Give Me Bananas

It’s been a rough day so I’ll keep this short and sweet.

Even though it’s been incredibly hot in the past few days I was craving oatmeal for breakfast. Talk about weird. That’s like taking an ice bath in the depth of winter.

1/3 c oatmeal, 2/3 c rice milk, 1/3 c water, cinnamon, 1 sliced banana / topped with hemp seeds and 1 tsp almond butter

Work was incredibly busy and I snacked on an apple mid-morning. –>Nothing exciting happened here .

It’s been so nice out so I’ve been eating my lunches outside for the past few days, while reading Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series. It’s so relaxing!

For lunch today I had a huge salad (lettuce, carrots, broccoli and an egg) and some blueberries and an other egg on the side (I actually prefer eating eggs on their own and not particularly in salads).

Sunshine sunshine, I love you.

Unfortunately I had to go back inside and continue working. Oh sometimes I really hate being a grown up. Work continued to be crazy (I’m currently organizing things for a small exhibition and it’s driving me NUTS!) but I snacked on a nectarine in between.

I really needed to go on a run and clear my mind after work, so I ate a dried date because I was feeling tired and hungry– I believe that dates are the perfect pre-exercise snacks if you only need a small boost of energy.

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE red lentils? They’re exactly what food should be like – nutritious and delicious!

I cooked 1/2 dry lentils in water with a bit of salt and served them with baked sweet potato “fries” and steamed broccoli & savoy cabbage.

I feel like I’m going to explode now.

Workouts of the day:

- 1 hr Tracy Anderson Method Mat Workout DVD (will write a review soon)  before breakfast
- 40 min run (don’t know how far I ran because I didn’t wear my Garmin) after lunch

I will probably finish watching “Narnia: Prince Caspian” and then do some yoga before hitting the hay.

Hope your Wednesday was good too!

My friend Kirsty told me yesterday about a cleanse she’ll do, starting today. It’s quite simple: Lots of veggies, grains, protein in form of fish, chicken, eggs and tofu. Well I don’t eat chicken or fish (and neither does she) but decided to join her. Mainly because I like “experiments” like these –> Challenges that aren’t too challenging .

I don’t expect it to make me feel completely different because it’s only for three days and I usually eat the same food anyway (I just have to give up on wheat, chocolate and dairy – which is easy since I can live a few days without bread, pasta and chocolate and I rarely eat dairy anyway).

But yeah, I’m doing a “cleanse”.

Tam Tam Tam

When people hear that word they first think of ridiculous juice fasts or other silly things (master cleanse anyone?). I don’t believe in starving, even if you’ll feel “great” afterwards. Fasts/Cleanses that are based on juices might be do-able for some people but not for me. I like chewing.

So in spirit of the cleanse I decided to turn this blog into a food journal for three days. Are you ok with this?

Yes?

Good.

Breakfast was a massive bowl of cold oatmeal (1/3 c oatmeal cooked with 1 c water and ½ banana the night before) with soy yogurt, the other half of the banana, hemp seeds and blueberries (as well as two lone raspberries). You know, I REALLY don’t like berries in hot oatmeal. Something about that bitterness makes me gag. In fact, the only fruit I like in hot oatmeal is banana.

Mid-morning snack was a wonderful nectarine that was incredibly sexy to eat.

(It kind of pretends to be an apple in this picture.)

Ok, I know that white rice is like blasphemy in the healthy food blogger world but my boss and co. had a lunchtime meeting and my colleague and I decided to order sushi as well. That was last week when I didn’t know anything about that cleanse back then. Oh well. It was a huge but great lunch . (And actually also completely fine with the cleanse rules)

I had another “impossible-to-eat-in-front-of-other-people” afternoon snack. Watermelon. Hot.

No surprise that the watermelon left me starving when I got back home so I nibbled on some gluten free & vegan crackers that I recently found at the organic food store.

Oh god. I’m addicted. I had approximately 3x of what’s shown above.

Dinner was with my sister Selina before Pilates class. We went to the good old tibits and I got all sorts of yummy things and a green juice!

