The "Meleo" life

So I've dropped wheat again - I was going to just go gluten free and then I remembered seeing something about replacing gluten with starches isn't really good for your health either, so I decided to not go that way.

I have made a few exceptions - basically I took the Paleo diet and I made it with exceptions that fit me personally.  For example, I'm still having rice once a week.  I could have cauliflower rice with my moroccan beef however, cauliflower gives me hideous gas - and isn't Paleo all about taking away gut irritants and making you feel healthier?

So I'm still having rice in place of cauliflower.  And instead of being "Primal" and having full fat milk and dairy - I'm having low fat milk because of my gallbladder issues.  Mainly just low fat milk and yoghurt.

I didn't start this way of eating again to go back and be part of the "Paleo" crowd, I wanted to eat the most healthy way I could think of in my last trimester.  And dropping wheat from my diet (sandwiches etc) makes me eat salads and homemade soups for lunches.  Upping my vegetable intake can only be a good thing.  I don't have a high consumption of nuts/seeds either because of my gallbladder.

So, I'm following the "Meleo" diet at the moment - for maximum health benefits.  I have to watch that my calorie intake doesn't drop too low, I checked over my plan today and most days are around 1200 calories, which I'm not happy with, I'd like it to be much higher than that.  So my desserts of a night time (banana/cacao/date ice cream and orange sorbet made with oranges/coconut sugar/ice) aren't counted in there, or if I feel peckish during the day - I'm not going to restrict myself from having fruit or dried fruit.  Dates are awesome for you, so I'm definitely making sure I get some of them on a daily basis.  Medjool dates are so yummy!

Tomorrow  I've got lined up:

Breakfast:  Chia pudding (with low fat yoghurt, a few cashews, blueberries, raspberries, and maple syrup)

Morning tea:  Chobani yoghurt

Lunch: Roast vegies (yum, can't wait!)

Afternoon tea:  Dates

Dinner:  Chicken and vegetables

Dessert:  Sorbet 

Plus any other dried fruit or fruit that I want to eat during the day!!!

Although, it is my birthday so I'm trying to get Elf Man to make a Caramel Mud Cake that I found on a website that is made basically of roasted sweet potato.  Sounds interesting huh!

Living the fat reduced kind of life

So!  Its been a while.   I didn't kick my chocolate habit and my other junk food habit until now.  My gall bladder was telling me it wasn't very happy with me, I would get the shakes of a night time, and feel sick and usually have some sort of a tummy upset that woke me after I went to sleep.

So I knew what to do.  It happened last pregnancy and I was kind of expecting it.  Reduce my fat intake.

So all chocolate has gone.  All good fats - gone (nuts, coconut oil, avocado etc).

I'm coping ok.  The kids haven't noticed any different really, and I've been trying to eat low fat on the cheap as well so we are having baked beans once a week instead of every second or third week.  I have kanga bangas instead of normal sausages.  I compared the fat in a kanga banga the other night for Elf Man - I can have 2.5 kanga bangas for 2.5g of fat.  I could have two normal beef sausages from woolies for 29.4g of fat.  My daily intake has to be under 30 to keep it under control, the lower the better.

Tonight the kids wanted hot dogs.  I could have hot dogs and have 16g of fat with just the hot dog, plus extra for cheese.  So I've ended up with vegetarian hot dogs (8g of fat for two hot dogs) and allowed myself 25g of a new extra lite cheese thats out.  It looks like plastic and it probably will taste like it too.

I've replaced chips with rice crackers.  Chocolate with lollies (all basically 99% fat free so I have been going a bad wild with the lollies consumption!).  Instead of ham and cheese on our weekly pizza I have sweet potato, onion and red capsicum with low fat ricotta.

Its not the same but I don't want to have an attack.  They really suck and I hate throwing up. Like, really really hate it.

So I'm finally eating better but only because I have to - not because I want to.  Hopefully I keep it up though and don't give in to temptation because one meal at maccas could have me on the toilet for a few hours.  I have to remember that every single time I want to drive there and get something!

Wish me luck!

No longer drowning

In my own sorrows that is.  Since I've found out I was pregnant I've been on a bit of a self-destruction mission.  I started this blog in an effort to try and control myself, but it didn't work.  I wasn't ready to face up to the bigger picture here.

The big picture here is - this is an unplanned pregnancy.  I know what causes pregnancy obviously (since all other kids were planned and wanted) however this was an unplanned and for all accounts, unwanted, pregnancy.  To give a bit of background information (which is probably going to be too much information so feel free to skip to the end of the paragraph) I have a pretty irregular cycle - with it being between 26 and 31 days long.  However, ovulation for me has always been on day 14.  So one (stupid) night, I decide not to use any protection. Mainly because I thought we didn't actually have any (which Elf Man informs me that I was wrong, we had some in the bathroom), but also because I thought I was safe on day 17 of my cycle.  From all accounts I should have been totally safe, once the egg is released it survives for 12-24 hours.  Except in me.  3 days later - and boom - unplanned pregnancy.

