Tag: Life

Not All Eating Plans are Created Equal

Hello Everyone! It’s been a while. How is it that we are halfway through the 2nd quarter of the year already? Anyway, I have popped in to share a recent experience with a weight challenge I joined. Know this for sure, not all eating plans are created equal.

Maya Angelou famously said, ‘ When someone shows you who they are the first time, believe them.’ Well, I have learned that this is not only true for people but for programmes as well. I recently took up my medical aid’s healthy weight challenge (yes, I am still on that journey😅). That was my first mistake.

Assumption is the mother of all


The first alarm bells started ringing when I did the little survey when I signed up. There was no diabetic option under dietary requirements. I figured they already knew my diagnosis, so my diet would automatically be diabetic-friendly. I was wrong. I was pretty excited by the recipes they had provided. They looked simple enough and relatively tasty. More alarm bells went off when I saw the mention of low-fat yoghurt and what looked like a lot of carbs. Given all the bad press and the growing scientific evidence that low-fat is not as healthy as everyone thought it was, I was surprised that they are still recommending it. The other crucial red flag was that nutritional information was unavailable for the meals. The data was also kept from the dieticians that were supporting us. Despite all these red flags, I soldiered on. I had a dietician assigned to me, so I thought she would point out where a meal might need some adjustment for a person with diabetes. Once again, I was wrong.

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The Journey is Supposed to be Enjoyable

Nope, it wasn’t. It was stressful. I had to take pics of every meal and share them with the dietician daily. She would critique my meals which I really felt was unnecessary. Still, it was the closest I came to understanding the nutritional composition of my meals. Eventually, I resorted to using the app, My Fitness Pal to get a feel for how carb heavy my meals were. In the end, it was my body that confirmed that this eating plan was not working for me. I was not losing weight, and I felt bloated and uncomfortable. Thankfully, I wasn’t gaining weight, but I definitely didn’t lose any. Eventually, I made a choice to stop following the plan. The dietician is still available to me as I signed up for the 6-month program, so let’s see how that goes. She would cost way more for one visit than I pay for daily access to her expertise monthly, so why not.

So I have decided to keep most of my meals low carb, high fat. I need to get back to doing the 16:8 IF. I have let that eating window slide to about 10 hours because I have been eating my last meal too late. The good news is that since I stopped that eating plan, I have lost 2kg over about 3 weeks, which is a good start. Now I need to keep these good habits up so that number on the scale maintains its downward trend.

My son and I have also joined the gym, although we have yet to make it a regular habit. I love classes and started the step class. Oh, my hat! The pace is hectic! The routine is not as simple as it was 20 years ago (Yes, it is that long since I joined a step classđŸ«Ł), and the instructor includes a few Zulu dance moves here and there. It is good fun, but phew, it is a challenge.

Photo by Kseniia Lopyreva on Pexels.com

Well, that’s it from me for now. I hope all the mums have had a delightful and blessed Mother’s Day today. Bye for now!

Going Vegetarian – What a Challenge!

My son and I decided to adopt a vegetarian diet for Lent. It’s required a whole new mindset when it comes to meal planning. There are positives though.

We are a week  into lent and my son and I had decided that we would give up meat for our Lenten fast.  While I am not a religious person, there are certain Christian rituals that I still believe in and look forward to participating in.  Lent is one of them.  For the record I was baptised into the Anglican faith as a baby and had my son baptised into it as well simply because it is one of those rituals that brings my soul peace.

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Anyway, back to my vegetarian challenge!  It’s been rough. Other than the odd margherita pizza or a Greek salad, my son and I don’t generally do vegetarian dishes.  It was also a spur of the moment decision so we were not prepared.  There we were, munching on our flapjacks (we did not have pancake mix and were lazy to make some from scratch) on Shrove Tuesday when we decided that we would change our fast from chips and chocolates to meat.  With the cost of living today, both could be considered luxuries.

Thus far, besides vegetarian pizza’s, we have yet to find at least 5-6 dishes that we enjoy and can rotate for the Lenten period.    There is still 6 weeks to go after all.😜 My son was partial to the vegetarian version of “chicken nuggets” although I have a feeling they will be wasted if I buy them again.  My vegetarian pasta was awfully boring last night so I won’t be trying that particular recipe again.  I think tomorrow I will make a vegetable curry to excite the taste buds a little (hopefully). Any tasty vegetarian recipes recommendations will be very welcome by the way.

On the positive side, it has been good to spend the first week of lent strengthening my connection to God through prayer and a bit of mediation.  I still battle with reading my bible.  For some reason, I just can’t connect to it but I don’t let it get me down as I know that God will get His messages to me in a way that I will hear Him and understand what it is He needs me to know. In the meantime I am reading Marianne Williamson’s book, Return to Love. It’s a good read if you have not read it yet. At the moment I am being reminded to surrender to God’s will. That reminder has come just in time. I can feel that my ego has been over exerting itself of late! 😞

Another positive is that I have noticed that my blood sugar levels are averaging slighter lower this week which is probably due to the increased vegetable intake. The thing I do need to be careful of is allowing too many refined carbs creep into my diet through pizza and pasta. I quite interested to see if my son’s skin will also benefit form the change in diet. I am really hoping it will. He has really had a pretty bad case of acne this past year.

Well that’s it from me. Be blessed everyone.

Phenomenal Woman

Bloganuary Day 30
one more day to go


Todays Prompt: What would you title the chapters of your autobiography?

Hmmm
another good question Bloganuary. Funny enough, tuning 50 this month did make me think through my life and the experiences I have had. I didn’t think about titles but now is as good a time as any I suppose.

My first decade would definitely be called “My carefree years”. I don’t recall having too much anxiety during this time in my life and I pretty much excelled at everything I did (I think).

My second decade, my teen years, was a completely different story. “Becoming part I” would probably be a good title. I had no idea who I was or what I really wanted out if life. Remember how my dream career in a previous post wasn’t even a specific one? I guess that tells you how lost and undecided I was.

My 20’s was “Becoming part II”. I still didn’t know what I wanted or where I wanted to be in this world but by the end of this decade I started to get a feel for what I enjoyed doing . I still wasn’t sure but I could see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

My 30’s = “Evolution”. I began this decade in tears and very angry and remained that way for the first 2-3 years until I discovered the law of attraction and started behaving intentionally in some ways. I still was not there yet. I became a mom in this decade! A revelation! Suddenly it became absolutely necessary to know how I wanted to live the rest of my life and what experiences I wanted to give my son. Motherhood really galvanized me in to action.

My 40’s “Awakening”. Things started coming together. Isn’t amazing how that happens once you have clarity about you want. There have also been major losses in the later half of this decade but with these losses have come some gains. Some of those gains have been spiritual and some have been people. I have stepped out if my 40’s with clarity about my purpose and the talents that God has given me to fulfill this purpose. I have stepped into my 50’s stronger, happier within myself and feeling complete because now I know who I am. I am surrounded by amazing people who only want the best for me as well. There is still so much more to learn so who knows what the title of my 6th decade will be. I look forward to finding out!

Do you know what you would call your chapters? Let me know in the comments.

Thank for stopping by. Bye for now.