Shirt and Tie Fitness

There’s something about Thai Green Curry. Its wholesome, incredibly flavorsome, and it will pack a serious punch when the right ingredients are used. There’s a reason why Thai cuisine is starting to be more regularly consumed all over the world and a reason why Thai outlets and restaurants are becoming more commonplace. The best part – Thai curry is very easy to prepare, cook and digest. Its also relatively cheap. All the boxes for a fantastic meal have been firmly ticked. This Thai green Curry recipe is precisely the type of dish that will suit a workday evening meal for one, a weekend treat for two or even a dinner party that you decide to host. Its as versatile as it gets. That’s why we’re keen to help you with this Chicken Thai Green Curry Recipe . Ingredients • 2 raw chicken breasts • 300 grams of Sugar Snap Peas • 1 White Onion • 250ml Coconut Milk • 1-2 Green/Red Chillis • Green Curry Paste • 1-2 Peppers – Red/ Yellow/ Green depending on preference. • 1 tablespoon of Coconut Oil (14ml/grams) • 100 gram White Rice (per person; Thai Sticky or Basmati/ Jasmine Favorable) • 500 grams of Mushrooms • 1 Clove of Garlic Instructions In a saucepan, bring water to boil and add Thai Sticky Rice. This will be cooked for 15-20 minutes. For 100 grams of rice (one person) 2-3 cups of boiling water will suffice. More water can be added later depending on preference In a wok, add the tablespoon of coconut oil and simmer gently. Coat the Wok in the oil once it has melted. On the meat chopping board and using a separate meat knife or meat scissors, cut the chicken breasts into small bite-size chunks. (Ensure hands are washed after.) Add the chicken to the Wok, cook through and ensure that the chicken no longer bears pink. This will take roughly 10 minutes (for optimal results, keep the temperature low to ensure that the chicken remains succulent Using the vegetable Chopping board and the vegetable knife, cut the garlic and onion finely, the pepper into strips, the garlic, the chillies and mushrooms Now add all the vegetables to the Wok and fry lightly until the vegetables have cooked through (onion and mushrooms brown) Add the Coconut Milk and Thai Green Paste into the Wok. Simmer for a further 15 minutes on a very low heat. This will let the garlic, green curry paste and coconut milk infuse into the chicken and vegtables Revert back to the Thai Sticky Rice and ensure that all the water has absorbed and the rice is sticky and cooked through. It should not appear hard. If this is the case and if all the water has been absorbed, add some more water. Once at the desired consistency, serve the rice. Serve the Thai green Curry and place over the rice. Optional: Place in fridge if being eaten later For pictures and more on the recipe including nutritional information: Sautéed Garlic Chicken Thai Green Curry Over Sticky Rice

We all love a sweet potato. Whether its baked or boiled; whether as sweet potato fries or sweet potato mash. They're so good we just cant get enough sweet potato recipes. We all need more of them and thats why we’re here to help. This healthy recipe is ideal to prepare for lunch at the Office or can quickly be assembled as a delicious, wholesome evening meal. Whats more its quick to prepare, nutritious and punches a host of vitamins and minerals. Ingredients • 2 raw chicken breasts or sliced chicken breasts • 1 courgette/zucchini • 1 Red Onion • 1-2 Peppers – Red/ Yellow/ Green depending on preference. • 2 medium sized sweet potatoes, • 1 tablespoon of Coconut Oil (14ml/grams) • 250 grams of Asparagus – spear heads • 200g Spinach • Garlic, salt and pepper to taste Instructions Take the 2 sweet potatoes and use the potato peeler to remove all of the skin. Discard of the skin as this is not required. Using the vegetable Chopping board and the vegetable knife, cut the sweet potato into small chunks or cubes (The smaller these are cut the quicker the sweet potato will cook.) Bring the sweet potatoes to boil (these will take roughly 15-20 minutes) Now prepare the vegetables: slice the Peppers, Courgette and Onion. Place these in a small bowl On the meat chopping board and using a separate meat knife or meat scissors, cut the chicken breasts into small bite-size chunks. (Ensure hands are washed after.) Add the chicken, courgette/zucchini, and onion into a baking tray or glass dish. Mix together and add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and garlic/salt and pepper. Place the tray or dish in the oven at 200 degrees. This will take roughly 20 minutes to cook. (for optimal results, take the tray out of the oven after 10 minutes and stir with a wooden spoon and place bake into oven) Place the Asparagus into a second cooking pot and bring to boil (cooking time 5-10 mins) Wash the raw spinach and add to a serving bowl. When sweet potato is soft, remove from boil. Drain. Place chunks into a bowl. With the potato masher finely mash the sweet potato until the consistency is even and all clumps have been removed. This is now sweet potato mash. Remove the dish from the oven; let the chicken concoction stand for a few minutes. Remove asparagus from boil and add to serving bowl Now add chicken to serving bowl and the previously sliced peppers. The Chicken Vegetable Medley and Sweet Potato Mash is now served and ready to be enjoyed! Optional: Place in fridge if being eaten later For pictures and more on the recipe including nutritional information: Chicken Vegetable Medley and Sweet Potato Mash

