Month: May 2012

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What’s the 1940s Experiment all about? Part 1

I’ve had this simple theory…

You eat fresh fruit and vegetables abundantly, plenty of wholefoods daily, meat and dairy sparingly and processed foods occasionally. You take a walk now and again, go for a bike ride or a swim, for fun and fresh air, sometimes instead of watching the TV… you begin to feel happier, healthier, more alert and with this brings a new appreciation for the simple beauty of life.

You start to make choices, you buy some locally grown foods, you become aware of transportation, packaging and marketing of goods, you begin reading the labels on tins and convenience foods and realize that some of the additives are probably making you fat and ill because they are a significant part of your daily consumption… perhaps the worst additive in many convenience foods is Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), a damaging Excitotoxin allegedly introduced by the british military during WWII to make canned food for it’s troops more palatable and to increase their appetites.. if you would like to find out more I recommend you watch this short video by Neuro-Surgeon Dr Russell Blaylock

You become aware that the below ingredients contain up to 99% MSG and are now a disguised form of MSG labelling and you begin to avoid them..

  • Glutamate
  • Glutamic Acid
  • Monosodium Glutamate
  • Monopotassium Glutamate
  • Yeast Extract
  • Yeast Food
  • Yeast Nutrient
  • Autolyzed Yeast
  • Autolyzed Yeast Extract
  • Torula Yeast
  • Autolyzed Soy Protein (any protein that is autolyzed)
  • Hydrolyzed Protein (any protein that is hydrolyzed)
  • Hydrolyzed Whey Protein
  • Hydrolyzed Pea Protein
  • Hydrolyzed Corn Protein
  • Hydrolyzed Corn Gluten
  • Calcium Caseinate
  • Sodium Caseinate
  • Textured Protein
  • Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)
  • Natrium Glutamate (natrium is Latin/German for sodium)
  • Gelatin
After a month or so of a diet mainly free of MSG you begin to feel pretty wonderful… your cravings for higher fat and salty foods begin to subside, especially now you have increased the amount of wholefoods, fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet…
Part 2 coming soon..
PS: Sorry for whittering on, I hate being an idealist sometimes!
PPS: And one of my favourite foods allegedly contains a form of MSG, MARMITE….good job I eat it fairly sparingly. A sad day though…
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Quick Vegetable Soup

Yeah so it ended up a greeny brown BUT it did taste good and my bowels will thank me for devouring two bowlfuls for my lunch today!

I had a big bunch of broccoli to use up and I HATE wasting food. In good wartime tradition I chopped that up and used it with some other mixed vegetables to create quite a tasty thick soup, enough to serve 4-6 topped with delicious homemade croutons.

While cooking vegetables for so long diminishes their nutritional value and enzymes (always make sure to eat some raw fruit and vegetables and wholefoods everyday!), it’s still better to eat a lunch like this than grabbing a burger from a fast food restaurant and I know you’ll think I’m talking out of my rather large posterior BUT a raw salad or a veggie soup wins hands down for me every single time… HONEST!!!

Enjoy!

Quick Vegetable Soup

  • 1lb of vegetables chopped (I used broccoli, potatoes, parsnip, onion, sweetcorn, peas, carrots)
  • 1.5 pints of vegetable stock (I used 2 rounded teaspoons of yeast extract- marmite)
  • 1/2 oz of dripping or margarine/butter
  • salt and pepper
  • large pinch of sugar (or a dollop of a sweet chutney)
  • chopped parsley or favourite herbs

Method

  1. Heat the dripping in a pan and add the vegetables and cook gently for 5 minutes
  2. Add the vegetable stock and simmer for 20 minutes until the hardest vegetables are soft
  3. Pass through sieve or use a food processor to puree
  4. Return to saucepan and add salt and pepper, sugar or chutney and any herbs
  5. Heat through and serve, topped with homemade croutons, ground pepper and a little chopped parsley
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Homemade croutons

Don’t ask me why, but I’ve NEVER made croutons. Somehow I thought they would be finicky, difficult, mushroom-cloud-exploding-from-the-top-of-my-head-annoying even… So when I saw a recipe for homemade croutons in a wartime recipe book of mine, and it looked so simple I didn’t feel my blood pressure spiking, even for one moment, I HAD to give it a go.

This recipe was SO DAMN SIMPLE!

Although I haven’t had pre-packaged shop bought croutons for a long, long time, I’ve never been a big fan. They seemed too oily, too garlicky and too damn hard. These homemade croutons were light and crispy and tasty and PERFECT on top of the “Quick Vegetable Soup” I made this morning.  I’ll never, ever go back to buying croutons again…there seriously is no point.

