Honey Mustard Chicken and Parsnip Purée!

Friday, August 30, 2013


Honey Mustard Chicken


  • 2 Skinless Free Range Chicken Breasts
  • 1 Tablespoon Raw Honey
  • 1 Tablespoon Wholegrain Mustard
  • 2 Tablespoons of Cream or Coconut Cream would probably work well.



Preheat your oven on fan grill to 200C.
Mix honey, mustard and cream with a dash of salt and pepper to taste and combine well, toss the chicken breasts in the mixture and marinade for a at least 15 minutes (the longer the better), grill them for 10 minutes on each side and then turn down the oven to 180C and change to fan bake for a further 10 minutes.  Rest for 10 minutes.


Parsnip Purée


  • 200gms Parsnip (peeled and remove the woody core)
  • 500mls Chicken Stock
  • 2 Tablespoons of Butter (preferably grass-fed)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Dash of cream



Chop up your parsnip and place in a pot, pour in the entire 500mls of chicken stock and boil for 15 minutes, watch closely as you don't want it to burn, it should use up most of the liquid with only a little bit left in the bottom.  Remove from heat and add in your salt, pepper and butter and use your immersion blender to blend it nice and creamy.  Once you are ready to serve it then place it back on the stove to heat it through again and add your cream.  

Serves 2



How I lost 24kgs in 90 days!

Friday, August 23, 2013

*This image has now been watermarked to protect from future misuse.

Well first let me put you straight. I actually lost 42kgs but who's counting ;)

You could call me "Anne" or "Mia" but I prefer my real name, Michelle. And yes, that picture above is of me, and I did lose a lot of weight. These pictures are not Photoshopped, and I didn't get a boob job! Yes, in the after picture I am tanned and have curled my hair! ;) I also don't have kids!

Did I really shed 24kgs in 90 days? Or how about 19kgs in 8 weeks? No way, not even close! It took me just over a year to lose 42kgs and it was a very very long journey!

The photo that you see above has been stolen by Facebook pages: Eat Well Live Well, Ultimate Women's Fitness NZ and Star-Tec (a hungarian page). Herbalife have also claimed it as theirs - if you google search the image it's not hard to find. I'm pretty sure that it's been used by others.  I'm damn INFURIATED and FRUSTRATED that my photos have been stolen. These ridiculous stories have been made up to go along with the images, and this dodgy company making money by scamming people.


I haven't had much success trying to get these photos removed. The first one that was on Eat Well Live Well got so bombed by my followers, and after threatening legal action it was finally taken down - that's the power of social media. As for this one on the Ultimate Women's Fitness NZ page (which is just another affiliate of www.womensfitness-au.com) the picture hasn't been taken down...yet - I'm still working on this. Facebook don't want to know about it and keep telling me that it is not in violation of their rules, and I don't get any replies when I've tried to message these pages.

So it has left me with going public. I'm so fired up about this subject, it feels like a complete mockery of my hard earned weight loss. I am writing this blog post to bring awareness to what seems to also be happening to countless others, and to highlight just how dodgy these scamming websites and facebook pages really are.

Roni from Just Roni inspired me to share my story. She had a very similar thing happen where a site stole her photo and claimed she'd lost 70pounds in 30 days! Seriously this is just mind boggling! http://ronisweigh.com/2013/08/how-i-lost-70-pounds-in-30-days.html


It seems absurd to me that a company or facebook page or whoever is behind these ridiculous scams would steal peoples before and after photos, change the story and claim it was all from using their diet products. 

Here you can see the pages that stole my images and the stories that were made up to fool people into following their company where they have a lot of dodgy websites and pseudo Facebook pages. They might seem legit, but trust me they aren't.




Ann's Unusual But Super Effective Trick To Melt Stomach Fat Exposed Here:
--> www.womenfitness-au.com
Our fan Ann wrote in a week ago about her absolutely stunning 8 week transformation (pictured). Over that time, she lost an incredible 19 kg's. After several emails she agreed to come in and have a chat with us and revealed that the absolute key factor in her transformation were 2 relatively unknown but super effective fat melting supplements.







