For those that are new to my monthly challenges, all you need to do is;
1). Subscribe to my blog 2). Like my Facebook page and invite your friends to join in 3). Leave me a comment below (less than 25 words) why do you love to workout?
You can also hashtag #ffs_style and post your workout picture anywhere in social media land and if you don't have any, send it to me dani@fitnessfoodandstyle.com.au. A random winner will be notified by email Monday 23rd September 2013. Open worldwide.
I can't wait to see your workout pics!!! So get snapping!
Friday Fitness
Here's a little ab core workout to keep you moving today from my beautiful friends over at Get Above The Bar.
Core challenge workout
For more information go check out Get Above The Bar and their awesome pages on FacebookTwitter, Instagram and YouTube. A young group of college kids making a difference in the world of fitness and changing the way the world views health.
Have I told you HOW MUCH I love all my friends that read and follow me? I am truly grateful, humbled and so blessed to have you all in my life.
Nicole and is no exception. I received her Facebook message and instantly started prepping for her transformation post and our interview.
Read below.......
Fitness Food And Style interviews Nicole Tafokitao
How old are you and please can you share your health and fitness journey to date? I am 26 years old and I have lost over 40 kilos since October 2012. I am still losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle. My goal weight is 60kgs.
What types of foods did you used to eat as a kid and young adult? What's changed since then? I've always eaten healthy but at my biggest time of my life I used to eat rubbish. Now I am trying to eat healthy so I can achieve my weight loss goals.
Do you play any sports or what sports do you like watching? I love watching footy. No I don’t play sport.
What are your interests, passion and what makes you smile? I love hanging with my family, they are everything to me.
What was the catalyst that sparked your lifestyle change? My weight. I wasn’t happy with myself I needed to be healthier for my kids so I can be around with them longer in life.
What are some of your dreams/goals you hope to achieve over the next 12 months? Get to 60kgs, tone up and just be happy within myself.
What tips would you like to share with my readers about your transformation? Anyone can do it. Mind over matter and will power. It can be done! I was 125kgs and felt horrible, now I weigh 85kgs. If you really want it bad enough you will make it happen!
Thanks again for sharing your story with us Nicole and I look forward to featuring you again in the near future. Anyone that wants to follow Nicole you can do so on her Facebook page and Instagram.
For those wanting a feature on my blog and other social media's, please send your emails to transformationtuesday@gmail.com and follow the steps under the TRANSFORMATION tab. HAPPY TUESDAY!
I hope you know that song as I am quietly chuckling as I type this :-) if not click the hyperlink above.
Back and shoulder pose
Photo A Day Challenge word prompts are found here if you are visiting here for the first time. I would love for you to join us.
Speaking of backs, I have been having a little bit of difficulties with my back lately. Taking things easy with my workouts. Also trying to use my legs and do more squat like poses when I am bending down. Life can get busy when you don't have enough sleep, looking after sick babies and running a household of 6 people. However you just push on. Listen to your body and rest when you can.
For my Australian readers, have you had a chance to register and enter the 1stAvailable.com.au competition? More info can be found by clicking here.
This competition is not trying to sell you something but rather give you the chance to get 12 months free private health insurance for some genuine feedback.
1stAvailable.com.au is an online booking system that enables you to access health specialists via the web or a smartphone application when it suits you. Simply go online and select the type of physician you require and choose the 1stAvailable.com.au (or desired), appointment time. The registration is aimed at growing awareness and more importantly support to encourage healthcare professionals in your area to get onboard for this revolutionary service.
Help me and 1stAvailable.com.au to get this great cause off the ground by simply registering and who knows, you may be the lucky winner for your effort.
Thanks everyone for all your love and support, I look forward to reading your comments below XxDani
Here's a quick snap shot of my week, it's been tough but I am slowly learning how to fuel my body with plant based foods. Day 1 My first day ever to eat purely 100% plant based foods! Had a huge bowl of apples (6 in fact) sprinkled cinnamon for breakfast and funny enough, felt very satisfied. I need to ensure I eat a least 2,000 calories today so breaky was 400!
