Running in the rain!

Today I was supposed to go running and also take a few pictures of warm up, the process running itself and the stregth training at the end. Well, since we are living in Ireland of course it started pissing raining! We tried to take a few pictures anyway, and I was getting instructions like "stay in the squat/holding leg up in the air/push up position and I'll take these pictures". Yeah right. :D  So much fun holding a squat for 5 minutes lol 

So I will make a proper post about this later, when it's sunshine and I'm frolicing around the green. But for now you'll be getting a little bit of some everyday "glamour" ;) At least I'm not some polished fitness model doing push ups in a perfect yoga studio, smiling away and saying how easy and painless it is. All the toughest ones run in the rain with sweaty and red faces, in a proper Rambo style! 

*Diabetes Edit*

When I left at 3.45pm my blood sugar was 6.6. I ate 70gr of rye bread (with some spread and salami) and didn't take any insulin because I was afraid it would lower my sugar too much. The bread had 24r of carbs. My exercise took about 40 min. After that I went to the store so was at home at 4.30, and my bs was 13.7 (which is also my birthday date, lol). I wonder why my bs didn't go lower during the exercise? I know the high point of insulin effectiveness is after 90 min. But also that exercising boosts the effect of insulin. So if I took some insulin would my sugar have stayed steady? I'm just so afraid to take insulin before exercise! It freaks me out thinking possibly getting a low in the middle of nowhere in the running path.. (has happened before too). Maybe the adrenaline kicked in during the run. It was intervals after all. Ahh SO HARD to predict these things sometimes!! #frustration

WARM UP

• Roll your arms in front 5x, and back 5x
• Reach down to the ground and bounce back up and stretch your back. Keep fast-ish tempo.Keep breathing steady. 5 x 
• Elbows to the sides and swing from left to right while keeping your pelvis steady. This opens you back. 8 x 
• Lift your knee up and make circles with your leg (from toes to knee), first to right 5 x then left 5x then kick it straight front 5 x 
• Lift knee up in front and roll your leg from front to back opening your hips . 5 x / leg
• Stretch calves 10sec per leg
• Stretch thighs 10sec per leg
• Stretch hip flexor 10sec per leg

RUNNING

Today it felt like I wanted to kick myself a bit. I've been just sitting on the computer for a few days working on random things. (like this blog) So I started to do an interval running. In the amazing Runtastic-app you have ready made interval exercises, or you can create your own one. Love it! So I did 10 warmup running, then 1min fast - 1min normal for 5 x. For finish 7min normal slowish running. For anyone interested in some facts, my max speed was 15,3kph, and average speed 9,0kph. So a mediocre level I suppose. With my skinny legs I don't really match for 100m winner but am more suitable for long steady pace runs. Explosive power is something I have really had to work on, especially in Irish Dancing. When you look at your average Irish dancer they're all like little duracell bunnies half of my height ;)  

STRENGTH TRAINING 

• 20 squats, all the way down / as low as you can go. Fast speed. My own achilles tendons are quite short so I have to do a lot of effort to get down and also come up from the squat!
• 20 x squat + kick. When you come up straight fast kick in front.  
• 20 push ups. Use a bench or anything you can lean on. 
• 20 dips. Gwan push it that's the way to get rid of the floppy arms we all hate! 
• Sitting on the wall. The tighs are screaming for help! Hold for 30sec. --> l started to do this and after 5 seconds my thighs were in flames! I cried to bf "how long can anyone realistically hold this, like 30 secs?!". He was like "oh, no a minute, at least!". Yeah RIGHT! Maybe if you're a man, and have an amazing physique like he does :D :PPP
• 20 x leg raises (for the abs). Lie on a bench and lift your legs up straight. (Sorry no image)
• 20 x Sit ups. Your basic abs. Fast pace and come up as much as you can! (Again sorry no picture). 

Squat

Squat + kick

Push up

Dip

Sitting on the wall. You can see from my face it's tough..

Wohoo a happy fitness model is giving a thumbs up for this super exercise, it's so easy and effortles!

For f**k sake how much longer?? :D

Stretches:
Calves, thighs, hip flexors, chest. Didn't feel like standing in the rain any longer :P  

The workout had made my head a little bit soft, and I wondered off to the kilkenny castle grounds thinking I was a faire maiden living in the castle.. ;) 

Pan cakes, SWEET pancakes!

Now we're at my favorite topic! Pan cakes! Pan cakes are über fashionable in the fitness world at the moment. They're even selling protein pan cake mix in a bag. I'm sure they're grand and ok, but I haven't tried them yet. Usually there is always some semi suspicious ingredients in them after all. And the carb counting from a product like that is just so tiring and frustrating! 

