Chicken Stir Fry

Quick, easy, healthy & packed full of nutrients.

What more could you ask of dinner?

Except maybe that someone else is doing the cooking :)

I've included this recipe idea before, but this is so simple, even the non-cook of the household can make it work.

Ingredients:

500g lean chicken breast or thigh, cut into bite sized pieces
(use Tofu/mock chicken alternative if you're vegetarian)

1/2 onion, diced
1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets
1/2 zucchini, diced
1 handful of snow peas, cut into bite sized pieces
1 handful green beans, cut into bite sized pieces
1 corn cob, slice the kernels off
4 large mushrooms, sliced
1/2 capsicum, cut into bite sized pieces

1 tbspn hoi sin sauce
1 tbspn soy sauce

Method:

Heat a non-stick pan and add chicken/tofu & when cooked, add the sauces & mix to coat.

Remove meat from pan and set aside.

Add onion, broccoli, beans, peas & capsicum and cook for a few minutes.
Add zucchini, corn & mushrooms and stir well for 5 minutes, add the chicken back in and it's done!

Serve on it's own or with half a handful of rice or noodles (that would be half of YOUR hand, people!)

Look at YOU eating 8 vegetables for dinner!

Serves 4.

Mindful Eating

In our busy lives, we often shovel down food without thinking about it, our minds busy with the next thing we need to do, or say, or even eat.

Mindful eating draws substantially on the use of mindfulness meditation.

If you've never tried meditation, try 5 minutes sitting still, eyes closed, just observing the thoughts that pass through your mind.

Don't worry if you feel like your not doing it "right", just persist for 5 whole minutes and notice what you notice.

Mindful eating involves many components such as:

• learning to make choices in beginning or ending a meal based on awareness of hunger and satiety cues.
• learning to identify personal triggers for mindless eating, such as emotions, social pressures or certain foods.
• valuing quality over quantity of what you're eating.
• appreciating the sensual, as well as the nourishing, capacity of food
• feeling deep gratitude that may come from appreciating and experiencing food

Mindfulness helps focus our attention and awareness in the present moment, which in turn helps us disengage from habitual, unsatisfying and unskillful habits and behaviours.

Engaging in mindful eating meditation practices on a regular basis can help us discover a far more satisfying relationship with food and eating than we ever imagined before.

A different kind of nourishment often emerges, the kind that offers satisfaction on a very deep emotional level.

I encourage you to make your next meal a mindful meal, whether you're alone or with your family. Consciously think about what you are eating, rest your fork or spoon between mouthfuls, and check in with yourself to see if you are still hungry before taking any more food.

Notice how you feel while you do this and how it feels different to your usual way of eating; I think you'll be surprised at your results.

Nourish Yourself

What is your criteria for deciding what you will eat?

Is it convenience? cost? taste? health? energy requirements? or do you just reach for the first thing you can find?

Choosing foods that are nourishing, rather than merely filling, are just as easy, inexpensive and quick as a "fast-food" option, giving myriad macro nutrients (carbohydrate, protein, fats) and micro nutrients (vitamins and minerals), for your body to rebuild and repair itself.

As mentioned previously on this blog, fresh food is best for your body and your mind.

Eating an orange, banana or other fruit, rather than reaching for a processed, sugary snack, gives you a great tasting snack and important vitamins and fibre, as well as water, protein, carbohydrate, sugar, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, folate, vitamin A, vitamin C and B group vitamins.

How do you feel when you eat?

Emotional eating is “the tendency to eat in response to negative emotions”. (1)
Studies have indicated that anxiety leads to decreased food consumption in people with normal weight and increased food consumption in the obese.

Many laboratory studies showed that overweight individuals are more emotionally reactive and are more likely to overeat when distressed than people of normal weight.

Also, it was consistently found that obese individuals experience negative emotions more frequently and more intensively than do normal weight persons. (2)

One study compared the emotional reactivity and emotional eating of normal and overweight female college students. The study confirmed the tendency of obese individuals to overeat, but these findings applied only to snacks, not to meals. That means that obese individuals did not tend to eat more while having meals – rather, the amount of snacks they ate between meals was greater.

One possible explanation is that obese individuals often eat their meals with others and do not eat more than average due to the reduction of distress because of the presence of other people. Another possible explanation would be that obese individuals do not eat more than the others while having meals due to social desirability. Conversely, snacks are usually eaten alone. (2)

Eat when you are calm, think about how this food will nourish you and really let yourself enjoy the experience of eating healthy food.

1 Eldredge, K. L., & Agras, W. S. (1994). Weight and Shape Overconcern and Emotional Eating in Binge Eating Disorder. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 19 (1), 73-82.
2 Lowe, M. R., & Fisher, E. B. Jr. (1983). Emotional Reactivity, Emotional Eating, and Obesity: A Naturalistic Study. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 6 (2), 135-149.

20 Minute Total Body Workout

You're at home, feeling like you could do a 20 minute workout but you're not sure what to do?

No more excuses.

Warm up for at least 5 minutes (a kitchen timer will help you gauge this) with high knees, jogging around the house, dancing, skipping or a brisk walk around the block.

These exercises are all ones you've done in your training sessions; if you don't currently train with me or are unsure of any of the movements, please email me for specific information.


Choose one of each from the following exercises and do 3 sets of 20 repetitions.

Work as quickly as you can with no rest in between sets.
*Use some kind of weight for this, dumbbells if you have them or look in your cupboards, cans are good and 1 litre = approx 1kg

Glutes & Legs: squats, step lunges, side lunges, glute bridge 1 minute hold or 5 second hold & alternate legs, calf raises,

Shoulders: shoulder press*, shoulders* 5 alternating & 5 together

Back: kneeling supermans, regular supermans, pull ups, bent over row*, wall push ups, incline push ups (eg on your dining table), regular push ups

Arms: bicep curls*, tricep dips, side-arm raises*

Abs: crunches, cross crunches, hundreds (3 sets of 100 for these), plank, side plank


Stretch all of the muscle groups you've used in the workout, holding each stretch for at least 30 seconds.

If you have more time or want a stronger workout, add more exercises or more sets, or both!

I guarantee you will feel better afterwards.

Happy training!

Regrets .... I've Had A Few

As the old song goes, "but then again, too few to mention".

It may be difficult to live a life free from all regret, but from my experience, regrets are usually about what we haven't done, rather than what we have done.

You are living the only life you are going to get - make it great!

Waiting 'until' to make your life great, to live the way you truly want, will never get you where you want to be.

Dreaming of the future is not living your life, and you may be ignoring some really wonderful people, activities and moments while you spend your mental & physical energy wishing life away.

Notice how you spend your time, where you contribute your energy; does this satisfy & nourish you? If your answer is no, you certainly need to carve out some time for yourself.

How does this relate to your health & training? I'm so glad you asked :)

Do you find yourself:

• waiting until you weigh a certain number to be happy and love being in your body

• waiting until you look a certain way to be more active

• waiting until you have enough will power to nourish yourself with fresh, healthy food
  

• waiting until you "feel like it" to exercise to make your body stronger

• waiting until someone else says something or does something to change what you do

This is bullshit.

You deserve a wonderful life and YOU are the only one who has the power to make it happen, not next week, not in a year, not when you turn 50 (or any other magical age), but today and every day of your amazing life.

And you do have an amazing life, look around and find 5 amazing things going on in your life right now; I bet you can.

Use the hours, days and years you have or waste them, the only time is now.