Wow, Monday feels like a long time ago!
I’m so glad I do these Sunday thoughts because I feel like I have been a bit scatterbrained this week, but when I think back I have actually been quite productive; had a meeting about my Great Expectations Fitness website, met with a potential client, visited a potential studio to train people out of, wrote a few blog posts, had a meeting about getting some photos done for Great Expectations Fitness, ordered some sample business cards, made some amazing and fairly healthy snack bars, started looking into getting some t-shirts screen-printed, and trained my first client – as well as a few good training sessions, getting lots of sleep, eating healthily and happily, visiting the Gallery Café, the Karma Free Pizza Company, Down to Earth, watching a few movies, and getting to catch up with four friends throughout the week.
New things I have learnt this week
Again, it has been one of those weeks where I haven’t really sat and made any effort to expand my knowledge. However, I did manage to pick up a few interesting bits of information – namely through a disturbed night of sleep which had me wide awake between 4.30am and 6.30am, leaving me relegated to the couch reading Becoming Batman and drinking chamomile tea.
- The main little fact that made me raise my eyebrows was learning that the term “diabetes mellitus” (the full name for diabetes) comes from the fact that diabetics have sweet-tasting urine (hence mellitus, for “honey”). I knew that diabetes leads to a high urine glucose content, but I hadn’t realised that ancient civilisations already knew about this through the taste. Fascinating.
- Although I knew how to carry out a bodyfat analysis using calipers, Ben took me through it in practice, so I feel like that is something new that I have learnt.
New things I have eaten this week
- I finally tried using chia seeds! I have literally been reading about them for years, mainly through Angela’s Vegan Overnight Oat recipes, and have somehow only just gotten around to messing around with them myself. I did try and make her Chia Fresca but either I didn’t make it right or I just wasn’t in the mood, and it didn’t set my sense alight. However, I did (in that time between 4.40am and 6.30am when I was wandering around what to do with myself) leave some chia seeds to soak up some soy milk, which I then added a bit of agave and vanilla essence to, and layered with some nectarines and blueberries, and had myself a wonderful summery little breakfast parfait:
Yep, topped with crushed pecans and a drizzle of Sweet Freedom. Now if only the weather would realise summer is here… - I also got to play around with some Coconom coconut sugar! I thought long and hard about what recipe would best showcase this low-GI granulated sweetener, and settled on another one of Angela’s recipes, Magical Coconut Bars. Oats, dates, coconut oil, coconut sugar, coconut milk, dessicated coconut, chocolate, and sunflower and pumpkin seeds. How could it go wrong? It was so good I think it deserved its own blog post later this week, but here is a teaser:
Other highlights this week
All that I mentioned above were clear highlights, but let me pick out just a few, because that is the point of these posts…
- Talking through my website design with Eilidh at the Gallery Café, as mentioned above, but the real thing that made this a highlight was the fact that we were able to sit and chill without me clock-watching and trying to figure out when I would get my shopping, cooking, laundry, cleaning, training done. That, and finally being able to visit her new place.
- Being able to get back into BJJ after a couple of weeks off due to my hip flexor, just in time to have Luiz back at the gym after his holiday.
- Catching up with Mel and planning some photo shoots. I hate having photos taken of me so I was quite nervous about the whole thing, but Mel totally put me at ease and reassured me that she knew exactly what sort of thing would suit me and my image, and I left really really excited. And full of olives thanks to The Grange!
- Leading on from above – discovering The Grange pub in Ealing. I am not a fan of pubs. There. I said it. Give me a coffee shop any day, but pubs – dark and musky and sticky and full of drinks that are overpriced and don’t interest me? The Grange was gorgeous, and we sat for hours on a sofa in their lovely garden, while the sun went down. I don’t think I have ever visited such a pleasant pub.
- Getting my Vegan Food Swap parcel!
- An impromptu visit to the Karma Free Pizza Company on Friday night, when Ben and I both knew we shouldn’t, but both desperately wanted to spend a few hours together away from the house. Sometimes you just need to do what feels right.
And on that nugget of wisdom (you may write it down, and yes you may quote me) I will leave you all to the rest of your weekends. I hope if you are in the UK, or anywhere else in the world where sunbeams are merely fictional illustrations in children’s books, the weather isn’t getting you down and that you have plenty to be happy about this week and the next!
Great Vegan Expectations 