Low Carb Livin' After All These Years

Losing Again

2011-01-05T04:16:00.000-08:00

I know I don't keep up with this blog but I just wanted to pop in to say I have started again. I am trying not to make it a big deal that I'm low carb-ish again because that seems to set me up for failure. Since Saturday, I have lost 11lbs. Yes, eleven pounds in 4 days. I cannot believe it but it just shows you how ready my body is to accept low carbing again and how negatively the tons of gluten I was eating was affecting me.

I know it will not keep melting off like this and I think I know the point where it will start to get hard. I'm not extremely low carb because I know if I start low, it will get to a point where I feel I have to go lower and lower and I don't want to do that. My carbs have been around 50 a day, so not exactly ketosis levels.

I am tracking what I eat at Spark People. I am eating as much as I want and still below my ideal calories, even with 120-ish grams of fat a day.

I don't know why it's so hard for me to accept that this is the way I need to eat and that junk does not have a place in my body. I will get it eventually!

Tuesday Meal Plan

2010-10-19T05:47:00.001-07:00

I went shopping this morning and got some goodies. Some for me, some for the family. I love kefir. I wish I could make it good enough that I didn't have to buy it. I am going to try to get some kefir grains when I'm in the valley but I may not be able to. It's a wonderful probiotic. I also bought organic salad greens (since I can't buy them locally anymore), Dijon mustard, boccinoci (or whatever it's called, fresh mozzarella in little balls), olives, sour cream, baby carrots and spices.

I will update as I eat as I often change what I eat when I eat it.

Breakfast: 1/2 cup kefir, 2 curried turkey drummies

Lunch: Taco salad (see yesterday)

Supper: eggs cooked in butter

Snack: leftover beef and broccoli soup, cheese

Accountability

2010-10-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

I have blogs for different aspects of my life that I like to write about. This one I will use for accountability for what I eat. I write a lot about food and recipes in my food blog, as well as shopping but I feel I need a place to put what I eat as I....sigh...try again. The good news is I'm not gaining weight, other than a little day to day fluctuation. I put back the weight I lost when I was really having problems with my OCD and unable to eat, but that was expected.

I am not entirely low carbing. It is more gluten free than anything. I will occasionally have fruit, I will have starchy veggies. I will have natural sugars from time to time (local, raw honey and local maple syrup, in moderation). I will not partake of artificial sugars anymore. I am on the fence about xylitol. I have some but I probably won't buy more. I will not eat glutenous grains (I may still have corn, gf oats and occasionally brown rice. There are some others I am on the fence about.). I will go back to using wonderful coconut flour for any baked or other goodies I wish to make.

In generally, I just want to eat real food. I hate complicating it. I want to follow Nourishing Traditions/Weston A Price/what-have-you. Lots of fat, pastured animals (we have our 1/4 grass fed and finished beef, yay!), pastured eggs, locally grown and produced food (organic as we can afford it), probiotic and fermented foods as well as properly prepared foods to obtain the best nutrition out of them. If I find I am not losing weight, I will drop the starchy foods. I don't want to go too dramatic all at once, especially since we're going away for the weekend and my options may be limited eating out.

I am having a real problem with addiction to industrial produced foods and bad carbs. We bought bags of cookies and I couldn't walk by without grabbing a couple, many times through the day. I can plow through a bag of chips. Even with my homemade goodies, I was eating several sandwiches a day on my good homemade bread as snacks. While I'm not gaining weight, I am becoming bloated and uncomfortable.

So as I make another earnest effort, here is what I am eating today:

Breakfast: 4 pastured pullet eggs (these are small; they weighed about 150g when I cracked them out of their shells), cooked in butter and served with a pat of butter on top as well as sea salt and organic pepper, 1/2 cup sauerkraut.

Lunch: Taco salad (3.5oz grass fed beef with homemade taco seasoning, served on salad greens and 1oz grated Monterey Jack cheese and a big dollop of sour cream)

Supper: Edit: I posted our supper here: http://food-simplicity.blogspot.com/2010/10/100th-post.html Maple Pepper pork and buttercup squash custard

Snacks: 1 oz cheese, 2 squares of 85% dark chocolate, tbsp mayo, 2 turkey "drummies (the drumstick part of the wing baked with curry powder), smelling the banana bread I'm making for the kids, lol!

I also plan to have Weigh in Monday. Since I do not want to post my weigh, I will just post what I have lost. Since this is my starting point, I have not lost yet, but I will :)

Weight Loss: 0

I'm Doing It!

2010-08-19T04:30:00.000-07:00

I feel like a kid riding a bike again. I'm doing it, but flopping around in my efforts.

Monday I had enough. I was getting back on track. Never mind I was sick as a dog and I happened to start my period, bad combination. But I've been doing pretty good considering. I have eaten too many nuts. They are now gone so that temptation is gone. I am also recovering from one of the worst flus I've had in years. I really need to up my Vit. D and take my cod liver oil.

I am going to try hard to make this work. I need to. I am not getting any younger or thinner of my own accord. I have gained a lot of the weight back that I had lost when I was in my panic/OCD induced unable to eat frenzy. Fat and normal or thin and crazy. I'm shooting for just normal. I'm also not entirely low carb as I'm allowing some foods that are local and in season into my diet.

Food highlights of the week (so far):

A blade roast slowly cooked all day in the crockpot sitting on top of some onions and topped with Montreal steak seasoning. MMMMMMM!!!! It was soooooo good. I can't remember the last time I made a roast but it really has me yearning for a side of beef!

Farmer's market beef cooked with onions, garlic and made into a gravy with a tiny bit of cornstarch. I know that's not the low carbest but it was the yummiest! It was only $2.50 a pound with no fat but TONS of flavour (for comparison, grocery store lean is sometimes $1.99 a pound but usually $2.99/lbs but it still shrinks by half so most is going to waste. I am convinced they fill it with water to plump it up). I want more. I could envision things like the White Castle pie from Linda Sue's site or other things I can't think of at the moment because of my foggy brain. I am going to ask how much they charge for a side or quarter beef and if they offer ground beef in large quantities. I want to stock my freezer!

