Happy New Year!!! Bring on 2013!!!

Happy New Year everyone!! It’s been a while and I have missed you so much. How are you??? How did you spend New Years Eve?

We were with friends down the coast and took this pic on our way there. Jumping in the air welcoming the New Year!

Happy New Year 2013 from Fitness Food And Style

We have been on holidays down at our beach house in Lorne, which has been great family time. Adrian hasn’t had a long break like this all year so the kids are loving spending their days bike riding, surfing, playing beach cricket, swimming, scooter riding and exploring with their Dad.

Our holiday snaps thus far....

Summer holidays

We have been eating relatively healthy although we have fallen in some bad habits. Treating ourselves with ice-cream’s (I should have packed my icy pole moulds) and potato chips! All these indulgences add up when you have them daily or every second day but hey! we eat well throughout the entire year so once in a while we find it’s okay to splurge on some junk! How do you go when you go away on holidays? Do you find you drop the ball sometimes or do you remain diligent at all times?

Here are some breakfast samples of the “healthier” food we have been eating;


Muesli with fresh fruit and natural yogurt

Muesli with fruit

Pear and mango porridge

Pear and mango porridge

I typically grab a can of pears and make my pear porridge recipe with milk and oats on a stove top or microwave. However I had very ripe pears so I ended up slicing them all in the mix and cooked them up with some water and majority milk. No sugar required as these pears were super sweet!!!! 


No added sugar waffles

Waffles no added sugar

With my waffle mix it is pretty much the carbon copy of my crepe/pancake mix I just make sure the batter is a bit thicker for the waffle machine. The kids go crazy as we all share the waffles on the plate/board and place whatever toppings on there eg: natural yogurt, fruit, maple syrup or honey etc....

We have been walking everyday to the beach which is a lovely 700 meters beside the Erskine River and just outfront the Mantra Resort. Lorne is such a beautiful place and we are truly blessed to have this beach house at this time. I have also managed to run to the pier and back with no stitch! YAY!!!

Lorne run from Erskine River to the Pier

The #planksjan2013 challenge has been going off on Instagram. There are over 300 photos tagged in 13 days!!! How have you been going with the challenge? I have increased my time from 30secs to 40secs planks but some people have been doing a minimum of 60 secs and some up to 4 minutes!!! They rock! They are inspiring me to double my plank time so I too can achieve a 2 or 3 minute plank by the end of the month!!

I will post more plank info in my next post, for now I wanted to say how much I missed you and to say a quick hello from our holidays!

Have a great week until we meet again, when we are back from our holidays!!!

Xx Dani

Mt Buninyong run and Spooky party

Hello everyone, I know I am a teacher in my son's eyes but today he taught me something pretty amazing!!!! MIND OVER MATTER!!! Rather, reinforced it!!!

As all 6 of us snuggled in bed this morning, Noah jumped out of bed and said:

"C'mon Mum, we can run up that Mt Buningyong hill! Don't be scared!"

The belief in his eyes and passion made me bounce outta bed, put my running shoes on and go for this run!

Mountain Buninyong...elevation 719 metres above sea level.

Mount Buninyong is a hill overlooking Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. Formed from an extinct volcano.

We only managed to run a 5.5km course however I was super proud of Noah as he only stopped when we had to take these photos. Of course to show you all!!!!

Mt Buningyong

Seriously amazing stuff, the views were amazing and I was super proud of Noah as he also had his soccer game this morning and I thought this would completely exhaust him. But no! He was super charged! Said he was going to smash this mountain, and he did!!!

I must admit, I didn't want to do this run. I even sent a sms to our running trainer to say I'd give it a miss. Why? I drove the car up the mountain yesterday and I got scared! Yup! I didn't think I was built for something this extreme, so best I don't attempt it at all. Especially when I'm not a real runner and haven't ran since Run Ballarat (although I do think I did a 3km run?). Anyways, I didn't think I had enough training or prep work to get me up this hill! So I got discouraged and thought best I set some smaller goals......and do the Mt some other time.

But no! Thanks to my little champion Noah, he ENCOURAGED me do this run and for that I am truly grateful. I love you honey.

