345 lbs - my heaviest

I have never been so determined as I am right now to lose this hundred pounds…

As anyone who has struggled with their weight knows, especially if it is a significant amount, the struggle and the task to complete, can sometimes become overwhelming. I get moments like these…… moments when I am so very scared that I’ll wake up and that will be the day I no longer have that fire inside me that keeps me striding towards my goal.

If you have already lost weight, old photos can provide the necessary wake-up call to shock your wavering commitment into behaving itself.

I have some photos that are extremely painful to look at not because I hardly recognize the face looking back at me but because I remember the emotions that were part of my daily existence at this time. When your eating is out of control you really don’t like yourself very much.

Today I’m over 80 lbs less than I was at my heaviest weight ever and I’m beginning to like myself a little bit….

How do you keep motivated?

C xxxxxxxxxxx

312 lbs, 299 lbs and 280 lbs (work scales fully clothed)

It was my birthday last Sunday….I was 46. I’m kinda noticing the obvious signs of aging and thinking ‘why does life pass by so quickly?’..it’s rather scary don’t you think?

I was very lucky on my birthday. I got an iPod touch from a wonderful, special friend who I totally adore, some money from my parents and simply delightful 1940s gifts from my husbands (we have been separated for 3 years and he lives with a lovely lady called Deborah) parents Dorothy and Simon..

The gifts included tea bags from the UK (yay!), a gorgeous card, some dollars, a ration book coaster and an amazing tea-towel with a 1940s poster image that says “where there’s a woman there’s a way…”

And today I am thinking about those women on the Home Front during WWII who kept their families cared for and bravely “kept calm and carried on” , the Land Army Girls who supplied extra manual labour on our farms to ensure the population continued to be fed and that farms could remain productive, the women who took over from the men and learned skills and trades to fill those gaps in the work force ensuring that the economy thrived as best as it could.

So here’s to women god bless ’em. If there is a way a woman will find it…

————————————————————————————–

PS Jan left this comment which I wasn’t aware of… thanks Jan

“And please don’t forget the women who had to carry on looking after the family when the bread winner lost his life for the cause. There was no family allowance in those days. The only money they were entittled to was a small widows pension. I’ll drink to these brave women any day….”

Traditional Irish Soda Bread is part of my younger childhood memories. Granny Hyland used to make Irish Soda Bread most days of her life and our annual holiday to Ireland to visit her and Grandad Hyland, in their gatekeepers cottage in the Wicklow countryside, allowed us to enjoy its flavour once again. The taste and smell of food has very powerful associations don’t you think?

Irish Soda Bread was the most popular homemade bread in Ireland in the earlier part of the 20th century. The climate in Ireland produced softer wheat rather than hard wheat with a high gluten content (best suited for using yeast as a raising agent). There were two common types of soda bread, one was ‘cake ‘ (where the loaf is baked as a round shape with a cross cut into the top to allow the bread to expand) and ‘farl’ (more common in Northern Ireland- the dough was flattened to 1/4 inch thick, cut into 4 pieces and cooked on griddle).

It’s the quickest & easiest bread recipe ever, it involves only a very light knead (the less the better) and no waiting for the dough to rise… I always pay a couple of dollars more for an organic non-gmo flour and even then, this loaf is a fraction of the price it would command in your local store..

Traditional Irish Soda Bread

• 1 lb of wholewheat flour (4 cups)
• 500 mls (2 cups) of buttermilk (1 teaspoon of vinegar added to fresh milk <<I used almond milk>> makes a good fake buttermilk)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

Method

1. Place 2 cups of milk into a bowl, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice. Mix well and set aside for 15 minutes before using in recipe. Buttermilk is a necessary ingredient because it helps activate the baking soda to produce a rise
2. Meanwhile sieve your flour into a large bowl with the salt and baking soda
3. After 15 minutes whisk up the buttermilk with a fork to make sure it is mixed well and pour into a well in the centre of the flour
4. Mix up with a spoon until  formed into a dough
5. Briefly knead to ensure it is mixed well (knead as little as possible)
6. Form into a round, very slightly flattened shape, place on baking tray, and with a sharp knife mark with a shallow cross in the middle (this allows for the dough to expand)
7. Oven should be pre-heated to 200 c (400 F) and the loaf placed in the middle to top half of the oven for around 45 minutes. Cover with aluminium foil if it begins to brown too quickly
8. Loosely wrap in a clean t-towel once removed and place on a cooling rack (wrapping in a tea-towel ensures a softer crust although you can wrap in cling film after it has fully cooled to achieve a similar result)

I served a chunk of this with vegetable and oatmeal goulash yesterday but it is wonderful with soup, cheese and ‘Branston Pickle’ or just with butter.. (I remember this from my pre-vegan days!)

Each loaf is about 1600 calories

I made this authentic wartime recipe today. I have to admit I dismissed this recipe several times simply because it sounded so dull… BUT let me assure you it is anything but! If you are like me and love vegetables and love comfort food and it’s cold outside… this will hit the spot.

Looking in my fridge I could see root vegetables staring back at me, purchased before Christmas, that needed putting out of their misery, so I used them. This is an incredibly frugal recipe and for lunch will feed four served with a big chunk of fresh bread…

Enjoy!

Vegetable and Oatmeal Goulash

• 1-2 lb of mixed root vegetables ( I used 1 large potato, 2 parsnips, 2 large carrots)
• knob of dripping (I used a vegan shortening)
• 2 oz of coarse oatmeal (porridge oats will do)
• 1 tsp of meat extract (I used Marmite)
• 1 pt of vegetable stock
• mixed herbs, salt and pepper

Method

1. Prepare and dice the vegetables
2. Fry in dripping until slightly cooked
3. Add oatmeal and keep stirring until fat is absorbed
4. Cover with vegetable stock until covered and simmer until vegetables are soft and mixture is real thick (about 45 mins)
5. Mix in meat extract when cooking
6. Mix in herbs, salt and pepper to taste when cooking

Serve with a nice big chunk of fresh bread. I served mine with Irish Soda Bread (recipe to come!)

Haha- today my employers are running an article in the Lunenburg County Progress Bulletin tonight,  on a group of us at work that participated in a 60 Day Fitness Challenge here at work… 17 of us did it and 11 were successful in sticking to what they had agreed to do whether it was a change in diet or a form of exercise. They used my before and after shots in the article… yeeee gawds. It’s a good job I really don’t give a poop anymore what people think of me… (one of the delightful things that happen with age)

This blog is linked in the article so if you were interested in reading about the 60 Day Fitness Challenge and how I managed to drop 32lbs in 60 days …please click this link  http://blogs.southshorenow.ca/carolyn/?paged=4 (this is my other blog)

And yesterday my employers, Lighthouse Media Group, started up The 60 Day Fitness Challenge- Part 2 (Losers vs Dropouts) and many of us have signed up again to continue the good work into the new year.

Happy New Year everyone… hope that 2012 will be a happy one for all..

I’ll be back soon with my 1940s recipes and more 1940s updates

C xxxxx