Diet to be or not to be

I have continued doing the Mat workout. I think I am doing it better by now, my arms are not killing me the very first 20 seconds anymore, and I can make it through only with 10-12 short 1-2 seconds resting breaks. I like it a lot, it makes me feel alive and living every day. After doing it and taking shower even life seems much better and sunnier. :)

The next question so far is diet: to go for it or not?

I found somewhere that of course Tracy recommends to do the diet for at least the first 30 days - even if one is not interested in significant weight loss.

On the one hand, I am not so interested in the weight loss (or rather I dont really care), but I want to see if the training really works better with the diet...

On the other hand, if I do want to loose some weight, I should really do it proper, as for me it would be difficult to loose much weight: I am already in the "normal wight" category, so loosing those 5-7 kilos, will be extremely hard.

It might add some more stress on me, but hey health starts in the kitchen and if Tracy can get me into a habit of eating more healthy, I can do it!

So, in the end, I decided to try the diet. At least the first 30 days - so I can try several of the Nutrient Boost and Body Reset weeks. Then I will see if it makes too much hustle, or if I simply dont like it, or it is a bit too expensive for me, etc. And again, if I want to truly do it right and get results, I should do it proper.

I will later try to organise all the groceries (TAM webside provides a good groceries list for shopping, but I will need to convert the measures for our European realities), and will post my shopping lists for each week - as long as I am on diet of course. Good that some recipes repeat themselves, so it would be easy to get used to preparing them.

What I need for now - and is on my shopping list to buy:

• Food processor
• Steamer
• Juicer

As I cant afford all this at the same time, I decided to first get an OK-ish food processor - it is essential, the rest is possible with easy appliances (using a little basket to use with pots instead of an electric steamer, and the good old cloth for manual juicing...)

This is the food processor I chose so far: Beem D1000.610 Sensation from Amazon.

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This Instant Pot and I are going to be best friends!

Hi folks!  Earlier this week, on Monday, I received one of two packages I had been waiting for: Lorna Sass Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure.  I had mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that I was looking into getting a pressure cooker and a cookbook to go along with it.  I settled on this cookbook, which was published in 1994, to start my love affair with pressure cooking because...

1.) Chef AJ recommends the book here,
2.) the reviews said that this cookbook is almost completely vegan besides occasional suggested cheese toppings that could be replaced with nutritional yeast if I really wanted,
3.) the reviews said that even non-vegetarians will love (a.k.a. my meat and potatoes husband), and
4.) most reviews raved about their favorite recipe and I wanted to TRY THEM ALL!

After spending most of Monday evening reading soaking up its recipes and tips, and fantasizing about myself with a clean kitchen and an electric pressure cooker quietly and rapidly cooking my delicious healthy food, I hopped onto my computer to check the shipment tracking on the InstantPot IP-DUO60 that I had ordered at the same time as the book.

Amazon said it hadnt even been shipped! :(  I knew it was due to arrive anytime between October 7th to the 10th, but it was the 6th and it hadnt even left the warehouse!?!  Poo poo!

After going back to work on Tuesday (I took Monday off to recover from Leavenworth, and actually ended up with a little cold to nurse), I spent all day thinking about what recipes I wanted to make out of the book and how I wished my Instant Pot would get here sooner!

Around my lunch break on Tuesday, I checked with Amazon again for the tracking.  Hopefully it had left the warehouse by now....  It said "Delivered"!  How on earth that could happen is beyond me, but it was waiting at home for me!  After a few more hours crawled by, I left work to stop at my favorite farmers stand to pick up some produce I would need, and then headed home.

I eagerly unpacked my produce and opened my lovely, large InstantPot package!

First thing I did: read the getting started directions of course, I am a woman!  Then I washed the new parts and started a quick soak on some chickpeas for a soup I was planning on making for dinner.  Normally I pre-soak my beans, but when a pressure cooker is just waiting to be used, a quick soak would have to do.

Little did I know, the pressure cooker also works to quickly quick-soak dried beans.  A normal quick soak involves bringing a pot with dried beans up to a boil for a few minutes, then allowing the beans to stand in the hot water off of the burner for 1 hour, before then cooking the beans for 2+ hours to get them edible.

A quick soak in a pressure cooker combined 1 cup of dried chickpeas (all I needed for the recipe, but it would fit more) with 3 cups of water.  I locked the lid and set the InstantPot to high pressure for 20 minutes, then allowed the pressure to come down naturally.  This took a total of about 35 minutes to quick soak, rather than 1 hour plus.  This step could also be avoided by soaking beans overnight, which I will do from now on, but this night I didnt expect my PC to be here so soon.

(Sorry, I wish I had more pictures of the process to share, but I was just too excited to get started that I forgot to grab my camera.  More pictures will be coming when I get the hang of things!)

