Tag #fruit

Health and Fitness Update and Plan

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So I have to confess that I’ve put on a few pounds during the last few weeks. Concentrated on exercise but think I’ve become tired of dieting and staying at 1200 calories a day. Well, you would, wouldn’t you?

Recently, I’ve started to eat too many sweets, biscuits and so on but pleased to report that I found the experience quite bad, after months of being good. I felt exhausted and listless and to be honest, quite uncomfortable. The gym personal training session, this morning confirmed my fears and I’ve put over half a stone back on. However, recently I have stopped eating sweets and realise I need to eat more healthy stuff which will be easier now spring has finally appeared.

My plan is this:

Weigh daily

Record what I eat and drink daily

More vegetables and fruit

Healthier options

Exercise

Drink more water

I recently listened to a podcast about overeating and found the ideas interesting.

  • Affirmations in the evening (when it gets hard).
  • Tell yourself you WILL NOT OVER EAT, JUST FOR TODAY (worry about tomorrow.. the next day) Love this!
  • Just have one type of bad food, if you have to.  Studies show if you binge eat, you will buy a variety of foods (sweets, chocolate, ice cream). If you stick to one option, you won’t eat so much, which makes sense to me. *

 

* Source: Podcast – Primal Potential, Mastering Fat Loss, Strategies to stop binge eating (on Spotify)

 

 

Setting New Life Aims – Becoming Lighter (1)

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Discussing your happy life is so ubiquitous it becomes a bit pointless. What we really need to do, is analyse what we want to aim for, how, when and where in order to arrive at “the happy life”.

For this reason, I am starting this blog series with meeting aims. Most people may call them resolutions or goals and set them at the beginning of the year. By February, the majority have rescinded their resolutions and probably even forgotten them. However, if you call them aims, they become an ongoing process and enjoyed and improved upon.

Mark Manson wrote an article called The Most Important Question of Your Life. He asks how much pain do you want in your life? This pertains to the idea that you need to encounter negativity and experience a struggle. What you get out of life is not determined by good feelings and desire, but derived from bad feelings you are able to sustain. Therefore, if you are good at negative experiences then you are good at dealing with life. Are you good at dealing with negativity? No, like most of us, probably not.

We all are good imagining ourselves as skinny peeps, living in gloriously immaculate homes and eating copious amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables, but it isn’t that simple. Not in my world. Clearly how you define negativity, defines us.

If you want “the happy life” you have to determine what you really want. So listing goals can be helpful, but it is then better, in my humble opinion, to pick two and decide the route you are going to take. Therefore eliminate the goals and pursue two or three aims.

After you’ve narrowed down the ideas, start to break them down into a format that you are able to cope with. For example, last year I decided to start a blog. An arduous task because I was busy with lots of family stuff, etc. I broke it down and picked a blog site, chose a name, then started writing in the hope that somebody might read it! Still hoping, but there has been some good feedback and I enjoy it so what the hell! This year, am trying to write more intentionally and endeavour to make content my main aim.

To sum up…

– Brainstorm this year’s aims (family, job, travel, education, social life, hobbies, home)

– Pick the top two aims and focus

– Ask yourself if you are committed to the aim

– Break them down so they are not so daunting

Good luck and in a few day will post my pearls of wisdom about planning aims. Look forward to seeing you then.

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Having lunch…oh yes…

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So I invited my friend to lunch and decided to cook something simple, tasty but satisfying. As we had such a much needed, uplifting day, thought I’d blog about it..

Somebody very important in my life suggested fresh spaghetti with a cherry tomato sauce. Fantastic, I thought. Means I can add a few side dishes like mushrooms with chorizo and fried, fresh prawns followed by a fruit crumble pudding.

Started with the fruit crumble by throwing some berries in a dish and making the crumble. Just lard and butter rubbed into the flour plus sugar. Simple and quick and the ice cream that was languishing in the freezer, just waiting to be thrown down my throat, accompanied the pud.

Next I chopped tomatoes up with garlic, herbs and chilli. Measured out the wine. Oh yes. Fried the garlic in 3 tablespoons of olive oil then added herbs and chilli. Added toms (2 mins) then splashed in the wine and enjoyed the exquisite smell that permeated the kitchen. Oh, and I put some cool, jazzy, funky tunes on.

Fried my chestnut mushrooms in butter with chorizo and left ready. Same with the grey prawns that rapidly turned pink. Sooo magical. Put some chips, manchego cheese and serano ham on the starter plate and was ready to roll. Well lay the table anyway.

Sorted the table, tidied and cleaned up, lit candles and waited a few minutes for my friend.

Great to catch up. We discussed recent Christmas times, trips (Rome), buying/selling clothes online, health, fitness laughed and moaned but mostly laughed. Of course, new year resolutions were discussed too. She wants me to start a ladies supper group…

Yes, the lunch wasn’t particularly healthy, but it felt decadent and I’m working up to my new year’s healthy regime. She enjoyed the food and said it is the sort of food you get in Strada. Taken that as a compliment (I think)…

Ha! Since received a thank you message saying the food was spot on. :-))

Details..

Cherry Tomato Spaghetti- Fresh spaghetti, 1 lb top quality cherry toms, garlic, chilli, herbs and wine.

Add: Chorizo, mushrooms and/or prawns, as I did.

Pud – Mixed fruit and crumble (1oz butter, 1oz lard, 4oz plain flour) mixed berries and sugar on top.

Prep time 40 mins.

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Grotty fruit smoothie…

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A few days ago, I was just thinking about leaving to go to Dorset for a mini break, and realised I’ve still got 3 grotty bananas. So decided I couldn’t eat them before leaving and gathered all the old fruit from my fridge and made a smoothie to freeze for when I return.

