SALMON WITH BROCOLLI

SALMON WITH BROCOLLI

Serves 2:

Fine sea salt

1/4 cup roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon pine nuts (optional)

1 small garlic clove, roughly chopped

2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 broccoli

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling

2 X 150 grams skinless salmon fillet, cut into 3/4-inch cubes

Freshly ground black pepper

 

Method:

1.     Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, on a cutting board, mound parsley, pine nuts, if using, garlic and red pepper flakes. Finely chop together; set aside.

2.     Cut broccoli stems from crowns. Trim and peel stems, then cut into 1/2-inch pieces. Separate crowns into florets. Cook broccoli in the boiling water until tender, about 5 minutes, then, using a slotted spoon, transfer to a colander to drain; reserve 1/2 cup of the broccoli cooking liquid.

3.     In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. In a single layer, add salmon pieces; cook, turning once halfway through and removing thinner pieces as they are done, until pieces are cooked through but slightly pink in the center, 3 to 5 minutes, depending on thickness. Remove pan from heat, transfer fish to a plate and season with salt and pepper.

4.     Return skillet to medium-high heat. Add remaining 1 tablespoons oil and heat until hot but not smoking. Add broccoli, parsley mixture and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook, stirring occasionally, 2 minutes. Add reserved cooking liquid, increase heat to high, and cook until broccoli is very tender and water has mostly evaporated, about 2 minutes more. Adjust seasoning to taste.

5.     Serve salmon and broccoli together in shallow bowls, drizzled with oil

 

Source: Modified from lacucinaitalianamagazine.com

Your Trainer Liz

SWEET POTATO, EGGPLANT AND CHICKPEA HOT POT

SWEET POTATO, EGGPLANT AND CHICKPEA HOT POT

Health Benefits: Sweet potatoes are highly nutritious containing vitamin A, vitamin C, manganese, fiber, B vitamins, potassium and iron. Sweet potatoes, have a low GI, they are naturally sweet-tasting but their natural sugars are slowly released into the bloodstream, helping to ensure a balanced and regular source of energy

Approximate Nutritional Values per serve: Calories 285, Fat 6.3g (1.1g saturated)

Serves 2

Ingredients

½ Tbs oil

½ onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

½ long red chilli, seeded, chopped

½ tsp smoked paprika

1 medium sweet potato, cubed

½ medium eggplant, chopped

¾ cup tomato passata

200g chickpeas (tinned), rinsed and drained

½ Tbs chopped parsley

Method

1.    Heat oil in a large saucepan on medium. Cook onion for about 5 minutes, until softened.

2.    Add garlic, chilli, and paprika and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.

3.     Stir through sweet potato, eggplant, tomato passata and 2 cups water. Simmer for 15 minutes until sweet potato is just tender.

4.    Add chickpeas and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

5.    Stir through parsley and serve.

Source: Adapted from Metabolic Jumpstart Recipe

Your Fitness Trainer Liz

LEG WORKOUTS

Legs are composed of over half our total body musculature. With our largest muscle groups located in our legs it also makes it a highly effective calorie burning workout if we focus on them. So if you’re short on time, and want the most calorie burn, don’t spend time on your abs or biceps, hit the legs!

Leg workouts are for both guys and girls. Not to generalise or anything, but how often do you see guys focusing on their chest and biceps and neglecting their legs. Girls appreciate a nice butt, get squatting! Neglecting muscle groups also leads to injury, balance should always be priority. 

The muscle groups of the legs include your quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves. Exercise lists for legs are endless, variety is always best to keep your muscles challenged. Some leg exercises to incorporate in your next session: steps ups, deadlifts, calf raises, squats (front and back), single leg squats, hamstring curls, lunges and thigh abductor/adductor exercises.

Some tips:

- Play around with your tempo for more variety. E.g. if performing a calf raise, lift up quick, then hold at the top for two seconds, and then slowly make your way down over 5 seconds.

- Squat deeply but don’t compromise on form. If doing back squats, check your knees are not tracking in front of your toes and keep your chest up. It is a myth you shouldn’t go past your knee line, the lower the better, but keep it safe with correct technique.

- Choose different weight selections. E.g., try lunges with a bar, or lunges with one or two dumbbells on one or both sides. All this keeps your body guessing, your body won’t change unless you change up your workouts.

