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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

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

Hi there you’re back. That’s great because it means you’re committed to making some significant change in your life. And listen we all have an Achillies. If yours is exercise and healthy eating, you’re not alone. I’ve been there too. About 30 years ago before I made the changes  in my life that helped me regain my own fitness, I had just gotten married, moved continents from the States to New Zealand where I didn’t know a soul besides my husband, and had only just met my mother- in- law. The rest of my family were hundreds of thousands of miles away. New Zealand which I knew next to nothing about except that it was in the South Pacific conjured up for me images of a beautifully lush, tropical island. I was right about everything except the tropical bit!

Boy what a shock to the system, especially as my husband and I had just gotten married in 40 C desert heat overseas, and the place we moved to way in the south of the South Island of NZ virtually never gets a summer! To add insult to injury New Zealand has the richest, creamiest dairy products on the planet! Disoriented, misunderstood, dreadfully homesick, frozen, and surrounded by delicious food I love, long story short I put on 20lbs with in two months of arriving.

Fairly disgusted with my self after a year of struggling with my weight I discovered a gym, reconnected with my love of dance and movement to music, befriended a dynamo of an instructor who generously invited me to run with her every lunch time in a beautiful park near the college campus I was attending. At first we jogged very slowly, or I would jog while she ran laps around me, but gradually I began to be able to pick up the pace, within six months I regained my normal weight and with her encouragement applied  for a group fitness instructor’s job and despite, a spell of  yo-yo dieting, and struggle with compulsive eating I stayed on track with my exercise programme as though my life depended on it. I explored the reasons behind my eating disorder, and learned about healthy nutrition.  Eventually this path lead me to becoming a qualified Naturopath, and certified Personal Trainer and ultimately I have never looked back.

Because of the difference fitness and healthy eating have made in my own life I’m passionate about continuing to learn as much as possible about this topic and share that knowledge with others and am committed to helping as many people as possible live their healthiest lives.  Commitment to change is I think the biggest first step to avoiding procrastination with respect to fitness and healthy eating. Essentially it’s a commitment to your self worth if you think about it. I mean what greater gift could you give yourself or your family than your good health. Ultimately taking the time to care for your body by keeping it fit, strong, flexible, well nourished and well rested is one of the greatest investments you can make in your relationships, your productivity and sense of fulfilment in your work, and your ability to be of service.

Neglecting this aspect of yourself could mean a lowered quality of life for you because of chronic pain, debility, exhaustion, and sickness. You may still be able to work and function, but how well and for how long. There’s no use being the richest man/ woman in the graveyard having been sent to an early grave, because of your on self neglect.

We’ll dispense with beating ourselves up though and get on with overcoming the challenge, which for you might be” but I hate exercise, I don’t like people staring at my blubber in my shorts, or laughing at my red face as I huff and puff up the street, I get all hot and bothered, famished and so thoroughly tuckered out I don’t feel like doing anything else”. Sound familiar? Ok let’s examine this and work on and getting with the programme.

know I know you’re dying to make yourself a great big green salad right now,right? Go on I won’t stop you that’s what I’m about to do myself.

So See you tomorrow for part 3, Nanc

I was talking to a friend the other day and she was telling me about a woman she knew who was taking part in a triathlon after getting on a bike for the first time in her life just a few months before. She had never been fit, and had never taken part in anything like this in her life. Not being particularly competitive by nature nor having any belief that her body could do what she was now putting it through to prepare for this event she surprised herself, her family and friends. Even her harshest critics were murmuring their admiration.

She was so inspired after hearing about another woman who had overcome all sorts of obstacles to complete this challenge. She put down the remote control and got cracking on figuring out a way to what to her was seemingly impossible. She focussed whole heartedly on the desired our come a slim, svelte body that she could do all sorts of things with most especially have the energy to enjoy her young boys in.

She got her self a trainer who helped her work out a training schedule, she discovered about healthy eating, threw out everything from her kitchen that sabotaged her efforts. Her trainer helped her put together and training eating plan and she had her partner and kids cheering her on. When she first started it seemed like her muscles wouldn’t stop screaming at her but with the help of her trainer urging her on, in time they gave up their protest and she began to feel and energy and aliveness and a sense of satisfaction in her accomplishing about what she was asking of her body to do each day. She began to fee comfortableness in her own skin that she had scarcely experienced since childhood and she actually began looking forward to her daily workout.

On the day of the race she was so excited she could barely wait for the start gun to sound. Her elation when she crossed the finish line was a high water mark in her year, the spin offs have been immense she never misses a workout if she can help it even after reaching her target weight, the sheer pleasure of keeping her body, fit, strong and flexible keeps her motivated and she is so grateful.

