Fight for Sight

2 years ago we found out my little cousin inherited a terrible disease known as ‘Stargardts Disease’ which is essentially a degenerative disease of the eye leading to loss of most-all central vision.

Since her diagnosis her strength of character has been nothing short of amazing, she continues to excel at school, enjoys an array of sports and hobbies including tennis, swimming, dancing and on our family ski trip at the beginning of this year she left me for dust, stopping only to yell behind to me “hurry up Laura, it’s easy…just follow me!”  She has the most vibrant personality and never fails to have us all in fits of laughter.

 

Cutie!!

As you can imagine finding out about her loss of sight has been heartbreaking for everyone involved, most of all her parents.  There’s some really promising research going on at the moment and there is a stem cell trial running at the moment which we all have our fingers crossed will lead to a new treatment approach.  With this in mind my Uncle (who himself had a pacemaker fitted last year) has decided to run his 1st marathon, raising money for the research going on at the moment.  So far he’s managed to raise almost £18,000…amazing…

http://www.justgiving.com/Markroberts747

here is the link to his fund raising page…all donations no matter how small will be greatly appreciated.

http://www.facebook.com/fightforsightuk?ref=ts&fref=ts

this is also a link to more information about sight disorders.

This morning I headed to the gym for a Bodycombat class.  To be honest I was a little disappointed, the instructor started by telling us how he was “tired and couldn’t really be bothered”…enough said!! I found the class really hard to follow as he didn’t really give many instructions…I still managed to work up a good sweat though which made me happy!

Lunch today was very odd!! James and me a really trying to stick to a food budget (pretty challenging for 2 total foodies!!) so the combination I scraped together from our kitch cupboards was perhaps a little strange but surprisingly tasty!!

 

…a mixed lentil dahl (found on offer in Sainsburys) with half a can of tuna!!  Not the most obvious of choices but filled a hole…for a short while anyway!!

I’m off to get my head back in the books now!

L x

Weekend Recap…

Happy Monday everyone!!

I thought I’d start the week off with a few pictures I managed to snap and a little summary of my weekend.  I had Saturday off work this week which was nice.  Although I did get in a great workout…I felt like the day was a bit of a flop, I started with great intentions including plans of getting some (lots) of house work done as well finishing 2 of the assignments I’m part way through.

I didn’t manage to achieve any of these things though :(, spending the morning watching Saturday morning cooking shows (until 11.30am!!) going to my boxing class at 12pm then running some errands at the retail park, I ended up spending a good few hours browsing the shops and by the time I got home I was feeling pretty tired.  Somehow I managed to spend the rest of the day catching up on ‘Call the Midwife’…so all in all I didn’t really do anything productive and felt pretty fed up, annoyed with myself and guilty by bedtime!!

Sunday was slightly better, with a SUPER sweaty Step class early morning followed by work at Starbucks.  I still didn’t manage to get any housework or studying done but at least I earned some money!!

Tomorrow however…is a brand new day! and a chance to get those things done (I hope!)

I did manage to have some lovely eats over the weekend…and take pictures (!!)…

Breakfast on Saturday and Sunday (yes it was that good!) – super creamy vanilla, cinamon, egg whipped oats with toasted pumpkin seeds and homemade peanut flax butter…yummy and really helped me power through both of my workouts.

p.s. recipe to follow tomorrow 🙂

Lunch on Sunday…this was one of best sandwiches I’ve had in a long time!! I’m not sure if it was because I was soo hungry after my Step class or it was just a great sandwich! -smoked ham, coleslaw, cheese…toasted – enough said!

Dinner on Saturday night – buckwheat ‘pasta’ with ham, leeks, peas and garlic cream cheese

A super easy dinner for when I finish work late like I did last night – pan seared salmon with crispy greens

I’ve also been dipping into my Nutribox for lots of snacks..I don’t think they’re going to last very long 🙂

Hopefully today I’ll manage check off lots more things on my ‘to do’ list!! I think I might head out this afternoon for a change of scenery in the hope of it encouraging me to focus on my assignments….maybe a nice coffee shop with good wifi!!

Questions; do you have problems focusing on work/studying/assignments if your deadline isn’t in the near future? have you got any techniques to help you focus?

L x

Back to blogging…getting the balance right!

Hi!!

I have been a terrible beginner blogger!!

I had the week off from uni last week and spent it travelling around seeing family and staying with my boyfriend who currently lives a 5hr drive away :(!

It was however, a productive week…I visited the University where I will finish my final year of Nutrition, found a house for us to rent and found a gym I will join when I move next month!….result!

I did all of this though at the expense of my blog….I’m sorry!!!

I have always been a very ‘all or nothing’ type of person; sometimes I’ve found this to be a good thing, usually in the short-term.  I’ve also actually found it more destructive (mostly to myself and my self esteem) in the long run so…I’m currently working towards ‘balance’ in as many areas of my life as possible inc. food, exercise, work, uni, friendships, relationships…and blogging!!

