Wednesday 15 June 2016

"Eat less and move more": really not that simple(s)



I haven’t posted here for a while. Partly this is because I’ve realised that whilst I cook a lot of different things I do have a small-ish repertoire of mid-week regulars, most of which I’ve already talked about here. I’ve also switched my fast days to be a single meal in the evening and, at 500 calories, this meal is pretty much ‘normal’; whilst this is more convenient (no researching 250-300 calorie meals) it also means I have nothing to post about (no researching 250-300 calorie meals)! However after my last post I did draft a rant about diet and exercise expectations. Said rant sat on my computer waiting for me to cook, and photograph, one fast and one non-fast meal to include with it, that never happened. So I’m posting the rant now… 


Can we talk about how difficult it all this diet/exercise/healthy is?


No, I haven’t fallen into the chocolate mud cake of self-pity (haven’t fallen into any cake at all, unfortunately), what I mean is a refutation of those people who comment below the line on any article about rising obesity levels or the UK’s sugar tax (the BBC is a prime source for this). Their comments always seem to read ‘Just eat less and move more, simples’.


If using the phrase ‘simples’ hadn’t been enough for me to hate them with a fiery passion then the substance of their comment would do the job. If it really is that simple then why is there a global, billion-dollar diet industry? Why are there personal trainers, nutritionists and about 3 million people like me trying to figure out what works for them and blogging about it. Eating less and moving more is the way to lose weight in the same way that getting paid more and spending less is the sure way to be less poor; it’s so reductive as to be completely useless as advice.


Sometimes below the line commentators are slightly more thoughtful, giving a nod to the complexities of diet and exercise (and to my eternal relief, not using inanities like ‘simples’). Sample comment: ‘Just cook meals yourself from whole foods and do a mix of cardio and resistance training’ (this is a typical comment left under a Guardian story describing a new diet and fitness programme or extoling the wonders of this month’s superfoods). It’s good advice and would probably work, but by beginning it with the word ‘just’ the commenter has still revealed that they have the empathy of a mosquito.


I think there are three main limiting factors (with substantial crossover between them) on people’s ability to follow a healthy lifestyle:

  • Time
  • Money
  • Inclination



Let’s start with time. Exercising takes time, cooking takes time. I think I normally spend about six and three-quarter hours exercising in a week and probably another two to three hours travelling to and from exercising/showering afterwards etc… cooking takes up another  five to nine hours a week I’d guess. If I had a job that demanded longer hours, if I had children, hey, probably if I cleaned my own house or had a longer commute, I wouldn’t have that kind of time. Undoubtedly I could do all my exercise close to home, I could do time-efficient high intensity stuff, and I could just eat grilled chicken breast with steamed vegetables every night but I can’t imagine anything worse (see also inclination). What if someone who doesn’t have the time I do, also can’t imagine anything worse?


Cost: Having paid for a batch of riding lessons and a batch of yoga classes in one week recently, the cost of exercise has been at the forefront of my mind. Given, I live in a very expensive city, but I’ve just done some quick calculations and I’m on to spend the equivalent of a third of my total salary my first year out of university on exercise this year, and that’s not including any equipment or the feeding of my unfortunate lululemon addiction – woah! I have expensive tastes; I take horse riding, do Bikram yoga and find that having a personal trainer twice a week is about the only way I’m going to lift. Some of the cost is accounted for by convenience (see time) for example I’ve included there the cost of a gym at work as well as the club in my village. Eating well is expensive too I think though I’m not about to fill my trolley with chicken nuggets and ready meals one week to be able to do a comparison (I think it would probably be cheaper though).


My third limiting factor, inclination, is connected to both the first two. I’m lucky in that I have an enormous inclination to cook. I love, rather than begrudging, the hours a week I spend in my kitchen. I suspect that if the time and/or the money I had available was reduced, I would still make cooking from scratch a priority. 


Although I know some people do, I don’t love exercise. I consider it important, by a process of elimination I have identified activities I enjoy doing that count as exercise (and the great thing about that is that when you’re used to exercising six days a week and suddenly can’t get to a planned class you’re dependent enough on your endorphin boost to drag your butt out for a run). If my available cash and time were slashed, would I go for a run three days a week and brave the intimidating weights rooms at the gym without the emotional pacifier of a personal trainer on the other three days? I’d love to say yes but in all honesty, probably not. Running doesn’t feel good, and I feel stupid and self-conscious in the weights room without someone to tell me what to do. 


