In the first newsletter of a hopefully long, sunny and warm summer, we've got an article about what caffeine really does to you and a delicious recipe for Thai mackerel.

• News from Fitbiz Training
• Lifestyle Tip: The Real Caffeine Effect
• Seasonal Foods
• Recipe: Thai Mackerel

And as ever, please feel free to forward this to family or friends, or alternatively point them in the direction of the sign-up box on the website - remember they'll get a free copy of my article Myths of Fat Loss when they subscribe!

News from Fitbiz Training  [back to top]

• The Spot Reduction Workshop went really well last month, thank you to those of you who came and thanks for your lovely feedback - glad it's making such great changes to your lives!
  
  
• Now the sun is shining, the time to show a bit more skin is fast approaching. If you're not quite as confident about this as you'd like to be, keep your eyes peeled for a special sale coming up in the middle of next week which will get you sorted!
  
  
• The article which appeared in this months Round & About magazine will be up on the website shortly - if you haven't seen it, download a copy from the Free Articles page of the website.

Lifestyle Tip: The Real Caffeine Effect!  [back to top]

Most people start the day feeling dreadful, and feel they need a caffeine spike to get them going - which is great, but have you ever considered what cost that pep up has to your health?

Caffeine over excites your adrenal glands - then later on in the day they become exhausted, leading to a depletion of the "wake up" hormone serotonin and therefore sugar cravings and massive energy crashes.

Just two cups of coffee will boost production of cortisol (which is produced by the adrenal glands) for 18 to 24 hours - when coupled with our usual day to day stresses, its no wonder they're tired out!

Excess cortisol fluctuations leads to your body storing fat on the centre of your stomach, as well as restricting sleep quality since you cannot fully "switch off" when your cortisol levels are high. This of course means that you struggle to get to sleep at bed time, so you have another poor nights sleep and wake up needing more caffeine to get you started the next day.

There seems to be a lot around at the moment about caffeine being good for you - just remember that these studies have been done on athletes rather than us "normal" people - so whether you drink it before exercise, after exercise or while balancing a unicyclist on your head, caffeine will still have a huge effect on your body.

Seasonal Foods  [back to top]

Vegetables around in April are:

Broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, purple sprouting broccoli, radishes, rhubarb, rocket, spinach, spring onions, watercress

And April's fruits are:

Bananas, kiwis, lemons, oranges, passion fruit

Recipe: Thai Mackerel  [back to top]

The over-riding response from the few people I've mentioned this to this week has been wrinkled up noses - but honestly, this is really good - give it a try! It's one of Jamie Oliver's recipes from the Big Fish Fight a few weeks ago.

Prep: 10 minutes

Cook: about 10 minutes

Serves 4

• 4 mackerel fillets. Butterflied and pin-boned
• 1 red chilli
• 1 spring onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 inch ginger, peeled
• 1 lime - zest and juice
• 4 teaspoons sesame oil
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• Handful fresh coriander
• 2 teaspoons runny honey

Method

1. Make the dressing by finely grating the chilli, spring onion, garlic and ginger into a bowl
   
   
2. Add the lime zest, juice, sesame oil and soy sauce and mix
   
   
3. Coarsely chop the coriander and add it to the sauce along with the honey
   
   
4. Leave it for an hour or so to infuse if you have time. NB: It doesn't look like much dressing, but a little goes a long way!
   
   
5. Griddle your mackerel skin side down on a high heat. When the skin is nice and crispy, turn the mackerel over to finish off the flesh side.
   
   
6. Serve the fish on top of some boiled rice and drizzled with the dressing

Until next time, enjoy staying healthy!

Best wishes,