Day #1: Slow-Carb Diet

Today is Day #1 of this round of the Slow-Carb Diet.

Let me be clear on something here. I hate the word "DIET". It has negative connotation in general, and usually refers to a restricted path of eating that is designed to improve our health. Which all sounds fine, except it's negative. It shouldn't be, and to some people it's not. But it is. If you were a dietitian, it's part of your vocab, and hell look at the word that defines what you do: it's even in there.

I prefer, the Slow-Carb Eating Plan. Or the Slow-Carb-I-Feel-So-Much-Better Plan. Because I do. I feel LOADS better when I'm stricter with what I eat, and especially on this diet. We had a bonza weekend, eating what we wanted (within reason, even then!): from gluten-free pancakes with banana and blueberries drowned in maple syrup, to toast with jam, caramel wafers and iced coffees with ice cream. It ended with last night's dinner of Beef Stroganoff with Buttered Noodles & Green Beans. The noodles were rice pasta (because we simply *don't* eat wheat pasta anymore, not since we discovered the rice pasta after the Slow-Carb last year) and the sour cream was "light" (*scoff* "light": it's SOUR. CREAM.) and it was DELICIOUS. And we were so happy that we'd chosen it for our last pre-diet dinner, but we ate too much, and felt TOO full afterwards. We were full of carbs and dairy-fat and GOOD FOOD. (There was even a stack of protein in there, between the beef & mushrooms in the stroganoff.)

Because in general, we ALL eat too much. The lovely plates that we buy in our dinner sets are bigger now than they used to be, I'm sure of it! And we fill up those plates, giving ourselves bigger and bigger servings of dinner. I think the best thing you can do if you want to lose kilos or inches, is to put your food on a smaller plate. Use an entree size plate, or even a bread-and-butter plate. Use a smaller bowl, not that lovely big pasta bowl that you bought on sale after the holidays. Because even by reducing the amount that we eat, without any big dietary changes, we will usually see an improvement in our bodies.

I prepped well for our first day on "diet". It's hard to keep up, but necessary especially if you work away from home. I made some savory mince & beans to have on salad for lunch, and a frittata/omelette to have for breakfast. This "diet" states that you must eat breakfast, and that breakfast must be FULL of protein, in the first hour you are awake for the day. For me, this is HARD. I hate eating first thing of the morning, especially if I'm not awake enough yet or haven't had enough sleep. This morning I had a yummy bacon, mushroom & spinach frittata to eat (half of the one I made last night). I commute an hour to work in the car every day, so this means that I have to eat my breakfast either before I leave for the day (which would require getting up even earlier, which I'm just not good at!) or eating in the car. So, it's eating in the car. And today it was HARD. I hadn't had enough sleep (thank you Mens Final at the Australian Open, for being the LONGEST grand-slam final in HISTORY at 5 hours and 51 minutes) and so felt absolutely SICK when I was eating my (actually really yummy) frittata. However, I ate it, because for me, this is how I lose my inches: I HAVE to eat protein first thing in the morning.

I'm not sure what the science is behind that particular phenomenon (and I may have to investigate it, or at least read Tim Ferris' book again, which will tell me I'm sure) but this is how the diet works for me. As soon as I stopped eating the protein first thing in the morning, and went forward into eating porridge or muesli (both super yummy) I noticed my inches stopped reducing.

Along with "diet" I hate scales. I hate weight. I prefer to monitor my diet progress by how I fit in my clothes. If my jeans are falling off me and I need a new belt, or even worse/better a new pair of jeans, I know that the diet is working/has worked it's magic. This happened last year. I was in the middle of making a dress and re-measured myself before cutting out the fabric and I'd shrunk 2 inches ALL OVER. And this was when I thought I hadn't lost any extra inches/weight at all! My partner had, and did a full week before me, but then three weeks into the diet, and suddenly I noticed I was slimmer! Another week, and I kept going and another two and I needed new jeans. Which made the trip I was taking with my Mum to Singapore REALLY HANDY since we went clothes shopping :)

So. Here I am, Day 1. What is different today?

1) for being so tired after a late night, I couldn't make my normal coffee to get me going. Nope. The diet works on no dairy & no sugar, so I couldn't have my yummy latte-with-1. I had an "Americano" with honey & the prescribed "two tablespoons of dairy". Tim suggests a limit of 2 tablespoons of "creamer", which WE DON'T USE. I use 1.5% milk, not 15% Half & Half. (4-Hour-Body + Slow-Carb-Diet @ Gizmodo Rule #3: Don't Drink Calories) But I stick to the tablespoon limit. (I really must remember to look at the carb content on my milk.)

2) Since I was indeed so tired, I indulged and had an extra shot of espresso before leaving home. Made all the difference.

3) I ate breakfast in the car, which wasn't toast or a muffin or fruit bread. Or yogurt & a piece of fruit.

That's it so far, and that's all that will be different. Except I won't be having a cookie with my morning cup of tea, and I won't be having sugar in my coffee this afternoon.

Being Crafty in the Kitchen

Eating well requires being, well, crafty in the kitchen. Use this oil, avoid that saturated fat. Should we use wheat flour, or spelt, or oat? Will that modification to the recipe stuff it up? Have you got enough protein in that meal, or do you need to add more?

It's hard to be healthy all the time in the kitchen. After all, if you like being there, you want to be there more. You want to use your kitchen more.

I find it super hard to be healthy in the kitchen all the time. My downfall is that I love baking. Trying to be healthier in my baking is challenging. Eating wheat, for example, is bad for me, but I love bread! I fail quite a lot at not having wheat in my baking products, therefore this is a CHALLENGE! How to make those blueberry muffins you're craving but without using wheat flour! How are you going to make that crusty loaf without using bread flour? That zucchini slice is not going to bake properly if you substitute flour one-for-one! (These are all true! But able to be overcome.) Spelt flour is a good flour for me to substitute wheat for. I started experimenting with using oat flour, which is very different, but is absolutely wheat free. (Spelt, for example, is simply an older form of wheat, which might not sound better for you, but for people who have a wheat intolerance (NOT gluten, I should be clear about that here) it is a good substitute. It is not as refined as the wheat which is grown today, so doesn't irritate one's gut the way that today's wheat can.)

This blog's title "The Crafty Kitchen" has two meanings for me:

(1) To be crafty in the kitchen;

(2) To use your crafts in the kitchen.

I love cooking & baking, and I love sewing and crocheting. I have a personal committment this year to try and blog EVERY DAY on my other blog One Square At A Time and at this point on the 24 January 2012, I have 23 posts up, with another planned for this evening to make me 24 for 24. This will help me out over here, because bringing my CRAFTS into the kitchen means showing you how you can use your crafts in the kitchen: like making your own dishcloths, which are 100% reuseable & able to be thrown in the washing machine. Making your own teatowels, and decorating them. Making your own coasters to leave strewn (as mine often are) around the house.

But how to be crafty in the kitchen and cook healthily? It's a challenge!

Last year, me and the Mr put ourselves through the "Slow-Carb Diet" which is based on Tim Ferris' Four Hour Body and we loved it. We felt better! We lost weight! We enjoyed everything we ate! But I missed my baking. And eventually over the course of the year, we fell back into habits that are detrimental to our health. So, we're going back to it. I want to blog about it this year, and tell people of yummy recipes that I discover or make. I want to share how hard it is, and how easy we find it; to show that losing weight and finding your optimal healthy person that exists can be achievable.