Weekly food shop - June 30th

I am a person who loves watching grocery store hauls on YouTube, and as someone who is trying to loose weight I thought it might be helpful to share what I get from the supermarket to see me through the week.

I plan all my meals on Saturday/Sunday and either go to my local Tesco or order online. I have to have a strict list to stick to and I often write down the dates of what I need the products to last until on my shopping list, although if I shop online I have no control over the dates, although the expiration dates in store are normally pretty shit anyway. 

This week my food shopping is from Ocado. I'm a huge Ocado fan. Their customer service is great, the van drivers are always lovely, the dates are pretty good, they often send vouchers by email and the food is great quality. 

Ocado stock food from Waitrose as well as their own brand stuff, and they claim their own brand is as cheap as Tesco. Anyway, here is what I got this week:

If we start off with the fruit and veg, first up we have a cauliflower. Cauliflowers are a staple for me and I get one most weeks either to make cauliflower mash with or cauliflower pizza, it's a very versatile vegetable.

Baby spinach is another product I get most weeks. I use it as my base for salads and as a side for any meals when I want to bulk it out a bit.

Spring onions aren't something I normally get, but I plan to make my own chicken quesadilla in the week. Any leftovers will make a nice addition to wraps or salads I make for my lunch.

Tomatoes are another thing that I don't normally get, but for lunch this week I plan to have some wraps with tomato, mozzarella and basil, yum! Once again any leftovers just get chucked in wraps or salads.

Strawberries are in season at the moment and they where on offer so I thought I would treat myself to some. I like them as a dessert, a mid afternoon snack with a tiny bit of stevia, or to throw on some greek yoghurt with honey for a breakfast treat.

Moving on to the dairy type products, and egg whites, because I wasn't quite sure where else to place them....

I got a few Danio yoghurts. I love these yoghurts, they are very thick and creamy yoghurt with a layer of fruit, 0% fat, high in protein and delicious.  They are only 3 weight watchers points and I will normally have these for breakfast or a snack. The flavours I got are cherry, passion fruit and strawberry, be warned, the other flavours aren't 0% fat and 4 weight watchers points. They also have a bit of added sugar, which doesn't make them totally clean, but what ya going to do.

As well as the fruit yoghurts, I also got some Greek yoghurt. I always go for the Fage 0% fat variety. Greek yoghurt is another very versatile product, I use it in a lot of wraps, to make dressings and making fruity desserts or breakfasts.

Two little chicks is always in my fridge. It is liquid egg whites. I use egg whites for all sorts of things, from making protein pancakes to vegetable frittatas. The yolk contains most the fat and calories so egg whites are a good alternative when you are dieting.

As I mention before, I plan on having tomato, mozzarella and basil wraps, so obviously I need to get some mozzarella, I opt for the light type, to me it's the same flavour/texture, just less calories.

If you ever look at my Instagram daily food pictures, you will see I pretty much always have a Babybel in my lunch box. I love them as a snack, high in protein, under 80kcal, calcium and all that jazz, and only 2 weight watchers points! I opted for the original and cheddar. Cheddar is my favourite because it has a stronger flavour.

I also got some vanilla almond milk. This is a product I can only find at Ocado so I always pick one up when I order from them. The vanilla variety makes protein pancakes and chia seed pudding extra delicious. Ocado also do chocolate almond milk too!

Frozen fruit is my current obsession. It is frozen as soon as it's picked so it's at it's peak of freshness, which is also when it is most full of its nutrients, and in my opinion, it is tastier.

Waitrose is the only place I have seen that does single fruit bags, most places will do summer berries or black forest fruits, which I'm not so fond of.

The frozen fruit is on offer, 2 for £4 which I think is a great deal considering the size of the bag and a punnet of raspberries is roughly £2 at the moment for a small amount that will only last 2 days.

I just pop some in a tupperware box and take with me to work, by the time I go to eat them after lunch they are defrosted.

Frozen blueberries are also great to chuck into muffin batter and protein pancakes!

I eat a fair bit of chicken. I always go for free range skinless breasts, free range may be a bit more expensive, but I already feel guilty enough for eating meat and I don't want the added guilt of having made a chickens life extra shit.

This is actually my first time trying Quorn mince. I have a dish I like to make, srirchia beef mince and cauliflower mash (expect a recipe soon because it is one of my favourite meals) but I've decided to give Quorn mince a go to see how it tastes because it is lower in fat and calories but still high in protein. It looks pretty delicious so I can't wait to try it.

Lastly we have the cupboard items.

Peppermint tea is the only tea I drink. It soothes my stomach and I feel like it helps with my digestive system and bloating. Tea Pigs has a very strong peppermint flavour and is delicious, no other brand will do for me now. I always go for the 50 tea bag box, I drink it every day and it's better value for money.

