Looking Ahead

Well as usual i have not been completely focused on this blogging thing. I think because I don't get paid for my 2 cents I don't really take it very seriously. What has happened since my last couple of posts about successful weight loss, strong running and culinary advancement? In a nut shell the following happened:

1) Failure and a lesson in humility. I did not realize I needed some self reflection but this makes you feel as if there is some higher being who understands and knows what you require more than yourself. I plan on writing a post about this so I do not want to give to much away.

2) Physical exploitation envisaged, some of my running goals have been set. I do feel that they are a little ambitious but I shall also highlight them in a future post.

3) advancement of this blog, I've been seriously thinking about adjusting this blog to include all the knowledge, training, farming (yes farming), pictures and possibly making money of this avenue.

4) Recording and taking pictures of all my paleo, natualist, banting, mumbo jumbo eating and cooking exploits. These shall be highlighted weekly and I hope to introduce a video of my cooking.

The third point is what prompted this post on December 1st 2014. I want to hit the ground running in my blogging going into 2015.

Below are the physical markers that I have used so far. They are a little rudimentary but I plan on setting new markers to monitor going into the fifteens.

	Jan	Feb	May	June	July	Sept	Nov
Weight (kg)	82,8	79,2	77,1	77,4	76,6	77,2	73,2
% fat	23,5	20,5	18,6	19,7	20,9	18,9	16,8
Mass fat (kg)	19,5	16,2	14,3	15,2	16,0	14,6	12,3

The numbers are looking very good. I have a adopted a more natural life style and ramped up my training. This is evidenced in the change between Sept and Nov. 

My old man does not approve of this new form. Maybe I'm now half the son I is used to be (start of a song). He is just worried I might be sick with something. You never know this could also be a reason. 

My running club, ACE, are giving me really awesome encouragement and are very inspired (I hope) by my results. The true results are the Comrades marathon and we shall see how my progress is effected. 

I qualified for the 2 demons of south African running, ok ok, 1 demon the other is just a stroll past 2 pretty hills ;). My marathon time was not great but I did qualify. The holes in my game where exposed and I have set about correcting them. I qualified at the beautiful Kaapsehoop marathon but I shall also write a post about that. 

This is my training program for this week. I am looking to possibly entering my first Ironman in 2016. To my loyal readers I hope to service you with more quality posts. Enjoy. Oh! I got a new Vibram five fingers, the Bikila LS, doesn't feel as great yet but I suppose I need to get into it. I got it from rather good website http://thesavage.biz/, enjoy

	Monday	Tuesday	Wed	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Morning	Rest	weights, 1km swim	1km swim, spinning	Rest	Rest	20km	Abs, Swimming Intervals
Evening	10km jog	speed training	Rest	10km Timetrial	Rest	Rest	Rest

Chicken wings

I feel its incredibly stupid to find similar replacement meals once you have embarked on a lifestyle change. Its like we are advocating knock offs, example cauliflower rice just like real rice, paleo rotis which like real rotis except with loads of egg (for clarity the eggs is not the point) etc. We should look to create dishes that suit our lifestyle so that we enjoy our new found creations before famous celebrity buffoons try to hop on the bandwagon to tell how and what we should enjoy. That is what good food is to me. The joy of creating something wonderful and tasty that adds value to my life.

That being said one of my favourite dishes is chicken wings, it was one of those guilty pleasures that I used to enjoy once in a while and then run miles because I had to work them off. Don't get me wrong commercially available chicken wings batter dipped and deep fried it not very good for you. You want reasons I would recommend google.

This recipe that I devised was purely by my own "genius?". Does a similar option exist out there..... definitely, but that is not the point, the idea to make available an easy to generate recipe that just tastes good.

The apparatus used for this product is an air fryer, contrary to this deviously devised name, it is similar to a convection oven. I have not tried it with a convection oven but i'm sure it should work.

Ingredients
4 chicken wings
1 beaten/whisked egg
12 teaspoons desiccated coconut
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon chilly flakes

Method
Combine dry ingredients to form "dip"
Beat egg to form wet mixture
dip wing in egg, dip wet wing, into dry mixture
place wing into air fryer
do that process for all wings
Air fry for 40mins
voila.........tasty "crumbish" chicken wings

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

The year of experimentation is producing some interesting results for me. I have been 1 month into the paleoish/naturalist/high fat (PNHF) diet again, starting in august. You might be wondering why I use the term that has just been introduced ,PNHF, its simple I do not feel like writing that out all the time. If you are wondering why I do not use a generally accepted term like HFLC,  I believe my understanding is still in its infancy and I shall shift to a generally accepted term as I sort out my knowledge base. The progress has been great. The next step would be to conduct tests using a lab, but I am cheap so using a lab is way out of my budget. I might look at a glucometer which can also measure ketones. If you want to know what is the link between my blog and these measurements, I suggest to stop being lazy and Google it. The numbers indicated in the table below show my progress, I think it is fairly self explanatory but there is some commentary after the table.