"This 90 Day Detox Diet Changed My Life" - Mia, Auckland. Read More Here:
--> 
www.womenfitness-nz.com

Mia is your everyday mum. She has three kids and a steady job but like many has struggled with obesity for her entire life. She reached out to us and we suggested she try a relatively new but clinically backed fat loss detox program to get the body she's always wanted. And boy did she! In 90 days she lost a mind-blowing 24kgs.


This is a screenshot from the Hungarian Facebook page Star-Tec who has also used my image without my permission.


A screenshot from Herbalife in the UK where apparently I'm a Herbalife distributor!

A lot of people seem really shocked that this would happen, but it's just not that uncommon. It seems to be happening all over the internet. How can you really trust any of these sites? The truth is you can't, and if any site is trying to sell you a product that seems too good to be true...it probably is. Even if they offer a "free sample" be warned that once they have your details and more importantly credit card details, they can take your hard earned money.

There is no quick fix, no secret, no magic. If there were a pill that worked I believe Oprah would have invented it by now. So called "Detoxes" and "Fat Melting Supplements" don't work and there's nothing magical about them. If you want to lose 10kgs in a week either cut off a limb or get food poisoning, you'll lose a crap load of water and on the scale it will look like you've lost weight - while unhealthy as that is, these supplements are no doubt just as unhealthy!

While I can appreciate the silver lining in this situation; the people that have read the truth are now following my page and have been made aware of the scam, I'm thankful that a few hundred people didn't get sucked in by this. But unfortunately I would say there are countless people that have been, for example, check out the comments below from this particular Facebook advert where they are claiming my photo as Mia:


Carolyn Quinlan Be careful everyone, I just ordered what I thought was 5 bottles for $34, but there is a tiny 'ea' after that and no option to check your order before confirming, so it came to over $170 for just the one product, I have emailed to try and cancel my entire order, hope they will do that 
Rey Moorjani Hi ! I just placed my order for Garcinia Cambogia and SaferColon.. I got the confirmations for both from my credit card but didn't get a confirmatory email for SaferColon, I'm starting to get worried as it was quite expensive. Can someone help please?!
Shelly Lee you can't get free bottles and shipping like they state.... you have to buy it???? so why advertise to get a free bottle and shipping when you can't ???? Just wondering
Mel A Boo And the pills don't work. Diet and exercise are the only way. I tried the pills and they are worthless. $160 wasted
19 August at 19:31 via mobile · Like · 10
Michela Mike Beavon don't bother tried it and got scammed as you have to exercise and almost starve yourself
Megan Corby There are obviously no real examples of success stories from the snake oil you are peddling our you wouldn't need to steal images from someone who got there slowly through diet, hard work and self awareness.

As you can see from these comments, people are getting scammed, wasting their hard earning money on products that don't work and in some instances they are just getting ripped off without even receiving the products. 

I guess you can say I'm pretty passionate about this subject! I want to reach out to people so they can learn the truth, to help bring awareness to this huge problem that is all over the internet. 

Please share this post on your Facebook. I need your help to spread the word and get them to take down their fake ads.


So do you want to know how I really lost all my weight?

I changed my diet. Imagine that!
Was it hard? Sure it was. I spent a year of my life watching what I ate. It wasn't easy but it was so worth it. At times I wanted to give up and just eat all my old faves and veg on the couch, but I didn't. I was focused as if my life depended on it.

You can read more about my Primal/Paleo experiences on my blog. I'm pretty candid about the ups and downs of this journey.

Thank you to all my faithful readers and followers for helping me out with this. I am truly thankful to all of you.


COPYRIGHT INFO:Copyrights exist by default. As soon as an amateur or professional photographer hits the shutter button, all the power of the copyright law is now associated with the photo. Therefore, a photographer does not have to specify on the photo or on his website that the photo is protected by copyright. Unless specified otherwise, consider a photo as copyrighted - See more at: http://www.francisvachon.com/blog/10-bogus-excuses-to-use-a-photo-you-found-on-the-internet/

Fried Calamari & Prawns with Cashew & Coconut Sauce

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Calamari & Prawns

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Tapioca Starch or Potato Starch

1 Tbsp Coconut Flour

2-3 Tbsp's Ground almonds

1 tsp Smoked Paprika

1 tsp Masterfoods Italian Seasoning

Salt & Pepper

1 beaten egg

Preheat your deep fryer to 180 degrees Celsius.

