It's little chocolate balls of love

Here's a short one today girls :)

Since it is St. Patrick's weekend, I decided to make some healthy treats so the one I want to share with you!

Ingredients:
1 tbsp of cocoa
2 tbsp coconut segments (and keep for the end process)
3 tbsp of chopped almonds (toasted on the pan)
2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp linseed crunch (a little bag of seeds that you can buy in aldi)
2 scoops of forever lite ultra chocolate protein
1 tbsp coconut oil (melted in the pan)


Method:
1. Throw all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix around.
2. Add in the coconut oil and stir around.
3. Roll into little balls and roll in the coconut segments
4. Pop them into the fridge and eat when they slightly harden!

YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY

If you want to purchase the low carb/sugar tasty protein that I use for all my treats to #cheatclean, have a scoop around my online store here :)

Also, I post up more recipes on instagram, so if you want to see daily food tips, follow me @ericabrennanblog

Have a fantastic Paddy's weekend,
Erica xx

Granola Bars... and crumbs

Looking for something quick and handy to keep in the press and have with a cup of tea?

Here is my recipe for healthy granola bars :) Here are all the ingredients that you'll need!

Now, I know that all these ingredients make it look like it's a lot of effort, but it's really not. If you go out and buy all these seeds then they'll keep for whenever you need them (and they're not that pricey)

These are the one's that I buy in Aldi:

Use the protein shake scooper...

One scoop for these four:

Two scoops for these three:

Three scoops of these two:

So put all of the ingredients in a bowl and then add the wet ingredients!
- Almond butter (1 tbsp)
- Almond milk (40ml)
- Coconut Oil (2 tbsp)

Blend them all together, put in a tin and in the oven (gas 6) for 40 minutes :)

They are delicious and you can enjoy them with a cup of herbal tea .... healthy and filling and full of fibre to help your digestive system work properly!

6 simple steps... lose fat instantly

Right,

Are you ready? Five things - food related - to do and you are guaranteed to start losing fat instantly...

1. Back away from the booze
I am aware that this can be a hard pill to swallow...

If you want to get shredded... you CANNOT drink alcohol.

However if you don't want to get shredded, but you do want to lose a bit of weight or body fat, then you still have to give it up. Drink destroys your ability to burn fat by inhibiting your growth hormone production. It really messes up your liver, which means you will struggle to detoxify your body. Therefore if alcohol is a big part of your life, you're destroying your ability to burn fat... which isn't a great situation to be in really, is it?!

So bye bye wine... And no, it doesn't matter if it is gin and slimline tonic... all types of alcohol will inhibit your fat burning fun. It's nothing to do with calories or "low fat" mixers.... it is all down to the disastrous effect it has on hormones in the body.


2. Stop eating margarines
All those tubs of margarine are a no-go. It's a simple change - move to real butter, organic butter or unsalted butter (ghee). Margarines are full of transfats which are highly highly dangerous!

So as a general rule... let's not put trans fats (everything that is processed) into your body, they're not good for you.

3. Stop eating processed food
Processed foods have been made in a factory and get transported to the supermarkets in boxes... really do you want to eat from dirty boxes.

Factory made food... well you don't need me to tell you that they're not good for you. Plus, MSG and chemicals don't help fat loss either... actually they inhibit it (plus MSG is awful for your body... you're body is a temple, don't put that crap in it!) MSG and Aspartame are some of our generations biggest, most dangerous inventions, and they are literally killing millions of people a year. A bit bleak, I know, but unfortunately that is the reality!


4. Start eating vegetables

You know they're good for you. Just eat them. Preferably steamed, not boiled, and as much orange and green veg as you can!

5. Stop eating the bold carbs
Bread, Pizza, Pasta, Rice (brown, occasionally)
You know they're bad for you... So stop eating them.
Better types of carbs would be Quinoa and Sweet Potato, but the timing is as important, preferably post workout when you're more insulin sensitive.

6. No more low-fat
Remember this: Low Fat = High Sugar

Sugar stores as fat in body and it sits on your hips! Avoid all the foods that say "low fat" on the label. They still taste delicious which means that lots of sugar and chemicals have been added to them so they still taste good. Ditch them. Eat less of the regular product.

