Back to Paleo

I am often asked about my own diet (people want to know I am human and eat foods I shouldn't to make them feel better!), and yes, I do eat chocolate every day (we all have our vices), but it's about balance and moderation in all things, and knowing what may be doing you harm.  So if I thought that something I was eating was causing me bloating, bad skin or upsetting my digestion for example, I would stop eating it - I want to feel the best I can all the time.
I think a lot of the time people have forgotten what it feels like to be 100% well and full of energy, and you may not realise that some foods are affecting you.  I have had a client recently who gave up gluten (I suggested this to her, as she was having some digestion problems), and she lost 4 cm around her waist, without losing any weight - she had been bloated from her intake of wheat that didn't agree with her, without her realising.
And this is what the Paleo diet is so good for - it cuts out all the man-made foods that may cause intolerances, and focuses on the nature-made foods that your body should recognise and know how to digest and extract nutrients from.
And the great thing about the Paleo diet is that you can maintain it for life.  Infact I really don't like calling it a diet as this assumes you will 'go on' the diet and at some stage 'go off' the diet.  If you can't maintain a new eating regime for at least 10 years (or life) then it's not really worth starting.
So what is Paleo?  It's going back to the diet we think paleolithic man (cavemen) would have eaten - anything they could have caught or foraged for - grass-fed meat, wild fish, eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables.  This means no grains, dairy, legumes or pulses (all of which may cause digestive problems).
Of course we are unlikely to go hunting and foraging, and buying all organic ingredients can be expensive, but every little bit you can do to aim to eat as naturally as possible is a step closer to a healthy you.
Today sees the launch of the Paleo aisle in Ocado's online store - with me as its' expert, so if you have any questions do get in touch.
Here is one of the recipes from my latest Paleo book - 

Summer Frittata

A great protein-rich meal that can be served for breakfast, brunch or lunch, or could also be made to take on a picnic or to work in a lunch-box.

Serves 4

 

Prep time:  16 minutes

Cooking time:  29-34 minutes

350 g sweet potato

2 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, peeled and chopped

1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced

125 g fresh or frozen peas

1 tbsp chopped mint

1 tbsp snipped chives

seasoning

7 medium eggs

·         Cook the sweet potato in a pan of boiling water for 8 minutes, until just tender.  Drain.

·         Heat half the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion with the sweet potato and red peppers for 5-6 minutes.  Add the peas and cook for one minute more.

·         Beat the eggs in a large bowl, pour in the vegetables and mix well.  Season and stir in the herbs.

·         Heat the remaining oil in the same frying pan and pour the egg and vegetables back into the pan.  Preheat the grill to hot.

·         Cook over a low heat for 15 -18 minutes, until the bottom of the tortilla is golden.

·         Finish cooking under the grill for 6-8 minutes, until golden on top.

·         Leave the tortilla to stand for a minute then run a knife around the edge of the pan, place a plate or board on top and turn over to remove from the pan.

·         Cut into wedges to serve.

Exciting times.......

I never thought talking about what I do was important when I am helping others to achieve their goals, but having recently talked to a business coach about my new and exciting venture, I was told that without a shadow of a doubt I should be talking about myself, as I practice what I preach!
So here it is - I've just won the British Rowing Masters Championships single sculling for my age group (no, I'm not letting on what that is!!).  What is interesting is that I wasn't feeling too good on the day, with a chesty cough and no voice.  I am constantly telling athletes not to train or race when not 100% fit (I still stand by this with regards to training). But as I was there I thought I may as well do it anyway!  The interesting bit was that, as I wasn't feeling as fit as I should have been I decided to pace myself much more, hoping that I would be able to breathe for the whole race, instead of going out too strong and not being able to hold on - and this taught me a valuable lesson about how important it is to work to your strengths (which in my case that day was strong legs and not much in my lungs).  And ensuring every part of you is as healthy as it possibly can be through good nutrition is hugely important in that situation.
I am constantly asked by athletes what they should be eating for breakfast, before training, between races etc., and I know how much of a minefield it can be, especially as we now have the great internet with so much false information to sift through too!  So, to help answer your questions and help you achieve your goals, I am setting up Sports Nutrition Workshops that will include great food (cooked by me and eaten by you), plus loads of great advice about eating around your sport.

A newsletter will be sent out to everyone in advance of the workshops being launched, with a new website and lots of other exciting things to come, so keep watching this space, and get in touch if you think your club or team would like to learn how to cook great, nutritious food to help them win!

Introduce some Juice!

