KSFL macaroons. Sweet treats for tough days.

I got through that first week of being back on detox in the end. The headache lasted for five days on and off but it was worth it. I lost two pounds and half an inch in that week. My intention was to stay on detox for another week at least but that has gone out the window following a couple of emotionally tough days. Life in the Food Junkie household is generally fine at the moment, but there is a lot of Big Life Stuff going on in the background and it's taking its toll a bit.

So I resorted to a chocolate fondue as a cheat with a friend on Friday night. It was fabulous. Bananas, strawberries and some chunks of gluten free blueberry muffin dipped in a fondue made of dark chocolate and a glug of cream. Not too terrible as cheats go - and I let my friend lick the bowl out - but a cheat all the same.  That was meant to be it but then I'd forgotten the birthday party I was invited to at the local pub last night. I stuck to peppermint tea and water for the most part but a couple of shandies had found their way down my neck before the night was out.

And today I've been feeling a bit rough so I decided I needed a treat (again). This week isn't going well is it? But I'm trying to be as good as I can with my treat so I went online and did some recipe hunting. Here is my KSFL-friendly macaroon recipe. It's not all good, not at all, but it's not nearly as bad as reaching for the biscuit tin. They are devine too.

KSFL Macaroon Recipe

Makes 12-14 small macaroons.

100g dessicated coconut
2 tbs raw organic honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Mix the coconut, honey and vanilla essence in a bowl until all the coconut is evenly coated with the honey, then mix in the beaten egg white. Once thoroughly combined press the mixture into the bowl of a spoon and turn out onto a tray covered in baking parchment. I used a tablespoon sized measuring spoon for a nice semi-spherical kind of shape. This made 13 small macaroons for me but the quantity would vary depending on the size of the spoon you use.

Pop them into a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes until they're lightly browned. I overdid mine a bit so aim for something a bit lighter than the picture. Once they've cooled completely eat them as they are or drizzle with dark chocolate, if you must. Make them when you have lots of friends round so you don't end up eating them all yourself. I've managed to stop at two so far but the rest are talking to me...

Back on detox, with muffins

Last week I put myself back onto detox. I'm now on day 7 and it's finally starting to get easier. I thought it would be no problem given I did it so recently and am half way there the rest of the time these days too. But no, it sees I must have slipped much further into bad habits than I'd realised because it was far from pleasant this time too.

The main issue I think was the caffeine which I'd only introduced gradually until I picked up a new type of coffee when doing the groceries. It was one of these instant coffees that also has real ground beans in it, best of both worlds kind of idea. It was on special offer and it made a rather nice cup of coffee. However I noticed after a couple of days of drinking it that I was craving the stuff. I really wanted that coffee. Not any coffee, but THAT coffee. I have no idea how much caffeine was in the stuff or what else might have been in it to make it so addicted but for the first time in my life I was experiencing real coffee cravings. I knew then that I had to come off it but that I didn't stand a chance with a tub in the house so I gallantly worked my way through it. I had my last cup last Wednesday lunch time and I haven't touched caffeine since. The headache lasted for five days. Five days! Ugh.

The sugar come-down grumps were much, much less. I felt tetchy for a couple of days but a good workout would see me through those patches. I worked out three times in the first 48 hours, just for the endorphins. I found the not-snacking element hard too. I think that's the biggest habit slip I've let happen. I usually get through an apple or two a day, just grabbed on the fly, or a handful of nuts will find their way into my mouth whilst sitting at my desk. Nothing too terrible, but a pleasant break in the fast between meals. I've had to up my meal portions again to stave off the hunger, so I need to think about that too.

