This month’s issue:…
- What’s in Season at the Allotment
- Easy Seasonal Recipe: Warm New Potato, Pea and Bean Salad
- Resisting Temptation: Preparation is Key to Thriving Over the Festival
- Fad or Fab: Myfitnesspal
- Article: How Fit is Fit Enough?
Hello healthy people,
The festival descends. School holidays end. August is a month of change in Edinburgh, so be sure to keep your healthy fitness habits going throughout and aim for slender September.
Griffen Fitness has a few free tickets for the Foodies Festival this weekend at Inverleith Park – to win a ticket, simply email me straight away with your favourite seasonal treat. Foodie’s a fab gastronomic weekend, where last year we picked up lots of good quality ingredients. I like the fair as they feature lots of small local producers who are keen to chat about their wares.
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What’s in Season at the Allotment
The heatwave did wonders for our allotment; peas, beans, radishes, herbs and lettuce all in abundance. The berries are still getting established, so only a handful of raspberries and strawberries harvested. We’ve been making lots of allotment salads (see this month’s recipe) and the one thing about harvesting your own food is that you waste a lot less, as each plant has been nurtured by hand…
Easy Seasonal Recipe: Warm New Potato, Pea and Bean Salad
I whipped this up on Sunday evening after we’d come back from the sunny allotment, so the produce was only hours old. It takes no time at all tastes sensational. Broad beans are a good source of protein and fresh peas are a powerhouse of nutrients, including A, B and C vitamins.
Handful of new potatoes per person
2 – 8 pods of broad beans (fava beans), shelled
2 – 8 pea pods, shelled
Home made vinaigrette: tiny dash olive oil, squeeze of lemon, splash of cider vinegar, ground black pepper.
– Scrub but don’t peel new potatoes, and cook in a pan of water until nearly tender.
– Pop a steamer on top of the saucepan with the shelled broad beans in, steam for one minute. Potatoes should now be perfectly cooked.
– Drain potatoes and toss back into saucepan, add broad beans and uncooked peas.
– Sprinkle with home-made vinaigrette (recipe), a pinch of sea salt and generous grind of black pepper.
– With the lid of saucepan on, give it a good shake to combine warm salad and to slightly bash potatoes.
– Serve with grilled herby fish or veggie sausages.
Fad or Fab: Myfitnesspal
It’s hard to believe how quickly technology moves sometimes. When I started Griffen Fitness 2005, there was no online food diaries, I used to map runs using a map and piece of string and if you mentioned the word ‘app’ to someone, they wouldn’t know what you’re talking about.
Apps have become a hugely important part of the fitness world, and my favourite is Myfitnesspal free online food diary, with listings for nearly every kind of food you can think of, including a barcode scanner function. It’s informative as you learn the nutritional content of your favourite foods, and motivational as you can invite friends and share food diaries. You can also easily log exercise, aka ‘calories out’ and nowadays it’s even linked to my other favourite app Endomondo. So, you can measure calories in with Myfitnesspal and calories out with Endomondo. Fab!
Resisting Temptation: Preparation is Key to Thriving Over the Festival
There’s a plethora of food and drink purveyors who have popped up especially for the festival, preying on hungry and thirsty festival goers. Save cash and calories and be prepared, pack a festival bag with a bottle of water (venues can get very hot) and a wee bag of nuts and seeds to nibble on during performances. Nuts and seeds will help normalise blood sugar levels so you’ll be easily able to walk past doughnut and ice cream stalls without being tempted.
Article: How Fit Is Fit Enough?
I get a number of new clients stating “I don’t want to be super fit, just a bit fitter.” It’s a completely reasonable statement, and something that I think gets often lost in the fitness industry. A good fitness and nutrition programme will be not only effective, but also sustainable in the long term. So, just how much fitness is enough?
My general rule of thumb is exercising at least three times a week (or more if you fancy it). Exercising every other day is a good way to allow exertion to be followed by a rest day. A rest day doesn’t mean slothing on the sofa, but ‘active rest’. Making a commute to work active (i.e. cycling, walking or jogging) is a very easy way to fit in more exercise. Leave the car behind for short journeys and enjoy Edinburgh on foot. It doesn’t take much to get fitter, and not all exercise programmes are designed to push the individual to their extreme limits. I am a big fan of the ‘steady plod’. It’s a running speed which is sustainable over long periods. When starting out, a mile or two can seem like a long way. The important thing about building up your exercise level is that it’s a purely personal thing. Many people compare themselves to others, or feel that the idea of getting fit is just too much effort. But the wonderful thing about fitness, is that the more you do, the more you enjoy it. Pushing yourself becomes a bit easier. And the fitter you get, the faster you can go, and the more energy you have.
Fitness is an incremental state, you work up to peak fitness and it’s not realistic to think that you’re going to sustain peak fitness all the time. As a PT who has been running every weekday for eight years, I personally understand that ideal fitness may not necessarily be peak fitness, but maintainable fitness. An easy way to maintain good fitness is to have good fitness habits, which are an imperative part of everyday life. Get fit and enjoy it!
Enjoy August!
🙂 tracy