Taking kids' footy to the next level with Coles Healthy Kicks

Welcome team to Cole's Healthy Kicks. Coles and the AFL have partnered to create this program to make health and fitness fun!

Welcome to AFL max team! Full 360 let's go kids! 

Yes!

Ground ball, pick it up! Snap it, [ball crashes into shelf] oh no!

Hi team, welcome back to the Coles kitchens.

That's how the italians do it! 

Taste test. 

Join us each afternoon as AFL and AFLW superstars help us lead healthier lifestyles. 

You don't get guns like these from sitting on the couch [points to arms].

Ciao!

Bianca:

Welcome team to Coles Healthy Kicks. Coles and AFL have partnered to create this program to make health and fitness fun. Join us each afternoon as AFL and AFLW superstars help us lead healthier lifestyles. Mondays are all about gearing up for a game. Little bit later, we're going to be joined in the Coles kitchen by AFLW staff, Gabby Newton, who's going to teach us how to get geared up for the weekend, but now it's time to put our runners on and crossover to join AFL legend James Podsiadly aka Pods over at AFL Max. He's going to teach us how to get our bodies moving after a weekend of activities.

James:

Thanks, Bianca, and welcome to AFL Max team. We're going to get stuck into a flexibility and mobility session in just a minute. But before we do, I want to talk about your setup. So my setup here in AFL Max, I've got a bit of space and there's a couple of key things you need for our training sessions going forward. Okay. So first thing is, exercise mat. If you haven't got an exercise mat, find a towel, all good. A comfy pair of runners is also important. So make sure you got some runners on. Now, if you've got a footie, great, go get it in the house. You've got time before we get started, but a footie is going to be ideal as well for all our sessions. But if it's not, if you haven't got one, it's okay, you'll get by. The other thing we need is a water bottle. So we're got to make sure you're nice and hydrated. I've got mine. And the last thing I want to talk about at home is make sure you've got some space.

James:

And I just want to talk about our weeks, our training weeks. So we've set up the weeks, just like an AFL player, an AFLW player. So Mondays, as I said before, this is mobility and flexibility. We're going to get stuck into that in the next minute or so. The Tuesday is around strength. So we're going to do some body weight strengths training. Wednesdays is cardio. Thursday's about balance and footwork. If you're playing any sport, whether it's football or any other sport, balance and footwork is really critical. And we'll go through that on Thursdays. And then Fridays, it's all about having fun. So I've got some cool stuff for you guys over this journey that we're going to be doing. It's a little bit different, but it is about having some fun.

James:

So without further ado, let's get stuck into it. Okay. Mobility and flexibility, a really key component in fitness. And you see AFL players and AFLW players do some of these exercises all the time. Now the first set of exercise we do is about getting our back mobile. Okay. So you guys, I'm sure you've spent a lot of time watching TV or on the computer sitting down. So really important that we actually get out back mobile. So all I want you to do is find the middle part of your mat. We're going to do these exercises for about 45 seconds each roughly. Okay, so the first one is just some back rolls and I'll just demonstrate it. All you do is tuck in knees into your chest, cross your legs and just rolling back and forth. Just find the spot in the middle of your mat, wherever you are. I'm just going to roll the back over. You might hear a couple of clicks in the upper part of your back. It sounds like a really nice feeling.

James:

We're really going to start easy on Mondays. I'm anticipating that you guys have done a fair bit of exercise on weekends running around either playing school sport or sport. So Mondays is really about recovery and that's what AFL players do. All right, next one is just some back rotation. Similar thing, middle of your mat. I just want you to go out with your arms, like a crucifix, okay. Feet and knees, 90 degrees apart and all we're doing is going from side to side. Oh, feeling that stretch in the lower part of your back. Okay. Back the other way, try and do your best you can at keeping your shoulders flat on the floor. I'll just show you what that looks like on the side if you can't see it. As I said, crucifix out and just rotating from side to side. [inaudible 00:03:58] that back mobile. Really helping our recovery. All right. Let's do a couple more each side. No need to rush this one. That's really good.

James:

All right. Next exercise. I actually really like this one. It's called floor scorpions. So it's not as scary as it sounds by the way. Scorpions are a little bit scary and I'm scared of them. I'm sure you are too. So basically is you're lying flat on the mat. Head down. Okay. Same thing, arms are out in a crucifix. I'll do this on the side as well so you can see. And what we're trying to do here is opposite foot to opposite hand. So out, try and touch that hand and then back in the middle. Out with your foot, left foot to right hand. Feels a good, really good stretch right through your core. Keep rotating through.

