I don't really want to talk about it...

Pancake Batter

New member
...But this isn't working. My weight loss has been stalled for six months. Six months!

I'm heavier then I want to be, but then I always have been. Now, I'm at 65kg/143 pounds. I'm 21, female, 167cm/5.4, and, as you've guessed from the measurements, I am not American. I want to loose five or ten kilos -- I'm honestly not sure. I haven't been this weight in almost a decade, so it's kinda hard to tell...

I lost the first chunk of weight on Atkins when I was sixteen or so. Honestly, it was one of the worst times in my life. I did it against my will (being sixteen and stuck at home and all), and while for the first few weeks it was great, all these exciting foods that I'd have never had so regularly in my life (you mean there's meat for dinner!?), but it went downhill very quickly. Bacon and chicken was deemed "too dear", and all that was left in the fridge was cabbage, eggs, and cheese. Yummy coleslaw with lots of cheese and mayonnaise segued into 'pile of shredded cabbage' and what do you mean you want something else for dinner? There's plenty of cabbage. Nom nom nom. I was as cranky as hell, and cheated at every possible moment. I ate donuts and pies at school, and drank (on top of morning and afternoon espresso), at least a litre of diet cola a day. Despite this, I lost something like twenty kilos, and swore to never, ever do Atkins again.

Next go, late last year, on the GI plan I lost ten kilos, and it was fairly painless... until it stopped working. I just did the ten days again... nada. In desperation, I'm going to go low carb again, to shift this fat, to look good, better then I have in my life.

My ultimate goal is next April or thereabouts: graduation. Ideally though, I would like to be thin by Christmas, and wear a bikini all summer (it's winter here now and it's raaaaaaining).

New plan starts now! I'm going to go make an omelette and hide my oats and cereal! Wish me luck!
 
Yay somebody else to do low-carb with me :) Although whatever diet you choose, it doesn't have to be painful, trust me. There's tons of great recipes online these days. Sounds like you're doing great already except for hitting a plateau...which happens to ALL of us. And if you start the low carb and still hate it that much then I wouldn't do it...I've seen alot of posts for ways to jump start your diet here. Check the stickies and talk to people here, they're a fountain of knowledge honestly and I'll bet you'll be back on your way to your goal in no time. Welcome to the forum
 
Oh good job. I've been posting low carb recipes and sites I've found them at in my myspace blog. Let me know if you're interested and I can repost. I found some great sites with recipes for everything under the sun. Had friends over the other day and they thought we were bein all fancy...they didn't realize we were still on a diet, lol. Anyway you can also find them just by googling low carb recipes...you'll be amazed. Oh and if you're looking for some great salad dressing besides ranch every day, Walden farms dressings are REALLY good...we're hooked on them.
 
Yeah, thanks Jello, I love recipes.... which may be part of my problem, I don't know! Fancy type stuff is good, but I'm on a budget (well, budget as in "all the money in my bank account each week", but still that's a limited amount!), and I cook for my man who loves potatoes more then he does me :)

And I'm looking for vegetarian recipes (not salad please!), if you know any...

I have been having trouble squaring these new eating habits with (bear with me here) my ethical outlook. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty much the anti-vegetarian, and I wouldn't give up meat for the world. Having said that, I believe that meat has a higher price then we pay at the till, and it's bad if not for the waistline, then for our waterways, and the environment in general. It's said that it takes a pound of grain to grow a pound of beef: anyone can see that the math doesn't work out. It's not that we shouldn't eat meat, it's just that I think meat should be treated with respect, and should be eaten occasionally rather then for every meal, and should be made to be as delicious as possible, so that it is enjoyed as much as it is possible to enjoy it.

But you wouldn't believe the number of sausages I've eaten in the last two days. So far my eating plan has been omelette for breakfast, fish and salad for lunch, and a red-meat based dish for dinner, and I can't do that forever, fiscally if for no other reason. I am going to stick with this diet until I see positive results on the scale though, however long that might be. The scale said I gained half a kilo this morning, but I think that's likely to be water retention from all the extra salt I've been eating, and because I hadn't pooped in like three days. There's been some uh, movement in that area since, so hopefully the scale'll tell me some happier news tomorrow morning!
 
