I know lots of people who are absolutely going to LOVE the results from the paper I’ve just read – Power Poses: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels And Risk Tolerance.
(You’ll be surprised to hear it’s not been nominated for a ‘Catchy Science Paper Title Of The Year’ award 😉 )
My husband, Dougal, has been living, talking and teaching that you can use the power of your mind to get fantastic physical results for y e a r s.
When clients first come to him (in person and online) they’ll soon be asked to repeat after him, “I am an ATHLETE!”
This is tough when you’re feeling anything but! However, after saying this out loud day after day, week after week these clients BECOME athletes!
They start to think like one; they start to act like one and, being on the receiving end of Dougal, they have no option but to train like one.
Fake it ’till you make it is a phrase that’s often thrown around. With derision from some quarters who haven’t quite cottoned on to the power of the mental state, and with fierce promotion by those who have.
Perhaps it’s the word fake that upsets some people; its connotations are negative and implies deception and lies.
So instead, of fake it ’till you make it, how about – ‘see yourself as the person you want to be and start living as if you are that person NOW’…?
Ok, so that’s almost as catchy as the title of the psych’ paper but it does solve the ‘fake’ problem.
So what does this science paper have to say?
Well, the team of boffins who wrote it set out to discover whether THINKING you’re powerful can actually CAUSE you to be powerful.
The answer is a very simple YES and is summed up rather nicely in the abstract:
Posing in displays of power caused advantaged and adaptive psychological, phyisiological and behavioural changes, and these findings suggest that embodiement extends beyond mere thinking and feeling, to physiological and subsequent behavioural choices.
In other words, by striking power poses you will not only FEEL more confident, positive and powerful, you will BECOME so. You will cause your testosterone levels to rise, on average by 20%. Your cortisol levels will drop by about the same amount and your tolerance to risk will increase (all very necessary when about to embark on a set of 20s with your bodyweight let me tell you!).
By the way, ‘power posing’ doesn’t mean going all Incredible Hulk and Arnold Schwarzennerger, wandering around flexing your muscles and growling at everyone you see!
Power poses are open body and take up a lot of physical space – lounging back in your chair and sitting with your feet up on the desk is just one of the power poses the 26 female and 16 male participants were asked to adopt).
All very interesting, but how can it help when it comes to challenge success or anything else you want to get good at and achieve?
Well, testosterone is rather important as it’s THE muscle building hormone. It affects strength, muscle mass, your mood and how your body processes protein.
The bad news? Girls don’t make very much of it so anything we can do to raise our testosterone levels is a good thing!
Along with the revelation that power poses will do this, lifting heavy for squats, deadlifts, bench press and Co will also increase testosterone production.
Do you remember I said I felt on top of the world after doing that set of (almost) bodyweight 20s…? A result of elevated testosterone levels perhaps? I think it’s a pretty safe bet!
A natural increase in testosterone levels (and it doesn’t have to be a huge increase) can also help to lower fat mass levels which brings me neatly onto cortisol.
Cortisol is a stress hormone; it only took Dougal telling me a few times (less than five, although he’ll say it was more like 55!) that, “Cortisol promotes abdominal fat storage!” and to chill out a bit, especially when chasing a six-pack goal!
Your cortisol levels increase when you’re stressed and also when you don’t get enough sleep. Elevated cortisol levels also stimulates the breakdown of muscle to be used as an energy source. And JUST to add insult to injury, not getting enough sleep also causes testosterone levels to fall *sigh*
Whilst I’m on the subject of sleep: lack of the snoozy stuff causes elevated insulin levels too which also promotes fat storage, let alone increasing the risk of diabetes and heart disease.
Insufficient sleep will also affect your body’s ability to grow and repair itself. When we sleep the body experiences a natural increase in Human Growth Hormone, HGH. This is when the REAL bodybuilding takes place and if you’re not getting enough sleep your HGH levels will be compromised.
Aside from THAT, if you’re tired when you hit the gym your rep rate will be lower, you won’t be able to put in maximum effort and your strength and muscle gains, along with your overall results, will not be as good as they could be!
Back to cortisol…
There is a direct link between your cortisol levels and whether you are a POWER or powerLESS person.
