Woops! I seem to have been abducted into TV land again while working on my latest job. I'm with BBC3 for 6 weeks, and the first 2 weeks have absolutely flown in. Which is great, however there seems to be not enough hours in the day and days in the week for me to do all the things I want to do. The perks of having a semi long contract (6 weeks, I know... may not seem like long for most people but for me it is!) are definitely a guaranteed pay day every friday, and having weekends off. The downside is I am super tired, all day every day, and my poor wee blog and newly found gym routine seems to have been neglected.
The scales in my house are broken, which has sort of been a blessing in disguise because I would weigh myself every other day and obsess about the number on the display screen. I've really needed to break out of this habit for a while now, and I feel a lot better for it. I feel like I am 'listening' to my body and focusing on how I feel and how my clothes sit on me instead. I used to swear by My Fitness Pal, but it also stressed me out a bit - logging all my calories and freaking out if I went 30 over my daily recommended intake. Instead, I am eating 3 meals a day and only eating healthy snacks in between when hunger strikes. Oh, and I'm also not denying myself chocolate or a little treat every now and again. I definitely don't feel like this relaxed approach has made me pile any pounds on, so when I do get back to the gym I will weigh myself out of curiosity and see what the past month has done to me weight wise.
Anyway, I did not mean to start this post on a bit of a rant/downer, but I hope other people can relate to how I feel, and how it feels to see others making a lot of progress with their fitness and body goals while you feel like you're up a creek without a paddle. This time last month I was off to such a good start! So I'm not gonna let this dip put me off. The last few times I did go to the gym a couple of weeks ago I decided to mix up my usual protein shake routine with post workout juices instead. Currys kindly sent me a Phillips Juicer as part of their Juiced Up campaign, and sent me on my merry way to make the perfect workout drink.
I was randomly given this juice book a few months ago on my last job, and rather intrigued at the juice detox's etc I kept a few pages bookmarked with the intention of looking into them further. Now with a juicer on my kitchen counter I didn't really have an excuse not to get to work! There are a lot of vegetable based juices, but I decided to break myself in easily with a rather fruity concoction called the Peak Performer.
One thing I will say, all the fruit for the recipe wasn't cheap! I spent around £8 in Tesco getting the above, but I think if this were to become a regular thing I would definitely stock up at my local green grocers, rather than the expensive convenience of a Tesco Metro. When I saw it all plated up, I thought how the hell am I going to consume all of this?
Alas, the juicer was amazing! So easy to set up for use and clean afterwards, and it literally blitzed the fruits whole. It was strangely satisfying watching each piece of fruit get blitzed haha. The only thing I had to cut up were the apples so they fit down the top of the juicer. But it literally whizzed up everything - stalks, stems and seeds included. I don't know why I initially had a smoothie consistency in my head (come on Ayden, this is a JUICER after all) and all the pulp left from the fruit was squished into a little compartment at the bottom of the machine.
This is how much juice my recipe made. Definitely enough for two large glasses or three small ones, so you could stagger drinking them throughout the day, or make a couple of days worth at the one time. Now I understand why proper juice companies charge so much for a weeks plan. It did taste absolutely delicious and satisfyingly guilt free. I think next time I will be a little more adventurous and try one of the more vegetable based recipes. With my first juice made I headed over to my local Virgin Active gym with a visitors pass to try out a CXWORKS class. It was pretty tough and focused on tightening and toning your core muscles. It was nice to visit a different gym for a change, and I've found out that my own gym does this class too so I will definitely give it another go. I am more of a classes person rather than the bog standard gym, but maybe this will change as I start to make more focused goals and understand what sort exercises I want to focus on for my body.
A few of my blogging friends including Ruth have been digging the juicing recently. What do you think about it? Is it something you would try at home if you had the right tools?
