By Cadence Alexia

28.4.12

Jumbo fishy and the imaginary banana skin.

I know a few posts back I talked about the horrors of the fishing industry and all the reasons I don't consume fish more than once a year. But, at the Jumbo supermarket, if something is going out of date that day, it's free. So, I'm going to openly be a massive hypocrite.

I think Jesus would rather me eat this poor little helping of extinction, than it end up totally wasted and in the bin at the back of Jumbo.

You did not die in vain little fishy, you died so I could have 36g protein, 6g fat and zero carbs. I'm really grateful. Plus, above meal cost around 80 cents. Bingo.

Raw Veggies combined gave me 0.6g fat, 7g carb, 2.4g protein, they also gave me lots of other nutrients to make me feel all sparkly and alive.

But then I accidentally slipped on a banana skin...............


caused head on collision into lucs nut bar. somehow left the scene with 5 euros missing from my pocket and 300g pistachio nuts in my back pack. I'll die of omega 6 poisoning by Monday.



I did not however, crash into the eko plaza and buy dark chocolate. SCORE!! one point to will power. Maybe I will last the day without.

Just writing that made me check the time to see if the eko plaza is still open. It's still open. Am fighting the urge to get on my bike.


26.4.12

High fives for High protein


Rub eyes, yawn, down pint of water, burp, hello 9am. Bounce off a few walls and stumble into the kitchen, My hair is particularly 'cavegirl' today, think Jenny Agutter, Walkabout, 1971. I find my lovely ladies Mila, Roxana, Clementine and Anna, chatting and eating things like toast, puffed wheat cereal, fruit, yoghurt, and coffee of course. You know, what we all know and love as breakfast stuffs.

I want to know who made the rules about breakfast?? Who sat on their soap box one day and said "In the mornings we should eat toast, puffed wheat cereal, french pastries, and coffee". 

I think it's a little weird to start the day with this stuffs, it's not helping anything (well, the caffeine makes sense). I know there is some sort of nod to the fact that we need slow burning carbs to make us last through till lunch or whatever, but, puffed wheat cereal coated in sugar? first thing you eat when you wake?? Sounds like a shit idea to me.

I had a better idea...........

90% protein, 8% fat, 2% carb

250g organic steak fried in coconut oil, 40g mixed salad greens. Yeah, a big whopping steak, at 9am! Who's askin??? My puffed wheat eating housemates thought this was a bit insane. Apart from the Spaniard, who walks in, takes a good smell at the pan.........

"Cadenzia, this your steak?? yeah? high five!!! (we high fived), smells amazing, ha ha steak breakfast, YEEEAAAAAH, hhhmmmmmm"

Thanks Cristi, you totally get it. 


of course he gets it, Cristi is the owner of this slightly disturbing, but totally edible trotter that lives in our kitchen! oink oink.

24.4.12

Sleep and all of his friends


Eating healthy is one thing, it's one invaluable amazing thing, and not such a difficult thing, but, it's  not the only thing you need for good health.

Things like not being stressed, not over training, not spending too much time staring at electrical things that make your eyes buzz and such...........Today, I need to talk about sleep.

8 out of 24, this is totally how I look!

When it comes to being an upbeat, happy, glowing person, I'm starting to believe good sleep is way more important than good food.

A clever dude saying some clever stuff about it here

Things I personally found improved my sleep. Reading a book in bed. electronic detox one hour before. going to the sauna dead late. magnesium and B6. Not having a full belly. Wearing above photographed swanky eye mask, stops the bastard sun saying hello at 6.30!

I'm just going to throw myself out there as a shining example of how not sleeping can really fuck with you.

here's how my recent 7 day sleep deprivation marathon went. (due to stress, long training hours, and being such a genius that my brain doesn't have an off switch)

Monday. After 5 hours sleep. Tired, but fine. Training went ok. Ate normally. sat down a bit more than usual. frowned a bit more than usual.