Think about this: 
Our bodies are machines, they perform millions and millions of actions every second in our bodies. Now your body doesn't really care about those two kilos that you'd love to lose... if you consume a load of chemically processed foods with ridiculously high sugar. Your main priority is to excrete them. Therefore your body is not focusing on your weight loss regime. If you want to lose weight, help your body function properly so it can burn fat effectively, don't hinder it by eating the above foods.

Hope this helped, Erica xx

Happy Sunday

Good morning everyone,

OK, so yesterday I attended a Success Day; this is a special day that the company I work with organises for everyone to enjoy and learn, leaving feeling inspired and positive - it's awesome, BUT what I found super-amazing was a speaker that I had the honour of listening to - Molly Harvey. A Waterford woman who is truly inspiring, so I wanted to share some of the tips she suggested and I highly recommend you finding her and attend some of her seminars or read some of her books :)


Three things that I took on board :)

1. No Excuses

Who is guilty of saying "I'll start eating healthy tomorrow" or "I promise I'll go to the gym on Monday.."??

Now, we all know that excuses get us NOWHERE! We have to ditch the excuses! So I thought that this was a fantastic idea - an excuse box!

Catch yourself making an excuse and jot it down. Do this for 21 days. After 21 days, open the box and you'll see very quickly where you make the most excuses in your life! Now is that not a fantastic idea?

2. STOMP STOMP

Although everyone goes through challenges throughout their lives, everyone one of us have many things to be grateful for :)

So, first thing in the morning, when you awake, swing your legs out of the bed and stomp one foot onto the floor at a time and say "Thank You".

Say two to three things every morning that you are grateful for.

3. Get a grateful buddy!

Pick a person to be your grateful buddy - every morning when you wake up text your grateful buddy the two to three things that you are truly grateful for, then your buddy texts you theirs back.

Do this for 66 days.

Your outlook on life will change and I truly believe that.

The power of positivity is unbelievable. I used to be a negative person, always putting myself down. I actually used to assume the worst would happen in situations and if it didn't that would be a great bonus - how negative!

I am not like that anymore. When you re-train your thinking to become positive, your life will change.

You need to look up - Molly Harvey (she is truly awesome)
Please bare in mind there were LOADS of other fantastic tips and life lessons but these were the top three that I think everyone should know!)

Think positive. Be positive. Let your life change. 

Erica xx

PS. If you want to be a part of these positive success days, please email me on facebook/skinnymini and I can show you how to build your own business with no overheads, generate more income, develop personally and attend these fantastic trainings and seminars and work with me - yipee :)

Test your fitness

I often come across people in the gym who ask "does this ever get any easier?". They are still wrecked from their workout and they've been training months.

The truth is, your training regimes shouldn't get any easier... They will, so you need to make your programs harder and harder when they become easier, so that you're being challenged each workout. It's called progression. Your program should be periodised, so it gets more challenging. When you start something new, the first time you do it is always the hardest. If you were to do it again a few weeks later, you would find it much easier. However people rarely test that. So today, i'm going to show you how to test it.

Lets take some examples and in these examples, you need to push yourself to the absolute max, no dossing!

Here is a basic fitness test, now remember you have to do it AFTER you have completed a full workout:

Week One: After you finish training, you do as many burpies as you can in 60 seconds.
Result: You've achieved 24 burpies.
Conclusion: You're in bits!

Week Four: After you finish training, you do as many burpies as you can in 60 seconds.
Result: You've achieved 35 burpies.
Conclusion: You're in bits!

It was the exact same test, you pushed yourself to the max each time and after you did them you were wrecked! So why was it not easier?? Because you pushed yourself hard and your upgraded fitness level brought you through each rep faster!

Here is a hard fitness test, now remember you have to do it AFTER you have completed a full workout:

Week One: After you finish training, you;
1. Sprint on the rower for 500 meters - as fast as you can!!
2. 15 Squat Jumps - proper technique please.
Result: It took you 3 minutes.
Conclusion: You're in bits!

Week Four: After you finish training, you;
1. Sprint on the rower for 500 meters - as fast as you can!!
2. 15 Squat Jumps - proper technique please.
Result: It took you 2.50 minutes.
Conclusion: You're in bits!

However wahey, you shed ten seconds off!! You're fitter and faster!!

Here is an even harder fitness test, now remember you have to do it AFTER you have completed a full workout:

Week One: After you finish training, you;
1. Sprint on the rower for 500 meters - as fast as you can!!
2. 20 Push Ups - proper technique please - girls can go on knee's
3. 15 Military Burpies - 10kg - proper technique please
Result: It took you 4.50 minutes.
Conclusion: You're in bits!

