Chickpeas are a rich source of vitamins, minerals and fiber and a variety of health benefits, such as improving digestion. Being a plant based meal, this curry is great for your gut and sure to warm you up! Chickpeas are high in protein and make an excellent replacement for meat in vegetarian and vegan diets.
INGREDIENTS
1 tin chickpeas, drained
1 yellow onion, diced
1 tin coconut milk
1 tin chopped and peeled tomatoes
1 tbsp each curry powder + turmeric
1 tsp each cumin powder + paprika
1 tbsp each grated ginger + crushed garlic
1 lemon (juice squeezed)
1 tsp honey (optional) (use sugar if vegan)
2 handfuls of spinach
100 g mushrooms, chopped
Salt, pepper and chilli flakes to taste
Serve cooked brown or Basmati rice and
fresh chopped coriander
METHOD
Cook the rice as per packet instructions. Mix all the spices together and fry in a large pot with the onion, garlic and ginger in olive oil for 2 minutes on a medium heated stove top. Add the chopped mushrooms and chickpeas and fry for a further 3 mins. Add the tinned coconut milk, tinned tomatoes and allow to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the spinach, lemon juice and honey. Stir all together and allow to simmer for a further 10 minutes. Season to taste. Serve with cooked rice and chopped coriander.
The gut-brain connection is such a HUGE topic and recent scientific findings are coming through fast with exciting information on how important gut health really is. This blog simplifies a complex subject into some quick explanations and everyday tips to transition you into a place of better gut health management.
Besides digesting food and making gurgling sounds, the gut is spectacularly sophisticated and an integral part of our overall health. The term ‘gut-brain’ has been popping up in conversations a lot more frequently lately, and for good reason – science is finally catching up and able to explain just how phenomenally complex and important our gut is. If you are curious to understand and explore the role of the gut- brain relationship, how they communicate and how to optimize gut health, then this article is exactly what you need right now.
Quick dive into some science basics…
Brain cells are known as neurons and are not only limited to the brain but are actually found in our gut too (and our heart, but that’s for another blog post). Similar to our brain, our gut is also able to perceive, assimilate and process information, as well as store information. Who would have thought?
In case your memory is a little fuzzy from the school biology days, the gut does not simply equate to our stomach – it includes our mouth, oesophagus, small and large intestines, colon, liver, pancreas, and central nervous system.
The gut also contains sensory and motor cells and in essence functions like a mini brain. While our head brain is the mothership brain, the gut plays vital key roles in our communication with the brain, and affects our mood swings, immune system function and overall health. Serotonin, a very important mood stabilizer, is produced mainly in the gut (to read more see link to ‘mental health basics’ article), which means that our mood or mental state is definitely influenced by our gut.
Gut-brain communication
Reflect on your own body here for a minute – when you are super stressed or anxious, do you find that you eat more, or eat less, feel constipated or have a knot in your stomach?
When you are excited, do you feel butterflies in your stomach?
When you receive negative news, do you get that ‘gut wrenching’ feeling quite literally?
And when you are hungry and a sushi advert pops up on TV, does your stomach grumble with delight to let you know that it wants that?
These are everyday examples of our conscious processing of gut-head communication. However, most communication is happening very unconsciously at lightning speed while you are none the wiser. The communication happens along a superhighways gut-brain axis known as the vagus nerve. Most of the traffic of communication travels from the gut up to the brain and not the other way around, which means that our brains are interpreting and reacting to the goings-on of our gut all day every day.
Up to 80% of our immune cells are based in the gut, which means our immune system is coming into contact with our environment everyday based on the food we consume. Some foods are nutritional and healing for the gut, while others cause aggravation, inflammation, and discomfort.
The microbiome located in the gut is the total ecology of microorganisms and if this balance of bacteria is too infested with bad bacteria, we create an imbalance. In fact, these bacterial colonies are so clever that they cause confusion during the gut-brain communication line, and even cause us to crave unhealthy foods that feed the bad bacteria. Serotonin, which I mentioned earlier, is an especially important mood stabilizing neurotransmitter, is produced mainly in the gut and interestingly only a small amount is produced in our brain.
A happy gut equals a happier mood state.
Optimizing gut health
Reading and understanding all the latest information on gut health means nothing unless you actually make changes to your lifestyle and prioritize gut health. After all, our immune system is based in the gut, and our gut influences our mental and mood states.
Besides diet, other factors such as exercise, stress and emotional management, toxicity, and medications can also impact our gut health and mental health. A good quality probiotic can have enormous benefits of gut health by boosting the ‘good bacteria’ and stress can have very negative impacts on gut health. Regular exercise, mindful activities, and consumption of organic fresh produce has been scientifically validated to improve the microbiome and gut health. A healthy gut means a healthy well-functioning immune system and with winter upon us and a global pandemic in our midst, has there ever been a better time to make these changes?
