Good day mates (hehe)! Happy Thursday! I was Skyping my sister Ellie yesterday evening and was absolutely convinced it was Tuesday until she pointed out that it was Wednesday. I feel like I lost a day! Time is ticking by and trying to make the most of every day. I went on a little afternoon trip yesterday after the gym. The class was good and we did a lot of skill practise. I got a chance to work on my strict handstand push ups which was fun. Then for the conditioning part I was in a group with three guys from the gym and trying to keep up with them hehe. It’s great when you get put into a group of people who are better than you because it makes you push yourself to keep up.
Anyway, for my afternoon trip my goal was to try to register for Medicare, which is the Australian health care (from what I’ve gathered). As a Swede I can sign up for this because we have reciprocal health care with Australia, so does the UK. I got there and was handed a form and told it we be an hour long wait to get served so I decided to come back in another day.
I spent the rest of the afternoon strolling down Chapel Street which is a very hipster area. I got off at Windsor on the Sandringham train line. The place if full of cool street art, coffee shops, second hand shops and other shops to look at. It reminds me a bit of Camden and Shoreditch in London. I’m a bit low on clothes and stumbled upon a nice clothing shop called The Bronze Snake Shop where I miraculously found two tops that I liked. It just never happens that I find normal people clothes I like these days so I had to buy them and expand my minuscule wardrobe a little bit.
This was not the point of the post at all. Talk about going off on a tangent! What I was going to write about really was Blue Dinosaur Bar. I don’t know if any of you follow the health and fitness Youtuber Sarah’s Day? She used to talk about these paleo bars all the time and I was curious as to whether they are actually as good as she said. She was singing their praises constantly. Here in Australia they are in every single health food store (and I think almost every normal store) you walk into. As far as I know, they don’t exist in the UK. So I of course had to give them a try.
So far I’ve tried the Lamington, Dark Cacao and Banana Bread flavour. Lamington is an Aussie sponge cake coated in chocolate and rolled in dessicated coconut. So it’s Blue Dinosaur’s healthy take on it. It was the first bar I tried and it was delicious! The ingredients are super simple and it wasn’t too sweet at all. I usually find nut and date bars like that too sweet, this is the first bar I’ve come across where it’s just a subtle sweetness. There’s only 3.5 dates in it according to says the packaging so that probably explains it. I loved it, the only thing I would say as a snack it didn’t really fill me at all as it’s only dessicated coconut in it and no nuts (although that’s great news for anyone with nut allergies!) but you could have something else as well I suppose and it’s a great healthier treat when you’re sweet tooth is coming out to play. Cleo (the oldest child here in the household) tried it with me and loved it too! A little tip for any parent out there. I was told that it had to be our secret and not tell her siblings about it. That’s a pretty good review!
The Dark Cacao (their original bar) one was surprisingly bitter! I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of it before I ate it hehe. I’d never come across that before in a bar like that. Seeing as the only chocolate I ever like is like 70-80% dark chocolate this was a pleasant surprise. I know it’s called dark cacao but I’ve had too many cacao bars that were too sweet to fully believe it until I’ve tried it. This one I found a bit more filling as it has walnuts and pecans in it A little bit crumbly texture but it was nice.
Banana bread I was really intrigued by as I had never had a bar with banana flavour before and was wondering how the dried banana would go down. It was incredibly cinnamony (perhaps almost borderline a bit too much, I couldn’t quite make my mind up and I love cinnamon) and definitely reminded me of banana bread. I’d buy it again but I think the overall winner of the three was the Lamington bar. It is just so delicious. However, all of them are the best raw bars or whatever you should call them, I’ve tried so far and I’ve tried a lot in my days. I’ve been keeping some in my handbag for when I’m out on the move and they’re perfect as an afternoon pick-me-up when the hunger kicks in and the energy is running low and keeps me going until I can get a bite to eat.
Right I’m just back now from another class at Red Bluff! We did a lot of squat cleans to start off and I got coached on how I was picking up the bar. I’ve been struggling for a while on going heavier in my squat cleans. Always kind of stuck at the same weights so I was all ears when Pete gave me some very useful coaching tips. We brought the weight down and he got me to change how I move the bar at the beginning of the lift. I did a couple of questionable cleans but he said they got better towards the end. I’m hoping with more practise on my technique I’ll more easily clean heavier. Then we did three rounds of 30 dumbbell snatches at 15 kg for the girls and 30 wall balls with 14 pound wall ball. My arms were on fire at the end!
Now it’s time to shower, I’m a sweaty mess after all of that! Then time to do some more job hunting. This evening Stevie is away so Nicola and I are planning on watching La La Land with some tasty food! Can’t wait. You all know that it’s my favourite film of all time hehe. Nicola’s never seen it before, she’s in for a real treat. It’s been a while since I last saw it so gaaah it’ll be good.
