Sunday Summary

February 16, 2014

Congratulations on another successful week everyone! I hope you have all been mindful of what you have been eating (Valentine’s Day is of course an exception!) and making sure you are staying active throughout the week.

What did you all do for Valentine’s Day? My Valentine of 5 years was sweet enough to come and see visit me (he lives about an hour and a half away) and we went out for Japanese food. I had a delicious and hearty soup of soba noodles (soba noodles are made out of buckwheat) and we shared some gyoza (how can you not?) and some grilled lamb chops.

We went to Sushi Zen; have any of you San Franciscans ever been there?

Apart from the extremely decadent banoffee pie (recipe here) I made as a Valentine’s Day gift, this weekend has been surprisingly healthy. I for one always give myself a little more wiggle room during the weekends because I like to meet up for meals with friends and I know that it is unrealistic to expect to eat healthily 100% of the time. My boyfriend and I went to a great restaurant for lunch yesterday in the Castro area of San Francisco called Chow. They had many healthy options, and a lot of their offerings were organic which is always nice to see. I got a Chai BaBa Chai to drink (delishhhh), Arancini as a shared appetizer and an amazing Beet salad with greens, fennel, endive, grapefruit, goat cheese and avocado.

Jump rope is #bae

In fitness news, I have re-discovered my love for jump rope (a.k.a skipping for all my European readers)! I became inspired by seeing amazing jump rope videos by the likes of Michael Olajide, Jr. who trains various models including Adriana Lima, and bernapril20 from Instagram. Jump rope is also a great form of cardio and strength conditioning so I highly recommend you try it out. I recently reached out to Miss Galaxy Australia 2012, Danielle Johnson, and asked her what she did to keep her legs in amazing shape, and one of her pieces of advice was to jump rope! So just do it everyone, it’s cheap, can be done anywhere and portable.

Here is a little video I posted of me on Instagram doing criss-cross jumps. I was SO excited I could do these again … they are harder than they look everyone!!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1yxSXAEfTY&feature=youtu.be]

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and have a great fresh start to your week! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a message in the comment section below, email me or get in touch via my social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest).

Honestly yours,
Alice

Friday Fare

Friday Fare – Almond and Oat Cinammon Spiced Muffins

February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!! Whether you have a special someone to spend it with, or are single and proud, I hope you are having a fabulous day.

Since I made a very decadent raspberries dipped in dark chocolate and cacao for last weeks Friday Fare, I thought I would make something a little lighter, but delicious nonetheless. I bring you Almond and Oat Cinammon Spiced Muffins!

I really like muffins, particularly in the mornings but most commercial ones are full of junk and other yucky stuff I quite frankly refuse to put into my body. These muffins are light, healthy, and very versatile meaning you can add berries into the mix, dark chocolate chips, pretty much anything into them. If I had some coconut whipped cream I most definitely would have dolloped some on top of the muffins I made. They are still a sweet treat regardless of their lovely and wholesome ingredients however, so please treat these as a dessert and do not go nuts. I am planning on featuring a lower calorie sweet treat soon that you can definitely eat quite a few of, so stay tuned 😉

You need the following ingredients to make 8 muffins:

Almond & Oat Cinnamon Spiced Muffins

Alice Williams

Muffins that won't pack on the pounds!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup almond flour
1 cup oat flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp high quality salt
1/4 cup coconut oil

Instructions

1. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees farenheit 🙂
2. Mix all of your WET ingredients in a large bowl (eggs, vanilla extract, unsweetened applesauce, melted coconut oil, and raw honey).
3. Mix all of your DRY ingredients into the wet ingredients (high quality salt, baking powder, oat flour, almond flour, and almond flour).
4. Once you have mixed all of the ingredients together well, get a muffin or cupcake pan and either put muffin cups into the cupcake pan holes or grease the holes with some olive oil or coconut oil. Put the batter evenly into 8 of the muffin holes.
5. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes (or 25 minutes if you like them more firm).

To make the oat flour, all I did was buy rolled oats and then quickly pulse them in a food processor (a blender works too).

Nutritional Values per 1 muffin

Calories: 320
Carbohydrates: 32g
Fat: 20g
Protein: 7g
Sugar: 18g
Fiber: 3g

Let me know how the recipe goes for you, and how you personally enjoyed them. Did you add any berries in, had some coconut whipped cream, etc?

