Time to walk the plank…

In the Middle Ages, they had guillotines, stretch racks, whips and chains. Nowadays, we have a much more effective torture device called the bathroom scale. ~Stephen Phillips

So it is weigh in day *gulp*…

I went a little crazy this weekend. Not off plan (there was no croissant face stuffing) but I tried some new food and ate really well so I was a bit worried about the scale. I know it is not all about the numbers but let’s face it – it is all about the numbers!! I am trying to focus on how I am feeling rather than the pounds. I know it is a matter of time before I slow down or reach a dreaded but inevitable plateau. For now I am still a slave to the scale; put it in the “work in progress” pile.

We were dog sitting this weekend so we stuck pretty close to home. I thought it was a good time to try out a few of my new low carb ingredients. I wing it a lot in the kitchen so my recipes are barely recipes. I am a feeler and a taster. I will try to measure more and suppress my “what the hell” attitude in an effort to actually get some good recipes I can share and recreate.

My kitchen adventures this past weekend:

Breakfast
I made bacon cups (put bacon over the back of a muffin tin cup and bake on a larger cookie sheet, at 350 until your ideal level of bacon-y crispness is achieved. I just scrambled an egg, sprinkled with Cajun spice and plopped it inside the bacon cup. You could put the bacon inside the muffin tin cup, bake it, add your egg. put the whole thing back in the oven & bake until the egg is done. Add cheese, onion, mushrooms or whatever you want and do any style eggs. I think it would be delish with an over easy egg – nice yolk covered bacon *drool*. I will try it in the tin next time but it was pre-coffee so I did the lazy version.
Just as a side note, I always bake my bacon. Put the strips on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for approx 10-20 minutes (depending on how crispy you like it) It stays all pretty and straight, like magazine bacon. I undercook it a little then store it in the fridge or freezer, that way when I reheat it the bacon isn’t overdone. If you freeze the strips on the tray (remove grease) then put them in baggies they will stay separated & you can easily grab the number of slices you want out of the freezer instead of a whole bag. You could freeze bacon cups the same way. You gotta love bacon on demand!

Dinner
I marinated a steak in some olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, S&P and we fired up the BBQ. I decided to make a finishing butter for the steak; a mix of approx 3:1 butter to goat cheese with horseradish (prepared) and whole seed mustard to taste. It was so good I am saving the leftovers for chicken later in the week. I am full of side notes today; so as a side note, I love Triple Crunch mustard made by KozIiks. It has a nice bite with a good crunch and a touch of sweetness. I first had it at Porchetta & Co on a sandwich and fell in love with it. I actually tracked it down later that day and bought my own jar. I used it in my steak topper and it gave a nice pop to the otherwise creamy concoction.

Dessert

I made some wretched cookies from a mix – I will spare you the details because they were truly awful. So dry and dense that they could have been used as weapons. Fed those to the composter.

I made a loaf that became breakfast so I am not sure where to categorize this one. I got the recipe from the net in a quest to use my flax meal (I will include the link). They are supposed to be “doughnut” muffins but the creator has either never had a doughnut or is a liar. My muffin tins were full of bacon so I whipped out the trusty loaf pan. To make it more loaf-a-licious, I tweaked the recipe a bit and added:
The juice of half a lemon and zest (in place of some of the water)
Approx ½ C blueberries
I baked it for 40 minutes at 350; until a knife came out clean and the top was golden. I did butter my pan but it stuck so be forewarned and take appropriate action. The bottom came off when I took it out of the pan, so instead of having a slice I scraped the bits that were left behind into a bowl to taste it. It was good and very moist but it seemed cereal like to me. A lot like muesli. So I went with it and added a splash of coconut milk. I loved it. I have been having it every morning for breakfast and would definitely make it again. Sorry composter – this one is a keeper.

All that good food and the weigh in still went well. I am down 4lbs this week for a total of 11 lbs since Aug 13th.

Porchetta & Co. Toronto, ON. Great food!
http://www.porchettaco.com/menu.html

Their triple crunch is my favourite mustard – ever.
http://www.mustardmaker.com/

The dessert turns breakfast muffin recipe – the original version (I did not make the topping; I topped mine with coconut milk):
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/breads/r/doughnutmuffins.htm

Until Next time,
Allana

Cookie Cups and a Bucket List

I went to Buffalo this weekend with my boyfriend for a pre birthday shopping trip. All I could think about as we pulled up to the Walden Galleria was COOKIE CUPS!! Mrs Fields makes a chocolate chip cookie in a muffin tin that makes it cup shaped, They add a giant blob of frosting on it and I call it heaven. So we went to Mrs Fields and you would think I would get the cookie cup and I did. I also got the cookie sandwich and the cookie of the day. I took a few bites of of cookie sandwich and realized that I didn’t like it and that wasn’t what I came for. I did eat the apple pie with caramel cookie, I ate it before I even knew it and I am not sure that I could tell you what it tasted like. I decided not to eat the cookie cup right away since I was so sugared up. I also made my boy throw out the rest of the cookie sandwich. When I did eat the cookie cup on the drive home it was all that I wanted and remember and thats what I should have had all along.

