Fuel your day!

Hi there!

I’m going to try and get more regular posts out now! I’ll be a bit more room bound now that exams are racing round so will have a bit of time to sit down and write! Today, I’d like to post about breakfast. My favourite meal ever and I love trying out new things to give me a great, healthy kick start to the day! I thought I’d share a couple of my favourite recipes! Unfortunately, there are no photos, except ones of breakfasts I’ve already posted! Unless otherwise stated, all recipes are for 1 person.

1) My Rock n Roll 10k breakfast; I made this just this weekend to prepare me for my first 10km race. I ate it about 1 hour 30 minutes before I started and it kept me powering through! It needs to be left in the fridge overnight.

Ingredients;

• 1 portion of natural/greek yoghurt (your preference here)
• 1 protein scoop of oats (this is about 25g worth of oats)
• 6 frozen strawberries
• Optional; 1 teaspoon cinammon/agave syrup/golden syrup

Method;

1. In a resealable tub, mix the oats with the cinammon (if using).
2. Chop 3 of the frozen strawberries into chunks and pile on top of the oats.
3. Add the yoghurt.
4. Cut the remianing strawberries and place them on top of the yoghurt.
5. Drizzle the agave syrup/golden syrup on top (if using) or sprinkle more cinammon (if using).
6. Leave this covered in the fridge overnight.

2) Power Up Pancakes; follow the link for the recipe!

3) Avocado & Egg Toast; oats aren’t everybodies cup of tea, so here’s a more savoury option for those dreary mornings!

Ingredients;

• 2 slices wholegrain bread
• 1/2 ripe avocado
• 2 medium eggs
• To season; ground black pepper, smoked paprika, salt, tabasco, you’re condiment of choice

Method;

1. Slice the avocado into strips.
2. Scramble the eggs (try use olive oil rather than butter here).
   If you want, feel free to boil/poach/omlette your eggs!
3. Toast the bread whilst the eggs are cooking.
4. Put the avocado on top of the toast first.
5. Add the eggs on top.
6. Season.
7. Devour.

4) Super fruit bowl; for a fresher, lighter start to the day!

Ingredients;

• 1 small banana
• 1 small apple
• Handful of berries (you choose)
• 1 portion of natural/greek yoghurt
• Optional; cinammon, golden syrup, agave syrup, cocoa powder

Method;

1. Chop all the fruit and pile into a bowl.
2. Mix the yoghurt and any optional toppings you fancy.
3. Simples!

These are 4 super easy and healthy recipes you can whip up for breakfast to keep the day starting right! I always find if I start the day on a good, healthy note, then maintaining my healthy eating throughout the day is so much easier. I also feel more energetic and have more energy right through to snack time.

Have a great week guys! Anyone else counting down the days until summer!?

Gym Bug

Foodie Challenge #8

Hi there!

I have a sort of dinner club with 2 friends here and we each take turns cooking the main every Wednesday. It was my turn this time round and I opted to make my own variation of sweet potato and white bean burgers! I wanted to try something healthy, fast and cheap.

Ingredients ( 2 large patties);

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 250g white beans
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• Ground black pepper
• 1 large egg (optional)
• Olive oil

Method;

1. Peel and cube the sweet potato and boil them until soft enough to mash.
2. Dry the sweet potatoes and allow them to cool.
3. Once cooled, mash the white beans and seasoning in together.
4. Optional; add the egg. I didn’t use one, because I found they bound very well together without it, however, they didn’t crisp up excellently.
5. Create either 2 large patties or more mini patties.
6. Heat olive oil in a frying pan.
7. Cook the patties until they are a nice, crisp, brown colour.
8. Serve with side salad, vegetables, whatever you fancy!

I apologise for the photo, my phone died before I could get a finished product photo, but here’s a mini patty cooking!

You can also bulk them out a bit with breadcrumbs or have a burger bun with them!

Gym Bug

Snack time!

Hi there!

Sorry I’ve been absent, the weather is gorgeous and I’ve been spending a lot of time outside getting my daily dose of Vitamin D!

Can’t help but be outside.

However, yesterday I discovered a new delicious, quick and healthy snack! It’s pretty basic but tastes like apple pie!

