A Healthy Mind and Healthy Body

OUCH

2012-02-10T08:13:00.001Z

I ache all over today. I decided to start doing some different exercise yesterday, just because I’m fed up with the things I’ve been doing lately (or more accurately, not been doing but been thinking about doing then deciding not to bother)

Over the entire day, in small bursts of energy, very broken up over the day) I managed:

110 press-ups

2 chin ups

4 planks

One 4:10 min Tabata-esque period of kettlebell swings (20 secs swinging, 10 secs resting, repeat ~~until you want to want to die~~)

Approx 30 body weight lunges.

Walked about 2.5 miles (with not too heavy rucksack)

Now I can’t stand up, sit down, climb stairs, walk down stairs or raise my arms more than 3 inches without pain.

Must be cracking up, since I actually like the feeling… OK, that’s a lie! I like knowing I did something to be a bit fitter, but only when I’m sitting still and not currently aching

It snowed here last night, not much, about a cm. The back garden looks pretty but the road out front is already slushy and horrible. I don’t like snow much, so the long walk I was planning for today will probably go on hold for a few days… Is yoga good for screaming agony aches, or is it a bit too much to ask my body to cope with?

Technorati Tags: Exercise

Adrift

2012-02-08T13:49:00.001Z

I’m still not doing so well these days, you might have guessed. I’m bored with the blog I generally write, which is why I haven’t been blogging lately, but I’ve been missing writing something while I’ve been gone, so here I am back to vent a bit.

I’ve been doing some bingeing, some eating out, some ‘normal’ over-eating – and some laxatives to try to combat the damage. I have no idea why this crap is back in my life, I really thought that even with my very much less than perfect eating and training for the last year or so I’d put it behind me… but I guess not. The worst thing is that as much as I yo yo between self-destructive ‘don’t care’ and self-loathing disgust at my own excesses, the over-all balance is falling heavily into the realms of not caring enough about this to put in the effort. I don’t want to be fat and I don’t want to be unfit or to feel so low, but it feels kind of an academic not wanting rather than the visceral heart-felt DON’T WANT that it used to be, and I don’t know how to get that back… or how to fake it till I make it.

I’m not posting any more photos of my food for a while. Some of the time its depressing, some of the time its tedious, some of the time its embarrassing. I’m not giving up altogether, but if the recommended guidelines for dieting / healthy moderation are the 80:20 rule I’m meeting that – but exactly in the wrong way.

I want to keep blogging as you guys are the closest thing to human contact I get while M is at work, I hope I’m not going to drive you all away with the change in direction I’m taking right now… the route, and the method of transportation might have changed, but I’m still planning to end up at the same place. Eventually. Healthy(ish) again….

ETA: Holy crap, this weather bites…. I spent 40 minutes on the platform at Henley-on-Thames station this afternoon, coated, gloved and hatted, and still nearly froze solid…

Technorati Tags: Struggles,ramblings

Go me!

2012-01-31T17:06:00.001Z

I slept badly last night, but was determined not to stop training the very second day, so I mainlined caffeine till had enough energy and not only did my 40 mins ellipticizing, but felt stronger and worked harder than I did yesterday. Might also have been because I was watching an episode of NCIS:LA, where yesterday it was a CSI:NY – more thinking, less action to get my legs pumping!!!

Yesterday we got agreement to buy an apartment in Reading. I haven’t lived in an apartment since Dallas, so this is going to be a big adjustment for me and I’m going to have to sell off loads of stuff. We’re months away from actually moving, so what does it say about me that today I went into Reading – and checked out a local gym and a yoga studio that I’m thinking of joining? I choose to feel it shows motivation and determination… I walked maybe 4 miles in total on top of the training, and got home for lunch almost an hour later than usual (so proud of myself for walking past 2 fish & chip shops while starving!) and really tired – I guess the caffeine wore off just then? My feet hurt too, which I guess shows how little I was doing while I was feeling sub-par.

Food today:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with gf toast

Lunch: Roasted squash soup with most roasted squash and gf bread

Dinner: GF Fake ‘Nandos’ – oven chips, gf roll, grilled halloumi & portobello mushroom marinated with garlic peri peri sauce, and coleslaw

Snacks: 3 minute chocolate-pumpkin muffin; clementine

Weight: 161 lbs

Technorati Tags: Back to basics,training

On the mend

2012-01-30T17:13:00.001Z

I managed to get on the elliptical today – and stay there for 40 mins. Exercising, not just staring slack-jawed at the TV screen

Felt good to get sweaty again after a couple of weeks off. I also walked a mile, not exactly lots of effort but better than flat on my back, reading my kindle on the sofa!

Still a bit congested so I’m not pushing myself too hard just yet. Hopefully though that’ll be pass pretty soon – I don’t think I’ve had a coughing fit today, so that’s a good sign!

The down side though? HUNGRY all afternoon….

Food today:

Breakfast: Oatbran with cookies & cream whey, blueberries and soy milk.