See every single time a diabetic eats he/she has to count the carbohydrates, which determines the amount of insulin you have to take for the food you've eaten. Every person has their own ratio for that, and the calculating has to be EXACTLY correct, otherwise you can suffer for that for  even a few days afterwards. So better just stick to making things from the scratch yourself so at least you know exactly what you're putting down in your mouth :) 

But back to the pan cakes. They are jus so incredibly handy, diverse and fun form of food! You can literally put anything in them. You can eat them sweet or savory. Often when you think of pan cakes the image you have is a shmoking pan with a litre of butter or oil reeking in it. BUT, if you own a good Teflon pan and a bottle of the 1kcal spray, even the pan cakes turn into healthy treats! 

I eat pan cakes pretty much every morning. They just combine so handy all the stuff you need for breakfast: carbs, protein and berries. Another option would be an omelet or scrambled eggs, and porride with berries. Same ingredients in both. Somehow though the pan cakes do bring some luxury to the every day life, like if you where having a treat day every day?! I'm eating treats, but not really?! It's like cheating our brain a little bit ;)

I will be sharing my multiple pan cake recipes along as I keep writing. Here is one super basic idiot-proof recipe that is guaranteed to work!

PAN CAKES

0,25 cup Rye flour (or ground rye porridge flakes)

0,25 cup Oat flour (or ground oat porridge flakes)

0,75 - 1 cup Water (depends on how thick you want the batter)

And that's it. 

Well ok you can add i.e. these too: 

Baking powder

Stevia (for sweetness)

Vanilla essence 

Cinnamon

Then just fry away on a medium heat, and when finished top with delicious berries! This pan cake recipe has about (just the pan cakes) 176kcal. Berries in general have 32kcal/100gr. So it is a very light breakfast, but ahh so yummy!!

Traditional pan cake made with the recipe above

Alpro soy custard on top

Yoghurt pan cake with tofu-ricotta chocolate cream

Traditional pan cake from a different angle

Vanilla swirl

Perfection!

A blond pan cake from spelt and oats

Pan cake art

This pan cake had a rough one last night

Apple pan cake

Yoghurt ricotta pan cake. A very beautiful looking one if I might add!

Super thin crepes with maple syrup! nooommmm

HELLO!

Apple pan cake

And another such PERFECT pan cake! Everyone knows the _massive_ satisfaction you get from creating a perfect pan cake! The roundness, the lace pattern on top, flipping without the pan cake getting stuck..Ahh!

American style big pan cakes

My Finnish cat Vikke is dreaming of pan cakes! Probably filled with fresh fish and mice ;) yak!

Räiskäle, lettu, ohukainen, pannari, kropsu... rakkaalla letulla on monta nimeä!

Nyt päästiinkin lempiaiheeseeni! Eli lettuihin! Letut eli pan cakes ovat super muodikakita maailmalla tällä hetkellä. Myynnissä on jopa erityisiä protein pan cake pussijauheita. Ja varmasti ovat ihan ok ja tervelliisä. Itse en ole vielä kokeillut, yleensä niihin kuitenkin on sotkettu jotain semi-epäilyttävää. Ja se hiilareiden laskeminen tuollaisista pussituotteista on niin väsyttävää! Diabeetikon täytyy siis laskea joka ikisellä syömiskerralla hiilihydraatit, ja sen mukaan pistetään insuliinia. Laskukaava riippuu ihmisestä, ja sen kanssa on oltava pilkuntarkkana. Muuten saa maksaa kallista hintaa jopa pari päivää. Parempi siis tehdä itse ja punnita vaa'an kanssa niin tietää ainakin tasan tarkkaan mitä syö :)

Mutta takaisin lettuihin. Ne ovat siis uskomattoman kätevä, monipuolinen ja hauska ruokamuoto! Lettuihin voi sotkea vähän mitä vaan. Niitä voi käyttää makeana tai suolaisena. Usein lettuja ajatellessa tulee mieleen käryävä pannu ja litra voita/öljyä savuamassa. Mutta jos omistaa kunnon teflon-pannun, ja purkin 1kcal sprayta, muuttuvat letutkin terveysherkuksi! 

Itse syön lettuja melkeinpä joka aamu. Niissä yhdistyvät niin kätevästi kaikki aamiaisen asiat; hiilarit, proteiini ja marjat. Vaihtoehtona olisi tehdä myös omeletti tai munakokkeli, ja puuro marjojen kanssa. Samat aineet molemmissa aamiaisissa.  Jotenkin letut kuitenkin tuovat jotain sellaista luksusta arkeen, vähän kuin olisi lauantai ja karkkipäivä joka päivä?! Syön herkkuja, mutta en kuitenkaan?! Ja lettujen paistaminen vie väkisinkin nostalgia-tripille lapsuuteen. Näin sitä aivoja huijataan ;)

Jakelen näitä erilaisia lettureseptivaihtoehtoja jatkossa, tässä nyt yksi super-perus-resepti joka toimii idoottivarmasti.

