Like I mentioned last week, I've chilled with my diet a little bit. I'm kinda regretting it right now as I feel like I can eat anything I want to (including some chocolate unfortunately)! I'm still slightly ill, nowhere near as bad as it was a week ago but I still get awful coughing and sneezing fits every now and then.

I haven't completely fallen off the wagon, though. I'm just such a foodie that I get quite creative with my dinners. :) I bought some puff pastry this week and turned it into salmon pockets tonight, they were absolutely amazing! I chopped a yellow pepper and red onion, fried the salmon and veg, added spices, a bit of sweet chilli sauce and a few tablespoons of creme fraiche and then divided the mix into four portions and loaded them on the pastry (+ 15 mins in the oven). All it needed with it was a fresh side salad.



I've also been thinking about my workouts a lot this week. With my work days being 10+ hours, I really don't find the energy for a workout in the evening when I get home. My only option to do any kinds of exercise is early morning before work - that'd mean getting up at seven at the latest so I can squeeze in 30-45 minutes of exercise before getting ready for work. I really don't like the idea of getting up so early but it's really the only way I could do it right now, so I suppose I just need to suck it up and actually start setting my alarm a lot earlier than I'm used to.

I mean I know I can lose the remaining weight just by eating right, but it won't give me the results I really want. To reach my ideal body I need the exercise to give me that shape I'm after. Jillian Michaels pretty much has my dream body, so that's what I'm aiming for.


So all I need now is to just get a grip and actually get up early in the mornings (and also fix our DVD player so I can do some workouts at home..).

I got a little pressie from Noom today! Thank you Sarah for the super awesome shirt, I love it! It'll be the perfect workout top in this heat, it's nice and light and the colour is so awesome (by the way, matches the new Noom look!). I also got a balloon, it has been a good source of entertainment for both me and my other half all afternoon.. :D

Also feeling very Dutch wearing all this orange haha!



I've had a very relaxed two days off from work. As I do work insanely hard, I just don't rush at all when I do get some time to myself. I'm still trying to recover from this stupid flu as well, so I didn't even bother going out for a walk. I've actually been doing quite a bit of drawing and painting again, one of the pieces being this World of Warcraft fanart piece I started last September and never finished!

We've also had this huge canvas just sitting in the lounge ever since we moved into this flat. I wanted to paint something and hang it on the wall above our dining table, but I just never quite had the inspiration for anything worth painting. I finally found some inspiration and I currently have half a painting drying on the dining table! Hopefully the other half will materialise soon enough so I can show you guys what I've been up to!



Painting is quite a therapeutic thing. It always lets me process some thoughts, just think about general stuff going on in my life and try and find answers to things that have puzzled me for ages. Today I was just thinking about motivation and how I keep it up weight loss wise. I actually surround myself with things that motivate me - pictures of healthy food and fit people, use apps that show me my progress, take pictures of myself and compare them to some older ones and most of all just talk to people about my goals and dreams! It's so great to chat to someone who knows what you're going through and can give some advice, it just gives that extra boost of motivation to keep going (especially when things are tough)!

I'm quite involved with social media, and I try to include all these fitness related things to my feeds. I follow several fitness pages on Facebook / Instagram / Twitter, I'm building a health & fitness board on Pinterest, I read fitness and weight loss related blogs and so on!

Do you have any motivational boosters?

Well the past week has definitely not gone my way in the slightest! Maybe my happy mood and gloating was far too much for some higher power, as I have been incredibly ill since publishing my last post haha!

It started out with just a simple sore throat, nothing I should've been worried about. But then my body temperature started climbing up and by Thursday morning I was pretty much bed bound because of it. Thankfully the fever dropped back down by Friday, I actually got an invite to a wedding reception and it would've killed me to miss it! I felt priviliged to be there for the happy couple's special day, they looked so incredibly happy and I wish both of them all the best. ♥ Can't wait to see all the wedding pictures.


