Avoid cravings

Cravings are always a big topic when it comes to dieting. Especially on low carb and low fat diets those cravings can get pretty bad if you don’t know how to avoid them.

Here are a few ideas on how to avoid the cravings:

• Sweets:
  If you like sweets a lot, you might consider making them yourself. It is not difficult to make sweets and they will be completely fine everyday and all the time when you are on this diet.
  Easy home made sweets are are pudding (custard), Gummybears, Cocoa, Joghurt, Lemonade, Iced Tea, icecream. (Recipes will follow as soon as I find the time).
• Doughy stuff:
  If you like noodles, consider making noodles yourself with chickpea flour. Chickpeas are high in carbs, but the type of carbs in the chickpeas can not be digested by the human body and is therefore save to eat.
  If you like bread, try to make protein bread, using protein powder or oat bran for the dough instead of flour.
  If you like cakes, make cheese cake or use a mix of protein powder and ground nuts instead of flour. (Recipes will follow as soon as I find the time).
• Fatty, oily food:
  You can not substitute fat and oil with anything. When you feel that you must fry your steak in oil, use olive oil.
  If you have a craving for some meat that is not lean, then go ahead and have it instead of waiting for the craving to get real bad. But in that case, make sure you only buy as much as you will eat, and don’t eat that on a regular basis.

I must mention, that from my experience of the last few weeks on this low carb, low fat diet I don’t get cravings at all anymore.
I used to miss chocolate a lot because I do have a sweet tooth. But when I started reacting allergic to chocolate I lost that craving completely (of course!). When I really feel I need something chocolate, I usually make a bit of cocoa because that small amount doesn’t get my allery running.
Apart from that, I don’t miss bread of noodles as much as I thought I would. My whole way of eating changed. There is less apetite and less hunger, so I don’t feel like I am missing out on anything. Especcially as I found my few ways to take care of my sweet tooth.
And the very few times, when I really must have something “forbidden” I break the diet for a day and just have it. (Read about beaking the diet here)

Healthy TV dinner

So recently I bought those TV dinner trays and they quickly became my best friends. They look nice and I have great portion control. I like the look of having the parts of my dinner seperated like that.

Here is my idea of a healthy TV dinner:

1. Big portion of Tuna, mixed with tomato and cucumber
2. An omelette (2 eggs + spring onions)
3. Some cheese (here cascaval and mozzarella)
4. Some cooked ham

Actually I couldn’t even finish this tray, and the cheese wasn’t low fat. But still it was very tasty and way more healthy than the ready bought TV dinners for the microwave.

Treats and breaking the diet

Cravings are your enemy when you are trying to lose weight! You chose a diet that works out great and you know you can keep up this diet for ever but still, sometimes you just want to break the diet for a day.

Breaking the diet for a day, in order to treat yourself is fine! Don’t get a guilty feeling for that. Would you rather treat yourself for one day or get a craving that will ultimately result in you stopping the diet?
We are talking healthy weight loss right? Part of a healthy weightloss is preventing huge cravings that will result in you breaking the diet more often than you keep it up!
So yes, you may have the fruit that you will normally not eat, you may have a piece of cake, a chocolate bar or a big oily steak.

What to take care of, when treating yourself:

• Don’t overeat.
• Eat what you want as much as you want.
• Don’t overeat anyways!
• Try to make cakes and such yourself, so you can replace stuff (sweetener, low fat milk, etc).
• Try to stay away from fastfood if you can. If you can’t > don’t overeat.
• Don’t have a bad conscience!

After treating yourself:

• Don’t weigh in the next day!
  Of course you will have gained weight, but you will lose it as well, so don’t down yourself by weighing in and seeing the plus.
• Just keep going with the diet as usual.

