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7 Hot Tips to Get You Moving While It's Still Cold

This week we have had some serious winter weather here in Adelaide.  Training, both in and out of the gym, has become an integral part of what I do and for the last month or more I’ve had to juggle my training around the wind and rain a little. 

Sure, there are times when I don't feel like running or training, but it has become so second nature to me that I am more likely to get cranky about missing a session than find excuses not to go.  I also know how great I feel afterwards so focusing on that is usually enough to get me out of bed and out the door.

The truth is regular exercise does make you feel awesome for much longer than the ‘afterglow’ you get from a good heart raising.  Raising your heart rate, for a period of time, multiple times each week is great for many aspects of your health. 

For me, it is as much about mental health as physical and I can tell you that after so much time cooped up inside during school holidays, because of the weather, getting outside and running around definitely improves my kids’ moods too!

Even though it is still seems like the middle of winter the days are getting noticeably longer and I am more able to feel the warmth of the sun than I was a couple of weeks ago. 

Spring isn’t really that far away and before we know it Summer will be here again, it is time to come out of hibernation and kick back into an exercise routine if you have let it slide a little .while it has been dark and cold. 

Set the alarm an hour earlier an head out for a walk or jog three times a week.  Exercising first thing in the morning, before you eat, really amplifies its effect.  Ask your neighbour if she wants to come to, that will help keep the motivation up and you might make a new friend in the process.

Dust off the bikes and scooters and head to nearby bike path with the kids.  Make it a regular after school habit that the kids will enjoy just as much as you do.

Change things up, do some different classes at the gym or switch bike riding for swimming laps in the pool.

Invest in some personal training sessions to help you learn some new moves or techniques.  I'm doing a challenge at my gym that is putting me totally outside my comfort zone!

Challenge your friends and join forces as a team to tackle an obstacle event.  You'll need to train as a team over a number of months to make sure you all get through it together.

Set a new goal for yourself and start working towards it.  As a runner I am contantly looking at the various Australian and International running calendars and dreaming of the different events I would like to run.  My deposit is paid for the 2014 NY Marathon, I'll be running it with my sister.  I've already started planning my first few events for 2014.

Why not give bikram yoga a go, there's not to many physical activites that come as hot as that one!

Have an awesome weekend!

Tatum xx

Why all the focus on body image anyway?

It is peculiar looking at photos of me from before 2011.  I see myself looking rounder than I am now but I don’t recall feeling bad about the way I looked or who I was.  There is one set of photos in particular, where I was probably at my non-pregnant heaviest, and I know that I felt content and great about myself that day.

If you are following Make It Look Easy you might have noticed that I had something to say about body image this morning. 

My Facebook newsfeed has become a constant barrage of body image related stuff and it is driving me nuts, I’ve been deleting and unliking left, right and centre. 

How is it that so much of how a woman feels about herself is supposed to be related to what her body looks like without clothes on.  Perhaps it’s because there are entire industries built around women’s perception and self perception and it works in their favour for ‘poor body image’ to be a thing.

Why do we not spruik about negative intellectual image?  Through both genetics and socio-demographics each of us starts life intellectually in a certain place.  Through a series of events, called life, stuff happens.  Dependant on your personal goals, investment in yourself, support network and sheer determination, amongst other things, you can change your path forward.

I don’t see airbrushed images on social media proclaiming that a uni degree is the new welfare payment.  I suspect that the size and marketability of the education industry compared to the diet and fitness industry has a whole lot to do with it.  The diet and fitness industries thrive on ‘negative female body image’ and you know what, dependant on your personal goals, investment in yourself, support network and sheer determination, amongst other things, you can change the way your body looks too.

There is a constant stream of criticism directed, largely, at the media and fashion industry for portraying ‘ideal’ women that give the rest of us mere mortals body image issues.  I realise I’m putting myself on a slippery slope when I suggest that nobody nice actually gets up and says that women need to look that way, it’s more a pressure that we put on ourselves.  If you have someone in your life who suggests that you are less of a person because you don’t look a certain way then perhaps you need to take a long hard look at whether you need them around.

I feel that the line become good body image and good health has become blurred.  I’m potentially going to slide a bit more by saying that I don’t think it is okay use body image as an excuse for poor health choices.  These things should be mutually exclusive.  It is entirely possible to feel great about the way you look but be completely unhealthy, that goes for people of all sorts of shapes and sizes.  Likewise you can be the picture of health and still not love the way you look. 

