New Year, new resolutions

Last August I got down very close to 200, and then I sprained my ankle and everything went downhill from there. Or is that uphill. Anyway, this morning I weighed in at 222.6.
That's not awful awful, but I can feel that extra stone or so, and I feel sluggish and icky. I want my energy back, and I want to get below the landmark 200.
So, as of today I'm back on track.
I've just done 25 sweaty minutes on the treadmill, and it felt good :)

I think I might keep track of my food for a few days too, just to get back into the way of eating healthily.

Breakfast
2 rashers smoked bacon and 2 eggs.

Snack
Cashew nuts

Lunch
Turkey and Tarragon soup

Dinner
About 5 spoonfuls of my boyfriends rice and beef stew and a couple of chocolates.

Snack
Babybel cheese

After midnight
Crisps, a few noodles and some chocolates.

Monday

211.6
Up .2 from last Monday. Oh dear.

I did brilliantly Monday to Thursday, and then it all went wrong Friday-Sunday. Here's to another new week.

Breakfast
Veggie curry and grated cheese (I was in a hurry, and that was quick to make!)

Snack
nuts
babybel cheese

Saturday

I don't even want to talk about yesterday. But I will write a post sometime about sabotage (of my own doing)
Weigh in 208.4

Breakfast
bacon, egg, baked beans.

Thursday

weigh-in 205.6 (I don't understand how to me yesterday was a bad day and I ate stuff I shouldn't have eaten, and yet still my weight dropped so much!)

Breakfast
bacon, egg and baked beans

Lunch
Veggie curry and grated cheese

Dinner
Fajitas (no wrap), lettuce, cheese, yoghurt

Wednesday

weigh-in 207.8

Breakfast
Veggie curry and mashed cauliflower (using up the ends of the leftovers!)

Snack
Spoonful of peanut butter

Lunch
nuts and a piece of cheese
Roasted aubergine (with oil, salt and pepper. yum!)
Square of dark chocolate

Snack
Packet of smarties (yes, it seems I blew the diet a bit today)
more nuts and peanut butter

Dinner
Chile con carne, salad, cheese.

I have eaten too many nuts today. Oh dear. I need to learn better self control with them. I think part of the problem was we didn't eat dinner until late, and I was really hungry.

Tuesday

Weigh in - 209.6

Breakfast
Bacon, egg, veggie curry

Lunch
Chicken salad (went for lunch with a friend and found a lovely cafe, salad was yum!)

Snack
Glass of orange juice (at a friends house, it was thrust upon me, so I drank it!)
Nuts
leftover fajita stuff (there was only a couple of spoonfuls)

Dinner
Beef and vegetables (braised in the crock pot) and mashed cauliflower.

Evening
hot chocolate
spoonful of peanut butter

Monday

Weigh in 211.4 - due to my over indulgence yesterday and time of the month related bloat.

Breakfast
A babybel cheese (I was in a hurry to get out the house so ate that, and will eat some more once I get to work looking after the kiddos)

Breakfast/Midmorning snack
Veggie curry and grated cheese on the top

Snack
Babybel and nuts
One chocolate sweet that the kiddos gave me

Dinner
Fajitas (no wraps), lettuce, yoghurt, grated cheese.

Sunday food

Breakfast
Bacon, egg, veggie curry

Lunch
I was doing so well - I avoided the cake at church, and the crisps and nuts that people were nibbling on before lunch.
rice and chicken casserole (it was served for me, so I just went ahead and ate it) and lettuce. I'd have been ok if I'd stopped there, but then went on to eat at least 2 pieces of birthday cake (yep, chocolate birthday cake if my downfall!), a couple of slices of cheesecake, several bits of swiss roll.... It was not good :(

Dinner
Leftover fajitas.

Snack
nuts and cheese

Weight loss anniversary

On Thursday (2nd October) it was the two year anniversary of starting south beach. As of Thursday morning I had gone from 294 to 211.2 (a loss of 82.8lb). My lowest weigh-in so far has been around the 203/204 mark, but I've bounced back up from there a few times. Hopefully going back on phase one will help me get back down there and past this hump.

I can't believe how different I am from two years ago. I don't recognise the 'me' I see in photos now, but I certainly don't recognise the 'me' I see in photos from back then. I'm going to write a longer post about it over at OWOA, but I just wanted to mark the anniversary here too.

