Wednesday 26 December 2012

Simple steps . . . reducing your water bill

The gathering of water. I live not so very far away from a reservoir. When the reservoir was build it involved the loss of a valley, diverting a river multiple times and massive amounts of materials. However it is large and reliable. It's a place of beauty now but it came at a cost. The treatment of water for our consumption is also costly, especially when so much of it is flushed down a toilet or used for watering plants. This cost is obviously passed on to us, and I live in the most expensive area of the UK for water bills.

I had a conversation a couple of months ago with some friends to compare water bills. There is the same number of people in each home but their water bill is few times ours despite being with the same water company. The result of this conversation was the realisation that some of the practises that we follow make a difference.

We practise "if it's yellow let it mellow; if it's brown flush it down". You don't have to be religious about this for it to reduce your water consumption.

We also limit shower time. We don't shower every day. As housemate works on his own most of the time he showers even less than me. The timer below is an illustration of a piece of kit we were able to get free from our water company. At first I thought it wouldn't make much difference, but using it has reduced the time I spend in the shower. I never decided to use it to do that really, more it was curiosity about how much time I was spending in the shower. But observation causes change, and so I'm now naturally more conscious of the time spent in the shower.












We also practise that clothes aren't just automatically dumped into the wash. We consider if they're dirty or if they smell. I get changed when I get home for work into jeans, t-shirt and jumper usually. It was a habit I developed at school. I went to boarding school and we had to get changed out of our school clothes within half an hour of the end of school, so it's a habit I follow now. If I wear an item of clothing to make dinner and then sit on the sofa for a couple of hours it is not dirty. I hang it up before I go to bed and wear it again the next evening.

The last thing that we do is again shower related. We have a combi boiler so it takes a little while for hot water to come through when you want a shower so rather than waste the water I collect it in a bucket I keep next in the bathroom. This water is then used to flush the toilet from time to time.

They're small practises, simply things really but they evidently make a difference. The only equipment they involve are an egg timer and a bucket. They can be followed in a flat/apartment or a house or a farm. These aren't extreme steps either, or they don't need to be. We use less water than the water company expects two people to use, and I have further plans for ways to reduce our water consumption.

Sunday 2 December 2012

Three tips for saving money on meat


  1. When you buy chicken, buy whole chicken. Especially when it's on offer. 

Yes I roast my chickens upsidedown to begin with. When whole chicken is on offer I stock up, this time I bought three chickens. One I have roasted and we ate the breasts. Next we will eat the legs for lunch tomorrow. I have the remains of another chicken in my freezer, so next weekend they will get boiled up for chicken bone broth. The other two have been divided up. First I cut the legs off. I cut the string off, pull the legs out a bit, cut through the skin, pull the joint out of its socket and then just cut my way through. Then I cut the breasts off. I haven't yet mastered cutting the breast off cleanly. But I have started pulling the skin off before I remove the breast and that seems to help. Lastly the remains with the extra skin go in the freezer, ready to feed the dog another day. And in case you're wondering, a bird like this takes about an hour and a half to roast and I roast it like this for the first half hour because it helps keep the breast beautifully moist. 

2. Eat offal
Offal in this context means not just organs but also those cuts of meat that are less desired by the masses. I wrote last time about how far a simple lb of lamb scrag went (6 portions). Pork blade is another cut that I have seen for a very good price at the butcher. Liver makes for a very economical meal, or can even stretch a bit off mince/ground meat a bit further. It's highly nutritious as well. Cuts like these often require long, slow cooking. This is where a slow cooker comes in handy. Glands such as kidney and liver require very quick cooking. Butchers are usually the best place to buy things like this however the best price I've seen for ox kidney was actually in Waitrose (although I've yet to try and buy direct). Morrison's are another supermarket where you might be able to get more offal like stuff. 

3. Eat bone broth
Another use for a slow cooker. I use an acid such as vinegar or lemon juice just in case it really does help release minerals. When I make chicken broth I will cook it for a while, remove the carcasses and pick them clean of meat. The meat goes on one side and the bones go back into the pot. The bones are then simmered again until they are going soft before being removed. I then add the meat and some veg back and I have a fantastic soup. Not only does bone broth make food go further, the amino acids in the broth are also protein sparing. If money is truly tight then bone broth is the way to go because it will help you meet your protein requirements without having to consume so much meat. Think of the peasant pot from Ireland to Korea simmering away with little meat but a few bones; nourishing families.  

Tuesday 27 November 2012

A week of Paleo meals

Meal planning - economic, sustainable, and removes the need to make a decision about dinner when I get home from work. My budget is a bit limited at the moment, so this week's meals were designed to take advantage of some special offers and such like. I try and get nutritious and cheap. And as you can see I spare no expense for displaying my weekly meal plan at home.

