Happy 2011!

Happy New Year guys. I'm using the New Year to wake myself up and get back on the health wagon. It's been a tough 6 months being out of work and being out of a routine means my health, fitness etc has gone a bit awol.

I have a 2nd interview tomorrow and I'm really hoping it will give me a fresh start. It's a lot less money than I've been on but being out of work since July means we've had nothing coming in apart from Phil's salary and some from the Cupcake business. Plus I want a less stressful job, get out of the corporate world that took over my life so i can still continue to focus on the business. The great things about this job are: 1. It's the type of job you can leave at work, my previous ones have pretty taken over my life so this is a great plus. 2. It's literally a 3 minute drive (or half hour walk) before i was driving about 3.5 hours a day. 3. The people seem friendly and my friend Kirsty works there and if i get the job and pass 6 month probation we get £1000 to share!

Ok so my New Years Resolutions:

1. Do more yoga- loving kundalini

2. Exercise at least 3 times a week for 30 minutes minimum

3. Choose healthier options for food

4. Find more inspiring blogs to follow

5. Continue to push the cupcake business and the china hire business

6. Start getting back on track financially when I have a job. Going to take a while but make a plan and do as much as we can.

7. Blog more, the fact the last 6 months I've been a bit meh means blogging has gone down, I love doing it and helps me keep on track so this is a big focus. Also my Jessica's Cupcakes Blog to drive more business.

8. Do more things with Phil- money being a major issue we haven't done a lot this year. So making more of an effort to get out and look at cheaper things to do together. Spending more quality time together rather than sat in front of the TV.

I've decided to do a new Inspiration board over this week. I enjoyed doing one last year but I want some fresh focus. The Fitnessita has just done a great post on Inspiration boards. Check it out.

Right I'm going to finish my Cherry choc smoothie and start on the inspiration board and get a session in on the cross trainer. It's been a long while so i don't know what to expect!

Jess xx

Heatwave!

We are having some HOT weather here at the moment. Not complaining!

Hope everyone has had a good weekend. Mine went a little like this....

Friday me and my sister were going to go for a nice dim sum lunch together...my tyre blew on the way so we were stranded at the side of the road for 2.5 hours in the baking heat waiting for the RAC man! I have some weird tan/sunburn lines! Was not fun!

My car :-(

Friday night me and Phil spent most of the night watching Sky news on Rauol Moat. For those of you who don't know he was Britain's most wanted man last week and after a week long man hunt it ended with a stand off between him and the police. He then shot himself early hours Saturday morning. I know not a fun filled weekend yet!

Saturday we had a little lie in then took my car to get a new tyre. We then went into town and had lunch. I chose Cromer crab cakes with salad a new potatoes. Delish! I got a few little treats for myself, some new summery nail polishes and a nice electric blue eyeliner.

Crab cakes

I also got some Kallo chocolate rice thins. Really yummy and only 51 kcals and soothes that choco craving!!!

Saturday night we met up with some friends for drinks and then got in about 1am.

This morning I made me and Phil a bacon and potato frittata for breakie. Yum!

We then mooched around the supermarket for a couple of things for us to put on the BBQ.

I made some lemon and poppyseed muffins for Phil to take to work. And kept a couple by for us- really yummy.

So for lunch and dinner we had a nice BBQ feast!

Lunch: Spicy chicken and veg kebabs and salad.

Dinner: Mackerel (I did a paprika and garlic rub to go on it), sweetcorn, courgettes (with a spice rub of chilli flakes, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and pepper) and some sautéed potatoes. A good feast!

Now I'm going to plan some meals for next week, do some kundalini yoga, then a bath with a hair and face pack and read my book. Bliss!

Yesterday I made some goals/targets for July/August for me:

• Lose 7lbs (by 2/8/10)
• Do yoga 3 times per week
• Exercise 3 times per week
• Drink 2 litres of water per day
• Eat 3 portions of fruit and veg per day ( I know you should have 5 but working it up)
• Eat 2 portions of fish per week

Question for today: What are your diet/fitness goals?

Hi di hi campers, not long until the weekend now! I'm looking forward to spending some time with Phil as the last few weekends we have spent with family/friends. Nice to get some alone time. Also need to sort a load of stuff out for car boot and to get rid of. Especially as we will have to move soon so want to get things sorted.

At weight watchers this week I lost 0.5lbs. Not too bad but I really want to be losing 2lbs per week so need to step it up. Good news is yesterday I started my workouts again! It's been a month that i've not exercised for because of me recovering from my op but I think i'm back to full swing now! So yesterday started with a 30 min on the cross trainer. This morning woke up and did 20 mins Kundalini yoga. I got Maya Fiennes "Yoga for Real Life" and her DVD "Detox and de-stress" Loving them loads!

After yoga I had a breakfast of a 2 egg and 1 white omlette with ham and a coffee.

My sister came round so I could teach her some basic excel and we just chilled out a bit. Then lunch was a courgette and veg soup I made- really yum. With some wholemeal bread and a yoghurt.

Snack wise I've had a banana and a weight watchers cranberry and orange cereal bar.

Dinner was a special egg rice made with brown rice. Like egg fried rice but a healthier version!

Here is a strawberries and cream cupcake recipe that's a bit lower on the kcals and fat then the normal ones I sell!! Per cake 194 kcals and 5.1g fat.

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 2 medium free range egg
• 150g fructose sugar
• 200g peeled and grated courgette
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g rice flour
• 100g ground almonds
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 100g low cal jam

For the icing

• 150g fructose sugar
• 2 tbsp crushed strawberries
• ¼ tsp crème tartar
• 1 egg white
• Pinch of salt
• Fresh strawberries to top

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. Whisk up the eggs and fructose sugar in a large mixing bowl until pale and fluffy. Whisk the grated courgette and the vanilla extract into the egg mixture until well incorporated. Finally, whisk in the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, lemon zest and salt until everything is combined.

3. Using a large spoon, ladle a couple of generous spoonfuls of the mixture into the bottom of each paper case. Add a teaspoon of jam, then cover that with a small spoonful of mixture, in order to seal in the jam.

4. Place in the oven for 20 minutes until risen and blonde on top. Once the cupcakes are cooked, cool them in a tin for 10 minutes. Cool the completely in the fridge for a further 20 minutes, as they need to be cold before icing.

For the meringue icing:

1. Place all the ingredients in a big mixing bowl over a pan of boiling water. Stir with a clean metal spoon for 2 minutes exactly to dissolve the sugar.

2. When the mixture is warm and the 2 minutes are up, remove the bowl from the heat and beat with a whisk. Whisk for 9 minutes until cool. The mixture is ready to use when it’s standing up like snow-covered Swiss peaks.

3. If piping the icing, simply fill your piping bag in the usual way. Be sure to ice the cakes very quickly, as the icing will start to set and alter its flexibility as it sits.