Cucumber Yogurt salad. This was really yummy. I simply made it by chopping up a peeled cuke, adding enough yogurt to coat and adding cut up garlic and sea salt to taste. I think next time I will whiz the garlic and yogurt and let it sit in the fridge overnight. It was cool, tangy and very good! It would be easy to play around with the spices to get different flavours.

Dry buttercup squash. Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyy! So good. Although I abhor the microwave, it is the best way to make good dry squash when your crockpot is in user. I cut it in half, scoop out the innards, place it on a plate upside down over a little water and microwave 15 minutes for a good sized half (the whole was about 4lbs). Perfecto, especially drowning in butter. It is good with something sweet added, like brown sugar, maple syrup or honey, but I didn't.

Fresh blueberries. The kids and I picked 14lbs of blueberries a couple of weeks ago, but they mostly made their way to the freezer for winter use. MIL brought us an ice cream bucket full and they were so good to munch. Some were a little bitter so I added a touch of our raw honey and yum, yum, yum (if the berries are wet, you need very little honey to sweeten). I will probably dehydrate the rest.

Free food! I love free food! Also cheap food. My father's and my IL"s gardens are abound this year so we have tons of free sting beans for the freezer. I need to do some more down today. I also have cukes I plan to make into pickles. I may try to ferment some (they are 6/$1 at the market so even if not all free, cheap!).

I really love this time of the year. It is so full of fresh local food! I am almost dreading winter and the limited options (which cost more).

Fluffy Coconut Flour Pancakes

2010-07-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

Fluffy Coconut Flour Pancakes

I have been so bad getting back on track lately. I think I have gained a lot of the weight I have lost back. It's either be depressed & have constant anxiety attacks & extreme OCD and be smaller (because I'm too scared to eat) or be medicated, happy and fat. I know it shouldn't be a choice I let be made for me. I need to work at it so I am happy AND losing weight. We are going on vacation very soon (camping) and when we get back, it's back on track for me. I'm tired of gaining.

So yeah, fluffy coconut flour pancakes. Yum! It can be very hard to be low carb/gluten free when it comes to yummy things like pancakes. They are so good slathered with butter and drizzled with real maple syrup. When I get back on track, this is something I plan to make :)

Long Story Short....

2010-05-27T02:21:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of problems with anxiety and depression. I got to the point I literally could not eat. I thought everything I ate would kill me. I lost a lot of weight really quick. I got help, I was put on Celexa and then after a while, I felt great. Too great. I ate everything in sight, including carbs and especially gluten foods. I felt great mentally but the weight was piling back on as quick as it came off.

Where I stand right now is I started lower carb this week. I am now down 8lbs from my high hit after the big gain but 12lbs to go 'til I hit my recent low. It shows how yo-yo'ey my weight is. I cheated with chips last night and had a mini carb-fest Tuesday night, but I think most of it was bloat. I have been eating fat like crazy. I also decided that veggies are good, so I have been having corn, carrots and peas, but in moderation. Potatoes are still going to be a rare thing.

So I'm not really low-low carb, but lower than what most people are. It's more gluten and grain free more than anything (although I know corn is sometimes considered a grain). I will get stricter as I start to lose my appetite, especially since I know the loss will slow.

I did discover something pretty cool yesterday: Cheesecake in a crockpot . Cool, eh? You can use your own cheesecake recipe and just use the method. I made mine without a crust. I beat two packs of cream cheese, added a little vanilla, 1/4 cup local honey, a little liquid stevia to taste, beat really good then added two eggs and 1/4 cup full fat yogurt. I poured into a silicone loaf pan, covered the bottom of the crockpot with water, put the pan in and covered then cooked for 3 hours on high (I had to keep checking it after about an hour. It seemed done but it wasn't set at all the first couple times I took it out but in the end I think it was a little over done). It's really good!

I also stocked our freezer this week. It was really low as I hadn't bought meat in literally months, probably not at all this year except a pack of hamburg here, some cold cuts there and DS's birthday hot dogs. I got a ton of steak for between $1 and $2 a pack (marked down, less than half off!). I also bought lots of frozen turkey wings, which I'll make into hot wings in the crock pot. Pork roast, chicken breasts, ribs, ect... I also need to start loading up on eggs again. Our freezer is nearly full and it is great! I missed eating this way :)

Dr's. Appointment

2010-04-27T14:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I went to the doctor yesterday. He put me on Celexa for my anxiety and depression and has ordered me to get a hip x-ray. He didn't say much about anything so I don't know if it's sciatica or not now. I told him it hurt where I sit and in my hip, sometimes it is a burning pain that kind of goes down my leg (but it hasn't lately). I am also going to go back to a counselor. I hope I get the one I had last time as we had a good rapport and we don't have to go through the whole getting to know you stage.

I have been eating poorly. I have no appetite still and have broken down and bought junky food for the family, who keep complaining there is nothing to eat between meal times. I feel bad because I just don't feel like cooking. I never have any idea what to make. Everything is frozen and by the time I think of supper, it's too late to thaw anything out (or I make a total mess of the meal, like the pork chops that ended up more boiled than fried when I put some water in the pan and they tasted gross to me so I ended up not eating, although DS ate a ton covered in ketchup, lol!). Last night I just bought pizza and garlic fingers. My stomach has shrunk so much I ate half of what I normally would of (oddly, gluten doesn't seem to bother me physically lately, but I know I shouldn't be having it).

I want to meal plan, to have wholesome good meals, but I could just sit and do nothing all day. I'm at least mostly staying on top of the cleaning. Sucks to be depressed and have massive anxiety about everything. Right now it is 7pm and I have no clue what to have for supper. The kids ate out with their grandparents but DH is just wandering around snacking. Sigh. My weight is still creeping down but it will start going up if I don't get things under control, not to mention weight gain is a possible side effect of Celexa.

