Fit-Ness - The Intro

Its almost my 29th Birthday as i write this....and for the last few years I've been guilty of being one of those, "lets start doing something about my body" every new year! (or usually after my birthday seen as its so close to the holiday period)

I don't do diets....i hate the word...the word alone makes me want to go and eat a whole packet of bourbons!! I know i am no good with harsh restrictions, so i don't do it to myself! 

But i know my way of eating (both pre-gan and Vegan) haven't been the best. Better than i ever used to eat, but that's easy when everything i used to eat was beige, not counting the ketchup!!

When i turned vegan i thought (naively so) that this would be the end of me being over weight (or obese to quote the doctors!) I thought it would force me to eat well...and I guess it forces me to eat better. but as i said in the previous sentence, most Bourbons are VEGAN!! and they are NOT healthy!

I'm coming up to my first anniversary of being Vegan, and as i look back on the last year, I'm ok with what i was eating, there's a LOT of amazing vegan food out there, and being in London, i have eaten out a lot. and not a lot of that was ever healthy. But as i came to realise in my vegan journey, the animal and environmental side of it became a lot more important to me as i went on. I have learnt that i eat a lot of processed food, but i am making that a smaller part of the food i consume.

Just before Christmas i started back at the gym, I've always been on for the gym or Zumba or something, but back last year, i was struggling with pain in my ankle and then i went traveling for a little bit, and that all resulted in me becoming lazy.
I have fixed the problem with my ankles now (who knew a simple heel insert would be the difference between absolute agony and sure comfort!?!)
So back to the gym i went, with the help of a friend, we started going together, we both need each others motivation at the minute and i am truly grateful for her!!

I have been eating well....well better, and keeping a diary which has been helping me be more conscious of what i'm eating (and that's a lot of the battle) and what better way of keeping me on track than to announce it to the internet so you guys can hold me accountable. Lets be clear, until i like fruit, I will never be as fit as i could be, because even if i get my main meals 100% spot on, my sweet snacks will always be terrible, but there will be less of them! So if you see me (or catch me on Instagram) having a biscuit or Ice-cream. Don't go in too hard on me!

So That being said, welcome to Fit-Ness, the name for my fitness Journey Blog, I will try to do updates often on where i'm at with training, my weight and my food. 

My goals:

• to be fit (being able to run for a good distance without wanting to pass-out!)
• To be strong! I would love to be able to squat my own body weight by the end of the year!
• To be happy in my own body! (Not interested in being skinny, I want to be curvy and less jiggly than i am currently!)

As always

Keep it Positive

Nessa

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One Bowl Vegan Chilli

Hey Peeps!!

This weekend i decided to embark on a massive cooking fest!! Since the holiday month I've been pretty slack at cooking big batches of food to freeze. Relying on rice packets and kohinoor curry packets (which by the way, if you haven't tried these, they're an amazing alternative to a take away, half the cost and half the calories, I'll pop a post up about them soon)

Anyway i digress.

I ended up making what I'm calling a one bowl chilli. Meaning i don't need to put any rice with it as it's packed full of goodness which should keep me full!!

I got the original recipe from Jamie Oliver and as with most of my cooking, i added extras, because i can!!

The ingredients in black are as per Jamie's recipe, the ones in grey are my own addition or tweek.

3 Small Onions
1 Tablespoon of Garlic Powder

1 Teaspoon Chipotle Paste
2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
2 Tablespoons ground cumin
2 Tablespoons ground coriander
2 Tablespoons smoked paprika
½  Teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons tomato purée
500g Tried Green Lentils
2 x 400 g Tins of red kidney beans
1 x 400 g Tins of black beans
4 x 400 g Tins of chopped tomatoes (Extra’s as i’d added so many beans!)
1 litre Home Made Vegetable Stock

400g Frozen Peas

150g Frozen Sweetcorn

50g Frozen Broad Beans

As a total (rough guesstimate) the total pot came to 4535 calories.

I managed to get 11 portions out of it. You could get more if you wanted to have a side of rice or tortillas with it.

So that came to 412 calories per portion, which with a 30g serving of some Gary (Vegan cheese) comes to a well balanced lunch or dinner.

Enjoy cooking (promise I'll get better at taking pictures of my food!!)

Keep It Positive

Nessa

The V word.....Vegan

I'm back...... and very different.

It's been a while since i wrote a post, and since i did quite a few things have happened with me.

Surprisings to not only me, but lots of people around me, I've become Vegan. (aarrgghh, i know that word scares so many people!!)

My best friend from the North and her husband have both been Vegan now for around 2 years. She's become one of those voices a lot of people want to ignore, the one i wanted to ignore for a while. She spoke about how we shouldn't eat meat, and how Milk isn't for us, its for baby cows. Which i could never argue with the milk thing, but its a great source of calcium....right?!?

How wrong i was, I have to admit, since becoming vegan i have realised how some of the things i used to say were all fiction that has been spread around by pretty much everyone since god knows when.

We have to think back to a time when people thought the earth was flat, or that time we should all stop eating salt, or that time when fat was a bad thing, and now its not.... The academic people of this world are always doing more research into this, that and the other. So we have to listen with an open mind and make the right choice for ourselves.

In December my bestie challenged me to take part in Veganuary. And it being my birthday in January and having a freezer full of chicken and fish i said i would totally take her up on the challenge, but i would do February, or as we came to call it Vegbruary. (Clever huh?!)

So in January i took it upon myself to eat everything that was in my freezer, and all the things in my cupboard that contained milk etc (which is waaaaay more than you think!!)

At the end of January i did a HUGH shop from Sainsbury's, which I've never done so it was all a nice novelty to have a guy fetch all my stuff!! I bought all the veggies, pulses, grains, soya, and generally whole food plant based things!!

Throughout January i had been procrastinating (as i do best) on Pinterest. Finding lots of yummy looking things to make for lunches, as i knew the canteen at work, as well stocked as it is, would be terrible for a Vegan, let alone a new Vegan!

Stuff For Vegbruary

As you can see by the name, i thought this was just going to be for a month....

Its currently the 8th of March, and i feel like this is a life change now.

In my journey i have watched:

Vegucated (Netflix) - More about the social aspect of being Vegan

Cowspiracy (Netflix) - About the environmental effects of eating meat and the dairy, fishing and Egg industry.

Earthlings - Only watch this is you have a strong stomach, if you truly don't want to see another earthling hurt or in pain, this will make you cry and think twice.

Forks over knives - About the health aspects of a meat and dairy diary vs a wholefood plant based diet.

I've also watched on YouTube:

VEGAN 2015 - The Film

Animal Testing on a Human

Earthlings - Deleted Scenes - Not for the faint hearted

Dairy is F*****g Scary - will put you off for life

Also Watch all Erin Janus' Videos they are great!!Best Speech You Will Ever Hear - Gary Yourofsky

My friend who's been Vegan for 2 years hasn't been able to watch Earthlings yet, so that tells you something about it.

I'll do some more posts, going into what I've eaten in my first month and no word of a lie, not all of it has been "healthy"

I'll also go into eating out, and my reactions to some of the things i've watched.

As Always

Keep It Positive

Nessa

xx