Sarah Wilson you save my life again...haha

Sarah Wilson you've saved my life again! haha Love these sugar free healthy alternatives for an Easter treat. Yummo! There's no missing out on these special occasions if you do your research first.

Found these recipes on Sarah Wilson's blog. She's awesome. Check it out. Will have to try some of these out myself.

http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2013/03/11-sugar-free-easter-tricks/#more-5832

All of the recipes below are from her blog. 

Raspberry Ripple

1/3 - 1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup organic salted butter
2 tbls raw cacao or cocoa
1 tbls rice malt syrup1/3 cup coconut , shredded or flakes
1/3 cup of frozen raspberries

Melt the butter and oil (in a pan or microwave) stir in the cacao and syrup. Arrange the berries and coconut in the moulds. Pour the coconut oil mixture over the top and pop in the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 2o minutes, Serve direct from the fridge or freezer.


15 tips for easter
 1. Easy egg treats: mix 5 tablespoons of coconut oil (melted) with 3 tablespoons of raw cacao powder (more or less depending on taste) and 3 tablespoons of hazlenut meal and pour into Easter egg moulds (the kind that come as a tray of indented shapes), or mini cupcake patties (the ones used for making chocolates). Place in fridge for an hour.

2. How about this…how to make an egg love heart. Oh my. Serve on Easter morning for “they’ll never know all the other kids are having chocolate confection” fun.

3. What about some lemon poppy seed bunny cookies?

lemon poppy seed bunny cookies

I found this recipe on Elana’s Pantry, a gluten-free blog. Simply swap the agave for 2 tablespoons of rice malt syrup.

• 1 ¾ cup blanched almond flour
• pinch celtic sea salt
• 2 tablespoons grapeseed [or olive or macadamia - Sarah] oil
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (packed)
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

In a large bowl combine almond flour and salt. In a smaller bowl combine oil, agave, vanilla and lemon zest.
Stir wet ingredients into dry, then work in poppy seeds. Roll dough out to ¼ inch thick.
Cut out little bunnies with a bunny cookie cutter. Bake at 180 C for 6-8 minutes, until golden brown around the edges

4. Make up the avocado chocolate mouuse from my ebook. So healthy. So chocolate-y.

5. Better still, serve it in an empty eggshell. My e-friend Aran at CanelleVanille did it recently with a custard. Clever egg that she is. (I’d suggest using a pastry bag or ziplock back with the corner snipped to do this.)

6. Whip up a batch of my chocolate nutballs. Simple. And a great recipe to let the kids make.

For just some plain old chocolate ideas, while I’m here:

7. If you live in the US, you might like these Dr Mercola bars.

8. David Gillespie has great chocolate ice cream and chocolate gelato recipes in The Sweet Poison Quit Plan. Just saying.

9. Good news

I found chocolate bars from Plamil Foods…organic chocolate sweetened with rice malt sugar, containing 3.8g sugar per 100g. The ingredients in this organic bar: Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Butter, Dehydrated Rice Syrup, Soya flour, Emulsifier : Sunflower Lecithin. You can buy them online from Vegan Perfection.

10. I’m also a big fan of Jemma’s Naked Treaties chocolates. Jemma’s Superfood Truffle and coconut bar are sweetened, but only minimally. Jemma handmakes them using 100% raw products. And blesses her ingredients each morning before she starts “cooking”. She tells me each ball contains one gram of fructose (I’m guessing less than 1/3 tsp of sugar). You can buy them direct from her shop in Byron, at a stack of outlets around the country.

11. Turn your muffin pan upside down, and bake biscuit or pastry dough (sweetened with stevia or other) over the top and  bowl for the avocado chocolate mousse, or David’s or sugar-free ice-cream above. Easter-ish I think. But even more so if you used a madeleine pan…a very egg-ish shape, no? (I found this here)

12. This is a simple series of videos for making and painting Easter egg shells.

13. And Martha Stewart gives the Easter craft thing a go here.

14. And what about hot cross buns?!

Here’s a recipe for you. Use Xylitol or replace with stevia granules (try Natvia) and omit the raisins and put in some “sweet nuts” like macadamias or pecans chopped up.  To be honest, I haven’t made these. You’d be on your own with this one! So report back.

