The FastDay Forum

Wednesday, day fifty-two, day with absolutely *NO COUNTING*

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.8lbs (analogue scales corrected ~122.75lbs); 0.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.50, h. 36.5 inches

I was originally going to go for just a 'guilt-free lunch' but, given how nervous I was about going slightly off-piste, I decided to give my obsessive nature a thorough rattle.

Yes, you read the title right - I'm having a 'day off' and am going ad libitum. I'm having a 'nothing is forbidden day' and I'm not counting, or weighing, anything. No calorie counting. No carb counting. Even no sheep counting when I go to bed.

Lovely lunch with OH's friends of old - salad, feta fritters, curried cauliflower, mushrooms with tofu, garlic bread, stewed apples stuffed with dates and walnuts, creme fraiche, pinot grigio - mmmm... I thought that I was being moderate but felt stowed, uncomfortably so.

Weak nature in the face of delicious food, then sheer greed and some perverse sense of curiosity meant that I had two wee slices of the garlic bread when really the meal would have been more than beautifully complete without. And I feel monumentally guilty now as the hostess had gone to considerable effort to make it low-carb for me. And sheer greed again meant that I ate the entire apple and its stuffing whereas our hostess had the sense to leave some of hers.

Actually, I'll correct myself there - it would have been a wanton act of culinary criminality to leave any of that apple pudding.

Curiosity satisfied: I think the bread actually made my stomach ache, which is why I decided to have more bread in the evening, why not? duh.

Dinner chez nous, involving mushrooms with stilton and cream, watercress salad and vine tomatoes with chilli dressing, mini ciabatta, and red wine. Oh goodness - that was *so* good! I do wish that I could come up with a low-carb version of ciabatta and life would be complete (okay, hyperbole, but you know what I mean). However tasty the ciabatta was, I'm not so sure that it was worth the bloat / stomach ache - certainly wouldn't be on a regular basis, certainly wouldn't be worth de-low-carbing for it either.

Oddly enough, I've not gone mad with sweeties, cakes etc. (except double chocolate ration - 4 small squares rather than 2) - no desire for these things at all: bread is definitely my weak point, and fruit. Indeed, I think that the pudding at lunch-time and the breads were the only carb-sins. And vino. Ah, and I did have a double helping of peanuts with garlic & chilli flakes (actually I felt these were too much half-way through the second helping).

Whatever - that volume of food alone is really going to challenge the scales tomorrow morning!

One of the things that was so liberating about going ad libitum today was not having to weigh anything - a bit of this, a splash of oil, couple of cloves of garlic, a goodly lump of cheese. Nice. I'm hoping that as I move into 'low-carb for life' mode that the measuring will become redundant. Well, it better had - or else.

I think that I needed to remind myself that this WoE is not a cage - and that the world doesn't end if I occasionally fall off the wagon and eat very carbiforous things. That, really, nothing *is* forbidden any more than I'm forbidden to smoke. I choose not to smoke now because of all the wonderful benefits not-smoking brings - and I choose not to eat carby stuff for all the benefits (albeit not so absolutely proven) that low-carb brings. I realize that's not a particularly good analogy as nicotine is a highly toxic and addictive substance, and sugar is... oh, hang on a minute, what was that Dr. Lustig?

Guestimated calorie intake for the day is a really rough 2030 (carbs up to 150g maybe? I honestly think less, nearer 100 maybe) - the extra 30 calories are the only thing I that measured, namely my soya milk in my tea in the morning before I remembered that I was ad libitum.

I'm glad that I had the blow out - but I won't be doing it again in any hurry.

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Thursday, day fifty-three, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 125.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~124.25lbs); 1.8lb gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.50, h. 36.5 inches

Scales duly challenged - FatDog Fat. Yup, that's me firmly (fatly?) back into the over-weight category *again*. Utterly self-inflicted: now I know what happens when I eat bread and sticky pudding, and two full meals, both with vino... Interestingly, OH reckons that he has gained two to three pounds as well.

Think @Dom-Dom and others were mentioning that, if you're going to blow it - do it in one sitting; I think they might have something there (anecdotal sample n=1 mind).

Itching to make today a repair day to compensate - but I said I'd do 5:2 this week so that should be the end of it; get thee behind me OCD. Time for fresh coffee with cream - that will fix it.

Went for a challenge-free dinner of salad with quorn fillet: 'safe', and little weighing / measuring required. And finally, made CBB's pepper & sesame seed crackers to have with some cheese. Weighing and measuring for this is somehow different because it's "baking", and so seems perfectly reasonable; weighing a tomato before I get to eat it or use it in a recipe is not something that I want to be doing for much longer.

Overall, I managed to resist the temptation to go into major recovery mode and had a fairly normal feed day:

....... Calories 1378.91 Carbs 37.63 Fat 97.59 Protein 37.92 Fibre 15.44

sesame and black pepper crispbreads, CBB p89, makes 8 (ish)
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 50g 212.00 8.00 10.00 19.50 6.00
eggs, brown, 151cal/C0g/F11.2g/P12.5/Fi0g/100g
......... ~54g x 1 of 81.54 0.00 6.05 6.75 0.00
sesame seeds, 573c/C21.65/F49.67/P17.73/Fi11.8/100g
......... 18g 103.14 3.90 8.94 3.19 2.12
black pepper, fresh ground
......... 2ml 0.00
salt
......... 2ml 0.00 do NOT go easy on the salt - the crackers really need it
water, warm
......... 120ml 0.00
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 3ml for oiling parchment paper 24.72 0.00 2.75 0.00 0.00
total for sesame and black pepper crispbreads 421.40 11.90 27.74 29.44 8.12
total for single sesame and black pepper crispbread 60.20 1.70 3.96 4.21 1.16
total for two sesame and black pepper crispbreads 120.40 3.40 7.92 8.41 2.32

Method: 1. toast your sesame seeds - I did mine under the grill, you can dry fry them, or even oven them - and set aside; 2. mix all the other dry stuff together in a bowl; 3. make a well in the middle of the mix and add the egg; 4. beat the egg and gradually mix in the dry stuff; 5. once mixed, gradually beat in the water; 6. cut a small piece of parchment to fit the bottom of a microwavable plate and oil it; 7. dollop just under 25ml * of the batter into the middle and spread it into shape (square or circle? it won't stay in either) then liberally shower it with toasted sesame seeds; 8. microwave for 2 to 3 ** minutes until crispy; 9. rest it on a wire rack whilst doing the others - you might need to re-oil the parchment.

* I did 25ml using my measuring spoon and ended up with 6 sensible ones and a monster sized 7th (not monster enough to split into an 8th) - so just under 25ml will probably do for 8 of them : YMMV.

** Yes, you calculated that correctly, if you manage to get the full 8 crackers out of your mix, you'll be pinging away for nearly half an hour.

There has to be a simpler method. A quick 'dry-fry' then oven / grill to crisp out? And how to get nice circles (lids off microwavable ready meals / sauces come to mind)? Kudos to the genius with the answers, though I expect Lakeland will have a plastic gizmo to do this sort of thing.

The crackers had the same slightly 'chalky' texture that soya flour seems to endow everything - I think that I might substitute some ground linseed in next time (and up the water to compensate for its sponge qualities) and / or even use a little oil for water. But, otherwise, they're pretty good for slathering with boursin, or any other savoury delicacy, and they're not quite as insane as the pure linseed ones. I'm thinking that a combination of the two might work together rather well - and be oven bakeable. Oooh, and what about a touch of nut flour? Hmm.

And let's not forget - they're brilliantly low-carb: four of them will set you back near the same number of carb grams as a single ryvita (6.8g for 6.7g); just don't mention the calories

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Friday, day fifty-four, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 125.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~123.75lbs); 0.4lb loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.5, w. 27.0, t. 33.50, h. 36.5 inches

At this rate it will be a minimum of five or more days before I've recovered from my ad libitum day.

