Food and Life...Some things never change...

Well, at this point it is not so much about losing weight as it is about not putting any on. Sad but true. It is all about moving more in my opinion. I love cooking good food - healthy food, nutritious fare...and most of the time that is what I eat. About 10% of my intake is from the occasional crisps, ice-cream and chocolate - and not necessarily in that order.

Breakfasts are often eggs and some sort of meat - this morning it was scrambled eggs with fresh cilantro and some chopped up thin mutton sausage from last night. Yummy...on Low GI Seed bread. Sam liked it - and off we went to work on the farm.


I made a good lentil and butter bean spiced dish for tonight's meeting about all things esoteric and alternative and self-sustaining. It was a merry evening and the vegetarian spiced lentil stew was a good one. The ostrich stew got chick peas in it and that was a welcome mid-afternoon snack:)


Got to Love Dogs they say???.....I say Got to love Food:))


Got to sleep too....

Weekly Low GI/GL Recipe

Low GI (and GL) is the healthiest way to eat for anyone, especially diabetics and slimmers. Every week I will bring you tips and recipes to help you change the way you and your whole family eats. The foods are filling and nutritious and will keep you from craving empty calorie foods. If you are a slimmer, you need to count the calories for as we all know by now, it’s “calories in, calories out!”. That means that you need to move about to expend the calories that you take in, and if you don’t move much, you will need to eat less.

On the subject of moving and getting your heart pumping, you can even do it sitting in a chair so we really don’t have any excuse. Try sitting on a dining room or kitchen chair, or even at your desk, and lift your arms up and down as if you were lifting weights. (You can use weights actually.) Then when you get really tired after counting about 20, change to sideways and back to your chest for another twenty. Now stand up and just swing your arms up and down and sideways and all around. Do that for a minute or two and see how you feel. It is a very simple way to start moving your body. When you have done your arms, you can sit on the chair and simply lift your legs up and down one at a time. At some stage you could wear ankle weights if you wanted to work you legs harder. Side bends come next, but that will wait for next week.

On to delicious foods! I got started with Low GI with Gabi Steenkamp and Liesbet Delport’s books “Eating for Sustained Energy”. They are excellent additions to the cookbook shelf. From book number 2 onwards they include the GL of foods as well. This tends to be lower carb, but this is not your Atkins type low carb diet. In fact, it is not a diet at all. This is a healthy, delicious food lifestyle, so let’s get rid of the word diet once and for all.

GI stands for Glycemic Index and GL for Glycemic Load.

GI ~ From http://www.glycemicindex.com/

The glycemic index or GI describes this difference by ranking carbohydrates according to their effect on our blood glucose levels. Choosing low GI carbs - the ones that produce only small fluctuations in our blood glucose and insulin levels - is the secret to long-term health reducing your risk of heart disease and diabetes and is the key to sustainable weight loss.

GL ~ From Wikipedia

Glycemic load or GL combines both the quality and quantity of carbohydrate in one ‘number’. It’s the best way to predict blood glucose values of different types and amounts of food. The formula is: GL = (GI x the amount of available carbohydrate) divided by 100.

Recipe of the Week ~ How to make a Low GL Cottage Pie

Cottage Pie is a favourite in many households. Here is a yummy Low GI/GL version..

Serves 6

Ingredients for Filling

10 ml grapeseed oil (or light olive oil)

1 medium onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic crushed

1 small carrot grated

1 red pepper, diced (contains Vitamin C)

450g lean organic beef mince

200g mushrooms, wiped with a damp cloth and sliced (good fibre) optional

10 ml MSG free beef stock powder (Ina Paarman or Woolworths)

5 ml dried oregano

1 x 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes, drained and reserve liquid

1 x 400 g red kidney beans, drained

3 tbsp tomato purée

Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onion and garlic for a couple of minutes until the onion is transparent.

Add the grated carrot and cook for a few minutes.

Add the diced pepper and place lid on to sweat for 3 minutes.

Add the mince and cook until it starts to turn grey/brown.

Remove any fat with a spoon and discard.

Add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes.

Add the drained chopped tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato purée, stock powder and oregano.

Cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Add the juice from the drained tomatoes if it becomes too dry.

Taste and adjust seasoning.

Ingredients for Topping

150 g potato chopped

150 g sweet potato chopped

60 ml low fat milk

Salt and ground black pepper

30 g low fat cheddar cheese grated

Paprika

Method

Boil potatoes until soft.

Add the milk and mash

Assemble

Put mince in an oven-proof pie dish and smooth topping over. Sprinkle grated cheese on top of potato mash and sprinkle with paprika.

