Carnivore Challenge Coming to a Close

Tomorrow is the last day of The Magic Bus carnivore challenge. This may be premature, but since I'm planning on total carnivory today and tomorrow, I thought I'd post my stats:

Start date: Feb 3
# of days in challenge: 26
Days carnivorous: 16, 61.5%
Days non-carnivorous: 10, 38.5%

So what were my non-carnivorous days? Well, a couple involved veggies - some celery along with Portuguese chicken wings (medium=HOT at this place, and celery with blue cheese dip is a necessity, IMO) and baby carrots while eating dinner with my sis, BIL, niece and nephew. Otherwise it was generally because I had a sugar-free pop - diet root beer mixed with heavy cream - or used cocoa powder in a cream cheese dessert. One day, I had blueberries in yogurt.

Which brings me to an interesting observation, at least for me: "junk" food has largely lost its appeal as a treat. I've always had a weakness for Cheetos and regular Ruffles - I love salty/crunchy, and now and then I like to bunker down with a movie or TV series and pig out on crap. I tried this twice during the challenge, and was surprised to discover that - gasp - I didn't enjoy it, which, to me, is the equivalent of the pope realizing he no longer cares much for god, and could happily go without.

Same with the "diet" drinks. I'd developed a bit of a habit, having one or two Coke Zeroes or SF Root Beers a day. As the month wore on, I found myself wanting water and teas. Sparkling water (my favorite is Gerolsteiner, a mineral water from Germany) replaced soda as my taste for a little something sweet faded into the background. I found I could take coffee, enhanced with a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg or a splash of vanilla extract, either unsweetened or with a little bit of stevia.

My meat meals were mainly rare steak with butter. I also had duck, chicken wings, pork ribs, roasted pork, sausage (no filler, just meat and spices), eggs and nitrate-free bacon. Almost all of my meat came from my organic butcher or local farms. Side dishes and/or dessert was either some form of cheese or a caffe creme - coffee with steamed heavy cream. All dairy products used were organic and locally produced. I'm very lucky to be able to get these in my grocery store.

I did not crave vegetables or fruit, save the one day when I really fancied some baby carrots. To me, this makes sense - in Ontario, we can get certain greenhouse-grown veggies year-round, but for the most part winter means root veggies. I love squash and beets and such, but I had no desire to use them and generally find myself wanting veggies and fruit in the late Spring-Summer.

Beef became my meat of choice, and then cooked rare or blue. Well-done meat was blecchh. I did up some beef ribs, and without sauce they tasted, to me, like death. I really don't like well-done beef. The idea of a pot roast really turned me off, and I was living on pot roast earlier this winter. Other meats were nice, for one meal - I had no desire to eat my leftover duck or pork. The idea actually turned me off. Rare steak, on the other hand, never lost it's appeal, nor did eggs.

Now - dairy. This was a challenge for me in other ways. I had added dairy back to my diet, but in relatively small portions. Some cheddar in an omlette here, some cream in a coffee there. This month, I ate more cheese and cream than I have in ages. What did I notice? Well, I had no reactions like I did at the start of my gluten-free endeavour - no sinus trouble or wheezing, no horrid gas. I did have a few pimples emerge. I've found that heavy cream and butter seem to be fine, but too much cheese can lead to gut pains. Minor ones, but they're there all the same. At the outset I was snacking pretty heavily on cheese and experienced some bloating. Cream, I can definitely overdo as well - again, too much and I bloat. It's different than my gluten-bloat, mushier rather than drum-tight. I wonder if it's something to do with the salt in cheese making me retain water, because my hands would get a bit puffy as well (and cheese started to taste pretty salty - I could never really detect the salt before). Regardless, I'm keeping dairy to a minimum from now on - small bits here and there, and coconut milk/cream in my hot drinks.

