My name is Wondercurves, or Curvy, and I live in Gateshead, UK. I have been following a low diet since March 2017.
I started with strict Keto and have now moved on to moderate Low Carb and Slimming World.
I like trying new dishes and recipes, some of them work out, some of them turn into complete disasters. One of my frequent causes for cooking disasters is coconut flour. No matter how hard I try, coconut flour recipes never work out. But giving up is not an option.
If you want to get in touch for advice on a Low Carb and/or Slimming World diet, or if you want to share your recipes, comment on my recipes, simply have a chat or because you want me to try your products, you can reach me at [email protected] .
What is my story?
I was 10 when I did my first diet. It wasn't a voluntary one. Facing my Holy Communion, my mother had bought dresses for me and my twinsister and I didn't fit into the dress. As we all know dresses for events like the Holy Communion are expensive so I was put on a diet. I spent days eating soured cream, coarse rye bread and tomatoes or cucumbers and I ended up fitting into the dress. Unfortunately afterwards eating returned to normal and good old jojo set in straight away.
Reaching my teenage years I was already at the point where I thought that I was fat (which I hadn't been until then) and "it didn't matter anymore anyway". I did not at all pay attention to how much I ate or what I ate and my mother's tendency to cook enough for a football team did contribute to my weight gain.
My weight simply spiralled out of control. I was in my early 20's when I started to diet again. And I must have tried every diet out there. Calories counting, SIS (Slim in your Sleep), Atkins, Intermittent Fasting, Weight Watchers, Dukan.. if you can think of it, I have probably tried it. Nothing worked and in hindsight I know why. Every time I tried a new diet, it felt incredibly restrictive and I hate counting and weighing my food. It really does my head in. So every diet meant "you can't eat this" or "you can't have that". So sooner rather than later I reverted to old behaviour patterns and threw the diet out of the window.
I found love despite my weight and self-loathing, and my self-esteem slowly but surely returned. Yes, I was big, but no, I was not as unattractive as I had considered myself for such a long time. But the weight bothered me still and what bothered me most was the fact that I could not find a nice wedding dress in a size 22/24 when I got married in 2012. This was my own fault, and I was really annoyed with myself. I had been engaged for over a year before we got married, I could have lost at least 2 stone. But could've, would've, should've doesn't change a flipping thing.
In 2013 I read about Atkins again, and knowing that it had not worked before I was about to dimiss the whole idea. But a link on a website mentioned Keto. Oh.. a diet I had not tried yet? I was intrigued. Eventually I started Keto for the first time, and I was really successful - I lost over 30 lbs! And I loved Keto! I do not care much for potatoes, pasta or rice, but I love meat and cheese and cream. So this Keto malarkey sounded too good to be true. But it wasn't too good to be true. It was amazing! I did it for six months and then I went on holiday. Big mistake.. BIG mistake. After the holiday it happened again. Old habits die hard and I fell off the waggon. And I was angry.. very angry. With myself. And again I thought I'd be fat forever, and that I am just unreliable and weak. And I was ashamed. So best forget about Keto and pretend nothing ever happened.
When in March 2017, the idea of Keto came back to me, naturally I did not trust myself at all. And how would I trust myself after over 15 years of dieting and jojoing and shame? Then a friend of mine said that there might be a solution. I was all ears. She said: make it public! Rather than secretly trying to shift the pounds, let people know. Get yourself out there and make people part of your weightloss journey, of your ups and downs, of your whacky ideas and your strange recipe concoctions. This way people expect progress, perseverance and success. And maybe, only maybe they give you the support and occasional kick in the arse that you need. So I did. I went fairly public by creating an Instagram and a Twitter account. And eventually I started this blog, too. Fair enough, this approach might not be the right one for everybody, but so far it has worked for me. So thank you for keeping an eye on me!
After six months of strict Keto (>20g carb), I moved on to moderate Low Carb and increased my daily allowance of carbs to 50g. There were different reasons for this: one was the lack of variety of food while doing Keto, and my husband started to struggle with Keto. And not only him.. I have to be honest with you: I found it too fatty. I know that Keto lives on fat, but at the end of the day, I had to listen to my body, and I was getting too much fat. So first I lowered the fat allowance, and increased the protein allowance and in October 2017 I joined Slimming World. All in all I am still looking at a calorie deficit of 30%. As before, I do avoid carby vegetables and carby foods, and attempt to stick with 'clean eating' as much as I can. How would you call this now? Low Carb Slimming World, I suppose.
I am only human, so please forgive me the occasional cheat day. I like my social life, and do you know what happens to people in Britain who go out and don't have at least one buddy drink? Exactly, they are being put outside with the smokers... and this country is too cold to be standing outside all the time. So for the sake of my poor feet, hands and nose I do have to be social and cheat once in a while. I don't do this for me, I do this for the people out there who'd miss me inside the pub. Honest.... *cough cough*.
So far I have lost over 30 lbs and I have seen an overall improvement in my health, my skin, my energy and my mood. Unless I am hangry.. this does happen. But there is an easy fix to this: give me cheese. Cheese normally sorts me out.
Oh by the way, I am afraid you won't find medical advice on my blog. I am not a doctor, nor a nurse. I am a very boring data quality controller and while I grew up in a family of nurses, this chalice passed me by. What you will find here however are some tasty recipes which you hopefully enjoy. Plus a few ideas, some laughs, some whinges and general thoughts, some of them serious, some of them whacky. So enjoy, and thank you for reading! x
And never forget...
And as I said above, if you want to get in touch for advice on a Low Carb and/or Slimming World diet, or if you want to share recipes, comment on my recipes, simply have a chat or because you want me to try your products, you can reach me at [email protected] . I don't bite as long as you remember the cheese.. x