What's This?

2010-04-24T05:03:00.000-07:00

I am getting a lap again! I haven't had a lap in so long I forget what it's like, lol! I used to have to set my babies on my stomach when I was holding them since I didn't have enough lap.

My stomach used to hang down quite low, down on to my legs. Now it's doing this weird shifting thing when it is no longer down on my legs but it is still sticking out more than I'd like. I love it! It shows my body really is changing. A lot of my clothes are getting really big on me. Tops are hard because when I lose, I lose a lot around my neck so they all droop a lot and it's hard to stay covered.

So progress! I'm starting to get an appetite again so I need to watch that. My anxiety isn't as bad as it had been so my stomach isn't in constant knots, lol! I also haven't been walking as much this week because of pain I've been having which I suspect is sciatica. I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday but it's been switched to Monday. I hope to get help and answers.

April Update

2010-04-22T04:32:00.001-07:00

I know I haven't posted much lately. I think I've mentioned I haven't been low carbing..per say. I'm trying a more traditional foods way of eating and it is helping me. You can check out the Weston A. Price site for more information. I'm not perfect at it but learning.

I have mostly been just eating less and exercising more. I just do not have much of an appetite. I usually have a couple of small meals a day and have a banana or a half cup of blueberries and some sauerkraut for a snack, unless I have boiled eggs around. I also sometimes have a couple handfuls of chips or a little ice cream or some dark chocolate because I'm bad like that. A typical day of meals is like this:

Breakfast: two eggs fried in butter

Lunch: small salad with olive oil dressing, sometimes with protein, sometimes not

Supper: small portion of meat (3-6 oz depending on how hungry I am), 1/2 cup potato, a serving of another veggie (like a little pile of cucumbers, half cup cooked carrots or turnip or whatever)

I'm not trying to keep my calories low, it just seems to be happening. I'm eating when hungry but I just do not feel hungry very often. It is almost shocking to me.

I have been walking more, although it has been a little harder this past week (I'm going to the Dr. today to see about some problems I'm having, especially with anxiety and pain). I am finding I am really loving walking again. I like taking the kids out because they get exercise too, meaning they are a little less rambunctious around the apartment, lol!

The pay off is good though. I have lost nearly 20lbs so far this month. I am in shock that I am dropping nearly a pound a day! I am now at my lowest weight in about 8 years! I never got down to my prepregnancy weight with Ethan, my first child, who is turning 8 in two weeks. I got down to a little more than I am right now before I had Shaylee but I could never get below a certain point. I am just so excited to finally be losing!! Yahooo!

I am hoping I can keep up with this downward trend. I have so much weight to lose that it sometimes frustrates me and I get really depressed that I allowed myself to get so big. I do think a major component of my loss is being gluten free/grain free. I am not starch free or completely sugar free but since I"m in a good place with it, I will run with it. I'm not feeling deprived or hungry so I'll roll with it!

So there is my update :). I just hope I haven't jinxed it now, lol!

New Year, Yada yada

2010-01-07T11:26:00.000-08:00

I usually make a big deal with the new year and posts, but I haven't been in a blogging mood. There are times I want to, but I am not feeling well enough to try to gather comprehensive thoughts.

I have been sticking with it. On Christmas Eve we had supper at the IL's house. I was halfway through when I discovered that she had served a stuffed turkey, meaning that it had bread all through it and it was probably covered in gluten. As soon as she said, I stopped eating and gulped some immodium to slow transit time. I hate having to question everything. It gets tiring being different. I was so frustrated I ate some donut holes since I already had gluten in my system. I have since been detoxing but it takes a while.

Other holiday meals fared better. We had lobster on New Years Eve. I'm having trouble attaching the picture so if this ends up with a ton of lobster pics, I apologize. Otherwise, they are here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3770146&l=2073578647&id=666001812 .

So I have been sticking with things really well for the most part (the odd bit of potato here and there). I need to start adding back ferments. My intestines have been a mess. I have had terrible pain for days now and I know it is from my intestines getting messed up from a dose of gluten after being free from it so long. I got a little container of kefir today but I need to make my own, as well as sauerkraut. The stuff from the store is starting to get gross and the last 4 containers I've bought weren't that great. I cleared some counter space to leave things out.

I haven't weighed myself but I don't think I'm up or down but I'm happy with where I'm at. I would like to lose 100lbs this year but I won't beat myself up over it if I don't. I had that goal last year and I lost about 50lbs last year. Even half is good!

Ups and Downs

2009-12-22T05:15:00.000-08:00

I went up. Way up. 10lbs in a week. That wasn't from eating bread or anything containing gluten. 10lbs of a potato or a cup of rice a day. A little ice cream here and here, some chips and a few other treats. Not even eating junk constantly, just a few things I usually don't have. I felt like I died a little when I saw how much I gained in a short period of time.

So I got right back on track and lost that 10lbs in.....
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Are you ready for it?
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2 days. Yep, that's right, two lbs flew off my body in two freaking days! Isn't the body amazing? All that just came right off. Now I know it was bloat and water weight but I thought it would take a lot longer. My stomach went down a lot. I couldn't even buckle my seat belt when we got our car back, now there is room even with my winter coat.

Now, I just have to work on the rest! I have a family Christmas party tonight. I am going to have to be very careful. I'm bringing deviled eggs and if I have time to make it, almond bark made with raw almonds and dark chocolate.

I am planning on having some chips on Christmas Eve. That is something I love and an occasional indulgence is fine. Long binges are not! I hope I learned my lesson for a while.