That’s my rant over. I am looking to start posting more regularly so fingers crossed I think of something to talk about; any suggestions gratefully received :-)

Thursday 17 March 2016

A description of before and after/mid-way pics



In some ways trying to live a healthy lifestyle or follow a diet is like having a job; in the best of all worlds it wouldn’t be necessary but the benefits of doing it (health/a pay check) outweigh the downsides (foregoing cheesy chips/having to go to work). 

In other ways they’re nothing at all alike; I left work last Thursday feeling a little overwhelmed by all that was on my plate. After a weekend doing nothing special (yummy pasta, more yoga than I can squeeze in during the week, seeing friends and family) I looked at my to-do list and felt supremely confident of conquering all the items on there. 

On the other hand I finished last week pretty happy with my sensible, healthy choices of the week before, but after a weekend doing nothing special (yummy pasta, more yoga than I can squeeze in during the week, seeing friends and family) and a couple of less than ideal scale responses I feel that I probably have hypertension already, and also that I should start checking out where the plus size stores in Dubai Mall are. 

In order to cheer myself up on Saturday and ‘screw [… my] colours to the sticking place’ for another week of good choices, I took some mid-way (not yet after!) pictures to compare against my before pictures. I was going to share them but I can’t figure out how to make them into silhouettes and I’m not going to inflict on anyone pictures of me in my underwear, I also think it might not be legal where I live! I honestly didn’t think there would be much of a difference but it’s amazing and I heartily recommend taking before pictures to everyone (painful as it was at the time!).

So this is just an update on the diet. I have so many leftovers for both fast and non-fast days, and I was out a couple of nights this week so the only thing I cooked was Martha Stewart’s lighter mac and cheese. Recipes to follow next week when I intend to tell you about the slow-cooker pho as a fast night supper and my lavender and honey roast chicken which is a favourite (and surprisingly quick) non-fast weeknight supper.

Monday 7 March 2016

Fast night chicken satays, and a duck and sweet potato hash



So as mentioned, I’m at the stage of some clothes not starting to fit properly so last weekend was probably not the best time to go shopping for a dress for a wedding which is at the end of May. 


I don’t really like clothes shopping at the best of times to be honest, I normally stir myself about once a year on a dedicated excursion to buy work clothes, top up underwear supplies, tops and shorts/jeans a bit before I go on holiday and fall in love with various items when I’m not meant to be clothes shopping at all. This method (together with the fact I don’t consider tidy cupboards a necessity, but have a cleaner who gets frustrated with this and reorganises my wardrobe a couple of times a year) provides me with a wardrobe bursting at the seams whilst simultaneously giving me ‘nothing to wear’; though I suspect I have loads to wear but I just can’t find it.


Whilst I make an exception for weddings and special occasions and go out to buy ‘an outfit’ it’s not something I madly look forward to, so I was delighted when I found not one but two dresses in Ted Baker (aka the-first-shop-I-tried). Of course the issue is that I can’t decide between the dresses, I love them both but definitely don’t need two, especially not at Mr. Baker’s prices. The other issue is that with both of them the fit of the size two isn’t quite right but I tried a size one (for another style which I didn’t eventually like) and that wasn’t quite right either. So I’m going to have to wait, probably until about the end of April, to see if I’ve either lost enough weight to fit comfortably in the size one (I feel that my Ted Baker size zero days are firmly behind me!) or to commit to buying the size two and having alterations made. I am, of course, terrified that the dresses I like will no longer be in the shops by then.


All this pales into insignificance when compared with the dress for the other wedding, my sister-in-law’s wedding – the bridesmaid’s dress. Being measured for this over the Christmas break and realising that I needed a US size 10 (a UK 14!) by the David’s bridal sizing chart is what made me cast around for a weight loss solution and settle, at my father in law’s recommendation, on the fast diet. 


