Spring cleaning

At the beginning of the year I blogged about detoxing and mentioned that January was not a good time for a detox, particularly because the cold weather.

Well this evening was so lovely and warm that it reminded me that we're just getting to the ideal time to start a detox.

As the weather warms up our bodies happily let go of our spare winter pounds that were keeping our vital organs nice and cosy and we naturally gravitate towards raw foods such as salads and fruits.

One of the reasons I like detoxes as a means of weight loss is that they are focussed on the quality of the food you eat and not the quantity - wholegrains, pulses, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds are all so fibre rich that they fill you up quickly, which means you can eat plenty and feel satisfied without worrying about over-eating.

But even if you're happy with your weight it's always good to have an internal spring clean once a year. A detox can help clear out your colon, flush out toxins from your fat stores, refresh your skin and give you bags of energy by reducing the energy your body has to put into detoxing and processing the hard to digest foods we all enjoy.

The key to success is to make sure your fridge, freezer and cupboard are stocked with detox suitable foods that you enjoy eating - these will keep your fingers out the cookie jar. A fridge full of salad and a fruit bowl full of fresh food is key. I also like to have frozen wheat free bread for toast, dried figs, apricots or dates, raw nut and seed mixes all make quick and satisfying snacks.

To be fair just before lent isn't necessarily the best time to start ... but maybe it's a good thing to plan or think about it for once you've enjoyed your easter eggs and hot cross buns!
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Please can I have some calories with that?

Either my appetite has suddenly increased massively or city takeaway lunch portions have shrunk - the other day I bought a Leon picnic box for £6 and still felt hungry afterwards!

Whilst in revision mode I've been picking up lunches at the usual city lunch spots .. Pret, EAT, Leon, Pod and to be honest some of their portions would just about satisfy me as a snack.

I suspect this has a lot to do with absorbing inflation - rather than increase their prices these outlets have chosen to shrink their portions to maintain their profits. Some of this is also appearing under the guise of helping us stay slim - with labels proudly announcing that a £5 salad only contains 350 calories when any normal persons lunch should be double that.

In the end I found only two lunches under five pounds that left me feeling full. One was a salmon sushi set from Itsu and the other was from the salad deli bar at work, a bargainous 3.50. I haven't made it to chop'd yet but if their salads are pretty substantial and reasonably priced if they're still available for £5.50.

Of course it's worth paying more for healthier, fresher food, but that shouldn't mean buying bird size portions. Not only should your lunch leave you feeling satisfied but it also should be at least as many calories as your dinner - having a small lunch and a big dinner is indisputably bad for you. The old adage of breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and eat supper like a pauper isn't nonsense - it will help keep your metabolism high, reduce fat storage, aid restful sleep and effective detoxification and reduce indigestion.

Suffice to say now my head is out the books I'll be bringing my lunch in from home!
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Time to get out of the kitchen

Apologies for my blog flakiness the last couple of months - I was in revision mode and everything else had to take a back burner, but exams are out the way thank goodness and I'm back!!

Whilst I had my head in the books I became alot more aware of how I spent my time and realised that despite not being a great cook I do spend a hell of a lot of time cooking (and eating!!). In the main this is because I like to be able to eat really healthily and the best way to do this is to cook your food from scratch rather than using pre-prepared sauces or ready meals. However if you're doing this for three meals a day it does take up a fair portion of your evening.

So whilst in study mode a few things had to change, firstly I did end up buying a few more lunches than I would usually do, for sheer convenience. Secondly I limited myself to dinners I could cook in 10 minutes and finally I initiated some batch cooking.

Batch cooking may sound like something from a 1950s housewife's manual, but infact it's a strategy that anyone who doesn't have lots of time on their hands (and who does!) should adopt. I'm very late to the game, but always happy to learn new tricks. This one requires some discipline (I have a tendency to cook a double portion and then eat it all) but in the long-run can save you alot of time and money

The principal is that you make up larger amounts of whatever you want to eat and then freeze individual portions what you don't need so that you can defrost and reheat for a dinner another day. This can be anything from homemade soups, stews, curries or even breakfast foods. This generally works best for meals with proteins and veggies but without starchy carbs, so bean stews, chicken or seafood curries, ratatouille, tomato based pasta sauces - all freeze well and you can quickly cook some rice or new potatoes to go with them whilst you defrost them.

