The FastDay Forum

Monday, low-carb day one-hundred and ninety, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 111.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~108.5lbs); 0.6lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.6, t. 30.5, h. 34.5 inches

Report at the end-of-week 27 of low-carb : total low-carb weight loss 26.4lbs, and last week 1.2lbs weight gain. Definite signs of shrinkage but still not recorded...

That, good friends, is probably mostly water weight as excess calories consumed was just under 1300, which *does not* equate to over a pound weight gain. Pretty abysmal mind, but nothing that a bit of 4.5 : 2.5 can't fix over the next week or so.

I've steeled myself and done my logs (using guestimate stubs for the recipes I still need to work up, groan) - but just getting the logs done is a bit of a relief. As was getting through my repair day. So many delicious things in the house calling to me. But, I even managed to resist a beautiful fruit strudel that a friend brought by ("I can have that tomorrow" worked a treat) and stuck with my fruit tea whilst the OH's and friend's beers went down.

Watercress salad, cottage cheese, FatDog OLS bread, yeast pate and quorn ham made up my dinner, with a pudding of chocolate and nuts. Protein is a bit high (cottage cheese) but the accounts are no so bad for a re-start...

........ Calories 592.67 Carbs 20.21 Fat 36.54 Protein 40.92 Fibre 11.01

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Tuesday, low-carb day one-hundred and ninety-one, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 110.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~106.8lbs); 1.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.6, t. 30.5, h. 34.5 inches

Ooof! Bump! Well, thank-you very much V&P vary-fairy. But, as per yesterday, the "loss" will be mostly be water weight (and an emptier stomach) - still, the weight is moving in the right direction so I'm pretty chuffed. I was planning on today (or certainly this evening) being ad libitum, what with it being Hogmanay and all that - now I'm thinking that maybe I'll try to be good(er) at least until a couple of hours around midnight

Well, the "gooder" bit didn't really come off, and I didn't do a proper ad lib. because I recorded the figures (roughly mind), but the accounts could have been worse, I suppose!

I had *two slices* of stollen cake and oh it were a yummy guilty indulgence. Mitigated some of the damage by having made low-carb linseed & sesame crackers and what were meant to be cheese-sticks which turned into crackers (they completely melted in the oven). Both were delicious and three folk said that I must make them and sell them on our local market! And freegan lawyer-turned-filmmaker friend liked the OLS bread so much that we made a loaf together so that he could see how to do the recipe in the microwave (he does a lot of baking and I don't think he believed that bread could come out of a microwave). Dead chuffed.

I've a dreadful backlog of recipes to work up now - think tomorrow needs to be the day that I do them all, otherwise my front-end will be catching up with my back-end, or somesuch.

Numbers here are not that precise but are much closer than a ball-park:

........ Calories 2438.03 Carbs 80.47 Fat 120.52 Protein 34.90 Fibre 16.86

Edit: whoops, missed a bit - 'tis a tad worse than I hoped
........ Calories 2603.47 Carbs 89.49 Fat 130.25 Protein 42.07 Fibre 21.50

Wednesday, low-carb day one-hundred and ninety-two, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 110.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~107.7lbs); 0.4lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.6, t. 30.5, h. 34.5 inches

Is that all? I fear that there might be more to pay on the scales tomorrow - though if my repair day is good today that might help.

Well, repair was fine until OH's friend arrived, and then OH's son. I was pretty good - just the one glass of wine over the whole evening, to toast the New Year - but the break-fast of nuts and cheese that I took before the vino (to save my innards - one should never break-fast with alcohol!) sadly rather hammered the calories. The bestest neighbour (BN) came by bearing a gift of a lovely wee cauliflower and joined us for supper. The high carbs were down to the remains of the "Christmas eve bargain veggies" soup - those carrots are eeeeevil - with an added rescued head of cauliflower (from a freegan friend the other day), cooked with cumin, fennugreek, chilli and garlic flakes then pureed, to bulk things out: was rather good with stilton sprinkled over the top! OH's friend avoids gluten so fed him OLS bread - he was most impressed and has gorn off with the recipe.

