A box of goodies!!

I am so excited again! You know the other day I said that I won an easter egg hunt on the natural balance food website (nak’d and trek bar site)? Well, they arrived today. I have won a lovely bag of Divine chocolate dark chocolate eggs (Fair-trade chocolate- very good) and a box of Organic Dark Chocolate “Cheeky Bunnies”. They look lovely and I will look forward to trying them during the next few days.

I also received a box of samples from Natural Balance Foods (www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk) and will be reviewing the products on here as I make my way through the box. After work we walked to the cinema, but by the time I got home I was very hungry so I took a Trek Cherry Crunch Protein Flapjack with me to eat in the cinema (I know it’s against the rules but I didn’t want popcorn or ice-cream). Ten grams of protein in a very tasty flapjack bar, it has Nak’d cherry raisins in it and had a strong cherry flavour. The bar had 240ish calories so much lower than a “normal” flapjack and way tastier (in my opinion). My boyfriend had the Oat Crunch Trek Flapjack and this also received thumbs up on taste. I always used to think that a flapjack was a healthy option (due to the oats) and it was only a few years ago (when I started reading labels) that I realised just how syrupy and fatty some of them are. A Blackfriars Cherry and Coconut flapjack has 441 cals and 20g fat per 100g. The original one has 457 cals and 21g fat (I chose these are they are similar flavours to the Trek ones, but some of the ones I looked at has 24g per 100g, and the bars are a pretty hefty size), and apparently these have won a Healthy Magazine Readers Choice award (that’s the Holland and Barrett magazine). I imagine that was for flavour possibly and not because it is a healthy option, but the trouble is things like this are marketed as healthy. Anyway I digress…..

After the cinema (The Ghost, which was ok, not keen on all the dodgy voices and not the best ending) I walked home and cooked dinner. I had a lovely homemade veggie lentil moussaka (made a few weeks ago and frozen- how organised!!) with some butternut squash and green beans- yum.

My back was feeling very stiff after aerobics yesterday, so it was nice to not run today. Tomorrow is supposed to be Body Pump but at the moment I can’t seem to book it so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is on as I have missed the last 2 weeks (was away one week and it wasn’t on the next). If not I’ll have a run tomorrow but I do think it is important to do some strength work and I know I would never push myself as hard as a class does.

Gosh that was a long post!

Natural Balance Foods

I am so excited today! Last week I was checking my email and had an email from Natural Balance Foods (http://www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk). I love nak’d bars (especially cocoa loco, apple pie, gluten-free gingerbread and gluten-free cocoa orange) and more recently discovered trek bars; the peanut trek bars are amazing (and great as pre or post run snack)! Plus the website does free delivery- bonus!

 Anyway, I was trying to decide whether to order some more when I noticed they had an easter egg hunt. You had to look on the website for 3 different coloured Easter eggs hidden all around, and after a lot of browsing I found all three. I emailed them with the locations, and found out today that I have won! I am so excited! I do not think I have ever won anything before! I cannot wait to receive my goodies as the food they make is soooooo lovely.

If you have never had one before I urge you to try (on the website they do a little trial pack of all 4 gluten free bars for £3 I think, and you can get them in Boots, Tescos, Sainsburys and Morrisons). They are made of dried fruit, nuts and spices, the non gluten-free ones also have oats, they all have no added sugars or syrups or vegetable oils or anything else weird that is normally in cereal bars. A small bar is 100-160 cals, and a larger one is around 220 cals, so not bad compared to other less filling and less natural cereal bars.

The Trek bars are either bars or flapjacks, and again have much better ingredients than a “normal” shop bought flapjack, around 230 cals per (big 70g ish) bar. I love the peanut trek bars as they have peanut butter in them and are sooo tasty; moist and a bit chewy, filling and also delicious. Yum. If I wasn’t already full I would have one now! I may well take a photo the next time I have one just so you can see too.

I am so excited about winning! I will take a picture once it arrives! Hooray!

A lovely run in the sun

I managed to get out today for a lovely run. Due to various things I missed my midweek run, so the last run was that hard 4 mile slog on Monday. I have worked out the length of all my long runs leading up to my half marathon, and today was 9 miles. After a lovely breakfast (Dorset cereals simply delicious muesli – it is indeed delicious- and half a banana) I planned my route on www.mapometer.co.uk and then headed out the door. The weather was lovely; it was quite breezy which is usually nice as it cools you down, it was also a little bit overcast to begin with but about half way round the sun came out and it was lovely. This time of year is such a nice time to run; there is blossom on the trees, daffodils by the roads, plus I pass a lot of people (walking dogs/ cycling/ walking/ running) and people are always much more friendly when the weather is good. Lots of “hellos” today!
When I got home I had the other half of my banana and a lovely nak’d Apple Pie bar (they are soooooo tasty- full of cinnamon and apple and other good stuff!) plus lots and lots of water!
Later on this afternoon I am going to make a chocolate birthday cake- I will try to remember to take a picture.

Yummy nibbles from Graze

I am looking forward to my Graze box coming this week. I signed up to this a while ago and now have a box every fortnight. I love the range of nuts and dried fruit that they have (check out the website- they do so many yummy mixes- a personal fave of mine is “dark rocky road” which is a mix of pecans, dried cranberries and dark chocolate buttons- heaven!). If I bought the same ingredients on my own I think I would get bored before I ate the whole pack (plus to get the variety I would end up with an overflowing cupboard looking like a shelf from Julian Graves or something!). I often have a pack (or share one) after a run as they make a good snack (in my opinion); the mix of nuts (protein to repair muscles) and dried fruit (sugary carbs to replace the lost energy) make me feel better especially after a long run. The other week I had a punnet called “tropical praline” with dried mango, mini chocolate coated hazelnuts and green raisins (which tasted fairly similar to normal raisins but still very tasty!).

Their customer service is also great; I have emailed them several times and they reply very quickly and always sort any issues out really well. If you want to try it for yourself you can go to www.graze.co.uk and enter code KKJX34J at the checkout and get yourself a free box and your next box half price (and then you can cancel if you don’t want any more).