Nutty Protein Bars

Hiiiiiiii,

So it's been ages since I've actually baked something fun, so yesterday morning I decided to experiment :)

Simple recipe and no joke, it only took like 5 minutes prep and 30 minutes in the freezer!

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops Forever Ultra Lite Protein Shake
• 60g of organic oats
• 100g of flaked almonds
• 60g of flaxseed mix with cranberries
• 30g of sunflower and almond mix (I had them toasted from previous, but I'm sure they're as nice as if not toasted)
• 60g of almond butter (peanut would do too, I'm sure)
• 1tbsp of Organic Bee Honey
• 20ml of almond milk (just a drop...)
• A little dark chocolate for topping (although, I put it on first time and you actually don't really need it!)

Method:

1. Mix all the of the dry ingredients together
2. Chuck in all the wet ingredients
3. Give it a good mix with a wooden spoon
4. Pop it into a bread loaf tin, pop dark chocolate on top
5. In the freeze for 30 minutes 
6. Boom - out and in mouth

Easy peasy lemon squeezy....

Enjoy :)

Erica xx

Holiday Tips to not throw you completely off

Morning girls J

Holidays are great, the sun in shining (hopefully), which encourages us to eat lighter and drink more water. We’re resting and sleeping better (which is very important when leading a healthy lifestyle) and we’re re-energizing our bodies, which is so important of our mental and physical functioning. 

Before I go through my ten tips that I think make an awesome difference to going on holiday, I want to make sure you understand – you are on your holidays – it IS important that you enjoy some more of life’s pleasures for your short time away. However, you are not a dog, you should not be rewarding yourself with food. 

This is a holiday –NOT a binge trip :) 

So here are ten tips to hang on the healthy living boat while on holiday;

1.      Drink plenty of water – this is not hard to do. It’s hot. You’re thirsty. Choose water over coke.

2.     Meditate every morning on your deck chair.

3.     Pick a time of day to enjoy your alcohol - either lunch or dinner. Do you really need to drink at both meals?

4.     Bring your supplements (see below for the three I brought). Supplements are vital for keeping your body functioning, decant them, they’re easy to bring and will help you feel good when you eat crap.

5.     Watch the carbs at dinner, there are so many wonderful restaurants abroad; try to avoid pasta and pizza every night…

6.    Choose nuts over crisps. A lot of people may have a nightcap or a pre dinner drink, have nuts as your snack instead of crisps.

7.     Get a minimum of 8 hours sleep per night. 

8.    Make sure you eat lots of fibrous foods (leaves, veggies + lentils) so you don’t get bloated and clogged… 

9.    Walk or cycle when you’re going out… Twenty minute walk to your restaurant and back is still a little bit of exercise – something is better than nothing.

10.  Let your skin see the sun (even if you’re very pale, just for a few minutes) –Vitamin D is a very good mood booster J

My Top Three supplements:

1.      Aloe Vera Gel: Well, you know how much I swear by this stuff (full blog on it here) I need this every day – it is amazing! It makes my feel so much cleaner inside; it’s full of nutrients, vitamins, minerals etc. It is amazing for your digestive tract and that means you don’t get bloated J so this is the most important thing that I bring with me. I try to always travel with hand luggage (my wardrobe is flip-flops, bikini, shorts, top #casualchick) So I decant it into little bottles. 

2.     Garcina Plus: A well-known appetite suppressor supplement (I always say to make sure that you’re drinking the gel, when you’re taking these – they can be prone to clogging….) these basically make you feel fuller… So that’s good for eh well you know… not overindulging in the magnums. 

3.     ForeverLean: This is a supplement blend of fiber (super for a healthy gut) and chromium. Chromium is a well-known tool for stopping you craving sugar. Truthfully = I LOVE sugar, I would dive into a bag of sweets if I had the opportunity to. I am not joking you – I do not have a sugar craving when on these bad boys!

