Low Carb Week 7 - Our final weeks

[BIWI]

Forgive me friends, for I have sinned ...

DS1's birthday today so I've been very absent from the thread.

Here is the spreadsheet for you to confess all

Will confess all tomorrow

Good luck to you all

Well done @Ninkanink , so pleased to see you still here. I'm too much of a wimp to post on those boards. I salute you!

[quote BIWI]@Dailyhandtowelwash

Quick question: this week our cookbook will be the Kerridge Dopamine Diet. I notice quite a few of his recipes contain small amounts of honey or sugar (not the ones we're planning) but are carb-counted recipes like that OK in maintenance or is it no sugar at all? I'm not fussed by eating outright sweet things but I do understand that some sweetness is necessary sometimes in savoury recipes.

I'm a bit about many of his recipes in that book, tbh. He uses a lot of highly processed foods (Bisto gravy granules for example) as well as artificial sweeteners - and then there's the sugar/honey thing! Personally, I'd take the view that if it's only a small amount of sugar/honey, I'd leave it out. If it needs a lot of it, then I'd avoid the recipe.

I lost a lot of respect for Tom Kerridge when he started pushing low calorie eating - on TV and in a later recipe book. So hypocritical when he lost his weight (11 stones I think?) by low carbing.[/quote]
No, he is now very annoying. But many of the recipes in Dopamine Diet are favourites of ours. Not sure we've ever used Bisto!

Thanks, I was curious as to the maintenance approach to these things. It's a pet hate of mine dating back years re recipes that claim to be 'sugar-free' but have honey or other sugars in them.

I often wonder why sugar is included in some recipes - lots of Thai/Asian recipes use a lot of sugar, therefore I conclude that it must be an essential part of the taste they're to deliver. But in other recipes where it's just a spoonful or so, I wonder what the actual tase benefit it - or is it just because we all have such a need for sugar/a sweeter taste?

I was gobsmacked when I found out that the Chinese 5 spice I was using had sugar in it, for example!

These are the ingredients of Schwartz Chinese Five Spice:

Sugar, Salt, Onion Granules, Garlic Granules (12%), Ground Star Anise (10%), Ground Ginger (5%), Ground Fennel Seed, Ground Cinnamon (Cassia) (4%), Black Pepper (3%), Ground Cloves

(McCormicks and Sainsbury's versions do not contain sugar)

I've got the book - but just adapt the recipes to be truly HFLC. Like not pouring away the fat after roasting mince

I suppose I would now categorise the recipes in the book as inspiring me rather than following them slavishly

And like others, I'm and at Tom Kerridge for selling out to low calorie weight loss because supposedly it's too difficult to persuade people of the benefits of HFLC (or even "Dopamine" ) so he can make more money "selling" calorie counting

Honestly, I think Tom Kerridge is a bit of a toss-pot. I remember seeing him on a weight loss show with non-celebrities, and he was really judgemental and unpleasant.

Also, I find his recipes to be unnecessarily fussy and not that reliable.

I assume he must have earned that Michelin Star, though!

Thank you @BIWI, and all.🌻🌻🌻

It’s early days yet...I have a feeling the moderator(s) might well be on the gin this morning and loath to start the day’s work! TBH I didn’t deliberately say anything that should have earnt deletion, but you never quite know these days and there was a bit of madness going on yesterday.

I’ve been a carby twat this morning. A slice of granary toast with marmite, to have soldiers with my boiled eggs. I’ve not ordered the seriously low carb bread (still waiting for the food budget to roll over to our next month), but it’s my top priority when I next do the shopping.

Lunch is going to be a big tuna salad. Dinner will be hmmmm...not sure yet. Possibly chicken in a mustard and cream sauce, although I need wine for the dish I want to make. But I guess I could go to the shops.

@BIWI

I often wonder why sugar is included in some recipes - lots of Thai/Asian recipes use a lot of sugar, therefore I conclude that it must be an essential part of the taste they're to deliver. But in other recipes where it's just a spoonful or so, I wonder what the actual tase benefit it - or is it just because we all have such a need for sugar/a sweeter taste?

I was gobsmacked when I found out that the Chinese 5 spice I was using had sugar in it, for example!

I think sometimes it's to counterbalance a stronger taste that would otherwise dominate, or to bring out taste in other ingredients. Eg sugar in a tomato sauce is often used to make the tomatoes taste more tomatoey than many of our dull specimens do - the overall taste of a lovely ragu can be enhanced by a tiny amount of sugar. Similarly in some cuisines the sweet/sour taste is really important, so it gives it that edge. But leaving it out, or lowering the quantity, is rarely the end of the world.

Yes...sometimes I do still use honey or sugar or Mirin, etc in Japanese/Chinese/Korean recipes that call for it, even on bc, because it does make a difference to the balance, and it’s not much when divided between X servings. But in certain dressings or dishes I do leave it out and it’s fine.

Interesting about the sugar in savoury meals.

Well no evening snacking on dark chocolate last night and finally cut out my 1/4 teaspoon of sweetener in tea and I'm back to 10st 2 and have lost 2 inches round my waist since end of Jan!

Going to get back onto 16 8 again too and once kids go back monday going to meet more friends for walks. Also planning on going back to kickboxing classes when exercise classes start back up which I did a couple of years ago and loved. I'm not very good at exercising at home.

Well done everyone, final week here we come!

