Guys I am uber sorry for the lack of posting of late. My little bro has made the trek from Ozzie land to come and spend some time with his bigger sis and I am indulging in some family time.

Lots to report but please forgive me for spending some time with him as opposed to my spunky little pink mac. I will have more time one he leaves in 2 days time.

Needless to say although I am having an indulgent time, I am still trying to be wise with my food and activity but it is harder when you have someone else around who isn’t ‘in’ to your crazy ways. Find out more about how I cope on Monday. I will post a big post with details then.

Hope you are all well and having a wonderful weekend and for those of you in my home part of the world (Saudi Arabia) I hope your weekend was fun! (Thursday/Friday).

Here are some photies to give you a taster of what we have been up to! I cannot wait to tell you where in the world we are!!! Can you guess?

My bro checking the map!

Check out my wheels. Experienced scooter rider. Yeah baby.

I leave for home next week. I cannot wait to see my furry family Sam and Lucy Goosey, but I have love being here.

See you soon bloggy friends.

I miss yooooooo

Man! It’s been 4 days since I last worked out and I am feeling it (like crap I mean!). Missed my classes today due to the sleep monster, plus the RPM class I wanted was booked out and I couldn’t get out of bed.

Just goes to show that when you are consistent with your healthy eating, it is much easier to be active and fit.

This is why I don’t like having too many big nights…it takes me days to recover and I am not just talking re my head, I also mean with the body. If I drink, all I want either that night or the next day is comfort food ie starchy carbs, hot stodgy food, that really gives you even less energy to work out with even when you have recovered.

So here I am a few days later with nothing more than plenty of sleep up my sleeve and a reluctance to check out the new gym. Does this mean I am a creature of habit? Hmmm maybe, but for a girl that has to adapt to new surrounds so much as it is, yeah maybe it is a bit much that I cannot just gel into the new gym after all this moving. I checked it out today (albeit at 530pm – peak time) and OMGoodness I just blended into the wallpaper. There were soooo many people working out on machines, circuit, 3 group classes, I was totally overwhelmed. I really hope my classes I have booked for tomorrow are less crazy.

After checking out the gym I headed to the closest supermarket to see what spoils I could get. Unfortunately this part of the world does not value organic as much as the last (even though they were the same chain) so I just rolled with it and bought what I needed. I am sooooo hanging out for a green smoothie!!!!

The one good thing I will say about the supermarket is that I managed to find LARABARS! I hear all you US based bloggies talking about them all the time then lo and behold at the checkouts today, I saw THEM! So funny as I was on my own and I couldn’t contain my excitement. Waiting in the queue like the cheshire cat, I guess that everyone else around thought I was high on something or another as I was sooo excited. These were the flavours they had:

Never having tried them before I bought one of each and will definitely have to go back before we leave to get some more.

Whilst waiting for the taxi home I had to one one: UM YEAH, these are hell good.

So tomorrow I am back into it! And now that I have all my stock in supply:

I will have energy to burn once more. I seriously believe it is the food I eat that make the difference. What do you think?

Heyyyyyyyy!

I am still here! We had to move to a new city and with all the packing up (after treating my hotel room like my own home for the last almost 3 weeks and not expecting the move) and having some form of social life, I have neglected you. Sorry possums.

Well I am afraid to say these last few days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday-today) have been less raw than I would have liked, but very fun nonetheless.

Friday was spent catching up with some new pals that I have made in my new (temporary) home that I seriously never want to leave, and over indulging but it was FUN!!! No guilt here, hehe.

Went to a friends house for lunch which I was spoilt with a vegetarian caesar salad (lucky me!) and some woine (Aussie for wine!) then as it was the end of the week for most, we hit town for happy hour at one of the local hot spots and met up with some more friends from the gym. Champagne was on the menu for me. And at about dinner time we were all REALLY keen for something quite hearty, so we kicked on next door at the Italian joint for some din din (and plenty of shared red wine!!!)

