Hi to you all.  It is not long now and the days start getting longer again and we can build to spring time.  Many thanks for all the feedback for the website.  I hope that this post offers everyone out some kind of motivation, whether it is in the health or fitness or life balance area.  Keep smiling

Recipe of the Month 

I found this recipe in one of the Healthy Food Magazines so I can not lay claim to this one – it was really easy to make and changing to gluten free flour did not affect the moistness of the loaf.  I substituted the ground almond for linseed, almond and sunflower mix to give it a great fibre and omega 3 boost.  Both kids loved it and when you are at the end of the grocery week – this does not take many ingrediants. 

Raspberry Yoghurt Loaf

Cooking Oil Spray, 1 C Frozen raspberries, 1/2 C Brown Sugar, 2 Eggs lightly beaten, 3/4C low fat vanilla yoghurt, 1 and 3/4 C Self Raising Flour (I used the Simple Gluten Free Baking MIx), 1/3 C Ground Almonds.

Step 1 – Preheat Oven to 180 celsius

Step 2 – Combine all ingrediants into a large bowl and spoon into a greased and lined loaf tin

Step 3 – Bake for 50 minutes (mine took 40 minutes) – or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean – turn onto a wire rack and cool

Mid-Winter Motivation

The Winter Buddy

Get a good friend to work out with and set some goals together.  Those days that you do not feel like going – you wont want to let you buddy down and by the time you are finished your work out you will be pleased that you did go.  A buddy during the winter is great as we all know how easy it is to stay by the warm fire….. With your buddy plan your week so that you have pre thought any time barriers that may get in the way and then all you do is turn up – sounds easy – and will be if you take inspiration from each other and then plan to reward yourselves at the end of the month for getting out the cold and staying active – think ahead to spring time – you will be so much further along in your health and fitness rather than waiting for spring and then thinking "I better do something now".  The longer you take to achieve your goals and develop great work out habits the more life long routines and habits you create – we are all in this together for our own health and fitness for a life time and a good time. 

Keep an eye out for events you and your buddy could do – for example the Mid Winter Indoor Triathlon on June 13th, the Hawkes Bay Multi Sport Very Low Key Duathlons, the Olympics challenges that are coming up – these are all designed to give you something to keep those motivation levels up. 

Keep up the great work – from the team at Peak

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is one of the most important vitamins you can supply daily for you body.  It is a water soluble vitamin that can not be stored in the body and therefore needs to be replaced.  It plays a vital role in collagen levels, healing wounds, fighting infections and coping with stress. 

Our local Naturopath – Eric Baker has developed his own formula for Vitamin C with the optimum ratio of Ascorbic Acid and Lemon Bioflavonoids.  His Daily C is gentle on the tummy and pH balanced which reduces excess acidity normally associated  with ascorbic acid.  This formula also includes the natural form of Vitamin E, water soluble Vitamin A as well as Zinc

Peak Fitness are lucky to be one of the exclusive suppliers of  of Daily C which is available at reception – you can also obtain at The Naturopaths in Havelock North. 

Each 6 gram serve contains   (1 heaped 5ml metric spoonful)   Total Vitamin C per serve 2960 mg Ascorbic acid 2280 mg Calcium ascorbate 308 mg Magnesium ascorbate 794 mg Lemon bioflavonoids 1084 mg alpha-Tocopherol succinate 131 mg (equiv. Vitamin E 152 IU) Beta-carotene (natural) 37 mg (equiv. Beta-carotene 2.8mg)   Zinc amino acid chelate 28 mg (equiv. Zinc 5.6mg)   Natural orange flavour 505 mg Citric acid 393 mg Sodium bicarbonate 187 mg Stevia rebaundiana 252

GROUP FITNESS NEWS

A tip from Brenda and Jess and the Peak Group Fitness Team:

"Take a moment at the end of your day to acknowledge the things you did that day, praise/treat yourself and endulge in your favourite past time". It is all to easy to beat ourselves up for the things we didn't do! "

UP AND COMING EVENTS: Keep an eye out at the beginning of August for the Olympics Fitness Challenge - if you liked the Rugby World Cup this will be similar but different and even better - A great time to do a 16 day challenge to motivate you into Spring....

 A thought for the day:

"Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road"  Dag Hammarskjold