HIIT!!!

Everyone in the fitness world is banging on about HIIT (High intensity interval training) at the moment and ACE is totally on board with this craze. So what is it all about and why is it such a fat burning, fitness-building winner?
Basically HIIT sends your body into fat burning overdrive!

WARNING: here comes the science!!!

The trick to HIIT training is to push yourself as hard as you possibly can through the high intensity intervals to really get your heart racing and then slow your heart rate down during the low-intensity intervals. This method produces excess post-oxygen consumption (EPOC). This means that the fat burning isn’t over once you finish your workout - your body continues to burn fat for up to 24 hours afterwards! EPOC is influenced by the intensity and not by the duration! So you can burn loads of calories in less than 30 minutes… for once time is not the problem.

It may seem counterintuitive to think a shorter HIIT session could be more effective than a slower cardio session – a 45 minute run on the treadmill could burn 400 calories whilst a short 15 minute HIIT burns 250 calories.  BUT it’s the ‘after-burn’ where the magic happens – you can be sat on your couch watching TV long after your HIIT is over with and yet the EPOC means the calories continue to burn and your fitness continues to improve.

It’s a great idea to incorporate a HIIT workout into your weekly schedule. ACE is offering 2 HIIT sessions a week – Tuesday & Saturday evenings (although it’s the basic theory behind all our classes). Check out website www.ace-london.com and our facebook group www.facebook.com/acelondonuk for full details & schedule.

Whilst we take a well deserved break over the holidays, why not try out our HIIT home workout to keep your fitness levels up!? Check out facebook for details....

Snack Attack: a trilogy

Our third installment of snack related chat, are a couple of recipes that will inspire you to snack more healthily.

One sweet, one savoury – they are both extremely satisfying and delicious boosts for your mid morning or mid afternoon munching moment. Remember snacks are not two extra meals, so keep an eye on portions!

Both of these will be served at our healthy Chana Tea-Cember on 17^th December so make sure you come along to sample all our goodies and gain lots of happy snacking ideas!

Please send us any great snack ideas you have so we can share with our ace ladies.

Chocolate orange raw brownies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

• 300g almonds (230g pulsed into a coarse flour, 70g chopped to add at the end)

• 7 tablespoons of raw cacao

• 200g soft dates (medjool works best)

• 75g honey/maple syrup/agave nectar

• zest of 2 oranges

Pulse 230g of almonds into a coarse flour in the food processor. Throw in all the remaining ingredients.

Add 70g of chopped almonds to the food processor and pulse a few times.

Spread the mixture into your brownie pan and leave in the fridge for 2-3 hours. Cut up and enjoy!

 

Egg white muffins

 

These are easy and nutritious – high in protein and low in calories (less than 20 per muffin) and extremely adaptable with whatever veg you have available.  Suitable for freezing and take hardly any time to defrost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

• One teaspoon coconut oil

• 1.5 cups of egg whites

• 2 cups raw spinach

• 1 cup of raw chopped cherry tomatoes (or sun dried tomatoes)

• 1 cup of raw chopped asparagus

• 1 cup chopped pepper

• Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 180 degrees (160 fan)

Sautée chopped onions in a teaspoon of coconut oil until soft and transparent. Add chopped peppers and cook until soft.

Add spinach, tomatoes and asparagus for a couple of minutes until vegetables begin to soften.

Separate eggs and stir in sautéed vegetables to the whites.

Fill each muffin tin with the mixture and cook at 180. Don't fill containers to the top as they will rise.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. To check if they are fully cooked stick a tooth pick in the centre and make sure it comes out clean.

 

We would love you to join us for our healthy Chana Tea-cember - please email info@ace-london.com for more infomation

For loads more recipe ideas visit www.ace-london.com/recipes

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/acelondonuk

Instagram: ace.lifestyle

 

 

Snack Attack - part deux!

SNACK ATTACK - part deux!

 

Following on from our Ace lifestyle blog last week looking at some top snack tips (http://www.acelondonfitness.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/snack-attack-snack-conundrum-is.html) we found this great article about snack swaps - there are some brill ideas in here worth a read!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-3334814/The-healthy-snacks-secretly-making-fat-eat-instead-including-FRIED-EGG-sandwiches.html

Some of these are no brainers but couple of things to be conscience of… 

Be a bit careful with dried fruit. Clearly they are a better alternative to a mince pie (or a doughnut for that matter) at this time of year, BUT they are full of sugar and it’s really easy to rack up the calories without realising it! A kids size box of raisins isn’t bad but fresh fruit is a much better alternative. An apple takes a satisfying amount of time to eat (which is important - don’t want your snack done in a few seconds) and is packed with fibre. Its much easier to count calories and control portions with fresh fruit than dried. 

Peanut butter on wholemeal or oat and rice cakes are a great snack. Make sure that you chose the right peanut butter. Got to be natural with no added sugar - Meridian is delicious! The fad for peanut butter is growing into other nut butters - almond, hazelnut and cashew - which can help keep things varied and interesting. They are all pretty yum and increasingly more available in supermarkets. Go on, push the nut butter boat out!

As an alternatives to crisps, roasted root vegetable crisps are a good choice. if you can make them yourself even better and then you can control the oil content. A great tip for root vegetable crisps is to use a peeler - for super thin strips which cook very quickly and don’t need much oil. Make them in batches and bag up as air tight as possible.