Simple Pleasures

Yesterday in the supermarket I saw something I haven't seen in Singapore before... a perfectly ripe golden peach.  I just had to buy a few.  I spent about five whole minutes standing in front of the peach bin selecting the four best specimens I could find - the locals must have thought I was crazy, smelling each one for ripeness, checking every inch for bruising... oh well!

I ate the first one this morning and it was every bit as good as I was hoping for - delicious!

I think I'm going through a bit of an egg obsession at the moment.  I'm having a poached egg on toast for breakfast almost every morning, and yesterday for a BBQ I took a quiche.  I'm pretty certain that an egg is almost a perfect food, and good to eat which ever way you like it (except raw... too much for me).  I guess an egg a day might be a bit too much, but I'm going with it for the moment.

Apparently my disastrous (but yummy) baking attempt from last weekend has not scared me off using the oven.  This quiche (if I do say so myself, and I do) was a roaring success!  So simple, very few ingredients, so tasty.  I just have to share the recipe.  But as it's pretty much impossible for me to actually stick to a recipe, I made a few changes - which I think made it much healthier.  I used filo pastry instead of puff, yoghurt instead of cream, spinach instead of silverbeet (Swiss chard) and sprinkled parmesan cheese on top at the end.  And put it all in a spring-form tin (easier to remove).  Ok, so I admit the parmesan is not a health benefit...

• INGREDIENTS:
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 large leeks (white and pale green parts only), coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 bunch Swiss chard, ribs removed, leaves chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)

• 1 1/4 cups whipping cream
• 3 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Pinch of ground nutmeg

METHOD:

Roll out pastry on floured work surface to 12-inch square. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 1 inch. Fold under; crimp edges. Cover; chill.

Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add leeks and thyme. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover; cook until leeks are very tender but not brown, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Add chard; saut until wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat; cool.

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 425°F. Whisk cream and next 5 ingredients in large bowl. Mix in cooled leek mixture. Pour filling into crust.

Bake tart 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F and bake until filling is puffed and just set in center, about 15 minutes longer. Transfer to rack; cool 10 minutes.

Progress update from Thursday - 1 kg down for the week!  That makes 1.5kg in total.  Not bad for two weeks!  And weirdly enough it has been easy and fun!  Of course it's incredibly motivating to see the numbers going down, and I know at some stage they will stop.  I'll have to figure out that mental hurdle later.  But for now the small changes in lifestyle are working.

There are a few key things which are making this so much easier (I've been thinking about them).

1. Home cooking - I love to cook healthily anyway, but with the two of us on this bandwagon, we are more motivated to cook at home vs eating out.
2. I have restless tastebuds and love the challenge of a new recipe.  One of my favourite things to do is flick through recipes looking for delicious-sounding ideas for dinner that week/night - my favourites folder on my Epicurious app is so full.
3. Getting enough sleep. Without a doubt a huge contributor.  More sleep - more energy - more likely to exercise/cook dinner/work more efficiently/choose a healthier lunch at work.  I'm not consistent enough yet, but much better than I used to be.
4. Team Effort - I am definitely feeding off my boyfriend's motivation, and it helps, especially in moments of weakness.  Thank you!  :-)

On My Mind

I'm reading a book called The Happiness Project at the moment.  It chronicals the year Gretchen Rubin dedicated to being happy.  Highly highly recommended.

I mention it because a section I was reading this morning affected me profoundly.  It's entitled "Be Gretchen" and talks about realising what it is you love and spending time on that.  Essentially being yourself - sounds simple right?  But what got me was the discussion around identifying the things we all feel we should love, or really wish we loved (for whatever reason), but for some reason we don't.  Once you figure out what those things are, let them go.  Stop trying to make yourself love/like/do things that you just don't like.  You can't change the things you like - you just do.  When I was reading this I realised that there are probably a few things in my life that I do because they are considered fun/important/aspirational by other people and really they don't make me all that happy.  In fact, I'm probably less happy when I do them because I'm frustrated that I don't like them as much as I feel I should.

I think for me this covers a few different angles:

1. The things I feel like I should do/like - from books/movies to career choices
2. The things I do like, but feel I shouldn't (guilty secrets) - like Twilight and Harry Potter novels

So now I'm going to try to work out what these are and try to just let them go... essentially, "Be Rebecca"

Sounds simple right?  We'll see...

