Anna Buckley

Broccoli or Bomboloni? Yesterday I felt really pissed off…two days running and I’ve gained almost half a kilo! Same rigid diet routine, same exercise regimen… WTF! I began to hate the scales and despise the chart. Why bother sticking to the rules when my body seemed to be sucking calories from the air. I felt really despondent and was almost tempted to throw the in towel and opt for that gorgeous big Italian Doughnut.

Was I trying to do the impossible? The chart above shows the height weight ratios I should be aiming for. I’m short, a little over 5 feet, and it says the top end for someone my size is between 52.6 kg’s (119 lbs) and 53.53 kg’s (121 lbs). This is what I’m aiming for, but after the last 2 day’s I wondering if I’m kidding myself.

Admittedly I’m trying to do it in record time but I just wasn’t prepared for the mystery gains of the last 2 days. My head was in a very bad place. So much of this whole bloody weight loss thing is dealing with the voices in your head telling you to give up…take just one gorgeous bite…eat the pastry…drink the wine…don’t bother with the exercise. These were the things facing me and I was wondering how I was going to keep motivated.
And I bloody well had to stop thinking like this. Reluctantly I filled out the chart, recorded the shitty stats, pulled my walking shoes on and headed for the big 8 km walk up that giant hill.

It helped. The sun was shining, my head had cleared and I was pleased I hadn’t succumbed to the ‘give up’ option. I had to understand that the results of the first two weeks had been spectacular but completely impossible to continue to achieve. The fasting was still working albeit at a much slower rate. The non fasting days were pretty much useless no losses, one day no change and two days weight increased.

But all that changed overnight and this morning the fasting, the mega walk and a bit of manic house cleaning has paid off and I lost 700 grams (1.6 lb’s) since weigh in yesterday. I was still on track, have lost another 1.1 kg’s since last we spoke and today (day 19) have lost a total of 6.4 kg’s (14.5 lbs)…3.6 kg’s to go. The voices in my head have been silenced and I’m ready to tackle another week!

On Sunday I will reach the half way mark and have a better idea of what will be a realistic figure to achieve.

This week I’ll leave you with one of the meals I prepared and show how I adapted it to keep to the ‘no refined carbs’ rule.

 

PASTA WHEN YOU’RE NOT EATING PASTA! (and how to build flavour into what would ordinarily be a boring tomato sauce!)

INGREDIENTS

500 gms Italian pork and fennel sausages

1/4 cup olive oil

4 Tins diced tomato

2 carrots

1 medium onion

2 small red capsicums

4 small chilies

3 cloves garlic

1 large tablespoon of tomato paste

1 tablespoon of Thai fish sauce

salt and pepper to taste
Add a splash of oil and fry sausages till golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside.

Finely dice onion and fry till opaque. Do not let them burn.

Peel and dice carrots, then blend them into a coarse paste.

Add carrots to onions along with salt, pepper and half the oil. Fry till golden and caramelised. Be very careful to continually stir and scrape mix from bottom of pan as the mix will burn easily and give off a bitter, carbonaceous flavour.

I now use this method with all my stews and soups as it builds extraordinary depths of flavour. Try doing this with a Sofritto. The difference is amazing and the coarse paste has the bonus effect of thickening your stews.

Next chop capsicums, chili and garlic and blend with tinned tomatoes.

Add this to pan along with tomato paste.

Then add remaining oil and Thai fish sauce. You may think it’s a strange ingredient but I use it instead of anchovies and it add a sensational flavour boost. It has now become my Umami rich stock replacement in things such as Paella or my ‘One Pot Wonder’.

When sauce is boiling remove from hob and place in hot oven (about 220 c) and add about a cup of water. I do this as the oven will bake the sauce causing a golden caramelised skin to form on top as it cooks and evaporates. Keep checking every thirty minutes, pushing the skin down, scraping the sides of pan and mixing it into the sauce. Again this is a great technique to build flavour in stews and curries. Remember to add water if the sauce is too thick and turn your oven down if the sauce starts to burn.

This is what my sauce looked like after about two hours. It’s super concentrated and possibly far too rich to eat but would be good as a concentrate to freeze and use at a later date.

Remove pan from oven, place on stove top and add enough water to achieve your desired consistency. Lastly add sliced Italian sausage. Taste and adjust for seasoning and cook for another 15 minutes. If the sauce is too acidic (this will depend on the type of tomatoes you use) you could add a couple of teaspoons of sugar.

That night my husband and son served themselves each a giant bowl of pasta…they even came back for seconds.

And I had this delicate little portion using spiralized zucchini and pretended it was just as good!
Here are some other suggestions for rice and pasta replacement. The broccoli florets are good for mopping up sauces and the cauliflower can be blitzed (in short bursts) to substitute rice.

Honestly I would kill for those white carbs and dream of Paella, Pesto smothered Tagliatelle or white bread smothered in Nutella…but I only have 20 days to go and I must be vigilant. But after that…I will Hoover my way through all those forbidden fruits I’ve been denying myself for all this time.

There’s only so much a girl can take!

Thanks for reading, cheers, Anna x

Love you to read my books The Lost Woman series follows the sexy adventures of Christina as she makes her way through a world of new media, design, fashion,  travel, and … men. The complete series is available now at Amazon, Kobo, Google Books, Barnes & Noble and iBooks, both as eBooks and print books. They can also be ordered from any book store, or by mail order on the BOOKS page.