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#14days of Wellbeing Round Up

We hope you have enjoyed the past 14 days! We loved sharing our wellbeing tips and tricks with you. If you would like to find out more, and to be informed about the next time we do the #14days of wellbeing, please sign up to  our newsletter!

The books that we have included, and you might like to delve into a little deeper, are:

SuperchargedGreen

 

Christine Bailey
The Supercharged Green Juice & Smoothie Diet
£10.99 | Available from Nourish Books

 

 

 

 

 

AussieBody_front

 

Saimaa Miller
Aussie Body Diet
£14.99 | Available from Nourish Books

 

 

 

 

 

index2

 

Jo Pratt
In the Mood for Healthy Food
£ 20.00 | Available from Nourish Books

 

 

 

 

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Boost your immunity with this green juice!

Immune Blast

Blast fat and enhance your immune health with this vibrant juice. Traditionally, chaga has been used to support the immune system, promote longevity and preserve youth. The addition of coconut oil helps to energize the body and support a healthy metabolism, boosting weight loss. Butternut squash and carrot are high in vitamin A, which is great for your vision, your skin and your immune system.

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp CHAGA MUSHROOM powder

300g/10 1/2 oz butternut squash, peeled

2 carrots

1 handful of spinach leaves

1 orange, peeled

1/2 tsp COCONUT OIL, melted

1 handful of ice cubes

Method:

Make a tea with the chaga by adding it to 150ml/5fl oz/scant 2/3 cup hot water. Stir and leave to cool. Put the squash, carrots, spinach and orange through an electric juicer. Pour into a blender and add the tea, oil and ice cubes. Process briefly, then serve immediately.

Nutritional information per serving

Kcals 243 | Protein 6.7g

Carbohydrates 47.8g, of which sugars 37.1g

Fat 2.8g, of which saturates 1.5g

 

Extracted from The Supercharged Green Juice and Smoothie Diet by Christine Bailey

 

SuperchargedGreen

 

Christine Bailey
The Supercharged Green Juice & Smoothie Diet
£10.99 | Available from Nourish Books

 

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Strawberry Biscuit Bomb

Belinda Hamblin is one of our readers, she loves cooking and inventing her own desserts. Here she tells about her latest delicious creation: Strawberry Biscuit Bomb. Belinda left her fabulous career as managing theatre, visual arts, music and creative projects to start a family. She became a cooking consultant and a self builder. She is a mother of three, and at the moment she is pondering whether to return to her artistic roots or to open her own cafe… or maybe both!

This is what she says about herself: I’m Belinda, who once had a fabulous career managing theatre, visual arts, music & creative projects… Then we decided to start a family & build houses & I became a Cooking Consultant & a Self Builder…  Now, I’m a mother of three, who is unsure about whether to return to my artistic roots or to open my own cafe… Or to… Oh gosh… Decisions, decisions…

So, I recently turned 40 and the hubby surprised me with a trip to Rome, without our three munchkins; yes, he organised three full day and nights of childcare and I was determined to make the most of it.
We literally ate and drank our way to every ancient monument and ruin the fabulous city had to offer… We had the time of our lives, but on the plane home, realisation hit… I’m now 40 and I’ve probably just eaten and drank quadruple my recommended daily allowance of salt, sugar, carbs, alcohol, saturated fats, etc, etc… I’m not in my 20s, where I’d burn said calories at the Camden Palace… I’m in my 40s and those said calories are going to set up house & home on my thighs, tummy & butt… Possibly forevermore.

I’m a real food obsessive; naughty, nice, but I also love healthy food. However, I do have to engage my brain more when consciously knocking up a healthy plate. I’ll happily gnaw my way through a Grilled Chicken Breast, Quinea & Salad… Nevertheless, once I’ve got through the healthy main, I soon start to fantasise about something sweet/naughty…

Love a slice of melon. Actually love all fruit, nuts and yogurts but they just don’t do it for me after a meal. I need ‘a dessert’. I need something that I can spoon into my chops. Something that I can chew, something that looks yummy. Not necessarily cooked, that’s the hubby’s obsession.

