Fabila's Fitness Club

S moothies are a great way to kick start your day, boost your energy, and nourish your body. The best smoothies are nutrient-dense, providing vitamins and oils necessary for good nutrition.  1. Good thing about smoothies is that you can make them at home. A homemade smoothie for your morning meal is an excellent choice for breakfast on-the-go. You can make it minutes before you leave the house and sip it on your way to work, school or in your home office.

E lections are drawing near here in Nigeria and so is the tension. I choose to remain positive about Nigeria and believe that we shall soar, contrary to the doom many believe. I have picked up my permanent voters card, was not easy but got it in the end. Enough of the side talk and straight to the business of the day. Over the weekend, I made this lovely glass of Cranbanana smoothie while at my Aunts. Not only did it taste great, but I had the advantage of taking cool pictures in her beautiful garden. Cranberries are a good source of Vitamin C, E and fiber. Cranberries also contain vitamin K, manganese and a large array of phytonutrients, naturally occurring plant chemicals that help to protect the body from harmful free radicals and offer anti-inflammatory and cancer-preventing properties. Here's the recipe:

T his has become a favorite for me. Besides its great health and nutritional benefits, this soup is delicious and a great meal to add to your menu. Celery is a low calorie vegetable and great for weight loss. This recipe can be served as an appetizer, or served as a main meal for breakfast or dinner. Adding some slices of bread would make this meal more filling. If you want to know more about the health benefits of celery, read my article "Healing Power of Celery"  

P umpkins are a staple feature of Halloween, but this vegetable has more uses than you can imagine and is a power food that can heal your body. Pumpkin is one of the widely grown vegetables that is incredibly rich in vital antioxidants, and vitamins. Although, less in calories (which makes it great for weight loss), this vegetable contains vitamin A, and flavonoid poly-phenolic antioxidants such as lutein, xanthine, and carotenes in abundance. This is good news for me, as my ophthalmologist had recommended that I take in more Lutein for my eye health. I would no longer be walking past them when I visit the market.

T his is one juice combination I have fallen in love with. After ordering it a number of times from a local smoothie store, I decided it was time to create this at home and save some money. More interestingly, I did this the traditional way without a juicer. It took me slightly longer to prepare, but in total I spent about 10 minutes. Before I share the recipe, here are some facts about Carrots and Beets.

D uring my last trip to New York, I visited a restaurant with a friend and could not help but notice how many times Tofu appeared on the menu. What the heck is Tofu? I thought, and if it’s this popular, why haven’t I tried it? At the restaurant, I recalled watching one of my favourite TV series, “My Wife and Kids” and remembered “Micheal” mentioning Tofu. He looked disgusted which made me think Tofu must be unappetizing (it actually is). Let’s fast forward to the present. About a week ago, while searching for vegetarian recipes online, I come across Tofu once again. By this time, I am really curious. Yesterday, while browsing through my Instagram account (@fabilasfitness), I came across a user @eatcleannigeria and they had a vegetarian smoothie that caught my attention. Guess what? It had Tofu! Perfect, I thought. I can add this to my smoothie challenge. I asked where I could buy Tofu in Lagos, Nigeria and I was directed to Park n Shop. I recreated the smoothie and was quite surprised...

  I have a few more holiday days, and so far I have enjoyed my smoothie challenge. I think I am going to keep this challenge and make it a lifestyle of one smoothie a day. I was having some guests over for Christmas and wondered what I could offer them. I wanted something sweet as they were coming over with young children. I had excess bananas as nearly everyone who visited this holiday came with a bunch of bananas, and I also had some strawberries. Fantastic, I thought, this would be perfect for a strawberry and banana smoothie. I have read quite a number of articles which highly recommend the strawberry-banana smoothie combination. This great tasting smoothie is packed full of nutrition. It’s especially high in fiber, vitamin C, potassium and antioxidants.

Happy New Year to you! I wish you the best of 2015 and thank you for your continued support thorough the years. This is my first post of the year and I am grateful to God for life. I officially kicked off my 21 days Body-Mind Rejuvenating Therapy programme today and I have a number of ladies who have signed up and would be taking this journey as well. I would definitely be doing a post at the end of the 21 days with testimonials of the participants and pictures. I am still on holiday mode so my smoothie/juice challenge is still on. My pick this morning was celery and carrot juice.

