Be careful with “I Wish”…

Today I saw a woman I was in complete awe of. She was taking part in a Cross Fit challenge at Perth Exhibition Centre and rocking a full on 6 pack in a sports bra and tiny shorts. Her physique was simply incredible, no other way I can describe it. And whilst her body was something of a masterpiece in many ways and I felt a huge amount of respect towards her, I have to say I was glad to find myself saying to my friend “She looks amazing but I wouldn’t want that body”. Why you ask? Well because I realised soon after that whilst I would like to be more toned or a little leaner or change certain parts of myself, like 99% of us do, I could appreciate this woman for what she was without an ounce of jealousy and not by comparing myself to her.

How many times have you seen a person and found yourself wishing that you had what they had? Wishing you were as thin as them? As fit as them? As pretty as them? And then begun to compare yourself and start picking apart each little thing you aren’t quite happy with about yourself? Done that recently have you…?

Jealousy is a nasty little thing. It can steal away present moments and bring out a side in people they never knew they had. You are always going to come across someone who has something you want or who seems further along in life than you; they could have an amazing job, that caring partner or those ripped arms you one day see yourself showing off in a halter neck.

But the beauty of working towards your own goals and being the best version of YOU and you only, is that when you see others achieving their own success you can genuinely be happy for them. By following a path true to you, regardless of the outcome you hope to achieve, you will feel a sense of satisfaction in knowing that you are on your own journey and you too will reach your goals in life. Whether it be job satisfaction or dropping a few kilos it’s all the same. We all have ambitions, hopes, aspirations, dreams; whatever you want to call them! It’s when we start to lose focus of what we as an individual want in life or stop pushing ourselves to go after it that we can begin to act bitterly towards those who do.

Go after what it is that you want; eat the way you want to eat because it makes you feel great or workout 6 times a week because you have a bikini you want to look amazing in. But do so with dignity and a passion that ignites a spark in others and not a negative attitude that leaves a foul taste in someone’s mouth.

Don’t wish for what others have and be envious that you don’t have it. Make your own goals, race after them and I guarantee everything else will fall into place…

Funday Friday…

It’s not called that Friday Feeling for no reason! There’s something about the end of a working week coming to a close that strikes the sudden urge in me to have a drink and nose dive straight into a tub of ice cream. And on occasion I won’t stop myself but 52 Fridays in a year is 52 too many tubs of Ben and Jerrys I care to consume so where does one turn in her moment of sweet tooth attack??

Enter pancake Friday…

Treats don’t have to come from a packet or with a theme tune. The more I open myself to new ingredients or take the time to experiment with different recipes, the more I realise I have been missing out all of these years!

And this particular Friday was no exception with my girlfriends and I going all out on the pancake front. The recipe was one I have used many times only this occasion we got a little bit jazzy with the toppings! Cada, strawberries and cashew nut cream all featured and it was like a party in my mouth! I’d like to be able to tell you that I didn’t have seconds or that I didn’t have more for breakfast the following morning….I’d like to tell you that….but I won’t 🙂

Pancake Ingredients (Makes 8):

1/2 cup of rolled oats
1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 banana
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Pancake Directions:

Blend the almond milk and banana together for 30 seconds
Add the oats, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and blend for a further 30 or until you have a thick batter like consistency
Heat some coconut oil in a pan and add the pancake mixture, cooking all 8 until brown each side (approximately 2 minutes per side)

Cashew and Coconut Cream Ingredients:

1 cup of cashews soaked in water for 4 hours
1/2 can of organic coconut cream
2 generous tbps of honey

Cream Directions”

Whiz all of the above together!

To make the cada is super simple – throw almonds, dates, apple and coconut shavings into a thermo or blender and whiz until you have a crumbled like consistency. We finished off our pancakes with strawberries but the sky is the limit when it comes to toppings! Dried fruit, nuts, chia seeds, goji berries and raw cacao would all be fabulous. Enjoy!

Baking with besties

Do you know one of the things I love most about food? Aside from the food itself of course! I love the way it brings people together.

Some of my fondest memories are of family English roasts at my parents house in England or a Saturday night get together with friends where we all bring our own dishes and munch in our pjs. Food is fun and the sooner we start to accept that no good can come from starving ourselves or binging and that it is not our enemy, the sooner we can begin to enjoy it for what it is and see food as a positive thing.

I’ve been experimenting with a lot of main and breakfast dishes since starting this blog and my Facebook page This Pecan Princess so I thought it about time I made some healthier desserts.

As luck would have it a friend of mine is currently pregnant with her little girl and keen to learn some new recipes for treats so she found a couple of great links for us to work with. The first recipe is linked below which we did not adapt in any way:

Chickpeas Mini Chocolate Chip & Peanut Butter Cookie Bites

These mini bites were simply divine. They had a slight crunch on the outside and a warm, gooey middle! We actually let ours cook for 15 minutes instead of the recommended 8-10 and for the chocolate chips we used organic dark chocolate. Raw cacao nibs would also work with this recipe. Using chick peas for cookies is a new one for me but I have to say it worked and this is a simple recipe ill use again.

