Gym and Juice with Currys

As most readers will know in the years since I have started this blog, my appearance has changed quite a bit. I have actually lost just under 4 stone in these last few years, it has been slow and steady just making gradual changes to my once over excessive diet ( hello allllll the booze and hangover foods!) It has led me to develop a big  interest in health and nutrition, if you follow me on instagram you will often see my pics of attempting healthier dinners and snacks and I love reading up on the changing technologies and different ingredients on offer. I love trying out new forms of exercise and was enjoying dabbling with making smoothies at the weekends already when the team at Currys wanted to set me a little healthy challenge which sounded right up my street.

Ready to burn some cals in Nuffield's super pretty changing area

I was tasked with heading to my local Nuffield Health Centre to try out a class of my choice and man was that a difficult one- I had never used one of their gyms and turns out they have LOADS of amazing classes on offer. I was totally torn between trying my hand at the Power hoop class to shaking my stuff at a Sh'bam class and in the end settled for my first ever experience at a good ol' legs, bums n tums class. I headed along after work and checked out the facilities before the class and I was thrilled, they have everything you could want- excellent equipment, a beautiful pool,  and a great workout studio. I am so glad  I went for something I hadn't actually tried before as it was a fab work out, the instructor was great ( I was really impressed at how he managed to pick out all the newcomers in a  busy class) and made it easy to follow while still being an excellent work out- I was absolutely shattered afterwards! Although it was hardcore it has given me a real kick up the bum for getting properly stuck into exercise and working up a sweat.

The next part of my challenge was to create my first ever juice which after an intense workout I really needed! Now juicing is something that I have been reading a lot into and was already keen to try my hand at it when this challenge came along. I was super excited to try out my new Philips HR1863 from the Viva Collection and rushed to Tesco after work to get my ingredients for my first attempt. With so many juice combinations out there I decided to whip up my own special blend- I give you the Ruth Boost, containing apples, pears, celery, sweet potato,clementines ( and a bunch of left over carrot sticks which you don't need to add but I add them left over from the week!) Together these offer a vast wealth of vitamins and minerals while helping lower cholesterol and blood pressure, boosting your immune system and giving me that much needed energy boost after my work out. Refueling with these ingredients are great for balancing any fluids and electrolytes lost in a sweaty gym sesh and the sweet potato is fab complex carb to help restore the body's glycogen level.

The juice maker was a dream to use, strong and sturdy and incredibly fast and quiet- it blended my ingredients in seconds and was a breeze to clean. I love that the feeding tube on this model is extra wide so you don't even have to waste any time chopping, you simply feed in and away it goes!This bad boy can make up to two litres of juice all in one go and the parts are even dishwasher safe which is a dream for busy families. I already use a Philips Smoothie maker in the house to make greens smoothies at the weekend and it performs really well so it was great their juice model was just as impressive. To give you a better idea of our drink making adventure- here is my co chef Ally to show you how it was done....

I adore experiencing new things so thanks so much to Currys for setting me such a fun challenge- I have absolutely loved getting to grips with juicing and have a new found passion for exercise thanks to my visit to Nuffield. If the Ruth Boost doesn't tickled your fancy, you can read up on the team at Curry's ideas for a the perfect post workout smoothie here. So many tasty recipes- I can't wait to try them out. After making my first juice I couldn't help but whip up the left over apples, pears and celery straight away for an extra treat!

This isn't the last you are going to hear about my adventures in juicing, next up I am going to share my journey on my first juice cleanse- look out for a full review coming up soon.

Juicer and class provided gratis for the challenge. As always all opinions 100% my own.