Never before have I been here

Well, Saturday was a milestone day for me.

I was out shopping and ran into Costco to look for a waffle iron.  Why, yes, I can actually go to Costco for just ONE thing and leave with just that ONE thing!  But, not this time.  LOL

They didn’t have any waffle irons (they had the one I wanted on the website but I was hoping it was in the store – but that’s not important) so I went through the middle where all the clothing is, to head for the baby wipes (the coupons I was handed at the door had boxes of Huggies at $6 off!)

I spotted yoga pants for $19.99… hmm… I do need a pair that fits better for the gym.  They were sized 8, 10, 12, L, XL etc.  I picked up the L and held it up.  That was bigger than the Large pair I currently wear.  So grabbed the 12… well… it looked like it would be okay.  And they are stretchy, right?

Also picked up a pair of pyjamas in Large as I have no winter ones – all of my old ones went to Goodwill or the trash several months ago.

Went and grabbed two boxes of wipes and headed for the till.

I did get my waffle iron at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

When I got home I tried on the yoga pants before washing them… I left the size label on for effect.  HOLY CRAP… They fit perfectly!

I have NEVER EVER been a size 12 as an adult.  When I was 10 I was wearing my mother’s clothes which would have been size 12… yes, at 10 years old.

So this is pretty exciting!

I’ve gone from a maximum of a size 28 to a size 12.

Since December 2015 I have dropped 60 pounds after changing to LCHF (low carb, high fat) way of living to control my diabetes.  It is controlling my diabetes very well – I am staying in range for all my blood sugar readings. And this side effect of the weight loss is exciting, as well as good for my overall health.

Left to right: January 2016 – size 16; August 2016 – size 14; September 2016 – size 12

Bison Stroganoff… Yum!

For dinner I made Bison Stroganoff.  And it is YUMMY!  Extremely rich so only a small portion was able to be consumed today – and I have dinner for the next several days. Which is always a good thing.

Stroganoff is one of those easy dishes that doesn’t require exact measurements – I hate using measuring cups and spoons as it is just more stuff to clean up.  When I give a measurement it is more of an approximation – I eyeball everything.  But don’t worry, I am accurate!

Bison Stroganoff

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup olive oil (or any kind you want) **Note – I added the oil as bison is extremely lean, if you are using regular ground beef you could probably skip the oil if you prefer.

1 medium sliced onion

2 cloves of chopped garlic

1 pound of ground bison (or any meat/protein – I’ve done this with soy “ground round”)

1 pound of sliced or chopped mushrooms (any type – I used 1/2 button and 1/2 crimini)

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp sea salt (adjust to taste)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup cream (coffee cream or whipping cream)

8 ounces of cream cheese

1/2 or 1 cup of sour cream (to your taste.)

To a large skillet or dutch oven add the oil and butter. Heat up on medium high heat.  Add the onion and cook until it is starting to brown, add the garlic and the ground meat. Stir and watch until meat is starting to brown well – you want it to be browning on the bottom of the pan because that’s all the good flavour!

Add the mushrooms and all the seasonings and stir well.  Turn the heat down to medium. Add the water and put a lid on for five minutes or so.  Stir, make sure to scrape up any brown on the bottom of the pan. If the mushrooms still need a bit more cooking you can add more water if needed, and put the lid back on for a few more minutes.  (The crimini mushrooms stay a lot firmer and hold their shape, compared to the button mushrooms.)

Then add the cream and the cream cheese (cut it up into chunks to make it easier to work with) and stir until blended in and melted. Let the mixture start to bubble.

Last step is to add the sour cream and stir it in.  Let it start to bubble, and immediately remove from the heat.

In keeping with LCHF, I served it over steamed cauliflower.  It would also be good on zucchini, spaghetti squash or steamed cabbage.

 

 

Pumpkin Pie time!

I am not on the pumpkin spice bandwagon but I do like pumpkin pie.  And seeing as we had frost last night and my tree decided to start dropping its leaves last week it feels like time for pumpkin pie!

I had found a couple of recipes for pumpkin pies without carbs or sugar… but they used things I didn’t want.  So, as usual I messed around and came up with my own version using what I had on hand and substituting or leaving out what I didn’t want.

This is a low carb, no added sugar recipe and it turned out really nice.  Sweetish rather than sweet, but if you want to add sweeteners go for it.  I used unsweetened apple sauce to add a bit of sweetness which was enough for me.

Low Carb, No Sugar Pumpkin Pie

Preheat oven to 350F.

