What does the founder of one of the biggest spinning studios in the UK eat to keep her energy levels up? Hilary Rowland reveals all...
Monday
Breakfast: Large green juice, small bowl of med pasta salad to quell the hunger pangs.
Lunch: Left over Mediterranean pasta salad with mascarpone sauce and fresh parmesan and a home-made strawberry soda.
Snack: Got back from a long walk craving a little snack so we had homemade strawberry sodas and a couple bites of leftovers - rib of beef, chicken, lamb, red peppers, Hummus, etc – to hold us over until dinner.
Dinner: Homemade Paneer and pea curry with a couple poppadoms and an iceberg salad with ranch dressing (red onions and tomatoes too!)
Later that evening to send us to sleep we enjoyed one small homemade rhubarb tartlet each - with a little bit of vanilla ice cream and sleepy tea (it’s this amazing tea we discovered a few years ago called Positivitea Connect and we order it in bulk now! It has lavender and valerian in it and it’s super relaxing.
Tuesday
Breakfast: I teach the 6:30am every Tuesday at Boom Cycle Battersea. Sometimes I‘ll eat something small before this ride, but not today so I was ravenous when I got back to have breakfast and shower. Out of sheer convenience, I had a small bowl Mediterranean pasta salad, 3 tablespoons of Rachel’s rhubarb yogurt and a large green juice that I pre-made over the weekend.
I got ready and did some work from home before meeting some of the team about marketing in town at our Holborn studio after which I grabbed a Miso to go from Pret and headed to hot yoga at Fierce Grace City.
Lunch: After the yoga I headed back to Battersea even more ravenous than earlier and had a bowl of homemade vegetable soup (which I made on the weekend – a whole fennel, 1 whole pack of spring greens, 1 can of butter beans, 2 large leeks and 2 cubes of chicken stock), a small bowl of caramel swirl ice cream and 3 chocolate Easter eggs because I let the hunger get too severe…
Dinner: After more calls and work I went to the Battersea studio to each a private ride in the evening. We had been cooking literally all weekend so decided to go out to Tonkatsu at Battersea Power Station - we LOVE IT. I always get the Tonkatsu Ramen, a side of kimchi and the habanero chilli paste.
I had a small popsicle (Waitrose Essential Brand) and sleepy tea before bed and I was OUT.
Wednesday
Breakfast: I slept quite late after the huge day I had the day before so around 08:30 I demolished a pack of blueberries and a cup of oolong tea before cooking an omelette with 1 full egg, 3 egg whites (left over from the homemade pastry of the rhubarb tart), fresh spinach, red onion and cheddar cheese. I had about 1/3 of it and put the remaining part that Rob didn’t finish in the fridge to have another day.
Lunch: After a meeting with some potential new investors, I had some homemade veg soup for lunch, half a container of Rachel’s Organic rhubarb yogurt and a cup of oolong tea as I needed some serious fuel for my evening. I had a lot of stuff to load into the car at our Hammersmith studio before hitting a reformer Pilates class at Frame Hammersmith, and teaching my normal 19:15 ride at Boom Cycle Hammersmith so I headed West early.
Dinner: I was very lucky to arrive home later to dinner being ready – prepared by my lovely husband – left over homemade pea and paneer curry, a bit of pilau rice, roast potatoes, poppadum’s and a pan friend salmon fillet.
We still have some small Rhubarb tartlets left so we couldn’t resist having them again for dessert.
Thursday
Breakfast: I booked flights to Ibiza in bed with a matcha tea. Went for a run with my husband then had some oolong tea and two hard boiled eggs with mayonnaise (I love mayonnaise!).
Lunch: A homemade bean soup with a salmon fillet and a homemade iced green tea before I headed to a meeting at 76 Dean Street where I had a few glasses of water and fresh mint tea.
Snack: At Mercato Metropolitano in Elephant and Castile where I kicked off the afternoon with a half pint of lager, a tuna salmon sushi combo (2 pieces of rolls of both, 3 salmon sashimi, 1 tuna hand roll) and a bite of Rob’s (husband) New Your style hot dog. After this well-laid padding, we began our task of the afternoon – a gin tasting with Jim and Tonic - which consisted of a few sips of different gins with different tonics.
Dinner: Came home and rearranged the furniture between the living room and the dining room, ahead of hosting a dinner party – one of our besties is leaving the neighbourhood so we had him and another one of our besties (we call ourselves the B-team) over for dinner. We cooked up smoked salmon lemon, dill, capers, shaved red onion and caper berries, with iceberg salad-shredded iceberg and onions with olive oil and red wine vinegar, followed by pan-fried sea bass (vegetable oil) and chorizo (veg oil) over stewed white beans with pan-fried courgette (veg oil) and roasted cherry tomatoes (olive oil). We shared a bottle of Sancerre followed by a bottle of Pinot noir between 4. Dessert was 1 scoop of vanilla and 1 scoop of caramel ice cream, with a shot of patron cafe over the top for those who were in a ‘tequila kind of mood’.