The dress I bought for the wedding -  I actually had to go dress hunting between shifts on Friday (yeah, on the day of the wedding!!), it was far too stressful for my liking! :D

Because of this stupid cold / flu / spawn of something unpleasant I've decided to relax with this diet plan a little bit. The good thing about this plan is that I don't have to stress about the end date at all, so if I need to take a week "off" from it, I can. I don't think I should put my body through such a strict and calculated diet when it is run down by some bug. I'm obviously still eating very sensibly, I'm just adding more carbs and fats to my diet for now and return to the plan once I feel healthier again.


A very 'I feel sorry for myself' type of meal last week - Chicken Amaras (sweet, mango based curry), pilau rice, sag aloo and a naan bread.

This is the type of plan that starts at set dates throughout the year, and all the people taking part have the chance to chat on a forum specific for that group. We actually have a Facebook group going on as well, and I've seen a lot of people say that they've fallen ill since starting the plan. Not sure if it's just coincidence or if this is our bodies' way of reacting to the new way of eating. But then again, I've been eating pretty similar to this for a very long time ande my body should already be used to it surely?

I was actually preparing myself to go to the doctor's today, as my tonsils would not settle down. I actually survived through the weekend with the help of a lot of painkillers to keep the swelling down, but thankfully it seems like they're starting to get back to normal now. I actually had tonsilitis for over a month a few years ago, was so worried I'd have to go through that nightmare again.

Oh and before I forget! My first Noom Voices article was published earlier this week! I'm so proud to be a part of the Noomily, can't wait to get started with my next article! My plan with these journal articles is to talk about the ups and downs of weight loss - and I think I know exactly what to talk about in my next one! ;)

I'm feeling fantastic right now. I just can't contain the excitement! So many good things have happened to me recently - weight loss is back on track thanks to FitFarm's program, starting my guest writer "job" with Noom, I was asked to give out an interview for an article (will post the link here as soon as it's published) and now another insane opportunity has popped up thanks to my blog! I'm going to try and keep it to myself for now as I don't know what's going to happen with it, but it's all good!!

All this has been timed so perfectly. I've been under so much stress for a few weeks now, but all these good news and a lot of help from a friend really have lifted my mood so much. Silly little songs when I was sulking to make me laugh and having someone to rant to about it all made it so much easier to deal with. And knowing that something is going to happen about the thing causing the stress is definitely helping as well. Just need to wait for a little longer and things should resolve. All I need to do is bite my tongue and be patient.


My not so great mood at work the other day (from my Instagram).

But less about that, let's not drag everyone's mood down any more than this! I really struggled to stay still after the email I got earlier tonight (and I got such an energy spike from that green tea I had earlier) so I figured that I'm gonna go let some of that energy out and go for a walk on the beach. The tide was super low so actually got to walk on the sand, even jogged a bit because I was feeling so good about everything.

By the time I climbed back on the promenade my shoes and socks were soaking wet and legs caked in wet sand! But nevermind, I had so much fun!



All this just shows that nothing bad lasts forever (I believe my friend actually said exactly the same thing to me yesterday but I kinda just ignored it hah), it will all turn around eventually! :) We just need to keep going and give the world an opportunity to catch up with us.

This is a sponsored post.


Last week I got an email from a company called Pure Chimp. They specialise in all sorts of 100% natural skin care products and macha green tea. I was offered this amazing tea to review, and as green tea has amazing health benefits, I wanted to hop on board and try it out!

This is how the tea is described as on the Pure Chimp website:

It sounds really incredible, doesn't it? The tea comes in powder form, which really surprised me (in a good way!). The thing that usually bugs me with tea is that you have to wait for several minutes before it's actually good to drink, but this is literally just a matter of mixing it up with hot water (or a small dash of liquid for a super shot) and that's it.



I think my favourite part of this tea is the COLOUR! Oh my goodness, the colour of the powder is the most vivid green I have ever seen, it's so beautiful that I just kinda wanted to look at it for ages. It just shows how pure this stuff actually is, you just couldn't get that kind of colour out of something that was chemically enhanced.

