Mind Body Self Nutrition

Monday sets the tone for the rest of the week. Starting the week right with some sparring and pretty punches 🥊✨🥊✨🥊😛

Friday afternoon shot 🥃

Immune supporting shot from the lovely team at with chaser 😋

Camu camu, goji, orange juice and ginger 🍊 Rich in vitamin C and antioxidants ✨

🥊🥊🥊

I wanted to jump on here and share my journey with you all as I undertake a 20 week MMA training / fight camp.

I am a competitor in the Alta Warrior Program (formerly Wimp2Warrior), an intensive mixed martial arts training camp that turns every day people into the very best versions of themselves, physically and mentally, mastering skills in striking, kickboxing, Muay Thai, wrestling and Brazilian jui jitsui.

The fight camp involves waking up at 5am, 5 x a week for the duration of 20 weeks. So far I am 7 weeks in and I am definitely being challenged and outside of my comfort zone but I am enjoying the process and feeling strong af 😎 Annnd for the finale, I will be fighting in the octagon in front of a crowd, with all my friends and family watching on. Crazy right??

I'll be sharing my journey, progress, recipes and knowledge along the way 😊

A little reminder - just go for it, you've got this! 💪

Happy Valentine's Day ❤️🌹

Remember to take some time out for yourself this week ☺️

Local eggs from some local happy chooks 🐔🥚

Beautiful multi-coloured eggs including some never before seen green chicken eggs 😯😍

I believe Araucana chickens are responsible for the green eggs 🐔

Foods rich in magnesium ✨

Magnesium is found in a wide range of foods, with the highest amounts found in nuts and seeds, legumes, green leafy vegetables and whole grains, oh and let's not forget high quality dark choc! 😋

Some every day things you can do to up your dietary magnesium include adding nuts and seeds to salads, enjoying a trail mix, adding cacao powder and or chia seeds in smoothies, carrot sticks with nut butter or hommus, chia seed puddings with berries or sautee some spinach in your omelette.

Some other examples include:

🥜 Nuts such as Brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, peanuts, coconut. Seeds like pepitas, linseeds, h**p seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, tahini

🍫 High quality dark chocolate, cocoa / raw cacao

🥦 Vegetables such as nori seaweed, spinach, avocado, baked potato,

🍞 Whole grains such as wheat bran, buckwheat, quinoa, white and brown rice, oats

🫘 Legumes such as kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, cannelleni beans

Magnesium - A critical mineral for health AKA the calming mineral

Magnesium is the second most abundant cation (electrolyte) in the body and is essential for every cell in the body. It is involved in over 300 enzymes in the body that regulate:

💪Muscle contraction
🧠 Neuromuscular conduction
🧁 Glycaemic Control
🫀 Myocardial contraction
🩸 Blood Pressure
🥩 Protein synthesis
↗️ Active transport (calcium, potassium)
🧬 Structural roles
🦠 Immune function

It's safe to say that it is pretty damn important!

Even though it is such a critical mineral for fundamental roles in the body, magnesium deficiency is widespread.

Some population studies showing almost a 1/4 of the population are getting less than half of their recommend dietary intake. Further research over large, representative populations show Mg deficiency prevalence ranged between 1.7% and 36%, with estimates up to 42% in young adults.

If left untreated, Mg deficiency AKA hypomagnesemia will inevitably result in metabolic dysregulation with various manifestations seen physically and mentally.

Correcting magnesium status with diet and supplementation is safe, effective and well-documented in the prevention and treatment of a range of different conditions.

Home-made quinoa tabouli 🌱♥️
...

I kind of winged this one and it turned out better than expected 😋

Ingredients ✨
Bunch of continental parsley
Bunch of mint
1 Lebanese cucumber finely chopped
2-3 tomatoes finely chopped (depending on size)
1/4 cup quinoa - follow packet instructions to cook
1/2 a juicy lemon
1 clove garlic finely chopped (optional)
Olive oil
Salt pepper

Method✨
Start cooking quinoa, 1 part quinoa 2 parts water. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 mins.

Chop ingredients, or you can use a food processor for the parsley / mint

When quinoa is done fluff with a fork, cool a little then add in.

Mix, add lemon juice, olive oil, season

That's pretty much it!

I served mine in a wrap with hommus and falafels 🤤🌯🥙

*Usually tabouli incorporates bulgur or cracked wheat, so the quinoa is a nice nutritious, gluten free alternative

Quick and Easy Vege Gnocchi 🤌🍅🌿

Ingredients:
- 1 can of organic diced tomatoes, or you can use freshly cut diced tomatoes
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- Button mushrooms, roughly chopped (or veges of choice)
- 1/2 tsp italian herbs
- Handful of basil
- Handful of pine nuts
- Olive oil
- 1 pack of gnocchi

How to:
On low-medium heat lightly toast pine nuts in pan, when light brown transfer to the side

In same pan add some olive oil, saute garlic for 1-2 mins, add mushrooms or veges of choice for 2 mins before adding tomatoes. Add Italian herbs and season with salt and pepper

Add chopped basil and let simmer on low heat for 5-10 mins

Bring pot of water to boil and add gnocchi. Gnocchi is ready when they float to the top.

Drain and add straight to tomato vege sauce. Mix in pine nuts

Serve with Parmesan 🧀

Enjoy! 😋

Gluten free friendly with GF gnocchi
Dairy free if served without cheese

🫐 Berry breakfast 🫐 blueberries, goji berries and acai mixed into yoghurt - a nice pop of purple.

Anthocyanins are a type of antioxidant and are responsible for the red, blue, purple pigments found in fruit and vegetables. Anthocyanins are antiinflammatory, antioxidant, vasoprotective and have been shown to be beneficial to health in a number of ways:

🫀 Lowering blood pressure
❤️‍🔥 Lowering risk of CVD
🧠 Improving cognitive and motor function + neuroprotection
🍬 Improving insulin sensitivity and metabolic markers
👀 Improve visual acuity
🏥 Reducing cell proliferation and inhibiting tumour formation

💮Passionflower💮~ Passiflora incarnata ~ a beautiful find on my morning walk today 😍

Passionflower has been shown to be supportive to the nervous system and may be useful in the management of stress, anxiety and insomnia. It's calming properties are due to its ability to bind and activate GABA receptors, the inhibitory neurotransmitter that gives us a sense of calm 😌😴