Low carb recipe: quiche

Ingredients

Ground Almonds	-	50g
Table Salt	-	½ Tsp
Coconut Flour	-	50g
Almond or Hazelnut Butter	-	25g
Coconut Oil	-	25g
Medium Eggs	-	5 Eggs
Double Cream	-	300ml
Whole Milk	-	50ml
Cheddar or Gruyere Cheese	-	140g
Streaky Bacon	-	100g/4 rashers
Asparagus	-	100g
Closed Cup Mushrooms	-	125g
Butter	-	15g

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Method

1. Preheat oven to 135C (fan oven - 125C non-fan).
2. Combine ground almonds, coconut flour and salt in a dry mixing bowl.
3. Melt the coconut oil gently (don't get it hot otherwise you'll prematurely cook the egg white in a minute) stir with the almond butter and add to the dry ingredients in the bowl. Mix thoroughly.
4. Separate 1 egg. Add the egg white to the dry ingredients bowl and make sure it's mixed in well.
5. Spread this mix over the base of a lightly greased/oiled flan or shallow cake tin and press down with the back of a metal spoon until firm.  If you have baking beans to bake blind, use them. If not, your crust will be crumbly, which is fine.
6. Bake in the pre-heated oven for roughly 45 minutes, but start checking at 30 minutes. When the mix is the same even slightly darker colour, across the entire base remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely somewhere dry.

7. While the base is cooling... turn up the oven to 160C (fan oven - 180C non-fan), cook up the chopped bacon with the thickly sliced mushrooms and asparagus in a frying pan in the butter.  Do not let the asparagus get soft at all.

8. Beat the other eggs, the remaining yolk, cream and milk together then add the cheese (grated) and plenty of seasoning.
9. Stir in half the bacon and asparagus, and carefully pour the mixture onto the baked base then scatter over the remaining bacon and asparagus.
10. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the filling is set, starting to turn golden and slightly puffed up above the case.
11. Allow to cool a little before removing from the tin.
12. Serve warm or at room temperature, with a green or tomato salad.

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Nutrition Information

Nutrition Data Per Serving Calories (kcal) 615.5 Protein (g) 21.6 Carbohydrate (g) 4.6 Fat (g) 55.9 Fibre (g) 4.8 Fruit & Veg 0.5 Alcohol 0.0

Weight Loss: There Is A Better Way

If you've been following my "weight loss" series (Why bother? and Why is it so hard?), I've now got to the point where I'm going to be even more blunt and opinionated.
  
When it comes to the matter of body weight/fat there are two types of people; people who have a metabolic/endocrine problem and people who don't.  I previously thought the former group was vanishingly small, but I've been reading and learning a lot and I've changed my mind.  People with genetic, pre-existing endocrine problems -are- rare; people with acquired metabolic problems are pretty common and it's usually varying degrees of insulin sensitivity from the sensitive to bordering on type II diabetes and mainly due to battering the body with high levels of (refined) carbohydrates until it starts to give up.  Some bodies are more susceptible than others to running into problems with this.  Some take a long time to show any effects.  Some never have a problem at all.

Gary Taubes, Tim Noakes, Steven Phinney, Jeff Volek, Peter Attia, Aseem Malhotra, Yoni Freedhoff and many others have researched, thought, read, and digested (pun intended) on the topic and have come to the conclusion that the modern obesity pandemic is caused by cheap, freely available, highly processed, large amounts of carbohydrates in the human diet.  Not just Western society; but increasingly across the whole of the world and as the availability of cheap, highly processed carbs increases, any given country will see an increase in obesity, diabetes and a number of other chronic diseases.

If you put on weight quite easily, are slowly gaining weight as you get older, have a high waist-to-hip ratio, struggle to lose weight or maintain healthy weight, crave foods, get hungry a lot of the time, think about food a lot (in terms of when/where is your next meal coming, or how you can justify eating X or Y, not in terms of a recipe you'd like to try 'cause it looks interesting or it's your job etc.) you are probably along the path to insulin insensitivity/resistance.  If that is the case, you would probably benefit from a low carbohydrate diet for general health reasons and a side-effect of a low carbohydrate diet could well be weight loss.  When I say "diet" here, I do not mean it in the sense of "going on a...", I mean it in the sense of what you eat for now and forever.