Last week's meals included:


Sunday - Roast duck
Non-free range, was on offer at Lidls. If I'd had the money I would have bought free-range. Roasted, along with root veg. We ate the breast for dinner, the legs and leftover veg made lunch the next day, and the leftover carcass is in my freezer waiting for me to boil the left over meat off and add it to some of the stock made previously from a free-range duck. One duck; three meals. It made a change from chicken.

Monday - Bacon and kale

Cooked chopped bacon and onion until the onion was soft. Added kale to the pan, added a dash of water, put the lid on, and waited for it to cook for a few minutes. The kale was 90p for a bag, bought from a local farm shop. I don't know how much was in there but it was enough for the two of us and very nutritious. The liver marinated in milk for a bit before I added it at the end. I actually forgot to take the liver from the freezer the night before, so I just marinaded it for an hour or so and it didn't seem to make much of a difference from my normal 12 hour marinade. I know the milk isn't paleo, but it's a small amount and at the moment I'm convinced it makes a taste difference. Worth it I figure if it gets me eating liver.

Tuesday - Chicken, cucumber and courgette ( zucchini, for american readers)
Another peasant recipe adaptation. No photos were taken because I actually messed it up a bit and I'm a bit ashamed. In short, I fried up some onion and chicken portions. Once the onion was cooked I added some water to the pan, put the lid on and let the chicken cook. In the mean time I grated up a cucumber and a courgette. I should have drained the courgette but I didn't. Once the chicken was cooked I added the cucumber and courgette and cooked through. It tasted well enough. The original recipe didn't have courgette in, but I bought loads when it was on offer over the weekend.


Wednesday - Slow cooked lamb scrag



Every time I buy scrag from the butcher (sold as stewing lamb) I get asked if I want it chopped up and I say no. I kind of like having it whole, and now I think about it I think it probably makes it easier to fish the bones out when done because the bones are whole. I added the lamb, some cabbage, carrot, and some potato and water. Originally the lamb, cabbage and carrot filled my slow cooker but it cooked down nicely. I can't remember what seasoning I added. From a £3 piece of lamb scrag I made not only dinner but also four lunch time portions. That's about 50p per portion of meat.

Thursday - Omelette

The butcher had an offer on some local free range eggs so I bought lots. I used some of the before mentioned special offer courgettes, a reduced priced red pepper and some frozen diced swede. It was better than the swede suggests. I used about a dozen eggs and had enough for dinner and then lunch the next day. Omelette is a simple meal but certainly one I enjoy.

Friday - actually didn't happen because I was on my own and didn't feel like dinner

Photos were taken from my phone so sorry they aren't great. If you want any more information about any of the food or recipes please leave a comment and ask.

Sunday 25 November 2012

My WOD

[tongue-in-cheek]

Walk a very excited dog who wants to walk really really fast in the wind up and done some steep hills.

Come home and clean the hen house out.

Sweep down patio and lug shovel fulls of straw, chicken poo and falled leaves to the compost heap.

Then turn compost in a very confined space so you can't reply on levers to do the work.

[/tongue-in-cheek]

This is practise for later on when I plan on lugging bags of gravel and stones around in order to replace the lawn, plus have to replace one of our fence posts because it's been blown on an angle in the strong winds in the last few days. I'm still feeling a big guilty for skipping out on going to the gym on thursday, but when it's replaced with rest and real world movement I feel much less guilty.

Thursday 22 November 2012

I have no lawn left

This post is less paleo and more urban/gardening/homesteading.

I was chatting with a friend of mine who has been doing some work with the local water company. Apparently this year has seen several months where we've not only had double the normal rainfall but more than double. For a bit of context.

Recently I've not seen my back garden in the light during the week. It's because of work hours and where I live. So this last weekend during a patch of sunshine I decided to see how it was doing whilst I did my weekly chicken cleanup. Well if I once had a lawn in my garden, I don't any more. Thanks hens. They've eaten nearly everything in their reach and winter has hardly started. We could have another 6 months of wet, and certainly we'll have a few more months of poor light. It's just mud and grass roots in patches out there. So I've decided that I my lawn needs to be replaced and this has been my thought process so far.

At the moment it's used for the chickens to scratch around in and for the dog to eat his food in. I want to grow food in it. Back in the summer (all two days) I was also know to sit out in it and read. So the space needs to be something safe for the chickens, safe and comfortable for the dog, and space for a seat.

I would like to rebuild the shed (it's falling down) and replace it. I will see about moving it from it's current location at the end of my garden, where it's in the sunniest spot, to somewhere that gets more shade.

