Food Shopping

Something I have found about the Atkins is that it makes me take notice of what I am eating. I have gone from being the sort of woman who rushes around the supermarket throwing anything and everything into my trolley to being a keen labelista who causes holdups in the aisles as I read every tiny detail on the label before placing it in my basket.

Until I started this, I never used to give a thought to what I was shovelling into my mouth every day, as a consequence I ate a lot of rubbish - but in the six weeks or so since I had to start reading food labels, I have become a lot more choosy about where I shop.

Here in the UK we have some major supermarket chains who offer extremely cheap food and a lot of convenience foods - but I have found myself steering away from these chains and heading towards a smaller supermarket chain that caters to the most discerning of labelistas. The Co-operative.

The CoOp - as the Brits call it, has a proud tradition of serving the interests of the consumer (read more here ) and you even get a dividend if you are a member!

Something I have noticed is that the bacon doesn't seem to shrivel up to nothing like the bacon from other, larger stores and all the meat and poultry products are clearly labelled as produced from animals humanely reared and kept - and of course, the eggs are free-range.

Another nice thing about shopping locally in my CoOp is that I don't have to use my car to do my food shopping - I can get what I need and load it onto my bike.

I am very fortunate in that I have a great little shopping street very close to my home - we have all sorts of things, a greengrocer (a bit of rarity here in London) and an old fashioned butcher's shop (who also sells all sorts of exciting cheeses like Red Leicester with chilli or White Stilton with Cranberries, unfortunately not induction-legal) - and, joy of joys - a fishmonger.

One of the lovely things about these sorts of shops is that you can pick and choose what you are going to buy rather than just picking a bag of vegetables of dubious quality off a shelf in a supermarket and the greengrocer will stock vegetables and herbs that are not always available in the bigger stores.

I think that an unexpected by-product of my diet is that I have rediscovered the pleasure of shopping in places where I can talk to the owner, check out the produce and have a chat with my neighbours at the same time in the queue to get things weighed. Shopping has become a pleasant social event instead of a mad dash with a trolley around an anonymous, cavernous, fluorescent-lit building.

Keetje

The Importance of Water

I am still ploughing on with my weight loss programme and one of the things that the Atkins Diet stresses is the importance of water. Now I have no problem there - I put down about 4 litres daily.

Those close to me look at me oddly because they think I have some sort of water addiction - but I am not concerned about this. I was told about a year ago by a guy who trains boxers that correct hydration is THE most important thing in a weight loss programme and that it is impossible to exercise correctly if one is dehydrated. I came to the conclusion that if anyone knows about physical fitness, it is a guy who trains boxers! (not that I am terribly in favour of boxing).

The trainer sized me up with an expert eye and declared that I needed 4 litres a day and since that pronouncement, I have stuck religiously to his instructions.

However, the man in my life is not so convinced. It is as much as I can do to encourage him to drink a litre a day. He is also labouring under the illusion that diet coke and coffee count towards his water intake for the day.

The man in my life is himself on a diet - a ghastly low fat one - and yesterday he weighed in. He is a bit discouraged because his weight has not shifted in over a week.

Now there is nothing worse than having a miserable male around the place, so I did my best to help. I ensured he drank at least 8 250ml glasses of water that day and kept the coke and coffee to a minimum.

Today he weighed in at nearly a kilo less and is a convert to the use of water - one things that troubles him is having to run to the small room with a great deal of urgency several times a day. At least it keeps him fit, I suppose.

Keetje

Oopsie success!!

Today I made myself some oopsie rolls! my goodness - these are going to be really handy things to have stashed in my fridge or freezer. I can imagine they are very versatile indeed.

I used Cleochatra's recipe and this time I remembered to add the cream of tartar and give the whites a jolly good whipping. When I put spoonfuls on the baking sheet, they did not run all over the place and they cooked up well. I didn't add any flavourings and just had them au naturel to start with.

Having been inspired by the pic, I made myself two with burgers and a tiny bit of fried onion. I bit into them and thought I was in heaven! I cannot wait to try them with a bit of dried onion added to the mix - that sounds great.

Keetje

Weighing In

Today was my weighing-in day down at the doctor's surgery.

