by Mollie Millington | Jul 12, 2020 | exercise, fitness, outdoors
This workout is best to do outdoors as you will need room to run and a park bench. Remember to go for QUALITY over quantity. If you are unclear what the exercise is I am describing, please look for a video or arrange for an in-person tutorial with me. As always, please consult your doctor before engaging on any fitness regime.
Don’t forget to breathe! Please email me if you want tips on how to make the quickies easier or more challenging (mollie@ptmollie.com).
Warm up – Walk 1 min, jog 1 min, sprint 1 min, skip 1 min
Walking lunge- 1 min
Sprint- 30 sec
Alternating side squats- 1 min
Sprint- 30 sec
10 burpees
Sprint- 30 sec
Jumping jacks/ star jumps- 1 min
Sprint- 30 sec
Jog- 1 min
Tricep dips on park bench- 30 sec
Forearm plank- 1 min
Pilates boat pose– Hold for1 min
Toe touches– 1 min
Enjoy the sunshine!
by Mollie Millington | Jul 5, 2020 | exercise, quickie
The workout below lists the total number of reps you need to do for each exercise. You can mix and match the exercise and order based on how you feel. Having a piece of paper handy to write down your reps per movement may help you keep track. If you want to combine exercises (such as squat, then overhead press) feel free. Just be sure to listen to your body. Remember to go for QUALITY over quantity. If you are unclear what the exercise is I am describing, please look for a video or arrange for an in-person tutorial with me.
Please consult your doctor before engaging on any fitness regime.
Don’t forget to breathe! Please email me if you want tips on how to make the quickies easier or more challenging (mollie@ptmollie.com).
100 jumping jacks/star jumps ** start with this exercise as a warm up please **
100 push ups/press ups
100 crunches
100 toe touches (the ab exercise)
100 walking lunges
100 squats
100 calf raises (on a low step if possible)
100 box jumps (or step ups as a lower impact option)
100 overhead presses (you can use weights, bottles of water, cans of soup, etc)
50 frontal raises with arms (you can use weights, bottles of water, cans of soup, etc)
50 lateral raises with arms (you can use weights, bottles of water, cans of soup, etc)
= 1000 total reps
Terrific job!
by Mollie Millington | Jul 1, 2020 | product review, recipe
When you buy your groceries, do you consider the environmental impacts of what you put in your trolley? One of the reasons my husband stopped eating meat was because of the environmental impacts. It takes a lot of water and petrol to produce beef (in addition to the methane release). I was a vegetarian until I was about 33, when I tried the Whole30 to quit sugar and reduce inflammation due to lactose and wheat consumption (haha, yeah right). Prior to this, not having meat in the house wasn’t a problem, but now I eat meat on a daily basis. I figured I have 30 years of vegetarian credit built up and I rarely eat beef nowadays. I am always keen though to try out new protein products, especially if they taste like chocolate.
A friend of mine, who I met in Jordan during the Wadi Rum Ultra, recently introduced me to BioBug. It is 100% Acheta domestica grasshoppers that are ground up into a powder. Produced in Indonesia, Biobug claims to the much more sustainable when compared against beef production:
- Cricket production use 95x less land than beef production
- Cricket powder provides 69g protein/100g vs 40g/100g premium beef
- Crickets use 2000x less water to provide the same yield of protein
- Crickets emit 375x less green house gasses (so do they fart?)
But how does it taste?
James and I both tried adding Biobug to our breakfast. James shook some into his overnight oats while I added 5g to 40g porridge and 10g chia seeds with hot water. It tasted a bit dry and earthy for me, so I added a sprinkle of cinnamon, which helped improve the taste. James adds approximately twice as much (double dash he says) maple syrup to his overnight oats than normal when he adds Biobug to mask the earthy taste (he tends to prefer savoury tastes while I like sweet). I also wanted to try baking with it, so I turned to my favourite banana bread recipe and replaced 25% of the flour with Biobug, as the company suggests. I also added a bit more cinnamon and vanilla extract to keep the bread sweet.
Better Homes and Gardens banana bread with Biobug
1/3 cup Biobug cricket powder
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 bananas (I freeze brown bananas to used in banana bread. You need to thaw first)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
- Grease bottom and sides of a loaf pan and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
- Mix Biobug, flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Combine egg, bananas, sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla and lemon juice together.
- Fold in dry ingredients. You can also add 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, or fresh blueberries if you want to jazz up your bread a bit.
- Spoon batter into prepared pan and cook for 50-55 minutes. I usually start with 30 minutes and test with a cake tester (long metal stick as a toothpick substitute). If the top starts to brown before the cake is baked, you can put foil on the top.
- Let cool for 5-10 minutes before flipping out of the pan.
For this experiment, I split the batter to make two mini-loaves in case the end result wasn’t great. To one of the loaves, I added in 1/4 cup chocolate chips. We found the bread was darker than usual and it tasted very similar to the original recipe. It was just as moist (I was worried the cricket powder would dry out the batter) and even without chocolate chips was good (guess which loaf we finished first). I think the vanilla extract might not be necessary so have made that optional above. Next, I am going to make Snickerdoodle cookies with Biobug as those cookies have lots of spices which will also mask the Biobug earthy taste.
If you have any other recipe suggestions for which I should try adding Biobug (basically anything with flour), please leave a comment below and let me know.