I should mention that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a size 14. My problem was that I was a 14 on the sole basis of my waist (at 80 cm), my bust and hips were both smaller sizes. Recent research seems to be showing that gaining weight around your middle is an indicator of potential health consequences (as well as making you look rubbish in skinny jeans). Crucially my waist to height ratio (thought more accurate than BMI by some doctors) was 0.5 (80/160), the very upper limit of what can be considered healthy. I was a text book example of what I’ve seen referred to as skinny fat.
 

I have been on the fast diet for two months now and my waist is 76 cm, bringing my waist to height ratio down to 0.475 which is much better (though I’m never sure if I’m measuring accurately). The dress that started it all arrived earlier this week, courtesy of my mother in law, and I tried it on. Bearing in mind that I already knew the top would be massive as I’ve never had a size 14 bust, the waist was also pleasingly loose and I’ve made a note in my diary to get it tailored at the start of May – thank God the dressmakers in Dubai are good!


All this is a long way round of saying that the 5:2 diet is working for me. I’m enjoying the weight loss, and, according to the numbers am improving my health, but I’m also enjoying not having to be careful every day. Here are my ‘let’s-lose-more-weight’ and ‘look-at-me-I-don’t-care’ recipes for the week: chicken satays with Thai-style salad and duck and sweet potato hash.


Duck and sweet potato hash

(serves 4, 454 calories per serving)







  • 2 large sweet potatoes
  • 3 tablespoons of coconut oil
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 confit duck legs
  • 100ml sherry
  • 4 eggs
  • Ketchup (and champagne!) to serve

  1. Preheat the oven
  2. Peel and dice the sweet potato into 1cm cubes
  3. Toss the dices sweet potato in a baking tray with 2tbsp of the coconut oil
  4. Roast for an hour, stirring and turning half way through*
  5. Dice the onion
  6. Remove the skin from the duck legs and shred the duck meat
  7. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large frying or sauté pan, add the onion and cook until softened
  8. Add the roast sweet potato cubes, the duck meant and the sherry, stir to combine
  9. Press the mixture down so it evenly coves the bottom of the pan and break an egg into each quarter of the pan (if you’re cooking for two or three and storing the leftovers to have at a later date, then only put eggs on the portions you’re eating now)
  10. Cover, and cook for seven minutes or until the egg white is cooked, but the yolk is still yellow and, preferably, runny
  11. Serve with ketchup and a glass of champagne (not really, but we were celebrating my husband’s new job!)

* I often do stage 1-4 in advance, for example over the weekend which then makes this a quick weeknight supper


Chicken satays with a Thai-style salad (Satay’s recipe found here, quantities adjusted)

(Serves 3, 388 calories per serving)


 Chicken satay


  • 1/2 Tbsp. curry powder
  • 1 tsp. pepper
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 Tbsp. sugar
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder, or more to taste
  • 300 g chicken breast
  • 1/4 cup coconut milk (light)
  • 6 to 9 bamboo skewers

Peanut sauce

  • 1 Tbsp. coconut oil
  • 1/2 Tbsp. red curry paste
  • 1/4 cup coconut milk (light)
  • 2 Tbsp. chunky peanut butter
  • 1 Tbsp. fish sauce
  • 1/2 tsp. rice vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp. sugar, or more to taste

Salad

  • 100g carrots
  • 80g mango
  • 1 cucumber (or less)
  • 1tsp sesame oil
  • 1tsp rice vinegar
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce
  • Fresh lime

Chicken satay

  1. Slice chicken breast into thin strips.
  2. Add curry powder, pepper, salt, and sugar and garlic powder and coconut milk and sliced chicken to medium bowl or a Ziploc bag and shake/stir to coat chicken in marinade. Marinate for 4 hours (up to overnight).
  3. Thread chicken onto skewers.
  4. Grill chicken on a barbeque or in a George Foreman type press grill until cooked through.