Whole meal tortillas, pretty self explanatory, I specifically like these ones because they are 109kcal, a lot of wraps can be a lot more, and they are 3 weight waters points, the same amount as the weight watchers branded ones!

Another new to me product is the Bear Yo Yo's. I think these are actually just for kids but they are fruit rolls with very few ingredients, count as one of your 5 a day and will make for a delicious low calorie snack! I got pineapple, strawberry and mango to try, another product that was on offer!

So there you have it, a typical weekly shop for me. I hope some of you found this interesting, let me know if you would like to see any more of these and if you like this sort of thing you should definitely follow me on instagram because I'm always posting food diaries, @cocolikegnomes.

Oh So Chocolate

Like many people, I quite enjoy a bit of chocolate, but as we all know chocolate isn’t exactly the best thing to eat whilst on a diet, so when I came across these Oh So chocolate bars I was very happy.

Oh So chocolate bars are Belgium dark chocolate that only have 72 calories per bar and contain around a billion Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium bacteria (the stuff found in those good bacteria yoghurt drinks,) so not only does it taste good, but it’s good for you too, well, that's what I like to tell myself...

I’m not normally a fan of dark chocolate, but I quite enjoy this one. It is only 53% cocoa, so quite a good introduction to dark chocolate, and the taste actually reminds me of the Marks and Spencers chocolate, not bitter at all. They also do a chocolate orange variety, but I haven’t tried that one yet.

I think the only downside to these bars is that they are pretty tiny, although where they have a stronger chocolate taste I find they satisy cravings quickly and I don’t need as much. They are also on the pricey side at £3.99 for a pack of seven, plus they are only online so you are going to pay at least £1 for p&p too.

Overall though, I really like these bars. I think they have some great health benefits, they fit into my diet easily as they are only 2 weight watchers points and they satisfy my chocolate cravings. It's also encouraged to give dark chocolate more of a go now! Oh So chocolate bars are available from their website and are also available to purchase through amazon. 

Yurbuds Review

Yurbuds are ear buds designed specifically for the athletic market and with their unique twist lock method, they claim to ‘never fall out’ which is a pretty bold statement to make.
I have quite large ears (thanks dad) so find that most headphones fall out on me even if I am just sitting, so trying to find a pair of headphones for running was a nightmare, I used to have to use overhead ones for working out which are horrible and make you sweat, until I got myself a pair of Yurbuds!

I went for the pink (obviously) Inspire for Women model. They also do the inspire range for men, as well as some behind the ear models, but I find them quite uncomfortable.

I have been using my pair for about a month now and thought I should share with you what I think because I have been so impressed.
So do they never fall out? Well yes and no. On my right ear it works amazingly well, but I will admit on my left ear it does fall out. This is down to the fact that I have a rook piercing which when I run moves around and knocks out the ear bud, very annoying. If I take my piercing out though it works fine, I just thought it would be worthwhile to share that with you in case you have any piercings too. On my right ear I have a tragus piercing and it isn’t irritated at all by the ear bud.

The sound, to my unprofessional ears, is of great quality, and yurbuds have been designed so that you can still hear environmental noises around you. This is great for me and any other runner who runs outside to still be able to hear any traffic, or as I run in the forest, if my dog is trying to call for me.

The headphones are also sweat and water resistant, another huge plus for anyone who is using them to work out. They are definitely a lot more comfortable then any other ear buds I have tried and I really like my yurbuds. If you are a very active person you should definitely check these out, best of all, they come in a great variety of colours too.

Holland and Barrett Haul

I think it's no secret that since getting back from Florida I have been on bit of a clean eating/lifestyle kick, so where does one go to get all the bits and bobs they need? Holland and Barrett of course! Here is what I picked up.

If we start off with the Slim Pasta and Zero Noodles because they are very similar products. They are noodles and pasta that are made from vegetable fibre meaning they have 0 carbs, 0 fat, 0 protein but a fair bit of fibre and they are only 7 calories a portion, making them a great pasta substitute for when your dieting (which I am).

I also got some milled flax seed. Flax seed has loads of lovely health benefits, lots of good fats, fibre and they also have a nice amount of protein. The main reason I got these though was for my weekend protein pancakes!

Last but not least we have nakd bars. Nakd bars are raw and vegan, with very few ingredients and no added sugars, so great for anyone on a clean diet. I actually ordered Pecan Pie, Cashew Cookie, Banana Bread and Berry Delight, but the Berry Delight and Cashew Cookie where left out of my order. The Holland and Barrett customer care team where really good, they didn't have any Berry Delight left, so they asked me which variety I would like to replace it with, I went for Pecan Pie and they actually sent 2 Pecan Pies and 2 Cashew Cookie as an apology.

