fitness – The 10 Minute Body

BEST PROTEIN SOURCES for meat eaters and vegetarians

Protein helps you stay fuller for longer - it is the macronutrient with the highest satiety factor (over carbohydrates or fats). Protein also, very importantly, helps build and maintain lean muscle mass in your body, which is super important in keeping your metabolism high throughout your life, and helps in building and maintaining a lean body that burns fat effectively.

To oversimplify, if you are currently inactive, make sure you get an absolute minimum of one gram of protein per every kilogram of bodyweight, every day. So if you weigh 80 kg, you should aim to get at least 80 grams of protein daily. You can track your protein intake easily with an app like MyFitnessPal (by going to the nutrition section in your food diary).

Here's a simple list of the best protein sources:

Poultry (chicken, turkey...)
Red meat (beef, pork, lamb...)
Seafood (tuna, salmon, mackerel, prawns, scallops...)
Eggs
Dairy (yoghurt, cottage cheese, fromage frais, milk, cheese...)
Whey protein powder (not necessary, but great if you struggle to get enough protein in)

And if you're a vegetarian, here are the best foods to help with your daily protein intake:

Beans (kidney, chickpeas/hummus, haricot...)
Legumes (lentils, peas, peanut butter...)
Nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, cashews...)
Seeds (sunflower, flax, pumpkin, hemp...)
Milk alternatives (almond/cashew/hazelnut/soya/rice drinks etc. ...)
Soy/tofu
Whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, oats, bread...)
Veggies (peas, broccoli, spinach, kale etc. ...)
Protein powder (hemp protein/pea protein/rice protein etc. ...)

For optimal health and best results from any training you do, try to include a source of protein with every meal you have.

Good luck, and make sure to join The 10 Minute Body team on Facebook where you can ask nutrition and exercise related questions.

/Erika

Fast & simple beginner’s fat burn home workout

erika

So I had a chat with my mum on Skype the other night. She told me she's started doing 50 sit ups a night to improve her fitness. I had to stop for a second to realise I'd failed to talk to mum about some very important basic fitness principles, and how sit ups are not the answer. I am ashamed. I've had hundreds of private clients over the years who know better than my own mum?!

She's going to fly over to visit us from Finland next month, and I'm sure as hell going to make sure she leaves a week later being a lot more educated. In this post you'll find out exactly what she'll learn.

Now, most people will take on doing ab work at home because they want their waist to be smaller... Correct? Yep, well working on your abs will do very little, if anything. They might even make matters worse if you're doing the exercises wrong. Loads of people have got ab work induced lower back pain, which is not fun and can take a long time to get rid of. Also, if your breathing is wrong you can be encouraging your belly to actually push out, not get any slimmer.

Like this guy, he's ripped but he's been doing a lot of exercise whilst his belly's been pushed out... Not ideal if you want to look slim, right?

So instead, focus on a full body workout where you use all of your biggest muscle groups. That way your body will burn the most calories (and fat), and since you cannot target fat loss, it'll burn off the most overall fat and tone up your body in all of the problem areas, including your waistline.

Here's your exercises for an effective beginner's home workout:

Squat (standing up and keeping your heels on the floor, lower your bum down as if you were going to sit down on a chair. Keep your knees aligned with your toes. Your hands can come in front of you for balance as you squat down. Aim to get your thighs parallel to the floor.)
Push up (keeping your knees on the floor [and feet uncrossed] whilst resting on your arms, lower your chest down until your arms are parallel with the floor, then push back up whilst breathing out at the top. Make sure your arms are aligned with your nipples, not your neck!)
Seal (or 'lying back extension'. Lie down on your stomach, holding your hands by your temples. Lift your chest up controlled off the floor as high as you can, hold for a second at the top and lower back down to where there is still tension in your back muscles. Repeat. If you want the extra benefit of working out your bum too, just lift your feet up off the floor whilst squeezing your glutes at the same time as lifting your chest.)

Do 3 sets of 15 repetitions of each of these exercises. That's it! These exercises also train your core when you make sure your posture is good throughout, so no need for specific ab work unless you're already lean or have a particularly weak core.

50 crunches every night

3 x 15 squat, push up, seal every night

Make it into a daily routine and soon you'll start seeing much better results than you would from doing sit ups .

Good luck,

/Erika

P.s. If you've got any questions, just drop me a message

Why doing gym classes is a MISTAKE

erika

It’s heartbreaking, but it’s true

I worked from a big commercial gym before… Sometimes taking 5 classes in a 5 hour shift!! Fucking crazy. Did I lose weight? No I didn’t. More importantly, did the members who took part in those classes lose weight? NO, THEY DIDN’T. I saw hundreds, if not thousands of regulars who were desperate to lose weight not get anywhere… And it’s not because they didn’t try, it’s just that they were looking in the wrong place.

Doing gym classes rarely give you the results you want

You get frustrated, because you don’t really know how much more you can do when nothing seems to work

Gym classes help you burn calories, YES

However…. You get home, and those extra calories burnt make your body that little bit more hungry… You “eat normally”, without even realising that you had a little more than you normally would’ve had.

