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Top Tips for Eating During the Social Season

Winter may be over but with, what is usually, the most busy time of the year ahead of us it often leads to typical comfort foods being replaced with little indulgences or fast options of convenience.

I don't want to be the fun police, nor do I want to sound like a smart ass stating the obvious but sometimes I know it's useful to give ourselves a little reminder.  With parties, functions and catch ups with friends often abundant throughout the summer months here are a few tips to help stop calorie blowouts.

A little bit goes a long way. Keep control of your portion size.  Just because it's ‘party food' doesn't mean you need to go crazy.  Stick with appropriate or, smaller than usual serving sizes to compensate for a higher than usual fat or sugar content.

If it doesn't taste great don't bother eating it.  You know the one, you're at a cocktail function and the little canapes look fantastic or it's the work dinner and the dessert looks to die for but what these morsels offer visually they do not deliver where taste is concerned.  If it's not tantalising your taste buds don't feel rude leaving it behind, you're not a kid and they aren't your veggies.

Serve it with a salad.  Warmer weather brings barbecues.  For me a piece of grilled chicken, steak or fish is always serves with leafy greens and other veggies piled high along side.  Enjoy it with a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Go easy on the cheese or creamy dressings and you have the best recipe for perfect summer eating.

If you are still hungry don't go searching for pizza.  I'm sure you are familiar with this one too, the party or function is over and the food was either lacking or you were too busy talking or having fun to eat.  Forget about pizza or cheeseburgers, go home have a big drink of water, a piece of vegemite toast and go to bed.  You will be thankful for the vitamin B in the vegemite come morning and a million times better for not eating the pizza.

Avoid fried food.  No matter what you try and convince yourself there is nothing healthy about fried chips.  Bake yourself some homemade oven wedges instead.  Stick with grilled fish and some salad when you are on the beach.  How about those cocktail party spring rolls?  Just say no.

Eat before you head out to a function.  Enjoy a decent meal at home before heading out to a function where the food quality is likely to be dubious.  You will feel so much more in control of what you eat and drink this way.  Obviously it's not really the best way to go for an intimate dinner party but as for a work function or similar, trust me.

If you are having a few drinks keep the food light.  Drinking alcohol is an easy way to consume a lot of calories mindlessly and quickly.  Alcohol also does this tricky thing to your liver and bile duct that will make you feel hungry when you are actually not.  Have a plan when you are going to be drinking and stick to it.  Don't make me sound like your mother when I remind you to alternate between water and alcohol.  If you do happen to have a few more than your meant to refer to my point about the pizza.

It's all about 80:20.  Make sure you are eating sensibly when you aren't socialising to give yourself a bit more breathing space to let your hair down when you really want to.  If you are heading out and don't want to compromise on what you are happy to eat then don't feel you have to just to please someone else.  Have a plan about how to approach the situation tactfully.

So, it's only mid October but I imagine that much like mine, your dance card is filling quickly for the next few months!

Tatum xx

A Few Things I Learned Last Sunday

Marathon running is a sport for crazy people.  Why would anyone want to run 42km, really.  A few weeks before Gold Coast my friend Chantel reminded me that the first chap who did it promptly lay down and died.  It didn’t stop her running last Sunday though, and she was amazing.

In truth, all of the runners I meet are all lovely people.  We long distance runners spend a lot of time with ourselves and our thoughts.  For me it absolutely helps keep me balanced.  I love the feel of events, the buzz and camaraderie and little pats on the back from total strangers.  It's part of what being a runner is all about.

Once you have run one marathon you do one of two things.  Say you have crossed that off now and vow never to run one again or you get bitten by the bug.

Last year, after Melbourne, it took less than 48 hours for the strange infection from that bug bite to take hold and I knew I wanted to run more marathons. 

It took me a good few weeks to figure out which one I wanted to tackle next but eventually I set my sights on the Gold Coast. 

I got the idea in my head that I would like to run a qualifying time for New York 2014 and that is where I set my bar.  However, even with my best half marathon time at 1:31:31 and with many solid months of training behind me I was pretty sure that I wasn’t quite ready to clear that bar just yet.

I like to treat every day as a new learning experience.  It is fair to say that I learnt a lot about myself and marathon running in the weeks, months and days leading up to the Gold Coast Marathon.

I always knew how important having strong leg muscles was for preventing injury, add a strong core, glutes and lower back to that and you start to increase your speed.  I love the style of training I’ve been doing and am looking forward to doing more of it in the coming months.

