My Typical Morning Routine

Hi there folks!

And welcome back to another blog post by yours truly; the one, the only.... Steph.

Ha. Ha. Haaa.

Can you tell how fried my brain is right now? For some reason I insist on writing up the majority of my posts after a full day of school and study and homework... I can't really blame anyone else!

Well, it is not too fried to write you up a post detailing the essential intricacies that make up a typical school morning for me for your complete and utter enjoyment. Trust me, it is highly riveting.

Ok, all sarcastic tone of voice aside, I do enjoy reading other people's Days In The Life and What I Eat In A Day's so I think it's only fair that I too share my own experiences and life with you too!

So, as mentioned above, I've detailed some of the typical occurrences of a morning before the school day begins and yep, as you can imagine, it starts nice and bright and early.

Although, not so bright, because it is usually pitch black when the 5:15am alarm goes off indicating for me to hop out of bed and pop into my day! (how fun does the sound right!? yeah, truth be told, some days are harder than others- especially in winter!)

5:15am, wake up, frequent the toilet, go downstairs, grab my glass of water and iPad, run back up stairs, back under warm sheets, sip some water, read some blog posts and Pop Sugar Posts and then onto phase 2.

Phase 2 involves getting ready to workout! This entails changing from my warm, cosy pyjamas into something generally ultra bright (although I do tend to mix it up with black shorts or a top to counter the fluorescent pinks/ yellows etc.), deodorising, hair tyer-upping, bed making and then a light jump back down the stairs to wherever it is I'm going to work out that particular morning.

Sometimes it's our home-gym to do some weights (leg day and arm day),

Post sweaty leg sesh ^^

Also quite proud of the definition that's starting to show on my arms! Yay!

occasionally it's the living room where I'll sweat it out with some Blogilates videos and other workout videos and sometimes it's straight out the door (runners put on first of course) to head out and get those legs a pumping with some kind of running fun (beach run, hill sprints, long run or just your standard run, run.)

Legs done after a 16km Sunday long run ^^

Confession time; I like to sweat. Seriously. And I don't mind if I sweat a lot. Yep, my hair needs more frequent washing (it is quite long and thick) and the curls and frizz are the end result, but there's something about sweating that just reveals hard work.

So, yes, I generally sweat for around 40 minutes to an hour most days of the week (Sunday is generally rest day! Yay!) and then jump right into the kitchen to whip up a nice big breakfast to feed those fasted muscles from the night before- definitely ready for food by then!!

Come to me Cherry Cheesecake Oats in leftover home-made almond butter!!

Brekky usually involves a rich carb source, some muscle-building protein and quite often (read; basically every day) healthy fat in the form of nut butter (my life!).

Raw Choc Black Bean Brownie Bites with cherry fro-yo (frozen cherries and greek yoghurt) following intense leg day!

Oats, smoothies, granola, (AKA smoothie bowls!), brekky sandwiches, brownies bites, oat balls, pancakes- yep, usually sweet and yep, usually insanely delicious! Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day by far and I make sure I enjoy it!

I generally have either my choc vegan protein powder or vanilla protein powder after my strength training/ weight-lifintg workouts to help with that muscle repair with quick and easy-to-absorb protein!

Tummy filled, sweat drying, emails, Facebook and Instagram checked and off to shower, put on school uniform, do hair (as nice as physically possible after the torment I just put it through), clean teeth (usually whilst showering; efficient is key people!) and then hop on downstairs, grab my prepared lunch from the night before (no time to make that food in the morning!), blazer on and out the door I head for the rest of my day!

And that's a typical Steph morning; hectic, heart pumping, sweat-inducing, delicious and just the way I like it!! So yes, I am very much a morning person as well as a morning workout-er person and a fasted workout-er person too. It all just makes me feel so energised and productive and ready to tackle my day and so that's what I do currently because it works for me!

Of course, not everyone's a morning person. Some people utterly dread having to wake up in the morning and would much prefer to delay the process for as long as possible, which might mean an afternoon/ night workout, as well as a pretty simple, easy brekky or a pre-prepared brekky to ensure an as-late-as-possible wake up time!

And that's cool too! You do you! We're all made differently and our bodies respond differently to different scenarios, the above being my bodies preferred method of going about my morning.

