Egg & Bacon Pies 

Makes: 12 pies

Ingredients:

• 24 wonton wrappers
• 1 1/2 (45g) pure protein powder
• 6 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 150g diced bacon
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 large shallot finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely diced
• Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 degreees Celsius and spray 12 silicon muffin tray wells with cooking spray
• Line each of the wells with a wonton wrappers
• In a mixing bowl lightly whisk together the eggs, sour cream and protein powder until like a thick custard texture
• Add in the bacon, Parmesan, shallots and garlic and mix until well combined
• Evenly spread the mixture between the 12 lined wells
• Gently press down a wonton wrappers on the top of the mixture
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown

Nutritional Value per Pie:

• Calories: 218
• Total fat: 11.3g
• Total carbohydrates: 8.5g
• Protein: 17.8g

Recipe Notes:

• Store covered in the fridge for a maximum of 5 days
• This recipe is freezer friendly to be consumed within 3 months
• Protein powder used in the recipe is Protein Supplies Australia WPI Fast Release protein powders
• You can buy online from www.proteinsuppliesaustralia.com.au
• Use the Discount code psafriendsofhollys at checkout to get a 10% discount

Disclaimer: C4K Kitchen does not hold any responsibility for the consumer using this recipe including the storage guidelines and time frames recommended in the recipe notes. The consumer holds all responsibilities to ensure that food hygiene and safety standards are adhered to. 

Today I traveled back to Adelaide from Mum’s place.   Because I knew my arse was going to be parked in the chair for multiple hours, I got up this morning and did a 5km walk enjoying the beautiful scenery before back to city walks.

Just in case a standard walk wasn’t enough for me I thought I would spice things up a bit and do some solo mud wrestling! Okay, okay, that sounds like too much fun and I in fact slipped on the wet muddy clay and went arse over tit!  Not at all graceful or elegant, in fact I am pretty sure I dropped like a sack of potatoes!

There were four positives out of my mud wrestling adventures:

1. I wasn’t hurt
2. It was on a vineyard track with no people or kangaroos around to witness
3. I had to carry some extra weights for the last 1km of about 5kg of mud on my clothes and in my hair
4. I had a massive abs workout from laughter when it happened and more so when I returned back to Mums and she cracked up in laughter seeing me.

Before my #mudgate situation I was absolutely delighted that the km split before that was my PB time by over 30 seconds.  A great sign of progression.

Food intake was less than desirable today as my normal 3 1/2 hours trip took nearly 5 hours thanks to a cranky and bored passenger in the back and since I didn’t eat my way through this stress I decided on coffee instead.  However, I think it wasn’t the greatest choice as it beyond bloated me and even had a cheeky vomit at Truro.  I think this was more because of the bite of Lochie’s chicken tender that was pure salt and oil.  Convenience foods are officially revolting!

A big thanks to my Mum for the last week but I’m glad to be back home.

This morning I had a conversation on the December sleeve Facebook group about the mental side of the crazy weight loss journey I am on.  The conversation has sat with me all day and made me think about the darker side of bariatric surgery that people don’t openly discuss and isn’t really something that you can prepare yourself for.

You know you are going to loose weight, you know your life is going to change but you really can’t prepare yourself for how you will process everything.  While I generally stay positive and upbeat about my situation and positive about the changes before me I really do at times struggle.  I know this seems like a complete contradiction saying that I am positive yet at the same time I struggle, but it really is the truth.

How do I struggle?

I look in the mirror and despite having lost in excess of 50kg I still don’t see any difference.  I look at photos of myself and again i don’t see any difference or if I do see any difference I actually get a bit freaked out and don’t recognise myself! I find it both exciting and terrifying at the same time when I think about how I am going to look when I reach my goal.

I’m not stupid, I am well aware I have lost weight by my changes in wardrobe or even when I run my hands over my hips I can feel that they aren’t as round but my eyes and brain just don’t see it in the mirror.

Once again I am going to contradict myself here and say that the physical changes I do see aren’t exactly favourable.  When I was heavier I was plump, smooth and round and I knew my body well and knew what were the right and wrong styles for me to be wearing that would be complimentary to my roundness.  Now I no longer have that smooth roundness.

I have jiggly, wobbly and lumpy bits everywhere and when it comes to getting dressed and ready I can often get really uncomfortable and my anxiety peaks when I don’t know what to wear and I’m not sure how to dress to best suit my changing body shape.  This flares up even more when you are in that awkward transition between sizes.

My dark brain kicks in and I revert back to my fat clothes that now resemble sacks to seek solace and comfort in what use to look good, or at least what I thought looked good.  Why do I do this? I do not know.  I’m sure that one day this will make sense but for now I will just process and acknowledge how I am feeling.

