Oh that sweet sugar!

Well, a few evenings ago, I thought I was at an AA meeting for sugar addicts. Seriously, my guests and I were introducing ourselves like this:

"Hi, I'm Sarah*, and I am so addicted to sugar. I can't stop eating the stuff."

"Hi, I'm Lynn*, and I like sweet things so much. I find it hard to have any self control when it comes to sweet things".

"Hi, I'm Carol*, and my kids eat way too much sugar. I'd love to know how to cut that down".

I was hosting a Sugar Workshop with Angela Humphrey who is the master-head behind The Sugar Trade blog. A couple of weeks ago, I told you how I was eating myself skinny, and how cutting out sugar had been a huge part of that. I think these days, there is a lot of talk about how sugar is bad for you and how you should stop eating the stuff, but no one is really talking about practical tips on how to do it. I thought Angela was a great person to introduce some ideas to friends interested in making a change.

But here I'd like to tell you about my journey and my family's journey. I'm a baker. I love baking, I love making people feel warm and welcomed with my baking, and it's hard to let one day go by without baking something. But, I have two young children and not much time to fluff around. So I had to find an achievable solution. I did! Hopefully you can see that this is not a hard thing and that baby steps in the right direction are totally ok!

We were sugar addicts:

We were all addicted to sugar. My kids were eating a lot of chocolate and all my home baking contained sugar. My husband was putting 2 to 3 tsp of sugar in his tea or coffee, I was putting 1. We were adding sugar to our natural yoghurt, cereals, other hot drinks, sauces, and the list goes on.

Something had to change!

I did a lot of reading and research and realized that the bad stuff that was making us addicted, sick and fat was the fructose part of sugar (which is made of fructose and glucose in equal parts). If you'd like to know more about how sugar is bad for you, head over this way to "21 reasons to eat less sugar". The glucose however, our body needs, uses and burns to give us energy!

Fructose was the meanie and fructose had to go!

Changes I made on the family level:

Two years ago, I ditched all my sugar and bought a 25kg bag of powdered glucose. You can easily find smaller quantities in supermarkets. Glucose was an easy swap because in all my recipes I simply put the same quantity of glucose as what is required of sugar. So 1 cup sugar = 1 cup glucose. EASY. Glucose is a little less sweet, which is a good thing too. A few weeks after this change, my hubby had lost 5kgs! I also use Rice malt syrup, honey and glucose syrup. You can read more on alternatives to sugar on Angela's blog post on sugar alternatives.

One big thing I'm aware of now is food labels. I check the grams of sugar, divide it by 4, and that tells me how many teaspoons of sugar are in one serving. This is very eye-opening, and a helpful guide when I'm shopping. I can make much more informed choices of what I put in my trolley.

That's it! So EASY! Two years on, my kids eat a lot less chocolate (like, a month down the track their Easter baskets were almost untouched) and lollies, my husband puts 2 tsp glucose in his hot drinks and finds cafe baking way too sweet. The 5 kgs he lost was just a silver lining for him, as he's a pretty fit guy anyway.

Changes I made on a personal level:

At the same time as ditching the sugar and switching to glucose, I wanted to lose 20 kgs. I wanted to go hard out, so I ditched sugar, and all its high GI and glucose alternatives. I basically went cold turkey from one day to the next.

I won't lie to you. I suffered from headaches, bad moods, tiredness, grumpiness and bad sugar cravings for about two weeks. But, after that, my energy levels were amazing, I felt amazing, and there was no looking back. I had no baking for about 5 months, while I rapidly lost weight. I knew, however, that this was not sustainable long term because as I've said before, I LOVE BAKING, and I love eating my baking. 

So I did more research and trialled different things, and this is what I now use for myself: whole fruit (not dried), erythritol and stevia. They work for me, and I'm happy to give you some advice on making the switch if you're interested.

Yes, we do make exceptions! When we go to parties, or to see friends, or to a cafe or restaurant, we have sugar. There's no way around it, really, if you want some dessert or baking. But I'm ok with that, because it's not all the time. To be honest with you, my latest sugar loaded exception was at Louis Sergeant Sweet Couture on Featherston St in Wellington. Oh my, oh my... 

