This blog is not dead!

Compliments of the season everyone, and wishing you all the best of success with 2016 to progress on your way to reach all your health, fitness and longevity goals.

Oh my, I can’t believe I still have this ugly blog!

I’ve received many enquiries to continue with my progress. Thank you so much for your continued support. It encourages me to start blogging again after all this time.

This blog needs a home make over and updates.

So many things have happened in the past 7 years.

I lost a lot of weight, experimented, gained back a lot during these, have to unlearn several bad habits I picked up in the process…

What helps a lot is if you keep track properly of what you eat, what and when you exercise. What is happening with your health. Note down experiences of what happens to your body when you change things.

I will be putting up posts, of where I am now, as soon as I can.

Thank you for following. 🙂

You’re welcome to put comments of things you would like to see posted in this blog.

Keep checking back for new updates soon!

 

PS. Blog comments are moderated for spam.

 

Strengthen your mind

Still feeling great about myself by shaking off 5.5% of body fat in the first 11 days, when another challenge was pushed into my arms..

The husband wanted to go shopping for fresh food for his lunch tin. It makes you wonder sometimes, if the family are supporting you in your efforts to get  healthy and look better. Or are they blissfully unaware that they are trying to squash your dreams? Especially when they drag you down to the best bakery in town to select the nicest breads and rolls, and who knows what else, knowing that those foods are one of the reasons you were rolling everywhere instead of strolling!

It’s a real determination builder if you can take a good look at the chocolate and cream eclairs, fine sweet pies, pastries and cakes in the display window and not give in. It inspires me to get my mind screwed on straight.

Nobody else might be with me in this fight, but the fight is not with another person. It is a fight with myself to choose life. A fight for health. Fighting to have clothes that fit. Fighting for good self esteem, self confidence and to feel sexy and look good. Choosing to win this battle with fat, sugar and starch.

This is a battle in the mind, in the way I think. This is a fight I can and will win.

Here’s my confession.. I’ve been a bad girl!

This week’s exercising has not been going optimally, I have to confess..

Bad habits like laziness and procrastination are not the easiest to break..

I think up lame excuses not to exercise in the morning because I’m still exhausted upon waking.  I just basically still feel exhausted in the mornings from lack of deep sleep. I can come up with a whole list of those excuses:

The blooming cat walked over me several times during the night, waking me just as I fall into a deep sleep..

Or I’m creatively stimulated too much and I can’t fall asleep because my mind won’t get quiet..

I am tired upon waking and feel like I haven’t slept at all, because the husband wanted..

My sinful solution:

I’ll try and catch up by sleeping in for an additional hour and half. Well it normally works, but this week it  just made things worse. By the time I get up I’m supposed to have excercised already, finished breakfast and sitting at my desk.

The result:

This week I only had strength training of an hour.

The other sins I (almost) committed:

I caught myself almost taking bites from the lunch I’m preparing for the husband, almost like an unconscious desire for starch and fats is driving the forkful of food towards my mouth. Luckily I realized what I were doing just before the food enteredy my mouth, and I stopped!

Or I’ll make corn chowder for the gardener and just a whiff of that lovely corn meal smell coming from the cast iron pot on the stove just overwhelms me with the desire to take a nice taste, just a little one…

Sigh.

This weekend will be better.  I don’t promise. If I don’t promise, I cant break that promise either.

Hope to see you over the weekend!

Diet Meal Planner | Friday

You will discover, just as I have, how safe, healthy and easy it is to lose weight if you eat like this every day. Eating like this guarantees my own fat loss. Of course I don’t snack in between and keep drinking at least 2.5 litres of water every day.

Who says diet food has to be complicated, tasteless and expensive!

This is the taste sensation I had to eat today, including the quick and easy method  I used to prepare it.

Breakfast

Ham and Spinach quiche

Put 1 cup shredded frozen spinach in a covered microwave bowl. Roughly chop 3 deli slices of ham and add to spinach. Add a pinch of your favourite seasonings (such as lemon black pepper and sea salt).
Mix thoroughly with 1 egg beaten until foamy. Nuke it in the
microwave on high for 3 minutes. Serve.

