What’s happening y’all?! – oh god I really cannot pull that kind of chat off.

…..hello – much better

So, huuuuuuuge day yesterday! This wee bloggy was read in 17 countries! SEVENTEEN! Mental. I am so proud and so grateful – I’d like to thank my muuuum and my daaaad and my sponsoooor. Ha. But really though, thank you, I hope you are enjoying it.

It has become de rigueur (oooh faaancy) for me to ask various people what I should write about each day and today we are going to discuss these guys:

No no no – not the bloody cartoon – the fruit! The mighty banana. The endurance athletes best friend, however, lean body fans beware, these little yellow scoundrels are demons in disguise. What?! Yes really, I vividly remember weeping into my keyboard this time last year when I was advised to cut out the banana (I wanted to be super super lean with mega mega abs and wasn’t doing any endurance training at that stage). Ok maybe I didn’t cry but I was A. pretty shocked and B. pretty confused. Let’s break it down into some pro’s and con’s (remember guys – I am not a professional – I am merely burbling away about my experiences)

Banana pro’s

• Easily digested so very useful for the budding endurance athletes like moi that need to bump up their carb intake during training sessions longer than an hour
• Good source of fiber – we won’t go into more detail on that one, I leave the toilet humour to Maggie Mac
• Good source of potassium, Vit B6, Vit C and various minerals and antioxidants
• They are portable – surprisingly handy when you spend your life with a bag crammed with food

Banana con’s – booooo

• High sugar content – this translates to carbs and if you ain’t working your butt off in the gym or out in the fresh air then your body is going to store these carbs as fat – damn you fruit! I thought we were friends!
• High(ish) calorie content – I mean in relative terms. At around 110 calories per average sized ‘nana you’d be better with a boiled egg and some salad if you’re looking to drop the lb’s

Well – this is pretty poop isn’t it? Fret not! We can all enjoy the banana in it’s all it’s glory (stop sniggering over there) if we use them to support training/sweating/weights/running/whatever makes you feel like you’re going to need to lie down. How do I know this? Well – as an office worker (someone has to pay the bills), before I started training at any given opportunity I had to wake up to the fact that I spent most of my day on my arse. Therefore, my arse was not moving. Therefore I did not need any “fuel”. BUT – enter early morning training or post work sessions and suddenly the banana was back in the greek yoghurt and everything in the world was good again!

My incredibly wonderful fantastic colleague Kate loves bananas – don’t you Kate? She ran the London Marathon in 3 hours and 44 minutes this year. WHAT A NOB. *ahem* – sorry Kate, love you really, well done, not jealous…. So Kate is clearly an active girl, she plays tennis after work too…. what does she have before her tennis sessions? Da da da daaaaa (meant to sound like that strange ta daaaa you get in cartoons)

Whilst we are on the topic, my OTHER wonderful friend, yummy mummy of the decade Mrs Rachel Morrow was on the phone this morning asking for the banana bread recipe. Apparently it is popular. Here is the evidence:

So – without further ado, my rather yummy Banana Protein Bread Recipe

Thou shalt need:

• 200g Self Raising Flour (I like to mix wholemeal and regular white)
• 3 Very ripe bananas
• 1/3 jar of apple sauce (I used Colmans Bramley Apple – gold star to anyone who makes their own though! It’s only boiled down apples!)
• 200g egg whites (You can buy the carton in the picture from waitrose or just use three whole eggs)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoons of stevia OR 50g caster sugar

As previously mentioned I like really complicated recipes that require a lot of brain power…..

Method:

• Mash the bananas
• Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together
• Pour into a loaf tin
• Put into a preheated oven at 180c for around 45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean

I know… NASA just called – they need a new astro physic’s guy, thing, person…. BASICALLY IT IS DEAD EASY AND NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

So, there we go! Yummy yummy bread which is perfect for slicing up and having post or pre workout – or don’t slice it up and leave it for your hungover friends to demolish in one afternoon. No cardio required.

Until next time! Muchos lovos C xxx