(A small note of caution though: when I do make exceptions, I know that I will very likely feel ill for a few hours afterwards - usually nausea and headaches. This does not happen to the rest of the family who eat glucose).

"Mon Tiramisu", Louis Sergeant Sweet Couture

Now before I finish off on this topic, I really want to share with you a recent decadent, delicious and surprising addition to my sugar free sweet treats! The original recipe is on Angela's blog, but here I give you my variation to make it low GI (it's already sugar free):

Green Chocolate Bliss Balls

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Ingredients

1 large avocado

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup powdered erythritol (I use my coffee grinder)

2 tbsp melted coconut oil

1 cup ground nuts (I use almonds)

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Instructions

Mash the avocado. Stir in vanilla and coconut oil. 

Mix in all the other ingredients, stirring well as you go.

Scoop up approximately teaspoon size portions, and roll into balls.

Roll in coconut, cocoa powder, ground almonds, etc.

Enjoy!

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That's it. I guess the biggest change we made was in our heads. Once we knew the facts, we decided what was ok and what wasn't for our family, then we forged ahead. I'd love to hear where you're at on your sugar journey or if you have some questions.

Kia Kaha! Be Strong!

*All names in this post are fictional :-).

Eat yourself skinny!

I wanted to write about erotica today, or Mummy porn. But I won't. I'm not ready to put myself out there that much yet. But watch this space because I've been doing a lot of thinking about this.

Instead, I thought I'd share a little more about my weight-loss journey. I empathize strongly with people who are overweight. I know how you feel. I know how you think. 

I know the battle that goes on in your head all the time.

I'm still on the battle field, and I've come to accept that I will be fighting this my whole life. I just like food too much. I'm obsessed with food and recipes even. When I'm eating a meal, I'm already thinking about what I'll be making for the next one! But, I don't like being overweight. Not only do I not like how I look when I'm overweight, but especially, I don't like how I feel. 

Never give up food you like to lose weight. Because you will lose the battle.

So, I've found a strategy that enables me to win so much more easily. I am loosing weight and I'm eating delicious food. I'm eating butter. I'm eating cheese. I'm having cream and ice cream. And cake. And I'm still eating some carbs. The secret is:

I don't mix fats and carbs and I always give my body protein!

I only ever give my body one fuel to burn. Either fats, or carbs.

And I don't eat sugar! That is the one big no no. And yes, it's hard to give up sugar. Your body will go into withdrawal. You will probably get bad headaches. After all, "sugar is more addictive than cocaine"! But after a few days you will feel better, the headaches will disappear, you'll have more energy, you'll have less cravings and you'll be more in touch with your hunger and satiety feelings.

Anyway, back to not mixing fats and carbs to lose weight. A dear friend lent me her Trim Healthy Mama book. I read it. It made sense. I applied it. I lost weight. I'm still losing weight. If I "cheat" too often, my weight loss stalls, or it goes up a bit, but as soon as I'm back on track, off fall the kilos.

I don't like to think of THM as a diet. It's more of a low GI eating plan with three main rules:

1) No sugar

2) Don't mix carbs and fats

3) Have protein at every meal

It's not hard to adapt to it. You just have to tweak some recipes a little. When my family have pasta, I have steamed cabbage or cauliflower. When they have fries, I have pumpkin or kumara (aka sweet potato) wedges. When I make cottage pie, I make a delicious cheesy cauliflower mash instead of potato mash. The kids and hubby didn't even notice it wasn't potato mash until I told them! When they have regular bread, I have my amazingly good low carb bread (my hubby even said it tasted as good as bread bought in Swiss bakeries - that's saying something!). 

My biggest mountain to climb was baking. I love baking. And I love eating my baking. How do you do that without white flour and without sugar? Well, I've found some great baking recipes on the All Day I Dream About Food blog. And I've played around with sugar substitutes:

• xylitol: very low GI, very little calories, tastes like sugar, but very high in fiber so tends to give me tummy issues.
• stevia: very low GI, no calories, but I can only bear the taste of high quality stevia, and only in my yoghurt.
• erythritol: very low GI, no calories, tastes like sugar. This is what I use in all my baking.

That's it really! I'm eating such delicious food and I'm losing weight. Once I've reached my weight goal, I'll be able to mix carbs and fats a little more to stabilize.

