Locked in

Last night I left my house keys in my mum’s car meaning today I am locked in! Since I can’t go anywhere until later this afternoon I thought I would write a quick summery of the week so far.

This week seems to have flown by even though I feel like I have been relatively lazy – I mean I’m now up to date with Call the Midwife but I don’t think that counts as productive. I find it so easy to get addicted to a TV series! It’s that time of year again where I need to suspend my Netflix membership, knuckle down and just get on with the work that I have to do. Hopefully a good ‘to do’ list and a moment of thinking how long it will actually take me is enough to sort me out.

Although watching Call the Midwife has taken up the majority of my week I have also done other things. I managed to run 8km for the first time! Yaaay! I did however overdo it as I went from running 5km straight to 8km and it’s fair to say I felt it in my hips for the next two days. Next time I think I will increase the distance more gradually. This in turn affected my yoga challenge (or maybe it was just an excuse?) and I didn’t practise on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yesterday I carried on with working on my hamstrings but I would like to push myself a little further – I really want to learn how to do a proper headstand! So far it’s not going great – I can’t kick my legs up high enough so can only hold it for a couple of seconds but practise makes perfect ;)

Food-wise I made a couple of interesting meals this week. I made a lentil shepherd’s pie with a sweet potato topping – there are plenty of recipes out there but I’m currently trying to put my own stamp on it. This time I think it turned out really well, it has definitely become one of my favourite meals! Unfortunately it smelled so good when it came out of the oven me and my mum dug straight in and I forgot to take a photo to put on here! I did however take a photo of this morning’s breakfast - a millet porridge cooked with almond milk and a grated apple, sweetened with maple syrup and spiced with cinnamon. It was so filling and delicious! I will definitely be having it again but it is however more of a day off/weekend breakfast as it takes about 20 minutes to cook.

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Plain vs Flavoured Yoghurt

Whilst eating my mid afternoon snack of blueberries and yoghurt I started wondering about the fruity yoghurts we can buy in shops. It is pretty much common knowledge now that plain yoghurt is the healthier option but I started wondering why.

I found plain greek style yoghurt and a whipped greek style corner yoghurt in my fridge which means I can start comparing.

Calories

Not that this is something that particularly bothers me, I have never counted calories and probably never will, but the calorie content of both is fairly similar with only 5 kcal more per 100g in the corner yoghurt.

Fat

Plain yoghurt actually contains more fat than the corner yoghurt by nearly 4 grams. There is also 2.1 grams less saturated fat than in plain yoghurt. So in terms of fat content alone the corner yoghurt wins.

Carbohydrate

This is the part of the Nutrition Information table I look at most (or avoid looking at most in case of cheesecake ;)). The carbohydrate content of the corner yohgurt is nearly THREE TIMES that of plain yoghurt! By now we all know that too much sugar is bad for us – tooth decay, diabetes and it is even described as addictive. Considering that the American Heart Association recommends no more than 36g of sugar per day for men and 20g for women, the 14.2g of sugar in the corner yoghurt is already nearly three quarters of the recommended daily amount and this is only a snack!

Protein

Since both of these are Greek yoghurts of some form, protein content is very similar with 4.2 grams per 100g in plain yoghurt and 4.1 grams in the flavoured.

After the macronutrients the next thing that I wanted to compare was the ingredients list. It’s nice and easy for the plain yoghurt – “Greek Style Natural Yoghurt (Milk)”. That’s it. One ingredient. The fruity kind however has 12. And only one of them is fruit. So what is actually in there? Added sugar – explaining the high sugar content. Water – yep, I can understand that one. E472b – I had no idea what this was but anything starting with E followed by a number does not fill me with confidence. After some basic research I found that this is an emulsifier made mostly from plant oils but animal fats are not excluded. From what I know about emulsifier this is the stuff that makes the fatty yoghurt and the non-fatty jam mix and not separate. Next on the list is pectin which is listed under the subheading of stabilisers. Although derived from plants it undergoes an industrialised extraction process and is added to foods in the form of a powder. It’s a commonly used gelling agents so will often be seen on many other food products. Guar gum is the next ingredient and one I have never heard of before. Again, extracted from plants and ends up as a powder used to thicken yoghurt and to stabilise condiments as well as to improve appearance. Gelatin is another gelling agent on the list – obtained from various animal by-product – this explains why the yoghurt isn’t suitable for vegetarians. Then comes the citric acid (a flavouring and preservative) and sodium citrate (an acidity regulator, which for example makes cheese melt without becoming greasy).