Lunch

Icy Fish, Cabbage and Cottage Cheese Salad.

Flake 100g of whatever drained and cooked tinned fish you have in your pantry
in a bowl.  (Tuna, pilchards, cooled down hake, even salmon
will do).
Add a squirt of lemon juice (to ease mixing, tangy taste and for
smoother consistency). Add 2 tablespoons of cottage cheese and
a cup of
frozen shredded cabbage. Mix all the ingredients evenly. Serve on a bed
of crisp lettuce and season with ground black pepper and a pinch of
coarse salt. Serve.

Dinner

Beef and Broccoli Salad

Toast 2 100g pure lean beef burger patties in a frying pan until
grilled golden. Mix ground black pepper and a pinch
of  sea salt with lemon juice into 2 tablespoons of pure
tomato puree, together with a teaspoon of olive oil. Steam a
cup and a half of broccoli in a covered container in the microwave on
high for 3 min. Put your broccoli on a plate, slice your beef patties
in  finger thickness slices and arrange on top of the
broccoli. Drizzle your tomato sauce mixture in a line over the
meat and broccoli. Serve.

Yummy

Weight loss results after first 7 days | 4.8 kg Lighter!

Glad to say that I got over the first few hurdles of the diet, such as the detox! Going through the first detox symptoms, pushing through caffeine withdrawal and carbohydrate metabolism stabilization was not easy.

Phew – Glad that is over. I have new found energy since waking this morning. Now I can move on to start losing some more serious kilograms! I was running a lot to the bathroom the past few days, so I must have been losing a lot of retained water. When I jumped on the scale this morning. I almost fell on my back in shock when the scale smiled and said I lost 4.8kg in the past 7 days!  Guys and girls, that’s a lot of weight to lose in 7 days.

I immediately got worried that I might have lost a lot of muscle, although I am confident that I have not, as my jeans which fit snugly around my bottom and hips now hang like a sack on me. I needed confirmation, so I took some body measurements.

Wohoo, fat loss is confirmed!  Measurements from fat lost are as follows:

Reduction of 1 cm from my upper arm (widest part of bicep),

Reduction of 1.5 cm from my upper leg (widest part of thigh),

Reduction of 1.75 cm from my buttocks (widest part),

Reduction of 2.5 cm from my thighs (widest part),

Reduction of 1.8 cm from my hips (widest part),

Reduction of  1 cm from my middle (accross navel),

Reduction of 3 cm from my stomach and back (bra line)

Total centimeters lost = 12.55cm! 🙂

Make no mistake, this week was the hardest I’ve ever experienced in my life. I had to force myself to drink 3 litres of water every day. Cutting out all milk, yogurt, bread, potatoes, sugar and cereals, even coffee, diet soda, and artificial sweeteners, that was hard. Also eating vegetables such as broccoli for breakfast was not on the top of my nice breakfast list.

What made it easier was that I was never  hungry.  Only once, but then I skipped breakfast (saturday). I did have a strong desire for things I normally ate as a habit though, but I was able to stick it through by eating a little cheese and gulping down lots of water.

Now I have to face the next 7 days…

Diet Meal Planner | Monday

With a less than favorable weekend (see my previous post), inventing a meal plan for today was not that difficult, now that I know what potholes I have to look out for.

I made one rule for myself. Yes, only one. It’s to have breakfast every day for the rest of my life. I never want to burst into tears again from the effects of hunger again! Even if I am in a hurry, I will grab something wholesome and nutritious from the fridge. It is easy to prepare in advance and keep in the fridge for several days anyway. So I will have no more excuses, and won’t be side tracked by family members who is not very supportive. 😉

I also increased my water intake per day from 2 litres per day to 3 litres

This is what I will be eating today. Join me if you like. It’s a sure thing to keep you full

Breakfast

Egg and Broccoli Cheese melt

Jasmine Green Tea

Snack

Piece of cheese

Jasmine Green Tea

Lunch

Sardine Salad with Cucumber, Cherry Tomatoes and Cottage Cheese

Dinner

Chicken and Greenpepper Crockpot

For the recipes, go to my blog at The Blissful Housewife

Why skipping breakfast led to tears

It was the worst mistake to skip breakfast this morning. The consequence – Tears streaming down my face and burning eyes because all my eye make up got into them, too. Let me tell you how this happened…

Background

Today was day 7 of my new diet. I started feeling detox symptoms coming on since Friday, getting worse everyday. Symptoms included headaches from lack of caffeine, pimple-like bumps under my skin, slight dizziness from my blood pressure starting to drop, feelings of weakness, sweating, irritability and short tempered. It felt like today was a real emotional low point.