Week One: After you finish training, you;
1. Sprint on the rower for 500 meters - as fast as you can!!
2. 20 Push Ups - proper technique please - girls can go on knee's
3. 15 Military Burpies - 10kg - proper technique please
Result: It took you 3.30 minutes.
Conclusion: You're in bits!

Excellent, you shed 80 seconds off your time! So our hard and harder tests are based on TIME and our basic test is based on REPS.


You may look at these three little fitness tests and think "gosh, they look easy" and you may do them and think that "they were easy". Well then you're going too slow. This is a challenge, you have to to want to vomit after you finish, thats how fast you're going!!

Why not try some of the above and in four weeks time, do them again! I'll post up some more over the next few weeks on twitter: @skinnymini_blog or instagram: @ericabrennanblog

The same focus applies to all your workouts, if you've completed a program that has the correct weights applied for you and you stroll out of the gym, thinking "not a bother"; either you took way too many rest periods, you were doing your reps too fast, weights too light, your technique was all over the place or you didn't sprint on your cardio exercises.

That was you.

What I'm trying to say is working out is all about you. If you put 10% in, you'll get that out. So you need to be putting 100% in. Each rep is perfect; each push up, you hit the floor, each prowler sprint, you're going as fast as you physically can!!

Then you'll start to see results properly! Time is precious so don't waste the hour by not giving your workouts 100%! Give the gym 1 hour, do it properly, train hard and it will be time well spent.

On that note... I'm off to the gym...

Cheerio :)

Erica xx

Ps. Just to put it out there, I am an average person, who also hates saying no to Pizza and sometimes would rather eat some jellies than to go to the gym... 

Flapjackkie Thingie

Hello :)

OK, here's another good recipe one that I invented during the week - inspired by my training buddy @sfitz1 on Instagram (give her a follow, her cooking is unreal!!)

This is a healthy, sugar free flapjackkie thingie :)

The ingredients look long, but you can basically put whatever nutty - seedy stuff that is in your house in. These are what I used yesterday :)

Dry Ingredients
Whole Chia sees (2tbs)
Flaxseed mix (2tbs)
Shelled hemp (2tbs)
Linseed crunch (2tbs)
Milled linseed with blueberries & raspberries (2tbs)
Sesame seeds (2tbs)
Chopped walnuts (2tbs)
Chopped almonds (2tbs)
Mixed seeds (2tbs)
Flaked almonds (2tbs)
Dried raisins (4tbs)
Coconut segments (4tbs)
Vanilla Ultra Lite Protein Shake (2scoops = 50g)
Organic Porridge Oats (4 scoops = 100g)


Wet Ingredients
Organic coconut oil (2tbs)
Almond nut butter (2tbs)
2 Bananas
Almond milk (200ml)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven, Gas 6
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together with an electric mixer (low speed).
3. Put all the wet ingredients together in a bowl.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredient mixture and mix on high speed for about 1-2 minutes.
6. Put the mix into a greaseproof papered tin.
7. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes


   

Result:

Please not: Coconut Oil =

Protein Pancakes

Good Morning Y'all,

OK, so it's not pancake Tuesday yet, but everyday can be pancake day.... Protein Pancake Day :) So my fantastic work colleague Tom, came in with this last Tuesday with this delicious looking breakfast!

Tom's Pancakes:

Now, I have tried many protein pancake recipes, but never would they stick properly on the pan... but these ones do!!! So Tom gave me permission to share he's awesome recipe with you all :)


Ingredients:

Teaspoon of coconut oil
30g Porridge Oats (organic if possible please)
30g Aminotein Vanilla Protein (as it is gluten free)
2x Eggs
1x Mashed Banana
Dash of almond milk
Almond Butter for serving (again, organic, glass jar if possible)


Method:
1. Put your oats, protein shake, eggs and banana in a bowl and mix together.

2. Add in enough milk to get the "pancake" consistency.
3. Heat the pan and melt the coconut oil.

4. Pour in the your pancake batter and make pancakes

5. Serve with delicious almond butter and green tea and BOOM healthy fun breakfast!

Happy Pancaking :)

Erica xx

Order your gluten free protein here http://bit.ly/MobKti