I want to grow food, and because of the chickens and dog it will have to be done in raised beds (out of cocked leg height) and be able to be protected from the birds. It's a small space that we have so I think to get the best from it in terms of food I will try experimenting with permaculture and forest garden ideas.

So I will need to get myself some kick-ass weed sheets to cover my garden (SO glad it's small). I hear reports via the family of some stuff that has stood up to 3 or 4 years without a problem. I don't want to be ripping up my paths in a couple of years because weeds are growing through. Following the permaculture principle of being efficient, it makes sense to do the best job I can in the first place. I'll probably cover my paths with rounded gravel and use cement blocks for my raised beds, but that's not certain.

This will however all have to wait until this nasty nasty rain passes. Actually it will have to wait for the new year. Until then I have a mud pond in my garden instead of a lawn.

I'll post some plans and some photos when I have a chance to take some in the light. Also this weekend I will do another post of a week's worth of paleo meals. I've even remember to take photos of a couple of meals.

Monday 5 November 2012

Bacon Vs Bread

I'm pretty sure that I read recently an article about how we should limit bacon because of it's high levels of salt. The article pointed out that bacon is one of the foods high in salt that we often eat, along with bread. It's easy to find articles that say we should limit salt/sodium in our diets but I don't think I've ever seen the recommendation that we should not eat bread the way they tell us not to eat bacon.

The truth is that many people eat bread daily. It's not uncommon for a person to eat a couple of slices at breakfast (toast for breakfast) and then another couple at lunch (sandwich), and that's a conservative estimate for the amount of bread many eat. It's certainly about what I used to eat. Bacon however is something that few people eat daily.

According to fitday.com a slice of white bread has about 141mg of salt, so about 282mg of salt in one sitting, or nearly 4000 in a week.

A slice of medium bacon is 184.8mg, so a couple of rashers in one sitting is about 370mg. So although there's more salt per slice, who eats four rashers of bacon a day?

Again according to Fitday bacon has more protein and fewer calories (more fat, but depending on source it's not such a bad thing) and bread has more carbs. But then no one has dry toast for breakfast, there's always at least some kind of spread and usually some jam or honey or other spread. So by the time you've added spread fat-wise they're probably about equal. So bacon gives you less salt, more protein and less carbs. The only problem is that bacon is more expensive.

Most importantly bacon is tasty. More tasty than bread. Most bread. Actually the best bacon will always beat the best bread, even if the best bread will beat poor bacon taste-wise. To me anyway. So in bread Vs bacon - bacon wins, just don't eat it like it's going out of fashion. Apart from anything variety of diet makes it's better nutritionally and taste-wise.

Saturday 27 October 2012

My first session at the gym

With improved sleep, improved diet, and my anti-depressant kicking in I was feeling more energetic and found myself emailing a local gym about signing up. I went along during my day off to go and have a look around and sign up. If I'd known I was going to be able to attend for the next 12 or 18 months then I could have paid less per month but because I expect to go for my chest surgery in roughly the next 6-9 months I'm paying about £25 per month. The place has a studio for classes, a gym and a swimming pool. I wasn't planning on using the pool (because I'm waiting for chest surgery) but being there made me want to swim. So I've ordered an underworks compression swim tank. It should be here monday.

So this morning, bright and early, I had my induction and my first of three sessions with a personal trainer. It seems to be a very machine based gym but there is a class based around kettlebells and there is the pool. I've been given a warm-up that includes bike and treadmill, aiming at intervals on the treadmill. Then it's onto various machines for pushing and pulling various amounts of weight. It takes about an hour to do. It's serious sugar burning stuff.

I'm looking forward to going swimming. I'm not feeling too guilty about the very human zoo exercises because I need to build my basic fitness generally, and then I can adapt and make changes. And I felt really great just after working out. Now I'm knackered and want to sleep. Dog has decided otherwise and wants a walk [eye-roll].

Sunday 21 October 2012

A week of Paleo meals

It's been too long since my last post. I wanted to take photos of each meal but every evening I was just too eager to eat. Maybe another time. But here is what we've had for dinners in the last week. Most of the time I cook enough for leftovers so we have lunch the next day. In some cases I only had extra veg so lunch was leftover veg with tinned fish or some extra chicken I cooked up. I planned ahead to make best use of what needed eating. It's been important for me with eating paleo to plan meals because it gives me the best chance to make use of deals, reductions and the stuff that arrives in the veg box. In other words, it helps make paleo eating more affordable.

I wrote my plan on the back of an envelope on sunday morning and stuck it to the fridge. Meal planning is complex stuff that only super organised people do, don't-ya-know?




