Bad info for children/parents

I live in Knox council and we get this magazine free in the local library etc called, 'Your Child in Knox'. Am sure they have it in other areas, with 'Your Child in...'/insert different name.

Anyway, they had this article called, 'Smart Snacking!' that is written by "an accredited practicing dietician & accredited nutritionist".

It's all about low-fat this and low-fat that. ie. low-fat yogurt, low-fat dip, low-fat milk, low fat cheese sticks etc are all suggested.

Gillespie wisely pointed out that there is no need to do the low-fat thing but just have whole products. The lactose naturally found in dairy is an OK form of sugar.

I get mighty tired of that low-fat push and think that this dietitian/nutritionist should know better. Have often found the advice of those professionals, who one would think would be up with the latest knowledge, to be wanting.

Grrrr! Leading astray the poor parents of Knox (and other places) like that!

Birthday relaxing

OK, I had my birthday on Tuesday the 9th August. 42 now! I always celebrate with Birthday Eve, Birthday and then Birthday Boxing Day. Well, I have since I was in my mid 20s. So, on those 3 days, I ate what I wanted, sugary or not. Got lots of headaches so that was unpleasant. Stew was worried that I'd get re-addicted but so far, so good.

Well...since then, I have had cake twice. Once, it was 9 days after my birthday and somebody handed me a small piece of birthday cake and said to eat it. I did, as I thought, "Welll, maybe I can do the party food for parties". Immediately got a sugar headache. 3 days later, somebody sang Happy Birthday to a few of us who were having our b'days in August and so it was actually a cake for me. This time, I felt pressured to eat it. Again, got an immediate headache. When I have honey on my crumpets, once a month (been doing this for about 2 months now), I don't get the headaches.

This was interesting. Should I have refused the cakes? Probably. Am not craving chocolate or anything so don't think I'm addicted but still...

Still loving avocados, plain yogurt with pear/cinnamon/LSA etc, tuna/mayo/egg salads etc So good and healthy. For someone who used to live for peanut butter and honey sandwiches, am now just enjoying plain peanut butter on its own. (Mind you, it's a Sweet Poison friendly one - Sanitarium's no added sugar or salt, smooth) Loving it overall.

Sure, it was nice to relax for a few days but happy to eat well the rest of the time. Haven't eaten anything sweet at playgroups etc since so the only 'mishaps' have been those two cake slices. Next planned relaxed sugary eating is Christmas where I hope to have a big slice of my m-in-law's pavlova, Christmas pudding etc Maybe the odd 'Party food for parties' before that but only very rarely.

Finally, a blog again!

Sick babies are tiring! Blah! Computer problems are horrible. Blah! They conspired against my blogging.

This was taken on 14th June, 2011, in Sydney. Hopefully my face is starting to look a bit slimmer in photos??? I notice a difference, in the mirror, but photos always make one look fat! Stew says it's coming off all over, slowly but surely. If only the next 10kg would just fall off!!! LOL

Well, still just plodding away. Still doing the Sweet Poison journey. It's still around 10kg lost, which is around 73kg. Somedays, it's even been down to 72.7 etc Have never 'dieted' before - if you can call this dieting - so am most pleased that I've stuck to it for over 5 months. Am loving it, overall, and very glad that I read the books and had my life changed.

Since Easter, have had no chocolate. Only 'sins' I've done, since then, have been a crumpet with honey on it, around once a month. Yum! The honey just drizzles down through those little, wicked holes...Quick, stop me thinking about them!

My 42nd birthday is on August 9th. We've just booked into the Melba Brasserie at the Langham hotel in the city, on Southbank, here in 'sunny' old Melbourne. I love that place! [My friend got me onto it back in the 90s, when we lived on the Gold Coast. She took me to the Sheraton's Melba, there, and I was hooked. I digress...] Luckily, I hate their desserts and only go for their yummy mains. Their desserts are too fancy or horrible - like truffles - unless you count the plain old yummy ice cream with melted chocolate to drizzle over it.

