Raw Cashew-Caramel Fudge Pie

Remember my Bounty Baby Truffles? The base for this pie is based around those and the topping? Well the topping is what happens when you have a jar of cashew butter in the cupboard than needs using up!

I don't mean to scare you, but if you DON'T make this, you really don't know what you're missing. Really. It's probably one of the yummiest things I've ever made and even my husband likes it!

Raw Cashew-Caramel Fudge Pie


Ingredients:
125g pitted dates
25g cashew nuts
10g dark chocolate
2 tablespoons cashew butter
2 teaspons Coconut oil


Method:

Blast together the dates, cashews and dark chocolate in a food processor until it looks like wet sand (if the dates are dry and not mixing well, you could soak them in a little warm water first or just add a teeny amount of cashew butter to the mix). Tip the mix into a flan dish, smoosh down firmly until it looks smooth.

For the cashew caramel, melt the cashew nut butter and coconut oil together in a pan. Once it's melted, pour it over the date base and spread to the edges. At this point you can either put it in the fridge for an hour or straight in the freezer for an hour to set really firm. After the pie had set a little I added a topping of grated white chocolate.

Serves 6 people at a waistline-friendly 144 calories per slice. Wincakes!

You can keep it in the fridge for about 5 days, but I cut mine into pieces, place between greaseproof paper sheets and freeze. All you'll need to do is leave a piece to defrost for a few minutes before scoffing.

Fruit & Nuts. Best breakfast ever!

Did you see my guest blog post over on Alison's amazing Rock and Glitter blog? It's all about matcha. Go and have a read (and a good look around Alison's blog while you're there, she's a total beauty guru.)

Wear Sunscreen

 

 

This song was originally an article that circulated in 1997, Baz Luhrmann recited it to music in 1999. I was 20 years old when I heard it and got no great wonders from it. Now a little older, wiser and introspective, I think very fondly of it. 

As I went out to buy sunscreen this week, it made me think of it. There's a wonderful section in it quite close to the beginning which reads: 

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh never mind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded, but trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you, and how fabulous you really looked - you are NOT as fat as you imagine.

As I've seen so many great posts pop up on blogs recently about body image and body confidence, and as I've been battling the subject of weight with my nurse it's been something that has really hit home to me and made me think about my own feelings to do with body image, confidence and how I feel about what I really look like.

So here I am, 33 years young and currently weighing 168lbs. Yes, that's over my goal weight. According to my WeightWatchers Goal Weight range, I should be no higher than 154lbs. Now, no disrespect to WeightWatchers but I'm a very different woman today compared to what I was in the hazy summer of 2005. Mostly, I work out. I didn't then (unless walking counted). I lift weights, heavy ones (yesterday I carried home a 12kg kettlebell - a 30 minute walk, when I moved here in 2007 I could barely carry my 6kg set of Barbie Bells). I can run 5 miles, I can run for a bus (in heels, nonetheless) and still have breath by the time I get on the damn thing.

However, during my first few 'skinny' summers I filled my wardrobe with new clothes for my new body - most of which I am still wearing today. They fit differently; some are tighter on the shoulders, some are really tight on my hips, but they still fit my waist perfectly - because that's one measurement which is the same today at 168 as it was at 150.

So yes, my body has changed. Hardly for the worse, in fact I'd go as far to say that I prefer the way I look now than I did back in 2005. My face doesn't have hamster cheeks any more (wheat really did nothing for me), my calves are shaped better, my shoulders look defined, my waist is more defined and my backside sits higher - I'm not perfect, and I still want to work on my strength and tone, but I can look in the mirror everyday and not have a physical judder at what reflects back at me.

Would I like to be 14lbs lighter? Of course I would, but I try really hard not to beat myself with that stick. I was dreading seeing my nurse this month as she told me at Christmas that I needed to lose weight (nothing scary, just as I'm woman, in my thirties, on the combined pill, the NHS have to be vigilant and scare me). I got weighed at home before I saw her on Friday and I was only 4lbs lighter since she last saw me. Did she weigh me? No. She took my blood pressure, said it was perfect (actually lower than the last time), said I looked well and she sent me on my way. My blood pressure clearly did the talking, and that's more important that what a scale can say.

