Brit Chick Runs

Hello cherubs!

So, I literally have a blank head right now – I’ve done nothing but bake cookies:

Go for a reading walk, ride my Chikafacemarestud, eat food, hoover, and run 4 miles. Hardly cray cray weekend happenings right!? SO, I nicked this Three Things survey off of…a blog (I don’t remember which one, it’s been on so many!). I’d been saving it for a metaphorical rainy blog day, so here it is!

Three Ways I’m Still A Kid

1. I still cry watching Black Beauty..which is a kid’s film…but have you seen it!? It’s heartbreaking!!

2. I still have a love affair with horses – just like every other 10 year old girl on the planet.

3. I like to eat mush You know, blended everything, oats…basically baby food.

Three Ways I’m Already Old

1. I like to wear thick cardigans and warm socks.

2. I don’t like staying up past bed time, and I like to get up by 8am at the latest. Gotta be productive, people!

3. I’m single, and own a lotta cats. I just need slightly crazier hair, a more-overgrown-lawn, 6 or 7 more cats, and some small children to scare – then I will officially be That Crazy Cat Lady.

Three Things I Want To Do

1. Swim with sharks!! I WILL do that one day.

2. Find ‘true happiness’…OH, woe is me.

3. Ride the perfect extended trot. I might have to buy a new horse to do that though…*ahem. Chika doesn’t like doing a big trot….

Three Ways I’m A Stereotypical Boy

1. I live in my grubby trousers / jeans. Skirts are for special occasions

2. I eat huge amounts – seriously. You know when you give a bloke a huge plate of food, he finishes it, and you think ‘how the…??’ <— THAT’s me.

Mixed beans, coated in dijon mustard, date sizzup, lemon juice, rosemary and a tiny bit of soy sauce

3. I skip the beauty pages in the magazines – ok, that’s not strictly stereotypical boy..but really, I HATE beauty pages! They never make sense to me, and to be honest..I just. don’t. care.

Three Ways I’m A Stereotypical Girl

1. I adore pink, fluffy things. Heck, my old blog email was fluffypinksparkles [at] hotmail!!

2. I love my mamma She’s my best friend in the whole world! Well, aside from Chika, of course.

3. I have a big fat crush on McDreamy and McSteamy from Grey’s Anatomy – as does every single other girl who is a) sane, and b) has a brain.

Three Things I Want To Try Within The Next Three Months

1. I’m not gonna type this first thing I’m thinking of, cos I’ll be doing it weekend after next :-p

2. Some awesome New York vegan cuisine! *oh hello, HLS and trip to NYC…*

3. Solve my money-issue!

Three Things That I Like About Myself

1. I am a perfectionist, through and through – as in, if I’m going to do something, I will do it well! I worked my ass off at uni and got a 1st class degree, I worked my ass off at dressage and went to three regional championships, and I worked my ass off at endurance riding and got ranked nationally. My perfectionism makes me proud

Chahara and I (my endurance horse, pre-Chika), circa 2004

2. My hair! Long, blonde and thick. I love it!

3. My love for Chika. That seems like kinda an odd thing to like about myself, but I do – I think it’s cute! I honestly cannot even put into words how much I adore her. I’m amazed that I even have the capacity to love something THAT much.

Three Of My Everyday Essentials

1. Oats.

Date-coconut oats, above – I’ve realised something; I really don’t like coconut.

Chocolate-coffee oats, above. OHH so yum

2. Smoothies.

3. Chika.

Three Things That Scare Me

1. Deep sea water (I’ve read too many shark books! D’oh.). I would never, ever go swimming in the sea if I couldn’t see the bottom, or if it was murky – I think it’s a little gross anyway (the ocean is one big fish-toilet!), but it freaks me out that I can’t see what’s there!! Sharks, eels, spiky things…errhh.

2. Someone I love dying..that REALLY scares me, because – *tough wood* – I’ve only lost one grandparent in my life, and that’s the only ‘big’ death I’ve ever really experiences. It scares me that someone close to me could die soon.

Hannah and I, when we were teeny

3. The future! Not as in ‘are aliens landing soon?’ kinda future, but the ‘where will I be in 2 years / how am I going to afford to support myself / will I find a job?’ kinda future. That is my Number One Big Fear right now! It keeps me awake at night :/

YOUR TURN! Pick any three and answer

At work today, I saw the biggest contrast in parenting skills! Now, I’m most certainly not a mother, don’t ever plan to be a mother, and have had very little experiencing of mothering anything at all – discounting horses, cats, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, goats, fish, dogs and any other pets that have come and gone over the years…

But my heart broke a little today!

