GI Lifestyle

Two Italian Crackers From Tesco

yestodaytomorrow — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:27:02 +0000

Two cracking wines from Tesco this week, both of which are on offer at half price!!

Gran Conti Bifferno Riserva 2005

Gran Conti Bifferno Riserva is an Italian Red made from a blend of Montepulciano and Aglinico grapes grown in the hilly Molise region of Central Italy

With “bramble fruit and sweet spice notes” it’s ideal with grilled meats, vegetable casseroles and cheeses

(Who said I’m copying this off the label?)

I’m only allowed a couple of glasses on the low GI eating plan which I’m following but they were absolutely delicious and went down a treat with the Spaghetti Bolognese I made (Med GI of course – watch out for the recipe in a future blog)

Best open and let the bottle warm for a couple of hours like I did – placed next to the slow cooker!

Great bargain at just £4.99 and I’m going to buy some to put away for Xmas

Gran Selezione Oro Chianti Riserva 2005

Another great Italian Red at a bargain price of only £5.99!

The Piccini family(now in it’s 4th generation) devoteds special care to the wine reserving and uses only the best grapes.

I tried a couple of glasses of this with a low GI Chicken and Bacon casserole and it went down a treat!

Again, another one for the Xmas shopping list

Only 7 weeks to go!!

Crock Pot – Slow Cooker App

yestodaytomorrow — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:26:15 +0000

One of the gadgets which I use a lot is a Rival Slowcooker (made by Sunbeam Products.inc ) which is great for making low GI stews and casseroles.

You can prepare the ingredients quite quickly and put them in the Crock Pot for anything up to 8 hours, after which a delicious meal awaits

I follow a number of existing recipes and improvise my own so you can imagine how delighted I was when I stumbled across this free app over the weekend – Crock Pot Slow Cooker Recipe Finder

There are 100′s of recipes covering mains, appetizers, breads and desserts.

I’m currently sifting through to find which ones are low to medium GI and will report back as to how some of them turned out in future blogs (always happy to share recipes with any readers who also love slow cooking!)

Bon Appetite!!

In Search Of The Purple Squirrel

yestodaytomorrow — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:56:13 +0000

Never seen a Red Squirrel. They’re extinct in our part of the world and anyway, the fact that us canines are supposed to be colour blind means that they could really be purple for all I know!

From what I can see, their grey (yes just for us dogs in glorious monochrome) cousins are taking the world over in the woods where I live

There are loads of them on the ground at the moment making sure that Xmas dinner is a glorious vegetarian affair with Acorn Terrine served with Damson jus followed by a fricasee of Hazelnuts and Chestnut Puree

How they get all that grub back to the larders at Squirrel Towers amazes me!

Can you imagine climbing up a tree with a mouthfull of tennis balls at the same time as chirping down at me as I jump up and down on two legs barking and trying to follow

They’re really quite vocal when they get going and sound a bit like Magpies or Crows

I’ve run a few miles this week trying to catch them but they’re too quick and I’m not sure I’d really fancy squirrel meat with raw Hazelnuts as a light snack even though Elvis swore by them

Think I’ll just be content with Turkey and Rice Kibble followed by a long sleep in front of the fire (induced by counting purple squirrels jumping over a fence) – Dogs don’t do Sheep!

Meet The Lean,Mean,Exercise Machine

yestodaytomorrow — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:33:07 +0000

Yes, you’ve guessed it!

Those are my eyes at the top of the blog and the rest of me looks even more gorgeous

I’m a black and white 6 year old “slate coloured” Bearded Collie (that’s 49 in doggie years so I’m due to celebrate the big “five – oh” anytime now, knee high and weigh 22kg

My master calls me a bitch but that’s not fair ‘cos I never talk about my friends to other dogs behind their backs

I think my name must begin with R because all of the humans who meet me normally say “R, isnt she cute…”

What’s my job in all of this I hear you say? Well I’m in charge of the exercise division around here

See, given the chance, my master would sit at his desk working all day and then sit around watching his new 40″ HD TV piling on the pounds but, fairplay, he has been good lately since he’s been following this GI lark. We spend a lot of time together in the day – I’m usually to be found asleep on his feet under his desk whilst he works in his office at home (you get used to the smell after a while)

At about 4pm, my body clock tells me that exercise time is near and I start sitting at his side looking right at him and paw his leg to let him know it’s time to take him for his walk

I’m really lucky living in an area of outstanding natural beauty in the UK with mountains and valleys and there’s loads of walks we can do straight from the front door

My favourite is the “Hidden Lake” on the mountainside above us (2.6 miles round trip to be precise – my master used the “ Trails – GPS Tracker” app by Felix Lamouroux on his iPhone to tell me that) or a circular walk around the dilapidated stateley home grounds nearby

I love to wade into the shallows and drink the cool, clear, mountain water after I’ve barked at the ducks to clear them out of the way

Whatever the mileage, it’s never enough for me and I can do 12 miles easy without feeling tired, needing only the occasional lap of water (that’s more than I can say for the boss but don’t tell him I said that!)

No GI eating plan for me – I’m a “dried food and meat” kind of dog and would kill for a bowl of James Wellbeloved Turkey & Rice Kibble with a bit of chopped lamb’s heart mixed in

Life’s never boring thanks to my numerous hobbies which include photographic modelling for the master, part time special canine police cadet chasing after cats & squirrells, sniffing bottoms (canine only!) and collecting squeeky toys

I’m glad we’ve met and you’ll hear more from me as the master’s blog develops. I’d love to hear from any humans who might have a dog like me or any bearded collies who look like Brad Pitt or George Cloonie.

