Thighs of Thunder #3 - Yummy Treat (92 Cals)

Hey ladies, hope you're all enjoying the bank holiday.

I've just had a lovely lunch for my Dad's 65th birthday. He chose Nandos. I think he went once about ten years ago and decided it needed a revisit. Not that I minded, that mushroom and halloumi pitta ( I'm a veggie :)) is THE dog's. If only I could have had carrot cake... Sigh.

Having just finished week 7 of the Biggest Loser Online Club, and being 1st 3lb's down, I'm starting to crave a cheeky treat here and there. Not to carrot cake level quite yet, but I've been lusting. So when I was munching on my brekkie the other day, cereal I'd robbed off my brother - shhhh, I had an idea. Pauses for gasps of shock. I came up with the simplest recipe ever to get the 'yum factor' and some additional health benefits. Even for those of you not trying to lose weight, having a few beneficial ingredients in your snacks is a good thing. You can just eat two, right? ;)

This isn't a 'healthy snack', just to warn you. And (needless to say) I'm not a nutritionist. All I'm saying is it doesn't have a scale tipping quantity of calories and it's also got extra protein and fibre as a bonus :)

'Shhhhomebody Choc Me' (Little refernce from The Mask). 92 Calories per cake case.

The three ingredients in these are:

Crunchy peanut butter, Fruit 'n (not 'and' Fibre and some chocolate ;)

The recipe:

1. Melt 25g of chocolate (Dairy Milk if you know what's best, if you prefer Galaxy I'm ashamed, but go ahead ;)). I do it in the microwave on a low heat. If you aren't a pro at this you can do it in a glass bowl over simmering water on the hob. I say this because berfore I was a pro, I did infact melt chocolate and a plastic pot in to our Uni microwave. It did NOT smell good.

2. Add one teaspoon of crunchy peanut butter.

3. Add 25g of Fruit 'n Fibre to the mixture and crush it in with your spoon.
4. Spread mixture evenly in to 3 cake cases (you can double the recipe if you want to make 6 etc. etc.)
5. Lick the spoon and bowl clean (optional).
6. Allow to cool and then place in fridge to set.

And there you have it, a tastey 92 calorie treat. Or if you eat all three it's 276 calories... Don't blame yourself ;) If you're thinking 'Liv you're meant to be eating healthy, why are you making these?' - bore off ;) Haha, no. Basically, I thought as a veggie extra protein is always a win (peanut butter), fibre's good for everyone and chocolate tastes like heaven in my mouth.

Do you like recipe posts? Have they got your tastebuds tingling? Let me know if you make some! They've got a slight Snickers feel about them. If you aren't watching what you eat, add more peanut butter. I bet that tastes good! Ha.

Until next time,

Livvy xo

Thighs of Thunder #2 - Motivation

Hey ladies, hope you're all ship shape.

I'm already off the schedule I made about a week ago. Mostly because organisation and me don't see eye to eye, but also because I know posts are really boring without pictures... But I can't think what would go with this sort of post. So, I'll be brief.
I'm having the biggest struggle motivating myself to exercise this week. Or to be more specific, I've only exercised once (half-arsedly) this week. Not good. It's just so boring! So I thought I'd do my top 5 pointers for exercise motivation - if only to give myself a kick up the bum:

1. Set realistic goals - Last week I was trying to do too much and this week I feel flat as a pancake because of it. If you can barely walk 3 days after, you've probably overdone it..
2. Be organised - Yup. My favourite word re-occuring again. However much I'm not organised, I know how necessary it is. My plan of action, which I got from the 'toneitupcom' ladies on Youtube, is to set my alarm half an hour early each day and exercise then. That way you can't put it off and you've still got the whole day, because I've also found myself resenting how much time it's taking up.
3. Reverse-chubby-chase -This is just for those actually trying to lose weight. Put up an A4 picture of yourself at your biggest where you exercise (tight clothing/massive pants, the less flattering the better), if that's at home, if not put it on your bedroom door (facing in the bedroom, you don't want your family/flatmates thinking you're fully off your rocker). This way you can pretend you're running/jogging/tap dancing away from your tubby self, whilst actually toning-up a new self :)
4. Don't beat yourself up - If you can't exercise one day, don't panic. Your body needs a day's rest each week, that's when it can re-cover and burn the fat (or something like that). Plus the world isn't going to stop if you have a 'really can't be arsed day'. Just make sure you don't also have a 'going to eat the contents of the fridge' day then too ;) And, if you don't think you can do your usual amount of exercise, do half. Some is better than none.
5. Have something to work towards - Whether it's a bikini body (never in my lifetime, unfortunately) or even just a pair of trousers you can't squeeze your money-maker in to (ding), have something you're looking to achieve. Personally, I'm going on holiday with my gang of ferociously attractive friends in the summer and I don't want to get thrown in the see by a mistaken whale trainer. I'm joking. Ish. Point 4 ;)

