Banting Carb Counts and Vegetables…
24 October 2014 Food Journal
Today marked a special day! 10 kilos gone. I was in ecstasy looking at the scale. I got off and stood on it again. I hadn’t seen that number for a long time. A couple of years in fact. After giving up on Atkins some years ago and putting on a lot of weight I was so scared to start another low carb diet, but this one seems to be OK. The Ketogenic, Banting lifestyle appears to be working for me.
I know that I have an addictive personality and that means I can never touch certain foods again. It’s like smoking. An addict can never again touch a cigarette because that would mean he would end up smoking even more than before. I should know. That happened to me no less than three times. I have been free of cigarettes for the last 18 years and I know that if I should ever smoke a Gaulois or Gitane again, that would be it. I still love the smell of those French cigarettes!
The same would happen to me with sourdough bread and potatoes. And perhaps an original Almond Magnum. So they are off the list permanently. If it means I need to learn how to make lowcarb ice cream then so be it. If it means I need to learn how to make a flax seed focaccia style bread, then bring it on! This is just the beginning of a lifetime journey and there will be much learning along the way.
Today’s Food:
Meal 1 at 1 pm
Pork Eisbein 200g – 0 carbs/56 protein
Lunch Totals – 0 Carbs/56Protein
Meal 2 Snack at 5:30 pm
Macadamia Nuts 0.5 cup – 9 carbs/5 protein
8 Tbs Cream (with 4 coffees) – 4 carbs/3 protein
Beef biltong 200g – 0 carbs/79 protein
Snack Totals – 13 Carbs/87 Protein
Meal 3 Dinner at 7:30 pm
Beef Chuck 200g – 0 carbs/56 protein
Celery 2 stalks – 1 carb/0 protein
Hellman’s Mayo 1 Tbs – 0 carbs/0 protein
Dinner Totals – 1 Carb/56 protein
TOTALS = 13 Carbs/199 Protein
Fats 61%/Protein 36%/Carbs 3%
How do I feel? I think I need more water. The increase in coffee is perhaps not a really good thing, but it does seem to help in keeping the cravings at bay.
Too many grams of protein today. I need to up the fats and lessen the protein. Too much protein can apparently stall weight loss and I don’t want that! I have read that excess protein results in gluconeogenesis, which breaks down your muscles and also results in a rise in insulin levels. Apparently a good ratio is 70-25-5 fats to protein to carb ratio.
Another little oversight today is no vegetables. That won’t do. Two cups of salad leaves and one cup of vegetables in a day is really not too much to ask now is it? Why am I going overboard on the protein and not having vegetables? Easier, perhaps. Thank goodness for my jug of clean celery sticks in the fridge otherwise I might really have had no vegetables at all, except that 2 sticks of celery is not enough. Really. I might have to turn over a new leaf tomorrow.
The vegetables in the fridge which are to be cooked on the weekend are mushrooms, spring onions, brinjal, cabbage, tomatoes and carrots (those are mostly for the horses!) There is fresh lettuce and Swiss chard in the garden. Hungry we will not be, but getting greens in at each meal is sometimes a hard task, but I shall keep on keeping on.
Persevering with the Revolution…
(Guided by The Real Meal Revolution by Tim Noakes et al)