I ordered this:

Warm salad (I don’t remember exactly what was in it but it had warm pumpkin and pumpkin seeds which I was totally happy to see when they delivered my dinner as I don’t think it said that on the menu!!)

It was really nice to meet even more friendly faces and have more chats about living in this part of the world. I didn’t need much convincing that this is pretty much God’s country.

The next day we headed off to our next destination. No prizes for guessing what kinda face I had on I didn’t want to leave. Oh well, just an excuse to come back here on holidays I guess.

Here is one of the views I saw out the window that day.

Checked into our hotel and realised that I had to make myself a whole new mini kitchen again and this time my room was half the size, so I gave up and headed up to the business lounge for some red wine relief and this view:

What a wonderful idea that was. I met a lovely couple from Australia (originally from Chile however) and were just returning home from having their 40th wedding anniversary in Chile. They were sooo sweet and the wife kept telling me how much her and her hubby love to dance. I could just imagine them Salsa’ing the night away. Also I think I gave everyone in there a bit of a giggle as I kept answering the waiter’s phone with “Brown’s Butcher Shop” every time he left the room and confused the poor receptionist. All the other guests, thought this made me typically Australian. Still trying to work out what that means.

I contacted this city’s branch of the gym I was going to to see if they would honor my concession card and unfortunately they would not, so I am going to have to fork out for some serious class action before my brother gets here this week and my fitness schedule goes out the window for some serious sightseeing. So today I just took it easy and had a nice lie in.

Headed back up to the business lounge again tonight to get my partner in crime for dinner and met another lovely American/Canadian couple from Shanghai (he is here on business and she is here to keep him company) and when she saw me playing around with my new HRM she struck up a conversation. This lounge is such a great way to meet other travellers. So her and I are going to hit the gym tomorrow for some Spin action and perhaps I will convince her to do a Body Pump class with me also. Then we can hit this raw cafe I happened to come across again on my iPhone Happy Cow application. This thing is brilliant. I am keen for a green smoothie or juice as I have no produce with me yet, but have noticed there are plenty of wholefoods, organic and health food stores around. Even more so than what I remember in Australia. This place really rocks.

Dinner was a bit naughty and was this:

Vegetarian Pizza minus the cheese

But I started with this:

House salad

And we were given these on paying the bill:

Not sure what they were and perhaps they had cream in them but they tasted like green baileys.

Hopefully I am not too sad and start to get to enjoy this place a little more tomorrow but I already feel a bit home sick for my other home away from home. Off to bed so I can get up early for spin. See you tomorrow bloggies.

Hidy ho peeps! How goes it in your part of the world?

For those of you just joining here, the Vegan Mofo III is to celebrate World Vegetarian Month and you can read more about it here. Each blog post I write for the month of October will have this banner (and so too will plenty of other Vegan and Vegan friendly blogs out there in the blogosphere)

I was up late last night for no exciting reason, so I slept in but made it out to hit the mall again with one of the crew to show him the sports store I scoped out on the weekend. But not before I could make myself a GREEN SMOOTHIE.

Cabbage, zucchini, cucumber, a lemon, 3 apples, 2 kiwis, 1 banana and a knob of ginger oooh and the spirulina. I drank some before I left and took a To Go mug in case I got snacky on my venture to the mall.

I was keen to pick up a Heart Rate Monitor and my co-pilot some pilates stuff for his wife. I lucked out and according to my dad (who runs a gym back in Oz) I got a SWEET deal.

I don’t know much about how it works etc yet but as I am getting more and more into my training, I am wanting to gauge how my performance is and whether I am under or over working. Should be interesting to see the results!!!

I also got a beginners Yoga set. I already have a mat at home and although I don’t consider myself a complete beginner, I really do need a bit more practice and this kit came with a block and straps so cool

So we are sitting on the bus heading home, and I pull out my super Green Monster, and yeah I got a few strange looks, but I didn’t care. I love it, it tastes good and gives me plenty of energy for my hard session at the gym tonight.

