Halloumi Chicken, YUM.

This evening I had the pleasure of cooking my two best friends dinner. It's always "something healthy but absolutely 10/10 tasty" that is requested. 

 I was thinking, what can I cook that is healthy, tasty and includes cheese? Voila, halloumi chicken came to mind!

All you would need to make this is the following - 

  • Chicken breast
  • Sweet potato
  • Piccollo Cherry Tomatoes
  • Halloumi
  • Pesto
  • Garlic powder
  • Salt & pepper
  • Olive oil
I'm no Michelin Star chef so the method for the meal is so simple, you simply;

Cut the sweet potato into chip's and put them into a bowl with some salt, pepper, garlic powder and a tablespoon of olive oil and mix so everything is combined then spread them out onto a baking tray. 

Using the same bowl, add olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder to the bowl and then add the chicken breast. Combine so the chicken is completely covered.

Slice vertically through the side of the chicken and add the pesto, place on a baking tray and add the sliced halloumi on the top of the chicken. 

Then bake in the oven for 30 mins at 180 degrees. Turn around after 20mins! 


There you have it, a healthy yet tasty cheesy dinner! Perfect for a dinner date with your besties xo 


Ciao for now xo 
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It was a snaccident, I promise!!

For someone who is 5'3", damn I can eat. I am always hungry. FACT. I also suffer from extreme cases of "hangry" which in their severity have resulted in tears, and a break up. (moral of that story, don't mess with me when I haven't eaten for a few hours, or put food in the oven when I ask you too :) ). 

 Snacking is a staple part of my diet and always has been. Working in an office is tough when you're trying to be good with what you're eating and then in wheels the left over buffet trolley from a meeting, tell me you don't eye up the little savoury snacks and cakes as they pass your desk screaming EAT ME.

 Therefore, I am always prepared to have a little something by my side for when I find myself about to eat 10 duck spring rolls and a dozen cocktail sausages off the buffet that has conveniently been wheeled into the office, mid afternoon (when all things seem hazy and you have definitely hit the wall)! I've listed my top 3 below;

Proper Corn Popcorn
OH EM GEE, now this stuff is to die for! My favourite flavour is the Sweet and Salty. But all of their flavours are amazing and they do some really different flavours too, like Coconut and Vanilla. YUM. If you want to see the nutritional information on these and how easy they are to fit into your macros, check out their website!


Grenade Carb Killa Protein Bars
I LOVE these, perfect to target that sweet chocolate craving. My go to bar would be the Dark Chocolate Mint one, with over 22g of protein, only 0.6g of sugars and 0.6g of impact carbs they are perfect, especially if you are low on protein that day. Unlike some protein bars, these aren't hard to chew, I'd describe the texture as similar to a Mars bar, so really easy to eat and I am yet to find a flavour I don't like! 

 Nakd bars
So these are a little bit on the carby/sugary side, so pretty good on high carb days and perfect to satisfy that 3pm "hitting the wall" feeling! my favourite flavour of these is the cocoa orange, I'm a sucker for a Terrys Chocolate orange and this is definitely the next best thing!! 

 Of course there are hundreds of other things I could/would snack on but I thought I'd tell you guys my top three! 

 Also; I don't religiously track my macros, but I always make sure the snack's I'm eating won't make me go ridiculously over my carb intake for a day, so the snacks I've listed above are all pretty macro friendly!! 

 Thanks for reading this post and let me know what you think in the comments!

 Ciao for now xo 

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 *Disclaimer - This is not a sponsored post!! Just my own honest opinions. However all the things I have mentioned have been linked above to provide more information for you readers xx
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Fasted Cardio, is it worth it?

Cardio, possibly everyones least favourite thing to do BUT something that has to be done if you're looking to burn fat / cut for summer! I am one of those people that has tried endless types of cardio because, lets face it, it's not the most glamorous/enjoyable thing to do in the world. Anyway, I thought I would give "Fasted Cardio" a shot...
Action shots of me before leaving to go to the gym @ 6:30am

The first day I got up to go to the gym at 6:30am to do fasted cardio I felt extremely awake and okay, I done 20mins of interval sprints on the treadmill, then 20mins on the stepper. HOWEVER, by 3pm that afternoon I felt like I needed a nap SO bad I could've turned into the devils offspring. 