If you guys want to grab some of these, you can on my online store: www.ericabrennan.flp.com (and please feel free to send me an email if you’re unsure)

Hope these tips help you with your holiday pounds, but remember, have fun, laughter and don’t come back being disgusted with yourself – it’s not worth it!!!

Erica xx

Gaining weight but not fat!

Firstly, I want to thank everyone so much for their lovely emails and texts in relation to last week's blog. I'm so touched to have gotten so many kind messages. I really hope that if someone is really nervous about training or concerned about food to please get in touch. Honestly, I will truly try my best to help and give any advice and support that I can.

So, today, lets talk about... gaining weight! I know that most of the time my blogs are about fat loss, so today I think I should mention some pointers for girls who actually want/need to gain some weight.

Gaining weight, for anyone who is trying will agree, that it is one of the hardest things to do (I have never personally had this problem, but I've had plenty of clients who have taken my advice)! So the first thing you need to do, is discover why you want/need to gain weight? Are you just naturally really skinny and want to get toned and muscly? Have you had injuries or health problems that have caused sudden weight loss? Have you in the past or do you currently have an eating disorder? Do you struggle to gain weight even though you eat whatever you want whenever you want?

All of the above are questions you need to ask yourself and see where you personally lie. Obviously if you're reading this, you're interested in being healthy and training. So the first thing, I suggest is that you make sure you're a member of a gym (where you can go in and train on your own). Here you need to follow a program that is designed for you - not a one for all program. It's important that you're training in the right rep range, taking the correct amount of rest and following a 4 - 6 week plan, so that YOU can see your progressions!

Secondly, what I would suggest you start developing (and I suggest this to any client I meet, weight loss or gain) a food diary. This is a simple yet very effective task. Literally, write down what you eat/drink and at what time you do this. Then leave a comment 40 minutes after you've eaten saying how you feel e.g. sick, tired, bloated, happy, skinny, clean, healthy, emotional, etc. Oh, and don't lie! The only person you're cod-ding is yourself.

Food diaries are essential for the trainer who will be working with you and for yourself. You'll actually start to see what you are or what you're not eating? A food diary should be for around 10 days and make sure that you get a weekend in there.

Thirdly, just because you are trying to gain weight, doesn't mean you should go out and eat as much fast food as possible to gain a few lbs. You need to be a clever clogs about it. Up your healthy, good quality food and make sure you're having six meals a day (yes, I say six).

1. Breakfast
2. Snack
3. Lunch
4. Snack
5. Dinner
6. Snack

You need to follow all the healthy eating guidelines, trying to increase your protein, lower your empty calorie foods, avoid dairy and gluten and eat plenty of high (good) fatty foods (e.g. nuts, avocado etc.).

This is a ROUGH gist:
Breakfast: 4 poached eggs, 4-5 slices of smoked salmon, half an avocado
Snack: 2 handfuls of nuts, blue/raspberries, protein shake (good quality)
Lunch: 3 turkey/beef burgers, broccoli, spinach, green beans and sweet potato
Snack: 2 handfuls of nuts, blue/raspberries, total greek yoghurt with protein powder
Dinner: 2 salmon fillets, big plate of veg, and sweet potato
Snack: Porridge (almond milk)

Now, I know that if you're not a big eater, that'll look like a mountain, but it's important that you take it day by day, step by step and gradually build up so that you can eat bigger portions. All of those foods are good quality and you all probably recognise them as I suggest people trying to lose body fat eat them (but not as much of them... don't panic fat loss readers!)

I hope that this is a little insight an food for thought for those of you who would like to gain some weight (but not fat!). As always, please PM on facebook and I can help you out with a program for your training. Don't forget, if you would like to be in my skinny mini club (tis a facebook foodie group), please add me on facebook (www.facebook.com/ericabrennan.pt) and I'll add you to it :)

Happy Sunday,
Erica xx

Ps. As I was looking through to find some pictures, I found this....  #ilovegerard

My Fitness Journey

Good morning all,

So it was my birthday on Friday (thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes), so I did a bit of reflecting. I decided to root up some old photo's of myself (that in itself was a good laugh) and I compared a few things. We're always getting amazing testimonials from clients in the gym about their fitness journey, so today for the first time EVER, I'm going to share mine...