Oh and I'll add in there; rest days are very, very different; more of a sleep-in; read 6:30 am (look, people, I just don't sleep-in!) blog reading in bed and then a slow saunter into the kitchen to whip up some FOOOD (and no I don't eat less on rest days, rest days is when the changes are really made so my body needs that fuel!!). These rest days definitely keeps me mentally sane and roaring to go for the next week!

What about you:
What does your typical morning look like?
Morning or afternoon/ night exerciser?
Fasted or fuelled?

I hope you enjoyed this post and let me know if you want to see more Day in the Life's because I sure do enjoy writing them; definitely shows me a clear picture of my life allowing me to take a step back and really look at what I'm doing!

Have yourself a fabulous rest of your day, do something you love, look after your body and as always; EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!! Bye for now friendly friends!! :D

Chocolate Ice Cream Bowl... For Breakfast!

Hidy-ho there friendly friends!

Now have I got a treat for you! Both literally and figuratively I guess (well, if you decide to make whatever is to follow immediately that is..)

The other day I woke up.

Clap, clap Steph. Here is your medal.

Yes, I woke up- hurrah! Then I chucked on the usually workout attire, did some Blogilates vids (a little bit of everything really; some legs, obliques, abs, cardio etc.) followed by some quick boxing and skipping to get the heart rate up and then it hit.

It was the realisation that I needed brekky. And fast.

You see, I always work out fasted. That is, I haven't eaten since dinner the night before (definitely feel it in the morning when I had a small dinner previously!!) and as such, following a workout.. I'm usually pretty ready to EATTT!

And I know that on this particular morning I was in the mood for a real delicious brekky to kick start my day!

Enter this guy:

That my friends is a bowl of exactly what it says; Delicious-ness

A big bowl of rich, chocolate, creamy 'ice-cream' topped off with warm, freshly baked, crunchy, nutty granola. Oh yes. Oh yes.

And by the way my friends, it tasted better than it looks!

Alright, alright, I shall put you out of your misery with all these photos of the bowl that tasted like the sweet nectar of happiness (wow. Just wow.) by handing over to you the awesome-ness that is this oh-so-simple-recipe-it-should-not-even-be-considered-a-recipe  recipe!

Ingredients:
Choc 'ice cream':
2 ripe frozen bananas
1 large handful of chopped, frozen zucchini
1 heaped teaspoon raw cacao powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 big scoops greek yoghurt (optional; gives the ice-cream a more cheese-cake-y taste :P)
Granola:
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 large handful wholegrain cheerios
2 tablespoons nut butter of choice
1/3 cup almond milk/ milk of choice

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a baking tray with baking paper
2.Place all the ingredients for the ice cream into a blender and whaz until smooth and creamy delicious!
3. Transfer ice cream to bowl and place in freezer until required
4. Place the nut butter and almond milk in a small microwaveable container (or heat on stove until milk starts to bubble) and microwave until warmed through
5. Add to bowl of oats and cheerios and mix together until combined (should be kind of sticky)
6. Spread onto baking tray and bake in oven for around 15-20 mins until golden brown and crunchy (it will also smell amazing too!)
7. Leave to cool, then top ice cream off with granola and EAT!

Of course there was a heck of a lot more granola than the above pictures reveal because that would not keep a hungry Steph satisfied for very long and thus here is the true image of my breakfast:

Hello handsome!

There's just something about that smooth, creamy, sweet ice cream..

Paired with the crunchy, fudge-y nut butter granola...

That just makes my heart cry out with joy and my mouth instantly salivate (even though it is around dinner time right now and I should be thinking about dinner foods, not breakfast foods. Although... a smoothie bowl does sound pretty appropriate right now... :P Life of a hungry teen!

But seriously guys, do yourself a favour and whip up this marvellous bowl of delicious-ness because it will most definitely be one of the major highlights of your day (well, it was for me, but I'm doing year 12 so that's not too hard!)

And of course enjoy your extra granola on the side or plonked straight on top of your smoothie bowl; all depends on whether or not you want that chic Instagram shot :P.

Happy, happy days!

Your turn:
Favourite breakfast of all time?
Best smoothie bowl ingredients?
What was the best breakfast you had this week?

