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Wednesday, 18 April 2012

18/4/12 Still easy - but no oat bran!

Daily loss: 0.6kg
Total loss: 2.7kg

Well, you'll be glad to hear that I DIDN'T have a boiled egg for lunch again. I know, my lack of lunch variety was worrying you all, wasn't it?
I had grand plans this morning of getting up and making some kind of pancake for breakfast.and also of cooking a fake loaf last night, but I'll just admit now, that it just didn't happen. Even The Hubster asked what happened to the loaf I was planning to bake last night. Tomorrow. Honest.

Hmmm, that gets me thinking. Perhaps that mean old oatbran might be more palatable as a lemon drizzle cake?

Anyway, boiled egg for breakfast. Not bad. Could be more fun. Dammit. Now I wish I'd made that bread so that I could have soldiers to dip in my egg tomorrow.

(Blog paused while I put the fake bread in the oven. Thoughts of dippy eggs and buttered soldiers were too much to resist.)

Lunch was salmon with lemon and dill dressing with salad, from last night.
I wasn't feeling snacky when I came home tonight. Which is good as the baby was eyeing up my pork scratchings last night. (She seems to eat ANYthing, which is good for someone with only six teeth!)

This evening's meal was spaghetti bolognese. I would normally eat it without any pasta at all but I saw an advert this week and had a genius idea. The advert was for Cheese strings spaghetti. I thought bolognese and spaghetti= good; bolognese and cheese=good; so what could possibly be wrong with spaghetti that was MADE from cheese? Do you know what? It was pretty good. Where the cheese wasn't melted, it looked like spaghetti, had the same texture and not really cheesy enough to make a huge difference. The only change I would make is to make a 'nest' of it and put the sauce in the middle, rather than on top, so as to avoid the melty cheesey mess which happened under there.
It wouldn't be right if I didn't mention the cost - it was high enough not to want to have it too often, but low enough be able to have spaghetti every now and then.

Three more days left on Attack. After that I can be a bit more adventurous. Dreaming of lemon cakes and low carb pizza bases.

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

17/4/12 Starting to kick in now.

Weight loss: 2.1 kg

Really? After one day? We will see if it stays off or if it's just a fluke!
I was working this morning, so didn't get the omelette I had planned for breakfast. Still, I had the usual boiled egg and then an egg and a yogurt for lunch. Not exciting but I'm still planning all those fun recipes that I've found to try.

I was desperate for a snack when I got home from work today. I settled for pork scratchings (pork rinds) as they are crunchy but no carb. It's difficult to get a crunchy snack to eat without carbs, but I've found a whole load of recipes which are either deep fried or contain heaps of cheese. Not Dukan friendly, but on the other hand, will still keep my weight loss going and keep my BG low.
I'll let you know how I get on with them.

Dinner was scrummy. Salmon seasoned with lemon and dill and baked inside a roasting bag in the oven. I'd like to claim all the culinary trophies but a) The Hubby cooked it and b) the bag / seasoning combo came from a packet. Accompanied with salad, I was more than satisfied and oh so righteous.

I'd like to say that my clothes were feeling looser today - but I think that would be wishful thinking on my part. Soon, soon, soon.

27kg from target. Seems an awful lot, I'll have to take it one at a time!

Monday, 16 April 2012

16/4/12 Well, that's the first day over.

One day of attack down, 5 days to go.
Weighed myself this morning and was surprised to find about 1.5kg difference in weight between last night's weigh in and this mornings. Dear Hubby thought that this was brilliant and congratulated me. I had to tell him that I hadn't done anything yet....

I had the best plans: I was going to get up early and get some exercise. That plan was scuppered (?) by my daughter's late night / early morning teething agony. A couple of times up in the night, soothing, cuddling and basically covering everything in sight in a thin layer of Calpol, is enough to leave anyone exhausted.
So, I'm proud that I managed to get my low carb breakfast without resorting to the usual 'running late' breakfast of grabbing a bacon roll from the canteen at work on the way in. Just a boiled egg for me. I took another one to work too, to eat for lunch, followed by a low fat yogurt.
I'm also proud that when a lovely colleague offered me some fudge today, I turned it down. I know, it's not so much of a big deal, but I feel as though I'm in the advert which tells you to celebrate small victories. I even hum the tune. In life, one should always have a theme tune.

