The FastDay Forum

Aww many thanks, @Betsysgr8, @janeg, @rawkaren, @carorees, @Silverdarling, @Ballerina and all!

Aye the plot (see upthread) has always been to maintain on 4.5 : 2.5 (i.e. continue as I have since May last year) with just slightly more generous weekend allowances to make sure that I don't keep losing weight (ha ha). So nothing has changed - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (the latter more relaxed) are my repair days (a.k.a. anti-gaga) and I'm jolly happy with that.

The festive season has thrown the spanner in there a little - but I don't think it unreasonable in the least that I skipped repairing on Christmas day or OH's birthday, for example - I *know* my 4.5 : 2.5 will sort things out (eventually). I've otherwise stuck to the plan without fail (so no wet fish needed there)

As for target weights - I'm really not *so* unhappy with where I'm at just now (I know, I moan about it a lot, but I didn't dream of going under eight stone to start with). I'm being a little greedy / OCD I think in wanting my weight, as I said t'other day, to be bouncing around a few pounds below 110lbs rather than 112.5lbs (as it is just now). If I'm realistic, it's not such a big deal, to be honest.

Where I *do* need a chivvying is getting the recipes worked-up... And, more to the point, a very large and sustained push into (a) doing the recipe / log database (my spreadsheet is creaking at the seams so badly - that's probably one of the reasons I'm hating the work-ups - it's *soooo* slow), and (b) getting that recipe e-book on its way

[janeg]

Yay! Found a secondhand book shop today and had a trawl. *whispers* got a low carb
cook book. You need to work up your recipes Fatdog, this one has too much meat and the veggie stuff is mostly egg based. Nae imagination! hopefully that'll spur you on

Hi Fatdog. Not wishing to encourage your cookbook addiction, but.... I see that the Telegraph had given World Food Cafe Vegetarian Bible a big thumbs up today. It's on offer at £13.20 at Amazon at the moment, but I imagine it might come down once the initial hype is over.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink ... 0711234647

You need to try living withing stones throw distance of 'Hay-on'Wye' when you are a bookaholic. I used to and was forever bringing back carrier bags FULL of books. Its a book lovers heaven is Hay-on-Wye. at last count, this little town had 32 book shops, most of them second hand. I wonder if I could persuade hubby to go there next week as a treat, Just ourselves?

Hi Fatdog. Not wishing to encourage your cookbook addiction, but.... I see that the Telegraph had given World Food Cafe Vegetarian Bible a big thumbs up today. It's on offer at £13.20 at Amazon at the moment, but I imagine it might come down once the initial hype is over.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink ... 0711234647

Ah ha! I'm safe from that temptation @rawkaren, the "Bible" is mainly drawn from the two books that I already have (World Food Cafe one and two) and from Spice Routes, which I'm just stalking for in the charity stores / penny deal on Amazon. Phew

Though being the bookaholic that I am, I'm most drawn to the bible *and* quick and easy, and I'd then pass WFC one & two to a friend; ooops. Get thee behind me temptation...

Hi Fatdog. Just wanted to say congrats on winning top cheffy. Hope it encourages you to get those logs up to date.

Keep posting and entertaining us

Yes Fatdog, many congrats on your well deserved award. Maybe that will give you the extra kick up the bum to get that e-book of recipes out to a wider audience now you realise how much people appreciate your ideas? .....just saying!..

Not sure if I'm more or less discomfited by the award than I was with being nominated!

But I'm ever so grateful for all your support on this thread - you have all made it just as much as I! So,


************* THANK-YOU
************* AND
************* CONGRATULATIONS
************* TO YOU ALL!


And an especial bravo to my kindly contributors @rawkaren for the Top Blogger Award, the wonderful @Ballerina for tickling our ribs, the wise @Carorees for enlightening us and the generous @PennyForthem for nurturing us. And all you other lovely people, winners all, for making the forum, and my thread in particular, the good place that it is. xxx FatDog

Well deserved @fatdog for your inspiring ideas!!

Fat dog, you deserve it. I hate cooking and would rather read a Russian Classic, in Russian, than read a cook book but you have kept me on the edge of my seat, or was it my big bum that did that? Mmmmm......actually, I do not have a big bum, I am an apple so it must have been your wonderful posts that did it, well done girl. GET THAT BOOK SORTED...........SOON

Ballerina x

Here here you jolly good fellows, one and all well picked or on this thread ought I say 'well pickled' though it is not really that you preserve but that you persevere. Anyone who can wrought such wonders with flaxseeds definitely deserves high praise and accolades. Agree the world needs your foodie spirit @FatDog as well your recipes and recipe book reference list

[wildmissus]

As an expert on cookbooks and the forum's official chef I would like to ask you what are your top 5 cookbooks and which ones would you not have bought?

