Category: Fitness Blog

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Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls

This is one of my favourite work lunches – you can add just about whatever salad and protien you want in there. I tend to use my left over salads from any bbqs or dinners over the weekend and add a bit of tofu. For noodles, I also like to add konyaku noodles which are an Asian noodle made out of the konyaku plant. These noodles are almost 0 calorie and high in fibre. They don’t have any taste, I add it purely for the texture. They aren’t suitable for children or elderly though as they can be difficult to swallow if not properly chewed.

Ingredients:

Rice Paper

Konyaku noodles or rice noodles

Lettuce

Purple cabbage thinly sliced

A grated carrot

One cucumber sliced thinly into small sticks

One avocado sliced thinly

Mint leaves

Corriander

Protein of your choice (prawn, tofu, egg, chicken etc – make sure it’s cooked first)

Sauce

3 table spoons of peanut butter

1 table spoon of housing sauce

1 clove of crushed garlic

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

Sriracha to taste for a bit of heat

Water to thin

Directions:

Get each of your ingredients layed out on a dish.

Get two large plates, fill one with hot water from the kettle, and place the other one beside it.

Soak a rice paper sheet in the water until it is almost soft. Take it out, shake off the water and place on the next plate. Start layering the rice paper in the middle. I always place my brightly colored food down first as this is what will show on top after you have rolled it. Fir example, place three mint leaves down first, then add the sliced avocado and the the tofu. Add the noodles to one side and add the lettuce and carrot to the other.

Then like a burrito, fold each end up over the filling, then bring one of the sides up over the filling and roll it up.

What I love most about these, is you can go crazy on colour, or use these as a way to finish off any salad.

For the sauce, I simply mix all the ingredients together.

Enjoy 🙂

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What Are Calories and Why Are They Important?

Calorie is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water through to one degree Celsius. In food, we refer to kilocalorie which is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water through to one degree Celsius. For kilojoules, this is 4,184 joules of energy.

From a diet perspective, we refer to calories as energy burnt or energy stored as fat in your body. If you are in calorie deficit, that is you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight as your body needs to get its energy from stored fat.

If you are in a calorie surplus, you are consuming more calories than you are burning. If you are simply consuming food that is fatty or high in sugar, this will lead to fat gain. However, some people want to go into calorie surplus to gain muscle weight. This can generally be achieved through smart food choices such as complex carbs, lean proteins and unsaturated fats (1).

To maintain your current weight, your calories intake must be the same as your output.

Understanding the number of calories the food you eat contains will help you on your diet choices. Generally speaking, an average  woman needs to eat about 2000 calories per day to maintain, and 1500 calories to lose one pound of weight per week while an average man needs 2500 calories to maintain, and 2000 to lose one pound of weight per week; however, this depends on a number of factors such as your height, weight and activity level (2).

If you want a more accurate suggested calorie intake for you, you can use our weight tracker (always see a medical expert first if you have health concerns). Our system seeks some initial information from you to understand your basic metabolic rate – or the number of calories required to keep your body functioning at rest (i.e. metabolism). Once this is known, the system then provides suggestions on how to spread your calorie intake across the day to either maintain, lose or gain weight.

When it comes to food choices, sure, one small fries from McDonalds is roughly equivalent to 650 g of boiled broccoli (both roughly 205 calories (or 860kj). However, almost half of the energy comes from fat, the other half from carbs and they are very high in salt. There is also little nutrition and no fibre in the fries. For broccoli on the other hand, 60% of the energy comes from protein with under 10% from fat. Broccoli also contains fibre and other minerals and nutrients essential for your body such as iron, potassium, calcium, selenium, magnesium and vitamins A, C, E, K and B vitamins including folic acid (3). Furthermore, 650 g of broccoli is far more filling than a small fries, in fact, 650g is quite a large serving!

Nonetheless, there are going to be times when you just need a small fries over broccoli. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is all about balance and moderation. However, by understanding how food impacts your body will help you make smarter choices.

 

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Roasted Greens and Satay Chicken

Quick, easy and yummy way to get those greens into you. You can use any protein you want. We used chicken in the photo but tofu, fish or meat will work the same.

Ingredients:

Salad:

1/2 head of broccoli cut into pieces

3 kale leaves roughly cut into pieces

5 brussel sprouts

Olive oil

Salt

Crushed walnuts

Protein:

1 crushed garlic

1 chicken breast

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Satay Sauce:

1 tsp olive oil

Crushed garlic clove

¼ cup peanut butter

½ cup water

 

Method:

Quarter the brussel sprouts, roughly chop the broccoli and roughly tear the kale leaves. Toss all with olive oil and salt. Add the brussel sprouts and broccoli to an oven dish and place into a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees celsius for 20 -30 minutes. Add kale leaves in for the last 5 to 10 minutes.