Power people have lower level cortisol than their powerless counterparts, and when exposed to stresses their levels rise at a significantly slower rate. Incidentally, when you elevate your power levels your cortisol levels will drop – so get those feet up on the desk pronto!
Consistently high cortisol levels – as opposed to the short-term increases we experience on a daily basis resulting from danger, or excitement, through to getting up in the mornings – also has an impact on our ability to combat illness and disease.
Those who carry stress around with them as a matter of course, or get worked up over the smallest things, tend to suffer more frequent episodes of illness, than those who don’t.
All in all, high levels of corstisol are NOT GOOD!
Do you get it now?
Do you see how this is all relevant…?
YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK YOU ARE!
If you want to be strong and powerful you must act, and think, as if you are – by default this is what you will become.
If you want to change your life, your job and/or your body, and have a six pack of your own, you must SEE IT! FEEL IT! LIVE IT! BREATHE IT and SLEEP IT (to keep those cortisol levels down remember).
So which are you?
Are you a POWER PERSON or a powerless person?
GO ON…STRIKE A POSE! 😀
One of my favourite stories that I refer to, often, is the story of The Wolves. It goes like this…
Outside a tepee, with smoke from an hypnotic fire gently finding it’s way into the fading light, sat an elder from the tribe and a small boy.
“Father” the boy said looking at the elder with puzzled brow. “Yes my son,” he replied, with a loving half smile in anticipation of the question he had been asked many times before by the other children in many different ways.
“Father, in my head I have bad wolves and these wolves are always fighting with each other, snarling, scrapping, biting each other, stealing food from each other; they are always howling in anger and they have fire in their eyes.
But I also have good wolves in my head and these wolves are happy – they play with each other, rough and tumble, share food with each other and howl with happiness. These wolves, the good and the bad, often fight with each other….FATHER, which ones will win?”
“My son,” the tribal elder said gently putting his weathered hand lovingly on the boys shoulder, ”the ones you feed the most!”
The wolves do battle in my head every now and again, especially when I’m on my way home in the evening. I pass very close by the supermarket and it’s open 24 hours a day…
Hungry and Tired Wolf v Six-Pack Wolf
HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Y’know, you could just pop in there on your way back and grab something for dinner…
SIX-PACK WOLF: I could, but I don’t really know what I want. Maybe some nice fresh salmon!
HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Well you could, but then you’d still have to cook it when you got home. It’ll be late by the time you’ve mooched around, decided what to have, paid for it and got home.
SIX-PACK WOLF: You make a good point, but let’s just carry on.
HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Okay…
And we went straight past the supermarket and carried on heading for home. A while later…
HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: We’re almost home now; you’re looking really tired – have you decided what to have for dinner yet?
SIX-PACK WOLF: No.
HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Y’know, we could stop at the little shop just around the corner from home; pick up a few snacks – crisps, nuts and perhaps a bar of chocolate?
SIX-PACK WOLF: No, I don’t really fancy all that.
HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Okay, OKAY! HOW ABOUT….fish and chips from the fish and chip shop?! GENIUS – it won’t take two seconds, it’s not out of our way, it’s something hot and you won’t have to cook anything!
SIX-PACK WOLF: NO!
HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Oh come ON!!! You’ve trained like an animal all week, you’ve been bang on with everything – you can afford one night off surely!
SIX-PACK WOLF: I’m not listening to you anymore *la-la-la-laaaaaa!*
HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: Just this once – you hardly ever do it; it won’t make any difference!
SIX-PACK WOLF: Sorry, did someone say something?
HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: What are you doing?! You’ve gone the wrong way! The fish and chip shop is the other way!
SIX-PACK WOLF: I think a bit of singing along to Florence and The Machine is in order, VERY LOUD!
HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF: can you hear me? I said the fish and chip shop is the OTHER WAY!
SIX-PACK WOLF: *Sings* “…..and it’s hard to dance with the devil [or wolf!] on your back, so shake it off! It’s always darkest before the dawn…..tra-la-laaaaa!”
I arrived home, came inside, locked the HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF outside and cooked myself a quick mushroom omelette.
VICTORY!
I am under no illusion that these wolves won’t return. I know they argue like that when I’m tired and hungry, I have to choose which one I’m going to feed the most – all the while I choose to feed the SIX-PACK WOLF, I’ll continue to reinforce the positive habits that allow me to be in the shape I’m in and keep me there.