I shall point out here that I have major issues with my scales. I tend to freak out completely if I have religiously stuck to my plan for a few days and no loss is registered, so and after consulting the lovely ladies and gents of the Atkins Diet Bulletin Board I decided to take action on this. The scales were removed from the bathroom in my house and I went to see my doctor. My doc was extremely sweet and has allowed me to do my weekly weigh-ins at his surgery. He has been very concerned about my weight for some time and was delighted to see I was finally doing something about it! So I trot down there on Fridays, get weighed and have a chat with the practice nurse. The nurse will be there to talk me down from any potential freakouts if for any reason my weight has not gone down.

As I said today was weigh in day and I tipped the scales at 113.5 kg - that is 10.5 kg down from my start weight of 124.0 kg on the 12th May 2008.

I am pretty thrilled - a good solid loss like that gives me hope that I will finally be able to deal with all this weight I need to lose.

After my appointment I hopped back onto my bike and pedalled happily into the office.

Keetje

Addition to the bike family

Hello Everyone,

Enough of the diet stuff - here is something really exciting - I added to my bike family!!

The new arrival is a folding bike, so all sorts of new horizons beckon. I can fold it up and put it in the boot of my car and take it onto the public transport network (very unenlightened about bikes on trains here in London).

Now this folding bike is by no means a replacement for my beloved Batavus - the Batavus has a level of comfort and strength that the new one cannot hope to match, but the folding bike saves me having to fight with the bicycle rack on the back of my car and also saves me doing myself a mischief heaving a 22 kilo bike onto said rack! The new one weighs in at a svelte 15 kilos, which is a lot more manageable.

The new one has a few problems...i.e. a saddle that pains my prodigious backside and brakes that bind rather - they will get sorted out over the next few days before I depart off to the land of the windmills on my holidays.

This is a major trip for me. I am going to the Harwich with bike in the boot of my car, unloading the bike at Harwich, parking the car in a secure parking spot and then embarking on the ferry for the six hour crossing over to Hook of Holland. Once I get to the NL, I am using purely bike or train power to get about.

Should be interesting, now the big question is...how on earth do I pack all my stuff onto a little chinese bike?

Keetje

Atkins Cooking

This picture is not of a cheeseburger in a bun - it is, in fact a cheeseburger in a low carb staple, the oopsie roll.

Being on the Atkins requires that you learn a certain amount of cooking skills hitherto unknown. Atkins Induction can get a bit 'samey' after a while, so I went trawling through a few websites to find something interesting to eat which would not totally ruin my carefully considered carbohydrate calculations for the day.

This is the oopsie roll, which - to my eye - appears to be a sort of meringue with added cream cheese. These versatile little wonder can take the place of a bun, or roll - they can be piled high with meats and cheeses, they can be toasted into panini type sandwiches with all sorts of different fillings - their uses are endless.

I found the following recipe on 'The Lighter Side of Low Carb' - a wonderful blog written by a sister low-carber in the US.

Here is the recipe with temperatures and measures adapted for British/European use.

CLEOCHATRA'S BEST EVER REVOL-OOPSIE ROLLS

3 large eggs
A dash of salt
A pinch of cream of tartar
3 ounces (85g) cream cheese Do not soften!

Something to add flavour i.e. Parmesan (a teaspoons worth)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F/150 degrees/130 for fan ovens

Separate the eggs and add salt, and cream cheese to the yolks. Use a mixer to combine the ingredients together. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff (if you're using the same mixer, mix the whites first and then the yolk mixture).

Using a spatula, gradually fold the egg yolk mixture into the white mixture, being careful not to break down the whites. Grease a baking sheet and spoon the mixture onto the sheet, making 6 mounds. Flatten each mound slightly.

Bake for about 30 minutes (You want them slightly softer, not crumbly). Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes, and then remove to a rack and allow them to cool completely.

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I tried cooking some of these rolls - perhaps I did something wrong - unfortunately the mix was a trifle runny and I ended up with something more like a very thin pizza base than a roll.

Whatever, it tasted very nice with some smoked salmon, cream cheese and a few chives!

I will try again to get the 'roll' effect.

Keetje

The Latest - Keetje updates

Hello Everyone,

The battle against the excess weight goes on and as of today, I am 8.8 kg (1.5 stones, 21 pounds) down from my original weight when I started on the 13th May 2008.

