"By perseverance the snail reached the ark!"

 

It is now 16 months since I started my weight journey. Today I needed to get some inspiration again and I did set out to try some clothes and look up some old pictures. I dug out a picture I have taken but really hated to look at. I took it for documentation 2 December 2012. This was one month after I started my new course.

During these months when I have compared pictures I have enjoyed to see the progress but today I really feel bad about watching "the before". I do feel happy to see how far I have come though and it gives me inspiration to continue my course. Looking at the pictures I feel it is almost impossible to believe I have gotten this far in this short time really. When I looked ahead it seemed like it would be impossible to change anything or that it would take forever. Looking back it seems it is a short time. To see I have a figure again is incredible. 16 months and having come this far! I never believed it when I started.

I didn´t do anything revolutionary. I just have done the same thing every day, every week, every month. I never cheated myself or left my commitment. I simply have eaten healthy food without sugar, without any artificial fat, with low level of carbohydrates.

I could feel bad when I look back at the fact that I wasn´t able to control life to the extent that I ended up in being so overweight. However I know how my life has been and understand the reasons why. So I rather feel proud of myself that I in spite of all have been able to take hold of my life in this aspect and turn the development, and that I in fact have come to this point today. My journey is not over and I just keep on every day.

Today I made a really nice sallad with carrots, zucchini, avacado, tomatoes, a little cottage cheese and spiced it up. To make it festive and more fun I sliced the carrots and zucchini with a potato peeler to long thin strings. It felt great to look at and really good to eat. And I loved the fact that it was all vitamins and so healthy. Just study the nutrients of every ingredient you eat and make a healthy choice.

These months have made me so aware of foodstuffs and what is around me. I cannot help see all the unhealthy things around that we customary eat and than struggle with weight and health. And we really don´t need to live that way. We can make healthy choices. And we can look at it as a benefit and not as denying ourselves of something good. The fact is: It is not good with sugar, with fats. There is nothing to benefit from it. And I really know and see this every day, and also in the results that has given me.

I write about myself here because I really want to share my experience and inspire someone else as well since I know a lot of people struggle and maybe even don´t see there is a way of changing the course, or that it will be too hard or maybe even impossible. But I can tell everyone, it is not. It takes willpower, determination, perseverance, and the knowledge I don´t deny myself anything, but every day I rather reward and enrich myself through the most healthy lifestyle! It is not a diet, but a way of living that I gain from every day and at the same time loosing fat!

The Challenge of everyday healthy food alternatives!

 

These days i feel a bit of a challenge every day when it comes to the food. Maybe it is because it is winter and dark and the progress of loosing weight even feels slower. I don´t know. Still I just am determined to stick to my way since 16 months every day. I made a decision to not weigh myself often, but just do what I have set out to do every day, and not think about how long time it would take to get any results. So I am reminding myself about these things these days.

I can see the results through comparing pictures but also my empty wardrobe. I really don´t have much clothes that fits me since I have lost all this weight. I now and than go to a store and try on clothes to get inspiration, even though I don´t buy any. I have even tried on some of my Ghanaian outfits and I am very close to be able to put on one of my outfits that was costume made for me. I really cannot wait until the day it fits again.

These last months I have been using our ordinary vegetables and not searching for Asian recipts for a long time, since it is a bit harder to get the ingredients. However with some spices I can vary the ordinary to give it new tastes even. And this is what I have done with this dish with woked vegetables and pork chops, using Asian spices with our most common vegetables.

Woked vegetables with Pork Chops and gravy

Woked vegetables:

Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrot
Tomatoe
Cucumber
Sesame oil
Garlic
Spring onion
Salt
Pepper
Any spices according to your liking (I added some Asien spices with chili, lemongrass)

Pork chops:

Salt

Pepper

Sesame oil

Garlic

Gravy:

Water

Corn starch

Cube of beef broth

Salt

Pepper

Any spice according to your liking

Directions

For the woked vegetables:

Shred the vegetables in a shredder. Cut the broccoli in small bouquets and mix with the shredded vegetables. Pour a little sesame oil in the wokpan and add garlic and fry a little, than add the rest of the vegetables and wok. Add salt, pepper and spices to your liking before serving.

For the Pork Chops and the gravy:

Put some Sesame Oil in the frying pan and add some chopped garlic and fry a bit. Season the pork chops with spices (I chose some asian twist for this dish with the sesame oil) on both sides and fry on both sides. For the gravy: Add water to the frying pan with the pork chops and add the spices and cube of beef broth. Let it simmer with the pork chops inside. Take a few tablespoons of cornstarch and mix with a little water in a glass. Pour into the sauce in the frying pan while stiring and it will thicken the gravy. This way you will get a good tasting gravy with no fat or carbohydrates. 

It is ready to serve!

