-cream

Tonight when I got home from work I was just itching to get out running. I had already planned to run three miles with Eamonn, but as he is just getting back into running after a near 6 year break, I needed a faster workout just to clear away the day's stresses. I set off an a speedy just under three and a half miles, then waited for Eamonn to come home and in the end set off for run number 2 about 45 minutes after I got back from the first. This one was about the same distance (different route) but at a much slower pace. In the end I ran almost 7 miles although it really didn't feel like it with the break in between. I was pretty hungry when I got in though as it was 8pm and I had eggs to use up so I decided on some 'scramblers' (as I called it growing up) and there was some fake ham (Quorn) that needed used up so that was torn into pieces and chucked in along with some blanched frozen peas (I just poured boiling water over them straight from the freezer and let them sit a few minutes before draining and putting into the eggs). I also added some hot spice mix and had it with a slice of a bread and a lick of cream cheese. I made Eamonn a big dish of pasta, some peas, Quorn 'chicken' and tomato passata (topped with nooch).

Pretty good, but I decided a treat was in order for the both of us, and when I want a treat, it's got to be ice-cream. I had Snickers flavour (mm peanuts) and dark chocolate and Eamonn had Turkish Delight (blech, tasted like rose soap to me but he loved it) and rum and raisin (all local ice-cream called Mullins).

I am meeting my sister and a mutual friend after work tomorrow for a cuppa then will squeeze in an aquajogging sess before an early night as I'm leaving Eamonn's brother and sister-in-law to the airport very early on saturday morning (they're New York bound, I'm hoping for some PB&Co Dark Chocolate Dreams or such like, any better/other suggestions?).

Training partner: found!

If you read this blog, you'll know I have a boyfriend who mostly eats like me (except more bread and less chocolate). But did you know he used to be a runner? Eamonn has ran quite a few marathons in this time, but got injured during the Dublin marathon in 2005 and gave up running. He did most of his running to raise money for charity and always said he hated marathon training. I've tried quite a few times to get him interested in running again, although on a less epic scale than marathon training. Nothing at all has tempted him, and he tends to keep fit by walking around 6 miles most weekdays, and a long workout or two a week on the exercise bike (usually an hour, hour and a half, while listening to all the latest music). However, last night on our way back from the off license with our friday night bouteille du vin, we picked up the free newspaper that gets put through the letterbox. The first thing that caught my eye was an article about a 10k race in April around the area of town where Eamonn's brother works (he actually works for the company that has been regenerating the area, once the shipyard/docks, now a very trendy part of town with riverside apartments, car showrooms, fancy offices etc). I pointed this out to Eamonn, and he was the first to suggest doing it! It's the Titanic Quarter 10k, and it's on April 10th. So we are on! Eamonn got new running gear today and we intend to go out for about 4 miles twice next week and take it from there. We will probably run 2 times a week and crosstrain 2-3 times for the first 3 weeks, then run 3 times until the race. I reckon if we do about 15 miles a week (starting with 8 in the first week) we will be fine. I could go out tomorrow and run a 10k, but my time would be an hour. I have no real goals for this race so far, i.e. a time, I'd be happy to just run with Eamonn, although I think he will be faster than he imagines by the time the race comes around, and I might actually get a decent time. I am so excited about this because I have never had anyone to run with before! I think this will really keep me motivated. I am going to crosstrain with swimming and aquajogging, and Eamonn will crosstrain on the exercise bike. At the moment, we both walk most days to work, which is 2 miles more for Eamonn, at the moment I manage one run a week of 5 or 6 miles and he does his exercise bike. So in general we are not completely out of shape, and we have both ran plenty in the past (more recent for me, but longer distances for Eamonn). Anyway, I will update on our progress through the blog.

I have no foodpics today! I ate a bowl of cinnamony raisiny oatbran for breakfast (after plenty of hot lemon water and grapefruit juice), then had lunch out, soup and cheese + tomato sandwich, a delicious coffee and a piece of chocolate cake. I picked at some couscous and smoked salmon this evening and then some more chocolate and lots of decaff tea while watching The Tudors. I'm looking forward to a long but gentle run tomorrow in my new running tights (my 3 year old Skins were on their last legs, heh)!

Impatient bread muncher

Happy weekend!
I am down visiting my parents in the country. I went down this morning as the weekend traffic leaving Belfast starts at lunchtime. I got my gluten eating over by lunchtime- 2 slices of toast for breakfast and again for lunch. Borrrring! I had PB and banana on toast both times as I had no avocados, salad or hummus to hand at lunchtime. I am aiming to eat the gluten quota early in the day so that my sleep is not too disrupted by bloating and cramps. I find this settles by evening so I eat gluten free at night.


Typical lunch this week- hummus and toast (unpictured peach to unstodgify)


Gluten free dinner- lemony brown rice noodles with peas and basil


Same noodles- this time with sauteed mushrooms, lemon, basil, thyme and soya cream.


My fave- parboiled and roasted turnip (swede to the English, rutabaga to Americans) with some chilli seasoning, brown rice and peas.