I can't claim to have have the most entertaining breakfast and lunch when I'm trying to be strict but it was just fine. I figured that I've only got to be super strict to give my body a kick start for six days. Meanwhile, I'm spending some fun time looking up some very exciting recipes to try on my favourite low carb web site, yourlighterside.com.

This evening's meal was cooked by The Hubby. Grilled chicken and steamed vegetables. He used a paprika chicken seasoning (from a packet mix) to cover and marinate the chicken before grilling it. Absolutely gorgeous. And righteous.

So have felt totally successful today. I do have to admit that although I felt full, I still felt as though I needed a little something. But no treats for me, not for the next five days, so I sat and snacked on a few handfuls of toasted sunflower seeds. Now all that is required is some Redbush tea to accompany my work for the evening.

The Hubby has planned and shopped for dinner tomorrow. When your diet is so restricted as mine will be for this week, it's important to make sure that the fridge is well stocked and that there is something to look forward to. Otherwise, you come home, tired and hungry and that takeaway is just too tempting. So there is my tip for today. Plan ahead! Don't ever let yourself feel deprived.

My Blood Glucose (BG) levels were too high this morning but have dropped today, to normal levels, which is fantastic. So falling BG levels are making me feel as though I have a lot more energy. To the non-diabetic, these few days might feel a little tiring.

I need to drink far more liquid, about 2 litres if I can. Today I only managed a 500ml bottle of water and a large coffee. Add that to the two cups of tea that I've had at home and that's not a lot at all. No wonder I have a headache. Better luck tomorrow. By now my body will be trying to dump the glucose in my muscles, which explains why I have been peeing for England! Think I need to take a big glass of water to bed tonight. And possibly The Baby's potty. No, perhaps not.

Things to do tomorrow: Start eating oatbran and then prepare for the inevitable side effects. Sigh. I just have to go though it for a couple of days, the side effects die off once your body becomes used to it and I know I really need to eat more fibre. And multivtamins. Just for the next few days.

Sunday, 15 April 2012

15/4/12 Hello, it's been a while.

I've realised that I treat weight loss in the same way as housework.

With housework, I follow the Flylady system, which consists of small routines for everyday cleaning and decluttering. If you follow the routines your house is always only literally a few minutes away from company ready and the joy is that those Saturday mornings, spending long hours cleaning the house from top to bottom are a thing of the past.
So ninety percent of the time, I'm 'with the programme'. I have set routines for every day and little by little my house seems to clean itself. Hubby likes to help and the routines which are pasted to the fridge, allow him to be helpful without disrupting The Way I Like To Do Things. (Yeah, I know..)
So, what's the problem, I hear you ask? Well, the other 10 percent of the time I fall off the wagon BIG style. And I struggle with that. When I'm in the routine, I can keep going; when I'm not, I feel as though I may as well start over from the beginning and all my progress is lost. I am FAR too much of a perfectionist in that way. I'm trying to unlearn that, but it's taken me 38 years to get this far, it wont get fixed in a few months.

So with weight loss I am much the same. When I'm good, I'm brilliant. I can resist any temptation. I have drive and focus and the sheer determination to keep going.
And then there are the moments when I falter. I stopped writing my blog. I stopped experimenting with recipes and eventually stopped weighing myself altogether.

Fixing the housework is easy. Flylady has a 'Crisis Cleaning' podcast. Put it on, do what she says and hey presto, the house is ready for inspection in under an hour. But unlike the housework, there is no option to hide the extra weight and deal with it later, like the contents of an overflowing coffee table, hastily swept into a box and hidden away from visitors, temporarily in the shower cubicle.
Extra weight reminds you every day that you have failed at your mission to lose it. It mocks you from the bulges over the top of the those jeans that you bought when you were feeling so good about how you once looked. The guilt at Not Being Perfect comes at you in gigantic proportions.

So what do I do?
1) Find an instant way to feel better. I buy bigger trousers so that I can go to work and not be naked. They are cheap but they fit me. I am hoping that they don't have to last very long. Every time I put them on, The Guilts are not quite as bad as they once were, when surveying the drawer of outfits that are useless to me.
2) Start up my blog. It helps me. I'm sorry if it bores you - but I will never know if you choose not to look at it. If you do, how wonderful, thank you!
3) Face the reality. I weighed myself. I sat looking for a while at the figures on the spreadsheet. I've put on a LOT of weight during this period of running away from Low Carb. It ain't pretty. I guess my clothes were telling me that.
4) Re focus. I found an app for the Dukan diet. I loaded it onto my phone. I have no idea how good it is and I am NOT looking at it to make me amazing all of a sudden, but I'll take anything to keep me looking in the right direction.

