Healthy May - week 4

Man a month goes fast! So this will be my last Healthy May post. I hope you've tried out my healthy recipes and enjoyed them as much as I do.

Sometimes it's hard to know if you're doing all the right things - there's so much conflicting information out there about what's good and what's bad for you. But I had a moment last week when I realised just how healthy I've been.
I was having a bit of a bad day, and at about 3pm, that point in the the day when you feel like curling up into a ball and going to sleep, I decided to go for a walk and get myself a treat. Sugar has alway been my way of cheering myself up, so I went and got a hot chocolate and a lemon slice. The first sip of hot chocolate and the first bite of lemon slice was absolute bliss, but when I got about halfway through both, I felt sick, and I just wanted to go back to work and have some green tea.
It was a real surprise, and it made me feel so good about how I'm treating my body now - I no longer crave sugar all the time and I've also stopped eating bigger meals than what I need. I feel awesome! Have any of you had a similar moment of realisation?
Fitness wise, I think I've done pretty well despite being held back from the gym by a week of tonsilitis and whiplash from a car crash on the weekend. I feel like focussing on my health this month has given me a totally different attitude towards health in general and a much better awareness of my body. As I said at the beginning of the month, this month was not just a fad diet, it was a lifestyle change, an attitude change, and I think I have achieved that.
How about you? Do you feel changed? Like you can do anything? Are you fearless?

Healthy May - week 3

Good morning all, hope you all had a good Week three of Healthy May. I bet you all did better than me. I had tonsilitis all week, so it was soup and toast and no gym for me - just lots of sleeping. But I started feeling better on Saturday, so spent the afternoon baking and found this scrumptious muffin recipe. Enjoy :)

BANANA, PECAN AND BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Makes 12

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1 cup reduced fat milk

1 tsp lemon juice

1 ½ cups plain flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 cup bran flakes

½ cup sugar

1 egg

¼ cup olive oil

1 banana, mashed

1 cup blueberries

½ cup pecans, chopped

Method:
Preheat oven to 210 degrees. Lightly spray 12 medium muffin pans.
Combine milk and lemon juice. Set aside.
Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add bran and sugar. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients.
Beat egg and whisk in oil and milk mixture. Pour liquid mixture into the well. Add banana, blueberries and pecans. Mix until the dry ingredients are just dampened.
Three-quarters fill each muffin pan. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

How did you all get on?

Healthy May - Week 2

Well, week two has been okay, although I didn't achieve many of the things I set out to do last week... just stress and being busy and whatnot. But I do have an awesome recipe to share with you :) Hope you all had a good week two :)

WALNUT AND FRUIT LOAF

Makes 2 loaves (24 slices)

Ingredients:

½ cup sultanas

½ cup chopped dried apricots

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup hot water

400g can lite sweetened condensed milk

½ cup golden syrup

3 cups wholemeal flour

½ cup chopped walnuts

Method:

·         Preheat oven to 150 degrees. Line 2 loaf tins.

·         Place sultanas, apricots and baking soda in large bowl, stir in hot water.

·         Add condensed milk and golden syrup. Stir until combined.

·         Add flour and walnuts, stir until well combined.

·         Spoon mixture into loaf tins. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

·         Allow to cool in the tin. Turn out of tin and slice to serve.

*Tip: Cut into slices once cooled, wrap each indivudual slice in gladwrap and freeze so it doesn't go stale and you can take a peice whenever you need to. Great for when you sleep in and you miss breakfast - grab a slice, chuck it in your bag, and by the time you get to work it's defrosted and you have a healthy breakfast!

Healthy May - Week 1

So last week, I joined Amanda from Here Comes the Sun on her journey towards becoming more fit and healthy (I wrote this post about it) and I promised you a run-down of my healthy week, so here it is.

Fitness:
On Tuesday, I went to the gym and did a Body Combat class, which was amazing! I haven't been able to do it for awhile due to issues with my feet, but they have behaved themselves for the past week, so it felt so great to go back and punch and kick the living daylights out of some air! (Body Combat is mixed martial arts group fitness). Also hit the gym on Thursday for about an hour. For week two I'm hitting the gym three times!

Food:
I've managed to cut down a bit on my sugar - there's been no chocolate in the house and I'm saving money so I've been strict with myself about buying unnecessary food, and my meals have been relatively healthy this week.
For lunch this week I made a recipe out of The Healthy Skin Diet book called Roasted Sweet Potato Salad and it is delish! (the flaxseed oil can be a bit of a put-off because it's expensive but you only use a little bit so it lasts a long time and if you're not worried about your skin you can just leave it out) Who would have thought that curry powder and lemon juice go so well together? So here's the recipe...

Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato/kumara, peeled and diced into bite-sized chunks
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon mild curry powder
Ground black pepper
Pinch sea salt
1 tablespoon flaxseed oil
200g rocket or baby spinnach (approx 2 handfuls)

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Place sweet potato/kumara in a bowl and mix with olive oil, then place on a baking tray and cook for 30 minutes or until pieces are soft and browned (not mushy). Remove from the oven and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the lemon juice, garlic, curry powder, pepper, salt and flaxseed oil. Then add the sweet potato and rocket, and gently mix.

*Tip: Replace lettuce with spinach or rocket in any meal. Lettuce is pretty much just water and gives you no nutrients at all, while spinach and rocket are full of nutrients and all those body-friendly things.


Goals for next week:

• Do weights and crunches every night before bed (flat stomach here I come!)
• Stay away from too much dairy, especially milk (inflames acne-prone skin)
• Hit the gym three times, including Body Combat on Tuesday
• Try a new recipe from The Healthy Skin Diet

How did everyone else get on?

Healthy May

So a great Kiwi blog I have been following for a couple of years now - Here Comes the Sun - did a post today about living a healthy lifestyle, and reminded me of the fact that we're more likely to succeed in things if we're held accountable - ie, if we blog about doing it, we must do it.
So she's doing this thing called Healthy May, where bloggers support each other in their healthy eating/weight loss/fitness goals by blogging at the end of each week about what they have done during the week.
Since I started on a health kick a couple of weeks ago anyway, I thought, why not join in? So every Monday I will be telling you all about my healthy week. Stay tuned!
I decided to go on a major health kick because my life has been very unsettled over the last 18 months and I slipped into bad habits like big bowls of pasta with creamy cheese sauce for dinner, chocolate as a snack, missing breakfast, lots of takeaways, and pretty much no exercise.
And although my weight isn't a problem (I know, people hate me... I'm one of those girls), my skin, which has always been problematic (it hasn't quite grown out of teenagehood yet even though I'm 24 next month) started to suffer for it. So I gave myself a kick up the bum, joined a gym, bought a book on Amazon called The Healthy Skin Diet by Karen Fischer, and started googling healthy recipes. Now I have stacks of healthy recipes that aren't just good for you, but delicious and cheap too! And I've got into some good habits which I'm hoping to stick to.
So if you want to join us, head over to Amanda's blog (linked above) and share your experience with us!

My Goals:

•Get to the gym at least twice a week
•Walk at least 30mins a day
•Limit chocolate/sugar intake
•Eat healthy meals

Simple, general goals I know, but this whole thing isn't about going on a fad diet for a month, it's about a lifestyle change, which is so much better because you're more likely to stick to it.