"Fish are friends, not food!"

Be warned - this is a tedious link! I love that line in 'Finding Nemo' when Bruce the friendly shark is reminding himself that the fish are his friends, NOT FOOD! The tedious link here is that that line always makes me think about two things; food and friends (rather obviously), but more specifically that food is my friend, NOT FOE!

I hear so many people talk like food is their enemy, which definitely included me at one stage and occasionally I find it has its grip on me again. I write this having spent two days this week feeling not so great and giving myself a little (actually, a rather large) pep talk, so I don't write this from a place of having it all sorted by any means.

We're living in a world where so much food is instant, cheap and processed. I'm not convinced this is the stuff God designed us to be eating personally and if I take a quick look around, the proof is in the pudding (I love pudding).

I'm not saying lets eat lentils and carrot sticks all day (although lentils and carrots make GREAT soup!), but I'm keen to think about what I'm putting into my body because I think it has a far bigger effect than we understand. I'm not sure having rules of what I 'can' or 'can't' eat is ever a good idea - rules get broken and guilt follows, that's when food becomes an enemy. But I do think knowing what you're eating and knowing the effect it has can change what we put in. I want to eat as much natural food as possible with my lifestyle (the less processed the better), food that gives me all the nutrients I need and food that gives me plenty of energy to keep me going with all the day to day things.

Being slim isn't the answer, being healthy is. What we look like doesn't always accurately reflect what's on the inside. I want to put good, fresh and most importantly TASTY recipes on here because that's what I want to put in my body! I love food. Bruce-y wouldn't be proud but I'm determined for me and good food to be best buds :)

Delicious Banana cake...

Here's a delicious and easy banana cake recipe I've made recently. Its nice and dense because it uses natural yogurt which is a nice change from butter. It's also a nice treat to use up those brown bananas! I use gluten free flour for all my baking as I'm a coeliac but you can use the same quantities of regular flour. Happy baking!

Ingredients:
2 ripe mashed bananas
1 egg
70g brown sugar
255g natural yogurt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon (don't have to use this, I just love cinnamon!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
200g plain gluten free flour (or substitute for normal)
70g raisins or chocolate chips (whichever you fancy!)

Mix together all the ingredients adding one at a time in the order above. Bake in a loaf tin lined with greaseproof paper at 180C for 45 minutes. Simple!

Should look a bit like this!

For the love of health (and other things).

These days I love being active (most of the time anyway!). It wasn't always this way, until about 8 years ago I loved to sit around as much as the next person. I've loved my journey of becoming more active, particularly in running, but also experimenting with lots of other types of activity and fitness too.

Becoming more active has definitely been a journey and at times it has been a battle to do it for the right reasons. Although nowadays I do actually struggle to sit still and love being active, there was a time when my reasons for being more active were far from healthy. Wanting to be thinner was definitely a big pull for me to get into running, but thankfully I feel I have a different perspective now. I believe God has given us incredible and intricate bodies ("fearfully and wonderfully made" infact!) that need looking after and treating well. My motivation for being fit and healthy now, aside from now loving exercise, is to look after well what he's given me, which is helping me to live life to the full - activity and exercise definitely get all the right hormones going, whatever you're 'being active' looks like!

I love it when people find either their passion for being active or have the realisation for themselves about looking after their amazing body. I have a beautiful friend who has recently found she loves cycling and doing spin classes. She confessed herself that she hasn't been keen or able to do much exercise previously but has now found something that she really loves, her 'niche'. I guess that's what I want for everyone - firstly the realisation that we have a body to take care of (which includes far more than just being active!) and secondly finding that 'thing' they love and making it a part of their lifestyle, be it walking (even just to work or on a lunch break), running, surfing, cycling, football, boxing, dancing, swimming...the list goes on. It can be fun! Being active can be for everyone, it doesn't have to be going for a run!

Maybe today you'll find your 'niche'...our bodies were made to move!

Testing testing...

Well here's my first post...thought I'd give blogging a go as a space to share recipes, photos, ideas and  odd thoughts that I occasionally have (and it is occasionally when it comes to thoughts!) relating to the things I love. Hope that you enjoying browsing as the collection builds up over time and please feel free to share with whomsoever you like!

Sarah x