Food for your Festival

 

Hey you!

If you are living in Luxembourg you might be aware that the Rock-A-Field Festival is about to start this afternoon. I know that many people are going  and I will be  too, of course. But only after I have finished my preparation at home. 

It's one of the biggest events here in Luxembourg and you have thousands of people enjoying the concerts with bands from all over the world.
But how can you survive such a weekend without indulging like crazy?

I was asked this question so many times by my friends and followers. So whether you don't want to ruin your whole work because of one festival or simply because the prices are just too damn high and the portions are so small that they don't make you feel full, here's a small list of food which you can easily take along, especially if you have a cooler-bag. 

• Rice
• Quinoa
• Rice crackers
• Quinoa crackers
• Meat and chicken ( only for max. 2 days, and only if you can cool it)

Of course you can also bring ounces of water, if you feel motivated to carry them around.

Here's another small tip : 

Dig a hole into the ground where you can put your cooler bag in and add some ice-bags which will allow you to cool your food a bit longer. And don't forget to take plastic foil to protect your bag from the mud. This is very useful when the rain starts to pour down.

Now I really need to get going because I don't want to miss anything. Have a great weekend and if you see me at the festival, come by and say hello. I would be happy to meet some of my followers. 

Talk to you on Monday again

Preparations for a business-trip

Hello beautiful!

I hope you had a great week so far and let me tell you what :  you almost made it to the finish line, the weekend! Do you already have plans for the weekend or for the rest of your week?

I am currently in Munich with my sister (Fashionbarbecue) for some kind of Blogger-Business-Trip. Which means, meal-preparation again!

If you are, just like me, in preparation or sticking to a specific eating-program, trips likes these can destroy everything and set you back to level 0 if you don't think in advance yourself. You know, 'preparation is the key' , so just sit down for a moment and think of all the things you have still have to do and start packing.

What helps me the most is creating a to-do list. I write down everything that needs to be done. This prevents me from forgetting essential things just like my PJ's ( Yup,I always forget them ) , my Iphone charger , my camera (most important thing for a blogger) and my tooth brush...  

Sometimes I am a bit chaotic and forgetful... *shame on me*... 

I know that food can be tricky, especially during spring and summer when temperatures are high and your food needs to be cooled.

That's why I got myself a cooler bag which you can plug into your car. Normally, if you have a newer car, you have a plug-in in the trunk. If you don't, you can use the car-cigarette-lighter.

No more excuses to cheat when you're off for a trip. Almost every hotel room has a little fridge these days: the so-called 'mini-bar'. Just put your food inside of it and you can rest assured that it says fresh.

As soon as I am back from Munich I will create a post about how to survive a music festival without a feast.

So get off the couch, prepare your food, all the other fancy stuff you need and make sure to have a nice trip!

P.S If you want to see more pictures of my business-trip to Munich, have a look at my Facebook Page here.  

Sushi: Cheat meal or not?

Are you on love with sushi as much as I am? Because I could eat sushi for breakfast, as mid-morning snack, for lunch, afternoon-snack , for dinner and even as a night snack. You see, I am a real sushi-addict! 

Before I started my preparation I always considered sushi as a cheat meal, and therefor I only ate sushi once a week. But is it really a cheat or more like a healthy treat? 

Let's have a closer look: 

• Before ordering your sushi plate, make sure to start with a miso soup, as it's low in calories (75 calories for one cup) and it helps to fill up a bit. So you don't run the risk of over-eating with sushi. 
• If you love wasabi, go ahead! Personally I don't like wasabi at all, which is a pity because it is packed with antioxidants like isothiocyanates which gives a great anti-cancer punch. You don't even need to eat a lot of it to reap the benefits, great isn't it? 
• What about that little pile of ginger that you always have on your plate? Ginger really helps to boost the immune system as an effective antimicrobial and antiviral agent. It is also a great source of potassium, magnesium , copper and manganese. Same here, eat it!
• If you love soy sauce as much as I do, especially the sweet one, ask for reduced-sodium soy sauce,if possible. Normally they are packed with a lot of sodium which isn't that good for your body anyways.

