Wildfitness is a fitness holiday company with the aspiration to help people eat, move and live in harmony with nature. Find practical tips in our Wild Eating, Wild Moving & Wild Living sections, or go to our Wonderations category for more philosophical musings on nature, the wild, our health, the role of science, the meaning of life etc! Enjoy and please let us know what you think.
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These litttreats on a stick are fantastic alternatives to an ice-cream on a hot day, or even as a pudding. They also look and taste delicious so make a few extra ready for when your friends demand to try it!
To make 4
4 bananas
3 tbsp. honey
Two handfuls of mixed nuts, roughly chopped (I like brazils, macadamia and/or hazelnuts)
4 lollypop sticks
Cover a small tray with greaseproof paper.
On two separate plates put the honey and mixed nuts.
Peel the bananas and cut in them in half.
One at a time, coat the bananas in the honey followed by the nuts and lay them aside on the greaseproof paper.
Carefully insert a lollypop stick into each banana.
Put the tray into the freezer, overnight if possible.
These little treats on a stick are fantastic alternatives to an ice-cream on a hot day, or even as a pudding. They also look and taste delicious so make a few extra ready for when your friends demand to try it!
To make 4
4 bananas
3 tbsp. honey
Two handfuls of mixed nuts, roughly chopped (I like brazils, macadamia and/or hazelnuts)
4 lollypop sticks
Cover a small tray with greaseproof paper.
On two separate plates put the honey and mixed nuts.
Peel the bananas and cut in them in half.
One at a time, coat the bananas in the honey followed by the nuts and lay them aside on the greaseproof paper.
Carefully insert a lollypop stick into each banana.
Put the tray into the freezer, overnight if possible.
This recipe has been created by Netta Pakenham-Walsh, our Isle of Wight Location Manager, trained chef and all-round Wildfitness foodie! As well as a love of natural, local, fresh foods (she is a keen forager), Netta has a very creative approach to cooking and encourages experimentation in the kitchen to build confidence in your own abilities. Netta will be contributing regular recipes to our newsletters that are designed to be a transition from typical recipes to cooking freely, using simple methods, natural measurements and ideas of alternative ingredients to hopefully inspire you towards your own unique food creations!
 Keeping wild and healthy is always going to be testing in the northern hemisphere when it’s cold outside (which here in the UK it still is, despite being spring!) and sometimes crunching into a salad is just not what our body is craving. Not having the sun around to naturally draw us outside and inspire us to eat great food, we have to rely on ourselves to reawaken our wild side! Food is a wonderful way to energise and inspire us, so cheer your bodies up with some delicious and colourful cooked dishes, full of warming ingredients.
This recipe is an amazing alternative to a salad but can also be a lovely warming side dish. I’m using one of my favourite veg (the purple sprouting broccoli), in season in the UK now and oozing with taste and tenderness – I would even go as far as to say I would choose it over the asparagus. I have thrown in some garlic, chillies and almonds for taste, warmth and colour – the perfect combo to re-energise your body on a cold day.
Ingredients – Serves 4
2 large handfuls purple sprouting broccoli (approx 600g)
4 garlic cloves, finely sliced
2 mild (or hot, up to you!) red chillies, finely sliced
1 large handful almonds, toasted and roughly crushed
Splash of olive oil (approx. 2 tbsp)
Squeeze of lemon (approx. ¼ of a lemon)
1 sprig of thyme, leaves stripped and roughly chopped
Method
1. Trim the toughest parts of the broccoli stalks so they are all roughly the same size.
2. In a large saucepan, bring some water to the boil (enough to cover the broccoli) and throw the broccoli in for 2 minutes. Drain and refresh them in cold water so they stop cooking. Set aside to dry.
3. In a large frying pan, cook the sliced garlic and chilli in a little bit of butter on a medium heat for a minute or so. Once the garlic is turning golden, add the broccoli and toss gently until everything is well mixed. Scatter in the toasted almonds and thyme.
