Showing posts with label health and fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health and fitness. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The paradox of exercise





Went walking around the golf course with the Mr this morning. Just three holes, mind you. That's about all I can handle.

And about all the bubs could handle too. She was getting restless by then, so while Mr kept playing I walked home.

It only took 10 minutes, but the bubs screamed the whole way. So instead of going by the road, I decided to take the short cut which is straight up the slope over the empty blocks that back on to ours. We'd done it before. The difference however was, one, last time Mr was pushing the pram, and two, that was before we had so much rain and the grass was not as long...

In short, lugging the pram containing a screaming baby up the hill through shin deep grass and sour sobs was the toughest work out I've done in a looong time.

Bubs was fine as soon as I got her out of the pram. The pram stayed in our back garden while I carried her up the steps to our back verandah. And that's where I collapsed into a chair to recover enough to get up the rest of the slope to our front door, the only way I could get in.

And as I sat there dying and seething that I'd even agreed to go walking around the golf course, I decided that was tge worst thing I'd ever done and I would never do it again...




Not happy...

But then, the funny thing about exercise is, that after you recover and that feeling of intense hatred for the strenuous activity you just did and the pain you endured... Once the feeling that you're dying fades, you discover you've never felt so alive.

Those exercise endorphins work so much better than eating a piece of chocolate. (It's just not as easy as eating a piece of chocolate to get there!)

I guess that's the lesson in life, isn't it. You can take the easy way for instant gratification and short lived pleasure, but it's fleeting and too often leaves us feeling dissatisfied (like eating chocolate). Or we can push through the hard stuff, do things the long way but the right way, and gain the real rewards and lasting benefits (like climbing a hill).

And like my favourite Pinterest quite recently says, 'A baby is a reason, not an excuse.' I don't want her to have to take care of me later, because I didn't take care of me now.


Thursday, February 28, 2013

Another sugar free cupcake experiment

Another recipe from The Healthy Chef - this time for Lemon Yoghurt Cupcakes. This one looked yummy and I really wanted to try it, but again, since it called for so much almond meal I was wondering how I could substitute it. This recipe called for 3 cups which would have cost me $25 for almond meal alone!!

This is the picture from the Healthy Chef website,  not my cupcakes.
As you will see below, mine didn't turn out quite so pretty or tasty looking...


Since my last experiment - the chocolate cupcakes - worked with LSA instead of almond meal I thought I'd try that again. But as soon as I started, I realised this was going to be different - maybe you've already worked out how.

Because of the linseed/flaxseed, the result is obviously going to be funny brown colour, not the lightness of pure almond meal.

My substitutions:
- LSA instead of almond meal
- apple puree instead of oil

Cue the yucky look mixture... and when I tasted the batter I realised despite the sweetness of the honey and the tang of the lemon and yoghurt in this, it wasn't going to be enough to mask the stronger flavour and slight bitterness of the LSA.


The downsides?
Made with LSA these cupcakes taste a little bitter and strange. Edible thanks to the large quantity of honey and the lemony flavour, but not like I was hoping them to be.

Quite a bit of honey - if you're going sugar free, honey is an acceptable occasional food, but it's still sugar when you have large quantities.

The upsides?
If there are any, it's that they are nutritious.

However, if made with almond meal, I think these would be amazing!





The Bottom Line?
Made with LSA? Fail.

Made with almond meal - I think they'd be a winner. Soft, moist and sweet.

I think I need to try and source some cheap almonds and grind them myself to try this recipe again.


Serving Suggestion: LSA version - keep them to yourself. Probably no-one else will want to eat them.

Almond version - I imagine these would be great cold with a dollop of yoghurt. Yum.



Happy baking and here's hoping your experiments are more successful than this one!





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