I have been stashing away money to get a side of beef when we have enough room in the freezer. I can't wait! I made a commitment to not buy store beef anymore. It's hard. But it is gross in comparison so hopefully it will be worth the wait. I wanted to stop all freezer buying but I came upon a great deal yesterday. They had chicken breast at Sobeys for $1.99/lbs! It was regular $8.99 a pound! Yes, chicken is that expensive here. I bought 4 packs. I can get chicken breast cheap at at little local grocery store but they are hacked pieces and more skin and bones than anything (not that that's a problem but it's hard for recipes to have enough actual meat). There are nice plump premium breasts. I should of bought them all, but I didn't want to be greedy. I also bought two packs of quarters, $1.49/lbs. I usually buy quarters in the bag at the afore mentioned grocery store for 99 cents/lbs, but they haven't had them for ages on sale and they freeze in a big mass because I'm too lazy to repackage so I have to throw them in the crockpot, which means the kids may or may not eat them because they are too "slimy". We all like crispy baked chicken. I baked a whole chicken last night and it was so good! There were hardly any leftovers. Even my ultra picky son had two helpings! Then I took what was left of the meat off and made a nice broth.

This is making me hungry!

Oooo, Spicey!

2009-12-17T06:03:00.000-08:00

I got a sweet deal today. I love spices and I have been trying to go organic (as much as I can; I live in a town where organic still seems to be rather on the underground of things). I've been trying to do it as cheaply as possible as money is always a concern with us.

Today at Sobeys they had all the Barbours Organic spices marked down to 79 cents plus 20% off (16 cents off) PLUS 5 airmiles when you buy two! Wow! I bought $15 worth of stuff and got 32 airmiles (I also got baby carrots, 2 bags of kettle chips, a couple of lemons and a piece of sticky toffee cheese, mmmm!). I got dried onion, granulated garlic, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, basil, parsley and some others I can't think of. The Barbour company is situated in New Brunswick, which is local as far as food miles go :). That is always a plus in my book!

Yesterday I FINALLY got Nourishing Traditions from the library. It kind of made me mad as I had it requested since summer and it had only been taken out once since then, returned by October 15th. They must of either kept renewing it or something. I skimmed through it and knew right away that this is a book I need to own! I have felt that way for a while but I needed it in my hands first to really know. I want my family to eat like this. I think I could even get away with occasionally eating things a little higher in carbs than I would normally permit myself on a low carb diet (like beans) because of the way they are prepared.

Pineapple is on sale tomorrow so I'm going to try making the pineapple vinegar then the corditio. Those have always interested me but I couldn't find the recipe online.

It is a much bigger book than I anticipated and it seems chaulk full of wonderful information. A point of contention I discovered last night is the books stance on chocolate as it forbids caffeine of any sort. Like all things, you take what works and ditch what doesn't. Vegetarians follow this, even though there is a heavy emphasis on meat. Low carbers follow it, even though there are a lot of carby things in there. Everybody and every body is different and we need to learn to become in tune with our bodies and what they need. The first place to start is getting the junk out! (this is where I whimper, lol! Junk, although nutritionally void, is yummy and hard to give up)

Stranger in my own life

2009-12-15T03:25:00.000-08:00

I haven't written in a little while, as is obvious. I have had posts planned, pictures taken for food/recipe posts, successes, failures, ect... The simplest explanation is I have been depressed. Christmas is a hard time of the year for me. Things are hard on the home front. To be perfectly honest, I haven't been strictly low carb. Not really high carb either as my choices are limited. I was down about the negative celiac DX but I read some more and it is probably because I hadn't been consuming gluten before the test. The doctor never said anything but from various sources I read that you must be consuming the equivalent of several slices of bread daily for at least a week (some say a month) for the test to be accurate. I hadn't. I assumed that the doctor would have told me. Grrrr. Since I have been off gluten so long (except a few accidental "glutenings"), the damage may be repairing so an endoscopy would potentially find nothing.

I found this in a group I belong to; I will also post her blog as she is extremely knowledgable on the topic, even though the following content is from an email sent to the GFCF Native-Nutrition group (I"m not casein free yet, but I have a feeling I may have to go that route eventually, even though I just bought about 20 packs of cream cheese and 6lbs of real butter):

"Enterolab is great, and it's an easy test. But my gastro told me the
NEW "celiac diagnosis" is 1) They have the gene and 2) Going off
gluten helps. They are basically beginning to ignore the whole
antibody thing.

Basically I think they are on the right track. "Celiac" is,
technically, an autoimmune disorder where a person has lots of
transglutamase (TTG) antibodies. But more and more, the research is
showing that gluten causes *other* antibodies to be produced, such as
the ones that cause T1 diabetes or thyroid issues, and it causes brain
permeability which leads to mental issues. The celiac panel doesn't
test for those.

The Enterolab test will check for antibodies to TTG, gliadin, and
casein. Which is helpful (esp. the casein one! I think casein is
sneakier than gliadin). But it doesn't actually test for the
autoimmune antibodies, or for the degree of leaky gut (zonulin
production). If a zonulin test were available, I'd recommend it in a
minute! I expect it WILL be out in a year or three (it is available to
research labs now).

Basically though, just going GF works really well when the symptoms
are obvious. And they tend to get more obvious the longer you are off
it. When I went off gluten, we disallowed it from the house, and it
shortly became obvious that everyone else got sick when they ate it
out of the house. Per the article I posted recently, MOST people
actually do better with no gluten in their lives, so really, there is
nothing much to lose."
http://eatingoffthefoodgrid.blogspot.com/

In a way it is all confusing but simple at the same time. The science behind is confusing. What I need to do is simple; avoid gluten! I had a couple of Pringle chips yesterday. Those puppies have wheat starch in them! I was sick all day. It even struck me hard a few times when we were out. I'm still being affected by it. Strange thing is a couple of months ago I had some and I swear they didn't have wheat starch in them and they did not bother me. Did they change the ingredients or am I just becoming more sensitive in the absence of the gluten? I don't know.

At least I have not been gaining weight with my indulgences. Part of me justifies it with the stress I've been under, the depression and heck, it's Christmas! There are goodies everywhere. Chips with dip and chocolates are my downfall. I know I will get back on the losing track soon.

