Homemade Coconut Butter!

Before I begin this post, I just want to say sorry for my lack of posts lately.  Life is just crazy busy right now (guess, that is a good thing though lol).  Anyways, I do believe this posting will make up for my procrastination (especially in the $ department).

Anybody that knows me will tell you, I love my coconuts.  With that said, coconut butter is an essential must have in my kitchen.  In case you didn't know, coconut butter can be used in a number of ways.  It can be used in your favorite baked goods or sauces (as a replacement for butter) or as spread on your toast (my personal favorite).  I'm sure you can find other uses for it as well.  Now, it should be noted that coconut butter is not the same as coconut oil.  Coconut butter is made from the oils and meat of the coconut.  Image all that nutritional goodness.

If you are new to coconuts, let me be the first to tell you that the health benefits of coconuts are massive.  Keeping this with coconut butter, some of the benefits are as listed - It is known to improve your skin and hair, giving them a more nourished appearance.  Helps maintain weight by providing immediate energy with fewer calories than other fats.  For the women readers, I'm always looking out for you ladies lol, it is also known to reduce the craving for sweets.  That's right, the notorious "sweet tooth", reduced!  What's not to like about coconut butter?!?! 

It's not over yet.  Like always, I saved the best for last, it is an antimicrobial (from the oils).  What does that mean, it kills bad bacteria and fungi found inside the body.  Boom! Mind blown away lol.           

Alright, lets get started.  You will be surprised at how easy it is to make coconut butter.  And, how inexpensive it is to make.  All you need is dehydrated (unsweetened) coconut flakes, which can easily found in the bulk section of your grocery store, and a food processor.  Seriously.

1 cup of coconut flakes made me about a hockey puck size of butter.  It also cost me less than a buck.  True Story.


Depending on the size of you food processor, place as much coconut flakes in and process for approximately 8-10 minutes.  Depending on your food processor you may want to do two 4-5 minute sets so it doesn’t burn out your motor.

You will know you are finished when the contents inside are a milky, watery consistency.


Pour the liquid into a glass jar with a tight lid. The mixture will solidify over about 45-60 minutes.  You may want to store in fridge to speed up this step.  With that said, you don’t need to keep this in the fridge, it will keep as is for months in at a solid state at room temperature.  That is all.  Enjoy!  Till next time!  

   

Recipes when I feel like it: Ziggy Dry Rub Mix

A goal of mine this year is to rid my body of condiments (you know, that stuff sitting on your fridge door and middle grocery store aisle lol). Many reasons as to why - the main reasons, they can be pricey and majority of them contain high amounts of sugar (something I want to limit in my body).  Exploring a few options, I concluded that I am finally ready to explore the world of herbs and spices.

Needless to say, I have been busy in the kitchen as of late. Here's one of my favorite dry rub recipe so far.  Simple to assemble, simply gather the various ingredients and mix together the desired amounts in a container or bag.


Ingredients:
1 TBS  Paprika
1/2 TBS  Chili Powder
1 TSP  Cayenne Pepper
2 TSP  Ground Black Pepper
1 TBS  Garlic Powder
1 TBS  Sea Salt
1 & 1/4 TSP Dried Oregano
1 & 1/4 TSP Dried Thyme

 

Goes great on most meats (especially chicken) and stir-frys. 

Fair warning: this dry rub contains a mild kick.  Nothing you can't handle lol

Enjoy! Feel free to share with me your favourite recipes with me :)

Australian Personal Trainer Debunks Those Infuriating 'Before And After' Weight Loss Pictures

Today is one of those rainy Sundays where most of us find ourselves staying and and keeping warm, at least this is what it is like in Vancouver, BC lol.  Bored of the same old things, I choice to read articles on the internet to pass the time.  As luck would have it, I came across this great blog by an Austalian personal trainer, named Mel.     

So fed up with misleading “Before and After” pictures used to sell fitness programs and diet pills, Mel
decided to make her own transformation in under 15 minutes (via Gawker).

All it took was better posture, some fake tanning lotion, and black bathing suit bottoms:

“Check out my transformation! It took me 15 minutes,” Mel wrote to her followers on Instagram.
“Wanna know my secret? Well firstly I ditched the phonewallet (fwallet) cause that **** is lame, swapped my bather bottoms to black (cause they’re a size bigger and black is slimming), smothered on some fake tan, clipped in my hair extensions, stood up a bit taller, sucked in my guts, popped my hip, threw in a skinny arm, stood a bit wider #boxgap, pulled my shoulders back and added a bit of a cheeky/I’m so proud of my results smile. Zoomed in on the before pic, zoomed out on the after and added a filter. Cause filters make everything awesome.”

She would later  follow up on this idea with a blog post on how misleading transformation pictures can be, and the dangers of having unrealistic expectations for quick results.