Mt Buninyong running superstar Noah

We had a full on day today with many parties and this one was completely spooky!! Our new friends did a sensational job with the cake, decorations and activities today.

How cool is the cake?? I loved it!!!

Oscar's a classic jamming away on the trampoline above!

 Mietta and her new little friend were searching for some spooky stuff in the green goo, while the hosts dressed up as a witch and zombi!!! Thanks for a great day guys!!!

I had a lot of requests from Facebook and Instagram to post the recipe for our pizza's last night so here it is. Enjoy! These seriously take under 10 minutes to make and eat!!!!


Ingredients
2 cups wholemeal (wheat) flour
2 tsp baking powder
S&P
10 kalamata olives
2tbs luke warm water

NB: Makes 3 medium size pizza's

Clean eating home made pizza's

Method
Mix all ingredients in blender until dough forms
Roll dough into preferred thickness (we do ours super thin)
Lightly grease fry pan and place pizza dough, add toppings
Once base is cooked (1-2 minutes) place under griller for toppings to cook & melt

EAT and ENJOY!!!!

Xx Dani

Another birthday and FYM challenge week 8

Seriously too much birthday cake, I have literally exploded! As much as I tried to make them supportive....I didn't really succeed this year! I figure we eat clean 80-90% of the time, we really need to enjoy these special moments even though I am determined to bake a choc zucchini/carrot cake next time! With no sugar of course. 

Yes, Adrian's birthday was another success in the cake department. I went with a lemon butter cake heart theme this time with his favourite lemon icing.

Adrian really loves lemon tasting desserts especially lemon meringues!!! Me not so much but I must admit I do enjoy putting lemon in most of the dishes I cook these days. It just adds zest and such a good flavour! My Mum puts it in almost everything!!! So I simply mixed some lemon rind in the butter cake mixture (didn't use as much sugar! and made my own self raising flour with baking powder and plain wholemeal flour) and did the lemon icing as well. There were 2 pieces left over, that's how delish it was!!

Here we all are, trying to squeeze into the picture.

For dinner, I made something quick and easy. We had left over steak rump which I shredded and added all the ingredients I had left in the fridge and pantry that would make a kinda Mexicana beef taco style dish. So here it is....

Dinner

Mexican beef taco's in cos salad shells

Ingredients
Olive oil
Shredded cooked beef steak
1 finely diced onion
2 sliced/chopped carrots
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
1 can corn
1 can peas
1 jar of Mexican salsa
handful of olives
cos salad

Method
Gently fry onions, carrots and mushrooms until soft in olive oil. Add beef, salsa sauce and corn, cook for a further 5 minutes. Just before serving add cooked peas and sprinkle olives in the mix. It's done, super quick as most things are cooked except for the onions, carrots and mushrooms.

Instead of the greasy taco shells (even though I do love them dearly) it was so fresh and crisp tasting serving them in the cos salad shells/cups!

I didn't buy these specific ingredients to make this dish. I simply go through my left over fridge/pantry ingredients when we have a low budget food week (and I promise I will share my meal planning ideas with you REALLY soon) and I google for ideas, inspiration or through the years I have learnt what flavours work together. This meal would have been under $15 for the 6 of us and with left overs the next day.

Today I managed to fit in a run with my gorgeous life saving friend Celeste (who I borrowed the love heart shape tin to make within the hour!) and ran 3kms with a slight stitch but not that severe! Perhaps it's more in the mornings that I get the stitch and my body not warming up? Who knows? I am still working it out. Keep you posted!!! I am really determined to complete a marathon now, even though the back of my mind I'm still thinking why am I doing this? Because I love it! There is something about running that is kinda cool (still could be doing other cool stuff within that time, mind you) but you know what I mean. Once I set my mind on something, there is no stopping me!

FYM Workouts

My FYM challenge ends in a couple of weeks (on Oscar's birthday in fact 11/11) so I have been quite good with my nutrition however limited with my workouts as my neck hasn't been quite the same. Also with my lower back after the 6km run on Sunday, something with the stitch and lower back muscle isn't gelling. Having said that, it's only my body not used to this type of fitness.

I am taking things easy and only doing what my body can do, at this stage. Still happy following the program and linking with my beautiful FYM girls!!! Love them dearly!