I don't know exactly how you're doing your low-carb so I may toss out some recipes that won't work for you. But here's a recipe for a low carb batter that we use quite a bit and really love on zuchini. Trick is to not coat them too heavy and then I just fry them in a pan of olive oil....or vegetable oil cuz I'm broke too, lol. We use this for onion rings too and I found this is a great alternative when I'm wanting something to go with burgers instead of fries.



Batter For Frying

Ingredients:

* 2 extra large eggs at room temp, separated
* 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
* 2 Tablespoons soy flour
* 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1/8 teaspoon ground celery seed
* 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
* 2 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Beat egg whites until foamy; add cream of tartar and continue beating until stiff but not dry. Set aside. In a separate bowl beat egg yolks, then gently fold yolks into beaten egg whites, being careful not to break down whites. In small bowl combine soy flour with salt, baking powder, and spices and sift to mix well. Carefully add to egg mixture and completely incorporate. Fold in parmesan cheese.

Use this as a batter for either deep or shallow frying. Try deep frying vegetables such as zuchinni, eggplant, or cauliflower. If desired, ingredients can be coated with additional parmesan cheese before coating with batter for frying.

Makes 1/2 cup of batter. 6 grams net carbs in entire recipe.
 
Oh and while I’m thinking about it I'm private messaging you some links to some recipe sites I found. I'd just post here but I'm not sure if there's advertising on them and not sure the rules so just being careful. There’s tons of recipes and I’ve already tried some at each site. If you can tell I've been doing alot of googling the last few months, lol. Oh and I've tried a bunch of bread recipes but I'm starting to think that I'm having a food allergy to regular bread and some of the low carb breads...not sure what yet but I've heard a huge rave about Oopsie rolls and somebody linked the recipe in my journal for me. I haven't tried them yet but you can do a ton with them. The women who came up with them is on another forum and goes by "Cleochatra" and I ran across her blog somewhere the other day with TONS of variations on these things. They've even made pizza and cream puffs...paninis...all kinds of stuff. I'll need to see if I like them before I go all out though, lol. I'll let you know after I make some if you don't beat me to it. Anyway there's SO many recipes to try out that I haven't had enough time to even make a dent but maybe each of us can share stuff we try.
 
YUM! Thanks Jello! That batter looks lovely -- I bet it'd be great on fish too. Could I possibly cheat and use real flower do you think? No, you're right, what am I thinking? I'll go shopping :)

I tried making cauliflower mash last night to top my Sheppard's pie (I can't tell you how housewifey I felt to make Sheppard's pie with Real Leftover Roast), and blah it kind of didn't work. I steamed the cauli, got it nice and squishy, but I had neglected to remove the stalky bits, and since we only have a hand masher, I ended up with... slightly smaller cauliflower. It was still nice but it was hardly the mash of my dreams!

I had a bad dream last night that I ate two baked potatoes. I'm scared of potatoes? Jeeze...

Today isn't going that well. The scale says I'm back down to 65 even though I'm still (how shall I phrase this delicately?) full of crap.

I hit the candy kinda hard -- but not too hard -- this afternoon. I feel kinda sick now, which serves me right. I was craving sweets all last night, so maybe it was sort of inevitable that I'd slip up, but I didn't eat all the candy (as much as I wanted to!), so it could have been a lot worse. Trick is, I think, to not eat anymore today, or for the rest of the week.
 
Pancake,

I love your theory on meat. I have honestly never thought of it in that respect. I don't know that I could follow it completely since chicken is an almost daily meal here. Beef, however, could be considered a treat. Thanks for the new perspective!

If your candy craving is with chocolate...I eat a cup of lowfat vanilla yogurt with 2 tbl spoons of semi sweet chocolate chips every morning. It helps to keep me sane!
 
