Wednesday 7 September 2011

An update and a recipe !

So it has been a few days since my last post and wanted to catch up on all that has gone on.

The low carb diet is going extremely well. I am down approx 4.5 lbs since I started eating the low carb way.  The other super bonus: no more cravings, fatigue or smashing headaches. I feel refreshed and energized.  And not one IBS flare !

Food-wise I struggled a bit to come up with ideas on what to eat as the menu I had was already getting monotonous. I have since created a low carb stirfry soy sauce, made amazing deviled eggs, and started eating BLTs without the bread - in fact a leaf of romaine lettuce does the trick quite nicely.  I also needed something sweet so sugar free jello topped with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream has become a new fave for me. Pumpkin seeds, in moderation, are also great.

Baking-wise, I have continued to bake my high carb treats for Lemon Drop but have not indulged - nope, not even once. And what I find myself doing as I bake is trying to figure out how to switch up the recipe to low carb.

I already revamped a Pumpkin Spice Latte which, if I do say so myself, rocks!
And I made gingerbread pancakes with coconut flour based on a recipe I found on a fellow low-carb bloggers site. These were amazing. In fact, I intend to make myself some today in fact.

As far as exercising goes, I have been doing great in that regard. I do my cardio/weight combo 3-4 times per week. Now that the evenings are getting cooler (hello Autumn!)I will be adding some evening walks into my regimen as well.

My goal is drop 30 lbs by the new year which averages out to about 2 lbs per week. Do I expect stalls? Absolutely but I also expect weeks where the scale will really shoot down too. I am hoping that this low carb diet will also help get rid of the water weight / bloat I struggle with constantly.

Speaking of perimenopause symptoms, I have noticed a dramatic reduction in the past wk regarding brain fog and migraines. The difference? I have not experienced either! This is pretty much unheard of for me so I am beyond pleased. The only day I had to take a pain reliever for a headache was day 2 of low carb eating due to sugar withdrawal. But other than that, nothing!   I started suffering from migraines about 2 yrs ago and they have gotten more frequent as the hormones hit roller-coaster mode.  In fact, in the past few months I was struggling with about 1 per week.  So I started doing some extra research and found that low carb diets are in fact used to treat migraines. Fascinating!! And it helps tremendously with perimenopause/menopause symptoms in general.

Lastly, I stumbled across this article - interesting read so thought I would share:

Before I sign off for today, I wanted to share a latte recipe with you all. It is low carb and simply superb! I found the original at Babble's: the family kitchen.  I just tweaked is slightly and voila, low carb heaven!

PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE




Pumpkin Spice Latte (Starbuck’s Copycat)

WHAT YOU NEED

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons canned pumpkin puree
1 – 2 packets of splenda
2 tablespoons vanilla extract, yes tablespoons
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1-4 shots espresso or very strong coffee (I double the amount of grounds I use per cup to get my strong coffee)


MAKE IT

1. Brew your espresso or strong coffee. If brewing strong coffee, use double the amount of grounds you would in your regular coffee.
2. Combine cream, water, pumpkin, sugar, and pumpkin pie spices in a small saucepan. Heat until very hot, but do not boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Transfer to a blender or a milk frother and blend until frothy.
3. Pour 1 cup warm pumpkin milk mixture into coffee mug and add 1-4 coffee shots. Dust with more pumpkin pie spice if desired.

ENJOY !

Weight loss status:  30/4.5/25.5   (original goal/weight lost/new goal)


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