Carbing Up!!

Hide ho friendly friends and welcome to the space where i talk non-stop about food. And quite frequently exercise, and also regularly healthy living and eating to fuel the amazing machine that is your body.

But mainly food.

Always food.

Love food.

:)

Anywho, if you didn't guess already this post is a post about food (yup) and more specifically about the recent foods that have been entering my digestive system as of late (hurrah!!).

Yeah, ok, that sounded grosser than intended but in a nutshell; lately I've been upping the intensity/ duration of my workouts (no specific reason at all really. Exams are over, my body feels capable and strong and I'm in a good headspace- it's the ebb and flow of the wave of life people; seasonal change and all!). This upping of intensity has left my body feeling powerful, strong, capable... hungry and sometimes a little sore.

This may not look like much to many people but it's very evident to me that I'm finally starting to get some of those much-desired muscles and filling out my legs and arms with stronger, leaner, muscle-r physique :)

You know what that tells me? I need to eat to recover. (And also rest; resting is important and like today, sometimes we wake up at the crack of dawn and don't put on our workout gear to lift that heart rate but choose instead to grab some water and slide happily back into the cosy embrace of bed for a while longer :).

So in that very large nutshell.. I have been eating all the foods. Primarily carbs. Because my body prefers them to burn and run efficiently and so, here are some of my recent eats!

Right here was one of my dinners from last week that was quick, simple and just the fuel I needed after a sweaty HIIT sesh that morning (recovery lasts the entire day people!)

It included steamed broccoli and brussels over warmed, mashed chickpeas (so good!!) with two slices of mixed seed sourdough, one topped with crunchy peanut butter and the other with raw cashew butter. It was so good. I want it right now.

On the topic of dinners..

This guy was another high-carb winner that blew my socks off again with how the simplest meals are always the most delicious. featuring two poached eggs atop another bed of warmed, mashed chickpeas (I tell you- it is amazing!) topped with some medium salsa, with a side of crispy oven-roasted regular white potato and white sweet potato (potato, olive oil, 180 degrees celsius, 55mins)

The potato love is real.

Moving straight onto lunches (they too help so, so much in recovery of hungry muscle cells!) and this bad boy stole the show last week leaving me in food heaven as I tried to concentrate during my bible study meeting about next terms schedule whilst simultaneously devouring this tupperware container of yum:

High fibre spaghetti with steamed pumpkin and parsnip, peas, spinach and homes all stirred together the night before and then left in the fridge overnight creating a delicious cold pasta salad of 'cheesy' goodness from the homes :)

Sorry about the poor lighting of this next shot (shows how early I get up to fit in a good sweat session!) but this breakfast followed an awesome sprint session comprised of 50m full-out sprinting, some no-handed cartwheel practice, and some continuous sprint intervals (hard for 50m, slow for 50m).

No handed cartwheel practise, you question? Yeah, I think it's just an innate reflex in me that whenever I sprint hard at something I'm typically about to flip #alwaysagymnast.

Anywho this brekky was just some steel cut oats with banana, maca powder (great for recovery- heaps of potassium), cinnamon, almond milk and water- bubbled away for around 20 mins until absorbed and deliciously soft and oatmeal-y :P With cashew butter on bottom of mug, crunchy pb in middle and more cashew butter on top (full coverage people!)

Healthy fats, vitamins, minerals and essential carbs for optimum recovery!

Finally who can go past the beloved sweet potato??

A super simple, super delicious dinner of 1 medium baked sweet tater (pricked with fork, baked at 180 degrees celsius for 1 hour) topped with coconut butter with a side of raw grape tomatoes and steamed zucchini.

Practically all veggies now that I look at an actual photo :) Funny how you eat things but don't register the full picture! Any other food bloggers out there get that? Food blogging makes eating habits so much more prevalent??

Alrighty so that's a little snapshot into some of my eats to fuel the fire in my muscles. The workouts I've been incorporating and upping in intensity include super sweating, heart raising HIIT (typically Blogilates), sprint training (super tiring/ quickly exhausting but definitely one of my favourites!), hill sprint training (even harder and definitely works the gluten and but muscles a lot more than just flat surface running!), Blogilates workouts (don't knock it until you've done Extreme Abs 2 and Extreme Abs 3 in one morning. One after the other!), long runs (increasing the distance to around 10km-ish now) and weight lifting for the arms (this also creates real hunger and is also a favourite of mine!)

I find it's utterly essential for me to keep each day new and exciting and different from the day before to keep me motivated and wanting to sweat! I love, love, love working out, it makes me feel so gosh darn amazing and I'm not going to lie, baby biceps and baby abs will always bring a smile to my dial. I must remember that when the hunger becomes real, it is time to eat and eat to fuel my body (which seems to be a heck of a lot more fuel than other girls in my year- trust me, I've written many posts on this topic!) and that it's utterly ok to devour the food that my body craves and helps it recover and work at it's best potential.

So, yes, this post was just a little insight into how fitness and training definitely changes up from time to time, just like the seasons, or the calendar months and that's absolutely fine! Some times my body needs more rest. Other times it needs to GO GO GO. The trick is listening to these cues and not forcing your body to run 10km if it truly needs an extra lie in, or light stretching instead. And also, this post was an insight into how my eats have shown that with increased training does come increased appetite and for me that means increasing my intake of my delicious friend; The carbohydrate!

Your turn:
I'd love to hear where you're at too with all this so please tell me:
Are you dealing up or reducing down your workouts at the moment?
Fav macronutrient for workouts? Protein, fat, carbs?
Best dinner you've made this week?

I hope you all have a really lovely day, remember to listen to your body cues and as always; EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!! Bye for now friendly friends! :D