TOTAL Greek Yoghurt Masterclass

What a fabulous day!

Met loads of great people, had some fun making some yoghurty recipes and learned how to toss a pan properly - you know, the way the chefs do it on the telly...

Not being one much for desserts I was pleasantly surprised by my efforts with the Tiramisu Rapide and Millefeuille:-

Sooo pleased how that turned out!

Proper report and some recipes when the weekend's race and Wedding anniversary stuff is finished.

Mmmyoggit! (Greek of course!)

You might remember a while back I tried some new TOTAL snacking yoghurts.  Well, I've finally got around to trying all of the flavours now and I can say that they are all pretty blimmin' nice, but my favourite by far is the Tropical Fruits one.

These new yoghurts are 0% fat Greek (of course!) and the available flavours are Blueberry, Strawberry, Tropical Fruits and Honey.

The Honey one suffers from being  A. yoghurt and needing to be in the fridge but B. having honey which pretty much solidifies if you do that so you need to leave it out for a bit before trying to eat it otherwise you just end up with a hard lump of honey with a thin covering of yoghurt on it and it just won't mix in.

The strawberry one is just far too sweet for my taste, but Mr TOTKat quite likes it.  I really like the blueberry one, but far and away the winner for both of us is Tropical Fruits.  Generally, I'd be happier if there was less sweetening added to the compote part because they're a touch on the sickly side for me, but given that the flavouring enhancers are natural - i.e. honey or sugar, I'm less concerned than I would be if it were aspartame or similar.  I am a bit of an anti-sugar freak, but given how little (non-fruit based, i.e. unrefined and actually in something that it's supposed to be in from the start) sugar I actually eat I'm relatively happy to eat these, plus they're higher in protein than 'normal' yoghurts as they're Greek.  Swings and roundabouts really.

I'd like to see a couple more flavours in the range - black cherry (my top favourite flavour of  fruit-flavoured yoghurt) and maybe rhubarb or mandarin orange and I'd like to see less added sugar.  That said, I still think it's going to be handy to keep a pot or two in the fridge at work for those times I cycle in and had something else before I left the house and need a top-up when I get in to the office.  Definitely more convenient than keeping a large pot of plain yoghurt and a tub of compote, in an already crowded work fridge, and not really getting through them and ending up throwing some away.  And I'm all about the not wasting food (I really can't believe how much most people throw away; utterly shocking to me).

New TOTAL yoggits

TOTAL have brought out some new snacking yoghurts.  Being something of a fan of their plain Greek range (I scoff a bowl of 2% most mornings with fruit compote and added whey protein), I was eager to give them a go.  They're sort of like Muller's "Fruit Corners" and build on the existing TOTAL 2% with honey corner, but these new ones are 0%.  Flavours so far are Blueberry, Strawberry, Tropical Fruits and Honey.

This is the yoghurty bit of our fridge... :o)

So far, we've tried the Blueberry, Honey and Strawberry and the Strawberry is pretty darned nice, though I found the fruit to be over-sweetened (thankfully it is actually sugar and not aspartame or anything else in that vein).  Apparently the Blueberry one was really sour and grainy, but I've not tried that one yet, so.  The Honey one suffers from being yoghurt and needing to be in the fridge but having honey which pretty much solidifies if you do that so you need to leave it out for a bit before trying to eat it otherwise you just end up with a hard lump of honey with a thin covering of yoghurt on it and it just won't mix in.

I think it's going to be handy to keep a pot or two in the fridge at work for those times I cycle in and had something else before I left the house and need a top-up when I get in to the office.  Given that it's low fat yoghurt with fruit compote, all I need to supplement is some whey powder as that makes it exactly what my normal breakfast would be anyway.  More convenient than keeping a large pot of plain yoghurt and a tub of compote and not really getting through them and ending up throwing some away.  And I'm all about the not wasting food (I really can't believe how much most people throw away; utterly shocking to me).

