It's a Green House

In this post I talked about our recent trip around Europe and there are some restaurant tips for the cities we visited. I also have some general tips on how to have a nice holiday, and not live off of chips: Plan ahead. I researched each city we were visiting and saved web pages as PDF's in my phone (in case we didn't have wifi access) with details of vegan friendly places. Sites like Happy Cow and TripAdvisor list vegetarian and vegan restaurants. Or just a google search will find you plenty of sites.  You can also download areas of google maps to use offline to take with you, and can search for addresses in it as usual so this can come in handy with finding restaurants from the PDF's. If you can't plan ahead that much, i.e. if you don't know where you will be staying, don't wait until you are hungry to try to find somewhere to eat. We tend to keep an eye out while walking around sightseeing in the day for places to go for dinner, look at menus outside ...

I recently started the "Mins Game" or Minimalist Challenge, the idea is that you get rid of one thing on day one, two things on day two and so on increasing by 1 item every day until a month has passed...by the end you will get rid of over 400 items! Week 3 was still quite easy, I keep wondering when I am going to start to struggle! At the time of writing this I'm into week 4 and it's still easy to find all my items every day. I thought once I got into 20+ items a day it would start to get hard, but not even started places like under the bed yet and that will last me at least a few days! I had a free pass until day 18 as we had so many CD's and DVD's to go from the week before, so I used the time to sell some stuff on ebay (our Wii and Wii fit board for £65, nice!) and get rid of some of the things that had gone into the 'holding zone of crap to get rid of' a.k.a the dining table.  Day 18 through 21 were actually all pretty small stuff, more disc...

I went on my first few trips this year since I went vegan, and I didn't end up just eating chips! The first were short breaks to London and Dublin. There was plenty of choice and being English speaking places I could ask for what I needed, and I knew the chain restaurants I could go to if I had to. Then the big one, we drove around Europe for 2 weeks. Hm, that's a lot of different languages, cities, countries and cuisines. Didn't pick an easy one to start with! There is always chips, and I knew I could just go and buy some fruit etc if I really struggled, but it would be nice not to have to. As it turns out the only time I had to just have a plate of chips was in a random service station in the middle of nowhere in Germany so I think I did quite well. Anyone visiting Brugge, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Switzerland or Luxembourg...here's what I found! Click on restaurant names for links to their websites. We stayed in most places 2 ni...

I recently started the "Mins Game" or Minimalist Challenge, the idea is that you get rid of one thing on day one, two things on day two and so on increasing by 1 item every day until a month has passed...by the end you will get rid of over 400 items! You can read how week 1 went here , week 2 was actually pretty much a breeze! I started to actually delve into drawers and shelves and the clutter to get rid of was plentiful. I have been posting pictures on instagram , if you feel the need to see pictures, but this week I got rid of: What seemed like about 50 glasses cases (I get a new one each time I get new glasses and never use them!) Cleaning products I have bought, used once, did not get on with and for some reason have kept. Pet things that we/they don't use/eat/play with CD's and DVD's galore! I actually had enough CD's and DVD's to take me into week 3, I post dated the days (on day 11 I counted and I had enough to go up to day 18!) and st...

I recently started the "Mins Game" or Minimalist Challenge, the idea is that you get rid of one thing on day one, two things on day two and so on until a month has passed...by the end you will get rid of over 400 items! I started it with the aim that I would get as far I could but probably wouldn't make it for the full 30 days. I am now thinking I'll make it at least past 20 days, maybe even to the end! It's helpful to break it down day by day and it makes it seem like so much less work, this week I've gotten rid of 28 items already and I hardly even noticed doing it! 10 minutes a day after work at most so far, this will get more time consuming as it goes on I imagine but if you have too much stuff (who doesn't) I would recommend giving it a go even only for a week or two. If you follow me on Instagram you can see some pictures of all my rubbish (if you really want to) but here's how it's been going... Week one actually took 2 weeks as after d...

I have been doing Crossfit about a year now, I get a lot of interest in real life about why I started it and what it is. It's often seen as an extreme or hard option, or something that only super fit people do. As with a lot of things though it's not as scary as you think! I always share the free taster sessions on my Facebook page and get comments like 'Oh no I could never do that' or 'I'm not fit enough' or 'that's too hard'. Here's why you should give it a chance though guys: 'I don't even know what half of it is! Let alone know how to do it!' This was me after looking up the first WOD (workout of the day) I went to before I left home (It involved squat cleans and I had never touched a barbell), I googled what I didn't know and was a bit apprehensive when I saw the results. Just ask the coach, they won't just say "right today we are doing this" and leave you to get on with it. If you are unsure or s...

