Monday 30 May 2016

Homemade nakd bars

Nakd bars are great, high in sugar but only because of the fruit however they are not the cheapest to buy so making your own is great

150g cashew nuts
6 whole dates
90g cherries 

Place the cashew nuts in food processor and blend till fine breadcrumbs and then pour into a bowl
Put cherries and dates in processor and blend till broken
Slowly add cashew nuts into mixture
Pour mixture into a container or lunchbox, make sure tightly packed
Cover and place in fridge for at least 2 hours
After 2 hours take out and cut into 8 equal bars
Wrap each bar and keep in the fridge


Sunday 29 May 2016

Homemade oat bars

shop bought bars can contain a lot of sugar and added ingredients, if you make your own you can control what goes in it, especially if you are giving them to your children

Here is some basic ingredients to make your own bars, however you can go creative and add what you want

3 cups basic oats
2 eggs beaten
1 cup of nuts
1 cup of mixed fruit, such as cranberries, and raisins
1 tbs pure maple syrup or honey
1 cup of milk
1 tsp cinnamon
Protein powder (optional)

Pre heat oven to 180
Mix all the ingredients together
Line a baking tray and pour ingredients in
Bake for 40 minutes or till cooked


Multi level pyramid schemes

Herbalife, what is it? Is it good for you? Does it work?
Herbalife was fonded in the 1980s according to the website Herbalife it promises to change your life through a balanced diet and using their products and exercise. The website does a really good job at selling the product, by stating how to advancing sports nutrition through scientific research, they have done an excellent job at promoting it by stating how they have people with PhDs working for them, scientists etc, to he average,person they would be feeling very excited that they will be looked after by all these people and the products will be excellent. 

The principle of Herbalife is to help you loose weight through their shakes and their protein bars, the website has a meal plan for you to follow, it is basically shake for breakfast, which is 220kcal it does give you other examples such as porridge, scrambled egg on toast , snack is their protein bar or fruit etc, lunch is another shake, snack is protein bar or their soup, and dinner is a proper meal

This sounds ok, easy enough to do, however it is also very similar to slim fast etc, 2 shakes and 1 meal, however the products on the website do not give you the ingredients that are in them, they state they are high in protein from dairy and soy, but does not state the sugar or the fat content, or the carb content, now on other websites such as dolphin fitness which is a website that sells protein products, it states all the nutritional value of the products that you are purchasing so you can actually see what you are putting in your body.

The thing is with this is how little calories you are actually putting in your body, if you are drinking two shakes a day and having the protein bar as 1 snack, which is 140 kcal and then the soup which is 104 kcal you are only taking in 684 kcal so for dinner you are allowed a meal now even if the meal was 500 kcal you would only be taking in 1,184 kcal a day, when the average person should be taking in around 1600/2000 calories and most of that is before you do any physical exercise, not just your average days walking. 

Do you see why people see results with this product? It is to do with how little calories they are taking in, now we all know what happened if they stop the product, they are likely to pile on more weight which leads to yo yo dieting, things like is isn't really long term because your body will eventually stall and you will up your exercise, or try to but with the little amount of energy your body is taking in, you will become ill.

On the website it gives you career opportunities, and people will get in contact with you promising excellent career opportunities, excellent benefits of selling, you will see people on social media sites like Facebook saying how they are doing really well selling the product, have a great team behind them, going on holiday etc, now his makes it sound so exciting, all you have to do is promote the product and sell it, and you make money, great.. You are told that two really big stars are using the product, Christian Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, now these stars are paid millions of pounds to endource this product, but if you think about it they really won't be using it, they play football which requires 90 minutes 2 times a week, they train every day sometimes twice a day, now they need to be taking in more than 1,184 calories a day, especially as they are male, so please think about this before signing up to the product because they are promoting the products.

Herbalife is what is described as a multi level pyramid scheme, a multi level pyramid scheme is based on people distributing the products and people buying the products, the people at the bottom of the pyramid will not be earning any money and the people at the top will be he high earners, people are recruited with the promise of earning big money, working from home and being able to quickly move up the chain, the more you sell the more money you make. To join Herbalife you need to buy the products, you will then receive a discount on the products, you then have to sell the products in any way you possibly can, by door to door leaflets, by promoting he products on your social media site, pyramid schemes this website describes pyramid schemes in better detail, but basically you won't be making any money till you make your way up the pyramid scheme, and most people won't be doing that because they won't get enough people to buy he products.