I also have an EMOTIONAL WOLF that likes to argue with the SIX-PACK WOLF on occasion – they get short shrift too.
I know a lot of people have a WEEKEND WOLF who just loves to drop in and visit on a Friday evening.
WEEKEND WOLF: It’s been a tough week, why not just forget everything for tonight – treat yourself to a take-away followed by some chocolate/cake/ice-cream. In fact, if you’re going to do that, you might as well just go crazy over the entire weekend.
You can start properly on Monday; that’s probably a really GOOD idea actually – you’ll have ‘done’ all the sweet and savoury junk things by Sunday night, you’ll feel much better as a result and will be REALLY ready to get healthy again come Monday morning!
Which wolves are you going to feed most this weekend?
The HUNGRY and TIRED WOLF? The EMOTIONAL WOLF? The WEEKEND WOLF? The NEGATIVE WOLF perhaps?
Or are you going to feed your SIX-PACK WOLF? Your POSITIVE and IN CONTROL WOLF? Your VICTORIOUS WOLF?
By the way, the ‘good wolves’ look awesome – they’re strong, they have an awesome presence, their eyes are BRIGHT and their coats are glossy; they’re quite something to behold.
The ‘bad wolves’ – they don’t look so hot, funnily enough; they skulk around in the shadows and are easily chased away if you mean it when you confront them.
If you’re having a tough time making positive changes and staying on track – print this out and stick it up, EVERYWHERE as a visual reminder: I AM A SIX-PACK WOLF – I AM POSITIVE and IN CONTROL – I AM THE VICTORIOUS WOLF!
Now I know some of you might think I’ve temporarily lost my mind, talking about ‘voices’ and telling you to picture yourselves as wolves –“That just sounds a bit mad, ‘out there’ and woo-woo for my liking!” – but trust me, these things work!
Stick that picture on your fridge and I guarantee you’ll find it MUCH easier to not to raid it if, for whatever reason, your resolve starts to falter.
Keep the positive wolves close and chase away the bad ones – all you have to do is CHOOSE.
Try it and let me know how you got on, on our Facebook page, first thing Monday morning – www.facebook.com/sixPackForGirls
Have a SUPERB SATURDAY and SUNDAY, rather than ‘slippery slope’ ones 🙂
A very good friend of mine used to be a chef at one of London’s most famous five-star hotels. We often chat about food and throw around ideas for six-pack recipes – one of our most recent creations were: six-pack balls.
These Six-Pack ‘Abdomiballs’ are amazingly quick and simple to make, and taste so good you’ll have to remind yourself NOT to feel guilty after eating them because they are 100% six-pack legal; awesome.
You won’t need to make a note of all the ingredients, because I’m sure you’ll be able to remember them. In fact, there’s hardly anything to remember at all.
Ingredients
- Protein Powder
- Oats
- Water
Yep, that’s it. Nothing more, or less, than I have in my protein shakes – no nuts, no seeds, no dates, nothing but oats and 100% whey protein powder (although you could add other things in like raisins and nuts, just remember – the more things you add, the more calories you’re adding and this is about keeping those low and the ‘yum’ factor HIGH).
I used the same quantities that I use for my shakes too, apart from the water – you only need to tiniest amount to bind the oats and protein together.
Step One – put the oats and protein in my killer blender and zapped it until the oats were almost as fine as the protein powder (you don’t have to make it fine, I just chose to).
Step Two – put the blended oats and protein into a bowl and added a dribble of water to it and started to combine everything with a spoon.
** I cannot stress enough how little water you’re going to need – seriously underestimate what you initially think and you should be about right. You’ll think it’s not going to be enough and be tempted to add more, DON’T!
I was warned about this; on my first attempt I did add more water and ended up with a sloppy mess – just keep working the ingredients together until they form a firm dough.
Step Three – turn your protein dough ball out onto a chopping board – I found it helped to roll it quickly in protein powder to stop it sticking to the board – and press it down so it’s flat. If you fancy the idea of a thick soft and chewy cookie then you could leave it just like this; if you want balls, then you’ll need to do a bit more work.
