Spicy Lentil Dish, healthy lunch with friends…
OK, maybe the 2.5 bottles of good white wine was a little excessive for the three of us, but we are not counting. On M O D everything goes.
My super chef buddy Marley arrived before my assistant and friend Kathy, so we ate sticks of celery and carrot while we waited and sipped on a lovely Chardonnay. The lunch was a spicy lentil and vegetable dish. The girls loved it. It is such a good feeling when you put out an experimental dish which your friends love. I will write it up for the book.
The lentils were cooked first with salt, cayenne pepper and turmeric, and then the veggies were done separately. Red onion (for the quercitin), garlic for all its numerous health properties, ginger for digestion, and then celery and green and red pepper. (Loads of vitamin C there.) After a little sauteeing, we added diced carrots and aubergine (unpeeled and cut up into chunks, salted and left to sweat in a colander, rinsed and patted dry). Broccoli was steamed lightly (still bright green) on its own and sprinkled with lemon and ground black pepper. To the cooked vegetables, I added salt, turmeric, cayenne pepper, ground cumin and coriander to taste. Add the lentils and gently mix through. Another yum dish. We ate it at room temperature.
After the wine was drunk (and the empty bottles lined up), we changed to water in the wine glasses and I must have had at least 4 or 5 glasses. Water is such a wonderful thing. My two friends had filter coffee and I stuck to water as I had already had my one cup of coffee for the day. That is another gold star for me:)
The interesting thing is that although I had not eaten for 16 hours, I was not racing to stuff my face. The raw carrots and celery were a great appetiser and we really enjoyed them. So much so that my chef buddy said she was going to start keeping the same in her fridge. Amazing how we don’t even think of it until we try it. It is a recent advent in my fridge, but I think this is something I might just continue. Yes I will. I like juicy and crunchy.
You know what I find so nice, is that if I eat my first meal at noon, it doesn’t have to be breakfast. Hence the Lentil Stew. I don’t have to constantly be deciding what I want for breakfast. Hey, the lentils were great and my tum was ready for them. And I am full, sated, happy, replete – all those things. I know I can go without food for the next few hours, but just in case, I have almonds soaking in the fridge. The soaking helps to break down the enzyme inhibitors and is therefore more digestible. Try it, you might just like it.
The supper planned is pork fillet, cut into slices, browned and set aside. Sautee onions and garlic in the pan until lightly browned. Add cream and Dijon mustard to taste and add back the pork slices. Simmer until done. This will be served with baked sweet potato and a garden salad.
I will tell you how it goes…
Fish recipe…
Last night’s experiment. Tasty. I found the basic recipe on the Internet and tweaked it for my tastes.
Stir-Fried Fish and Vegetables
500 g white boneless fish fillets (I used frozen hake) cut into chunky strips
Marinade:
1 Tbs dry sherry/rice wine
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1 egg white
1 – 2 tsp corn starch/potato flour
Mix all ingredients and let fish marinate for about 15 minutes or more
Sauce:
1/2 cup fish/vegetable stock
1 Tbs pad thai sauce
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp corn starch/potato flour
1 Tbs water
Combine stock, pad thai and soy sauce in bowl and set aside
Combine flour and water in small bowl and set aside
Stir-fry:
Fish
Heat 2 Tbs grapeseed oil to wok and stir-fry the fish strips. Remove to a bowl/plate.
Vegetables
2 Tbs grapeseed oil
1/2 red onion sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves minced
Chunk of ginger grated or slivered as you like it
Choice of:
Snow Peas
Spring onion/green onion
Celery
Green, red, yellow peppers
Mushrooms
Bean sprouts
Fine green beans
Bok Choy
Anything vegetable you fancy
(I used snow peas, spring onions, celery, yellow pepper and fine green beans. I also added cooked and chopped baby potatoes with skins.)
Heat oil in the wok and add the onions, garlic and ginger until the onions are lightly browned and then add the vegetables of choice and stir-fry.
Do not overcook the vegetables. Cook until still slightly crunchy.
Add sauce and bring it to a light boil and then add the flour and water and stir until thickened.
Add the fish to the wok and gently mix everything together.
It was delicious. Even darling enjoyed it and he is not a vegetable fan, but I had chopped the veggies quite small so that he wouldn’t notice them too much. Next time I would add a touch more soy sauce.
