Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

June 6, 2014

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

Hiiii. I am so sorry I missed last week’s Friday Fare 🙁 I swear, I have so many delicious and healthy recipes to share with you all but I have been travelling a lottt recently and two situations occur:

a) I make a delicious and healthy meal but have nowhere I can photograph it (good lighting and scenery is everythaaang people) or b) I have a perfect place to take photos but I am really busy and do not have time to make anything special. Oh blogger dilemmas, man.

Anyway, a few nights ago I was really craving oatmeal and somehow managed to be quite creative and come up with overnight kombucha chia oats with matcha green tea yogurt … AND photograph it!! I probably should have done something to make the photos a little nicer (’tis a bit plain) but alas, I did not.

The idea for soaking the oats in kombucha came to me because I actually had a bottle of Synergy’s cherry chia kombucha chilling in the fridge (pun .. hehe). I had nooo idea how the combo of cherry flavored kombucha, chia seeds and rolled oats would take, but I decided to take the risk and I am really glad I did. It was delicioussss. Now, the matcha green tea yogurt idea came about because I bought some matcha green tea powder at Safeway the other day despite it being kind of expensive.

But seriously, matcha green tea powder is so bloody hard to find and I really could not be bothered to drive to Japan Town (HATE driving in downtown San Francisco) and the good Asian supermarket nearest me is still kinda far … so yeah anyway, tangent. Since I had the powder I thought it would be fun to make a flavored yogurt which was also delicious, although I did have to lightly sweeten it with liquid stevia. And the toppings seemed self-evident because they are all awesome, delicious and healthy.

Okay, so now that you have the full-blown history of how I thought of this recipe (hope I didn’t bore you all!!) let’s get to making it!

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt Recipe

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

Alice Williams

A perfectly invigorating blend of kombucha chia soaked oats with fat fighting green tea yogurt

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Ingredients

1/2 cup rolled oats I used Bob's Red Mill brand
1/2 a bottle of Synergy's Cherry Chia Kombucha
1 teaspoon matcha green tea powder
1 cup of full fat plain yogurt - don't fear fat ... or a fat-free version, but check to make sure it doesn't have any extra added sugar as most fat-free versions are really high in sugar
1/2 cup of blueberries
1 teaspoon or more if you wish honey
1 teaspoon or more if you wish pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon or more if you wish shredded unsweetened coconut
1 teaspoon or more if you wish slivered almonds

Instructions

1. The night before you plan on eating this meal, put your rolled oats and the cherry chia kombucha into a mason jar (or anything that will be sealed) in the fridge overnight to soak.
2. Now that your oats are ready and soaked, let the fun begin! To make the matcha green tea yogurt layer, simply get a bowl and put your yogurt, matcha green tea powder, and liquid stevia in a bowl and use an electric whisk to blend it all up (you can use a normal whisk too). Once the yogurt is ready, dollop it on top of your oats.
3. Now layer the blueberries on top of the yogurt layer, followed by the honey, shredded coconut, pumpkin seeds, and slivered almonds.
4. Voila! A really easy, delicious AND healthy breakfast which can be taken on the go or enjoyed at home. I like having mine with a cup of tea, green tea of course 😉

How else can I enjoy Overnight Oats?

Overnight chia oats with kombucha are so versatile and can be altered in so many delicious and simple ways. Another variation involved using greek yogurt (I like Fage) instead of normal yogurt, strawberries and Dang coconut chips, mmm.

I hope you all enjoyed this week’s edition of Friday Fare. If you make this, please share a photo with me and hashtag it #fridayfare if you upload your re-creation on Instagram or Twitter!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Fitness, Sunday Summary

Sunday Summary: Kayla Itsines Week 12

May 18, 2014

kayla itsines week 12

Wow. I cannot believe I have finished Kayla Itsines 12 week bikini body guide! Feels surreal that it has already passed so quickly … 12 weeks is a really interesting amount of time. In the grand scheme of things it really is not that long, but at the same time, so much can happen in 12 weeks. In the course of these past 12 weeks, I have:

finished Kayla Itsines bikini body guide (try it here for free for a week!)
finished my first year of graduate school (don’t know how that happened lol)
watched my blog grow, receiving over 1,400 visitors at its peak
became an I’m Fit Possible ambassador
joined the POPSUGAR select fitness program
continued my yoga practice and am much more flexible
can do over 180 push ups in a 30 minute workout session
can now do 70 pound lat pulls

Okay, I will stop there haha! Those are the accomplishments I am most proud of 🙂 And of course I am extreemely proud of my boyfriend for getting into the PhD program at the University of Utah, but I can’t really count this as my own personal accomplishment now can I? 😉

I am so grateful to everything that has occurred in the last few weeks, and I cannot wait to see what the future has in store. Your reality is what you make of it, so make sure you are doing what makes YOU happy. Do not focus on what others will think of you or what they will say. Although for the most part people are supportive of what I do, I still get some passive judgement about the choices I make. But I don’t really care and if I have to continue to state why I am doing what I am doing, then I will continue doing so.

You are probably all wondering whether or not I will be posting progress photo’s, huh? 🙂 I do want too, although I am not sure when (check on my instagram because if I do post them, I will post them there). Don’t get me wrong, I am EXTREMELY proud of my progress, although I do worry about the negativity I may receive: “There’s no change.” “She look’s worse” etc etc. It isn’t like I have developed a six pack or a thigh gap lol, but I have tightened up a lot and am much stronger although I do not really think the photo’s can accurately convey this. I am definitely going to continue with the bikini body guide and will probably just repeat it until Kayla’s new book comes out. Maybe that time round the abs will be showing 😉

Also I just wanted to share this graphic with you that my friend sent me. I think it is fantastic and fits in well with my philosophy that diets are unnecessary!!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Fitness

Kayla Itsines Interview

May 17, 2014

Kayla Itsines Interview [Exclusive]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!! I am so so so excited to share with you all an interview with my ultimate fitness idol, Kayla Itsines!!

