Okay let's do this #KETO shit - Week 1

Hellooooo interweb, I hope you are all well and flying your new year, new decade goal flags high. It's 2020 and as most do I have set myself some goals for the year. Starting with focusing on my health and well-being.  I've tried many diets and different lifestyle programs but nothing seems to work, this largely because I am an EMOTIONAL eater and there is quite possibly a hormone imbalance.

Anyway, I've seen an astronomical amount of success stories for people living Ketogenic "Keto" or "Low-carb Keto" lifestyles and or combining some intermittent fasting to this mix. So I've put my big-girl panties on and have set myself a goal. I want to stick to a combination of Low-carb Keto and Keto eating plan for 12 weeks and see what happens. I'm not a gym bunny by any stretch of the imagination, but I love the swimming, love being outdoors and enjoy things like dancing, yoga and boxing. Gym memberships are grossly overpriced in SA, so for now I will be utilizing the pool in my complex, following the DDP Yoga fitness program (not the food just the exercise, although this overlaps quite regularly with the KETO eating plan) and mixing in some cardio and weight training.

I needed to find a way to keep myself honest and on track - sad but true, the idea to share my journey online was a perfect solution. I would effectively chronicle each day on my 12 week journey, almost like a food diary but better - a platform to hold myself accountable and maybe also help to keep others on track. It's so hard to make a real lifestyle change and frankly we could all use a cheer-leading team and someone in our corners routing us on.

I work in the Financial Services Industry as Head of Marketing for a Global Firm, my work weeks are busy and I often find myself working outside of traditional business hours, mainly because we operate in multiple territories and timezones. This means that writing a daily blog is no longer as easy to do as before, time constraints - writing something captivating takes longer than just talking....so I'm busy trying my hand at "Vlogging". I make a short video on my phone every evening or early the next morning so review the day before, what worked, what didn't and frankly whatever else is happening in the world that I could have an opinion about. It's raw and completely unedited. This daily Vlog combined with this very Blog will be my platforms, once a week I will sit down and come up with an interesting read for the week that was, this will be posted to my blog, the daily videos can be seen here and on my youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ-YLCEKssm9sbX2ilmWLMQ

Guys please feel free to like, comment, subscribe and share my journey and I would also love to hear about your, #letsdoittogether

Before I could start this epic endeavour, I had to do some homework and adequately prepare - there is a saying I love: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail" which I believe wholeheartedly. I find this to be so true in most instances. I dug my heels in, found a couple of good Keto recipe sites, joined a few groups on SM Platforms, found the perfect App to track my "Macros" what the fuck are macro's you ask? Well, they are the macro nutrients you need to consume from each of your major groups within Keto, i.e Protein, Fat, Net Carbs (Net carbs are different to normal carbs - yes this was new info for me too). In lamens terms "Net Carbs" are the carbs that are absorbed by the body when consuming a particular food, to calculate the net carbs in processed foods you subtract the fiber and sugar alcohols from the total carbs. This can be tricky - so if you're like me and want to cut the hassle, just get an app to do it for you. My choice - Carb Manager.
The app is available for IOS and Android and the free version allows for all your food logging.

Step 2 was to create a vision(ish) board to help motivate me daily and track my progress - it includes the basic principles of Keto - A meal should consist of: Protein, Fat & Veg, My personal daily Macro's (how many grams of what I need daily),  Daily Calorie Goal, Liquids I should aim for, like water, green tea and coffee, how much to drink daily, I also included Apple Cider Vinegar to be taken morning and night.  I have a basic workout schedule and a space to tick my daily Food and Exercise target, so I either get a full tick, half tick or an x each day. When researching all my individual goals and nutritional requirements, I realized I would need to find a way to reach my water goals quicker, solution bought a 1l Water Bottle.

Step 3 was incorporating a fitness tracker, I use a Smartband, it measures: Steps, Heart rate, 0xygen levels, Sleep and allows inputs of various sports. 

One of the things that normally throws me off the wagon is getting on the scale and not seeing the numbers drop - this rattles me, pisses me off and I binge #emotionaleater. This time round, to prevent this blackhole of diet plan death, I will only be weighing myself every 4 weeks! I will however be taking weekly measurements to track centimeter loss on a weekly basis. I will be sharing meal ideas and recipes on this blog and if it's complicated stuff might even throw in some video tutorials for you.

