Post-Easter Workout & Healthy Lazy Dinner

After all the easter binging it's time to get back to normal life style again! I ate tons of easter eggs, plus other numerous treats throughout the holiday. On the menu were at least crips, cakes and other stuff. This time I didn't have one ott day of eating myself sick (like I usually do), but instead I was eating small treats during the day. I also did loads of long walks, and I even got to test the Nintendo Wii dancing game (which is really tough! Sweat galore!), so those things combined actually helped me stay feeling ok instead of super bloated and heavy.  

Today was the first time I stepped into the gym after coming back form USA. I put together a workout that combined a few things I saw on the Fit-magazine and instagram. I think it's really fun to look around internet and get new ideas for workouts! When you're exercising a lot, the training often gets stuck and you keep doing the same things over and over again and not achieving maybe as good results as you could. And if you're already experienced in the gym, it's quite easy to adapt new movements especially if they are simple enough.  

So here you have my workout, plus one of my favorite dinner recipes! It's my master piece for those lazy moments when you just want good fast food without any effort. Often after training or gigs I'm dead tired, and totally not in the mood for cooking amazing intagram-worthy mega dinners. Then it's time to use your imagination and often I've noticed that the best ideas in the kitchen often come when you're tired and impatient. Using some very basic ingredients you can whip up really amazing things! 

GYM & ABS WORKOUT

Me doing the shoulder press  

I saw this on Fit-Magazine (a Finnish paper), a very simple but effective workout:
 1. Squat 3x15, 20kg
2. Shoulder Press 3x13, 15kg
3. Dead Lift 3x15, 20kg

ABS & CORE WORKOUT

-Just abs 4 rounds
-With gym workout 2 rounds

1. Leg lifts
Hold your palms against the floor and lift your upper back from the floor so that the shoulder blades are in the air. Tuck your chin gently towards the chest so that your neck won't be too tensed. Press the left ankle against right knee and bring your right leg up towards the ceiling. Bring down with control but don't touch the floor. The bent leg brings more weight and resist to the exercise. Breathe in when bringing leg up, and breathe out when bringing leg down. 

Reps 15 x leg (all together 30)

2. Plank + Knee lifts
Go into plank position. Lift right leg in the air, and bring the right knee towards the right elbow. Breathe in when bringing the knee up, and out when you bring it down.Reps 15 x leg (all together 30)

3. Single Bent Leg Drop
Lie on your back and bring legs up, knees in 90 degrees. Bring upper back up from the mat like in the first exercise. Bring right leg towards the floor with control, but don't let it touch the floor. Bring back up and repeat. Breathe in when leg goes down, and out when it comes up. Reps 15 x leg (all together 30)

4. Sicsac
Sit on the floor legs straight in front of you. Lean back with your upper body, keeping back straight and lift legs in the air. Do fast-ish sic sac with legs. Breath steady.

30 repetitions.

Sweet potato travels to Scandinavia, Italy and India!

For christmas I'm sharing a few super simple but delicious tips on my favorite carb; the Sweet Potato. I LOVE sweet potatoes! It works beautifully as mash, chips, baked, boiled, and so many more ways. 

Here is "Sweet Potato In 3 Ways":

Nro. 1 Italy

• Use small potatoes. Bigger are hard to handll since they are extremely hard and will cook slower.
• Brush the skin under water until all dirt is gone 
• Lay the potatoes on a baking tray and spray with 1kcal spray and season with salt, pepper and garlic 
• Baby carrots are a lovely side to this, seasoned with rosemary 
• Bake for 30 minutes in 200c 

• When the sweet potatoes are ready, make a deep-ish cut to them. The potato should be lovely and soft inside. 
• Fill with ricotta, parma ham and fresh basil leaves. 
• You can pimp your own italian sweet potato according to your own taste! Mozzarella, different cold meats, pesto etc :) 

Nro. 2 Scandinavia

• For cooking the sweet potatoes same as before! 
• Cold smoked salmon (or as grave lax)
• Quark or cottage cheese
• Lactose free version: soy yoghurt with diced cucumber, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic 
• Sprinkle parsley on top

No. 3 India

For cooking the sweet potatoes same as before!

