5 Healthy Breakfast For Training
Breakfast ideas that fuel your training
As you know, the food you eat makes a big difference to your performance. Here we show five delicious and nutritious breakfasts you should be eating that will enhance your training – from REAL BUZZ
Nutty muffin
Iron should be an essential part of every runner’s diet because it helps in the production of red blood cells, which carry oxygen around your body. If the optimum amount of oxygen does not get around your body you will end up feeling sluggish and flat. Iron is also important for runners because when sweat causes us to lose this vital mineral. Therefore to prevent energy dips start your day with a nutty muffin, as nuts are an excellent source of iron.
Look for recipes that contain two types of nut, such as an almond and pecan nut muffin, or a walnut muffin made using almond flour. Muffins that contain apricots, pumpkin seeds or prunes are also great if you want to up your intake of iron, as are bran muffins (muffins made using wheat bran). Ideally, try to make these muffins yourself so that you can make them as healthy and nutritious as possible.
Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs
A luxurious salmon and scrambled eggs breakfast is one of the best post-run dishes you can eat. Not only is it delicious, the protein hit you get from both the eggs and the salmon helps to repair your muscles after a run.
It also helps you to consume the recommended daily amount of protein. If you are exercising for more than an hour each day, the average daily protein requirements is 1 to 1.2g of protein per […]
5 Healthy Pancake Recipes
How to get perfect pancakes
There’s no reason not to indulge in a pancake or two on occasions, but why not step away from the standard sugar and lemon – how about filling your pancakes with a something a little less ordinary?
We’ve come up with five alternatives that will satisfy your sweet or savory tooth without adding too much of a splurge to your waistline — but after all that’s what Pancake Day is all about — using up all the bad stuff.
- 150g flour, wholemeal or plain
- 30g melted, salted butter
- 1 fresh, free-range egg
- 200ml water
- 100ml semi-skimmed milk
- Scant pinch of salt
- Butter to cook
Note: If you want to make the pancakes gluten-free, just use 150g buckwheat flour instead.
Method for perfect pancakes
1. Mix the flour together with a pinch of salt and make a small well in the centre for the egg.
2. Break the egg into the mixture and then add the milk and ½ the water.
3. Beat together with an electric hand whisk until the mixture is nice and smooth. Mix in the rest of the water and the melted butter. The mixture should be the consistency of thin cream.
4. If possible, leave the mixture to rest for a few hours or overnight.
5. Heat a pancake pan or large non-stick frying pan. Add a knob of butter and move the pan around so that the butter melts to cover the base of the pan. Add a small ladleful of the batter and quickly swirl it around so that you have a very thin layer of batter covering the whole of the pan. […]
Best Milk To Drink
Best Milk To Drink
5 Fat Burning Mistakes
Fat burning foods and fat burning exercises by REAL BUZZ
If you want to burn fat you need to make sure you’re not making any of these mistakes. As well as showing you what you’ve been doing wrong, we also show you the best fat burning foods to eat and the best fat burning exercises you should be doing. So, let the fat burning commence:
You’re not tweeting
If you haven’t taken part in the social revolution and don’t have a clue what a hashtag is, you’re making a fat burning mistake. According to scientists at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, Twitter can help us all shed pounds.
The lead researcher from the study, Brie Turner-McGrievy, said that: “The results show that those who regularly utilised Twitter as part of a mobile weight loss program lost more weight”.
The study, which was published in Translational Behavioural Medicine, found that those participants that were already on a weight loss programme and who used Twitter to receive informational and emotional support, lost more than those participants that did not use Twitter. In fact, for every 10 health related tweets sent the participants on average lost 0.5 per cent more weight.
You’re not eating whole grain foods
If you’re avoiding eating foods like pasta and bread because you think it will prevent you from losing weight, you’re making a fat burning mistake. According to the Whole Grains Council, eating whole grain foods (such as bread and pasta made using whole wheat) can not only help you to reduce your risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but they can also help you to […]
Drop a dress size without dieting!