Even though some of these ingredients don’t sound that bad I think I will stick to my plain yoghurt with fresh fruit or granola, I think the sugar content alone is enough to make me stick with it.

Home comforts

Just like most other students, I love coming home, seeing my family, friends and my dog. Being home also means being surrounded by home comforts and by home comforts I mean being surrounded by chocolate and other kinds of delicious temptation. When I am home I find it a lot harder to be strict with myself with both healthy eating and exercise. Over the past two weeks I have particularly been craving chocolate – be it milk, dark, hot chocolate or chocolate cake. In fact today I discovered that I am not as hopeless at baking as I thought I was – I made brownies and they actually worked! I believe that what’s on the inside manifests itself on the outside, meaning that all this deliciousness is now manifesting itself in the form of spots on my face – the bottom half of my face is basically one big spot/blackhead. I think some home-made facemasks may be on the cards for this weekend.

In terms of exercise, things have been better than they usually are when I’m home - so far I managed to stick to my daily yoga challenge. The fireplace light, my mum’s new salt lamp and a couple of candles really help to set the mood ready for practice. At the moment I am mostly practising what I have learnt in class – mainly some warriors and sun salutations in preparations for the Yogathon Challenge taking place in April (108 sun salutations!), but this week I have also come to the conclusion that I won’t get very far with certain postures if I don’t work on my hamstrings first. I remember that before my growth spurt (for a year or two I grew really quickly, I even have some stretch marks on my back to prove it) I was really flexible, I wasn’t far off being able to do the splits. At this point however I also stopped dancing and so, since stretching was a big part of it, my flexibility diminished. With that in mind I went online to look for some poses specifically for hamstrings. I found a 20 minute sequence that seemed perfect for me on Sarah Beth’s YouTube Channel. Hopefully I will see some results in a few weeks’ time.

Running on the other hand is not going great. One run in two weeks is definitely not enough preparation for the 10k I will be running in April. This is definitely something I need to work on this week. During the one run I did go on this week though I was accompanied by my dog and I think it’s fair to say he wasn’t my biggest fan for the rest of the day. Sleeping, curled up next to a radiator, is more his kind of thing. 

Yoga Challenge

This week, together with my housemate, I decided to undertake a new challenge – daily yoga practice for 40 days. I call it a challenge as I am a yoga beginner and have never practised yoga as regularly as that. But let’s start from the beginning.

I first started practising yoga more seriously last year when I was stressed because of a variety of things. Moving away from home was a lot more stressful than I anticipated, so much so that after a couple of weeks I was considering dropping out. With assignment deadlines of some sort on the horizon most of the time and the pressure distance puts on a relationship I decided that YouTube yoga tutorials, although very helpful and inspiring, no longer did it for me. I found out about classes through my students union and joined the Yoga Society and soon went to my first class. It was so much different from learning at home on your own! The fact that we practised outside on a beautiful, warm evening made the experience even better. The society also gave me a chance to meet some amazing new people, many with similar interests and many with interests completely different to mine.

Although my regularity of attendance in classes varies greatly (I haven’t been to a single one last semester! :o), I try to practise what I have learnt at home and I sometimes go back to the YouTube tutorials which got me into yoga in the first place. There are two channels I use for yoga: Yoga with Adriene which is quite descriptive and really talks you through the postures as well as the breathing and meditation and Sarah Beth Yoga which I think is less descriptive in the sequence tutorials however she makes brilliant separate descriptive videos, for example she has a great video about the different yoga styles. The classes I go to teach Hatha yoga in vinyasa flow. I tried to decode what that means and I came up with this – vinyasa flow involves the linking of body movements with breath, i.e. using your breath to guide the movement from one posture to the next. Hatha yoga focuses on physical and mental strength building exercises and postures and involves asanas (movement) and pranayama (breathing). If I’ve got this wrong, please feel free to correct me or point me in the direction of more in depth reading.

