Perfect snack

I've found the perfect accompaniment to a cup of herbal tea. Love my tea but sometimes it looks so lonely sitting there without a snack to go with it. A friend made one of the Easter recipes I blogged the other day. To make sure she didn't go overboard with the quantity she made them into mini cupcake molds. Such a good idea. Here's my attempt at them pictured above.

Instead of putting the raspberries in the mixture I just put one on top. Also I forego the rice malt syrup in the recipe for some good quality Stevia (not from the supermarket) Yum! Also a perfect snack if your doing nutritional ketosis. Lots of good fat. Oh, I also used carob in mine instead of cacao. Tastes a bit sweeter. Anyhow here's the recipe again for easy reference. Recipe is from Sarah Wilson's blog. Check it out here.
http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2013/03/11-sugar-free-easter-tricks/#more-5832

Raspberry Ripple

1/3 - 1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup organic salted butter
2 tbls raw cacao or cocoa
1 tbls rice malt syrup
1/3 cup coconut , shredded or flakes
1/3 cup of frozen raspberries

Melt the butter and oil (in a pan or microwave) stir in the cacao and syrup. Arrange the berries and coconut in the moulds. Pour the coconut oil mixture over the top and pop in the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 2o minutes, Serve direct from the fridge or freezer.

I love chocolate and I love burning fat and now I really can enjoy both! How tops is that!

The Stats are in!

Found this draft that I never blogged...interesting to look back. It was drafted at about 4 months post partum. I suppose my proposed training plan did stick. I kept adapting my training throughout though, depending on what I had going on and how I felt energy wise. I also had to consider how my body was holding up. I've had good days, really shit days and everything in between and I'm still having them. The important thing I found is to just KEEP GOING! Training is always going to be a work in progress. Rarely have I met anyone who is happy with where they're at with training. Actually I never have. Then that's half the fun of it isn't it, to keep striving to be better everyday.



...Well the stats are in and there's no hiding from the facts!! It's all there in black and white. Well, for the past 16 weeks I've been mucking around in the gym, just going through the motions really with no real sense of direction or reasoning....that's not how I roll as a rule. I need a solid reason to be able to focus and get the results I need. I know myself well enough to know that unless I want something bad enough I tend to lose interest and my attention dwindles and I'll end up going and finding myself another hobby...at the moment the closest thing would be a hobby of walking to the fridge and mindlessly grabbing myself another block of chocolate. Hey I'm truthful if nothing else :)

I have found to hard to focus and thought to begin with it was just baby brain... a phenomena I once thought was bull shit.  I think it's true now. It seems to be that your mind can't fully focus on one thing as it's thinking of everything all at once. The baby thats crying etc etc weird stuff

Anyhow here is my body composition scan at 6 weeks post baby.

I sure put on more body fat than I anticipated. I put on 9% body fat. Uh -oh!!

Got to have a plan!

The plan is to dedicate three days a week to strength training, with focus on volume. So, for example: 10 sets of 10 reps (or similar  that gets the high volume in) using one main muscle group with additional assistance exercises (small muscle groups) in order to build endurance back up...oh and also heavy enough to illicit a response. I know it's heavy enough when I hear myself roar haha

The magic will be in finding a balance in strength training and increasing my metabolic conditioning.

Three separate days will be for building my metabolic conditioning, you know the sweaty stuff that leaves you panting. These will be Crossfit style. Will also work on my olympic lifting technique when time permits.

Lastly whenever I have the chance I will incorporate anything cardio based in an aim to shed some kilos. Also plan to do some hill repast on a hill local to me. Only once a week or even fortnightly. Used to smash me even when I was at my peak of fitness. And that my friends should keep me busy!!! Feeling positive about the plan though as I've finally able to get the head space to have some focus. Sleeping more hours in a row...thank god!

Sarah Wilson you save my life again...haha

Sarah Wilson you've saved my life again! haha Love these sugar free healthy alternatives for an Easter treat. Yummo! There's no missing out on these special occasions if you do your research first.

Found these recipes on Sarah Wilson's blog. She's awesome. Check it out. Will have to try some of these out myself.

http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2013/03/11-sugar-free-easter-tricks/#more-5832

All of the recipes below are from her blog. 