Sending you all my love and hope all is well with you and your families. I look forward to touching base with you real soon and love reading your comments. IT MAKES MY DAY!!!

Xx Dani

Run Ballarat I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!

Hello my beautiful people, what can I say?? The fun run is this Sunday and I am a tad excited!!! There are over 3,000 people participating and I just can't wait for the vibe on the day. My gorgeous friend from Melbourne will also be joining me, so I am super excited about that. She is my role model. She just did a half marathon in Melbourne on Sunday and completed her first ever marathon in Paris this year!!! You know who you are number 56184!!! I'm so proud of her!

Maybe one day, I too will complete a half marathon (if I ever overcome this stitch of mine) who knows? Might even complete a marathon. Watch this space.....

Run Ballarat fun run to help raise money for The Base hospital

I am also happy to be doing this run for such a wonderful cause. We are regulars at The Base hospital ER section, if it's not one of our boys falling off a motor bike and cracking his head open, it's the other one falling off his skate board with the same injury. Lucky, they have a tough Mum! 

Workouts

I have been a little slack with my fitness this week. Minor neck issues and keeping motivated have kept me away from what typically drives me and my "no excuses" attitude. I will get over this head space. TRUST ME!! Nutrition has been great, no more cadbury chocolate to report!

I must say the yoga challenge is fabulous and I am loving that movement every day. 

Breakfast

Overnight soaked muesli

Morning snack
Yogurt with fruit salad

Lunch
Fritatta sausage pizza

Ingredients
Eggs
Spinach
Tomatoes
Turkey sausages
Feta
S&P
Parsley

Method
Chop ingredients and start sautéing mushrooms and sausage, beat up eggs, add chopped vegetables, feta into egg mix and pour into frypan. Allow base to cook and then place under pre heated griller until toppings are cooked. Really quick, under 10mins!!!

This is simply our version of a crustless pizza, using the eggs as the base but really it's a combo of an omelette and fritatta but I make it look all fancy like a pizza and the kids love it!!!

Afternoon snack
180 Nutrition coconut protein drink

Dinner
Coconut and split green pea curry with steamed brown rice

This was my take away dinner as I went to the hairdressers this evening.

Ingredients
1pkt green split peas
onion finely diced
2 carrots finely diced
1 can of crushed tomato
2 cans of coconut lite cream/milk
1 fresh garlic minced
spices (curry, tumeric, corriander, moroccan)
Olive oil
S&P to taste

Method
Dice vegetables and fry with spices, add can of tomatoes, peas and cook for 10mins. Add coconut milk/cream and simmer until peas are soft. Serve with rice.

NB: I washed and soaked my peas overnight with 1tsp of bicarb soda, this helps quicken the cooking process

So sorry for the rushed recipe process and steps, I really can't wait when I have more time to document my passion for food. I will endeavour to link as many recipes to what comes close to mine as possible (just for those that need measurements etc). Thanks so much for coming past, it means the world to me. Even more when you leave a comment! So please, don't be shy!

Have a sensational week and as always, can't wait to touch base with you again.


Xx Dani

Day 12 TT12 - ab challenge ROUND 1 completed

Happy Saturday everyone, hope you're having a fab weekend so far!



Breakfast
egg muffins with spinach, tomato & feta

PWOS vanilla

Ingredients
2 eggs
feta
S&P
avocado (1/2 mashed)
handful of spinach
1 tomatoe
2 wholemeal toasted muffins

I was super hungry after I came home from my 6km run/walk...

Ohhhhh I was so hideous with my run this morning!!! Pathetic actually! Seriously. Here I am claiming to be all fit and healthy (well you know, kinda, I'm on a journey with you all) and I can't even run without getting a stitch? WTH??? Yes that dreaded stitch came back!

This is what I was dealing with !!! I had to take this footage to show you BUT I'm also here to let you know that I WILL NOT LET THE STITCH beat me!!!! Here goes! Have a laugh will ya!!

Morning snack
GF and nut free fruit bars

I make these for the boys lunch boxes regularly as they are not allowed any nuts at school, so instead I place various seeds and usually I put almond meal but I've started on either GF flour, wholemeal or buckwheat. I bake them so they are crunch like muesli bars.

