Here’s to a Healthy and Happy 2017

Every New Year brings New Year’s resolutions!

Happiness and a healthy lifestyle sum up our resolutions for 2017. However with the busy lives we lead it is sometimes a struggle to keep our lifestyle healthy, and to find time for those key things that truly make us happy.

Here are a few very simple things we are doing to help us achieve our resolutions this year.

Firstly, to keep ourselves healthy, we are endeavouring to cut down on sugar. Cutting it out completely is not realistic for us…. oh how we love chocolate! However minimising it as much as possible really goes a long way.

Starting our day on the right track, with a delicious sugar free muesli is key. Here is an easy and yummy sugar free muesli recipe. We also often get the 3pm sugar craving, and have found that reaching for a slice of this healthy chocolate brownie, certainly curbs the craving. Made from nuts and dates, it’s very simple to make.

1 - SUGAR FREE MUESLI

INGREDIENTS (makes 5 cups)

4-5 tablespoons coconut oil (or butter), melted
3 cups coconut flakes
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
2 cups almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts, pepitas (preferably activated ones), chopped roughly
3 tablespoons rice malt syrup (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 120 C. Mix all ingredients in a bowl, spread evenly on baking paper on a tray and bake for about 15-20 minutes, until golden, turning halfway.
When golden (the darker it is, the crunchier it is), remove and cool immediately to get it crispy.
You may wish to add some rolled oats, in which case toss 2 cups into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients, and add a little more oil and syrup.

Recipe selected from sarahwilson.com

2 - HEALTHY CHOCOLATE BROWNIE

INGREDIENTS

1 cup pecans (soaked)
½ cup almonds (soaked)
1 cup dates (pitted)
½ cup Cacao

INSTRUCTIONS

Soak the pecans and almonds overnight or at least for a few hours.
In a food processor pulse all ingredients until well combined. Place mixture onto baking paper and put another sheet of baking paper on top, roll out with rolling pin until you get a nice square, trimming the edges to make it look neat.
Place the baking paper with the brownie square on it into a square or rectangle container and place in the freezer for 2 hours. Pull out for ten minutes before serving, store in freezer if they last that long.

Recipe selected from kimbeach.com

sugarfree nuesli recipe from sarahwilson.com

Secondly fitness… we struggle to find time to get to the gym, but a brisk walk around the block each morning starts our day out the right way. Our favourite summertime exercise is to take a dip in the sea, and this always makes us feel invigorated. We also love taking out our kayaks for a paddle around the bay. Incorporating activities we love with exercise makes it a lot easier to achieve our daily exercise goals.

taking out our kayaks for a paddle around the bay.

Lastly, a healthy mind is essential, and we love this saying “do more of what makes you happy”. To achieve this, we’ve found that creating a list of everything we’d like to do in our free time, and numbering them in priority order, has given us a list of activities that we really value. We are endeavouring to try and fit in at least one of our top three priorities per day.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2017!

do more of what makes you happy image from ny post

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