Bake in 180°C oven for about 20 minutes until heated and bubbling.

10 kilos and going strong...

Just a quick entry today...10 kilos gone since the 5th of May. The last 2 kilos have been slow but it doesn't worry me at all. The big thing is that those kilos have stayed off. The rules are simple - eat healthy foods and have smaller helpings than normal. Today I indulged in one of my favourite high fat meals at one of my favourite restaurants just out of town - 3 Bridges near Hoedspruit. Potato Gnocchi Formaggio with blue cheese and parmesan sauce. The main thing is that I had a half portion and that was more than enough. The salad was a delight, with paw paw and orange mixed in with the lettuce and cucumber. While everyone else had a decadent dessert I sipped on my black coffee. I had 2 glasses of white wine after a cup of tea and two glasses of sparkling water...and yes! I felt really good. Well behaved:)

Now on to a more disciplined week with a bit more exercise and more vegetables in my daily intake.

Going strong!...

I am loving this Low GI lifestyle. I started on the 5th of May and I have not looked back since then. It means that this is long-term and a true change of my way of eating. There can be nothing better than that.

The recipes have been mostly great and this morning I made myself Green Pea Soup (not split pea soup) for breakfast. Yes - for breakfast:) It came from Eating for Sustained Energy 3. What great books. The soup contains onion, garlic, lean bacon, courgettes, (I changed that from baby gem squashes because that is what I had in the fridge) potato, frozen peas, chicken stock, lite evaporated milk and fresh grated nutmeg. Yummeeeee! I had one and a half servings. 383 calories. One serving was just not enough.

The reason I made the soup is because I have not been eating enough vegetables and I reckoned that this was a good way to get a few in. It is a twofold reason in that I am also trying out different soups for my tea garden as the menu is based on Low GI foods. If it is good for me then it must be good for everyone. I love herbs and spices so the foods that I offer are filled with flavour and there is no way that someone would think it was "diet" food.

My one week holiday was a great success in that I did not put on an ounce. I did not lose but I did not put on and that is a huge plus. We are making Leek and Potato soup for tonight as well as Beef Chilli to be served with brown rice and a garden fresh salad. My lettuces are growing beautifully and the new salad garden is looking promising. The spinach is all growing so beautifully and the tomato plants are sporting their little yellow flowers with the promise of red luscious fruit to come. These are all planted with companion plants and organically grown. We make our own compost and I have supplemented with Seagro and Nitrosol - all organic. It is now time to plant root vegetables as the moon is on the wane. I have some carrots, onions and beetroot seeds just waiting to go in. It is so satisfying to eat from my own garden! At least I will know that it is truly organic!

On to the rest of this lovely day...

8 kilos gone in one month!...

It may seem like a lot and in some ways it could be construed as too fast - 8 kilos in one month - but I have a lot to lose and therefore it goes quickly in the beginning. It will soon slow down and I will need to accept it because it is healthier to lose slowly and steadily.

This new way of life is taking a little getting used to and I still have to look up a lot on my tracker or in my low calorie/low fat counter but it gets easier as the weeks go by. Beans beans beans, whole grains and of course lots of green vegetables. Fortunately I like this kind of food.

This week I managed to do a 55 minute session of exercise which resulted in painful knees! It was possibly the step exercises. The weights part was great though. There's something called chair dancing that I found on YouTube which looks like fun and since it is a little cold for swimming, maybe this is a good thing to do. I need to lose a bit more weight before I try more step exercises!

I have added more fibre to my diet in the last week and feel that it is helping the weight loss along. More fibre serves to make me feel full more quickly. It seems that I have been doing all kinds of wrong things over the years. Dieting is one of them! When I was doing low carb I know that I didn't have enough fibre and generally speaking I didn't have enough vegetables as well, and way too much fat. Since changing my eating habits over the last month I have learnt so much and honestly feel better. Although I eat much less fat, I still cook with grapeseed oil and try to make sure I have three teaspoons of good oils a day (certainly not margarine though!) As we lose weight, our skin gets looser and the oils are necessary to retain some elasticity. (What doesn't spring back, will have to get tightened!)

Last night I had corn on the cob without butter and it was delicious. So sweet. Tonight I had steamed broccoli with only sea salt and ground black pepper and that was also very tasty. Tomorrow I am going to make a delicious marinated cabbage dish and a vegetarian chilli with red kidney beans. That should take care of quite a few fibre points!

