Ramadan, Iftar Day 10, Suhur Day 11

Welcome back y'all to a new week of SCD in Ramadan. I'm sure you're wondering how I did after all the glutton from yestercheat, so let's take a look at the scale!

Yep, it's right there... 226.0lbs, that means there was only a gain of 1.4lbs!! A much smaller gain than the previous cheat day, and I feel like I ate a lot more stuff this time around. I'm starting to fall in love with this diet on Ramadan. Progress is still nice and slow, but the important thing is that there is progress; all without exercise mind you!

Iftar


Creativity was in the air today, so I decided to take a full whiff of that stuff and implement it to Iftar. I was craving a cheeseburger in the worst way, so I decided to get creative!

Seeing as to how beef is already allowed, and I found an SCD compliant "cheese", all I needed now was the bun. As I entered highland farms and walked through the produce, I quickly realized Portobello mushrooms are my best bet to make a bun.


Here's the end result:

Not perfect by any means, but pretty damn good! Topped it with mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, and red onions. The overall product felt really meaty, since the mushrooms themselves are meaty. Although it was pretty good going down! Also on the menu today...

Oven roasted chicken! Had my self a leg and some of the yummy mushrooms on the side. Not pictured also is the side salad we had, and copious amounts of water + my PAG supplement.

Suhur


Kind of a disaster today, was trying to be creative again, but this time I set my creativity on fire in the oven, and on top of that I knocked over a huge bottle of hot sauce, which made a nasty mess. By the time me and my wife cleaned it all up, there was 10 mins left before Suhur was over!

I just made my Casein shake and had about 4 cups of water, my AGG supplement, and off to bed I went.

Hopefully i'll get another crack of nailing what I wanted to do in the first place! I'll keep it a secret for now so that when I try it next time and am successful, it'll be all good! 

Ramadan, Iftar Day 9, Suhur Day 10

Sorry again for the late post everyone, but my schedule is taking a beating these last couple of days!

Anywhos, it's cheat day! So you know what that means... MEASUREMENTS! Let's see what the tape measure had for me today:

Chest: 110.0cm (43.307 in) -3.5cm (-1.38 in)
Waist: 110.5cm (43.504 in) -5.0cm (-1.97 in)
Hips: 112.0cm (44.095 in) -3.0cm (-1.18 in)


Oh man! I'm very excited! The finishing touches to close up the week is the scale reading, which is as follows:

You read right, 224.6lbs, that's a 2.4lbs drop from the week before. Not a bad week! Total of 11.5cm (4.53 total inches) lost. I'm loving Ramadan! Now, onto the glutton!

Iftar


No explanations today, just pictures, you'll get the idea quick...

Dates to break fast, the pitted/almond stuffed/honey coated ones were awesome!!

Sheppard's pie

Mac and Cheese

Corn Flake Breaded Chicken Strips.

Not pictured are Spaghetti (yes more pasta), a salad with cucumbers and ranch dressing, and the Sierra Mist that I had to wash it all down. Now for dessert...

Rocky Road Brownie (My Wife made this and it was awesome)

Strawberry cheesecake.

I told you it wasn't going to be pretty! Had like 4 pieces of the brownie and a slice of the cheesecake, washed it down with 4 glasses of milk. God how I missed it.

Suhur

Didn't really wake up, around 2AM I had another slice of brownie, and some pomegranate greek yogurt. Had my PAG supplements and AGG supplement and some water, and off to bed I went.

Let's see what the damage is next day! :) 

Ramadan, Iftar Day 8, Suhur Day 9

This is coming out a little late so I apologize to all you guys following this blog waiting on progress, it's been a crazy day and i'm just starting to catch up, so here goes! No need to put a picture of the scale today, it didn't change from yesterday to today; still @ 225.2lbs. No need to worry though, hopefully the protein shake had nothing to do with it (at least that's what i'm telling myself)


Iftar


Today we wanted to do the same thing we did yesterday but with eggplants and green peppers (moussaka or messa23a in Arabic) however when we were preparing it, the eggplants fell apart when we roasted/stewed them, so we had to fry them (unfortunately). We used macadamia nut oil to do it though, so hopefully not so bad (and obviously not breaded).