Great Post on Yoga, thanks for sharing! Its like movement meditation and can really release tension and relax an over-stimulated CNS. www.shirtandtiefitness.com

Hello Huon, Sorry to hear of your troubles. Having seen your pics you do look to have progressed - in that you are carrying some more muscle mass and have lost some fat. Two very favorable adaptions. Are you currently tracking your calories and macros? If so can you provide us with an overview of what you eat on a daily basis? From there we can see if your nutrition is a limiting factor; if you are naturally an ectomorph you will require more calories than the lay person so you may need to ramp up higher than the standard online calculator recommendations. Cronometer is a free online tool and can help calculate this for you. Secondly, I think your programme is too limited. I think you need to incorporate some compound movements with significantly more weight. And add to this weight over time. Think Squats, Deadlifts, Pull-ups, Overhead Presses. We have an article on our site which outlines the only 5 exercises you need to gain muscle.Check it out! www.shirtandtiefitness.com/only-exercises/

Fasting is ultimately a stressor. If your other stressors are in check, it can cause favorable adaptions - primarily fat loss. I would look at your current goals; are you aiming to lose weight? Why are you contemplating IF, can it provide benefit? Look at your lifestyle and stress level. Use the analogy of a bucket: Your total stress level is a bucket Each small stressor adds to the bucket, this can include dieting, exercise, relationship issues, lack of sleep etc. If the bucket gets too full, it will overfill, It therefore cannot serve its purpose (in a humans sense, purpose being - reproduction, health, energy, etc) Review your stressors and if you feel you 'have room' to add IF, then begin to slowly work it in and view your biofeedback. How do you feel. Is it benefiting you. Hows your sleep/sex drive? etc. Personally I have tried Intermittent Fasting twice in my life, and it crushed my metabolism and testosterone both times. Confirmed via blood tests. The second time proved to me that it can be easily taken too far and I've sworn never to return to it. I think it depends on a lot of factors, your genetic makeup and your personality type. Also what you do outside of the fast. If you have any further questions on my case, feel free to message me! www.shirtandtiefitness.com

