The Princess Diaries

Today marks three weeks since my initial foray into a sugar free life, things always get worse before they get better right? Today’s update is short and sweet, I’m busy turning lemons to lemonade. Days 15-17: All was going well, no weird cravings, and I was completely on track. I was super focused with my eating because I had a big wrestling match on Saturday and I really wanted to look and feel my best. Day 18: Show day! My plan for the weekend was to thrown in a 48hr fast - I hadn’t done more than about 32 hours yet, but during my match I took a fall outside the ring and managed to concuss myself yet again. It’s only mild this time, but in my daze I headed to catering and grabbed all the vegan food I could find. Which ended up being Thai Chilli Doritos, half a bag of Farmbake Peanut Brownies and a couple apples. Fail. Day 19: I have very little recollection of what happened this day. I only remember eating a whole box of Fry’s Vegan Nuggets - which are sugar free! Day ...

Wow, already in week two of this Sugar Free Challenge, who is really surprised that I missed my first week update? But I'm back to fill you in. Sugar, we're going down. Day 1 & 2: I experienced intense stomach cramps around 7.30pm both nights and then around 12-1am found myself wide awake and unable to get back to sleep. Day 3: Today was great, nothing out of the ordinary and managed to get a normal amount of uninterrupted sleep Day 4: Here's where I made my first major mistake, because it turns out that Indian Tonic Water contains sweetener, and I ordered four G&T's thinking that I was doing the right thing. I had thought that because Tonic Water tastes so bad that it was safe. As it turns out, I am in fact an idiot. And I barely slept. Day 5: No energy or focus, didn't make it to the gym. From waking, I was just ravenous all day - direct result of the sweetener in the G&T's, but on the upside, I was also so exhausted I slept like...

The Keto Diet seems to be be the new trend, everyone seems to know somebody who is doing it, or maybe you've even tried it yourself. If you aren't familiar, Keto is a modified style of a low carb, high fat (LCHF) diet in which you aim to consume around 20g of net carbohydrates (or 50g total) while increasing your healthy fat intake to induce Ketosis - a state where your body burns fat for energy instead of carbs. So I tried it. "But wait," I hear you say "aren't you vegan? Doesn't everyone who follows this diet just eat steak slathered in mayonaise??" Yup, I followed the Keto Diet and made it completely vegan. Let me tell you, it was one of the most time consuming things I've ever done. Oh, and I also follow a 16/8 split of intermittent fasting. Day 1 After a very expensive trip to the supermarket because everything in my cupboards were carbs, I started my meal prep. Every article I've read on Vegan/Keto diets recommended lots...

To welcome Amber back from her Hawaiian/LA holiday we headed to the Butcher's Son on Jervois Rd in Ponsonby, who are a fairly new fully plant based eatery. I tried the weekly special Buddha Bowl (Satay Kumara & Tempeh w/ Soba) and a Tropical green smoothie. I was really impressed, tried to make my own at home and it was nowhere near as good, sadly. I will definitely go back again! If you want to check them out you can find more info here: The Butcher's Son 204 Jervois Rd, Herne Bay, Auckland. Instagram: @thebutcherssonnz -Ash.

Some times I wear myself so thin. I feel like I'm being pulled in so many different directions, like one of those medieval torture racks. Between my 9-5, wrestling and live events, this blog, my podcast Beauty And The Brainbuster (shameless self promo, you can listen  here ,) and spending time with my family (read; boyfriend) I don't get much time to myself. I'm the type of person who has to be alone to relax, and so often this leaves me tense and highly stressed. If you follow me here, you would have noticed the radio silence for quite some time now. The last time I posted regularly was the first week of January. This weekend was Easter, which mean four consecutive days off. So I made a list of things I needed to get done each day, and do you think I got any of it done? Well I got three out of ten.   I listed all my unused things on  Trade Me , I worked with a new photographer and I wrote this post. Today is Monday and it’s looking like not a lot will be ...

As all of you are probably aware, I'm Vegan and have been for 2 years now.  Recently my boyfriend Keanu also made the switch over to a Vegan lifestyle (he's about 2 weeks in) so I thought now would be a really good time to try some Veganized versions of food that him and I had enjoyed prior to removing cruelty from our diets. Both of us have never tried these particular foods before. Beyond Meat Beast Burger & Green Vie Greek Style Cheese                Ashlee : I've had lots of different cheeses before, so by looking at this I can already tell it's going to be weird. It hasn't melted, just curled up at the sides like plastic wrap. But the patty smells so good. Keanu : It smells like Carl's Jr. A : The burger is well seasoned, but a bit on the dry side. I'm a sauce person, so I covered it in mustard after the first bite, and the flavors went really well together. It did taste like a chain style beef burger. K :...