Just thought I'd drop in and offer some encouragement. I think it's wonderful that you're limiting meat. It is an environmental blight, and a terrible waste of energy and resources as well (I eat it anyway, but feel bad about it). I also thought you might like the link to my saved veggie recipes, many of which are main dish:

Sophie
 
YUM! Thanks Jello! That batter looks lovely -- I bet it'd be great on fish too. Could I possibly cheat and use real flower do you think? No, you're right, what am I thinking? I'll go shopping :)

I tried making cauliflower mash last night to top my Sheppard's pie (I can't tell you how housewifey I felt to make Sheppard's pie with Real Leftover Roast), and blah it kind of didn't work. I steamed the cauli, got it nice and squishy, but I had neglected to remove the stalky bits, and since we only have a hand masher, I ended up with... slightly smaller cauliflower. It was still nice but it was hardly the mash of my dreams!

I had a bad dream last night that I ate two baked potatoes. I'm scared of potatoes? Jeeze...

Today isn't going that well. The scale says I'm back down to 65 even though I'm still (how shall I phrase this delicately?) full of crap.

I hit the candy kinda hard -- but not too hard -- this afternoon. I feel kinda sick now, which serves me right. I was craving sweets all last night, so maybe it was sort of inevitable that I'd slip up, but I didn't eat all the candy (as much as I wanted to!), so it could have been a lot worse. Trick is, I think, to not eat anymore today, or for the rest of the week.

I bet you could use something besides soy flour if you wanted but I didn't mind keeping it on hand once I saw so many low carb recipes use it. Just from trying to find a good recipe my kitchen is stocked up now on protein powder, almond flour, oat flour, vital wheat gluten, wheat bran, and a bunch more. I was glad to find out we can still bake :) I'm really lucky though because there's a really nice health food grocery store around the corner from my work.

Here's another recipe for you that you might like :) It's for chocolate cake! I got it from the Livin La Vida Low Carb site. Only problem is that Jimmy Moore likes dark chocolate and I don't so I compensated for that by adding splenda to the chocolate too while it was melting and also adding 1/4 cup cream, which I saw suggested in by other readers commenting. Then I just add some splenda (or whatever sweetener) to some heavy whipcream, whip it up and put it on top.

CHOCOLATE MOLTEN CAKE

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon Atkins Bake Mix, CarbQuik, or your favorite low carb bake mix
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
8 packets sugar substitute (preferably Splenda)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375º F. Generously grease four 6 ounce custard cups with shortening and dust with bake mix. Place cups on a baking sheet.

2. Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler. Remove from heat; cool. Stir in bake mix. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. With an electric mixer on high, beat eggs, egg yolks, sugar substitute and vanilla until almost firm peaks form, about 4 minutes.

4. In three additions, fold egg mixture into chocolate mixture. Divide batter in cups.

5. Bake 8-9 minutes until toothpick inserted near edge comes out clean and inserted in center comes out with batter. Cool 3 minutes. Run knife around edge, turn upside down to release onto serving plates. Serve immediately

Carbohydrates: 7 grams Net Carbs: 5 grams Fiber: 2 grams Protein: 6 grams Fat: 30 grams calories: 313


Oh here this one is good too but the cookies are iddy biddy, lol. But I figured the good thing about a small batch of tiny cookies is we didn't pig out. My hubby and I split them for desert and still didn't over do on carbs.


LOW CARB NO-BAKE COOKIES
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons cocoa
1 teaspoon liquid Splenda
1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
2 tablespoons oats
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut (or use 1/2 cup and omit almond flour)
1/4 cup almond flour, 1 ounce
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Bring butter, Splenda, cream and cocoa to a boil in a very small pot; boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in peanut butter until well blended, then stir in remaining ingredients. Drop onto wax paper (mixture will be crumbly so you may need to shape them with your fingers); chill or freeze until firm.

Makes 12 bite-sized cookies
Can be frozen

Per Serving: 58 Calories; 5g Fat; 1g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 1g Net Carbs



Good job on not going too far out on the candy. Of course also good that it wasn't the sugar free stuff. I got some chocolate sugar free candy at a local grocery store a few years back the first time I tried Atkins, and I ate about 5 pieces. The gas pain was unbelievable only topped by ending up stuck in the bathroom for hours :X. So see...could have been so much worse, lol

Thanks again for your encouragement today in my journal :)
 
Wow, look at all the comments! I'm so loved :)

WittBound, if you haven't already, check out Michael Pollen's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Whoa, that book changed my life, it really did. He's written some others as well and it really does change the way you think about food.