We women really are such a complicated species, it’s no wonder most men can’t hope to understand us.

Earlier in the year I remember a bit of hullabaloo about the expectations placed on a Victoria’s Secret model in the lead up to a runway show.  There was a fair whack of criticism but the reality is those ladies on the catwalk are fit, healthy and blessed with a genetic, and probably socio-demographic, background that make it easier for them to look like that compared to a different subset of the population.  Looking like that takes a hell of a lot of hard work and targeted nutrition and it would be immensely difficult to do so living on water and lettuce leaves and never exercising.

Anyway, I digress.  I watched and I was impressed.  I didn’t see flashing signs saying that is the way we are all expected to look.  I must have missed the memo somewhere along the line that society as a whole expects my body to look a certain way.  I know I certainly don’t place that expectation on myself or other women.  However, I know I am in the minority in that respect and I have been putting a lot of thought in to why that is.

I think that the need to ‘promote positive body image’ is acknowledging that there is a way that women are ‘supposed’ to look.  To me our actual body shape and size is an outcome of genetics, what we eat, exercise, sleep, emotional wellbeing and other things, some of them beyond our control.  Instinctively I think we know the difference between feeling healthy and not.  When we know that we aren’t eating a balanced diet, are over indulging a little too often, not exercising regularly or sleeping enough our bodies suffer.

I know that I feel significantly different internally when I have been eating more sugar or drinking more alcohol than usual, not eating enough fresh veggies and not exercising as often as I would like to.  It means I feel less comfortable in my body because I don’t have the same feeling of wellness as usual.  This is exacerbated if I’m not getting enough sleep or having my head not quite in the right place.  I might look in the mirror and give myself a kick up the bum to get my eating and/or exercise in order, for me, but it’s not because I feel I should look different it’s because I want to feel different internally.  Engaging in a mental war with yourself about the way your body looks it is not conducive to getting back to a comfortable balance

Where is this going and what am I getting at?  The message I am aiming to get across is simple.  Setting goals around the size and shape of your body is a headfuck, it is actually not something that you can completely control so attempting too is madness. 

• Concentrate on eating a balanced diet of fresh and whole foods, keep processed foods, refined sugar and alcohol for sometimes. 
• Exercise regularly; there is overwhelming evidence to say it is good for you. 
• Get enough sleep, that makes the first two things a whole lot easier.

Look in the mirror and see the things that make you who you are, such a small percentage of that should come from what you look like naked but, if you love what you see, that’s only going to heighten how you feel about the rest.

If you love cake, then god damn well eat it, just make sure it's good cake!

I love this comment shared on my Make It Look Easy post.  Words to live by I say, thankyou Naomi.

I open up the floor to you, what do you think?

Pulled Pork that Just Rocks

I love that good, american style cooking is making its way on to our plates in Australia. 

The US often gets a bad wrap for only having pretty ordinary food on offer.  Having been there a couple of times now I can absolutely tell you it's not true.  Yes, there is rows and rows of processed crap in the supermarket and it can be difficult to find a good meal in a small town, but that is really no different to here in Australia.  Wherever you go there is still plenty of fresh food to be found.

So, let's talk about one of my favourite things, pulled pork.

Pulled pork is fantastic stuff.  You can stuff it in tortillas with salads, burrito style or add some cheese and other fillings, fold in half and grill to have yourself a great quesadilla, add it to a vietnamese style salad, serve it american BBQ style along side some coleslaw, grilled corn on the cob, don't forget a pickle or two and a dousing of good BBQ sauce on the side. 

You can flavour it any way you want really but the following combination will leave you with delicious, melting meat.  It is worth putting everything in the dish the night before that way to give it a chance to really soak in and so that the vinegar will have already gone to work on breaking down some of the connective tissues.

Pulled Pork enough to feed at least 6 people 2 times for dinner and once for lunch.  It's perfect for when you have a crowd to feed.

 

Ingredients

2kg Pork Shoulder

2 Tbs olive oil

2/3 cup red wine vinegar

2/3 cup good worchestershire sauce (I use beerenberg)

1/2-1 Tbs chilli flakes

1 Tbs fennel seeds

Method

Put everything in a casserole dish together, leave it to marinade overnight if you have time otherwise it is worthwhile letting the pork bathe for at least an hour before you pop it in the oven. 

Cover with foil and pop into a 170C oven for 2 1/2 hours.  Uncover and cook for a further hour or until the pork pulls apart easily with two forks.

