I have a desire to tell you all about my search for the perfect fish (to eat for dinner). I (like many other Australian’s) used to eat salmon once a week. Salmon is full of Omega 3’s so very healthy for us. Most dieticians recommend 1-2 serves of fish per week. I am drooling thinking of that crispy skinned, oven-baked salmon right now! As most of you know, I am an avid reader and documentary watcher. Guilt has started to plague my every purchase, including fish. Is farmed fish as healthy for me as wild-caught? And if wild-caught fish is better for me, is it environmentally sustainable? I will summarise what I have found in my search thus far. Feel free to chime in with any further information for I am sure that I have not yet got to the bottom of this. Let’s start with farmed salmon. Farmed salmon obviously do not feed themselves from the ocean as they are kept in huge enclosed ‘sea circles’. Their natural choice of food is not available to them in these enclosures. Therefore, they are fed by humans. Now I think initially, fish farmers were trying to nourish their salmon with fish meal and fish oils (made from smaller forage fish) as this is closest to their diet in nature. The problem with this is that for every 1kg of salmon eventually farmed, it took 2kg of forage fish to feed the salmon during life. Hardly a sustainable practice. Forage fish were being severely overfished for the benefit of salmon farming. So the fish farmers decided to supplement the forage fish derived meals with land animal ingredients (chicken meal, blood meal), grains and seed oils. **Let's face it. This decision was more likely to be because grains and seed oils are cheaper and easier to source, rather than the farmers' deep concern for the welfare of forage fish.** Unfortunately, the vegetable derived land-based grains and seed oils are high in Omega 6. It is my understanding that when you feed a salmon grains and seed oil, it also drives up the Omega 6 content of the salmon. High intake of Omega 6 in humans has been linked to a rise in cancer rates as well as many other chronic diseases. Therefore, as a human eating this salmon, you are indeed getting the beneficial Omega 3’s however you are also getting a fair whack of the deathly Omega 6’s. From what I have read, this high level of Omega 6 from the farmed fish pretty much negates the Omega 3 benefits. So why bother eating fish at all? Let’s call the whole thing off. I started looking further afield to try to find wild-caught salmon in Australia. HA! This is a task that is virtually impossible. I have not been able to find wild Atlantic Salmon in Australia at all. I have been able to find Pacific Sockeye Salmon in Australia. It is VERY red compared to Atlantic salmon and the taste is a bit……..fishier. Trying to source wild-caught salmon in Australia, I learnt two things. It is VERY expensive and always frozen (most wild caught salmon comes from Alaska and Canada so getting it here fresh is impossible). So what the hell do I do? I have a choice between high Omega 6 farmed salmon or very expensive, wild-caught Sockeye salmon. I tell you what I did. I ate sardines. No joke. I gave the middle finger to the salmon industry and ate cute little sustainable sardines. Sardines reproduce like rabbits so overfishing them is virtually impossible. If you want to eat a sustainable fish, buy some fresh sardines from a supermarket and oven-bake their crispy delicious little heads. I digress. I have come back to eating salmon. You know where from?? The bloody tin! Winner winner. This tin ain’t pretty (Coles you really need to hire a better graphic designer) but: It is wild-caught It cost me $6 per can AND It is Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) approved - meaning that the fishing practices have been independently assessed and certified as sustainable THIS is the only salmon I now eat. My biggest pieces of advice when looking for the perfect fish:
If in doubt, go to http://www.sustainableseafood.org.au and search for your favourite fish to find out more about the fishing practices of certain species and whether they are sustainable. If you are too lazy for that, just look for the MSC tick of approval. Or eat chicken.
Does sustainability and where the fish came from influence your seafood purchases?
