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

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

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

Below are the major points we need to follow for eating to achieve high energy and a healthy body:

•    Drink 4-6 pints (2-3 litres) of good quality water every day

•    Drink vegetable juices –fresh if you have an extractor and diluted fruit juices

•    Eat a variety of whole foods as close to their natural state as possible

•    Eat five to seven servings of fruit and vegetables a day. If possible organically grown, preferably fresh , though frozen is acceptable

•    Eat raw vegetables or lightly cooked (steamed) as certain vitamins are destroyed by heat

•    Eat nuts and seeds (e.g. almonds, pumpkin, flax, sunflower, sesame, walnuts), for their important omega 3 and omega 6 oils

•    Eat some garlic and onions each day. These may prevent respiratory, cardiovascular disease and even cancer. Eating parsley with garlic reduces the offensive odour on your breath. Deodorized garlic in tablet or capsule form is also available from most health food outlets.

•    Eat free range eggs, poached, as this is the best way to preserve their goodness

•    Eat yogurt containing live cultures, acidophilus and bifidus to support healthy bowel flora (not the sweetened fruit varieties).

•    Eat fish at least twice a week especially the fatty varieties such as salmon, mackerel, herring, and cod which contain the important omega 3 fatty acids. Broil, bake, grill or steam. Deep frying undoes the benefit.

•    Eat lean meat in moderation. Reducing consumption may prevent cancer. Think of meat not as a main, but as one of several ingredients in a main dish that incorporates vegetables, grains, and legumes

•    Avoid excessive salt, coffee, and processed anything

These are points are taken from our downloadable book, NutritionPowerPlus, available on www.flexibilityplus.com

Healthy eating!

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

Fruit and vegetables contain a variety of antioxidants, and are fibre rich and calorie poor.
What those facts mean is that, by eating such foods, you will not only feel better, you will look younger while reducing the risk of having your quality of life severely affected through succumbing to one of the major chronic illnesses that are so prevalent in today’s world.

It has been estimated that every day your body takes billions of hits from free radical damage which is integral to the aging process. Though our bodies have their own built in defences against such free radical damage our foods supply much of the ammunition (antioxidants) which combat and prevent the free radical damage from adversely affecting our health.

If you eat foods that are sterile, full of empty calories, or even worse, eat foods that are high in pre-oxidants, such as deep fried foods and hydrogenated oils, your ammunition supply is insufficient to combat free radical damage and in fact aids the free radicals to more effectively attack your body’s immune system.

We will look at this in more detail in my next blog.

Cheers

Jonathan

www.flexibilityplus.com

Regularly eating health-giving food and drinking good quality water and health-producing beverages and drinks is not something that any of us should ignore. (If you do, expect to become a regular patient with your doctor as you age).

We all know there are tons of crackpot diets, and that every few months you can just about guarantee someone will be introducing the latest and greatest all-time cure-all, fat-loss, live-forever wonder diet.

But, if you ignore the hype and undertake a serious study of nutritional literature, you will discover there is a lot of excellent, sound, scientifically based information that when understood and, most importantly, put into practice, can and does provide tremendous benefits to those who choose to eat wisely. (It doesn’t have to be mind-numbingly boring!)

Our nutritional program on www.flexibilityplus.com   provides a great easy-to-read summary of very important nutritional information that when followed, offers the opportunity for the vast majority of those who read this information to greatly improve their energy levels, sense of well-being and potentially add quality years to their lives.

Check it out!

