Traffic stopping, alarm-triggering abs of steel, anyone?

A good, strong core makes everything better.  Your core muscles assist with absolutely everything you do in everyday, normal life - from sitting up and standing up to walking up the stairs and carrying bags of shopping.  A good, strong core will assist you in every exercise you do and every exercise you do can strengthen your core.

Your core muscles sit around your abdomen and your back, they hold your internal organs in place and support your spine.  A good, strong core is the single best way to prevent and cure back problems.  A good strong core is also the best root to killer, traffic-stopping, alarm-triggering abs of steel!

However, you could have a six pack to rival Batman and not be able to see it if it's covered in a layer of fat.  So combine these exercises with my nutrition tips to really sculpt your body.

These are my top 5 favourite core exercises and say goodbye to back pain and hello to that new bikini!

Remember to engage your pelvic floor and core muscles before you begin any exercise for maximum results.  Do each exercise until you can't do any more.

1     Plank
A great exercise for total core stability.  Hold for as long as you can and time yourself so you can hold for a little longer each time you do it.  A fit person should be able to hold a plank for 2 minutes minimum.

2     Side plank
Great for strengthening your obliques, the muscles that run around your sides.  Again, hold for as long as you can on each side and time yourself so you can hold for a little longer each time.

3     Superman
Great for your back and deep muscle core stability and harder than it looks.  Make sure that your legs and arms and torso are all at right angles when you do this and when you raise opposite arm and leg, ensure your hips and shoulders do not raise also.

4     Ab curl
Good for killer abs.  Focus on shortening the distance between your ribs and pelvis rather than lifting your back off the floor.

5     Dead Bug
Good for your lower abdominals.  Make sure yo keep your legs at right angles and that your hips are the only joints that moves, keep your knees still as you lower you feet to the floor and back.  Aslo called 100s because you need to do 100 of them!


There's still time to get that flat tummy in time for the summer.  What are you waiting for?

Krish x

Killer Bikini Workout anyone?

Am going to spend this morning designing the perfect 12 minute, killer body-weight workout.  

I'm thinking of starting a 12 minute club.  Pay nominal fee and join us every morning for 12 minutes.  Surely we can find 12 minutes out of our hectic lives to get sweaty?

I promise you, what I come up with will have you beach ready in no time!  Well, 12 minutes...

Let me know if you like the sound of a 12 minute club!


Krish x

Lose fat and get fit in 12 minutes a day!

High Intensity Interval Training - HIIT 
Get yourself a super-effective cardio workout in 12 minutes!

Alternate one minute as hard as you can go with one minute active recovery (that's gentle jogging, rowing, skipping).
This could be on a bike, running on a treadmill or outside, or it could be jogging on the spot, skipping, rowing...anything that gets your heart pumping! Do this for 6 cycles.


That's JUST 12 minutes. A 12 minute workout that has enormous impact! 

Don't tell me you don't have time to squeeze in a 12 minute workout at least 4 times a week.

Download an app called bit timer that lets you set your own times for intervals. 

That's just 12 minutes! Remember, someone busier than you is getting fit, right now!


Krish x

Carbs

A bit of a buzz word at the moment.  I hear a lot of people talking about a low carb diet.  To me, a low carb diet is a dangerous diet.  


Let me give you some facts:

Carbohydrate is broken down into glucose and stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver.  It is the body's preferred energy source and the only fuel that your central nervous system can use - your brain only uses glucose for energy.  Therefore a diet low in carbohydrates is going to leave you feeling lethargic and fuzzy-headed.  Not a good nutrition plan for someone who wants to feel more energised and active!

Carbohydrates come in a variety of forms.  There are the starchy carbs: potatoes, rice, pasta, bread and cereals and there are fibrous carbs: fruits and vegetables other than potatoes.  The bottom of the food pyramid shows your diet should consist of 60% carbohydrates - what it doesn't normally show is that you can just as easily get your 60% from fruits and vegetables as you can from pasta, bread, potatoes, rice and cereals.

The thing about carbs is that as soon as they mix with your saliva, they are beginning to be broken down into glucose; it's pretty instant. The starchy carbs break down quickly and easily and the glucose is released into the bloodstream rapidly.  This is why, when you are hungry, you reach for the mountains of toast because you get an almost instant sugar hit from it!  This is why people like a mountain of pasta or mashed potatoes.  Instant sugar hit.

The trouble with an instant sugar hit is that it leaves your body just as quickly and you are left feeling low and sluggish.  Ever felt like you need a snooze after a big bowl of pasta or all those roast potatoes and Yorkshire puds at Sunday lunch?