I learned something important from my cookie cup.

My lesson was that I don’t need to eat all that looks pretty. That even though I have a bucket list of things I want to eat before surgery, I don’t need to gain another 100 pounds eating crap I just don’t want. So I will say good bye to the cookie cups.

I am going to make a list of things that I REALLY want to eat and do that.

I know that I can not wait for the day of surgery to stop eating all the crap that I do. My plan is currently cutting out pop and coffee as of September 1st and move on to reducing/eliminating carbs 2 weeks after that. Once I have mastered those two, I am moving on to sugars.

I need to be on the path to healthy before I make it to surgery and gaining another 20 pounds before that day will only make it that much harder after.

Things that make you go hmmmm…

So, I am almost 2 weeks into my adventure and I have noticed a few things:

1.  I am sleeping better.   I have had trouble sleeping for years.  I was tired a lot.   I would try to go to bed early only to toss and turn for hours or wake up many times during the night.  This entire week I have been able to fall asleep quickly.  I am waking up in the morning just before my alarm and have not had an after work nap all week.   It has been a very stressful work week too, so I am surprised that I am not feeling exhausted and being kept up by stress at night.

2.  I can drink coffee and tea again.   Heartburn and I have been close companions.   I never go anywhere with out a stockpile of antacids.  Many nights I have had to prop myself up in bed or sleep sitting up when the antacids have failed me.   I stopped drinking coffee and tea a few months back since it seemed to be a trigger and although it helped a little, I still had heartburn daily.   My bus route has been messed up this week because of construction, which means my temporary stop lets me off right in front of Tim Hortons.   Since I could smell the coffee when I got off the bus, I gave in and had a large coffee every day this week.  I also picked up some great gourmet tea at the local fair and have been drinking that in the evenings.   I didn’t even realize until today as I sipped my morning coffee, that I have not had heartburn at all.   Not once this week.   The skies opened up and the angels sang … it is a miracle and quite frankly better than the 7 lbs I have lost.

3.  I forget to eat.   WTH?  So I was chatting with my boyfriend and saying that I was feeling really good.  Nice energy, not struggling to stick to my plan and overall just better.   I figure it is in part the excitement of starting something new and feeling motivated and good about it but I also think my body reacts very quickly to removing sugar and junk from my diet.   I have experienced this before on other plans I have tried.  Like Heather I have tried them all – being an obese girl on a diet of some sort for over 20 years, you get around and try whatever the next big thing is.   I guess I am still guilty of that since no grain is the trendy new thing right now but this time there is something different.   I was telling him that I was worried I would have a strong start and fizzle out like I have on other plans, when I realized that I have not been hungry since starting this “new” way of eating.  When I have dieted in the past, I had to eat every few hours or I would end up so hungry I would just eat far too much of anything quick and convenient.   I have issues with binge eating so it is a slippery slope for me to be in that frame of mind.   This pattern was my downfall on those diets, I would get defeated and give up after repeating the cycle a few times.    Today I didn’t even notice that I hadn’t had lunch until I finished work for the day.  I was still able to wait until dinner to eat and did not feel any desire to overeat during my meal.   I am eating less and am full longer.   I have come to expect hunger and deprivation along with a restricted diet so it was quite an ah ha moment and very encouraging.   Dr Davis might be onto something with his wheat is an appetite stimulant theory!

I am not surprised that changing the way you eat would have an impact on your well being, it is probably the most important factor in our overall health, but I am surprised that I am experiencing positive changes so quickly.    I did have a brief moment of sadness today when I came across the Pizza Nova flyer, but I made pizza for dinner instead of ordering and made mine Meatzza.   A slice of ham as the crust with all the yummy pizza toppings on it.   So delish.   This is doable.   Now I just have to figure out Chinese take out…

Until Next time,

Allana

How my Low Carb Grain Free Adventure Began …

It started with a wrestler.  Who would have thought that a WWE athlete would put me on the path to healthy eating?  Not me!  