I guess that although I'm not yet at goal, I do feel like big is changing/has changed to beautiful :)

Saturday (day 3)

Weigh-in - 209.6 (down 1.6 from Thursday morning)

Breakfast 1
Small bowl of veggie curry and a little grated cheese on the top (eaten at half 7)

Breakfast 2
Bacon, sausage, poached egg, baked beans, hot chocolate (eaten at 10.30am in a cafe, after the church early morning prayer meeting)

Lunch
Bowl of veggie curry with grated cheese (eaten at 2.30pm)

Snack
babybell cheese and spoonful of peanut butter

Dinner
I was out at a 50th birthday party. I passed on the jacket potato, and just had chille con carne and homemade baked beans, with a bit of grated cheese on the top, and some salad.
I admit the icing on the birthday cake attracted me (it was chocolate, and time of the month now explains the cravings!) and I had 2 small bits of that, and one profita roll (although I wasn't very impressed with it, and did get a sugar headache from the cake)

Friday (day 2)

Morning weigh in - somewhere below 211.2 (which is what I was yesterday). My scale couldn't make its mind up, so never mind!

Breakfast
Bowl of veggie curry with grated cheese (yes, weird breakfast, but I'd been up a couple of hours before I ate it - yes, I know, bad planning! and wanted something substantial and quicker to fix than bacon and egg.)

Snack
I'll be at our church mums and tots group this morning, so I'll take a snack with me to avoid the biscuits!
Took a babybel cheese.
But, I have to admit to having THREE cups of hot chocolate. It was freezing and I don't drink tea or coffee, and hot chocolate was on offer...

Lunch
A delicious chickpea, spinach and onion concoction cooked by a friend of mine. Yum

Snack
Cashews and Macadamias and a piece of cheese

Dinner
Pork chop, peas, mashed cauliflower, apple&onion and gravy.

Evening snack
I got really hungry in the evening so I ate some more nuts.

Back on phase one - Thursday (day one)

Breakfast
(slightly random, I know!)
leftover sausage and vegetable and tomato 'mush' and cabbage, little bit of grated cheese on the top

Snack
babybel cheese, (a fairly big) spoonful of peanut butter

Lunch
Bowl of veggie curry with grated cheese on the top

Snack
cashews and macadamias and a lump of cheese
Some dark chocolate (yes, I know that's not on phase one, but it was eat something allowable on south beach, or blow it and eat something really bad, so I went for a piece of dark chocolate. Hey, this is phase one Debs style!)

Dinner
fajitas (no wraps), with lettuce, yoghurt and grated cheese.

Yes, I'm very aware that I ate cheese at every meal and snack today. It was low fat cheese, and I didn't have large servings. I'll try to eat less cheese tomorrow!
However, I also managed to resist the cakes and crisps and snacks that were on offer at my church small group. (And as DebbieBoo could probably tell you, I can easily get carried away with eating those!)

Monday morning weigh-in

205.8
(so up 2.4 since Saturday - I blame water retention - from my sprianed ankle, and also that's what the anti-inflammatories do to me)

Official post-holiday Saturday Morning Weigh-in

203.4
No gloating, honest!

Unofficial post-holiday weigh-in

Friday 22nd August
205lb

Official pre-holiday weigh-in

Saturday 9th August
211.8

Monday weigh in

last Monday (21st July) I weighed in at 209.8
Today I weigh 208.6, so that's down 1.2

(two weeks ago I think I was 205.8, so i still need to lose a few more to get down to my lowest weight again)

Life ain't easy

Today, I really need to stay accountable. I know i'm already off track. But I want to stop the downward spiral there. So here it it

Breakfast
Bacon and egg

Snack
Mini strawberry cheesecake
cheese
a couple of spoonfuls of chocolate spread

Lunch
Cheese sandwich (one slice of bread and some cheese)
aubergine (sliced, sprayed with oil, salt and peppered and cooked in a hot oven)
a pear (shared with a certain young lady)
little individual tub of icecream

snack
Oats, dried frut and milk
hula hoops
curried chick peas
spoonfuls of chili con carne
piece of cake
piece of chocolate brownie

breaking with tradition

Yesterday we had a big family get-together to celebrate my Grandad's birthday.

I ate and ate and ate all day. I wasn't even hungry most of the time. I just ate cos the food was in front of me, and it's what I always do in these situations.
This morning I weighed myself and I was 218. That's up 12 on last Monday. I'm almost certain that some/most of that is water given the junk I ate over the weekend, but still, it's not good!

I know that I need to overcome the mental assumption that when I'm at something like that I will overeat. Cos it was like I just went into autopilot, and that meant disengaging brain and just shovelling the food in.

I'm back on track today, but I do need to give this some more thought..

Breakfast
bacon, egg and veggie curry

Snack
A pear

Lunch
Veggie Curry with cheese on the top

Snack
A pear

Dinner

Saturday

Breakfast
bacon, egg, veggie curry

Snack
2 pears

Lunch

...


I have no idea what else I ate on Saturday. I know I was doing ok until I went out in the evening, and ended up eating a bunch of junk :-(

Getting back on track

I was meant to be getting back on track with my food diary yesterday, but for a number of reasons that didn't happen.. anyway, here I am today, reporting in...

