Lose Weight and Gain Health

Today’s blog will be short and sweet, mainly because I only ate twice.  Consequently there are only a few photos.  It is 8pm (ish) and I am still feeling full from my very strange lunch so I am not bothering with supper.

I am not entirely sure what I had for breakfast.  It was a smoothie and definitely had red berries in it and blackcurrants.  But as I didn’t label it I can not be sure what else was in it.  It was not at all sweet so I am quite sure it has no added sugar of any kind in it. The middle was still frozen when I ate it but the edges had thawed.  It tasted OK although it looked like an erupting boil until I stirred it! I had a very busy morning with back to back meetings so was looking forward to a stroll at lunch time and a browse in the local M&S Food to choose my lunch.  But it was raining, I had no coat and as I went out at peak lunch time, M&S was heaving.  So it was not a pleasant experience and I was not sure what I fancied.  I wasn’t trying to be good, I really wasn’t tempted today by anything sweet.  I wanted to be healthy but couldn’t decide what to have.  So I bought the olives and Feta. With a Pork Pie!  Yes, how weird is that?  I used to take a pork pie to school sometimes in a packed lunch and occasionally my Dad will serve one with pickles and salad for lunch.  But I think it is many years since I had one.  I actually really enjoyed it.  I like the crisp and crunchy pastry and the close texture of the meat which was not gristly so I could enjoy it.  This one has hardly any jelly in it, which is the bit I dislike and usually pick out but not today. What would I do with those olives?  They were too salty on their own so I used a wholemeal bap to make an olive and Feta roll.  I had bought a packet of 4 baps to take home but I rather enjoyed one with the olives and Feta. So I had 2 !  They were not very large but that was quite a calorific lunch so no wonder I am not hungry in the evening.   

It seems strange to not eat supper in the evening but I am not hungry so I am not going to.  A mug of Rooibos will do and an early night so I can finish my book.  Have a good evening, y’all.

I made time today, on this wet and miserable Autumn day, to cook in my kitchen.  Most of my meals lately have been quick and easy because I always seem to be too busy to spend time preparing meals.  Today I made time to kick back, relax a little and enjoy cooking at home.  It was great.

Inspired by a recipe on the beautiful Scandie Foodie blog for Sweet Potato Flat Breads I decided to have a go.  Unfortunately, having mashed the potato, I then realised my scales did not work so I had to guess the weight of the flours.  Judging by my pictures and then comparing them to Scandie Foodie, not very successfully as hers look much more like bread whereas mine look like mashed potato!  So ignore my efforts and have a look at her blog.  I will remake these as they were good but I am sure they will be much better if I follow the actual recipe.

Sweet Potato Flat Breads (from Scandie Foodie)

Ingredients

• 400 g cooked sweet potato, mashed
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 140g rye flour
• 100g plain flour

Method

1. Preheat oven to 225 °C and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment
2. Mash the sweet potato with the salt and add the flour, stirring until it is smooth
3. Use a large spoon and scoop the mixture in to 8 – 10 rounds on the baking sheet and flatten gently with floured hands
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes
5. Serve warm with butter

Or serve with bacon and a fried egg.  Really yummy!
We haven’t had a roast chicken for months and today was definitely the day.  Harvey spent the morning playing rugby in the pouring rain and I knew he would come in cold and hungry and so a roast chicken would help restore his usual good humour.