We all have different reasons for the destruction of our own bodies and fuck me, it's so much easier to destroy yourself than it is to fix yourself, for me, it's been a series of traumatic emotional events in my life, I didn't deal - I ate.

The last and most fatal blow was last year, 2019 - The worst year of my fucking life. The loss of my best friend... nothing in the world can prepare you for this kind of loss and there is no way to get over it, you never will. You don't just lose a person, you lose a lifetime, a whole life that will never ever be! If you're lucky, you eventually learn to live with the loss. I am not there, but I am edging and creeping closer to some semblance of okay. I'm trying really hard to find beauty in negative spaces. If there is one thing I have learned, it's that there is no rulebook or roadmap for grief, we all deal differently and that's okay. I read a really good description for grief on a Psychology group, a Psychologist referred to grief as being: a switch and a ball inside a box, immediately after the loss the ball is HUGE and it hits the switch permanently - you are constantly crying, anything sets you off, this is when you are in the full throws of depression and unable to function normally - over time the ball gets systematically smaller, it hits the switch less often, eventually the ball becomes a size where it only hits the switch occasionally. I thought that was really accurate - for me the ball is still HUGE, not as big as it was a year ago but my ball is still about 95% of it's original size. I'm still emotional, I cry whenever I think of her, talk about her, listen to our songs. I still struggle to get up in the morning and I am still depressed - depressed to the point of needing meds. In truth, I have not used my anti-depressants thinking I could deal without them - I was wrong. The depression made me gain a fuck-ton of weight and has messed with my mind, I will be going back onto the meds as soon as I get paid.

Over time I will feel more comfortable in sharing my story and this painful reality with you all, just know if you are out there, dealing with Anxiety, Depression or any other chemical imbalance, I hear you, I see you and you are not alone.


Okie dokie, let's jump into week one. Err me gerrd, when I calculated the macros for my current height and weight, I realized that I would be eating more meat and fat than I ever had, this was daunting...but I'm being Nike and Just doing it. I'm a morning person, but I don't want to make lunch in the morning, I want to get up, get dressed grab coffee and get out the door. (No I did not say do make-up, this skill I still need to gain, I'm a BB Cream, Mascara, Lipgloss and Eyeliner kinda girl, normally in the car, in the parking lot at my office - 5 min application time only). This inherent trait, coupled with my busy schedule meant I had to prep. My breakfast for the week was done on Sunday and my lunches are sorted out when I make my dinner.

This week's brekkie - Keto friendly Egg muffins

Recipe: (Makes 6 muffins)
6 x large eggs
150g Spinach
60g Onion
100g Bacon
50g Mushrooms
60g Feta Cheese
40-60g Puff Pastry (depending on your muffin pan size)
50ml Cream
70ml Water
Spices

Steps:
Set oven to 180 Degrees Celsius/ 356 Farenheit
Roll out puff pastry till super thin, use a glass to cut out circles and put in each muffin hole (this is only to prevent sticking to the muffin pan and prevent egg muffins from going rubbery)
Chop your mushrooms, bacon, onion and spinach
Flash-fry onions, mushrooms, bacon and spinach in a pan (use either Coconut oil, Olive Oil, Ghee, Butter)
Mix eggs, water and cream together 
Add all of your fried ingredients to the egg mix
Scoop into each muffin hole
Crumb Feta into each muffin hole approx 10g per muffin, once crumbed in, use teaspoon to stir Feta into each individual muffin hole - do not touch the bottom puff pastry with your spoon.
Pop in oven for 20min or until a knife comes out clean.
Let cool and store in fridge for breakfast Mon-Sat.

My daily breakfast Mon-Saturday were these beauties, they can be eaten hot or cold and are only 256 calories containing 7Net Carbs.

