The Steph Life

If you've ever wanted to live exactly like me- do exactly what I do, eat exactly what I eat, be the identical replication of me- STEPH- then look no further! This is the post for you!!

Ok, ok just kidding, but I did want to share with you a post that does kind of detail the way in which I do live my life and thus the way of life that is known as; The Steph Life!

Hint: It involves lots of veggies, good delicious foods, exercise, sun and randomly bursting into cartwheels, handstands, bend backs and random dance moves at any time of the day/night.

So I decided to share with you a typical day (yesterday) whereby the Steph-life was in full swing and I was living life just the way I wanted to!

It started out with an early morning.

Yep, most of my mornings start out around 5-5:30am because in all honesty- that's when I feel most energised! I don't generally go to bed too late, so around this time is when I hit the 7-8 hours of sleep mark and my body is wiiiiiidddeeee awake and ready to go go go!

Zat be why I exercise first thing in the morning. Even before breakfast. *Gasp*

Just a nice little pic of my legs post-beach run... seriously guys, soft sand running is like a HIIT workout- gets your heart rate up soooo high! And those legs were a-burning!!

I know a lot of people can't understand this because they can't even fathom breaking a sweat with nothing in the tank, but I've either a) Gotten used to it from doing it for a few years now, or b) am one of those types of people who function better on an empty stomach (food in ma belly makes me feel heavy and weighed down- not the best feeling when working out!!)

 Post-run head shot- sweaty, messy hair, tired legs and super pumped with all those good endorphins- plus that Summer sun! Love, love, love working out with the sun on me!!!!

Recently I've started working out less with higher intensity and seeing better results! Again, just listening to the body and doing what I love- happy days!

 This is the workbook I use to write down all my workouts (because I'm a creative soul and like to make up my own :P) and so this guy contains an array of arm, leg, ab etc. workouts to keep things changing, different, interesting, challenging  and always fun!!

 I also love coming up with the random-est names- if you can see in the picture, one of them is called Ab Craze, another; I Can't Feel My Legs and finally, one of my favourites; Arnold Arms :P :D

Now, when I say I prefer and actually feel better working out on a fasted stomach, I do generally feel the hanger quite soon after finishing up my workout and thus breakfast within the next 30 mins is a must!!

 And this breakfast did not disappoint- in fact, I think I said on my Instagram (@steph2chef) this was one of my favourites in a while!!

 Featuring, rich, warm, crunchy, straight-from-the-oven cacao granola on top of plain greek yoghurt with some creamy, sweet frozen banana and a splash of soy milk- honestly; best. combo. ever.

 Eaten first and then one of the first (and best) mangoes of the season afterwards (because I wanted to enjoy that mango all on it's own!)

 Nice and filling, refueling from the run and ready to tackle the day!!

 So good :D

 Throughout the morning of yesterday I did a bunch of errands with mum, visited my grandparents (and brought them fresh scones from my work and some cream we whipped up), finished up the Chrissy shopping, there was probably some dancing and singing thrown in there for LOLS and before I knew it, it was lunch!

 This is the water bottle I drink from (and crazily carry with me) throughout the day to ensure I'm drinking enough water. No, I do not finish it everyday. Heck, I don't even think I've ever finished the whole thing, but it's one of those ones with the times down the side and it's just a great reminder for me to drink more often. Also, carrying it around is a great arm workout. Trust me. :P

 Lunch yesterday was a cracker (just like brekky... it was a good day for food!!)

 A toasted cape seed roll (also from work- wholemeal with9 grains and seeds!) spread with lots of hommus, topped with spinach, grilled eggplant, portobello mushroom, capsicum, zucchini and some fresh tomato slices- toasted off in a sandiwch press for a few mins until golden brown on top- NOM!

 So. Much. Yum.

I was rather hungry for this guys following the big morning of errands and so this efiniteyl hit the spot. I'm always one for listening to the body and my body was telling me to fuel up!

After lunch was a few more errands, finishing wrapping Christmas presents, drinking water (Haha) and then doing one of my other all-time favourite things; reading.

Reading is definitely a calmer for me and I love to just go out into the sun and walk around with a big hat on reading a good book. I don't really like sitting at all, so only do so when I have to (ie. it is very hard to stand in a moving vehicle etc.) and really enjoy just wandering around reading my book for an hour or so.

By then it was about 3:00pm when I decided to come back in and work on my handstands (getting pretty good at them folks- almost getting to the stage where I can hold them indefinitely- before the blood rush gets too much!!) and then mum and I worked on the Christmas menu (I'm on desserts!! Yay!)

Following that- at around 3:30pm- I was in need of a snack (lunch and dinner are just too far apart!!) and so cut myself up a pink lady apple and poured me a glass of soy milk and then I watched some Youtube videos for a while before heading upstairs for a shower and then into my jammies.

If I have a day off and don't need to go anywhere, I love getting into my pajamas nice and early (like 4:30pm) and then just mooching around the house relaxing (like I said, most energised in the morning, slowly dwindling come evening!)

Typically start making dinner at 5:30-5:45pm whilst reading blog posts on my iPad (portability :) and last night, once again, was truly delicious:

 Simply, creamy, delicious- steamed veg (pumpkin, parsnip, swede, white sweet potato, beetroot) with drained and rinsed blackbeans, mixed together with 1/2 a mashed avocado mixed with 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast- honestly so delicious (probably sounds kind of weird!)

And I hardly ever go a night without a little something for dessert after dinner :D

Yesterday it was two squares of 90% Lindt dark choc which truly just melts in your mouth and has such a rich, dark, decadent flavour- LOVE!

Brush teeth, close curtains in room, turn down bed and then head out to watch some telly (on the floor- because I guess I'm just not really a fan of furniture in general- I think when I move out all my furniture is going to be those Bohemian/ Indian style floor cushions!) until I inevitably doze off and then wake up and slowly plop down into bed, ready for a nice, rejuvenating sleep :).

And that's The Steph Life!

Your turn:
What would be the characteristics of The (enter your name here) Life?
Favourite breakfast of recently?
Are you a fan of sitting?

I hope you enjoyed this post, I always love reading about other people's lives so I thought I'd share a bit more about mine.

I hope you all have a lovely day, be with loved ones, give lots of hugs and happiness, spread joy, dance like a lunatic and as always; EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!! Bye for now friendly friends! :D