Going vegan or going hungry?

An apple a day keeps the doctor away...

Last blog post received so many interesting comments that I wanted to continue a little bit more on the nutrition thread. During the Christmas break, I stumbled upon a few programs on BBC tv. The one program was about the benefits of vegan lifestyle, and the other was about how fasting for 24-72 hours every now and then can be beneficial for your health. The indications were so strong that I got really curious about both. But I also have some questions that I haven't found the answers to.

Fasting
Now let's start with this one, since I do in fact have some experience with this. Three times, during 2014 and 2015, I completed a three-day juice program. At that time, I did it mainly for weight management, but now I have learned that the benefits are so much more. In fact, the 2016 Nobel Prize winner in medicine and physiology, Yoshinori Ohsumi, got the prize exactly because of his research showing the benefits of hunger on the renewal of human cells.  The bottom line of the story is that when we go hungry (less than 500 kcal a day) for 1-3 days, the growth of new cells in our body slows down, and instead the body starts repairing existing cells. For a person with high cholesterol and blood pressure, such a diet can reduce the values to normal, even just after fasting once (then you have to do it every now and then to keep the good effect). Even for healthy people, this process is documented to slow down aging, and it might cancel or postpone the risk of serious diseases.
  
Vegan diet
The benefits of vegan diet seem to be very comparable to the benefits of fasting. Animal protein is one of the foremost promoter of the growth of new cells in our bodies. The production of new cells is good when we are young, but as we get older it also means quicker aging. Vegans, in average, not only live longer, but they also age better. Meaning that they stay healthy and young looking until very old age. Vegans are also in average slimmer, they almost never suffer from heart strokes, and there is a lower occurrence of cancer among them.

The benefits of going hungry or going vegan seem to be endless. And since benefits of both methods seem pretty similar, we can probably choose which one we would like to apply, if any. If the idea of going hungry a day or three every now and then (it is really not that difficult) seems doable, perhaps that is easier for you than to change your whole diet. Or perhaps anyways you have reduced animal products quite a lot, and the way to a vegan lifestyle is not so long. I must admit that I got inspired to try another juice program; I'm starting already on Monday!

Now, let us be more critical. Of course if you compare vegan lifestyle or periodic fasting to "normal" unhealthy eating habits (yes, unfortunately normal - meaning average - eating habits are unhealthy), the benefits are huge. But what if you are, like me, a person who is quite careful about what you eat, and avoid unhealthy fats, sugar, white flour, starch, prefabricated foods, and fried foods? What if your diet already contains a lot of vegetables and otherwise consists of fruit, lean meats, whole grains and nuts? Unfortunately I could not find any studies that compare such a life style with that of a vegan. One of the arguments used by vegan sites is that our ancestors did not eat meat or animal products. But we live longer today than our ancestors, and our brains have evolved a lot since their times. Could this be due to animal products? And how about athletes who want to improve running form or body strength? Are we not dependent on muscle growth?

I am sure both "sides" of the debate can give convincing answers to my questions one way or the other. While I was thinking about these things, I ended up watching another program on Norwegian NRK tv, this time, about areas in Europe where people live longer and stay healthier than the average European. Now, these places had very little in common in their diets. Toulouse in France (lots of duck, blue cheese and red wine), Iceland (almost no vegetables, lots of dried meat, fresh fish), and a small place in Italy (lots of olive oil, vegetables and fresh made pasta). The conclusion of the researchers was that there might be some components in these diets that are balancing out each other. However, they had one thing in common: almost no industrially processed foods.

What seems to be sure is that average European diet nowadays contains too much meat and animal products, and too much processed or prefabricated food. So, even if you don't want to go vegetarian or vegan, cutting down on meats and animal products is definitely a good idea. Avoiding processed and prefabricated foods (instant soups, sauces, cereal, packed snacks, etc) is probably even more important. Fasting a day or three, a few times a year, especially on resting days when you are not planning heavy exercise, can also be a good component to add to your routine.

