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.