Locked in

Last night I left my house keys in my mum’s car meaning today I am locked in! Since I can’t go anywhere until later this afternoon I thought I would write a quick summery of the week so far.

This week seems to have flown by even though I feel like I have been relatively lazy – I mean I’m now up to date with Call the Midwife but I don’t think that counts as productive. I find it so easy to get addicted to a TV series! It’s that time of year again where I need to suspend my Netflix membership, knuckle down and just get on with the work that I have to do. Hopefully a good ‘to do’ list and a moment of thinking how long it will actually take me is enough to sort me out.

Although watching Call the Midwife has taken up the majority of my week I have also done other things. I managed to run 8km for the first time! Yaaay! I did however overdo it as I went from running 5km straight to 8km and it’s fair to say I felt it in my hips for the next two days. Next time I think I will increase the distance more gradually. This in turn affected my yoga challenge (or maybe it was just an excuse?) and I didn’t practise on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yesterday I carried on with working on my hamstrings but I would like to push myself a little further – I really want to learn how to do a proper headstand! So far it’s not going great – I can’t kick my legs up high enough so can only hold it for a couple of seconds but practise makes perfect ;)

Food-wise I made a couple of interesting meals this week. I made a lentil shepherd’s pie with a sweet potato topping – there are plenty of recipes out there but I’m currently trying to put my own stamp on it. This time I think it turned out really well, it has definitely become one of my favourite meals! Unfortunately it smelled so good when it came out of the oven me and my mum dug straight in and I forgot to take a photo to put on here! I did however take a photo of this morning’s breakfast - a millet porridge cooked with almond milk and a grated apple, sweetened with maple syrup and spiced with cinnamon. It was so filling and delicious! I will definitely be having it again but it is however more of a day off/weekend breakfast as it takes about 20 minutes to cook.

P.S. I have created an Instagram account for this blog where I share what I’m up to on a more regular basis, click on the button on the right hand side if you’re interested :)

Plain vs Flavoured Yoghurt

Whilst eating my mid afternoon snack of blueberries and yoghurt I started wondering about the fruity yoghurts we can buy in shops. It is pretty much common knowledge now that plain yoghurt is the healthier option but I started wondering why.

I found plain greek style yoghurt and a whipped greek style corner yoghurt in my fridge which means I can start comparing.

Calories

Not that this is something that particularly bothers me, I have never counted calories and probably never will, but the calorie content of both is fairly similar with only 5 kcal more per 100g in the corner yoghurt.

Fat

Plain yoghurt actually contains more fat than the corner yoghurt by nearly 4 grams. There is also 2.1 grams less saturated fat than in plain yoghurt. So in terms of fat content alone the corner yoghurt wins.

Carbohydrate

This is the part of the Nutrition Information table I look at most (or avoid looking at most in case of cheesecake ;)). The carbohydrate content of the corner yohgurt is nearly THREE TIMES that of plain yoghurt! By now we all know that too much sugar is bad for us – tooth decay, diabetes and it is even described as addictive. Considering that the American Heart Association recommends no more than 36g of sugar per day for men and 20g for women, the 14.2g of sugar in the corner yoghurt is already nearly three quarters of the recommended daily amount and this is only a snack!

Protein

Since both of these are Greek yoghurts of some form, protein content is very similar with 4.2 grams per 100g in plain yoghurt and 4.1 grams in the flavoured.

After the macronutrients the next thing that I wanted to compare was the ingredients list. It’s nice and easy for the plain yoghurt – “Greek Style Natural Yoghurt (Milk)”. That’s it. One ingredient. The fruity kind however has 12. And only one of them is fruit. So what is actually in there? Added sugar – explaining the high sugar content. Water – yep, I can understand that one. E472b – I had no idea what this was but anything starting with E followed by a number does not fill me with confidence. After some basic research I found that this is an emulsifier made mostly from plant oils but animal fats are not excluded. From what I know about emulsifier this is the stuff that makes the fatty yoghurt and the non-fatty jam mix and not separate. Next on the list is pectin which is listed under the subheading of stabilisers. Although derived from plants it undergoes an industrialised extraction process and is added to foods in the form of a powder. It’s a commonly used gelling agents so will often be seen on many other food products. Guar gum is the next ingredient and one I have never heard of before. Again, extracted from plants and ends up as a powder used to thicken yoghurt and to stabilise condiments as well as to improve appearance. Gelatin is another gelling agent on the list – obtained from various animal by-product – this explains why the yoghurt isn’t suitable for vegetarians. Then comes the citric acid (a flavouring and preservative) and sodium citrate (an acidity regulator, which for example makes cheese melt without becoming greasy).

Even though some of these ingredients don’t sound that bad I think I will stick to my plain yoghurt with fresh fruit or granola, I think the sugar content alone is enough to make me stick with it.

Home comforts

Just like most other students, I love coming home, seeing my family, friends and my dog. Being home also means being surrounded by home comforts and by home comforts I mean being surrounded by chocolate and other kinds of delicious temptation. When I am home I find it a lot harder to be strict with myself with both healthy eating and exercise. Over the past two weeks I have particularly been craving chocolate – be it milk, dark, hot chocolate or chocolate cake. In fact today I discovered that I am not as hopeless at baking as I thought I was – I made brownies and they actually worked! I believe that what’s on the inside manifests itself on the outside, meaning that all this deliciousness is now manifesting itself in the form of spots on my face – the bottom half of my face is basically one big spot/blackhead. I think some home-made facemasks may be on the cards for this weekend.

