found out yesterday that I have covid and honestly getting it this far in when I don't even leave the house or see anyone is just embarrassing like how did this happen

Okay guys, I need some reassurance that I'm doing the right thing here. It's going to get pretty deep so consider this your warning.

As you know, I've suffered with my mental health a lot this year. And, as you do in times of trouble, I turned to my friends. Well, who I thought were my friends.

One of my friends (let's call her Sally) let me stand on her doorstep and pour my heart out to her back in June. I told her how I didn't want to be here anymore, and how my mum was too scared to leave me alone in the house in case I did something to myself. I told her how I had often contemplated hurting myself, believing that she would understand as only a few years ago, I helped her through a similar time.

I know we don't give to receive but I can't deny I wasn't hurt when I didn't hear from her until my birthday over a month later.

If lockdown has given me anything, it's given me time to think. And I realised that throughout the 10 years we've known each other, it's been a very one sided friendship with me putting in all the effort.

After my birthday, I decided to test my theory. I didn't hear a single thing from Sally, and with the likes of social media at our fingertips, it was heartbreaking to see her breaking restrictions, going out with other friends, and travelling miles to see her new boyfriend.

I've never wanted to be at the top of someone's priorities, but it would be nice just to be on their list.

To cut the rest of this story short, I finally saw Sally in September when she came round with a birthday present that was 2 months late. She said a lot of bullshit to me, but here are some highlights (and what I thought, but didn't say in brackets):

"I knew something was wrong with you" (1. I told you months ago. 2. Then why didn't you fucking ask me?)

"I'm so annoyed with people acting like Covid doesn't exist. Apart from going to work I haven't left the house" (Liar. You fucking liar. How dare you.)

"If you need me, text me." (Or you could actually just ask me if I'm okay)

We haven't spoken since. A month after this and having heard nothing, I deleted her from all my social media for my own mental health, knowing that I'll just get frustrated and upset. I've cut her out of my life because I keep telling myself that it'll be better for me in the long run to focus my energy as a friend on people who actually appreciate it. But every so often, like today, I get the urge to message her.

Am I being too harsh? Or am I doing the right thing for myself? I'm asking you guys because you don't know me in real life, and I always value your opinions.

Before I sign off, as a side note, I just want to remind you guys of something. For me, my terrible 2020 started before Covid hit with the sudden death of my beautiful canine best friend. This led me into unknown territory with my mental health, and the diagnosis of anxiety and depression. I'm so much better now than I was at the beginning of the year, but I still have my bad days. If you know someone who is hurting, please reach out to them. I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by loved ones and I have an absolutely amazing therapist who has made the world a less scary place for me. Even if it's just a simple "how are you?", it's something. If you are that person who's hurting, I'm telling you know that you are not alone. It might feel terrifying, but talking to someone about it is one step on the road to recovery, and that's always good. Find what works for you. You can do what I did and find solace in shows and books, or celebrities and musicians (Jared Padalecki's You Define You campaign has been a massive help to me, for example). But please, whoever you are, always be the person you want to be, the friend you would want someone to be to you.

I am here for all of you should you ever need a random 21 year old from a small English town to talk to.

Thank you so much for your support this year and for taking the time to read this.

All the best x

Junior Doctor Shenanigans - Preparing for the Second Wave:

I’m now three-quarters of the way through my Geriatrics block, which has ended up being far more interesting than I expected it would be and is fairly chilled all things considered, with the exception of the odd 81-hour week (which is probably bordering on illegal but I doubt our rota administrator cares). One of the main highlights is the interesting cast of characters among our patients. Elderly people are more prone to delirium when they’re unwell and many of our patients already have dementia, which is how you wind up having insults like ‘Bampot!’ screamed at you when you’re wandering along a corridor, or arriving to work to find out that one of the patients tried to set fire to their table overnight. 

One particularly adorable 91-year-old lady was extremely resistant to our attempts to gain IV access despite needing antibiotics through a drip; managing to push us away with a surprising degree of strength while insisting she was currently on an airplane and that we would have to try again later. During one of my turns, she managed to grab my wrist and attempted to break it, though thankfully she wasn’t that strong 😅

There are clear guidelines in place for who the nurses should page in any given situation. FY1s should be paged about non-urgent tasks or unwell patients who are clinically stable, FY2s like myself should be paged if someone is more unwell and needs a senior review, and registrars (the most senior you can be before becoming a consultant) should be paged for very unstable patients who may be approaching a peri-arrest situation. The problem is that nurses don’t like paging seniors, so the poor FY1s get pestered constantly during on-call shifts when they’re already swamped, often about things which are completely out-of-their-depth. On my nights I tried to reduce the risk of this by telling every nurse I could find that if someone was really unwell they should page *me* instead of bothering my FY1, but sure enough my pager remained silent while my poor FY1 had to call me on multiple occasions to pass on the message that someone was really unwell on the other side of the hospital.

Quite a few of us on Geriatrics have moved up from the same district hospital, which has certainly helped ease the terror of settling in to an entirely new environment. I particularly enjoy when there’s a few of us on the same on-call shift and we all meet up for lunch to reminisce about how rogue our old hospital was, while doctors who have only known life in city-hospitals listen on in horror. 

Despite knowing that a second wave of Covid-19 cases was inevitable, I don’t think anything has prepared us for how quickly things would escalate. Two weeks ago there were only rumours of scattered cases around the hospital and it seemed to be fairly well-contained, but now there are wards which are riddled with positive cases and staff are dropping like flies, either due to testing positive themselves or because of sick-contacts. It doesn’t help that my current hospital is nowhere near as good at updating staff on the situation as my old one was - I learned about an outbreak on one of the wards from my mum sharing a newspaper article on Whatsapp long before the hospital decided to email us about it.

On Day Six of a seven-day week, me and my equally exhausted FY1 learned three hours into the shift that two of our juniors had tested positive and that our weekend on-call team (which is fairly sparse to begin with) had to lose two members - including our senior - due to contact-tracing. Thankfully the consultant who was on with us was incredible, managing to organise last-minute weekend cover from equally incredible volunteers while leading a very busy ward-round. However, while waiting for senior cover to arrive, *I* ended up being the unfortunate carrier of the registrar’s page, which felt a little like holding a ticking time-bomb in my pocket. Thankfully it only went off once and I was standing next to the consultant at the time, so my duties were limited to taking a message before passing the phone over with a panicked ‘Help!’ written across my face. 

One patient at the end of that horrid week thoroughly broke my heart to the point where I needed to have a good cry when I got home. She was a 99-year-old lady who was very unwell with a chest infection, and to make matters worse her blood results suggested she’d had a recent heart attack which had been missed (likely due to lack of symptoms). The main indicator of this was her troponin level - a cardiac protein which is released into the bloodstream when the heart muscle is damaged. In our particular labs, levels above 30 are usually a bad sign; this lady’s level was 190,000. It became clear very quickly that she was going to die and that keeping her comfortable was the best option, and because one relative is allowed to visit in these cases, we were able to arrange for her daughter to come and see her. The issue was that her daughter lived 500 miles away and would have to drive up, so needless to say we spent the day on tenterhooks hoping that we wouldn’t have to call her en-route to tell her that she was too late. Thankfully her mum was a remarkable trooper. She remained fairly settled and bright all day, and the look of sheer happiness on her face when her daughter finally walked into the room was so heartbreaking I’m surprised we all managed to resist the temptation to burst into tears.

Most of the patients/staff members I know of who’ve tested positive for Covid-19 either had no symptoms or symptoms you wouldn’t necessarily associate with the Big Three (fever, cough, loss of taste/smell). The main culprits I’ve come across have been headaches, fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, delirium, or falls, whereas some patients who develop sudden respiratory symptoms that fit Covid-19 to a tee end up testing negative on the swabs. Which is mildly concerning considering how prone I am to tension headaches and just feeling generally knackered...

Part of me still wonders if I already had Covid during the first wave and lucked out by being asymptomatic, but there definitely seems to be more resignation among medical staff this time around that getting it is inevitable. It’s spreading too quickly and the governmental measures to prevent it seem so flimsy this time around that we’ve just accepted that one day *we’ll* end up being the ones making our rota administrator’s job a nightmare by phoning in sick with a cough. 

I feel I should end on a hopeful note, as one thing that’s become clear is that we’re so much better at dealing with the virus this time around. The hospital put restrictions in place earlier, we’re testing patients (and staff) far more frequently, and we actually have evidence supporting our treatments, whereas before our approach to management was mostly guesswork. One consultant explained that he’d seen a Covid-19 positive patient recently who was very unwell and breathless on admission and would most likely have deteriorated quickly had he presented in March, but showed improvement within a day thanks to Dexamethasone. The thought of a second wave hitting our hospitals sucks and we’re all as sick of this virus as everyone else, but we’re far less terrified of it this time around 😊

That said, if the second wave stops me from being able to rotate to Neonates in December then I swear I’m going to fight the virus with my bare hands... 

COVID19 Updates: 03/20/2020

Italy: At least 14 Italian doctors have lost their lives in the battle against #COVID19 as of Thursday, local media reported. More than 2,600 Italian health workers have contracted the #coronavirus, accounting for 8.3% of the country's total.

Germany: BREAKING - Bavaria (Germany) imposes quasi **curfew** to contain the #COVID19 outbreak in the federal state. Effective tonight for two weeks. Police will enforce, high penalties for violation threatened. Other federal states in Germany will follow.

Brazil: BRAZIL PRESIDENT BOLSONARO SAYS JUNE LIKELY TO BE THE MOST CRITICAL MONTH FOR CORONAVIRUS

Germany: BREAKING - Several automotive suppliers in Bavaria are switching production to protective equipment, disinfectants, and respirator masks amid #COVID19. Production output is expected as high as several tens of thousands of masks per day by next week.

India: 'India must prepare for a tsunami of coronavirus cases' Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy has warned that India could soon be dealing with a "tsunami" of coronavirus cases.

UK: An exhausted nurse has urged panic-buyers to think about other people after finding supermarket shelves empty.

India: Number of coronavirus positive cases in India rise to 223: Health Ministry

Italy: ITALY'S LOMBARDY REGIONAL HEAD SAYS GOVERNMENT HAS AGREED TO USE ARMY TO IMPOSE LOCKDOWN IN HIS REGION

Italy: ITALY'S LOMBARDY REGIONAL HEAD FONTANA SAYS LATEST DATA SHOWS NO SIGN OF SLOWDOWN OF CORONAVIRUS EPIDEMIC IN HIS REGION

UK: Coronavirus self-isolation needs to go on for 12 months, UK’s scientific advice says

Italy: Inside Italy’s hardest hit hospital. Link

Belgium: Belgium reports 462 new cases and 16 new coronavirus deaths, raising the country's total to 2,572 cases with 37 confirmed deaths.

Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh first responders won’t be notified of Coronavirus exposures. Link

RUMINT (UK): “The hospitals in London are overwhelmed.” “The public and media are not aware that today we no longer live in a city with a properly functioning western healthcare system.” Patients with suspected COVID-19 are being mixed with non-COVID-19 patients.

NYC: NBC News audio person dies from COVID19. Link

Morocco: Morocco government yesterday announced a state of emergency in the country to take effect at 17GMT today, locking down cities and restricting unnecessary movement to curb the spread of the #COVID19

Pakistan: Grim warning from doctors at PIMS Isb(Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences) about the looming #covid19 disaster. "Impose a curfew if you must. We simply do not have resources to deal with this. There are a total of 10 beds & 2 ventilators in the isolation ward. Nothing else has been provided."

Russia: #BREAKING: 54 new coronavirus cases discovered in Russia in past 24 hours bringing the total now up to 253 Total #coronavirus cases in Russia. March 20: 253. March 19: 199. March 18: 147. March 17: 114

NIH: The #coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, can be caught through breathing infected air or after touching contaminated objects, according to a new report by National Institutes of Health (NIH), CDC, UCLA, and Princeton University scientists.

US: The U.S. Government Is Preparing For An 18 Month Pandemic And "Critical Shortages" Link

RUMINT (Indiana):  Indianapolis en route control center (ZID) a front-line supervisor has caught the China Virus and ZID is in the process of going atc zero. The FAA is calling in people for overtime in surrounding facilities to cover ZID airspace. Expect delays across the center of USA.

NY: @NYGovCuomo #BREAKING: I will sign an Executive Order mandating that 100% of workforce must stay home, excluding essential services.This order excludes pharmacies, grocery stores, and others.