None of the nakd bars are actually left because I may have eaten them all.....

That is everything I got, and I now have a Holland and Barrett loyalty card, which could get dangerous! 

Apps I like - RunKeeper

I have started running once a week and after trying and not enjoying couch to 5k I decided to give myself a bit more freedom with my runs, but I still wanted to track them. This is where RunKeeper

app has come in, and I absolutely love it.

RunKeeper is an app that you use to track and record your runs.
It tracks your runs by using GPS to see how far you have run and it even includes the elevations that you have run, which I think is fantastic!

On the main display when you are running you can see how far you have run, the total time you have run, and your current speed. I really enjoy seeing these stats as it encourages me to go a bit further/faster each time, and the on screen time counter is very useful for when I do interval training.

As well as being able to track your run, RunKeeper allows you to play your music through it, which if you are running, is most likely something you will want!

There is a number of set programmes for if you do like structure. These programmes range from beginners level, running your first 5k, to advanced levels like running a full marathon or getting a better time on your 5k.

As well as having RunKeeper on your phone, you can also access your RunKeeper account from your computer, meaning you can access your running information anywhere.

There is also a social aspect as you can add friends to see how they are doing and comment on their activity to keep everyone motivated.

RunKeeper also emails you if you get a personal best, something that I always feel quite proud of when I receive them!

The best thing about RunKeeper though, is that it is free! Honestly I have been so impressed with this app and have found it really useful for seeing my progress and helping me to learn to run (sounds stupid I know but we don’t all start off running for 30 minutes straight!). 
If you are a runner, or are considering taking it up then this is most definitely an app you should have on your phone.

Florida Series - Health and Fitness Haul

As you know if you read my blog, I have been trying hard to loose weight recently, and we all know what goes hand in hand with eating healthily right? Yep, you have it, exercise!
When I work out I am normally just in a pair of ratty leggings and a boyfriends old t shirt that makes me look like a sack of potatoes, but after watching a load of Cassey Ho’s Blogilates videos, I decided to get myself some cute work out clothes so I can look good. My theory if I have cute workout clothes it will help motivate me to want to work out more. 
Here are some of the things I picked up.

I got these cute leggings from Pink by Victoria Secret. The pink pair remind me of something out of Grease and are full length, the lilac pair come to just below the knee for when it finally gets a bit warmer in the UK.

It may be TMI to show you pictures of the sports bras I picked up, but I thought I would show them anyway to remind everyone if you are working out you need to appropriate support, no one wants to be saggy before their time!

Both of these bras are also from Pink. I picked up the mint green one because I am obsessed with mint and coral at the moment, and I also got the grey one because I love the contrast of the neon piping, and the lace detail on the back is so cute!

I have also been obsessed with pole dancing since starting my course a couple of months ago. My beginners course has since ended and I have done a couple of private lessons to keep me going until I start my level 2 course next week. 

One of the things you quickly learn is that short shorts are a necessity, you need the exposed flesh to help grip the pole, so I picked up a few cute pairs to wear to the lessons. These will also be great for working out in in the summer, only in the privacy of my bedroom though!

Keeping hydrated is very important, so I picked up this cute pineapple water bottle, once again from Pink. It holds a litre of water so it’s great for when I am working out.

I also picked up the Stitch cup to take to work because all we have is tiny glasses that need to be refilled constantly. My Stitch cup is a pint so it’s a lot easier for me to monitor my water intake level, plus I love Stitch.

I also got a couple of tops to work out into, as nice as my new bras are I don’t think I want to be working out in just them! 

They are nice and light and airy to try and keep me cool when I’m extremely hot and sweaty.

And last but not least, we have probably my favourite purchase of all which is my Nike Flex trainers.

I got these in the Nike outlet, so they were heavily discounted. I love that they are so bright and girly, they are also very light with breathable material making them perfect for when I go out running with the dog. Now all I need is to find a matching lead for my dog....

Second Month on Weight Watchers!

Seeing as I shared my first month on Weight Watchers on my blog, I thought it would be good to turn it into a monthly thing so I can share my weight loss journey with you and some tips and tricks I have picked up.

So February was a bit harder for me to stick to, there was a lot of restaurant visits for birthdays and social outings, and although you get a weekly amount of pro points on Weight Watchers, using them still results in a loss, but obviously not as big of a loss as you would normally get.

I am still finding it quite easy to follow Weight Watchers, and I think there has only been a couple of days when I've thought, stick the diet I want to stuff my face, although I stayed strong!

