Healthy Recipes, yay!

I have recently discovered a wonderful grain that I had previously not heard of. After searching the internet, it appears I have been living under a rock. Quinoa (pron. keen-wa) is an Aztec grain, that is wonderfully nutritious. It is one of the few non-animal foods that contains all of the amino acids the body needs, making it a wonderful food for vegetarians. It is also incredibly versatile. You can use it in place of rice in savoury dishes, you can cook it in milk and berries as a breakfast cereal, you can make desserts out of it. I made a wonderfully tasty quinoa salad for lunch today that I would like to share with you.

Pandy's Quinoa Salad

1 cup of cold cooked quinoa
big handful of drained, rinsed chickpeas
handful of chopped red pepper
1 tablespoon of chopped red onion

handful of chopped salad greens (I used beetroot leaves, but basil, rocket, spinach, mustard, peas or beans would be fine)

Dressing:
3 tablespoons of plain yoghurt
1 clove garlic, crushed
squeeze of lemon juice.

Mix salad ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mix dressing. Serve together, serves one. Yum!

If you wanted to, you could serve your quinoa salad in a quinoa (or wholegrain) pita pocket! To make quinoa flour, just put the required amount of quinoa in a food processor until it has the consistency of wholemeal flour. If you like, you can use a mixture of quinoa and linseeds, or just experiment with your own grains. Quinoa flour has a very mild taste, but I like to use it because of the large amount of nutrients. If you've never made bread before, don't let that put you off. The instructions may look complicated, but they're really not, pita bread is so simple to make.

Pita Bread

2½ teaspoons dry yeast
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup of warm water
2¼ bread flour (also known as high grade or heavy flour)
½ cup of quinoa or wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon of salt

• In a bowl, mix honey and water until honey is dissolved. Add yeast and stand for 5 minutes or until foamy.
• In a large bowl, mix together the flours and the salt. Mix in yeast mixture and knead on a floured board until elastic and no longer sticky. Add more flour as needed.
• Wash and dry bowl and lightly oil it. Place dough in the bowl and cover with a damp towel in a draught free area. Leave dough to rise until double the size. This takes about 2 hours, however, if you have a warm kitchen, this may only take 1 hour.
• Punch the air out of the dough and tip on to a lightly flour bench. Divide in to 12 even balls.
• Roll out each ball in to a 5 inch circle. Dust each circle with flour and place on baking paper. Stack circles between the paper sheets. Leave dough to rest for 10 -20 minutes. Be sure you remember to dust the circles on both side, or the dough will stick and you'll have to re-roll and re-rest them.

• Preheat your oven and a baking tray (or pizza stone) to it's highest temperature. Open the oven door, toss your circles on the tray (being careful that they don't fold over) and close the door quickly.
• The pita's will puff up in a few minutes. Give them about a minute after they've puffed up to cook, then remove them with tongs. If they look like they're starting to brown, take them out or they'll go crispy.
  

Repeat with remaining pitas. Allow to cool then place them in a freezer bag and throw in the freezer for convenience.

You could top this off with a yummy fruit dessert. Cook your quinoa in milk, sweeten with a little honey, top with chopped fruit and sprinkle with cinnamon. Delicious!

xx Pandy

“I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian” - unknown

Tips for sticking to your diet plan

Most people know what a healthy diet is, we've all seen the food pyramid, we know what we should be eating. Sticking to a healthy diet is another thing entirely. Change is never easy, as human beings we rebel against change with all of our strength. Luckily there are lots of things we can do to make the transition to a healthy new lifestyle easier.


1. First and foremost: Eat breakfast. I know it's been said a thousand times, but it's just so important. Breakfast should consist of wholegrains, fruit, and lean protein. Try to stay clear of commercial cereals, they're full of hidden sugar and salt. Many cereals that are commonly believed to be healthy are, in fact, saltier than seawater. The best cereal choice is wholegrain oatmeal, with skim milk and no sugar. Another great breakfast choice is baked beans with wholegrain toast plus an orange. Together, the baked beans and the wholegrain toast provide all of the essential amino acids the body needs. This means that when eaten together, they are a great source of lean protein. The orange is high in Vitamin C, which help the body to absorb the non-haem iron from the beans and the toast. Be sure to eat the orange, and not just drink orange juice. While the juice still contains the vitamins, it does not provide the fibre which helps you feel fuller for longer. Also juices tend to be full of sugar. Even the 'no sugar added' varieties contain much more sugar than you would expect. Think of it this way - in order to get one glass of pure OJ, you may need to use 5-10 oranges. That’s a lot of sugar!