NY: 1,939 new cases overnight in New York City. 2,950 new cases in New York State overnight,

Canada: Canada to ramp up production of medical supplies, shut border to asylum seekers to fight COVID-19 and talks are underway with airlines for repatriation flights to bring Canadians home

UK: UK: Hospital ICU at a London hospital Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow at capacity. Cases being transferred to other hospitals. Declared 'Critical Incident' Source Sky News live (UPDATE: Link)

Germany: GERMANY: INFECTED: 18,588 (+3,268 cases since yesterday)

UK: Changing of the guard at royal palaces canceled until further notice. LINK

RUMINT (Texas): Just so people know the real truth. My county of over 50,000 just told me they only have 4 test kits...And all these people went to Galveston Mardi Gras and cruises

NYC: Manhattan lawyer abruptly dies from COVID19, 2 days after saying he felt much better. LINK

RUMINT (New Jersey): NEW JERSEY DRIVE-THROUGH CORONAVIRUS TEST SITE HAS 1,000 CARS WAITING

Spain: Coronavirus Update: Spain Overtakes Iran On Virus With 20k Confirmed Cases

Trump: "I'm probably more of a fan of that than maybe anybody," says @POTUS of chloroquine after Dr. Fauci cautions there's only anecdotal evidence that the malaria drug is effective in helping #COVID19 patients.

Georgia: #BREAKING NEWS: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Georgia is now 420, with 13 deaths.

US: *SCHUMER SAYS HOSPITALS WILL BE IN DEEP TROUBLE IN A FEW WEEKS

IItaly : 5986 new cases and 627 new deaths in Italy

Massachusetts: Massachusetts just had their first confirmed death from the Corona Virus.

NYC: 743 MORE cases in New York City since morning update That means 2,682 new cases in NYC since last night. 5,151 total & 29 deaths

Illinois: Governor to issue ‘shelter in place’ order. LINK

France: 12610 total cases in France. 450 dead. 1297 in serious condition. 50% in serious condition are less than 60 years old

RUMINT (China): Latest figures released by China Mobile show that they have lost 8.116 million users in Jan and Feb. Where are these users now? Switched to other carriers? Or, they couldn't carry their phone to the nether world?

New York: #UPDATE "We're all in quarantine now," said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, warning of fines and mandatory closures for anyone violating the order, as the total of deaths linked to the novel #coronavirus more than doubled in three days

Nigeria: Lagos hospitals now receiving patients suffering from Chloroquine poisoning just one day after President Trump announced that the US has approved the anti-malarial drug for use as a treatment against #COVID19.

California: 1,006 Positive #COVID19 Cases in CA: 24 Federal Repatriation Flight Cases; 982 Cases not related to those flights; 86 Travel Associated; 108 Person-to-person; 266 Community Acquired; 522 Under Investigation

RUMINT : I got in and out right before the grocery store got absolutely packed. People were pretty good about separating, except at checkout...lots of idiots pressed right up on each other. I picked a line where everyone was wearing gloves and standing a minimum of a cart length apart and keeping their mouths shut so their freaky germs didn't fly everywhere. Hit the liquor store, amazingly was empty, for a couple more things. Not going out again, that was twice in last week, but I could FEEL the corona in that store or coming shortly. It was the most fucked thing ever, and I could tell some others sensed it too.

Illinois: BREAKING: Sources tell me CPD officers will be posted in the following areas: hospitals, pharmacies, grocery stores, City Hall, libraries, hardware supply stores and designated retail stores after Governor Pritzker announces ‘shelter in place’ for Illinois residents. @cbschicago

Poland: VIRUS TRAGEDY Healthy new mum, 27, dies from coronavirus days after giving birth in Poland becoming one of world’s youngest victims

Michigan: Detroit police chief: 5 officers diagnosed with COVID-19, 152 quarantined

New Jersey: GovMurphy says New Jersey will enact stronger measures to prevent the spread of the virus: "I'm going to have a significant announcement probably tomorrow morning to make, a whole series of new steps that will take effect tomorrow night. We have no choice." #MTPDaily

The Value of Swimming In Uncertain Times

Hi Swimmers

Firstly, apologies for the radio silence over the last few weeks on the blog - we've had the whole Swim Smooth team busily engaged in a complete revamp of the entire www.swimsmooth.com website and coaching interface, and whilst we are not quite done, we are getting very close and hope to resume the blog and our usual community engagement very soon. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Today, Head Coach Paul Newsome, has prepared a reflective piece for you on the value of swimming and what it means to us all, especially in these uncertain times. We hope it allows you to pause over a cup of tea or coffee and think a little bit about your own swimming and how your relationship with the water might have changed somewhat in the last 12 months.

Paul features three brief stories of some inspiring swimmers he has had the pleasure to work with and how their swimming journeys have been significantly altered by the coronavirus, mostly for the better. Paul summarises with some of his own take-home points on how this period has changed his own thinking on swimming somewhat and how his ordinarily extrinsic competitive goalposts have shifted to a place of intrinsic challenge and finding a new calm with that. So please, relax, put your feet up and let’s get a little zen for a moment.

The Value of Swimming in Uncertain Times

I was recently invited as a guest on the new An Open Water Swimmer's Podcast with host Will Ellis (release date: 28th February here) to discuss my love and passion for swimming - an easy topic for me! Will is a great host and someone I'd taken for a Swim Smooth analysis session as part of a group over a decade ago in the UK. Given my area of technical interest in swimming, many podcasts that we've done with other hosts have always centered on these elements, but Will took a very different slant, one which focused very much on the "why" of swimming.

Why do I swim? Why do I enjoy the water? Why swimming and not another sport? I came away with a headful of thoughts that I'd either never given due consideration to before, or maybe some that crystallized a growing appreciation I've started to foster of late?

Given the current state of play with COVID-19 restrictions on our sport over the last 12 months, I feel my own relationship with water has not necessarily changed per se but it's definitely evolved. Perhaps though, it's me who's changed and it's this period of intrinsic reflection that has heightened the "why" behind what we all love to do? For many of you, could the absence of being able to do the thing you love or the thing that perhaps challenges you the most (as a triathlete maybe?) be the necessary catalyst to kick your swimming to new heights of appreciation (however you measure that) when we do all come through this? I'm certainly seeing that in myself and my squad of very lucky swimmers over here in Perth, Australia.

Lady Luck

Over the last 12 months, Perth has been heralded as one of the best places on the planet with respect to the relatively few restrictions and impact of the coronavirus - many of us scarcely realizing how lucky we are. Next week will see 3,500 people start one of the largest open water swims on the planet, the Rottnest Channel Swim, in which I will be competing with a good friend over the 20km distance. We have, however, just come out of a heavily publicized (albeit very short) 5-day lockdown here in Perth which restricted access to the pools and saw us only being able to swim solo in the open water or with one other family member. This incident garnered international press on account of the very rapid and focused response to a single case in the community transferred between a quarantined hotel guest and a security guard. The whole state came to a grinding halt for just one case - everything ceased and panic was high. Despite extensive testing (myself included) of those who may have been in the vicinity of this one person, fortunately, no other community transmission has occurred. Consequently, life is returning to some form of normality again. 

One of the hardest things I've personally struggled with over the last 12 months though is being able to fully appreciate and empathize with just how brutal this period must have been - and continues to be - for many of you from the perspective of being able to simply enjoy the pleasures of a nice swim. Lady Luck has shone down on me, and for why, I do not know? I feel a toiling mixed sense of guilt, of pure luck, and of umbrage at myself for the seemingly petty feeling of missing the ability to travel overseas and share my love of swimming with you all, wherever you might be. I miss it so much and yet feel I have no right to do so given where I have the good fortune to be right now. 

I had a frank conversation before Christmas with my Mum about this. Many of you know Linda as "Mother Smooth" and if you've ever ordered anything from us, she'd have sent it to you. True to the adage that "Mum always knows best", I finally managed to pluck up the courage and expand on how excited I was to be taking my wife and two kids camping over the Christmas holidays to a beautiful town called Albany in the South West which we'd all visited together as a family a few years earlier. Mother Smooth couldn't understand why I'd not told her sooner, to which I responded that I didn't want to make her feel bad. "Feel bad?" she quizzed, "I am at my happiest when I know you are happy". Profound stuff - good old Mum!

The Changing Tide

So, what has this all really got to do with swimming? If you are in the northern hemisphere, chances are you are sick to the back teeth of hearing about the coronavirus and maybe even more so the thought that other pockets of the world are experiencing far fewer restrictions than yourself currently. Last week's swift lockdown gave me a rapid reminder though just how uncertain these times can be - the tide can change on a dime so easily. What has been remarkable for me has been watching how those of you who still continue in enforced lockdowns have survived this last 12 months and I'd like to recognize some of the cool - and crazy - things you've been doing, obviously simply for the joy of needing to get your swim in! Perhaps you can tell us more about how you've weathered this storm so far?

Helen Webster, UK

I met Helen in March 2014 at the 220 Triathlon Show in London. As the editor of the 220 Triathlon Magazine, Helen had taken it upon herself to learn to swim freestyle properly for an upcoming triathlon and I was tasked with assisting her with that goal in an Endless Pool and in front of hundreds of people. For someone with very little swimming experience at that point, Helen did amazingly well in front of such a crowd and it’s a testament to her bubbly “can do” spirit that she took on this challenge!

We spent a good hour or so filming her stroke, analyzing it (in front of everyone!), and then getting back into the pool to correct her issues which mainly centred around developing confidence in the water and improving the timing of her stroke, specifically her breathing. Back then, Helen was what we’d have described as a classic Bambino - someone very new to swimming with a relatively high level of anxiety in the water - so to see the following images circulating on Helen’s Facebook page in the last couple of weeks simply blew my mind! Helen’s gone all Bear Grylls on us and now is not happy unless she has to break the ice in her backyard pool just to ensure she gets her swim in! I’m so proud of her as a mate!

Here's Helen on what the last 12 months have meant for her swimming:

"Open-water swimming has been a key part of my training week ever since taking those first steps with Paul all those years ago! Lockdown had made me realise just how important swimming is to me though and in so many ways. Not living near the coast and with managed venues nearby forced to close I've realised how much I rely on swimming for lifting my mood, giving me a pause from a busy world and fully immersing myself in nature. I'm a pool swimmer too and with centres all closed I'm even missing the tang of chlorine and having to do kick drills!!

It sounds melodramatic but a tearful moment on the phone with a friend prompted her to gift me a garden pool and swimming tethered has given me a route back to the water (thanks to Swim Smooth Coach Jason Tait for the tethered swim sets!). It's also led me to a new swim community who are making the most of what they have and finding humour in sitting in ice baths and under hosepipes, or sharing tips for how to stop your garden pool freezing!

I can't wait to have my 'proper' swimming back and believe me, will never take it for granted again. I'm planning a swim challenge for September and keeping fingers crossed it goes ahead!"

Sue Allingham, Denmark

Sue attended one of our 3-day Swim Smooth Coach Education Courses in Mallorca, Spain back in May 2019 and was clearly a super-passionate swimmer and coach. We’ve remained in close contact via Messenger since and she frequently sends me crazy pictures of where she’s been swimming, however, nothing could quite prepare me for this one - her frozen Margarita experience (as she calls it)!

When I asked Sue about what the last 12 months have meant for her swimming, she said this:

"A year ago I entered the World Ice Swimming Championships in Bled Slovenia for a laugh. 2 weeks later I broke both my wrists and then Lockdown! By April I was going stir crazy and the day I had my casts removed, I got back into the sea, as the pools were shut. Little did I know that I would continue going in every day since! As my wrists got stronger, I could swim longer but the thought of trying to pull on a wetsuit was hanging over my head. By the time I probably could get one on I no longer felt the need. I continued to swim throughout the year and ended up becoming the Danish age-group champion in 25m & 100m Freestyle - Ice swimming and 5k Openwater. 

A year on from Covid and we are still in the sea and simply just grabbing any opportunity to jump in the water, to try new beaches or temperatures. As you can see from the picture, we’ve started making our own frozen Margaritas! 

What will I do when the pools open again? Dive in and just keep swimming! Never thought I’d miss the black line so much. Swimming as always is such a social thing & drinking coffee with friends after each swim has really made Lockdown actually enjoyable. Already looking at SwimRuns in Sweden, hopefully as it’s close by we may be allowed to travel. Otherwise lots of pre-paid events carried over from last year. I live in hope. 

One thing is for sure, the sea is always open!"

Mark Turner, Switzerland

Mark also attended one of our other 3-day Swim Smooth Coach Education Courses in Mallorca, Spain (the week after Sue) and had just a few months prior completed the Rottnest Channel Swim here in Perth. Mark set up the world’s most prestigious multi-day cycling event for amateurs, the Haute Route, which is a brutally tough challenge in a breathtakingly beautiful landscape. Mark was also the man behind Ellen MacArthur’s sailing career (who set the world record in 2005 for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe), the Offshore Challenges/OC Sport business, and the Extreme Sailing Series, and is widely seen as a visionary in the sport of sailing. And, if all that wasn't enough, Mark led the Volvo Ocean Race series as CEO in 2016/17. Needless to say, Mark is not someone to do things by half and is always up for a (big) challenge! 