Make up your own mix and enjoy.
Swimming, sun and iced water…
The day started with writing and then our lovely Water Babes class. It followed with the only cup of black filter coffee I have in a day.
I do love Water Babes! It makes me feel so good. And yesterday I swam 30 laps without stopping in my 15 metre long pool. Believe me, you need a pool in the hot northern reaches of this land. Summer is one long sweat, and if sweating could make us lose weight, I would be Twiggy by now, or I would have slipped down the plughole in the bath.
When I arrived here 17 years ago I immediately started putting on weight. On speaking to the leader of Weight Watchers at that time, she told me that a doctor had addressed the WW gathering a few weeks before and what she told me has stuck in my mind ever since. I might not say it the way he did, but this is my understanding.
In a hot climate such as ours, our bodies get really warm and our metabolism slows down. The doctor suggested that we drink iced water and exercise in air conditioned rooms. Now I know that many nutritionists and health practitioners suggest room temperature water, which I love and drink copiously. However, iced water is so very welcome on a hot day, and it begs a trial, so I am going to experiment with it. Interesting about the metabolism though. I think I will consult Google Scholar on that one.
Needless to say, here in our sunny clime, we do not need vitamin D supplements. My skin is turning a light gold from the pool activities and somehow one always looks that little bit healthier with a bit of tan. My legs are still milky white, but then again, I hardly ever show them! My beautiful daughter Jennifer has black skin and even she tans. Strange but amazing what the sun does for us – warms us and feeds us with vitamins – and like a little plant when it is fed good compost and kept free of pesticides and poisons (read preservatives and white carbs) we grow strong and beautiful.
It really is important that we see ourselves as beautiful. That we speak the language of kindness to ourselves as well as others. Go on. Say it…I am indeed beautiful and I love the me I am. Dare you…
Just because I am fat (as I said – tell it like it is) does not mean that I cannot strike a confident pose, a sexy pose even:) I am what I am inside…my spirit is playful and I am learning all the time. So exciting. I love life…and I am learning to love sincerely. My friends, my family, the beautiful planet that nurtures me. It is like melting into Source (whatever your name for the Centre of All) and realising just how much a part we all are of this awesome thing called Love. How the fibre of our spider’s webs are inextricably linked. We are indeed one.
OK. Enough rambling. Back to food!
Noon meal, (first of the day) is to be a lentil and vegetable curry type stew/soup thing. Don’t you love making up dishes from whatever is in the fridge? Spices are a must, especially cayenne and turmeric. If you ask Aunty G (Google/Google Scholar) about the health benefits, you will find that cayenne helps the heart as well as a whole bunch of other things and turmeric is anti-inflammatory and is a great after-dinner/meal drink with 50/50 plain yogurt and water. Yum. In fact, I might just have one after lunch.
Let you know later about the Lentil and Veg recipe…off to cook
Intermittent Fasting working for me…feeling normal!
…because it makes me feel so normal! I sat and ate a non-diet, substantial meal with my darling tonight and the calories for the entire day were under 1700 and I couldn’t eat another thing. I only had one helping and although it was very tasty I packed the leftover away in the fridge (very quickly!) for darling to take to work tomorrow.
And I had my two glasses of red wine.
Why would anyone want to go on a diet where you had to say no to your favourite things? On M O D there is nothing banned. Obviously good choices must be made, like eating your greens, your vegetables of all colours, having a little fruit and organic protein, not overstuffing your tummy (ahem…), not bingeing (ahem again…).
Tonight I employed one of the many coping ideas which is to clear the table as soon as possible and throw away or store the leftovers. (If we were following the Ayurvedic healing way, we would have no leftovers at all, as it creates ‘ama’ – basically clogs the system. I really am making an effort to chill leftovers immediately and use them the following day. If not it gets given away or binned. I cannot imagine how much money is wasted on food thrown away, and we are told there is not enough food for the planet. Perhaps if we weren’t so greedy – and no I am not talking about second helpings.
This is the year of giving, I decided. Giving away my fat, (yay!) giving away the clutter, (double yay) giving away the unhealthy relationship with food that I have had all my dieting life. How many things/attitudes/resentments/irritations/mumblings/judgements et al, do you think we can give away this year? What in your life have you got to give away to make way for the beautiful you?