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So last week I did a blog post on my Top 5 supermarket snacks (mainly for the kids). I have been asked a lot since what I myself eat for snacks. I try to keep my snacks high in protein and fat to keep me full. My snacks are not interesting, and they're not pretty (especially if you are vegan or vegetarian). This might be the most boring blog post you've ever read, but here it is: Protein shake. I carry my protein shaker around with me everywhere with one scoop of protein powder inside. You can hear me coming like a cat with a bell as the metal ball wobbles around in the cup as I walk. If I am out and about, I simply fill it with water and voila, I have a high protein, delicious snack. My protein powder of choice is from Protein Supplies Australia. There are minimal ingredients and it is sweetened with the natural sweetener, Stevia. No artificial sweeteners or sugars here! Another great brand is Byron Bay's Bare Blends due to their short ingredients list and lack of artificial sweeteners or sugars. #notsponsored I get the Whey Protein Isolate however both brands have a plant-based protein if you are a vegan. Carrot sticks and cottage cheese. This is THE BEST pre-dinner snack to eat while you are cooking. It is so easy to cut up a carrot and dip it in Barambah Organics very high protein cottage cheese. This snack is such a staple for me that recently, my mother noticed that I have orange palms from eating too many carrots. A completely harmless condition that just makes me look like I've used too much self-tan. I now begrudgingly alternate days with carrots and cucumber. MEAT (Vegetarians look away) Since trying to increase my lean muscle mass I have been eating 80-100g of cooked meat as a snack. I add chopped fresh tomato or cucumber and a sprinkle of feta to make it a bit more interesting. I usually batch make these (one for each day) on the weekend. The meat is either cooked chicken, mince, steak or a 95g can of tuna. This snack is truly in the 'food for fuel' category. It's not pretty but hopefully it'll give me big muscles. Two boiled eggs This is another high protein/fat easy snack. You can boil your eggs a few days in advance if you don't mind eating them cold. Not much else I can say about two eggs. Make sure they are free-range! Tall Latte This is the best snack if you are out of the house and unprepared. A cup of full-cream milk (which is basically what a latte is with a little added zing) has 8g of protein. My biggest tips are to get the regular size (not the one the size of your head), full cream milk, don't add sugar and sit in the cafe so you aren't sending yet another un-recyclable cup to landfill when you are done. If you are on the run, use your keep cup. What about dessert? There are not many nights where I don't eat dessert. That last spoonful of dinner barely hits my stomach and I am already sniffing around for dessert. You can read my review on protein ice-creams (which I eat once a week, usually with a movie on the weekend) here. Most nights I have a scoop of Protein Supplies Australia Slow and Grow Casein mixed with a cup of yoghurt. The Casein turns the yoghurt into a chocolate mousse texture. Casein is a slow-release protein so it makes my muscles grow when I am asleep. This is what I keep telling myself anyway. I have also been known to eat this one as a snack with some frozen berries mixed in. It sounds like I am a rep for Protein Supplies Australia and I can tell you that hand-on-heart I am NOT. But if you want me to be PSA, please get in touch. I love your product. Just kidding. But seriously. So there you have it. I never ever ever ever ever miss a snack (or a meal for that matter). Regular eating is the key to avoiding binge-outs for me. I usually have one of these snacks if I am about to go out for lunch or dinner. If you are in a restaurant and hungry, you are more likely to make poor food choices. I try to eat before I go and have the salad instead of the triple cheeseburger with chips. I say try. It doesn't always pan out that way. It is worth noting that I am not a nutritionist. I do not claim to be. This is just what my personal food choices are. People have asked me what I eat, so I am sharing. You will notice (aside from the protein powder) that it is mostly real food. Minimally processed, yummy real food. What are your favourite snacks? In my blog last week I mentioned that there are only a few products in the supermarket that I am happy to feed to my kids as snacks. Most kids snacks disappointingly have far too much sugar. It doesn’t matter whether the sugar is raw, unrefined, organic or natural. Sugar is sugar. My recommendations are from the normal supermarket. Not the health food store. Feeding a family must be affordable. Ain’t nobody got time for a $9 box of crackers when you are feeding two boys. When choosing our snacks, I look for two things. Sugar and seed oil content. I won’t buy a product with more than 5g per 100g of total sugars and I won’t buy any products that list seed oils in the ingredients. Seed oil is cheap vegetable oil made from seeds (canola, sunflower, corn, safflower, grapeseed, rice bran and soybean oils). There is increasing research showing that seed oils are horrifyingly bad for us. You can read David Gillespie’s take on seed oils here. Both sugar and seed oils are used unsparingly in most of our processed