Griffen Fitness - Newsletter

February newsletter

Greetings healthy people,

How’s your 2009 going? Bursting with vitality? The days are slowly getting longer, and it’s a great time of year to go out hill walking. Crisp clear winter days make perfect walking conditions, so check out the Walking Scotland website for loads of walks of varying difficulty.

If your New Year’s resolutions are already a distant memory, remember that there are still a few spaces left on the winter WeightShed Boot Camp. Book by this Friday and save £100 on the booking fee – see www.weightshed-bootcamp.co.uk for more information. It promises to be a highly motivating and energetic week! We’re expecting the summer camp to book out, so be sure to let me know if you’re interesting in the 16th – 20th February boot camp.

What’s in Season for February

It's good to eat seasonal fruit and vegetables, so here's a list of what's in season locally:
Beetroot, brussel sprouts, cabbage (white and red), carrots, cauliflower, chicory, celeriac, celery, chard, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, mushrooms, onions, parsnips, potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli, salsify, spinach, squashes, swede and turnips.

Easy Recipe: A Humble Cous Cous dinner and lunch
serves 4, or 2 for dinner and 2 packed lunches

Cous cous is the chieftain of instant meals. Just add boiling water. Don’t bother buying the pre-packaged flavoured stuff, it’s much cheaper and better for you to make it from scratch, and requires hardly any effort. Leftover cous cous keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days, and makes a tasty leftover lunch.

300g cous cous
540mL boiling water
1 Tab butter / olive oil
Sea salt or herbamere (organic herb salt) to taste

For dinner
A mixture of vegetables for steaming, fresh chopped parsley or coriander.

For lunch
A mixture of your favourite antipasto, chopped - olives, sundried tomato, freshly chopped herbs, chopped artichoke hearts, rocket, fresh chopped tomato, grilled mushrooms, roast red pepper, and harissa (a piquant North African pepper paste) / pesto to taste

- Weigh cous cous straight into a microwave proof container. Add the boiling water and let sit as you chop the veggies.

- Once the veggies are chopped, microwave the cous cous for 30 seconds on high, and stir through with a fork, some butter and salt / herbamere to taste. Leave to sit as you steam the veggies.

- When the veggies are nearly done, microwave the cous cous for another 30 seconds and then stir with a fork to separate the grains.

- Serve half of the cous cous between two plates with the steamed veg and any sauces you like (I like chilli). You can sprinkle with chopped parsley or coriander if you wish.

- After you have thoroughly enjoyed your healthy dinner, mix through a mixture of chopped antipasto ingredients into the leftover cous cous. A teaspoon of harissa gives it a lovely flavour and colour, or you can experiment with persto if you prefer. Divide between two lunchboxes and refrigerate.

Resisting Temptation Hint of the Month: Drink more!
tea pot It’s an oldie but a goodie. It’s easy to confuse thirst with hunger. Sometimes when we feel ‘hungry’ we’re actually thirsty. So if you find yourself a bit peckish, try having a drink of water. I like the discipline of making myself a cup of herbal tea. By the time I’ve finished it, quite often I forget that the reason I made it was because I thought I was hungry! Works equally well if you find yourself getting the munchies in the evening – just make yourself a nice big pot of herbal / green tea.

Fad or Fab: Compression Tights - not just for grannies!

2XU compression tights Do you ever get ‘dead’ or tired legs? Compression hosiery has long been prescribed by Doctors to those suffering varicose veins. Now some clever bod has discovered that compression technology is as equally useful to professional athletes. Compression clothing is designed to be skin tight, with graduated pressure from bottom to top to assist blood flow. This is especially effective in helping reduce fatigue in the legs if you have been exercising hard, or even on your feet all day. Paula Radcliffe has been seen wearing compression socks whilst marathon running.

As I type this my legs are happily squished into my new compression tights. They ain’t cheap, but as I have long suffered from ‘dead’ legs from intensive exercise, it’s worth it to me. I tried a pair of 2XU Elite top-of-the-range compression leggings, which were £70 from Fitness Box, 116 Bruntsfield Place. They’re a lot groovier than the compression stockings I had been prescribed by the Doctor, and also much more comfortable. I think they’re FAB!

Article of the Month: Some Healthy Snacks

Healthy snacks are essential in maintaining good energy levels and trimming your waistline. A mid morning snack halfway between breakfast and lunch will keep your metabolism ticking over. You will also feel less hungry later in the day and be less prone to gorge on junk food.

My tip for healthy snacking is to prepare in advance. Spend 10 minutes in the evening sorting out your lunch bag and hang it off the back of your front door so you don’t forget it in the morning (for the very forgetful) and fill it with fruit, wee sandwich bags of healthy nuts, seeds and dried fruit, oatcakes, and home made sandwiches.

healthy fruit and veg Did you know that M & S sandwiches contain up to 30g of fat per sandwich? Making your own in advance is not only cheaper, but bound to be a lot healthier. If preparing the night before and you’re worried about them going soggy, remember to put dry fillings next to the bread, and other fillings in the middle. Or chop a lunchbox of salad and make your own sandwich in your work kitchen. Or use bread rolls as they are less prone to sogginess. Remember to use wholegrain bread as they will keep you going for longer. I enjoy spending a bit extra and buying decent bread fresh from a baker (not Greggs please). I like simple vegemite (or marmite) sandwiches on good quality fresh wholegrain bread, and yes, with only a scraping of proper butter. If you have good bread, you don’t need loads of fat on it.

As regular readers will know, I am an enthusiastic advocate of oatcakes. They’re a good slow burning snack that be taken anywhere (especially those sold in dinky packets, perfect for slipping into your work bag or desk drawer). Oats are a good source of vitamin E, zinc, selenium, copper, iron, manganese and magnesium, and also thought to help lower cholesterol. Oats are also a good source of protein. What more could you ask for from Scotland’s national savoury snack?

Try to avoid buying pre chopped vegetables and salad from supermarkets, they are a stupidly overpriced way to buy salad and lose a lot of their goodness as the surfaces oxidise once chopped. A chopping board and a knife is all you need to make carrot sticks, chopped oranges. If you need a salad on the run, try a local snack bar as the salad will be freshly chopped and not stored in nitrogen as is the case of supermarkets.

Some more ideas:
- fresh fruit, you can chop it up to make it more appealing. Apples are a low GI snack as the pectin makes you feel fuller.
- pasta salad, see recipe in my March 2007 newsletter
- carrot sticks and hommous
- oatcakes - very, very good to eat, especially in the morning to stave off hunger. Good toppings include hommous, low-fat cheese spread, tomatoes, banana & honey, various relishes with cheese etc
- a bowl of cereal – try to move beyond Kellogs… Live life on the edge with your cereal!
- popcorn (with a little salt, no butter)
- a mix of sunflower and pumpkin seeds
- a small handful of unsalted raw nuts (not peanuts)
- lovely ripe sweet cherry tomatoes when in season
- natural yoghurt with sliced banana and honey, or flavoured yoghurt (dinky pots can be kept in your work fridge)
- wholegrain toast with marmite, cottage cheese or sliced tomato and group pepper.

What’s your favourite healthy snack? Email me!

And Finally… Favourite YouTube Fitness clips

Having spent the best part of an afternoon researching YouTube clips, below are some of my favourite with a very loose fitness theme:

ski jump gone wrong
chain surfing
bike finishes race without rider
what not to do with a (cheap) exercise ball
impressive unicycling
extreme wheel chairing ‘hard core sitting’

Have you got a favourite funny fitness gag?

Have a happy and healthy February,

:)
Tracy

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February newsletter