We love to inspire you daily and here is your daily inspiration and the best way to tone up your butt. Allow yourself to laugh while watching with the fabulous dan and Suz (butt masters) presenting for you. Click here to learn how to squat.
Also I love this recipe so much and the sun is shining, so try this recipe over the week, you will love it and it is great for you. Check out my superfood blog to tell you the benefits of eating oily fish such as tuna and salmon.
Clink on the links above and get all the info you need right here.
While there is no “quick-fix” or magic solution for weight loss, there are some “super foods” that provide multiple nutrients to your diet, fill you up without excess calories and are easy to include in every-day meals.
These foods will help satisfy dietary guidelines and may even include foods or nutrients that are missing from your diet.
Check out 10 Super Foods below:
Low fat or fat-free plain yogurt It’s higher in calcium than some other dairy products and contains other nutrients, including protein and potassium. You can also use it enhance other foods like fruit or dips and you mix almost anything with it!
Eggs They are nutritious, versatile, economical and a great source of protein. They contain 12 vitamins and minerals including choline, which is good for brain development and memory.
Nuts They have gotten a bad rap because of their higher fat content; however, their protein, heart-healthy fats and fiber are extremely beneficial. Portion control is important to keep in mind with nuts. No matter what kind of nuts you prefer an ounce will help fill you up.
Kiwis A very nutritionally dense fruit. One large kiwi supplies your daily vitamin C requirement. They are also packed with potassium, fiber, vitamin A and E.
Quinoa It’s an ancient whole grain that is now readily available in many supermarkets. It’s got 8 grams of protein in 1 cup cooked and 5 grams of fiber. It’s as easy to prepare as rice and can be used in a wide variety of dishes.
Beans They are loaded with insoluble fiber, which helps lower cholesterol, as well as soluble fiber, which fills you up and helps rid your body of waste. They’re also a good, low-fat source of protein, carbohydrates, magnesium and potassium. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend 3 cups weekly.
Salmon There are great omega-3 fatty acid benefits from salmon like heart health. The American Heart Association recommends eating a fatty fish like salmon twice weekly. Salmon itself is low in calories and is packed with protein. Eat it grilled or baked, it makes no difference.
Broccoli A favorite of most people’s and for good reason! It’s available all year long and is rich in vitamin A, C and K, and has plenty of fiber. Eat it raw, lightly steamed, stir-fried, roasted or even grilled.
Sweet potatoes They are loaded with vitamin A. Taste the sweetness before you season it and you may be surprised on how much you don’t have to add.
Berries Aside from sweet goodness they are full of antioxidants and low in calories. They are also high in water and fiber and will help control blood sugar as well as keep you full longer. Add flavor to any dish or just eat as a snack
The “Squat” is one of the best exercises for fat loss and toning of your legs, buns and even abs!!
But! Are you doing it right?? Suz from the PUSH_ teams takes us through correct squatting technique to have your buns rock hard in no time!!
Did you know…
Spice has lots of benefits which indirectly help in fat loss. It controls blood sugar levels, helps to maintain insulin sensitivity, a very powerful antioxidant, may have antibacterial and antifungal properties and dozens of other benefits.
Cinnamon can increase insulin sensitivity, which essentially means that it is helping your body to control blood sugar while simultaneously allowing your body to produce less insulin. By controlling blood sugar and insulin response from your meals and thereby control your appetite and hankering throughout the day. Hence, it helps you to lose body fat more effectively over time.
Chili powder is a powerful stimulant, by raising your body’s temperature it helps you to burn calories faster and this means fat loss!
So what a better way to spice up yourt life than with this tasty recipe incorporating lots of spices!
Dont worry if you’re not a “spice person” or you dont like chilli….. neither do I but I looooooved this recipe!
MOROCCAN BEEF SOUP!
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
¼ Cup Olive Oil
500g Boneless Beef Shin diced into 3cm pcs
2 tbsp Plain flour
1 Onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 cm piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp paprika
2 tsp Cumin
¼ tsp chilli flakes
½ Cinnamon quill
1 litre Vegetable Stock
2x 400g Can peeled tomatoes
1x 400g Can Chick peas, rinsed
2 tsp caster sugar
TO SERVE
1 lemon, zested
Greek-style yogurt
1 bunch coriander, picked and chopped
Method:
1. Dust beef shin in flour. Heat half the olive oil in a soup pot and brown beef
2. Add onion, garlic and ginger and turn heat down to a simmer.
3. Add rest of olive oil and spices and fry gently for 5 minutes.
4. Turn up the heat and add the stock and tinned tomatoes.
5. Bring to the boil and season with salt, pepper and sugar.
6. Cover and simmer gently for 1 ½ – 2 hours, until beef is soft and tender.
7. Remove cinnamon quill and very lightly blitz with a hand blender, but make sure you don’t puree it as you want to keep plenty of chunks!!
