Serves 10

170 g muesli

60 ml low fat or fat-free plain yoghurt

350 g ricotta cheese

350 g low-fat smooth cottage cheese

3 large eggs

150 g caster sugar

300 g fresh berries or other fruit, to serve

Preheat the oven to 150˚C. Prepare the base of the cheesecake by mixing the muesli with the yoghurt and press into a lined springform tin. In a food processor or mixer, blend the ricotta, cottage cheese, eggs and castor sugar until smooth and silky. Pour over the crust, and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until the centre is firm but a little wobbly. Allow to cool at room temperature before refrigerating until chilled. Sprinkle berries or fresh fruit over the top before serving.

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Win two tickets to the 10th Wacky Wine Weekend together with two bottles of wine. Email promotions@reality.co.za with your name, Reality membership or ID number and the words ‘Wacky Wine Weekend’ in the subject line before 28 May 2013.

The days when surfers were lazy beach bums are long gone.

1. Cardio
Surfers spend much more time paddling than actually riding waves, so you would think that swimming would be good cardio. “I used to do a bit of swimming,” says Durban pro and World Tour competitor Travis Logie, “but I found I got a bit burned out because I was actually doing too much of it,” he says.

Logie suggests finding a sport you like and using that as a combination cardio and cross training (for physical and mental benefits). Do this at least two or three times a week. Then incorporate cardio (20 minutes on the spinning bike or treadmill) into your gym routine as a warm-up.

2. Core work
Logie does four or five hour-long core sessions a week. His focus is to get strong and lean without putting on too much muscle mass or getting stiff and tight. All of the moves below simulate some part of the surfing movement and the strains it puts on various parts of the body.

Jump squats: Holding a light dumbbell in each hand (more to aid form than add weight resistance), do basic squats rapidly for 30 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds. Now do the same but explode off your feet as your legs become straight. Land, absorbing the shock with your knees, fluidly going into the next squat. Start with some basic squats to warm up.

One-leg squat: Perform 10 reps on each leg. Graduate to the half stability ball.

Plank: Hold for 30 seconds if you’re a beginner, and one minute if you’re advanced. Graduate to adding leg lifts and performing the plank on the exercise ball. Do at least three.

Side plank: This is often overlooked as a core strength exercise. Do as above, switching sides to alternate.

Back extensions: Start on your hands and knees (or lie on a stability ball). Raise your left leg and right arm 10 times, then raise your right leg and left arm 10 times. Repeat.

Lateral jumps: Jump from side to side over a small obstacle, land, and immediately jump back. Build up to 20 seconds.

3. Flexibility
Stretch! For surfing, this cannot be emphasised enough. Every movement, from lying on your stomach, squashing your lungs while performing a swimming motion (paddling) to the ‘pop’ (going from lying to standing in one fluid movement) to riding the wave and doing turns requires flexibility. You might not have a desire to ever go into the waves, but becoming more supple is guaranteed to improve your life.

After your workout, start with your neck and shoulders and work your way through your arms, core, back and legs down to your feet. Hold each stretch for 20 to 30 seconds, and mix up your routine and the type of stretches you do for each target area to keep it interesting.

4. Visualisation
“Surfing has become a lot faster than it was five years ago and you have to be able to make split-second decisions,” says Liam Wood, team manager and level two-certified surfing coach. “So EyeGym, video analysis and watching heaps of surf movies needs to be part or every serious surfer’s routine.”

To radically paraphrase the theory of ‘creative visualisation’: by lounging around thinking about something in detail, and by rehearsing it over and over, you can train your brain to learn the movements; which means it will then control those movements more easily, when you actually get down to doing them.

Serves 1

¼ cup raspberries

pomegranate arils

1 tsp rose water

¼ cup toasted muesli

1 small pot of fat-free plain yoghurt

1 Tbsp light brown sugar

Place the raspberries and a few pomegranate arils in a small bowl and sprinkle rose water over them. Spoon some of the muesli into the bottom of a pretty teacup then top with a layer of yoghurt. Next, sprinkle the marinated fruit over the yoghurt and repeat until the cup is full, ending with a layer of yoghurt. Just before serving, sprinkle the brown sugar on top and caramelise with a blowtorch, or under a preheated hot grill until golden, melted and crisp. Garnish with extra berries and serve.

VARIATIONS

• Greek yoghurt and honey – alternate layers of thick Greek yoghurt, drizzles of honey and toasted almonds.
• Pineapple and coconut – roast chunks of pineapple in the oven with a little butter and brown sugar, then alternate with vanilla yoghurt and layers of toasted coconut mixed into granola.