To the extraneous…
Bah and humbug to this, I say! Begone, unloved! Be on your way!
No, really. It’s time.
It is 8.30 pm here in the southern hemisphere, the frogs are singing for the rain yet to come, the dogs lie softly snoring at my feet and I will be in bed with some book by nine, with the light out and fan turning at 11, three hours after eating as is suggested.
16 hours from now it will be 12 noon, my favourite time to eat. I liked the protein smoothie this morning and since mangos and bananas are in season here in the subtropics, I will take advantage of that welcome fact and have another smoothie tomorrow, except with frozen banana and a fresh mango. Instead of flaxseed I shall be using chia seeds and instead of yogurt, a little iced water.
Lunch will be a green blended juice with baby spinach, ginger, cucumber, basil, Maldon salt and cayenne pepper, and corn on the cob with butter to follow. I am trying again to sprout grains, seeds and legumes (failed dismally with bulgur) and nuts (almonds I can do, I just have to remember to dry them after soaking overnight). Now there’s an idea!
I could have oats, almonds and sunflower seeds soaking overnight in filter water and then have them at noon instead of the corn. Why not… OR… let’s see what tomorrow brings:)
The frogs are becoming insistent now…time for that book. Fish recipe tomorrow…
Diets make you stress, stress makes us fat…
On Atkins I gorged myself on meat and did not pay much attention to vegetables and alkalinity. On the Beverly Hills diet I nearly made myself sick on fruit – and did not pay much attention to the insulin spiking with all the fruit sugar. On Fit for Life I thought I was going to fart my life away with all the beans. On Paleo I craved dairy so much until I found Peter d’Adamo’s Eat Right for Your Type and cheered loudly because a type B could eat cheese, cream, butter and all the good things that I loved. Did it last? No. Again, too many can’t haves for me.
Then came Rosemary Conley’s Amazing Inch Loss Plan and I lost a stone in a month, and put it all back on again and then some. Zoe Harcombe’s diet suggests you don’t mix fats with carbs (no butter on my toast!), Pierre Dukan says little to no fat and leans towards a low carb diet, Ornish suggests vegetables and more vegetables, and there are more…loads more. You try them all and the weight keeps piling on after every failed attempt.
That’s the whole point. You lose, you put on, you try another diet, you lose, you put on even more again…and so it continues until eventually you are so far from the weight you were when you started all the dieting that you are desperate, feeling helpless and depressed. At least that is where I got to, wondering if anything would ever work. So I have been reading, and reading…and then some more. Nutrition books, internet information by the bushel, detoxes and fasting, gall bladder and kidney stone cleanses, master cleanse, zapping, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), Candida diets, raw food only diets, juice diets, anything that would give me a clue as to how I could handle my own personal obesity ogre.
My thought was that if I could get the food thing right for myself, I do believe it would help someone else as well. This billion dollar diet industry just wasn’t getting it right for me, and for so many others too. A paltry number get it right, but so very few. Where was it going wrong for me? How could I work this out for myself in a way that it would be helpful to others, and that didn’t cost an arm and a leg with products, pills, therapists, expensive food ingredients along with a time consuming effort to make special foods? There is so much more to being fat than I could ever really know, but I think we all have the potential to know ourselves, and we can work with that knowledge.
Want to is important. So far I have come across quite a bit of good reading with some great suggestions. Good habits which I think I can maintain for longer than a week! Everywhere you read you come across the suggestion to keep a food journal. That’s pretty doable. Computers make good journals, and blogging is our journal. Especially if you can type properly. It goes really fast.
Next is water- the main component in our body – and it keeps our system flushed as well. (Scary to think that in our future, wars will be fought over water. Certainly if we keep on ignoring its value on our little planet and abuse it.) I cannot think of a better drink…well, a good champagne or a smooth red wine does appeal!
Flylady says it takes 27 days to form a new habit and I can think of no better ones to instill than journalling and drinking water. The first keeps us honest and the second keeps us hydrated.
F. Batmanghelidj, M.D wrote a book entitled Your Body’s Many Cries for Water which made me sit up and take notice. Since I read it some years ago I have kept glass bottles of filtered water on my kitchen shelf, next to my bed, on the kitchen table, in my studio and in the TV room ready for drinking. Empty wine bottles with screw tops are most useful for this purpose.
