WEIGH-IN 30th OCTOBER: - 1.2 kg / 2.6 lbs

Wohoooo, down 1,2 kg / 2,6 lbs this week! I had this goal of losing 5 kg / 11 lbs on low-carb before x-mas. Well, we're still almost 8 weeks away from x-mas, and I have already lost 4.4 kg / 9.7 lbs. That's after just 4 weeks on low-carb!

I think a new goal is in order - so I'm going to aim to get down to 66 kg / 145.5 lbs before x-mas. If I can do that, I will have just 6 kg / 13.2 lbs left to my overall goal!

Oh, and yes - I am now officially past the half-way mark. I have lost over 15% of my body weight since I started. When I hit goal, I will have lost 30% of my body weight. That means almost 1/3 of my fat self will have disappeared!

BACK IN JEANS FROM 2005!

Be warned - you're about to see moving imagery of Petchy, and I demand that any mess in the background must be ignored. So happy to fit back into my jeans from over 4 years ago!



Yes, it was my weigh day yesterday. But I indulged in a few (ok quite a few) drinks last night, and was curious to see if it had made me retain loads of water. Was expecting to be up a couple of pounds from yesterday due to fluid retention, but no: I was actually 0.5 kg / 1.1 lbs LIGHTER than yesterday. Go figure.

That means I am unofficially at the half-way point!

Since this was the first time I had a drink after starting low-carb I was also curious to see if drinking alcohol would throw me out of ketosis for a few days. I thought it would to be honest, even if I stuck to vodka and Coke Zero. It didn't. I don't use ketostix a lot, I used one or two in the first week to see if I was in ketosis, and then one this morning.

WEIGH-IN 23rd OCTOBER: - 1 kg / 2.2 lbs

Another week, another loss - despite no exercise this week. Long may it continue! I'm just 0.4 kg / less than 1 lb from the half-way point now!

I have virtually NO cravings anymore thanks to getting rid of the carbs, and am enjoying the food I am eating, despite the lack of potatoes, bread, pasta and fruit - all of which I really thought I'd be craving like MAD!

Anyways, I love seeing the downwards curve!

Get your own graph at skinnyr

And I'm loving the double chin shrinking:

SOME LOW-CARB RECIPES

As promised in the previous post, here are a couple of low-carb recipes.

Low-carb waffles:


4 eggs
100 ml sour cream (full fat)
100 ml double cream
1 tbsp locust bean gum (also known as carob powder)
1 tbsp psyllium husk fibre
1 tsp baking powder
100 ml water
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp of ground cardamom (optional)
2 tbsp splenda (or equivalent sweetener)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well - I use a hand held blender. Leave the batter to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes - after this it will be quite thick and rather fluffy, almost mousse-like. Cook like normal waffles in a waffle iron. They tend to come out a bit "flat", but they taste divine. Serve with butter, or maybe some whipped cream.

Low-carb crackers - great alternative to crispbreads:


2 eggs
2 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp psyllium husk fibre
2 tbsp linseeds
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp baking powder
100 ml water

Combine ingrediants well in a bowl and leave to rest for 20 minutes. Spread thinly onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 225 °C for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 150 °C and bake until they're nice and crispy - about another hour or so. Allow too cool on a wire rack. Yummy with cheese, or maybe with smoked salmon... loads of options here!

Stir-fry with courgette:


Not really a recipe as such, but more to give you an idea of how I use courgette as a substitute for pasta and noodles. Here, I stir fried strips of pork with florets of broccoli and cauliflower and a few slices of red pepper. I seasoned it with ginger and chili powder, added half a courgette that I had cut into strips using the V-slicer, and a dash of soy sauce. Sprinkled a few sesame seeds over. Yum!

"SO WHAT DO YOU EAT?!"

That's a question I get asked a lot these days. The answer is: more than you think! It's easier to say what I don't eat.

Things I avoid:

• Anything with grains in it - bread, pasta, rice, cous cous, porridge, cereals, sauces thickened with maizena or flour...
• Fruit
• Starchy vegetables - potatoes, carrots, parsnips, sweetcorn and such
• Legumes
• Anything with sugar in it (obviously)

Things I eat, but in moderation:

• Dairy products - all full fat versions
• Nuts
• Artificially sweetened stuff - like a sugar free choccie bar at weekends, and the odd bottle of coke zero

Things I eat as much as I want of:

• Protein - meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, protein powder
• Fats - real butter, oils, mayonnaise (again, no margarine or "light" products
• Vegetables that grow above the ground - cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, courgettes, aubergines, mushrooms, spinach, cucumber, olives, all kinds of salad leaves +++
• Cheese

Ok that's not a complete list, but it gives a rough idea. It is important to know that I won't be eating like this forever - once I have reached my goal weight, or just before, I will slowly be indroducing more slow carbs into my diet. That means eating a moderate amount of beans, lentils, wholegrains, maybe the odd portion of wholegrain pasta or a small potato (with skin) with my dinner... So once I am near or at my goal weight I'll be slowly increasing the amount of carbs week by week until I see the weight loss stagnate. The level of carbs at which I don't lose or gain, is the level I will remain at.

I've been experimenting with alternatives to the food I have stopped eating, and have found some substitutes for potatoes and pasta, that I want to share with you:

• Cauliflower puree is an excellent alternative to mashed potato. Simply boil, drain, and use a hand-held blender to mash to a smooth puree, with a bit of butter, salt and pepper
• Grated cauliflower, either microwaved with a tablespoon of water, or shallow fried, is a great alternative to rice. Add spices and seasoning as desired.
• Courgette is fast becoming a favourite veg here. I slice it thin with a cheese slicer and use instead of pasta sheets for lasagne, or slice it into long thin strips with my V-slicer and use instead of spaghetti.