Mark now lives in Switzerland on the banks of Lake Geneva and is fastidious about his swimming, especially a weekly completion of the infamous 10 x 400m Red Mist Endurance session! Like with many parts of the world, Mark has had unreliable access to his local pool over the last 12 months and so has turned to the great outdoors instead…even during the middle of winter! Hooking up regularly with like-minded souls in these freezing temperatures has been what has kept Mark going and will stand him in good stead when the world finally comes back to some sense of normality.

It Is What It Is

I think one of the most obvious things with each of these three swimmers - and yourself hopefully too - is that they’ve simply rolled with the punches that 2020 and beyond has brought their way. They’ve got on with it, adapted, pivoted, and thrived in a new environment and in doing so sought out other goals to keep them motivated and in the game. Resilience personified. We always talk so virtuously in training and racing about “control the controllable”, and clearly, none of this is in any of our control right now. Way back in April 2020 when we were still in lockdown and I was personally unable to coach, a very close friend and one of my athletes, Nolan McDonnell told me to “stop trying to save us all - we can look after ourselves!” in response to me frantically trying to work out how to keep everyone fit and engaged when I couldn’t be with them face-to-face. It really struck a chord with me, and whilst it didn’t happen overnight, I did begin to accept the situation. 

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to travel and spread the Swim Smooth word - as has been my life over the last 16 or so years - was a real blow, but ever so gradually I started to move beyond this and to focus on what I could do, not what I couldn’t. For me personally, that’s meant plenty more time at home with the family, and as we are seeing on the pool deck at the moment, plenty of opportunities to be super consistent with our respective training schedules too. The squad here in Perth has never swum so quickly before, ever! Why? Everyone has their groundhog day schedule dialled in and they’re sticking to it because there’s nowhere else to go, and there’s something very centring about that, zen even. 

Fancying a challenge myself - and recognizing the collective benefit of encouraging others to follow suit - I have even got myself back into doing a few triathlons, marathon swims, and even the odd SwimRun event too! Taking on a range of varied challenges was in an effort to not put all our eggs into one basket in case events got canceled or postponed. 

Again, I’m super privileged to be able to do these things right now, and part of that appreciation brings a whole new angle on why we do what we do. For me, it’s all been about my shared experience of training up with one of my best mates Chris to do the Rottnest Channel Swim together as a Duo next week. With last week’s unprecedented lockdown it looked certain to be canceled but you know what, I wasn’t bothered in the slightest! The religiously attended Sunday morning swim with Chris in the river is what it’s all about - not the event itself. Swimming + Best Mate = Win. 

Sure, the race will be a nice finale, but the old adage of “the journey is better than the destination” is what this whole crazy period has really taught me. We egg each other on even in the middle of winter and for me, this has seen a major step away from the profound sense of training for competition’s sake, to training for training’s sake, and for the social camaraderie that this has brought. I wouldn’t change that for the world.

Even if you haven’t had the opportunity (yet) to be quite so free in your activities, that time will come again, hopefully very soon, and in the meantime, just set yourself some little consistency of routine benchmarks to tick off. Get creative like our friends above (just maybe not quite so crazy!). How many swims in the river can you consistently do every Sunday? Can you always ensure you meet up with Bob for your Friday lunchtime jog in the park? Make sure you commit to that group ride on Zwift you booked in for on the Companion app etc. It’s the little things, done often that will keep you going and when the world opens up again, you’ll be ready! 

Thanks for reading. Swim on!

Paul

from Sports http://www.feelforthewater.com/2021/02/the-value-of-swimming-in-uncertain-times.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

My Country Should Be Better

I love being Nigerian. I love our food. I’ve lived in England my whole life give or take a few months, and I went out of my way to make my parents teach me as much Hausa as possible so I could communicate better with my fam back home. I LOVE being Nigerian. 

But I hate Nigeria.

I don’t get how a country so rich in natural resources and oil. Not tin, copper etc. OIL. The thing that runs the whole world. OIL. Is so poor. People joke about Nigerian scammers. Bro why do they have to scam in the first place. It’s not for the fun of it. 

Your own family try and grift you. Not for fun. But because they don’t have a choice. They ask for money to get a car fixed, and add a little extra on top of that quote because damn, they’re running low on food/electricity or whatever.

The roads are a mess. They’re ridiculous. Journeys take hours longer than they need to, and that’s if there’s not an accident that you’ll most likely die from. The cars are terrible, held together by rust. No enforcement on standards. What’s an MOT? If you survive the wreck, the hospital will make sure you die. Doctors and nurses not carrying out tests.

My grandma is in the hospital with COVID. She went in struggling to breathe. No oxygen given. No chest x-ray. Nothing. Just put her in a room and after a whole day of not being seen, they decided to test for COVID. My old man is a doctor and he’s been on the phone to family at the hospital, telling them what to ask for, and in some case speaking to the doctors there and telling them how to treat my grandma. 

My mum had to send money home to buy oxygen and medicine because the hospital doesn’t have any. My cousin had to fit the oxygen cylinder because the staff at the hospital didn’t know how to. And if you ARE getting treatment? Blackout. Electricity, gone. People on ventilators died because of it. People are dead because a country that is abundant in multiple energy resources (not even talking about solar energy) RAN OUT OF ENERGY TO A HOSPITAL.

WHY?

I just don’t get it. I don’t. Every single person in a position of governance has blood on their hands. They’re disgusting, selfish, evil, subhuman pieces of shit. I don’t know what it’ll take to fix my country. Millions on millions of people have a poor quality of life through no fault of their own. They can’t control the circumstances they’re born into. 

I hate my country. I love being Nigerian, but I hate Nigeria. It should be better. And now I’m sat here having to watch my family scramble...bullshit.

Coronavirus: The trials and triumphs of UAE residents

Trials and triumphs of the COVID-19 fight Picture Credit score: DailyKhaleej

Dubai: The first case of coronavirus within the UAE was introduced on January 29, 2020. That’s round three-and-a-half months in the past. Time flies, you’d ordinarily be inclined to assume. However these are extraordinary instances.

Ever for the reason that beastly virus unfold its ugly tentacles, every little thing we’ve been pondering, saying or doing has revolved round COVID-19. However past the final fatigue that we’re all starting to really feel, there isn’t a denying that life as we all know it – why, even dying – has modified eternally.

Prayers being carried out for Jeuel G. Jomay in Kerala. The ceremony was watched by his household right here within the UAE on Fb.

Gasping sufferers gone with no goodbye; relations watching funerals of family members on Fb; contaminated {couples} having to depart younger kids within the care of others; tables turning on docs and nurses … COVID’s attempting tales are heart-wrenching.

However the unimaginable trauma however, there are those that are counting their blessings too, whether or not it’s a brand new mum beating the virus together with her just-born; a affected person coming off the ventilator after 20 days; or the UAE’s well being care group clocking file testing charges and its researchers reaching a remedy breakthrough.

A have a look at the trials, tribulations and triumphs of UAE residents for the reason that COVID-19 fight started:

The final trial

It’s dangerous sufficient to lose a cherished one, however not with the ability to bid goodbye takes away even the sense of closure.

THE WAY IT IS

World protocols on heath security, hygiene and social distancing stipulate that coronavirus sufferers should get handled in isolation, and even depart alone.

World protocols on heath security, hygiene and social distancing stipulate that coronavirus sufferers should get handled in isolation, and even depart alone, so one has no selection however to let go.

When Bangladeshi expat Tofail Alam, 51, handed away in Abu Dhabi final week, his spouse Nausheen advised DailyKhaleej her husband went to see a physician at a hospital in March as a result of he had a foul chilly.

Tofail Alam

“But he was admitted the same day and transferred to a public hospital for treatment. We lost the pillar of our family to the coronavirus pandemic. It is so devastating that I simply have no words.”

A pal who tried to contact Alam in hospital stated, “The calls never went through. So all I could do was ask the nurses about his condition.” Someplace alongside the road, he learnt that the daddy of two was no extra.

Funeral on Fb

Even in non-coronavirus instances, flight suspensions in latest instances have meant that some residents haven’t been in a position to attend funerals of family members in different nations.

Amongst them: A Keralite household within the UAE who watched the funeral of their cancer-stricken son Jeuel G. Jomay, a Grade 10 pupil at a Sharjah college, on Fb on April 16. They might not accompany his physique when it was flown to native Kerala beneath lockdown.

One from the album: A household image with Jeuel Picture Credit score: Provided

Jeuel’s funeral ceremony again dwelling started at 4am within the UAE. His cousin advised DailyKhaleej her household and Jeuel’s household watched the five-hour ceremony on Fb whereas the St Mary’s Church in Sharjah supplied a hyperlink to the YouTube livestreaming on its web site for members right here to look at the service.

“None of the flights was getting sanctioned soon. Jeuel’s father wanted to fly with him. But that was not possible,” the cousin advised DailyKhaleej on the time.

Equally, on April 17, Dubai-based Pakistani expat Ghulam Mustafa Awan watched the funeral of his father Malik Nazir Ahmad on video. Ahmad had died of a coronary heart and lung situation.

“I tried everything, but I couldn’t go and see the face of my father one last time,” stated Awan.

I attempted every little thing, however I couldn’t go and see the face of my father one final time.

– Ghulam Mustafa Awan

In each instances, COVID-19-related restrictions prevented their journey.

Double whammy

Telling a younger COVID-19 mom of three that her husband, additionally a coronavirus affected person, has handed on can on no account be simple.

However that’s exactly what Dr Samara Khatib, Marketing consultant Household Drugs and workforce lead on the COVID-19 ward at Mediclinic Parkview Hospital in Dubai, was tasked to do lately.

“We had to take the help of mental health professionals to break the tragic news to the patient, who is in her 30s,” stated the American physician of Syrian origin. “It shook us as healthcare workers.”

We needed to take the assistance of psychological well being professionals to interrupt the tragic information (that her husband had died) to the affected person, who’s in her 30s.

– Dr Samara Khatib

Coronavirus has struck different {couples} too within the UAE, which has meant they’ve needed to depart their kids within the care of others.

Dubai-based Suman Manning, who examined optimistic alongside together with her triathlete husband Shane Manning, stated her sister took care of her triplets throughout the ordeal. Though she confirmed no signs, she needed to isolate herself and inform her children and sister to avoid her, whereas her husband was recovering in hospital.

Suman and Shane Manning Picture Credit score: Provided

“It was a particularly trying time as the kids had just started the first week of remote learning and needed some kind of support,” she advised DailyKhaleej earlier.

‘We’re not invincible’

Engaged on the frontlines within the face of an invisible and yet-to-be-conquered virus, docs and nurses are in all probability on the highest danger of contracting COVID-19. Ask Reem Yousef, who works as an emergency nurse supervisor on the Emirates Specialty Hospital in Dubai.

It’s actually arduous. I’m actually carrying my coronary heart on my sleeve for my baby, Relle.

– Reem Yousef

 “The Lebanese mum, who is still breastfeeding her nine-month-old baby, told DailyKhaleej: “It is really hard. I am literally wearing my heart on my sleeve for my little one, Relle. Yes, there is fear of contracting COVID-19 as we work 12-15 hours a day for five days. We try our best to manage. When I go back home, I take utmost care to completely sterilise myself before I hold my baby in my arms again.”

Reem Yousef with nine-month-old Relle Picture Credit score: Provided

Dr Khatib stated she checks herself for the virus not less than as soon as a month. “I am also very particular about hygiene. It’s almost as if I suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). There is no respite on the front line and when we see our own colleagues falling prey to the virus, we feel emotionally distraught. It makes us realise we are not invincible. But we have a responsibility to stay safe and healthy as we can pass on the virus to other patients or our families back home.”

Regardless of the very best efforts although, the tables do get turned typically. And when that occurs, the resolve to fight coronavirus solely will get stronger.

As a physician duo at Zulekha Hospital Dubai, Dr Nishath Ahmed Liyakat and Dr Unni Nair, who’ve recovered from COVID-19 testify, there was no manner the virus would have held them again from doing their responsibility as soon as that they had obtained the remedy and accomplished their quarantine.

Dr Nishath Ahmed Liyakat, left, and Dr Unni Nair Picture Credit score: Provided

Victor and the virus

Sure, the dismal well being disaster surrounding us does have its share of excellent news. Because the official tracker posts new instances day-after-day, there are appreciable recoveries too, with every corona warrior, irrespective of whether or not they’re a light or essential case, rising as an emphatic victor in opposition to the virus.

Communicate to sufferers who’ve turned the blind nook, and their phrases encourage you. Whereas some will let you know coronavirus isn’t a “death sentence”, others will say they don’t want their “hellish experience” even on their worst enemies.

I prayed arduous to God and positioned my belief within the medical workforce. Now, I’m getting higher day-after-day and can solely bear in mind these weeks on the ventilator prefer it was yesterday.

– Wilfredo

Both manner, there isn’t a bitterness and no taking away from the large sense of aid and gratitude on the highway to restoration.

“I hardly had any symptoms and it never felt like a death sentence. But now that I have completed my quarantine, I thank God it’s over,” stated one younger Indian lady who didn’t need to be named.