My bookaholism broke out again today - two "penny books" on veggie Italian / Mediterranean cooking heading my way. Oops. I'm working very hard on the OH to get me Ottolenghi's Plenty for crimble, but I've had little promising progress with him at all...

........ Calories 828.17 Carbs 44.29 Fat 44.62 Protein 40.25 Fibre 18.34

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Thursday, low-carb day one-hundred and ninety-three, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 111.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~108.7lbs); 1.2lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.6, t. 30.5, h. 34.5 inches

Boing. Expected, but disappointing that the rebound is *sooo* big - that's what two slices of stollen and a slab of cherry genoa cake, low-carb nibbles, and not to mention copious quantities of shiraz will do for one's figure... Had hoped that yesterday's repair would buffer things better, but maybe effective repair days need to be better than 828 calories. Though I'm not beating myself up for a "failed" repair - as there's no such thing as a failed repair anyway - and, what with OH's friends & relatives coming by, it could have been *far* worse.

Didn't get to working up the recipes yesterday (what with visitors, and a tad "jaded", if truth be told), so that *has* to be my priority for the day. And then I can work out what we're having for dinner: lots of cabbage (red and savoy) and stilton in the fridge, and every type of root veggie in the freezer.

Sabotage! Our freegan friend has just left mixed peppers and courgettes on our door, and BN informed us of Taleggio bargains in the co-op which he's been commissioned to get for us (£1.30 for 200g). Another puzzle for dinner... VBF was passing through and is seduced by the cooking smells to abandon her fast (she's a Monday and Thursday girl) and join us for dinner. FatDog's peperonata with tomatoes & olives, courgette with rosemary Taleggio sauce, and spiced cauliflower couscous (as CBB calls it - and I must admit it *is* more like couscous than rice).

Oooh - and that was just a smidgen away from a full "excellent" from BN - he would have had more punch to the Taleggio sauce (e.g. garlic, or cheddar cheese - we'll have to agree to disagree as I thought it spot on, anything stronger and the genteel flavour of the courgette would be lost). Anyway, as "a plate" it was highly praised for flavour and texture combination and, I must admit, I thought it one of my better efforts - exceedingly happy with that

........ Calories 1910.32 Carbs 79.77 Fat 107.46 Protein 41.40 Fibre 19.54

Edit: It rather helps if one includes the "methods" with one's recipes - you guys are far too polite, you should have complained! It's all very simple, actually, but it does require a tiny bit of multi-tasking...

peperonata with tomatoes & olives, a FatDog freegan gifts concoction
bell pepper, red, medium fine sliced, 36c/C6.4/F0.4/P1.0/Fi1.6/100g
......... 269g 96.84 17.22 1.08 2.69 4.30
bell pepper, yellow, medium fine sliced, 31c/C5.3/F0.2/P1.2/Fi1.7/100g
......... 139g 43.09 7.37 0.28 1.67 2.36
onion, white, co-op, medium sliced, 40c/C7.6/F0.2/P1.3/Fi1.4/100g
......... 162g 64.80 12.31 0.32 2.11 2.27
garlic, fine chop, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 11g 16.39 3.64 0.06 0.69 0.23
olive oil, 824c/C0.0/F91.6/P0.0/Fi0.0/100ml
......... 30ml 247.20 0.00 27.48 0.00 0.00
lemon juice, 26c/C2.0/F0/P0.4/Fi0.3/100ml
......... 5ml 1.30 0.10 0.00 0.02 0.02
olives, black, sliced, 134c/C0/F15/P0.5/Fi2.5/100g
......... 45g 60.30 0.00 6.75 0.23 1.13
tomato, vine, skinned, chopped 20c/C3.1/F0.3/P0.7/Fi1.2/100g
......... 430g 86.00 13.33 1.29 3.01 5.16
basil, fresh, torn, 23c/C2.35/F0.64/P3.15/Fi1.6/100g
......... 5g 1.15 0.12 0.03 0.16 0.08
basil, dried leaf
......... 5ml 0.00
oregano, dried leaf
......... 10ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
total for peperonata with tomatoes & olives 617.07 54.08 37.29 10.57 15.55
FatDog's ¼ portion of peperonata with tomatoes & olives 154.27 13.52 9.32 2.64 3.89