Weirdly, I've started to view bread almost as junk food (even though it's not much more processed than my brown rice noodles). In my mind I made it a forbidden food, not even that long ago, and yet it has stuck already! I am finding myself restrict my eating so I can fit the bread into my meals. This is also compounded by the fact I haven't worked out in nearly two weeks and while I'm feeling ready to get back to some easy going jogging and swimming, I won't be burning as much cals as I was, and I don't want to get too badly out of shape. The bread thing makes it slightly more complicated. I guess I'm going to get a bit physically out of shape over the next few weeks, not just my butt, but my guts too. However, I am content that it'll be worth it in the long run and it won't be too drastic (I did lose 3lb in hospital so I have that to play with). I reckon if I'm back on a gluten free diet by the end of October and my pancreatitis doesn't flare up, I should be back to my August fitness by mid-December.

The difference has been startling- bloat, cramps, brain fog, smelly wind, copious sticky poo, all the symptoms that I was doing nicely without, returned in a day. Gluten is waging war on my guts, and I'll be giving it up, celiac or not.

After my little brother got home from school this afternoon, we went out to the nearby nature reserve Oxford Island (not actually an island) for a walk before dinner. We saw loads of rabbits, a few woodland birds and some interesting ducks, a hobby (a small falcon) and the woods were bursting with sloes and haws.




Lough Neagh (the largest lake in the British Isles)- on a chilly, cloudy autumnal evening


Acorns



There is also a kiddie's play area, so we tried everything out (climbing frames, slides, swings). No incriminating pictures of that though!

I'm going to my bed now (10:45pm). I am not needing as much sleep as I was earlier in the week, pretty much back to normal. Still, I will probably lie until until 8:30 and get a nice gentle jog in before breakfast, then go food shopping with Dad. The rest of the day looks like it'll be spent with my nose in a book!

Summer buzz

So I mentioned last post that I'm thinking of doing a triathlon. I've never been fitter but I don't want to just stick at running, both for want of variety and prevention of injury. My interest was piqued by Angela's try-a-tri adventure. So I started looking into open water swimming, because I live on an island, and I love outdoor swimming, but my technique is rubbish. So on sunday I went to the swimming pool to try out a few lengths. My intention was to swim 400m front crawl. I swam a bit more- 775m, but maybe only 3 lengths front crawl...because I simply COULD NOT bring myself to put my face in the water. It didn't help that I didn't have goggles. If I want to do this triathlon thing, then I need to get the hang of the front crawl again. I better get me some eye gear. That's another thing about triahtlon, it's a kit-heavy sport which means expensive! But I want to take my fitness up another level for the following reasons:

I like goals. I like setting myself challenges and having something to work towards

Doing lots of exercise makes me so chirpy! :)

Doing plenty of exercise also does my digestion a lot of good

Which is good- because it means I can (in fact have to) eat more food.

As well as mixing my running up with cycling and swimming, I've been fitting in some strength training as my upper body and core strength is kind of non-existent! To complement the exercises, I've been consciously choosing subbing some carby things for more high protein foods, like instead of noodles with my big heap of cabbage in garlicky tomato sauce tonight I had peanuts (which are agreeing my tum pretty well so far). Other dietary changes have been a concerted effort to get most of my carbs from fruit and vegetables and being much more rigorous about fluid intake. Needless to say these little changes aren't just supporting my extra workouts, they're doing wonders for my tum. So things have improved quite a bit in my bowels, I'm definitely feeling more postive about things than I have been. Also, I am so hungry these days! I don't think I have fined tuned my calorie intake yet (I haven't increased it enough), in fact this afternoon, about two hours after lunch, I was starving and all I had in work was a bag of oats, so I made some porridge...maybe not the best afternoon snack (I want to eat a greater variety to make sure I'm getting all the right nutrients) but man, I enjoyed it! My favourite food discovery, however, is eating frozen raspberries! Yum. I've had them a few times this week with a little vanilla flavoured soy yogurt.

I think I mentioned in my last post that my phone is broken, and that's what I use to take my photos for the blog. Until I get a new phone, then, I apologise for the text-heavy posts.

Here's a link to the (sprint) triathlon I'm hoping to do at the end of September(go to Seven Frogs Triathlon link): http://www.nualamoore.com At the moment I'm alternating between running and cycling and aim to fit some swims in, and the strength training, with one rest day a week. My aim is to start a 12 week training program for the triathlon on 5th July.

Work is still crazy as the auditor is with us all week. My boss is having a barbeque on saturday evening, so I'm going to bring either tempeh bacon or aduki sunflower seed burgers. I'm also hoping to get in an open water swim. I think I'd prefer getting to grips with my swim breathing without the entrapment of lane swimming and lots of other bodies in the water.

Stressed...