However, I do want to have a few 'treats' that birthday week. Maybe ice cream, thickshake or something. I've already bought (last Sunday) the Cherry Ripe that I'll eat. It's up in the cupboard. Hubby was worried that I'd eat it ASAP but I am quite happy to wait. It's quite nice to plan the few things I'll allow myself. I guess, instead of doing the 'Party food is for parties', I will do a few things a few times a year.

I confess that I am looking forward to it! Bring on that birthday week! Shameful, I know. I really do miss chocolate, sometimes. Must have a big emotional attachment, or something. Silly to look forward to having poison, I know, but it's what keeps me going, sometimes. Knowing I can eat it, if I want to, but I choose not to and will only have it at certain times. Never knew I had willpower, til now!

If I feel disgusting after it, who know whether I will change my ideas of next 'splurging' at Christmas?

Survived bread fast

I did a 10 day bread fast. Well, it turned out being 11 days, but it officially wasn't meant to be. It was for religious/faith reasons in that I was doing it to honour God/seek His will and not to lose weight. [I can't fast the usual way as I'm breastfeeding and don't watch TV so can't do a TV fast etc A religious fast has to mean something to you and I love bread so that's why I chose it.] My sister told me I'd probably lose weight anyway but I tried not to focus on that.

Interestingly, it just stayed the same at first. Then, it got less but super slowly. [The weight , even before the bread fast, seemed to hover around 73.5 to just over 74 for ages, like a few weeks etc. Grrr!]

Anyway, to not eat bread for lunch, I frequently had that protein salad I mentioned in my last blog - small tin tuna, 2 chopped boiled eggs, whole egg mayo, chopped celery/capsicum/carrot etc It was very nice and very filling. Protein really does fill you up. A glass of milk, here and there. Handfuls of nuts and seeds etc

Today, the scale said 73.1kg so it's pretty much now 10kg, as I was 83kg when I started. That last kg went very ssssslllllooooowwwwwlllllyyyyy!!!! I know I need to cut portions to be smaller but we've had sick kids and lots of stress so I do what I can. My child health nurse told me that I look like I've lost lots of weight and appear more energetic.

The bread thing taught me a lot. I eat way too much bread sometimes, what with my daughter's job at Baker's Delight and all. However, I DID survive without it. I love bread so much that I didn't think it'd be possible. It's so yummy. Making the baby girls' lunches every day, out of bread, was hard! Also, it was my absolutely favourite bread twice last week. Oh dear! Those days were very hard. I now know that I can live without bread and the fast may have helped me cut down heaps. I hope, anyway. I want to eat it far less, overall. I was convicted of my greed for bread.

When I knew I wouldn't have time to make the tuna salad for lunch, I ate plain yogurt, diced pear & cinnamon etc for breakfast so I could have Sweet Poison muesli for lunch. Or things like that. Once, hubby made me some scrambled eggs with tuna and avocado.

Last week, I went to visit the Special Care Nursery where the baby spent 7 weeks and 1 day last year. One of the nurses said she thought I looked taller/slimmer when I told her that I'd lost 10kg. I had to laugh at the 'taller'. I wish!!! I still have about 10kg to go so it's looking like a long haul. However, I didn't go into this as a crash diet thing then move on so I'm going to keep on keeping on.

Had a dream last night that I ate some chocolate! Knew it was wrong but still did it. Was disappointed that I couldn't taste it. Now, I know why. It was just a dream!!! Mind you, I do sometimes think longingly of my b'day on Aug 9th and think how I'll eat some poisonous food then. That's my next allowed time. Pretty sick, huh!

Anybody reading this blog, please tell me if you do the 'party food is for parties' thing? I haven't, thus far, and have just avoided it all. I was scared to get re-addicted. When people say to me, "Oh, so you're never gonna have sugary food again?", I say, "Well, once I've lost all my weight, I may have some every few months or something. I haven't decided yet."

Saint Stewart would disagree with that. He is sooo good, on the whole. He's like, "Why eat something that gives you a headache and is poison etc" Mind you, it's only been chocolate that gives me headache, since I started this. When we've had the odd honey crumpet - my few sins, I confess - I've not got a headache.