Wilfredo Picture Credit score: Virendra Saklani/DailyKhaleej

Wilfredo, a Filipino expat, who got here out of the ventilator after 20 days at Al Zahra Hospital, Sharjah, stated, “I prayed hard to God and placed my trust in the medical team. Now, I’m getting better every day and can only remember those weeks on the ventilator like it was yesterday.”

In Abu Dhabi, Raneen Abu Zaher, a Palestinian homemaker, and her new child son, Jad, who additionally beat coronavirus, encourage hope.

Child Jad Picture Credit score: Provided

The duo had been identified with the an infection when Jad was only a day previous. However two weeks later, once they bought the all-clear, the mom of three advised DailyKhaleej, “I tried to hold on to my faith, and prayed for my entire family.”

‘UAE will not let you down’

If there’s one factor any affected person within the UAE will vouch for, it’s the truth that they may not have been in higher arms. Whether or not it’s Liu Yujia, a 73-year-old customer from Wuhan, China, who was the primary affected person to have totally recovered within the UAE or Aubrey Escano, 27, a Filipina from Abu Dhabi who’s at present beneath quarantine, there was solely reward and gratefulness for the UAE for the style wherein coronavirus instances are dealt with.

One of the primary coronavirus sufferers to get well within the UAE Picture Credit score: Provided

Escano in her message stated, “I would like to tell COVID-19 patients not to lose hope, not to worry and continue the fight because the UAE will not let them down.”

The exemplary affected person care aside, the UAE has additionally hit worldwide headlines for finishing up a file quantity of laboratory checks for coronavirus. Based on the Ministry of Well being and Prevention, the UAE leads international coronavirus testing with 1.5 million checks performed for the reason that starting of the outbreak. The UAE each day testing common equals a four-month common of COVID-19 testing in different nations.

I wish to inform COVID-19 sufferers to not lose hope, to not fear and proceed the combat as a result of the UAE is not going to allow them to down.

– Aubrey Escano

Addressing a UAE Authorities distant assembly right now, Minister of Well being and Prevention Abdul Rahman Bin Mohammed Al Owais stated, “The UAE’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic is unique and different from other countries. The UAE has shown exceptional management of the crisis, whilst leveraging other countries’ experiences. However, the level of response was different, given the demographic composition in the country, which is home to more than 200 nationalities, and its distinct resources, readiness and experiences in many sectors.”

On Might 1, docs and researchers on the Abu Dhabi Stem Cell Centre additionally achieved a significant breakthrough with a promising stem cell remedy for COVID-19 sufferers.

The analysis workforce on the Abu Dhabi Stem Cell Centre Picture Credit score: WAM

The Ministry of Economic system even granted a patent for the event of the revolutionary methodology, which was administered to 73 COVID-19 sufferers, all of whom had been cured of the virus utilizing stem cells.

Researchers, who’ve accomplished the preliminary section of scientific trials, at the moment are engaged on demonstrating the efficacy of the remedy.

Now that’s no imply achievement, by any measure.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/3dJ1mJY via IFTTT

The simple tweaks that can prevent dementia (plus delicious recipes to help beat it)

Today, and every day, roughly 190 Britons will die from dementia – about 1,350 every week – and numbers are steadily and ominously rising.

It is by far our biggest killer, having overtaken heart disease five years ago as fatalities from heart attacks and strokes continue to decline. Within the next few years, more than one million Britons will be living with the degenerative brain condition.

It’s a statistic made all the more shocking when you consider that the dementia death toll is almost four times the number claimed each week at the moment by the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK.

But despite these grim figures there is hope, as the latest medical evidence suggests that whether you develop dementia is not simply down to fate.

Dementia, a degenerative brain condition, is by far our biggest killer, having overtaken heart disease five years ago as fatalities from heart attacks and strokes continue to decline

Although incurable, a staggering 40 per cent of cases could be prevented in the first place, according to a global report revealed at the Alzheimer’s Association International Congress last week.

Lifestyle factors, such as diet, lack of exercise – and even hearing loss – are responsible for a whopping 340,000 of Britain’s 850,000 dementia cases, says the report. The leading scientists behind the new study identified 12 risk factors that make us more likely to develop the disease. Crucially, it’s within our power to address each one of them if we want to stay healthy into old age.

The risks begin to mount in childhood, the report said, but even making small lifestyle changes into your 70s could have a significant impact.

The report represents a huge leap forward in the understanding of the disease. Three years ago, the same research group became the first to prove how much of dementia is preventable, revealing the role of obesity, smoking, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. Hearing loss, if untreated, depression and too little exercise also contribute to an individual’s risk, while lack of education and social isolation were also factors flagged by the experts.

Now, three more avoidable dangers have been added to that list based on new data: traumatic head injury, air pollution and heavy alcohol consumption.

The authors, from The Lancet’s Commission on Dementia, a group of international experts, say the findings should be a wake-up call for us all, and urged everyone to take responsibility for their own health. They said: ‘Around 40 per cent of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed by eliminating these risk factors.’ So what can we do? Well, making changes to diet and lifestyle has a significant effect, not just on reducing the chances of developing dementia but also keeping the mind sharper and younger.

Around 40 per cent of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed by ‘eliminating risk factors’, such as giving up smoking, said experts (file photo)

A recent Swedish study found that being a healthy weight, keeping blood pressure in check and staying fit and active were three key factors found to significantly improve mental performance. More than 500 participants, aged 60 to 77, were advised to eat lots of fruit and vegetables, whole grains, fish and low-fat dairy, while exercise plans involved strength training at a gym plus group exercises to improve aerobic fitness, such as jogging and aerobics. 

The researchers followed them for two years and found they performed better in mental tests by the end, having boosted their overall health. Similar lifestyle changes were linked to a 37 per cent reduced dementia risk in another trial involving 3,000 volunteers. Indeed, just making a change to one area, such as giving up smoking, was found to have a big knock-on effect.

It’s something I take seriously, because I’ve seen first-hand how devastating dementia can be. I was 17 when my much-loved granny, Olive, died of the disease, aged 74, having spent two years being cared for by my mum, her only child, in our family home.

Olive suffered from Lewy body dementia, the second most common type after Alzheimer’s, accounting for ten to 15 per cent of cases. Looking back now, the risk factors described by The Lancet’s Commission were all there. My grandfather Jimmy, married to Olive for 40 years, collapsed and died from an aortic aneurism aged 65, just two weeks after retiring from his job as a draughtsman at the Rolls-Royce plant in East Kilbride, south of Glasgow. Her world fell apart. In time, neighbours moved on. Friends passed away.

Adored: Jo Macfarlane as a baby, sitting on granny Olive’s knee before her dementia set in. Olive suffered from Lewy body dementia, the second most common type after Alzheimer’s

A fall meant she feared going out and she spent a lot of time alone in her empty house, staring out of the window. She began to forget to eat.

When she came to live with us in Fife, 80 miles away on the opposite coast of Scotland, the warm, adoring woman who’d doted on my two younger sisters and me was vanishing, bit by bit.

Every morning the house was woken by her fearful wails ‘Help me! Help’, as she opened her eyes and, again, had no idea where she was. 

Living near a busy road increases the chance of dementia by 10%

Most painfully, she forgot she had a daughter or grandchildren. When it was explained to her gently one day, she sobbed bitterly: ‘No one ever told me I had a daughter.’

It’s a story that will no doubt resonate with thousands of British families, on whom the burden of care so often falls. 

The cost of treating and supporting the dementia population in the UK is £34.7 billion a year, and it’s set to nearly treble by 2040. Unpaid carers, like my mum, save the economy a further £13.9 billion a year.

Imagine if the emotional – and economic – burden could be lifted significantly. A one per cent reduction in dementia cases would mean 8,500 fewer people living with the disease. 

Eliminating all 12 risk factors, the report’s authors say, could save 340,000 from being struck by it – 40 per cent of the 850,000 people estimated to have dementia in the UK.

In this special Mail on Sunday Health section, we’ll explain how to reduce your risk – from looking at ways to combat heart disease and diabetes, to highlighting surprising methods of prevention, such as improving your hearing.

There is still much about dementia risk that science can’t explain, but there is cause for optimism. Armed with new knowledge, it’s never been more possible to alter the course of our later lives for the better.

Brain-boosting breakfasts

Crustless quiche with feta, peas and spinach

Bake for 30–35mins, or until just set and golden. Serve warm or cold (267 calories per serving)

SERVES 4

1 bagful fresh spinach, or 200g of frozen spinach, defrosted and with the excess water squeezed out

50g cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/GM 4. Fry the onion over a medium heat for 5-10mins, or until softened. Whisk the eggs in a bowl and stir in half the cheese, half the onions and season well.

Pour the egg mixture into a non-stick dish and scatter over the remaining onion as well as the peas, spinach and remaining cheese. Bake for 30–35mins, or until just set and golden.

Serve warm or cold, sliced into wedges.   

Peach and apricot breakfast pots

In 2 small glasses, layer the apricots and peaches, followed by yoghurt (305cal per serving)

SERVES 2

Toast the oats lightly in a pan on a low heat, stirring frequently, until they reach a golden colour (roughly 5mins).

In 2 small glasses, layer the apricots and peaches, followed by a layer of yogurt, followed by another layer of fruit, until you reach the top of the glass.

Top with a sprinkle of the toasted oats and nuts.

Banana and peanut butter overnight oats

In the morning, loosen with a little water or milk if needed (380 calories per serving)

SERVES 1

The night before, stir the skimmed milk and the cinnamon into your oats.

In the morning, loosen with a little water or milk if needed. Top with chopped banana, yogurt and a drizzle of peanut butter.

Blistered tomatoes on toast

Turn up the heat and allow tomatoes to sizzle until the skins start to blister (213cal per serving)

SERVES 1

Pinch of dried mixed herbs

1 large slice wholemeal or rye bread

Gently fry the garlic in 1 tsp of oil for 1min, then add the cherry tomatoes and mixed herbs. Turn up the heat and allow the tomatoes to sizzle until the skins start to blister.

Toast the bread and drizzle the remaining tsp of oil on the bread.

Place the tomatoes on top and season with salt and pepper.

Baked eggs with greens and yoghurt

Add the spinach and season with salt and pepper, then mix (343 calories per serving)

SERVES 2

1/2 100g pack of fresh spinach, or 80g frozen spinach, with water squeezed out

2 spring onions, chopped 

2 tbsp low-fat natural yogurt

2 slices rye or wholemeal bread, toasted

Heat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/GM 6. If using fresh spinach, put it in a colander, then pour over a kettle of boiling water to wilt the leaves.

Squeeze out excess water. In a large, oven-proof pan, heat the oil before frying off the spring onions for a couple of minutes until softened.

Add the spinach and season with salt and pepper, then mix. Make two small wells in the pan and crack in two eggs. Put the pan in the oven for 12-15mins, then serve with yogurt spooned on top, alongside the toast.

Life-enhancing lunches

Roast sweet potato stuffed with smoky black beans

Cut the cooked sweet potato in half and spoon the bean mixture inside (343cal per serving)

SERVES 2

1 tin black or kidney beans

Pinch of chilli powder (optional)

Preheat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/GM 6. Pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork and roast for 45-60mins.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the garlic, paprika, cumin and chilli, if using. Cook for 1min. Add the drained beans, 50ml of water and a pinch of salt and pepper and stir thoroughly.

Cook until this is all warmed through. Remove from the heat and, just before serving, stir in the lime juice.

Cut the cooked sweet potato in half and spoon the bean mixture inside.

Meatballs and beans in tomato sauce

Place 4 meatballs in each bowl with sauce and serve alone, or with bread (450cal per serving)

SERVES 4

For the meatballs:

1 slice stale or toasted wholemeal bread

For the sauce:

1 red pepper, finely chopped

1 tin butter beans, or any other variety

Blitz the bread in a blender  to make breadcrumbs. Tip into a bowl and mix thoroughly with the beef, garlic, egg and seasoning.

Roll into small balls – about 16 – and place on a plate in the fridge. Gently fry the garlic for 1-2mins, then add the onion, pepper and courgette and fry for a further 5mins, until browned slightly.

Next, add the tomatoes, beans and purée. Fill the empty tin with water twice, add this to the mix and leave to simmer for 15mins.

In another pan, fry the meatballs for 12mins. Taste the sauce and check for seasoning.

Place 4 meatballs in each bowl with the sauce and serve alone, or with bread.

Buttery white beans and tuna

Add a final drizzle of oil and some chopped fresh herbs if you have any (329cal per serving)

SERVES 2

1 tin tuna in spring water

Pinch of dried mixed herbs

Chopped fresh herbs (optional)

Finely chop the garlic and fry in the olive oil for 2-3mins. Add the drained beans, salt and pepper and mixed herbs. Cook until warmed through. Finely chop the onion and drain the tuna and gently toss into the warmed mixture. 

