Going Keto

I'm obsessed with food; eating it, cooking it, planning when or how I'm going to eat it, thinking about eating every minute of the day. I enrolled in a nutrition course, thinking that would be a healthier outlet in which to obsess over it. The more I learn and and the more papers I read, the more I'm convinced that what the Government recommend we all consume on a daily basis is all very wrong. I'm not going to go on a big campaign or a rant about it, that isn't my style. Obviously the Egg way to go about this, is self-experimentation. Go against everything, do something completely un-recommended, do it wholeheartedly and report on how very wrong or very right it went.

Muv's Week of Health

Now that I have a sister who is well and truly on the health train, it was time to get mum aboard. I decided to take myself up to Derbyshire for a mini training week/healthy eating week/boot camp for mum week. I broke the journey up with a cheeky visit to the brilliant Braunstone parkrun, before arriving at mum's and unpacking about two sets of regular clothes and a suitcase full of sports kit. Such a lovely daughter that I am, I shared the veggie stew that I'd made for lunch, and curtailed our catch up as it was sunny outside and I was itching for a cycle.

Wingin' It

The theme of all race-related activities this year has been "winging it". It's actually pleasantly surprising what the body can do on an average fitness base and a mind that believes it is capable. It's very refreshing to switch the focus to doing stuff because you want to do it rather than feeling that you must do it. My training calendar is by no means empty, it just all goes in there retrospectively  in a very unstructured manner.

I admit though, there has been a niggling feeling that I'm not quite reaching my potential with this blasé attitude. This feeling was fully realised at the National Triathlon Club Relays, an event I'd done twice in the past. The relays are a fun, team event that some teams take very seriously and others absolutely do not. Our team was called "Team Wing-It" and epitomised the very nature of the name in every way. We weren't stressed by finish times or pre-race nutrition or any of the usual nonsense; frankly we were more concerned about posing in our team capes and looking like superheroes.

Post-Parkrun Market Mayhem

My sister and I had a plan for today, a simple one, a healthy one. We would head over to the Parkrun at Queen Elizabeth Country Park and do a day of juicing. Maybe we would wander to the beach and have a paddle in the sea but generally a fairly chilled, but nutritionally brilliant day in preparation for a half marathon tomorrow.

Raw Coconut and Lime Pie

This was not just pie-making, this was a coconutty adventure of grand proportions. Firstly, I needed coconut, in many different forms. I saw that Waitrose were selling pre-cut coconut chunks but I always feel far more righteous eating something I've made entirely from scratch so I found two of the hairiest coconuts I've ever seen in my local Asian shop, as well as picking up coconut oil and dessicated coconut. As I wandered home something struck me; my coconut cracking experience was limited to the odd coconut falling and breaking from the coconut shy school fetes. I was approaching 30 and was missing a vital life skill.

Easy Peasy "Spaghetti Bolognese" ... raw

This is such a delicious alternative to traditional spaghetti bolognese; the flavours in the raw sauce are so much better when the ingredients aren't cooked!

Raw Cabbagey Slaw

Cabbage is super healthy and nearly always in season. This is a really simple, cheap, refreshing slaw recipe. Keep it in the fridge for a few days for snacking, make a salad sandwich with it or use it as a side dish.

1/2 head red cabbage, shredded
1 small head green cabbage, shredded
1 small red onion, finely sliced
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp agave nectar
2 tbsp olive oil (I actually used 1 tbsp flax oil and 1 tsp olive, but all olive is fine)
1/2 tsp salt

Blend or mix together the oil, vinegar, garlic, agave and salt. Add the mixture to a big bowl containing the veg and massage it in. You want to get the oil and salt mixed well into the raw cabbage.

Leave covered for at least 30 minutes and then, enjoy!

The 12 Week "Dietary Clean-up" Challenge

It's been a while since I've embarked upon a challenge. To be completely honest I haven't been in the right frame of mind for it for the last few months. I lost the usual Eggy zest as I hit a bit of an emotional dip and am only just starting to recover from what has seemed like the longest bout of insomnia ever. Over this time my physical activity levels dropped dramatically, comfort eating rose up and reigned over healthy choices and I felt highly stressed in general. I ended up feeling a bit like a big, fraught, tired, unhealthy blob. There is, however, light at the end of the tunnel.

Losses and Gains

I've been dealing with a loss. I hadn't realised exactly, but after a conversation earlier this week it occurred to me that I "lost" the marathon, and without me knowing, it had really knocked my confidence. With a gammy knee it seemed it was taking ages to get my trainers back on again. Sick of the frustration of not being able to run and sick of the silly weather that makes cycling not fun and/or unsafe, I made a sudden decision to jack in triathlon for the time being and focus on other things.

