Weigh in – January 31

Heaviest weight 345 lbs
Starting weight 299 lbs (Oct 01, 2011)
Current weight 257 lbs (Jan 31, 2012)
Weight loss 42 lbs in 4 months

Woo hoo! I’m still losing. This morning on my home scales I was 257 lbs (2 lb off this week)

I’ve looked back and there was only one blip (5lb on) and that was Christmas and instead of that leading to a reversal of all the good work I’d done to date (as it’s always done before), I got right back to it…

I’m almost daring to hope that finally, after 15 years of morbid obesity, I have found my way….

1940s weight-loss video diary

I’ve succumbed…. I’m always stalking other YouTube weight-loss diaries with morbid fascination and don’t feel quite so alone listening to how other people cope with losing large amounts of weight so I’ve decided to do a weekly diary of my own. It will help keep me focused…

It will also be quite fun to start sharing some of the great 1940s books, videos, food, fashions and ideas that stagnate in this little old brain of mine.

C xxxxxxxx

 

1940s Google Searches

And now for something completely different…. in my day job I’m rather a stats geek. It’s not surprising that this carries over to my WordPress Blog….

Google seems to love the 1940s Experiment and around 300-500 of the 2 to 4 thousand daily visits comes from search engines. It seems the 1940s and wartime recipes are more popular than one would have thought!

For anyone else who is part retro and part stats geek like me… enjoy. Here is what people were looking for today when they clicked through to my site…

wartime recipes 16
ww2 recipes 9
world war 2 recipes 6
war time recipes 6
40’s hairstyles 6
1940s popular meals 6
rationing recipes 6
1940s hairstyles 6
pictures of wartime meals 6
world war 2 rationing recipes 6
world war 2 recipes for kids 5
1940s recipes 5
ww2 recipes for children 4
eggless pancakes 4
1940’s rationing recipes 3
ww2 cake recipes 3
100 wartime recipes 3
mock cream recipe uk 3
ww2 recipe 3
ww2 potatoes recipes 3
ration recipes 3
second world war recipes 3
what was the ration portion weekly in the war 2
the most weird recipes in the world book 2
wwii recipes 2
marguerite patten wartime recipes 2
ww2 food recipe 2
rtion menus in the 40’s 2
war time recipes for children 2
ww2 rationing recipes 2
ww2 shortbread 2
pillsbury recipe for welsh cakes 2
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british wartime recipes 2
vegan recipes 2
ww2 rations recipes 2
bread pudding war time meal 2
1940 desert receipes 2
british ww2 recipes 2
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wwii recipes for food 2
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ww2 recipes for kids 2
rationing recipe 2
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ww2 food recipes 2
world war two time recipes 2
bread and dripping recipe 2
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ration diet 1
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potatoe recipes during wartime 1
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1940 cake recipes 1
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sugar snap peas 1
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1940 recipes 1
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ve day recipes ww2 1
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welsh recipes, bread pudding 1
wwii food and recipes 1
1940s menus 1
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frugal potato desserts 1
wartime mock recipes 1
http://www.worldwar2 shortbread 1
1940s ration recipes 1
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restoring anderson shelter 1
sugarless sponge cake 1940’s recipe 1
eggless english pancake recipe 1
ww2 uncooked chocolate cake 1
bread and apple pudding 1
recipes 1940s food 1
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queens ww2 cookie recipe 1
british wartime rations 1
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v e day recipes food 1
wartime cake recipes 1
old ww2 recipes 1
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pre ww2 recipes 1
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world war two soldiers photos 1
food in 1940s britain 1
how to make bread and dripping 1
1940s bangs 1
homefront recipes 1
make do and mend world war 2 1
unusual wwii ration recipes 1
ww2 food for ve parties

Dig for Victory

If governments really cared for their people they would be using their resources to put together a modern day “Dig for Victory” campaign…

During WWII public information films encouraged individuals and communities to be ingenious, creative and to take responsibility in growing extra food for the table to balance food shortages.

