Weight Lifting For Women

Have you ever wondered why approximately women who workout look like they are supposed to be on the cover of a fitness magazine while others, who exercise just as much, dont? It is all about elaboration SMART. Weight lifting for women is becoming increasingly popular, and can make the difference in how happy you are with your body. Cardiovascular exercise fair isnt enough anymore, and many numerous studies have proven this. So where do you commence? First, lets clear some things up.
Weight lifting for women FAQs
1.Why should I lift weights?
Weight lifting for women builds lean muscle, which increases your metabolism, which in turn helps you actually burn more calories during your workout routines and at rest. You will lose body fat as evidenced by reports performed by Wayne Westcott, PhD, on the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Boston. He found that the average person who strength trains two to thrice a week for two months will attain nearly two pounds of muscle and will lose 3.5 pounds of fat.
2.Will I lose my beautiful figure and look more masculine?
No! You will get stronger, however , you will not bulk-up. Researchers get that women typically dont gain size from strength training, because compared to men, women have 10 to 30 times less of the hormones that creates muscle hypertrophy. Weight lifting for women has a much different goal than for men. You will keep your curves and feminine figure - you will just be fit and toned. You will have a waist, hips, and chest.
3.Do I have to spend hours at the gym?
No. The "Fitness Model Programme" teaches you how weight lifting for women works and gives you all the exercises you need to develop in which toned, beautiful, fitness model body. You can apply the workout at home in 4 workouts a week. .
4.Do I have a buy a ton of equipment and make place in my home for a gym?
No. You only need 5 pieces of basic fitness equipment.
5.Is weight lifting for women just a fad?
No. It is proven, and have been for some time, that weight lifting for women is just as important as cardio workouts. This is not a new exercise technique, the next hottest development, or pills. This is fact.

Convinced? I hope so. Weight lifting will make all the variation in your workouts. If you dont workout yet, or are not sure how to start going down your weight lifting for women road, the fitness model program will assist. Even if you already spend a long time at the gym and are hardly happy with your results, the fitness model program will get you again on track.

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EASY CHICKEN AND LEEK BAKE

I love a chicken pie but I am not that mad on pastry, therefore I was delighted to find this recipe for a chicken bake with a crispy topping. The weather is miserable and winter is on its way so this was the perfect recipe to cook. Plus it was easy!! It took about 45-50 minutes in total to prepare and cook.

Ingredients for 4 people:

2 tbsp olive oil
6 chicken thighs,skinned, boned and cubed
6 rashes of smoked streaky bacon, roughly cut into 1 cm wide strips
2 leeks, sliced
4 lemon thyme sprigs (I just used normal thyme as that is all we had in the garden)
350g tub of cheese sauce (I used a three cheese sauce)
35g fresh white breadcrumbs
2 x 25g packs Walkers Sour Cream and Cracked Pepper Sunbites, crumbled
25g flat leaf parsley, chopped

Prepare all the ingredients such as cutting the chicken, crumble the crisps (I squeezed the packets), slice the leeks and chop the parsley.

You can fry the bacon but I prefer to grill it as it is "slightly" healthier so heat the grill to a medium to high heat and then put the bacon in for around 8 minutes, turning half way through.

Once the bacon has cooked start preheating the oven to 200 C / gas mark 6.

At the same time heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large pan and cook the chicken over a high heat for 6 minutes until nicely browned.

The bacon should be ready around now and so chop into strips and then add to the chicken with the leeks and the thyme and cook for a further 2-3 minutes until the leeks are softened.

Stir in the cheese sauce, cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through - it is always wise to check….no one wants food poisoning!!

Meanwhile stir the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil into the breadcrumbs and then mix in the crumbled Sunbite crisps and parsley.

Spoon the chicken mixture into an oven proof dish.

Scatter over the parsley and breadcrumb mix.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until crunchy and golden.

Serve either on its own or with a mixed green leaf salad or vegetables.

This was good - I will admit we added some grated cheese which I think it needed, however I am a cheese obsessive. When I cook it next time, I will add some Parmesan to the breadcrumb, crisp and parsley topping. If you are a vegetarian you could substitute the chicken and bacon for some mushrooms, peppers and courgettes and the chicken mixture is freezable.

