Eggs in a French Toast Basket!

Mmm, fancied something special for breakfast today, so I nicked this gorgeous recipe from Christine Beauchamp at fortheloveofcookies.wordpress.com. To make the french toast, first scoop a hole out of the middle of each of two slices of bread. Mix an egg white with a tsp of vanilla and cinnamon plus a little milk in a bowl. Soak the bread in the mixture and cook in a pan or skillet on both sides. When it's almost cooked, crack an egg into the hole in each toast. I like to use a little salt in the eggs. Then continue cooking until done to your liking! I prefer the yolks a bit runny. Serve with some sugar free maple syrup or honey. Amazing!







I cooked the yolks a bit more than I meant to really! I thought they weren't qite done so I put them under the grill for a minute, but even so I like the unusual texture they turned out to be! Oh, and as you can see I used a whole egg for the toast on the left, but just the yolk for the one on the right. Just an experiment to see which I preferred.. The whole egg one was far better! And of course, eggs on toast must always be served with coffee. Decaf for me, please!

Quote from BexLife:

Heard a great quote today about healthy eating:

'When you're in a good relationship, you don't need to cheat'

It's true. What applies to loving relationships also applies to having a healthy relationship with food. If you take care of each other and fulfill each others needs you'll never have to look elsewhere for fulfillment. If you listen to your body and give it what it needs without depriving it of anything, you'll never feel the need to binge, or 'cheat'.

Happy relationships, and happy eating :)

Tofu!

Haven't had tofu in a looong time so I bought some for dinner yesterday! Decided to try it marinated in chilli, ginger, soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil. Served with stir-fried veg and an azuki flavour bao - delicious! Azuki is red beans, and this bao was really a dessert because the beans are sweet, but I served it on the plate anyway because it looked pretty. Haha! I steamed my bao - always the best way to eat it.




Meanwhile my lil bro had pizza and veg, and I just had to intrude with some picture-taking before letting him dig in :P

Udon

I made that udon soup for my dinner the other day but forgot to take decent pics as I was too busy tucking in! BUT I did get a crappy pic of plain udon to show. This is my favourite type of noodle - so thick with a great bite to it. Love it!

Mmmm breakfast :)

Had a really nice breakfast this morning! Enjoyed what I actually wanted to eat without counting or worrying about anything so I'm really pleased :) I had a pot of plain probiotic yoghurt topped with chopped hazelnuts, 1 weetabix biscuit with water and an apple, sliced up. Yum :3 I also had a big cup of green tea. I've been drinking it for years, I love it! I always buy a particular brand of loose leaf green tea because it just tastes so damn good. Tea in bags never tastes as good, and the brand I buy is the freshest tasting one I've found, even compared to other loose leaf ones.






Dinner tonight will be: Udon soup with pork!! Can't wait, I love udon! Haha. Will try and post pics :)

*sigh*

Still struggling to be normal about food again, but I know with perseverance I will get there. I just analyzed todays cals and macros, as well as those of an example of how I was eating before, and surprisingly everything was much better when I wasn't stressing about it. Todays macros were p27 c34 f39, and cals about 1514. The example day was something like 1600cals, p40 c40 f20, which is far better. In addition, back then I was finally free of bloating, felt more energetic and healthy, and was much happier and more stress-free, compared to now where chronic bloating and water retention is setting in again, I feel drained and crappy, and really stressed out. There are so many foods I can't face putting into my body again, and it's ridiculous because most of the foods I won't eat right now aren't even unhealthy! If i just keep thinking back to how much better I felt back then, and focus on my desire to be an unbeatable all-round fitness freak, as well as who and what inspires me, I can do this. I know I can, I just need to be a little more patient and keep trying.

Mitotropin

I'm interested in taking this Gaspari product just to see what happens.. Anyone used it?? Any opinions?

I'm so clumsy!