I  bought a green smoothie some months back which had celery as one of its ingredients. While placing my order, I was a bit skeptical about how a celery smoothie would taste, but my oh my did I enjoy it. Now, I am busy making celery smoothies and even cooking celery soup. I know I tend to go overboard with new discoveries. Well, all of this made me wonder what my body was benefiting from my new found love. After all, it is a vegetable, so it should have loads of nutritional and health benefits right?

H ello   people! Hope we all are looking forward to the New Year. I definitely am, lots of ideas to be unleashed, projects to begin and so much more. As the year comes to an end, there is so much to be thankful for though the news may seem contrary. We all have a choice to choose whether we would focus on the negatives or be thankful for the positives.

I  have written so many articles on carrots and its nutritional and health benefits. In a nutshell, carrots are rich in Vitamin A and other important nutrients such as calcium, phosphorous, iron, sodium, potassium, vitamin B complex.

I have been reading lots of nutrition books lately and I must say I respect my body a lot now. I am more careful about what I throw in my mouth and I have doubled my vegetable and fruit intake. One thing I have noticed with many people, especially those of us who exercise a lot, we tend to think that exercise is an excuse to eat junk. You are wrong if you think so. Your diet is just as important and you cannot cheat for too long. A bad diet will surely tell on you. 

A nyone would agree that cucumbers are one of the most handy and common (fruits) vegetables. In Nigeria, for example, it would be rare to arrive at a market and discover that they have run out of cucumbers. I love having cucumbers at home, as they make perfect snacks. Cucumbers are great ingredients for salads and juices. Plus, cucumbers have other uses besides eating them. For example, placing cool cucumbers on the eyes relaxes them and reduces puffy eyes.

H ello people. Trust your Saturday went well. Today, I finally got to visit a store I’ve been hearing about. It’s called “So Fresh Neighborhood Market”. I found their page on Instagram and was excited as I had no idea that a business like that existed in Nigeria. They retail whole fruits, vegetables, herbs, natural foods and they also create fresh juices and smoothies. I went in for two things, to get a green smoothie and to pick up some quinoa (oh yes…they have quinoa). Unfortunately, they had run out of quinoa, but I did get a smoothie. I had the “Island Burst” which was made up of spinach, bananas, orange, green apple and celery. I initially wanted something with Kale, but they were out of Kales, anyway, I was quite happy with my smoothie and would try to remake it at home, adding and subtracting some ingredients. If you are in Lagos and too busy to make a smoothie, “so fresh neighborhood market” is just a call way.

T hanks to everyone who joined the tweet chat today. I do hope you have a better knowledge of Zumba fitness and what it entails. I definitely look forward to another tweet session.  Today I would be writing on a fruit I love. It’s red on the inside and very juicy. “Watermelons”, yay! I really cannot believe I have not written a post on this. Cold watermelon juice has always been my favourite when I need to refresh from a hot day. Well, it’s been really hot in Lagos these past few days, so I guess that's why I have watermelons on my mind. We would be looking at the health benefits of watermelon, if any, as many may think that the fruit is only made up of water and sugar. Water in itself, is very beneficial, so that’s a good start!

I  attended a wellness seminar some months back where a speaker was trying very hard to convince the audience that all fat was bad for the body. The title of her message was “oil is oil” and she was basically telling everyone to eliminate all forms of oils from their diet. Her speech was not very convincing as I have read many articles from experts recommending oils like olive oil, avocado oil, etc. Plus she had no evidence to back up her advise. I decided to research further. Is her statement true “oil is oil”? Should you eliminate all forms of oil from your diet?

P lantains are widely eaten in West Africa. Plantains are similar to bananas but larger in size. While bananas are termed fruits, plantains are vegetables. Bananas are mostly eating raw, while plantains are usually cooked before consumption. Plantains can be eaten unripe, ripen or over-ripe. When unripe, plantains are usually green in colour, when ripen, they turn yellow. In Nigeria, for example, unripe plantains are usually used to cook plantain porridge, ripe plantains are mostly fried and used as a supplement to main dishes like rice and beans. Over-ripe plantains are used to make snacks like plantain fritters.