Geek Fest and Asian Food Fest

I was up first thing this morning to get my gym workout in before we started our busy day. I did 10 minutes of 1 minute intervals on the cross trainer and 10 minutes of 1 minute intervals on the step machine followed by my weights routine as described in my training plan. I ended the workout with a quick plank and side planks and some stretching.

I also had my weigh in this morning, I've lost 2 pounds since last week and I'm now down to 9st 11! (137 pounds) I think this is mostly down to my mid week illness and after todays eats I've probably put that 2 pounds back on plus some more!

I had a quick and tasty breakfast of a chocolate cherry green monster in a bowl (spinach, chocolate whey, frozen cherries, ground flax and vanilla rice milk) with a few grape nuts for crunch.

Then we headed off to the Dr Who Exhibition! For anyone reading who isn't familiar with Dr Who (I'm sure everyone in the UK must be by now!) its a sci fi show from the BBC about a dude that time travels in an old fashioned Police Box and has lots of adventures on his way (thats the best way I can think of describing it!) On the way we grabbed a coffee from Costas, I had my usual skinny caramel latte.

It was great to see so many of the genuine props, costumes and models that have been used in the show as well as coming face to face with loads of the well known characters:

Cyber Men

K-9

Darleks

The T.A.R.D.I.S (with the hubby)

Big scary alien (and goofy me!)

Total geek fest!

After we had enjoyed the exhibition we wondered through town to a new Asian buffet style restaurant called LAUS 202. It had loads of choice, as well as the usual buffet it had a 'Chefs Island' serving freshly made Sushi, various grills and skewers, dim sum and even freshly made waffles. There was almost too much choice! I know these buffet style chinese restaurants can sometimes not be the best quality, but everything seemed really nice and the restaurant was beauifully decorated.

I started with a small bowl of creamy vegetable soup (phone pics as didn't want to keep whipping my camera out)

Then some boiled mixed veggies, thai green curry, tofu in sweet and spicy sauce and some crispy fried greens.

I shared a small plate of sushi with the hubby, I had the one with the bite out of it, which was tuna.

I then had some cantonese chicken, beef in black bean sauce, a few wide noodles, two vegetable filled spring rolls (which were wonderful) and more boiled veggies

I couldn't resist one last plate of the sweet and spicy tofu with more veggies and crispy greens

I finished my feast with some fresh fruit - melon, grapes and apple.

It looks like I ate a mountain of food here (and really I did!) but the plates weren't that huge and I didn't finish the last two plates even though I didn't feel as stuffed as I usually do, like after eating pasta or pizza.

We had a look round the shops and then headed home to catch up on some TV. I bit later on I started to feel peckish so I made a green monster with spinach, frozen banana, skimmed milk and maca powder topped with grape nuts. I turned out a lighter green than usual due to using the skimmed milk rather than my usual rice milk.

I also snacked on an apple

I didn't want anything like a normal dinner after all that lovely Asian food so I just had a bowl of natural yoghurt with two chopped peaches and some Tropical Bear Granola Nibbles.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, coffee

Today has been a good day!

I am now going to spend the rest of the weekend trying to sort out this bloody laptop, its going to take me ages to reload and organise all of my music and photos back on to it. I will be making very sure I back up from now on! So what does everyone have planned for the weekend? I've got a couple of runs planned, seeing friends and family and possibly going to see SATC 2 but I'll have to see how things plan out with that. I also need to spend some time thinking about my holiday and planning what things I still need to sort out, including myself! I'm thinking of setting myself a little summer confidence challenge to make sure I'm feeling and looking great for my hols, more info to follow me thinks!

Hope you have a great weekend and if your here in the UK, a good bank holiday Monday too!

My Day in Birmingham

Hi Everyone, I've had a lovely couple of days down in Birmingham for the Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood Concert. Heres a bit of a recap of yesterday.