My nutrition plan that I followed in the two weeks leading up to the Gold Coast worked really well.  It was interesting watching my body respond and I woke up feeling perfectly primed on Sunday morning.  There are a few changes I’ll make next time around to make the carb loading a little bit easier on my belly.  I definitely didn’t hit a wall related to poor nutritional preparation.

My struggles were from general fatigue.  The three weeks leading up to the marathon were hectic and exhausting.  Steven was away for 10 days, including two weekends, and I had two trips to site in the two weeks before hand.  I had far too many nights with less than six hours sleep.  However, that is life.  I took the opportunity to rest and sleep when my body told me to in the two days I had to relax on the Gold Coast.

I don’t really like gels but I think I will learn to get used to them and put a bit more effort in to finding a good alternative.  That little boost to liver glycogen makes a big difference.  I have a few ideas of what to use but it’s the packaging that has me a bit stumped.

I was lucky enough to plonk myself down next to one of the 3 hour pace runners on the bus after the race.  I took the opportunity to ask him a few questions and will be making a few changes to my training strategy as a result.  More speed work, regular 3 hour runs and increased total kms/week.  My strategy has been right for me until now but to step it up a notch I need to make some changes.  I am looking forward to seeing the results.

That familiar face in the crowd makes a world of difference when you are hurting, so does simply hearing words of encouragement from a random stranger, so do the messages you received before the race wishing you well.  It’s all there with you, helping you get through to the line at the end.

Focusing on the end point, visualising yourself crossing the line when all you want to do is pack up and go home.  The distance markers always tell you how far you have run, once you reach the halfway mark I think that they should count back the other way!  All of those numbers between abut 22 and 36 are tough to swallow because there are so many of them!

Knowing that I wasn’t going to crack the goal I had set for myself I did have to talk myself in to not giving in a few times.  I wasn’t comfortable for most of the run, I am pretty sure it was the general fatigue that got me possibly combined with the heat, although that’s not something I consciously found to be bothering me. 

Take a look at my photos and with the exception of the photos where I was waving at the camera I have pain written on my face in every single one.

I got through to the end by focusing on my next goals.  The Yurrebilla Ultra in September is the main one, but with thoughts of Adelaide 2013 and Paris 2014 surrounding it.

Running Paris in 2014 is very much on my radar.  It’s nine months away.  Are you interested in coming with me?  I am offering custom marathon and half marathon nutrition and training coaching packages for Paris and any other event you might be interested in running. 

Paris will be followed by New York in November with a few yet to be decided on events in between.  I’ve even been toying with the idea of running New York this year too, but I’ve been having trouble getting Woody to agree to that one!

Are you a runner?  Do you have some big running goals for the future?  What is the thing you love best about running?

Tatum xx

My Food Mantra

My four year old has mad knife skills.  She drags her step up to the bench next to me whenever there is a vegetable in sight, vegetable peeler and green knife at the ready.  Last weekend she quartered the tomatoes for our lunch time pizza.  She knows the correct placement of her fingers relative to the knife and she concentrates while she is cutting.  I am seriously proud.

During the week I started chatting to my dad on the phone midway through cutting the vegetables for dinner.  I’d left the kitchen to get better phone reception and before long I could hear a constant tap, tap, tap coming from the kitchen.  When I went to investigate I found J absorbed in turning my sliced fennel and halved brussels sprouts in to a neat, fine dice and returning them to the baking dish.

The fact that she had cut them up still didn’t entice her to eat them (perhaps she was making them smaller in the hope that they would disappear?) but she did eat her fish, carrots, bean puree and the olives I had added to the veggies.  There are two important things here:

My four year old enjoys helping me prepare vegetables, she might not eat them all now I but she is definitely open to them.

In a few years time I can hand her the veggies and she will know what to do with them because I am teaching her to cook.  Not how to follow a recipe (right now anyway) but how to cook instinctively, so that how to steam veggies is something that she will just know how to do.  It is a life skill, just like learning to tie your shoelaces or drive a car.  But, for some reason, it is being overlooked.

The idea for Kitchen Bootcamp came to me from a realisation that there are plenty of people around who don’t feel comfortable in the kitchen.  In thinking about why this is I came to the conclusion that the feminist movement is to blame a little.  That, and the way the education system places literacy and numeracy above all other skills.  Yes, I absolutely agree that those skills are invaluable but I also submit that teaching our children a sound foundation of nutrition and cooking skills is absolutely essential.  The reality is that our education system doesn’t allow for it.