Most people that distribute Herbalife are not people with any background knowledge on health, nutrition or fitness, I'm not saying that everyone should have that background knowledge, but personally if you do not know what you are selling how do you expect to sell it, I have been as,ed on many occasions to sell it, and to start with the idea of earning extra money did seem like a great idea, until I reseated the product or the lack of research I could do on the products, as the website is great at saying how they have all these amazing people working for the product but lack any information on the product it self, personally I am a big believer in eating food and exercising, the old saying eat less move more works well for me, however I certainly know I need more than 1000 calories a day to survive let alone if I am doing exercise. 

Recently I have been told I would be good at being a coach for them, and that I am wasted in my job! I am a fitness coach I am also saving up to do a nutrition course, now I work in a gym and coaching people would be good, and giving them advise on nutrition, which I am not yet qualified to do, however the Herbalife people automatically think they are qualified to give nutritional advise to people, now unless you have done a degree in nutrition or done a course and worked your way up for 7 years, you are not qualified to give nutritional advise, also these people coach people exercise etc, just because you have done your level 2 fitness exam, which any one can do, does not mean you are greater than the next person, it is a hard job being in the fitness industry and there are always new things to be learnt and researched, Herbalife being one of them, before you decide extra income is good, make sure you research the product you are trying to sell.

Would you buy a product by someone who is just a Joe Bloggs from across the road, that has no knowledge in the fitness and nutrition industry? I know a lot of people are after quick fixes, have tried it all and are still depressed about their weight, but please do not take to shakes as a way to do it, there is enough information on the Internet, books, join a gym, even go to the doctors and get sent to a dietician who will help you! Sign up for slimming world or weight watchers which also have great results (I will do a post on them) do it as a family, just please make sure you eat.

Juice plus what is it? Will it work?
Juice plus was founded in 1993 so it is actually a relatively new product, juice plus, juice plus states how it is hard to eat fruit and veg a day, so have concentrated the best part of 30 different fruit and veg and put them into capsules, that adults take two capsules and children take one a day. 

Here is a quick run down on the programme thanks to a weigh loss website what is juice plus?
- meal replacement plan with 3 elements
- cut down on calories by substituting meals for shakes or bars
- up your fruit and veg intake
-supplement your diet with juice based tablets

How to follow the plan:
- detox for 2 weeks
-replace 2 meals a day for 2 weeks
-take the juice plus supplements

Yet again it's only around 1000 calories a day, just like Herbalife, which is why people, especially very overweight people see the results

It is yet another pyramid scheme so only the people on the top will benefit from it, it contains a lot of chemicals in the shakes and the capsules, only the people with the products can see what's in them as the website are very good at hiding them, and just promoting how amazing it is to have the products.

You will get results if you are severely overweight, the same as if you cut down to 1000 calories without the shakes, the same as if you would to just drink an average protein shake at every meal rather than food.

Please do your research properly before falling down those routes, and remember photo shop is a lot of people's best friends



Friday 27 May 2016

Post workout meal

Post workout for me is my lunch as I tend to workout lunch time once I drop the children at nursery

So I need to make sure it has all the correct macro and micros to help repair my muscles from my workout


Veg sausages
Salad
Sweet potato
And fig jam


One pot meals

I love one pot meals, as a busy mommy it makes my life so much easier

Here is my dinner, it is chicken and chorizo jambalaya 

One onion
One pepper
Tim of tomatoes
Chorizo
Frozen diced chicken
Cajun spice
Rice
Chicken stock

Put it all in the pot and cook till the rice has cooked takes about 40 minutes in total



Thursday 26 May 2016

Clean eating meal plan week 1




Day One 
 Meal 1
3 egg scrambled
2 slices whole meal bread
Meal 2
Banana and peanut butter
Meal 3
Chicken salad with feta cheese
Meal 4
3 oat cakes with tbs hummus dip
Meal 5
Pork steak
1/2 cup mashed sweet potato
1 cup cauliflower
Meal 6
Almond milk/low calorie hot chocolate
















