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...

Two weeks ago, I experimented with the Ketogenic diet, and whilst pretty difficult, it got me truly thinking about what I was eating on a daily basis. Since then, I've continued a lower carb diet (under 100g per day) and I've been seeing some great results, and have now managed to lose a total of 2 kilo's. Tomorrow is the 1st of August, and I have decided to challenge myself (for the next 31 days) to go sugar free, to see if it is actually as hard as all the articles I have read online say. My goal will be to eliminate all added sugar's from my diet, which includes artificial sweeteners - so no more Monster Ultra Zero's for a month! For the next 4 weeks, I will be documenting my progress and writing about it here, but to start myself off I thought I'd write up a little about what my health is currently like and make some predictions on how I think going sugar free will effect me. Body : I currently have a shoulder injury which impacts the nerves in my r...

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.

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 :...

Going to stay in a smaller city can be sort of daunting if you are Vegan, because you don't really know where you will actually be able to eat (without having to do a whole grocery shop and cook from scratch) unless you have other Vegan friends in the area - which I don't. There is always  Happy Cow , but for Rotorua there weren't many entries and most of those were just Vegetarian. So here are a few places I discovered in Rotorua that were Vegan friendly. Night Markets Rotorua Night Markets run on Thursdays from 5pm, I found three different stalls selling Vegan food which was pretty surprising as I was not expecting there to be more than one! I had Seitan Nuggets (called Wicked Nippers) and a pulled pork style Vege Burger from a food truck called  Mr. Jacksons  which travels from Tauranga each week. Another option was El Cartel Mexicano who advertised Vegan options with there usual offerrings of quesadillas, burritos, nachos and tacos. ...

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...

I’m currently in Wellington airport (Sunday morning) writing this after one of the best wrestling weekends I’ve ever had. I flew down here on Saturday morning to join All Commonwealth Pro Wrestling in their debut show in Porirua. I’m happy to report back that it was an awesome show! The crowd were so filled with energy and the card was stacked with amazing talent from NZ and Australia. Not a single dull moment. I stayed in Lyall Bay along the waterfront with Britenay and it was beautiful. We took an early morning walk and went to The Botanist for brunch and coffee (shout out to my Auckland brunch bunch, I miss you). I chose the buckwheat pancakes, with lavender poached fruit and coconut yogurt.  After brunch we did a little sight seeing and went up to the Brooklyn wind turbine and looked out over Owhiro Bay before driving to Porirua to set up the wrestling ring for the show.  Photo's from the show are available  h...

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...

I'm finally back in Ponsonby after three crazy days spent in Tauranga for The Armageddon Expo. Artwork displayed inside The Nourished Eatery - Tauranga. We at  IPW  are extremely lucky to have the opportunity to wrestle infront of the Armageddon crowds up and down the country. We have also been to Christchurch and Dunedin Expo's this year and will be in Wellington over Queens Birthday Weekend. I didn't get much action in the ring due to a concussion I suffered from my last match (Watch it  here. ) but I still had a great time spending way too much money on souvenirs and delicious food. Speaking of food, both Tauranga and The Mount had some really great vegan restaurants that even the non-vegan crew were able to enjoy. Saturday morning's Breakfast from  Wild One Wholefoods Eatery Sunday morning's breakfast from  The Nourished Eatery It was my first time trying tofu 'egg' and it was pretty darn close to what I remember the rea...