Monday - Day 1
I made my personal calorie goal, however my Jellybean craving made me go over my personal Net Carb goal (25g-30g). As for meeting Low-carb goal, it was met. Low Carb Keto is up to 50g Net Carbs daily. These were my meals:
Breakfast - Keto Egg Muffin
Lunch - Tuna Salad
Dinner - Chicken, Spinach, Mushroom, Onion, Soy Sauce
Calories -1312  Net Carbs - 31g Water - 2.5 litre
Exercise: 25 min Orbitrek (Cardio) & 5000 Steps

Tuesday - Day 2
Made all goals, aced the day really #proud
Breakfast - Keto Muffin
Lunch - Chicken and Green Salad, Mayo for dressing
Dinner - Eggplant Dish
Calories - 1328 Net Carbs: 24g  Water: 2.25 litre
Exercise: 25 Weight Training & 4500 Steps

Wednesday - Day 3
Made my calorie and Low Carb Targets, but not really my personal Net Carb Target #eish #nooneisperfect #babysteps
Breakfast - Keto Muffin
Lunch - 40g Hummus + 30g Cucumber sticks, 50g Salami, 50g Gouda Cheese
Dinner - This was a semi-cheat, had a 1/2 McDonalds Big Tasty Foldover -tried it with my Boyfriend for our tandem whatsapp video date - he's currently based in a different city than me and this was a date night.
Calories: 1058 Net Carbs: 60g Water: 2.5 Litre
Exercise: 20 min Cardio & 6000 Steps

Thursday - Day 4
Back on the wagon - perfect day met all the daily goals #fire
Breakfast - Egg muffin
Lunch - Chicken Salad with Mayo
Dinner - Beef Stew with Spinach, Broccoli, Pattypan Squash, Onion & Garlic
Snack - Cashew Nuts Raw 20g
Exercise: 20 Weight Training & 5500 Steps
Calories: 926 Net Carbs: 25g Water 2.25 Litre

Friday - Day 5
Breakfast - Egg Muffin
Lunch - 40g Hummus, 40g Cucumber, 100g Salami, 40g Gouda
Dinner - 40g Gouda Cheese, Butter, 1 Slice Low GI Seed bread toasted
Exercise: 20min Cardio & 6000 Steps
Calories: 1074 Net Carbs: 27g Water 2.25 Litre

 
Saturday - Day 6
Created a delicious new dish #delish #yummy
Breakfast - didn't have anything just a cup of coffee with cream
Lunch - Chicken & Bacon Zucchini Alfredo
Dinner - Fried Chicken - 1 Piece Breast Meat 2 Zinger Wings
Drinks - 1 x Vodka & Lemon Water (54 Calories - YAY)
Calories: 1540 Net Carbs: 25g Water: 2 Litre
Exercise: 6000 Steps (4000 with 1.5kg ankle weights on)



Chicken & Bacon Zucchini Alfredo
Prep and Cook time: < 30 min
100g Bacon
100g Chicken Breast (skinless, de-boned)
150g Zucchini (Spiraled)
35g Mushrooms
35g Onion
1 Garlic Clove
80ml Cream
70ml Water
40g Butter
25g Feta Chese
Spices
5ml/g Cream of Onion Soup

Steps
Chop all ingredients finely. Fry onion, mushroom, garlic, chicken and bacon in butter.
Remove from pan.
Flashfry Zucchini pasta, close lid and steam for 1-2 min on low heat.
Add 5g cream of onion soup to 70ml water, stir, add to Zucchini Pasta.
Add Chicken, Bacon, Onion, Garlic & Mushrooms back to the pan.
Add 80ml Cream - stir.
Allow food to simmer on low heat for 3min. Crumb Feta over cooked mix. Serve and enjoy.

Sunday - Day 7
No Breakfast
Lunch - Beef Fillet, Green Salad, Upma & Dal with cashews and chillies (my brother made this for us, I had a very small portion to taste it.
1x Gin & Special Lemon water Mix
1 x Vodka & Special Lemon water Mix
3 x Coffee with Cream
Dinner - Chicken Breast with mayo, Greek Salad.
Calories: 1120 Net Carbs: 22g Water: 2.5 Litre


Week 1 was not as tough as I'd imagined, tomorrow night I get to track my measurements and see what was achieved. Week 2 you bastard I am coming for you #letsdothis

Daily Dish, more like Daily Mich

Yes there are apps for everything nowadays, Daily Dish is in essence a personal shopper slash recipe provider for those who are "too busy" to shop. Ok fair enough however, the sevice comes with a pricetag and quite frankly I could spend that cash more effectively. So instead of paying someone else to shop for me or plan recipes out for me, when I can't get to the shop there's online ordering and delivery from many stores these days.

