A Balanced Birthday Weekend (March Goals)

Thank you to everyone for all the lovely birthday wishes this weekend! My parents came down to visit on Friday, and my Mum made me the most awesome running shoe cake! It was a chocolate cake inside with chocolate buttercream, so tasted heavenly too- in fact, I've still got some left to look forward to after work today.

We went along to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition- there were some beautiful photos, it must be so hard for them to judge. My favourite was actually the Winner of the Earth's Environments category which depicted an amazing volcanic eruption and lightning show.

On my actual birthday I met up with my friend Jo for a "Wellness Afternoon Tea" at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery restaurant (The Magazine) in Hyde Park. The tea included little bottles of green smoothie, and loads of other tasty concoctions such as goji berry scones, and yoghurt and passionfruit meringues- washed down with champagne of course!

Sunday I headed along to the BBC Good Food Eat Well Show for a couple of hours and picked up a few goodies, including some of my favourite Bounce ball flavours (spirulina!) and Chia porridge! This was the first year of the Eat Well Show, bringing together healthy food brands alongside an inspirational line-up of healthy eating chefs and celebs.

I was lucky enough to catch the Hemsley sisters on the Interview stage, and in the Healthy Kitchen whipping up 4 different meals in half an hour! Including their courgetti and ragu, one of my favourites, and their black bean brownies which I definitely want to make next! I bought their book recently and can't wait to get stuck into a few more of the recipes.

I was going to use this post to write about my goals for the month of March, but they're still a little unfocused in my mind at the moment. I took all of last week off to recover from Brighton Half Marathon, and am struggling a little to know what to do next!

I have a few things on my agenda including a Sally Parkes Yoga Retreat this weekend on the south coast, which I am so looking forward to! I'll be writing a blog post when I get back, but the retreat includes Dynamic, Hatha and Restorative yoga as well as Pilates. And walks along the coast in the fresh sea air too!

I've also signed up to Julia Buckley's online community, so I can take part in her CXXX Challenge- this incorporates strength training and HIIT workouts over 30 days to help shed fat and build muscle. I won't be completing the videos in 30 days but I thought they would be great to add to my schedule of running and cycling. I did buy her book The Fat Burn Revolution last year, intending to add it to my training for Brighton, but never got round to it! Fail. I also think that watching a video will be easier than trying to follow pictures and instructions in a book, at least until I get the hang of things.

Finally with Spring around the corner, I'm hoping to head out on my new bike, the Liv Rove 0, and maybe even investigate cycling to work- although I much prefer the idea of a few muddy trails at the weekends!

How was your weekend? What are you planning for March? 

Beki x