Atkins diet

Partying with Banting…

 

 

It has been an awesome few days and especially yesterday as it was my 65th birthday…and I feel so young! My daughter and son-in-law were here and will be until after Christmas. This is just wonderful because they had not been to the new house and we are all enjoying it so much.

 

12 people gathered for lunch at a long table on the stoep and pretty much stayed there until 6 pm. What a wonderful bunch of people that I am privileged to call my friends. It was such a happy time.

 

Food wise, friends brought plates of finger food and I made a butternut soup and Banting cocktail meatballs. One friend had ordered a Banting platter from our local restaurant, The Red Plate, who have a Banting menu as well. Such a treat. Interestingly, as is my usual bent these days, I was not really hungry so had some veggie sticks with an avocado and cream cheese dip and then some meaty snacks like meatballs and chicken wings. The soup was from the orange list so I and my Banting friends ate a very small bowl of that, no bread and filled up on the low carb veggies and meat treats.

 

As a rule, I drink about two creamy coffees per day, herb teas and green tea occasionally, and about one cup of Earl Grey tea with full cream milk per day. Water is my go to drink of choice. It is filtered and then stored in dark green wine bottles ready to be consumed at will. Lovely stuff! I also keep black filtered coffee in a wine bottle in the fridge just in case it is a hot day and I want an iced coffee.

 

My party drink is pink sparkling water, which is sparkling mineral water and Angostura Bitters. It looks pretty in a wine glass and then people leave me alone without pressing me to have a drink. I felt so well when I woke up this morning that I have no desire to start drinking again, even when my hubby opened the champagne I briskly said no thank you!

 

So, the upshot of it all is that I survived a great birthday lunch party without cheating once!

 

So easy with the Revolution…

 

 

The Cost of Banting…

 

Today, as I loaded my trolley with food to last until New Year, it struck me that it would be seriously difficult to do the Banting diet on the cheap, but a good lady doctor from White River managed to do it and I applaud her. She also ate like a bird in order to do that. Unfortunately for me, I want the luxury foods so that the Banting diet never gets boring. It is so easy for non-banters to make a sandwich if they want a quick snack. For us Banters, bread means buying expensive flours like coconut, almond and flax seed in order to make our Banting Bread. Coconut oil is not cheap either. Mind you, I did find coconut oil at Checkers today and it was nearly R 40 cheaper than at Dischem.

 

I know that I am not eating nearly as much as I used to when I ate carbs, but take chocolate for instance. Lindt 85% dark chocolate is a rare treat these days and I make it last a l-o-n-g time. One or two squares every couple of days. I shan’t be baking with it any time soon! Cheese is a good example as well. Once upon a time I would fill up on cheese and crackers, or cheese and fruit. Now I fill up on cheese alone, and I make sure I have an assortment so that I have a choice. How fortunate I am that I can buy Camembert and Brie, Gorgonzola and Parmigiano! But not everyone is so lucky…

 

OK, so what now? This thought might just lead to an experiment to see how one can lessen the cost of this lifestyle. The cost of good health should not have to bankrupt anyone. I am thinking about a whole slew of people who really don’t earn a great salary and who are unhealthy enough that they seriously need to change their eating habits. So, for the next while I shall be keeping careful note of everything that I eat and totting up the costs, and looking to find alternatives. Please join me if you would like to, and any suggestions from my readers will be most welcome so do send your tips and suggestions in via the comment box below. This could be fascinating…and helpful too.

 

Rock on all you Banters!…

 

 

 

 

Fat Fast day 3…

 

 

It is astounding how un-hungry I am. I have had 725 calories today so far and I am definitely handling this much more easily than I had imagined. This coconut oil is a winner, better than any appetite suppressing pill or potion.

 

First meal of the day – Half an Avocado with Toasted Sunflower Seeds.

 

 

In between my snack was black coffee with a teaspoon of coconut oil in it. Good for ketosis.