My appetite took a serious dive - no surprise to anyone familiar with low-carbing, as this tends to happen when insulin levels are low and blood sugar is steady. This came about even more so when I quit eating much cheese. Cheese, for me, tends to make me feel less sated. Meat and fat? I'm good. I've been eating in an intermittent fasting-style for well over a year now (eating one or two meals a day within an "eating window", and going anywhere from 15-22 hours between meals), and found that I could push my eating window later and later. I just wasn't hungry. The last few days I've started dinner not because I was starved, but because it was 6 or 7pm and I'd not eaten anything! And lest anyone think I am turning in to some calorie-counting anorexic, fear not - I make those meals count, baby. Yesterday's meal, for example, was around 1,900 calories (and met or got close to the RDA for most nutrients, not that I put much stock in the RDA - but that's a whole other post!) It's quite easy, eating a high-fat, moderate protein diet (which is what low-carb diets are, ideally) to get enough energy.
In fact, that's one thing I've had tons of - energy! I spring out of bed with no trouble, and have stopped using my alarm clock. I wake up between 7-8am (that doesn't mean I get out of bed, of course!) feeling totally refreshed after going to sleep between 11pm and 1am. Some nights I forced myself to go to bed, because I was still alert and spunky. I try to get a good amount of sleep though, especially after reading Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival. Even on nights that I wasn't tired, I was able to fall asleep easily once I got into bed and relaxed. I think meditation helps with that, though I wasn't practicing it much this month.

And the best thing about all this? I am down another pound as of this morning to my lowest adult weight EVER - 113lbs. I'd landed at 114lbs for a bit, then jumped up to between 116-118lbs after holidays (water weight, mainly). I shed all that, plus a pound of bodyfat. Yup, I'm awesome. Anyone who's ever lost weight will tell you that the last 10lbs or so come off really, really slowly and, in some cases, can be a struggle to lose. According to all the weight-loss calculators floating around out there, I should be eating anywhere between 1,100 and 1,500 calories to lose weight (and I have gained weight on 1,500 calories, eating vegetarian/low-fat/lots of starch - while working out regularly). While I think that calories do count, to a point, seems for many of us it's the type of calories that count more than the amount. (Note: I haven't worked out in two months - that pound wasn't "burned" off through exercise.)

So although the challenge is almost over, I intend to keep up with most of it. I'd let quite a few "filler" foods into my life, and I see now that I really don't need them other than as a once-in-a-while treat. I am going to explore more ways of preparing meats, including organs - I have a beef liver and heart to pick up from the market today, as well as some oxtail and beef cheeks. I also may eat more fresh fish - my BIL picked up some live trout at the supermarket, and what a HUGE difference in taste/texture than frozen fillets! And yes, I'll still eat veggies and fruit - but I really see them in a different light now, especially since I've been reading up about them. Expect more posts on this topic.

But next - another Magic Bus challenge! In March, I am combining two challenges: the Kitchen Clean challenge, and the 90% Fat challenge. I will post the rules on the 1st.

Note: the picture was taken by a former colleague of mine during her trip to Kenya. Now there's something you didn't see in The Lion King! Amazing, eh?

Dana Carpender Says It Best

Dana Carpender is one of the low carb world's favorite cookbook authors (along with the wonderful, and Canadian, Karen Barnaby). She recently wrote a piece for the Tuscaloosa News, "Animal products are 'whole foods' too" that, try as I might, I cannot do better than. So I'm going to be a huge cheater and post it here, along with a few of my own comments [in italics]. Thank you, Dana.

Published Wednesday, January 9, 2008
DANA CARPENDER: Animal products are ‘whole foods,' too
COOK WELL, EAT WELL

The nutritional buzz phrase is 'whole foods.' This is encouraging. I've been watching the nutrition scene long enough to remember when people who insisted that whole-grain bread was more nutritious than enriched bread were scorned as 'food faddists.' [When I was a kid, brown bread was considered one of the most disgusting things on the face of the earth, right up there with spinach and boogers. As I became more health-conscious in my late teens/early twenties, I packed in enough whole-grain starches to feed all the cows in Texas - and felt very smug about my wholesome, evolved diet.]

But the admonitions to eat whole foods seem to apply only to grains, fruits and vegetables. Officialdom still recommends discarding large fractions of animal foods. Yet few see these fractionated animal foods as the refined, depleted foods they are.

Take dairy. Virtually all recommendations for dairy products include the qualifiers 'low-fat' or 'fat-free.' But that's not the way it comes out of the cow. Yes, whole milk has more calories than skim. It also has far more vitamin A, because it's carried in the butterfat. (Some skim milk is fortified with vitamin A —- the equivalent of adding a few vitamins back to nutritionally depleted white flour.) Because fat aids in calcium absorption, you'll get more calcium from whole milk. Whole milk from grass-fed cows supplies CLA, a fat that increases fat-burning and reduces heart disease and cancer risk, and omega-3 fats, which reduce inflammation, and heart disease and cancer risk. It is worth paying premium prices for such milk. [Low-fat yogurt? Let me count the ways...I ate gallons of the stuff, and reduced-fat cheese, sour cream and ice cream. Gak.]