And so, I’ve started inventing my own desserts. I’m replacing all the naughties for healthier alternatives; for example, I’ve been swapping cream, creme freche and sour cream with quark. It’s naturally fat free & fabulous for cooking, baking & mixing. I’ve just knocked up a Strawberry Biscuit Bomb and  not only is it delicious and healthy, it looks a little naughty, which is always nice!

Now, I made a single portion so feel free to double, triple, quadruple the ingredients as required. There’s five of us in our house and I’ve got myself into a crazy routine of knocking out five different meals and five different desserts most evenings. This will stop. I just kind of get obsessed with experimenting and as a result have fashioned a family with the most demanding and differing palates. I know, I’ve only got myself to blame!

So, here goes…

Ingredients:
Faux biscuit layer – 30g oats, 20g pecans, 10g warmed honey, 20g organic coconut oil
Faux cream layer – 60g quark, a little zest & freshly squeezed juice of 1/4 an orange
Strawberry layer – 4 large crushed strawberries, a sprinkling of icing sugar

Method:

Recipe steps

  • Line a glass bowl or ramekin with cling film & freeze for at least 20 minutes.
  • Chop pecans & mix with oats, honey & coconut oil, set aside.
  • Mix quark, zest & juice in another bowl, set aside.

Strawberry Biscuit Bomb step 2

  • Mix crushed/chopped strawberries & icing sugar in another bowl, set aside.

Strawberry Biscuit Bomb step 3

  • Remove glass bowl/ramekin from freezer. To layer the bomb, pour the strawberry mix into the bottom of the ramekin/glass bowl.
  • Then layer the faux biscuit layer over the top & smooth with a spatula.
  • Lastly, spoon the faux cream layer over the top & return to the freezer for another 20 minutes.

To serve, invert the glass bowl or ramekin over a plate & gently remove the cling film. And, Ta-da, your bombe is ready to serve; looks impressive, tastes fab & it’s extremely low in fat. Now, where’s those after dinner mints.

Snack Garden Review : Healthy and Tasty Snacks

 

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Today we received a box from Snack Garden and really enjoyed these snacks with everyone in the office. We love supporting small businesses, and these nutritious and satisfying munchies are a perfect and healthy snack to share during a busy day.

The idea of Snack Garden started from Ivan, an Hungarian man who after travelling all around the world and missing a healthy snack during his journeys, decided to create this all natural snacks, vegan and gluten free. Ivan and his family produce two fantastic snacks: the vacuum-fried crispy veggie chips and freeze-dried tropical fruit.

vaccum fried veggies

When we opened the veggie chips we were surprised to see round pods green beans, sliced sweet potatoes, squash and carrots. As they are lightly salted, we found them delicious and really addictive. The texture is very crispy and the crunchiness is light and salty, This combination  works really well for us. They are perfect for an afternoon break and to eat just by themselves.

fruit

The freeze-dried tropical fruit contains strawberries, bananas and pineapple. They are sweet and tasty, and the texture is quite hard, so we found them ideal as a mid-morning snack with a natural yogurt or in the porridge. With a bowl of warm milk, they also make a perfect breakfast. Kids would love this snack for the sweet taste and also for the mix of exciting colours.

On Snack Garden’s website we read that these products are completely free of preservatives, added sugars, trans fats and excessive sodium. We couldn’t agree more, they make a great alternative to snacks rich in sugar and still they are tasty and crispy.
If you want to know more, check their website, where you can also find delicious recipes and contact details.

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Aussie Body Secrets – Movement

 

‘No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.’ – William Penn, 1644–1718

Move it or lose it. We’re designed to move, not sit at a desk all day. Movement eases tension, boosts circulation, stimulates the metabolism, releases endorphins, fires up the libido, wards off disease . . . the more you move, the more enriched your life will be. We all know how good exercise is for us, but we are so good at finding excuses not to do it. Exercise should be a habit, just like flossing or checking Instagram. There are no shortcuts; you can’t outsource it. But regular exercise doesn’t need to be a chore.

You don’t need to log hours in the gym, running on the treadmill like a hamster on a wheel. And you don’t need to pay a drill sergeant. Exercise can be anything you want it to be – the more varied the better. Just move your body. Some days you’re itching to put on your trainers; some days you’d rather defrost a fridge than exercise. I get it. Even on the difficult days, just try. Do something. Consistency is the key.