 

The bone broth is a filling drink and enjoyable too, especially with the marrow, meats and soft tissue that comes off the soup bones. This was my second meal of the day.

 

 

Somewhere I read that lemon juice or apple cider vinegar was a great addition to the stock pot because it helps to leach out the minerals from the bones. I have been doing that for about a year now and I am certainly feeling healthy.

 

Snack in between – a little biltong and some more broth.

 

Third meal of the day is yet to come and will be the brown meat and skin off a roast chicken. Heaven on a stick! You have to admit, being able to eat chicken skin is the best!

 

There is still a l-o-n-g road ahead as my weight has ballooned in the last 24 years since I got married. First it was a motor bike accident and 10 kgs, then a hysterectomy and 12 kgs, then it was giving up smoking and another 12 kgs, and finally a car crash and a back operation and 23 KILOS!!! I was truly metabolically resistant by then, and somewhat desperate!

 

Enter the Real Meal Revolution. Thank goodness. Suddenly all my years of trying low carb started to make sense in this one book. And believe me, I have many books on low carb dieting. Now they are all coming in useful as I decided to make a serious study of the general low carb high fat moderate protein angle. I have gleaned many a good and helpful hint during this time of research and I feel that I have finally found a way to put my own spin on this way of life. The books I favour other than TRMR are GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) which is based on the SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet), Nourishing Traditions, and Eat Fat Lose Fat, both by Sally Fallon, Curb the Carb by Amanda Cross, and Rose Elliot’s Vegetarian Low Carb Diet. The latter is so that I can help some of my vegetarian friends.

 

We all have likes and dislikes and we need to make up our own diets under the LCHF/Banting banner, and that is just what I have been doing. Slowly but very surely it is all falling into place. I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to be 13 kilos lighter. How do I feel after 10 weeks? Great! My poor aching knee is now feeling a whole lot better and I have enough energy to walk the dogs. It really feels good. The best thing? Not feeling any cravings – except for some biltong!

 

Success feel AWESOME!!!…

 

 

Fat Fast Day 2…

 

 

On September 26 I started Banting (basic ketogenic/low carb) and lost 12 kilos/27 lbs. in just on seven weeks. Then I stalled for two weeks. I did some carb cycling which helped move the weight a little, and then it stopped again.
Yesterday I started the Fat Fast armed with Dana Carpender’s Fat Fast Cookbook which I find extremely helpful. I also researched sites and forums on the subject and made up a list of helpful hints. I was armed…and also a little al-armed as the day started closing and I had almost reached my calorie limit. Macadamia nuts and a small block of Philly cream cheese saved the day and then everything was just fine. I went to bed knowing that I could have eaten more, but was happy not to. It was a very comforting feeling.
My weight dropped over a kilo overnight. I know that will not continue. Today has been good and I have been drinking a lot of water. The day started with lemon juice in hot water and some probiotics. Mid-morning was Creamy Coffee time and the menu for the rest of the day was eggs, cheddar cheese, bacon, kale, Philadelphia cream cheese, macadamias, sardines and mayo. 1190 calories total.

 

There was very little fibre in the day’s intake but my tum has been fine. I think it might be the fats that are keeping the intestines oiled, although I wouldn’t do the Fat Fast for longer than 5 days, and also not too often. It is really only to be used by people who are stubbornly metabolically resistant. (That’s me. I have the tum to prove it. Apple shaped.) The Fat Fast is never to be used as a fad diet. Once my body starts burning its own fat stores again, ketosis will keep cravings away and fats (coconut oil is my best) will suppress the appetite.

 

It is day three tomorrow and I have made bone broth in the slow cooker so I will be drinking that most of the day. The fourth day will be a low to no carb day (meat, eggs and fats) without dairy, and then I will move on to the basic ketogenic/high fat/moderate protein/low carb/Banting lifestyle: Meats, eggs, fats, nuts, seeds and vegetables, adding berries and dairy in small amounts. I have to admit that cream is a standard in my fridge. I have one cup of creamy coffee per day (and another one black) and sometimes I will put coconut oil in it as well. I use cream and Greek yogurt in my cooking so dairy really is a staple in my diet. High fat Boursin cheese has to be my all time favourite. Obviously I am not allergic to dairy but I am aware of the carbs.