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If you’re wringing your hands and racking your brain for ideas to spoil your mom this Mother’s Day, RealityShop is the place to browse. Robyn Daly logs on to make the most of Reality’s exclusive Mother’s Day savings.

You’ve got to be a little careful about giving a woman a kitchen accessory; it’s loaded with gender roles, and not everyone likes being reminded. So judge smartly. I personally love cooking, and any gadget will do (including a bigger kitchen to keep them all in). Russell Hobbs is a well-known and trusted brand, and RealityShop is offering a great special on a microwave oven, discounting the normal price of R1 587 by nearly R600. The Mother’s Day price is now R996.

Every time I watch Chopped or Iron Chef America on the Food Network Channel, I wish I had a pressure cooker. Well we have one, but it’s old, and I’m scared of it! Mellerware’s 5-litre electric pressure cooker looks much more user-friendly and less likely to blow a hole in your ceiling if you get distracted. It was R938 and is now very appealing at R535.

For a pampering treat, order the Earth Angel Hand & Foot Care Pack, on special, less R106 (it was R311 and is now R205).

For the bathroom (or kitchen, actually) the Simplehuman Shampoo and Soap Dispenser is a great idea (was R392, now R187). And, unless you have a drill-wielding mom, it gets Dad involved in fitting it.

RealityShop is an exclusive benefit for Reality members, and you’ll need your membership number handy to order at www.realityshop.co.za.

Happy Mother’s Day!

This is my quick, budget version of cassoulet, which is really a fancy French name for meat-and-bean stew. Traditional cassoulet is usually made with sausages and white beans; mine, however, has the addition of barley and lentils because that’s what I had in my cupboard. What is your finest clear-out-the-fridge creation?

Serves 4

Olive oil

300 g cocktail pork sausages

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 large garlic clove, crushed

½ cup white wine

2 bay leaves

1 cup baby tomatoes, halved

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tin green lentils, drained

1 cup cooked barley

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Handful fresh basil leaves

Crumbled feta, to serve

Heat a little olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the pork sausages over medium-low heat until golden and cooked through. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until soft. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and allow to evaporate completely. Add the bay leaves, tomatoes (halved and tinned) with the paprika. Allow to simmer gently and reduce slightly. Add the lentils and barley and season well. Serve in bowls with torn fresh basil leaves and crumbled feta.

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The good news is that you’ll probably live longer and be healthier than your parents and, definitely, your grandparents. The bad news is that unless you’re self-employed, at some time in your 60s your company will give you a party, a gift and tell you to buzz off. You’d better have worked out how to afford your longer life that lies ahead.

1. Save regularly for retirement. Obvious, but worth saying nonetheless.
2. Start as early as possible. That way you’ll have many years of compound interest building your capital, continuing even if you have to break payments later for some reason.
3. Don’t take money out of retirement savings. According to Karin Muller, who heads up Sanlam’s Growth Market Solutions division, when people change jobs they often take out a lump sum and use it instead of reinvesting it. Don’t. Preserve it.
4. Get advice. Employer retirement arrangements are generalised and not made for individuals and their specific situations. Be clever: get help with tailoring your savings.
5. Know what you have. Many people belong to a retirement fund and simply hope it will work for them when they retire. They don’t enquire about possible variations and benefits. Don’t assume; ask.
6. Fit retirement into your total financial planning to make it work for you. “A proper plan will balance all your financial needs so you can understand the trade-offs. You need to save for your children’s education, for example, and provide for dependants if you die,” says Karin.
7. Think about what you want to do after retiring. You’re probably going to live for many years, so how are you going to fill them creatively? Will you outlive your assets? Your physical and mental health will depend on this. Don’t forget about medical aid, because age can spring some unexpected and costly surprises.
8. Remember to take inflation into account when doing these calculations. Karin explains, “Many people decide at retirement to purchase annuities, which don’t increase with inflation. Within annuities, some plans offer no increase, or increase at either a fixed rate with inflation or with profits. If you invest in an annuity with no increases, then you’ll be able to buy less with that same money the following year and even less the year after. With a living annuity, you invest in the market, and your monthly income needs to be funded from the interest or investment return. Otherwise you’ll start to use capital to fund your income. Of course, with this sort of plan there are no guarantees, and you’re exposed to the fluctuations of the market. Something else to watch here is that if you draw down more than the interest earned, you deplete the capital and therefore the size of the investment. Be careful not to shrink your pot.”
9. Negotiate to delay retirement for as long as possible. The more years you’re earning – especially as your highest income is generally just before retirement – the more there’ll be in that pot when you get handed your gold watch and seen out of the corporate door. Of course, there’s a dark side to retirement age too: companies with cash-flow problems often retrench older staff or simply close their doors and fold. You could plan to retire at 65 but find yourself without a job 10 years earlier. Sound financial planning early in your career is the only defence against this eventuality.
10. Don’t be tempted to spend the lump sum that most funds allow you to withdraw on retirement. In a pension fund you can take a third of the accrued funds; in a provident fund you can withdraw all of it. You may consider it a useful starter for a retirement project, but this will seriously cut into your future income. “You may think the money is great as a down payment on that little coffee shop you always wanted to run,” says Karin, “but do you know how to run a successful coffee shop? If it fails, you’re left with nothing but debts and reduced income for the rest of your life. Plan long term and wisely and don’t be tempted by the sudden sum of what feels like ‘free’ money. It’s not free –it’s your future.”