Back to the story

I slept in because our new kitten, Chewy, woke me throughout the night. He pounced on my feet and knocked his bell toy ball about every now and them. We decided to go to town early and do some shopping for kitten supplies and for some other things.

I was in a hurry to get back home for breakfast and to stay in a controlled environment. But the husband thought we could just get a bite while in town… Big mistake – We took longer than anticipated, and all the walking up and down the mall and grocery shop isles left me poofed with no energy to speak of..

Already past 12 o’clock..

Seeing all the food and snacks packed on the shelves and I’m not allowed to give in to them… Thoughts of breaking the stupid rules was starting run through my head…Resistance crumbling…The husband saw I was starting to give in and quickly pulled me away from the sweets’ shelf magnetic force… In the meantime I was feeling hungrier, weaker and crankier by the footstep.

I quickly got some cherry tomatoes and ham for me from the deli. But the husband wanted his own snack. A stop by the Sandwich Baron and his order of a toasted avo, bacon and feta sarmie left me mouth watering, but more irritable.  His mmm’s and ahh’s on the way home while digging into that delicious sarmie, and sipping on a big coca-cola, none which I’m allowed to have, was the last straw. It felt like he was purposefully being cruel to me!

I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I had such a strong desire for regular food. I always have something sweet as a regular habit over weekends. Such as dark chocolate and of course I really miss having some cool drink, or soda. Even a fruit!

The amount of determination it will take, never crossed my mind when I started this diet.

What did I get myself into? How on earth will I get through the next two weeks of strict food choices and limitations? I could give in, but what will be the point of paying all this money and all the effort I already put in not to cheat. I knew I had to just stick it through. But it’s not easy. It’s hard work. REALLY HARD WORK. Do you know what I say when I mean really, really hard work?

It all just became too much for me to bear.  I started sobbing. I never cry about anything. It wasn’t like me. The husband even commented “why are you putting on such a bad act?”, and I thought: “Wow, this actually feels good, crying a bit. If I’m going to cry, at least do it properly and get it over with”.  Well, I just opened the taps and sobbed my heart out.  When the silly husband saw I was being serious, he said: “Honey”, I thought you were only joking”. He thought I looked so cute with eye make-up all over my face he took a picture of me. Of course I’ve looked better.

After a few minutes, I felt much calmer, emotionally relieved and surprisingly, the desire for sweets were also gone. I washed my face and thought “Great! Must remember this trick to get over old bad habits or a sweet spell”.

Today I learned a big lesson: Never, ever skip breakfast. Especially, when on a diet.

Effect of the detox kicking in

Here is my account for the effect of the diet on my body today. I’m still not getting hungry through the day and even this evening, which is great. I normally wanted a small sweet something, even if its just 2 sweets after dinner.

It still comes as a surprise that I don’t have that sugar craving since I started the diet, although some other detox-like symptoms are becoming more noticeable.
It looks like I’m starting to shed excess water too as I have to go to the bathroom more.

There is a slight, very mild headache nagging on the top and back of my head. I expect to get headaches from not drinking coffee and only 1 mug of jasmine green tea, which is also lower in caffeine than regular green tea. The jasmine green tea is more palatable without milk and have a soothing fragrance.

My gut also seems to perform differently, improved. I felt bloated last night. And much lighter after a bathroom break. Oh dear, my intention was not to go into this kind of detail, but I guess this will be the last time I mention it :@

Overall I start to feel more energetic, with my ankles less swollen than normal from sitting at the computer all day. My muscles are still feeling slightly sore from last night’s strength workout. I already trained hard 3x this week and rested today. I will exercise again tomorrow. I plan to train 3 hours minimum per week so
I still need to train for another hour.

Thanks for everyone’s kind supportive comments.

