Eat Clean with Virgin Coconut Oil

I have always had a healthy appetite for food, I have never been fussy and will always give everything a try, even if it is just the once. If you don't try it, how will you know whether or not you like it? Although my love for food has been great, my education into why certain foods are better for our bodies than others was not so great. 

Of course until I noticed the lbs starting to creep on in recent years, I didn't care. Even the lbs catching up with me wasn't enough to put me off ordering that high calorie pizza, or chowing down on that cheeky mid week curry. Of course there is always something, or someone for that matter who can snap you out of that. For me it was being told 'Your getting fatter by the day'. It may have been said in the spur of the moment, it may have not been said in malice. But it was still said, and I knew it to be true. Those words didn't upset me, didn't make me angry. They lit a fire in the very pit of my stomach to make a change. And make a change I did.

That very next day I put myself on the track to the lifestyle I now lead. I eat clean and prepare all of my own meals. If you could have seen me this time last year, my diet in comparison doesn't share a resemblance. I cannot remember the last time I drank a can of Coke, or sat and indulged in a larger than life Cadbury's Chocolate Bar. A year ago that would have been on a daily basis, those luxury items were just part and parcel of my everyday life. I would get into work and pop open my first can of pop for that day. These days? Well I'm all about the Green Tea and my sugar fix is adding a drizzle of honey! My mid morning snack use to mean a stroll to the works vending machine and tucking into a morning chocolate bar. Now I am more than happy with a Clementine or a handful of Almonds. 

This year has been such a big learning curve for me, a really important one that has made me reassess everything I eat. I didn't use to care what I put in my body, but now I want it to benefit my body and my training as well as satisfy my taste buds. I have really surprised myself on so many levels of late, and although my weekly shopping bill seems to increase thanks to the additional ingredients I need for my cooking, I am loving what I am eating so much more, and for that matter so is my body. 

When it comes to cooking, I have cast aside the low calorie sprays that I was swearing by, and in it's place I added in Coconut Oil. You can use Coconut Oil as you would any other oil when it comes to cooking and baking, but I find it so much more resilient. I use it to fry my chicken breasts, I throw it into my Nutriblast Smoothies and I even stir it into my morning porridge. Of course at the moment Coconut Oil is really making the news with it's miracle weight loss prophecies. A study recently looked at how the inclusion of virgin coconut oil in the diet affects metabolism, it was discovered that the oil appears to have an ability to change the way fats are handled by the body. 

It was found that when the virgin coconut oil is consumed, fat levels in the body tissues decreased, as did the amount of of specific enzymes involved in the conversion of sugars to fat in comparison to when Olive Oil, Sunflower Oil, or even basic Coconut Oil was used. 

Now although I really enjoy using Coconut Oil (Coconoil) in my cooking and baking, it is not for the weightloss benefits. I just find it a such a versatile product, and it is something that comes up in many of the recipes that I enjoy to cook with. 

Just this evening I cooked these little beauties up: Coconut Macaroons. So simple yet incredibly tasty and you won't believe just how little ingredients go into them!

- 1 Tablespoon of Coconut Oil

- A few drizzles of Honey

- 1 Cup of Desiccated Coconut  

- Put the Coconut Oil and Honey into a pan. Melt them together and add in the Desiccated Coconut. 

- Take an egg cup and spoon the mixture into the egg cup. Empty the egg cup onto a prepared baking tray before cooking in the oven for 20 minutes at 160C.

Disclaimer: I was sent a pot of Coconoil in exchange for my honest views and opinions in this post.