GREATER LUNG CAPACITY

I haven't done any weight bearing exercises for 6 weeks, due first of all to a strained (or sprained - who knows?) shoulder, although I still continued with HIIT, followed by severe pain in my right glute. It was indeed a pain in the arse!

Both problems turned out to be actually muscle spasms - which my son sorted out by applying pressure to the affected muscle. First the glute pain which was banished - almost instantaneously - by sitting on a rolling pin periodically! The shoulder problem was sorted similarly by pressing hard with the muscle on my (quite thin) wardrobe door!

I resumed my exercises quite gingerly - sets of 5 normal press-ups instead of 20 weighted (8kg) ones, 2 chin-ups instead of the 5 I was doing earlier. And I went back to my 6kg kettlebell in place of my 9kg - only doing sets of 5 reps initially.

I do my body weights on Mon, Wed and Fri; and swing my kb around on Tue, Thurs and Sat - with a day off on Sunday.

I'm gradually building back up - I've doubled my starting numbers, and I'm adding one extra rep each time, except for the chin-ups. I'm concentrating on getting the technique right for those, so I'm still on 2 reps - but I start with my arms straight, unlike before when I began with my arms bent.

Already, 10 days in, I'm starting to feel the benefit, and it feels good to be back in the routine.

It'll take me a couple of months to get back to where I was, but I'm in no hurry - I'll get there eventually.

(Another glitch in my exercise fitness routine - a hernia op in September 2015!)

My HIIT (running on the spot in 4 foot of water for 30 secs, followed by a recovery period of 20 secs) is progressing well - I'm up to 4 sets, now, and loving it. I count every other step in each 30 seconds - initially I used to average about 70 and now my average is 80+. The exercise is therefore more intense, but I don't breathe any heavier, nor is my pulse rate any greater.

But the exciting news concerns my lung capacity. I was diagnosed with mild COPD (from smoking between the ages of 19 and 33) a couple of years ago, so I have my lungs checked regularly. I was discharged from the Lung Clinic last year, but my local surgery keeps an eye on me.

And the good news is that my lung capacity showed an increase of just over 5% - from 3.65 litres in August 2013 to 3.85 earlier this month. I'm very pleased with that, especially since the 

PREDICTED FVC FOR NORMAL MALES (KNUDSON, ET AL), for a 65-yr-old is:

3.72ltrs!

So, my lung capacity, at the age of 77, is .033% greater than that predicted for a healthy 65-yr-old!  This can only be as a result of my taking up weight-bearing exercises.

I am indeed very grateful to GymBoffin and all my friends on Mumsnet who encouraged me to start serious exercising exactly 12 months ago this week!!

VEGAN SPANISH OMELETTE using a gram (chick pea) flour batter

My new favourite dinner! - quick and easy!

Ingredients:

2 medium potatoes, diced and pre-cooked

1 small onion, chopped and pre-cooked

3 sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips

1 medium mushroom, sliced

Topping:

4 slices vegan cheese

1 medium tomato, sliced

Nutritional yeast – to sprinkle

Black pepper and cayenne pepper, to taste

Plus:

Gram flour batter made up with

40g gram flour, 100g water and a little salt

Method: 

Chop the potatoes and onion and simmer them for a few minutes until soft. Drain (saving the liquid) and gently fry in a little oil.

While these are sautéing, make up the batter and whisk to remove any lumps.

Add the s-d-tomatoes and the mushroom to the frying pan and heat through, tossing once or twice.

Gather the veg in a neat(ish) circle in the middle of the frying pan and gently pour the batter over and into the potatoes. Any escaping streams of batter should gently be turned back over the potatoes.

Place the slices of cheese over the potatoes, followed by the sliced tomato and the nooch. Finally, add the black pepper and cayenne.

Fry for a further 5 or so minutes, until the batter is almost cooked.

Place under a hot grill for around 5 minutes, then serve with fresh home made bread spread with a little olive oil.

Also, see: Socca (gram flour pancakes).

FAMILY LEARNING AT HALCON PS

Chelle, one of the parents on my latest course, is a very keen student and makes many of the breads we make in the sessions at home with her children.

She's very kindly sent me some pics of her baking activities; here are some of them:

[More to come]

I've been running a Family Learning breadmaking class at this school in Taunton for over 13 years. The main thrust is family learning - parents and children learning together - the breadmaking is just a means to an end. However, the breadmaking is very serious - no child leaves Halcon without being able to make bread.

