Kick-starting things

Often when you look at diets marketed out there there’s a giant promise of things like losing a dress/pant size is a week; or 10 pounds in a couple of weeks etc. While there is a lot of gimmick and exaggeration to it, there may be some truth as well.

The claim bases itself essentially on ‘kick-starting’ things. Call it fat flush, call it fat burn call it magic… what it is, is a defined period of time to reset your body from its current habits to a dramatically different set of choices.

I’ve heard it said that it takes the body only 72 hours to break out of any habit. Well it takes the mind a lot longer, buddy! What happens therefore in 'normal people speak' is that when you do a dramatic turn around, your body and your mind are probably confused and everything starts working again as it’s supposed to, to keep up with the changes. Further, most of us do consume an inordinate amount of carbohydrates, especially vegetarians, and these kick-start weeks offer a way out of it so you quite possibly see dramatic results and feel motivated to continue.

Be aware though, a lot of it is loss of water. And once that’s gone, the real stuff starts to go. And while it might not be as fast as the initial loss, every gram of fat you lose counts. The next time you doubt it, go take a pound of butter and look at it. THAT is what has just come off your body… Woo hoo!

So here is what I followed on my ‘fat flush’ stage, which lasted about 3 weeks:

•  No grains at all
• Low GI (glycemic index) carbohydrates (Think beans and berries and vegetables as well as not terribly sweet fruit as your main carbs – so ditch bananas and mangoes and too many grapes for a bit. Think melons, peaches, nectarines and cherries. And go out and buy a fruit or vegetable for each day that you’ve never eaten before.)
• Really focus on upping your protein. Include some at every meal.
• Drink as much green tea as you can stand. For those who, like me, don’t like green tea, start with jasmine tea and make one bag in a pot that holds about 3-4 cups. Chill this in the fridge and drink glasses of the watery green tea when you’re thirsty.
• Drink double the amount of water you normally drink (the green tea counts)
• Use this time to ditch the bad habits – cut out sugar (I’m not a huge advocate of artificial sweeteners though they are in some of the products I consume – like the protein shakes. I therefore prefer to totally lay off them. But if you totally can’t then it’s your call. I’d say its better to stick to your crutch and do better overall than get hung up on too many details.)
• Ditch the alcohol

My typical day went like this:

Breakfast: Protein shake with fruit and milk/Cottage cheese with fruit and seeds sprinkled (try to rack up at least 20 grams of protein here). If you eat eggs you’re in luck… do a few whites and a whole egg. Throw in cheese and veg and eat a fruit.

Morning snack: Nuts/Cheese/Roasted beans or soy/Cottage cheese

Lunch: Salad with cheese/Tofu or Paneer steak with veg/A casserole or curry made with beans and veg/Soup fortified with cream cheese or milk or silken tofu

Mid afternoon snack: Edamame (love the stuff so I used it to stave off cravings. My advice: find something you like and eat it over and over at this point of the day. Its usually when energy dips and your will power is at its weakest)

Dinner: Same as lunch (I’d usually cook dinner and eat it for lunch the next day).

I did this for almost 4 weeks and most of my loss came in at this point. I started feeling better too and by the time I was done with it, the idea of even eating a half a slice of bread felt like such a treat that sticking to a decent regime is a breeze.

So good luck if you’re getting started.

Think happy, thin thoughts! Kiss kiss.

Everyday treats.

I know I’m meant to be doing this sequentially. And that we have lots of things to look at before we technically get to treats! But, guess what? I’ll tell you what…

I’m sitting here, curled up on my couch and indulging myself in one of my guilty pleasures. And yes, it is food related. Cookbooks! I love them, although I’ve never followed a recipe in its entirely in my life :). Yesterday I bought myself ‘Nigellisima’. Predictably, Nigella Lawson’s Italian inspired cookbook. Oh. My. God! I love Nigella and I love Italian so this is just my idea of perfection. I’m sure she had me in mind when she wrote it! Yup, certain ;).

So that got me thinking… She is of course the goddess of indulgence for those that are not familiar. But a distinction must be made between indulgence and everyday food. Right? Yes, for the most part. But I’m starting to discover that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing, the more I stick to this (coming up on 2 months and 15 pounds BTW – 14.9 and we’ve been sitting there!). So I’m saying there is such a thing as ‘virtuous indulgence’. Food related no less. And I don’t mean your cheat meals you’re still allowed every so often.