I was pissed off to say the least.  I had just lost 32 kilos, I was cruising through my Paleo challenge and I was happy with the way things were going.  I considered abortion.  Like, seriously considered it.  I looked up clinics near me.  I researched costs and how long I had to make a decision.  I talked about what to do with close friends.  I was so very lost.  I didn't want another baby, I have my hands full with 4 young kids, and how on earth will I manage to mother another one!?

Obviously I decided against abortion, I'm now 17 weeks.  I've also put on nearly 10kg since I stopped my Paleo challenge.  Mostly from junky, crappy food that offered no nutritional benefit to me, was just me on a major binge to try and drown myself emotionally in it.  Because I didn't care any more.

So on to what is happening now.  I have woken up a bit.  Decided that feeding my body crap isn't only bad for me, but also for the baby. And its not the baby's fault that it threw a spanner in my perfect world.  So I'm back to exercising - for health purposes.  Just walking for the moment, I'm not a strong established runner so its not wise of me to start running now.  Just getting out for a half an hour walk when I can will make a great deal of difference to how I carry this baby, and how I labour.  And considering that I'm having this one at home (yes, omg at HOME!!!) I want to be in the best possible physical shape that I can be.  Because it deserves it (obviously I say "it" because I don't know if its a boy or a girl yet).

So I've been having smoothies for breakfast - and really enjoying them.  I've been having soup for lunch with homemade bread.  I snack on fruit, or little dried fruit and nut balls that I make up.  I drink my water even though it makes me pee a lot.  I have limited my coffee intake to two a day (which is a lot better than it was).  I've limited my cows milk intake, and sometimes have almond milk instead.

I've stopped abusing myself.  This was an accident but I'm not going to beat myself up any more about it.  I'm going to make myself the strongest I can possibly be.

I'm going to make the best out of my situation, even though it was the complete opposite of what direction I was going in.

Take a look at yourself

Last night I looked at myself in the mirror.  I looked like shit.  I look tired, bloated, plus I've been fighting a cold lately and I've had the runs for this whole week.

I told myself "no more".  No more crap food.  I looked myself right in the eye and I promised myself that I wouldn't do it to myself any more.  Its not just me I have to think about, and I really don't want to put on too much weight this pregnancy, I'm not willing to go back to my 100+ kg self. 

So today, I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Not perfect and I didn't enjoy it, was an uncle toby's plus one with cranberries or something - so damn sweet!! I still can't stomach most things, but I am thinking of doing a grain free cereal and having mostly fruit, some tablespoons of yoghurt and some tablespoons of that on top.  And maybe that will be ok for me and not make me feel like throwing it up.  So I'll have to make that grain free cereal I was having while I was paleo.  Or I found some muesli at Aldi today, so I might try that first....

Morning tea - I had some of the sweet & salty nuts that I made from this recipe.  And some bites of healthy oatmeal cookies that I made from this recipe (with some changes).  I didn't have all wholemeal flour so I used about a third of a cup and the rest spelt flour.  I changed the oil to coconut oil.  Didn't have any molasses so I used maple syrup instead.  They turned out ok I think!  Plus I cut up a bit of orange, apple and banana and had that in a bowl that both Speedy and Bubbles shared with me (shared meaning they bugged the shit out of me until I gave them some too even though they had previously already had theirs...)

Lunch - I was going to have chicken soup that had been chilling in the fridge, but I looked at it and went noooooo so I put it in the freezer instead, and had a tuna, cheese and spinach toasted sandwich.

Afternoon tea -  I went to have some more nuts, and wouldn't you know it - the bastard ants that live here had gotten into my container and ruined them all!!!  I could have cried.  Damn it!  No more nuts today.  So I had some of my biscuits that I made.  They were pretty damn tasty!!!  And then I made some homemade chocolate.

Dinner - Spaghetti bolognaise (or however you spell it!).  I make mine pretty simple, grass fed lean beef mince, onion, grated carrot, sweet potato and pumpkin, tomato passata, some tomatoes cut up and mixed herbs.  We have ours on zucchini noodles instead of pasta.  Also made it in the thermomix which was new for me, I don't do a lot of "cooking" in there, just use it for smoothies and dessert type things or to make paleo type things, so it was good to use it for something else. And I had a handful of grapes while burning TWO more lots of nuts.

Dessert - ice cream.  So not that healthy but I can't just chuck it out, its gotta be eaten ya know.  Elf Man served it up and he's a bit stingy with his servings so it was only a small bowl.

Supper - cup of tea, some more biscuits that I made, and some chocolate.

All in all it was a good eating day - even though when I went to get petrol this morning I did have a brief thought of buying a small bar of chocolate, I didn't go through with it.  Small win for me!

Maybe just healthy is enough?

So I've been thinking about the clean eating philosophy, and really, there are so many different versions to it, it gets a bit confusing.

So I thought I would approach my eating from a "good for pregnancy" angle and did some googling about what I should be eating to fuel both myself and the growing bub.

So this is what I came up with.

Eat:

Unrefined carbs - 6-9 servings a day (!!!!)
Protein - 2-3 servings a day
Dairy - 2-3 servings a day

And of course -
Fats - unsaturated of course!  Not too much, but an essential part of your diet!
Omega 3 - from things like salmon, sardines, flaxseed and walnuts.

