First thing’s first – I’m writing this on my iPhone – Lord only knows how this will turn out. As you may or may not be aware, I am on “holiday” in the Outer Hebrides aka. The middle of nowhere. The only reason I can even write this is because we had satellite wifi fitted to the house today. That’s right – SPACE INTERNET. 

…this is bad – my thumb is hurting already and bloody hell someone is facettiming me! Are you insane? I’ve got no make up on and I’m in bed! Mad.

Ok, let’s talk about something more interesting. Do you like my title? I doubt the boys will know what I’m on about. You gurls do though (spelled incorrectly on purpose thanks very much). I bloody loved The Little Mermaid when I was little. I used to sit in the bath and sing the “ahhaaahhaaahaaaaa” and pretend to be Ariel. Totes rocked it. Obvs. 

 

 
Anyhoooo – first open water swim(s) this week! “Oh my god it’ll be freezing” etc etc. Well actually it wasn’t too bad. Don’t get me wrong – it wasn’t exactly a nice Mediterranean bath but it was better than expected. 

 

 
Here’s something interesting though. I thought I’d smash the open water swims. Billy big balls wading into the Atlantic. Wasn’t laughing so much when I started swimming though… Heart rate through the roof, anxiety coursing through my veins, short of breath, disorientated… Essentially scared shitless. Did it though! And the next time I did it I was much more relaxed. I even had an underwater laugh at the crab giving it large – look at him! (Seriously this actually happened – TWICE – little badass)

 

 
Moral of the story folks – sometimes we think we’re a Disney mermaid and then reality makes us feel shit. Well I say SCREEEW YOOOUU reality – three open water swims done and I high fived a seal on the way out of the waves today (not true – but I was much better). So when reality says you’re not a mermaid just crack on. Don’t let Mr Crab scare you. Laugh right in his “soon to be seafood cocktail” face and get on with it. We can’t be sitting around moping can we? No we can’t. 

My left hand is losing feeling here. Better sit up. 

FOOD! Oh my days all the food. Here’s a showreel of some food I’ve devoured so far. (I may have left out the images of Coors Light and Doritos… Oh and the 7 hobnobs I ate this afternoon, told mum it was 4, sorry mum, awks because she’ll read this in the morning)

Decent… And a splendid introduction to my main point here: Holiday Food. 
Hands up who likes holidays? Hands up who likes a drink? Hands up who likes eating out? If your hand isn’t up go and delete me from all modes of communication. You are dead to me. 

Tricky tricky tricky. You work hard, you deserve a break. Correctamundo. WARNING. Do not make the mistake I made last summer. Having trained my butt off for 6 months I came up here and ate everything. Like all the carbs. All day. Result? Came home fat. Cue crying and stress and general misery. It’s a tough one holidays. You want to enjoy yourself but you don’t want to undo everything you’ve instilled back home. 

Mother Macpherson and her wisdomness to the rescue (definitely a word – they let anything into the Oxford English Dictionary nowadays eg. Foshizzle – get a grip queenie). So, driving along the other day (I was driving dads Audi – brrrroooommmmm) and I’m talking to Mum about food and fitness etc and she comes out with this:

“The trouble is… People see their eating habits at home as a chore. Something they do because they have to. Then they go on holiday with the mindset they’ll take a break from healthy eating/living”

 Take a bloody bow Maz… She’s hit the nail right on its bonny wee piña colada and free canapés head. This is exactly it.

My name is Cat and I like treats. Hiiiii Cat. Welcome to the club y’all. 

So! How do we enjoy our breaks and come home looking tanned and thexy (sexy with a lisp) instead of burnt and Jabba-esque. Well for the burnt part that’s easy. Holiday in Scotland. Sorted. 

The thexy bodaaaay part. I TRY and do something like this (mother is laughing her head off because she witnessed me eating a Kilimanjaro sized plate of dinner earlier – I WAS HUNGRY AND I AM TRAINING!!!) Ahem, not training for an Ironman? 

• Stay awaaaaay from the buffet. I mean obviously don’t. But seriously, the unlimited pastries are not your friend. Not even on holiday. Get the fruit and yoghurt or scrambled eggs in instead. Trust me you’ll feel better for it by the pool.

  

• Try and do something vaguely active. CLOSE YOUR EYES MUM. Look, if you’re on holiday with a boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife do some early morning fasted cardio. *cough* I’ll leave it there. Alternatively if you’re a member of the singles club (“Hiiii Cat”) then swim for half an hour, go for a walk, do some press ups. Yeah you’re on holiday. It’s 30-40 minutes out of a 9 hour sunbathing-athon. SERIOUSLY.

• Be smart(er) with the booze. If you’re a freak like me and can stand to be sober then great. If not then try and do the gin and slim. You know this already. The piña coladas are seriously going to kick you when you’re down…by the pool.

• Don’t starve yourself. Before, during or after. Do it before you’ll get there and binge. Do it during you’ll have a shit holiday. Do it after you’ll do more harm than good. Trust me. I’ve been there. I’ve got all the shirts. 

Alternatively… Go hell for leather, eat and drink everything, do zero exercise and embrace the extra lbs. if you are a generally fit and healthy person you’ll work them off after a few weeks back at home in your usual routine anyway. 

I drank THREE beers tonight – I think the excitement of getting wifi went to my head. #laaaame. However, fasted 45 minute beach run in the morning – heyyyoohhhhh! Oh what’s that? You’re all melting in 36 degree heat? Not even bothered. 

   
 

Bloody awful this Scotland lark I tell you…

Home time on Friday! Boooo!! 74 days till Ironman Wales. An effing HUGE congrats to my friends Pierre and Jennifer that completed their first 140.6 Full Ironman’s at the weekend. You guys are my heroes.

As always, love hearing from you (unless you’re a crab – then you can piss right off) so shout me and/or share the blog guys. 

Bye from me and my new mates… C xxx

  

Well, wasn’t that a turn up for the books. Tuesday morning (actually I think it was afternoon by the time I was ready to hit publish – what a mong) I’m sitting in my pyjamas writing (ranting) about what it is really like to feel pissed off or upset and still try and stay on track with training and diet. I’m sitting writing and thinking “Cat this is complete crap, no one will read this, you’re not even making sense. Write something coherent about cooking or something you moron”

Lo and behold – you guys loved it! How’dyalikethemapples?! Mint! So, you bunch of legends, after a super strong week on the PMA (positive mental attitude) and amazing words of encouragement I thought I would spend some time writing about stuff you boys might enjoy. Don’t stress yourself girls. In my world girls eat what the boys eat and girls train like the boys train. Unlucky Ken, you’re gonna have to share that T-Bone with Barbie.