James:

You should try and get further and further every time. I don't even know how close I'm getting. How close am I getting mister camera man? I still got a fair way to go to get that hand out. I'll show you on the side so you can see it. But just keep rotating it. Left hand to right. Left foot to right hand and back the other way. Right foot to left hand. Good. So 45 seconds, that's heaps.

James:

One more exercise. Just to loosen up our lower backs. Called a cat and dog stretch. Okay. So I might do from the side so you can see. All I want you to do is start off hands, shoulder width apart, same as your knees. I want you to arch up like a cat push down to the ground and then back down. Poke your bottom out and arch your back. Back up. Push down to the ground and next one you just push your bum, your bottom out arch your back. Let's do a couple more of them. Really get a stretch in between your shoulder blades here and then arch your back. Good. And one more, act like a cat and then back down.

James:

Okay. A bit of hips and legs mobility. So if you kids want to get faster, like a Patrick Dangerfield, you need really good mobility and flexibility around your hips, okay? So we've got four exercises that is going to help that today. As I said before, about 45 seconds each. These ones are called archer squats. So we're doing is I want you to squat one way and just on the side and then pretend that you got a bow and arrow and you're reaching up to the sky. Okay?. Reaching up. You should really feel a stretch right through here and on the other side. Okay. Let's do the other side. Reach up to the sky. Really open up your hips. Great.

James:

Stand, back up straight. Let's do a couple more each side. Just squat, bow and arrow, reach to the sky. Nice. All right, let's go. See how low we can get here and open up those hips. Hands up to the sky. Beautiful. Let's get one more each side. Up. Good. Remember today, mobility and flexibility. The intensity is not very high, but you're still going to get stronger while you're doing this as well. All right. archer squats, tick.

James:

Now I just want to do some high pulls of the knees. And you would've seen AFL players do this all the time. All right. So all we're doing is basically middle of your mat. Pull your knee up, up to your chest. Try and get a stretch right through your glutes or your bottom. So up, maintain your balance, back down. Up, pull it up, and back down. Up, hold this one for a little bit longer. Nice. Work on your balance at the same time. One more. Pull it up as high as you can. Awesome. All right.

James:

Next one, walk out spidermans. So I might just do this to the side of my mat. So all we're doing is you're going to walk out and then lock a spot. Come in, out, in, out, then walk back. Okay. Let's show you that again. Right, so just walk out with your hands. Nice and strong. Left foot to left hand, back out. Right foot to right hand, back out. Really trying to open up the hips. Good. Remember what I said, the more mobile and flexible your hips are the quicker you run. Out. Good. Right foot, right hand, back out. Good. Let's do one more of them. We're out. Good, nice and strong. Left foot, left hand. Open up that hip. Right foot, right hand. Open up that hip. Good. I feel quicker already.

James:

Next exercise. What have we got? Oh, frog stretch. So all this is, is like a frog. Try and get as wide as you can with your groins and your knees. And all we're doing is on your elbows, just walking out as far as you can. Out to about there. You should feel a stretch, right in your groins and then elbows back. Let me show that from the front again. On my mat. So knees out, elbows down, walk out like a frog and hold. And then walk back. Okay. If you're not feeling your stretch in your groins, maybe go a little bit wider with your knees. Okay. So same again. Walk out. That feels good. Nice. Elbows back. And we'll do one more. Elbows out. Feel that stretch and we're back. Cool. That's our hips done. You feeling flexible? I definitely am.

James:

Okay. Some upper body mobility are really about your shoulders. Okay. Everyone including me spends a lot of time on computers. So we're trying to get those shoulders nice and mobile. So, first exercise is just some swimming basically. So I want you to go two hands, alternating. Get those shoulders moving so you can do it at the one time like that, almost like a butterfly. You guys are swimmers and let's go backwards now. Good. Get those shoulders nice and loose. And then backwards. Good. Let's get these guys moving. All right.

James:

Next exercise. The reaching crab. This is cool. So reaching crab is you're basically on all fours head facing up and all we're doing is we're going to reach with our right hand to start with, as far as we can back, reach back, try and drive your bottom towards the ceiling and then back down. Okay, reaching crab the other side. Bum up and reach as far back as you can. Feels like a really good stretch. Bottom up, reach with your right hand as far back as you can. Reaching crabs. And up. Who's scared of crabs by the way? Put your hand up. Me. And back down. All right, one more each side. Glutes up and reach as far back as you can. Feel that stretch. And back down. And bottom up. Reach as far back as you can. Feel that stretch. Right, reaching crabs, tick.