I was messing about with my friend in the car today and hit my head on the ceiling - and got a nosebleed!! Oops! :P

Still trying to regain a healthy relationship with food...I'm almost there. I really thought I was over all this :/ Still compulsively counting, but as of tomorrow I'm going to try and stop that altogether and just keep a journal of what I eat at what time, and how it makes me feel. Then I can just analyse which foods I should limit, what makes me feel good and what portion sizes are right for me again. What a pain in the ass to have to go through this again :/ at least though, now I know that I can do this :) I will be enjoying my favourite foods again in no time. Until then, here's some food porn to help me out :)



Also..School breaks up tomorrow, whoo! Which means I can go back to a normal kind of day rather than chopping it up for several shifts a day. Cool cool :)

Oh and I just finished over an hour of good stretching! I now hold my stretches for a good two minutes and do about 3 sets of each stretch, so it takes a long time but I feel awesome afterwards. I've always wanted to take up gymnastics or a martial art but never got round to it yet.. So if i ever do, all this stretching should help me out in the beginning! Watching Ong Bak 2 as I write this.

Tips for losing water weight

People can carry a lot of weight from just water, and it can make you feel lethargic, puffy, heavy and bloated.. I often seem to carry the most water round my middle, which is annoying but can be lost with a little effort! Follow these basic tips to see how different you feel. You will be surprised to find how much you were actually carrying, and amazed by the results!


* Drink more water. Funnily enough you actually need to drink more water to prevent your body retaining too much fluid. Aim for 2litres or more per day.
* Cut back on simple carbs. Sugary foods and refined starches hold more fluid in your body.
* Reduce sodium and salt intake. Like simple carbs, they attract more fluid.
* Avoid artificial sweeteners, as they have the same effect on your body as normal sugar. Just because it's calorie-free doesn't mean it has no effect at all!
* Exercise more! Sweat out the excess!
* Try a water retention supplement to relieve excess retention. I wouldn't recommend using these too often as I would imagine they aren't too good for your system since they do all the work for you, but try one as a last resort if the above fails even after sustained effort.

I lost a lot of water weight in only 2 days (nearly half a stones worth!) and my stomach shrank from being flat-ish to being miniscule! Absolutely loved the results, and now that I know my own potential I'm more motivated to stop my body retaining so much fluid. Try it!

Comics!

I love comics but I hardly buy any because I'm too picky! I most love the ones with a hot, strong, fit and intelligent female as the lead. ie: someone to look up to! haha. I mean, I know they're not real but isn't it better to aim for something superhuman rather than within normal human capabilities? If you shoot for the moon you will at least reach a star, whereas if you only shoot for a star you may not even make it to the sky. Know what I mean?
Of the ones I've read, I love Witchblade and Tomb Raider, and I've always wanted Fathom too.. What kind do you like, if any? Any suggestions?


Oh and also, the photos I promised of fitness/figure idols..Well let's just say I've been rather busy lately but I'm working on it! Will get some posted up soon.

Uh oh...

Right, so a very close friend of mine who is trying to lose a little weight asked me if I would help out by writing a diet plan. I'm very much into health and nutrition which is why they asked me and I was really excited to get started on it. I wrote out height, weight, current daily calories, resting metabolic rate, goal weight loss etc etc and started working out macros to a new calorie total. I wrote out a few daily calorie totals for them to choose from, each with various macronutrient percentages to try out and see which they felt healthiest on and lost weight on. BUT...thinking so deeply into nutrition calculations got me a little neurotic about my own consumption again..I very quickly went a bit haywire again and started tracking my own diet down to every tiny morsel consumed, obsessing about my own macros and when I could eat. I thought I was over any dodgy relationships with food! Obviously not. Luckily I realised this very soon and have decided I need to take a break from writing their diet out until my head is sorted out again. I just need to focus on how much happier I felt when I was eating without counting and worrying. And how much better I was actually eating by not stressing about it! Being worried about it only makes you obsessed with food anyway, and then you struggle to maintain any balance.
So apologies to my friend, I will get right back on it asap!