A plant-based version of the traditional cottage pie, yet just as comforting and delicious. Perfect to warm you up and a wholesome #meatfree family meal.
INGREDIENTS
2 cans lentils, drained
1/2 punnet mushrooms, rinsed and sliced
2 carrots, grated
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp olive or coconut oil
1 can chopped tomato
2 tbsp tomato puree
½ tsp basil
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
400-500 g sweet potato chunks
½ cup nut or coconut milk of choice
¼ cup grated vegan cheese or nutritional
yeast (optional)
Fresh parsley
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Boil or steam sweet potatoes until soft and mash with milk. While sweet potatoes are cooking, heat olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Add mushrooms, carrots and onions, season with salt and pepper and saute until lightly golden. Add the lentils and chopped tomato to the same pan and simmer for 5 min. Add tomato puree, basil, salt, and pepper. Stir over medium heat and allow to simmer for a few more minutes. Add lentils to a baking dish and top with mashed sweet potato. Sprinkle with grated vegan cheese or nutritional yeast. Bake for 30-40 min until golden on top. Garnish with fresh parsley.
In this day and age, we are bombarded by so much information about different diet plans and often, unethical ways to drop weight quickly and reach your goals, including miracle weight loss pills, slimming coffees and teas and starvation diets. The amount of pressure is simply overwhelming. If you are feeling swamped by all of the content out there and not sure which way to turn, which diet plan is best for you and how you can reach your goals, the best method for you might be to turn your back on diets completely and consider intuitive eating. In this blog, I explore what intuitive eating means and how you can adapt this way of eating.
What is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive eating was developed by two dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, in 1995 as a non-diet approach to nutrition where you tune into and rely on your body signals for hunger and cravings to build a healthy and sustainable relationship with food. The basis of intuitive eating is that we are all born intuitive eaters, as we grow older, external pressures such as rules and restrictions around food shape us into building opinions around eating which may impact on the types and amount of food we choose to consume.
Focusing your energy on basing food choice and eating on internal cues like hunger, fullness and satisfaction can really retune your mindset and prevent you from feeling pressure to eat and think a certain way.
Why might Intuitive Eating be a better plan for me?
If you have tried every diet under the sun, and seen good results, but then as soon as you go back to normal eating you end up straight back where you started, this might be the non-diet diet for you. Restrictive diet plans may result in an all-or-nothing mentality where if you’re sticking to the plan you are on track, but as soon as you reach for a chocolate chip cookie, you may as well just eat the whole box!
Meal plans or diets that demonize certain foods and food groups have been found to result in bingeing which, in turn, can throw you off completely and put you in a bad space mentally. Intuitive eating relies on your internal hunger and satiety signals and allows you to eat whatever you like, whenever you like, without feeling guilty. The important part of intuitive eating is to understand your internal cues, make peace with food and honour your hunger levels.
Principles of Intuitive Eating:
Reject the diet mentality
Honour your hunger
Make peace with food
Challenge the food police
Respect your fullness
Discover the satisfaction factor
Respect your body
Incorporate exercise
Honour your health through gentle nutrition
Simply put, intuitive eating is not a free-for-all eating method but rather a guide to understand your body and cues to eating. It is about building a positive, mindful, and healthy relationship with food and your body to reach a place where you are happy and comfortable with food and eating.
While you’re here and we’re on the topic of food, check out these recipes:
These days a trip to the grocery store can be more confusing than anything – you’re faced with so many different food options with an array of exciting and appealing claims. Welcome to the “free from” era, a time when food products display more claims and callouts about what they don’t contain compared to what they do. Examples of “free from” claims are gluten-free, free from sugar, free from colourants, and the list goes on. It’s so easy to notice these claims and overlook the entire nutritional profile of a snack food or ready meal.
How to read food labels
Food labels and nutrition tables don’t have to be overwhelming. They can be used as valuable tools to guide us in making the best choice. It’s important to understand how to read and interpret food labels and use them to your benefit. When comparing the nutritional content of food, always look at the nutritional content per 100 g – this helps you compare apples with apples. The serving size is also important to look at as this is the recommended amount that you should have in one sitting.
Health claims like “low in fat” and “fat-free” displayed on packaged foods may lead you to believe that these products are great choices, however, these foods are often loaded with fillers like sugar and carbohydrates to improve taste and texture. The ingredient list displays quantities of ingredients from the highest to the lowest amount. The closer “sugar” is to the top of the ingredient list, the higher the sugar content. Sugar is sometimes listed using other words: cane sugar, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, high-fructose corn syrup, syrup, honey, galactose, lactose, maltose, maltodextrin, rice syrup, corn sweetener and xylitol.
