Benefits of Mackerel

It’s gorgeous to look at with it’s silvery sparkling skin & those blue-grey stripes more of us are falling for Mackerel.  An extremely healthy fish, which is rich in taste, regular consumption can be beneficial for overall health. It’s famous for the health benefits it provides for the heart and is rich in protein and minerals such as calcium, phosphorous, potassium, selenium and magnesium… It’s also a great source of Omega-3 fatty acids which are essential for healthy skin and joints.

Recipe idea

Grilled Mackerel with Crushed Almonds and Cranberry (serves 4)  Great because it is sooo easy and quick and healthy perfect for busy fitness enthusiasts….

Ingredients

• 4 small mackerel filleted and pin-boned
• Olive oil
• Seasoning
• Watercress leaves

For the glaze

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 shallots finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 4 tablespoons cranberry sauce or make your own!
• 2 tablespoons of flaked or crushed almonds

Preparation

1. Preheat grill to highest setting
2. Arrange mackerel fillets skin side up on the grill tray. Lightly brush with oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.
3. Grill for 4-5 minutes or until the skin begins to blister and flesh looks opaque and flaky.
4. Meanwhile, prepare your glaze… Heat the oil in a small saucepan, add the shallots and cook for 3-4 minutes or until soft.  Add your balsamic and cranberry, bring to the boil and season if required.  Brush the mackerel with the glaze and sprinkle with the almonds.  Serve on a plate with your watercress garnish, goes well with salad or greens!!!

I have adapted this recipe a little from it’s original source and from what I learned on an incredible half-day cooking course at billingsgate market, for the real experts guide to seafood go here… www.seafoodtraining.org

So you know you are gonna have tons of turkey over the next couple weeks.

When you get fed up with roasting it, try this Spicey Turkey Meatball recipe

for a change….

Ingredients

1 lb minced turkey breast

1/2 cup ground flax seeds

1/4 cup wheat bran

1/2 small onion, chopped fine

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tsp Paprika

2 tsp Turmeric

1 organic free range egg plus

2 regular egg whites, beaten

Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Mix everything together in a large bowl, then separate into 2-inch meatballs and placed on a cookie sheet coated with olive oil cooking spray. Bake at 375-degrees F for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Preparation time-35 minutes

Nutritional Information-per serving

Calories   (k/cal) 278

Protein (g)  32

Carbohydrates (g) 17

Fibre (g) 7

Sugars (g) 3

Fat (g)  10

SFA (g) 2

MUFA (g) 3

PUFA (g) 5

Omega-3 3.0

Omega-6 1.2

Yup it’s party season again.

For us guys, this is an especially chaotic and disorganised time, and this is none more apparent than in the gym. At this time of year, most high street gyms look more like the Marie Celeste. It’s the perfect recipe for “exercise attrition” (read: dropping out of your fitness programme altogether).

This Xmas I’m going to show you that it is possible to party hard and still recognise yourself in the mirror come January 1^st. Whilst I know that December probably won’t be the time of year when you make quantum leaps in your 5K run time or set a PB on the bench press, it canbe a time when you maintain your fitness levels, and get in a “holding pattern” until your New Year Resolutions kick in.

You could also say that holding your weight constant over December is a form of weight loss as the norm is to pile on the pounds.

To give you a helping hand, I have also created The AskMen “Active Advent” series of tweets. These health and fitness tweets are designed to give you a daily jolt and remind you that there is life after Xmas, so don’t let things get totally out of control.They are mini calls to action which are easy to achieve.

They will include advice from the three areas us Coaches call the “pillars of wellness”: exercise, healthy eating and restoration. There is a current trend in health & fitness to over-complicate things, but at this time of year we need simple solutions.

And they don’t have to sound daunting. Why not set yourself a target of “moving” on 20 out of 25 days from December 1^st to Xmas Day? I’m talking about a minimum 10 minutes a day of brisk walking, for example. If you can, push for more – 30 or 40 minutes per day is great, but 10 is fine to start with.

Write a simple “10 minute block” training log for each date and tick it off when you complete each one.  I’ve used this approach with clients over the last couple of years and it’s surprising how it helps motivate and develop consistency, the number one all important exercise variable.

The tweets are deliberately designed as a short-term fix, which won’t intrude too much on your partying but will allow you to maintain some balance. It’ll also mean your January workouts won’t feel quite so daunting….ho! ho! ho!

For my daily tweets, check out @jondenoris hashtag #activeadvent

Meet Lotty.

We love Lotty.

The thing is she’s put on a little weight recently, so she’s been sent to a place called “The Starvation Paddock”…..