Ingredients;

• 1 apple, chopped (go for any type you want)
• 1/4 cup of oats
• 1/4 cup cornflakes/bran flakes/crunchy cereal
  Watch what you choose, remember some are high in sugar and calories
• Honey
• Cinnamon

Method;

1. Add the oats, apple and cornflakes/bran flakes/crunchy cereal to a bowl.
2. Add as much honey and cinnamon as you like.
3. Enjoy!
4. Optional; if you’re looking for a punchier snack, add some greek yoghurt to it (proteeeeeein).

Om nom nom

I know it doesn’t look like much but I swear it’s delicious!

Happy snacking!

Gym Bug

Energy drinks; recipe for a sugar crash

Hi there!

I found an article recently about energy drinks and how they can contain up to 20 teaspoons of sugar PER CAN! This is insane, especially since our new recommended daily amount of sugar has been reduced to 6 teaspoons according to the WHO. This is insane and what’s even more concerning is that people, especially children, are drinking these regularly! I did a post on child obesity and this links directly with that. Studies have linked energy drink consumption with issues such as obesity, caffeine overdoses, risky behaviour and addiction.

Thee energy drinks are also targetted at those who participate in sports as a way to get that ‘much needed energy boost’ to improve performance. I can’t sit here and say I’ve never drank them and I never will again. I had half a red bull a few weeks ago (I had been drinking a little, so my ability to comprehend it’s awful-ness was hindered somewhat) but I most certainly drink far less. I probably average about 1 every 6-8 months. Prior to my half a can of red bull a few weeks ago, I think the last one I had was in the summer of 2014.

Anyway, energy drinks are getting an increasingly bad reputation. When I say energy drinks I’m referring to brands such as Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar, Bullet and so on. They typically come is huge cans as well. They are also becoming increasingly mixed with artificial fruit juices to make them more appealing. Not only does this amp up the calories but it makes the sugar content sky rocket. For example, Rockstar Tropical Punch contains 260 calories and 31g of sugar! That’s 20 teaspoons of sugar (Note; 1 teaspoon of sugar= 4grams) These energy drinks truly are something to avoid consuming regularly!

There are other drinks out there, such as Powerade or Lucozade, that are marketed as ‘sports drinks’ and something athletes should consume to help them. However, you should really only consume these ‘sports drink’ (I’m using the term lightly) when you’re participating in long, intense exercise. Typical standard is to skip the ‘sports drink’ if you’re running anything less than 30 minutes. Consumption of them before, during or after anything longer than this can be beneficial as it provides your body with carbohydrates, which is necessary to endure and recover. I typically opt for water however, whatever the distance or I’ll choose energy tablets, which you dissolve into water, for example I drank High5 Zero Pink Grapefruit before I ran Tough Mudder in 2014. I did notice I didn’t cramp during the race, which I did in 2013. High5 is an electrolyte based ‘sports drink’ and I personally prefer them a lot more to traditional ‘sports drink’ or energy drinks. But again, I only consume them for hard, intense, long exercise (or if I’m hungover, they work wonders).

An increasingly popular alternative is to make your own! Here’s a recipe I found on Everyday Roots.

Gym Bug

Image 1 Source; http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/var/plain_site/storage/images/publications/food-beverage-nutrition/foodnavigator-usa.com/markets/bad-press-affecting-energy-drink-category-mintel/8678378-1-eng-GB/Bad-press-affecting-energy-drink-category-Mintel.jpg

Image 2 Source; http://everydayroots.com/homemade-energy-drink

Foodie Challenge #5

Hi there!

Something a little different for this Foodie Challenge. I did not follow any recipes but instead just gave it a go with what I had! It was fun to try and see what I could do and it (fortunately) tasted really good. This is my very own Sriracha Salmon! I will explain the recipe with the vegetables I used, but feel free to change them to suit your preferences and tastes.

Ingredients

• 1 salmon fillet (choose your preferred size), skin on preferably, boned.
• 1/2 large, white onion, finely chopped.
• 1 medium carrot, chopped.
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped.
• 1/2 cup squash, cubed.
• 1 cup of spinach.
• 1/2 cup brocoli.
• 1 tomato, chopped.
• Pinch of smoked paprika (optional, I really like the smokey flavour).
• 2 tables of Sriracha sauce (I used the on with the Rooster on the bottle).
• Black pepper.
• Olive oil.

