Exercise
Swimming - I actually made some good progress this week and I was so proud of myself when I left the lesson! I still need to work on rotating in the water but I was able to swim further without stopping which is a good start.

Running x 3 - I managed a short run with the dog, a 3 miler and a 10 k this week. My shorter runs were OK but not the best. My legs just felt like lead and I really didn't enjoy them. surprisingly, my 10 k run was my best run this week but I struggled to even get out of the door.

I had planned to do 6 miles. I didn't do it in the morning and REALLY wasn't feeling it in the afternoon and decided to just do 3 miles. However, when I was actually out running, it felt good, my legs felt good, my stomach was a little uncomfortable as I went out too soon after eating but I just decided to keep going and ended up getting a 6.2 miler done with a time of 58 mins.

My last 6 mile run was just over an hour so I've shaved at least 2 minutes off my time and I know if I eat properly before hand with plenty of time, I should be able to do this new years 10 k in about 55 minutes. That's my aim at least!

I didn't do any other forms of exercise this week! Really annoyed at myself that I didn't so any yoga as I really have no excuse. I'm just ridiculously off my routine at the moment!

Food
Food has been good this week. I've made healthier choices. I've been drinking more tea/water which has stopped me eating so much and so I've not been snacking as much but I don't think I'm drinking as much as I should be and need to try and get in some more water during the day.

Meals are on point. I usually don't have any problems with my main meals and always get in veggies, proteins and carbs for a balanced meal. So nothing really needs to change there.

Plan For Next Week
I did the 3 runs this week that I planned to do so I'm happy with that. I'll try to get in another 3 runs this week, if not, at least a long run on the weekend for my training.

I think most of my focus needs to be on my routine cause it sucks. I need to get up earlier in the mornings rather than staying in bed for an extra hour in the warmth. This is one of the reasons why I'm not getting in any cross training during the week and I HATE working out in the afternoons so it's got to be in the morning!

My yoga has been neglected and I want to get back into it. By the end of next year I want to be able to do a headstand and handstand confidently so I've got A LOT of work to put in to get to that point. It's best to start early! I've also been wanting to try out Boxing Yoga since I saw it at the OM Yoga Show and they have a 30 min vid on Youtube so I really want to try that out this week!

Other than that I'm gonna try and drink more water and stay hydrated. I'm aiming for 8 glasses a day!

Hopefully I have a better week of exercise! You'll know next Sunday whether I did or not! ;)

***

If you haven't seen, I started a Gift Guide Series that I'll be doing over the next week or two. I put up my first one on Friday which is a Gift Guide for Runners, so check that out. I also put up a new recipe yesterday for Carrot Cake Muffins with Cinnamon Icing which were delicious so be sure to check that out too!

Have a great week!

Question: Have you any tips for getting in and staying in a proper routine in the mornings?

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For full disclosure purposes, I received some products from Natvia for free in return for an honest review. I am not being paid to talk or advertise their products. All opinions of the product are my own.

Whilst we were sitting in Costa last weekend, Phillip had a slice of Carrot Cake, I always have a sneaky little bite of his rather than having a full slice of it. It's fantastic but at 500 calories for a fairly small slice, it's not something you can have all the time and it's not exactly the healthiest.

So when I was thinking of what I wanted to bake this week, Carrot Cake came to mind and I sprung into action. I knew I wanted to use healthy ingredients only and I said last week when I made my 3 Ingredient Chocolate Cake that I wanted to use the Icing Sugar that I got from Natvia so I put them both together!

These carrot cake muffins are perfect, delicious and most of all full of healthy ingredients! It might not trump the Costa Carrot Cake but it comes up pretty darn close!

So, gather your ingredients! we're making healthy carrot cake muffins with a cinnamon icing! Completely sugar free as we're using Natvia. The muffins are really moist and there's a sneaky coconut flavour in there too and the flavours balance out well!

Lets get to the recipe shall we!

So, there you have it! :)

You don't have to make these carrot cake muffins with the icing, in fact.. I'm making another batch that I could also have as a breakfast option! I've a feeling they'll be amazing when eaten warm!

If you try and make these, let me know! I'd love to see your creations! Tag me on my Twitter or Instagram!