James:

Next exercise, two more to go for our upper body shoulders is just some reach unders. Okay. So similar what we did with our cat and dog stretch, is in this position. What you're going to be doing is with your right hand, reaching under to your left. With your left hand reaching under your right side. And let's just alternate that. So let me do that from the front. Reach as far as you can. Let's get moving here. Let's do six more. One, two. Here we go. Three. You guys are doing an awesome job. Four. Really getting mobile and flexible. Five. Last one. And six. Good, nice work. Anyone sweating? Not yet. Good. So it's always about mobility and flexibility. It's about recovery.

James:

And last one for upper body. Feet about shoulder width apart, maybe even further actually. And all we're doing is reaching out one side and you should be feeling a stretch all the way down your right side here. Back to the middle, reach all the way the outside. Feel nice, big stretch all the way down your left side. Let's do a couple more them each side. Oh, that's good. Other way. Nice work. One more each side. And last one. Good. Okay. Mobility, flexibility done for week one.

James:

Thanks for joining us. You did a great job. I'm looking forward to seeing you guys tomorrow for our strength session. Now there's a hashtag on the screen there. If you've got any photos or videos that you want to share, you guys working out at home during the week, after today use the hashtag and we might even repost it. Okay. So use the hashtag, it's there. I'm going to throw you guys to the Coles kitchen. Let's go see what they're cooking up there. See you tomorrow.

Ebony:

Hi team, my name's Ebony. I'm a nutritionist at Coles. Welcome to the first Coles Health and Wellness segment. Each week I'll be taking you through the Coles nutrition segments to learn about healthy eating as a part of the Coles Healthy Kicks program. Today, I'm joined with Michael, Cole's Development Chef.

Michael:

Hi guys. How are you?

Ebony:

And also I've got Gabby here, the AFLW superstar.

Gabby:

Hey, everybody.

Michael:

So Gabby, we're going to make a snack that we're going to eat about 30 minutes to an hour before a game. What's your pre-fueling go-to snack?

Gabby:

I like something nice and light before a game. So I usually go for a banana or a rice cracker with some peanut butter on it.

Michael:

Nice.

Gabby:

Just to give me lots of energy.

Michael:

Love that we've got peanut butter in here. So that's going to work really well. Do you like to cook for yourself before a game? Is that something you enjoy or is something you're learning now you're playing more footie?

Gabby:

Look I'm learning. I'm not the best chef, but yes, definitely learning.

Ebony:

A really good analogy I like to use is how when we go on a big road trip, we're definitely not going to go with an empty tank are we?

Michael:

Yeah.

Ebony:

We're going to make sure we stop by the petrol station. And we put our fuel in the tank. Now the type of fuel that we put in might make a difference on how well that road trip goes or for me to make a few deviations along the way.

Michael:

Yeah.

Ebony:

You sound like you've had some experience on this one.

Michael:

Don't put diesel into the unleaded.

Ebony:

Exactly, right. So just like when we go on a road trip, we're going to top up with the fuel. We're going to make sure we get some great pregame snacks.

Michael:

I like this recipe because you can choose your own adventure once you start cooking it. I'll give you the building blocks. The base technique and the base ingredients you need and then you can flavor it with whatever you like. So if you don't like cranberries, leave them out. Put in sultanas, apricots. If you can't have peanuts or nuts, you can swap them out for a seed and seed butter. It's sort of a choose your own adventure recipe. And yeah, I'm just calling it my almond, coconut and cranberry nut bars. So something you can make a big batch of put in the fridge and can last you for a couple of weeks before games, before school, before anytime you need to concentrate and have that little bit of energy.

Michael:

All right. So the first thing we need to do is get a pot of water on. I've got half a cup of water in here and we're just going to bring that up to a light simmer. And I've got some dates.

Ebony:

Ooh. Yummy, that sounds sweet.

Michael:

Using dates it almost replaces a sugar for me. So rather than using sugar or honey or maple syrup I use dates.

Ebony:

It's a perfect natural one, isn't it? Because we know our fruits have so much natural sugar in them. Berries, kiwi fruits are a little bit sweet, mango grapes.

Gabby:

Mango.

Michael:

Yeah, pineapple.

Ebony:

All amazing snacks when you're wanting a bit of a sweet treat, but we're not having that added sugar.