I much preferred this to a normal pie - Arabella moaned there was too much parsley and I think I should have chopped it into smaller pieces however it didnt really make a difference as we really enjoyed it and managed to polish off the entire portion between the three of us! 

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Homemade Tahini

& Day 3, Week 3 
*Homemade Tahini recipe below

Happy hump day to everyone!  I feel like this week has been going by rather slowly.  Probably because we have such a fun weekend coming up.  On Friday, our good friend Marley is coming into Spokane from our college town of Pullman to go out for her 21st Birthday.  Then, on Saturday, our couple friends, Ian and Danielle are having a BBQ at their new house and a party through the evening for Dannielles Birthday.  One other thing that is quite eventful this weekend is.... Arrested Development coming out on Netflix!!!!!  Kevin and I will, probably spend any second we get watching all of the new episodes.

Tonight for dinner, I ended up going to my parents house to catch up with my mom and help her make dinner since she has been working all week.  We ended up making a sweet Thai curry with a bunch of veggies and a spice mix I got this weekend from this great local spice store.  All I can say is, YUM!  Check out the picture in my daily log below. 

Food log:

• Breakfast: 2 bananas, 1 apple
• Lunch: mixed greens with broccoli and chive hummus, 1 apple
• Dinner: sweet Thai curry over brown rice, sugar snap peas
• Extras: my Moms homemade guacamole with whole grain chips as an afternoon snack, (1-2) beers in the evening at trivia

Exercise log: Walk with my parents dog around the neighborhood

 How I feel:  I weighed myself this morning to find that I was one pound down from last week. That makes 9 lbs total since I started the 6-week Eat to Live plan.  Im happy with this progress, but I think what shows even more of my success is my appearance. I feel like I can feel the fat melting off the many places it has been hanging on to, and the muscle underneath developing and showing through with each trip to the gym.  My husband Kevin even has said that, while he always thought I was skinny (thanks dear), he is noticing that I seem "smaller", like somehow my bones are shrinking me to be leaner.  Im hoping that is not the case, and that my fat I have been holding on to for too long is coming off.  That reminds me of this picture I saw the other day (source unknown):

So, over the next week I have two BBQs that I am going to.  One tomorrow for work, and another for our friend Dannielle as I mentioned above.  For BBQs my go-to food to bring is always my hummus (recipe here).  It is great because it is healthy, but on the "approachable healthy-side" for most people.  Since a large part of hummus is tahini (sesame seed butter), and buying it in the jar generally costs up the ying yang, I decided to try to make my own.  Here is how I did it:

Homemade Tahini

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups unhulled sesame seeds
• 1-3 TBSP sesame or other oil

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.  Place the sesame seeds on a cookie sheet and shake to evenly spread.  No need to stray your pan, the sesame seeds produce their own oil. (In a toaster oven, toast at 400 and do 1 cup at a time). 
2. Toast for 8-12 minutes until the some of the seeds turn a very light brown.  During toasting, make sure to take out the pan and lightly shake to move the seeds around.
3. Once toasted, immediately scoop into a food processor with a small amount of oil.  Process and scrape the sides periodically.  It will take a few minutes to go from seeds, to crumbles, to liquid-y tahini.  Be patient!
4. Store the tahini in an airtight container in the fridge and use for dressings, hummus, or spreads. Yum!

Amys Notes:  Like I said above: be patient with the tahini!  It will come together.  I dont have too heavy duty of processor (although it is quite loud and I was worried the neighbors might come knocking to see who was running a chain saw), and mine was able to get the job done with about 8 minutes of processing.  This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups of tahini, which is about how much comes in a jar at my local grocery store (for nearly $7 a jar!).  When buying the sesame seeds in the bulk section, I was able to get 2 cups of seeds for about $2.  Thats over a 70% savings!  

What sorts of foods do you make at home to save money, or avoid preservatives and other additives?

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Day 6 of Metamorphosis or getting back on track

I decided to count only the days of training. Hence, today was my day 6 with a rest day in between 5 and 6.

