Making a Change

I feel like i've been walking around with my eyes closed for 23 years. I've spent ridiculous amounts of time and energy fretting about my weight and my health without acknowledging the fact that I literally have no idea what i'm putting into my body. It came to me after i'd been using MyFitnessPal for 3 months, eating 1300 calories a day and beginning to get a bit bored with having to measure everything down to the last gram. One day I saw I had 60 calories left over and went to reach for a banana, when I realised how many calories it contained and went for a Weight Watchers digestive biscuit instead. It was then I realised - how ridiculous is it that I would choose a processed concoction of chemicals and sugar instead of a piece of fresh fruit?! I was starving my body without even realising it. I knew then I needed to change what I consider to be the healthier option.

I did some reading, followed some blogs, subscribed to some YouTube channels, watched some documentaries and started paying attention. I've now opened the floodgates to this some-what terrifying world of healthy eating and now I know too much to close them. My attitudes towards food have completely changed. I'm fretting a lot less at how my body looks and more about how I feel. The idea of eating a McDonalds or KFC repulses me (although walking past it I can't beat the fact that it smells delicious!) and I now know if I work on taking care of my body instead of repriving it of the nutrition it really needs, the results will come. So today I thought i'd share with you the kind of 'rules' i'm trying to live by. I'm definitely not an expert and i'm not saying there won't be a ton of slip-ups, but the more I try the easier it will be:

Measure in goodness

This is the thing i've found the hardest to do.

Calories are the most confusing and misleading things ever. They don't take into account the good or the bad ingredients that make up what we eat - in my opinion, a calorie is just an irritating number. An avocado has round about the same amount of calories as a bag of Malteasers, but which one do you think is better for you? It's a no-brainer. I keep telling myself to measure in goodness instead of calories and that if I want to eat pure almond butter straight from the jar then it's not going to kill me. We've all been programmed into thinking that we must 'eat less, move more' when it comes to leading a healthy lifestyle, and although I agree with getting lots of exercise, it's definitely more about providing your body with the nutrients it needs instead of ensuring you don't exceed a silly number. 

If you don't understand it, don't buy it! 

Next time you're in the supermarket, grab your nearest 'fat-free' item and take a look at the ingredients. I guarantee they'll be a few things you can't pronounce, let alone understand. This does involve some reading to understand what certain ingredients are used for, but i've come to the conclusion that if something is made with a ton of chemicals I don't understand, then I have no business putting it in my body. On the other hand, if it grows in a garden, i'm gonna eat it.

Shop locally

I really enjoy knowing where my food has come from. I love knowing that i'm contributing to the local economy and that i'm eating something that was in the ground just a few miles away from me. It's far less likely to be processed, meaning it contains lots of lovely nutrients.  Obviously when things are out of season this is different, alongside sometimes it's difficult to find time to shop in multiple places, but this is something i'm looking to do a lot more. It's also often much cheaper to shop locally than in the supermarket, meaning you can really load up on veggies without denting your bank account.

Love your freezer

The freezer has to be one of the best inventions ever made. Seriously. It just saves me so much time and money! One of my favourite things to do when cooking is to double up on the ingredients, portion it out and stick it in the fridge or freezer for future meals. I love knowing I have another portion to look forward to for tomorrow's lunch if the meal was extra tasty and means that I am less likely to end up at the supermarket grabbing a pre-packed sandwich or pasta pot. It also means you can stock up on frozen vegetables when you can't get to the supermarket - most are picked and frozen within the first 24 hours so most of the nutrients are still there. 

Prep, prep, prep!

I think the greatest thing about processed food is that it's so convenient. It has a crazy-long shelf life, meaning it can just sit out waiting for you whenever you're hungry. So really, cooking things from scratch does feel like a bit of an effort at times. This is why I like to set aside a weekend afternoon (or weekday evening if i'm away or busy) to prep things for the week. Last weekend, for instance, I made a big batch of vegetable stock that I then split into freezer bags to keep for whenever i'm cooking, as well as a container of granola for the week ahead. I also made a tray of sweet potato brownies for whenever i'm feeling peckish. I actually did such a good job of prepping last weekend i'm set for the next few days! I find if I put something on Netflix in the background and just get on with it, you stop paying attention to how long it takes you and it's hugely satisfying to know you have lots of goodies to show for your hard work.