Cheers

Jonathan

In my last post I talked about how stoked I was to have gotten back into surfing after surfing so little last year, and how fortunate I am to have a good level of health and fitness that allows me to enjoy surfing after more than forty years of enjoying this fantastic sport.
I ended by mentioning how many people end up living a life that is far from what they had ever imagined living. It is very sad when you see people becoming ill with their quality of life hugely lowered from diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and other serious illnesses.
None of us can be 100% certain that we won’t suffer some serious health problem, but we can all increase the chances of our living vibrant and energetic lives through the choices we make.
If you regularly eat fatty takeaways, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, your chances of developing serious health problems are so much greater than if you regularly eat wholesome foods, exercise regularly and have a positive outlook.
It takes effort to do the right thing, but the effort is so worth it!
So, I encourage whoever may read this to fully consider how their present actions will influence their future lives.
Nancy and I have developed www.flexibilityplus.com to assist anyone who wants an effective training and nutritional system that considerably increases your chances of living a full healthy and vibrant life. Check it out and let us know what you think.
All the best
Jonathan

We have been led to believe that as long as we eat a well-balanced diet we will, by doing this, be giving our bodies all that they need to be healthy. However, so many studies demonstrate this assumption to be false.

Even by Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) standards, which have been set at the minimums required to prevent deficiency diseases, such as scurvy, many people’s daily intake falls short of these RDAs for vitamins and minerals. This is because over fifty percent of our food intake in the West is made up of refined foods. The refinement of flour, rice and sugar strips these foods of much of their mineral and vitamin content.

Modern agricultural and horticultural practices aimed at maximizing production and profit farm the earth so intensively as to deplete its mineral stores. Soil demineralization doesn’t generally affect the growth of plants, so there is no material incentive for farmers to re-mineralize the soil with any but those minerals, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, which affect plant growth. Additionally chemical fertilizers contain chemicals that bind certain minerals such as zinc, preventing them being absorbed by plants.

As a result, seeds and nuts cultivated today may look the same as those cultivated by previous generations, but, may contain a fraction of the zinc!

Farming methods, like organic and biodynamic farming, which take care to return most minerals to the soil, produce plants with higher nutrient content than those produced by today’s conventional farming methods. So, eating organic foods brings us a step closer to the elusive goal of “the well-balanced diet” which, in turn, is more likely to provide us with radiant health.

If you can, go organic!

Nancy

In my last post I talked about the need to understand that to perform to your best you cannot ignore what you feed your body. In this post let’s focus on what makes up high octane fuel.

Top athletes have come to realize that careful attention to food choices and supplementation makes an enormous difference to their sporting performance. Because when they eat well they see an increase in their speed, stamina, strength and suppleness. These impressive results in improved performance have now been scientifically proven.

So, what is the best fuel for aerobic exercise performance (jogging, cycling, rowing, swimming and walking)?

When performing aerobic activities complex carbohydrates (whole grains, beans, fruit and vegetables) give twice as much energy as fat, but simple carbohydrates such as honey, refined sugars and refined grains do not provide the body with long-term energy.

And what about the best fuel for strenuous short anaerobic activity such as sprinting?
In performing these types of anaerobic activity it has been shown that complex carbohydrates yield five times more energy than fat.

Endurance athletes (such as marathon runners) load up on complex carbohydrates prior to their races because these carbohydrates can be stored in the muscles as glycogen and released by the body as needed during long races.

Fat cannot be stored in this way and therefore complex carbohydrates are recognized as a key to ensure top performance.

Contrary to popular belief protein is less important than the consumption of complex carbohydrates for increasing sports performance. Body builders who think they need huge quantities of protein to ensure they achieve maximum muscle gain actually require only 15% of their calories from protein, 70% from complex carbohydrates and 10% from fat (vegetable oils, nuts and seeds, flax seed, fish oils, dairy fat and fat from meat consumption).

While fat is not the best fuel for the body, essential fats (fats that cannot be made by the body and therefore need to be taken through food sources) are still important for top athletic performance as these essential fats help transport oxygen by keeping red blood cells healthy which carry oxygen to the muscles preventing fatigue. These essential fats are also vital to the immune system which can be stressed as a result of sustained strenuous exercise. That is why it is important to consume a sufficient amount of nuts, seeds and their oil, as well as fish liver oil.

I hope these facts on what makes up high octane fuel for the human body has helped you get a better idea of the types of food you need to max out your performance. In my next post I will look at the importance of drinking water to ensure your body functions at its best.

See you

Nancy Rishworth