My priorities as far as my body goes have changed a lot. Someone once said to me 'skinny girls look good with clothes on, healthy girls look good naked' and that's never left me. My overall goal is to be totally and completely happy in my own skin, nothing more. I want to strong, I want to be lean, I want to run 10km, I want to lift weights I'd never dreamed of, I want to be healthy and I want to feel amazing in (and out of) my clothing. After all the body is the foundation; if what's underneath the clothes looks, feels and works good then the rest will surely follow. As long as I keep being the person I am today, I won't do myself wrong.

To paraphrase the song, I'm NOT as fat as I imagine. I haven't been for 7 years. It's about time my brain caught up with what's been happening outside it during that time. At least I didn't wait 20 years to look back.

Two photos before I go. At the top is 2005 me, below is 2012 me. 7 years. A lot of changes. Personally, I think I'm improving; emotionally, not just physically, which is a hell of an achievement in itself.

Raw Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pie

During my week off the gym I had some quiet evenings at home. I know, total luxury, right? As much as I can quite happily sit and watch tv for a couple of hours (especially if there's food involved - having only recently discovered Man V Food and Ace of Cakes,  I have lost HOURS to these shows!) however after a couple of quiet nights I needed a creative outlet. To kitchen, Batgirl!

I recently subscribed to a mailing list for one of my favourite recipe blogs (Chocolate-Covered Katie) and one day earlier this week a new recipe dropped into my inbox for Nutella Fudge and after seeing such a simple ingredient list, I decided to have a go at the recipe.

My Nutella Fudge came out very chocolately indeed! I decided to push them into my mini-cupcake cases to make them look really cute. They looked like mini-pies!

Then inspiration hit me, I wanted to make my own raw pie. I started scouring my cupboards and within 15 minutes I had created raw chocolate-peanut butter pie!

No bake, all raw, natural ingredients. Ready?

Raw Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pie


Ingredients: 

3 tablespoons Peanut Butter
2 tablespoons Coconut Butter
3 tablespoons Cocoa Powder
Half of a medium, ripe banana 
Teeny pinch of salt
1 tablespoon Agave Syrup


Method:

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz. After a couple of minutes if it's not sticky enough you can add extras - I used 1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil to get it going again. I should look like wet, crumbly sand when it's done.

At this point I tipped it into a flan dish and smooshed it down. I topped it with some chopped pitted dates and a sprinkle of blitzed cashew nuts.

I'd say this serves 6 people, and at 124 calories per serving it has to be nearly impossible to refuse!

You can keep it in the fridge for about 5 days, but I cut mine into pieces, place between greaseproof paper sheets and freeze. All you'll need to do is leave a piece to defrost for a few minutes before scoffing.

Yum!

New Old-Favourites

The best thing about being a foodie is the desire to find and try new things whilst still loving the old favourites.

My latest new old-favourite comes in the form of yoghurt. I was never a great yoghurt-lover, but the moment I got told I had a dairy sensitivity and therefore shouldn't have it I couldn't stop wanting it. Stubborn me decided I'd still try to eat it, and that stubborn idiocy came with some severe consequences, so I had to give it up and reside myself to life yoghurt-free.

I've tried soya yoghurts and I never liked any of them, they're just not the same and never seem to appear in flavours that I like, then I spotted these a couple of weeks back in the supermarket: 

Alpro Soya Fruit & Creamy Cherry Yoghurt

Firstly, cherry! Secondly, they look like they'll be a little more substantial than any other soya yoghurts out there. Are they? Hells yeah! I've had them mixed in a bowl with 30g raw oats and some Lindwoods:

This made a filling and very yummy breakfast. Yoghurt is officially back on my menu!

Anyone who follows me on Twitter will know I'm a bit of a hashtag fiend, I use the one #saltedcaramelslut a great deal as my new love is salted caramel. I've blogged before about my love of Lindt Touch of Sea Salt chocolate but a couple of weeks back I spotted this: 

Dark chocolate, caramel and sea salt? JACKPOT, BABY! What a brilliant way to combine and old favourite with a new one.

I wonder what will I rediscover next? Have you rediscovered any old favourites recently? Tweet me! @marshallexi

Snakes, Stats and Snoozing

In exercise news ...

I said I was going to make a start on incorporating push-ups into my workouts over the last week - and I have. I've discovered that I'm brilliant at 'girly' ones (balanced on my knees with my ankles crossed and in the air) and rubbish at 'blokey' ones (full ones - it's seriously hilarious, I do one and collapse, brilliant).

