On holiday we spent time out and about, doing the theme parks and usual tourist attractions as well as a bit of retail therapy at the malls, perfect timing for me as I did need a few new clothes.

The theme parks not only had overpriced crap food (and you are not meant to bring any food or drink into the park), but also pretty much zero options for the low carber. At Dreamworld for example by about 2 in the afternoon I was starting to get a little hungry so went to the food places to see if anything was suitable, pretty much nothing and I sure as shit was not paying $15 for a burger, fries and drink that would be mostly thrown away, no single burger purchase allowed.

My wife ended up with a prepackaged Ceasar salad with something that tried to pass itself off as slices of ham, and as I found the look of that pretty damn unappealing I ended with a small packet of peanuts to tide me over until I could get some real food. That did work remarkably well at satisfying my hunger for a few more hours.

Movieworld was pretty much the same carb fest as dreamworld and so were the food courts in most of the malls and shopping centers unless you went to a proper sit down restaurant. However I did manage a couple of low carb meals on the run, a prawn salad at a seafood place and half a small chicken at a roast type place.

Restaurant eating was much easier, most of the places we went to offered buffet style dining which I could pick and choose what ended up on my plate, which was great.

We did also stay in self contained apartment which also made breakfast and evening meals much easier, allowing us to cook in a full kitchen.

 

Well I almost did it!! Before heading off on holiday to Surfers Paradise in Australia for 10 days I set myself an upper limit on what weight I would like to be when I arrived home, that goal was to stay sub 90kg. I left at 88.80kg and returned to find I was 90.80!!!!

Woah, considering I could count on 1 hand how many times I indulged in carbs I was a little surprised, a dark chocolate coffin dessert at Dracula's, 1 doughnut from krispy creme and nailed a few desserts at the Marriott Hotel one night.

So over the course of 10 days and considering we were on holiday and out and about most of the time, not bad.

Ok  2kg is no big deal and a I had a feeling it should drop off fairly easily, because I didn't think it was the carbs that contributed much to the weight gain but more water retention from drinking way less water than I would usuallly and increased alcohol consumption (as you do when kicking back, dry whites and pure blonde beer, both low carb).

I was correct, we have been back in New Zealand for 6 days and back into my usual routines and eating habits and I am already sub 90kg, this morning 89.50kg, 1.3kg in 6 days without doing anything special.

My low carb journey started when I watched a documentary that screened here in New Zealand.


"This movie is funny and entertaining and amazingly informative."

"Contradicts everything you've ever been told about diet and heart disease with true science to back it up."

"Funny and smart, you'll be hard pressed to spend a more enlightening 100 minutes, and you'll come away with more practical knowledge than a whole college course in 'convential' nutrition."

-- Amazon reviewers

I highly recommend this movie. 
Click here to check out the movies website or here to visit the movies youtube channel.

The other day I felt the need for a cakey type slice and had a brainwave and immediately set out to create a recipe I had been pondering for a few weeks.

The recipe turned out great and only 2grams of net carbs per slice, and very satisfying. Click the picture to check out the recipe.

Now there is a topic, side effects. Well I have not experienced any negative side effects of the low carb eating lifestyle other than one.

That one side effect is mood swings, and they could be quite severe. For me it would have been best described as intolerance, impatient and generally grumpy and I could be quite short and sharp.

Time period: this really only was an issue when I first started low carbing, within the first month or so, pretty much under control immediately once I realised the cause.

The Cause: I was hungry, I had skipped a meal or was a few hours late, but because I didn't feel traditionally hungry I carried on without eating and I would end up quite grumpy and short with people.

The Remedy: eat something, it really was that simple, all I needed to do to resolve the mood was eat something and within 30 minutes a better frame of mind would be had.

For my lifestyle it is always lunch that can be a little tricky at times to have on a regular schedule, now I make an effort to ensure I do eat within 90 minutes of my regular lunch time, even if I am not all that hungry I try and eat a little of something.

Broke through 89kg this morning with a new low of 88.9kg.

So this will be my new benchmark weight to try and maintain whilst on holiday for the next 2 weeks, to remain sub 90kg is the goal.

Today for the first time I broke through the 90kg mark. 89.70kg.

About to attempt to make some low carb ketchup, I will post the recipe if it turns out to be worthy.

Well it turned out ok, not bad for a first effort but does need some tweaking, will try again in a few weeks when I need to make some more and hopefully it will be worthy of posting the recipe for the ketchup.