Sunday
Roast chicken with roast carrots, potato, parsnips, beetroot and onion. I wrote out what veg to use so I didn't leave any out and so I had enough left over for the next day. The chicken was reduced hence why we had it.

Monday
Liver & bacon with kale, turnip, onion and beetroot.
Not terribly primal but helps with flavour, I marinade the chopped up liver in full fat milk. Liver and kale go really nicely together, this is my preferred way to eat it. We ate about 200g of liver between the two of us, about the same in bacon. It's tasty and now kale is starting to arrive in our vegbox we'll now probably have this at least once a fortnight from now until the new year, but it does depend on the kale harvest.

Tuesday
Roasted white fish, onion, sweet potato and cauliflower. The original plan was carrot but I had some sweet potato that had been kicking around for a while. My housemate needs more carbs than me, and I kind of cycle so some days I have more and some less. I feel it's natural because my ancestors wouldn't have thought about it and would have eaten more or less of any nutrient. Balance over time and all. The cauliflower was a recipe from Practical Paleo.

Wednesday
Meat loaf. I use Mark Sisson's meat loaf recipe only with less meat and it makes a fantastic meal for two. I added some parsnip, for spices I used turmeric, cinnamon and some cumin. I actually cooked this Sunday night when I roasted the chicken, and just reheated it for wednesday. Because it's a complete meal I cooked up some green veg to go with it and roasted some chicken thighs so we could have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Thursday
Pork and apple. Yeah not terribly descriptive. I adapted it from a peasant recipe I found. I fried up some onion and diced pork shoulder. I also added some turnip, cabbage, sultanas and three apples. I added cumin and cinnamon. It was lush and leftovers were awesome.

Friday
Mince in slowcooker. Turkey mince, carrots, frozen spinach, and other veg that I can't remember now (even though it's only two days later). I cooked it up in some sieved tomatoes. Not the most amazing meal ever but I worked last so didn't get home until nearly 7 so it was still welcome.

And now it's Sunday again. I did more food shopping yesterday. I have a freezer full of meat but was nearly out of veg so I bought some emergency frozen veg plus stuff that looked well priced and/or stuff we eat a lot most days. I'm making space in the freezer this week because on Wednesday I will be going to collect some food for the hound. At the moment it's likely to be some ox tripe, ox hearts and possibly some pig trotters. Some of the tripe will be going to a friend for his dog, and possibly some of the trotters will end up being some nose to tail eating. Cutting up tripe is not my favourite job but at least then it's sensible size pieces for my dog rather than mince or tiny pieces which can be inhaled. But raw dog food is a story for another post.
It's been too long since my last post. I wanted to take photos of each meal but every evening I was just too eager to eat. Maybe another time. But here is what we've had for dinners in the last week. Most of the time I cook enough for leftovers so we have lunch the next day. In some cases I only had extra veg so lunch was leftover veg with tinned fish or some extra chicken I cooked up. I planned ahead to make best use of what needed eating. It's been important for me with eating paleo to plan meals because it gives me the best chance to make use of deals, reductions and the stuff that arrives in the veg box. In other words, it helps make paleo eating more affordable.

I wrote my plan on the back of an envelope on Sunday morning and stuck it to the fridge. Meal planning is complex stuff that only super organised people do, don't-ya-know?




Sunday
Roast chicken with roast carrots, potato, parsnips, beetroot and onion. I wrote out what veg to use so I didn't leave any out and so I had enough left over for the next day. The chicken was reduced hence why we had it.

Monday
Liver & bacon with kale, turnip, onion and beetroot.
Not terribly primal but helps with flavour, I marinade the chopped up liver in full fat milk. Liver and kale go really nicely together, this is my preferred way to eat it. We ate about 200g of liver between the two of us, about the same in bacon. It's tasty and now kale is starting to arrive in our vegbox we'll now probably have this at least once a fortnight from now until the new year, but it does depend on the kale harvest.

Tuesday
Roasted white fish, onion, sweet potato and cauliflower. The original plan was carrot but I had some sweet potato that had been kicking around for a while. My housemate needs more carbs than me, and I kind of cycle so some days I have more and some less. I feel it's natural because my ancestors wouldn't have thought about it and would have eaten more or less of any nutrient. Balance over time and all. The cauliflower was a recipe from Practical Paleo.

Wednesday
Meat loaf. I use Mark Sisson's meat loaf recipe only with less meat and it makes a fantastic meal for two. I added some parsnip, for spices I used turmeric, cinnamon and some cumin. I actually cooked this Sunday night when I roasted the chicken, and just reheated it for wednesday. Because it's a complete meal I cooked up some green veg to go with it and roasted some chicken thighs so we could have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Thursday
Pork and apple. Yeah not terribly descriptive. I adapted it from a peasant recipe I found. I fried up some onion and diced pork shoulder. I also added some turnip, cabbage, sultanas and three apples. I added cumin and cinnamon. It was lush and leftovers were awesome.