The only fat on my croutons was a little oil used to grease the tray and they were simple seasoned with a sprinkling of sea salt and dried mixed herbs before they went in the oven

Homemade Croutons

  • 4 slices of wholewheat bread (one slice of bread per person)
  • a little oil or margarine for greasing baking tray
  • salt
  • dried herbs

Method

  1. Slice bread into small cubes (16 pieces per slice) making sure not to squash bread
  2. Place on a greased baking tray
  3. Sprinkle with salt and dried mixed herbs
  4. Place in middle of pre-heated oven 180 C until croutons dry out and become golden with darker edges

I prefer my croutons without garlic but you can easily rub a sliced clove over the tray before adding the bread or indeed bake a couple of cloves with the bread. Add your own seasoning and herbs to taste..

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Losing weight means walking for cancer


My Relay for Life t-shirt is an XXL… and it’s too big. That makes me rather happy 🙂

Sorry about the lack of brand new recipes recently…

My mind has been focusing on a number of things including participation in the Relay for Life event here in Canada. I’ve been raising funds for the Canadian Cancer Society and will be joining my team mates and hundreds of other walkers on June 1st, to walk in a relay throughout the night to honour, remember, raise awareness and celebrate the courage of those who have fought and are fighting against cancer. Am sure to be humbled by the participants..

So I just wanted to thank you for your donations- every single dollar has helped and will help and I appreciate your support.

I now have 7 days left to get used to walking lots more than I am used to, I know it’s going to be hard but am just so very grateful, having lost weight, that I can now participate in this event.

For more information on events around the country and my fundraising page CLICK HERE

C xxxxxxx

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2 lbs on and the hanging shirt

I weighed in today and had put 2 lb on… Prior to that I had lost 2 lbs, lost 2 lbs, lost nothing, lost 4 lbs, lost 7 lbs and before that had plateaued for 3 weeks. Basically that is 13 lbs in 8 weeks (current weight 235lb..)

Things are slowing down but if I’m honest, I have been exercising less.

In two weeks time I take part in a big countrywide event here in Canada… “Relay for Life”. It is an event to honour and remember those who are fighting cancer and also to raise money to further cancer research. On June 1st a small team of work colleagues and I will walk, in a relay, throughout the night. It means a lot to me to be able to participate in this, having now lost 64 lbs, since Oct 1st, I can!

So although today I feel a little discouraged at the weight gain I am excited about the opportunities losing weight is giving me.

And today I am wearing my black shirt, the one I had my 255 lb photo taken in, and it is HANGING off me. I can remember how not so long ago I couldn’t wear it as it was tight and stretched!

Tomorrow I start training hard for “Relay for Life” and I am sure the scales will reflect this.

If you’d like to donate a few dollars- please click here to find out more

Thank you so much 🙂

C xxxxxxxx

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A True Vegan?

Since October 1, 2011, I became 100% a dietary vegan. I’ve struggled very hard indeed to ensure everything I consume does not contain animal products (meat, fish, cheese, milk, egg, butter, gelatine etc) in the ingredients and by sticking to wholefoods, this has made my lifestyle choice much easier (although I slipped up the other day eating a pre-prepared batter that may have made milk in it). Truly, this is so important to me….personally

I really don’t like to talk about the political aspects of veganism. Certainly not in a manner anyway that pushes my personal beliefs down anyones throats and attacks others for having different opinions from my own (I am referencing zealotry and extremism an example) so I got quite upset from a comment left by Richard, a member of the Vegan Society, on my blog recently. I wasn’t upset by his strong principles, but upset by his verbal prejudice and venomous rhetoric to another human being especially without taking the time to check his facts.

Most of us on our planet are peaceful individuals, we tolerate each others differences and quietly work busily behind the scenes or in a productive enthusiastic way to make changes to the wrongs we want to see righted.

I’ve forwarded a link to the Vegan Society for comment and also to remind them of my prior request for further information on veganism in the 1940s (The Vegan Society was founded during the wartime 1940s and they produced a newsletter).

Please take a moment to read the comment left on my blog below and add your thoughts (nicely) please..

Thank you so much

C xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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COMMENT LEFT ABOUT THE BELOW RECIPE

REF: Cheese and Potato Dumplings Recipe

A True Vegan
your no vegan i am part of the vegan society and have been for 5 years now i eat no meat at all you make me sick i hope you stop call your self a vegan stick to your pricables ever your a vegan or NOT btw margarine has cow milk in it ^^^^^^^^^^

A Ture Vegen WiLL not eat MEAT CHEESE OR DRINK MILK

edit this on May 14, 2012 at 6:21 am

Carolyn
Dear Richard- I am a dietary vegan and have been so since October 1st, 2011. You are probably reading a recipe that I made prior to becoming a vegan.

While I applaud your principles, it is people like yourself that give veganism and the Vegan Society a bad name by being so hostile to other folk before taking time to find out the full details instead of attacking me or others in such a hateful manner?

