Hello! Day One Done - anyone want to join me?

[SharkSkinThing]

Just wanted to say hello and see if any other new starters wanted to buddy up for support and advice?

I've got 3 - 4 stone to lose, all gained AFTER having my DS who is now - god help me - 5. All down to long-term sleep deprivation and sugar reliance, and forming terrible habits. And wine to help me cope with the sleep deprivation,

Anyway, hoping to finally turn things around now that he's finally sleeping (sometimes until 5.30am!). Would love to chat to others who are finding that this WOE works for them.

xx

I've been so good all week and then last night I had some smoked haddock with a homemade parsley sauce and veg. All good........then husband came home after a works evening out with fish n chips and I ate some chips. I also ate some batter/crispy bits ( depending on where you are in the country). It was delicious but I immediately regretted it.

Oh well, back on the wagon to keep on keeping on.

Pleased everyone is doing well and achieving their goal. I don't weigh myself so have no idea about weight loss but this last week or so my clothes feel better on me. My skinny jeans aren't quite so restrictive

Have a good weekend, it's cold windy and raining in Durham, hope it's better where you are.

Cut yourself some slack, durham! It's food, not a prison sentence! The fact that your skinny jeans are getting baggier is a great sign, so just go with it.

Very windy here on the Sussex coast today...rain is due to hit tomorrow.

Hope everyone is safe and warm and indoors. [brew}

Shark Well done!!!! and glad you have found a way of eating and enjoying food that keeps you sane and your weight stable (and losing).
I can still eat good wholemeal bread if I am not feeling well. Don't like pasta though. Am back on the straight and narrow again so "high five" to me

Oh and so windy here. Gales for last couple of weeks and nothing but rain. We have major floods here, up to your neck in some places.

Well I didn't go off the wagon as bad as I could have, but I certainly didn't stay on it.

However I can certainly attest that my falling off the wagons will be potato based from now on as I really can't stomach anything wheat based.

My stomach is pretty upset today, but I'm back on and moving forward. Hope everyone else is doing well :)

Welcome back, fit - hope your tummy settles soon. Bread/pasta are a no for me, now too. Rice/lentils/pulses and pots seem ok, but only as a treat!

Did you have a lovely staycation?

Always - thanks! . I hope you are all ok wherever you are? We are on the coast, so it's blowy, but safe.

Anyone feeling festive yet? We will put the tree up next Sat, and Sat evening I am going to light the wood burner and wrap the presents with a glass of wine whilst DS is in bed, and DP is out with friends. THEN I will feel festive...not quite there yet! [santa] xx

We had a great staycation. It was National Day here so there were fireworks and people driving around with their cars decorated, my DS loved it.

Definitely starting to feel festive. The hotel we were staying at put up there Christmas trees and the mall we went to Saturday was decorating. :)

Hurray to weight losses and looser clothes, Shark and Durham!

Sorry to read you were unwell but pleased to see you're better now, always. Carbs represent comfort food to most people, so it's only natural to be craving them when feeling unwell.

Welcome back, Fit. Glad you've enjoyed your break. I remember all too well the pain that gluten causes!!! Avoiding gluten can be a real task but it does eventually become second nature. Careful with potatoes: they are often coated with flour to allow 'crispy on the outside but fluffy inside' texture.

It most certainly starting to feel festive even without the christmas tree being up. We'll put the tree up when Dd comes home (only a few days now!)
The christmas cleaning has proven to be a successful tool for losing a few more centimeters and gaining a few more jeans to wear.

Dh made homemade crisps for ds last night and I was very good girl: I didn't even sniff them!

On a very positive note: I seem to be fine with butter and cream. Dh thinks that my previous reactions might have been to butter and cream substitutions (Utterly Butterly and Emlea type).

Hi dudes

Ill today. Caught kids cold so feel like am wearing a woolly hat on my brain.

fav sometime dairy intolerance can come along on the back of a gluten allergy or intolerance, but when the gut heals after dropping gluten,the dairy intolerance reduces or goes away altogether. I read that in a book...(so it must be true!!)

Glad you are feeling better always - so hard to stick to a new type of diet when poorly. The good thing about this is that we are all trying to make changes for the long term, so if we go off piste now again - no biggie.

shark FESTIVE??! Noooo! I am in utter denial! Although....I am taking my big girl to see Kate Rusby tonight (her Christmas present) so after that I might be less bah humbug!