As for the 30 min meals....challenge accepted! I will create my own meals and recipes and aim for the 30 min cook time although I will be checking commentary on the Daily Dish to see whether all meal cooking times are truly 30min. The DailyMich meals will never take longer than 45min but with Winter looming I know a hearty caserole or 2 will be on the books.

Becausd I'm a major foodie the recipes I will be sharing tasty, hearty, flavourful yet healthy meals. For the first  month to 6 weeks the meals will lean towards the banting style of things as I'm looking to shred a few pounds but I will always make a carb recommendation to accompany the meal for those who are so inclined.

Day 1

Breakfast: Fried Egg  & 3 Rashers of lean back Bacon (Fried in coconut oil)
                    1/4 Green Pepper(substitute for slice of toast)
                    Spices - Sundried Tomato & Garlic Salt
                                   Cayenne Pepper

Lunch: Tuna Salad

Lettuce, Tomato, white onion, pimento stuffed olives, cucumber  1tbsp Mayo, 1 can Tuna 

Daily Mish Dinner Number 1

 - Creamy Chicken Nut Ratatouille

(Serves 2)

200g Deboned Skinless Chicken Breast 

300g Zucchini 

60g White Onion

60-80g Button Mushrooms

20ml Coconut Oil for frying

Cayenne Pepper, Oregano, Lemon & Garlic Salt

Sauce:

25g Cream of Chicken Soup powder

80-100ml water

35-50ml Cream

20-25g Peanut Satay( Peanuts,ginger,garlic,chilies,vinegar,canola oil,antioxidant:TBHQ,stock,curry paste,salt,gelatins,citric acid blended in food processor then chilled) or buy in store "Sauceress Sauces" is proudly South African and available in most Spar's, Pick & Pay's, other brands make similar so any peanut Satay will do

Chop the Zucchini, Mushrooms and onion ibto thin slices, debone and skin your chicken if not bought pre-skinned and deboned. Cut chicken into strips or cubes down to your own preference.

Heat up pan, with coconut oil. When hot add onions until browned, slowly add chicken cubes and spice generously with Cayenne pepper, lemon & garlic salt and oregano. This should take 3-5 min depending on the volume of chicken. Now that the chicken and onions are spiced and browned it's time to add Mushrooms and Zucchini now reduce heat and stirfry.

Whilst this is in pan add the chicken soup powder, water, mayo and cream together and stir well finally add peanut satay and stir until dissolved. Turn your attemtion back to the pan. Once colour starts changing on Zucchini we will be ready to add the sauce mix.

Add sauce mix being up the heat to med-high 3-4 and wait for it to thicken, stir throughout takes approximately 2-3 minutes. Taste and serve! Delish

Why Biotech is a great investment.

I know I can’t speak for everyone but in my opinion there has been a slight shift in global consciousness over the last few years. The worldview I have and surely many of my friends and colleagues have is vastly different from that of generations past. I also tend to look at investing and investment strategy a little bit differently. When I consider what looks viable for future growth, I take a minute to think about the world and where we as a society are steering it.

One particular sector, which I believe has the potential for exponential growth over the medium to long term is Biotechnology. Now obviously everyone reading this not a Doctor, Scientist, Biologist, Researcher or Pharmacologist, so to elaborate properly on my position I want to break it down in layman’s terms.

Let’s firstly look at describing Biotechnology - in it’s simplest form, it literally is technology that is based on biology. Biotechnology harnesses cellular and bio-molecular processes to create and further develop existing treatments, procedures and products that not only help to improve our lives and longevity, but in recent years also the health of our planet.

As published in a recent article by Deloitte, out of the top 10 Pharma products by sales in 2014, the majority of them were biotech drugs. These included monoclonal antibodies and recombinant products. Now you’re thinking, what the hell does that mean, monoclonal antibodies are developed by cloning of cells. Recombiant products are also derived from DNA technology these are then used in the treatments for degenerative diseases, we have come a very long way from when we originally started with stem cell research.

Cancer, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Hepatitis C figured most prominently in the list of the most sales-generating drugs. Sadly I am sure this comes as no surprise, as most of us have been affected by Cancer maybe not directly but we all know someone who has Cancer, had Cancer or has it in their family. The most well-known degenerative diseases include: Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancer, Diabetes (Type II) ALS(Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Heart Disease, Huntington’s disease, MS, Parkinson’s, Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid arthritis, but these are only the most commonly known and by no means the only one’s society has to worry about, the list of degenerative diseases has been on the increase over the last to decades, medical sciences need to advance at astronomical rates just to keep up with the needs of an ever growing population.

