Wednesday, October 10, 2012

On creature munching...

I recently had an appointment with a dietician, who informed me that I wasn't eating enough protein. this came as a bit of a shock, considering the fact that I had eschewed carbohydrates to some extent, replacing them with foodstuffs which used to be critters. Indeed, as a girl whose youth had been misspent playing strength-related sports, and as a result has a solidly solid mass of muscle to maintain (DEXA scans are awesome. If you've ever wanted to know your bone density or lean muscle mass, this is the way), the amount I was ingesting was nowhere near adequate. It was in fact about half of what it should have been. Surprise.

This does however explain why it is that during debating room parties I tend to be able to stay rather not shitfaced... but I digress.

Either way, I was provided with ways to up my protein intake to a level more suited to one such as myself:

Breakfast - Protein shake and 200g greek yoghurt.
That's a lot of yoghurt. A LOT.

Morning tea - 1/2 cup of nuts.
This doesn't sound like all that much until you actually look at it. To provide some perspective, make a fist. Now cut it in half. That's about half a cup.

Lunch - Protein shake and can of tuna.
Protein shakes aren't all that bad, as it happens. They're like Up and Go, only without the strange mushy weetbix flavour.

Afternoon tea - Protein bar.
Sensing a trend yet?

Dinner - Meat totalling ca. 60g protein i.e. 300g chicken or 250g steak.
Add to that all of the vegetables required to force in some vitamins, and the orange a day I've started eating in order to allay scurvy.

Suffice to say, it's a lot of protein. Five days into this regimen, I had a bit of a breakdown.
I came home after a day of university, to find a raw chicken breast sitting in the fridge. Faced with another evening eating 'chicken with lemon' or 'chicken with garlic' (Exactly what they sound like) which is all I have time to cook, I lay down on the sofa and almost burst into tears, much to the surprise of my mother who had never thought she'd see the day when her most carnivorous daughter would say "I hate meat".

So now, in an attempt to continue ingesting the protein (which one would assume would be having an effect on my crappy nails... I'm waiting), I will be trialling different recipes in an attempt to find things which are palateable.

Tonight, I began preparing tomorrow's dinner - chicken marinated in buttermilk.

So far, exceedingly stress relieveing - I quite enjoyed bashing the chicken with a mallet until it was thin. Hopefully it will prove to be more palateable than 'chicken poached in chicken stock', a suggestion of my mother's which turned out looking and tasting sodden and white.

Nigella recommends dredging the chicken (once it has marinated for 24-48 hours) in crushed Ritz crackers, but this is far too low-protein. So I shall dredge mine in almond meal, in a depressing attempt to get more protein into a meal which is already so meaty it would leave a T-Rex prowling for a nice leafy salad.

Of course on a more entertaining note, at 56 kg of muscle, I have more lean muscle mass than my younger sister has cumulatively.
Yay me.

And now for some meat-related humour - go to 1:40.