The “Dig for Victory” campaign was launched in 1939 by the British government. Before the war Britain imported 55 million tons of food annually (over 2/3rds) . During the war that reduced to only 1/3rd and the dig for victory campaign helped alleviate some of the vegetable and fruit shortages.

People were encouraged to use any spare land like gardens, Anderson shelter roofs, parks etc to create productive wartime gardens that would be able to put food on the table for their families, most of the year.

The “Victory Garden” and the “Dig for Victory” campaign provides a model for todays society. 70 years ago, victory gardening was setting an example promoting recycling and sustainable land management (using companion planting, growing plants side by side to repel or attract insects) and fresh seasonal local produce straight from the earth (no air miles) high in nutritional value.

It’s time to return….

C xxxx

Will eating a diet based on wartime rations save you money?

I took a look at my pre-1940s diet… I was not only shocked to see how many calories I was consuming as well as the high fat content but also the amount of processed foods too. As if that wasn’t enough I couldn’t believe that I was spending over $15 a day on food JUST FOR ME!  I struggle financially like any other single Mom out there with children at home and one wage coming in, so my budget is a very important part of me being able to get by. When I made changes to the way I ate it not only helped me to lose weight and feel a lot healthier but there is now more money in my purse which helps pay the bills… on average I am nearly $10 better off per day which is a $5000 saving per year and over half my food is now organic and mostly wholefoods…
This summer I will strive to finally plant my Victory Garden – how awesome would it be to pick homegrown fresh organic vegetables on my way to work every morning…

My average day before the 1940s Experiment =  $15.75 (3600 cals)

Breakfast: 3 slices toast with butter and some slices of cheese $1.00 (700 cals)
Snack: Extra large coffee from Tim Hortons with double cream $1.75 (100 cals)
Lunch: Buy a packet of sandwiches- tuna and mayonnaise $3.50 (500 cals)
Snack: Extra large coffee from Tim Hortons + small bag of chips + chocolate bars $4.00 (700 cals)
Dinner: Large beef lasagna with extra cheese + a salad with dressing $4.00 (1200 cals)
Supper: Milk and cookies x 4 $1.50 (400 cals)

My average day during the 1940s Experiment =  $6.00 (2025 cals)

Breakfast: 1 dry cup of organic oatmeal 25 c (300 cals)
Snack: Piece of organic fruit and a few raw organic nuts if available 75c (150 cals)
Lunch: Large semi-organic salad with leaf greens + various raw veggies and some organic kidney beans + a baked potato $2.00 (500 cals)
Snack: Piece of organic fruit 50 c (75 cals)
Dinner: A veggie based meal from wartime recipe book or a veggie stew inc a little pastry or potatoes or rice $1.50 (600 cals)
Supper: Glass of almond milk and a couple of slices of toast with a vegan organic margarine and marmite $1.00 (400 cals)
How do you economize?
C xxxx

My favourite wartime recipes revisited- pt 1

I’ve had lots of recent comments left or sent regarding the wartime recipes so far re-created during the 1940s Experiment. Many people have expressed delight in finding out that wartime food was actually rather yummy! Here are some of my favourite ones I have re-created to date

 
Wartime Vegetable Turnovers: I am not sure whether there was a typo in the cook book for this one- it said serves 4 so I made 4 veggie turnovers out of the ingredients …they were each the size of 1/2 a dinner plate! BUT if Marguerite Patten tells me it feeds 4 then I will eat a whole one… click for recipe 
Wartime Pumpkin Soup: ALWAYS make pumpkin soup with the smaller, non carving variety! I had stocked up on some honey crisp apples (for pies) and some sugar pie pumpkins and butternut squash for soups from www.indiangardenfarms.ca  The pumpkin soup I made today nearly stopped me following through with our thanksgiving meal it was so delicious.. click for recipe
Glory Buns: This is a recipe for simple currant spiced buns that turned out so absolutely tasty and yummy and easy to make that I simply called them GLORIOUS.. They are not only economical but taste sooo good! …click for recipe
C xxxx

1940s Experiment on Facebook

Are you on Facebook?