2. Drink plenty of water. Most people don't drink enough water throughout the day. Use your urine colour as a guide. Urine should be a very light yellow. If it is dark, you are not drinking enough water. If it is fluorescent yellow, stop taking all those vitamins!! If you eat right you shouldn't need them. Often people mistake thirst for hunger, so if you're hungry have a drink of water and wait 5 minutes.

3. Be realistic. You are not going to lose 20 lb in a week, so just forget it. If you do lose 20lb in a week, get to your doctor quick, something is not right. Make lots of small, attainable goals, like "I want to lose 5lb in a month". If you meet or exceed your goal, you will feel much better about yourself and more motivated to continue. Also, don't expect to go from eating two chocolate bars and a whole fried chicken a day to being the perfect dieter. You will slip up. The trick is not to punish yourself for it. Accept that you are only human, and tomorrow is another day. However don't use a slip up as an excuse to continue eating like a pig for the rest of the day!

4. Snack. If you can not wait to eat between meals, then eat. I know that I can not go without snacks, my blood sugar gets too low and I feel awful. By waiting until you are starving, you are only making it harder on yourself and you are more likely to give in to poor food choices. Plan healthy snacks in to your day to keep your energy levels up and your calorie levels down. Good choices for snacks include, yoghurt, raw nuts, fruit, vegie sticks and hummus or a low sodium instant soup.

5. Write down why you want to lose weight, be detailed. Read it everyday. I want to lose weight because I want to set a good example to my daughter. I want to be able to run around with her and introduce her to sport and help her to maintain an interest in being fit and healthy. I want to be more attractive to my husband and feel like I am someone he can be proud of. I want to feel less ungainly. I want to not struggle to bend down to put my shoes on. I want to wear nicer clothes. What do you want?

Hopefully these tips will help you on your journey. Please feel free to share any tips of your own that help you keep on track.

xxPandy

"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt." -- William Shakespeare

Instinct Gone Awry

Regardless of your moral, ethical or religious standpoint, we humans are animals and we have certain instincts. Some of those instincts revolve around food. A beneficial instinct is taste aversion. We, and other mammals, tend to instinctively avoid eating foods that smell bad, or taste bitter. This prevents us from eating harmful food, or poison substances. An off-shoot of this instinct, is that if we eat something, then get sick, we probably won't want to eat it again anytime soon. I'm sure most of us know someone who says "I got really drunk on vodka once, and now the smell of it makes me feel sick.". In reality, it wasn't the getting drunk that put them off vodka, it was the raging hangover that triggered the subconscious in to deciding "Okay, you moron, obviously drinking all that vodka wasn't such a good idea, lets not do that again. Next time you go near that stuff, I'm not going to let you touch it".


Instinct can over-ride knowledge. For example, a common taste aversion is tomatoes. Many people can not abide the bitter taste of these fruity vegies, but will happily eat cooked tomatoes in sauces. This is because their taste aversion instinct works in overdrive. Even though they know tomatoes won't hurt them, their instinct tells them that they may be dangerous because of their bitterness. Cooking tomatoes often removes this bitterness, making them palatable. Every few years I try to eat a piece of raw tomato to see if I can handle it, but every time, I can't. I have a very strong reaction and can not bring myself to keep it down.

Nowadays, many of our natural instincts, which once kept us alive, no longer help us because we live in a time of plenty. These pain-in-the-butt instincts include, taking advantage of available foods, familiarity, preference for high energy foods, preference for quick energy foods and preference for salty foods.