As I'm pretty used to drinking green tea, the taste of the Super tea really didn't surprise me. It's a bit more earthy than most teas I've tried, but that's in no way a bad thing at all! I do load my tea and coffee with sweetener though, I'm guessing the taste would be somewhat bitter in it's "natural" state.


Overall this tea is insanely good! Beautiful, herby and woody taste and the colour just makes me want to stare into my mug every ten seconds. I had quite a bit of the powder in the bottom of my mug so it kinda worked as that super shot, and oh my it made me shiver! :D It really packs a punch, bound to wake you up in the morning..

You can purchase the tea from the Pure Chimp website, and right now it's on sale at £14.95 (usually £16.95).

I'm so grateful about having two days off in a row instead of two completely random ones scattered around. It's really given me time to recharge my batteries, and today I only got out of bed around half past ten!

I think being so tired really affected my mood last night at the team meal. I just couldn't follow any conversation going and instead I just sat there, lost in my thoughts most of the evening. I even made my friend so worried and he wouldn't believe me when I said I'm fine. Bless him. :) <3

When I got out of bed it was so clear to me that I just didn't want to rush today. I didn't even do a workout, I just wanted to recharge and enjoy myself. I was going to go for a walk in the morning but it was raining so much that I decided to pass on it. I'm not bothered about a bit of rain, but this was a bit too much! It actually started thundering at one point and that just cheered me up so much - I love thunder!


As the weather wasn't that pleasant, I decided to settle down with the new Healthy magazine and a protein bar I bought from Holland&Barrett yesterday. I didn't actually get a lot of reading done, as I downloaded Hayday on my tablet the other day and my cows needed looking after.. :D Such an addictive little game.

I'm still trying out different protein bars, and so far I'm not too impressed with these Pro Bars. They're so tough and chewy that just trying to bite a chunk off is a workout on its own! My jaw isn't brilliant anyways (keeps popping and locking), so having to work that hard just to eat something isn't making me that impressed. But oh well, live and learn! At least I know not to buy these ones anymore.


I've also really had the time to sit down and enjoy my food today! No late night dinner and then a mad rush to get ready to go to bed or a boxed lunch in the office at work. Just me and a plate full of food and the company of my other half. And again unfortunately can't really share much about these recipes as I am under the program contract (although it's not really rocket science to figure them out), but for the meatballs I can tell that I used this recipe (minus the sweet potato)!

For some reason I've really been put off by tomatoes recently, but I made the brave decision of buying a few packs of them last time we went shopping. And they are so delicious again! So happy I bought them, I'm really enjoying the fresh taste of them right now.



Can you really tell I've enjoyed today? And just because that's not enough, I also submitted my first Noom article last night (it'll be published next week so stay tuned!) and I also got a request for an interview! This large international company approached me, their Finnish branch is writing an article about Finnish bloggers writing from abroad, and wanted to include me in it! I will link the finished article over here once it's published, really excited about seeing the finished piece! Eek!

So, let's get the exciting bit out of the way first - my first week of the FitFarm program ended with an insane result of -3,4kg! I actually bought two pairs of jeans a while ago (think they arrived a week before I started the program) and I could barely button them up. Tried them on yesterday morning and they fit almost perfectly! I've had to modify the program a little bit, I just simply don't have the time to do a workout four times a week so I've done half of that. So the biggest factor in all this is my diet! I've been taking my own lunches with me to work for a week instead of buying some ready meals from the shop, and oh my what a difference it makes. :) Only a few kilos away from where I left off now, feeling quite proud!

And tonight I've got the first big challenge I'm having to face during this six week program - team meal! We are going to this American diner, and as you can probably guess the menu is full of burgers and hot dogs. I did manage to have a look at the menu beforehand the other day, and thankfully they have a few salads that sound amazing. Hoping that they'll have steak on the menu as well, could do with a proper filling meal instead of a few leaves! A nice medium rare steak with a fresh side salad, oh yum.