Interestingly after my last post a few people have asked me about juicing and the whole 'too much sugar' in fruit juices debate.  So I will explain what it is about juicing that is so great (yes I'm still doing it every day and loving all the weird and wonderful concoctions I come up with - no two juices are ever the same!).
Hopefully you will recall that the government recently told us we need to be eating 7 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.  Well I love my fruit and veg, but even I would struggle to fit that amount in - both physically and time-wise, so juicing is the next best option.
But you're leaving all the fibre behind I hear you say?  If you have at least 5 of your fruit and veg a day, plus other foods that are rich in fibre - beans, pulses, oats, chia seeds, linseeds etc, you will reach the recommended intake of 18g per day.
What juicing provides is the micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and enzymes) that are needed everyday for all your bodily systems to function optimally, and would you rather get these from a tasty glass of juice or have to steam 2 kilos of kale and chew your way through it?
The other great thing about juices is that you can add other ingredients, depending on what nutrients you want a boost of - stir in a teaspoon of avocado oil for an essential fat boost, or maybe half a teaspoon of wheatgrass powder to make your green juice super-green!
As for the sugar content of the juices you make, I would suggest sticking to my 80:20 rule - 80% of the juice is vegetable and 20% fruit - or no fruit at all if you like less sweet juices - you will be amazed how sweet vegetables such as carrots or parsnips are.  And be brave, you can juice pretty much anything - even potatoes (which are great for healthy skin)!

Happy Juicing!

Joy x

Preserving months........

I can't believe it has been so long since my last writing - where has the start of the year gone?  Well in my case it has been 'preserved'.  I've spent the last 2 months working on a great project with the lovely Thane Prince, testing recipes for her latest book 'Perfect Preserves', which comes out in July to coincide with her judging of 'The Great Allotment Challenge'.
I've never really been into preserving, it always seemed like such a lot of work for not much of a result - certainly tales from friends who spent hours slicing citrus fruit skins or watching a rolling boil, didn't inspire me to join in.  But then I started making the most wonderful curds, marmalades and fruit butters, and I was hooked - the beautiful colours, creamy textures, jewel-like jellies - and the smell every time I re-entered the house, was bliss.  That is, until I started on the pickles, chutneys and relishes, and then the smell was of vinegar - lots of scented candles were required for those few weeks!
But one of the best things about making preserves is giving them to friends - the delight on their faces of being given something that you have slaved over and they know will taste so much better than anything they can buy - it was worth all the smells!
So after that I was relieved to escape to Bordeaux for a week of rowing training, on a stunning lake on the outskirts of Libourne.  With a perfectly flat lake for the whole week, we managed to get our scheduled 36km done every day.  A lot of mileage, but good for getting fit if only we had been given food that could sustain us for that amount of exercise.  You'd think wouldn't you, that being in France would be a certainty of at least getting great food.  But no, we were being catered for by a training school whose idea of a balance meal was for everything to be the same colour (mostly beige), and not a fresh green vegetable was spotted all week!
The only time we escaped training we headed off to the pretty nearby town of St Emilion, a place known not only for its' great wine, but also it's light but chewy, delicious macaroons!  Clearly this did not improve our diet much either!
So now I've returned home I am in desperate need for some micro-nutrients!  

The juicer is out of the cupboard and I have bought every green vegetable that is on offer!  I can feel my body soaking up the vitamins as I write!  If you need inspiration to get into juicing then you need to watch 'Fat, sick and nearly dead' - hopefully it will kick-start you into a new healthy regime too.

Cycling the Backroads of Sri Lanka

As usual, I found the need to escape the English winter just as all the Christmas festivities came to head, and on Christmas Day I headed off to explore Sri Lanka by bike.  If you want to feel, smell, and be part of a country, being on a bike is pretty good way to do it.
The only downside of course is the energy required!  And when climbing some of the steep hills through the tea plantation area, I did struggle to remain polite with all the locals who called 'Good Morning' - all my energy was required for getting up the hill.  But then I remembered something that Dame Kelly Holmes talked about at the ISENC - she said that when in training her coach had told her to chat with her colleagues while she was running, so that when she was running alone in competition 'all of her oxygen would be her own' - needless to say I made it up all the hills!
My trip started in Columbo, staying with a lovely friend who was so inspired with Sri Lanka that she now imports her own delicious Kandula Tea.  As it was still the party season we spent a lot of time eating out and trying lots of great new dishes, one of which I had quite a few times at Columbo Swimming Club, and have already tried at home - devilled cashews.  Cashews are grown in Sri Lanka so are on the menu a lot, although they are not cheap even there.
After the madness of Columbo setting off to the countryside was heaven - cycling along tiny tracks and country roads, with only the odd tuk tuk or motorbike passing us, and the occasional dog chasing us for a bite at an ankle (which thankfully they never got!).
And when we got hungry we stopped at the small cafes for a bit of local food - string hoppers steamed with coconut and brown sugar were a favourite, as were homemade spicy lentil patties and vegetable samosas (and their idea of spicy is pretty hot!).
The main dinner offering in most places is a Sri Lankan buffet - don't be fooled, this is not a few salads and nibbles, this is a full buffet of at least 7-8 curry dishes, with soups, salads, sambals (spicy coconut side-dish), poppadoms, rotis, 2-3 types of rice, plus a host of other dishes we were too scared to try!  At the beginning we all made the most of the abundance of food on offer -  we figured we were using up so many calories on the bike each day.  After the first week we all realised that the eating had overtaken the cycling and we were now on a 'buffet tour' of Sri Lanka!  So it was time to reign in and be sensible, which for me just meant reverting back to Paleo rules and cutting out a few things, one of which was rice.  This caused lots of concern to the locals who don't believe you can eat curry without it!  And obviously it's their main crop and a staple of their own diets.  But for me it did the trick, I have returned without the excess buffet weight!


