Healthy Eating

Long time no post I realise - it's most probably because I'm a bad person. Moving on...

I have become a fitness fanatic, and with that have started to look more closely at my diet as a whole, rather than focussing on individual meals.

You know by now that opinions are like assholes (everyone has one), and diet plans are exactly the same. The thing is that that's how it should be - everyone has a different body/ metabolism/ health/ weight/ BMI, everyone does different quantity/ quality/ types of exercise, we've got different budgets, different toxins that we allow into our lives, different time allowances. In essence, we're all different, so of course our eating plans should be different.

This is my version ...

Start with exercise. In an ideal world I would truly love to work out 12 times a week. Divide that into 4 types of exercise, 3 times a week each.

Type 1 is cardio - in my opinion this is the be all and end all of weight-loss, but my weight is fine, so for me its all about endurance. In my case it means running - 1 long run on Saturday mornings 10ish km right now, but this flows up and down depending on whether I've got a race coming up, so it should ease up to about 25km by the year end, and up to about 40km or 50km before the Marathon next June. 1 easy run, about 8km. 1 run that's either a 5km temp run or 5km intervals. Note that although the focus right now is on running, and is likely to stay that way until at least after the marathon next year, I fully intend to broaden the scope of my cardio work after that. Other cardio options available outside of the gym are cycling (road or mountain bike), kayaking (probably a surfski is best for me), or swimming (open water swimming seeing as I live on an awesome tropical island). When I do get round to another cario type, I'll probably focus on it pretty exclusively for a period and try get into a race or two in that discipline.

Type 2 is strength. The problem with being a distance runner is that you end up being an endurance skeleton. I don't want that. Rather, I'd really like a general, rounded fitness, all be it one that includes running as its (current) focus. So 2 or 3 workouts a week are strength training. Been doing this for about 2 months and its going pretty well. Got to say that vanity is a big reason to be doing strength training - I try to explain it away to better fitness, but you and I both know better. One validation I've got though, is that stronger legs and being stronger generally should speed up my running, but I haven't really seen great improvements in my running time.

Type 3 is flexibility / balance. No I don't do anything, which is bad. The absolute minimum is where I'm at right now, which is stretching my legs for 5 minutes when I get back from a run. In a prefect world I'd rather be spending a workout on yoga, or tai chi or some such after my runs. They tell me that flexibility is key to avoiding injury. I'll get the one day.

Type 4 is power / speed. No I don't do anything here either, yet. My theory is that its really sad I never get to sprint flat out, or hit a ball as hard as I can, or some such. In my perfect world I'd have 3 workouts a week which were either sprinting intervals, or some high-intensity sport like squash or rugby.

What that gives me is a normal day where I workout early in the morning and early in the evening, so my Meal Plan go something like this:

Wake up (say 4:45AM) Carb and protein snack, easily digestible, plus a freshly made fruit juice.

                    Morning Workout (6 - 7AM)

Breakfast (7:20AM) Simple carbs and protein to recover from the workout, plus complex carbs to give energy for the day.

Morning Snack (10AM)

Lunch (12:30)

Afternoon Snack (3:30PM)  Fuelling for afternoon workout.

                    Afternoon Workout (5 - 6PM)

Dinner (6:30PM) Some carbs for workout recovery, but not much carbs for sleeping.

Late Snack because I have a chocolate addiction.

Diet

The goal is balance and variety with a few small rules:

Sugar should be minimized. Its fine (even good) straight after a workout, but only then. So leave the cupcakes for binging on when I come in from my run (unless you're trying to lose weight, then you should count those calories). The aim is to keep my blood sugar levels pretty steady to avoid fatigue crashes through the day.

Generally things should be low-ish fat. Saturated fat (i.e. from animals or dairy) should be kept to an absolute minimum because its bad for your cholesterol, and un-saturated fat is good for you, but is still high in calories, so some fat is important, but if you want to lose weight then keep it to the minimum.

Eat as much fruit and veggies as you can.

Carbs should be complex whenever possible. Find a good wholewheat bread that you like and eat that every day. I've just found a really nice one as my local supermarket.

And that's about it.

I close with this philosophy to eating which I think came Anthony Bordain:

"Eat real food; Not too much; Eat mostly plants"

That's really what it boils down to.

Okay, cheerio.

Tuna Lentil Spaghetti Bolognese

Seeing as this is my third blog post in 2 days I don't really have much to say.
Dinner tonight used to be a staple of ours a few months ago, but then seemed to get forgotten. We were trying to use up what we ingredients we had in the kitchen without going shopping, and everything pointed to this.