What are your motivation tips? Or do you have a clothes/summer goal?
Fell free to comment, it makes me happy :)

Livvy xx


*I'm not a qualified trainer or nutritionist or anything, these are all just my opinions and experiences.

Thighs of Thunder - 1. Going Out to Eat.

Hey gang, hope you're all good.

First off let me just apologise for the most hideous crime, there won't be any pictures in this blog post. Mostly because I've only just thought about what to write about. Sorry.

I just got back from having lunch with my Dad, one of THREE meals I've arranged to have out this week. When you're trying to shift some exccess timber off your tree trunks, that many meals out can be stressful. Firstly because there's so much temptation but also because it's hard to know what's in the food - which makes calorie counting a nightmare.

We had lunch in Pizza Express and they have 'Leggera' pizza's on their menu, which they claim are all 500 calories or less. Perfect if you need a specific number and an ideal amount of calories for a main meal. I don't want to keep babbling on about calories, but for the purpose of eating out they're quite useful. A lot of larger restaurant chains now have a healthy option meal, where they indicate how many calories are in it. I know Prezzo do this and I noticed at Frankie and Benny's they have some lower calorie deserts. Although my local Frankie+Benny's is notorious for having sod all of what's actually on the menu, so you might want to have them check if your pudding is available while you're eating your main.

Salads of course are the obvious option. However be careful if you are adding a side to your meal. For example fries are a big no, and even something like garlic bread is usually drenched in the delicious saturated fat known as butter. Also, the sauces on salad's are like little hidden fat pouches in your food. I try to go for something like a balsamic dressing which is usually the lightest option, and have it on the side so it's not swimming around in it.

If you're not trying to shift the pounds, but rather trying to be healthy, just make a few simple changes. Maybe have a water instead of a coke, or don't have a starter if you're having a pudding. To drag it back to the calories, they do all add up. There's like 100 calories in one of those little glass bottles of coke. It's a pretty horrendous way to pack in energy as you'll get a sugar low and crave more sugar afterwards, plus you're effectively using food allowance for a drink. Pretty pointless.

These are just a couple of tips I've been noticing/living by recently. I've said it before I'm not a professional, these are just my opinions and experiences.

What healthy tips do you have for eating out? Let me know in the comments below :)

Livvy xo

Face of Thunder and Thighs of Thunder.

The most 90's greeting just crossed my mind and I have the greatest urge to type 'Waaaazzuuuuup?'
Okay. Out my system.

Right so if anyone has read my previous posts, you'll have seen my indecision over what sort of blog I want this to be, and whether I want to blog at all.

The answer to the latter is, yes I do. I just needed a direction. So I've come up with a plan to do regular posts about my two greatest life consumers. 'Face of Thunder', the beauty and make-up obsession I am still fully in the grips of and 'Thighs of Thunder', my desperado attempt to lose weight/be healthy.

The plan of action is to do FoT posts on Saturdays and Wednesdays, because I have a WHOLE crap heap of tales to tell and products to review. That also includes FOTD's, hair tips, possibly a tiny bit of curvy girl (and I use the term curvy sparingly, lol) fashion. That should be fun because my friends and family just don't appreciate why anyone would need 50 nail polishes. Then on Sundays and Thursdays I'll still be posting from this blog, but they'll just have 'Thighs of Thunder' in the title to show it's a diet/health/exercise post. On Sundays I'll do a weekly update and on Thursday a variety of whinging/exercise tips/diet tips/whinging and sweat based whinging. ;)

What do you think? Do you like the idea of beauty and diet/health posts? I'm an expert in neither but a tryer of both ;) So hopefully I'll be able to give person opinions, rather than informed ones. :)

It's Tuesday today so I'll catch up with you tomorrow for a beauty chinwag.

Livvy xo