The Next Step & Wedding Planning

Our visa petition has been approved!! YAY! As you know Patrick and I got engaged in November and he immediately petitioned for my fiancé visa which has now been approved! I've spent the last few weeks gathering the paperwork (copies of passport, birth certificate, passport sized photos, police certificate, application form) and I have my medical exam lined up this week and after that it's interview time. I have to say I'm a little nervous as to what the medical will be like and the interview process itself as there is very little information online but that's been the same for most of this process! We have had very little information on what happens next until that step is required and so many things hinge on other processes it's quite frustrating, but! We are nearly there!!

In fact it's less than three months until our English wedding celebration (yes we are having two! A symbolic wedding with friends and family in the UK and then a trip to the courthouse followed by a party in America) and I couldn't be more excited! We went back to England from Norway for a weekend a few weeks ago and picked out our rings and I can't wait to exchange our vows and give Patrick his ring to wear forever. We've asked our close friend and person who brought us together, Louise, to lead the English ceremony for us and we've written the working for it ourselves so it's completely personal to us. It's going to be such a wonderful day and sometimes I just wish it was tomorrow!

However once I go home to England for the six weeks before the wedding there are lots of little things to prepare to keep me occupied! My dress will be arriving into the store the week I return and then I have my fittings - pretty sure I'm not going to want to take it off!! And then I'm meeting with our photographers, having our menu tasting, arranging our seating plan and planning a sample playlist for the DJ! Plus buying some presents for special people and some finishing touches to the decorations. I heard a lot about how stressful planning a wedding can be and I think the level of stress is totally about your attitude. It's easy to get bogged down in little things that at the end of it all, aren't going to ruin your day. If you remember that the point of it all is about you and your partner joining your lives together forever and as long as you both show up on the day it's going to be perfect! Everything else is just icing on the cake - beautiful, fantastic icing of course, but icing none the less. I have to say that I honestly know our wedding is going to be the best day ever and I can not wait to spend the rest of my life with Patrick!

Protein Packed Power Porridge

Breakfast is fast becoming one of my favourite meals to have. From smoothies to porridge to pancakes and everything in between I can't get enough of it! Before I was vegan it was easily my least favourite to the point where most days I skipped it. I didn't like milk so never had cereal, I had yet to discovered I loved peanut butter and that avocado on toast is delicious, so often just settled for a banana and powered through to lunch with coffee. These days I feel like I could eat breakfast foods for every meal and I have so much more energy in the morning!

Porridge is a great option for breakfast as it's quick to make and this version is full of amazing energy boosting foods that are great for your body. The 'protein question' is something vegans or people who follow a plant based diet can find themselves faced with quite often and it's the first thing people think you're missing out on when they realise you don't eat any animal products. However, there are so so many foods that contain protein that are purely plant based its easy to get everything you need without coming close to an animal so it's not something I ever worry about! This recipe is packed full of it without even trying and it's totally delicious.

Oats themselves are a powerhouse of nutrition containing a decent amount of protein (13g per half cup), vitamins, minerals, fibre and of course a great source of slow releasing carbohydrates to keep you feeling full and fuelled throughout the morning - I never run a race without a bowl of porridge in my stomach! They are also said to regulate blood sugar levels and help to prevent heart disease and other health issues which is pretty impressive! The toppings I add to my porridge are also a big hit of protein. My favourites are pumpkin and chia seeds, particularly chia seeds as they are the most protein dense seed and also a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, but all are excellent sources of protein so whichever toppers you choose you can't go wrong! The below recipe has just under 20g of protein in just one bowl - plant based protein couldn't be any easier!

The recipe:

1/2 cup oats* (I used rolled or old fashioned oats - not quick cook)

1 cup oat milk (or any non-dairy milk)

1-2 tsp cinnamon

1 banana, sliced (keep half for topping)

1/2-1 cup frozen raspberries (fresh are also great, and I often sub these for blueberries!)

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds**

1 tsp chia seeds**

Add all ingredients to a small pan except the seeds and half the banana and heat over a low heat. Stir mixture often, I like to mash up my fruit a little, until you reach the desired consistency for your porridge - for me that's about 10 minutes.

Transfer to a bowl and top with sliced banana and a sprinkle of seeds. Grab a spoon and enjoy! 

*If this is too much or not enough just amend the quantity of oats but keep the oats:liquid ratio at 1:2 and your porridge will always be perfect!

