I recently invested in a NutriBullet and it’s been one of the best purchases I’ve made in a while. Since buying it, I’ve used it every single day so I’m definitely getting my money’s worth out of it.
At the being of the year I wrote a post about some health and fitness changes to my lifestyle (you can read about them here). One of my goals was to start getting in more fruit and veg, making sure that I was getting my daily allowance. What I like about smoothies is that they are quick and easy to prepare but ensure your body gets the daily vitamins and minerals it needs.
I’m also noticing a difference in my body. My skin, hair and nails are looking more radiant. My hair is growing healthier and my skin is glowing. It’s not just my physical appearance it’s improving but also my physical performance when I exercise. These extra nutrients are helping my body recover and repare itself after a workout.
Another benefit is that it has improved my immune system. I have only been ill once this year and it only latest for less than a week. It’s supplying my body with more energy which is helping me fight off germs easier.
Lastly, it’s improving my clarity, focus and memory. All these vitamins and nutrients are great for my brain so I have no more excuses for being forgetful!
I’m feeling a change in myself that is coming from leading a healthier lifestyle and that’s making me feel happier in myself.
This is one of my favourite smoothie recipes that I like to make on a day-to-day basis.
Ingredients:
1 handful spinach I banana 1/2 green apple 1 cup pineapple 1 cup cucumber 1 tsp fresh ginger 4 cups water
Method:
1. Add all the ingredients into a blender. 2. Add the water and blitz together until smooth. 2. Serve in a tall glass and enjoy.
I hope you enjoyed this post and I encourage you to give smoothies a go.
Leave a comment and tell me what your favourite smoothie blends are.
Something I've wanted to improve for a while is my health & fitness regime & there's no better time to start than at the beginning of the New Year. I don't like diets & I even hate the words 'diet' & 'dieting'. For me, this is something I'm not able to maintain & they are never very effective for me. I needed a plan I was able to stick to. I decided to develop a plan that was unique for me & something I was able to keep doing even once I've lost the pounds I want to lose.
Here's what I've done.....
Food
First, I needed to think about what I was eating & if there were any habits I could change to make my diet better. I downloaded a calorie counting app on my phone & have been tracking what I've been eating on a day-to-day basis. The app I use is called 'Lose It!' & it's super helpful. Once you download it & create an account it asks you for details, such as, your height, weight, goal weight & gives you a realistic time frame for you to lose those extra pounds as well as giving you a set amount of calories to stick to each day. I also find tracking my food helps me see where I'm going wrong & finding healthier alternatives. For example, some days I was drinking a large cappuccino which is a massive 400 calories. I decided to swap these large cappuccinos for a large cup of herbal tea instead, which is zero calories.
Next, something I have been doing for a while is making sure I'm cooking my own meals from scratch as much as possible & cutting out fast food. Cooking from scratch is a good way to include fruit & vegetables in your meals. I always make sure I'm including at least two fruits or vegetables in all my meals so that I'm getting my 5 a day at least. I'm also trying to eat them as an alternative snack to chocolate & other fatty foods, which can be difficult as times when I just want a biscuit with my cuppa.
Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with meal ideas that are healthy so there are a few websites I use for inspiration. BBC Good Food, this also includes nutritional information on there page too which come in very handy. Another page I find useful is Buzzfeed Tasty on Facebook. They have a variety of nice recipes & now also have an app for your phone so you can look for ideas on the go. Finally, I love to use Pinterest to pin ideas onto a food board. Every now & I again when I need some cooking inspiration I go on Pinterest for ideas.
Exercise
I've never been the most sporty person & sometimes I'd rather just be in lazy mode than exercising but I decided I needed to change my attitude on exercising. Rather than exercise feeling like a chore, I change my mindset & looked at it in a positive way. Now, it's something exciting that I enjoy to do. I chose to focus on cycling & swimming. These are sports that I enjoy doing & I always look forward to doing them. I've started cycling for an hour three times a week, sometimes four if I'm feeling extra motivated. Sometimes I'll switch to swimming if I fancy a change. With this I've included some workout exercise to tone up muscle. For workout videos I find YouTube has some great ones, plus if you have the YouTube app on your phone, you can do them wherever you are. At the moment, I'm loving the YouTube channel XHit & have been doing these videos each day to tone up my arms, stomach & bum (click for links to the videos).
The future
By making these small changes & by including them in my every day routine they no longer feel like chores. They have just become a part of my day, like going to work or showering. I plan to give myself eight months to lose the extra pounds I want to get rid of but it will be easy to continue using this plan after those eight months because it will have become my daily routine.
I will be include some posts on health food & drink recipes I've found.
If you liked this post & found it helpful please leave a comment & also don't forget to follow my blog too!!!
I've been very inspired lately by the array of smoothie bowl recipes I'm seeing on Pinterest and Instagram. You can pretty much create any combination you want and top it with your favourite fruits, nuts & cereals. They make a very healthy and satisfying snack, plus they look really pretty. Almost too pretty to eat!
Here's my favourite smoothie bowl that I've been obsessed with making at the moment which is enough to serve two people.
Ingredients
For the smoothie:
1 1/2 cups peaches (frozen)
1 ripe banana (frozen)
2 cups strawberries (frozen)
1 cup almond milk
1 tspn fresh ginger
To serve:
2 kiwis
1 handful strawberries
1 dragon fruit
Shredded coconut
Method
To make the smoothie:
1. Add the frozen peaches, banana, strawberries, milk and ginger to a blender and blend for 2-4 minutes until it is a soft but thick texture. If you find the mixture is a little too thick add a bit more milk to get the desired texture.