The end result was delicious. No need to waste old fruit or veg.  Just peel, chop and blend, blend and blend some more.  Only took a few minutes to prepare an amazing breakfast.

Another aspect of minimalism, is not have any waste so this is an enjoyable way of reducing waste and having a yummy drink for breakfast.

Recipe: bananas, peaches, oranges, almond milk and blend until smooth.

Don’t forget to follow and thank you for reading my blog.  Hope you enjoy some delicious smoothies.

 

Day 4, 5, 6 and 7 – #HealthyAugust

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For Thurday’s exercise, I went for a lovely walk with Oscar through some orchards and woods. The sun was shining and we both enjoyed trailing over the long grass. On the way back, two ladies were picking blackberries and apples and informed me they were going to make an apple and blackberry pie.  Sounds delicious doesn’t it?  My plan is to wait a couple of weeks and pick fruit and make some fruit pies and or smoothies.  (This particular orchard is overgrown and the fruit doesn’t get picked.)

On Friday, I had a PT session and found it unbelievably tough.  Had to go to bed early because I was soooo tired.  However, Saturday I did the parkrun and got a new PB.  Each week I’ve done slightly better, which is encouraging, after the previous day’s training session.

Must confess to having rather too much wine during Saturday and Sunday evening but oh well.  Hopefully, next week will be better.

Sunday, was just decluttering, clearing and cleaning which I will post about this week, as part of my Minimalism series.

Have a jolly week everyone. Bye for now. Please follow :-)))

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Proposed Healthy Month Plan – August

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After a family wedding and subsequent holiday, everything is now back to the old routine.

This means a serious plan to get back to a healthy diet and exercise plan.  The plan is to do a series of healthy months and call the idea Healthy Month (probably one in four months). Therefore, the first one will be Healthy Month – August.  Or #HealthyAugust.

The plan is:

Eat healthy meals with a focus on fresh vegetables and fruit.

Low alcohol consumption.

Exercise almost daily.

Blog, Facebook or tweet about progress.

My goal is to lose 2 lb a week which is quite a challenge for me.  It seems a good month to do the above, but I am aware there may be the odd outing when I will succumb to some booze or naughty food.  However, I plan to be strict.  Anybody want to comment on the idea? Feel free to comment below and/or join me!

Don’t forget to follow my blog.  Thanks.

Andyx

 

 

 

The next blog (part 2) tips for gaining a good relationship with food…

Food for thought…

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I am not a nutritionist, but like researching new diets and understanding how people eat. The problem is that we, as a modern community, like fatty food and sugar. But, our bodies do not. With copious amounts of healthy food (veggies/fruit) and exercise, it is fabulous to feel invigorated and happy.

However, it is very difficult to do this isn’t it? The answer is to almost cut out sugar and bad carbs such as white bread, red meat, chocolate (although partial to some dark chocolate) for most of the time.

What seems to work is to eat when hungry.  Devour lots of fresh vegetables, pulses, fish and chicken and the odd fillet steak and pint of beer for a treat.  Stop eating when nearly full and only eat when hungry.  Tricky with a family, but focus on the outcome and try the best you can.

Some people think eating a healthy diet is synonymous with being boring.  This is ostensibly a blocking method and not facing reality.  The food you eat does not have to be tasteless, in fact, far from it.  What can be tasteless is the same tedious meat and chips dinner, week after week.  Look on YouTube for inspiration and cook away.

This week’s lunches are pasta with chicken, vegetables or a boiled egg.  All packed up again.  This really stops the hunger and helps with the afternoon munches.  My other piece of wisdom is this.  Don’t follow recipes just go with the flow.  Do some research for creativity and vision, then go for it!

Chicken/Egg Pasta Lunch

Pasta, olive oil, ground pepper, herbs, lemon juice with veggies (onions, broccoli, mushrooms, spinach, pepper)

 

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The Veggie Experiment

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Food is a passion and I enjoy cooking.  In fact, I cannot grasp the latest concept of “cooking from scratch” because, to me, there is no other way.  You are either cooking or not.  Warming up does not count.

There are minimalists who are on a vegetarian or plant based diet.  This is not for me.  However, I have become interested in the subject and explored the possibilities of eating meat free meals.  Weight is a battle for a lot of people and it is best to eat less bread, pasta, red meat and the worst culprit, sugar.  But most people don’t want to cut them out completely do they?

Eating an abundance of vegetables, lentils, chickpeas, couscous may be the answer, but it is harder to make them interesting.  Because of this, I came up with the idea of preparing packed up food for lunches for the following three reasons.

  • Health
  • Variety
  • Fulfilment (Cooking process and satiety)

Is is not about eating copious amounts of processed food and then regretting it and feeling like a blob or starving yourself.  It is about eating well.  Aim to have tasty recipes and enticing food by spending time on the food creation.  Buy locally sourced cabbage, sprouts, spinach, tomatoes, onions, apples and so on.  They will be far fresher, tastier and maybe cheaper.

Being a minimalist is not about owning less, it is about owning what you need to enjoy life.  I cannot claim to only own a few things, but I am on the journey.  What is fascinating, is the whole ideology of enjoying experiences and so have spent a few weekends exploring and experimenting with food prep for work lunches.

Here are some of the ones that I have enjoyed.  A few ingredients, prepared simply so that I can eat mindfully and feel satisfied.

Lentil Salad

Lentils, onion, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil, carrots, orange oil (by scrapping orange with fork), orange segments and mix.
Chickpea Winter Stew

Chickpeas, onion, passata, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, pine nuts, herbs, ground pepper.  Serve with couscous.

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Bean Salad

Kidney and mixed beans, passata, spinach, herbs, chilli, red pepper.  Serve with rice.

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They were packed up and frozen for the week’s lunches and enjoyed by all!

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