Tests are Back

2009-12-03T11:08:00.000-08:00

I called the doctor today to get the results of my tests from a while back. I guess it's all good news. I do not have celiac disease, I do not have diabetes and I do not have high cholesterol. Yay! (the bad news is that Ethan was lab confirmed as having H1N1, yuck! He keeps asking why he feels so normal now because his friend had him convinced everyone who got it died. Sigh!!)

The only thing is, the blood test for celiac disease has a high false negative rate. I do not know if I want to pursue further testing since I am doing so well eating the way that I am. I do not like having foreign objects shoved up or down in me needlessly. What would it prove?

I could claim food expenses for celiac disease , but I don't eat the processed junk they sell. I eat whole, natural foods. What is that saying that most diseases are healed by food/what you eat? I believe that. We have become so far removed from our food and their natural state.

Today while shopping I was trying to do a better job. Not just for me, but my whole family. It was so tempting to pick up junk because it's easier. I did get chicken weiners since the kids wanted hot dogs and we can't afford $5 a pack for only ever so slightly less junky ones.

I paid closer attention to the peanut butter, for example. It was on sale for $2.99 for a 1kg jar plus 10 air miles if you buy two. I usually just grab the kraft in the green jar for the family and I get the unsweetened for me. I had been weaning them onto the unsweetned and planned to stock up. Today I looked at the ingredients. Soybean oil? Ugh! They had one bottle of the natural kind (smaller size at 750g) but there were no ingredients other than peanut butter. So I got a rain cheque for 4. No it's not organic but all natural is the best we can do with what we have and can afford. Baby steps. The peanut butter we used to buy had icing sugar, corn syrup and a host of other icky things. The more we learn, the better we can do.

I am so happy that I was able to get a ton of steak which was on sale for $1.69/lbs. I would of bought more if they had it but I left some packages as not to be greedy. Steak is so expensive, as is all forms of beef lately. I can't wait until we can get a side or a quarter!

I also got real Parmesan cheese for $2.49 a tub (I couldn't bring myself to buy the shaker things). I will have to grate it down but now I can attempt to make chicken parmigiana. I also bought a couple packs of cream cheese, which killed me to pay $2.79 each for. It usually goes on sale by now but it wasn't in the flyers anywhere this week or for next week. I really want to make a cheesecake or maybe mini ones so I will have portion control. Horseradish was another treat I got. It is so hot and it really pepped up the steak I had for lunch!

Most of my cart was pure unadulterated food and made/grown in Canada. It feels good when you are making positive steps. I don't know if we'll ever be able to be all organic on our budget so we do the best that we can.

You'd think I like to talk about food or something, lol! I do! I am not ashamed to admit I love food. I'm just glad that I am making better choices now about it.

So food is our healer. Eat well!

The Big 5-0

2009-12-02T04:59:00.000-08:00

I finally did it. I hit 50lbs lost over the past year. It has been rough with a lot of bumps in the road but I did it! Yay!

I'm sorry I haven't been by the last few days. My 7 year old son was hospitalized due to breathing problems and the possibility of H1N1. I'm still not sure as the tests have not come back yet but we're waiting on it. He is feeling much better now, especially since he is home.

I stayed in with him, which is probably what pushed my weightloss to what it was. I can say this; hospital food sure is carby! Every meal except one was 90% carby stuff I could not eat, not that the food was for me but Ethan wasn't up to eating and they offered it to me. One meal was fish, green beans and a potato. I gobbled that up as I was starving (I only ate a couple bites of potato, but I should of left it alone). Other meals consisted of sandwiches, gravy covered meat, lots of potato and bread, cereal, ect... or sugary things.

Then when we came home, we both had "the runs". We never ate the same things so it must of been something in the room or maybe the shock of being home.

I also had a run of days that I couldn't get to T-Zone. After everyone was settled in yesterday, I went. It was so nice, even though my legs hurt like the dickens afterwards; I had trouble sleeping because of how my legs felt. I guess 4 days of not going really made a difference. I went first thing today though. I am still debating about continuing my membership when it expires. It really helps, but it is expensive. I'd like to buy a machine but that's pretty expensive too (nearly $2000 after tax).

So things are going to get back to normal today I hope. I haven't made up a meal plan yet but I need to. I really need a nice homecooked supper after days of just picking at things.

Get By With A Little Help..

2009-11-29T11:17:00.000-08:00

I am a loner. I really am. I would be in my glory being by myself all the time. I do love being with my kids and enjoy time with my family but I don't really have any friends and the ones I do take advantage of me. I think this is why I like the internet so much :).

So where does a loner go for support? http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/ . I've been a member of the message board there since 2003, wow! I am not going to post my user name here because I post my weight there and no offense, I don't want people who know me IRL to know how much I weigh. I know I get some traffic here from that site but that doesn't mean you need to be blabbin' my weight, lol!!

Someday when I have lost a lot more, I will talk about my highest weight here. It hurts because I hear people say terrible things and make horrible jokes about people who weigh less than I do and I wonder what they would think of me knowing what I weigh. I hear people who act as if they are the biggest, fattest slobs on the face of the earth and they weigh a fraction of what I do. People who are complaining they are 120lbs (or less) and think they are sooo fat make me wonder what they must think of me. It's like "goodbye, self esteem", not that I had much to begin with.

Maybe that's why I'm a loner. I'm a caterpillar inside a great big cocoon waiting to come out as a beautiful butterfly. I long for the day I can do things because I felt like, simple things people take for granted like wearing a bathing suit or swimming in public, going for a long walk, hanging out with friends.

Even things like eating out lately is a cause for fear because of the possibility of gluten contaminated food and the embarrassment of how it affects me. No matter how careful people try to be, it doesn't seem to be careful enough, which I hate to say because I am grateful for the effort. It is just easier to eat nothing but I feel rude doing that too :(

I will get to where I want to be someday. It will just take time, patience and diligence on my part.