Base:

1/2 cup ground almonds or almond meal*

1/2 cup ground hazelnuts or hazelnut meal*

3 tbsp melted butter

Melt the butter and stir in the ground nuts.  Spread and press evenly and firmly in the bottom of a 6-8″ pie plate.  I used a small casserole as I only have one giant Pyrex pie plate and didn’t want a pie that big!

* Use any kind of ground nuts in any ratio you want – I just had a half cup of almond meal left in the bag, so mixed it with the hazelnuts.  Pecans would be excellent with pumpkin!

Bake for at least 10 minutes in a 350F oven. It should be starting to brown on the surface, then remove from the oven.

Filling:

1 1/2 cups of pureed pumpkin (I used canned)

2 eggs

1/2 cup of unsweetened apple sauce (one snack size container)

1 cup whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon (go with 1 1/2 tsp if you like cinnamon)

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Optional: if you like add 1/8 tsp nutmeg and/or 1/8 tsp ground cloves for a stronger spice hit.

In a bowl combine all the filling ingredients and whisk to blend well.  Pour into the pie plate on top of the baked nuts.

Place it in the 350F oven in the middle rack for 35 to 40 minutes.  Check for doneness by inserting a knife in the middle.  If the knife is coated, leave it in the oven for another 15 minutes.  Check again.  Once the knife comes out clean (only the odd speck of pumpkin on it) it is done.  I actually had to bake mine for almost two hours – it was a lot deeper than a pie plate would have been so needed a lot longer!  (Another indicator that it is done is that the surface of the filling forms cracks!) As long as the filling is set, it is done.

As I had decided to make this after 9 p.m., by the time it was done I was heading to bed!  I sat it on a rack to cool and left it there until morning.  I had a piece for breakfast and it was excellent.  The base was dry and almost crunchy even though it crumbled getting it out of the dish.  If it had been in a proper pie plate I think I could have got it out intact.

Cover and store leftovers in the fridge.

I am pretty happy with this recipe!

**UPDATE:  After refrigeration the crust stayed together and lifted out beautifully.  And it tastes even better cold!

 

 

LCHF My Way

When my doctor told me I was diabetic just three days before Christmas 2015 he reviewed my test results with me, then gave me prescriptions for the required equipment for blood monitoring and for Metformin (at the lowest dose – starting on half of that to make sure I didn’t react to it.)  Other than that, I was left to figure the rest out myself.

I already knew carbohydrates were my nemesis. I had been informed I was pre-diabetic back in 2002 and at that time had gone to “diabetes school” at the hospital and routinely tested my blood sugar for a month.  That showed that carbs were not my friends.  I went for regular blood work (every four months) for a number of years and was always in range so I stopped going for the tests.

In hindsight, that wasn’t my best idea.  If I had continued with the tests I could probably have stopped the progression to full-blown Type 2 diabetes, the diabetic retinopathy and the other issues.  But… it is what it is.

So I started my prescription and pricking my finger half a dozen times a day while researching diets and meal planning.  I have to say there are a lot of really bad diet plans being touted as “diabetic”… and by the diabetic organizations which shocked me.  Even with my limited knowledge I KNEW I could NOT eat carbs at every meal and every snack and still manage to lower my blood sugar.

In doing my research online I skimmed over different diets like Paleo and Ketogenic.  The no carb aspect made a lot of sense to me, but there were aspects of both I wasn’t interested in.

Right away I cut sugar completely out of my diet.  It wasn’t difficult for me.  While I liked sweets I never craved them.  I preferred savory treats most of the time – like potato chips! I didn’t use sweeteners in my coffee or tea, didn’t add sugar to anything, etc. so it wasn’t really something that caused me any problem.  And I haven’t been tempted at all.

And sugar includes pretty much all fruit as well for me.  The only things I seem to be able to manage are Mott’s Unsweetened Apple Sauce – it is the only brand that doesn’t cause a spike in my blood sugar (I think it is the type of apple they use) and a tablespoon of mashed strawberries mixed into plain full fat yoghurt that I make frozen yoghurt pops with.  I tried other fruit and I can’t manage it.  I do miss watermelon, I admit.

And I can eat one square of a Lindt 85% Cocoa Chocolate Bar without any effect on my blood sugar – that is my occasional treat.

I also do not use sugar substitutes or artificial sweeteners.  A lot of things are actually quite sweet once your taste buds adapt – like milk and cream and cream cheese!

