About Me

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Hello, dear viewer, and thank you for visiting my blog! I am a dedicated (and certified) Food Coach and Personal Trainer with a very individual attitude to coaching. I search to look beyond people's health issues and modify their lifestyles so that they can live a healthier life, increase vitality and longevity. Recently as a strong believer in natural healing I have published two books on Ayurveda and how to use Ayurveda lifestyle and food at home. Further, I am very much into TCM and the concept of original Chinese Food, especially after my recent stay in China. I am striving to become a Yoga expert through intense training and am practicing some kind of exercise every single day. My second blog http://thrumyeyes-kat.blogspot.com/ is dedicated to my passion to capture the world with my camera and create my own world like that. Everything you will find on these pages about nutrition and exercising is authentic and self-tested. Enjoy and don't forget to send me your comments, which are always welcome in my attempt to meet your expectations even better!

Thursday 23 December 2010

Christmas and healthy food

Dear audience,

and once again it is Christmas and of course I am noticing that hardly anybody visits my blog anymore and I guess (and hope ;) ) that this is due to all of you traveling and staying away from the www for the festive season.

So I will keep it short today and restart with valuable information on healthy food, supplements and exercise after the holidays.

To be a good wife at least at the end of the year I spent a lot of time in my kitchen today to prepare something special for my dear husband, who really deserves a treat.

I prepared 3 different salads to keep our feast healthy and light (brussels sprout salad, spinach salad and papaya prawn salad with avocado), 2 soups and - very boldly - I tried out an old Swedish salmon recipe - whether the latter one worked, I will know only by tomorrow when I re-open the magic package lying in my fridge underneath two heavy books about nutrition....

Following two of the recipes, maybe you can make use of them on one of the festive days:


Water Chestnut Soup
A delicious and healthy winter soup. If you want
to stay on the healthy side, use low fat cream.
Butter is a must for the taste and if you read my earlier posts you know there is nothing wrong with butter used in moderation.

(Serves 2)

You need: 
300g water chestnuts (canned)
50g unsalted butter
50g onions, chopped
30g celery, chopped
10g parsley (I prefer coriander), chopped
a pinch of cinnamon powder
1 apple
a pinch of pepper powder
100ml fresh cream


Preparation:
Melt half of the butter in a pan. Add chopped onion and celery. Cook for 5 minutes. Add water (500ml) and bring to a boil.
Peel and cut apple into small pieces. Add to water and cook until apple is about to get soft. Attention: that does not take very long!
Add water chestnuts and boil until all ingredients are soft, ca. 10 minutes.
Puree in a blender, add water if required. Strain and set aside.
Heat saucepan. Add rest of the butter and cinnamon powder. Pour puree in the pan and allow soup to boil on low flame.
Add cream and serve hot. 




And as a main course prepare


Sole fillets with Chicory
This is a healthy, low fat and no-carbs dinner, which won't make you wake up the next morning with a full, bloated stomach, but fresh and energized.


(Serves 2)


You need:
2 sole fillets (a 75g)
1 lime (if possible organic), grated peel and juice
10g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of salt
a pinch of sugar
2 chicory
100g low fat creme fraiche
100ml low fat cream


Preparation:
Heat up your oven on 80degr.


Wash and dry fish filets and cut into each 3 pieces, sprinkle with juice of half a lime.
Clean chicoree, wash and dry, cut into halves lengthwise.


Heat butter and oil in a pan and fry fish fillets on each side for a minute. Remove fish fillets from pan, add salt and pepper, cover and keep warm in the oven.


Fry chicory halves in the same pan, add salt and pepper. Add creme fraiche, cream, remaining lime juice and half of the grated peel. Season with salt, pepper and sugar. Let simmer covered for about 7 minutes.


On preheated plates arrange sole fillet pieces with chicory and sauce. Garnish with lime slices and grated lime peel.


Enjoy your dinner and most of all have a very merry Christmas!!!!!








