Sugarfree Chocolate Granola

I recently got into making my own granola and I am completely converted. It's really easy and quick and it's delicious! It's not super cheap, but it is still cheaper than the nice granola at the supermarket (it just doesn't last long in my house because it's so yummy I eat it at every chance I get!).

I googled a bit and read through a few different recipes, then I experimented and adjusted them until I was happy with it so feel free to play around with this recipe.

This makes about 1kg of granola depending on the exact amounts you use. It only lasts me about 5 days so I tend to do 1.5x or double it.

Ingredients:
(apart from the oats and oil most of these ingredients are optional, and all ingredients can be substituted, e.g. another grain instead of oats, different spices etc. you could also add chocolate chips to make it extra yummy but of course it would then not be sugar free...)
4 cups oats
1/2 or 1 cup chopped nuts
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup seeds
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg'
1 tsp ginger
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup oil (I use olive oil)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups dried fruit (larger fruits chopped)

Method:
1. Mix oats, nuts, seeds, salt, spices and cocoa powder in a large bowl
2. Add honey, oil and vanilla, mix until evenly distributed
3. Spread out on lined baking trays (not too thick or it will take ages to bake)
4. Bake in the oven for 45 mins -1 hour on a low heat (about 150 C) stirring occasionally.
5. Wait to cool then stir in dried fruit and store in an airtight container

Then ENJOY! (I'm off to eat some granola right now, writing this has made me hungry for granola!)

5:2 Tips and Tricks

Fasting isn't easy. As much as I love the 5:2 diet and what it does for my waist-line and my health, I don't always (or often!) love the fasting days. It can be really hard, but there are some tricks that will help you get through the day.

Tips:

• Water, water, water - drink as much water as you can, it fills your stomach and keeps you hydrated, it can also distract you from wanting to eat. For flavour you can add some mint leaves or a small amount of lemon juice.
• Tea - if you can't drink any more water, tea is good. Strictly it should be black or herbal but I do often have tea with skimmed milk and ignore the calories (naughty I know, but it's only a few calories!). Find a herbal tea you like (I like mint green, or peppermint or camomile) for some variety. I also like to make fresh mint tea with mint from the garden, this makes a nice ice tea too for summer fasting days.

• Fizzy drinks - not the ones full of sugar, plain fizzy water is good if you like it as it seems to fill you up a bit more than still water. I don't like plain fizzy water so I have it with some no added sugar squash. If I'm really struggling, like if I have a long day or am being extra active, I might treat myself to a diet coke.
• Although it feels counter-intuitive, I find fasting a lot easier if I don't eat much the night before. It's very tempting to stuff yourself the evening before a fasting day but I find a small dinner and no snacks after really helps. I am much less hungry the next day and hardly notice that I'm fasting.
• If none of the above work and you're really suffering, eat something low calorie. There's no point killing yourself over this. If you can, take the calories from a later meal, but if you have to go over your 500 (or 600 for men, lucky things!) it's not the end of the world. The book suggests that you shouldn't regularly go even a few calories over but I think that even if I end up eating a couple of hundred more calories (I very rarely do) then I'm still eating a LOT less than on a normal day, and I've still had my 16 hours fasting period.

Things to remember:

• Hunger comes and goes so try to ignore it or drink one of the above and it should go away within an hour, I find my hunger patterns are the same on fasting and non-fasting days, I just don't get to satisfy them by eating on a fasting day
• YOU CAN EAT TOMORROW!!! I find this really helps, especially when it gets towards the end of the day when I'm most hungry. Once it's evening, it feels like I've nearly succeeded so it's a waste to give in and it's only a few hours until I can eat (not counting the hours I'm asleep as I'm not conscious of hunger then!)
• Be flexible - 5:2 is a lifestyle rather than a quick fix diet, so it needs to fit your life. I have 2 standard days (Monday and Thursday) but often move one or both to fit around my week. I also miss days if I can't fit them around what I'm doing or if I'm on holiday. Sometimes I do half days where I fast until the evening then have a normal meal (for example if I am going out for a meal and can't move my day). I have been known to do a normal fast day and then eat a cupcake in the evening (I had to test them to check they were edible!).

If possible, it's probably best to be as strict as you can manage for the first month or so whilst you get used to it, but then, be flexible. If you are fasting 2 days a week, every week, an extra few calories every now and then, or a missed day, isn't going to be a problem.

5:2 Recipes and Meal Plans

So, I know it's been AGES since my first post on doing the 5:2 diet! I finally got around to taking some photos of the meals I eat on my fasting days so I could make this post about recipes and meals.

Here are some of my go-to meals for fasting days. I don't like to cook much on a fasting day, I prefer a quick, easy meal but I do like some variety and over the year I've been on 5:2 I've built up quite a repertoire of fasting-friendly meals. I wouldn't really call these 'recipes' as most don't involve much preparation or cooking.

I tend to skip breakfast, have about 100 calories for lunch, sometimes a 50 calorie afternoon snack and the rest of my calories for dinner. If this isn't how you like to fast, just adapt it to work for you. Most of these meals can be added to or cut down to fit your requirements.