To give you an idea of where Biotech is in monetary terms, Biotech drug sales were an estimated $289 billion in 2014 and are projected to grow to at least $445 billion by 2019.That’s an increase of 53% in revenue over 5 years. In addition, biotech’s share of worldwide prescription drug and over-the-counter pharma sales is projected to increase from 23 percent in 2014 to 26-30% in 2019.

If the fundamental impact that Biotechnology has had on medicine is not enough to warrant your consideration, perhaps you are more of an environmentalist and would appreciate what this sector can and does for our planet.

Biotech crops contribute to reducing the environmental impact of productive agriculture, and as a result it increases global food security without the need for increased land clearance. Insect resistant crops offer an alternative to chemical inputs on some crops and have allowed development of more targeted, flexible, effective and sustainable integrated pest management programs.

Biotech applications in the R&D pipeline : disease resistant, drought and stress tolerant crops, offer additional opportunities to increase global food security while further reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture.

It has also made significant strides in helping to sustain and protect our marine life, over the last 5 decades most of the worlds coral reefs have died and continue to die at an incredible rate, Biotech has made it possible for our future generations to yet again be able to enjoy some of natures most beautiful organisms, not only are we currently replanting coral that has been grown using biotechnology, marine biologists have also been able to simulate what they call “Ocean simulator tanks” that mimic what ocean water conditions will be like in the years to come, this helps them to manipulate the newly developed coral genetics to prepare them to adequately survive these environmental changes.
Yes, our species have ruined this planet and ourselves through technology, but it is this same technology that will help us repair, restore and rejuvenate this planet and ensure the survival of the human race.

Make your presence known & your absence felt! Day 20-21

Just a short and sweet one today, Monday was a wash! Yes the day was a 0 on a contract and I have decided to expel it from memory. Well not quite but I sure wish I could.  There is a lot happening in the financial world right now, with investors looking for the next best thing, emerging markets have seen a lot of growth over the last 2 quarters and we are hoping to maintain this going forward.

Unfortunately here in SA our strengthening Rand has lost a lot of ground in the month of August, predominantly relating to the ongoing Hawks Vs Gordhan saga.

Sufficed to say, it was a busy busy day at the office. I had a bit of a food wobble as well. With all the chaos, I was unable to eat at my regular intervals. I did manage to keep my water quota in tact and did go for my 2km walk, so that was a bonus. After work, I got to Betty (My little Sandero) and noticed that the remote didn’t work, I manually unlocked the car and to my shock horror realised that I had left the lights on accidentally and that she was dead!

This would’ve been absolutely fine, except that I had taken my jumper cables out of the car on Friday when I went to get a new tyre and didn’t; put them back in. The mission to find jumper cables began…strange as it may sound 5 out 6 people don’y have jumper cables, or at least that was my experience. I eventually had a chat with the hotel security staff and they offered to have their CID team come out with a Jump Kit for me. This was at 5:05PM, at 5:45PM I had reached my limit in patience and decided that I would call my insurer: 1^st for Women – after 6 failed calls/dropped calls whatever you want to call it, I eventually spoke to someone and they requested the roadside assistance. At 6:55PM the roadside assistance guy arrived, he gave me a quick jump and I was off. I work in Green Point and live in Hout Bay, it’s roughly a 30-40min drive.

Now yes in fairness I could’ve still gone to gym and returned home at around 8:45PM-9:00PM (1hr gym session and 50min to get there and then back to my house) then gotten the camera ready and cooked a healthy dinner but I didn’t…. Instead I succumbed to temptation and got myself some comfort food in the form of a McDonald’s Big Tasty Burger. Yes I know 800 Calories in one burger, but I really did not give a fuck at that point.

I have to say after 20 days of no carbs that burger was like a blessing!

