Month: December 2009

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Attack of the fat arse knickers..

Seriously, it’s time to shrink the size of your bottom when your knickers are the size of t-shirts….

I know my knickers are the size of t-shirts because I regularly leave my fat arse knickers in my daughters clean clothes pile only for them to be returned with a familiar  ” Mum-this-isn’t-my-t-shirt-it’s-your-knickers”….. at least she doesn’t say ‘fat arse’.

The worst thing about these knickers are the fact that they are my NEW smaller ones. In comparison with the ones I was wearing at 315 lbs, they look like Barbie knickers…..almost

Although I find it shocking how large my knickers are I truly believe you have to laugh at life, one day these knickers WILL be a distant memory as I join the ‘thong brigade’…… (ha had ya- never, even if I had a butt as beautiful as Beyonce’s, would I wear one of those hideous underwear creations!)Fat arse knickers make great toy hammocks

The ‘fat arse’ knickers, because of the vast quantity of material used in their production, can be used for a variety of useful purposes.

  • toy hammock. Unfortunately all the big soft toys in the house wouldn’t fill my knickers so I had to use an 18 litre water container to fill the space (see photo)
  • dust cover for full size computer monitors. (see photo) You may need to stitch up the leg holes though to stop it peeking through. The good news is that there is enough spare material at the bottom to cover your keyboard too..
  • when your fat arse knickers are too big or too worn they make a huge amount of cleaning rags. By my calculations 25 precisely..


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Time to knuckle down and get the job done..

Youngest Hobbit on Christmas Day

Now The ‘Christmas Blip’ is coming to an end which means the choccie boxes are nearly empty and all the ‘delicious-naughty-foods-that-lure-one-to-them-with-their-mystical-subliminal-chanting’, have nearly all disappeared, it’s time to get back to rationing and knuckle down and get the job done….

In 7.5 months time my year long culinary experiment on eating a diet based on authentic WWII 1940’s rationing will come to and end. My hopes by the end of the year were to

  • Recreate 100 authentic recipes, eat and photograph them
  • Record the effect living on a 1940’s ration diet would have on my health and hopefully achieve a weight-loss of 100 lbs

I have for several years been convinced that to LOSE WEIGHT we do not need to starve ourselves but feed ourselves properly and generously! By making fundamental changes in our eating habits (all the time) I believe our bodies will become the efficient fuel burning machines they used to be…

Cut out the plethora of modern foods we crave that have artificial sweeteners, preservatives, hidden added fats & colouring, from our lives and go back to eating basic, little processed, fresh, local foods. SIMPLE  (but actually I’ve found out it isn’t always so simple as processed foods are a HUGE business in our modern world)

We don’t need to count calories, we don’t need to be obsessed with counting grams of fat- life is tooooo damn short!

Just get rid of all the modern crap, limit your meat, eat basic foods, eat tons of fresh veg, eat some healthy carbs and drink water (and tea!!)

Saying all that- this means in 7.5 months to complete my experiment successfully I have to still

  • Re-create and photograph a new recipe every three days for the next 7.5 months
  • Lose 1 lb of body fat every 3 days for 7.5 months

YIKES!!!!

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Merry Christmas everyone!

Yeah- well I know this is a day later and it’s been two weeks since I’ve blogged here but nevertheless

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Did I lose 10 lbs before Christmas? Nah.. I think I set an unrealistic goal especially right before Christmas where it’s easy to occasionally succumb to temptation (in my case it has mostly just been a few episodes of speciality cheese and crackers brought into work by colleagues but apart from that and a little blip at my friend Margaret’s Christmas Brunch AND the FREE egg nog at the pub, I’ve been doing OK) That doesn’t really sound that good does it…?

However ,although I didn’t lose 10 lbs I did lose 4 lbs and weighed in on Christmas Eve at 279 lbs.  I do expect that to rise a little over the Christmas period as I am allowing myself alcohol and some treats!

Although my Christmas Day wasn’t exactly 1940’s my main meal really would have come as close as possible to an 1940’s English Christmas Dinner (except for the sparkling Australian wine)

I live in the country and have enough land to grown a large garden or raise poultry and even keep goats (if I so desired)…. infact before I moved to Canada I did this for several years. Country dwellers during WWII probably would have grown the majority of their own veggies and raised chickens and turkeys for the table (as well as pork etc). Infact even those living in the city may have reared back yard chickens for Christmas Day……people even clubbed together to raise pigs!

So my Christmas Day meal of

  • an 8 lb chicken raised by some farming friends (and given to me as a gift)
  • a huge ham gift from my employers at work
  • locally grown potatoes, sprouts, parsnips, peas & carrots
  • sausages wrapped in bacon
  • homemade bread stuffing

was absolutely a country dwellers 1940’s meal or someone in the city who had planned ahead well.

Did the stuffing contain cat nip?

The chicken was the best I have ever tasted this year, as was the perfectly cooked parsnips in a honey glaze AND the homemade stuffing. If I lived in the 1940’s during rationing I would have had to save up my butter as the stuffing contained a mound of the stuff!