Step Four – cut your dough into quarters and then each of those quarters in half. Then roll them between the palms of your hands to form small balls – to make them look a little bit ‘special’ (think chocolate truffles dusted with cocoa powder) I rolled them in protein powder, this also stops them from sticking to each other too.
Step Five – put them in a little container, store them in the fridge and THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is all there is to it!
You can choose how many balls to make, you don’t have to divvy your dough into eights – the choice is entirely yours. But for me, 30g of protein powder and 35g of oats works really nicely rolled into eight balls.
They are incredibly filling as they’re very dense and chewy and are best accompanied by a hot drink (to melt them off the roof of your mouth and your teeth!); honestly, they are properly YUM!
They’ll work with any flavour protein too – the ones I made today were with Rocky Road and Banana flavour protein – and will make taking your shake with you to work, or out and about, just that little bit easier and mess/hassle-free.
Now, about the name – protein balls. It’s boring – so I’m going to throw it out to you guys to come up with a killer name for these six-pack protein balls!
Whilst you get your thinking caps on, I’ll think of a prize to give to the creator of the winning name.
Post your name suggestions over on our Facebook page – facebook.com/sixPackForGirls – and let us know if you make your own ‘protein balls’ and in which flavours.
‘Don’t lose your diet marbles’ is one of those diet tips and tricks that you can modify to suit your personality.
Some people like to use a single marble each day to track each day passing – time can too easily slip through our fingers without us noticing – whereas others like to use multiple marbles to keep them focused on, and celebrate the completion of, each action step which makes up their daily goal
A MARBLE A DAY…
I hope you’ve set yourself a fat loss deadline (that’s another one of our favourite diet tips and tricks – a deadline, it will certainly help to keep you focused!) if you haven’t, then do it NOW! We’ll wait for you…
Done?
Okay, now count up the number of days left until deadline day and collect enough marbles for each of those days. Get two of something big enough to hold your marbles and place all of them in just one.
As each day passes, move a marble from one jar/bowl/basket/whatever you wish, to the other – this will allow you to ‘see’ time passing and help you stay focused for the duration.
MORE MARBLES…
Perhaps the biggest ‘trick’ with all these things is to tailor them to suit you – so if you need extra help staying on focused, use marbles to help celebrate your achievements throughout the day. Decide what you want to focus on and count out the corresponding number of marbles.
So, for example, if you’re eating six clean meals a day and want to celebrate successfully eating each one, you’ll need six marbles. You also want to mark your training for the day? You’ll need another marble.
If going to bed before 10pm is a goal and you want to acknowledge doing that successfully, add another marble to your collection.
Each time you successfully complete one of your daily actions, move a marble from one ‘whatever you chose to put them in’ to the other and repeat every day until your deadline.
Are You A Slave To Your Scales?
1) How often do you weigh yourself?
a) Once a week, if I remember; sometimes less
b) Once a day
c) Several times a day – I just can’t help myself!
2) What do you wear when you weigh yourself?
a) Whatever I happen to be wearing at the time
b) Just my underwear
c) Nothing, I’m as naked as the day I was born – I don’t want ANYTHING to weigh me down, which includes jewellery and watches so those get taken off too!
3) Do you weigh yourself at the same time each time?
a) Nah – as and when I remember
b) Sort of – a couple of hours within the same time, most of the time
c) ABSOLUTELY to the minute! To the same second if possible!
4) How does the number on the scale make you feel?
a) If it’s gone down – GREAT, happy for the rest of the day (fingers crossed it will do the same tomorrow)
b) If it’s the same – a bit disappointed, but at least it’s not gone up!
c) If it’s gone up – VERY unhappy and likely to remain so for the rest of the day! (Gone UP?! How can it have gone up?!! Must make mental note to eat less today and see if it doesn’t go back down tomorrow)
5) What if I tell you, your scales are lying to you and you shouldn’t take what they say as gospel?
a) Seriously?!
b) Are you kidding?!
c) If it’s true I’ll love you forever!
If you answered mainly As then you’re not a slave to your scales; bravo – but read on.
If you answered mainly Bs then you’re skating on thin scale ice most of the time – you read on too.
If you answered mainly Cs – STEP AWAY FROM THE SCALES and most definitely read on!!
Right, so your scales are LYING to you. Actually, it’s more a case of you asking them the wrong question, they can only give you one answer, it doesn’t match what you’re really asking so it all goes horribly wrong from there.
