Fitness - Fat Girl Fit

My birthday, cycling with Dan Patten from Team Wiggins and of course the lovely Romford CC

So my birthday was on Saturday and to start the day I headed out for a bike ride from the lovely Yellow Jersey in Billericay with the amazing Nate and their social ride on this occasion, purely for my birthday, was accompanied by Dan Patten from Team Wiggins! Ok this is not strictly true he may not have been there for my birthday but he was there and rode with us all. He was lovely, chatted with everyone, wished me a happy birthday and I was that annoying person who asked for a photo with him (standard).

As I mentioned before my training is fitting around having a poorly husband, but I am still managing a lot and on my birthday I managed to not only cycle but also attend Cross Fit with the amazing Jack O’Sullivan PT and being the lovely, if not a bit mean with some of the workout sessions as we found with a tough one on Saturday (did he not remember it was my birthday which means go easy?!), he also bought some beers for afterwards! I know what you are thinking – doesn’t it defeat the point of doing Cross Fit to then follow it with beer? We’ve never done this before he did this for my birthday and besides wouldn’t you if you could? Of course you would so sit there and drink your tea as you read this and just be jealous. Then get yourself down to one of his sessions!

Sunday I managed to get out with the lovelies from Romford CC for the Sunday club ride and it was such a good ride. Hot, very hot, but good. I cycled mostly with the lovely Lisa B who gave a smashing rendition part way along the route of the Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up and the super quick Joseph who continues to amaze me. Joseph is relatively new to the club and joined not using a road bike and despite this he was still keeping up with the speedy crew. My husband was selling a bike recently (this is a big deal!) and Joseph became the proud new owner and now rides along at epic speeds without breaking a sweat!

If you are looking to join a cycling club I cannot recommend Romford CC highly enough – between my husband and them I would not have got to where I am on the bike for sure!

Of course cycling whilst the weather is heating up does mean only one thing that all cyclists will understand – the dreaded cycling tan lines. When out in the sun you do of course catch the sun leaving lines where your clothing is. When you cycle the same lines from bib shorts and cycling jerseys are in place week after week and after a few bouts of sunny conditions (not moaning about these) you have started your cycling tan, which will mean you have to strategically pick items of clothing so as not to look like a complete idiot and will eventually lead to something similar to this (not the best look):

So on my first sportive I cycled a little with Victoria Pendleton, I recently ran with Olympians past and present and at the weekend was part of a ride with Dan Patten from Team Wiggins. This Girl Can!!

Category: Cycling, Fitness

Me and my bike!

So I have had this week off work and decided to take advantage of the good weather and get some miles in on my bike.

This started on Monday when me and him indoors went to visit the grandparents and in my infinite wisdom (more like absolute stupidity) I decided we should ride up a local hill that I have heard about but never been up before – Old Church Hill. Now I hate hills so I am unsure why I decided I just had to see this beast for myself and not only see it but get up it on my bike but I did and so as we made the turn into the road I was gripping my handlebars with fear. Quite rightly too! It is a very narrow road which only fits one car and the surface is gravel, holes, bumps and all the sh*t that comes from the surrounding hedges in the rain. It is about 1 mile long and starts with a long drag and as the road bends it gets a little steeper and then it bends again and gets a little more steeper and we get to a bit that my husband tells me is the steepest part. I am now panting similar to a dog in labour and he is telling me to take deep breaths but I am aware that I am out of gears and although my legs are spinning I am convinced this is the place that I will die. The road bends again and he asks me if I am ready. Ready for what? If we have just hit the steepest part does this not mean we are about to hit the fun part? The descent? Oh no the road bends and there is more to climb. In a moment of panic I just say no, unclip and stop. What follows is a foul mouthed angry exchange of words between husband and wife (you know the ones) and he basically tells me to get back on my bike and carry on. Only problem is that the hill is too steep I cannot start and get clipped in to move so have to go down slightly to a driveway (in which were children playing who must have heard our pleasant loving words to one another) and start again. I reach the top and have equal measures of anger for my non-sympathetic husband who I want to push down the hill and myself for not at least attempting to try and finish the climb.