Serve alongside one slice of toasted bread. Add a final drizzle of oil and some chopped fresh herbs if you have any.

Sardine, tomato and pepper pizzettes

Drizzle over sardine oil and place on middle shelf of oven for 15-25mins (391cal per serving)

SERVES 2

For the dough:

Half a sachet fast-acting dried yeast (4g)

For the topping:

8 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1 green or yellow pepper, chopped

4 black olives, finely chopped

Pinch of dried mixed herbs

Preheat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/ GM 6. Make the dough by adding water to yeast and stirring until dissolved, then gradually pour wet mixture into flour and salt until it has dough consistency.

Mix together into a ball, then knead for 10mins before leaving dough to double in size for 30mins. Break off 4 palm-sized balls and leave remaining dough in fridge or freezer for later use.

Roll the 4 chunks of dough into mini pizzas and prick bases. Drain sardines but retain 1 tbsp oil.

Thinly spread tomato purée on bases, then add sardines, cherry tomatoes, peppers, chopped olives and herbs. Drizzle over sardine oil and place on middle shelf of oven for 15-25mins.

Chicken and roasted vegetable salad

Season with sprinkle of salt, then roast for 20-25m until chicken is cooked (531cal per serving)

SERVES 2

1 small red pepper, chopped

Large handful cherry tomatoes, halved

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

100g salad leaves or lettuce (any kind you like)

For the dressing:

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Heat oven to 210C/Fan 190C/GM 8. In a bowl, mix the chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, pepper, cherry tomatoes and olive oil until all is coated.

Put the chicken and vegetables in a baking tray that’s large enough so everything rests in a single layer. Season with sprinkle of salt, then roast for 20-25mins until chicken is cooked through.

When cooked, slice the thighs. Whisk dressing ingredients in a salad bowl, then add the chicken, vegetables and salad leaves. Mix well before serving.

Delectable dinners

Courgette and minty potato parmesan tart

Put in the centre of the oven for 25mins or until the egg has set (502 calories per serving)

SERVES 2

1/2 roll (160g) of ready-rolled puff pastry

4 new potatoes, boiled and sliced

1 courgette, sliced lengthways or in round slices

2 tsp fresh mint, chopped

Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/GM 6. Place the pastry on a lined, greased baking tray and fold the edges up and inwards to create a thin crust. Arrange the potato and courgette on the pastry, then gently pour the egg on top.

Sprinkle with the lemon zest and parmesan. Put in the centre of the oven for 25mins or until the egg has set and the crust is golden brown. Sprinkle with chopped mint.

Crunchy cod and sweet potato chips with smashed minty peas

Dip the cod fillets into the egg and roll in the breadcrumbs. Bake for 25m (520cal per serving)

SERVES 2

2 skinless fillets of cod

1 slice stale or toasted bread

Sprig of fresh mint, chopped

Preheat the oven to 220C/Fan 200C/GM 6. Chop the sweet potato into bitesize chunks, place in a baking dish, drizzle with oil and sprinkle on the paprika. Roast for 45mins.

Blitz the bread into crumbs and mix with a pinch of salt, pepper and the lemon zest. Dip the cod fillets into the egg and roll in the breadcrumbs. Bake for 25mins.

Boil the frozen peas until slightly overcooked, then gently mash with mint and butter. Squeeze the juice of the lemon on the fish.

Stuffed peppers with a ‘meaty’ mushroom filling

Top with the pepper ‘lids’, cover in foil and bake for 35-40mins (345 calories per serving)

SERVES 2

200g mushrooms (any kind), diced

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Heat the oven to 220C/Fan 200C/GM 7. Make breadcrumbs by blitzing the bread in a blender, or finely chopping. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the mushrooms for 5mins, until tender. 

Turn off the heat and add garlic, tomatoes, breadcrumbs, walnuts and pesto until thoroughly combined. Slice the top off the peppers and remove the seeds. Place in a roasting tin and spoon the mushroom filling into the pepper cavities. 

Top with the pepper ‘lids’, cover in foil and bake for 35-40mins.

Easy one-person paella

Stir the seafood mix into the pan and cover with a lid. Simmer for 5m (565 calories per serving)

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 sausage, divided into small balls (or a handful of chicken breast chunks)

1/2 tsp mixed dried herbs

75g brown rice, or paella rice if you can’t get brown

1 tbsp white wine (optional)

Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the sausage balls, onion and garlic for 8mins. Then add paprika, herbs and rice, stirring continuously. 

Splash in the wine and, once it has evaporated, stir in the chopped tomatoes and chicken stock. Season and cook for 10-15mins, stirring occasionally until rice is almost cooked. 

Stir the seafood mix into the pan and cover with a lid. Simmer for 5mins, or until the seafood is cooked through. Squeeze over the lemon juice.  

Chickpea and courgette parmigiana

Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and parmesan, then bake for 35-40m (422cal per serving)

SERVES 4

6 courgettes, sliced into 1cm lengths

2 balls mozzarella, sliced

50g parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/GM 6. Coat the courgette slices in oil and sear the slices in a pan for 3-4mins each side, then set aside.

In the same pan, cook the onion and garlic until soft. Heat the chopped tomatoes and chickpeas in a saucepan, adding the cooked onion mixture, salt and pepper and letting it bubble for a few minutes.

Spoon some of the tomato mixture into the base of an ovenproof dish, then layer with courgette and mozzarella. Repeat until all ingredients are used up.

Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and parmesan, then bake for 35-40mins until bubbling and golden brown on top.

Perfect puds  

Spiced compote with honey yogurt and nuts

Heat rhubarb in a small pan, using dessertspoon of syrup and a splash of water. Add cinnamon and allspice and simmer until rhubarb has disintegrated (222 calories per serving)

SERVES 2

1/2 tin of rhubarb in light syrup, or apples or pears

4 heaped tbsp low-fat Greek yogurt

Heat rhubarb in a small pan, using dessertspoon of syrup and a splash of water. Add cinnamon and allspice and simmer until rhubarb has disintegrated.

Allow to cool and serve with 2 tbsp yogurt each, a sprinkling of nuts and a drizzle of honey.

Chocolate mousse with raspberries

Fold in egg white – whisked to stiff peaks – followed by chocolate. Spoon mixture into 2 small glasses or espresso cups and put in fridge for at least 30mins (296 calories per serving)

SERVES 2

1/3 of a 100g bar of dark chocolate

3 tbsp low-fat Greek yogurt

Melt chocolate in a glass bowl, placed over a pan of boiling water. Add sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add half yogurt to the bowl and mix, then transfer to another bowl before stirring in the rest of the yogurt. 

Fold in egg white – whisked to stiff peaks – followed by chocolate. Spoon mixture into 2 small glasses or espresso cups and put in fridge for at least 30mins.

Serve alongside a handful of raspberries.

Tinned pear and nut crumble

Mix together, first with a spoon, then with your fingers, until you have a rough, crumbly mixture. Scatter over the peaches, then bake for 35mins (264 calories per serving)

SERVES 6

3 x 410g tinned pears in juice

1 tbsp sugar or sweetener

50g hazelnuts, or any nuts you like

Preheat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/GM 6. Drain the pears, but reserve the juice. Tip pears & juice into a baking dish or 6 ceramic pots. In a bowl, mix flour, oats, butter, sugar, nuts and cinnamon. 

Mix together, first with a spoon, then with your fingers, until you have a rough, crumbly mixture. Scatter over the peaches, then bake for 35mins until golden and crunchy on top.

Home-made stracciatella gelato

After the last stir, melt the chocolate either slowly in a microwave, or in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water. While stirring the gelato, pour in the chocolate (174 calories per serving)

MAKES 10 PORTIONS

2-3 tbsp granulated sugar

The night before making the gelato, place a bowl in the freezer. Next day, pour the milk and sugar into a medium pot and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has just dissolved.

Take off the heat and stir in cream, then let mixture cool before placing it in the bowl that’s been chilling in the freezer. Leave in fridge for 3hrs before transferring to freezer. Stir ice cream 3-4 times, roughly every 4hrs, to break up ice crystals – or use a blender.

After the last stir, melt the chocolate either slowly in a microwave, or in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water. While stirring the gelato, pour in the chocolate, then place in freezer for 30mins before serving.

The post The simple tweaks that can prevent dementia (plus delicious recipes to help beat it) appeared first on Shri Times News.

via Blogger https://ift.tt/3k20svV

The Value of Swimming In Uncertain Times

Hi Swimmers

Firstly, apologies for the radio silence over the last few weeks on the blog - we've had the whole Swim Smooth team busily engaged in a complete revamp of the entire www.swimsmooth.com website and coaching interface, and whilst we are not quite done, we are getting very close and hope to resume the blog and our usual community engagement very soon. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Today, Head Coach Paul Newsome, has prepared a reflective piece for you on the value of swimming and what it means to us all, especially in these uncertain times. We hope it allows you to pause over a cup of tea or coffee and think a little bit about your own swimming and how your relationship with the water might have changed somewhat in the last 12 months.

Paul features three brief stories of some inspiring swimmers he has had the pleasure to work with and how their swimming journeys have been significantly altered by the coronavirus, mostly for the better. Paul summarises with some of his own take-home points on how this period has changed his own thinking on swimming somewhat and how his ordinarily extrinsic competitive goalposts have shifted to a place of intrinsic challenge and finding a new calm with that. So please, relax, put your feet up and let’s get a little zen for a moment.

The Value of Swimming in Uncertain Times

I was recently invited as a guest on the new An Open Water Swimmer's Podcast with host Will Ellis (release date: 28th February here) to discuss my love and passion for swimming - an easy topic for me! Will is a great host and someone I'd taken for a Swim Smooth analysis session as part of a group over a decade ago in the UK. Given my area of technical interest in swimming, many podcasts that we've done with other hosts have always centered on these elements, but Will took a very different slant, one which focused very much on the "why" of swimming.

Why do I swim? Why do I enjoy the water? Why swimming and not another sport? I came away with a headful of thoughts that I'd either never given due consideration to before, or maybe some that crystallized a growing appreciation I've started to foster of late?

Given the current state of play with COVID-19 restrictions on our sport over the last 12 months, I feel my own relationship with water has not necessarily changed per se but it's definitely evolved. Perhaps though, it's me who's changed and it's this period of intrinsic reflection that has heightened the "why" behind what we all love to do? For many of you, could the absence of being able to do the thing you love or the thing that perhaps challenges you the most (as a triathlete maybe?) be the necessary catalyst to kick your swimming to new heights of appreciation (however you measure that) when we do all come through this? I'm certainly seeing that in myself and my squad of very lucky swimmers over here in Perth, Australia.

Lady Luck

Over the last 12 months, Perth has been heralded as one of the best places on the planet with respect to the relatively few restrictions and impact of the coronavirus - many of us scarcely realizing how lucky we are. Next week will see 3,500 people start one of the largest open water swims on the planet, the Rottnest Channel Swim, in which I will be competing with a good friend over the 20km distance. We have, however, just come out of a heavily publicized (albeit very short) 5-day lockdown here in Perth which restricted access to the pools and saw us only being able to swim solo in the open water or with one other family member. This incident garnered international press on account of the very rapid and focused response to a single case in the community transferred between a quarantined hotel guest and a security guard. The whole state came to a grinding halt for just one case - everything ceased and panic was high. Despite extensive testing (myself included) of those who may have been in the vicinity of this one person, fortunately, no other community transmission has occurred. Consequently, life is returning to some form of normality again. 

One of the hardest things I've personally struggled with over the last 12 months though is being able to fully appreciate and empathize with just how brutal this period must have been - and continues to be - for many of you from the perspective of being able to simply enjoy the pleasures of a nice swim. Lady Luck has shone down on me, and for why, I do not know? I feel a toiling mixed sense of guilt, of pure luck, and of umbrage at myself for the seemingly petty feeling of missing the ability to travel overseas and share my love of swimming with you all, wherever you might be. I miss it so much and yet feel I have no right to do so given where I have the good fortune to be right now. 

I had a frank conversation before Christmas with my Mum about this. Many of you know Linda as "Mother Smooth" and if you've ever ordered anything from us, she'd have sent it to you. True to the adage that "Mum always knows best", I finally managed to pluck up the courage and expand on how excited I was to be taking my wife and two kids camping over the Christmas holidays to a beautiful town called Albany in the South West which we'd all visited together as a family a few years earlier. Mother Smooth couldn't understand why I'd not told her sooner, to which I responded that I didn't want to make her feel bad. "Feel bad?" she quizzed, "I am at my happiest when I know you are happy". Profound stuff - good old Mum!

The Changing Tide

So, what has this all really got to do with swimming? If you are in the northern hemisphere, chances are you are sick to the back teeth of hearing about the coronavirus and maybe even more so the thought that other pockets of the world are experiencing far fewer restrictions than yourself currently. Last week's swift lockdown gave me a rapid reminder though just how uncertain these times can be - the tide can change on a dime so easily. What has been remarkable for me has been watching how those of you who still continue in enforced lockdowns have survived this last 12 months and I'd like to recognize some of the cool - and crazy - things you've been doing, obviously simply for the joy of needing to get your swim in! Perhaps you can tell us more about how you've weathered this storm so far?