Friday
Mince in slowcooker. Turkey mince, carrots, frozen spinach, and other veg that I can't remember now (even though it's only two days later). I cooked it up in some sieved tomatoes. Not the most amazing meal ever but I worked last so didn't get home until nearly 7 so it was still welcome.

And now it's Sunday again. I did more food shopping yesterday. I have a freezer full of meat but was nearly out of veg so I bought some emergency frozen veg plus stuff that looked well priced and/or stuff we eat a lot most days. I'm making space in the freezer this week because on Wednesday I will be going to collect some food for the hound. At the moment it's likely to be some ox tripe, ox hearts and possibly some pig trotters. Some of the tripe will be going to a friend for his dog, and possibly some of the trotters will end up being some nose to tail eating. Cutting up tripe is not my favourite job but at least then it's sensible size pieces for my dog rather than nice or tiny pieces which can be inhaled. But raw dog food is a story for another post.

Monday 24 September 2012

Simplifying life

I've been hoping to post for a while some recipes, but my evenings have been short (what with the early nights) and my weekend was a bit crazy. As a complete aside to all things paleo and simple - the Singapore Grand Prix was fun to watch. Even if I was yawning through bits of it. Real shame for Hamilton, but I was glad to see Jenson on the podium. I started watching F1 because of him. I was at school at the time and a couple of friends told me in no uncertain terms that I had to watch the 2000 season because Jenson was racing and he was local. Google maps tells me it's less than a half hour drive between Jenson's hometown and the school I went to. For the first few races I couldn't even remember his name and just kept referring to him as "local boy". I don't claim he's the nicest driver or the best, but I've followed him since the beginning of his F1 career and I will follow him to the end of his F1 career. I like to think that I'll see him make champion again, but even if he doesn't then at least he has been champion. Ok, the F1 talk is over.

I want to comment on a huffington post article that I read the other day. The gist of what I'm taking away is that there's only so many decisions and only so much will power a person can have. It fits right in with a simple life. Keep things simple and you'll find decisions easier to make.

Keeping things specific to clothes though. I kind of love this post from the Art of Manliness blog. It's got a lovely breakdown for different kinds of guys. I think it keeps things simple and to the point. I also think it fits in with the idea of having clothes for different seasons. It makes it easier to keep things neat. And makes decisions about what to wear easier. I think if I was still living as a woman I would still seek to adapt something similar. There's no reason you can't cycle things in and out of rotation, but it stops you from being overwhelmed with choice.

I think making decisions easier is part of the reason I at least attempt to meal plan. If I have a rough idea of what I'm doing and what I need then it's easier to do. I'm not looking around my kitchen after a long day at work trying to work out what to make. Similarly by keeping my wardrobe simple I can just not worry about it. My wardrobe isn't as spiffy as I would like. But I'm lazy and my body is really awkward for clothes and I hate how I look. I hate wearing proper shirts because I am convinced that they make the shape of my chest more obvious. I hope to feel better about wearing shirts after chest surgery.

Anyway, I need to go to bed. I promise that there will be more posts and more photos. And some food soon. In other news - a second hen has started laying, but we're not consistently getting two eggs a day.

Monday 17 September 2012

For a few days I ate like a normal person

I was staying with my girlfriend (who lives with her mother) for a few days (my girlfriend graduated on friday and I'm really proud of her) and when I'm a guest I don't impose my eating habits on other people. When I was young and vegetarian if I was a guest and they didn't realise I was vegetarian then I would eat the meat in front of me. And I was vegetarian because I didn't like the taste of meat.

Well the first thing to ruin was my gut. And then my hand. Back in June, the last time I really ate any wheat (for a few days), I came back from that trip and discovered that I was waking up in the morning with horrible numbing pins and needles in my hand. Everyone said that what I described sounded like early carpel tunnel. I was convinced back then that actually it might well be but that I was experiencing it then because of inflammation caused by the wheat. And so now it's back and the only real difference is that I ate wheat for a few days.

So eating like a normal person has upset my tummy and gives me symptoms like early carpel tunnel. I'm going away kind of with work in a couple of weekends time and will be staying in a hotel. Because in this country we like our cooked breakfasts I'm pretty sure I will be able to get eggs, fruit and coffee for breakfast but I'm thinking I will definitely have to inform the organisers that when it comes to lunch mine needs to be gluten free and I will need to make sure that I find myself gluten free dinner options too. So I will be taking some stuff with me in case options are limited. But with any luck I will be able to fill up in the morning on bacon and eggs. Because I won't be eating like a normal person any time soon. Why do people do this to themselves?