Fully raw apple cereal with cinnamon
Day 2 Making heaps of green juices and even the kids are loving all the cleaning and preparation of fresh foods. The only drama is, sometimes this process is taking up too much of my time as typically I'd only have to clean a handful of veggies and then throw some meat in the mix. Starting to feel hungry, tired and light headed. No caffeine will do this to you too!
Baby green smoothies
Day 3 Loving our Peachs fruit and vegetable boxes. It makes me realise how much we need to incorporate more raw food in our lifestyle. Mind you there are those vegetables we don't eat raw, so I make those for the rest of the family eg: baked potatoes Still feeling a little up and then down today as I had a really late night. Many catch ups over the school holidays, so kids are keeping me very busy. I need to drink MORE water to flush out whatever is going on here!
Day 4 Loads and loads of fruit today, also handful of walnuts. Then a plate full of these gorgeous veggies. Slowly getting into the swing of things but still so very hungry, so I am working out how much my body needs to feel full. Kids are also topping up their meals with crackers and dips, meats, yogurt so they are filling a lot more full.
Fully raw salad
Day 5Starting to feel less fatigued and starting to incorporate more animal products. A little bit of yogurt, quinoa and meats. Majority of my food is plant based and I am simply loving the colours of some of these juices. Here is our watermelon, apple and pear juice! Simply divine! Kids loved the fact the bee was in this picture.
Watermelon, apple and pear juice
Day 6 Starting to feel a bit better not 100% but I also know this is due to lack of sleep. I also don't drink coffee every day so I am kinda sabotaging myself with getting slight headaches due to the caffeine withdrawal. I need to cut it 100% to make this work. Starting to add seafood in my diet along with other meats.
Prawn salad
Day 7 Oscar has been regular since we started our 80/20 lifestyle. No longer taking Osmolax which was a daily dosage to soften his stool. If we missed a day or 2 he would be bound for 2-3 days. So he's been one very happy camper this week!
Fully raw kids breakfast fruit platter
Here's what our kids have found challenging, eating raw over the past 7 days Noah 7 years old "it is hard to just eat the one fruit each meal time, every day" Oscar 5 years old "I still like eating my fruits and vegetables but sometimes it doesn't fill me up. I just want to eat something more that's good for you. Like chicken and avocado sandwiches." Mietta 3 years old "I love strawberries but not canteloupe" Zali 1 year old no comment 180 Nutrition Thank goodness my all natural protein powder provides additional calories in my day. I simply place a scoop in my smoothies and bump up it at least 200-300 calories. They also have a VEGAN range using pea protein isolate. Once again it's all 100% natural with no hidden surprises. I blend mine as a smoothie as one daily serve of 180 provides;
a healthy meal replacement
provide increased energy levels
assist lean muscle growth
help regulate your body weight
improve digestion (gluten free)
Make sure you use my 10% PROMO CODE 264464 at check out if you want to purchase some. I swear by it!
This week I did squats up against a wall with my fitness ball as I am experiencing a little lower back pain. I'm not getting enough sleep which I notice impacts on me. So with my Fit Yummy Mummy routine, I incorporated my squat interval training. Here is a picture of my modified squats for those that also may experience low back pain but are still safe to exercise. How was your first week of being fully raw? Did you buckle like me and shift to the 80/20? I hope most of you are at least trying to eat one fully raw meal per day. Peachs fruit and vegetables on Eastwood St Please extend this invitation to whoever you know that lives in the Ballarat area. Mention my blog to receive a 10% discount off fruit & vegetable purchases at Peachs on Eastwood St, Ballarat. What's your favourite raw dish?
I did my resistance training earlier this morning and absolutely love the fact that I can do this at home and usually within 15 minutes! What's your favourite resistance training? To follow the program I do, simply click on this link and download the ebook as I have been able to maintain my body for the last 5 years using this Fit Yummy Mummy fat loss system. It just works!
