Cravings

What should we do when we are craving certain foods?
Well my answer to this for my clients & for myself has always been very straightforward.
Wait 20 minutes, have a glass of water & if you still want the desired item then eat it!

Why wait 20 minutes? – in that time you probably will have forgotten about it. There are many times I see on my facebook feed beautiful photos of cakes, that make me think: OMG I 100% need to eat that exactly now – which is very easy to do as there are many fantastic cafes & supermarkets near my work. However generally my mind wanders & then forgets all about it.

Why water? – the human body has a difficult time differentiating between thirst & hunger. Around 80% of the time your brain will trick you into thinking it will be more satisfied with some extra food, when realistically it is dehydrated. Even though I drink plenty of water, I will still have some more just in case I haven’t realised just how hot it is / how much I sweat during my workout.

But why just eat it? Surely a chocolate bar isn´t nutritionally good? – While the obvious answer is NO a chocolate bar offers little in quality nutrition, it will stop you obsessing over chocolate! However denying yourself foods that you see as “bad” in my opinion is worse. Many of my clients expressed the same feeling that in the past they ended up over  eating many other different things – “safe foods” but just were not satisfied & then were offered some chocolate later on & ended up eating much more than they originally wanted to as the craving & obsession has manifested.

I do not suggest that if you are craving a piece of cake, to go out & purchase an entire cake to consume in one sitting & likewise if you are always hankering after the same type of food on a daily basis, this would actually indicate a lack of a basic nutrient:

Salty foods        eg: Crisps            – The body wants Sodium
Chocolate                                       – The body is low on Magnesium
Meat                   eg: Steak             – Zinc & Iron levels are low
Sweets               eg: Haribo           – indicates Chromium levels are off balance
Stodgy Carbs    eg: Bread             – suggests Tryptophan is lacking

 

Top Tip: learn the difference between randomly wanting the food for example “Oh that pizza Kelly had at lunch looks great, I want some” & cravings which generally are quite overwhelming in their nature yet once consumed you feel beyond satiated for example “I have been thinking about that pizza Kelly had yesterday & think I will have a small slice for lunch today”

Easiest food for Prepping in bulk

My number one top tip for entering the world of meal prep is to start with something small and simple. While you may have decided to overhaul your old lifestyle completely & start again; it is far more manageable in the long term to begin with incorporating small changes, rather than overwhelming yourself. These tiny modifications will become habit & in turn much easier to stick to.

The most stress-free food to begin prepping in large quantities are eggs. Regardless of whether I am

doing a competition preparation or not, I like to have boiled eggs as a breakfast or readily available to add into a salad.

Nutrition wise they are a brilliant & cheap source of quality protein too

1 Large egg (whole) :          Calories - 75, Carbs – 0.6g, Fat – 5g, Protein – 6g

1 Large egg (white only) :  Calories – 17, Carbs – 0.2g, Fat – 0.1g, Protein – 3.6g

Sometimes I just eat only the whites (generally during competition season) – yet I still find it easier to batch cook many eggs to have at my convenience rather than using an egg white mix; as this requires daily cooking.

 Start your new food prep habits by boiling a saucepan of water & adding the eggs. They will need about 12 minutes of cooking time, unlike other foods you don´t need to constantly be watching / stirring / turning over etc – which makes it an excellent “first food” to prepare in bulk. Once 12 minutes has passed, for best results I plunge the eggs into cold water for about 10 - 20 minutes and then set aside to cool down before placing them in the fridge. While an “ice bath” is not essential for the eggs after their Jacuzzi, it does help in separating the egg membrane from the shell aka – EASIER TO PEEL!

 

I find that hard boiled eggs will keep in the fridge for 4 days, eg: on a Sunday I boil 6 eggs, 2 a day Monday to Wednesday when I will then boil a further 8 eggs which takes me through to Sunday again.
 

I DO NOT recommend bulk cooking soft boiled eggs, as they taste slimy and horrible when consumed cold!

Oatmeal Cookies

Today I decided to make some simple oatmeal cookies, just by using whatever ingredients I had left in the house. Oats & Eggs are always a solid staple) Regarding recipes I had a quick look online just to gather a rough idea of the ingredient ratio & then began to create!


