Protein packed breakfast – and it’s easy!

Having protein for breakfast is one of the best ways to kick the 3pm sweet tooth craving. Why? Because it sets your body up with lots of fuel from the start. While there are some really good and healthy carb breakfasts, I find it leaves me hungry a little while after. So for a past fewyears, I have opted for the basic eggs and bacon or eggs and veg for breaky. And I have to say, it keeps me going and gives me  a head start with my veg intake for the day too.

Protein is essential for building muscle, so if you are planning a workout later today, or have just done one, rebuilding what you have just broken down is super important. It is also a great way to fill you up for longer, reduce your overall calorie intake (if that’s what you are after) because you won’t be looking for those naughty snacks later on.

But I don’t have time in the morning …

Most of this can be prepared the night before, while you are already making a mess in the kitchen getting dinner ready. Then while you are having shower, putting your makeup on or getting the kids ready for their day, there is 10 minutes that this baby could be slightly cooking in the background. There is always a way 🙂

Ingredients

2-3 eggs (depending on exercise level)

1/2 cup of last nights cooked veg, roughly chopped

Pepper

Optional: 1 slice short cut bacon

Method

Pop a bit of Macadamia oil in your pan (this oil has a really high smoke point), stir all ingredients well in a bowl, pour into pan. Leave until the bottom is cooked, then flip. Wallahh! Done.

I enjoy mine with some smashed avo on the side (1/4 avo).

So you have got protein from the eggs, started your day with some veg (big tick), full of nutrients and low calories and have radiant looking skin from the avo. I’d call that an award winning meal. Enjoy 🙂

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Chocolate – like never before (and yes, it’s good for you)

Be warned, this is AMAZING and you will want more.

I discovered this recipe from Sofie Van Kempen, Nutritionist and exciting recipe extraordinaire (you can find her on Instagram) just before Easter, so the idea was to make Easter eggs (as per recipe). But time got away and I have finally discovered my new love … homemade chocolate!

I have messed around with the recipe a bit, adding different ingredients in to see what I like and to see how much goodness I can pack in one little chocolate for myself and baby Elke. I will share the original recipe and then give you my absolute favourite 🙂

Enjoy

Ingredients

1 cup cocoa butter

1 cup raw cocao powder

1/3 cup raw honey

1 tsp vanilla bean paste / extract

pinch salt

Method

Melt butter, honey and vanilla and salt in a medium saucepan. Once melted, remove and combine powder, stir with a fork to remove all lumps. Pour into ice cub trays and pop in the freezer for about 15 min. Then you can just keep them in the fridge.

My favourite

I added 1 tbsp Macro peanut butter (melt with butter). Once off the stove, add a dash of peppermint oil, 1 tbsp black chia seeds and 1 tbsp flaxseeds.

What are you getting out of all this (aside from amazing flavour)?

Lots of Omega 3s from the Flaxseeds and Chia seeds essential for brain health and great for your skin. Heaps of creaminess from the peanut butter. Magnesium from the cocao powder for recovery and energy. Essential minerals from the salt which we loose through sweat. So what are you waiting for? Get into this stuff! you won’t regret it 🙂

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Healthy Ceaser Salad Dressing

Read more
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Golden Turmeric Chicken Stirfry

Serves 4-5 people

·  2-3 tsp curry powder
·  1 tsp ground turmeric
·  1 tsp ground cumin
·  1/2 tsp salt
·  1/2 tsp pepper  (cracked black pepper)
·  1-2 cloves garlic  , crushed (adjust depending on size)
·  1 tbsp honey
·  500 grams chicken breast  ,skinless**
·  1  red capsicum
·  1 tbsp coconut oil
·  1 tbsp poppy seeds  (optional, for garnishing)
·  1 handful fresh coriander  (optional, for garnishing)
·  1 tbsp chilli flakes  (optional, for adding extra heat)

Instructions

  1. In a cup or small bowl, combine the curry powder, turmeric, cumin, salt, pepper, garlic and honey. Add 2-3 tablespoons of water and stir until you have a smooth thin paste.
  2. Dice the chicken into chunks, roughly about 2cm cubes. Slice the capsicum into thin strips.
  3. Heat a frypan to a high heat and add the tablespoon of coconut oil.
  4. Add the chicken to the pan and cook for a few minutes until sealed (i.e. no pink visible), then reduce to a medium heat and add the capsicum and pour over your spice paste.
  5. Continue to cook for a further 5-8 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. If the sauce dries up too much, just add a touch of water.
  6. Remove from heat, scatter over the coriander (tear up and remove any thick tough stems first), poppy seeds and chilli (if using) and serve immediately with a side of veggies, quinoa or rice.
http://nourisheveryday.com/recipe/turmeric-chicken-stir-fry/
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Coleslaw with shredded chicken