I've been trying to gain strength in weightlifting - specifically power-lifting - for ages. I've dabbled for the last couple of years but endurance sport and power lifting are enormously incompatible. One heavy squat  session will ruin my cycling/running legs for days and long runs or rides will prevent good, heavy lifts. When you try to be good at lots of different things you inevitably end up being mediocre at all of them!

Running on Rubbish

I think there must be something about marathon training that gives you a bigger than normal appetite. Anything over a two hour run - in my mind - is pretty massive in running terms and on every long run day I've felt the need to "ensure adequate nutrition" (read: eat a lot) both before, during and after the session. For recovery, of course.

Stoptober

The Stoptober campaign begins today, “a new, exciting 28 day challenge to stop smoking”. When I first read about it, I immediately had a couple of issues. First and foremost, presuming that it is in fact playing on the name of the month “October” and that isn’t just a very strange coincidence, it appears to be missing three days. Furthermore, surely if it was that easy to just stop, everyone would do it, wouldn’t they?

Juice Detox Days 4 & 5: Feeling AWESOME

After a little slump and some temptations in the early part of the detox, I wasn't sure if I'd make it the whole way through without some blips. The truth is, every day I feel better and better.

Those of you who have known me for a while, or anybody that works in my office, or quite frankly anyone I've sat near on a long journey of any kind, will know that I have a long history of digestive woes. Not woes like if I can easily access chocolate digestives to go with my tea, but serious digestive problems that have lingered after a little posse of parasites took refuge in my stomach in 2006. Whilst it has only been a few days, this cleanse of the system has left my guts feeling better than ever and that in turn, has made me very happy indeed.

Juice Detox Day 2: Swimming on Juice

The avocado drama continued this morning, I carefully unwrapped my newspaper package of bananas and avocados to discover they were still rock solid. A quick dash to Sainsbury for some ripe & ready ones solved the problem and I could get on with my day without the saga continuing.

Juice Detox Day 1: Some Valuable Lessons

The juice detox didn't get off to the best start as I went to attempt to peel an avocado for my breakfast smoothie only to realise it was rock solid and I didn't stand a chance. A lot of the recipes call for avocado so I currently have all mine wrapped in newspaper with bananas to hasten them along. I consulted the bible from the Juicemaster himself, Jason Vale, and just switched some things around to avoid all avocado today.

Philips Avance Collection HR1871/00 800 Watt Juicer in Brushed Stainless Steel

Getting Back on the Healthy

I haven't been healthy at all recently, not in any way, shape or form. "Carb-loading" was a vague excuse for packing in the food pre-Wimbleball and then "recovery week" was another excuse for just piling enormous amounts of rubbish foodstuffs into my belly. The recovery week quickly became "recovery fortnight" and to be honest, it hasn't event ended. No matter how much I eat, eating bad food is - unsurprisingly - not speeding up my recovery.. and the recovery doesn't seem to be happening any time soon.

Lazy or Normal?

Busted having another afternoon nap in
the Chair of Recovery

It's been a funny few weeks. The training weekend in Exmoor a few weeks ago was tough going but, whilst we trained very hard, we also rested hard too.

A seriously comfortable, oversized armchair became "the chair of recovery" and I subscribed to daily post-training power naps where I'd usually be sneaking to the gym for an extra strength session.

A lovely, long weekend away in a very sunny Dartmoor followed and was a welcome break from the usual routine. Whilst it was an active holiday with a spot of cycling and a lot of walking up hills, I felt enormously relaxed and physically recharged.

A Balanced Diet

Hypothetically, if you have one day that is a super, super healthy day where you fill up on vegetables and good, nutritious food and don't eat as much as a sesame seed over what you need, then the next day you have a bacon breakfast, four bits of cake, a packet of cookies and a curry with all the trimmings (and all the stuff everybody else can't finish) for dinner.. does that good/bad actually create balance in the grand scheme of things?

Dairy Free Oat & Raisin Cookies

I have been trying for weeks to create a brilliant dairy-free cookie. I’ve had tiny ones that didn’t grow and became crunchy biscuits, I have cookie-shaped cakes and had mass-spreading chocolatey disasters (which actually, are only disastrous in terms of being cookies and not at all disastrous in terms of being tasty food in my belly).

The Last Six Weeks

Before I came away to work in Hertfordshire for six weeks, I had a fantastic vision that it would be an opportunity to utterly embrace being healthy. Without the usual distractions I thought I could focus wholly on getting into training and make myself nothing but lovely, wholesome food.

Microwave Mayhem

Working away in a new place for a shortish period: I don’t really mind. Not having any access to WiFi: I can live with it for the time being. Using kettlebells to feed my weightlifting addition: Actually rather enjoyable. Feeling my way around the local 33m pool with nice wide lanes and no silly rules on using fins or paddles (take heed Five Rivers!): I could get used to this! In fact now that I’ve also found somewhere decent (read: has both a pavement and working streetlamps) to run and come to terms with using the turbo, I’m settling in to my temporary location fairly well.