My favourite post workout drink is (as you all know) 180 Nutrition and I love the fact that it comes in 2 natural flavours with no added sugar of course! It has stevia as a sweetener and I use the coconut natural flavour when mixing up my green smoothies and the chocolate natural flavour when I am craving something sweet.
This went down a treat today!!!! How you coping with no sugar after 9 WHOLE DAYS???? I am starting to get some chocolate cravings!! Must research dark chocolate with no added sugar :-) or simply stick to my protein powder of choice to save the day!!!
Which reminds me, I will be posting later tonight about my exclusive offer. I am super excited to have this available to you all!!!! Watch this space................but here's a little clue;
I also managed to go for a run but can officially say I will be hanging up my running shoes (not that I have been a huge runner as I only started last June/July) however due to my lower back issues and ongoing stitches my rehab doctor has advised I stick to my resistance and core strength training and not over exert my body with high impact exercise eg: running. I need to listen to my body and apologies to my girlfriends that are doing the fun run in Melbourne next month, I will be there in spirit!!!
Running
Our food today.......
Breakfast Home made muesli
No added sugar home made muesli
I simply mix together whatever ingredients I have in the pantry and this morning made a batch with;
Method: Wash chicken pieces thoroughly and rub tomato passata sauce (no added sugar of course) minced garlic, basil and season with S&P. Coat generously and oven bake until cooked. Clean and peel sweet potato and use your peeler to make ribbon pieces, toss in olive oil (I sometimes sprinkle cinnamon) and also oven bake with the chicken.
This is a quick cheat meal for me as the oven pretty much does all the work. What are some of your low maintenance healthy meals?
I am wanting to do a post on converting the not so healthy meals into clean eating meals. Please share some of your classic dinners that are NOT SO healthy so I can try and convert them into healthy dinner meals!
Hey there, how are you doing without sugar now that we hit the day 5 mark? Headaches? Agitated? Or feeling great and going great guns? All is well here and I am loving the fact our kids are embracing this challenge! Noah is even wanting to do this forever, he said;
"This challenge shouldn't be for 14 days Mum, this should be the way we eat forever!"
Bless his heart and I love him so very much. He is my rock. Everyone here is doing exceptionally well. Having said that Oscar (just started Prep) apologised yesterday for eating a muffin to celebrate his class mates birthday! I told him, it's okay and that he didn't need to apologise. Thanked him for telling me and then told him "BUT NEVER DO THAT AGAIN, ALRIGHT!!!!!" Juzzzzz kidding! I love how honest our children are with us, I really do hope this continues throughout their teenage years because I know, I was a shocker!!!!!
Didn't manage a workout today but busy running around with the kids today and some swimming got my heart rate pumping!
Vitamin D
We also got a chance to lay in the sun for a moment. Do you get enough Vitamin D? Even though Vitamin D isn't really a vitamin, it's more of a hormone. Vitamin D is necessary for strong bones and muscles. Without Vitamin D our bodies cannot effectively absorb calcium, which is essential to good bone health. That's why my Mum goes back to Serbia for the summer to warm up her bones and ease her arthritic pain. Get your Vitamin D today and the best way to do that is to eat fish! Vitamin D is rarely found in our natural foods and is typically added to milk, cereals and eggs (if the chicken was fed the vitamin).
Breakfast
Quinoa smoothie with banana and raspberries 180 Nutrition coconut protein powder 1/2 cup fresh raspberries (you can use frozen) 1 cup of milk 2tbs yogurt 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa
Breakfast smoothie
Snack
1 apple and handful of almonds
Lunch
Vegetable beef muffins
Snack
1 apple sliced with peanut butter and cinnamon sprinkled
Dinner
Turkey chicken burgers served with salad
Healthy burgers
I try to add as many vegetables to our meat and with our heat today, the kids just had them in bread. I was happy they had all their nutrients in the one burger!
