TLC: Trust, Love, Consistency

As a belated thanksgiving recipe from the far side of the pond I offer my protein pumpkin pie recipe.
It’s crustless, but you could use a thin layer of filo if you wanted a bit of pastry action.

Ingredients
1 egg
2 egg whites
1/2 cup splenda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
100g (1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon) canned pumpkin
120g (4 scoops) vanilla protein powder

serves 4
Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF
In a blender, place the splenda, eggs and salt and blend until foamy. Add in the remaining ingredients and blend until combined.
Poor into 4 silicon muffin moulds and bake for about 20 minutes or until firm.

Nutrition
196 Cals
2.4g fat
27.3g Protein
17.5g Carbs
2.1g fibre
4g sugar

Tips
In Australia, David Jones’ Food Glorious Food sells canned pumpkin, as does USA foods (online or Moorabin, Vic).
To make your own you will need 400g (peeled weight) of Jap or Qld Blue, microwaved for about 10 minutes on med-high then pureed in the blender.

That’s my boy. He could do that for hours. He has no interest in food, all he wants to do is run, play games and cuddle.

I’ve been reading a lot about CNS recovery so I thought this was particularly interesting.

One of the best and easiest ways to see if your nervous system is primed for a top-notch performance is to perform a vertical jump prior to every workout.

Start by testing yourself in a normal, well-rested state, ideally three to five days after CNS-intensive training. This will be your base value.

Test yourself prior to every workout, and if your test goes up two or more inches all of a sudden, your CNS is ready to rock. This day is a good time to include a lot of heavy lifting (even going for a one or three-rep max) or explosive training.

If your test goes down two to four inches, then it’s best to lower the amount of CNS-intensive training, opting for less draining methods.

If your test goes down more than four inches, go home and forget about the gym for a few days.

If your test score is within one or two inches of your regular score, proceed with your regular workout.

read full article

A few ladies have been blogging about carbs and how they find they steam-roll their diet. On first reading, I tended to have similar feelings. In response, another blogger posted this was all baloney, that good low-gi carbs couldn’t set you off course and that they were vital to function. I felt torn between both ideas and decided to put a bit of self-experimentation together.

Lately, I’ve been trying to stick to my blood type diet and include as many of the ‘beneficial’ foods as possible. This means regular potato and any form of wheat are out, and oats, spelt and rice sit somewhere in ’switzerland’ (neutral). Most dairy is also ‘out’. I’m used to this as I gave up dairy while prepping. I also gave up oats for about 8 weeks, I noticed when I added them back (on instruction from the big guy) I’d always get a stuffy/runny nose and they just wouldn’t fill me up and leave me feeling ’snacky’. I’d been wondering why I’d been feeling like I had a head cold most mornings for 6 months, this was it! A biento oats. Sweet potato, adzuki beans and parsnip are just a few of the starchies which get the double-thumbs-up.

After competing I really wanted a few more starchies in my diet. I need them for mood/brain function and to perform better in the gym and in the real world. So I went for a search for starchies which suit me.

For breakfast I’m having a big bowl of red beans (adzuki bean) with splenda, hazelnut milk and a bowl of ground/minced beef/lamb, spinach and hot sauce on the side. Or I just mix in vanilla pp into my beans. The adzuki beans are a bean which is traditionally used in Asian pastries and deserts and is one of my personal favourites so it feels like a real treat every morning. Last night I went to bed excited about my breakfast.

I’m experimenting with having a big whack of starchies early in the day so my second meal is a sweet potato, goat ham (no pork for me), spinach and zucchini fritata. Again I find that, for me, sweet potato is another starchy which fills me up and leaves me craving free. Both the adzuki beans and the sweet potato are on the O-type beneficial list too!

How has my weight been affected? I’m still sitting only 2.5kg (5lb) over my stage weight. My muscles look strong and full and my abs are still smiling back at me in the mirror. Am planning on doing some skins and photos shortly.

What I’m suggesting is that the traditional "go-to’ starchies for figure and bb, such as oats, might not be the ones for you. Whether you believe in the whole blood-type diet or not, I suggest you experiment with a few non-conventional alternatives and you might just find energy, recovery and training, as well as cravings, all take a positive turn.

Kek started this little meme, and I love my kitchen gadgets so I thought I’d play along.

In my kitchen I can’t live without…

My Analon non-stick pans: I was given a wok for Christmas and used it 3 times a day. Stephen then bought me a 2 4-litre saucepans and then after falling in love with them (he’s the official dishwasher of the house) bought 2 28cm fryingpans. These are all awesome and hands down the best non-stick pans I’ve owned.

My cast iron grill pan: It’s a Le Chassuer which means it’s heavy as hell and built to last. I’ve developed a good ’season’ on it now so it’s pretty non-stick and adds great bbq-ey taste to steaks.

Mundial Knife set: Nothing is nicer than nice sharp knives and these babies are the best. I don’t normally buy sets of knives or pans, but this lot is the perfect set. If only I could find where the pairing knife has gone.

Digital scales: Mine are great and accurate to the gram and can easily be switched to imperial units too.

Silicon Bakeware: So easy to clean, my silicon muffin moulds get used most days for meatloaf or pruffins.

Tupperware/gladware: Any bodybuilder knows the tupperware fetish!

Sunbeam StickMaster pro: I’ve got a huge food processor which my Dad gave me for my birthday and it’s great for big jobs. but almost everyday we pull out this mini-food-processor. It’s really just a stick mixer with a small bowl attachment and a whisk attachment. It’s great for sauces, pestos and making mince in the bowl attachment and the whisk attachment takes care of my egg whites perfectly.

Battery powered salt and pepper grinders: They constantly need filling but the convenience of being able to one-handedly grind is awesome.

Our BBQ: It’s not in our kitchen, obviously, but we cook on it most nights in the summer and it’s great for doing big batches of chicken boobs and is where I’m relegated for any fish cookery.

Stephen: Cleaner-upper of all kitchen disasters and non-dishwashable dishes. I love to cook, but I’m also known for abandoning the kitchen in a complete state of disarray.

What kitchen gadgets can’t you live without?

It’s been 10 days since I last set foot in the gym. There’s nothing I’d like to do more than a good hard weights session, but it’s not an option.
I’ve still got the dregs of my cold/flu and my energy levels are almost non-existent. A visit to the chiro yesterday left me feeling a fair bit better this morning but by lunchtime I knew I couldn’t train again today.
I’m taking each day as it comes. If I’ve got the energy I take Kevin for a walk before work, but even this wipes me out. I’ve been keeping my food clean, lean and green and my weight has stayed consistent even after my 10% meals.

All this inactivity and inability to achieve new goals is leaving me in quite a dark headspace and I’m worried that I’m sleeping too much and am actually making my energy levels worse.

I noticed I’d totally dropped off my water intake so I’m trying to get that back up above 4L again. In addition, there’s lots of glutamine and fish oils with every meal and I’ve got some fancy herbal medicine from the chiro which I’m hoping will help.

I’m open to any suggestions from people as how to get out of this hole. All I want to do is get back in the gym and get on with my life!