 

This is an interesting experiment and I cannot say that I feel bad at all. The taste in my mouth is changing though, so I will be chewing fennel seeds for that keto-breath! Incidentally, fennel is a diuretic herb so it can help to rid the body of excess water that is being released from the fat cells while we are losing.  Well, that’s my take on it :)

 

Day three tomorrow. Bring it on…

 

 

Fat Fasting Starts…

 

 

Food Journal 8 December 2014

 

Today begins the Fat Fast.

 

Back in the late 90s when learning about low carb through Atkins I came across the Fat Fast as a way to jolt the stalled weight loss or plateau, but did not take too much notice of it then. Today I know a lot more about fats and am more than willing to try it out in earnest for three days. You can also do it for 5 if you wish. I am settling for three days.

 

The only real rule in the Fat Fast is to keep your calories low – Atkins suggested 1000 calories – but I am doing half of my normal low carb calories as I eat calories according to my weight at present, minus 1 000. That’s my take on it. If you need clarity on how many micro nutrients are in foods, sign up with SparkPeople and use their nutrition tracker. That is where I go to and it works very nicely.

 

I am gathering ideas on foods to eat – and here are a few with which to start:

 

Egg yolks hard boiled with mayo

Sour cream with cucumber slices

Cream cheese and nut butter on celery

Bacon and egg yolks

High fat cheeses such as Philadelphia and Boursin

4 slices of bacon

Cream cheese on top of a slice of salami

2 Eggs yolks beaten and stirred into chicken broth

Bone broth with marrow

Tuna and mayo

Spoonful of coconut oil

Coffee with cream and coconut oil (Bulletproof coffee)

 

Today I have had bacon, eggs, creamy coffee, spoonful of coconut oil, and Philadelphia cream cheese. I will probably have tuna and mayo for a snack and a cream chocolate mousse for supper. (Whipping cream with stevia and unsweetened cacao powder, really good.) All this adds up to a superb appetite suppressant! there is only one way for you to find out how it works, just do it! I will be back tomorrow to report on my progress. Have a happy day!

 

Getting it on with The Revolution!…

 

 

Banting Babe Lunch…

 

Food Journal for today:

 

Breakfast – Overnight slow cooked chicken necks and feet with turmeric, cayenne pepper and Italian parsley. Lots of gelatin!

 

Lunch: A delicious Banting Burger at The Red Plate in Haenertsburg with some new Banting Babes. The burger had avocado, bacon and cheddar on top and it was placed on top of a Courgette Fritter. Yummy. It is so nice to have a restaurant in our little village that has a Banting Menu.

 

Dinner was a fresh garden salad with pan-fried Pork Neck Steaks and a cream and mustard sauce.

 

Snacks: Greek Yogurt smoothie with frozen Strawberries, 6 Macadamia nuts and 3 Brazil nuts. Lots of water, hot water and lemon, iced Rooibos and Green Tea, sparkling mineral water, filter coffee with cream.

 

2236 Calories: 44 Carbs:

 

Generally, my calories are anywhere between 1900 and 2400 and generally my carbs are anywhere between 40 and 80. On very low carb/protein days days I do some cardio – walking and/or spinning – while on higher carb days I will do free weights and eat the higher carb snack or meal after my routine. I use the mini trampoline to warm up.

 

This is all very new at this time, but so far so good! Being 12 kilos lighter has got me moving more, and I am finding that I have more energy than I have had in a long time. Instead of finding reasons to sit at my desk, I am out in the garden more, sharing territory with my horses, checking fences, planting seedlings and generally getting out and about. It elicits in me a warm feeling of hope for the future! It also makes me want to keep on keeping on.