For myself, I am inclined to continue with my dairy-free diet. I am enjoying it more and more, and it is surprisingly easy. I feel light and energized, and my form is actually improving. I have also discovered how much calcium there is in green vegetables, especially kale! I have calculated that I get more than enough of calcium without any dairy. So I was probably getting too much calcium earlier. That might also be a slow down of form, I have read. On top of my dairy-free diet, I am eating more fish and less meat, and I have almost stopped eating chicken. A couple of times a year, like after Christmas and after summer holidays, I might do a three-day juice program, to balance the effects of junk food and too much wine ;-)

Say yes to new adventures! (Better an "oops" than a "what if"...)

Love your avocado

If it's ripe then it's right.

A few weeks ago I started eating an avocado everyday. The benefits of avocado are countless, and I've been experiencing many of them myself. I feel so good, my skin feels softer, my stomach works better, and I'm full for longer with less food. However, when I mention this to friends, I get to hear very often that they don't like avocado. To me this is pretty incomprehensible. I daresay if you don't like avocado, then you haven't eaten it in the right way.

First of all, you don't just eat it like a pear; you have to do something with it. Even more importantly, it has to be ripe. Ripe enough that you can squish it with a fork. It has to feel soft on the outside. Then you cut it in two. Take out the seed by stabbing it with a point knife and then just pulling it out. Then you simply use a spoon to scrape the avocado off its skin. Once you have it on a plate then you simply squish it with a fork until you get a paste. Now, this paste needs a little bit of salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon. And then you taste it. You will see that it tastes quite different now, and to this base you can add pretty much anything. Spring onions, fresh dill and mint, tomatoes, just mix it all lightly with the avocado and you have a wonderful blend which you can use as a side dish, as a dip, or as salad dressing. You can also just mix the base with garlic and sour cream, which is pretty much guacamole. For those who can read Turkish, my friend Özlem has a wonderful blog about love and avocado. She has lots of great recipes there.

In addition to avocado, I am eating much more nuts, seeds, whole grains, and non-meat protein sources like beans, compared to a few weeks ago. In fact I used to be very cautious about nuts and beans earlier, since these are heavy on calories. However, they keep you full so much longer that you actually end up eating less. When I started these changes I immediately started to feel much better. Before that, my diet was based mainly on salads, vegetables, and lean meat, with almost no carbohydrates outside of breakfast.  I felt hungry very often, and I still did not lose weight. I think my diet simply did not provide enough nutrition and recovery for the four runs, one swim, and three pilates sessions of the week. After the changes I started to feel incomparably more happy, full, and content all the time. On top of that for that last two weeks I even started to lose weight!

I am also paying attention to make my diet more alkaline. I am not at all being strict about this, but with just little adjustments it seems possible to achieve a much better balance. Most vegetables and fruits are good for an alkaline diet, especially the green ones. I am eating much less meat nowadays, and I get more of my proteins from beans and seeds. I am also trying to eat more fish and eggs, instead of meat and chicken. There is some debate about whether or not alkaline diet can actually affect the pH balance of your body, but for sure it keeps your stomach much happier and calmer, and it contains only healthy and non-processed ingredients. If you want to learn more about alkaline diet, I can recommend my friend Aysegul's excellent blog about nutrition for athletes to those of you who can read Turkish.

The newest addition to my diet is a shot of wheat grass juice every morning. Oh I know what some of you are thinking: is this really necessary? Of course not. But I am curious, and I simply enjoy this a lot. Trying out new things also puts me in contact with interesting people all the time, and I love learning from them. You can simply google wheat grass juice to read about its benefits; they seem endless. I am lucky enough to have a provider that is literally next door, and I have already started to worry about how I will manage when I move back to Norway... If this all sounds like I have completely changed my diet, then be assured that it is not the case. I am simply taking the advice from several sources and combining them as they make sense to me. The best part: I get to drink a lot of coffee and a glass of wine daily. 

Do more of what makes you happy!

Read and weep: racing weight

I read a book and it changed my body....
 
I wish it were as simple as that. Last week I was writing about a book which I really enjoyed reading. Let me continue with books and mention another book that I immediately wanted to read as it was brought to my attention a few weeks ago. It is called "Racing weight: How to get lean for peak performance" by Matt Fitzgerald. Unfortunately the book does not seem to have an electronic edition. At the time I was about to move and I could not wait for a hard copy to arrive, so I gave up on reading it for the moment.

