Ibiza Pt. 2

Saturday was absolutely crazy. It was change over day and the amount of rushing around we did was ridiculous. The last group left and within 3 hours the villa had been transformed from a messy and dirty house to a clean and tranquil haven. By the time the new set of guests arrived Vicki and I were showered and dressed, helping the chef cook a delicious lunch.

Rainbow Salad

Spelt Bread

After a late and lazy lunch the guests retired to their rooms for siestas or to unpack before an hour of yoga at 7pm.

Yesterday we had an early morning hike across the hills which was absolutely breathtaking. We didn't come across anyone else, all you could hear was birdsong and to top things off, the instructor had a dog and we all know how much I love dogs.

The photos say it all really. Now I've done my social media for the morning so I'm off to lie by the pool as I have the villa to myself in order to top up my tan. As if I'm being paid for this eh?!

Summer Salads

Firstly, I feel I should apologise for my recent absence. Exam stress put me in revision mode (or huge procrastination mode) and I lacked any kind of creativity or blogging inspiration. But I am back, with lots of ideas! Secondly, I only have 12 days until I fly out to Ibiza to help nutritionist Vicki Edgson on her wellness retreat. I actually cannot wait. I will be blogging and updating whilst I'm out there of course. Check out her website for more details. And finally, this weather (even if it's lasted for a day, cue thunder storms tomorrow) means no more comfort foods, goodbye lamb stews, hello summer salads!

I'm not really going to go into this in too much detail, as it's pretty self explanatory, so I'll let the photos speak for themselves. A chopping board is a great way to present food, and encourage little'uns to eat their greens. I've always been a fan of picking and choosing, rather than someone plonking a plate of food in front of me.

It was light, yet very filling, and hit the spot perfectly. We sat out in the evening sun discussing plans for the summer and me gushing about my month in Ibiza, naturally. Sorry this is a very rushed post, I'm off to collect the boyfriend from the train station, before rushing off to Malvern tomorrow morning to watch my brother's last ever school cricket match! I'm manic until I go away, however I do intend on posting 2 reviews (one features Mario Falcone...) and a new workout plan I have, so stay tuned!

Five a Day

Just as I wrote my previous post Mum came home with a tray of fresh food from Wykham Park Farm. The tray contains exactly the food I've been eating to achieve my goals! White meat, colourful fruit and veg, all home grown and organic. I know, I'm lucky I live at home with someone to buy this for me. But there are alternatives such as Sunday farmers markets, grow your own etc, you just have to be willing to search around for these alternatives!

Dinner for two

Today I spent the afternoon in Oxford with Lauren. We sat in the sun whilst munching on a Pret lunch, swooned at the new Zara collection and spent far too long in Curry's. On June 19th I go to Ibiza for a month; 2 weeks for a vitality retreat and 2 weeks for a family holiday. As I have been invited to work on the retreat, on the condition I blog about it, I decided it was about time I purchased a camera, as my trusty iPhone 4S just wouldn't match up.

Having spent about 1hr30mins in Curry's, with Lauren patiently describing every camera function under the sun to me, I decided the only way to repay her was to invite her over for dinner (also a great way to try out my new toy!)

As we both had a lot to do this evening, such as preparing for interviews / uni work / relaxing (!) we decided to make an easy but delicious dinner, comprising mainly of veggies. Admittedly by the time we had prepared a lot of the above ingredients we realised we had gone massively overboard and ended up using half the veggies we'd bought in the first place!

        

Essentially all we did was add a little olive oil, garlic, sage, mixed herbs, salt and pepper to the veggies and roasted them. Then we cut up the chicken, added mixed herbs and lemon. Simple but so tasty.

Colourful food tends to be better for you, which is why I continually aim to make my plate hold every colour of the rainbow. Yellow and orange foods contain carotenoids (an antioxidant) and vitamin A, which is great for eyesight and your skin. We all know that green veggies are good for us, I don't need to go into why as the benefits are endless. Tomatoes and other red fruits contain lycopene which, again, is a fab antioxidant. Lycopene has been shown to protect the body against cancers such as prostate cancer, as well as heart disease. Not only are there health benefits to colour but it makes the plate more aesthetically pleasing AND appetising.