But otherwise, it's going well. Weigh in is tomorrow so we'll see then what effect it's had on the pounds and inches. I've decided I want to lose another stone and a half and get into size 12-14. It's the first time I've been able to really work out a target other than 'less than now'. In the future I may change that but for now that is such a huge world away from where I was that it seems a good goal. I've just shrunk to the larger end of a size 14 already. I can fasten the jeans, but I bulge over them in a rather unsightly manner so they're not fit for wear in public yet. I'm a size 14 on top though. It's all heading in the right direction. :)

I have a recipe for you too. Two actually! The first is a variation on back here but made more interesting with the addition of some extra veg content in a secretive manner that makes them more appealing to fussy kids. Here they are when I had them the other night, served with roast butternut quash, kale, the obligatory couple of gerkins and a big dollop of caponata (an aubergine, caper, olive and tomato side dish that is a favourite round here):

Here's the how to:

Hidden Veggie Beef Burgers

Ingredients

500g lean minced beef (it doesn't have to be lean I just prefer a lean cut when I have to get my hands in it so the fat is easier to wash off my hands after shaping)
1 egg
1 onion, finely chopped
1 handful fresh herbs of your choice (the ones above had lovage fresh from the garden which was delicious)
1 courgette, grated
You can also add a small grated carrot if you can take the carbs but I didn't this time
Oil of your choice, for cooking

Throw all the ingredients apart from the oil in a bowl and thoroughly mix it together with your hands. Shape it into burgers and fry over a medium-high heat in the oil until browned on both sides. This mix makes approx 8 burgers depending on how big you want them.

The other yummy treat I have to offer you today is breakfast muffins! I saw these online yesterday and had to give them a go. They're fab! This is my variation but there are others online and according to one site I saw you can keep them for several days in the fridge. I suspect there will be a bit of batch muffin making in my life in the near future.

KSFL Breakfast Muffins

Ingredients

Filling of your choice. I used the mix below but you could vary this in so many ways. Just use what's in your fridge and go crazy!

1 diced courgette
1 onion
a few tablespoons sweetcorn
1 finely sliced stick of celery
2 handfuls of chopped ham

6 eggs
salt and pepper

Makes 8 muffins

Fry the filling ingredients until slightly soft, if needed (I didn't fry the ham or sweetcorn in this case). Mix all the filling ingredients together and spoon into muffin cases in a muffin tray. Fill them to approx half way up. Beat the eggs with the salt and pepper to taste and pour into the case, filling them up to about 1cm shy of the top of the case to allow for rising. Pop into a preheated over at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes and you're done! Yum!

Living the lifestyle long term

Today it's been exactly four months since I started my KSFL journey and I am still living the lifestyle. It's been modified, and my success varies week to week depending on what else is going on, but when I fall off for a while it doesn't take much to get back on track and I've learned that even the effects of a week off-plan can be reversed by a week back on detox.

I don't have quite the slim, toned body I used to have in my youth, but then I'm in my mid-thirties now and have had two children. I could still do with losing another stone and hopefully I will eventually, even if it takes a while but even if I don't I feel comfortable in my skin as I walk down the street right now. I can wear leggings and not feel as though I'm making people feel ill and pick up clothes off the rail that fit.

Take a peek:

I've made a few new observations and realisations recently. Rachel Stevenson, my KSFL trainer and mentor suggested back in February that we set ourselves a goal for Easter and that if we stuck to the plan we treat ourselves. My treat was meant to be a holiday but it got postponed at the last minute so instead I treated myself to some new training clothes. I got new workout trainers, new socks, new workout leggings and then I scored a fab cycling top in a charity shop that I now use for classes. These purchases revolutionised things for me. Seeing my reflection in them I looked like someone worthy of wearing them. I looked good! Not perfect by any means - I still have bulges and I'm broader than many of the other women in class, but I look toned and comfortable and OK. I have since taken to sometimes wearing trainers, and cut offs and sporty tops out in public too. I would never have dreamed of doing that before because people who wore those clothes were a world apart from me. They were fit people. They were people for whom exercise and fitness were so much a part of who they were that they didn't think twice about displaying it publicly, and they wore that identity with pride. That wasn't me.