Peanut sauce

  1. Heat oil in small saucepan and stir-fry curry paste for 15-30 seconds
  2. Stir in coconut milk and bring to boil, boil for two minutes.
  3. Add peanut butter, stir constantly until the sauce begins to thicken, 2 to 3 minutes.
  4. Reduce the heat and simmer, and add fish sauce, rice vinegar and sugar. Cook sauce, stirring for 1 minute.*
Salad
  1. Mandolin the carrot, cucumber and mango into thin strips and toss to combine.
  2. Mix the oil, vinegar and fish sauce together to make the dressing.
  3. Toss the salad in the dressing and serve with a squeeze of lime juice.

* These are the instructions, but yesterday (because I wasn’t paying attention!) I mixed all the ingredients and cooked (stirring to break up the curry paste and peanut butter) until it thickened and it tasted okay, it’s a definite option if you’re feeling lazy, but following the instructions does make the marginally better sauce!

Thursday 3 March 2016

Low-cal pancake supper, and lasagne



Sunday
It’s been a bit of an odd week really. After last weekend’s spectacular casting of myself off the wagon of healthful living into the pits of far too much wine where neither nutritious meals nor exercise exist, I started Sunday with a hangover, a fear and loathing (mostly loathing) experience on the scales and a cheese croissant and a hot chocolate for breakfast. Nor did things improve much from there; a team lunch of Middle Eastern food sounds healthful until you realise that the only Middle Eastern dishes I eat are the meat, the cheese and the bread I ate fried halloumi, pizza, a cheese wrap and kebab meat. At least this cured my hangover, you might think, but sadly it morphed seamlessly into a head cold. 

I wasn’t trying to fast on Sunday (thank heavens) as we’d booked to eat at Okku as part of Dubai Restaurants Week, so my head cold and I went out for Japanese food which was delicious but calorific, although I appeared to have finally learnt my lesson and failed to imbibe a cask of wine (baby steps Lee, baby steps).

Monday
Monday was a fast day, and I coddled my cold by working from home to keep warm and avoid infecting my colleagues. I started well with a grapefruit for lunch, but mid-afternoon was forced to concede that I really did not feel well enough for yoga. By now it feels like my routine is shot to bits, and I am a person who REALLY needs routine (apparently it is key to a healthy life), and I cannot summon the energy to make something nutritional, balanced and with optional/optimal leafy greens. Not to mention that I haven’t done my (routine) weekend shop where I fill the fridge with the life-giving ingredients for carefully planned fast and non-fast meals.

So I ate pancakes with dulce de leche, on the sofa, watching approximately seven episodes of the Gilmore Girls and occasionally snorting some eucalyptus oil (no, not literally). However I didn’t completely lose control and actually managed to make this recipe fit in with the calorie restrictions of a fast day, below is my recipe for my help-I’m-meant-to-be-fasting-but-I-can’t even-adult-today-pancake-supper, Gilmore Girls optional. 

Tuesday
By Tuesday I clearly need to get a grip. I’m not fasting but feel that some nutritionally dense food would be a clever plan and would probably help me over my cold, which is receding, but slowly. Access to good food is facilitated (remember I still have no food in the house) by going in to work which thankfully has outlets from a Subway to an every-second-dish-contains-quinoa salad bar. I have a smoked salmon and cream cheese multi-grain bagel for breakfast and an enormous salad with chicken and goats’ cheese for lunch. I’m helped back on track further as my husband both does the grocery shopping, and starts off the slow-cooker chicken pho (planned as a fast night supper before the week imploded) allowing me to go for a short run after work (my first exercise since Friday). The pho is absolutely stupendous and will be featured here in the coming weeks without a doubt.

I also cancel social plans for the weekend, identifying that sleep, cooking and eating well and getting some yoga classes in are probably best for fighting the cold off. All these things make me feel more in control and like my life is not destined to be a train wreck from now until the end of time.

Wednesday
Wednesday, and it’s my second fast day of the week (I couldn’t fast on Tuesday as I had nothing in the house to have for a fast day breakfast; and yes, I do recognise the irony there). Scrambled eggs with cottage cheese for (a late) breakfast, and a portion of last night’s pho for an early supper. As I have both personal training and hen pub quiz on Wednesday, the trick is that supper must be early enough that I don’t throw up during personal training, and late enough that I don’t go crazy and order a plate of chips at pub quiz. I’m pretty smug about the idea of fasting on a Wednesday, as I moan about ‘having’ to eat at the pub quiz every week as the food (shhh) isn’t that good. In reality I do come pretty close to throwing up whilst doing burpees and I’m very grumpy about not being able to eat or have a glass of wine at pub quiz, However I think that fasting non-consecutive days might actually have given me better results so I think I’ll be trying it again.

