Susan Deans

Transformational Health Coach

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5 Healthy Alternatives to Soft Drink

31.12.2015 by Susan Deans // Leave a Comment

lime-soda-glassChristmas is over and we are heading into New Year and a lot of people are starting to think about New Year’s resolutions. I personally do not make New Year’s resolutions, because I find they are fleeting and I never stick to them. I like to set goals around how I want to feel and I find that most women I speak with want to start to feel healthier, lose weight, and have more energy. One way of achieving this is to cut down on sugar and especially sugary drinks like sports drinks, energy drinks and soft drinks.

Too many sugary drinks can lead to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, also, sugar is highly addictive.

Just by swapping out one can of soft drink you are cutting out around 9 teaspoons of sugar, not to mention all the other additives, colours and chemicals.

So what can you have instead I hear you cry? Well, you could just start drinking plain water all the time, which is what I do, but there are times when I feel like something fizzy and a little “fancy” and here are my 5 favourite alternatives for you to try.

1.       Sparkling mineral/soda water

This is one of my favourites and super simple. I use my SodaStream to make the plain soda and then I add slices of lemon or lime. If I have friends over or I’m making it for more than myself I fill a jug with soda water then add chopped fruit, like orange, lemon, strawberries, some sprigs of mint and let it infuse. You can pretty much use any fruit in season.

herbal-tea -image2.       Herbal Tea

You can try mint, apple, liquorice root, cranberry, or pomegranate. There are so many to choose from, and all you have to do is brew the tea, let it cool and add soda/sparkling mineral water to it. I like to make the brew extra strong, so when you add the water it’s not too weak. Get creative with the flavours.

3.       Kombucha

Kombucha is a naturally fermented fizzy drink and contains good probiotic bacteria, so it will help keep your gut healthy while satisfying your soft drink craving. It comes in all different flavours, but I love anything with ginger in it. You can find it in some IGA stores and most health food stores. I usually drink half Kombucha and half mineral water.

4.       Coconut water

Coconut water is a great base for any drink. You can drink it plain or you can add fizzy water, or fresh juice; pineapple juice goes great with coconut water. The best is of course fresh from a young coconut, but not really practical. Buy only plain 100% coconut water and add your own flavour. Coconut water is high in potassium which can help with hydration in the hot weather.

5.       Freshly juiced vegetables and fruit

Freshly squeezed vegetables and fruit can be a healthy option and you will get all the vitamins and minerals as well. Just a word of caution, fruit juice is the sugar from the fruit, so try and have more vegetables than fruit. To make it fizzy just add half juice and half soda/mineral water.

Well that’s my list for you, I really hope you found it helpful. It can be tough giving up soft drinks but it is definitely worth the effort.

Now I would love to hear from you! Have you tried any of these recipes or have you come up with something yourself that you love? Leave me a comment below or join the Shop Swap community on Facebook

Want to know more about how to gain more energy, lose weight or just feel better? Then come and join in the conversation in my private Facebook group. We are all about Food, Mindset, Connection and Support. We are waiting to welcome you!

Happy swapping

Sue

Categories // General Chat, Shop Swap Tags // herbal tea, kombucha, mineral water, shop swap, soda, soft drink, soft drink alternatives, sugar

7 Tips for a fun Christmas

25.12.2015 by Susan Deans // Leave a Comment

merry-christmasChristmas can be one of the most stressful events of the year. The pressure of buying presents, all the last minute things to do and the expectations of having family “togetherness” can certainly create a lot of stress and overwhelm.

We don’t have any real tradition on Christmas day except that the kids always get up far too early and we usually go for a nap sometime during the day. The best thing for me about Christmas day is that there is no agenda, it’s all about relaxing and spending time with the family, playing fun games and having a delicious meal all together. I love to have fun, so here are my top 7 tips for having fun on Christmas Day:

  1. Don’t let your family push your buttons, you know how it’s going to end.
  2. Learn to forgive, yourself and others.
  3. Celebrate all the wins you have had this year and remember you are doing the best you can.
  4. Act surprised when your kids show you what they got from Santa, even though you were up at 2am strategically placing the gift on the end of their bed.
  5. Relax a little around your food, it’s all about balance.
  6. Have some fun and be grateful for all that you have.
  7. Wear that paper crown with pride, and no matter how often you hear one of those jokes from the cracker, laugh as if its the first time. (the kids will love you for it)

Thank you for reading my blog posts and being part of my community. I have witnessed some of you making some amazing changes this year that you can be very proud of, and I have really enjoyed working with you. But there is so much more to come next year.

