I'M STILL ALIVE!

I just realised how long it's been since I've posted on this blog and I miss it and need to get started again!!!

WOW though - SOOO much has happened since July I don't even know where to start!

First of all and maybe most significant is that I actually completed my Certificate III and IV in Personal Training through the Australian Institute of Fitness so I am now a fully qualified trainer which is amazing! I've learnt so much through the course and it's not only developed my skills to help other people but it's given me such a good understanding of how to achieve your fitness related goals. 

Something else that happened that's probably the most amazing thing to happen to me is that I've gotten a job with Bondi Vixen!!! For those who aren't familiar with Bondi Vixe, it's an outdoor training group for women right on Bondi Beach run by the incredible Vix Erber, one of the greatest trainers in Australia! I will make a separate post all about it very soon!

Those are the two big things that have happened but other than those I've had lots of smaller achievements. I'm really into my weight training now and I have such a better understanding and confidence around the gym now. Now more getting intimidated by all the big guys in the gym - I'm right next to them now doing my own thing and it's awesome :)

Miss Bondi 2013 Finals

I was also lucky enough to compete in the Miss Bondi 2013 competition at the Beach Roach Hotel and I made it in the finals which was incredible! Such a fun experience and got some cool stuff out of it too ;)

Anyway, keep checking back for updates, I'll definitely be making the time to be updating hopefully more than ever now that my life is really taking off in an amazing direction!

Danni

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2013 Australian Fitness & Health Expo

Hi again, long time no see! (not really, I posted like 30 minutes ago, but you can never have too many blog posts, right?)

So yesterday (21st April) I headed on down to the Sydney Convention Centre for The Australian Fitness and Health Expo!!

Oh my god I am so happy I decided to go. I was seriously considering not going but it was AMAZING! If you can next year you HAVE to go and check it out. So much incredible stuff to see and buy and everything is so amazingly cheap and discounted!!

By far my favourite stall of the day was the BodyScience stall - so great I had to visit multiple times. I spent a good amount of money there... more than I intended, but seriously how could I resist? Picked up some full length compression tights, a "Run Wild" singlet, and a sports bra, and because I spent over $100 I got a free sports drink powder:

I swapped it with my friend mixed berry flavour which I tried out at the gym this morning and it tasted amazing. Full review on all this BodyScience stuff coming sometime in the near future.

I also stopped by at Lorna Jane and got this awesome bright purple sports bra which is beautiful - everything was 20% off, it was mad!! Wish i had brought $10000 with me so I didn't have to think so hard on what to spend my cash on hahaha

I got so many free samples of so many products, I had enough protein in me to last me for the next year I think haha but it was so great getting introduced to all these different products that I'd never seen, used or even heard of before. Some were amazing (Giant Sports Delicious Protein in Cookies and Creme flavour) and others were not the greatest thing ever haha (I had some drink that tasted a bit like pool water...) but overall there was so much stuff to try and eat and drink that I didn't even have to buy lunch after haha! It was like the Easter Show but replace the fairy floss with protein bars and the best in the country animals with best in the country body builders!

Here are a few pics from the Expo:

Hot Fitness Models Competing.

Made me wish I was one, they had the most amazing figures.

Crazy Fit Guys doing Crazy Fit Stuff!
It was insane we were just like standing there with our jaws dropped to the floor.

5'1 tall me infront of an enormous car!!

annnnnd all the stuff I picked up! Love it.

This morning I hit the gym, excited to test out my new stuff. Will do a proper review later but here's some pics.

Anyway, that's all for now. Got some exciting things happening soon so stay with me and look forward to writing some more soon!

(Ps. Yes, I did break my veganism at the expo. Most proteins are whey protein which is a by product of cheese production. I also think I accidentally consumed eggs in a few things, and milk. But once in while, it's ok haha. I'm actually probably going to change up my diet and do vegan 5-6 days a week and vegetarian 1, but I also want to switch to whey protein from pea protein just because I think for what I want it for it'll be a lot more effective.)

See you next time!

