Yesterday was the twenty-first of June, the day of the summer/winter solstice. I don’t celebrate it in any way, but it’s nice to know that the sun will be up a bit longer every day from now on until December!
I haven’t posted much on my journey toward gaining slim. At the beginning of this blog, it was because I wasn’t actually on a journey at all! On the contrary, I was getting fatter by the week!
And then it happened! No, not a miracle, but a “fun” walk/run/event. It was probably the worst torture I had gone through in a long time. And then I saw the picture of me as I crossed the finish line!
I promptly saved it on my computer as The Last “Before” Pic, Ever! Because that very morning, I had made my bathroom scale cry by weighing in at 107 Kg. My short frame puts my BMI in the 40s and my poor heart in a panic. And while I am officially and legally “big-boned,” that was not acceptable.
Since then, two things happened. I joined a running/walking club here in Rustenburg as a way to force myself to become more physically active, and I changed my diet radically.
Cutting carbs has always been the best way for me to remove body weight. The problem is that I have a very sweet tooth and simply eating a cookie can let me go into a cycle of bingeing. It’s almost like being a drug addict, but my white crystal happens to be sugar!
My mom’s youngest sister unintentionally came to the rescue, when she announced that she and her husband had started on the Banting diet and have lost quite a few kilograms between them! My aunt has always been very health-conscious and would not do something crazy, but what I have heard of Banting before that day scared me. Coffee with butter? Who on earth does that?
After consulting with Auntie Google (who knows EVERYTHING), I found a website that offered some solid guidelines on what to eat and what to avoid. Nothing struck me as weird or even too much effort, so that’s where I started.
It was in the middle of the month, so I had to deal with my pantry contents, first, as I couldn’t afford to switch immediately. And – let’s face it – there is nothing worse than doing something cold turkey. So I finished my open packs of pasta and ate the chips with a dip that I made out of all the open bottles and jars of condiments (it was nice!) as a way of bidding my old lifestyle farewell.
And then I got radical!
I literally took all the unopened packs and cans in my pantry and checked the ingredients. If it contained flour or sugar (or both) or weird chemicals that I couldn’t say in one breath, it went into a large shopping bag, which I donated! Rather kill others, I reckon, than die myself!
And then I bought real food ingredients and began to prepare my meals, myself!
Contrary to what celebrities and influencers want people to believe, a ketogenic diet is not something new. (Yes, the name might be!) On the contrary, it is a return – if you will – to a simpler lifestyle before modern conveniences and over-processed foods, when sugar was a rare treat for special occasions, and food was actually used as fuel for the human body.
Since I started in April, my weight started dropping gradually. Friends and colleagues have noticed that I am not only fitter but also slimmer. Yes, I already weigh less than 100 Kg, but I still have a way to go toward 70 Kg, which is my ultimate goal weight. When yoga pants start getting loose, you’re in trouble! But that’s the right kind of trouble to be in!

What do I consume? Simple, whole foods made real good, with herbs and spices, and healthy oils and fats. I eat very little grains, although I do indulge in the odd bran rusk or seed-loaf slice, concentrating mostly on meat and vegetables. I also eat a lot of homemade soup, as I find it convenient and extremely nourishing, especially now that it’s turning cold.
I have also discovered – to my immense delight – that my goal of urban homesteading and backyard farming actually complements my diet in the most amazing way. Not only do I get to eat the cheese that I make myself, but I have learned to make my own condiments and fermented drinks and treats. I also get to enjoy a variety of new flavors in oils and vinegar and have found a way to still enjoy “ice cream,” made from frozen banana slices and berries. That’s my new no-added-sugar frozen snack and because it’s made from fruit, it’s surprisingly filling. If a recipe does call for sweetening of some description, I use honey. That also gives a special taste to food which the store-bought stuff sorely lacks.
While having a license to enjoy as much bacon as I can eat does sound wonderful, I am still mindful of my total calorie intake. I don’t count every single bite, but I find that since I eat satisfying and nourishing meals, my appetite has calmed down a lot. It also helps that I have all but killed my intake of added and hidden sugar. Store-bought tomato sauce (ketchup!) tastes hideously sweet if you haven’t had any for months, and I shudder to think about the empty calories that I have consumed over the years.
I want to start adding some recipes to the blog. Not too much, that it becomes a food blog, but maybe I can inspire others to not only start cooking and making things from scratch, but also to actually LOOK at the labels on the “food” in the shops. Believe me, once you do and really start thinking about it, you’ll get scared. I would like to reassure my dear readers at this time that I am a very lazy chef, so everything that I make will have simple ingredients and be quick to prepare. And it will taste better than anything coming from a can or packet!