Back to calorie counting

I know I have talked about intuitive eating very positively before. For a couple months, I chose to eat intuitively. It was working very well. I lost weight, I lost fat and I felt happy.

Unfortunately, 13 days ago, when I came home from a trip around the world that lasted 6 months, I got sick. Very sick. I couldn’t eat for three days and it took my appetite a week to return. I was barely eating and I could not force myself to eat more. Now that my appetite is back I realised I have been eating so little lately. I decided to log on mfp and check how many calories was I eating. Approximately 1200 per day. That is so little.

At first, I was very frustrated. I worked on upping my calories for months to now let it go to waste in a couple weeks. However, I did not freak out. It seemed like it would be a good moment to bring my calories back up. These past three days I have been eating around 1700kcal. My weight has not gone down but rather stayed oscillating around a certain number. I am not stressed about this. I need to stay strong and keep pushing. I now rapid weight loss will not last. I know slow and steady is the way to go. I am sticking to this. I am eating.

Although I was very happy eating intuitively, I understand calorie counting is what will work for me until I get used to a higher amount of calories again. It’s about my health and I am happy I can now choose to eat more over getting skinny and flabby super fast.

Do you count calories or eat intuitively? Have you done both depending on what suited you at the moment?

Apple crumble

I have been productive in the kitchen this week so I have a couple recipes to share with you. I promise some posts of diverse nature are soon to come. I want to share with you how I am doing with Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Program. I am almost done with week 2! I also have a post on intuitive eating and hitting the appropiate number of calories coming for you.

Anyway,today I will be sharing this apple crumble recipe I made on wednesday. My mom hardly ever eats dessert. She only likes fruity pies so she would never eat most of the stuff I make, unlike my dad. Therefore, I chose to bake something she would enjoy. I made this healthy apple crumble and it was very successful! First time I see my mom take seconds with dessert.

INGREDIENTS (serves 6 small portions)

• 2 apples of any kind
• 1/2c steel cut oats
• 2tbsp nuts of any kind (I used pine nuts)
• 3tsp cinnamon
• 1tsp nutmeg
• 1tbsp brown sugar (optional – I didn’t use it)
• 2tbsp butter

Pine nuts

 

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius. Chop the apples into small cubes.

Melt the butter either in a pot or in the microwave. It took 40 seconds to melt in my microwave. Then mix the melted butter with the oats in a big bowl. I recommend using your fingers for a uniform and sticky dough.

 

Mix the apples with the dough and the nuts. Then sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg. If you wish to, you can add the brown sugar here. My mother does not like sugary stuff so I chose to omit this step.

 

Put in the oven for 15 minutes and you’re done! If you put the sugar on top make sure  to check every five minutes and stir so that it doesn’t burn.

Warm and gooey

Bring it out, put it in a nice bowl or plate and enjoy. If you are not going to eat it all at once it is recommended you store it in the fridge for no longer than three days.

 

TIPS

I find pine nuts are not very popular and not very many people like them. If you are making this for a large amount of people I’d say it’s a safe bet to use almonds or walnuts instead.

Granny Smith apples are very taste but I find they do not go well with cinnamon. It is my personal opinion though so if you like the combination go ahead and use them.

You could add a bit of maple syrup (1tbsp) if you find it is not sweet enough. If you choose to do so, add it when you mix the butter and the oats for flavor uniformity.