Scales weigh things. They’re very good at it but it’s all they can do – add something and the weight will go up, take something away and the weight will go down.
I conducted an experiment about a year ago – I weighed myself every three hours over the course of 15 hours; the scales told me I’d gained two kilos during that time.
Had I REALLY gained two kilos in just 15 hours? Well, it’s true to say that I was two kilos heavier, but was I two kilos FATTER? No, I wasn’t.
It makes logical sense that you will be heavier at the end of the day than at the beginning; you’ve eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner during that time, had snacks in between those meals and ingested a fair amount of fluid in the form of water, tea and coffee.
Weighing yourself several times a day is just asking for trouble; it’ll drive you crazy, only make you unhappy and is totally unnecessary. Weighing yourself once a day is just as pointless, you’re still going to get fluctuations from one day to the next.
There are numerous reasons for these ups and downs in scale numbers – these are just some:
- As I’ve already mentioned you WILL weigh more at the end of the day than at the beginning due to eating and drinking throughout the course of the day
- The levels of sodium in your food from one day to the next can have an effect on what the scales say, because it high levels will cause your body to hang on to water
- Pre-menstrual water retention – oh yes, that time of the month and the week, or so, leading up to it can send the scales crazy
- We’re all friends here so I can be frank, right? Paying more than a fleeting visit to the bathroom before you weigh yourself will also make a difference to the scale number. A friend of mine would try and wait for as long as possible to allow for this scale-number-reducing event to take place before she leapt on the scales (each morning), I kid you not!
Before you go and abuse your scales for lying to you, cut yourself, and them, some slack and answer this question:
- What’s more important to you: a certain number on the scales or a certain dress size?
Nine times out of ten the answer is: be a certain dress size; this is good news and a step in the right direction!
Now, answer this question:
- Which weighs more: a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks?
You didn’t fall for it did you – you KNOW that a ton of something is going to weigh exactly the same as a ton of something else. So you’ll also know that the much-touted ‘belief’ that muscle weighs more than fat is also wrong – because a pound of fat will weigh exactly the same as a pound of muscle; ask the scales, they’ll tell you 😉
What they can’t tell you is that muscle is more dense than fat so it takes up less space!
I’m a UK dress size 6 (US 2) and I weigh more now than I did a two and a half years ago at a flabby size UK size 10 (US 6) – trying to work that out is almost enough to any scaleaholic’s brain!
As my body fat went down so did my body measurements; as my muscle mass increased so did the number on the scales – watching the scales go UP as my dress size went down took a lot of getting used to, I can tell you; it was like living in the twilight zone for a while!
If I’d been judging my progress using the scales alone I’d have been beside myself! They would have been telling me that despite eating and training properly I was putting ON weight.
I WAS! But it wasn’t because I was getting fatter; it was a direct result of losing body fat, whilst increasing muscle mass, and THAT is a good thing.
It’s not your weight that you really want to know; what you really want to know is whether you’re decreasing your body fat levels and increasing your muscle mass.
“What is my current body composition?” is the question you should be asking and the scales alone can’t tell you that; they will still tell you how much you weigh and that, on its own, is a completely useless fact.
Next time we’ll go through the alternatives, and better methods, you can use to track your progress and keep tabs on your body composition; in the meantime, I challenge you NOT to step on the scales tomorrow morning!
May the not-stepping-on-the-scales-because-I-did-it-this-morning-and-don’t-need-to-do-it-again-and-will-in-fact-be-happier-if-I-don’t Force be with you 😀
Food General Nutrition Tips and Tricks Videos
Quick And Easy Way To Separate Eggs
Posted on 30/03/2013
Egg white pancakes have become SO ingrained in our routine now that it’s hard to imagine kicking off the day without them! We dabbled with bottled liquid egg white, but kept coming back to the fact that it was cheaper to separate the yolk from the white ourselves.
There are various ways you can separate eggs:
- Use an egg separator
- Break the egg and tip the yolk from one half of the shell to the other, letting the white drain into a bowl
- Break the egg, tip the yolk into your hand and let the white slip through your fingers
OR, you can do it the clean, quick and easy way – with an empty plastic bottle; we love this, it’s absolute genius!
