Wow, this is when it gets real serious for most people NO CARBS – what? No Rice? No Potatoes? No BREAD?! Yup, no grains, no wheat, no white potatoes – wow. And to top that off, NO DAIRY in the same week.
Bloody hell, flashes of latte, cheese and biscuits, bread, cheese on toast, lasagne, pasta, pizza, chips, crisps and everything else most of our life revolves around (which is totally wrong and terrible unhealthy) but quite a shock for most people.
I’ve already cut my carbs way down since June (I always give half to Liam), haven’t really changed dairy intake (it’s not that large anyway, 1 small latte a day and cheese now and then) but we still eat bread fairly regularly (bread with sugar in no less, as all bread has).
You probably already know a fair amount about white carbs and why they are not good for us, but a lot of people are surprised by dairy as it’s always been touted as a super-food and good for you but it’s really not.
Day 1-3
Unfortunately, I was in Thailand for the first 3 days of week 4, so it was really hard – we did have fruit first thing in the morning still, ate our avocados and made as best choice as we could.
Thai food fortunately, on the whole, is reasonably healthy, smallish portions, plenty of veggies and seafood but I’m pretty sure they all have sugar in and I still did eat a small amount of carbs.
But as soon as we got back to KL (which was around Midnight on Wednesday) we went straight to NSK (after an 8-hour drive all the way from Hat Yai) to get our fruits and Alkagizer ingredients to get back on track.
I was actually missing all the fruits, veggies and green stuff after a few days away from it.
The rest of the week
We’ve definitely had some delicious meals since then even with no carbs, this is cauliflower and carrot rice with steamed broccoli and balsamic vinegar chicken drumsticks.
At this point, we’ve got pretty much completely paleo – and right at the extreme end of the spectrum.
Of course we’re also keeping up our daily fruits and smoothies regime, even before a beer tasting 😀
I kept pretty on program at lunch too, order whatever has the most vegetables and replace any potatoes/pasta/bread with another portion of vegetables – I had chicken parmigiana and swapped the potatoes for extra veggies. It was slightly off program because of the breadcrumbs and a little cheese – but way better than any of the other pasta or pizza options.
The Vitamix 5200
I caved in week 3 as well and ordered a Vitamix 5200 from Amazon UK, that arrived the day after we got back too, so finally our chunkies really became smoothies!
It’s such a breeze to use, so easy to clean, no stupid latching safety mechanism and SO powerful. It’s that fast, you can actually hot soup in the machine just by blending something for 4-5 minutes. Amazing.
If you wanna know more check this: https://www.bestblender.com/ and this The Best Blender | Sweethome.
Get one here: Vitamix 5200 Series Blender, Black
Or save some with a certified Refurbished model: Vitamix Standard Blender, Black (Certified Refurbished)
Healthy Ingredients in Malaysia
I’ve also become a lot more aware of healthy ingredients in the shops in KL, some of them have a fantastic range – so far I was super impressed by village Grocer in 1 Mont Kiara which has LOADS of stuff.
I picked up some Bragg’s Aminos (a soya sauce alternative with no sugar and no wheat) from there along with some Avocados and Rooibos tea (for the upcoming week).
I’ve also noticed most shops sell these kind of things, Aminos, tamari (wheat and sugar-free soya sauce), various types of flour, organic balsamic with no colouring or sugar etc. There’s lots of healthy choices around us, we just don’t really look at them.
And honestly, they do cost more. But would you rather pay a little more for ingredients now, or the doctors bills later? easy choice for me.
Healthy Paleo Brownies
We also went a little into a grey area over the weekend, as we knew what was coming up after the buffer zone and made some borderline on program paleo brownies using coconut flour, coconut oil instead of butter, maple syrup and cocoa powder.
They were delicious with a cup of Rooibos tea!
Week 4 Summary
So yah, it’s getting pretty tough now, but honestly the no carbs thing is not that tough – there’s nothing that I super miss or crave for and I feel I’m sleeping better, my energy is very even (no midday crashes) I can concentrate better and I’m already losing weight (not much yet, but it’s starting) even though we aren’t in the real weight loss period yet.
The smoothies are even better now with the Vitamix and I’m actually starting to find them a little sweet with the apples in, especially if I use Banana when our avocados aren’t ripe yet.
So I think my taste buds are normalising and my stomach is shrinking (I get full with less faster) – which is great. Plus I don’t have cravings for sugary things, and when you feel this stable energy wise – you don’t even want to eat those things subconsciously.
To summarise:
– Drink more water (at least 6-8 large glasses a day)
– Eat 3 pieces of fruit each morning on an empty stomach
– Drink the Alkagizer Mild every day
– Add an EXTRA portion of vegetables at every meal
– Continue removing refined sugars
– Remove all grains (rice, wheat etc) and white potato
– Remove dairy (and all byproducts)
* Grains include bread, pasta, rice (barley, buckwheat, bulgur, corn, rye, durum, oats, semolina, spelt, wheat etc).
* Dairy includes products made from cow milk, goat milk and sheep milk.
Onwards and upwards, here’s to healthy living!
All my WildFit posts are here:
WildFit Challenge – Week 1 – Inner Dialogue
WildFit Challenge – Week 2 – Alkagizer Mild
WildFit Challenge – Week 3 – NO SUGAR!
WildFit Challenge – Week 5 – No Alcohol or Caffeine
WildFit Challenge – Week 6 – Entering Ketosis AKA Spring
WildFit Challenge – Week 7 & 8 – Staying In Spring
WildFit Challenge – Week 9 & 10 – Yah Still Spring
WildFit Challenge – Week 11 & 12 – A Small Break
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