Be brave

I think one of the biggest steps is accepting that the way you look at food is going to change. The foods that I used to comfort myself are now my worst enemy. It's also about accepting the fact that's it going to be a bit more of an effort to get to where you want to be. Re-educating yourself about food is scary, but it can also be really enjoyable. I've recently discovered medjool dates - which are absolutely beautiful. They look gross, but my god are they sweet. I'm now hoping they will curb my sugar cravings, but only time will tell. On the flipside, don't force yourself to like something just because it's good for you. I tried a dairy-free almond shake from Pret the other day which was supposed to be really amazing, but I hated it (Far too sharp and waaay too much banana!). Find what works for you. I'm not a massive fan of celery and tomatoes, so I just choose something else instead. But at least give it a try!

I still crave pizza massively, and to be honest, I can't promise i'll never have a Domino's again in my lifetime. When I see my friends and they want to go to a restaurant that isn't super-healthy, i'm not saying I won't go. But I think making even the smallest change is a massive leap in the right direction. You hear so many people say "It's not a diet, it's a lifestyle change" and they are totally right - a diet is inevitably temporary and this certainly is not.

I'm always seeking new recipes to try or any information that will help guide me in the right direction so any help will be greatly appreciated :)

Mississipi Mud Pie

One of the things I really wanted to do this year was bake. My kitchen last year was a bit of a mess and was used mostly as a dumping ground for empty beer bottles, so you can imagine my excitement when my housemate Beth, who blogs as The Pastel Girl, suggested we make a pie as part of her dedication to The Great British Bake Off.

I'm not a big fan of fruit pies, so when we came across the recipe for a Mississipi Mud Pie which consisted of a mountain of chocolate, sugar and whipped cream.. SOLD!

Beth making the pie crust!

 

Ready for the oven - I could have just eaten it right there and then!

Tada! It tasted amazing, almost like a soft brownie. Next time i'd like a bit less whipped cream as i'm not the biggest fan, but overall I really enjoyed it and would love to make it again. It was extremely simple and, despite a few mishaps involving a loose bottom pie dish and a broken whisk, a lot of fun. I'm definitely going to start posting a few more cooking posts on here, as I love food almost as much as I love beauty products.

The full recipe can be found on Beth's blog. Enjoy!

Cake Pops!

I'm so excited to be able to finally write this post! After what feels like months of looking at various food blogs, I finally got round to making my own cake pops - yaaaaaaay! Cake pops are originally an American specialty, but the trend has caught on in the UK, and now people are really starting to get creative with various shapes and coatings. For those of you who are unaware, cake pops resemble old fashioned lollipops, with sponge cake inside and coated with either chocolate or candy melts. Yum!

My friend Beth (From The Pastel Girl) and I decided to spend a lazy day off from University baking, and got so carried away we forgot to take plenty of pictures. But here is the general gist of how they turned out and how we made them!

For 16 cake pops you will need: 

Sponge
 - 70g softened butter or margarine
- 70g caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 70g self-raising flour
- A drop of milk

Coating
- Half a packet of candy melts
- Cake pop moulds
- Candy pop sticks
- Whatever decorations you like!

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180C/350F and lightly grease the cake pop moulds.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together, followed by mixing in the egg and vanilla extract.
3.Fold in the flour using a large spoon, and add a tiny drop of milk to ensure the mixture is the right consistency to be spooned into the moulds.
4. Spoon the mixture into the bottom half of the moulds*, and pop into the oven for 15-18 minutes.
5. Once removed from the oven, pop a skewer into the hole in the top half of the moulds and if it comes out clean, remove them from the moulds to cool.
6. Gently melt the candy melts in the microwave, dip one end of the sticks into the melt mixture and insert into the cake pops. Wait five minutes for the melt mixture to dry.

7. From there, you can go a bit crazy! Gently coat the cake pops in the candy melt, followed by adding any decoration you like (We used sprinkles, chocolate flakes and chocolate drops!). Leave to dry standing up.

And there you have it! I don't think it could have gone any better. It was so simple to do, and so much fun to make. I'm now tempted to buy different mould shapes and experiment with different coloured candy melts to create presents or just as a treat for myself! If your stuck for something to do one rainy day or need a simple activity for the kids over the weekend, this is something I definitely recommend.


*You are able to make cake-pops without moulds, simply cook the sponge as you would for a regular sponge cake, and crumble up the cooked cake in a bowl with the buttercream/icing (which will act as the glue to hold the balls together!), then simply mould into balls and leave to set!

