9 Belfast Bites

[J9er]

I saw Max win those medals. He deserved them! He was flawless. I don't know much about gymnastics other than these people are pretty much super human, and it's my favorite event of the summer games. Your son must be so thrilled! The Brazilian men winning the 2nd and 3rd together were so touching as well. So happy for them. The US women have been pretty great to watch here. So much talent. 

So awesome to hear about your Mum! It's so great that she found a path that works for her, and it's a pretty good path too. I wish my family would jump on board with me. They all need it so badly! 

 

[jmcbn]

I have LOVED watching the Olympics.... I was a competitive gymnast in my youth so it's always been my favourite, but with my son training now too it's been great to watch together. A few Olympics back Britain didn't even have enough gymnasts for a team, and now we're winning golds - it's amazing to see the progress that we're making, and to be a part of it too. We have a guy in my son's club who is heading in the same direction but was too young to qualify for the Olympics this year - he won Ireland's first ever European medal this year, and won bronze on pommel at the British championships competing against Max Whitlock & Louis Smith who won Gold & Silver then too...

The US team have been amazing to watch too - Simone Biles in particular just defies the laws of gravity - fantastic!! Her tumbles are just, WOW!

My mum has done brilliantly, and because she does the cooking my Dad has made some progress too without even thinking about it. Now if only I could get my sister on board - she's the one who needs it most, but anything I say sadly falls on deaf ears.

[J9er]

Yes! Simone Biles really is quite something. Another thing is the humility and all around sportsmanship all of these athletes have.  It is a joy to watch. 

My sister is high on my hitlist too. She has been trying to conceive for over a year. She has PCOS and some mild to moderate anxiety and I think doing a whole30 could really change her life and help her to become pregnant. She has started working with a naturopath and made some small changes, but she can't seem to commit 100%. I realize a lot of it is just lack of knowledge but when I try to talk to her about it she goes deaf as well. I was talking to her about her carb intake and she didn't know that brown rice was a carb? And didn't realize squash was a carb? So she eats carb with a side of carb and then wonders about insulin resistance? Anyways, could go on and on. 

Hope you have a nice weekend, enjoy the last of the olympics! 

[jmcbn]

43 minutes ago, J9er said:

Yes! Simone Biles really is quite something. Another thing is the humility and all around sportsmanship all of these athletes have.  It is a joy to watch. 

My sister is high on my hitlist too. She has been trying to conceive for over a year. She has PCOS and some mild to moderate anxiety and I think doing a whole30 could really change her life and help her to become pregnant. She has started working with a naturopath and made some small changes, but she can't seem to commit 100%. I realize a lot of it is just lack of knowledge but when I try to talk to her about it she goes deaf as well. I was talking to her about her carb intake and she didn't know that brown rice was a carb? And didn't realize squash was a carb? So she eats carb with a side of carb and then wonders about insulin resistance? Anyways, could go on and on. 

Hope you have a nice weekend, enjoy the last of the olympics! 

<sigh> At least your sister is taking some steps....

Enjoy your hike!

[jmcbn]

Last night I felt ill.

I'd nipped into the supermarket yesterday to get some freezer bags and a few other bits & pieces I'd left off my shopping list and spotted some mackerel on offer. It was fresh mackerel in a sweet chili marinade and I thought it'd be nice for a change rather than having to make my own. I did a quick skim of the label, all looked good, I added it to my basket and went on my merry way. I cooked the mackerel when I got home - two fillets - one for last night's dinner and the other for today's lunch. I served it with baby tomatoes on the vine, a cold potato & scallion salad (generous on the mayo), & some sweet peppers in EVOO. It. Was. Delicious. I washed it down with a glass of Booch (excellent vintage!) & got stock into some chores. And then it started repeating on me - garlic, very, very strong garlic. I could literally feel my stomach swell, and I felt so SO ill. So ill in fact that I dug the packaging out of the bin to check for corn starch or similar in the sauce. But nope, no corn starch, no soy, no gluten, nothing that I don't tolerate, and nothing that I'd consciously choose to avoid. What there was was garlic & onion powder. Now as a low FODMAPer I avoid both and tend to sub garlic with garlic infused oil, and onions with the green stems of spring onions/scallions, I can tolerate both in small amounts though and don't avoid them when eating out - it's just not worth the risk of a FODMAP overload  when cooking in bulk at home. But when I saw the garlic & onion powder on the label I thought 'how much can there be?' A helluva lot apparently.