While J was finely dicing my veg this was what my Dad and I had been chatting about.  When he was at school he learned woodwork with all the boys while the girls learned to sew and cook.  When I was at high school I learnt to cook in home economics for 1 term.  Ten weeks for two or three lessons a week.  We made a pizza and a sponge cake and ignored  the theory.  Another term I was taught sewing, a skill I had already learned from my Aunt, another term was woodwork and finally metal work.  I am no less terrified of an arc welding machine today as I was then.

Where did all the home economics go?  Was it ousted by the feminist movement that may have decreed that learning vocational skills like arc weld a line or turn a piece of wood on a lathe was somehow as beneficial to all students than learning life skills of cooking and nutrition because somehow teaching girls to cook was belittling? 

Teaching a girl, or a woman, about proper, scientific, non-fad nutrition and how to cook well for herself is one of the single most self empowering things that you can do for her.

Yes, this is true for boys too.  My Dad learnt how to cook because it was his mum who as the passionate cook that ignited the passion in me and I am certain she wouldn’t have let him escape boyhood without a few kitchen skills.  However. the reality is that males are not overwhelmed with body image issues to anywhere near the same extent as females.

Was it the overwhelming curriculum content requirements that squeezed out the time that was previously allocated for teaching school kids to cook?  In my experience cooking with kids is rich with opportunities to learn both in terms of literacy and numeracy.  There are few better, more practical concrete examples of basic mathematical concepts.  When you are cooking there is so much to talk about, things to describe and recipes to read.  So many great opportunities for learning, right there, without anyone even realising.

Was it the advent of the fast and processed food era when we became busier and time poor and started to outsource the cooking?  I am sure that I could write an entire thesis on the back of the question.  I have no doubt that others have done it but without a large advertising budget they have no voice to be heard.

To be fair I can see a slow swing back the other way, kitchen garden and cooking programs are becoming increasingly prevalent in schools, I love that.  Curriculum is more focused on teaching kids about what healthy eating looks like, but the language surrounding it is tricky.  However, despite their best intentions to provide ‘healthier’ choices most school canteen menus still provide a multitude of processed options.

How does this all change?  I would hazard to say that generation Y will be the most affected by this of real food knowledge and confused by bombardment of advertising.  Here are a few solutions I see from my perspective:

• Stop blaming certain things in isolation (sugar, wheat, dairy, sedentary lifestyle) and realise that no ‘diet’ or ‘detox’ or anything more rigid than you can comfortably live by each day represents a long term solution for good health.
• Teach people to cook and enjoy fresh and wholefoods, for themselves.
• Educate about appropriate portion size and overall balance needs to be better married to our overall understanding of food.
• Fresh food needs to be cheaper, or processed food more expensive?  The unfortunate reality is that fresh food is more expensive.  A round of fruit for my family is absolutely more expensive in $ terms than a packet of chips, biscuits or some other crap.
• Redefine how we see treat food.  Food is not a ‘treat’ because it is high in sugar or fat and definitely not a treat if it doesn’t really taste all that good and makes us feel ordinary (or guilty) after eating it.
• I would actually go so far as to suggest a ban on radio advertising on fast food, food products and dietary supplements.  The language that is used is appalling in terms of the mixed and negative messages it sends.

Eat great food you enjoy, cooked with love and in just the right amount.  That is my food mantra.  What is yours?

Tatum xx

The Truth About Protein

No matter what your goals are as far as weight management are concerned you would have heard or read some sort of story about protein.

Proteins are the building blocks of our bodies.  Just like carbohydrates and fats they are essential for our body to maintain function.  There are a number of high protein, low carbohydrate ‘diets’ around and as a result there is an overwhelming amount of misinformation that has ended up floating around. 

It is not uncommon for people to think that the ‘healthy food’ pyramid is a bit skewed and that we should be switching some of our serves of cereals and grains for extra serves of ‘protein based’ foods like meat and eggs.  In reality, that actually isn’t true.  Here I have broken things down for you a bit and present some of the facts so that you can make a more informed decision about whether you actually do need more protein.