This balances out your body’s maintenance calorie needs (calculate yours here) and you won’t lose any weight. With some luck, IF the class is resistance based (ie you’re actually needing to use your muscles rather than just bouncing around getting a little sweaty) it might help you build a bit of muscle - in other words, you’ll get a little more toned. This won’t change the reading on the scales though.

If you want to actually lose weight, you need to change the game you play.

You CAN still attend those gym classes, but ONLY if you truly enjoy them.

And what do you need to do?

Track….. Your….. Mofo’n….. calories.

If you want to lose weight, you MUST eat less than what your body burns.

And the ONLY way to know if you’re doing that is by tracking everything that goes down your throat

Food, drinks, EVERYTHING.

This is also a fantastically educational thing to do, because if you’ve never done it before you WILL be surprised at how calorific some of the stuff you eat/drink are.

If you want to lose weight you HAVE TO take responsibility

NOBODY else can do it for you…. Just you.

Doing yet another diet won’t work, because you’re not taking responsibility

Going to some more gym classes won’t work, because you’re not taking responsibility

Being an adult is fantastic, because you can take complete responsibility for yourself

That means that if you want to, you CAN lose as much weight as you want

As long as you’ve got the right tools

And my mission is to give you them

Start using MyFitnessPal TODAY — just download it on your phone and start logging

Get to know what you’re eating

You can do the 10 day challenge that I created (it’s free for a limited time only) - to get you used to the flexible dieting shizzle, and the most effective home training protocol in the world

Just whatever you do, you can now stop hoping that those gym classes will eventually work…. Trust me, they won’t

Unless you control your nutrition

So get on it!

—> 10 day challenge <— (if you encounter any problems or have any questions just drop me a message)

Best of luck,

Erika xx

Emma S. testimonial (personal training with Erika Helsinki)

erika

Name:

Emma S.

Your specific weight/fitness/lifestyle related goals when you started:

When I started PT with Erika last year I was pretty sick of going to the gym 4 or 5 times a week and getting no results. All I did was cardio with very little resistance training, and although my diet was pretty clean I was eating a bit too much and getting nowhere (if anything I was putting weight on). I really wanted to tone up and improve my fitness but also improve the relationship with myself. I was bulimic when I was younger and so loving my body is something that I have never been particularly good at, I felt that I was at a time in my life that I needed to move past this and make some positive changes, both physically and mentally.

What have you achieved since starting your sessions with Erika?

Since I started with Erika I have seen a lot of physical changes, I've lost just over a stone, I'm stronger than I've ever been and I feel a lot more toned. But better than any physical change are the mental ones, I'm more positive about life in general, have a better relationship with food and am even learning to love my body, slowly but surely. The strength I have gained from Erika's training has also allowed me to progress in yoga, something which I love but have never had the strength, or confidence to improve in.

Your PT session experiences summarised:

Over the time I've been training with Erika I've learned so much!! Sessions are always varied and fun, pushing you beyond limits that you didn't even know you had! Erika's enthusiasm is also unreal, I feel completely supported and motivated not only during the sessions but also in-between times. Her advice goes beyond exercise and nutrition, even giving me fantastic advice on how to deal the writers block I had during my masters dissertation!!

Are you happy with your results?

YES!!

How has Erika helped achieve your goals?

Through constant encouragement, motivation, and support. Varying classes, and keeping exercise fun at all times. Her love of fitness and life is contagious, I'm pretty sure that with Erika as your PT it would be pretty impossible not to reach your goals!

What do you still want to achieve regarding your weight/fitness/lifestyle?

I still want to tone up and gain strength- right now, more than anything else I'd love to be able to just one pull up! (That and hold a headstand for more than two seconds in yoga!).

Would you recommend Erika Helsinki as a PT to others? Why?

No doubt about it, she is the best PT I could have hoped for!!!

Any other comments?

Erika would do anything for her clients, a truly amazing PT. I could stop there but its more than that, she is also a wonderful person who genuinely cares about each and every one of her clients. There is no way I would ever have reached my goals without her and there are no words which express how grateful I am for her help and support!

Foodswaps 3: Turkey-avocado burger

Fit as Hel

I have discovered the wonderful world of burgers, which are neither fast-food junk or gourmet, but dripping of grease!

This low-fat turkey burger is a great weekend dinner: 498 kcal and 34.5g protein (but a lot depends on the ingredients you choose).

Ingredients:

100g turkey steak
1/4 of an avocado
1 gem lettuce
1 tomato
1 tsp houmous
herbs and spices of your taste
1 ciabatta roll

Preparation

Dry rub the turkey steak with your chosen herbs and spices (I like garlic salt, pepper, oregano and some chilli)
Grill it (I usually use a griddle pan)
Wash the gem lettuce and separate to leaves and slice the tomato
Toast your bun, spread with houmous
Assemble your burger: bun, lettuce leaves, tomatoes, turkey, avocado, bun
Make a Chef's salad from the lettuce and tomatoes (adding some spring onions and cucumber?) you could not fit into the burger
Always feel free to add more vegetables (maybe some cheeky mozzarella too ;))

Enjoy :)

EH&EH