Want to know more about how to gain more energy, lose weight or just feel better? Then come and join in the conversation in my private Facebook group. We are all about Food, Mindset, Connection and Support. We are waiting to welcome you!

Have a great Christmas and happy swapping!

Sue

Categories // General Chat, Shop Swap Tags // Christmas, fun, stress

Swaps for Salad Dressings & Sauces

17.12.2015 by Susan Deans // Leave a Comment

Shop Swap SaladA salad can be boring without a dressing and a burger just wouldn’t be complete without sauce and mustard, right?

I have always loved flavour in my food and growing up we had a great variety of foods. Then I went overseas when I was 20 and visited many countries where I experienced so many different types of foods: some with amazing flavours, others not so good. No matter where I went there was always some type of local sauce, relish or dressing, which I had to try.

Fast forward to 2015 and I still love lots of flavour in my food; and I especially enjoy salads. But, to be honest, salad leaves on a plate are boring without a dressing. A delicious tasting dressing can turn an ordinary salad into something pretty special, but finding one that is nutritious and doesn’t contain unhealthy vegetable oils, thickeners and colours is almost impossible. After discovering what was in all the store bought dressings, I decided I would be better off making my own.

But this is a shop swap, isn’t it? Well, yes that’s true and the aim is to swap from an unhealthy item to a healthier alternative with minimal fuss, but I don’t believe any of the dressings you buy in the supermarket are anywhere near healthy.

There are some you can buy at health food stores, but I want to make all the swaps accessible to everyone, and all the ingredients available at the supermarket. So, before you start telling yourself it’s too hard and takes too long, let’s just take a moment. You can do this, and the reason I know is because I felt the same way when I first started. I am going to show you the ingredients you need to make a simple dressing, and you can get them from the supermarket.

The oil you use is very important, but I will be doing a whole blog post on oils later, so for now these are my Shop Swaps for salad dressings.

  • Simple Salad Dressing – cold pressed oil & lemon juice
  • Creamy Yoghurt dressing
  • Sweet mustard dressing
  • Basil Pesto dressing – just by adding some olive oil and a little water to some basil pesto it instantly becomes a dressing!

You’ll find the recipes and instructions in the Healthy Salad Dressings post.

Next on the Shop Swap list are sauces and jellies.

Before you ask: no, I am not going to ask you to make your own, but I will say that although I have found better options, tomato sauce/ketchup and jellies all contain quite a lot of sugar. I believe that condiments are not meant to be eaten all the time and only in very small amounts to accompany a meal. So in saying that, if you are like me and only have them occasionally, then that’s ok. The ones I have chosen have no preservatives, colours or MSG.

The following are my top Shop Swaps

Tomato Ketchup

Coles brand tomato sauce has no preservatives, colours or flavours, but does contain sugar.

Cranberry Sauce

Woolworths Select cranberry sauce

Ocean Spray jellied Cranberry sauce and whole Cranberry sauce

Mustards

MasterFoods Dijon mustard

Macro Organic Wholegrain mustard

Categories // General Chat, Shop Swap Tags // creamy dressing, healthy, ketchup, lemon, mustard, Olive oil, salad dressing, shop swap, simple swaps, tomato sauce

3 Easy & Healthy Salad Dressings

17.12.2015 by Susan Deans // Leave a Comment

shop-swap-olive-oilSimple Salad Dressing

Ingredients

  • 2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
    (Extra Virgin Olive oil gives you a strong flavour, but for a more neutral taste try cold pressed macadamia or avocado oil.)
  • 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • Pinch of salt (optional)

Method

Place all ingredients in a jar and shake

Creamy Yoghurt Dressing

Ingredients

  • 1-2tablespoons of yogurt (you can also use sour cream)
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a whisk and pour into a jar.

Note: Make sure the yogurt is plain organic yogurt with no added sugar

Sweet Mustard Dressing

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
  • ½ tablespoon of honey or rice malt syrup
  • ¼ cup of olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
  • Pinch of salt

Method

Place all ingredients into a jar and shake well. Store in the fridge for up to a week.

