11: Homemade

Over the past week I've made some extraordinary food. This statement isn't meant to sound boastful or act as an attempt to 'big-up' my culinary skills. I'm using the word 'extraordinary' in the context of unusual but delicious.

One of the challenges I face - as a pescatarian - is trying to find new ways to bring variety and nutrition into my diet. As a 'have-a-go' home baker I've also been missing the 'Will it rise/Won't it rise?' excitement of making cake over the past three months, especially to enjoy with a Sunday afternoon cup of tea.

At an recent event I was offered beetroot burger canapés. Not only were these extremely tasty but they were also a complete revelation. I'd never contemplated making my own veggie burgers before, but a quick search around the Internet and I had a vegan beetroot burger recipe to try out. What's more it was packed with several protein-rich ingredients - so Mexican Waves all round. 

Similarly I found a recipe for a "healthy" fruit cake* - if it is possible to make such a thing. The most interesting concept about this cake was that it contains zero fat and zero sugar. Reduced dates and water become the main binding agent, whilst the fruit provides the natural sugars that sweetens the mixture. I have to honest and say that I was slightly sceptical about whether this would work - but once I'd made it and tasted it, I knew it was a bit of a winner.

Since dropping the Moves app a few weeks ago - please see the footnote on my Squeeze, Ease and Hold blogpost for more info on why - I've since been recommended, and started to use, Argus from Azumio Inc. This is an altogether more comprehensive app. Not only does it record when I'm walking and when I'm working-out, but I now use it to monitor my sleep as well as heart-rate through paid-for bolt-on apps.

The most fascinating aspect of Argus is food though. There's a whole merry band of us around the globe who share photos of what we're eating with each other via Argus's News Feed. As we're all located in different time-zones I'm getting used to looking images of people's evening meals whilst I'm eating breakfast, and peoples' breakfast when I'm tucking into a late afternoon snack.

Of course looking at other peoples' food isn't just about being nosey - although if I'm totally honest there is an certainly element of that for me. I'm also using this feature to gather inspiration for dishes that I could try here at home. In addition I'm using the app to engage with others, who are also on a fitness regime, by chatting to them about their food.

The "healthy" fruit cake certainly got quite a bit of interest when I posted a photo of it onto my activity feed. Carolyn, who is based near the eastern seaboard of the US, and I struck up quite a rapport about the cake. I even provided her with the list of ingredients and instructions when she told me that she couldn't access the recipe via the URL I'd given.

If you're in the market for a pedometer, calorie, nutrition and activity tracker, then I can certainly recommend Argus. It's an app with so many parts to it, that it feels like I now have a Swiss Army Knife for health and fitness on my smart phone.

*There is a bit of confusion with the healthy fruit cake recipe. The instructions contain more fruit ingredients than were listed. I decided to opt for 400g mixed fruit and 50g figs and apricots - and this certainly worked for me.

10: GOAL!!!

So the FIFA Football World Cup is in full swing in Brazil, and there have already been some surprises. Current holders Spain have lost their two opening group matches and are almost on a flight home. Who'd have predicted that a month ago? Certainly not me!

That's not the only surprise of the week for me though. Over the past fortnight I've been tantilisingly close to reaching one of my initial fitness goals – that of reducing my weight to 80 kilos (176 lbs). 

This morning I was at Luke Bremner Fitness for a regular review of my diet and nutrition, and for Luke to take my body measurements. When I stood on the scales and 80.6 kgs popped up, my immediate reaction was "Get in there!"

To put this into some context, when I first discussed my original goals with Luke back in April, I'd said that I wanted my weight to be 80 kilos after 6 months. So to achieve this target in 3 months makes all the sacrifices and effort worth while.

However I'm not about to rest on my laurels. Luke and I have already discussed some new goals for me aim at in the next 3 months - one of which will be very tough to achieve - but I'm up for the challenge and it'll be interesting to see how I fare.


POSTSCRIPT: Saturday 21 June
Yesterday Luke published the graphic below which shows photos of me in April and June 2014. I think it goes without saying that my progress is now clear for all to see. For those who were taught metric weights and measurements at school, like me, 13lbs equals 5.8 kilos!

9: Let's get Fizzical

This week has been a "transition week" - as Luke described it. I've certainly enjoyed a couple of lighter training sessions with Mr Bremner, but that doesn't mean I've been slacking. I've still managed to do some exercise at home during the weekday evenings too – so long gone are the days of excuses. Luke has now kindly structured a couple of proper home workouts for me, and I gave Routine 1 a whirl yesterday afternoon. I can honestly say that by the end of it I really knew that I'd been exercising for 50 minutes.

During my scheduled gym sessions Luke has also shown me a whole new set of exercises which, I'm sure, he'll introduced into my workouts fairly soon. This is so we can move my fitness regime to "the next level" apparantly. How I laughed nervously when I was told this. It goes without saying that I was complete pants at these new exercises, that have very manly names like "The wood-chopper" and the "Romanian Deadlift", however I'm sure in time I'll get the hang of them.

The past week has also been very social: design graduate exhibitions; professional networking meet-ups; and just generally catching up friends to say hello, and in one case goodbye. Several people at one of these events, who I'd worked with in the past, didn't recognise me due to my physical transformation. It's also given me the opportunity to reveal to others that my recent weight loss is purely down to regular exercise and dietary changes, and there is nothing else they should be concerned about. The best compliment came from Jen Pearce, who described my facial features as now being "chiseled." I like that – a lot!

Another new piece of equipment has also found its way into my kitchen this week – a SodaStream. I discovered from Luke, in April, that I wasn't drinking nearly enough water to keep my body adequately hydrated. Since then I've tried to consume 2 to 3 Litres (4.2 to 6.5 pints) of water per day. As I have a preference for sparkling mineral water with meals, I became conscious of the amount of bottles I was buying. The SodaStream is a way for me to reduce the amount of packaging and to enable me to carbonate a resource I already have on tap.

One of the biggest delights though is that the plastic bottle, that came with the SodaStream, is BPA-free (Bisphenol A). For those not in the know, BPA is a chemical used in the manufacture of plastics such as drinking bottles and cups. Following concerns about BPA transferring to food and beverages, many states in the US have now made it illegal for cups, bottles and plates to be manufactured using BPA. It's believed that this chemical can effect the brain as well as the prostate glands, and more people are choosing to avoid it. 

So I'm going to raise another glass of sparkling water to toast SodaStream for being ethically correct in so many ways. Cheers!