You will see that since October 1st I offer alternative products to use such as Earth Balance dairy free margarine, almond milk instead of dairy milk, obviously no meat or fish and if people need a product to use instead of dairy cheese I have recommended Daiya (dairy free)

And during the war people ate far less meat and dairy and although in an ideal world, they wouldn’t eat any at all, eating a 1940s rationing diet is a BIG STEP in the right direction, getting off the junk processed food, eating very small amounts of animal flesh and cheese and moving towards a mostly plant based diet…. anyone making the change to this from mindlessly consuming huge amounts from animal food should be APPLAUDED. It’s a step in the right direction!

I am contacting the Vegan Society again as I still am waiting to hear from them regarding alternatives offered to Vegans during the latter part of the war (as you probably know the founder of the Vegan society formed it during the war and he used to produce a newsletter) and I’ll forward them a link to these comments- hopefully they can offer some input to 1940s veganism.

And BTW everyday I work very hard indeed to be true to veganism.

Kind Regards

Carolyn

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Inspirational video of the day- never give up

My lovely friend Naomi posted this on my personal Facebook wall this morning…. I love motivational videos and photos and unashamedly use them most days to keep my own focus on the straight and narrow.

I had to, in turn, share this with you

C xxxxxxxx

 

Arthur Boorman was a disabled veteran of the Gulf War for 15 years, and was told by his doctors that he would never be able to walk on his own, ever again.

He stumbled upon an article about Diamond Dallas Page doing Yoga and decided to give it a try — he couldn’t do traditional, higher impact exercise, so he tried DDP YOGA and sent an email to Dallas telling him his story.

Dallas was so moved by his story, he began emailing and speaking on the phone with Arthur throughout his journey – he encouraged Arthur to keep going and to believe that anything was possible. Even though doctors told him walking would never happen, Arthur was persistent. He fell many times, but kept going.

Arthur was getting stronger rapidly, and he was losing weight at an incredible rate! Because of DDP’s specialized workout, he gained tremendous balance and flexibility — which gave him hope that maybe someday, he’d be able to walk again.

His story is proof, that we cannot place limits on what we are capable of doing, because we often do not know our own potential. Niether Arthur, nor Dallas knew what he would go on to accomplish, but this video speaks for itself. In less than a year, Arthur completely transformed his life. If only he had known what he was capable of, 15 years earlier.

Do not waste any time thinking you are stuck – you can take control over your life, and change it faster than you might think. 

Hopefully this story can inspire you to follow your dreams – whatever they may be.
Anything is Possible!

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Vegan potluck, non-1940s food and 2 lb off

I’m sorry I have been so quiet.. I’ve been moving forward after a 16 month long distance relationship came to an end a month or so ago. It was difficult.

BUT I’m ABSOLUTELY in a happy place now. It’s like a weight has been lifted… This past week or so has brought fun back into my life in many ways.


Photo by Samantha Green at www.justsamanthagreen.com

First I visited the city with some friends to listen to keynote speaker “Sir Ken Robinson” who is absolutely my hero. If ever I decided to fall asleep with a voice in my head, feeding my brain subliminally with information, it would be Sir Ken’s… Being a country gal, a visit to the city was really exciting and I enjoyed everything about the day including my first experience of Metro Transit!

Secondly, we had a vegan potluck at work. The food was AMAZING! Curries, Tunisian stew, blackberry muffins, salads, pasta, hummus, soup, pitta breads, pizza, roasted vegetables, fruit, stir-fry, pickled mushrooms, and even a chocolate mousse made from avocado!!! I allowed myself a day off from eating 1940s to participate.

Finally I made another trip to the city for an appointment and met up with another friend for lunch. It was the first cafe I had been to in the city so once again it was a big adventure for me. Such fun getting out and about and enjoying great company! The time flew by and before I knew it my 2 hour parking ticket had expired!

In addition to this the girls and I have enjoyed some time together, I even bought us all a dairy free vegan ice-cream for a treat..

Oh and did I mention that I went out to lunch again the other day and enjoyed a spinach salad at the Wildwood Cafe? Well I did and once again had such fun.

These past 10 days have been full of smiles, friends and fun. I’d never have done this last year, my weight would have stopped me, I felt self conscience in public but NOW…. now I am rediscovering the real me again. My confidence is growing..

This ongoing journey of dropping a significant amount of weight, of losing friends but making new ones, of scaling mountains and learning to fly above the tree tops, has become an awakening. My life is no longer cushioned by food…sure things hurt more but there are also glorious times too. I’d rather feel every emotion and awake everyday KNOWING that I am finally living a real life…

Oh and did I also mention that I lost 2 lbs this week?

Well I did and that makes me smile even more 🙂

Thank you for your continuing support… I AM gonna do this!

C xxxxxx

PS I completely forgot about the 3rd Annual Healing Extravaganza! Enjoyed a super morning there with my daughters and friends!! I am loving getting out and about!