Soy raita: soy yoghurt with diced cucumber, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic 

Oriental vegetable mix (frozen), fry on a pan

Courgette chips (bake in the oven or in the pan; pan is faster) 

Season with paprika, mild chili powder and cayenne pepper 

What Does A Diabetic And Fitness Enthusiastic Eat? THIS! (you might be surprised!)

Chicken, mashed sweet potato and salad

So I'm going home to Finland for christmas, and my mum and sister where asking me for my food preferences. I then decided to actually make this into a blog post, since I get  a lot of people asking me what do I eat, and what i can't eat (due to diabetes). Also I would like to shaek off some those conceptions people have about diabetes and execrise, like "you can't eat anything sweet", or "no treats". 

Lately I've made a notion that my diet asctually is a lot like the paleo diet. A lot of protein (MEAT! yum!), good fats (nuts etc) and vegetables. For carbs my favorites are sweet potato and barley!  

I'm also suffering from lactose intolerance of some level. I'm not sure how common this in Ireland/UK/Mainland Europe, but in Finland it is quite common. ALready after eating dairy for a few days I'm like a bloatred gassy balloon, and just generally feeling really bad! And in Irelanf you can't get ANY lactoce free products. For some reason I can eat a little bit of feta and ricotta cheese, but only very rarely. Most annoyed I am about cottage cheese and quark. They are so incredibly nutritious, healthy and good source of protein! If I could I would eat them every day and my body would be feeling much better :( Luckily i'll be soon in Finland again and stuff myself with quark again :D 

Here is my wee list! These are the things I always have in my press and that I buy weekly:  

FRIDGE

• Almond milk (unsweetened)
• Soy yoghurt (OR lactose free natural yoghurt)
• Soya single 
• (Cottage cheese)
• (Unsweetened quark)
• Egg whites
• Juice (in case of low blood sugar)
• Weight watchers dairy spread 
• Alpro soy vanilla custard
• Strawberries
• Raspberries
• Blueberries

Stuff for breakfast :) This is gonna be, surprise, pan cakes!

PROTEIN

• Pepperoni sausage (German Salami Company)
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Lean bacon
• Salmon
• Lean beef

Salmon, mashed peas, feta and salad

VEGGIES

• Spinach
• Cherry tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Scallion
• Carrot
• onions (regular, red, shalot)
• Avocado (every fortnight app.)

Rye bread, egg, salmon, spinach and cucumber

NUTS

• Peanut butter
• Hazelnut butter
• Cashew butter
• Pine nuts

Fruit bowl with cashew chocolate mousse

COOKING & BAKING

• Fruit syrup / Maple syrup / Agave
• Stevia
• Coconut sugar
• Coconut oil
• 1 kcal spray
• Almond flour
• Dessicated coconut
• Corn flour
• Cocoa powder
• Baking powder
• Vanilla
• Spelt four
• Rye flour

I made these amaxing finds at the polish shop! it's boil in a bag barley and buckwheat! And one package costs 79 cents!!

BREAD & PORRIDGE

• Sour rye crisp bread (Finncrisp)
• Ryvita 
• Rye Bread 
• Oat flakes
• Rye flakes
• 4 grain flakes

I absolutely love sweet potato! Could eat it all day long. 

CARBS (FOR MEALS)

• Barley
• Buckwheat
• Slim pasta
• Potato 
• Sweet potato

SNACKS

• Apple
• Banana
• Nakd bars

So I think from these ingredients you're able to cook quite a few different wholesome and tasty meals :) I'm getting hungry again just reading this list!  

Uskolliset paisto-toverini

Näitä patukoita löytyy monissa eri mauissa, omat suosikkini ovat appelsiini-suklaa, kaakao ja tämä uusi kaakao crunch. Sopii tosi hyvin diabeetikolle, ei paljon hiilareita ja nekin aika pitkäkestoisia. 

Munakas on hyvä "pikaruoka", tässä on aika tuhti versio jossa lohta, fetaa, pinaattia ja hummusta