My homemade stuffing this year however, was full of extra ingredients to help it along the way. I chopped up onions and celery and softened them in a cup of butter before adding 1/3rd of a loaf of wholemeal bread, cubed. I then added this mixture to the other 2/3rd in a big bowl and mixed. Then I added 1/2 cup of marmite broth. And then I started adding a mixture of herbs & spices…

I realized to my horror the secret ingredient to my culinary triumph. CAT-NIP!

First sage, then thyme, then a little parsley, a little dill, black pepper, extra salt, pinch of summer savoury……and then there was a un-labelled package of herbs in a clear plastic bag, languishing at the back of the cupboard that smelt vaguely familiar. I liked the smell of it so added a large pinch into the mix….

Cooked at 200 C for 40 mins (after dotting butter over the top) the stuffing came out wonderfully and it was the best stuffing I’d ever made..

And then last night after I’d sunk the last of the wine we’d had with dinner, I realized to my horror the secret ingredient to my culinary triumph. CAT-NIP! The same cat nip I had bought a few years back (because I like the smell of it and I was going to try and be clever to make our cat a cat nip treat).

As I lived to tell the tale (thank goodness my kids don’t read my blog) I guess cat-nip is safely consumed in small portions BUT please don’t go rushing out to buy CAT-NIP for your stuffing even tho it tastes damn good!

MERRY CHRISTMAS xxxxxx

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The 1940’s Experiment- Four months on

August 2009 @ 315lbs - November 2009 @ 283lbs

Hello my name is Carolyn Ekins. I am a single mother of three and I have been morbidly obese for several years.

My all time heaviest was 343 lbs. Last Christmas I weighed 330 lbs.

In August 2009 I weighed in at 315 lbs and vowed to change my eating habits forever in a year long 1940s Social Experiment based on the rationed diets of everyday folk living on the home-front during World War II.  I truly believe by being as true as I can to living a year eating back to basics food, cooked from scratch and as little processed food as I can, I WILL become a healthier person. I aim to lose 100 lb in one year..

Four months into the 1940s Experiment I have lost almost 33 lbs and weighed in today at 282 lbs.

I don’t count calories, and if I am hungry I eat lots of food and my theory seems to be working- I do feel MUCH healthier from just a few months ago.

It hasn’t always been an easy journey and have slipped up a handful of times and sometimes eat way too much bread BUT I know I can make it.

100 Cooked and Photographed Wartime Recipes

100 Wartime Recipes will be recreated and photographed throughout the year of the 1940’s Experiment. I want this to be a record in photographs of a typical 1940’s rationing diet and to experience the tastes of the time using the ingredients available.

So far I have recreated nearly 30 recipes- 1 every 3 days!

Thank you for your support!

And thanks for all the support I have been getting from all the people who have read 23,000 pages of my blog since August 2009. Knowing people are reading and commenting keeps me going… it really does. I LOVE reading the comments and thoughts left on my blog!!

C xxxxxxx

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Cream of Parsnip Soup

  • 3 pints of stock or water (stock is nicer!)
  • 1.5 lbs parsnips
  • 1/2 leek or 1 large onion
  • 2 oz flour
  • 1/4 pint milk
  • 3 teaspoons salt
  • pepper to taste
  • dried herbs like thyme to taste

Method

Put stock in large saucepan and bring to boil

Meanwhile grate the parsnips and leeks/onions

Place the grated veg into the saucepan with the stock and continue boiling for 20 mins

Season with herbs and salt and pepper

Mix flour with a little of the milk to make a thin paste and continue to add the rest of the milk

Pour this into the saucepan mixing continuously

Simmer  for a few minutes mixing all the time.

Garnish with chopped parsley or pepper

Serves 6 +

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Cheese and Potato Dumplings

Here is a fabby recipe that I use quite frequently. You can add herbs and spices to your own taste. I also find these dumplings, once refrigerated, can even be used to take in to work for a midday snack in your lunch box as they firm up quite nicely!

Cheese and Potato Dumplings

  • 2 lbs of potatoes peeled (set aside the peel to bake in the oven for another delicious snack)
  • 2 reconstituted dried eggs (or 2 fresh)
  • 3 to 4 oz strong grated cheese
  • salt and pepper
  • dried herbs such as thyme (optional)

Method

Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water

Set aside to drain in colander for 10 minutes

Mash potatoes, return to saucepan over low heat, add seasoning and herbs, mix well

Add eggs and half the cheese, mix well again and stir until potatoes firm up.

Once cooled a little form into 10 balls and roll in the remaining grated cheese

Place on greased baking tray and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes or so until browned and crusty

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We are connected and 273 lb by Christmas.

No surfing- More reading!

We have lift off! These past 10 days have seemed like a life time but thanks to my ex-husband our network at home is now up and running again. Our home server crashed horribly, lost all it’s settings and went through a recovery. Everything had to be stripped down and installed again…quite the job.

I jumped on the scales this morning and things have slipped a little and I have a 3lb gain which is just horrible which isn’t a great start to trying to lose 10lbs before Christmas HOWEVER, I do not like defeat so I KNOW I can do it. So I start at 283 lb today..

And the simple changes I’ll make? Less bread (2 slices daily instead of several), smaller portions of oatmeal, more leafy veggies and lots more walking!

I’ll be back later today with my recipes updates!

Thanks for checking back- it’s great to be back

C xx