Michael:

So we're going to put our dates into some water. Pitted dates, two cups. Half a cup of water. And what we're going to do for about five to eight minutes, we're going to bring it up to a gentle simmer and we're just going to let the dates soften. So there's going to be a setting agent for our nut bars.

Ebony:

Okay.

Michael:

We're going to just let them do their thing. So if you guys want to watch that.

Ebony:

Sure.

Michael:

Spoon there, and just give it a stir every now and then to make sure they're all sort of covered in that water and cooking down. And that's the start of our wet ingredient. And when you're baking or cooking something like a muesli bar or a nut bar, you have a wet and a dry mix. So while the wet mix happens, we're going to start making our dry mix. That's all of these other dry ingredients. We're going to start with some rolled oats.

Ebony:

My favourite.

Michael:

Yeah. Love that.

Ebony:

Full of fibre.

Michael:

So two cups of rolled oats and that's going to be the... just bulk out our bars. It will be the base for it. And this is where you guys can choose your own adventure. You can add in whatever other ingredients you like. The flax seeds is just going to help bind it together. So flax seed, when it's hydrated, helps stuff stick together a little bit.

Ebony:

Okay.

Michael:

A little bit of quinoa flour. So-

Ebony:

Fancy.

Michael:

High protein.

Ebony:

It is.

Michael:

And-

Ebony:

For a grain, it's very high in protein.

Michael:

And I actually like the flavor because there's a real nice nuttiness to it as well. So high protein plus flavor for me is always a win. Then I've got some coconut. I just love coconut. It just adds a nice little texture. A little bit of fattiness to it.

Ebony:

Did you get that yourself from the tree?

Michael:

I didn't, no. That's been flaked and dried but-

Ebony:

Disappointing Michael.

Michael:

Then we're going to go in with some sunflower kernels. This is just for a little bit of crunch. So we got-

Ebony:

So that adds a texture, is it?

Michael:

Exactly, so.

Ebony:

Yeah.

Michael:

So if you don't like sunflower kernels you can go for pepitas, sesame seeds, just something that's a little bit crunchy. Rice bubbles would be great. Anything that adds a bit of crunch. Now dry cranberries. They have a really nice sharp tart flavor. Which I think goes really well with the sweetness of the dates. But if you wanted to add sultanas, dried apricots, whatever your favourite dried fruit is-

Ebony:

Whatever you have in the pantry. I'm sure you've got something in there.

Michael:

Yes.

Ebony:

Yeah, no. So it's not a recipe we have to follow to the T.

Michael:

Totally. If you do the base bit, the dates and the oats, the flour and the flax seed, you can add whatever textures and flavor you would like into it. The second last dry ingredient we'll add are some almonds. So these are just raw almonds. I'm just going to... Quarter of a cup and really roughly chop them. Just... I'm just trying to cut every little almond kernel in half.

Ebony:

But not the fingers.

Michael:

Keep the fingers out of the way.

Ebony:

So Gab, what do you like as a baker? Because I'll admit I'm not the best when it comes to baking.

Gabby:

Yeah, same here. My little sister, actually bakes it for me, but I am good at making some protein balls.

Ebony:

Look out.

Gabby:

Some peanut butter balls. Yes, I do enjoy doing that.

Ebony:

Delicious there a good one that you can just kind of pop in a snap lock lock bag, chop them in and then have them on hand. Yeah.

Gabby:

Yeah. Exactly.

Ebony:

Nice one.

Michael:

All right. So almonds in there and we just got one last little ingredient, just a little pinch of salt.

Ebony:

Not too much?

Michael:

Not too much. Just a bit.

Ebony:

Right, okay.

Michael:

Helps balance the flavor out and that's our dry mix mixed together. So all those ingredients are going to be the bulk and we're going to bind them together with our wet ingredients.

Ebony:

Okay.

Michael:

To make our nut bars. So we're just going to turn this heat up a little bit. Now that's cooking away. We just want out dates to soften. Once we do that, we're going to add our peanut butter.

Ebony:

Smells good.

Michael:

Now, if you are allergic to peanut butter or you don't like peanut butter.

Ebony:

Yes.

Michael:

Or you're not allowed to take peanut butter to school, you can easily replace it with something like a... One of these sunflower kernel butters. So you can get a version of peanut butter made with sunflower seeds. So it's a lot less allergens in it and it still has that nice nuttiness.

Ebony:

Exactly. Right.

Michael:

Now we just have to wait a couple minutes.