supermarket products. It is no wonder that chronic disease is out of control. The best way to minimize your exposure to sugar and seed oils is to eat real, fresh food only. Perimeter shop. Only buy from the outside edges of the supermarket and skip the shelves in between completely. Snacks can be made at home using fresh ingredients. You know exactly what goes into it if you make it yourself. As a working mother, I know that making everything from scratch is an impossible task (although I die trying sometimes). Time constraints in the kitchen is what caused that middle section of the supermarket to grow in the first place. So for us working mums, here are my top picks of snacks that you don't have to make from scratch. Coles brand "Original Popcorn" Aside from popping your own at home, this is one of the only brands of popcorn that you can buy at the supermarket that isn't popped in seed oil. Frighteningly, most of the popcorn marketed as being "air-popped" is actually popped in bullshit seed oil! I have written letters to Woolworths and Sunbites on this very topic. **Yes I am one of those people** Funny because I thought that air-popped meant being popped in AIR (no oil)! Instead, Coles uses coconut oil. I never thought I'd say this but..... BRAVO Coles! At $3 for a 10-pack of lunchbox sized popcorn, you can't go past it! Cheap as...... popcorn! Premium 98% fat-free crackers Not all crackers are created equal. In fact, it is bloody hard to find a cracker that hasn't had a bath in seed oil. I just don't feel comfortable feeding my kids Jatz and other popular crackers on a regular basis when I know the potential harm of seed oils. Premium's 98% fat free crackers contain no oil! Beware though because the "original" version of this cracker does. At $2.50 per box, it is very affordable. Throw some Vegemite and cheese on these bad boys. Delicious! Tamar Valley kids yoghurt squeezies This is the ONLY kids yoghurt on the market (aside from plain greek yoghurt) that I would happily feed the kids. It has no added sugar (sweetened only by a small amount of fruit pulp) and comes in at 3.4g per 100g total sugar. These are a little more expensive than the previous two snacks at $1.70 per pouch however they are so easy to throw into a lunchbox so they are a regular staple in our house. And if you are the kind of mum that I am, you wait until they are on special then buy three million of them. I only discovered these a few weeks ago. If you follow me on instagram you will know that I was very excited about it. **Needs a life** Rice Cakes We love a good rice cake in our house. PureHarvest and SunRice original are both made from 100% wholegrain rice. Nothing else. You can put anything you like on them. Peanut butter, Vegemite, ham, cream cheese, cheddar. The possibilities are delicious and endless. At $1.50 - $2 per packet, they get a big tick for affordability. Be wary of other similar brands like Corn Thins that do have added bullshit (I mean seed oils). I Quit Sugar - Cacao and Chia balls I put these last only because they involve slight jiggery pokery to assemble. But in 15 minutes, you can have dozens of these bad boys made up. All you have to add is coconut oil, rice malt syrup and boiling water. Then once cool, roll them in shredded coconut. I make one batch of these every fortnight and keep them in the fridge or freezer. My 5 year old gets two in his lunchbox for his sweet treat (when I can't be f**ked baking). The box will cost you around $6.50 (excluding the extra ingredients). When it lasts 2 weeks, this is also very affordable. These often go on special for $5. When that happens, buy TEN! Ok here is an extra one. Sweetworld Lollipops Found by David Gillespie's wife, Lizzie in Big W. These are lollipops made only with glucose. Fructose Free!! They are great for special treats and for shutting the kids up in the supermarket when you are trying to read nutritional panels. I obviously wouldn't give these in a lunchbox but they are a must in your bribery arsenal. $2.60 for 16 pops. Blackmail comes cheap. Other snacks that I regularly feed to my kids at home are mixed nuts (not lunchbox friendly), whole fruit, toast or a good old bowl of Vita Brits (Weetbix has added sugar). Before you tell me that fruit contains sugar, you can read about my stance on fruit here. I also bake fructose-free banana bread and biscuits from time to time. My recommendations can seem horribly boring to your kids if they are used to LCMs, tiny teddies and roll-ups. I am lucky that my kids have never had access to these sugary snacks at home so it is normal not to have these in the house. I realize that removing favourite snacks once established in a household might prove a challenge. Here is a challenge for you. Go to your regular snacks in your cupboard and check the sugar content per 100g and if a seed oil is listed in the ingredients. Unfortunately you will probably be unpleasantly surprised. Happy snacking! I want to write a post about the “fructose friendly” products that are starting to flood the supermarket. Obviously the evidence that fructose is causing chronic disease is stacking and manufacturers are scrambling to keep ahead in the retail game. They are therefore labeling their products “fructose friendly” in the hope that consumers will see this and assume that the product is good for us. The mere fact that a product has “fructose friendly” written