I was doing my till-thing (aka people watching) and a family came in with two little girls in tow. One was young – I’d guess about 4 – and her sister was probably 7 or 8. They started messing around, chasing each other and play fighting, and the younger one very, very lightly hit the elder. The elder hit her back (still in play fight mode) and then said ‘now go back to Mum’. The younger one was revved up though, and play-hit the elder one again. The elder one walked to their dad, and the dad grabbed the younger one, looked her dead close in the eye, and shouted ‘go back to your mum, or I’LL hit you!’ – really loud and aggressive sounding! The young one looked really nervous, burst into tears, and went to her mum. The mum just ignored her.

I know nothing about that family or what their children are like at home, but it just seemed so unfair – BOTH kids were playfighting, the younger one was..well, young, and just didn’t know her boundaries as well. BUT the way the dad yelled at her was so, so harsh. I just felt really uncomfortable about it.

The next minute, another family came in; this time, the little girl was probably only 3years old, and she had a brother of 8 or 9. Whilst the dad browsed bird-watching books with the boy, the little girl picked up a headband and took it to her dad. Enter: Class 101 on How To Be An Awesome Dad and Increase Your Child’s Self-Esteem!!

‘Oh don’t you look beautiful! Let’s go and show Granny how wonderful you look! …. Granny, look how gorgeous *small child* looks, isn’t she just lovely? Let’s go and look in the mirror and admire how beautiful you are…’ <— for real! The little girl seemed to ADORE him, and he adored her right back. She looked so happy and sweet, and I just thought: yep, there’s a girl who’s going to grow up and be confident in her own skin. Contrast that to the other family, and I saw a girl who was going to be unsure of herself, not confident in who she was, and generally feel like The Bad Younger Child.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it (after all, I had spent 4hours standing behind a cash register), but it was really interesting / sad to see.

Hmmm.

—-

If I WAS a parent, I’d be the most awesome mamma bear out there – Chika will back me up on that one! I’d present my child with culinary dishes of perfection, much like these…

Spiced carrot cake pancakes with banana – peanut flour – spice dipping sauce. UH, yum.

Banana-melon-pumpkin-vanilla protein powder-salt-mixed spice smoothie. UH, yum yum.

Do not ask me why the top is a funny colour – I’m guessing something to do with oxygen and being in the fridge overnight…at least I hope it’s that, and not some weird, tasteless mould – cos that would be wrong. Sick and wrong.

Socca ‘muffins’, made with pumpkin blended with raw cauliflower (yes, that’s odd. BUT in my defence, the cauliflower was about to die and I knew I wouldn’t be around to eat it [the muffins came to work with me] – it made sense, AND it tasted good ). UH, yum yum yum.

The world’s most crispy tofu, EVER. You see, I have a tofu-freezer problem; I normally get two decent sized tofu portions out of the tofu block I normally buy, but there’s always this annoying amount left at the end, which always ends up getting bagged and stuffed in the freezer. I then end up with about 6 bags of tofu nubbins buried deep in the cold..but today, I made it a mission to eat some of them – hence the random multiple slices I defrosted them first, then dipped them in soy sauce, then rubbed mixed spice in, then baked them (flipping once) for about 40mins.

The blob on top? Pumpkin, mixed with hummus, mixed with nooch, mixed with soy sauce, mixed with date sizzup, mixed with mixed spice. Talk about mixin’! It was AMAZing though. Like, for real!! I think I found my new favourite way to do tofu UH, yum yum yum yum.

Millet flake / oat / wheatbran mix, cooked, then with nooch & mixed spice stirred in, then left to cool completely in the fridge. When they came outta the fridge, they were all stuff and delicious – perfect for pouring cold soya milk over! OH, the bliss, THE BLISS!!! UH, yum yum yum yum yum.

Dark and spearmint chocolate…

Hand-made and local….

And signed too! I simply couldn’t resist..which is terrible. I really am on a strict budget now (there was an audible *gasp* when I checked my bank account today), but seeing as I a) don’t go out a huge amount, and b) don’t go shopping a huge amount, and c) didn’t get my haircut for 18months, therefore saving a tidy sum, and d) I…needed a treat (?), I bought it. Um..oops. It better be darn good chocolate….

Yep, the current staples in my life right now. I may be dull, I may be repetitive, but my GOSH they taste good!

MK, I’m out – 8 Out Of 10 Cats is on in a minute, and I LOVE Jimmy Carr (hilarious live!), ergo…see yaz laterrrr!!