I hope you enjoyed this post and also have a fabulous rest of your day. As always; look after yourself, be kind to others, enjoy the simpler things in life and EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!! Bye for now friendly friends!! :D

Dessert For Breakfast!

Dessert for breakfast.

It is most definitely a thing.

And it is most definitely real in my household!!

I've never really been much of a savoury breakfast person, although from the remarks and praise I've read from savoury breakfast enthusiast bloggers I have dabbled a few times changing out my sweet, creamy, gooey breakfasts for more savoury, crunchy, salty meals. So I haven't just waved them off without giving a good savoury breakfast a fair go.

I don't know. My body just seems to want a warm/ cold/ sweet/ creamy/ delectable dessert-type breakfast and when I do end up forcing the body to consume a savoury breakfast (*gasp*) I just don't feel as satisfied- or maybe a feeling of I'm missing out and whilst I do agree I crave less sweet foods during the day as a result; my body (emotionally probably rather than physically) is still upset I didn't give it what it truly desired. And that, my friends, is my scientific evidence that dessert-for-breakfast is a must. At least for me ;P.

So, for today's post, I thought I would showcase a few of my breakfasts from the week that was ringing true to the idea that I like myself a dessert-style start to my day for optimum enjoyment and energy!

So first up we have something I cherish so much in life. It has been there through thick and thin. Always present to warm up a cold morning. To stick to the ribs and fulfil that satiated contentedness feeling of fullness. To be eaten with lavish amounts of nut butter and livened with multitudes of mix-ins and fruits and flavours that make this food so versatile and exciting that a different bowl could be created Every. Single. Day.

Oatmeal:

This was a happy yellow mug filled with vegan vanilla protein powder zucchini oats, topped (and dolloped throughout) with creamy, nutty chocolate nut butter:

Simply chuck a serving (my servings are probably bigger than most) of steel cut oats into a saucepan with a scoop of vegan vanilla protein powder, 1/2 grated zucchini, 1 sliced banana, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 cup almond milk, 1 cup water and bring to boil, stirring every now and then for around 15-20mins or until liquid is absorbed.

Top with anything your heart desires!

This is just so good and delicious and NOM.

And it has a serve of veg involved (that you cannot taste at all by the way; simply adds more volume to your oats!! MORE BREAKFAST!!)

Our next dessert-like scenario involved a bowl, a smoothie and some crispy, crunchy, home-made golden granola:

The smoothie was simply 2 frozen bananas whizzed up in a blender with spinach, kale, 4 fresh mint leaves and some greek yoghurt- popped in the freezer until ready to eat.

Followed up by my delicious home-made peanut butter granola:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 handful wholegrain cheerios
1 large tablespoon crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

Heat up almond milk and PB, add to dry ingredients, rub through with hands, pop on baking tray, in oven (180 degrees celsius) for around 15-20 mins until golden and crunchy).

Top it off and voila!

Deliciousness in a bowl of food.

Next up we have our second dessert-oatmeal creation of the week, this one featuring double-choc, rich, protein banana oats in an almost empty jar of mixed nut butter (best way to eat warm oats!!)

To make this bad boy, I simply threw 1 cup rolled oats, 1 sliced banana, 1 scoop choc protein powder, 1 teaspoon raw cacao powder, 1 cup unsweetened almond milk and 1/4-1/3 cup water into a saucepan, heated, stirring occasionally until absorbed and then staring through some greek yoghurt for creamy, cheesecake and volume enjoyment!

Delightful, delicious, delectable. And chocolate. I mean, come on!

Lastly, I don't want to skip passed my beloved smoothies in the dessert for breakfast department as they are truly such an amazingly creamy, sweet, tummy-happy-inducing breakfast that tastes so much like a beautifully creamy dessert that one can't help but shed a small tear to the fact that this smooth, sweet drink contains so many nutrients, vitamins and minerals. That is truly a gift to the world if I ever did see one!

This huge greenie involved 1 large frozen banana, 1 handful frozen zucchini, 1 large handful frozen mango, soaked oats in almond milk, kale, spinach and water- whizzed up until smoothy-smoothy-smoooooth!