I am hoping that by continuing to stay focused and to be positive for myself and inspiring to others that my brain will eventually check in to the catch up train and get on board this crazy ride.
Until that happens it is so very important that I do not suppress these feelings and emotions, that I talk about them, understand them, acknowledge them and learn from them to be the best version of myself that I can possibly be…….body, spirit and MIND!

Without reflecting and surviving the darkness I can’t shine and sparkle!

I had a really interesting and reflective day.  I no longer hide my surgery decision and happy to openly share with whoever will listen.  I am very surprised that I have only had support and accolades for making such a huge decision.  I have had no doubters or people judging me.  I am not sure why this surprises me as I know that I surround myself with like minded open accepting and respectful people.

I had a really interesting conversation with two of my colleagues and friends, separate conversations but they were remarkably similar.  Both lovely ladies who have both been amazing supports for me from day one where really open and intrigued with the process and how I am going, how I have transitioned and how things have changed.  It kind of all stemmed from them seeing my serve of wonton soup for lunch.

They were so interested that I was probably not going to finish it when they both thought it looked like half of an entree serve.  This led to the first theme of the conversation about being hungry.  They both were so interested about how I don’t feel hungry at all and if I let myself I could pretty much not eat at all or until very late in the day without feeling hungry.  I explained to them by removing the part of the stomach I have removed that the ‘hunger hormone” is essentially not secreted so that is why I don’t feel those hunger waves anymore.

I also talked about how since surgery the way I stop and reflect on “hunger” has really changed.  It has taken me a while but I now have the capacity to stop and realise the difference between a brain hunger which stems from habit, boredom, emotion or mental desires.  This is when I ‘feel’ hungry pre-surgery.  When I ‘feel’ this hunger I am now aware NO I don’t need food, I actually need to stop and process what is the real reason I have this feeling and how so I address the need to feed in an more appropriate and healthy manner.  It usually means I have a drink and redivert my attnetion to another activity, research a recipe idea or get into the kitchen to start creating something for when it is actually meal time.

How do I actually know I am hungry now?  Hungry post-surgery is a different feeling, I no longer have that urge or desire to eat that used to fuel my addiction pre-sleeve.  It’s now a physical reaction to my body not being hungry but needing fuel and energy.  I guess you can classify the hunger in two different ways.  Percy is either crampy and uncomfortable, somewhat like a bad period pain or I know I need to eat because my calories are getting low and I’m feeling fuzzy, dizzy or hangry.

Hunger is no longer hunger I have known my entire life but I have had to relearn this whole feeling versus physical reaction.

We then went on to discuss the huge changes that I have made in my life.  Surgery has not made these changes, surgery is not the answer to my weight and health problems of the past.  Surgery has been a decision I have made as a tool and aide to facilitate these lifestyle changes.  I know I could have had the surgery and continued on with my pre-surgery lifestyle in tea party portions but this is not what I wanted.  This is not what I needed.  I do not need a diet, I do not need a fad.  I need a catalyst to turn my life around and completely overhaul my lifestyle and my sleeve is the tool to aid me in making these necessary changes to improve my health and wellbeing.

I am really proud of myself of the huge progress I have made in these 4 months since surgery.  I have learnt an entire new way of cooking and preparing food to maximise the nutritional value without compromising flavour profiles.  I have also discovered that I need to be visually excited by my meals so I now take a little bit of extra time to ensure my meals, even in their tea party portions are pretty to look at.

This means that I am already enjoying my nutritious and delicious meals before one calorie has even been consumed.  This transition has been gradual and difficult as it’s taken time and dumping episodes to learn what Percy does and doesn’t like.  In short he doesn’t like dense carbs and much to my surprise I do not miss them or crave them at all.

This transition has been a roller coaster of hard work that still has a long way to go but it really is the ride of my life.  It not only has been the ride of my life but also the ride that has saved my life and starting to deliver me the life I want and deserve.

I know that I am a kind hearted person with a good heart and beautiful soul and I am so excited that I’m now on the path thanks to my lifestyle overhaul to have my outsides to match my insides.

It hasn’t been easy to stop, reflect and learn everything about how my new stomach (aka Percy) works but there is no denying it been worth every drop of blood, sweat and tears shed so far.

This morning I spent nearly 4 hours in the car.  I tried to make sure I had enough fluids while driving.  I know I also struggle when I drive long distances as I’m a snacker in this situation.  Today I made an effort to limit the snacking instead I had my water and a little bag of jerky with me that I did eat in transit.

When I arrived at Mum’s place I was delighted to see some dear family friends that I haven’t seen in a long time, they were so happy and positive in my changes.  It’s so nice when you hear people say how proud they are of you.  It means even more when it comes from someone you completely trust and respect.