Right! My friend Tom! Tom is a “unique” friend. I actually just laughed. I am hyper aware that my mother reads this blog and I therefore can’t describe Tom the way I really would in normal life. As a result let’s say this, Tom is pretty masculine (i.e. disgusting), has a “decent” body and likes to eat “man” food. HOWEVER, Tom also parties, travels, works full time and doesn’t have a PT. Meet Tom…

So, Tom messaged me the other day to give me grief about how HE is the chilli master. Yeah ok Tom, dial down the macho a little please darl, this is MY blog. Sadly, he had a point and actually it’s quite a good one! Remember what I was saying about the whole carbs for training etc? Well – Tom trains – he trains to look good naked. Fair play to him! As a result he largely focuses on meat…aaaand meat…. oh and then he eats some meat. Once he’s done smashing steak for lunch…

He works his ASS off…

Do you know what that black vest thingy is? I’ll tell you. That’s a WEIGHTED vest. In other words he did that workout wearing (I am guessing here) the additional weight of a small child on his back.

MAKE A POINT CAT. Here it is. The title sums it up. There is a real culture amongst men that drinking is “manly” and eating huge meals is “manly” and cardio is for “girls”. Yeah? Well you can take your culture and you can shove it…

I eat huge meals, I do cardio and ok fair enough I don’t drink THAT much anymore but guess what? Tom does all of the above (calm down pet – we know you squat a billion kg’s too). So do a number of “hench” (what a word) guys I know. The girls do too. So, I vote we all stop this peer pressure crap and we start embracing the reality of food and fitness. You want a leaner body? Eat your protein and smash your cardio/weights. You want to enjoy food? That is possible too.

I went out for dinner last night with my sister and Erin (you should all know who Erin is by now). We went to Chicken Shop in Kentish Town. Clue is in the name folks. This place has one thing on the menu. Chicken. Whole/Half/Quarter (obviously we got 1 and a 1/4 between three people – I had nothing to do with this decision – “Maggie I’m staaaaarving, one whole chicken won’t be enough!! Waaaaaaa”). I ate the chicken and the chips and the corn and the coleslaw and the salad and the brownie and the apple pie and when the waiter asked if I wanted ice cream or cream on the brownie I said “both?”. Yeah! That’s right! Lads lads lads…shoot me now. My point being, don’t fall victim to the whole “oh my god you’re on a diet how boring” chat. It’s not true. You can train friggin’ hard and you can eat well (We heart protein with every meal) and you can have a life. (Please note that yesterday I trained for 1.5 hours in the gym and did around an hours walk).

Look! Here is me! Having a life!

Sticking on the subject of honesty and the male species – if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you will have seen the message I received from a friend yesterday (if you haven’t seen it go and add me – Instagram: fuellingthefoodie). I COULD NOT BE PROUDER. This guy is a prime example of the lad culture. Look I’m not knocking it! I admire a man that drinks warm lager from his boat shoe and has a whatsapp group called “sluts” – I really do…. *deadpan face*. And before you boys start messaging me abuse saying I’m hating on the boys – I’m NOT. Anyway, I’m losing momentum again, bloody hell it’s hot in Camden this morning, this laptop is making my legs overheat. So, you guys say you appreciate honesty, well here it is. I forget sometimes what it’s like to not understand about macros (Macros being the fitness jargon for carbohydrates, protein and fat and we like to have a certain balance of them in our day to day diet). I forget that not everyone knows what HIIT/LISS is (High Intensity Interval Training/Low Intensity Steady State). And you know what? It took me a while to get to grips with the whole “having a life but still dropping fat and getting stronger and faster” thing.

Yes it can be scary but you know what? THAT’S OK. Just like having rubbish days is ok. If you don’t understand what something is then find out. I don’t know everything I’ve told you that before, but I do ok and I do ok because I stuck with it. It doesn’t happen over night. You don’t have to turn into a fitness model overnight and only eat steamed broccoli (seriously I cannot spell this word – EVERY TIME – get stuffed spellcheck!) morning, noon and night.

So boys – getting fitter and healthier is for girls and you can only eat salad?

Did I make a point here? I hope so.

TRAIN HARD. HAVE A LIFE. EAT GOOD FOOD. BE REALISTIC.

Now then, I am flying to the middle of nowhere tomorrow (google North Uist) and won’t have internet (cue sweating and general panic). So, if the blog is somewhat “all over the shop” then bear with me because I’m going to get some AWESOME (average) photo/video proof of my training (first open water swim – shark!) and I will also be telling some more home truths. Hopefully. Maybe. Ok definitely.

We will finish with Tom’s recipe… *shaking my head at the utter “ladness” of this*

Much “today is my Friday” love to you all – keep sharing this post on Facebook or send it to your friends. I will truly be forever in your debt.

“Is there anymore chicken left?”

C xxxx

Pulled Pork Chilli

2-2.5kg boneless pork shoulder joint.

3 large onions

2 peppers

5-10 fresh chillies

800g kidney beans (drained)

800g borlotti beans (drained)

1kg chopped tomatoes

30g cumin

20g hot chilli powder

15g smoked paprika

1 bulb crushed garlic

Step 1 – Trim the fat from the pork and cut into 1-2inch cubes. Add to large pot with half of the cumin, chilli powder & paprika and MIX. Then fill the pot with cold water until it almost covers the meat. Cook on 160 degrees for 3 hours.

Step 2 – Wash hands relentlessly and DO NOT touch ***** (Tom you can’t say that it’s disgusting – Cat) or eyes as this will cause you severe pain that will only make you want to touch them more.

Step 3 – On a low heat fry the onions, garlic & chopped chillis until soft. Add the remaining chilli powder, cumin, paprika and fry for a further 3-4 mins.

Step 4 – With a couple of forks shred the pork and admire what you have just produced. Add the new mix of onions etc. Add the roughly chopped peppers, beans and chopped tomatoes and stir together adding about half a pint of water and a teaspoon of salt. Back in the oven on 160 degrees for another 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally.

Step 5 – Taste and admire your work. Let sit for 20 mins

Step 6 – EAT

SERVES 1 (No it doesn’t Tom stop being ridiculous – Love Cat)

This may seem like a hell of a lot of spice (a standard sized pot of cumin or chilli powder from the supermarket is about 45g) so you are looking at using 2/3 or ¾ of one of these depending on the spice/heat you want (only 1/3 for the paprika). Let’s be honest, no one likes a boring dish so spice the hell out of it. Better to be rich than bland!! If you have Umami paste then use half a tube when you are frying the onions. This stuff is insane and acts to add ‘meatiness’ in almost any dish.You are left with about 5kgs of Pulled Pork Chilli here. Serves 1 because who in the hell would want to share the masterpiece you have just created. The beans can be interchanged and let’s face it, the more the merrier; protein and fibre packed.

