Banting for dogs

  Despite being an active, trail-loving dog, my Rusty is on the heavier side of the scale.

On that first afternoon when she came into my life almost four years ago, we went to the vet for her vaccinations and deworming. The vet recommended dog food for her and guided me on her meal portion - to eat for the weight that she should be and not what she currently weighed. She gained weight.

She then went on to Hills weight loss programme. We did regular weigh-ins and she still ate for the weight that she should be and not that she was. She didn't lose more than 1kg and was always, always hungry. That must have been about 2.5 years on Hills.

Just over a year ago I changed to Orijen. It's a pricey, higher-protein food that is lower on the cereal side. I still fed her less than recommended for her weight, especially as she is not very active in the day - only when she comes out with me. She was definitely more satisfied but her weight just remained stable.

I then swopped to Acana and Montego Field & Forest. Also a good protein contribution but a bit less costly than Orijen. Same effect - better satisfied than on Hills but stable weight. It has just not been reasonable for me to drop her food amount even more. 

On the treat side (of course she gets treats!), she has 1-2 dog cookies a day (small size dog ones), half a rollie before bed and some training treats (they get broken in half). Her granny has had to be strictly addressed on not giving her too many treats.

We started dog school last week. The classes are obedience with some agility for fun. Rusty was a star.

Her teacher addressed her weight and recommended that she does a banting diet. For the next six weeks, Rusty is on a meat diet. There is chicken, ostrich, lamb, beef - it is meat and offal all ground up together (yuck!). I do lightly cook it because raw is just a bit too much for me to handle!

Rusty has had four days on it and for the first time in four years she is not an always-ravenous dog! She is totally satisfied for hours after her meals and does not seek food and treats during the day.

Her weight has always been a concern, especially as she is my outdoors companion and extra weight on joints (for people too!) is never good. Rusty is approaching 10 years so it is even more important that she goes into her senior years in the best condition possible.

Rusty does not have an hour-glass figure - yet.

Making makataan jam

Makataan? As an English-speaking South African, I had never heard of 'makataan'. This hefty fruit is a 'wild melon' - one of 1000 varieties of watermelon. It is similar in size to a large watermelon but the inside is white / very pale green. The taste of the raw fruit is bland - not much flavour although you can tell it is of the melon family.

I processed the makataan that I received at night so I didn't take any photos. This image from herbgarden.co.za

The makataan ended up with me after being bumped down the line. I was the one to say, "Ok, I'll make the jam" - and this was before I'd seen the fruit!

The preparation of makataan jam is quite laborious, from chopping up the fruit to soaking in slaked lime, rinsing, blanching, syrup making, boiling and bottling. I found recipes online and did a bit of this and that.

It took me a while to chop the fruit. The part used for the preserve is the pith - the equivalent of the pale section of a watermelon. The peel and seed part is discarded - these went straight into my YOLO Compost Tumbler. Many recipes use big chunks. I went with smaller cubes (approx 1cm).

The first part involves soaking the fruit pieces in a solution of slaked lime, which can be purchased from a pharmacy as a powder. Calcium hydroxide is a preservative that can clarify raw juice and is used in the pickling of cucumbers. I'm not sure, but in the making of this jam I think it contributes to keeping the fruit crunchy.

After soaking overnight, I left the fruit to rinse in clean water for a few hours before blanching the cubes in boiling water. This is done in batches and took a long time to work through. I had the company of my friend Sylvi for this stage (she was tasked with grating ginger too and making the syrup).

The colour of the blanched cubes was amazing. The pieces looked whitish when pulled from the water but within seconds started turning this amazing translucent lime colour.

Raw fruit on the left and blanched cubes on the right.

While the cubes were being blanched, we started on the syrup -  a general sugar-water mix. We put grated ginger and lemon slices into a muslin bag to boil in the syrup - the juice from these went directly into the syrup. The only error we made was not putting in enough lemon juice - the pectin is needed to thicken the syrup.

With the syrup boiling, we added the fruit and left to boil for about an hour before bottling in sterilised jars.

The verdict - from a culinary lass who knows her makataan - is that our jam is superb. The fruit is crunchy with great texture and the taste is deliciously gingery. It is very tasty drizzled over vanilla icecream.

We made 13 jars, almost all of them have gone to new homes. I would definitely make it again.

Friday nights are burger nights (8 veggie burgers)

I love these birds-eye view, two-minute videos that show you how to prepare some kind of meal/s whether savoury of sweet, baked goods. They're neat, tidy and efficient videos and usually offer quick and tasty cooking ideas.

My mom shared a video with me yesterday (she sends me lots of great content) that promised eight veggie burger recipes. I was hooked from the first and immediately decided to work my way through most of the recipes over the next few days.

In my home, Friday nights are burger nights. These are usually just patties (no buns) but sometimes we have a full deal complete with sliced tomato, fried onions, grated cheese and sauces - all in a bun.
For the patties - I experiment. I've done chicken breasts, home-made mince patties (many variations thereof, including with ground sunflower seeds, mashed butter beans or chickpeas), baby marrow versions, lentil patties, black bean patties and other combinations.

I've been in the mood for tasty veggie patties so getting these recipes was well timed.

Tonight I made the black bean burger. While the recipe calls for roasted red peppers, I just pan-fried chopped green pepper with an onion. I loved the combination of garlic, cumin and cayenne pepper and also the use of cornmeal (mielie meal) too. I served the patties with a dollop of plain yoghurt. I also tried mine with a bit of cream cheese - delicious! And served with a salad.

close up of the patties

Tomorrow night I'm going to try the sweet potato chickpea burger.

Here is the link to the video from Tasy Vegetarian (on Facebook) and this is a link to the recipes for the eight burger patties on Buzzfeed.

Let me know how your burgers come out.

What are molluscs doing in wors?

On Thursday my mom and I went grocery shopping at President Hyper in Vanderbijl Park. It was my first time there. What a place! It really is a something-else grocery experience with a massive range of everything.

