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Pasta Salad

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This evening’s meal was a pasta salad. I love pasta so since I was missing a couple of the ingredients I made a few tweaks to the recipe and the result was excellent (if I do say so myself!)

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Pasta Salad

A warm pasta salad with a light and creamy sauce served with plenty of green
Course Main Course
Cuisine International
Keyword pasta, salad
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 6 minutes
Total Time 16 minutes
Servings 1

Ingredients

  • 100 g. of wholewheat pasta uncooked weight
  • 2 sundried tomatoes dried or jarred
  • 2 cherry tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp of low fat Philadelphia cheese
  • 2 tbsp of grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 pinch of mixed herbs
  • 2 pinch of black pepper
  • 1 pinch peperoncini or chilli pepper
  • 2 pinch of oregano
  • 1 handful rocket
  • 25 g. of mixed nuts

Instructions

  1. Prepare the pasta following package directions, omitting any suggested fat or salt.
  2. Meantime, place the sundried tomatoes in a bowl and just cover with boiling water. Set aside to rehydrate for 10 minutes. After this time, chop into 1cm (½") pieces.
  3. Chop the cherry tomatoes into small pieces
  4. Once the pasta is cooked and drained, stir in the rest of the ingredients.
  5. This can be served warm or at room temperature.

 

Is Withings Really Worth It?

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The Withings scale, or as they like to call it – Wi-Fi Body Scale, looks like a really nice device, but is it that much better than a normal bathroom scales?

I currently have a very functional scale. The Weight Watchers Body Monitoring Electronic Scale, which I picked up in Argos a couple of years ago.

Here’s a photo of it:

Weight Watchers Body Monitoring Electronic Scale

It works. It can weigh me. Do I really need anything more?

The withings scale looks very slick:

withings wifi bodyscaleAnd it does have a lot of very funky looking options that appeal to someone like me:

Data collection

    Instant weigh-in by getting on the scale
    Automatically turns on and off

Weight

    Display units : kg, lb, stlb
    Graduation 0.1 kg (0.2 lbs) – 4 sensors
    Maximum 180 kg (396 lbs)

Display

    Big graphical screen (2.4″ x 1.6″)
    White, high-contrast lighting

Body analysis

    ITO Invisible electrodes
    Fat mass
    Lean mass
    Body mass index (BMI)

Personalized multi-user monitoring

    Automatic user recognition
    Comparison to reference values dictated by doctors

Online connection

    Private website secured by password
    Monitoring weight fluctuations and fat mass graph
    Comparison to reference values dictated by doctors
    Ability to set objectives
    Web browser supported: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari¹

Connectivity

    Wireless 802.11b/g
    Very low power consumption
    WEP/WPA/WPA2-personal security
Data sharing

    Data can be set to private or shared with the other users of the scale
    Ability to make your graphs accessible on a webpage
    Ability to automatically publish your weight on Twitter

Content of boxed set

    Withings WiFi scale
    USB 2.0 cable
    (4) 1.5V batteries (AAA)
    4 carpet feet
    Installation guide

But, there’s always a “but”, the withings device costs a hell of a lot more than what I paid for my current scales. Even with a discount code (there’s several floating around online) it still ends up costing around €150 including shipping.

So what can it do that makes it that much better than simply plugging the details ie. the weights into one of the web services that I’m already using?

 

Nike+ Experiments Episode 1

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As I mentioned, apart from changing what I eat I also need to do more exercise and track it.

I bought some Nike runners a few months ago and also got the Nike+ Sportband. The sportband looks very like a watch:

Nike+ Sportsband and sensor

Nike+ Sportsband and sensor

The little sensor fits into a compartment in the sole of the Nike runners.

In order to be able to use the sportsband you first need to download the software from the Nike website. There are versions available for both Windows and OSX, though none for Linux, though I guess that’s not that surprising.

I downloaded the software and plugged in the device (the business part of it has a USB connection)

Nike+ sportsband

Nike+ sportsband USB connection

Updating the firmware on the device was easy, as was setting the time and a couple of other options. The problems arose when I tried to link the device to my Nike+ account.

For some stupid reason the desktop application won’t recognise that I’ve logged in, so it’s not able to sync the data!

Nike+ desktop app login

Fortunately there is an iPhone app which seems to do almost the same thing, so I was able to use that during my walk this afternoon, but obviously I’d prefer to use the device that I paid for!

If I can’t get the sportsband to work properly I can use the iPhone app for now. Not ideal, but it’ll have to do.

Related articles

Apple Muesli

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English: Muesli

Image via Wikipedia

As part of my diet plan there are a few very simple recipes I’m expected to follow. The apple muesli that I had this morning was incredibly tasty, though taking it out of the fridge a few minutes in advance of eating it wouldn’t hurt – it was really cold on my teeth!

The recipe instructions provided by Tesco were a bit vague, but my instructions should work out ok – it’s not a hard recipe to follow!

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Apple Muesli

A very tasty homemade muesli
Course Breakfast
Cuisine International
Keyword breakfast, muesli
Servings 1
Calories 600 kcal

Ingredients

  • 63 g. of porridge oats dry weight
  • 1 apple
  • 1 serving of semi-skimmed milk 6 fl oz or 150ml
  • 4 dried apricots
  • 25 g. of mixed nuts

Instructions

  1. Core and dice the apple
  2. Slice and dice the dried apricots
  3. Mix the fruit in a breakfast bowl
  4. Add milk
  5. Leave in fridge overnight

Recipe Notes

Leaving the prepared mix to soak overnight in the fridge means that the entire mix will be a nice consistency.
The downside to taking it straight from the fridge is that it can be quite cold

 

Eating Well But Still Hate Peanut Butter

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CHICAGO, IL - OCTOBER 12: Jars of peanut butt...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Yesterday was the first day of the new diet.