A further good habit is to hold loving intention towards the water; this was gleaned from Dr. Masaru Emoto’s The Hidden Messages in Water. Our bodies are made of a large percentage of water – apparently close to 80%. That’s pretty high. There’s a lot of water in this body too large for its frame. Imagine if you held good, loving intention towards everything with water in it? I like the idea. You know that saying… “Now ain’t you a long drink of water!” (this said appreciatively by a handsome man looking at a pretty girl, in the movies:)) Maybe if we saw people as a refreshing drink of water on a hot day, and were maybe a bit more refreshing ourselves…you know, like “Be your own sunshine”? Be a cool drink of water. Say to yourself “Ain’t I a cool, delicious, long drink of water!” Oh go on…
Seriously? Clean water is our finest friend.
Then there is deep breathing, a highly alkaline activity, especially when done with a calm mind. Not just breathing, mind you; d-e-e-e-e-e-p breathing, down into the bottom of the lungs, filling out the sides and back as well. And then a long, soft, slow, out- breath, giving the lungs chance to send all that oxygen to the heart. This apparently really helps to keep the heart strong, and it is a great practice for asthmatics. In fact, for everyone.
Attitude while doing the breathing bears mentioning, because if we note our breathing, in and out, and let the thoughts drift by, we will more than likely be in a meditative state, and that can only do good. Great for reducing stress and thereby reducing our cortisol levels. (That stuff that can make us fat. Ask Aunty G (Google/Google Scholar) about cortisol and weight gain.)
If someone told you that nothing was forbidden and everything is allowed on a diet, you would cheer wouldn’t you? Mainly because none of us like feeling deprived or being told NOT to have or do something. Yes? Do you feel the same? So how does that work on a diet? It mostly doesn’t, not on the diets I have been on for the last 30 or 40 years! There is always something, always restrictions, always a reason to pout. Can’t have that…stamp your foot:( Stressed out, again. Cortisol levels rising.
Yoga is a great way to de-stress too by the way. If we keep our spines supple and our core toned, we may just live longer and with fewer aches and pains. Yoga Journal is a cool website and has all the yoga positions and many good articles, however, if you can find a yoga instructor, all the better.
Meditation/prayer, deep breathing, stretching and toning: these all work to de-stress and alkalise your body. Anger, irritation, fear; these all increases acid levels (just think what road rage does!) so it would be a good idea for us to curb our tempers (b-r-e-a-t-h-e) and smile a lot more. What a wonderful world that would be! Have you ever smiled at yourself in the mirror and actually sent loving thoughts to yourself and not criticism? Another cool tool for the How to Cope box. Try it…
Note: Intermittent fasting going well again today. I think my tum is just so grateful not to feel so bloated and full like an overstuffed sausage. Had a smoothie with mango, banana, whey protein powder, a small tub of plain yogurt, iced water and 2 teaspoons of flaxseed all blended together until smooth. I took at least 15 minutes to drink/eat it and I have lasted to just over four hours. (Ayurvedic medicine suggests no less than four hours between meals/snacks.) Now is the time for my raw celery and carrot in water in a mug in the fridge. Today with no hummus, just a good chew. Savouring the taste of each mouthful, eating slowly and mindfully. At least try…
Supper is to be stir-fried fish (hake) and vegetables: If it proves to be a hit, I will post the recipe tomorrow.
(Re flaxseed: I read about the phytoestrogen thingy but I am past ovulation and all that stuff so I take the flaxseed occasionally and psyllium husk now and then, especially if I have had too much protein. My fibre mostly comes from fruit and vegetables. I am loath to have too many grains at the moment, but will not say no to hummus:) This is, after all, M O D…
Compulsive Eating…How to Cope
I have been working M O D and falling and getting up, dusting myself off and taking another step. It is a process and there is progress. 5 days of water exercises this last week, an hour at a time. It really does increase one’s energy. I get a gold star for the exercise:)
However, I did a binge yesterday. Scary stuff. Within one hour I had devoured a day’s worth of food for a normal weight person. 8 cookies/biscuits, 1 x tin corned beef, Ryvita x 6 with cheese, cream cheese, rose petal jam, marmite, chocolates x 3, beef pie with puff pastry. It is no wonder I blew up like a zeppelin! Farting my way to bed I had the worst sleep in an age. Really! Not good.