Be prepared

The result of poor pension planning can range from difficult to disastrous. “Many people are reaching retirement age without sufficient income to retire and have to keep working. You may manage that in your 60s, but what about having to work in your 70s or 80s, even if you manage to find a job?” asks Karin.

We no longer live in the sort of extended-family communities that care for older nonworking people who in turn look after the offspring of their own children. In the global economy, people move to where the work is, live in nuclear families and simply can’t afford to look after ageing parents. And you wouldn’t want to inflict that on your children either.

In a volatile economy such as we’re experiencing, young families simply don’t have the financial means to support non-earning parents.

That’s why planning is so important. They say there’s nothing certain in life but death and taxes, but what’s equally certain is that if you don’t plan for retirement you’re gambling with your quality of life.

And frankly, after decades of work, we all want to be able to sit on our stoeps with a mug of coffee and an interesting book while the worker bees get stuck in the morning traffic jam to the office.

Get more online

Visit www.reality.co.za for more features on making intelligent financial choices, and check out our Smart Money guide by clicking here.

Karin Muller is the head of Sanlam’s Growth Market Solutions division.

Serves 4–6

For the filling:

3 courgettes, sliced

3 peppers (red, yellow and green)

½ kg butternut, chopped in chunks

1 red onion, sliced

1 Tbsp rosemary leaves

2 Tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

250 g ricotta or feta cheese, crumbled

Tomato sauce:

2 tins chopped tomatoes

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 Tbsp dried oregano

3 aubergines, sliced

Olive oil for brushing

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC.
2. Toss filling ingredients, except ricotta, then place on a baking tray.
3. Season and roast for 25–30 minutes, then cool and fold in ¾ of the ricotta.
4. Reduce oven to 180ºC.
5. Combine tomato sauce ingredients and cook for 15 minutes, season and set aside.
6. Brush brinjals with olive oil and cook on a griddle pan.
7. Place a tablespoon of filling on each aubergine slice and roll up into a sausage shape.
8. Place rolls in an oven dish, pour over the tomato sauce, then crumble over the remaining ricotta.
9. Bake for 25–30 minutes or until hot and bubbling.

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Give the gift that keeps on giving this Mother’s Day

Searching for the perfect gift to give the special lady in your life on Mother’s Day can be challenging. This year, why not consider doing something extra special to show your mom just how much she means to you and give her a gift that keeps on giving. Here are our top suggestions:

1. The book: a classic like mom

There are many reasons why a book is the perfect gift, but if your mom is an avid book-lover, why not take this classic gift one step further and give her the opportunity to explore her creativity and learn to write her own with an online writing course. Encourage her to write that famous family cookbook or record a memoir of her childhood that you can both reflect on for years to come. Alternatively help her develop a new hobby in creative writing; she may even publish her first fiction novel!

2. Magazine: make mom the major feature

Perhaps your mom loves the glossies. Buy her a subscription to her favourite title. If she’s already a regular fan of a specific magazine and is looking for a new form of creative expression, why not encourage her to start contributing feature articles herself.  After all, moms always know best!

3. A camera: memories that last

When it comes to family there are many moments you want to treasure forever. There’s no better person suited to capturing these timeless family memories than mom. Give her a new digital camera and spend some quality time with her creating a new family album.

4. Interior décor: the home she’s always wanted

The words ‘mom’ and ‘home’ are synonymous. Whether in the form of a gift voucher for a homeware store or the scatter cushions she has always wanted, giving a gift to do with the home is always a winner with moms.

Give your mom any of the gifts above in the form of an online short course that she can complete from the comfort of her own home. Choose from over 35 short courses on topics such as creative writing, feature writing, digital photography or non-fiction writing.

Reality members receive R500 off the course fee. To claim your discount, quote “Reality Newsletter” in the promo code field when registering for any course on www.getsmarter.co.za.