Why I didn't believe it was me, I have no idea. In my mid teens my average week involved three hours of ju-jitsu training, two of stage dance classes, one of badminton and walking a minimum of fifteen miles plus whatever we did in PE at school. Once I got to my late teens the dancing and PE finished but I started getting into weights, and the odd bit of running, but for some reason being fit never really meant anything. That was just what I did for fun. And then I got into my twenties, got stuck into a career that involved sitting at a desk for hours on end and got into a comfortable relationship that although it started off with us both being fit (we got to know each other as we spotted for each other whilst weight training) soon evolved into lots of cosy nights in on the sofa. And then the kids came. So I was unfit for a decade but before that I was consistently exercising regularly and I am again now. I don't intend to stop. I'm even starting martial arts classes again next week!

So now I am reclaiming an identity that was always there for the taking but that I didn't value myself and my investment in my own health and wellbeing enough to claim.

Hello world. I am Gina. I am fit. I am healthy. I am happy. I am going to work as hard as I have to to stay that way and if I wear trainers in public it's my way of shouting out to the world that I am proud of the way I am looking after myself now.

Thank you KSFL and Rachel for giving me the tools I needed to get here.

8 week results...

Yep, I know, I disappeared off the face of the earth for a while didn't I? I'm sorry, but I'll come to the reasons later. Given this is my first post for a couple of weeks I want to start it on a high, and boy do I have a high. The 8 week results are in.

Drum roll please...

In 8 weeks on KSFL I have lost a total of 16lbs and 21". And given I'm a full disclosure kind of gal and 21" doesn't mean a lot unless you understand what exactly is being measured, this is how that inch loss breaks down:

Chest: 3.5"
Waist: 6"
Hips: 4.5"
Thighs: 2" from each
Upper Arms: 1.5" from each

And how does that look? Take a peek:

 

Let me just bring that into sharper focus for you. This is what 8 weeks on KSFL can do:

Not only have a dropped more than a dress size (and several bra sizes, but let's not go there) I am also fitter than I have been in years. I can run around after the kids as much as I want to. I can do heavy work in the garden with ease. I no longer hesitate for a second when asked if I'd like to go for a long walk, play chase, or dance the night away. I can honestly say that I am a different woman.

I know I still have a way to go. There are rolls on these photos that I'd like to see gone. There's a load of clothes another dress size down in the wardrobe that I fully intend to get into again and believe it or not according to my BMI I am still clinically obese. I only have two pounds to lose to leave that behind but it's a line I very much want to cross. It has to be said though that anyone - even me with my skewed personal perceptions of my own body - looking at these photos from this morning wouldn't see an obese person. Not skinny, sure, but obese? With a flat tummy? Come on! It just goes to show what a flawed measurement BMI really is. It makes me wish that I'd been monitoring my body composition throughout this process because I've had several weeks where the weight loss has been painfully slow, if there's been a loss at all. I've known that it's been because I've been building muscle and I've even been able to see that, but checking my body fat percentages along the way might have given me more of a boost when I needed it.

So, where from here? I started my KSFL journey with the thought that I would do it for 12 weeks. There were photos out there of others who had completely transformed their bodies in that time and I was willing to give it that. Sure enough, I'm signed up for another 4 weeks and we'll see where I get to then, but there's more to it now than just counting down the weeks.

When I signed up and was told that really, these were changes for life I have to admit I was a little skeptical; not that these couldn't be permanent life changes for some people but that they would be for me. It was such a radical shift from what I was used to and from the diets I'd tried before. I just couldn't see how a permanent change would be practical. It took a while to settle into it but after a few weeks it was getting easier and then before I knew it, it had become quite normal. Now it's not only normal, it's infinitely preferable. Now I have actually experienced what it's like to have that chocolate binge on a clean system: glorious in the moment, slightly sickly soon afterwards and then significantly mood altering and craving inducing over the next 48 hours, I can hear what my body is telling me. I'm pretty confident that chocolate binges will always be something that I indulge in every now and again,  but doing so knowing what I'm doing, why I'm doing it and taking responsibility for the consequences just feels so much more honest and healthy.

