This morning's weigh in: 107.7 kg. That's 200g off 10kg total weight loss since I started 20 weeks ago, a rate of weight loss that is considered healthy and maintainable. :-) Of course, I'd like to lose it a bit faster. ;-) On that note, I'm down just over 1 kg since last week. I've had to make further dietary modifications. So, to summarise, here is what I don't eat right now:
1) Gluten and refined sugar (as the name of this blog suggests)
2) Dairy since I noticed a couple of weeks ago it seemed to be causing me lots of skin problems
3) Eggs - I'm trailing removing those too for a while - they appear to be causing some nasty skin eruptions too - my skin is way better since I dropped dairy, but still not how it should be. Possibly the problem is just that since I went gluten and sugar free I've eaten way more eggs than normally, especially as our hens are laying flat out. Maybe my body just needs a break from them.
4) Pepper and strong spices - due to my salicylate intolerance. I can handle the occasional little bit of something, but can't have spices as a regular part of meals.

So what DO I eat?? I joked with a friend yesterday I'll soon be on the "L diet"- lettuce, leeks, lemons, lentils, lamb and not much else ;-). But no, it's not as bad as all that. Overall, when I want to lose weight, I find it is easiest to have a basic eating plan to stick to, varying the meals within it, but following the same basic routine. Mine looks something like this:

Afternoon snack: If I need a snack, I try to favour apple with nut butters, celery sticks, sometimes g.f toast with hummus etc, but let's be honest - sometimes I reach for the rice crackers or ready-salted potato chips.

I'm slowly working on expanding my recipe base, as all these changes have meant that most of my old ones aren't useful any more. One step at a time :-)

108.9kg today. That's all I got to say! :-)

I finally cracked the 110kg barrier! Weight this morning: 109.9! Waaahooo! And, due to one simple diet change, my skin is sooooo much better! I exercised for 30 mins 4 times in the week, and didn't eat anything terrible, though I did enjoy a few treats.

As for my skin - I now wish I had before-and-after pics for this past week - the changes are so profound as to be almost unbelievable! So let me describe what my skin looked like a week ago: bright red patches on top of nose, forehead, cheek and chin. Full blown acne on right cheek and chin, spots everywhere else. Masses of dry, flaky scales. Basically it looked and felt like my face was falling off! I've never had skin so bad, and it was just getting worse and worse week to week. :-(

So, last Tuesday morning I was going for my walk and pondering my skin. Then I recalled an article I had read the day before about gluten and autoimmune disease - most of it was what I already know; those of us with autoimmune disease should avoid gluten as gluten proteins are very similar to the proteins found in various parts of the body but particularly the thyroid, so consumption of gluten can trigger autoimmune attack on the thyroid. What I didn't know was that casein proteins in milk are also strikingly similar - and can trigger the same inflammation. Knowing my dairy consumption has definitely increased since going gluten and sugar free, I figured a few days trial couldn't hurt - so from Tuesday I went dairy free.

Now, knowing it takes 8 weeks for the skin to fully renew itself, I wasn't expecting to wake up the next morning with perfectly clear skin, but I did expect to notice at least a reduction in inflammation over the week if I was on the right track. By day 2 it was obvious that there was a difference. By day 5 I could hardly believe the change! Now, only 6 days later, I am truly amazed! No more bright red patches. Still a bit of dry skin on the bride of my nose, but NOTHING like it has been. No more severe acne. A few small spots, but they are rapidly disappearing too. And no more itching. My wrist isn't hurting either. :-)

So, I guess from here on out, at least for the next few months, I will be gluten free and sugar free AND dairy free.  Oh well, on the plus side, that means I can get my head around more cooking ideas to help my eldest who is dairy and gluten free but struggling for ideas (he doesn't live at home).

Right. Next goal: under 100 kg by the end of the year!

In my last post I said I was aiming to get down to 110kg before I gave a talk on Sept 22nd. I didn't achieve that. My own fault - no exercise and too much cheating on the diet. Frankly, I was so busy with other things I didn't care enough.
This past week, however, I have finally started exercising. I did 4 lots of 20-30min walks this past week. My weight dipped downwards. Then on the weekend I blew it. Chocolate eclairs and Chinese meals are NOT conducive to weight loss. Just saying. ;-)
So, this week, I'm starting out still on exactly 111.0 kg.
But this time, I WILL exercise at least 5 times a week, and I WON'T eat any gluten, sugar, or bad-for-you "gluten-free" foods!
I also need to work on my overall health - my body seems to be in a state of inflammation: my skin is bad (normally I have pretty good skin), I have yet another abscessed eyelid (the other one this time) so on ABs again, my thyroid meds have needed adjusting, and I have low iron levels. One wrist is giving me a lot of pain, and there are other minor but annoying things going on. Time to look more seriously at high-nutrition healing foods!
Watch this space!

Oops! Time has slipped by! I decided after Week 6 that I wouldn't post daily food intakes, as I simply don't have time, but intended to continue with weekly updates. But I got busy, we've had lots of visitors, lambing started, things happened....and I just haven't found time!

