Beary Strong

How To Monitor Your Progress

Everything you need to know to set up for long term success.

Even if you are not competing and you go to the gym because you like the feeling afterwards, or you love the idea of becoming as strong as hell, most of us want to see some kind of progress. That’s why in my opinion monitoring progress during your fitness and health journey is one of the most important factors for long time motivation and adherence. How else are you going to assess if the things you did actually lead to results? If you have no plan how to do it best, this article is for you!

Venison Stew Ramen Style

A special treat for special occasions.

I love quick and easy recipes, but sometimes I feel the need to cook something more elaborate. An occasion to test my cooking skills or to celebrate a special ingredient. This time it is a beautiful cut of game and somehow it remembers me of Japan and I decide to combine an European style stew with Japanese ramen style toppings. A great idea, as it turns out!

How To Meal Prep

Basic calculations and cooking guidelines.

Even if meal prep sounds like something only fitness freaks do, it is a very convenient and time efficient way to assure that you get something proper to eat for the whole week. It may also be a great strategy to save money since often it is cheaper to buy certain foods in bulk. Meal prep is more than just cooking something in batch and then putting the leftovers in tupper boxes, although this is already a big step in the right direction for most people who are not used to cooking. Here we delve a little deeper: distribution of protein, balancing calories and eating well while doing so.

Apricot And Root Veggies Cake With Honey Curd Frosting

A delicious cake with unusual ingredients.

One of my favourite childhood desserts was “Ruebli Torte” which is Schwitzerdütsch (=Swiss German) for carrot cake. My mum was born in a small city near Zürich -Aarau- which is famous for its yellow and orange carrots. And as everyone in my family loves cake but not veggies, she smuggled them into this nutty and juicy very traditional cake. Sometimes we had a zucchini cake or pumpkin pie too, therefore the veggie and sweet pairing was never new to me. Years ago I’ve also baked a beetroot chocolate cake which even my very sceptical brother loved and since I first ate a parsnip cake at London Borough Market I wanted to reproduce this taste. As I discovered a mixed root veggies cake in an old Jamie Oliver paper magazine, I decided to make this as a dessert for a Magic The Gathering evening with our friend Alexa.

Intermittent Fasting

The new magic pill for health and performance?

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his research on autophagy. Since then intermittent fasting has received increased overall attention as it is related to autophagy with potential health benefits. If you have been in the fitness game for quite a long time, this is nothing new. Many people have succesfully lost weight with this strategy, but is intermittent fasting the ultimate panacea for health, fat loss and/or muscle growth?

Happy Holidays!

Dear BearyStrong-Blog Reader,

we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed the days with your beloved ones. The Bearystrong team (Stefan & Chantal) is taking some days off, therefore the next post will be on Thursday, 2nd of January 2020. In the meantime:

let this article inspire you building a new training plan to get even stronger in 2020!
read our all-time favourite article: the hypertrophy range myth
make a refreshing zero-calorie granita or
a comforting pomegranate beef stew , depending on your mood and how much you ate during the last days 😉
read about habits before making New Year’s resolutions.

We at Bearystrong wish you a Happy New Year and a lot of gains for 2020! Special thanks to all the friends and clients who supported our business this year. You rock!

Chantal & Stefan

Mailänderli

Three generations of Christmas cookie-baking.

Our regular readers know that we are alternating a recipe and a fitness-related article every week but for Christmas we decided to give you one more recipe to have one more batch fresh cookies before Christmas. It is also a perfect match to the last week’s Hazelnut Kisses as you need only the yolks for this very traditonal Swiss recipe.

Hazelnut Kisses

Hazelnut scent and childhood memories.

Actually, hazelnut kisses (“Haselnussbusserl” or “Haselnussmakronen”) are a classical Christmas cookie recipe in Austria. But do we need Christmas to eat cookies? We personally do not think so. This recipe has a great advantage: you can use up egg whites that are left over from other recipes, like for sabayon (zabaione) or Mailänderli or Carbonara. It is also very flexible and you can experiment with other nuts. On top this in one of my personal favorites: an easy recipe, passed down to me by my mum, a treasure, almost a heirloom. Enjoy!

How To Calculate Your Macros

Basic calculations for everybody.

Now that you know how to calculate your energy intake, the question is “How much of each macro should I eat?” Calculating your macros is rather easy and I think everybody should know how to do it by himself. Considering that there are services out there that “calculate your personalised macros”, I can help you save some money too. Read on and enjoy the Beary wisdom gains!

Pomegranate Beef Stew

Easy, bold flavour from Persia.

Today there is a Persian inspired dish on the menu. Exotic spices, pomegranate and comforting poppy seeds may seem weird at first glance, but work together perfectly. Give it a try, I am sure you will like it!