Fitness models

I usually find it quite hard to find fitness models, figure athletes etc that I really find inspiring. I look for a mix of several things, including physical beauty, intelligence, good attitude, good TV personality and so on. Y'know, an amazing all-rounder. But I have now got a fair few favourites, like Ava Cowan, Alicia Marie, Mary Jarmolowich.. These women inspire me not only in terms of fitness and physical ability but also with their confidence, success-driven minds, intelligence.. They inspire me to break through my physical limits, to believe in myself and to follow my heart in my own way as they have done. In all, just to be the best me I can be! Here's Alicia and Ava :) Who inspires you?

My art

I've posted up some of my drawings under the tab 'Art'. This is stuff from when I was 16 or 17 until now. They're not in chronological order though! Hope you like :)

Mmm coffee :)

Found a great magazine to start reading! Anyone who knows me knows I'm crazy about magazines - I buy so many different types you wouldn't even be able to keep up, from fitness to lads mags, gossip mags, you name it. Anyway, it's New Scientist, a weekly full of all kinds of cutting edge news and it is fascinating! I used to buy Muscular Development mainly for the sciencey bit at the front, so this is similar but covering all aspects of science.

Just enjoying a nice cup of coffee too, Starbucks style. Decaf coffee with frothy milk, vanilla and cinnamon on top :) I use decaf espresso and just make a huge mug full instead of a tiny cup.

University..?

I went to Leeds Met uni to study graphic design straight after college but it didn't work out for me at all.. College kind of push you into uni so I ended up going before I even knew what I wanted to do. Graphic design was a natural choice because I've always been into art and I've drawn for as long as I can remember but I realised it's not something I want to do as a career, so I left university after only four months.. I'm glad I left but at the time I felt so lost and such a failure! Anyway I paid back everything I owed for my student loans straight away so I wouldn't have to worry about it, but recently I got statements from them saying I owe another £4000!! This is like, at least a year and a half after I left! So I rang them about it and they explained that £2000 of it is for tuition loans, which even though I left, the uni could still claim those since I'd taken a space on the course. I know for definite my place was filled though, because I was told there was a queue for the course when I was leaving! So that sucks. The other £2000 I actually paid them by debit card over the phone or online but for some reason they never received it :S So this needs sorting asap. What a pain :/

Even so, I do want to go back into education eventually.. I just can't decide what to do! What I originally wanted to apply for was languages, mainly Japanese but possibly Italian too. The only reason I didn't was because I have no previous qualifications for those languages, but that doesn't apply now as I'm a 'mature' student. Also I don't really know if a language course is worth it.. I mean, what careers could it lead to?

Another subject I keep going back to is human biology. I'm really interested in anything to do with the human body, genetics, fitness, health etc etc. But again, I don't know really what it would lead to. And I've been a little put off by all this crap from the student loans company, so if I go back to uni in future I'm gonna try and self-fund!!

Penne with mortadella and mixed veg

Mmm tasty :)

I fancied pasta again for dinner today so I made wholewheat penne, drizzled with 1tsp of olive oil, and mixed with about half a tsp of dijon mustard. I threw in some chopped nuts, mixed veg and mortadella. I then grated smoked applewood cheese over the top, added pepper and was ready to chow down :) Awesomeness.

Digital SLRs

I've been after one for ages - years even - but I still haven't got one! It's just that they're so expensive and there's too much choice, I don't know which one to go for :/ I'm thinking the canon 450D. I always seem to go back to that one, it seems like a good beginner SLR. Any thoughts?

If i do eventually get one I'll be posting plenty of pics :) The camera I have now isn't really worth using so I've nothing to illustrate my posts with.

Mac and cheese!!!!!