Dieting may be a short-term fix to dropping a dress / clothes size but it will prove unsustainable in the long-term. Instead, why not drop a dress size through exercise and not dieting? By REAL BUZZ
Does this sound at all familiar? You’ve tried lots of different diets but in the end, they’ve all failed. Now you feel frustrated and you wonder if you’ll ever fit into that dress from several years ago. Well, help is at hand because the basic fact is that diets don’t work. Embarking on a diet to lose weight typically follows the pattern below:
- Initial successful weight loss when the diet starts
- A plateau where your weight stays the same
- It becomes harder and harder to lose weight
- The diet is abandoned
- The weight is rapidly regained
- A further weight increase occurs
Calorie counting forever is not sustainable, either for dieting goals or good health but if the diet is dead, how do you drop a dress size without dieting? The solution is to gradually introduce a structured regime of exercise that burns calories, makes maintaining a healthy weight easy and also tones up problem areas.
Super six toning areas
The ‘Drop a dress size without dieting’ plan focuses on training six key problem areas. By toning the ‘Super six’, specific muscles will become firmer and everything will be ‘pulled in’, resulting in an all-round leaner physique.
Super six toning areas
- Stomach
- Obliques
- Thighs
- Bottom
- Underside of upper arms
- Core
To target the super six, complete the following exercises:
Drop a dress size exercise 1: Stomach exercises
Upper stomach muscles: Sit-ups and crunches
Lower stomach muscles: V-sits and leg extensions
Drop a dress size exercise 2: Obliques (Sides of the abdomen)
Oblique […]
5 Great Metabolism Boosting Foods / Snacks
How to speed up your metabolism – by REAL BUZZ
Speed is not always something we strive for in life, but when it comes to our metabolisms we’d all like our bodies to work a little faster. Here we show you five metabolism-boosting foods that will help you speed up your metabolic rate using your diet.
Jalapenos
Whether you sprinkle jalapenos onto your tacos or whizz them up to make a dip does not matter. What matters is that these tasty chili peppers can boost your metabolism and help you to use up more calories.
Jalapenos are great for your metabolic rate because they contain a beneficial chemical called capsaicin, which is thought to boost your metabolism and help you to feel fuller for longer. Interestingly, another perk to eating hot foods containing capsaicin is that they trigger the release of endorphins and can leave people with a feeling of euphoria.
Alternative: If you’re not a fan of jalapenos, you could choose other hot peppers that contain capsaicin, such as cayenne pepper, chilli flakes or, if you are really brave, you could try a Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. Be warned though, this superhot pepper is a whopping 5000 Scoville heat units hotter than a jalapeno pepper.
Sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes are an incredibly versatile vegetable and they taste good whether mashed, baked or roasted. As well as being sweetly delicious and comforting to eat, sweet potatoes provide us with numerous health benefits. One such health benefit is their ability to boost out metabolisms.
It is thought that the antioxidant glutathione that is found in sweet potatoes is the component that helps our nutrient metabolism. Plus the vitamin B nutrient within […]
Target Tummy Fat
How to get a flat belly – by REAL BUZZ
There’s nothing more depressing than seeing that little pot belly poking obstinately over the top of your hip-slung trousers. Whether it’s a post-baby belly or a few too many beers, tummy fat can be tough to shift and potentially harmful to your all round health. But panic not. There are tried and tested techniques that can turn a tummy into a triumphant six pack.
Written by Sue ThearleSue is a TV presenter who has worked in sport and news for BBC News and BBC Sport, ITV, Sky Sports, BBC Radio 5 Live and Setanta. She is also an award-winning print journalist who has written for the Daily Telegraph, The Observer and various other publications.
Tummy toners
You could do 100 crunches an hour every day and you wouldn’t necessarily shift that wobbly belly. Why? Because you need to work out with tummy targeted exercises, in conjunction with a calorie controlled diet. From a healthy eating perspective, you could do a lot worse than look at a whole grain diet. According to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a diet that was rich in whole grains blasted extra fat from the waistlines in a trial of obese subjects.