Thursday 16 December 2010

Fruits and vitamins - a healthy choice: The Kaki or Persimmon

Dear readers,

sometimes I feel like the Enterprise - always excitedly on the quest for new, interesting food, recipes, vitamins etc. And sometimes in my universe an unexpected little star comes flying by and enlightens my nutritionist horizon. As happened a few days ago when a friend of mine introduced me to a fruit I did not know so far: The persimmon or kaki fruit! It does not just always have to be oranges and apples! YAY! Maybe you did not know them, either, so have a look at this:


They say it looks a bit like a tomato...well...anyway, I think it looks nice and it tastes nice! Plus it has a loooot to offer:


A firm kaki you can just eat like an apple. A soft, very mature one you can spoon out like a kiwi. Buy firm ones, you can keep them in the fridge for about 2 weeks. 


Kakis contain a lot of bioactive ingredients, like fibre, iron, Vitamin C, A and B  and a lot of carotinoides. These substances neutralize those ugly free radicals and can thus protect you from arteriosclerosis and cancer. 


A kaki covers your complete daily need of carotinoids (great for me, I do not eat any carrots!). 


Apart from just washing them, cutting them up and eating them like apples you could puree them and use them for cremes or make a quick dessert putting them through a nice thick Greek yogurt. Also, they are very nice in light, exotic meals with curry.



I found the following recipe, which I find absolutely delicious:


Red snapper with Sharon fruits (= Kaki)


For 2 persons you need:

2 red snapper filets (a 150g)
Salt and Pepper
1,5 tbsp Olive Oil
1 Kaki (a 150g)
10g butter
1/2 small onion
1/2 small cornichons (40g)
250ml vegetable stock 
100g low fat creme fraiche


Preparation:
Wash the fish fillets and dry them with tissues. Season them with salt, pepper and oil and pan fry them for about 4 minutes from both sides. Put them on a plate and keep them warm.


Wash and clean the kaki fruit, cut it into slices. Chop the onion and cornichons. Bring stock to a boil. Meanwhile heat butter in a pan and fry the onion until golden. Add cornichons. Slowly add stock, allow liquid to boil down a bit. Add kaki slices, bring to a boil and simmer for very few minutes. In the end add creme fraiche and serve with the fish fillets. 


Along with the dish you can serve some jasmin or basmati rice.


Maybe this is a nice dish to serve at one of your christmas get-togethers! 







Sunday 12 December 2010

Healthy and fit - How to treat a hangover

Dear readers!

It is weekend! Finally! You've made plans, thinking, hm, brunch together with some great friends, wouldn't that be nice? Of course it is! We did the same thing this Friday. And then...some of us just had one or two glasses too many and thus you more or less spoil the 2nd day of your weekend. 


There are precautions that you can take to "prepare" yourself for digesting a higher alcohol intake. This is not a recipe, which will guarantee you headache-free unlimited drinking, but you will have less headache and suffer little or less (depending on your quantity of drinks obviously ;) ) the next day!

The most essential thing obviously is water! What happens when you have too much alcohol is half dehydration and half intoxication.


 When your liver's capacity of detoxifying is exceeded, your body starts producing toxins from the alcohol and those toxins will trigger the headache. 

Try to drink as much water as alcohol and if you forget that, drink a few glasses of water before you go to bed. Also, have pure water ready at your bedside, so once you wake up, continue drinking at least 1,5-2 ltr of water throughout the next day.

So, to prepare yourself before your blast, take some Glutamine. Get a Glutamine or N-acetyl cysteine supplement and take 2g of it or two good all-round antioxidant supplements plus in either case 2g of vitamin C before the party. 
If you can, try to take another heaped teaspoon of glutamine powder before heading to bed.
Take the same combination the next morning.  Have lots of fruit and veggies the next day, apples and carrots for a example have a great detoxifying effect. Make it a juice. 
If headache still hits you on the day after, have another heaped teaspoon of Glutamine powder plus 1g of vitamin C every two hours and don't forget your multivitamin and antioxidant supplements. 

Enjoy the party!!  

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Health food - Optimum Nutrition

Dear all!

Let's get a bit more serious about our nutrition, shall we? You know you should eat a lot of fruit and veggies of course. You know that Vitamin C is important, you might have heard that red meat is not the greatest stuff to eat and so on. But do you really know, what your daily nutrition should consist of in order to feed your body and brain (yes, there is such a thing as brain food!) working optimally? No? Great! Because otherwise this Blog would be completely useless and I would be jobless very soon.

So, this is the reason why people like me keep on studying and studying and thus will hopefully be able to help you to improved health, sharper brain, better mood and an overall wellbeing.