The Happiness Project
by Gretchen Rubin

Vibrant and Not So Vibrant

Today was a day of discovery.

Discovery One: I am an efficient fat burning machine (but that I eat too much, hence I'm not as slim as a pin).

...or at least, I'm better than average.

My work has just initiated the Vibrant Living program. A company comes in, they test all of us, personalise a program to improve our health and fitness (read: productivity at work) and then monitor us every four months on progress.  Sounds good so far, especially when you consider we get a heart rate monitor as well!

This morning I had my fitness test - measuring, skin folds (argh!) and fuel efficiency.  Very surprisingly, my fuel efficiency was pretty good (above average), and apparently my most efficient fat burning zone is 81-90 beats per minute.  This for me is equivalent to a casual Sunday stroll, so I'm very surprised.  The woman running the assessment recommended I work out between 120-130 bpm, as I would still apparently be burning fat here, but also have cardiovascular benefits.  Right-e-ho, out the window goes intense interval training then?

But how am I going to train for a half marathon then?  Better ask that question tomorrow when I finish up with  my nutritional assessment.  On the plus side, I got to wear sports gear all day at work today which was a bit of a novelty.


Discovery Two: Miraculous hunger appears from no-where the moment I get home from work.

A tough habit to crack.  When I come home from work I put down my handbag and go straight to the fridge for a pre-dinner snack.  Even when I'm not hungry leaving work, I swear I miraculously become starved the moment I walk in the door.  Why?!  I can't figure it out!  I don't even have a strategy in place to combat it.  Padlocking the fridge seems a bit extreme....


Discovery Three: If I don't exercise in a day, I barely move

I was reading about pedometers yesterday - an intriguing idea.  I bet I barely walk at all during the day: bus to work, desk job, bus home.  Could be interesting/motivating/devastating.

I'm looking forward to getting my heart rate monitor, but am wondering how to incorporate a pedometer into my wardrobe without looking like a complete drop-kick... like those people who wear their phones in little pouches on their belts!


Discovery Four: Celery and Honeydew Melon is not a good juice combo

Due to not being able to eat (or drink coffee) for two hours before my fitness test, I didn't have breakfast.  Breakfast is a major event in my day - breakfast, coffee, news headlines, Facebook perusal... I definitely embrace taking my time in the morning - usually about 90 minutes from out of bed to out the door.  Basically it was all out the window, so I was ready for work in record time.

Anyway, I digress....

Healthy, satisfying breakfast options in the mall where I work are hard to come by, so I opted for a juice.  I read the other day that people should consume more green, so I opted for a vegetable/fruit juice combo - celery and melon.  Hmmmm.... not as bad as beetroot and strawberry (yes, I've tried it), but seriously tasted like I was drinking earth (and I like celery).  Tick on the healthy, miss on the satisfying.  Thank god for ruby grapefruit skewers.

Super Quick But Healthy - Especially for Inspirationless Monday Nights

Short on inspiration for Monday night dinner?  That was me last night so I decided to make the frittata recommended by my bootcamp trainers.

It serves 8, so I halved it to feed myself and one ravenous boyfriend who had spent the entire afternoon building a set of shelves for our kitchen - very hot, sweaty, thirsty work.  Well deserving of an extra portion!

Frittata with Spinach & Leeks

Ingredients 8 large eggs 2 cups egg whites 1/4 cup skim milk 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice 1 cup chopped leeks 1 cup chopped spinach 1/8 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese Instructions 1.  Preheat oven to 180ºC. 2.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, egg whites, milk and lemon juice. 3.  Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Sauté leeks and spinach until tender and season with salt and pepper. 4.  Add cheese and sautéed vegetables to egg mixture and stir until combined. Pour  mixture into a 9" cake pan. 5.  Bake frittata in oven until eggs are cooked and cheese is melted, about 20-30 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool briefly and cut into 8 pieces. Serving Information Makes 8 servings My pan was a little too big for halving the recipe, but it didn't matter as I just doubled the slices up on each other. Just to boost vege intake a little more, I made a salad and some corn on the cob as well - yum! Big benefit of living in Singapore - outdoor dining every day of the year! So far this week: I managed to beat a certain someone TWICE in tennis (although he was pretty tired) I succumbed to sharing a slice of delicious sweet and sour lemon pie after lunch - but stopped at two bites.  It looked so good, I just couldn't say no - and it tasted just as good as I expected.  Why oh why would anyone want to deprive themselves of such delicious goodness is beyond me.  Citrus - such a delicious weakness!