Keen to get me out of embarassing myself in the gym on a bi-weekly basis, my lovely friend Bexx suggested that I give 'snaking' ones a try. Whaaaaaat?! To YouTube to find out what these things are!

I thought they looked interesting and so at my next workout I decided to give them a go.

They are exactly as I thought; the hybrid between 'girly' and 'blokey' push-ups. They really work your mid-section too, I managed 3 sets of 10 reps on my first run and was exhausted afterwards! I'm going to keep going with these until my strength improves a little more and then start intergrating the 'blokey' ones. I'm sure I'll be able to do them all eventually.

In food news ...

I sat down and had a look at my spreadsheet last week. As I've got a good 5 weeks of data in there now I've got stuff to work with and can compare what goes in exercise and food wise to what comes out with weight and fat reduction.

One pattern leapt out at me -  on weeks when I eat back approximately 75% of my exercise calories I notice a greater fat loss. Again, this sits well within the 'eat more to weight less' system that I'm working on and demonstrates that my body does like to have more food when it's worked hard. So I've rejuggled my calories to 1750 on rest days and 2050 on lifting days. That way I should be eating back between 60 - 75% each week. As with all my trials, it's a work in progress, but I'm confident that this should be right levels for my current activities. I guess in another month I'll have some more data to go on.

And finally ...

I'm officially on a rest & recovery week. I know, words I never thought I'd say but the New Rules dictate that I need to have a week off after 6 weeks in order to rest my muscles, nervous and immune systems. As much as I was sure I wouldn't need a rest, I really feel like I do! I'm currently in Manchester seeing family and friends, having a lovely little break from London, a perfect time to have a week off training and I'm anticipating that I'll be back even stronger next week after a good rest.

Gone to snooze. BRB.  (source)

Fairy Teamother

Last week lovely Becky at teapigs dropped me an email asking if I'd like to be a fairy - a teapigs Office Fairy!

I can finally justify adding 'part-time fairy' to my cv!

I asked my office if they'd like to try some tea, a hearty 'YES!' came back. I'm a big teapigs fan as not only do they make some of my favourite teas (Popcorn and Yerba just for starters!) but they are based just down the road from my office, and I'm always a fan of helping promote a local business.

The next day, a lovely box arrived, jam packed with teapigs goodness!

The box contained lots of samples of tea to pimp around my office and a discount code for those who simply must have more teapigs goodness in their lives: 

Becky also sent me some goodies too, lots of samples of tea:

and look at my super cool badge! I love this so much!

I visited the teapigs stand at the Vitality Show this year and tried some of their Matcha for the first time, I really loved it but as I slowly got more and more weighed down with bags at the show I didn't get time to go back and buy some. I saw this as the opportunity that I had been waiting for to buy some and I placed my order on Monday. I can't wait to start adding it to my protein shakes on a morning, having a Matcha shot before my workouts and having Matcha lattes on a weekend (as seen on Laura's Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish blog earlier in the year when she took part in the teapigs Matcha Challenge).

Thank you teapigs (and lovely Becky) for bringing wonderful tea to my workplace. The samples lasted less than a day and everyone loved them!

I'll be sure to do a post all about my Matcha as soon as it arrives and I crack into it.

Oh my darling, Clementine

Real life busy = blog life quiet. You know how it goes. My apologies.

This week I managed to get three sessions in at the gym. It  happened in a nice, organic way - the Bank Holiday Monday meant I got to start my workout week then, following that it seemed natural to go on Wednesday and Friday as I'd get a good rest day between each session. 1600 calories feels like a big burn, I've eaten over half of those calories back.

I'm still loving playing with the barbells. This week I've embraced overhead presses (um, ouch!) and squats with a barbell as opposed to dumbells. There's something immensely satisfying about popping a bar on your shoulders for your squats. It turned out that these changes were exactly the kind of shake up that my body needed as my DOMS reappeared - I hadn't had any for almost two weeks and I was starting to think that I wasn't working hard enough! That 'no pain, no gain' mantra really is a hard one to shake off.

I've also taken to revisiting my abs wheel as I've moved away from weighted crunches in every session. I'm finding planks and the wheel more beneficial to me right now. I forget how much that wheel makes you hurt later in the day though; it has to be the most pain you can experience for less than £4.