What are the foodie staples of your life right now?

It’s decided: I’m never going back to work again! I am officially Retired, with a capital R.

I figure my Hump Day was much like a retired person’s day..if you discount the 11mile run and the mucking out of stables, of course. BUT, I did the whole Lady of Leiusre / Lady Who Lunches thing!! It made me feel like one of those high society retired rich fancy women you hear about in NYC:

*insert picture of posh, rich, pearl-covered, sweater-set lady here* – apparently it’s tough to find pictures of those women on Google.

Kinda. Except I don’t have millions in the bank, a rich husband, a penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side or a vast collection of pearls.

But regardless, going out for lunch on a weekday always feels like something special, reserved only for those that have the luxury of not working (or for those who have the UNluxury of working anti-social hours…).

Last YEAR in April, my mum and I did the whole weekday-lunch thing, so a few months back, I made my mum book a slot in her Wednesday to do it again. My poor mother works 4 days a week in a 9-5 job, and she works every evening, with Saturdays and Wednesdays as her self-employed days, where she gives riding lessons, does horse backs, fits in extra counseling clients that couldn’t be fitted in in the evening….needless to say, she’s a busy lady – hence having to book her almost months in advance!

But book I did, and we went out to a lovely new-to-us restaurant – The Moorish Lounge, a cute mezze / tapas style restaurant. I’ve read some great reviews of the place, it’s vegan and gluten-free friendly, and the prices seemed reasonable – a no-brainer right!?

We were told that 2-3 dishes each is roughly a course, so – being the eaters that we are – ordered 3 each The menu was much smaller than what is shown online, but there were extras and a special board, so plenty of choice!

Thankfully, by the time we’d sat down, I was ready to eat! After my long run, I’d only finished breakfast about 2.5hours before, but my metabolism seems to be super speedy at the moment, so the hunger came…and just in time.

I ordered the falafel:

Jewelled fruit and nut quinoa:

Annnd roasted Mediterranean vegetables:

Here’s something crazy – the veggies, for once, were my least favourite!! Yes, shocking, I know. It was the falafel which stole the show for me I ate three of them, whilst my mum had the fourth. SO delicious.

Crispy on the outside, super soft on the inside….mouthgasm-worthy, fo’ sho’.

My mutti had the sardines with sweet potato mash:

The mash was AMAZING!

Plus halloumi on tomato:

And lemon and herb cous cous:

Whilst I preferred the flavours in my quinoa dish (Almonds! Pistachios! Pomegranate! Raisins! Mint! Fresh apricot! Peppers!), the texture of the cous cous was SO good. Why do I never make myself cous cous!? Must. Get. On. That.

All in all, it was an uber delizzus meal, and we left feeling like happy campers. Our happiness took us on a detour to Costa…then we came back home. When coffee calls, coffee calls – never, EVER ignore the urge. Word.

Back home, I did horse stuff and hoovering etc etc, whilst my mum saw more clients, and before I knew it, that old appetite was a’ callin’ again:

Would you like cereal with your soya milk / yogurt mess? Amaze.

—-

Mk, back to earlier in the day! Today was my long run day for marathon training – 10-12 miles on the cards. I sat on the fence, and went slap bang in the middle with 11.

My splits were so…regular! today:

1 – 8.40

2- 8.40

3- 8.37

4- 8.34

5- 8.39

6- 8.35

7- 8.26

8- 8.35

9- 8.38

10- 8.35

11- 8.36

Average – 8.34 pace.

I love it when that happens

I ate a handful of dates around mile 7, but I was in a total pickle as to what to have for breakfast. I knew we’d be having lunch at 1pm, yet by the time I’d ran, stretched and cooled off, it was already 10.30! In the end, I made a big smoothie, focusing on the protein for muscle repair:

Frozen banana, carrot, pear, salt, soya milk, vanilla protein powder, chia seeds, mixed spice

Hit. The. Spot.

I finished it about 11am, but by 1.30pm I was hungry again! I tell ya, my metabolism is going like the clappers these days.

I guess that’s something I’d miss in retirement…a slowed metabolism = not hungry as much = wouldn’t need to eat as much = less chance to enjoy beautiful sweet smoothies mid-morning, followed by beautiful meals out, followed by beautiful snacks….maybe I’ll stick with being young.