Since then, though, I have been thinking about these issues and discussing it with friends. Loosing a few kilos is already on my list of this year's goals, and I am finding more motivation to do so. I have recently read that without any improvement of form, one can in average run every kilometer 3 seconds faster per lost kilogram. So, losing 5 kg means 15 seconds faster per km. That is immediately more than 1 minute faster 5k, and more than 5 minutes faster half marathon. Just like that! Of course this only applies to runners who have excess weight. If you get too light, it probably means that you are losing muscle mass, which might ruin your form.

As I was expecting, it turns out to be much easier to eat right when I'm on my own. There is no chocolate, ice cream, sweets, crisps or nuts in the house. Only healthy, lean stuff and fruit. So whenever I am craving for something naughty, it has to be something right. I have for example yogurt and feta cheese which both make perfect deserts with a little drizzle of honey on top. An apple cut into cubes with a lot of cinnamon is excellent as well... OK, excellent is a big exaggeration, but believe me: when there is nothing else it really feels wonderful. The most important: I am able to avoid alcohol when I am alone. This is perhaps my biggest weakness. Hmmm... now it sounds like I am an alcoholic. It is fortunately nothing like that. But I really really enjoy a glass of wine or beer in the evening. The best would be not have at all in the house, but I do have a couple of bottles. The trick is not to open them. As long as they are unopened, I am able to stay away from them.

And I must just mention my lunches once more. I cannot describe how happy I am about the food that is served at the university cafeteria, samples of which you can see in the pictures here. At least three different hot vegetable dishes everyday. Note that I am not saying vegetarian, but vegetable. Unfortunately vegetarian dishes usually contain a lot of carbs, like potatoes, rice, pasta or grains. Here the dishes are pure vegetable, like a casserole of squash, or spinach, or leeks, all so extremely delicious. This is the kind of stuff you can eat almost as much as you like because it is so nutritious and has so little calories, and it fills your stomach and keeps you full and content for so many hours.

As well as I am able to behave when I am on my own, I am terrible when Frank is here visiting or when I am with friends and family. Then I really let go of all the barriers and eat and drink just as I like. I have to find a balance in that. In the beginning I was thinking "come on, it's all the stuff that I've been missing for so long" but now it is time to be careful also when I am enjoying myself.

A challenging thing, which might turn out to be a disaster or a blessing, is that I don't have a bathroom scale yet. I have been without a scale since I left Bergen over three weeks ago. It is the first time during the last 30 years that I have not weighed myself for so long. From previous experience I know that it is easy fool oneself if one does not go on a scale. "Oh, I'm running so much; I'm sure I'm losing weight". Wrong. Eat a couple of pieces of baklava or a bag of pistachios, and the run is gone, at least in calories. On the other hand, this time I have the feeling that not having a scale is giving me the opposite effect. I am more cautious. And the belts are looser. Fingers crossed!

Let me find that book...

Super easy, life saving recipes

Alright, "life saving" is perhaps an exaggeration, but when you want to watch what you eat and you are hungry, you need something very simple and very quick to prepare so that you won't need to resort to foods outside of your diet plan. I will share some incredibly simple dishes that are filling, low on calories and carbohydrates, and high on protein.

First of all, here are some ingredients that I always keep in the house, so that they are available in times of need: Plain yoghurt, eggs, chopped tomatoes in carton, bananas, nuts, frozen finely chopped spinach, and frozen clams and scampi (some brands of these can be quite expensive, but they are very reasonable at Rema 1000 supermarkets).

Lunch

For the last 10 years I was used to eating crisp bread for lunch every day. I got this habit during the Grete Roede courses and I kept it, since it is easy, nutritious, filling, low on calories, and fits perfectly with the Norwegian lunch tradition. This has worked perfectly for me for losing and watching weight. However, since I started to train harder in the spring of this year, in terms of both more running and more strength training, my trainer Ketil advised me that I needed more proteins. Since more proteins means more calories, something had to be cut out. So we decided to go down on carbohydrates on one of the meals of the day: the lunch. Hence, for the last 6 months, I have been eating salad with added protein (chicken or tuna or ham) for lunch. It is actually much more filling than crisp bread; the calorie count is the same, but I get more proteins and less carbs. This works perfectly when I am at work and can buy salad in the cafeteria, but when I am at home I am sometimes too lazy to make a salad. Or perhaps I am just back from a run and too hungry to take the time to start cutting salad ingredients. Of course you can keep ready cut salad in your fridge, but if you end up not using it, it will quickly get soggy. That's why I find the frozen alternatives more convenient.