Cue music from Thunderbirds - repair days to the rescue.

And dinner is affy easy - same as last night but with less mayo, and none of the extras. Hope my crackers are going to be good for another day. And I'm 'psychologically' hungry - I usually let slack a little on my Friday repair day, but with this being only my second repair day this week I couldn't. And OH has just slathered peanut butter and marmalade on a rice cake: oh, the cruelty, the carbs are calling...

....... Calories 660.40 Carbs 31.12 Fat 45.66 Protein 24.40 Fibre 13.91

Not the very best or easiest of repair days, but not the worst; and it's at least 700 calories less than it might have been (I didn't mug the OH for his piece, after all).

Off-topic, from a rather provoked FatDog: I'm driven to have a wee rant about the more extreme exercise fascist fanatic / 5:2 purist postings but fear that I might end up being equally offensive. Insipid apologies after the insults aren't really good enough. Suffice to say: before you impugn others again, would you please remember that not everyone is as anatomically / physiologically blessed as you? Ta. Ever so.

Saturday, day fifty-five, week-end feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 124.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~123.75lbs); 0.6lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.90, t. 33.25, h. 36.25 inches

That's the end of my week 16 on 4:3 and a gain of 1.4lbs. Not a representative week at all because of Wednesday's ad libitum extravaganza. But then, maybe it *is* representative, because a major feature of 5:2 / 4:3 is its flexibility and its forgivingness; one must just remember, the trend is down-wards.

Yay! The muffin-top quotient of my measurements has sufficiently reduced for me to acknowledge that the measures on the tape really are less, just a tad of an inch, but less; I was beginning to fear that my waist would never shrink.

Underbust and hips 0.25 inches off, waist 0.1 and tummy 0.5 inches off; jolly happy with that latter measurement as that's where the 'bad fat' lies. As before these are *indicative* reductions - there's no way that I'm measuring my waist to a tenth of an inch accuracy, just that it's less than 27 inches but not quite half way between 26.5 and 27.0 inches. And, of course, it's different if I breathe out deeply

Not a clue what I'm doing for dinner - but I have near 180g of button mushrooms in the fridge that need used. I'm wanting to cook something special but I'm feeling very lazy with regards to weighing stuff. And I'm struggling to find something that will do nicely for the two of us, rather than a four person recipe, and something that won't cost the earth. There are a few recipes in the World Food Cafe (WFC) cookbook that are calling me - need to go scour the co-op and sainsers for bargains and let that decide.

Well, OH helped determine this - he decided that he wanted to try to use up some of his stuff from the freezer - and the bargains were in short supply. Goody; I shall do a FatDog experiment. Creamy mushroom sauce (again) with a third go at low-carb pasta.

The mushroom sauce was, as ever (and ever, ad infinitum), delicious but the pasta dissolved. Yes, dear reader - I meticulously and time-consumingly squished little balls of pasta dough into wee medallions of potentially delicious pasta heaven and, as soon as they hit the gently bubbling water, they dissolved. Do not ask me why - I truly do not know - there weren't even little bits to rescue; methinks their remains would probably have passed through a sieve. Not just a culinary bleaurgh, but a veritable culinary disaster.

I expect that my face was an utterly comedic picture of disbelief and pathetic horror - should have been on stage for the Edinburgh Fringe. Well, I suppose that that was one good reason for finding out whether the sesame crackers were still okay - bit of an odd combination with lovely, silky, creamy mushrooms, but an edible dinner all the same. I even forgot to have my tomato and onion salad frae the shock.

Indeed, so shocked that I had to have an extra glass or three of Montepulciano. Not heard of it? New to me too - a very pleasant Italian wine for less than a fiver from the co-op (gawd I'm gettin' auld - remember when a couple of quid was considered a lot for posh stuff...).

....... Calories 1682.07 Carbs 34.89 Fat 106.26 Protein 30.47 Fibre 14.09

[rant] And, please forgive me my lovely, sweet, real-life, friends, but I'm going to *scream* at the next one of you who says "but you weren't really overweight" or "ooh, don't lose so much weight that you get all anorexic"...

Are you seriously suggesting that 10.5 stone was / is an acceptable weight for someone under 5 foot tall, particularly if they have a metal and plastic knee that has a *very* finite life (partially determined by how much weight-bearing work it has to do)? And that aiming for the (medically accepted) middle-of-the-range weight for one's height is anorexic behaviour?[/rant]

That feels better, sorry for any disturbance an' all that. Sleep tight. xxx FatDog

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Sunday, day fifty-six, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 124.8lbs (analogue scales corrected ~123.75lbs); 0.2lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.90, t. 33.25, h. 36.25 inches

Hmmm... scales up - alcohol or calories at work, or both?

I wonder if it's finally time for me to revise my TDEE : working to 1700 has kept things going well enough until now but, given that the progress tracker has my TDEE at 1300 (and when I stopped being a 'fatty' for a couple of days it dipped into the twelve hundreds!), maybe it's time to take a look at it again.

Well, that wasn't very helpful: using moving averages, including the wobbly weight gain etc. this week, and using the figures for the last three weeks my average TDEE is... 1634 calories; using figures for the last four weeks gives 1723 calories; and ditching the wobbly week's figures and doing three weeks previous gives 1851 calories, and ditto four weeks is 1909 calories; and using figures for just this last week gives 1053 calories. Utter nonsense? I suspect that it is the 'carb woo' muddling things up; and the wobbly week that just passed is as unrepresentative as my very first week on low-carb (at an average 2362 calories).

Not sure what can be sensibly drawn from this - TDEE appears to be going down, but from where and to where is anyone's guess. I'll... oh I don't know... any TDEE geeks out there with ideas, please, pretty please? I'm *really* not wanting to do a week or two off 4:3, 'eating to' my guessed TDEE (and carb allowance stable at 55g) to see what happens - which, I suppose, would be the definitive way of working things out.

At least I do know what I'm doing for dinner today (and have since yesterday): AWL's mediterranean carrot mezza, p87. Ground nuts (and maybe linseed) instead of breadcrumbs, dates instead of apricots, mixed seeds instead of just pine nuts, tangerine zest not orange, dried herbs not fresh, and baked not fried - I think that's all my mods: partly low carb driven, partly taste, partly convenience and partly pecuniary

Whooot! Well, that scored - so much so that VBF reckonned she'd try it on her next romantic victim liason. Served with a Sainsbury (bargain) Greek salad and a dollop of Yeo Valley (full fat) yoghurt, and ciabatta bread for the carbivores (utterly unnecessary - they just can't help themselves), I'd agree that it was a bit of a hit myself.

....... Calories 1361.83 Carbs 54.17 Fat 80.71 Protein 27.07 Fibre 14.71

Oops, seem to have moved to the new 55g carb allowance a day early...

mediterranean carrot mezza, adapted from AWL's GI Diet, p87
carrots, organic, 40c/C7.9/F0.3/P0.6/Fi2.8/100g
......... 582g 232.80 45.98 1.75 3.49 16.30
almonds, ground, 640c/C6.9/F55.8/P21.1/Fi11.8/100g
......... 37g 236.80 2.55 20.65 7.81 4.37
dates, fine chopped, 277c/C68.27/F0.15/P1.81/Fi6.7/100g
......... 129g 357.33 88.07 0.19 2.33 8.64
spring onions, fine chopped across, 28c/C3.0/F0.5/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 107g 29.96 3.21 0.54 2.14 1.61
sunflower, pumpkin and pine nuts, co-op, 665c/C13.7/F56.6/P22.6/Fi6.3/100g
......... 50g 332.50 6.85 28.30 11.30 3.15
eggs, brown, beaten, 151cal/C0g/F11.2g/P12.5/Fi0g/100g
......... ~54g x 1 of 81.54 0.00 6.05 6.75 0.00
tangerine zest, finely blitzed, 97c/C14.4/F0.2/P1.5g/Fi10.6/100g
......... 30ml 29.10 4.32 0.06 0.45 0.18
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 30ml 250.00 0.00 27.60 0.00 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 5ml 0.00
dill, dried
......... 5ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
total for mediterranean carrot mezza 1550.03 150.98 85.13 34.27 34.24
fatdog 2/9th portion of mediterranean carrot mezza 344.45 33.55 18.92 7.62 7.61

Method: 1. grate half the carrot, and ping then blitz the other half to a puree; 2. bung all the ingredients, except the oil, into a large bowl and mix thoroughly *; 3. pattie making time - divvy them up as you will, I did nine (I'll make them smaller and do more next time); 4. well oil a suitable baking tray and bake your patties in a pre-heated oven at 220C for about half an hour, turning midway through, until they're nicely browned; 5. serve with a Greek-ish salad and a dollop of yoghurt.