Helen Webster, UK

I met Helen in March 2014 at the 220 Triathlon Show in London. As the editor of the 220 Triathlon Magazine, Helen had taken it upon herself to learn to swim freestyle properly for an upcoming triathlon and I was tasked with assisting her with that goal in an Endless Pool and in front of hundreds of people. For someone with very little swimming experience at that point, Helen did amazingly well in front of such a crowd and it’s a testament to her bubbly “can do” spirit that she took on this challenge!

We spent a good hour or so filming her stroke, analyzing it (in front of everyone!), and then getting back into the pool to correct her issues which mainly centred around developing confidence in the water and improving the timing of her stroke, specifically her breathing. Back then, Helen was what we’d have described as a classic Bambino - someone very new to swimming with a relatively high level of anxiety in the water - so to see the following images circulating on Helen’s Facebook page in the last couple of weeks simply blew my mind! Helen’s gone all Bear Grylls on us and now is not happy unless she has to break the ice in her backyard pool just to ensure she gets her swim in! I’m so proud of her as a mate!

Here's Helen on what the last 12 months have meant for her swimming:

"Open-water swimming has been a key part of my training week ever since taking those first steps with Paul all those years ago! Lockdown had made me realise just how important swimming is to me though and in so many ways. Not living near the coast and with managed venues nearby forced to close I've realised how much I rely on swimming for lifting my mood, giving me a pause from a busy world and fully immersing myself in nature. I'm a pool swimmer too and with centres all closed I'm even missing the tang of chlorine and having to do kick drills!!

It sounds melodramatic but a tearful moment on the phone with a friend prompted her to gift me a garden pool and swimming tethered has given me a route back to the water (thanks to Swim Smooth Coach Jason Tait for the tethered swim sets!). It's also led me to a new swim community who are making the most of what they have and finding humour in sitting in ice baths and under hosepipes, or sharing tips for how to stop your garden pool freezing!

I can't wait to have my 'proper' swimming back and believe me, will never take it for granted again. I'm planning a swim challenge for September and keeping fingers crossed it goes ahead!"

Sue Allingham, Denmark

Sue attended one of our 3-day Swim Smooth Coach Education Courses in Mallorca, Spain back in May 2019 and was clearly a super-passionate swimmer and coach. We’ve remained in close contact via Messenger since and she frequently sends me crazy pictures of where she’s been swimming, however, nothing could quite prepare me for this one - her frozen Margarita experience (as she calls it)!

When I asked Sue about what the last 12 months have meant for her swimming, she said this:

"A year ago I entered the World Ice Swimming Championships in Bled Slovenia for a laugh. 2 weeks later I broke both my wrists and then Lockdown! By April I was going stir crazy and the day I had my casts removed, I got back into the sea, as the pools were shut. Little did I know that I would continue going in every day since! As my wrists got stronger, I could swim longer but the thought of trying to pull on a wetsuit was hanging over my head. By the time I probably could get one on I no longer felt the need. I continued to swim throughout the year and ended up becoming the Danish age-group champion in 25m & 100m Freestyle - Ice swimming and 5k Openwater. 

A year on from Covid and we are still in the sea and simply just grabbing any opportunity to jump in the water, to try new beaches or temperatures. As you can see from the picture, we’ve started making our own frozen Margaritas! 

What will I do when the pools open again? Dive in and just keep swimming! Never thought I’d miss the black line so much. Swimming as always is such a social thing & drinking coffee with friends after each swim has really made Lockdown actually enjoyable. Already looking at SwimRuns in Sweden, hopefully as it’s close by we may be allowed to travel. Otherwise lots of pre-paid events carried over from last year. I live in hope. 

One thing is for sure, the sea is always open!"

Mark Turner, Switzerland

Mark also attended one of our other 3-day Swim Smooth Coach Education Courses in Mallorca, Spain (the week after Sue) and had just a few months prior completed the Rottnest Channel Swim here in Perth. Mark set up the world’s most prestigious multi-day cycling event for amateurs, the Haute Route, which is a brutally tough challenge in a breathtakingly beautiful landscape. Mark was also the man behind Ellen MacArthur’s sailing career (who set the world record in 2005 for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe), the Offshore Challenges/OC Sport business, and the Extreme Sailing Series, and is widely seen as a visionary in the sport of sailing. And, if all that wasn't enough, Mark led the Volvo Ocean Race series as CEO in 2016/17. Needless to say, Mark is not someone to do things by half and is always up for a (big) challenge! 

Mark now lives in Switzerland on the banks of Lake Geneva and is fastidious about his swimming, especially a weekly completion of the infamous 10 x 400m Red Mist Endurance session! Like with many parts of the world, Mark has had unreliable access to his local pool over the last 12 months and so has turned to the great outdoors instead…even during the middle of winter! Hooking up regularly with like-minded souls in these freezing temperatures has been what has kept Mark going and will stand him in good stead when the world finally comes back to some sense of normality.

It Is What It Is

I think one of the most obvious things with each of these three swimmers - and yourself hopefully too - is that they’ve simply rolled with the punches that 2020 and beyond has brought their way. They’ve got on with it, adapted, pivoted, and thrived in a new environment and in doing so sought out other goals to keep them motivated and in the game. Resilience personified. We always talk so virtuously in training and racing about “control the controllable”, and clearly, none of this is in any of our control right now. Way back in April 2020 when we were still in lockdown and I was personally unable to coach, a very close friend and one of my athletes, Nolan McDonnell told me to “stop trying to save us all - we can look after ourselves!” in response to me frantically trying to work out how to keep everyone fit and engaged when I couldn’t be with them face-to-face. It really struck a chord with me, and whilst it didn’t happen overnight, I did begin to accept the situation. 

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to travel and spread the Swim Smooth word - as has been my life over the last 16 or so years - was a real blow, but ever so gradually I started to move beyond this and to focus on what I could do, not what I couldn’t. For me personally, that’s meant plenty more time at home with the family, and as we are seeing on the pool deck at the moment, plenty of opportunities to be super consistent with our respective training schedules too. The squad here in Perth has never swum so quickly before, ever! Why? Everyone has their groundhog day schedule dialled in and they’re sticking to it because there’s nowhere else to go, and there’s something very centring about that, zen even. 

Fancying a challenge myself - and recognizing the collective benefit of encouraging others to follow suit - I have even got myself back into doing a few triathlons, marathon swims, and even the odd SwimRun event too! Taking on a range of varied challenges was in an effort to not put all our eggs into one basket in case events got canceled or postponed. 

Again, I’m super privileged to be able to do these things right now, and part of that appreciation brings a whole new angle on why we do what we do. For me, it’s all been about my shared experience of training up with one of my best mates Chris to do the Rottnest Channel Swim together as a Duo next week. With last week’s unprecedented lockdown it looked certain to be canceled but you know what, I wasn’t bothered in the slightest! The religiously attended Sunday morning swim with Chris in the river is what it’s all about - not the event itself. Swimming + Best Mate = Win. 

Sure, the race will be a nice finale, but the old adage of “the journey is better than the destination” is what this whole crazy period has really taught me. We egg each other on even in the middle of winter and for me, this has seen a major step away from the profound sense of training for competition’s sake, to training for training’s sake, and for the social camaraderie that this has brought. I wouldn’t change that for the world.

Even if you haven’t had the opportunity (yet) to be quite so free in your activities, that time will come again, hopefully very soon, and in the meantime, just set yourself some little consistency of routine benchmarks to tick off. Get creative like our friends above (just maybe not quite so crazy!). How many swims in the river can you consistently do every Sunday? Can you always ensure you meet up with Bob for your Friday lunchtime jog in the park? Make sure you commit to that group ride on Zwift you booked in for on the Companion app etc. It’s the little things, done often that will keep you going and when the world opens up again, you’ll be ready! 

Thanks for reading. Swim on!

Paul

from Sports http://www.feelforthewater.com/2021/02/the-value-of-swimming-in-uncertain-times.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

The Value of Swimming in Uncertain Times

Hi Swimmers

Firstly, apologies for the radio silence over the last few weeks on the blog - we’ve had the whole team busily engaged in a complete revamp of the entire www.swimsmooth.com website and coaching interface, and whilst we are not quite done with all that yet, we are getting very close and hope to resume these blogs and our usual community engagement in due course very soon. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Today, Head Coach, Paul Newsome, has prepared a reflective piece for you on the value of swimming and what it means to us all, especially in these uncertain times. We hope it allows you to pause over a cup of tea or coffee and think a little bit about your own swimming and how your relationship with the water might have changed somewhat in the last 12 months. Paul features three brief stories of some inspiring swimmers he has had the pleasure to work with and how their swimming journeys have been significantly altered by the coronavirus, mostly for the better. Paul summarises with some of his own take-home points on how this period has changed his own thinking on swimming somewhat and how his ordinarily extrinsic competitive goalposts have shifted to a place of intrinsic challenge and finding a new calm with that. So please, relax, put your feet up and let’s get a little zen for a moment.

The Value of Swimming in Uncertain Times

I was recently invited as a guest on the new "An Open Water Swimmer's Podcast" with host Will Ellis (release date: 28th February here) to discuss my love and passion for swimming - an easy topic for me! Will is a great host and someone I'd taken for a Swim Smooth analysis session as part of a group over a decade ago in the UK. Given my area of technical interest in swimming, many podcasts that we've done with other hosts have always centered on these elements, but Will took a very different slant, one which focused very much on the "why" of swimming. Why do I swim? Why do I enjoy the water? Why swimming and not another sport? I came away with a headful of thoughts that I'd either never given due consideration to before, or maybe some that crystallized a growing appreciation I've started to foster of late?

Given the current state of play with COVID-19 restrictions on our sport over the last 12 months, I feel my own relationship with water has not necessarily changed per se, but it's definitely evolved. Perhaps though, it's me who's changed and it's this period of intrinsic reflection that has heightened the "why" behind what we all love to do? For many of you, could the absence of being able to do the thing you love or the thing that perhaps challenges you the most (as a triathlete maybe?), be the necessary catalyst to kick your swimming to new heights of appreciation (however you measure that) when we do all come through this? I'm certainly seeing that in myself and my squad of very lucky swimmers over here in Perth, Australia.

Lady Luck

Over the last 12 months, Perth has been heralded as one of the best places on the planet with respect to the relatively few restrictions and impact of the coronavirus - many of us scarcely realizing how lucky we are. Next week will see 3,500 people start one of the largest open water swims on the planet, the Rottnest Channel Swim, in which I will be competing with a good friend over the 20km distance. We have, however, just come out of a heavily publicized (albeit very short) 5-day lockdown here in Perth which restricted access to the pools and saw us only being able to swim solo in the open water or with one other family member. This incident garnered international press on account of the very rapid and focused response to a single case in the community transferred between a quarantined hotel guest and a security guard. The whole state came to a grinding halt for just one case - everything ceased and panic was high. Despite extensive testing (myself included) of those who may have been in the vicinity of this one person, fortunately, no other community transmission has occurred. Consequently, life is returning to some form of normality again. 

One of the hardest things I've personally struggled with over the last 12 months though is being able to fully appreciate and empathize with just how brutal this period must have been - and continues to be - for many of you from the perspective of being able to simply enjoy the pleasures of a nice swim. Lady Luck has shone down on me, and for why, I do not know? I feel a toiling mixed sense of guilt, of pure luck, and of umbrage at myself for the seemingly petty feeling of missing the ability to travel overseas and share my love of swimming with you all, wherever you might be. I miss it so much and yet feel I have no right to do so given where I have the good fortune to be right now. 

I had a frank conversation before Christmas with my Mum about this. Many of you know Linda as "Mother Smooth" and if you've ever ordered anything from us, she'd have sent it to you. True to the adage that "Mum always knows best", I finally managed to pluck up the courage and expand on how excited I was to be taking my wife and two kids camping over the Christmas holidays to a beautiful town called Albany in the South West which we'd all visited together as a family a few years earlier. Mother Smooth couldn't understand why I'd not told her sooner, to which I responded that I didn't want to make her feel bad. "Feel bad?" she quizzed, "I am at my happiest when I know you are happy". Profound stuff - good old Mum!

The Changing Tide

So, what has this all really got to do with swimming? If you are in the northern hemisphere, chances are you are sick to the back teeth of hearing about the coronavirus and maybe even more so the thought that other pockets of the world are experiencing far fewer restrictions than yourself currently. Last week's swift lockdown gave me a rapid reminder though just how uncertain these times can be - the tide can change on a dime so easily. What has been remarkable for me has been watching how those of you who still continue in enforced lockdowns have survived this last 12 months and I'd like to recognize some of the cool - and crazy - things you've been doing, obviously simply for the joy of needing to get your swim in! Perhaps you can tell us more about how you've weathered this storm so far?