on it makes me smell a rat. The current recommended daily intake of sugar from the World Health Organization is 6 teaspoons per day for a woman and 9 teaspoons for men. This number reduces further for kids: - 3 teaspoons for a 2-8 year old - 5-6 teaspoons for a 9-13 year old (depending on gender) - 6-7.5 teaspoons for a 14-18 year old (depending on gender) We are all increasingly more aware of these guidelines so we try to make better purchases for ourselves and our kids. The problem is that there are no standards surrounding product descriptions. “Fructose friendly” could mean 1% fructose, it could mean 40%! Who would know? Let’s delve into this further with some examples. I am going to name and shame here (not sorry!). Kez's Kitchen - They have a variety of "fructose friendly" products however let's use their Almond Florentines as an example: You can see that the back of the pack states "Fructose Friendly". However, when you read the nutritional information, you soon see that total sugars are a whopping 45.8g of sugar per 100g (6.9g of which is pure fructose). Depending on who you look up to *idolize* in the fructose-free world, the recommended amount of total sugar per 100g you should be looking for in the nutritional panel ranges between 3g and 5g per 100g. 45.8g is grossly over this benchmark. Yes this product has a small proportion of its total sugars made up by fructose however even this amount (6.9g) is still above the recommended intake per 100g. Close but no cigar. Bullshit. Let's move on. It gets better (or worse depending on which way you look at it). Table of Plenty also have a range of "fructose friendly" products. Their "Crunchy fruit free nutty muesli" is sweetened with "raw sugar" and contains a hefty 13.6g of sugar per 100g. Bullshit. Mini Rice Cakes also made by Table of Plenty state that they are "fructose friendly". A closer inspection of the nutritional panel uncovers that they in fact have added sugar and are sitting at a huge 29.9g per 100g of sugar. That is nearly a THIRD sugar! Fructose Friendly my arse! Bullshit. Perhaps the one that keeps me awake at night is this: IRRESISTIBLE Gluten Free Confectionery which again states it is "fructose friendly". My bullshit meter is already on high alert here and confirmed when I turn the packet over. The nutritional panel states that this product is sweetened mostly by table sugar (which is half fructose) and sits at a humongous 56g per 100g of sugar. So this product is more than HALF sugar yet states that it is "fructose friendly". BULLSHIT! Honorable mentions on the bullshit meter go to these products: Kez's (again) Free and Naked Choc Mud Bars. These don't state that they are "Fructose Friendly" however do contain the popular phrase "no added sugar". The nutritional panel states that they are 49.3g per 100g sugar. "Only naturally occurring sugars" they say! Yes it is from dates but dried fruit is so concentrated that you eat WAY more in one sitting than you would if it was fruit in it's natural form. Take sultanas for example. I would estimate that there is over 100 in a small kids snack box. Try eating 100 real grapes. Much harder right? Kez's Choc Mud Bars have 12.3g of sugar per bar. (3 teaspoons). This is a child's (under 8 years) total intake for the day in one bar. Sorry Kez. Again, I call bullshit. Aribar wholegrain crispy rice bars. With 25 % less sugar! Hooray! They state on the side of the pack that it has 25% less sugar than the "leading brand of rice crispy bars". Aribar that might be correct however your vanilla blasts still have 22g per 100g of sugar (nearly a quarter!). Still no good. Bullshit. And finally, Gullon's 99.5% Sugar Free Biscuits. This is a tricky one. You look at the nutritional panel and think BOOM! These have hardly any sugar. When something has very little sugar but still tastes sweet, you must look further into what is making it sweet. In this case it is the sugar alcohol Maltitol. Maltitol is used a lot nowadays to sweeten "sugar-free" lollies and biscuits. What's the catch? The catch is that Maltitol and most sugar alcohols are processed by our bodies into Sorbitol and then converted into fructose by our liver. So even though this product doesn't contain fructose, our bodies process it into fructose. Read what David Gillespie has to say about sugar alcohols here. Gullon........Bullshit. So the moral of the story is that no matter what processed snacks state on the front of the packet whether it be "fructose friendly", "low in sugar", or "sugar-free", you really cannot tell what is in the product until you look at the nutritional panel. The real tragedy is that nutritional panels are confusing to most people. What is worse is that you usually pay a premium for "health" products believing that they are better for you and your kids. I spend my life reading products in the supermarket like it is a library and I still get confused. My bible is David Gillespie's "Eat Real Food". I always use it to check up on which sweeteners (and oils) are acceptable in my confused moments. It is the one book of mine that I will not loan out. But I recommend everyone get their own copy. #notsponsored I have half a dozen "go to" snacks that you can buy at the supermarket that I feed my kids on a regular basis. I will blog about these in the next week. The rest of the snacks I tend to make myself because it is cheap and I know exactly what