* if they're very wet you could add extra ground nuts or, even better, that notorious sponge - ground linseed.

Methinks that with this quantity of carrots it's well worth getting organic ones if you can - I'd been wanting to do this recipe for a while when I struck lucky a day or two ago and acquired a 750g bag of very fine organic carrots for 30p.

If you're watching your carbs, you could drastically reduce them by using apricots rather than dates, as per the original recipe - and use the quantity AWL describes (just 12 of) rather than the decadent amount of dates that I used.

I can't guarantee that these patties will have the seductive properties that the VBF believes they have, but they are certainly more-ish; indeed, I'm having a hard time resisting the 1/9th that's sitting in the fridge for my repair day dinner tomorrow, even though I'm full.

@Izzy, I promise you, you will not regret trying the carrot mezza... Wouldn't be surprised if a nice glass of Montepulciano went rather well with them too

Monday, day fifty-seven, repair day

Baseline at the start of low-carb week 9
Weigh-in at start of day wt. 124.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~123.25lbs); 0.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.90, t. 33.25, h. 36.25 inches

So for low-carb week 8 there was an overall gain of 0.2lbs; if that's the damage done by just one day ad libitum, I can see that going off on holiday might be seriously detrimental to one's weight loss program! But despite that, as mentioned on Saturday, my girth has shrunk! Quarter of an inch off hips and under-bust, a touch off my waist and half an inch off my tummy. Happy enough with that.

Carb allowance goes up to 55g, though I seem to have taken advantage of that increase yesterday, a day early :0 But today is a repair day so I hope to go nowhere near that number.

Feeding details: the usual slacker's yoghurt and then I'll be finishing my portion of the yummy mediterranean carrot mezza tonight with a salad of watercress, spinach & rocket and a vine tomato with a smidgen of helmans. And for afters, rather than cheese and biscuits, I'm having (bargain) baba ghanoush on my (well, CBB's) sesame crispbreads. And a square of 85%chocolate. grrrr... and late munchies - 5 almonds.

........ Calories 653.03 Carbs 31.59 Fat 45.06 Protein 24.83 Fibre 14.61

Eating the remains of feed day food on repair days is not the best of ideas - it usually bumps the carbs too high.

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Tuesday, day fifty-eight, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~122.75lbs); 1.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.90, t. 33.25, h. 36.25 inches; and maybe thinner!

Well, that's a wowzer of a drop - 1.4lbs - and the biggest that I've seen in a single day, though my ad libitum day's 'gain' was bigger at 1.8lbs. Unless, of course, it's the scales playing silly-whatsits, because the analogue scales are showing less than a pound drop. Hmmm. In any case, I suspect that if there were such a 'loss' it is no more real than the 'gain' - all water-weight magically shifting back off in a one-er.

I'm most sceptical. Though I must say, I do 'feel thinner' today, so here's hoping that it *is* for real! Oooh, that would mean that I'm not overweight any more - but tell that to the flab around my middle.

Major bargain hit in the co-op: two big bistro salads for 80p each so my revised borlotti bean stew will have to wait for another day. Tonight will be fried halloumi (as per Sophie Grigson's Sunshine Food) with salad and I'll have a go at some sort of bread / flat-bread to go with it.

Confession time: two more cookbooks joined the FatDog's Master's household, this time from the Cancer Research shop which has tantalizingly put out a monster selection of cookbooks. So my library now includes the Sophie Grigson, as above, and World Vegetarian Cooking by Sarah Brown. I fear the Master might banish me to the dog-house if I acquire many more books...

So, I did a third version of the savoury muffin-cake - worked as previous but it really does not rise much, if at all. CBB says to 'pour the batter' but I've never had anything remotely resembling a pourable batter - I've re-checked the the liquid versus dry and it looks to be right; I definitely didn't 'over-work' the batter. Ho hum. Calling all bakers - what on earth am I doing wrong?. I've repeated the recipe below.

As for the fried halloumi - I don't think that SG can ever have tried her recipe: wise ones on the internet confirm that halloumi simply does not fry in oil like that. One needs to dry-fry, or *just* pre-coat the halloumi in oil and then fry, or coat in batter and deep-fry... After the halloumi had pustulated in the gradually clouding bubbling oil for many minutes I reverted to my usual method of cooking it - the grill.

........ Calories 1396.02 Carbs 26.78 Fat 108.65 Protein 44.05 Fibre 12.98

Still not affy happy with the macronutrient balance - getting a good fat level tends to involve cream and / or oil, which sadly has no fibre. Can't seem to win. grrrrrrr....

Savoury muffin-cake variation no. 3 - inspired by CBB p27 (one sixth recipe)
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 37.5g 159.00 6.00 7.50 14.63 9.00
almonds, ground, 640c/C6.9/F55.8/P21.1/Fi11.8/100g
......... 25g 160.00 1.73 13.95 5.28 2.95
baking powder
......... 2.5ml 0.00
pure via (stevia based sweetener) 2c/C0.47/F0/P0/Fi0/0.5g/5ml
......... 2ml 3.00 0.71 0.00 0.00 0.00
s&p 0.00
marjoram, dried
......... 2ml 0.00
rosemary, dried
......... 2ml 0.00
garlic flakes
......... a good grinding 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 22.5ml 187.50 0.00 20.70 0.00 0.00
eggs, brown, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... ~54g x 1 of 81.54 0.00 6.05 6.75 0.00
double cream, coop, 465c/C1.6/F50.5/P1.5/Fi0/100ml
......... 22.5ml 104.63 0.36 11.36 0.34 0.00
total for savoury muffin-cake variation no. 3 695.67 8.79 59.56 26.99 11.95
¼ slice savoury muffin-cake no. 3 173.92 2.20 14.89 6.75 2.99

Method: 1. mix the dry stuff together; 2. in another bowl beat the wet stuff together 3. add the dry stuff to the wet stuff and mix well but don't over mix; 4. 'pour' into greased flan tray; 5. bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 20 to 30 minutes; 6. remove from oven when nicely golden and let stand for 5 minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack; 7. eat whilst warm...

This serves quite well as a bread substitute for a bread-craving-low-carber but it is very corn-bread-ish and I want cake.

@izzy Ah ha! Missing ingredients - I wonder if you've nailed it there: whatever it is could rightly go into the Almond Muffin recipe after the '15 tbsp' and before the word 'sweetener' perhaps Except, unfortunately, that's in the dry mixture. Darn.

p.s. Very glad to hear that soya flour is not off the menu - all that nut meal could break the bank!

You've caught me in the act - OH has just returned from his wanderings with two big tubs of bargain double cream and this has spurred me to investigate muffins a little further, with a view to putting a revised savoury muffin-cake on the menu tonight.

From what I can gather, a 'basic' muffin recipe would have 362.5g dry and 350ml wet ingredients - CBB's muffins have 525g dry and 585g wet so, if I've the conversions right, should be 'wetter' if anything...

