Sunday 9 August 2015

Ankles and recipes

One of the first things that happened when I started cutting carbs from my diet was that my ankles reappeared. I have had slightly swollen ankles for as long as I can remember - worse on hot days, and terrible after long-haul flights. When I was pregnant my legs swelled so much that I was asked to monitor my urine every day for protein as my obstetrician was worried I was going to develop pre-eclampsia.  I never did get pre-eclampsia, but I did have a very impressive weight loss after both babies were born, due mainly to losing water.

I remember that my mother used to get swollen ankles too, so I assumed that it was just genetic, and that there was nothing I could do about it.  Even when I lost quite a lot of weight after my second child was born I still had very swollen ankles, especially on hot days.  And then I started the low-carb high fat diet.  My ankle reappeared within a week - I couldn't believe it.

Here's a picture of my legs from about 2 weeks before I cut out the carbs.  I barely have an ankle at all, and some horrid creases from how swollen they are.


And here are my legs today - you'll note I am also sporting a lovely pedicure. As you can see, I now have bona fide ankles again, despite today being a very hot day here in the UK.


My weight has been stable for 4 weeks now, which is frustrating, but also understandable.  I've been on holiday for the last 2 weeks and have drunk quite a lot more wine than normal.  I have also eaten the odd poppadom.  Those things combined have clearly pushed my carbohydrate levels over my personal limit.  I'm back at work next week, so I'm confident that I can get back to eating a much lower level of carbohydrates, along with drinking less alcohol. 

It will also be easier to stick to a strict low-carb high-fat diet seeing as my new cookbook arrived this week - The Real Meal Revolution by Tim Noakes, Jonno Proudfoot and Sally-Ann Creed.  It contains an essay from Tim Noakes explaining the science behind the eating plan, and some absolutely fabulous looking recipes.  So far we have already tried the cottage pie and the mackerel and avocado breakfast.  Both were excellent, and I have plans to try several more recipes over the next few weeks.