I couldn't have breakfast first thing because I had a fasting blood test that needed to be got out of the way first. I took a pear and a babybel cheese with me to eat on the way home, and had another pear when I got home (after 10am, so not exactly early for breakfast!)

Lunch was a bowl of lentil soup. I also ate a piece of corned beef. I was cooking veggie curry, but it wasn't going to be done in time for me to eat it and get out of the house to go get a parking permit for my hire car (we put a 'visitors permit' in this morning, which ran out at 1pm, so really I needed to leave to get that sorted at 1pm).

Dinner
Pork chop, broccoli, carrots, green beans and gravy. Yum :-)

Evening
Some pistachios and a piece of cheese.
Bit of chocolate.

I was trying to get a balance between making sure I was eating enough today, and keeping the evening munchies under control. Not sure I managed it.. but I'm trying!

Monday

I don't even want to talk about today.

Sunday

Weigh-in this morning 206 (Equals lowest weight so far. yay, I'm back on track!)

Had a slight freak out when I realised that I've dropped 6.8lb since last Monday, and wasn't even really doing phase one properly. And consequently, ended up over doing the carbs, and food in general a bit today. Am not panicking, much(!), I think. And will get back on track tomorrow.
I think one too many people at church this morning asking me if my health problems could be related to my rapid weight loss. I don't really know how rapid it is. Sometimes it just seems to fall off, other times it's really slow. I'm just a bit confused.

Breakfast
bacon and bubble&squeak (aka leftover cabbage and a bit of mashed potato cooked together)

Lunch
(I was out for lunch at the house of some lovely friends of mine)
Roast chicken, mixed vegetables, roast potatoes, a white roll. Followed by lemon cheesecake and summer fruits. And washed down with diet coke! (Not exactly a south beach friendly meal, but it wasn't excessive portions!)

Late Afternoon/Evening
(I just felt really hungry, probably a result of the not so good carbs earlier, so one thing just kept leading to another)
Pistachios and cashews with a piece of cheese. And I ate was was left in a jar of peanut butter (it wasn't loads, but still!)
Half an aubergine (egg-plant) cooked with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt&pepper.
A bowl with oats, raisins and cold milk (sort of like really really basic muesli)

Saturday

Breakfast
Bacon, egg, veggie curry

Snack
Pistachios and cheese (more like 2 or 3 handfuls of nuts, so too many really. But it was a kinda early lunch around 11am, and then I went to bed. I just woke up and it's 3pm, and now I'm going to have lunch)

Lunch
Leftovers - beef stew, mashed potato and cabbage.

Dinner
Homemade lentil soup.

Friday

Breakfast
Bacon, egg, leftover apple & onion from dinner the other day.

Snack
teaspoon of peanut butter

Lunch
Veggie curry with cheese on the top.

Dinner
Crockpot stew, cabbage, peas, sweetcorn and a couple of spoonfuls of couscous.

Evening
2 glasses of lemonade. I know, I need to find something that's got less sugar...
handful of pistachios and a piece of cheese (weird combination, I know, but I like it!)

Thursday

Breakfast
Bacon, egg, veggie curry

Snack
A mini pumpkin muffin and a piece of cheese

Lunch
Lots of salad (which included lettuce, pepper, sweetcorn, kidney beans, grated carrot, croutons, a few bits of pasta with a tomato sauce on), half a small brown roll and spit-roasted chicken. A fairly big glass of lemonade (I was eating out with an old school friend. Cos the weight has been dropping off again this week I haven't worried too much about sticking to a proper phase one)

Afternoon Snack
Hot chocolate with whipped cream on the top (ok, so this really wasn't on plan!)

Dinner
Bacon joint, cabbage, peas and a few pieces of carrot, couple of slices of pineapple and gravy.

Oh, and last night I had 2 small glasses of lemonade when I was out in the evening.

Wednesday

This has been a bit of a funny food day. I couldn't fit in eating breakfast before I had to leave to get the bus, so I ate an apple and a pear on the bus for breakfast.
Morning snack was another pear (but I got less than half of it, cos S&R were both demanding bites of it too!) and a babybel cheese.

Lunch was veggie curry with cheese on the top. Then this afternoon I had another pear (they were pretty small, and needed eating!).

Dinner
Pork chop, apple & onion, and broccoli.

Tuesday

I got about 3 or 4 hours sleep, so we'll see how the day goes..

Breakfast
My usual - bacon, egg, veggie curry

Snack
Babybel (cheese) and bits of satsuma (we ate a few, but I didn't get much of a look in with S and R begging for more every two seconds!)

Lunch
Veggie curry with cheese on the top

Snack
A couple more pieces of satsuma.
A spoonful of peanut butter

Dinner
Not veggie curry! But not very inspiring either - 3 little beef burgers and half an aubergine cooked on a griddle pan.