And eggs. Oh, poor eggs. There they are, just about the most perfect food in the world, and what do people do? They throw away the yolks. The part with almost all the vitamins, including A, E, K and the hard-to-come-by D, not to mention brain-enhancing choline and DHA. Eggs from pastured chickens also have yolks rich in omega-3. Better to throw away the whites, not that I'd recommend that, either. Just eat whole eggs, will you? [I remember once, at a truck stop, haughtily requesting that my veggie omlette be made with whites only. The waitress looked at me as if I'd asked for poop-kabobs. I'm lucky I didn't get my ass kicked.]

Then there's chicken. When did 'chicken' become synonymous with 'boneless, skinless chicken breast?' Chicken breast is a good food, but the whole chicken is better. Dark and white meats both have nutritional strengths. They are not identical in vitamin and mineral content. Chicken skin is a good source of vitamin A, again because it's fatty. I wrote recently about liver's nutritional bonanza, and hearts are nutrient-rich as well, making giblet gravy a great idea. Simmering the leftover chicken bones yields flavorsome broth rich in highly absorbable calcium and joint-building gelatin. (I save my steak bones, too, for beef broth.) [In the damp, dark days of winter, I have a broth going almost constantly. I get beef bones from my local pet food store - full of marrow and guaranteeing a stock that looks like meat jello. You can freeze your leftover meat bones in zipper bags or, just because it's so much fun, in a vacuum bag. Do the same with veggie scraps, if you use them for flavour.]

Our ancestors, ever mindful of where their next meal was coming from, relished every edible part of every animal they killed. Indeed, paleoanthropologists assert that hunter-gatherers ate the rich, fatty organ meats first, preferring them to muscle meats, and smashed bones to eat the marrow. As recently as a century ago, marrow was such a popular food that special spoons were made for scooping it out of bones. I love the stuff. I've been sucking the marrow out of lamb-chop bones since I was a tyke. [Me too! It's my favorite part of the lamb. I remember as a kid, we had lamb once a week with homemade mint sauce. My dad and I would end the meal by plucking a bone, sticking one end in our mouths, and noisily sucking it empty.] A 1997 article in the journal Nature asserts that human brain capacity decreased at the dawn of agriculture 10,000 years ago, very likely because of a reduction in animal-fat consumption. Whole animal foods are part of our nutritional heritage. [Grains also have neurological effects - see The Gluten File. Also see Dean Ornish. You'll never eat a grain again.]

My low-carbohydrate eating habits are often referred to as a 'fad.' Whatever. If it was good enough for my hunter-gatherer ancestors, it's good enough for me. Do you want to know what's really a fad? Removing the fat from milk and the yolks from eggs, and discarding three- quarters of the chicken, all organ meats and most bones. There's not a culture in the world where our narrow, refined, low-fat, flavorless versions of animal foods are part of the traditional diet. [Dana - you truly are my hero. No-one's said it better.]

More Health Tripe

Here's another great tip from the people at Miavita, courtesy of my Yahoo home page:

One bagel-shop bagel with regular cream cheese has the same amount of calories as three donuts. To save empty calories in the morning, eat only half a bagel and use low-fat cream cheese. While bagels are low in fat, most are equal to about 4 servings of bread, so the calorie count is high. If you're devoted to your morning bagel, cut some of the calories by scooping out part of the doughy
inside. Or, start your day with a slice of whole-wheat toast, and save about 175 calories.

So eat half a bagel with low-fat cream cheese. Awesome. That'll set you right up. Course, the mid-morning munchies will hit soon after and you'll be grabbing that other half anyway.

Here's how that breakfast works out, according to FitDay:

1/2 extra-large whole wheat bagel with 3tbsp low-fat cream cheese

• 222cals
• 9g fat
• 28g carb minus 4g fibre = 24g carbs
• 10g protein
• Vitamin A: 14%
• Vitamin B6: 12%
• Vitamin B12: 11%
• Vitamin E: 4%
• Calcium: 6%
• Magnesium: 16%
• Thiamin: 13%
• Zinc: 17%

How absorbable any of those are is debatable, considering there's little fat in the meal and the grains will interfere somewhat with absorption (in varying degrees, of course, depending on your digestion) due to anti-nutrients (alpha-amylase inhibitors, phytates, etc).