When you use your muscles for more than just lifting shopping bags, they increase in strength and size. They become less easily fatigued and work more efficiently. If you don’t use your muscles enough, they can literally waste and everything becomes difficult. When you exercise, your heart – the most important muscle – works harder to pump blood around, as there’s an increased need for oxygen. Your cardiovascular system becomes more efficient and better at circulating oxygen even when you’re stationary. Everything becomes  easier: climbing stairs, chasing after toddlers and, yep, carrying shopping bags.

Cardio Health
When we exercise, our hearts have to work more efficiently to pump the blood around as we need more oxygen for proper cell functioning. The more we exercise the more toned our cardiovascular systems become, circulating more oxygen even when we’re not exercising. This naturally stimulates a feeling of wellbeing, as I believe oxygen is alkalising to the blood.

The Lymphatic System
The lymphatic system is a network of tiny vessels and a major part of the immune system. It removes excess fluid – called lymph – from the tissues of our body, stops off at lymph nodes where white blood cells attack bacteria, microbes and cancer cells, then returns the filtered lymph to the bloodstream. If the lymphatic system isn’tworking properly, a range of illnesses can develop, such as oedema, glandular fever and even Hodgkin’s disease.

Unlike the bloodstream, the lymphatic system doesn’t have a built-in pump: it relies solely on muscular contraction to move the lymph in one direction (towards the heart). If you don’t move, the system breaks down. Activity, massage and dry skin brushing help to keep lymph moving.

Your Brain
Exercising not only helps with circulation, muscle growth and lymphatic drainage; it’s also essential for optimal cognitive function. When you work out, your blood transports more oxygen – food for your brain. In a study of 1.2 million Swedish men, fit twins scored higher IQs than their less-fit brothers. Exercise is also strongly associated with a reduced risk of dementia as it slows down the age-related shrinkage of the frontal cortex, which is important for memory and recall.

The relationship between exercise and mood is now well documented. Exercise stimulates the release of neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine and endorphins – chemicals that significantly lift your mood. It makes you feel good. Researchers believe regular exercise can help treat depression.

What’s more, exercise stimulates our brains to produce new neurons, and ‘anti-ageing’ hormones such as dehydroepiandrosterone and growth hormone. Each neuron is linked by synapses, which permit an electrical or chemical signal to pass through, allowing communication. Each time we repeat a thought or action (see Visualisation Practice, page 27), these synapses grow stronger.

Exercise helps us achieve our very best, inside and out. If you want it to, exercise can push boundaries, increase pain threshold and boost focus and tolerance. Overcoming physical challenges hones the mind. Top athletes are very determined characters because they constantly test their limits, make mindfulness part of their daily lives and never, ever give up.

Movement is vital to weight loss. Nothing new here. You simply need to follow this equation: expend more energy than you take in. Exercise more, eat less. And if you build more muscle through weight-bearing and resistance exercises, you’ll burn more calories when you’re doing nothing. Lucky for those of us who like to indulge!

If you diet but don’t exercise, you’ll still lose weight. But you’ll shed muscle as well as fat and when you regain weight, it all comes back as fat. Every time you lose muscle through dieting, you reduce your ability to burn fat. It only gets harder and harder to fight the fat. Cardiovascular exercise is important for everybody, but especially relevant to weight loss. It means working up to 80 per cent of your maximum heart rate (your MHR is roughly 220 minus your age). So if you’re running with a friend, you won’t be chatting.

Staying active is essential for cardiovascular health, preserving and building muscle and losing excess lard. In turn, your self-esteem shines. I won’t lie to you: it requires a bit of commitment and dedication. Make it easier on yourself by choosing an exercise schedule that suits your lifestyle. If you’ve got kids, play chase in the park for an hour. If you loathe gyms, buy a Pilates DVD. If your schedule’s busier than the Prime Minister’s, cycle or walk to work. If you can incorporate exercise into your routine, it will give you so many gifts. Your brain will be clearer; you’ll work smarter, not harder. You might even be able to leave work sooner and have more time for yourself. You might find you’re less snappy at the kids or your partner thanks to those wonderful happy hormones. You’ll feel more alive.