Monday Weigh-In

I just weighed myself and got the number 212.8 fives times in a row.
Since the scales were a lot less decisive than that yesterday, I'm just going to ignore the 217.4 figure I recorded yesterday (cos there's no way I can have lost nearly 5lb in one day, even on phase 1. Although I guess, some of that could be water, but anyway!)

I'm going out for the day, so I will try my hardest to stick to phase one, but I'll be out in a big group, so I have to be prepared for the choices not to go my way (for examply if we end up eating in an Italian place!) But most places do sell salad, so it should be ok. (Just it is raining, so salad may not be exactly what's on my mind!)

Breakfast
My usual - bacon, egg and veggie curry!

Lunch
2 sausages with sweet potato mash (which also had normal potato in it too) and red onion gravy.

Snack
Two chocolate sweets.

Dinner
Bowl of veggie curry
A mars bar

Today has been all over the place emotionally, and I don't want to talk about it right now.

Giving my poor neglected blog another chance

Life's been a bit gloomy the last couple of weeks. The eating plan pretty much went out the window, and I've spent too much time wallowing in self-pity. Today things are changing.

I've accepted Brandi's 21 day habit challenge, and from today onwards I shall endeavour to keep a food diary/journal here on this blog, to keep a track of what I eat, and in particular to break the habit of mindless eating that I seem to have developed recently.

I weighed myself this morning, and although my scales still seem to need a little persuading to show the same number more than once, the number that came up most this morning was not a good one. I am recording here that this morning I weighed in at 217.4. That's up 11.4 above my lowest weight so far (which I logged on the 5th May).

As of this morning I've put myself back on phase one, properly. I'm not sure what I'll do about furit. I think I'll see how I go, and start by cutting it right out, but possibly add fruit back in sooner than other carbs.

Breakfast
I had my usual bacon, egg and a bit of veggie curry. I'm pretty happy with what I eat for breakfast, so I probably won't be messing with it!

Lunch
Meatballs, some veggie curry and asparagus and aubergine (eggplant) cooked together with a little soy sauce.Dinner
Veggie curry with cheese on top (Yes, I realise I've eaten veggie curry for 3 meals in a row, but I'm tired, people! And not feeling very inspired. And I'm sure it never hurt anyone to eat the same thing at every meal. Or not if it's something as innocent as veggie curry ;-) )

Monday morning weigh-in

This morning I weighed 206.0
That's 3.6 down on last week.

Maybe tomorrow, Jack*

Over the weekend I bought some more clothes, got to see my grandparents and uncle, went to Steve's baptism and lots of other stuff besides. I have got pics from Sunday, but I will have to loads them up tomorrow or sometime, cos this evening I'm going out for a drink with the boy.
See y'all tomorrow.

* That's a line from an advert, and it just came into my head when I was deciding what to call this post.

Weigh-in

209.6
Yay :-)
Down about 2 1\2. can't remember exactly.

Friday's here again

I have no idea what I've eaten this week. I was just concentrating on remembering to eat SOMETHING! I don't think I'm doing too badly though. I'm pretty sure I will have lost weight this week, but not so dramatically as last week, which is good, cos that was a bit scary.

I'm just happy being ME and enjoying the unexpected things life has thrown at me this week.

And I'm feeling so happy right now, I don't think you could say anything much right now to upset me (but I'm also tired, so maybe best not to test that one!)

I'll report back on Monday if not before.

Monday weigh-in

212.2
Um, yes, that's down quite a lot on last week. I was kind of distracted yesterday and didn't eat any carbs, or anything much at all in the afternoon or evening. So I started the day with porridge (made with bits of apple in) and then I've had two apples, and a big lot of veggie curry with cheese sprinkled on the top (that I had to share some of with two demanding little ones who didn't want to be left out!)

I loved wearing the dress to the wedding on Satuday and had a fantastic time. I'll add a pic to the sidebar at some point soon.

The end of the week in review

Well I did take a few more pictures of the things I was eating, but I didn't photograph everything, and I can't honestly remember everything I ate over the last couple of days. I think taking pictures of my food does help me to stay on track more, so I might so it again at some point, but I figured you were probably all getting bored of it by now.

Rach Wibbs asked how I can eat curry for breakfast. Well, I dunno. It's just warm and squidgy, and tastes good with bacon and egg, which have become my standard things to eat for breakfast. This morning I was out of curry and had to have broccoli instead, which just wasn't the same. But it's ok, because I made some more curry this evening, so I can have it again tomorrow.

On Thursday I went to Cambridge and managed to find a shrug, necklace and shoes to go with The Dress. We've also added new ribbon straps, which is good, because having lost more weight this week, it was kind of in danger of falling down. I will post pictures in due course.