Sophie, yum, more recipes! I can tell I'm going to spend another afternoon reading them all...

Thanks for all the chocolate ideas Jello! But I have to admit I'm terrified that should I get out my cake pan and muffin tins I won't be able to stop!

And it's jelly beans that are my Achilles heel. I've had a caramello bar stashed away in the cupboard for ages not getting eaten or baked into yummy treats (if anyone's planning to go off the wagon in a big way, let me share my recipe for mocha-caramel muffins; it's currently gathering dust!), but out a bowl of jelly beans in front of me...

Anyway, oh yeah, the diet. It's well back on track now. I had leftover cauliflower cheese for breakfast (nom nom nom!), celery for a snack, and in a little bit I'm going to have a salad with some tuna for lunch. There was a show on the telly about fish last night: it reckoned that I oughtn't eat so much tuna and stick with salmon (even though it's not as delicious when it's canned). But then (here's the kicker!), it told me to "buy fresh and local", not just for treehugging environmental reasons, but because in North America you folks feed fish PCPs or PCDs or something freaky -- I don't know, fish can't hold my attention for that long and I was channel surfing -- but I don't think local salmon is tinned, and my lord smoked is nice but it's also $17 a little packet. Can I give up fish? I could replace it with boiled eggs I guess... It'll take me well over a week to eat all the fish I already have stocked up, so we will see!

I still haven't said the "A" word to my man -- he thinks low carb diets are the stupidest thing in the whole wide world (I can see why he thinks that, but I don't have to agree!), but he has noticed that we've eaten an incredible amount of meat (for us!) in the last few days. We're having people around for tea tonight, and I was all keen to go to the fancy butcher and pick up some kangaroo sirloin or crocodile flanks which I've (naturally) been wanting to play with (sorry, cook) for ages. But I was vetoed, and we're having quiche instead. I think my boy misses his mac and cheese and quiche, and I think this is the longest we've gone since we've been living together without lasagna, so quiche it is, and for once I can eat around the pastry.

That's my novella for the afternoon. Ta ra!
 
Wow, look at all the comments! I'm so loved :)

Who doesn't love pancake batter? :D But seriously I think you're great.

There was a show on the telly about fish last night: it reckoned that I oughtn't eat so much tuna and stick with salmon (even though it's not as delicious when it's canned). But then (here's the kicker!), it told me to "buy fresh and local", not just for treehugging environmental reasons, but because in North America you folks feed fish PCPs or PCDs or something freaky -- I don't know, fish can't hold my attention for that long and I was channel surfing --

I just had this image of crowds of people ignoring the "don't feed the fish" signs at a fishing dock somewhere and throwing freaky things in the water at the fish, lol. Can you tell I'm silly tired right now?

Anyway sorry I have no low carb jelly bean recipes...I googled and all I found was the jellybean drink. I think thats probably because they're a bit complicated to make. Jelly belly has some but they're full of sugar alcohols.

I think rootbeer, licorice and popcorn Jelly belly beans are my most fav.
 
I know! I can't get over how awesome I am... But seriously...

Still no weight loss. Sigh... I guess the problem might be that I'm not sticking to my diet. That éclair and the third glass of wine the other day might have done it, and even when we don't have guests I start every meal with garlic, onions, and tomatoes. And, I discovered this morning, these aren't low carb! I had no idea, they've been the corner stone of my diet for so long, I can't contemplate cooking without them...

My man isn't happy with the diet... He's still seething mad that I picked the topping off my pizza -- one time! He thinks I should have had more éclairs, and he wishes I was at the weight when I met him. Which is all very well and good, and it shows just how wonderful he is, but... he accused me of cheating on him with a diet, and when I told him how scared I am of diabetes and cancer, how much better I've felt since loosing that bit of weight, and pointed out that he was the one that wanted to put me in a big white dress and parade me in front of everyone we know and love, and he retorted, let's not get married then. He's changed his mind since of course (otherwise I'd be baking up a storm right now and shopping for muumuus instead of chatting to you), but good lord, the man does not want me to get thin.

I'm not even sure what we were fighting over: this diet is not working, and it won't until I start sticking to it! I know I'm maintaining a healthy weight for the first time in my life, blah blah blah, but I'm not where I want to be, and that's kinda what matters.

