^ shocked face getting back from run, having ran the whole 2 miles without stopping :o :o :o
and then mirror pic after feeling good :D

so yeah i went for a jog this evening, with full intention of making it easy and relaxed since i’m pretty sore from yesterday’s antics. lo and behold for the first time i actually ran the full two miles :Oit was slow, about 20 ish minutes, but still! big deal for me!! i dont know where this random fitness came from because i havent run in ages but i’m happy to embrace it :)

planning on keeping to this 2 mile route and improving my time a bit for the next week and then i’ll look into adding in a third mile :)

that’s all anyway! 

peace :)

Lunch! Spinach salad with sugar snap peas and simple vinaigrette, marinated tofu in pita, an apple and a blushing pear which takes the grittiness of pears to a whole new level….it made my mouth feel realllllly weird :s as in, it was hard to eat? ?? I don’t know it made my mouth all sticky and weird …I was disappointed to say the least

it’s probably sad that a 13C overcast day in manchester and i’m getting excited for summer xD
feeling good today :) boy is coming over soon!
and i had an amazing amazing jumping clinic on my favourite horse :D

Pineapple and green smoothie :) spinach, strawberry and banana!

When people find out I’m vegan they almost inevitably ask
“so….what do you eat??? :s”
here is my current answer to this question :P

i’m amping myself up for a hard hitting, healthy eating, work filled, working-out filled, scheduled non-stop make-myself-super-tired kind of week!

luke and i had a pretend camp out/sleepover last night and ate all sorts of naughty things :P so now i’m feeling all blech and bloated and it’s making me want to shred this week to bits so i can see some real, solid, unmistakeable progress!
it’s march after all!

from now until easter break i’m going to throw myself entirely into working out, learning my ballet dance for the recital in april, writing and editing my dissertation, do some preliminary revision for exams, and all in all being on top of everything!
and “free” days will be less bingey and more of a controlled time with a few specific treats preluded by a workout.

time to start planning out every minute of my days!

grrrrrrrrr!

tomato and basil soup from scratch :) super quick,easy,and delicious!

Here’s my ‘guilty’ smiling happy face for you all :P
So, I made a post a weekish ago about my ambitions for lent…and i was really going to push for it and do a good job with it!
That was until I got Chris Powell’s book for valentines day. Thus, i simultaneously immersed myself in this carb cycling diet, which I’m really loving and enjoying.
The thing is, this diet allows for a ‘free day’. Where you can eat whatever you like (within reason of course…it doesnt give you a free pass to have 20 ice creams and an entire cake :P) 
I felt a lot of conflict between my lent commitments and getting this free day every week to treat my indulgent side. Not to mention the complete restriction of sweets etc. felt as though it was building me up for a binge-y easter. I reflect on last year when as soon as lent was over I ate copious amounts of chocolate and even got french fries from McDonald’s xD it was a very rough few days and took a week or two to recover from and get healthy again. Easter will always be a time of chocolate, but I find myself wondering if by restricting processed foods now, I’m setting myself up for a major hit once I’m “free” again.
With this new method of eating I’m finding that I’m really craving these things less in general. But the fact that I’ve banned myself from eating them at all that is driving me to desire them more than I would otherwise.
So this weekend i had some ice cream leftover from Valentine’s day, and I also had some flapjack and a roll from the Unicorn deli, officially breaking my lent rule of no processed foods.
I’m not sure that i want to completely abandon my lent ambitions, however. I find them very useful and easy to stick to during the week. So on that note, I’ve officially decided to stick to my lent dietary restrictions Monday to Saturday afternoon. This will allow for some weekend fun and a couple treats to keep me sane and help me learn to appreciate treats without feeling the need to binge on them when I finally get the opportunity. I had some chocolate today as well and I ate it slower than I’ve ever eaten chocolate in my life- it took me over 2 hours to finish the half bar I allowed myself! This in itself shows me that i’m changing my feelings towards these types of foods and I’m looking forward to further honing my palette and my appetite to desire different types of sweet treats :)

I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed anyone with my wavering will-power! I hope I can still make you guys proud and be someone you can look up to :)

Weigh in Saturday!

well, i was hoping to glimpse the 126’s, but i’m still happy with this progress! it’s a 1.4 lb loss from last week so i can’t complain :D

i’m hoping that this coming week i’ll see the 125’s again :D  i know it’ll be a challenge but i think i can do it :) i slipped up a couple times with the carb cycling this week, namely wednesday and yesterday (ran out of food…so i ate loads of cashews :P) so if i stick to it really well this week i think i can prevail!
like i said though, i’m really pleased with this progress. At my weight every pound makes a difference! And the fact that i achieved this with the massive amounts of food i had this week excites me xD quite the change to the constant 1200-1300 calories i was eating last year. really enjoying this method, and i feel like the weight loss is so much more sustainable!

Yesterday was a longggg, busy day! i was at riding from 8 am until 5 pm, running around tacking and untacking, demonstrating a dressage horse and a jumping horse, and then having a 45 minute high intensity jumping lesson straight after everything :P not to mention it was freezing, as always, so make it all take 10x more energy. To top it off, it was a low carb/cal day, and i was struggling. I ended up slipping up a bit and eating like 5 or more clementines that were laid out for the competition crowd, plus some extra cashews when i got home. I didnt get too flustered about it though as i think i probably needed all that extra energy to sustain me :P
i also made a small victory in the lazy department- i was so not in the mood to make soup when i got home. i very nearly was gonna just forget about dinner and just have some sort of snack and give up on the day. But i put my foot down and said “no, i will make soup and be healthy and eat all my meals!” and so i did. and a marvelous tomato soup it was :3

Back on high carbs today and loving it xD My protein powder came as you all can see, so i’ve already played around with it. I tried half a scoop in my second oatmeal and it wasnt bad! i think i’ll start incorporating half a scoop into my morning oatmeal every day. I also tried it out in my socca for lunch- it probably constituted maybe 1/3 or less of the mixture (another half scoop) and it tasted just as wonderful as always :)
i’m gonna give myself a full scoop for my late snack which is consisting of a yummy smoothie made of banana(frozen), strawberries, blueberries, and spinach! plus a little bit of cashew milk.  yumyumyum. an expensive endeavour, but i’m hoping to invest in a few bags of frozen berries next time i’m at a big supermarket. that way i can have a smoothie on my high carb days without breaking the bank :D
i feel a need to hit the gym very hard this afternoon because i cannot justify the amount of protein i’m having today in any other way xD i feel weird about having over 60 g, and today i’m getting about 80 >_>

I had a little bit of an NSV/general ego boost this morning too! i was wearing a pair of multicoloured printed jeans …in fact here is a picture i just took of myself»

and a friend of mine said “you have to be Lacey-skinny to pull off jeans like that”
and i was like awwwwwww you are sweet (even though the girl who said it is the same size as me if not smaller and could definitely rock them if she so desired to!)

i felt cute today regardless, but its always nice when people say things like that :)

anyway i’m off! going to meet the boyf to go grocery shopping with him because he’s been very very busy this week so i probably wont see much of him until saturday :P

have a nice day everyone :D 

peace x