Nature’s gym

Lots of us nowadays have battled with weight issues, be this too thin, too thick or not toned enough for our own insecurities to manage. Because of this I wanted to talk about my own experiences to help you girls (and guys) manage your body and lifestyle. 

It’s no secret that I am a self confirmed sugar addict! It’s been a real issue since the ‘vegan’ boom started and I have really had to battle some demons to control it.

Being born into a vegetarian family really has its advantages. I respect nature, animals and life more than most people I speak to. I am sensitive and care about animal’s lives so much that I have been known to attempt scaling a small cliff in Eastern Europe in order to save a dog (Jonathan ended up doing it). 

Being vegan or vegetarian doesn’t mean healthy. This is such a warped concept and as someone who has been part of this society since birth I can honestly tell you it is difficult! Before 2016, it was really hard to find almost anything to eat in restaurants, I often resorted to goats cheese, bread, pastas and pastry dishes. This started to blur into my daily life once I left university and I stopped caring about my body, skin and health. I got adult acne at the age of 24; it honestly ruined my life at the time. I went on Roacutane (also known as Isotretinoin) for just over a year and within two months found I had gained four stone, could barely move my legs and found standing a real challenge. 

I have seldom spoken out about the effects of Roacutane, and needless to say came right off it. It has taken another year to get to a point where I feel comfortable exercising again but my diet really suffered as a result since I subconsciously found I punished myself for being what I thought of as fat. But this blog is about nature’s gym; not my past and what happened to me, but how I plan to change those negatives into positives and better myself for the world. 

Food and eating

This week has been the week I change my eating habits for the better. I’ve stopped eating refined sugars 99%, stay away from bread, cookies, cakes and binge eating which is a real problem at times.

To fight my sugar cravings I turned to Ella, who I have had the pleasure of meeting a number of times. She is an honest, caring and kind individual who runs a ‘clean eating’ company to combat her own illness. 

I used Ella’s book ‘Every Day’ for some fantastic and easy recipes to make healthy snacks that fight that annoying nag in my head going ‘ooh, Tesco Pick’n Mix’… so I made myself some Hazelnut cups out of natural healthy foods and sugars. As I found these so successful at fighting my cravings this week, I’ve decided to share the recipe with you below!

I will hasten to add, I made a few alterations as I didn’t have all the ingredients to hand, but they were really good and Ella would be proud!

Ella’s Hazelnut bites by Lucy…

Pastry

• Blitz some Almonds
• Prunes (Ella used medjool dates, annoyingly I’d fed them all to my hamster!) 
• Coconut Oil 
• Buckwheat Flour
• Cool Tap Water 

Filling

• Roasted Hazelnuts 
• Organic Cacao Powder 
• Coconut Oil 
• 1 Avocado

I was a little flamboyant with my cooking as per, so my measurements were a little off but I measured everything by eye and used a little less oil than instructed. Pop the hazelnuts on a tray and blind bake for a few minutes till roasted nicely. They should be slightly darker than when you put them in.

Next I would suggest throwing about 1 cup of almonds in with about 6 pitted prunes, two table spoons of coconut oil, a handful of buckwheat, Pop it into a food processor and wiz till it’s all mashed together.

Remove from the food processor and add it to a bowl. Start to add in dashes of tap water to turn it into a dough. Once this is done pop it into a muffin tray (greased with coconut oil) and make little cups out of it. Bake till it has gone a darker gold colour (see my Instagram post). 

Meanwhile you need to get going with the filling. Trust me, you will probably think (much like me) this sounds weird, but as soon as I had made it I couldn’t help running my finger round the lid of the food processor to try a bit. Just doing that actually killed my craving for sugar that day which was day one, and I was so pleased with myself!

So to do this grab yourself a ripe avocado, the coconut oil, some cacao powder and pop it into the food processor (I just rinsed mine out quickly from the pastry). Wiz it till it’s all smooth, take off the lid and totally try some! Then add in the hazelnuts. This is my favourite bit as they make such a satisfying sound when they break up in the blender. When this is all done remove from the machine and set to one side.

Once the pastry cups are done, set them to one side and let them cool, As Ella says – if you don’t the chocolate mix you made will melt and run inside the cups which you really don’t want.  Now everything is cool, pop the chocolate mix into the cups and voila you’re done – Thank me later!

Exercise
This is a word I grew to love as a student. I would be at the gym four times a week, running in the park the rest of the time and at yoga twice a week and hula hoop when watching TV. It’s fair to say I got incredibly fit, but I just didn’t see this at the time. I really suffered with body dysmorphia and it wasn’t until I got sick on that blasted acne treatment, I realised how great I really was.

Sometimes it takes something like this to heal yourself. I know it sounds crazy, but so many girls (and guys) suffer with this – we always compare ourselves to others and it just isn’t healthy. If my words help you see differently, yes you reading this, then I’ve done my job as a lifestyle blogger. I’ve helped you and changed your ability to read yourself!

So, as I said before this is not a ‘sob story’ of my past, but a positive reaction for my future – one I plan to change and get myself back to that fitness regime I had, feeling good again. I want to share with you the changes I have made in my life the last week and the changes I continue to practice for the foreseeable future. I always read about people’s success stories but seldom their journey so this particular post is to enlighten you and let you see you’re not alone and we are all on this journey together!

• Walking regularly. Yesterday I walked 4/5 miles to Jon’s work.
• Going out every day. It is easy as a blogger to stay in all the time when you aren’t on site visits or in face to face meetings and its true I spend hours and hours of my day on my laptop. So I push myself to take regular breaks and go outside, even if it’s popping to the park and back.
• Hula-hoop again. Hula-hooping gave me that butt every girl craves. I had a size 6/8 waist and a size 10ish everything else. How could I have hated my body back then? Crazy past-Lucy!
• Not using toxic places to exercise. I have avoided gyms as I used to go to one in London. I found myself getting insecure and comparing myself to everyone else a trait I am not proud of. So until I am back to a place I feel content I will avoid…
• Holding in my stomach muscles when I sit down or walk – a simple but effective way.
• Enjoying nature and the outdoors. I walk my parents dogs regularly when I am home and LOVE to explore places in my local area.
• Avoiding any negative aspects of the world that could stop me. This is hard but just shut out those people in your life, unfollow those people on Instagram and keep yourself active and out as much as you can!

There you have it…  These are my ways of enjoying nature’s gym, staying healthy and natural and avoiding negative aspects of the world where possible.

Thank you so much for reading this post! If you have any questions or comments please feel free to add below or DM me.

Love Lucy X