Health and Nutrition - Creamy mushroom soup

It's been awhile since I shared my last recipe so here goes, the recipe for creamy mushroom soup! 

Ingredients:

- Assorted mushrooms (portobello, button, shitake, etc)

- Italian Parsley (flat-leaf)

- 4-5 tablespoon of Greek yogurt (to replace cream)

- 2 tablespoon of cottage cheese (to replace cream)

- Milk

- 1 garlic clove (I used 1.5 but felt it was abit too much)

- 1-2 onions (I used 1 but I thought it'll be nicer if I had put 2 instead)

- 1 yellow onion

- Olive oil 

1. Soak the mushrooms and wash them thoroughly, especially the portobello if you are using them.

2. Chop the mushrooms into small pieces.

 3. Chop the other ingredients up; onions, garlic and parsley leaves.

4. Heat up a frying pan and with a little bit of olive oil and put all the ingredients in except for the mushrooms when the pan is hot. Fry for awhile until you can smell the fragrance (NOT TILL BROWN).

5. Put the mushrooms in and fry everything together. REMEMBER, do not fry till brown.

6. Before you start to put all the ingredients into the blender, pick out some of the mushrooms and lay them in a bowl. This will be added into the soup to boil so there will be some bigger chunks of mushrooms.

7. Portion by portion, put the ingredients in a blender and blend them together, adding a bit of milk every round.

8. Pour all the blended mixture, together with the chunks of mushrooms into a pot and turn on the heat to medium. Stir till it boils, after which switch the heat to low and let it slow boil while you add the yogurt and cottage cheese in. You may add a few teaspoons of salt to season. Keep stirring until everything else blends and there you go! Your creamy mushroom soup is ready!

We also prepared this easy-to-make egg muffins using turkey breast ham as the base. Did not turn out yummy I thought, because I could not find peppers at the supermarket! Will be attempting my next batch using chopped peppers and taco or salsa sauce! Nevertheless, this is simple to make if you do not have much time to prepare elaborated ones.

Ingredients used:

- 200g of turkey breast ham

- 6 eggs

- Parmesan cheese

- Olive oil

1. Lubricate the muffin mould using olive oil and lay the ham on the muffin mould nicely as the bases. Next, put the parmesan cheese in as much as you like and top the cheese with an egg. It's that easy!

2. Preheat the oven to about 180 degree celcius and once then put the mould into the oven. I think we waited about 10 minutes but do take note and watch the muffins just in case they get too cooked.

VOILA! The muffins we made are slightly overcooked so just be careful if you want those very soft-boiled kind of eggs.

Hope you enjoyed the recipes and do post photos and tag me on IG @limaranagustina! Have a great week ahead everyone! Till the next!

Product Review: Smartshake - Neon Series

It's been more than a year since I started bringing all these out with me every single day. Sometimes I misplace them individually in my huge gym bag that I got so annoyed with myself for forgetting to bring either my sups, pre workout drink or my additional scoop of protein for busier days, only to find out days later that they are actually somewhere hidden in my bag. HAHA. As somebody who works out regularly, it is important that we have enough protein, vitamins and other supplements in a day. So, how do you pack yours?

This was how I usually pack mine:

I have never paid for a shaker bottle, because I always get them FOC from my protein powder orders online. And sadly, none of them lasted long enough for me. Thank God for Smartshake! I first saw it on bodybuilding forum but had never really enticed me to get one mainly because of the hassle of shipping in from US. NOW you have it in Singapore and they come in such cute colors from the NEON Series! The fuchsia one caught my eye at first sight and I could not stop thinking about it until I decided to get Jess to order together with me (HEH).

Now, I can pack everything in a bottle, with the individual compartments! The best part is that it looks good and cool and I have been getting a lot of questions from the gyms about where I get my bottle from. I also don't have to worry about losing the individual items in my bag because they are all attached now!

Get yours today at www.smartshakesg.com! Colours from the Neon series comes individually so you may share your order with your gym buddy or get more than 1 if you want to have them all for yourself!