The other thing is that  if you are looking to burn fat and you have huge stores of glycogen from eating starchy carbs, you are never going to get through those energy stores and start burning fat, the body's secondary fuel source.  If you want to burn fat, you need to get through those glycogen stores quickly and into the fat stores.  So stocking up on starchy carbs, that don't get burnt off, just means full glycogen stores and a spillover of what isn't used into your fat stores.

The good news is that fibrous carbs, like carrots, broccoli, cucumber, celery, peppers, courgettes, apples, bananas, pears, peaches, plums etc take much longer to digest.  In actual fact, the fibre is indigestible so it goes straight through you, cleaning your insides as it goes.  But this takes much longer to happen than with the starchy carbs, so you feel fuller for longer!  And you dont get the sugar highs and dips that you do with the starchy carbs.  And you are far less likely to overeat carbs and therefore they are not going to get stored as fat.

So my advice is this.  Cut anything with flour altogether, (that's bread, cakes, pies and pasta) - empty calories that are generally mixed with all sorts of other nasties.  And limit your intake of rice, potatoes and cereals to early in your day and make sure you keep the skins on your potatoes so you keep the fibre and that you choose brown rice and if you are tempted by flour...wholegrain pasta and bread.

Make sure that you are still getting 60% of your nutrition from carbohydrates, just make sure that rather than being predominately starchy carbs, you opt for the fibrous carbs that keep you fuller for longer!

One other little point, that you'll thank me for.  If you are not used to eating so much fibrous veg, you must remember to up your water intake.  If not, you may find yourself a little more bloated and...windy than normal.

So, do not fall into the trap of half-understanding a 'diet' (remember K-Loss don't do diets!) and following a low carb nutrition plan.  That will lead to failure as it is completely unsustainable.  You need a HIGH carb diet, just opt for the right kinds of carbs.

Quick, healthy breakfasts for kids (and grown ups!)

Early mornings are not my favourite time of the day.  My daughter is of a similar opinion so we have a pact: we do not speak to one another until we have both had a good breakfast.  It makes for a more pleasant morning for everyone.

So what is a good breakfast for kids?  I know it's much easier to give them a bowl of cereal than to cook a meal and on days when I really can't be bothered and it's a get-your-own-breakfast-day, that's exactly what I do.

But not all cereals are created equal.  I have looked at the ingredients of all the cereals on the supermarket shelves here in the UK and what I discovered was quite shocking.  There are only a handful of cereals that do not contain any added sugar at all.

So on the days I can't be bothered, or I don't have time, my kids have either: raw porridge oats with milk and honey, raisin wheats with milk or sugar-free Alpen with milk and perhaps a chopped banana on top.  This way, I know they are having a breakfast that won't give them a sudden sugar high followed by a dip just as they start work at school and that the complex carbohydrates will keep them going until lunch time.

On the mornings when I do have the inclination, we have cooked porridge, to which I add raisins or frozen fruit - blueberries or cherries or raspberries etc, and the kids add honey.  This takes 10 minutes to cook on the hob (it's much quicker in the microwave).  We also have Bircher muesli, which is one of the kids' favourite.  Scrambled or poached eggs is also quick as they only takes 5 minutes to cook - great with rye ryveta and tomatoes.

Sometimes, when I have longer - like at the weekends, or when for some unfathomable reason I'm up early, we have grilled pork chops, grilled mushrooms, tomatoes and oatcakes or oaty banana pancakes with dark chocolate sauce or daddy pancakes, which are oats, cottage cheese and egg, fried in a little butter with marmite spread on top.

It takes a little preparation and thought but not much and it makes such a difference to their day.

Here's my super quick recipe for Bircher Muesli:

This part takes 45 seconds to do
Oats, soaked in enough fruit juice of your choice to make it sloppy-ish.  Apple or orange juice works best.  Let that soak in for around 3 mins while you chase the kids' book bags and shoes etc.
This part takes 30 seconds to do
Put some frozen berries in a pan with a squirt of honey and let it simmer down into a sort of lumpy coulis.
This part needs your attention for 2 minutes
Toast a few almonds and hazelnuts in a pan for a few minutes.
This part takes 45 seconds to do.
Add a few dollops of Greek yoghurt and some raisins to the oat mixture.  Take to the table and serve with the fruit coulis and nuts.
Done, in under 5 minutes.  Don't tell me you don't have time for that!

If you have time, grated apple (keep the skin on) is a great addition but it's equally good without.

So even if you're an ogre in the mornings, like me, with these quick brekkies, you can be ready for a civilised chat in no time!


Krish x

Junior Hero Academy

Today is my very first Junior Hero Academy.  
I'm so excited!

A mixture of cardio, resistance training, core stability and stretches, with some Fartlek and intervals thrown in for good measure!

Want your kids to be fit and healthy?  Then they need to:

Eat clean, move more, sleep well and get outside!

