Loving healthy fats and a wonderful complement
Hello everyone, hope your Tuesday has been a good one! I’ve had a couple of stressful days – it just feels like I have so much to do right now!
I have to say that exercise for me is such a great stress reliever. Monday morning I was up bright and early to hit the gym. I did my tread mill speed interval workout – 5k in just under 27 minutes. I followed that with 30 minutes of sweaty high intensity intervals on the cross trainer, step machine and bike. I also did my usual core and abs work to finish off! Today I did my Yoga for Runners podcast first thing, it really did make me feel a lot better. I find that when I have a lot on my mind I lose my balance a lot more in the poses, but I just try and focus on my breathing which helps calm me down.
This evening I had my beloved Body Pump class preceded by 30 minutes of cardio on the machines in the gym, loved getting my sweat on! I even increased my weights for the chest and bicep tracks. While I was in the gym I was approached by a girl who I’ve always though of as probably the fittest member – you know, the girl who is always there, appears slightly aloof, is really slim and fit etc, she asked me how I lost so much weight and how I got so toned. She asked if I followed any plan and that my arms were amazing! I was totally gobsmacked! I was truly amazed to receive such a lovely complement, especially from her! It really made my day :-)
I’ve noticed that over the last couple of days I have been loving the healthy fats in my meals. I needed Monday’s breakfast to be quick and easy to prepare so on Sunday night I made up a quick Vanilla Chia Quinoa pudding and left it in the fridge. Post gym I just added a chopped pink lady apple and some frozen blueberries:
I really do love chia puddings, chia seeds are such a great source of healthy fats and this pudding kept me nice and full till lunch.
This morning I used my last Mountain Corn Bread Wrap and filled it with strawberries and lots of almond butter for more healthy fat action. I had even more fat in the form of a smoothie containing strawberries, half a frozen avocado, coconut water and pumpkin seeds then topped with more pumpkin seeds:
The avocado made the smoothie extra thick and creamy and the pumpkin seeds gave it a great nutty taste.
Lunches have been the same very tasty salad:
This contained romaine lettuce, carrot, cucumber, red onion, yellow pepper, olives, hemp seeds, avocado and a big drizzle of cashew mayo. I went for quadruple good fat action with this: cashew mayo containing cashews and olive oil, hemp seeds, olives and more avocado. So satisfying!
Dinners have seen more raw experimentation, this time with sprouted wheat berries. I mixed the wheat berries with some green lentils, chopped carrot and fresh basil and some of my citrus dressing from this recipe. I served up with a pile of steamed greens and broccoli:
This was absolutely delicious, I love chewy wheat berries – they pair very well with the citrus flavour. I also got in my healthy fat action with the hemp oil in the dressing, yum yum!
Desserts have included Easter Sunshine Conscious Raw Chocolate and some orange:
The raw chocolate contained sunflower seeds (more fat!) and dried mango, delicious!
I’ve also enjoyed snacking on lots of delicious fruit, veggies and my garden pate (more sunflower seeds and hemp oil) and a Raw Chocolate Brownie:
I adore these brownies and this reminded me I need to make some more of my own! This contains almonds for even more yummy fat.
Wow, until I actually thought about it I didn’t realise how much healthy fats I’ve been eating! I really do love my healthy fats, my current favourites being avocados, nut butters (obviously!) and hemp oil. They have been a great healthy source of fat and additional calories while I’m training, and I think my skin, hair and nails have been thanking me for it!
Healthy fats such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat are great for the body – they aren’t called essential fatty acids for nothing! Our body can’t produce them so we need them from our diet. They help us to absorb fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K, they support brain and nerve function and help to keep our skin, hair and nails healthy. Even if your trying to lose weight, a lot of research has shown that eating a moderate amount of the right fats can support weight loss.
What’s your favourite healthy fat? How do you incorporate healthy fats into your diet?
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