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honestly fitness

Friday Fare, Health

Friday Fare – Honey Lavender Oatmeal with Blueberries

March 2, 2014

Ahh, what could be more sweet than honey and lavender? I’ll tell you what … honey and lavender combined with hearty oatmeal and fresh blueberries!

Honey Lavender Oatmeal with Blueberries

After making the Green Post’s delicious Apple Butternut and Lavender pancakes a few weeks ago, I have been thinking of ways to use the lavender that I bought. It has such a beautiful smell and taste, and I knew there had to be a way to incorporate it in a novel way into a recipe. Et voila: my honey lavender oatmeal with blueberries was born!

I don’t have oatmeal as often as I did when I was in England (I was SO cold in England, I needed all the warmth I could get) but I love it because it is a filling, delicious and healthy breakfast meal. Oatmeal is a funny one though because you have to be careful about what type of oats you buy. I recommend you buy traditional rolled oats, or steel cut oats. I would advise you to stay away from instant oatmeal, because apart from the fact that most are flavored (and thus have loads of sugar), instant oatmeal has been highly processed to make it quicker to cook so it is also broken down more quickly by your body resulting in a higher glycaemic index. It isn’t the end of the world if you buy PLAIN instant oatmeal, but if you can, try and buy traditional rolled oats or steel cut oats as they have a lower glycaemic index 🙂

Alright, let’s get down to business!

Honey Lavender Oatmeal

Alice Williams
Melt in your mouth oatmeal with sweet honey and notes of lavender
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Ingredients
  

  • 1/4-1/2 cup oatmeal
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 tbsp raw honey
  • 1 tsp dried lavender
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions
 

  • 1. Pour the milk and lavender into a pot. Heat the milk and the lavender on a low heat for 5 minutes to allow the lavender to infuse into the milk. Do NOT boil the milk. After 5 minutes is up, pour the milk back into the pot using a sieve to catch the lavender buds.
  • 2. Now add your oatmeal; as you can see I am using steel cut oats so the time I have to cook these for is longer than traditional rolled oats. Heat the lavender infused milk and oatmeal on a medium-high heat for 15-20 minutes.
  • 3. Once the oatmeal is cooked, transfer it to a bowl and then drizzle 1 tablespoon of honey onto it. I use Eco pollen's raw honey as it is one of the best honey's I have ever tasted.
  • 4. Wait about 5 minutes, or until your oatmeal has cooled slightly, and then add your blueberries.

Notes

Feel free to sub the milk for your preferred milk such as almond milk, coconut milk, soy milk and etc.

Honey Lavender Oatmeal with Blueberries

Honey Lavender Oatmeal with Blueberries

A super-easy and delicious way to enjoy breakfast 🙂

There are so many ways you can get creative with this. Make overnight oats, and add chia seeds, and coconut flakes!

Honey Lavender Oatmeal with Blueberries

NOTE

I am discontinuing the posting of the nutritional information because the numbers can vary so much depending on what brands you use.

Let me know what you think of this recipe, and whether you like the lavender infusion by leaving me a comment below!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Fitness

Making your own home gym

March 2, 2014

own home gym

Source: Background image from http://www.domundee.com/Condo-Pattaya-Luxury-Jomtien-Beachfront-Aeras-Condominium.html

Okay, so I know that not all of us are part of a gym. But that doesn’t mean you can’t work out and do all the same things that you could do at a gym (minus a few unless you’re willing to shell out some big bucks)! This post will give you a run through of some ‘must have’ pieces of equipment if you want to successfully workout at home.

1. A pair of dumbbells and/or a kettlebell
Dumbbells are imperative because lifting weights is one of the best ways to burn fat and shape your body. A good weight to start with is 5 pounds, preferably working up to 10 or 12 pounds. If you can also afford to get a kettlebell then I suggest you get one, preferably at a weight of 20 pounds or higher. Kettlebells differ from dumbbells because you activate more muscles when using them when you use them to do certain variations of exercises.

 

  kettlebell

2. Resistance Band
Resistance bands are a MUST HAVE especially if you are always on the move! These can also be used for strength training and will help tone your muscles. Resistance bands offer a fun way to change up your routine so you don’t get bored, and a new way to challenge your muscles. There are also certain exercises you can only do with resistance bands which are faaaantastic for toning up the butt.

3. Exercise ball and/or bosu ball 
I say exercise ball and/or exercise ball because unfortunately bosu balls are quite expensive. I recommend getting either an exercise ball or a bosu ball (or both!) because they can both be used for stabilization movements and again, as a new way to challenge your muscles.