I hope you have a great rest of the weekend! and if you haven't already, go and check out my Christmas Gift Guide for Runners! :)

Question: Do you like Carrot Cake? Whats your favourite type of cake/muffin?

Running Gadgets - High Budget

Exercise
Swimming - I'm making very slow progress. I'm obviously not there yet and I'm still struggling with the rotating in the water to breathe, however, my stroke technique and kicking is fine, I just need to get the rotate and practice, practice, practice!

Running x 2 - I'm slacking this week with running, I usually do at least 3 but didn't fit them all in. I did two, which I was more than happy about.

I actually went out this morning early to do an in-the-dark run to test out the head torch that I won during the #ukrunchat from Unilite. It's fantastic, its almost like running in daylight and the torch is SO light!

Yoga x 2 - It's been a while since this made an appearance and I've really missed it. I don't know why I ever stop practicing. It's blissful and calming.

Food
Food has been good this week. I've made healthy choices for my main meals. Snacking has been OK, not the best but its getting better.  I'm definitely drinking more water/tea which has actually been keeping me from feeling so hungry.  I've got some healthier snack choices planned for this coming week so I don't stray and pick something else like a biscuit or chocolate.

One food I HAVE to mention.. although not really healthy.. was Five Guys! Me and Phillip watched the Mockingjay Part 1 last night(which was amazing btw) and then we saw Five Guys had opened. I'd heard of it and its an American chain if I'm not mistaken. There's burger and hotdogs and you choose any toppings and as many toppings that you want on it.

Freakin' delicious. I was stuffed and it wasn't healthy, but it was so worth it!

Plan For Next Week
I want to say that I'll do 3 runs this week but with this miserable wet weather.. I might not. In the event that I don't get out for a run I at least want to use the time I would have run, to do something else like a workout video or a routine from the Nike Training App.

I've said a million times that I don't agree with restricting foods at all and it tends to make you crave foods more but the sweet treats are hindering any sort of progress in my weight loss right now and I've gone without them for almost a full month before so I want to see if I can stay away from them for at least this week. Stick to fruit and healthy snacks and stay away from sweet treats for this week.

I'm hoping I can get both of these goals this week and hopefully it will give me a boost to get some weight off. I haven't weighed in yet, that's coming the week after next but I'm not expecting any massive changes unless I step it up!

Lets see what I can do this week!

Question: What was the last movie you saw at the Cinema? Are you a fan of The Hunger Games films/books?

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For full disclosure purposes, I am in no way affiliated with Fabletics. I paid for the Fabletics Outfit with my own money. I was not paid to write this review and all opinions of the product received are my own. However, as part of Fabletics there is a referral program and if you use my links, I will receive credits for a future order, at no cost to you.

Fabletics is a workout range that is co-founded by Kate Hudson and JustFab, they offer workout essentials such as sports bras, shorts, tights, vests and jackets. It is a subscription service where every month they bring out new designs and recommend their top picks to you based on your preferences.

You have the option to buy an outfit selected for you that month, or skip that month and wait. Prices for a whole outfit(typically 2 or 3 piece) start at £44. If you sign up as a VIP member to the site, you get your first outfit half price/for as little as £22!

When signing up on the website, you take a quiz which will help to pick your personalized outfits.

My First Fabletics Outfit

After you're done with the quiz, you'll be provided with your outfit choices! Of course, if you don't like those choices, you can pick others :)

I chose the 'Outlet' outfit which has a sports bra, compression tights and a long sleeved shirt.

You can select the specific sizes that you want for each of the items, you don't have all the items the same size :)

My Thoughts

I'm SO impressed with the quality of all the items that I got! I've worn all of the items during workouts. I've worn the full outfit during Yoga practice and it's functional, no pulling up the leggings or anything falling out!

I wore the tights for a run as they're compression. They fit great, I didn't have to keep pulling them up and they kept me warm. They have a hidden pocket at the top of the leggings, they're moisture wicking and have four-way stretch.

The bra is fantastic and completely seamless so you don't even feel it on and the back is gorgeous!

The top is SO multi-functional, it has a cross-over part and the back is mostly open but what I love about the top is that it can be worn either way round, it can be open at the back and at the front, so its versatile!

Overall, I just think the items, the quality and how stylish they are is great and I'm definitely going to be buying more outfits in the future.

