Banana Bread - How I've missed you!!!

So, I just about went to nirvana making this recipe for Banana Bread by the Merry Makers Sisters - so it's not 100% LCHF but I figured, if I'm going to have a treat I might as well make it a paleo, sugar free and gluten free one! I double the recipe, used xylitol in place of the honey and also added baking soda because my go-to carb and sugar heavy version had it and made a loaf - you could hardly tell it's a healthier version and I LOVE IT! I ate it with slabs of salted butter, so yummeh..

Unfortunately for me, those two slices I had amounts to something like 523 calories and 27 carbs - so IF I'm going to have this, I'll probably need to make it my only meal or something hahahaha! I'm thinking it won't blow me totally out of keto, but hey, it's a lifelong adjustment so I'll take the slow losses as long as I can still eat things I love like banana bread!!

In other news, we had some pretty bad news on Monday - my husbands' grandad passed away so I took the day off work and we spent some quality time together as a family. We went to this cafe we had planned to go to (Porto and Fi) and had lunch there. They had what seemed like a very low carb meal (Lamb cutlets with cauli rice + grilled aubergines) and I thought PARFAIT, I shall have zat! But turns out, the cauli rice was probably mixed in with some quinoa or some other sort of grain, which is trop des problemes in this scenario! I really think they should've put it in the friggin menu at least!

Anyhoo, in our time there we saw the waitress bring out pails upon pails of lovely, crisp looking curly fries (clearly a best-seller!) and I thought, we have to redeem this trip, so we ordered a pail to share. It was DIVINE and worth it I tell you. They were so crisp and crunchy and just *poofed* in my mouth at the slightest bite - yummmmmoooo! I had probably 4-5 curly wurlies and let hubs have the rest, and I was happy. It's been two days now and I haven't felt any setback so yayyyy! Can't afford to let slip too many times though, I really want this lifestyle to stick so I need to look at ways to recreate my fav treats - so maybe next up would be recreating french fries?? It'll probably have to be sweet potato fries which we all know is so damn good.. But maybe I can one-up it and make sweet potato mojo jojos mwahahaha.. That'll be awesome!

Clothespirations!

Can I just start by saying how delighted I am that overalls are making a swift comeback into the fashion industry?! Like, I seriously have never gotten over that fad and I just never had the chance to buy any that fit me and now it's back and I can't WAITTTTTT to get one!!

I mean seriously, just looking at ASOS right now is KILLING ME, I want all of them!!

OK, to be fair, some retailers like Next have already brought in some plus size ones that I could buy right now, but to be really frank, they don't look good on plus sized people!!!

Instead of looking cool, we'll probably just look like painters about to go and refurb something, especially if you get a scuffed up, vintage looking one, which is the kind that I really wanna go for!

The denim "pinafore" from TU Sainsbury's

I have to admit, I tried this one on at Sainsbury's (because I saw it in my size and I couldn't resist!!!) and if it HAD in fact fitted me, I would've bought it! But seriously, I could fit my top half in but the bottom was embarassingly tight, like cannot get my ass in and must unbutton everything from the waist down tight! Obviously the fit is very "skinny", so my desire to wear some overalls is hence on hold until I shed more pounds. Cannot wait. This is numero uno on my list!

I also have always, ALWAYS loved nautical themes. In fact, out of all my clothes, if they are not black, blue they are stripey and navy. Seriously. I am so boring HAHA! 

Navy dress from TU again - Sainsburys is my fav go to for cheapo clothes!

Again, I always wear tunics and skater dresses as it is, but I've never been able to wear them with bare legs! I want to so badly, but either it's because I have a large toosh or that I'm too tall, but if I didn't wear tights or leggings, it would actually be rather obscene! HAHA! So, I'm looking forward to being thinner so that I can wear short things and get a bit of a tan on my freakishly pale pins. 

Not to mention that I've never in my life gotten a tan on my legs, so they are very, very, disproportionately pale compared to my brown orang utan orange arms! HAHAHA...

