LIFESTYLE, PARENTING
In my plight for a lithe wedding body, I’ve been hitting the fitness and nutrition hard this year. I signed up with a personal trainer and I completely changed my approach to nutrition. Now, I mainly eat a low carb diet and include protein with every meal. But it’s really easy to get bored with lightly steamed veg and white fish. There’s only so much tasteless mush you can shovel in your mouth before the novelty wears off! So I have to get pretty creative in the kitchen.
IT’S FINALLY SUMMER! Yay to wearing summer dresses, sandals and my jazzy new Zara blue jacket. Oh wait, haha, I forgot. We live in the UK. In the North. Summer so far has consisted of periods of sweaty warmth or freezing rain. Mostly in the same day. What is that all about? Nevertheless, I still managed to have a pretty jam packed June. Wedding prep is ramping up and what’s wedding prep without some last minute stresses? But, onto the fun stuff.
Pink Lady Apples are one of my favourite pieces of fruit – I eat them EVERY DAY. So when they got in touch to ask if I wanted to do a post with them then it was a no brainer! There are tonnes of delicious recipes you can make with apples – one of my absolute favourites being apple crumble. But I wanted to use them for something a bit different than dessert. I decided to make some healthy treats to eat after training or pick at during the day. So I decided to make apple and cinnamon protein bars and apple crisps. Both using Pink Lady Apples of course!
You might have heard people shouting about Jesmond Dene House in Jesmond, a student hot spot just outside of Newcastle city centre. It’s a stunning luxury boutique hotel housed in a fairytale Arts and Crafts building that is set in the beautiful surroundings and greenery of the dene. It’s quite rightly a popular and impressive place to eat and rest your head. What you may not of heard of, however, is its sister hotel, St Mary’s Inn, which is a pub and B&B on the site of the old St Mary’s Hospital, just outside of Morpeth. I must admit, I hadn’t heard of it either, so was more than keen to pay a visit when I was invited to check out their afternoon tea a couple of weeks ago.
Straight after our wedding, Andrew and I are heading off into the wilds of South Africa on our honeymoon. I must admit, there’s been so much going on with the wedding that our amazing trip of a lifetime has felt a little bit overshadowed of late. But having just paid off the balance this week (RIP credit card), I’ve been reminded what we’ve got to do to prepare. Oh you know, just make sure we don’t get malaria, buy some appropriate clothing (turns out it might not be that warm in August – WHO KNEW?!) and completely upgrade our tech game. No biggy then, right? We’ve got a tonne of stuff on our wishlist, but here’s what we’ve narrowed it down to.
The Kingslodge Inn Durham is the city’s newest pub and my lovely fiancé and I were lucky enough to be invited to try a three course meal there last week. Despite already living south of the river, we don’t often venture down to Durham for food or drinks, mainly because that usually means someone has to drive and doesn’t get to drink! We could get the bus, but I hate being at the whim of public transport so Andrew took one for the team and drove us down the A1. What did we find when we got there?
Happy Father’s Day to my Dad and all the other Dads out there! Including my brother, who will very soon be a Dad for the first time. Not everyone is lucky enough to still have their Dad or be close to their Dad but I am. Even though we may wind each other up sometimes, I love him a lot and wanted to share what I’ve learnt from him over the years.
I have always had a little bit of strawberry blonde in my hair. From being a chubby cheeked, orange-haired child to a 29 year old with dark, reddish blonde hair, the ginger is undeniable. But I’ve been through many years of making it every other colour under the sun. From brown in sixth form to bleach blonde at uni, it is only recently I have embraced my hair au naturel. And after sixth months of not dying my hair at all, I decided to brighten it up for summer and for our wedding day. Thanks to my wonderful hair dresser at April Egan Low Fell, I now have a gorgeous, copper coloured head with darker red low lights and blonde highlights. I am so in love with it. So much so I’m terrified of it fading. So what do I do to keep it looking salon fresh?
I previously wrote a post about what I eat in a low carb day, which was basically a whole load of protein and lots of greens. Since then, I’ve hit my target weight and I’m now on more of a maintenance plan, so I’ve been able to be a little bit more adventurous with my food. I have not reverted back to the way I ate last year and I’m certainly not spending my weeks chowing down on takeaways but I’ve added a few more healthy treats into my menu repertoire. This turkey stir fry recipe has been a lifesaver of mine when I’ve just been SICK of soggy steamed cabbage. It’s healthy but it tastes delicious!
Ahh Snapchat – social media of the moment, where you can see everyone from Kim Kardashian to Jeremy Corbyn flash their assets. I personally am a little bit obsessed with it. But every obsession has its dark side, and so does Snapchat. For every dog filter there is a face swap of nightmares. So check out what I love and hate about Snapchat – do you agree?