Ingredients: Mince of your choice grated celery and carrot Chopped parsley and mint 2 eggs S&P
Method: Mix all ingredients together and make into burgers. Allow to chill for 10 minutes and then oven bake until cooked.
See! I try to make my life as easy as possible (and yours I hope), I was supervising all our kids beside the pool deck, so what better way to cook than the oven doing all the work!
I hope you had a great day today and thank you all for your lovely comments here, FB and Instagram. BTW those of you that have bought her book, how are you finding Sarah Wilson I QUIT SUGAR ebook? How divine are the recipes? Would love your feedback.
Thanks for posting your comments daily and look forward to reading how your days have been going without added sugar! Xx Dani PS: Look who else has no added sugar :-)
Gosh last night was tough, I was really craving that block of chocolate and those ice creams we had down the beach. I now officially know how it feels to become an addict of something. Sure. You may just think it's sugar and not a real drug but it's still considered an addictive "unhealthy" substance so really, I can put it in that category if I wish.
So for someone that has been eating relatively clean and then binging on all this sugar, I sure am paying for it. Moody. Agitated. Tired.
MIND over MATTER.
I can get through this. Trying to educate myself over the internet and re-reading the Sarah Wilson I QUIT SUGAR ebooks as some of you that know me, I am not a huge fan of reading at the best of times. Much rather be looking at those pretty pictures in Belle, Vogue, Inside Out etc.....magazines. Also her books cover heaps on all this sugar stuff so for those asking all these sugar questions, I highly recommend this book. I will also do a book review once I have fully read it, for those that are wanting a sugar free bible to assist them in their day to day food choices.
Special blog guest
I am in the process of also writing up an additional post about which foods to avoid that have added sugar and also what to look out for in the ingredients list and nutritional tab. My lovely friend Karin is a Nutritionalist and Health Food Coach in New York and I will invite her to do a blog post on her views on sugar and finally be clear on some of those questions you have been asking. I really want us all to be on the same page. This is new to me, even though I ran this challenge last year. So I will clip on as much information as I can and hope you too can help with any of your resources.
Apologies once again for my delayed responses to the last few days of my posts, we have been in over drive here at home (wend preparation) as kids go back to school again and my husband starting a new job so I don't see him from 6am-8pm. So I am a one woman show and heavily tied up with managing our family and home so please be patient with me.....
I managed to do my FYM workout this morning and I love the fact that I don't have to spend hours at the gym and can do a workout between 15-20 minutes per day. What's your workout like? How long do you workout per day? Per week? Do you prefer to workout at the gym or can you motivate yourself and workout at home?
I have so many variations that I make with our basic porridge concoction, so feel free to type in porridge or oats in the very top left hand corner box to see what I mean. I have added strawberries, orange, etc.....to our fave breakfast meal. What's your favourite?
Snack
2 hard boiled eggs with vegetable sticks
Lunch
Chicken wrap with feta, tomato, cucumber and spinach
Snack
Tzatziki dip (yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice & garlic) with vegetable sticks and rice crackers
Dinner
Chicken tenderloins with cauliflower, broccoli and beans
Okay another super quick dinner tonight as we have a few things on.
How did you survive Day 3 of our no added sugar challenge? Thanks again for coming and I really do love you all visiting, please tell me about how your day is going. See again here tomorrow.
Believe me this has been a lifetime learning journey and it feels really good to be in this place…peaceful existence, balance with life and self, and overall feeling of AWWW…Life is BETTER than Great!
I can remember being caught up in the stuff that really does not matter in the BIG scheme of life…the house looking just right, what people thought, oh my…my body is not quite there…is that fat on my butt…really???How many times am I going to give myself the outer thigh pinch test for crying out loud.Oh…I burned this, and that food presentation does not look perfect, oh…am I saying that just right, am I doing this right, and, oh no…my diet was not clean today and I have just ruined everything…REALLY? Enough of that crap already…whew…like I shared earlier…I am so glad to NOT be there anymore.