I'd love to blog more about what kinds of clothes I've been dying to wear, but will do so later. It's a bit hard to edit photos when you're nicking time off work to do so lol, but I'll get there eventually :)

Day 35 : Lowest weight in over 6 months (and perhaps even more!)

Giving myself cause to celebrate - I waver in and out of wanting to detail every single bit of my journey and just cruising along, to be fair, I'm not even sure how long I've been doing LCHF since I restarted (for the nth time!) but I can safely say about 35 days.

How's it been so far? It's been GREAT! Apart from the fact that I keep dreaming of sweet foods, and about eating them (with all the guilt) and feeling a bit like I can't differentiate if it's a dream or reality!

This time around it's been slightly easier, no explosive poos and painful tummy aches YET - but I bet there will be when the yeast dies. I'm hoping to persevere through it because I really feel so awesome eating this way, and now that I've found comfort in eating cheese crisps with everything, and making said crisps in the microwave at work, I can do this FOREVER! Mwahaha :)

OH, and let's not forget, I'm not at 148kgs. According to MFP it's the lowest recorded weight I've had in a YEAR, so that's something isn't it?! Can't wait until I'm in the 130s though, because that would be truly awesome!

We had a really busy week last week, with our first really huge market stall (the biggest event of the market trader year apparently!) and we got in by pure chance! We were soooo busy I didn't even get to have the 4 coffees I had planned to have, and only had 1 and 3/4 cups before we were completely slammed all day and ran out of milk! Hahahaha! I felt fine though, and my husband had a swapsie meal with one of our trader friends (he runs a alp dumpling shop which makes the most amazing vege dumplings with a red pepper goulash - soooo yum!) but I had nothing apart from tuna and cheese crisps I gobbled down for brekky. Went home and had a Nandos, and the next morning I was 148kgs!

Talk about a mega win! Hahaha :)

So proud of myself for not using exhaustion as a reason to cheat, and eat nonsense. So proud of myself for looking the other way when my husband was GIVEN one of my most favourite meals, and staying strong despite not having ANYTHING to eat at all! I couldn't even "reward" myself with a latte because all we had left was skim, and skim is, as we all know, bad for you!!

SO PROUD of myself for staying strong and losing weight, and keeping to this for a whole month now. I can't wait to see what other rewards I will have from this.

More blogging to come up, I'm planning on writing that clothes goals post (i.e. the clothes I plan on wearing when I lose weight/what I think I will enjoy wearing!) and an updated activities reward chart for my weight loss goals. I don't yet have any travel plans this year, apart from possibly a xmas trip which I'm hoping I'll have lost a lot more weight for so I can have *some* treats, but we'll see. I'm still yet to go a few days without eating, so there's still a lot of mountains to climb!

Still on track!

Hello,

It's been a while since I last posted - fear not, I'm still on LCHF and I'm not making waves just yet but I'm already benefitting from great skin and better mood despite the feeling parched like the am-I-stranded-on-a-desert-island kind of unquenchable thirst.

Weird thing though, is being on LCHF makes me feel so energetic. It's like carbs and sugar makes me feel lethargic - I've probably been back on LCHF for more than two weeks now and I can actually skip and run across roads when previously I would just force cars to stop (and they probably do because of the damage hitting me might cause due to my wide-load LOL) - it is truly an awesome feeling.

I've probably lost perhaps 4kgs by now, but really, I'm not too fussed this time. It's funny because I really don't know how to motivate myself - should I make like a drill sergeant and measure every inch and gram of loss or should I just focus on putting good food in my gob and worry less about the milestones. I waver between the two approaches! On one hand, feeling validated on each KG lost is awesome, like I'm heading the right way because as much as I talk myself into feeling the health benefits, being lighter is a huge thing - I want to be able to do extreme activities again like skydiving and fitting into rollercoasters and riding a segway (it's one of my planned rewards!). But the backlash of PUTTING ON WEIGHT, albeit due to a cheat or just having my period, it just takes away all the happiness and the negative thoughts flood in and I feel like I rather not know! For now though, I'm just waiting until I hit 130kg so that I can go out and buy a lovely L'occitane shampoo set as my first reward! :D

In the meantime, I'm loving it! Hope you guys out there are too!