What's In Your Pocket? Blogger Challenge

I was recently approached by Money Supermarket to be a part of a really great project, that aims to celebrate 'life's little wins'. 'What's in your pocket?' began with hidden cameras capturing people's reactions when they discovered £20 in their dry cleaning pocket. Money Supermarket have taken this one step further and given £20 to a collection of bloggers to experience the thrill of finding money, and share how you've used the money and whether its given you or someone you know that feel-good feeling.

Being a university student and swiftly heading towards third year, sometimes you just need a little break. During my first year I never really went out, I allowed my work-load to consume me and spent my free time couped up in my bedroom on the phone to my friends or parents either moaning or having a breakdown over whether I thought I was good enough. 

Recent events have enabled me to realise that the key to handling stress is to allow yourself time to forget about it all.

 

  Therefore, with my £20 I put it towards a really great night out with one of my close friends from my course. We both get stressed and worry easily, so it was nice to get out of that environment and enjoy a relaxing night with amazing food and conversation that didn't revolve around our ever-mounting workload. I really liked being able to pay for the majority of the meal (It came to £28, so there was a little left over to pay!), as being students we're not exactly made of money!

Sometimes when you have a long list of to-do's it can be hard to imagine that you would have time to have nights off. But the time you spend worrying could be time spent curing yourself of that worry, as after this evening I found that I was ready to continue with my work after allowing myself to breathe for a little while. 

Overall I really enjoyed this challenge (although it was more of an award!), and encourage everyone to save a little of money every week to give yourself a night off, whether it be to go out for a meal or renting a DVD with a friend - your health and well-being will thank you for it.

If you want to take a look at the original 'What's In Your Pocket?' video, click here.

Get a free Graze box with Glamour!

Who doesn't like free food?!

I've seen quite a lot of blog posts about the Benefit freebies that have come with this months Glamour magazine (Which are amazing and extremely generous, by the way!) but what people have seemed to overlook is the free Graze box offer that's hidden between the pages.

Graze is a company that delivers a selection of delicious healthy snacks to your door either weekly or fortnightly, with the contents determined by either selecting 'Bin' 'Try' 'Like' or "Love' on the 100 nutritious snacks featured on their website.

I previously had a Graze account for over a year, but decided to cancel because I kept forgetting to eat the fresh snacks and they were going past their 'best before' date, so I thought i'd cancel for a while .. but i'm now tempted to start my account back up again!

The delicious selection of snacks fall under the following headings:

• Dips & Dippers (E.g.: Honey and lemon oatbakes & bramley apple and pear chutney with roasted poppy seed flatbread)
• Guilt-free high tea and a small cake slice (E.g.: Carrot cake & lemon and poppy slice, each accompanied with a sachet of afternoon tea)
• Rustic marble bread & Deli topped foccacia bread (E.g.: Smoked paprika, garlic and thyme marble bread)
• Crackers (Selections of oriental crackers, rice crackers and beans) 
• Flapjacks (E.g.: Honeycomb & orange and ginger) 
• Olives (Chili and Garlic & Fresh basil and garlic) 
• Natural Treats (Nuts and seed selections with added chocolate drops and various dried and yoghurt coated fruits fruits) 
• Dried fruit and nut mixes
• Nuts (E.g.: Chilli and lime pistachios & fennel seed and honey peanuts)
• Dried fruit (E.g.: 'Pina Colada' - pineapple, coconut flakes and mango)
• Seeds (E.g.: Savoury roasted and vanilla)

It's amazing how much selection there is, and some of the food looks so mouth-wateringly good!

So you can essentially hand pick the snacks you'd like to see, but have the added surprise of not knowing exactly what you'll get (But there is an added option to send a particular item in your next box, or even bin it altogether so you'll never see it again!). Each box has four different snacks in it, so you get a good selection for £3.79 per box. It's really not a bad price considering on how much you'd usually spend snacking in between meals.

Annoyingly, in order to receive the free box you do have to input card details, but you can simply cancel after the box has been delivered via royal mail on the day of your choice - there's no obligation to stay, simple (But do check the T&C's for exact cut off time for cancellations!).

So if you haven't already bought this months Glamour mag, I sincerely hope you do (Or you might just be cheeky and zoom in on the picture, but that's naughty!) because this is such a good offer, and if you're satisfied with your free box the offer actually extends so you get your next box for half price.

Mine will be with me on Tuesday :) Enjoy!

Click here to visit the Graze website.