The second recipe we tried was an adaptation of the link below:

Mini Mars Bar Bites

For the crust we didn’t use any protein powder as we believed it would be sweet and sticky enough with the dates and for the filling we substituted the protein power for a teaspoon of organic honey.

As for the topping we decided to make our own chocolate sauce from scratch – see below for recipe:

4 Tb coconut oil, melted
2 Tb maple syrup
3 Tb raw cacao powder
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Mix all of the above into a bowl and then pop in the fridge for a few minutes until a sauce like consistency.

You layer your base onto grease proof paper and then top with your filling. When we came to top with our chocolate sauce we found some of it ran onto the grease proof paper so we popped it all into the fridge anyway and allowed to cool for 15 minutes. Then the sauce that had run we picked off of the paper and used as extra topping, creating a mosaic like effect which worked wonderfully! I just have THE best memory of picking those chocolate bits off the paper… “One for me, one for the cake, one for me, one for me, one for me…”

Again this recipe was quick and easy and super yummy. And what I liked about both of these was the mixture of organic peanut butter and raw cacao – both rich in taste and leave you feeling satisfied.

Needless to say yesterday was a world class day full of my besties and chocolate! The only thing missing was Channing Tatum feeding us our bite size creations naked. But there’s always next time right???

Back to the books

When people ask me what would I do if I won the lottery my answer is always the same…

“I would buy the rights to Channing Tatum’s 6 pack and i’d love to study again.”

Because if I had Channing’s 6 pack I could use it as a desk to do all of my work on and each time I felt like my head hurt I could lay down on him and….ok, getting slightly side tracked now!

But seriously, I love to learn! And when I was at college I dropped out because I wanted to start earning money and being a grown up – I thought paying bills would somehow make me feel important.

And in a strange kind of way it did, I like my routine and the fact that I come home from work each day feeling like I have achieved something. But the opportunity to soak up more information is something I like to grab at any opportunity, especially when it is something i’m passionate about like health and fitness.

When it comes down to it I know what works for me and what makes me feel good. I don’t like to slog my guts out doing the same gym routine day in day out and I can’t live off protein only forever. I like to do a mixture of workouts, some that make me feel like I want to vomit i’ve pushed myself so hard and others at a more steady pace for when I feel like I need to clear my mind. I love experimenting with new recipes to keep my meals interesting and learning about new ingredients. And I simply love sharing everything with anyone who will listen so a course in Fitness is just made for me!!

Hence I am now a full time working student 🙂 That’s right, full time worker by day and student by night, I am on the track to obtaining my level 3 and 4 in Fitness and couldn’t be happier. It will be great to back up my beliefs and thoughts with facts and actually learn more about this limitless topic I am interested in. Who knows where this qualification will take me in the future – for now i’m happy to simply be studying in my spare time and increasing my knowledge on a subject i’m crazy about.

However we go about being our best selves, whatever exercise we like and whatever foods we eat that best suit our wellbeing, one thing is for sure:

A healthy person is a happy person 🙂

Not alone

So now I have a Labrador I consider myself part of the Secret Labrador Society. We all give each other that special wave and that head nod when we pass on our walks and we share tips on how to stop our pups from eating our shoes. We almost seek each other out and take comfort in having a similar interest.

Much the same can be said for my current sugar free self. I spend my evenings online looking at other blogs and Facebook pages that promote a sugar free lifestyle, desperately reassuring myself that my current headache and lethargy is worth it.

I have a rotten cold which I am convinced is half due to Perth’s arctic conditions and the other half due to the fact I can’t snuggle up in bed with a cheesecake to keep warm. Regardless of what’s causing it I remain determined to see this through. The fact alone that I can feel this way simply from cutting something from my diet is reason enough to prove it was never good for me in the first place.

Aside from the above the main struggle for me so far is a lack of variety and fruit. It’s so easy to whip up a nutritious smoothie or fresh juice or make a huge salad with a dash of lemon juice with pieces of mango in. Homemade raw balls call for dates and I’d do some questionable things for a banana pancake right now. But the last thing I want to do is replace my current sugar addiction with an overkill of fruit so I stand true to my word of no sugar at all for the 6 weeks.

And I believe this will pay off for me in the long run and my taste buds will thank me for it. A whole new appreciation for things such as fruit or raw honey are not too far away and I anticipate the processed stuff is not going to have quite the same ring to it anymore…

But above all I am looking forward to being proud of myself for doing this and excited to show people that anyone can do it. You can rid yourself of sugar’s hold and putting in the hard miles, just for a little bit, is truly worth it.