Danni

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More Food! ;)

Hey hey,

How are ya all going? I've been super stressed out with uni lately, works all starting to pile up and I've got a 2000 word philosophy essay due on Friday... gaaah

But anyway, last week at uni I had an hour off to relax in the sunshine with my jar of apples!

A couple of people eating their hot chips gave me some weird looks, but I think apples in a jar is a great idea! If you're like me and don't like eating apples without cutting them because you know you are wasting more than you eat, cut them up, but em in a jar and squeeze some lemon juice over them (stops them from going brown and keeps the fresh!) and then you have crispy apple pieces to snack on throughout the day - perfect!

The weather in the Southern Hemisphere is getting chillier now so to warm up I love to cut up some sweet potato, sprinkle them with a little sea salt and bake them in the oven at 200 degrees until there soft but slightly crispy. Serve it with a little guac and that's it - yum

Annnnnnd my final food recommendation - zucchini pasta!
It's SO simple to make and tastes wonderful, not to mention is healthy as well and can be enjoyed by both vegans, vegetarians and omnivores a like!
I don't have a fancy spiralizer so I just grate one to one and half zucchinis on the biggest holes on the cheese grater.
The first time I made this I made a sauce by blending together a few sundried tomatoes with some cherry tomatoes and a small clove of garlic and then topped it with the cashew "Sour Cream" that I linked to in my Raw Vegan Taco post

Then the second time I tried something different and made the raw salsa also from the Raw Vegan Taco post and mixed it all together because I loved that dressing, and it went really well and was so gooooood!

Ok I lied I guess that wasn't my final food recommendation but this isn't really a recommendation - just sharing my yummy breakfast.

I picked up VitalGreens powder which contains a kabillion different super things in it to help you achieve your vitamin needs for everyday plus a couple extra super food things. 2 tsps of that with 2 frozen bananas and 200mL coconut water and you've got a fab and easy green smoothie! Paired that with some mixed berry porridge for a great breaky!

That's all from me this time! Have a great week everyone!

Danni

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Healthy Vegan Pancakes

Good morning! (or whatever time of the day you're reading this at)

Now I have to admit, because of this sudden change of weather in Sydney, the cold is making me want nothing more than something warm to eat, and of course there isn't exactly anything on the raw vegan menu that fits into that, so I've caved in a little and strayed off being raw for a couple of meals. This morning I made some lovely vegan pancakes and I'd love to share the recipe for anyone who might be interested... they're pretty healthy, too, so non-vegans might also want to use this recipe for a tasty morning treat!

Healthy Vegan Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup non-dairy milk of your choice
• 1 Tbsp agave nectar (or other natural sweetener of your choice)
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Method

1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Add wet ingredients and mix with electric mixer until combined. If the batter seems to have an overpowering taste of the baking powder, don't worry, it's normal and when you cook them it will disappear!
3. Cook them on a non-stick frying pan and flip when the face down side becomes golden. Make sure they cook all the way through
4. Serve with maple syrup, fruit, or whatever else you want to top it with and enjoy :)

...and there you go! totally simple and easy! I used sea salt just as a healthier alternative to table salt, and I also used low-fat soy milk however I would have preferred to have used almond milk but we didn't have any and I'm too lazy to go to the shop and get some... haha, and also I use extra virgin olive oil for the oil. Hope the recipe works out for you all and feel free to comment and let me know how it turned out for you!

Also, here's a pic of my banana raspberry coconut smoothie in my new jar, totally cute:

Hope you all have a fabulous Friday and a great weekend!

Danni

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Update

Hey again!

Sorry I haven't updated in the past 2 days... been busy with uni work and stuff!

So what's been happening? Not much really! But the raw vegan diet is still going on track except I have to admit... I received a Lindt dark chocolate bunny (they're vegan) on easter and I did eat it... so that's obviously not raw haha, and today I had tahini and cucumber on wholemeal toast... which isn't raw either but it's not that bad, right? haha I'm just starting out, I'm allowed to warm up into it. Speaking of warm, today was bloody freezing which is why I went for the toast because I desperately wanted something warm to eat :( I'll have to find a way around that.