We’ve had a request for carb-free*, low calorie recipe ideas over at Six-Pack for Girls on Facebook – so…here are a few!
If you have a question, or would like some suggestions about a certain topic, then ask away – either post it over on our Facebook page, or fill in the form on the ‘get in touch page’ and drop us a line.
* meaning starchy carbs. Vegetables are carbs too – fibrous ones, and you want to be eating LOTS of those!
Beef Stir Fry with Red Peppers and Green Beans
The ingredients in this are very simple:
- Thin strips of beef
- Peppers (they don’t have to be red)
- Green Beans
- Onions
- Baby corn
- Bean Sprouts
- Mushrooms
- Mustard (English)
- Splash of olive oil and water
- Other spices and seasonings to taste – experiment!
The great thing about this if you’re cooking for an entire family – you can cook noodles for the others and just not have any yourself.
Experiment with the veg’ too: cabbage, broccoli, julienned carrots and courgettes – all of them work really well, the trick is to make sure everything is roughly the same size.
You don’t have to have beef either – chicken works just as well – and if you want to know exactly how much protein you’re eating, just weigh and cook it separately; sorted.
Baked Stuffed Mushrooms
The mushrooms pictured here were stuffed with ham, spring onions and cheese, but you can swap the stuffing for absolutely anything that you wish (anything healthy for YOU!)
- Cut out the stalk of two Portabello mushrooms (any large flat breakfast mushroom will do)
- Smear a little bit of tomato puree around the inside of your mushrooms
- Stuff with whatever you fancy: mixed veg with some grated cheese on top would be fab! You could even crack an egg into it and have a baked eggs and ‘shrooms (if you try that, please let me know how it turns out!)
- Season with herbs and spices
- Bake in the oven at 200C for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how big your mushrooms are and how you like them
Serve as a snack, or as a side dish with some sort of protein.
Dave Ruel’s Crispy Chicken Nuggets with Stir Fried Veg
Dave Ruel – aka The Muscle Chef – deserves a medal for coming up with his Crispy Chicken Nugget recipe – they’ve become a real family favourite! (There are some carbs in this recipe).
My youngest son, Edward, loves this (he’s six-and-a-half), my teenage daughter loves them (she’s 17), my mum loves them (I’m not telling you how old she is but, historically, she’s NOT a chicken nugget fan!) and my darling husband loves them too.
They’re dead simple to make, taste AMAZING and you can have the recipe for free – along with these nine others, from Dave’s cook book ‘Anabolic Cooking’ just click this link ——> Dave Ruel’s Crispy Chicken Nuggets, and nine other recipes!
and either bookmark it, or save the PDF somewhere on your computer (it’ll open in a new window for you).
- Blueberry Oatmeal
- Apple & Cinnamon High Protein Muffins
- Dave’s Famous Turkey Meatloaf
- Baked Crispy Chicken Nuggets
- The MusleCook’s Chilli
- Beef & Broccoli Stir Fry
- Tuna Melt Patties
- High Protein Fudge Bars (these are seriously good!)
- Lemon Cheesecake
- Banana Bread Shake
Awesome recipes! To try them, is to love them – you’ll see what I mean once you’ve tried them 🙂
Omelette Pizza
THIS particular recipe came about because my daughter, Elise, had a sudden craving for pizza; neither of us were about to stray off our nutritional path, so we came up with this rather fabulous omelette pizza.
- Make an omelette – you can use whole eggs if you wish, egg whites only, some and some, or egg whites with oats – if you want/need to add some starchy carbs
- Add toppings of your choice to the UNCOOKED top of the omelette before it sets too much – this will stop your ingredients falling off later! (Anything like broccoli, will need to be cooked first)
- Sprinkle on a little grated cheese – weigh it before you put it on, it’s very easy to get carried away with grated cheese and blow your calories right out of the water
- Sprinkle with herbs and spices – my current favourite herb is Sweet Basil, we’re having it on just about everything!
- Place the pan under a hot grill until the cheese has melted
- Slide out of the pan onto a plate, cut into wedges and serve with salad
This recipe is great for getting kids involved with cooking and eating healthy food. Let them help you beat the eggs for the base and give them free reign to design their own top from a range of bits and pieces in bowls – I can guarantee a omelette pizzas with smiley faces will be made in kitchens in countries around the world!