I can now appreciate that no matter how well informed I was about nutrition beforehand it was almost impossible to make the right choices because I was being so strongly influenced by my hormones and my addictions to certain foods. I have never classed myself as an addiction-prone person. I've never been a smoker or a heavy drinker, though I have smoked on ocassion and drunk socially. I've never craved either or felt like I wasn't in control of my desires for such things. But sugar? Boy oh boy was I a sugar addict! I still am, because it's the one thing I do still yearn for quite regularly. When I do have it, the cravings come back stronger and I could oh, so easily lose myself in the sweetie aisle, never to return. But now I know what's going on. That's been the real shift for me, not just learning about the most up-to-date ideas about healthy eating but learning about myself, my own body, and my own mind. There's an honesty to my diet and lifestyle choices that I haven't had before, and I like it.  I'm now coming to terms with the fact that I might just be a long-term convert.

So, why haven't I been writing here so much? Well, because life has taken over again. I'm busy running my business, raising my kids, spending time with my partner, volunteering and socialising - and working out! I don't need to keep coming up with new meal ideas because I already have plenty and I'm easily able to make things up on the spot knowing that I'll only be using KSFL-friendly ingredients - because that's all I want. There's no working things out any more, no trying to find ways to emulate non-KSFL dishes because there's no need to. I'm happy with what I put on my plate and if it doesn't look quite like what someoone else might put on theirs then I don't give two hoots.

The way I exercise has evolved too. Doing half hour workouts every night wasn't really sustainable even though we were enjoying it and given our busy lives, sometimes the ten minute ones were tricky to fit in as well. For the last few weeks I've done a half hour - or longer - workout 3 or 4 times a week. Two of those are usually in classes with Rachel (KSFL and bootcamp - though I think I might give her circuit class a go sometime soon too), the others are at home. This feels sustainable and my fitness levels are still improving so I'd say it's working well enough for me. It also means I feel less guilty when we have a crazy weekend full of guests and don't get to work out for two days on the trot.

So it's happened. That thing that was talked about at the start. KSFL has become my lifestyle, not in some huge conversion, sing it from the rooftops kind of way, but it just landed, knocked on the front door, came into my house and stayed. Look what a huge difference it's made! It's welcome here. Very welcome indeed.

Spicy Lamb Yumminess

Today has been a Thursday which means it's also been results day! Another week on KSFL has seen me lose another two pounds, though my inches have stayed the same. It's progress, and it will do nicely, especially as I had those three cups of coffee over the weekend, that large bowl of fruit salad on Sunday, those couple of extra apples through the week and that chocolate on Tuesday (which was rather sickly actually), not to mention the several times I've indulged in a few sweet potato wedges or a spoonful of brown rice. A slightly relaxed plan seems to still be working, so we'll try another week of the same I think.

Tonight for dinner we had a lovely spicy lamb mince dish. I wanted something with a moroccan twist but the recipes I was finding all required spices I didn't have, so I made it up. It's yummy though. I included a handful of dried apricots thinking it was a cheat I could justify, but then in the class tonight Rachel told us that we could include fruit in our meals because eating them with protein negates the blood sugar rise and insulin peak that we work so hard to avoid on KSFL. So it was all legal! Marvellous!

And blogger won't let me post photos tonight, so you'll just have to imagine something mouthwateringly good instead.

The Food Junkie's Spicy Lamb Mince

Serves 2 generously

Ingredients

1tbs olive/coconut oil
400g lamb mince
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped/crushed
1 red pepper, chopped
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 red chilli, finely chopped (optional)
Whatever spices you fancy - I used 1tbs of Dal Makhani spice mix that we had in the cupboard which contains coriander, chilli, onion flakes, black pepper, ginger, salt, garlic, cloves, nutmeg, star anise and mace, but any combination of the above or similar would be worth trying)
Handful dried apricots, finely chopped

Fry the lamb, onion and garlic in the oil until the meat has browned then add the rest of the ingredients. Let it simmer for 20 minutes or so and you're all done! We served ours with quinoa and steamed cabbage and it was very nice indeed. There is even enough left for my other half to take to work for lunch tomorrow.

