Weeks 4 & 5

Now would be a good time to recap on some of the basics from my world "BB" (Before Banting), so as to put things in perspective. This is kinda important because my hugely celebrating reaching the milestone of 10kg loss is only really significant if you understand where I came from!

I drink coffee out of what Ian calls a "bucket" and the normal recipe was 2tsp Ricoffee, 3tsp Cremora, 3tsp brown sugar and a splash of milk; averaging 5/6 cups per day. Peanut butter sarmies or Chips and Dip for snacks. Pasta with dollops of creamy sauce. Salad was mainly for rabbits. Baked potato, fries, mash, in fact any kind of potato, was only enhanced with more dollops of cream, butter or Spur's salad/fries dressing. Pap with lots of butter and of course Aromat on just about everything! Fresh bread with strawberry jam. You get the picture?

So, wake up call when my scale crosses the 140kg mark, my left knee is threatening to konk on me, have the energy of a gnat and am about as fit as the proverbial doornail. Two weeks of eating "healthy" dropped my weight by 1.7kg which did not give me warm and fuzzy feelings of success until I stumbled upon the "Banting for Weightloss" group on Facebook. A few days of lurking while I read the myriad of questions, replies, discussions and general feedback made me decide to give it a try from mid-August.

The above paragraph is terribly misleading, making it sound simple and a very easy transition to absolutely cutting out bread, pasta, potatoes and SUGAR!!! There were many disasters along the way while I experimented with what would work for me. The first thing I negotiated my way around was going cold-turkey on the sugar thing, so tried xylitol... with disastrous results - 3 weeks of having a runny tummy :( 

In spite of this, my scale had not moved in two weeks which was really, really odd, so followed the suggestion of getting a scale which would measure the fat, water and muscle content of my body. The theory being that even though your weight might not decrease, you could be transforming the fat percentage of your body into muscle .... which is really what I am aiming for.

This was not a happy event in my life. Battled for a few days figuring out how to set it up and then was totally disgusted when I did. Because I am relatively tall, I have always blamed most of my size on "big bones". Imagine my disgust when this new-fangled scale tells me that 52.7% of my body mass is FAT!!! Yuck!

(www.mymoringa.co.za)

One of the other recommendations on doing the Banting lifestyle is that you should be taking a multi-vitamin of some kind to balance out the alphabet soup of daily nutritional requirements. Dr Charles Lubbe, Administrator on the group provides a product called "moringa" which has some pretty impressive nutrients all in one teaspoon (2g) of powder!  I don't like taking tablets so ignored the capsules and ordered the powder instead - I mean, how difficult could it be to consume?

The first thing you have to realise is that the plant is dried and ground to the consistency of talcum powder. The suggestion is that you place it on your tongue and chase it with water.... easy! NOT IF YOU HAVE DENTURES!!! The first thing that happens is that before you can drink the water, the powder flies into every nook and cranny of your mouth (because you are stupid enough to inhale before drinking the water!!), instantly absorbing all the saliva which leaves a gooey paste that sticks to absolutely everything. Spluttering and coughing I try and wash it all down with water, start choking and have to spit everything out of my mouth .. including dentures which are now stuck together! 

So the next thing suggested is mixing it with yogurt. Being inherently lazy, I don't want to use lots of containers so take a Tablespoon with a little yogurt at the bottom, pile on a teaspoon of moringa and then more yogurt on top to contain the flyaway powder, put the whole lot in my mouth and ... mission accomplished!! Phew!

I also bit the bullet and consulted the group's resident dietician who provided me with an eating plan designed specifically to beat the plateau we all reach with stalled weightloss. She suggested I do the 7 day Detox eating plan but I declined, feeling I have baby-pooped enough to last me a lifetime! She also told me that I need to get my fat percentage down by 24% which suddenly does not seem like the end of the world!

There is also a major challenge awaiting me as I head to Cape Town for two weeks on business and will not have as much control over what I eat. My hostess has however allowed me to do breakfast duty while I staying with her so I can treat the household to bacon and eggs for breakfast daily!  

But today is really about positives and looking on the bright side of my Banting Journey ... whoohoo!

Have definitely made friends with my favourite jeans which are now riding very loosely around my hips and bum and threatening to fall off! Already in their place is a size smaller jeans, kindly donated by a friend who is 3 months ahead of me with Banting and an even smaller size waiting for me to shrink into! I drink one cup of coffee with no sweetener of any kind a day and really getting into the taste of cauli-mash and cauli-rice. I happily compete with rabbits as far as salads are concerned but am not going to lie - I do miss my peanut butter sarmies:(

I am having a huge amount of fun trying out new recipes - never having loved cooking, being forced to be creative with new ingredients has proven to be much more enjoyable than I imagined. So my belly is shrinking and the spare tyre wobbles more than ever. My thighs are not rock hard with cellulite anymore, but they must be jam cause jelly don't don't jiggle like that! And.... the other sad reality is that my prize 44DDD boobs are seriously being challenged by gravity:( I can only guess that in the not too far distant future, Ian might just have another amusing pastime .....

Today is a planned "Cheat Day" and to celebrate I have had a bucket of my favourite coffee with sugar. I might even succumb to a peanut butter sarmy too.... and start all over again tomorrow *lol*

Banting stats: Weeks 4 & 5:
Weight: 131.7kg (-1.7kg) Waist : 121.0  (-5.0) Belly Button: 137.0 (-5.5cm)
More Stats: (New Scale; first weigh-in 14/9/14)
Fat % : 51.9 (-0.8%)       Water % : 25.8 (+0.9%)  Muscle % : 20.0 (0.0%)