Avocado for good healthy fats; blueberries for Vitamin C; a huge handful of spinach for Vitamin A, folate, magnesium and so much more; banana for carbohydrate; some vanilla Purition protein powder because this was for lunch and I had no other major source of protein in it; lots of filtered water and a splash of coconut milk.
Deliciousness created in 5 minutes ☺️
Changing your diet and lifestyle takes time. It’s taken your whole life to get to where you are now, so it’s going to take a little while to change your food habits. Take one step at a time and recognise your successes along the way – however small they may be.
It is always lovely to receive updates from my clients on how they are progressing on their nutrition and lifestyle journeys. The power of good nutrition never ceases to amaze me. This email started my week off extremely well!
“Andrea was one of the amazing facilitators on the nutrition course I took part in during lock-down for the clients of Wessex Cancer Trust. When the course finished I booked in privately to have a session with Andrea so I could have more tailored advice for my health.
Having been diagnosed with breast cancer in December and then shielding from March, I was in the habit of eating the wrong foods for my body, along with bingeing on sweet foods.
Andrea has helped to change my life for the better. I now eat a varied and interesting diet. I am enjoying eating new foods and trying new recipes. My dad and several friends have commented on how healthy I am looking. I am no longer bingeing on sweet foods – however I do still enjoy an occasional slice of cake or chocolate!
I have more energy and have a lot of tools and knowledge to balance my meals. I highly recommend the service Andrea provides.”
So many of my clients don’t drink enough water and find it hard when I ask them to drink between 1.5 and 2 litres per day so I thought perhaps today would be all about hydration.
Here are some signs of dehydration:
Don’t forget that water makes up two thirds of your body weight and is essential for your bodily systems to function correctly. Just a few examples of what water helps to do in the body:
But how do you drink that much? There are plenty of good bottles on the market now (but remember to look for glass or those without BPA) that can encourage you to drink – the one I have is a Black and Blum bottle with a charcoal filter in it. The charcoal helps to remove all the nasties in our water and replenishes it with essential minerals. It’s also a great idea to add fresh fruit or veg into your bottle to give it a flavour – just choose your favourites – I often add slices of cucumber, mint leaves and cut strawberries. My bottle is 800ml so I know that I need to drink a couple every day to get my hydration sorted. But remember that herbal teas also count and I do drink a few of those too every day. Good luck on keeping hydrated!!
I’m always telling clients to ‘eat the rainbow’ and it’s so easy! This little beauty took 5 minutes of chopping and was delicious. Red – tomatoes; green – lots of leaves, sugar snap peas, cucumber and celery; orange/yellow – baby sweet corn (I forgot the carrot!); white/brown – mushrooms; purple/blue – leaves. I added basil infused olive oil for healthy fats and some chopped chicken for protein. It was sprinkled with kombu seaweed for iodine and some nigella seeds for extra antioxidants and a fabulous flavour. Oh and a small amount of ground pink Himalayan salt and black pepper. Lovely!
So my batch cooking promise continues and we have benefitted from having healthy meals in the freezer. Last weekend’s batch consisted of broccoli, leek and spring onion soup; low GL chilli; cauliflower Dahl and some more jar salads. Sorry no food pictures – I need to go on a ‘how to take good food pictures’ course!! This weekend will be another soup but not sure what else….. As I’m on ‘puppy duty’ today I am spending some time skimming through recipe books (and keeping an eye on what she is chewing) to decide on a couple of dishes. So…. as the food pictures were crap, here’s one of the puppy instead!!! Oh – and I am wondering whether to add a recipe page to my website – what do you all think, good idea or not? Happy rainy Friday everyone
I am always advising my clients that batch cooking is the best way to eat healthily when you have a busy life. So on a very wet and dark Saturday afternoon, what better way than to spend 3 hours in my kitchen. And the end result – a sweet potato, chickpea and leek soup; a lentil stew; a chicken curry; some spinach and mushroom wheels (a bit weird yes but using stuff up!) and an Italian meatball and rainbow veg stir fry with a tomato and basil sauce!! Tomorrow morning the slow cooker goes on with chicken thighs and LOADS of veg and I will do some jar salads!! That should see us through the week.