Day Two
Meal 1
Peanut butter pancakes
 Meal 2
Protein powder
8 oz water or almond milk
Frozen fruit
Meal 3
 Sweet potato
Salad
 Tin tuna
Sprinkling of cheese
Meal 4
Carrot and cucumber sticks
2 tbs hummus
Meal 5
 Cottage pie
Side salad and balsamic dressing
Meal 6
1 cup Greek yogurt 
Day Three
Meal 1
Overnight oats
Meal 2
1/2 cup almonds
Meal 3
Chinese style steak
1/2 cup couscous 
1 cup broccoli
Meal 4
1 string cheese
1 apple and peanut butter
Meal 5
Turkey chilli
Meal 6
Protein powder
8 oz water or almond milk
Day Four
Meal 1
Strawberry smoothie
Meal 2
Mango 
Cheese string
Meal 3
Chicken salad with feta cheese
Meal 4
1/2 banana
Protein bar
Meal 5
Salmon fillet
1/2 cup couscous
1 cup steamed beans
Meal 6
Low calorie hot chocolate
Day Five
Meal 1
1 slice whole meal bread
1 egg scrambled
1/2 avacado
Meal 2
Protein powder
Frozen fruit
Pineapple juice
Meal 3
Grilled chicken Breast in bbq sauce
1/2 cup brown rice
10 asparagus spears 
Meal 4
1 tbs almond butter
1/2 banana
Meal 5
Pork tenderloins
Sweet potato baked
Cup mixed veg
Meal 6
Cup Greek yoghurt
Day Six
Meal 1
Banana nut oatmeal ( 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup almond milk, 1/4 pecans 1 small banana)
Meal 2
1 cup chocolate almond milk
Meal 3
Chicken breast stuffed with sun dried tomato and feta cheese
Spinach and balsamic vinegar 
Meal 4
Cucumber and carrot sticks
Hummus
Meal 5
Turkey steak
1 cup broccoli
1/2 cup brown rice
Meal 6
1/2 cup almonds

Day Seven
Meal 1
Three egg omelette with cherry tomatoes, half an onion, half a pepper and asparagus
Meal 2
1 cup Greek yoghurt, 5 dates and handful of almonds
Meal 3
2 slices of whole meal bread, chicken breast, lettuce, cucumber, grilled bacon medallions and tomatoes
Meal 4
Protein powder, fruit juice, frozen raspberries, frozen strawberries and frozen blueberries (smoothie)
Meal 5
Sweet jacket potato
Steak grilled
Corn on the cob
1 cup of mixed veg
Meal 6
Low calorie hot chocolate with almond milk


Wednesday 25 May 2016

Rice crispy cakes

This post is not fitness I'm afraid but it is a little insight to my life with a toddler

All you need is a bar of chocolate melted, cereal and cupcake 

I let her tip the cereal into the melted chocolate and for her to mix it
Then she got to put it in the cases, of course some got eaten

Then they go in the fridge!

It's very simple and easy and fun for them to do, and once they have set gives them a little treat!

Tuesday 24 May 2016

Smoothie

People that say clean eating is boring is very much mistaken

Here I have a mid morning snack, I have frozen raspberries, apple juice, protein powder (optional) and oats

Where do I start?

A question that gets asked a lot is where do I begin?

Well the honest answer is you and you finding your motivation and reasons to want to begin!

I previously shared my story on how I began, when I was pregnant was when it hit me that I needed to do something, I was slim to start with so lucky in that sense but definitely skinny fat, yes that really is a term! I was slim but had no definition to my body and was soft! I also ate what I wanted and when without a care in the world! 

However being pregnant changed hat, make de realise what I was eating was going to my baby and if I wanted a healthy child I needed to eat healthy..

My exercise love started after he was born, I did lots of cardio was a cardio bunny my love for weights didn't start till I was pregnant with my second child...

I am still a long way and rom where I want to be but closer to my goals with every work out that I do


So once you have found your motivation and reasons why you want to change your life then it's how to go about doing it..

If you want to join a gym see if there is any friends that you can join with which will help you stick to going to the gym! See if there is any classes at your local community centre to start going to..

But a DVD and start exercising at home, that way you can start exercising and get a feeling for it and then once you are ready then join a gym!

Take photos and measurements which will help you stay accountable and keep reminding you why you started.