Are you interested in the home front during WWII especially the recipes and living frugally? Are you trying to lose weight or are you trying out some of the recipes?

If so, please sign up on the 1940s Experiment Facebook page for a good old fashioned gossip!

Look forward to chatting

C xxx

See this smile…


Monday has been such a good day that I may just need pinching..

My weekly weigh-in showed a 4 lb weight-loss which means on my home scales I now weigh 259 lbs (18 st 5 lbs).

Hell thats 40 lbs in the last 3.5 months, 56 lbs from the weight I started this blog at and down 86 lbs from my heaviest weight ever. Do you know how good that feels? It feels so good I want to cry pathetically …

And then as if that wasn’t enough good news in one day, I had a terribly exciting e-mail to do with my blog which at the moment I just cannot share for fear of jinxing this little ember that could ignite or could just simply fizzle out. But getting the e-mail was enough to bring smiles and some hope to this little Green Cottage full of Hobbits in the woods…

C xxxxxxxxxx

Eggless Pancakes

Being vegan and immersing myself in the 1940s Experiment (to live on wartime rations for 1 year, recreate 100 authentic recipes and lose 100 lbs) is not without it’s challenges. Tonight I will recreate a 1940s recipe with meat in for my youngest daughter (Em) but I won’t be able to taste it… instead I will smell it and closely observe my youngest Hobbits face as she takes the first mouthful. Hopefully there will be no wrinkled up noses or horrified expressions..

But the real challenge is finding or adapting recipes from the 1940s to suit my new vegan lifestyle. Luckily many of the authentic recipes I am finding were eggless or meatless..

For lunch today I made 4 very tasty eggless pancakes and both Em and I gobbled them down. I totally recommend you try these!

Eggless Pancakes

  • 4 tablespoons of flour (UK)- 5 tbls (US) – 60 ml (Europe)
  • pinch of sugar and salt
  • milk and water to bind (vegans use almond milk)
  • lard or dripping to fry (vegans use Earth Balance shortening)

Method

  1. Mix the flour with the salt and sugar and add the water/milk to make a nice thick batter
  2. Heat the lard/dripping until smoking hot in the pan then lower the heat a little
  3. Pour in 1/4 of the mixture to make a medium sized pancake
  4. Cook until browned and then turn over and repeat
  5. Eat with jam, golden syrup or lemon juice (if being authentic)

Makes 4 pancakes

 

PS If you have a Kindle you can now take out a subscription for the 1940s Experiment on Amazon. This means the latest postings including all the photos etc are delivered automatically, as soon as they are available, to your Kindle, ready for you to read. Click here..

A message that will keep me going..

I went out last night. It was the first proper sit down meal and dance I’d been to for many, many years… to mark the occasion I wore a skirt (apart from when I’ve dressed as a pirate I haven’t worn a skirt for 15 years).

The Best Western Plus served an awesome meal. My meat eating colleagues had plates laden with their festive main course (it was a late Christmas party) and the chef had prepared a separate vegan dish for me….pasta and fresh vegetables in a thin curry/fresh herb sauce (not exactly 1940s but it would not have been fair to send that challenge to the kitchen- I’m not that evil!!). It was moist-makingly delicious …

The conversation for two hours over dinner was such fun.

But then I came home, and that insidious thing called loneliness crept up on me. I wished there was someone who would put their arm around me and listen to my stories. That can be difficult..

But this morning I found this in my inbox…it had come from a far and distant land…

“At the innermost core of all loneliness is a deep and powerful yearning for union with one’s lost self.”

– Brendan Francis Behan

“Aren’t you mid way through that journey Carolyn?  Getting the old you back”…?

It resonated with me… and in one simple moment turned around the self-destructive thoughts. It is amazing how a few words of wisdom and the kindliness of one single person can make such a difference.

Today I bake…