 

A serious commitment needs to be made if you want to take on this new lifestyle, because it is a lifelong commitment, just like a marriage. There will be good times and bad, but you don’t just give up – you work through it and get to the other side, and you also don’t just give up because you are bored. You do what it takes to succeed. Make it interesting if it bores you, try something different, get a new recipe, cry on your friend’s shoulder and then get back in the saddle and ride that horse! (Note that I speak mostly to me!)

 

Looking forward to trying out a few more different Banting recipes. Watch this space, the weekend could be creative!

 

Banting cooks!…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banting…12 kilos gone

 

 

Wow, it’s been a long time since I was here on my blog and that is because I was caring for my husband after eye surgery. He is now on the mend and I am back doing what I usually do when I am not being Florence Nightingale :)

 

The good news is that I have lost 12 kilos to date – that is since the last week in September. I hit a plateau after 10 kilos and that lasted for about 2 weeks. I researched and ended up doing a carb cycling programme and then the weight started moving again. Yay! I also did a day’s fat fast which also helps to shift the weight.

 

Calorie counting is said not to be necessary by some advocates of low carb living, but I am finding that it really is a useful tool. I punch my food into SparkPeople’s nutrition tracker and it tells me all I need to know – fat grams, protein grams, calories, carbs, fibre…it’s all there. So useful.

 

Today’s food intake has not yet reached my calorie goal and yet I am sated. I need no more food. Cream cheese was my helper today. I just wanted that mouth feel! This morning’s brunch at 11 was Green Scrambled Eggs with Swiss Chard, Turmeric and Cheddar, Bacon, Zucchini Fritters with Coconut Flour. Snack mid afternoon was Blackberries and Cottage Cheese while dinner was Vegetable Soup with Beef Broth and again some Cream Cheese as a snack.

 

Walking is becoming easier for me now and I find I can walk a little longer and further every week. There are many more kilos to lose, but it is beginning to feel like it is not impossible anymore!

 

Banting sure Rocks!…

 

 

Reward Meals, do they work?…

 

Mine has been a long journey with diets, weight loss, weight gain and more diets and I have finally found something I can really live with, and it came about after much research, trial and error, experimentation, failures and now success. Here I am, steadily losing weight at a reasonable pace. MOD – My Own Diet. I knew I would find it one day, and it totally appeals to me every single day. Everything I have read and experienced about healthy foods and different low carb diets, everything that has resonated with me has been included in my diet. Not all at once of course.

 

I have lost and found so many kilos on low carb because I could never stick to any one regime absolutely and there were always a whole new slew of special low carb recipes to learn when all I wanted was to eat some of my favourite dishes from a “normal” life (like real mashed potatoes instead of faux potatoes made with cauliflower!). So I would stop the diet and go back to my favourites, and that would cause more and more cravings and I would put on some serious kilos all over again.

 

My Own Diet involves a few basic ideas that work for me. First is intermittent fasting, and that is not every day mind you, probably most of the week with perhaps a day or two of Reward Meal breakfasts or brunches and lunches with friends. (Read about intermittent fasting in an earlier post on this blog.) The one thing that supports intermittent fasting and makes it possible is fat in the diet. That is the secret weapon – appetite suppressing fat. As I write, the spinach and garlic is cooking in coconut oil waiting for the cheese and eggs. It will be followed by Earl Grey tea with a touch of cream. This first meal is eaten close to 12 noon.

 

This meal will hold me until 3 or 4 pm when I will have some biltong (beef jerky) or a piece of roast chicken (with the skin). Or, if I am really feeling in the mood, I may make some almond flour pancakes. Often I am not that hungry, especially if I have eaten a protein and fat snack. Another good reason for having my first meal at around 12 noon is because of the Ayurvedic premise that the digestive fire, agni, is at its strongest. The evening meal is usually eaten between 6 and 7 and if I should feel at all peckish later, which is not often, a little more biltong does it.

