SLICE MAGAZINE by jess haynes

Your Weekly Health and Wellbeing Edition 1

Welcome to the first ever issue of Slice magazine. We’ve done it! After months in preparation you’re finally reading the fruits of our labour. Our independent health and wellness publication is designed to give you slices of information, recipes and tips to enable the fulfilment of a healthy and well-rounded lifestyle. The idea of Slice is for you to follow along with our guides as much or as little as desired, to take easy and achievable steps towards living a healthier happier life. We are adamant that a healthy lifestyle does not have to come at a cost, and our visit to Be:Fit London confirmed this, see our review on page 12, giving a lowdown of our top brands and companies at the event. Sign up with our ‘Slice App’ and keep track of your weekly process by logging food habits, using the pedometer and tracking your sleep, all to analyse how well you’re maintaining a balanced lifestyle. Do this for a month and you’ll receive our end of the month motivational care package, personalised to you, and filled with a whole hoard of goodies to motivate you. We want to build a community and would love to hear your thoughts and experiences of our publication. We enjoy making our recipes and are always taking photos and encourage everyone to do the same. If you enjoy making this week’s recipes half as much as we have, then feel free to Instagram and Tweet us any pictures or questions - we will always be happy to talk, and don’t forget to download the app and enjoy!

06 Toolkit Your list of ingredients for the week ahead 07 Green Smoothie A little healthy drink to kick start your day 08 Pink Oats A bowl of goodness with minimum preparation 09 Be:Fit London Review Health and wellbeing festival visit 11 Walk and Workout Walking and boosting your core, obliques and legs 13 Granola Parcel Recipe A Quick snack option 15 Zucchini Pasta Recipe An alternative to pasta 17 Interview with Ella Woodward Food Blogger extrodinaire pops in for a chat 19 Soy Stirfry Recipe A quick fix option for a take away 20 Sweet Potato Brownie Recipe Something to keep in the fridge 20 Chocolate Mousse Recipe Healthy and tasty 21 Rise and Shine What can waking up early do for you?

This week’s kit: Fresh Ingredients 1 Green Apple 3 Bananas 1 Small Cucumber 1 Avocado 1 Pack of Spinach An inch of ginger 1 Lemon 2 Medium Sweet Potatoes 1 Sweet Red Pepper Small Red Cabbage 1 Broccoli 1 Courgette 5 Small Carrots Mushrooms Oats Almond milk Granola Chocolate Chips Frozen Peas Frozen Black Forest Berries Rice Noodles 1 Pack of Halawi Dates 1 Pack of Pumpkin Seeds 1 Pack of Sunflower Seeds 1 Pack of Almonds Things to keep: Honey Light Brown Sugar Butter (or use margarine as a healthier alternative) Chilli Flakes Soy Sauce Salt Olive Oil Chocolate Powder Brown Rice Flour Vanilla Essence Food Processor / Blender

We all know how expensive ingredients can be, so here at Slice we aim to give you a number of recipes every week that use a set amount of items. By doing this you are not only saving money, but create healthy treats and meals at the same time – without feeling guilty. Certain items we add to the meals have to be bought in a larger quantity, but you may only need a few tablespoons. We do bare this in mind, so if you stick with us, they will be used again throughout the months to come – no waste here! 7

Green Smoothie __

Serves 1 1 Small Cucumber An Inch of Ginger Â˝ a Lemon 1 Green Apple A Handful of Spinach 1 Tablespoon of Almonds A Blender

This one is really quick. Take all of the ingredients, place them in the blender and give it a good shake. If the ingredients seem to stick, add more water. Prepare the night before, as it is best served chilled.

The final product should be of a smoothie consistency, but if you prefer it more of a juice, then add more water as you go!

Once left over night, this will be perfect for your breakfast and a quick on the go alternative. It will seen like an acquired taste, so if this seems to bitter for you, then just add something sweeter to balance it off, such as another apple, or take away the lemon.

Pink Oats __

Serves 2 1 Banana 1 Cup of Oats 1 Tablespoon of Honey 1 Cup of Almond milk A Handful of Sunflower Seeds A Handful of Pumpkin seeds 1 Cup of black forest berries

Start by slicing the banana, and place in the bowl with the berries and milk. Mash these together so they stick together, this makes the sweetest base for the oats. Add the oats, seeds and honey.

This will thicken over night, so make sure you put in the fridge the night before â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Preparing it all will also make mornings a lot easier! Serve with more berries.

__ If you were in any doubt as to the popularity of health and wellness at present, then Be:Fit London, the UK’s largest women’s only health and fitness festival, seals the deal. With over 100 health, fitness and food brands it sounded pretty impressive, so we headed down on the Friday to check it out and give you a review. __

Lick Heading in we half expected it to be full of super skinny fitness followers, clad in gym gear and scouring the latest gluten free/ dairy free/ fat free/ sugar free food alternatives, however the reality couldn’t be more different. Upon entering we were immediately faced with a plethora of enthusiasm, motivational slogans and women of all shapes and sizes engaging in positive conversations surrounding wellness. Whilst as expected, prices on the whole were quite high, it didn’t really matter as it was the sentiments and ideas that we came away with which carried resonance. Below are our top 5 brands and points of inspiration to take away from the event, and hopefully these will help with your goals towards health and wellbeing.

Definitely the best frozen yogurt we have EVER tasted! Healthy, well priced and available in local supermarkets, this makes for a quick healthy and satisfying snack.

Little Miracles A selection of delicious tea and fruit based drinks free from artificial colours, flavours and sweetners. Unlike many of the brands at Be:Fit, these are available in plenty of retail outlets including Boots, meaning you can replace the sugary fizzy drink in your meal deal with this, and it will keep you energized throughout the day.

Race For Life The most enthusiastic and colourful stand at Be:Fit. A brilliant way to get a group of friends involved in training and running and you get to raise money for charity at the same time. The biggest plus is that unlike many races and events this has a very affordable signup fee making it achievable for all ages.

Delivered Food Packages Whilst some of the most expensive things at the event, door to door food delivery companies have captured a genius idea. Preparing a selection of foods ready for the week ahead takes the hassle and fuss out of eating healthily. Try doing this with our own Slice recipes which encourage you to make in bulk to provide you with snacks for the week.

Clubercise Proof that any type of exercise is good exercise. Whilst this obviously has a charge, dancing with a group of friends or even on your own, doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, so next time you put on some music or go on a night out, make sure you bear this is mind and think of dancing as a free workout.

__ ‘All truly great ideas are conceived by walking’ Nietzsche __

Slice knows how busy you are day to day and fitting in exercise may be difficult, so here is a fast workout from one of our specialist in house fitness experts to get you working towards whatever your aim may be. While adding more walking to your daily routine, you can also do blast session workouts. Why not try: Reverse Lunge with Front Twist

Walking is one of the best ways to squeeze exercise into your everyday routine and is simple, free and one of the easiest ways to get more active and become healthier. Not only can it be really enjoyable but it has been proven to reduce the risk of chronic illnesses, such as heart disease and asthma, and even better the only equipment you need is a good pair of trainers or shoes. Even if it’s just a fast walk to work or school, in 30 minutes you can burn up to 150 calories, so it’s silly not to really.

Position yourself with arms out in front, shoulder width apart holding a towel with arms extended. Your feet need to be in position with your hips

Each week we’ll be exploring a new route or area for you to discover, to keep you engaged and motivated with walking. Included in your monthly care package will be maps of new routes personalised to your area, to give you no excuses to not get out and get walking.

Take a step back into a lunge, with left thigh parallel to the floor, rotating your torso 45 degrees. Then return to standing position, that is one rep complete! Do 16-20 of these, which makes a set, alternating legs as you go, with 30 seconds rest inbetween each set This will target your core, obliques and leg muscles.

This week we were exploring the beautiful Ashridge Country Park in Hertfordshire and here are some images from our journey – view Slice app to find the map.

Each workout will have a different strength level, which fits everyone’s ability. If you feel that the one we feature isn’t as hard as you would like, just pop over to the app and search under the weekly fitness section, along with pictures and videos.

This recipe is simple and requires no cooking so is perfect if you just want to whip something up quickly to pop in the fridge as a snack for the week. __ 230g Granola (broken into smaller pieces) 80 g Almonds 4 Tablespoons of Honey 55g Butter (use margarine as a healthier alternative) 50g Light Brown Sugar Â˝ Teaspoon Vanilla Essence Âź Teaspoon salt 20 Cherries 2 Tablespoons Chocolate Chips

__ Most recipes require you to use rolled oats and toast them but you can cheat by using broken up granola and it works perfectly. Start by putting the granola into a sandwich bag, seal and break up into smaller pieces with a rolling pin. Meanwhile combine butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla extract and the salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally until butter melts. Pour butter mixture in to bowl with granola and almonds. Mix well. Let cool about 5 minutes then add cherries and a 1/4 cup of the mini chocolate chips. Stir to combine. Transfer granola mixture to a pan lined with tin foil and then use a rubber spatula to firmly press the mixture into the pan. Spend about a minute doing this to ensure it is neatly packed which will help them stay together once cooled. Scatter the remaining chocolate chips on top of the mixture and then place in the fridge to cool for up to two hours. Once cooled Remove block of granola mixture from pan then peel away foil. Cut into 12 bars and enjoy!

Alternative to pasta, but just as filling __ Serves 2 1 Courgette 3 Small Carrots 1 Cup of Peas 2 Handfuls of Spinach A Handful of Pumpkin Seeds 1 Teaspoon of Olive Oil Â˝ an Avocado

Peel and dice the carrots, and place onto the boil with the peas to begin. A spiralizer has been used to create the zucchini noodles with the courgette, which creates thin pasta like strands. These are inexpensive to buy, but if not, we have found that a potato peeler will also work. Thinly grate the courgette, creating strands of noodles. Make sure the carrots and peas are cooked, then place them along with the olive oil, avocado and spinach into a food processor. Blend this until it smooth.

You can either eat the noodles raw with the dish, or sautĂŠ them in oil for a few minutes until soft. Add the pesto to the noodles, then plate up and enjoy! If you wanted to add meat to this dish, a grilled chicken breast goes really well. Pre heat the over to 200C, and place the chicken in there first thing before you prepare the zucchini. The chicken will be done in 25 minutes, make sure the chicken juices run clear, which should be just in time to serve with the pasta. Just place the chicken on top and season.

Blogger and Food Enthusiast Ella Woodward We are beyond excited to introduce to you our first ever guest contributor, the amazing Ella Woodward, blogger and creator of award winning food blog, Deliciously Ella. She’s here with us this week to share her hints and tips to maintaining a healthy diet and sharing a few of her quick and easy recipes to help you along the way. After being diagnosed with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome in 2011, she made it her mission to cure herself through a holistic, natural healing approach, focusing on healthy eating and learning to cook. Embarking on a food journey that is still continuing now, she has developed one of the most recognised and popular vegan food blogs on the internet, filled with nutritious meals and sweet treats that ensure you never have to feel like you’re going without. Ella strongly believes in the healing power of food, and she’s shared with us her most useful tips as to how to eat healthily and make the most out of your food, here are some questions we asked on maintaining a healthy diet. The most frequent time you’re likely to break healthy eating habits is when you’re on a day out and fast food fixes seem to be the quickest, cheapest option. Before you go, check for any healthy or vegan restaurants in the area so you know exactly where to go when you want a bite to eat. You’ll be surprised the choice there is in most big cities! My favourite London restaurants have to be The Wild Food Café in Covent Garden, and Mildreds and Vantra. What is the best advice would you give about snacking? It’s that craving for sugary food that always has us reaching for the unhealthy options, but by always having a supply of my chocolate mousse or sweet potato brownies in the fridge, you’ll have something there to provide a quick fix to subdue those cravings. They’re guarenteed to make you feel 100% better than a chocolate bar will.

‘My biggest tip is never to go without! It’s all about finding the substitutes for your favourite unhealthy foods so that you never have to miss out.’ __

If we were to take away one tip from this, what would it be? My biggest tip is never to go without! Although everything I make is plant based and gluten, sugar and dairy free it doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice on taste. It’s about changing the ingredients to create the same meals. I make pizza crusts from cauliflower, dairy free cheesecakes and sweet potato brownies, all which taste amazing and are incredibly good for you. It’s all about finding the substitutes for your favourite unhealthy foods so that you never have to miss out. How would you define the term ‘healthy’? Healthy is a difficult word to define, and it’s different for everyone. Everyone’s bodies are so different and it’s so important to listen to your own to understand what it needs, but if we were to make a general definition of healthy I would say it’s all about eating clean, natural, unprocessed foods and loving and respecting your body. We loved spending the day with Ella, and hope you have found it useful too! She has also chosen a recipe as a quick easy meal for Slice readers to try themselves over the page. A simple stir fry is made healthy by using rice noodles, provides the perfect comfort food, and is an amazing substitute for a Chinese takeaway on a Saturday night.

Soy Stir Fry __

Serves 2 2 Small Carrots 1 Sweet Red Pepper An Inch of Red Cabbage 4 Mushrooms A Handful of Broccoli 2 Handfuls of Spinach 3 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce Rice Noodles Chilli Flakes Â˝ a Lemon to Serve Salt

Finely chop carrots and broccoli and place in the pan with a tablespoon of oil. Keep an eye on these while you slice the cabbage, mushrooms and red pepper. Add all of these to the pan. Stir until cooked. Place the noodles into hot water for 2 minutes; they cook so quickly, but just need leaving in hot water. Stir in the spinach to the stir-fry, and add the soy, salt and chilli flakes. Add lemon to your taste. Drain the noodles, and take the vegetables off the heat, before adding in the noodles. Stir and enjoy!

Interact: Make sure you keep your eyes on Twitter this week as on Thursday Ella will be doing a live question and answer, tackling any issues you have surrounding healthy eating and providing useful slices of information and recipes to help you out. You can also find images like the one above and many more on her blog, deliciouslyella. com!

Chocolate Mousse __

Serves 2 2 Ripe Bananas ½ an Avocado 6 Halawi Dates 4 Tablespoons of Water 2 Heaped Teaspoons of Chocolate Powder Food Processor

This is probably the quickest recipe you will ever follow, and one of our favourites at Slice. Simply pit your dates, put all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend! They are best served chilled, so you may want to prepare them before your meal so they have time to chill – they are worth the wait, and so tasty, they feel like you’re eating pure chocolate!

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Sweet Potato Brownies __

2 Medium Sweet Potatoes 1 Cup of Crushed Almonds 12 Halawi Dates 4 Tablespoons of Chocolate Powder 2 Tablespoons of Honey ½ a Cup of Brown Rice Flour Food Processor

Make sure your oven is on at 180C, and then peel the sweet potatoes. Cut these into cubes, and steam them for 20 minutes until they start to fall apart.

Place into a lined baking dish and cook for 25 minutes. Only remove until you can slice with a knife and the mixture doesn’t stick, but keep a watch over it if you have to put back in! Once cooked, Add these to a food processor, along allow to cool for 10 minutes – this is with the pitted dates and blend - This where the mixture will stick. mixture really sweet! Put the remaining ingredients into a bowl, then add in the Remove them from the tray and slice potato and date mixture, stir together to eat. You can add walnuts or almonds until all blended. to the top as an extra.

__ Proof that waking up early is affecting you. __ Now at Slice we are aware that it is probably not news to you that getting seven to eight hours sleep a night is extremity good for you. But have you considered what the time you’re waking up at is doing for your health? Research has recently concluded that it not the number of hours you sleep, but the time that you wake up that is the most important, and that chronic sleep deprivation can lead to weight gain. During a recent study, it was found that people who were exposed to bright light in the morning had lower body mass indexes (BMI) than those who were exposed to most of their light later in the day and felt more awake later and less lethargic than those who lay in. Dr Phyllis C Zee, a senior author of the study said that even 20 to 30 minutes of outdoor light before midday could affect BMI, sounds simple right? Now we don’t want to get to statistic happy, but the magic brightness of light was found to be 500 lux (lux is the measurement of intensity of light at a specific distance from a light source). Outdoor light rates at 1,000 even on a cloudy day and 10,000 on a sunny morning. So just half an hour in this before 12pm can do wonders for your health, it really is as easy as that.

The Challenge - With all the statistics and talk of weight gain this all sounds rather pessimistic, but think about it in a positive light. Say you wake up at eight every day, why not for a week try waking up at seven every morning and think of the extra things you could fit into your day. You could enjoy a longer breakfast, listen to some music before work, go for a run. Anything. Try this for one week and note down all the extra things you manage to fit into your day, and how it makes you feel. Use the Slice app to log in these details, and let us know what an extra hours sleep is doing for you! We guarantee that after a week you’ll be wanting to stick to this - it will also improve your chances of getting to sleep in the evenings.

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