Lucky for you, my readers and IG followers are all entitled to a 10% off till 31st Oct 2013 on all items except for the Jay Cutler 800ml bottle as it is already on sale. GET YOURS TODAY and hurry before the promo code expires! All you need to do is enter my promo code "limaran9911" into the 'Add special instructions for your order' box before you click 'Checkout'! Have fun!!

Fitness & Nutrition: How important nutrition is

I took a long time to prepare this post because I have been contemplating posting this as it'll be a societal shock to our modern lifestyle and diet, and to many of you out there. The other reason for the delay was to carefully put all the technical terms into a simpler version so it'll be easier for everyone to understand.

Do bear with me on this post as I'll be stressing a lot on the most challenging part of your fitness journey AGAIN. I need to keep emphasising on the fact that nutrition should be the root and the foundation to your journey to perfecting health and fitness, well, not just that, but going slightly ahead, especially if you are a competitive athlete or sportsperson.

There is an apparent reason, to me, why the sports industry is not blooming and moving forward in Singapore. Yes, as you can guess right now, the reason is NUTRITION.

As you can see from the triangle above, this is the Crossfit Dietary Prescription (CDP). I guess some of you may have seen this, may have understood this, and some of you may think this is irrelevant because you don't crossfit. But hey, take a minute (or few) to read what I have to say because if you are disciplined enough to give it a try and spread the good news, maybe the sports industry, and even the SAF (Singapore Armed Force) in Singapore will see the enlightenment and improve the current sports and fitness education.

Today, I'll be attempting to simplify this prescription so this can apply to everyone and instill into your lifestyle.

Ever heard of 'You are what you eat!'? This is the summary of CDP. Your nutrition is the foundation and will break or make you in your fitness journey. A good and well-balanced diet will ensure increment in health, energy and sense of well-being; it is also the deciding factor  of whether your body is reducing fats, building quality muscles and optimising performance in and out of the gym.

Sport - performance

Strength training (aka weight-lifting) - control of external weight

Gymnastics - control of our body in space

Metabolic conditioning - cardio/respiratory

Nutrition - solid molecular foundation

I do not even have to elaborate and tell you more about the other 4 factors if you don't know how to keep your nutrition in check. SO here goes:

Macronutrients - what I have been referring to as macros, are your protein, carbohydrates and fats. Micronutrients, as you may guess, are then vitamins and minerals. Carbohydrates affects the production of hormone insulin, that derives energy from your bloodstream in your cells to be used as fuel. Though it is an essential in the body, too much of carbohydrates in your body will result in diabetes type II, coronary heart disease, depression, obesity, etc. Protein, goes the same way as carbs, will result in fat storage if consumed in excess, however if in deficiency, will break down muscles to make up for the necessary protein requirement. Fats are then your optimal energy source and it contains almost twice the amount of carbs and protein. Of course I'm referring to good fats such as nuts, seeds, fish and avocado.

So where am I deriving at exactly? 

I'm trying to encourage and promote a diet that is a combination of 2 individual popular diets and one that you can keep and instill into a lifestyle, that will ultimately increase your performance in your sport, in the army, or even, in your pursuit of health and fitness for life.

Diet 1: Paleo Diet

Paleolithic diet is all about meat, seeds, nuts, vegetables, very minimal starch and NO sugar. YES, you read me right, NO SUGAR! Alot of crossfit athletes don't consume sugar AT ALL, which means they even avoid fruits that are high in sugar. It's really up to you though, I personally feel that as long as you don't go overboard with the grapes, bananas, mangoes and cherries, a little won't kill but hey, #YOLO! You know what your body needs and wants.

Diet 2: Zone Diet

The Zone diet emphasises on both the quality and quantity of your macros - calorie counting, which everyone irks. 

To optimise performance, you will need a mixture of both diets (sounds complicated and difficult uh?).

Bottomline - your diet should consist of more lean meats, vegetables, seeds, nuts, some fruits, little starch and NO SUGAR. Also, you need to keep the intake of your macros to support your workout, not your body fat. WHICH MEANS, you don't eat less because you want to lose weight, you cut on what you eat for a purpose to maximise your performance in the gym, sport or even in the armed forces. The CDP recommends 30% of your diet to consist of lean protein, 40% low-glycemic carbs (low GI foods) and 30% of good/monosaturated fats.