Been invited to do a workshop at a conference.....oh my god what was I thinking?! Not till summer so plenty of time to panic prepare.

Loving your X mas plans too shark I may follow suit, sounds very relaxing. Although me and sellotape have a long running feud. I'm not over it.

I have some recipes for cake which may be suitable over the festive season...happy to share but if you would prefer to avoid sugar temptations (I reduce to barely any when I have made them and all very good) then I won't post .... one is for gluten and nut free chocolate cake (contains dairy); one for gluten and dairy free apple cake (contains nuts).

Also have the Ella book which contains a recipe for raw chia seed brownies and for sweet potato ones and an avocado mousse (chocolate!!!) all refined sugar free, but with dates. You could google, but I could share? I thought they would be good sharing offerings?

Off to find tissues....!!

Poor you, devon, I hope the evening out cheers you up.

But what's this about a workshop at a conference? Tell us more, sounds super exciting (we can be terrified on your behalf if you need us to be!).

Nice to have you back, too, fav, glad that the butter/cream thing is resolved - phew! Hard to cope without butter now. Slightly worried about your potato tip - not natural spuds, surely? Not that I'm having any...sigh...

Oh, and don't mention cleaning to me...I am actually taking a day off work on Tuesday (DS has his nativity play in the middle of day, I figured I may as well stuff the commute that day) - to deep clean the bathroom and the kitchen. In the (fragile) hope (ha!) that I can then just keep on top of it generally before family descend on 23/12. Rod? Back? Me?!

fit, so jealous of your festive vibe...I think mine is just delayed. I wrote my cards today to a backdrop of DS and DP playing the loudest game of indoor balloon volleyball (don't ask), when everyone knows that it is the LAW to do this mundane task with a glass of sherry and some xmas songs on...so..still no twinkle for me yet!

xxxxx

I made tomato soup last night with cream and blue cheese! It was divine!

No decorations up in our house as yet, I sully hold out until the 20th. If I put them up any earlier I want them down by Boxing Day so this way they get to stay up until New Year.

My weekend wasn't too far off track although we went to the Christmas Market in a Durham and I had a coffee eclair........very nice it was too. All meals have been v low carb so I don't think I've done too much harm.
I'm going to be v good all week as next weekend we are going to see my husband's family to exchange Christmas presents, we have lunch out somewhere lovely and spend the day together catching up. I'm not worried too much about the carbs, if it's a roast I'll be sure to eat lots of veg rather than lots of Yorkshire puddings , I'll have cheese for dessert so not too bad at all. I will be having a drink or two....it would be rude my to
I've a new dress I want to wear so I need to stay on track to feel confident in it.

Have a great week everyone

Recipe please, fit. That sounds like an excellent boxing day meal!!! Xx

Durham, me too with the tree. I am itching to take it down within a day!

Mmmmm.. .eclaires. I love choux pastry.

Tell us about your dress, I love heating about nice clothes! X

Forgot to say Devon I'd love the chocolate cake and apple cake recipes, thanks for sharing

I'll do my best with a recipe, I'm pretty much a throw it in a pot and see how it goes person but:

1 onion finally chopped
6 garlic cloves finally chopped
4 cans tinned chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup tomato paste
6 cups chicken stock
1 cup of whipping cream (bit more if you're feeling generous)
1/2 to 1 cup of blue cheese
1 tbsp of dried dill
butter

Get a big pot and put it on. Soften the onions and garlic in the butter. Throw in everything else when they're softened. Leave bubbling for about 30 minutes. Done.

Omg super soup!!

Well Kate Rusby was very nice, she seems like such a great person - doing what she loves, so inspiring. My daughter was the youngest there by miles - a very middle aged jumper wearing crowd. The couple next to us were so obviously on a date - he was a big Kate fan, she even looked a bit like her in the hair dept, he was singing along etc and she was so sweet trying to make all the right noises and be as into it as he was. We saw them later on holding hands, so obviously going well!!

Didn't make me feel Christmassy though....just a bit tense that a didn't feel Christmassy/still had to organise Christmas....

So to cake...