Method

1. Put the squash in a pot with water and boil (until soft, check regularly throughout cooking).
2. Heat a little olive oil in a pan and add the onion, paprika (if using) and black pepper.
3. Add all the sriracha sauce and stir well.
4. Cover with a lid and leave the onions to soften, stirring occassionally.
   Note; I add a dash of vinegar here to keep it from burning to the bottom, this is optional.
5. Make a space in the middle of the pan and add the salmon, skin side down (if there’s skin on the fillet).
6. Allow the salmon to cook for about 2 minutes (or until it’s gone pale pink about half way up the fillet).
7. Flip the salmon and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
8. Turn the heat off and add the remaining vegetables, cover and leave for 2 minutes.
   Note; I enjoy my vegeables being crunchy and only warmed through, add them in step 3 or 4 for cooked vegetables.

   Note; Serve with natural yoghurt or non-fat greek yoghurt if you enjoy spice but it proves too much.
   Note; A great carbohydrate for this would be sweet potato, add 1 small sweet potato (chopped) with the squash.

I really enjoyed this, I’m a huge fan of salmon and was so glad I didn’t ruin it with my experiments!

Gym Bug

Healthy snacks for on the go!

Hi there!

I’m one of those people who needs snacks handy for work, university, being out and about because I hate buying things out (I’m always tempted by unhealthy choices) and I always find them to be sort of dissappointing. So I thought I’d list some of my favourite on the go that you can prepare at home and grab and go! This particular post is for those snack that require no cooking! Once I start exprimenting when I’m home (and have access to an oven) I’ll do some snacks that you can cook.

• Hummus and vegetable sticks (celery, carrots, cucumber, courgette etc).
• DIY Trail mix (mix bran flakes, raisins, nuts. other dried fruit for a great, protein packed snack).
• Ham slices wrapped around cucumber or carrots sticks (can bring some hummus long too).
• One yoghurt pot mixed with 2 tablespoon of oats (best allow the oats to soak in the yoghurt for an hour or more).
• One yoghurt pot with grapes, banana, apples etc.
• Handful of pretzels (watch the salt content of the pretzels you buy).
• Soreen.

These are a few of my personal favourite snacks. I really love makng a big tuperware full of trail mix and putting some in a little tub! Also, Soreen is something I wish I could eat all day!

Gym Bug

Macros

Hi there!

Discovered a brilliant image today on Facebook from The SFN Expo Facebook page. Macros are essentally your daily calori requirements, broken down into detailed calorie requirements for protein, fat and carbohydrates. Some people don’t like calculating macronutrients as they don’t feel it helps attain their fitness goals. However, if you’re interested in calculating your macronutrient requirements, you can do so following the steps below;

1. Calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure
   (Weight in kilograms x 2.2) x (Number training hours per week + 9-12*)
   *you must select your intensity rate here for training, 9 being low intensity and 12 being high intensity)
2. Calculate your protein requirements (in grams)
   Weight in kilograms x 2 grams (you can adjust this but try stay within 1.4-3.0)
   Multiply this by 4 to get calorie requirements from protein.
3. Calculate your fat requirements (in grams)
   Weight in kilograms x 1 gram (adjustable but try keep this above 0.7)
   Multiply this by 9 to get calorie requirements from fat.
4. Calculate your carbohydrate requirements (in grams)
   Total Daily Energy Expenditure- (Calories from protein + Calories from fat)
                                                         4
   Do not divide by 4 to determine your calorie needs from carbohydrates.
5. Calculate your fibre intake (in grams)
   Total Daily Energy Expenditure
                     100
   It is advised to keep it at around 15g

I was curious about why you would consider calcuating your macros and found a great article on BodyBuilding. They give reasons to macro and reasons not to. I recommend reading the whole article on their website but the reasons are as follows;

Reasons to Macro;

1) You’re lean but you want to be leaner
2) You have no concept of what “enough protein” means
3) Your body signals are out of whack
4) You have a deadline to meet

Reason not to Macro;

1) Your neurosis gets you nowhere
2) You’re a macronutrient veteran
3) You just got your feet wet
4) You want to be healthy, not freaky shredded

There you have it! Macros all summed up. I calculated mine out of interest and my Total Daily Energy Expenditure is apparently around 1604 calories per day with workout intensity of 10, I do a lot of HIIT however, so when I shifted it to 12 (out of curiosity) it said I needed 1814 calories. I wrote a post recently about calorie calculators if you’re interested in seeing how different online calculators calculated my needs differently!