Now I am stubborn and so on the way back from seeing dear old Nan and Grandad I am psyching myself up to tackle this climb again and so we reach the road and pass it before I insist we go up it again so around we turn and it is take 2. Second time round I knew what to expect which is a small consolation, but this climb was hard. I can hold my own on a flat and a descent but any sort of incline turns me into a wheelchair ridden tortoise and this one I don’t even have a funny anecdote to give but if I recorded myself you would listen and wonder if it was an animal in pain – nope just me panting my way up. Deep breaths he says again, you are doing great he says (kind liar), and we reach the part I stopped before. I am talking to myself in my head telling myself come on Lisa do it, just do it. He then starts counting down – 400 meters left. It should help but ever the pessimist I think Jesus Christ 400 more meters?!?!?!? We get to the top!! I did it!! Quickly unclip lean over bike and see if my gas canister can be used to inflate my lungs.

We then go down the hill which should be fun but actually this narrow road is like navigating through rubble so not so fun. Then he shouts at me to stop. I am confused? Turn around he says. What I say? We are going up again he says. I hate him. How long does it take to organise a divorce? I will sell his fancy bike for a packet of love hearts and a curly wurly, that will show him. But I do turn around and so we are on take 3. This is the decider will I get up it or have to stop? I have no idea how but I got up it. For me I think if I did it once I know I can do it again. This should make it easier but it doesn’t I still sounded awful – you know I said once I dropped my vagina on a ride? On this climb I think I dropped a lung. It probably landed in a pot hole, and I left it there in the gravel as it is now good for nothing.

Now wouldn’t it be funny if we got to the bottom and he suggested going up yet again? Well he tried it and I told him to f*ck off. He said he didn’t think anyone had been up it three times and I said I don’t care to be the first person and headed in the direction of home and no hills like Old Church Hill.

Tuesday saw a lovely ride with two Romford CC members, and friends, Sophie and Steve out to Hanningfield, via Billericay, to visit Yellow Jersey Cycles. Slight incident there when I stopped in a hard gear and tried to start at traffic lights in said hard gear, and on a hill, and promptly fell to my right. Dusted myself off and walked the short distance to the shop for the lovely Nate to straighten my now wonky saddle – stupid Lisa! Had such a lovely day with these two, lots of laughter, banter and tea!

Wednesday I was back on the bike with the lovely Gemma at the Cycle Centre in Redbridge for her debut road bike ride. She did amazing and I am looking forward to going out with her again! (I didn’t ride in the slippers below – even I am not that bad!)

In the evening I was invited to a fitness bloggers meeting by the lovely Lucy from Lucy Lunges. I was so nervous imagining meeting a group of super fit peeps and there is me who blogs about falling off my bike, losing a lung and generally giving it a go without really knowing what I am doing. It was such a lovely evening though, we did bowling with some tips from a coach, had some drinks, ate some food and all chatted about our blogs and what we were up to and met some really lovely people!

Yesterday I cycled my first solo ride. I always cycle with people and need to get out on my own rather than relying on others and so I headed out for a short ride. I headed to the country lanes, which was a stupid mistake as the wind was ridiculous but I did it and that was all I wanted – not sure what I was worried about now!

Today is Friday and therefore rest day – and breathe! Before a 10k Race for Life tomorrow with the lovely Anna and Kelly and then off to watch my husband in a triathlon on Sunday.

It’s all go go go!

Category: Cycling, Events, Fitness

Fun spin class and Tour de Tendring

Saturday morning instead of a run I went with Minnie to a spin class at her gym. We had high hopes for this class as we had been told by Tim all about it. He was right. The guy taking the class is very camp and a scream! Funny commentary the whole way through and amazing music – last track we were all sprinting on the bikes to Tina Turner Shake a Tail Feather! Hilarious! For most of it I was thinking wow he is checking Min out for the whole class – someone has an admirer and then we realised he was actually checking himself out in the mirror behind us! Amazing!

Yesterday I had the Bike Event Tour de Tendring. Off we set at the usual obscene hour to get to the event for a planned cycle ride. This was no usual event for me it was the first cycle event that I could compare from last year. Last years ride I did in 4 hours and 5 minutes and I really wanted sub four hours but I was heckled by some young lads in a car something about being fat and my front tyre being flat. I was fat but the front tyre wasn’t flat and as you can guess it meant the last 10 miles of this ride I had a major attitude shift and wanted to just get off the bike and stop.

So anyway having completed last years ride and training a lot from the beginning of this year I would be able to do it again and see what improvement there was being able to compare the exact same ride and route. So off we set me and the hubby and also our lovely friends Tim and Min. We had said at the beginning that we would go off as I didn’t want to hold anyone up. It is a lovely ride, mostly country roads, although they had kindly resurfaced recently which mean we had miles of stretches of lose gravelly road which is not ideal for road bikes but hey ho once bedded in will be amazing for next years ride! Though for this year does leave you with a rather sore under carriage.