The most important thing for me is that I'm still having fun in the kitchen and I'm still enjoying everything I eat. 

Let me know if you have any questions or would like some more details or links.

Kia kaha! Be strong!

PS. Oh by the way, this food plan is really good for diabetics as it's low sugar and low GI. Many people have had amazing health results on this plan.

The dreaded weigh-in

Well, I'm a little down in the dumps tonight. I had my weekly weigh-in and I had only lost 100g. In case you're a new reader, I'll put you in the picture. From October 2012 to March 2013,

I lost 20kgs. 

And I was down proud of myself. Then started the long road to stabilization and to keeping that weight. It's so much harder than losing weight! So by August I was

up to 74kgs.

I joined Weight Watchers, because I'm the kinda girl who needs accountability. I need to know that I'm gonna get weighed every week. It worked. Late November I was back

down to 71kgs. 

Then came my dear father in law, whom I love dearly, but who takes us out to restaurants all the time. Then came Christmas and New Year celebrations. And - no WW meetings... At the first January weigh-in, I was

back up to 74kgs. 

Argh!!! My heart fell and I was so discouraged. But I'm not the kinda girl who's going to stay down. So I picked myself up and started watching what I was eating again. I still get to eat delicious things. But in moderation.

I've been trying harder the past two weeks. I went to the weekly weigh-in tonight, pretty confident. But I left with my heart in my feet, and looking at my feet.

I hate this love-hate relationship I have with food. I love good food. And I love eating. But I feel so much better now that I'm lighter and I have this huge fear of becoming very overweight again.

If you can relate, that's cool. If you can't, that's cool too. And if you're thinking, "man, what is she complaining about, she's lost all that weight already!", I hear ya, and that's cool. We're all at different stages. Some of us are happy with our body shape, some of us aren't. If we're not, and there's something healthy we can do about it, then we probably should. If we are happy, hallelujah, praise God!

I already feel much better having shared with you all. I love being open and honest. If you're struggling with weight-loss, or weight management, or body image, I'd love to hear from you. We're all in this together and we can support each other.

And now I will leave you for today and go and track what I ate today, because I haven't been doing that since early December, and maybe, maybe, there's the key for me.

Despite this battle with food, I must say that I pretty much like my body these days. Stretch marks and all. In my next post, I will share some of the steps I've worked out to positive body image.

Kia Kaha, Be Strong!

The dreaded weigh-in

Well, I'm a little down in the dumps tonight. I had my weekly weigh-in and I had only lost 100g. In case you're a new reader, I'll put you in the picture. From October 2012 to March 2013,

I lost 20kgs. 

And I was down proud of myself. Then started the long road to stabilization and to keeping that weight. It's so much harder than losing weight! So by August I was

up to 74kgs.

I joined Weight Watchers, because I'm the kinda girl who needs accountability. I need to know that I'm gonna get weighed every week. It worked. Late November I was back

down to 71kgs. 

Then came my dear father in law, whom I love dearly, but who takes us out to restaurants all the time. Then came Christmas and New Year celebrations. And - no WW meetings... At the first January weigh-in, I was

back up to 74kgs. 

Argh!!! My heart fell and I was so discouraged. But I'm not the kinda girl who's going to stay down. So I picked myself up and started watching what I was eating again. I still get to eat delicious things. But in moderation.

I've been trying harder the past two weeks. I went to the weekly weigh-in tonight, pretty confident. But I left with my heart in my feet, and looking at my feet.

I hate this love-hate relationship I have with food. I love good food. And I love eating. But I feel so much better now that I'm lighter and I have this huge fear of becoming very overweight again.

If you can relate, that's cool. If you can't, that's cool too. And if you're thinking, "man, what is she complaining about, she's lost all that weight already!", I hear ya, and that's cool. We're all at different stages. Some of us are happy with our body shape, some of us aren't. If we're not, and there's something healthy we can do about it, then we probably should. If we are happy, hallelujah, praise God!

I already feel much better having shared with you all. I love being open and honest. If you're struggling with weight-loss, or weight management, or body image, I'd love to hear from you. We're all in this together and we can support each other.

