Remember the motto: tapping persistently breaks the stone

Way back in a previous life I had some Welsh connections. Proper, deep in the valleys, farming folk whose first language was Cymraeg. I learnt a few Welsh words, most of which I’ve since forgotten but one old traditional saying stuck with me: dyfal donc a dyr a garreg. It translates as ‘tapping persistently breaks the stone’ and probably harks back to the slate quarrying days. It serves as a good reminder that there’s no quick fix on the diet plan I’ve designed for myself. Losing just one pound per week can seem like slow progress, especially if you are measuring it in kilograms! Nevertheless, I’m still on track, have never felt hungry and I’m sticking with it.

When I left you last week I was just about to take up skipping. Well, it turns out not to be as easy as I’d imagined. Just because you loved skipping when you were eight, and you could do crossover hands and double loops, doesn’t mean that you’ll get straight back into it forty-five years later! The Decathlon skipping rope probably wasn’t the best buy. It has some pretty lousy feedback and I was a bit annoyed that the Independent’s best-buy rope was not much more on Amazon. If I ever get the hang of it, I’ll probably up grade. Still, every time I practise I get a bit better, but it’s a bit too intense to do every day, so I’m trying to intersperse with some yoga and pilates, plus a vague plan to start the slow jogging again.

The skipping does add quite nicely to the daily Fitbit totals, but I noticed that I still wasn’t achieving 10,000 steps every day. No problem when I’m having a day off, but working in front of the computer doesn’t add the miles. Hmm … time to look for a solution. And I found it. Walking on the spot. Yes, believe it or not, that actually is a thing. There’s even YouTube videos that tell you how to do it. Apparently, ‘normal’ walking uses 300 calories an hour, and walking ‘in place’, as they call it, only 40 calories less. So, it was time to winch the sit-stand desk up to its highest position (something I rarely do) and try walking in front of the computer screen. One afternoon I added over 3,000 steps; that’s nearly two-and-a-half kilometres.

So, what else have I been doing apart from still trying to increase ‘output’? This week I discovered a great new vegan recipe for a pancake or tortilla replacement, both of which often contain dairy and eggs. I was inspired by the Good Eatings' blog recipe for a Japanese pancake called Okonomiyaki. I did successfully make this on first attempt, complete with the pickled vegetable salad, though unfortunately not with the Oatly cream, as this isn’t available here in France. It’s a fabulous recipe, as is the rest of Malin’s blog and YouTube channel and I encourage you to explore them. Then, towards the end of the week I was running out of ideas and had a whole heap of odds and ends in the fridge: three spring onions, a quarter of a red pepper, a few rubbery mushrooms. Why not just make the pancake in a ‘plain’ version and throw in all this veg? Result. The mixture makes two huge, large frying-pan sized portions, so you could easily share one or save for the next day. It’s great cold. However, at only 442 for the whole pancake you could pair it with a rocket salad and still be under 500 cals.

Recipe of the week: Chickpea flour pancakes

To make two you’ll need:

1 ½ cups of chickpea flour

½ cup rice flour

1 ½ cups water

½ sachet levure chimique

Two or three cups of sliced veg: your choice

Mix the flours and levure chimique in a large bowl. Gradually add the water and beat with a whisk to make a silky batter. Stir in the sliced veg and mix to coat well. Heat a large non-stick frying pan to a good medium heat (I found that no oil was necessary, though if you prefer just add one teaspoonful and wipe round with a piece of kitchen paper). Pour in half the mix, spread out to an even layer and cover (I just use another frying pan turned upside-down, balanced over the top). After six to seven minutes check it is cooked through, either flip over or turn out onto a plate and then slide back into the pan, so you cook the other side. This takes about three or four minutes. Repeat with the remaining half of the mix. When golden brown both sides, turn out onto a plate and enjoy with a salad.

Tip: 

It’s helpful to split the liquid mix equally into two bowls or jugs and share the veg between them before you start cooking the first pancake. It’s easy to misjudge the amount of liquid and leave the second pancake recipient a bit short!