8. Add the chick peas and check seasoning.
9. Serve in large bowls with yogurt and sprinkle with lemon zest and coriander.
Enjoy and be on the lookout each week for more fantastic healthy and tasty recipes!
Make It Happen!
Here are 5 ways to maximise your metabolism!
Did you know that by eating often you do maintain your metabolism but more importantly give the body the food it needs to think and work. You also can only take so many nutrients in at any time so eating one meal a day means you are missing out on vital nutrients and guess where you body finds them…. From you! You body breaks itself down to provide the brain and other organs (priority 1) with fuel. Pretty scary hey so follow my tips and health will be sweet!
Eat enough
When you eat well below your physiological needs it triggers your body to go into starvation mode. Don’t detox! Don’t do crazy low-energy diets as within 24 hours your metabolic rate falls. You are then more likely to store any excess energy and will find it harder to get lean.
Master your appetite
You’ve got dozens of appetite hormones and chemicals that get hotwired when you over eat. Sure, you may have indulged at Christmas but with a fresh year it’s time to stay within the feed limit. You’ll get back in sync with your natural hunger chemistry which will tell you when you really need to eat and when you should stop.
Switch to nutrient rich
Fad diets may cut calories which strips weight off, but going without one or more food groups also starves your body of key nutrients that help you burn more fat.
For example, dairy food contains calcium and other chemicals that help fat cells release fat. Nuts like almonds, walnuts and cashews are hard to digest and give your metabolic rate a slight boost. Wholegrain carbohydrates have antioxidants that fight low-level inflammation that can cause weight gain.
So, make sure your fat loss menu has vegetables, fruits, dairy, wholefood proteins, wholegrain starches and healthy oils.
Move your muscles more
By keeping active you keep millions of tiny mitochondria in body cells firing and burning calories every second of every day. Sitting for too long switches off mitochondria, so if you have a desk job, jump up every 30 minutes for a stretch and walk.
For regular exercisers, move your effort level up a notch. If you’ve got room to boost your intensity you will be rewarded with great calorie burning and automatic metabolic fitness.
If your workouts are “comfortably challenging” move up to “somewhat hard”. If your effort is already “somewhat hard” notch it up to ‘hard’. For the same time, you’ll see fast results and spark more mitochondria
5. Outsmart Stress
Any biological stress, including emotional pressure, dietary deprivation and excessive exercise triggers the release of the hormone, cortisol. Known as the stress hormone, cortisol can cause abdominal obesity, increased food cravings and inflammation.
This is another reason to eat well, avoid over-exercising and try not to become a gym-junky. Set a plan to outsmart stress this year, by taking more opportunities, no matter how small, to refresh. Life is busy, but mini-escapes work wonders to recharge your batteries.
When you eat carbohydrates (including sugar) you can trigger neurotransmitters in the brain, including calming ‘Seratonin’ and feel-good ‘dopamine’.
Repeated treats build a powerful behavioural and chemical pattern of reward that seems to sing, “I need to medicate with chocolate!” Researchers now even think that a single dose of fatty, sugary foods can start the junk food addiction.
If this process continues over and over then what happens in the body is a continual need to be rewarded and the adrenal glands (those that release feel good hormones) become overworked. Cortisol is a stress hormone which is released to restore normal body function, breathing, etc, after an adrenalin burst. Have you ever had a high moment such as a win? And then find yourself come crashing down or perhaps you can relate to the raised alertness of a noise in the middle of the night? The body must be brought back to it’s steady state and therefiore for this action there is a reaction and that is cortisols job. If we continually overwork these adrenal glands with high processed sugars, ( it is said that 100 years ago we would eat 2kg’s of sugar a year compared to 75 kilo’s today- that is shocking! What’s worse is that for each person who eats 2 kilos of sugar annually today, there is another out there eating there share of 300 pounds annually) cortisol becomes constant in the blood stream. Chronic malnutrition, in this way, is basically poisoning our moods and zest for life!
Matt O’neill from smart shape shares the following on how you can beat the sugar cravings;
Step #1 >Re-Energise with nourishing foods
Re-energise your foodswith nutrient-rich, naturally sweet foods like fresh fruit, dried fruit and yoghurt to trigger a natural high. The nutrients nourish your body, reducing biological hunger, therefore taking the edge off cravings.
Treating your existing cravings with naturally sweet foods and eating well in general, sets you up with a great baseline defence against random munchies.