I'm going to try more cream anyway - will add it until I have something that might conceivably pour

Wednesday, day fifty-nine, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~122.75lbs); 0.6lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.90, t. 33.25, h. 36.25 inches

Weight back up as secretly feared / anticipated: a loss of 1.4lbs on a single day was really too much to ask (unless one is ill, of course). But scales were playing silly-whatsits this morning, they wouldn't even say 'Helo' for the first three goes (and if they don't say 'Helo' one knows they're going to be daft) and gave readings ranging from 123.6lbs to 129.6lbs (yeah, right I put on *six* pounds in 24 hours) - with more plausible readings around the 124.2lbs mark as well. I'll be optimistic and go for the lower figure: a 're-gain' of 1.2lbs is just too much for a FatDog to countenance. And anyway, I actually felt very much thinner and 'firmer' as I clambered out of bed, so it has to be the lower figure...

I was so wanting to do a variation on the AWL stew - flageolet beans and kale - to use up some lovely greens that a friend brought round to us from her allotment. But, however hard I shake the recipe, I can't seem to make it repair day carb limit friendly. Even if I take the beans out and serve them separately, the tomatoes / onions / chilli / garlic combo really push up the carb grams. And is kale *really* that carborific, at 6.6g carb per 100g, and fibre only 1.7g? I thought we were supposed to eat lots of leafy green veggies when low-carbing and, last time I looked, kale is very green and leafy.

Actually, I might be wrong about not being able to modify the recipe. I can use soya beans instead of flageolet (the soya says 5.1g / 100g on the packet - no indication of cooked or uncooked but I suspect the former); dried chilli and garlic flakes instead of fresh; dump the bouillon as we don't need to up the liquid this time; well, that's nearly six carbs off the base tomato sauce to start with. Ah, and a major help from the kale: after trimming out the stalky bits nearly half the weight is gone and I only have 78 grams, so not a major carb contributor. And another little carb bonus - just checked the numbers on the onion packet and they're lower than the USDA ones: that's another carb or two salvaged!

Now to check out the soya beans. Hmm: USDA says 21g of carb per 100g (dry weight). I've no idea how much weight these things put on after soaking and boiling - assuming a doubling at the very most, which takes us to 10.5g carb / 100g (not much different to the flageolets) confusing given the packet numbers. Oh well, I'm committed now.

I think that I am going to have to work much harder to stop thinking of repair day recipes as simply recipes for reduced-sized feed days; I suspect that this mentality is why I struggle with the carb levels sometimes. I've led myself astray since the start of low-carbing: whilst increasing the carbs for feed days, from 20g by 5g per week, I've simply been adding in slightly more carbiforous foods. This is fine with a regular calorie intake of 1400, of which 50g carbs is just 14%, but not fine for a repair day allowance of 500 calories and 19g of carb (15%).

I need to firmly register in my head that certain foods, e.g. legumes or starchy vegetables, are well and truly unsuitable, and thus *off limits*, for repair days - just as they were at the very start of low-carbing. You'd think that I would have learnt that lesson by now - but I never cease to surprise myself with my stupidity *embarrassed thingy*.

Today is a case in point - I do *know* that yummy beans combined with lovely tomato sauces are a bad idea on repair days, but I go and try to change just such a feed day recipe into a repair day recipe. Duh. And salads with ready-made dressings are off too, like the bistro one we had this evening - I suppose I could have weighed the various components, calculated the nutrition, and used my own dressing, but I'm afraid that I couldn't be xxxx'd (at a cost of 9.4g carbs! probably from the balsamic in the dressing). The quarter portion of savoury muffin variation no. 3 only did calorific damage and went splendidly with the stew.

........ Calories 698.34 Carbs 32.08 Fat 41.77 Protein 33.39 Fibre 14.00

Damn those munchies. Somehow they managed to convince me that my linseed wouldn't be enough to satiate me but that I had to have something with 2.7g fibre, and only 20g almonds answered the call...

soya bean & kale stew, very adapted from AWL GI diet, p61
soya beans, pre-soaked & cooked, 446c/C21.0/F2.9/P36.0/Fi9.0/100g (dry weight)
......... 60g 267.60 12.60 1.74 21.60 5.40 probably == 130g wet weight
kale, de-veined, shredded, 42c/C6.6/F0.6/P2.8/Fi1.7/100g
......... 78g 32.76 5.15 0.47 2.18 1.33
plum tomatoes, tinned, coop, 15c/C3.0/F0.1/P1.0/Fi0.7/100g
......... 400g 60.00 12.00 0.40 4.00 2.80
onion, white, co-op, fine chopped, 40c/C7.6/F0.2/P1.3/Fi1.4/100g
......... 115g 46.00 8.74 0.23 1.50 1.61
chilli flakes
......... 4ml 0.00
garlic flakes
......... 4ml 0.00
parsley, fresh, rough chopped, 36c/C3/F1/P3/Fi3/100g
......... 5g 1.80 0.15 0.05 0.15 0.15
olive oil, 824cal/F91.6g/C,P&FI<0.1g/100mL
......... 15ml 123.60 0.00 13.74 0.00 0.00
bay leaf
......... 2 of 0.00
thyme, dried
......... 4ml 0.00
marjoram, dried
......... 10ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
water
......... about 100ml as needed 0.00
total soya bean & kale stew 531.76 38.64 16.63 29.43 11.29
FatDogs portion soya bean & kale stew 245.83 17.86 7.69 13.60 5.22

Method: 1. heat oil in a large non-stick pan and saute the onions until they're softening, along with the garlic & chilli flakes, thyme and bay leaves; 2. add the tomatoes and other herbs, s&p and cook for 3 minutes, then add the beans; 3. ping the shredded kale with a little water for 3 minutes; 4. add the kale to the pot and a wee bit water if needed; 5. stew for a further 10 minutes; 6. serve with slithers of parmesan cheese - the more the merrier.

That was exceedingly good; OH enjoyed it but found it a little spicy; I was particularly impressed that it seemed so rich given that it was a skinny version with minimal olive oil etc. Forgot the parmesan until several spoons in - and it really makes a difference, so don't think of it as optional: it balances out the sharpness of the kale; go for a minimum of 10g. This combination of herbs / spices seems to go a treat with beans and greens, so I'll certainly try it with other variations on the theme.

==================================

Thursday, day sixty, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~122.75lbs); 0.2lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.90, t. 33.25, h. 36.25 inches

One might expect a greater loss from a repair day, so perhaps the lower figure yesterday *was* a bit optimistic, but I'm not going to complain as it's all going down...

No idea what dinner will be - let the supermarket bargains decide! OH has just returned from his perambulations with two tubs of bargain double cream for me: so whatever we're having tonight, methinks there's another CBB savoury muffin-cake in there somewhere - with extra cream maybe...

OOOoof! There's only one way that the scales are going tomorrow, and that's up! Dog's dinner no. 8 was *well* beyond my hopes and expectations - I was actually worrying that it would be too awful to eat whilst I was putting it together (nearly all bargains but I do hate waste). From sheer delight in the flavours, I had seconds. In my defence, when initially logging the recipe I'd only done the nutrition stuff for the high carb ingredients - didn't bother with the cream as I knew it was low carb. Major mistake: as I was slowly savouring my second helping I discovered that my 450c dinner turned into a 846c dinner! No wonder I was beginning to feel rather full. Roly-poly FatDog, with a leg at each corner - cake making will have to wait for another day...