 

My eating lifestyle is now never boring and I don’t feel deprived in the slightest. My first drink of the day is usually lemon juice and warm water with a touch of salt and later in the morning I have my favourite freshly ground mocha java with a little cream. Sometimes it is followed with a black coffee, and always throughout the day, water.  The first meal is anything done Banting style from the Real Meal Revolution, as well as Atkins and general low carb meals learned along the way. Through the years I have collected many a low carb recipe and I have no less than a zillion low carb books…OK, maybe 15 or so. And then there is my collection of other cookbooks which include many recipes that can be converted to low carb cooking, or eaten at the reward meal.

 

Low Carb Cookbooks Galore!

 

I am so excited. Why? Well, since one of my top passions is reading cookbooks, cooking and entertaining my friends and family with really yummy food, I can do so with whatever food I please within my reward meal hour, with no guilt. My husband is easy to please as long as I don’t give him too many vegetables. Meat and salad have become his way of eating of late and now he rarely eats bread and he has never been a great fan of rice either. It is easy living with him on this lifestyle. Of course I do try to hide an extra vegetable or two in somewhere, like in a soup.

 

For further explanation as regards my excitement, it is all about the best meal of the day for me. The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet Reward Meal is the reason I think so many lose weight on that regime, and it would appear that 80% keep it off. What I have discovered is certainly exciting for me. If I eat a reward meal and do not go crazy with refined carbs, I continue to lose weight, 0.1 to 0.3 kg in a day. The ratio of the reward meal is protein, low carbs and starches in thirds. (Rule of thirds? :) Of course it doesn’t always work out like that, and that’s OK too. Yesterday, when out shopping, I had a reward meal lunch and that was a scone with jam, cheese and cream and some filter coffee with cream, (no thirds here) but then I kept the rest of the day’s food really low carb and quantities minimal as well. This morning the scale was .3 kg kinder to me.

 

So far I have lost 10.5 kg in seven and a half weeks which is extremely cool. The weight loss got stuck on 9 kilos for a while and then I started enjoying Reward Meals. The next 1.5 kilos loss happened in the course of this week while enjoying a daily hour of food and wine that I love. Needless to say, I choose fairly healthy reward meals and that is because I like the concept of alkaline food, vegetarian food now and then, but mostly I likw real food. Meat from animals that are reared ethically, raised and killed humanely, and natural food grown organically for my table. Of course it isn’t always perfect. Yesterday I looked at the mince from free range beef and it had in it fillers, unnamed vegetable oil, preservatives and soya that no-one can guarantee is not GMO. Why would one want to do that to healthy free range meat?

 

It may not always be easy to keep to a low carb lifestyle, but the reward meal has made it so much more alluring and do-able for me. It is eaten in the space of an hour so that the insulin release stays manageable. At least that is how I interpret it. Since I am pre-diabetic this is truly good news.

 

So what is my reward meal for today? A large green salad with a few baby tomatoes, strips of yellow pepper, shredded red cabbage and freshly picked snow peas with some feta cheese and a few raisins. This is dressed with extra virgin olive oil and verjuice. With this a free range medium rare rump steak served with a grainy mustard cream sauce. With that I will have one or two glasses of good red wine. As I have said before, this is eaten within an hour. An hour of food bliss.

 

That was bliss, even though I made the mistake of munching on some salad ingredients and salami before actually sitting down to dinner. The result is that I did not have time to finish the steak, the salad nor the second glass of wine. I stopped on the hour, determined to keep to the rule, but it taught me to hold back while cooking and wait to sit down when the entire meal is ready and then really enjoy the hour.

 

All that I have tried, learned, failed, tried again, all this has brought me to this point and now I really am excited!

