The Hunger

Have you ever experience The Hunger?
The grumbling, the rumbling, the insane little monster clattering, thumping and crashing around in your belly leaving you with a feeling of utter empty-stomachness that you glance over to any person (or animal or plant etc.) in the room and instead see a big chunk of food?

Have you ever eaten a full plate of food, thinking surely this will fill you up and then there is no change in how you feel? Even after eating slowly, chewing lots and putting you fork down after every. single. mouthful.

Water won't help you with this predator. You can't run. You can't hide. You most definitely can't distract yourself.

Ok, ok I'll stop scaring the little children now ;)
You know what I mean though right? Those days when you seem to eat and eat and yet never feel full? I have been experiencing this lately... more than usual (you all know I generally eat a lot anyway!) and I'm blaming my runs. Not really- because I love running and would never want to upset it. No, I am concluding it to be my runs from a tested hypothesis. Bam.

Just look at today's breakfast:

 Overnight oats in an almost empty jar of mixed nut butter, green grapes and a nudie juice

 Yes, it was quite a sweet brekky... but I didn't care at that moment, I needed food.

 I could really trick people into thinking I eat full jars of nut butter for brekky with photos like the one above. Not to worry though... ta-da!

....Guys, I was still hungry after all that and had a handful of raw nuts too. Can you believe it?
I guess I wanted to write this post because I wanted to not only preach about listening to your body but also add to the credibility of my wise, wise words by including my very own personal experience.

I believe that every signal your body gives you is given for a reason, like if your body hurts it may mean that whatever you're doing is not right (maybe you're running wrong, or your sitting for too long, or you've done something your body wasn't ready for), if you are extremely fatigued it could mean your pushing your body too hard- over exercising, not eating enough/ right nutritional requirements or your over-stressed, Your body heats up when you have a fever to kill the bugs that make you sick, it'll become red and itchy indicating an allergic reaction, your body is super smart and and will tell you if something's not right/ needs to be changed if you listen to it. Which is why if you're super hungry, your body needs extra fuel and you should feed it.

Now, I'm not talking about that little niggling 'I could eat something' because you're bored hunger. I'm talking about the body screaming at you to bite into something, anything, so the amylase can break it down, the oesophagus can swallow and peristalsis can push it on into the stomach/ beast.

That type of hunger can lead to all sorts of problems though...

• Firstly the hunger can mean you reach for something quicker, packaged and less than healthy to suppress your scary alter-ego (chips, microwave pie, two minute noodles, many slices of white bread)
• Secondly, you will probably end up eating a lot faster than usual thanks to the burning desire to get said food into your body
• Point 2 can result in the creation of a  hypothetical muzzle for your natural fullness signals, ergo resulting in a lot more food (and from point 1- maybe not the best choices) being consumed
• Lastly at the end of that meal (or large amount of random foods) instead of feeling happy, fed and ready to go, you're bloated, over full and maybe feeling a little bit sick.

Now I feel like I might be going off on a totally different tangent... as usual.
What I'm saying is- if you have experienced the hunger, feed yourself, you're body needs it for some reason or another, just make sure you're careful as the hunger can make you choose less-than-good food choices and you can also over do it.

Here are some of my top tips from my own personal experience with THE HUNGER!

1. Bring healthy snacks with you everywhere. I generally always have nuts/ trail mix/ fruit with me
2. This is also the case if you're super-duper bite-your-arm-off hungry. You should definitely make a filling, healthy, nutritious and yummy something or other, but to make sure you can think properly while waiting for your meal to come together have a little snack (see above)
3. Please, please, please re-fuel with loving and nutritious and filling foods and make sure you eat slowly and enjoy it. Listen to your body and when you feel satisfied stop.
4. Don't ignore THE HUNGER. Your body is telling you something- listen to it!
   

Here's a little insider into a typical lunch that feeds the beast:

 A multi-grain roll with hommus, steamed pumpkin, spinach, veggie burger, grilled capsicum, eggplant, zucchini and sliced tomato:

 With the leftover stuff on the side (the roll is quite small, so there is always a side salad of the filling!)

 Or a big bowl o' veggies:

 Chopped, broccoli, brussels sprouts, capsicum, tomato, corn, kale, zucchini, lentils and satay tofu all chucked in a fry pan with garlic and some water, cooked for about 5 mins until soft and then mixed with a cup of cooked brown rice:

So you see, I eat a large amount of food when the hunger strikes, but I make sure it's the right stuff, filled with lots of filling and delicious veggies, healthy fats and energising low-GI carbohydrates.

What do you think?
Please tell me I'm not the only one with THE HUNGER!
How (if you do have it) do you deal with it?
Has your body ever told you something amazing?

Bye for now friends! :D

Perfect pumpkin pancakes!

Happy Saturday everyone! How are we all feeling? I am pumped, energised and full of food. Not just any food though...
PUMPKIN PANCAKES!

Pancake Sunday mysteriously morphed into pancake Saturday when I woke up with a craving for... pancakes (how many times can I fit 'pancake' into a sentence?)

Seeing as it's Saturday = grocery shopping day, I always want to use up some veggies that were leftover from the week... hello pumpkin at the bottom of the veggie drawer!

I steamed him up, squashed him down and swirled him round and round into the batter, creating a soft, fluffy and (sorry in advance) moist pancake bursting with cinnamon and oozing with love. Especially when topped off with nut butter (although I'm sure some maple syrup wouldn't be too bad either!)

Did I mention they're wheat, dairy, sugar free and vegan?

Did I mention they're utterly delicious?

Ok, ok.. I'll stop.. how about the recipe?

Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes
Serves 1
Ingredients:
25g wholemeal spelt flour
15g rolled oats
10g oat bran
1 tablespoon psyllium husks (optional, makes the pancakes stick together better)
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
A few big dashes of cinnamon (to your liking... I like A LOT!)
1/3 cup pureed pumpkin (fresh/ canned)
milk of choice/ water (about 1/2 cup)

Method:
1. If using fresh pumpkin, cut up and steam for around 25 mins until nice and soft- then mash it up!

 2. Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine:

3. Add in the pumpkin mash and about 2 tablespoons liquid (milk/ water- I used water) and stir. Thew mixture will be quite dry and crumbly. Keep slowly adding liquid until mixture comes to pancake batter consistency (slightly thicker than pouring cream)

4. Heat a non-stick frypan with some oil/ butter over medium heat and then spoon on your mix (probably stick to smaller pancakes as these guys could fall apart if made too big without the eggs.)
5. After a few mins, flip over and cook for another few mins until both sides are golden brown:

6. Turn onto some paper towel to drain away the oil and then top with anything you like (peanut butter and cashew butter for me!)
7. ENJOY!

Of course a few measly pancakes weren't going to fill me up, so alongside them was a gigantic green smoothie!

In the blender went:
1 chopped frozen banana, 1/2 chopped frozen avocado, 1 big handful of kale, 1 big handful of spinach, 3 scoops of greek yoghurt, a scoop of vanilla protein powder and about 1/3 cup oat milk- all whazzed up together until smoothy smooth.

 Delicious.

But back to the pancakes!

 Perfectly sweet, beautifully orange and generously spread with nut butter... what more do you need?

Pancakes truly are breakfast's take on a taco...

These definitely put a smile on my face :)

And also made for a truly heartbreaking last bite!

I'm sure they'll make a reappearance though ;)

What about you?
Do you like pancakes?
What's your favourite type? I've got to say, I think vanilla protein pancakes could be my fav!
Do you ever put pumpkin puree in your baking? I think it just adds a little extra something :)

Bye for now friends! Have a great day! :D

Thinking Out Loud- Christmas edition?

Hello Friends! Is everyone having a fantabulous day? If not- do something you love that makes you happy so you do have a fantabulous day! (words of wisdom from yours truly ;)
 It's Thursday, I'm feeling random, so let's Think Out Loud! Yes? Yes! Lettuce do it! Thanks as always to Spoons for the awesome link-up!

Let's start at the very beginning... a very good place to start :D

1. First of all I need you to see the size of this banana:

It's so teeny! It's probably the cutest thing I've ever seen (yeah...) and looks even cuter peeled:

However, cuteness is about the only thing this little guy has going for him- other than that, he's good for nothing. Too small to make a creamy dreamy smoothie, too small to satisfy a hunger pang, although he was a pretty good size to sweeten and cream-ify my oats. So I guess he wasn't all bad. The little cutey can stay!

2. On the topic of food... I seem to be going crazy over all things muesli/oats/ nut butter. Every breakfast this week seemed to feature these scrumptious foods:

Like this bowl of black grape ice cream (1 handful black grapes + 1 large frozen banana whazzed up in a food processor until smooth) topped with cashew butter granola.

When I actually go to eat it:

;)

Or this bowl of simple banana cinnamon oats (1/2 cup rolled oats with a lot of cinnamon, 1 chopped banana, some chia seeds and about 1 cup of almond milk- bubbled on stove for a few mins)

Topped with PB because what are oats without nut butter?
Well, they'[re still oats... but it's not the same!

 On the side- some mango fro-yo (1/2 frozen mango whazzed up with 3 big spoons of greek yoghurt)

 And eaten with some green and gold spoons because I was feeling very Australian.
Or I just happened to pick out those two colours when reaching for spoons. Either way.

 3. One breakfast that didn't feature oats (though did feature a lot of peanut butter) was my all-time favourite brekky:

 A peanut butter and banana toastie. Best. Meal. Ever.

 With a side of blackberry fro-yo (a handful of frozen blackberries with 3 big scoops of greek yoghurt)

 I don't think this brekky will ever get old and it never fails to fill me up (impressive if you know me)

 Nom.

5. Enough about food though. For now :)

I'm in the spirit of Christmas! The tree's up, the carols are blaring, the days are getting hot, hot, hot!

The Christmas tree (beautifully decorated by moi and siblings)

Now I know it's probably a bit funny for all you Northern hemisphere folk who enjoy a cool/white Christmas but I guess seeing as I've only ever known warm, sunny December 25th's then it's completely normal for me. Don't worry- we don't miss out:

 6. Now- secret santa. 

Yes- the sneaky little gift giving fun we all enjoy either with friends/ family/ peers- but seriously and truthfully.... whose secret santa identity ever remains secret? Is it just me and my friends or does everyone else figure out who has who either before or as soon as the presents are brought out?

It's either the handwriting on the secret present or the little smile watching their person open it, or the type of gift, or the blurting out of who you got, but either way we never seem to be able to keep our identities secret. In all honesty, I think it just adds to the fun :)

Favourite holiday movie hands down!

7. I think I definitely need to experience a white Christmas at some point in my life though, as that strange tingling in my gut and increased pulse can only be interpreted as jealousy when I see pictures like this:

 8. Ok, so I hadn't planned on talking about Christmas so much in this post- but I guess that's what happens when it's EXACTLY 2 WEEKS TIL CHRISTMAS!!!

And I think that wraps things up quite nicely!

 

Do you have an obsession with oats and nut butter?

What's your favourite oat / nut butter combo?

Hot or white Christmas?

 

Like reading random thoughts? There'll be plenty more over at Spoons, where everyone gets to think- out loud!

 Bye for now folks! :D