Tuesday. After 3 hours sleep. wired, giddy, good training all day. Ate half my usual amount, felt like I might fly away. Laughed too much about nothing, everything I looked at was hilarious.

Wednesday. After 3 hours sleep. Grumpy, half arsed in training. Ate way more than usual. Didn't crack a smile or talk for a really long time.

Thursday. After 3.5 hours sleep. Stressed, knackered, training took way too much effort. Hardly ate. Made half arsed attempt at social life, failed.

Friday. After 1 hour sleep. Stood up quickly after loud alarm. I was still asleep at this point. Slight out of body experience. dropped to the floor and cried like a three year old in a supermarket. Can't really remember the day. I do remember the headache, one argument (with someone who clearly had some sleep deprivation of their own), five minutes pulling a push door that I push at least 20 times a day, painful body, shit training, followed by too much dark chocolate, followed by an evening of self loathing and some more tears.

Saturday. After 4 hours sleep. slightly better, headache gone, still exhausted. Training went ok. Ate so much food I could barely stand. Tried to be sociable, failed, went home to sulk. 

Sunday. After 10 hour sleep marathon. woke up feeling human. laughed with Roxana, ate a good breakfast, danced round the bedroom in my undies to Edward Sharpe and the magnetic zero's, trained good, did some physical prep. ate a normal amount, managed to look in a mirror and not see a 50 year old hag staring back at me. 

I don't really need to point anything out here, kinda speaks for itself, Just, if I hadn't had my 10 hour sleep marathon, the way things were going I think I would have ended up asleep at the bottom of a river for the rest of time.

..............ZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzZZZzzzzzzzzzz




21.4.12

Standing in the naughty cave...........


I'm not going to say I completely fell off the wagon, but, I was dangling off the back for a while, clinging on with one hand while the other hand stuffed way too much chocolate and carb heavy fruit in my face, damn those juicy mango's. With both hands busy I didn't have any going spare to hold a meat filled frying pan, so my protein intake went out of the window. At a guess my nutrient pie chart resembled a green pac man with a little red half closed mouth. no blue in sight. damn it.

nothing over 85% here I'm afraid.
Then I made these chocolates as a gift for a friend, made what I conveniently perceived to be too many, so had to dispose of some down my own personal garbage shoot! my second dealing with sugar this month. Bad cavegirl, go sit on the naughty rock and think about what you've done.

Well, not going to dwell on it for more than 29 minutes, ready to start being a good girl once again. I'm still a bit off with my organisational skills so went simple, easy and familiar.

Pork (240g), spinach, red pepper.
 

73% Protein, 21% fat, 6% carbs. Not a bad start.

I heard recently that too much dark chocolate can hinder your ability to take in iron from food. So, maybe after yesterdays binge it was pointless to eat the spinach!!

Sometimes having too much information on nutrition really messes with my brain cells.


15.4.12

Dark green for serene.

When anxiety takes over, food can become a comfort or a curse. My general pattern with stress and panic is loss of appetite, leaving it so long I'm starving, then finding myself chomping on somebody's wine gums I find on the kitchen counter in the middle of the night (lucky stress is pretty rare these days). This is soon followed by early morning sugar hangover, headache, and self loathing about eating shit 'food' I don't even like the taste of.

Well, I put that little slip behind me, and treated myself to a very useful dinner. 


Bacon, Avocado, spinach, watercress, pistachio (first handful this week) and my old friend go go goji. 

Eating bacon instantly makes me feel better. Not the best meat for you on the Paleo menu, but, treat yourself, it's still a good source of fat, and tastes amazing.