	1	2	3	4	5	6
	23-Jan	20-Feb	04-May	16-Jun	29-Jul	05-Sep
Weight	82.8	79.2	77.1	77.4	76.6	77.2
Body Fat Percentage	23.5	20.5	18.6	19.7	20.9	18.9
Body Fat	19.5	16.2	14.3	15.2	16.0	14.6
muscle, bone, organs	63.3	63.0	62.8	62.2	60.6	62.6

Things to note are as follows:
measurements 1 - 3, my diet was PNHF, weight and fat steadily decrease and for the first time in my life the body fat percentage is below 20%. muscle etc remains largely in the same range, i.e minimal drop 500g in 2 months.

measurements 3-5, my diet adjusts to the "norm" more carbs less fat, weight decreases (awesome), body fat increases (huh!) I put on 1.7 kg in 3 months and muscle etc content drops by 2.2 kg, what the hell. not happy and I see the benefits of PNHF diet.

measurement 6, latest measurement, I have not been 100% PNHF but closer to 70% on the other hand I am preparing for comrades 2015. The numbers show that I put on 2kg of muscle and lost 1.4 kg of body fat. The overall result is that my weight has increased by 600g.

This is another reason not to let the scale dictate your mood. Verdict the PNHF is working largely in the right direction.

Working out:
My workouts are not excessive mileage on the road but quite abit of cross training. The result is I have time for my other pursuits and I do not spend hours in/on the gym/road/water.

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Morning	rest	heavy weights - 30mins	rest	ads - 30mins	rest	long run (21km or more)	rest
Evening	rest	alternate between weeks hillwork and sprints (1 hour max)	rest	club run - 10km	rest	rest	rest

3 workout days a week and Saturday morning being my

The next question that would not have crossed your mind but should because everybody should think like me (WHAT!), is how is my performance improved. The most exciting thing is that I am enjoying training again (infomercial voice) and I have set personal bests in all running categories so far:
5km - 26:45 (improvement by 1:15)
10km - 55:00 (improvement by 3:55)
15km - 1:28:30 (improvement by 1:30)
21km - 2:06:00 (improvement by 2mins)

Some of my personal bests have not been bettered in about 2-3 years. I would love to attribute it to my diet but I think it has more to do with my running club, ACE, where the new underground moto is "you train with tigers you become a tiger".

Recipe: Chicken, green beans and carrots

My blogging has been particularly un-prolific but I have accumulated a wealth of information that has enabled me to set personal bests in my 10km, 15km and 21km races. The sources of my information are varied and my take or breakdown shall be "hopefully" passed through this medium. One important aspect of my training is eating, and what is "correct" eating is a hugely exothermic discussion. For all trolls who will not agree with my coloured view, I do not give a damn for vitriolic comments (note the type of comments is defined), on a safe note this blog is not nearly popular enough to warrant that sort of disclaimer.

So a small start in my blogging re-endeavour is to give a recipe that is both tasty and can be eaten with a carb (if you swing that way). The prep time for this meal is about an hour if you use a pressure cooker. I love my pressure cooker because you get tender proteins and well blended food. Another plus is to keep the dishes count...... down!

Ingredients:
2 table spoons butter
1 teaspoon garlic
2 teaspoons ginger
2 cardamoms
3 cloves
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons Amin's masala (in house spice blend from a local store Spice and stuff in Richards Bay)
1 chicken with skin cut into suitable pieces (suitable is depended on the chefs taste, I prefer 8 pieces)
3 cups cut and cleaned green beans
2 cups cut and cleaned carrots
1/2 cup water

Method:
Melt butter in pressure cooker (not at high pressure but by simply applying heat)
Insert garlic, ginger, cardamom and cloves into the melted butter and stir till garlic browns
Insert salt and masala and stir till you get a paste
Insert chicken and mix in paste and let cook until the outside of the chicken has been seared or browned
Insert and mix in vegetables and water (green beans and carrots)
Place the pressure cooker lid and set the timer for 25mins on high pressure.
Release pressure by method of choosing and your meal is ready.

This is the finished product, too lazy to crop out the background items. Enjoy

Incremental validation

 

This blog post is both a small bit of good news and a making public what is giving me some success. I hope this will help someone out there.

I took my second set of indicative body data results on the 20 Feb 2014. I am a member of virgin active and use their body measuring apparatus for the results highlighted herewith below:

Date	23-01-2014	20-02-2014	Difference
Weight (kg)	83	79	4
Body Fat (%)	23.5	20.5	3
Fat Weight(kg)	19.5	16.2	3.3
5km time	33 min	28 min	5 min
10km time	1hr 03 min	58 min	5 min
Pull ups (avg)	1.3	1.6	0.3

 

The results highlighted on the table above indicate that my eating(Paleo) and training program have been quite successful. In fact so successful that I am sceptical. I have lost approximately 1kg per week and of that 1kg approximately 825g is fat that is 82.5% fat. That is flipping exciting. This kind of weight loss is what is advocated by telemarketers and what is worse, is that “for them” I have done it with fresh food only.