Last week I was lucky enough to be taken to www.sloughfarmparklane.com  in Claygate, Surrey by my wife who is an expert horse rider…

I made some exciting discoveries! Apparently when a horse gains too much weight, it is normal for their owners to send them to this starvation paddock.  If you don’t know, (I didn’t) this is an open field where there is basically, very little grass to eat.  Then, they are also then made to walk round one of these;

 A horse walker.

Until they lose weight………..and they do………ALL OF THEM.

No emotion. No dialogue. No remorse or guilt, for the GOOD of the horse.  She ate too much, so now she’s got to eat less and move more.  Sound familiar?

My wife’s good mate Nicola (who is also a top physician, as well as an expert horse rider) says she has NEVER seen a horse not lose weight following the above simple formula.

With more than a passing interest in weight management, and I found this whole experience enlightening.  The simple application of Newtonian Physics.  What amazes me, is that when we move back into our world, and not that of horses, we suddenly have to make things so complicated…..

High protein or high carb?

Low fat?    supplements? acid or alkaline?

Cardio or pilates bootcamp?

Stretch before exercise ……no, don’t stretch before, stretch after.

1 set to failure, oops, your not in your fat burning zone, Vo4max…..

Get my point?

Sometimes as Health & Fitness Professionals we get too caught up, can’t see wood for trees.

How about you just move more, and eat less for a while; let’s say 3 months consistently, yes that’s every day.  Just Like Lotty……

Then, if that didn’t work.  It may be time to look at other solutions.

The art to Haiku, lies in the above limitations that they face.  Haiku Poets must strip out all the unnecessary elements of their poem, they can include only what is absolutely essential, & they must choose their words carefully.  They have to create maximum impact with limited resources (in their case words).

What can we learn about our fitness from the Haiku Poets?

Busy city life dictates you are time-poor, and coping with increasing levels of pressure.  Why not strip out those elements of your training routine that are not absolutely essential? Can you increase your intensity and therefore reduce the duration that you are spending in the gym?  Are you choosing the best combination of exercises to deliver more bang for your buck?  Could you incorporate mind-body activities to achieve well being goals as well as fitness ones?

I am lucky enough to travel globally in my work as a consultant and advisor to some of the biggest names in health & fitness, I see too many gym users (and gyms) in need of a “Haiku” overview.

Throw out was doesn’t work, what takes too long, and what doesn’t deliver maximum results…..

Walking Hibernation describes a situation, where, due to the shorter Winters & lack of available opportunities for food, Polar Bears have been forced to essentially set their metabolisms to “idle”.  This leads to a “hoarding” of their fat stores.  The bears do this however as a measure of self-preservation, as they are losing weight too quickly. The net-weight of Polar Bears has been reducing annually due to the increased amount of physical activity they have been required to do, having to travel further and further each year to find food.  Note, for Polar Bears losing too much weight is a bad thing, their fat stores help to keep them warm.

There are some interesting parallels here.  In Paleolithic times we had to hunt for our own food, a dramatically different energy/calorie balance equation for each meal than in modern times.  Secondly, the metabolic sequelae of loading yet another tub of ice-cream into our shopping trolley will never offset that of eating it.

Have you created your very own state of “walking hibernation?”

Has your metabolism been set to “idle” like the Arctic Bears?

If so, how far should you travel to get your next meal?

What if going to the gym was more than a personal choice?

What if it was part of everyday life, that society expected you to maintain a reasonable level of fitness and it was part of your “normal obligations”.

In Ancient Greece this was likely the case, it was a “political expectation” to be in shape. So much so that the gymnasium was considered one of the key criteria for what constituted a city, along with a market square and the forum. Consider that Plato gained honours for wrestling and his values for daily gymnastic training are set out in The Republic, in them he stressed keeping generally alert and free from ill health, and ready for eventual war or hardship.

Contrast this with modern times, we have the first generation of children with shorter life expectancy than their parents, and a global pandemic of obesity. Most chronic diseases seen in the world today are at least aggravated by inactivity and a lack of exercise. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis and immune system function are all specifically linked to the above.

Where are our active role models and leaders, our modern day Plato’s promoting sound of body, sound of mind? Where is our Olympic legacy? History has shown that Olympic games tend to make 2 things happen, kids who are already good at sport get better, and people who watch sport on TV, tend to watch more. Will London be any different?

Going to the gym can mean any activity, such as walking, hiking, cycling, team sports, or tai chi, so find some form of activity which engages both body and mind, make an appointment, and take a friend or work colleague, choose something you enjoy. If none of the above are for you, then think about lifestyle fitness, incorporating activity into your daily routine.

So get active, if not for the “beautiful goodness” then because it’s our duty…..