This is fast becoming the longest post ever... I have some recipes I want to share with you too, but I will do that in a separate post!

WEIGH-IN 15th OCTOBER: - 1.1 kg / 2.4 lbs

Low-carb continues to amaze me... Weighing in a day early this week, as I won't be home tomorrow morning. Today, the scales show 73.9 kg / 163 lbs - wohoooo!

LOW-CARB RULES!

Down a further 0.6 kg / 1.3 lbs since Thursday! I don't usually weigh myself more than once a week, but with the change to eating low carb/high protein/fat I want to keep an eye on the scales - because eating this much fat makes me feel like I should be putting weight ON rather than losing it. So far, it looks like my worries are totally pointless. This week I have seen the biggest loss ever, 1.7 kg /3.75 lbs.

I've been experimenting with some low-carb recipes; yesterday we had the yummiest "lasagne"- the usual bolognaise style sauce, with thinly sliced courgette instead of pasta sheets, a few tablespoons of full fat cream instead of the bechamel sauce, and loads of grated jarlsberg cheese on top. It was, dare I say it, even BETTER than "normal" lasagne. I served it with asparagus spears sauteed in butter. I guess if you use aubergine instead of courgette it would be very much like a moussaka.


Also, whipped cream with cottage cheese and a few drops of sweetener makes a yummy low carb dessert. A very good substitute for what we Norwegians call "riskrem".

I haven't posted progress pics in a while, so here are photos from today, at 74.4 kg / 164 lbs. 10.6 kg / 23.4 lbs lost:


It makes me CRINGE, but I am adding these "before" photos to this post as a comparison - to remind myself how far I have come already. At 85 kg / 187 lbs:

LOW CARB PIZZA CRUST

I found this recipe on a Norwegian low-carb forum (Lavkarbo.no) and decided to give it a go today. I have included the YouTube video that the original poster quoted as her source at the bottom of this post.

2 eggs
1 tbsp full fat cream
1/2 ts baking powder
1/2 cup grated cheese
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp low-carb baking mix

(I didn't have any baking mix, so instead I used 15g of soy-/whey protein plus a tbsp of psyllium husk fibre)

Mix all the ingredients well and spread thinly onto a greased baking tray. Bake at 225 °C for about 10 minutes. Then add whatever toppings you fancy, and bake until the cheese is golden.

The bases after baking. I halved the above portion, and it made two small portion sized pizzas:


With topping - home made tomato sauce, fried minced beef, olives, mushrooms and cheese for me today:


After a further 5 minutes in the oven:


The result? Not bad, however I would have preferred it to be less spongy/eggy, and more doughy/breadlike. Something I will do differently next time is to spread the mixture even thinner, that might help make it feel less spongy. Also, because I can't eat a lot of eggs (du to an intolerance) I will try and experiment until I find a way to make low-carb pizza crust without egg - if I manage to get a decent result, I'll be back with the recipe, I promise!

10 KG OFFICIALLY GONE!

The weigh-in yesterday wasn't a blip! Which means I can record the weight as official: I've reached the magic number - 10 kg lost! (That's 22 lbs to you non-metric people)


Another 2.5 kg / 5.5 lbs and I am half way - and also back at the lightest weight I have been in adult life. I don't know how realistic it is, but I'd really like to lose another 5 kg / 11 lbs before X-mas, to get down to 70 kg /154 lbs.

The low-carb thing seems to be working, so I am sticking with it for now.

WOWSERS!

A sneaky weigh-in today after 3 full days on low-carb showed a loss of 1.1 kg / 2.4 lbs! I'm not officially recording it today, as tomorrow is my weigh-day, but wow! This took me right up to the magic "10 kilos lost" number. I hope the scales show the same or better tomorrow!

Just showing you today's dinner:



Steak served on a bed of creamed cabbage, with lettuce and a dollop of sour cream. Hardly looks like diet food, eh?

Infact, I am finding it hard to grasp this. And I struggle with my own and society's general views and habits that state you must not eat fat. But the theory of ketosis kinda makes sense, and if this trend carries on, there must be something in it. I am giving it a full two weeks before I come to a conclusion, but I hope this wasn't just coincidence though!

Yesterday I had a really good run, shaving 4 minutes off the time on my usual route! I really found a good rythm, got into a groove, and felt like I could have carried on for a good 10-15 minutes more had time permitted. I like this!

A 2-WEEK EXPERIMENT

Well, since something clearly isn't working here, it's time to shift things around a little. So, I'm going to see what happens if I go low-carb for a couple of weeks.

Goodbye bread, pasta and potatoes, hello protein, fats (yes!) and veggies.


I already know I am a serious sugar addict, I am also an apple shape - I'd say there's a good chance I am slightly insulin resistent, looking at the list of indicators below.

• Fatigue
• Brain fogginess and inability to focus. Sometimes the fatigue is physical, but often it is mental
• Intestinal bloating
• Sleepiness
• Weight gain, fat storage, difficulty losing weight. For most people, too much weight is too much fat. The fat in IR is generally stored in and around abdominal organs in both males and females

I've already significantly reduced my intake of white carbs and increased my protein intake, but I think I need to take it up a notch.

I'll give it two weeks first to see how I fare - will keep you posted!

WEIGH-IN 2nd OCTOBER: + 0.4 kg kg / 0.9 lbs

I don't get it. Why is it that the weeks where I think I am doing well, I actually end up gaining? I've exercised loads, both cardio and strength. I've eaten between 1300-1500 kcals a day... NO cheating whatsoever.

Blergh. Sorry, rant over.