4. In a large bowl, mix together the olive oil and lemon juice with a little sea salt and pepper. Have a taste then dress the broccoli with it and serve.
Check out this inspiring video of Wild Coach, Augusto Vegas, showing some of the skills and movements that he trains at in his spare time here at Wildfitness Kenya. Augusto trains to improve his physical agility and competency, so he’s better at the sports he loves, to challenge his body and his mind, and to have fun. He is a true example of the natural athlete: he doesn’t hang out in the gym, making his body do restrictive movement on machines. Nature is his ultimate playground for which he prepares his body and mind. His goal is to have a body that is ready, for whatever sport or activity he wants to choose, that’s not simply muscly for the sake of looking good on the beach (though let’s be fair, the result is it DOES look good on the beach…!)
The biggest risk with showing a movie of Augusto doing all sorts of impressive movements however, is that it is easy for people to assume that they will never be able to achieve that level of skill. Or that it would be dangerous or embarrassing to try!
With powerful or skilful movements there are always a set of progressive movements or drills that you can train, that are well within your ability. Training towards being able to do a cool move is much more engaging (it can even be addictive!) than just training to look good, and it is also developing you as a person. Each step of the progression is rewarding in and of itself – it makes you stronger and more skilful even if you don’t reach the level of mastering the complete move. Some movements you can train anywhere just for a few minutes here and there and gradually it will make you feel more and more monkey-like and body-clever the more you do it.
The Wildfitness course is jammed full of intelligent progressions to take you from whatever level you are at to being athletic and unleashing your inner animal. You can also find on YouTube a wide range of progressions to achieve a certain move, e.g. vaults, jumps, slack line moves.
Send us your stories and triumphs!
Here is a tantalising recipe from Wildfitness staff member Sara, especially created for Valentine’s to spread the love! Enjoy!
The warm smooth spicy chocolate finds the nooks within the cool thick vanilla cashew cream as you dip and swirl your strawberry, your mango, your fresh figs or even just your fingers -into the combination -and feed it slowly into your mouth or the mouth of another.
Cashew cream
• Soak fresh cashews overnight in water. The water just needs to just cover the nuts.
• Pour into liquidiser add the seeds of I vanilla pod or 2 drop of natural vanilla essence and raw honey to taste.
• Wiz until thick and creamy- if you want the cream lighter add a bit more water and wiz again
• Pour the cream into small glasses, or pretty tea cups and chill.
Cashew cream
• Soak fresh cashews overnight in water. The water just needs to just cover the nuts.
• Pour into liquidizer add the seeds of 1 vanilla pod or 2 drops of natural vanilla essence and raw honey to taste.
• Wiz until thick and creamy- if you want the cream lighter add a bit more water and wiz again.
• Pour the cream into small glasses or pretty tea cups and chill.
Chocolate Sauce
Use the best dark chocolate you can find. Preferably organic and no less then 70% cocoa solids
30g raw jaggery
150 ml water
1 level tablespoon cocoa powder
100 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
• Put the jaggery and water with the cocoa powder in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Take off the heat and stir in the broken chocolate. Add a pinch sea salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
• Stir until dissolved and warm briefly before serving
• Pour into espresso or coffee cups.
Serve a cup of cashew cream and cup of chocolate sauce with chunks of your favourite fresh fruits.
I use torn figs, purple grapes, whole strawberries and slices of mango.
And my fingers.
A guest who came on a Wildfitness course in December, said that after the course he suffered the first hangover he can remember having. After eating purely and running around in nature for some weeks, he was super sensitive to poisoned-body feedback. Another guest who attended the 2 week course over 2 years ago, says that she still eats hardly any sugar, not because she is sticking to a diet, but because sugar now tastes way too sweet. Astonishing themselves, many peeps have come dutifully to get into shape, and left with an unprecedented, and unnerving urge to move.
Our guests find the Wildfitness course life changing, because; it makes exercise ebullient, or at least engaging; and makes eating healthily enriching and joyous. The experience makes you feel ALIVE, and feeling alive is a transformative force. My suggestion for you, to harness that inescapable beginning of the year rousing, is a one month challenge. How about February? A one month re-calibration of your body, re-sensitisation of your senses and a reafirmament that you are strong like a lion.