There's something just so satisfying about making a breakfast this big (you didn't see how much was left in the blender post-filling of this jar!!) and having a breakfast that just seems to never end!! My kind of meal!

Alrighty- I should probably wrap this up here before I get too overwhelmed by all this deliciousness and end up making one of these desserts for dinner (I won't be able to restrain myself in the end and my breakfast foods will occur for breakfast lunch and dinner if I'm not careful!) so with the happy memories of these meals once had, I shall bid thee adieu and leave you to whatever meal you have coming up next (soo hungry for dinner right now!)

Your turn:
Are you a sweet or savoury brekky?
Favourite savour breakfast to have?
Best breakfast you can think of eating right at this minute!? I could really go for a huge stack of choc chip pancakes right now... yep, dinner's looking promising ;).

I hope you all have a lovely rest of your day, look after yourselves, move your body in a way that feels good and fuel your body with the foods that make it feel goodbye. EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS! Bye for now friendly friends! :D

Fav Links of the Week!

Happy Sunday friends!!!

And happy much needed rest day for me! Phew was last week an intense/ tiring/ full-to-the-brim week of 5:30am wake ups, sweaty workouts, full school days and then homework/ study thrown in there too! (as well as all the other commitments that come with my roles in the school!)

So, yes, when I woke up naturally this morning to the sound of nothing more than the windy howl of a winter's day in Aus, it was so nice to just lie for a few extra minutes, smile gratefully at the extra rest and recovery my body deserves and then slowly make my way about my morning to tick off some random errands here and there- waking up, making breakfast, showering, blogging, Instagramming, off to a uni open day and then finishing off my study for the weekend... pretty  cruise-y! :)

If you're anything like me, the very mention of eating breakfast is the first thing to spark my attention in that long-winded paragraph, on account of I want to know what the breakfast was, see the beautiful, nourishing food and witness the very image of what was consumed.

Well, here you go:

Exactly what I wanted when I woke up this morning; hit the spot and definitely filled my body with loads of the good stuff to rest and repair properly for the week to come (definitely don't think I ate enough yesterday after a tough hills session and was ravenous all day!!).

A deliciously creamy green smoothie with warm, crunchy home-made almond butter and peanut butter granola :) Eaten separately because sometimes I like to enjoy each of the textures and tastes separately- you know, the soggy cereal thing??

The smoothie was simply 1 frozen banana, 1 handful frozen persimmons, 1 handful kale, 1 handful spinach, 3 scoops greek yoghurt, splash of water et, voila!

The granola was extra special as the almond butter half was made with freshly made almond butter I whipped up the night before in the Vitamix- so, so good! You can find almost identical recipes for my granola here, here and here!

Yum!

Now, onto some of the links I've been loving in the small pockets of time when I actually get to chill-out and blog read during the whirlwind of the weekdays!

Food:

23 Meal Prep Photos That Are Almost Too Perfect

10 snacks with 10 (or more!) grams of protein

HEALTHY HIGH PROTEIN ROCKY ROAD BLENDER ICE CREAM

fudgy double chocolate mug cake

Fitness:

What Makes Running Memorable?

Health:

Gaining Weight Is Hard.

are you addicted to food?

Good reads:

Is The Five-Second Rule Legit Or Nah?

I DIDN’T WORKOUT FOR HALF A YEAR + THOUGHTS ON FLEXIBILITY

My Body (And Her Body) is Not Your Measuring Stick

Alrighty, I hope you found some interesting/ inspiring/ delicious reads in there and now I have to rush off to the uni open day! Quite excited- life is starting soooooon!

Your turn:
What day is your designated rest day/ does it change from week to week or how you're feeling?
Breakfast today?
Favourite way to eat granola? Generally I'm a big fan of smoothie bowls, but every now and then I just love to separate the two and enjoy them both equally :D

As always; EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS, and get ready for some more posts coming at ya through the week! bye for now friendly friends!! :D

Eating... My Thoughts

I love eating.

That's a fact. I love, love, love, love, love eating. Eating provides our body with the fuel it needs to sustain itself and do all the extra wonderful things we want it to. Like walking. Talking. Thinking. Studying. Dancing. laughing. Clapping. Exercising.