So what if we chose differently? Let's have eggs and bacon instead:

2 extra large eggs, scrambled; 3 slices bacon (medium thickness); assume eggs are cooked in 1/2tbsp of the leftover bacon grease

• 390cals
• 32g fat
• 2g carbs
• 22g protein
• Vitamin A: 33%
• Vitamin B6: 16%
• Vitamin B12: 62%
• Vitamin E: 11%
• Calcium: 7%
• Magnesium: 6%
• Thiamin: 21%
• Zinc: 25%

This meal, because it's high in fat and protein, will hold you a long time - no mid-morning munchies. As you can see, it's higher in all listed nutrients with the exception of magnesium; even calcium is higher. The fat content, plus the absence of anti-nutrients, means the vitamins are more absorbable. And if you're worried about calories, this meal only has 168 more of them - and they aren't "empty" calories, like the ones from the measly half-bagel.

But of course, this meal is BAD because it's super high in...fat! Thirty-two luscious grams of it, to be precise. Well guess what - I eat, on average, 109 grams of fat in a day and I've never felt - or looked - better in my life. But isn't fat bad for us? Doesn't it make us fat? Not according to WC Willett, from the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. He says in an article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition:

...within the United States, a substantial decline in the percentage of energy from fat consumed during the past two decades has corresponded with a massive increase in obesity. Diets high in fat do not appear to be the primary cause of the high prevalence of excess body fat in our society, and reductions in fat will not be a solution.

So what would you rather have for breakfast?

Chocolate Mayo Pound Cake

Every so often, it comes up in casual conversation that I can't eat wheat. I apparently have the type of face that people want to cram food into, and they offer me crackers and cakes and all sorts of nummy stuff that makes my ass explode. I generally say I'm allergic, which is easier than explaining the whole gluten intolerance thing. And it's waaaay easier than saying "No thanks, I lowcarb" and hearing how meat and fat will ultimately lead to me dropping dead from a dramatic cardiac event, and that I desperately need grains in my diet to be healthy. So I say "I can't, actually, I'm allergic to wheat", and then watch as their face contorts into an expression of horror. "Oh my GOD," they exclaim, clasping their hands to their chest. "That must SUCK! What do you EAT?"

I eat this, beeyotches:
Okay...so it aint pretty. It looks like a cake that hit the bar early, drank far too much, talked too loud, smoked a deck, got in a fight en route to the streetcar, and woke up face down in a pile of Chinatown garbage and now has a helluva hangover and wants to be left alone, goddammit.

But oooooh...it's good. Real good. Eat-it-for-breakfast good. And...eh!...it's not fattening.

The original recipe was one I picked up at my lowcarb forum. I modified it slightly for my special needs and played with flavourings a tad. As with all recipes in this tasty world of ours, please do the same:

GFCF Chocolate Mayo Pound Cake

3c almond meal/flour
1/2c coconut flour
1/2c gluten-free flour (I used Bob's Red Mill all-purpose GF baking flour)
2/3c cocoa powder
1 1/4tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
1/2c Erythritol (or other granular sweetener - I love this one)
4 large eggs
1 1/2tsp liquid sweetener (I used Splenda, but you could use honey, stevia, agave etc
1t vanilla extract
1c mayo
2/3c DaVinci German Chocolate Cake syrup - wowza. (I've also used the French Vanilla to good effect, but this is better)
2/3c unsweetened chocolate almond milk (can use coconut milk or other milk...but this was yumm)

Just bung it all together and mix, then plunk in a bundt pan and bake at 325 for about 45-50 minutes. I do not own a bundt pan. I thought I bought one, but it turned out to be one of those pans you make angel food cake in. I reckon this is why my version looks like it's homeless and on crack. So buy a proper bundt pan, I implore you, and slice it into 16 for a mere 8g net carbs each.

For the glaze on top, I melted about 3oz of dark chocolate (75% cocoa) with coconut oil, a touch of coconut milk, and the chocolate syrup stuff. The coconut oil makes it harden some in the fridge. It adds maybe 1 or 2 carbs to a slice, if that - I didn't measure it out but rather followed my whimsy. That could be why the glaze looks accidental. Tastes good though - even the BF said so, and he hates cocoa and gluten-free and any cake not from a box.

