10/27/2014
The Edit | My Top 5 Healthy Food Instagrams
I love a good food story, and these
Instagram accounts provide beautiful photographs and deliciously inspiring
meals and really encouraging quotes. It was really hard to narrow
these accounts down to just five. True Foodspiration.
This is the account of Ella Woodward. Her
diet is free from gluten, dairy, meat and added sugars and is the creator of
deliciouslyella.com. Everything on her page looks delicious.
The IQS programme is a relatively new (for
me) concept that makes total sense. The realisation that even basic tomato soup
contains about 16 grams of sugar (4 teaspoons) is a real eye opener. This
account follows Sarah’s journey and provides some good programme tips.
Sister duo Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley show
us the Art of Living Well through their nourishing recipe ideas and tips. Their sound advice and basic guidelines for
good health are easy to follow and nutritious. Their bone broth is a winner.
Madeleine’s a holistic health coach, yoga
expert and a chef. Madeleine always shares such beautifully composed images of
her meals and drinks. I love the styling of her dishes. I don’t know how she
manages to make cauliflower pizza look so good.
A firm favourite, Honestly Healthy follows
the alkaline principles. HH is both a healthy food and juice delivery service
and a recipe book. Check out their raw chocolate mousse make with their secret ingredient avocado! I’ve tried it, you’d
never know.
I’m now off to do some cooking.
8/11/2014
CHAT | What I Eat For Breakfast
With a blog called brunchcrush, you can rightly assume that I love my breakfast. Maybe I'm getting older, but a good breakfast or brunch beats any other meal of the day. If I'm at home, I really try to breakfast well and follow the guiding principles of James Duigan's Clean and Lean programme where possible.
Recently, I've tried to include some form of good fat such as avocado or nuts, lean meat, fish or eggs and plenty of steamed greens (typically spinach, kale or broccoli) for breakfast and after a workout. I do try to limit refined carbs and wheat and lactose don't always agree with me, so this is a perfect balanced (for me) way to start to the day. These meals taste delicious, look really appetising and are really filling. I have also tried to include hot water with lemon and nettle tea alongside my mandatory coffee each morning.
Brunching out is also a favourite treat of mine and I tend to treat myself to a more substantial and decedent meal when I do. For now, here are a couple of my favourite at-home breakfast meals.
Gluten-free toast, egg and egg whites and avocado
LA Slim Whey Protein Shakes with chia, maca, berries and almond milk
Scrambled egg whites, smoked salmon and spinach
Smoked salmon, egg whites with sumac and spinach in coconut oil
Folded egg whites with a small portion of feta, asparagus and spinach
Grilled turkey and asparagus cooked in coconut oil
A good old almond or soya Flat White
I hope this gives you some inspiration for some great breakfast cereal alternatives.
8/08/2014
The Edit | My Top 3 Go-To Fitness You Tube Channels
I love the gym, but I've gained a lot of additional inspiration and guidance from fitness You Tubers/bloggers. Here is my edit of the very best. Enjoy!
Carly Rowena
Subscribe to Carly for her excellent fitness tips, especially strength training techniques and routines and her no-nonsense and (sometimes TMI) chat.
Try her upper body and lower body routines.
XHIT Daily
Energetic and motivational daily workouts delivered by the very funny and energetic Kelsey-Lee and Rebecca-Louise. Workouts range from short 5 minute ab routines to 20 minute HIIT workouts. There is so much variation in these workouts so you'll never get bored. I'm a regular gym goer, but these workouts consistently deliver that extra bit of (good) pain you need.
Try Ab Workout: Walk The Plank and Inner Thigh Exercises for Inner Toning.
FitnessBlender
This couple rock. They have the largest and most professional selection of workout videos I've been able to find. Again, this is no-nonsense stuff. No music, just simple and effective killer workouts for all goals including strength, HIIT, Pilates and Yoga. There is also great insight into common training myths and Q&A. I love the countdown timer and the estimated calorie burn. Beware of those burpees!
Check out their website here.
Try Plyometric and Cardio HIIT for Legs and Fast HIIT Cardio Workout to Boost Metabolism.
7/23/2014
Hot or Not | Smooze Fruit Ice
Smooze Fruit Ice jumped at me in Wholefoods as I literally stumbled over the point-of-sale stand at the checkout. It seemed really similar to my all-time favourite coconut pineapple water, and also because
it is free from gluten.
It's a freeze-to-eat product,
containing only all natural ingredients and comes in four different flavours
including Simply Coconut, Mango Coconut and Pineapple Coconut and Pink Guava Coconut.
Smooze
seems fairly efficient as it has a long shelf life at room
temperature so you only need to freeze as many as you need. If your
ice starts to thaw out, and you don’t use them, you can simply refreeze them again.
The packaging is fun. It's clearly marketed as a children’s product, but I find children’s snacks are
often great as portioned-controlled healthy treats for adults. This is no
exception. Smooze has rapidly become one of my go-to sweet fixes and here’s why.
What’s in
it? The nutrition panel
Smooze is made with
pressed coconut milk, fruit juice and purees. It promises not to use
concentrated juice and contains:
- Fruit Pectin: a natural dietary fibre found in a variety of fruits, which blends the juices and purees with the coconut milk
- Citric acid: found in citrus fruits, a natural preservative
- Ascorbic acid: a natural preservative otherwise known as Vitamin C
- Natural fruit flavours
- Natural cane sugar: 40% less sugar than other frozen treats and naturally occurring sugars only.
Quick fact: Did you know that sweetness is measured in BRIX? Smooze is approximately 4g, which is (according to the company) low
compared to the most frozen treats in the market. Smooze is an Australian brand, so I’m not sure whether they mean in the Australian market here. Smooze has also been profiled in Diabetic Living Australia
magazine as an “exemplary” treat.
Smooze is 100% vegan and basically free from
everything. It claims to be free from artificial colours and flavours, preservatives, dairy, soy, nuts,
Cholesterol (more on this in an upcoming post), GM, trans fats (the nasties)
and it's even Halal and Kosher Certified.
How does it
taste?
Although
free from everything, Smooze in my opinion, is not free from flavour. To me, the
pineapple version (my favourite) is reminiscent of a pina colada – no lie. I’m
sure it lends itself well to a not so healthy vodka “adult” cocktail (for another post). All the flavours taste really fresh, unprocessed
and as coconuts are packed with naturally occurring potassium, really thirst
quenching.
This comparison of Smooze Fruit Ice and vanilla ice cream was really interesting.
I wouldn’t
say Smooze tastes like ice cream, and I’m not sure anything really replaces that,
but the creamy texture makes it taste much more indulgent and smooth than a
standard fruit ice for sure. In my opinion, for big kids or little kids, Smooze will satiate
any sweet tooth on a hot day, so you should definitely give it a go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)