Feeling like this is a choice. Its’ taking one step and then another step and then another step until you accomplish your goal and have the satisfaction that goes with it. We invite you to take a look at the products we’ve created from our experience, passion, knowledge about the benefits you can derive from fitness. To learn more go to www.flexibilityplus.com.

Yours in health,

Nancy

•    Our age in years and our age according to the way our body behaves can be one and the same or two different things
•    This matters because if our body behaves much older than our age in years this doesn’t bode well for our future health

Certain biological markers such as blood pressure, heart rate and pulse, blood sugar levels, hormonal levels, cholesterol levels, bone density, kidney and liver function can help identify our true biological age. For example if you 48 years old with a blood pressure of 117/ 76 you could be said to have the blood pressure of someone in their early 20s. Similarly if you are in your 30’s and have a blood pressure level of 140 / 90 you would be considered much older than your age in regards to blood pressure. In fact a 35 year old friend of a fellow personal trainer came in to her gym to train. He was some what over weight and was keen to shed some the extra pounds. So began an assessment with him, but by the end of the warm up he was perspiring quite profusely and feeling unwell, her gut told her something was a miss, she took his blood pressure and it was off the charts even though he had been cleared to exercise previously.

She called an ambulance immediately, he was rushed to hospital and was put on blood pressure medication to stabilise his condition. According to his doctor would need them for the rest of his life. The blood pressure rise he experiences came on with out warning, most likely as a result of unusual stress he was experiencing at the time. The situation came as great shock to my colleague who would not have suspected blood pressure as high as this man had in someone his age. He was lucky to have been in the gym that day undergoing an assessment where it was picked up otherwise he could have easily collapsed somewhere and had a heart attack, possibly fatal.

Keeping a healthy weight by following a regular exercise routine and a healthy diet has been proven by the research to add years to your life and life to your years. In our system at flexibilityplus.com we teach you the key principles of optimal nutrition and provide a broad range of exercises to keep every part of your body flexible and strong. Go to www.flexibilityplus.com to learn more so your age in years can match the age  your body is behaving or better!

Cheers,

Nancy

I was talking to a friend the other day who said, “People don’t purposefully not exercise, they just don’t allow any time for training, so days, weeks, months, maybe years go by, and they still think that one day they will start to exercise…”

And then they get to 30, 40 or 50 and find they have developed some chronic health problem, and their quality of life just continues to decline as their body develops more and more aches and pains.

So, here are some steps you can take if you are one of those people who just can’t seem to find the time to exercise:

1.    STOP thinking of exercising in 15, 20, 30, or 40 or more minutes chunks of time.

2.    Instead think of exercising in 30 second increments – (you do have 30 seconds you can spare, or is life just sooooo full, you can’t spare 30 seconds?)

3.    Now think of an exercise you can enjoy doing for 30 seconds. (It can be anything – walking, running, dancing, skipping, etc).

4.    Do that exercise for only 30 seconds. No more! Because remember, for weeks and weeks you have been promising yourself to exercise and time deprivation has been your excuse, so prove that you can find extra time (but only 30 seconds).

5.    Now, buy or find a book with blank or lined pages, and write down the date you trained for 30 seconds and the exercise you did for that time. And write down below that first entry the next date and the time you plan to do this 30 seconds of exercise again.

6.    Stick to that entry date and time and train exactly for 30 seconds, then stop! Record the exercise and length of training and under that entry write down the next time and date you plan to train.

7.    Do this for one week. (Train no more than 5 of the 7 days in a week.)

8.    After one week, ask yourself, “Can I increase my training to 1 minute?”

9.    If, “Yes!” then train for 1 minute, no more than 1 minute! And follow the same system of entering in times and dates.

10.    After one week of 1 minute training, ask yourself, “Can I find time to train for 1 ½ minutes for 5 days of the coming week?”

11.    If, “Yes!” Then follow the same routine and pattern, and week after week continue adding 30 seconds to your training until you feel satisfied with the duration of your training, and stick to that and you will have broken through the barrier of exercise procrastination.

Note: As you increase your training you may be wanting to follow a varied and interesting exercise program.

If you want easy to follow information that will give great results check out our website www.flexibilityplus.com

All the best

Jonathan

Some years ago I had to take my mother who was in her eighties to the hospital because she had a blood nose that she found difficult to stop bleeding.
After taking her inside and making sure she was being properly looked after I had to go back to my car and make sure where I had parked was OK.
For about 5 minutes I was sitting in the car near the hospital main entrance and I was absolutely shocked at the numbers of people continually going through those hospital doors.
So many of them looked unwell, unfit and unhealthy (I guess that is what you’d expect). But it was the big numbers that got to me, that were going through those doors, in such a short period of time.
It got me thinking about what choices had these people made in their lifetime to end up at this place. Most were nowhere near as old as my mother, who had played golf well into her seventies and was still active in her early eighties.
I thought about how important it is to make good decisions throughout your life.

