A Day In The Life!!

Hidy-ho friendly friends and welcome back to the blog that talks all things food, fitness and health related.

But you all know it's mainly food.

Because hey, food is amazing, no?

Yes!

Ok, moving on! Today I thought I'd do a 'Day In The Life' post whereby I documented my way through everything I did on the Sunday just gone so you can know exactly what a wacky, 17 year old, year 12 student, food loving, exercise loving, vegetarian, teenage girl does for a whole entire day (that does not involve working/ going out- a typical day at home!)

So, without further a-do, here is what I do:

6am-6:30am wake up blissfully without the help of my alarm making sure I'm up at 5:50am (the alarm I generally set for the school week) which is utterly blissful as I get a little lie in- I'm an early riser anyway but still, anything after 6 is awesome!

Up and out of bed!

This is my wake up face. Steph is awake. ;P

During this time I headed downstairs, fill my big cup with water, grab my iPad and head back up to my room (all this in basically pitch black, I'm quite stealthy as a result of this daily practice!)

Back up to my room, back into bed, sipping water, flicking through some Buzzfeed articles, waking up a little more before I head out for an easy long run.

But I don't wanna change out of my comfy PJ'S! #Storyofmylife

6:30am-7:40am ish- Go out for a long run all around town, letting my legs go where they will and enjoying the freedom of a lengthy run that is simply not possible during the school week.

New Under Armour gear I got with a birthday gift card for Rebel Sport

 7:40am- back home, stretch a little, chug some water, wipe my face with a wet cloth, and then I headed into the kitchen to whip up some breakfast

 Returned from run sweating but still smiling!

 Beauuuuutiful morning- how could I not go out for a run??

 Those are my legs- albeit quite tired and a little achy, not gonna lie!

 When I return home I kick my shoes off before heading in doors to do a little cool down stroll of my court/ street and do some stretches- I just need my feet to be freeee!

8:00am- Sit down to this glorious breakfast!

 All the 'stuff' in a blender- Frozen banana, frozen blueberries, frozen zucchini, soaked oats and chia seeds, kale, spinach, greek yoghurt, and water, whazzed:

 This made a heck of a lot of smoothie so I had to drink quite a bit and then fill my jar- I'm not complaining though!!

 Still quite overfilled!

 Cat snuck in the frame!

Nom. Or should I say; slurp?

8:30am- After showering, dressing and preparing myself for the day I head into my mum's study which is now my year 12 study area for a good solid few hours of school stuff. This is the most fun part of my day obviously!

 Do you like the mess?? :P Still loving my standing desk!!

Hello human bio

11:00am Shops open at 11 on a Sunday, so I head up to do my weekly grocery shop (worked on Sat which is my usual food haul day!) buying ALL the veggies!

12:00pm- Back home, slight hunger calling to me to prepare some FOOOOD!

1:00pm- FOOOD made:

 Brown rice, raw tomatoes, spinach, peas, corn and veggie patty... delish!

2:00pm- This is where I get stuck most weekends because I've done my study/ homework and now I have free time?!? What!?! What did I do with my life before I had school work? The questions of life I tell you. So instead I just take some time off. Pop my feet up and read a book. Feels pretty good!

 Currently reading a dystopian novel called 'Twinmaker'

4:00pm Make myself a snack:

Again, quite ravenous for a snack!! Mixed raw almonds and cashews with a mug of ice cold soy milk  :)

Then get stuck into making my lunch for tomorrow's school day

 A big veggie, oven baked omelette/ frittata!

 Grated carrot, chopped capsicum, broccoli with some hommus, beaten eggs and water- baked at 180 degrees celsius for 30-40 mins until crispy golden on top and cooked through

5:00pm Relax time- have a bath, scroll through Insta, watch a bit of Freelee the Banana Girl on YouTube (I just get so engrossed in her videos- she's very charismatic!!) Jump back into my comfy PJ'S! Yaaass

6:00pm- Start making din dins (quite a bit on the ravenous side) During this time I also scroll through some blog posts I've missed from my fav bloggers on the iPad near the kitchen.

Also, just to throw in there- these are my steps for today calculated on my phone- I don't take my phone everywhere with me so majority of these would have come from the run- BOOYA smashed that target!!

6:45pm- EAT DINNAAHH!

 Super easy, super simple- roasted butternut squash and kent pumpkin with some roasted potatoes all roasted in extra virgin olive oil and fresh rosemary for around an hour:

 A side of refreshing cucumber and hommus for dipping to go with (I was just feeling like some extra hydrating, water rich veg- you know when you just feel a little blah/ oily etc?)

7:00pm- brush teeth, brush hair, set school clothes out for tomorrow, set a little later alarm because tomorrow (Monday) is a glorious rest day after the long run from today) and then turn on the TV for some MKR (My Kitchen Rules) action and Instagram scrolling to settle me in for the night!

