Sunday Catch Up: working out together

 

This week has just zoomed by with my little stint in the countryside at the beginning of the week and straight back into work- it’s the middle of the month already!  Although I don’t mind that this month is going so fast as my birthday is coming up soon and I am going wedding dress shopping at the end of the month…wohooo!

So this week I have really enjoyed my workouts…

Monday: MTV  Yoga DVD

Tuesday: 30 minutes of high intensity intervals on the treadmill, cross trainer and the bike (10 minutes each) plus 200 ab crunches (4 different varieties of 25 reps each) and strength workout 1

Wednesday:  REST

Thursday:  20 minutes of high intensity intervals on the cross trainer and bike plus 1 hour of Body Pump Friday: 10 minutes of intervals on the bike, strength work out 2 and and 10 minutes of intervals on the step machine.

Saturday: REST

Sunday: 3 mile run and yoga for runners podcast from Yoga Download.com

It has been an awesome workout week and I have really appreciated the extra rest day doing the things that I love which I normally wouldn’t have time or the energy for.  Tuesday’s workout has to be my favourite as Alfie has recently joined the gym as he wants to shape up for the wedding (bless!) and it meant whilst I was in Oxfordshire where he works during the week I could go and train in the gym with him using a free pass.  This was a first as before we got together Alfie was a gym fanatic, but once uni started naturally studying became his priority and working out slipped down the scale.

Initially I wasn’t sure if I would like working out with Alfie as for me going to the gym like a sanctuary to escape everyone else around me and have some time for myself.  For the past 4 and a half years I have worked out alone and loved it.  Also. I always thought that I would become distracted and end up talking instead of working out.  Nevertheless, it was  really nice to work out with my impending  hubby.  We were very much in our own worlds and did our own thing whilst in the gym, but it was nice to stop for a chat every now and then.  It made a nice change and I wouldn’t mind working out with him again, but not all of the time!

It has also been a great week of eats too, so as per here are some of my favourites…

From right to left:

• A Fresh carrot, hummus and hummus sandwich on wholemeal bread

• This was a Cookies and Cream Berry soft serve topped with dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds and sultanas.  I made the soft serve using mixed frozen berries a scoop of cookies and cream protein powder, rice milk…delicious.

• Coconut flour paste with maple syrup,  mixed fruit, cashews and sultanas

• Mixed vegetable stir fry in an almond butter sauce with some amazing kelp noodles.

• Baked tempeh with roasted broccoli and parsnip chips and dollop of ketchup.

Other foodie highlights include…

I’ve been on a smoothie kick again this week, my favourite being a lovely frozen cherry and almond butter smoothie.  It included frozen cherries, spinach, lots of almond butter, hemp, stevia, lucuma powder, vanilla rice milk and water.  This was really gorgeous! It has been a while since I have added any super foods and extras to my smoothies, just making simple fruit or green smoothies, but I really did feel great after drinking this so the hemp and lucuma must have given me an extra boost.

Of course there I don’t think that there will never be a week that goes by without a salad involved along the way and this definitely wasn’t one of them.  I decided to make a warm salad mid-week, which included cooked courgettes, tomatoes, peppers and cannellini beans in a warm dressing made from lemon juice, dried mixed herbs , black pepper and apple cider vinegar and topped it with some grilled haloumi cheese and red pepper hummus with some mixed salad leaves.  Loved this!

My current addiction is coconut flour paste made using coconut flour and rice milk or water.  It was lovely made with some vanilla rice milk and maple syrup with fruit, nuts and sultanas.  Yesterday I made it again with a huge bowl of fruit containing kiwi, a banana, strawberries and plums and topped it with some dried pineapple and chia seeds.  I can see me making this a lot more often in the future as its so great for deserts as an alternative to cream and at breakfast time too.

The other night I baked some tempeh that I had marinated in soy sauce, ume plum vinegar, ginger and sesame oil and roasted some frozen broccoli, parsnips with some ketchup for dipping.  This was so simple but really hit the spot.  This was the first time in ages that I had used frozen vegetables (with the exception of edamame) as always buy fresh, but these were just great.  The parsnips roasted up with crunchy and crispy edges. I love it when they go all crunchy like that!

And the other night after getting home late from work I couldn’t wait to break open the box of peanut butter Cheerios for dinner- they were just calling my name!  They remind me of PB puffins, total yumfest and very addictive.  I’ve had to hide them at the back of my cupboard for safe keeping because Alfie has also been dipping in them too.

Do you like to work out alone or with other people?

Do you get all competitive when you workout with your partner or friends?

Tagged as: coconut flour, fitness, kelp noodles, peanut butter Cheerio