DID SOMEBODY SAY RUN?

... Aaah! The thought of doing The Great South Run a few years ago would have literally made me run a mile! (In the opposite direction, to which I then would have collapsed on the floor). 

During school I was pretty well known as a serial 'P.E not do-er'... Writing myself notes for a 'bad foot' or whatever other mystery injury I could think up. Funnily enough doing so made me pretty damn good at forging my mums signature. Also plays a part as to me being a bit of human pork pie. 

Thankfully our habits changed and we're on too something good...

So, on October 26th 2014 Frog, myself and our third leg of the tripod, Ella will be running 10 miles for our chosen charities. It took a bit of thinking on my part but as we've spoke about it before... life is way too short so I thought why the hell not. The charity that is linked to The Great South Run this year is for Diabetes, as much as I am aware that this is a very horrible illness we have chosen to raise money for separate charities that are close to all of our hearts.

 I have chosen to raise money for the British Liver Trust in memory of Jadey. 

I feel very strongly about the importance of raising awareness for this and to get the knowledge of the different types of liver diseases and illnesses out there. I speak on behalf of myself and I know how ignorant I was to it all. It's ok, it's never going to happen to me, or anyone I care about. Things like that only happen on the TV, right?

Unfortunately not.

Knowledge 1 - Ignorance 0

Liver related illnesses are the fifth biggest killer in England alone and it is the only illness that manages to kill more and more people each year. 

Salma has chosen to raise money for Mind - The Mental Health Charity to raise awareness on the importance of mental health.

I also feel very strongly about the importance of this charity. It is one of biggest killers out there yet once again. IGNORANCE springs to mind. 1 in 4 people suffer from a mental illness and it can happen to any single one of us at any single moment. A little help from one another and the willingness to listen is sometimes all it takes. 

Please head over to our JustGiving pages. No matter how small, any donation is so greatly appreciated.

https://www.justgiving.com/CrystalGulliver/

https://www.justgiving.com/Salma-Abouelela

Anyway it's time to pack away the caramel digestives (noooo), get used to living in our running shoes and ensure we have an endless supply of water!

We really are so so grateful for any donation, or even anyone to acknowledge what we are trying to accomplish. 

♥ 

xxxxx 

WHALE ON THE BEACH

Diet. The term I never quite conquered.... So here I am again. Sunday evening, feeling very guilty and overly large. Oink, when my pals call me babe I'm not quite sure if they mean in the 'Hun' type way or as in Babe, the pig. The latter wouldn't surprise me. So tonight my food haul (sounds better than binge) consisted of French fancies Mr Kipling of course, Munchies cookies, a caramel dairy milk bar standard and 3 for a £1 sweets mmmm. So delicious but totally regretting it now. Currently googling how to lose 10 million stone and how to look like Candice Swanepoel

It's never gonna happen. So tomorrow's Monday which means a fresh start, right? I am a work in progress as of 18/08/14 (I'm not saying tomorrow as 'tomorrow never comes') The fact I have announced this publicly means there's no turning back. Wish me luck as I wave goodbye fat and hello bikini bod. 

I can do this! Let the body, see the sweat. 

If you have any tips please hit me up. Need all the encouragement I can get! 

frog xoxox

WHAT IS THE POINT?

... Is a question I have been asking myself over and over again. Yes I know questioning our existence is the first sign of going crazy but hey, crazy I am. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that has all sorts of questions flying in and out of my head on an hourly basis.

I look and all I see around me is people suffering, people crying and people clock watching - waiting for their working day to come to an end. Although there is an abundance of good in our lives it seems very rare to be able to find balance, happiness and peace. So really, what is the point? We live to work and work to live. We give up our dreams in order to make a living. Of course making money to sustain our needs is inevitable but we forget how special life really is.

I anxiously sat on the train whilst on my way to visit my Sister in hospital and I found myself looking at those around me. Those napping, those talking on the phone and those reading. Each one looking quite content but in reality we all know each and everyone is most probably dealing with their own description of hell, yet having to power on through day to day life. Despite us being fully aware of this people still aren't nice too each other. Why not? Every one is so ignorant to other peoples lives and we're all in our own bubble. Forgetting about the things that really matter. Being nice really doesn't cost a thing, it pays.  

