5 ways to a healthier weekend

You’ve worked hard all week. You got up early every morning to do your workout. You planned out your meals, you even prepared your breakfast and lunch the night before. You said no to the cake at the Friday morning tea at work. Heck you even had your super greens powder and lemon water upon waking even though you dry reach every time just thinking about the after taste. You did everything right this week. And now you feel you need to be rewarded for it this weekend. Don’t do it! You are undoing all the progress you made during the week and perhaps even taking a step back. If you’re tired of not reaching your fitness goal it’s time to have a good hard look at what you’re doing over the weekend, because it is probably the reason why you are not there yet. Here are a few easy tips that you can do this weekend to help you get closer to that goal you made at the beginning of this year. It’s not too late to reach that 2014 new years resolution!

1. Avoid over sleeping You might think sleeping in an extra 2 hours on the weekend is doing you good, but in fact your body is already used to your sleeping routine from the week and so are your mealtimes and metabolism. If you sleep in, that means you’re less likely to do your morning exercise, you’ll probably skip breakfast and your meal pattern will be all over the place for the rest of the day. This means you’re more likely to over eat or eat when you’re not actually hungry. Allow yourself an extra 30 minutes of sleep and plan to do something active with your friends or family that you can’t normally do during the week.

2.  Plan ahead You might feel like the weekend is the only time when you can relax with your meal planning and be more “spirit of the moment”. You can still go out for a post beach swim breakfast or have a romantic dinner, but plan ahead and look up their menu on the internet. Do this when you are not hungry and make a decision about what you will order then. This way you’re more likely to steer clear of the all-too-familiar last minute hot chips side order.

3. Reward yourself You still need to reward yourself for all the effort you put in towards your goal during week, but you can do this without using food. Pamper yourself with a foot massage, a warm bath, your favourite magazine, a bunch of fresh flowers or some quality time with a friend. Remember to take deep breaths and give yourself a big pat on the back for your hard work!

4. Watch the alcohol! The biggest problem with this is that your body makes it its number one priority to metabolise this toxin once you’ve started sipping your champagne.  This means that any food you’ve eaten before, during, or after will be stored as excess energy (fat) – even if you’re drinking low carb beer or a vodka lime and soda!  Your best bet is not to have anything at all and enjoy other alternatives  (check out my delicious mocktail on Instagram) because alcohol is proably THE BIGGEST culprit for not reaching your goal yet. Your second best option is to stick with only 1 or 2 drinks and sip slowly to savour each mouthful. Make sure you drink plenty of water to keep hydrated and don’t drink too close to bedtime as this will affect your sleep and set you up for a tired unmotivated start to the week.

5. Take the time to de-stress Use the extra time you have on the weekend to de-stress from the week. Take some time out to reflect on your progress so far and write down any thoughts or ideas that can help you be better this coming week. Make sure that you spend quality time with your family and friends, laugh a lot, get outside and enjoy life. We can easily lose perspective on the important things in life when we focus too much on one goal. When we get our focus right, we are generally happier and therefore more productive and motivated to get where we want to go.

Enjoy a healthier weekend and reap the rewards!

Lizanne xxx

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Food prep for the week!

I recently showed you (here) part of my food prep and organisation that I like to get done on the weekend so that I’m ready to go for the week. Part of that routine is to go to the fruit and veg markets to get all my supplies for the week at a reasonable price. I also like to prepare a few foods on the weekend to make the process of creating meals easier. Here are a few of my favourites! Breakfast: It’s a real treat to wake up in the morning without having to think what you’re going to make for breakfast. That’s why I like to make a big bowl of homemade granola to last us a week or two. I like to do gluten-free sprouted buckwheat or an oat-based granola mixed in with various goodies. Perfect with almond milk and fresh chopped banana. Watch this space - recipes to follow!

Dips/sauces/spreads: I get so much use of out making these and they are so versatile! They’re perfect as a spread on a lunchtime sandwich, a dip with veggies or a few wholegrain crackers for a snack or to mix through quinoa or steamed veg for a main. - Hummus - Tahini Yoghurt - Chargrilled capsicum relish - Pesto

Here I made a baked sweet potato, radish and tahini yoghurt lentil salad topped with chargrilled capsicum relish.

Poached chicken: It works really well to poach a few pieces of lean chicken breasts, shred them and flavour them with lemon juice, pepper and herbamare. This can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days, or I like to freeze them in portions. When you make your salad for lunch in the morning you can take it out of the freezer, pop it on top of your salad and it will be thawed and ready to eat by lunch time!

Quinoa: This is my absolute favourite staple as mentioned before. It behaves like a grain (so you can substitute it for rice/couscous/pasta) but it is actually a seed and a complete protein source. This beauty is perfect tossed through salads or to bulk up soups and curries. I also like to make quinoa pilaf and use it as a foundation for my meals. Here I mixed quinoa with pesto and brocolinni.

Frozen fruit: I love to freeze ripe bananas and mangoes. Whenever I feel like a healthy frozen treat during the week I throw them into my thermomix to make 100% fruit ice cream! They’re also really handy for making smoothies. I love to freeze grapes for a cool summer snack.Frozen yoghurt blocks: I take this as a perfect opportunity to use up the last bit of my yoghurt from the week before it goes off. I like to combine it with honey/agave/maple syrup and any kind of chopped fruit.

Snacks: Trail mix - I like to combine raw almonds, walnuts, goji berries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and some chopped dried apple. You can leave this in a jar and grab as you go, or you can make them into little snack packs.

Super snack balls – these are one of my favourite snacks. So easy to make and very tasty!

Remember, 80% of your success is going to be nutrition - whether it is to tone up, bulk up, maintain or improve your general wellbeing. Exercise is vital, but eating the right foods is going to be the secret key to unlock the door to that level you're aspiring to! And being organised forms part of the key.

Question: What kind of foods do you like to prepare to be organised for the week?