Knowing what I do about protein helping to rid me of carb cravings (because of yesterday’s binge!)this morning I made a big bowl of scrambled eggs with garlic chives and chopped up bacon. I got rid of a lot of fat in the pan after frying the bacon and then added beaten eggs and snipped chives.
The day started with water and a fresh organic mango in season off my tree. Oh so delectable. (Remember, I am doing M O D, My Own Diet, so I make the rules and nothing is forbidden, everything is allowed.)
I waited half an hour before eating the eggs and bacon. Water is my drink of choice today, with some rooibos (full of anti-oxidants)/ginger (great digestive) tea later. For the rest of the day I will go very slow on carbs. My new sign/post it/note that I am going to leave lying around everywhere is…
STOP AND THINK BEFORE YOU EAT OR DRINK
Just the word STOP! might do it too…
On to coping mechanisms. There are whole lists to be found on the Internet. The ones I picked were the following:
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
I am so glad I did and I am so grateful for my support team
Write in your Journal
Here I am writing
Tell one person how you feel
This is hard sometimes. I am not fond of talking on the telephone and often there is no-one around. It helps to write
Paint a picture
I already feel guilty that I am doing so much writing and no painting. My excuse is that all my acrylics are on the farm and I haven’t worked in oils here for a while… and it’s raining periodically so not good to paint with oils in the wet…and I am busy packing boxes…all excuses of course
Take a long hot bath
Mmmmmmm…
Hug someone (someone safe)
I love hugging, especially when you are allowed to melt into the person you are hugging…and they hug back:)
Doodle
A doodle meditation appeals to me
Spend time with your pet
Feeling guilty again…she needs the exercise as much as I do
Read a book
At night in bed
Take a nap
Since I have been exercising I do not feel the need as often
Take a deep breath, count to 10
Feather breathing – deep breath to the bottom of your lungs, pause for a beat, then slowly and softly breathe out for as many counts as it takes. I just counted 21. It is apparently a magnificent way to alkalise your body and recently I read that it really does help to lose weight. (I am breathing v-e-r-y deeply!)
Listen to your own deep breathing
Especially if you are lying in the bath with your ears under the water
Count 1 to 10 and back again
Never tried this one
Say something good about yourself
I am GORGEOUS!
Meditate, use Relaxation
Even five minutes is good
Hold and/or tell your favourite stuffed animal or doll your feelings
My darling gave me the most beautiful soft white bear (BB – Baby Bear) and she listens very intently
Change your environment…leave the room
On my way to organise some packing, deep breathing as I go
Tear up paper
I could use this one for my papier mache sculpture projects
Change negative voices to positive
Oh yes!
Play an instrument
My guitar needs new strings, for a long time already. Excuse?
Colour in a colouring book
This one sounds like fun. Especially for an artist who is balking at painting right now!
Touch a familiar object that you carry with you
I like this one too, especially if the stone is smooth and cool in my hand. (Try a crystal/pebble/worry beads)
Yell
Sing loudly?
Dance to music
Especially on a rebounder/mini trampoline. This is reputed to be one of the best exercises of all, as it works the whole body and the cells. Doc said no trampolining for now because of the crumbling knee (hence the Water Babes in the pool) but I am looking forward to getting back on again
More later…
Hummus Recipe…
2 January 2013
Today started well and continued so.
Painting has taken a back seat as I settle into M O D and write about it. That’s fine though, and I am not stressing about it (acid action) because I will be giving equal time to writing and painting as soon as the farm house is finished and I come to the end of the Grand De-clutter! When the cleansing (alkaline) is done, I will have three kitted-out kitchens. Awesome. One for the bushveld, one for the mountains and one for The Tasting Place. (More about that in a couple of months. Watch this space.)