1: chocolate cloud cake (gluten and nut free)

250 g of v. Dark chocolate
125 g butter
6 eggs 2 whole, 4 separated
Grated zest of 1 0range
Sugar to suit - I used 75g Demerara, but you could use xylitol or even none if you like dark chocolate intense taste

Double cream 500 ml whipped for topping. Vanilla essence. Tsp. Optional.

Cake tin 9"23cm
Oven 180

Separate eggs.
Beat whites till stiff set aside.
Melt chocolate with butter.
Mix egg yolks and the 2 whole eggs together with sugar and orange zest.
Gently add melted chocolate, butter mix. Combine.
Fold egg whites into mix.
Pour into tin.
Cook for 30 mins ish

Allow to cool release from tin. Fill sunken middle of cake with whipped cream. Eat.

2: Italian apple cake

3 eating apples chopped and poached and mashed

8 eggs
300g ground almonds
100g sugar
Grated zest of orange
tsp cinnamon - or more if preferred
Big squeeze or juice of orange
Flaked almonds

Oven180
25cm tin, although I use same tin as choc cake which is 23cm...
Oil for greasing ( I have used both olive and coconut flavourless, or butter if not dairy free)

Blitz all ingredients in processor or beat together in elec mixer, or just beat together with arms....

Wang in greased tin.

Sprinkle flaked almonds on top.

Cook for 35 - 45 mins

Xx

Thanks for your messages. Im fine now thanks. Was just vertigo brought on by stress.

We shall go and get a tree this weekend but have been out with my daughter and bought some new decorations tat so the cottage looks festivy

Week before AF so feeling bloated. Just had to hand over an obscene amount of money to get my daughter a residency visa (right before bloody Christmas!). Broke down and had some Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. I feel justified in it though. :P

I'm really liking the recipes sharing.

Devon your chocolate cake reminds of one I made for my niece a couple years back.

3 egg whites
120 xylitol (sugar)
25g tapioca/rice flour
60g 100% cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate
1 tbs fresh orange juice

Whisk egg whites and sugar to stiff peaks, add the rest.
Bake 1-1.5 hrs at 140C.

Fit, I love tomato soup!

Shark, Durham, Ds shares your sentiments about christmas trees, wheras Dd loves them. I am happy either way but would always display the trees my children made out of loo rolls and crepe paper, around their second Christmas!

It's busy, busy, busy here... I'm still stripping the old wax from the floors, which I'm hoping to finish today; I've finally found a lovely exam centre and entered Ds for his first batch of GCSEs exams [now it feels scary! There's still so much maths still to cover. :S].

We've also started a new fun project: mushroom growing. We love more intense flavour mushrooms but there aren't always in stock and they're expensive. I'm so excited as our first batches have all produced lovely mycelium (roots) and we should be able to inoculate (plant) the growing medium (straw and spent coffee) across the next couple days. :)

Favad are you home eding?

I have been meaning to make a flourless chocolate cake for the last two weeks. Must do it this weekend. It contains chestnuts, chocolate, brown sugar and eggs. Is decadent

Yes, always, I've been HE'ing for over 7 yrs. :) It has been an interesting journey and there are only 18 months left of it before Six Form/College, unless Ds chooses to do A levels at home. The pressure is really on now -though Ds is totally relaxed- as the A levels he wants to do require A grade to procede to A level and the uni courses he fancies want 320 points.

With the temptation of all these chocolate recipes and with all the floors stripped ready for repolishing, I'm enjoying a cheeky but well deserved square of 85% chocolate! :)

Good on you fav !

I have been home ending for 1 term....nearly driven me bonkers. We are doing Steiner education and left one school (fee paying) to go to a new free Steiner school and have been waiting for places for some of the brood. But - news just in - number 1 daughter has a place and starting tomorrow! Just 1 child to go now and they are all back in school (except my baby of course!!)

I know Steiner is a bit controversial on MN, but I love it and have found it gives my kids just I what I think they need.lots of strong boundaries, a good sense of self and a really creative atmosphere. Having said that, I do feel that big daughter would have found a lot of positives from the mainstream secondary - we had a look round our local one and the support and resources were very impressive.

What brought you to Ho me ed fav?

I home ed my kids too. One graduated from Uni last year and the other went to college. Was an enjoyable journey and they both benefited in realising that you don't have to do what is " the norm".