The consumption of excess salt can negatively affect your health as well as result in water retention and bloating. Look out for other names for high sodium ingredients: celery salt, garlic salt, meat/yeast extract, monosodium glutamate, (MSG), onion salt, rock salt, sea salt, sodium, sodium ascorbate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium nitrate/nitrite, stock cubes, vegetable salt.
Avoid food products that have a very long ingredient list of unfamiliar, processed ingredients. Try to choose products with fresh ingredients and minimal additives and preservatives. A shorter shelf life also shows you that a product is a fresher and healthier option.
Oat and date balls are a quick, on the go snack. Make them ahead of time and keep them around to pop in your mouth when you’re a little peckish!
Ingredients
1 cup dates
2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
1 tbsp cacao powder
1 tbsp natural peanut butter
Method
Place dates in a pot of water and bring to the boil.
Drain the dates and put the liquid into a container and set aside for later.
Place drained dates, coconut, peanut butter, oats and cacao powder in a food processor or a blender.
Place the mixture into a bowl.
Slowly add roughly 1/4 of the date liquid to the mix (you may need a little more liquid than this, add it slowly until the mix holds its shape. If you accidentally add too much liquid add a little more of the other dry ingredients to balance).
Mix the wet and dry ingredients together.
Roll mixture into 12 balls and store in the fridge or freezer.
Roll in extra coconut if desired.
Make extra and freeze them for a last-minute snack
You’ve heard of chicken soup for the soul, well you have to try our chicken bowl for the soul! A hearty and nutritious meal, perfect for lunch or dinner!
Ingredients
Serves 4
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 bell peppers, any colour, sliced
1 large red onion, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chicken seasoning
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
1 jar tomato pasta sauce
3 cups brown rice (680 g), cooked
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (optional)
1 can corn
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (100 g)
Method
Preheat oven to 200˚C.
Line a baking tray with foil.
Place the chicken, peppers, and onions onto the baking tray and drizzle with oil.
Sprinkle the chicken seasoning evenly over both sides of the chicken breasts.
Sprinkle salt and pepper on the bell peppers and onions, tossing to coat.
Top each chicken breast with a generous pour of tomato pasta sauce.
Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes.
Rest chicken for 10 minutes, before slicing into strips.
Add a base of brown rice to 4 bowls or sealed containers. Top each with a scoop of black beans, corn, additional tomato pasta sauce, cheddar cheese, cooked bell peppers, and onions, and sliced chicken.
Enjoy immediately or store in the refrigerator. Can be kept refrigerated for up to 4 days.
The trial month of 2020 is over and as we wave goodbye to January, it’s time to remember those resolutions before they become a distant memory. Now that the January excitement has died down, the gym won’t be as busy and you can now establish a fitness plan (and stick to it).
A fitness plan doesn’t mean spending 3 grueling hours at the gym every single day with one of those hours devoted to the treadmill. A fitness plan needs to be something you’re excited about and motivated to keep up with, that’s how to remain consistent.
No matter your goals or the plan you decide to use, 2020 is definitely the year for you to smash some goals!
Why you need a fitness plan
We’ve all seen the fitness fanatics on Instagram who love to sell their online fitness plans and as much as they try and force you to believe that you simply cannot workout without one – there is a little method behind the madness.
Having a plan means you’re more likely to stick to something and you’re more likely to succeed.
Firstly, I think it is amazing that you’ve made the decision to get active and well done for taking that first step but failing to have a plan when starting a new lifestyle can result in burnout from lack of results. In the end, you’re more likely to quit so it’s time to change the narrative you’ve grown used to.
How to establish a fitness plan
First things first, we are not here to tell you what to do, you need to find exactly what works for you, this is just a guide to get you started and remind you that having a plan is the key to success.
1. Be realistic with your scheduling
We would all love it if we could workout every single day for over an hour but at the end of the day, for most of us, this isn’t possible.
I remember when I was in university, I found it so easy to make it to the gym but as life goes on, we get busier and our schedules quickly fill up with meetings, deadlines, projects and commitments (social or otherwise).
Which is why it is essential to create a schedule that you can stick to so start out with fewer days and gradually increase them as you develop a new routine or simply keep it to 2-3 days a week and move it around to suit you.
It is YOUR schedule and you don’t need to feel guilty about it.
2. Find something you enjoy
Standing in the weights section at the gym isn’t for everyone – and that’s okay! If you want to master the weight section though, this could help you.
Start trying different things out and see what works for you. Go for a run, join a yoga or boxing class or sign up for the gym. If you find something you hate, move on from it, there is no correct way to exercise and if you do something you hate, you’re more likely to give it up because let’s be honest, I’d rather lay on the couch than endure an hour and a half of running.