Today I had me 3 little cocktail size bocconcini mozzarella balls and a third of a cup of juicy pineapple. ‘Marinated’ in 1 teaspoon of gourmet balsamic vinegar (fig and chili – oh yeah) and sprinkled with some sea salt. D-I-V-I-N-E! Divine! That was my desert. Felt very indulgent. Creamy, fatty, sweet, salty and a hint of spice! And it set me back 112 calories and 7 carb grams. While giving me 6 grams of protein. That’s definitely going to feature more often on my meal plans.

Another yumalicious option is a half-cup of strawberries ‘marinated’ in a teaspoon each of honey and balsamic. If you’re feeling extra virtuous eat that over pureed cottage cheese or yogurt like a pudding.

Here are more options.

• Watermelon and feta (I’ve heard, and plan to try)
• Yogurt or cottage cheese and grated dark chocolate with berries (you’ll find cottage cheese features a lot on my menus because I’m allergic to yogurt).
• Gourmet yogurt that you make yourself (strain a cup of yogurt over a bowl, leave for a few hours, replace the removed water with chopped fruit and a little juice and voila. Add a teaspoon of maple if you’ve been extra good that day)
• The protein powder and cottage cheese with cocoa or berries I told you about earlier
• Hot chocolate made with real dark chocolate, no sugar.

Really any fruit and any cheese mixed with hints of guilt free gourmet ingredients are carte blanche.

Or if you’re more a savory sins type person:

• Gourmet up your edamame, shelled or unshelled (make a little dressing with wasabi, soy and ginger and a splash of sesame oil. Thin with water. Oh what the heck sprinkle some sesame seeds on there too.)
• A handful of peanuts or any other nut warmed up and sprinkled with Parmesan and chopped herbs. Or make an Indian ‘chaat’ out of it with some chopped crunchy veg and mint/tamarind chutney
• Seasoned beans – this is a beach snack in the south of India. Chickpeas mixed with chopped mango and tiny shards of coconut (I stick some peanuts in there too to bump up protein). Look up the recipe for ‘Sundal’ and modify as you like.
• Fat free cream cheese with herbs and spices, thinned out with a little milk, piped onto cucumber or radish slices like hors d’oeuvres.

For my fellow alcoholics, a sangria type spritzer with a handful of fruit thrown in and a little chunk of cheese would round out nicely!

A little creativity and a few trips to farmers markets and specialty food stores are all you need. And really, think of all the hard work you’re doing, you deserve to splash out on fun ingredients. It can be you ‘gourmet steak’ dinner if anyone asks.

As always my lovelies… think happy, thin thoughts. Kiss kiss.

What are my sources?

So what are they?!?

I’m keeping it short today because I’ve included a link to another blog I’ve found that lists common foods by food group and the amount of protein they contain as well as calories. This is just to get you acquainted. I haven’t been able to find a list that has carb grams as well but you should get that on whichever calculator you choose. As a rule remember the bean choices are higher in carbs and the nuts/seeds as well as cheeses are higher in fat. So balance them.

As for me, my typical breakfasts are:

Option 1

1 scoop of protein powder (find the very few carb grams types or the pure protein types), ½ cup fruit (I get bags of frozen fruit because I can’t be bothered to prep as well a count them individually but, of course, feel free to do fresh and in season) and ½ cup 2% milk (I add some water if its too thick).

Option 2

2 tbsp. Skinny B (or similar) seed cereal, ½ cup cottage cheese, ½ cup milk, ½ cup berries

Option 3

½ cup regular breakfast cereal, 2-3tbsp hemp seeds, ½ cup milk, ½ cup fruit (this actually works out to quite a few calories – about 350 - because of the hemp so balance for the rest of the day)

Option 4

½ a serving whole wheat bread or flat bread or a full English muffin with 1/3 cup of grated cheese (mozzarella or cheddar) or 2 tbsp. peanut butter. I eat it in 2 halves instead of as a sandwich because I feel fuller and like I’m eating more J.

Between those I basically have a different breakfast each weekday. On the weekends I make myself things like pancakes (with chick pea flour). You can add herbs, spices etc. to the basic recipe to make it yummy. I fortify sometimes with half a scoop of plain protein powder (no flavor). Will post a recipe for an Indian flavored one that I eat with a mint chutney. Another one is a pancake made with green lentils. Also yummy and super high fiber.

Will go into lunches and dinners in different entries.

Now here is the link to the table with common foods by food type. Check The meatfreeathlete blog.

If you look at the table on the end, you will notice the last column refers to AA. This stands for amino acids. You might’ve heard that mentioned often in the debate on veggie proteins. And the fact that they are not complete proteins. Long story short, the jury is still out. As a quick crash course, there are 19 amino acids that are the building blocks of all protein. Not all veggie foods have these 19 in a perfect balance and sometimes need to be eaten along with another protein to be ‘complete’ is the argument. You’ll also notice a fair few have all in a good balance. The rest I figure just eat sensibly and a variety of foods and your body will work it out.