Comfy relaxing spot (Love and always have loved sitting/ lying on the floor.. for anything! :D)

9:00pm- in bed, tucked up, ready for sleep!

And that's a typical weekend day for me!

What about you?
Are you a natural early riser or can you sleep straight through the morning if you could?
Do you pre-prepare your lunches for school/ work the next day? What are some of your favourite packed lunches to make?
What did you have for breakfast today?

I hope you all have a lovely rest of your day (whatever/ however it is you live your life!), do something you love and as always; EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!! Bye for now friendly friends! :D

Why I Love To Exercise.. In The Morning!

Not gonna lie- I think I could probably write two separate posts on both Why I Love To Exercise and Why I Love To Exercise In The Morning... because I have so many reasons for each and once Steph gets rambling...

Hidy ho folks, I hope you're all having a fantastic week so far and are roaring through all your daily activities and jobs with a nice balance of fun stuff and treats for yourself to go with!

Today I wanted to specifically talk about my love of exercising in the morning. Being a morning exerciser. Rising before the rise of the sun to sweat it out!

It's funny (well funny to me. Probably not to most people) but when I typed in 'morning exerciser' to google (trusty ol' Google- always there for me!) almost every result that popped up was a page for 'Tips For Becoming A Morning Exerciser' and 'How to Become A morning Exerciser.' Seriously, almost every pop up. And yet, I would argue that I struggle just as much with motivating myself to sweat it out after a long hard day at school/ work/ lounging about on the weekend ;).

I just couldn't comprehend why so many people found it so difficult to motivate themselves to pop up out of bed and get their heart pumping and those great, great, great endorphins flowing. But then I figured I should simply reverse my reasons for not being an afternoon/ night worker-outerer to those who hate morning exercise. After a long day I feel tired and sluggish. After a sleep a lot of people feel tired and sluggish. After a big day I am fuzzy and out of it. After waking up in the morning many people are fuzzy and out of it (especially prior to coffee time.. and I'm not a coffee drinker..) In the afternoon I just want to lounge about and gradually relax. Lot's of people in the morning just want to lounge about and slowly and steadily prepare themselves for the day.

So I guess I can relate in a sense to lacking motivation in the morning to workout. But I am truly, truly grateful that I am a morning exerciser and I've made a list as to the reasons why I love it so much just for your reading pleasure!!

1. I get my exercise done!
I don't know about you or what your experience was in year 12, but after a day of school, filled with the prospect of diving into a mountainous pile of homework and study... I could very easily make excuses not to exercise and lower it's priority in my day if I left it to the afternoon.

It sounds a bit ridiculous but it's true. Exercising in the morning means I actually get my workout in! This is so important and means I will reap the rewards of exercise- endorphins, positivity, motivation in my day to day life, strong, healthy heart etc. etc.

2. It gives me a sense of accomplishment early on in the day which keeps me motivated to get more stuff done because I've got the feeling that I'm being productive and achieving things.

I guess this is quite the psychological reason but hey, if it works! If I've run around 6-10km before I've even eaten my first meal of the day I feel great and motivated to power through the rest of my day.

3. I also feel great literally, as for those endorphins I mentioned earlier. I feel more awake, focused and energised (well, as much as one can be learning about Australia's terms of trade and calculus) which can only be a positive for my schooling in my eyes!!

4. Have you ever heard that saying; 'Exercise in the morning, before you're brain figures out what you're doing.' Obviously this is just a bit of a laugh, but there is some truth to that in the sense that it does feel a little less strenuous/ tiring to me because I am still slightly in my sleep phase (especially for a very early 5am run!) and I find that if I'm a lot more awake at 5pm then I feel every muscle crying out with pain and fatigue whilst I try for my second squat of the day.

5. The sense of extreme peace and freedom felt when exercising before anyone in the whole entire world even seems to be stirring (yep, let's go with it :P) is quite the majestic experience. Running in the darkness of dawn is unreal and I think everyone needs to experience it at least once in their life!

6. It keeps my appetite and metabolism roaring all day and I feel hunger and satiety which means my body is functioning healthily and energy is being burned to fuel my beautiful machine of a body. Hunger doesn't scare me because I know it's my body yelling for food to refuel after an awesome workout.

7. Finally, does breakfast ever taste as good as it does after a heavy workout sesh? No way. I can't tell you how good peanut butter on toast with a delicious, creamy, cold green smoothie tastes after running over 10km because I would simply start salivating and day dream off into breakfast heaven. That first meal of the day refueling your body from the fast of sleep and the energy burned woking out is the best meal of the day in my opinion!

So there you go- the MANY (and there's more, don't you worry!) reasons I love to exercise in the morning!