Crush garlic, mix with olive oil and coat chicken. Over medium heat, cook chicken in a pan. Once cooked, take out and slice length ways.

While chicken is cooking, mix all ingredients for satay sauce.

To plate up, take the roasted greens out of the oven and spread on plate. Add sliced chicken on top and drizzle satay sauce over the top.

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Macros verse Micros What Now?

If you have started researching ways to improve your health, you have probably come across the terms macronutrients and micronutrients and like me, wondered what in the world are these?

Macronutrients are the main nutrients we eat which provide us with the bulk of our energy. They include carbohydrates, fats and protein. Typically speaking, when we embark on a type of diet, one type of macronutrient will be greater than others – for example, a low-fat diet will be high in protein and/or carbohydrates or a high-protein diet will be low in carbohydrates (1). Carbohydrates, fats and protein are important to us and the below provides a little more detail on each.

Protein

Protein includes foods like meats, dairy products, eggs and nuts. Protein is essential to help repair and build muscle.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates includes your breads, grains, rice and cereal. Our body turns carbohydrates into energy so we need it to keep us going. There are two types simple carbohydrates such as sugar or soft drinks and complex carbohydrates such as pasta and grains. Simple carbohydrates have no nutrients whereas complex carbohydrates do and release energy slowly into our body.

Fats

This includes foods such as olive oil, butter, and fat on meats or in dairy. Small amounts of fats are needed to help use minerals such as moving iron around your body. There are two types, saturated and unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are fats like sunflower oil, olive oil and vegetable oil and are good for you. Saturated fats are fats that come from animals and aren’t good for you as they stick to your arteries. Oily fish such as mackerel and salmon contain an additional benefit of Omega 3. It is believed Omega 3 helps reduce heart attacks.

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends eating each macro within the following ranges (2):

  • Carbohydrates: 45-65% of calories
  • Fat: 20-35% of calories
  • Protein: 10-35% of calories.

If you are using our weight tracker, the macro ratio is as follows:

  • Carbohydrates: 50% of calories
  • Fat: 25% of calories
  • Protein: 25% of calories.

You may want to change this ratio depending on your diet.

Micronutrients are required in smaller amounts and include vitamins and minerals such as iron, calcium, folate and vitamin B1 and B2 for example. Micronutrients are necessary for mental and physical growth, development and function as well as disease prevention. The body cannot create micronutrients, they can only be obtained through diet which is vital why we eat food from a range of food sources to ensure we are getting everything we need. Fruit and vegetables are excellent sources of micronutrients.

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Pea and Capsicum Protein Fritters

This was surprisingly really yummy. It serves two people or four large fritters.

Ingredients:
2 scoops of Ultimately Natural Vanilla Protein Powder
3 eggs
1 cup of frozen peas
1 half of a red capsicum
1/3 cup of sliced coriander
1/3 cup cottage cheese
1/3 cup of water
1 clove of garlic
¼ teaspoon of salt
¼ teaspoon of pepper
Olive oil

Topping:
1 half of avocado
1/3 cup of cottage cheese
Coriander to decorate

Method:
Place frozen peas in a bowl of hot water until defrosted. Once defrosted, drain water and smash slightly using hands. Slice capsicum into small cubes and add to peas. Add sliced coriander. In a separate bowl, mix 3 eggs, protein powder and cottage cheese. Add peas, capsicum and coriander. Crush the garlic and add to the mix. Use a spoon to mix together. Add salt and pepper. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a frying pan and heat on low to medium heat. Poor batter into 10 cm circles and leave on heat for about 6-8 minutes each side. After a couple of minutes, carefully check the batter to make sure it isn’t getting stuck to the frying pan.
Whilst cooking, smash the avocado in a separate bowl. Once fritters are cooked, plate up and add smashed avocado and cottage cheese on top. Finish off with coriander for decoration.