I looked at myself in the reflection and reflected on my own life and I realised we all cling on to hope. Hope that tomorrow will be a better day. Happiness is just another day away, right? We race and chase in hope for more money, more success and most importantly more happiness. Yet really the thing that is most important to every single one of us is health. 

We pace through life as if we're invincible, as if we're to be around forever. We treat time as a cheap commodity and take one another for granted. We compete with one another, we compete for beauty, money, ownership and sadly we compete for each others happiness. We cling on to other peoples opinions which result in our way of living being rapidly changed by one's perception. We get stuck in jobs we hate, as if life is one disgusting habit. In our never ending race to survive, we become oblivious to the important things and become glued to routine. A routine that only very few people want to be apart of. 

Moral of the story...

Live in the moment. Life really is a gift to us, yet so cruel and it can be snatched away at any given time. The preciousness of our time with the ones we adore most is what is mostly taken for granted. 

As most of you are probably aware I lost my sister very recently - something that I can't even begin to put in to words. The sad thing is that it takes something so tragic to happen to make me realise that life really is so precious and completely unexplainable. I'm using this opportunity to take this emotionally draining journey to inspire me and to learn what really is important. 

It's time to restructure our lives (at least for me and my family). To restructure how we live, how we prioritise things, how we can contribute and most importantly how we can learn to live more fully in the moments we are blessed with. 

Surround yourself with amazing friends and family that you could never imagine yourselves without <3

Meaning of life - insert your own

Please, please, please all get yourselves on the Organ Donor Register if you haven't already.

https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/

We couldn't save my sister but hopefully one day we can save someone else's <3

Forever in our hearts, mine especially xxxx

<3 Xxxx

CARROT CAKE IS HEALTHY, RIGHT?

Last week I put my Betty Crocker socks on and got too work on my favourite cake of all; carrot cake. 

After heading to the shops to purchase the ingredients I realised it would have been a lot easier, not to mention cheaper to buy my own (or 10 in fact). However that would just be cheating and no where near as satisfactory. So I began my bake which consisted of:

150g self-raising flour

150g wholemeal flour

150g carrots (peeled and roughly grated)

125g soft light brown sugar

175ml sunflower oil

2 apples (peeled, cored and roughly grated)

3 eggs

1 egg white

1tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tap ground ginger

18 pecan nuts

& for the cream cheese frosting

300g low-fat cream cheese

3tbsp icing sugar (sifted)

1tbsp cremefraiche 

1tsp vanilla extract

This recipe is from Lorraine Pascal's 'A Lighter Way To Bake' which is great if you are looking to bake variety of cakes, breads, savoury bakes and many more in a slightly healthier way! 

This recipe was so easy to make, for the cake it was literally a case of mixing all the ingredients in a large bowl (minus the pecan nuts) and dividing the mixture equally between two 20cm sandwich tins then sticking in the oven for 30 minutes on 180C! Make sure before you poor the mixture in you have lined and greased the sandwich tins, I used a light spray oil for this.

This is what the mixture look like before going in the oven, not so appealing to eye. Then again, neither are we before we've hit the heat! 

 And this was them after, looking gorgeously golden! To check they are definitely done it might be worth sticking a knife through the middle, the knife should come out clean, if not it may need an extra few minutes. 

To make the frosting, again it is just a case of mixing all the ingredients in a bowl and then popping in the fridge whilst the cake cools.

When the cake is completely cool you can remove them from their tins and place half the frosting in the middle and the rest on top like so.... 

The pecans are used to decorate and to add an extra bit of sweetness to the cake. After baking the cake I realised I actually had enough ingredients to make two batches so I made one for Monk and another for myself.

Here they are! 

I will just add that it is probably best stored in the fridge in an air tight container, I left mine on the side and it went dry and not so scrumptious within a couple of days where as Monkey kept hers in the fridge where it stayed fresh and moist. The recipe is actually for a carrot and apple cake but it's taste is not dissimilar to a carrot cake. Delicious and healthy bake... Try it for yourselves or as kind gesture to a friend who needs some cake in their life (we all do from time to time)!! 

Mwaaah x x x x x