For optimum fitness, vary your type of sport, intensity and duration. Include conditioning as well as cardio. All athletes now incorporate some form of stretching or yoga as an essential part of their training. Yogis say, ‘You can tell the age of a person by the flexibility of their spine’, and it couldn’t be more true – as we age, our bodies become more acidic, and acidity makes us rigid. Stretching and yoga are deeply alkalising as they aid in oxygenating tissue, while removing metabolic acids, preventing injuries and keeping us youthful to boot.

If you want to know more about Aussie Body Diet, you can visit Saimaa’s Website or our website.

Aussie Body Diet

Saimaa Miller
Aussie Body Diet
£14.99, Available from Nourish Books

 

 

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Introducing… the 14 Days of Wellbeing from Watkins and Nourish

Reconnect with your resolutions with our 14 days of wellbeing! For the next 14 days we will be sharing some of the best advice from our books and authors to help you improve your wellness. From spirituality (on our Watkins sites), to health and diet,  we will be sharing some tips and advice with you to help you heighten your spiritual, mental and physical health for life. If you would like to be part of the campaign please keep an eye out on our social media, and follow the hashtag #14days!

Happy 14 days of wellbeing!

If you would like to follow us and share your wellbeing journey please follow us on the platforms below, and share your experience using #14days!

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/nourishbooks/

Twitter – @nourishbooks

Instagram – @nourishbooks

Breakfast Pancakes For Your Little Ones

Today is Shrove Tuesday, also known as the International Pancake Day, so what a better way to celebrate it than enjoy making pancakes with your little ones.These healthy and delicious pancakes recipes are extracted from The Big Book of Recipes for Babies, Toddlers & Children by Bridget Wardley & Judy More, a brilliant book that takes you and your children to an exciting culinary journey, and also contains a wealth of information on child nutrition. You can make them for breakfast or as a snack idea for an afternoon break, these recipes are easy to prapare and enjoyable for the whole family.

Chocolate Banana Pancakes

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Storage: Suitable for freezing; best made just before serving, but batter can be made the night before and kept in the fridge

Ingredients:
125g (4½oz) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
200ml (7fl oz) milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil
¼ banana, chopped
2 tbsp chocolate chips

International Pancakes Day

Method:

  • Place the flour and baking powder in a bowl, and add the egg, milk and oil. Mix until almost smooth. Stir in the banana and chocolate chips.
  • Heat up a large frying pan or griddle, adding a little oil if needed. Drop spoonfuls of the batter in the frying pan/on to the griddle, allowing room for each pancake to spread.
  • Cook on a medium heat until bubbles appear and the undersides are golden brown.
  • Turn and cook the other sides until golden.
  • Serve immediately or keep warm in the oven until all are cooked. Serve with sliced banana and maple syrup.
    Makes 8–10 pancakes

Oaty Breakfast Pancakes

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Storage: Suitable for freezing; best made just before serving, but batter can be made the night before and kept in the fridge

Ingredients:
225g (8oz) plain flour
110g (4oz) oats
2 tbsp baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
450ml (16fl oz) milk
4 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:

  • Place the flour, oats and baking powder in a bowl. Add the eggs, milk and oil and mix well. Heat up a large frying pan or griddle, adding oil if needed.
  • Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the frying pan/onto the griddle, allowing room for each pancake to spread.
  • Cook on a medium heat until bubbles appear and the undersides are golden brown.
  • Turn and cook the other sides. Serve immediately or keep warm until the rest are cooked.
  • Top with berries and maple syrup. Makes 16–20 pancakes

Pecan Pancakes
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Storage: Suitable for freezing; best made just before serving, but batter can be made the night before and kept in the fridge

Ingredients:
400g (14oz) mixed flours and fine grains,
such as buckwheat, maize meal,
brown rice flour and quinoa
1 tbsp baking powder
1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 eggs
150g (5½oz) natural bio-yoghurt
500ml (1 pt) milk
4 tbsp runny honey
4 tbsp vegetable oil
100g (3½oz) toasted pecan nuts, chopped

Method:

  • Mix the flours, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, yoghurt, milk, honey and oil together.
  • Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix. Stir in the chopped pecans.
  • Heat up a large frying pan or griddle, adding oil if needed. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the frying pan/onto the griddle, allowing room for each pancake to spread.
  • Cook on a medium heat until bubbles appear and the undersides are golden brown.Turn and cook the other sides.
  • Serve immediately or keep warm until the rest are cooked. Serve with slices of banana and extra honey.
    Makes 18–20 pancakes

For more recipes from The Big Book of Recipes for Babies, Toddlers & Children, visit our blog, and click here to get more information about the International Pancake Day.

