Tantra

[Ukpoohbear]

Just an update on the adaptations I made to my smoothie:

— hemp protein powder has a strong flavour and it also gives off a green-ish tinge to the smoothie, which can be a bit off-putting. The flavour is too strong and takes over the smoothie too easily for me.

If you don’t mind carbs, personally I would recommend a mix of pea protein isolate and a brown rice protein powder - although brown rice protein is low in the amino acid Lysine, pea protein is high in it, so together they make a good combo, plus brown rice has a neutral flavour. Pea protein isolate has its own flavour, but it’s not half as strong as hemp protein.

However, because I am now focusing on low carbs, I will be avoiding brown rice protein for now, and I will finish the 2kg of hemp protein I bought first, before deciding what to do next.

— In another update, I have ‘sort of’ completed the fodmap diet. The purpose of this diet is to eliminate all trigger foods and then reintroduce certain groups to find out which one is the trigger. I have now found out that Fructan and GOS are my triggers groups, so I don’t need to follow a completely low fodmap diet anymore.

I also tried to reintroduce GOS, but I’m still sensitive to it. Apparently, if you give your gut a break, you can reintroduce after a while. But I still need to avoid.

— also, I decided to experiment with vegan and low fodmap sweet treats. As a result, I made peanut butter cookies, maple and walnut cookies etc, ate them all, and now I’ve put on a bunch of weight. Plus, my attempt to follow a low carb diet *FAILED.* All of this has actually motivated me to start a *Vegan and low Keto diet’ by the end of the month.

I am starting at the end of the month, so I can eat all the remaining high carb foods I have in the food cupboards, like potatoes, rice noodles etc. and then when I do my next food shop, it will be Keto friendly, as well as vegan and low GOS/Fructan.

I am excited to try a Keto diet!! I plan to follow it until Xmas, where I will then treat myself to a wheat free and Vegan afternoon tea from my favourite bakery, Cutter&Squidge, to celebrate, before restarting from fresh for the new year.

Now that is my plan, let’s see how it goes.

— All I need to do to make my smoothie Keto is omit the frozen bananas, because the brown rice protein has already been omitted.

— I will share vegan and low Keto dinner recipes within the next couple of weeks.

— the good thing about intermittent fasting, and having a smoothie at 12pm that is already an excellent source of everything you need nutrition wise, is that now all I need to worry about, is cooking one meal a day, dinner, that is vegan and low Keto etc.

It sounds easy in theory, now let’s see if I find it easy in practice. Although, I have a feeling I may miss carbs, plus the no sweet treats until Xmas rule will be hard too.

Just an update on my Keto journey.

First of all, I am now in Ketosis! I haven’t officially measured it by checking my blood sugar levels (although that is something I might do in the future), but I am experiencing symptoms of Ketosis, that there really is no mistaking it! This is things like feeling lightheaded and brain fog. Plus, I have lost a lot of water weight in the space of a week (3lbs). Before I felt these negative symptoms, I was feeling really clear-headed and focus was sharp, so I was really enjoying the feeling of Ketosis. Actually, I’m starting to think of the ‘bug’ I had last week, was actually the Keto flu, and my body was adjusting to no carbs and sugar.

I actually had a false start with this diet because I relied on ChatGPT to give me a diet plan I ended up making two soups that it recommended to me, and then downloaded a Keto app and put the two recipes in, just to find that they were both very high in carbs! I was really annoyed and couldn’t bring myself to chuck out the 6 small plastic boxes of soup I had ready made, but two days later, I threw them out, determined to stick to the diet!

I will post the two Keto friendly soups below I ended up making when I did a batch cook again. While I was waiting to be psychologically ready to chuck the previous two sets of soups out, I had a really nice dinner of marinated baked tofu with cauliflower rice, and another night I made a scrambled ‘egg’ tofu and made a mini vegetable skewers to go with it. So I still managed to stick to a Keto diet, even though my first batch cooking was a fail.

So now, despite the false start, I have enough recipes under my belt, I can easily stick to the Keto diet for as long as I can sustain it. I do plan to treat myself on Xmas Day.

So far, after one week of official ketosis, I have lost 3lbs. I checked my BMI and the aim is to lose 10kg.

Once the feelings of Keto flu pass, I expect to be feeling clear headed again. I’m taking magnesium supplements and putting a pinch of salt in my water to help with hydration, since the Keto flu is essentially just dehydration. This is happening due to the body switching from burning glucose (carbs) for energy, into using fat. This is why there is so much water weight loss at first.

I’m posting below two Keto friendly (vegan too, of course) soups. Apart from that, the next update will be any more significant weight loss, or recipes.

Oh, and because I am following a fairly restrictive diet, or three restrictive diets in one (vegan, low Fructan/GOS and now Keto), I have started to take a high quality multivitamin, I’m taking Inessa advanced multivitamin. Although the smoothie I take at 12pm is really nutritious and is basically allowing me to be so experimentative at dinner time, the multivitamin is an extra caution, but a necessary one I would say, at this level of restriction.