Happy combining!

And as ever… Think happy, thin thoughts! Kiss kiss.

What’s what then?

So I’m breaking things down today. This could be long and boring or super illuminating depending on how into specifics you are… I'd gloss over most of it if you aren't.

Here goes... I’m on about 1350 calories a day based on the amount of weight I need to lose and how strict I want to go. Any one of the food tracker apps or websites should be able to work out your limit for you. Be sure to remember that ultimately it all comes to calories because 3500 calories makes a pound of weight. So each time you cut that much out after what your body burns, you lose a pound. It’s that simple. That doesn’t mean you obsessively count each calorie unless you want to. Just be aware. Have some knowledge on which foods are calorie dense and which ones aren’t and when you’re going calorie dense make sure those ones load you up on other nutrients.

A quick point must also be made about the human body being super efficient. It learns quickly how to manage on what it’s being given. So be sure not to cut down too much too soon. If you’re a no holds barred eater, don’t cut down to 1200 immediately. You’ll lose some weight quick and then plateau out and have a real hard time after that.

Now… What does an average day look like for me?

7/730 Breakfast/Tea (250-300 calories)

1030   Snack (125 calories)

100     Lunch (400 calories)

1600   Snack (125 calories)

1900   Dinner (400 calories)

So a decent day goes like this:

Breakfast (310 calories)

1 Whole wheat English muffin with 2 tbsps peanut butter

Morning snack (160 calories)

Protein shake – ready to drink

Lunch (367 calories)

Vegetable and nut whole-wheat couscous with 2 pieces of Laughing Cow cheese

Afternoon snack (100 calories)

3 ounces of hot chocolate made with dark chocolate and milk and 5 almonds

Dinner (260 calories)

Broccoli and cheese soup with 4 pieces of seed crackers

Desert (150 calories)

Protein chocolate desert - blended cottage cheese and protein powder with 1tbsp of unsweetened cocoa chilled and served with 4 small strawberries

That day gave me

Proteins: 109g – this formed 31% of my day’s calories

Carbs: 133g (of which 25g was fiber – important because fiber isn’t digested so doesn’t really count. This is especially true in low carb plans like Atkins. If you read the labels of their products you’ll see they do have carbs, just a lot of fiber too.) This formed 38% of my day’s calories

Fats: 49g – and this formed 31% of my day’s calories (this looks odd, that’s because fat grams account for 9 calories as opposed to proteins and carbs which are 4 calories each).

This is probably a lot of mathematics. But don’t worry yourselves too much with the numbers, I’m just trying to illustrate to you why this is a set of good choices even though it doesn’t look like a deprivation diet.

Now here’s what a fairly virtuous, no grain day looks like:

Breakfast (253 calories)

Skinny B ‘cereal’ (chia and hemp seeds) with 10 small strawberries and half a cup of 2% milk. 1 small skinny cappuccino.

Morning snack (180 calories)

Protein bar

Lunch (421 calories)

Pressed cottage cheese in a curry sauce with sautéed spinach (this is not paneer cheese BTW, much lower in fat and higher in protein and has a much chewier texture. Best eaten uncooked like ricotta or cooked and cooled to room temp.)

3 tbsp. pistachios

¼ cup of grapes

Afternoon snack (120 calories)

¼ cup soy nuts

Dinner (334 calories)

Mushroom, roasted Broccoli and Cheese Gratin (made with 95% fat free cream cheese and silken tofu folded in)

That day was a bit higher on the fats and went like this:

Protein: 95g

Carbs: 98g (29 fiber)

Fat: 70g

And here’s what a bad day looks like!

Breakfast (450 calories)

1 Tim Horton’s Jalapeno Asiago Bagel, toasted with cream cheese (the least I could do was eat it in two lots as breakfast and a morning snack ;))

Lunch (444 calories)

Chickpeas masala (threw half a cup of baby spinach into shop bought curry) with ½ a Methi Parata (fried bread with watercress type leafy greens) and a side of sautéed mushrooms

Afternoon snack (194 calories)

Protein shake with 5 almonds

Dinner (260 calories)

Baby spinach salad with carrots, cucumber white beans and bocconcini and a light lemon balsamic dressing I made

That day set me back!

