This month’s issue:…
- Spring Happenings
- What’s in Season at the Allotment
- Easy Recipes: Gourmet ‘Breakfast Jar’
- Resisting Temptation: Recalibrate Your Tastebuds
- Fad or Fab: Fitbit
- And Finally… Hip Hooray for Extreme Cheerleading
Hello healthy people,
Only three and a half weeks until the clocks change and our evening become lighter – hooray!
PT Sessions
I have some PT sessions available over the next month, including a 7.30pm Monday time slot. So, if you’d like a helping hand with getting into fitness now the days are getting longer, please email me.
eBook of Healthy Living Yearbook now available
The Healthy Living Yearbook has is now available as an eBook through Neil Wilson Publishing. Be healthy with your technology and download your copy today from http://www.nwp.co.uk/9781906000684
Functional Pilates with Ina at Griffen Fitness
11am – 12pm, Saturday 5th April – 19th April, 3 week taster term, £30
Enjoy a highly effective Pilates class on a Saturday morning… A 3-week term takes you through several corrective strengthening workouts including mobility, activation exercises and self-massage techniques. We focus on rebuilding your butt and core muscles and releasing trigger points and tight muscles, which is a perfect complement to personal training sessions, gym/ weight workouts, running, football or any other sport. Email inaschoettling@gmail.com to book.
What’s in Season at the Allotment
The allotment’s looking pretty bare at the moment and we are chitting our seed potatoes and cultivating seedlings from the warmth of our flat. Over the next month, when the ground starts warming up a bit, we’ll be able to plant out the seedlings undercover. Still harvesting parsnips, beetroot and landcress. The over-wintered broccoli is nearly ready too.
Easy Seasonal Recipe: Gourmet Breakfast Jar
This is an idea I picked up in Australia, a tasty treat for breakfast on the go. You can even take it to work and eat it at your desk (although we all know you should make time to eat breakfast without distraction). You can change the proportions of the layers to personal taste, and even make a couple of jars at once.
Bottom (oaty) layer
– soak ½ cup jumbo or porridge oats with ½ cup almond or organic cow’s milk
Middle (smoothie) layer
– zizz a handful of frozen berries (available in the freezer section of any supermarket, or freeze your own in summer) with a dollop of low fat natural yoghurt and ¼ banana.
– You can add some protein powder to the mix, if you are that way inclined.
Top (fruity) layer
– slice ¼ banana and layer over middle layer, cover with frozen or fresh berries
– Screw the lid on and pop in the fridge. You can toss it in your work bag to eat on the go, and it will be fine out of a fridge for a few hours.
Resisting Temptation Hint of the Month: Recalibrate Your Tastebuds
Eating healthy snacks is good way to boost your metabolism, but be sure to choose healthy options. Many folk reach for sugary or highly processed snacks, as they ‘prefer’ them, however sometimes you need to stop and think about why you’re reaching for that sugary snack. Sometimes I’ll suggest a healthy alternative to a client and they’ll screw their face up and say “no, I don’t like that”, but the fact of the matter is sometimes it’s the food that you like so much that get you into a midriff quagmire in the first place. Sometime you do need to be a bit strict with yourself and try a healthy alternative that you’ve not liked much in the past. Taste is what most people choose food on, and we’re hardwired to crave sweet, salty or fatty foods. So sometimes the healthiest option does not give you an instant boost, but keeps your metabolism and energy levels ticking over quite nicely. Enjoying raw natural healthy food pays off in the long term.
Fad or Fab… Fitbit
I recently splashed out on a Fitbit ‘activity tracker’, which is basically a fancy pedometer. It measures your steps and can automatically synch to your computer or smartphone. The more steps you do, the more badges you win. I like the fact that it can automatically inputs into www.myfitnesspal.com which is my online food diary of choice. I also like the fact that it shows you on a chart what time of day was your most active. The Fitbit Zip is a small compact device that is easy to wear (and easy to lose!). For around £50, it’s quite an expensive way to track your exercise. Personally I believe an entry-level heart rate monitor is more useful to ensure cardiovascular exercise is at effective level. Fun for awhile, however mine crashed after a week, so frustratingly didn’t record three days of data. By then, I had got out of the habit of wearing it. With technology moving as quickly as it does, soon there will be a phone app that can do the same! A fad, but the technology will undoubtedly move on and future devices will hopefully become more robust. Fitbit also make a bracelet style tracker that can track your sleep, which were factory recalled due to causing rashes on a few users.
And Finally… Hip Hooray for Extreme Cheer Leading
This is cheer leading with a difference – the sheer athleticism is inspiring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLYuxff-2Zc
Have a happy and healthy March,
Tracy 🙂
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© Copyright all material Tracy Griffen 2014