• 3/4 cup gluten free plain flour
• 3/4 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/3 cup potato starch
• 2 teaspoons guar gum gluten free
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• pinch ground clove
• 1 tablespoon dry yeast

Egg mixture

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons xylitol
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon, finely grated
• 1 cup raisins

Egg glaze

• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water (beat together well)

Icing

• 1/2 cup xylitol
• 1/2 cup guar gum

Preheat oven to 180 C. Sift flours and spices into a bowl. Mix in yeast.

In a second bowl, beat eggs, xylitol, coconut milk, oil and zest. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and beat well until combined.

Fold in raisins. Divide mixture into 8 – 1o buns. Place dough on silicon lined tray. Set aside in warm place for an hour to let buns rise.

Press a chopstick into the top of each bun to form a cross. This creates a gulley for the icing to remain in place. Brush with egg glaze and bake for 20 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack.

Grind xylitol to a fine powder with mortar and pestle. Add 1/2 teaspoon guar gum and 1 teaspoon coconut milk.

Work until smooth and transfer to piping bag. Pipe across the buns.

15. And if you’re after sugar free, gluten free and vegan hot cross buns…you’re in luck. Trythis recipe. Again, replace the honey with rice malt syrup.

I sincerely hope this paves a path for you. Please be sure to add your ideas below, if you have them. Or post blog links so others can check out your recipes/ideas on your site!

Body composition progress at 12 months

So, time to take a look at my progress. The key, I've always found is to set goals, test and measure your  or success or failure, then evaluate the next step forward.

Below is the results of the body composition scan I had done at 6 weeks post partum. I was at 30.7% body fat. Goal was to lose 8-10kg of body fat. A big ask but I was confident I could do it.









...and this is the most recent one below, almost exactly 12 months later. To summarise I've lost 10kg of body fat or 9% total! Yippee! I also lost 13kg total weight. But I've also lost about 3 kg of muscle mass which isn't great. Muscle is way too hard to gain. Interestingly my muscle mass is almost the same as the scan I had done 2 years ago when I was the same fat percentage and weight so maybe it is not cause for concern. Maybe it's all just levelling itself out. I do know that when you carry a baby for 9 months all your support i.e. legs etc obtain more muscle. That could explain the gain of muscle at the 6 weeks post scan. The muscle loss could possibly be due to my recent nutrition. I've been trialling nutritional ketosis. Perhaps the loss of muscle mass can be explained through the effects my nutrition is having. It could be due to my lack of recovery/ replenishing after training. So I've decided to test and measure. I've pre booked in for another scan in 3 months time on 5th June.




I have been trialling nutritional ketosis on and off over the last 3 months or so to see whether it works for me as an individual. If your from my gym you'll probably be familiar with the term ketosis as a few of us are also experimenting and have all had good results. No two of us are alike so it makes sense that no two of us will have the same results doing the same thing . Ketosis definitely has it's advantages and I also think that it is unrivalled through it ability to burn your fat stores quickly and efficiently and has done so for me. What I'm interested in now is whether or not it will work for me in line with my current goals.

The way I really kick started my weight loss was through a herbal cleanse. I adhered to the cleanse strictly for 11 weeks, never deviating at all from the guidelines. It was tough but worth it, plus I felt great after it and the bonus was that I lost 9kg. Nothing worth having ever comes easy. True that.

Mu curent goals are to lose 2-3% body fat in 3 months (so by the next scheduled scan). This is desired purely from a performance point of view. Hopefully being just under 20% body fat will make body weighted movements easier and more efficient. Of course I want to get stronger and I'm also chasing a 120kg back squat. I can't do this if I continue to lose muscle. I'm interested in how ketosis will stand up with the demands I'm putting on it. My goal is to be able to move more load faster and I need to be fuelling my body so it can do so.

I also have to be aware that there are a lot of other factors that can influence the next few months. I have to take into account the amount of sleep I get or lack there of, stress levels, hydration etc and all the elements that are associated with everyday life, especially with having a demanding 1 year old. But hey I love a challenge :) and I'm also determined not to let myself off the hook so to speak. Everyone has certain hurdles to face day to day. My life is no different. It's neither easier or harder for me to commit myself to this than it is for you. It all comes down to how badly you want it. So many times over the past 12 months I could of given in and let myself listen to the excuses that were there in the back of my mind. We all have them, right there threatening our success. You are stronger and more capable then you realise. Don't forget that, EVER!!!