Workout for the day:

-1 h pilates class
-lots of walking (actually more than usual..)

Other “rules” of the cleanse are as follows (in case you were wondering):

How to eat
*Meals should be regular – three a day, and a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack.
*Eat moderate helpings of good lean protein with main meals: fish, eggs, chicken, tofu
*Dandelion coffee, ginger (in tea or added to juice of food) and nettle tea all good for cleansing/supporting the liver.

NO to
alcohol
processed food (except tofu)
no sugar
no red meat
no caffeinated drinks
no wheat or dairy
very little salt

Yes to:
drink at least 2 litres of water/herbal tea a day
eat plenty of vegetables except white potatoes
good veg for detox = artichokes, beetroot, bean and seed sprouts, carrots, pumpkin, red cabbage, spinach, sweet potato, tomato, watercress
Cruciferous veg = broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts – important in supporting the key conjugation pathway to the liver
Eat fruit. Esp good for detoxing – apples, fresh apricots, berries, cantaloupe, melon, citrus, kiwi, papaya, peaches, mango and dark grapes.
Grains – a half tennis ball sized helping of brown rice, corn, millet, oats or quinoa
Pulses
Nut & seeds (great for snacks with some fruits)
Oils – use extra virgin olive oil or flaxseed oil.
LEMON WATER

Each morning, start the day with half a lemon squeezed into a glass of hot water.

Here’s how Day 1 is supposed to look like: (The other days are really similar)

Day 1
First thing: Lemon water
before you shower or bathe: – skin brushing
During the day : a brisk walk to help circulation
Treatment Body scrub
Bed: Try to be in bed by 10pm- read or listen to restful music if you can’t sleep

Dang. No skin brushing was done. And it’s already 10:41pm. Oops! Time to go to bed!

Q: What do you think of cleanses? Ok I’ll admit it; it’s quite silly to call this (in my case) a cleanse since I mainly eat that way anyway. However, I’ll just take it as a chance to be more aware of what I eat – in a good way. Sometimes I nibble on things mindlessly – who doesn’t? – but it’s nice to focus on good food for a few days.
As for cleanses: I’m not a huge fan (since I’m lacking major will power). Other reasons for my dislike are stated above

There is something seriously wrong with this day.

It flew by! (I swear!)

Somebody’s manipulating time and I am not! a! fan!

Besides the fact that the day only had what felt like 60 seconds it was a pretty good one. We invited my sister and her boyfriend for brunch which was fantastic. I love my sis so much, she’s the most fabulous person on earth.

You all know how much I love a good brunch. Give me some fruit, cheese and bread and I am a happy person.

We actually brunched until 3pm and then continued to be lazy and lie around.

Before dinner I watched a few episodes of Glee. I started watching the show yesterday. BIG MISTAKE! Mark my words. Why are good TV shows always so addictive?

We only had some salad for dinner and afterwards a bit of raw chocolate!

I think I never showed you the t-shirt that my boyfriend bought me in London..

Apparently it has my name all over it

I think it’s the cutest t-shirt I’ve ever had. Too bad that I can’t wear it to work

It seems like you all love summer fruits (which I think is fantastic).
Speaking of fruits.. have you ever heard of that bizarre myth that you shouldn’t eat bananas or pineapples if you want to lose weight? You know.. because all that sugar is making you SO fat. Yeah right. I’d weigh a ton by now.

Q: Are there any other strange diet tips that you’ve heard of? My mum once read that smelling grapefruit will help you eat less. I think that’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.

Hope you’re having a good Sunday! My bf is currently watching the world cup. I watched about 20 minutes of the Brazil / Côte d’Ivoire match and was quite bored. Football really isn’t my thing. However, I like watching a good match. Too bad that you don’t know in advance how good it’s going to be, hehe.

