Your Metabolism and Cool Summer Recipes

Oh Hi There Internets!

Via request of one of my Windsor readers, I’m going to write about nutrition again this week. Specifically, I’m going to give you some quick, easily metabolism boosting recipes that do not require heat to make.  People without air conditioning in Windsor.... you’re welcome in advance.

Before giving you the recipes for this week I’d like to discuss exactly what is meant by metabolism. We silly fitness professionals like to throw this word around a lot sometimes without actually explaining what it is (most of our brains go a mile a minute).

To put a long story short, your metabolism is the amount of energy you use to live. This includes making different essential compounds for your body (anabolism) as well as burning fuels for various chemical reactions (catabolism).

If you could look at your body under a microscope you would see thousands to millions of complex chemical reactions happening all at once. These reactions allow us to move, see, think, digest and much much more...pretty cool eh?

So why is metabolism so important, especially when it comes to weight loss? Well, the more metabolic reactions that occur the more your body burns just existing, which leads to weight loss if you are in a caloric deficit for the day. To learn more about calories and how they contribute to weight loss click here.

A common myth/excuse used by those having difficulty losing weight is they have a slow metabolism. For a healthy person a slow metabolism does not exist (if you have a thyroid condition that’s another story).  So why aren’t you losing weight? Not because you have a slow metabolism, but you are not giving your body what it needs to make more chemical reactions and burn more energy.

Things that will lead to your body being more efficient from a chemical reaction standpoint are;

·         Eating: dieting is probably the worst thing you can do for your metabolism. If you think of a chemical reaction, you need stuff to start with to make a reaction. If you starve your body of the nutrients is needs, the body because less efficient chemically and you burn less energy.

·         Building Muscle: Another common misconception, especially among women, is if they gain muscle they will look bulky. Estrogen prevents us from looking masculine (unless you’re taking steroids), so fear not the dumbbell. The reason you want the most muscle you can have on your body is because this will increase the number of chemical reactions happening, as each muscle fibre needs hundreds of chemical reactions to exist and move.

·         Focusing on Nutritious Foods High in Vitamins: This kind of goes along with the first point. Yes, you need to eat to keep those reactions going, but you also have to be cognisant of what you’re feeding your body. If you eat potato chips all day, yes you are getting enough calories but you are not providing your body with the essential components to fuel these reactions, leading to less caloric burn-age. Vitamins are not only important because your mom says so, but because they help these little worker proteins call enzymes speed up (catalyzed) your metabolic reactions!

·         Drink Water: Drinking lots of water is very important to keep your chemistry going in the right direction. As you know, we are made up of a lot of water, and there is a reason for this, we need to exist... and existing is making sure all those reactions run smoothly and in the right direction. Replenishing water to the body is very very important as metabolic reactions often use a lot of water.

There you go! That’s the quick and dirty on your metabolism. If you’d like to learn more feel free to ask me lots of questions, I will answer them I promise.

Now for the good stuff. Here’s some recipes you can make without heat that will help your body more efficiently. Most (if not all) of the ingredients in the following have been shown to be great for metabolic reactions.

Spinach Super Food Salad

Ingredients

·         2 Cups of Spinach/Baby Spinach

·         8-10 Unsalted Almonds

·         ½ cup of Bean Sprouts

·         1 handful of blueberries

·         Cherrie tomatoes

·         2 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

·         Salt

Wash all of the vegetables. In a bowl add the spinach, almonds, bean sprouts, blueberries and cherrie tomatoes. Pour the EVOO on the vegetables and salt. Enjoy!

Body Boosting Shake

Ingredients

·         ½ cup of soy milk (flavoured optional)

·         ½ cup of ice

·         ½ cup of blue berries

·         ½ cup of apples

·         ¼ of grapefruit juice (NOT from concentrate)

·         Whey Protein (optional)

In a blender crush ice. Then add soy milk, blueberries, apples, grapefruit juice and protein. Blend until smooth!

And for those of you with a little more time on your hands

Sprouted Buckwheat Granola (found on fromsadtoraw.com)

Ingredients:

·         Spouted buckwheat

·         Sprouted millet

·         Sprouted amaranth

·         Sprouted quinoa

·         Soaked sesame seeds

·         Soaked flax seeds

·         Soaked currants

·         Soaked yellow raisins

·         Soaked walnuts

·         Freeze-dried Coconut

·         Sprouted pumpkin seeds

·         Sprouted sunflower seeds

·         A little oil of choice (macadamia, almond, olive)

·         Diced Fresh Strawberries

·         Any berry of choice

·         sea salt

·         Vanilla

·         Maple Syrup or Sucanat

Sprout grains for 2 days. Soak seeds for a few hours. Soak Dried Fruit for about 30 minutes  then mix all ingredients together in a large bowl, stirring well with a large spoon. Place a thick layer of about 1/2" on mesh dehydrator sheet.  Dehydrate until crunchy - about 12-14 hours.  Serve with fresh nut milk or soymilk.

So there you go! Stay tuned for Wednesday Vlog where I give you an awesome fat burning circuit!

As always, questions and comments are greatly appreciated.

Stay Strong Internets!

Byn <3