Maybe the scales won't be going up as I am within my limits, albeit higher than usual:

........ Calories 1511.56 Carbs 48.47 Fat 101.37 Protein 46.31 Fibre 18.96

dog's dinner no. 8 - broccoli, cauliflower, beans, muhumarra, cheese & chilli muddle
broccoli & cauliflower, co-op, floretted, 35c/C2.4/F0.9/P4.0/Fi2.2/100g
......... 492g 172.20 11.81 172.20 172.20 172.20
muhumarra *, 113c/C13.8/F5.3/P2.4/Fi2.9/100g
......... 150g 169.50 20.70 7.95 3.60 4.35
butterbeans, co-op, 110c/C15.5/F0.6/P7.3/Fi5.3/100g
......... 235g 258.50 36.43 1.41 17.16 12.46
mature cheddar, lake dist, grated, 416c/C0.1/F34.9/P25.4/Fi0/100g
......... 39g 162.24 0.04 13.61 9.95 0.00
parmesan cheese, grated, 390c/C0/F28.4/P33.0/Fi0/100g
......... 43g 167.70 0.00 12.21 14.19 0.00
extra thick cream, 465c/C1.6/F50.5/P1.5/Fi0/100g
......... 150g 697.50 2.40 75.75 2.25 0.00
chilli, green, slithered 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 28g 11.20 2.66 0.06 0.56 0.42
total dog's dinner no. 8 1638.84 74.03 283.19 219.90 189.43
FatDogs dog's dinner no. 8 846.66 38.25 146.30 113.60 97.86

* this is a red pepper and tomato paste / dip made by G'nosh, not had it before as it's usually a very silly price, but at 40p it was worth a shot - it's quite tart but tasty

Method: 1. wash broccoli & cauliflower florets in salted water in a microwavable & oven-proof dish; 2. drain, but not that well, then ping with the lid on for about 3 minutes then drain thoroughly; 3. layer 1/2 the butter-beans / cream ** / cheeses / chilli and all the muhumarra over the veggies, then the rest of butter-beans / cream / cheeses / chilli, with the latter two last on top; 4. bung into a pre-heated oven at 220C for about 15 to 20 minutes, until it's bubbling and the top is going brown

** my cream was solid and had to be pinged for a few seconds to liquify (probably just converted it all to transfats aaaaarrghh)

It's about two hours later and I'm still stuffed... oh foolish FatDog - I could actually eat the rest for the taste but it would physically hurt :0

==================================

Friday, day sixty-one, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~122.25lbs); 0.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.90, t. 33.25, h. 36.25 inches

Well, gosh, didn't expect that drop at all - though I can 'see' it, as the watery / soggy midriff I had yesterday is *much* flatter and firmer today. Fingers crossed that it's not a phantom loss: the analogue scales would seem to confirm about a half pound off, so I'm hopeful.

Big bag of organic carrots acquired as a bargain yesterday - now what can I do with them *that's repair day friendly*? No legumes, remember. And, actually, carrots aren't highly recommended low-carb fare either. Maybe they need to last to Saturday; in which case I could have a big salad with avocado or something. Will see what the shops turn up.

Supermarket ram-raid results in: bargain watercress salad with chilli dressing - dressing is horribly carbiferous (see above re. ready-made dressings), but I'd really rather use it than not +++; and nice organic mushrooms for 75p - I'll fill these with some stilton (bargain) and cheddar (on offer at £3 for 500g) and bung them in the oven a while then have them atop the last quarter of my 'Italian' muffin-cake. I fancy a glass of wine and an almond or two, so think I'll make this a 'half-repair' day and allow up to 800c. If an excuse is needed, I'm half celebrating saving myself a small fortune by finding a lovely fitted cotton frock in the charity store rather than buying the very pretty one in the boutique that's just opened - about a sixty quid difference!

Well, the salad and the mushrooms really didn't like each other. It *might* have come off - think stilton & pear (sweet) and stilton & watercress (savoury), and there was chilli in both - but it didn't, it was really close, but it just didn't. So don't ever serve them together on the same plate again. Other than that, dinner was thoroughly satisfying and tasty, when taken in two parts

On reflection, methinks that the sweet chilli sauce is very bad news indeed: not sure why I didn't twig sooner, but that is sugar-sweet - probably at least 9 carb grams worth. I've just dug the empty packet out from the bucket and, lo: the first ingredient for the dressing is sugar. No wonder I went slightly light headed as I was shovelling it into my face whilst serving it up - beastly addictive stuff - just that one tiny taste and I *wanted more*. I'm having nightmares as to what it's doing to my innards now. Hmm. Idiot. Darn.

No, double idiot - see the bit marked +++ above. How could I have even thought that? Triple idiot. In fact, infinitesimally idiotic. Ugh. I'll need to go read my friend's book on the mindful path to self-compassion - once I've finished thoroughly beating myself up that is. Suspend beating for a moment - last time I had this salad it was mixed with a couple of others (e.g. rocket) and shared between a few of us, so I had memories of it being acceptable - enough excuses, resume major self-flagellation. I've not done horrid things to the numbers though, thank goodness:

........ Calories 761.37 Carbs 23.19 Fat 50.19 Protein 30.84 Fibre 11.93

This is hardly a recipe: fine chop stalks from 200g mushrooms, mix with fine chopped 15g strong cheddar and 20g stilton, stuff into mushrooms (along with any spices / herbs you fancy, e.g. garlic, chilli, and s&p) and bake in pre-heated oven at 200C for about 20 minutes.

So, I need to ponder tomorrow's dinner, which must now be more hit than miss as the OH's only-begotten-son is coming by. I have 750g of lovely organic carrots: ginger is singing to me for some reason, and coconut, which draws me to trying a variation on AWL's spicy green bean recipe (GI, p97) that I did a while back. However, I'd like to avoid Indian or Thai food as OH's son reckons to know everything about such cuisines. I now have eighteen recipe books and the whole of the internet, surely I'll find something...

[carorees]

re your muffin recipe...the baking powder seems a bit low to me, I'd have thought it should be able 3tsp, but the dry to wet ratio sounds about right compared with a standard high carb recipe. However, perhaps soya flour absorbs mute moisture? When I've baked standard muffins the mixture has been runnier than a soft dropping consistency.

re your muffin recipe...the baking powder seems a bit low to me, I'd have thought it should be able 3tsp, but the dry to wet ratio sounds about right compared with a standard high carb recipe. However, perhaps soya flour absorbs mute moisture? When I've baked standard muffins the mixture has been runnier than a soft dropping consistency.

Thanks ever-so for that. The original gives 3tsp, but that's for the full amount using 6 eggs, 225g soy, 150g almond meal etc. etc., the recipe above is one sixth (i.e. one egg, 37.5g soy etc.). I'll maybe try more baking powder - along with lots of extra cream FatDog

[carorees]

my baking powder tub says 4tsp to 225g flour as a general rule, but my muffin recipes use more than that, so I'm guessing you'd need 2 tsp (not 3 as I said earlier...hadn't done the maths at that point!). Also I've noticed that the baking powder I had previously said 3 tsp to 225g, so it looks like it might vary depending on the brand. I guess they put different amounts of anti-caking agent in.

Saturday, day sixty-two, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 123.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~122.25lbs); 0.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.75, t. 33.25, h. 36.25 inches

Would have expected a little off after a repair day but maybe the transit back-log and / or the sugar-apocalypse yesterday evening have wobbled things. The scales did fleetingly settle on 122.8lbs but then moved onto 123.0lbs consistently - at least they didn't move back up! And waist is down a touch.

So, end of week 17 of 4:3 (or, given my slack Fridays, should that be 4½ : 2½ ?) and I've fully recovered from the previous week's carbocalypse: loss of 1.6lbs and waist a good pinch less.

Despite my searches I couldn't find a suitable carrot / bean / coconut / ginger recipe so I ended up making this one up - Middle Eastern inspired flavours (I hope), sugar-snap peas not beans (50p bargains). Evening was a disaster but the food was 'pure dead brilliant'. If one could have a recipe as an epitaph, this would be a top contender for me.

