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Eating out needn’t derail your efforts to eat well and healthily

•    Order water for the table. Drink between courses to help fill you up
•    Order plain bread and butter or olive oil separately. Pizza and herb breads have the fat added
•    Creamy sauces add large quantities of fat
•    Order extra vegetables for bulk and more nutrients
•    Fresh fruit, sorbet or a hot drink with biscotti make good choices for dessert
•    Trim hot chocolate  will fix the chocolate craving with fewer calories that black forest gataux

Bon Appetite,

Nancy

If you are training for weight loss, do your weight training prior to your cardio vascular workout. The weight training will utilise most of your glycogen stores and so that by the time you start on your aerobic training most of the calories you burn in your workout will come form your fat stores.

Happy training,

Yours in Health,

Nancy

Pasta Salad
Pasta salads are delicious. Great for light easy, summer cooking. To maximize their flavour make sure you dress the pasta as soon as it is cooked while it is still hot. Try substituting fresh basil if it isn’t available, with dill, mint, oregano, or parsley.
For 8-10 servings:
Pasta:
2 pkts of brown rice pasta and vegetable pasta
Dressing:
2 large cloves garlic
1 tsp coarse mustard
2 Tbsp parmesan cheese
8-10 leaves fresh basil (or other fresh herbs)
1 tsp salt and pepper to taste
½ cup light Best Food mayonnaise
2 Tbsp pineapple juice with touch of cinnamon
Salad:
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1 red pepper finely diced
2 spring onions finely diced
½ cup toasted sesame seeds
Tinned pineapple pieces 125 g (unsweetened)
Boil the pasta as per the packet directions, until tender. ***
While the pasta is cooking make the dressing by pureeing the ingredients until smooth.
Drain the cooked pasta and put in a salad bowl and immediately toss the dressing through the pasta while it is still hot.
Allow to cool then toss the rest of the salad ingredients with the pasta.
*** Tip: Cook the pasta until just al dente; brown rice pasta will disintegrate if over-cooked.

To eat more healthily start by substituting healthier ingredients in your cooking, but keeping to tried and true recipes your family love. If they are particularly fussy eaters they may complain at first. Persevere though and before you know it they will eating it up, just as they did before.

In the recipe above I’ve exchanged plain old white wheat pasta with brown rice pasta, for two reasons. First, whole grains provide better nutritional value than processed grains. Second wheat based foods so predominate in the western diet that we miss out on the nutrients present in other grains, and many people have allergies to wheat and other gluten containing foods, so it’s a good idea to find creative ways of getting other grains into our diet. As we age too our bodies lose their ability to metabolise processed gluten containing grains well and this can cause a host of health challenges from easy weight gain to a tendency towards diabetes. Take home message, use whole grains, and vary them.

To reduce the number of calories in a recipe you can substitute ‘lite’ varieties of dressings as I’ve done here and help your cause of weight loss if that’s an issue for you or your family. If using canned fruit in a recipe go for an unsweetened variety for the same reason.

Using fresh herbs in your cooking as I’ve done here will increase flavour and nutritional value, because of the enzymes present in fresh produce verses cooked, canned or dried, all helping us toward our goal of optimum nutrition for better living.

The recipe above is contained in our nutrition book for more information on our products, go to www.flexibilityplus.com

Bon Appetite,
Yours in Health,
Nancy

Mexican Tortilla Tofu Stack for 12 servings

This has a Mexican flavour and is a tasty nutritious dish for any one keen on a healthy lifestyle and optimum nutrition. It may just change your mind on tofu if you’ve never quite been able to get into it.

Firstly, make the sauce:

Tomato Chilli Sauce

2 cans tomato puree 16 oz (425g) each
2 tsp ground cumin
1tsp oregano
1tsp ground coriander
1tsp sea salt
2tsp dark muscovado sugar ( unrefined sugar)
1/2tsp hot chilli sauce or to taste
Juice of 1 lemon

Combine all the ingredients in a pot and gently simmer as you prepare the other ingredients

Tofu Mixture

2 large onions
2 green peppers
4Tbsp exrta virgin olive oil
2lb (1  kg ) approx tofu firm or soft
2tsp sea salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
12 corn tortillas
2 cans 3oz (85g) each corn (or use the same amount of frozen corn)
Tomato Chilli Sauce
1 cup grated cheese

Chop the onion and green pepper and sauté these in a large pot or pan in oil on a medium heat
As this is cooking drain and crumble the tofu

Add the tofu and seasonings to the onion and pepper mixture and continue to cook until some of the liquid has evaporated.

To assemble the whole stack, lay two tortillas on the bottom of a medium-sized oval casserole dish so they overlap as little as possible.