Lunch: Chicken vegetable soup with gf buckwheat sourdough bread

Dinner: Tofu Bolognese on brown rice spaghetti with a small side salad

Snacks: Protein smoothie with frozen ‘exotic fruit’; soy yoghurt with berries;

a few dried apricots

Weight:162 again. Told you I was maintaining way too high…

Eating at The Fat Duck

2012-01-29T07:50:00.001Z

The Fat Duck is #5 top restaurant IN THE WORLD right now. Yes, the whole world… and it’s about 10 miles from where I currently live. If I’m honest, I (despite calling myself a foodie) was never really interested in going there because of all the talk about how Heston serves up weird meals made up of not-really-food ingredients, but M really wanted to and my attitude softened as I watched How to Cook like Heston too. That left the problem that it is virtually impossible to get a reservation there – our booking on Friday claimed the last table for 2 until April (at least on a Friday or Saturday). If that hadn’t been the case I would’ve tried to wait until I was no longer maintaining a weight at least 14lbs above my panic and get back on a diet weight…

One thing I did when making the reservation was add a comment that I was gluten-free – and I was very impressed by the way they looked after me! On arrival they checked the details of my intolerance – was I ok with oats, spelt, soy etc so that I could feel totally comfortable with eating every they had to offer. And in most cases, my course looked exactly like M’s, so I wasn’t left feeling like I had an inferior ‘compromise dish’!

Our table was booked at 1pm, and the website suggests allowing 3.5 hrs for lunch!!! That was an UNDERestimate!!! We didn’t leave till 5pm!

The meal…

I did take my camera but didn’t remember to photograph every course. Still, here goes…

1) Pre-lunch amuse bouche: We each had what looked like one small ‘french macaron’ - a tiny mouthful with a beautiful, deep red shell with a creamy pale filling. The shell was beetroot, and the filling horse-radish cream – and I would not, could not have guess what a wonderful combination of flavours that would be!

2) 1st course: Nitro-poached Aperitifs. We had a choice of 3 flavours – vodka & lime, campari & soda, or Gin & Tonic. I had vodka & lime. The dry ice was used to poach a light cream to give it a crisp shell while remaining soft inside; the idea was to eat it in a single mouthful, where it would explode and instantly dissipate in your mouth, completely freshening the mouth with a burst of citrus.

3) Red cabbage gazpacho with Pommery Grain mushroom ice-cream. Beautiful, delicious, and again an incredible unexpected flavour combination!

4) Jelly of Quail, Crayfish Cream, Chicken Liver parfait, oak moss & Truffle Toast. If I’m honest, this course looked beautiful but I didn’t like it. I’m not a fan of chicken liver (or any other kind of liver) and I didn’t enjoy the jelly of quail either, since the texture and flavours didn’t seem to, well, ‘gel’ for me!

5) Snail porridge. I was unsure about this course originally, but really enjoyed it. The porridge itself was delicious, and though I didn’t necessarily think the snails added a lot of flavour, they did offer a great contrasting texture that I liked a lot

6) Roast foie gras. OK, see my comment about not liking liver…. and forget it, as this was great! The original dish came with a delicate crab biscuit, mine had a different biscuit and was absolutely amazing. I wouldn’t have wanted a bigger portion as the foie gras was incredibly rich and soft, but it was perfect in that serving size.

7) Mock Turtle Soup. This course was full of theatre – and edible gold leaf! A bowl was placed on the table containing a turnip mousse, tiny chinese mushrooms and a dumpling. We were also given a cup of boiling water, and a ‘gold fob watch’ was dunked in the water to make a lovely stock which was then poured into the bowl to complete the mock turtle soup!

8) Sound of the Sea. I really liked the sound of this dish, and if I’m honest, I was disappointed by it The sashimi of tuna, mackerel and halibut was great, but I wasn’t keen on the foam or the tapioca ‘sand’ so the dish didn’t really excite me as a whole – though I liked the sound effects of crashing waves delivered through an ipod hidden in a conch shell!

9) Salmon poached in liquorice gel – perfect salmon, accompanied by delicious artichokes and golden trout roe. I wouldn’t say the vanilla mayonnaise added much flavour, but that could be because the other flavours blew me away!

10) Saddle of venison with beetroot soubise, risotto of ~~spelt~~ rice for me! and umbles. O.M.G. I was very much uncertain about the umbles as that’s offal and bluntly ewww. But, it was great! The risotto wasn’t a risotto so much as a savoury puffed rice with a hint of crunch, and it was excellent. The venison was the best venison I’ve ever had, possibly even the best red meat I’ve ever had, and if M had looked away from his plate for one minute I might have been forced to steal some of his – but he didn’t, until it was all gone!!!

11) Hot & Iced tea. I have no idea how they did this, though I bet dry ice was involved somewhere. One cup containing both hot and iced tea – and the hot tea was actually hot, not warm, and the iced tea was cold, not just cook – an amazing sensation when drinking it, and the tea tasted great too!!!