Are you looking forward to retirement!? I am in that I’d LOVE to have all the free time, AND a pension, so I could be like the old ladies at the shop where I volunteer- spending all day gossiping :-p I’d also be one of those old ladies that owns 15 cats, bakes cakes all day, and smells like hand wash. Livin’ the dream, right there. On the other hand, I can imagine I’d go insane with boredom too – I could barely handle a week with nothing to do post-exams, let alone 20years!! Gah.

PS: I made this tofu yesterday:

And just had to show y’all, cos it was SO yummy!! I marinated it in garlic flake things, soy sauce, freshly squeezed orange juice, white wine vinegar, maple sizzup and mixed spice, then baked it in the oven. When it was crispy, I fried it in the leftover marinade quickly, so the liquid turned to syrup, and VOILA! One awesome meal

….

…of a white Christmas!

Or I will be in a few months anyway! In the meantime, there’s a whole load of other stuff I’ve been dreaming of these past few days:

1. Olivia Palermo’s boyfriend:

(source)

I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to date a man who looks like that. My only hope is that he is a complete bore to talk to, spends all his time looking in the mirror, and if I met him, I would simply describe him as ‘one giant prat’. Men that good looking can NOT be smart and nice and funny too – not possible.

2. Funding for the makers of Vincent to discover how to make him self-cleaning.

I use my beloved Vita between 1-3 times every day, and cleaning it is just one giant pain in the ass. Le sigh.

By the way, those pancakes? I blended raw broccoli and raw courgette, cocoa powder, fruit syrup sweetener stuff, mixed spice, salt and soya milk, and used it as the liquid for my gram flour / millet flake / baking powder / pea protein powder / wheat bran mix. The liquid-y stuff tasted a bit … green …. but the actual pancakes were delicious! Hurrah!

3. Owning a horse like this:

(source)

One day, one day (*ahem, when I win the lottery). I’ve come to the conclusion that riding is much like running, being on a diet, or going back to work after a holiday – if you fall off the bandwagon for a little while, no matter how much you love something, it’s tough to go back. I adore riding, but after hardly doing anything for the past year, I was very ‘merrh’ about it. BUT, these last few months, I’ve really been going for it, and I am 100% BACK ON, baby! Chika has her Awesome Hat on, I’m keen as ever, and things are going swimmingly

When I own that horse, I’ll have to change my blog name to Brit Chick Runs And Rides An Overpriced Black Warmblood Called Rex And Gets Herself Into Debt Doing So.

Maybe I should sell a kidney?

Maybe not.

4. This dog:

(source)

(Miley Cyrus and her new dog Floyd. Terrible name, beautiful animal)

Need I say more?

5. Smoothies.

Again, need I say more? Hmm, probably – that above contained: 2 carrots, 1 pear, 1 large bananananaa, a serving of vanilla protein powder, lots of cinnamon and soya milk. You know how it tasted? Like one giant, delicious part in my mouth, that’s how! Seriously. Blend carrot and bananarama with some vanilla and spice, and you won’t look back. Trust me.

6. New socks:

Oh wait – that dream’s a reality!! Yeh, I shot into near-to-me town today and bought a 3-pack of cheapo socks. Socks and me don’t seem to get along – socks either kill themselves very fast, or simply run away from home..here’s hoping these ones last a bit longer than the last lot.

7. Peanut flour. I have about 2 servings of the stuff left, then that’s IT. OVER. FINITO. I’m gutted! The only place I’ve found online that sells it to the UK, is netrition.com. Hooray and all that, except postage costs the same as a new pair of breeches, the current Amazon value of all of Friends on DVD, or about 2 series of Grey’s Anatomy – aka, too much.

Waaaah.

8. Milky oats and coffee, lots of coffee….

….or maybe some of those fancy glass straws you get in the USA!? I always use little plastic ones for my coffee (so I don’t stain my teeth, FYI) but I don’t think they’re really much good for the old environment…hmm.

Oh well. My dreams may not be true [yet] but I’ve got Chika, I’ve got a plan, I’ve got dinner cooking ( / I’ve eaten dinner, by the time I’ve posted this!), I’m off to the States in 4 weeks, and Carter is sleeping soundly, tangled up like a worm, right next to me.

That’ll do!

What are you dreaming of at the moment?

Dear To-whom-it-may-concern,

My name is Freya, and I am obsessed with food.

Or, more specifically – with parsnips, pancakes, smoothies, frozen bananas, dates, apples, oatmeal and coffee.

Did I also mentioned Im obsessed with horses?

Or running?

How about…Grey’s Anatomy?

(source)

Jodie Picoult books?

Or dark chocolate?

Yep, they’re all current obsessions.