Joining something like Junior Hero Academy is a great start!

I'll be writing some posts specifically for kids soon, on fitness, health and nutrition, so keep your eyes peeled!

Krish x

Sneaky peek into my kitchen

I thought you might find it interesting to see what my family and I eat.  I thought I'd show you the contents of my kitchen.  My fridge and cupboards are filled with things that someone with no will power should fill their kitchen with.  There's virtually nothing naughty in here that I can eat and regret later.  


You do have a choice, when you shop, what you buy.  

This is the contents of my kitchen.

Some of it is chilled dairy - cottage cheese, eggs and Greek yoghurt and most of the rest of it is vegetables and salad.

I eat a lot of cottage cheese, it's a good source of protein that doesn't need cooking, which is good as I am incredibly lazy and despise cooking.  I also like a small pot Greek yoghurt with Ella's Kitchen baby food squirted into it.  This is because I like fruity yoghurt but I don't want added sugar and the baby food is just pureed fruit.  It's convenient and tasty and a really filling snack.


I tend to chop up half a cucumber, 1 yellow pepper, 3 sticks of celery and 2 large carrots to eat over the course of the day.   This is a really important source of carbohydrate for me as I don't eat a lot of starchy carbs (virtually no potatoes or rice, never pasta, never bread or anything with flour in).


None of my dairy is low fat.  Low fat products often have a lot of added sugar and they don't fill you up in the same way full fat does, so you end up eating more.



Remember not all calories are created equal.  there's nothing wrong with full fat.  So long as you aren't gorging on whipped cream and pork fat for every meal, you're going to be OK.

I also eat a lot of nuts. They are full of good fat and protein and are a great snack if you're looking for a crunch.

This cupboard has home-made oatcakes and store bought for in case I run out.  I don't think I could live without oatcakes.

There's some rye Ryveta for quick lunches, some miso soup for a quick snack and tons of nuts.  Honey and agave nectar for sweeteners instead of sugar.  Still fairly high in calories but far less processed and give you less of the sugar highs and subsequent dips.

As you can see, a lot of my life is spent snacking, that way I never get hungry.  I am very grouchy when I'm hungry.  Ask my family.

You can see some cocoa, good for making things chocolatey without the sugar and some dark chocolate at the back.  The kids do like chocolate sauce with their oaty banana pancakes at the weekend.

Tinned tomatoes, chickpeas, tuna, pineapple chunks.  Nothing to see here.  Chickpeas are used in either chilli or lemon drizzle cake or blueberry cupcakes.

This is my baking cupboard.  Mostly brown sugar and a little caster sugar for visitors or the odd 'real' cake we make.
There is oatbran  that can be added to anything really for a little extra roughage.  There is gram flour (from chickpeas) that I use for toad-in-the-hole for the kids instead of wheat flour.
There's rye flour for times when I really need flour.  Right at the back, you'll find some plain and self raising wheat flour but it is very rarely used.

There's also dries fruit in here, rasisins, sultanas, figs, dates, apricots.  Nice to add a bit of sweetness to mixed nuts.

This cupboard is filled with rices of all kinds.  I don't tend to eat rice but the kids like to have brown rice with their chilli or as their main starchy carb.

There are lentils, my daughter loves lentil soup!  There's quinoa and cous cous, popping corn and wholewheat pasta.  I don't eat pasta either but when I make it for the kids, even when they have friends over, this is what I use.

Olive oil.  Coconut oil.  A variety of vinegars.  Soy sauce.  I don't know what the sunflower oil is for. I never use it...

Freezer is filled with chicken, minced turkey, pork chops, frozen prawns, frozen berries and fish fingers.  Fish fingers are the only convenience food (apart from the odd really naughty pizza) that I give my kids, basically because its just fish, not reclaimed pink sludge like you get with nuggets and the like.  To be honset they don't really like fish fingers...

I make a lot of spicy prawns or chicken to add to salad, stir fries or vegetable soup.  I make chilli with turkey mince.  I use the frozen fruit in porridge or still frozen in the blender with Greek yoghurt and honey for instant ice cream.

We get through a lot of fruit.  My youngest son eats at least 4 apples a day along with berries, a banana, perhaps an orange or a pear...we call him the fruit bat.  My kids can eat fruit whenever they want, as long as it isn't five minutes before dinner.  They can also help themselves to carrots, and other veg from the fridge too, without asking.

My kids eat what we eat.  I don't make special meals just for them.  Did I mention I don't enjoy cooking?

Anyway, by making sure there isn't any crap in my house, I can't eat it.  Simple.

However, before I leave you all thinking I'm completely innocent all the time, I do have one naughty cupboard.

What's in your naughty cupboard?


Krish x