#cookingwithchildren #internationalpancakeday

BigBook-300x386

Bridget Wardley & Judy More
The Big Book of Recipes for Babies, Toddlers & Children
£12.99
Available from Nourish Books

 

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Chinese New Year Favourites / Lemongrass & Ginger by Leemei Tan

Learn more about Asian food and celebrate the Chinese New Year with Lemongrass & Ginger by Leemei Tanvibrant, a book that includes a stunning collection of recipes inspired by China, Thailand, India & Sri Lanka, Vietnam & Cambodia, Japan & Korea, Malaysia & Singapore, the Phillipines, and Indonesia. Follow the recipe below if you want to try a delicious Cantonese steamed fish. In China, the whole fish symbolizes abundance, and steamed whole fish is a must during Chinese New Year, as it symbolizes a wish for abundance in the New Year. 

LemongrassAndGinger-e1354651351880-300x383

Winner of the World Gourmand Award for Best Blog Cookbook, Leemei Tan’s debut book offers up vibrant, modern Asian food. Asian cooking combines wonderfully pungent, aromatic spices, herbs and flavourings with imaginative methods, a wide array of ingredients and tastes that explode in your mouth. For many people, though, these hugely enjoyable dishes seem too complicated to make at home. Leemei shows that this isn’t the case, and that anyone can master the art of cooking Asian food.

Cantonese steamed fish
Steaming is one of the most important techniques used in Chinese cooking, and is a very healthy way to cook that retains the flavours of the food, too. A bamboo steamer is ideal, but if you want to steam larger items, such as whole fish, then a wok is handy. You can serve it with a bowl of steamed rice.

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes, plus 45 minutes soaking and marinating time
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
1 x 800g/1lb 12oz whole red snapper, sea bream, sea bass or any other white-flesh fish, scaled and gutted by your fishmonger
1 tomato, sliced
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
30g/1oz dried mushrooms, such as shiitake, porcini or Chinese mushrooms, soaked, drained and thinly sliced
1cm/½in piece of root ginger, peeled and cut into fine matchsticks
2 spring onions, cut into matchsticks
freshly ground black pepper

Lemongrass&Ginger

Method:

  • Rinse the fish inside and out under running cold water and pat dry with kitchen paper. Using a sharp knife, make three diagonal slits on both sides of the fish. Arrange the tomato on the base of a heatproof platter that will fit inside a wok. Lay the fish on top.
  • Mix together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and rice wine in a small bowl and season with pepper. Pour the sauce over the fish and sprinkle over the mushrooms and ginger. Cover with cling film  and leave to marinate in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
  • Place several round cookie cutters or a wire cooling rack with legs  at least 2.5cm/1in tall inside a wok. Leaving a minimum gap of 1cm/½in below the steamer, add water to the wok and bring to the boil over a medium-high heat. Set the heatproof plate with the fish on the rack and steam, covered, for 10 minutes, or until the flesh separates from the bone easily and looks opaque when a fork is inserted. Keep an eye on the level of the water, adding more boiling water if necessary. Two minutes before the end of cooking, sprinkle over the spring onions. Serve immediately with boiled rice.

Lemongrass & Ginger by Leemei Tan is available from Nourish Books, online and in the good stores.

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Recipe Review/ Lemon and Garlic Griddled Chicken with Green Mash

Nourish books are full of recipes ideas, some of them require a dedicated time, some others are quick to make during a working day evening, and if you can combine them with the company of a good friend, then it is even better. After pondering awhile over Jo Pratt’s In the Mood for Healthy Food, our Associate Publicist Jillian and her friend decided to go for the Lemon and Garlic Griddled Chicken with Green Mash recipe. They definitely had a lot of fun and enjoyed the making of this delicious recipe with a glass (or two) of red wine.

