Beat the 3PM Binge with Nut Butter!

Its 3pm. You saw off your lunch at least 2 hours ago, but its still 3 whole hours until its even slightly acceptable to eat dinner. Your mid-afternoon snack somehow became your mid-morning snack and now the vending machine at the end of the corridor is calling your name...Sound familiar?

As an office worker myself I see it time and time again. People start the day with the best intentions; sauntering into the office with their snazzy smoothie, gossiping about their greens and bragging about their broccoli. Then 3 o clock hits, the treat trolley appears and before we know it the entire office are munching on their Magnums. And it's not to say that I haven't been tempted by a cheeky 3 o clock treat, of course, I'm not a saint. But I have found a solution which I can get just as excited about, without the associated guilt.

NUT BUTTER

 



Somewhere out there, someone is making a butter out of every single nut under the sun. And they are just great. Nut butters are a really fab way to add protein into the diet and, used wisely, nut butters can stem hunger pangs for far longer than a similar amount of low fat food ever could. Ensure that you pick out brands that don't have added salt and sugar and try to avoid any butters which contain palm oil (some terrible people are tearing down some lovely little monkey's home to make room for palm oil plantations - not cool). Some particularly good brands include Meridian (http://www.meridianfoods.co.uk/) and Myprotein (http://www.myprotein.com/home.dept) if you want to buy in bulk (strongly advised!!)

Whilst you are more than welcome to spoon some tasty butter straight into your mouth (this is great as a post training protein kick), you may wish to take a slightly more dignified approach and pop your nut butter on top of something to make a yummy little treat. I have tried and test a number of butter-combos and here are a few of my personal favourites.

• Cashew Butter + Bananas + Melted Dark Chocolate

• Almond Butter + Apple
  
  
   
•  Peanut Butter + ANYTHING (but Rude Health http://rudehealth.com/ spelt cakes are pretty awesome)

 

 

Hope you get as nutty about nuts as I do - enjoy :-) 

Healthy Cooking Oils, What to Use & When.

I wanted to use this blog to clear up a few things with regards to what oils to cook with and what just to keep for your salad dressings. Some oils are super healthy but as soon as they are heated hot for cooking purposes they fundamentally change from a good oil to bad! Below are three oils that I like to use and most importantly what I will use them for.

If you are using Extra Virgin Olive Oil for cooking then stop now! This seems to me to be the most common mistake that people make and is the main reason I wrote this piece. Extra virgin olive oil ideally cold pressed is supper healthy and great on salads and added to foods after cooking. It tastes great and generations of folk from the Mediterranean swear by it. However it spoils over temperatures of 160 degree C, at that point it becomes bad for you, so in a work don't use it for cooking. So many people labour under the illusion its great for cooking with, its not! Light Olive oil fares better at high temperatures however lacks many of the health benefits as is far more processed. So personally I would steer clear of it.












For cooking:

Avocado Oil: has just about the highest burn temperature out there so for cooking that requires very high temperatures use this. I find it also has a nice flavour and use it when I cook things in a frying pan, omelettes for example. Its also not to as pricey as you might think.

Coconut Oil: This has a lower burn temperature than Avocado however is still good for lots of cooking at lower temperatures, ideal for a substitute for butter for cakes for example, plus for curries its very tasty. Just dont get it smoking, as that means too hot!

There you have it, nice and simple. Three oils for all occasions.

Training Hard: 5 x 1 k Super Sets. (Not for the faint Hearted!)

A word of warning here, you may want to build up its hard core, but will leave you with amazing results. Basically this work out has taken the Freeletics Aphrodite workout and adds some 'rest' in the form of cardio.

The best way to do this work out is to find a park where you have roughly a 1k run loop and some grassy areas where you can do the work out. This should take between 30-45 minutes with no rest. Its a great way of cramming in an awesome workout into a short space of time, do it!

Work Out:
Warm up
 Easy jogging for 10 mins bulding into some strides. (you want to have a bit of a sweat on)

Main Set*
50 burpees, 50 body weight squats, 50 sit ups.
1k easy run
40  burpees, 40 body weight squats, 40 sit ups.
1k steady run
30 burpees, 30 body weight squats, 30 sit ups.
1k steady run
20 burpees, 20 body weight squats, 20 sit ups.
1k fast tempo run
10 burpees, 10 body weight squats, 10 sit ups.
1k easy warm down recovery run.

If you find this to hard going, which is perfectly understandable try starting from 20 of everything with 500m of running and then drop the sets down to 15, 10, 5. Trust me this will still be tough and a massive part of this work out is keeping the intensity.

*If you are unsure of how to perform any of these exercises go go onto you tube, form is key!

Smoothie Recovery..... Mmmm, this one's my favourite!

Like most of my recipes I do not concern myself too much with calorie counting, I live a very active lifestyle and eat very healthy so there is no need to calorie count. Plus all the ingredients in here are really good for you!

What you get from this shake is a great mix of protein, good fats, some easy to digest carbs which will go straight to replacing glycogen and some leafy goodness. All wrapped into a tasty shake.

