Foodie Friday: Kefir Pros and Cons, Fighting the Flab and Getting Fit Update

Kefir?

Is anyone familiar with Kefir? Have you tried it, and do you make it at home? Kefir was recommended to me as a probiotic for gut health. At the moment I’m buying from the local supermarket.

I read this article which offers a lot of maybe’s: Top 10 health benefits of kefir.

Kefir is a cultured, fermented milk drink, originating from the mountainous region that divides Asia and Europe. It’s similar to yogurt but thinner in consistency, making it more suitable for drinking. However, it can also be thickened to form kefir yogurt.
Kefir is a good source of calcium and is rich in gut-supporting probiotic bacteria.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/health/nutrition/health-benefits-kefir

and then this

What has science shown about the effectiveness of probiotics for health conditions?
A great deal of research has been done on probiotics, but much remains to be learned about whether they’re helpful and safe for various health conditions.
*
However, in most instances, we still don’t know which probiotics are helpful and which are not. We also don’t know how much of the probiotic people would have to take or who would be most likely to benefit. Even for the conditions that have been studied the most, researchers are still working toward finding the answers to these questions.
The following sections summarize the research on probiotics for some of the conditions for which they’ve been studied.

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/probiotics-usefulness-and-safety

This is a good resource and the study goes on to list several gut related diseases, allergies and skin conditions etc. I’m on the fence. What do you think?

Diet and Fitness

If we were having coffee, we would commiserate on our dietary successes and failures and fitness regimes. I started my ‘no alcohol and low carb’ regime on July 10th and posted about it here.

Fighting the Flab and Getting Fit

I’m on my longest diet healthy eating streak ever, at 13 weeks. Wednesday morning, I held my breath as I stepped on the scales, waited for my weight to register, and then immediately stepped off. I went to the loo. I weighed myself again. How could it be—I’d put on 0.9 of a kilo, which is over 1lb? Gutted! My total weight loss for all these weeks is only 6.1 kg or around 12.12lb. Okay, it is a gradual downward progression, but I’d hoped for more. I gave myself a stern lecture. Now is not the time to become disheartened. Sigh…

I’d adopted the 80/20 low-carb diet, which, for me, is not so much about dieting but more a lifestyle change. I know if I go on a quick-fix diet, I will lose weight, but it doesn’t stay off. After the weight gain wake-up call, I will return to basics and record and review everything I eat to keep track of the carbs. I’ve tried the fasting diet, but it doesn’t work (for me) because of a medical condition. I prefer to eat a little and often. I’ve tried Keto, lost a lot of weight, and then put it back on and more because, for me, the diet was not sustainable in the long term. Maybe to lose weight, I should must further reduce my carb intake. Ponderous. Which diet worked for you?

Okay, I need to research and experiment with more healthy, low-carb recipes.

Is regular daily exercise the key to losing weight?

My fitbit is set at 5000 steps a day. With my walking issues, I find increasing beyond 5000 a challenge …but like losing weight, progress is slow but sure. I want to increase the target to 6000 steps but at the same time I don’t want to set myself up to fail, so I’ve increased the daily step count target to 5500. We will see.

As you know I’m hooked on Rick’s Zumba. I do a couple of sessions during the day of around 2000 each, between working on my book, blogging and gardening. Laughing… the rest is made up of walking and working around my garden. I’ll need to up my game and try this!

New recipes. The Chickpea Experiment

Cooking dinner I had some free oven space, so I experimented with a variation on a roasted chickpea recipe from Radically Retired.

I removed the skins, dried the chickpeas, and coated them in olive oil and curry powder. I cooked in the conventional oven for 15 minutes at 200C. They were still soft, but rather than leaving them to crisp in the oven, I finished them in the Ninja Air Fryer for quickness. Selected the Air Fry setting and cooked at 200c for 7 mins. I heard a few popping sounds and assumed they were cooked, and they were! For me delicious–not so for Mr. Piglet. The coating needed more work. Maybe I’ll try garlic and mixed herbs for the next batch.

Foodie Friday

How to Join the Foodie Friday Challenge Blog Hop

Let’s talk about food, whether it’s sharing your favourite recipes, growing fruit and vegetables, your harvest ups and downs, hints and tips, or pictures of plates of food – even diets. If it’s food-related, why not post it on your blog at any point during the week and add it to the Foodie Friday Blog Hop

• Create a post about food at any point during the following week and include the tag: Foodie Friday. You’re welcome to use previous ‘food-related’ posts.
• Link to my weekly post to create a pingback, and I will endeavour to visit and comment.
• You are welcome to include the Foodie Friday badge on your blog. If you can’t save it from the image below, please email me, and I’ll send it as a jpeg.
• Don’t forget to add a link to your post when you comment below so we can keep track and support each other.
• Please don’t forget to check out other bloggers’ posts.
• tag #foodiefriday

Other Foodie Friday Posts include:

Related Posts

Foodie Friday – Let’s Get Creative with Chickpeas!

Foodie Friday: What are the Benefits of Cider Vinegar?