goes into them. In the meantime (before my next blog), if you are buying snacks for you or your kids in the supermarket, stick to these rules: The product must contain: -no more than 5g per 100g of total sugars, -no artificial sweetners, -no sugar alcohols There aren't many things to buy once you have excluded all of these (especially if you are avoiding seed oils which is a story for another day). If a product seems too good to be true, it generally is. Do you have any go-to snacks that are sugar-free? Please share! Anyone who has ever seen my Instagram or Facebook would know that I am NUTS for F45 Lutwyche. But how did my infatuation with this exercise craze start? Flashback to March 2016. My exercise regime at the time went a little something like this: Monday – Walk to and from work (5km each way) + Arm weights Tuesday – Les Mills Body Combat Wednesday – Walk to and from work + Leg weights Thursday – Les Mills Body Attack Friday – Walk to and from work + Abs (mostly lying down on the floor listening to music) Saturday – Les Mills Body Combat I had lost a bunch of weight and was feeling stronger, but I was getting a bit bored. I was deep down the rabbit warren of Instagram one day when I came across a picture posted by @f45_training_lutwyche. Wait…..Lutwyche? That is just down the road! So I enquired…………. Hell yes! I had heard about this F45 training YEARS ago when we were living in Sydney. I was keen to try it. And then @f45_training_lutwyche wrote these words: OMG YES! I met Lou, the owner of F45 Lutwyche over instagram and email. **how 2016 of us** I attended the free outdoor bootcamp in late May (just before their opening day). Leading up to this point, because I was exercising 6 days per week, I thought I was pretty fit. I was wrong. So wrong! I was shit. Everything burned. It was hot. I got bitten by an ant while doing mountain climbers. I struggled. I couldn’t believe that after 2 years of regular exercise how hard I found it. I was doing weights prior to starting F45 but the exercises were mostly isolated muscle groups and not full-body, combined exercises like at F45. I was not functionally fit AT ALL. Functionally fit means being able to push and pull your own body weight and takes multiple muscle groups working together at a time to achieve this. **Especially core….. and well, I have had two pregnancies with two caesarean sections so core strength was definitely lacking (non-existent).** I recently went back to look at the video of that first F45 Lutwyche bootcamp and nearly cried with laughter at myself. My push-ups were woeful. I started F45 the day the Lutwyche studio opened in mid-June 2016. The initial bargaining conversations with my husband went like this: “I want to go to F45 three mornings per week, are you ok to get the kids breakfast if they wake up before I get home?”……… “no problem” A few weeks later “There is an 8 week challenge coming up that I want to do well in, do you mind if I go to F45 five days per week?”.......... “sure” A few months later “Can I just go to F45 every day?” As you may have read in one of my previous blogs, my husband is awesome and luckily he totally supports my F45 addiction and other various neuroses. I go to F45 every. single. day. If I miss a session, I am on Instagram (#f45_training) looking at the exercises I missed and getting major FOMO. My name is Angie and I am a complete and utter F45 addict. I love it. There is never a day that I get out of bed and don’t want to go. Sure there are days that I know will smash me (cough cough *Athletica*) but I still look forward to every session. I don’t know exactly how many classes I have been to but I approximate over 150 classes in the last 8 months. The classes are small (usually 20-30 people). We have members from their teens to their 60s. 150 classes with a small group, you gradually get to know everyone. The trainers greet everyone by name with a smile every morning. New members are always welcomed with a handshake and paid extra attention until they feel comfortable with the exercises. Old members welcome and help new members. All ages are welcome. All fitness levels are welcome. The owner Lou is such a treasure. She has a quick wit, loves a dance (and a lip sync into a dumbbell), and she does everything she can to make sure her members and staff are comfortable, supported and happy. All of this while being a wife (to Jaye who also works in the studio) and mum to three kids of her own. Head Trainer Dan is always chirpy and eats a lot of mince. He has a shoe collection that would keep a centipede in fashion for a year. Too bad Dan only has two feet. All the trainers seem to be standing over you RIGHT when you want to die, helping you to do that extra rep. I’ve killed them all a thousand times with my thoughts. The classes alternate daily between cardio (jumping around like a crazy person) and heavy weights (my favourite). F45 Lutwyche have child minding daily for the 930am session. I can tell you that there is no cuter thing than hearing your son yelling “go mummy” from the sidelines. I was once mid push-up knee tuck (a ridiculously hard exercise makes you want to cry then vomit) and I heard my 3 year old say “I can do that”. Bet he could too, little turd. So my exercise schedule now looks like this: Monday: F45 Tuesday: F45 and yoga Wednesday: F45 Thursday: F45 Friday: F45 Saturday: F45 and stretch session I have completed