Leave the meat to rest, covered, for half an hour (or longer) before shredding with forks.

Perfect Chocolate Chilli Mudcake

We had a birthday in the family on the weekend and the chosen cake flavour was rocky road.  I had chosen to cook a Mexican meal and thought that a chocolate chilli mudcake would be the perfect ending, I love the edge chilli gives a good hot chocolate and thought that it would translate well as a cake.  Freshly brewed coffee adds another dimension of flavour that becomes less intense the next day. 

The chilli itself isn't mindblowing sinus clearing stuff it is more of a mouth filling warmth.  If you are wary of chilli then dial it back a bit by only adding half the amount.

A light layer of chocolate ganache spread on top adds a delicious creaminess to finish the cake perfectly.  Cherries, in season, cooked in syrup and served over a slice of cake and accompanied by vanilla bean or cinnamon ice-cream would turn this cake into an amazing dessert.

 

Chilli Chocolate Mudcake

Ingredients

150g butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup brewed coffee

250g dark chocolate (I used 70% cocoa), melted

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground chilli

Method

Preheat Oven to 170C

Cream butter and sugar together until light

Add eggs one at a time with cinnamon and chilli, beating until just combined

Mix in one cup of flour followed by half the coffee

Mix in the second cup of flour with the baking powder and remaining coffee

Fold in the melted chocolate and mix until thoroughly combined.

Pour into a base lined springform tin and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean

Err on the side of caution with the cooking time; mudcake is better to be slightly underdone than overcooked.

For a ganache topping melt 100g dark chocolate with 1/3 cup cream.  I do it 1 minute at a time on 50% in the microwave, it usually takes 2 minutes.  Mix until smooth and spread over the cooled cake.

Definitely the best concoction I have brewed in my kitchen of late!

What do you think?  Game to give it a go?

Tatum xx

A Crowd of Cupcakes

It is C’s birthday tomorrow.  Birthdays are the only occasion that I trot out the massive sugar hits of  butter cream and fondant icing.  I have no idea yet what the plan is for her actual birthday cake but today required cupcakes for school.

Last night, with my brain all fuzzy after a week of teetering on the edge of a scratchy throat, bone aching illness I churned out a class size batch of cupcakes.  When did class sizes swell to 29?  Seriously.  I’m still teetering there on that brink too, but am keeping it somehow at bay with doses of Zinc, sleep and red wine in various amounts.

C had requested vanilla cupcakes because she decreed that not everyone likes chocolate.  I’m not convinced she lives on the same planet as we do but, nonetheless, I obliged with vanilla.  As I was feeling uberlazy last night I was going to stick with plain, snowy white butter cream. 

However, when I tasted the butter cream there just wasn’t enough of a vanilla hit to drown out the in your face sweetness from the icing sugar so I decided to finally test out the rosewater that has been sitting with all my baking paraphernalia for quite some time.  Holy moly am I ever glad that I did.  A couple of teaspoons of that stuff and we had butter cream that tasted like pink musk sticks, I just had to dye it pink.

29 + 1 Vanilla Cupcakes with Pink Musk Icing

For the cakes

150g softened butter

2 cups raw caster sugar

3 eggs

1½ cups milk

3 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups plain flour

1 Tbs baking powder

For the Icing

150g softened unsalted butter

3 cups icing sugar

3 Tbs whole milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp rosewater

Method

Preheat the oven to 170C and line tins with 30 patty cases

Cream the butter and sugar together with the vanilla the plop in the eggs one at a time, beating until just combined

Add the flour and milk alternating between 1 cup flour and ½ cup milk, throwing the baking powder in there too at some point.

Mix until everything is smooth and well combined.  Spoon into the patty cases, you only need a dessert spoon in each, they rise to the top quite nicely.

Cook for 20-25 minutes, the tops will spring back when lightly pressed.

Pop the cakes onto cooling racks while you make the icing.

With an electric mixer beat the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy, incorporating the milk, vanilla and rosewater as you go.  You will need to beat it for a good five minutes to get some airyness too it, you don’t want the butter cream to be dense and icky.  Towards the end of the mixing process pop in a dash of colour if using; if the colour is not completely mixed in then you can get a bit of swirl action going on as you smooth it on.

When the cakes are completely cool spoon it out on to the tops and smooth it over with a knife.  There should be enough butter cream to give them all a decent covering, no skimping on butter cream for birthdays I say.

It begs the question, what’s your favourite kind of icing?

Tatum xx