There is a lot of information in nutrition and fitness and lots of it contradict it self so I can fully understand why it is so confusing.

I fully belive nutrition is the key, if you can get your eating habits sorted first then your exercise will follow as you will feel a lot better about your self and more confident. I fully belive that abs are made in the kitchen and built in the gym, so 80% is nutrition and 20% is exercise.

Start by researching clean eating, I will do a post on this for you, throw away rubbish from your cupboard, but fruit and veg and lots of lean meats, stock up on Greek yoghurt and honey to help your sweet tooth and get meal planning.. 

But remember we are only human and everyone slips so and to take it day by day and to not beat your self up if you slip up

Monday 23 May 2016

Home gym

If you are one to sit there and say you don't have time to exercise then making an home gym is for you, I will give you a list of the equipment that I have got at home
An exercise bike bought from Amazon it folds down small, you can exercise whilst watching your tv programs

An ab wheel looks easier than it is, great way to get a good stomach burn going on

A medicine ball, excellent and versatile can be used for abs and other exercises

Exercise bands, can be used for arms, back, legs, great way to feel the burn and do a quick exercise

Anothe band this one can be used to help with pull ups and also be used to wrap around legs for leg banded exercises, to help target the glutes

Dummbell a, I have 3kg, 6 kg and an adjustable one which is great! You don't need much weight just keep your reps higher 

Kettlebells, I have 4kg 10 kg and 16 kg, pop in a kettlebell dcs or just make up your own for a weighted cardio session that will burn calories and build muscle 

A Bosu ball this is great for core strength as requires lots of balancing whilst doing exercises on it, can be turned the other way as well! 

Snack

Snack

Apple
1 tbs peanut butter

Perfect afternoon/morning snack or can be used as a pre workout if your not feeling very hungry before you workout

Friday 20 May 2016

Tips, tricks magic pills for loosing weight

You have probably clicked this and thought she's going to give us tips on how to loose weight tricks and lists of magic potions

However you would be very much mistaken there is no magic pills, no tricks and no easy way to loose weight

The way to loose weight is to burn off more than you eat, I don't mean eat 1000 calories and run for miles because that is just stupid, no I mean eat properly, healthy whole foods, do a mixture of strength and cardio and to make sure you are in calorie deficit but not much as you only want to be loosing 1-2lb per week depending how much you have to loose..

Drink plenty of water to help clean your system, speed metabolism up and to make sure you are actually hungry when you think you are

There is no quick fix, it will take you a while to get where you want to be but never give up, keep on going, take your measurements, take pictures and that way if the scale starts to fail you hopefully your over measurements will help you..

Trust the process, things don't happen over night and of course things will go stale, but that's when you need to kick start your body, change your eating habits, change your exercises.. Take a day off and eat what you want and then get back on it, as long as you don't stop because it hasn't happened as quickly as you think it will

Meal diary

I will try to do a meal diary today

Lunch 

Dinner


IIFYM

IIFYM or if it fits your macros, now you probably know all abut this, or maybe your thinking what are you going on about?

Lets break it down food is made up of macronutrients called fats, carbs and protein, all of them make up the calories in the food you are eating or drinking.

Fats are 9 calories, carbs and proteins are 4 calories.

So your probably sat there thinking so what? well our bodies take in the macronutrients, everybody's break down is different and I will get to that in a minute, but you have probably all heard of don't eat carbs after 6, make sure you only eat x amount of protein. Well truth be told our bodies don't know if its 6pm or 8pm so you can eat carbs after 6, and for protein our bodies only use a certain amount at a time so its best to break up protein and spread it out through the day.

As long as you eat roughly the right amount of macros that are set then you are going to loose weight/gain weight or what ever your goals are, as long as you hit your calories through your macros then you will be fine.

IIFYM makes life easier for you, you can eat cake or ice cream as long as it fits your macros, it means that you don't have to deprive your self any more, if you fancy a bowl of cereal at 9pm have a bowl of cereal as long as it fits your macros..

The downside is everything needs to be weighed to get accurate results, so if you are new to this it will take a little while to get used to it, however you will probably be shocked at portion sizes when you weight things properly as I am sure I am not the only one that over estimates a 30g bowl of cereal, once measured out it really is about two mouthfuls and this will explain how some people cannot lose weight because they are not eating the correct portion sizes.