Here are a few recipe ideas for healthy dinners you can freeze:

http://www.wholeliving.com/136212/healthy-freezer-friendly-recipes

But I have to admit I didn't much use my freezer - partly because I only have one small drawer that's pretty full already! For me batch cooking mainly involved making a double portion of dinner and taking it to work the next day as lunch - which did get a bit repetitive and I generally like to eat different foods everyday.

One meal I did really enjoy though was breakfast for which I made up a big quantity of muesli in advance to keep at work as an easy breakfast. I also started making batches of breakfast breads (pumpkin bread, banana bread, carrot bread), cutting them into generous slices, freezing them and then leaving them out to defrost overnight to take to work for my breakfast. These were delicious and filling (fyi I have a protein shake at home before I leave for work to make sure I'm also having some protein with my breakfast).

This is the kind diet pumpkin breakfast bread I made, I halve the recipe, which then uses one can of pumpkin, and used agave syrup instead of maple sugar as I didn't have any, and gluten-free flour:

http://www.thekindlife.com/post/hawaiian-vegan-pumpkin-bread

I also made up and froze the Leon vegan carrot cake from their brilliant Leon: Baking & Puddings. Book 3 but added some extra nuts to the recipe.

Taking the natural route

I was talking to a friend recently about the use of supplements in addressing health problems versus the use of medications and thought this was a subject worth blogging on.

The drugs that we have available to us these days are amazingly powerful and improve quality of life for millions of people. However, as I've talked about before, the downsides in terms of side effects and toxic load can be significant and they also don't always address the underlying cause of the illness.

That's why I think it's important not to jump straight to the drug solution but consider if there are any more natural treatments to try first. Whilst many a doctor might poo poo this suggestion, in countries such as Germany and Hungary it is common for Doctors to suggest herbal and homeopathic remedies along with lifestyle recommendations before prescribing medication.

For those sceptics out there I ask 'Where is the downside'? Obviously for someone who is critically ill the quickest treatment should be the first port of call, but if someone turns up at their doctors with mild fatigue, non-red flag digestive symptoms or slightly elevated cholesterol and blood pressure then why not prescribe the relevant vitamins and minerals and a course of exercise or stress counselling?

The point is that if you can get someone on a natural solution first then they won't have the downsides of drug side effects, their treatment will be cheaper, it will most likely have other positive effects on their health and they won't end up tied to a drug prescription for life.

Sadly most individuals turn to a nutritionist or other alternative therapy when they've spent many months, even years, trying various drug treatments that haven't worked for them. I'm hopeful that overtime the public will become more aware of the alternatives and consider the natural options before starting a course of medication.
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Mad for muesli

On my way home tonight I stopped off at Spitalfield Organics for some supplies and came home with more goodies than I could fit in my cupboards!!

In particular I was stocking up on lots of dried goodies to make myself some gluten free muesli.

In my basket was dessicated coconut, goji berries, dried cranberries, almonds, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and brown rice flakes.

Mixed together and topped with some cinnamon, rice milk and fresh berries this will make a delicious breakfast that will keep me full til lunchtime.

Infact muesli is one of my favourite breakfasts for several reasons, firstly it's got lots of different tastes and flavours in it so way more tasty than your standard breakfast cereal, secondly as long as you avoid the high sugar versions it's a super healthy breakfast and thirdly it's super filling so good for the waistline and the energy levels.

The reason muesli is so filling is because it's full of fibre and healthy fats - wholegrains, seeds, nuts and dried fruit are all foods rich in fibre which digest slowly, whilst the seeds and nuts also give you plenty of essential fats which also slow digestion and make you feel more satiated (which is why low fat food is so unsatisfying).

So when choosing your muesli look for higher fruit and nut contents and minimal or no added sugar and if you're making it yourself aim for 50% wholegrains and 50% added extras (nuts, seeds, dried fruit, spices) by volume.

Sadly avoiding oats means I can't eat most muesli's out there but hot doc is a fan of Dorset's Cereals really nutty muesli which has a very healthy ingredient list and plenty of added extras. And for any readers in Canada my sister has found Holy Cr@p a super healthy healthy gluten free muesli with an amusing name to match!!