I'm happy to say that after a lie down on the sofa yesterday evening, and a good night's sleep last night that my gut has recovered, and I've packed chicken for lunch.

The mackerel is going on a road trip to my mums.

[J9er]

Ugh. This happens to me on occasion with garlic overload. It is awful. Terrible bloat and stomach pain. I get a dry mouth and I just reek of garlic too. It seems to seep from my pores. Gosh, they need to cut back on the garlic in their marinade! 

[jmcbn]

So I made the pate with beef liver. Not sure what was up with the Eat Heal thrive website, but I couldn't get the page to open with the recipe so I did a quick google for a paleo liver & bacon pate and came up with a few alternatives, one of which had an added ingredient - mayo. Well oh my word did this make an improvement!! I'm not a fan of course pate and last time I remember being a little grossed out by some 'lumps' - well not this time!!

I got a pretty huge yield out of the recipe (the one I used this time suggested doubling up on the bacon, but I skipped the mushrooms & the garlic) so I've sent a little to my mum & to my ex who is a big pate fan, and I've plenty left for the rest of the week having already eaten two HUGE servings myself - pate spread thickly on romaine, with sliced orange rapture tomatoes, blueberries and some extra mayo drizzled over the top with a generous grind of black pepper, with some sweet-fire beetroot on the side - yum!!

There was such a huge amount of liver left that I've divided the remainder into portions & put it in the freezer for using as and when as I think to eat any more this week would be a bit of an overkill.

23rd August today and it's grey, wet & miserable - I'm always the optimist and came dressed in summer clothes but I've had to dig my heater out of the cupboard & stick it on low just to take the chill off the air. The kids start back to school next week too (uniforms, shoes, PE kits, bags etc bought at the weekend - ouch!!!) so it kind of means that the summer is officially over - but what a great one it's been! I'm planning to check out the forecast for this weekend to hopefully get in some outdoor activity to 'celebrate' the end of the school holidays, and then it's time for all of us to settle down back into study - the youngest has AQE this year which is a series of exams, the results of which will determine which school he goes to next year, the first born makes a start on his GCSEs, and I have a nutrition exam or two to get under my belt so that my long term goals are a little closer....

 

[littleg]

Lots of testing for your family this year!  Good thing you eat so much fat - its good for the brain

So I'm guessing central air conditioning isn't too common in your neck of the woods...?  Does it get really cold in the winter too or does the water just moderate all the seasons so winter is cool and damp and summer is... cool and damp?  

Thanks for the mayo tip.  I'll have to try that when I get around to making it.  Which maybe will happen.  One day.  

For some reason seasonings only repeat on me in processed foods.  I can't figure out why.  I can make super garlicky stuff at home and I'm fine - but smoked meats - oh my gosh, those seasonings repeat on me ALL.DAY.  Hubs bears the brunt of that when we hike and have to bring smoked meats... 

[jmcbn]

Central aircon - no real need for it. Public buildings will have it, but I don't know a single person who has it in their home. We're more about the central heating 

We get pleasant weather late May through early June, and again late September through early October. July & August can be hit or miss - occasionally we get great weather, but mostly it's grey & muggy with drizzle or heavy showers. From late October the temperatures drop quite a bit & then the daily rain starts mid November right through til March usually  I live on the coast so we rarely get snow, but there is quite a bit on the Mountains from November - March.

I wasn't too bad when I tried actual garlic..... I'm thinking the fact that it was a powder was the issue - perhaps it's more potent? I dunno...

So, quick update on my first born.

I took him to see the family Dr last week just to check that we were both singing off the same hymn sheet and she didn't think there was some underlying issue, or some supplement or other he needed to be taking. She weighed & measured him and gave him a quick check over & we discussed nutrition - she was really impressed with my plan, had nothing to add, & said she'd no concerns about his overall health so we're good to go. He was 5'10" last Friday & weighed 46kg (101lbs) - which is exactly where my scale at home put him so we'll see how we progress from here on in.