A Weekend of Cakes - Birthday Cake and Pancakes

Yesterday I did something I haven't done for a very long time... I made a birthday cake.  The birthday girl requested something with lemon so there was only one place to turn for inspiration... Epicurious!  I spend so much time on my Epicurious iPhone app.

The goal - a lemon and blueberry cake with lemon cream cheese icing.

Feeling energised after boot camp in the morning, I walked down to the supermarket, bought the ingredients and proceeded to make an absolute mess of the kitchen!  I love cooking - love planning what to eat, when to eat it, shopping for food, preparing dinner... finely slicing onion after a day at work is never a chore.  Baking on the other hand... hmmmm.... baking is a challenge.  There doesn't really seem to be much wriggle room or scope for interpretation of a recipe.  Maybe it's a self-fulfilling prophecy (don't bake therefore avoid it and have no experience to draw on when I need it), but baking my cake yesterday really stressed me out!

Firstly I had to cream the butter and the sugar - pretty simple huh?  I did HomeEc at school... well did you know that you can over beat butter and sugar?  I didn't, until it sort of started to curdle... fine, keep calm and carry on. Slowly add wet and dry ingredients... no problem... until you realise that you not only forgot to add baking powder, but you entirely forgot to buy any at the supermarket in the first place.  Hmmm... now I was certain my cake was going to turn out as dense as a brick.  Oh well, by now it was far too late to turn back, so into the oven it goes.  Absolute worst nightmare.  I thought perhaps liberal application of icing might partially hide my woeful baking attempt - and serving the cake late in the evening when everyone had a few drinks under their belts...  Fortunately, the end result was that the cake was very tasty - stodgy, but tasty.  And the birthday girl was happy, which is the main thing right?

I did learn one useful thing - if you don't have cream cheese you can drain yoghurt through a cheese cloth in the fridge for a couple of hours and use that instead.  Actually, I almost think it's better than using cream cheese in the first place - tastes just as good, but not as rich.

The birthday party was a great night.  Being a Chilean birthday there was copious quantities of pisco on offer - yum!!  I love pisco.  It's so refreshing and scarily easy to drink.  Needless to say I had a stonking headache this morning when I woke up.  Being hung over in the tropics is not good - not good at all - but the best thing for a hangover is my boyfriend's pancakes!  So back into the kitchen I went to whip up some pancakes.  They're very simple, very thin and taste great with lemon juice and a little sugar.

Perfect Pancakes
Two eggs, four super heaped breakfast spoons of flour, pinch of salt, about 300ml milk.
Beat all together in a large bowl, slosh in more milk until a runny consistency.
Squeeze lemon and sprinkle sugar on top.
Enjoy with a hot coffee.

I knew Saturday night was going to be a big night drinking, so I made sure I went to boot camp in the morning.  Group fitness is so motivating - sharing the pain perhaps?  I know I would never ever push myself as hard if I was exercising by myself.  Today I feel like I've been run over by a bus - I ache everywhere!  To be expected, as it was my first session back from holidays.  It is a satisfying pain though... how masochistic!

Next week I am putting together my training schedule for running.  It's going to be a bit of a jigsaw puzzle I think, fitting around Dutch lessons, boot camp and work evening conference calls.

Off now to plan what I'm cooking this week - lots of light meals to atone for the copious consumption of pisco.

And of course, there's nothing better on a Sunday night than stretching out on the sofa watching a movie.

That Sweet Treat Craving

The sweet treat is my ultimate weakness.  It strikes at random, but mostly straight after lunch or dinner and it is very very hard to resist.

I managed to resist it on Monday and Tuesday, but on Wednesday some one ordered a slice of cake after lunch and I had to have a mouthful or three (cream cheese icing - how do you say no?!).  And on Thursday there was chocolate in the house (85% dark chocolate - my favourite).  I meant only to have a piece of two, but before I knew it six had been gobbled!