With regards to the benefits of yoga I believe I have personally experienced quite a few. Incredible stress relief, relaxation and being able to detach myself from the everyday pressures life often places on us are definitely the main three I experienced right from the beginning. Yoga also has a good reputation for relieving pain. A few years ago I had back pain that did not go away until after a few physiotherapy sessions and daily exercises and, although I did not practise at the time, I realised that regular stretching and exercise were key to keeping the pain at bay. This is where yoga comes in now as part of an exercise routine, and I really think that it plays a big part in keeping my back in good shape. For me yoga also comes with some social benefits. Those that know me will know that I am not always the most sociable person on Earth but I really enjoy meeting new people through YogaSoc and the fact that we instantly have a common interest always makes the conversation easier to start.

The only regret that I have relating to yoga is that I didn’t start practising sooner.

Lazy Southampton?

Last week I came across an article on the internet about a recent survey carried out by Adapt Nutrition (a supplement brand) which ranked the fittest and laziest cities in the UK.

According to this survey Southampton is the second laziest city in England with only 23% of inhabitants visiting the gym at least once a weak – and I think the phrase “visiting the gym” is key in this survey. It would seem that the survey disregarded other forms of staying active, many of which can take place outside of the gym.

I may not be an expert on physical activity but I can see the huge variety of exercise that is happening all over the city virtually all of the time. Some people may say that being at university provides opportunities for sport which you otherwise wouldn’t have – and yes, there is an incredible range of sports societies at the university. Anyone can buy a gym membership and use the facilities and classes, and even join certain societies. And if you don’t fancy that then there are lots of leisure centres and sports clubs in and around the city including cheerleading, karate, yoga and netball as well as many more. You can even learn how to ski on the dry ski slope.

What about all the parks and open spaces? The Common, Riverside Park, Weston Shore and the New Forest are all practically on our doorstep and are all ideal for walking, running and cycling. Parkrun takes place on the Southampton Common every Saturday at 09:00 and is completely free to attend. I have recently started going regularly myself and the amount of people that go (769 last week) and the positivity and encouragement still amaze me every time. This is also the place where I see many people representing their running clubs – which I think counts as physical activity. I’m also pretty sure that cycling as a form of transport counts as staying active, and there seem to be hundreds of people cycling through the city every day.

And if the usual sports are not your cup of tea, there are quite a few dance schools about offering anything from pole to Bollywood.

I may be biased considering I live here but Southampton really doesn’t appear to be lazy to me. I think it would take a survey with a bigger sample to persuade me.

Here are a few photos I took of the parks in Southampton in the last year or so.

Unorganised week and an unorganised post

Since today is the last day of January I feel like it’s a good time for a little evaluation on my goals for this year – regular exercise and a healthy, varied diet.

But before I do that I would like to share that I have completed “Dry January”! Yaaay! And yesterday I just thought that that’s already one month done, why not try another? I didn’t really miss having a drink so looks like there is nothing stopping me from continuing with the challenge in February.

This week has been a little hectic – a few days in university and a couple of shifts at work which has made me lazier. I only exercised twice, arms and abs in the gym on Friday and parkrun on Saturday (I got a PB! :D). I have to say that I felt quite proud of myself in the gym on Friday as for the first time I managed proper-ish press ups – no more than 5 at a time and while for some people this wouldn’t even be a warm up a feel like for me it’s an achievement and a sign of slowly getting stronger.

