Monday 28 July 2014

Come on over to Dani Stevens NEW website

Yes you! I'm missing you over at DaniStevens.com


There is so much going on and I don't want you to miss a beat. Like this amazing free Green Smoothie recipes ebook, so head over now and grab your copy.

See you there!

Much love and friendship,
xxDani 

Friday 20 June 2014

Free Green Smoothie recipes on DaniStevens.com

It’s fabulous FREE Friday today where I am giving all my Fitness Food And Style subscribers a free Green Smoothie. Please check your inbox to see whether yours has arrived in your inbox, if not please grab your copy here.

Free Green Smoothie recipes


As some of you are aware, I am in the phase of crossing over to DaniStevens.com please ensure you update your URL so you check out my new website as I will soon close Fitness Food And Style.

It’s been such an amazing journey these last 2 years, can you seriously believe it’s been this long? It only seems like yesterday when I posted my first post.

Thank you to all my Dani Stars. You truly are stars sparkling in my eyes as I love sharing my life with you and thank you dearly for supporting me. For all my new followers, I welcome you and enjoy.

Take a look around DaniStevens.com and let me know what you think? What do you want to see  more of? What is something that I need to do less of? Your feedback means the world to me and I want to bring you the latest and greatest in all things fitness, food and lifestyle.

Much love and friendship,

xxDani 

Thursday 12 June 2014

DaniStevens.com launch, Facebook and Stylerunner $250 giveaway

WOWZA!!!! Can you believe it? I am finally taking the plunge this week and have recently created my very own website DaniStevens.com. Happy days. So much to tell you and fill you in with. Come on over and check it out. Let me know what you think?

I am so excited!!

Firstly a big thank you to my Facebook community, we are just about to reach 80,000 likes and to help me celebrate, my wonderful friends at Stylerunner are putting together a $250 gift box JUST FOR YOU. We all need stylish fitness gear to make us look and feel good right?


Dani Stevens and Stylerunner $250 giveaway

I look forward to sharing with you my new DaniStevens.com website, just tweaking a few things so you can come on over and have a look around.

Love & Friendship,
xxDani 


Wednesday 28 May 2014

Mind Body Spirit festival tickets PLUS win a $250 Vie Active gift voucher

Super excited about the Mind Body Spirit (MBS) festival coming up in Melbourne 6-9th June 2014. The count down is on and I have 2 weeks to get my presentation in order and thrilled to be working with an amazing speech coach to ensure I get my point across. I can't wait to share with you all the motivation behind my brand and finally meet you face to face.

As an exclusive offer to my MBS readers and my existing readers, I would love to extend this amazing giveaway from one of my favourite fitness brands VIE ACTIVE. As some of you recall we had the beautiful signature Noa jacket "FFS special" on last year and you all went crazy over this cool leopard print. Once again they have some great ranges out this year so make sure you don't miss out and subscribe to their newsletter. I love receiving their latest fashion updates and specials.

This will also register you to win complimentary tickets to the Melbourne festival. Winners will be notified by email.

For your chance to win MBS tickets and a $250 gift voucher CLICK HERE.

Dani Stevens - Vie Active $250 giveaway



The Story Behind the Brand...VIE ACTIVE
Vie Active, put simply, is Australia’s premium high performance fitness fashion label and I am a huge fan! Designed and tested in beautiful Bondi, Co-Founders Noa and Bryan prove fashion and function can coexist. Using the most technical fabrics available, including Merino F3 Supplex and F3 Compression, Vie Active has raised the bar in the fitness apparel world. Their pieces are suitable for high performance sports, social settings & everything in between.

Why I love it: By far the quality, design and uniqueness of this brand will get you noticed. People stop me down the street when I am wearing their range.

Noa takes 5 minutes to share with us her Fitness Food and Style ethos;


1. What fitness activity do you schedule into your daily routine to keep healthy?
I just try to move in someway everyday. This is to help me from going crazy as I have a very busy mind and I find exercise balances and focuses me. Sometimes it may be a soft sand run, other days I will go to a workout class (I'm loving both HIIT or Barre sessions) and some times it might just be riding my bike to and from the office which is the most pleasant way to get to work!

2. Describe your dream meal - what could we expect to find on your plate?
My favourite food is Japanese. My dream meal would probably be a seaweed salad with tonnes of avocado, some Salmon sashimi and grilled wagyu steak.

