It’s week 3 in the Kitten household. That is – 3 weeks of following the Banting Real Meal Revolution way of eating.

I was at the point of why am I depriving myself discouraged thinking as after a quick initial weight loss of 6kgs I hit a plateau which lasted a week. Walking into our office break room and smelling Burger King or walking past the fresh warm muffins almost broke my will. Actually it’s not the sugar that’s triggering cravings it’s the salty, fried, breaded things. But I’ve endured. I’m cooking most nights. I’m avoiding the things from the red list (forbidden items due to sugar or carbs).

I was rewarded with another kilo loss this morning! So 7 down in total. That’s just over 15lbs in U.S. speak. This came at a time when I needed that encouragement. Thank you Universe.

We are still eating well but I stopped with adding double cream to everything. I’ve even had a few takeaways from local restaurants that cater for banting diets.

We had this gorgeous Noaksy Burger from Ragafellows. Instead of a bun it has a chickpea fritter and is topped with bacon jam and one of their thick meaty beef pattys. Instead of potatoes it had roast butternut topped with Parmesan. It’s R85 and oh so yummy.

 

This inspired me to try the Parmesan roast butternut. It is on the orange list so I had only a small portion.

  
We had baked pork chops and steamed broccoli with it. Simple, tasty food. I could only manage half of my plate of food and the rest went for lunch the next day.

Another evening when home very late we had a banting pizza from Cassarechio and as the cauliflower base is so filling I only managed a few slices. 

I even had my usual Friday Mexican lunch from Tortilla Modern Mexican.

 
Instead of chips or a tortilla I had chopped raw veg as a base. I avoided the rice and the other carb laden ingredients but got my spicy meaty fix. I can live without the chips! 

Yesterday I took Pixie to her chiropractor early in the morning and then after I dropped her home and collected Norm and we went for a late breakfast at The Riverway Cafe. I had the Eggs Benedict with bacon and banting bread.

  
I enjoyed it so much that I attempted my own hollandaise sauce this morning to go with the poached eggs Caitlin made.

Oops. 🙈

  
It was so thick and too lemony, but for a 1st attempt was edible. Just not very attractive. 

Yesterday Caitlin had her friend Bradley around for the day. We spent a lot of time in the pool. Lolakitty loves the pool for some reason known only to Lola. She follows the shade. She’s such a funny girl. Lola, not Caitlin, although she’s pretty wacky too. I guess it’s genetic.

  
We watched the bizarre horror film The Visit and I made Banting lasagna again, using zucchini instead of pasta. It’s different, but still good. 

The start of this week we had a lot of meat left from Lily’s party to eat. The weather was unbearably hot all week so we cooked out as often as we could. I would come home from work and change and go straight out for a swim, then cook dinner in my bathing suit and sarong.

More fires raged on all around the Cape, this time ripping through the winelands.

  
Photo credit Twitter. 

No sooner than that one was under control than another broke out on Table Mountain in the Newlands Forest. 

  

Theory is that the ANC are behind these fires, the end game being to wreak havoc in the DA ruled province. I wouldn’t put anything past our leader. There was a bit of drama around the pres this week when this banner popped up on a huge CBD billboard.

  
It was quickly ripped down by ANC supporters. But the message was sent round the world. 

The ongoing drought continues, with little visibility of government aid. Our own grass is dry and brown. I imagine the farms are the same.

  
Today it felt humid and we hoped for rain but no joy as yet.

This week I’ve had some issues with Facebook stalking. I suspect it’s a girl I knew in London. A deranged flat mate who found me again. I wish she would get a life and leave my friends alone. 

The heat probably contributed to my already abnormally high levels of road rage. The road out of our village is 2 lanes going up Suikerbossie Hill and merges to one at the top for the remainder of the trip to Cape Town. This silly little bint parked off in the passing lane at a ridiculously slow speed. There were cars in the other lane, some scooting past her but I couldn’t get round her. I flew into a red rage as only a hot, sweaty, menopausal woman can. If I could have gotten hold of her I would have snapped her like a twig. I got so angry that my back went into a strange spasm which felt a bit like the feeling when you get an IV for example, a flushing flowing type of feeling and then poof, the agonizing back pain I had for weeks just disappeared. That seemed bizarre so that evening I did some research and I found that the feeling was most likely adrenaline pumping from my adrenal glands. I then read about Tension Myositis Syndrome and it all made sense. I have a lot of history which justifies anger and I have a lot of repressed anger from many years of pretending things are fine. I’ve blogged before about going for monthly Body Reactivating sessions. My last session David worked on my thoracic area a lot and likened the body and the psyche to be like an onion, layers are peeled away to reveal deeper things which surface. my mind and body seems finally ready to let go some of my history. And I’m ready to let it go.