Lemon Pepper Beef

It's been a week since my last post and a busy week at that!

I have been really busy attending courses and seminars at the moment, as well as the rest, and this has meant a lot of meals on the run or provided as part of events.

I'll try and explain something that has changed for me since starting this journey.

The crux is: I am entitled to be slim and healthy and I am responsible for making choices that make me slim and healthy.

This sounds really simple, but I think that for a really long time I have made excuses for why things are the way they are. And at the heart of those excuses was an underlying belief that I did not deserve better.

If I am headed in the right direction, every step will get me closer to my goal.

I have been spending a lot of time lately educating myself around this personal development stuff and some of it is definitely sinking in. In fact, I am attending a ten-week seminar on Living Life More Powerfully: Being at the Cause of Life, not the Effect.

In the olden days, I was literally thinking about lunch as soon as I finished breakfast and continuously during the day I was justifying why I should just eat anything I chose.

Since making a decision to use food to manage my diabetes with a strict food plan, I have experienced the most incredible freedom from that thinking!

Going to get some fruit from a platter at an event on Friday, I discovered that a Creamed Pavlova had been added to the table as well. The first thing I did was turn my back on it. Literally. Then I had a conversation with my inner voice about whether or not I should have some. Once my inner voice was finished justifying why a little bit wouldn't hurt, it really was as simple as I'm not allowed it.

So I turned back to the table, selected a small portion of fruit and went away to enjoy it. AMAZING!

I haven't been as obsessed with following the food plan posted about earlier, but I have been making choices that support my body better. No sugar or flour. No potatoes, pasta or rice. Limited fruits and fat. Limiting the portions.


And it is working. My weight this week is 86.0kg.

Dinner in the picture is beef coated in lemon pepper served with mushrooms, bok choy and tomato pasta sauce. And it was delicious.

What did I eat today?

This isn't necessarily an average day, but is typical of what I am trying to achieve. Plenty of protein and low GI veggies, low fat dairy, limited fruit and gluten and minimal fat. This is deliberately restrictive as my goal is recover from Diabetes, which requires weightloss. And to have a food plan that stabilises my blood sugars at the same time.

Breakfast

Instant Apple Cinnamon porridge sachet made up with 1/2 cup trim milk and then mixed with a couple of spoonfuls of low fat unsweetened yoghurt.

Lunch
Half a serve of chilli beef and veggies, no noddles or rice from the Chinese at the food court.  I paid an extra 20c to have it served on a plate and have a takeaways container as well and I split the meal before I ate it. The remainder is still sitting in the fridge at work for the weekend. Whoops!

Afternoon Tea

A good few Peckish crackers - Salt and Vinegar. I love these ones though probably the Chilli are better and I love that they are gluten free.

Dinner
Veggies (sliced mushrooms, capsicum and onion) laid over the base of a square baking tin and topped with an egg then baked in the oven and served with a little oyster sauce and sprouts.

1/4 tin of drained Fruit Salad in Natural Juice.

Fluids

One glass of diet lift in the morning.

One small bottle of coke zero with lunch.

A couple of glasses of water and a couple of cups of instant coffee with trim milk no sugar - I never had sugar in coffee so this is just a personal choice

Snacks/Other

Two Shrewsbury biscuits before dinner - hey they did have magic in the middle!

A fish oil capsule and a glucose stabilising tablet from the health shop.

As I posted another time, this time is working for me because I am seeing food as helpful or not helpful now. So even though someone else may be eating something "delicious", I don't feel deprived.

This is a new feeling as I have always wanted to eat everything and probably been thinking about lunch the moment I finished breakfast. Now I don't even really think about food until I am ready for it.

Choosing to severely restrict my options is helping I think. It means that when I get home, I am thinking which of 100g steak, 100g chicken or an egg I will have tonight, and not the thousands of other choices I could be having.

I do find evenings difficult still though. I prowl for food while reminding myself why I am doing this. When this works, I go to bed happy.

Beef Salad in 12 minutes or less

I've been fascinated for a while now about how different fruits and veggies are processed by the body.

Especially how the pancreas deals with them, since many are low in carbohydrate and high in fibre.

And some even have no discernible effect on blood sugars: courgette, cucumber, green beens. Mushroom, capsicum, brocolli. Tomatoes, celery, onions.

A typical meal for me at the moment is a plate of veggies with some protein.

Ingredients
100g Steak or Chicken Breast
4 Button mushrooms
1/2 a Courgette
1/4 of a Capsicum
1/2 a stalk of Celery
Coriander
Garlic, Ginger, Cracked Pepper, Chilli Flakes
Lemon Juice, Vinegar

Directions
Usually I prepare (maybe a shake of lemon pepper and a spray of oil) and start cooking the steak or chicken.While that sizzles on the hob, I chop up my veggies: sliced mushrooms and celery. Maybe a handful of cabbage. Or small amount of chopped onion or spring onion. When the meat is cooked, I put it out to rest and put the veggies into the same pan. Stir over a high heat for a few moments then put in 1/4 cup of water. I often add a splash of lemon juice and/or vinegar and/or a twist of cracked pepper too ... top with coriander. Slice the rested meat and serve warm over the stirfry.

Serves 1

But some play foul of that rule, for example pumpkin and parsnip are both high GI.

And sweet corn is a really good example. On a cob, boiled and eaten from the cob, corn is really good for you and low GI, but taken off the cob makes them higher GI.

Varieties and preparation change this too. Old floury potatoes can be high GI and new potatoes low GI. Boiled kumara has a lower GI then baked kumara.

In the meantime, I am enjoying a food plan of all the veggies that will benefit my blood sugars. Which is the goal. And who doesn't have 12 minutes or less to create a delicious healthy meal?

Another conscious decision I have made is to limit my intake of veggies as part of my plan. And it's working ... this morning's weight was 89.0kg. Yay.