If you don't put on weight easily, have a relatively healthy waist-to-hip ratio, don't vary much in body weight with time, have no problem losing a few pounds (maybe for the racing season?), don't get food cravings, don't have "intrusive thoughts of food", then you're probably towards the "no problem" end of the insulin sensitivity scale.  You're quite lucky.  Also, a low carbohydrate diet will probably have little effect on your weight.  That said, there are a good few reasons why you might want to move to a higher fat (and, logically, lower carb) diet (have a read of Why We Get Fat and what to do about it and/or The Great Cholesterol Con).  I don't mean to the extent of this...

...but golly-gosh there are a lot of good things in some of them thar fats like olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, beef fat (grass fed), salmon (wild), mackerel, herring, butter and milk (grass fed), eggs (free range, organic), macadamia nuts, brazil nuts etc.

So if you are away from the lucky end of the insulin sensitivity scale and want to change, take a look at your diet.  See how much white flour, potatoes, sugar, white rice etc. you eat, or even how much brown rice, brown flour, brown pasta, bananas, fruit juices etc. if it's more than 200g or so per day.  If you are struggling to lose weight, suffer unpleasant hunger/cravings, can't make it work on a calorie counting diet (usually low fat), CHANGE THE STRATEGY.  Swap low fat for low carb.  Eat real butter, milk, cheese, eggs, meat, fish and feel less hunger.  If you go low enough carb for a few days you'll stop getting cravings, stop the constant thinking about food, stop the horrible hunger sensations.  You'll enjoy what you're eating!  You'll start to find that things like strawberries are insanely sweet-tasting without adding sugar because you can actually taste them properly.  You'll start to find that you don't need a huge plate piled high with pasta, rice, potatoes, bread etc. to feel satisfied after a meal.

And if you think it's all too much like hard work, there are so many quick and easy things you can make/cook/grab on the go.  And if you think low carb is too restrictive and all you'll be eating is bacon and eggs... well, there's a lot of help and ideas and once you get going it's really really easy.

And it's a change for life.

Low Carb Recipe: Moussaka

It's been a while since I've posted any recipes, so this is long overdue.  This moussaka recipe is a firm favourite in our house now and you get a good few portions out of it which survive nicely in the fridge or freezer until you want them (defrost before re-heating otherwise it's a real pain to heat through properly).

Serves 4:-

580kcal per portion - 17g carbs, 33g protein, 43g fat, 3.3 portions fruit & veg

• 1 medium/large aubergine (375g)
• 500g good quality lamb mince (500g)
• 1 can tinned tomatoes, ideally cherry tomatoes (395-400g)
• I big pile of (dark) green leaves - spinach/kale/cavolo nero (200g)
• 1tbps cornflour (15g)
• 4tbsp extra virgin olive oil (60ml)
• 1 small onion (50g)
• 4 fat cloves of garlic (20-25g)
• chunk of mature cheddar (60g)
• whole milk (300ml)
• 5tsp harissa paste (50g) - I use the delicious Belazu Rose harissa
• Pinch of cumin seeds.

0. Turn the oven on to 175C to warm up.

1. Slice your aubergine into slices around 3-5mm thick.

2. Heat a tablespoon of oil and fry the aubergine slices in batches, adding more oil as needed until there's about 1tbsp oil left from your 60ml.  (You'll need that for the meat later.)

3. Slice the onion finely.

4. Brown the lamb mince in batches with a little oil to start off with.  Oil will come out of the meat so don't worry it's not enough at the start.

5. Add the sliced onions once the meat is browned.

6. Blend the cornflour with a little of the milk until smooth, in a milk pan, then add the rest of the milk and some cumin seeds.

7. Heat gently and stir until thickened, then take off the heat and stir a couple more times.

8. Season the meat pan with a little salt and black pepper and some herbs if you like.

9. Add the tinned tomatoes and harissa paste and simmer for 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

10. Spread half of the meat on the base of a baking dish.

11. Top with half of your green leaves.

12. Layer half of your fried aubergine on top of that.

13. Repeat with the other half of the meat, leaves and aubergine, then pour the white sauce on top of the aubergine layer.  Spread out evenly to cover all of the top so there's nothing sticking out to dry out later.