two 8 week “F45 Define Challenges” and am currently half-way through my third. My body fat is in gradual decline and I am stronger and more functionally fit than ever before! I will do another post in 4 weeks when the challenge finishes with my stats and achievements. So I am an ambassador for F45 Lutwyche. It is the easiest “job” in the whole wide world because I love it so much and am happy to talk about how much I love it and how much it has changed my life. There is no shortage of people that I see every single day that feel exactly the same way. F45 Lutwyche FOREVER! Have you ever tried F45? Did you LOVE it as much as I do? **Go to www.f45training.com.au/lutwyche for your free 2 weeks trial to our amazing studio** I will see you three, then five, then six days per week from then on. Don’t know your #fropro from your #wheywhip? Protein ice-cream is the new kid on the (dessert) block. An ice-cream aimed at gym junkies. Get your protein fix in the form of ice-cream. Sounds too good to be true right? Since quitting sugar over a year ago, I no longer eat ice-cream. I was a Cold Rock/ Ben & Jerry’s guzzling fiend once upon a time and I do miss ice-cream. So when I discovered protein ice-cream I nearly died of happiness. But is it all it's cracked up to be? I put the 4 most popular brands to the test (this was a tough gig). The nutritional label and ingredients lists are enough to make anyone's head spin. So I have done the research and simplified it. This is what I found: Whey Whip
Overall I was not a fan of this one. The high(ish) protein content and low sugar is a plus however the texture was more icy than creamy and I don’t like the presence of the artificial colours. The mint chip was marginally better than the burnt caramel but I wouldn't rave about either. #FROPRO
The chocolate was enjoyable but nothing incredible. There is a VERY low sugar content (YAY) and moderate amount of protein which are both positives. BUT, the other available flavours are “Green Tea & Mint” and “Peanut Butter Chocolate” which don’t appeal to me at all. Halo Top
This is probably the worst product out of all of them for the sugar-quitters because it does contain added sugar. No matter how "organic" and "unrefined" your sugar, it still contains fructose. As sugar quitters, we like to keep our added sugars to below the 5g per 100g mark. Halo Top has 6.3 per 100g which is low but not ideal. It also has the least protein per 100g which is supposedly what we are eating it for right? Protein Pantry
They also have a dark chocolate flavour which might be nice to try however the other flavour is salted caramel popcorn. I don’t want popcorn up in my ice-cream thank you very much. This would be the clear outright winner for me if it came in a tub and had a few more flavour choices. The protein punch per 100g serving is the biggest of all the products. You'd have to eat 2 ice-creams to get this amount. I did. *Xylitol and erythritol are sugar alcohols that are technically acceptable for sugar quitters to eat as they don't contain fructose and are not metabolized to fructose in our bodies. The jury is still out however on what other long-term side effects that they can have on our body. SO COME ON, WHO WON?
Overall, I think none of these should be eaten on a regular basis. They are all sweetened by natural sweeteners and sugar alcohols that (although they don’t contain fructose) have only been around for a short time so who knows what side effects they really have on human bodies. I would definitely eat these products only in moderation (on weekends). Sugar alcohols Erythritol and Xylitol give you the shits if you eat too much -no one wants a side of diarrhea with dessert. Be careful people! Whey whip is on the right path with the natural sweetener and high protein content but the taste and texture lets it down. #Fropro is also great for the protein content, however the taste and texture, and available flavours need improvement. Halo Top is amazing with its range of flavours, pint-sized tubs (that only have 230 calories PER TUB), great taste and texture however the added sugar and low protein content lets it down. The Protein Pantry needs to expand its flavour range and go into tubs however everything else is bang on. Despite its small flaws: The WINNER for me is Protein Pantry (available at IGA). As a person that no longer eats ice-cream, protein ice-creams are a nice ‘sometimes’ food when I am watching a movie on a Saturday night. I'll be eating Protein Pantry and sometimes a little Halo Top (because everyone needs a little birthday cake flavoured ice-cream in their life). **It is worth noting that I was not paid to do this review. I paid for and ate all the ice-cream on my own accord. And loved it.** Have you tried these ice-creams? Which one did you like the most? Do you have any other protein ice-cream recommendations that I didn't try? You can do anything if you have support from your friends and family. I wanted to write a post about my husband because he is seriously THE BEST! I am continually springing things on him and he is always keen, supportive and with me on every journey 100% of the time. We had been dating for only a few months back in 2005 when I told him that I wanted to move to London. He not only came with me, but so did his whole band. A group of friends that have become my inner circle. My family. Then there’s: "I think we should run a half marathon"…….. “sure” "I’ve read about how bad sugar is for you, I think we should quit sugar" ……….. “great” "I want to do a gym challenge for 8 weeks, will you be on board with the meal plan?"