Sunday 9 September 2012

So what IS the right weight for me?

Weighing

So you can take a set of scales and a tape measure do a few sums and work out your BMI and your hip to waist ratio. Or you can get technical and complex and work out your body fat percentage (BF%). From working out your weight and your BF% you can work out how many pounds or kilos you need/want to lose. The downside there is that you have to be careful that it is fat that you're losing and not muscle. If you're not happy with what your BMI is telling you but you can't afford to get your BF% you can use photos of yourself and of individuals of known BF% and try and work out a rough estimate. These links might help towards that aim: 

There are problems with all these methods. Everyone knows that BMI doesn't take into consideration how much muscle you carry. I know that about a year ago I weighed about the same as I do now. Roughly 56kg. But in the last year I have lost two inches off my hips, my waist is the same, and I am visibly have more muscle than a year ago. Testosterone has given me more muscles, and although my weight and fat has gone up from it's low back in March, the change in hormones has meant that the fat has been laid down on my belly. The long and short it is that I am leaner than I was a year ago, although my weight remains the same. And importantly, my BMI is high but I am leaner than when I was just inside my range about 9 months ago (before T). Maybe I'm still overweight and need to lost fat (I'm actually not going to argue there) but I argue that when I was 55kg, and a "healthy" BMI I was fatter and therefore BMI is flawed. 

BMI was apparently championed by Ancel Keyes. His name should ring a bell amongst paleo/primal/WAPF/Real Food types. He is the reason that Conventional Wisdom tells people to eat low fat to be healthy via his Seven Countries study. He suggested BMI for POPULATION studies, and said it wasn't appropriate at individual level. I'm pretty sure that I remember a Denise Minger blog post where she found something to praise bout Keyes' work, and I think we can add to that praise and he didn't attempt to apply BMI to individuals. 

All of this, all of these different ways of measuring whether we're the right weight or not is about health. Vanity is something else. As I've already said if I was just worried about health I wouldn't care if I lose any more fat or not and I would just focus on being active and picking up heavy stuff sometimes. But when I am not depressed I am vain. I want to look good naked. So I want to lose some more fat so that my belly is a bit smaller. I wouldn't mind building some more muscle, which is of course going to make me heavier. 

If vanity is your aim then ditch the scales and use a mirror instead. Vanity is about how you look anyway. And if you're doing things right then you're not going to massively change things once you've gotten to the right place. You'll know if you have cheated yourself or done things that are likely to set you back and if you've done that and don't care then it was more important than your vanity. 

Healthy is another issue, and the reason many people chose to lose weight. This link goes to show weight isn't everything. I need to read the original article but in summary is suggests that it's not your weight that matters as much as how fit you are. From what I can tell from the BBC article they looked at blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and fitness/exercise levels. So if your blood sugar levels, cholesterol, and blood pressure are good, and you get out and exercise then your exact weight isn't so important. 

I knew that when I started testosterone that figuring out my ideal weight was going to be harder. I could no longer rely on past experience for what a healthy weight was for me. Of the three methods commonly used by people to judge if they need to lose weight only one actually depends on what the scales say - BMI. From what I've learnt today I do think that we need to stop trying to apply BMI to individuals, but calculating BF% accurately can be expensive and needs to be monitored to check that it is fat rather than muscle we're losing. 

So what IS the right weight for me? I don't know. I suspect that it will be a couple of kg less than I am right now, but also that I could weigh a couple kg more and still be healthy. I won't be relying on weight anymore. I will continue to monitor it, but I'm not worrying about setting a target weight. My goal is visual - I want a flattish belly. I suggest others ditch their scales and instead plan a visual goal. The poor man's BF% measure. Whilst you're setting a visual goal - set a stress level and exercise goal too. I'll talk about mine in another post or two. 



Sunday 2 September 2012

Fitness isn't just training harder

About 6 weeks ago I set myself a fitness goal. When I started paleo my fitness really wasn't great and to be honest it still isn't. I've had some gained but to be honest I think that's as much down to the testosterone injections I get as much as anything. So anyway, I set myself a goal because I wanted to see some improvement over time. It was simple and considering the gains I was making in that area would have been just a bit of a stretch over what I was expecting to have achieved. A year ago I couldn't do a push up, and by the 1st September I wanted to be about to do 20.

