Health Hack Plan: Week 3

Here are our meal, exercise and motivation suggestions for Week 3. Don’t forget to pop over to SpunOut.ie/healthhack for more helpful resources.

Food

Change things up again in week 3 for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Breakfast

Omelette

Beat two medium eggs with water, pepper, and herbs together. Then add the mixture to a hot frying pan with oil. You can add ingredients like broccoli, ham, cheese, spinach,  onions or tomatoes to the mix for some variety.

Scones

Baking wholemeal scones are a great source of fibre and a good way to start the day. Measurements depend on how many you want to make but a quick Google should help you out. This handy recipe serves 6 so freeze some and save for later!

Lunch

Quiche

Bacon and mushroom, ham and cheese or whatever other flavours you feel like adding! This can be a bit time intensive but if you make it early in the week, you can get a few days out of it. You can make the pastry yourself or buy a ready-made shell. Here’s loads of recipes, just throw in your favourite fillings and you’re away. 

Sweet potato and spinach soup

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, peel and chop the sweet potato, place in a baking tray for 20-30 mins. Cook some onions and garlic in a pan for about 3 minutes before adding the sweet potatoes and some coconut milk for some extra tastiness. Add the spinach once the mix is simmering and cover with a lid. Make sure to mix it all well.

Chicken fajita

Slice a chicken breast into strips and cook for 6-10 minutes or until browned. Cook some onions, peppers and fajita seasoning in another pan for 8-10 minutes. You could use cheese, tomatoes, sour cream or Greek yogurt as toppings.

Dinner

Turkey burger

Mix some turkey mince with chopped onion, grated courgette, an egg yolk, drop of soy sauce and a bit of grated ginger. Mould into a burger shape and cook in a pre-heated grill for 6-7 mins on each side until done. Here’s a nice spicey recipe to try too.

Baked salmon

Put the piece of salmon in tinfoil and put any herbs/juices inside the foil before folding over. Cook at 205 degrees for around 15 mins or until cooked. Serve with some baked potatoes or salad as sides.

Broccoli pasta

Cook penne pasta in a large saucepan of boiling water according to packet’s instructions (8-10 mins). Add broccoli to the pasta for the last 2 minutes of cooking. Make the breadcrumbs in a food processor by whizzing 2 slices of bread with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 30g of grated cheese. Drain the pasta and broccoli, keeping back 100ml of the cooking pasta water. In a large casserole dish, mix the pasta, broccoli, cooking water, red onions, salt and pepper together. Then mix in some creme fraiche and some more grated cheese, until everything is well coated. Sprinkle the top with the breadcrumbs and put under the grill until golden and bubbling.
 

Exercis

 

Here are some more exercise ideas for week 3:

Yoga

Excellent for stretching, flexibilty, breathing methods, relaxation and meditation to exercise your body AND mind. There are lots of different types of yoga.

Brisk walking

People often think walking isn’t proper exercise but anything that gets your heart rate going is good so pick up the pace!

Cycling

A bike can be a bit of an investment but well worth it when you consider what you’ll save by cycling to the shop/college/wherever and not getting the bus. It’s a great exercise for toning muscles.

Motivation

• Think about how you feel after you exercise! Don’t you feel good and actually have more energy? Well get to and work up a sweat already.
• Improve your mental sharpness. People who exercise have better concentration and better reaction times than people who don’t exercise so it improves your mind as well as body.