Your preparation does require some thought with regards to fuel consumption. Do you want to be a BMW or a Datsun 120Y? Now is not the time to be indulging in takeaway for dinner or skipping meals and certainly not getting stuck into the vino the night before training. I am personally preparing for the Perth HBF Run for a Reason to be followed up by the Perth Half Marathon and I recently wrote about some nutrition tips to use in training that you might find useful. One thing that I find challenging myself is to make sure that I eat or drink something containing carbohydrate and protein within 15-30 minutes after I finish training.  It is SO easy to waste that crucial recovery time doing something else like talking, getting yourself and others ready for work and school or just generally faffing about. Your blood is flowing quickly after exercise and there are enzymes ready and waiting to pick up some petrol to transport back to cells and assist your muscle recovery. You might just need a ‘transition’ snack before your next meal to get your recovery happening and its best to look for 50g of carbohydrate combined with 10-15g protein in this snack. Some options include:

• Up and Go Energize drink
• Sustagen Sport
• Uncle Toby’s Bodywise bar plus a glass of milk
• 1 cup low fat milk combined with 2 tablespoons skim milk powder
• 1 small tub low fat yoghurt with a banana

Paying attention to your recovery will dramatically improve your energy levels and improve the quality of your training sessions.

All good things must come to an end though, this is the last of the $2 meals. Hope you have enjoyed them and revelled in the fact that you have only spent $10 in the past 5 weeks by spending time with me.

Savoury Mince

150g lean minced beef
1/4 onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 stick of celery, finely diced
100g frozen peas and corn
2 teaspoons gravox powder combined with 1 cup water
1 slice grainy bread

Spray a non stick frypan with cooking spray and cook onion until softened and slightly browned. Add mince and a cook until well browned and then the remaining vegetables. Stir fry until vegetables are softened. Add the combined gravox and water and simmer on low for 10-15 minutes.
Serve with a slice of grainy toast.

Serves 1
Cost = $1.95

Red lentil and pumpkin soup

175g red lentils, rinsed
1 kg butternut pumpkin, peeled and chopped
1 brown onion, diced
2 x garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon minced ginger or 1cm piece of fresh ginger
2 x 10g vegetable stock cube
2 teaspoons curry powder (reduce to 1 teaspoon if kids don’t like the spice)
1.5 litres of water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat oil in large saucepan and cook onion for 2 minutes until slightly soft. Add garlic and curry powder and cook until aromatic. Pour in water, crumbled stock cube, pumpkin and lentils and bring to boil. Turn heat to low and simmer covered for 30 minutes until pumpkin is soft.
Once removed from heat, use a stick blender to purée the soup.  Serve with 1/3 cup low fat natural yoghurt and shredded fresh coriander.

Serves 4
Cost per serve = $1.67

Light and Tasty Carbonara Pasta

125g dried spaghetti
4 small mushrooms, sliced
50g lean ham, sliced thinly
1/4 onion, diced
1 teaspoon vegetable stock powder
2 teaspoons cornflour
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup light Carnation Evaporated milk

Cook the spaghetti according to instructions and while this is cooking, coat a non stick frying pan with cooking spray and fry the onion and  mushrooms until soft and reduce heat. Combine the cornflour and stock powder and mix into evaporated milk and gently pour into pan with mushrooms and onion. Stir ham and cheese through the mixture and pour over cooked spaghetti. Serve with 1 cup green beans.

Serves 1 ( but you can multiply ingredients to make a family size portion)
Cost = $1.74

Stuffed Potato

1 x 200 g potato cooked whole in the microwave
100g tin tuna, drained
1 tablespoon snipped chives
1 tablespoon of grated reduced fat cheddar cheese

Cut the top off the cooked potato and scoop out the flesh. Combine the flesh with the tuna and chives using a fork and then place mixture back into hollowed out potato. Top with grated cheese and potato lid and bak in moderate oven for 10 minutes until cheese is melted.
Serve with 150g steamed carrots and 100g cooked frozen peas.

Serves 1
Cost = $1.97

Since then I have been beavering away at unearthing meals that cost $2.00 or less as I was confident that it can be done by us all, in fact you may already be doing it and just don’t know. Over the next five weeks I am going to share five $2 (per serve) healthy and tasty meals with you.  All tried and tested by yours truly.  And they take less time than driving to a fast food outlet and getting through the drive through.