This month I have lost:

Weight Loss - 4 pounds

Loss on Bust - None (yay, I love curves and was worried about loosing mine)

Loss on Waist - 1.5 inches

Loss on Hips - 1 inch

Loss on Legs - None (boo!)

Loss on Arms - 0.25 inches

Overall I have lost 10.5 pounds and I couldn't be happier. 

It is definitely a slow process, but it's working and I think it will be easier to keep the weight off.

Now here is my Weight Watchers tip for the month.

Alcohol is bad.

Now I'm not saying cut alcohol out completely, I certainly haven't, but I have definitely cut back, in fact I have only had drinks at 3 occasions since New Years.

The reason I have avoided it is not only because it is high in points, and I hate wasting my points on drinks (apart from my weekend treat skinny latte's!), but it also makes you do stupid things.

I went to a bar with friends, had a great night and saved lots of points for a few cocktails, but as the drink started to hit and I got a bit drunk I completely forgot about my limits, ended up drinking way past what I had told myself I would, spent loads of money buying rounds, ended up drunk in McDonalds and with a killer hangover that could only be cured by a bacon sandwich, so not only was my diet a disaster that day, I was also pretty poor that week.

I also went to a dinner party, and although I didn't drink as much, I still had enough to get me tipsy enough to eat more then I should've. 

I have been to a restaurant though and successfully stuck to my two glasses of wine that I set myself and had the meal I had planned. Restaurants are a good place to drink in my opinion because the alcohol is expensive so you don't want to buy too much, and where you are eating you pace yourself with the drinking.

The moral of these stories is, once I get tipsy the diet goes out the window. Two glasses is my limit, but I find it hard to stick to that so I have cut down on the drinking. 

The less you drink, the more you can eat, the less you spend on cocktails and the less likely you are to do stupid things, win all round! 

Fitness & Wellbeing Haul

As you may know, I have been doing weight watchers in a attempt to loose some weight and clean up my diet.

As well as improving my diet, I also want to improve other aspects of my life, including my fitness and well being. Having nice work out clothes always encourages me to work out even more and being in a good state of mind motivates me to work out too!

Here are the bits I got for my 'healthy mind, healthy body' attempt:

First up we have 3 pairs of shorts and a yoga mat.

One of the pairs of shorts is actually my mums as I've managed to talk her into going to a pole fitness class with me, which should be interesting....

I also picked up a yoga mat (pink of course) because I have wanted one for ages and now I am doing the 30 day shred, the abs section makes my lower back slightly sore because we have hard wood floors and this helps soften the ground, I have definitely noticed I can do the ab exercises better now I have the mat.

I also picked up a couple of sports bras because my current ones have seen better days.

Sports bras are essential if you don't want a saggy chest!

I'm not one to go for black, white or nude, I'm normally a pink girl so I thought green and red would make a nice change, and I'm not going to lie, I do love a bit of Amy Childs!

I got the two sports bras, 3 pairs of shorts, 3 tennis balls (not shown, for my dog Phoebe) and a yoga mat all for £50 from Sports Direct. Quite pleased with that bargain considering sports bras alone are normally £20! Oh, and the yoga mat was only £6!

And now for the well being part of this haul, because as you know, healthy mind healthy body!

I had to repurchase my Diptyque Ambre candle.

It may be £40, but for me it is definitely £40 well spent. 

I had a terrible day at work on Thursday and needed some retail therapy and this fit the bill perfectly. I light this candle, have a shower, then come back to my room which has been filled with this gorgeous scent, then I sit and knit and let the fragrance uplift and relax me. It really is therapeutic and I have not found anything that affects my mood this much.

I also repurchased my Nuxe Reve de Miel.

I was uhmming and ahhing over whether to repurchase this lip balm after finishing my last pot, but after a few days on the blistex my mind was made up and I had to get my Nuxe back.

It just leaves my lips feeling really hydrated and I wake up with nice healthy looking lips, and I don't feel the need to reapply my lip balm as often.

The last item of my haul is The Full Monty.

Bit of a weird one, but there is nothing like a great film to put you in a good mood and help you unwind.

This DVD was actually a surprise from my mum. We have been watching a lot of Once Upon a Time, and we both really like Robert Carlisle in it. I didn't particularly know who he was but my mum mentioned he was most famous for 'that stripper film' by which she meant The Full Monty.

After she learned that I had never actually seen it she made me search Sky Movies and Netflix, but it wasn't on either.

The DVD was a complete surprise and I can't wait to watch it. I am saving it as a reward for after I do my pole fitness class as I can imagine that will kill me!

So there we have it, my fitness and well being haul. 

What would you recommend for a healthy mind and healthy body?