Often when I feel like I need to relax I turn to my computer and watch the silliest TV shows online (not on TV – I hate commercials!). Currently I’m watching Vampire Diaries which is so silly but entertaining. I often feel guilty though because there are so many things that I could do instead (like meeting up with friends, blogging, replying e-mails) but there’s just some sort of inner struggle and I can’t handle it all. It sounds overly dramatic but I think we all need some down time. Then again I wonder how those crazy managers manage to work 14 hours a day, sleep 4 hours per night and are ok with that. Well I guess they don’t really have a private life anymore.

Anyway I ran out of Nature Path’s cereal last night (see my sad face right here??) so I went back to an oldie but a goodie.

Ah it’s been too long since I last had porridge! I topped mine with flax, shelled hemp seeds, chia seeds and chocolate peanut butter.

Up and personal close up.

After lunch I snacked on a small package of blueberries.

The blueberries were enormous though.

Here’s the thing with my UK goodies: I don’t want them to “go away” (aka end up eaten) but I have to try them (right?). Conflict!

Today I had the Berry Burst disc for my afternoon snack which was heavenly. Sad to see it go but what can I do? Someone had to eat it.

For dinner I made a multicultural food baby out of Chinese noodles and pesto sauce. Topped on a bed of steamed spinach with some tomatoes.

I am stuffed to the brim. I don’t think I can move although I should be well on my way to my boyfriend’s by now. Today is our 1,5 year anniversary!

So I hope you won’t mind when I say goodbye now.

So: see ya!

Q: What do you turn to when you want to relax? I really like taking my mind off things with watching TV shows and films or reading books. Exercise also relaxes me!

I’m currently supposed to get ready for a birthday party and should finish cleaning (I moved tons of furniture today – got to use my sister’s former room ) but I’ll just blog. Finto.

So are you ready for a London recap?

“YEAAAAAH!”

Ok ok so here it goes

As I mentioned before we got to the hostel pretty late. It’s funny, even though I earn well I rather save some $$ and stay in hostels instead of more expensive hotels. However, I usually don’t stay in dorms but in London we didn’t have much of a choice since we were 2 girls and one guy and had to get a mixed room. It was fine though. One dude came back home super drunk and threw up in the bathroom, the other one snored like there was no tomorrow and the dude from South Dakota (I think) thought that everything was “AWESOME!!!!!”.

Anyway… on Saturday we met up with a friend who lives in London which was lovely. We had lunch at a pub in Camden.

Whole Foods was right next to it but that store wasn’t as fabulous as the one near the Piccadilly station.

They had some amazing vegan cupcakes though..

Selina said that it looks like poo. Which is kind of true but it was delicious!

We shopped a lot, mainly for clothes for Silvio. It was hilarious! I also got a Diana Mini lomography camera.

I’m already in love! I sent the film in today and will get the photos back on Wednesday – I can’t wait! Old fashioned photo cameras are fantastic.

For some reason I didn’t take that many pictures during our stay.. I snapped a lot of pics with the lomo and will scan and post the good ones as soon as I get them.

On the next day we had plans to go to Rough Trade (east) and remembered from our last visit that there was a fantastic looking pizza place right there as well. So we went there for lunch and I have to say that this place is now probably my Nr. 1 favourite restaurant. Yes it was that good. Unfortunately I have no idea how it’s called (it somehow has no sign.. kind of an insider restaurant actually ). I was pleasantly surprised when I read on the menu that all of their food is organic. Hooray!

I decided to order the pizza with pumpkin, goat’s cheese, chickpeas, sage, red onion and tomatoes.

Oh my god.

Ok it looks burnt and awful (I didn’t eat the burnt part) but I wasn’t patient enough to take a good picture (mainly because I was starving).

There was arugula too!

It was such a crazy mouth party, I honestly couldn’t believe my taste buds! The pizza was really special – the crust was very thin and crispy and they added the toppings after it was baked.

When you’re in London, you just have to go there. It’s literally across the street from Rough Trade.

On the next day we finally checked out the Portobello Market.

We saw a super funky shop that was decorated with old sewing machines.

It was quite crazy actually – sewing machines everywhere!

I love markets.

Afterwards we hung out in Green Park and laters in Hyde Park (a day of parks indeed) and got a visit from a squirrel!