Happy 2018! Welcome to a New Year! It's still me, your favorite Princess, just slightly jazzed up. Last Saturday marked my first PWE Women's Championship Title defence of 2018, I had the pleasure of wrestling Grace Lightning.  Grace has been through some tough times in the last year, and I know that wrestling in front of a live audience is one of the things she's been itching to do the most, so I'm so happy I finally got to get in the ring with her and give her that experience. I've wrestled her once before at a secret student show back in October '17 and the change in her in ring work and presence has improved so much since, I'm really proud of how far she has come and cant wait to see her in more shows. It was also my boyfriend's first ever match outside of our home promotion and thanks to a Roaring Elbow that he took half way through the match, we are now nick named Concussion Couple (or CC for short), which is a vast improveme...

"love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind..." Last week I was fortunate enough to be gifted tickets to the Pop Up Globe's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Right after Romeo & Juliet, Midsummer is my favourite Shakespeare play - though I hadn't read it again since high school when my English class studied it. It was awesome to see it reenacted with a Kiwi twist. Spoiler Alert: The Fairies in this version all speak Te Reo, so brush up before you go. " Oppressed by a brutal dictatorship, four lovers escape a death sentence by fleeing to an ancient forest. Elsewhere in the woods, a group of tradies secretly meet to indulge their love of amateur drama. But there’re more than just trees in this forest. Ancient creatures of myth and legend haunt the dark corners of the woods, and they love nothing more than causing trouble… " The artwork on the roof of the stage.  The Globe itself has an open roof, so as the n...

This past weekend was full of firsts for me, which is why today, I need a coffee I.V! On Saturday, I had my first alcoholic beverage of the year, made my first beach trip of the summer, I went to town for the first time in over a year, had my first donut from the new Tart Bakery at St Kevin’s arcade, first Karaoke, and had my first yelling match on Queen Street (oops). Saturday was the Unofficial IPW end of year gathering, which is why I broke my dry spell and had alcohol for the first time this calendar year. Steph and Leilani came to chill at my house prior for girl time and pre-drinks, we headed out to mission bay in our bikini’s (but forgot towels, so didn’t swim) and took a stroll along the beach. We then went to St Kevin’s arcade on Karangahape Road to try the fresh fruit icecream that Tart Bakery had been advertising, unfortunately the shop had over heated and the machine wasn’t working! (We’ll go back another time).Instead...

It is one night out from IPW’s Time Crisis 2. I’m sitting here reflecting on the year that’s been, all its ups and downs, and I’ve just realised that I will actually be wrestling the next 5 weekends in a row. That’s every weekend until Christmas! Holy sh*t. When did I become a worker?!  I’ve done a lot of things I never thought I with do in wrestling this year, things like wrestling Bea Priestley in front of over 600 people in Invercargill, having 6 matches in a weekend at Wellington Armageddon, finally overcoming my fear of the top rope and landing a Moonsault, or feuding over whether or not pineapple belongs on pizza. I’ve had 25 matches in front of a live crowd since my debut match at Rainbows End in September 2016, and that will reach 30 by the end of the year. I’ve also been booked by 5 different promotions in New Zealand (there are only 8 wrestling promotions in the country). Writing this down is absolutely surreal to me. On top of all that I’ve also...

When I began wrestling in March 2015 it became clear to me quite fast, that while I was ‘in shape’ (read: thin) I was not fit. And so a few months in to my training I hired a personal trainer to show me what to do, and I finally began to enjoy going to the gym and lifting weights – the first time I’d been back to a gym since I was 15 years old. (I also decided to give up alcohol and try a vegan diet!) In January of 2016 I joined my local Anytime Fitness and in April 2016 won the “Member of the Month” for the most visits (and went vegan permanently). Every month I competed with myself to get to the top of the ‘most visits’ list. I would get up  at 5am  to head to the gym before work, and then return again on my way home. During this time, although I was doing so much in the gym I barely noticed any difference in my body. This was really disheartening, and over time I started to slack off and dropped down to twice a week. In May this year, I had to stop all exercise fo...