……… “absolutely” "I’m going to try and stretch every night to attempt to do the splits"……….. “I’ll stretch too” "I want to be a minimalist"……… “sounds great, I’ll help” "Lets see Def Leppard for the 5th time"……. “Rock n’ Roll” You get the picture. He is a ‘yes’ man. Always keen. Most people would roll their eyes and say "what is she on about now"? I'm sure most of my family do. Not him. My appreciation for him is infinite. I am an “I Quit Sugar” ambassador and I can’t tell you how many people I have counselled in the forums struggling to quit sugar because their partners/family aren’t on board. I owe a huge amount to my husband for his support because he never EVER says my ideas are stupid. He is one of the biggest supporters of my blog and Instagram also. I really am a lucky girl. We are a team. It is worth noting that although his support is invaluable, I will continue to keep his (and my children’s) faces out of it. This is a journey that they are on with me behind the scenes but their faces will remain anonymous to the general public. Sure I might sneak in the occasional profile shot but I will not include full-face recognizable shots of them anywhere. I read somewhere that the key to a successful marriage is if you constantly learn new skills or qualities from each other. The biggest thing I have learnt from him is appreciation. Always tell someone that you appreciate what they have done for you. My family will be able to attest to this. I always say thank you and that I appreciate their help. Because I do, and they deserve to know it. I am sure I always keep him learning (guessing) too. ha ha. **rolls eyes and thinks.....what is she banging on about now** To my husband…… Thank you. I appreciate you. I love you. Let’s fly to Mars tomorrow. What is the craziest journey your partner has agreed to? I was never hugely into regular exercise until I had kids. I would have bouts of exercise fury when my pants got too tight but if it was too cold, too hot, too late, or too early I could always find a way to talk myself out of it. I was hugely motivated to lose weight after I had kids but that wasn’t my only motivation to get to the gym anymore. Exercising gives you an hour. One whole hour. To yourself. No one to think about, but yourself. A whole selfish hour. To yourself. Yourself. As mums we are attached to our small humans all the damn day. In the car….. “mum” In the shower…... “mum” On the toilet…… “MUM” At the gym you get…….. sweet f**king silence. It seems that there is often massive judgement on mums for taking time to themselves. Mum's are supposed to be selfless right? Going to the gym is something most people aren’t too judgmental over. But imagine if a mum *god forbid* was going for a massage for that hour every day. The judgement would be in overdrive. Mum's (and Dads) should be able to take time to themselves, whether it be gym, massage or catching up with friends without prejudice. Horribly the most critical people are other women. Other mothers! I am a HUGE advocate for doing whatever keeps parents sane. It is such a demanding job that if you need an hour or two to yourself to do whatever the hell you want, then take that hour. Happy mum, happy kids. For me, the gym does wonders for my mental health. The social encounters, the endorphin rush, the beauty of thinking of about one thing at a time instead of 20 million. Happy mum, happy everyone. Get acquainted with your gym child-minding. Most take kids from 6 weeks old. My kids have grown up going to the gym. They are regulars. They know the childminders. They know the other kids. They have been there every week since they were babies. Not only is this good for mum (me) to be able to leave the kids somewhere that is safe and fun but the kids come to know that exercise is a part of routine. That it’s something you do regularly. They’ve seen us in classes. They’ve watched my husband at soccer. They will likely (hopefully) copy us to make it part of their lives too. My 5 year old refuses to take his socceroos jersey off so I think sport has already made an impression. I exercise 6 days a week. I never miss a session, and if I do I get cranky. I am not a gym junkie. I am a silence junkie. A mums mental health is paramount. Never criticize a mum for what she must do to stay sane. If you are a mum, what is your regular moment of sanity? Let me address early the question I get asked all the time. “You are fructose-free, but you eat fruit? But fruit contains fructose. I’m confused.” This is how I explain: Back in cave man times, our contact with fructose was limited to fruit (in its whole form) or honey (which if you wanted to eat you’d have to speak to the bees first). From my understanding, this limited supply of fructose is a good thing because our bodies can’t handle large quantities of it. Our liver can’t deal with it and metabolizes fructose straight into fat. Great! The problem nowadays is that there’s a shit tonne abundance of fructose available to us at every turn. Soft drinks, ice creams, biscuits, donuts, cronuts……… And there (unfortunately) aren’t a large swarm of bees keeping us from reaching for the choc top. So hence to minimize our risk of the chronic disease that fructose has been attributed to, our family made the decision not to bring fructose into our home. There are 3 exceptions to this rule:
