Fitness, nutrition and food and the odd music post. A blog from a nutrition and dietetics student.
Yesterday was a rare occurrence in that it was sunny and warm in Scotland! For that reason I thought I should take advantage and do a workout outdoors instead of heading to the gym.
I downloaded a timer app and set it for 30 seconds of activity followed by 10 seconds rest for six exercises. I did this circuit three times:
Jog on the spot
Squat jumps
Lunge jumps
Burpees
Press ups
Mountain climbers.
I finished with some core work with my 2.5kg Dumbbells.
I was given the turn of cooking dinner for the family last night. I was craving a tomato sauce based meal, and I more than often choose chicken as my protein source. That’s why I decided to try and cook something new containing both those ingredients!
This dish was delicious and very nutritious! I will warn you it did have quite a kick to it, so depending if you like it spicy or not add more or less chilli powder.
What you need (for 4 people):
300g chicken breast
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of butter beans
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1tbspn sunflower oil
1 clove of garlic
200ml chicken stock
1 onion
1 red pepper
1tbspn chilli powder
1tbspn mixed herbs
300g brown rice
Boil the rice and meanwhile chop the chicken and brown in a pan with the cooking oil. Add the chopped onion pepper and crushed garlic when the chicken is browned. Add the chopped tomatoes and chicken stock. Add the beans and then season with as much chilli powder and herbs as you want.
Serve up and enjoy!
Macros per portion with rice:
422kcal
11.2g Fat (1.3g saturated)
36.9g CHO
37.9g Protein
I’ve been wanting to try and make sweet potato brownies for a while now, and today was finally the day for it!
I followed an online recipe for kidney bean brownies but replaced the kidney beans with sweet potato and made a few more adjustments to the recipe.
They have turned out well! I would say they give more of a dark chocolate taste as apposed to a classic milk chocolatey brownie taste but that can be fixed by adding in milk chocolate chips.
Ingredients:
Around 250g sweet potato
1tbspn bicarbonate of soda
1tbspn olive oil
1tbspn vanilla extract
75g cocoa powder
60g honey
2 eggs
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C and grease and line a baking tin.
Start by peeling and chopping the sweet potato, then placing in a microwaveable bowl with water and microwaving until soft. Meanwhile place the rest of the ingredients into a food processor and blitz. Once the sweet potatoes are ready drain and add to the food processor, then give a final blitz until all the lumps of sweet potato are gone. Transfer to the prepared baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes.
I use a fan oven which always seems to cook things quicker than recipes say so you may need to bake for a little longer depending on your oven.
Slice up and enjoy when cool!
I cut up into 9 squares.
Macros per brownie:
111kcal
4.2g Fat ( of which 1.6g saturated)
12.9g CHO
3.5g Protein
Having just come back from Rome and the Amalfi coast, I can’t get enough of mozzarella at the moment!
You think you know Italian food until you visit the country of Italy itself! Pizza, pasta, ice cream you name it, it’s ten times more delicious over there even if you thought it couldn’t get any better. I think I ate my body weight in pasta that’s why the healthy routine has started as soon as I arrived home.
One thing I did love having as a starter that was semi healthy was mozzarella, tomato and basil! Although the portion sizes I was receiving were probably enough for three people! You’ve got to treat yourself when on holiday though. Anyway I thought I’d try making it myself since it seemed so simple, and boy it is. Although the tomatoes just don’t seem to be as juicy in the UK compared with Italia and the mozzarella not as firm. It still tastes great though!
Simply take a ball of mozzarella and slice up. Take two beef tomatoes and also slice these up. Arrange them by overlapping the slices of each and alternating tomato and mozzarella slices. Add basil leaves between for flavour and drizzle olive oil over. Yum!
Also called glute kickbacks.
This month is a body weight exercise for a change. That means it can be performed anywhere with ample space, don’t want you kicking any ornaments over now!
A great move for the glutes.
Start by kneeling on the floor as shown in the picture above with your hands on the floor in front of you. Bring one leg up behind you with the knee bent to a 90 degree angle then bring back down to the starting position. Do multiple reps on one leg – 10 is ideal – then switch legs. I would suggest 3-4 reps until you feel the burn in the glutes.
It’s a perfect exercise to do at the gym as part of your leg workout or even as part of a home workout!
We’ve all heard it many times “salad is boring” or described as “rabbit food” which can be true on certain occasions that’s why you need to be adventurous when creating salads.
The salad I had for lunch consisted of mixed leaves, cherry tomatoes, half an avacado, quarter of a salmon fillet, around 30g of chicken and topped with heart healthy olive oil. Now I would say that you can make them even more exciting than this by using nuts and/or fruit such as pomegranate or cranberries etc.
I always have bread with my salads to give that proper balance of macros and get some more carbs in. As long as you have lots of veggies of your choice, a source of protein e.g. salmon, chicken, tuna, ham etc, a healthy dressing and a source of carbs such as rice, cous cous or bread then you’re on to a winner!
If you are aiming for weight loss however, you are better without the extra carbs just to keep the calories down.
For dessert I had sliced apple with peanut butter. I feel this combination goes so well and makes a simple apple that bit more exciting.
Simply slice up a medium apple and add a loaded teaspoon of peanut butter. As mentioned in another post I always go for “whole earth” smooth peanut butter, it tastes the best to me!
Macros for my lunch:
545kcal
CHO: 49g
Fat: 30g
Protein: 23g
Like many people I am a peanut butter nutter. Yes I absolutely love the stuff so when I come across anything peanut butter flavoured I get really excited, sad I know!
One of my fav combos on toast after peanut butter and jam is peanut butter and banana, which I enjoyed as a snack this morning.
Simply toast a slice of bread of your choice (wholemeal is best). Spread on some peanut butter and slice a banana on top. Delicious.
My favourite peanut butter has to be Whole Earth, I have failed to find a brand that tastes as good. It’s suitable for vegans and vegetarians and contains palm oil from a sustainable source.
Macros for this snack (approx):
250kcal
40g CHO
5g Fat
8g Protein
These will change with the amount of peanut butter used, type of bread and size of banana.
Food-Nutrition-Fitness 