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Oven Baked Lotus Root Chips

The lotus root is a root vegetable often used in Japanese and Chinese cooking. It is oblong and when sliced into chips, has visible oblong holes. Lotus roots contain less carbohydrates than a potato and more fibre. They are also good sources of vitamin C, copper and iron. They just happen to also make a great alternative as chips to potato chips 🙂

Ingredients:
Lotus root
Olive oil
Salt or seasoning of your choice

Method
Wash the lotus root and peel it. Slice the lotus root into thin disk like slices. Lotus root tends to brown quickly so if you are cutting a lot of lotus root chips, place sliced lotus root pieces into water until finished cutting. Take the lotus root slices and pad dry with a towel. Place lotus root chips in a bowl and lightly coat with olive oil and then season. Lay the lotus root slices as a single layer on an oven try and pop into the oven at 325 F or 165 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden and crunchy. Take them out, serve and enjoy 🙂

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A Life of Convenience – Is It Worth It?

I saw an ad this week that got me angry. Nutri-Grain (a popular cereal here in Australia) now sell individual “protein” packets. This makes me angry on two fronts:

  • the first being the excess plastic and cardboard waste this unnecessarily creates
  • the second is that they are being marketed as high protein whilst leaving the wording “one of the” and “cereals” in small letters.

These packets are convenient, and they do take away the thinking process when it comes to portion control but surely it is cheaper, easier and better for the environment if we use our own re-usable containers when needing food on the run? Also, looking quickly at the packet, it is easy to see that they are packed with protein when in fact they are labelling the product as one of the highest protein cereals. They have 8.5g of protein per 40 grams of cereal. Which might be good for a cereal, but I think there are better protein snacks on the go such as a boiled egg which has about 13 g of protein plus everything else !

Trying to live a life full of convenience is adding to our global plastic issue and health concerns. Do you agree or am I off target here? I would love to hear your thoughts!

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A Balanced Diet

What is a balanced diet?

It is important to eat a wide variety of food from the 5 food groups fruits, vegetables, grains, lean meats and non-fat or low-fat dairy to ensure we are getting everything we need including protein, carbohydrates, fats and vitamins and minerals. Protein, carbohydrates, fats and vitamins and minerals are essential to make our body work.

Protein
Protein includes foods like meats, dairy products, eggs and nuts. Protein is essential to help repair and build muscle.

Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates includes your breads, grains, rice and cereal. Our body turns carbohydrates into energy so we need it to keep us going. There are two types simple carbohydrates such as sugar or soft drinks and complex carbohydrates such as pasta and grains. Simple carbohydrates have no nutrients whereas complex carbohydrates do and release energy slowly into our body.

Fats
This includes foods such as olive oil, butter, and fat on meats or in dairy. Small amounts of fats are needed to help use minerals such as moving iron around your body. There are two types, saturated and unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are fats like sunflower oil, olive oil and vegetable oil and are good for you. Saturated fats are fats that come from animals and aren’t good for you as they stick to your arteries. Oily fish such as mackerel and salmon contain an additional benefit of Omega 3. It is believed Omega 3 helps reduce heart attacks.

Vitamins and minerals
Vitamins and minerals are small quantities of nutrients that help our body work and come from fruit and vegetables. Examples of vitamins are B1, B2 and examples of minerals are calcium and iron. Without these, our body wouldn’t function.

Other important elements are salt and fibre. Salt is important, but we don’t need a lot of it – in fact we only need 6 grams a day which we can get from our diet naturally. Fibre helps keep us regular and removes anything the body doesn’t need. Wholemeal foods such as wholemeal bread and pasta are great as the fibre hasn’t been removed. Vegetables and fruit are another great source of fibre.

The below image has been created by the United States Department of Agriculture as a tool for people to understand what your plate should look like utilising the five food groups to ensure you are getting everything you need. Before you plate up next time, try and have a think about what you are putting on your plate and getting as much of five food groups as you can.

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Raw Pad Thai

I have to admit, I was pretty apprehensive about a raw pad Thai. The noodles are my favourite part and filling – but this was amazing. It is a good mix of vegetables. You can have this as it is or add any type of protein you want. I used fried egg, which was enough for me, but you can make this your own.

Salad:
1 large zucchini
1 red capsicum
1 large carrot
¼ red cabbage
1 cup of bean sprouts
½ cup of walnuts
1 chilli for heat
Coriander leaves

Peanut Sauce:
½ peanut butter
¼ lime juice
2 table spoons soy sauce
2 table spoons of sesame oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons grated ginger
2 tablespoons water

Directions:

Grate zucchini and carrot into long thin strips. Slice capsicum and red cabbage into thin slices. Add all into a bowl and add bean sprouts. Crush the walnuts and rip the leaves of the coriander and add both to the bowl. Mix everything together. Slice and add chilli for heat if desired.

For the sauce, mix all ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Plate up the salad, add protein if you want and add sauce over the top. Serve with a wedge of lime.