In terms of exercise, things have been better than they usually are when I’m home - so far I managed to stick to my daily yoga challenge. The fireplace light, my mum’s new salt lamp and a couple of candles really help to set the mood ready for practice. At the moment I am mostly practising what I have learnt in class – mainly some warriors and sun salutations in preparations for the Yogathon Challenge taking place in April (108 sun salutations!), but this week I have also come to the conclusion that I won’t get very far with certain postures if I don’t work on my hamstrings first. I remember that before my growth spurt (for a year or two I grew really quickly, I even have some stretch marks on my back to prove it) I was really flexible, I wasn’t far off being able to do the splits. At this point however I also stopped dancing and so, since stretching was a big part of it, my flexibility diminished. With that in mind I went online to look for some poses specifically for hamstrings. I found a 20 minute sequence that seemed perfect for me on Sarah Beth’s YouTube Channel. Hopefully I will see some results in a few weeks’ time.

Running on the other hand is not going great. One run in two weeks is definitely not enough preparation for the 10k I will be running in April. This is definitely something I need to work on this week. During the one run I did go on this week though I was accompanied by my dog and I think it’s fair to say he wasn’t my biggest fan for the rest of the day. Sleeping, curled up next to a radiator, is more his kind of thing. 

Yoga Challenge

This week, together with my housemate, I decided to undertake a new challenge – daily yoga practice for 40 days. I call it a challenge as I am a yoga beginner and have never practised yoga as regularly as that. But let’s start from the beginning.

I first started practising yoga more seriously last year when I was stressed because of a variety of things. Moving away from home was a lot more stressful than I anticipated, so much so that after a couple of weeks I was considering dropping out. With assignment deadlines of some sort on the horizon most of the time and the pressure distance puts on a relationship I decided that YouTube yoga tutorials, although very helpful and inspiring, no longer did it for me. I found out about classes through my students union and joined the Yoga Society and soon went to my first class. It was so much different from learning at home on your own! The fact that we practised outside on a beautiful, warm evening made the experience even better. The society also gave me a chance to meet some amazing new people, many with similar interests and many with interests completely different to mine.

Although my regularity of attendance in classes varies greatly (I haven’t been to a single one last semester! :o), I try to practise what I have learnt at home and I sometimes go back to the YouTube tutorials which got me into yoga in the first place. There are two channels I use for yoga: Yoga with Adriene which is quite descriptive and really talks you through the postures as well as the breathing and meditation and Sarah Beth Yoga which I think is less descriptive in the sequence tutorials however she makes brilliant separate descriptive videos, for example she has a great video about the different yoga styles. The classes I go to teach Hatha yoga in vinyasa flow. I tried to decode what that means and I came up with this – vinyasa flow involves the linking of body movements with breath, i.e. using your breath to guide the movement from one posture to the next. Hatha yoga focuses on physical and mental strength building exercises and postures and involves asanas (movement) and pranayama (breathing). If I’ve got this wrong, please feel free to correct me or point me in the direction of more in depth reading.

With regards to the benefits of yoga I believe I have personally experienced quite a few. Incredible stress relief, relaxation and being able to detach myself from the everyday pressures life often places on us are definitely the main three I experienced right from the beginning. Yoga also has a good reputation for relieving pain. A few years ago I had back pain that did not go away until after a few physiotherapy sessions and daily exercises and, although I did not practise at the time, I realised that regular stretching and exercise were key to keeping the pain at bay. This is where yoga comes in now as part of an exercise routine, and I really think that it plays a big part in keeping my back in good shape. For me yoga also comes with some social benefits. Those that know me will know that I am not always the most sociable person on Earth but I really enjoy meeting new people through YogaSoc and the fact that we instantly have a common interest always makes the conversation easier to start.

The only regret that I have relating to yoga is that I didn’t start practising sooner.

Lazy Southampton?

Last week I came across an article on the internet about a recent survey carried out by Adapt Nutrition (a supplement brand) which ranked the fittest and laziest cities in the UK.

According to this survey Southampton is the second laziest city in England with only 23% of inhabitants visiting the gym at least once a weak – and I think the phrase “visiting the gym” is key in this survey. It would seem that the survey disregarded other forms of staying active, many of which can take place outside of the gym.

I may not be an expert on physical activity but I can see the huge variety of exercise that is happening all over the city virtually all of the time. Some people may say that being at university provides opportunities for sport which you otherwise wouldn’t have – and yes, there is an incredible range of sports societies at the university. Anyone can buy a gym membership and use the facilities and classes, and even join certain societies. And if you don’t fancy that then there are lots of leisure centres and sports clubs in and around the city including cheerleading, karate, yoga and netball as well as many more. You can even learn how to ski on the dry ski slope.

What about all the parks and open spaces? The Common, Riverside Park, Weston Shore and the New Forest are all practically on our doorstep and are all ideal for walking, running and cycling. Parkrun takes place on the Southampton Common every Saturday at 09:00 and is completely free to attend. I have recently started going regularly myself and the amount of people that go (769 last week) and the positivity and encouragement still amaze me every time. This is also the place where I see many people representing their running clubs – which I think counts as physical activity. I’m also pretty sure that cycling as a form of transport counts as staying active, and there seem to be hundreds of people cycling through the city every day.

And if the usual sports are not your cup of tea, there are quite a few dance schools about offering anything from pole to Bollywood.

I may be biased considering I live here but Southampton really doesn’t appear to be lazy to me. I think it would take a survey with a bigger sample to persuade me.

Here are a few photos I took of the parks in Southampton in the last year or so.