Day 10 : First stall, pfft.

Starting weight : 152.4kg

Yesterday's weight : 149kg (was the same weight as yesterday, conveniently!)

Current weight : 149.3kg

Current loss/(gain) : (0.3)kg

Total loss/(gain) : 3.1kg 

I knew there was a risk of speaking too soon, and lo and behold, 3kgs down and it's my first stall. Boooooooo. 

Good thing is, tonight I'm going to have to find my own way home either by bus or walking, so I might just do the latter and see if I can jog myself out of this small stall! :D

It's too soon to be feeling deflated, but I can't say I'm delighted. I'm starting to see why a lot of people tend to flood FB groups with complaints about the scales not budging - and I'm already feeling so blah after only 3 days! Hahaha.. Calm down Alia, geez. 

Anyway, here's the stats from yesterday

Day 9
Breakfast : Acai Bowl - bananas, strawberries, full milk, peanut butter and mixed nuts topping

So I have to explain this a little bit, was typing and realised it was a full paragraph so bear with me. We were looking at nurseries yesterday and I had a rough time (don't get me started, I've only just calmed down), so we stopped by this yoga retreat cafe that had all these funky, new-age, hippy, healthy things on the menu and this looked like the  yummiest safest choice! It was just fruits, and instead of the homemade almond milk which had like a tsp of coconut sugar in [still sugar!], I opted for full cream milk and ran with it. Honestly, it was soooooo tasty, and thick like ice cream! I'd heard of healthy gurus banging on about acai bowls and how fabulous they were, but I wasn't expecting ice cream! Haha.. Anyway, this is probably the cause of my 0.3kg bloat, but anyway, I was prepared for the hunger strike from the post-fructose high and it was not that noticeable. What IS noticeable though, is the amount of CALORIES in this little innocent looking acai bowl! I googled a recipe online and the total came up to 849 for a serving!!!! Crazy. Anyway, maybe for like a realllllyyyyyy occasional treat then, cuz it was so darn tasty and I really don't mind making it my substitute ice cream treat! :P

Lunch : Tall filter coffee from Starbucks with pouring cream

Pre-Dinner snack : Broccoli slaw, and deli meats (fructose crash, and too hangry to wait for dinner!)
Dinner : Courgetti pad thai with butter sauteed salmon

Oh my gad, y'all. I've never had courgetti before, but hawt dang, that was sooo tasty! I probably overloaded on butter and peanut butter, but it really tasted like noodles and was so yum! I'll share the recipe now so y'all can have some too. 

Courgetti Pad Thai
300g courgetti (courgettes, spiralised)
knob of butter
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp tamari (or coconut aminos)
tsp of crushed garlic
tsp of chilli flakes
2-3 tbsp crunchy peanut butter (optional, or reduce if you're not a peanut lover like me!)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt the butter, and toss the courgetti on medium heat. Add all the other ingredients leaving the PB for last, adding it when the noodles are done so that it just melts into everything. Serve piping hot with meat of your choice. 

349 calories - don't know the breakdown for this specifically, but I'll find out soon and post it up!

This is going to fill every niggling craving I get for pad-thai, guilt free, and yum to beat! Woot woot! :)

MFP stats - Day 9 - 82 calories OVER (thanks Acai *eye rolls*), 23% carbs, 63% fat and 14% protein

Day 8 
Day 8 was a model-like day actually, here's what I had:

Breakfast - Caesar Salad with Cardini's dressing, 2 eggs and roast chicken
Snack - 1 tbsp peanut butter, 20g cheese
Dinner - Broccoli slaw and 5 Buffalo Drumsticks

MFP stats : 76 calories under, 55% fat, 39% protein, 6% carbs - WOOT!

Day 8 : Down, down, down she goes!

Starting weight : 152.4kg

Yesterday's weight : 149.6kg

Current weight : 149kg

Current loss/(gain) : 0.6kg

Total loss/(gain) : 3.4kg 

We are on a roll! Feeling so happy that there's still huge losses on the scales! Can't wait to be officially out of the 140s, but I can do with a downward trend for now!