One concern I did have with him were a couple of very noticeable marks on his back which look like welts. When the first one appeared I of course did the mum thing & panicked and asked him if anyone was pushing him around at school - it honestly looked like he'd been whipped, or pushed back into something that had caused the mark across his back. He rolled his eyes at me (no idea where he gets that from! ), calmly denied all knowledge and went about his business. A few months later another welt appeared, and then another..... I figured he had so little fat to protect his back that they were pressure marks from the back of the chairs in school or something because the knots of his spine are also a little bruised. Anyway the Dr took a look on Friday and confirmed that his spine is bruised, most likely from lack of fat, but that the welts are actually stretch marks - at a right angle to his spine, about 4 inches long and about a half inch thick, and each one about 3 inches apart - and each one signifying a period of rapid growth since he started puberty. Who knew? Certainly not me, but apparently this is really common in boys. I guess every day's a school day, huh? 

Anyway, food is going good with him - like most people here he was convinced that he wouldn't be able to eat a bigger breakfast at first but that has really turned around for him already, and he's really enjoying the extra fruit, veg, fat & protein - most likely because it's providing him with a much steadier level of energy.

Thankfully both grandma's are on board with the template meals when they're at their houses, so now I just need to get his dad on board..... 

[MeadowLily]

Don't make me come over there, Dad. 

[MeadowLily]

It's quitting time. I was wondering if you have any new theories about FODMAP's.  With your Hotel California, have you seen improvements in your gut.  Any additional tweaking that's helped over these months.   How's Hulk and Hogan doing?  

[jmcbn]

On 8/24/2016 at 2:24 PM, MeadowLily said:

Don't make me come over there, Dad. 

The two of us had a pretty long chat about the changes we should make diet wise for the first born... we spoke about the need for enough healthy wholesome foods to support his growth, the need for template meals - specifically the need for three things - protein, fat & veg.

So I picked the boys up last Saturday and said 'I assume you guys have had lunch?'
The first born says 'Well, more of a brunch cos we had a lie in...'
And I said 'Ok, so what did you have?'
And he said 'Potato Waffles'.
I turned my head to him & raised my eyebrows but didn't say a word and he said 'But I had three!'
So I said 'Three potato waffles? That's it? Where was your protein? Where was your fat? And potato waffles could only very loosely be considered a veg!'
And he said in all seriousness 'Well dad said he remembered you saying I needed to eat three things at each meal, so he gave me three waffles' 

We obviously have a ways to go.............................

[jmcbn]

17 hours ago, MeadowLily said:

It's quitting time. I was wondering if you have any new theories about FODMAP's.  With your Hotel California, have you seen improvements in your gut.  Any additional tweaking that's helped over these months.   How's Hulk and Hogan doing?  

Theories? Not really, although I do think the whole gut issue thing is genetic - my dad has issues too but just struggles on.... I think he'd be shocked if he excluded just FODMAPs never mind any of the other multi-crap he eats that's doing him no favours.

I'm in a good place with the FODMAPs. A good enough place to not want to mess with it much further. Summer for me is a time of eating lots of salads - which is what brought it all to the fore last year if you remember- and I've been trundling along nicely this summer, eating salads daily, salads that include cabbage slaw for the most part, and/or beetroot - both high FODMAPs, but both of which I seem to be doing fine with. I've had broccoli on occasion too (maybe once or twice every other week or thereabouts), and that's great for a variety in flavour & texture but I need to watch my intake of that as I seem to overload on that MUCH faster. I've had onions & garlic when I've eaten out and that's been fine too, but I don't include them in my home cooking. My lovely leeks are a thing of the past, as is cauliflower.... Mushrooms & avocado are also no more, but I'm fine with that.

Fruit wise I stick with berries & passionfruit (mostly in salads), and the very odd mouthful of honeydew or cantaloupe, kiwi or grape when I'm preparing fruit salad for the boys. Bananas & dates, which were a regular ingredient in my preW30 protein shakes, are off the menu along with pretty much everything else.

Nut wise I stick with walnut & macadamias - again mainly in salads. Gone are the preW30 days where I was eating trail mix by the handful to tide me over!

When you know that certain foods will negatively impact your health it's much easier to avoid them - just like gluten, legumes & corn.