I haven't done much official exercise this week - I went on my treadmill on Tuesday, but Wednesday and Thursday I was just content to walk around Covent Garden and Cambridge. Actually, I didn't have much choice, because the front room, when my treadmill is, was full of HP's stuff, so I'm not sure there was space to unfold the treadmill (it gets folded up when not in use, just to make a bit more space in the room). This evening I did a wonderfully intense hour on my treadmill - 25 minutes while dinner was cooking, and then another 35 minutes after dinner while the curry was cooking. (I didn't eat curry today, just made it ready to be able to have some tomorrow). And it felt really really good. Earlier in the day I was feeling a bit sad and lost because HP had gone back to university - my Mum took her today, so I was helping them pack and then load up the car this morning, but this afternoon the house felt really empty).

Hmm, now blogger doesn't want to save this post, but hopefully it'll change its mind in a minute.

She realises that she really better eat some carbs today

It's not that I think my food is boring, it's just that it's time to change and eat something else. I think I could probably actually eat what I've eaten for the past few days for the rest of the month, and not have a problem with it. Only, I weighed myself this morning, and I'm down from Monday. Quite a bit down. Let me explain some of the reasons why this might be, before I tell you what I weighed this morning.
1. I've been on a course of oral steroids for a week. I took my last dose on Monday morning. Although I don't know exactly what they do, I do know that steroids can inhibit weight-loss, or at least make it harder to lose.

2. My Monday weigh-in was 219.4. I've been in the 219s since about Friday, so I guess I'd hit a bit of a plateaux. So, remembering that I've been on phase 1.5 (still eating fruit) so expecting to lose faster than when on phase 2, and if you take an average of the weight lost from Friday until today that's 5 days) then it's not quite so alarming.

All that said, my weigh-in this morning was 215.6. So I need to start eating carbs, cos it's just not healthy to drop that quickly for an extended period of time. (I'm down 7.6 in a week and a half, and that's plenty). I think I can almost get stuck in a phase one rut, and not want to stop, but I am determined to... So much so, that I'll probably eat porridge for lunch.

I have no idea if any of what I wrote was coherent, but hopefully it was possible to catch the drift of what I was on about. Besides, I have to stop losing weight, or else this dress will fall down too much when I wear it on Saturday.

Breakfast
Bacon, egg, veggie curry.Snack
Pear

Lunch
Porridge, made with 1\3 cup oats, skimmed milk, and a chopped apple. With cinnamon on the top.

Afternoon
Hot chocolate and a small piece of chocolate brownie (I'd taken a box of Brownies with me for Jeana and her family, and I ate a piece to show them that they weren't poisoned or anything...! Besides, it was small and yummy.

Dinner
Mini turkey burgers (made them the other day, and reheated them today), veggie curry, purple sprouting broccoli and broad beans. Two mini pumpkin muffins.

After dinner
Some nuts. Probably over did them really. Need to keep an eye on myself tomorrow.

Tuesday (was a long and busy day)

I was looking after kiddos, and then when I got home I went on the treadmill, and then had to have a super-quick shower before heading out for a meal with my church small group friends. And decided that 11pm was too late to start uploading photos and all that jazz.

Breakfast
Guess what?Snack
Once again..Lunch
Veggie CurrySnack
Pear and a spoonful of peanut butter (I really pushed the boat out for that one!)

Dinner
Ok, so this where it gets exciting. Or not, but less predictible, at any rate.
I went out to dinner to Caffe Uno. I'd looked up the menu on Sunday, and discovered they had a few different salads. On closer inspection last night, there was only really one that sounded me, but one option is good enough! I read through the whole menu several times (I was one of the first there, and we waited a while for the last group of people to arrive!) but I didn't find anything that seemed worth wasting a carb or more on - sure, the pizzas and pastas looked nice, but they'd all be made with white flour, and the salad did sound good.
And it really was. I had them leave the dressing on the side (not so much for healthy reasons, but because I tend not to like salad dressings!) and just added some balsamic vinegar. There was plenty of chicken, and lots of interesting salad leaves, and I even ate the green beans. (I didn't take a picture, but you can see the description instead)

Insalata di pollo contadina...Succulent pieces of char-grilled chicken served with mixed salad leaves,roasted vegetables, green beans, artichoke, Caesar dressing and toasted pine nuts

Monday, Monday, so good to me

Morning weigh-in 219.4 (Yay!)

(I think I may be staying on phase one until I make up my mind about whether I'm wearing a dress that Little One's Mum has lent me, to go to a wedding this weekend!)

Breakfast
Bacon, egg, veggie curry

Snack
PearLunch
Veggie Curry
Snack
Pear

Dinner
Cashew chicken with roasted spiced chickpeas with spinach on the side (I actually added another handful a bit after I'd taken the photo)(This recipe, but with some slight changes. Or maybe more than slight changes. We don't put in fish sauce, because I don't eat fish. Instead tonight I just put in some hot water instead. I used three onions instead of the shallots. We didn't have rice, and I don't put the spinach in it, but serve it on the side as a salad - it's a good way t cool your tongue from the spices, because I always put more chickpeas and more spices than the recipe says. But other than that, it's similar!)