Michael:

All right guys, so our dates have cooked down. You can see they're nice and soft. If you press on with a spatula, they break up. So that's when I was ready to start processing. And this is where you get mum and dad to give you a hand. I'm going to stick blender here. You can use a blender. You can use a food processor. All you want to do is blend your dates into a bit of a paste. You want to be really careful. Because it's hot, you don't want any hot date hitting you so nice and slow. And there you have it guys. Once you get that nice smooth paste, that's the base of our wet ingredients ready to go.

Ebony:

Michael is that some avocado oil that you have there?

Michael:

Ebony, it is avocado oil. I would be quite happy with that.

Ebony:

I am incredibly impressed. Now avocados are full of healthy fats, some other great oils, olive oil, sunflower oil. They have all the amazing, healthy fats that we want to have. So can I pop some of this in?

Michael:

Yeah, absolutely. We're on a quarter of a cup and we're going to back on the heat just so we can warm it through. This is a fun job for you Gabby. Then you get all that peanut butter into the...

Gabby:

Thank you.

Michael:

So peanut butter is going to add a really nice nuttiness, a bit of fat to it as well, but it also plays a role of binding agent. So between the dates and the peanut butter, that's what holds our nut bars together.

Ebony:

Right, so the glue.

Michael:

And it also gives us great flavor. So what we're going to do now, we just want to warm this through, give it a stir. Just so it's all incorporated.

Ebony:

Go for it Gabby. Take it away.

Michael:

I'm going to add one more ingredient. I've got just some vanilla bean paste here.

Ebony:

Okay.

Michael:

And just a squeeze of that. About a tablespoon. That's just going to add a nice floral flavor vanilla gives. Vanilla helps make sweet things taste sweeter. That's looking really good. So now all we're going to do here is just mix this all together. This is the fun bit for you guys at home. You want to combine-

Ebony:

All right, so our dry and our wet?

Michael:

Dry and our wet. And always wet into dry because otherwise it makes a heck of a mess. And then who wants to mix that together? It's actually not as easy as you think you want to really mix it so everything's coated. And when you look in the bowl, there's no dry parts.

Ebony:

Do we need an AFLW player to do this bit. All right Gabby, you're me.

Michael:

So I've just quickly lined a brownie tin. So a little bit of the avocado oil on the bottom of the tin. Just rub it round.

Ebony:

Yeah.

Michael:

Get a baking paper into our brownie new tin and just press into the sides. That's going to be a mould. So it's a no-bake nut log. So we're just going to put this in the fridge once Gabby's finished mixing it.

Ebony:

Right.

Michael:

Let it sit in the fridge and it will last for ages. So it's a bit like a protein ball like you mentioned. It doesn't... Once you got all the ingredients together, you don't actually have to cook it, which is really good and really easy. And the best thing about it is you can keep it in the fridge and it will last for ages. So we love that. All right, Gabby, that looks perfect. Now we just want to transfer it into this tin.

Ebony:

Challenge accepted.

Michael:

And you just want press it nice and flat. So when you get... It sits nice and evenly in the fridge and you've got a beautiful muesli bar. Now that's going in the fridge for six hours. if not overnight, just to set.

Ebony:

Overnight.

Michael:

I've done one earlier.

Ebony:

Of course.

Michael:

What would you do then is, straight out of the mould. You can peel off your baking paper and then you can cut it into little, I would say bite-size pieces, because then you can grab a little bite before a game or you can grab a little bite after you've been filming all day.

Ebony:

Amazing.

Michael:

There you.

Ebony:

Thank you so much.

Gabby:

Thank you.

Ebony:

So team, there we have it. We've learned about pre-fueling before the game. We've got a fantastic example that we can make ourselves, a nut bar. All right. So it's over to you. Have a go at doing it yourself, take some photos and send it in. We'd love to see how you get on. Thanks guys. We'll see you next episode. Over to you Bianca.

Bianca:

Wow. So healthy food is like fuel for our bodies. That's epic. I reckon I'm going to sneak in a couple of veggies to my dinner tonight to make sure that I'm geared up for a game on the weekend. Don't forget to send us a picture of your favourite pregame snack to the address below. You can paint them. You can draw them. You can take a photo of them or you can even get crafty. Each week we'll get our AFL or AFLW superstar to scroll through and pick their top three. If you're one of those three, you'll get a Coles Healthy Kicks pack. That's going to help you achieve some of your healthy lifestyle goals. So make sure you get your pic in for your chance to win. Now, it's time for a quiz.

Bianca:

Excited to see you back here tomorrow after school for the next episode, team. So we can kick some healthy goals together.