I headed off for a double session at the gym again – don’t you just love the afterglow following a workout? An hour of Body Pump tonight and 50 minutes of RPM/Spin directly afterwards. Yeah I was a mess but still felt so good to walk home in the light rain feeling fitter and stronger. I am getting addicted to this feeling! And the feeling of my jeans starting to fall off me

After a shower (of course) I headed down to the lounge for 1 of these

and decided after my hard work out a margarita and Mexican was in order AGAIN:

Margarita minus the salt thanks!

I just have a thing for Mexican….and had some news today that we have to leave sooner than we thought so now I am trying to cram so much in before we leave.

Dinner was at a different Mexican restaurant to last week and this time I had another tortilla basket with pumpkin, beans, mushrooms and marinated tofu, sorry you cannot it see it that great but it tasted good and had plenty of greens.

It was extra spicy and delicious but I still think I have to back to the other one before I leave to have their avocado salad…am sooo drooling for it.

We tried this delicious Tequila which came in a champagne glass as it is not for downing very quickly. I only had a tiny sip, but it really tasted good. Not cheap though we soon found out when we were washing the dishes after getting the bill

Question time: one of my old work colleagues and friends from my banking days years ago sent me this question today.

Hope this helps! Time for sleep. I have a big (fun) day planned tomorrow but very busy.

See you tomorrow

But I didn’t end up using it!! More on that later.

Hey hey how did you start your morning today? This is how I started mine! I finally worked up the courage to use the juicer in the hotel restaurant and all they had was carrot and pineapple???? I just stuck to a plain carrot juice, some green tea and some hot water with lemon. I also indulged in some sauteed mushies and some wholegrain toast.

This evening I had a double class of Spin then Body Pump and amazingly I had still energy to burn so when I got back to the hotel I did a 35 min jog on the treadmill. Must have been that RAWsome lunch I had.

See you tomorrow

PS I just watched a TV movie Year of the Dog, has anyone else seen it? Brad Pitt actually directed or produced it. Was quite cool in a quirky kinda way, but quite ironic that it had a Vegan Theme.

Hiya everyone sorry for my absence these last couple of days, lots to report as per usual

I woke up starving this morning for the first time in forever!!! Gotta be a good thing right? Must be my furnace called my metabolism starting to fire up for some serious fat loss

Thank goodness I had some green apple sauce left over from yesterday in my fridge so I didn’t even need to worry about firing up the VitaMix to get some love into my body. Yeah it hit the spot.

Most of my readers are already pretty well versed on the benefits of a raw or vegan diet, however through facebook, I came across this video yesterday on how one guy overcame serious illness by adopting a 100% raw diet, which I just had to share with you all. Pretty inspiring, especially for those readers who still aren’t convinced.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful as I am running out of fresh produce so I nibbled on leftovers and I had a pretty easy day as I feel after all my working out my body REALLY needed it. I am looking forward to my second REAL weekend and have some quite exciting plans in place for what is in store – I’ll fill you in later It’s nice to have a weekend where it doesn’t begin on a Thursday and end on a Friday like back home. Woo hoo!!!

See you tomorrow MOFO’s

Happy World Vegetarian Day peeps!

Today’s smoothie was a cracker! I think the difference in this one compared to those before it was I had put an ingredient in it I usually only reserve for almond milk creations and boy what a difference. As I am not usually a sweet tooth (my problem foods are usually salty, crunchy and carby!) I really didn’t think it would make that much of a difference. So wanna know the secret ingredient? DATES. I threw 4 of them in at the last minute….oooh yeah baby, tasted like a green apple sauce:

I had 4 of these! The last of the baby spinach, 2 bananas, 2 green apples, a chunk of cucumber, 2 kiwis, 1 lemon, a tablespoon of spirulina and yeah 4 dates. Bring it on.

