It’s that time of the evening where your thumb is tired of scrolling through the many gym goers’ protein-licious dinners, filling up your Instagram newsfeed once again. How can a plateful of chicken and veg get over 1000 likes, you ask yourself? And this mighty bowl of what seems to look like, dare I say creamy ice cream, topped with peanut butter cups and Oreos, yet still labelled as healthy…confused? That right there is the ‘insta famous’ #flexbowl! What is a flex bowl you might ask? Read on and find out…
Out with the old and in with the new, it’s time to leave the ever so photogenic smoothie bowls in 2015 because right now it’s all about balancing the macros and adding sweet treats to your delicious flex bowl -a fitness fanatic’s dream come true!
This bowl of sweet heaven is designed to meet the macros left dangling from a fit foodie’s nutritional intake. Its main priority is to make sure that the individual isn’t putting too much of one food group into their body, hence the name ‘flexbowl’. It’s a marvellous creation of anything protein, fat and carb related to help fill in the missing gaps one might need in order to fill, whilst counting their macros. Basically a jumble of whatever you can find put together and voila! you have yourself an exquisite flexbowl, perfect as dinner or an evening dessert.
Imagine berries, nuts and chocolate chip quest bars stacked on top of yogurt or oats, that’s how the insta-fitties do it best. Hazel Wallace, the face behind the sensation ‘TheFoodMedic’, with 70K followers is no amateur to creating the perfect pre-workout flexbowl for her Instagram fans. In true TheFoodMedic style, “add 50g of oats into a bowl, grate half a courgette and pop into the microwave for 3 mins and once that is ready add a scoop of protein powder and lots of naughty toppings to finish off.”
Mark Garlick, Body Transformation Coach at Chelsea’s Lomax, confirmed to Women’s Health, “It’s important to hit your macros to ensure steady progression towards your fitness goals.” Queue your macro hitting solution. “By hitting your macros you will ensure that your body will have no deficiencies and is fuelled to be hormonally stable.”
So before you start adding any the remaining Easter eggs you see lying about and counter balancing it as ‘healthy’, here’s a heads up on what you need to do in order to jump aboard the flex bowl wagon:
1. Firstly, check out the right number of macros that you should be counting. The IIFYM (if it fits your macros) plan is a great starting point to calculate your macros. http://www.iifym.com/iifym-calculator/
2. Use a food checker to help track exactly what you’re putting into your body. Download the FREE app ‘MyFitnessPal’ to check in your food and meet your daily macro requirements.
3. Finally, here’s the fun part: grab a bowl, fill your base with either yogurt or oats for a sweet flexbowl, eggs or sweet potato mash for savory one and top away with whatever your heart truly desires. But make sure you are tracking your toppings with your macros, as it’s easy to get carried away!
Now, once you have done the food math behind the madness, it’s time to sit back and enjoy your bowl the flexy way!