Sunday, or Just how much veggie curry is too much?

Ok, so I've been photographing my food for several days now, is anyone getting bored? I'm not really, it's just that basically I'm stuck in a veggie curry rut at the moment, and there are possibly only so many time y'all will want to look at veggie curry in a variety of bowls and containers!

I think that my modified phase one has probably done its job - the weight loss has been kick-started again, and unless something very strange happens between now and tomorrow morning I should be safely below my next short term goal (220). I'll start adding in some carbs again, but I am aware that I'm going out for a meal on Tuesday evening to Cafe Uno which is an Italian restuarant, so it could be easy to go overboard on carbs there. I've just been looking at the menu online, and will probably go for a chicken salad of some type - they have a couple of different ones. If things don't go according to plan, or I just can't face salad on the night, then I can always cut the carbs again for a day or two (but my intent is to go down the sald route. I'll let you know how I do.)

Breakfast
2 rashers bacon, egg, veggie curry.Snack
As is often the case on a Sunday I didn't have a snack this morning, but I did successfully stay away from the cakes and biscuits at church. Actually, I looked at them and though 'nah' and that was that. They didn't even tempt me. That IS an achievement!

Lunch
Turkey burger (homemade, and sort of fall apart-y) - that's Parmesan cheese on the top, leftover broccoli and some veggie curry (you may see a theme emerging!)
Half a pomegranate.

Afternoon snack
It kinda felt a little bit like I was snacking all afternoon, but I think all I ate was two pears (only took a picture of the first one!), some pistachios, and a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter. Ok, so I need to watch the nut intake, but I think it was liveable with today. I know that's got potential to be a problem, so I will keep an eye on myself.

Dinner
Guess what? Veggie curry, with low-fat cheese on the top. This was actually the last of last week's plus some more of today's batch, and with some leftover sweetcorn thrown in for good measure. I like leftovers - they're fun!
I'm still feeling hungry, but I haven't decided what to have next.Evening Snack
Seems like it was all about the green - I started off with some sugar-free jelly, but after one mouthful I realised it was too sweet and was giving me a headache, so I gave it to my Mum. And instead finished off some sald that was leftover from lunchtime and the last three macademias in the pot. I still feel hungry, but I've got to the 'blow-this, I'm off to bed stage of the day'!

Veggie Curry

I was going to take pictures as I made some this afternoon, but the camera was in the other room. Anyway, Brandi wanted to know how I made my veggie curry, and although it is different every time, here's a basic recipe.

Onion, garlic, curry powder, dried thyme, stock\broth, vegetables (sweet potato, courgette(zucchini), carrot, parsnip, squash, swede, anything that's a root vegetable really), tinned chopped tomatoes, tinned chickpeas (garbanzos)

Chop a couple of onion (quite large - I usually cut the onion in half, and then in thirds each way, if that's any help at all!) Crush\Chop a couple of cloves of garlic and then fry together in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, until beginning to soften (try not to burn the garlic, like I did today).

Toss in a couple of teaspoons of curry powder (I used medium heat) and a teaspoon of dried thyme. Mix together until the onion is coated.

Add some stock - I use vegetable bouillon which you mix using a couple of teaspoons of stock powder and some hot water. I make about a pint (20 fluid oz). Pour in the stock (carefully, watching out for the steam - especially if you used boiling water)

Peal the sweet potatoes\squash\anything else that needs pealing! Chop into small cubes (I usually make them pretty small, but not always cuboid - the bigger it is, the longer it'll take to cook) Also chop any other vegetables, such as courgette. I sometimes throw in some bell pepper too.

Add all the chopped vegetables to the pan (did I tell you it should be big?!). Also add some chopped tomatoes (I usually put two cans) and some chickpeas (also 2 cans). Chuck in some salt and pepper, give it all a big stir, and then gently simmer for around half an hour, or until you come back and remember you left it cooking. The vegetables should be soft (you can easily cut them with a knife) or even going a bit mushy, if you've left them a long time.

Does that help? Today we didn't have many interesting vegetables so only used onion, sweet potatoes, courgette, and carrot. When I eat it I'll sometimes throw in some frozen peas or sweetcorn before heating it up in my bowl in the microwave. It should be good to keep for about a week - that's about how long it generally takes me to get through it, but it depends who else is eating it, and how many meals I've eaten it for.