The Fine Print

So, as I mentioned earlier, you can get your first outfit for as little as £22, there are a couple of things you need to do for this. You still get a discount after your first outfit, but not as much of a discount.

- You need to join as a VIP member, everyone signs up as VIP, there is no extra cost.

- You get 50% off your first outfit as long as you make a purchase within the first 24 hours of signing up!

- As its a monthly subscription service, you need to cancel your membership if you don't want to receive outfits each month. On the 1st to the 5th of each month, you have the option to skip that month if you don't want an outfit. If you don't skip within that time, you will be charged.

- If you only want the first outfit at 50% discount, you can ofc completely cancel your membership by calling Fabletics.

If you want to enjoy Fabletics and their clothes and take advantage of the great quality and great price, then head on over to Fabletics HERE and give them a go!

That's it!

Question: Have you heard of Fabletics? Are you already a member? What do you think?

A few weeks ago, the lovely people at Natvia sent me some of their products to try out. I've been wanting to get back into baking for a while and especially trying to bake healthier alternatives! So what more of an excuse did I need to start healthy baking!

I'm one of those people that does not like overly complicated recipes and instructions, so I knew that I wanted to make something fairly simple, at least to start back into baking. So, I went about making a cake the simplest way possible, using 3 Ingredients! and it turned out pretty great. 

During the prep of the cake, I thought it was a total fail! I almost threw it away before even attempting to bake it. I was encouraged by Phillip to just try to bake it anyway and it turned out to be OK! I have re-tried the recipe again and fine tuned some of the instructions, so I'm pretty happy with the recipe now!

Before I get onto telling you the recipe, just some quick facts about Natvia!

Natvia is a 100% natural sweetener

Natvia is 100% glucose, fructose and gluten free.

Natvia uses the very best stevia, combined with a nectar known as erythritol.

Natvia is great in coffee and tea, and best of all, you can cook and bake with it.

With ZERO calories per serve, compared to sugar’s 16 calories

Anyway! Enough with the chitter chatter! Onto the recipe! :)

So, that's it! Chocolate Cake with only 3 ingredients!  I'm SO glad that it turned out right! The cake is quite rich due to the dark chocolate so I cut my cake into small portions!

I'm pretty excited to bake more with Natvia and I'll be sure to share them when I do.. I think next up will be some sort of healthy cupcakes with a healthier icing, since Natvia also gave me an icing sugar alternative too! I'll keep you updated! :)

Let me know if you try the recipe or if you make any modifications!

Question: What's your favourite healthy bake?! Do you keep your eggs in the fridge or at room temp?

When this months OM Yoga Magazine came out, I just knew it was going to be a good read. This month features articles on Meditation, Yoga for Fitness and Yoga is for Every Body!

I wanted to focus my post on Yoga Is For Everybody for this month. I wish that this article would have been around back when I started losing weight. As most of you may well know by now if you've been reading my blog for a while, back in 2010, I weighed in at around 258 lbs. 

I fell in love with Yoga long before I even started practising. I saw pictures of people in different Yoga Poses, I saw some perform in public and I followed Yoga Blogs. One thing in common with all those things was the fact that all of them were absolutely beautiful and THIN.

I never dared to practice Yoga as I always thought that it was for slimmer, beautiful people and that it wouldn't be possible for me to do the same as those who were slimmer than me.

I was SO wrong. Too bad I didn't figure it out right at the start. Yoga, is in fact, for everyone! I'm not just talking about weight here. Whatever your body 'hang-up' - too fat, too thin, too old, too young.. You can do Yoga. You don't have to be skinny, nubile, bendy, flexible or at a certain age to be able to get your yoga fix.

OM Yoga and other challenging industry leaders and media creators are trying to expand this vision.

Online Yoga Blog - Yoga Dork is pushing the idea and created t-shirts to promote the 'yoga body' message.

The Yoga Body Image Coalition is another social media inspired group that's committed to getting you to love the body you've got. Not to forget that there's a HUGE library of 'yoga for all bodies' pictures to look at for inspiration online.

We're all uniquely different and thankfully so. The world would be a very boring place if everyone was exactly the same.

Britt Melton is the cover girl for the November issue of OM Yoga Magazine. She had struggled with body image issues and was in recovery from Binge Eating Disorder. Yoga helped heal her and has shown her that she does not need to change her body, she just needs to care for it!