Nutritional facts:

Endurance, patience, perseverance!

Lasagna with ground beef, green cabbage and carrots!

Every day I continue my journey which I started 16 months ago now. Every day I have lost some weight and all due to just eating healthy food and lots of vegetables. The last two months I have felt it is progressing slower. It is not because I do something different really, but I guess it is expected to be this way when there is less weight to loose. Still it is important to just not get discouraged but to do what I am supposed to do every day and stick with it. Endurance, patience, perseverance, some important key words to keep in mind at all time. 

To remind myself of these words are important if feeling a bit tired and also wondering what to make to eat for the day. To get some variation is crucial if getting tired. Still to not feel too much but just stick with my way of living is more important. I have been experimenting a lot with foodstuffs over these months and trying out new things to vary my food and make it more fun. So last night I tried to make a "lasagna" without pasta, but with green cabbage, carrots and ground beef. And it turned out really nice. I tried making a variation with red cabbage long time ago and it was really good as well. This time I had green cabbage in the fridge and tested it out. So here is the result;  a really health bomb again and very good.

Ingredients: 
1 big Carrot
Leaves of Green Cabbage
500 g Ground beef
1 Spring Onion
1 can of crushed tomatoes
Salt
Pepper
Spices according to your liking
2 cubes of beef broth

Directions:
Shred the carrot with a potato peeler to long strings. Steam the cabbage leaves to soften them. Fry the ground beef in the frying pan with a little olive oil. Cut the spring onion in small pieces and add to the ground beef. Add the tomato sauce to the ground beef and let it simmer. Add spices until it tastes according to your liking.

I added some Mexican spices as well. And it tasted great. When the sauce has simmered some and the cabbage is soft. Place a layer of cabbage leaves in a baking tin and put a layer of the sauce on top, add a layer of carrots, continue with another layer of cabbage leaves and sauce and carrots until the tin is full.

Cover the tin with foil when full and put in the oven on 200 Celsius Degrees for about 1 hour, or until the Cabbage leaves are really soft.
Cut and serve as any lasagna.

To make it faster and less time in the oven I could have steamed the cabbage longer and maybe not even had to put it in the oven. Anyways just be bold and experiment in your kitchen yourself as well.


This dish is really making you feel full and it is very healthy with vitamins and minerals. The green cabbage is full of C vitamins and the carrot full of A vitamin. There is no fat and no carbohydrates. And even the ground beef have a lot of nutrients good for you.  It is really fun to find alternatives to dishes and the satisfaction of knowing it is so healthy. It inspires and keeps me going every day.

Awareness of every little ingredient in my food has made the change!

My fridge the last 15 months contains these foodstuffs

For 15 months now I have lived extremely healthy! I have been eating mostly vegetables of all kinds and eliminating so many ingredients from my diet, like sugar, fats, also choosing foods low in carbohydrates to a great extent. In addition I have eaten meat and fish. I used to think that our society and diet was quite healthy actually before I started this weight journey and really studying everything I would eat and make. Now when I go into a store I really pay attention to every single thing I put in my grocery basket. Also when I make the food I think about every single ingredient. And over the 15 months since I started this change I have lost so much weight that my clothes are all too big. I have again packed away two bags that I cannot longer wear since I swim in those clothes now. When I started I could only wear clothes sizes 3 XXL that I had to buy specially on the internet. Now two weeks ago I could fit into a pair of pants size 48. And I am just doing the same thing every day. Eating healthy and not leaving this new way of eating one day or one hour of the day.

Since Christmas especially I have paid some special attention to what we are surrounded by in the store and even gas-stations or small corner stores since I was travelling a bit and could not make food at home every day as I usually do. And coming in to the gas station for instance I am just chocked these days by the images that meet me, just sugars and fats and unhealthy stuff. It is almost impossible to find something for me to eat. If I am lucky there will be some apples or bananas and some place maybe a salad. But the overwhelming sight of sugars and fats really chocks me these days. I am thinking, no wonder in our society we have these weight problems and it sneaks up on you.

Now I am aware every single day and the change over the last 15 months is incredible and unbelievable to me. Still it is a fact and it is just happening due to eating healthy, no surgeries or anything like this, just simply food!

These 15 months all these items have been non existing in my diet. 

What if I need to make a special treat?

These months I have avoided desserts and cakes of all kinds. However I have made it to serve to others a lot. And I even there try to think what can I make that is more healthy and less sugar, fats and carbohydrates. So yesterday I wanted to make a treat and I made a cake based on american pancakes, however with no sugar, no wheat flour. The ingredients instead only eggs and almond flour. Almond flour can be used in all receipts instead of wheat flour and by the same measurements. So look at the receipt here on the link to my foodblog.

Pancake dessert

http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2014/02/pancake-dessert-this-batch-will-make.html