It is pretty flat with only a couple of hills but a few long drags of road – I would rather do a hill than a long gradual drag any day. Much to my surprise we ended up with a train of people behind us at a couple of points! And had about a decent stretch with two other riders and the four of us taking it in turns on the front. It was windy at parts and as the hubby wanted me to ‘enjoy’ the ride and complete it off my own steam, and to be fair I would rather see a result of my own effort, he was lucky enough to sit behind me for most of it! At one point he shouted out to me this bloody wind and then said want me to have a go on the front? I very sarcastically said oh yeah that might be good! There was only about five miles left! He stayed on the front for a short stretch and we were on the home straight. He had been winding me up that I should brace myself for a killer of a hill towards the end and when I realised there was not one I was pretty pleased!

The end result was that I managed to get sub four hours and actually managed to get sub three and a half hours! Would have been quicker if him indoors didn’t need to stop for the ladies room (yes I got that right).

Him indoors, aside from riding with me, is also helping me with my fuelling as I am rubbish. I feel ok so don’t eat or drink and then will flag a bit. Although yesterday he gave me some of a bounce ball – was like wallpaper paste. He said to drink when I swallowed it – was pretty hard to swallow! Won’t be eating those on the bike again though could help with the diet as it is like eating glue so could fuse my mouth shut.

Favourite part is the stretch along the sea front where you just go – so much fun!

And according to Strava I was fourth overall for the ladies and had an average moving speed of 17.3mph and over 35 minutes quicker than last year – bloody chuffed with that!

Weigh in day as well today and stayed the same though I am ok with that as I treated myself to cheesecake yesterday!

Category: Fitness

Pretend to be an animal and get fit and lose weight?

I have the day off today and went with my sister to her gym (its the local fancy pants one) to do some of their short high intensity classes. We turned up and did a quick 1km warm up run on the treadmill then began our Zuu class. What can I tell you about the Zuu class? My sister had explained it to me and quite frankly it sounded more than a bit bonkers but she is super fit and was raving on about it so I thought why not give it a go? It is a class for Virgin Active gyms designed by Nathan Helberg, an Australian fitness guru and human movement expert. It is high intensity interval training using primal moves – push, pull, bend, twist, squat, lunge and locomotion in a unique 20 minute workout (though our class went on for longer than this). The gym explains that ZUU’s combined strength and energy class creates an exhilarating full body workout that blasts on average 300 calories in 20 minutes. Have fun being a bear or iguana – discover your inner beast. I am not entirely sure I discovered my inner beast though the class was hilarious and actually really hard. We did the following:

Frog Squats: we bent our knees, keeping our feet flat on the floor, getting really low, with hands together (as if in prayer – for it to finish as my legs were on fire) squatting up and down quickly
Bear Crawls: with our bums in the air, hands and feet on the ground, crawl forwards and then backwards
Iguana: is basically the plank position which I thought yes I am good at this then he said to move alternate hands and feet forwards – impossibly difficult!
Cobra: again a variation of plank where you stay very low in the plank position and then move your arms in the press up position almost side to side like the head of a cobra
There was another like a snake where we were in the bear crawl position and then you drop your head to the floor then chest and then up again – not that dissimilar to the caterpillar you may see someone do at a drunken party but more focussed and without the booze

Don’t get me wrong I felt like a massive idiot – I forgot to mention the class is in part of the main gym and not a separate studio and as mortifying as that sounds not many people seemed to bat an eyelid at this strange class. Even when he had us in a push up position with feet on the mirror then walking up the mirror in this position followed by a bear crawl – nothing to see here, just your usual exercise class.

I can see why my sister likes it you absolutely know you’ve done a workout and it is fun! And harsh – it is done as a group so if any one person stops you all start again – no pressure and no wimping out!

After this short class we had some time to kill so went on the power plates – I thought you stood on these machines and it jiggled everything you don’t want to jiggle and somehow this is good for you? How wrong I was as my sister came over with kettle bells and we did indeed jiggle but started doing sit ups moving the kettle bells from side to side and mountain climbers on this machine. It did make me giggle and slightly dizzy and I had to stop talking as I sounded like Chewbacca from Star Wars from the vibrations!

Next up was the kettle bell class – full on go go go non stop kettle bell exercises which today focussed on legs. Lunges, swings, sit ups, dead lifts – you name it we packed it in to this class.