I like mine with tarragon and lemon.  I chop the stalk end off and stuff it inside the cavity with half a lemon. I finely chop the leaf end of the tarragon and mix it with salt, butter and a little olive oil. I then push this under the skin so the tarragon flavour infuses in to the chicken breast. I braved the rain myself to gather my vegetables.  I was very proud to be able to serve my family potatoes, corn, red cabbage and leeks, all of which I had grown myself. That looks a bit more appetising.I roasted the potatoes and steamed the other vegetables.
Le voila!  Lemon and tarragon roasted chicken with vegetables from the garden. A very delicious Sunday lunch which we all enjoyed.  No one commented on the complete lack of a dessert! I bought the chicken at Hartley Dyke, a local and very fabulous farm shop.  It wasn’t organic but it was free range and it was very flavoursome so I recommend it. I love their pumpkin display.I would say we had a mis-spent afternoon in the pub but apart from a glass of red wine it was coffees all round as we joined my cousin Bruce and his wife Fiona for a drink at The Milk House, a refurbished local pub.  It was our first visit and we were all impressed.  A lovely afternoon.
I was a proud Mama this evening as I watched Harvey singing in the choir during Evensong.  I really enjoy choral singing and I especially enjoy it when I can watch my little man singing.  He really is very good.

We have enjoyed the company of Beryl and all her attitude this weekend.  By bye, we will miss you so come and see us again please.

Yes indeed, it is completely true.  I gave up sugar and I lost 10 pounds in a week.  I can not believe it.  Instead of paying £4 a week (or similar) to Weight Watchers to be weighed, I can instead go to my local leisure centre and use their electronic scales for 50p.  Or for £1, I get my fat % calculated too.  So this is what I have been doing.  Last Saturday before going swimming I weighed myself and calculated my fat % and did the same again this week.  I wore exactly the same clothes too for consistency.  I have lost 10 pounds in weight, about half of that is fat and my fat as a % of my total body composition has dropped 2%.  Woo Hoo.  Even more extraordinary is that I have eaten cheese, added cream to my coffee, drunk wine on 3 occasions and had quite a few nuts.  Which conventional diets tell us not to do.  I have been swimming and walking which has really helped.

Having weighed myself I was so euphoric I whizzed up and down that pool.  Well, I probably didn’t but I felt like I did and my 30 lengths were very enjoyable as I reflected on what a great week I had of eating and exercising.

Thank you Becky for letting me know The Times had an article about giving up sugar today.  It was actually written by David Gillespie, the person who helped convince me to give up sugar with his Sweet Poison book.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank the menfolk in my house.  Harvey has kept his honey and ketchup and James his sugar for coffee.  Apart from that, they have let me throw everything else away and are really supportive of my attempts to have a sugar free home.  Thank you both very much, I can’t do it alone.

The first thing I did when I got back from the pool was throw out more sugary foods.  I am horrified at how much sugar there was in my house and even more horrified by how many of the containers were nearly empty!

Fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse for breakfast.

I have been looking out for some “healthy” wraps.  The standard wraps sold in Supermarkets are full of garbage i.e. ingredients that I have never heard of.  I like my ingredients list to be of recognisable foods.
Such as these.  Mountain Bread is also very thin so they do not have many calories in them and you gat a really high filling to wrap ratio. We enjoyed sausages for breakfast and I had fresh tomatoes in mine instead of ketchup.  I had 2, exactly like this. Which kept us full until 2:30 pm!  I then made a bit of a cheats lunch.  Pasta for the boys and broccoli and cauliflower cheese for me. I just steamed the veg, heated half the pot of sauce in a pan and mixed it together.  A very quick lunch.  I could easily have eaten all the cheese sauce as it barely covered my veggies but I am so inspired to lose weight I was being really good.I have lots of leeks growing in the garden thanks to Annette and David who passed along some of their seedlings.  I have never grown leeks before and they were very easy and low maintenance.  Today was my first harvest.
I had no idea they grew so many roots!  I had to pull quite hard to release a couple of them. The first fire of the season was lit.  Not strictly necessary as it is quite mild today but Harvey was on a promise.  He loves fires so I made one for him and we will all enjoy it this evening. A simple supper tonight of minced beef which I will cook with all these veggies and serve over jacket potatoes.It was very delicious and I was pleased to see the Cholula Sauce I enjoy so much does not have sugar in it.  It’s a keeper 🙂

Enjoy your evening.

I had a battle of wills with myself today but I won.  Phew!  I really fancied cake today but I managed to resist, even though after school I took Harvey to my favourite local farm shop and he chose some chocolate. He hasn’t had any added sugar at home either this week so he was allowed some. I managed to not give in and am very pleased with myself.

