It will be what you want it to be!

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Malin

This week has been a little slow and it seems like a lot of people is sick or feeling sluggish and I would guess it’s the weather change. This will only give excuse to the unwell but for the rust of us, we don’t have one!

As you probably have figures out by now I am training for 1/2 a marathon but this doesn’t mean I given up on weight lifting. I like to “feel” that I worked out the day before, yes I sort of thrive on being sore. The thing is, trying to get all the miles in we have planned for every week and being tight and sore is not necessarily a good combination. But to every problem there is a solution, right? And mine is called YOGA!

This hour gives me the opportunity to center myself, release all the tension in my muscles but also focus on the goals I have ahead of me. So yesterday when I was doing my first run of the week, 6 miles. 2 miles warm up then 20 sprints a 30 seconds then running normal pace and legging it the last 1/2 mile and it was tough. The wind was gusting in my face and my heart pounding at 185-190 beats/minute and I’m not lying, it felt like I was running in syrup. That is when I came back to that place I go to when I’m doing yoga. Again it doesn’t mean it stopped hurting but I knew that I could do it and so I did!

LowCarb Crepe filled with garlic and mushroom

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Malin

I have never been a big fan of pancakes or Crepe as they always given me a tummy ache, not even as a child. Today I was in the mood to make something fast and easy and I thought Garlic and mushroom filled Crepe would be a perfect dinner and without the wheat I don’t feel nauseous.

Low-carb Pancake

2 Eggs

1/2 a cup and a bit of Almond Flour

1/4 Water

Pinch of Salt

Garlic and Mushroom Filling

Button Mushroom

1 Clove of Garlic

Pinch of salt

Dijon Mustard

A slice of cheese

Direction: Whisk everything together and use half of the batter to make a “pancake” and fry it until it is slightly brown. Sauté the mushrooms and the garlic in butter and season with salt. Spread the Dijon mustard on the pancake, add the cheese and top off with the garlic mushroom before “closing”.

If you want it more creamy or if you need more fat because of your diet, add mayonnaise.

This was a very quick and easy dinner that filled me up and I still have half the batter left to use for lunch for tomorrow!

Grilled Cod with the famous yumyum sauce

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Malin

A few weeks ago we ended up going to a local restaurant after my dinner attempt turned into an epic fail. I ended up having the fish tacos and after that I am craving fish, so fish was what was on the menu for this evening but their was a slight problem When I woke up this morning winter was back with vengeance after those lovely couple of days of spring. But that was not letting my spirit down and stopping me to proceed with my dinner plans…Grilled Cod.

I think their is a few advantages to making food on the grill; I don’t have to deal with the yucky fish smell that always is stuck in the house for days on days and the food just taste so much better. There is one more thing I always have to deal with when it comes to fish & kids…It’s not their favorite dish but my mother-in-law has the solution and we call it the yumyum sauce! Every kid that has ever tried it ends up eating their fish like it is candy so here we go…

Fish

1 lb of fresh Cod

Canola Oil

Salt and Lemon Pepper (or pepper and lemon juice)

Direction: Use a gridiron so if the fish separates you end up with nothing except an empty plate. Grill the fish for approximate 4 minutes on each side, make sure not to over cook it so it turns dry and awful.

The yumyum sauce

1 part sour cream

1 part cream

1 tablespoon Fish Fond or a cube of fish boullion

Direction: Mix it together and bring to a simmer…as simples as that!

This is magic!

Both the kids finished all the fish and they loved it!!

Practise what you preach

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Malin

Today we had a guest appearance from the City. It was Laura’s friend and I’ve been told she is just like me “a gym junky” so the pressure was totally on. I knew the girls was going to be sore from the drop sets we did on Monday so arms was more or less off-limits. So coming in I had to try the workout to see if it was descent or not. As I did Frank, on of the trainers at Lifestyle Fitness decided to join in. It is so much more fun when you have a workout pal because if I every thought about giving up when working alone, having a partner it never even crosses my mind.