3. Who’s your go to style icon - who have you always admired for their style, and why?
I adore Jessica Alba's sense of style. As a busy working mum she effortlessly mixes in style with functionality in to everything she wears.

4. What’s a childhood habit or mannerism that has followed you into adulthood?
Whenever I used to workout with my late father he would never let me turn around (whether we were running laps on the sand or swimming across the Bay in Bondi) without touching the wall on the other side first. It's a habit I have never lost and it forces me to always push myself that little bit further.

5. Name three things you can’t leave the house without and why?
My phone... I am addicted to email and social media for work, water bottle and a snack!

Thank you so much Noa for sharing a glimpse of your life with us. I can't wait to meet you all and please share this post with your friends and family for their chance to win a $250 gift voucher from Vie Active.

Much love and friendship,
xxDani 

Tuesday 27 May 2014

Fitness Transformation Tuesday how to lose weight and maintain it!

Dani Stevens - Body transformation after baby number 2



































Here is a very old post I found for this weeks Transformation Tuesday. Yes. It's me. I have 4 kids and this picture was taken 6 years ago after having our second son, Oscar. 

I believe we are all different and need to be exposed to various exercise program's to try until we find the right ones. I followed the Fit Yummy Mummy program for 5 years and it truly works! Now I'm taking it to the next level with the high intense interval training with Freeletics. You can check that out under my FITNESS tab.

I'm here to share with you what has worked for me so please feel free to check them out.

I hope you enjoy going back down memory lane. Oh how time flies when we are having fun xD

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Yes, I know, I know..... too much eye make up but hey! How often do you get a chance to get all glam'd up and pose for your hubby and be like one of those girls in a magazine??! Now my hubby has his own cover girl :-)

How did I get my body back? 5 years ago I stumbled on this 15 minute workout program. I only workout 90 minutes per week (along with my fun fitness challenges I run with you). This fitness regime suits me perfectly as I am not in a position to pay a baby sitter nor could I be bothered working out for an hour in my day. With 4 kids under 8 years of age my time is pretty jam packed with other important life experiences and things to do, so here are my success stories after ALL of my 4 pregnancies here.

Are YOU getting the results you are after? If you are great! If not and you are seeking an exercise regime that will target and burn your baby body fat, I highly recommend this program. In fact if you click on my link you will receive a 50% discount off the ebook and 30 days free trial at Clubfym. Seriously, you have nothing to lose, except that stubborn fat that is just hanging around.



*TRANSFORMATION TUESDAY features*


I would love to share your fitness transformation on Tuesdays, so please click this link which will take you to our interview questions. I can't wait to feature you!

#PushupsGreen Challenge 


How are you enjoying this months challenge? Thank you for tagging #pushupsgreen as there have been some awesome pics of your cannons and various push up techniques. Keep up the fab work!
Push ups and greens challenge Fitness Food And Style

Here is a super simple green juice;

  • 1 apple
  • 2 celery stalks
  • 1 cucumber
  • handful of spinach
  • 1/2 lemon

Mind you it always changes depends on what I have in the fridge, some days there's ginger and berries, others mint etc....just mix it up as you please. The aim of this month is simply to incorporate more greens in your day or at least have one serve!


This challenge has been super sensational and so many ideas on greens recipes. So many inspirational people out there with so many refreshing and creative ideas, I love it!!! I too, surprise myself as well :-)

Once again though Kristina has caught my eye with her fullyraw recipe. Check out her latest recipe on her Youtube channel. I asked her to be creative and boy! she never ceases to amaze me!


Kristina with her amazing fully raw Cinnamon Beetroot Basil Marinara 


I am really happy that my male friends have also embraced this challenge and are doing their push ups. Take a look at @d_stinto and his superman push up!!! Ama-ZING!!!

Superman push ups @D_Stinto



My friends over at 180 Nutrition are also running an IG competition this month in conjunction with our #pushupsgreens. Simply tag your food recipes to #realfoodrevolution for your chance to win a months supply of 180 Nutrition products. How unreal is that?


180 Nutrition IG competition


You know how much I love these guys and stand by there products, so much so that ALL my readers have an exclusive 10% discount promo code which you can use at check out. If you haven't tried 180 Nutrition, they also have a 4 starter pack bundled in chocolate and coconut flavours, so give it a go. There is also a vegan range. Only $14.99 Free delivery (anywhere in Australia) shipping will become available to our friends overseas very soon.

I hope you all had a great day! I spent majority of my day beside the pool as we have had a ripper Summer of a week. Here are the girls today enjoying their time in the pool.