So this would be the final result of the eggplant "stew" or the moussaka, we made it with ground beef as well. So tasty! For veggies, I had it ontop of my cauliflower rice, and had these bad boys with it too:

That would be arugula (or gargeer), so nice and fresh and peppery, it's the perfect companion to the meal. Broke my fast with water and my PAG supplements, and lots of water.

Suhur


Today was special, since I found this lactose free, gluten free, soy free cheese at the market and decided to try it. They had mozzarella and cheddar flavours, so I made an omelette with the cheese, sautéed some red onions and some garlic in macadamia oil, and topped it with 2 eggs + 2 egg whites.

That my friends, is what I call absolute heaven. Even my wife who got sick of eggs on this diet asked for one of these bad boys. The cheese tasted exactly like cheese, and even melted and pulled the way melted cheese does!

Obviously before had lots of water, my PAG supplement, after eating I had my protein shake and then more water. Topped it all off with my AGG supplement and off to bed I went after fajr!

Cheat day tomorrow!!! 

Ramadan, Iftar Day 7, Suhur Day 8

I'm excited about today, I feel like it's going to be a good day! To confirm, I step on the scale...

That's right! 225.2lbs! Another loss of 1.6lbs and that's with Suhur this time! I'm starting to dig being in Ramadan more and more. Let's see what's on the menu for today!

Iftar

I know you're probably thinking "two straight days of Cauliflower rice, you're probably sick of Cauliflower by now" If you think that, you'd probably be wrong. Today, Iftar took a page out of the Iron chef where the secret ingredient was Cauliflower!

For starters, a Cauliflower and ground beef tagine (canrabeet bel lahma el mafrooma). Just sautéed some ground beef and added tomato paste, and boiled the cauliflower separately with cumin. Add the two together and throw it in the oven, that would be the end result!

Next, our favourite Cauliflower rice. Except today we shook things up by mixing in garlic butter instead of regular butter, and believe me when I tell you it was amazing! Now put the two together, and the final product looks as such:

The Iftar of champions! Cauliflower tagine with Cauliflower rice! Gotta love innovation! Not pictured here also was some pan fried cauliflower cakes (just with some egg to hold it together and some maggie for seasoning), and a simple soup (just boiled some meat and added some salt and pepper). Overall, very satisfying meal! Of course, started it all off with water and my PAG supplement.

Suhur

I decided not to sleep today and stay awake until Suhur then go to sleep. We decided to bring back an old favourite today for Suhur since it was so good last time we had it.

That's right people, veal liver!! (kibdah askandaraneya) This time, we didn't forget the cumin, and it made an amazing sauce! If I really wanted overkill I would have served this on the cauliflower rice, but decided to just have the meat. Drank 2 large cups of ice water before with my PAG supplement, my multivitamin, and 1 more cup of water.

I also tried something new thanks to some advice I got on the 4hourpeople forum from a fellow SCDer in Ramadan, suggesting to invest in some Casein protein. Basically what this protein does is that it slowly releases protein to your body throughout the day to prevent muscle degeneration. Also, keeps you feeling fuller longer when no meals are available (like in Ramadan!) So I shook me up a strawberry milkshake of this guy here, and it was so good going down! I wanted more, but I remember the guy at the store telling me "if you're not working out, this thing can add calories real quick, so watch out!" Washed another glass of water down, and that was that!

Hopefully this will translate better in terms of hunger the next day, we'll see what effect it has on the scale before cheat day!

Ramadan, Iftar Day 6, Suhur Day 7

Let's get right into this! Right before Iftar, here's what the scale had for me today:

That's right! 226.8lbs, a difference of 1.6lbs from the day before and thats without Suhur! Although i'm determined to have Suhur today as to see how it'll impact me. Seeing as to how i'm 2 days away from cheat day, i'm determined to try to get down as low as I can!