2 minute noodle omelette (serves 1 adult or 2 kids)

1 packet 99% fat free 2 minute noodles (cooked without the flavour sachet)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 sliced onion, 1/4 thinly sliced zucchini and 1 thinly sliced tomato

1/4 cup grated reduced fat cheddar cheese

Spray a small non-stick fry-pan with cooking spray and cover the bottom of the frypan with the raw vegetables and top with the cooked noodles. Pour over beaten eggs and sprinkle with grated cheese.  Cook on low heat until the egg is starting to set at the sides of the pan and then place frypan under the grill (check you have a heat-proof handle) to finish the omelette until the cheese is golden brown.

Ta-da!  You have a healthy, delicious quick meal that only cost you $1.94.

I don’t eat fast food very often and don’t get me wrong, I am not a fast food wowser.  There is a place in an otherwise healthy diet to enjoy these types of food occasionally.  But don’t we live in a country where 61% of our population is overweight or obese?  Last night I was interviewed on Channel 9 TV in Perth for my professional opinion in the wake of this landmark bargain burger mania. I said what I thought and clearly HJ’s are not in the business of providing healthy food however, it is disappointing and I believe irresponsible to promote this kind of deal.

It can be hard work to make healthy changes to lifestyle and eating habits to improve  health and so many of us are budget conscious when it comes to buying food.  At $2 for one Whopper and fries its a deal thats hard to beat. And its not just the burger and fries.  What about the drink, thick shake or sundae that may go with that order?

Watch out for my list of meals for $2 that I am now inspired to create and share with you.

Come on fast food industry, get with the program.

Recently I have been fortunate enough to interview Professor Barry Marshall as part of  a series of interviews for my second book. In 2005 Professor Marshall was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology for his work with Professor Robin Warren in showing that most peptic ulcers are caused by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and not a result of stress, spicy food and too much acid. A truly interesting story and discovery.

Is there a link between ulcers and sleep? No, but Barry Marshall believes that sleep is vital to not only his well-being but his daily physical and mental performance.  We are talking about someone who has a demanding job with a family, spends around 5 months of the year travelling and presenting at conferences and other meetings and really needs to have their brain running at full speed.  Sleep is a topic that attracts much attention and a recent symposium at the Australian Institute of Sport highlighted this crucial aspect of our lives. Dr Charli Sargent who is based at The Australian Centre for Sleep Research provided a good reminder that sleep is important for: growth – hormones  are released (essential for children and adolescents), energy conservation, memory and learning and tissue growth and repair.  How much sleep you need every night is very individual but most experts in this field will advise us to get between 7-9 hours of good quality sleep each and every night. Dr Sargent suggests there some ways in which you can enhance your sleeping habits and they include:

• Avoiding caffeine in the 4-5hrs prior to sleep (although this does not affect everyone in the same way)
• Avoid stimulants like TV and computers directly before sleeping
• Napping can boost sleep but should be limited to 60mins
• Maximise opportunity for sleep
• Improve sleep hygiene – dark, quiet, temperature-controlled room
• Develop a sleep routine
• Keep a sleep diary
• Avoid sleep tablets where possible (address all other avenues first) as they do not increase deep sleep, can affect your performance the following day, may cause addiction and are a short term fix

Deep sleep is really important and often seems to be the elusive element but it does accounts for around 20% of sleep time and involves growth and repair while REM (Rapid Eye Movement) involves dreaming, memory and learning.  Sleep impairment can have a direct impact on our memory and I know that when I am tired, lots of things seem to fly out of my internal hard-drive, some of which don’t seem to come back again.

Sleep impairment is directly proportional to your daytime performance but the secret weapon could be napping. Napping is beneficial when sleep at night time is not adequate to alleviate sleep pressure. Professor Marshall uses this tactic often and finds that a 60 minute nap in the middle of the day ensures that he can maintain a high level of performance and productivity.  He has perfected a skill that I would love to have and that is his ability to sleep or nap anywhere in the world in any situation.  Barry feels the ideal time frame for him is 60 minutes and this fits right in with expert advice in this field. This may mean sleeping on carpet or at a desk or on the floor in airports fully clothed with shoes doubling as a pillow.

Italians have got the napping skill sorted and their culture reflects the need and support for the siesta straight after lunch.  The Australian culture (and many others) do not support napping and we often feel the need to ‘carry on’ even when our brains and bodies are telling us otherwise. In the event that napping is not possible for you, Professor Marshall suggests scheduling empty time in the day to avoid overload and give your brain some quiet time, so when you are expected to be as productive at 5pm as you are at 9am, you are up to the job.