“What a before and after shot doesn’t tell you how the person achieved it,” she writes. “It doesn’t tell you if they did it a healthy way or if they starved themselves for weeks on end to get there.”

“It also doesn’t show you the persons mental state, their self worth, how [many] hours of exercise they did, the lifestyle they live, the early mornings, how they handled social situations or how many skinny mini teas they chugged, [etc.]”

 Check out her full blog post here.

Good news -> I am back

So it's been awhile since my last post.  Where have I been, you ask.  The answer, traveling around Europe for a month (longest I have ever travelled). I have now been back for a little over a month and let me tell you, it's been a struggle to adapt back to normal life.  To paint you a picture, imagine me, jet-lagged as shit, arriving back at richmond airport (in the great Vancouver, BC) just as the staff were setting up the Christmas decorations. I am back!  I am speaking to none other than Christmas, that jolly jolly chaotic mess near the end of the year. And as we all know, it happens every December 25th. So, ready or not... Go.  Fuck!

But I digress, Christmas is over. And like always, I survived.  It was a blast while it was here but it's time to move back on with life.  Back to where I left off, I am grad to say that I am moving full swing again.  Daily routines are returning and feeling familiar again (thank god lol).  Cleaning up after myself still needs some fine tuning, but it's getting easier each day - I am living with the fact that I forgot to pack my stewards with me back home lol.

So the good news from here is you all will be hearing a whole bunch more from me in the new year.  Till then!

The Nutritional Value of a Dragonfruit

Summer is almost over, so everyone do yourself a favour (if you haven't already) and  run as fast as you can to your nearest supermarket (or Asian Market) to buy the last remaining Dragonfruits.  In fact, go around the city.  You won't be sorry.  

Dragonfruit are football-shaped and have a leathery, leafy skin that is deep red or pink in color. It comes in three varieties, red flesh, white flesh and yellow flesh, all of which are embedded with hundreds of tiny black seeds and have a mild, sweet taste.  To enjoy this fruit, it is best to it eat cold.  After cutting the fruits in half, you just have to spoon the flesh out.  You can eat the seeds.  Simple, right! 

For those that aren't familiar with this fabulous fruit, it originates from the cactus family, specifically the genus Hylocereus or sweet pitayas.  Dragonfruits are common in Asia (particularly in Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines) and in Central and South America. They are among the many wonder fruits that are said to provide multiple health benefits. 

Lets quickly highlight the great benefits of the Dragonfruit:

 

1. Calories

If you are looking for fruits that are filling and delicious, but will help keep your weight in check, dragonfruits are a perfect choice. A 100g serving of dragonfruit has only 60 calories: 18 calories from fat (all unsaturated), 8 calories from protein and 34 calories from carbohydrates. As an added bonus, Dragonfruits do not have complex carbohydrates, so they can be easily broken down by the body.

 

2. Fats and Cholesterol

Dragonfruits do not contain cholesterol, saturated fat and trans fat, so regular consumption will help manage your blood pressure and control your cholesterol levels. The seeds of dragonfruits are high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids) that reduce triglycerides and lower the risk of cardiovascular disorder.

 

3. Fiber

Dragonfruits are high in fiber, so regular consumption can help avoid constipation, improve your digestive health and help you reduce weight.

 

4. Vitamins and Minerals

Dragonfruits are rich in vitamin C, containing 9mg per serving that is equivalent to 10 percent of the daily value. Thus, eating dragonfruits helps strengthen your immune system and promotes faster healing of bruises and wounds. In fact, regular eating of dragonfruits will help ward off chronic respiratory disorders such as asthma and cough. Dragonfruits also contain B vitamins such as B1 for better carbohydrate metabolism, B2 for recovery and improvement of appetite, and B3 for reducing bad cholesterol while improving the skin condition.

Dragonfruits are also packed with minerals such as calcium for stronger bones and teeth, phosphorus for tissue formation and iron for healthy blood. One dragonfruit contains approximately 8.8g of calcium, 36.1mg of phosphorus and 0.65mg of iron.  Don't ask how I know this - sometimes I surprise myself lol.

 

5. Phytoalbumins / Antioxidants

Dragonfruits contain phytoalbumins, which have antioxidant properties that help prevent the formation of cancer cells. In addition, dragonfruits are also known to increase the excretion of heavy metal toxins from the body.

6. Lycopene

Lycopene is also present in dragonfruits, and this is the pigment responsible for their red color. Lycopene is said to prevent prostate cancer.

In addition to being great for us, Dragonfruits also help protect the environment by absorbing carbon dioxide, converting it into oxygen and releasing it to purify the air at night.  True Story!

To end this post, here is a fun idea on how to consume a dragonfruit (credit soberjulie.com for pic).