And now I will leave you for today and go and track what I ate today, because I haven't been doing that since early December, and maybe, maybe, there's the key for me.

Despite this battle with food, I must say that I pretty much like my body these days. Stretch marks and all. In my next post, I will share some of the steps I've worked out to positive body image.

Kia Kaha, Be Strong!

Food, Glorious Food!

The other day, I turned my nose to the most exquisite looking chocolate eclair! It looked perfectly puffy, oozing with cream and laced with chocolate sauce... Oh torture! I grabbed my take-away cappuccino and high-tailed it out of the newly opened Titahi Bay Cafe 236. I however highly recommend this new family held cafe as all their food looks scrumptious and their coffees rock.

Ah Food, Glorious Food! On Tuesday the 26th February 2013, my scales indicated without a doubt that I had reached my goal. I had lost 20kgs! I jumped for joy and would have climbed on my roof to shout it to all the neighbours if our roof wasn't so high. I'm onto phase 3 of my diet: stabilisation!

I can now eat a little cheese every day...

I can enjoy one fruit a day... Oh the taste of that mango with my yogurt!!!

I can very slowly chew 2 slices of wholemeal bread a day (bread was my biggest love in life before I met my husband and had kids by the way)...

I can have carbs one meal a week. And... I am allowed one CELEBRATION meal a week! Don't you love that name? Let's just celebrate food! For my first celebration meal I was out at a local pub with some girlfriends and I chose a good ol' burger and fries!

I enjoyed it and battled with guilt at the same time. Ha ha. I only ate about two thirds of what was on my plate though. Then I ordered dessert - because I could and only just managed half. I was so full and it was soooooo sweet (remember I haven't had any sugar since October). But hey, it felt good to be able to order dessert.

Last week, we had pizza for my celebration meal. I love pizza. My bread-maker takes care of the dough, then you can just about put anything on it! So much healthier than bought pizza, and my daughter absolutely loves helping.

I so enjoyed myself that night and we had raspberry ice-cream for dessert. My Grandma's recipe. It is THE MOST DELICIOUS ice cream ever! And I'm not too sure I want to share it. If enough of you beg for it, maybe it will be in my next post ;-p.

So hey, let's celebrate good food. Let's savour every single mouthful. Let's think about all the flavours tickling our taste buds.

Oh and by the way, I'm curious... If you hadn't had cheese, carbs, fruit or sugar for the past 5 months, what would your celebration meal be (you can have 1 entree, 1 main and 1 dessert, all in restaurant proportions)? Looking forward to hearing from ya! x

The elusive 1 kg

I have been on the diet journey since mid October 2012. That's not very long ago, even if some days it seems likes eons ago. Since then, I have lost 19kgs. And I've been stuck there for the past week. Why can't I lose this last @#$% kilo??? I will win though, of that I am certain.

Hey, I managed to lose 19kgs. Me, Ann, who was mostly always overweight. Who LOVES food with a Passion. Who doesn't remember places because of their beauty - but because of this nice cafe, or that delicious restaurant.

That's me, at this great cafe in Nelson a few weeks ago. I had a delicious chicken salad. The chef was happy not to crumb the chicken so that I could have it. I must say, every single cafe and restaurant I've been to has been extremely accommodating.


This morning, my dear other half said, "Good morning my slender wife". I thought he must be talking to someone else. Me? Slender? You gotta be kidding! And yet, I can now easily fit a size 12. I guess what I'm trying to say is that even though I've dropped 3 sizes and lost all that weight, I still think of myself as overweight most of the time. So the other day, as I was about to pull up these gorgeous size 12 trousers, I thought, "OK Ann, brace yourself, you're gonna get stuck half way up." I didn't. They fit fine and were even almost too big. And I just looked at myself, bewildered.

So I've been wondering. Am I so conditioned to demean myself that even with proof before my own eyes, I have doubts? How did this happen? I guess it's just many many years of trying to accept myself as I was, of making do, of being disappointed when something didn't fit. And yet I grew up with the knowledge that God loves me, that He accepts me the way I am, that it doesn't matter what I look like. See, I wish I could say that I loved my body as much before as I do now. But the absolute truth is, no I don't. I'm being very honest with you here, dear reader, and with myself. And I'm definitely not saying that either way is right or wrong. And what's the BIG deal anyway, you might ask?