1 x Red cabbage shredded thinly
2 x grated carrots
1 x bunch chopped kale

Mix the cabbage and carrot in a bowl and put aside.
Strip the kale off the steams and chop roughly. Put in a bowl and mix with salt, pepper, apple cider vinegar. Massage and set aside.

Dressing

2 tsp almond paste
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp water
1 big clove garlic crushed

Mix the kale with the cabbage and carrot. Mix the dressing through the salad well. You may need to add more water to make the dressing runny.

Add some shredded chicken on top!

Enjoy 🙂

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Zucchini Noodles with Avocado Pesto & Shrimp

Ingredients:

  • ¾ teaspoon salt, divided
  • 5-6 medium zucchini (2¼-2½ pounds total), trimmed
  • 1 ripe avocado
  • 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ cup unsalted shelled pistachios
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
  • ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil plus 2 tablespoons, divided
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 pound raw shrimp (21-25 count), peeled and deveined, tails left on if desired
  • 1-2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning

Preparation:

  1. Using a spiral vegetable slicer or a vegetable peeler, cut zucchini lengthwise into long, thin strands or strips. Stop when you reach the seeds in the middle (seeds make the noodles fall apart). Place the zucchini “noodles” in a colander and toss with ½ teaspoon salt. Let drain for 15 to 30 minutes, then gently squeeze to remove any excess water.
  2. Meanwhile, combine avocado, basil, pistachios, lemon juice, pepper and the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Add ¼ cup oil and process until smooth.
  3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add shrimp and sprinkle with Old Bay; cook, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp is almost cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
  4. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the pan. Add the drained zucchini noodles and gently toss until hot, about 3 minutes. Transfer to the bowl, add the pesto and gently toss to combine.

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/257004/zucchini-noodles-with-avocado-pesto-shrimp/

 

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No bake: Chocolate coated red velvet cake pops (vegan, gluten free)

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 small roasted beet (or cut a large one in half)
  • 1/4 cup coconut flour
  • 1/4 cup almond flour
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 4 soft pitted Medjool dates
  • 1 tablespoon full-fat coconut milk, or other non-dairy milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons vegan homemade mini chocolate chips
  • 1/2 85% dark chocolate bar, roughly chopped
  • 10 cake pop sticks

 

PREPARATION

  1. Prep a baking sheet or large cutting board with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. In a food processor, combine all ingredients from beet to vanilla and pulse until smooth. It should resemble red velvet cookie dough.
  3. If adding chocolate chips, remove the blade from the processor, and fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula. Scoop out cookie dough using a scoop or tablespoon, and roll into your hand to form a ball and set on parchment paper. Place cake bites in the refrigerator.
  4. Heat a saucepan with a few inches of water over high heat and add chocolate to a heatproof bowl.
  5. Place the bowl of chocolate over the saucepan and melt chocolate, stirring occasionally.
  6. Remove cake bites from the refrigerator and insert one cake pop stick into each one. Carefully dip each cake pop into the melted chocolate mixture and place back on the parchment paper.
  7. Place in the refrigerator for the chocolate to set for about 15-20 minutes. Remove and serve in a jar, if desired.

 

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/no-bake-chocolate-coated-red-velvet-cake-pops/
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5 Top clean eating habits

Are you struggling to find the time to make healthy choices? Are you getting home from work late and just grabbing some takeout on the way home or missing a meal completely because the thought of putting a meal together is just too hard? We get it! It can be hard to make the right choices if you haven’t got the right steps in place to make life easy. Because the last thing you want is another job with time you don’t have. The solution is here! Check out my 5 top clean eating tips to transform your unhealthy choices into easy, simple, delicious, time saving meals. You can do it! I’ve seen people turn their lives around with these 5 simple tips and watched them go from lethargic, unmotivated and stressed about food people to happy, energized and leaner people. You can do it too! Check out my suggestions and watch yourself transform.