“Don’t waffle Cat”

“Make a point”

Ok fine. I will make my bloody point. Here it is.

“Not every day is a good day and sometimes days are rubbish and that’s ok”

Bloody hell even THAT rhymes – what is WRONG with me?!

I really am going to try and keep this post to the point. I actually asked a couple of friends this morning “what shall I write about today?”. I don’t want to keep banging on about how high in carbs fruit is…. ahem

Put your torches and pitch forks down, I flaming well LIVE on fruit at the minute, I’m just saying that if you are looking to achieve a “ripped” bod then those medjool dates and giant fruit salads aren’t your best mate – as much as this chicky may try to convince you.

Moving on…

Right – you know those days when you’re nackered or pissed off or upset or stressed or hungover or craving or bored or angry or depressed? Yeah those days. I’d bet all the money I have (approximately 57p – jokes Mum – I don’t need another budgeting talk) that those are the days you “fall off the wagon”. No one screws up their good intentions when it’s sunny and you’re in your new Nike lycra and you’ve had a green juice as a snack. You mess stuff up when it’s 1pm on a Sunday and you’re on your 4th hour of Netflix and you’ve just gone through three rounds of paper scissors stone to determine who will answer the door in their pyjamas to pay the pizza man.

How do we combat this? Well I have a few things that SOMETIMES help. Not always. I am not a freak. People say to me “I could never be as committed as you Cat” – oh please – just last night Erin turned to me whilst kneeling in front of the freezer and asked where the ice cream had gone…. I tell you, mice these days, they won’t let a freezer door stand between them and their Haagen Dazs – *cough cough*

Fuelling the Foodies arsenal of “do not fall off the wagon”

• In the great words of Miss Swift – “shake it off” – I said this to @afloralcrown the other day (follow her on Instagram, she also has a blog). What I mean is, ok your boss is a dick or your boyfriend/girlfriend forgot you were meant to be going for dinner with your parents this weekend (again). There is no point ruining all your hard work and drowning your anger in a bottle of wine. Better yet, use it. I did this towards the end of last year when my ex was sending me round the bend. I would go to the gym, get on the treadmill, put it to max incline and sprint until my lungs felt like they were made of gravel. It works. I felt better (thank you endorphins) and my body got leaner… dumping the prick also worked.
• Feeling lazy and average? Put some music on. I cannot tell you the amount of times I’ve been at work and it’s 5:30pm and the clock has broken and I want to go home but time isn’t moving. Spotify saves my life on a weekly basis. Headphones, playlist, volume up, picture the workout, picture the progress – oooh it’s 6pm! Gym time! (Seriously this works)
• Embrace the little things. I had an epiphany this morning… and yesterday morning actually. Yesterday morning I woke up and the house smelled like coffee, that meant Erin had put the coffee on, hallelujah. Coffee = caffeine = perkiness = smiles = great day of training. Today I woke up and I was tired and in a rubbish frame of mind. My body was sore from my bike accident on Sunday and I just wanted to stay in bed. Then I remembered I had an awesome breakfast in the fridge and I was working from home. I instantly felt better. Food does that for me. When I say embrace the little things I mean really silly things like putting on lovely comfy clothes after your shower after your workout. I love that. I mean buying nice shower gel to take to the swimming pool/gym. I also like that. I mean appreciating that sometimes you have to search pretty hard for something to get you moving but once you do you will never regret it.

And if all else fails?

So, to summarise, oh actually here’s a great example of the sort of person you don’t want to be… A guy I know always gives me a grief for not boozing – “you’re dead boring” bla bla bla. Yeah ok mate, you crack on. Anyway, he was chatting away this morning about how he is going to give up the booze. Oh yeah? I said. Yeah, he’s sick of wasting money and being fat.

So he’s giving up the booze – oh but hang on – he’s got his staff night out on Friday, a wedding the following weekend, a holiday the weekend after that and then something something something… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

There will always be a reason to be negative. I can be DEAD negative, just look at this post, waa waa waa…. But sometimes you have to roll with the punches.

Little things, little smile, little stern talking to… winning at life.

Well done to you guys smashing the gym or trying to make smarter choices with your nutrition… and thanks to everyone so far that has liked, commented, shared, whatsapped, instagrammed, emailed and generally supported fuellingthefoodie.com

I apologise if this wasn’t what you were looking for from me today. I will get my shit together and do a nice post about food and drink and weights tomorrow but I thought it was important for you to know that even though I’ve made progress – I know what it’s like to feel demotivated sometimes.

………..SHOTGUN NOT ANSWERING THE DOOR TO THE PIZZA MAN

C xxxx

I am so hungry…

Considering I ate around 2000 calories before crawling up the stairs this still manages to amaze me. It’s 7:32am and I woke up at 6am after going to bed at… wait for it…. SEVEN THIRTY PM. Ha! Impressive huh? I just slept for 10 hours. Nice. This will be my life for the next couple of months. 7:30pm bedtimes and enormous amounts of food. I’m telling you – if you are my friend you better prepare yourselves for September 18th onwards – I am going to party (lies… I’ll have two beers and ask if we can watch Harry Potter).

I thought we’d look at some more recipes today. Yes? Mainly because it seems half of London were making chilli yesterday and for good reason! Apparently good ol’ chilli con carne is the nation’s 2nd favourite meal! Well, according the Hairy Bikers it is and who wouldn’t believe them? Why do we love chilli? A few good reasons:

1. You can cook a massive pan of it and have it sitting in the fridge all week ready to be heated up for lunch/post work
2. You can make it as lean and healthy as you like. If you go easy on the oil and the beans it’s damn low carb and really high protein
3. It tastes better the longer it sits in the fridge
4. It doesn’t feel like a “healthy” option which means it’s great for serving to friends that may otherwise give you grief if you suggest a “healthy” dinner
5. A monkey could make it – it is literally the easiest recipe out there

Behold – the gastro delights of my “animals are our friends” girl – Phoebe…

And a slightly less vegan version created by the wonderful Erin…

Erin’s version has BEER in it – *choir of angels heavenly music type noise* – how cool is that? Erin is Californian, apparently that means she knows everything there is to know about what is GOOD Mexican food and what is rubbish. Not surprisingly, all UK “Mexican” food is rubbish. If Erin puts beer in here chilli, I’ll damn well copy her. She also has quinoa (KEEN-WAH) in there. See it? Squiggly little white things? That’s bold. I like it. She’s got her carbs AND extra protein.