Iftar


We liked the cauliflower rice so much from the day before that we had to have it again. Especially with anything saucy that gives it some flavour. On the menu today you ask?

Today it's sautéed chicken liver, sautéed veggies (mushrooms, green and red bell peppers) served on the cauliflower rice in all their saucy glory. Very delicious! Broke my fast obviously with water and my PAG supplement. Although today I wanted something to drink that was a little more exciting than just plain water.

Enter my favourite flavoured soda water, eska carbonated water with cranberry flavour! Zero everything, maximum flavour. I finished this entire bottle.

Suhur


Couldn't find my iPhone, but I was awake thanks to my alaram (it worked today!) I got down to the kitchen and used some of the sautéed veggies from earlier in my egg whites + 1 egg omelet. It turned out pretty good! Had my PAG supplement before, about 3 large cups of water, and my AGG supplement right before the time was up.

Not sure how this will translate to the scale before Iftar, but i'm stocked to see where my progress is heading :)

See you all same SCD time tomorrow! :)

Ramadan, Iftar Day 5, Suhur Day 6

Let's get the ball rolling! As soon as Iftar rolls around, I get on the scale. Except at first the reading comes out to 229.2lbs. So I tell myself "wait a second, I think I have to go pee!!" After using the facilities, and taking off my shirt for safe measures, the new reading is as follows:

228.4lbs


Woo!! So that means my weight is down again (with a little help) from the previous reading by 0.4lbs. Not too bad, but I think it could have been better! Now let's get to the "meat" of the post, the food!

Iftar


After stepping on the scale, took my PAG supplement and drank a nice tall glass of water, and sat down to eat. Today, I felt a little adventurous and wanted to shake it up a bit. While at work, I was browsing online for some new meal ideas, and came across this stir fry that looked appetizing. Only problem was that it called for Hoisin sauce and Soy sauce. First, Hoisin sauce is full of sugar, and Soy sauce has wheat in it!

Again, Google is your best friend when looking for alternatives. I found a sugar-free hoisin sauce recipe, and went to the local Chinese supermarket and found a wheat-free Soy sauce called "Tamari", although it was a lot harder to find it since no one really knows how to help me at the place! Either way, I put together the hoisin sauce and had a friend try it since I was fasting obviously, and they gave me the thumbs up. Although they were like "it ain't hoisin sauce, but it's pretty good either way" For me, pretty good is good enough!

Final result:

I had a hankering for Chinese food today, and made a Sweet n Spicy Chicken Stir Fry with Broccoli. It wasn't sweet really (used Stevia in the chicken marinade, and in the hoisin sauce) and put it ontop of some Cauliflower rice (it was REALLY good this time). Washed it down with some more water, but it was really spicy. A nice change of pace!

Suhur

Didn't get up, alarm didn't go off... I swear i'm going to throw it in the garbage! Let's see how this affects me on the scale tomorrow!!

Ramadan, Iftar Day 4, Suhur Day 5

I haven't had time to really sit down and update like I did at the beginning because of work and all, so I'm trying to compress iftar and suhur in one post so that it might be more beneficial :) Sorry for any inconveniences!

Anyways... the scale reading before iftar... (drum roll please)

228.8lbs


BOOMSHAKALAKA!! Only gaining 1.8lbs after cheat day for me is unheard of, let alone possible. I always put on at least 3-4lbs, but maybe that can be dispelled by the lack of water available to retain in my body. Either way I was pretty excited when I got on. Also made me feel less guilty about what I would have today for iftar.

Iftar

As you can tell from yesterday's post, there was a lot of food, so we decided to have SCD compliant left overs from yester-cheat, with a few additions.

So in the middle is the middle eastern green soup molokhia, and inside it is some of the chicken from potato tray yesterday all chopped up in the soup. To the left is some yummy kofta balls (had about 3 or 4 of these) and then my salad (green onions, tomato, green pepper, topped with a balsamic vinegar and mayo mix, still haven't gotten any oil yet!). You can kind of see a blue plate on the top, that had some nice pepperocini peppers that made everything taste better as I was eating. Obviously broke my fast with my water and PAG supplement.