**Other great topping options include sunflower seeds, flax seed, nut butters, chocolate chips, shredded coconut, more fruit...basically anything you like!

30 days of Yoga Camp

As anyone who talks to me about yoga knows, I LOVE Yoga With Adriene. She's the most amazing teacher and guide you could ask for and she even accomplishes this through home practice videos on YouTube, not even in person (although she does run group classes in Austin, TX - what I wouldn't give to go!). I've spoken more about her attitude and approach in a previous post but this one I want to dedicate to the 30 day yoga camp she ran throughout January, now that I've come to the end.

This 30 day program is similar to the one Adriene launched last year but this time she took the idea of self love and improved body image through yoga to a new level. There were daily emails and mantras to focus on during each video to develop your practice and ultimately to reduce any negative thoughts about your yoga abilities and beyond. I've never been particularly good at switching my head of during yoga. Sometimes I find myself planning my day or thinking about other things while holding an asana and I have to make a conscious effort to bring my focus back to my breathing. Adding the mantras to my practice each day was such a great way to keep my mind in my yoga and in the moment. If I felt my thoughts drifting I would just repeat the mantra and it immediately brought me back to my practice.

Now this might sound a bit mushy, maybe even uncomfortable to think about, never mind work to improve, but with all the pressure we put on ourselves to maintain or achieve a certain image, the idea of accepting ourselves and nurturing out bodies instead of punishing them is a really important one! I'm going to come right out and say I've had body image issues and thought that the idea of loving and accepting my body wasn't something I ever thought I would be fully comfortable with. But luckily, I was wrong! I had been working on the idea of acceptance and nurture for a while so joining this camp felt like an excellent next step in my journey as I was totally open and on board with everything Adriene was saying and trying to cultivate in me through mantra and yoga. However, if you have not started your journey towards self love, or have long since embraced it!, don't let that put you off giving it a go because if nothing else, yoga is great for mind and body purely through its movements and if along the journey you start to feel better about your outlook on things and have less toxic thoughts then it's a bonus! Even if you're a total beginner there are always options for the harder or more advanced poses or if, like me, your flexibility is limited then no worries! Adriene has got your back, and so do I. The last day is open to 'free practice' and I must admit that at the end of the last 30 day challenge I skipped it because I didn't know what to do! But this time I felt more than comfortable listening to my body and what I felt I wanted to do or experience and created my own flow and it was amazing! My final mantra? I am enough. And so are you. 

My last few months...

It's been a while since I found myself moved to post anything on here. It's not that wonderful things haven't happened to me - the opposite in fact! I think I've been so wrapped up in moving from one thing to another and focusing on what's next rather than sitting down to appreciate and be grateful for all the amazing things that make up my life! So that is what I'm doing now. It's so easy to be swept along and always planning for the next thing - which isn't always a bad thing, don't get me wrong - but it's so important to realise that enjoying the moment is just as special.

So firstly, and most excitingly, Patrick and I got engaged!! It was such an amazing evening together followed by the very special moment in a place with a lot of meaning for us when he asked me to be his wife. As you can imagine I was over the moon, and of course said YES! I then had another surprise and found that all our friends had gathered together to celebrate the night away with us too which was just fantastic! The bubbles flowed ever so freely and I think it was my pure joy that saved me from the headaches that hit our fellow revellers the next morning!! 

I also ran my third and final half marathon of 2015 in Philadelphia with my dear friend Haya. It was a pretty chilly November morning but was my most relaxed and comfortable race yet! We ran together the whole way, keeping each other buoyed and motivated and we hit consistent time splits the entire way with even a sprint to finish. After our training and hard work it was an amazing morning and I was so proud of both of us and our 2:10 finish time!

Shortly afterwards I had my first thanksgiving, left New Haven to return to England for Christmas, had an excellent time celebrating the holiday season and my engagement all over again with everyone back home, met gorgeous puppies, started following Adriene's January Yoga Camp (a post coming about that soon!) and started planning the wedding! It's been extremely busy but hugely exciting and successful. Wedding planning has gone so well so far and I'm enjoying it immensely but more on that in another post too I'm sure! We've applied for our fiancé visa so just waiting for new on that and right now we are preparing to go to Norway for three months on Monday! The start of our next adventure and I'm so excited to see Patrick again after nearly two months apart - six more sleeps to go...!