So chilli, great choice for anyone that works a lot and is just generally busy. You can essentially make it from whatever you like but I generally always use:

• Lean beef mince (I have also done a turkey/pork mince version – lower fat)
• Red peppers (bell peppers for anyone outside the UK)
• Onions
• Tinned tomatoes
• Stock cubes
• Chilli powder (obvs)
• Smoked paprika
• Garlic cloves
• Kidney beans
• Fresh coriander
• Lime Wedges

Other options to add in are:

• Sweetcorn
• BEER (pow)
• Butter beans/chickpeas (sounds weird but works well and means you don’t need rice)
• Chorizo (again slightly messing with the Mexican laws here but whatever)
• Bacon
• Cherry tomatoes
• Dark chocolate (just a square or two at the end)
• Fresh chillis

Now to actually MAKE chilli is probably one of the easiest things in the world.

1. Get a massive pan and put it on the heat with a tablespoon of oil (coconut/vegetable/groundnut – doesn’t matter)
2. Chop all your veg and chuck the onions and a couple of crushed garlic cloves in the oil
3. Chuck in the mince and mash it up with a potato masher if you like smoother style chilli or just smush it up with a spoon if you like chunks of meat
4. Chuck a heaped teaspoon of smoked paprika, same of chilli powder (be CAREFUL with this if you don’t like spicy), one or two stock cubes, a couple of tins of tomatoes and your peppers in
5. Now I actually prefer to get my beans in now as well as I like them very smushy (yes that is a word)
6. Essentially you can’t mess this up, even if you don’t do the above, just get it all in a pot and then let it simmer and bubble for AGES – like ages ages – the longer it sits cooking the more intense the flavour. I cook mine for anywhere between one and three hours. If it’s getting too thick add some water.

On a “get lean” mission? You can serve it with as much green veg as you can fit on your plate, if you’re dead fancy you can spiralize courgettes or butternut squash (yes these are relatively low carb – I love them).Here’s how I used to eat mine:

Not so bothered about avoiding carbs? Well I will be trying Erin’s version with the quinoa (Keeeen-waaaaah, not bloody kwin-oh-ah) mixed in. This is so genius as it means the grains cook in the sauce of the chilli and will taste awesome, no boring old boiled rice in our hoose!

Now just quickly shooting back to the whole serving this to friends. You can add a ton of fancy stuff to make this into a Friday night feast…

• Mix 0% greek yoghurt with a squeeze of lime juice, some salt, some pepper and some chopped fresh coriander (good alternative to sour cream)
• Crumble some feta cheese into a bowl and use instead of mountains of grated cheddar
• Chop up an avocado and mix with some chopped cherry tomatoes and coriander and lime juice and sea salt (better than big spoonfuls of shop bought guac)
• Grill/toast some wholemeal pittas, let them cool, snap into shards – better than tortilla crisps

Enough? I’m literally about to start eating the scented candle next to my bed so this better suffice for now.

If you DO make some chilli, get it on Instagram and tag me! (fuellingthefoodie)

For now, happy Monday folks and some light humour to amuse you (I hope) on your way to work…

Muchos Lovos Amigo – C xxx

I love shopping. Honestly, I could get excited about going to buy a mop. I think it’s just spending money full stop (More rhyming! Seriously I need to get some poems penned). It has a strange effect on me, which is a problem, as according to an old colleague I try to live a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade income. He may actually have a point – I have recently been doing my food shopping in Waitrose, I like Waitrose, but let’s be honest, it’s not exactly cheap. However, Lidl IS cheap and it has awesome food so before you start telling me you can’t afford to eat healthily – I DON’T WANNA HEAR IT

So food shopping! Tricky stuff when you’re trying to get leaner/faster/stronger. For all my girls and guys looking to get lean you have the battle of avoiding the “buy me buy me I’m healthy” carb laden bulls** and for all my guys looking to get MASSIVE (obvs) you have to work out how many damn kilos of chicken you need to buy to look like Hugh Jackman (P.S. I know nothing about getting MASSIVE – so I’m not even gonna go there).

I want to keep this post clear and concise so let’s get to it. I get myself organised for the week by doing the following (if you don’t believe me ask Phoebe – we had an entire conversation yesterday about vegan meal planning – goddamn that is complicated)

So Phoebe, fair play to her, got onto Google and found herself some high protein vegan meals. Then she wrote her shopping list and went off to purchase. “Should I also plan what exercise I’m going to do?” – SURE! Why not eh? I personally find having a plan means it’s less for me to think/worry about day to day. So…

1. Think about what you want to eat over the next few days and then try and make a leaner/healthier version
2. Make a list and bloody well stick to it
3. Do not be tempted to chuck special offer crap food into your basket. A massive bloody cake reduced to 50p is not a bargain. WALK AWAY
4. Batch cook – my mother taught me well!
5. Have better options on hand so you don’t end up coming in from work and smashing a family sized bag of Kettle chips (I never do that… ever… honestly)

I was talking with a friend this morning about what to write for this post, his response? “Don’t buy crap” – yeah cheers – actually though, good point. I was watching a documentary yesterday (MORE exciting viewing – if you’re interested it was called Fed Up – really good) about the childhood obesity epidemic. Alarming stuff. One of these kids was 14 years old. He was crying, I was nearly crying too, he was crying because he hated being overweight. He said at the end of the programme “It is much better if we just don’t have any of the bad foods around us”. True story pal, I hear ya. You’d be hard pushed to even find granulated sugar to put in a cup of tea at my house. Boooooring. Actually it’s not boring. It just means I have to make the effort to go out and buy treats. It works. I still get pizza delivered a little too often though. Bad Cat.

I laid out a weekly shop for you – aren’t you glad? I thought you might be…

And on your right you will find: 3kg chicken breast, 4 packets frozen berries, 2 bags salad leaves, 2 jars of vanilla paste, tomatoes, aubergines, mango, sugar snap peas, smoked salmon, avocado, broccoli, sea bass fillets (posh bitch), free range eggs, full fat Greek yoghurt, quark, liquid egg whites, cucumber, feta cheese and some chestnut mushrooms – Total cost? 1 billion pounds because I got it all in Waitrose but if you buy the majority in Lidl it’s usually around £30

Now then, vanilla bean paste… praise be the powers that invented this stuff I tell you. A teaspoon of that in a regular size 170g (i.e. not 500g Cat – that’s sheer greed) tub of 0% Greek yoghurt makes it taste like New York vanilla cheesecake. I am honestly not joking. Craving chocolate? Get some dark chocolate chips and throw in a few. Hiya chocolate pudding with protein and hardly any fat – not that we don’t like fat, we just like to be sensible about it.