So there we were, Frank and I slightly rushed for time when we started to crank out the first set of wood chops, body weighted side bridge, burpee with push up and last but not least shoulder extensions from a medicine ball. Although this was a core circuit the shoulders had to stabilize a fair bit so coming into the last move me and my shoulders had a very private conversation 😉

As we are having a bit of a drop-set week this week what would be more appropriate than carry it over to the legs as well. So with a barbell squats, dropping the weight twice followed by 20 walking lunges with at least 20 lbs weight did the trick…

…but to every frontside there is also a backside. This time around we did the drop set last and started with 15 Barbell “good mornings” followed by Romanian deadlifts. I was coming into my third set and I was glad I was seeing the silver lining of the workout. We topped the day off combining the weight training into 6 minutes cardio blast. I could with an ease to my mind let the girls do the same because I knew I pushed myself and how could I ever give them a workout that would not be challenging enough?!!

Thanks for coming Michelle!

Leftovers comes from a lot of love and so does this lasagna!

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Malin

I spend a fair amount of time planning, preparing and cooking and I think the more love you give the better the outcome and sometimes leftover just gets better with time. But be warned, they may have joined the dark forces if they start moving around on their own in the fridge 😉

So even we had a lot going on this afternoon we still had a lot of love on our plates from the Sunday leftover Lasagna.

Meat Sauce

1 lb Minced Beef

1 Yellow Onion

1-2 Garlic Clove

Chopped Mushrooms

6 oz Tomato Paste

6 oz Water

Soy Sauce (by taste)

1 tbsp Kale Fond or Beef Bullion

Oregano

Tarragon

Thyme

Basil

Salt and Pepper

Directions: Cook the minced beef, add the chopped onion, garlic and mushroom and fry together for an additional couple of minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes and meanwhile prepare the lasagna plates.

Homemade non wheat lasagna plates

2 eggs

1/4 cup Farmers Cheese

2 tbsp Psyllium Husk

1/4 water

Direction: Add everything together in a bowl and whisk it together and let it stand for 5 minutes until its a think paste. Between two sheets of parchment spread the paste evenly and bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 350-400 F. (My never know the exact temperature in my oven that is why I have approximately time and temp)

Mix cheese, cream and sour cream.

In a ovenproof dish layer the mince sauce, the cheese mix and the lasagna plate x2.

Bake in the oven until the lasagna is thoroughly warm and the cheese as melted.

Sometimes you think you will die…

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Malin

Slowly but surly I’m preparing for the 1/2 marathon that is coming up in May and I have the best coach one can wish for. Not only is she great to hang with but she also won the iron man and has run a numerous marathons and I am all about learning from the best. Every monday at the bus stop we plan my week ahead and now it is starting to get intense or I am more out of shape than what I like to admit!

Anyhow I made into the gym not realizing it was actually still nice outside but I had my mind-set on running my first 4 miles of the week on the treadmill and had already planned on increasing the speed by 0.1 every minute for 6 minutes then to bring it back down to 7.0.

Sometimes when I wake up I just know that the body is not how I would like it to be and today was that day. My legs were heavy almost like I had added extra weight to my wrists and it was a 33.41 agonizing minutes of pounding but I knew I was not going to die so I pushed and I pushed and you know what…I was right, I did not die this time either!

It doesn’t have to be “Chicken Fried” to be fast food…or a friday night!

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Malin

What a gorgeous day it was yesterday and when I got back from the gym I had my lunch and drank my coffee in the sun while watching Gary running around in the deep wet snow having the time of his life. After getting some stuff done around the house life happened and the kids came back from school with homework and activities to attend. So being a little rushed between figure skating and making it to my “new passion” I had to come up with something quick and fast for dinner and that was not a bucket of fried chicken from KFC!

4 Chicken Tenderloin cut into smaller pieces to shorten the time spent on the bbq.

Grated fresh Ginger

Minced Garlic

Splash of Soy Sauce (gluten-free)

1-2 tbsp Sesame Oil

Salt and Pepper

I threw everything in a big bowl to marinate while I cut the vegetables and that was what I could find in the fridge. A good way to make them roast beautifully in the oven is to mix a little canola oil, garlic and salt together and blend in with the vegetables and not overcooking them.