While the beans were cooking, I prepped the ingredients for the soup, and even had time to clean up the kitchen.  After draining and rinsing the quick-soaked beans, I filled the pot with all of the ingredients for Lorna Sass Chickpea Soup Italiano.  Set the pot for 16 minutes at high pressure, then allowed the pressure to come down naturally, for a total of around 30 minutes.

During the times the pot was cooking, there were no sounds, no dreaded hissing of the pressure cooker horror stories you may have heard.  There was actually no times that I felt that it felt unsafe, which is a relief.

I had the Chickpea Soup Italiano for dinner that night and it was delicious!  I sent Kevin to work with the leftovers from the half batch the next day. (His pictures arent as pretty as mine would have been ;)).

Chickpea Soup Italiano from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure

After packing away the leftover soup, I made a half batch of Lornas Garlicy Lentil Soup.  Since lentils cook even faster than dried beans, this soup only needed 7 minutes at high pressure, with a natural pressure release.  I found that I needed to add a bit more stock at the end than it had called for, but it made for a nice thick lentil soup.  This was my lunch today and the day before, and the wonderful aroma alone may have convinced a coworker of mine to get the same pressure cooker.

Then, this morning I steamed my breakfast kale in it.  This went super quickly with only 3 minutes at high pressure and a quick release.  No pictures of this, sorry.

As you can tell, Im super giddy about my new pressure cooker.  I may have a bit of an hiatus of creating recipes for the blog as I explore how to use this new wonderful contraption, but I will keep you guys posted on how Im doing through some of my other social media accounts (see top right of blog for links).

Health and Happiness,

Amy

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Laugh laugh laugh be healthy live longer!

My joke of the day: 

My bf is hugging me and slowly starts checking out my bottom. I ask “Anything you like?” (cheeky!) Well he really surprises me then when he says “Mmmm yeah. Before I had to look for your ass, now it is right out there”.

Hmmm if you think I was pleased, you don’t know me :) I was furious… And then he had to explain for about half an hour with the puppy eyes of his that it was meant to be a compliment – of my workouts… You can’t imagine how hard I laughed after that. :)

So, I dont know if you heard, but laughter is good for you! GOOD GOOD GOOD! There is a lot of research on it too - and I mean, being a PhD student, scientific research!

R. Morgan Griffith writes:

We change physiologically when we laugh. We stretch muscles throughout our face and body, our pulse and blood pressure go up, and we breathe faster, sending more oxygen to our tissues. 

People who believe in the benefits of laughter say it can be like a mild workout -- and may offer some of the same advantages as a workout.

"The effects of laughter and exercise are very similar," says [Steve] Wilson. "Combining laughter and movement, like waving your arms, is a great way to boost your heart rate." 

One pioneer in laughter research, William Fry, claimed it took ten minutes on a rowing machine for his heart rate to reach the level it would after just one minute of hearty laughter. 

And laughter appears to burn calories, too. Maciej Buchowski, a researcher from Vanderbilt University, conducted a small study in which he measured the amount of calories expended in laughing. It turned out that 10-15 minutes of laughter burned 50 calories. 

While the results are intriguing, dont be too hasty in ditching that treadmill. One piece of chocolate has about 50 calories; at the rate of 50 calories per hour, losing one pound would require about 12 hours of concentrated laughter!

Source: Give Your Body a Boost - With Laughter. Why, for some, laughter is the bestmedicine.

But then again, it is not exactly certain whether it is just laughter, or also the general optimism and active social life which usually come along with laughter, which are more important.

Laughter, [Robert R.] Provine believes, is part of a larger picture. "Laughter is social, so any health benefits might really come from being close with friends and family, and not the laughter itself." 

In his own research, Provine has found that were thirty times more likely to laugh when were with other people than when were alone. People who laugh a lot may just have a strong connection to the people around them. That in itself might have health benefits. 

Wilson agrees there are limits to what we know about laughters benefits. 

"Laughing more could make you healthier, but we dont know," he tells WebMD. "I certainly wouldnt want people to start laughing more just to avoid dying -- because sooner or later, theyll be disappointed." 

But we all know that laughing, being with friends and family, and being happy can make us feel better and give us a boost -- even though studies may not show why.

Source: Ibid, page 2.

All in all, laughter won’t reverse the death and make us live forever. It is NOT a bad habit though, it might give some positive effects both on our physical and social health – so why not go for it?!

Some links:

• I loved this site on laughter and benefits of it: Laughter is the Best Medicine (you can also see where to start there). And one of the things that anyone can do – is smile. Smile when you workout, smile when you work, smile when you rest. It can NOT be bad for you. :)
• 8 benefits of laughter

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