When there is food around, we want to eat it, especially if it's tasty food. This is because when food was scarce in the time of our ancestors, we ate what we could, when we could. The better tasting it was, the better it was for us. Unfortunately, today, food is everywhere we look and the tastiest food is no longer all that good for us. We also tend to prefer foods that familiar to us. If it is a food we have had before, we know it's safe to eat, also it often provides us with comfort; we may have developed psychological connections with certain foods. For example, when you were a child, your mother may have always cooked a big stew with mashed potatoes on a cold winters night. Your brain came to associate cold nights with this meal and now as an adult this is what you crave for comfort. If you were given lemonade whenever you were sick, chances are this is what you feel like when you're sick as an adult. These connections can also develop as an adult (like many women, I want chocolate when I'm feeling down!), so it's not too late to try to make new healthy connections.

So why do we crave foods that are bad for us?

Because there was a time when they weren't bad for us. High fat food was hard to come by, and we needed all the energy we could get. When these foods were available, they were seasonal (such as nuts), or required hunting, which took even more energy. So we had to eat as much of these high calorie foods as we could, so that we could store the energy as fat to use up in times of scarcity. High sugar food, such as ripe fruit, provided quick release energy to help us in our daily labours and also provided us with vitamins and minerals. We developed this instinct to help us to locate these nutrients, but now we can still this craving with nutrition-free candy or sugary drinks.

Salty food is in high abundance nowadays, but there was a time when salt was relatively difficult to come by. Many of our body functions require salts, and if our blood salt level gets too low, the kidneys start getting rid of the body’s water to try to conserve our salt levels. This means we become dehydrated. In ancient times, this meant death. In modern times however, virtually every packaged food item contains large quantities of salt. This causes fluid retention, as the kidneys try to keep the blood salt level down by conserving water, high blood pressure and osteoporosis. The average westerner eats over twice the recommended amount of salt every day.

Okay, so it looks like we're doomed to be fat unhealthy. But I promise you, we're not. We can't change our instincts, but we can help ourselves by being aware of them. When you want that chocolate bar, ask yourself, "Why do I want this? Am I hungry? Do I need the energy?" If so, choose something your ancestors would have. Have an apple. Another important question to ask would be, "Am I eating this out of habit instead of hunger? Do I really need this or is there a wiser choice?". Over the next week I will be focusing on diet, what I want you to do, is to catch yourself out making an instinctive food decision, and change it to a positive food choice.

Xx Pandy

“There is no freedom like seeing myself as I am and not losing heart.” - Elizabeth J Canham

Pandy's Tasty Chicken

Someone recently asked if I was planning to include recipes on this blog, and I thought, "What a good idea". Thanks Benny!  So I thought I'd share with you what I made for my family last night. It was healthy and tasty and even my husband "The Carnivore" and my two year old loved it. The Carnivore even went back for seconds, which is always a nice compliment.  Being an average income house, I tend to cook on the cheap, so instead of nice pretty chicken breasts, I found a whole lot of  'chicken breast chunks' in the supermarket that were marked down. You can find these quite frequently in supermarkets and I believe they stock them when they're training new butchers who mess up the breast fillets.  You can also use boneless thigh cutlets in this recipe, they're usually cheaper and tastier - just be sure to trim the fat and skin off first.

Pandy's Tasty Chicken (I'm not so great at coming up with creative names, hehe)

400 g chicken breast (or thighs) cut in to chunks
1 can of chopped tomatoes in juice
1 red pepper, large dices
1 onion, large dices
2-3 cloves garlic
big handful of fresh basil (or 1 tablespoon dried)
2 tablespoons (approx) of red wine vinegar, or balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of sugar (brown is best, but not essential)
2 tablespoons flour
pepper to taste
cooking oil (I like rice bran oil)

Toss the chicken in a bag with the flour and some pepper to season and shake off the excess. Heat a couple of tablespoons of the oil a heavy bottomed frying pan or wide saucepan (not non-stick) to a medium high heat and brown the chicken in 3 or 4 batches. Don't try to do it all at once, you'll steam the chicken and it won't brown. Add extra oil as needed and don't worry about the brown bits on the bottom of the pan, they add to the flavour. Drain the chicken on paper towels to soak up the excess oil.

