Thursday 29 December 2011

The week before Christmas 17-23 Dec

I had a plan - to bring some christmas cheer to my mum, who lives on the other side of the world. Well, it sort of came off, next year hopefully I'll either be there in person or we'll all have practiced... :D the plan was to have a Christmas carol singalong on Skype. Unfortunately it was mostly me singing, 'cos mum forgot to print out her song sheets - oops! Impediments aside though, we sang/mumbled Good King Wencelas, Hark, the Herald Angels, Silent Night, O little town of Bethlehem and the Holly & the Ivy. I'm going to expand my repertoire for next year :) AND get the piano tuned!

Been quite a busy week - last minute work stuff, and tackling the housekeeping mountain that is my abode. Sometimes I just cannot believe how much messiness one person and a cat can produce - of course much of this is a chronic dislike of disturbing dust because it makes me sneeze, and an ingrained habit of not bothering to put things away so I'm forever hunting for stuff and creating more mess by doing so. Heh - just with that last sentence I can see easy solutions to my domestic drama - keep place dust-free by regular small applications of dusting & vacuuming (no big clouds & dust bunnies to provoke my nasal passages) and by returning things to their proper place, no more tottering piles & calamitous chaos. I am reminded here, yet again of the efficacy of small steps. The canyon can be carved, the stalactite formed, the greatest journey made by small actions done repetitively and often.

Food & Scale News
I weighed myself on the 23rd - 23 st 10 lbs was my best number.

This I can certainly put down to scarfing pizza twice this week, having cheese & biscuits, croissants, butter, chocolates, and eating full-fat creme fraiche. In a doofus moment I picked up the purple pot instead of the half-fat green one... 

I also did an analysis of my foodstuffs - way too much of processed foods creeping back into my menus, and a decided fall in the variety and amount of veg - eek! However I am pleased to report that my chocolate intake was 25% than last week, and I kept away from the mince pies (saving that treat for Christmas week!) Fruit was sufficiently high - I had 2 avocados as well as bananas & clementines. I love clementines, they're just so Christmassy! Heh - AND good for me ;)

Still getting through Christmas week itself, will post next weekend. Amazingly I don't feel like I've over-indulged to excess. I have had a good time and had plenty of festive treats and enjoyed my time with friends and family.

Sunday 18 December 2011

Christmas countdown

Still tracking all food. This week has been rather full of indulgences. Since I discovered that lump of butter residing in my fridge I seem to have become obsessed with using it up! Part of this is also the feeling that one should not waste good food. Perhaps this is another of my habitual 'rules' for eating that I will learn to unlearn. That even if food is good, it is okay to leave it on the plate IF I am not hungry! :) Getting to that point might take a while yet, so in the meantime keeping tabs by weighing and measuring is getting me to a place I want to be.


I have indulged in 
butter, mince pies, Roses chocolates

On the other hand
I have had 6/7 days of feeling happy with my tummy, my knees and my general well-being. :D
and all that butter comes to less than 100g, the sweets - around 24 individually wrapped chocolates, and 6 mince pies. Over the week. Not a gluttonous binge by any means.

I am finding that eating less or rather putting a smaller amount initially on my plate has resulted in my eating smaller platefuls and still feeling satisfied. Yes, I am down to eating 75g of paste and finding it a perfect amount! Hooray for altering ingrained habits!

I am still prone to giving in to the impulse to cook more than I need: for example this weekend I made rice, and cooked a whole cupful instead of half. Half is enough for 2 meals. I am pleased to report however that so far I have made two meals out of this quantity, and there are still leftovers... :)

Every little victory of this sort is such good news, I have to record it, so when I do look back I can see how I did it.

Over a year ago, I started this journal. At one point, I talked about how little steps done consistently will bring me to a different position in my life. And I am here now. I may not have lost much weight, but I have gained so much in understanding my reasons and habits that led me to gaining the weight in the first place. All this insight is helping me amend my behaviour so I can achieve this goal of being a healthier, fitter and ultimately happier person living a life I enjoy, and without the constraints I currently impose on it because of my weight.

I see all the weeks of 2012 in front of me, and I see lots of tiny steps getting me to where I want to be. And that is so good.


Scale news
Hovering between 23st 7lbs and 23st 11 lbs. So it may be a gain this week. Healthwise knees are feeling great, only a few aches and loose joint feelings elsewhere.

Happy Christmas to everyone, may your holidays be wonderful.

Monday 12 December 2011

First Frost

Saturday morning I woke up to a beautiful frost, all the ugly old flat roofs were covered in a gorgeous rime of crispy white. Darn, should have taken a photo.