Your turn:
Are you a morning/ night exerciser?
Think you can change my mind as to why afternoon/ night workouts are better?
Favourite breakfast to eat after an AWESOME workout?

I hope you all have a lovely rest of your day, whether your sweating it out later on or simply pulling on some bed socks and watching a good ol' TV show curled up on the sofa like me- enjoy it!! Oh and EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!! Bye for now friends ;D .

The HCLF Raw Vegan Lifestyle

Hidy-ho friendly friends and welcome back to the teensy corner of the interwebs that holds refuge to my small, yet stuffed-full-of-food-pics blog!

On my mind today (actually this has been on my mind for the past few weeks, really!) is the ever-increasing and growing popularity of the HCLF (high carb, low fat) raw vegan diet/lifestyle.

If you're an avid healthy blog/ Instagram/ YouTube follower like me you have probably come across the pictures/ people/ reasons for this type of lifestyle. To get you in the right atmosphere for what to expect from people who follow this lifestyle, I've got a few pics for you:

1. Potatoes

 Potatoes make up a large portion of the carbs of this high carb low fat diet and I cannot count the number of vegan vlogs I have watched that show the process of oven baking mass quantities of potato without oil in the oven for a meal.

2. Bananas

 What seems to be the second biggest aspect of this diet is filling a meal with bananas. And when I say filling, I mean 10 bananas being the minimum.

 Whether they're eaten as a snack or blended up into a 10+ banana smoothie- bananas seem to be a large component of the HCLF lifestyle.

3. Freelee The Banana Girl

 On that note, this brings us to one of the most charismatic followers of the HCLF diet- Freelee The Banana Girl- who you can find on YouTube and see her Days In The Life and daily eats to find out more about this lifestyle.

Her charisma and strong opinions is what drew me to her videos and then her blog in the first place. I was mesmerized by what and the amount she ate as I had never seen anything like it. Starting the day with a 1.5L smoothie of 18+ dates and water- I couldn't get my head around it- surely a stomach couldn't fit all that in!

4. There are so many other aspects to this diet and I love the focus on fresh, organic, beautifully grown produce, so I am definitely not bagging this lifestyle/ diet choice, but I guess I do have my opinion/ concerns

The way the HCLF raw vegan diet is presented on social media is with images of incredibly slim, toned women who look flawless, have stunning hair, skin and bodies, have the energy to exercise for hours each day and just seem to have the best possible life! Now, that could entirely be as the result of this lifestyle- but when naive girls who are too young to truly understand how to fully nourish their bodies see results of slimness and beauty like this- cutting out entire food groups could be the answer... though no prior knowledge or research would go in to how to be properly nourished on this lifestyle.

Ultimately the simple pictures without info on how to thrive off this diet could result in girls developing eating disorders from not eating enough, malnourishment, osteoporosis, anaemia... the list goes on.

My point in a nutshell is this is a diet that needs to be taken extremely seriously with a lot of research and then effort to create every single meal and not just grab a packet of zero nutrition and I think that girls simply being drawn in by the beautiful results posted on Instagram or Facebook etc. need to realise that there are severe consequences to one's health if nutrition requirements are not met.

Again, I don't think this diet is the worst possible thing someone can do to their body, I just think with a diet of almost 100% fruits and veggies, one must eat a TON of fruit and veggies and a great variety too (which in some places could become quite pricey if bananas are not as cheap as chips and you're going through 20+ a day!)

It's quite funny, but I think subconsciously, after watching quite a few of Freeles's videos and other HCLF vegan vlogs, I've most definitely seen my diet take a little shift to a much greater raw fruit and veg intake:

 Look- 6 bananas in my smoothie!! Just kidding, I simply cut each one up and put them into individual serving bags for my smoothies during the week :P

 Gotcha!
But in all seriousness, here is an actual dinner I made that really hit the spot and after eating it I realised it was very HCLF-esque:

 1 whole baked white sweet potato (skin on because that tastes gooooood after baking in the oven- nature's candy!)

 Some steamed and then grilled pumpkin (no oil but cinnamon sprinkled on during the grilling):

 And a cup of steamed peas (because you all know how much I love peas!!)

So I think that was interesting to see the indirect way all this research/ video watching has affected my own cravings.

I don't think I can ever give up my love for mass amounts of nut butter, or avocado though- high carb and high fat? That sounds good to me!! :D

Your turn:
What are your thoughts on the HCLF diet?
Have you ever done the HCLF diet?
Favourite way to eat potatoes? I really like just roasted up full sweet potatoes (mini ones of course!) and just nom-ing on them- so tasty!)

I hope you all have a fabulous day, eat a banana or two, or just increase your fruit and veggie intake in general for the day :). Do something you love, be with those you love and as always; EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!! Bye for now friendly friends! :D