Next week my goal is to get on with press ups. I know, such a basic exercise that I don't take part in, silly Alex. Last time I checked I could do one press up, so this should be hilarious for anyone in my gym who comes near me when I'm on the mats.

I had a little weight reduction last week and a big fat loss, so far I'm clocking in at a 1.6% fat reduction since the start of April. I see a little difference in the mirror but I think other people see it more than I do right now. I am taking progress pictures every two weeks, maybe one day I'll be brave enough to share them with my readers!

Aside from developing a serious addiction to clementines and tangerines, it's been an uneventful week, however I have my next nurse appointment scheduled for two weeks time (eeek!). I'm sure she'll be pleased that I've managed to lose some weight but I'm really hoping it's enough. I'm trying not to focus on pure weight loss but we all know that GP surgeries see nothing else, I'll be dropping my fat reduction into the contraceptive chit-chat for sure though.

Finally, remember when I showed you my treat drawer at work? Yeah, it looks a little different now:

Albeit you can't see all the naughty stuff that I hide at the back, like Dairy Milk and Peanut Butter Kit Kats! Sometimes you've just got to keep the good stuff nearby, everyone needs a good stash!

April Round Up

April went quick. The last two months have, I don't want all the good months to go too fast, it'll be winter again before I know it!

A rare sunny spring day in April

April was a great month though, reading back I feel like I put some good hours in reading up and tinkering with my eats and exercise; I feel like procrastinating has actually paid off! According to my new & old spreadsheet I did 10 workouts in April, which means I met my monthly target. :) 

My workouts have had a massive revamp over recent weeks and this week I decided to suck it up and finally brave the free weights (or 'boys' section, as I like to call it) in the gym. Despite me thinking it would be the scariest experience of my life it was probably one of the easiest; I got my space, got my dumbbells and barbell all set up and got on with it. What a brilliant way to work out - focussed, efficient and effective. Man, I hope I never tire of lifting weights, I love it.

Moving away from various resistance machines has helped my body recover from the aches and pains I was suffering (I know this is from the unnatural movements that those machines have, by unnatural I mean not as the body was designed to be used) and my hip pain has finally cleared off. Albeit this has probably been helped out by some stretches that I found online which I did a couple of times a day to ease my pains. I'm still doing them after every workout and most nights before bed - I guess I have naturally rather tight hips. (You can click here for the stretches that I've been using, they have worked wonders.)

I've got into the good habit of having a protein shake after each lifting session, which provides the extra calories I need and helps ease the next day DOMS of doom! I bought a huge bag of Soy Isolate from MyProtein and it's good stuff. A fairly decent level of protein in each measure, it doesn't taste chalky or unpleasant. I tend to mix mine with nut milk and speaking of which, new product in Waitrose alert! 

The chocolate version of Kara has appeared in store! You might remember that I first tried this at this years Vitality Show but I was so excited to see it on the shelves of my local supermarket. I'm still a big fan of Alpro Soya Chocolate (it makes the best chocolate porridge, great for when I'm staying at my mum's and I need a little carton for breakfast making, as they come in multipacks), but the Kara stuff is seriously gorgeous just to drink (I plan on making my protein shakes with it next week).

Porridge with chocolate soya milk, dates & almonds

Achievements this month - I'm pretty much still riding on the glory of braving the free weights but I have also managed to improve my plank hold time substantially, most times I'm clocking just over 2 minutes 30 seconds - which I am very proud of!

May has the promise of being busy on the blog, but that's a work in progress. I'm starting on 2 lifting sessions per week (occasionally a third may creep in, depending on when I need to rest) and hopefully by the end of May I'll have upped the weights that I'm using.

May is looking positive and exciting.

New Rules

With the right eats under my belt, I decided to do some research into the type of exercise that I enjoy doing the most.

I really want this tshirt from Cafe Press

If you'd have told me five years ago that lifting weights would have been my favourite exercise it's safe to say I would have laughed really hard in your face. Five years ago I'd only stepped foot into a gym three times and pretty much hated the place. How we change and grow!

I'm sure I've said this in posts previously but weights make me feel amazing. There's something so deliciously self-indulgent about them; the way you have to focus your mind on your body and ignore everyone else around you, the way you hold your form to keep the perfect posture, the way you pep-talk your body into finishing as strong as you started - it's just an amazing feeling of inner-mind and outer-body strength. To me it's a very empowering thing to do and I leave the gym after a workout session feeling a million times better than when I first walked in.

