Nocturnal Wenchy

Dear friends and other interesting creatures,

When contemplating starting anything new, it is imperative that you are informed. Please make sure you research, ask and feel content with your decision before you embark on something that will change your life, especially when it comes to changing the way you eat which impacts your health.

Banting as LCHF is called in South Africa, is NOT a quick fix. It is something you need to commit to for life.  You can’t go back to carbs. Naturally you will gain weight and your health will deteriorate.

☆ So you want to get on the banting wagon? Start with what is in your kitchen.

• Get rid of all the ‘white’ food… bread, pasta, flour, potatoes, bottled and packet sauces, diet cooldrinks, tinned items and anything that says low fat or lite. Chuck out the sunflower oil, cornstarch, bread spreads, breakfast cereals, sweets,  cakes and sugar.
• Replace it with real food. Eggs, meat, chicken, fish, tuna, salmon, bacon, nuts (peanuts are a legume and not a nut so avoid), full fat cheeses, full cream milk, plain Greek full cream yoghurt, spinach, cauliflower, mushrooms,  garlic, tomato, avo, peppers, onion, honey (occasionally) lettuce and butter.
• Use olive oil, coconut oil, pink unprocessed salt, lemon and mint for water and cream for coffee. Use full cream milk in moderation as lactose is sugar and cream has less carbs than milk.
• I was surprised how easily I gave up bread and potatoes. I do bake a banting friendly bread once every six weeks or so with nut flour, seeds, eggs and cottage cheese. (Recipe is on my Facebook page) We now have sweet potato on occasion which is lower in carbs with sour cream.

Check out the recommended food lists as per The Real Meal Revolution:  http://realmealrevolution.com/real-food-lists  Green is a go, orange with caution and red is ideally a no go.

I also have many tips, ideas and recipes on my banting Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/wenchybanting Would appreciate a like to my page.

• In my 7 months of banting I have noticed that people tend to overdo the protein. Remember low carb,  high fat, NOT high protein. Meat portion can be judged by the size and thickness of your palm. Focus on keeping the carbs low (this can be difficult as carbs lurk everywhere including vegetables), avoid sugar (also challenging as even fruit contains sugar) and add butter and cream to everything!
• I admit I find the drinks as recommended by Prof Tim Noakes very limiting. Water, coffee and tea.  The recommended sweeteners are Xylithol and Stevia. I prefer Xylithol. I drink cream in coffee but milk in tea. At most, I have 3 cups of coffee/tea a day. The rest is cold water water with ice and lemon and/or mint. Diet cooldrinks are not recommended because of how your body processes artificial sweeteners. Fruit juice is high in fructose (sugar) and should be avoided.
• This is not a 3 meals a day with 2 snacks kind of eating. Eat when you are hungry and till you are full but be aware of portion size. It is not a buffet.
• You can occasionally have 90% cocoa chocolate. I don’t love dark chocolate so I mainly reach for it come PMS days. In despiration you can also have Caring Candies which I have purchased at Dischem before. It is suitable for diabetics.
• Some people do not tolerate Caring Candies well however and it may cause an upset stomach…. but then, some who have constipation,  especially in the first few weeks do eat Caring Candies for that very reason.
• I find the best way is to not keep anything that is tempting in the house. If I don’t keep things that are trigger foods for me in the house,  I know chances are slim that I will especially go to buy them.  So I may eat something at an event but it doesn’t come home.
• It is easy to become obsessed with the scale and it can totally ruin a great day. Many people have a substantial loss in the first few weeks which can be written off to water. It is much better to measure yourself regularly and weigh once a month at most.

Does that mean you will never have a slice of cake again? No. Eating the cake is your choice. It will spike your insulin and probably make your stomach upset but, it is your choice. I do from time to time eat something I should have skipped. Yes, it stalls weight loss but more so,  I feel physically unwell and off course your body will no longer be in ketosis. So you kinda start from scratch … again.

Now Google Ketosis.  🙂

I wish you enough,