It was quite weird to see a squirrel that wasn’t scared of humans. Kind of not so cool (since you don’t really know what people give it to eat..) but cute nevertheless.

We gave it some raw nuts. I hope that is ok.

My eats varied… I had tons of fantastic salads (thank god for M&S!)

(Sexy eating is not possible)

But I also had ice cream, said cupcake, beer… and this here:

A stay in London without a proper (vegetarian) English breakfast? Definitely a no-go.

Well I’ve got to go now or I’ll be late. I can’t wait to see how those lomo pics turned out though!

Q: Do you sometimes still use old cameras (with film and all)? I usually use my digi cam but now that I have that lomo I can’t wait to use it more often (even though it looks like a kid’s toy ). I really like not knowing how the pictures turn out.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Hello from London!
We’re currently in the pub below the hostel – eating breakfast.

Our plane was more than 1hr late and we ended up getting to the hostel at 1:30am. Despite our late arrival I was wide awake at 5am. Excited about our stay much? Anyway, we got up at 6:30am, got ready and explored the area a bit. We’re staying near Pimlico which is an ok area but not very familiar to me. We ended up having a (first) breakfast at Prêt A Manger!

It’s probably my favourite chain “restaurant” because it uses natural food and often organic products. I had a “yoga bunny” yogurt (haha), cappuccino, water and hippie drink.

Oh and my eyes started shining when they brought in some edamame and I knew that we had to get some as well.

I could eat edamame for the rest of my life and be a happy person.

We’re currently waiting for our friend Christine to get here. She should arrive in about 30 minutes. For some reason we have some issues with our adaptor (it somehow doesn’t fit?!?!) and I don’t know if this laptop will have power for long. We’ll see. I hope that I can blog though. hehe.

Got to keep this short and tight. The power, you know.. got to keep that in mind if I want to continue blogging during our stay.

Blog reading won’t be possible but I’ll catch up with you guys when I get back, kay? (Guess you all understand that I prefer to spend my time talking to people and enjoying my time in London – and not in front of the laptop). Love you all though! hehe

I hope you’re having a great time as well! Enjoy your Fridays! The weekend’s near!

ps: your random facts are hilarious and so interesting! Though also kind of scary… Kalli got ran over two cars! Scary scary indeed.
You should go and check out all the other random facts too

Well who needs a shrink when you have a blog?? Thank you so much for your comments, you are definitely the wisest and most amazing people out there.

Oh and just for the record.. if anyone thought that I was fishing for compliments or wanted everyone to tell me that I’m beautiful (HA!) then you’re wrong

You know, even admitting that we have issues is a huge step. I remember that it hasn’t always been like that for me.
Let’s embrace our flaws together!

But let me quickly quote the über-wise Ildie who wrote a long comment even though she’s on vacation. Hello? Who writes such adorable comments when they are away and enjoy some well deserved rest? You’re insane Ildie, INSANE! Go back outside, leave your laptop behind and enjoy the sun! ♥

“Ahhh fat talk. We ALL do it and those of us who say we don’t are lying. We all HATE our thighs or small boobs or double chin or flappy arms or “back boobs” and jiggly asses. We all have something we wish we could change. On certain days some of our bits and pieces seem particularly worse in comparison to the others and we DISSECT our bodies bit by bit because of it. It’s silly!!! Will we ever be able to stop? To be realistic, HECK NO! We just have to move past it. A pushup bra and the perfect pair of jeans that suck in your gut and magically lift your ass help! The rest is up to you. HA!

In the end, it’s who we are that makes us unique and beautiful. It’s the things we do with our lives and the people that we surround ourselves with and whose lives we impact and change that everyone will remember. Not the dimples on my butt. I doubt anyone will remember that. HA! Well except for me but that’s okay.”

Fat talk was completely gone when I dug into my amazing quinoa porridge this morning. Ah.. what an fantastic way to start the day. If I had the time (or money) I’d visit you all and make you a batch of quinoa porridge.
However, people who don’t like it won’t be my friends anymore. (Thinking about it.. I believe that Silvio wasn’t a huge fan. HA! That means I have to break up with him. What a pity! — jk jk!! ).