- Do plyometric exercises. Lunge jumps, squat jumps and box jumps help improve speed, endurance and explosive power.

Your Trainer Liz

My Review - SlimRight FULL bar

There are so many bars to choose from in the health food isle. Generally I think it is best to stay clear of them all. They are mostly expensive and you can get better nutrition from eating whole foods instead. The less processed foods you are eating the better. So why would you buy them? Maybe you need something in a packet to have with you on the go, it can make an emergency snack too.  

I bought a few bars of recent to try and review.  The first one I tried is the SlimRight FULL Bar. It was about $2.80. The packaging instructs you to eat this one to fill you up prior to a meal so that you eat less at meal time.

I ate the bar 30 minutes before lunch and had it with a glass of water as suggested too.  First thoughts, it is pretty tasteless. Puffed rice flavoured with a sticky subtle chocolate taste.  No chocolate bits as I expected due to the nice chocolate image on the packet. Strangely and to my surprise, I did feel full. I do have a big appetite and can eat a lot so found that very surprising. I ate lunch 30 minutes later and I was more satisfied with my normal lunch amount.  

The Nutritional Information

The bar is 35 g in weight, but it does appear to feel like more as it is large physically and as mentioned I felt full.

Calories 120: for a snack this seems reasonable. If you’re eating it prior to the meal as suggested, it then is an additional 120 calories on top of your meal. I ate my normal lunch but didn’t eat as much fruit afterwards. Therefore over all I neither saved nor ate more calories. But I was missing out on nutrients consumed, the fruit would have provided me with more fibre and vitamins.

Fat 1.2 g, less than 1 saturated: this isn’t much.

Carbs, 24.6 g (11.6g sugar): This is high when you consider two slices of bread has about the same amount.

Ingredients

Brown rice syrup is the major ingredient. This is a sweetener extracted from brown rice. Therefore I would assume no nutritional benefit from this other than carbohydrates, all the vitamins and minerals have been extracted.  Other ingredients include the puffed wheat, compound chocolate and honey.

My Overall Opinion

I wouldn’t be buying it again. I’d rather be eating something more of nutritional value as a snack or with my lunch. It really didn’t taste like anything but if you’re someone who likes to have bars on hand and you just need fullness this bar could be for you.

Your Fitness Trainer Liz

Top 10 Reasons Why You Can’t Lose Weight

1.       You train once a week at a gym or with a personal trainer. You work in an office job, sit on your butt all day and then go home to sit on your butt. On the weekend you may go for a walk. A walk isn’t going to get any weight off. Nor is one session per week.

2.       You’ve got an injury. You have a sore neck, shoulder, whatever it is. You think that’s a reason not to exercise. You have legs don’t you? Stop using an injury as an excuse, work around it.

3.       You’re tired. You are tired, I am tired, everyone is tired, suck it up and get on with it. Dig deep within and learn to push yourself.

4.       When you do exercise, you’re working out aimlessly. Reading a magazine while sitting on a bike, holding on the handles on a treadmill while eyes glued to the tv, punching the pads while checking out the guys in the room next door. You have no focus. Give your workout 100% of your attention. Have a plan and go hard.  If not, save the gym membership and go wonder around the park.

5.       You do yoga or pilates. They have lots of benefits but you are not going to lose weight.

6.       You don’t like to exercise. We all don’t like something. That’s life. Some people don’t like cleaning the house, some people don’t like having a shower, and some people don’t like going to work. You have to do things you don’t like sometimes. Again, just get on with it and do it.

7.       You’re stressed. You have one family drama after the other, this week it’s your over bearing mum, next week your dad is sick, next month your almost breaking up with your boyfriend. Deal with it, stop complaining and get in some exercise.

8.       You train and then go to the coffee shop for a muffin, or banana bread, or a chocolate milkshake. You’ve just consumed more calories than you burned. See the problem?

9.       You buy yourself a juice from a popular juice bar. Again, full of calories, you are drinking a meals worth of calories in the drink and probably more. Fruit is calories. Fruit juice is even more calories.

10.   You order a caesar salad. The dressing is fat, the bacon bits are fat, and the croutons are fat. You are not being healthy. You may as well order a big mac.

11.   Bonus reason. Your busy, you have long work hours. Worst excuse! You’re busy but you still have time to watch TV and you still have time to check facebook? Get up an hour earlier or go to bed an hour later. Problem solved.

Your Trainer Liz