Well something hit the fan. I made gains over a couple of weeks and got to 12 push ups in one set and I could follow that with a second set where I could get to 10. At about this point my housemate started being away more (because he's a craftsman and summer = shows and running courses). The affect this has on me is that I have to step up and spend more time exercising the dog and also get up earlier. So I was doing more activity and getting less rest. And it started to tell on my exercise. I struggled to make gains and then struggled to reach that figure of 12.

The second stage of hitting the fan was mental. I have an inkling, although I'm not certain, that exhaustion took its toll mentally. I'm battling depression and anxiety at the moment. I mean borderline going back onto anti-depressants depression. I've had a bit of a rollercoaster for the last couple of months when it comes to my mental health to be honest. So I have been throwing my energy into fighting that well of pain. With that always comes a degree of comfort eating. I think I was comfort eating more a couple of months ago, and after a scary moment where my weight topped 9 stone (I was nearly down to 8 back in March), and that aspect of my eating has been much more back on track but still not completely gone.

So I didn't meet my training goal because I got side tracked by stress and depression. The moral of this story is that health isn't down to just diet or just exercise but a complex of elements. I personally, and I'm sure others are the same, need to monitor and control stress levels, rest, and generally our mental health. I would like to work on my fitness again after a few weeks with no "training" (although owning a dog I never escape exercise completely) but I need to sort my rest first. Yee gods this whole health thing is a right old battle on multiple fronts for me.

Monday 27 August 2012

A little bit of urban homesteading

So a couple of weeks ago I got the Lidls flyer through and cucumbers were on sale! It was time to make piccalilli. I've made it once before a couple of years ago and we'd used up the last of it recently so I needed to make more and august is the time to do it. I know it's not paleo but I love pickles and being homemade I'm sure it's closer to paleo than anything from a shop. I had some problems getting some jars to put it in though. Since going paleo we don't buy stuff in jars anymore. We get gifted things like jams and some pickles from time to time, but jars just don't pass through this house like they once did. It's just struck me actually that in not buying so much stuff in jars there's a reduced need for glass, which is really resource expensive. Anyway. I ordered from kilner jars from Lakeland. I ordered them on the friday and paid extra to get them on the monday. They didn't arrive. I complained to lakeland and got the extra back. But my stuff didn't arrive until the thursday. Long story short I had to throw away some of the veg that I had bought because it had started to rot. Wasteful but it's all done and I have six half litre jars of piccalilli maturing on the side (they'll go away into a cupboard soon).

Here in the UK it's a bank holiday today. I learnt a while ago that one of our local supermarkets does good reductions on strawberries on the summer bank holidays. I wasn't let down. So I bought two punnets. Earlier in the summer I had bulk bought strawberries and they went to waste because I didn't do anything with them fast enough. So today I sat down to some prep them and then freeze them. See the photo below. I will bag them up later (need to cut my hair, shower, shave and have some dinner) and then freeze them. There's so much in the way of lovely fruit at the moment, but I already eat too much sugar so it's breaking my heart to not be able to eat more fruit whilst it's around.




The big urban homesteading news in my household though is that I have chickens! I've wanted them since I was a child. When we were house hunting last night we deliberately picked somewhere that didn't exclude them in the deeds. We moved in and discovered that a neighbour had a chicken and some ducks. I didn't get organised enough earlier in the year so I only just picked them up last weekend.


That's two lohman browns and one amber link. They're still relatively young but have been settling in for the last week. At least one of them has been practising nesting in the last couple of days but judging by their wattles etc they're still a bit of a way from being ready to lay. I need to clip their wings so that I can leave them alone in the garden. I tried it friday and then looked out of the window to see one of them on the henhouse eyeing up whether she could make it to the top of the fence. But so far I think it's been a positive for my mental health being able to stand outside watching them with cup of tea in hand. My mental health is a big rubbish at the moment so this is helpful.

PS I had forgotten that I had Practical Paleo on pre-order and that arrived this week (earlier than expected because it seems amazon.co.uk brough forward their release date). First impressions are great, but I will do a proper review once I've finished reading.

Saturday 11 August 2012

Health and Happiness

I remember, about 9 years ago I was in York. It was in the middle of my training excavation (archaeology degree) that took place in south Yorkshire and I was meeting up for the weekend with a friend. Actually when I started the weekend he was my boyfriend and before we fell asleep the first night we'd broke up, but that was nothing to do with the location. Anyway. I was in York and we decided to go on one of their ghost walks. It was fantastic although much of it has faded from memory now. One thing that did stick out is a piece of advice the guide gave towards the end of the tour - if you're going to ask for anything from the universe/god/whatever then make it a request for health and happiness because anything else is likely to backfire.

I know disabled people. I know people who have enjoyed either good health or economical success and then lost it. I know people born disabled. I know those born healthy and who then lost their health before they became adult. Whilst there are many people with bodies that differ from the stereotype of a "whole" body who are healthy, health is still a vital thing. There's a difference between having a body that varies and having a body that's broken. Health is therefore very important.