I guess more than anything, losing weight has made me feel so much better physically: I'm less tired (I have more energy than my super fit husband now, ha ha), I'm more energetic, my mood is much better, I don't have sugar highs and lows, and I feel so much more confident and strong.

You know what? If I can do this kind of diet, you can too, if you want to. I was lying to myself for a long time and finding lots of excuses not to try and lose weight. But at the end of the day, I just wanted to be fit and healthy for my kids. I want their Mum to stick around for as long as possible, and I wanted to be able to keep up with them.

Has it been difficult losing 19 kgs in 5 months? YES! But, it was way easier than I ever anticipated. My dear husband even ate chocolate and home-made ice cream next to me in the evenings - and I resisted.

Because there was no way I was going to fail this challenge! And the cool thing is that with the Dukan Diet, you can actually eat as much as you like, just not of everything. So I'm never really hungry. Sometimes a bit bored by the same old same old though. As I said, I LOVE food. So I put my passion for cooking and my creativity at the service of my diet and created lots of yummy recipes that are not in Dr Dukan's book.

Anyway, that's me for tonight. Women rock. We are so much stronger than we often give ourselves credit for. Go for your dreams, reach for your goals and don't let self doubt and years of conditioning stop you.

What defines me?

I sat down with a hot mug of coffee 45 minutes ago to write this post. Then the phone rang, and it rang again. Now the coffee's finished but the baby is still sleeping so here's to hoping he stays asleep long enough for me to finish what I have to share today ;-p.

I have always been overweight. As far back as I can remember, and as photos can testify, I have never been the pretty and slim kind of girl. I like food. No, scrap that, I LOVE food. I love cooking and experimenting in the kitchen. I love showing my love for others by cooking for them. It's a hobby, it's a love affair.

And so I have never dieted. Oh, my Mum - bless you Mummy! - tried to get me to diet and lose weight when I was young, but I just wasn't interested. I hated my body, often with a passion, but I loved food more. Food was also my comfort in a world where I often felt alone and lost. Yes, I turned to food to try and heal the pain inside. Guess what? It never really worked! All it did was make me feel guilty because yet again, I'd caved in.

In my twenties I came to accept myself as I was a lot more, and my body didn't bother me as much. It was kind of frustrating not being able to find lovely clothes that I looked lovely in easily though. When I met my husband he fell in love with me for my heart, and my eyes. He thought I was cute, which I believe I was, but that wasn't enough. I wanted to be beautiful. Don't you want to damn those ads and the image of perfect beauty the media throw at us day after day after day?

I grew up as a Christian. I am a Christian. I know that God loves me just the way that I am. God created me in His perfect image. And yet, I wasn't satisfied. I didn't love myself. Even being loved just as I was by my husband wasn't enough.

And then I had two kids and the scales went even higher. But I loved my pregnancy body and belly. I felt beautiful and proud to be carrying my precious babies. Those were probably the times in my life where I was most comfortable in my own body - when I was at my heaviest. Go figure!

And so I had to ask myself... what defines me? Is it the way I look? Obviously! But I believed I could never have a slim figure. I put barriers and stumbling blocks in my head and on my own path. It was as if even though I hated what I saw on the outside, that was who I was and who I felt comfortable being. I strongly believe that it is a lot easier to stay the same than to face change. But the easy path is not always the right path, is it?

After I had my second baby and was hit by PND once again, I just couldn't live with myself anymore. I wanted change, and I wanted to feel better. I started doing things and saying things to change the course of who I was. I chose to believe not only with my head, but also with my heart, that God truly loves me, that my husband really does like me the way that I am. I started saying no, and I decided I was going to ask for help when I needed it.

And one day, I decided to lose weight! Not because I wanted to conform to today's ideal of beauty, not because I wanted to be more beautiful for my husband, not for anyone. But because I wanted to. For me, for my health, and to prove to myself that I would not be a stumbling block for myself any longer. Our limits are the limits we give ourselves.

Last October, I started the Dukan Diet. I have lost 14kgs so far. And I feel great!

I'd love to hear from you if my post has talked to you in any way.

Have a great weekend!