Dark green leafy veg, nuts and avocado are full of B vitamins and magnesium, essential for stress relief and anxiety issues.



broccoli, bok choy, asparagus, spinach, kale - you get my drift. I eat lot's of this stuff when I'm stressed and I calm right down, eating lots of broccoli at night really helps me sleep too. They're also usually a bit higher in protein than other veggies. You can feel free to eat loads of it, an entire two cups of chopped spinach is 2.18 grams carbs, 1.72 grams protein, 0.24 grams of fat. So, relax and stuff loads of it in, well, stuff loads of it in then relax.

Article below for more details

Food for thought - best brain foods 

9.4.12

Ketogen..........Oh. Oops I've ruined it.


Following recent issues with cortisol crisis panic, being unable to reduce stress levels or increase sleep hours left me a bit lost, food wise, as to what to do about it. I wanted to stuff my face with lots of fruit and chocolate to make me feel instantly happy, but at the rate I was ready to cram it in, I'd be on 90% carb before I knew it.  

I needed a distraction, I still feel a bit fat, so I thought I'd give full on Ketogenic a try for research purposes, to see if it would kick start this fat loss thing that I'm supposed to be having on Paleo. 

Ketogenic explained in great detail, right here

In short, absolute minimum carbs, lots of fat, medium to lots of protein.

The day started really well.........
Fat 52%, Protein 42% carb 6%

YUM, me oh my, I'll just eat this every meal for the rest of my life, easy times ahead, for sure.

you can eat a bit of veg, and a little of the right kind of fruit, and some nuts, but it basically revolves around meat, fatty meat, eggs, coconut oil, and more meat. ha!


Then, this weird thing happened, I think they call it a social situation, these things often revolve around food. I soon got jealous of the people who weren't on ketogenic research fat burning missions.  

At the Bacho Easter Brunch, they were eating things like this........
A perfect egg love accident.
A big salad and a big fruit salad
A pancake beard
I had just one small bowl of fruit salad, then remembered I had kwark in the fridge, so, "just a little fruit and a little kwark, it'll be o.k Cadence, go ahead"

This action, and conversation with myself, involving very small portions repeated four times, until I was bloated on fruit and kwark. It's 12.30 and I'm way over my keto carb limit. Fuck it. I'm out.

I don't think I'm in the right head space for such a serious diet commitment.

On the upside and the weird side, I've lost a bit of fat, but, in places I didn't think I had any fat at all. My body is metaphorically licking the yogurt pot clean when there's a full pot open right next to it, free and begging to be eaten.

Strange to discover my body has such a whack IQ.

8.4.12

The sum of all your chocolate hearts...........


Saar and Anne had a joint birthday party, here's how I made them happy with some really simple paleo treats.

Bought 85% dark chocolate and a clown, 
got my hearts out
Melted the chocolate, did this, neat as I could......

Oh my god, Awesome! Then what did you do???
I threw some Goji on!!!!
then waited really impatiently for them to set....
Happy Birthday ladies!!
For a different kind of party, try stirring this in
 HOLD THE PHONE!!! isn't that illegal???
Relaaax, we're in The Netherlands, it's all cool.

With thanks to my new friends for illustrating this recipe so well.

horrifying isn't he.
There's no way this guy is sleeping in my room tonight! 

6.4.12

Good Friday for Jesus, bad Friday for Cod.


Just in case Jesus is real, I ate fish today.

Zeewolf, crushed Cashew and Macadamia, rocket, tomato

Above meal - Fat 34%, Protein 51%, carbs15% - Calories 366.

Fish is really good for you! it's got vitamins A,B and D, it's got minerals like zinc, magnesium, iodine and some other good stuffs like that. It's super high protein and low carb, and it tastes pretty amazing when cooked well.

But, I very rarely eat fish, for moral reasons, it leaves a bit of a guilty aftertaste.

If we carry on consuming as we are, commercially available fish will be extinct in the next 35 to 40 years. How sad and scary. I don't want to have to explain to my future grandchildren what good old English fish and chips tasted like. 

We could stop it happening, but the reality is, we probably won't.