 

Tonight’s Reward Meal

Steak and Salad with Creamy Mustard Sauce

 

Reward Meals Rock!!!…

 

 

 

Interesting Diversion from Banting…

 

I don’t mean to sound disloyal to Banting – I eat that way for two thirds of the day anyway – and then I have a reward meal (Carbohydrate Addicts style) that needs to be eaten within one hour so that the insulin response is less vicious than if I were to eat for two hours. At least that is how I understand it. It truly does help me not to overeat if I have drinks, a main meal and perhaps a dessert within one hour. Up to now I have not had time for a dessert. It just takes planning.

 

No snacking in between meals is also a good rule for me to follow because I can overeat quite absentmindedly, especially on pistachio nuts! That is a nudge to remind me to eat mindfully. In fact, learning how to do everything mindfully is a goal to which I aspire. It is amazing how disconnected one can be if we don’t watch it! I find meditation helps me to focus on living mindfully. The trick is to not forget to meditate. A big lesson for me is to work on doing things consistently and to follow through on projects I set myself.

 

Something that bothers me a little is the acidity level of the kinds of low carb food I am eating on this diet. I need to eat more green vegetables and perhaps add more alkaline vegetables and fruit to the reward meal instead of dessert! But I will work to add that one little Crème Brûlée in a month! Strangely enough, I found myself eating plain wasabi rice crackers in my reward meal today. It was what I wanted at that moment and that was it. Satisfied me enough not to want to go back for more. Normally I would eat the whole box in a day. Today it was just 6 little crackers. The entire day’s carbs added up to 32 grams, reward meal and all. I am watching to see if cravings come back; so far so good. Drinking water is a great help.

 

This is all about finding out what works best for me. No one diet fits all and I do like the way one can plan for personal tastes in the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet. I shall continue with this for a month and then check the stats.

 

Moving on…

 

 

 

Back and Still Banting…

 

 

If you have been following this blog, I do apologise for my absence. My husband was my patient for three weeks after a serious eye op.

 

I have been very well behaved on the food front and Banting away merrily. I put on 2 kilos in one day and lost them again the next. This tells me it is not a good idea to jump on the scale every day! All in all I am down 9 kilos since I started in September around the 26th. About 6 weeks. An average of 1.5 kilos per week. It has now slowed down and I am beginning to look at tweaking my intake and doing a bit of a Fat Fast. More about that in my next post.

 

The acidity of all the meat I have been eating has had me a little concerned which has resulted in a desire to see how one does a vegetarian low carb diet. I am now going to concentrate on getting in some alkaline veggies in green smoothies, using the lowest carb vegetables and some whey protein powder. It does not mean I am going to stop eating meat, but I am going to add more vegetarian options to my new lifestyle. This means a minimum of legumes, like a 1/4 of a cup, (which is around 10 carbs) and the vegetables highest in protein content, along with the protein powder.

 

Today, however, was a seriously carnivorous day: here is my intake…

 

Meal 1

Boerewors 200g                                  6 Carbs/26g protein

Eggs x 2 XL                                           1 Carb/15g protein

Full fat milk ¼ cup                             3 Carbs/2g protein

                                                          10 Carbs/43g protein


Snack

Macadamia nuts 30g                        4 Carbs/2g Protein

Coffee x 2                                            0

Cream 30g                                           1 Carb/1 protein

                                                          5 Carbs/3 protein


Meal 2

Swiss Chard 50g                                 2 Carbs/1 protein

Mushrooms 1/3 cup                           2 Carbs/1 protein

Broccoli ½ cup                                    2 Carbs/1 protein

Garlic 1 tsp                                            1 Carbs/0 protein

Onions fried 1 Tbs                               2 Carbs/0 protein

Lamb chop 200 g                                0 Carbs/41 protein

Coconut oil 2 Tbs                                0 Carbs/0 protein

Lard 1 Tbs                                             0 Carbs/0 protein

Feta Cheese 30g                                   1 Carbs/4 protein

                                                          10 Carbs/48 protein

TOTALS                                       25 g Carbs/94 g protein

 

Still Moving On with the Revolution…

 

 

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