Leave me your comments and let me know how you are going with this months challenge and what else you would like to see in the over the next several months as I bring more challenges to make health and fitness fun for all of us!!!

♥ Dani 






Monday 26 May 2014

Barley and chia pudding recipe

This would have to be an old favorite of mine. As kids growing up my Mum used to make puddings from polenta, semolina, rice and barely. Today chia has been my modern twist to my Mums traditional puddings.

I hope you enjoy it!

Barley and chia pudding

Chia pudding


Ingredients 
1 packet of barely
1 cup of chia seeds (I used The Chia Co.)
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla pod
1ltr milk or more depending on the consistency you like (choose your preferred coconut, almond or full cream milk)

Method 
Cook barley as per packet instructions. I typically soak them the night before to quicken the cooking process. Add your milk, spices and milk and allow to bubble. Keep adding more milk until your desired consistency. 

We serve ours with maple syrup, honey or fresh fruit. Also a dollop of Greek yogurt is delish. 

What's one of your traditional childhood meals that you have fond memories of eating?

Much love & friendship,
XxDani  

Wednesday 14 May 2014

Mind Body Spirit Festival

This just happened .....

Dani Stevens the new Mind Body Spirit Ambassador 2014

I am so thrilled to be this years Mind Body Spirit ambassador and would love to meet you all in person. I will be presenting every day so I can't wait to share my journey with you one-on-one. 

Of course plenty of hugs are mandatory as well ;-)


Who's excited? 

I am super pumped! Truly, this is such an amazing opportunity and thank you to the wonderful MBS team and gorgeous Kagan from XSPR. For all those that have been following me from the beginning…..did you ever imagine this would happen?

Thank you for all your love and continued support, I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart.

Will you be joining me?

Much love and friendship,
xxDani

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Fitness Transformation Tuesday with Emma Brettig

Today we welcome Emma as she shares her fitness journey with us. As she mentions below, she wasn't really overweight but she wasn't making healthy choices either. Please share your words of encouragement as Emma embraces her new healthy lifestyle.

Thank you everyone for submitting your Transformation Tuesday story, I love reading each and everyone of them. Keep them coming and click on the hyperlink.

Until next week.

Stay fit and healthy!
xxDani



How old are you and please can you share your health and fitness journey to date? 
25 years old - For a very long time I tried to be a healthy person and I exercised all the time, but the problem was I used to reward myself with bad food that actually did me damage rather than make me happy. Last year I realised I couldn't be a healthy person part time, I had to fully embrace and completely commit to clean eating to see a change, and thankfully I have! I am so much happier, have so much more energy and would never go back!

What types of foods did you used to eat as a kid and young adult? What's changed since then? 
I used to eat healthy all week but then on the weekend start eating bad, processed foods like: icecream, chocolate, timtams, kitkats, takeaway foods, etc. I now believe I was actually addicted to sugar. I've cut out all processed foods, I have green smoothies every day, eat oats for breakfast, make protein power balls for energy and even a square of 85% chocolate. I really try to not make food a reward.

Do you play any sports or what sports do you like watching? 
I love walking my dog every morning before breakfast, I love the gym: I do weight training 4 x a week and classes for cardio. I'm currently training in BodyAttack to teach this awesome Les Mills program.

What are your interests, passion and what makes you smile? 
Cooking, exercise, bodyattack, discovering new recipes, walking my dog, relaxing with my husband, travelling the world, long beach walks, love talking to people about health and fitness - that's really makes me smile!

What was the catalyst that sparked your lifestyle change? 
I went to USA Sept 2013 and put on even more weight & I was miserable, had no energy, didn't want to exercise, I didn't even want to go to work - I just had this overwhelming feeling that I had to get my life in balance by committing to clean eating 100%

What are some of your dreams/goals you hope to achieve over the next 12 months? 
I want to finish my BodyAttack training and I'd love to train in RPM - I currently work as a dental therapist so my goal by the end of the year is to do this part time and work part time group fitness instructing

What tips would you like to share with my readers about your transformation? 
Don't give up, it took 5 months between the transformation photos but it took about 6 years of trying before that. Diet is key, clean eating all the way- not just the bodily changes but internally I feel so happy, content and on top of the world

List social media that you want to share:
@ems_active_life

Monday 12 May 2014

Sneh Roy Cook Republic "Tasty Express" signed book giveaway

A gentle reminder about our amazing giveaway this month! Make sure you enter for your exclusive signed copy of Tasty Express from the beautiful Sneh.