Lower the heat to medium/low and saute the onion and garlic until soft, taking care not to brown them. Add the red pepper and saute for another minute or so. Deglaze the pan with half a cup of cold water (you can use red or white wine or a stock if you want) . Scrape up the brown crispy bits and mix in. Reduce the liquid to about half then add the tomatoes and the chicken. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove the lid and add the vinegar and sugar. Also add the basil, if using dried. Simmer uncovered until the sauce thickens to a chutney-like consistency. If using fresh basil add in the last few minutes of cooking. Serve with pasta and green vegies.

Yum!
xxPandy

Diet Jargon exposed

Stating the obvious, in order to lose weight, we must eat less calories that we put out. This isn't really that hard and once you start eating lower calorie foods, you'll be surprised by the bulk of the food you can actually eat in one day without going over your calorie limit. Basically, our body runs on three different types of fuel. Fat, protein and carbohydrate, all of which are essential to our wellbeing, indeed, our survival. Years ago, fat had a bad reputation and every dieter was determined to avoid this evil substance at all costs. Then as our knowledge developed, we learned about the benefits of good fats. Omega-3, omega-6, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, all became household terms. Avocados were no longer shunned by their fruity friends and were welcomed back on the menu. We stopped cooking with lard (thank Christ).


Then along came the new diet nemesis: Carbohydrates. These were the vile sugars that were making all of us fat. They were everywhere; they were hidden in your coffee, in your lunchtime sandwich, in your rice salad and they were even hiding in your vegies. We started living off meat and cheese. This sounded great to begin with: Bacon and eggs for breakfast, chicken cordon bleu for lunch and a big juicy steak for dinner. But after a few weeks we were hungry, depressed and exhausted. Our arteries weren't much better.

I wonder when they're going to come up with a No Protein diet.

The moral of the story, is that in order to live, we need all three fuels. Each one has specific functions in the body. But thanks to these horrid diets over the years, we have learned a few practical things and dispelled a few myths about diet.

Lets start with fat.

Basically, there are three different types of fat. Saturated, mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated. Saturated fat is fat from animals as well as coconut oil and palm oil. It becomes solid at room temperature. At a molecular level, for each carbon atom, there are two hydrogen atoms attached. This is the maximum amount of hydrogen a fat molecule can have, so the molecule is said to be saturated with hydrogen. Small amount of saturated fats (such as in lean meat and low fat dairy) are harmless but when we start eating large quantities, as most of us do, we start to have adverse effects. Saturated fat contributes to high LDL cholesterol (that’s the bad one!) and blocks the effects of HDL cholesterol (the good one). In turn that contributes to blocked arteries and heart disease.

Monounsaturated fat contains one less hydrogen atom per fatty acid than saturated fat, while polyunsaturated fats contain two or more fewer hydrogen atoms than saturated fats. Most of our vegetable oils contain both of these fats. Olive oil is considered to be monounsaturated, because it contains more monounsaturated fat than polyunsaturated. Monounsaturated fat can start to solidify in cold temperatures, so if your oil goes milky looking in winter, don't throw it out, it's still good - it's just cold. Both of these fats, particularly polyunsaturated, increase the levels of HDL cholesterol in the body. This helps to carry the bad cholesterol from the arteries and prevent heart disease. This doesn't mean that you can gorge yourself on avocados and olive oil guilt free. Fat in all of its forms contains 9 calories per gram, while protein and carbohydrate contain only 4 calories per gram. Small amount of good oil is all you need, just enough to cook with in small amounts or in a vinaigrette over your salad is plenty.

Okay, so what about 'transfats'? This new word seems to be everywhere lately and no one seems to interested in explaining to the public what it actually is. Transfats are unsaturated fats that have been artificially saturated with hydrogen so that they are molecularly the same as saturated fats. They also act the same way in the body as saturated fats so are, therefore, bad for you. Transfats are found in many processed foods, particularly margarines, because they make the product firmer. You may have noticed that commercial catering spread is a lot firmer than the more expensive "healthy" margarines. This is because of the higher level of transfats in the cheaper product. Many companies, particularly in New Zealand and Australia are starting to phase out the use of transfats in their products and already these two countries have the lowest use of transfats in their table spreads in the world.