But you can lose your happiness in pursuit of health. It's possible to obsess so much about your health that it affects your happiness. And that ultimately doesn't do you any good. But to always do as makes us happy won't necessarily make us healthy.

It's a balance. And a journey.

Thursday 26 July 2012

Light and sleep

Standard paleo/primal advice is roughly alone the lines of things like when it starts to get dark start to wind down for bed, sleeping in a completely dark room.

I'm not going to argue with the completely dark room bit.

But I do have a problem with the whole when it starts to get dark bit. I live in the UK. I live in the south of England actually so our problem isn't as bad as the likes of Scotland. The difference is noticeable actually. A friend of mine lives near London and regularly travels back up to Scotland. When we spoke last night we talked about light levels and the difference it makes just with that short distance.

According to google Glasgow is about 56 degree N. Where I live is about 50/51 degrees N. Contrast that to 34 for LA. 41 for NY.

What this means is that at this time of year, the height of summer, well I'm sat here about ten past nine and there's still plenty of light for reading outside. In the middle of the winter "dark" is from about mid-afternoon and doesn't clear until a fair way into the morning either!

Summer is actually with us here in the UK at the moment. Which means a couple of weeks of muggy sunny weather. Sunshine is lush but the mugginess is horrible. We don't really do air-con here in the UK because, well, it would probably only get used a couple of weeks a year. So at the moment we're struggling with stuffy over-warm houses that make it difficult to sleep. I heard on the radio this week someone saying that they got so hot they decided to sleep in a tent in the garden. I have considered it myself this week to be honest but it's a bit difficult to sleep in complete darkness when it gets light by half 4. I don't own proper blackout curtains so I'm using blankets over the normal curtains. I've been sleeping badly.

If, for the first time in years, we get a summer that lasts more than a couple of weeks I might try and organise myself so that I get some sleep in when I get home in the afternoon and then do stuff like dog walking and cooking in the middle of the night before getting some more sleep. Because I've been waking up in the middle of the night anyway.

Monday 23 July 2012

Welcome to urban. paleo. simple

My life has been, and continues to be, complex. I am drawn to a simple life where I can get on with being happy and healthy. My journey started years back where I first encountered ideas of urban homesteads, living simply, and more recently of eating and moving in an ancestral way to promote health. It's been a meandering path and I am by no means near the end. I live in a town that is surrounded by countryside that is a mixture of farmed land, woodland and moorland. I attempt to eat and exercise "paleo". But most of all - I just want a simple life. 

I work a full time job that involves more than an hour's commute each day. It's a challenging job but I love it and would only swap it for a closer job if it was for the same organisation. 

I also suffer from depression and anxiety. This sometimes causes sleeping problems that mean that I struggle with having "enough" energy. 

So much of my time, and a fair wack of my income, is invested at the moment in paid work. My income is modest, below national average but not minimum wage. My only debts are a mortgage, my student loan, and a few hundred quid I owe to my mother from when she sold me her car a few months back. 

I am still learning to budget. Not that I have problems managing my money, but I want to develop my skills further so that I can save more than I already do. I would love to be able to overpay on my mortgage and pay it off early. I dream of the day when there is no rent or mortgage to be paid. 

Moving into my own home last year has been the first time since I was a student that I have had a garden. Sadly, this my first summer has seen a horribly wet summer cause slugs to consume nearly my entire harvest. I've just bought and assembled a chicken coop, but am now wondering whether they're going to end up costing more than than they'll pay in eggs. We'll consume all their eggs and then some, but perhaps I will be able to barter some of the resulting compost for stuff. 

So my challenges at the moment revolve around budgeting, learning to care for chickens, designing and running a very small garden that will still provide food, space for chickens, space for the dog to lounge in the sunshine, and maybe for me to lounge around in as well, and declutter the house whilst living with a hoarder. The person I live with is my ex. We separated because he's straight and I've transitioned from female to male. We're still great friends and enjoy living together. Plus there's the dog to consider. He is self-employed so is useful for practical stuff if and when he can spare the time. Which isn't often. 

My plans for this blog is to share my ongoing journey, my mistakes, my successes, a  few pictures, a few recipes. Recipes will be paleo, but generally fairly frugal. There might even be the odd post about raw feeding my dog too. I like fairly simply things. I love the handmade bowls in my cupboard, the handmade soap in my bathroom, my meals cooked from scratch, picking berries from my garden. I also love F1 and my computer and my DS. I covet an ipad. I would buy new books all the time if I had the money. 

Bob