4. Jump rope
Ahh the jump rope, once thought to only be used by school girls and boxers. The jump rope is an amazing and portable piece of equipment which offers a fantastic form of cardio and also a way to tone your arms and legs. I am a big fan of Michael Olajide Jr, who is the personal trainer of Adriana Lima, and the key component of their training is the jump rope. There are many Youtube videos that coach you on how to do jump rope variations, and jump rope workouts.

5. Super sliders
Hehe, okay so I am a little biased here but super sliders are AWESOME! Super sliders help you mimic moves from the pilates reformer and can be used in a variety of ways that really challenge your muscle in a new way. Anyone who has bought one and tried some of the moves from my super sliders video can certainly attest to that.

6. Foam Roller
If you are working out regularly, I seriously advise you to invest in a foam roller. Not only is it affordable (about $20), using a foam roller is like having a massage. The foam roller is a form of self myofascial release , which essentially means that you are rolling out the knots in your muscles which can become very tight with exercise and can cause your limbs to look slightly bulky.

So there you have it! I believe that if you have all the equipment I listed above, then there is no way you cannot achieve your fitness goals. Look online, read magazines and buy workout DVDs so that you can get ideas for what moves to do using these fitness pieces. An at-home pull up bar is also a great piece of equipment but probably not a necessity unless you are like me and desperate to build some upper body strength hehe.

Honestly yours,
Alice

Health

Green Tea – Part 1

February 18, 2014
green tea - part 1

Green Tea – Part 1

Green tea – it’s become a major player in the health and fitness world, and for good reason. There are many benefits to drinking green tea, although unfortunately, most of green tea’s benefits have been highly skewed by the fitness industry in their quest to market green tea as the ‘miracle fat loss drug.’ Green tea extract fat burners, dieter’s green tea, the list goes on.

Green Tea - Part 1

Source: www.myessentia.com

Now that’s not to say that green tea can’t help you with losing weight, and adding to your health and quality of life; quite the opposite in fact. Green tea DOES have many health benefits, and I wanted to give you guys the cold hard facts about green tea. Without further ado, here is my green tea – part 1 post.

So to start my research off, I decided to look at a few academic studies that have been done on green tea and its weight loss, and other health benefit links. Let me just say that reading scientific articles are n o t fun. Sure, they have really interesting content but sheesh, the language … the language! Everything is epicatechin this, supernatant that … which is exactly why most people just accept the health benefits of green tea with little to no research into it. And I definitely don’t blame you guys!!! However, someone has to do it AND give you all an honest and real summary of green tea’s health benefits soooo here goes nothing 🙂

There have been scholarly articles written about green tea since the 1970s (as far as i could tell), and a whole bunch in the last decade. What is so special about green tea, and various other tea’s is this ingredient: C A T E C H I N S

EGCG’s belong to a group of compounds called catechins, Catechins are a type of flavanol, which is essentially a naturally occurring antioxidant (which can, but not neccessarily, help prevent cancer). Catechins include several different compounds, and in green tea these are:

E P I G A L L O C A T E C H I N
E P I C A T E C H I N G A L L A T E,
E P I G A L L O C A T E C H I N G A L L A T E (EGCG)

Phew, what a mouthful!!!

Okay guys, you still with me? Okay, awesome!! Let’s continue.

The EGCG is the thing we wanna focus on, because out of the three compounds given above, EGCG is the big daddy, and the compound that is you find the biggest amount of in green tea.

Sorry for the chemistry lesson guys! After reading several different articles (not all of which are posted below), here is a round up of the health benefits of green tea:

  • Can help in fat and weight loss due to its ability to increase energy levels, and fat oxidation (obviously if you are eating a terrible diet and not exercising, it won’t help much)
  • Can help regulate blood glucose levels (important because crazy all over the place blood sugar levels can make you crazy hungry .. I’ll talk more about blood sugar levels in another post)
  • Studies have shown promising results in using green tea in the fight against various types of cancers (does NOT mean that drinking green tea will 100% prevent cancer)
  • Can help keep your breath clean (lol)
  • Can be helpful in making you feel less bloated (this is just from personal experience, and this probably just happens because you are running to the bathroom so much!)

Alright guys, I am going to end part I there. I think that’s enough information for one day. Stay tuned for part II where I will talk about how much green tea you should drink, and my own personal experiences with green tea. It will be a much lighter blog post and not as intense as this one I promise 🙂

I hope you all enjoyed this post, and please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for a new post!

Honestly Yours,
Alice

Key sources:
Green Tea and Theamine: Health Benefits – Raymond Cooper
Going Green: The Role of the green tea component EGCG in Chemoprevention – Laura Schramm
Emerging Evidence for Tea Benefits – Carrie Ruxton
Nutrition and Health Info Sheet – Karrie Heneman and Sheri Zidenberg-Cherr
Nutrient Data Laboratory US Department of Agriculture. USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of
Selected Foods. US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, 2007 (chart)