        

It was lovely to catch up about all that's been going on over Easter, and what we're up to over the summer. The sun was slowly setting and it was very mild outside; there was something quite therapeutic about food prepping in the garden!

Hope everyone is having a good week. I'm off to London tomorrow so might take some photos en route. Have a lovely weekend!

Average morning...

You cannot go wrong with eggs. Besides the fact you can cook in them so many different ways, eggs also have many health benefits which are essential to every day processes. One egg has a huge array of vitamins in it, including Vitamin B2 which breaks down food into energy, vitamin B12 which aids the production of red blood cells and Vitamin A which is great for your eyesight as well as growth. They are also packed full of minerals such as iron and zinc, the former being important for women during menstruation and the latter being essential for a powerful immune system. Eggs also boost weight loss as they keep you fuller for longer allowing you to avoid those pesky midmorning snacks and thus reduce your calorie intake. And finally, eggs are a great source of protein providing around 6.5 grams of protein per medium egg. For a woman your daily protein intake for be around 50g, so if you have 3 eggs for breakfast you have nearly had half your daily intake of protein!


So with all the above benefits of eggs, theres no doubt it's a fab start to the day. My favourite? Scrambled with extras added! Yesterday I started my day with the following recipe:

2 eggs
3 spring onions
150g (approx) flaked salmon
Handful of spinach
Homemade french dressing


Cut the spring onions, throw them into the whisked eggs and pour into a pan on medium heat. Scramble the eggs. Plonk on a plate, add the flaked salmon (this was from my meal the night before) mix the french dressing with the spinach and you're done!

Every day my mum makes a juice. The one pictured is carrot, apple and lime. It was gorgeous! New post on juices will follow soon...

morning hassle

I always feel so uninspired in the mornings, I am definitely not a morning person. I'm rude, grumpy and very monotone when woken up before 9am (which is pretty much every day of the week). In fact, I don't talk until I've had a decent amount of breakfast and am thinking about heading to the gym. Yes, my family love living with me and I bet my boyfriend can't wait!

Something I find works a treat for those dreaded early rises is a little concoction called "Overnight Oats" Having eaten porridge every morning for the majority of my life this is a quirky alternative.

What you will need:

Empty jam jar
Handful of oats
Splash of almond milk
Handful of Chia seeds
Dollop of 0% fat Greek yogurt
Scoop of granola (ensure it has no added sugar)
Handful of any fruit you please
A pinch of cinnamon

Simply layer the above into a jam jar, leave it over night in the fridge ready to consume in the morning. Unbelievably delicious and keeps me going for hours. There are also scientific benefits to soaking oats overnight. From what I understand (which isn't a huge amount) oats contain an acid called Phytic Acid. Typically this is difficult to break down within our bodies, so by soaking the oats overnight it allows for the acid to be broken down by Phytase, also present in the grain. The time lag ensures that the acid is broken down to it's rawest form, allowing us to digest the oats to our best ability. Phytic Acid has been found to decrease our efficiency of absorbing minerals and vitamins such as iron, calcium and magnesium, therefore it's important we can break
it down before consuming it.

Don't freak out! Having said all of the above I can hear the alarm bells ringing. Oats are still an absolute must in the mornings, soaked over night or not. They are a brilliant source of fibre, decreasing the chances of constipation and IBS, as well as keeping your blood cholesterol levels low. The reason we feel so full after eating a bowl of oats is due to the fact they release sugars into the bloodstream at a slower rate than other foods, allowing us to feel full of energy for longer, particularly in comparison to other cereal.  Like I mentioned previously, oats have a high amount of minerals in them which are essential to every day tasks. To name a few; Calcium which is crucial for the immune system, iron which transports oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from cells, and finally, magnesium which is needed for hundreds of different biochemical reactions in the body. And last but not least, oats have a very low sugar content (unless you add sugar to it obviously) and we all know that sugar is definitely not our friend anymore.

So there we are. That's what I eat before work, the gym and uni, the ultimate "go to" breakfast.