Saturday, hungry day

Breakfast
1 rasher middle cut bacon, egg, veggie curry.Snack
A pearLunch
Bowl of veggie curry with cheese on the top.
Spoonful of peanut butter (yes, it seems I'm back on nuts!)
Snack
7 Macadamia nuts, a pear, quarter of a red pepper, a bit more peanut butter. Oh dear, that's a lot, but I'm just so hungry today! (See I told you I was hungry - this is the pear, about to be bitten again!)Dinner
Roast Lamb with roast parsnips, peas, sweetcorn and purple sprouting broccoli. There's mint sauce on the lamb, and I put a bit of gravy on after I took the picture (I thought you'd be able to see the pretty colours better if I took it before I did that!)
After Dinner
Argh! I just ate a whole bunch of nuts. I'm about to go to bed, and I felt really hungry, and had some nuts, but then I couldn't stop eating them. Tomorrow's a new day. I'll start again then. I'd better clean my teeth quick before I eat any more.

Friday's Finally Here

Weigh-in this morning 220. Woo-hoo!

Breakfast
2 rashers bacon, egg, a couple of spoonfuls of veggie curry and some yellow pepper (that's the ingredient I'll be adding to most of my meals today - we have lots and it needs eating up!)
Snack
I ended up not having a snack this morning, but having lunch fairly early. I'll see how I go this afternoon - maybe I'll have two snacks then!

Lunch
Veggie Cury with extra yellow pepper on top.
Snack
A pear and a raw mushroom.
Dinner
Too tired to tell you now what it was, see if you can guess!
It was some thin beef steak, cut into strips and cooked with pepper and rosemary. Then augergine, cooked on the griddle pan, and the remains of the chickpea/onion/courgette/pepper mixture that I'd put in my lunch the day before.After Dinner
A piece of my newly invented apple cake (I had to go off phase one to try it, but it was worth it!)

Some things I didn't eat today

Any of the chocolate chip muffins. Even though they were trying to call out to me, I told them NO!Any of the biscuits or leftover Easter candy and chocolate - a whole cupboard full!
Any of the numerous packets of crisps.Or anything else that wasn't on plan. All I've gotta do now is choose my evening 'munchie' sensibly (I forgot to take my antibiotic before dinner, so I'm letting my dinner go down, and then will need to eat something after I take it. Don't know if that's the right course of action, but it's what I've decided!)

Thursday

Good morning!

Today is a bit of an odd day. I had to be up and out early enough to get to R&D's house for 7.4o am, so that their mum could head off to work. So I had a shower at home, and brought my breakfast with me. Also, since we're going out for the day, and I won't be eating veggie curry for lunch (it's best hot, and although I could take it in a thermos, I only just thought of that!), so I had it for breakfast!

Breakfast
Veggie Curry

Snack
Ok, so I was wrong in thinking we didn't have any pears. We had one left, but it already looked so bruised that I didn't want to take a picture of it in case it put you off them for life! And it was really bruised inside too, so I only ate about half of it.

Lunch
A sort of salad type thing. I didn't want salad (lettuce and all that) because it just seemed too cold (we'll be having a picnic), and also we didn't have anything exciting to put in it. If I weren't doing phase one I'd probably have made a couscous salad, but as I'm not eating carbs right now, I'm having, as I told HP, 'a couscous salad without the couscous'. It doesn't look at that appealing in the photo, but it tastes good.
I sauteed together some onion, courgette and yellow pepper. Then added some chickpeas, soy sauce and a bit of paprika. I added to that some leftover meatloaf, some raw mushroom cut up, a little bit of red pepper (I would have put tomato for a bit of colour, but we were out of baby ones!), and a few cashew nuts.
I also ate about 7 grapes.

Snack
8 more grapes and a cheese tri-bite. (Basically just a pre-packed portion sized piece of cheese) (I only took one picture of grapes, because I didn't take it until after I'd eaten the first 7!)

Dinner
Sausage mush*, as made by HP with peas and low-fat cheese grated on the top.

*Cut the sausage into chunks and fry in a little oil. Add an onion, chopped, then a tin of chopped tomatoes. Add chopped mushrooms and red and yellow pepper, some mixed herbs, Worcestershire sauce, and some kidney beans.

Evening
A spoonful of peanut butter after my antibiotic, and then 7 macadamias cos I was still hungry. Guess I'd better head to bed before I eat anything else!

Wednesday

Breakfast
1 rasher middle cut bacon, 1 egg, some spinach and a spoonful of veggie curry.Morning Snack
A pear (I actually got to eat all of this one today, although I had to hurry the last few mouthfuls as some men were arriving to put some loft insulation in at R&D's house) (And I did take a new picture this morning, if you look carefully you'll see it is different to yesterday's one)

Lunch
Veggie curry and a raw mushroom.

Afternoon snack
A pear (yes, I like pears, but more importantly, they needed eating, especially since the only other person that eats them is my Mum, and she's been doing phase one and not eating fruit the last few days) The second mushroom.
I also ate half a pork burger. It was leftover from the kid's dinner and I was hungry (it was after 6pm and I wasn't going to be eating my dinner until half 7.) I'm afraid I didn't take a photo, but I can tell you that I totally ignored the leftover chips, and to be honest wasn't even tempted. I figured the burger was actually pretty healthy - I read the packet before I ate it!