Slice calamari pieces into strips. You can leave the prawn tails on or cut them off.  

Mix all your dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl beat your egg. Coat the calamari in the beaten egg first and then coat the calamari & prawns into flour mixture and make sure it's coated well.

Drop into the deep fryer and cook for 1-2 minutes, any longer and the calamari & prawns will be tough! Let them drain on a paper towel.


Coconut & Cashew Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Cashews

1/4 cup Coconut Milk

1 Tablespoon Coconut Aminos or Wheat free Tamari

1 Tablespoon Sweet Chilli Sauce

1 Clove of Garlic

1 tsp Grated fresh Ginger

Salt and Pepper

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend!



Crisp Cauliflower & Cashew Salad

Prepared in minutes this raw side dish has great texture and flavour.

Annabel-Langbein-CHRISPY-CAULIFLOWER-SALAD-hero.jpg 
  • 200g cauliflower, cut into florets, stems discarded
  • ½ cup salted roasted cashews
  • 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 2 tsp neutral oil
  • salt and ground black pepper

Place cauliflower and cashews in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in coriander leaves, ginger, oil and a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Toss to combine evenly.

http://www.annabel-langbein.com/recipes/crisp-cauliflower--cashew-salad/223

Maintaining my weight loss

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

When I started my journey back in 2008 I had so much drive, so much focus and the absolute desire to shed 40 odd kgs.  So here I am almost 5 years down the track and while I’ve keep the weight off (give or take a few kgs) I will share with you why I think it’s much tougher to keep the weight off, ok I’ll rephrase that, things change and while it may not be tougher it takes a different set of skills.

The beginning of my journey started on October 2008, I had finally decided that I was sick and tired of being sick and tired...overweight, out of shape, unhappy and generally I just felt so unattractive and uncomfortable in my body.  I didn’t feel like it was my body anymore, nor did I feel like the person staring back at me was me, it was as if I had a fat suit on and it didn’t matter what clothing I tried to wear to disguise how large I was or how long my hair got or how well I applied my make up nothing detracted from how I felt emotionally.  When those comments of wow you have  amazing hair were just far to frequent you start to realise that it’s the one thing people will compliment you on because they aren’t going to say how amazing you look because the truth is I didn’t look amazing.  I was smiling on the outside but on the inside I was downright miserable and couldn’t wait to be rid of the extra fat I had acquired, I had let my body define “who” I was.

The first thing that I changed was my diet.  After reading everything I could get my hands on I realised that to lose a substantial amount of weight you need to change the food, 80-90% of your results will come from your diet.  While exercise will help shape your body and make you feel mentally amazing, it’s a pretty poor way to try and lose a LOT of weight.  The old mantra of burn x amount of calories is not going to get you that far – well it didn’t for me.  What’s the best way to work up an appetite? Go for a run!  Simple answer is that high intensity cardio exercise will increase your appetite.  Lifting weights is where it’s at; bodyweight exercise is also very effective.

I dove head first into it and threw out everything in my house that resembled unhealthy and loaded up with what I knew was going to work.  I had done low carb in the past so I had a fair idea of what sort of things I could have but this time is was going to be a far more healthy version of low carb.  In my mind low carb had worked a charm last time but I just hadn’t embraced veggies enough and lived off diet coke.  This time I had the fridge full of fresh veggies, fruit, meat, chicken, eggs, high fat dairy and in the cupboard were a few cans of tomatoes, olive oil, nuts, soda water, herbal teas etc..

It didn’t take long to start dropping the weight and I soon figured out what my sweet spot was for weight loss....Higher fat, moderate protein and low carb.  The weight was dropping off easily a kg a week and kept that momentum for just over a year, the lower in weight I got I would determine that I needed less food and just adjusted accordingly.  I started blogging to keep some accountability as I was the ONLY one at the time I knew of that was doing this “crazy farfetched” style of eating.  People around me thought I was nuts and honestly I just lived like a bit of hermit while my ‘job’ was to lose weight.  I was unemployed for several months as I had just lost my job to a redundancy, it was when the recession first hit and it was a bit of a blessing in disguise.