Please excuse my horrible photos. We were mid-DIY project in the kitchen. Turns out, that is not the best time to take photos for your blog!
by Mollie Millington | Jun 28, 2020 | exercise, quickie
You can use a kitchen timer to keep track of your intervals. If you are unclear what the exercise is I am describing, please look for a video or arrange for an in-person tutorial with me. Please consult your doctor before engaging on any fitness regime. Remember to go for QUALITY over quantity. Don’t forget to breathe! Please email me if you want tips on how to make the quickies easier or more challenging (mollie@ptmollie.com).
You are going to need exercise sliders or an old towel of rag for today’s set.
Warm up – 1 min marching in place, 1 min squats, 1 min jumping jacks/star jumps
1 min- Mountain climbers with sliders (slide toes in and out)
1 min- Forearm plank with toes on sliders. Slide feet together and apart while holding the plank if you can.
1 min- Bicycle ab exercise – Lay on back and bring opposite elbow to opposite knee. Extend other leg. Keep shoulder blades off of the ground. Go for good form rather than speed.
30 sec- Left side plank, either on the palm of your hand or forearm
30 sec- Right side plank, either on the palm of your hand or forearm
1 min- Superman – Lay on tummy with arms extended. Lift all limbs slightly off the ground. Hold for two counts. Then bring limbs back to the ground.
1 min- Kneel on the ground with your hands on the sliders. Perform a “rolling” abs exercise by placing hands on the sliders just in front of your knees. Then slide hands out in front of you and slide them back again. You may need to limit your range of motion depending on your current strength level.
1 min- On a smooth floor, get into a push/press up position with a towel, rag, old t-shirt, etc under your feet. Walk on your hands from one end of the room to the other, dragging your feet.
Well done!
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by Mollie Millington | Jun 24, 2020 | product review, sleep
Sleep is something I always need more of. Getting a puppy at the start of lockdown has meant that my sleep the last few months has been of poor quality. Many people are also telling me they haven’t been also to fall asleep or stay asleep through the night as of late. If we acknowledge the puppy is my main issue with lack of sleep, other factors could include stress due to the pandemic, warmer weather (at least in London, the weather during lockdown has been unusually sunny and dry), and most recently, longer days which makes my bedroom stay bright as I tuck myself into bed.
Back in 2017, I made a list of ideas to help with clean sleeping. I still do a few of these things, including wearing eye mask (see last point above), using an electric blanket on cold nights, and listening to my Thinking Slimmer recordings.* Desperate for sleep, yet unable to get rid of the dog, I have tried a few new tactics over the lat two months in an effort to fall asleep faster and remain asleep rather than waking every few hours. The first thing I did was to invest in a weighted blanket. As a child, I used to sleep with ten or more blankets on my bed. I remember missing the literal weight on me when I went off to university and only having one duvet. When I was researching which one to buy, Mela Comfort was the #1 pick for the Telegraph but sadly the adult singles were sold out (I guess many people were also trying to achieve better sleep during this time). I have been really happy with the one I ended up purchasing by Snug as a Bug. It weighs seven kilograms and on warm evenings, it does make me a little bit too hot to sleep. Although it is best to have a blanket that covers your entire bed, my husband is always much warmer than me when he sleeps, so I went with a single (but he still senses it and it tends to pull the duvet towards me). It has definitely made a difference to me as I now fall asleep faster. Amazon is now showing bamboo weighted blankets in my feed, saying these help keep you cool. I don’t know if that is true or not though (or what makes it heavy).
A new rouinte I have been trying is having a glass of milk before bed. Sleep Milk* is a nutritious bedtime drink made with whole Jersey milk (which has 20% more protein in than other milk), honey and valerian – the natural herb that’s proven to help you relax and sleep. You simply drink it hot or cold 30 minutes before bed as part of your bedtime routine. Chocolate milk is one of my favourites so how could I resist? I have enjoy trying both the vanilla and chocolate flavors before bed with much success (If only the puppy didn’t wake me up at 4am.). Their website has a load of tips on how to sleep better too if you are looking to learn more.
Wild Nutrition’s ashwaganda root supplement capsules* were included in the FourFive CBD immunity box. Ashwaganga relieves stress, helps with recovery from fitness fatigue, and supports improved immunity. I have been taking these alongside my vitamin D3 supplements every morning for the last three weeks. Unfortunately, my life is so up and down lately, I cannot tell you how much of an effect the root has had on me (the reviews on Amazon are quite positive though). When I have finished the bottle, I will update this post with my final thoughts.
Reactive Plus CBD drops* worked for me last year and I plan on starting to take them again once I have finished the root capsules to systematically check what works for me and what doesn’t. When I used the CBD drops last autumn, I also started using This Works pillow spray and I fell asleep almost instantly. I even got my fitness mojo back at the time (maybe because I felt more rested?). I was working out four to five times a week and feeling great. Not sure if I should credit the CBD or the sleep spray for the change but I was very happy about it. I stopped both in January and here we are. After I get through my first bottle of CBD, I will try the pillow spray again.
Part of my bedtime routine is reading before bed. I try to put the phone away and switch off for a while before lights out. Which brings me to the last tip I want to share, which is (I can’t remember where I saw this) to enjoy fiction before you go to sleep rather than non-fiction. This makes total sense to me as I would often lay awake after the lights go out, ruminating over what I had learned. Plus sometimes the reading would influence my dreams, so it was a nice surprise when Jamie from Outlander would make an appearance.
Ironically, I was supposed to share these tips last week. However, Maple has been up in the middle of each night for an hour (we think due to teething pains). Here she is, fast asleep, during the day! If you have any tips on how to sleep better at night (or how to get your puppy to sleep), please leave a comment below.
*This product was given to me in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Please note this post included affiliate links, which cost the buyer nothing extra and help cover the costs of running this blog.
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