March 2017 – MISS HOLLY P

When going to London there are many different places to go and see and sometimes it can be a real struggle to not end up in a chain or a tourist trap if you aren’t familiar with whats going on around you. The struggle is also real when wanting to live the lifestyle of your fave celebs and stars of instagram with what looks like endless days of wining, dining and living it up.

I’ve popped together a little guide of some tried and tested places that I’ve been that shouldn’t break the bank.

So for me the staple to any day out revolves around eating and with the choice around London making a decision on one place to go can be tricky. It’s amazing how many people that I’ve spoken to even my friends who live there who don’t know about the Book A Table- Star Deals. This is quite literally where I begin to plan my trip for either lunch or dinner. There is something on the for most tastes and price ranges and if you’re a real foodie or have a taste for the finer things Michelin star restaurants are frequently included and lots of beautiful places that are definitely a must see at least once like Aqua Shard and other restaurants in the Shard. If the choice is still too much I have never been disappointed by relying on good old Trip Advisor to find the quality in the quantity.

I have eaten in the Northall restaurant at the Corinthia hotel twice on their 3 course menu including champagne for £35 and more recently ate at Roux at The Landau for the same 3 courses with champagne for £38. Sadly Michel Roux JR was not there but it did excite me as a foodie and film lover geek that it was where Burnt was filmed (loser, I know) Both are absolutely stunning restaurants in even more stunning hotels, the staff and service is just incredible and you feel like nothing short of royalty. The Artesian bar in the Langham where Roux is was once classed the #1 cocktail bar in the world and is fab if you want something a little different.

One deal thats always on there that has amazing reviews is steak, lobster and a cocktail plus a £50 betting chip at the Heliot steakhouse above the Hippodrome casino for £20!! So you could actually leave full of surf ‘n’ turf better off!!

Then there is that most wonderfully relaxing meal that chilled out weekends are made for B R U N C H. For me- someone who definitely enjoys the happy times in life with a drink to go with it- brunch is just breakfast without a glass of fizz! Bottomless brunch hasn’t hit the doors of Norwich yet sadly so is something that I very much look forward to when having a weekend morning in the big smoke. If this sounds right up your street and you wanna research further there is an amazing website which will narrow down all your drinking needs and specifically has a page for boozy brunches- Design My Night so have a browse.

I have tried a couple and they are both opposite ends of the spectrum…

Villandry– Great Portland Street and St.James you get here free flowing prosecco, OJ, 2 rounds of tea and coffee, a brunch meal, a freshly baked pastry and a cake from their in house patisserie and 2 hours to do it in which is definitely long enough to really get your moneys worth on the bubbly. £35. Villandry is a really pretty Parisian style cafe bar and is definitely a lovely one if you’re out with the girls or other prosecco enthusiasts! Served Saturday and Sunday 12-4pm

The Big Easy– This is totally the opposite end of the spectrum and if you hit the name link it will take you to the menu because this one is an absolute gut-buster if you want it to be. If you choose the BBQ option not only are your drinks free flowing (Prosecco, house wine or lager) but the bbq is bottomless too!! Alternatively you can also have a whole lobster and fries and its all for £29.50. This one I went to with my boyfriend and definitely had more of an atmosphere that a lad would enjoy. I happily enjoyed my lobster and fries with a few glasses of Prosecco and Jamie had a feast of unlimited meat and beer so we were both happy and no accusations of getting dragged around ‘girly’ places. Saturday and Sunday 9-5 and kids even eat free too!! I believe this is only available at the Covent Garden and Canary Wharf branches and not Kings road.

Then one of my absolute favorite hidden gems.The Wright Brothers Oyster House every day 7 days a week all branches of The Wright Brothers do an oyster happy hour where oysters are £1 each between 3 and 6pm. That it literally a fraction of the price you would pay ANYWHERE else and they are so delicious. I normally go to the Kingly Court branch just off Carnaby and it always has a great buzz if you sit out the back in the court. Our bill came to literally £25 for a dozen oysters, beer and Prosecco which is under half what you would pay up the road at the Selfridges oyster bar!!

These are a few of my favorite places to go when I’m in London if I’m looking to feel special and experience something lovely and not break the bank! I can’t wait to try more book-a-table deals in the future!

Do any of you lovely lot have any tips of places to go? Or any of these places your favorites too?

Love H x

So after a starting the year so well and shedding like half a stone really quickly from being bang on it with the meal prep and doing classes like every other day minimum it all went a bit wayward as my social calendar started to fill and in came the burgers and booze and buffets! Goodbye diet, hello some of those pounds lost.