From my own experience throughout the past few weeks.
I see my weight to slowly but constantly go down although I am breaking the diet once a week.
When I want something sweet, I will usually make pudding. Pudding is great because I can use low fat milk, unsweetened pudding powder and sweeten it with artificial sweetener. So it is sweet but safe to eat on low carb and low fat diets.
When I break the diet for a day, I do enjoy myself. I still think about not overeating, not drinking alcohol and too much sugary stuff.
Example:
Last Saturday I cooked a huge dinner for my neighbour’s birthday. It was a roast, a bake, pizza, cake, pudding, bread sticks, and popcorn. We drank beer, water, homemade lemonade, and normal pepsi.
The day after I had gained a whole kilo. On Monday I weighed in again, I had not only lost that gained kilo, I lost one more pound in adition.
I am not getting frustrated because I know that I am keeping my diet and I keep losing over all even though I am gaining on those days, when I break the diet. This helps me to stay on the diet the rest of the days.

I am now at 88.9 Kilo and tomorrow it will be less. This should be your mind set 🙂

Salmon salad

Very tasty but not very cheap.

I got my hands on some really good quality salmon and just had to buy it. Salmon is not very cheap, especially good quality. So of course, this is not an everyday salad.

You need:
1 salmon fillet
1/4 lettuce
1/4 cucumber
1/2 paprika
1/2 onion
salt, pepper, balsamico

How to:

• Fry the salmon with very little oil in a pan. (No need to season it, but if you want to, use a bit of pepper)
• Cut the lettuce, cucumber, onion, and paprika.
• Put the salad on a plate and season lightly with salt, pepper, and balsamico.
• Place the hot salmon on top

Hints:
If you like, you can drip a few drops of lemon (not flavouring but fresh) on the salmon.
If you like, you can add other vegetables in your salad. For example broccoli or tomato.

Filled omelette

Very easy, filling, and perfect for a low carb diet.

You need:
4 Eggs
Low fat cotton cheese
1/2 Paprika
1/4 Cucumber
1 Tomato
salt, pepper

How to:

• Mix all the eggs together in a small bowl and season lightly with salt and pepper.
• Make an omelette out of the eggs.
• Cut all the vegetables in small pieces and mix them with the cotton cheese.
• Season the cheese mixture to your liking.
• Put your omelette on a place and top half of it with the cheese mixture.
• Fold the other half over top so it looks like a sandwich.

Hint: Don’t worry about the eggs. Unless you are already having problems with your cholesterol or you are making this daily, nothing bad will happen if you eat four eggs at once. You could also share it. On the picture you see only half of this recipe, because it filled me up already. My husband got the other half.

Italian plate

This is the perfect food for hot summer days.
Note: Yes it may not be really Italian but the combination of colours in the food (red, white, green) and the use of basil and balsamico does make it Italian enough for me. 🙂

You need:
1 ball mozzarella (as low fat as you can find)
1 tomato
a few slices of ham
balsamico
basil (dry or fresh), salt, pepper

How to:

• Cut the mozzarella in slices.
• Cut the tomato in slices
• Put the mozzarella and tomato on the plate, alternating both.
• Roll a few slices of ham and position them nicely in the middle of the plate.
• Fix the ham in place with a piece of tomato
• Season with salt, pepper, and basil
• Drip a small amount of balsamico over top

Hints:
1. Don’t use too much salt, because usually the ham is pretty salty already.2. It’s tastiest with fresh basil instead of dried.

So sorry

I wanted to say sorry, that it took me so long to post again.

My dog gave birth a week ago, so the week leading to it and this last one were crazy. First I had to build the nest, buy some utensils for the birth, reading up on everything important  (first time). Then I had to stay up with her, making sure she is alright. My husband and I took turns in being up and with the dog. Then the water broke and we stayed with her until all the puppies were out. Yeah and the following days, apart from work, we checked on the dogs. Made sure everything is fine, and that our dogs eats again.

By now she is eating about four or five times as much as she usually does and still doesn’t gain weight. I guess those puppies are sucking it all out of her.The puppies are all fine, healthy and do what puppies are supposed to do: Sleep, squeek, eat, poop.

Anyway, here is a picture or the little dog family, and I will post a few things right now. I have some recipes for you, and a few tips and tricks as well.