I was in the swimming pool first thing this morning and managed 30 lengths today.  It is getting easier.

I wanted a quick and easy breakfast so opted for a smoothie.  I had 1 tbsp of the protein powder, Udo’s oil and Chia seeds with Soya milk. I was feeling tired and not quite right so I added lots of green superfood; wild blue green algae, spirulina and kelp.  The Glutagenics supplement has a licquorice flavour which I like and is designed to support your gastro-intestinal lining which is important for digestion and your immune system.  You can read more about it here.  I always take it in once the nights start drawing in and people around me start sniffing and sneezing.  I take that and a mixture of supplements to give my immune system some support.  For additional vitamin C I added some blackcurrant. This smoothie was not for the faint hearted!  It did not taste great so took a while to get through but I persevered as it was so full of goodness. I worked from home today and by early lunch time I was really hungry and feeling stressed so I had a bit of a toast binge.  I ate 4 slices; 2 with Vegemite and 2 with Cream Cheese.  I then ate some pistachios and had a refreshing cup of lemon myrtle green tea. I also nibbled some of these activate nuts as I received a food package from Planet Organic. I was inspired by my toast bingeathon to have something far healthier for supper.  I made a large salad with red cabbage, tomatoes, celery and spring onion.  I added mixed green leaves when I served it and a salad dressing made with:

Salad Dressing

• 1tbsp olive oil
• 1tbsp flax oil
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix vigorously with a small whisk and pour over salad.  It was fresh and lively and delicious. I had mine with a jacket potato and cheese on top – and butter!  It seemed the weather for a jacket potato.  The menfolk had chili con carne on theirs and it was quite spicy so they added salad to help with the heat.  I was really impressed that Harvey ate so much salad. Beryl didn’t eat her greens!

I finished the evening off with a large glass of wine and some olives.  Cheers and have a wonderful weekend.

A cold wind blew in today.  My goodness we seemed to have gone from summer to winter with nothing in between!

I was up slightly earlier than usual so I made a smoothie for breakfast which I took to work.  The quantity was very modest.  This is a small tupperware pot and is only about twice the size of a credit/debit card.

I tried a banana and hoped it wouldn’t trigger a sugar craving.  It didn’t.  The banana was frozen and I mixed it with soya milk, Tahini and half an avocado.  It was delicious and kept me going until lunch time.  No sugar craving at all. I made salad at home and took it in to work.  I added some olives stuffed with red pepper and Manchengo cheese. Lots of baby salad leaves. Red cabbage, celery, tomatoes, spring onion and bacon. I added a homemade dressing of olive oil, flax oil, white wine vinegar and salt.  I really enjoyed this salad as all the vegetables were fresh and flavoursome and the dressing was just right.I was hungry on the train so I bought a small bag of peanuts which did the trick and kept me going until supper.

In the evening I picked up Harvey and we went to collect Beryl who is coming to stay for a few days because Harvey loves to have her.  No, we can not have the cat as well. Cheers 🙂 Quick and easy supper at home of scrambled eggs on toast.  One of my favourite go to suppers.

I hope you all had a good day.  I feel pleased with myself as it was another sugar free day 🙂

I worked from home today as I needed a long period of time to be quiet in, with no distractions, so I could concentrate properly.  In between working, I appreciated the peace and quiet and the beauty of this small part of our extraordinary planet which I live in.

I added no sugar to anything I ate.  It may not all have been the healthiest of foods but I enjoyed it all and it was simple and quick to prepare, eat and clear away.  I grew many of the vegetables I ate today which is particularly satisfying.

I hope you can also enjoy some of the beauty I appreciated today.  Peacefully.

Good night and sweet dreams.

I was well organised for today as I had prepared breakfast and lunch the day before which makes the morning so much easier.

