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!

Carb cycling...

Today I woke up after a great week really keeping to the plan, weighed myself just to check my progress, albeit three days early, and saw no movement on the scale. Fortunately I had already learnt about carb cycling and also remembered how the body holds on to fat when it thinks it is being starved. So I gave myself a higher count today. It's worked before.

Breakfast was 3 rashers of lean bacon and 2 fried eggs with one slice of Low GI seeded bread and a scraping of butter. Lunch was lentil and cracked wheat soup and an awesome new quiche recipe from a low GI cookbook. The filling was a huge surprise and completely different to any quiche I have ever made before. The crust comprised high fibre cereal soaked in a little 2% milk, flour, baking powder, salt, a little oil and an egg. It made a great crust, which was the first surprise, especially with the cereal.

The filling was the really big surprise though. The lean bacon, onion and tomato were quite normal as was the egg, milk, and maybe the yogurt...but the big difference was the tin of baked beans in tomato sauce! This was blended with the eggs, milk, yogurt, flavourings and spices and when cooked it was great! My lunch guests loved it and couldn't believe there were baked beans in it. I will definitely be trying out something along the same lines. An invention test?

Tonight my husband is grilling some chicken sosaties on the electric barbecue right here in the TV room while we watch Masterchef Australia. We love it and I get quite emotional, especially at elimination time. Watching the contestants improve and grow is such a treat and of course some of the dishes are so good, and then some of them are just plain weird.

Tomorrow I shall do my own cooking test, learning how to make naan bread from Anjum Anand's TV programme Indian Cooking Made Easy from BBC Lifestyle. I shall also make a curry to go with it. The coriander is growing beautifully in a pot outside my kitchen door and will be used to top the naan bread. The curry leaves from the curry bush will go into the chicken and vegetable dish which will be spiced with coriander, cumin and cardamom. I love my herb garden and more than that I love cooking with them. Simple joy.

Cook on!

What a good day, and an excellent night too:)

The day started with 50g Special K with Berries, 100ml 2% milk and one dry fried egg. Lunch was a little more substantial - we made a new soup today - calories just over 200 - tomato with leek and haricot beans. It was spiced with my favourites - what I call the C spices - cardamom, coriander and cumin. With it, a slice of toasted granary bread, it made a great lunch. Filled me up.

I found I was very sleepy in the afternoon so I had an hour's nap to prepare for the evening out. What would we get to eat I wondered? It was a gala dinner invitation by a company re-launching itself and they had a great surprise for everyone. And what a treat it was!

We were superbly entertained by stunning funny man, illusionist, motivational speaker Wolfgang Riebe. And the man has soul too. He is a true pro and he worked that audience with all the aplomb of the international performer he is. Our gathering was very privileged to have someone of his caliber to entertain us. I laughed so much that I am sure I shall sleep well tonight - and I didn't have one drink, well not alcoholic. My favourite drink of the moment is sparkling water and Angostura Bitters. OK, it has alcohol in it - quite a lot actually - but a few drops doesn't really constitute and alcoholic drink now does it?!! The food was mercifully edible and I did really well. The starter was fish (hake) in some kind of sauce, so I didn't take extra sauce and only had a wee bit of fish. Main course was roast beef with some creamed spinach, mixed vegetables, rice and roast potatoes...so I didn't take any potatoes or rice and had only two slices of beef, a little creamed spinach and the mixed veggies. It was more than enough and I think my stomach has definitely shrunk because I did not need any more than that.

This is way easier than I thought it would be. And I am loving trying out new recipes. I weighed in on Monday (23rd) and have lost 5 kilos since the 5th of May (that is 18 days). AWESOME!!!

Go Girl, Go Go Go!!!

Low Fat Smoked Haddock Chowder...

Today was a day of experimenting and a good day it was too. Modjadji and I made a Low Fat Smoked Haddock Chowder from ingredients I had in the fridge and freezer.

Here in our little part of Africa the winter is drawing in, although today was a high 29°C! What winter I wonder? We will be lucky if we get two months of it.

Soups are a favourite of many and I am trying out, inventing and collecting low calorie recipes for my restaurant. I have not yet found a restaurant or bistro which offers slimming recipes with calorie counts - certainly not in my little town. I am hoping that it will be a great service to many dieters. They will be able to buy take aways and frozen dinners as well.

Unfortunately diabetes and obesity is on the rise everywhere and we all need some good healthy food. The aim is to try and encourage everyone in the family to change their eating lifestyle. Since I am on the path to slim and healthy, I thought it would be a good thing to put my kind of dishes on the menu. I shall also be offering cooking classes teaching about cooking with healthy, fresh ingredients that are great on taste and flavour. We re-open on the 1st of July. Not long to go now.

Here is today's dish...

