energy
Banting Breakfast with Vegetables…
I think it true to say that we need to increase our vegetable intake on this Banting Way. This is where our good carbs should be coming from. Perhaps we could challenge ourselves to have something green with every meal? Can you imagine all those lovely nutrients? Our bodies will be singing and we will be doing a happy dance.
Why not have vegetables for breakfast? If we think of meals as 1, 2 and maybe 3, we need not think breakfast lunch and dinner, yes? So, my meal number 1 was Stir-fried Zucchini Noodles with Bacon and Parmesan, which I got off dietplan101. It was delicious (who doesn’t like bacon and cheese?) and the dish was only 5.6g. The zucchini were prepared with a vegetable peeler that makes thin noodles. (I inherited it from mum, she was a gadget queen:) I would have liked bigger zucchini so I think I need to plant some and let them get big like my grandpa used to grow them.
Eggs go well with vegetables. Try any of the following next time you make a scramble, an omelette or a fritatta : Broccoli, spinach, zucchini, peppers, leek, celery, herbs, or asparagus.
I used a fair bit of ghee (clarified butter which you can buy at some Checkers stores, or you can make it yourself) when I cooked this morning, as I am beginning to feel the value of fats in my diet because it is taming my appetite. I realise that portion control has for long been my nemesis. Second helpings are not the norm these days. Nice is still nice, believe me, but I seem to be getting satisfied more quickly.
Unfortunately I cannot download my photographs because my old laptop is misbehaving. Things will return to normal on the weekend and I will catch up with the photos.
Have a beautiful Banting day!…
Banting Foods – Making Wise Choices…
When the Atkins Diet was all the rage, first in the late seventies and then again in the nineties, it was criticised for its lack of vegetables. Those same critics most likely did not read the Atkins Diet Revolution too well, because they would have seen the three cups of vegetables recommended daily. Two salad and one cooked vegetable. And that was only in the first two weeks of induction. After induction you could add more vegetables until you reached your CCL (Critical Carbohydrate Level) where you would no longer be losing weight. Unfortunately there were a whole bunch of low carb products (fake foods) being touted as well, and a low carb candy bar seemed much more exciting than a stick of celery. No vegetables meant more constipation as people were not getting enough fibre. The diet was blamed.
There are also those who complain they cannot eat fruit on a low carb diet. If you read the orange list in The Real Meal Revolution by Prof Tim Noakes et al, you will see a comprehensive list of fruit from which we can choose to eat, as long as we include it in our carbs for the day. The decision is ours to make. A little pineapple or apple in the chicken salad does make a difference every now and then. And strawberries and cream are a true treat. However, I am beginning to see the value of noting the carbs on a daily basis. Munching meats is cool because there are no carbs to count, nor in fat. Milk, cream, cheeses, nuts and seeds (which means crackers and breads) all need to be counted, along with the more dense vegetables. Unless it is high fat such as butter and lemon, sauces need to be limited and some archived for the moment.
The simple rule would be to choose our carbs wisely.
I think it was in a Paleo article where it was suggested that we should eat only those things that you could pick, dig out or kill with a pointed stick while naked on the plains, or was it the savannah? Now I don’t know about naked with a pointed stick, but I do get their meaning. It all boils down to real, natural food. Stuff that you could mostly eat raw actually. Raw meat? Come on, you know steak tartare don’t you? Well, you get my drift. You can’t eat rice raw, or wheat, or legumes unless sprouted. Sugar would be sucked from a cane and if the bees didn’t get you, honey would be a rare delight. Real food is what we need to keep healthy. Our bodies are made for it. They thrive on natural organic foods.
Sweets don’t grow on trees.
Not long ago in a meditation course with Osho, the one thing that stuck with me was the word “mindful”. Eating mindfully has become another reminder from my nagging but caring inner voice. We cannot eat mindfully in front of a television. In fact, I think we eat most mindfully when we are alone. Osho declared it would take much longer to eat our meals if we did so in a mindful manner. Slowly, chewing well, savouring and focusing on every mouthful. When the inner voice gets through to me and I practise that mindfulness, it works. It is then that a stick of celery delights.
Slow and steady with the Revolution…
Preparations for 2012…
This is a collection of my blog entries that I am moving to this website blog. There will be new ones to come!
Marloe’s preparations for 2012
Farming and growing organic vegetables
Any other ideas out there? Share them with pleasure.
That is today’s subject. Let’s imagine we are under siege and safely underground with all our provisions, even our games, cards, pictionary and of course scrabble and a really big old dictionary. But now we are three months down the line and not just a little bored, and the radiation metre says not yet, so no horse riding today. Now what?