Blooper Reel

Here's how the cake came out of the oven:

I don't know if you can tell, but the centre had puffed up and broken away from the rest of the cake, almost like a rooftop patio. Naturally I ate most of it, because when that happens it doesn't count as part of the cake proper and will not interfere with any weight-loss efforts.

I glazed it, and decided it looked homely. So I attempted to pretty it up:

Worse, really. Sad.

Exercise in Futility

The Independent, London, UK

'Treadmill desks' could cut obesity rates in the office
By Jeremy Laurance
Published: 15 May 2007

As solutions to the obesity crisis go, one idea dreamed up by two US
scientists could transform our notion of the office. Instead of walking to work, the pair have designed a desk that enables the overweight to walk at work.

The walking desk - or "vertical workstation"- is fixed to a treadmill
enabling office workers to work while burning calories.

Professor James Levine and Jennifer Miller of the Mayo Clinic, in
Minnesota, who invented the device, say using it for a couple of hours a day could help obese staff shed up to 30kg a year.

They tested the contraption on 15 people with sedentary jobs who never
exercised. The participants set the speed of the treadmill themselves and
carried on working at their computer, which was fixed above on a frame with
adjustable arms. One arm carried the screen and the other the keyboard and
mouse.

On average, the participants burned more than twice as much energy
per hour at the walking desk compared with the normal stationary one. Their
energy expenditure was measured while they walked and worked for 35 minutes out of an hour and compared with the amount of energy used while working seated at
an ordinary desk. There were no falls or injuries and no unsteadiness. The
participants enjoyed using the device.

A key reason why waistlines have expanded over the past 30 years is the
increase in sedentary work. For millions, the hammer and shovel have been replaced by the keyboard and mouse as they spend their days at computer screens.

The desks cost about £1,000 each and slide over a standard treadmill.
By 2010, it is estimated that more than half the workforce of developed
countries will be working at computers. The inventors of the device suggest they could be walking at them too.

And then the treadmills could be hooked up to enormous energy storage devices that would power the whole office! And the fat they lose could be collected and used to power their cars! Like, how totally awesome!

It amazes me how difficult we as a species like to make things. People are getting fatter and fatter? Low fat didn't work? Diabetes, heart disease and other diseases of civilization are on the rise, despite diets full of whole grains? Better invent pills and machines to handle it - easier than, oh, examining our diet and making some changes based on current scientific evidence and, hey, even anthropological evidence. Better make designer frankenfoods, like shakes and bars and low-fat chips - easier than going back to whole, natural foods like meat and vegetables.

Putting desks over treadmills assumes that the office chubsters are just too damn lazy to move their fat asses without being forced. It assumes that fat people in general are overweight because they do nothing but sit around and eat all the time. And it may just be me, but the image of row upon row of office pods staffed with people running in place while staring into a computer is frightening, not to mention a rather ironic statement about our society in general. Is this who we are, chubby little gerbils wasting our days furiously getting nowhere...and not even noticing, because the Powers That Be say we're doing the "Right Thing"?

Of course, no-one's talking about the increase in appetite that comes along with increased exercise/calorie expenditure, or the fact that as a person loses weight, they generally have to increase their level of exercise to continue seeing results. Oh...and that aerobic activity, such as walking, isn't all it's cracked up to be as far as weight loss goes.

Rather than spending money on special desks, why not improve the food served in the office cafeteria? Get rid of the Taco Bell and the Mickey D's, the frozen chicken fingers and fries. Serve actual food, stuff that isn't all grain-based or smothered in breading. Why even put money into sub-par cookies and cakes and pastries? Cafeteria versions aren't that good anyway. Get good quality meats, vegetables, fruits - hell, get good quality cooks, people who know how to make simple food delicious. And make it easier for employees to bring, store and/or prepare foods themselves on site. Have a kitchen. Once a week, have a group lunch where people actually cook and serve food to their co-workers.

Rather than stick treadmills in the office, encourage employees to use the gym...and make sure they have time to use it! In my experience, people would use their lunch hour for the gym and then end up eating lunch at their desk while working; maybe an extra half-hour would be a good incentive, and wouldn't impact all-important company productivity except perhaps to improve it. If there's no on-site gym, team up with a local facility to offer employee discounts on memberships and services like massage and chiropractic.