Omg, I am fan girl-ing way too hard right now. Keep cool, Alice.

Ahem, so you may or may not know, Kayla Itsines is a personal trainer who became an Instagram sensation due in part to her incredibly toned physique and because of her client transformations. All of her clients lost fat and started to take on the same look as Kayla, which she describes as a bikini body. You can see a snippet of her client transformations on her website and on her Instagram account. I have been doing Kayla’s bikini body guide and have loved the experience so much. I am in my final week and couldn’t be happier with my progress in terms of how my body looks, how much stronger I am, and how good I feel. My progress may not be as dramatic as some other girls, but I am so proud of how far I have come and will definitely continue to incorporate the workouts into my workout routine. Kayla was also my original inspiration to work towards doing unassisted pull ups and chin ups. Still far from my goal of doing 10 in a row, but I can do 3 now!

I am so excited to introduce you to her!

Hi there Kayla! Tell us a little bit about yourself and your fitness philosophy

Hi, my name is Kayla and I am a twenty-three year old personal trainer from Australia. I specialize in training women and helping them achieve their goals whether they are appearance, health or confidence based. I love summer, the beach and travelling with my partner, Tobi, and hope to continue to grow as a person and be able to bring more information to women around the world.

My fitness site can be found here.

A typical day in the life of Kayla Itsines looks like this …

I’m not hugely different from the normal person I guess. I wake up at 6AM and go for a walk. I come home shower and have breakfast. I drive to work with my baby husky, Ace in the back. Open up my studio and train my clients from 8-11AM. I have a break for a few hours where I either workout or prepare content for all my followers and then head back to work. I finish with my evening clients 4PM-7:30PM and that’s it. I come home, have dinner with my boyfriend and relax. Oh and I have over 700,000 amazing followers online who I get to chat to every day 😛

Tell us a little about your boyfriend, Tobi. How did you both meet?

I’m sure this is a huge surprise, but we met in the gym. We didn’t talk or anything really, but I apparently came up in the “people he may know” section on Facebook and he added me a day later. A week went by and we were at coffee and a month after that we were at dinner. Two years later we are in our own house with a beautiful puppy and we couldn’t be happier.

Where did your passion for fitness come from?

I have always been healthy and fit. Whether it was basketball, other sport of just working out I am far too impatient to not do something with my time. Now my mission is what inspires me. I have a dream to end confusion within the health and fitness industry. Fads and scams in this industry have created so much distrust and insecurity around weight-loss programs.

I want all people to understand their body, have a place to learn about health and fitness and in turn feel confident & happy.

Did you always have such an amazing body?

NO! Not at all. I was always a little “too skinny” during my childhood and often got bullied for it. I put in years of training and research to try to get my body to where it is today. Now I am in a position where I can educate girls to gain OR lose weight to get their dream body. Everyone’s goal appearance is different, but the goal is still really confidence. This is what I bring to girls all over the world.

Okay, so although your body is out of this world, even fitness idols have their own fitness idols right? Who would you say yours is?

This is so true, I idolise Iza Goulart like there is no tomorrow. I also love Candice Swanepoel AND she followed me on Instagram a while back. Possibly one of the best days of my life!

I get a lot of questions from girls asking me about your Bikini Body Guide. What is so special about it?

I guess the biggest different is the goal. Rather than being a weight-loss of a muscle gaining program it is simply a plan to get you a particular look. It will help work both ways, to gain strength and to lose fat. The workouts aren’t easy but this is compensated by some amazing flexibility in my meal plan (and recipe books coming very soon). If you want to have a look at the results just visit my reviews or transformations page.

Cardio or strength training? Which do you think is more important?

Both. One training protocol will never supersede another purely because they all provide different benefits. I think the most important thing is to have balance between the two as well as recovery.

When girls workout, should they do heavy weights and low reps, or low weights and high reps?

Like I said above, I believe in a variety of rep ranges, weights and exercises. Try the free downloads on my website to get a guide of how I train.

What are your views on green juices and smoothies? Passing fad or here to stay?

I personally love a green smoothie/juice. I think they will be around to stay for a little while purely because they pack so many nutrients. But, like anything they are not a sole source of nutrition and sometimes girls only have smoothies for a whole day. This is not the right way to go about things.

Any advice for girls who can’t live without a certain ‘bad’ food?

Have it! The choice is always yours. If you can accommodate this into your meal plan with a cheat or flexi meal then do so. But the point still stands, if you “can’t live without it” every day of the week then don’t expect to live with your dream body.

Biggest pet peeve?

People who workout once and complain they don’t have an amazing body. It’s as simple as that.

Any tips for all the ladies out there looking to get bikini body ready?

Find a simple play and stick to it. Consistency is the biggest piece of advice that can ever be given to anyone. If you train 110% and eat 110% perfectly 10% of the time you’ll still only get 10% results. I would rather eat and train well always and get 100% results.

What can we expect from you in the future?

Without giving away too much there will be recipe books and a Bikini Body Training Guide 2.0. Along with this there may be the opportunity for girls all over the world to never have to leave their home to train. Interactive programs and fitness equipment may be a thought here 🙂