I was kind of not really too bothered as it was cold and sitting on my bum watching tv and eating cake seemed preferable to going to the gym in the snow and eating raw kale for lunch. When I was having on of these said couch potato days I came across a show on channel 4 called “how to lose weight well”. It’s on the All 4 player and is so worth a watch- I binged every episode season 1 and 2!!

In a nutshell each episode puts 6 diets into practice on real people dieting for real occasion on different time frames. Over the many episodes I watched the diet which stood out to me the most was The Omni Diet which the girl who did it lost a stone in 2 weeks!! I thought to myself “I can do that”.

I’ve been on a relatively clean eating diet plan for around 3 years now since I first had a personal trainer and I know that I enjoy that kind of food and I lost 2.5 stone from the start of my journey so for me the omni diet really was a case of cutting out the dairy, bread, grains, gluten etc.

Now I can’t necessarily guarantee how long I could sustain this for or how good for you it would be long term but this week I can assure you my cravings for sugar are reduced, I have been getting much fuller much quicker and I haven’t really missed the dairy at all! After doing it just for 7 days in the lead up to a work trip I can confirm I lost 6lb in one week, it works.

The diet itself main structure is a 70:30 ratio of plant based foods vs protein. It promises a weight loss of up to 12-15 pounds in 2 week, health benefits from the intake of the plant based foods, improved digestion, anti inflammatory properties and reduction of bloating. So instead of 5 a day I’m talking like 10 a day!!! It was created by Tana Amen who is a registered nurse and bachelor of science in nursing and she believes that this diet not only changes your body and eating habits but your mind too. You can read more about Tana here

The diet itself is pretty strict and could end up quite pricey if you are doing it completely by the book as all meat should be lean naturally raised and all seafood wild-caught which would be preferable in an ideal world so I have adapted it to suit me and really embody the key principles of the diet and steer clear of anything on the don’t list which you can read a handy summary here

I also used my fitness pal to track the calories and nutritional values which really helped and the diet was averaging about 1000-1200 calories a day.

I thought I would just share some of the meals and snacks I have been having which I found really quick, easy and tasty. I worked with the eating sequence of breakfast – snack – lunch – snack- dinner – snack.

Everyday for breakfast I had a green smoothie which I make out of a frozen mix I get from Aldi for £1.99 for 6 portions. They do an exotic one too, these are great if you are skeptical about having loads of fresh food around and an unpredictable schedule. It has a little banana in it which is on the no list but I figuered it shouldn’t hurt so…Coconut water, green mix (kale, mango, banana and lemongrass) blitzed in a Nutribullet. Nutritious, delicious. Other ideas include poached eggs and salmon, spinach, avocado, poached eggs and tomatoes and any combo of the above.

Morning/afternoon/ evening snacks– berries, almonds, carrot/celery/pepper/cucumber sticks, hummus, cold cuts of beef or turkey.

Lunch– a little repetitive but on the go and at work it was just super easy, I would cook up a load of kale and frozen peas, let it get cold to use as the base greenery for my salad (you could also use any salad leaves or spinach for this too), I would add cherry tomatoes, tinned sweetcorn, cucumber, sometimes avocado, olives, artichokes, beetroot the options are endless and then normally a tin of tuna to finish it off with a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Turkey breast and chicken breast work great too. I know that cheap tuna is a no no from Tana but to keep it affordable I have just used whatever meat and fish I can get my hands on.

Dinner– A staple meat or fish- turkey breast, chicken breast, steak, cod or salmon (you get the idea) a load of veg for my 70% so like asparagus, kale, broccoli, mange tout, mushrooms (high in protein and totally fills you up) and the beauty of this diet too is that you CAN have sweet potatoes! So a baked sweet potato with salad and tuna is not off the menu either (just sadly no butter allowed)

To cook everything I have tried to steam, boil or dry bake as much as I can or eat raw so I really can truly track what I’ve eaten.

All in all a really good diet, I am definitely gonna do another couple of weeks when I get home as it truly did work and anyone trying to push for a last couple of weeks for an occasion or holiday I thoroughly recommend it. I wasn’t starving on it, i think I was getting all the nutritional quality I needed and it has changed how I look at food in terms of discipline.

Advice- definitely keep a food diary, be prepared- make it in advance, have the ingredients you need to make it a success, drink a lot of water and try to enjoy it!

Thanks so much for reading! I’ll let you know of any future success I have! Any readers thinking or trying this diet? Or already tried it?

Love H x