VITAMIN TALK

Today I’m letting you in on what’s on the shelf in my bathroom cabinet, and talking vitamins and supplements; what I take and why I take them.

As well as eating a pretty balanced diet, and trying to get in as many vitamins and essential micronutrients as I can through food, it can sometimes be a struggle to get in the right levels of what my body needs. I’ve been taking some extra supplements for quite a while now, to help with some specific things in my lifestyle i.e. fatigue and tiredness, to see if these have any effect.

So with that in mind, I’m bringing you a very quick run down of the vitamins I’m currently taking - if I think they’re actually doing anything, if I’ll continue taking them or switch things up.

Perfectil Hair, Skin and Nails

These are like little magical tablets of beauty. I started taking them everyday about a year ago and I’ve noticed such an improvement in everything they claim to help, but particularly my skin. My friend Katie said my skin was looking very healthy and glowy a couple of weeks ago (on what I thought was a bad skin day!) so that was a great boost and nod to the tablets actually doing something. Taking this and eating lots of things like almonds (for that vitamin E fix) have been really helping keeping my hair, skin and nails looking good. A keeper!

Vitamin B12

A relative newbie to my supplement cabinet, I added a separate vitamin B12 tablet into the mix to mainly help with fatigue. I get tired very easily and I’ve noticed a huge improvement from taking these – ain’t so snoozy all the time anymore! And because of this, my overall productivity has been massively up, which is excellent in my books. Two thumbs up.

Cod Liver and Evening Primrose Oil

I’ve taken a combination cod liver/evening primrose oil capsule for years now. For me, it’s a great way to get those omega 3 fatty acids in for bone strength and overall health. Mega winner. However, I might do a month without to see what impact this has or just start taking a pure cod liver oil tablet rather than a mix. Just, y'know, to mix things up. 

Holland and Barrett Radiance Multi Vitamins and Minerals with Iron*

A new addition to the mix are the Holland and Barrett Radiance Multi Vitamins. These little guys pack every vitamin and mineral imaginable, with added iron to help with fatigue etc. I’ve been taking these for around a month now and the improvement in my complexion for one has been pretty damn good – paired with the Perfectil Hair, Skin and Nails tablet, this seems to be a dream combo! I've also felt more sprightly on the whole and had bags of energy. Well done H&B multi vits!

What’s in your vitamin cabinet? Let me know what you take as part of your health and wellbeing plan and anything you would recommend. 

Talking Body Composition and What the Hell are Macros?

We’re a couple of weeks into 2016 now and I’m also a week into trying a new way of eating and tracking my exercise to make sure I can shift this last little pesky bit of body fat that seems to be hanging around. What a drag.

It all started a couple of Saturdays ago when I was weighed for the first time since Christmas. This is a scary enough thing in itself but this particular weigh-in was also a chance for me to see my full body composition broken down in black and white. Fat %, Visceral Fat %, water % - the LOT. Now, post-Christmas cheese-fest, even just getting weighed in the normal sense is frightening, so to see everything broken down was a bit daunting. 

Luckily since the last time I had this done mid-2015, my overall weight was slightly up but this was due to an increase in lean muscle mass (woo!) and my overall body fat % had decreased (excellent). These kind of stats are a great opportunity for you to assess where you’re at now so you can start planning your exercise and meals if you have a particular goal in mind (which I do - HIYA getting married in SIX months) or if you want to just know more about your weight and body in general.

Women’s fat % is always going to be higher which is just a fact of life - mine is probably a little too high at the moment, so I’ve set myself a goal of shedding 3% over the next few months which is totally achievable, there’s just some hard graft involved. Cue those HIIT workouts.

One thing these particular stats already tell you is your BMR (Basel Metabolic Rate).

In very basic terms, BMR is how many calories you’d need a day to maintain your weight if were to do zero exercise.

Now to get totally geeky, BMR is also something super crucial to help work out a macronutrient plan - a tailored nutritional plan comprising of how much protein, fat and carbs you need a day, depending on how active you are, and this kind of nutrition tracking can help you achieve a certain goal.

I am still very much a beginner of learning the way of the macros but if you want to read some more about what they mean and why tracking your macros might be a good way to help you reach a certain weight etc, I've popped some links below to pages that have all the info you need, and which make the whole protein/fat/carbs ratio - which can be frankly, a bit mind-boggling- a total breeze to understand. 

A Beginner’s Guide to Counting Macros

Michael Kory Fitness Guide to Macros (don’t be put off by the word Bodybuilding in the title!)

Is tracking macros something you’ve ever considered or done? If so, what was your experience like - did you find it easy or hard to do depending on your lifestyle?

Chocolate Coated Nut Butter Stuffed Dates

Just read that blog post title. WHAT a title. When I saw this recipe pop up in my Twitter feed from Laura over at Wholeheartedly Healthy, I was like YEP - that’s for me. No hesitation. Click. Read. Make. Eat. Done. Amazing.

Loaded with nut butter and covered in 85% dark chocolate, these are a perfect sweet treat for over the festive period (or anytime of year in fact). They are a little less virtuous than the raw chocolate recipe I posted last week, but still, more nutritionally dense than a handful of Celebrations or Milk Tray (although these are great at Christmas too).

Laura uses peanut butter in her recipe, however, as the ol’ peanut and my body don’t mix very well (damn allergy kid tendencies), I used MyProtein smooth almond butter instead.

All I can think to describe these as, are like chewy natural caramels with a smooth chocolate shell. Laura’s trick, and one that I followed, was to freeze the dates stuffed with almond butter first before dipping in chocolate. This makes the chocolate extra crunchy, so you get loads of different textures going on. I’ve been storing mine in the freezer so they’re like toffees but having nearly broken a tooth last night on one, into the fridge it is! 

So, fancy giving these a whirl?

The Weekday Face | Beauty

When doing my maquillage this morning, I realised I've pretty much been wearing the same weekday make-up for, well, a good few weeks now.

I work in an office environment, so make-up with staying power is key for me, so I can laugh in the face of the dreaded air-con. It's also super easy to remove - I'm training a lot after work at the moment, whether it's at the gym or training for the Sheffield Half Marathon, and this whole face can be removed in a few quick swipes with some trusty old micellar water before I workout. Bonus.

So, here we go. Here's what's been winning in the everyday make-up dept.

Almond Butter Fudge

Can we all just take a moment and read the blog post title again.

Yes that's right.

Almond.
Butter.
Fudge.

Holy mother.

Whilst flicking through the new Deliciously Ella book, this recipe, for blindingly obvious reasons, caught my eye and it wasn't even a question as to whether I would make it or not.

Ridiculously simple, gluten and refined sugar-free, and with items you probably have in your store cupboard already, if you're of the healthy living persuasion. If not, most of these bits you can pick up in the supermarket, or H&B.

Here we go. Prepare for a taste sensation.