Now to plan tomorrow's meals. Although this planning and research seems to be taking a large chunk of my day, what with looking up recipes and meal plans, it won't be long before it will come naturally and not feel like I am studying nutrition. I had become used to low carb over the years and this is all fairly new to me. I have always hated the thought of counting calories but now it is just a case of getting used to the foods needed for an ongoing healthy lifestyle. This is not a diet which starts and then stops. Those are the ones that have made me fat over the years. Lose a little put on more, lose a little, put on...etc etc etc.

No more of that. On to the next kilo:)

The day after...

I know now why I stopped drinking wine! It makes me want to eat more:(

Yesterday was my high calorie day - or high carb day (as in carb cycling). Unfortunately I drank some champagne and then some wine. My body is not used to it any more and I was nodding off by 7.30...unheard of for me. On my way to bed I ate two cookies and didn't seem to care either. Not good. But it showed me that my system does not do well with wine anymore, and I guess that is something good. I actually love my bitters and sparkling water and I feel so good in the morning and I have found that I enjoy a party even more not drinking alcohol. I also get to be the designated driver quite often:)

Today I found a new low GI, low fat cookbook and it has some wonderful recipes in it. I am looking forward to trying out quite a few. There must be about 500 or more recipes in various books waiting to be tried out so I have a wonderful time ahead of me. Of course, I like to add my own touch to most recipes - that's half the fun.

Lunch yesterday started with a wonderful spicy cauliflower soup which my guests and I enjoyed immensely. The croutons were so good...1 slice of white bread (four servings) cut up in cubes and rolled in one tablespoon of olive oil mixed with a tablespoon of finely grated Parmesan cheese and fried in a non-stick pan with no extra oil. (You can also bake them in the oven until crispy, turning at least once.) They were delicious and could be used in many different soups. Speaking of soups, this is the season for them here in Africa and so many people just love soups. They are going on to my restaurant menu when we re-open on the first of July.

Today we made fresh tomato and basil soup which got the thumbs up from my strictest critic - my husband. To get on to the menu, a dish has to get at least seven and a half out of ten. Lately quite a few dishes have passed muster, and they have all been low fat low calorie low GI recipes. It just goes to show that one does not need to compromise on taste to make good healthy food.

I am sure I might have said this before - this is not a diet - this is a new and exciting way of life and I am loving it. Never thought I would ever say that about low fat food. I still use butter, but very little, often mixed with grapeseed oil, so my saturated fats have diminished but flavour has not. There is still cream in my dishes, but it is reduced fat cream or sometimes low fat evaporated milk. One doesn't need much to flavour the food. Herbs and spices are wonderful additions to so many dishes and this is where my herb garden comes into its own. Today I picked up my order of vegetable and herb seedlings and some large bags of organic compost to go in the new circular garden at the back of the restaurant. Tomorrow these babies get planted in their new home. We use no pesticides but concentrate on companion gardening so there is some planning to be done and it should all be in place by the end of the weekend. There is nothing like picking fresh organic produce from your own garden.

Lovely stuff! On to cooking!

One more kilo gone!...

One more kilo gone which means I have lost 6 kilos since the 5th of May. What a treat...I am so chuffed. It also serves to spur me on to even loftier heights. Today the exercise will be step work and weights. I have two sets of dumbbells, one heavier than the other and I actually like using them. It also means I don't have to go to the gym. In this session today I will be adding callanetic crunches and some yoga stretches. I will also end with some stretches from Rosemary Conley's Amazing Inch Loss Plan book. It is a great book with a good list of food suggestions. We don't get the shop bought packaged foods that they have in Britain, but I prefer fresh foods any day.

Breakfast was substantial: Kellogg's Special K Red Berries cereal with 50ml 2% milk, one slice of low GI seeded loaf toast, a scraping of butter and a dry fried egg. (378 calories on my sparkpeople nutritional tracker.) It has certainly kept me going all morning. 2 plums for a snack and on to lunch with a broccoli, spring onion, celery and pepper salad with a low fat mayo dressing with Verjuice instead of red wine vinegar, and some xylitol to sweeten. I have been struggling to get in enough vegetables so my intention is to have a vegetable soup or salad every lunch time. That is when my hubby is not here and he doesn't like vegetables ~ thinks chicken is salad:) He eats a mixed salad at night time only because he knows it is good for him, and I nagged him enough when we got married nearly 21 years ago.

Tonight I have Dorado (mahi mahi) fish waiting to be grilled. Yum. Looking forward to that. Will write about it later.

That's all for the morning - on to the exercises!