Most people do not exactly know the importance of PULSES and LEGUMES (lentils, chickpeas, broad beans, black beans etc). 
Whereas they should definitely be a part of your weekly diet plan as they are a great source of natural fibre, vegetable protein and lots of nutrients. They wil also help to stabilize your blood sugar.


You might find the idea of pulses quite boring thinking of your Mom's lentil soup that you had to eat throughout winter when you were a kid.
But you will be surprised how much a variety of recipes with pulses and legumes there is! I will provide your with some healthy, tasty and super nutrient recipes, which contain pulses.


Let me start with a light lunch that I spontaneously created today. Very easy to prepare and delicious.
The only thing you have to do that takes about 15 minutes is cooking the lentils. I right away add all the spices so the taste can right away be absorbed by the lentils.




So, you boil the lentils and just go wild with spices! Vegetable stock of course, some chili powder if you like it spicy, white pepper, tumeric (great antioxidant!), Oregano (antioxidant as well), cumin powder, ginger powder, some chopped onions and garlic - whatever you feel like.


Then just take some rice crackers (good source of carbs with very low calorie count!), spread some low fat Philadelphia cream cheese on them, 2 slices of tomato, your lentil mixture and top it with some chives and ideally some alfalfa sprouts (didn't have any :) ). 

And then: SAVOR!!!

Sunday 5 December 2010

Healthy lunch - photo

And as today my computer is in a good mood here is the photo of the other day's lunch:


 

Health food - The apple

Dear readers!

I am back after another long weekend, maybe the last one in UAE this December! We enjoyed the 39th National Day with all its craziness in the streets (reminded me of Carnival in other regions) and the wonderful weather we are blessed with since a few weeks, which allows us long walks in the fresh air - now, how healthy is that! 


Speaking about health I want to write about one of the simplest fruits we know today - THE APPLE! They always told you "An apple a day keeps the doctor away", didn't they? Well, it really does! Plus it can do a lot for the toning and health of your skin as well.


The apple as the oldest fruit of this planet has a very high share of antioxidants, inhibits inflammations, works as an anti-allergen and is rich in Vitamin C, E, B, Magnesium and further minerals.

Nowadays it is used a lot also in the cosmetic industry - and they know why, trust them! 


So, remember to include one of these delicious, health-boosting fruits into your daily diet and try to get the most natural one possible, if you can from organic growth.





 

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Quote of the day

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

A healthy lunch - powerfood

My dear audience!

It is never too late to learn something new! And even if you think you might know it all, there is always something that you did not think of or that nobody has ever told you before. Not that I would ever think anything like that of me, but yesterday's workshop with Patrick Holford definitely contributed a lot to my wisdom! :) 
In my future posts I will for sure refer to him sometimes, his natural and logic way of explaining nutrition suits my own ideas about it just too well. So, continue following me (and don't forget to actually "follow me" - button on the left side of the page) and you will get much more short, in depth, useful information regarding your daily nutrition.


Look at this delicious lunch that I prepared myself today:


(this is where the picture I took was supposed to be! Server once again is not in the mood, so in the meantime read on please, pic will follow....)





Now does that look appealing or what (you will see!)? And apart from that it has an extremely high nutritional value! 

There are two rice crackers (carbs, but very low calorie and now fat) with smoked salmon (the oily fish that you need for your brain and so much more 3x/week) sprinkled with some coriander.

Further, you have raw broccoli (yes, you can eat it raw, chew it well, it is fabulous!) with 2 healthy dips. Broccoli has always been underestimated whereas it is a real power food! It is an excellent source of Vitamin C (more than citrus fruits!) and Iron
On top of that there is B1 (Thiamin), B2 (Riboflavin), B3 (Niacin), B5 (Pantothenic acid), B6, B9 (Folate)  and vitamin A.
When it comes to minerals, healthy broccoli apart from iron contains: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.

And you find a small bunch of watercress on my plate. Another neglected green vegetable (they gave it to my husband in boarding school 40 yrs ago - I always thought, there has to be something good about it... ;) ), which provides you with Vitamin C as well, A, E (Alpha Tocopherol) and K, Copper, Riboflavin, Magnesium, Potassium and much more. I love its crispy, sourly crunch and taste.


Recipes for the dips are to follow, as is that photo! Stay tuned!
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