My trainer Shane Richards recently did a pod cast about the subject of nutritional ketosis. Do yourself a favour and have a listen. He knows some stuff :)

http://www.180nutrition.com.au/2013/03/20/can-we-thrive-without-carbs/


Another great source of information is on Jimmy Moore's blog. He's just a regular guy that's doing his own experiment on ketosis. Interesting reading.

http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/n1


A great book on the subject is

The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living 
by Jeff S. Volek, PhD, RD and Stephen D. Phinney, MD, PhD

Below is an extract from his book. I'll let him explain ketosis...
Taken from Chapter 1
Defining 'Nutritional Ketosis'

The second way to define "low carbohydrate" is physiologic – specifically that level below which there is a fundamental shift in your body's fuel homeostasis (i.e., energy regulation) away form glucose as a primary fuel. This shift is the adaptation of the body's hormonal set and inter- organ fuel exchange to allow most of your daily needs to be met by fat, either directly as fatty acids, or indirectly by ketone bodies made from fat. This process, …, begins for most adults when total carbohydrate is restricted to less than 60 grams per day along with a moderate intake of protein. After a few weeks at this level, the primary serum 'ketone' (beta-hydroxybutyrate or B_OHB) rises above 0.5 millimolar (mM). At this ketone level, which is ten-fold higher than that in someone with a daily intake of 300 grams of carbohydrate, their brain begins to derive a substantial portion of its energy needs from B-OHB, resulting in a commensurate reduced need for glucose.

With further restriction of carbohydrate below 50 grams per day, the serum B-OHB rises in response to reduced insulin secretion. However, because dietary protein prompts some insulin release, and serum B-OHB itself stimulated insulin release by the pancreas, (albeit subtly), adults eating 20 grams of carbohydrate and 75-150 grams per day of protein rarely run serum above 3 mM. …

This 10-fold range of serum ketones, from 0.5 to 5 mM, is your body's normal physiological response to varying degrees of dietary carbohydrate and protein restriction. This response rate is called 'nutritional ketosis', and is associated with metabolic adaptations allowing your body to maintain a stable stare of inter-organ homeostasis. This process is dependent on an adequate, albeit minimal, ability of the pancreas to produce insulin in response to dietary protein and serum ketones, thus maintaining serum B-OHB in the range where it replaces much of your body's (and your brain's) need for glucose without distorting whole-body acid-base balance.

Taken from Chapter 13
Ketones-To Measure or Not

As noted in Chapter 1, nutritional ketosis is defined by serum ketones ranging from 0.5 up to 5 mM, depending on the amounts of dietary carbohydrate and protein consumed. In most people, the combined intake of 100 grams of carbohydrate and 100 grams of protein with drive serum well below 0.5 mM. While there is nothing magical about having circulating ketones above this threshold level, it does have the practical value of providing he brain with a virtually limitless, fat-derived fuel source. This alternative fuel is eminently more sustainable, particularly in the insulin resistant or carbohydrate intolerant individual.

Within a few days of starting on our carbohydrate restriction, most people begin excreting ketones in their urine. This occurs before serum have risen to their stable adaptive level….

Meanwhile, the body is undergoing a complex set of adaptations in ketone metabolism. ….

… Over time the urine ketone excretion drops off, …. 

These temporal changes in how the kidneys handle ketones make urine testing a rather uncertain if not undependable way of monitoring dietary response/adherence. Testing serum for beta-hydroxybutyrate is much more accurate but requires drawing blood, and it is expensive because it is not a routine tests doctors normally order.
…
… the key question is why do it? Many people are able to initiate and follow a low carbohydrate diet just fine without ever measuring ketones. Others, however, find an objective measure of nutritional ketosis to be reassuring. … 

Taken from inset in Chapter 16
Human Protein Tolerance
…
As a result of these observations, plus our studies of muscle retention and function during carbohydrate restriction, we recommend daily protein intakes between 1.5 and 2.5 gram per day per kg of reference weight. For a person on weight maintaining low carbohydrate diet, this typically translates to somewhere between 15% and 25% of your daily energy coming from protein. 

Always do your own research when it comes to anything to do with your health. I don't profess to being a nutritionist and always suggest that you do your own experiment if you will. Find out what works for you. Sometimes It's about fine tuning and tweaking until it fits you. That's half the fun! Happy tweaking :)