Once you have been doing it a while you wont need to measure out some foods as you will be able to do it by eye, but it does take time and practise, do make sure you do not get obsessed with it though because it is flexible dieting and it does mean you can be more relaxed and start to enjoy foods again, and if you stress about it not only will it effect your results it will effect your mentality and you will start feeling guilty again.

I want people to enjoy food, it as taken me a long time to enjoy food and realise eating more foods is actually a good thing, you cannot gain muscle if you don't eat foods, and the more muscle you have the more fat you burn. Also carbs are not your enemy, I will do a post on carbs.

Now lets work out your macros, this is a basic calculator and I am no expert so you will need to play around to find what suits you, as some people are more sensitive to carbs and need higher fats whilst others work better lower fat higher carbs, basically give it 2 weeks on the numbers before playing around.

First we need to work out your calories that are needed each day we are going to use the basic formula which is the Mifflin, M.D, St Jeor formula

For females 10xweight (kg) +6.25 x height (cm) -5 x age (y)- 161=REE
males is 10xweight (Kg)x height (cm) -5 x age (y) +5=REE

ill do mine to show you 10x50+6.25 x 157- 5 x 28 - 161 = 1180 basically that's how many calories my body needs if I was to lie in bed and not move for 24 hours

next we need to work out if your sedentary- office job, little walking (REE x 1.2)
light activity- light walking, activity that burns 200-400 a day (REE x 1.375)
mod activity- waitress, on feet for most part of the day (REE x 1.55)
very active - professional sports person, or a manual labourer (REE x 1.725)

Heres mine: 1180 x 1.55 = 1829 so basically if I want to maintain weight I eat this amount, if I want to loose weight I eat less etc.

Now we need to work out proteins, and fats and carbs:

Protein is the fixed number, you either eat .8 to 1g of body weight, if you haven't been eating much protein then start at 0.8 and slowly add protein in overwise you could get stomach problems

so .8xbody weight = RDA of protein or 1g x body weight

For me I do 1g x 109 = 109g protein so that's my protein macro sorted

Now lets look at fats, fats are essential for hormones and brain function and every body takes to fat differently lets look at body structure,

Ectomorph: naturally lean person, about 25% of your diet

Endomorph: naturally heavier person, so more likely to utilize fats from diets, so about 35% of daily diet

Mesomorph: average body type and is inbetween the other two so about 30% of daily diet

Ectomorph = TDEE x .25
Mesomorph = TDEE x.3
Endomorph = TDEE x.3.5

Mine example would be 1829 x .25 = 457/9= 50 g fat

To find carbs its TDEE - protein- fat

1829-436-457= 936/4 (4 g of carbs to calorie) = 234 g of carbs

If you have any questions just ask, or you can go to iifym calculator to get it done for you







Progression

We all beat out self a up and see the negatives, stand in a scale and get disheartened because we have put on weight or maintained.

Pictures say a thousand words and there is no better way to track progression then pictures


Here is my progression from March to May, I have been ill in between those pics, but pic on left I'm tensing and have little muscle pic on right is today I am not flexing but my arms are more toned and a lot bigger.. 

Don't quit keep going even when you feel like you haven't made changes, go back and look at old pics and I'm sure you will all be surprised 

Jamie Eason live fit phase 2

I am on week 2 of phase 2 and I can def feel that I am getting stronger in all my lifts! I'm very pleased with how things are working out, my body fat is slowly lowering but my weight isn't changing much which is what I am aiming for as I don't have weight to loose

I now have little bit of definition in my arms without tensing which is great as I always had very skinny arms 

Tuesday 17 May 2016

Ambassador

My hard work has finally paid off I am now ambassador with gym monkee www.gymmonkee.co.uk it's an up and coming clothing brand from the uk

My code for discount is leannefowler15

Thursday 5 May 2016

Measurements

I did my measurements before starting Jamie Eason live fit here they are:
Arm 10in
Waist 27in
Hips 31in
Thighs 20in
Shoulders 39in

Jamie Eason live fit week 2

Ok well I maybe had to skip out on a couple of workouts last week as I came down with a bug, however this week I have done back and biceps and felt so much stronger on my back than I have previously done.. Shoulders still my weak point but I will make them stronger 

Food this week and last week has been very healthy and full of micronutrients