Mom was looking for wors to take to a braai and I marvelled at the range they had there. And then something caught my eye.

On the label, where they list ingredients, they also listed allergens and on many of the varieties 'molluscs' was first on the list. I should have taken a photo.

As Celliers is allergic to shellfish, we stayed well clear of these but still I was completely puzzled as to why molluscs would make an appearance in a product like wors.

The scary thing is that labels are not always read and the print was very small.

There is a very real chance that Celliers - and other with shellfish allergies - could rock up at a braai, eat a piece of wors and end up in hospital or, worse, dead.

When I hear 'molluscs', I think clams and snails and mussels and the shells that wash up on the beach.

What I forgot is that mollusca is a very large phylum that also includes the cephalopods - squid and octopus as well as the gastropods (slugs and snails) and the bivalves (mussels, oysters, clams).

Reading up on molluscan and crustacean shellfish allergies, I found an excellent website - 'Food Allergy Research and Research Programme'. They've got a lot of content on food allergies in general as well as specific allergies, like molluscan shellfish allergies. Apparently the main allergen in molluscs and crustaceans is tropomyosin, a protein found in the cytoskeleton of cells.

The catch is that those people that are allergic to crustaceans like shrimps and prawns are probably also allergic to molluscan shellfish because of the similarity of the tropomyosin protein across invertebrate species, even the non-dietary invertebrates like cockroaches and house dust mites.

People with gluten allergies know to avoid products like wors because of the additives to bulk up the content.

But molluscs in beef wors? What ever next?

My new Wonderbag

Our Adventure Racing Club AGM last week delivered more than I'd anticipated. We were kindly hosted by club member Jonathan Beattie at his Voodoo Lily Cafe in Illovo. It's a super venue with excellent meals, including great Banting and veg meals.

I arrived early and took a look around. Jonathan recently renovated and the space is lovely. And there on a rack I spotted them - Wonderbag.

I've known of these insulated, heat-retaining cooking bags for a few years - and now I have one. I've got the Medium, which can fit a pot from two to 10 litres in size. It's perfect for pretty much everything.

The Wonderbag is much like a non-electric slow cooker. In short, you get the cooking started on the stove, bringing the dish to boil. After boiling for a few to 30 minutes (depending on the dish), you put it into the Wonderbag, pull the drawstring tight and leave the meal to cook in its heat for two or more hours (depending on the dish).

It comes with a recipe book and there are loads of recipes on the Wonderbag website.

On Monday AND Tuesday nights I whipped up butternut soup variations. Both delicious. I sautéed the onions first, tossed in a bunch of veg, including the butternut, brought to boil for a few mins and then put the pot in the Wonderbag for about 2hrs. I then blended the mix and served. It was still piping hot.

The Wonderbag was developed by South African Sarah Collins and it is indeed a means to change the lives of women and children in rural areas. When firewood is limited, cooking is affected (and the environment, of course). If one can use fuel to only bring a pot to boil and then insulate it and allow the food to carry on cooking in its own heat, time and money and resources are saved. In a big way. Never mind firewood, even when money for electricity is limited, the Wonderbag is a big saving - using electricity for 10 minutes vs 45 minutes (or more!).

You've probably even wrapped a pot in blankets to keep the contents warm - same concept. Only now the retained heat is actually being used to continue to cook the meal. And, while the food is cooking, without worry for burning or the liquid boiling off, you can go off and do other things. This makes it a great time-saving device too.

We've got gas at home, which we installed in about April last year. We've got a 7kg gas bottle on it, which we replaced for the first time in January this year. We've been super impressed with our electricity saving and I'm sure we can do even better with the Wonderbag in our home.

The Wonderbag works well for dense meals like stews, is perfect for one-pot meals and does everything from soups to rice and bread and desserts. I'll definitely get the children into experimenting with meals that they can prepare, put into the Wonderbag and eat later for lunch or dinner.

With butternut soup a success, I'm in the process of trying the Tender Roast Chicken recipe to take to my mom's home tonight. For this dish it has to boil for 30 minutes before being placed in the Wonderbag for three hours.

This is a useful product not only for rural Africa - it is also for everyday energy, fuel and time conscious cooking.

Why you should eat lasagne

I haven't made lasagne in years. Aside from p.a.s.t.a. being a new-age five-letter swear word, making a really good lasagne from scratch takes a good effort - whether it is beef or veg.

A few weeks ago I needed a convenience meal option and, at great expense, I bought a Woolies lasagne; the one in the large foil dish that they say is for three to four people. They're delusional! There was more pasta than filling, it was maybe four-centimetres high and the amount was only really good enough for a fair portion for two people (unless you have lots of salads and veggies too).

To be fair, it was tasty and to their credit Woolies didn't drown it in cheese, which is too often the case at restaurants.

I have always loved lasagne - in every version - so it has been on my mind.

On Monday night I had a good cooking session, preparing the lasagne for dinner on Tuesday night. While there are time-saving 'cheats', I made the cheese, tomato and bolognaise sauces from scratch - each one totally delicious. I assembled and baked late Monday night as I was out most of Tuesday. From there is was easy to reheat for dinner.

A normal packet of uncooked pasta is 500g and for a pasta-and-sauce dish for two people you'd cook 250g. That's 125g of uncooked pasta per person.

One packet of uncooked lasagne sheets (250g) is more than adequate for a good-sized lasagne and I got four layers into my deep baking dish. I can't quite recall but I think there were about 12 sheets in the box. I didn't use two sheets so that's around 210g of pasta that went into the dish.

My finished dish made for very generous portions sufficient for six adults. That's only 35g of pasta per person. And for the rest you've got mince/veg/spinach, a bechamel or cheese sauce and tomato sauce. I don't add extra cheese.

There are 33g of carbohydrates per 100g of pasta. So a good portion of lasagne, with its 35g of pasta, would be around 23.5g of carbs.

And then there's another kicker...

Last year some research came out about how cooled pasta is treated by your body more like fibre than a blood-glucose-spiking carbohydrate..