Look at how lovely this sack of oats is.  One of my pet hates is having to buy food in plastic bags which is a very common occurrence.  So I really liked the cotton sack these oats came in and yes, I did actually bring this all the way back from Australia this summer. Very aesthetically pleasing.To go with my oats was 1 tbsp each of hemp seeds, chia seeds and sunflower seeds.  I ground them up in a coffee grinder and then returned them to this little pot to travel to work in.
I mixed the oats with natural yogurt and some blueberries and left in the fridge over night.  In the morning I stirred in some soya milk until I had the desired consistency.  At work I added the ground seeds and le voila, a nutritious and delicious and no added sugar breakfast.  A great start to the day. I made this salad last night too; lettuce, rocket, yellow pepper and cress. I ate it with a pot of crab and some home made mayo. Yes, I made some mayonnaise but I am not very pleased with it.  It has too much dried mustard powder in it and I used olive oil which is far too strong.  The consistency is good but the flavour is all wrong so I need to try again with no mustard and a different oil.

If any of you have a good mayo recipe, please share and please tell me which oil you used.When I got home from work I was starving so I had some Rye bread with butter and Vegemite, another Australian “souvenir”.  Sorry Aussies, it’s not as good as Marmite!

Supper was quick and easy; wholewheat spaghetti with basil, tomato, sweetcorn and a spoonful of the mayo stirred in.  The mayo ‘melted’ over the pasta which provided a lovely consistency but I still don’t like the flavour.  What can I use it up in that I can enjoy I wonder?

I am pleased I managed to stay no added sugar today as I felt very tired today.  I will be having a very early night and hoping to feel more lively tomorrow.

There’s just about a sugar shortage round here now.  Here’s a funny thing.  Try saying “sugar shortage” out loud.  I find it difficult without concentrating. I want to say “Shugar sortage”.  I think my little brain gets confused because the “su” in sugar is pronounced “sh” so it almost thinks so therefore the “sh” in shortage must also be pronounced as “sortage”.  Or maybe that is just me?

Anyway, what a very frustrating day today turned out to be.  I was up bright, early and optimistic.

I have really missed smoothies and so I made one today, concentrating on keeping the sugar very low.

I used a small 300g carton of tofu, a handful of blueberries (only the ones pictured), 1 tsp lucuma powder, 1 tbsp maca powder, 1 scoop of protein powder and soya milk to get it to the desired consistency. The desired consistency was thick and creamy.  I loved this.  It may not be to everyone’s taste as it is quite “chalky” but I loved it.  And it kept me feeling full, happy and sated until lunch about 5 hours later.

The best thing I did all day was go for a lovely walk over the road with the 3 younger males of the family.

Autumn is definitely here and so are the fungi.  Grey ones, red ones,  beige ones and yellow ones. Baa! It was beautiful over the road today.  Sunny and warm.  A real pleasure to walk about in. I would have liked to do a long walk today but I was too busy.Apart from the lovely walk, today was very frustrating, especially in the morning so by lunch time I was not in the mood for cooking.  Sunday roast was off the menu and sandwiches were on.  Or in my case, these delicious Dr Karg crisp breads.  I love these but try to not have them too often as I find them very hard to resist.

They are very calorific which is one bad thing but I also try to eat only small amounts of toasted carbohydrates.  Each cracker is over 100 calories so I was going to have 3 but ended up having 5.  Which I am allowed to do, for now at least while I sugar detox. Today though was a day which would usually send me screaming and scoffing chocolates and cakes.  Instead, I scoffed crispbreads and this fabulous Cambazola which is a very creamy soft rind cheese (like a Brie) with blue in it.  It hit the spot perfectly and saved me from a sugar frenzy. I spent a lot of today in my little study doing paperwork.   Using possibly the smallest little desk anyone I know uses.  I have had this for years and can remember doing schoolwork on it and revising for O’ and A’-levels on it.  So it is very old indeed. It has a green marble top because it started life as a kitchen table.  The left hand drawer would have been for cutlery but is also very handy for organising pens and things 🙂 I still have several shelves in cupboards to sort through to completely rid my house of sugar and this afternoon I decided to go for the most obvious shelf of them all.  The one containing the actual sugar.  I had loads of it.  James’ packet of caster sugar for his coffee is spared.  I am not tempted by it so it is safe.  My family have been very supportive of my war on sugar but I would have an irritated husband if he couldn’t have sugar in his coffee.  It is about the only sugar he ever adds to anything so it is reprieved. This was the one I found hardest to throw out because it has a lovely flavour and reminds me of a splendid holiday every time I use it.  In the end I saved the tin and threw away the sugar – there wasn’t much left but even so, it had to go. Dinner was a quick and easy put together.  Egg fried rice with mushrooms, onions, yellow pepper and 3 large prawns.  Adequate and tasty enough.

