We need inspiration for everything we do.

Sometimes when I look at my diary and big letters jump at me saying BLOG TIME, I’ll sit and look out the window on our beautiful view thinking what should I put in my blog? I would like my followers to learn something every time they read my blog, or at least get that ‘aha’ feeling. This week I have more of a “YEAH I know”!

We do need inspiration to keep our healthy lifestyle going but we are also responsible for our health. I think it is ridiculous when people sue McDonlads or a cigarette company for making them fat or giving them cancer, we know it’s not good for us so we have to accept the responsibility.

What are 10 things you could do today for a fitter and healthier lifestyle?

·         Go for a 30 minutes walk

·         Eat a fresh salad with your lunch

·         Get 8 hours sleep

·         Do 20 minutes of resistance training

·         Laugh and have fun

·         Do 15 minutes stretching and calm time

·         Have fish for dinner

·         Have dinner with the family or a friend

·         Learn something new

If you take a close look at this list you will realize that it is not difficult to live a healthy and happy life.
The hardest thing on the list is to make sure the list is there every day to follow, prioritize, and keep inspired by for a healthy lifestyle. 

I live fitness and I’m bombarded with new research about fitness, healthy eating, and healthy living every day, but I still need to be inspired and prioritize my healthy living. I do it because it makes me feel so good and happy!! 

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

This might not be one of your every day slim dinner, but for a Friday night treat it is lovely.

Grilled baguette with prosciutto and grilled halloumi

Serve 4

1 baguette
250g Halloumi sliced
Olive oil
Ruccola
Sundried tomatoes
15 slices prosciutto

Methods

• Sliced the baguette in half, dress the baguette with garlic and olive oil, and grill them in a 225 preheated oven for 10 min until golden
• Fry the halloumi
• Mix the halloumi, tomatoes, prosciutto, ruccola, salt & pepper, and spread the mixture on to the baguette
• Sprinkle a bit of olive oil on top and serve with additional green salad 

Great start to the weekend!!

Yours in Health & Fitness,Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

A lot of times when I talk about healthy eating with my clients they kind of roll their eyes, and goes yeah, yeah but it is so hard to always think about it. But does it really have to be that hard?

I love berries on my breakfast muslie or porridge, so when I was in Sweden recently I did a short stroll in the forest behind our summerhouse to see what I could find for my breakfast.

Blueberries are rich in Vitamins A, C, E and beta-carotene as well as rich in the minerals potassium, manganese, and magnesium. They are very high in fiber and low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. But this is just the tip of the nutritional iceberg, recent studies tells us that of all fresh fruits and vegetables, blueberries provide the most  health-protecting antioxidants, those valuable elements which prevent cancer-causing cell damage and may reduce the changes in cells by age related diseases.

After 25 hours travel and back on Australian ground my throat started to get a bit irritable, and I always then go for citrus fruit with heaps of vitamin C. This time I went out in our back yard here in Melbourne, to see what I could find for my poor throat.

Citrus fruits are best known for their content of vitamin C, an anti-oxidant that may provide protection against cancer causing agents and that may boost the immune system. All of the citrus fruits have lots of vitamin C, but kiwifruit is an especially rich source, with 70 mg in 100g of fruit compared to 40mg for grapefruit and 49mg in oranges. Citrus fruits also provide vitamin E and several of the B vitamins. They also contain some minerals, including phosphorus, magnesium, copper, and they are sodium free.

I know that everyone doesn’t have a back yard with fruit, but we should think about what’s in season and make our menus accordingly. We eat pretty much the same way throughout all four seasons, which is a big oversight on our part. We should "listen" to our bodies and adjust our diet according to our bodies' needs, which change from season to season. That will give you and your family and nice variety of food and vitamins, but it is also good for the environment. 


Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

I don’t know if it is due to my resent return from summer Sweden, or just because it is winter and cold, but since I got back (not even a week yet!) I’m making soup today for the second time in a week. Isn’t it lovely with a nice hot soup with some nice homemade bread and cheese on a cold wintery day?

I’m making pumpkin soup; pumpkin is full of vitamins A and C, a power house of antioxidants to help fight winter flues, ageing and disease. It is quite nice to add cooked cannellini beans for added protein which will help keep you fuller longer.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

1 kg pumpkin, cut into chunks
1 red apple chopped
Sea salt and cracked white pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil
750 ml Vegetable stock

Preheat your oven to 200 C.
Place the pumpkin and apple onto a baking tray and drizzle over the olive oil.
Season with a little sea salt, white pepper + cinnamon.
Roast the pumpkin + apple for 35 minutes until soft.
Blend the pumpkin with the apple + vegetable stock until smooth (Remember you can make your soup to the consistency you love it, so don’t to use all the stock when blending, you can always add more when heating.)
Pour the soup into a saucepan and heat through gently.
Serve in bowls and enjoy. Serves 4.

Get the family together around the table and enjoy!!!!

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au

After a too short (aren’t holidays always too short) wonderful holiday in Sweden I’m back in the swing of Melbourne and ready to get more Australians into a fit and healthy lifestyle.  It’s always interesting to see what is new in how Sweden works with wellness. Swedes are in general more active than Australians due to a long tradition in riding bikes or walking to schools and work, and therefore more bike paths and more easy accesses to public transportation. But never the less is Sweden like many other countries in the world struggling with overweight and obese population.

I do feel though that they are approaching the problem in a healthy way.

GP’s in Sweden are rewarded if they follow-up patients with preventive care like nutrition, exercise and healthy lifestyles, the healthier their patients are the more funds the clinics gets.

Companies get certified as a Healthy Company if they fulfill certain healthy lifestyle criteria. It can be offering parking for bikes, fruit baskets, allowing exercising during office hours or organizing in-house competitions for more active lifestyles.

Instead of doing health assessments with the goal of finding out if the employees has high cholesterol, diabetes, or other bad lifestyle related symptoms, they work with a preventive health assessment goal. The employees are given a healthy lifestyle plan with exercises and healthy eating suggestions for preventing metabolic syndrome symptoms.

I think we are heading in the right direction here, but there is always room for improvement and changing habits takes a long time both for humans and society.      

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

www.newfitness.com.au