Balance, and incremental, un-scary steps are said to be the secrets of sustained change. Still, after seeing so many personal revolutions during the intensity of the Wildfitness experience, I believe that strong efforts for a short period of time are also fiercely transformative.
So the Wild One Month Challenge is:
- Cut out alcohol, sugar, dairy and gluten.
- Eat lots of vegetables.
- Move EVERY day.
- Move INTENSELY at least twice a week.
- Sleep and rest a lot.
Notes:
Eat
-Why cut out dairy and gluten? Because many people are intolerant and a good way for you to find out is after one month, try some and see how your body feels.
- You can eat nuts, fruit, meat, seafood and some grains, legumes and tubers. (think less modern ones e.g. sweet potatoes, quinoa,). But the thing to focus on most is eating WAY more vegetables than you might normally e.g. 3 or 4 different ones with each meal.
Move
- ANY movement will do. It could be a 5 minute run as fast you can, dancing, yoga, combos, 1 hour jogs, 4 hour walks, running up escalators… the point is not to get het up about what it is or for how long… just to do it!
- In your twice a week intense sessions, you should feel as if you have pushed it as far as you can. During the session you should not be able to talk because the exertion is too much. Some of our classic intense sessions include lactic lift-off (running intervals), boxing, and any movement in a tabata format.
- If you are not recovering after a training session, and feel more and more tired as the week progresses, then you are over training. This will do you no good. Unlike the antelope that gets picked off by the Cheetah, you want to be in full stonking form. (Stonking is what antelopes do to show their pursuers that they are too fit to be worth chasing). Swap intense sessions for swimming, walking, or mobilising sessions until you feel more energy.
Live
- Sleep as much as your body will allow. For one month only, feel what it is like to let your body sleep more than our industriousness usually allows. Indulging in copious sleep can cure minor body malfunctions and begin to allow a deeper energy to bubble up. As part of this dedication-to-rest month, have massages, meditate, free dive or other heart slowing activities.
Know that this monastic / mowgli life is but a month in length, and it is probably not a sustainable way to live. (Unless you want a job with us?). We know that not everyone gets as tripped out by becoming a furnace of health as we do – and there are other furnaces to light:
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” Hunter Thompson.
And yet, I tell my H. Thompson-esque friends, if you give your body and mind a month of sustenance and leg-room to blossom; there is the danger you will become irretrievably athletic, but in the least it will give you a few months of heightened sensitivity to life and an extra measure of energy to spend on nefarious or otherwise activity…. Send us updates on your Wild Month! Good luck!
Tara Wood. Jan 2013
This recipe is a Wildfitness concoction by Netta Pakenham-Walsh - our wonderful chef and ground manager on the Isle of Wight – and was featured in Waitrose Magazine January 2013! Waitrose ran a feature on our Isle of Wight location and delved into our philosophy on natural living – for the full article, search our Reviews page. Here’s what Netta says about this recipe:
‘If you want to cut down on your carb intake, this dish is ideal. It has a very similar texture to couscous and is great with stews or tagines. There are tons of other ingredients you can add, but the textures and colours here are quite special.’
Serves 4
Prepare: 10 mins
Cook: 40 mins
Ingredients
- 500g butternut squash peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
- 2 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 1 cauliflower (500g) cut into small florets
- 1 garlic clove finely chopped
- 15g spinach leaves
- 100g Cook’s ingredients sunkissed tomatoes, roughly chopped
- Handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C, gas mark 4. Splash butternut chunks with 1 tbsp oil, season and roast in the oven for 30 mins until tender. Meanwhile, scatter the seeds on a separate baking tray and roast in the oven for 10 minutes until just golden.
Put the cauliflower in a food processor and blitz (you may need to do this in batches) until it resembles rice.