We really can be our own worst enemy if we let ourselves.Thoughts of “not good enough” swirling around in my head years ago are thankfully gone, praise God that is for certain.As I reach almost 50, I have to say that I have let go of being hard on myself…I mean what the heck would be the point.I do not need the acceptance or approval of others to be ME, although as I shared earlier, I know how that feels to be in that ugly place.Also, coming from a position of fitness competition, and featured here and there, I admit, I felt pressure to look a certain way, be a certain way, always on guard to public scrutiny and needing to be THAT GIRL…always in shape…perfect as some say…but…even then and now…I was and am FAR from that YUCK word.As I have shared many times…PERFECT DOES NOT EXIST except in fairy tales and photo shop…what a mind @%#& life can throw a person if you let it.
Moving to the NOW Darla…I do not “Sweat the Small Stuff” and I will certainly leave a few dishes in the sink and not worry about the pillow arrangement on the sofa when family and friends come over…I mean are they coming to see my dishes or me…taking that pressure off myself for years now feels FABULOUS and I really enjoy the precious moments of Life.Am I saying that I do not take pride in my home and self… of course not…I am NO piggy. What I am saying is my priorities have changed and I have a happy lived in home.When my time comes to leave this life, will my regrets be…I should have made sure the dishes were done all the time, the house was spotless, and all the streaks off the mirrors, work more…NO WAY…in fact, I do not want any regrets…I want my life to be full of meaningful moments with my family and friends, and helping people adapt healthy lives.What does this have to do with maintaining a healthy ME?Let me tell you…STRESS relief plays a big role in feeling great about who I am and life in general.
Not stressing over things that do not warrant attention and giving attention to those things worthy of my attention are important to living a healthy life in my book.I am not going to bash myself for hours on end for eating a splurge meal for example and thinking that I have ruined my life and health.I am living life for heaven’s sake.One or two splurge meals are not going to make or break my fitness health bank as the old ME would have thought.NOPE…not going to sustain my body on boiled fish and broccoli as a lifetime routine…YUCK …not realistic and truly not sustainable for a lifetime of healthy eating.My body definitely needs all the variety that comes from a variety of healthy foods…and I LOVE food to taste good…did I mention the spicier the better:)
Taking a deep breath each morning and being a thankful woman for my health, my hubby, family, this body,home,job, and so many other things that oftenget taken for granted like the beauty all around me is what fills me with absolute happiness.Am I saying that I do not take care of myself physically and through my healthy foods…now that would be ridiculous…I have not gone rebel on you and saying that this is not important.I live an example of a healthy life through my fitness and nutrition and share that with you as much as I can. I would be a hypocrite and not even be able to represent myself as a trainer and motivator if I did not live a healthy lifestyle.
I have relaxed so much with acceptance of whom I am, loving my body as it is with all the changes that come with the aging process,and knowing what is important as I have shared before…Being the BEST version of ME given my genetics and medical issues.Genetically, I would have to say that I have my father’s long, lean look, and I have had to work hard to put muscle on this body to add the curves that I like.So, I will no longer be a slave to society’s view of what Darla should look like, and I have let that go for years now, and celebrate the fact that it feels so good to NOT be hard on myself.What I will say about myself is that I am a dedicated woman when it comes to being a healthy person and take the time and effort to ensure that my body is exercised and fed healthy food on a consistent basis…but being over the top obsessed to the point that my life is negatively affected…NO WAY!Life is about beautiful balance, health in the physical, nutritional, and I can’t stress enough how important it has been for me to really key into my emotional and spiritual life.Talk about feeling carefree, and open to sharing my life and being REAL…that is what I am all about.
Thanks for stopping by my Blog, hope you enjoy the content, and if you have not become a follower yet, I would love to see your face on my friend's list. If you are inspired, LIKE my entry, leave a comment and I look forward to responding!
Have a FABULOUS weekend and upcoming week!
Stay Healthy!
Darla;)
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