Thai Fish Soup with Julienne of Carrots and Courgettes
I could happily eat fish all day, every day and not get bored, I love it! If you don’t, just switch the fish for something that you do like 🙂
This Thai Fish Soup with Julienne of Carrots and Courgettes is just SOOO scrummy and so quick and simple to make.
- Gently poach the fish of your choice in a little bit of water (or cook your chicken, beef, whatever)
- In the meantime, julienne some carrots and courgettes – I use a julienne peeler like this one, it’s seriously awesome and seriously sharp —–> Julienne Peeler. (TOP TIP – if you get one: stick a fork into the end of the veg you’re going to julienne, that way you won’t julienne your fingers as well!)
- Finely chop a red and green chili (wear gloves!)
- Add 500ml of water to a pan and an appropriate stock cube – depending on whether you’re using fish, chicken or beef
- Add 1 tsp of Smoked Paprika
- 1 tsp of Ground Corriander
- 1 tsp of Ground Cumin
- 1 tsp of Turmeric
- Varying amounts of the green and red chili – depending on the degree of heat you like.
- Skim off any ‘scum’ from the water you poached your fish in, add to the water (obviously you can’t do this if you didn’t use fish!), then bring to the boil
- Flake your fish/slice your chicken or beef and add to the pan of water, along with the julienned veg’
- Turn the heat down, simmer for two to three minutes
- Serve in a bowl, with a sprinkle of Smoked Paprika on the top to make it look pretty 😉
Baked Fish with Onions and Tomatoes in Tin Parcels
Another fish recipe that’s simple – it takes a little while to bake though, so make sure you allow enough time.
I’ve only tried this with fish, but I imagine it would work just as well with chicken and beef…
- Lay your protein of choice in the middle of enough tin foil to be able to wrap it over the top in a tent-like parcel
- If using chicken or fish: smear some tomato puree over the top – if using beef: you could try using some mustard
- Pile thinly sliced red onions and halved cherry tomatoes over the top
- Drizzle some olive oil over the top and then add some herbs and spices of your choice
- Bring the edges of the tin foil together to form a loose tent – you want steam to be able to gather inside, so you need space.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven (200C) for 30 to 40 minutes – depending on what you’ve used and until it’s cooked through (the time will be less if you want your beef rare!)
- Cook some veg and serve with your protein (LEFT IN the tin foil opened out to form a ‘bowl’) on a plate.
A few more ideas…
Take a look at the pictures at back at the top of this post – we’re sure you don’t need to be told how to create these, everything’s pretty self-explanatory from the pictures 😉
Low Carb Recipe Books
If that’s whet your appetite and you’d like some low-carb cook books, there are TONS over at Amazon (in whichever your local Amazon is!) – here are some suggestions for you:
Cindy – I hope that’s helped you out a bit!
Just in case you were wondering… 😉
It’s a Thursday (which it is, at the time of writing) and you’ve stuck to your plan all week, but Saturday and Sunday are fast approaching and you’re wondering how to stay on track over the weekend.
Keeping yourself busy is great tactic if you’re at home (idle, and bored, hands tend to reach for the wrong food), but suppose you’re going out? Then what?
It can be tough to keep your head, and stick to your eating plan, when all about you are losing theirs in chocolate, crisps, cake and beer. Determination and an iron-will not to veer off course will see you through. But that, on its own, can be mentally miserable for some of you.
Scheduling your training on Saturdays and Sundays is a great way to stay on track over the weekend – you’re far less likely to dive off the calorie deep end when you’ve smashed a killer workout in the gym.
Get yourself primed and ready with some music that pumps you up, then head for the gym – by the time you’ve finished, you’ll feel awesome! Your mind will be very firmly in ‘health and fitness’ mode and all of a sudden the right choices become much easier to make – after all, you’re on a mission to look great and feel great, what everyone else chooses to shovel into their mouths is up to them…right?!
Schedule your training day(s) off during the week – it’s only the mental association of the weekend being ‘different’ from weekdays, and a time to let loose with everything, that makes it difficult to deal with.
Healthy eating, training, and looking after yourself is a LIFESTYLE, not just something you ‘do’ Monday through Friday and then to hell with everything on Saturdays and Sundays.