Heat the remaining olive oil in a large frying pan, add the garlic and fry gently for 2 minutes. Add the cauliflower to the pan and keep stirring continuously for about 5 minutes until warmed through. Transfer to a large bowl.
Add the spinach, tomatoes, herbs, toasted seeds and roast squash – season and toss thoroughly before serving.
This zesty, colourful salad is full of character and goodness. The unusual combination of textures – juicy orange, creamy avocodo and crunchy almonds – make this a pleasant alternative to a simple green salad. Additionally, the nuts and avocados give you a good fix of healthy fats and the vitamin E that your skin loves while the orange supplies a lifting balance of vitamin C which cleans and aids your digestive system.
Ingredients
2-3 oranges
2 ripe tomatoes
2 small avocados
60ml/4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
30ml/2 tablespoons chopped parsley small onion rings
2.5g/1oz/ ¼ cups split toasted almonds
10-12 black olives
Salt and ground black pepper
Ingredients
2-3 oranges
2 ripe tomatoes
2 small avocados
60ml/4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
30ml/2 tablespoons chopped parsley small onion rings
2.5g/1oz/ ¼ cups split toasted almonds
10-12 black olives
Salt and ground black pepper
Method
Peel the oranges and slice them into thick rounds. Make a cut into the top of the tomatoes, and then plunge them into boiling water. For 30 seconds. Lift out with a slotted spoon and refresh in cold water. Peel away the skins, cut the tomatoes into quarters, remove the seeds and chop roughly.
Cut the avocados in half, remove the stones (pits) and carefully peel away the skin. Cut into chunks.
Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, then toss the avocado and tomatoes in half of the dressing.
Arrange the sliced oranges on a plate and scatter with the onion rings. Drizzle with the remaining dressing. Spoon the avocados, tomatoes, almonds and olives on top of the oranges and serve immediately.
This article was written by Tara Wood – Founder of Wildfitness – originally for the Responsible Travel Blog. We’ve included it here as it offers some neat insights into fitness as an act of environmental responsibility. Working out naturally has never been so good…
Being physically fit is an act of responsibility to the earth. Most obviously:
- Being able to get places on our own steam without cars, escalators and other motorised help
- Being able to live healthily without needing medical aid
- Having the energy and strength to contribute
However, there are also more subtle ways that being fit is earth friendly.
‘Fitness’ means different things. The conventional world of fitness has its legacy in body building where the aim is to sculpt the body to have a muscly and lean appearance. My heroes in fitness are very different from body builders. My inspiration comes from animals (and peoples) that we see in nature. They are no doubt beautiful, well-proportioned and lean, but this is a by-product of their physical efficiency, resourcefulness and resilience.
Efficiency
Wild animals move with grace, not wasting a calorie of energy in unnecessary movement as they softly pad through their environment – unlike the plodding runner or the grunting bicep curler.
Resourcefulness
A wild beast will eat what he can find in his local environment, and doesn’t waste the precious things at his disposal – unlike egg-white omelettes, where the yolk is thrown away for fear of cholesterol and fat.
What wild animal would want to raise their metabolism? A wild creature wants the most efficient metabolism that will allow it to use what it eats to get the most energy rather than maximising how much we burn so we can consume more.
Resilience
Bush men are able to cope with a wide range of conditions – heat, cold, dehydration, periods without regular food, wading through rivers, carrying heavy things. This is unlike the more common ideas of ‘optimal’ health, where you must sip water throughout the day, workout in a heated room, lift uniform objects and eat five times a day lest your blood sugar become uneven.
Deciding to be ‘fit’ in the evolutionary sense, in the natural sense, is deciding to be skilful, graceful, hardy, nimble and adaptable like our beautiful role models: wild animals and tribal people. It is a profound statement of responsibility to the earth.
Deeper still is to realise that the health of the earth is inextriably linked to our health. You can learn about Wild fitness on a Wild fitness course.
Tara Wood
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Anne-Laure is head Wild Coach in Kenya, and is a passionate and talented runner. Here, in her second newsletter article about running (