Friday
Breakfast: I woke up around 7 with and started the day with an Oolong tea – my husband and I are big tea fans! Worked at home in the morning and had breakfast around 09:15 - Garam masala spiced fried egg (olive oil) on sourdough toast with mayo and tobasco (expertly prepared by my husband).
Lunch: Did a bit more work from home then went to do a class at our Hammersmith studio, followed by work and a shake and then a Reformer class at Frame Hammersmith.
I was incredibly hungry after all this and was headed to a meeting at Chiltern Firehouse where I arrived early and had chicken nugget sides as a snack and a few olives as well as a Lavender fields mocktail - elderflower, lavender and ginger beer with lime. Then I had a hard-green juice because I’ve been missing it lately and I know the evening was about to go a little wild. I started the meeting with a dirty kettle one martini dry as a bone (16:30) with extra olives and continued from there.
Dinner: From there we decided to all head to Brixton to a quaint and delicious restaurant called Salon . We were four people and wanted to try it all so we ordered one of everything on the whole menu - linguine with mussels, Lamb, burrata, pork chop and more with a second helping of the ‘special’ pasta - linguine with leeks - and two bottles of wonderfully chosen Chianti.
Saturday
Breakfast: I started the day with a pack of blueberries, 7 strawberries and a green apple – and lots of sparkling water. 10.30am - 2 bites of a lamb samosa we bought from the weekend market around Battersea Power Station Development and a strawberry soda made with homemade strawberry syrup and our soda stream (couldn’t live life without it). At 11:15 I had a small glass of homemade green juice (cucumber, kale, ginger, green apple), a few cherry tomatoes and a spoon of guacamole as I was making loads of food to bring to a BBQ the next day.
Lunch: Lunch was a bowl of homemade tuna sweetcorn pasta salad (which I also made that day). After lunch we read a bit (new hobby I’m proud of – currently reading Ten Types of Human by Dexter Dias). At 15:30 I had a nibble of an Italian style pasta salad (made for the BBQ tomorrow to see how the flavours are setting in), and 2 orange stuffed olives as I made them for the BBQ - because I am ‘checking the flavour’.
Dinner: Then we watched one of our favourite shows – Modern Family (it’s the weekend) and went to the friends and family opening of Meghan’s where we live at the Battersea Power Station Development.
Firstly, it’s lovely - light, airy, friendly, romantic. We started with 2 passion fruit margaritas - shrimp pil pil, and fried calamari - YUM! Mains were mixed grill mezza (chorizo, lamb, chicken, red peppers, hummus) and ‘Turkish steak and chips’ which is an insanely cooked serving of rib of beef with chips, accompanied by sweet potato lamb fries and Turkish salad (cucumber, tomato, red onion and walnuts) with garlic and peri peri sauces for dipping.
We could not resist the half-baked cookie dough dessert so that happened and didn’t regret it. We then had to lay down pretty shortly thereafter.
Sunday
Breakfast: At 8am I had 1 teaspoon of Rachael’s rhubarb yogurt and oolong tea (the oolong I have presently is called ‘Iron Goddess of Mercy’ by Waterloo Tea Company which entertains me on the daily.) I then went for a decent run around Battersea Park and the bridges and by 10am, I was HUNGRY for real – I had half a mackerel fillet on half a piece of sourdough toast with mayo and, of course, oolong tea. To be fair, that is not a lot for me… so around 11:50 am I had to top up with a small bowl of tuna sweetcorn pasta salad and 2 slices of fresh pineapple.
Lunch: I had to supplement with a medium bowl of Mediterranean pasta salad.
Dinner: We finally arrived at our friends’ BBQ in North London and got stuck in right away starting the evening with about 3 glasses of Sancerre rosé, Ceviche (my famous ceviche), blue corn tortilla chips, guacamole (another famous recipe of mine), orange and oregano-stuffed olives (a famous Brindisa recipe), 1 goats cheese stuffed red pepper, 3 large prawns, salad and of course – my Mediterranean pasta salad.
Whilst chatting around the fire pit, I shared a part of a Lindt chocolate bunny with the other 3 and engulfed some of my husband’s homemade rhubarb custard Itart expertly accompanied by some 2008 Noble One dessert wine.
Once back at home, I had a small popsicle before bed from the Waitrose essential brand – I have a fixation with popsicles (ice lollies to the British)!
Find out more about Boom Cycle here and follow Hilary on Twitter @HDAWGBOOM