After I was sick a few weeks ago, my weight did fluctuate a little, then stabilised at 113kg. Since then it's continued to slowly go down, though to be perfectly honest in the last few weeks I have mostly stuck to the no-sugar-or-gluten thing, but not totally. With all the busy-ness and visitors, there have been some days when I just went for whatever was fast and easy, and a few times that meant Chinese takeaways, or snack food from the supermarket. Mostly I stuck to snacks like cashew nuts or ready-salted potato chips, but a few times I "indulged" in a chocolate éclair or other treat. Bottom line, though, is it generally wasn't worth it - sometimes the gluten would make me flat out sick to the stomach (the first time I ate it again, I had stomach pain for 3 days!) Plus my husband has commented that since we've had a few gluten-containing meals, his body is once again aching all over. Added to that, my taste buds have changed - things I "expect" to taste good turn out to be yuck! Way too sweet etc.

So, I now weigh 111 kg. That's 7.5kg lighter than when I started 13 weeks ago. And now it's time to get  "serious" again and stick to the plan. I have a speaking engagement on the 22nd of September, and plan to be under the 110 kg mark by then. After that, there are 15 weeks left in 2015. I am going to aim to be under 100 kg before the 31st December. That should be do-able, so long as I exercise several times a week, and don't overindulge in the wrong foods.

Life is still incredibly busy. I won't be doing daily updates, unless I find I need to in order to stay on track. But I will start adding new recipes again as I use them.

I haven't posted my daily updates this week as I spent the week battling a nasty dose of flu, and just didn't have the energy. Explains my Monday food cravings too! So, while I have stuck to my sugar and gluten free, low salicylate guidelines, I have not worried about restricting or recording what I ate. I felt the need for a lot more carbs than usual, so I had them. I also used bone broths, soups and stews as much as possible. I've been taking supplements, and drank lemon & raw honey drinks a few times. We had roasted chicken and hot chips one night when that's all I felt like. I've had ready-salted potato chips with cream cheese and salmon or just sour cream several times. I've eaten quite a lot of 85% dark chocolate, and had Rich Chocolate Mousse with lots of cream a couple of times.  And I've drunk enough water to fill a small lake! In other words, I listened to my body, ate what I needed, rested as much as I could, and didn't worry about the rest.

Just for the heck of it, I weighed myself this morning, though I don't think it necessarily counts for anything. Despite the high carb load, I've gone down some more - 112.6kg. But being ill can do that, and it won't necessarily stay off. Changes in cell hydration, gut bacteria etc can all cause fluctuations in body weight. So we'll see.

Meanwhile, it's now Monday morning. I still have a wretched cough, headache and am on the mend though far from 100%. So I'll be back to recording and posting meals and recipes, but taking it easy this week too.

Wow - I'm into my 6th week sugar and gluten free already!

Exercise: I went for a 30 min walk first thing. Had to, to warm up!
How I feel: Felt fine all day but slept very, very poorly. However, I don't think it had anything to do with food. I was asleep when I was woken at 12:30 by our dog barking (being naughty). Took 30 mins to convince her to behave. Then shortly after that the fire siren went of. Then a bit later it did it again. Then there was a strong earthquake at 4am - and I had to get up at 7. Between all these things, I'd barely doze when I was woken up again. The adrenaline from the earthquake kept me awake for quite a while. Grrrrrr

I weighed 113.5 kg this morning, so have now lost a total of 4 kgs from where I started 5 weeks ago; 500g (half a kilo) in the last week.
It's been a bit of a mixed-bag week; quite busy, some non-food issues going on, and some days when I could care less about sticking to "healthy eating", though I've stuck with my gluten and refined sugar free stance. I didn't make time to exercise, but overall my sleep has been better than it was.

I've finished reading "Grain Brain" by Dr Pearlmutter, and have started reading "Accidentally Overweight" by Dr Libby Weaver. The body is a truly fascinating and complex creation - every thing going on inside it and by means of external influences have profound and far-reaching effects on various body and mind systems. The more I learn, the more I realise how important it is to not just focus on food, but work on all the other important areas that influence mental, physical and emotional well-being.

Some things I'm thinking about now - the effect of adrenaline and cortisol on the body - especially in regards to stress, weight and sleep - and the importance of understanding the serotonin/melatonin balance in regards to mood and sleep.

I have been reminded of the importance of good routines, especially regular bed and wake times, going to sleep before 10pm, and getting up at a regular time, and beginning the day with a walk or at least some time spent in the sunshine/daylight. Now I need to develop an action plan to make these things happen with reasonable consistency.

This week we also tried a few new recipes, had fun building our own pizzas, and I found some useful food products.

A busy weekend in which we tried to keep it simple in the food department.

Saturday Brunch: After sleeping in on Saturday, I didn't get around to eating until 11:30am, so had bacon & eggs on gluten-free toast plus a left over gluten-free sausage and some cooked chicken and called it brunch.

Sunday Breakfast: Low salicylate Nutty Granola & milk

Sunday Lunch: A friend had told me about a pie place in Palmerston North that does gluten-free pies, so we decided to try it for lunch after church. Between the four of us, we ordered three varieties, and split two pottles of chips while we were waiting. The pies were ok, but none of us thought we'd bother with them again. Plus they were strong in the pepper and tomato department, so not good for our food sensitivities either.

Exercise: none
How I feel: Sleeping pretty well, which is great. I've noticed that I can get away with some salicylates at lunch time, but if I eat them at dinner time, they will keep me awake. My daughter seems to be the same with her food sensitivities. Keeping the evening very low in our difficult foods seems to be the key to good sleep.

I found some useful and tasty products, added "pizza toppings" to an omelette, and helped a friend. Pretty good day!

Breakfast: Low salicylate Nutty Granola and milk