Strawberries, Concentrating and Stepping It UP
Strawberries, September and spring – all have arrived and are ready to go. All good news from my end as strawberries make me happy just thinking about them and spring is a great time to get out and about isn’t it?
My week/month has been focused on trying to train our 5 month old mini-schnauzer puppy, Billie. She is a Houdini mini goat, who can escape from any given situation and without a doubt is taking detailed notes in her diary every day on how to outsmart her family. So far the score is firmly in Billie’s favour but we are working hard to change that… stay tuned!
Something to Think About
“I just try to concentrate on concentrating’.” Martina Navratilova
Something to Make
Roasted Strawberries
Strawberry season is so exciting! I do love this bright red fruit, perfect for eating fresh, in baking, a salad or roasted.
This recipe was a happy accident and the combination of a few random recipe ideas. Roasted strawberries are delicious served with plain Greek yoghurt, ice-cream or custard.
Ingredients
500g fresh strawberries, washed, trimmed and hulled
2 tsp sumac (available in the supermarket)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
Juice of 1 small orange and 2 tsp finely grated rind
Method
- Line a medium sized baking dish with baking paper or silicone mat and heat oven to 160 degrees.
- Tip strawberries into baking dish.
- Add remaining ingredients and mix the strawberries around gently to coat them evenly.
- Place in oven and roast (tossing once halfway through) for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until syrupy.
Something to Do
Tracking steps is something that many people do these days, and it can be a super handy method of keeping tabs on how much you are moving. However, I think it is easy to overestimate our daily steps too. If you don’t purposefully plan a physical exercise each day, it can be incredibly difficult to achieve the oft mentioned healthy target of 10,000 steps each day. Read here for an interesting insight into the origins of this health promotion message.
Have you noticed that if your job involves sitting at a desk, you are lucky to clock up any more than 5000 steps?
In the past couple of years, my personal target has been to up the ante a little and aim for 15,000 steps each day. Admittedly, it is trickier on the days I go to the gym, because there is less walking involved but it just means that I walk the dog and walk around the block at the end of the day. The reality is, if we keep doing the same things year after year, we don’t shift the needle on our fitness.
To get those extra steps in try getting up every hour:
- walking a bit further to and from the bus/train if you take public transport
- walking your dog (or cat)
- take a walk in your lunch break
- taking a walk around the block with your partner, friend or family member at the end of the day for a debrief/destress.
You can measure your steps on a wearable device such as an Apple Watch or Fitbit. Your mobile phone also has an inbuilt tracker and is found under the ‘Health’ icon on an iPhone or under the Google Fit app on an Android phone.
Are you joining me on the ‘getting your steps up’ challenge?