Over the last week I've been dipping in and out of reading The New Rules of Lifting for Women:

Kindle edition. What else?

This is an incredibly well written and thoroughly researched book and I'm really enjoying it. The entire section on nutrition has really struck a chord with me (especially the section about low-calorie diets) but it's also made me change the way I work out. I'd never thought that unless I was increasing my weights substantially I wouldn't see my muscle mass increase. Makes sense doesn't it? Bear in mind I am the girl who also thought eating below your BMR was okay ...

My weights workout is already in pretty good shape as I do most of the moves that the book recommends (along with a few others that I found on Muscle & Strength) As opposed to doing loads of reps with moderate weights, I've made the transition to fewer reps with heavy weights. I had my first run with this system last Sunday and some of the things that really leapt out at me were:

It's not as scary as you think. I did a little build up for each set, testing the weight each time, but I was amazed how much more I am capable of lifting when I try. I really surprised myself with my strength.

You feel like you're doing less, but you're actually doing so much more! Every part of my body felt thoroughly pushed at the end of the session. I'd burned more calories than one of my previous weight workouts and the 10 minutes of interval cardio at the end almost killed me!

You don't have to feel like walking hell the next day. I was expecting the DOMS to be horredous the following day. In reality had a few more in my abs than usual in the morning and the usual amount in my arms in the afternoon (it takes around 20 hours for my DOMS to kick in) but that was all. This might be aided by higher protein in my diet as well though.

So far I'm excited and enjoying this new program and I'll be adding more moves in as my confidence and ability grows.

Higher Calories - Week 4 (Results)

That was a fast 4 weeks. Time to review this whole increased calorie malarky.

source

It's been an eventful 4 weeks retraining my body to eat more and aside from the occasional panic I've really enjoyed it! Here's what I've learned from my little experiment:

Eating food is great! It's really not the enemy as long as you're eating good stuff. It's almost a shame that Easter fell in the middle of this experiment as I feel I might have had better results without the chocolate-fuelled holiday.

Workouts are better when you're fuelled properly. As in you don't get woozy in the gym, you can lift heavier weights and push yourself harder. You also don't feel too knackered afterwards.

A great way to break a low-calorie diet plateau is to up your calories. A month a go I got to the point where I thought I was going mad, now I understand why the scales weren't moving and what action I can take when such things happen again.

I finally know what calorie level my body regards as 'maintenance level'. For me that is a massive win. From this I have determined how many calories I need to maintain or lose weight, and to keep me going. Brilliant.

A weight increase isn't worth stressing about when you've got other victories to celebrate. Such as my body fat dropping by over 1% in a month, all of my blazers fastening comfortably again, my skinny pencil skirt starting to fit again -  all these little things are very exciting!

Week 4 (final) results:

Weight: No change  (-1lb  total)

Body fat: -0.2%  ( -1.2%  total)

Have I lost loads of weight compared to what I did on a low calorie diet? No, but I lost some, which is an improvement. I've lost a lot more body fat than I have in about 2 years though, dropped inches from my body, built a ton of muscle and I got to eat a lot more food in the process. All in all, if the choice is a very hungry Alex on low-cal or a very happy Alex on high-cal, it's a no brainer as to which one to stick to.

Where to now? Say hello to my little friend, it is of course a spreadsheet:

Once an Excel nerd, always an Excel nerd

This has been designed to encourage me to stick to my daily calorie goal (or text goes DOOM RED!), stick to netting my BMR as a minimum (or text goes DOOM RED!) and keep a weekly average within a certain range. I'm aiming for a long-range record here, where I can keep an eye on what results each level of cut or increase produced, kind of like a bank of personal data that I can look back to when I hit plateau again (as it's pretty inevitable when you've got less than 15lbs to lose) and then know what course of action has to be taken to achieve the best results with the minumum fuss.

I make it sound thrilling, don't I? I'm quietly comforted by knowing there's a spreadsheet full of numbers to guide me when I need it as maths never lets anyone down!

To sum up; eat good, starving bad. Like we didn't know that already. I'm on 1800 calories a day now, until things change.


That's the food part sorted. My next blog post will be about the exercise part of my next adventure. Stay tuned!