Have a great weekend, and again, happy Valentine’s Day!!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Beauty, Health

Crazy for Coconut Oil

February 11, 2014

Wow, so the most hits I have had on a blog post so far has been on the one about facial oils. Since a friend of mine pointed out that I had not included coconut oil, I decided it was time to explain why. Coconut oil is great as a facial oil, but I chose not to write about it then because coconut oil can also be used for a variety of things, completely unrelated to skin!

Coconut oil first starting blowing up because it has a ton of health benefits, as well as being gluten-free (celiacs rejoice!) and sugar-free (people trying to lose weight rejoice!). It was shunned for a long time by the health community due to its high content of saurated fats which was said to be linked to heart disease. A lot of new research has emerged that has refuted this by saying that it does NOT lead to heart disease or high serum cholesterol. Another study was conducted which found that adding coconut oil into an individuals diet seems to promote a reduction in abdominal fat. With all research though everyone, be sure to place it in context. These studies are not saying that MASS QUANTITIES of coconut oil will benefit you, they are simply implying that there are health benefits to using coconut oil. So be sensible, and use coconut oil sparingly as it is high in calories which means that if you eat 6 tablespoons a day, you are eating an extra 700+ calories. Make it fit within what your body needs (most people are recommended to keep the percentage of fat they eat to 20-35% of total calories).

Anyway, here is a list of some ways you can use coconut oil 🙂 You should be buying organic (if you can) virgin cold pressed coconut oil because it contains no hydrogenation.

1. Coconut oil can be used in cooking. Use a teaspoon, or table spoon of cold pressed coconut oil in place of your normal cooking oil. It can also be used in fun ways such as in smoothies, in your morning coffee, or as a butter replacement in baking. I LOVE baking with coconut oil and love the taste, but it is not for everyone. It is also amazing spread on toast with some mashed up berries.

2. Coconut oil can be used for your hair. This is not one I have tried personally just yet (quite happy with my serum), but I have heard from various online and in person sources that it has done wonders for their hair. Michelle Phan recommends using some as a hair moisturizer by leaving it in your hair for 30 minutes (or overnight!) and then rinding it out and shampooing and conditioning your hair as normal.

3. Coconut oil can be used as a make up remover. Yep, I use either coconut oil or one of my facial oils as a natural make up remover and it is fabulous. And what a good way to moisturize the area surrounding your eyes!

4. Coconut oil can be used as a moisturizer. It is great for particularly dry and cracked areas, such as the elbows. I also use it on my hands during the winter to protect the skin of my hands from getting gross and crackly. And this is a weird tip .. but if you moisturize some coconut oil into your feet, put some socks on and go to sleep, I swear you will ahve the softest feet in the world!!

5. Coconut oil can be used to make body scrubs. I have used it to make a brown sugar body scrub by using a ratio of 1parts coconut oil to 2 parts brown sugar (so for example mix 1 cup of coconut oil with 2 cups of brown sugar). You can also find other body scrub ideas here and here 🙂

6. Coconut oil can be used to make deodorant. Isn’t that wild?! Learn how to make a natural coconout oil deodorant here.

7. Coconut oil can be used as a massage oil. Kind of speaks for itself. If you want to give your significant other (or friend who you lost a bet with) a massage, simply warm up some coconut oil and use it in place of a normal massage oil.

8. Coconut oil can be used for oil pulling. I know right, what the heck is oil pulling? Well, oil pulling is seen as a natural way to whiten your teeth, and to boost oral health by cleaning gums and removing bacteria .. pretty cool huh? What you need to do is put 1-2 teaspoons in your mouth (let it melt first, in or out of your mouth) and then literally just swish it around for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes is up, spit it out into your trash can. Let me know how this goes for you!

9. And last but not least, coconut oil can be used as a natural lubricant 🙂 I got told this by a friend who had it tried and tested, much to her satisfaction lol.

I hope this was helpful and enlightens you as to why there is so much buzz over coconut oil. Let me know if you try out any of the suggestions above! Thank you so much for reading, and please leave a comment or subscribe if you enjoy the posts.

Honestly yours,
Alice

Academic Sources
Coconut Oil Consumption and Coronary Heart Disease – Kaunitz, H. and Dayritz, C.S. Columbia University, New York
Effects of Dietary Coconut Oil on the Biochemical and Anthropometric Profiles of Women Presenting Abdominal Obesity – Assuncao et al, 2009.