We began with year four children and their parents - but it didn't take long to realise that parents quickly became comfortable in the school surroundings - and not a few have gone on to take an active part in the school, listening to children read, etc. So the age was gradually dropped, and now we have year one children coming to the session. And very accomplished they prove to be.

Each course runs for 5 weeks, and every week we make two varieties of bread - generally a savoury and a sweet.

The families go home with recipes of the breads they have made - and I always give the children (especially) some homework. This is to go home and find someone who doesn't know how to make bread, and teach them what they've learned.

Gluten free, vegan chocolate cake

(This is a GF variation on a vegan chocolate cake I developed for a family get-together last year.)

Ingredients:

165g Dove's gluten and wheat free self raising flour

25g cocoa powder

200g sugar

80g vegetable oil

250g water

Method:

Measure the dry ingredients, sifting the flour and the cocoa powder, then add the oil and water. Stir, initially with a dessertspoon, and then with a whisk, then pour into a prepared 20cm (8") cake tin.

Bake at 175C for 35-40 minutes.

Or: Use a micro-wave friendly cake form and microwave for 6-7 minutes (800W). Rises better!

Here's the original recipe.

MUSINGS OF AN AGING*, HEALTH CONSCIOUS, INTERMITTENT FASTING VEGAN!

(*Aged 77 and counting!)

Put simply, my goal is to live healthily into old age. If that leads to greater longevity, well, that would be a bonus, but it's not my main concern.

So I am health conscious, and, since I began intermittent fasting (IF) in Feb 2012, I've become more and more aware of how we can take control of our own health.

Intermittent fasting plays an integral part in this, of course, its benefits are legion. (Just off the top of my head I can think of half a dozen health conditions that are countered by IF.) But there are other interventions that are necessary in order to maximise one's health - in my opinion.

Exercise and IF complement each other perfectly - but there are, of course several types of exercise which are covered in depth here by my guest blogger, GymBoffin. Last November I began a home-based exercise routine and in December I began using a kettlebell. Later I added High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to my routine.

A plant-based diet. I've been a vegan now for around 10 years, and I'm more and more convinced that this contributes greatly to my all-round good health and sense of well-being.

MONTHLY BREADMAKING SESSION IN TAUNTON

Monday 27th October 2014
3rd session, 5 students (with 3 apologies, so numbers are building up), 4 of whom made pizzas and chocolate rolls, and one (who had just popped her head round the door to check where we were) came with no ingredients, so she made a batch of fancy dinner rolls and some iced buns.

Cheese and tomato pizza - with olives

Leaky pain au chocolat! Some chocolate leaks more than others.

Next month we're making a fruit dough (possibly apfel kuchen or schiacciatta con l'uva) and cheese and tomato sizzlers.

Monday 20th September 2014
2^nd session, 4 students this time, who all made a loaf of bread, 

All these loaves were made with a 4-strand plait - one freeform and two tinned

Two-toned loaf-half white, half wholemeal and white, shaped into a 4-strand plait and fitted into a bread tin

…and Chelsea buns:

Each batch of Chelsea buns, made with around 150g (small cup) of flour  and 100g of sultanas  costs less than half the price of a Chelsea bun in the shops

Next session, on the 27th of October, will feature cheese and tomato pizzas and petit pain au chocolat (again!) - but also one of the students would like to make croissants.

7th August 2014

Last Tuesday, I began what is intended to be a regular breadmaking session at St George's Church Hall, Wilton in Taunton. They will be held from 2-4pm on the 4 Tuesday in the month (to be confirmed).

In the first session, five students - most of them fairly new to breadmaking - made a soda bread focaccia, cheese and tomato sizzlers (wraps) plus pain au chocolat and jam doughnuts. 

Italian soda breads - or, soda bread focaccias! The one at the top right is a failed attempt at a gluten-free version!

Add caption

Fancy dinner rolls and sizzlers

Pain au chocolat, jam doughnuts and jam pasties

It is proposed that each month we will make a variety of different breads so that students will build up a bread portfolio.

There will be space for about a dozen students on the course, so there's plenty of space ATM!