Ingredients
Oats
Buckwheat flour
Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds
Cranberries
Macadamia oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method
Mix all ingredients together until you get a nice dough like mix (add water or milk if too dry) and shape into muesli type bars

Lunch
Salad sandwich

Afternoon snack
Yogurt fruit parfait

We just cut up some kiwi & strawberry for the bottom layer, added yogurt, then frozen berries with walnuts, topped with yogurt. Kids had honey drizzled onto, I added a mint leaf :-)

Dinner **will post pics ASAP having connection issues**
BBQ scotch fillets with pumpkin, feta and spinach salad

Dressing
I mixed some olive oil, 1tsp honey, 2 tsp seeded mustard, squeezed 1/2 lemon and gave it a shake in this little jar and poured over the salad.


Fitness - ab challenge update


As you know I am doing the Fit Yummy Mummy Tighter Tummy in 12 days challenge which ended today. I took a quick pic from one of my core strength exercise moves today....

Well this is it....12 days of focusing on the ab region, I'll be repeating this program again for those that wish to join me. As for those that are doing their own program we are still going for another couple of weeks, as some of you mentioned you wouldn't see massive results in just 12 days. So I will repeat this TT12 again.

Here are my results......thus far.

I lost a total of 1.5cm around my waist & muffin top region

This was me 12 days ago when Celeste took a picture of me, so I got Adrian to try and take as close to those pics as she did.

Now I know it's no chisel 6 pack and not sure how far I can take this but hey, let's see what another 12 days does.

I didn't really commit 100% to this mini 12 day challenge. I had chocolate, I had chips, I missed a workout, I have more excuses than I can think of.

So........

My NEW goals for the next 12 days, starting tomorrow are:

• EAT NO SUGAR WHATSOEVER (this includes honey & maple syrup)
• NEVER MISS A WORKOUT
• NO CAFFEINE DRINKS
• RUN AT LEAST X3 PER WEEK (on my day of rest AKA workout free days)
• FOCUS ON MY CORE FYM STRENGTH TRAINING

Are you in???

Xx Dani

Run like the wind

Psssst!!!!


I got to tell you something. I am not a runner. I have tried to run but did the walk thing when I was too puffed out and really didn't enjoy it. Gave up and I now know why I don't like running, it's because I am not good at it. So I am going to change that.


This song absolutely got me pumped this morning Ride Like The Wind ~ Christopher Cross or if you're from a younger generation you may have heard it on the movie Joe Dirt well.......



I have set myself a goal before I turn 40 (can't wait for 2014!!!!) that I will run a mini marathon. For now I won't push myself to commit to a 20km run. But hey! 5km mini fun runs, if you're out there, I'll be there as soon as I perfect this running craft.

As you may be aware I am a pretty determined and committed kinda soul and when I set my mind on something, I usually give it 100%.

So my 100% this morning was getting out of bed and putting on my runners. Even if it was only 0.8C degrees!!! My girlfriend Celeste put me onto a social running group and I thank her dearly. Today only reinforced one thing in my mind YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU SET YOUR MIND TO!!!


My initial experience this morning wasn't a pleasant one. I got a stitch 500m into our run (mind you I was placed in the slow running "oranges" team and they were ahead of me!). Now I can hear you laughing, as was I!!! It was hilarious! although a tad embarrassing as well. BUT!!!! I was THAT determined to do the 1.5km lap without stopping, that I held onto the side of my waist with my right arm up, taking deep breaths and kept running!!! I looked absolutely ridiculous but you know what? I didn't care.....


Remember my earlier post I cant believe I did a workout about Nikes' slogan "JUST DO IT" well I did it!! I went around the second time (after I stopped my first lap to stretch and walk off my stitch, which didn't work mind you) but I was determined even if I was running like a oompa loompa with my hand supporting my stitch, that I would run this 1.5km circuit without stopping. And I did. My first ever 3km run (yeah I know it wasn't a continuos loop) but you know where I'm coming from.

What's something you don't like doing because you're not good at it?

Enjoy this fabulous Saturday and I look forward to returning again to post my food for the weekend xxxDani