Banter: Elimination Diet Day 11

As of today I have lost 5 kilograms. That’s 5kg that I couldn't have dreamed of budging before I started this diet.

I lost 4kg in my first week, so weight loss has slowed down in this second week; I am still losing an amount every single day. I keep waiting to step on the scales one morning and discover that I have gained again, but thankfully so far this hasn't happened.

It has gotten much easier to stick to the food plan, though I do still feel hungry most of the time. It isn't a nauseating hunger like I am used to, but it would be nice if the feeling would go away all the same.

Surprisingly, the thing I am missing the most is tea with sugar and milk. I rarely drink it anyway now in favour of coffee, but I wish I could have a good cuppa at least once a day. The weight just keeps dropping off though, so while that happens I have the confidence to stick it out.

Banter: Elimination Diet Day 3

It has been a successful 3 days! I was down 2.1kg total this morning and the usual good cravings are starting to disappear.

I do sorely miss hot tea and coffee, herbal tea just doesn't hit the right note when you want a comfort drink. I will have to experiment some more.

I did some more reading on similar diets today and, for the sake of my sanity, decided to broaden the fruit/veg list that I am eating from. There is just no way I could do 4 weeks straight with dry chicken for lunch every day. I need some kind of sauce. So I am now including tomato, onion, garlic, leek, and fresh herbs.

I am a little bit concerned about maintaining my breastfeeding while I do this diet. I think there is enough carbohydrate in the vegetables that I am eating to maintain supply. I will keep a careful note and make sure my blood sugar doesn't seem to be dropping too much.

Looking good so far!

Banter: Elimination Diet Day 1

I went to a hormone specialist two years ago because I was finding it impossible to lose weight. No matter how I exercised or restricted calories, my weight wouldn't budge. And I have 20+kg to lose, so this seemed a little bit off to me.

I was diagnosed with PCOS and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, which combine to make it extremely difficult to lose wight without medication. Since having a baby last year, I now have additional weight to lose and it once again isn't budging. I am still breastfeeding my baby so the medication option isn't working, and I am wondering if there are changes that I can make in my diet to help this process.

So begins this elimination diet. For 4 weeks, I am cutting all allergens out of my diet to see if there is something that I am eating that is exacerbating my problem. It's a pretty simple process: eat only fruit, vegetables and meat from a list of hypoallergenic food for four weeks, weighing yourself every day. After 4 weeks, introduce a new food every day and weigh yourself to see how that food affects your weight. If you gain more than 400g in a day, don't eat that food again.

Approved Meats:
Chicken
Lamb
Organic red meat

Approved vegetables:
Asparagus
Cabbage
Carrots
Cucumber
Green beans
Green peas
Kale
Lettuce
Zucchini

Approved Fruits:
Apples
Apricots
Blackcurrants
Blueberries
Melon
Peaches (cooked/canned)
Pears
Plums
Prunes

No alcohol, no dairy, no caffeine, no soy, no fun.

I am cautiously excited to see the results of this.

Book Review: "The Scoundrel's Honor" by Christi Caldwell

***** - Lady Penelope Tidemore is determined to cultivate a proper, scandal-free reputation and score an appropriate yet romantic husband in her first season. Caught in a compromising position with the scandalous Ryker Black, this regency romance is turned on it's head when it begins with an unlikely wedding.

This story begins when the curtain usually falls, and the stakes are higher. Penny and Ryker have to make this arrangement work, and though unlikely, they just may succeed if only they can come around to each other's way of thinking.

This romance is fast-paced, action packed, and full of likable characters. I didn't always feel the chemistry between the hero and heroine, but I found myself genuinely hoping that they could find love with one another. The setting of the Hell and Sin Club was intriguing in The Rogue's Wager and we see more of it here.

'The Scoundrel's Honor' is another refreshing change from the regency romance standard, highly enjoyable and a satisfying read.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for this review.

Book Review: "The Fix Up" by Kendall Ryan

* - I have to get this out straight up. I disliked the hero, Sterling Quinn, enough that it ruined this book for me. The blurb is also a bait-and-switch and that made me really angry, because I only picked this book out due to the "friendship" angle.

This book is described as friends-become-lovers, but it was really just acquaintances-beating-around-the-bush.

Camryn is hired to work for Sterling, who is a playboy bachelor but for reasons I won't spoil, is looking to get off the market. They met through mutual friends and have great chemistry. They deny this chemistry and ignore the obvious for no good reason, and for most of the book.

The book was mostly okay, if you ignore the fact that the storyline lacks any credibility. And that Sterling is written to be so conflicting. He's British, but what kind of British? He appears to have been raised in a well-to-do family, but drops his 'h's. And so many phrases thrown in just to reinforce how British he is, even though he's been in America for years. It is as if she had a list of British phrases she wanted to include and ticked them off one by one.

Yet another story with a dilemma that would have been fixed with one simple, honest conversation. I don't recommend this one.

Book Review: "Wild: A Journey From Lost to Found" by Cheryl Strayed

**** - Cheryl Strayed's memoir, detailing her unlikely hike along the Pacific Crest Trail and the many wrong turns that she made in life to require such an endeavour, is well-loved. Not by me, but by other people.

The story itself is well-written and makes for a compelling read. If a book flows smoothly and transitions well from one thought to another, it is an enjoyable read. And so I gave it 4 stars. But I didn't like the story and so it didn't resonate with me in the way it seems to have resonated with so many others.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the trail and the wilderness, and the details of just how physically challenging it was to complete this hike. The book truly came alive with Strayed's encounters of other hikers, and I would have loved to have heard more of their stories.

Strayed herself was a difficult character to like. Despite the fact that we are inside of her head for the entire book, I never got much of a sense of who she was when she was hiking. I knew only of her increasing tally of poor decisions, which made her hard to relate to. I didn't find her moments of clarity particularly enlightening, and it generally felt anticlimactic.

I am at a very different point in my life than Strayed was when she began her PCT hike. I can see that for people who are struggling to find themselves, this book may be inspirational. I'm not disappointed I read it.

Book Review: "Because of Miss Bridgerton (Rokesbys #1)" by Julia Quinn

***** - The Bridgertons and the Rokesbys have lived on neighbouring estates for centuries. Their children, through proximity, have grown up together. Billie Bridgerton has always been best friends with Edward, Andrew and Mary Rokesby and assumed she'd marry one of the boys when the time came.

Billie is unlike any other English miss. She wears breeches around the estate, handles her father's management affairs, climbs trees and throws herself at any task with abandon. The eldest Rokesby, George, has always found Billie to be intolerable, and they have enjoyed a long history of sniping and baiting one another.

When Billie inconveniently finds herself in need of rescue one afternoon, she is dismayed when it's George who happens upon her and must provide aid. But so begins their story as they discover that there's more to each than meets the eye.

I adored both of the main characters in this book. Billie is an excellent heroine, strong but soft in places, very relatable. I was surprised that I liked George as much as I did, I tend to find in regency romances the hero of the story is very two dimensional. But his passion, propriety and morality were in perfect combination, and he was charmingly realistic.

This book has passion, it feels romantic, and the whole story is made sweeter by the fact that these two have a history. This isn't some spur of the moment fascination with one another. They know the other's faults before their love story even begins. Finding this sort of foundation in a regency romance is rare, and this story almost feels like it could have unfolded in any era.

I loved it, so 5 stars it is.