In the mean time... I need to try one of those blueberry ones myself to see whether my views on it are the same as Mr TOTKat's views.

Stomach in revolt

I have no idea what's causing it, but I'm feeling pretty vile in the guts and have done for about 3 days now.  So this morning I'm having a nice bowl of fruity porridge with Total 2% stirred in.  Morrissons are doing a nice frozen mix of berries at the moment with cherries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and cranberries in it so that went in along with the raisins and a little squirt of agave nectar.  It's so pretty as well as comforting and tasty.  Hopefully it'll help soothe my poor belly.  And I should probably give the gym a miss today; I've been twice this week and cycled 120km, so I think that's probably enough (4,700kcals!)

Purple breakfast

I had purple breakfast this morning. Maybe I'll take a picture tomorrow or Friday when I'll definitely have it again because it was soooo nice:-

• 40g porridge oats, organic
• 50g blueberries, frozen
• 200ml water
• 10g agave nectar, organic
• 20g raisins, organic
• 35g Total Greek Yoghurt

I soaked all of that in a bowl in the fridge over night (except for the yoghurt)  and plopped it into the microwave this morning for 2 minutes.  The blueberries expanded and softened to mush.  I stirred in the Total and the blueberries squished and turned everything a lovely shade of purple.  1 minute more microwaving and serve.  Sooooo creamy and pretty :o)

Feeling lovely... just lovely

Not cycling since Friday appears to be agreeing with me.  Also the new bed linen :o)  The extra hour in bed due to taking the tube and not needing to beat the rush on the roads is a huge plus too.  I think that maybe I should just bite the bullet and try cycling in later to see how bad the traffic really is at 8am vs. 7am.  Walking to the tube this morning, the traffic looked pretty OK, but that's only a very small sample of the whole route.

I gymmed yesterday, increased some of the weights since I started with this routine (up to 45kg on the Smith machine for squats, from 30kg, for example) and it's going quite nicely.  I'm not bothering with any cardio at the end as with all this cycling there's no point really thrashing myself to bits even more with that.  That said, the overhead swing and lunge with ViPR gets my heart rate up to 185 (dropping to 135 within 1 minute), so that's cardio enough for me.

Also, not having the MP Max Total Breakfast is nicer too.  "Eating" that every morning was getting a bit much, it's quite sickly, thick and difficult after 3 mornings of it on the trot, so I'm quite pleased to be back to Total Greek yoghurt (2% - which is really really nice for the extra couple of kcals per portion vs 0%) with MP Max True Whey, Cookies and Cream flavour, and a good dollop of fruit compote.  Lovely, sweet, fruity, proteiny, creamy... just blimmin' nice!

Sorry...

Not really feeling it at the moment.

Random thoughts...

• At an average of 1500kcals over maintenance per week vs. calorific output including exercise, I'm slowly losing a little weight
• Lots of cycling during the week is getting easier (even with the frustrations of a gazillion extra cyclists and cars on the road today due to the tube strike)
• My core strength has come on hugely (I did some reverse crunches at the gym yesterday and they were -phenomenally- easy, so I did them for a count of 5 per crunch at 3x15 reps and it was still easy!)
• I've really enjoyed playing about with Greek yoghurt recipes, adding it into porridge for an extra kick of creaminess and there's still a couple more to come - the ice-cream was a HUGE hit with me - it tastes like it's been made with clotted cream
• I'm really enjoying making curries from scratch without using pre-made pastes, never mind sauces from jars
• I'm very much looking forward to Mr TOTKat coming home on Saturday (huge understatement!)
• This week is going to be possibly the biggest week for routine exercise, with the exception of the week we went skiing
• I'm really not keeping up with reading blogs at the moment... it's not you, it's me.  (honestly!)

And so, almost time to bed.  With tea.  And a kitty.  Or two.

Ice-cream!