Now let's go over to the main course, sushi! 

Here are some explanations and tips how you can enjoy a HEALTHY treat:

• Sushi is the definition of a low-fat meal but if you are not eating it the right way, it's not low-fat at all! 
• If you really want to benefit from sushi, go for pieces that are high in omega-3, such as salmon and tuna. They are both low in calories , high in protein and omega-3 and they also deliver a lot of vitamin D, which is very important for your body.
• Focus on ordering pieces that have been steamed or grilled, like sashimi because it's actually only the fish without any rice or extra ingredients.
• Try to stay away from the delicious crunchy stuff which have been deep-fried to get that golden crust. ' The less fancy the roll, the better!' , always keep this in mind. 
• And please, don't do the same mistake as I, stay away from the delicious special rolls covered or filled with a creamy yummy sauce! Order sushi without any mayonnaise or cream cheese fillings. (Which isn't traditional anyways)
• And if you are a real vegetarian or if you love the veggie-rolls with fresh cucumbers, avocados or sea vegetables, you are on the bright side already. Sea vegetables are a real powerful healing food that is full of nutrients like vitamin K, magnesium and folate. So it's the best kind of a treat-meal!
• You now that the are huge amounts of fiber in brown rice, that is also important for maintaining a healthy digestion and regular bowel movements, so if possible, as your sushi with brown rice. It's a great source of manganese, selenium and magnesium. Always keep in your head that each sushi roll has about one cup of white rice in it. This can easily ass up to a lot of extra calories if you are eating several rolls. Opt for sashimi rather than maki sushi. 

If you follow some of these tips you can easily enjoy your sushi as a healthy treat or even as a healthy lunch or dinner. But if you really want to spoil yourself , go for the fancy and crusty rolls and enjoy them! That's the most important thing. If you don't enjoy your cheat-meals or if you feel guilty afterwards , save your money for other things because sushi is not cheap at all! Try to enjoy your treats without feeling guilty because you earned it!

And please don't believe this:

' Using chopsticks may help you to eat more slowly than shoveling food in with the very-easy-to-use fork or spoon' 

That's complete bull****! I am a chopstick-pro and I eat even more fast when using chopsticks than using a fork haha... 

Have a great saturday and enjoy your cheat-meals!

 

Fancy Friday

Hey my faithful readers!

Finally it's Friday again... wohoo! And how could you start your weekend better than shopping some new fancy gym apparel, online, without leaving the house? That's hardly impossible!

I hope that you still come and have a look at my posts even though I am not able to blog every day. As I already explained in earlier posts, I am recently studying for an exam and therefor I don't have that much time left to blog as I need to get my meals done, hit some badass routines in the gym 4 times a week and so on. But now, enough of my busy life!

Have fun shopping and see you soon!

Oh! Before I forget, next week I won't be able to blog more than 3 times possibly as I will leave for 2 days for Munich with my sister ( Fashionarbecue ) for some blog-stuff and I will be at the Rock-a-field festival here in Luxembourg for the whole next weekend. But stay tuned...I will definitely create a post about my food-prep for the festival!

Bye!

Only Play, Tiger Color Leggings
Pure Lime 5-Pack Large Head Bands 
Nike Free 5.0
Nelly Sport Sporty Mesh Tights
Nike Lunar Elite Sky Hi
Nike Gym Vintage Crew
Mxdc Sport Ladies Compression Highs Ls

Only Play Tiger Color Training Top

Champion Jogbra

Champion Polar Rcx3f

Adidas Performance Lin Ess Duf Xs

Casall Twin Bottle

No food after 6 pm?

Hey you! 

How often have you been told to stop eating after 6 or 8 p.m if you want to lose weight? That's the most silly advice I have ever heard of! Losing weight actually requires that you consume less energy than you burn, and meal timing has no influence on that. 