Raspberry Ripple

1/3 - 1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup organic salted butter
2 tbls raw cacao or cocoa
1 tbls rice malt syrup1/3 cup coconut , shredded or flakes
1/3 cup of frozen raspberries

Melt the butter and oil (in a pan or microwave) stir in the cacao and syrup. Arrange the berries and coconut in the moulds. Pour the coconut oil mixture over the top and pop in the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 2o minutes, Serve direct from the fridge or freezer.


15 tips for easter
 1. Easy egg treats: mix 5 tablespoons of coconut oil (melted) with 3 tablespoons of raw cacao powder (more or less depending on taste) and 3 tablespoons of hazlenut meal and pour into Easter egg moulds (the kind that come as a tray of indented shapes), or mini cupcake patties (the ones used for making chocolates). Place in fridge for an hour.

2. How about this…how to make an egg love heart. Oh my. Serve on Easter morning for “they’ll never know all the other kids are having chocolate confection” fun.

3. What about some lemon poppy seed bunny cookies?

lemon poppy seed bunny cookies

I found this recipe on Elana’s Pantry, a gluten-free blog. Simply swap the agave for 2 tablespoons of rice malt syrup.

• 1 ¾ cup blanched almond flour
• pinch celtic sea salt
• 2 tablespoons grapeseed [or olive or macadamia - Sarah] oil
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (packed)
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

In a large bowl combine almond flour and salt. In a smaller bowl combine oil, agave, vanilla and lemon zest.
Stir wet ingredients into dry, then work in poppy seeds. Roll dough out to ¼ inch thick.
Cut out little bunnies with a bunny cookie cutter. Bake at 180 C for 6-8 minutes, until golden brown around the edges

4. Make up the avocado chocolate mouuse from my ebook. So healthy. So chocolate-y.

5. Better still, serve it in an empty eggshell. My e-friend Aran at CanelleVanille did it recently with a custard. Clever egg that she is. (I’d suggest using a pastry bag or ziplock back with the corner snipped to do this.)

6. Whip up a batch of my chocolate nutballs. Simple. And a great recipe to let the kids make.

For just some plain old chocolate ideas, while I’m here:

7. If you live in the US, you might like these Dr Mercola bars.

8. David Gillespie has great chocolate ice cream and chocolate gelato recipes in The Sweet Poison Quit Plan. Just saying.

9. Good news

I found chocolate bars from Plamil Foods…organic chocolate sweetened with rice malt sugar, containing 3.8g sugar per 100g. The ingredients in this organic bar: Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Butter, Dehydrated Rice Syrup, Soya flour, Emulsifier : Sunflower Lecithin. You can buy them online from Vegan Perfection.

10. I’m also a big fan of Jemma’s Naked Treaties chocolates. Jemma’s Superfood Truffle and coconut bar are sweetened, but only minimally. Jemma handmakes them using 100% raw products. And blesses her ingredients each morning before she starts “cooking”. She tells me each ball contains one gram of fructose (I’m guessing less than 1/3 tsp of sugar). You can buy them direct from her shop in Byron, at a stack of outlets around the country.

11. Turn your muffin pan upside down, and bake biscuit or pastry dough (sweetened with stevia or other) over the top and  bowl for the avocado chocolate mousse, or David’s or sugar-free ice-cream above. Easter-ish I think. But even more so if you used a madeleine pan…a very egg-ish shape, no? (I found this here)

12. This is a simple series of videos for making and painting Easter egg shells.

13. And Martha Stewart gives the Easter craft thing a go here.

14. And what about hot cross buns?!

Here’s a recipe for you. Use Xylitol or replace with stevia granules (try Natvia) and omit the raisins and put in some “sweet nuts” like macadamias or pecans chopped up.  To be honest, I haven’t made these. You’d be on your own with this one! So report back.

• 3/4 cup gluten free plain flour
• 3/4 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/3 cup potato starch
• 2 teaspoons guar gum gluten free
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• pinch ground clove
• 1 tablespoon dry yeast

Egg mixture

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons xylitol
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon, finely grated
• 1 cup raisins

Egg glaze

• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water (beat together well)

Icing

• 1/2 cup xylitol
• 1/2 cup guar gum

Preheat oven to 180 C. Sift flours and spices into a bowl. Mix in yeast.