Today I received my Ball Mason jars in the mail! They're so great, can't wait to fill them up with yummy smoothies and raw things :) I already tested out one of my handle ones today but I forgot to take a picture (who the hell doesn't photograph everything they eat these days?!)... but anyway it was a yummy banana, frozen mixed berries and coconut water smoothie - perf!

I did however take a pic of the amazing smoothie creation I made yesterday... this is a MUST smoothie for everyone, vegans and carnivores alike:

Pour approx. 200mL of coconut water into whatever container you're making this in, and add a sprinkle of chia seeds and let that sit for a couple minutes to thicken up. Then add 2 frozen bananas and blend. Then add a handful of strawberries and blend again - done! and amazing! Tastes like an ice cream packed thickshake without the ice cream or any of the bad stuff! All natural, the way it should be!

I've been exercising pretty well these past few days, too. On Monday I went for a 20 minute tempo run, which is basically going 20 minutes as fast as you can without having to stop. I went alright and I hit a record pace so that was good! Yesterday (Tuesday) I did an awesome amount of exercise - hit the gym at 6:30am for about an hour and half doing mostly weights with a little cardio, and then I did an hour Zumba class at 7:30pm. I seriously recommend Zumba to EVERYONE! It's SO much fun it and it's actually really hard work! Make sure you find a class with a great, enthusiastic, energetic instructor so you can get the most out of your workout, but seriously get out there and do it - you won't regret it! It's the greatest thing that's happened to working out so far :P

Today was cold and I had lots of uni work to do so I was lazy and did nothing except eat haha... oops... but tomorrow morning I got a boxing class at 6:45am so I'm looking forward to that 'cause it's always pretty tough! Then I'll probably go for a 45 minute easy run, following my "RunKeeper" app half marathon plan to prepare for the Gold Coast half marathon in July which I'm super excited about!

Anyway that's all from me for now, talk soon!

Danni

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Day One

Happy Easter everyone!

So today was day one of both my raw vegan diet change and my SkinnyMe teatox! So far so good, too! I'm especially impressed with my efforts to avoid chocolate at this time of the year :P

RunKeeper is a fantastic app,
recommend it to everyone!

I'm just going to do an outline of how my day went and what I ate.

Bondi Beach Looking
 Lovely This Morning

Woke up at about 9:15am, quite late but I was up late last night dueling wizard on Pottermore (Harry Potter nerd over here!). When I got up I went and made myself my first cup on the loose leaf SkinnyMe tea mix! I put the leaves in a tea infuser, although you can just leave the loose and drink the tea, which I might do tomorrow. The taste was pleasant, it's like a very kind of grassy green tea I guess, not sure how else I can describe it. After I finished my tea I went for an 8km slow jog down to Bondi Beach. As you can see in the screen shot from my running app, I did it in 1 hour and 9 minutes which for me is extremely slow, but that's ok because I actually haven't been for a run in a week or more which is not so good. But on the bright side this is the furthest I've ever run before! So I'm pretty happy about that. As you can see my average pace was 8:11 minutes per kilometre, and 4:58 minutes per kilometre was my fastest pace during the hour. For not having done any exercise in the last week I'm pretty happy and this progress. Since starting uni I've unfortunately slacked off exercising because I'm still getting used to this new schedule. The key is organisation so I just gotta sort out everything and I'll be back on track very shortly.

When I got home I prepared myself breakfast. I soaked some bircher muesli the previous night in organic, natural almond milk and in the morning I blended up some frozen raspberries and coconut milk yoghurt together and added it to the muesli, with fresh strawberries and blueberries on top. To accompany this I made a banana-blueberry smoothie which was yum! Here's a pic:

Yummy! My bircher combination needs a little tweaking but overall it was good and really filling too!

For lunch I had a salad made up of spinach, kale, cherry tomatoes and avocado, dressed with olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Also really filling!