Daily Food Diary

Water 2.5l (I compensated and drank an extra 500ml with my burger, to aid digestion)

Tea: 2 cups green tea, no sugar, no milk

Coffee 2 Cups, 1 brown Sugar, Milk

Food

1 Medium Sized Apple

1 x Big Tasty Burger

Jawbone UP3 Tracker Data:

Step Goal: 6500                     Actual: 7775

Sleep Goal: 7hr                      Actual: 6hr

Resting Heart Rate: 64 Bpm  

Highest Measured Heart Rate: 81 Bpm

Tuesday Day 21

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I have a beautiful feeling everything’s going my way. Yes indeed, this Tuesday morning was started with clear skies and a glorious view on my drive to work.

I was feeling energized and ready to tackle the day. Only one more day till I could actively start incorporating alcohol back into my eating regime and 3 weeks of for all intent and purpose sticking to my diet.

Work is work and play is play yes, but sometimes I get so upset at the sheer volume of mediocrity I am faced with. People so bloody complacent and content in doing the very least possible. Arghh this is what causes a person to snap! I don’t know I tend to live by the mantra when it comes to work that “ Make your presence known and your absence felt” if you live your life that way, you will always be an asset to your business and in demand for future prospects. I believe no matter what position you find yourself in that you should immerse yourself in it and become the best in it. I think I need to patent that slogan, as my peers from various other industries are already using it in their motivational talks - pay me my royalties guys... Evidently that is not what the rest of society believes and it fucks me right off. Can we please get a grip and start being contributing members of society, or is that too much to ask?

I had a great lunchtime stroll down Somerset Road and have managed to cut my walking time down to 22min, bearing in mind that I am in full office attire and can’t very well run or work up too much of a sweat in them. I have made a decision to start changing into another set of clothes for the walk when I return from Jhb on the 11^th.

It was also back on track with the food day here’s the breakdown:

Water: 2l

Tea: 1 Cup Green Tea

Coffee 2 Cups, 1 Brown Sugar, Milk

Breakfast: 1 Boiled Egg

                   6 Strawberries

Mid-morning snack: 80ml Yoghurt

 

Lunch: Tuna Salad

Lettuce, Herbs, Cherry  Tomatoes,     

Carrot Shavings, Beetroot Shavings,  

Onion 

1/2 can of tuna (in water). 

5ml Mayo

Dinner: Chicken Stir-fry(Great mix to have with some noodles making it a Chicken 

Chow Mein for the rest of the fam)

               

 100g Chicken Breast

 50g Cabbage,

 40gCarrot,

 40gOnion,

 40g Mushroom,

 30g Bean Sprouts

 20g Sweet Corn

10ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Soy Sauce

Salt & Pepper

There is no video today as I was crammed for time, besides, everyone of you knows how to chop, and that is all a stir fry is, getting your ingredients together, chopping them up and frying them. Starting with the onions folks, then add the mushrooms, then the meat and then everything else and Viola you have your meal!

 Jawbone UP3 Tracker Data:

Step goal: 6500             Actual: 8928

Sleep Goal:                    Actual: 3h46m (Not great at all, couldn't turn my mind off been worrying about a friend of mine who's gonna have a baby soon - positive vibes to the universe that all goes well)

Today's exercise was something different, I did a little bit of a cardio dance work out at home, it'll get the blood pumping guys, try it if you wanna pump up that booty! Hey O hey o!

 

The Gordhan Saga – my 2c

The “Hawks” investigation of Finance Minister  Pravin Gordhan is having a bit of a ripple effect. This has caused a clear rift between state and business. Weeks after the worst performance in an election, the ANC is succumbing to even further internal divisions – Cyril Ramaposa  (believed to be a possible candidate to replace Zuma after he steps down as the ANC’s leader and eventually as President.  Openly declaring his support for Gordhan is just one thing.

We need to root out whether this public dispute is of a personal vindictive nature or whether there is legitimate cause for concern, to the best of my knowledge and based on what has been made public by the press, this all started when Zuma was pressured into hiring Gordhan in Dec 2015 – after the Nhlanhla Nene debacle.

To give you some background, Pravin Gordhan ran SARS as Commissioner between 1998 and 2009, he later oversaw it politically when he was Finance Minister between 2009 and 2014. Moyane was appointed as SARS boss back in 2014 to allegedly clean up “the mess” at SARS,

After his recent re-appointment as Finance Minister Gordhan pleaded to Zuma to fire the country’s Tax Chief, Tom Moyane, now whether this was a legitimate request, as Gordhan’s spokesperson Phumza Macanda has stated, or simply an effort to prevent certain facts to come to light remains to be seen.