Devilled Cashews

Serves 4

4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
200 g raw cashew nuts
small handful curry leaves
1-2 tsp chilli powder
salt and pepper

Heat the oil until smoking hot.
Add the shallots and cashew nuts and cook until golden.
Add the curry leaves and cook until crisp.
Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
Mix together the chilli powder and seasoning and toss the nuts in the mixture.
Leave to cool slightly before serving.



After staying with friends over the holiday period and talking a lot about food, nutrition and health, it made me realise how much I assume people know about nutrition and their bodies.
So over the next few months I hope to write about nutrition basics, and how you really can affect your health, both now and in the future.  
If there are any subjects you would like me to cover just drop me a comment and I will do my best to accommodate.

Healthy, Happy Eating,

Joy x

Christmas is coming.......

In my food-styling work, Christmas starts around May-June, and continues up until December (for those weeklies or dailies that run last-minute food stories), so by the time Christmas really is here I've had enough!
And whilst everyone else is planning all the naughty food and drink they are about to indulge in, I'm normally trying to get myself fit for another cycling trip somewhere warm - this year is no exception.
But before I whizz off I've been working on the second of two books due out early next year.  The first - The Paleo Diet Made Easy is out on 6th January, with a follow-up full-colour Paleo book due in May, just in time for the spring detox season!
So, needless to say, I've been experimenting with some new recipes, and loving eating such a great, clean diet (and have kept trimmer and fitter than I've ever been before) - good to know that it works!
The great thing about eating the Paleo way (think caveman - no processed food, only foods you can hunt, fish or gather), is that it is so simple, and once you get rid of all the other stuff you really don't crave it.  Tonight I craved a plate of steamed broccoli, carrots and sprouts, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and pepper - how mad is that?  It was delicious.
Obviously I've been doing my usual experimenting with new ingredients too, and recently had to put together some recipes for The Chia Co, using their chia seeds and oil - great sources of omega-3 fats and fibre.
Always one for a great pudding, I came up with one of the simplest yet - assorted berries and chia seeds make a perfect mousse (chia seeds tend to thicken liquids into a gel-like substance) - just place them all in a blender and blend until smooth then chill until ready to serve.  If you really want a little extra sweetness you can add a tsp or two of honey, but after a few weeks of eating Paleo you probably won't even want that.
So this is probably my last blog post of the year - I'm heading off to cycle around the hills and tea plantations of Sri Lanka over Christmas and January.  I  hope to return with lots more recipe ideas for you to try in 2014!

Happy Christmas and Happy Healthy Eating.

Joy x

Winter Comfort

So this week we have been told, we will be seeing the real start of winter - not a very cheering prospect.  But it happens every year, so we should be used to it.  And as the great Ranulph Fiennes once said "There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing"....so get your thick vests out!
Much the same also applies to food.  We were having a discussion this week about how, in the winter, you really fancy comforting foods.  One person described it as 'stodgy' food - think of those great steamed puddings, or meat pies - that is certainly comforting.
But equally comforting, and possibly more nutritious, are great colourful stews and curries.  Just because it's winter doesn't mean we have to leave the bright colours of summer behind.  Going back to the clothing theme, it's interesting how all the clothes available to buy in the winter are devoid of colour - why?  When surely we want to brighten the dreary days?
So forget the beige and brown puddings and pies and pile on the colourful veg!
Adding spices to your food also adds heat, so you are warming yourself from the inside, as well as getting other great benefits from these foods, for example - ginger (anti-inflammatory), garlic (anti-oxidant), turmeric (anti-inflammatory), black pepper (rich in minerals) - the list is endless.
So even though this recipe uses a ready-made sauce for convenience, I still add lots of other spices to improve it.  Or you could make your own sauce completely from scratch.


Vegetable Thai Curry

Serves 2-3

2 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
3cm piece root ginger, peeled and diced
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
1 red pepper, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp red Thai curry paste
1 x 400 ml can coconut milk
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
5 stems of tenderstem broccoli, halved
small handful green beans, halved
6 cherry tomatoes, halved 
3 tbsp almond flakes, toasted

Heat the coconut oil in a wok or large frying and and cook the seeds for 2-3 minutes, until the mustard seeds start to 'pop'.
Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute.
Add the onion and pepper and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes before stirring in the curry paste and cooking for a further minute.
Pour in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer.
Add the vegetables, then simmer for 8-12 minutes, until the sweet potato is tender.
Serve with cooked quinoa or rice and sprinkle with the toasted flaked almonds.