Method: 1. heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan and gently sweat the red and yellow peppers for about ten minutes; 2. push the peppers to the side and do the same for the onion; 3. ditto the onion and fry the garlic for a couple of minutes; 4. add the tomatoes, lemon juice and dried herbs and cook these a good few minutes before mixing them in; 5. put the heat right down and allow to *very* gently bubble whilst getting on with the other stuff; 6. just before serving, add in the fresh basil and the olives, mix, taste and season with salt and fresh ground black pepper

courgette with rosemary Taleggio sauce, a FatDog freegan gifts concoction
courgette, sainsers, very fine sliced longways, 20c/C1.8/F0.4/P1.8/F0.9/100g
......... 700g 140.00 12.60 2.80 12.60 6.30
extra thick cream, coop, 465c/C1.6/F50.5/P1.5/Fi0/100ml
......... 75ml 348.75 1.20 37.88 1.13 0.00
taleggio, f.f. semi-hard cheese, sliced, 330c/C1..1/F27.0/P20.4/Fi0/100g
......... 200g 660.00 2.20 54.00 40.80 0.00
rosemary, fresh, very fine chopped, 131c/C7.0/F6.0g/P3.3/Fi14.0/100g
......... 15g 19.65 1.05 0.90 0.50 2.10
s&p 0.00
total for courgette with rosemary Taleggio sauce 1168.40 17.05 95.58 55.02 8.40
FatDog's ¼ portion of courgette with rosemary Taleggio sauce 292.10 4.26 23.89 13.76 2.10

Method: 1. bung the cream, half the Taleggio, the rosemary and copious s&p seasoning into a big microwaveable / grill-proof dish and ping for about a minute, until the Taleggio is liquid; 2. thoroughly mix in the courgette, so all slithers are coated in the wonderful cheesy mixture, check seasoning; 3. lay the remaining slices of taleggio evenly across the top of the courgette; 4. bung at the bottom of a hot grill and bake until the cheese is golden brown and bubbling; 5. a few minutes before it looks to be near done, add the basil and olives to the peperonata, as above, and do the cauliflower couscous, as below

spiced cauliflower couscous
cauliflower, tesco, 'riced', 38c/C3.0/F0.9/P3.6/Fi1.8/100g
......... 228g 86.64 6.84 2.05 8.21 4.10
butter, slithers, 720c/C0.6/F80.0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 12g 86.40 0.07 9.60 0.06 0.00
fennel seed, whole
......... 5ml 0.00
s&p 0.00
total for spiced cauliflower couscous 173.04 6.91 11.65 8.27 4.10
FatDog's ¼ portion of spiced cauliflower couscous 43.26 1.73 2.91 2.07 1.03

Method: 1. wash and blitz your cauliflower as for cauliflower rice - CBB's notation of couscous is more accurate so I'm shamelessly adopting it; 2. bung the couscous into a microwaveable serving bowl and mix in the fennel seed and s&p seasoning well; 3. ping for about three minutes *without a lid* - you want it hot but not soggy; 4. stick the slithers of butter on top and mix in as they melt; 5. serve with pride the peperonata and courgette

This all, rather wonderfully, comes in at under 500 calories and 20g carbs but only *just*, so it would need to be your "meal of the day" on a repair day...

Friday, low-carb day one-hundred and ninety-four, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 111.2lbs (analogue scales corrected ~108.25lbs); 0.4lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.6, t. 30.5, h. 34.5 inches

Gosh, ta very much V&P vary-fairy - that wasn't really expected, but then the gain yesterday was greater than expected... Bother it, my Mystic Meg powers seem to be fading!