Low Fat Smoked Haddock Chowder

1 tsp grapeseed oil (this has a high smoke point and is flavourless)
1 medium leek (50g) finely chopped
1/2 onion (50g) finely chopped
2 or 3 Tbs water
200 ml 2% milk
200 ml vegetable stock (I use an MSG free stock powder)
1 bay leaf
1 medium potato 60g diced
250 gm smoked haddock cut into bite size pieces

Heat the oil in a pot and add the leek and onion
Cook gently for about 5 minutes
Add 2 or 3 Tbs water and cook for a further 5 minutes
Add the stock, milk, bay leaf and potatoes and simmer for 10 minutes or until the potato is cooked.
Now add the haddock and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until haddock flakes easily.
If the soup is too thick, add boiling water as desired.
(I think I will mash the potato next time before I add the fish...)

Makes 2 generous 1 cup portions.

Calories 222.5: Carbs 15.3g: Fat 5.2g

Tomorrow is another cooking day and I fancy a protein vegetable delight...who knows?

Watch this space:)

Lost another two kilos...YAY!!!

I am so chuffed:) In two weeks and two days I have lost 4 kilos. I love it. I am feeling great and certainly motivated. I haven't done much exercise but I am moving more these days. My energy levels are high and I am eating more vegetables than I am used to...that's a pat on my back. Water intake is good and my concentration levels and my attitude towards weighing the foods is positive. The other thing is that I am not feeling deprived nor craving any particular food.

My dinner bowl was chock full of fresh steamed broccoli, steamed sweet corn cut off the cob and lightly boiled carrots, all drizzled with fresh lime juice squeezed from organic limes from my tree. Also sea salt and ground black peppercorns. I thought I would miss the oil or butter and eyed my bottle of truffle flavoured oil but thought better of it, and the dish was delicious... and my tummy is full.

Fat is not my friend and that I have realised using my tracker. Amazing how much fat there is in sausage for instance. In South Africa we have a very popular spiced beef sausage called boerewors. I cooked it in water instead of grilling or frying it and it was awesome how much fat came off with the water. I cooled it in the fridge and weighed it. 50 grams of fat! And this was off 500 grams of sausage.

Vegetables are now my BEST friend. I am full, and I know I have had some really good nutrition. I love my sparkpeople tracker - it is my other best friend:)

Go! Go! Go!

Getting used to it now...

After about three weeks of counting calories I am getting used to it now. I still need to weigh everything but I really don't mind. I am learning something of value.

There are at least twenty recipe books with sticky notes in them lying on my bed. This is my bedtime reading and I love it. I have more than enough recipes now to make up a fabulous menu for dieters coming to my café/art gallery. There will also be Low GI frozen dinners and take-aways with the calorie, carbohydrate and fat counts available for diabetics and slimmers. There is nothing like that in town at the moment so I aim to corner that market, however small or large it may be.

Yesterday's exercise session has left me a little stiff in the shoulders. It was the weights:) No matter. Tomorrow will be aquaerobics in the pool and that always feels so good. It is lovely to feel so weightless. I run on the spot and tread water a lot, pumping my arms, and also do jumping jacks and then swimming in between exercises to get the heart rate up. It is winter here but the water is refreshing and it is never cold for long after starting to exercise. At least I don't feel the sweat.

Today's calorie count was good and I feel great after drinking water all day. My goal weight date is 21 June 2012, winter solstice, and I can just see the party and feel the new dress. Love it. I aim to make a vision board (play like a child) and cut out some great photos and outfits and make a poster for my wall. I can taste and feel the success:))

Go girl go!!!

Day of research...

Surrounded by recipe books with nutritional counts in them, I spent the day holed up in my bedroom. It was a strange one. I didn't feel like seeing anyone or going anywhere so I buried my nose in the books and looked up all the good dishes I shall be making over the next while. I have also decided to offer low cal, low fat, low GI foods in my Art Cafe and also for take-aways. This is especially for dieters who really don't know what to do next or those who are just plain bored with their own diet food. The list of scrumptious foods is growing on my data base and pretty soon I will start sharing them on this blog. Also I will be sharing my daily food lists for anyone who might be interested.

This is a short entry today because I can hear the thunder rolling over the African bushveld. Any moment there will be lightning.

Until tomorrow...

Keeping on track...

Came in just right for most of my nutritional tracking, however a little over on the fats. It must have been the chicken pie although it was only the filling as I took off the pastry and didn't eat it. It was a home-made pie at a friend for lunch so I really guessed the calories and used the tracker to take a stab at it. It will not be as high in fat so maybe I was better than the report says!

I am getting stronger every day about not drinking alcohol and have my new drink instead - sparkling mineral water with Angostura bitters in it. Refreshing and pink! It also contributes to my water intake.

The one area I really need to improve is my vegetable intake. To that end I have stocked up on the green stuff! Broccoli, green beans, salad leaves, green yellow and red peppers, snap peas ~ and I am also growing my own organic spinach and lettuce, as well as various herbs. I made a delicious butternut and apple soup last night topped with snipped coriander leaves from my garden. Yum!