Jo Pratt’s In the Mood for Healthy Food is chock-full of gorgeous recipes, so picking one for dinner was both easy and difficult. Easy because you can’t really go wrong, and difficult because it took ages to settle on one thing!

We finally decided on Lemon and Garlic Griddled Chicken and Green Mash, due to its short list of ingredients and simple preparation, as well as the tantalising promise of hot creamy mash on the very gloomy first night of February.

As the chicken has to marinate for at least half an hour we set about doing that right away, and it took only a few moments to zest and juice the lemon, grate in some garlic, and sprinkle in seasoning. With that poured over the chicken and popped into the fridge, we had the time to sit down with a glass of wine before needing to start on the mash.

After a glass (or two), we chopped the leek and courgette, and got those simmering away. Mixed with the scent of garlicky lemon already floating around, the kitchen started smelling wonderful.

Lemon and Garlic Griddled Chicken and Green Mash cutting

Next went in a can of cannellini, some chicken stock, and frozen peas, and as they all cozied up together in the pot we chopped some basil and grated the parmesan, getting everything ready at the same time.

Lemon and Garlic Griddled Chicken and Green Mash cooking

Half an hour passed quickly, and the chicken came out of the fridge and into the pan. As soon as the lemon-garlic marinade hit the heat there was a delicious sizzling sound and smell. A few minutes on either side and the chicken was done at the same time as the mash.

In went the fragrant basil and the sharp cheese, and it was time to eat.

The chicken was deliciously flavourful, and the mash was creamy and moreish. Knowing that it was comprised of beans and veggies made us have no qualms about having multiple helpings.

This meal is easy to prepare, quick to make, and everything comes together simultaneously, giving you a warm, nutritious, and totally delicious meal. We were too full for dessert, but were tempted by the Blackberry and Honey soufflés! There’s always next time…

Lemon and Garlic Griddled Chicken and Green Mash final

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes, plus at least 30 minutes marinating
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets
juice and zest of 1 large lemon
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
sea salt and freshly
ground black pepper

For the mash:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large leek, finely diced
2 courgettes/zucchini, finely diced
800g/1lb 12oz canned cannellini beans, drained
150g/5.oz/1 cup frozen peas, defrosted
125ml/4fl oz/. cup hot chicken stock
1 bunch of basil, leaves and stalks finely chopped
50g/1.oz/. cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp extra virgin olive
oil

Get in touch! If you want to review one of our recipes, you can write to nourishbooks.community@gmail.com.

index

 

Jo Pratt
In the Mood for Healthy Food
£ 20.00, available from Nourish Books

 

 

 

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Avoiding Those Valentine Vices

The Right Bite‘s author Jackie Lynch, suggests some smart food and drink swaps to keep you on the straight and narrow in February.

When the shops start to feature large displays of pink champagne and mountains of foil-wrapped chocolate hearts, it can mean only one thing – Valentine’s Day is upon us, and the chocolate season is about to start in a big way.

Valentine’s really has become more of a season than just a single day which can quickly undermine any healthy habits you established in January, as there’s a whole host of tempting treats available in the shops for several weeks. Even if you don’t specifically celebrate Valentine’s, it can be hard to resist adding a chocolate treat or bottle of fizz to your shopping trolley from time to time, when they’re so easy to hand.

So what can you do to keep the damage to a minimum? Here are a few handy hints to help you to avoid the vices and make a virtue out of Valentine’s.