Hulk & Hogan are thriving right now - the housekeeping I did a few weeks back got everything back in order & we're producing scobys like they're going out of fashion - previously some were a little on the thin side but these last few have been nice thick ones with a good healthy looking colour - just like their parents when they arrived....

Does the booch help with the gut? You betcha.

[MeadowLily]

That. Is. Paleomazing.

I would drink your booch and rest easy. You are a true scientist.  Making booch underneath my kitchen sink is the last frontier but you give me hope to carry on.  You always have.

Dad, don't make me come over there.  And Mama, you're the best. 
 

[jmcbn]

Today my car was going through it's annual road worthiness test. All cars over the age of 6 in the UK are tested annually to check tyre safety, brake safety, exhaust ommissions, lights, etc and it's one of the most stressful events in any driver's calendar. No one can ever remember how to open their bonnet, or where the switch for the indicators are, and today the guy testing my car told me he had a guy yesterday actually break down in tears when he asked him to turn on his windscreen washers (Poor guy obviously had some other stuff going on....) Anyway, my cousin's partner looks after my car for me and he'd replaced x2 tyres, and all the brake discs and brake pads for me along with some nut or bolt or other that holds the front driver side wheel in place so I was confident enough that it would pass - I still spruced up the car inside & out, and then totally stalled my car right at the door, but she passed nonetheless

After that drama, and since the school holidays are coming to a close on Tuesday  I took the boys for a few laps of the lake at one of the local National Trust properties. After the dark & dank weather on Tuesday we've had pretty much constant sunshine and I wasn't gonna let it go to waste. 'Pooh sticks' was vetoed in favour of building a boat from leaves & sticks, and whilst we were out in the sunshine I managed to talk the boys in to attending the 'pre' Ould Lammas Fair tomorrow. The actual Ould Lammas Fair is a Harvest Festival that signifies the start of Autumn and is always held on the last Monday & Tuesday of August. I went regularly with my folks when I was little, but since I now work what is a Bank holiday for many people it's a long time since I've been and this is the first year they've done a 'pre' event and it looks to be mainly local food producers, with the odd craft stall thrown in for good measure. I'm hoping to pick up a few treats - fermented foods, reslishes, maybe some venison burgers or biltong beef or the like... The weather forecast isn't great, but it's to be mild and dry at least, and since I couldn't make it to the gym today with the MOT I managed to get most of my food prep out of the way so that we can make the most of the day.

And now for a few gratuitous pics of the day..................................

 

 

 

 

[jmcbn]

 

 

[jmcbn]

 

 

[jmcbn]

 

 

[jmcbn]

What a glorious day we had at the Fair today.... The forecasters got it wrong and the sun shone, and so we left the house before lunch to make a day of it, which was a smart decision because if we'd left it much later we'd never have found a place to park!

So there were [over priced] kids rides, live music, craft stalls, toy stalls, face painters, and an artisan food market which had me in my element - all kinds of olives & cheeses, tapenades, pestos, stuffed vegetables, smoked meats, fresh meats, breads, jams & relishes, marinades, oils, dressings, sauces, chocolate, fudge, ice cream, herbs & spices.

We took our time dandering round the stalls, listening to the music, trying out the many samples available and generally chilling in the sunshine. The first born tried out a buffalo burger, the feral child settled for a baked potato with cheese, and I got a little mixed tub of smoked sausage, olives, sun dried tomatoes & artichoke hearts in EVOO & lemon juice. Delicious. I chatted with a huge number of the stall owners about the source of their products, their recipes, allergens etc., and came away with some kid goat neck fillet, some buffalo steak pieces, some venison sausages, some amazing dry cured bacon (if I'd have chatted to that guy for much longer my boys would have eaten him out of business!), some dry cured bacon lardons thrown in for free, a tub of mixed olives, some beetroot & sweet chilli hummus, and some smoked dulse ground down to a salt consistency & sold in a test tube.

Not a bad cache for a Sunday.