I posted yesterday about what I was meant to be eating over the course of the day and, apart from the peanut butter, I really have no complaints.

However yesterday was Saturday and I was at home. There were no temptations of any kind and I wasn’t surrounded by people eating biscuits, chocolate or anything else. Monday will be a bit more of a challenge.

Yesterday’s meals were fairly normal, though possibly a bit lighter than what I’d normally have and my daily intake of fresh fruit and vegetables was probably a bit higher than normal. The new kitchen digital scales got used a few times during the day, as I had to weigh a few things, such as the nuts and the ingredients for this morning’s breakfast.

Tracking how much water that I was drinking meant that I probably forced myself to drink a bit more than I might have done, but water is .. water, so it’s not exactly hard.

The one item on yesterday’s menu that really did not work well for me was the “snack”. Peanut butter and I simply do not get along. I’ve tried peanut butter on and off for the last 30 years, but it’s never been something that I actually like. I can happily live without it.

With that in mind I’ve removed it from the diet plan completely!

 

Tracking Physical Exercise

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Dansk: Nike+iPod Sports Kit. English: Nike+iPo...

Image via Wikipedia

As part of my “big plan” I’ll have to get more physical exercise. Being able to track how much I’ve done will involve using a pedometer and possibly Nike+.

I picked up a cheap Reebook pedometer in Argos and now I need to read the instructions!

When I was in the US last year I got some Nike runners and the Nike+ tracking device, though I haven’t actually used them yet.

The plan is to put a few podcasts and some good music on my iPhone, plugin in the headphones and start walking. At least that is the plan!

Living in Ireland, however, means that the weather is nasty a lot of the time, so walking can be quite unpleasant – who enjoys a walk when you’re cold and wet?

Attempting To Follow The Tesco Diets Plan

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Soup Served In Bread

Image by blacknight via Flickr

Eating better and having a generally healthier lifestyle is a nice goal, but it’s not easy.

One of the (many) problems with losing weight for me is that I need some kind of structured plan to follow. I’ve looked at various diets in the past, but I really don’t want to have to read a 300 page book before I can start a diet. A lot of the online services for tracking progress that I found were very American and referred to Imperial measures and foods that you simply can’t get in Ireland.

Some people have had a lot of success with WeightWatchers, but I’m really not interested in joining a group or making that kind of commitment, as I travel quite a bit and work odd hours.

So what other options are there?

One that I found is Tesco Diets.

It’s an online system (obviously) which allows you to provide all your details (weight, height, age) and you can then choose from a wide variety of diet plans.

In my case I opted for the Mediterranean diet, which has quite a lot of fresh fruit, vegetables and salad.

I’m going to try to stick with it for a couple of weeks and see how things work out. If the Mediterranean option isn’t optimal I can switch to one of the other plans available.

What I like about their system so far is that it’s quite flexible. If you don’t want to eat something you can edit your diet plan and swap it out for something that you actually like.

The online portal generates a weekly shopping list for you and you can easily mark off any items that you already have before generating a printable list to take shopping.

One thing that is “odd” is that while you can choose between a variety of supermarkets (and the plan supposedly adjusts for this) even choosing Tesco gave me items on the list that I simply could not find in my local Tesco. I’ll have to swap them out on the daily meal plans to compensate.

So what is the diet like?

Today’s plan, for example, isn’t exactly torture.

Breakfast was:

  • Bowl of wholegrain cereal with milk (I opted for Weetabix)
  • 88 g. of wholegrain breakfast cereal
  • 1 serving of semi-skimmed milk (6 fl oz or 150ml)
  • 1 banana (I’ve always liked bananas, but probably don’t eat them enough)
  • 2 slices of wholemeal bread (I prefer mine toasted so I need to work out if there’s any way to report that on the system)
  • 2 tsp of reduced sugar jam or marmalade (today was marmalade)
  • 2 tsps of reduced fat olive spread (I’m not sure how close to the exact amount I stuck, but it was pretty close)

Lunch is meant to be:

  • Bowl of soup with bread
  • 1 bowl of soup of choice (around 200ml) (I like soup so this isn’t exactly a chore!)
  • 2 slices of wholemeal bread (not sure if I’ll toast this or have it “raw”)
  • 2 tsps of reduced fat olive spread
  • 2 apples
  • 31 g. of mixed nuts (am I meant to eat that by itself? Guess it doesn’t really matter)
  • 1 tub of low fat yoghurt (125ml or 5 fl oz)

For dinner later this evening (it being Saturday my timetable’s a bit odd)

  • Bowl of soup with beans on toast – soup again, but that’s ok. I haven’t had beans on toast in quite some time, so I’m kind of looking forward to this
  • 1 bowl of soup of choice (around 200ml)
  • 4 slices of wholemeal bread
  • 1 small tin of baked beans (around 220g)
  • 1 banana
  • 2 tsps of reduced fat olive spread

So today will be a vegetarian day by the looks of things, which doesn’t really bother me.

There’s also an option on the “menu” for a snack of cracker and peanut butter.

I’m allowed as much herbal tea and water as I want, though there’s a limit on the number of cups of coffee I can have. This won’t be an issue at the weekend, but I’m not so sure how that’s going to play out during the working week.