My overriding statement about all macronutrients (protein, fats and carbohydrates) is that the quality and quantity (in terms of portion size) are the most important factors to be considering.  Understanding appropriate portion sizes is a major key to long term weight management.  It is something I will go into some detail about during Kitchen Bootcamp and will certainly touch on it from time to time here.

There are a number of reasons that protein is useful for weight management, the main ones being:

• Approximately 40% of the calories consumed will be used in breaking down the protein for use throughout the body.
• Because it takes longer to digest it is more satiating than carbohydrates can be, ie that means it leaves you feeling fuller for longer.
• Proteins are generally not used as an energy source so they aren’t broken down and stored as fats in the way that carbohydrates are.

That last fact is important when you think about what your daily nutrient intake is made up of as a whole.  You need carbohydrates for energy.  If your body is carbohydrate depleted, it will create energy using protein as fuel, but that is not an ideal long term scenario and a subject for another day, I’m not feeling that scientifically inclined tonight ;)  However, it does explain why a diet really high in protein and very low in carbohydrates (irrespective of quality) will most likely leave you feeling pretty tired and run down (hello pasta & bread cravings leading to ‘comfort eating’).

Let’s consider how much protein you really do need each day.

There is a recommended range for daily protein consumption dependant on your level of activity and goals around fat loss and muscle building.  If you are looking to lose fat, it is actually easier to concentrate on that fact in the first instance and forget any bullshit you might have heard about muscle catabolism, another topic for another day. 

If you don’t have a protein supplement immediately after a workout, or you exercise for more than 45 minutes your muscle will not start to eat it itself.  Your body likes fat a whole lot better for generating energy.  I promise.  Muscle building and protein uptake is yet another topic for another day.  Today is about the basics.

The average person on the street requires 1.0-1.2g/kg protein each day.  Let’s use me as an example.

• I weigh 60kg, that means 60-72g protein/day
• However, because my training load is pretty high I could push it up to 1.5g/kg (90g)
• If I was training to be a figure athlete (aka bodybuilder) I would be looking at 1.5-1.7g/kg protein each day (90-132g).  These information is consistent across a range of sources that I have researched. 

1.2g/kg is a good average for anyone who is not an athlete and regardless of their body type and irrespective of their weight management goals.

There is no evidence to suggest that not eating your full protein quota each day is a problem.  However, high amounts of protein each day (greater than 2.0g/kg) can, over time, place excess load on the kidneys leading to kidney disease and is also a cause of weakened bones due calcium being excreted in urine.

Consuming protein immediately after exercise enhances muscle uptake and retention of amino acids helping repair and build muscle.  That is the truth.  This process works best when the protein is combined with a carbohydrate.  Whilst protein powders are convenient I’d rather have a smoothie made with banana, milk and wheat germ accompanied by a hardboiled egg because I know exactly what I am putting in my body.  Protein supplements are sold to you by marketing something to you that you don’t actually need, complete with all the chemicals that give them flavour, shelf life and mix-a-bility.

Here is the bit that might surprise you.  The food pyramid is actually spot on.  When you look at the recommended number of serves in each food bracket and multiply that by appropriate serving sizes then, depending on your choices, your daily protein intake probably sits neatly in the 1.0-1.2g/kg bracket. 

Between our recommended 2-3 serves of dairy and 1-1½ serves of meat/poultry/eggs/fish we get the bulk of our protein requirement.  Supplement that with the significant protein contribution of you 4-6 serves from cereals and grains department and a bit more extra thrown in by the 4-7 serves of vegetables/legumes and you are seriously all over your daily protein need.  No extra meat or supplementation required.

Sure, some foods are better sources than others and for vegetarians there is the complication of not all plant based proteins being complete, but as long as you are choosing a variety of foods over the course of time and eating them in appropriate portion sizes then you can be assured you are getting all the protein you need.

What do you think?  Are you getting enough protein in your diet?  Does it make you rethink that expensive tub of protein powder?

Tatum xx

Vegetable A-Z - Mushroom Mania

Did you know that mushrooms are one of the highest natural sources of Potassium?  Nor did I, I've always associated potassium with bananas.  Potassium is essential for a number of bodily functions including muscle and nerve function. 

Potassium deficiency will usually occur as a result of it being flushed out of the body, a bout of gastro or excessive consumption of diuretics (hello coffee & alcohol) will make that happen.  I know that I can feel it in my body when I am in need of a bit of a potassium boost and I'll usually reach for the bananas.  Not anymore, now I will head straight for the mushrooms.