Food is fuel, nothing more and yet we as a society seem to pin so much more to it. It's a reward. It's a guilty treat. It's a secret binge. It's an off-limits bite. It's an 'allowed' food.

Breakfast should be protein heavy. Minimal fruits. Eaten before a certain time. A portion of this many grams.

Lunch always happens after 12. Lean proteins. Little carbs. Veggies.

Snacks. Only rarely. The right kind. Veg.

Dinner before 6. Light. lightest meal of the day. Not high in fat.

No dessert.

Is this the eating plan we really want to be following for the rest of our lives? I won't lie, it was a similar plan I used to have in my head when I first starting falling into my orthorexia trap and yet it's my eating philosophy now-a-days that I really want to talk about today.

Now-a-days, I eat to my body. Yep, weird sentence. What I mean is, I eat to my bodies desires, it's intentions, it's wants and needs, because who better knows how to feed itself than the thing being fed? And what does that look like?

Breakfast: Whatever time the body hits the hunger mode! Generally large, generally whatever the body feels like. Fruits? Huge fruit smoothie! Protein? Thick, gooey, choc protein oats! Crunchy? Home-made granola! Always full of nutritious, fibrous, body-loving goodness

Lunch: Whatever time the body has finished digesting breakfast and is in need of some more fuel to tackle some more of the day! Maybe that's 12 on the dot. maybe it's more like 11am. perhaps it's not til 1:30pm. And then it's a sandwich. A salad. roast veggies. Soup. Smoothie. Hommus. Beans. You get the drift? Anything!

Sometimes breakfast was so big and filling that all I want for lunch is veg! Roasted potatoes, steamed peas and a stick of celery because I wanted some hydration!

Sometimes it's the simple things that truly hit the spot the best. So why fight it?

Snack: Essential for me to make it through to dinner. Generally fruit because that's what the body craves (natural sugar pick-me-up anyone?) sometimes soy milk and dates, or nuts. Whatever time the hunger hits.

Dinner: Anything. Any time.

I think it's definitely occurred to me a lot more recently that going with what the body wants will leave me feeling so much more satisfied and happy when eating. Even if that means not eating any spinach one day. Or if that means a lunch of steamed potatoes... :)

Sure, the critical, health-conscious, perfectionist part of us look at that and think; that is so unbalanced- waaayyy too many carbs, hardly any protein, no fats- what is this girl thinking! But then the body simply sits back and goes; you know what, this is what I needed right then and there. Nothing more, nothing less.

Dessert:
Happens almost nightly. Not because I have to fit in some certain nutrients, not because I have restricted throughout the day to enjoy that sweet treat after dinner, not because I'm necessarily all that hungry after a beautifully nourishing (both physically and/or mentally & emotionally) dinner, but because it makes me happy to nom on some dark chocolate, or a handful of deliciously creamy cashews, or a mug of sweet ice cold soy milk.

Recently, my eating has been a heck of a lot more focused on simple, minimal ingredients, meals, because that's what the body is telling me it wants. It doesn't follow any rules, time constraints, common held societal ideals. Nope. If I want a big bowl of brown rice, warm chickpeas, avocado and salsa for dinner... than that's what dinner will be:

There will be no questioning the carb content, the limited veggies, the size of the bowl or the time in which it is eaten.

Eating is simple. My body wanted this. My body felt good after eating this. Food that nourishes and feeds the food is not always the same as the 'accepted' meal plans deemed by society.

In conclusion?

Eat for you.

Not for some meal plan guaranteeing the 'perfect body'. Because there is no such thing.

Your turn:
What's your method of eating? Structured? No structure? 
Do you ever fall into the meal time trap? I still struggle with this on the daily; I won't lie, but I have definitely become a lot better at telling myself if I'm hungry the body needs to eat, no matter if lunch was merely an hour ago!
Favourite simple meal? At the moment mine is that rice and bean, avocado, salsa mix, but I'm also a big fan of baked sweet potatoes, or toast with vegemite and avo.

Ahhh. That felt good to get off my chest! Alrighty, have yourself a great day, eat for YOU and only for you, fill your belly with fresh, wholesome, nourishing foods (for the body and the mind!) and tell a loved one that you love them, because I feel that's something we forget do far too often and it's far too important to forget! Bye for now beautiful people!! :D