I finished with a 2k run on the treadmill after an instructor showed me how to use the trx equipment they have which had me fascinated – it was like a climbing frame with body resistance pulleys and handles – would not look out of place in the Fifty Shades of Grey red room of pain. I won’t lie I was slightly sad to leave the fancy pants gym – every time my sister has a guest pass I shall take advantage until I can justify the fancy pants monthly membership fee!

Now I am off on my bike! Taking exercising advantage on my day off – bike ride with my friend Minnie whose birthday it is today – Happy Birthday lady – and also who recently completed a sportive and came 3rd out of all the women – Minnie the Machine! Bravo lady!!

Category: Fitness

Fitness Challenge at work!

So periodically we have a fitness challenge at my work. Completely optional though usually brings out the competitive side in some of us though not naming any names (cough cough Danielle and Patrick).

It is simple and straightforward with some rules and it basically works by a points system for various forms of exercising.

I would never take part in this over the years as my exercise ranged from walking to the station and back for work, walking from the sofa to the kitchen at home and walking around Tesco to do my weekly shop, maybe retail shopping, but you get the gist – exercising was not my thing so putting in to this would be pointless (literally) and embarrassing. However, one year my beautiful bestie, Nicole, took part and took to the water with her swimming and won! Much like my husband, Nicole, has lost a sh*t ton of weight and looks amazing and is another inspiration.

I finally took part and although I didn’t come anywhere near winning I was in the top half and so have taken part ever since. Last year when getting into the cycling and training I only bloody won it! In the last one my friend from work, Danielle, and I were neck and neck and swapped from 1st to 2nd and suddenly from nowhere we were pipped to the top post by Patrick (slightly suspect final bout of points but we are not sore losers – much).

And so this week it began again! I have started strong with a 10k run, three spin classes and a 1km swim. I found this pic, which I love as I just adore Dolly Parton and also because it is probably similar to what I look like in my spin class…..why are you laughing?

Spin tonight with Emma was brilliant – Ministry of Sound music – loud and fast and such a good workout! Made even funnier with the lovely man, who I have mentioned before, who makes the sex noises wearing the shortest pair of shorts possible for a man to wear in public. Amazing! It is like he works out and his inner porn star moan comes out by accident (to be fair in those shorts we are lucky it was only the porn star moan that came out!)

Back to the fitness challenge, I am not in the lead as Danielle has been running her little legs off (she used to be a runner) and swimming up a storm (she used to be a swimmer) and so I need to claim some points back on the bike (she didn’t used to be a cyclist).

It is good fun, a little challenge at work amongst friends and will help with my weight loss journey too – win win!

Category: Fitness

Cross Fit in the Park with Jack O’Sullivan Personal Training

As you know I have two favourite instructors at my gym, Chris and Emma, but there was another brilliant instructor who sadly left but has set up his own personal training company, Jack, and after hearing glowing reviews from friends that had attended his class on Thursday night I booked myself on.

I was to meet with friends on my single speed bike and head to the park where the class is held. One problem – my single speed still had a puncture from when I last used it to ride to the gym for circuit class. I have never changed my own puncture but decided that Thursday before leaving I would do so. Clearly I underestimated how useless I am. After having a meltdown of massive proportions (totally out of character for me of course) when I found it impossible to get the tyre off the wheel and get the levers under the tyre at all, I decided with only 10 minutes to get changed and round to Sophie and Hugh that I would just ride my road bike so went to get changed and came back down to find my son had changed the inner tube and was inflating the tyre – bless him. And of course shame on me!

Off to the park we set and the class was amazing! This was us loving it!

Jack is brilliant and turned up with all sorts of equipment, so we warmed up then paired off and started on the stations completing 100 reps between the pairs. There were the following stations:

abs – crunches and v crunches
sprints
burpees
deadlifts
sandbag squat and throwing
battle ropes and squats
boxing
kettlebell swings
hitting the tyre with the sledgehammer

The battle ropes and sledgehammer on the tyre were by far my favourites – so much fun even if i did, on a couple of occasions, manage somehow to miss the tyre – honestly its a wonder I didn’t injure myself of whack Sophie when swinging that thing around!

And so when it was time to go to the burpee station (as you know I loathe burpees but Sophie loves them) we moved on all smiles. Mine were false smiles.