I know some of you may think this is boring or going too far but honestly – when you are busy and you work every goddarn day you have to be organised. It is the key to winning in life. Ok maybe not but it definitely makes life a lot easier. I probably border on OCD – check this out…

Talk about a wall of foodie-ness… not a word, do I care? No. I love my little wall of “stuff” there’s all sorts in there! Incluuuuuddiiiiinggg…

Believe it or not – this kind of stuff actually has a big impact on my day to day panic levels. It means if I go out after work and don’t get home until late and I wake up at 6am and get my kit on to walk to work it still only takes me around 7 or 8 minutes to throw my food for the day into a few boxes, put them in my bag and get going. Tub of quark *slam* upside down into the Tupperware, handful of almonds *chuck*, two big spoons of chia seed jam that is sitting in the fridge because I made it on Sunday afternoon (just polish my halo a bit more) *slop* – click click, lid on, in the bag – LET’S GO.

So, get your shopping lists written and get down to Waitro– NO CAT! You are not a baller! You cannot afford Waitrose! Get your arse to Lidl!

Happy Saturdays all, I’m starving again, chicken avocado salad? Lovely thanks.

C xx

P.S. Big thanks to everyone that shared my blog on Thursday (If you didn’t share it please do! I will love you forever and feed you)

John Torode – I will find you… and I will smack you with a whisk if you utter that phrase on Masterchef one more time. LEARN A NEW COMPLIMENT YOU FREAK.

Well no surprises here, the girl that series records Saturday kitchen is also a Masterchef fan. Bit more than a fan – sometimes I watch old recordings, you know, just for the fun of it *deadpan face*. Laugh it up you lot! “Cat how did you learn to cook?” – “I watched tv”. Yes really! I learnt that turning a chicken upside down halfway through roasting keeps the breasts (snigger) moist (more sniggering). I learnt the importance of resting meat (rest it for the time you cooked it, wrap it in foil to keep it warm if it’s a whole bird or joint of beef etc). I learnt putting ice cubes in the bottom of the hot oven when you put bread in to bake creates a better crust. Shall I go on? I am full of these random tips.

So I was watching Masterchef last night (after watching that top 10 British favourite meals with the hairy bikers and the highly irritating Lorraine “used to be a model yeah bloody right” Pascal) and I was struck by a thought to write about —– STUFF.

A whole myriad of things led me to this blog entry actually. Starting with the tube journey home from training with Fran (Ironman coach) last night. I saw this:

This is an article about the growing trend for workout apps – nothing new there right? But THIS one is zombie themed! Bloody hell! I can’t imagine anything worse! Have you ever tried to play any form of contact sport with me?! I just squeal and sit on the floor because I can’t handle the adrenaline rush. HOWEVER – if you ARE into the “sprinting down the road pretending you’re going to be chopped into little bits” type thing then crack on! I actually think taking exercise back to it’s primitive form could be the next big thing. A bit like we moved away from fancy pants cooking and started embracing the gastro “big chunk of meat on a plate” type dining. What I mean is – when you go to the park in the summer and you launch a frisbee around pretending you know what you’re doing – THAT IS EXERCISING. I know right? Mental.

Moving on – remember my friend Andrew? The one I was shouting at in the gym earlier this week? Well he messaged me this morning…

Now look here… This is a big deal. On Tuesday this week he was saying “gym twice a week and no drastic changes just yet with my diet – one step at a time”. Next thing we know, he’s going to the gym on his own! HA! Go on Andrew! Smash those fat cells! Next think you’ll be rocking up to the office with more Tupperware than me! (Physically impossible – look what poor Erin has to deal with when she comes home every night)

I think we will take this theme and run with it. We already know I am a massive fan of Instagram – well these resonated with me *prepare for rolling of the eyes from cynics and negativazis worldwide* (just made that word up – MINE!)

Now this is particularly poignant because yesterday morning during our gym session, I was doing 10km/hr on the treadmill to try and get a better time for my 5km and Andrew was next to me cursing me as I raised my eyebrows at him and told him to put the incline AND the speed up for his power walk. He said to me as I knocked the speed up to 12km/hr (just showing off now) “bloody hell Cat – how do you do that?!” — quick trip back in history — I used to run at 9km/hr and couldn’t do more than 10 minutes. That is not an exaggeration. I didn’t even think about it until I saw this “fitspiration” thingy yesterday. It’s true though. Ok you can’t do press ups… YET. I couldn’t run for more than 10 minutes – in 12 weeks I will attempt my first Ironman.

Another one? You got it!

Oh hold on! I just googled “who is a wise man” to try and find something to go with the above meme but I’ve got something even better! Check THIS out:

“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it and never makes that mistake again. A wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether”

Oh my days! That is bloody excellent! Why? Because it proves my point! Don’t be this person:

Firstly – you are already attractive. Secondly it doesn’t woooooooooooork. I have massive respect for anyone and everyone that is doing something to better themselves. I don’t even care what it is. I just think it’s awesome.

I’m getting carried away here aren’t I? But there is a reason – the more I write and the more I post pictures of random crap the more support I seem to get. As a result I had a discussion with Kate (“this is a great banana”) yesterday and I want to keep all my “crew” together. Strength in numbers and all that. So – let’s try something here – I need a “###” (that’s hashtag to anyone living under a rock) or similar to maintain momentum with my little blog. If you like it and you think it is beneficial do me a heee-yowj favour and share it? Kate and I were clearly struggling with our creative flow yesterday as the best we could come up with was #fuellies. You know? Instead of #fitties or #kaylasarmy (no offence Kayla – your abs are banging but you’ve already proved you can make squat challenges #notbitter).

Happy Friday all – if you haven’t already, get your shopping list written for food prep Sunday. We are going to attempt a Blue Peter style “for next week you will need half a Fairy washing up liquid bottle and 40 lolly pop sticks” style post soon. In other words I will tell you what ingredients you need in advance and then I will VLOG (good grief…) myself making whatever it is I deem easy enough. Unless of course you have special requests – in which case SEND THEM OVER.

Have an awesome weekend FUELLIES. Oooh that might work y’know.

C xxx

P.S. I know a wise man – have I mentioned that? Don’t keep learning from your mistakes – get ahead of the game…. http://www.urbanenergie.com

P.P.S. Potentially looking at running some cooking demos/fitness talks/weekend getaways – does this sound like a good idea? Let me know!

I don’t know about you but I remember watching the 2012 Olympics and being completely overwhelmed by the sheer athleticism of the Chinese athletes – and to make it even WORSE the vast majority of these athletes were younger than me!

