6 Week Challenge

Here's something I never talk about - health and fitness. I've had a battle with my weight/health/fitness/lifestyle for quite a few years, I went through years of very destructive behaviours and feelings but since becoming more aware of the fitness and healthy community via Youtube, Blogs, Twitter, Instagram, I feel like I have a much healthier mindset. 

I won't go into detail because that wasn't the point of this blog post, it was to tell you all what my six week challenge is! I'm going to set myself three types of goals, a short term one, a mid term one and a longer term one. 

Short - Feel less bloated

Medium - Run 5k

Long(Not to be necessarily achieved in six week, just an overall long term goal!) - Size 8/10, bikini photo, flatter stomach 

My short term goal is something that will be achieved in a few days, medium is something that might take a few weeks and then long term is where you can start to look at cosmetics as obviously this will take you longer! I'm trying not to focus on my appearance too much as that is where I have gone wrong before. But I have taken some initial underwear shots (not to be shared just yet) so that in 6 weeks time I can really compare and see the difference! 

I've started a food diary where I note down everything I eat, how it made me feel, how much sleep I've had, what times I get hungry, literally everything. This will help me to see which foods don't make me feel my best so I can avoid/cut down on them and also just track what meals were really nice! 

Left: Carly Rowena (Instagram) Right: Jess Wreford (Instagram) Photos both from their instagrams. 

All this goal inspiration has come from Carly Rowena who you may have seen on YouTube (here) who is beautiful, fit, strong and healthy. She's so inspiring and motivating so her YouTube videos have been binge watched these past few days! 

Secondly, is Jess Wreford who has just started a YouTube channel (here) (so looking forward to her content!) and her Twitter is (here). She is a nutrition student so she is super awesome at knowing what's right to eat at certain points (after a workout for example) and has some awesome recipe's over on her Instagram (here). She's inspired me to take part in #NoJunkJuly which is pretty self explanatory and I am joining in despite going on holiday this month (eeeeeek!) motivation pls! 

I will update y'all after six weeks with my progress photos which will hopefully look a lot better but for now you can keep up with me over on Twitter (here), Instagram (here) and Snapchat (@bonjourkatie)!

TL:DR

I'm setting myself health and fitness goals for 6 weeks. I want to feel less bloated, be able to run 5k and be a size 8/10, feel comfortable in a bikini and have a flatter stomach. My main 2 motivational inspirational girlies are Carly Rowena and Jess Wreford cause they know exactly what they're talking about when it comes to food and fitness! Join me over on twitter/instagram! 

// CRAB PASTA //

I love cooking and baking, but when it comes to food, I've always been someone that wants to try new things but is a little scared of wasting it if it doesn't take my fancy. But, I'm branching out and this summer I intend on finding lots more foods that I like and improving my palette. (Also an excuse to drag along my boyfriend to restaurants to try things too!) My Grandma also loves cooking and one of the recipes we love to cook together, I actually wrote a blog post about, it was a delicious Chicken, Chorizo and Lemon Linguine and I make this at uni for myself too, so quick, relatively cheap and tastes great. 

I like fish but again, have never really branched out from your regular cod/haddock/tuna/salmon and when my grandma said she'd bought some crab we quickly scoured her recipe books and this is what we came up with. Big apologies for the iPhone/Instagram snap but I had no intention of blogging this recipe until I was scrolling through my instagram feed (anyone else do this?) and remembered how delicious it was and thought to share it with you. 

for two people, you will need // 

• 100-150g Linguine/Spaghetti (depending on how big you want your portions)
• 1 garlic clove
• Spring onions (we used about 10)
• Cherry tomatoes (we used around 15)
• 100g dressed white crab
• Chilli flakes (to taste)
• Lemon juice (about a tablespoon)
• Tomato puree - to thicken and help coat the pasta
• Fresh parsley - as an optional garnish

method //

1. Put the water for the pasta on to boil, then chop the tomatoes/spring onions and crush the garlic, and then fry in a little oil until soft. 
2. Once the pasta is cooked to your liking, drain and then add the tomatoes/spring onions/garlic mixture, the chilli flakes, lemon juice and the crab and stir together. If the 'sauce' isn't quite coating all the pasta then add some tomato puree (or tomato ketchup if you have to puree).
3. Heat through for about 2 minutes and then serve with a garnish of fresh parsley

per portion, it works out at around 266 calories so not bad considering you're using pasta! It's a light pasta dish which would be perfect as a big lunch or light dinner and as you can see, is so quick and easy to make.