If you overeat during the day makes no difference to overeat at night, extra calories are extra calories, seems quite logical , doesn't it? The same goes when you overeat in just one meal but stick to your diet plan for the rest of your day.It just doesn't work like that! Research has shown that there are no metabolic advantages to eating fewer or greater meals per day. Meal patterns don't actually accelerate weight loss, they can even predispose people to overeat and so fail to lose weight. 

Now you may be shocked when I tell you that studies have shown that eating larger meals later in the evening can result in losing more fat without losing too many muscles. 

Personally I prefer to eat smaller meals in the evening but therefore bigger meals for breakfast and lunch. If your schedule or lifestyle allows you to eat larger meals in the evening, no need to panic! It won't get in the way of hitting your goals!

Here's a smart advice, instead of trying to tough it out for hours and hours with no food in the evening, plan your meals so you can eat on a schedule that you like while maintaining a caloric deficit, and I promise you that you will lose weight!

It's not about when you eat, it's about WHAT and HOW MUCH you eat! 

I wish you a great rest of the week, talk to you soon!

Preparation is the key

Hey people! 

Are you enjoying the last couple of hours of your weekend? I am really productive right now. I had some spare time today, and as my following week will be a bit more stressful than the last one, I decided to prepare my food for the next 3 days. 

Usually I don't do this because I like my food to be totally fresh when I eat it. Have you ever noticed the difference between a fresh cooked beef steak and a microwaved beef steak? It's such a huge difference. Sometimes you have no other choice than to prepare your meals and plan your whole week. Especially when there's only 3 weeks left until a really important exam.

''Fail to prepare & Prepare to fail! '' remember? That's why I bought a Filofax a month ago. I turned it into a Fitness-Filofax as some of my faithful readers might already know. It helps me a lot to keep my eyes on my whole week. I am not only writing down my workouts, but I also log in my meals, my appointments or whatsoever. (+Filofax UK)

Honestly it wasn't a big deal to prepare my meals for the next 3 days. I only had to cut garlic, prepare some quinoa (that actually cooks itself by the way) and cook my beef, chicken and turkey. The vegetables were already unfrozen so I only had to scale and put them into my Tupperwares (+Tupperware Brands Corporation) The fish, salmon and cod , doesn't need to be cooked as I prefer to eat them raw along with the carrots. It's time-saving and it's easier for me to scrape the plate, don't ask me why. Now I only need to get my supplements done and then I'm gonna hop into the couch and finish the weekend with a nice movie.

Have a nice Sunday-eve!

Check-up

Hey guys! 

Are you enjoying your weekend so far? Well, mine just started kind of awesome! I just came home from our second check-up at J-M.B.'s. Honestly I thought he wouldn't be satisfied at all, because I wasn't... But that's the biggest problem with competitors, you are never really satisfied with yourself and you don't really see the changes because you see yourself everyday in the mirror. You don't even notice the difference until you look at a before/after pic. 

So, now about the check-up:

Jean-marie took the usual pictures of us, but I also posed fitness-style , meaning different from my shape-poses. For now, I only want to compete in 'shape' class, while he thinks fitness would fit me too, that's why I also posed differently. But let's see how my body reacts and how it will change during this whole process of shredding...

For those who don't know yet, you have 3 different categories for women; shape , fitness and figure. 'Shape' is the one you mostly see on Instagram that is also called 'bikini'. 'Fitness' is something between real bodybuilding and 'shape' , well and 'figure' is real body building for women. But when I am talking about bodybuilding, I am not talking about the category but about the whole process of building your body. Got it? ok...

After this,my ego and motivation was pushed to the absolut limits as my coach was pretty satisfied with my results after only two weeks. Great, isn't it? Then he measured my BFP (BodyFatPercentage)... Hold yourself... It decreased by 4%, in only 2 weeks!!! That's what I call an AWESOME start of the weekend!!! 

I really needed this ego-booster as I was feeling a bit down yesterday evening because I thought I wouldn't have made any positive changes, but now that I looked at the pictures from now and then, wow...! 

