Monday 3 June 2013


What has happened to common sense? Who told us that we shouldn’t walk to the shops, work or school? Who told us that food in a can is better for us that something freshly made? No one!!!! We have changed our lifestyle due to society changing, forcing us to believe that fast food, readymade food, prepared food is what we need because we don’t have time to cook with fresh products. 

We are so good at making excuses not to move, so I think we might end up back in the monkey stage with arms hanging low down in front of us with rounded backs and no bottoms.  

Anyway, back to the food issue. We complain about our weight, love handles, the big belly and yet most of the time you’ll hear – "I do everything right and still don’t lose weight". Well, my believes are that we are too depended on pre-cooked food that we have forgotten how easy it can be to cook healthy food.

By using pre-cooked and processed food you add so many “hidden” calories it can actually be hard keeping or losing weight.

Making a salad and put some fish or chicken on the barbeque will not take more than 10-15 minutes, and then finishing up the meal with fresh fruit and you will have a perfectly balanced meal in not time.

I have done some comparison in regards to price and calories for you to consider, a big Mac meal for four from McDonald includes; 2 big Macs, 1 cheeseburger, 1 6-pack chicken nuggets, 2 medium fries, 2 medium cokes, 2 small cokes, costs $27.90 and will give each person about 900 calories.

A cooked dinner at home with chicken (a fresh whole), potatoes and salad will cost you (including cooking ingredients) $13.78 for four and you will save about 260 calories per meals compared to a McDonald’s meal.

So start planning you meals, shop accordingly, and don’t use pre-cooked and processed food, or the microwave oven, and your body will thank you by keeping and adjusting to a healthy weight.
 Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta



 

Monday 27 May 2013


I made fish soufflé tonight. A perfect dinner for leftover fish or you can even buy fresh fish and boil it before use. The preparation is not long and when you have it in the oven you are done in the kitchen.

I usually serve it with steamed vegetables like peas, broccoli and cauliflower.


Ingredients


3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
Pepper (to taste)
1 cup+ steamed fish (I usually use white fish but you can use salmon too)
3 eggs, separated

Methods
  • Melt butter in a small sauce pan.
  • Add flour, milk, salt and pepper.
  • Boil until thick and the remove from heat, and add the egg yolks one at the time.
  • Beat the egg whites until stiff and mix carefully with butter mixture and the fish.
  • Pour the mixture into a greased and breadcrumbs covered deep baking dish.
  • Bake at 200 for about 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy a beautiful healthy and nice dinner!
 
Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta

 

 

Tuesday 14 May 2013


Life is not always easy.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if life could always be “a dance on the roses ” (Swedish saying), but it isn’t.  We get tired, frustrated at work, fight with our partners, get angry with the kids, feeling that our families are overwhelming and sometimes you act in a way that you wish you hadn’t but at all these moments life was just too much.

You know this is life, and we have to make the best of it! We try our hardest most of the time to make our life just the way we dream of it to be.

So what can we do when we feel like throwing in the towel and crawl into bed and pull the cover right up over our heads.

You have a choice. Happiness is nothing you can buy in the store, you need to feel it and want it. So are you ready to look at those moments when everything seems too much, and learn from them to make the best of the situation?

I have those moments when everything seems too much and there is no way I can look at life and enjoy it. That’s when I dig into my “happy toolbox” and use tool by tool to fix the problem.

Find something positive about the situation
You want to be happy
You are worth being happy
You are strong enough
You decide over your happiness
Don’t try to change everyone else, but make sure to let them know that you want them in your life
Shake it off and do something that makes you happy
Write down goals and things you want in your life

I have given you a few of my tools from my toolbox, and I hope some of them or maybe all of them can be of help to you when you want to change a ordinary day into a fantastic day you can remember for a long time.

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta


Monday 29 April 2013


Why do we age?

Researchers have yet to unravel the mysteries with aging. But more and more is discussed around the role of the telomeres. Telomeres are the region of repetitive nucleotide sequences at each end of a chromatid, which protects the end of the chromosome.

Telomeres play an important role in cell division. As telomeres shorten, a critical threshold is reached where the cells no longer replicate and starts to decline and eventually dies.

Each time a cell divides, the DNA unwraps and the information in the DNA is copied. The process doesn t copy all of the DNA information- the telomeres are not copied. The telomeres lose a little bit of length each time this happens.

Researcher now understands more of the life of the telomeres and the mechanism by which the telomeres can be restored.

There is a lot of data from laboratory tests supporting the theory that stress and other oxidative damage also damage the telomeres and increases the rate by which telomeres are shorten.

Living a healthy lifestyle by not smoking, lowering stress levels, exercising and eating healthy are thought to slow down the rate of telomeres loss, but we can probably not undo what is already done.

While we may not be able to stop cell ageing, at least not yet, we can adopt lifestyle modifications such as avoiding excessive stress and maintain ideal weight.

Healthy living is our best defence in slowing down the sign and symptoms of ageing.

So if we eat healthy, exercise, stress less and don't smoke we can avoid many of our chronic diseases, age related diseases and ageing, so what 's stopping us?


Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta





 

Sunday 14 April 2013





Reflections from my two weeks of vegetarian diet

I hope you have enjoyed my recipes, and maybe even tried some. If I quickly would sum up my experiences from the last two weeks, I would say – I’ll not become a vegetarian. Don’t get me wrong I loved the dishes that we made, but I very much missed fish and sometimes chicken. I could do without meat, but I would have a hard time with a diet without fish. 