"Cooking pasta and then cooling it down changes the structure of the pasta, turning it into something that is called "resistant starch". If you cook and cool pasta down then your body will treat it much more like fibre, creating a smaller glucose peak and helping feed the good bacteria that reside down in your gut. You will also absorb fewer calories, making this a win-win situation." - from an article on BBC.

But how is this... cooking, cooling and then reheating the pasta makes it into an even more 'resistant starch' - it reduces the rise in blood glucose by 50%. By doing nothing more than changing the temperature, a carb-intense meal becomes fibre-loaded.

While eating lasagne feels like you're eating a pasta dish, lo-and-behold you're consuming far less pasta than if you'd had a traditional bowl of pasta - like spaghetti bolognaise or the like. AND, if you make it the night before and reheat it the next day, you have even less carb effect.

Taking all of this into consideration, the question really is... Can we move reheated lasagne onto the banting green list?

Poached eggs for me. You?

I eat eggs often; almost daily. I'm quite particular about my eggs too. That's the thing about eggs - people develop strong eggy preferences and stories abound about how you like your eggs reflects on your personality. I don't know that I go with this but I do know how I like my eggs.

I'm sure I went through the fried-egg stage; but a long, long time ago. I dabbled with omlettes, had soft boiled for breakfast in primary school (with 'soldiers' - toast fingers) and then scrambled eggs were my thing. But I've been into poached eggs for the past few years and I've perfected my poaching technique.

In a certain pot, using my silicone poached egg cup things, it takes exactly six minutes to achieve eggy perfection. My main criteria is that there must be no gooey white. I don't mind if the yolk has a bit of firmness to it but there must be no un-solid white.

Since banishing bread from my diet I had to make another plan. Two poached eggs slithering across a plate is particulary demoralising; eggs need to sit on something. If I've got baby spinach (uncooked, as it), that's Prize #1. Alternatively I put my eggies on a bed of regular spinach that has been zapped in the microwave for about 20 seconds (flattened, not cooked). And if I have neither, then the eggies go on top of frilly lettuce. Sometimes I add a sprinkle of cheese and a dash of freshly ground black pepper.

A particularly lovely breakfast about two weeks ago.

Poached eggy perfection.

I have the most wonderful egg-cooking gadget: an egg boiler. What an awesome gift this has proved to be. No need to take 15 mins to boil eggs from cold water. It takes about 7 minutes for medium-soft boiled and about 10 mins for hard and only uses about 40ml of water. And it buzzes when your eggs are ready. It can do up to seven eggs at a time.

Out of convenience I now do medium boiled regularly and hard boiled sometimes. But if I had to choose one style of egg for all eternity, it would be poached.

I found these two frivolous articles on how you like your eggs says something about your personality (Telegraph and the kitchn).

According to these, my preference for poached says:

Telegraph: "It was discovered that the average poached egg-eater is likely to have two children and no more than one sibling and is more likely to be a woman than a man."

the kitchn: "You have a mysterious, elusive soul. You're a hard worker, an entrepreneur, and the person everyone wants to be seen with. Don't let stardom or partying interfere with your goals. Tends to be kinda lonely."

Like a horoscope, there's a bit of something here for almost everyone ;)

Poop Power

Two poop issues in the past two weeks have led to this post...

Last week, when I asked a lady I know how she was, she said she hadn't been well in the days since I'd seen her the previous week and that she had an umbilical hernia. I turned to Wiki as I didn't have a clue. I know what a hernia is but an umbilical hernia?

It's when the intestines push through a weakness in the abdominal wall at the site of the belly button. It's three times more common in women than men; more common in children of African descent (she's an African adult) and is acquired as a result of increased intra-abdominal pressure caused by obesity (nope, she's not fat), heavy lifting (very possibly a factor), a long history of coughing (nope), or multiple pregnancies (she has two children).

She has also been very constipated. I bought her a box of Black Forest tea and two big bunches of beetroot. The doctor she saw said she should be drinking more water. She is doing far better this week although the hernia is still there and it is irritated by white-flour products. It remains to be seen what needs to be done long term - surgery could be on the cards.

Another friend had a bowel issue this week. Severe abdominal pain. He thought an injury of sorts from yoga. I asked after his appendix... He ended up in casualty and it turns out he had serious constipation and was sent home with laxatives from the doc. I recommended Black Forest tea and beetroot to him too. You'll be pleased to know his bowels are moving (yes, I've asked him) and he's feeling much, much better.

Of interest, many years ago I was helping to take care of an old man with terminal cancer. The morphine he was on causes constipation. The Hospice nurse recommended paw-paw (papaya) and oranges as most effective. They work.

Dr Oz is big on bowel movements as they reflect your state of health and he recommends that "looking before you flush could save your life".

(On Dr Oz. Made out of clay... just in case you were wondering.)

According to his website, Dr Oz "believes that poop provides the opportunity to do a self exam every single day, that could potentially save your life. There are many diseases that can be diagnosed from checking your poop before you flush, like stomach cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, Crohn’s disease, and gallbladder disease."

Constipation (can't poop / don't poop regularly / really hard poops) are bad. Loose, watery poops - diarrhea - are bad. Both are signs that something is not right. Your aim should be to land one to three S-shaped poops a day.

Indeed, Dr Oz's three critial poop factors - shape, consistency and colour - are determined by your physical state (diseases / illness) and what you eat.

Here's a video of Dr Oz talking poop on one of his shows - http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/poop-primer

Constipation foods include pasta, white bread and rice which "move like paste, like toothpaste through your intestinal system," he says. "They slow down the process and therefore all that water gets sucked out."

Exercise does help as movement gives the bowel a helping hand to move things along.

On the other hand, spicy foods irritate the bowel and can result in loose poop. Watch that chilli!

And then there's fibre - a major role-player in the consistency stakes. According to Dr Oz we need at least 25g per day (a Health.com article recommends 25g for women and 35-40g/day for men) - we're lucky if we're getting 10-15g/day on our Western diets. Eat too little fibre and you're going to be on the constipated side of S-shaped; eat too much fibre and your poops will be pretty loose.