You can double or triple the recipe depending on how much you want.

Categories // General Chat, Recipes, Shop Swap Tags // creamy dressing, healthy, ketchup, mustard, salad dressing, tomato sauce

Top Tips for Healthy Dips

10.12.2015 by Susan Deans // Leave a Comment

pesto-with-stampSo you have decided to try healthier eating and then the holidays arrive. It’s party season, you are at a get-together and you cave in and have a treat. Before you know it you’ve eaten a whole heap of unhealthy food and decide that healthy eating is too hard and definitely won’t work during the holidays!

It doesn’t have to be that way and it certainly doesn’t have to be difficult, in fact I want you to keep it as simple as possible and I am going to show you how.

I nearly always take a plate of healthy food to a party, and that way you know you can at least have something you know is good for you.

So let’s dip in to my top tips for choosing the healthier option for dips and crackers.

Most crackers are full of monosodium glutamate, MSG, used to enhance the flavour of food, making it more intense. It also makes you want to eat more of it. It’s also commonly found in chips, potato and corn.

Symptoms: can cause headaches, rashes, rapid heartbeats, nausea and hyperactivity.

But, you will rarely see MSG on a list of ingredients. Instead it will be listed as a number: 620-625, 627, 631, 635, or as “hydrolysed vegetable protein”. So, you will need to look at the ingredients on the back to make sure they don’t contain anything like this.

Here are my shop swaps for chips and crackers:

Sakata (plain) and Peckish (no added salt)

rice-crackers

If you are having potato chips, or corn chips, always have plain salted, never the flavoured variety. (Note: I don’t usually recommend corn chips because most are made with genetically modified corn, so you may have to go to a health food store to get GMO free. I get mine from Mrs Flannerys and it is Australian corn which at the moment is GM free)

Alternatively, you don’t have to have crackers with dip, in fact I generally will have chopped vegetables with mine. Slice up carrot, celery, cucumber & red capsicum into dipping sticks, and serve alongside the dip.

The best way to know what’s in your dips is make them yourself, BUT I want to make it easy for you, so I have found some that you can buy at the supermarket that you can swap right now.

Most dips at the supermarket contain a lot of additives and preservatives, so the main ones you will find in dips and want to avoid are preservatives 211 (sodium benzoate) and 202 (potassium sorbate).

202 (Sorbates) have been associated with asthma, eczema, contact dermatitis, behavioural problems in children.

211 (Benzoates) have been associated with hyperactivity, dizziness, headaches and trouble sleeping.

So the dips I have chosen are the ones without any of these harmful preservatives in them.

These are my shop swaps for dips.

The Pure Produce Company dips came out on top with the full range of dips being preservative free.

The Jamie for Woolworths brand was preservative free, but some dips were better than others.

The Wattle Valley brand only had one which was preservative free and that was the Fresh Basil dip, all the others contained some form of preservative or additive.

Woolworths Macro hommus was preservative free as well.

The only way to make sure you have a quality product is to make your own, but I know that a lot of us are time poor but if you want to have a go at some easy dips, hommus, pesto, cream cheese & chilli and tzatziki, are all pretty easy to make. You can find the recipe for my easy cream cheese & sweet chilli dip here.

I would love to hear from you if you found this swap helpful? Leave a comment below or come and join in the conversation on Facebook  and comment there.

Categories // General Chat, Shop Swap

Recipe – Cream Cheese & Sweet Chilli Dip

10.12.2015 by Susan Deans // Leave a Comment

cream-cheese-sweet-chilli-dip

This is so easy and quick and you don’t need any special machines to make it.

Ingredients

  • 1 tub of cream cheese (best brand is Coles or Woolworths home-brand as they contain no preservatives)
  • Sweet chilli sauce
  • Fresh parsley, chopped finely

Method

Place the cream cheese into a bowl and squash it all together and make it flat across the top.

Pour sweet chilli sauce all over the top

Completely cover the top with parsley.

Serve with rice crackers and chopped vegetables.

Enjoy!

I would love to know if you try this recipe and let me know if you liked it. Leave a comment below or jump over to my Facebook page and leave a comment there.

Categories // Recipes

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