Patience required... I'm making ice-cream by hand i.e. using the freezer and mashing it about rather than an ice-cream maker which would get used once a year and gather dust and take up space in between.

Simple recipe (makes 9 100g servings):-

Nutrition Data Per Serving
Calories (kcal)	236
Carbohydrate (g)	18.8
Protein (g)	4.8
Fat (g)	15.7

• 250g good lemon curd (Duchy Originals works well)
• 150ml double cream, lightly whipped
• 500g TOTAL Greek Yoghurt

Whisk together the yoghurt and lemon curd in a bowl, then whisk in the double cream (already lightly whipped).  Transfer into a freezable container and pop into the freezer for a total of 5-6 hours.  Remove from the freezer every 1.5-2 hours and whisk with a hand or electric whisk then return to the freezer.  Then leave in the freezer until required.

When serving, transfer into the fridge 15-30 minutes beforehand, to allow it to soften a little.

And it really is that simple.  Unless you manage to throw a large pot of yoghurt all over the kitchen; floor, door, walls, fridge, cupboards, mat, dishwasher, sink, arm, legs, belly, chest and eyes...  Not that I just did that with the remaining large pot of TOTAL 0%  *cough*

More yoggit

So we're making a real dent into the pile of TOTAL yoghurts that arrived last Saturday.  So far, we've had:-

• Apple Cider Pound Cake
• Hot Fruity Porridge with Yoghurt
• Greek Yoghurt with Honey (TOTAL do a Greek Yogurt with honey individual pot)
• Greek Yoghurt with fresh fruit and muesli
• Greek Yoghurt with whey protein, frozen fruit and flaked almonds

And I'm now looking at some potential curry recipes which involve full fat Greek yoghurt marinade and/or vegetable curries with Greek yoghurt based sauces.

So the yoghurt has mostly featured in breakfasts, which is a turnaround from where I was a couple of years ago. I'd see things like the Weetabix advert that suggested using yoghurt in breakfast and my reaction would be that it'd be horrible because of the tangyness.  I've had quite a change of heart since then and incorporated it into non-cycling day breakfasts (with whey protein, fruit and flaked nuts - it's sweet, tangy and lovely) and when I do cycle in, it's part of my second breakfast when I get to the office (with fresh fruit and crunchy museli - helps refuel after a 15km thrash on the bike).

With cooking, I've often found that yoghurt splits with certain cooking methods and when mixed with certain ingredients.  Greek yoghurt, due to the way it's made, suffers far less from that even a much lower fat contents than normal plain yoghurt.  I've also found that compared with supermarket branded "Greek style" yoghurts, that TOTAL does perform better in cooking and has less of a grainy texture than some others - it's much creamier and smoother textured.

More recipes to come, methinks... we're almost through the 0%, made inroads into the 10% (full fat) and already scoffed the ones with honey.  There's all of the 2% left and half of the full fat to go, so curries are coming and maybe some more sweet things too.

Cake!

I took a recipe that I saw on Laura's journal (originally from here) for Apple Cider Pound Cake and tweaked it a tiny bit to fit the ingredients I have in the house (I had only a little bit of brown sugar left, so added in golden caster to make it up) and because I love the taste of spelt, I substituted in some of that and increased the baking soda to make up for that...

Serves 8:-

Calories (kcal)	312.0
Carbohydrate (g)	41.3
Protein (g)	8.3
Fat (g)	12.9
Fibre (g)	2.9

Ingredients

• 40g Butter
• 25ml Cider Vinegar
• 10g Baking Powder
• 150g Wholemeal Flour (strong)
• ½ Tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 2 Eggs, Medium
• 250g TOTAL Greek Yoghurt
• 115g Wholemeal Spelt Flour
• 30ml Grapeseed Oil
• 90g Golden Caster Sugar
• 70g Demerara Sugar
• ½ Tsp Salt

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 180C and coat the tin with some spray oil (I used a standard sized round cake tin).
2. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl combine the sugar, oil, butter, yoghurt, eggs and vinegar.
4. Mix the dry into the wet until you are left with a stiff batter (it will be pretty stiff – don’t worry!).
5. Fill your tin with the mixture and press out evenly.
6. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes until slightly golden.
7. Allow to cool and then store in the fridge, or slice and freeze individual slices.