I was up at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning as I wanted to get in a workout before leaving for Birmingham. I did my usual Davina Superbody Super Sculpt DVD then rushed around like a headless chicken getting ready and packing my overnight bag. I did manage to sit down for five minutes and enjoy one of my favorite breakfasts - a chocolate cherry green monster in a bowl (scoop of chocolate whey, frozen cherries, spinach, hazelnut and almond rice milk)

I topped it with a few grape nuts for added crunch. I decided that it would be a good idea to pack up a little bag with some healthy snacks for while I was away.

Goodie bag!

We set off from Durham and got down there by 11.30 so it wasn't a bad drive. We had one stop and I snacked on an apple and the Berry Cheeky Nakd bar to keep me going. Once we got checked in to our hotel we got the train into Birmingham and then found somewhere to eat. We eventually decided on an Italian called Del Villagio in the Bullring. I had a rather large vegetable pizza!

It was delicious, but unsuprisingly it left me stuffed. We had a bit of a look around the shops, I checked out the food hall in Selfridges and although lots of things were tempting I didn't but anything. I usually find it easier to shop (or should I say spend money) when I'm on my own rather than with the Hubby, which is probably not a bad thing. He makes me think twice about anything I'm getting (not in a bad way, more like asking 'so what have you got that you'd wear with that?' or 'are you sure you need it?' kind of thing) I've never made a poor purchase on impulse when he's been with me. I did however hit one of my favourite shops - Urban Outfitters as they don't have a store in the North East. I got these two funky t shirts, after consultation with the Hubby of course!

The floral t shirt has a chunky zip down the back. I love the retro style Harley T shirt as well. I also got this bag from accessorize.

I have been looking for a really big pretty bag for hauling all my stuff about and this fit the bill perfectly. So that was the last of my holiday / summer clothes budget I'd saved up. I've been working overtime at work so that has helped to 'mop up' when I've gone over budget a bit. I know that I bought quite a bit of stuff at the weekend and I don't want anyone thinking I just spend money like theres no tomorrow! The vast majority of my summer clothes are all too big for me so I have pretty much had to buy everything for my holiday apart from beach towels. Now that I have a wardrobe that fits I'm actually thinking of setting myself a little challenge at some point in the next few months - something like not buying anything 'new' to try and encourage myself to save money and make more things myself. I have a bag full of old clothes that are desperate to be altered and re worked into new things, I just need the motivation ;-)

We headed back to our hotel and got ready for the concert. While in Birmingham I went to EAT and picked up this Sweet Chilli Chicken Noodle Salad and Fruit Salad to have as my dinner.

This salad was delicious - I think I will try and recreate at home, just with wholemeal noodles!

My Mam and Dad had brought some munchies down with them so I also ended up snacking on a few Lightly Salted Kettle Chips and a small glass of white wine. We walked over to the LG Arena (what a fab venue!), found our seats and got settled. I just stuck to drinking water while I was there, I didn't want to end up smashed again! My Mam treated me to this little tub of Ben and Jerry's.

Total chocolate heaven!

The concert was tremendous! It was really my Dad's big treat, but we all enjoyed it, they played some of my favourite tracks including Layla and Forever Man (for any fellow Clapton Fans out there)

Heres a couple of pics - Me and the Hubby

My Mam and Dad

Eric rocking out

Random crazy guitar photo.

After the concert we went back to the hotel and my munchies were in full swing - I snacked on more Kettle Chips, Cheese and Onion Pringles, a huge chunk of Cadbury's Diary Milk, a couple of Werthers Originals sweets, my Coco Orange Nakd bar and an apple, oh yes and then there was more white wine. So I had a bit of a binge. I did not feel good after eating all of that rubbish, however, I did enjoy eating it!

Drinks - water, green tea, white wine

So I felt like a bit of a hippo after all of those snackies. I went to bed with that awful guilty feeling you get when you've over indulged. At the end of the day I don't often eat food like that, this was a special occassion, and when I remembered that I felt a lot better :-)