What a week....I am exhausted totally. After our visitor left Monday morning, I had a worsening of my head cold Tuesday although I managed to remain at work for the week. But looking back now, it would have been wiser to have had a day or two off work to give myself a chance to get over it. Never mind. I am finally on the mend and almost back to my "old self".
Ralphy and I had our weekly weigh-in this morning and it is all good news. Ralphy lost .4kg and I lost .6kg. Considering that Ralphy slowly over the week entirely demolished the remains of the Cherry and Blueberry Tart that I had made for our weekend guest, he still did quite well. I actually was never hungry enough to want a piece....can you believe this... although I did have a battle with my eyes!!!!! Which is what I would like to expand on today before I give you the recipe to the tart.
Refresher : As I mentioned in an earlier post, being sugar free gives you back your appetite control centre. When I say sugar free, I am really referring to fructose free (although two pieces of whole fruit is allowed per day but no more, and it must be the whole fruits, not just the juice). And remember from one of my earlier posts, my explaining that sugar is made up of 50% glucose and 50% fructose. The glucose is not harmful to the body but the fructose is. In order to get rid of the fructose from your diet, you therefore have to give up sugar.Back to my story for today. What I have noticed lately is that I cannot consume as big a meal as I once did before I start to feel very satisfied. In fact, my meals have probably halved in size and that is no exaggeration. And Ralphy is finding the same thing. If we tried to eat the same quantity of food now that we ate pre the sugar/ fructose-free diet, we would most likely make ourselves well and truly sick. And this is one of the positive 'side effects' claimed again and again by many who follow this sugar/ fructose free diet.
Conclusion..... this is probably the main reason we lose weight...we now are in touch with what our bodies really require/ need. For example, if Ralphy and I have a roast lamb meal for Sunday lunch, our appetite is still fairly suppressed by dinner time that night and usually easily satisfied with something like a boiled egg on a piece of toast. Nothing more. And we remain not hungry for the rest of the evening. Our body now is telling us when it needs nourishment and when it doesn't.
Research by 'experts' have found that sugar ingestion makes you indeed want to eat more and more. It actually produces a hormone that says you are hungry, your blood sugar is low, eat more NOW!!! So you eat more than you need, and if it contains sugar, your body produces more of the same hormones. And so the vicious cycle continues.
As evidence of this, I actually went out to dinner with two girlfriends from work last night. For drinks I had two mineral waters (my girlfriends had champagne). I could have had a wine but was the driver (and it was pouring rain at the time and dangerous driving on the roads), and besides, I was not really in the mood for wine still suffering blocked nasal passages. Food wise I had a boneless lamb shank on a bed of potato mash with steamed beans and a grilled tomato. It had a somewhat more ornate description of the meal than this, but basically this was what it was. There was also supposed to be the addition somewhere of some onion jam which I presumed was a caramelised onion mixture full of sugar, so asked if this could not be added. One bite of the meal and I hit SWEET, and I mean SWEET, presumably onion jam. It was on the top of the medallion of lamb, so I scraped it off and put it to one side...... I really didn't have it in me to complain to the waiter. The rest of the meal was very enjoyable and I believe, being a french restaurant, the chef would have used lots of butter which I am allowed. And that was it for the night. I had no desire or room for anything else (could have had a cheese platter) although the girls polished off a cream brulee each.
Truth be known, I actually struggled to eat the entire lamb meal although it wasn't that big. I really probably should have listened to what my body was telling me and not devoured the lot. But it was sooooo delicious. I didn't taste 'sweet' anywhere else in the meal but suspect that there were 'hidden' sugars elsewhere. And this is because today I have hunger pangs, a rarity for me now on this diet. I have found that the few times I have 'accidentally' ingested sugar over the past few weeks, the following day I have had hunger pangs throughout the day. I shouldn't be hungry a couple of hours after breakfast, but I am....and this goes on for the rest of the day.
Other dieters have reported experiencing similar repercussions of ingesting sugar. Even having a little sugar totally influences my appetite control button until I get it out of my system. And this is exactly what I am experiencing today. So there had to have been hidden sugars somewhere in my meal last night apart from that first mouthful of the main meal. Just imagine if I had had a dessert!!!!
It is indeed hard to dine out and decide on a course that doesn't contain sugar. Even if the chef hasn't physically added sugar, it could be an ingredient in a sauce, or a condiment, or...... Try and find a bottle of olives that doesn't have sugar as one of the ingredients. I kid you not. It is a long and hard search and only after much disappointment did I find a small bottle on the bottom shelf of my supermarket that only had brine in it......and they tasted really bitter/ horrible!!!!
So that is my little rant for today. Sugar makes you want more and more and more.....
But glucose is another story. Your body recognises glucose and produces enough insulin to metabolise all of it. And it doesn't make you want to eat any more than is necessary. If you eat more it is your own doing and probably because it is just so delicious you just have to try and force it in!!!!
So on that happy note, lets get into the recipe for the tart I made for our visitor last weekend.... an adaptation of David Gillespie's Royal Raspberry Tart Recipe from his second book 'Sweet Poison Quit Plan'.
Cherry and Blueberry Tart
Ingredients:
1 punnet of blueberries
200g of cherries
or may use frozen fruits as desired.
Coconut Pastry
1 cup plain flour (scant)
1 cup shredded coconut (scant)
90g butter
1/4 cup dextrose powder (purchase from home brewing section of supermarket)
1 egg yolk
Filling
3/4 cup dextrose powder
2 tablespoons cornflour
1 tablespoon powdered gelatine
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
350 ml milk
vanilla essence
150 mls thickened cream
Method:
Prepare Coconut Pastry
Preheat oven to 180º (350º F).
Combine all pastry ingredients, mixing with fingertips until just blended (I used a food processor). If mixture is really dry, add a tiny amount of cold water until you can just combine it all together.
Press dough onto bottom and up sides of 25cm flan tin (or springform pan).
Prick pastry base with a fork in several places to prevent shrinkage and puffing during baking.
Blind bake for 10 minutes (line pastry shell with baking paper, then rice, dried beans or baking weights to stop pastry from lifting as it cooks).
Remove paper and weights and cook, uncovered, for a further 5 - 10 minutes until pastry begins to colour.
Cool on a wire rack while still in tin.
Prepare Filling
Combine dextrose, cornflour and gelatine in medium saucepan.
Whisk together egg, egg yolk and milk.
Stir egg mix into gelatine mix. Allow to stand for 5 minutes (to let gelatine soften).
Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens (this will happen suddenly). Stir through vanilla essence.
Once thickened, pour filling into a large bowl and refrigerate. Stir the filing occasionally, waiting for it to cool and mound slightly when dropped from a spoon.
Whip the cream to stiff peaks. Whisk of fold the cream into the filling.Assembly
Carefully lift cooled coconut pastry case onto a serving platter.
Spoon or gently pour filling into case.
Top with cherries and blueberries.
Refrigerate until filling is completely set (about 1 hour).*Serve with a scoop of home made vanilla ice-cream or a dollop of sweetened whipped cream (using dextrose of course). We had the tart on it's own and it was very enjoyable considering we are on a 'diet'. And Ralphy polished the remainder off over the week and still lost .4kg.....so we are loving this diet.
Hope you enjoy the tart....bon appetit.
...and then with a very happy tummy, sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite my cherubs.....Noels
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