This year my focus is on my health as I feel I have neglected myself over the past few years, travelling overseas, living in a new city and establishing myself professionally in a new country. After some research I did at the beginning of the year I decided to introduce more plant based meals into my life. I’ve written a little about being Paleo and how this change was very positive however I knew after a year is was no longer working for me. I was also researching Lipoedema, the hereditary disease I have (don’t google image this when you are eating!) and the limited research on this disease indicates that I should limit or completely remove red meat from my diet. I was also given similar advice last year, limit red meat and no processed foods, from a specialist about when I spoke to them about the best ways to avoid the hereditary cancer in my family. Timing is everything and Honestly Healthy had been sending me their weekly newsletter after I attended a vegetarian supper club months ago but this email sparked my interest as Natasha had developed a program called Green & Lean which promised tasty, plant based, vegetarian meals with a dedicated prep night so weekly meals were easy. Perfect! I signed up and after a few false starts due to constant moving at the beginning of the year I’m in month two of the plan. All the meals are easy to make and there are HIIT session videos included if you need to add workouts to your routine.
I know a lot of people who have tried to become vegetarian and failed. For me the best way to start something new is to follow a program, like school, that teaches you. I have learnt a lot about adding spices and flavour to vegetables that I hadn’t even heard of before like fennel seeds and harissa paste. After a few weeks of the plan I have confidently gone off piste and whipped up my own version of something rather then follow all the recipes. I am still occasionally eating meat from very, very good restaurants and will fry some fish on the weekend. But to be honest the other day someone sat next to me at a conference with a chunky meat soup from Eat and I couldn’t stand the meaty/processed food smell. I was also in the lift at work the other day and it took me ages to pinpoint the aroma coming from my colleagues takeaway box – it was bacon! Physically I didn’t really see any changes shape wise for the first 3-4 weeks but then as tends to happen with me there was a seemingly overnight drop and lose of 5kg.
If you follow me on Instagram you would have seen my photos of Crumpets and Marmalade Polenta Cake which are Honestly Healthy Tastybase mixes. I really enjoyed making these as they reminded of me of when I was little and my parents would buy me a packet cake every week to make at home! The best bit is that they are wheat and sugar free and meant that although I am living this new vegetarian life I am not missing out on fun foods.
To celebrate her new book, Honestly Healthy in a Hurry, Natasha hosted a Frame Boxfit class last week and I made sure I was there! Her new book is based on her alkaline, vegetarian ethos with prep and batch cooking to esnure zero waste, shorter meal prep times and delicious food. Excitingly she has a competition to win 2 nights in Milan for 2 including breakfast, dinner and spa treatments if you preorder her new book.
The class was heaps of fun and I can vouch that Natasha and her HH team sweated their butts off with the rest of us! After I grabbed my goodie bag and delicious Framer smoothie (look at all that cool stuff to try in the pic above – note coconut water is a no for me!) I had a quick chat with Natasha about how much I am loving the Green & Lean plan and Tastybase. She reminded me to not be too harsh on myself for eating chocolate in the last week (it is all about 70/30) and she let me know that the next Tastybase with be a savoury burger and after that a bread! I’m looking forward to trying those and in the mean time I have ordered some more crumpets and cake to send to my sister in Australia who also has food allergies.
Hope you are having a great long weekend…
PF xo
