Supermarket Secrets

Are You Really Eating Healthy?

You might cook very often with 'fresh ingredients' but are the ingredients as fresh/ healthy as you think?  I found this program Supermarket Secrets on youtube today and watched all ten parts of it.  It got me wonder how healthy I have actually been eating.

Expensive Organic vs Cheap Industrial Farming

It could seem ridiculous to spend $8 on an organic egg while half dozen of industrial-farm eggs cost just the same.  When you try to economise your grocery bills and grab the cheaper produce, you should really be more aware of the damage the cheap produce does to your precious health.

Industrial farming has marked a drastic change from conventional agriculture.  Our common knowledge tells us that chickens, cows and sheep are raised wandering on the farm and ducks should swim in the pond, least it is what I saw at my grandparents' farm 20 years ago.

What shocked me most is the daunting farming environment.  Today livestocks are jam-packed in cages or barns where sunlight doesn't shine, and being force-fed to fatten up and be slaughtered in just 45 days instead of 80 in order to cope with our high demand of food.  Raised in a place where dead livestock are neglected, farmers scattered ammonia on the farming ground and mix drugs in the feed in order to prevent disease and infection spread to livestocks.  What we see in the footage could just be the tip of an iceberg.

Hormones injected cows, pigs and antibiotics-filled livestocks are delivered to supermarket and sold as 'fresh' produce, and those chemicals go straight into your body regardless of cooking method.  I also have to say that grain-fed cows are not healthy as they are branded, cows should eat GRASS.  While grains are not ideal for human digestion due to its anti-nutrients nature, it also messes up the hormonal balance in cows.  Therefore, consumption of grain-fed beef/ dairy can potentially disturb our hormonal balance and cause health damage, such as cancer, gut inflammation, recurring flu, etc.

Animal Welfare & Your Optimal Health

You don't have to become vegetarian/ vegan straight away but I do pledge you to think twice before shopping at local supermarket.  When the livestocks are raised in such inhumane and poor environment,   then they become our food and draw only negative impact on our health, their negative energy will also affect our well-being.

You can help improve animal welfare, hence your precious health by shopping at local butcher and organic farms, see the list for Hong Kong.

On A Budget

Organic is expensive but the medical bill can cost us more.  If you can't afford organic everything, please at least get grass-fed beef/ lamb, hormones-free pork and antibiotics-free livestocks.  Also, READ the label before you purchase, 'fresh' meat these days are often processed with glucose, corn syrup and preservatives which prolong the shell-life.

My Last Words

I was vegetarian for 5 years because of animal welfare, but reverted back to meat-eater due to a decline in health.  After watching the documentary today, I was shocked, if not disappointed at the modern farmers who are totally oblivious with animal welfare and ignorant with the damages they are doing to the health of general public.  Do they dare consume the same produce from their own farm?

Please spread the words to everyone you know and care, and support the organic farmers who adhere to providing us real food.

Be Your Best,

Joey

Bodyweight HIIT

As I mentioned on Facebook page - HIIT makes me feel like a newborn again and again, the breathlessness, the screaming and gasp for air, plus the benefit of *human growth hormones (Hgh) - wonder how she stays this young?!  I will enclose her age in the end of this post.

*Hgh is released during and after high intensity and weight training for muscles growth and repair, it is a nature anti-aging hormones which also plays an important role in revving up our metabolic rate.

Being all inspired, I did this workout with a friend this afternoon, her gasp was definitely music to my ear. :-)

Warm up - Dynamic stretch

Workout I - 4 sets straight

• Wall squat with lateral raise, 10 reps
• Static squat, 10 reps
• Squat jumps

- Break-less (I just made up this word...) -

Workout II - 4 sets straight

• Push-up, 10 reps
• Plank, 10s

- Minimal Break -

Workout III - 4 sets straight

• Walking lunges with hips extension, 10 reps
• Sumo squat jumps, 10 reps

- Break-less -

Workout IV - 4 sets straight

• Clean & jerk, 15 reps
• Burpee, 10 reps

Abs & dynamic stretch

2.5 Months Ago...

My friend started off as an absolute beginner who couldn't manage a single push-up, we have then been training once a week many holidays in between.  Her performance today was both surprising and inspiring as she is able to do at least 10 regular push-ups with good form. *hats off to Iris*

The biggest reward to a me is my clients' result, it empowers and inspires me to be an even better trainer and a person who not only talks the talk, but also walks the walk.  The journey might be long but we walk the path together. :-)

Hope you enjoy this workout.

