Meal Planner // The truth about eating

For me, personally, one of the problems I struggle to maintain is my eating. I know this is usually a subject that is kept quiet but for once it needs to be spoken out about. Eating disorders are so common these days that we cant afford to keep it a secret- a light needs to be shone on the issue.

I have had Anorexia nervosa for 8 years now. It crept up on me at the young age of 12 and since then has been a battle I've fought. This time last year is when my biggest relapse hit and I was placed under the mental health act to be hospitalised in order to refeed. I wont go into detail but that was the darkest moments of my life. I was so sick yet I couldn't even see it when I looked at myself.

I now consider myself to be in recovery and fight every day against the voices in my head that tell me to just stop eating. A matter of fact, people don't realise its so much easier to lose weight than it is to gain.

In order to keep on top of my eating one thing that I now have to do is follow a meal plan . This includes 3 main meals and 3 snacks a day. When looking online there were no meal planners that I liked the look of or suited me so instead I made one myself and thought I could share that with you all today!

To download your meal planner CLICK HERE

Lots of love,
Samantha

Raw Goodness // Energy Balls

Seeing as it is still the holidays I have had a lot of spare time on my hands and lately I've been dabbling in healthy eating. I basically live off smoothies so I have been venturing out and trying to add in a few different healthy ingredients! After endless scrolling through Pinterest I came across energy balls and realised I had all the needed ingredients in my cupboard to make them so a lazy Friday afternoon turned into an evening of delicious baking. I never followed a recipe, I made it up myself but I thought that I would share with you how you can also make these scrumptious treats.

What I found in my cupboard to use for my balls of goodness was...

Dry ingredients:

• Coconut
• Dark Chocolate
• Pumpkin Seeds
• Apricots
• Cranberries
• Rasins
• Peanuts
• Dried Oats
• Almonds
• Walnuts
• Cocoa
• Salt

Wet ingredients

• Peanut Butter
• Vanilla Essence
• Coconut oil
• Golden Syrup
• Peanut Butter

To make my Dark Energy Balls I placed all the wet ingredients in one bowl. This consisted of peanut butter, golden syrup (as I had ran out of honey) and vanilla essence. Then in another bowl I had my dry ingredients- Cocoa, 70% Dark Chocolate, Cranberries, Salt, Peanuts, Rolled Oats and Raisins.

For my Light Energy Balls I used a little bit of Peanut butter, Honey, Vanilla Essence and Coconut Oil. The dry ingredients were Cranberries, Almonds, Pumpkin Seeds, Dried apricots, Rolled Oats.

Once you have all your ingredients sorted out combine both the wet and dry together, roll them into balls and if you would like, coat them in coconut. Place them into the fridge to set. You're able to store them in a airtight container and these wee snacks should keep for up to a week. 

The best part about the Energy Balls is that they're freezable so you're able to store them away and bring them out when you're short of snacks for your school lunch box (that's what I'm doing with all mine!). They're also great for before or after exercising  to give you that extra bit of power.

Share your photos on instagram and tag #thesamantharoom if you end up making any of these wee treats.

- Lots of love, Samantha xxx

2015 in a snippet

Woah, I think 2015 has definitely been one of the biggest years of my life and it has seemed to drag on for quite some time! To be honest I am quite happy that the New Year came when it did as I was well due for a fresh start. So what has gone on in the world of Samantha this year? Lets take a look:

Received Performing Arts Leader and Board of Trustees representative at school, I got 4 scholarships into university, one of my best friends came back from a year long exchange, I learnt to play the piano and saxophone, passed the year with an excellence endorsement, moved house, went away to our family batch, got my first paid design job, turned 18, went to my first new years party, brought my first lotto ticket, went to an aerobics class, had my final school formal, got a job at Spark, travelled to Dunedin for university, saw Demi Lovato live, spent 4 months in hospital and on top of this graduated high school!

Here's hoping that 2016 will be a much better year! My goals for the year are:

1. To start properly blogging
2. Complete a running event e.g. The City to Surf
3. Focus on my health and accept the treatment I am given
4. Get my restricted license
5. Fill out my grateful journal everyday
6. Do spontaneous adventures

What are your goals this year?

- Love, Samantha