Was hoping to do a complementary CBB muffin-cake but time was against us... Good thing too as I'd have exceeded calories and carbs, as it is I've stolen into Monday's carb allowance again:

........ Calories 1467.86 Carbs 59.42 Fat 82.10 Protein 13.61 Fibre 9.58

dog's dinner no. 10 - Middle Eastern carrots & peas
carrots, slithered, organic, 40c/C7.9/F0.3/P0.6/Fi2.8/100g
......... 422g 168.80 33.34 1.27 2.53 11.82
sugar-snap peas, 40c/C4.2/F0.2/P3.6/Fi2.7/100g
......... 274g 109.60 11.51 0.55 9.86 7.40
ginger, fine chopped, 100cal/C15.8g/F0?g/P1.8g/Fi?g/100g
......... 50g 50.00 7.90 0.00 0.90 0.00
garlic, fine chopped, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 6g 8.94 1.98 0.03 0.38 0.13
lemon juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 30ml 7.80 0.60 0.00 0.12 0.09
toasted sesame oil, 827c/C0/F91.9/P0/Fi0/100ml
......... 30ml 248.10 0.00 27.57 0.00 0.00
chilli flakes
......... 2 large pinches 0.00
s&p 0.00
chilli, green&red, fine sliced 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 50g 20.00 4.75 0.10 1.00 0.75
spring onions, fine sliced, 28c/C3.0/F0.5/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 85g 23.80 2.55 0.43 1.70 1.28
coconut, desiccated 635c/C6.4/F62.0/P5.6/Fi13.7/100g
......... 50g 317.50 3.20 31.00 2.80 6.85
dates, fine chopped, 277c/C68.27/F0.15/P1.81/Fi6.7/100g
......... 100g 277.00 68.27 0.15 1.81 6.70
toasted sesame oil, 827c/C0/F91.9/P0/Fi0/100ml
......... 30ml 248.10 0.00 27.57 0.00 0.00
cumin seed, fresh ground
......... 5ml 0.00
coriander seed, fresh ground
......... 5ml 0.00
cinnamon, dried
......... 5ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
cashew nuts, raw, 553c/C26.89/F43.85/P18.22/Fi3.3/100g
......... 100g 553.00 26.89 43.85 18.22 3.30
total dog's dinner no. 10 - Middle Eastern carrots & peas 2032.64 160.99 132.51 39.32 38.31
FatDog's portion of dog's dinner no. 10 - Middle Eastern carrots & peas 508.16 40.25 33.13 9.83 9.58

Method: 1. wash then ping the damp sugar-snap peas in a lidded bowl for three minutes, then rinse in cold water and drain well; 2. place the carrots, peas, ginger, garlic, lemon juice, sesame oil, chilli flakes into a large bowl, add a couple of pinches of salt and a few grinds of pepper too, then thoroughly mix and leave to marinade for at least an hour (I was tempted to eat it as a salad - it smells delicious); 3. heat the other 30ml sesame oil in a large non-stick pan and add the chilli, onion and dry spices and cook for a minute or two; 4. add the marinaded veggies, then the desiccated coconut and dates, and cook until veggies are just tender; 5. roughly chop the cashew nuts and roast under the grill until nicely toasted; 6. mix the cashew nuts in just before serving; 7. serve with big dollop of natural yoghurt.

As a meal this is more than enough, but for the stodge-hungry it could be served with a slice of CBB cake (or potatoes / rice / whatever for the carbivores).

==================================

Sunday, day sixty-three, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~121.25lbs); 1.0lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.90, t. 33.25, h. 36.25 inches

Wow. A whole pound off, and the analogue scales show the same decrease. Just wow. Is there a 'disbelief' icon?

Busy doing house things so no cooking today - coffee with cream for break-fast, salad and quorn for dinner, and a substantial quotient of good wine.

Maybe learning (en fin) with the quorn stuff: the ham is great as a snack, mince is exceedingly useful in stews / sauces and such like (and lowish carb), but the breaded 'fillet' thingies are really not that great. They rather lack in flavour, are too 'pretend', are full of wasteful carbs and well, especially after one has been making really nice food from scratch, they actually seem like 'junk food' (whereas before I'd always thought of them as relatively healthy)... So, please darken our door no more (unless I'm desperate).

Sad I didn't 'get' the quorn thing before today as I've really mangled my carb, and even calorie, allowance - had a second lot of quorn later in the evening without enough thought:

........ Calories 1926.31 Carbs 73.31 Fat 113.60 Protein 39.47 Fibre 12.62

That's called how to wreck a one pound weight loss in just an evening. Repair days are truly a blessing...

Great blog Fatdog, I always read your entries with interest but up until now didn't have anything to say as I know almost nothing about low carbs, but I love baking so a couple of things to try for the muffin recipe:
- ground almonds should be ground very very very finely, if they are too course it can make for dense baked goods. Also I think you are supposed to bake things containing almond meal at a lower temperature - 180 sounds a bit high, try maybe 160? I've always heard that the mixture before cooking should be thick but that you shouldn't add more liquid, I've never found the mixture too thick though. Then again I do vegan baking so usually use soy milk with vinager instead of eggs, which makes the mixture more liquid, so maybe the two cancel eachother out?

A part from that here are some things I would try:
1) Add some baking soda as well as baking powder (just a pinch should do it as your quantities are so small)
2) Add xanthan gum (it's supposed to mimic gluten and improve texture in gluten free baking, I think you can also use agar)
3) Use some yoghurt in place of some of the cream as this has great levening properties, or would that mess up the carbs??

Hope one of those things works...

Oooh, wonderful baking suggestions - thank you so much, and for your kind words @Nicky_94.

I suspect that my almond meal is on the coarse side as I just grind it in my mini-processor - I'll splurge and get some pre-ground from the co-op for the next go. And will try adding baking soda too. Not sure about xanthan gum - will see if I can find it locally. Yoghurt will, unfortunately, bump up the carbs but I could try a wee juggle to get some in.

Marvellous ideas - many thanks again FatDog

Monday, day sixty-four, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~121.25lbs); 0.6lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.90, t. 33.25, h. 36.25 inches

Oh *select expletive of choice*. After yesterday's carbocalypse with the extra quorn it was to be expected, but it's a bit disappointing all the same. Trend, trend, remember the trend - though I'm tempted to rename myself FatDog Yo-yo.

This doesn't really apply to my situation today (which is utterly self-inflicted), but I thought it a good moment to post this gem from Phinney&Volek (p241) - it should, perhaps, go in a newbies stickie to forewarn them of the vagaries of the scales:

"We humans are about 2/3 water. Each of us contains about 40 liters (or quarts) of the stuff, and each liter weighs a bit over 2 pounds. Our bodies effectively regulate fluid balance by adjusting urine output and sense of thirst, but this is done within a 2-liter range. Within this range, your body doesn't really care if it is up to a liter above or below its ideal fluid level.

" What this means is that we all live inside a 4-pound-wide grey zone, so that from day to day we fluctuate up or down (i.e. plus or minus) 2 pounds. This happens more or less at random, so with any one weight reading you don't know where your body is within that fluid range. Your weight can be the same for 3 days in a row, and the next morning you wake up and the scale says you've 'gained' 3 pounds for no apparent reason. For people who weigh themselves frequently, this can be maddening." (my emphasis)

I'm ravenous (psychological, I suspect) and have scranned 20g of almonds, rather than my less satisfying but lower calorie linseed, for the fibre. Dinner had best be a modest wee carb-friendly omelette and salad, methinks. Tomorrow, tomorrow ...

........ Calories 594.51 Carbs 12.66 Fat 46.93 Protein 27.93 Fibre 7.61

I can't resist the call of the fridge, help! Groan, too late - I've been struck down by a quorn ham and peanut butter roll (skinny one):

........ Calories 642.2 Carbs 14.57 Fat 52.18 Protein 31.14 Fibre 8.60

Now, thou weak-willed FatDog - though it is very early, if you get your sleepy-time tea down your thrapple that will signal the end of the (feeding) day... and an early night would be good for you.