BBC Good Food says that, "Foods that contain 6g fibre or more per 100g are considered to be high fibre foods, while those containing at least 3g of fibre or more per 100g are considered to be a source of fibre."

They go on to say that...

Soluble fibre can be digested by the body and increases water content in the intestine to give a softer texture to the stool. Soluble fibre is made up of gums and other constituents of plant cells and plant cell walls that swell in water. Soluble fibre promotes the excretion of cholesterol and can be helpful for those suffering from haemorrhoids.

Insoluble fibre is traditionally known as roughage, insoluble fibre consists mainly of cellulose which absorbs water but passes through the bowel almost undigested. Foods rich in insoluble fibre fill you up and are effective at increasing stool size and bulk thus promoting regular bowel movements.

What foods to go for to increase your fibre intake? (From BBC Good Food)

Foods containing Soluble Fibre	Foods containing Insoluble fibre
Citrus fruit	Wheat bran
Lentils	Wholegrain cereals
Beans	Brown rice
Oats	Fruit & vegetables

You'll find lists of high-fibre foods on the web.

To get an idea of how much fibre you're eating, use one of the online food diaries and record what you eat over a few days. Enable the function to include the fibre content of the foods. I can feel when I'm not getting enough fibre - I just feel like my intestines aren't on top of their game.

I've been looking at my fibre tally, which is below 25g/day (as with most people), despite eating lots of fresh and raw veggies.

The tough part is upping intake, especially if, like me, you're being carb/sugar conscious. Oats pack a fibre punch but they're also high carbs. Mmmm... challenging. To the lists I go! It's a good thing I love lentils and other beans.

This time of year is busy. Diets slide. Stress mounts. Digestive systems are under strain.

As Dr Oz says, take a look before your flush to evaluate your health and if there's something wrong with shape, consistency or colour, fix it - like now.

Wishing you better health... and a good poop in the morning.

Skinny Bitch

Driving to and from English lessons, I've been listening to audio books. One of them recommended 'Skinny Bitch' by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnounin. I liked the title so I downloaded the sample on my Kindle.

It's helluva funny. Very much written in a Thug Kitchen-style with a generous sprinkling of well-placed swear words.

I've only read the sample but may download the whole book - just for the pure pleasure of the reading, regardless of content. I like their imagery.

Here are some gems from the first chapter...

Soda is liquid Satan. It is the devil. It is garbage. There's nothing in soda that should be put into your body.

Talking about aspartame in soda...

When methyl alcohol, a component of aspartame, enters your body, it turns into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is toxic and carcinogenic (cancer-causing). Laboratory scientists use formaldehyde as a disinfectant or preservative. They don't fucking drink it.

Talking about junk food...

Not only are they bogged down with saturated fats, sugars, hydrogenated oils, calories, and cholesterol, but they also contain enough chemical residues to put hair on your chest.

...continuing on junk food and snacks...

Now before you decide you're so smart because you only buy fat-free snacks, get a hold of yourself. Whenever you see the words "fat-free" or "low-fat" think of the words "chemical shit storm".

On exercise...

Give up the notion that you can be sedentary and still lose weight. You need to exercise, you lazy shit.

Chapter 2... Carbs: The truth

Yet all carbs are not created equal. There are two types: simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates suck and are as nutritionally beneficial as toilet paper.

These are just some of the funnies - there were many more. Whether they able to sustain such painting of colourful pictures throughout the book remains to be seen. I'm tempted to find out.

Baking - dog biscuits, peanut butter cake and kick-ass trail mix

With my first open Saturday (an open weekend, in fact) in six weeks, I was itching to bake.

First up was a batch of dog biscuits for my husky friends. I'm running with them on Sunday afternoon. I found a basic dog biscuit mix online and modified it. They're pretty good!

Lisa's Husky Treats

• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup biltong powder 
• 1 Knorr Stock Pot (beef)
• approx 1 cup warm water 

Mix ingredients together to form a firm dough (add more flour/water as needed). Roll into thick sausages. Refrigerate for 10 minutes before cutting into 1cm slices. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes.

Variations: use only oats (2.5 cups) if your dog is sensitive to wheat; substitute 1/2 stock cube or granules for the stock pot.

A friend shared a 'paleo breakfast bar' recipe with me. It comes out more like a cake than a bar. Again, I modified the recipe according to what I had on hand.

Peanut butter cocoa cake 
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used Yum Yum crunchy)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (aka baking soda)
100g papaya

Beat all ingredients together, pour into greased baking dish (batter should be around 1.5cm thick). Cook at 180C for 15-20 min.

Variations: use another nut butter (almond, macadamia) instead of peanut; substitute mashed banana for the papaya (I didn't have any bananas on hand).

It's quite a light, fluffy cake. Total grams going into the oven was around 240g and coming out around 200g.
Doing the math on the ingredients and the after-cooking mass... it looks like the nutritional count is around:

per 100g
Protein: 20.2g
Carb: 15g
Fat: 44g

I'd say a portion is around 30g (nice dessert treat actually).
 
per 30g portion
protein: 6g
carb: 4.5g
fat: 13g

Next, I re-worked my trail mix to give it a kick. I like trail mix but I don't eat it every day and it can be a bit 'bland'. I've previously made nut-date-seed balls, a lovely raw, vegan snack. Rolling the mix into balls is a pain in the butt, so I went for pressed squares instead. For the ingredients, I just pulled nuts and bits out of my trailmix container, whizzed it in my food processor, added cocoa and ba-ba-ba-boom! - trail mix, only better.

Lisa's kick-ass trail mix bites (no-bake snacks)

I made these really randomly so my recipe below is definitely not to be followed strictly. Make up according to your tastes.

• 60g macadamia nuts
• 30g Brazil nuts
• 30g almonds (raw, unblanched)
• 15g sunflower seeds
• 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 25g dates

Soak the dates in boiling water until soft. Put nuts, sunflower seeds and cocoa powder into a food processor. Process until finely ground. 