I nibbled my little heart away during the day. Sesame crackers until I dropped. Gosh, they’re like crack (not that I know how crack’s like ). Why do I keep buying them??

Oh and there also was a rice cake sandwich with herbs & garlic pâté. This pâté is crazy good and the main ingredient is nutritional yeast!

I also had a normal lunch (a sandwich. snore..).

I had plans to go to the 8:15pm pilates class so I had a very light dinner and cooked 1/4 red lentils with 2 handfuls of spinach and added some teriyaki sauce at the end.

The race is on Saturday and so I’m keeping it light and easy this week. Lots of yoga, stretching, walking and lying on the sofa. You know, the usual.. minus the running. Oh how much I’m enjoying it!

Have a great day!!

Yesterday’s run was hard.
I stomped around like a little child and constantly told myself what a fat, slow cow that I was.
In the end I finished the 10 miles in 1:39 mainly because I walked most of the last 5 miles. Not because I was that exhausted but because I was pissed off.

Being the drama queen that I am, I marched right past my boyfriend and dad at the end of the course.

But what made me behave like this?

Well let’s back up a little..
It all started nice and easy. Dad, Silvio and I walked to the nearby forest (where a cool 11 miles loop is) to warm up a little and I was really excited about the run. I knew that it was going to be a training run and therefore harder than leisurely runs. However, for some reasons long runs really relax me. In general. Not so much yesterday.

The first 5 miles were hard but doable. I wasn’t that far behind the two tall (think: very long legs) guys and it didn’t feel like I was dying. However, the next 5 miles were really really hard. It was ok that the guys ran ahead but I assumed that we would run the entire course together or else I wouldn’t have started that fast. And even though I thought that they should run their own pace I felt completely left alone.
You know that I’m usually a really happy person but it scares me that it sometimes doesn’t take much to make me feel really bad about myself. Thinking back I can’t believe that I constantly thought (during the run) what a slow and fat pig I was.

Come on! Fat?? Seriously? It really freaks me out that I sometimes consider myself as fat but I honestly don’t know how to stop myself. I’ve changed a lot and really like myself now (which sounds silly.. though it’s the truth) but the “old self” sometimes creeps back and makes me feel like the worst person on earth.

When I’m at my lowest I think that I do not deserve happiness and that no one really likes me anyway. It’s got nothing to do with self-pity, however, I sometimes really loathe myself. And for no reason!!

I am really ashamed of this because 98% of the time I really am at peace with everything.

There has been lots of improvement though. After finishing yesterday’s run I continued to be frustrated (“and I am so fat and slow and I AM NOT GOING TO RUN THIS RACE!!!!”) and behaved like a child. My dad said something like “you know, only 5% of all people could run this distance. Just think of all the lazy teenagers with their baggy pants!” and so on and my frustration wore off after 5 minutes. I’m glad that I don’t spend days feeling absolutely miserable anymore. Yes, I have my bad moments but I get over them pretty quickly too.

Still.. there’s something underneath it all that makes me think that I’m fat or not worthy of love. And even though I know that I shouldn’t take it seriously, I have to get rid of these thoughts.

I want to stop thinking that I’m bad. Once and for all. The only problem is that I don’t know how I should do that.

Any tips?

I realize that most bloggers – myself included – write about stopping fat talk and loving your body but rarely ever admit that they do think of themselves as fat sometimes. Why should we ignore this “weakness”? Because we as bloggers should be an inspiration to other people? I think that we should just be honest and write about things that bother us, even if that means that we have to admit that we have weaknesses. We’re normal people after all and far from perfect.

Q: Do you struggle with fat talk? Do you sometimes struggle with something else and don’t feel like you can admit it?

This post has been pretty heavy in words (I think it makes up for the lack of words in my last posts ) but let’s move on to pictures!