So china smashes it at the Olympics – they also have it pretty sussed when it comes to food. I’m talking about the “so hot you can practically melt your wooden spoon” wok stir frying and the insanely clever use of basic ingredients to create not only delicious but also LEAN meals and who doesn’t want lean food? You do! And I know you over there do too!

Chuck out your packet sauces and your preconceived ideas about this regions cooking guys because I am going to show you how to smash the vegetables and look FORWARD to your daily dose of 5 (that’s 5 fruit and veg – for goodness sake will you keep up?!).

BEHOLD – your new lean mean frying machine – George Foreman what now? Pah, spare me…

I would put money on the fact you guys have one of these at home. You do don’t you? Well get it out the cupboard and get it on the cooker.You know, I’m sure I once heard on Saturday Kitchen that Ken Hom doesn’t ever wash his wok? He just wipes it clean and re-oils it. What a hero. Anyway, wok stir drying. This is great. Why? Because it is ridiculously quick and you can adapt any recipe to fit whatever you have in the house.

Take my dinner last night for example:

Now I realise it is fairly unusual to have leftover STEAK in the fridge but before you start giving me grief for being a la di da snob – the steak was from Lidl and I thought there was two in the packet and there was only one so I couldn’t make it for an actual MEAL for my friend. Anyway, shoosh, leftover steak! Also some really really sad looking chestnut mushrooms. I have recently adopted a terrible habit of eating the same thing for lunch AND dinner. How bloody boring is that? DEAD boring that’s how boring. So I decided to free myself from the shackles of grilled chicken and sweet potato and launch myself headlong into the uncharted territories of a RECIPE. (I talk some right rubbish don’t I, I think I am just over excited, sorry).

I tend to freestyle my cooking. A lot. i.e. I just completely make it up and hope for the best. 99% of the time it turns out golden. 1% of the time I make inedible Thai green chicken curry but we won’t talk about that. Fortunately last night fell within the 99th percentile and I NAILED it. Lovely thin strips of steak, perfectly stir fried veg and perfectly cooked noodles. Ok ok I hold my hands up and admit I overcooked the noodles. Deduct one gold star. (Like I care – I’ve got loads anyway – ner ner)

The best part about the recipe though? See that lovely sticky shiny sauce coating the lovely healthy veg? It is made up of 6 ingredients:

• Coriander seeds
• Soy Sauce
• Sesame Oil
• Fresh Red chilli
• Garlic cloves
• Fresh Ginger Root

Now look guys, if you can’t smush a garlic clove through a crusher and slice a chilli then we’ve got serious problems okay?

And check this out!

Those there ingredients? They ain’t making NOBODY fat or slow. All they’re doing is making everything taste AWESOME. Oh and MORE good news – don’t have steak? Use chicken. Don’t have chicken? Use prawns. Don’t want to eat meat because you’re crazy and vegetarian? Use tofu. (Jokes – animals are our friends – calm down vegan warrior).

So – Chinese cooking, my top tips to stop you feeling scared (pansies you lot)

• Heat your wok – I mean REALLY heat it, I want smoke coming off it before you’ve even put an ingredient in there
• Pre-mix your sauce/seasoning. i.e. chop your ginger, garlic and mix with your soy and your sesame oil and dip your finger in and taste it before you chuck it all over your Bok choy (amazing veg FYI). This way you can make sure it’s not going to blow your head off with spice or put Buffy out of a job with the amount of garlic
• Further advice linked to the above, don’t be scared of big flavour, it may taste super salty or super garlicky but once it’s dispersed across that wok it will simmer down (simmer down? Get it? DAMN I’m good)
• Do not overcook your veg. I like to go with the advice that the veg should just look super bright and shiny
• You don’t need rice and noodles. Step awaaaaaaay from the carbs folks. Unless you’ve been working up a sweat in the gym or been out running then that stir fry will be just fine on it’s own – obviously if you HAVE been training then get your rice (brown – come on guys) or noodles in the bowl too

So there we have it! No excuses for “but I don’t liiiike veeeeg – it’s boooooring” – CRY ME A RIVER COMPADRES. Veg is awesome. It makes me you look and feel awesome too. Do you want to be awesome? Eat the flamin’ veg…

Oooh and one more thing… just going back to the Chinese athletes. Have you seen these guys lift weights? You know how much I love to lift some weights (they make you sexy girls – not butch – SEXY – oh and they make you sexy too boys but you cottoned onto that a long time ago)

Still scared of lifting the weights? Dunno what you’re doing? *sing song voice* guuuess who I knooow that trained to go to Chinaaaaa – ta da – Urban Energie founder Jack Braniff! Yeah the guy that taught me how to lift weights and eat for the body I wanted is also planning a trip to China in the future to train with these machines! Until then though he can be found HERE: http://www.urbanenergie.com and he can make you lift like these boys and eat like…. ME! Ha! And who wouldn’t want that?!

…..you obviously know I’m joking about the wanting to eat like me? As I have said before I am no expert, but I am here to share the wisdommyness (definitely a word) and I want you all the be fit, lean, strong, healthy and happy

….oh and if we can win some gold medals that would be awesome too. Thank you please.

For my friend Wil – thank you for the inspiration

C xxx

EXACTLY – who on earth would get withdrawal symptoms by cutting out a vegetable? Or apples? Be honest. No one. Because no one would REALLY miss cabbage – well, my mum might, but she grows it and therefore thinks it’s the best thing since… well since something else she grew.

“What on earth are you on about Cat” – THIS

“it’s a great docu for those who just don’t get the whole sugar/manufactured rubbish we get swamped with. They have done a teaching package for schools which I LOVE as its watch a bit/discuss/do work sheets etc. It’s not about giving up completely but simple changes. For Claire – “do I eat the branded museli bar with 34g of sugar or the not so groovy , tastes the same bars with 11g” neither is ideal but on the run simple changes can make a huge difference. First few days can be ordinary but a lot of that is all mental ‘giving up so I must feel awful stuff’  and if u do feel awful then that’s a measure of the crap in your system. Don’t think we suffer withdrawal if we give up cabbage etc! Keep at all your hard work, your blog is great!”

Now this is a message I got from a family friend based in Australia (totally didn’t need to include the bit bigging up my blog but WHAT-everrrrr). She suggested I watch a documentary about sugar that would be of interest to me (because I love all things documentary and all things food – leave me alone!). Now I haven’t gotten around to watching the documentary yet (count your lucky stars or the Sugar Police would be storming your office as we speak) BUT I absolutely love what Alex is saying here. It backs up what we were saying the other week about there being more sugar in a dried fruit snack aimed at kids than there is in a bag of Haribo – whaaaaaaaaaaa?! MENTAL.