  1. Avoid champagne and other sparkling wine. This may seem the natural choice for a celebration, but unfortunately it’s really bad news for your waistline. Sparkling wine is incredibly high in sugar – just two standard 125ml glasses contain the equivalent of 3 teaspoons of sugar, and sugar really is the main culprit when it comes to gaining inches around your waist. If you’re looking to keep in shape but still want to enjoy some wine, you’d do far better to share a bottle of red with your beloved, as the sugar content is minimal, by comparison.
  2. Choose your chocolate with care. If you already know that a box of chocolates is on the cards for you on Valentine’s Day, then it’s time to start dropping hints about dark chocolate. Milk chocolate is often highly processed and usually contains about 5 times as much sugar as dark chocolate. The high levels of cocoa in dark chocolate give it a more bitter taste, which has the added bonus of meaning that you’re likely to eat less of it, especially if it’s in tablet form, rather than filled chocolates. Aim for at least 80% cocoa, as you’ll benefit from the flavonoids found in cocoa, protective plant compounds which are associated with supporting cardiovascular health and choose an organic product if possible, as this limits the exposure to toxins in the non-organic production process.
  3. Prepare a Valentine’s meal at home. Restaurants are usually more crowded and often a lot pricier around Valentine’s Day, so this could be a smart move on a number of fronts. Nutrition-wise it leaves you in control of your ingredients, cooking methods and portions. Consider grilling rather than frying a steak to keep fat content down. Steam rather than boil your vegetables, so that you retain higher levels of vitamins. Keep high-calorie starch, such as bread, rice and pasta to a minimum, as this is likely to sit heavily on your stomach, making you feeling quite sluggish and sleepy after dinner which could hinder any plans to get amorous!
  4. Don’t bake (or buy) a Valentine’s cake. Just one modest slice of cake contains the equivalent of about 8 teaspoons of sugar, and 350-400 calories and that’s without taking into account any icing. It’s really not the best choice if you want to keep on looking fabulous in that little black dress or your skinny jeans. Try strawberries dipped in melted dark chocolate instead – it’s not just the healthier option, it’s a far sexier and more decadent Valentine’s dessert than a slab of cake. And you don’t need to be an experienced cook, as it couldn’t be easier – just Google a recipe and give it a go.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

RightBite_cover

Jackie Lynch
The Right Bite
Available from March 2016
Preorder from Amazon now.

 

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Saimaa Miller is This Month’s Instagrammer

Meet Saimaa Miller, author of Aussie Body Diet, recently published in paperback. To honour the UK release of Aussie Body Diet, she is taking over our Instagram account for the next two weeks. Take a look at her photos visiting Nourish Books Instagram, and keep updated with her latest posts from Australia.

What is Aussie Body Diet?
The Aussie Body Diet is quite simply a fad-free approach to your health. It is about changing your relationship with food, thoughts and movement, with the understanding that it’s all about balance. The Aussie Body Diet is an entirely different approach. It’s designed to help you achieve optimal wellbeing, reach a happy weight and have you feeling the best you’ve ever felt. Readers will discover the seven secrets to optimum health, learn which type of detoxer they are, and be able to devise the program that is right for them. The book has an array of amazing tips that will help guide readers along the way. With case studies from celebrity clients that reveal their experiences and advice that are very encouraging.

Saimaa Miller

How does Aussie Body Diet differ from other diets?
The Aussie Body Diet is based on traditional naturopathic principles. I am an accredited naturopath, nutritionist, herbalist, health coach and detox specialist. I have been working in the health industry for twenty years, long before it became the delightful trend it is now. So this diet is different as it combines several areas of technique along with many years of hands on experience. It is a holistic program, which means treating not just the body, but also the mind.

What is the first step to start an Aussie Body Diet?
The art to a successful detox and first step to an Aussie Body Diet is planning. Preparing your mind by setting goals and clearing your calendars and much as possible. Preparing your body by clearing out the fridge and pantry and doing the shopping before you start and asking for support from your loved ones.

Aussie Body Diet

What is The Last Resort and can you tell about your experience as an health coach?
The last resort is an organic detox spa located in North Bondi. The Last Resort was created with the understanding that only when mind, body and spirit are in harmony, can true beauty and total wellbeing be achieved. We have a seamless team of health experts whose sincerest desire is to attend to individual needs, we offer you a range of healing therapies to balance the body, restore optimum health and allow clients to realise their true potential.

When I opened The Last Resort in January 2005, folks would question my spa business of organics, health and cleansing. Ten years on, and I am truly honoured to say I have worked with thousands of people from all walks of life, with nutritional and cleansing programs. When you are ready to take responsibility for your health, the results are simply life-changing, and always for the better.

Do you have a favorite recipe?
Moroccan fish skewers with millet salad found on page 86 of Aussie Body Diet & Detox Plan. Because it’s beautifully light and hearty.

What are 3 kitchens hacks for a Aussie Body diet?
Cold-pressed juicer. Great knives and a beautiful wooden chopping board. Vita-mix blender.

If you want to know more about Aussie Body Diet, you can visit Saimaa Website or our website.

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