3. Set goals
Your goals don’t have to be based on appearance (although they certainly can be, if that’s what you’re looking for). Exercise is wonderful for both your mental and physical health too.
Take a step back and identify what you want to gain from becoming more active and write them down. Make sure you refer back to these goals every now and then to make sure you’re staying on track and just to give yourself a little reminder of what you want to achieve.
4. Start slow
One mistake you can make is going too hard on your first day. Getting active is exciting and you might want to jump in full force but by going too hard too soon, you risk injuring yourself or making your muscles so stiff that you wouldn’t want to do it again!
5. Give yourself a break
Perfection doesn’t exist and it’s so easy to get swept up in everyday life and end up missing a day or two. It’s perfectly normal and doesn’t mean you’ve failed.
All you need to do is make up for it the next time you can fit a workout in.
6. Get an accountability buddy
You might be motivated to workout but actually doing it can be a little difficult (we know the struggle). This is when having an accountability buddy comes in handy! Find a friend or family member that you can rely on to help keep you motivated and ready to smash your goals. You both can help one another make it to the gym more often than not.
This is merely a little plan to help get you started, once you’ve figured out the above, it’s time to plan your workout routines (you can look here for some inspiration!).
Getting out of the mindset of what society deems necessary and remembering your capable of anything you set your mind to is the beginning to a successful fitness routine that you can stick to!
Oh, and by the way, if you want a 12-week training plan that really works, then have a look at our Better Body Blueprint. It’s packed with healthy and simple meals, effective workouts and tried and tested advice.
Have you heard about nutrient timing? Either from a fitness guru on Instagram or one of your friends who is always the first to try any of the latest and greatest health trends. The term sounds so legitimate and the way this term has been thrown around in the “fitness industry”, you probably feel like you need to know more about it.
So, let’s dive in shall we? What is nutrient timing? Is it necessary to eat at a certain time? And will it have an actual effect on your body?
Let’s take a look at the facts and fibs that surround this topic!
What is nutrient timing?
Simply put, nutrient timing involves eating foods at strategic times in order to achieve certain outcomes. It’s supposedly very important for muscle growth, sports performance and fat loss. If you’ve ever run for a scoop of peanut butter before a workout or panicked if you forgot to have your protein shake right after a workout – that is nutrient timing.
It surrounds the idea that your body will develop better or secure better results if you eat at certain times of the day and when it is more optimal. This way of eating has been used by bodybuilders and fitness competitors for up to 50 years now and many studies have been conducted on it.
One of the world’s leading researchers in carbohydrate timing, Dr John Ivy, has published many studies showing its potential benefits. In 2004, he published a book called Nutrient Timing: The Future of Sports Nutrition. This is just one of the many researchers who believe nutrient timing is key!
But like with anything, there are some doubts about the studies, for example:
Short-term blood markers: Many of the studies only measure short-term blood markers, which often fail to measure up with long-term benefits. Have a look at this article on the matter.
Ultra-endurance athletes: Many of the studies follow extreme endurance athletes, which do not necessarily represent the average everyday person.
For these reasons, the findings in much of the research that supports nutrient timing may not apply to everyone.
When should you be eating your meals?
We don’t mean just eating morning, noon and night.
Nutrient timing extends further than just eating before or after a workout. You probably have that one work colleague who is always going on about a new “health” trend. We guarantee that some point you’ve heard, “you shouldn’t eat carbs after 6 pm” or “you should eat more in the morning and less in the evening”.
Many people think that the reason you gain more weight if you eat late at night is that you have less opportunity to burn off those calories, but this is a very basic view. It’s often assumed that our bodies shut down when we sleep, but that’s not true. Our bodies work throughout the night while our minds rest.
BUT evidence suggests that more energy is used to process a meal when it’s eaten in the morning, compared to later in the day, so you do burn slightly more calories if you eat earlier. However, it’s still unclear how much of a difference this would make to your overall body weight.
This means that it may be a better idea to consume higher quantities of food earlier in the day and focus on consuming nutrient-dense foods later in the evening. For some healthy recipe ideas, take a look at this article.
So, what do we make of this?
Here’s the bottom-line, research isn’t always perfect or conclusive. There may be some accurate points of measure in these studies but there may be a few fibs along the way too.
We’ve come to understand that nutrient timing isn’t particularly important for most people trying to look and feel better. It may be more beneficial to those whose careers are centred around working out but so many really smart and hard-working people are getting lost in the finer points of nutrient timing.
Focusing on timing your meals while consistently missing out on sleep, or vegetables or other (slightly more important) health and lifestyle factors is more of detriment to your body. The other factors will yield you far more results in a healthy lifestyle in the long run than merely focusing on the timing of your meals.
A healthy lifestyle is a holistic approach with many factors to consider, if this is something you’re concerned about or if you need more information, we’d be happy to help!