I was dragged to a wrestling fan event a few months back by my bf and we met DDP (Diamond Dallas Page).   For those of you not in the wrestling know (believe me I often wish I wasn’t), he started wrestling in 1991 and as you can imagine took some hard knocks in the ring.   He had issues with the discs in his back and of course a lot of wear and tear on his body through the years.  His wife got him started on power yoga.   He has developed his own yoga program (DDPYoga) and was at the event promoting it.   We purchased the DVD’s but I have not started them as yet – more to come on those.    During our chat he suggested we pick up the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis.   Motivating myself to read is easier than motivating myself to do yoga so I downloaded it to my e-reader and got started.

The book promotes not only eliminating wheat from your diet but ideally all grains.   It is a low carb, high fat way of eating.   I immediately dismissed it as crazy!  I can’t live without bread, crackers, cookies, gravy, tortillas, popcorn, CAKE!  What doesn’t have wheat or some grain in it?  How can high fat be good for you? 

I needed to know more.   I started reading up on Paleo/Primal and then read Wheat Belly again.  Once the initial shock wore off, Dr Davis started to make sense and I thought it might be worth a try after all.    I am not a huge meat eater, so one thing I prefer with the Wheat Belly approach over Primal or Paleo is that they allow dairy and nuts.   This fills a big void for me.  

Dr. Davis points out that replacing wheat in your diet with candy or junk food is like replacing non-filtered cigarettes with filtered – maybe a small improvement but still very unhealthy.   I think this is key.  Most people’s instinct if eliminating wheat would be to reach for gluten free products but as Dr. Davis notes, many of these are filled with unhealthy fillers and are still carb loaded.  Just like many low fat products that simply up the sugar and salt to maintain flavour, they are not healthiest choices.   Dr. Davis promotes real, fresh food with some limitations such as starchy veg.  There goes my mashed potatoes, although without the gravy they are not as tempting anyway. 

So I am giving Wheat Belly a shot.   I started on Aug. 13^th  and on Aug 20^th  had lost 7 lbs.   

I will be blogging my results, celebrations and challenges, along with recipes that I try along the way.  I have been stocking the grain free essentials so I can get in the kitchen and start experimenting!

You can check out the Wheat Belly Blog here and pick up the book if you like what you see, it is an interesting read:

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2011/10/wheat-belly-quick-and-dirty/

Also worth a look is DDP yoga.  He is such a great guy and the success stories on his site are so inspiring:

http://www.ddpyoga.com/site/index.php/en/

 Until next time,

Allana

What I am doing and where I am at

I have decided that in order to deal with my weight issue, I am  going to have weight loss surgery. It took a long time to come to this decision – 5 years to be exact.

I believe that I have done all that I could on my own and I know that I am not able to do this on my own as I  have a large amount of weight to take off. Its time to take action. I have done the regular things that most people would do – Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, Jenny Craig, SparkPeople and the list goes on. The thing for me is that I don’t have 30 pounds to lose, I don’t need to drop the baby weight and I am not chunky, fluffy or pleasantly plump. I am morbidly obese.

I went to my family doctor and asked about WLS, she told me to research it and tell her where I wanted to go and she would refer me. That was about 3 years ago. I guess I expected her to fix it for me and offer a solution. She didnt and I didn’t look. I guess it wasn’t the right time and I didn’t want it enough.

I went back to her in May of this year and when we had the same conversation, I provided the information. It was time and I was ready. She sent the referral and it went to the back of my head. I figure that it would take months if not a year to hear anything.

Two weeks (August 9th) I got a package in the mail saying that I was scheduled for an info session on August 17th. I had a week to get my doctor to fill out forms and complete the novel of questions that needed to be answered regarding my health.

I went to the info session and knew by the time that it was done that this was for me and that I was going to go through with it.

The next step was to have an appointment with the surgeon and the team of dietitian, nurse practitioner and a social worker. At the info session it was advised that they would be in touch but no time frame given. I got a call on Tuesday August 21 asking if I could meet with the surgeon the next day. YES! I could and I would and I did.

Today I met with Dr Lloyd Smith who will do my surgery. I liked him and he told me that I was an excellent candidate for the operation. The next step would be to meet with the team of team of dietitian, nurse practitioner and a social worker, that is scheduled for October 17th, and then I call the doctor to get a surgery date. When I asked about a time frame he said February or March.

It seems so far and yet it will be here before I know it.

So that brings us up to date on the why, when and who.

2 girls 2 journeys to a skinny life on the Lanai

Lanai ( luh-nahy, len-eye)

1. a veranda, especially a fully furnished one used as a living room
2. the place we will be spending our senior years

This is about our road to getting there and how there will be less of us when we do.