In a second bowl, beat eggs, xylitol, coconut milk, oil and zest. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and beat well until combined.

Fold in raisins. Divide mixture into 8 – 1o buns. Place dough on silicon lined tray. Set aside in warm place for an hour to let buns rise.

Press a chopstick into the top of each bun to form a cross. This creates a gulley for the icing to remain in place. Brush with egg glaze and bake for 20 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack.

Grind xylitol to a fine powder with mortar and pestle. Add 1/2 teaspoon guar gum and 1 teaspoon coconut milk.

Work until smooth and transfer to piping bag. Pipe across the buns.

15. And if you’re after sugar free, gluten free and vegan hot cross buns…you’re in luck. Trythis recipe. Again, replace the honey with rice malt syrup.

I sincerely hope this paves a path for you. Please be sure to add your ideas below, if you have them. Or post blog links so others can check out your recipes/ideas on your site!

Body composition progress at 12 months

So, time to take a look at my progress. The key, I've always found is to set goals, test and measure your  or success or failure, then evaluate the next step forward.

Below is the results of the body composition scan I had done at 6 weeks post partum. I was at 30.7% body fat. Goal was to lose 8-10kg of body fat. A big ask but I was confident I could do it.









...and this is the most recent one below, almost exactly 12 months later. To summarise I've lost 10kg of body fat or 9% total! Yippee! I also lost 13kg total weight. But I've also lost about 3 kg of muscle mass which isn't great. Muscle is way too hard to gain. Interestingly my muscle mass is almost the same as the scan I had done 2 years ago when I was the same fat percentage and weight so maybe it is not cause for concern. Maybe it's all just levelling itself out. I do know that when you carry a baby for 9 months all your support i.e. legs etc obtain more muscle. That could explain the gain of muscle at the 6 weeks post scan. The muscle loss could possibly be due to my recent nutrition. I've been trialling nutritional ketosis. Perhaps the loss of muscle mass can be explained through the effects my nutrition is having. It could be due to my lack of recovery/ replenishing after training. So I've decided to test and measure. I've pre booked in for another scan in 3 months time on 5th June.




I have been trialling nutritional ketosis on and off over the last 3 months or so to see whether it works for me as an individual. If your from my gym you'll probably be familiar with the term ketosis as a few of us are also experimenting and have all had good results. No two of us are alike so it makes sense that no two of us will have the same results doing the same thing . Ketosis definitely has it's advantages and I also think that it is unrivalled through it ability to burn your fat stores quickly and efficiently and has done so for me. What I'm interested in now is whether or not it will work for me in line with my current goals.

The way I really kick started my weight loss was through a herbal cleanse. I adhered to the cleanse strictly for 11 weeks, never deviating at all from the guidelines. It was tough but worth it, plus I felt great after it and the bonus was that I lost 9kg. Nothing worth having ever comes easy. True that.

Mu curent goals are to lose 2-3% body fat in 3 months (so by the next scheduled scan). This is desired purely from a performance point of view. Hopefully being just under 20% body fat will make body weighted movements easier and more efficient. Of course I want to get stronger and I'm also chasing a 120kg back squat. I can't do this if I continue to lose muscle. I'm interested in how ketosis will stand up with the demands I'm putting on it. My goal is to be able to move more load faster and I need to be fuelling my body so it can do so.

I also have to be aware that there are a lot of other factors that can influence the next few months. I have to take into account the amount of sleep I get or lack there of, stress levels, hydration etc and all the elements that are associated with everyday life, especially with having a demanding 1 year old. But hey I love a challenge :) and I'm also determined not to let myself off the hook so to speak. Everyone has certain hurdles to face day to day. My life is no different. It's neither easier or harder for me to commit myself to this than it is for you. It all comes down to how badly you want it. So many times over the past 12 months I could of given in and let myself listen to the excuses that were there in the back of my mind. We all have them, right there threatening our success. You are stronger and more capable then you realise. Don't forget that, EVER!!!




