Just as you start to wonder what to do with all that rhubarb in the garden, we've got a delicious recipe for lamb with rhubarb, as well as an article about how to lose those love handles.

• News from Fitbiz Training
• Lifestyle Tip: Lose the Love Handles!
• Seasonal Foods
• Recipe: Slow Cooked Lamb with Rhubarb

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]

• Fat Busters is filling up - its the ultra-effective alternative to Weight Watchers, using our own holistic, whole-person approach to fat loss, which sees clients dropping massive amounts of fat over very little time! If you'd like to take advantage of the knowledge and experience of Haslemere's leading fat loss expert, book your place now.
  
  
• The last month has seen lots of very different clients achieving some fantastic results on our 28 Day Challenge program. One lady has lost 6 inches not even 3 weeks into the program yet, another has lost 8 inches over the month and a third has lost a massive 12 inches during the program - huge congratulations to you all!

Lifestyle Tip: Lose the Love Handles!  [back to top]

This is an extract from the article which appeared in last months Round & About magazine - to download the full article, visit the free articles page of the website.

Hip fat is amongst the most complained about problem areas - a quick glance at people walking past you on the high street will demonstrate how many people have their hips spilling over the top of their jeans.

Hip fat is caused by too-frequent insulin spikes, and can be seen as being a direct correlation to the amount of junky carbohydrates you're eating. When we eat, our blood sugar levels rise, and our body releases insulin to push the sugar into our cells to be used for energy. When we eat something sugary, our bodies are somewhat surprised by the sudden huge increase in sugar and release a huge amount of insulin to deal with the surge. This spiking becoming too-regular causes the problem.

While exercise will improve your sensitivity to insulin, and doing the right stuff can make your body burn fat, there is no such thing as spot reduction from exercise, so to target our hips there are many more specific things we should be doing.

On the nutritional front, we need to remove absolutely all sugar from our diets - this of course means the obvious sugary snacks and drinks, but also includes alcohol since it is simply a sugar and also essentially stops our bodies from burning fat for 3 days after drinking it. Also include processed and junky wheat-based foods like breads and pastries etc in the sugar category because modern wheat is so far removed from what it should be that it is basically indistinguishable from sugar to our bodies.

Download the rest of this article on the free articles page of the website.

Seasonal Foods  [back to top]

Vegetables around in May are:

Asparagus, broccoli, carrots, lettuces, radishes, rhubarb, rocket, spinach, spring onions, watercress

And May's fruits are:

Apricots, bananas, kiwi fruit, lemons, oranges, passion fruits

Recipe: Slow Cooked Lamb with Rhubarb  [back to top]

Lamb and rhubarb is a surprisingly yummy combination. Give this a try one evening!

Prep: 10 minutes

Cook: about 1 hour 45 minutes

Serves 4-5

• 1 small lamb shoulder, off the bone and cut into 6 large pieces
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 tbsp allspice berries or ground allspice
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp mild chilli powder
• 4 garlic cloves, whole, peeled
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• A pinch of mild chilli flakes
• ½ small bunch of mint leaves picked from the stalks, finely chopped
• 400g/14oz rhubarb, washed and chopped into 2cm/1in pieces

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180F/350C/Gas 4. Place the lamb pieces, cinnamon sticks, allspice, turmeric, chilli powder, garlic and onion into a deep roasting tray. Season well with salt and fill with water to two-thirds of the way up the lamb
   
   
2. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes, then turn the meat over and check that the water has not reduced so much that there is a risk of burning
   
   
3. Put the lamb back in the oven for another 45 minutes. Then remove the lamb from the oven and check to see it is soft. If it is, add the rhubarb and return to the oven for 20 minutes - the rhubarb should be falling apart and the lamb completely soft
   
   
4. When you are ready to serve the lamb, sprinkle over the mint. Taste the lamb to check if it needs a little more kick; if so then sprinkle it with chilli flakes too
   
   
5. Serve with some greens such as chard or spinach

Until next time, enjoy staying healthy!

Best wishes,