When my restaurant, Marloe’s, was running, I put on so much weight and it just kept coming. I was drinking lots of wine every night and eating great, rich food. Na-a-a! Not good. It has taken me a year to halt that high speed train. I have been at my heaviest about three times through the year (2012) and 6 kilos down at one point. I was always trying to diet and could often be found reading up on new nutritional information. Some diets I have tried over and over, and over…
I am an expert in dieting. I have a black belt in gleaning food information. But none of it has become my personal way of life, My Own Diet, M O D. Remember, you can have your own M O D. All you need is to make informed choices and work with your favourites. Find a way to include them in your daily life without going overboard. Like, right now I am looking forward to a single, Woolies shortbread cookie. It is part of the Plan. 20-30% acid, 70-80% alkaline.
Let’s look at the intake today:
Ripe banana (Alkaline)
Black filter coffee (Acid)
Olive ciabatta toast (Acid)
Extra Virgin Olive oil to drizzle (Alkaline)
Baby spinach (Alkaline)
Broccoli (Alkaline)
Arugula/rocket (Alkaline)
Watercress (Alkaline)
Apple (Alkaline)
Ginger (Alkaline)
Snow peas (Alkaline)
Cauliflower (Alkaline)
Peppers (Alkaline)
Cucumber (Alkaline)
Hummus (Acid)
Shortbread (Acid)
Ginger Tea (Alkaline)
Most of the food on that list is alkaline. I didn’t weigh or count anything. It is all about keeping most of my foods alkaline and not overdoing the acid foods, and enjoying a little of what I like.
There were times I thought I would never be able to beat this obesity ogre, but then I started putting a friendly face on it. Fortunately I like where I have come to in my life. I like who I am and where I’m at. Even though there is a large body of skin right now, I am comfortable in it. OK…except perhaps when I run or walk or climb stairs, that is.
I have been carrying this boot camp sack around for so long now, and really, I don’t have to. It is all up to me and finally, my choices. I am taking responsibility for the Plan that I wrote for myself and I am working that Plan.
Tonight I fed my husband a delicious home-made lasagne from the freezer with a side salad. For myself I made…
Hummus/Houmus
1 tins chickpeas/garbanzos (drained – keep liquid)
1 tin cannellini beans with liquid
4 cloves garlic
¼ cup olive oil
4 Tbs tahini
Cayenne pepper to taste (I used about ¼ tsp)
Blend all in a food processor
Add saved liquid or water if needed to thin out the mixture
Adjust seasoning
This served as a dip for some delicious raw vegetables.
Snow-peas, peppers, cucumbers and cauliflower florets, anything you fancy.
I had about a half a cup of hummus and at least two to three cups of vegetables. I am still full.
With dinner I had a glass of good red wine. Now I am drinking water until I go to bed with my ginger tea, and my shortbread cookie.
2 kilos gone in a week…with ice cream
I did not starve and I drank wine and had ice-cream and chocolate as well. And a couple of cookies and a real junk food meal – KFC with chips and coleslaw! Yep. I did take the skin off the chicken and used organic tomato sauce from Woolies with the chips 
Really, I just had more raw vegetables and a little more fruit in between all the high carb food and I ate alkaline as far as I could. It is a great way to think. Thinking alkaline. And of course, I have been exercising in the pool for an hour a day, five times in seven days. My absolute best. So weightless and divine, but boy am I feeling stronger! Very yum with wasabi mayo.
Take a tortilla (ok that’s acid) /thin crepe/lettuce leaf, whatever, and cut up some veggies into strips. Spread wrap with some wasabi mayo/cream cheese/cottage cheese/mayo and yogurt, again whatever you fancy, and fill with your veggies, roll up tight and cut on the diagonal. And just because you have cut up a lot of veggies, you put them on the side and eat them as well. This was one of my snack-lunches.
This morning was a banana (alkaline) after one hour of Water Babes and a little while later 2 small slices of olive ciabatta toast, drizzzled with olive oil and a cup of black Italian Roast freshly ground coffee, no sugar. If I did take sugar I would have used Stevia or Xylitol. And if I was desperate and had no sugar I would have dipped a clean spoon into the coffee and put it into whatever sugar (preferably muscovado or demerara) and had a wet teaspoon of sugar in my coffee. Very rarely though.
I am heading for a green smoothie at 12. All alkaline. Watercress, rocket and some lettuce, with an apple and a some ginger, blended with some cold water. I will also put some almonds in water in the fridge to soak.