My trainer Shane Richards recently did a pod cast about the subject of nutritional ketosis. Do yourself a favour and have a listen. He knows some stuff :)

http://www.180nutrition.com.au/2013/03/20/can-we-thrive-without-carbs/


Another great source of information is on Jimmy Moore's blog. He's just a regular guy that's doing his own experiment on ketosis. Interesting reading.

http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/n1


A great book on the subject is

The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living 
by Jeff S. Volek, PhD, RD and Stephen D. Phinney, MD, PhD

Below is an extract from his book. I'll let him explain ketosis...
Taken from Chapter 1
Defining 'Nutritional Ketosis'

The second way to define "low carbohydrate" is physiologic – specifically that level below which there is a fundamental shift in your body's fuel homeostasis (i.e., energy regulation) away form glucose as a primary fuel. This shift is the adaptation of the body's hormonal set and inter- organ fuel exchange to allow most of your daily needs to be met by fat, either directly as fatty acids, or indirectly by ketone bodies made from fat. This process, …, begins for most adults when total carbohydrate is restricted to less than 60 grams per day along with a moderate intake of protein. After a few weeks at this level, the primary serum 'ketone' (beta-hydroxybutyrate or B_OHB) rises above 0.5 millimolar (mM). At this ketone level, which is ten-fold higher than that in someone with a daily intake of 300 grams of carbohydrate, their brain begins to derive a substantial portion of its energy needs from B-OHB, resulting in a commensurate reduced need for glucose.

With further restriction of carbohydrate below 50 grams per day, the serum B-OHB rises in response to reduced insulin secretion. However, because dietary protein prompts some insulin release, and serum B-OHB itself stimulated insulin release by the pancreas, (albeit subtly), adults eating 20 grams of carbohydrate and 75-150 grams per day of protein rarely run serum above 3 mM. …

This 10-fold range of serum ketones, from 0.5 to 5 mM, is your body's normal physiological response to varying degrees of dietary carbohydrate and protein restriction. This response rate is called 'nutritional ketosis', and is associated with metabolic adaptations allowing your body to maintain a stable stare of inter-organ homeostasis. This process is dependent on an adequate, albeit minimal, ability of the pancreas to produce insulin in response to dietary protein and serum ketones, thus maintaining serum B-OHB in the range where it replaces much of your body's (and your brain's) need for glucose without distorting whole-body acid-base balance.

Taken from Chapter 13
Ketones-To Measure or Not

As noted in Chapter 1, nutritional ketosis is defined by serum ketones ranging from 0.5 up to 5 mM, depending on the amounts of dietary carbohydrate and protein consumed. In most people, the combined intake of 100 grams of carbohydrate and 100 grams of protein with drive serum well below 0.5 mM. While there is nothing magical about having circulating ketones above this threshold level, it does have the practical value of providing he brain with a virtually limitless, fat-derived fuel source. This alternative fuel is eminently more sustainable, particularly in the insulin resistant or carbohydrate intolerant individual.

Within a few days of starting on our carbohydrate restriction, most people begin excreting ketones in their urine. This occurs before serum have risen to their stable adaptive level….

Meanwhile, the body is undergoing a complex set of adaptations in ketone metabolism. ….

… Over time the urine ketone excretion drops off, …. 

These temporal changes in how the kidneys handle ketones make urine testing a rather uncertain if not undependable way of monitoring dietary response/adherence. Testing serum for beta-hydroxybutyrate is much more accurate but requires drawing blood, and it is expensive because it is not a routine tests doctors normally order.
…
… the key question is why do it? Many people are able to initiate and follow a low carbohydrate diet just fine without ever measuring ketones. Others, however, find an objective measure of nutritional ketosis to be reassuring. … 

Taken from inset in Chapter 16
Human Protein Tolerance
…
As a result of these observations, plus our studies of muscle retention and function during carbohydrate restriction, we recommend daily protein intakes between 1.5 and 2.5 gram per day per kg of reference weight. For a person on weight maintaining low carbohydrate diet, this typically translates to somewhere between 15% and 25% of your daily energy coming from protein. 

Always do your own research when it comes to anything to do with your health. I don't profess to being a nutritionist and always suggest that you do your own experiment if you will. Find out what works for you. Sometimes It's about fine tuning and tweaking until it fits you. That's half the fun! Happy tweaking :)

It becomes art, if you let it.