I dont know whether it is just the rest day, or a rest day spent in a not such a healthy manner, but it was actually harder to workout today. DC was a killer, and MS a murderer :) DC still gives me a great kick, I like it. I feel my calves muscles developing from all the jumping, and they look so good already - much more toned, and I feel them sore. I still have not perfected the MS, I still have to stop in between every 10th rep or so (for exercises 3-4 in particular), and I noticed that it is easier for me to do all the exercises on my left leg! Thats so odd - cos I have always been right-handed through and through! But all in all even though I went through it, I could not do as good as I did in day 5... And I am back to day 2 weight (:(), but oh well - I had fun these past two days, and the Chinese dumplings were oh so good! Today I am back to the diet, and all is good (feel much better too, as guilt is not killing me). But the experience of the last 2 days showed how much your progress can be hindered by couple of drinks and a party. Good lesson. :)

I am back on the train though, am training again, going to have salsa training later on, so thats good. As I am past mid-level 1, so I started dreading level 2 already - I read a lot in other blogs and in TA Community, that it is a killer, so lets see. I have some time to get both really scared and really excited :)

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Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies

I love carrot cake.  I did as a kid, and as an adult before becoming nutritarian.  Around Easter when you see images of fluffy white bunnies and colorful eggs, all I can think about is CARROT CAKE!  My nutritarian baking skills have not developed enough to be able to recreate a cake, but I can sure make my own cookie recipe.  Why not recreate that carrot-cake flavor in a cookie?  Enjoy, and Happy Easter!  He is Risen!

Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies
Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 18 cookies

Ingredients:
    Processed Batter:
        1 cup old fashioned oats
        1/4 cup pitted dates
        1/4 cup almond butter (or about 1/2 cup almonds)
        1 ripe banana, peeled and cut into several pieces
        1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
        1/2 tsp cinnamon
        1/2 tsp nutmeg
        1/4 tsp ground ginger
    Shredded:
        2 carrots, washed, peeled, and shredded
    Mix-ins:
        1 cup old fashioned oats
        2 Tbsp raisins
        2 Tbsp raw seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, or hemp will do)

Instructions:
1.)  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2.)  In a food processor, process the batter ingredients until smooth.

3.)  Fit the food processor with the shredding blade and shred the carrots.

4.)  In a medium sized bowl, empty the batter and shredded carrots into it.

5.)  Add the mix-ins and stir well to combine.

6.)  Scoop a golfball size amount of the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Press each cookie down lightly to form a small puck.

7.)  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies slightly brown and are no longer gooey.
8.)  Serve warm and store leftovers in an airtight container.

Amys Notes:
I love that this recipe has none of the bad stuff that a traditional carrot cake has: sugar, white flour, eggs, oil.  Thats not to say eat a whole batch to yourself.  Think of this as a nutritarian treat to have on special occasions, like Easter.

For the mix-in seeds, I used raw pumpkin seeds, but sunflower or hemp seeds would work just as well.  I just happen to have an allergy to sunflower seeds.. bummer, I know!

Happy Easter!

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PEPPERED LAMB STEAKS WITH PESTO GOATS CHEESE

Arabella is a goats cheese fanatic - she loves the stuff and could literally eat an entire pack in one go. I love goats cheese but she takes the love to a whole new level!! Therefore I thought I needed to increase my goats cheese recipe repertoire! We regularly cook roasted tomato and goats cheese tarts or smoked salmon and goats cheese risotto (recipe to follow soon) or salmon wraps with goats cheese and palma ham but now it was time to include some meat.

This recipe is super easy and quick - you could make the pesto yourself however I just bought fresh pesto from the supermarket.

Ingredients for 2 people:

2 lamb steaks
2 tbsp of fresh pesto
75g of Capricorn English goats cheese
Black pepper
Salad to serve (you could use couscous or quinoa but like always I am saving my calories for chocolate)!

Turn the grill on to a high heat and pepper the lamb steaks on one side.

Grill the steaks for 5 minutes on each side until they are nicely browned but still a little pink in the middle (I cut into them and checked them a couple of times).

Cut the goats cheese so you have 2 big chunky slices and place a slice on the peppered side of each steak.

Put them back under the grill for a couple of minutes until they have melted and browned slightly.

Finally serve with a big dollop of pesto and tuck in.

I cannot believe I have not cooked this before as it is so easy and delicious - it is literally Arabella and my ideal recipe. We both cleaned our plates in a matter of minutes and have already discussed cooking it again next week. 

Guess what Arabella had for pudding?? More goats cheese…..like mother like daughter…..a cheese obsessive!