Take up a hobby that takes up little space. Jewelry, painting, sculpture (you brought along the plaster of paris, shoe box and tape, didn’t you? Oh – and of course – water…hmmmm. Maybe the sculpture will have to wait. But wait! Make up some papier mache pulp in advance and keep it in sealed plastic ice-cream cartons. I could even make up some plaster of paris blocks before hand. Which is when I wonder? Before hand?…beforehand? How long is before?
Will it won’t it, will we won’t we? Whichever way the poles shift, or the sun brightly burns, preparedness is key to survival in any emergency. Girl scout me be.
Lists are all well and good, but doing is the thing. I am going to take a leaf out of Flylady’s book (if you haven’t discovered the joy of flylady.net please go and visit this site). She is the doyenne of de-clutter and organisation. 15 minutes a day to de-clutter, set the timer. And now a new 15 minutes – to collect survival equipment and foods and store it all very well.
And don’t forget the jewelry making kit, or your favourite games.
Any ideas for fun underground are most welcome. I will add them to the final lists.
Water. I keep thinking of water. Imagine you suddenly hear on the news from NASA you have 12 hours to get to your safe place. Stormy solar flare is on its way. Is there enough water in the shelter? Food, emergency equipment, crank handle radio, gas, matches and quite a bit more? How will we conserve the water and still have enough to keep us hydrated. Strange thought, water.
I suppose the reason I am starting this blog with water is because we need it even more than food – and the water tanks need to go under the house in the ground – before we start building the rest of this magic home in the hill.
Waterless soap. That anti-bacterial stuff. Not always a good idea to do the anti-bacterial thing though – we like good bacteria – but it could save a little on water. Imagine trying not to wash your hands too often? A damp cloth will have to do…a jammer lappie. A sorry cloth. Sorry there isn’t any running water.
This is quite spooky really. Will we ever be ready? Is your shelter close to your home? Mine is in the mountains – or it will be! First there are the plans to be finished. There are many different ways to design an underground home, and ours is going to be built into the side of a hill on our farmette (read “small farm”). It is two hours drive from our home in the bushveld, and who knows where we will be on that fiery day!
One thing I do plan is that we will have finished our hobbit house in the hill. I also know that while planning, life happens! This is not to be some temporary disaster shelter, but a dwelling we shall enjoy for the rest of our lives, however long or short that may be. To that end, I am looking everywhere for good ideas. I am also extremely glad I am married to a civil engineer who knows his concrete.
Concrete. Now that’s not a very environmentally friendly product, but I am told it’s the best idea in a solar storm – with 3 feet of earth above it – and big strong doors – blast valve? Is that the name? Well, something truly strong enough to protect us, designed for disaster.
As long as the internet is working, I shall be gleaning as much info as I need. Then to find the right products and equipment. Now there’s a long list of hitherto unknowns!
What if there is no electricity for a long time? Well, we will have to get ingenious won’t we? I have been longing to live a permaculture driven life redolent with the fragrance of lavender and rosemary, growing my organic vegetables and milking the sheep (sheep’s milk is more easily digested than both cow and goat, really), collecting my free range eggs and singing in the hills while my solar panels collect energy for me and the wind turbine whirls away in the sometimes high winds of the mountains in Limpopo. I might have to wait a while for some of it, I might not. Perhaps the sullen sun decides to chill a bit instead of spitting radioactive fireballs at us. Anything is possible. However, whatever will come, I aim to be a good girl scout and guide my family and friends to preparedness.
When the horse gets to the water, will it drink?
We are back to the water again. There are very serviceable water tanks out there and I aim to get me some. Water in a tank buried under the dwelling, with a hand pump and some water purification drops. I can just see that ol’ style pump in my kitchen…well, where else? I am certainly not going outside to fetch water if there is a Solar Katrina whipping up a frenzy out there!
Grey water. Another tank under the ground with pipes that lead from wash up to a drip irrigation in an indoor greenhouse with grow lights. I can’t think of any other way to have fresh vegetables while under siege from the sun…and polar shifts, magnetic flips and maybe even flying trees and roofs… and an earth mother gone mad.
The survival lists are growing. I will share them in this blog as I go along. The true challenge is staying in the now while plotting and planning for a possible earth shattering event. My need in the now is to de-clutter big time in order to live a simplistic life with only that which serves us well, whether the cataclysm comes or not.
Any thoughts and ideas on water storage are most welcome…and I shall share any interesting links as we go along.
http://www.rainharvest.co.za/2010/05/26/how-to-choose-a-water-tank/
Water Food and Fun