...is not a good thing for most people. It's especially crap if you have IBS. Like me. In work, we have two audit visits coming up, tomorrow and then another group all next week. I work as a medical secretary in a blood transfusion service. My boss is incredibly hard working, which means there's a lot for me to do. She's just taken up the role and so is busy whipping things into shape. As much as I prefer working for someone like that, this week has been pretty tough on my guts. This time last week I was completely bound up and looked about 5 months pregnant. Today, my problems are at the other spectrum of IBS experience. Meh. I keep telling myself things will be ok when next week is over. However, I'm pretty sure cereal flakes deserve a large share of the blame too- I just cannot digest the stuff, gluten or not. And the cramping and diarrhea, that's because I've been eating a lot more fruit this week to clear the constipation, and the stress probably made the cramping worse.

Food wise, I've been eating mostly fruit, pulses and vegetables, usually fruit for breakfast or oatmeal and amazake. I had no time for snacking mid-morning, which meant I was ravenous by lunch time, but kept it smallish anyway. I then had a snack when I got in from work and then a smaller evening meal after my run. Which I've been doing a lot of this week, there's nothing like a good workout after a busy day at work. It does wonders for chasing the stress away. However my right hip is a bit sore, so I've been thinking of switching it up a bit by going to the swimming pool. I'm not a big fan of pools, but I've been toying with the idea of doing a sprint distance triathlon and swimming would be the part I'd need to work on. However, I can't find my swimsuit and don't really think a bikini will cut it at the pool, so that's on my shopping list for the weekend. I'm spending a week in July where I'm thinking of doing this triathlon so will get plenty of cycling, hilly running and open water swimming done, and that should give me a fair idea, by the end of July, whether I'm up for this triathlon lark. In any case, switching up my workouts should help prevent getting into a rut and getting injured. In preparation for adding extra sports to my routine, I've been doing strength training in the mornings (as I've been too tired to face a run). Once I get this coming week over with, I'll do a proper post on the triathlon idea.

Spring has sprung!

I've been feeling great this week!

Two reasons (I think):

Early morning running

I've been walking to work and back most days for a few weeks, but I've added in a morning run too. I get up just before 6 and go out for half an hour, then back in for a shower, brekkie and then walk to work. It's great. I have loads of energy. I was tired this morning and didn't really fancy it, but got up at half 8 and forced myself out the door. However, it was such a fantastic morning, and already getting warm (for April in Northern Ireland) and I had a great 45 min run HIIT-style. Thanks to Angela @ OhSheGlows for inspiring me. You get such a high from HIIT! I got in and had a mango, passionfruit and ginger smoothie with my...

Live, homemade vegan yogurt

This stuff seems to be doing wonders for my digestion. My digestive transit seems to have moved up a gear and I've had a cramp-free week. I think the running might be helping my digestion too, but I'm sure all those friendly bacteria have had their part to play too.

The first batch was a bit hit and miss consistency-wise, but had the flavour I've been hankering for- mild, "bland" as people describe dairy yogurt, but with a real sharpness. The problem with the consistency was that I didn't blend the xanthan gum very well so it had little beads of gum in it and was a bit runny. However when chucked in a blender for a smoothie it thickened up quite a lot! So I used this idea for my next batch; I put 15g sugar, contents of two probiotic capsules and 5g xanthan gum in the blender and dumped in a litre of Oatly oat milk.

It got quite thick and bubbly from just a minute or two of blending! A video was the best way of demonstrating the texture change from watery oat milk to this:

It's now fermenting in my new electric yogurt maker.

I think this, combined with the thorough blending and probiotic powder will give me better results. I noticed HEAB has been experimenting with non-dairy yogurt too, using a different milk and thickening agent.

Overnight oats seem to be everywhere this week too, Angela blogged about hers, and this morning's Guardian had an article.

After run, brekkie, catching up on the news and de-sweatifying, E and I went to an allotment meeting. We have a polytunnel and were working out how to utilise the space. We've decided to divide the polytunnel into areas for each type of crop so that everyone can get to try something out and it'll help share the responsbility of watering. Apart from the usual suspects of tomatoes, peppers and chillis, we are going to get some aubergine plants and try out cucumbers and melons!! I'm so excited. As the weather is so great, E and I are going to get our allotment cleared of weeds tomorrow and monday. Photos to follow! As it's our first year, we're not growing anything super fussy; three types of kale, purple sprouting broccoli, kabocha and buttercup squash and dwarf french beans. Lots more on the allotment in the next few days. And also the results of batch 2 of oat milk yogurt:)

Birchermuesli (aka Swiss-style overnight oats)

Last night I whipped up an old favourite:

1 apple, grated, skin and all

1/4 cup jumbo oats

1/2 cup oat milk

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

Then cover the bowl and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Next morning, I stirred in some of my raspberry oat milk yogurt and half a big banana.

This was soo good! Even though the oat milk and yogurt are fairly light, the whole combo tasted really creamy and the apple and raspberry gives it plenty of sweetness.

I got myself properly hungry for my breakfast this morning; I took a leaf out of Farty Girl's book and got up before sunrise for a nice run. I felt so energised the rest of the day!

Eats for the rest of the day were banana, kiwi and carrot sticks with homemade hummus. I have to confess to a small coffee after lunch...whoops! But nothing kills hummusy garlic breath like a cup of the bean..aaah. Now I'm hungry again! I walked to and from work and went for a little coffee walk in the middle of the day too. Time to whip up a green veggie concoction!