Decided to do something different today with suhur, since I'm always tired when I wake up and seem to struggle while preparing and eating the food. Instead of going to sleep, we just decided to stay up until around 1:30-2:00am, and then eat. We'll see what happens tomorrow on the scale.

"Suhur"


Notice the quotes since it's not really right before Fajr, but still early enough in the morning to call it Suhur. What was on the table for Suhur you ask?

This is what I like to call kibdah iskandaraneya or liver Alexandrian style. Basically some fresh veal liver chopped up, sautéed in some butter with loads of garlic, hot Serrano peppers, cumin, salt and pepper. The green peppers were my "vegetable" just to keep it "SCD" compliant. Had my PAG supplement now here too, and loads of water. Note this plate fed 3 people, as much as I wanted to finish it all myself :)

After this, I decided to reward myself for the good numbers on the scale earlier.

  
Enter some delicious strawberry sugar free JELL-O. Just had half the plate, never really tried this sweetener (splenda) to see how it'd work with me (so far stevia is a-ok with me!)

We'll see how the progress is tomorrow when I get on the scale tomorrow before iftar. Let's hope for the best! Until next time! :)

Ramadan Day 3 Iftar, Day 4 Suhur

As promised, it's measurement time! So last week before cheat day, my measurements were the following:

Chest: 113.5 cm (44.685 inches) 

Waist: 115.5 cm (45.472 inches)

Hips: 115 cm (45.276 inches)

Today before cheat, here's what the measurements were:

Chest: 113 cm (44.488 inches) -0.5cm (-0.016 inches)

Waist: 112 cm (44.095 inches) -3.5cm (-1.378 inches)

Hips: 112.5 cm (44.291 inches) -2.5cm (-0.978 inches)

The scale last week was at 233lbs, today the magic number is:

227.0lbs

Woo!! So that means this week I lost a total of 5lbs and a total of 6.5cm (2.56 inches)!! Not bad progress for Ramadan and only 5 days of SCD. Let's see how my progress goes after only 5 days on SCD on the eve of the next cheat. So I guess DCCC is good for me after all! :)

For all you fellow slow carbers, you can stop here, or if you like, can continue to witness the glutton of yester-cheat :)

Iftar

I don't think everything I had is pictured here, but i'll give it my best shot to explain... I started off with some grapefruit juice and a mejdool date to break my fast, then after prayers, the gluttonfest began! In the red dotted pan is Saneyet Batates (potato tray) with chicken legs, potatoes, and yummy sauce. To the left, we have some Goulash (phyllo sheets with butter and ground beef), Molokhia (Egyptian Green Soup), and not pictured is my favourite Roz Mo-Amar (Rice Tagine cooked with milk and soup and butter, rather than water). Overall, I was in heaven! As you can see, Egyptian food is the reason i'm on the SCD now :D

After resting a bit, it was desert time. So I had a couple classics to choose from:

This is Konafah, which is basically shredded dough fried in butter, layered with nuts and more sugar, and topped with a simple syrup. A must have during Ramadan. I indulged in a healthy slice.

Also, couldn't resist these. Some nice cinnamon sticky buns! Topped with caramel and pecans. Although I didn't really indulge here, I had a few bites to help cool my curiosity :) And that was it for now! Didn't want to go too crazy.

Suhur

Just wanted to let you all know I actually got up early this time, I set my phone and my alarm clock to both go off at different times and they both did! Plus I do have some inspiration since it's the second half of my cheat, but again... didn't go too wild.

Just some good old fashioned watermelon, and some cream cheese. Very satisfying, not too crazy, and my supplements and water before bed. Not a bad day if I do say so myself!

We'll see what the damage is come iftar time in Day 4, but until then, i'm feeling pretty good as of now :)

Ramadan, Day 4, Suhur

Merry Cheat Day Eve!!