Well, I hope I've helped you understand a bit more about the conundrum that is fat. Remember to check your food labels, especially on processed foods. You may be surprised.

xxPandy

"It's never too late to be what you might have been" -- George Elliot

Making exercise a habit

We often decide to start an exercise routine with the intention of keeping it up forever. However, this rarely ends up being the case. After a week or two, the motivation dwindles and we let life get in the way of our health and fitness. So, how is it that other people have managed to make exercise a lifelong commitment?  Well, dear readers, they have formed a habit, while the rest of us reluctantly force our way through our workouts, only to give it up.  The commonly accepted theory is that forming a habit takes 21 days (or 27 or 30 depending on who you ask). But surely there's more to it.  There are lots of little things we can do to help ourselves form a long term exercise habit.

One of the best things you can do, is to exercise everyday at the same time. I am exercising twice a day - first thing in the morning and again as soon as I put my daughter to bed. The brain comes to associate these times with exercise and begins to expect it, craving that endorphin rush. Before long, you will be wanting to exercise at these times and it will be easier to exercise than to not exercise. I know that sounds like crazy talk, but it is true. Ask any athlete and they will tell you that if they don't get their exercise, they feel worse for it. If they miss a workout, they can't wait to get out there and hit the gym or go for a run.

Okay, so 21 days sounds easy enough, but what if I've done 10 days then I skip a day? Don't panic, the 21 days is just a guide. Missing day eleven does not mean you have to start from day one again, so don't feel discouraged. The idea of the 21 period is that the more you repeat an action, the easier that action becomes and the less your mind will fight against it. A slip is not the end of the world, and lets face it, some days it is just not going to be practical to exercise, no matter how much you think you should. Hopping on the treadmill at Aunt Berthas wake is not going to be a good look.

Even after you've formed your habit, you can still lose motivation over time, so prepare for this now. Write down all of the reasons you have for wanting to make exercise a daily part of your life. The wonderful thing about exercise, is that there are no cons, only pros. The benefits are great and endless in number. My biggest reasons are that I want to be able to run around with my kids and encourage them to be active, and I want to look good (hey, who doesn't!). Make your list big and when you are feeling unmotivated, get your list out and read it. Really think about why you wrote those things and remind yourself why exercise is important.

Make exercise a priority. Don't make excuses for yourself to not exercise if you know damn well that you can.  Groceries can wait until after your workout, the supermarket isn't going anywhere. So what if you're a little hungover, drink some sportswater, rehydrate and get moving, you'll feel better for it. Kids won't let you exercise? Hey me too; do it before they get up, or after they go to bed.   Exercise boring? Get a cheap mp3 player and listen to music or audio book. Or even join a sports team. No time huh? Classic excuse. Get up earlier or sacrifice a few time wasting activities. Get off the internet, jump off the couch, exercise in front of the television if you must, just get moving!

Anyone can make exercise a habit, you are no exception.

In summary:

1.  Allow 21 days for your new habit to become second nature.

2.  Exercise at the same time each day.

3.  Don't become discouraged if you skip workouts, you're only human!

4.  Remember why you want this. Write a list.

5.  Stop making excuses and get off your ass.

xx Pandy

 “Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”  -- unknown

First week update

One week has passed since I have started my new disciplined life and I'm doing really well. I have exercised six out of the last seven days. I aimed for seven days, but on day four my muscles were screaming for a break and it did the world of good. For the first few days, I was exhausted, but my body seems to have adjusted and I have more energy. Today for the first time in many many months I didn't have an afternoon slump. 

Already I'm seeing results on the scales - I have lost 3 kilograms in one week!  Also, now that my blood sugar is under control, I am no longer craving sweet foods and my instances of hunger are much further apart.  I'm still walking 4 kilometers in the mornings. I find it tedious while I'm doing it, but once I get to that last 400m, I feel elated that I stuck with it. It's a wonderful feeling to accomplish something first thing in the morning.  I think I might need to invest in a cheap mp3 player to keep me interested long term though.  I'm using my exercycle for 30 minutes each evening, and I really enjoy that. It beats sitting on the couch and it prevents me from nibbling away infront of the television.

I'm so pleased with my progress in such a short time, I'm even more motivated to stick to it. So, I better get to bed, early morning again tomorrow!
xx Pandy

Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness. ~Edward Stanley