For those of you who need to grab and go with your breakfast (snap!) I’ve been trying out breakfast pots, which you can make up the night before and grab from the fridge to eat whenever you get a sec on the train/bus/school run/at work. Continue reading “Throw Back Thursday – Breakfast Bircher Pots – Morning Hack”
Tag: Fitness
Do you suffer from lower back or hip pain? It could be your glutes…
Hello lovely people here. I’ve recently learnt a few things about the way my body works, and I want to share it with you – I suspect a few of you may also recognise my story.
I like to stay fit, and exercise four or five times a week – a mix of bootcamp, running, yoga, pilates. It keeps a smile on my face, and helps make allowances for the wine and chocolate in my life. I’d consider myself to be quite a fit person generally, but over the last few years I’ve had nagging back and hip pain which comes and goes, but more recently has been coming more than it’s going.
Last night an Osteopath saved my life…
Ok, so that’s a bit dramatic for a headline but it made me sing ‘last night a DJ saved my life’ so that’s lovely. In truth though, my visit to see the lovely Anna has been a revelation. She asked me so many questions, looked at the ‘whole me’ by talking about my underachieve thyroid and the impact it has on my life and body, and genuinely wanted to delve into the ‘why’.
Turns out I’m a bit wonky (from birth, apparently) but also that I have an underactive left glute too. A marathon runner with glutes that don’t work = sore back and hips!
So, before I jump headfirst in to getting my miles up for the London Marathon next year, I need to work on some core muscles first. Glutes and abs. As well as helping me avoid injury, it should also help me run faster (and maybe give me a figure like Beyonce?). Perhaps the last wish is a step too far, but the first two are definitely achievable.
The good news
It’s do-able – I can build my core and abs, but with smaller and much more intense moves than my usual bootcamp repertoire. So, I’m going back to exercise school and am using a circuit of pilates and pilates-type moves to build things up. Here’s what I’m doing…
- Skaters
- Copenhagen
- Bent Knee Side Plank
- Hip thrusters (with band)
- Single leg hip thrusters
Give them a go, and see if they make a difference! You might need to build up from small reps e.g. 4/5 like I did!
I’ve also bought myself some resistance bands to stabilise my exercises, which I’ve been using every day. I’ll share the bands I bought from Amazon below. They aren’t the cheapest available, but they do come with free training videos and recipes too, as well as a practical exercise card book to help you follow the training.
I’ve also booked on to Spin to keep up the cardio, and to help keep the lbs down 🙂
Happy squeezing, lovely people.
Tahlia X
Mackerel & Cous Cous Super Food Salad – Let’s Get Summer Started
Are you in the mood for salad? One that’s going to hit the taste buds and fill you up? Give this a try! Not only is it easy, it is bursting with goodness!
Did you know…?
Mackerel is high in long chain omega 3 acids, which may help prevent heart disease. They’re also a good source of Vitamin D.
Check out more information here:
This salad perfectly compliments our healthy living lifestyle, have you seen our exercise cards? Take a look: Fitness
So let’s get started!! Grab yourself a bag of Super Food Salad (I bought mine from Aldi and it contains: Land cress, red chard, baby spinach, beetroot, baby kale and wild rocket), some peppered mackerel, Cous Cous and sliced red pepper.
Method:
Slice up half of a red pepper and make up some Cous Cous. Place a couple of generous handfuls of salad mix into a bowl, then add the red peppers and Cous Cous.
Remove the skin from the mackerel and break up into large flakes.
Decorate the top of your salad with the flaky mackerel and use a dressing of choice. Enjoy!!
Healthy Breakfast Pots – The Grab & Go Way
Life gets busy, right? Here at MIRL we love these scrummy yummy breakfast pots. Made up the night before, they are the perfect ‘grab & go’ in the mornings.
Not only are they tasty, this breakfast pot is unbelievably healthy and very filling too.
Do you want to know more about the health benefits of berries? Check out this insightful link:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/11-reasons-to-eat-berries
Ingredients:
Handful of Frozen Summer berries
20g museli (sugar free)
1tbsp Fat Free Yogurt
Method:
Simply place your Muesli into an airtight pot, top with berries and then add the yogurt on top! Close the lid and pop into the fridge ready to grab in the morning!
Rhubarb & Summer Berry Crumble With Ice Cream & Custard
Here at Mums In Real Life, we love a good pudding. Cue Rhubarb coming into season and for us, this equates to happy days!
This Rhubarb & Berry Crumble hits all the right notes. It is also ridiculously easy to make!
Ingredients:
500g Rhubarb, cut into chunky cubes
Handful of frozen summer berries
2oz Demerara sugar
1tsp cinnamon
2oz chilled butter, cubed
3oz self raising flour
To serve:
Vanilla ice cream
Custard
Basil leaves to garnish
Method:
Preheat the oven to 160•C fan, gas mark 4. Place the rhubarb into a saucepan and cover with water. Add the sugar & cinnamon and stew on the hob for 15-20 minutes.