My eats have been far from exciting but I had dinner with my sister at Kabuki (a Japanese restaurant) which was really nice. Afterwards we went and saw the new Robin Hood film which I really liked.

We haven’t seen each other that often for the past few days and really needed to catch up. It’s weird: When she was at home, I was away (and vice versa).

Breakfast was the reincarnation of the god of boredom.
1 kiwi, 1 apple, 2 buns with honey.
Excited already?

Lunch was a huge salad and a banana. The salad was nice (and the banana too, of course) but yet again not so exciting.

Remember when I said that I wasn’t a huge fan of fake meat? Well there’s one exception. Those “spacebars” aka, seitan sausages. They’re fantastic.

Dinner started with a lovely cup of green tea…

…followed by some miso soup.

For my main course I chose the takuan (pickled daikon) hoso maki and shared an avocado and tamago (egg) hosomaki with my sister.

We still had some time to kill so we went to a lovely nearby restaurant called Pangäa which was fab. I got the “Drinkable chocolate” with cinnamon/banana flavour. Erm… drinkable chocolate?

Well you actually put that piece of chocolate into your hot milk. I LOVED it! (I also loved the fact that the chocolate was fair trade and organic). I will go back and try all their flavours soon.

Sel and I also shared some popcorn at the cinema. We were both starving (I guess these 10 miles are catching up with me).

Ok I’m off to bed now. Thanks for reading dear people. Oh and also thanks for the comments on my last post. My toe is fine – just slightly swollen but walking doesn’t hurt so I think it isn’t injured.. thank god.

x K

Sometimes all you need is a bunch of friends or family members and a lovely brunch.

2 brunches in one week = heaven!

I am off to run 10 miles now and then I’ll have to make some food for our girl’s night. Snacks and chick flicks? Count me in!!

I just hope that my knee’s fine as it hurt after my last 8km run. We will see..

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Q: What do you always have to include in a good brunch? For me it’s fruits, pancakes or waffles and orange juice. I just have to have these.

It’s been raining cats and dogs since yesterday afternoon.

Sun, come out please! We miss you!

It seems like some of you run races and some of you don’t. Well that’s perfectly fine of course . I never thought I’d ever run a race because the thought of getting chased by thousands of people wasn’t that appealing. But then I signed up for a 10 miles race because it seemed like “fun”. Erm, 10 miles for my first race without any proper training? Yes my stubbornness sometimes gets beyond logical thinking.

In fact I’ve always had to deal with my impossible stubbornness.  Passing the driving test on the first try? It just had to happen. Quickly finding a good job? Check!

Being stubborn is great if you want to reach certain goals. However, this could also become a problem because you can tend to focus too much on the goal without listening to your gut feeling.

You just have to reach that goal, no matter what.

I’m a little less stubborn these days but if I want something (non-material of course) I just have to have it. I accept my character as it is, which also includes stubbornness, but I just make sure that I don’t want to reach goals that are too crazy

Are you a stubborn person? Do you see it as something positive or negative?

Sometimes I’m also stubborn when it comes to meals. If I crave something I just have to have it. Like quinoa porridge for example.

So I went into the kitchen and made some .

Tamzin sent me a bar some time ago (I won it in a giveaway) and I just had to try it in the afternoon. I’ve had other 9 bars before and have always been pleased. This one was fantastic too!

Thanks hun! I loved it! Too bad that it’s gone though

We skipped our run because of the heavy rain. I usually don’t shy away from rain but you should have seen the weather yesterday.. It was insane..

Instead we made mushroom risotto, topped with a fried egg and some rice.

We went and had a few drinks (well.. water and a cappuccino for me) and said goodbye to our friend who goes to the US again. Hehe, it was fun though!

Today I’ll just enjoy my time off . Btw: this is Ascension Day.

I started my day with some chakra balancing yoga which was lovely. I should go and make some tea and take a shower now.. we’re heading to my friend Daniela’s workplace for brunch (she’s a baker). Then afterwards we’ll pop by my grandma’s house as it’s her birthday . Afterwards I just HAVE to get that run in .

Anyway, enjoy your day lovelies!!