Have a great weekend!

Gym Bug

Calorie Requirement Calculators

Hi there!

I decided to take a look at online calorie calculators that are supposed to give an indication of how many calories you need to consume to lose weight. I’ve done this to show you that these can be widely different but can give you a very rough guide to the number of calories you should consume (not including exercise unless stated)

My Calorie Counter; 1942 calories

Calorie King; 1100 to 1300 calories

Fitness Magazine; (with exercise level included) 2395 calories

WebMd; (with exercise level included) 2000

Anita Bean’s Calculation; (with exercise level included) 2788 calories

These are 5 of many different ways of calculatng your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and required calorie intake. However, these are clearly vastly different from each other. It seems I should be aiming for around 2000, which is the guideline daily amount for adult females. You can also get it professionally checked by having a test conducted to measure your BMR using heart rate, CO2 production and working you to exhausting which is significantly more accurate.

I just wanted to let you see that these calculators cannot be taken as the law for losing weight! Eat well and exercise regularly and you can do this!

Gym Bug

Foodie Challenge #4

Hi there!

Trying lots of recipes recently! Classes are about to start so it will likely become less frequent but I will try maintain my one new recipe a month! Last nights dinner was a delicious Sweet Potato and White Bean stew, I got the inspiration to this from this recipe but made many edits. What’s great about this is it uses any leftovers from last Foodie Challenge #3!

Ingredients (for one);

• 1 medium sweet potato, chopped into chunks.
• 1 carrot, chopped.
• 1/2 large white onion, finely chopped.
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped.
• 1 cup spinach.
• 1/2 cup aubergine, cubed.
• 2-3 mushrooms, sliced.
• 1/2 cup brocoli.
• 100g white beans.
• 200g tinned tomatoes.
• 1 teaspoon cumin.
• 1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes.
• 100ml red wine.
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed.
• Crushed black pepper.
• Olive oil

Method;

1. Heat some olive oil in a pan and soften the garlic and onions (use a lid to do this).
2. Add the cumin, black pepper and chili flakes and stir to coat over the onions.
3. Add all the vegetables, sweet potato and tinned tomatoes and mix well.
4. Add the beans and the red wine and stir it well.
5. Cover with a lid and cook gently on a simmer for 40-50 minutes until the vegetables are tender, the sweet potato is soft and the stew has thickened.
6. Taste and season further as required.

This takes longer to cook than my other recipes but it’s delicious, filling and healthy!

It looks very similar to yesterdays post but it’s sweet potato not prawns in it!

Not going to lie, I’m really enjoying this challenge!

Gym Bug

Foodie Challenge #3

Hi there!

Another Foodie Challenge post today. This was last nights dinner and was based on Runner’s World Complete Guide to Nutrition recipe for Prawns and White beans. I edited the recipe slightly to add more vegetables to it.

Ingredients (for one);

• 200g tinned tomatoes
• 100g white beans
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1/2 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 cup of spinach
• 1/2 large white onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• Crushed black pepper
• 10 prawns, cooked (you can add more or less also mine just needed their shells removed)
• Olive oil
• 1/2 cup brocoli, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes

Method;

1. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the onions and garlic.
2. Place a lid on the pan and soften the onions.
3. Add the tomatoes, paprika (both kinds), chili, black pepper and peppers, stir everything together.
4. Place a lid on the pan and allow the mix to simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the spinach and the beans and stir together well.
6. Add the prawns and allow to simmer for 3-4 minutes to make sure the prawns are hot.
   (Taste the sauce and add any additional seasoning if desired)
7. Sprinkle the brocoli over the top, remove from heat and allow the dish to sit for 1 minute.
   (Here you can boil the brocoli if you prefer it soft, but I enjoy brocoli raw and crunchy)

That’s it! Nice and healthy and very easy. It’s also relatively cheap (the prawns may not be) but you can replace the prawns with chicken! Just add the chicken with the onions in step 1 and ensure it’s cooked through before serving!

I love prawns and the extra kick from the chili gave a nice heat to it!

Gym Bug