14. Grate your cheddar and sprinkle on top.

15. Place into the oven for 30-40 minutes until golden brown and bubbling.

16. Cut into 4 portions and serve/divide up into portions to chill for later.

Review:- Purition; surprise nice emergency breakfast!

Occasionally, I'm asked to try samples of new products and these days it's usually things I prefer not to eat these days; high carbohydrate breakfast cereals, bars etc.  But I was recently asked to try something quite new; Purition, a range of food supplement products (mainly shakes) aimed at the more natural food/clean eating preference market.  And when I read the literature on the product I was pleasantly surprised.

Having worked on a very low carb diet for 4 months, I did my first ultra marathon in February this year, fuelled on a breakfast of bacon, eggs and cream cheese and took in nothing but water for the whole 50km run.  With no specific training for the distance and having been out of action for 10 of the preceding 16 weeks due to a smashed collarbone, coming half way down the field of runners, finishing very much in good spirits and passing half of the field of runners in the last 6-7km of the course, very much proved the point that for endurance sports (and short races too) that you don't need to stuff yourself with refined carbohydrates and, worse, sugars in order to perform well.  So, I look for products that aren't full of carbohydrates and it's not easy to find that in the "sports nutrition" or "convenience nutrition" market places.  OK, so you often see "100% natural" and "healthy" slapped all over products of this genre, but what's rarer is the lack of any added sugars, starches, dried fruit or other stuff that's supposed to be good for you but usually actually isn't.

 Looking at the nutritional profile made me even happier...

 So I said "yes please" to some samples and two of them arrived in the post shortly afterwards.

 Little foil sachets with an individual portion in each.

And instructions on how to make it up into a shake-style drink.  A touch cutesy, but given the market they're in, you can easily forgive that.

Thankfully I had a tricky morning the next day and a quick, easy brekkie when I got in to work after the gym was exactly what was needed, so I took my sachets and a shaker/mixer with me.

Tipping the powder in over milk, like the instructions said, and it looks gritty and bitty due to the seeds in it - that's where all the fibre comes from.  I gave it a good old shake and tipped it out into a glass.

What I didn't do was actually read the full instructions properly that said to give it another shake after standing for a while, so this happened...

 No biggie, but it meant that I had to use a teaspoon to finish the shake.

The taste... I loved it.  Lots.  Nowhere -near- as sweet as any whey proteins I've had and not tasting of strong artificial flavours - just very very faintly sweet, nutty and a little of the coconut that was in it.  Really blimmin' lovely!  (The chocolate one I had the next day was just as yummy and delicately flavoured too.)

4 hours later and having had around half the normal breakfast kcal intake I still wasn't hungry.  This was a good thing given how work is and the fact that I had nothing around for lunch.

In short, I was so impressed with the ingredients, nutritional profile, taste and end results that I jumped onto their web site and bought 3 pouches of the stuff; Bodypro, Bodysculpt, and Superseed Smoothie. 

It's going to be rather useful to have around on the mornings during the week where I get up, go to the gym and in to the office, saving time around not having a cooked breakfast but still getting good quality nutrition in that isn't high carb and has a lot of fibre in it too.  It's also going to be useful for those days when I'm mad busy and need to get some quality, quick nutrition in before or after a hard training session at the gym - it's difficult for me to predict when I'll get those done so I can't easily have real food on hand.  Also goes nicely over Greek yogurt as a snack (and we have Greek yogurt in the office, as well as milk, which is handy.)

Really impressed with the products, love the company's thinking, love that it's British and wish I'd found it sooner!

Low carb recipe:- porridge

Ohyes.  You didn't think porridge was low carb, did you?  Neither did I until I was inspired by some thoughts around the effects of some seeds (linseed, chia seed, mixed seeds, they all seem to do it) on water/milk/cream.  They act as a thickener and especially if they are broken up...

So, here's the recipe.  Serves 1 and scales up fine.  The portion will look small, but trust me it is unbelievably filling!  350kcals, almost 90% from fat, and 3.2g available carbs.