Protein-y lunches

In trying to eat less bread, I am trying to think of bread-less lunches to eat. Now that the baby is older, it might be easier to make some lunches that take longer to make than just slapping a sandwich or two, together. (I was lucky to do that, some days, as she'd just cry the whole time, often)

Twice this week, I had a 'salad', consisting of:

1x95g tin Tuna (in springwater)
2 boiled eggs, diced
whole egg mayo
diced avocado, carrot, red capsicum and celery

It was absolutely delicious and very filling, so I didn't get hungry afterwards. I posted that I had that for lunch, on Facebook, and someone wrote, "All you need is bread to make it perfect lunch!" D'oh! LOL  Had to explain that I'm trying to avoid bread...

Even if I did have 2 sandwiches, I often felt like I could have more, afterwards. Protein really is more filling, as my sister kept telling me. Still, missing the bread though. Making the babies' sandwiches, makes me long for it, sometimes.

Another day, I had one of those Campbell pumpkin soup thingies that come in the Tetra Brick containers. That was a yummy lunch.

Any other suggestions?

Chai tea not Sweet Poison friendly???

Back from Sydney, definitely, and our computer hassles, I hope. Gee, could have easily thrown my laptop out the window!!!

In Sydney, my lovely sister Michelle shouted me lunch. Then, she told me I was welcome to have a tea/coffee/hot chocolate etc It's been months since I had a Chai Latte so I asked to have that please. It was sooo nice that I had another one, that weekend, back here in Melbourne after church. Again, just lovely. If I have a choice, I get the lovely spicy one, not the Vanilla one. Stew thought it tasted too nice so asked to see the tins they use for the Chai powder. One said about 50% sugar (Vanilla) per 100gms and the other said 60% (Spicy). Wow! No wonder it tasted nice. I was crushed that there truly is nothing I can order when out. No wonder I haven't had a Chai Latte since before I began this. Maybe I looked into it but forgot.

Anyway, the next week at playgroup, someone offered me a Chai Latte sachet (think it was Lipton's) in a different brand. I asked to examine the box's details and it said 'only' 6.6 per 100gms. This seemed OK - as I assumed some of the sugar would be for the lactose in the milk as you didn't need to add milk -  so I had it. After I'd drunk it, I examined the box and it said that per serving sugar is 16.6. I'm a bit confused and so is Stewart. Is it OK or not? Probaby not, as sugar was the second ingredient, from memory.

Weight is still around 74kg. Went down to 73.6 for a while but then went back and is hovering around that. It's not that good but not bad either, considering we went away and ate a lot of stuff (NOT sweet) on the long car drives to Sydney and back. Often we ate, not out of hunger, but just to keep the baby girls entertained so we could arrive sooner.

I realise that I eat too much bread. Very easy to do when your daughter works at Baker's Delight and brings home the most delicious stuff. Have always loved bread. Boo hoo!

1st ever recipe for you

I was looking for recipes on the below website to help me use my slow cooker more, instead of  just the packets you can get. I found this recipe and used it, with a few changes. I will type it up for you so it says dextrose instead of sugar.

I used to love my mums Baked Rice Custard. I know, this doesn't have the custard bit but was still nice!

I adapted this from http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/
Here is the exact link, which gives you the original recipe and not how I changed it: http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Old-Fashioned-Slow-Cooker-Rice-Pudding-L3180.html
Of course, it had sugar in it so I just used dextrose instead. I doubled it.

Old Fashioned Slow Cooker Rice Pudding

3/4 cup long-grain white rice
3 cups milk
1/2 cup dextrose
1/4 teasppoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons butter, diced

1. In a colander, rinse rice thoroughly under cold water.
2. Put in lightly greased slow cooker
3. Add remaining ingredients, except for butter, and stir to combine.
4. Sprinkle butter over rice mixture
5. Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until rice has absorbed the liquid.
6. Serve warm.

Notes: I doubled it and added an extra cup of milk after reading the comments of others, on the website, which meant 7 cups of milk! I put in 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence. My friend said she adds a grating of lemon rind and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Apparently, it can work with Soy Milk. You can swap a cup of milk for cream etc It's worth reading the comments that others put. I wrote a comment on there, under 'Ferndene'.