Here today

Hey guys – I can’t believe I haven’t posted since the weekend! I guess I have been fairly busy this last week, but I also had a few ‘meh’ days early in the week where I didn’t want to go over what happened. Let me explain..

So my week started out well enough – with some delicious oatgurt in a jar. I always keep the jars to myself, and haven’t yet shared with dad how great eating oatbran out of a near-empty jar is. I feel this is a little pleasure I can keep to myself seeing as ‘what you don’t know can’t hurt you’.

Lunch on Monday was the last of my wraps, filled with cheddar cheese and hummus and a baby spinach side salad with some tuna and peas on top.

After lunch, I headed to the grocery store to buy some supplies to make ‘coconut chocolate bars’ for my friends going away/birthday that night. I hadn’t tried the recipe before, but it was in a chocolate cook book I own and it looked really tasty!

Anyway, it was a total baking fail Although it looked pretty, when I chopped it, the base didn’t behave and went all crumbly. I followed the recipe exactly, so I’m not sure what went wrong, but being slice-less left me a little annoyed. I also didn’t have enough time to wash my hair before I left for his party (my fault – I could have done it during the day but didn’t) and so felt immediately ‘icky’ by virtue of having dirty hair. I was, however, able to ‘deal’ with the no-slice issue by buying my friend an ice cream cake from Dairy Bell which he really liked!

The party was not so great. Although I loved seeing my friend (he’s the one I’ll be travelling around Greece with) another friend of mine, who was there on the night, kind of avoided me. To be fair, I didn’t speak to her either so it went both ways. This girl was once my best friend – we met in our first year of university and travelled to Europe together. But after a few ‘issues’ in the last couple of years, I think it is fair to say that our friendship is all but over. This made me so incredibly sad on Monday night, and also on Tuesday. I know that being her friend just doesn’t make me happy anymore, and that it’s better for me to not see her anymore, but at the same time, I feel so sad to have lost her. Has anyone else broken up with a friend before? This happened a couple of days ago but recounting it now (even if vaguely) is just making me feel teary again. So I better move on to something happier!

Alas, I have no photos from Monday though there was a delicious curry and satay chicken skewers at the party which I enjoyed. Along with a small sliver of chocolate cake, and ice cream cake!

On Tuesday morning I was still feeling a bit down and preoccupied. I didn’t take a photo of my breakfast, which was a banana with almond butter, which I ate on the run on my way to my training session at the gym. My trainer made me do a bit of a ‘circuit’ which was good fun (that’s sarcasm, by the way). I did one rep of five different exercises – DB squats, barbell chest press, bicep curl, lat pulldown, pushup on a medicine ball, cable row and an ab exercise - and then on the next round did two reps, then three reps etc until I got to ten. Oh, and he made me do 20 reps of the ab thing on the last 5 rounds because he decided it didn’t seem hard enough. Yeah, it hurt. I followed this up with an amazing 50 minutes of cardio. Don’t know how I managed that – I think having a rest day on Monday gave me the energy to bust out a bit more time on the cross-trainer/bike.

When I came home I immediately had a massive green monster protein shake. This has about 3 handfuls of spinach, a scoop of chocolate protein powder, 1/2 banana, a couple of strawberries and some almond milk.

For dinner on Tuesday, I made a ‘vegetable slice’. Like I’ve said before, it’s hard cooking for dad. As well as being a fussy eater, he is on doctors orders to avoid animal fat. This throws an extra spanner in the works.   

So here’s what I used:

• 2 zucchini’s - grated and moisture removed
• 1 large carrot – grated
• 1 large onion – chopped
• 1/2 head of broccoli - grated and steamed
• 1/2 head of cauliflower – grated and steamed
• 100g turkey breast – chopped (optional)
• 3 eggs
• 6 egg whites
• 50g wholewheat flour
• small handful of tasty cheese

1. Put a little oil in the pan and cook the onion until golden brown

2. Mix all the veggies and the turkey together.

3. Mix together the flour and eggs/whites until well combined

4. Pour over the veggies and mix together.

5. Place in a baking dish and top with a handful of cheese.

This came out really well! I don’t think there was enough turkey in it – you couldn’t really taste it – but otherwise, it was great. And dad-friendly!

Wednesday was a bit of a family day. Dad and I went shoe shopping after my breakfast which was a bowl of broccoli oat bran (yes, no oatgurt!)

Normally, I wouldn’t go shoe shopping with dad - but we were looking for some walking shoes. And luckily enough, a family friend of ours happens to own a shoe shop, so we headed into the city and both bought ourselves a nice pair of converse shoes. We also went travel insurance shopping. It’s about as fun as it sounds. We got a few quotes and need to decide today who we will go with. Did you know that my travel insurance takes a huge jump cost-wise because I’m going to the US? Oh well, it’s worth it!

After our shopping expedition, dad and I went and had lunch at a Polish restaurant we were excited to spot. Dad ordered some pierogi and I must admit, they weren’t nearly as good as my mum’s. I had a roast vegetable salad which was quite good… but I left my camera at home, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

And guess what – I had my first ‘last’ yesterday before I go overseas. I had my last boxing class. Oh, it was sad. I love that class so much. And I’ll miss the line of death (a boxing game we play at the end of each class – it’s much funner than it sounds!)

When I came home, we had some more Polish eats. Zurek soup – with some sausage and an egg in there. Kinda looks like a wonky smiley face hey? It was delicious.

And dessert yesterday was a large green apple, some peaches and a few almonds baked in the oven for about 40 minutes. I topped this with a little honey and flaxmeal, and had ice cream on the side.

Ok, I have to find something else to make for dinner tonight. And also talk to my bank. And go to the travel shop. The list goes on!