 A goal of mine is to be able to do muscle ups (google it if you do not know what it is) but that is a long long way off, right now I shall focus on pull ups and the value indicated is without kipping (google for meaning) and is the average of 3 sets. The success that I am over excited about is that the 5km and 10km times are way down, in fact I have not seen these times in 2 years. I was hoping to reach these times in July, this way way ahead of schedule……I am so excited. An improvement of 5mins is just ridiculous.

I shall highlight my training program on Sunday every week so that my readers can use the information for themselves.

	03-Mar-14	04-Mar-14	05-Mar-14	06-Mar-14	07-Mar-14	08-Mar-14	09-Mar-14
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
AMRAP	x	x	Rest	x	Rest	x	x
Morning						10km easy run	13km easy run
Evening	Weight training     4X10 thrusters, 3x max pull ups, 3x10 SS lat pull down & push up	6mins warm up, 5 x 100 sprints		8km Time trial (club run)
AMRAP - as many reps as possible - 50 skips, 30 sec plank, 5 sit ups, 5 ab roll in 5mins
SS - Super set
4x10 means 4 sets of 10 reps allow for 1 min rest in between

 

This week the training is abit more in terms of volume than I would like. I enjoy 4 training days a week. This week we have 5 sessions because we could not fulfil our weight session today. AMRAP is a term from Crossfit and can be completed at any time on the training day. The time limit on the AMRAP is 5 mins and the target is the core/abs.

I shall post my eating for the week once I clear it with my better half. Cooking is something that we do together and we enjoy. I shall over the course of this blog post our recipes and possibly videos on how it is prepared.

Yours in the way forward

Naruto level healing? unexpected side effect

This week so far I have been natural/paleo style eating approximately 90% of the time. I got 2 injuries, in the past 5 days and they are detailed as follows with healing:

Split big toe nail
While running at the ACE club run I kicked a sleeping policeman (Ala top gear) or speed bump (not a speed hump there is a difference). I split my big toe nail and when I took off my vibrams there was quite abit of blood and it did not look too good.

The odd thing is that the nail on my big toe grew faster relative to the rest of my toe nails. Meaning that by Monday I simply clipped off the injured nail and everything was back to normal. Previous experience tells me that this would have at least 7 to 10 days to recover.
Another note I have not taken any medication for the injuries both orally or by ointment.

Blisters
I played squash on  Sunday morning (with "split toe nail"). It had been quite a while ,at least 6 months since I last played, and there were blisters on my thumb and middle finger, very sore, skin peeled and with abit of blood on my racket handle. 24 hours later the blisters were no longer sensitive, and I continued with normal functioning (not even acknowledging the blister) and the skin layer has steadily returned to normal day by day. My experience says that a week healing is required.

Anyway I attribute this healing to my eating habits and on another note my bowel movements are more consistent and I am not as flatulent. As a muslim I need to keep my wudhu (flatulence breaks my wudhu) when I pray and if I am trying to control flatulence, my spiritually is not focused on my prayer but rather my bowel movements. This is a spiritually downlifting process.

Akasia 3 in 1, eating roadblock, planning

Thor and myself participated in the Akasia 3 in 1 race in pta. The traffic before the race is abit much but course itself is relatively flat. We competed in the 10km race. My time improved by virtue of the course being easier than the PWC race but the time range was the same which was 1hr 5mins. My target is to complete 10km in 50mins by year end. This is a good race with good marshals and a lovely chilled atmosphere. I would certainly recommend this marathon especially if you are not bio- mechanically gifted like myself.

My eating this week was terrible. I was traveling for business purposes and I was found snacking on chips, sweets, bread treats really easy plus all the free food on the airplane. My inner indian means that I will not give up on free stuff.i would estimate this weeks paleo time was approximately 60%. Snacking on biltong and macadamia nuts is my solution.

I took some measurements to plot my progress and hope to place the information and progress on a table on this blog.

I formulated an eating plan which I shall post later in a format that is easier to read.

Both myself and Thor are travelling this week so our training will be a little relaxed but when we train the intensity will increase.
Sunday - squash in morning
               - explosive training in the          afternoon
Thursday - club run 8km
Saturday - 10km easy

After our race this past Saturday one of the funny things was over hearing a couple debating the merits of macdonalds vs kfc. The reasons are irrelevant because they both are fried with bread and/or chips and/or coke but they believe they earned this for running. Energy in equals energy out. ...... This simplistic thinking I might address later. The winner was kfc. ......lol