Not only do I have a backlog of recipes to work-up, I've now let my log fall behind too. Gah! Get with it woman, for goodness sake!

Cheat's dinner of a Sainser's Greek salad and the remnants of a FatDog OLS loaf with quorn ham and mustard. Oh yum. Plus, as it's Friday, a glass of shiraz and a couple of squares of my chocolate. I'm a bit cross with Sainsers: they've changed the formulation of their salad so the carbs have gone from 3.5g/100g to 5.0g - not so trivial when one's *trying* to keep below 19g on a repair day! Grrrrr.

Gosh, okay, it's not exemplary, but that must be the first Friday in ages that I've not ended up on a half-repair - makes up for Wednesday's weak repair effort (mind, it was New Years Day so perhaps I should be more forgiving).

........ Calories 616.16 Carbs 24.89 Fat 34.37 Protein 31.47 Fibre 11.88

5:2 *with* low-carb has taken me from someone who could hardly get the pasta (ready made) cooked at the right time for the pasta sauce, or even baked beans co-ordinated with cheese on toast, to a FatDog who'll try anything (once).

For example:
* Christmas dinner was a seven-parter - okay, I pre-prepared four parts the previous day, but they did still have to end up on the plate, on Crimble, hot / cold (as appropriate), in the right places at the same time.
* Thursday's dinner was but a three-parter, but as an ad-hoc seat-of-pants trio concoction it seriously pushed the (FatDog) limits too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that: not only will this WoE seriously change what you eat and how you view food, but what and how you cook. It'll not necessarily turn you into a "chef", but you might discover that cooking can be great and inspiring fun, not just a means to provide "appropriate stuff for one's stomach".

Methinks that the 5:2 / low-carb / veggie combination has been a brilliant adventure for me - and so it could be for you, if you dare to try it (and please forgive me if I'm sounding a little pompous, I don't mean to - just highly enthused!)...

But maybe I'm (now) a wee bit biased: given how well it has worked for me I simply can't see its flaws (what flaws?)

Well I have to verify that I just cooked a loaf of bread from another site and when it came time to do the taste test it was fancy looking it did not work for me and also in my fridge was my attempt at your recent bread recipe @FatDog and guess what, I did a taste comparison and yours won hands down. I your bread more

So there is my further confirmation that you have a gift at bringing ingredients into life. Your low carb bread ruled

Now you're maintaining FatDog how many grams of carbs are you looking to eat on a daily basis? Thanks again so much for all your fab recipe ideas, you certainly have inspired me to try lots of different ingredients and cooking techniques. Just bought a second hand copy of Rose Elliot's The Vegetarian Low Carb Diet, again lots of 'food for thought' but not in the same league as CBB in my opinion.
Still waiting for your collection of recipes and flights of fancy to be published to give them both a run for their money!

Please excuse my dimness, but what is CBB please?

Oh sorry, they are the initials of Celia Brooks Brown, the author of Low-Carb Vegetarian.

Please excuse my dimness, but what is CBB please?

NOT dim at all @loversghost. I'm afraid that I'm very guilty of using TLAs (three letter acronyms ) all over the place... I should, perhaps, stick a glossary in the first post of the thread and a link to it from my signature! Shall ponder the idea ... Oh, and incidentally, CBB is now writing as CB - just to confuse us all.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating, CBB's Low-carb Vegetarian was probably my saving when I first tried low-carb - I'm afraid Rose's recipes don't inspire or excite me and make the whole thing waaaaay too hair-shirted. Whatever you do, don't judge taking a low-carb veggie WoE from Rose's offering - you'll unlikely get past week 4...

Maybe I should switch my status back to losing @callyanna as I've the festive-season-indulgence weight to shift back off! That aside, I think I'll keep the carbs as low as they are now as I'm really after the anti-gaga effect of a ketogenic diet. Presently I aim for under 20g on a repair day (<15% of calorie intake) and under 50g on non-repair days (keeps me safely in ketosis). I frequently go over the 50g with varying degrees of impact, and seem to get away with up to 75g/day sometimes. I'm pretty certain that a big carb intake in one go, such as pizza last night(!), knocks me out instantly - I actually feel a light-headed buzz (not a fun / pleasant one).