Ingredients:

100g Butter (I prefer unsalted) (softened helps)
100g White Sugar
100g Brown Sugar ( I am sure you could just use 200g of this sugar instead)
1 Large egg

125g self raising flour (most recipes call for all purpose, but I didn’t fancy supermarket shopping for one item)
½ teaspoon Bicarbonate soda (most lists recommend baking soda, but as above I wanted to stay in)

Pinch of Salt
¾ Teaspoon Ground cinnamon
125g Oats

Method:

1.  In a large mixing bowl, place the softened (not melted) butter & both of the sugars. “Cream” them together so that they completely combine. During this process it begins to smell amazing!
2. Crack open the egg & carry on mixing the items together. (not pictured as I remembered the egg just before step 3 occurred.
3. Add the flour, bicarbonate, salt & cinnamon to the batter and continue to mix well.
   1. It will look like there isn´t enough “wet” ingredients to absorb what you have added. Just keep calm & mix it, do not panic & think adding another egg will help
4. Finally add the Oats into the mix. Just like the previous step, I promise you everything will mix together!
5. Let the ingredients “rest” & “chill” in the fridge for about an hour. Apparently the flour absorbs any water and makes the dough more workable. Many recipes state between 24 – 48hrs of WHO CAN WAIT THAT LONG!
   
   relaxation time for the dough will produce a more optimum mixture; seriously though, 
   
   
   
   6. Take out the baking trays from the oven before you pre-heat it, while this sounds really obvious, you will be surprised! Oven temp 180 – 190 Degrees.
   
   
   6.5. While oven is warming up; either coat foil with some oil (top tip below) or place greaseproof paper on the baking tray & begin to form small ball shapes with the batter. Lightly flatten each ball a little bit & remember to leave a gap between each cookie as they expand during baking.
   
   
   7. Bake for 8 -10 mins, then place each cookie on a wire cooling tray. Please note that they will be EXTREMELY soft & gooey – DO NOT think about cooking them for longer as they will harden up as they cool down.

Top Tip:

If you don´t have any greaseproof paper, do this - First on some kitchen roll put a few drops of cooking oil, then simply rub that onto aluminium foil.
Storing the cookies in an airtight container or Tupperware box will keep them fresh for about 2 – 3 weeks or until eaten!

Nutrition per cookie – this recipe makes 14:
Calories : 171
Carbs : 27.1g
Fat : 5.5g
Protein : 2.3g

I have compared this to a generic store bought Oatmeal cookie which in like for like terms contains: Calories – 230, Carbs – 20g, Fat – 9g, Protein 2g. (Yet will also have been made with 20 – 30 ingredients including many additives & preservatives)

My First Ever Food Prep

The first time I ever did a food prep was in May 2014 as I was heading off to compete in IBFA Miss Spain competition in the miss fitness category. Looking back, how I managed to achieve 2nd place in the Canary Islands (regionals) which qualified me for the national level show without a proper preparation is truly beyond me. However at the time I had many other issues in my life (bad break up

/ moving house etc) so somehow my body had remained in excellent condition despite having never done a meal plan (in the world of bodybuilding competitions the nutritional side of things is beyond paramount to your progress)

Fast forward 1 week before I was due to fly over, I had asked a coach for some advice on what food I should bring. He too was flabbergasted that I had achieved so much with such minimal planning. I was advised to cook 6 meals a day of 150g Chicken and begin eating only that. This is what is called a de-carb or depletion which aids eliminating any excess water retention from the body. The only other food I was advised to cook was 300g of brown rice for the day of the competition aka Re-carb to fill out the muscles.

6 days of chicken for 6 meals each consisting of 150g + 1 day of 300g Rice

I felt utterly clueless about where to even begin, despite the fact I realistically only had to prepare 2 different foods, was truly overwhelming. I drove to the butcher at La Pepa Food Market who kindly portioned out all 5.4Kilos of poultry into exact 150g measures. He looked at me like I was completely insane when a refused to accept a portion that weighed an extra 2grams.  (I was inexperienced, and have weird OCD with certain things therefore wanted everything to be exact)

Back home I filled every saucepan I could find & began to boil all of the meat, which I did one portion at a time; likewise for the steamer I was also using. Retrospectively it would not have been difficult to place 2 - 3 rations of chicken in pot, but I just wasn´t sure. Also like an idiot, I didn’t think to place the rice on to boil / in the steamer first as it has by far the longest cooking time.
The kitchen looked like a total state (rubbish-tip accurately describes the scene except replace the word rubbish with a curse word beginning with S) during this process -Tupperware, freezer bags & foil everywhere.

This initial food prep took close to 3 hours for me to complete (excluding washing up), whereas now for similar quantities & more ingredients it takes just under an hour including cleaning up afterwards.