But I carried on that week and got up, went to the gym and done the same thing. I found it boring and repetitive and the only real changes I saw was that I became more tired and LOADS more hungry, I mean I'm a hungry girl anyway but sweet Jesus, this was SOMETHING ELSE this then resulted in a hangry Nicola and a Hangry Nicola is not good.

If you are looking for a way to burn fat, doing cardio when your body is in a fasted state will use the fat you have stored as energy as it's the only energy available as you have not fueled your body with food. Claims are that fasted cardio will target stubborn fat, so for women, around your abdomen, HOWEVER, this is a claim, unfortunately we cannot choose where the fat burns from on our body first. 

I think that if you're not a bikini competitor or fitness model blah blah, then fasted cardio isn't necessarily worth it, 20 minutes of sprints at the end of a workout or a 20 min HIIT workout would easily suffice in the evening! Especially if like me, you have a busy life, I juggle a full time job Monday - Friday and part time on a Saturday for 8 hours, I cheer 3 times a week, go to the gym at least 3 times and ontop of that I have a boyfriend, family and friends to fit in too! (oh and I somehow have to manage a social life too). 

So unfortunately Fasted Cardio, it's a no from me! :( 



Please let me know what you think of this post in the comments below! 


xo

*Disclaimer - This post is just my opinion on how I found Fasted Cardio :)


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Protein Berry and Chia Seed Smoothie!

I don't know about you (but I'm feeling 22) sorry Taylor Swift had to get in there somewhere, but I get so bored of protein shakes. Having the same vanilla or chocolate shake everyday just doesn't cut it for me, so I like to mix it up a bit! 

 I often add protein powder to smoothies to make them that little bit sweeter, as they can be quite sharp if you are just using berries and coconut milk, I preferably add Womens Best Vanilla Whey Protein to my smoothies as I find it blends really well, but any other protein is fine! 

Thats just me being super pouty because the sun was shining and my highlight was poppin'

To make the above smoothie, you will need the following ingredients - 

 100ml Alpro Coconut Milk
50g Raspberries
50g Blueberries 
1 Tbsp of Chia Seeds
5-6 Ice Cubes

The method to make it is simple - BLEND! And enjoy every single sip!

 The macro's for this smoothie are; Carbs - 20g, Fats - 3.3g, Protein - 26.3g. I know it is quite high carb but it's an ideal smoothie to have at breakfast or just before you train if you haven't got enough time to cook anything up.

Ciao for now xo

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Don't worry, be happy!

^Never a truer word said^

Now's the time to admit we are all guilty of the first word you see in this post - COMPARISON. 

Comparing your "9pm bloated just out the shower self-criticising every inch of your body" self to someones 8am "fresh outta bed and in the gym" self is NOT the way things should be. Of course it's going to look different, for trillions of reason's, the list could go on and on and on; 

1. EVERYONE, I repeat, everyone's body is different, so you're bound to look different to other people! 

2. People will only put their best foot forward on social media, people only post what they want you to see. Noone puts their "9pm bloated just out the shower self-criticising every inch of your body" self on instagram for 1000+ likes.

3. Filters - they are like a gods gift sent from the heavens above to make that slight definition on anyones stomach look defined! Wait, one step better! You can actually edit pictures so you look like you have abs, who'd have thought it!!

What I'm trying to get at is, in this day and age there is so much around to make you feel like you're not good enough or that you need to work harder in the gym because you don't have a toned stomach that is symmetrical or legs longer than the A1. But I'll tell you the worst kept secret in the history of secrets, the pictures you're seeing on social media probably don't look like that 99.9% of the time. Take a look at the pictures below as an example, the top picture was taken at 9pm at night, after a whole day of eating (just out the shower hence the wet hair) and the bottom picture was taken at 7:30am the morning after, so exactly 10 and a half hours apart! 



We all need a bit more self-love and I have learnt that once you are happy with your body and you learn how to nourish and treat your body right, you feel less like you need to constantly compare yourself to others. I have come to terms with the fact that I have never been the skinniest in my friendship group, and that at 5' 3" I'm never going to look like a VS model, but I am happy with how I am and I hope that every girl reading this will hopefully feel that way too. 

I'm not saying I never get sad sometimes because I have cellulite on my thighs or that my butt isn't as peachy as I'd like it to be (I'm a girl of course I'm gonna have days like that) but I will never let those thoughts take over my life!

Don't be so hard on yourselves guys, we all have flaws and imperfections <3 

xo

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