The two soups I made:

Dairy-Free Low Carb Creamy Broccoli Soup

It has been freezing in my apartment lately, and all I've wanted is to eat rich, warm soup. Usually, my go-to low carb vegan soup is my faux-tato leek soup, but I had approximately zero leeks in my house and somehow even less desire to go out to the store. So, I decided to make a low carb vegan...

meatfreeketo.com

Cauliflower & Turmeric Soup - Keto Vegan Recipe

This Turmeric and Cauliflower Based Recipe is both Vegan and Keto. It's the perfect cold remedy if you are feeling a little under the weather.

www.brokefoodies.com

Making this one in the next couple of days:

Keto Vegetable Soup

This flavourful keto vegetable soup makes a wonderful light yet filling lunch or dinner. Super easy and ready in just 30 minutes!

sugarfreelondoner.com

 

[Ukpoohbear]

It’s been only a year since I started intermittent fasting for 18 hours a day, which just means I eat between the hours of 12-6pm only.

When I started, I also started taking a smoothie for my brunch at 12pm, as the first thing to break my fast.

When I first started the smoothie, it only consisted of frozen banana, sugar free almond milk, peanut butter, maple syrup and sometimes cocoa powder.

Now, a year later, there are lots of more ingredients added, since I have taken inspiration from different dietary videos or posts.

Now, today, I have added another ingredient - organic coconut milk kefir.

The brand I have chosen is called Rhythm Health - it is the only company I found that is not mass-produced, they do all their own fermenting, and it is organic and vegan.

Their milk kefir is filled with billions of live cultures, which help heal the gut, where there is scientific proof of a gut-brain axis link.

Live cultures feed friendly bacteria, reduce inflammation and increases short again fatty acids (SCFA’s), which is the cornerstone of our health.

The ingredients in my smoothies now includes:

- Brown rice protein powder
- Pea protein powder
- A tablespoon of psyllium husk
- 2 tablespoons of hulled hemp seeds
- A tablespoon of organic cocoa powder
- A generous tablespoon of peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons of flax seeds, with added vitamin D and live cultures
- sugar free almond milk
- a dash of maple syrup
- and now, organic, coconut milk kefir

View attachment 113103

Just an update on my smoothie information, now that I have adjusted it to be Keto friendly -

— I have omitted the frozen banana, the brown rice protein powder and the maple syrup.

— instead I use hemp protein powder, pea isolate protein powder, although once the hemp finishes, I don’t plan on purchasing it again, as the flavour is strong.

— I add either a little bit of canned coconut or even coconut cream to uo the fat content.

— to replace maple syrup, I am using a few organic blueberries.

 

[Ukpoohbear]

‘I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.’
— The Brother’s Karamazov
— Fyodor Dostoevsky

@passiflora the bird’s eye view perspective I was talking about. Well, ‘the small Euclidean mind of man,’ Dostoevsky was able to describe it in a beautifully poetic way. (I haven’t read the book btw, I’m just familiar with the quote but he’s essentially talking about 5D which is amazing).

 

[Ukpoohbear]

‘Euclidean mind of man.’

I wasn’t sure what the above phrase meant, so I looked it up and came across this pdf that goes into detail, not just about the phrase but about the themes of the novel. For those of us who have not read the book, it will be useful to understand the above quote better. Basically, how to reconcile the purpose of good and evil in the world. Euclidean is a geometric phrase, about two lines that do not meet, or cannot be reconciled - 3D thinking. In order to reconcile good and evil, it requires a greater geometrical perspective - 5D.

— https://pjaesthetics.uj.edu.pl/docu...ung2.pdf/e8558d59-0c77-41bc-9741-761b48ccf055

.

 

[passiflora]

@passiflora the bird’s eye view perspective I was talking about. Well, ‘the small Euclidean mind of man,’ Dostoevsky was able to describe it in a beautifully poetic way. (I haven’t read the book btw, I’m just familiar with the quote but he’s essentially talking about 5D which is amazing).

then you would probably love this book. thank you for sharing the quote!

 

[Ukpoohbear]

It’s not your fault.

 

[david starling]

It’s not your fault.

Depends on what "it" is!

 

[Ukpoohbear]

Depends on what "it" is!

 

[Ukpoohbear]

I wish I was as free as a happy homeless person.

 

[Ukpoohbear]

I’m from a little bit here and a little bit there.

 

[Ukpoohbear]

‘Accumulate something that death cannot destroy.’

 

[Ukpoohbear]

 

[Ukpoohbear]

‘What the intuitive introvert sees are most uncommon things, and he doesn’t like to talk to them, if he’s not a fool. Because people won’t understand it.’
— Jung

 

[Ukpoohbear]

The thing that I have noticed and that I don’t like about Christianity, is that any negative revelations about oneself can be attributed to the devil and therefore denied. Practicing a religion then becomes a very powerful cult in which one can deny responsibility about one’s self because there is a whole ancient system set up to help you disengage from self-reflection.

Why did Jesus die on the cross for the sins of humanity? Should we not have been taught to die for our own sins? And why are people taught that the devil is outside of us, when God and the Devil are both us.

 

[Ukpoohbear]

‘The mess out there is because of a mess in here.’

 

[david starling]

‘The mess out there is because of a mess in here.’

View attachment 115313

It's not a paradox - not once you factor in the tropical Age of .

 

[Ukpoohbear]

It's not a paradox - not once you factor in the tropical Age of .

That’s because we’re smart arses though

 

[david starling]

That’s because we’re smart arses though

We're privy to secret knowledge.

 

[Ukpoohbear]

We're privy to secret knowledge.

It sure helps bring a sense of peace.

 

[Ukpoohbear]

‘Saying goodbye to a neurotic attitude is a very sad business and nobody has ever got out of it without feeling sad, for unfortunately a neurosis is a lovable condition and one resents being separated from it.’
— Marie-Louise von Franz