• 20g pecan nuts (not roasted, not salted, just plain)
• 1 tbsp (7.5g) desiccated coconut
• 1 tbsp (15g) golden linseed (brown linseed seems to have a lot more available carb)
• 1/4tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of sea salt flakes
• 1tsp Splenda (or stevia, or xylitol, it's up to you)
• 1tbsp double cream
• 1/2tsp (2g) coconut oil (you could use cocoa butter instead if you like)
• 75-80ml boiling water

1. Put linseeds, pecans and sea salt into a pestle and mortar and grind to the consistency of meal.  The coarser you leave it, the crunchier and nuttier the porridge will be.  You do want the seeds quite fine though, so grind them up first, then add the nuts and grind to desired texture.
2. Mix desiccated coconut in with the ground seeds and nuts and add the boiling water.  Leave to stand for a couple of minutes to thicken, then stir thoroughly and add the vanilla, coconut oil, Splenda and cream.

If the porridge is a little runny for your preference, put it in the microwave on high for 30s-1min and leave to stand for another couple of minutes before serving.   It will look like a very very small portion if you are used to porridge made with oats, but believe me this is as satisfying as a portion of oaty porridge made from 50g dry oats.

You can vary the proportions... to increase fibre but keep kcals constant, up the linseeds and water but drop the pecans; to increase fat, up the coconut oil (this will increase the kcals, not much point trying to reduce them).  I had 2tbsp cream rather than 1 and it was lovely!

Objectives achieved. Data acquired.

A last-minute decision to go on a training camp was always going to be a bit of a gamble for a number of reasons.  I've been avoiding swimming and getting outside on my bike since I was pronounced OK to do so by the doctors after the crash of Sept 2012.  I'd skip sessions, wuss out of being on the road on my bike with the excuse that it wasn't safe, though the real reason was that underneath it all I was shit-scared of it.  The only training I was actually happy to do was running.  So, heading out to a training camp for a week in Spain seemed like the perfect opportunity to get me out of the funk.

The coaches asked what my objectives were:-

Hi Mike,

my objectives...

1 - regain bike confidence and handling (sub-objective of simply hours on the bike)

2 - get my ass in the pool and stop hating the thought of it - get ideas of and work on positivity around swimming
3 - health-check running technique, work on any problems there

 And I packed up, got on a plane and headed out.

Firstly, EasyJet isn't as bad as I thought.  I paid for extra leg-room, which wasn't a huge addition to the cost and the 3ish hour flight was perfectly comfortable.

We arrived at the golf resort where we were staying (sadly the original accommodation hosts had to cancel our visit at the very last minute, due to a landslide blocking the road to the mansion) and rather than go for a ride or a run as per the schedule, we went for our first swim because it was a bit cold and windy.  And lo, my second objective was ticked off straight away; on the first day, within hours of getting off the plane!

(thanks to TheTriLife for taking photos - I took all of 3 in the whole week!)

We did a technique set in the pool and as the coach:athlete ratio was so high, I got a lot of personal attention and almost immediate results from two stroke form changes.  From that moment, my attitude to the pool swung from "gnnngh, do I -have- to!?" to "let me in there! when can we swim next?".  Though it was quite tiring initially, because my left arm is shockingly weak (to me) having done pretty much nothing with it for months, it quickly became easier over the days to do more and longer sets and sessions.  Over the 6 swim sessions of the week I started off being able to manage 1200m (already 20% more than recently) up to 3,500m in a session and in not too shabby a time either.

The other, more difficult problem, was the bike.  Since I crashed, I'd been out on the road twice; once to the sorting office and once down to the local sprint tri route and back.  No more than 40km on the road in 6 months!  I'd done 50min-120min turbo sessions, but that's so very different to being on the road and my bike handling was never great in the first place, now it was shot to pieces and my confidence non-existent.  So, ride number 1 on camp was a case of "STFU, buckle-down and get on with it" for me.  A big exercise in shutting up part of my brain that does risk analysis and it took quite some effort.

But I didn't die. I managed some hills and a top speed of 52km/h down a hill at one point.  It may sound trivial to most, but it was a huge step forward for me, mentally more than anything else.