So I think the sweet treat craving needs a new approach.  I've been keeping a food diary over the last two weeks, and I notice that I always crave a sweet treat after Japanese for lunch (which I have fairly often).  Maybe it has something to do with the salty soy sauce?  Those sweet treat cravings I will try to resist, because I'm not hungry and I know they'll go away after about 30 mins.

After dinner sweet treats are tougher.  We're in the habit of buying seedless grapes and freezing them (excellent tip from a friend in my book club).  They are an excellent sweet treat after dinner because they're so cold you can't eat them quickly (no gobbling) and you have to hold them in your mouth to defrost a little bit, and then when you can bite them they are a delicious grape sorbet - yum!

Chocolate (and licorice) is always going to be a struggle for me I think.  They just taste soooo good, and its just as easy to gobble down blocks of two as it is blocks of one, and before you know it you're rubbing your aching tummy feeling sick.  I'm going to try to break them up into smaller pieces before eating.  Perhaps psychologically it will feel like I'm eating more than I am?  And try to savour them instead of gobbling.  Emphasis on the 'try'.

This week we have a new addition to our household - something that has been eagerly talked about for the past nine months....

New favourite toy - Nespresso goodness!

I love coffee, and I'm having so much fun trying all the flavours out.

Did you know:

1. The intensity of the flavour is to do with the roasting and nothing to do with the amount of caffine?
2. That decaf coffee still has caffine in it?  Decaf coffee (by definition) must be 97% caffine-free

This weekend is going to pose a challenge - lots of socialising (eating and drinking) and a birthday party on Saturday night.   Haven't worked out how I'm going to tackle that one yet - one thing is for sure, I won't be skipping boot camp on Saturday morning!


Oh, and official weigh-in on Thursday mornings showed a 1/2kg weight loss this week.  Might seem like a small amount to some, but it's actually ahead of plan and apparently healthy weight loss is 1/2kg per week anyway... our scales only measure to the nearest 0.5kg and I swear the scales teetered on rounding me down - so close!  Oh well, motivation for another weeks work of sweet treat resistance!

In Search of a Goal

So I'm breaking my rule of three years - to never do another half marathon!  I've done three half marathons now, and after each one I've been put off running for about six months.  After the third one I vowed and declared that I would never do another one again.  Period.

In hindsight I think I started training for each of them way too late, and so training was intense and concentrated, which meant that I was thoroughly sick of running and the time commitment about one month before the actual race!

This time I've decided to approach it differently.  As my running base is approximately zero right now, I'm going to aim to complete a 10km race by the middle of the year, and then sign up for the Angkor Wat International Half Marathon on 4th December in Cambodia.  I have a couple of friends who ran it last year and apparently it's a pretty magic place to run through (the scenery distracts from the pain...?), plus I have always wanted to go there.  Definitely a two birds with one stone goal!

Apparently this is the start/finish bridge

So today I started looking at training programs.  The challenge for me will be easing into it.  Usually I go hell for leather for a couple of weeks and then crash through exhaustion/over commitment/boredom.  This time I'll be balancing boot camp (Saturday mornings) and netball games (Wednesday nights) so need to make sure I have rest days around that.

Anyway, having something to get me outside, moving will be a much more positive experience than aiming for digital numbers on my scales.


Over the past two weeks my exercise has been based around walking (with a tennis game thrown in for good measure).  The temperature in Singapore has been a lovely 25 degrees in the mornings, so I've walked to and from work a couple of times.  These obviously aren't strenuous periods of exercise, but my aim is to introduce as much incremental exercise into my day as possible as the rest of the time I sit at a desk.  It won't be long until the temperature and humidity starts to climb back up to the usual 32 degrees, so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

On Sunday we went for a two hour walk around MacRitchie Reservoir.  My shoes got a little bit muddy... it's about as 'off trail' as it gets in Singapore.  I'll need to do a few more of these longer walks before trying to tackle Mount Kinabalu in Borneo!  The reservoir has heaps of monkeys which hang around hoping you'll feed them - quite often you walk passed them right up close!

This photo isn't even zoomed in!