Claudia Brown. 42,  told of her story in the OM Yoga Magazine about how she'd just turned 40, was always flirting with the idea of becoming a yoga teacher, but always thought she was 'too fat' and 'not flexible enough'. She took her future into her own hands and attended the OM Yoga Show to find out more about teacher training, She knew she was in the right place! She is now a qualified Yoga Instructor!

Anna Guest-Jelley is the founder and CEO of Curvy Yoga. A lifelong champion for women's empowerment and body acceptance who wants to encourage people of every size, shape, age and experience level and ability yo grab life by the curves - and never let go!

She also has a segment in the OM Yoga Magazine with a sequence and breakdown that is designed to support students of all shapes and sizes. I'd highly recommend you check it out!

OM Yoga Magazine also has a section in each magazine called 'Yoga Changed My Life' with stories from different people from all walks of life and how they have used Yoga to change their life. They're all very inspiring stories and I love reading all of them!

I don't think I could re-iterate how much I enjoy and look forward to each magazine that comes out each month! There's so much packet into each issue that is valuable to all Yogis, both beginner and advanced!

Exercise
Swimming - Was different this week. We went back with our usual teacher, which I complained about in my post last week, however, she was SO much better this week.

I noticed everyone else in the class was struggling with the front crawl.. so I told her I just couldn't get the rotate in the water.. others piped up and we went back to basics so that helped a lot. Although I still can't do the rotate in the water, I'm slowly learning the technique and I hope it wont be long before I can do it, at least for longer than I am

Running x 3 - I got in a short run on Thursday -  I was running late and had to cut my run short, that and the fact that it was freaking cold and icy and I had two mini heart attacks from slipping on the pavement.

However! On a more positive note, because I was rushing so much, I managed to run a 8:40 min/mile pace for my first mile which I was happy about! I've not been able to do under 9 min/miles for about a year!

Then I had 2 runs this weekend, a 4 miler and a 2 miler. Both were OK runs!

Other than that, I've not done anything else exercise wise other than walking. We had a massive switch in weather lately and it's FREEZING. As a result, I've been struggling to find the motivation to get out of a warm bed to workout. I've had a week to adjust to the weather change, now I can get back to a proper schedule!

Food
Food has had it's highs and lows this week. Some parts of my week food wise has been on point. My actual meals are great and I'm making healthy choices. However, snacking has been ridiculous.

My meals contain plenty of protein and nutrients that should keep me feeling full until my next meal. Instead, I literally feel as though I've been none stop eating. I don't know if it's because it's got cold or not.. but it sucks!

I really need to get it under control next week.. and thank f*ck I'm not weighing in on Monday.. I don't want to see what the number says.

Plan For Next Week
I made some plans last week, they didn't go quite go as expected. I know I complained about the weather but it shouldn't be a problem when I'm working out indoors(and now that the heating has FINALLY been put on ;) )

So I want my sole focus this week to be on getting into a proper routine in the morning and making sure my eating is right REGARDLESS of the cold. I can still workout indoors and you can't out exercise a bad diet, so I need to focus on both of these!

I want to run at least 3 times next week and try to do some sort of workout everyday, whether that's Yoga or a workout video, just something extra to get me moving!

With regards to eating, I just want to be more sensible. Get my snacking under control, drink lots of water(or tea) and try and have a good week of food choices!

Fingers Crossed!

Question: Am I the only one that struggles with the motivation to get out of bed, where its lovely and warm.. and go out into the cold?

And anyone have their moments when it's cold and you feel like you're always hungry?

Please let it not just be me!

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You overdo it with food, you binge on a treat. You feel bad and then you feel that since the damage is done, you'll carry on with your habits and 'start again Monday'.

DON'T let one meal, treat, or even a bad day set you back. Accept that you slipped up and get right back on the bandwagon!

Last Weeks Weight: 150 lbs This Weeks Weight: 152.2 lbs Loss/Gain This Week: +2.2 lbs Total Weight Loss: 106 lbs

NEEEEEEXT ;)

Nah, in all seriousness, I did't expect this much of a gain this week. I have no idea what is going on. However, I'm not dwelling on the numbers. I'm going to focus on building some muscle and strength(which in turn will probably make the numbers go up further) and focus more on how I look and feel instead.

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