One of the villas at the resort

The week ticked by, gaining in endurance and confidence in the pool and on the bike.  The only difficulty was the food provided.  As we were at a golf resort, there was little understanding of the needs of athletes training around 25-28 hours in 6 days.  They did try, but some were left running low on fuel and from my low carb, high fat dietary preference point of view, I sorely lacked in vegetables through the week - just about ticked along with the lunch-time salad, but dinner was very very poor nutritionally.

With each ride, I was gaining confidence and increasing top speed down the descents, getting stronger with handling - moving back to being able to signal and take a drink while free-wheeling - and stronger/confident up the hills. (ride times posted here include stopped time and faff at the start)

A typical hill road - pretty, huh?

Ignore the time, that's including a coffee stop and forgetting
to turn off after we got back

With each swim, I was gaining familiarity with my modified technique, improving endurance, strength and even speed.

And then, after 7 days straight of training (including the day before camp and the travel day when we swam in the afternoon) and 19 hours of training on a diet of 30-50g carbohydrate per day, I found a limit.  Day 6 of camp had a run scheduled in the afternoon after a morning swim.  I was supposed to do 3 laps of a 5km route at a relatively easy pace.  Others in the group had 1, 2 or 3 laps to do depending on goals.  We were all to head out at the same pace and stay together until the first turn on the route, about 500m from the start.  Within the first 30s I knew something was wrong.  Everyone else was pulling away from me and I couldn't do anything about it.  I felt fine, good mood, legs strong, lungs working OK, heart rate... stuck below 156bpm.  I willed myself to go quicker, but nothing happened.  The day before, I'd done 3 laps of a shorter route, 1 easy, 1 a bit under race pace and 1 above race pace.  That was fine for the first 2 laps and I pushed a HR of up to 168bpm, but the 3rd lap faded and ended up being no faster than the 2nd (which was a bit quicker than it should have been).  This day, nothing was happening.  I just couldn't go any faster.

So. As I trotted gently, I mused what might be happening and thought back to my calculations for the London Ultra with my carbohydrate reserves and where the changes in fuel ratio happen. 155bpm is a knee point in the graph.  It's where I go from burning almost no carbohydrate at all to needing to get 2kcal/min from carbohydrate.  Bingo.  I'd finally completely run out of glycogen in my body.  I guess it had happened during the run the day before and the small amounts I got from the evening meal that night (from the veg and a bit of gluconeogenesis from the protein too) didn't give me anything to be getting on with once I put my body under load.

(this is old data, add 10bpm to the right axis when reading the graph)

During a normal training week I'd do about 8 hours training and mostly at low intensity.  If you consider my body's glycogen stores to be a bathtub of water, I'd be emptying it with anything from a teaspoon to a coffee mug while filling it with a soup ladle and maintaining a reasonable level of water in the bath.  This training week, at a higher intensity and much more load than usual, I was emptying it with a bucket and filling it with a coffee mug (harder to keep the carbs low while in Spain, plus I was having a glass or two of wine every night and a lot more milk than usual).  After 7 days, my bath was empty and I was sitting in the bottom and reaching for the tap... I had a burger, potato wedges and a chocolate brownie with ice-cream for dinner on day 7 (6th day of camp).  And the next day, stormed on out for a 3.5km endurance swim at an average HR of 155bpm, peaking at 170bpm and then a 2.5 hour bike ride peaking at 175bpm.  Sorted!

I've had a bit of a think and I don't need to do anything differently around my normal training weeks, but what I may want to do in the couple of final days of training before a longer race, 70.3 and up, I'll refuel after a hard or long session with a big ol' glass of milk to get some carbs in without going crazy.  And if I end up with a heavy week again, go on a camp or similar, I'll keep an eye on the hours and intensity vs. food going in.

Good week.  Very good week.  Swim mojo back.  Bike mojo getting there.  Fuel better understood (more data still required).  Let's go!

Low/no carb recipe: pancakes

Inspired by a recipe from Blogilates which is just eggs and banana, I investigated how to make pancakes with pretty much no carbs in them.