W2R2 C25K done, plus day 4 of the 30 day challenge completed

I really didn't want to go, but forced myself outside. It was chilly but OK once I got going. TBH it's the hardest thing about the first weeks of doing the C25K - you're not really running for long enough to get properly warm!

Dailyhandtowelwash goose breast sounds amazing; where did you buy that from?

Day 5 of the March challenge done & day 4 of Yoga with Adriene. I like the fact that her class is short but God does she natter on.

Glad to see you still here Ninanink and you're braver than me. I never go near those threads.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Schwarz tends to use salt as the main ingredient in quite a few of their spice blends. It’s a cheap ingredient. I tend to avoid them for that reason. It’s always worth checking the back of the jar first. I even do research now online before I go shopping!

I made the cheese scone/muffins from the recipe on the last thread - they were bloody lovely and satisfied that wish for something bread like to have with butter so thanks for that.

Just spent 10 mins checking my spices... it hadn’t occurred to me that the blends would contain sugar! Notably it’s the big western brands which do, the spices I’ve bought from Asian supermarkets or small businesses which make their own blends do not. Lots of salt too, less of an issue for me as salt makes everything taste better!

(Killing time while the site was down, who would have thought women talking to women would be so threatening).

It wasn't an attack this time though:

Apologies for site outage: it's due to some new code we've just released that's affecting our database - no security issues involved and we'll be back to normal ASAP

This was MNHQ's tweet earlier

www.instagram.com/p/CL_4bu0MK1-/?igshid=3b3e01rsj10q

@FusionChefGeoff I saw this on Instagram earlier. I only remembered because I wasn't sure what FODMAP is

@Dailyhandtowelwash I used to think that some recipes, especially ones with tomatoes in them, needed a bit of sugar, or balsamic vinegar in them because "the sweetness brought out the flavour of the tomato". Now I just find them over-sweet, and think it's best to buy some better quality, better flavoured tomatoes in the first place

I guess the sweetness is for that balanced 'umami' feel - sweet, sour, salt, bitter... but I think (for me) that as I've eaten less sugar my sensitivity to the amount of sugar has grown, so I either get the 'sweetness' from the veg, or the wine in the cooking, and that seems enough. It's similar to my tolerance for spice and heat, which has increased massively over the 10 years that dh has been growing ferocious hot chillies! Essentially, I don't think 'umami' is a specific formula, but rather an adaptation to our own tastes and tolerances.

Also when I've spent time in Asian cultures I've noticed that rural populations don't use coconut sugar or palm sugar in their recipes as much. Maybe what we're being 'fed' (in some cases) is the equivalent of us selling other cultures a cheeseburger and fries - which is a million miles away from our original natural cuisine.

Methinks Tom Kerridge has simultaneously increased his bank balance AND his waistline!! And I seem to recall I wrote a poem about him on a previous thread... although a visit to his restaurant a few years ago was amazing

Food today:
B - coffee with cream
L - cheese, ham and cucumber 'sandwich' (just buttered slices of cheese)
D - another dine in at home extravaganza: smoked trout with shaved fennel and tomato consomme; scallop with miso dressing and spring onion salad; ribeye beef with mushroom puree truffle cauliflower cheese and beef jus.

There's also desert but dh will have half tonight and half tomorrow.

Its going to my much harder than I thought to reduce cheese! Currently going through recipe threads and all the ones I think mmmmmm have cheese!!
However 1lb down overnight which has made me more determined to crack this

@Pleaseandthankyou well done! Nice to see someone at the end of their journey.

@ninkanink I don't dare to look but best of luck with your endeavours. I left MN years ago (not a flounce but was just fed up with it) and inly came back for this, I don't even look on any other topic now because it gives me the rage and we all have enough shit going on.

@stuntnun are children in the UK getting mass tested in school? That's a great approach, hopefully it will work. My 8 year old is back and I was dreading it. My poor 11 year old is knocking about the house for another two weeks but he is happy enough in his own company. Went for a walk to the local coffee shop today (it has a lovely little takeaway hatch) and got him a hot chocolate. I had a black coffee and resisted the flat white I would have liked. And the world's best sausage rolls.

Well done @BIWI on your run. I started running again in June and it is so good for my head I missed it. I'll never be fast but I can do a hilly 7k without stopping and I'm quite happy with that! I did just that this morning and it was bloody freezing. So hard to get motivated when its cold like that but I feel great now.

Not really up for a march challenge but I'm going to try run three times a week and do yoga three times a week. I almost always run 3x per week but the yoga has really slipped and I'm so tense lately that I can really feel it. Did some neck and shoulder work yesterday and feel so much more relaxed.

Its pizza night in my house and I'm considering the diet doctor pizza, can anyone tell me if its worth the effort?

[quote Ninkanink]@MilesJuppIsMyBitch 🌻🌻🌻 sunflowers love the sunlight. And spring is on its way.

Sorry everyone for being vague. It’s not a big secret or anything. I just didn’t want to bring politics into this lovely group. And I didn’t want to look like I’d just not bothered to show up for the last three weeks of bc. Hopefully I’ll still be able to post! But for tonight I’m going to have some wine and hopefully a good sleep. Last night I dreamt I was living in Russia during the Cold War. Not surprising really...[/quote]
Thanks for standing up @Ninkanink

Of course dh had dessert, not the dry sandy stuff