Can't agree more re the Rose Elliot book. If I'd bought that first I would never have given her regime a go. Have earmarked a few of the recipes to try but think there is too much emphasis on tofu, seitan and tvp to tempt me further. As you rightly say, far too 'hair shirty' and worthy!

Thanks for that chaps! I will get hold of the book(s)now. I have been low carbing for a while (but still not as low as some - c25-30g on fast days and up to 75g on non fast ones) but that's still HUGELY lower than before. I notice now if I eat too many carbs I get really muzzy headed for a while - not pleasant. Enough to keep me on the straight and narrow

[wildmissus]

Well @FatDog, it has taken me quite some time to read through you thread from beginning to end and I must admit that I've scanned quite a bit. However, you are inspiring. Your detail and musings are excellent and you definitely have a cookbook fetish.

I've got on your band wagon because -

1. I haven't lost any weight since August.

2. I am pot bellied - apple shaped, an apple that has been eaten three quarters of the way round.

I don't know if I can low carb but I'm going to make a huge effort to reduce my carbs. OH and two daughters would find it difficult not to eat meat, so the meat stays. Tonight's dinner was a roast chicken dinner, so I didn't have any potatoes and increased the veg. I've not snacked at all today and from now on my snacks will be cheese, nut or olives instead of crisps, biscuits and chocolate.

Now that I'm on board it will be a lot easier to follow your recipes and antics on an ongoing basis.

Thank for bringing your real life experiences to us.

@loversghost and any others considering the CBB book


I DON'T LIKE TO SHOUT, BUT THIS IS IMPORTANT!

IF YOU'RE GETTING CBB'S LOW-CARB VEGETARIAN FROM AMAZON BE AWARE THAT THE PRICE CAN FLUCTUATE WILDLY!!!

GIVE IT A WEE WHILE AND YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO GET A SEMI-DECENT SECOND HAND COPY FOR UNDER A FIVER + P&P... PLEASE DON'T GO PAYING THIRTY QUID OR SO FOR IT!

xxx FatDog

Oh, and her new one is just out - and is, hopefully, on its way to the FatDog household as I type

Is that the new 5:2 Vegetarian one @Fatdog or the new updated version (gluten free) of the original book (republished this month)

So the rest of you - don't go paying £££ on amazon for an old version, wait for the new one!

http://www.celiabrooksbrown.com/. (See bottom of page here!)

This is my Amazon review:

Absolutely livid! I have CBB's excellent Low-Carb Vegetarian book from 2004, and several other of her tomes. Her recipes can be inspiring.

But I'm furious about this - I have been drooling in anticipation since the book was announced back in October?/November last year and it turns out to simply be a hardback copy of the earlier book (there are a couple of extra pictures, but nothing more, as far as I can see).

The publishers should be ashamed of themselves (are you listening Anova books).

So, in spite of the wonderful recipes in this book - which kept me on a low-carb veggie diet after the hair-shirted penances in Rose Elliot's offering - I'm giving it a one star instead of the five it deserves UNTIL THE PUBLISHER MAKES IT ABSOLUTELY CLEAR IN THE DESCRIPTION THAT THIS IS THE SAME AS THE 2004 BOOK. And, if you're reading this CBB: sorry - persuade your publishers to change the description and you'll get your well deserved 5 stars.

I just received my copy this morning - haven't even had my coffee, or read the threads yet: simply had to get that review in a.s.a.p. so others with the 2004 edition aren't equally disappointed. xxx FatDog (now off for coffee and a peruse of the threads)

On the other hand, if you were wanting copy of the book, this is a darn sight cheaper than the £530.05 (new) or £27.94 the 2004 edition is listing for!!!