Top Tip: Invest in a set of food scales as your number one priority before you take on any kind of larger scale food preparation. Before this I used to guesstimate portion sizes eg: 1 chicken breast + X amount of this + Y quantity of that; or measure rough portion sizes using cup measurements

Spaghetti Bolognese

This was my first ever attempt at Spaghetti Bolognese.
About halfway though the week I texted my other half to see what he fancied for dinner, as I was craving some normality in my life instead of takeaways or dining out. He replied “spag bol” – out of all the random food I have created in my existence, really obvious staple dishes have never been in my repertoire. Obviously I know the fundamentals of what ingredients are required & how to cook them, just not as one singular dish.

Ingredients:
450g Mince (I chose beef as I prefer it)
1 Medium Onion (I prefer the flavour of red ones)
2 Cloves Garlic
½ Carrot Grated (not essential)
4 Mushrooms (not essential)

1 Oxo beef stock cube
400g Tinned Tomatoes
“Splash” of Wine (100% essential)
Olive oil to cook with
Grated cheese (use as much as you want – I love cheese!)
Fresh Tagliatelle Pasta (again a personal preference as I dislike dry pasta & shop had no fresh spaghetti – so really I have invented Tag Bol)
Herbs or Spices : salt, pepper, oregano, paprika & basil

Method:

1. After some oil has been heated in a pan, begin cooking the mince until it goes brown

1.5. While this is happening, dice/crush/grate/slice the onion, garlic, carrot & mushrooms.
It is fundamental that unlike me, you do not start crying while chopping the onion, because this will massively delay the entire cooking process & you will probably burn the mince.

2. Calm down, remove the un-burnt mince and place it aside & in the same pan begin to cook the pre chopped ingredients. I have listed them in the order that they should be cooked.

2.5. In the meantime in a large saucepan, heat 400ml water & mix in the Oxo cube, tinned tomatoes & a splash of wine. Definitely do NOT pour in an entire glass just because you reckon it will really add to flavour.

3. Transfer the mince & the now golden brown veg mix into the large saucepan.

4. Reduce the heat & allow to simmer for about 40mins – stirring occasionally.

5. 30mins later begin to boil some water for the pasta to be cooked.
6. Drain the pasta & mix it in with the sauce.
7. Plate up – pasta dishes always taste better eaten from a bowl with added cheese, eat & enjoy

Top tip:
The simmering process works better without the lid on the pan to reduce the liquid from the excess wine. The first ½ of the portion was actually fairly “soup like”. I probably could have simmered the sauce for longer, but I was hungry. The next day it tasted much better as it had thickened up & the flavours had developed properly.

Nutrition :
4 Servings ( which can be frozen & saved for a different day)

Calories : 561
Carbs : 44.3g
Fats: 27.3g
Protein: 30.4

Eating All The Food

After competing I often find myself in a catch 22 situation. I want to eat EVERYTHING, yet I also want to maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle. For about a week after a competition, I will fully indulge in all the food & consume roughly 10,000 calories a day which is mental. (here is a list of everything I consumed that week).

This year was exactly the same, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but by the final day I was craving some sort of normality & reality. I went back to work at my gym after fuelling myself with a regular breakfast (eggs & oats) but by midday I had a sudden panic “what the hell do I eat?”
I settled on Olive Garden Deli which has some really great homemade produce, for a truly delicious poached eggs on bloomer bread with bacon & tomatoes. If you haven´t eaten here, you cannot conceive how generous their portions are. My afternoon snack consisted of a leche leche coffee & a giant cream filled cone which in retrospect wasn´t the best choice however I mentally justified my options with “I haven’t done any exercise in 2 weeks, ergo I am burning it all off” – even though I am well aware this is untrue! My evening meal was equally as epic – Chinese takeaway ½ Peking Duck, seaweed, crispy chili beef & special chow mein; this was shared although I probably shared the most! I also concluded would make a great leftover for my lunch & mid afternoon snack, however I polished it all off at midday.

The next day I decided I will get some “safe” staple snacks from the supermarket : Rice cakes, natural yogurt, prunes, almonds, tuna etc. However, I am exceptionally greedy & managed to rationalize that I could probably eat all of these foods as one “meal” - You cannot justify consuming ALL the food just because it is healthy. Apples are great, but eating a tree´s worth in one sitting is not.
         Knowing that I had a mini weekend holiday booked to round off my week, my mentality settled into the “sod being healthy tomorrow, I’m on holiday!”

This is a vicious cycle that many of us get sucked into. Having great intentions, but not actually putting them into practice, then it is suddenly the weekend where you have decided a little cheat meal / cheat day is in order, ignoring the fact the all week realistically has been one giant cheat week.