*Not juice
*Not fruit concentrates *Not dried fruit. Just whole fruit, as nature intended, with all its fibre intact. We eat 1-2 pieces per day. My 5-year-old would eat 10 pieces per day if I let him (and I don’t). My 3-year-old is just fine with one banana on his toast for breakfast. So this is the only fructose we have in our home. I say at home because if we are at a birthday party and other kids are eating cake, I don’t rip my sons away and hand them a cracker. I don’t want to omit them socially from the pack. If we have been to the hairdresser and they offer a lollypop in front of the kids (why do they do that???), I say yes because it’s not worth the tantrum. If they have a brain and ask me on the sly, I tell them to hide those lollypops under the counter and never mention them again. If a product lists sugar (or any synonym for sugar) in its ingredients, I don’t buy it. We still eat sweet things in moderation at home however we use fructose-free sweeteners such as dextrose and rice malt syrup. So technically yes we are “Low Fructose Family”. But that just don’t sound as good as Fructose Free Family. What foods do you avoid bringing into your home? Was I always into health and fitness? Negative captain. My 20's looked a little something like this: And this: I met my husband when I was 22. My husband is a musician so it was common for me to go out in the valley on both Friday and Saturday night. I would drink pints of VB (it was cheap…..don’t judge), dance the night away, and grab McDonalds before passing out in the band van while waiting for the guys to pack up their equipment. We’d get home just before dawn and sleep all day. At 24 we moved to London. More debauchery. We worked hard. We played harder. We lived on a street in Hammersmith where there were 2 terraced houses next door to each other full to the brim with young Aussie’s on working holidays. We were all away from home. We were all each other’s family. It was common to get off the train on the way home from work, and poke your nose into one of the many pubs along the walk home. There was always someone you knew in there. Always a pint to be drunk and with drinking came smoking. It seemed like everyone smoked back then. I made one of my best friends sharing cigarettes on the front doorsteps of our houses every night. On Friday and Saturday night we went to gigs. (If you saw a band at the Redback Tavern or Shepherds Bush Walkabout circa 2006-2009 chances are I was there and that was my boyfriend *now husband* in the band). We lay in bed all day on the weekends to get over our hangovers. My husband is one of those annoying people who doesn’t get hangovers. He comes in handy. He was sent out on many missions for coffee and greasy food. I had enough hangovers for the both of us. And did we exercise? Phht. What’s that? I left to get on the train to go to work at 6am and didn’t get home until 6pm, at which time there was beer to be drunk. My mum suggested that she buy me a gym membership one year for Christmas (probably because I was overweight). That was a foreign concept to me. No one I knew went to the gym. We had one or two friends who would go for a run every now and again but I used to think they were crazy. England is very cold most of the year. You wear winter clothes that you can hide a lot under. Hell you don’t even have to shave your legs for 9 months of the year! Both my husband and I got hit with the dreaded Heathrow injection. For those of you who have never lived in the UK, the Heathrow injection is that extra 10-20kg on your gut/arse that many seem to get after touchdown at Heathrow airport. A consequence of the excess. The pints. The cigarettes. The food. Do I regret it? Hell no. I made the best friends of my life over there. So why am I writing about this time in my life? What is my point? My point is that I turned it all around when I was 29. I changed. Our muscle mass starts a gradual decline from our mid 20’s. MID 20’s!!! Our metabolisms slow down due to our lack of muscle mass and therefore we put on more fat. So if we are inactive, we are in gradual metabolic decline. As a Physiotherapist I know this. I just didn’t practice what I preached. I started exercising regularly when I was 29 (the year I was married). Nothing makes you want to lose weight more than a wedding. This was my initial motivation. I started with walking and gradually added running, then the gym. However nothing makes you change your lifestyle more than a baby. I knew when I fell pregnant with my first son at 29 that I had smoked my last cigarette. I want to be a strong role model to my kids. I need to lead by example. I still love a good boozy night out but they are less common these days. Anyone who has had to parent a 4 and 3 year old whilst seedy will be able to sympathize as to why. Having a look through at the photos of me from my 20’s for this blog post and looking at myself in the mirror today, I look like two vastly different people. There are over 10kg less on the scales, there is much more muscle and much more confidence now. It’s proof that anyone can make these same changes to become a fitter, healthier version of oneself. Have you always been into fitness and exercise? At what age did you start your fitness journey? |