My protein levels will also be challenging over the next week as I have just realised I have forgotten to bring my protein powders with me.

Today I had lunch at the pub with my Aunty, Uncle and cousin.  I am so lucky and grateful to be surrounded by supportive people who are engaged and interesting in how I am going.

I know being the gorgeous slim ladies that they are they may not fully understand but I am over the moon to get such positive encouragement and feedback from them that I’m fading away and looking so much happier and healthier than I have in a long time.  Reflections like this from people eyes who matter mean the world to me.

So my little guy, as most who know me personally would already know, know that he is pretty high intensity and is like an energiser bunny on a carton of red bull during the day and is a terrible sleeper waking in the middle of the night every night anywhere between 1-4 hours.  This is why I always in the past used to the rationale why I was so tired and exhausted everyday.  Today I had an amazing before and after reflection of how my life has changed so drastically already not only from a nutritional and exercise viewpoint, I have reflected on in the last week.

But today I am going to reflect more on me as a mother and household provider (aka chef, maid and cleaner).  I’m at mum’s place this week as she is helping out with childcare for school holidays and mum always loves when I visit as I always take over the kitchen and cook up a storm.  After dinner tonight we had a chat about how much my energy levels have changed.  Previously pre-surgery when visiting I would by the end of the day be absolutely exhausted slothed on the couch leaving “shit everywhere” from both Lochie and my cooking for Mum to clean up.  Tonight as we were sitting down playing a game of cards Mum commented on the fact that this afternoon she not only came home to a delicious sinner ready to eat but to a clean and tidy house as well.

This extra energy I am discovering everyday is making me a better mother and easily managing a tidier, more organised and cleaner household.  Even with my something challenging family situation.  Maybe, just maybe, I will be the next Australian Martha Stewart…..helping to keep a better home!

Today I overdid it.  Not intentionally it just happened.
I started my day with a beautiful 5km walk.  I am still at mums so stopped at the top of the hill to admire the amazing view.

I stopped again on the way back home I came through one of the vineyard tracks I saw a kangaroo hopping through the vines.

​​
It was such a refreshing walk with with a beautiful scenery and even shocked myself with my shadow.  My shadow actually looked like a person with a thigh gap I might add as opposed to my shadow that I am used to that resembles a gigantic Sasquatch that’s chasing me.

This was a great start to my day and a great reflection that my fitness is improving as my per km time has reduced from 14.18 to 12.01 so I’m over the moon with the improvements.  I then ended up doing another 3km that was unplanned delivering a lawn mower for mum to one of her friends house.  It was nice to see her and get some amazing and supportice feedback.  I’m also grateful and so delighted with her own weight loss journey as I have pegged it lucky to get all of her now too big clothes for me to work my way through as I continue to downsize.

As I got back to Mum’s I realised that I have not even come close to consuming enough calories for what I had burnt over these two walks.  I was so stuffed I actually had to have an hour lay down to recharge my batteries.  By the time my day (now at 7pm) has come to close I have exceed 13,000 steps.  6 months ago it was a big day if I did more than 1,000 steps.

The balance of fuel versus expending energy is real and I generally manage this pretty well, today it was questionable….but I survived.

If you do not like gassy noises that are produced by the human body STOP READING!!

My morning started with a nice 5km walk around Lyrup followed by another delicious smoothie bowl.  A play date with Lochie with some of his little mates, a trip to the shops rounding off my day with some lovely feedback on how I’m progressing and reflections from others on both my physical and visual improvements but also my mental strength.  Tapped out at 10pm at slightly under 14,000 steps or 10km.

However, I have today discovered after my first attempt post-op to eat sausages that Percy is not a fan of the humble snag!  I made a delicious sausage hot pot which Lochie devoured and I struggled to get through half of my tiny portion.

It is sitting VERY VERY heavy and about an hour after dinner the burp-fest begun.  For the last hour I have been excessively burping ridiculously loud and hideous burps sounding like a drunken sailor or according to my mum a bloated rhinoceros! Percy says no to sausages!

This weeks weigh in has to come with a different set of scales disclaimer.  I’m at mum’s this Wednesday so using her scales rather than my regular ones.

This week: 1.5kg
Since surgery: 32.7kg
Total: 51.6kg

Gotta be happy with that.

Back to work today after an extra long weekend thanks to the Easter public holiday.  Working remotely as mum is looking after Lochie for the holidays.  I miss my little packed lunchbox and found with my organised selection of protein packed lunchbox fillers in the freezer it is much easier to manage my diet intake of both protein and calories.

Compared to the last two days I have been extremely sedentary.  My body has so rapidly adjusted to enjoying and craving movement and exercise that today I didn’t do anything and I am feeling fat bloated and frumpy.  Would have never thought that I would ever say those words….I miss and crave exercise!