Maybe, just maybe, if we can make our office environments more authentic and less artificial, the health of the people spending 40+ hours there each week will improve. At the very least, it could be a start.

Dinner, April 3

Tossed some chicken drumettes with coconut flour, garlic and onion powder; then, fried them with reckless abandon in coconut oil.

Tell me - what looks yummier than chicken frying in hot oil? NOTHING, my friends. Once these were crispy they were whisked off for pampering with paper towels, then a zipper bag to be lovingly coated with Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing sauce, the king of all sauces. I adore all of Frank's stupendous sauces. If I am ever so lucky to meet Frank, I will immediately have sex with him out of sheer gustatory gratitude. I am a shameless 'ho when it comes to good sauce.

Next...

chopped organic bacon and leeks were gently crisped in a pan. Then, after the addition of a couple spoons of bacon grease (you don't save your bacon grease? Shame on you!) about 2 cups of beet greens and a handful or so of mixed herbs and baby lettuces were delicately tossed in. You cannot roughhouse with baby lettuces. Toss (gently) to acquire a healthy sheen of bacon grease, wilt, add a bit of herb dressing, toss (gently, dammit!), plate. Even picky greens-haters will eat leaves coated with bacon fat. And if they don't? Screw them. More for you.

Voila! A nummy (although dimly lit) dinner that is low-carb, full of good fats, and allergen-free. At least for me. Oh, there's probably a bunch of vitamins in there too...and due to the yummy fat, you'll actually absorb them! A novel concept totally lost on the likes of Dean Ornish (or as I call him, Count Meathater Von BaggyEyes) but we're so much smarter than the average doctor, no?

The Almighty Rev Roll

Brekkie, Feb 15: Steak sandwich on an Atkins Rev Roll; romaine lettuce with rest of steak and homemade creamy Italian dressing.

Dr. Atkins left the world many gifts; Rev Rolls are, perhaps, his greatest. Ahh, let us ponder the Rev Roll: spongy, ugly, slightly sticky, yet capable of holding a bevvy of meats and spreads in its delicate embrace. For those of us choosing to keep the carbs super-low while totally avoiding grains, the Rev Roll is nothing less than a miracle. Tastes decent too.

Rev Rolls are made from eggs and some form of dairy, usually ricotta or cottage cheese. From there, you can add whatever seasonings you want. Make them sweet, make them savoury - the world is your Rev Roll. Many people will think you're disgusting for eating such a thing. You, however, are not disgusting. They are simply rotted and dying in their souls and as such cannot fathom the joyousness of any bun, let alone this extra-super-special bun. Pity them and move on.

At first, I was distraught over the inclusion of cheese in the recipe. I soon discovered that I could substitute with mayonnaise, and they came out pretty darn yummy. Granted I have nothing to compare them to, but whatever. They work. Try.

No-Dairy Rev Rolls (adapted from Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution, 1972)

3 eggs, separated

1/4 tsp cream of tartar OR 1 extra egg white

3 tbsp mayonnaise (regular, not dressing-type)

1/2 tsp sweetener

• Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet, or line it with parchment paper.

• Beat egg whites with cream of tartar (if using) until they're super stiff. You know you're okay if you turn the bowl upside-down and they don't move. Use a hand beater for this. Seriously. You use a whisk, don't be emailing me later whining about shoulder paralysis.

• Add whatever seasonings you're using to the yolks. Be creative here. Garlic and onion powder, rosemary, chives, cinnamon...go nuts.

• Fold yolks, mayo and sweetener into the whites. Be careful. You don't want to break down the whites too much because you need them for puffiness. Not that the rolls get all that puffy, really. Just don't mix for more than about a minute. Here's how to fold: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/ck_dm_baking/article/0,1904,FOOD_18996_1726430,00.html

• Spoon mixture onto cookie sheet, making 6 piles. You want to stack the batter, making high rather than wide piles; spoon some out, then spoon more on top of it. A couple inches high should do it.

• Bake for about an hour. They will probably fall. That's okay. I have heard internet rumours about Rev Rolls that could be cut in half, but it's never happened to me. I use two rolls per sandwich, one for the top and one for the bottom.