So here I go. Six days on Attack. Starting tomorrow breakfast.

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

27th September Cruise day 25

Weight loss: 0.8 kg
Total weight loss: 6.90 kg
PP

Well, I didn't write yesterday as it was my first day back at work after feeling grim. I had on okay day, but was so busy that I drink enough and ended up with a horriffic migraine. I was violently ill and ended up curled up in bed early with the baby, until guilty fear of squashing her made me take her and put her back into her own bed.

I didn't lose any weight yesterday, though, and dinner, although lovely, was 'revisited' so I'd rather not discuss it, thank you.....

Not surprisingly, lost weight this morning and I think I'm back into ketosis again, so burning more fat. I got a compliment today at work about how much weight I've lost, so that was a bonus and enough to keep me going for a while longer!

Food today has been somewhat of a disaster. As last night was a bit of a write off, I didn't make my lunch as usual, or go to the shops as needed, or, in fact, plan my menu for the week as I intended. DH is such a love. He went to the shops, brought me a lunch of left overs from last night (which , understandibly, I just couldn't face...), some sliced ham and a boiled egg. Along with some diet caffeine free cans of drink in a little cool bag.

Breakfast was a bacon sandwich, made with the now famous Dukan bread.

When I came home from work, DH had made some shepherd's pie. He'd used mashed cauliflower for the topping instead of potato and it was pretty good. It was only after I ate it that I told him that I was on a PP day and that the flour and ketchup he'd put in it were 'verboten'.... But bless him for trying, I had two helpings!

Saturday, 24 September 2011

25th September cruise day 23

weight loss: 0.0kg
total weight loss: 6.10kg
PP

Breakfast: scrambled egg with bacon
Lunch: Cajun chicken
Dinner: Roast beef with gravy; fizzy jelly

Had a good day, not disappointed with weight loss and I'm not putting anything back on. I thought about it and actually, I've still lost over 3lb this week which is great!

24th September Cruise day 22

Weight loss: 0.6 kg
Total weight loss: 6.10 kg
PV

Hmmmm. Didn't eat enough yesterday, so even though I'm happy to have a weight loss, I need to remember that it may come back!

Today is a PV day, looking forward to eating something yummy today. Quite hungry.





Okay. I did say yesterday that I would do this, so I can't chicken out now. It makes me incredibly uncomfortable as I've never much liked seeing pictures of myself, but for the sake of motivation, I'm posting pictures here. This is nearly one month in, a stone down. In what is possibly the MOST unflattering top that there is - and yes I can hear my mother chastising me about bad bras right now, but - did I mention that I hadn't been feeling well? Give me a break!!!!!! Both items were there and I put them on with little thought. It would be no good posting pics of me in PJs.









So what do I think? Well, I still have a mummy tummy. I had a tummy before, but it's a completely different shape now. I've no idea if that will disappear or not, we shall see! My arms seem massive - do they take up half the body width of skinny people too? No? More swimming needed, I feel. Oh that and lose the remaining 5 stone.






What I am quite please about, is when I hold these up against the photos of me from the wedding, in August, I can see that I've lost weight, especially around my face. My legs are thinner too but overall I've the same shape that I was before. DH put it in a lovely way. He said "don't take this the wrong way, but it's because you are short, you don't notice the weight loss so much." Bless him. I told him that he was very sweet, but it was more likely to be to do with the fact that I have so much left to lose!


I went for a gentle yoga option on the Wiifit this morning. Just for 15 minutes. As my first foray into exercise since I've not been well, I didn't want to push myself. I found it hard enough. The Wiifit told me that I'd lost 1 and 1/2 stone since I'd last been on it, in August. That was a little boost, I have to say.


Once upon a time I went to the gym four or five times a week, now look at me!! Ah well, we all have to start somewhere and my gym kit is in my drawer, patiently waiting for those glory days to return. I may persuade DH to come with me.


Oh well, at least I've got that over with. I plan to next take pics another 10lb down. Phew.


Brunch today, not breakfast: dry fried onions, mushrooms, egg

Dinner: Low carb pizza with cauliflower pizza base.


Have also made cauliflower garlic 'breadsticks' and fizzy jelly for tomorrow's pudding at the folks.