I LOVE mac and cheese, it was probably my fave thing to eat as a kid! I didn't eat it for years though, until I got some in hospital a few weeks ago. That reminded me of how much I loved it, so last night I made some for me and my mother :) Couldn't find any big macaroni though, only the really tiny thin stuff, so I used a durum wheat pasta which I can't remember the name of.. It sort of looks like flat spirals, almost like a snail shell.

I chose to make it just with bechamel sauce and grate cheese on top, because I think it tastes cheesier than if you make a cheese sauce. In my opinion, melted cheese loses half the flavor.

Pasta:

boil for about 10 mins.  Meanwhile, make the...

Bechamel:

butter

flour

milk

salt

Melt the butter in a pan over high heat and very gradually add flour until it becomes thick and you can make a ball out of it. Then very gradually add milk, little by little, stirring constantly, until it becomes a nice thick sauce. Add salt to taste.

If you add anything too quickly it will just become lumpy and you'll have to start over. Also, if it becomes a little too thin/runny, add a little cornflour paste and stir over high heat for a few minutes. (If you just throw in cornflour without making into a paste first you'll just end up with lumps again.)

Then pour as much bechamel as you like over your cooked and drained pasta, and grate over plenty of your favorite cheese - I used mature cheddar, and lots of rainbow pepper cos i love it :) yum yum!

EDIT -- The pasta was called dischi volanti, my new favorite

Chickpea and red pepper soup

Mmm, just made this for dinner :) I found some chickpeas in the cupboard and thought I'd see what I could come up with, and this is the result! I found the recipe through a google search.

350ml (12 fl oz) chicken stock, divided1 (400g) tin chickpeas2 tablespoons tahini1 teaspoon Dijon mustard1 clove garlic, minced1 small red pepper, diced

1.

In a blender or food processor, blend 1/2 the chicken stock, chickpeas, tahini, mustard, garlic and red pepper until smooth.

2.

Transfer the blended mixture to a saucepan over medium heat. Mix in the remaining chicken stock, and cook until heated through. Turn this into a vegan dish by using vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.

My local shop didn't have any tahini left so I bought some sesame seeds instead and tried to make my own. Just toast the seeds, and grind them together with enough olive oil in a food processor to make a paste. (About 1/3 cup of oil to 1 cup seeds.) Although...I don't actually have a food processor!! So I used a pan and grinded them with a handheld mixer until blended as finely as possible. It was delicious!

Must buy a food processor though....  :/

Today's thoughts

I used to get really bad cravings for all sorts of foods. The cravings would come in waves - one week/month I couldn't get enough dairy in any form, another time I needed a constant intake of bread, etc etc. Since I completely stopped stressing about food I have found that I no longer get any cravings at all, and my diet is actually far healthier overall without even giving it a second thought! I think if you just relax and learn to truly enjoy your food your body will tell you what it needs and when without you having to worry about it.

Also, I've noticed that if i buy a large portion of something - for example, a family size chocolate bar or a large bag of mixed nuts - I tend to eat a much more sensible and healthy amount. In the case of the chocolate, I'd eat only a square or two of a huge bar, whereas if I bought a regular size bar I'd eat it all. Last week I bought a big tub of wasabi sunflower seeds and only ate a small handful at a time. And the thing is, i feel totally content eating this amount from a large source, yet if I buy a normal size pack it feels as though I'm supposed to eat it all - so I do, and then feel guilty. No more stressing, no more cravings :)

I can't wait for this scar to heal properly so I can start running again!

EDIT: not that I'm restrictive with my diet, I just don't like to fill my body with crap!

Kipper fillets and sweet potato with satay sauce

Today's dinner :) I cooked some kipper fillets and made the sauce while my sweet potatoes were in the oven. For the sauce, I used:

peanut butter

water

nutmeg/cinnamon/cayenne pepper

garlic

chicken stock

chopped onions

salt and pepper

nuts if preferred

basically just throw the chopped garlic and onions in a frying pan with a little oil and as soon as the oil is hot put in a few teaspoons or so of peanut butter. Use enough water to turn it into a smooth sauce, but not too much or it will become bland. Then add the spices and chicken stock (i actually used chicken bovril tonight), and add salt and pepper to taste. I put in some macadamia nuts too because they're my favorite :) Stir all together over high heat, reducing to a simmer once well mixed. Voila! Once it reaches your desired consistency it is done.