Limit - refined carbs, saturated fat and no more than 2-4 servings of fruit per day.

So today, with all that in mind - I had this today:

Breakfast:  Oats with linseeds, sunflower seeds, shredded coconut, blueberries, banana and honey.  And a splash of milk.

Morning tea:  2 ryvitas, with a small amount of avocado on them, and a sliced up boiled egg.

Lunch:  Ham, cheese and tomato toasted sandwich on bakery baked wholemeal bread.  Then an apple.

Afternoon tea:  2 choc-orange balls (made from almonds, dates, cacao, freshly squeezed orange juice, orange peel and coconut).

Dinner:  Salmon & vegies - potato, sweet potato, carrots, pumpkin and broccoli.  And a handful of cashews to nibble on after dinner.

Dessert:  Leftover ice cream that we had from the shops the other night.  Not a healthy option I know, but hey, I wasn't exactly going to throw it out, plus its my dairy for the day haha!  Also had some of my vanilla homemade ice cream I made last night in the thermomix.

Supper:  Cheese on crackers.

So that made 4 servings of carbs, 3 servings of protein (well probably more like 2 and a half because the ham wasn't a very big serving at lunch) and 3 serves of dairy.  Plus I also got some omega 3 in there from the salmon and linseeds.  I was looking to make something with walnuts to get some in that way too.

I think I will struggle getting 6 serves of unrefined carbs a day if you base it on things like bread, pasta, rice - however if you take into consideration the vegies as a serve of carbs its probably ok?  I'm not sure if vegies count though, I mean, I'm sure they count cos carbs are carbs, however how much would I have to eat to be considered a serving......?

Still not perfectly clean

Today started off ok, with Just Right in the morning and low fat milk, some rye crackers for morning tea, but it got to lunch time and I just didn't have the energy to pull a salad together, nor could I stomach the thought of it.

I didn't know what to have, so I snacked on some cheese while trying to make a decision and then I decided that what the girls were having looked pretty good - toasted cheese sandwich.  So I had one, and then an apple.

And then in the afternoon I was really tired and no amount of coffee was waking me up so I had some biscuits (Nice and a Scotch Finger type) and then I just felt like crap - I'm supposed to be eating good food, not crappy food!!  Arghhhh.  I also had some rice crackers.  6 to be exact.

Dinner was roast chicken and roast vegies, I did the vegies separate because I didn't want them to be roasting in the chicken fat - the thought of that made me feel a little sick.

Supper - some milo and milk (yes not clean, but I so wanted something junky and this was my compromise) and some biscuits as well.

Can't wait for this tiredness to pass, I'm really getting jack of it.  Plus I'm pissed off because my milk has basically dried up, my belly is huge and fat and I'm just really cranky at everything and everyone.  I'm pissed off at the kids easily too, which is awful for them I know, but their whinging is just something I have no patience to deal with at the moment. Especially if they are whinging about something that they won't let me help them with (like removing a shirt). Seriously, if it annoys you that much that you can't do it - let me help!  Arghhhh.

So that's the update for today.....

Because all good intentions start...eventually

Ok, so I've had a few days eating really really badly - recovering from the stress and anxiety of telling my family that I was pregnant - again.  Plus I was determined to have a no yelling day with the kids today (we also told them that they were getting a new baby brother or sister) so we treated them to a muffin at a cafe - just for something different so we also had one.  Then of course I had to have popcorn to go with our movie, which led to smarties, and salt n vinegar chips.....

Anyhoo - hopefully I'll get back on top of this healthy eating stuff.  My main problem is that I don't feel like anything I had been eating on Paleo.  That's the most annoying thing at the moment, all the stuff I was loving before, makes me feel sick at the thought of eating it.  And seriously, I prepare Elf Man his breakfast of grain free cereal and yoghurt and it takes all my self control not to vomit all over it.

I've tried different cereals, I got one today but its still really sweet so I wasn't that impressed.  I had cheerios yesterday and that seemed to be ok. I don't even feel like I could have my regular green smoothie which is just farking annoying because I so loved that!!!

I made homemade chicken soup yesterday and a fresh loaf of spelt bread.  So that was my lunch today and I can still stomach that ok it seems.  Tomorrow I might try to have sardines on toast or something.

We had homemade pizza for dinner, made with bakers flour.  Ours had a tiny sprinkling of cheese on top of the tomato sauce, and then topped with onion, sweet potato, red capsicum and egg instead of more cheese.

Then Elf Man made strawberry ice cream - with low fat milk (frozen obviously) and strawberries.


Picture time:
Ok so I'm 9 weeks (as of yesterday), and my baby bloat is hideous! I already look so pregnant!  Plus with all my recent carb eating, I'm pretty bloated and have gained weight just from that.  Goes to show when you go without carbs for a fair amount of time and then have them, your body just HANGS on to each and every last one and turns it into fat.  So now I'm fat.  Again.

I thought it would be amusing to take pics of my tummy getting bigger each week, instead of my weight loss blog showing it going down. Hopefully my arse doesn't get too much bigger, its big enough already.