After being inspired by my contact with Anna from here, regarding substitutions for soy milk (I suggested she tried almond milk) I had decided to attempt to make some in my room. And it worked. But I didn’t have time to do anything with it before I headed off for my double header work out planned for the gym. Yep, body pump followed by RPM (spin). So I put the milk in the fridge for some later creation.

The leftover pulp I put in the fridge (who knows what I will do with it as I don’t have my dehydrator with me to make some raw cookies, so watch this space whilst I get the creative juices flowing)

Such a lovely day – on my walk to the gym.

Body pump was really tough today. It has been 3 days since my last pump class, and I would have thought I’d had recovered OK by now, but the class concentrated today on lower body (which is where I ultimately need the most fat loss – but also where I am in the most pain from the last class). So I pushed myself as much as I could, and got my heart rate up, but a few times I had to reduce my weight (even on my bicep and chest work out too!). As I had missed my work out yesterday, I elected to do a 50min RPM/spin class immediately following the 45 min pump class and am glad I did. Compared to Tuesday’s class, I pushed myself alot more and really got my heart rate up. It was a good class of intervals, sprints and hill climbs.

On my way back to the hotel I ran into one of my crew who suggested he was going to a Mexican restaurant for dinner….how could I say no!!!! Mexican is ONLY my favourite food in the entire world. And I was hungry as ever from my work out. But what could I eat?

Easy:

Vegetarian Taco Salad with beans minus sour cream and cheese. Extra spicy. And I didn’t eat the tostada shell. Would you believe I could only eat half of the salad? In the good ole days I would just keep eating and eating even if I felt I was going to bust…not this time. It was yum, but too big. Sorry for the poor lighting, my iPhone lacks a flash. Note the margarita to the right

Was a really cool bar/cafe with apparently 30 varieties of tequila. Er not for me. My extra hard workout had rendered me useless after a hearty dinner and enjoyable cocktail, time for sleeps.

See you tomorrow

As it has all has been happening with this trip I totally forgot to share with you the fabulous dinner that I got to taste at Voracious’ house the night before I flew out last week!

She had attempted to invite me over plenty of times before but with my odd work schedule obviously it made it difficult until the night before my departure for a month. With Natasha offering to cook me anything I wanted, I requested her mac & cheese that Cody, her partner raves about. I was excited to check out this raw food staple, called nutritional yeast which is in alot of recipes but I had yet to source it (or try it).

Man was I in for a treat. Not only was I getting to try the mac and cheese but also her tofu omlette that she sweared would taste like the real thing. Tasha did advise however that she normally wouldn’t serve the two dishes together, however with my big trip starting the following day, she had to send me off on my way with at least two of her delicacies to ensure I came back

I didn’t have a great camera with me, however this is the mac and cheese in the pot…YUMMO. She promises to share this recipe at a later date. Come on Tasha, don’t hold out on us!!

No piccies of the omelette, but YES it did taste like an omelette. I try to not eat any soy products but maybe now and then I will allow it just to have an omelette. Who knows. Here is Natasha’s post on it.

Then dessert was this:

Pumpkin Spice Muffins!!! Not all of them of course but I had at least one!!! These were so moist and tasty!! Thanks so much Voracious Natasha. You are one talented LADY!!!

It was such a lovely evening, and another friend of mine, who is a sushi chef (and used to be a personal chef in California – what a gig!!) came along to sample some vegan deliciousness. We all parted feeling uber inspired off one another. Next time we will have to take some more pics!

Also I forgot to tell ya that Monday at the hairdressers, I pulled out the remainder of my green smoothie out of my gym bag as I was getting peckish and I have totally forgotten how strange it must look as it is just apart of my daily life now. But my lovely but very curious hairdresser asked me very politely “um, can I ask, what ARE you drinking?” And she also commented on my little lunch box of almond butter with banana and apples too. She was curious in a positive way though. I am happy to share my crazy eating habits. Isn’t it nice not to conform? Too funny. Has anyone else had any other kind of strange reaction to their unique eating style?