I wonder if we should have a thread for - "Help, I'm about to over-eat" along the lines of the stop-smoking sites' "Help, I'm about to have a cigarette": then good folk dive in with words of wisdom and encouragement to give you strength to overcome the temptation

I've refrained from posting many omelette recipes as they're all pretty much-of-a-muchness, however this one seemed exceptionally delicious (maybe hunger has distorted my taste) so make of it what you will:

dog's dinner no. 11 - chilli omelette
eggs, brown, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... ~54g x 1 of 81.54 0.00 6.05 6.75 0.00
extra mature cheddar, co-op, grated, 415c/C1.4/F34.5/P24.4/Fi0/100g
......... 20g 83.00 0.28 6.90 4.88 0.00
stilton, crumbled, 410c/C0.1/F35.0/P23.7/F0/100g
......... 25g 102.50 0.03 8.75 5.93 0.00
chilli, green&red, fine sliced 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 26g 10.40 2.47 0.05 0.52 0.39
onion, red, fine sliced, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 59g 25.37 5.49 0.00 0.42 1.24
garlic flakes
......... 4ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
total dog's dinner no. 11 - chilli omelette 302.81 8.26 21.75 18.49 1.63

Method: 1. beat the egg in a small (~4 inch base) oven-proof dish; 2. mix in the chilli, onion, garlic flakes and seasoning; 3. sprinkle the cheeses over the top; 4. bung in a pre-heated oven at 200C for about 10 to 15 minutes until the egg looks done; 5. if, like me, you're partial to well crisped cheese you could finish it off under a hot grill; 6. serve with a nice green salad.

==================================

Tuesday, day sixty-five, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~120.75lbs); 0.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.60, t. 33.10, h. 36.25 inches

That's more like it. OH confirmed that the analogue scales are bang on eight and a half stone - I know that I'm going by the digital figures but it still makes for a happy, waggy-tailed FatDog. There remains a variable discrepancy between the analogue and digital (in addition to the 1.75lb 'correction') that I'm not sure what to make of: methinks that I just need to continue using the analogue scales as a rough 'up a bit or down a bit' validator rather than for any exact reading.

I'd like a nice clean-eating day today as I really want to push the weight-loss down the way to FatDog Slim status sooner rather than later. Off bargain hunting for dinner.

Ho, ho, ho - clean-eating indeed. I caught the pizza bug whilst trying to shop - and even purchased a cauliflower for the base, but then fell by the wayside. I decided that trying to 'rice' a cauliflower this evening would be all too trying for a FatDog, and that the 'cream cheese apocalypse pizza', which I'd yet to attempt, was the way to go. So that was the way I went. Raw base mix tasted good. I'm really hoping here...

Well, that was exceedingly rich - I had to eat it in two sittings - but OH wolfed his and reckoned that it was "the very best pizza he'd ever had". And it is at least as good, if not better, cold. I'd still put my Flanizza at the top of the list for the best pizza substitute so far though.

........ Calories 1382.95 Carbs 34.39 Fat 108.87 Protein 42.91 Fibre 12.13

Low-carb pizza base recipe adapted from here: http://www.food.com/recipe/low-carb-dee ... zza-119679

Pizza - eggy cheesy base
cream cheese, full-fat, 260c/C2.8/F25.0/P5.4/Fi0/100g
......... 56g 145.60 1.57 14.00 3.02 0.00
eggs, brown, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... ~54g x 1 of 81.54 0.00 6.05 6.75 0.00
parmesan cheese, 392cal/C0g/F28.4g/P33.0g/Fi0g/100g
......... 15g 58.80 0.00 4.26 4.95 0.00
extra mature cheddar, co-op, grated, 415c/C1.4/F34.5/P24.4/Fi0/100g
......... 112g 464.80 1.57 38.64 27.33 0.00
mixed italian herbs, dried
......... 5ml 0.00
garlic flakes
......... 4ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
total Pizza - eggy cheesy base 750.74 3.14 62.95 42.05 0.00
FatDog's ½ portion of Pizza - eggy cheesy base 375.37 1.57 31.47 21.03 0.00

Method: 1. whisk your egg in a medium sized bowl; 2. add the remaining ingredients and give it all a good mixing / whisking about; 3. spread evenly into a pre-oiled oven-proof dish (9 x 13 will do a very thin base) and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 15 minutes until golden; 4. allow to cool a little then use a fish-slice to un-stick the base from the dish; 5. once it's all detached, *carefully* flip the base onto a wire rack to further cool; 6. if there's time you can bung it in the fridge which, apparently helps to make it 'crisper' - I didn't do this so couldn't say.

Pizza - eggy cheesy base toppings
extra mature cheddar, co-op, grated, 415c/C1.4/F34.5/P24.4/Fi0/100g
......... 20g 83.00 0.28 6.90 4.88 0.00
onion, fine sliced, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
......... 35g 15.05 3.26 0.00 0.25 0.74
chilli, green&red, fine sliced 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 13g 5.20 1.24 0.03 0.26 0.20
cherry tomatoes, fine chopped, 20c/C3.1/F0.3/P0.7/F1.0/100g
......... 39g 7.80 1.21 0.12 0.27 0.39
olives, black, sliced, 134c/C0/F15/P0.5/Fi2.5/100g
......... 14g 18.76 0.00 2.10 0.07 0.35
tomato puree, 86c/C14.9/F0.4/P4.7/Fi2.0/100g
......... 30g 25.80 4.47 0.12 1.41 0.6
oregano, dried
......... 4ml 0.00
basil, dried
......... 4ml 0.00
garlic flakes
......... 4ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
total Pizza - eggy cheesy base toppings 155.61 10.45 9.26 7.14 2.27

Method: 1. coat the base with the tomato puree; 2. sprinkle your toppings on top; 3. grill to perfection.

I added too many toppings this time - so the base sagged (but didn't go soggy) under the strain... Never mind, it all tasted good. Serve with a nice rocket salad. And Hellman's. Elastic waist-band recommended.

At least tomorrow's dinner is sorted - cauliflower *something*...

Oh, and another off-topic gem from Phinney&Volek (p22) - low salt, a 'side-effect' of low-carbing, will cause: headache, fatigue, weakness and constipation. As people are, generally, making their repair days low-carb, perhaps this could explain their headaches etc.?

Wednesday, day sixty-six, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~120.75lbs); 0.2lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.60, t. 33.10, h. 36.25 inches

Some sort of milestone today - that's 50 repair days done since I started 4:3 ...

Now for that cauliflower recipe. In between household shenanigans and plotting a new venture to raise a (minuscule) web-based income from home, I managed to retrieve a rather nice recipe for dinner that I spotted a while back.

A slight whoops with the carbs but otherwise not too bad a bottom line Spoke to soon, had a salt-crave and reached for peanuts with extra salt, garlic & chilli flakes, and pepper. Bother, that was a nice 499 calories otherwise, sigh:

........ Calories 624.94 Carbs 30.17 Fat 42.11 Protein 27.13 Fibre 16.07

Somehow my stringency and resolve seem to have weakened; I'd have resisted that crave a few weeks ago with a 'tomorrow' and just have had salt. Even pootling round the co-op this evening I was vaguely envying folk selecting their breads, and was wondering what it would be like to eat 'an ordinary diet' again (all the while knowing how bloomin' good this WoE is for me). Is this, what might be termed, 'diet fatigue'? This is not good. Talking to required. Any offers, kind readers?

