It was a cold winters day in Sydney, Australia (yes it does get cold here)..  I was taking advantage of study break and working on my quirky blog when suddently a light bulb moment dawned on me, “ching ching”..  I realised I was able to modify the layout of my blog which pleased me immensley as it was on this day that the quirky blog received its first facelift and moved to a more aesthetically pleasing format!!

As the sun started to set I looked at the time and realised it was close to 5pm and as I had been on working on ‘project blog’ all day and therefore sitting down, I was close to developing  “bloggers bottom”..  It was at this time I knew I had to practice what I preached..  My inner coach was trying to motivating me to go for a run but there was another voice inside me with a stronger counter arguement telling me it was too late, the run was too long, people would laugh at me running and this voice stated I was too slow a runner so why should I bother..  Who was this voice?  This voice was my inner critic, the voice inside that judges us, tells us who we should be and makes us feel bad about ourselves by undermining our self confidence…

 

An example many are familiar with is the experience of the inner critic when we are trying to eat healthy.  We may feel that we have failed ourselves by eating “that” chocolate bar at which point the inner critic pipes up and tells us what a failure we are, stating we can not stick to a healthy lifestyle so why even try!!  Often this results in a junk food binge resulting in us feeling even worse..  BUT don’t dispair as this is where our inner coach is extremely helpful, the inner coach is the one that suggested the run in the first place right??  It is up to us to silence the inner critic and employ our coach to empower us with our tasks at hand (in all aspects of daily life not only our healthy eating regime).  I am very lucky to have an amazing coach who on this day motivated me and told me I would feel amazing after the run, as a result I listened to my coach and ran the 7km Bay Run (the Sydney siders will be familiar with this) in 38 minutes and 41 seconds..  Not a bad effort if I do say so myself, thanks coach!!

I arrived home after my run with my endophins at an all time high and before too long my appetite kicked in..  I liaised with the boyfriend on a dinner discussion and being self employed he had a conference call scheduled at 6.30pm on a Sunday so kindly requested that I grab a few groceries..  My mum always told me it was the thought that counts so I thought about it for umm… possibly 3 non consecutive minutes and then I decided to pull an “Old Mother Hubbord” trick again!!  I looked in the cupboard and fridge and let me tell you that cupboard was bare..  Was it possible to have two light bulb moments in the one day I wondered and true enough it was as I found 2 x packets of slim pasta, 1 x chilli, 1 onion, 1 x zucchini, a tin of tomatoes, a pack of fat free bacon and some dry basil!!

This actually serves 2 plus a snack but the calorie yield for 2 serves is 275 calories per serve!!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

210g of zucchini

1 x chilli (I would have used 2 but I only had 1)

1 Tablespoon of olive oil (I use cold pressed)

1 x large onion (approximately 180g before peeled)

410g tinned tomatoes

175g of 97% fat free bacon

Directions:

1.    Chop onion, bacon, zucchini and chilli
2.    Place 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in your pan

3.     Add onions and cook for approximately 3 – 4 minutes (until they are soft)

4.    Add zucchini, bacon, garlic and chilli and cook for another 2 – 3 minutes

5.    Add the tin of tomatoes, salt, pepper and mixed herbs you are using (I used basil as that is all “Old Mother Hubbord” had)

6.    Mix the sauce around and let it simmer for about 3 minutes

7.    In the meantime rince the slim pasta under cold water for quite some time (it has a rather terrible smell once you take it out of the packet but do not be alarmed as after rinsing the smell will go)

8.    Place the slim pasta in a heat proof bowl big enough for it to fit (I used a pot)

9.    Boil the kettle and when the water has boiled cover the slim pasta with the water

10.    Mix the pasta sauce to ensure it does not stick and after 2 minutes drain the slim pasta to remove the liquid

11.    Once the slim pasta has been drained, add it to your pasta sauce

12.    Mix the slim pasta with the sauce until combined

13.    Serve the slim pasta and enjoy!!

***NOTE*** You could always mix some rocket in to the pasta after you take it off the heat and sprinkle with fresh parsley but as I said I had limited supplies.

I have stated that this serves 2 but there was a little snack left for the next day but I wouldnt class it a meal therefore the estimated calories for this meal as stated above are a tad inflated but not by many.  This is what we had remaining………