Dinner
A pork chop with leftover braised green cabbage from a couple of days ago, leftover red cabbage from yesterday, and peas (which I added because it was all looking a bit brown and boring!)

Photographing my food - Tuesday

I'm back to taking pictures of my food for a couple of days...

Breakfast
1 rasher middle cut bacon, a fried* egg (broken and turned) and spinach (wilted in the pan once the bacon and egg are done)
* I use a non-stick pan to cook the bacon, and then fry the egg in the pan afterwards, so it's not exactly fried, and I don't add any extra fat to cook it in.

Snack
Pears - I took the photo first thing, before I took them out with me, because I knew they'd probably be bruised when I actually got to eat them. I actually ate about half of the one on the right, because it was bruised inside (they're getting a bit past it really), and then maybe 2\3 or 3\4 of the one on the left before Little One spotted it, and stole it off me to finish it himself.Lunch
A mixture of a few different leftovers (I'm not fussy!). There was some of my veggie curry, some cashew nut curry (we had it for dinner Monday night, and I couldn't eat all my portion, so I saved it to go in this combo). On top of that I threw in a leftover cold sausage, cut up into little bits, and some broccoli (the long green bits are broccoli stem, which although some people just throw it away, I think it's yummy). Oh, and I also ate a raw mushroom while I was waiting for it to heat up in the microwave and sorting out the kids' lunch.Afternoon snack
I forgot to take anything with me to the kids' house for my afternoon snack, and couldn't find anything south beachy there, so I just stayed hungry and moaned about it various places online!

Dinner
We had meatloaf, made from pork mince, I believe. With that I had peas (yay!), roasted radishes (I tried putting on sesame seeds like Kalyn originally suggested, but I didn't really notice them, to be honest) and red cabbage (cooked approximately like this)

Evening snack
I realised that the antibiotics I'm taking are supposed to be taken before food, and therefore ought probably to eat something after I took my evening dose. Also, I was feeling hungry, so I ate the leftover radishes. (I took a photo, but will upload it tomorrow when I do tomorrow's pics)

Still ill

I have a throat and ear infection and am on antiobiotics. I'm really coughy and wheezy too, so once again I'm not able to get on the treadmill. Grrrr. I wanna get on it so bad, but I also want to live. So I won't (get on it).

Monday weigh-in

Today I weighed in at 222.8. That's down 5 from last week.
I've got a bad earache and sore throat so I'm not going to be exercising for a few days, and haven't done so since about last Wednesday.

This week's exercise post

Monday
I had a really long day looking after the Little One and Little Flower, so I didn't go on the treadmill. However, I did go for a couple of walks with the kids and got some fresh air.

Tuesday
35 mins on the treadmill (3.5 km) at incline of 6.

Wednesday
35 mins on the treadmill (same as yesterday)

Weigh-in

This Monday I weighed exactly the same as last week.
(227.8)

Exercise

Monday
40 mins on the treadmill.

Tuesday
65 minutes working HARD on the treadmill.

I think I overdid it on Tuesday, cos I ached for the rest of the week, and upset my asthma a bit.

Thursday
12 minutes treadmill

Friday
11 1\2 mins treadmill

Monday morning weigh-in

227.8

That is down from last Monday (which was 228.6) but up 3 from my lowest weigh-in this week. Water retention? Who knows.
But it's down, and I'll take it!

My exercise challenge

Having been able to get back on the treadmill again (after a chest infection) and discovering how much it improves my mood and makes me feel better, I'm going to set myself a challenge.

At the moment I don't have a full time job (although I'm working on it..), but that means I have lots of time to exercise.

So, my challenge is to do at least 5 hours exercise a week. And, if those five hours are on the treadmill, and I do other stuff in addition, then that's even better.

Sunday
1 hour treadmill

Monday
1 hour treadmill
weights (approx 15 mins)

Tuesday
30 mins treadmill
30-40 mins swimming (I did 28 lengths)

Wednesday
1 hour treadmill
weights (approx 15 mins)

Thursday
45 mins treadmill

Friday
1 hour treadmill

Saturday
70 mins treadmill

Sunday
Took a day off from exercising.

This week's Monday weigh-in

On Monday I weighed in at 228.6 (my lowest so far, and breaking through the 230 barrier)

Hmmm, haven't posted on here in a while

Weigh-in Today (Monday)
230.2

I lost around 2 stone (28 lb) while I was living with blest in Texas, and another half a stone since I've been back.

I'm still dealing with my body adjusting to the time difference (having to make myself eat in the mornings cos I just don't feel very hungry then) and mentally it's been hard too.

Today I'm in a really bad mood, for a number of reasons. But hopefully it'll lift soon.


WOW! I just added a new pic in the sidebar, and look at the difference between July 2006 and Feb 2008.