Cauliflower & bean biryani (without the rice), inspired by http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/19136/v ... an+biryani
cauliflower, co-op, floretted, 35c/C3.0/F0.9/P3.6/Fi2.5/100g
.......... 620g 217.00 18.60 5.58 22.32 15.50
onion, fine sliced, 43cal/C9.3g/F0g/P0.71g/Fi2.1g/100g
.......... 201g 86.43 18.69 0.00 1.43 4.22
dwarf beans, trimmed, 1/4'd, 30c/C3.2/F0.5/P1.9/Fi2.9/100g
.......... 212g 63.60 6.78 1.06 4.03 6.15
mushrooms, cc, organic, 1/4'd, 15c/C0.4/F0.5/P1.8/Fi1.0/100g
.......... 215g 32.25 0.86 1.08 3.87 2.15
garlic, fine chop, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
.......... 10g 14.90 3.31 0.05 0.63 0.21
coconut, desiccated 635c/C6.4/F62.0/P5.6/Fi13.7/100g
.......... 50g 317.50 3.20 31.00 2.80 6.85
almonds, flaked, 645c/C6.5/F55.8/P25.4/Fi7.4/100g
.......... 20g 129.00 1.30 11.16 5.08 1.48
cinnamon, dried
.......... 5ml 0.00
cardamom, fresh ground seeds
.......... 5 pods 0.00
cumin seed, fresh ground
.......... 5ml 0.00
chilli flakes
.......... 2 large pinches 0.00
toasted sesame oil, 827c/C0/F91.9/P0/Fi0/100ml
.......... 15ml 124.05 0.00 13.79 0.00 0.00
total Cauliflower & bean biryani (without the rice) 984.73 52.74 63.71 40.16 36.56
FatDog's 1/3rd portion of Cauliflower & bean biryani (without the rice) 328.24 17.58 21.24 13.39 12.19

Method: 1. wash beans in salted water in microwaveable pot, drain, cover and ping for about 3 minutes; 2. do likewise for the cauliflower for about 5 minutes; 3. heat the oil in a non-stick pan and add the onion, and a minute or two later the garlic, and soften; 4. add in the spices and mix well; 5. add in the mushrooms and reduce; 6. add in the cauliflower and the beans and cook until cauliflower is done to the bite that you like, about five or so minutes did for me; 7. meantime, toast your desiccated coconut and almond flakes under the grill; 8. add the nuts to the veggies and give a good stir in just before serving; 9. serve with a good dollop of yoghurt, and maybe a sprinkle of fresh coriander on the top.

OH and our neighbour both thoroughly enjoyed this - 'excellent' said they (I do sometimes wonder whether either of them have very discriminating palates, or maybe they're just being polite?). I thought the veggies lovely but found it all a little 'mild'; it needed *double* the spices to go with double the weight of veggies I was using versus the original recipe. How is it that I'm so hopeless at judging the weight of a cauliflower head? Reminder to self: when messing with recipes keep an eye on the proportions...

==================================

Thursday, day sixty-seven, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~120.65lbs); 0.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.60, t. 33.10, h. 36.25 inches; waist looser, tum tighter

The scales were a little uncertain this morning 122.2 or 122.0 - I'm going to be an optimist for the day and go for the lower number. The strange analogue figure is because I've *just* slipped under the 8 and a half stone mark and that's what one gets when the correction factor is added (i.e. 118.9lbs + 1.75lbs); not that I'm convinced that the correction factor is correct any more. Just looking forward to the digitals catching up, then I can celebrate properly.

I'm hoping that my skin starts catching up too: for the first time I noticed an apron of loose skin whilst standing (it was evident before when I leant forward) - not pretty. Still it's doing me less harm with it 'empty' than with it being full of fat.

I need to seriously get stuck into those tummy toning exercises. Anyone know of good ones that actually work, bearing in mind that most of me is slightly knackered? I'm doing crunches, single leg extensions (a la Brand-Miller's GI Diet - I've never seen them described like this elsewhere, but they sure burn in the right places) and leg raises.

Off-topic tip for the day: you have only the one pot of cream for your coffee; a dipped-finger taste test says it's fine; added to the coffee it curdles; what do you do? Well, I wasn't going to go without my coffee, and it tasted good enough to me - it just looked gruesome - so stick blender to the rescue! Added bonus was that it made it nice and frothy. I might actually elect the stick blender as the most useful bit of kitchen kit one can have. After the wee whizz, of course.

Not sure about dinner. Bookshop day, so easy / no cooking would make sense. OH wants to use up his stuff in the freezer so I might be going solo. Ready made cannelloni is calling (yes, I know there's wheat in the pasta) although I really shouldn't because it's full of other junk too. We shall see.

Lovely (30p) runner beans in the co-op say "how about tatties, quorn ham, cheese, tomato and mayo, like 'diet' days of old?"; thus a plot is born. Only to be scuppered by my emergency computer-rescue services being called upon (service charge an unsolicited bottle of rather nice red vino). The lovely beans didn't have a hope of being prepped at 11:30pm, so dinner was a rather unhealthy combination of the rest in the end. But...

... Why have I been so *frightened* of tatties? A 100g of tiny sweet wee new tatties from Sainsers were but 14g carbs per 100g; I've just scranned 150g of them (for 21g carbs) and I don't appear to be suffering. Maybe that comes later. Oh, and I do realise that tatties aren't exactly the best use of one's carbs (like, oops - that's one third of my daily allowance gone), it's just that maybe they're not quite as verboten / dreadful as I thought they were, and a sensible quantity (like, say 60g) might not be so out of order occasionally (feed days only). And, okay, they're high glycemic but, from the little reading that I've done, it is possible to ameliorate that (somewhat) by combining them with low glycemic foods like, for example, cheese and mayo!

Hmm... that's maybe the devil I was fighting with yesterday appearing now in a nice rational guise. I'll need to ponder the tattie question (all / any advice welcome).

I've just thought of a name for the thread that I suggested yesterday: "Please help me to say no!".

Actually, I'm beginning to feel a little sandbagged - does that count as suffering? Yup, methinks the FatDog could now roll flat on its back with all four wee leggies in the air... 150g of tatties is, perhaps, not such a good idea after all.

Rather pleased with myself there: just resisted another glass of wine before bed. Sleep tight all xxx

........ Calories 1660.08 Carbs 47.97 Fat 101.78 Protein 35.64 Fibre 12.38

==================================

Friday, day sixty-eight, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 122.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~120.75lbs); 0.6lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 29.25, w. 26.60, t. 33.10, h. 36.25 inches

Ho, hum. Should have been a pessimist. And a very boggy midriff too. Tatties' and / or wine's revenge? Or just another example of P&V's maddening "variation on the scales" due to liquid (im)balance?

When (note *when*, not *if*) I pull the finger and get my all-singing-all-dancing database together, I should be able to analyse these figures and relationships a bit better. Okay, it will be an n=1 study, but over time things might become apparent.

So that's bargain runner beans for dinner, along with...? Cheese, methinks. Fortunate FatDog finds bargain cauliflower cheese at the co-op - that'll go nice with a wee bit of those baby tatties cooked in the oven.

And the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley. Likewise FatDogs'. Visitor. Vino. Dinner shared three ways - so FatDog ups her tattie intake to compensate... <<Sigh - not again?>>.

Well, it's Friday - it's inevitable that it slipped into being a half-repair day rather than full. That's flexibility for you (or cheating, depending upon your religious up-bringing). And even then I managed to over-do it :0

Some time later: today is now declared to be a one-third repair day offically. Hick. I'm drowning my sorrows. Hick. My favourite critic is leaving the board. But we will be in touch. So there. Snivel-hick. I've two more new cookbooks to inflict upon you yet. And then some. I'm acquiring them at the rate of one or two a week, so there's a lang way to go.

Actually, the latest two are from an odd wee series by Hamlyn called the 'all colour cookbook 200 xxblahxx series'. [They're dated 2008: were they really still doing stuff in black and white then?] Rather oddly, the 'make ahead dishes' book seems to have much more inspiring veggie (or veggie convertible) dishes than the, rather disappointing, dedicated vegetarian 'veggie feasts' book.

Why are so many vegetarian / vegan cookbooks blighted by such awful hair-shirtedness? CBB is the only really inspirational veggie cook that I've come across so far in print (no, I'm not related and I don't have shares). Oh, and the World Food Cafe lot - but they've recently blotted their copy-book by using fish (and maybe even chicken) in some of their recipes. *pfffffttt*

I don't really want to do my accounts tonight. They are embarrassingly bad for what was, ostensibly, a repair day of sorts. But, if I log them now, I won't have anything more before bed (well, that's the idea and it *has* worked so far):

........ Calories 1042.93 Carbs 42.81 Fat 37.46 Protein 26.52 Fibre 14.57