Don’t forget to take part in my Coffee Drinker Poll 🙂

Diet Meal Planner | Thursday

Here is the meal planner for the food I had to eat today:

Its based on 3300 kilojoules for maximum fat loss, with minimum starches included to correct my carb metabolism (1/4 of combined kj comes from carbs). –

From my “Diet that everyone talks about”

Breakfast
kj in meal = 880 kj
1 egg Omelet, with Grilled Mushroom, cheese, tomato and garlic filling
Jasmine Green Tea

Lunch
kj in meal = 1285 kj
Grilled chicken and spinach salad
steamed cauliflower
pumpkin grilled

Dinner
kj in meal = 1150 kj
Tuna, asparagus and feta salad on a bed of butter lettuce

Very tasty!

Grab the recipes of each day’s meal plan from my other blog, the blissful housewife

Remember to drink more than 8 large glasses of water today.

I miss my coffee!|14 Jan Diet Journal

I really miss my milk. It’s forbidden for the next 3 weeks at least. I love milk in all my hot beverages.  Crazy enough they allow 4 teaspoons of cream per day for hot drinks! It’s something I have to ajust to this carbs is bad for me but a small amount of fats is good while on this diet.  It’s so contraversial it’s sounds crazy. Although cream is allowed, I’m not going to have it.

Stevia tastes different to sugar.  One teaspoon of sugar is enough to throw over my metabolism for 3 days according to their research. So, no sugars either. That’s ok because I still have a bit of stevia left from the last diet.  When that runs out, I will have to train myself to drink black and bitter.  Not something I’m looking forward to.  O gosh, I must sound so stereotypical!

Progress with the diet is going very well so far.  I have not once been hungry. I actually still feel full when it’s time for the next meal! I also have to eat more than I’m used to. The scale also smiles already after 3 days, but official weigh in will only be next Thursday the 22nd, so I will reveal the weight loss then.

I have not invested in their recipe book – yet.  So it takes some creativity to come up with different types of meals as many of the foods I’m used to is forbidden – but only for the moment.

History lesson for those who like sulking

Well, for the interested readers, my weight has fluctuated more in the past 10 years, than Oprah has in her whole lifetime. I’ve been anywhere inbetween 66kg up to 107kg. Not anything I am proud of. I only have myself to blame.

I can’t exactly say why I gave up my terrific size 36 body. I just know I started eating my moods and let go. I would exercise hard with trainers in the gym, spend a fortune on that and diet supplements. Then drop the program before I break through the last hill before victory. I’ll stop training for 6 weeks. Heaven knows why. Think up any excuse possible, sometimes neot even putting in enough effort to make an excuse. Add 3 kg to scale. Then I’ll feel miserable because I’m so bad and clothes fit too tight.  I’ll start training vigorously again. Lose a few kg…  And repeat cycle…

Resolution

Well no more guys and girls. It has taken it’s toll on my health so the game is over. Syndrome X has crept up on me and I have started to develop a mild hypertention. When my weight drops below 100kg I will be out of the danger zone there, but risk of diabetes will only lower when my weight drops below 84kg..

I’ll check in again tomorrow!

Introduction to my 13 week lifestyle change

Hallo Everyone

I just started out on a new diet this Monday.

It’s really a revolutionarey new way of eating. Its called “The diet that everyone talks about” which you can read about in the previous post where I reveal a bit more of the diet itself. It’s modern and all the new science and research available has been applied.

I’m a bit careful to reveal too much about the finer details, as every diet is tailor made to suit your activity level and lifestyle, medical conditions and history as well as any allergies and food preferences.

What you can expect it that I will report to you by keeping a journal on the effect the diet has on my body. Also on the way it changes and improves my food habits and choices. Then I will also report on the way it affects my moods, and of course hunger- or the lack of it.

To start out-

Notes on the first appointment

So far it was not bad at all.  I went to the clinic, had to read 2 informative articles with details on the diet and what it’s about, to make sure I know what I am letting myself into.

We discussed my medical history and family medical history. The assistant took my weight, shoes off – of course and took body measurements.

We discussed the reason why I thought I gained so much weight. Then, the dreaded injection – although it wasn’t too painful. Just a quick prick on the back of my upper arm. A slight sting I must say.