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LE GIGOT DAGNEAU PASCAL LAMB PASCAL

As we were flying home from France on Easter Sunday we were unable to have a proper roast lunch. My husband Pascal was most put out as it is tradition in France to have "Lamb Pascal" -  a simple roast leg of lamb with herbs. We ended up having it today as a belated Easter lunch - I am just gutted we have no Easter eggs left for pudding!

Cooking times totally depend on the size of your leg of lamb - ours was 1.940 kg and took 1 hour 35 minutes - it will say on the packet instructions.

Ingredients for 5-6 people:

Leg of lamb (around 2kg)
5 cloves of garlic
Salt and Pepper
A good glug of olive oil
A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 tbsp "herbes de Provence" (a mixture of savoury, thyme, lavender and other herbs)

If you can try to remember to take the lamb out of the fridge two hours before cooking so the meat is not too cold.

Preheat the oven to 190 C / 170 C fan / gas mark 5.

Run the lamb under cold water to remove any stickiness of the meat and dry it well with paper towels. Removing all the excess moisture will make for outside crispier when cooking.

Cut the garlic into small slithers and then cut holes/pockets into the lamb with a sharp knife and stuff the garlic in.

Add a glug of olive oil (not too much as lamb already has lots of natural fat) and generously season with salt and pepper and the "herbes de Provence". Next dress with some rosemary.

Put the lamb in the oven and roast for the correct time. Once it is ready, take it out of the oven, cover in foil and rest for another 10 minutes so the juices flow back into the meat.

Pascal doesnt like sauce so we didnt make any however you can put your roasting tin on the hob over a low heat (if the tin allows that) and add a large glass of chicken stock or red wine and deglaze the pan by scrapping all the good bits from the bottom. Reduce, season and then serve as a nice simple sauce. As I said we didnt do this, however I think it is a good idea.

Finally carve the lamb and serve with a vegetable of your choice. We chose the Mallorcan dish Tumbet (recipe to follow) however it would have been more traditional to do small roast potatoes and green beans.

This was so simple and easy but really delicious - a favourite of Pascals. Personally I prefer something with a bit more "sauce" but it was nice to eat something more rustic for a change. It went wonderfully with the aubergine, pepper, onion, potato and tomato of the tumbet - not very French but still Mediterranean - especially when I added a dollop of hummus on the side :-)

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Tracy Anderson C1 1 1 results in numbers

Hey you guys! As I have not uploaded my results in numbers from Meta (yet), I thought to upload the results at least now after level 1 of Continuity... I dont think things changed much since Meta, but overall, I am happy about what I have achieved so far. I dont think from now on there will be much change in the cm/inches or kilos, but more in the way I look, but I am still expecting a little bit of change in things and bikini area. I have to say - this is my problematic zone somewhat, but hey - I am working on it! :) 

So here we are.

Boobs: -3 cm (that is NOT good!)

Under boobs: -5 cm

Waist: -8 cm

Hips: -6 cm

Thighs: -3 cm

Left bikini: -7 cm

Right bikini: -7 cm

Arm: -2 cm

Wight: -5.1 kg

These are the results since the time I started Metamorphosis in February 2012. It is almost exactly 6 months now into the Tracy Anderson method and I am still loving it! Most important things for me - there are no push-ups and exercises like that, and it works for me. What else do you need? If you found something that works for you - dont waste it!!!!

I am happy and satisfied. Today is the first day of level 2. Im excited! Going to preview it now, then workout, and a long working day for me today. Sigh. I know its Saturday, but I had a pretty unproductive working week, so busy Saturday for me today.

Cheers yall! Have nice weekends! Not like me :)

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Cranberry Dijon Dressing

I hope everyones week is going well.  We have had a busy whirlwind of the last week or so!  Kevin and I finally (FINALLY!) joined a local gym last week.  We have put this off for a while, (1) because we are still working on paying school loans and trying to save money wherever we can, and (2) we did not want to be part of that notorious "New Years Resolution" group that get gym memberships and crowd up the gyms at the beginning of the year, but soon lose motivation and get snickered at by the regular gym people.

So far, I love it!  It is a fairly large gym, but not so much so that you feel intimidated.  They have an approachable weight room, mats for stretching and floor exercises, an open cardio area, several basketball courts, a cycling room, a large studio room for Zumba, and a lovely relaxing yoga studio.  I have been doing 3-4 days on, 1-2 days off.  I also alternate between yoga days, and weight and cardio training days.  I have felt moderately sore in certain areas, but the yoga helps a lot to keep me from feeling too stiff.