Step #2 > Master your appetite
After you’ve re-energised your diet it’s time to get back in sync with your normal biological sensations of hunger and fullness. Take time to think if you are genuinely hungry when you experience a craving. Then when you eat, take it slowly so you can stop eating when you feel satisfied rather than when you feel too full.
By simply knowing your hunger levels throughout the day, you’ll be better able to gauge whether you really need to eat. This process helps re-wire all your natural appetite signals to work for you rather than against you.
Step #3 > Reduce eating triggers
You’ve re-energised your diet and you’ve re-wired your appetite. Now, it’s time to reduce or eliminate eating triggers that can push your plan off target.
Who are the people and what are the places, events or situations that challenge your resolve to eat well. For example, if you know that family get-togethers almost always leave you binging at the buffet, you can make plans ahead of the event to handle it differently. This could involve drinking mineral water, limiting to one serve of dessert or just moving away from the snacks.
By going to a party with rehearsed plan, you will be more likely to stick to that plan and avoid slipping into your usual automatic eating behaviour.
I hope this helps and look forward to seeing you eating and feeling better around our club.
Hi Guys
You may be aware that cortisol is the “stress hormone” but how exactly does it affect body fat levels? And what can you do to stress less for success?
Stress > Cortisol
No matter what the source of stress – emotional, physical, diet restriction or over-exercising – one physiological response is for certain. Levels of the hormone cortisol will increase. Cortisol is designed to help release energy from body stores when stressed. Cortisol sounds good for fat burning, but it often backfires due to some negative effects.
Cortisol > Cravings
When circulating cortisol reaches your brain, it stimulates another chemical neuropeptide-Y, which can trigger your appetite and cravings. If you are stressed and experience persistent food cravings, cortisol could be the culprit.
Cortisol > Abdominal fat
Research has also found a link between cortisol and greater amounts of abdominal body fat. So, being stressed could be contributing to a plateau or the inability to budge that last few centimetres.
Stress less for success
There is now a clear case for managing stress and therefore your body’s cortisol production to maximise your results.
Being more patient about your progress, allowing yourself the occasional slip-up and becoming comfortable being a healthy weight, rather than the lowest weight may be an approach that gets breakthrough results. What steps will you take to manage stress?
3 Ways to reduce stress
1. Change the stressor (the situation or person who is stressing you)
Talk about your needs with your family
Discuss your workload with your boss
Work on improving relationships
2. Change the stressee (you and your reaction to the stressor)
Exercise regularly and eat well
Prioritise commitments & responsibilities
Develop relaxation skills
Dispute your negative thoughts or beliefs
Listen to others and look for common ground or compromise
3. Take time to escape (positive ways to relax and recharge)
Get instant relief! Do some deep breathing
Take a break from what’s stressing you
Try progressive muscle relaxation
Attend an exercise class
Go for a walk
Have a therapeutic massage
Learn to meditate
Take a warm bath or shower
Play with the kids
Call a friend
Go see a movie
Listen to your favourite chill-out music
Make it happen team!
Have you heard of the saying ‘if nothing changes, nothing changes”.
True. isn’t it? Especially when we look at those around us in health clubs. The ones that do change seem to try different things and continually look for new health and fitness solutions. Over the last 7 years the top ten in the PUSH_ Body Transformation have lost an average of 12 kilo’s in 8 weeks and that is nothing to shy about. they found a solution that not only improved their appearance but also their mental strength and positive opinions.
Whether it is weight loss, more tone or energy or just a good motivational jolt, come along to the opening presentation on October 13th at 6.30pm and listen to what i have to say to on ‘How to look good this summer’ along with my partner in crime, Kristy, the former ‘Miss Australia 2008’.
Check out this link for yourself to find out more about how these principles helped Kristy become ‘Figure Champion’ of Australia. This is real life info for real life people and i guarantee you walking away from this with inspiration to improve yourselves.
Want to transform your body? Now is the time! With the PUSH_ Body Transformation running at 6 health clubs across South Australia, you could transform yourself in time for summer!! Starts Saturday October 16th!
Here is a short sharp article I read this morning that sums out what it takes to succeed. Whether it is fitness, family or career the guidelines are simple…. Make it Happen!
Success is not an Accident
If you have ever wondered what determines success and what determines failure, in both instances it is never one event or one course of action that is the determining factor, but rather a series of events and actions. The difference between successful people versus unsuccessful people is not just some random role of the dice.
Successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not. Successful people have a consistent pattern of action that yields the outcome they desire. Success requires consistency and discipline. It requires an individual to focus on executing their plan and doing it over and over again until success is achieved.
When thinking of success, understand that success is a process and that it requires a commitment to consistent action on your part to produce your desired outcome.
