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What an amazing season of Stand Up Paddling! Our new partnership with the Hollyburn Sailing Club gave us a chance to meet so many new faces and enjoy the beautiful West Vancouver waterfront. We had a lot of fun in our SUP classes and lessons, and thought we'd share some of our favourite moments with you! If you missed out this year, don't worry, we will be back again next summer. For more information visit our website seatoskyfit.com or sign up for our newsletter to stay updated! Many thanks again to our partners at the Hollyburn Sailing Club! -Nikki
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MMMMmmmmmm fat bombs. Balls of delicious fatty-ness. As the name suggests, these little paleo/keto-friendly balls are filled with healthy fats, some protein and a mix of omega 3s and some omega 6s, and will hold you over until your next meal - that is, if you are even hungry on a keto-style diet.
I have been experimenting with some keto-style eating recently and whipped these fat bombs up as a snack, inspired by Canadian Keto-Queen, Leanne over at Healthful Pursuit. Technically, these are not 100% keto because of the vanilla extract, which contains alcohol sugars. However, you can substitute the vanilla, or just omit it altogether. You can whip these fat babies up in 15 minutes and they require zero baking. I repeat, zero baking! Who has time for baking?! Not me, at least not unless it's the weekend. Plus, in the heat of the summer who wants to turn on the oven? Until next time, enjoy the fatty-ness! Prepared in 15 minutes | Makes 9 balls Ingredients: 1 1/2 cup almond flour 1/4 cup chia seeds 1/2 cup hemp hearts 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp melted coconut oil 1 tsp sunflower seed butter 1 tbsp cold coffee (leftover from the morning) 1 tbsp cacao powder 1 tsp ceylon cinnamon 1 tsp pure vanilla extract Instructions: 1. Place flour, seeds, hemp hearts in a mixing bowl and mix with fork. Add melted coconut oil and mix in thoroughly. 2. Add sunflower seed butter and mix in thoroughly. 3. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. 4. Form balls with ingredients, place in cookie tin or tupperware and keep refrigerated otherwise the balls might be a little crumbly. Tip: To make these balls, 100% keto, you could add an artificial sweetener. I would recommend stevia. -Nikki Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness. To Learn more about the Ketogenic Diet, visit the Healthful Pursuit blog, by Leanne Vogel, nutrition educator and Canadian-Keto Queen!
EXTRA TIP: You can also try other goodies like raw cacao nibs, sunflower seeds, or other nuts. I also like to add a pinch of bee pollen on top of my topper!
-Nikki Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness. To Learn more about the Ketogenic Diet, visit the Healthful Pursuit blog, by Leanne Vogel, nutrition educator and Canadian-Keto Queen! Swap out your rice for a more nutritious version: blend up your cauliflower to rice size, and use it instead of a bed of rice. It is a great option for Paleo and Keto eaters, and if weight management is an issue for you, it is a good option for an "anytime meal", aka non-post workout meal.
Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness.
 I really like recipes that I can make in a single pot, kind of like this one. Less steps involved, and less clean up. First and foremost, I've highjacked this recipe from my best and oldest, friend, Alexandra Goodman, Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Owner and Operator of Whistler Christmas Dream. She originally made these for me at her place and I devoured them. I've modified it slightly by replacing buckwheat flour with her original recipe, which called for quinoa flour, but you could use either. These mean green guys are a good way to use up any excess leafy greens you've got loafing around in your fridge, that are either fresh or just about to get wilt-y. Ingredients: Head of Kale Other leafy green options to add: spinach, beet and radish greens Cupped handful of almonds 3-4 cloves of garlic Medium onion 1 egg 1/3 cup of buckwheat or quinoa flour 3 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast Instructions: 1. Place all ingredients in food processor. Blend on high until ingredients are ground into tiny pieces. It should look like a gritty green mixture. 2. Heat frying pan with coconut oil, form small patties with your hands and lightly fry the patties until browed on one side, then flip. (Make sure patties are small enough to easily flip with a spatula). 3. Let cool and enjoy, or keep refrigerated for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They are tasty with eggs in the morning or even as a dinner side with salmon or chicken. Note: You can also keep the gritty green mixture in your fridge until you're ready to eat a patty fresh. -Nikki Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness. Despite it's name, Buckwheat is not a grain, but is actually classified a seed. Half a cup of Buckwheat contains 6g of protein, which is actually the same protein content as quinoa. Buckwheat can also be a great gluten-free alternative.
