by Paola Bassanese

Inspired by aerial circus artist Julia who kindly kept a food diary sharing her healthy recipes, here’s some practical and delicious meal plans that will boost your energy and help you stay slim. Julia believes in and follows the traditional German eating philosophy: breakfast like an emperor, lunch like a king, dine like a pauper.

Menu 1

Breakfast: 2 slices granary wholemeal w butter and two poached eggs

Snack: 2 small apples, 1 banana, handful chicken breast bites, 1kiwi, 1fig

Lunch: salad with wild rice, carrots, peppers, parsley, chilli dressing, King prawns with chilli and coriander

Dinner: salmon with crushed pepper, steamed broccoli sugarsnaps carrots baby corn with sesame seeds, brown rice and houmous with pomegranate

Menu 2

Breakfast: homemade smoothie with 2 bananas, handful mango, fresh mint, fresh ginger, tsp coconut oil, orange juice

Snack: Avocado smoothie: avocado, handful of spinach, mint, half a lemon, tbl spoon yoghurt, apple juice

Lunch: salad with mixed nuts, mixed beans, broccoli and carrots with quinoa, garlic prawns

Dinner: chicken salad

Menu 3

Breakfast: baked beans, tinned tomatoes, poached egg

Snack: banana milk shake with cinnamon and nut meg

Lunch: mixed sushi/sashimi box

Dinner: grilled pork with wholegrain and camargue red rice with pumpkin and sunflower seeds, red cabbage

As a hard-working, workaholic self-employed massage therapist, most of my waking hours are dedicated to my business and my clients.

When I am not massaging clients I write blogs on health and wellbeing, including nutrition. I often extoll the virtues of healthy eating and condemn sugar and caffeine abuse, yet I am the first to fall at the first hurdle when the thought of cappuccino enters my mind.

As much as I try, a cappuccino break is what gets me through the day. I limit my coffee consumption to two cups of coffee a day, one if I am being a good girl.

When I discussed this with an Ayurvedic practitioner, she mentioned that the bitterness of coffee is an important element in Ayurveda, as you need to combine all the different tastes (sweet, sour, savoury, bitter) to have a complete diet.

So when I was forced to detox in July after my Ayurvedic consultation, I breathed a sigh of relief when I was told I could have one coffee a day.

Life is all about balance: what is your vice and how do you “justify” to yourself that you need your fix?

“A warm croissant. A frothy cappuccino. A chilled glass of wine. As tasty and delicious as they may be, these foods and drinks are all responsible for weight gain, diabetes, heart disease. Ultimately they all work against you when you are trying to lose weight and stay healthy.”
To read the full story see the Spa and Pampering’s website.

Why soup? We are not talking gimmicky soup diets like the cabbage soup or Liz Hurley’s punishing watercress soup diet. The concept is to always plan your meal with an image in your mind of an inverted pyramid.

To ensure you get good quality nutrition and manage your body weight, have your main meals during the day and have soup for dinner.

To read the whole article go to Wahanda.