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Fitness, Health, Sunday Summary

Sunday Summary: Kayla Itsines Week 9

April 27, 2014

What a wonderful week this was! I hope the same goes for all of you lovely people too.

Kayla Itsines Week 9

I have now finished week 9 of Kayla Itsine’s bikini body workout and OMG .. I do not understand how I got through it. Weeks 9-12 differ from the first 8 weeks because now you incorporate 1-1 HIIT session (for an explanation of what HIIT is, click here) and the strength circuits are now fully targeted on certain parts of the body. It is such an amazing feeling to have such sore legs, arms and abs every single week. You get through one week and you think ‘surely next week, I won’t be as sore’ but you are, every single time. I love it, and I cannot wait to show you all my progress at the end of the 12 weeks. It may not be as dramatic as some of the others, but I am noticing the difference, and that makes me happier than you could know.

Whilst I am on this fitness thread, I went to a fabulous spring open house held by Mint Studio’s in San Francisco! I am planning on writing a dedicated post to the event, so for now I will give you all a quick recap. Mint Studio’s offers pilates, barre and yoga classes, and were offering free classes for the night, and had partnered with vendors such as Project Juice, Ensoma and Premier Nutrition to bring a host of complimentary goodies. I was particularly enamored with the healthy juices offered by Project Juice and definitely plan to try more! I tried my first everrr pilate’s reformer class and now I know what all the fuss is about … my abs are SORE, even now two days later, and it was such a fun and new way to workout. Can’t wait to try it again. Who wants to go with me?!

Kayla Itsines Week 9 BBG

This photo is from Mint Studio’s website and is an example of the hardcore Pilate’s Reformer class I did

Kayla Itsines Week 9 BBG

 Mmm, all the juices I got to sample from Project Juice!

My relationship with food has also become so, so much healthier. Instead of constantly worrying about the occasional slip up, I have a much more balanced approach to eating and just living life in general. I do not binge anymore (everytime I was presented with a tasty and ‘bad’ food I would eat it until I felt ill) and I genuinely look forward to making healthy meals and doing my food preps at the start of the week. Obviously I still have moments where I feel a little guilty, but I am usually able to stop myself eating more than I need too. I love how I have been able to shape this aspect of my life and I am so grateful for it; your body deserves to be nourished with the correct foods and kept active and in shape. I am not a fan of the whole ‘food is fuel’ thing because come on, our bodies are not machines. They are unique and INDIVIDUAL creations that require personalized attention, and only you can know what foods and exercises truly make your body flourish. That being said, I think that I do tend to eat a bit too much sugar (foods with sugar in them, I’m not knocking back tablespoons here lol) so I think I may post some of my meals in next week’s Sunday Summary as a way to keep me on track .. we will see.

That’s all from me this week! I am curious to see how many of my readers are living in the Bay Area, so please leave me a comment below if you are. I would love to meet up with you all at some point, maybe for a gym date 🙂

And as always, if you have any questions or requests for posts please either leave me a comment below or shoot me a message at honestlyfitness@live.com

Honestly yours,
Alice

Friday Fare, Health

Friday Fare a collection of healthy recipes

January 17, 2014

Hey everyone! Welcome to the first edition of Friday Fare a collection of healthy recipes.

Friday Fare is going to be a regular weekly post (may become bi-weekly during the uni semester though unfortunately) where I will be posting healthy and filling breakfast, lunch, or dinner recipes. Why did I choose ‘Friday Fare’ as opposed to ‘Monday Meals’ or ‘Tasty Tuesday’? Well a) I wanted to be original and b) ….

Friday Fare a collection of healthy recipes

Which is exactly what I will be doing. Posting a range of foods, especially of a particular type – the healthy and nutritious type 🙂

The first edition of Friday Fare features one of my favorite simple meals that can be eaten for lunch or dinner. What I made for you all today is a simple stir-fry featuring a lean protein – shrimp, carbohydrate source – sweet potato, healthy fats – coconut oil, and plenty of fresh vegetables. It only took me about 30 – 40 minutes to make (chopping, cooking and everything) and is such a delicious and nutritious meal! The photo below shows you all the ingredients you need to make this delicious stir-fry.

healthy and easy shrimp stir fry

As you can see, you really do not need many ingredients at all! They are all relatively cheap as well, although I know shrimp is not that cheap but if you buy it frozen you can get some great deals. As you can see, I did not put a measurement on how much salt or cumin to use. This is because I think you should spice and salt the stir-fry according to how you like it. As a rule of thumb though, you can start off with a teaspoon of salt and cumin, and then add more if you like the flavors.

The secret to making my vegetables quickly and in a healthy way is my beautiful steamer … Ta da! I do not know what I would do without this baby. I literally chop up my veggies and throw it in my steamer and then put the steamer in my microwave for a few minutes. I know some of my old housemates will recognize the steamer, they loved using it 😉

Alright, now that you know what ingredients to use, and how to make the veggies, I will now tell you how to make it and nutritional value of this dish.

Healthy and filling shrimp stir-fry with sweet potato and steamed veggies

1. Make sure you have done your prep work – this includes chopping, getting all your spices out, and etc.

2. Throw the chopped broccoli and sweet potato in your steamer and microwave for 5 minutes. If you do not have a steamer, you can mimic the steaming action by placing the vegetables in a frying pan and adding about 2-3 tablespoons of water and then placing a lid on top of the pan. Check it every few minutes to see how soft the veggies are.

3. Whilst the veggies are being steamed, get a frying pan and heat the coconut oil in the pan until the coconut oil has melted (coconut oil is usually found cold-pressed so is in a solid state).

4. Then put your diced garlic and shrimp in the pan and fry until the shrimp is pink on each side. Lightly season the shrimp with some salt and cumin, and add half of your half tablespoon of chicken broth. Once the shrimp is cooked, place the shrimp on a separate plate for now (we will come back to it shortly).

5. Put your spinach into the frying pan with a splash of water. And no, not a Niagara Falls splash, just a tablespoon or so of water. This will create a nice steaming effect for the spinach. I typically just steam my spinach in the pan because since the sweet potato and broccoli take longer to steam and soften, if I add the spinach in with them, it will come out a pile of mush!

6. Now your sweet potato and broccoli should be steamed. Take them out of the steamer and add them to the spinach in the frying pan. After a minute or two, add the shrimp back into the pan so all the flavors mesh together.

Voila, and there you have it! A really simple, healthy and quite filling meal. If you do feel as if you want more food, feel free to add some more sweet potato, shrimp or veggies as you wish. Keep in mind that this will change the nutritional values of what I posted below. Adjust it to your own unique daily caloric needs 🙂 If you are weird like me, you can chop an ounce of Parmesan and nibble on that whilst enjoying the stir-fry (Parmesan has a surprisingly high protein content).

  healthy and easy shrimp stir fry               healthy and easy shrimp stir fry

Mmmmmmm. As you can see, I am a chili fiend so added some chili powder to it. I hope you all enjoy the meal! Let me know if you would like me to post meals with specific ingredients, anything you can think of!

Nutritional Info
Calories: 343
Protein: 30 grams
Carbohydrates: 54 grams (mostly all from the sweet potato which has 41 grams in one cup)
Fat: 6 grams
Fiber: 14 grams

Honestly yours,
Alice