Happy Monday :)

I've never been a runner. Never. Even as a kid, I avoided it like the plague. In P.E, I was one of those girls who made the least effort possible and sat in the corner of the gym gossiping with like-minded girls for so much of class our teacher actually gave up on us by the end of each year.
How things have changed! I'm now the happiest, healthiest, and fittest I've ever been in my life and I'm loving it! Yesterday I did something I've never done in my life... I ran 7km! It was for a race called Round the Bays, where thousands of people gather on Wellington's waterfront on a Sunday in February every year and run or walk around the bays. I've done it most years for about ten years, and I've always walked it with my mum and sister. This year, after getting so awesomely fit over summer, I decided I would be dumb to walk it and waste my fitness, so I ran. And it was the most liberating thing I've ever done in my life!!! And not only did I run the whole thing without stopping once, I got a pretty good time - 47 minutes! When I crossed the finish line after sprinting the last few hundred metres, I felt like laughing, crying, squealing and dancing in a circle on the spot all at the same time! I still can't really believe I did it, although the aches in my legs are reminding me every now and then that I did in fact do it, and well.
It's amazing how much a moment like that can change you. I've now decided I love running and can't wait to get out there again, and I'm even contemplating doing the half marathon next year. There are no limits!!
Hope you too had an amazing, limitless weekend! Happy Monday!! xo

Healthy May - week 3

Good morning all, hope you all had a good Week three of Healthy May. I bet you all did better than me. I had tonsilitis all week, so it was soup and toast and no gym for me - just lots of sleeping. But I started feeling better on Saturday, so spent the afternoon baking and found this scrumptious muffin recipe. Enjoy :)

BANANA, PECAN AND BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Makes 12

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1 cup reduced fat milk

1 tsp lemon juice

1 ½ cups plain flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 cup bran flakes

½ cup sugar

1 egg

¼ cup olive oil

1 banana, mashed

1 cup blueberries

½ cup pecans, chopped

Method:
Preheat oven to 210 degrees. Lightly spray 12 medium muffin pans.
Combine milk and lemon juice. Set aside.
Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add bran and sugar. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients.
Beat egg and whisk in oil and milk mixture. Pour liquid mixture into the well. Add banana, blueberries and pecans. Mix until the dry ingredients are just dampened.
Three-quarters fill each muffin pan. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

How did you all get on?

Healthy May - Week 1

So last week, I joined Amanda from Here Comes the Sun on her journey towards becoming more fit and healthy (I wrote this post about it) and I promised you a run-down of my healthy week, so here it is.

Fitness:
On Tuesday, I went to the gym and did a Body Combat class, which was amazing! I haven't been able to do it for awhile due to issues with my feet, but they have behaved themselves for the past week, so it felt so great to go back and punch and kick the living daylights out of some air! (Body Combat is mixed martial arts group fitness). Also hit the gym on Thursday for about an hour. For week two I'm hitting the gym three times!

Food:
I've managed to cut down a bit on my sugar - there's been no chocolate in the house and I'm saving money so I've been strict with myself about buying unnecessary food, and my meals have been relatively healthy this week.
For lunch this week I made a recipe out of The Healthy Skin Diet book called Roasted Sweet Potato Salad and it is delish! (the flaxseed oil can be a bit of a put-off because it's expensive but you only use a little bit so it lasts a long time and if you're not worried about your skin you can just leave it out) Who would have thought that curry powder and lemon juice go so well together? So here's the recipe...

Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato/kumara, peeled and diced into bite-sized chunks
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon mild curry powder
Ground black pepper
Pinch sea salt
1 tablespoon flaxseed oil
200g rocket or baby spinnach (approx 2 handfuls)

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Place sweet potato/kumara in a bowl and mix with olive oil, then place on a baking tray and cook for 30 minutes or until pieces are soft and browned (not mushy). Remove from the oven and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the lemon juice, garlic, curry powder, pepper, salt and flaxseed oil. Then add the sweet potato and rocket, and gently mix.

*Tip: Replace lettuce with spinach or rocket in any meal. Lettuce is pretty much just water and gives you no nutrients at all, while spinach and rocket are full of nutrients and all those body-friendly things.


Goals for next week:

• Do weights and crunches every night before bed (flat stomach here I come!)
• Stay away from too much dairy, especially milk (inflames acne-prone skin)
• Hit the gym three times, including Body Combat on Tuesday
• Try a new recipe from The Healthy Skin Diet

How did everyone else get on?

Healthy May

So a great Kiwi blog I have been following for a couple of years now - Here Comes the Sun - did a post today about living a healthy lifestyle, and reminded me of the fact that we're more likely to succeed in things if we're held accountable - ie, if we blog about doing it, we must do it.
So she's doing this thing called Healthy May, where bloggers support each other in their healthy eating/weight loss/fitness goals by blogging at the end of each week about what they have done during the week.
Since I started on a health kick a couple of weeks ago anyway, I thought, why not join in? So every Monday I will be telling you all about my healthy week. Stay tuned!
I decided to go on a major health kick because my life has been very unsettled over the last 18 months and I slipped into bad habits like big bowls of pasta with creamy cheese sauce for dinner, chocolate as a snack, missing breakfast, lots of takeaways, and pretty much no exercise.
And although my weight isn't a problem (I know, people hate me... I'm one of those girls), my skin, which has always been problematic (it hasn't quite grown out of teenagehood yet even though I'm 24 next month) started to suffer for it. So I gave myself a kick up the bum, joined a gym, bought a book on Amazon called The Healthy Skin Diet by Karen Fischer, and started googling healthy recipes. Now I have stacks of healthy recipes that aren't just good for you, but delicious and cheap too! And I've got into some good habits which I'm hoping to stick to.
So if you want to join us, head over to Amanda's blog (linked above) and share your experience with us!

My Goals:

•Get to the gym at least twice a week
•Walk at least 30mins a day
•Limit chocolate/sugar intake
•Eat healthy meals

Simple, general goals I know, but this whole thing isn't about going on a fad diet for a month, it's about a lifestyle change, which is so much better because you're more likely to stick to it.

Making the pain worth it

So a couple of weeks ago, I joined a gym. I've never been a sporty person - in my adult life, the closest I've come is watching rugby and the occassional game of soccer. So joining a gym was not the most natural thing in the world for me, but, much to my surprise, I'm thoroughly enjoying it, especially the Body Combat class which involves punching and kicking the air mixed martial arts-style to the tune of motivating music for an hour. I feel healthier, stronger, and much more energetic.
Although I do have a couple of general things I want to get out of the gym - making my shoulders stronger so they don't hurt so much, strengthening my core, and improving my fitness, I decided I needed a big goal - something I can do at the end of the year to prove I have achieved all these things.

So I've decided to walk what is said to be the best one-day hike in New Zealand, just a few hours drive from home - the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

It's a world-renowned trek, with 19.4km of alpine meadows, craters, scattered pumice, active volcanoes, mountain springs, lava flows, emerald lakes, piles of scoria and statue-like mounds of volcanic desert. It's New Zealand scenery at it's best, and it sounds like a challenge with its ever-changing terrain and weather, and steep mountain climbs. Can't wait!