Also before you started low carb veggie, how did you eat before?

Apologies for the delay in responding @wildmissus, I've been working on this since ten p.m. ish but visitors are so darned annoying when one is trying to post

Crivvens, that book list is a *real* toughie!

I'm going to cheat a little and list my favourite recipe writers, and then my favourite(s) of their books - not sure if there's an order, there might be. And, really, it all depends on what I'm needing - there are others that aren't in the list that I use quite heavily, or those that I use infrequently but have one or two key recipes...

* Celia Brooks (Brown): Low-carb Vegetarian; World Vegetarian Classics; Vegetarian Foodscape; new vegetarian; only just received 'Party Food', so can't really say...
* Denis Cotter: for the love of food; wild garlic, gooseberries and me; Paradiso year, autumn & winter; Cafe Paradiso Cookbook
* Paul Gayler: a passion for vegetables; a passion for cheese; a passion for potatoes; sauce book; and his little books of: a) salad, b) pasta & noodles, and c) soup - have just given mine to the VBF as there's a fair bit of overlap with the ones I have, and she needs some inspiration and these are *utterly sumptuous*
* Antony Worrall Thompson: GI diet; GL diet
* Amanda Powley: Terre a Terre

Then, notably the "world food" collection, which really has to be mentioned - I know, I've had my five but...

* the Caldicotts: World Food Cafe One & Two
* Troth Wells: The World in Your Kitchen
* Madhur Jaffrey: World Vegetarian

And YO's Plenty and ED on Vegetables aren't on there as I've only just received them, so don't know what level of usage / rating they'll get!

As for "previous diet" - I've always been veggie (age ~12 onwards, odd intermissions to support ma through health stuff), with an inclination towards the healthy, as in unprocessed rather than processed, but oft resorted to convenience foods (usually "good" stuff rather than total sh*te). I've *never* been 'low-fat', knew it was high sugar and didn't see that as in any way healthy!

Went through phases of eating too much rubbish food occasionally --> put on weight --> stopped the junk --> and lost the weight again. Best weight loss was when I dumped alcohol (have done that a couple of times).

Did just under a year of raw at one point - that was seriously amazing: probably *the best* WoE but, oh boy, is it time consuming (preparation and eating!)?! Sadly not a very sustainable WoL unless you have a kitchen slave and plenty of time to eat.

Don't think that I've ever really "dieted" - I might have had the odd half-hearted goes at losing weight as a teenager, possibly later, but I've no real recollection of them.

That's except *much* more recently (maybe late middle age horrors staring at me?):
--- a stab at Atkins in 2011, I think for a few weeks (as a veggie, I found it *impossible* as I tried to do it without any legumes or nuts, and wasn't into eggs - crazy!!!)
--- about six weeks of 5:2 just after the program aired in 2012 when I was feeling a little rotund (actually ~a stone lighter than when I started this time) - I gained weight, rather than lost, and dumped it as life-event sh*te gave me an easy excuse to do so.

Happy to have found this WoE / WoL. Should be good until they carry me out in a box

And, dear @gillymary I loved your post, thank-you - you're a poet, don't you know it?!

Edit: gah, forgot the "ones I wished I hadn't bought" - they're mostly on the top shelf and I'll need to wait until I'm less wobbly to get up there and then list the *real* humdingers... please prod me tomorrow if I forget xxx FatDog

[janeg]

Dear Fatdog
I have just bought a low carb cookery book from the second hand shop and I am perplexed. DO you use artificial sweetener? It seems tome a bit strange when trying to be healthy to use what I see as nasty chemicals. To my mind, a wee treat of full fat, full sugar something occasionally would be better.
Or am I missing the point?
PS I have read and followed your complete thread, so apologies if I have missed this...
PPS Loved MAdhur Jaffrey's world vegetarian- regret leaving it behind...

Definitely full fat @janeg - IMHO the low-fat crud is a significant contributor to the "obesity epidemic".

But sugar... we'll we've none in the house any more (unless OH has a hidden supply - think not as he's using some horrible tesco saccharine tabs that he's ever so proud of as it's about a two year supply for 90p, or there abouts).

I've a small pot of honey, hidden from OH, which I'll occasionally use for cooking purposes (Christmas dinner being an example).

And... confession time: I use Pure Via, which is a stevia product. Stevia is a plant derived sweetener but, I should imagine with all the processing, is a long way from "natural". The powdered stuff has done me fine in my cooking (haven't used it for ages now though), and I'm using the odd lump in my coffee (weird, as I used *never* to sweeten hot drinks).

Generally the stevia is a last resort - I'll use almond / vanilla essences, cinnamon, star anise or any of the other natural sweeteners - but sometimes they'll simply not do.