A KSFL pancake day

Apologies for disappearing for a few days. I was at a conference over the weekend and it's taken a while to catch up with myself since being back. I wasn't sure how well I'd stay on plan but it turns out that the friend who was putting me up for the weekend is doing Atkins so instead of grabbing a takeaway on the Saturday evening we went back to her place for pork chops and salad, and on Sunday morning she treated me to a fry up! I'd taken a packed lunch on Saturday and was home for dinner on Sunday, so I didn't even need to use a cheat meal. I even managed to stick to water and peppermint tea on the Saturday night party. (Yes, this was a club that served peppermint tea. It's amazing what you can get in a big city that you can't find out here in the sticks.)

I have had the odd small cup of coffee over the last few days as well. It's not something I intend to make a habit of but being out of my routine and in other people's spaces made me feel more inclined to have one here and there. (I've had three over three days.) So far I haven't felt any unpleasant effects and I haven't had one today so I might feel more relaxed about having the odd one when out and about from here on in. The good news is that I can now quite happily drink the stuff without sugar which would have been unthinkable before, so at least they will be slightly less toxic when I do indulge.

My antics over the weekend and the subsequent chaotic catch-up did mean I ended up having three consecutive days without a workout, but I put that right tonight with a full half hour one from the DVD and I seem to have suffered no ill effects for the few days off. It was a good one, I was up for it and worked hard happily.

On to today. It's pancake day! There was no way I was going to not have pancakes today so I did some research and found a KSFL-friendly pancake recipe! Don't they look great? The recipe is below.

 

But before that, we had baked sea bass for tea tonight which is super easy, and super yummy. Just take your whole sea bass (cleaned), give them a run under the tap, stuff the cavity with spinach leaves and wrap in foil. Bake in a hot oven (about 220c) for 25-30 minutes and you're done. We had ours with some greens and it was just lovely. Watch out for bones though!

And then, the moment I'd been waiting for, it was time to try making those pancakes. They were a little delicate so flipping had to be done tentatively, but they worked! They're more of a scotch pancake than a crepe, but I prefer those anyway so I was more than happy.

Here's how to make them:

KSFL Pancakes

Ingredients

Makes 6 small pancakes

2 ripe bananas
1 egg
1 tbs almond butter (check the ingredients - the one I bought is 99.5% almonds and 0.5% salt, nothing else)
Olive/coconut oil for cooking

Mash up the bananas in a bowl, add the egg and almond butter and mix until well combined. Then spoon out into a hot frying pan with a bit of oil in it. Once you start to see air pockets coming through from the bottom it's time to turn them - which you need to do gently as they are quite delicate little things. Give them another minute on the other side and you're done!

Not bad, eh?

Celebrating success with BBQ ribs

OK, I admit it, I'm not really going to be cooking over a barbecue in February, but today's challenge was to come up with a recipe for a KSFL-friendly BBQ sauce to go with the ribs I bought the other day. I'm pretty sure that Worcestershire sauce isn't really on plan given the fact that it contains sugar, but for the sake of half a teaspoon, especially now I'm able to relax a little bit post detox (though not a lot - I still have a lot of weight to lose) I've taken the risk with this one.

I have to be honest, this wasn't the most barbecue-like of BBQ sauces, though it wasn't a million miles away. It was tangy, and sticky, and very tasty but it didn't have that smokiness that all good BBQ sauces should have. I will have to keep experimenting!

Ingredients

1 tbs olive/coconut oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 chopped chilli (optional)
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar (I think cider vinegar would be better)
1 rack of ribs

Fry the onion and garlic in the oil until soft, then thow in the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes. Blitz it with a blender/mixer until smooth. Place the ribs in a raosting tray then pour the sauce over. Grill on high, turning regularly until they are cooked well and are brown and crispy at the edges. Serve with the veg of your choice and sweet potato wedges should you so wish.