To serve:
1. Split the smoothie mixture between two bowls.
2. Chop up the topping fruit as desired and sprinkle on top of the smoothie mixture.
This smoothie bowl is my favourite go-to thing to make at the moment. It's super quick and easy to prepare and I love to have it as either a snack or for an actual meal if I'm in the mood for something light to eat. Why don't you try making one too!
As always, I hope you enjoyed this post and found it inspiring.
Do you like smoothie bowls? What are your favourite flavours and toppings? Why not leave a comment down below!
Weekdays can be busy and I like to keep meals as quick and easy as possible. This lovely broccoli soup is one of my favourite meals. It's simple to make and you don't need many ingredients which makes it a good go-to recipe. Plus, it has a few greens in it too so you can get in a couple of your 5 day. Here's how I make it;
Ingredients
For the soup:
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 broccoli floret
1 can coconut milk
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
Parley
Salt & pepper to season
To serve:
Avocardo
Parsley
Cashews
Method:
1. Roughly chop the onion and crush the garlic gloves.
2. Add one tablespoon of olive oil to a pan and heat.
3. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook until the onion is soft.
4. Chop the broccoli floret into individual pieces and add to the pan. Cook for a minute before adding the coconut milk and vegetable stock.
5. Season with salt and pepper and a handful of parsley.
6. Bring to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes.
7. Serve with a sprinkling of parsley, avocado and cashews.
Note: this recipe serves 4 people.
I hope you enjoyed this post and give it a go yourself!
Fresh off the plane in Bogota we arrived back home from our trip to Peru only to get one nights sleep then we were off again for our next adventure. This time we were staying a little closer to home, although just barely. We were heading to Leticia, the Colombian capital of The Amazon. The Amazon River is shared by three countries, Colombia, Brazil and Peru.
After arriving, we check into our hostel and went to have lunch at a restaurant popular with tourists called 'Tierras Amazonicas'. Here they serve a wide variety of exotic dishes which are typical in this region, including pirana fish. However, I wasn't feeling that adventurous and went for the scrimp coconut curry which was every bit delicious as it sounds. Then once we'd finished our lunch, we were ready to start exploring Leticia. We booked a trip for the following day along The Amazon River and I couldn't wait!
The following day we headed to Leticia's port early in the morning to meet with the rest of the tour group. The port was bustling with people, from tourists to sellers. The river was crammed full of boats and I was surprised to see actual homes on the waterfront too. Rows and rows of shacks lined up on the banks as we made our way along on river.
We started our tour by heading up the river to Puerto Alegria which is part of Peru. Here we were met by some of the locals and an array of animals including sloths, parrots & monkeys. It was great getting to be up close these beauties and getting to hold them. Although I wasn't so keen on the snake! I wasn't brave enough to have it around my neck.
Then it was time to get back on the boat and head to our next stop, Isla de Los Micos (The Island of Monkeys), where we were back on Colombian soil. I was really excited to see these monkeys and the trip didn't disappoint. These little monkeys move very quickly and jump around from person to person a lot so it can be a little overwhelming at first. By this part of the trip I was feeling very dishevelled and mucky but everyone was in the same boat (no pun intended) so it didn't matter. If you're going to do this trip I'd recommend not wearing your best clothes or anything white because they will get ruined.
From there we headed a little further up the river to see if we could catch a glance of the pink dolphins. Unfortunately, it was raining at that point so they weren't coming to the surface so we headed on to our next stop, El Vergel. El Vergel is home to The Victoria Regia nature reserve where they have the largest lotus in the Amazon. Bridges have been built, making it a short distance from the banks to the lagoon so you can see them in detail. Here, we stopped to have lunch and take in the scenery. It was so peaceful there and was a nice break before continuing our journey.
Next, we went to Macedonia, which is inhabited by indigenous tribes who make hand made crafts for the tourist who pass through on a daily basis. There work is very unique, made from palo sangre, a reddish wood, as well as necklaces, bracelets and other accessories made from natural fibres.
En route to our finally stop, Puerto Nariño, we went further up river and caught a glimpse of the pink dolphins which was a lovely experience. Arriving at Puerto Nariño I was taken in by the cheerful colours of their houses. It's a small town is the second largest town in The Amazon after Leticia. However, it only has about 6,000 residence so it's still quite a small community. What's unique about Puerto Nariño is that there are only pedestrians. No cars or motorcycles are aloud so it's quite an ecological community. This was our final stop before setting off back down the river to Leticia again.
Amazon river tours are the main attraction in Leticia but there are other spots to visit while you're there. One place that's we visited and is a must for anyone planning a visit there is Parque Santander. This is the main park in the town and has a lot of personality. It's know for the thousands of parrots arriving between 5 and 5:30pm, heading for the trees for the night. This lasts for a while and is quite noisy but well worth coming to watch. They also have some beautiful carved trees around the park too.
We also visited Museo Etnographico (The Ethnographic Museum) and is a good place see if you're in the mood for something cultural. Here you can learn about the culture of the jungle and its inhabitants. It's collection includes important representative artefacts of the indigenous Ticuna, Huitoto and Yacuna tribes such as vessels, oars, bows and arrows and things used for rituals, ceremonies.
On our final day before going home we went to Parque Ecologico Mundo Amazonico (Ecological World Amazon Park), which is located 15 minutes from Leticia but easy to get there by bus. It has collections of nature, fruit plans and exotic fish from The Amazon. We went on a tour of the park and it was interesting to learn more about the nature in this region.
This was such a great trip and very doable in 4 days. I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip to The Amazon. Please leave a comments below if you liked it.
You can also watch my travel vlog on my YouTube channel here:
