Mark Inglis Blog

Well its Saturday again so you all know what that means…… your free delicious recipe. Here it is, enjoy making it any most definitely enjoy eating it. This recipe serves four and is delicious and healthy and vegetarian; it’s a mixed bean pan fry and takes less than 25 minutes to cook, who says fast food is unhealthy! It should go along way to helping you keep losing the belly fat.

The ingredients you need for this recipe are as follows:

· 350g mixed green beans;

· 2 tables spoons of vegetable oil;

· 2 crushed Garlic cloves;

· 1 red onion, halved and sliced;

· 225g firm marinated tofu, diced;

· 1 tablespoon Lemon Juice;

· ½ tea spoon ground Tumeric;

· 1 tables spoon of mixed spice;

· 150 ml of fresh vegetable stock;

· 1 table spoons of Sesame Seeds.

To prepare simple chop the beans and place on a plate until required.

Using a medium frying pan heat the oil and add the onion and Garlic, cooking it over a low heat for two minutes stirring regularly.

Add the Tofu and cook, stirring softly regularly for another two or three minutes until it begins to turn golden brown.

Lower the heat and simmer for between five and seven minutes or until the beans are tender. Sprinkle over the Sesame Seeds and serve straight away.  Enjoy.

If you are like me and have well, quite a bit of belly fat to lose; you need to put a plan into place to ensure you do indeed start to lose the belly fat and other excess weight. So what does your plan need to include?

The first thing you need to look at is how are you going to increase your exercise?  This may be to plan on taking the dog for a walk twice a day without fail; it may be to get a dog to walk! If you are serious about losing the belly fat, it may be that you want to join a gym. This will involve going to the gym of your choice for an induction whereby an instructor will show you how to use the equipment whilst determining your fitness level and planning your exercises for a six week period.

I find that every six weeks I change my exercise schedule just to stop boredom setting in. If you choose to join a gym, the instructor will show you how to warm up and down and this is extremely important. Warming up and stretching prior to your session and at the end will reduce the amount of Lactic Acid which builds up in your muscles. This is the cause of the day after stiffness that many people who do not warm up and stretch properly will suffer. Also you will want to at first take your exercise slowly and let your body become accustomed to the exercise. This will reduce the likelihood of injury which can set you back weeks or even months. I am still getting over a gym injury which has prevented me from training for 6 weeks. It has been painful and very frustrating to not be able to visit the gym; so go easy and talk to your gym instructor even doctor before increasing your exercise.

If you stick at it at the gym within 1 month, yes that’s all it will take; you will start to feel like you have much more energy. As part of your exercise routine you should include belly exercises which will assist you in losing your belly fat. Do not be alarmed if you do not see quick results, if you belly fat is pronounced as mine it is going to take a lot of patience and will power to lose. Persevere and you will see results and slowly your belly fat will lose the battle. In my next post I will cover what I believe to be as important a factor as exercise in losing weight, nutrition. I look forward to sharing it with you.

Hi Everyone

Things have been rather hectic here as my mum is in hospital so I have been backwards and forwards to visit her. I am pleased to report that she is on the mend and should be out of hospital later this week. What has this done for my attempt to lose belly fat, well it has helped get me out of the house which is the place where I watch TV so it has had a positive impact upon my weight loss. In addition to this I have been taking the hound out on my bike, boy has he got energy to burn!
Now for the next week my aim is to cook meals everyday starting with this beautiful prawn and sea lettuce tempura. Living in the UK it is easy to find sea lettuce all around the coast of the UK on rocks and in the many rock pools that frequent the sands of the estuaries dotted around the coast. I’m sure it is as easily obtainable around much of the world with a similar climate to the UK. It can be eaten raw however it is beautiful put together with prawns and Japanese tempura batter (shh, it is nice though).

Here’s the ingredients:

· 1 bag of freshly collected sea lettuce which has been trimmed and washed with fresh water;
· 3-4 dozen big fresh prawns;
· 1 small bunch of fresh spring onions which have been chopped into 3 cm lengths;
· Olive Oil for deep frying;
· Salt.

The Tempura Batter.
· 250 grams plain flour;
· 1 big or 2 small egg yolks
· 350ml water
· A pinch of salt.

Dipping sauce.
· 2 tables spoons of soy sauce;
· 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar;
· 2 spring onions, cut finely.

Boil and blanch the live/raw prawns in a pan of well salted water for 30 seconds then drain and leave them to cool prior to peeling. Take a piece of sea lettuce and wrap each prawn. Thread the prawn and sea lettuce bundle onto a cocktail stick with the spring onion mixed together on the stick. You should try to get 3 prawns on 1 stick.

To make the Tempura batter briskly mixes all the ingredients adding additional water if needed until the mix resembles think paint. You should not over mix the batter as this can reduce the light texture that is required, if there are some lumps don’t worry.

To make the sauce mix the soy sauce and the rice wine vinegar then add the chopped spring onions. Heat some olive oil in a large pan and dip each cocktail stick in the batter then drop straight into the hot oil, fry for about one minute until crisp. Drain the prawn tempura on kitchen roll dip and enjoy. I know batter is fattening but the key to losing weight is variety and not over indulging, it does not have to be boring!

Kind Regards

Mark Inglis

Hi Everyone

Well I went to the hospital yesterday and was hoping to return to work today but unfortunately my shoulder has not gone back into its socket and there is still what they believe is fluid preventing the joint going back into place; anyway enough about me.

How is everyone doing? Is your weight loss still progressing as you had hoped? Mine is up and down at the moment. It is not helping having lots of time on my hands and I am hoping to get a lot more active once I am fit again. My weight loss program has been moving along nicely and I have lost another 2lbs this week which is fine as far as I am concerned. I have started eating lots more fresh fruit and vegetables and I have even started to snack on carrots which I love. So what are your favorite foods, click on the forum link to the right and let the community know how you go about fighting the cravings. Anyway I am now going to have a salad for my lunch now and take the hound out after for a long walk. Keep the motivation high and most definitely keep smiling!