Per person:-

•  - 1x egg
•  - 25g cream cheese - this is the only source of carb, so check the label carefully (the cheese I'm using at the moment has no carbs, so it can be a 100% carb free recipe)
•  - 20ml double/whipping cream
•  - 2/3g coconut oil to cook

1. Blend egg(s) and cheese with a blender/food processor.
2. Add cream and blend some more.
3. Heat a pancake pan with your choice of oil (I use coconut oil)
4. Pour mix into the pan and cook on a medium heat
5. Cook mix until the top is almost set
6. Turn pancake and cook the other side
7. Slide onto a plate and top as desired - it will deflate when it leaves the pan and look more like a pancake.

Best eaten hot as they go quite brittle as they cool down.  I think thicker is better here for the consistency, so a smaller diameter pan like I used for the blueberry and yogurt one than I used for the cheese one at the bottom below.

With cream, Greek yogurt and blueberries - beautiful texture

Rolled up with grated cheese inside - a bit too thin and brittle

Low carb recipe: Coffee and Walnut Cake

Ingredients:-

• 50g ground almonds
• 50g coconut flour (from Holland and Barrett)
• 1 egg - separated into yolk and white
• ¼tsp salt (use table salt, not flakes in this one)
• 2 tsp instant coffee, made up with 15ml hot water
• ½tsp ground cinnamon
• 5g Stevia/Truvia (granulated)
• 25g hazelnut butter (almond or peanut butter will do if that's all you have)
• 25g cacao butter (this came from Vivapure, but coconut oil can be substituted)
• 30g unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)
• 300g full-fat cream cheese (watch the carb count, some of the cheeses are high)
• 300ml double cream
• 4tsp (2g) Splenda
• ½tsp vanilla extract
• ¼tsp xanthan gum (if the cream mix is too loose, add a little more)
• 5-10g grated very dark chocolate (I used Green & Blacks 70% with madagascan vanilla)

1. Preheat your oven to 135C and make up the coffee. Set the coffee aside to cool.
2. Combine ground almonds, coconut flour, salt, cinnamon and stevia in a dry mixing bowl.

3. Melt the cacao butter gently (if you're using coconut oil make sure you don't get it too hot otherwise you'll prematurely cook the egg white in a minute) stir with the nut butter and add to the dry ingredients in the bowl.  Mix thoroughly.

Plastic pot in a bowl of hot water to melt the cacao butter

 
4. Add the egg white to the bowl and make sure it's mixed in well.

 
5. Spread this mix over the base of a lightly greased/oiled flan or shallow cake tin and press down with the back of a metal spoon until firm.

6. Bake in the pre-heated oven for roughly 40 minutes, but start checking at 30 minutes.  Do not overcook the biscuit base, otherwise it will taste bitter.  When the mix is the same even slightly darker colour, across the entire base remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely somewhere dry.

This was over-cooked and slightly bitter.

While the base is cooling...

8. Whip the cream until stiff.

9. In another bowl, combine the cocoa powder, Splenda and xanthan gum.

10. Mix the cream cheese with the dry ingredients above. This will get very very heavy and stiff, so don't be put off at this stage, keep mixing until well blended.

11. Then add the egg yolk, cooled coffee mixture and vanilla extract and smooth to a creamy, silky mixture.  This will look like it's gone wrong early on.  It will look lumpy and oily but persevere, continue to smooth with a wooden spoon and it will turn a lighter colour and resemble gently melted chocolate.  When that happens, you're done with this step.

 
12. Fold the whipped cream into this mixture, gently stir in the broken walnuts and set aside in the fridge to keep cool.

13. Once everything is cooled and ready, spread the chilled cream cheese mixture on top of your biscuity base and smooth to a level top.

14. Sprinkle the grated chocolate evenly across the top.

15. Put the whole ensemble into the fridge until 15 minutes before you want to serve it.

I think this recipe would benefit from a little more coffee in the cheese/cream mix and perhaps chopping the walnuts smaller.  The over-cooked base this time made the whole thing a bit too bitter, though I was very pleased with the consistency of the base - really crispy and crunchy.

Needs another test run.  If anyone tries this recipe, let me know how it turns out and if you modified it in any way.