I'm hoping to start walking to work soon, to move along the loss a little faster but I'm also worried that I won't have a back up plan for when I start to stall.. Is it silly that I want to wait until I stall so I can play my "walk to work" card to get things moving again? Hahahahha.. :P

Anyway, here's the stats from yesterday:

Day 7
Breakfast - Bolo sauce, small avocado, cheese crisps and soured cream (eaten like a taco bowl, yummm!) and milky coffee

Snack - 3 tbsp peanut butter, two glasses of sparkly water with teissiere sugar free cordial

Dinner - Salmon in butter, broccoli slaw, and milky tea

MFP Stats : 64% fat, 25% protein, 11% carbs, 302 calories under allowance. Win!

I've decided to record yesterday's food instead of today's, since that makes more sense right? So far the only thing I've had today is a caesar salad, and it was soooo tasty yum :) Haven't had any intense cravings yet, although yesterday I felt a hankering for ramen with peanut butter... Muhuhu.. Anybody have a low-carb ramen recipe? :P

Day 7 : Out of the 150s! And Week 1 Update!

Starting weight : 152.4kg

Yesterday's weight : 150.3kg

Current weight : 149.6kg

Current loss/(gain) : 0.7kg

Total loss/(gain) : 2.8kg (and officially goodbye to the 150s!)

Can I hear a WOOT WOOT! :D I'm so excited today, I'm feeling grreeaaaaaat!

So the weekend was a big change for us, members of the Couch-Potato club. We did a 5K fun run on Saturday, but it was a different sort of "marathon" because it was non-competitive and most importantly, there were fun bouncy castle obstacles to go through at intervals, and it was fun walking towards one and then attempting it and moving on! :D

Faces BEFORE the event, all smiley and not knowing what to expect.. Haha!

I was expecting the walking/running to be the hard bit, but what I really didn't expect the obstacles to be the one that left me breathless and completely zonked! I was happy to be done with them and to walk to catch my breath each time! Haha! The first obstacle at the very start was this very slippery steps that you need to climb over, and then slide down, and as we waited for our wave to start I couldn't help but notice that most of the people that slipped and fell were people of my size - and I was sooooo nervous and I would be mortified if I was unable to climb over! In particular, there was a couple who were really stuck and I thought for a moment that they would have to walk around the obstacle cuz they just couldn't climb it and I'm like.. omg.. that will be me. 

BUTTTTT when it came to our turn, I slipped a few times but managed to climb over it just fine - and I wasn't one of the last ones over it HAHAHAHA! I was so happy! 

But then the people I so shamelessly YES'D *fistpumped* at quickly overtook us on the "run" and I think we might've been one of the last ones in our wave to have finished. LOL. No matter, what DOES matter is that we finished everything and we didn't die! Bear in mind, total couch to 5K here ok, and no training whatsoever!

My step count was craaaazzzyyyy! I did in total, 9,792 steps JUST from the 5K exercise! We decided to go grocery shopping after that and at the end of the day, my steps count was closer to 12K - it was so awesome! Would I do it everyday, no way.. But I wouldn't mind doing it at least once a week - I plan to walk to and from work and make it a daily thing. It'll be good for my steps goal but also save money on petrol.. Haha! We'll see though, small changes first, big changes later. 

Anyway, here's the MFP chart analysis of my progress for the week. 

Small dip due to the carb-binge, and the effects afterwards. Quite happy that it didn't have a huge lasting impact though!

Weekly average stats - Fat % is almost on point, but carbs is very high - have to work on this one. 

Two binges, and the rest are almost perfect. Rock on Week 2!

Guys, I can't say how proud I am of Week 1. I'm definitely sticking to this method of weighing myself everyday, and documenting meals and making sure I go under my calorie quota everyday. I'm feeling great, and optimistic and this time around I didn't suffer any side effects from going low carb - perhaps my body is actually used to it by now?! I don't know, but my tips this time seems to be working fine for me. Onwards and upwards!