If serving as a whole cake, sprinkle with some sieved icing sugar for presentation – then serve with yoghurt, ice cream, custard or a sweet sauce made by mixing a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of agave syrup and 1 tablespoon of Greek yoghurt (this is how it is pictured above).

I too has a yoggit

I've been sent some Total Greek Yoghurt to try.  And OHBOY is there a lot of it...

So, this morning, I started the day with some porridge; oats, agave nectar, raisins, strawberries, water and some Greek yoghurt:-

• 50g large, good quality oats
• 125ml water
• 20g raisins
• 100g chopped strawberries
• 15g light agave nectar
• 60g 0% fat Greek Yogurt

Place oats, water, raisins, chopped strawberries and nectar in a bowl and gently mix in a bit.  Microwave on full power for 2 minutes.  Remove from the microwave and stir.  Microwave on high again for a minute, watching out for overflow!  Remove from the microwave and stir in the yoghurt - it helps to cool it down a little from super-heated :o)  Serve and enjoy.  (it's pretty calorific, but all really good (could probably lose the nectar and it'd still be really nice) and a 4:1 ratio protein to carb which is great race fuel - 386 kcals, 17.4g protein, 73.6g carbohydrate, 2.7g fat, 5.7g fibre, 1.7 portions of fruit and veg)

The strawberries and yoghurt bring a summery, creamy lightness to what is usually quite a wintery feeling breakfast.  And the yoghurt brings a huge boost of protein into the mix.  Very happy with this one indeed.

There's going to be a lot more yogurty recipes to come... got lots to get through!

Weekly roundup and sensible planning

This week was a complete mess, as you can see.  If I'm going to cycle this much, I have to work out how to sort out my nutrition to match it properly.

Last week:-
Exercise count: 10
Exercise time: 07:41
Exercise kcals: 4,408
Kcals difference from loss for the week: +2594
Kcals difference from maintenance for the week: -906
(+ is excess vs. quota, - is deficit below quota)

Day		Quota	Exercise	Total	Consumed	Difference	Difference for Week
Mon		1285	1214	2499	2890	391	391
Tue		1289		1289	1564	275	666
Wed		1296	1155	2451	2147	-304	362
Thu		1295	733	2028	2018	-10	352
Fri		1292	762	2054	1959	-94	258
Sat		1285		1285	3318	2033	2291
Sun		1296		1296	1599	303	2594
Total		9038	3864	12902	15496	2594

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 312
Exercise time: 212h
Exercise kcals: 115,881

What's weird is that my lovely blue M&S silk&linen dress was pretty loose yesterday even though the scales are saying "umm... you're eating less than you're expending are you? really?".  I can't do a body fat measurement to see if there's something else going on because I'm retaining water like a so-and-so today.  Everything is just totally in flux, too many changes at once, I need to look after myself in order to take part in the Thames swim next Sunday, and I need to re-think how I approach the next 5 weeks.

So.

Next week I'm focussing on the Thames swim on Sunday.  This means the following:-

• winding back the cycling to probably zero (over 100km in a week is a bit much right now)
• -IF- my groin feels OK on Monday I'll do a weights session
• on Tuesday, I shall take the 3rd open water training session
• -IF- my groin feels OK on Wednesday, I'll do a weights session
• I have a deep tissue massage on Thursday at which I shall ask for focus on my thighs
• -IF- my groin feels OK on Friday, I'll do a weights session
• I will aim for roughly maintenance kcals throughout the week
• I will carb load on Saturday, which -will- involve going over maintenance kcals for that day
• I will enjoy late lunch out on Sunday after the Nokia Thames swim in the morning
• I will be 1lb heavier on Sunday and Monday than I am on Friday, mostly due to carb loading

 Then from the week after, I will wind up the cycling again, keep the weight training in place, but aim for roughly maintenance kcals over the week for the following 4 weeks, trying to keep it even throughout the week rather than bulges and holes.  The 4th week, I will taper exercise down for the final Thames Turbo Triathlon of the year.  Once that's over I can start to re-focus on fat loss.