As someone who experiences gut dysbiosis, (an imbalance of good to bad bacteria in the small intestine), I have actually found that Buckwheat sits well with me, compared to other grains that tend to cause bloating and a whole other range of symptoms that I will spare you from. So I've tried my hand at making Buckwheat granola, and it's a fun alternative to an oat-based granola. There is no added sugar in this recipe - just straight up seeds and spices. You can eat it alone as a granola - good post-workout snack, or use it as a smoothie bowl topper too! Ingredients: 2 cups of water 1 cup of raw buckwheat 1/2 cup sunflower seeds 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds 1/4 cup of hemp hearts 1-2 TBSP of coconut oil 1-2 TBSP of Ceylon Cinnamon 1-2 TBSP of Cacao powder (optional) Option to also add other winter spices such as nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, mixed spices Option to add maple syrup or honey if you want a sweeter granola (I tend to not add sugar but eat with fruit instead) Instructions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees on convection. 2. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add 1 cup of buckwheat. Stir occasionally. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Drain access water. Let cool. 3. In a large bowl, mix cooked and cooled buckwheat with seeds, hemp hearts and spices. 4. Melt coconut oil over stove or microwave, drizzle over the buckwheat mixture. 5. Mix it all together in the bowl and then place on a baking sheet. 6. Bake in oven for 15 minutes, remove to stir, then place back in oven for another 10-20 minutes, removing half way through for another stir until desired crunchiness is reached. -Nikki Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness. One of my favourite foodie places in Whistler is Olives market in Function, and this recipe is inspired by them.
I also don't drink coffee for digestive reasons, and so I am always looking for a Latte alternative - Rooibos lattes are great and now this one will be another staple. More about the ingredients: Tumeric has anti-inflammatory properties, e.g. good for any kind of inflammation or bloating related to digestion. Pepper is known to help with the absorption on turmeric. Ceylon Cinnamon is a thermogenic food, which may help increase metabolism and calorie burning by enhancing thermogenesis - a process in which the body burns calories to utilize the foods just eaten - converting calories to heat. So lots of goodness in this Latte. Enjoy! Ingredients: Cup of almond milk Tbsp of turmeric Tbsp of Ceylon cinnamon Dash of pepper Dash of bee pollen or organic creamy honey Instructions: 1. Place all Ingredients in pot and whisk until reaching desired temperature. Note: I used a Nespresso milk frother, which also works wonders. -Nikki Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness.
Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness.
 This hardy and tasty salad is loaded with healthy nutritiousness. The beets and apples make it sweet and juicy, complemented with a bit of savoury with feta cheese, and parsley. I always feel pretty healthy after eating this one! Ingredients: 2-3 medium sized beets 2 medium carrots 1 medium Apple 1 head of parsley 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds Feta cheese (to taste) Vinaigrette: Olive oil Apple cider vinegar Dijon mustard Touch of maple syrup Salt and pepper to taste Instructions: 1. Use a food processor to grate the beets and carrots. Place in a big bowl. 2. Chop whole head of parsley and apple, mix in with beets and carrots. 3. Add pumpkin seeds, and feta cheese quantity to taste. 4. Top with vinaigrette and enjoy! Salad can live in fridge for up to 6 days. -Nikki To learn more about fitness, nutrition and a holistic approach to weight loss, visit the Fit Chicks Fitness & Nutrition Expert Program, and the Natural Weight Loss Coach program.
Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for outdoor fitness trips, recipes, and tips and tricks on everything Stand Up Paddle, & fitness.  Meet Tara Crone, local North Vancouverite, fitness and hiking aficionado and high school teacher in training. We are really honoured to share this special guest post by Sea to Sky personal training client, Tara Crone. She is a local North Shore girl - intelligent and driven, with a heart of gold. She's worked really hard over the last year and a half to reach her fitness goals and has made substantial gains - both physically and mentally. In this post, she shares her fitness and body transformation journey with us - candidly sharing the story of her relationship with her body, and her renewed relationship to personal health, fitness and how it has now just become part of everyday life. She reminds us all of the importance of fitness for health and strength, for loving your body and for seeking balance in life.Thank you for sharing your story Tara!  Tara on a recent hike in Lynn Valley. One of her original fitness goals was to be able to go hike with friends and keep up. This spring, she has been out hiking every other weekend. Like many women, when I made the decision to get serious about working out again, I was motivated by my negative body image. As a strong feminist woman, I knew that it should be about health and strength, but, to be honest, I just wanted to look like an Instagram fitness star! I had recently gained quite a bit of weight and was having trouble losing it. My weight, and body image, has been something that I have struggled with since I was in early high school. I have been on every diet and in every fitness class. I have had short term success in the past, but I have never found something that really stuck. This time, nothing seemed to be working, and I realised that I needed help. I knew that my fitness level was a large part of what was holding me back, so I started to do research on getting a personal trainer. I was initially overwhelmed by the number of trainers online and by the common presence of a “fat negative” rhetoric. I forced myself to ignore my apprehensions and I sent out a ton of emails and made a lot of phone calls. One of my emails was forwarded on to Nikki, at Sea to Sky Fitness. I met with a few people, including Nikki, and I quickly realised that a connection, with whomever I was going to be working with, was going to be important to my success. I was instantly attracted to Nikki’s laid back nature and comforting enthusiasm.
I started working out with Nikki twice a week and my fitness level quickly improved, but the weight wasn’t falling off like I had hoped it would. I was blinded by my issues with body image and I couldn’t see all the progress that I was making. Nikki consistently gave me positive feedback and talked about how strong I was getting. She was enthusiastic about the inches I was losing, and continued to challenge me by changing up my workouts. She encouraged me to take progress photos so that I could see the changes in my body. I was eating healthy, loosing fat, meeting fitness goals and gaining muscle, but I still didn’t look like an Instagram fitness star! I knew that my way of thinking was unhealthy (and common!), but it was engrained in me and it was going to take time for it to change. I have been working out consistently, with Nikki and on my own, for about a year and a half now. A few months ago, I realised that I was starting to shift my thinking. Working out had become a part of my life and it was something I had started to really enjoy. I was able to keep up with my friends on hikes, and I had the confidence to ask the “Instagram fitness stars” at my gym if I could “work in”. I was lifting heavy weights, and felt pretty badass doing it. I started to see muscle definition and I was stoked about being strong. With the risk of sounding cliché, over the past year and half of my life, my relationship with myself has changed for the better. I am getting more comfortable in my own skin, I am excited about reaching new fitness goals, and most importantly, I feel good! I feel less groggy when I wake up in the morning, I have more energy throughout the day, and my mood has improved in a big way. It has been incredible to experience just how much CONSISTENT exercise has improved my mental well being. Don’t get me wrong, my body and I still have moments, and days, where we are at odds with each other, and I still wouldn’t mind rocking a bikini with a flat stomach, but it’s not the end goal. I don’t think I really have an END goal anymore. I want to meet my current goals and then set new ones. I want to get stronger and increase my endurance. I want to continue to work on my relationship with myself and be kind to my body. I want to be healthy! Nikki has been such an important part of this journey that I am on. She always has a positive attitude, she never seems to be worried about the number on the scale, and she is consistently celebrating my successes. I feel lucky to have found a trainer and friend like Nikki to check in with me each week. She is genuinely invested in my growth and in helping me reach any goal I set. I have become a strong believer in the power of body positivity, and over the last year and half I have witnessed the beneficial role that it has played in reaching my goals. |
AuthorNikki Johnston Beaudoin is an outdoorsy Mountain Mermaid, and the Owner and Operator of Sea to Sky Paddle Fit, based on Ambleside Beach in West Vancouver. Categories
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