 One of the best things about this new journey is experimenting with fabulous new recipes.  This week I cooked rosemary and orange marinated tuna kebabs on Monday night - delicious!  Although tuna steaks are prohibitively expensive, so sadly I don't think I'll be repeating this recipe weekly.

On Tuesday nights I have a Dutch lesson with two friends, one of which is vegetarian.  What an opportunity to flex my creative culinary muscles!  So I cooked a 'risotto' of quinoa with mushrooms and thyme, and served it with a big green salad and a simple tomato salad.  Feedback was very positive... but they could have just been polite :-)

I was in a big grump when I got home from work today - I just HAD to have a G&T.  Did you know... that a can of tonic water has the same amount of sugar as a can of coke?  Apparently you can get naturally low calorie tonic (rather than hideous diet tonic - yuck!).  I must try to find it in Singapore.


Over the last two days:

I'm proud of myself for... resisting an ENORMOUS sweet treat craving yesterday straight after lunch.  I held out until 3pm then went to the supermarket and bought some blueberries instead.  Whew!

I need to be better at... going to bed early so I can have eight hours of sleep.

How do you beat a mezze platter?

Every month or so a group of girlfriends get together to drink wine and have a good catch up under the guise of book club (usually books get discussed for about 20 mins... max).  Friday night was the first book club of the new year and dinner was a feast of a mezze platter... hummus, cheese, olives, rocket, baba ganush, rice crackers, ciabatta.... delish!  Absolutely delicious, but also my complete undoing.

This delicious image isn't our mezze platter, but looks almost as good.

Note to self: take photos of fabulous feasts of mezze platters and the like to share here

After a week of very healthy living, restraint/portion control went right out the window when this collection of fabulous dishes was placed on the table.  I find it impossible to stop (my mouth is watering now just remembering it!), even when I know I'm starting to get full, as everything looks and tastes so good!  And there's always the "oh just one more bite" moment which turns into five more bites.  So naturally when I got home that night I was chock-a-block full to the brim (you know the kind when you just want to lie on the floor and rub your belly?).

So how do you beat a mezze platter?

I'm going to try to employ a delay tactic.  Instead of rushing in and tasting everything, I'm going to try to sample more slowly and consciously (very hard to focus with such enthusiastic conversation going on around you), and hope that although I will be eating for the same amount of time, the volume will be less.  I tried this out with dim sum on Saturday at lunch time and it seemed to work...

Upsides for the week:

• I am proud of myself for savouring my three glasses of New Zealand pinot.  I would usually have four... or five!  Baby steps, baby steps.
• Great two hour walk around MacRitchie Reservoir today (about 15km maybe?)
• Four delicious and healthy home-cooked meals (two by me).  Cooking after work is such a great way to relax...doing the dishes, not so much.

P.S. We are watching Band of Brothers at the moment - especially poignant after visiting Omaha Beach (Normandy, France) between Christmas and New Year.  If you haven't seen it, you definitely should.

P.P.S. In case anyone is interested, book club books for the next three months are:

1. Room by Emma Donoghue (read this over holidays, short-listed for Man Booker, really really good)
2. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
3. Nourishment by Gerard Woodward

Why am I doing this??!!

Why oh why am I doing this?  A question I have asked myself about a hundred times over the last week as I contemplated starting this blog.

Primarily it's because of accountability.  People (who are these 'people'?) say that if you have a goal you should tell as many people as possible about it because then you are more likely to follow through and achieve that goal.  Whether this is due to being constantly reminded, fear of failure, guilt... who cares?  As long as you achieve it right?  Well, I figure that if I post my journey on the internet, the potential is there for a hell of a lot of motivation.

So what's my goal?  My goal is to lose 10kg in one year.

Yes, I know that a zillion people all around the world are making similar pledges this January after the Christmas/New Year celebrations, and I am one of them.  I have been one of them off and on for many years but many reasons have never stuck to it.  I intend to change that now.

My goal is also to achieve this without dieting (I hate diets) and without having to sacrifice living my life the way I want to.  The thought of giving up chilled glasses of chardonnay is horrible, as is social weekend brunches and dinners with friends.  So I'm setting my mind to a series of lifestyle changes and this blog will be about that journey (and anything else which crops up along the way!).

So here goes....