Helen Webster, UK

I met Helen in March 2014 at the 220 Triathlon Show in London. As Editor of the 220 Triathlon Magazine, Helen had taken it upon herself to learn to swim freestyle properly for an upcoming triathlon and I was tasked with assisting her with that goal in an Endless Pool and in front of hundreds of people. For someone with very little swimming experience at that point, Helen did amazingly well in front of such a crowd and it’s a testament to her bubbly “can do” spirit that she took on this challenge!

We spent a good hour or so filming her stroke, analyzing it (in front of everyone!), and then getting back into the pool to correct her issues which mainly centered around developing confidence in the water and improving the timing of her stroke, specifically her breathing. Back then, Helen was what we’d have described as a classic Bambino - someone very new to swimming with a relatively high level of anxiety in the water - so to see the following images circulating on Helen’s Facebook page in the last couple of weeks simply blew my mind! Helen’s gone all Bear Grylls on us and now is not happy unless she has to break the ice in her backyard pool just to ensure she gets her swim in! I’m so proud of her as a mate!

Here's Helen on what the last 12 months have meant for her swimming:

"Open-water swimming has been a key part of my training week ever since taking those first steps with Paul all those years ago! Lockdown had made me realise just how important swimming is to me though and in so many ways. Not living near the coast and with managed venues nearby forced to close I've realised how much I rely on swimming for lifting my mood, giving me a pause from a busy world and fully immersing myself in nature. I'm a pool swimmer too and with centres all closed I'm even missing the tang of chlorine and having to do kick drills!!

It sounds melodramatic but a tearful moment on the phone with a friend promoted her to gift me a garden pool and swimming tethered has given me a route back to the water (thanks to Swim Smooth Coach Jason Tait for the tethered swim sets!). It's also led me to a new swim community who are making the most of what they have and finding humour in sitting in ice baths and under hosepipes, or sharing tips for how to stop your garden pool freezing!

I can't wait to have my 'proper' swimming back and believe me, will never take it for granted again. I'm planning a swim challenge for September and keeping fingers crossed it goes ahead!"

Sue Allingham, Denmark

Sue attended one of our 3-day Swim Smooth Coach Education Courses in Mallorca, Spain back in May 2019 and was clearly a super-passionate swimmer and coach. We’ve remained in close contact via Messenger since and she frequently sends me crazy pictures of where she’s been swimming, however, nothing could quite prepare me for this one - her frozen Margarita experience (as she calls it)!

When I asked Sue about what the last 12 months have meant for her swimming, she said this:

"A year ago I entered the World Ice Swimming Championships in Bled Slovenia for a laugh. 2 weeks later I broke both my wrists and then Lockdown! By April I was going stir crazy and the day I had my casts removed, I got back into the sea, as the pools were shut. Little did I know that I would continue going in every day since! As my wrists got stronger, I could swim longer but the thought of trying to pull on a wetsuit was hanging over my head. By the time I probably could get one on I no longer felt the need. I continued to swim throughout the year and ended up becoming the Danish age-group champion in 25m & 100m Freestyle - Ice swimming and 5k Openwater. 

A year on from Covid and we are still in the sea and simply just grabbing any opportunity to jump in the water, to try new beaches or temperatures. As you can see from the picture, we’ve started making our own frozen Margaritas! 

What will I do when the pools open again? Dive in and just keep swimming! Never thought I’d miss the black line so much. Swimming as always is such a social thing & drinking coffee with friends after each swim has really made Lockdown actually enjoyable. Already looking at SwimRuns in Sweden, hopefully as it’s close by we may be allowed to travel. Otherwise lots of pre-paid events carried over from last year. I live in hope. 

One thing is for sure, the sea is always open!"

Mark Turner, Switzerland

Mark also attended one of our other 3-day Swim Smooth Coach Education Courses in Mallorca, Spain (the week after Sue) and had just a few months prior completed the Rottnest Channel Swim here in Perth. Mark set up the world’s most prestigious multi-day cycling event for amateurs, the Haute Route, which is a brutally tough challenge in a breathtakingly beautiful landscape. Mark was also the man behind Ellen MacArthur’s sailing career (who set the world record in 2005 for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe), the Offshore Challenges/OC Sport business, and the Extreme Sailing Series, and is widely seen as a visionary in the sport of sailing. And, if all that wasn't enough, Mark led the Volvo Ocean Race series as CEO in 2016/17. Needless to say, Mark is not someone to do things by half and is always up for a (big) challenge! 

Mark now lives in Switzerland on the banks of Lake Geneva and is fastidious about his swimming, especially a weekly completion of the infamous 10 x 400m Red Mist Endurance session! Like with many parts of the world, Mark has had unreliable access to his local pool over the last 12 months and so has turned to the great outdoors instead…even during the middle of winter! Hooking up regularly with like-minded souls in these freezing temperatures has been what has kept Mark going and will stand him in good stead when the world finally comes back to some sense of normality.

It Is What It Is

I think one of the most obvious things with each of these three swimmers - and yourself hopefully too - is that they’ve simply rolled with the punches that 2020 and beyond has brought their way. They’ve got on with it, adapted, pivoted, and thrived in a new environment and in doing so sought out other goals to keep them motivated and in the game. Resilience personified. We always talk so virtuously in training and racing about “control the controllable”, and clearly, none of this is in any of our control right now. Way back in April 2020 when we were still in lockdown and I was personally unable to coach, a very close friend and one of my athletes, Nolan McDonnell told me to “stop trying to save us all - we can look after ourselves!” in response to me frantically trying to work out how to keep everyone fit and engaged when I couldn’t be with them face-to-face. It really struck a chord with me, and whilst it didn’t happen overnight, I did begin to accept the situation. 

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to travel and spread the Swim Smooth word - as has been my life over the last 16 or so years - was a real blow, but ever so gradually I started to move beyond this and to focus on what I could do, not what I couldn’t. For me personally, that’s meant plenty more time at home with the family, and as we are seeing on the pool deck at the moment, plenty of opportunities to be super consistent with our respective training schedules too. The squad here in Perth has never swum so quickly before, ever! Why? Everyone has their groundhog day schedule dialed in and they’re sticking to it because there’s nowhere else to go, and there’s something very centering about that, zen even. 

Fancying a challenge myself - and recognizing the collective benefit of encouraging others to follow suit - I have even got myself back into doing a few triathlons, marathon swims, and even the odd SwimRun event too! Taking on a range of varied challenges was in an effort to not put all our eggs into one basket in case events got canceled or postponed. 

Again, I’m super privileged to be able to do these things right now, and part of that appreciation brings a whole new angle on why we do what we do. For me, it’s all been about my shared experience of training up with one of my best mates Chris to do the Rottnest Channel Swim together as a Duo next week. With last week’s unprecedented lockdown it looked certain to be canceled but you know what, I wasn’t bothered in the slightest! The religiously attended Sunday morning swim with Chris in the river is what it’s all about - not the event itself. Swimming + Best Mate = Win. Sure, the race will be a nice finale, but the old adage of “the journey is better than the destination” is what this whole crazy period has really taught me. We egg each other on even in the middle of winter and for me, this has seen a major step away from the profound sense of training for competition’s sake, to training for training’s sake, and for the social camaraderie that this has brought. I wouldn’t change that for the world.

Even if you haven’t had the opportunity (yet) to be quite so free in your activities, that time will come again, hopefully very soon, and in the meantime, just set yourself some little consistency of routine benchmarks to tick off. Get creative like our friends above (just maybe not quite so crazy!). How many swims in the river can you consistently do every Sunday? Can you always ensure you meet up with Bob for your Friday lunchtime jog in the park? Make sure you commit to that group ride on Zwift you booked in for on the Companion app etc. It’s the little things, done often that will keep you going and when the world opens up again, you’ll be ready! 

Thanks for reading. Swim on!

Paul

from Sports http://www.feelforthewater.com/2021/02/the-value-of-swimming-in-uncertain-times.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