Spread 1/3 of the tofu mixture over these, then 1/3 of the drained corn over the tofu mixture.

Place two tortillas on top repeating the process twice more so there are three layers of everything.

Sprinkle the cheese on top and bake uncovered at 350F/180C/ Gas Mark 4 for 30 to 40 minutes. Until it is hot right through the stack

Serve with a green salad and steamed brown rice
Bon Appetite. If you like this, see our web site www.flexibilityplus.com for more tasty healthy recipes

Nancy

Whenever you steam or boil vegetables don’t throw the cooking water away save it for stock to use in soups or sauces. It’s chock full of nutrients your body could use with, much better inside of you than tipped down the drain.

Yours in health,

Nancy

Stretching Tip

Tension between the shoulders is common especially if you work at your computer a lot or drive long hours, and it is a hard area to stretch out so here’s a tip on how to get some flexibility in that area and ease the tension.

Wrap right elbow underneath the left, forearms and hands facing upward. Face your palms toward each other each other and twist your torso to the right. This will separate your shoulder blades and stretch the muscles between them. Hold for 30 seconds and release slowly. Repeat to the other side. This will help to increase the suppleness in your back.

Cheers, happy stretching,

Nancy

As we approach peri menopause and menopause between mid thirties and early fifties our nutritional needs change as our hormonal picture begins to shift. The cortisol our adrenals produce becomes relatively higher than the sex hormones we produce and that together with a slowing thyroid can throw us into insulin resistance, which means our bodies process sugars less efficiently paving the way for weight gain especially around our middle, which is unhealthy for our hearts. This is an abbreviated, and simplistic explanation of the process, but the bottom line is the way we eat and how much we move at this time in our life has a direct relationship to the quality of life we are likely to experience down the track.

There are many things we can do but, one simple measure we can take is to cut way down on the white stuff in our diet white sugar, salt, flour, and potatoes and every thing made with them. These things behave like sugar in our system, and quickly bump up our blood sugar levels and our hormonally imbalanced systems struggle to cope with the overload, consequently we gain weight rapidly.

Protein on the other hand helps our bodies maintain healthier blood sugar levels. So slow down on the bread especially wheat, and up the fish, eggs (free range if poss), nuts, seeds, soy dairy ( if tolerated) and lean meat. Add a healthy dose of exercise and watch your weight drop.

Cheers,
Nancy

On day four of the ISA World Surfing Games in Costa Rica this week our daughter Laura Rishworth became the highest placed Kiwi in the Women’s Division placing 17th overall after finishing third in her fourth round match up. In her second stacked heat of the competition, Laura came up against two Hawaiian surfers who progressed through the heat while she beat the Tahitian surfer who finished fourth.

Using teamwork to their advantage, the Hawaiians had the contest area more or less covered. Laura surfed some fantastic waves when the opportunity presented itself, yet the Hawaiians ensured these were few and far between. Laura has done herself, us and NZ proud with the highest placing of any NZ woman in this event to date.

Five years ago as a fifteen year old Laura set her sights high and created a written goal for her self stating that she wanted to represent her country internationally in surfing. Then she set about creating and periodically revising her exercise and nutritional programme to help her achieve her objective.

Naturally we are very pleased for her and pray she continues to be a role model for other youngsters and oldies too!

Carpe Diem!   Seize the Day!

Proud Mum,

Nancy

6.30am Before getting out of tone up your pelvic floor muscles with 5 minutes of Kegels

7.00am Roll out of bed and rev up your engine for the 3 sets of 15 free squats

7.15am Give your   vitamin D levels a good boost with a15 minute walk in the sun

7.30am Have a light nutritious breakfast of high quality easily digestible protein and complex carbs

8.30am Take the stairs at work

10.30am Have a nutritious mid morning snack such as a piece non starchy fruit and a small handful of raw nuts ( e.g Almonds), or seeds ( e.g sunflower, and/ or pumpkin) or protein bar and green tea

2.00pm climb the stairs again

3.00am snack of fruit and nuts

Between 4.00pm and 6.00pm Take another 30-45 minutes of exercise either cardio, weights, core, flexibility or a combination

Yours in health,

Nancy

If you enjoy reading about exercise and putting together your own individualised program our system is for you.
Our system is very effective. We’ve been using t for over thirty years with great for ourselves and our children.
Our eldest is currently competing in Costa Rica at the World Surfing Games the Olympics of surfing, so to speak and has showed good stamina and fitness to see her through the early rounds, with good scores, for a relative rooky to international competition.

Our system is easy to understand, is quick to put into practice, and is excellent value. With commitment, you can achieve great results with this system and garner great satisfaction in doing so.

Visit www.flexibilityplus.com and let us know how you get on

Cheers

Nancy