Normally I make my own mayonnaise but yesterday I was just a little to rushed so I used the ready-made and mix it with chili sauce and sesame oil.

Dinner was ready in 20 minutes, delicious, yummy and healthy and I made it to class!

Gary, my Co-Pilot!

A new week with new possibilities

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Malin

Finally I think spring is coming our way and what more do you need to get inspired to push that little bit extra and I know for sure that the ladies used it at their advantage.

It was meant to be a total body workout but sometimes it feels like we always working against the clock trying to squeeze in as much as possible in 60 minutes. So first out today was walking lunges with shoulder a press and tubing while “driving” with a medicine ball also working the shoulders. The girls really cracked me up because they were so unsynchronized that Anna was almost squashed between Elli and Lynne. This two moves are very good for the obvious reasons, working the legs (and shoulders) but the tubing is so good for toning the outer thigh.

These two moves was accompanied by single leg squats and bridge keeping the feet on the medicine ball for a more challenge and I will confess as soon as i went outside today I knew they had to run for the first time this year in the cul-de-sac!

As much as I wanted to stay outside we are not really there yet so we went back inside and worked the upper part of the body. We focused on biceps, triceps, lats and the pecs doing drop sets to build some muscles. Starting at the heaviest weight they did 10 reps, dropped the weight and did another 10 and then dropped the weight one last time and finished off another 10 reps.

I hear this all the time that “I don’t want to get bulky” but girls don’t have to worry about it because we don’t produce that much testosterone that is required to start looking like the incredible hulk. I believe that the stronger you are the better you will feel so start lifting and get strong girls!

What is the perfect body and how do we achieve to get it?

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Malin

I was reading a piece in one of the Swedish news papers written by Mia Skäringe about fad diets, workouts and the crazy obsession getting the perfect body. I will be the first one to admit that I will jump on the train and try out a new diet so with low-carb/high-fat diets, fasting diets, low-calorie diets under my belt I always come back to eating smart. And that for me is making choices and being educated what happens inside your body when eating a french fry instead of a potato, choosing roasted vegetables instead of pasta or use nectar instead of sugar.

I know that I will never look like the girl on the picture although if I was completely honest I would love to. But reality is I have to realize that I am no longer 21, I have two amazing kids and my boobs bought a single ticket going south and I don’t think they coming back anytime soon. I am not against or for any specific diets and I am firm believer that something that works for you might not work for me but one thing for sure is. I am and will always feel happier having a body that is healthy both on the inside as well on the outside and being content with my own progress to get there.

Here is the article, it is in Swedish but I bet it can be translated one way or another…

http://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/debattamnen/jamstalldhet/article18495704.ab

What are you bringing to the beach this summer?

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Malin

Sometimes I ask my clients if they have any request before the workout and lately I’ve been asked to focus on the core. I am a strong believer that you can never have to much of it and I always incorporate some into every workout. So as a good listener I did what I was told and started the day with some vicious work to the abs, focusing on the strength instead of endurance.

So the ladies started with 10×3 crunches (front and oblique both sides 10 each) followed by 15 back extensions with a 10 lb. weight. As most of us we all have our weakness and strengths so the weight added was ranging from 10-45 lb and with no rest we moved on to 15 cable crunches. Sometimes it can be tricky to engage the abs and you end up hinging from the hip instead of drawing the navel in. This was followed by the Romanian chair with 15 high knees with added weight to the wrists and by now I think most of them stated to have a nice burn going for them.

But we didn’t stop because we all have a decision to make on what kind of six-pack you’ll bringing to the beach this summer…

is it this…

…or this??

So we kept going doing situps with 15 Russian twists on an incline bench and just for fun we finished it off with 30 sliding mountain climbers.

I don’t think any of the ladies thought it was a breeze but weight training is not supposed to be comfortable because if it is, you should work harder! The girls kept on kicking ass and finished the day off with some heavy lifting to the legs.