Jean-marie also changed my diet for the next two weeks, meaning no carbs in the evening for me anymore, and a fewer carbs during the day. Plus, instead of oat-bran, pineapple-juice and chicken ham, I now have quinoa-crackers with STRAWBERRIES and chicken ham on my rest-days. I am already looking forward to the next week hehe. 

Now I got to go again, I still need to study a bit today because this afternoon I am going to look for my first pair of competition heels already as I will have a posing work-shop next weekend! 

See you soon!

Follow my Food

Hey there!

Finally it's Friday again, which means for some of you 'enjoying the weekend'. Well, I don't make any difference between week and weekend at the moment as I am studying everyday for my exam...only 25 days to go... I am starting to get nervous day by day and I hope that the day itself I won't die... 

But now let's forget all the serious things in our lives that tear us down and get to something more interesting and pleasant... FOOD! 

Since I started my preparation 2 weeks ago on a Monday morning, I was asked so many times about my food. How much do I eat, how often do I eat , but most of all what exactly do I eat. 

First of all you have to know that I got 2 different eating programs. One is for training-days and the other for rest-days, which is logical because I burn more calories on training days than on rest-days. 

On training days I have eggs,spelt bread and stewed apples for breakfast. As a mid-morning snack I get wheysted. Lunch is a juicy beef steak with quinoa and a salad made of tomatoes and cucumber.My afternoon snack consists of quinoa crackers, tuna and some pineapple and to finish my training day I enjoy a delicious chicken steak with a potato and broccoli, and before going to sleep I make myself a casein-pudding. 

And this is what my day looks like on rest-days: For breakfast I get wheysted then, as a mid-morning-snack I have a bowl of oat-bran with pineapple-juice and some chicken ham besides. My lunch comprises turkey steak, green beans and yummy sweet potatoes. Afternoon snack is some whey again and nuts. Later in the evening I get to enjoy salmon, cod and carrots and again to finish my day I have my famous casein pudding. 

I have to admit that I thought my diet would be so monotonous and dry that I would have struggle to get through it , but as you can see it's not boring at all! I am so happy that my diet is so varied and that I have so many food-options.
 

For example :  I cook my steak in a mix made of olive-oil, garlic, pepper and oregano. Quinoa is being cooked in a diet-bouillon and over my tomato-cucumber-salad I pour a little bit of olive oil,lemon vinegar and some salt-free spices. In the evening I often have a jacket-potato, broccoli-chips and a chicken-steak which is cooked the same way as my beef-steak, because I simply love it.

You see, a diet can be quite awesome if you make something out of it! 

Have a nice weekend fitfam!

 

Grocery shopping for champions

Hey there!

Yesterday Ken and I went grocery shopping again at 'Provencale' here in Luxembourg. But this time we were a bit better organized than 2 weeks ago. Last time we spent about 2 hours at the 'Provencale'... Yup, we were a bit lost because first of all. First of all we didn't know that we had to take a list at the entry on which we will have to stick the etiquettes from the weighted veggies, fruits, meat and fish and second we were busy to not get lost in this huge hall...errwww!

But yesterday, it took us only 1/2 hour! First of all we went for the lean beef, which we ordered cut in different portions. Instead of waiting for 20 minutes we decided to get the turkey and the chicken steaks and last but not least the salmon and the cod, which I lately cut into portions at home.

If you ever go to 'Provencale' to buy fruits or veggies, don't forget to take a jacket! It's so freaking cold at the vegetable and fruit department... like 'catching-a-cold-'-cold!!! Believe me! Now that we had our fruits and veggies we picked up our juicy steaks and returned straight home because we didn't want our delicious fresh meat to turn wicked. That wouldn't be cool at all!

Oh, and before I leave, if you ever want to cut your meat on your own at home, I highly recommend ceramics knives. (I bought ours at IKEA) They are so damn sharp so that you will surely have no problem cutting your meat. But be careful!

In two weeks I will write a little review about my first month of my preparation. So stay tuned! 

See you soon!