• Put rolls in a zipper bag and stash in the fridge overnight. This is imperitive! You see, when fresh from the oven Rev Rolls feel and taste like a satanic couch-lint merengue. But overnight,the Wee Folk of the Fridge show up to work their funky voodoo and, come morning, you've got soft, chewable sandwich material ready for the application of omlette, burger, tuna salad, or a half-pound of bacon. Not that I would ever eat a half-pound of bacon at once! Ha ha...ahem.

So screw the wheat-eaters! Embrace the Rev Roll! Be creative, and make it your own.

So Who Are You, Anyway?

Good question.

I started this blog with the intention of exploring, in a light, humourous way, my trials and tribulations with food addiction. That's changed. Why? Because I no longer have food addiction, frequent bingeing and all the other negative food-related behaviours that confounded and depressed me. Figures - I start a blog, and my subject matter hightails it outta here.

Why did this happen? What blessed miracle removed this dreaded affliction? Well first, lemme take you into some dark, murky territory better known as:

Self-Indulgent Backstory Time

I've never been obese. Not by a long shot. Rather, I'm one of those people who, like so many of us, constantly battles to keep weight from creeping on. At any given time I had 20-30 extra pounds on me. I did everything I could to get it off: I dieted with low-fat foods, skinless/fatless meats and whole grains, and I dutifully treadmilled and ellipticalled in my target heart zone most days of the week. Nothing. No change. Well, 5 lbs here and there but for the most part, I stayed looking pretty much the same.

I figured this was due to my seemingly insatiable appetite. I was always, always hungry. I was always, always thinking about food. When was I gonna eat? What was I gonna have? I snacked a lot, but on healthy things like whole-wheat crackers and low-fat cheese or whole-wheat toast with fat-free cream cheese or peanut butter. Here's an example of a typical menu:

• Breakfast (always eaten within an hour of waking because if you wanna lose weight, you gotta eat breakfast): high-fibre organic multi-grain cereal; skim milk; banana; babybel cheese
• Morning nibble (why am I hungry? I ate breakfast!): fruit salad with fat-free yogurt and sprinkling of granola
• Lunch (man, I'm starved. What's wrong with me?): tomato soup with multi-grain crackers; tuna sandwich with fat-free mayo on whole-wheat bread; babybel cheese; apple
• Pre-dinner nibble (I'm awful. I'm such a pig.): half a bag of cheese flavoured rice chip things, though I would love to eat the whole bag; 1% cottage cheese
• Dinner (oh thank god): enormous plate of whole-wheat spaghetti with vegetable marinara sauce; parmesan cheese; garlic bread, 2 pieces
• Post-dinner freak-out: frantic handful of crackers rammed in mouth and chewed furiously while buttering whole-wheat bread and putting a carefully measured tablespoon of maple syrup on top, followed by the rest of the bag of rice chip things, then maybe my sister has some chocolate something, ooh look, potato chips and ohmygodstopSTOP. STOP.
• Post freak-out helping of guilt, shame and depression, followed by copious amounts of sugar-free gum.

So yeah - I figured the weight issue was directly related with calories. Since I was a huge pig who couldn't stop eating, I was likely taking in way more calories than my small frame could handle, more than I was burning off at the gym. Thing is, I'd counted calories before. I'd eaten the 1200-1400 or so recommended for my size, and didn't shed a pound. I went even more insane from hunger and cravings, but didn't shed a pound. I figured I must need even less food...and that wasn't gonna happen.

I considered Overeaters Anonymous. I read Dr. Phil's book. I did a bunch of very self-lovey emotional work. I journalled. I paid attention to my feelings. I discovered that my bingeing tended to be triggered by boredom - in which case, I was bored a hell of a lot. I considered purging (didn't work - that's a whole other post!). I paid attention to how others were eating (slowly, pausing between bites, leaving food on the plate if they got full) and tried to emulate them. Finally, I just gave up and decided to start a blog about it. Maybe some indulgent public whining would help me figure out what was going on.

Then I decided to have another look at low-carbing. I had just quit smoking with the help of a book by Allan Carr. He also had a book for people who wanted to change their relationship with food, and that got me thinking: if a book could help me, an unrepentant 18-yr smoker, quit cold turkey, then maybe it could help me with my food problem. But somehow, I stumbled onto Dr. Barry Groves and his ebook "Eat Fat, Get Thin", and it made sense to me. I started reading more books, and when I found a support forum online I spent several days absorbing information.