[jmcbn]

Today we had a chat with the Feral Child's coach about him stopping training until his exams are over in early December. His training schedule was due to change to 4:15-7:15 Monday- Friday which would be leaving him just enough time to get home from school, get changed & get to the gym, never mind do home-works or eat. He's disappointed at missing training, but he understands that he has this one chance (well, three chances technically seeing as there are x3 exams) to get to the school of his choosing, and if he kept up the Mon-Fri training sessions he'd really struggle. And since he's going to be working so hard Mon-Fri we figure he needs some down time at the weekends so a total break from the gym feels like the best option. This will also mean a bit of a change in my training schedule, but since September's Whole9 focus is Temperance I'm happy to make the sacrifice & focus primarily on getting him through all of this for the greater long term good.  So since we'll have Sundays free for a while (once the test papers are out of the way in the mornings) we can squeeze in some extra family time - hopefully in the great outdoors - and so along with my physical training there'll be mental, emotional, spiritual & social training too...



 

[jmcbn]

Yesterday was a study day and I really feel like I'm making good ground now. I'm currently looking at treating mental & physical disorders with food, and I've been banging on here in the forums like forever about the importance of Omega 3s and how they impact mood - this is not just IMHO; this is fact - Omega 3's have actually been shown to have anti-depressant properties, possibly because the brain is made up mostly of lipids, or fatty acids, and it's estimated that around a third of those are Omega 3s.

I know I also bang on and on about nuts being an inferior fat source due to their poor omega 6:3 ratios, but for those of you who still like to go nuts with the nuts you should be aware that an imbalance of EFAs in the diet (that's Omega 6 [pro-inflammatory] & Omega 3 [anti-inflammatory] fatty acids to you guys) may be responsible for heightened depressive symptoms associated with low plasma cholesterol. Ideally you should be aiming for a ratio of around 4:1 (lower would be better) - so four times as many Omega 6s than Omega 3s. The typical SAD/UKD is closer to 16:1 and can be as high in 25:1 in some cases. Yes, seriously.

So don't go nuts with the nuts.

And if you want a taste of the Tiger Blood eat the fish. Or the Tiger Prawns. Or both.

[jmcbn]

In other news the weather today is woeful. Grey, wet, chilly & miserable.

Thankfully I decided to slow cook the kid goat neck I got at the Fair last week so when I got in from collecting the boys from their dads the smell of it cooking was permeating through the house & it made the house feel all 'warm' - although I may have to turn the heating on if I want some actual heat.

I chopped some potatoes, carrots & courgettes/zucchini and added them to the bottom of the slow cooker, sealed the meat in a pan in some lard, placed the meat on top of the veg, deglazed the pan with a little broth and added the liquid to the slow cooker, added some ground cumin, turmeric, salt, ground seaweed & freshly ground black pepper and cooked it on low for six hours - and it smells really, really good. The volume of meat has reduced down quite a bit though so I may have to do some more food prep tomorrow, or rely on some of the frozen proteins I have in the freezer along side my usual supplies of fish and roast chicken.

Hopefully the weather will be a little better tomorrow as there is a Blue Grass Festival in the Ulster American Folk Park here that I'd planned on to taking the boys to. The park itself is excellent - it tells the stories of the thousands of Irish who left our shores for 'Merica back in the day, and they've built all kinds of replica houses showing the types of places these people would have lived in when they first set foot in the States, and how their lives would have taken shape over there. There are a number of local music acts lined up, as well as guys who've travelled over from the US & Canada, and there'll be dancers & food stalls, lectures & interactive activities for the kids, and a local celebrity chef doing food demonstrations with local produce - I've been looking forward to it all week - It's mostly outdoors though so if it's miserable like today it'll be a no-go and I'll have to figure out something else for us to do as the youngest has been very good at sitting down this afternoon and doing a practice paper as well as some corrections from papers he'd done earlier this week - and I figure if he puts in the effort then he deserves some quality down time in return... Fingers crossed!!

 

[MeadowLily]

How interesting.  Do you want us to send everybody back?   I know.  They had to come. It was meant to be. They were hungry  and the body is bent on survival. Don't make me come over there, I may never leave either. I hope you have enough of that extra fizzy booch on hand because I'm going to swill all of it.  Every day.

[jmcbn]

Well, we could maybe trade - depending on who we see there tomorrow...!!

[MeadowLily]

Have I ever told you about my roommate from Kentucky.  Oooo, mercy my. Carloads of relatives would come out and we had bluegrass, large BBQ's.  They would dig a huge pit in the ground with hot coals and they partied for days.  Scotch-Irish peoples sleeping on the lawn, in tents. Good times.