Although I did not get to the full 50 burpees I did 44 and Sophie did 56 but to be fair (to me) that is so good for me as usually I will go to plank instead but I didn’t! I still hate them with a passion though.

At the end with 5 mins to go we ended up planking (this I can do) which ended with Sophie and Lisa planking and Minnie and I crawling underneath them and then Sophie, Lisa and I planking and Minnie crawling under Lisa, over me and then under Sophie – who said exercise can’t be fun?!

Had a lovely 40 mile bike ride yesterday with another friend, Lisa, who after the ride decided I should change my own puncture and before I know it the tyre was deflated and off the bike and I was giving it a go. Job done. I am making it sound more simple than it was as the tyre was practically welded on and so Lisa did share my pain with my meltdown earlier in the week. When I got home I explained this to him indoors who was fairly confident that he could change it in a flash but then found out we were right and it turned out the tyre was stuck but with a bit of his chromo strength was changed again.

This morning started with a morning run with Sophie, Brett and April dog. This was my first run since my off on the bike and although my leg is still bruised and painful it is miles better and I managed the 5k park loop. I would like to say it was effortless but running requires all of my effort. We must have looked like the 3 most unsociable people running in silence. Cannot talk, breathe and run at the same time it takes all my effort to run without dying – I’m beginning to think my workouts are tailored more toward not dying than squeezing into a swimming costume this summer. New sports bra on and all good after some slight strap adjustments in the park (could have looked a tad bit dodgy) and as per usual women will understand this getting out of the thing post run when all sweaty is about the same level of difficulty as Ross in Friends getting his leather pants back up!

It never gets easier! You just get stronger! Off to the farm shop for me for more fruit and veg and to juice this afternoon!

Category: Fitness

Snacking and My Fitness Pal

You can’t out exercise a bad diet! Unfortunately I love my food….really love my food – cooking it, eating it, making it for other people (if I am overweight I will make others as well ha ha). On my way to work I will have pretty much already decided what I will be having for lunch and when people say oh I forgot to eat I think they must be a special kind of stupid – I plan my entire day around eating!

I was trying to think of foods I can snack on that are healthy and low in calories. The joys of being on a diet! There is a reason the word die is in diet. It is even worse if you are trying to eat whilst on the go, your options can be limited to……. eating the napkin, straw or maybe ice? Tempting……..not.

But seriously I was looking for snacks in particular for up to 200 calories and found some interesting options. It is funny (and also hugely depressing) to see a quick visual for the equivalent of the same calorie amount:

I have found, for me, planning what I will eat and recording it is the best thing that works though everyone is different. I also never do food shopping when hungry otherwise I may come home the proud owner of aisle 4! I have an app on my phone called My Fitness Pal and it’s great. I go for a new high score every day – winning! I’m joking of course. It’s so easy to use (I am not that bright and I have it nailed). You can add your details, how much you weigh, goal weight and it sets a target of calories per day and off you go. You can log your food and drink either by searching in the foods already listed in their database (I have only found a few not in there) or literally scan the barcode of the item you are eating/drinking. It will then add the calories (I think of them as yummy points) etc and deduct from your daily amount.

You can also add your exercising in the app too and it tells you an approximate amount of calories burnt. Although exercising would be so much more rewarding if the calories screamed while you burned them!

It’s quite interesting to find certain foods are high in salt, carbs, protein etc. Not everything you see labelled as low fat is in fact what it seems and very often when you see the words fat free or low fat you should sometimes think of the words chemical shit storm instead.

A funny way of looking at exercising and calories could be this:

But seriously do not reward yourself with food – you are not a dog!

I am now on day 7 of my new 30 day ab challenge – Dear Abs, I may not see you, but I feel you brewing something serious and I cannot wait to finally meet you!

Category: Cycling, Events, Fitness

A new bra and Cambridge 50 mile bike ride

I tried to run on Saturday – my spin classes had been fine so I was confident I could attempt a run with my still swollen and bruised leg from falling off my bike. I didn’t even get to the end of the road as every step felt like someone was punching me in the bruise! Walked back to my house and collected my gym gear instead. Running will have to wait until this bruise has gone. It is very dark now and almost looks like a baby scan – I am having a baby bruise!

After the weight loss I am now two bra sizes smaller than at the start – him indoors will be in mourning! So I now have a new over the shoulder boulder holder! Long overdue and there were no nice sports bras in pink but my ever growing collection of exercise clothing needed this new item. I would like to know why some look so ugly and some you need an extra person to get you in and out of it!