How to get my vote

It seemed that half of tonight's evening standard was dedicated to the mayoral race kicking off this week in London and it got me thinking about what the mayor could do for London from a health perspective.

Interestingly my brother in law also sent me this link on how some scientists have theorized that air pollution could cause obesity by increasing appetite.
http://boingboing.net/2012/03/15/new-hypothesis-proposes-a-link.html

It's an interesting article and worth a read, but it's not the only reason why pollution can make you overweight - the body stores toxins in fat cells when it can't process them so if you are exposed to a lot of pollutants it may encourage your body to store more fat. This can also be why someone can hit a weight loss plateau where they can't shift the last six pounds because the body doesn't want to release the toxins stored in the fat cells.

Now I'm not suggesting the mayoral candidates encourage us all to do a detox to shift our spare pounds, but there is lots within their power that they could do to reduce exposure.

- encourage individuals onto public transport by cutting fares

- add new cycle lanes and walking routes that aren't alongside roads to reduce toxin inhalation and encourage the less confident cyclists who don't want to risk it with lorries

- plant more trees across the capital and add mini gardens throughout the city for localised CO2 uptake

- encourage the city's businesses to explore environmentally friendly working practices such as letting employees work from home two days a week, using video conferencing for internal meetings rather than flying in colleagues from other offices and running bike to work schemes to buy discounted bicycles

- have regular green days where sections of London are temporarily pedestrianised/made car free zones

- introduce trams to replace some bus routes and have some of these routes restricted to electric vehicles only

- start active monitoring of pollutants and pedestrian traffic by area focussing measures on the most polluted routes with the most pedestrian/bicycle traffic on it

- introduce tougher New York Style smoking laws banning smoking from public outdoor spaces such as parks and squares
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Herby habits

Whilst vegetables are, in my opinion, the healthiest food group out there, herbs are surely the healthiest flavour enhancer you can get your hands on.

Forget MSG or the commercial sugar loaded spice mixes you can buy in the supermarkets, fresh herbs add flavour and valuable to nutrients to any dish with a fraction of the calories of a seasoning mix.

Herbs have also been used for centuries for their medicinal qualities, and as with anything in nature there they probably have a wealth of health benefits that we just don't know of.

Adding herbs to your food is so easy - I'm a bit of a creature of habit and like to play it safe in the kitchen, but the following rules always work:

Coriander - goes with anything asian or vegetarian
Basil - goes with anything tomato based
Parsley - goes with all native english vegetables and soups made with them
Rosemary - goes with re meat
Thyme - goes with white meat
Mint - makes a lovely garnish for most cold desserts

Fortunately hot doc is a bit more adventurous in the kitchen than I am and this weekend taught me to cook with lemon grass. This green twig had baffled me in the past, but the secret is to cut it lengthways down one side and take out the tender white insides and cook with those. It adds a wonderfully fresh taste to stir fries.

Here's the lovely recipe he cooked up for me to get you started:

VIETNAMESE LEMONGRASS STIRFRY
Seerves 2
INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons fish sauce

3 garlic cloves - crushed

1 tablespoon curry powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons runny honey (or agave)

500g fresh prawns (deveined) or chicken (cut into cubes) or firm tofu (cubed)

2 fresh lemongrass stalks - tender inner white bulbs only, minced

2 shallots - thinly sliced

1 large red chilli (or 2 small ones) - diced 

1 red pepper - thinly sliced

1 bunch coriander for garnish

250g rice noodles (dry weight) or rice

METHOD:
In a bowl, combine the fish sauce, garlic, curry powder, salt, and 1 1/2 runny honey. Add the prawns / chicken to marinade.

Heat a wok over high heat. Add the oil and heat until shimmering.
Add the lemongrass, shallot, and chillies and stir-fry until fragrant. 
Add the chicken / prawns and stir-fry until the prawns are pink or the chicken is cooked through. 
Add the red pepper half-way through cooking the prawns / chicken.
Season with pepper. 
If using rice noodles, add to the stir-fry (having cooked them as per the instructions on the packet) & warm through.
Alternatively, serve with steamed rice.
Garnish with coriander.
 

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