"As a child, I hated sports, I was no good at them and I had no interest in becoming good at them. As a teenager, the only sport I was interested in was chasing boys and drinking like a fish. So how am I a fitness fanatic now?

The truth is, as a teenage girl, of course I was self conscious, like every teenage girl is...? I joined gyms a couple of times, but never stuck at them. I felt awkward going into a commercial gym, a spare lemon walking around having no clue what to do, I was shy. So I decided I'd start running... Yes, running, I could do that...?

The truth is though, I THOUGHT I was being good! Honestly, I thought I was (special k for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, pasta for dinner... that not healthy no?). Anyway, long story short, I got injured. Two discs in my lower back wedged together, this shot pain around my front into my hips and down into my knees (great crack).

I went through a bit tough time in my life then, as both my grandparents died (I was VERY close to them) within 9 weeks of each other (this and teenage hormones #cookoo). So, nervous as I was, I joined the local women's gym. This was the best thing I ever did. I lost a couple of inches and was delighted, also the endorphins from training started to clear my head. I was taken under one of the trainers wings in this gym and she asked me would I be interested in doing the course and become a fitness instructor - this NEVER, EVER, EVER had crossed my mind before. I went home did my research, and bam - bye bye retail management course in DIT, hello fitness world. I had all these idea's and I was excited.

I knew that if I wanted to be a coach, I would need to get my own ass in gear, so I hired a personal trainer for 6-months, I spent €180 a week doing three sessions. I spent literally every single penny I earned on this. I gave up alcohol and furthered my education by doing a nutrition course (and anyone in this industry know's that you also have to read a serious amount of books if you want to stand out from the crowd in this field... so did that too) therefore I started to eat right. I still wasn't very strict on food, but better then before. All of this got me down to 14% body fat.

My own fitness career started to take off and this September, I'll be going into my  6th year being a Personal Trainer, Pilates Instructor, Fitness Coach and Nutrition Consultant. My interest in health and well being lead me to a fantastic company: Forever Living Products where I now coach other like minded people on how to build their own health and well being business from home (not fitness professionals, just people who are interested in wealth and health). My body fat and weight has been a constant battle since I was 16 years old. I'm not claiming that I was morbidly obese or anything, I wasn't. However, my diet was brutal and I had a lot of fat on me.

Today, I am the leanest I have ever been and going forward, my goal is to stay at this body fat percentage - I'm quite happy here :) I met Ciaran (in the gym...) and healthy living is SO much easier when someone is doing it with you. We live clean: sugar, dairy, yeast, alcohol (unless a very special occasion) and it suits us! My favourite thing about training, is that it doesn't require skill. It's not like a sport, you don't need any skill, you just need determination and commitment.

I firmly believe that everything in life happens for a reason. As distraught as I was when Granny and Tom died, it lead me into this training world - sunshine always follows the rain. Over the past few years, my weight, inches and body fat has gone up and down, up and down. Always trying my best to train, but other factors come into play too: stress levels, sleep, deficiencies. It's not black and white, weight and fat management is a whole big sea of grey!

You know when you see those pictures on facebook of "a year from now, you'll wish had started today...", I actually said to myself yesterday, thank God I started that day, and I'm extremely grateful to all the people who helped me along my journey. These days, I weight train 3-5 times per week, I do Hot Yoga/Pilates 3 times per week and I run on the Alter-G once a week (I go through phases, sometimes more, sometimes less). I also eat as strictly as I can, take supplements and drink approx. 2-4 litres of water every day. I get minimum 8 hours sleep and I handle my stress levels with Pilates/Yoga, Meditation and Reiki."

Well, that's me. If you want to start your fitness journey. Make the decision now and stick to it.

If you want some support PLEASE email me on facebook (www.facebook.com/ericabrennan.pt). You don't need to be the spare lemon!!

I wish you guys the best of luck whether your continuing or just starting your fitness journey :)

Much love,
Erica