Remember last night I said I may go and have cheese and crackers and/or wine?  Well I had neither.  I ate nothing else after I posted my blog.  Knowing I can have anything except sugary foods, has really helped me eat less.  Bizarre but true.

While I prepared supper I also prepared breakfast and lunch for tomorrow so I am starting the week ahead of myself.  One sugar free week down, here’s to many more ahead.

Yup, I have done it again.  Another day with no added sugar in anything.  Today was harder in some ways as I prepare food for all of us on a Saturday.  Harvey was away all week and James doesn’t eat in the evenings so during the week I have been able to just think about myself so today was going to be different.

I went swimming first thing so I was pleased with another active start to the day.  I came home to cook breakfast for us all but no takers.  Harvey had already made himself scrambled eggs and frankfurters – go little fella in the kitchen!  So I made sausages with 2 eggs and 3 tomatoes (raw).  I thought I fancied sausages but actually I found them too fatty and didn’t like them much.

They did however keep me feeling full for hours.

What I did crave today was a green juice.  I really like them and I like how they make me feel.  My quit sugar programme bans all juices but I decided to over rule and focus on making it as low sugar as possible.  Many people promote the health benefits of juicing and it is the one thing I am not giving up.  I picked an apple from the tree by the back door.  These are cooking apples so not sweet at all.  We never eat them as sweet apples so I decided that couldn’t be too bad. This green juice recipe comes from a blog I read regularly.  It is written by a Finnish lady who lives in Sydney.  She eats a very healthy diet which I aspire to eat myself one day so I like reading it for her recipes.  I also like her blog because I like the Scandinavian style she has.  I like the purity and simplicity of it.  Have a look at Scandi Foodie here.

Scandi Foodie’s green juice calls for 1 green apple, a small piece of ginger, half a lemon, 3 sticks of celery, a small sprig of mint and half a long cucumber. I drank the juice with the last 2 slices of the lovely rye and walnut sourdough I bought yesterday.   As it said on the packet, it is best on day 1 but it was still good on day 2. I had the crust with just butter as the bread has such a lovely flavour I wanted to enjoy it and the second piece had humous on it for protein and fat to help reduce a blood sugar spike from the juice. The juice was light and fresh.  Yummy. For supper we had salad with salmon, prawns and potatoes.  I am allowing myself to eat what I like, as long as it doesn’t have sugar and also isn’t full of unnatural products.  I am trying to not go crazy with portion sizes though.  The three of us shared 2 small salmon fillets and 1 packet of raw prawns.  The potatoes were from the garden.  I boiled them and then fried them in coconut oil which gave them a lovely flavour.  The salmon and prawns were also cooked in coconut oil and the salmon had zat’ar on it.  The salad was dressed with a home made dressing;  1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp avocado oil, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar, 1 tsp Dijon mustard and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  I think my menfolk would have preferred mayonnaise with it but apart from that, all agreed it was a very tasty meal.

We are off to watch a film and I may have a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers.  But I may not.  I am feeling very comfortable and really enjoying have a stable blood sugar.  I am not craving anything else to eat today but neither is anything forbidden so I am enjoying thinking about what else may I like.  Or not.  I am enjoying that freedom – I should have done this years ago – it feels great 🙂