I really like it. It gives you spaghetti bolognese without the heavy mince, most of the bulk seems to come from the lentils so its clearly good for you. And it makes 1 tin of tuna go an incredibly long way. Vix and I both had a healthy helping full, and even Jasmine ate it (the soon to be 5 year old, I'm pretty amazed she ate lentils), and there's probably enough leftovers for the everybody to eat the same for lunch tomorrow.

Stoked. My healthy eating mission is picking up steam.

Recipe from Mediterrasian.com again.

Ingredients

3 tbspn olive oil

1 onion - finely chopped

1 carrot - finely diced

1 stalk celery - finely chopped (I didn't have any so used green pepper. Worked just as well.)

3 cloves garlic - finely chopped

1/2 tspn dried oregano

1/2 cup white wine

3 tbspn tomato paste

420g tin of chopped tomatoes

salt

pepper

spaghetti

420g tin of lentils - rinsed and drained.

180g tin of tuna in olive oil. - drained and flaked.

Method

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan over medium heat.

Cook onion, carrot and celery, covered, for 8 minutes, stirring sometimes.

Add garlic and oregano and cook for 2 minutes.

Add wine, tomato paste, tomatoes, salt and pepper.

Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook, covered, for 10 minutes.

Make the spaghetti while this is going on.

Then add the lentils, tuna and last tablespoon of olive oil to the sauce and cook, covered, for 5 minutes.

Serve, topped with a little grated Parmesan.

Nutritional info (Once again worked out at NutritionData.com)

Assume the above recipe is 6 servings.

Based on recipe using green pepper, rather than celery.

Calories 399kCal
Total Fat 9g (14% Daily Value for 2000kCal diet)
 - Saturated Fat 1g (7% Daily Value)
Total Carbs 58g (19%)
 - Dietary Fiber 7g (28%)
 - Sugars 5g
Protein 19g

Vitamin A 39%

Vitamin C 46%

Calcium 5%

Iron 23%

Other nutrition info from NutritionData:
Complete Amino Acid score indicating a complete or high-quality protein.
"The good: This food is low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Protein and Vitamin C, and a very good source of Selenium."
Also there's Omega-3 (388mg) and Omega-6 (1193mg) fatty acids.
46% of Daily Value Vitamin C,
10% DV of Vitamin E,
15% DV of Vitamin K
Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate ( I don't know what any of this means, but maybe I'll try to figure it out sometime soon.)
Minerals include:
Magnesium - 15% DV
Phosphorus - 23% DV
Zinc - 10% DV
Selenium 82% DV

Actually I definitely think I'm going to need to do a bit more Nutrition research.
Seems from the above that there's more to these shenanigans than Carbs, Protein and Fat.
I will keep you informed.

Happy eating.



Weekday Breakfast

No pics today as I had no intention of writing this - but breakfast tasted really good, so I thought I'd share.

You have clearly heard it mentioned before that Brekkie is the most important meal of the day. It loads you up with energy (think carbs and protein) to get you started on the right foot and refuels you because you haven't had anything in your tummy since last nights chicken curry.

If you're anything like me you've been super bad at eating breakfast at all, but since Wifey started her Weigh-less diet, she's being forced to have breakfast, and now we're all starting to like the tradition of sitting down every morning in amidst the mad rush to get to work and school on time.

But its tough to find the time - so quick and easy recipes are required.

Le Recipe
Jungle Oats - place cup of oats, 1 cup of water and some salt in pot. Add 2 cups of boiling water. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Take off heat and let sit for about 3 minutes. Makes enough for 2 1/2 people (which is exactly how many people eat breakfast at my house.)

Add a small handful of goji berries, one sliced banana and a little milk.

Delicioso, and doesn't even need sugar or honey.
I think it would have been equally awesome with a chopped up apple instead of the banana, or in addition to it.

Nutritional Info
(Figured out by myself with the help of nutritiondata.self.com)
Calories 489kCal (that is, about 24% of the daily requirement, assuming a 2000kCal diet)
Total fat 11g (19% of meal)
Total Carbs 91g  (69% of meal)
Of which - dietary fiber is 9g and sugars 22g
Protein 16g (12% of meal)
Vitamins include Vitamin C (27% Daily Value) Calcium (20%) and Iron (27%)
Nice dose of Manganese, Selenium, Riboflavin, Vit. B12, Pantothenic Acid and Phosphorous

Tomato & Barley Soup

So its a new year, Wifey is on a great new healthy living mission. 2011 has been dubbed the year of Health and Well-being. Its oddly quite exciting. So far she's lost 3kg's on a weigh-less eating plan, and that's only in about 3 weeks. Now she's discovered Raw Food, and is researching all sorts of recipes for that.