Since we have started a routine of going to the gym in the evenings (I dont know if we will ever be morning workout people!), much of my nights are eaten up by working out, showering, heating up frozen leftovers or making a quick salad, reading or knitting, and then bedtime.  Yesterday, however, was a rest day and I had one of my best girlfriends over for dinner.  I made us a lovely salad with baked sweet potatoes on the side.  For the salad I decided to create a new dressing (Yay!  Finally a new recipe!).  Hope you enjoy:

Cranberry Dijon Dressing

Servings: 2 cups dressing, approximately 8-10 servings
Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup filtered water
• 1/2 cup raw almonds
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries (craisins)
• 2 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp miso
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Instructions:

1. Place all ingredients into a high speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
2. If the dressing is too thick for your liking, add water by the Tablespoon and blend until you have reached your desired consistency.
3. Serve as a sweet and tangy dip, or on a nutritious salad of your choice.
4. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week or so.  Add more water and shake if the dressing thickens after being stored.

Amys Notes:

I used this dressing on the salad pictured below, which contained mixed salad greens, broccoli, carrots, red onion, chopped almonds, raw pumpkin seeds, and craisins.  So Yummy!
Also, please forgive the lower quality of pictures!  I have been working with my iPad camera, and have been testing out different Photo editing apps to get the best quality for my time and money.  Remember that all my images are Pin-able now too!

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ROAST BEEF FRESH TOMATO PASTA

Winter is here and it is definitely the time for Sunday roasts. I loved the sound of this recipe as it also included pasta. It is inspired by a dish called "macaronde" which was bought to France by the emigrants from Italy. I have a phobia against proper roasts due to bad childhood memories so this alternative is right up my street! It took just over an hour but this depends entirely on how you like your beef done - we like ours medium rare.

Ingredients for 4 people:

2 tbsp olive oil
900g British rump, sirloin or topside beef joint
350g rigatoni or similar shaped pasta
3 garlic cloves, crushed
450g vine-ripened baby plum tomatoes, halved
Large handful fresh basil leaves, torn - we used about 30g
100ml good quality robust red wine (I just used what we had…..which wasnt very good quality)!
100g hard cheese such as Parmesan (we also added some grated cheese as we are cheese addicts)
Sea salt flakes

Preheat the oven to 200 C / 180 C (fan) / gas mark 6.

Rub a tablespoon of olive oil over the beef and season. 

Roast for 20 minutes and then turn the oven down to 170 C / 150 C (fan) / gas mark 3.5 and roast for a further 40 minutes or so according to the size of your joint and how you like it cooked. It will explain on the packet instructions. The best way to check the beef is to use a digital thermometer - it should read 55 C for rare and 65 C for well done…I didnt actually have one though!

While this is cooking prepare the ingredients for the pasta. 

About 10 minutes before the beef is done, start on the pasta. Cook according to the packet instructions until al dente.

Meanwhile, heat one tablespoon of oil in a pan over a high heat and add the garlic. Once it starts sizzling, add the tomatoes. I actually added them at the same time as I didnt read the recipe properly but I dont think made a difference.

Once most of the juices have evaporated, remove from the heat and toss in the basil.

By now the beef should be ready. Transfer the beef onto a plate and cover loosely with foil.

Add the wine to the juices in the roasting tin and bubble over a high heat for a couple of minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom of the tin.

Drain the pasta, saving a little bit of cooking water.

In a bowl or dish mix together the juices from the roasting tin, the pasta, the tomato, garlic and basil mix, the cheese and a splash of pasta water. Put it back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Finally sprinkle the beef with sea salt and thinly slice. Serve with the pasta and garnish with a couple of extra basil leaves and shavings of Parmesan.

This was very good - I loved the combination of the tomato and basil pasta with the beef. It was kind of like a very smart posh spag bol! Plus it something different as well. Arabella loved the pasta but wasnt as keen on the beef but I think that is just because she is not that used to it, we rarely have steak or anything at home. She did eat it all though as did I. I think it would be a good idea for a dinner party too - a real winner - and actually great for summer and winter!

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