So, Suhur today was rather interesting. Might have been comical if it were part of a sitcom of some sort that focuses solely on tormenting the main character for the pleasure of the viewing audience. However, here goes the story...

I need a better alarm clock, it didn't even go off AGAIN! Luckily, my 4 year old was conveniently having a bad dream and woke up screaming exactly 20 minutes before time was up to eat. So I get out of bed, and rush downstairs to the kitchen.

I take a look at the prayer schedule, it says that Fajr is at 4:18, and I look at the clock and see that it's 4:04. Here I am saying "I got tonnes of time!!" ... boy was I ever wrong.

So I wanted to try out this DCCC everyone's raving about on the SCD. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it's dry curd cottage cheese. Which is allowed on the diet, and has massive amounts of Casein protein. I picked some up from Whole Foods the other day and said I have to try it one day... and I chose today of all days to try it...


So I fill up my water and ice, and start to drink, take my PAG supplement, and start taking veggies out of the fridge to cut up with my cottage cheese. Got a tomato, green pepper, and an onion. By the time I cleaned them up and was about to start chopping, I took a look at the clock, 4:12


So I start panicing and start rushing through the chopping process, making rather large dices instead of my regular small sized tranches just because of the time. So here I am chopping, drinking water, and throwing stuff into the plate. Get out the cottage cheese and crumble it up into the veggies, no time for oil or seasonings, time I finished: 4:16


The end result:

Not perfect by any means, as you notice the cottage cheese curds all over the side of the plate as I was literally throwing everything together. Now, to eat and drink water in 2 minutes...

I start shovelling away at the tasteless dish, eating and drinking as much as I can, and filling up the water for at least another glass. I finish about half the plate as the time got down to 4:17 and I just left the food and started to chug the water with my eyes on the clock. As soon as 4:18 hits, I put the cup of water down, only a quarter of it was left behind, and obviously half of the cheese.

I put the rest of it in a tupperware so that I can season it and have it later when I get a chance, after the cheat day passes. Of course I have to see how it reacts with me and my progress too if I get to have it again!

That's all for now, i'll be sure to send updates of the glutton that will beseech me today.

Ramadan Day 3, Iftar

The moment of truth is now upon us... Enter, the scale!!

228.4lbs

So I'm up .2lbs from yesterday's reading, which could be due to a number of factors. Close enough to not freak out by any means. After the scale and breaking the fast were taken care of, then it was time for Iftar!

On the menu today was some traditional Egyptian cooking. In the bowl is what we call "sabanekh" which is literally stewed spinach. What's so good about it is that on its own it's a complete SCD meal since there's meat (I use veal shank here since its awesome) spinach (your vegetable) and yellow split peas (baby chick peas which are your legume). Pictured beside it is a salad with a spoon of mayo and balsamic vinegar as a dressing (I ran out of olive oil so I had to be creative here!). What's not pictured here is some kofta meat balls, which I had about 3 along with the meal, and about 3/4 of a 1.5L eksa bottle of cranberry flavored water. What I forgot here though is my PAG supplement! I need to stop forgetting things like this! One day suhur, today PAG, maybe tomorrow i'll forget it's my cheat day...

I don't think i'll ever forget cheat day, but you get where i'm going here.

I didn't want to miss on taking it, so two hours later (closer to midnight) I took it with a glass of water and a Quest protein bar (most scd compliant treat that eats like a meal I could find). My flavour: peanut butter and jelly :)

And that's it! Let's see how suhur goes leading up to cheat day. Measurements are tomorrow too... I can't wait to see what my progress has been like!! I will post tomorrow along with the iftar post the old measurements from the previous week along with the new ones from this week. Before every cheat day i'll post the new measurements just to keep it consistent.

As I mentioned too, suhur this morning will be strictly SCD, then the glutton-fest begins at sunset. 

Ramadan, Day 3, Suhur!

So it's 3:30 AM and I need to drag myself out of bed. This time my alarm finally went off as planned, and the trek from the bed to the kitchen has begun.