I was very lucky to have the support of my loving husband who allowed me to focus on losing the weight while trying to come up with a way to start my own business.  It only took one month to decide to start my business altering and repairing clothing with my 2 domestic sewing machines, I had a small sandwich board out the front of our house and during my lunch breaks I would flyer drop.  I started to get a name for myself and plenty of long hours and hard work I can happily say that it’s been almost 5 years on am I’m going stronger than ever, I have 5 industrial sewing machines and a very steady stream of repeat customers, my business is what I would finally call successful.

Initially when I first lost all my weight I think I was just so bombarded with compliments of “OH MY GOD YOU LOOK AMAZING!!!” How can you not be on cloud nine with amazing comments like that?  They lasted about a year and anytime I saw someone I hadn’t seen since I’d lost my weight.  This is a very rewarding part of weight loss, however as time goes on people just get used to you and the comments stop and I guess well you are just normal.  Now don’t get me wrong normal is nice but those compliments are a huge driving force to keeping you strict and after a while you need to find what it is about your “new you” that will keep you maintaining your weight? I can’t answer this question for you personally but I know for myself that while yes I have fluctuated a wee bit, I have kept most of my weight off.  The biggest non vanity reason for that is because of my health, I have suffered with Anxiety, Depression, PCOS, Menieres Disease and all sorts of other issues that didn’t reduce until I lost the weight and ate Primal.  I don’t know if it was the weight loss or the Primal eating that has been the driving force in keeping these health problems at bay but what I do know is that for 6 months while I wasn’t eating very primal and gained 5kgs the majority of my health issues came back with a vengeance.  I’m finally back on track and the weight is slowly coming back off and my symptoms are starting to dissipate again.

Now 5 years on I have done my fair amount of experimenting with diet, what worked for me 5 years ago doesn’t seem to work for me now, I need more carbs to feel healthy and sleep well.  That doesn’t mean that I subscribe to a high carb diet but I would say that having 50-100gms of carbs a day is where I feel best.  For years I felt fine on below 50gms, now that amount seems to not have the desired effect.  This is where I cannot emphasise enough about experimenting with your diet, calorie amounts, macro nutrients and only you will be able to figure out where you sit on the spectrum, we are all so individual and I see Primal as a template not a set in stone prescription.  

One of the greatest things that has come from all of this is to realise how passionate I am about food, cooking is my therapy and without discovering primal I may not have realised this.  It has reignited the joy I have to sit down to my meals and nourish my body, I’m not about deprivation hence why I could never do a regimented program, my personality doesn’t suit that kind of restriction.

The discipline it takes to lose weight is half mental, visualisation is powerful, it might sound cheesy but every night before I went to sleep I would visualise that one day soon I would wake up and be able to go to my wardrobe and pick out anything I wanted to wear for that day, hey I love fashion so that was a big driving force for me.

Don't underestimate the power of visualisation, combine that with a way of eating that feels natural and relatively effortless and you having a winning combo. I ate to my hunger levels and it felt right, my body responded so well to Primal and almost 5 years on it still feels right.

Cajun Prawns with Cauliflower "Rice"

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Ingredients
  • 1/4 head of cauliflower
  • 1 zucchini diced
  • 1/2 red capsicum
  • 1/2 spring onion diced
  • 150gms Prawns
  • Fresh Coriander/Cilantro
  • Fresh Ginger grated
  • Handful Salted Cashews
  • Lime Juice 
  • Chicken Stock
  • Greggs Cajun Seasoning 
  • Coconut oil for frying
Instructions
  1. Heat your coconut oil in a pan and saute zucchini, peppers and onion
  2. Roughly chop your cauliflower and pulse in your food processor until it resembles 'rice', add in your cashews, cilantro and ginger and quickly pulse, do not over pulse or it will turn into a paste.
  3. Once veggies are almost ready add your cajun seasoning and prawns and cook for about 5 minutes. 
  4. Add in a little bit of chicken stock and cauliflower and cook for a couple of minutes.
  5. Remove from the heat and stir some fresh lime juice and a little extra fresh cilantro.

*This will also work well with chicken
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