 

5 TOP CLEAN EATING TIPS

  1. Make a list

Work out what you are going to eat for the week and put it on the fridge. This then makes it easy for the family to have some input so it keeps everyone happy and you can save time after work, at night and during the day, because you don’t need to think of something to eat.

 

  1. Food shopping once a week

You know what you are eating for the week, so now you write a food list and go to the shops. You are more likely to eat healthy and not overeat if you are prepared not only in your fridge, but also in your mind. Set yourself free of poor food choices. This saves you going to shops when you are starving, it’s dark, it’s late and you have no idea what to cook a hungry family that night. Save yourself the hassle – go once and it’s all over.

 

  1. Make a massive salad

It’s really easy to eat a good healthy and fulfilling lunch when you can put some leftover meat with a massive already prepared salad. A good salad with last a week, just leave the dressing off until you are ready to eat it. Then all you have to do is scoop out your portion into your container for work in the morning, add some protein (tuna, sardines, meat from last night etc) and you have lunch sorted! You are halfway there.

 

  1. Pre-Cut your vegies

You are going to make dishes – so just make them once. Cut two nights worth of vegies at once, cook tonight’s and store tomorrow night’s in a container in the fridge. This also saves cleaning time later. So when you get home late your dinner prep has been cut in half!

 

  1. Stick to the plan

You’ve made a plan, you’ve done the shopping, you’ve prepped yourself, the family and your food – now just stick to it. Avoid the emotional eating after a bad day at work when you just want a wine and some takeaway because your boss annoyed you. You know you will feel like crap tomorrow. Let off some steam or relax after dinner with some TV, a nice stretch or a walk. Stick to your plan. You will feel better for it.

 

Here’s how my client Katelyn felt after she adapted these simple principals:

“The tailored dietary advice provided to me by Janet has been invaluable. A great deal of Janet’s advice related to me simply tweaking my diet, and making small changes. These small changes however have had a hugely positive impact! Her advice is practical and is predicated upon making sustainable long-term changes for a healthier and cleaner diet.

 

I have not only lost weight, but have also increased my fitness. Most importantly, rather than staggering through the final weeks of 2016 feeling worn out and making bad food choices, I am energised and have the strategies in place to ensure I enjoy Christmas and the New Year without overindulging”.

 

Do you need a little motivation so the winter kilos don’t happen this year?

Contact Janet to get started   0427 167 288

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Running – is it bad for your knees?

Running gets a lot of bad press sometimes. Someone hears of a runner who has got sore knees, or someone has developed arthritis and running is blamed. What we don’t often know is the full story.

“Most studies show there isn’t any correlation between running and developing osteoarthritis. The biggest risk factor for developing osteoarthritis is age,” says Dr. Bég. “Think of your body like a car: The more miles you put on it, the more there’s a chance to damage it, there’s more wear and tear. The more miles you put on your joints, the more chance there is for degeneration,” Bég adds.

Arthritis is also genetic. It develops over time and usually occurs as we age. So there are a few other things that are going on here as well. Again, you’re probably not hearing the full story.

Like any sport or physical activity, the other muscles around the joints being used need to be strengthen equally to cope with the impact. Running is a high impact sport, we know this, so it makes sense that the other super important muscles that help stabilise the knee. Glutes (your butt), VMO (inside of your quad muscle), your feet, calves and hips all need attention so you can run injury free. This is a no brainier. If you want to create impact, you must ensure that your body is equip to handle the impact.

 

HOW CAN YOU DO THIS?
I’m so glad you asked. You find a strengthening program that involves training and strengthening all the muscles I mentioned above (plus a few more) to cope with the demand you want to dish out. You also have a structured running program which allows for adequate rest days to allow your body to adapt, and you also give yourself and your body adequate time to complete the task eg: run a marathon in 10 weeks versus run a marathon in 12 months. There’s a big difference here.

 

YOUR TERRAIN ALSO MAKES A MASSIVE DIFFERENCE:

Running on constant hard surfaces will also play a big role in how your body feels. It’s important to mix it up with some grass (oval) running and softer surfaces (maybe an athletics track) every now and again.

 

I WANT TO START RUNNING NOW!
Awesome and I would love to see you in our run club straight away. And you can join us! But the advice you will also hear from me is you need to do at least 1 strengthening session per week (Friday’s Functional Strength is what I recommend) and you must follow the advice I give in terms of rest days and lower kilometres weeks.