So the key here is to lose weight generally and rely on the fact that 99 per cent of people who do that, will see the weight come off their upper body. In conjunction with that healthy eating plan, you can then tone that tummy with specific and core strengthening exercises. But that doesn’t mean a million stomach crunches. You need to strengthen your core, and to do that, you need to do everything […]
Performance Enhancing Foods
Fuel and energy for runners / boot camp / circuits by REAL BUZZ
To run well, you need sufficient energy stores. Energy reserves should therefore be built up to enable the runner to perform to their maximum potential. Here’s the realbuzz.com guide to energy sources for runners.
When energy is required, the body breaks up a substance called ATP (adenosine triphosphate) — a high energy molecule consisting of three phosphates attached by energy bonds to adenosine.
Energy is released by breaking off a phosphate from ATP to form ADP (adenosine diphosphate). This is a continuous cycle — ADP is converted back into ATP. So how is ATP made?
Running energy systems
There are three systems in the body that create ATP energy. These systems work simultaneously but the contribution from each depends on the type of exercise, its intensity and duration.
1. ATP-CP running energy
The sprint system — provides enough energy for a five to six second running sprint — and doesn’t require oxygen (anaerobic). CP (creatine phosphate) is another high energy molecule where the phosphate can be broken off very quickly, so releasing energy and used to convert ADP back to ATP. The muscles don’t have a large store of CP so it’s used up fast — hence why some athletes use creatine supplements to maximize their muscle stores.
2. Anaerobic running energy
The high power system — provides energy for a 90 second running power burst. This system is the fast anaerobic (without oxygen) breakdown of glucose for energy but only provides two molecules of ATP along with a waste product called lactic acid which can cause muscle fatigue.
3. Aerobic running energy
The endurance system — how long you can keep going depends on how fit you are. This system is the slow aerobic and uses oxygen. The […]
10 Snacks To Keep You Slim
10 snacks to keep you slim – by REAL BUZZ
Slimming foods to stave off hunger pangs
When trying to lose weight, many of us automatically cut out snacks to reduce our calorie intake. However, choosing the right snacks can actually help to promote weight loss. To keep your diet on track, check out these 10 snacks to keep you slim.
Slimming snack 1: Popcorn
Popcorn is the perfect diet-friendly snack, helping to fill you up for a long time on a small amount of calories. Popcorn is packed with fiber (perfect for keeping you feeling full and improving your digestion) and also fills you up due to its volume. It is also low in fat and rich in nutrients. To help you stay slim, try swapping crisps for popcorn. To retain its health benefits, air-popped popcorn is best, served plain or seasoned with Italian seasonings, chili powder or other herbs and spices.
Slimming snack 2: Apples
Apples are full of fiber so are a great food to keep hunger at bay. They also have a high water content, which research has shown can help to improve our satiety because it increases portion size without adding calories. Experts at the University of Sydney developed a ‘Satiety Index’ based on how long foods will stop you from feeling hungry, and identified apples as one of the most filling foods.
Slimming snack 3: Dark chocolate
Chocolate may not be an obvious food choice for dieters, but research findings suggest that eating chocolate in moderation could actually keep you slim. […]
5 Go Faster Foods
The foods that can help you achieve your personal best for boot camp / circuit training or cycling – by Real Buzz
Whether you’re training for a marathon or about to complete your first race, you probably have a target finish time in mind. While training and preparing yourself properly for the race is integral to achieving your desired time, your pre-race meal can also help you to obtain the result you want. Here are the five foods that will make you run faster.
Running food 1: Beetroot
It might not be the most obvious pre-run meal, however researchers at St Louis University have found that eating baked beetroot before a race could help you to run faster. The study recorded the running speed of 11 fit and healthy participants as they ran 5km on a treadmill. The participants were asked to run once after consuming a portion of baked beetroot an hour before, and once after consuming a similar sized portion of cranberry relish, which had a similar amount of calories.
The results showed that after eating beetroot the average speed of the runners was 12.3km per hour (or 7.6mph), while after the cranberry relish it was just 11.9km per hour (or 7.3mph). It is believed that this is due to the chemicals called nitrates which are contained in beetroot and which have been shown to also improve stamina when exercising.
Running food 2: Oatmeal
To beat your personal best, it is important that your energy levels are high before your run, and eating oatmeal is the perfect way to get the energy boost you need. Oats […]