Why am I writing about this?? I feel it only fair to talk about my intentions for this blog so my readers (if there’s anyone out there!) know what to expect and won’t ever feel let down. With ‘balance’ in mind, I don’t intend to take pictures of everything I do/eat/see, or document daily food/exercise logs, nor do I intend to blog more than once a day….I do however, intend to post 3-4 times per week with thoughts, facts, pictures, workouts, musings about my boring/exciting life (however you wish to interpret it!!) I  also am hoping to include some product reviews (exciting!!) :D.

SO…I apologise for my inconsistency and lack of posting this last week, and I intend to become much more reliable and balanced!!!

Moving on!!!

I will leave you with a few pics I did manage to snap over the week….

A nice dinner of tomato and basil chicken with roasted vegetables

some dog walking…on a very cold, English winter morning (how cute is he!!!)

practising my valentines ‘latte art’!!

discovering a local vintage fair this weekend…

todays lunch…half a ‘pizza express pollo pesto’ pizza with spinach and homemade coleslaw…

….followed by a mug of coffee and half a square of lindt 85% dark chocolate…tasty!

 

I hope you’re having a good Monday!!

See you soon!!

 

Lx

 

Workout Playlists

Just lately I have been loving short but frequent interval workouts, I think this maybe due to a new playlist I created on my iPod which gets me really revved up and has some great beats to follow and get that heart pumping!

Music is a really important part of my life, I find it brings emotions and memories both good and bad and I think that can be very powerful.    For me, music has the ability to motivate, to soothe, to cheer up, make me angry and also to bring back memories,  everytime I hear a song called ‘Stars’ by Simply Red I am immediately transported back to my Mum’s home, on a Sunday morning with the smell of a roast dinner and the sound of both the vacuum cleaner and usually some family bickering!!, and each time I hear that song, it fills me with warmth and happy memories 🙂

Equally if I hear ‘Roxanne’ by The Police, I immediately want to get up and do something!

So here is the most recent playlist I created, that gets my little butt moving when I need a little help to ‘get going’…

Eye of the Tiger –  Survivor (good warm up song)

Roxanne – The Police

The Pretender – Foo Fighters (great for intervals)

One more time – Daft Punk

You can’t stop the beat – Hairspray (!)

Town Called Malice – The Jam (just makes me want to move!)

Move your feet – Junior Senior

Pump it up – Danzel

Show me love – Steve Angelo

Run Free – Rebecca Ferguson (I like for a cool down)

To today…Lunch…I was working this afternoon so I packed a salad for lunch and some nibbles for later on…cleaning a 3 floored cafe is hard work (!!) and can often bring on a snack attack!!

In the mix….

On the bottom was some carrot and celery sticks, a tub of hummus and a couple of oatcakes.

On the top was a tasty salad; I mixed tomatoes, cucumber, beetroot, leaves, avocado and grapefruit for the salad and had quinoa looked with lemon juice and tuna with a mustard and black pepper yogurt ‘mayo’ on the side…fresh, tasty and very colourful!

Question; Do you find music affects your mood? are there any specific songs you associate with memories/events?

L x

Working Weekends…

Hi Guys!

I hope you had a lovely weekend!  Mine was pretty busy, at the moment my weekends almost seem busier than my week days…juggling work, family, friends, my lovely boyfriend…all of them are in different area’s of the country at the moment which can be a little stressful at times!

I didn’t manage to get any workouts in this weekend due to work, uni assignments and travelling to see friends but that’s ok…I am learning to be OK with not working out everyday and finding its actually quite nice to being able to say ‘there’s always tomorrow’ and really meaning it!!

Uni this morning was great, we took our own blood (only tiny finger pricks!!) and tested our blood lipids, cholesterol and glucose…all very interesting stuff!!

This afternoon I went to the gym, thinking I was going to Body Combat…however….when the instructor started the class she informed us she’d decided to change it up a bit and do a ‘cardio tone’ class…to be honest I was a little miffed because that class is timetabled for another day and if I wanted to go to it I would go at that time!…today I wanted Body Combat!  As it turned out it was a damn good workout; a mixture of toning tracks (mostly squats….darn things!!) alternating with interval training cardio tracks, by the end I had worked up a good sweat and was definitely feeling ‘the burn’!!

I have a deadline approaching for some lab reports which I MUST press on with (I seem to be procrastinating an awful lot!!), so for now I will leave you with some eats from the past few days….

Dinner; Minted mushy peas, haddock and butternut squash (needed to use up my fridge leftovers!)

Breakfast; steel cut oats (with an egg whipped in…get that extra protein and staying power in there!!), berries, greek yogurt and toasted chopped almonds  & pumpkin seeds (+ a sneaky drizzle of maple syrup!)

This was really delicious (if I do say so myself!!)

Lunch; big salad of leaves, cucumber, tomato and fresh beetroot drizzled with a Lime, cumin vinegar and a side of hummus with seedy pitta to dip!! Yum!

Question: Do your weekends ever feel more stressful than your normal working weekdays??

Until tomorrow guys…..

Lx