Today’s recipe can hardly be called a recipe as it is just an assembly of raw and mostly unprocessed ingredients. My diet has gone more and more into this direction over the last few months: not much processing and cooking, just lots of raw ingredients, perhaps combined with something quickly grilled. The predicament now is a lack of “real” recipes and as a result fewer posts on this blog.
Nevertheless I want to share why I took this direction and why I like it.
You may have noticed that I haven’t posted on this blog for a while. It coincides with the fact that I am sidetracked by a few other things at the moment. My motto in life is “eat to live” rather than “live to eat”. Don’t get me wrong, I still love good food, but I don’t have the time or patience to spend my day sourcing rare ingredients and cook for hours, or even sit in a restaurant for a meal that I could have easily made at home in half the time and a fraction of the money spent. I still cook, eat, run and read a lot about nutrition and running training. The cooking part, however, has been replaced by lots of quickly assembled, mostly raw meals and snacks.
My diet is neither 100% paleo, nor is it 100% grain free, even though many of my recipes are one or the other. I’d classify it rather as a low carb high fat (LCHF) diet. It is less restrictive as it allows meat, fish, eggs, low sugar fruits and vegetables and full fat dairy products.
The typical high-carb foods, such as bread, rice, pasta and many fruits are simply to be avoided at most times to keep the carb-intake low.
Now most of you know that I am an avid runner. I spend a lot of time doing that or dealing with the issues that come with it: e.g. eating more food to meet increased energy demands or the need for more sleep. Two very time-consuming side-effects of running!
In high-intensity training times (e.g. a 12-week marathon training) the carb reserves stored in my body get used up and need to be replaced more often and to an higher extent and I find myself craving carbs more during those times. Naturally, I will give in as this is what my body needs.
At all other times, I do very well on a lower carb diet. You will be surprised how many carbs you still consume, even without bread, pasta and rice. My regular fruit and veggie intake usually gets me to more than 150g of carbs per day. A very knowledgeable and experienced running coach once said to me that no-one needs more than 180-200g of carbs per day unless you run at least 10k each day. Anything beyond that will just end up on your hips and mess unnecessarily with your metabolism.
So what do I eat now? It’s more and more fresh salads for lunch and dinner, accompanied by some boiled eggs, grilled salmon or steak. Or omelette wraps filled with green leaves and tahini sauce. And for snacks? Whole raw fruit and whole raw nuts. You see that each meal and the snack contain some high fat or high protein foods, such as the salmon, eggs, tahini or nuts. Those will keep you full and make sure that blood sugar levels don’t spike.
Same applies to my breakfast which is today’s recipe: some fresh fruit topped with full-fat yogurt and a handful of raw chopped nuts. It adds up to about 600 calories. That’s a good base to start the day. I assure you, you will last until lunch without cravings.
Greek Yogurt has worldwide fame, deservedly, for its creaminess and richness, obviously provided by a high fat content. In Crete where I spent my summer holidays this year, the yoghurt with the least fat percentage available was 2%. I spoke to Greeks who smilingly admitted that anything with a fat percentage below 2% is not considered yoghurt.
It doesn’t only taste better, full-fat products are also less processed. Another reason to go for them. What do you eat for breakfast?
GREEK YOGURT WITH HONEY, FIGS AND ALMONDS
(Print Recipe)
200g/8oz Greek Yogurt
3 fresh and ripe figs, chopped ( or any other fruit of your choice)
1 handful almonds, chopped
raw honey to taste (optional)
Serves 1
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Place the chopped figs in a breakfast bowl. Add yoghurt and drizzle over with honey.
Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Ready to eat.