When it comes to our health, sleep really is one of the best performance enhancing tactics.

The amount of food that I have had to dispose of makes me really cross because these moths are already in our food when we buy it.  I admit they are very clever but not so clever that they can burrow through sealed Tupperware containers. It has really got me thinking about the growing issue of food wastage in Australia and globally.

In Australia alone we kick 4 million tonnes of wasted food to the kerb every year, which equates to 178kg per person every 12 months. Or put another way we waste $7.8 million in food each year. Of course on top of that there is the greenhouse gas and CO2 emissions during manufacture and in landfill.  There  is also huge water and other resource wastage in producing food that is not eaten.

When I was growing up I remember my parents encouraging myself and my siblings to eat all of our food as there were many people in the people in the world who were not quite as lucky as we were.  I know now as an adult that although that is very true, the solution to the global hunger crisis is not quite as simplistic as donating food to those who need it. But I do know that the impact of wasting food is far reaching and so much bigger than physically throwing food in the bin.

I don’t usually do New Years resolutions but this year I decided to start the year with a different food challenge. I am not an impulse buyer but I often buy extra food when doing my grocery shopping ‘just in case’ I might need it. Sound familiar? Most of this food is tinned or of the long life variety but the end result is an overflowing pantry and freezer. So…. In the first week of January I started the challenge of only preparing meals based on the staple items that I already had, just like the Country Women’s Association tells you to.   Taste.com has been a good friend to me too and with thousands of recipes to choose from, all you need is what is already in your cupboard. Of course I still need to buy fresh fruit and vegetables and dairy but six weeks later I am still going strong. Plus we invested in a worm farm to recycle our fruit and vegetable scraps, paper and teabags and our food wastage has dramatically reduced. Have you considered how to reduce your own or your households food wastage? Maybe you could try:

1. Doing a pantry challenge – start using all the food items you already have and you will be surprised at what you can whiz up even when you think the cupboard is bare

2. Investing in a worm farm – they don’t take up much room, are very low maintenance and very kindly recycle all sorts of scraps. Many local councils conduct educational workshops and subsidize the purchase of worm farms.

3. Devising a weekly menu with your housemates or family and shop to it – this prevents excess buying and saves you money. Try online shopping too, it eliminates impulse buying because there are no visuals to tempt you and saves you money.  All the major supermarkets have it available now and deliver from 6am to 9pm seven days per week.

4. Buying smaller sizes of products to avoid waste. It might be cheaper to buy the three litre milk on special but it’s not cost or environmentally effective when you have to throw out the remaining 2 litres that you can’t get through.

5. Buying fresh fruit and vegetables twice every week instead of one big shop – this will ensure you get the freshest produce possible without throwing out the rotting leftovers at the end of the week.  Try frozen fruit and vegetables too for no waste, they are picked at their best and this eliminates wilting and bruising resulting in a product that ticks all the boxes nutritionally. If there is only one or two of you in the house, look out for the ‘baby’ varieties of vegetables as they are much smaller and suited for smaller portions.

6. Investing in a decent sized freezer so that you can freeze extra portions of meals for lunches or for those nights when cooking feels akin to climbing Mt Everest.

7. When buying a loaf of bread, freeze what you don’t use for sandwiches that taste just as fresh when thawed, use for toast, bread and butter custard (try jam instead of butter) or throw it in the food processor for breadcrumbs.

8. Serving smaller portions – research shows that eating less than we require increases our longevity and improves our health outcomes. With 61% of Australians being overweight or obese, measuring and our decreasing portion sizes is essential.

9.  Considering whether you need the bread plus the whole three courses when eating out? How about ordering an entree size meal instead a main – eyes are often much bigger than stomachs.

10. And last but certainly not least, store packaged or loose dry food in sealed containers to avoid the invasion of the dreaded pantry moth. Keep an eye on your dark chocolate and teabags because these bugs love getting high on antioxidants.

Have you got a great tip to assist in reducing the global issue of food wastage?

Merry Christmas to you all!  We made it.  Given that twelve Tasmanian Devils are fighting today, I am not suggesting that you are devils but there may be some pretty crazy eating behaviour today.  I may even be involved myself.  I found this greeting card recently by British company ‘Make Do’ that I thought summed up today perfectly.

Enjoy this happy day with your loved ones.