Crunchy Peanut Butter with Chia Seeds

I try out new recipes for my beloved friends and family. I was feeling productive again last weekend.

The plan was to come out with a high energy, high protein, and high fibre convenient food for my friends who need to fast for many hours during the fasting month. So, I made this yummy peanut butter, home made! It is a favorite food for many people i know. Making it at home saves us a few ringgits, keeps trans-fat and artificial additives away from our diet, adds good fat to our food etc. This peanut butter is so rich that it keeps us full for hours too. There are simply too many good reasons to use this recipe.

I like my food fresh. So, I prepared the peanut butter in small batch, just enough for 4 people for a couple of weeks.

Ingredients	Amounts	Steps
1.       Peanut, shelled, skinless	260g (2 cups)	1.       Roast peanut in a wok for about 15minutes on medium heat. Stir constantly to avoid burning.
		2.       Pour roasted peanut into a blender.
2.       Manuka Honey	1 tbp	3.       Add honey into blender
3.       Salt, Bario or others	Pinch	4.       Pinch some salt into the mixture.
4.       Olive oil	120ml (4ounces)	5.       Add half of olive oil into blender. Blend peanut until half of the original size. 6.       Add in remaining amount of olive oil. Continue to blend until smooth or stop at the texture you desire. 7.       Scrape and stir with a spatula occasionally.
5.       Chia seeds	1.5   tbp	8.       Add in Chia seeds. Blend to mix seeds evenly in peanut paste.
		9.       Scoop out the paste with a spatula into a glass container. Caution: The peanut butter may still be very hot. 10. Cover with clink wrap or an air tight cover. Serve with fresh fruit or bread or store in fridge for up to 1 month.

Nutrition Analysis:

Every 2 tablespoon (30g) provides: 200kcal, 4g protein, 5g carb, 19g fat, 28mg Na, 1.8g fibre
(Among which, 13g MUFA, 2g SFA, 3.6g PUFA)

For a beginner, do check out this site to read on how to use a blender.

You may use raw almond or other high fat nuts to make your favorite nutty spread too. However, do remember to get those fresh and plump looking ingredients. Your product may turn rancid too fast, if the ingredients are not fresh enough.

Happy trying, to everyone! Have a good fasting month, to all my Muslim friends!

Without the Chia Seeds, the texture is smooth.

 

Free Ways to Lose Weight, for the Lone Rangers!

In our journey to kick a bad habit and live a better life, many of us has gone through cycles of relapses, at some points in life.

You were told your lifestyle sucks and you weigh too much. You tried various methods but none of your changes stick. You are hurt.

Relapses hurt, for most people. The disappointments could build on. One day, one would give in to the others realities, accept fate and give up. The self blame and low self esteem feed on themselves and grow big to cloud one's mind, when not being careful.

Our lone journey to fight this battle in life is proven too much to handle. Literature studies found that everyone who needs to change, needs support.

Yet, support doesn't come by easily for certain individuals. I know people who would rather do things alone than in a group. Exercise with friends bring about too much attention. The world unofficial count of introverts, is estimated to be at least 50%, base on my own surrounding. There are some among us who hardly say a word with their family members and friends too.

Now, for this sharing, I want to bring you to see change and make it happens, especially for the lone rangers, who have now stranded in its own cocoon and eager to be hatched.

Learn from the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change

Let's look at our effort for change from the angel of the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change that has been established and studied for decades.



Base on the theory, we know that changing a behavior is not a one way street. One may waste time and effort being not motivated enough, going through circles and take longer cut to reach the next station.

Having arrived on a higher level doesn't warrant a stay put as well. Trickling down is common, especially if the grip to the goal is not strong enough. Keeping this in mind, we know that prevention of relapse, at every stage seems to be the key to success.
























Learn from the Successful Weigh Management Programs

Let's now look at those good weight management programs around the globes. The successful ones are known to provide a good support system to help its client to achieve new lifestyle and maintain there for at least 4-6 months. Weight watchers, for instance, have routine support group meetings, empowerment of members to lead the next group, and have food products ready for eat at the grocery store all over the country.