Thursday
Thursday and we are down with this week. Riding lesson at 0700, bagel for breakfast, salad for lunch and lasagne for supper. If you’ve been paying attention (and if not, why not) you’ll notice that the lasagne is the only non-fast night supper I’ve actually cooked at home this week and to be honest my version is a big plate of Garfield-fuel but only 505 calories so worth sharing I think. It can’t really be done as a quick after work supper, and in this instance the ragu/Bolognaise was made the weekend before last meaning that all I have to do tonight is make the béchamel, layer it up and bake it. Yum.

Now if next week could be a little bit less of a (completely self-inflicted, what was I thinking) struggle, that’d be great.

Help-I’m-meant-to-be-fasting-but-I-can’t even-adult-today-pancake-supper
(Feeds one, 357 calories)




  • ¼ cup of all purpose flour (114 cals)
  • ½ cup unsweetened almond milk (15 cals)
  • 1 medium egg (72 cals)
  • 1 tsp butter (for cooking) (35 cals)
  • 2 tbsp dulce de leche for serving (121 cals)

  1. Make batter (I like to do mine in a jug), flour first adding milk gradually and stirring so batter in smooth, then whisking in egg
  2. Heat part of the butter in a frying pan (I divided my butter into four and made four small pancakes, you could do three slightly larger ones or two dinner plate size-ish ones)
  3. Add part of the batter to the hot buttered pan (again, divide into however many pancakes you want to cook) turn once it is cooked on top and cook the reverse side for 30 seconds to a minute
  4. Spread with dulce de leche and eat in front of the TV

Lasagna (no pics I’m afraid as this is being posted as it’s finishing cooking!)
(Feeds 6, 505 calories)

Ragu/Bolognaise

  • 1.5 tbsn olive oil
  • 0.5 cup diced onions
  • 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 400g lean minced beef
  • 3 carrots, crated
  • 4 stalks of celery (diced)
  • 500g pasatta
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • Beef stock (0.25 cup fresh/1 cube or tub, no needs to add water)
  • Dash of Worcestershire sauce
  • Red wine 1 glass

Béchamel

  • 125g butter
  • 100 g all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup almond milk

Lasagne

  • 1 pack fresh lasagne sheets
  • 200g fresh mozzarella (the now in the liquid, not the semi solid one)

Ragu/Bolognese

  1. Heat olive oil in a large pan, we use our wok
  2. Add onions and sauté until translucent
  3. Add garlic and sauté for another 30 seconds to a minute
  4. Add beef and brown, breaking up large lumps with a wooden spoon
  5. Once the beef is browned add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for between 30 minutes and an hour, until it reaches the desired consistency which is not too liquid (this stage can be done well ahead)

Béchamel

  1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan
  2. Add the flour a tablespoon at a time, stirring so it is fully combined with the butter
  3. Whisk in the milk a little at a time, stirring to create a thick paste/lump less sauce before adding the next batch
  4. Carry on cooking, stirring constantly until the sauce is thick enough to make up the lasagne
  5. You can add cheese at this point if you like, though I have left it out of the recipe to save calories (100g of cheese added to the béchamel adds 62 calories to each portion). Please don’t tell the Italians, but we like cheddar added which is also much less calorific than parmesan*

Lasagna

  1. Drain the mozzarella and wrap in kitchen roll to sit
  2. Assemble the lasagne in a Pyrex or other oven proof rectangular dish: ragu/pasta/bechemel/pasta/ragu/pasta/bechemel/pasta/ragu/pasta/bechemel/pasta/Bechemel
  3. Pinch pieces off the mozzarella and arrange over the top
  4. Oven-bake until brown and bubbling on top

*My best Italian friend had her second baby this morning, so I’m not too worried about her stumbling across this :-) if she does, congratulations, and I might like cheddar in my white sauce, but please observe that I do offer the correct name for the meat sauce that all Brits call Bolognase