Five kitchen tools that make life easier

There are certain things that just make life flow smoothly. In a previous life, for me these things may have included cab charges, three-minute rice meals, and access to our magazine’s beauty cupboard. These days, it’s certain items of kitchen equipment.
You know your priorities have changed when you spend breaks between work scouring online raw food stores and The Book Depository instead of Perez Hilton and TMZ. Even more so when you save your pennies for things like a Le Cruset pot set and a Vitamix blender instead of designer clothes and alcohol and drug-fuelled night’s out.

Here are five of the best purchases we’ve ever made …
 
 1. The Spirooli
Aka, a vegetable spiraliser or spiralling tool. This is the awesome piece of equipment we use to turn the humble ol’ zucchini into beautiful spaghetti. It also makes spirally carrot, potato, and anything else you wish to feed through it. You can buy them here.

2. The salad spinner
Before I bought Mum a salad spinner she would wash our lettuce and then spend ages patting it dry with paper towelling. Not any more! This item cuts salad preparation time down by heaps. Ikea and most kitchen shops stock them, and you can also buy online here.
 
3. The Tribest Personal Blender
This was my boyfriend’s birthday present this year, but every one of us in our house uses this beauty on a daily basis. We make smoothies, creamed corn, hummus, dips, chocolate, and other delicious desserts. The best part about it is that there is hardly any cleaning up involved. You make and drink the smoothie out of the same cup! Buy here.

 
4. The Le Cruset pot
For vegetables to retain the most amount of nutrients, they have to be cooked on very low heat and preferably not with any water. We cook our veggies for lunch and dinner in this cast iron Le Cruset pot. We just add chopped up tomato and onion to the bottom of the pot, and cook on low until they’re done. The heavy lid and heavy base prevent steam from escaping and prevent the veggies from burning. We picked ours up from Myer. To get it online go here.

 
5. The Norwalk cold-press juicer
This machine is amazing. I know it’s pricey and weighs a tonne, but I still think this is the best purchase we’ve ever made. Ever. Well, apart from Edie, my adorable pug dog. This thing makes the best-tasting juice (all juice, absolutely no pulp), and is powerful enough to juice greens with ease. I recently went away for a couple of days and had to take our old juicer with me (it’s much more mobile), but the juice just didn’t taste the same and I hurt my neck trying to push kale through it. If you aren’t ready to make this much of an investment in juicing just yet, there are other more affordable options. The Angel and The Champion are both great. However, if you’re serious about juicing for health, The Norwalk is definitely worth saving up for. We like to think of the financial outlay as medical insurance. However, if you are really interested, you can buy the angel here.

For the original article by Jess Ainscough, go here.

Note: If you purchase a Spirooli from the links above, claim your free recipe ebook here!

30 minutes of exercise better for weight loss than longer workouts

Contrary to what you might have thought, just 30 minutes of exercise a day could help you lose more weight than daily hour-long sessions, according to Danish researchers.

They split a group of 60 moderately overweight Danish men into two groups and instructed them to exercise vigorously for either 30 minutes or an hour a day for 13 weeks.

By the end of the study, those who did half an hour a day lost 3.6kg compared with 2.7kg for those who exercised for an hour.

The researchers believe it's because those who scheduled less time for formal exercise included more incidental activity throughout their day, whereas those who blocked out an hour a day were more likely to put their feet up.

"The subjects in the test group that exercised the least talk about increased energy levels and a higher motivation for exercising and pursuing a healthy everyday life," said Associate Professor Astrid Jespersen from the Unviersity of Copenhagen.

"They take the stairs, take the dog for an extra walk or cycle to work. In contrast, the men who exercised for one hour a day, after training, felt exhausted, demotivated and less open to making a healthy change."

Australian exercise guidelines suggest people aim for 150 minutes of exercise a week, which is roughly 30 minute sessions on five days.

Professor David Dunstan, head of physical activity at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, told ninemsn this study proves that we all need to increase our movement throughout the day.

"I'm encouraging people to consider movement from the time they wake up until they go to bed," he said.

"It's great to get 30 minutes of exercise in the morning, but to sit on our backsides for the remainder of the day is not beneficial. Try to think about reducing sitting time throughout the day. We need to think of movement as an opportunity not an inconvenience."

Dr Nathan Johnson, from the Sydney University faculty of health sciences, told ninemsn that you don't need to exercise in solid chunks.

"Do at least 10 minute blocks and accumulate it throughout the week. For most people a brisk walk is enough. It doesn't have to be structured," he said.

Dr Johnson also said that it's a better idea for people to focus on reducing abdominal fat, than worrying about purely what's on the scales.

"If you can lose fat from the abdomen, your risk of disease improves, even if you don't change on the scales," he said.

"Weight loss is a good goal, but waistline reduction shows you're losing fat from the right areas."

The study was published in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health.

For the video and article by Kimberly Gillian, look at http://health.ninemsn.com.au/fitness/8726562/30-minutes-of-exercise-better-for-weight-loss-than-longer-workouts or click on the video's picture.