Short and Sweet

2009-11-27T15:33:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to check in. Everyone but me has been sick this week and I'm starting to feel like I'm coming down with something. Meal plan has not been stuck to, but we've made do. Tonight DH and I had delicious wild salmon and broccoli and I had a heap of sauerkraut. I had a few sour pickles earlier. I've basically been living off the turkey wings and chocolate cake the last few days so it was nice to have something different. I need to make some kefir as mine got mouldy and I want to keep the good bacteria going on in my body.

TMI Alert!!

I had a wicked boil on my bottom (I had one as a teenager that landed me in the hospital for a week and I truly feared that is where this would land me, only the hospital is so overrun with H1N1 that probably isn't a concern). Plus I'm having other problems which make me think that I'm all out of whack inside. Yeast has always been a big problem. It's my moon time and that always ensures that I am overcome by the yeastie beasties. It is so hard getting to a place of normal when all your life you have unknowingly contributed to problems by consuming foods that you did not know were good for you. Low fat, high carb, high sugar and high processing all leave certain people paying a high price for health.

Well, I said this would be short and sweet. I need to work on my internal health. I'm coming a long way but I have a long way to go. I owe it to myself to become healthy!

Coconut Milk

2009-11-26T07:38:00.000-08:00

Many people who are gluten free find that they must also be dairy free. Generally this is an allergy to casein, which accounts for the majority of protein in milk products. You will often find recipes listed as GFCF, which means gluten free and casein free.

I do not know if I need to avoid dairy yet. At some point in my journey I may find that I have to. I do not consume great quantities of it. I would probably be better off if I did not consume dairy, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

An excellent dairy replacement is coconut milk. I find that I am using it more frequently lately as it is so versatile and it is very low in carbs. It is rather expensive though. I cannot find organic around here and it is too expensive to order online. I currently favor the Rooster Brand. It comes in two types, regular and gold. The gold is ultra thick and is worth the extra 40 cents IMO. Right out of the can it is thick and creamy.

In some places you can buy coconut milk in tetra packs. It is even showing up in refrigerated sections of some grocery stores. Look around and who knows where it may pop up.

I came across a recipe today to make coconut milk right from the coconut. This may indeed prove to be very economical and no doubt healthier as it would be less processed than those intended for longer term storage. If you click on the title, it will bring you to the page where I got it, which also contains a number of recipes you may find enjoyable! ETA: I'm having trouble getting it to become clickable so here is the original page to give credit where credit is due: http://www.wildernessfamilynaturals.com/recipes.php#Coconut-Milk

I have not made this yet but I plan to as soon as I can find a reasonably priced coconut.

Making Homemade Coconut Milk from Fresh Coconuts

For those who might want to try preparing coconut milk at home, the following provides instructions for doing so.

Pierce the eyes of a fresh coconut, drain the liquid inside and place the coconut on a rack and bake in a 325F pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes.

Remove the coconut from the oven, let it cool a bit and crack it with a hammer so that the shell breaks into several pieces.

Remove all the coconut meat from the shell, peel off the brown skin and cut the meat into very small cubes.

If you have a coconut knife and grater, then you may take the fresh coconut, open it and grate the meat without using any heat. This takes the place of the first 4 steps.

Place the meat in a blender, add hot water (include the coconut water from the center of the coconut for increased flavor and nutrition). Only add enough liquid to cover all of the meat. Blend until finely pureed. The less liquid you add the thicker and richer your milk will be.

Place a sieve covered with cheese cloth over a bowl and pour the coconut meat and water into the sieve squeezing handfuls of the coconut meat. Extract as much liquid as possible into the bowl. The harder you press, the more milk you will be able to remove. If you are going to use the milk in a curry you may want to just use the blended, non-strained milk. It is thicker than strained milk, white and “coconuty”. The plus to using the entire concoction is that it still contains all the fiber.

Discard the squeezed coconut meat or use it in your favorite dish.

Refrigerate the coconut milk that has been extracted. This delicious coconut milk should be used within 1 or 2 days. If you cannot use it that quickly, freeze it in ice cube trays to use later in smoothies, exotic drinks, and other dishes.

You may also want to culture this fresh coconut milk just as you would culture the cow's milk or cream. For a good culture to do this check out our Kefir culture.

Another link I found: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/04/homemade-coconut-milk.html

Wing Me!

2009-11-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

A lot of low carbers seem to really enjoy wings. I never really got into them because wings are usually around $4 a pound here and that is too much for something that is mostly bone in my opinion. Plus they are puny and not much meat, which means I would need a lot to fill me. I've never got them in a restaurant as I know some places bread them or even lightly dust in flour so I don't know if I could trust them, especially now where I have to be extra careful to avoid gluten.

Enter Mr. Turkey. I mentioned yesterday I found some turkey wings yesterday for $1.79 a pound and bought 6 packages. These puppies are huge! The drummie is the size of a regular chicken drumstick, although the bone is much bigger.

I made turkey drumsticks a while back and they were much better than the ones I made today. These ones were a lot milder; last time Mark drank a glass of water after every bite. I like heat; he doesn't. I was very low on Franks Hot Sauce and I learned that the store brand simply does not compare. Too bad as it is so much cheaper, but you get what you pay for and this time you pay in lack of flavor and heat.

I decided since it's not very economical to bake that I would cook all 6 packages and just reheat or even eat cold. I think they won't make it to the freezer though. They pretty yummy!

I made two different kinds. Hot and curry. For the hot, I just doused liberally with hot sauce and the curry, I sprinkled liberally with my favorite curry blend. Then I drizzled them with butter and popped them in the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes. I turned them over, reduced heat to 325 and baked another 45 minutes. Here they are after about an hour in the oven. I had some at this point because it was lunch time, they were cooked through but were better after a little more cooking time.

TaDa! Lunch time!!

German Chocolate Cake

2009-11-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

I promised chocolate and I will deliver, at least in virtual form :). I am sorry this may not be the most attractive food picture but it's a rainy day here and I stink at taking food pictures.