Squeeze excess water from the dates and add to the mix. Process until well mixed. Add a little water if needed. You're aiming for a firm 'paste' texture.

Place into a dish and press firmly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then cut into squares. Store in a sealed container in the fridge.

Variations: You need around 120g of nuts - you can use just one kind of nut or a mix. If you'd like this to be sweeter, add more dates. To make it more chocolatey, add more cocoa. Including coconut flakes (or desiccated coconut) is another option.

Looking at the nutritional content if the ingredients...

per 100g

protein: 12.5g

carbs: 23.6g

fat: 55.6g

I'd say a nice bite portion is around 15g.

per 15g portion

protein: 1.9g

carbs: 3.6g

fat: 8.4g

Yum-yum!

Carb conscious

I'm interested in nutrition. Not obssessed. Just interested. Ah... back in the 90s some friends and I were following a guided-nutrition programme, which we got from our gym. One of those portion-substitution programmes were you target percentages of calories coming from fats, carbs and proteins, mixing and matching foods from various groups. This programme worked really well for me except that I found it difficult to get through the volume of food; and that was on around 2000kcal/day. Eating a cup of vegetables and a cup of rice and then a large amount of chicken or fish for dinner was especially challenging.

What I did find is that following this programme made my eating very strict. I was hard on myself. I remember joining at friend at university on a lunch break. He  persuaded me to have a cup of hot chocolate adding, "Stop being so hard on yourself". He was right. I don't think that I'd had a cup of hot choc for a few years by then. There's a limit.

For the most part, I've always kept the principles from this programme in mind - closer or further depending on my dietary inclinations, which have been predominantly vegetarian.

In recent years Paleo and Tim Noakes' Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) recommendations have been in the limelight. I've seen friends transformed - not only in mass but with substantial improvements in their running too.

As a vegetarian/pescatarian I love things like lentils, quinoa and Indian dishes of dhal and black beans. Hit me with some hummus and I'm in heaven. I favour many of my vegetables in their raw form and I devour salads almost daily. I've never liked butter on sandwiches, my skin crawls at the thought of dunking ciabatta in olive oil and it is only in recent years that I've added any dressings to my salads - usually just olive oil and balsamic vinegar. If the balance is off and there's too much oil, I can't eat it. I don't eat meat or chicken (the more I run the less it agrees with my stomach - go figure) although I do eat fish here and there. Not regularly and not often. Even during omnivore stages I've never been a big meat eater. As far as the starches go, in recent years I don't often eat either rice, potatoes or pasta (rice and quinoa are my favourites) more than twice a week. Sometimes not at all. But I do love fruit! My natural dietary inclinations are very not Paleo nor LCHF.

Following a two-week long gastric illness a few years ago (I thought it was a 24hr bug following a restaurant meal, but it obviously wasn't), I developed a sensitivity to bread. Well, that was what I pinned it down to. As much as I love a slice of toast or a cheese and tomato sandwich, it suits me better to keep my bread intake minimised. I also noticed a sensitivity to sweets. Fortunately I've never been a big sweetie eater but pop a bowl of jelly tots or a packet of White Rabbit sweets in front of me and I'll definitely enjoy them. But, my stomach won't. Within 15 minutes my belly expands. Bloating is so not nice.

Anyway, it has been a process and I figure that everything in moderation and avoiding foods that make me feel awful is the best way.

A good friend has been following Noakes' guidelines for a good number of months now and she's doing fabulously. Interestingly, her natural dietary inclinations are completely opposite mine. She enjoys her meat (with fat), can merrily slather Italian bread in olive oil and every morning she now drinks a 'coffee bomb' - coffee with a tablespoon of coconut oil. My stomach heaves.

When I'm stressed, I take everything into my belly. And since I returned from Argentina I've been super stressed. Multiple projects on the go, FEAT and the biggest stressor, a time-dominating part-time English course from which I'm learning much but not exactly 'enjoying' (for various reasons). While I'm not overtly stressed, my digestive system is and just a sniff of bread creates chaos. I've been looking at stuff on sugar, which I know we eat far too much of. It's nice to eat sweet stuff and sugar-loaded foods are readily available.

My friend recommended the Livin' La Vida Low Carb podcasts by Jimmy Moore and a South African food diary website and mobile app - Fat Secret, especially as it has South African foods pre-loaded (and you can add your own too).

So, I signed up (free) because I really do need to take a closer look at what I'm eating. Over the winter months I can easily eat three oranges a day (or more! yum-yum) without blinking. Throw in a banana too. How about some papaya and strawberries? Sugar. Sugar. Sugar.

Where I don't have four spoons of sugar in my tea nor packets of sweeties nor fizzy drinks, fruit is my sugary dietary downfall. If you're following Noakes' guideline of around 40g of carbs a day, then one orange zaps almost half of your allocation and three most definitely blows your quota.

And when I'm a bit stressed and strained, I suffer the effects of this sugary intake.

So, I'm being more aware. I'm using the food log to see where I have deficits and where I'm getting too much. Just like keeping a training log, it is only by putting down what you're doing that you can see where you need to shake a leg (Fat Secret has an exercise log component too).

Never mind a leg, I'm shaking a monkey out of a tree.What I've been doing hasn't been working. I haven't felt great for a number of weeks now and clearly I need to do something differently.

Now, I am.

Hail kale!

I was introduced to kale, a spinach-like green leafy vegetable, a few months ago by a running friend. I ate tons of it and then I kinda forgot about it for a few weeks until a post from No Meat Athlete (NMA) dropped into my inbox. I shot off to get some kale from my local Food Lover's Market, which is one of the few places to stock kale regularly.

Kale is actually from the cabbage family, not spinach, although the leaves never form a head, like its cabbage cousins. And there are a bunch of varieties, some more curly than others (I scored two varieties yesterday).

According to Wiki:

Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and unreasonably rich in calcium. Kale, as with broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical with potent anti-cancer properties. Boiling decreases the level of sulforaphane; however, steaming, microwaving, or stir frying do not result in significant loss. Along with other brassica vegetables, kale is also a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells. Kale is also a good source of carotenoids.