What I know is this: there will be a gift eventually. Whether it comes in the form of you comforting another. Whether it comes in some art you make from it, because your pain is so deep, and that, my love, is what happens to pain transformed. It becomes art. if you let it.- Jennifer Pastiloff

In my body first

Funny how it comes about this feeling. I can be walking down the street, or buying a coffee, or even doing the dishes and I feel it. Sometimes even the smell of you on another walking past is enough to do it. It becomes me. I feel it in my body first, then it pierces my heart. Always in my body first. The mind cannot be trusted. The mind will tell you it has forgotten, while the body, the body will never lie. I want to drop to my knees and pray. Right in that very spot.

What would life be if the body never remembered. Just another day of coffee, weather, waking up and going to sleep. It would be cheating me of the memory of you, robbing me of the beauty that was. I want to thank you for giving me these snapshots of my life. Thank you for allowing this rewind of time for a fleeting moment.

I can't recall our last words. I try and try but I can't remember. I can't remember all the details of all those stories you told me which I thought were oh so irrelevant at the time. I wish I had a tape recorder in my mind so I could replay the sound of your voice.

I wish I could keep the smell of you alive. I have you all sealed up in a zip lock bag in my room. Your fabric jewellery case that smells of you. I open it up and I have you for another moment. Memories of love. A mix of musk, lavender and love. I try not to open that bag too often for fear that your smell will fade. It's my special treat that bag.

They are all just wishes really. There's no going back. Never. That's the hard part. There's no paying more attention to the little things we shared. There's no stilling the moment. It's a moment that's here and then its gone. Too late to say the things I should of said, too late all of it.

So when this feeling threatens to bowl me over when I'm walking down the street next, I'll try to accept it. It's after all my body trying to remember my life, trying to capture that feeling, encasing it in a part of my body forever. When I think that time should play a part in numbing the effect I'll know that I'm wrong, for time is nothing. It's love that's endless :)

Falling back in love...

I have a guilty secret...
I've been hiding it from you all for a while now.
My secret is that I've fallen out of love.
I've fallen out of love with my training.
There I said it.
No matter what I do, or how hard I try I just can't conjure up the feeling that I used to get when I train. I'm devastated by this. Does this mean we'll break up eventually or should I keep investing like people do in a broken relationship. Is it doomed?

So many times I've seriously considered joining a mothers group and having coffee and banana bread day in and day out. Sometimes the thought of working up a sweat repulses me. Sometimes I have to drag my lazy arse to the gym cause I know it's what I should do but a lot of the time it's not what I want to do. Shame on me. Shame shame!

Should I keep at it in the hope that the love will once again blossom? Is that what people do? Like people that stay in unhappy relationships in the hope that something will change? I can't imagine not training. Not only do I train with some of my best friends but I train at the best gym ever. It would leave a huge gap in my life. I suppose I'm not considering quitting I'm just really feeling this lull.

I feel like a traitor. Like an imposter in my gym. I look around and see all these people loving what they are doing and I feel like I've somehow gone to sleep and woken up in this strange place where I used to reside happily. Feel like I've had a micro sleep and somehow the world has turned itself upside down. I keep turning up and going through the motions but the feeling, the passion that I had is still not back. I have a lot of guilt about this. I'm a trainer. I'm supposed to be brimming with energy and enthusiasm and inspiring others to do the same. Instead part of me looks on with envy at all of you revelling in it. The love of seeing people achieve their goals is still there but I've lost mine.  Damn that micro sleep!!

Still I plan to show up everyday because that's what I do and what I've done for a long time now and partly because I won't give up on you. You being me or my alter ego. I remember that feeling so well, the feeling that I so long for again, and I think is worth fighting for. I'm not ready to give up on you, not yet.

I needed to talk about it. Today, I am admitting my falling-out-of-lovedness. Once I got it out in the open and stopped being ashamed about it, I knew I'd feel better. It's been like a badge of Dis-Honor I am wearing on my heart. Once I talked about it and wrote about it here, I'd feel more human.

So see you all In the gym real soon. Keep on having fun all and keep on reminding me of what it feels like to have the passion in your grasp. I need to be reminded of it. I trust I will get back there. I have to. It's what life is made up of.  So thank you for delivering me into that feeling of envy again.  As long as I still have that feeling from time to time then there is hope.