Pan-Made Apple and Plum Sorta-Crumble

Back by not-particularly-popular demand, it's Man vs Gut! There's not so much gut to fight this time, but I reckon I might try to drop a stone or so over the course of training for Edinburgh Marathon at the end of May.

So, hopefully, I'm going to be posting a few recipes related to running and generally being good to your body over the next few months.

First-up: Pan-Made-Sorta-Crumble.

Dead straightforward: caramelised some old plums (four of them) and an apple in butter (good-sized knob), soft brown sugar (half a dessert-spoon full, but you could leave it out if you're feeling more wholesome than I was) and cinnamon (a teaspoon or two, but you don't need to be shy), put it with some home-made crumble-ish apple granola and yogurt. I'll post a recipe for the granola another day but you could, of course, use shop-bought (though it'll probably be more sugary) or muesli.

Advantages: oats are a great carbohydrate with low GI (obviously this serves you better if you're not using mega-sugary granola), yogurt packs in a bit of protein and the fruit content gets you two of your five a day. There's a bit of added sugar in there, but right after a big workout is when you could do to be squirting high-GI food into your body to replenish that glucose you just used up.

This took, in total, about nine minutes.

The Gut Returns! Can Man Possibly Stop It?

I'm precisely THIS serious.

Maybe you remember that a little over a year ago I started this blog to chronicle my battle to be less fat. Maybe you also remember that after a flurry of early interest I left it to die on its arse.

Well, since then I ran a half marathon in under two hours, got my weight down from 18st to 14st 6lbs and took up mountain biking to complement the running. I am, I can happily say, in loads better shape than I was a year and a half ago.

Now, though, it's time to level up.

I'm running a bloody marathon.

And, while my headline was a tad sensationalist and I'm still around 82% of my former, fatter self, my weight has crept back up a bit. Nothing drastic, but it's more than it was and I never quite pushed the weight loss as far as I should have.

So, state of the union:

I'm 6'2 and weigh 14st 12lbs. The BBC's BMI calculator* gives me a score of 26.1, which is 'overweight'. That's pretty sobering. I'll be 'normal' when I hit 14st 2. I'm 3st 2lb lighter than the 18st I weighed 18 months ago. I'm also now pretty fit. To give you an idea of that, I'm marathon training and ran 13 miles on Sunday.

I'd like to be healthier, though. I'm gunning for somewhere round the 13st 7lb mark and I'm estimating around 2lb/week loss.

There are a couple of reasons I want to do this. The best is that I want to be about as healthy as I can be. I also want to be lighter so I can run the best marathon I'm able to. The worst reason, but one I might as well 'fess up to, is that I'd like to be thinner.

So, here's the plan in brief:

Train for a marathon. I'm using the Runner's World intermediate marathon plan as the basis for my training, although I was perhaps not quite as fit at the start of it as I should have been, so I've been modifying the first few weeks so I don't over-do it. I've also decided not to do hill-sprints, as I injured my achilles tendon earlier in the year doing that. I'll be substituting those for tempo runs and speed work.

Eat properly, like a real human. Last year, I was on a weight loss diet. This year, I'm on a 'be able to run a marathon' diet. I'm counting on the increased running to do the heavy lifting, and healthy eating will be supporting that. The marathon, and being fit enough to run a marathon, takes priority over weight loss. You need to put it in to get it out. So: plenty of carbs, predominantly from whole grains and low GI sources; lots of fresh fruit and veg; whole foods; not too much processed crap; less meat. I won't be starving myself, I won't be writing off the odd pie or dessert-y treat-y thing. I won't be calorie counting. I've got a good enough idea of what should go in and what shouldn't now to trust myself. It's just common-sense, healthy eating, really.

And that, folks, is where I'm at. I'm actually ridiculously excited about it all.

You can follow along on Twitter, if you care to. More soon(ish)...


Update: As pointed out by DoctorDee in the comments, BMI is a very general, frequently unhelpful measure that often fails to adequately deal with muscle mass, which is heavier than body fat. To that I'd add that the BMI rating isn't the point of shifting this weight - it was just a handy signpost to present here. More accurate, perhaps, is the 'Looking at Mark's Belly Indicator' (LMBI), which also clearly demonstrates that there's still room for improvement.

Jamie Oliver on Fighting Child Obesity at TED

Honestly, in the past I've skipped over some of Jamie Oliver's programmes in the past because I've found him a bit preachy.

