Weekend

I rarely drink alcohol these days, but if I drink, I go for champagne ;)

This weekend I spent like never before! First of all, with new job I rarely have Saturday and Sundays off. Second of all, I travel to city centre not so often, even thought it is not so far away from place where I live.

with my lovely Mom

My mother's visit was the best excuse to change that! We celebrate her birthday (happy birthday Mom! :*), went on a musical, drank champagne during our shopping and eat lots of good food. 

Thriller musical at Lyric Theatre

wonderfully decorated Carnaby Street

After such intensive two days I am so happy and pleased. That was a really great break from (sometimes harsh) reality..

another glass of amazing champagne

our brunch at Grind Coffee Shop (Westfield Stratford) and healthy pouched egg sandwich

Last day at work

Recently my blog is full of 'lasts' - last aerobic hour, training, day at work. But soon I will post my first times in London! :) 

I am thrilled and a little sad. It was hard to say goodbye to my co-workers... But I have to admit, that I am glad new chapter of my career begins. 
In Sport og Mosjon I was not only instructor and that that other part of job wasn't as exciting as being a trainer... The more happy I am that we made a change :)

This is what I have got today: flowers from my bosses and Hungarian wine from my lovely co-workers, Eszter&Istvan. Thank You!

Hardangervidda/Flåm/Jotunheimen trip

As I promised, I am coming back with little update about my recent weekend trip.

As 17th of May is Norwegian national day and it is free, as well as 20th of May, we had all 4 days for ourselves! :)

the beginning of Hardangervidda - national tourist road

We started our trip from passing Hardangervidda - mountain plateau, which - on this time of the year - is still covered in snow and ice. 

Hardangervidda in the mid of may ;)

 Hardangervidda is an extraordinary place, which will be ever more special for me now <3

Stalheim hotel and mountains around it. Photo from visitnorway.com

Stalheim hotel was another destination on our trip. The view from hotels terrace is amazing, as well as the route down (Stelheimskleiva) - the steepest route in Europe!

view from Stalheim's hotel

grill on our way to next trip destination

 

marinated chicken was on the menu ;)

grilled chicken sandwich

Next 2 days we spend in wonderful small city Flåm, which is a Norway in a nutshell for me. 

 

Flåm in the evening

It has fiord, beautiful and high mountains around, little wooden houses and many mountain pathways for hiking, cycling and skiing. 

Up in the mountains with the view on Nærfiord

 We managed to take a proper mountain trip which took us few hours and was approximately 10km long. And found local brewery very welcoming the same evening :) 
We felt so good in Flåm and the weather was so amazing that we had to force ourselves to leave this hospitable place... :)

beautiful view from Stegastein

 Aurland's viewpoint (Stegastein) was the next on our tour. The weather was perfect for climbing up in the hills (with car this time) and admire Nærfiord from above.

grilled salmon - yummy!

grilled salmon menu :)

mighty Jotunheimen Mountains

Last, but not least, we crossed Jotunheimen - the highest mountain range in Norway. This was spectacular! But, I have to admit, very scary at the same time! We were there almost alone and the scope of mountains was even overwhelming! On passing mountain shelters, we met professional Alpinists who were discovering Jotunheimen Mountains by foot (and skies).

waterfall in Jotunheimen mountains

Despite it were only 4 days, I totally relaxed, charged my batteries and had a wonderful, and very emotional :), time. It was all about relax, chill, love, celebration and splurging! Like a proper vacations should be :)

first ice creams this year ;)

"Nordic's kitchen" ;)

Spring cheesecake

Birthday cheesecake: lemon bottom, jelly top :)

For my birthday I prepared light, fresh and fruity cheesecake. With lemon bottom and jelly top! :)

For lemon bottom I used:
* 2 boxex of vanilla quark (Kesam Vanilje)
* Stevia SweetLeaf Lemon Drop
* gelatin powder
* juice from fresh lemon 

Mix quark with Stevia Lemon. Dissolve gelatin powder (1 spoon) in water with lemon juice and add it to quark.

Fill the first layer of cake into baking pan and put it into fridge for at least 1 hour (the longer, the better).

For jelly layer I used:
* 2 packages of jelly 
* 200g fresh strawberries
 
While waiting for lemon layer, prepare jelly. 
I used normal jelly and I made it with instructions from package. I used 2 packages of berry and strawberry flavour jelly. You can also pick some fresh fruits which you could use on jelly layer.

When lemon layer has a good consistency, you can spill (very delicate!) jelly on it. Put fresh berries in jelly layer. Leave the cake for the night at the fridge. 
Enjoy :)

Birthday girl

even my Polar sends me b-day cake! ;)

Oh, recent days were so nice, exciting and joyful. I was (and actually still am) celebrating my birthdays!
 

despite celebration - yesterday and today were training days :)

I started just on Saturday with party, continue tomorrow with delicious dinner at Japan restaurant and today with amazing massage and planned shopping in the evening. 

my outfit from Saturday's party :)

 
The only thing I miss is my family around, by luckily I've got my beloved and friends with me :)

my birthday food - like a little girl, sweets&soda as pre workout and peanut butter for post workout ;D

With food I ate above, I had great energy during training and a little sugar shock right now, hehe (I am not used to such sweats and normally I avoud peanut butter because I can't eat only 1 spoon ;)

Birthday cake

My man had his birthday yesterday <3
For this special occasion I made birthday cake for him!