Whilst we are on the topic of messages, I have been inundated with messages from people over the past week or so saying how much they love the blog, how inspiring it is, how they want to be healthier and just generally being awesome towards me. THANK YOU.

I had another conversation this morning with my friend Wil – I believe it was off the back of my most recent Instagram post, which, by the way, 40 likes in 8 minutes? Pfft – no biggie (OHMYBLOODYGODLOOKATALLTHESELIKESIAMGETTINGKATE!!)

….ahem, so, Wil texted me:

Now this is a very good question! And it is one we followed up with a brief discussion about WHY? Why do we eat well? Why do we train? Why do we drink plenty of water? Well, I guess it depends really. For me, my motivation comes from a love of food – oh and mild vanity (don’t be rolling your eyes at me!! Everyone likes to look nice!). I actually remember having a funny conversation with a friend once. He trains a lot, a lot a lot, and he’s pretty ripped and I was talking to him one morning whilst lying in bed (separate beds!) and saying how amazing my breakfast was (oats soaked overnight in almond milk with raw almonds, raw pistachios, raisins, whey protein and berries mixed in – 1000kcal dream bowl). I was saying I was going to HAVE to go out and train now whether I liked it or not because there was no way I could eat stuff like that and then sit on my arse.

This holds true for a number of people. People workout to look good. Yes? Then you have people that workout because they really enjoy it. Weirdos. But not really! Trust me on this one. Ask yourself WHY. Ask yourself WHAT it is you really want. I had another conversation this morning with my friend Laura (seriously – I don’t know how I don’t trip and fall flat on my face walking to work – stop laughing Jess – it was ONE time in Newcastle and it was ten years ago!!!). So Laura want’s to get leaner. Join the club mon ami. But she didn’t know what she was doing wrong. My advice? Besides emailing Urban Energie? Think about WHAT it is you really want. WHY do you want it. Make a bloody list! I love lists! In fact I think we will do one shortly.

Back to the cabbage – people approach change with an air of “oh my god this is so crap”. STOP THAT! — PMA People! — That’s positive mental attitude to you and me. Don’t like smoked fish for breakfast? Then don’t bloody eat it! Have something else. Don’t like going to the gym because it’s full of people you work with/live near – go at a different time or go for a walk.

So to answer Wils question: What keeps me motivated? A few things, let’s do a list!

• I like food – a lot – if I didn’t workout/train/sweat I would be fat
• If I were fat I wouldn’t be very happy – I like my body lighter and leaner
• I like feeling happy – the fact training releases endorphins (Hiya! Happy chemicals in your head!) only adds to the “let’s go to the gym” equation for me
• I feel proud when I see progress: whether it’s heavier weights on the barbell or faster times on my running
• I learned which foods I like that would keep me looking lean – VERY IMPORTANT
• I focus on the positives. People saying I am inspiring them. People telling me to keep going. People wishing me well. You know who you are!
• I have learned that it is hard work. Believe it or not this really does motivate me. When you are sitting at home or you’re hungover and you don’t want to go to the gym and you just want to order pizza. Okay maybe one weekend in a while this is to be indulged but overall you have to fight the fight. There is no point sitting wishing you were this or wishing you were that. Sometimes it’s a damn struggle. On those days I give myself half an hour (reality = an hour) to sit and faff around or snooze and 99% of the time after my little wallow and mental battle of “but I just want to stay in bed” I am generally ready to get on with it
• Oh and lastly – music – get involved. Spotify is amazing (oooh maybe we could have a fuellingthefoodie playlist). If I am really not feeling it then I get some music on that I know always makes me wriggle around and then I’m ready to go and smash it.

Not much food in today’s little blog I know. Sorry ’bout it. I put some real nice pictures up on Instagram though – fuellingthefoodie – go follow me! There’s even some collages #faaaancy

Drop me a line if this helped in any way shape or form.

Oh and a big thank you to everyone that has been in touch recently – writing this shiz for you guys

C xxx

What came first? The chicken? Or the egg?

……oh my god no one cares. Seriously. Just cook both and put them on a plate for me thanks.

So eggs, but first, let’s talk about my training today shall we? No let’s not, it’s dead boring for anyone that doesn’t train or ride bikes. In a nutshell, I got up at 5am and met my “friend” (long story) on the Regents Park circuit. This was the first time I’d trained/ridden with anyone on my bike in London. Now I know why. Drafting (where one bike sits on the back wheel of the other and takes advantage of the slip stream created) is a godsend. This guy doesn’t even train! GODDAMMIT! He was much more powerful than me but whatever, I’ll get him back, carbs! CARBS?! Where are you?! Get in my face! We’ve got amateurs to speed past!

After 60 minutes I admitted he may be slightly faster and I pootled off home to change out of my very sexy cycling gear (aka NOT sexy) and I put my gym kit on to go and meet my marvellous colleague Andrew. Andrew asked me to take him to the gym. Two intervals into a ten minute HIIT session and he soon regretted it. I tell you – I think I might train to be a PT. I was dead good at shouting at him! (Not really going to train to be a PT – just to clarify – I know nothing John Snow). Anyway, FAIR PLAY TO ANDREW. He wants to get in shape and he turned up at 7:30am and he sweated his way through it!

“What are you having for breakfast Andrew?”  —- “cereal” —- sigh…… We have to break that habit sooner or later. But then, behold, a ray of shining wisdom beamed down from the heavens and he uttered the divine phrase “I could bring a couple of hard boiled eggs into work though”

Chicken or egg? Egg or chicken? No one really cares lets be honest. What’s far more important is the fact that both have protein. Protein makes you look awesome. Ok that may be slightly stretching the truth but it’s not THAT ridiculous a statement.

What’s wrong with cereal? It’s just pants ok? It’s processed, sugary, carby nonsense. Sorry Tony the Tiger. You’re crap. (For ACTUAL reasons why it’s rubbish – hit the link at the top and talk to Urban Energie)

So, eggs, dead cheap, dead good for you, dead easy to make…. Don’t believe me? Here is a selection of breakfasts, lunches and dinners that I have amounted photographs of on my phone over the past 12 months (yes – photographs – on my phone – I must get out more often)

So….. I think it is safe to assume I quite like eggs. Let’s do some cooking tips!