I read an interesting quote the other day that said “If you’re interested, you’ll do what’s convenient. If you’re committed, you’ll do whatever it takes.”

These words couldn’t be closer to the message I hope to give to people. I don’t want to talk about healthy whole-food dishes only to eat a magnum at the weekend. And I don’t want to discuss the importance of making time for yourself only to be going 100 miles an hour myself. I appreciate I can never be perfect but I can strive to be better.

I want to live and breath what I say to others and be about it, not just talk about it.

There’s a reason you go to a hairdresser for your haircut or a riding school for your horse riding lesson. These people ARE THEIR PASSION and I inspire to be my own and in doing so, perhaps inspire you a little bit too…

Let Go, Guilt Free, Kick Start

I hate things not going to plan to the point where it makes me feel anxious. Since moving to Australia I’ve found great comfort in planning for things and seeing them through, it’s been a security blanket in a way.

It makes me feel strong when I set my mind to something and achieve it like rolling out of my onesie an hour earlier to go for a run or opting for one of my homemade cacao balls instead of the easier processed option. I am all for doing things my way, going against the grain, as long as I’m not hurting myself or anyone else and even if it means putting in a little more effort.

But if we never alter from a plan then how do we learn to adapt to situations and create a solution? How is it healthy for us if things always go the way we expect them to?

I left Perth for Bali on Friday for a girl’s holiday or to be more specific, as a date for one of my pregnant best friends for her friend’s wedding and I already had a plan of action set out in my busy little mind. I was going to research massages and relaxation methods, sample healthy local cuisine and create new smoothie recipes using Indonesian inspiration. And I was super excited! I wanted to show people that going on holiday isn’t simply about eating more than normal and forgetting to exercise.

But then I thought you know what? It actually is and I spent 5 luxurious days eating all manner of Indonesian delights from coconut pancakes to greens with peanuts and satay sauce and passionfruit cocktails with a side of chocolate wedding cake. I practically lived in a bottle of red wine one night and I slept in till 10am daily. And I genuinely think I’m a better person for it.

What is life if it is not without balance? Why do I take care of myself 11 months of the year, fuelling my body with the foods it needs for optimal energy and pushing myself beyond my limits at the gym if there is no end release? No prize if you will at the end of it? There needs to be something we strive for in order to keep pushing, something in our minds eye that we reward ourselves with so we feel like it’s all worth it.

Being the best version of ourselves requires some effort; in fact it probably requires a lot more effort than we care to think so there comes a point where you just want to say “Sod it!” I don’t want to think about what I’m eating today and I don’t want to do 50 burpees. I want to wake up at 11am, throw on my bikini and sunbathe with a mojito in one hand and a croissant in the other. I want to celebrate being careless and free in this rare moment for no other reason than because I can!

My Bali blog post change of plan was a blessing in disguise. It allowed me to think about other topics which hadn’t arisen in my mind until this moment in time, topics that were important and relevant to not just me but I imagine to all of us.

It showed me that in order to be successful in our journey that first we need to we need to let go, just for a little bit. Let go of our routine and our pressures and lifestyle timetable and simply kick back. Eat that ice cream – eat 5! Do as you please and do it well.

But remember that in order to do it well we also need to be guilt free. It can be hard to enjoy foods you try to keep off limits or to laze around when you pride yourself on your gym attendance – I know this and it’s something that I have to constantly work on. But letting the guilt melt away is what leaves you with that amazing care free feeling and its music to your soul. It’s what lifts you after everyday life has worn you down a little bit, without you even realising.

And finally kick start your next life chapter after time spent recharging. Throw yourself back into your life with even more focus and determination than before and set new goals, make new plans. You’ve had time to think back on what you have achieved so far and can now look forward to what’s to come.

And when something doesn’t quite go to plan don’t be too hard on yourself. Instead relish in the fact that you stared change in the face and adapted to the situation and with grace at that. You didn’t run and hide or go and spoon your pillow. No, you offered change a Cosmopolitan and a space next to you on your sun lounger…

Time To Break It Down…

This Pecan Princess is a site dedicated to being your best self and by doing so, engaging in a lifestyle that is suited to you as an individual. There is no right or wrong way, just your way of living that enables you to be your happiest and healthiest.

So that being said I thought it was about time I firmly put in place the foundations for the lifestyle that I want to live and the reasons why, to lead by example.

For the past 6 months I have been following a fairly healthy regime that has seen a lot of processed and sugary foods out of my diet and an increase in quality meats, fruits and vegetables. I have found a gym which boasts a variety of classes that I love ranging from Muay Thai to boxing and dabbled in various other workouts such as Bikram yoga and Pilates to assist with flexibility and recovery. Needless to say I have felt heaps better from these few changes.