My running friend is a juicing demon. He goes through bags and bags of carrots. Then, he takes the remaining pulp and tosses some of it into the food processor with some kale and a tomato, whizzes it and puts it on his sandwiches. To demonstrate he made me a sammie with a spread of avo and his kale mix. Very refreshing. I adopted this technique and added other ingredients like ginger and sunflower seeds.

So when I got the Eat More Kale post from NMA last week it reminded me to get some kale. I also dropped a comment on this post about how I eat it as most of the "10 Delicious Ways to Eat More Kale" are cooked dishes and I prefer this sweet-tasting leaf uncooked. I've made my mix as a salad for guests and they've thoroughly enjoyed it too.

Today's lunch: kale, carrot, tomato, fresh ginger, sunflower seeds with a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar (white) and a pinch of salt and pepper

The NMA post directed me to an infographic, copied below. What is confusing is the per calorie claims. I went to Wiki to compare nutritional information for kale, beef, milk and spinach. Of interest, to get the same calorific intake from kale as 100g of beef I'd need to eat 0.9 kilograms of kale. That's a lot of greens! I haven't weighed how much kale I toss in my salad mix - possibly 100g or so.

• Calories per 100g: Kale - 117 kJ (28 kcal); beef  1,047 kJ (250 kcal); milk 275kJ (66kcal); spinach  97 kJ (23 kcal).
• Iron per 100g: beef 2.6mg and kale 0.9mg (spinach has 2.7mg per 100g)
• Calcium per 100g: milk 120mg and kale 72mg (spinach has 99mg per 100g)
• Vitamin C per 100g: kale 41mg and spinach 28mg

from www.mindbodygreen.com

Raw or cooked, kale is a bonus find in the fresh produce section. It make take a bit of hunting to find a regular supply but it is well worth the effort.

Trying to make dried fruit thingies at home

About three weeks ago I saw a new dried fruit product from Safari called Fruit Temptations. They're these bite-sized squares without sugary coatings and they looked like just what I've had in mind. So, I bought them. I went for the pineapple one because I'm not crazy about their other option, apricot (never been my favourite fruit). These Fruit Temptations are presented as being high in fibre and naturally low in fat and containing 50% fruit. They're like those fruit dainties but without the sugar inside and on top. I'm always looking out for nice treats for race snacks.

The only thing that puts me off them are the preservatives and other additives - surely it should be possible to make your own at home?

I've got a food dehydrator and I've been planning to try out some fruit dehydrating. I've read about using dehydrators to make dried fruit rolls from fruit puree. I've had my dad's juicer for about a year and occasionally I make my own juice. I then hit on the idea of juicing fruit and using the resulting pulp to dehydrate into bite-sized squares.

Now that summer is on its way there are more fruits around so this week I bought a bunch and this evening I worked up some combinations.

It's a bit of a pain juicing each one separately but it worked out quite nicely and I've got some tasty fruit juice to drink. The strawberry came out pretty tart and is a good demonstration of how much sugar is probably added to that yummy fresh strawberry juice you can buy...

The juice part: strawberry, kiwi (very thick), apple and ginger. The pineapple juice didn't make it this far; it was down the hatch before you could say, "I'm thirsty".

With the juice all out, I was left with pulp.

Back (L-R): mashed banana, pineapple, apple (it discolours immediately)
Front (L-R): ginger (too fibrous, I used a dash of the juice in one mix), kiwi (it's really just the seeds that remain) and strawberry (divine colour!)

Then I made some mixes, like banana and apple and cinnamon; and strawberry and banana; and apple and apple and pineapple and, an inspired combo, pineapple and quinoa (a grain - actually, it's a pseudograin 'cos it is actually a seed - but that's semantics).

I put the mush mixes on the dehydrator trays. The only thing is that the five mesh-like trays (not good for liquids) come with only one plastic thingamajig, which is for liquids, so I improvised. Testing out plastic bag vs baking paper...

Left tray: strawberry and banana; and, I think, pineapple and banana
Middle tray: apple, banana and cinnamon; maybe strawberry and apple and banana; and a blob of just strawberry
Right tray: pineapple and quinoa; and kiwi pulp (aiming for a fruit roll here - I dumped the seeds in as an after thought)

These have been dehydrating for a few hours and I've turned over most of the mixes on the left and middle trays. Sticking is less on the baking paper and the plastic than the special sheet that comes with the dehydrator. They're all drying very well and I'm optimistic that results will be palatable. I've left the timer on for another few hours. It will be fun to check this out in the morning. I really have high hopes for the pineapple-quinoa mix, which could prove to be excellent race food.

MORNING UPDATE
Lookin' good! The mixes all taste pretty decent. They're not as sweet as commercial options.
I peeled the kiwi off the plastic base and it came out well - thin, smooth, shiny and quite tart in taste.

The quinoa-pineapple mix is a bit bland but certainly not offensive. I'll have to work on this. I definitely like the strawberry mixes despite strawberries being a fruit that I don't enjoy eating as is (great in smoothies). I'm looking forward to playing with mango concoctions later in summer.

It is also worth testing puree vs juice-free pulp.

I'm packed! Away for two weeks.

I think I'm packed. Packing for Thailand is real easy - as a friend eloquently put it, "Sarong, check. Done.".

I'm just taking a 35l backpack for my two week holi-holiday.

It's easy to pack clothes - as few of them as possible. I hear the shopping in Bangkok is fabulous and totally inexpensive. I haven't got much more on the clothing side than what I'm wearing on the plane. Weather is hot so there's no need for bulky cold-weather kit.

It's the toys that's the hard part.

I'm not taking a laptop but I am taking my camera. I'm just not sure how to pack it (on top is what I figure). I've got it wrapped in a travel towel. My extra lens is in a sock (trick learned from Tony D and Alex D) and it is protected by clothing. I'm hoping to pick up a few camera things in Bangkok; I've got a filter on my list, another battery and maybe, just maybe, another lens. We'll see.