Today, and every day, roughly 190 Britons will die from dementia – about 1,350 every week – and numbers are steadily and ominously rising. It is by far our biggest killer, having overtaken heart disease five years ago as fatalities from heart attacks and strokes continue to decline. Within the next few years, more than one million Britons will be living with the degenerative brain condition. It’s a statistic made all the more shocking when you consider that the dementia death toll is almost four times the number claimed each week at the moment by the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. But despite these grim figures there is hope, as the latest medical evidence suggests that whether you develop dementia is not simply down to fate. Dementia, a degenerative brain condition, is by far our biggest killer, having overtaken heart disease five years ago as fatalities from heart attacks and strokes continue to decline Although incurable, a staggering 40 per cent of cases could be prevented in the first place, according to a global report revealed at the Alzheimer’s Association International Congress last week. Lifestyle factors, such as diet, lack of exercise – and even hearing loss – are responsible for a whopping 340,000 of Britain’s 850,000 dementia cases, says the report. The leading scientists behind the new study identified 12 risk factors that make us more likely to develop the disease. Crucially, it’s within our power to address each one of them if we want to stay healthy into old age. The risks begin to mount in childhood, the report said, but even making small lifestyle changes into your 70s could have a significant impact. The report represents a huge leap forward in the understanding of the disease. Three years ago, the same research group became the first to prove how much of dementia is preventable, revealing the role of obesity, smoking, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. Hearing loss, if untreated, depression and too little exercise also contribute to an individual’s risk, while lack of education and social isolation were also factors flagged by the experts. Now, three more avoidable dangers have been added to that list based on new data: traumatic head injury, air pollution and heavy alcohol consumption. The authors, from The Lancet’s Commission on Dementia, a group of international experts, say the findings should be a wake-up call for us all, and urged everyone to take responsibility for their own health. They said: ‘Around 40 per cent of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed by eliminating these risk factors.’ So what can we do? Well, making changes to diet and lifestyle has a significant effect, not just on reducing the chances of developing dementia but also keeping the mind sharper and younger. Around 40 per cent of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed by ‘eliminating risk factors’, such as giving up smoking, said experts (file photo) A recent Swedish study found that being a healthy weight, keeping blood pressure in check and staying fit and active were three key factors found to significantly improve mental performance. More than 500 participants, aged 60 to 77, were advised to eat lots of fruit and vegetables, whole grains, fish and low-fat dairy, while exercise plans involved strength training at a gym plus group exercises to improve aerobic fitness, such as jogging and aerobics.  The researchers followed them for two years and found they performed better in mental tests by the end, having boosted their overall health. Similar lifestyle changes were linked to a 37 per cent reduced dementia risk in another trial involving 3,000 volunteers. Indeed, just making a change to one area, such as giving up smoking, was found to have a big knock-on effect. It’s something I take seriously, because I’ve seen first-hand how devastating dementia can be. I was 17 when my much-loved granny, Olive, died of the disease, aged 74, having spent two years being cared for by my mum, her only child, in our family home. Olive suffered from Lewy body dementia, the second most common type after Alzheimer’s, accounting for ten to 15 per cent of cases. Looking back now, the risk factors described by The Lancet’s Commission were all there. My grandfather Jimmy, married to Olive for 40 years, collapsed and died from an aortic aneurism aged 65, just two weeks after retiring from his job as a draughtsman at the Rolls-Royce plant in East Kilbride, south of Glasgow. Her world fell apart. In time, neighbours moved on. Friends passed away. Adored: Jo Macfarlane as a baby, sitting on granny Olive’s knee before her dementia set in. Olive suffered from Lewy body dementia, the second most common type after Alzheimer’s A fall meant she feared going out and she spent a lot of time alone in her empty house, staring out of the window. She began to forget to eat. When she came to live with us in Fife, 80 miles away on the opposite coast of Scotland, the warm, adoring woman who’d doted on my two younger sisters and me was vanishing, bit by bit. Every morning the house was woken by her fearful wails ‘Help me! Help’, as she opened her eyes and, again, had no idea where she was.  Living near a busy road increases the chance of dementia by 10% Most painfully, she forgot she had a daughter or grandchildren. When it was explained to her gently one day, she sobbed bitterly: ‘No one ever told me I had a daughter.’ It’s a story that will no doubt resonate with thousands of British families, on whom the burden of care so often falls.  The cost of treating and supporting the dementia population in the UK is £34.7 billion a year, and it’s set to nearly treble by 2040. Unpaid carers, like my mum, save the economy a further £13.9 billion a year. Imagine if the emotional – and economic – burden could be lifted significantly. A one per cent reduction in dementia cases would mean 8,500 fewer people living with the disease.  Eliminating all 12 risk factors, the report’s authors say, could save 340,000 from being struck by it – 40 per cent of the 850,000 people estimated to have dementia in the UK. In this special Mail on Sunday Health section, we’ll explain how to reduce your risk – from looking at ways to combat heart disease and diabetes, to highlighting surprising methods of prevention, such as improving your hearing. There is still much about dementia risk that science can’t explain, but there is cause for optimism. Armed with new knowledge, it’s never been more possible to alter the course of our later lives for the better. Brain-boosting breakfasts Crustless quiche with feta, peas and spinach Bake for 30–35mins, or until just set and golden. Serve warm or cold (267 calories per serving) SERVES 4 1 bagful fresh spinach, or 200g of frozen spinach, defrosted and with the excess water squeezed out 50g cheddar cheese, grated Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/GM 4. Fry the onion over a medium heat for 5-10mins, or until softened. Whisk the eggs in a bowl and stir in half the cheese, half the onions and season well. Pour the egg mixture into a non-stick dish and scatter over the remaining onion as well as the peas, spinach and remaining cheese. Bake for 30–35mins, or until just set and golden. Serve warm or cold, sliced into wedges.    Peach and apricot breakfast pots In 2 small glasses, layer the apricots and peaches, followed by yoghurt (305cal per serving) SERVES 2 Toast the oats lightly in a pan on a low heat, stirring frequently, until they reach a golden colour (roughly 5mins). In 2 small glasses, layer the apricots and peaches, followed by a layer of yogurt, followed by another layer of fruit, until you reach the top of the glass. Top with a sprinkle of the toasted oats and nuts. Banana and peanut butter overnight oats In the morning, loosen with a little water or milk if needed (380 calories per serving) SERVES 1 The night before, stir the skimmed milk and the cinnamon into your oats. In the morning, loosen with a little water or milk if needed. Top with chopped banana, yogurt and a drizzle of peanut butter. Blistered tomatoes on toast Turn up the heat and allow tomatoes to sizzle until the skins start to blister (213cal per serving) SERVES 1 Pinch of dried mixed herbs 1 large slice wholemeal or rye bread Gently fry the garlic in 1 tsp of oil for 1min, then add the cherry tomatoes and mixed herbs. Turn up the heat and allow the tomatoes to sizzle until the skins start to blister. Toast the bread and drizzle the remaining tsp of oil on the bread. Place the tomatoes on top and season with salt and pepper. Baked eggs with greens and yoghurt Add the spinach and season with salt and pepper, then mix (343 calories per serving) SERVES 2 1/2 100g pack of fresh spinach, or 80g frozen spinach, with water squeezed out 2 spring onions, chopped  2 tbsp low-fat natural yogurt 2 slices rye or wholemeal bread, toasted Heat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/GM 6. If using fresh spinach, put it in a colander, then pour over a kettle of boiling water to wilt the leaves. Squeeze out excess water. In a large, oven-proof pan, heat the oil before frying off the spring onions for a couple of minutes until softened. Add the spinach and season with salt and pepper, then mix. Make two small wells in the pan and crack in two eggs. Put the pan in the oven for 12-15mins, then serve with yogurt spooned on top, alongside the toast. Life-enhancing lunches Roast sweet potato stuffed with smoky black beans Cut the cooked sweet potato in half and spoon the bean mixture inside (343cal per serving) SERVES 2 1 tin black or kidney beans Pinch of chilli powder (optional) Preheat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/GM 6. Pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork and roast for 45-60mins. Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the garlic, paprika, cumin and chilli, if using. Cook for 1min. Add the drained beans, 50ml of water and a pinch of salt and pepper and stir thoroughly. Cook until this is all warmed through. Remove from the heat and, just before serving, stir in the lime juice. Cut the cooked sweet potato in half and spoon the bean mixture inside. Meatballs and beans in tomato sauce Place 4 meatballs in each bowl with sauce and serve alone, or with bread (450cal per serving) SERVES 4 For the meatballs: 1 slice stale or toasted wholemeal bread For the sauce: 1 red pepper, finely chopped 1 tin butter beans, or any other variety Blitz the bread in a blender  to make breadcrumbs. Tip into a bowl and mix thoroughly with the beef, garlic, egg and seasoning. Roll into small balls – about 16 – and place on a plate in the fridge. Gently fry the garlic for 1-2mins, then add the onion, pepper and courgette and fry for a further 5mins, until browned slightly. Next, add the tomatoes, beans and purée. Fill the empty tin with water twice, add this to the mix and leave to simmer for 15mins. In another pan, fry the meatballs for 12mins. Taste the sauce and check for seasoning. Place 4 meatballs in each bowl with the sauce and serve alone, or with bread. Buttery white beans and tuna Add a final drizzle of oil and some chopped fresh herbs if you have any (329cal per serving) SERVES 2 1 tin tuna in spring water Pinch of dried mixed herbs Chopped fresh herbs (optional) Finely chop the garlic and fry in the olive oil for 2-3mins. Add the drained beans, salt and pepper and mixed herbs. Cook until warmed through. Finely chop the onion and drain the tuna and gently toss into the warmed mixture.  Serve alongside one slice of toasted bread. Add a final drizzle of oil and some chopped fresh herbs if you have any. Sardine, tomato and pepper pizzettes Drizzle over sardine oil and place on middle shelf of oven for 15-25mins (391cal per serving) SERVES 2 For the dough: Half a sachet fast-acting dried yeast (4g) For the topping: 8 cherry tomatoes, cut in half 1 green or yellow pepper, chopped 4 black olives, finely chopped Pinch of dried mixed herbs Preheat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/ GM 6. Make the dough by adding water to yeast and stirring until dissolved, then gradually pour wet mixture into flour and salt until it has dough consistency. Mix together into a ball, then knead for 10mins before leaving dough to double in size for 30mins. Break off 4 palm-sized balls and leave remaining dough in fridge or freezer for later use. Roll the 4 chunks of dough into mini pizzas and prick bases. Drain sardines but retain 1 tbsp oil. Thinly spread tomato purée on bases, then add sardines, cherry tomatoes, peppers, chopped olives and herbs. Drizzle over sardine oil and place on middle shelf of oven for 15-25mins. Chicken and roasted vegetable salad Season with sprinkle of salt, then roast for 20-25m until chicken is cooked (531cal per serving) SERVES 2 1 small red pepper, chopped Large handful cherry tomatoes, halved 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 100g salad leaves or lettuce (any kind you like) For the dressing: 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil Heat oven to 210C/Fan 190C/GM 8. In a bowl, mix the chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, pepper, cherry tomatoes and olive oil until all is coated. Put the chicken and vegetables in a baking tray that’s large enough so everything rests in a single layer. Season with sprinkle of salt, then roast for 20-25mins until chicken is cooked through. When cooked, slice the thighs. Whisk dressing ingredients in a salad bowl, then add the chicken, vegetables and salad leaves. Mix well before serving. Delectable dinners Courgette and minty potato parmesan tart Put in the centre of the oven for 25mins or until the egg has set (502 calories per serving) SERVES 2 1/2 roll (160g) of ready-rolled puff pastry 4 new potatoes, boiled and sliced 1 courgette, sliced lengthways or in round slices 2 tsp fresh mint, chopped Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/GM 6. Place the pastry on a lined, greased baking tray and fold the edges up and inwards to create a thin crust. Arrange the potato and courgette on the pastry, then gently pour the egg on top. Sprinkle with the lemon zest and parmesan. Put in the centre of the oven for 25mins or until the egg has set and the crust is golden brown. Sprinkle with chopped mint. Crunchy cod and sweet potato chips with smashed minty peas Dip the cod fillets into the egg and roll in the breadcrumbs. Bake for 25m (520cal per serving) SERVES 2 2 skinless fillets of cod 1 slice stale or toasted bread Sprig of fresh mint, chopped Preheat the oven to 220C/Fan 200C/GM 6. Chop the sweet potato into bitesize chunks, place in a baking dish, drizzle with oil and sprinkle on the paprika. Roast for 45mins. Blitz the bread into crumbs and mix with a pinch of salt, pepper and the lemon zest. Dip the cod fillets into the egg and roll in the breadcrumbs. Bake for 25mins. Boil the frozen peas until slightly overcooked, then gently mash with mint and butter. Squeeze the juice of the lemon on the fish. Stuffed peppers with a ‘meaty’ mushroom filling Top with the pepper ‘lids’, cover in foil and bake for 35-40mins (345 calories per serving) SERVES 2 200g mushrooms (any kind), diced 1 garlic clove, finely chopped Heat the oven to 220C/Fan 200C/GM 7. Make breadcrumbs by blitzing the bread in a blender, or finely chopping. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the mushrooms for 5mins, until tender.  Turn off the heat and add garlic, tomatoes, breadcrumbs, walnuts and pesto until thoroughly combined. Slice the top off the peppers and remove the seeds. Place in a roasting tin and spoon the mushroom filling into the pepper cavities.  Top with the pepper ‘lids’, cover in foil and bake for 35-40mins. Easy one-person paella Stir the seafood mix into the pan and cover with a lid. Simmer for 5m (565 calories per serving) 1/2 onion, finely chopped 1 sausage, divided into small balls (or a handful of chicken breast chunks) 1/2 tsp mixed dried herbs 75g brown rice, or paella rice if you can’t get brown 1 tbsp white wine (optional) Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the sausage balls, onion and garlic for 8mins. Then add paprika, herbs and rice, stirring continuously.  Splash in the wine and, once it has evaporated, stir in the chopped tomatoes and chicken stock. Season and cook for 10-15mins, stirring occasionally until rice is almost cooked.  Stir the seafood mix into the pan and cover with a lid. Simmer for 5mins, or until the seafood is cooked through. Squeeze over the lemon juice.   Chickpea and courgette parmigiana Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and parmesan, then bake for 35-40m (422cal per serving) SERVES 4 6 courgettes, sliced into 1cm lengths 2 balls mozzarella, sliced 50g parmesan cheese, grated Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/GM 6. Coat the courgette slices in oil and sear the slices in a pan for 3-4mins each side, then set aside. In the same pan, cook the onion and garlic until soft. Heat the chopped tomatoes and chickpeas in a saucepan, adding the cooked onion mixture, salt and pepper and letting it bubble for a few minutes. Spoon some of the tomato mixture into the base of an ovenproof dish, then layer with courgette and mozzarella. Repeat until all ingredients are used up. Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and parmesan, then bake for 35-40mins until bubbling and golden brown on top. Perfect puds   Spiced compote with honey yogurt and nuts Heat rhubarb in a small pan, using dessertspoon of syrup and a splash of water. Add cinnamon and allspice and simmer until rhubarb has disintegrated (222 calories per serving) SERVES 2 1/2 tin of rhubarb in light syrup, or apples or pears 4 heaped tbsp low-fat Greek yogurt Heat rhubarb in a small pan, using dessertspoon of syrup and a splash of water. Add cinnamon and allspice and simmer until rhubarb has disintegrated. Allow to cool and serve with 2 tbsp yogurt each, a sprinkling of nuts and a drizzle of honey. Chocolate mousse with raspberries Fold in egg white – whisked to stiff peaks – followed by chocolate. Spoon mixture into 2 small glasses or espresso cups and put in fridge for at least 30mins (296 calories per serving) SERVES 2 1/3 of a 100g bar of dark chocolate 3 tbsp low-fat Greek yogurt Melt chocolate in a glass bowl, placed over a pan of boiling water. Add sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add half yogurt to the bowl and mix, then transfer to another bowl before stirring in the rest of the yogurt.  Fold in egg white – whisked to stiff peaks – followed by chocolate. Spoon mixture into 2 small glasses or espresso cups and put in fridge for at least 30mins. Serve alongside a handful of raspberries. Tinned pear and nut crumble Mix together, first with a spoon, then with your fingers, until you have a rough, crumbly mixture. Scatter over the peaches, then bake for 35mins (264 calories per serving) SERVES 6 3 x 410g tinned pears in juice 1 tbsp sugar or sweetener 50g hazelnuts, or any nuts you like Preheat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/GM 6. Drain the pears, but reserve the juice. Tip pears & juice into a baking dish or 6 ceramic pots. In a bowl, mix flour, oats, butter, sugar, nuts and cinnamon.  Mix together, first with a spoon, then with your fingers, until you have a rough, crumbly mixture. Scatter over the peaches, then bake for 35mins until golden and crunchy on top. Home-made stracciatella gelato After the last stir, melt the chocolate either slowly in a microwave, or in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water. While stirring the gelato, pour in the chocolate (174 calories per serving) MAKES 10 PORTIONS 2-3 tbsp granulated sugar The night before making the gelato, place a bowl in the freezer. Next day, pour the milk and sugar into a medium pot and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has just dissolved. Take off the heat and stir in cream, then let mixture cool before placing it in the bowl that’s been chilling in the freezer. Leave in fridge for 3hrs before transferring to freezer. Stir ice cream 3-4 times, roughly every 4hrs, to break up ice crystals – or use a blender. After the last stir, melt the chocolate either slowly in a microwave, or in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water. While stirring the gelato, pour in the chocolate, then place in freezer for 30mins before serving. The post The simple tweaks that can prevent dementia (plus delicious recipes to help beat it) appeared first on Shri Times News.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-simple-tweaks-that-can-prevent.html