SUMMER SENSATIONS!

Isn’t it beautiful?

No better place to be than good ‘ol blighty especially when the sun is shining! I’m sure you’ve all been making the most of it with your families, we certainly have. This weather makes my outdoor fitness job so much more beautiful, beats the wind and rain (although last Monday night we did get just a little drenched :/ )

On Sunday we spent the whole day in the garden, weeding, digging, raking, mowing – it was a very fulfilling days work in the sunshine and according to my exercise calculator I burned approximately 1,411 extra calories – result!

Backing up a bit though….

Last week we discovered new play areas (local mums check out the playground in Send, Surrey – includes an outdoor fitness equipment area for your own little workout!) but if you don’t use that equipment then I’ve discovered that zooming round a roundabout with two heavy toddlers on board is a great arm and ab workout!

Playball, one of my favourite children’s activities, is outdoors now and great fresh air time for the children – plus there is a playground we use after with our little friend Evie with more spinning roundabouts for a little extra workout for me & my friend Holly.

On to my ‘actual’ workouts last week

WORKOUT PLAN
Monday
It was the penultimate week of my Run Fit Club season so I practiced the workout in the morning as my own workout, it was tough but fun 🙂
Run Fit Circuit

Tuesday
Having had a busy morning teaching I decided to focus on a core workout and a quick 5k run. I did this core challenge I saved to my Pinterest Fitness Board

Wednesday
This is my busiest work day of the week, so squeezing in my own workouts are always a challenge. This week though I did get a chance to have a go at my Run Club workout that I planned for my group that evening. It was a great fusion of running drills and speedwork, it felt like a great workout, I’ll share it with you later in the week.

Thursday
High knees, squats, mountain climbers, burpees, press ups, dips, squat jumps, lunge and front kick, plank
60 seconds on each x 2

Friday
Static Lunge Row x 60 secs, Plank row x 30 secs x 2
60 secs skaters, 60 secs Mountain Climbers
60 sec crunch
30 sec rest
Spiderman plank x 60 secs, side plank popper x 30 secs x 2
30 sec high knees, 30 sec butt kicks x 2
60 sec reverse curl crunch
30 sec rest
Squat, twist, knee lift x 60 secs, Lunging wood chop x 30 secs x 2
Fast step ups x 60 secs, Fast toe taps on step x 60 secs
Plank x 30 secs, plank knee taps x 30 secs
-ends-
you can do the above twice for a longer workout I just did it once as I had the little ‘L’s’ at my feet 🙂

Saturday
Another week of vigorous housework – took a couple of hours this week and my exercise calculator reckons it was a 504 Calorie burner!

Sunday
All Day Gardening!

Now the fuel for the week….I’m trying to add lots of variety and new recipes at the moment and I’ve found some delicious new recipes to share with you.

FOOD PLAN

Breakfast
Last week mainly consisted of porridge with blueberries & cranberries, toast and jam, eggs on toast or fruit salad and yoghurt. Some mornings when work begins at 6am, I start the day with an apple and hot water to go in the car!

Lunch

Veggie Omlette
Another quick raid the fridge option!
2 eggs, 1 mushroom, chopped red onion, spinach, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks (left over from the weekend roast!), sweetcorn, 1 chopped fresh tomato, crumbled feta cheese.

Puy Lentil & Feta Salad
with a little balsamic and olive oil, delicious. I use the ready to eat Merchant Gourmet lentils, so quick and easy.

Ciabatta Salad Sandwich

Vegetable Salad with Feta
Beautiful fresh asparagus in this one from my mother in laws garden!

Granary Roll with Beetroot

Brocolli & Cauliflower Cheese
Made for the little ‘L’s’ really but a firm favourite for me too 🙂

Salad with Pesto Olives

This has a homemade french dressing on it which I make with Olive oil, White wine vinegar, dijon mustard and a little salt and pepper

Dinner

Beef Stir Fry & Rice
This is an old favourite of ours and a great way to use up Sunday Roast left over meat. The Stir Fry sauce we use is a homemade mix and SO simple, try it, I think you’ll love it.
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce, 3 Tbsp Oyster Sauce, 1 Ttbsp White Wine Vinegar, 2 Tbsp Ketchup, 2 Garlic Cloves
For this stir fry we threw in mushrooms, leeks, green beans and white cabbage.

Vegetable & Aubergine Pesto Macaroni
This is a regular on the menu, this photo really doesn’t do it justice!
We slice up a small amount of Chorizo and gently stir fry it before adding Broccoli, Cauliflower & Carrots and stir fry for another 5-10 mins making sure it stays crunchy. Finally add a jar of Chargrilled Aubergine Pesto and the cooked macaroni, stir it all up and serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Rosemary Chicken
You can link to this above on BBC GOOD FOOD. It was Yummy. We served it with Delia’s Cabbage and Bacon.

On Thursday, we abandoned the Crab Chowder as the weather was so sunny and instead took the little ‘L’s’ to the local pub to feed the ducks and grab a bite to eat. The Anchor at Pyrford Lock is a great little family pub. Kevin and I shared a mini fondue with raw veg to start & then I ordered a Harissa Chicken dish with Roasted Vegetables, it was great. Kevin and the little ‘L’s’ had fish and chips!

Simple Salmon Spring Pasta

Saturday night was a stay at home ‘date night’ for us, so once the little ‘L’s’ were fast asleep, Kevin popped out to our local Sushi Bar Oisi in West Byfleet to pick us up a gorgeously tasty platter of assorted rolls 🙂
I accompanied mine with a couple of my favourite Kir Royales!

After Sundays momentous day in the garden we decided to cook our Sunday Roast on the BBQ! The Whole Chicken took 90 mins and tasted great, we added a small selection of summer roasted veg to go with it & sat outside to continue to make the most of the sunshine!
we really did have roast chicken, I’m not sure why I put the minion in the picture!