Recipe | Harrisa Spiced Sweet Potato Salad

I love warm salads, and the other day I was rummaging around in the kitchen, trying to find something that would be warm, comforting, and yet still healthy. This harissa spiced sweet potato salad is what I came up with, and it was delicious, and only 236 calories.

It's really quick and easy to make, and really tasty too.

Cut the sweet potato into cubes, place on a baking tray with a little oil (I used coconut butter), and add half a tablespoon of harissa spices. Mix together and place in the over at Gas Mark 5, for 20 minutes or until soft.

While that cooks, chop up 1 cup of raw spinach and place in a dish. Add half a can of drained chickpeas, season with half a tablespoon of harissa spices, salt, and pepper.

Once the sweet potato is soft, remove from the oven and add to the salad.

Enjoy!

Let's Try Something Whole

Hi all,

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about getting healthy. For me, when I started this weight loss journey, it was primarily about that. Weight loss. I knew I wanted to be healthier as well, fitted, more toned etc, only I never truly believed that I could be healthy. Not fully.

When I was sixteen, I was diagnosed with an illness called POTS and it completely changed my life. You can read more about how it affected me, by clicking here. But in short, I lost my good health, and that's been really hard. 

So while I've been dieting, I've hoped that if I exercise more, I'll feel a little better, but I was slim when I was diagnosed, so I never truly believed I could be healthy. Over the past few days, my outlook on this has absolutely changed. I now hope that I can be healthy, and I mean, off my medications, able to go out on my own, and get a job kind of healthy.

This has all become possible, because of a blogger that my mum found while looking into different diets. She came across the blog and book Deliciously Ella, and started to read a little about her. She's a woman, who also had POTS, and started following a wholefoods, plant based diet, in order to feel better. It worked. Two years on, she was off her medications and living a normal life.

So that's what I'm going to be trying from here on out. Gone are the processed foods, the sugar, gluten and dairy that's been in my diet for so long. I'm going back to basics, and while I will be eating a little fish and chicken along with it, primarily my diet will be plant based.

I'll be sticking to wholefoods, organic as much as I can. Eating more fruit, veggies, and things like chia seeds, almond butters, and wonderful smoothies.

I'm going to be having food in it's purest form, in the hopes that it might do for me, what it's done for Ella, and somewhere in the next couple of years, I could be healthy.

Along the way, I'll be sharing my progress, and some recipes I try. Both ones I find from other blogs and books, and some I create out of whatever I have in the kitchen.

I have no doubts that it's going to be really hard. I'm a sugar junkie at heart, but I'm also determined. I've been struggling to find diet inspiration for a while now, and what better inspiration, than getting my health back.

Smoothies and an Update

Hi all,

So it's been a while since I wrote something on here, and it's not because I've given up on the diet. I just had no internet for a little over two weeks! It's back up and running now, so I thought I'd do a quick update.

I'm currently sitting at 9st10lbs, and I'm really excited to get my weight into the double digits, hopefully this week.

I'm trying something new for July. My sister decided to do a 30 day smoothie challenge, drinking one smoothie a day, along with regular healthy meals. She asked me if I wanted to join in, and so that's what I'm doing.

Yesterday I had a grape, apple and spinach smoothie which was delicious. Today I opted for a mango and kale one, which again was really good. 

I'm hoping this will be a good way to get more fruit and vegetables in my diet, and make me stop reaching for sweet treats like chocolate and cakes.

It's no secret that I have a very big sweet tooth, and I need to quit this habit and swap it for healthier snacks.

I need to exercise more, though, because this week I've barely done anything.

So, here's hoping that this last 19lbs will go soon.