I see some young energetic people in their twenties regularly smoking, eating fast foods, and they so often get a cold, or some other illness.
Its as if their bodies are giving them early warning signs that they need to alter their life style, they need to drink way less (if any) alcohol, they need to stop smoking, and they need to eat wholesome food. But they don’t seem to take any notice and I wonder if in another twenty or thirty years they will be walking through a hospital door because they have a kidney complaint, or their heart isn’t quite working how it should, or they get dizzy often…
We all need to take stock of what we do now, because what we do now does matter!
Our system of exercise and nutritional advice is sound and solid with heaps of variety. There are over one hundred different exercises so there are different ones suitable for every level of fitness. The nutritional information is easy to follow and full of excellent advice plus recipes.
Check us out on www.flexibilityplus.com
Enjoy life!
Jonathan

Whenever you are training especially when you are targeting your core musculature, ie your abdominal muscles remember to draw your naval into your spine, and zip up your middle so to speak. This protects your lower back as well as your abdominals from separating in the middle, which is very common especially for women who’ve just had a baby, and body builders. This diastis or abdominal separation causes a weakening of the abdominal wall “zipping up your middle” regularly can help to prevent that and often to correct the problem over time.

Cheers, bye, talk soon

Nancy

The Truth About Fats

For years many of us have been yoyo dieting and counting calories and been anxious about every fat containing morsel that has crossed our lips. A whole industry had evolved around food labels proclaiming the benefits of this or that product because of the miniscule percentage of fat it contains. After all fat makes you fat right? Well this is the danger of half truths.

Yes fat contains per gram almost twice as many calories as carbs or protein so on the surface of it it does have the potential to pack on the kilos more so than the other nutrient types. Also fat from most animal sources is saturated and is more difficult for the body to handle and as a result it can cause problems especially for one’s heart and blood vessels. Fats derived from plant sources such as nuts, seeds, and some animal sources (i.e cold water fatty fish such as salmon) have the ability to protect the heart and blood vessels as well as producing many other health benefits protection of the brain and nervous system to name one other.

“Ya great for my ticker” I hear you say “but what about my thighs?” Well interestingly enough the right kind of fats positively benefits your girth as well. For more on how go to our nutrition product on our web site www.flexibilityplus.com.

Yours in health,

Nancy

I heard this the other day from self transformation expert Anthony Robbins: “We don’t do half the things we want because of the way we chunk things.” What he ment was we put off doing stuff that would add value to our lives and that ultimatetly we really would enjoy, simply because of the detail we choose to focus on. Let me give you an example of what I mean. I was talking to a friend the other day I’d sent info to back in January. Stuff she really would have benefited from using in order to have better control over a health issue she’s been grappling with for years and is greatly impacting her quality of life. When I asked how she was going with it she said she really hadn’t done much with it all these months, why? Too hard!

She asked me how I was going with something she was helping me with and I had to admit to the same failing.

We laughed and as the conversation went on I observed that really what was missing was a conditioning of our selves to make us follow through. In other words strategies that would make doing what we want in order to achieve our goals automatic. Because when we get into healthy habits of doing we can reach our goals with much less effort. I went on to give an example of some of my own routines, like early morning meditation, followed by exercise, followed by making fresh carrot juice. She laughed out loud and said for her doing stuff like blog posts, which I was struggling with at the time, would be 100 times easier for her to do than juicing ever would. I stopped and said “yup sometimes we struggled with it too, when we made it to complicated”. Thinking about all the steps, from buying the twenty kg bag, to lugging it up the stairs, to storing it, to getting the carrots out, putting the juicer on the counter, washing the carrots, juicing, cleaning the juicer, drying and storing it again.  Wow! It’s enough to make you go” I don’t have time to make fresh juice I think I’ll have another coffee!”

It’s all because of the way we put it together. See once upon a time when you were learning to drive, it was overwhelming there were ten things you needed to simultaneously and it just about fried your brain trying to sort it all out, but when you got your licence and got some experience engine on, clutch in, gear change, break off, signal, look in rearview and side mirrors, steer, accelerate all became part of one thing, called driving. Now you drive, chow down on your big Mac, and talk on your cell all at the time without blinking an eyelid. Creating habits for healthy living can become just as easy if we focus on the outcome and not all the detail. Think about it if someone told you in advance all the grim detail of learning how to drive would you have. If you’d let the detail stop you learning think of all the freedom you’d hve thrown away.

Oh it was fun putting this blog post together, now I feel like some carrot juice.

Till next time
Chunk it right!

Nancy