The next session is planned for Tuesday 26th August, when we shall be making loaves and fruit bread - there'll be a choice between Chelsea buns/Swedish tea rings/apfel kuchens and more.

MAKING HEART ATTACKS HISTORY - by eating a plant based diet!

It's no secret that, as a vegan, I'd like everyone to adopt a plant based diet. 

My reasons for this until recently have been two-fold - it would undoubtedly   remove a lot of cruelty from the world, and it's much better for the environment and global warming.

But there's also the issue of one's health. I personally feel good on a vegan diet - and there's a wealth of evidence to show that eating meat and dairy foods isn't always a good thing.

Now I've just come across a TEDx talk by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn on the benefits of a plant-based diet in regard to the heart, entitled,

"Making Heart Attacks History: Caldwell Esselstyn at TEDxCambridge 2011."

I don't follow all of Dr Esselstyn strictures - I consume a fair bit of oil, and I do like my coffee - but I follow most of them. And I figure with my fasting and exercise regimes I'm in pretty good shape!

Open letter to Jay Rayner

Dear Jay

I've always had a soft spot for you - possibly because I loved your mother and everything she did.

And you've always struck me as a reasonable sort of bloke when I've seen you on TV, or read your articles in the Observer.

But to read your comment that 'everything is better with bacon' has lead me to feel a modicum of pity for you - which is not something I could have anticipated.

I'll grant you that the comment may have been made as a throw-away, slightly tongue in cheek line, guaranteed to get a response, but, really, even to entertain the thought for a second reveals a lack of imagination.

In fact, you have the argument on its head - the sentiment should read, 'everything is betterwithout bacon'. 

As a guy in my late 70s, I grew up with the 'Meat and 2 veg' mindset. Vegetables were an adjunct, an add-on to the main event - the meat. And I'm sure that mindset includes perhaps 95% of Britons - but should it include yourself, Jay? If the answer to that is 'yes', I would be very disappointed.

I consider myself a moderate cook - but when I became a vegan 12 years ago, now, I found I had to start thinking out of the box. 

If I, an average to moderate  cook can produce, healthy, tasty - really flavoursome - dishes without meat, time after time, imagine what amazing things you could conjure up?

I love my food, and I eat very well - but there's an added bonus to 'everything is better without bacon' - it comes guilt-free!

Warmest regards, Paul

ONLINE BREADMAKING COURSE - SODA BREAD

(I was motivated to write this on-line breadmaking course after I had to postpone a planned 2-day workshop(s) in  Castle Cary, in Sept/Oct 2014. The course has been re-scheduled for the last two Sundays in November 2014.

To fill the gap, and to partly make it up to the students I felt I had let down somewhat, I thought I would give the students the opportunity to begin breadmaking before the course.)

The first bread I planned to make in the first session was a plain soda bread loaf.

An all wholemeal loaf, cost; roughly 35p, ready in around 30 minutes. Method and pics below. 

These are two loaves made by the children in my Family Learning session at Halcon Primary School, Taunton back in May this year.

The first was made by Charlotte - and this one by Laura. The initials ensure that everyone can identify their own bread!

VEGAN COFFEE AND WALNUT CAKE

Walnut&coffee cake #veganhour Nearly all gone already! pic.twitter.com/R6o9njTmF4
— Paul Youd (@PaulYoud) September 30, 2014

Vegan coffee cake


Ingredients:
200g sugar
2 tablespoons instant coffee powder
165g self raising flour
80g vegetable oil
250g water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
Measure the dry ingredients and mix them together using a spoon and a whisk.
Add the liquids and continue stirring and whisking.
When the – very wet – mixture is smooth, pour into a prepared 20cm (8") cake tin.

Bake at 175C for 30-35 minutes.

Or: Use a silicon cake form and place in the microwave (800w) for 6 minutes. In my experience, not only do you get a quicker cake, but the cake rises about 25% higher in the microwave.


(It's also possible to make a gluten-free version, using a gluten-free self-raising flour mix.)

Topping:
Now, my daughter made this with a combination of coconut cream, icing sugar and coffee - and a sprinkle of crushed walnuts. She's left for home now, so I'll need to ask her tomorrow what proportions she used.

The icing is full of flavour - but it refused to set, so a rethink is needed on this. If you search online for vegan cake icing (or frosting, as our US friends call it) there are plenty of recipes.