I'd done the low-carb thing before. Several years back I saw a book called "The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet" and felt a click of recognition. I bought, read and implemented it in the span of one week. The gist was that carbs were addictive (aha! hence my cravings!) and should be limited. The plan included low-carb substitutes, like bread made from soy flour and pasta from rice, and included a reward meal every day that had to be eaten in a one-hour period. I bought pounds of substitutes, cooked furiously, and began losing a bit of weight. Woo hoo!

Problem was, the reward meal was making me INSANE. I thought about it all day long. I would make whatever I wanted and gorge myself for the full hour; once the hour was up, I would obsess about my next reward meal until it came, 24 hours later. I'm sure that the authors of this book did not intend for me (or anyone) to behave in this manner, and I know many people for whom this plan worked like a charm. I just felt nuts. I couldn't handle the stress. Mentally I felt worse than before, and I was having visions of the BF finding me hunched in a closet, snorting flour from the bag. I decided that I was deluded, thinking I was a carb addict, and all I needed was discipline. I chucked the book and the plan.

This time, I decided to give it a real go. I started Atkins, began tracking carbs. But I kept falling off the wagon. I noticed the cravings weren't as bad, but they were still there. I'd be good during the week, but on weekends I'd have some pizza or some other "treat". I didn't want to, but the urge to was strong, annoying, distracting. Here I go again, I thought. Another failure.

End of Long, Poor-me Backstory

So one day on the low-carb forum I stumbled across some posts dealing with gluten intolerance and other food sensitivities. A very knowledgeable person gently suggested that I might want to try an elimination diet - no grains or dairy or soy - and see how I felt. The very thought was horrifying to me, but I love to experiment on myself so gave it a whirl. And what do you know...in a few days, my cravings had vanished completely. COMPLETELY.

This ASTOUNDED me. A week or so prior, I had an episode of cracker-mouth-stuffing that ended in tears. (Note: Cracker-mouth-stuffing occurs when one has an insatiable fever for crackers, and rams fistfulls of them into one's mouth and then attempts to chew and swallow so more can be rammed in.) Suddenly, I had a very obvious absence of craving. And I wasn't as hungry either. Plus - I wasn't so puffy all over, or bloated in my belly. My torso felt clear - like I had been clogged up, and now I was empty and clean. My head felt clearer. I had no anxiety, no mood swings, no depression...I actually felt content. After about two weeks I tested myself with an order of pasta - before I was even halfway through, my belly swelled up like I'd swallowed a pumpkin. A few days of gas and other bathroom issues ensued; something was definitely awry.

I shelled out some bucks for a test and, lo! Positive for gluten and casein intolerance. Almost all of the foods I craved so, so badly - crackers, pasta, bread, cheese - were foods I was sensitive to;that, in fact, my body mounted an immune reaction against. Dairy and wheat were just like cigarettes: unhealthy, bad for me, killing me...but I craved them incessantly.

So now, I want this blog to address issues of low-carb nutrition in general, GFCF eating, weight issues, some food history, and some fun food stuff. I've got me some pretty strong opinions about eating, and I 'aint scared to share.

Wednesday Breakfast

Breakfast, 2pm: grilled eye of round with onions, red peppers and garlic-infused clarified butter (ghee)

Egads - why is she photographing her food? How obsessed can one woman be? REALLY obsessed, as a matter of fact. But that's not why I'm documenting my brekkie.

I am a member of several low-carb message boards. I am also a member of several gluten-free boards (strangely, the two are never found together). I've noticed that in both communities, newbies (and sometimes oldbies) alike ask the same question: What can I EAT?? They wander around cyberspace, starchless, grainless, desperately seeking meal options, frantically sourcing substitutes for their old faves.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not knocking substitutes. If you absolutely cannot go one more day without some form of bagel or noodle, Kinnikinnick your Shirataki's off. But in a world where whole grain is considered tantamount to good health and starches form the basis of many meals, we've forgotten our dietary past which, for about 95% of our existence, did not include grains.

I'll save the diatribe for another post. Suffice to say, there is a whole world of food options out there for us gluten-free, dairy-free and/or low-carb folk. - options that make us neither sick nor fat. This brekkie is a far cry from my previous choices: ancient grain cereal with low-fat vanilla soy milk and bananas, a meal that left me bloated and starved a mere half-hour later. And yes...I have lost weight while eating this way.

So look upon my breakfast, ye un-mighty grain-eaters, and despair!