I feel a little bit humbled now.

In his TED talk he shows drive and passion by the swimming-pool-load on the subject of fighting child (and adult) obesity. He also makes some really interesting points on the subject, laying out his stall for some of the education initiatives he's kicked off. Hat off to the man. This is well worth watching, especially if you've got kids.

Video - Building Core Strength: Safely Performing Planks

I'm getting stitches every time I run and one possible cause of this, I gather, is that my core muscles ain't up to scratch. You core basically consists of your stomach muscles, back muscles and your ass and you use it for pretty much everything. There are a few ways to strengthen the muscles, like yoga and pilates, but one method that doesn't involve classes or equipment (don't know about you, but I'm on a budget here) is doing planks. And I'm not going to explain them, because I dug up this video for that exact reason. If you could ignore the cheesy American voice over, that'd be awesome.

Video: Chris McDougall Talking Barefoot Running and the Tarahumara

I just finished reading Christopher McDougall's book on the Tarahumara and barefoot running, Born to Run, and it's massively important to runners and probably everyone else. Full review's coming, but in the meantime I highly recommend you watch McDougall's Ted talk. REALLY.

Chinese Takeaway Smoothie (Pineapple and Ginger)

I mentioned the other day that I was off to make some smoothie. I did it. It went well. It was inspired by my mate's favourite meal from the Chinese takeaway: pineapple and ginger. I left out the chicken he normally has with it. The smoothie was like this:

Ingredients:

Half a pineapple

Fresh chopped ginger x 1tsp (crushed will do)

Apple x 1

Banana x 2

Apple Juice x 300ml(ish)

Honey x 1tbsp

Low fat natural yogurt x 3 or 4 dollops

Oats x some (optional)

Method:

BLEND.

As with the apple and cinnamon recipe, the measurements are really rough guidelines. Go easy on the ginger to start with. If you over-do it your smoothie can end up too bitter. You can always add more after the first blend. I know half a pineapple sounds expensive, but I got a massive one for £1.25 from the market, and I chopped up the rest to use for breakfast. You should get around 1,500ml of smoothie, depending on the size of your pineapple. I reckon, having got the fruit from the market and used the rest of the natural yogurt for other stuff, the whole lot probably cost about £1.30.

You might have noticed that the ingredients are nearly the same as for the apple and cinnamon. That's because banana, apple, yogurt, fruit juice and oats (if you like them) are your basic smoothie building blocks. The juice will change, depending on what you're making. Freezing some banana or buying frozen fruit from the supermarket freezer section will make your smoothie more... well, frozen. Personally, I like having something a bit icy in there but I don't think it's necessary and I'm not a big fan of blending in crushed ice.

If you've got any suggestions for awesome smoothies, hit us up in the comments or on twitter!

Smoothie Fun: Apple vs Cinnamon

I really, deeply, truly love smoothies. They're tasty as all hell, super-nutritious and slip one or two of your five a day down your neck before you've even noticed what's happened. And they're particularly good if you've got some exercising to be getting on with.

I've been told second-hand by someone Swedish that if it doesn't have yogurt in, it's just fruit juice, and I'm happy to go with that. Slopping some natural yogurt in there throws some protein into the mix, which is useful stuff for repairing damage post-workout. Fruit's good for you for all the reasons fruit's good for you. I like to chuck some oats in there, too, to bulk my smoothie up and add some extra carbs. Below's a rough recipe for apple and cinnamon smoothie. Apparently cinnamon raises your metabolism, so that's something, eh?

Ingredients:

Apple x 2

Banana x 1 or 2

Apple juice x 200ml(ish)

Low fat natural yogurt x 5 or 6 big dollops

Oats x some

Cinnamon x 1tsp (or to taste)

Method:

Blend ingredients together like a maniac. I like to put some more oats in once everything else is blended, since I like the texture.

All the quantities I stuck on the ingredients list are very rough guidelines. One of the beauties of smoothies is the fact that because there's no actual cooking involved you can keep adding to them until they're spot on. They're also dead easy to make and experiment with, as the flavours you're putting together make sense even if your cooking abilities extend to microwaving Chicago Town mini-pizzas.

Right, I'm off to try making pineapple and ginger smoothie, based on the fact that's a sauce used in Chinese takeaways. I'll let you know how it goes...