Activity will be a little more than usual today. Normally I sit and write or sit and stand to paint, so I really am sedentary most of the time, but today I am going to start packing for the new farm house. Everything that I need with NO CLUTTER!!! While I am decluttering my body I shall be decluttering my house, garage, carport, in fact, my life. Go to Flylady.net to see some excellent tips on how to declutter your life. Starting with a Shiny Sink (which I still don’t get right all the time). But I love to declutter when I get into it.
So, off to to have my green smoothie and then pack.
The best laid plans…
Well, the best laid plans of mice and men…
Amazingly I saw a 2 kilo loss from Thursday to now.
8:30 I ate the soaked oats and almonds…very OK
9:00 Water Babes with JB for just under an hour…felt a little tired today but it gave me energy
10:30 Papaya and mango smoothie time with my buddies (organic mango from our tree and locally grown pawpaw/papaya)
11:00 We each had two slices of low GI seed bread toasted. One slice with a little butter and gouda cheese, the second with low fat cream cheese and watercress. 2 cups black filter coffee.
Lunch was Butternut and Cannellini Bean Soup – had small bowl
Green mixed salad and chicken mayo/yogurt with cayenne pepper
One stevia sweetened dark chocolate truffle after lunch, and a Kendy bar of the same ilk.
One cup of coffee…(most I have had in one day in a year)
1 bottle of sauvignon blanc
Water. 750ml – the size of a wine bottle (a little trick I learned along the way)
Tonight is goodbye to the old year and hello to the new. So this will be an Anything Goes night. My plan is to drink a lot of water and eat raw foods as snacks if the nibbles happen. I am ready with snow peas and more raw vegetables with hummus that is about to be made.
We are baking some chicken legs and thighs and making a big raw salad with lots of green in it. My assistant Kathy is coming over and she is privy to The Plan. Her contribution to the food is crustless quiche and a pesto with baked tortilla wedges. The three of us will watch movies and chill, keeping the dogs company during firework madness. Needless to say – there will be wine – and lots of water.
For every glass of wine or cup of tea or coffee, drink the same amount of water. Make it your favourite drink. You can drink it hot or cold, with lemon or ginger is good.
Step 2: Drink Water
The Food Plan…
MOD (My Own Diet)
Nothing is forbidden.
Concentrate on eating Alkaline 80% Acid 20%
http://www.acidalkalinediet.com/Alkaline-Foods-Chart.htm
Main foods: 80%
Fruit one or two a day (melons to be eaten alone)
Vegetables – at least three – especially green and raw where possible
Green Smoothies
Fermented vegetables (probiotics – kimchi, raw sauerkraut)
Seeds
Nuts and Nut Butters – especially almonds
Lentils and beans according to the alkaline/acid chart
Legumes/pulses according to the alkaline/acid chart
Grains: bread, pasta, flour, cereals, rice etc. according to the alkaline/acid chart
Quinoa
Millet
Buttermilk
Yogurt
Lassi – Yogurt and water with turmeric after a meal
Whey Protein Smoothies
Fish
Poultry
Pork
Omega 3 oils/EV Olive oil/Coconut oil/Nut & Seed oils
Apple Cider Vinegar /Balsamic/Verjuice/Lemon Juice
All herbs and spices
70% to 85% dark chocolate
Water and herb teas/ginger tea
Less:
Butter/Animal fats
Dairy – Cheeses, Milk
Tea
Coffee
Alcohol (Beer/Cider/Wine/Other)
Minimum:
Red meat
High Starch Vegetables (potatoes/pumpkin)
Chocolate
Ice cream
Cookies
Cake
Exercise:
Aquaerobics/Swimming/Chair Exercises/Yoga/Weights
Monday’s Food Plan
7:30 – Ginger Tea
8:00 – Mango & Papaya Smoothie with ground flaxseed. Grind them fresh as they go rancid quickly.
9:00 – Exercise – Water Babes in the pool for one hour
10:30 – 50g Oats & 5 Almonds soaked overnight. This helps to digest them better.
12 noon – Butternut and cannellini bean soup with 1 slice wholegrain bread, no butter, and a salad
15:00 – Green smoothie made from rocket, lettuce, apple and ginger
19:00 – 80g Cold roast chicken (no skin) with lots of salad veggies with feta cheese and balsamic vinaigrette dressing
One Chocolate Brownie and some red wine
With this plan in place it is good night!