Solution to Relapse Prevention for Individuals

How can we extrapolate these information and use it as individuals? Can we do it without joining a group session or spending hours talking to the skinny sales lady of a weight loss program?  How about doing it on our own?

Here, #yvdiet shares some effective tips:

1. Keep Track of your effort

If it's not the pen and paper diary, make use of smart phone apps that keep you eager to complete the graphs. Psychologists have told us that monitoring our own progress helps us focus on the goal. The secret lies at the routine day to day tracking of our effort.

Even though many apps provides only an estimation of calories or steps counted. The miscalculation won't deter one from doing the exercise, or recording food intake. It may, on the contrary, encourage one to do more.

A good phone application doesn't has to be very accurate in its records and calories estimation 

2. Positive self talk

Positiveness drives, way further than you can imagine. Give yourself a thank you note for taking good care of yourself, for trying or for every completion of a task. Consider advance purchase of a reward, such as a voucher to a spa, an open ticket to a musical show or a weekend get away.  

3. Excuse yourself for the small breaks in between

A habit in order to stick, needs to find its way to your overall lifestyle. Imperfection is real, and it's the new glamour. You can even celebrate it these days. Therefore, in case you were not abiding to your new routine or rules, let it be. You can take your break and come back when you are ready. Learn to take a break rather than quit.

So, there! 3 tips for you, the lone ranger to wear day and night, while you work on your goal. You do not need a physical buddy to monitor, encourage, share your goal and achievement, if you don't want to.

When is Exercise Bad?

Without a taint of doubt, a moderate routine exercise is good for health and feel.

"The amount of exercise required to achieve such benefits is relatively modest and amounts to 2 h of exercise per week at an intensity of 6–10 metabolic equivalent of tasks (METS) divided over three bouts of exercise. Examples include a brisk walk, a gentle jog at a pace of 6.4–8 km/h or cycling at a pace of 15–20 km/h. Even lower intensities of exercise have a beneficial prognostic impact compared with a completely sedentary lifestyle."

May be to some of our surprise, neither a thigh gap nor a round butt is the target for optimal health. 

As exercise is getting a lot more attention for various reasons, I wish to share here a technical paper on how too much exercise at the athlete's level can be bad to our hearts. 

We see the extreme cases among the athletes. For the fame, power, money and perks poured on to high performers, many athletes have over done it and some may misuse drugs to attain optimal performance. To a point when the heart can not cope, it forces itself to another odd state and shape, we gets an unhealthy heart. 

Let's read up, when exercise is too much and is bad for health. May more of us understand that moderation is the key to healthy living. 

Exercise and the heart: the good, the bad, and the ugly

The benefits of exercise are irrefutable. Individuals engaging in regular exercise have a favourable cardiovascular risk profile for coronary artery disease…

EURHEARTJ.OXFORDJOURNALS.ORG

Left ventricular hypertrophy, when you heart is lop sided in shape and loses its function.

US 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines

The recent release, Dietary Guidelines 2015 for the American, created some out of proportion attention. Readers, as usual, chose to pick on what they wanted to read, the dropped dietary cholesterol. Some acquaintances who overheard it decided to throw the whole science out and said "see, I told you?! No need to control diet one..."

Here's the executive summary of the guidelines, if you are interested.

Pertaining to general reaction and confusion, my summarized comments are:
1. Dietary cholesterol is different from blood cholesterol. High blood cholesterol remains a marker for cardiovascular diseases. Even though play lesser significant roles in increasing blood cholesterol, that doesn't mean it will not at all.  

2. Don't overlook the other key points, particularly the one on restricting saturated fat, sodium and added sugar. Our Malaysian diet, especially for us who eat out once or twice a day, is loaded with saturated fat in the form of lemak santan or animal fat. Please be careful in managing the saturated fat, if you have high risk of developing high cardiovascular diseases.

3. Moderation is the shortcut key.

Executive Summary - 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines - health.gov

Over the past century, deficiencies of essential nutrients have dramatically decreased, many infectious diseases have been conquered, and the majority of the U.S. population can now anticipate a long and productive life. At the same time, rates of chronic diseases—many of which are related to poor q…

HEALTH.GOV