 

WHY?
Because I want you to be able to enjoy running for a really long time, like me! it’a just a great activity and it’s so easy, you can just throw on your runners and get out your door and you are running. Seriously – that easy. But, you must respect your body first and foremost.

 

HOW CAN I GET STARTED WITH RUN CLUB?
Come in for a free assessment so I can check out your form, your technique and how your body moves. This takes around 45 minutes then we can get you running. I want everyone to experience the joy of running, and if you follow us regularly, you will see sometimes we even finish running with beer and pizza. Yep, serious runners that have fun along the way 🙂

Call Janet 0427 167 288 to get your running career started – it’s never to late to join the club 🙂

 

https://www.everydayhealth.com/news/what-joint-docs-say-about-running/

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POST BABY: HOW TO GET YOUR BODY BACK

post-baby body

I am a first time mother.  My beautiful daughter Elke recently had her first birthday and I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone. Nobody can really prepare you for how much your life and your body will change. Women also tend to put a lot of pressure on themselves and each other to just ‘bounce back’ after child birth and regain their pre-pregnancy body within weeks. This can be overwhelming for sleep deprived, time poor and generally exhausted mothers. It isn’t a race. It is important to set your own pace and listen to your body because nobody understands it better than you do.

I hope sharing my story will help the mothers who read this on their fitness journey post-pregnancy.

Before I had a baby, I would work out whenever I wanted.  Some weeks I would clock up 8 sessions. I could do this because I had the energy and the time. Now, it’s a different story. One of the biggest lessons (there are plenty) I have learnt since having Elke is that my time now has to be shared. What! No-one taught me to share. Where was that in the handbook? It also meant my husband and I had to schedule who was baby-sitting (whoops I mean parenting) so the other could take some time for themselves. Not having flexibility to do things when I wanted to do them was a big adjustment.

I was also tired. A kind of tired I can’t really explain. It was a tired that lasted for a really long time after having Elke. My mindset had to change when it came to my workouts – the intensity, the duration and what my body could handle considering what it had just been through. As a personal trainer of more than seven years and a group fitness instructor of more than 11 years, this was a big learning curve.

HOW DID I ADAPT?

I love to run. After giving birth though I was really cautious about getting back into running. I had to learn to adapt my training. I was also stuck in a baby cycle of feeding, expressing and sleeping. Time for myself was virtually non-existent.  I knew that for my own physical and mental health I needed to get back on the horse and start to feel good about my fitness and my body again.

SO …

I set myself a goal of exercising for 30 minutes most days. First stop was the stationary bike. Although it is not a favourite of mine it suited what I needed. It was safe (low impact), easy (inside and close to the clock and Elke) and it gave me the workout I wanted. I mixed it up each workout changing the intervals and the intensity. I did whatever to make the 30 minutes come around quickly.

I LAUGHED …

As I tried my first lot of pushups. OMG I knew it was going to be hard, but struggling to even get to 10 was a massive shock to my system. I knew that I had lost strength but I hadn’t counted on it being quite so dramatic. I tried not to lose heart instead telling myself that the first few times would probably suck but it would get easier. I was right. It did get easier. Starting is the hardest part. Just by starting you are already half way there.

Over the following weeks, I worked on my energy levels and the intensity of my workouts. All the time I remembered to be kind to myself. This was my journey. It was important for me to set and realise my own goals and not compare myself to other mothers who seemed to be recovering more quickly. Pregnancy and child birth affects each woman in different ways. It is so important not to compare your progress to anyone else.  I stuck with my 30 minute goal for a workout until I had the mental energy to train for a longer period. I wanted to make myself feel good again, not set the bar higher than I could reach.

I GOT ON WITH THE JOB

Personal trainers like everyone else have to work on their physical and mental strength. It is not something we are born with. The muscles of our brain and our body need to be rebuilt. The best way do to this is to just do it.  I did my workout every day – maybe not at 90% or even 60% but I still did it even on the days I really didn’t want to. Every day though after a workout I felt better than I had when I started. This made me feel good.

THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION:

Your body after child birth will be different but you can get back to being strong and fit. It may take a little longer and it may hurt a little more but be patient and kind with yourself.  You just have to start 🙂

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