Spinach and tomato soup: Pour a carton of chopped tomatoes into a saucer pan and add half a bag of (or as much as you'd like) frozen spinach cubes and bring to boil; turn down the heat and simmer until the spinach is warm (doesn't take long at all). Season with salt and pepper, and add extra heat if you'd like. Your soup is done! It has practically no calories, so you can have as much as you'd like, and it's quite filling. I sometimes make this before going to a dinner party, to avoid being too hungry and not being able to control how much I eat.

Spinach omelet: Spinach soup is fine but it does not have enough proteins to be a proper meal in my opinion. Add less of the chopped tomatoes (or leave them out completely), and add instead two eggs, which you simply scramble in the pan together with the spinach. If you have more time, you can start with frying in just a little bit oil some chopped scallions and bell peppers, before you add the spinach, and then the eggs at the end when the spinach is warm. You can also add some cottage cheese for more texture and even more proteins. Season with salt and pepper, and add cayenne or Tabasco for some heat if you'd like to.  This is delicious when served with fresh tomatoes. It is surprisingly filling, and it keeps you full for many hours!

Spinach with sea food: This can actually go for dinner as well, because it is even more filling. To the spinach soup, add frozen clams and scampi, as much as you wish or as much as your calorie count allows. Sea food is very high on protein and low on calories and fat, so you get to eat quite a lot. For seasoning in this, I like to use some Tom Yum paste, Thai fish sauce, and the juice of half a lemon, in addition to pepper and some heat. If you don't have those ingredients, it's fine to use salt and pepper, or whatever other seasoning you'd like. If you use fish sauce, be careful because it is very salty, so don't use additional salt. You can also add some tomato paste, or bell pepper paste to get a thicker consistency, and then add some more water so that you get more on your plate.

Dessert and snack

Sometimes you just want something sweet, and then it's nice to be able to make a quick dessert or snack without sugar and too much calories. The recipes below are very much inspired by Ketil and one of the sweetest Barry's Bootcamp instructors and personal trainers, Petra Malmqvist. Petra is studying to become a nutritional physiologist, and she generously shares amazingly tasty and simple recipes.

Ketil's ice cream: The original recipe is with already sweetened yoghurt, for example vanilla yoghurt, and just a little bit normal unsweetened cocoa powder. Here is my variant: Take plain yoghurt into a bowl and simply add either light instant cocoa drink powder (for example Toro rett-i-koppen instant cocoa drink light), or a few spoons of diet protein powder with chocolate taste. Stir well to get the powder nicely integrated into the yoghurt. You can now either eat it just like that, or put it in the freezer for a few hours and then eat it as an ice cream.

Petra's pancakes: Mash a banana and add two eggs and plenty of cinnamon. Stir until it is smooth. Now you can make one big, or two or three small pancakes out of this. Just lightly oil a pan, and fry them just as normal pancakes. Be careful when turning, as the consistency is a bit loose. Surprisingly sweet!

Banana and yoghurt treat: Roast a few chopped nuts (I like to use walnuts and almonds) in a small pan, and then add a sliced banana. Stir until the banana slices are warm and soft, and add cinnamon. Now add this hot mixture to a bowl of plain yoghurt. It is fresh and sweet, warm and cold, at the same time. Surprisingly filling and really tasty.

Whatever-you-have-in-the-fridge smoothie: This is very much inspired by Petra. She put her variant on Instagram one Sunday, and 5 minutes later I had mine ready with the ingredients I found in the fridge and freezer. You can really use almost anything you want, as long as the tastes go together. I used: A little bit mango sorbet that I found in my freezer, half a banana, a few frozen cloud berries (multer), one cup of no-fat no-sugar (Yoplait double 0%) blueberry yoghurt, and a little bit fat free chocolate milk (Tine Styrk). Add all these (or similar) ingredients into your blender and pulse for a few minutes, and its ready!

Enjoy!