Sorry for the rant guys but aren't posts like these more interesting then the ones that are just food diaries? It's only like 9am here, and my day's only going to get better from here, I know it! :)
 
zomg eclairs....sOOOO good. And yea I love rants :D

My husband and I have been together almost 7 years now...married....omg...I don't know offhand and gotta count :X Ok a year and a half...I had to ask HIM, lol. But anyways he was never upfront unsupportive but just him eating all the crap in front of me and not being active was hard. He's FINALLY on board now and wow...I'm so lucky.

Now my dad on the other hand was just like that to my mom, how you're fiancee is. He did not want my mom to lose weight and told her so. I think he was scared she'd leave him or something. You know she woke up one night and he was trying to feed her ice cream in her sleep? Guess he figured she'd be half awake and just go with it but having something that cold on her mouth woke her up fast, she was so pissed.

As far as the garlic, onion and tomotos go, I didn't realize the carb content until the other day either but spread out in alot of things it's not really that bad. I'm certainly not goin without them :X First time I did low-carb I couldn't stick with it either and I was super strict. I'm doing it alot different this time, maybe not perfect, but I'm keeping my carbs down and feeling better and going for the slow and steady wins the race approach. Well just ignore my blowing off my diet last night at Texas Roadhouse :X I ate a whole breadbasket! We've been on this since May now and I added strawberries in today. Not sure I should have but we'll see how that works out, lol.
 
p.s. I keep reading about "oopsie" rolls ...this gal that goes by cleochatra came up with them and people use them for everything including making low carb eclairs :) I have no idea how they taste though...probably eggy but I bet fine for bake goods. They've used them for everything from pizza to panini's though so I really hope I like them ok when I get a chance to make them. If you google "oopsie roll recipe" it should come up in her blog. If you make 'em before me let me know if they're good or not. If they are that'd be awesome cuz they are super low carb
 
WTF are oopsie rolls? I don't live in your crazy country with your wide array of baked goods! I have made choux pastry before though, and it's piss easy. I bet with soy flour you could make a very passable éclair... But strawberries! I wish it was strawberry time here. I am surrounded by apples and I can't eat them!

I think me and my boy'll be okay --but strangest thing, this morning he threatened to feed me sugar in my sleep, so maybe he's been talking to your dad... Today's our anniversary, and I'm about to run off and join him on a romantic minibreak. I think we both just need a holiday. He's going to try and feed me pizza and make me eat the crust, and I'm just going to concentrate on getting all the exercise I can (;
 
So, yay, I had a lovely little break, and now everything is wonderful.

My boy's come round: he now thinks anything I want to do with my body is my business, so long as I don't get to skinny (with these hips? How?).

I lost half a kilo (hooray!). I think it might even be a real loss as well, instead of just the loss from squinting real hard... I think this low carb thing is really starting to work for me. I'm less hungry, which is fantastic.

Yay! Everything is wonderful :)
 
Congrats on the half kilo! I'm glad the weight loss changes are going well for you! Keep it up!

V
 
WTF are oopsie rolls? I don't live in your crazy country with your wide array of baked goods! I have made choux pastry before though, and it's piss easy. I bet with soy flour you could make a very passable éclair... But strawberries! I wish it was strawberry time here. I am surrounded by apples and I can't eat them!

I think me and my boy'll be okay --but strangest thing, this morning he threatened to feed me sugar in my sleep, so maybe he's been talking to your dad... Today's our anniversary, and I'm about to run off and join him on a romantic minibreak. I think we both just need a holiday. He's going to try and feed me pizza and make me eat the crust, and I'm just going to concentrate on getting all the exercise I can (;

lol, you're so funny. I bet most people in the states would say "wtf is an oopsie roll" too. You can't buy it anywhere...this gal just came up with the recipe and it just has eggs, cream cheese and cream of tarter. I'll wait to sing its praises until I've tried it though.

And yea...I forgot to tell you the ending to the story of my dad and the ice cream. She told him if he continued trying to sneak food in her mouth while she was asleep she would sneak ex-lax into his ice cream. I can't imagine why they are no longer together :X
 
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