Just a few of the snack bars I've bought this week to stop cravings, might need one of these tonight before I head out! ;)

The meal is paid for by my boss, so I know that people are going to go absolutely nuts with food and drinks. I know I will have a drink or two, but I just need to have enough discipline to go for the diet soda and spirit option instead of high sugar ciders. If I can get through this meal without a huge slip, I'm sure I can get through everything haha! Thankfully I've also told one of my friends from work about my worries and I'm sure he will tell me off if I order something bad! :D


The past week has been quite taxing in general, work has been quite hectic and I even managed to hurt my back when we were closing up on Friday. Our desk is really not designed well, we use heavy shutter type doors to cover up all our screens and they are simply far too heavy for us girls to pull up. Even with two of us trying we couldn't lift them and in the process I pulled quite a few muscles around my spine, resulting in a very sore back and a grumpy me (just because being tired after a long day at work wasn't enough!). The pain was actually far worse on Saturday, and had to give in and ask for a massage from my partner. On top of that he was so wonderful and ran me a hot bath and made the bathroom an absolute sanctuary by lighting candles. All I had to do was climb in, roll up a tea towel to use as a pillow and get my tablet to read Game of Thrones. Perfect.

Hope you're all having a great Monday!

Second day of the FitFarm program is nearly behind me! I'm just sipping on my evening smoothie as I'm writing this. It's been surprisingly easy to adapt to this new diet, overall it's pretty similar to what I'd normally eat but the portions are just a bit smaller and the amount of veg is insane!

Yesterday was definitely the trial and error day. Trying to figure out how to deal with all the igredient lists, how to combine them and so on. One of the biggest trials was trying to blend my smoothies in the food processor - faaar too much cleaning up to do afterwards!! I actually ended up marching over to Argos and bought an actual smoothie blender! This little baby is from James Martin, the easiest bit of kitchen kit I've ever used!



If you can't work this blender, you truly have not been given the brains to get through life. You simply screw the blender head on the cup, flip it all upside down, plant it on the motor bit and twist. And then you just watch everything get blended to a delicious smoothie. Yummy. Unfortunately I can't share the recipe of my meals and smoothies as it'd break the program terms, so all you guys get to do is look at the pretty pictures.


It really surprised me how much veg and berries actually goes into the meal plans. I had to go and stock up today as I was running low on pretty much everything I like to eat! :D There's a huge list of veg to choose from so I'm pretty confident that I won't get bored of my meals for the next six weeks. And there's no restrictions to what you make out of the ingredients you are given for each meal - as long as you follow the amounts, you can get pretty creative.

And the one thing I'm quite happy about with this program is that I'm allowed to drink calorie free juice and soda. This will come so handy especially at work, where I might not be able to eat for a very long time at a time. Having a bottle of Diet Coke by our desk is definitely going to help, as I find the fizzyness of Coke quite filling.

 
When I had a look at the diet plan for the first time last week, I really thought that it's going to be one of those diets where you have to starve to get results. The thought of very little carbs and lots of veg is not going to keep me filled up at all - but oh man how wrong I was! It's going to take me a while to get used to this massive amount of food, but I'm sure I'll manage. ;) At least I get to eat, and eating must be one of my favourite things to do haha!

I actually counted the calories I'm going to be consuming based on the diet plan, and it's only around the 1200 mark. It really surprised me based on the amount of food I'm eating, it feels like a lot more than that! I'm really looking forward to seeing the results of this, the workouts are quite brutal at this stage and me walking a lot at work is bound to give me a good boost to my weight loss!


Overall things haven't changed that much for me, apart from trying to include all the workouts somewhere in my day. I've already planned the next three weeks exercise wise, and I'm pretty confident I'll be able to stick to the new routine. The only tricky day is going to be Thursday, as I'm working really late (past 9pm) and will have to find the energy to do a workout after I get home. Luckily I've also found a nice gap to go swimming once a week! Really can't wait to get started with that.