I wanted to make a cake that we could all enjoy for DH's birthday. I came across this recipe: http://www.elanaspantry.com/a-new-german-chocolate-cake/ and got excited. I could easily adapt it to what I wanted since I don't have or use agave. It also kind of morphed as I made it.

My original plan was a 9x13 base cake with a small snowman cake on top. However, the snowman was rounded and I didn't want to cut it. Plus after I thought how expensive the ingredients were racking up at that point, I thought I would freeze the snowman cake for me to have when I later made them a cake around Christmas. Oh, and it just didn't look right ;)

I also had to make a batch of the cupcake recipe I posted the other day to make enough. This recipe plus Elana's was enough for a 9x13 cake, a snowman cake a little smaller than 9x13, 3 mini cupcakes so the kids and I could each have a taste after they were done baking and a regular sized cupcake that I planned to bring to the IL's house last night, but forgot. So it made a lot of cake! The layer cake alone would easily serve 12 big portions, even for people who really like cake!

Without further ado, German Chocolate Cake, the way I made it:

Low Carb/Gluten Free German Chocolate Cake
1 cup coconut flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1.5 teaspoon baking soda
13 eggs
1.25 cup oil (I used half peanut and half vegetable)
1 ½ cups sweetener (I used 0.5 cup xylitol, 0.5 cup splenda, o.5 cup blend of honey and maple syrup. I also added some liquid stevia to taste. With chocolate, I find a blend of flavors makes a richer taste when baking low carb)
2-3 tablespoon vanilla (love it :o )

In a small bowl, mix dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, blend remaining ingredients.
Add dry ingredients into large bowl and stir together.
Oil your pans and dust with coconut flour or cocoa.
Pour batter into pans and bake at 350° for 35-45 minutes (or until done, top springs back if you press it; my oven is often unreliable so I have to check a lot towards the end).
Remove from oven and allow to cool before removing from pans.

I didn't make the chocolate frosting and what I did make was too runny so it has to be kept in the freezer (it would of been perfect for ice cream!). I didn't have arrowroot powder so I tried using a little cornstarch because I forgot I had xantham gum until I started writing this. You may want to follow the original for better results, but here is what I did:

Coconut Pecan Frosting

Bring 1 can of coconut milk mixed with 1 cup of sweetener and a pinch of salt to a gentle simmer. Mix together 5 tsp starch with enough water to make a paste.
Stir into simmering milk mix; remove from heat.
Add 1 cup of butter or coconut oil, stirring until it is all melted and combined.
Place in freezer until it solidifies.
Remove from freezer and add 1.5 cups each pecan meal or pecan pieces and unsweetened shredded coconut as well as a healthy splash of vanilla and blend with a hand mixer until fluffy and well combined.
Use to frost cake.

I cut the 9x13 cake in half and made it as a layer cake. I could of added a thicker layer of frosting in the middle but, ummmm, it was really good :0. Like I said, it would of made a nice ice cream and I enjoyed tasting it.

This whole recipe was so good! I highly recommend it. You can also easily adapt what you coat it with. I was thinking whipped cream would be nice or a cream cheese frosting. Mmmmmm! You could even make low carb/gluten free Cake Balls out of the base cake! Your imagination is your only limitation!

Shopping Trip

2009-11-24T10:33:00.001-08:00

We just got back from being out. What torture, going to Pizza Delight and not being able to eat anything. There was nothing at all that I felt comfortable eating except a salad which cost $10 and the dressing was questionable (I'm cheap; I couldn't pay $10 for a salad that would cost less than $1 at home). The rest of the family enjoyed it, except my 5yoDD who is feeling under the weather.

We stopped at Sobeys to pick up a few things. The kids really like fruit so I had to get some but there were a lot of good buys. Here is what I got:

5lbs Mac apples (2.99)
2.5lbs Granny Smith apples (88 cents/lbs)
3lbs oranges (88 cents/lbs)
2lbs zucchini (99 cents/lbs)
2lbs eggplant (99 cents/lbs; I want to make ratatouille soon)
1 tub ricotta cheese (1.99)
small slab of emmental ("swiss") cheese (1.89)
6 big packages of turkey wings (1.79/lbs; where I live, turkey in any shape or form rarely goes under $2.00/lbs)
1 jar of fermented pickles (2.25; they were half off! I was so excited :D )
2 bags of marshmallows :o (1.19, for Christmas baking)
bag of mini carrots (1.27)

This came to about $33, which was pretty good IMO for 3 huge cloth shopping bags of groceries! (It seems like we had more than that but I don't have the slip handy to see what I'm forgetting. The turkey alone filled one bag). Where I live groceries are pretty expensive and everything I got today was half off or less (except the baby carrots and marshmallows). I get so jealous reading about the Americans and their 40 cents a pound or cheaper turkeys, which is all they seem to be talking about lately!

I recently bought a skirt at Frenchy's. I would say it was second hand except it still had the tags on it. A $45 skirt for $3.50! Well, it's falling off me already! Several times while wearing it I have had to pull it up as it droops down or slips down while I am walking. I am really slimming down. A lot of my tops are getting too baggy at the top, which sucks because I need them big to fit my bat winged arms. I am losing in weird places that make it hard to wear smaller clothes, not that I can afford to buy them. I have a tote of clothes I want to fit into but I need to lose another 25-50lbs first. I will get there!

Meal Planning Monday November 23rd, 2009

2009-11-23T17:32:00.000-08:00

It's the start of a new week! Today is DH's birthday. We ended up eating at his parents house. We'll be going to Pizza Delight tomorrow for lunch. I am expecting that there won't be a single thing there I can have but who knows. I know he is dying to try the bread grill bar and chow down at the buffet. The kids will have pepperoni pizza. I'll have a glass of water. Or maybe I'll have a salad, but they are so expensive there I hate to waste my money to only come home and have something else.

So it's Meal Planning Monday. My first one. Honestly, I haven't sat down and planned anything yet so I am winging it here.