Be Your Best,

Joey

*The lady is picture is 72 years old.

Lazy Dinner - Paleo Burger

I got this recipe inspiration from Irey's website and made a few twists to the marinate (as titled it was quite a lazy dinner....)

It took roughly 20 minutes to prepare everything, from marinating and making the burger patties to cooking.  I bought grassfed beef mince from Pacific Gourmet , one tray of mince could make 4 patties.   They also sell grassfed ribeye, sirloin, etc.

Ingredients - makes 4 patties

• A tray of grassfed beef mince (about 350g I guess...)
• 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp Olive fat/ melted duck fat (which tastes better)
• Salt and pepper

1. In a salad bowl, whisk oil, mustard and salt until mustard breaks down and blends with oil.
2. Add mince, a bit more salt and pepper.  Mix all ingredients and you can decide if more salt and mustard is needed.
3. (What I did) Turn the mixture into a big roll and divide it into 4 equal-sized meat balls and press meat balls into 1-inch thick patties.
4. Heat frying pan on medium and fry each side of the patty for 4-5 minutes, depends on how well you like it.  You have to press the patty down a little while cooking.

In the meantime, I fry bacon on low heat and add cherry tomatoes to the same pan to 'grill'.  Serve when everything is ready in 10 minutes.

I ended up having two patties and refrigerate the uncooked meatballs for the next day.  This dinner can pair with red wine and/ or an oven-baked sweet potato (with the bacon fat, man!) after HIIT or endurance training - just post-workout really.

Happy Paleo and buon appetito!

Joey

More Cookies

After a not so successful baking yesterday, I made a few changes to the recipe and baked two batches of cookies, the second patch looks significantly better.

I used shredded coconut instead of coconut flakes today, it makes a better mould than coconut flakes as shown in the photo.

I added too much olive oil to the first dough so it ended up too moist although the cookies are still tasty.

With the second dough I added less than 1 TBSP olive oil but guess there was too much salt, urgh.  Instead of shaping with bare hands, I got help with a teaspoon.

Ingredients for 12 cookies:

• 1 egg
• 40g shredded coconut
• 40g parmesan cheese
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• a pinch of salt (optional)

1. Preheat oven at 160C and grease the tray.
2. Mix cheese, shredded coconut and salt in a bowl.
3. Whisk egg and add to mixture little by little.
4. Add drops of olive oil to dough until it sticks.
5. Shape cookies with teaspoon and bake for about 10 minutes each side.
6. Let it cool for 30 - 40 minutes before serve.

Let me know how your baking turns out.

Bon appetit

Joey

Paleo Cookies

Funny-shaped Paleo cookies

Acting on impulse, I made these Paleo cookies with my boyfriend's parmesan cookies recipe and a Elana's Paleo Coconut Macaroons.  What I did was mixing 3 eggs, parmesan cheese, coconut flakes and spoonful of olive oil in a bowl and put the mixture on a greased baking tray into oven for 30 minutes at 180 degrees.

The inside

I didn't think the runny yellow mixture would cook well but 15 minutes after baking, it turned into a crispy solid so I quickly cut that giant piece into smaller size, hence the funny-shaped products.  Then put it back to oven for another 10 minutes and finally let them sit for 10 minutes before serving.

The recipe can surely improve with a few twists but at the moment, or could be used as crisp bread served with almond hummus dip*.  If you are strictly Paleo, you might want to remove parmesan cheese from the recipe, an improvised recipe will be provided after more experiments.

Happy Paleo!

Joey
*Almond hummus dip is to mix almond butter and goat yogurt in 1:1 ratio.