At present I am looking through as many recipe books which have calorie counts in them. Fortunately there are enough of them to last a good few months of meals and I take great delight in putting sticky notes on the pages with enticing recipes with the right number of calories. There are now many little colourful sticky papers encouraging me to cook good low calorie meals. I do so love to cook (and eat of course!) and to find delicious slimming recipes is a joy.

My sister turned me on to Rosemary Conley's Amazing Inch Loss Plan on which she has lost 5 kg in 3 1/2 weeks and oodles of inches. As suggested in the book, I have taken an unflattering picture of myself (ugh!) and also noted down my measurements. That was pretty scary actually. The diet is very low in fat which is really hard for me as I am not a really big fan of low fat. I believe we need it. I use mainly grapeseed and olive oil which are healthy oils and if I use butter it is a mere scraping. The calories in the first two weeks are only 1200 - although I am aiming at between 1200 and 1550. I am happy with that and I am losing.

It has taken me just over a week to get into this way of eating but I feel I am in it now. The afternoons are the worst part of the day as I feel really hungry around 4 or 5. If I have a protein shake/smoothie it becomes a little easier. I add psyllium husk, berries, a little yogurt, a scoop of protein powder and some ground flaxseed. I may also add a teaspoon of xylitol, although I have recently learned that too much of that can affect the kidneys, or was it the bladder?

Isn't it strange how one day a certain foodstuff is a good thing and the next someone discovers something negative about it. Like margarine and butter, or eggs and cholesterol. One year it is good and the next it is not. Our parents didn't know anything like what we know today and they survived! In fact my gran and grandpa lived to their 90s and they ate everything. Lamb chops with fat, chicken with skin, pastry rich pies, creamy desserts, cakes and cookies...and my gran could cook up a storm. The Sunday lunch table was a sight to behold. If you didn't eat all your food she would say that you didn't like it - and if there was nothing left on the table, she felt she hadn't cooked enough! You couldn't win:)

I look forward to tomorrow and a new recipe, and lots of veggies. Bring it on!

At last the weight is moving off...

This is a slightly scary thing, blogging about my weight loss and making it public, but at the same time it is a positive move. At least I didn't put "I wish I was losing weight", since in actual fact I am losing weight at last. I have been struggling with weight gain for so many years and now I have found a way to eat and diet successfully. For most of my dieting life I have favoured the low carb way and when I put back all the weight I had lost and started low carb dieting again, my whole being just refused to go back to that way of eating. Of course it was all down to feelings of deprivation. No bread! And loads of meat! Unfortunately I had done Atkins for too long and become used to that way of eating, but whenever I tripped up and ate carbs, the weight would come back really quickly and the feelings of deprivation would take hold of me and not let go, and depression and rebellion would set in.

In steps my sister. She has lost a lot of weight on a simple low calorie diet with some good exercise. Counting calories? Oh no! Just what I didn't want to do, but my weight problem had got so severe that I was willing to try this way as a last resort. At least I didn't have to give up everything I ever loved - as long as I counted it in. Having a restaurant and catering business does not make dieting easy, and I was not going to give up a business that I love. So I started counting, and eating less saturated fat and cooking with yogurt instead of cream (not always) and staying away from too many sweet things and diminishing my intake of wine.

In the first week I lost 2 kilos and did no exercise...and now I am on a roll. Now I am going with the low calorie flow. This is my journal. I also track everything I eat on sparkpeople.com and love it because it makes my life easier and I know exactly how much I am eating and if I slip up and don't eat my greens or have too many carbs, the report lets me know where I need to fix things. I can also track my exercises and any other goals I may make for myself.

The next step is to put the link to this blog on my website and put it out there! Instead of hiding my dieting life - I am now going to share it. I feel this is a huge step towards a great victory. My goal weight date is the 22nd of June 2012. Bring it on!

Exercise has been very hard for me as my damaged knee (motorbike accident) curtails a lot of movement, and of course, the weight on it has not helped. Swimming and aquaerobics is the easiest on my body and I love the weightlessness. I simply don't feel any pain and love the water. We are approaching winter now, but I am determined to continue throughout the year and get strong and swimming fit. I also have weights and actually like doing some of the exercises as it empowers me somehow. Being a yoga lover gets me stretching but I have neglected it for a long while now, so it is time to get back into the habit again.

Somehow I am excited - and that is a relatively new experience for me when it comes to losing weight as I have been despondent for so long. The thought of being able to stand and work in the kitchen of the restaurant and not feel pain in my back and in my knees is spurring me on. To be able to stand at my easel and paint without having to sit down because of the heaviness is something to which I can aspire, something to which I can look forward. Those are good reasons, but there are also the obvious ones, like being able to move faster and perhaps even play tennis again. To know that my organs will be less stressed and that my heart will be able to work more efficiently, those are more good reasons to continue on this path.

I can do it! I am doing it!!! I am trucking along.