The problem with the ocean is we can't see the bottom, making it really easy for us to be ignorant to what happens on our ocean floor when the big fishing boats set sail to haul in what we demand. When adult fish we eat are caught, baby fish get dragged in the nets too, they're too small for us to eat so they get thrown back in the water, dead, unable to ever become adults, and have fish babies of their own. Creating an obvious procreation problem. Lot's of perfectly edible adult fish also get chucked back in dead, simply because, for that particular fisherman, they're not the intended target.

Coral Reef is really important for young fish also, they are protected from non human predators, they grow up there, find food, hang out and make friends, it's their home. When we drag a big heavy basket along the ocean floor, coral reef, that has taken millions of years to evolve into what it is, gets destroyed for good in one foul swoop. We are leaving millions of young fish and beautiful creatures without a home. They die, unable to procreate, unable to live their lives and help replenish our stocks.

Imagine a farmer, going out to kill a cow for us to eat for dinner. For whatever reason he doesn't just go and shoot the cow in the head. Instead he takes a big wrecking ball, destroys the farmyard, the barn, some chickens and their eggs, a pig or five and his trusty dogs before he kills the cow. Imagine you can see the destruction for yourself, dead dogs, pigs and chickens laying all over the place, wasted, unused. All for you to have a tasty bit of sirloin. Would you still eat it while you looked on?

We can carry on ignoring the bottom of the sea, it's easy, out of sight out of mind right, let's just ignore the problem, until there are no fish and it's not an issue anymore.

There's also this........

Simple and to the point. Short film about fish farming

I eat fish once a year on good Friday, not really as a nod to Jesus, more of a nod to my Mother and our traditions together.

I can't deny that on very rare occasions I end up feeling very bad about scoffing a tin of tuna in a moment of moral weakness. 


I think if Jesus was real, he'd really want us to stop eating fish.

4.4.12

Not so lean circus machine. cortisol fat panic.


I was skinnier as a raw food vegan. fact. 

I'm not overweight in any way, quite the opposite. But coming from a gymnastics background, and being a flyer in the circus, my size is not an issue I can easily put to the back of my mind.

Just to be clear though, my big diet switch had 95% to do with health and alternatives to medication, and 5% for weight control issues.

BOOOOOOM!



I'm short, so I notice when I grow slightly wider, and I'm kind of ashamed to say, I freak out when it happens.

Around six weeks ago I went Paleo. I follow the rules on what to eat, for training I've found eating meat and eggs again brought me sudden extra strength and explosive power.


but if anything on the Paleo shopping list can be eaten raw, I eat it raw. I still don't believe in cooking my veg, I found too many life improvements after switching to raw to ever switch back. 

Basically, and I'm trying to be quick to get to my point. Running body from fat and not carbs means you should lose fat and get lean. Brilliant!

Here's my point...............A couple of weeks ago, I swapped training clothes to my usual skinny jeans for a change and could barely get into them! Funny at first, soon followed by panic and confusion.

My muscles got bigger for sure, but at the same time did I lose any fat? pinch test done and bmi checked on swanky machine........If anything, I gained fat. INSERT SCREAMING OBSCENITIES HERE!!!!

So, what the fuck happened? I keep my balance spot on, I never cheat, I'm the most active person I know, I should look like Olive oil right now (popeyes wife, not extra virgin).

A guy who knows a lot about the whole deal suggested over training, under sleeping and stress could make my cortisol levels freak out or something, and something else about adrenal fatigue, making weight loss impossible and weight gain pretty likely. shit.

how stress made me fatter.

I am sleep deprived. I am stressed. I am training more than ever.

Little white flag waved. Feeling pretty defeated right now.

I just wanted to add, the above issues are due to lifestyle, working hours and such, I'm going to try to change a few things, try power naps to compensate for working late hours, cut out a few training sessions, try to relax. See if I feel a change.

Go Go Goji. Oh no Pistachio!!


Goji berries are massively good for you.