One of the things I have noticed is that I have far more energy than I did before I started this style of eating - all my friends are commenting that I seem to be up earlier in the morning, into bed earlier at night and am resisting the temptation to have a little snooze in the afternoon. When I get on my beloved bike to ride to the office, I notice that I am able to ride quite hard without tiring myself out, I also notice that it is easier to get in and out of the car, squeeze past people in corridors and get in and out of the bath.

I am now lighter than I have been in almost two years, which is marvellous. I have set myself little targets, the first of which is to be 113kg when I go to the NL on the 7th July. The trip will involve a lot of bike riding, so I am now in training so that I will be able to sustain 30km bike trips without being completely exhausted like I was the last time I tried a long ride in the autumn of last year.

All in all marvellous stuff!


Keetje

My Bike

Hello Everyone,

As I am still terribly heavy and am plagued by my arthritic knees, I find weight bearing exercise very hard to do at the moment. I see various members of the low-carb community doing all sorts of amazing physical feats and am most impressed, but sadly I cannot aspire to pushups, squats, running or even anything other than the most gentle of strolls.

However - I have a wonderful bike which I picked up in the Netherlands a year ago. I had a mountain bike before that, but I suppose mountain bikes are better for going up and down mountains - not my more sedate urban cycling down to the shops and to the office. A mountain bike tends to throw the weight forward onto the arms - and if one weighs forty or fifty more kilos than one should this can cause very achy shoulders.

Because of this, I decided to splurge a bit of my hard earned cash on the above bike. Mine is a Batavus Staccato, a good solid bike in a nice burgundy colour and suits me very well indeed. I have also invested in a good comfortable saddle which ensures that I do not suffer from saddle soreness (which can get particularly nasty with virtually all my weight resting on the most DELICATE parts!).

Before I decided to start getting myself back into shape, the bike was gathering dust in the front hallway of my house! - it certainly looked good and probably enjoyed its time doubling as a piece of furniture or urban sculpture - but it was not exactly fulfilling its purpose in life. So I dusted it down, oiled up the chain, pumped up the tyres and am now trying to make sure that I use it to get into the office at least twice a week. I am hoping to increase this to three days a week soon, but am taking it gently for now.

Added to the exercise benefits - petrol prices have recently shot up - so my rediscovered activity also has the added benefit of saving me money (and protecting the environment).

Keetje

to weigh or not to weigh?

I am having real problems with the kilo-o-meter in my bathroom. The blasted thing seems to sit there grinning at me whenever I go in there. It is very tempting to hop onto the ruddy thing to see if I have lost a few more grammes in my ongoing battle of the bulge.

Trouble is - body weight fluctuates - and I am not of sufficient moral fibre to cope with the daily ups and downs of the scales. If I get on them in the morning and I have put on a pound, this guarantees a full day of bad temper, sulking and being beastly to everyone.

I made a deal with my beloved that I would not weigh myself more than once a week - it's easier on my nerves (and I suspect, on HIS) and then I can be in a foul mood on only one day out of seven rather than the entire week.

So, I will continue to avoid the beckoning scales and only weigh in once a week. It's what the good Doctor (Atkins) recommends in his book - perhaps he is trying to save the families, friends, employees of his dieters from scale-induced grumpiness!

Keetje

A girl's best friend...

..is her tape measure!

If, like me, you are slogging away on a diet (of whatever variety) - do get yourself one of these wonders.

A week after starting my diet, I laboriously took all sorts of measurements of various body parts so that I could make comparisons along the way.

As I am a bit scale-phobic I thought that perhaps jotting down my vital statistics and having the odd measure seemed like an excellent idea.

So, a week later, I decided to measure up and see how I was doing. What a remarkable experience - virtually all my measurements seemed to have shrunk by about an inch! My poor beloved had to cope with a totally euphoric moi telling him exactly how much I had lost on various points around my body.

The really odd one was that I had lost a quarter of an inch on my wrists! how bizarre!

Anyway, my meeting with the tape measure fired me onto greater endeavour.

Keetje
xxx

Super Sized Exercise

Hello Everyone,

A word to the wise about exercising if you are very heavy.

IT IS VERY VERY EASY TO INJURE YOURSELF IF YOU TRY TO DO STUFF THAT LIGHTER PEOPLE DO.

I speak through bitter experience.

The other day, I was out on a building site (my job entails visiting new buildings) and I was suddenly seized with a desire to climb a ladder up to the first floor of the building.