I finally make it down stairs, didn't even bother to weigh myself since I told myself that maybe I should just weigh myself before iftar so it'd be like weighing myself in the morning (have the day/night switched around). That also might help determine how to go about the cheat day (which is coming up tomorrow, YAY!).

So instead of waking up Monday morning for Suhur and cheating, and then going about the day and cheating for iftar, i'd have my SCD meal tomorrow morning for Suhur, and then cheat for iftar... ALL the way to dawn!

Anyways, back to the issue at hand... food!

So... remember that delicious kofta I had for iftar the day before? Well, I still had some leftover mince, so I fried that up with my 3 eggwhites + 1 egg scramble. Before I indulged, I must have drank like 2 huge cups of water along with my PAG supplement and my multivitamin. Then after I finished I drank 3 more huge cups of water (this bit of info was after reading this link here regarding Ramadan and diet. Pretty good read!).

We'll see how I fair today now that I actually had my Suhur! After Fajr, I went straight to sleep! Obviously got up every subsequent hour due to the huge amount of water I drank. But we'll see how it goes!

See you all for iftar!! :)

Ramadan, Day 2, Continued...

Alright, so I finally got through the day (wasn't easy though, had a few "situations" where I thought I was going to pass out) Serves me right for relying on my snooze alarm to go back off!

So I step on the scale before iftar, and BOOM:

228.2lbs ... Here I am going "I lost only one pound when I didn't eat, and the other day when I had suhur I dropped five!!" Albeit not the best pool of data to work with, but hey, I have to be optimistic :D

Now, for iftar.

So what am I having today you ask? Decided to go a little crazy since we had no suhur! Made a BBQ of all our favourites: kofta (minced meat), chicken legs, and lamb chops! Served with a side salad, and a lentil soup (or ats begeba in Arabic for all you Egyptian SCD-ers out there). Had my PAG supplement after I broke my fast, and lots of water. Now i'm waiting patiently for suhur to come to see what damage has been done. 

Let's hope for the best, see you in a bit! :)

Ramadan, Day 2...

So, if you're waiting on a suhur update, you might have to wait until Day 3, since I couldn't wake up in time for suhur!! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO NOW?!

Okay, first I have to remain calm, and keep telling myself it's not the end of the world that I didn't have a meal, and that I didn't have my water, but maybe, just maybe it won't be that big of a deal.

So I wake up in the morning and weigh myself anyways, number on the scale: 229.2lbs

In other words, it's as if the food I ate didn't dent the weight I originally weighed in at during iftar. So we'll see what the scale says today before iftar. I'm hoping this time I won't totally screw up my progress! :D

Ramadan Day 1, Iftar

Ok so it's time to get on the scale. Here goes nothing...

229.2lbs.

Wow! I'm not quite sure what happened. But maybe Ramadan won't be so bad for me after all!

Anyways, the food. I broke my fast with a sip of water, then a large cup of water with my PAG supplement.

For Iftar, we prepared some shrimp, about half a red snapper, and some eggplant green pepper mash. Was quite yummy and very satisfying! Not pictured is the soup that came out of the shrimp (which was to die for btw). Obviously flushed it all down with more water, and some orange spritzer water (absolutely love it!!)

Let's see what the weight says when I weigh myself before suhur. That will be interesting! Although, pretty good first day so far. I'm excited!

Ramadan, Day 1, Suhur!

Ramadan Kareem to all my muslim brothers and sisters around the world! If you're checking in, you too are probably starting this blessed month, and are wondering how SCD can work on this diet. So let's see if we can help each other and learn so that we can further our journey together!

Without further a do, let's ask that Allah help guide us in this blessed month, and accept our prayers and our fast... oh, and help us stick to the SCD and get us slimmer before Eid rolls around! :D

Anyways, so me and my wife are trying to stick to this, so in order to not get heat for being on the diet from our family, we decided to modify it a bit in order to do what we need to do, and to appease the family when it comes to food (since there is no joke when it comes to food in this family). As much as I know, the least number of days to be on the diet is 5, and the most is 9, so instead of cheating every 6th day, we will cheat every 5th day, just for this month. Then we will go back to normal after the month is done. Hopefully we can line up the last cheat day of the month with Eid so that we can celebrate with everyone else!