But since when did having an obsession become a bad thing? If someone admits to being obsessed with – keeping it relevant to the healthy living blogosphere – food or exercise, it’s automatically assumed they must have an eating disorder or exercise problem. I’m not happy about this, OH no.

The actual definition of obsession is as follows (at least, according to thefreedictionary.com…obviously a LEADING authority on obsessions!! *ahem):

obsession [əbˈsɛʃən]

n

1. (Psychiatry) Psychiatry a persistent idea or impulse that continually forces its way into consciousness, often associated with anxiety and mental illness

2. a persistent preoccupation, idea, or feeling

3. the act of obsessing or the state of being obsessed

obsessional adj

obsessionally adv

(source) thefreedictionary.com

Granted, definition 1 is not particularly positive – but what if your obsession falls under 2 or 3? None of my current obsessions are negative, like 1 – in fact, I get huge enjoyment from them! When I’m riding, I might think about what to do next session, when I’m running, I might plan lunch or decide how far I’ll run on Wednesday..when I’m eating breakfast, I might think about what I’ll have for dinner. Does this bother me? NO! I can’t imagine Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson get stressed and upset about their food obsession either, in the same way that Mary King isn’t bothered about her horse obsession:

[source]

Obsessions come and go, depending on what’s happening in your life at the time. I used to be utterly and totally obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer – my room was plastered in posters of the cast, I subscribed to the magazine, I had all the boxsets, I had action figures, I had a little cross necklace so I could feel like The Chosen One herself, and I even used to have fake ‘Buffy fights’ with an imaginary vampire (ok, maybe that bit is a little crazy….)! But when I was that age, my best friend and I used to talk about Buffy all the time, and it was a huge part of my childhood culture.

(source)

I think an obsession with food is prominent in ED-recovery circles, and fair enough; when someone has had a long period of time where they have forbidden themselves food, there’s bound to be a rebound effect, and this is especially pronounced (IMHO) when that person learns that food is not something to be fearful of, but to enjoy. I am obsessed with food because I have realised that it isn’t scary, it isn’t bad for me, it’s something to be enjoyed and to experiment with. I am loving combining random flavours and ingredients to create … odd … things:

(A blend of kale, melon, carrot, cinnamon and salt, and then made into pancakes with gram flour and millet flakes. YEP it worked!)

It’s FUN to me!!

When I’m having a super busy day (like my days in London recently, for example), food barely crosses my mind, because I’m occupied doing something else – and that’s ok too. Chika barely crosses my mind when I’m commuting on the tube, Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t cross my mind…because at that moment, those things aren’t important.

My point here is that, yes, I am obsessed with some things – but my obsessions are positive, and they come from a good place. My obsession with food is no longer associated with ‘anxiety or mental illness’ – it is now associated with fun, experimentation, and good tastes. My obsession with running is not about burning calories, but about making my self esteem rocket, about making me feel like a rockstar – about making me feel strong. I still have the most vivid memory of lying on my bathroom floor for half an hour, the only place it was warm, wrapped in a towel and feeling too weak to stand up. So to be able to run 6miles, 13miles, a marathon – it’s the most incredible feeling, and it makes me feel alive and powerful and just … incredible! I love it.

I know that one day, when my life changes course again and I’m no longer living at home, my obsessions will change. I might get over my McSteamy crush and I might be bored of thinking about food. But for now, my obsessions are not doing me any harm; I’m happy and proud of them, and I’m not afraid to admit it!

————–

Aahhh, talking of obsessions…you know good old Chika, and the whole having-to-sell-her-when-I-move-away thing? Well, here’s something embarrassing – when I was in my interview on Friday, the subject of Chika and what I’d do if I moved away came up. I replied with the usual ‘I’d sell her, which shows how much I want the job, blah blah blah…’ – but do you know what happened? I almost CRIED talking about it! Mid-sentence, my voice went wobbly, I had a lump in my throat and I felt like tears were about to spill over, JUST because I talked about selling her. I actually had to say ‘I can’t talk about this anymore, it’s making me want to cry! *chortle chortle*’ – but ohhhmy, talk about embarrassing….

That moment also made me screw my Thinking Cap on a lil’ bit tighter – my mum and I ended up having a big old hour long chat on Saturday night (Hannah – she stayed up til 11pm!!!) and it was useful, real useful. In fact, there might be yet more changes…but I’m going to sit on my proposed plans for a while longer, and see what happens…..

Doesn’t she look lovely!? She was a super pony today

Anyway – dinner calls!