Food news
Tracked every thing I ate again this week 3-9 Dec, good and bad. Overindulged in processed meats this week - note to self: chorizo is meant to be eaten in small tasty additions! However I can attest that Revilla chorizo is okay, but I am sure I can make my own homemade chorizo (a la River Cottage's Hugh Fearnley-W's inspirational show) where I can be absolutely sure what is in it. My Revilla chorizo had a few inedible chunks of cartilage in it! Black pudding & bacon all fried in just a teaspoon of oil, on top of sliced seasoned tomatoes on a pita made for fast delicious protein packed satisfying breakfasts. Pork sausages, the best kind, hit the comfort spot to ward off the frosty weather - good bangers & mash with cabbage and a couple of sausage & pasta meals.

I also made some of my own oven dried tomatoes - had a pile of cherry tomatoes rapidly rushing to overripe. These were absolutely delicious, and I am making them again.

I've found that I really am okay now, not eating so much butter. A 250g pack has lasted me over two weeks now! Still about 50g left... Previously I'd get through at least 500g in a week if not more. I do eat a little more olive oil - it was in my sardines that I mashed on my rolls this week, and flavoured the oven dried tomato notes in my Wiltshire ham rolls. Good food, responsibly portioned. Heh - I'm still a foodie, just a better behaved and less gluttonous one!

Good bread, I have found is just as nice without butter, as long as the topping I've chosen is squidgy and flavoured enough. Mashed avocado with lemon, salt & pepper. Mashed cannelini beans, with french dressing. Mashed sardines in olive oil (lots of calcium & omega 3 - yay) I'm not so keen on almond butter, or peanut butter on their own - those just are better with a little blob of jam or honey to counteract the clagginess.

My body is feeling much better. Creakiness is lessening, yay! I'm not at the gambolling and leaping unconcernedly stage yet, but here will come a point where I won't have to think about safeguarding my knees as I rush down the stairs to answer the door.

I'm also finding that my grocery shop bills are getting smaller. Wallet is getting a slim down too!

Didn't get my walks in this week - however did do quite a lot of going up and down stairs, and a good long walk around the supermarket. And I wrote almost all my Xmas cards this week.

Scale news
It is now showing between 23st 5lbs and 23st 9lbs. The trend is definitely down. And I am wearing a big cheesy grin!

When I look at my daily consumption, I am finding I do still eat quite a lot, but it is considerably less than my previous norm. So even at this level, I am still losing weight, and the plus side is as I am retraining my taste-buds, and down-sizing my average portion sizes, the process is slow enough that my body isn't  feeling too deprived, and the panic famine mode where I go berserk and eat everything in sight are getting less and less. Beached whale days are definitely on the decrease :)

Monday 5 December 2011

Cold weather is here

Today it is 3ÂșC brrrr! I'll have to start wrapping up warm for those little walks :) Only got one in this week, but also did a 2 hour wander around the supermarket. I'm finding being on my feet is less onerous than before, and the joints are definitely less creaky. Still the odd inexplicable annoying and persistent twinge in one or two, but those seem to wear off after 24 hours.

Food news
Indulged in pastries and cheese this week. I did think, when I impulsively picked up that chunk of Edam, that that could possibly be a dam bad idea... Getting the pastries though, was educational for me: next time, I buy just one pastry, and not a box of two or a packet of four. Life lessons come at all times of one's life! Also had some chocolate this week, but actually I think I am really going off very sweet things. They're not as delicious on the tongue as they are in my imagination.

Other good things of this week - I tracked every morsel past my lips, and even counted calories for a few days. The pastry scoffing days were of course quite humungously high. It did give me a realistic view of dealing with portion sizes and where all those 2000 cal recommended quotas ought to go. I can see, that when I eat normally with a little care, I can have quite a satisfying food intake and space for a treat if I remember to watch my portion sizes and measure the high cal stuff. At the moment I am training myself to eat less pasta - am down from 100g dried pasta as my standard measure to 85g now. Next step is to get me down to accepting 75g.

Heh. I feel a bit like a whittler. Whittle this little bit down, have a look, turn it, and whittle another bit down. I'm going to get my food habits all re-worked by the time I'm done whittling myself into my new shape!

Scale news
Swinging between 23 st 7lbs and 23 stone 10 lbs. So perhaps I've lost a pound. Or maybe not. The good thing is, it isn't going straight to ERR! Knees feel good, mostly - still getting the odd dislocatory twinge, I expect that will go eventually as I get lighter, and my knee & leg muscles get stronger.