(cats and squirrells not welcome!)

Hot Herby Chicken & Lentil Casserole

yestodaytomorrow — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:03:05 +0000

This dish lends itself to slow cooking and due to the cayenne pepper is delicious and warming on an autumn or winter day
Go easy on the Cayenne! it’s stronger than you think!

INGREDIENTS (4 people)

1 large onion (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
2 chicken stock cubes (dissolved in 400ml of hot water)
1 medium size carrot (thinly sliced)
500-600gm chicken breast (diced)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 small can tomato puree
1 can green lentils (rinsed & drained)
1 can mixed beans in water (rinsed & drained)
1 teaspoon mixed herbs
cayenne pepper (sprinkle to taste)
olive oil for frying
salt to taste
black pepper to taste

3 Bay Leaves

METHOD

Fry the onion, garlic and carrot in a little olive oil for several minutes until lightly browned then remove from the frying pan and add and cook the chicken in the frying pan until lightly brown.
Discard any excess fat and then add the onions,garlic & carrots back to the chicken and whilst on low heat, add the can of chopped tomatoes and can of tomato puree
Add the mixed herbs, salt and pepper and bay leaves
stir and heat for another 2 minutes then add the lentils and mixed beans
mix all ingredients thoroughly in the frying pan and slowly stir in the 400ml of chicken stock

COOKING
cook for 2.5 hrs in a slow cooker on the lowest setting (my favourite way of cooking!) or 1 hr in the oven at 180 degrees C in an ovenproof casserole dish

SERVING SUGGESTION
Because of the beans and lentils this dish does not really need any accompaniment but if required, serve with some wholegrain basmati/wild rice mixed

What’s in a GI number?

yestodaytomorrow — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:14:26 +0000

What’s in a GI number?

Over the last few years I’ve tried a number of eating plans to lose weight but for reasons of willpower and generally always feeling hungry on them, none of them really worked in the long term!
My goals are quite simple:

1. Reduce my weight by 3 stones and remain at my target weight of 14 stones for as long as I choose

2. Keep my blood sugar levels within “normal” limits forever

Like many of us these days, I lead a busy life and therefore to achieve these goals, need to follow a lifestyle plan that fits with that
I’m in no particular hurry to achieve goal number one, so for me, the dietary part of that equation needs to guarantee slow, safe, sustained weight loss and have principles which are easy to follow and allow normal non-specialised food to be eaten in satisfying quantities on all or most occasions when I’m at home or away on business in hotels
I can’t carry a recipe book around (although I have a number of good GI recipe books here at home, more of which later) and I don’t carry weighing scales and special foods around in my briefcase!

That’s why applying the principles of a low GI eating plan ticks all of these boxes for me and seems to be working
(I’ve lost one stone in weight over the last 6 weeks)

I’m not a professor or dietician so I’ll tell you simply as an ordinary guy what I know about low GI eating from the books I’ve read and the research I’ve done and in successive blogs, how it’s worked for me

So how does the low GI eating plan work?

Carbohydrates can be classified by how fast their sugar content is released into the bloodstream upon digestion and placed on an index, the Glycaemic Index.
Most indexes have a maximum point on the scale and in this case it’s table sugar at 100 (not strictly true as beer sadly indexes at a super high 105 but more about this in future blogs)
Conversely, a number of other foods e.g. beans & pulses, have a low GI (25 in the case of lentils)
When sugar is released from food during digestion, Insulin is released from the pancreas which let’s the sugar enter the cells in our bodies and it’s then burnt to give us energy
The other function of Insulin is to store excess sugar in the liver as Glycogen which can be turned back into sugar if called upon by the body’s cells
If the glycogen is not used, then longer term, it is converted into fat and stored around the body (not good if you’re trying to control or lose weight)

In the absence of excess sugar in the bloodstream the reverse process happens and the body will start to convert stored fat back into glycogen which can then be burnt for energy by the cells in the normal way

The basis of the low GI diet is to eat carbohydrates which release their sugar very slowly (those with low to medium GI numbers) and as a consequence, only a trickle of Insulin is released, imeaning that most of the sugar is used for energy by the cells immediately and none is stored as fat.

There are some great books written by experts on the subject like Michel Montignac and Patrick Holford which detail the science behind the diet and list all of the GI values of most of the foods we can buy
More information is available on the Internet and there is a great GI app on the iPhone which gives food product GI numbers (although, being an American app, it also lists products which we don’t have over here! Jello?)

Whilst I have read and studied a mumber of the low GI eating plans which are available, I am not following any particular diet to the letter but have decided to embrace the common themes which seem to run through them all and it is this flexibility that is the beauty of the GI eating system as I see it.

Its not an eating plan whereby calories are counted or portions measured and if the right combinations of protein, good unsaturated fats and carbohydrates are consumed, my own experience seems to show that weight can be slowly and consistently lost without the constant hunger pangs of some of the other types of diets and eating plans which are available

Over future blogs, I’ll share details of the foods which have become my friends on this journey and expose the foods which have been outlawed! (some of them like chips and chocolate used to be my very best friends)
There are some great recipes which I’m enjoying, most of which I’ve adapted or devised myself following low GI guidelines and as someone who has never been into cooking, I’m really enjoying myself!

Couple this with some easy to moderate walking involving the “lean, mean, exercise machine” (see photo heading my blog) and some other lifestyle interests like music, photography, nature and gadgets and hopefully you might decide to join me on this trip?