Yesterday I started the day with a hot water and lemon and half an hour later had my usual green smoothie:

This one had 1/4 cabbage, 1 lemon, 2 green apples, 2 kiwi & a tablespoon of spirulina and water.

I really felt like something savoury and snacky and I found these at the supermarket. So had a couple plain. They were nice and crunchy!

Then I took off for my RPM/Spin class. This is WHAT I have been missing. Seriously. I like to be active, but sometimes I just need a little helping hand. And that is what group exercise does. Not only do you have 20 something others alongside you pushing themselves to their limits, but if you have a good instructor, they will push you too and also correct you in places that you need to avoid injury. And have a good instructor I did yesterday. She even remembered most people’s names in class which helps you to not be slack as she called out to each of us at any given point to ramp up our effort. As much as I loved the 50 min class I did feel I didn’t push myself enough so I headed to the treadmill shortly after for a 30 min run. The instructor did tell me though as it was my first time back in a few months that it is a good gauge for me to push myself a little harder at my next class which of course I WILL! Plus my legs are STILL so sore from my Body Pump class the day before. Such great calorie burners.

After class I went on a bit of explore around the city as the weather was the nicest it has been since I got here, and came across a wholefoods store!!!

I must have looked like the Cheshire cat as I scoured through all the shelves and came up with quite some treats. I did manage to buy some salted brewer’s yeast which I was told is the same as nutritional yeast however any research I have done online says contrary to this. Does anyone else know any more about this?

This was my little stash I came away with, but rest assured I’ll be back there again before I leave:

The assistant also gave me some lovely vegan and vegan friendly restaurants to try out and I came across one of them on my walk home. They were close to closing time, however I still hadn’t eaten my lunch so I popped into the cafe and and grabbed this for take out:

Green bean salad (with ginger yum) and some kind of veggie bake

This was amazing! I just love how my taste buds have dramatically changed to absolutely adore this kind of food.

For dinner I decided to make Kristen’s Garden Guacamole which she posted a few days ago. She has been living out of an apartment similar to me living out of a hotel (only she has a kitchen and I have to wash my dishes in the bathtub!) This is my latest FAVOURITE staple so expect me to eat this quite a bit from now on. I just loved the colours.

I plated the guac on mixed leaves of rocket (arugula) and baby spinach.

I headed out in the evening with some new friends to a wine bar and although I only had two red wines, when I came home I was hanging for something with some heaviness. Step in the crackers…and the left over guac. Gone are the days of calorie laden kebabs and hot chips, I really wanted the guac!!!

I had the last 3 crackers in the pack. And washed it down with a green tea before crawling into bed.

This morning I woke up with the heaviest legs (body pump!) and although I had planned to do another BP today, I just couldn’t get out of bed as my pillows and stack of books seemed more inviting so decided a rest day was on the cards and a smoothie to sip on:

This one was the last of the cabbage, handful of baby spinach, 1 red apple, 2 kiwis and 2 bananas and some spirulina to give it that yummy green colour.

I finished off my day with a mixed green salad of baby spinach, rocket, bean shoots, alfalfa and wait for it….Kristen’s Tuscan Sundried Tomato Pesto as I made here. As I don’t have a processor with me, I used the Vitamix which was adequate, not as smooth as the processor would make but it hit the spot!!! You rock Kristen!!!! And so does hotel room dining hehe.

Anyway, sorry guys for such a heavy post, but I’ll leave you on this note.

Tomorrow is the beginning of International Vegetarian Month and in honour of it I will be participating in Vegan Mofo III (you can read more about it here). Basically the rules are, all participants need to post every week day for the month of Oct and include this banner on each post.

Well this should be fun!

I hope you enjoy!