Final catch-up before skiing

Thursday was a rest day:-

B - greek yogurt with1 scoop, fruit compote and grape nuts
S - skinny latte and a banana
L - salad: lettuce, sweet pepper, celery, capers and chicken breast
S - carrot and houmous
S - Dorset Cereals extra high fibre bar
D - pasta with tuna, sweetcorn and low-fat cream cheese

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1736 1789]
Protein (g)	152.5 (36.3%)
Carbohydrate (g)	209.3 (46.6%)
Fat (g)	32.0 (17.1%)
Fruit & Veg	9.6

Totals since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 225
Exercise duration: 133h
Exercise kcals: 74,011

While I'm away, I'm going to wear my HRM while skiing to see what the burn is like, but there's no food logging (data roaming charges are just silly) and no daily checks and balances so let's see what the state of affairs is when I've been off-piste, so to speak, for a week!  I won't be posting, but expect photos etc. when I get back.

And today (a bit of a guesstimate, given dinner out):-

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, blueberries and flaked almonds
S - banana
L - Chicken and Egg Noodle soup from EAT
S - cherry tomatoes and a latte
S - tangerines and beef jerky
D - out at an Italian down the road (probably beef carpaccio, followed by monkfish with pureed white beans and fresh veg and some wine)

Exercise - rest day

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1796 1783]
Protein (g)	136.6 (31%)
Carbohydrate (g)	134.9 (28.7%)
Fat (g)	46.3 (23.7%)
Alcohol (g)	41.6 (16.6%)
Fruit & Veg	11.2

Weekly roundup (boring stats)

This week... ohboy!

This week:-
Exercise count: 6
Exercise time: 05:20
Exercise kcals: 3094

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 200
Exercise time: 113h
Exercise kcals: 62,821

First run of the year

With not very many weeks to go to the first triathlon of the year, it was about time I hauled ass outside and did some running. So, suited up in semi-cold weather gear; long running tights, t-shirt, hoodie, hat and gloves, I headed out on a familiar just-over-5km route; thinking "this is going to be horrible". As I crested the first little hill (over the railway line), I looked at my HRM and it was flashing "180". That's BPM. And I tend to keep it 170-178 running, or rather I was doing when I was running at least once a week. I felt fine though. Odd. Hey ho. So I kept on trucking at the same pace and checking on my heart rate every km or so. I felt totally and completely fine and it was staying at or just above 180 all the way. Usually I feel a bit rough if it stays up there and if it stays over 182 for more than a couple of minutes I feel pretty sick. But not this time. Nope. Fine. Well, I'm not arguing, so. Pace was 9:14/mile, or speed of 10.45km/h which is slightly faster than I was doing in the 10K race last year. Yes, quite pleased indeed.

Nommy chocolate orange shake post-run and a hot bath.

Lunch today - pea and ham soup (made with a tin of mushy peas and chopped ham :o)) with rye bread:-



Snack - beef jerky and an apple ('cause they're so nice I can't resist them!):-



Dinner- chicken in spicy black bean sauce (more commonly known as BEEP) with noodles:-



Exercise - 5.35km run (HRmax 185, HRavg 179)

B - toasted wholemeal seeded bagel with Marmite
S - banana
*run*
S - 1 scoop chocolate orange whey in semi-skimmed milk
L - pea and ham soup with rye bread
S - beef jerky and an apple
D - chicken in spicy black bean sauce with noodles