Besides being a great source of Potassium here are a few other things that mushies have to offer in the nutrient department:

They are one of the richest natural sources of the antioxidant selenium and a valuable source of dietary fibre. 

100g mushrooms has more dietary fibre than a slice of wholemeal bread accompanied by significantly less calories.

They are an excellent source of the B group vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5 & B9 and a rich source of protein.

Calorie for calorie mushrooms are pretty much the most protein dense food there is

Mushrooms are a great source of Calcium, Iron, Zinc and Magnesium and also provide you with Vitamins H and D.

We usually associate Vitamin D with sunlight, it is essential for strong and healthy teeth and bones.  Mushrooms are the only plant food that are a significant source of Vitamin D.

Because we often eat mushrooms raw, and rarely boil them, they retain most of their vitamin content.

One of my favourite things about mushrooms is that they are sponges for flavour but have the most amazing flavour themselves.  If I'm out having breakfast or brunch I will often order something because it comes with mushrooms.  It took me a few failed attempts to finally figure out the best way to slow cook amazing mushrooms like you get in cafes.  It was actually a happy accident when I threw in a bunch of whole buttons and swiss buttons with some slow cooked beef.

The flavours you use are entirely up to you.  I used red wine rosemary and garlic for this batch because that's what I had on hand.  Try switching white wine for red and rosemary for another hardy herb like thyme, oregano, marjoram or even sage.

Serve them along side some scrambled eggs and bacon and there you have an amazing breakfast!

Slow Roasted Mushrooms

Ingredients

1kg mixed whole mushrooms (I used white, swiss & portabello)

750mL bottle wine (I used a sparking red I knew I was never going to drink)

1/2 bunch herbs

6-12 cloves garlic, unpeeled but crushed with the back of a knife

1 Tbs Olive Oil

Freshly Cracked black pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 160C

Put all the mushrooms into a large roasting dish with the garlic and herbs

Pour over the wine and olive oil

Finish with freshly cracked black pepper

Pop into the oven and cook until the wine is reduced by half and you are happy with how they taste.  Don't burn your tounge taste testing!

Mushrooms are a perfect for a quick and easy pasta dish.  This was devoured on Saturday night in preparation for my long run on Sunday.  It got thumbs up from all the small people at the table (including my 2 nieces) and Woody who often claims he doesn't like mushrooms but always eats them regardless.

Mushroom Pasta with Roasted Garlic Flatbread - Serves 6-8

Ingredients

Flatbread

1 large, fresh turkish or naan flatbread

1 bulb of garlic

25g butter

1 Tbs Olive Oil

Pasta

1kg mixed mushrooms, sliced (I used white, swiss & portabello)

1 bunch parsley, washed and leaves picked

400g papardelle (I used wholemeal spelt pasta)

1 Tbs Verjuice, white wine or water to deglaze

Finely grated parmesan and freshly ground black pepper to serve.

Method

Heat the oven to 180C, pop the garlic in and roast until the cloves are all soft and squidgy.  Don't burn it because burnt garlic tastes pretty bad.

Squeeze the soft cloves into a bowl and mix with the butter and olive oil.

Brush about half the mixture on to the flat bread and sprinkle with sea salt.

Pop your water on to boil for the pasta.

In a large frying pan heat the other half of the garlic, butter and olive oil mixture and pile in your mushrooms.

Cook until they are all looking golden and delicious and you kind of want to dive in right now.

Once they are all nicely cooked, add your verjuice and deglaze the pan, scraping up all of the brown caramelised stuff and then turning off the heat.

The pasta water should be boiling by now so throw the pasta in and pop the bread in the oven.

Once the pasta is cooked drain it quickly and return to the pot with everything out of the frying pan and the pile of parsley leaves, mixing everything well to incorporate.  Drizzle in some extra olive oil if you feel inclined to do so.

Pile it into to serving bowls and top with the freshly grated parmesan, black pepper and garlic bread on the side.

Want some more mushroom inspiration?

This ragout with polenta from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Veg every day is one of my favourite dishes.

How about these winter warming Chicken & Mushroom Pies.

Or go to the source of all my mushrooms, The Mushroom Man, for all kinds of glorious mushroom inspiration.  Mushroom, chorizo & hazelnut pasta, Yes Please!

Are you a mushroom lover like me?  What is your favourite way to eat them?

Tatum xx