15 Tips to Restart the Exercise Habit (and How to Keep It)

As a trainer, I've heard all the reasons to why someone has failed their program.  Want to guess what is the most common?

Loss of Motivation.

Once you have an exercise habit, it becomes automatic. You just go to the gym, there is no force involved. But after a month, two months or possibly a year off, it can be hard to get started again. Here are some tips to climb back on that treadmill after you’ve fallen off.

1. Don’t Break the Habit – The easiest way to keep things going is simply not to stop. Avoid long breaks in exercising or rebuilding the habit will take some effort. This may be advice a little too late for some people. But if you have an exercise habit going, don’t drop it at the first sign of trouble.
2. Reward Showing Up – Woody Allen once said that, “Half of life is showing up.” I’d argue that 90% of making a habit is just making the effort to get there. You can worry about your weight, amount of laps you run or the amount you can bench press later.
3. Commit for Thirty Days – Make a commitment to go every day (even just for 20 minutes) for one month. This will solidify the exercise habit. By making a commitment you also take pressure off yourself in the first weeks back of deciding whether to go.
4. Make it Fun – If you don’t enjoy yourself at the gym, it is going to be hard to keep it a habit. There are thousands of ways you can move your body and exercise, so don’t give up if you’ve decided lifting weights or doing crunches isn’t for you. Many large fitness centers will offer a range of programs that can suit your tastes.
5. Schedule During Quiet Hours – Don’t put exercise time in a place where it will easily be pushed aside by something more important. Right after work or first thing in the morning are often good places to put it. Lunch-hour workouts might be too easy to skip if work demands start mounting.
6. Get a Buddy – Grab a friend to join you. Having a social aspect to exercising can boost your commitment to the exercise habit.
7. X Your Calendar – One person I know has the habit of drawing a red “X” through any day on the calendar he goes to the gym. The benefit of this is it quickly shows how long it has been since you’ve gone to the gym. Keeping a steady amount of X’s on your calendar is an easy way to motivate yourself.
8. Enjoyment Before Effort - After you finish any work out, ask yourself what parts you enjoyed and what parts you did not. As a rule, the enjoyable aspects of your workout will get done and the rest will be avoided. By focusing on how you can make workouts more enjoyable, you can make sure you want to keep going to the gym.
9. Create a Ritual - Your workout routine should become so ingrained that it becomes a ritual. This means that the time of day, place or cue automatically starts you towards grabbing your bag and heading out. If your workout times are completely random, it will be harder to benefit from the momentum of a ritual.
10. Stress Relief - What do you do when your stressed? Chances are it isn’t running. But exercise can be a great way to relieve stress, releasing endorphin which will improve your mood. The next time you feel stressed or tired, try doing an exercise you enjoy. When stress relief is linked to exercise, it is easy to regain the habit even after a leave of absence.
11. Measure Fitness - Weight isn’t always the best number to track. Increase in muscle can offset decreases in fat so the scale doesn’t change even if your body is. But fitness improvements are a great way to stay motivated. Recording simple numbers such as the number of push-ups, sit-ups or speed you can run can help you see that the exercise is making you stronger and faster.
12. Habits First, Equipment Later – Fancy equipment doesn’t create a habit for exercise. Despite this, some people still believe that buying a thousand dollar machine will make up for their inactivity. It won’t. Start building the exercise habit first, only afterwards should you worry about having a personal gym.
13. Isolate Your Weakness - If falling off the exercise wagon is a common occurrence for you, find out why. Do you not enjoy exercising? Is it a lack of time? Is it feeling self-conscious at the gym? Is it a lack of fitness know-how? As soon as you can isolate your weakness, you can make steps to improve the situation.
14. Start Small - Trying to run fifteen miles your first workout isn’t a good way to build a habit. Work below your capacity for the first few weeks to build the habit. Otherwise you might scare yourself off after a brutal workout.
15. Go for Yourself, Not to Impress – Going to the gym with the only goal of looking great is like starting a business with only the goal to make money. The effort can’t justify the results. But if you go to the gym to push yourself, gain energy and have a good time, then you can keep going even when results are slow.

Rethink what you know about fruit

Too many times I hear from people that fruit is this or that (ie. high in sugar, high in calories, etc).  I'm not sure where that misguided information originated but I can tell you it's simply not true.  If your an active individual, fruits should be your best friend.  Not only does it provide the body with much needed vitamins and minerals, it also is a great source of natural sugars.  If your unfamiliar with natural vs processed sugars, here is the skinny, the body is very efficient at digesting and converting natural sugars into usable energy.  When was the last time you heard from someone that they were feeling sluggish and tired (an effect of ingesting too much processed sugars) after eating fruit.  Did I forget to mention, that they are also so damn delicious too!!