Ho Hum

 Well here we are in Aug of 2020.

Hasn't it been fun so far?

I live in Australia. So far this year Mother Nature has tried to burn us out, then she tried drowning us. When that didn't work she unleashed one hell of a virus on us.  Now she is trying to drown some of us again.

I wonder what will happen next.......

I do know that half of my clothes done fit anymore. I am making new ones.

Hmmmm,

Well hasn't it been a fun couple of years since I last posted anything.

Lots of costume making.

Husband with a sore/injured back.

Not much gardening.

Near divorce.....

Oh and very little in the way of healthy eating.

Oh Dear!

My weight has bloomed up, the knees are still sore (funny that) and the motivation has taken a long holiday.  Not too sure when it will be back.

lchf restart

Day 4 of my LCHF restart.  Feeling not so bloated in my tummy, even last night felt like that.

The preceding days I have had three meals each day as I have been hungry. Eaten until satisfied but an hour or so later feeling a bit hungry again.  So this morning I made pizza. It needs capsicum.

LCHF Eating

Trying really hard to not eat grains of any sort, reducing sugar and generally eating low carb foods.  Mostly I have managed to do this.

There have been a few times when I have just been way too hungry to eat properly so I have had a quick sandwich - usually felt slightly sick afterwards so I should know better that to eat bread.  Last night was a bit of a mess - I was supposed to go to cali to measure up the subies and then to the accountant to do hubby's and mine tax returns. Both of these were around the time I would normally be preparing/cooking dinner.  If I didn't have to see the accountant then things would have been fine - but I did so dinner was takeaway noodles.  I didn't eat all of them and I won't be beating myself up over eating the amount that I did.

New day.

Back at the docs for 2 punch biopsies - she asked about the blood tests she wants me to do.  I will admit to avoiding them for the time being - just not to her. Maybe in a couple of weeks I will get around to doing them.

Breakfast this morning was fresh raspberries, paleo granola topped with cream.  Had the cat wanting to help me eat the cream.

Weight 107kg - 1kg down

at the doctors

So last week hubby and I went to a concert in the city.  We took the train in and then walked 1.2k to the venue.

I thought I would be ok as I am not fit at all.  I surprised myself by having to stop only twice to get my breath back on the way there and not at all on the way back. There were stairs and a long yet gentle hill/bridge climb involved - not all of it was flat.

The next day I could barely walk!!

My left knee was so sore and weak it wasn't funny.  The knee joint kept giving way.  I spent the day on the couch.  The next day was not much better.  Neither was the following day.

So much so that I actually went to the doctors about it.  Youngest can now stop nagging me.  Doc thinks I have arthritis in that knee and wants me get an xray - which I will organise for sometime this week (maybe next week).

One of the management strategies for arthritis is weight loss - funny that.

I have recently become a member of a Facebook group about Low Carb High Fat eating/way of life and have been reading the posts with much interest.  The people there have some interesting points, as well as some idiotic ones too (let's not go there).  Suffice it to say they are inspiring me to do something about the bulk I carry around.

Yesterday I fasted for 21 hours - from 7pm to 4pm - and possibly could have kept on until dinner at 7 but the cashews I have stashed called my name.  I ate a handful.  Surprisingly I wasn't all that hungry during the day nor in the lead up to dinner.  I was a bit hungry before bed, but I ignored that.

Waking up this morning I am no more hungry that any other day.  So far it's been 15 hours since I last ate and I will have something to eat soon.  Probably nut+seed granola, berries and yoghurt. I already know what dinner is going to be - a Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole and salad, or maybe steamed veges as it's cold today.

Here's to sticking to an LCHF way of eating - at hoping to anyway.

weight - 108kg.

Going Paleo or eating LCHF or IQS

In the past couple of years I have tried to better myself with the foods that I eat.  It hasn't always been successful - as the past 4 months will attest - but I know what works for me and what doesn't.

At least I think I have learned that lesson.

The past few days I have been waking up with pain in one of my knees - the one I smashed down on a stair over 30 years ago. This pain has been coming and going for years, but recently it has become worse.  It makes me limp. When I stand up after sitting for awhile I have to sloooowly stretch out the joint before I can move. I have also found that I now have pain in both of my hips and my lower back - predominately on one side.  My back can also 'spasm' and when it does this I can't move.

I know I am obese.  I know that part of my pain issues are related to being over weight. I also know that I should move a lot more than I do - walk the dog/s, swim, exercise, etc. As anyone who is over weight will tell you it is hard to get moving when just getting out of bed is an effort.