To go with it I need the battery charger and I've packed an external HDD so I can dump photos.

And there's my running stuff. Three tops, three shorts and three pairs of socks (in the humidity stuff may take a while to dry after washing). Luckily running gear doesn't take much space. And then I've packed my small hydration pack, which has enough space for my camera and munchies. Gonna need to carry water on my outings.

I've been debating for days about whether to take a rain jacket... March is a low rainfall month at 50mm and  it picks up in April as they move into the rainy season from May. Weather shows rain next week and I figure that if anything it will keep my camera dry. Me, I'm not too concerned about a little water when I running. Not like it's gonna be cold...

BIG decision is what running shoes to take - road or trail. I'm still a bit undecided. From reading online and looking at maps it seems there a good dose of tar but probably more trail and for the spots that I'm looking at hitting it is probably more dirt and trail than tar... so, I'm kinda swayed to trail shoes. My Adidas shoes are a little older and softer so they should do the trick. My Hi-Tecs probably won't like the tar too much. These will also be my walk around shoes; I've also packed a pair of sandals.

I've also packed my little iGot-U GPS tracking device to log my adventures - just for fun. Will only see my tracks criss-crossing the island when I get back.

And then I've got my Yogitoes, a 'towel' type thing that goes over my yoga mat. This is afterall a running AND yoga holiday. I'd like to take my mat but haven't yet tried to attach it to my main backpack, which is small enough at 35-litres to be carry-on luggage. Pack has straps so this should work out A-ok.

And then there are lotions and potions. Although I pack light on these things there's still moisturiser, toothpaste and brush, sunblock, showergel... it adds up.

As it stands, my pack is not full and I've still got good enough space for some clothing from Bangkok, where I'll be on Friday and Saturday. If I didn't have the toy thing happening my pack would be positively empty!

I've made myself some maps of Bangkok with places I want to go see. I've put them on my phone - the joy - and I'm sure I'll pick up more at the airport and around. I cannot resist maps.

This is just so absolutely exciting. A proper, proper holi-holiday ;)

Although I've got toys, I'm abandoning almost everything else. No email, no articles, no reports, no blogs, no FB... Yes, this is AdventureLisa going offline! Hip-hip-hooray!

I'll be seeing y'all in just over two weeks. Happy days.

Raw oat cookies - power race food

I've been making raw oat cookies for a few weeks and I favour them over traditional baked butter-eggs-sugar cookies. Aside from being a nice pre-morning-race snack, I think they're fabulous for during-the-day snacks and are a winner for race munchies.

There's only one catch... you need a food dehydrator to 'cook' them (xmas present to self). They're easy and quick to prepare and are made by mixing up a bunch of ingredients, shaping into cookies and then dehydrating overnight to remove the moisture. They're not dry and crumbly, but not totally moist either.

My first batch was good; my second batch was better (two variarions) and this one is just as nice. I'm not following any recipe as I throw in whatever is at hand. This batch, in the photo, contains: rolled oats, oat bran, cranberries, some currants, macadamia nuts, sunflower seeds, dates (softened in hot water and then zapped into a 'jam/paste' in the food processor), one small banana and two pears (banana and pears went in with the dates). And the zest of one lemon. I've used orange before, which was lovely, but I didn't have any oranges last night. I also threw in some hemp seed powder for a dash of protein. Pretty much everything, except the cranberries and currants, goes through the food processor to make the bits more fine.

It gets all mixed together, shaped into cookies and left overnight in the dehydrator. I ate them as a pre-run snack before the half marathons last month and they're going to be great at tomorrow morning before the 32km run. If I don't eat anything my stomach is growling by 10km.

Bye-bye carbs

In January/Feb the big news came out in the media from Prof. Tim Noakes, who essentially told us that he'd been wrong and that we could tear out the chapter on nutrition in his book, 'The Lore of Running' and to toss it in the bin.

Noakes was referring to his 'old' premise that a high-carb diet is the way to go and that you can shovel them in but to play it easy on the fats. His new tune is to say no to the big carbs, which are the bad guys in our societal plague of obesity, diabetes and degenerative diseases. Noakes has been taking his own 'medicine' and he's lost weight (like 15-odd kilograms) and has improved his running performance.

Other current dietary trends include the Dukan Diet and the Paleo Diet, both of which are in a similar vein; say no to the cereals and grains, which offer up the most common carbohydrate form - starch - in our diets.

Dukan is all about high protein, low fat and low carb and it has a four-phase structure where the first phase focuses on a dash of rapid weight loss for two weeks; next phase is a slower and more steady weight-loss regime over weeks and months; then consolidation (slow incorporation of some excluded foods) and then stabilisation in the fourth phase, which is about maintaining your newfound, desirable weight.

The Paleo Diet aims to take us back to our roots, before we began cultivating fields of cereals and grains. It's a 'hunter-gatherer' style eating programme.

They say, "What we should really be eliminating in our diet are grain products, excess sugar, vegetable oils, legumes and dairy, some of which are at the very basis of the US food pyramid."

I've got two friends in NZ who have been into Paleo for a while and it seems to be working very well for them. Both are sporty.

All of these make quite a lot of sense to me and for a few years now I've kept a grip on my starch - especially wheat - intake. Nothing serious but you generally won't see me chowing down on a big starchy meal. I generally just feel better if I have a starch as part of a dinner once a week, not more. It's cutting out my lunchtime sandwich that is actually the hard part because a basic cheese and tomato sandwich is my all-time favourite - and it is convenient.

I'm aiming to be a bit more mindful of my carbs; fortunately my natural inclinations don't make this very difficult.

The difficult part for vegetarians is that Noakes, Dukan and Paleo are all very meat-based, high-protein lifestyles. Meat is easy. Veg equivalents are a little harder to be organised about.