Ingredients:

Half small avocado
Coconut water or almond milk add depending on how thick you like your shake.
A handful of almonds, preferable soaked for 12 hrs before.
Half a banana
Handful of spinach
Handful of Kale
3 or 4 dates (don't forget to remove stones)
A few lumps of ice if desired.

Blend this all together, the more powerful the blender the better the smoothy. Look for watts, you want 500 plus watts. I use a 750w hand blender, I would dearly love a Vitamix!!

Guys I promise this is really really good the avocado makes it lovely and creamy and all the dates do is bring some sweetness so if you want to cut the carbs do it here. Enjoy.

Paleo Porrige, Well..... Almost

I created this healthy breakfast after experimenting with lots of different varieties of porridge over the years. I now feel like I have created the perfect breakfast for the active lifestyle. The porridge is high in protein and good fats and has its complex carbs to keep the energy levels up. Its fair to say it has its calories however for the person with an active lifestyle it will fill you up and supply you with energy for all morning!

The recipe couple not be more simple:

Equal Parts: 
oats (gluten free optional)
ground almonds
desecrated coconut (the one without sugar added)
Lindwoods milled flax, sunflower, pumpkin, seseme seed & goji berries. www.linwoodshealthfoods.com/uk/shop/milled-flaxseed-sunflower-pumpkin-and-sesame-seeds-and-goji-berries.html

I mix this into a big Tupperware container which lasts a few weeks. Then every evening i soak a bowl of the mixture with water over night. Soaking enables your body to break down the mixture more efficiently extracting more nutrients. Its always good to soak your nuts! ; )

In the morning you can then either microwave for 2-3 mins or cook the mixture in a pan.

Personally I then like to stir in a spoon full of crunchy organic peanut butter to the finished mix and top with blueberries and raspberries. This adds the perfect balance of sweetness.

Thai Red Curry, Recover the Tasty Way!

Bare with me on the Blog thing I am sure i will find my feet eventually. I'm just fumbling around in the dark a little at the moment....

I wanted to start with a classic dish that I make on running and triathlon camps in the Algarve, Portugal. Its a tasty and well balanced curry dish that offers plenty of options to add to it in various ways, if you so choose.

Chicken & Butternut Squash Thai Red Curry with Cherry Tomatoes is a really tasty meal that offers a great balance of slow release carbohydrates, protein, some good fats and most importantly is tasty! I find after most forms of long exercise especially on week long camps you need food that is not only balanced and nutritious but equally important is taste. Replacing glycogen stores, repairing muscles and getting in the necessary calories is a lot easier when the dish you are eating is delicious!

This is a very flexible dish, you have the option to add more vegetables to the curry, rice on the side or if you want to keep those carbohydrates down you can switch to cauliflower rice a tasty and easy to make alternative to regular rice. (recipe coming soon)

Ingredients for 6:

6 tablespoon/s of red thai curry paste. Thai Taste Red Thai Curry Paste is my favourite.  If you like spicy add more less spicy add less.
1.5 tins of coconut milk, then add the rest according to preference.
Roughly 600 grams of roughly chopped butternut squash. (invest in a good peeler!!) 
3/4 chicken breasts cut into curry sized chunks. (You can put in a meat substitute if you choose.)
360 grams cherry tomatoes 
1 broccoli floret (optional)  
1 pack of mange tout (optional)
1 green pepper (optional)  
1 tin/s of baby sweetcorn (optional) 
2 handfuls of chopped coriander 
4-6 tablespoon/s of fish sauce 
1-2 limes 
1 teaspoon of palm sugar or light brown sugar  

Then when I make a vedgetairan version, I oven roast a heap of aubergine (egg plant), courgette (zuccini) tossed with a spot of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and when i add that to the dish I pop in two tins of chick peas for extra protein.   

Making it all is very straight forward. Fry the paste with some coconut oil or another oil with a high burn temperature. Then add a little coconut milk and the butternut sq. Coat well and add in the rest of the first tin or coconut milk. Alow the contents to start bubbling again and leave for 10 mins. While you do this you can prep any vedge. Then add the cherry tomatoes. Again leave to cook until the squash has become tender. At this point add the chicken, you dont need to brown it off first it will poach nicely in the sauce, just be sure to get the pan back up to a boiling. With your vegetables I tend to add this depending on the type of vedge and how endente i like it. If you like thing crunchy leave it until later, if you like a curry with soft vedge add it either before or with the chicken.

You now pretty much have your dish ready to go, you can just add the other tin according to how much sauce you want. Add the fish sauce, lime and sugar to balance the flavour out. I tend to mix 1 lime (rolling first makes it easier to squeeze), the fish sauce and sugar together tasting it until its got the right tangy flavour. I then add this to the curry bit by bit until its perfect.

Finally take of the heat and add the chopped coriander. I serve with dish with rice on camps/cauliflower rice at home. It all depends on your carbohydrate needs.

Its then all good to go, leave some chopped lime, more chopped coriander and fish sauce on the table. I always finely chop some birds eye chillies and have that as garnish too. If you are training early the next day maybe miss out on the chillies  ; )

One last point on this dish is that everyone likes different things so, use the recipe as a guide then make this dish your own!