My diet this week consisted mostly of foods I’m familiar with and could cook quickly, like Quorn spaghetti Bolognese. I also went out for a meal with my friends to a local pub. I’ve been there a few times now and have never been disappointed with the food. This time I opted for the fish pie – BEST DECISION I MADE ALL WEEK! I think it had salmon, smoked haddock and king prawns in a dill sauce in it and it tasted amazing! One of the days this week I also worked a long shift in work and after getting off the bus that evening I was walking past a pizzeria and it smelled so good I went in and bought one to take away, in my opinion (this might be controversial) this pizza was a million times better than Domino’s. Last night however I experimented a little and made something I haven’t made before – roasted aubergine with tahini rice but I have to say I wasn’t a big fan. I will write more about this one when I do my Deliciously Ella review, hopefully in a few weeks. I also made some treats – black bean brownies. I’m not sure I got the texture right as they seem to be a little too gooey in the middle but it’s only my first attempt, I’ll experiment more when I made them again which I definitely will as they taste so good! They have no sugar in them, just a little bit of honey, which means they’re not very sweet but personally that’s why I like them – they’re not at all sickly, just pure cocoa goodness.

I feel like January is just the beginning of a busy year, but overall I’m trying to achieve my goals although quite often it’s a challenge, especially exercising regularly. I have definitely been thinking about my diet more and have been more conscious of the choices I make. Yes, I may have a take away once in a while but all my other meals have become healthier and more adventurous. With so much food inspiration out there – cookbooks, Instagram and pinterest – I am still excited to try new things, and maybe at some point in the distant future, maybe even try to invent something of my own once I get used to the new ingredients I’m using.

For some reason I feel like this week was very unorganised for me, I feel like I was constantly busy but haven’t actually achieved much, especially in terms of my university work. I think that this week I will employ more ‘to do’ lists and make better use of my diary as it looks like this week will also be busy even though I only have three half days on campus. 

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Parkruns, HIIT and naughty food days

As we head towards the end of January I've come to the realisation of just how busy I am going to be over the next couple of months. With university deadlines already appearing on the horizon, a return to my part time job and visiting my boyfriend and family there isn't that much time for relaxing and taking time out.

Last weekend I took part in the local Parkrun (as I mentioned in my last post) and considering it was my first longer run in weeks and first park run in 8 months I was very happy with my time - 32:57. I would be extremely happy if I could keep that pace up for my 10k run! 

Since Saturday was "leg day" on Sunday I decided to go to the gym and do some abs and arms. I know many people choose Sunday as their rest day during the week but with being so busy during the week I decided I'd rather break up my day off with some exercise. Being a gym newbie I didn't know how half of the machines worked so after a tutorial from a friend of mine I felt a little more prepared. 

Then on Monday I decided to try something new - High Intensity Interval Training which I loved so much I signed up for next week's class the next day! The class involved a leg circuit, consisting of backward lunges and squats, and a core circuit consisting of planks and crunches. We started off with 45 seconds of lunges followed by 15 seconds of rest, then 45 seconds of squats followed by a rest - we did this 4 times and then did the core circuit in the same way. I ached for 2 days after which just goes to show that you don't have to train for hours to work hard.

On Friday I managed to squeeze in a quick gym session but I have to say it didn't feel like I worked very hard - but apparently the only bad workout is the one that didn't happen so let's count this one in!

Yesterday I did park run again, this time with my boyfriend who visited me this weekend. He runs a lot faster than me so completed the 5k in about 25 minutes while I tried to beat my previous time and, according to my Fitbit app, I did. I think I did it in about 31 minutes but I don't know for sure because I never got my time which was fairly annoying but understandable considering how many people take part in the run. At the end of the day all that matters is that I did it and I pushed myself.

That afternoon the sun started to come out so we decided to head to the beach for a walk. Walking along the beach is definitely one of my favourite things to do, I find it very calming. 

Today I also repeated last week's routine of going to the gym to work on my abs and arms and I have to say I quite like this 3-4 day exercise routine with a break in the middle of the week.

Healthy eating wise lets just say that this week was a good balance haha. Some lovely vegetarian stir fries, pastas and soups but also some chips and cheesecake. My Deliciously Ella Every Day cookbook finally arrived on Thursday and I'm very keen to try many of the recipes in it. When it has been thoroughly tested I might consider writing more about it. 

It's Monday tomorrow so let's start it in a positive way - homemade meals, HIIT and hopefully some productive reading for my assignment. And also I'll quote something I've seen a while ago on the Internet - we have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyoncé so let's stop making excuses and make the most of it!