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1797 2151]
Protein (g)	153.5 (35.6%)
Carbohydrate (g)	213.6 (46.4%)
Fat (g)	34.4 (17.9%)
Fruit & Veg	7.5

Totals this week:-
Exercise Count: 6
Exercise time: 03:55
Exercise kcals: 2,392

Totals since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise Count: 184
Exercise time: 103 h
Exercise kcals: 57,259

The last 6 months

...since I bought my heart rate monitor, I've racked up 102 hours of recorded exercise (there were a few sessions that weren't recorded, but that's just tough). That's 3 hours 55 minutes average per week. And there's 56.5K kcals (56.5 million calories!) recorded too (the odd session recorded with time but not kcals burned, but again that's just tough). That's an average of 2,200 kcals burned per week.

I'm pretty pleased with that.

I'm more pleased with the results of taking on weight training as the major part of my weekly exercise as that's had more palpable results; shape change and body fat % drop. Of course, the festive season set me back a little, but I'm almost back on track and ready for a routine change which always shakes things up a bit. Targets set, locked and loaded. Here's to the next 6 months!

Little run up...

...to get me back into the hang of doing this posting food & exercise lark. Tomorrow is the start of sorting out the macro ratios, there's not enough brain-cells to make all of the changes at once today.

B - Cheerios with semi-skimmed milk
L - Roasted tomato soup with creme fraiche, topped with toasted flaked almonds
S - Fruit and nut mix
S - A huge pear
S - 2x oat cakes
D - Beef chilli with mashed sweet potato, carrot and a bit of potato.

Exercise - rest day

Calories (kcal) [Kcals to maintain weight	1350 1819]
Protein (g)	59.1 (17.9%)
Carbohydrate (g)	155 (44.1%)
Fat (g)	54.6 (37.3%)
Fruit & Veg	11.2

This week's totals:-
Exercise count: 3
Exercise duration: 03:29
Exercise kcals: 1,887

Totals since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 169
Exercise duration: 96:02
Exercise kcals: 52,701

New routine (and numbers rollup)

Warm up - 1km rower

Prone leg curls - 20kg 3x10
Assisted pull ups - 35kg 3x10
Cable lunges - 20kg 3x10
Seated row -21kg 3x10
Overhead throw on Swiss Ball - 10kg 3x10
Cable bicep curls - 20kg 3x10
Twisting woodchop - 15kg - 3x10
Double crunch on Swiss Ball - 3x15
Bosu leg lowers - 3x15

Cool down - 10 minutes cross trainer

Numbers...

This week:-
Exercise Count: 5
Exercise Time: 02:52
Exercise kcals: 1,644

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise Count: 161
Exercise Time: 88:36
Exercise kcals: 48,604 (minus a few times I forgot my strap and/or transmitter)

Weekly round up

Numbers numbers numbers... I'm starting to wonder what happens when my total exercise time goes over 99:59:59 as there aren't any more digits on the watch to display 3 digit hours. 80 hours in 5 months so I should find out some time in January.

Weekly numbers:-
Exercise count: 5
Exercise time: 03:08
Exercise kcals: 1,819


Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 146
Exercise time: 79:37
Exercise kcals: 44,307

Numbers and figures

I've lost 16cm since my last PT session. More than usual. That's surprisingly not all that pleasing and I'm not sure why. Body fat is down 0.5% to 27.1% now. Slowly slowly going down. I may well be putting in the exercise (though not so much the last two weeks) but I'm definitely not in kcal deficit by 500kcal per day so I'm not on target by any stretch of the imagination. The thing is, I'm not in a hurry. As long as things are going down even slowly, I'm content.

I'll go better once I move to a closer gym to work. Soon soon.

Last week's numbers:-
Exercise Count: 4
Exercise Time: 02:18
Exercise kcals: 1,431

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise Count: 137
Exercise Time: 73:43
Exercise kcals: 40,625