What did this do for me? - I ended up with an extremely painful right knee and had great difficulty with any weight bearing exercise for the next few days. My knee is just about back to normal, but I could have done without the aggravation of being able to only walk short distances before feeling pain.

Dr Atkins gives very straight advice in his book to those of us with body mass indexes of over 35 - that advice is to ease into exercise very gently and do not overstretch yourself at first. If ten minutes of a certain activity is all you can do - then do ten minutes - do NOT try to do 30 minutes because you will end up discouraged or worse still, injured.

Dr Atkins' plan for super sized exercisers goes as follows:-

Criteria: - if you are over the age of 50 - your bmi is greater than 35 - your current level of activity is either none or very little - you have been diagnosed with heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, severe asthma or severe arthritis..... Chose one or more activities similar to the ones listed below and do them for ten minutes each, two days a week - walking on a flat surface - leisure bicycling - basic stretching - yoga - light swimming - beginner water aerobics Increase your workout time by three minutes each week and add a third day when you reach week three.

Sounds easy enough, doesn't it?

The thing I have had to remember is that my muscles are not in good shape after years of neglect. They are now starting to improve, but it will be a long time indeed before I can do squats, pushups or hour-long sessions in the gym.

If you have trouble with your legs, like I sometimes do - perhaps some seated exercises may suit you, I have flagged this short video about 'desk yoga' on You Tube for a bit of inspiration. My secretary and I have a lot of fun doing these in the office!

I am surprised how much I am enjoying the feeling of working my body, even very gently. I may not qualify for the Olympics, but at least I can enjoy a Sunday walk with my family.

Take it easy, because injured and discouraged are not good things to be.

Keetje

On the Atkins

Hello Everyone,

I started the Atkins diet (as I insist on calling it, despite the serious warnings from other low carb eaters that the Atkins is a lifestyle) just under a month ago.

Nearly one month into the process, I am one stone lighter (14 pounds for my American readers, 6.4 kgs for the metrically-inclined) and feeling more confident about shifting all this weight that has pulled me down for years. My family are astounded, because I have never managed to stick to a diet for more than three days before. Everyone I know is a bit bemused with me walking around everywhere with a bright orange book in my hand.

The fact is, I am very, very heavy - I still am and will remain so for quite some time. But as they say 'the longest march starts with the first steps'.

I am presently on the Induction Phase of the diet, which is doing me very well. I am trying to keep to eating whole foods, no processed stuff at all - at least you know what is going into your food if you cook it yourself. I have already found some firm favourites for recipes and am rediscovering the joy of cooking. What other diet encourages you to have Steak au Poivre for dinner? or Cajun chicken with a couple of dollops of cream? or bacon and eggs for breakfast?
Apparently coffee is a real diet killer - fortunately for me, I have never been that keen on coffee and have always been an inveterate tea drinker. It was a small adjustment to start taking my tea with a drop of single cream.

I have had a couple of 'blips', where the weight loss has stopped for a couple of days - but so far no 'cheats' (apart from taking a drop of milk with my tea for the first few days).

As I am pretty damn heavy, I have had some issues about exercise, when you are carrying the amount of extra tonnage that I am, the knees do tend to get a bit grumpy. However, I am working them through as I go.

I keep a small pink notebook in my pocket most of the time, this is used for writing down what I have eaten, recipes I have seen and the amount of exercise I have done. Unsurprisingly, it has also become a bit of a diary for grumbles and woes. I will use this blog to share stuff I have found out with you.

I will put up the odd recipe that I find particularly useful - they will be aimed at the complete cooking novice so that you can get into the kitchen and conjure up delights to astound your family, friends and workmates.

**UK READERS - this blog is written by me for anyone, but any brands etc. which are mentioned in them are British and available in your local shops. There will not be many of them as I am trying to avoid convenience and pre-packaged foods - but those I use will be here**

***OVERSEAS READERS - I am using British/Metric measures when I put down recipes, please check these against your local measures as sometimes they are surprisingly different***

I hope you enjoy this blog and find it useful. I am happy to receive comments or just a hello. I will point out here that any gratuitously rude comments will be deleted at moderation stage - this is my blog, to be shared with other who are trying very hard to lose weight. If you have issues with overweight people, or are sad enough to want to abuse us - kindly take your complexes elsewhere.

Keetje