 

There has been an ongoing battle between the SARS boss and our Finance Minister, predominantly Monyane side has claimed that this is regarding a KPMG report that they want to release which will reinforce the allegations of a so-called “rogue investigative unit that was set up within SARS” and that this was overseen by Ivan Pillay – a close comrade of Mr. Gordhan’s 

While the Gordhan side, claims that the whole situation is relating to the operational overhaul and certain report disclosures Moyane’s camp want to make. The truth I believe remains to be seen.

According to a Sunday Times article in late January of this year, “there were 2 independent probes that preceded the KPMG report, which forced several former SARS officials close to Gordhan - including Pillay and former risk and enforcement executive Johann van Loggerenberg - to resign after the rogue unit was uncovered.” - Cited from Sunday Times Article 24 January 2016

The unfortunate thing here is that we as the public, do not have enough information to make informed comments. There are ties to all sorts here, Moyane and Zuma go as far back as their days in exile. Zuma and Gordhan also once allies, worked together in the ANC's underground operations in the 1980s, but in recent years have fallen out several times.

SARS as a whole has been plagued by scandal for a long time and quite frankly there may yet be more skeletons to come a bouncing out the closet. For whatever reason, if there was a need for an additional investigation unit during those years – which were very politically volatile. This would’ve been to uncover upper-level corruption.

There are so many social and economical concerns here, on a far greater scale. The most unnerving thing here is what our Foreign investment sector will do, yesterday we saw the sale of quite a few shares in the local banks by foreign investors, the Rand has also weakened substantially in the month of August. On the 15^th a dollar cost you R13.24 and it looked positive, checking the markets this morning, 31^st August a $ runs at R14.52.  It may just be time to hold your dollars again people, because I don’t see the downward trend stopping any time soon.

Our agricultural industry is still suffering with the effects of the drought and has projected 0% growth for the year, the continuous protest actions, from both public and private sectors over the last few years, coupled with political instability that currently gets hyped up in international news papers regarding the “tiff” between our President and Finance Minister is surely not instilling confidence in investors, add to that the Gupta’s who are looking to sell all of their shares in South African Business is just another factor in this potjiekos pot we call the South African economy. 

3rd Weekend Down - Days 17-19

What a bloody mess Friday turned out to be, I started the morning off by trying to find a tyre replacement place, eventually got sorted at Superquick in Sea Point. 900 Bucks later I had a new tyre. Bleh! Not the best way to start your day, especially not a week before payday.

Anywhoo, the diet damage done by the previous evenings shenanigans also played heavily on me, so much so that I decided to do another semi-fasted day.

I had my 2l of water and split a summer salad into 4 portions. I also ensure that my apple was split into 2. This pretty much made up my daily meals. Now I have been told by one of my mates, who is a dietician that this could work for some but not necessarily for all - she has advised that fasting even for short periods of time may actually halt my metabolism entirely - Bleh, okay then, thanks for the heads up love, unfortunately I don't have 2k right now to run a full blood panel and see exactly what would work for my specific body - for the most part though I feel that I am trying and eventually will stumble onto what works for me - this is about a change in general and not so much a diet, yes I want to kick the pounds too, and with enough exercise I'm sure they will abate. I am seeing centimeter loss and lets face it, most sports professionals/trainers etc will tell you that the real results you will only start noticing in yourself between 4-8 weeks, so we still have a ways to go.

I am back on the alcohol free stint until Wednesday of next week. That makes 22 Days yes, but remember I lapsed on Thursday so I had to add another day.

So regardless of having had several explanations I was still very dismayed and completely thrown by the lack of weight lost over the last 2 and a half weeks but have been told that this could also be linked to my current emotional state. I guess that’s valid, but didn’t quite realize how big of an effect your emotional state/well-being has on weight loss – until I started researching this.

In particular I was floored to find the clinical trials and psychological studies that had been done over the course of the last 2 decades. These were done on a variety of people trying to lose weight. All different shapes and sizes as well as racial demographics. Some only wanting to lose 5pounds others 100pounds. It was strange to find that a whole lot of them showed that a real key to weight loss was not diet or exercise, but is instead a person's emotional state.  A recent study inclusive of questionnaire discovered that 90 percent of the participants ignored the psychological link between food and exercise.