Driving back from the weekend away, I declined the offer of a cup of coffee (I don't drink coffee - never have). The guy in the car commented something to the effect of, "You don't drink alcohol or coffee and you're vegetarian... geezzz". When you put it that way I feel like a big-time tree hugger. But, it works for me. Hahaha.

Some links:
- Noakes: A PDF of a column written by Noakes in the Discovery magazine (Winter 2011)
- Noakes: Article on Health24 (Mon, 27 Feb 2012)
- Noakes speaking to John Robbie on 702 radio (23 Jan 2012)
- Article in Modern Athlete (Tim talking about the effect of no-carbs on his body and running) (Jan 2012)

Suikerbosrand in summer

Under overcast Jo'burg skies, we headed out to Suikerbosrand yesterday hoping for the best; and that's exactly what we got. Months ago I took my mom out to Suikerbosrand for the first time -  a pre-Camino walk. She was really keen to get out there again to see how she'd improved over the months. My dad and his partner, Therese, joined us - they regularly head out there as they're avid birders. My dad has always been really sharp at spotting and identifying birds and he's really good at bird calls too. I definitely didn't get this gene.

Mom, Dad, Therese, me

We started out just after 8am and there were already dashes of blue in the sky. A light drizzle - really light - cooled things down and for the rest of the morning it was just absolutely perfect - light breeze, cool conditions and a clear sky.

Saw a good number of birds, butterflies, dung beetles and many shongololos (for non South Africans, this is a millipede). Only saw animals in the valley before the end - lots of them but they were a good distance away. Probably zebra, wildebeest and some antelope. Vegetation all over is green and lush with lots of pretty flowers all over.

Looking North, towards Jo'burg

I do so love coming out here - and only 35 minutes drive from home! ;)

I tried making some panoramic images...

Exploring raw

I've got a couple of buddies into raw food so it has been on my mind for some time. Not radical raw food eaters, but where they look at getting 60% or more of their food from raw fruits and veggies.

I've never been a big meat eater, even as a child and I don't think I ate red meat at all for almost 10 years (in the 90's) - it just doesn't agree with my tummy, especially when I'm running more. In general, I eat red meat when served it; I don't buy or cook it myself. It is kinda the same with chicken and I think I have almost a seasonal response to it because sometimes I'm fine with chicken and other times not - depends perhaps on what has been pumped into the chickens? Again, the more I run, the less my tummy tolerates chicken, leaving my belly upset.

I've also been very wheat/gluten aware since an illness five years ago when I'd been out for dinner and the next day suspected a 24hr bug of sorts as I was sick as a dog. My friend, who ate the same meal, was fine. The 24hr bug turned into a 10 day bug and I couldn't eat any wheat products without my stomach writhing in agony and my belly extending within 30 minutes. I did all the blood tests - no allergy. Just a sensitivity that developed as a result of the illness. When, even a month later, my gluten tolerance was low, I cut out all wheat products for a few months and then slowly introduced them but in limited quantities. If I go through a phase of eating more wheat products (cereals, sandwiches, pasta etc) I feel it coming back again.

Recently these sensitivities returned - feeling wheat and meat sensitive, lethargic and lazy. So, two weeks ago I decided to revert to simple, vegetarian eating to get back on track. As it happened, I went to a health shop to pick up some grains and at the counter they had a book, Rawlicious, which caught my eye. I've looked at various raw food books over the months but this one, written by a South African couple, was the best presented and has recipes with products that we get here.

So, I've been exploring raw food and have increased my intake of raw, plus some cooked, and I've stayed away from food with eyes.

I attended a raw food workshop, presented by the one author, and it was quite an eye opener. He's a vegan (too extreme for my liking) and rarely eats anything cooked. A bit too extreme for my interests. The first part of the course was a bit too much of the 'selling' of raw food eating - not my thing as I was on the course because I'm already with the programme. My objective was to learn a bit more about food preparation techniques because raw food is not just salads and juices.

And that's the key - not to think of raw food as a radical-bunny-hugger-hippy-child-of-the-earth way of eating. I'd classify it as a culinary category like Chinese, Indian or Spanish cooking. It's a whole new realm of food preparation and as such there are raw food 'cooking' courses, which I hope to explore too.

The highlight of the day was lunch. Oh my goodness! Absolutely incredible and tasty. Like really amazing. You can't believe what is made from raw foods - it really isn't carrot and celery sticks.

The other aspect of raw that appeals is the variety and creativity in foods and preparation techniques. I certainly get stuck in the butternut-courgette-carrot-broccoli routine; maybe a dash of potato, onion, spinach and mushroom. I walk the aisles in the supermarket and find little that makes me think, "Yum". I've been very un-food-stimulated for too long. The raw foodists bring in variety and exciting tastes with seeds, sprouts, seaweeds, grains and nuts, in addition to the veg and fruit that we commonly find.

So I'm back to being fully vegetarian (not vegan) again and it is working for me. I'm running nicely again (best since August), lungs are feeling great (they weren't, depending on what I'd eaten) and I'm trying new foods and food combinations.

For me, if something isn't working and I'm feeling kuk, then it is time for a change; time to try something different, because more of the same isn't going to produce a different outcome. Cutting out meat and eating less cooked food is the something different. Lots to learn, loads to try and I'm already feeling better for it.

GU Chomps now in SA

I'm delighted that GU Chomps are now in SA (I bought a packet yesterday at Dishem). I first discovered these chewy gems at TransRockies Run (Colorado, USA) last year. They're great and so much nicer to get down than GU Gel.

GU Chomps are like those soft Super Cs; but four GU Chomps are equivalent to one GU Gel. There are eight Chomps in each packet - so that's two gels in each GU Chomps packet.

GU Chomps cost R32.95 at Dischem; so that's R16.50 for one dose, which is pretty much equivalent to the cost of a GU Gel (I think) - only the GU Chomps are nicer. Vooma gels are still cheaper at R8.75 a hit; GU Chomps add chewy variety to your munchie bags.

Woolies, Woolies, nice, nice

I discovered these little devils on Friday when I stopped at a garage, with a Woolies store, to get some munchies for the race.

Mmmm...