Now it's time for Suhur, so my scale says 233.6lbs one hour before Fajr, the day before was 233lbs in the morning (when I normally weigh myself). Hopefully i'll try to weigh myself before iftar every day in Ramadan to see how my progress is going. Now deciding what to eat!

So I prepare my typical 3 egg white + 1 whole egg omelet, with a dried pastrami known as bastarma that I prepare at my store (so I know theres no sugar in it), along side some traditional foul (fava beans made into a paste with tomatoes, onions, spices, and some tahini). Pretty SCD compliant if I do say so myself!

For those who are curious, this is what foul looks like:

Anyways, so I had a few spoons of that along with my pastrami/egg omelet (which I prepared using Macadamia nut oil), had about 2L of water, and my PAG supplements + multivitamin.

And just like that, my SCD in Ramadan has begun! Let's see how this goes... I was scrambling around for my iPhone to take pictures of the food but couldn't (it was 3AM and tired!!) so hopefully for iftar, I will have the iPhone so that I can picture the meal for all you curious.

See you around iftar!!

Why start a blog now?

Hey everyone!

I'm really new to this blogging world, so please bare with me if I don't know all the cruces and crevasses that accompany a veteraned blogger. Let me tell you a bit about my self before I go on about why I actually started this blog.

My name is Nader Tohamy, born in Montreal on a cold May 17 (it's Quebec, what do you expect?) and i'm currently living in the GTA. I graduated from McMaster University with a BA, with a double major in Economics and Marketing (not sure if i'm actually using it at this point). I help my family run a few businesses, so I keep busy! Married for 5 years to the love of my life, and have a 4 year old son (so far!) to date.

Now what really compelled me to start this blog is that about 5 weeks ago, I decided to alter my lifestyle in such a way that it would change my life for the better. I was sick and tired of being overweight, and tired all the time, so I decided to search for a diet to go on. Low and behold, I stumbled onto the slow carb-ing guru himself, Timothy Ferris' Blog, and started to read. By the end, I was sold that this might actually work! So like any pessimist or skeptic would do, I googled the diet and looked to see if the results were real. I ended up finding a forum of fellow "slow carbers" and they were all there sharing their experiences on the diet! So I thought to myself "maybe I should give this a try" and see where I go with this. Knowing me, it'd be 2 weeks and i'd be done with it.

I later mulled it over with my wife, and she thought it'd be a good idea to try it out too, so I guess it was good to have 2 people doing this diet, rather than just me on my own, to keep ourself accountable! Five weeks later, and I couldn't be happier with the results thus far! I started at around 253lbs, size 40 jeans and wearing close to XXL tops. Now, i'm at 233lbs, and I can fit into a size 36 jeans, and size L tops! Like I said, i'm now hooked.

We've encountered a few "hiccups" along the way in the form of family members who do not understand that its not okay to just have a slice of cake because "nothing will happen if you have just a little piece!" and a trip to Chicago; but overall we did pretty well to stick to the diet without going crazy outside of our cheat days. However I feel like we've done good to whether the storm... until now.


Enter the reasoning for the blog! Right now, we're starting the blessed month of Ramadan, and will have to fast from sunrise to sunset! No food, no water, nothing!! To the best of my efforts, i've searched and searched for anyone with any experiences in Ramadan and while continuing to slow carb to no avail. So I decided i'd document my progress over the month of Ramadan, share meals and techniques, and see if anything happens. I'm sure my family won't be too thrilled knowing me and my wife will be on the SCD since Ramadan is generally centralized around food and breaking your fast. So we'll see how we can stick to SCD while having all the obstacles one would encounter in this blessed month.

So without further a do, let's get this blog started! Hopefully even after Ramadan, i'll keep up with the blog and track my progress in my Slow Carb Journey, because for sure i'm addicted to the results, and won't stop until I reach my goal: get to 185!!