Isn’t it always the way that if you pre enter for an event the weather is bound to be dismal? Sunday I had entered the Cambridge 50 mile bike ride and the weather predicted was some light rain, followed by hard rain, then some more light rain and with wind as well. Given that the great British weather is generally poor, and of course with it being a bank holiday weekend that is always a sure fire way that the weather is going to be pants, I figured I may as well grin and bear it so got all my stuff ready Saturday night and I was all set. I would be riding with my friend Helen and another Romford CC member, and friend, Joseph. There were others that were going from Romford CC (the speedy boys) but they were hard core and doing the 100 mile route.

The husband decided to pass given the weather as he has a half marathon next week so best not to be full of a cold or ill but he took us all down there and waited and drove us back bless him! He did get a nice burger out of it and banter with all the cycle club which is always fun!

The weather was as predicted and so we set off in the wet and windy conditions and about 10 miles in we passed the speedy boys who were stopping for a puncture and at the rest stop almost half way in they caught us up and it was smiles all round – I am being sarcastic we were all wet through and cold and so when we set off we ended up riding in one big group and when the split marker came we all continued in one big group. I think you would have had to be a sadist to do 100 miles in that wind and rain and not even get a medal!

At about 32 miles I got a puncture – my first puncture on my bike and I knew something was up as it just felt odd and sure enough my back wheel was slowly going flat. I would like to say I rose to the occasion and in no time I got myself back on the road. But that would be a lie. Half the group stopped and so the four of us flipped over my bike and started sorting out the back wheel – well Helen and Steve did – mostly Steve. It’s good being part of a cycle club with other riders who know this stuff – like having your own crew with you! As I emptied my saddle bag with all the gear (and no idea) I was asked for the tyre levers and so held out some blue plastic things and asked ‘is this them?’, which made everyone laugh and ensured they would be changing the inner tube and not me, once that was done and the gas canister was used that was passed to me and got stuck to my fingers as they are really cold once used you know like really really cold (I’m not totally stupid – just slightly).

In the process I managed to save my ride so my event was loaded to Strava in two pieces but that’s fine.

If the weather was better it would be a lovely route along the canal, cobble paths, fields and lovely countryside – in the soaking wet and some wind that made you feel like you were going nowhere at times, not so much. We were all smiling at the finish though!

Monday again! Which means weigh in day again! This week saw a 2lb loss so the total is now 45lbs and carrying on.

Now I am off to with the Romford CC peeps for another ride – happy bank holiday Monday all!

Category: Fitness

The Nutri Bullet

I treated myself to a new toy – the Nutri Bullet Pro.

I have heard amazing things and thought I would give it a go and it got the seal of approval from him indoors. We cleared a space on the kitchen side – if you are anything like me then once it gets put in a cupboard that is where it will live out its ever increasing dusty days.

Included in the bundle were two recipe books, which we started flicking through eagerly and then off we set to our local farm shop to fill up on fruit and veg remembering none of the recipes and filling our basket aimlessly with anything and everything.

Back at home we began with our first attempt – as I said no recipe followed (that would be far too easy) just started chopping and peeling and adopted a bung it all in approach. This was the before:

And this was the result:

The machine is vicious – it would obliterate anything in a matter of seconds. Now I am not going to sugar coat it I realise it does not look overly appealing, however, it was really tasty! Though you could definitely taste the celery so we are on a bit of a work out how to sweeten the juice as I would prefer not a glass of liquidized celery – call me crazy.

Him indoors came home from work the following day with a bag full of washable small plastic bottles and the idea that we would juice juice juice and can fill the bottles and take to work and have on the go. To my surprise the following day as we set off for work I had a little bottle of juice sat there waiting for me that he had made and it was good! (Food always tastes better when someone else makes it ha ha). It contained banana, plum, apple, orange, pineapple and pink grapefruit juice. Will be making that one again (or he can).

A friend of ours, who is a keen advocate of this gadget has given some tips and added to our inventory is now chia seeds, goji berries, almond butter and unsweetened almond milk.

According to the recipe book you can also make dips and all sorts in it so the possibilities are endless.

He ended up buying berries galore last night and I came home to a really yummy juice made of blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, banana, pineapple and orange juice – what a good wife he is! Although he has reminded me I should only be drinking one of these a day as it is high in natural sugar.

If you have a nutri bullet share some recipe ideas please and thank you otherwise I am going to juice all of my delicious organic fruit and vegetables…..then just add vodka……don’t judge me.