Here is how it works. I don't always know when DH is working but we always have our main meal when he will be home. Sometimes it's breakfast, sometimes it's supper. Breakfast is almost always eggs. Small meal will be leftovers or soup or salad or whatever I feel like having. The main meal is the daily planned meal. Here goes:

Monday: Salad at IL's, Eggs and leftover pork when we got home (the meat was all breaded and I hadn't eaten anything all day so I was famished!)
Tuesday: Eating out (come home and have pork soup, I'm making the broth overnight in the crockpot)
Wednesday: Crockpot roast, a couple of veggies (have some brussel sprouts need to get used up)
Thursday: Spaghetti for family, salad and taco bake for me (in freezer)
Friday: Pizza (regular for them, legal for me)
Saturday: Pork tenderloins in crockpot, rice for family, salad and another veggie
Sunday: Breakfast for Supper (bacon, eggs, pancakes, fruit)

I have a treat to post about tomorrow. Since it was DH's birthday today, that may give you a hint, as should chocolate and yummy :)

Celestial Seasonings

2009-11-22T08:42:00.000-08:00

We don't drink regular tea but herbal tea is a staple in our home. It can be very cheap if you watch the sales and use coupons. Sometimes the Health Food Store has samples. It is naturally low carb, especially if you don't add anything to sweeten it. Then if you do like a little sweetness to it, you are free to control it and what you put in it.

One brand we really like is Celestial Seasonings. They consistently have good teas and such a wide variety. We don't have access to all the flavors in Canada but I'm starting to think that isn't such a bad thing.

I have been on the hunt for their Sugar Cookie tea for years (well, ever since I heard about it on some low carb message boards; it just sounds so yummy good!). I would always look at the herbal teas, well, not just for this but any new interesting herbal tea flavors. I recently found out it was one of their holiday flavors. All the Christmas teas are out and again it is not among them. I also recently found out this particular tea has gluten in it. Yikes! Gluten in herbal tea? I guess gluten can be anywhere. There are a number of Celestial Seasonings teas that contain gluten.

http://www.celestialseasonings.com is really good about listing if their items have gluten in them. Definitely check if there is one you like and are unsure about. Then you can enjoy a nice warm mug of tea with no worries :)

Marvelous Mayo

2009-11-20T16:40:00.001-08:00

If there is one food I really love, it's mayo. It is so yummy and creamy good. Rich and satisfying. Heaven on the tongue.

Well, I thought I knew mayo. I always bought the big jar of PC brand real mayo, $4.99 for 1.5 liters was a pretty good deal. It would last a while, not long enough IMO, but it certainly was cheaper than the others. Hellmans was my favorite, but it never went on sale. When it did go on sale, it was still too expensive to stock up on.

Well, as I became more familiar with food and concerned about what it contains, I noticed that store bought mayo almost always contains oils and other ingredients that I wasn't happy eating (not that I am the most diligent about what I eat). When you are eating low carb and/or in a Nourishing Traditions way, you know that you need healthy fats. They are good for you, satisfying and nourishing. Here is a link about fats if you want some more information, but I will probably talk more on this on another day: http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html

My first batch of mayo was a disaster. I tried to make olive oil mayo in the blender. It was *terrible*!! Ugh! I later found out that olive oil does not stand up well to being in the blender, that it needs to be treated more gently. I don't know if it's true but it seemed to make sense. My second batch was with a set of hand beaters using all olive oil.

Now I used to really hate olive oil. I think it was because I had a bad bottle once and it turned me off. Plus for some people it is bit of an acquired taste.

So my second batch was very green but it tasted decent, very strong of olive oil, but edible. Since then I have used other oils in conjunction to the olive oil to off set the taste. We have some canola oil, which I'm not crazy about but need to use it up (from our food storage and oil doesn't last forever; can't afford to just dump 6L of oil). I recently bought some peanut oil. Some people aren't crazy about peanut oil in mayo but I thought it was lovely! It was a combination of half a cup of olive oil, 3/4 cup peanut oil and a little canola drizzled in until it reached desired consistency. I used garlic and sea salt for the seasoning with a little apple cider vinegar as the acid. This is my best batch yet! The picture at the top is from this (I need better lighting in my kitchen! It is so hard to take decent pictures as we get no natural light and have all energy saver bulbs).

So how do you make mayo? It is much easier than I ever thought. I wish I had of tried it earlier instead of being intimidated.

1 egg yolk
1 tsp mustard powder (or other seasonings. Personalize your mayo with your favorite flavors!)
1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar (or a mix of both)
fine sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup desired oil (plus more to reach desired consistency)
1-2 tbsp boiling water

Beat yolk until creamy then add in seasonings and lemon juice/vinegar. Beat well. Start adding in your oil slowly. I drizzle it in with a spoon. As it starts mixing in easier, I drizzle it from the cup in a slow steady stream. I usually get about 1.25 cups of oil in it and could probably add a little more. After you have finished adding the oil, blend in the boiling water which will result in a creamy consistency. Enjoy!

T-Zone Results

2009-11-20T04:07:00.000-08:00

How can I feel bad about such good results?

I went to T-Zone today, as usual. I am there getting my shake on and the worker asked how I was doing, if the machine was helping. I said good, that it really was working. Then she asked when the last time I got weighed and measured. It had been about a month so she offered to do it for me.

I was rather hesitant since it isn't the same person who usually does it. Different people measure in different places and in different ways. Plus I had really thick bunchy clothes on. But I consented.

Weight loss was 17lbs since I started a month and a half-ish ago :)

Inch loss, now at 23.5lbs.

I don't think she measured the same as it showed a 13 inch loss just in my abs but no loss in my hips. She also didn't measure my calf. She also thought I lost that in one month, not in a month and about 3 weeks.

So while I'm excited about the results, I just feel they are a little marred. I tried to point out the time it took but she was so exited about how much I lost. I any case, it *IS* great and I am very happy. It gives me motivation to put more effort in to eating cleanly.