• For perfect scrambled egg use a frying pan. Preferably non stick. Crack 3 eggs into the pan, no need for oil or butter. Keep the heat low and stir them until they start to – funnily enough – scramble. Keep stirring until they are NEARLY at the consistency you want them and then turn the heat off. Add sea salt and fresh black pepper. Done.
• Poached eggs, people are scared of these, you don’t need to be. Boil the kettle and get your pan on the hob. Empty boiling water into pan and add a good splash (around two tablespoons if you are really new to cooking) of white wine vinegar. Crack your egg into a mug. Tip the egg from the mug into the water. The water should be simmering. LEAVE THE EGG ALONE. Want more than one egg? Repeat the process. Don’t worry if it goes a bit “all over the shop” the main part of the white will stick around the yolk. Get yourself a slatted spoon (trust me, you will be heartbroken if you use a normal spoon and chuck vinegar water all over your toast/spinach) and when the egg white is solid (usually around 2-3 minutes) get the eggs ‘oot the water and onto the plate. More sea salt. More pepper. Ta da! Easy.

Is this helpful? I hope so.

Taking eggs for breakfast is also easy! Just cook your scrambled eggs or boil your eggs (always over cook your boiled eggs? Get one of these http://amzn.to/1Gq4PYd – SOME people find them useful and aren’t ten years old… ahem). Once your eggs are cooked get them in the tupperware with smoked salmon or spinach or avocado or cucumber or “real” ham (please for the love of god do not eat wafer thin ham), get it in the fridge and you’re good to go the next day!

Oh and don’t be forgetting the magic of liquid egg whites! I keep them in the cupboard/fridge (depending on whether or not they are pasteurized) and use them for frittatas and cakes. Very handy and VERY low calorie whilst being very HIGH protein. A few people asking me where you can get them and I get fresh from Waitrose http://bit.ly/1ejXeBt or for much cheaper bulk purchasing http://bit.ly/1LcSqLA.

A final little piece of imagery in case you needed any more convincing!

I might have to have eggs for dinner tonight actually. Hens eggs? NAH! I’m a “foodie” for crying out loud…. I will be having duck eggs. Yeah. #thatshowiroll

Cluck

C xxx

I meant to write about this yesterday. Then I texted a friend saying “shall I write a blog post today or have a little rest?” – he said “have a little rest” – I did not take much convincing. Considering I couldn’t even spoon chocolate powder into a carton of milk after my bike session because my hands were shaking I think it is probably wise that I lay on the sofa and watched, in fact what did I even watch? I know it was rubbish. This is what happens when you can’t be bothered to switch the HDMI cable from the Apple TV to the DVD player. You end up watching whatever is on Netflix aka. total crap.

So mind over matter. I’d like to dedicate this to TWO people actually. Towards the end of last week I received some seriously lovely messages from a lady I have never even met. STRANGER DANGER. I don’t even care if it’s stranger danger, she’s a gem. She found my ramblings via Instagram (of course she did – I essentially dominated ALL the #hashtags last week in an attempt to get a billion followers…. I have around 300 – close enough). So, she asked me to write about said topic “Mind Over Matter”.

So, ignoring the parapharabladiblaablaacleverstuff and moving on from bending inanimate objects with our mind I will get to the point. Sometimes we can be completely overwhelmed by challenges/goals/targets that we end up building them into these huge looming terrifying thoughts. Let’s start small and take the weights section of the gym. DAMN SCARY area if you don’t know your dips from your curls. I actually have a good story about this. Last year I was dating a guy that was a member of a seriously fancy gym in Canary Wharf. Feeling pretty smug about my new found knowledge of reps and sets I agreed to go with him one evening after work. Now, you know that gym in Dodgeball? The massive shiny one where everyone is beautiful.

Well – that is essentially what this place was like and to make it worse I went in with ZERO plans of what I was going to do and I essentially warmed up, stared at the squat rack, stared at the mat area, started to sweat because I was sure everyone was looking at me, wandered around, fiddled with my phone, found the guy I was with and then threw an almighty wobbly tantrum and left. I’m not even joking. In fact, I may as well be honest, I burst into tears. SEE! Told you I was a wimp!

Pretty low moment in my fitness life – ha. But it’s fiiiiiiiiiiine, because I went back to MY gym where I knew the system and I felt comfortable and I carried on. Yes pushing boundaries is important and yes stepping outside your comfort zone is important but it’s absolutely ok to take it one step at a time.

So my lovely new friend on Instagram is dreaming of doing an Ironman… but she is scared. GOOD! It’s a scary thing! I get asked an awful lot what made me decide to do it, we have already discussed that so I won’t get into again but it was something I built up to. Kind of. People still think I’m mental because I haven’t run a marathon and I’d never ridden a road bike. Whatevs. I can ride one now and I’m stronger and faster than ever. It is literally mind over matter. I wanted to do it so I ignored people raising their eyebrows and I got on with it.

If you’ve been following me from the beginning you will know how much I train. It’s quite a lot and I always say how much I love it. However, sometimes I don’t love it. For example this weekend I didn’t want to train at all. I just wanted to flounce around the house in my sweat pants and eat cake. I whined about it to various individuals (#attentionseeker) and eventually a friend of mine sent me this

But the important thing is… it worked. I gave myself a verbal shake and I went and sorted some stuff out (ahem…baked cakes) and then I got on my bike and had one of the best training sessions I’ve had on the bike yet! (Highgate Hill? Highgate HELL)

It’s a hard one to write about to be honest because it essentially comes down to the individual and what it is that’s scaring/freaking them out. For some people it’s the fear of judgement, for some it’s the fear of failing, for some it’s the fear of physical pain and for other’s it’s just a huge lack of confidence. BUT – you have to start somewhere.

I’ve been told a few times now that I’ve “inspired” people. That’s amazing. Seriously. If you are one of the people that has said that to me then you have no idea how much it means to me. Jeez this is getting a bit weepy isn’t it! I’m not trying to be weepy! I just want you all to realise that you’re made of WAY stronger stuff than you think.

Triathlon, exercising, Ironman, running – doesn’t matter.

A final example of what can be achieved if you just embrace the “mind over matter” hurdle. My mother hates running. She always has done. Like REALLY hates it. A few years ago (sorry Mum but I don’t remember the exact year!) she wanted to do something for her mother, my granny, because she was very ill. My mum signed up to do the Great North Run. She completed it. Next year she did it again and then she ran some more races. Anyway, a long story short… in 2013 she ran the Loch Ness Marathon. She RAN the whole thing. Oh and then she decided to climb to Everest Base Camp. No biggie.

I am running the risk of losing you guys here with the lack of food chat and recipe sharing but I wanted to write this for anyone that needs a little shove. Whether it’s to sign up to a coaching course (ahem – you know who you are), enter a triathlon, join the gym, go for a run, start lifting weights, take your own food into work….. Just have a go – it might be scary but stick with it and if it’s REALLY scary then drop me a text and I’ll come with you! You can laugh at me crying at mile 3 of a 10 mile run (yeah that happened too).

A word of advice to finish on…

For my new friends Lucy and Abi – you’ve got this….

C xx