Okay, so yes. I am an emotional eater, yes I have been sad and angry recently. Yes my personal life is an absolute disaster right now…so maybe I need to start seriously focusing on getting my mind right too. The truth is that there are a lot of logistics involved in happiness. So I will now start actively trying to sort out my “shit”. We all have baggage, some only a handbag others a duffel some even vans and vans full of baggage. So in an attempt to “declutter” my personal baggage I will work on some much needed emotional stability, with my recent relocation, being away from my kids(they are furry) and trying the long-distance thing with my boyfriend it has been putting a heavy strain on my chi. Furthermore missing friends and family is hard, but there are always ways around things. I need to go and set a realistic game plan into motion to figure out what I want in life and in love.

Jawbone UP3 Data:

Step Goal: 6500     Actual: 6628

Sleep Goal: 7hr      Actual: 4h22m (Bleh)

Food Intake:

2l Water

Coffee: 3 Cups, 1 Brown Sugar, Milk

Woolies Summer Salad with 1 can of Tuna(in Water)

1 Medium Apple

Saturday Day 18

The day started out fairly normal, I did my washing and went for a stroll in the vineyard. I saw the strangest thing ever! A Hadeda chasing Ducks out of a tree! Yes you heard me right. Now this is not something you see in Gauteng people. You may see ducks on a pond but certainly not in high trees.

A lot of my day was spent on studies and binge watching Felicity. There are so many now famous actors who had small roles in that show. It’s actually funny that I didn’t remember them before now.

Here’s a quick list of the stars and their most recent shows.

Bethany Joy Lenz – Hayley in One Tree Hill

Tyra Banks – Top Model and now her own Talk show

Donald Faison – Best known as Turk from Scrubs

Eddie Cahill – CSI NY, Under the Dome

Christopher Gorham – He played Harrison in the 2000’s tv show Popular and now recently played Auggie in Covert Affairs and can be seen as Wyatt in Heartbeat.

Simon Rex  - Scary Movie 3,4 & 5

Amy Smart – Many movies, recently played Allison in Justified

I didn’t feel like cooking at all this weekend, I did make myself a 2 egg omelette in the morning, filled with mushroom, onion, green pepper and cheese. But when it came to lunch and dinner I opted for a delicious Caesar Salad from Woolies which I split over the 2 mealtimes.

Jawbone UP3 Data:

Step Goal: 6500             Actual: 4991 (Epic Fail)

Sleep Goal: 7hr              Actual: 8hr40m

Sunday – Day 19

Sunday started out all smoggy – for all intent and purpose it looked like it would be a day spent indoors, but with some luck this swung around and by 12PM the sky was clear. For me it was a day of reflection and some much needed introspection. I took a long stroll in the garden, past the pond through the vineyard –  after which I spent some time with my awesome neighbours (They are horses by the way). There are 5 of them, right next door and they are super friendly. I don't know there is something about stroking a horse and looking into it's eyes.

In the afternoon I went to spend some time at my dune.  There were some gorgeous sail boats sailing on the turquoise water – I want one!

That is something I love doing, sailing, yes it's hard and yes we got stuck on a hobie cad in Mauritius for a while, a loooooong while. But sailing is a blast, fishing and diving are blasts too and they all go hand in hand together. Don't get me wrong I'll take a speed boat too, but sailing with wind, is just something else. Ideally I would like to get a combination boat, with sails and a powerful engine.



 

A song in particular that helped me today with my "introspection" is 'Catch & Release" - Matt Simons

Do yourselves a favour and really listen to the words, ah, such a great song. 




The food day was pretty boring but at least I cooked again.

Breakfast - 2 Egg Omlette
                   Cheese, Tomato, Mushroom, Green Pepper

Lunch - Green Salad - Lettuce, Cucumber, Onion, Cherry Tomato, Feta

Dinner: Beef, Green Beans & Baked Mushrooms

Ingredients: 100g Tenderised Steak
                       80g Portobello Mushrooms
                       80g Green Beans
                       30g Grated Cheese
                       5-10g Cream Cheese
                       5-10g Pesto (Mine is made  
                        with Red Pepper, Garlic, Cashews, Spices and Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
10ml Sweet Chili Sauce
10ml Soy Sauce (Can be reduced salt soy too)


Here's the video, it really is super easy! Remember to liven things up through spices.