For the first couple of weeks I TRIED to keep carbs in my diet to a certain extent – a piece of whole wheat toast with my egg for breakfast, Wasa bread with cream cheese for lunch, six potato chips with dip… Unfortunately they all caused significant spikes in my blood sugar.

To me, increasing the medication was NOT an option.  My goal is to get off of medication, not increase it.  So, as I did not want to go blind or worse, with regret I cut out all the carbs.

I went through the house, removing all the food that I could no longer eat.  I gave it all away – pasta, popcorn, chips, crackers, canned soups, canned beans, flour, rice, tortillas, noodles, bread, buns, frozen peas/corn, potatoes, carrots, frozen fries, frozen dinners, breaded chicken/fish, sauces, juices, candy – there was a LOT of stuff.

I did try to use brown rice flour, amaranth flour, rye flour in place of white flour – but nope, still caused my blood sugar to spike.  I tried to make “low” carb versions of oatmeal cookies with no sugar – they were really excellent (recipe is shared on the blog here) but two cookies caused a 6 point spike!

I spent a fortune buying coconut flour, almond flour, etc. to make carb-less “substitutes.” What a waste of money and time! Practically all of the recipes in no way resembled what they claimed to be.  One was sort of okay, but barely.

It only took me about a month and a half to give up on carbs and the so-called replacements for them.  I just accepted that those things are no longer part of my life, and moved on.

I read about the LCHF – low carb, high fat – diet, or rather, lifestyle.  That made a lot of sense to me.  I was already pretty much eating according to that description by then.  I don’t follow it exactly, but it is the closest to how I am eating.

My intake of vegetables increased substantially, and with every meal. But no potatoes, carrots, peas, corn, parsnips, beets, yams, etc.  I eat very little tomato – it is a fruit and therefore high in sugar. Celery and cucumbers became my best friends.

I kept all the dairy – full fat as always: butter, cheese of all types, yoghurt, sour cream, 18% m.f. coffee cream.  But never pre-grated cheeses due to the cellulose that is added to it – I can’t digest it.

Protein with every meal and as snacks – pork (ham, bacon, roast, sausages, chops, ribs, etc.), lamb, chicken, turkey, eggs (lots of eggs), bison, cured meat like turkey pepperoni and European wieners, fish, etc.  I can’t eat beef due to an allergy.

And after over eight months of eating this way it is completely normal for me.  I have no interest in eating carbs or “cheating” in any way at all.  I’ve even made cookies and things for other people without the slightest interest in licking my fingers.

That’s not to say I don’t miss potatoes, I do. But I’d rather be healthy.

I like to try out interesting food combinations and spices. I make my own spice blends. I eat a lot of frittatas and omelettes with various ingredients, I coat pork chops and chicken with seasoned ground almonds, I make lots of stir-fries.  I cook with butter, olive oil, and peanut oil.  And I don’t miss the carbs that would usually accompany things anymore.

I get inspired by recipes I see and experiment. You can take the carbs out of recipes and make them anyway – like, no breadcrumbs in meatloaf, or no flour or cornstarch as thickeners in sauces.  Some work well, others need adjusting.  That’s why I call it experimenting.

My next experiment is a low carb, no tomato, vegetable lasagna this weekend – stay tuned for a post if it turns out!

For snacks I eat things like nuts, hard-boiled eggs, baked parmesan chips, celery with unsweetened peanut butter or cream cheese, seaweed, cheese, veggies with dips like tzatziki or guacamole and turkey pepperoni.

What I’ve discovered is that I am not hungry anymore.  I don’t need a snack during the day, and lately I don’t have anything after dinner most nights either.  This apparently is because my blood sugars aren’t spiking and plummeting due to eating carbs and sugar any longer, based on what I’ve been reading.

It is all interesting and quite amazing how this is changing my life.  My blood sugar is in range all the time – I am still on Metformin but hope to get off it (I see my doctor in October for my next check-up.)  And since December I’ve lost 57 pounds.  My goal was not to lose weight, although it was a desired result given my situation, but it is a side-effect of the low carb, high fat way of eating.

I’ve also been going to Curves since January which increased my activity level and am feeling a lot healthier and have a lot more stamina.  I recently started adding the treadmill to my workouts and each day cover a longer distance.  I’ve no plans to pump iron or run races, but would love to tighten up the sagging butt!  The loose skin from such a big drop in weight at my age is quite… um, let’s just say I will never wear shorts or sleeveless tops in public – not that I ever have, but, you know…

This is me in 2002 vs 2016 – over 100 lbs difference.