Annnnd for dinner all I had was a few slices of watermelon, one granny smith apple and the water from one young coconut. It sounds like not much however I felt that what I ate from the rest of the day was still fuelling me and I really wasn't that hungry but it also filled me up surprisingly well! I just haven't felt starving at any point in the day at all which is really good because I guess that means my body isn't craving anything that it might not be getting enough of :)

I've just finished drinking the Colon Cleanse teabag from SkinnyMe tea and I don't know what all the fuss is about it not tasting nice - it's definitely tolerable and it didn't strike me as having a particularly strong taste at all or anything, I thought it was quite pleasant actually but maybe that's because I'm mad about any and all tea all the time haha! I soaked it for just over a minute to start off.. I'm a little nervous about tomorrow morning but I'm sure it'll be fine, I'm getting up an hour or so earlier than I would normally though just to make sure.

Anyway that's all for today, hope you all had a wonderful easter!

Danni

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SkinnyMe Tea

Hey everyone,

So to compliment my new diet change to raw, I've also decided to try "SkinnyMe tea."

SkinnyMe tea is a 'teatox' (tea detox) that cleanses the body from the inside out and also aids weight-loss. It's a 14 day program (also available for 28 days) that consists of drinking their loose leaf tea mix once a day every morning, which is a stimulant, creating energy and promoting weight loss, as well as being an appetite suppressant. The second part of the teatox is the "Colon-cleanse" tea bags, which is drunk every second night right before bed. These tea-bags create a slight laxative effect to effectively remove toxins from the liver and colon, further aiding the detoxification process.

One quick flick through their instagram page (@skinnymetea) and you can see all the incredible transformations people have undergone with the help of this program. Take a look and follow them for inspiration.

I wanted to try out this teatox primarily for the detox benefits, however I'm also looking forward to seeing if it helps me in toning up a little more, as I wouldn't mind trading a kilo or two or fat for a kilo or two of muscle, but we'll see what happens. A lot of reviews noted how fresh and clean it made them feel so I thought it was worth giving it a try! I ended up purchasing the 28 day teatox (2 x 14 day packs) because it was on sale for $55 instead of $60 (14 day teatox pack $35).

Anyway once I start the teatox I will make sure to keep this blog updated with my progress and experience. Looking forward to it :)

For all information about SkinnyMe tea check out their website:
http://www.skinnymetea.com.au/
and check out all their other fantastic products too :)

Danni
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An Introduction

Hello to whoever may be reading this!

Let me start off with an introduction - My names is Danni, I'm 17 years old from Sydney, Australia, and I'm about to make the journey into raw veganism.

On February 15 2013 I made the switch to vegan. Though influenced predominantly by ethical reasons, I was also seeking to benefit my health. I previously made an attempt to be vegan in 2012, however gave up around 2 - 3 months in. This time, the time just felt right and I organised myself to stick with the change and enjoy it. 

Towards the end of 2012 I discovered a new found love for health and fitness. For the first time in my life I loved exercise and wanted to strive towards becoming better and better. I joined a gym and also went for runs, working out a total of 3 - 5 times a week. 

With the new year I began to fall in love with an active and healthy lifestyle even more, and now I'm really determined to push myself and create the best possible version of myself, and continuing to push my fitness level to a place it's never been before.

At 5'1 and approx. 49kg (give or take a kilo), my journey is not about weight loss. I've always been a petite build and haven't ever struggled with my weight. This is about how my body feels on the inside, which in turn will also reflect on the outside. 

This Sunday (March 31st 2013) will mark day 1 of raw veganism for me and I couldn't be more excited. It just feels so good to give your body food in the purest of form, and you can feel your body reward you for this through clearer skin, more energy, and just life. 

I wanted to start this blog to share my experiences and track my journey, as well as hopefully inspire other people to join in on this healthy lifestyle. I plan on posting recipes and food inspiration posts as well as tracking my body's progress in fitness and health.

I have big plans for the future, including either a half or full marathon in July, so I'm looking forward to updating this blog and looking at my progress in the future.

Danni

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