At that point I was thinking – what the hell did I let myself into? And how much effort I will have to put in. The torture of not even being able to drink my coffee or tea the way I like it – with milk and two sugars.  Well I don’t like artificial sweeteners. I won’t take it. I can take stevia (a natural sweetening herb), but it’s really expensive. And I’m definitely not putting real cream in my coffee or tea. Just the idea of taking in those fats makes me want to choke.

The nurse gave me the diet plan explained it fully and also gave me a graph showing the initial minimum weight loss I can expect. Many obese people lose up to 20% of body fat – which is astounding.

Although we did not decide on such an ambitious goal – I’m not yet sure if I can keep up with the plan without cheating – it is still reachable. We worked on a 10% fat-loss goal. Quite reasonable, I think. That makes my target weight 94.5kg. I will lose more if I exercise vigorously at least 3x per week for 30 minutes.

I think I can do it – NO. I know I can do this. I must. I owe it to myself.

Diet Meal Planner | Wednesday

Today’s Meal Plan

These are food choices made by myself from a food list available in the the low starch diet (the South African revolutionary diet called “the diet that everyone talks about” that I am currently following very strictly.

Its a 13 week program which involves 3 different phases diet (a limited and very strict metabolic corrector diet, the second diet starts to phase in starches and the third phase is a maintenance plan which allows responsible and controlled cheats and helps you make good food choices to keep your new improved weight for life). The type of foods I eat in phase one includes  protein, LOTS of veg, injections (B12) and homeopathic appetite suppressants-

Today’s meal plan is based on an energy expenditure of 3600 KJ worked out for my sedentary lifestyle to maximize fat loss and muscle preservation.

Breakfast

Egg and Spinach quiche

Jasmine Flavored Green Tea

Kilojoules for this meal: 1200 kj

Lunch

Microwave Patty Pan Cheese melt

Green Tea

Kilojoules for this meal: 1000 kj

Dinner

Grilled skinless chicken

Large mixed salad

Kilojoules for this meal: 1360 kj

Snack

Vegetable Crudites

Kilojoules for this meal: 60 kj

Total Kilojoules ingested: 3560 kj

Hope you like it.  I know I will.

Yummy!

To access the recipes for the meal plan click on the link to go to my other blog, called the blissful housewife

What do you think of the meal plan? I would certainly like to hear your opinions and comments 😉

About The-Diet

The diet I’m on is program which consists out of 3 different phases:

Phase 1- a short term limited foods and very strict metabolism corrector diet to reset fat storing and fat burning hormones and detox the body.

Phase 2- the second diet starts to include a controlled amounts of starchy vegetables and fruit.

Phase 3- the final diet is a maintenance dietary lifestyle, once you reach your goal weight, that allows responsible cheats and other foods.

During this program I eat NO starch, different protein with all visible fat removed, low carb vegetables. I receive weekly natural (natural fat burner) injections, take multi-vitamin supplements as well as homeopathic tablets.

The secret to losing weight is in the amount and which carbohydrates you eat.

This diet is carbohydrate controlled.

It is not a high protein diet.

It is not Atkins since protein use is lower than Atkins recommendations.

It is not Banting, since its use of fat is low to moderate and fruit is included.

It is not Paleo since it doesnt recommend using milk and may include cured pork meats such as bacon or cooked ham which is processed.

It will be a struggle for vegans to follow this, since there is animal protein in every meal.

Lacto-Ovo Vegetarians will be able to follow.

It does not follow pure Ketogenic since carbohydrate count can fluctuate above strict purist recommendations.

For those who do not eat beef or pork, just replace ingredients or swop out a recipe for another.

During the programme of this diet there are different phases, to correct your body hormones, during the reset and detox, stimulate metabolism and to ensure you burn the excess fat from your body, rather than storing it.

You learn what to eat, what to avoid, what to do to maintain your new weight. How to judge when you can afford to splash out.

Above all, this is about eating sensibly and healthily for the rest of your life, without deprivation or starvation of the occasional treat.

The objective is to be able to sustain long term lifestyle changes and maintain weight and good health once achieved.