After my first festival season as a vegan, I thought I'd share my tips. Most of these translate to vegetarian or other diets too. Tips for eating vegan at festivals: Prepare - If you have a food allergy or restricted diet you are likely used to taking food places with you anyway. I plan to take at least - granola/cereal bars, instant porridge pots (just ask vendors for hot water if you aren't taking a camping stove and kettle, sometimes it's free too although sometimes they charge), a few bananas and oranges, a couple of packs of sweets and some uht portions of soy milk (I got mine off ebay) for cups of tea. If you are not taking food then at any festival (even smaller ones) there are always going to be chips, jacket potatoes, some form of potato wedges/waffle/hash brown, some falafel type wrap and if you're lucky a veggie burger that's vegan. Also look out for mexican food as often that can be altered by asking for no cheese and sour cream. If you're going...

I touched briefly on my fitness build up and initial goals back  here .  This post is a more in depth training guidance for anyone planning to climb Kilimanjaro.  Obviously you may have a different fitness level than I did and you should take into account any health conditions or injuries etc. before taking on such a challenge – so this plan assumes you are reasonably healthy with no injuries, and you haven’t done anything like this before. Basically my thoughts on the challenge are that you do not need to be running ultra-marathons or be mega fit to make the summit, but the fitter you are the better time you will have and you need to be in good shape.  Having had time to think about my training and what I did right and what I could have done more of it’s good to write it all down, hopefully it will help someone! The top things I did to train were: Walking In the year or more leading up to the trek you should go on at least a few challenging hikes (at leas...

Honestly who gets up at that time to exercise? Apparently me... In my post here on having a break over Christmas I talked about being back to crossfit more in the new year, and also about finding a better schedule and going more when I could use the car. So the first week back to work in January I tried out going in the morning before work. Sounds a bit counter-intuitive to get up earlier so that I get more rest, I reasoned that if I went to the 6am class I could be home in time for Tom to take the car to leave for work, and enough time for me to then shower and get to work.Then my day goes on as usual but I've already done a solid hour of exercise. Now I can't say I ever thought I would want to go to the gym in the morning, I love my sleep, I love my bed, and I hate getting up early for work as it is. I never thought I would be volunteering to get up earlier! So how did it go? First the obvious drawbacks, I won't lie getting up at 5:20am when it is dark and -5 out...

I talk about my fitness on here, but those of you who don't know me in real life (or some who only know me as myself now) will not know my fitness back story. I feel like some context might help you to understand some of my future posts on  training ... Over the past 2 years I have practically transformed my lifestyle, body and mindset on fitness. I feel like I want to share how and why this happened…this makes for a long rambling post so please stick with me,  I've  broken it up into a few different parts to try to make it more easy to read.   Back story and reasons to get fit Back story on my fitness is pretty short. I was unfit. I was never a ‘sporty’ person, and didn’t feel at home in the gym or on the running track. I have always been slim (ish) but never really done any regular exercise. However I gave up smoking a few years back and I’m also not getting any younger, so the weight crept up on me a bit. All of a sudden I couldn’t fit into my jeans, and I...

The 2 weeks before Christmas I did no exercise. None at all. Some of it I was ill so didn't worry about not exercising but once I was better I felt like I should get straight back on the metaphorical horse. Problem was I didn't want to. For someone who has been doing something (running, climbing, gym or crossfit) at least 2 or 3 (or 7) days a week for the last 2 years this was a bit scary. I realised though that I just needed a break, I decided on being back stronger and more often in the new year, and called it a day until after Christmas. This was hard for me to do though! I felt burnt out, tired, I'd been ill with tonsillitis or a virus, I was feeling pressurised to get everything done before Christmas....and yet I still felt guilty for not going to crossfit for 2 weeks. Sound familiar to anyone? I'm an all or nothing kind of person, I don't half ass things so I find it hard to give myself a break sometimes. Looking back though I've been full on t...

Following my post here on unexpected benefits of going vegan, I started thinking about the things that people told me would happen and didn't. Those things you hear all the time as a vegetarian or vegan, like protein, B12 blah blah blah. You'll never get enough protein Nobody ever cares about how much protein you are getting until they learn you are vegan. I get plenty of protein in my diet, and can supplement it if I need to. Protein is in so many more things than meat and dairy anyway. Food will be really boring/Doesn't vegan food just consist of lettuce? There are thousands of plants, spices, carbs and pulses we can eat. Why does cutting out meat and dairy mean that I will not have any variety? My diet the last couple of months has been more varied and interesting in some ways. In other ways I can still eat everything I could before, like pizza, burgers, pasta, cakes, biscuits, sandwiches, chilli, roast dinner etc etc etc. I could never go vegan/vegan food is...