I have in the past done 20 days of a whole 30, I have tried to quit sugar using the IQS program, I have signed up for the paleo way too.  All of these have taught me things.

Things like eating bread makes feel nauseous when I haven't had any for a while. That if I start to eat something high in carbs (think savoury flavoured biscuits) I will eat nearly the entire packet.  Same goes for chocolate or lollies (candy).

Those programs have also taught me that I don't need to eat breakfast when I first get up in the morning.  Today I did not eat until 2pm and wasn't all that hungry even then.  Dinner last night was around 7.30pm so that was approx. a 19 hour fast. I can, and do, do this nearly every day. I have also learned that I need to be prepared with what is available to eat otherwise I will end up having toast.

The one big thing I have learnt is that by cutting back on bread, pasta, etc. the pain in my knee is diminished.

I can see the inflammation that is currently happening in my legs.  I can see the bloating in my abdomen (my jeans don't lie). I think I may have  figured out an easy (?) way for me to eat low carb, sugar free that will be sustainable.  I am sure that doing so will help me battle the pain.  It may even allow me to exercise more comfortably.

I need to ensure that the dinners are family friendly - or at least adaptable for me.  So whilst they can have pasta with their bolognese sauce I will have steamed vege or sliced zucchini with mine.  Hubby, who is diabetic and on cholesterol lowering drugs also, only believes what his doctor and dietitian tell him.  He won't do any research into his ailments himself. And he definitely won't listen to me.

So with two meals a day I should, hopefully and with determination, improve my quality of life.  If I lose a few pounds along the way that is a bonus.  After all, I have quite a few to spare.

4. th weeks in to my Whole 30

Let me start by saying that I do believe that eating paleo-style is really really worth it in terms of improving ones health and well being.  But man, is cutting out grains, sugar, alcohol and dairy for 30 days hard!

I have bombed on my self imposed Whole 30 challenge.

I actually had every intention of doing it right up until Christmas (so it was more like a Whole 50) but only really made it properly for 2 weeks.  These past 2 weeks I have eaten bread and cake and even lollies.  I have had 3 sips of alcohol - had to try the port that went into the Christmas pudding (it was very port like).  I have even had a few meal replacement shakes.

I think I bombed for a few reasons:

• My food variety was lacking.  
• I was not preparing enough extras before hand - you know cook a whole zucchini slice and freeze some of it for those days when you suddenly realize you haven't had lunch and now you're starving.  
• I stopped meal planning dinners - I did 2 weeks worth at the start and I stuck to it even if I shuffled meals around a bit.  After that I got complacent I think.

I need to re-evaluate what I am eating in terms of variety and need to ensure there is emergency "omg I am starving right now and I can't be bothered cooking from scratch" food.

I also need to get back into the habit of planning what we will eat for the next week for dinner - write it down and stick it up on the fridge.

I am not going to be hard on myself over this attempt.  Hell I did it for 14 days and feel so much better for it.  No more falling asleep watching tv early in the evening - in fact so alert at times I don't want to go to bed at a reasonable hour.  I am still following  paleo eating stlye - sort of.

I used to have 4 toast for breakfast, then possibly 4 more slices of bread at lunch or pancakes.  Dinner could be a casserole/stew or pasta or crumbed chicken/fish cooked in the oven with steamed veges.  In between there was the biscuits/cookies or cake mid morning and mid afternoon or a muesli bar.  Then after dinner there was often a similar snack even if we had dessert.

Now I try to eat a 'proper' breakfast (though this morning it was 2 toast with jam) and I try to have soup or eggs with grated veges for lunch and not have any grain things for dinner.  I did have home made spaghetti bolognese for dinner the other night - the pasta was sooo good, the sauce not so much.

In two weeks hubby and I go away to our caravan for 3 weeks - this is where I usually go a bit crazy with food.  It has been a tradition for years that I take cocoa pops with us - a big box - for breakfast; We always have cream biscuits and chocolate too.  Not to mention the lollies and nuts and muesli bars.  Dinners are usually quite good - bbq meat with salad; only occasionally will we do a pasta dish.  To top it all off there is a bakery in town that sends around a van selling their wares - bread, rolls and cakes.  My mum used to call the van meals on wheels.

At this point I don't have much of a plan to combat 'bad' food choices whilst away.  Maybe I will make some granola and some bars to take away with me - I don't know.