I already now eat most of my lunches with raw food, but my dinner will always include fish or chicken.

There are so many amazing vegetarian recipes out there to choose from, and I’m sure I’ll do more vegetarian dishes in the future but I will not become a vegetarian.

There's no doubt in my mind that for the average person not used to cooking vegetables, they are far more intimidating than cooking meat, but that doesn't mean it has to stay that way. The first few days or maybe weeks might be hard before you get the hang of it. You need to plan a bit more; you can’t really have your fresh vegetables in the freezer. But before you know it, cooking vegetables will become just as easy as cooking meat was before.

So, if you would like to give the vegetarian diet a try for a few weeks, here are some tips;

·         Start with an open mind. You can’t really fail, have fun and try new vegetables

·         Plan your meals and give yourself extra time to cook

·         Fill your pantry with vegetarian friendly products, beans and grains

·         Don’t fall for readymade vegetarian food, cook yourself

·         Most of all have fun.

This might not be for you all the time, but why not add a few vegetarian dishes each week

Have fun and enjoy something new!!!

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta


 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 

Tuesday 2 April 2013


I had the pleasure to attend a raw food seminar in August last year, which was amazing and mind opening for me. I have always eaten salads with all my meals, and really enjoyed it but to focus on raw food as your main diet is totally different.

I would not go 100% raw because I like my fish and meat every once in a while, and I love a nice warm soup on a cold winter day, but having one or two meals per day with raw vegetables and fruit is lovely.

You feel energetic, have more mental focus, your skin will glow, you will have less of those daily aches and pains, and it will give you a feeling that you are in a state of wellbeing.

Why not start with a raw lunch for a week or two to experience the difference?

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta



 

Monday 18 March 2013


Most of the time when I talk to clients about healthy eating and exercise, they usually answer they know it all that it’s just so hard to get around and do it.  
In seven days you can make the changes you need for a healthier you;

Monday

Eat oily fish. Healthy omega-3 fats, which are found in oily fish (salmon, trout, mackerel), assists  your cardiovascular system and keep skin soft and supple. Go for a 30 min walk, and do a short body and soul stretching routine before bedtime.

Tuesday

 

Boost your berry intake. Berries are an excellent source of vitamin C; an important nutrient that boosts you immune system and helps the skin’s collagen production. Berries are also rich in antioxidants, which help protect against the free radicals damage. Do a session with resistance training, squats, push ups, dip,s and core work.

Wednesday

Add some avocado. Avocados are an excellent source of vitamin E, one of the most powerful antioxidants, that also helps neutralize free radicals. Go for a 30 min walk, and do a short body and soul stretching routine before bedtime.

Thursday

Snack on pumpkin seeds. They supply your body with the mineral zinc, which is needed for healthy wound healing and to balance oil production in the skin. Do a session with resistance training,  squats, push ups, dips and core work.

Friday

Eat a handful of walnuts and almonds; when it comes to nuts  walnut is the king. It's a great source of the healthy omega-3 essential fatty acids, which have been found to protect the heart, promote better cognitive function, and provide anti-inflammatory benefits for asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema and psoriasis.
Just a quarter cup of almonds contains nearly 25 percent of your needed daily requirements of the important nutrient magnesium plus it is rich in potassium, manganese, copper, the antioxidants vitamin E, selenium, and calcium. Go for a 30 minute walk and do a short body soul stretching routine before bedtime.

Saturday

Have a cup green tea. The flavonoids in green tea are potent natural anti-inflammatory compounds that have been shown in numerous studies to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and assist the metabolic system.  Go for a 30 minute walk and do a short body soul stretching routine before bedtime.

Sunday

Munch on carrots. They are packed with beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A, which helps to promote the skin’s repair and maintenance.
A week has passed and you have introduced 7 new healthy eating habits and a week’s routine of exercising. I’m sure you didn’t feel it was too strenuous, let’s aim to keep this up!
 
Life is too short not to give your body the best!!

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta



 
 

Monday 4 March 2013


Are you a cat? Do you stretch in bed before you get up in the morning?

We know that waking up fresh in the morning is the best way of achieving our goals.  We exercise, study, work, etc., much better in the morning than other times in the day. But many of us have a hard time getting up in the morning, and really don’t feel like achieving any our life goals.
Here are some tips on how we make (as the Swedish saying goes) “morning time gold worth”. Start with the night before, during the night, and as you wake up to make you mornings something to look forward to.

Night before

·          Avoid red wine and coffee.
    Coffee and red wine have been scientifically shown to disturb your
    sleep more than any other food. Try not to have them to close to your bedtime.
·          Don’t go to bed upset.
     If you have an argument with your partner, children or friend, try to solve it. If you can't talk to the person, write down what has upset you and leave that on the paper.
·          Do a short relaxing and stretching routine before bedtime.
·          Don’t eat dinner too close to bedtime.
·          Plan your breakfast

During the night

·          Sleep with the window open
·          Try to keep your environment quiet

In the morning

·          The ideal is to wake up before the alarm, but that can be hard
·          Take a few seconds to stretch and appreciate the coming day.
·          Have a hot cup of lemon water and do your exercises.
·          Rather rise earlier than start your day with stressing to get ready.

I practices most of these points myself and the great thing is that the more of them you put into place the better you will feel.

Yours in Health & Fitness,
Birgitta