Once stewed, add in the berries. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Next, make the crumble mixture. Place the butter & flour into a processor and pulse until you get done breadcrumbs.
Once cooled, transfer the stewed fruit into an oven proof dish. Sprinkle the crumble on top.
Cook for 35-40 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool slightly and serve with a scoop of ice cream and custard. Garnish with basil.
Apple & Berries Oat Breakfast Smoothie
Here’s another throw back to keep us all motivated this week 👍🏻
How’s the ‘shaking it off’ going for you? Here at Mums In Real Life, we’re feeling mighty fine!
These yummy Oat and fruit breakfast smoothies have really given us a spring in our step this week.
Did You Know….?
That Oats are stacked full of vitamins, Fibre and antioxidants and are among the healthiest grains on earth.
Check out this link for all of the benefits:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/9-benefits-oats-oatmeal
The breakfast smoothie for Day 5 is just delicious! Give it a go, it’s super easy…
Ingredients:
150ml Soya Milk
100ml Skimmed Milk
20g Oats
4 Strawberries
1 Apple (skin on, cored)
Handful of Blueberries
Method:
Pop everything (save a couple of blueberries to use as a dressing) into your blender and blitz. Pour and enjoy!
Tangy Orange Smoothie
To keep everyone motivated during the half term, here is a throwback post:
So far, so good. Between the two of us here at Mums In Real Life, our ‘Shake It Off’ week is going beautifully. We’ve shimmied Monday and Tuesday away so far with Boot Camp, abdominal Zoning and lots of Cardio.
Have you seen our exercise cards?
We’ve been following our breakfast smoothie plan and we have another delicious breakfast drink to share.
Tomorrow it’s all about the Orange. We all know that Oranges are bursting with Vitamin C, are a good source of Fibre, B vitamins, vitamin A, Calcium and potassium (Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/28497905/)
What’s not to love?
Ingredients:
1 Orange
Half of a Banana
250ml skimmed milk
2tbsp Fat Free Yogurt
2 Ice Cubes
Method:
Peel the orange and break into segments. Peel and roughly chop half of a banana. Place the fruit, milk, yogurt and ice cubes into a mixer bowl. Blitz until smooth.
Give it a go! Here at Mums In Real Life, we’re always looking for new tips so please share yours 👍🏻
The Mighty Mango & Perfect Pear Smoothie
Here at Mums In Real Life, our healthy living reset is going well. How can we tell? Between the two of us, we have sore legs, sore arms and the ab zone is killing!
Check out our exercise cards, which have been generously created by our friend PT Craig at Keeling Fitness:
If you’ve been following us and joining (thank you!) in, you’ll know that we’ve started each morning with a breakfast smoothie! How simple and delicious – my youngest counted to 63 and my breakfast was prepped and blitzed!
The smoothie for Day 4 is Mango and Pear. In case you didn’t already know, Mangoes are a great source of Vitamin A & B. They’re also high in fibre, a good source of antioxidants and are low in calories.
Check out more info here:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/health-benefits-mango
For this smoothie, we’ve married our Mango with Pears – a marriage made in heaven!
Pears have stacks of nutritional value and are a proven recipe aid to weight loss.
Check out more info here:
https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/fruit/pears.html
So, let’s get this party started!
Ingredients:
1/2 Mango – peeled and cut into chunks
1 Pear – cut into chunks
10g Porridge Oats
100ml Soya Milk
150ml Skimmed Milk
2 Ice Cubes
Method:
Pop all of the ingredients into your blender and blitz!
Summer Fruit, Yogurt & Oats Smoothie – The (virtually) Fat Free Way
This breakfast smoothie is gorgeous, it tastes like summer in a glass but is also nice & filling – a really good way to start the day!
Ingredients:
20g Porridge Oats
2tbsp Fat Free Natural Yogurt
200ml Skimmed Milk
2tbsp Frozen Summer Fruits
1tsp honey
Method:
Chuck all of the ingredients into a blender & blitz! Enjoy!!
Beetroot, Spinach And Aloe Vera – Michelle Inspired Mocktail – Let’s Talk Health Benefits
Thank you so much for all of your feedback from our ‘Shake It Off’ week!!! We have received some lovely messages and can’t believe how many people followed it!! Thanks guys, here at Mums In Real Life, it means a lot!!! We hope you are all feeling as good as we do!
Several friends got in touch with us about the health benefits of Aloe Vera Juice. Thanks for pointing us in this direction 👍🏻
Benefits, to name but a few:
• Liver function
• Hydration
• Clear skin
• Constipation
• Nutritional boost
• Aid digestion
• Indigestion relief
However, it’s very important to note that it can have Possible Side Effects/Contraindications. Take a read:
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-607/aloe
So, after reading all of this and weighing up the pros and cons I decided to give it a go.
Ingredients:
Half of a Beetroot (precooked)
Handful of spinach
Juice of 1 lemon
20ml Aloe Vera Juice
Glass of cold water
2 Ice cubes
Method:
Place everything into your blender and blitz!! Mine came out quite grainy, so I then sieved it into a glass .
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