So then, how do you know much much to eat for each meal? Remember I mentioned before, that your different body type will determine how you should be eating? There you go..

The CDP has defined that:

1 block of protein = 7 grams of protein (cooked)

1 block of carbs = 9 grams of carbs

1 block of fats = 1.5 grams of fats

Now look at the table below and you will be able to find out how many blocks are recommended for you on the different meals. 

Give it a try if you are game for it, and have the plans to optimize your performance in the gym, as a professional athlete or sportsperson. I hope I managed to deliver my message well. Do come back to me if you have burning questions about CDP. Start cutting out SUAGRS from your diet everyone!

To those who have emailed me and waiting for my reply, kindly be patient with me, I'll definitely get back to you ASAP! Keep those emails coming in! (=

One of the nights while I was marinating my food for easy cooking - used cajun & ginger ground

Yay, finally got a photo taken with Zheng ge ping!

Saturdays with LOVE

Have a great week ahead everyone! I'll be back with the recipe I promised to share! (=

Health & Fitness: Myths about Female weight training

I have been explaining about this to my family and friends OVER and OVER again, this topic about females not having to worry about gaining bulky muscles when they start lifting weights. So recently I came across an image that looked something like what I created (couldn't find the exact one that I had seen but yea, the idea is the same).

So, ladies, you only get your body at its peak and most beautiful when you start lifting weights, or at least be doing some exercises. Otherwise, if you are not on a caloric deficit and generally eating more than what you need daily (say 1lb), you will be gaining 365lbs in a year, which will be worse off if you don't even workout to start with. ISN'T that scary?!

The biggest problem of women that boils down to that fear of looking like a she-hulk, to me, is a complicated war of the will and flesh. Very often, you ladies genuinely and sincerely want to get your butts down to working out, but the flesh is reluctant, and so the misconception part comes into place, where excuses of the fear to look like a she-hulk seeps into the minds.

Let me simplify some of the myths that you have heard:

1. Weight-training will make me look like a she-hulk.
There is definitely no way a woman is able to build muscles like men because of the fact that we women do not naturally produce as much testosterone as men and testosterone is one of the main hormones that contributes to muscle-building. The bulky and intimidating images of professional female bodybuilders must have scared you away from the gym and weights, I do understand that. BUT, they do not get to those sizes without using anabolic steroids and other drugs to reach that high degree of masculinity. Even so, without all the drugs and steroids, it is not easy, takes heavy weight training, right diet and many years for men to build big and visible muscles, SO, when is it even our turn?

2. I want to get toned, don't have to necessarily be stronger. Can I just run?
I'm not saying running is not effective here, I still run (though seldom) and do other forms of cardio but that is not my main forms of workout. There are 3 main subjects that comes into this argument of fat-burning all the time:
1. Cardio
2. High Intensity interval Training (HIIT)
3. Weight Training

So which is most effective and why?
First of all, the reason why cardio should not be your main training is because though you burn fats, you not only burn the fats but the muscles (whole theory of muscle-loss=fats storing comes into play again). What's more, you only burn the fats during the cardio, nothing after that. It is still a good and healthy way to work the heart and keep your heart healthy.

HIIT, on the other hand allows you to burn fats during and up to 4 hours after the workout and by having HIIT in your training routine you burn more fats than a person who just does cardio day in day out, while sleeping.

Lastly, weight training allows you to target specific muscle groups and build lean muscles. By doing so, you will be able to gain quality muscles and then improve overall metabolic function. The functional training moves like squats and deadlifts will also improve your mobility in everyday activities, thus preventing injuries. Weight training also improve body composition (more lean muscles, less fats at the same bodyweight) and increases bone density which prevents the onset of osteoporosis. It also improves circulation, coordination, balance and bone and ligament strength.

So what is the verdict?
Add all 3 subjects into your training routine for best results!