I'm keen. Not that I think we're all about to become vegans, but I do think that we're going to do really well at finding what a balanced diet means to us this year. Clearly its going to be a process. But if we knew everything already, then there'd be no fun in the journey.

To start it off I don't have a raw food meal, but it is at least a very healthy meal. I found it in "Eating for Sustained Energy" by Delport & Steenkamp. Haven't really changed the recipe except that I put more curry powder in.

P.S. Because I'm a dumb-ass, I just put the SD card from my camera into the DVD player in my laptop. So until I get Computer Guy to break open my computer and get it out, there's not going to be any photos. Stop laughing! I kill you! (Later note: Thank you Computer Guy)

Ingredients
5ml canola or olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
5ml curry powder (Note: I thought 5ml was silly, so I put 15ml in, and its fiery. I think 5ml would give you a touch of spice, 15ml gives you HOT curry soup.) (Dumbass) (STOP LAUGHING!!! I KILL YOU!!!!)
1 chicken stock cube dissolved in
1.5 litres boiling water
1 cup lentils
125ml pearl barley
1 x 410g tin tomatoes, chopped with the juice
freshly ground black pepper
chopped fresh parsley, to serve

Method
Heat oil in a large pot. Add onion and garlic and stir while cooking gently, until just brown.
Add curry powder and cook, stirring for another minute.
Stir in the stock, lentils, barley, tomatoes and pepper. Bring to the boil, and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the lentils and barley are tender.
Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley and serve with some bread.

Lentil Note
I'm not sure if the recipe wanted tinned lentils or dried lentils. In an effort to minimize unnecessary chemicals I used dried lentils. You've got to put the lentils in a bowl, cover with boiling water, and leave for about an hour (while you're doing the other prep and mucking around a bit). They double in size after they're soaked. So you only need to use half a cup of dried lentils.

Nutritional Info per serving (Recipe serves 6)
Glycaemic Index 22
Fat 2g
Carbs 28g
Fibre 8g
Protein 12g
kJ 833

Weigh-less info: One serving = 1 1/2 carbs, 1 protein and free vegetable.

Holiday's over

Right.

I do realise that it's been absolutely ages since I posted anything here, but in my defense, I've had a busy time.

Chances are you know the story - wedding planning, wedding, tons of family here for a holiday, mission to SA for a holiday, turned 30, good friend turned 30 & another turned 26. Sheesh! Absolute awesomeness. But Sheesh!

Best photo of the madness was taken by the immensely talented Carlin Perros - pity she wasn't the official wedding photographer.

Wifey is no longer my fiance. :)

Life is slowly getting back to normal. We're both just getting over a bout of much deserved exhaustion. Today the kids are sleeping, the weather has turned island perfect, we're off to the beach once the kids wake up.

I confess that I had to question whether I cared to carry on with this blog. But as the exhaustion subsides, we finally sat down yesterday and planned the week's meal, and the idea of cooking and writing about cooking became interesting again.

So the blog (and my life in the kitchen), are going to focus on two areas for the near future.

First is that summer is coming (actually I think it just arrived), and we've been abusing our bodies for long enough that we're both really keen for quite a health kick. The starting point is to cut back on red meat and carbohydrates. That means adding lots of fish and vegetable-full meals to the weeks eating. Summer's back, so salads are starting to sound appealing. And meat is expensive, so lots of veggies is nice for the budget as well. I'd also like to look into the nutritional content of what we're eating - maybe analyze a few meals, and try to balance that with what we should be eating. Exercise is supposed to be part of this, and so we're taking up golf and going to the beach a whole lot.

Second is that, because we're pretty party'd out, we're going to be entertaining at home from now on. No massive parties where everyone we know is invited - instead we're going to get small groups of people round for dinner. First, baby club has started (really its a drinking club with a baby problem), where the mommies spend the afternoon with the kids, and then the daddies come round to someone's house after work for drinks and dinner - seems like there'll be 4 couples for each dinner, but that it will rotate who's house its at. Second, we've got to learn to speak French this year, so my sneaky plan is to get a friend of ours around for supper once a week or so, and he'll teach us while we're around the dinner table. He's busy teaching himself about the intricacies of fine wine, so I reckon it'll be a good combination of good food, good wine, and good company. Third, we've been wanting to get the wicked grouping of Brown Dog, Carlin & Pastey around for supper for quite a while. It's one thing spending time socializing at parties, but you get to spend much better quality time with people when they're around the dinner table. Ok, so we're not really slowing down on the partying I admit.