Now for someone else this might be enough and there is nothing wrong with this, each to their own. However on a weekend I have still allowed on occasion “cheats” such as a takeaway or sugar or dairy to sneak back onto my plate and the more and more I research and swap out the processed foods for the fresh, the more I notice the negative effects on my body when I revert back to old habits.

For example, a sugar hangover. Have you ever had one of these? It’s like a regular hangover only with this one you don’t have to go trawling back through your phone checking for messages you’ve sent the previous night to a guy you like (seriously, why do we do this?!) and it leaves you with a foggy head and a nasty insulin crash to go with it. Or how about good old dairy, I mean there’s nothing like a skin breakout after your naughty indulgence with the ice cream right? Bad skin and sugar crash, might as well climb into my onesie and sleep this one off…

Sure it only lasts for a day or so and soon enough I’ve detoxed my body and I’m back to putting the good stuff into it, the good old 80% versus 20% rule exercising balance and moderation. But how good for me is this really? How does this set me apart from say the classic binge eater just because my binges are pre planned for the weekend?

The more and more I research about nutrition and lifestyle, read other people’s stories or just listen to my own body, the more and more I question what I have been lead to believe is “the way” and now it’s like a loud noise I can’t shut off. I have opened Pandora’s Box and can’t simply look the other way now.

For example, who decided we should have breakfast, lunch and dinner and two snacks? Will we die if we don’t? Would it be unhealthy to not have dinner each day for example, or no lunch? I certainly don’t know the answer.

Here’s a question I do know the answer to. Why is there so much sugar in everything? Because it’s addictive. And when something is addictive, what happens? You want more of it and thus buy more meaning more money for the people that make it. Greed at the expense of health, a scary but very real truth.

So armed with this ever burning thirst for more knowledge I took to my iPad this past week and hit the book store to read the following:

The Kinder Life
The Omnivore’s Dilemma
The Primal Blueprint

Now just a bit of background on each to begin with..

The Kinder Life is a book written by the actress Alicia Silverstone and in a nutshell is a vegan lifestyle and therefore no meat or animal produce.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma is written by Michael Pollen and promotes a diet of mainly plants and a little meat, unprocessed and unharmed.
The Primal Blueprint is written by Mark Sisson and discusses following a lifestyle lead by our ancestors.

I advise you to read each of these books and whilst you’re at it, any other number of literature out there because the more you start to learn, the more awake you become.

For me, reading The Primal Blueprint was like a light bulb moment and I started to get very excited. It’s very, very simple. More grass-fed and organic meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. No sugar, dairy or grains. For me sugar and dairy have quite a negative effect and have no nutritional value what so ever so accepting it was time to say goodbye to those was no biggie. The grains time in my diet was coming to an end sooner rather than later, I already knew this. I had been spun the same line most of you probably have “we need carbs for energy” and yes we most certainly do but did you know that vegetables and fruits are carbohydrates, not just pasta and bread? I sure didn’t until about 8 months ago.

I loved that with the primal way of life it discussed how our ancestors would forage all day to find a meal, they wouldn’t add chemicals or additives to it – it would be fresh! And they would have exercised in the hunt for it, not driven down to their local drive thru. And after a day’s hunting what would they have done? Well rest of course, allow their bodies to recover and to repair. Too often we ignore our bodies signs for rest and we push ourselves too hard when what we really need is easy – sleep.

It really was so simple and how could I knock this way of living? The very way of living that allowed them to evolve into us. They didn’t follow this lifestyle and die; they followed this lifestyle and flourished! It’s a hard thing to argue.

And in a way realising all of this made me feel quite angry. Angry that as clever a generation we deem ourselves to be we are forever growing to be more and more unhealthy. Angry that billions is spent on sugary breakfast cereals that we are encouraged to feed our precious children. Angry that if we have an ache or a pain we are sold a pill to fix the problem. How coincidental that money would be the occurring theme in all of this…

It wasn’t really hard to make the decision to ditch the sugar, dairy and grains after all of this. And hey don’t get me wrong, I realise I have one hell of a sugar withdrawal battle coming my way in the next few weeks but I’m more than willing to tackle it head on.

And in true This Pecan Princess style I will not forgo treats and a happy lifestyle – I will still have my cake and eat it! But I will make better decisions. I am going to get creative with raw desserts and kiss goodbye to the sugar hangovers and pizza face. I am going to let go of what and how I have been lead to believe is the right way to eat and just use my head, even though it is a little scary.

For me the above just makes sense and it fits in with my life. I am 26 years old and only now figuring out a path that I want to take that may or may not be something you agree with. What do you want out of life? How do you want to feel? Are you willing to change your current beliefs in order to become a better version of yourself?

Agree or disagree, I hope I can still spark even the smallest amount of interest or passion in you during your search for something a little more. And in the meantime at least I can get you excited with some tasty primal dishes and raw desserts – what’s not to like about that? 🙂