* * * 

I love Sneh. Since my early days of social media I have been following this beautiful woman. I love her cooking style and her food photography is to die for. Sneh is a Mother of 2 boys, a food stylist, designer and recently won Best Australian Blog of the Year 2013 for her blog Cook Republic. Bravo girl!

She's also the food columnist for one of my most fave magazines, Elle. Remember when I featured as one of the top 10 Instagram handles for serious fitness inspiration last year?

Sneh Roy - Cook Republic

Sneh takes 5 minutes to share with us her Fitness Food Style ethos;

1. What fitness activity do you schedule into your daily routine to keep healthy?
I like to run 5k about three times a week. I love doing weights at the gym, core exercises and a daily session of Surya Namaskar (Yoga) in the mornings. I also like to refer to my Pinterest Fitness and Pinterest Health-Happiness boards. 

2. Describe your dream meal - what could we expect to find on your plate?
Oh this is so hard. I love so many things. My dream plate would have a single tasting of some of my favourite things to eat. Sashimi, balsamic glazed mushrooms, a spicy chickpea and chicken curry, a textured quinoa and eggplant salad and some frozen coconut yoghurt.

3. Who’s your go to style icon - who have you always admired for their style, and why?
I have never been big on style or icons. But there are things I love and once in a while I will come across someone who ticks all the boxes style-wise. I love long wind tousled bohemian hair, brown boots, neutrals with a pop of colour like yellow, leather wrap bracelets and infinity scarves in crazy prints. (You can tell I love autumn huh?)

4. What’s a childhood habit or mannerism that has followed you into adulthood?
Twirling my hair and then twirling it some more till it always looks like it has been run through hot rollers.

5. Name three things you can’t leave the house without and why?
Phone, wallet, bottle of water. Connectivity, Buying power and Hydration. A girl’s best friends.

A little history behind Cook Republic by Sneh Roy.
Cook Republic came to be nearly 10 years ago when I was living in Singapore and started cooking for a recipe database I was working on. I started writing a blog based on my cooking adventures in the kitchen and quickly developed a network of like minded people who loved sharing recipes. Four years later after having two kids, in an attempt to get fit and healthy, I started eating mindfully and sharing those healthier, nutrient rich and wholesome recipes on the blog. I lost a total of 21 kilos over two years and felt fabulous. Being a mum is hard work, trying to work along with that is harder and I didn’t want to compromise the wholesome nourishment I could give my family. So I would cook and share my recipes on the blog. These recipes were super quick, super tasty and perfect for a hectic urban lifestyle of a busy mum who wanted to give her family adventurous and delicious healthy food. The concept for the cookbook “Tasty Express” came from that. Easy to make, easy to take. Recipes that went from breakfast to lunchbox to dinner in minutes. Fresh real food you could take to work, school, uni or share with family and friends over the weekend. Food as we eat now with a melting pot of flavours from all cultures.

The recipes in the book are mainly plant based (vegetarian), adventurous with fun twists, incredibly easy and super tasty. There are occasional naughty treats too. My most favourite recipe in the book is the cover recipe for raw Zucchini Noodles With Thai Pesto. I also love the Eggplant Lasagna Steaks (Yum!), Brown Rice Biryani Salad, Nut Crumble Rye Cake, Chickpea Pancakes With Bombay Potatoes, Supergreen Chutney (I am addicted to this green goodness and smear it on everything!) and Burnt Butter Caramel Slice (I dare you to stop at one!).


* * *

Thank you so much Sneh for sharing a piece of your life with us. So good to have you here and we look forward to seeing you again.




G I V E A W A Y

Who would like a signed copy of Sneh's Tasty Express cookbook? Keep scrolling.

Tell me if you like what you see . . . .


Brown rice salad

Chicken curry

Chickpea pancakes

Chocolate cake


You are absolutely going to LOVE this book so leave your comments below.....

Terms & Conditions
  • Entries will close on 24th May 2014, and a winner will be announced shortly thereafter.
  • Tell me why Sneh's cookbook would look great sitting up on your kitchen bench include your IG and/or FB name beside your comment
  • The winner’s answer will be judged on most creative response.
  • Please ensure you have subscribed to my blog, as the winner will be notified by email. If the prize remains unclaimed for 72 hours, a new winner will be selected.
  • Only one entry per person

Are you ready for some Tasty Express meals?

Much love and friendship,
xxDani