Food For Fuel: Chicken, Rice and Steamed Veggies

After a sweaty workout, I love to refuel my body with food that's packed full of natural, nutritional goodness :) some fitness bloggers and companies say the best thing is a protein shake. Personally, I prefer to eat as many foods that have not been altered and aren't packed full of man-made ingredients that might cause havoc with my digestive system. 

One meal that's super quick, easy and doesn't cost a fortune is this Chicken, Brown Rice and Steamed Veggie dish that is packed full of flavour and nutrients. Here is how to make it for one person:

Ingredients: 

• 40g dry brown rice 
• Organic chicken stock cubes
• Either a tsp of coconut oil or olive oil 
• One chicken breast 
• One garlic clove
• Half a red onion 
• Half a green pepper
• A bunch of asparagus 

How to make it:

1) Boil some water in a pan, and add a chicken stock cube making sure it's broken up and dissolved

2) Rinse the brown rice in a sieve to get rid of any dirt and excess starch

3) Add to the boiling stock 

4) Add some coconut oil or olive oil to a frying pan and add the sliced pieces of chicken breast 

5) Cook until starting to brown 

6) Add the chopped garlic and sliced red onion and stir thoroughly

7) Add the sliced green pepper and asparagus to a colander and put on the pan of boiling rice with the lid on to steam 

8) Make approximately 100ml of boiling chicken stock and add to the frying pan and simmer

9) Add the steamed veggies to the pan and stir

10) Once the rice has cooked, drain and add to the plate or bowl, dishing up the chicken and mixed veggies. Pour a little of the leftover stock for added flavour 

Enjoy! :) 

 

Why I've Quit Sugar

Hi I'm Amy, and I was a sugar addict.

For the last few years now, I've eaten a diet that's included lots of cereals, fruit and the occasional piece of dark chocolate. Compared to my diet in my early twenties, this was healthy! Cereals are always marketed as being good for your heart, fruit is packed full of natural vitamins and dark chocolate that's over 85% cacao is a lot healthier than a milk chocolate bar right?

The problem is, these foods are still packed full of sugar.

I had heard about Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar a while ago but had also read some mixed reviews. I decided to find out for myself partly because I was curious, but mainly because I generally want to be free from my sugar addiction. I've always found my tummy to be my 'problem area'. Weight that just didn't seem to want to shift no matter how many core exercises I did. 

I bought the I Quit Sugar: Complete 8-Week Detox Programme and Cookbook and read through the recipes and the outline of the next few months so I knew what to expect. I soon realised that weeks 1 and 2 are already what I have cut out and changed in my diet for some time now, so I started from Week 3 of the programme. 

To get a rough comparison of just how much sugar I was actually consuming, I used a fitness and food app to track my food. I had already been tracking my food before I started the programme and from my diet of fruit and cereals, I was eating between 35-50g each day! Now I'm eating on average between 13-20g a day. 

Previously, I'd been eating fruit to snack on throughout the day at work, so this programme has given me a chance to get creative and find some other ways to enjoy some tasty snacks. Before, I would take an apple, an orange, a banana, some grapes and blueberries and maybe even some cherries on an average day. This is a LOT of sugar to be eating, as despite them coming from natural healthy foods, they still contain high levels of fructose. 

The programme encourages you to cut out fruit at the beginning to help our bodies re-calibrate to a 'clean canvas' so we can clear our system of any fructose, release the toxic build up in our fat cells and ultimately help ourselves to quit sugar and kick those cravings to the ground. Since starting the programme, I feel leaner, wake up earlier and my skin is clearing up. Collectively, I have lost a couple of inches from my thighs, arms, and hip area and about 5lbs in weight. 

Regardless of the number on the scales and tape measure, the main progress and changes inside my body that I'm more concerned about is how I feel. A mere week before I started the programme, I had been struggling to get out of bed before 7am and yet since quitting sugar I have naturally woken up and out of bed around 6am. Perhaps it's psychological. Perhaps cutting down on the bad stuff actually does work this quickly. My ultimate goal is to feel good, increase my energy levels and enhance my focus, so any other positive physical benefits are a bonus to me! 

The I Quit Sugar goal isn't to never enjoy a slice of cake again; it's to help our bodies understand the difference between hunger and cravings, which the body can find very difficult while sugar is pumping around our system. 

It has now been 11 weeks since I first gave up sugar and I don't for a minute regret not eating all the doughnuts, biscuits and sweets that were always available at work! Last week was the first time I introduced sugar back into my diet (something that the programme does encourage!) and I was actually quite surprised. My favourite Cadbury bar didn't taste half as delicious as I remember and I didn't feel any satisfaction from eating it. 

I'm hoping this is the start of a much healthier lifestyle, where I can eat something sweet if I choose to, but I can also stop easily.