I used:
* chocolate healthier cake mix (40% less carbs, no sugar, 10% fiber)
* 3 eggs
* 100ml of neutral oil
* water

For frosting:

* melted Philadelphia Freia (Philadelphia with chocolate)
* mix of fresh berries

International Chocolate Day

All my Facebook wall shout about International Chocolate Day. There are also other sources claiming that September 13th is the one and only one Chocolate Day. However, it is still worth mentioning about it on the blog, isn't it?:)

To be honest.. I'm not a chocolate fan. Not that I don't like it, I just don't crave it (but yes, I have other craving haha)

My simple theory is that once you don't eat sweet, you do not crave sweet. I deducated it that when I am avoiding sweet/chocolate, I really don't have to eat that. But once I start, it takes me few days to go away from this urge of consuming it.

My sweet tooth is truly satisfied by cottage cheese with no sugar jam or, occasionally, protein bars.

Make sure that you're choosing smart when it comes to protein bars. Lot's of them all full of sugars, saturated fat and glucose syrop - as shitty as the bars you're fining in regular shops.


My today's choice for celebrating International Chocolate Day is a FortiFX chocolate deluxe bar. I love the fact that they are in 2 seizes 48g and 96g. Those 100g bars are way to big for me, too much calories. And eating only a half seems like impossible ;) So 48g is perfect portion for me. 
 

mine bars is that one in the middle :)

FortiFX is contained on whey isolate protein, does not have fructose syrope in it, it is half baked which gave it more cake than bar taste. 
Small bar has 15g of protein, 20g of carbs, 8g of fat and 190kcal. This makes it a good preworkout snack which I wouild need before my second aerobic class for today :)

my evening class is waiting :)

Happy Chocolate Day! :)

Norwegian Easter

As far as I observed, Norwegian are all about celebrating and getting into right celebration mood. 
I think it is very good to celebrate tiny little things, to make your life more colourful - Norwegians obviously know that too!

Easter goodies - lots of chocolate and marzipan

Shops were filled with Easter goods for about two month ago. 
Easter treats, Easter eggs, yellow flowers - everything which is yellow, with bunny or egg has its priority place in the shop shelves.

So how Norwegians celebrate Easter (norw. påske)? Few things catches my attention:

present boxes in shape of eggs

• presents (most of the times candies) are packed in egg-shaped packages

• it is a time of cross country skiing and having mountain trip

  

  'typisk norsk' tour kit

• trips to country houses are the standard 

•  Kvikk Lunsj (chocolate waffle) and oranges are THE MUST on that trips

• it is more about celebrating outside than inside

påske krim - also on to-do list during Easter

•  at least one criminal novel has to be read during Easter time 

For me Norwegians are spending their Easter in a very active way which is one we should learn from them! :)

 

 

 

Waffel day in Norway

At the same day when I am implementing my new training routine (more about it in next post) there is a waffel day in Norway!

This extraordinary day express Norwegian's love to that piece of baking. They served waffles preferable with Norwegian brown cheese and jam.

 

I have to admit that I haven't eat wafflels for years and it seems that I won't because I don't have special machine for making them at home.

However, I would like to share Funksjonell's Mat recipe with you for healthier waffels which do yourself at home (recipe in Norwegian can be find here)

 
You will need:

50g butter/margarine
4 eggs
100g Sukrin Gold
240g flour
40g FiberFin
0,5 spoon baking powder
0,5 spoon cardamom
5dl (50ml) of milk


Mix all ingredients and let them stay for 15-30 minutes. After that bake in waffel machine. Serve preferable with soe lowfat quark or cottage cheese and jam :)

Support from Chalene Johnson!

Oh, I received the nicest gift I could possible imagine!

The person who is a fitness and business guru for me, Chalene Johnson, send me her book about Personal Training business with special dedication! (I wrote about Chalenes book here)

It is an amazing feeling! She has got 134.000 followers on Facebook, 41.000 followers on Instagram, is NYTimes best selling author and she still found time to contact me personally and send me some inspiration!

No I have no chances to fail, if Chalene Johnson is supporting me, I can achieve anything!

Exploring London

We have a wonderful time, here in London. No time to share everything, but at least I will put some memorable photos from last days. 

Thai kitchen for the first time! Dinner on Valentines Day <3

 

Amazing musical 'We Will Rock You' which we sow on Valentines Day

Exploring the city - China Town

M&Ms shop

Shopping at Holland&Barrett

amazing steak for dinner!