I had the sauce over one half of my sweet potato and just cinnamon on the other half, with my fish and some salad on the side. Oh, we also tried some salmon canapes which were delicious :)

Gym!

Yesterday I was finally back at the gym after my time off in hospital and I had a nice full body workout :) I still cant do squats or anything involving my legs too much but i worked out most muscle groups for 3-6 sets of one exercise per muscle just to get them going again. I can feel it today though :) Still no cardio or anything for a while though, just until I'm fully healed.. Don't wanna end up back at square one!

Phew!

Ah busy busy! Today was my first day of being teacher's assistant at the school i work at. It was fun, and a lot more relaxed than I expected! I'm working with year 1. I was also finally back to work at the restaurant since my operation. So that means I was up at 7.30 to be at school for 9, went home at about 1/1.30 for lunch and a shower and some quick stretches, then at the restaurant by about 4pm and finally home by about 11pm! My feet ache.. But it's been a good day :) Having a cup of hot chicken bovril now and then off to sleep so I can get up at 6.30 for the breakfast club tomorrow - it's already midnight!

A little bit of everything is good for you

On friday 4th of June just gone I developed an abscess...Lovely. Skip forward a week and I was in hospital to have it removed. Anyway, i'm fit and well again now but while there I had my blood pressure checked many times and found out mine is a little lower than average at about 110/70 if i remember right. Low blood pressure is generally a good thing, unless of course it's way below the healthy range. But i looked up low blood pressure (symptoms, treatments etc) out of interest and found it is the most likely reason for my palpitations and sometimes dizziness, especially when i stand up from sitting down. It also decreases blood flow to the brain which is why im a bit ditzy sometimes! And then I found...a way doctors apparently recommend to increase blood pressure slightly is to raise dietary salt if not enough is consumed. All this time i thought i was doing good by cutting out salt! i dont eat many processed foods, and the ONLY thing i ever add salt to (but LOTS of) is chips, which i hardly ever eat. so, a little salt is actually good for you! i honestly thought it was something that was okay to cut out entirely, like hydrogenated fats :/ so, from now on, i'll be happy to add a sensible amount of salt to any cooking :) lets see if i actually notice a difference to the way i feel in time.

Oh, also while in hospital, they put me on paracetamol and codeine, the latter of which i found i hate. It worked well as a painkiller but actually made me feel much worse in other ways - really nauseous, dizzy and extremely tired. i slept so much throughout the day on those. and the morphine..i couldnt actually feel a difference...

Prawn Pancakes :)

This is what i made for dinner tonight! We had some prawns and pineapple that needed eating, so I was trying to think of a way to combine them. I've been fancying some pancakes lately too, so I thought I'd put them all together and see what happened! I ended up having king prawns fried together with onions, garlic, salt, red bell pepper, pineapple chunks, fresh spinach and rainbow pepper, all wrapped in a chilli ginger pancake, topped with bechamel sauce and grated cheese. All homemade of course :P it was rather nice but way too filling hehe. Although I still went back for seconds :S 

Oh and the prawns were MASSIVE by the way. My dads a chef so it's always his mission to find the best ingredients but damn!! They must have been about 3 times the size of regular king prawns. You should have seen them in the shells!! Huge monsters. I should have taken a picture. Oh well. Having said that..I probably should have taken a picture of the meal to post up before I ate it. I'll do that next time.

Hellooo! Thanks for finding my page :) I haven't written a diary or anything in a long time so I've decided to start blogging! I'm into health and fitness, good food, world culture, photography, all sorts... So expect that and lots more :)