Lunches (approx. 100 calories)

• a carrot (41 calories per 100g) and a fromage frais (47 calories)
• 3 cream crackers (33 calories each)
• a mushroom (4 calories) and a low fat yoghurt (100 calories)
• a small apple (60 calories) and a low fat cheese triangle (25 calories)
• salad - mix and match what you like, some of my ingredients are: grated carrot (40 calories), lettuce (5 calories), tomato (18 calories) extra light mayonnaise (11 calories), frozen peas (13 calories for 20g), frozen sweetcorn (17 calories for 20g), beetroot (19 calories for 50g)

Dinners

• Soup with 1 slice of toast - homemade soups can be about 100 calories (fresh or frozen veg boiled in water with 1/4 stock cube and you can add some low fat yoghurt when serving), tinned are usually around 200 calories for the whole tin, bread is about 100 calories a slice
• Wrap pizzas - low fat wrap (weight watchers are around 100 calories), spread with tomato puree, top with any veg you like (I usually have red pepper, onion, sweetcorn and spinach but anything you like) then 30g of low fat mozarella, bake for about 10 mins
• Porridge - maybe an odd choice for dinner but I love porridge and this one fills you up nicely, 60g of oats made with water, a splash of skimmed milk and 3 teaspoons of skinny hot chocolate is about 250 calories
  
• Stir fry - the value range stir fry packs from supermarkets are about 30 calories per 100g. I have 200g veg with 50g noodles (about 160 calories) and a teaspoon of soy sauce (22 calories) = 244 calories

• Salad - see above in lunch but to add a few calories for dinner I sometimes have chickpeas (50g = 60 calories), or low fat cheese (calories depend on which type but usually about 70 calories per serving) or low fat hummous (50g = 120 calories)
• Baked sweet potato (86 calories for 100g) with sour cream (1 tablespoon = about 40 calories)

Desserts

• Low fat yoghurt (50 calories per 100g) with one of: small apple (50 calories), raisins (42 calories for 14g), honey (50 calories per tablespoon)
• Biscuit - the following biscuits are all around 50 calories each: value chocolate chip cookie, jaffa cake, custard cream, bourbon
• Skinny hot chocolate (40 calories)
• 3 squares of chocolate (100 calories) - I don't really recommend this as I find it tends to make me want more and feel hungrier but if you're really craving chocolate....

Snacks

• small clementine (about 20 calories)
• yoghurt tube (40 calories)
• fruit compote (baby food pots or pouches - 50-70 calories) 
• popcorn (air-popped, 31 calories per cup) with salt or small amount of sugar

Living 5:2

So, I know this isn't really related to what we usually post about but I've been doing the 5:2 diet for nearly 10 months now and I wanted to share a few tips and recipes I've learned and also a bit about what it's like. I've decided to do this over several posts as I started to write it and it got REALLY long! So, this first post is general stuff, then I will do one on recipes and one on tips for getting through a fasting day.

So here's an overview of my experience on 5:2:

First of all, weight loss: I've lost about 6kg since I started. It might not sound like much to some people but I didn't have very much to lose (my BMI has dropped from 23 to 20.8). I'm happy with where I am now.

Health: Although I initially did go on the diet to lose weight (I had been struggling to shift the couple of kgs by exercising and eating healthily), I was also interested in the health benefits. There are lots of claims about how it's good for all sorts of things (best check out the official website or book, I'm no doctor...). I can't measure most of them and I didn't really have any previous health problems but I do feel better on the diet. I also feel like I can eat healthy fatty foods on my feast days without worrying about putting on weight, which means I can focus more on getting the right nutrients instead of counting calories or grams of fat.

Psychological: I feel better for having a break from eating a couple of times a week. If I overindulge at all at the weekend, or at a meal out or anywhere (which, to be fair, happens a LOT) then I don't feel so bad knowing I'll be fasting the next day or soon after. I feel like my body gets a break and gets to clear out.

Exercise: I often go to the gym, swim or cycle on fasting days, I don't notice any difference really.

Side-effects: For a few weeks I felt nauseous on my fasting days. I don't know why that was, and I couldn't find much information about others feeling the same but I found that fizzy drinks or tea sometimes helped and I was fine the next day. It has now stopped happening, but I don't know why.... I think sometimes I'm more irritable on fasting days. I work with kids and sometimes I think I have less tolerance when I'm fasting but it's hard to measure. By the evening, I'm more likely to be short-tempered but I think if you recognise why it helps to alleviate it.

Fitting it into life: It might sound a bit cliched but I do see 5:2 as a lifestyle, at least for this stage of my life (I think it might be hard to do it if you had to cook for and feed children on fasting days). As it's a lifestyle, I am not always strict about it but I do try to stick to it when possible. If I miss a day, or if I eat a few more calories, or even a cupcake, it's not the end of the world. I'll be fasting again in a few days and the majority of the time, I do it properly. Sometimes I fast until evening and then eat a normal meal (if I'm going out for a meal for instance). Basically, I make it fit around my life. Whenever I can (unless I'm on holiday!) I fast properly, but if it's inconvenient, I don't worry about breaking the rules for a day.

Coping: I know some people struggle with 5:2. In my family, 5 of us have tried it, 2 of us do it properly now and 1 does 'fasting days' but I'm pretty sure he doesn't count calories! I found the first day I tried easier than I expected. I was surprised with how much I could eat of some things (and how little of others!). The second day was the hardest I think, then after that it got easier. Now, some days are harder than others but I know I can do it, and I know I can eat tomorrow.