3. When I stop weight training, my muscles will turn into fats and make me look flabby!
Muscles CANNOT turn into fats and fats CANNOT turn into muscles, I repeat, Muscles CANNOT turn into fats and fats CANNOT turn into muscles! This is equivalent to "metal CANNOT turn into gold". These are 2 different entities that must be clarified. Simply explained, when you stop exercising one day, your muscle cells will just get smaller and thinner, and your fat cells will not multiply too. If you do not watch your fat intake after you stop exercising, your muscle cells will decrease in sizes and your fat cells will grow bigger and bigger, that's how people get fat and overweight when they stop exercising altogether.

4. I should not be doing heavy weights because it is dangerous.
Well, there 1 main reason why I think women should progressively lift heavier. Here goes, if you have been doing weight training (which is good), you will ultimately reach a plateau where everything seems too light and simple for you, that is when your body is at its comfort zone and is used to doing the usual weights, therefore restricting or slowing down your progress. Generally, our body and muscles respond to resistance and when there is very light or even no resistance, then there is no way your body can change and evolve.

These are the usual questions I get from my family and friends and I hope to be able to clarify the burning questions of yours with these answers. Personally and honestly, one of the main restrictions to people not working out is the 'priority' issue. When health and fitness is your priority after God (if you have a religion) and family, there is no reason for you to not be able to find time to workout and keep fit. At least for Jason and I, we have a common priority after God and family, to eat and workout well, strengthening and protecting the only place we live in.

"You don't workout only when you have the time, you make the time to workout!"

This article is specially done for www.singasports.com and I'll be covering a specific topic every month to add into collection of articles on the page so do check the web out! I'm glad to see many like-minded fitness lovers out there and hoping to see more! Do email me if you have other burning questions and I'll try my best to help, apologies if I may take longer to reply though.

Before I end the post, I need to share my progress on the legs since 2009. Had a good time giggling over the skinny me in the past. I also have evidence of being a snack-junkie then (that bag of ruffles ewwwww! HAHA). Happy to see my progress over the years!

New recipe up next! Stay tuned and hang in there, it's midweek tomororrowwwww!

Health & Nutrition - Overnight Oats

This was my first jar of overnight oats, and I started packing overnight oats every night following that night, which made me love oats so much more than usual because it is DUPER YUMMY! I'll share more recipes along the way but would like to share my first experience.

The ingredients can be as simple as just oats and banana, or it can be as elaborated as what I did (was trying to be adventurous. HEH.

What I used:

- A jar (I reused the YUMMI honey jar and portion is huge, for 2-3 separate meals)

- 1.5 tblspoon of Hershey's cocoa powder

- 100ml of milk

- 1 tblspoon of greek yogurt

- 1 banana

- 1 scoop (approx. 1.3 cup) rolled oats (uncooked and DO NOT use the instant oats) 

- 2 medium strawberries

- Chia seeds (I would not miss this if I'm at my own home)

1. Prepare a bowl and mix the cocoa powder with milk and greek yogurt. Stir till mixture is almost fully blended and dissolved.

2. Pour about half of the mixture into the empty jar and then top it up with the rolled oats.

3. Now the fruits, cut the banana and strawberries into slices and put the banana slices in first, followed by the strawberries.

4. Last step, pour the remaining cocoa mixture in and cover the jar. Put it in the fridge for AT LEAST 4 hours, if not, overnight (as the name says).

Take the jar out in the morning and you are ready to eat it! I put in another mixture of chocolate protein and water in the morning too. That's your choice. I hope I managed to show how easy it is to make this. It tastes yummy and I usually bring it out in the morning and will keep it in a thermal bag and will be able to last more than 3 hours out of the fridge. Try to keep it as refrigerated if you can though, especially if you like it really really cold!

Go ahead and try it out, post your photos and tag me @limaranagustina!! Have fun! Stay tuned, because I'll be writing about women and bodybuilding next! Meanwhile, enjoy the photos from 'The Piano Guys' concert I went with Jess (@jesslinet). Thanks once again for the tickets babe! Totally enjoyed it, these super talented guys!

Audience of almost 45,000. SO AWESOME!

Have a great weekend everyone, be safe and keep fit! Till the nexttt! :)