First, I would start on fixing your mentality: drop using a scale; its irrelevant - go by how you look and how your clothes feel. Remember, muscle weighs more than fat, and if you have been exercising more and altering your diet to a more favorably nutritious one, you are likely to have lost fat and gained muscle which is a favorable adaption and one we want to achieve! However, from a pure scale it would look as if 'nothing has changed'. You also have to remember that weight fluctuates depending on the amount of water you've drunk, the amount of sodium you have consumed, the amount of carbs you have eaten etc - scale weight is highly controversial. If you look at fighters who need to 'make weight' you'll notice how they manipulate these very things and dramatically change in a couple of hours/days. I also think it would be best to adopt a longer-term approach, definitely longer than 5 weeks. 5 weeks is a very short time frame and not one in which you should judge the success of your health. The longer you lose weight the more likely you will keep it off, not run into metabolic issues and not bounce back to a previous weight. You also have more room to play with in terms of a calorie deficit as your metabolism would be higher and more efficient. Lifestyle Secondly, I would ensure that your lifestyle is ass stress free as possible and you enjoy the process. Make sure you are sleeping soundly and make sure that you are getting adequate recovery and rest. The more you see weight loss as a challenge, or a period of restriction, the harder it will be to comply. So change some of your lifestyle habits, i.e. walk more and sit less, and the whole process will become easier and weight loss can become a by-product of your actions. Also ensure that you are eating out of genuine hunger and not boredom; sit down at meals and be present. do not watch television at the same time. Diet: I think if you based your meals on whole foods, and not processed foods such as the Peanut Butter as shown above, it will be easier to keep yourself in a deficit. Stick to foods with a high satiety e.g. coconut chunks over coconut oil, cottage cheese over protein shakes, potatoes over white rice etc. This will ensure that you remain fuller longer. Keep liquid calories down to a minimum. The vegetable suggestion above is great , purely because they will fill you and provide you with a host of vitamins and minerals. There is a free nutrition guide and template on our website that you can download to help structure your meals. www.shirtandtiefitness.com/free-nutrition-guide/. This would be a good place to start. Any questions let me know! www.shirtandtiefitness.com

Relying on willpower defies your bodies biology and ultimately you will run into problems. You will reach a point in where, after restriction, you will feel that enough is enough and you can no longer deny yourself. I think what would help you is to ensure that you are eating at a very slight deficit and take a long-term view and approach. No crash diets or dramatic calorie deficits. focus on foods with high satiety; so foods that fill you up and make you feel fuller longer. Therefore you will want to eradicate all liquid calories and eat more dense foods. A good rule of thumb is to eat as unprocessed and natural as possible. Be present at meal times and eat slowly and chew thoroughly. Ensure that you are not eating our of boredom, and keep yourself intellectually stimulated. We have a Free Nutrition Guide over at www.shirtandtiefitness.com/free-nutrition-guide/ that i think will be of great benefit to you in structuring meals that prevent overeating, and help you to portion control each meal.

Hi whumpertinken, sorry to hear of your troubles. I think the key here will be consistency and making the gym a habit and something that you don't even have to think about doing. Making it a by-product of the week and something you do not need to complicate or have anxiety over: - If possible it would be best to train in the morning before work, when motivation is high and developments of the day do not stop you going. - Keep the schedule the same. i.e. "I will weight train Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays". - Have a set routine where you know exactly what time to be in there, what you need to do, lay your programme out in a fitness App/ written journal or log etc. - Keep the workouts simple at first, you'll be surprised how much you will want to do when you get in there, but if the programme sounds overly difficult or complicated it can put you off going at all - Lay out your workout clothes on the floor in front of you. Get in them when you wake up. The effort of having to undress from them into something else may spur you to go - Remove any distractions or things that can make you decide against going; dont check work emails or get involved in activities that drain your energy. - Make sure you are sleeping enough, and go to bed at a consistent early time to ensure adequate rest, recovery and motivation. This will be enough for you to get on with, but I have written a guide that could help you if you wanted to explore these notions and others further. Its a Morning Routine guide and can be found over at www.shirtandtiefitness.com/morning-routine/

Mobility work would be an ideal choice. Specifically, mobility exercises that recruit the lower body and core. You want to recruit as many muscles in the lower body and get them firing without exhausting and fatiguing them locally or your body systematically. This will help when you begin doing your set exercises. 5 minutes will suffice. Open up your hips, heels, calves, hamstrings and glutes Some of the best exercises to incorporate include: Glute Bridges, Leg Swings, and Lunges A great example video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDN5DnMkSw4 www.shirtandtiefitness.com