LETUT

0,5 dl ruisjauhoja (tai ruis puurohiutale jauhettuna)

0,5 dl kaurajauhoja (tai kaurahiutaleita jauhettuna)

2dl vettä 

And that's it. 

No joo voi siihen lisätä esim.

Leivinjauhe

Stevia (makeutta)

Vaniljaesanssi 

Kaneli

Sitten vaan keskilämmöllä paisto, ja päälle marjoja! Kaloreita tästä herkusta tulee (pelkät letut) noin 176kcal. Marjoissa on kaloreita n. 32kcal/100gr. Eli aika light-aamiainen, mutta niin makoisa!!

Perinteinen lettu yllä mainitulla ohjeella

Lisukkeena Alpron vanilal custard

Jugurttilettu tofu-ricotta-kerman kera

Perinteinen lettu

Vaniljapyörre

Jogurtti-ricotta lettu. Hän on kovin kaunis!

Niin täydellinen!

Vaalea lettu speltistä ja kaurasta

Lettu-taidetta

Tällä letulla oli eilen vähän rankka ilta, ja se näkyy

Omenalettu

Super-ohuet räiskäleet vaahterasiirapissa!

HELLO!

Omenalettu

Ja toinen niin TÄYDELLINEN! Kaikki tietää miten tyydyttävää on täydellisen letun tekeminen. Se pyöreys, pinnan rei'itys, täydellisesti pannun pohjasta irtoaminen.. 

Amerikkalaistyyppiset paksut pan cakes letut

Vikke uneksii letuista! Täytteenä varmaankin tuoretta kalaa ja hiiriä ;) yäk!

Healthy Burgers

I’m starting my first post in a paleo-ish spirit! Healthy burgers are just so awesome I can’t even.. And they are exactly that healthy and wholesome everyday food that makes a difference in our lifestyle. Being healthy is often all about really small choices and using your imagination a bit.  For example leaving all the processed stuff at the store and replace them with better options. I myself am really lazy when it comes to cooking, I just can't be bothered to use hours for preparing things. So one absolute condition in my recipes is that they are fast to make! I hope that my culinary realizations give inspiration and ideas to other people with busy and hectic lives :) You want be able to live a healthy lifestyle without using hours for it every day ;)

So with these burgers I made everything from the sratch, including the bread rolls and guacamole. And for someone so impatient like me that’s very good. Partly I think it was because I wanted to impress my bf, who is pretty “basic” when it comes to food ;) All kinds of salads and “rabbit food” is just not interesting to him. So proving that you can have really tasty burgers that are even better than in Supermacs or Burger King, was a tall order! But here’s how:

BREAD ROLLS
2 cup Spelt Flour
1,5 cup Rye Flour
2 cup Water
1 bag dried yeast (if you want, not necessary). -> I don’t care for yeast myself. Baking powder works too!
Salt
Sugar (a little)

Mix everything together and mold the bread rolls to the baking sheet. Bake in the oven in 200c for about 20-30 min until they have a lovely golden color.

Meat, hmmmm!!

BURGERS
Extra lean beef steak mince (95%)
Onion, chopped and sweated
Seasoning (salt, pepper, white pepper, oregano, basil, garlic.. no limitations!)
1 Egg OR few Egg Whites

Mix ingredients together and mold the burgers. Fry them in a grill, oven or pan. I myself use the genius George Foreman grill that takes out all the extra fat from the meat. I’m madly in love with it. For frying on a pan I use the 1kcal spray.

George, you grill designing genius 

BREAD ROLLS (Gluten free)
1 Cauliflower Head
0,5 cup Almond Flour
1 Egg OR few egg whites
Seasoning

Cut out the cauliflower heads. Chop finely, and put in a microwave for a minute. That will make the cauliflower softer and easier to handle. Put all ingredients into a blender, and mix. Then mold the patties and bake in the oven or in the pan. Oven takes longer, about 20-30min in 200c, depending on the oven. 

The cauliflower burger in the pic was a little bit burnt, but the taste was good!

FILLINGS
Tomato (works grilled as well, yum)
Salad
Spinach
Cucumber
Red Onion
Pan fried onions (nom!)
Avocado (squashed, with lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic)
Feta cheese (light)
Cottage cheese
Ricotta
Basil

.. And so on! Let me know if you think I forgot something on the list :)

*Few of these bad boys and omg you’re gonna feel so full!*

You can fry everything with these lads

Evidence: Even my bf liked them! He did add mayo, ketchup and normal cheese, but other than that he gave these healthy burgers an A+ :)) Mission accomplished!

Cauliflower version

More raw meat! Yum!

Burger Buffet. Ah I'm becoming so hungry looking at this picture!