Protein: 75g

Carbs: 149g (25 fiber)

Fat: 53g

Now here’s some magic numbers to remember. Rumor has it that the big number of grams of protein is 120. That’s the weigh loss mantra. However, in my opinion that’s extremely hard to reach within a sensible calorific value, and without hitting the carb roof, for a vegetarian. Not unless you do 2 or more meals as replacements with protein shakes. And that, again in my opinion, is just not sustainable. So… the alternative? From most sources I’ve looked at, the advice is to get 0.4g of protein for pound of body weight. 0.6g on average if you’re active. So if you’re about 140lb, that’s about 70g (if you go in the middle) and to classify as higher protein, you’d add about 10-20%. So that’s about 85g for a 140 pound, reasonably active person. That’s the formula I’d shoot for.

That’s a lot to digest. Maybe even literally ;). So I’ll stop there and try to explain more specifics as things go along. I’ll also post recipes shortly.

Alrighty…. You know the drill…

Think happy, thin thoughts. Kiss kiss.

The low down

Just in case my previous post sounded like it was promising any major plan or solution, I’d like to be clear, there is none. It’s just a bunch of healthy eating habits. Eating the way people have been eating for ages I suppose.

However there are a few principles to it and here they are:

1. Remember protein is your main and carbs are your side. By this I do not mean cut everything that has carbs in it and count carb grams furiously. Focus on increasing protein if that’s all you do this week. As a vegetarian this is often the biggest change.
2. Not all carbs are created equal. A cup of fruit, a lentil salad and a slice of white bread are all carbs, but no prizes for guessing which one is least healthy (actually in case you’re a complete newbie to this, the answer is bread ;)). I will put in a future post about glycemic index and where that fits into making a carb ‘good’ or ‘bad’
3. Timing is everything. Lets be real, you’re not going to never eat white bread again (unless you’re me, I hate white bread. Unless it’s smeared in garlic herb butter. Yumm…) So when you eat it, try to do it early in the day. When it’s more likely to burn off. Even if you’re bone-lazy when it comes to exercise.
4. Balance your plate. This is something I learned off of a random infomercial for a diet called the Food Lover’s eating program. Made some sense so I started to look it up and the principle exists. The simplest way to explain it is: Go back to age-old wisdom of splitting up your plate into quarters. If you’re trying to lose a lot of weight and need to kick start things then think 2 quarters fruit, veg and some beans (emphasis on veg). And 2 quarters of a protein. If you’re in it for the long haul then the first part remains the same and then add a quarter of protein and a quarter of healthy carbohydrate (this could be just fruit if that what you choose or you could alternate it with good, whole grain).
5. Be accountable. To yourself first. By this I mean log everything that goes in your mouth. Everything. And no, you don’t have to write reams anymore. There are apps for that if you’re a smart-phoner like much of the world seems to be. And if you’re not, do it online. The one I use, which my cousin introduced me to, is Lose it and it’s awesome! For North America though. It scans bar codes and lets you put in previous meals etc. You’ll be surprised at how much you don’t know. At least I was. And now I’m obsessive about it. I make chocolate for a living (well it’s a pretty poor living for now, but that's what I do) and I log every lick and taste I take. It adds up!
6. Buddy up. Whether it’s doing the plan with someone, if you’re lucky enough to have that available, or being a part of a community or online forum or something. Just somewhere/someone with whom you can obsess about your successes/failures/whatever is on your mind. I’ve been doing my plan with said fabulous cousin (who doesn’t need to lose any weight in my opinion; but I love the commitment to working on staying fabulous). And that quite possibly is the biggest reason that we’ve hit the 8-week mark. And beyond a point it becomes a habit so you let that take over.
7. Really work on kicking up your metabolism. Ok so this is a bigge. Eat more often. Start with eating something every 2-3 hours. Even if it’s just a few almonds. This revs up metabolism. Drink green tea. Eat some spicy food. I’ll explain later.
8. Make a meal plan. It doesn’t have to be fancy but it helps if you know what you’re eating and when and make sure you have something on hand for low moments when hunger strikes. It helps take away the temptation of being caught unprepared.
9. Cheat. No really! Plan your cheats and allow yourself some every so often. It’s never going to happen otherwise. I call it recharging.
10. Reward yourself. Make them non-food rewards. Set a threshold and when you reach that whether its weight or size, do something for yourself. I got a new weighing scale with a fat-loss monitor when I hit 10 pounds and I’m waiting for my 20-pound high-speed blender so I can do proper smoothies.

I will dwell on each of these points at some length as we go along. And for the first few days I’ll write more often if anyone wants to get started. I know these principles aren’t exclusive to being vegetarian. But it helps to lay a foundation.

Good luck resetting your mind. We can do this!

Think happy, thin thoughts. Kiss kiss.