I have this issue though, eat them on their own and the aftertaste is something I'd expect from sucking on a tea bag.
put them with pistachio, and loads of other nuts for that matter, and they're sweet, chewy, and properly addictive. 

I throw this golden combination in all my salads, dip my banana in the bucket of them to make it less boring, put them in my kwark, or just grab a handful or six when I'm hungry and in a rush.


But, *sigh* we have a problem! recent reading of slightly boring over complicated article (link below) from super nutrition geek suggests too many pistachios, and nuts in general mean too much omega 6, omega 6 is apparently not as good for you as it sounds.

The long winded version of what I'm on about here

Macadamia nuts are really low in omega 6, so fair game, thank you baby Jesus, they're also pretty top on my list!

pistachio *sob* rate fairly high, so, I have to go easy on the handfuls between meals from now on, according to this guy who obviously knows his shit, a couple of handfuls every day or couple of days won't be too harmful if the nuts have not been heated or treated, the omega 6 gets locked away in some magical nut protective system and doesn't do you too much damage.

I think I've been using them as a staple rather than a side dish, Moderation bites me in my fat ass once again.

It's the busy schedule issue, running in and out the house more times in a day than I'd like, my hand goes in the above bucket around 6 times too many over a 24 hour period.

I'll carry on throwing them in dinners, because they are really good for you in moderation, but make a massive effort to cut my dosage by more than half.

I'm not happy at all about this, but, it mentioned some shit about cortisol levels, cortisol is one of my current worries.  Maybe I'll talk about that tomorrow.
.

2.4.12

Fat mango chimay!!


When the sun is shining and you've just finished training for the day, there's nothing better than getting your sticky paws on a ripe and squishy mango..........

Oh no wait! there is............





A ripe squishy mango, 5 little Kumquats and a heavy helping of coconut milk. Whizz whizz. done.

Coconut mango heaven, with a bit of a kumquat kick to it. Perfecto!



You can also add Kwark, which is a super high protein low carb yoghurt, that tastes exactly like greek yoghurt. 

I don't really eat dairy, it's not really needed or so helpful in our systems. I do love a good pot of kwark though, so make it an occasional treat. I've only ever found it in Holland and Germany, sucks if you can't find it, yoghurts are really carb heavy.


63% carbs, 34% fat, 5% protein. 442 calories - but who's counting!?

with 50g kwark added - 

56% carbs, 33% fat, 11% protein. 492 calories.





Raw cavegirl basics.....

Experimenting with combinations and making food look pretty is half the fun, for me anyway, I like to try and make it interesting.  But it can't always be a total party for the taste buds!

Some days you've got three burgers in the fridge that go bad tomorrow, and other pressing projects to be getting on with. You know, the ones you should be putting time into, like making circus acts and finishing artistic Easter presents for friends. 

So fuck it, fry some burgers, chop some veg, stop complaining, it's good clean food.

Even one of the burgers is crying about it!

Be gone growling belly! 

sorry taste buds, I'll do a little better in the morning!


balance of above meal Fat 16%, carbs 6%, Protein 78%!!! oh yeah!

1.4.12

Spot the irritating mistake....

My 'holy guacamole I'm gonna be late' dinner, it's dead quick and proper lekker.
 

215g Bio burgers, fried in 1 tbsp coconut oil.

1 medium avocado

4 cherry tomato

20 pistachio nuts

0.5 oz goji berry

8 cashew nuts

1 tbsp linseed

Nutrient balance for whole meal 

35% fat.  25%carbs,  40% protein...........

The mistake was the Linseed, I later learned that my previously ignored suspicion was correct. It's a gut irritant. If you're not eating to be extra nice to your gut I'd say go for it, chuck it in yoghurts, smoothies and salads if you want a little help with protein. Especially for vegetarians who may be lacking a bit on that side of things. 

Right now I'm trying to be extra nice to my gut, so het is neit voor mej.