12) Tafferty Tart. This was the only course you could really tell was different for me than for M, as they’d combined the same flavours of caramelized apple, fennel, rose & candied lemon without the actual ‘tart’. It was amazing, and I loved the way each flavour could be distinguished separately while combining together brilliantly as well

13) The ‘BFG’ – Black Forest Gateau. Mine looked exactly the same as M’s, and was absolutely to die for. It looked dense and rich, and the flavours were, yet it was light enough to eat after 12 other courses and over 3 hours of lunch!

14) Whisk(e)y wine gums. I love wine gums but I don’t really love whisky (however you spell it!) This course consisted of 5 ‘wine gums’ flavoured with different whiskys from around the world (well, Scotland the US anyway). I could detect different flavours in the different gums, as opposed to just a general ‘whisky-ness’ but would’ve preferred them to be flavoured with wines given the choice.

15) “Like a kid in the sweet shop” – a bag of sweets that could be eaten in the restaurant or taken home. I took them home, feeling slightly virtuous for waiting, but then ate them minutes after we got back without photographing them, so I guess I was no less piggy than most other people!!!

M insisted on getting a cheese plate as well. I didn’t feel I had room for any myself, but when they brought the cheese they had 2 plates of crackers – normal crackers for M, gf ones for me – so I felt I had to show my appreciation. The crackers were so thin you could almost see through them and fantastically crisp while somehow still managing to hold the weight of small pieces of very good cheeses – fantastic!

I also managed to drink too much wine, but although the wine was incredible I don’t know enough about it to critique it in any way. I chose a Riesling Spatlese from Mosel and wanted to bathe in it… there was also a cabernet sauvignon from Napa Valley, which was also great but I prefer white generally, and a delicious dessert wine as well.

I freely admit I was wrong not to be keen on the idea, as it was definitely an experience. Because they only offer a tasting menu and it doesn’t change I don’t expect to go back, but it was certainly memorable! For a better review and much better photographs, check out this site

Technorati Tags: Eating out

Sniffle

2012-01-25T12:16:00.001Z

I hab a code…

I was feeling under the weather for weeks before it descended on me like a ton of bricks, and now I’m acting like a man with man flu (apologies if there are any men reading this who believe they don’t get man flu ) and wallowing in the sore throat, runny nose, streaming eyes etc. I swear I don’t get like this when I have work to distract me, but because I’m at home all day just job hunting & flat hunting and sneezing, I’m letting it get me down and letting it stop me training (I can’t breathe through my nose…) as well as intermittently letting it stop me eating right…

Since I’ve been so apathetic lately there is probably no-one left out there, I’m just going to post a few photo’s of just some of the food I’ve eaten lately. Most of it not remotely home-cooked – I’m getting out of the habit, but I do want that to change…

Some (not nearly all) of it was relatively healthy…. not in the quantities I’ve been eating mind you…

By the way, on Friday I’m eating at The Fat Duck – that’s one meal I’m sure I WILL be posting about properly!!!

Technorati Tags: I've been bad...

Monday

2012-01-10T12:18:00.001Z

To call Monday a struggle is a huge understatement. I guess taking a few days off is a bad idea in terms of getting motivated, plus of course reminding my body how sweet my tooth is these days. As the constipation continued I packed the fibre in yesterday (and it worked out in the end…). I also ellipticized and walked a very little – just over a mile. By dinner time I was quite full because of the psyllium husks, dried cherries & raisins etc. that I’d eaten mid-afternoon, so I cut back on dinner quite a bit.

Food:

Breakfast: No-oats cereal (with added whole flaxseeds and a dollop of Greek yoghurt)

Lunch: Carrot – pumpkin soup with a turkey leg and some sauerkraut

Dinner: Carrot-pumpkin soup with gf bread – no picture for this, just look above and replace the turkey & sauerkraut with 2 mini slices of home-made cheaty buckwheat sourdough bread

Snacks: 4.5 tons of dried fruit, fresh fruit & linseed-based gf bars purchased at the Borough Market (I bought 5 on Saturday, uh, they’re all gone )

Weight this morning: 161.25lbs

Technorati Tags: Over-eating,fibre

Sunday

2012-01-09T13:14:00.001Z

Yesterday I did feel kind of motivated first thing, but then got hungry & let M talk me into going out for lunch one last time. The way he persuaded me – he volunteered to walk to a local pub restaurant (3 mile round trip) – which is enough of a rarity for me to go for it. He is so not a walker!!! I did try to pick light food and eat light later on as well though

Food:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs + egg whites with LF bacon

Lunch:

Melon & fig salad

Sicilian fish stew

Orange & Cointreau jelly with pink grapefruit sorbet and citrus fruits

Dinner: A turkey leg

Snacks: Greek yoghurt with fruit

Weight: 161.5lbs yesterday, and despite still being constipated today, 162 lbs today which I have no problem with after a weekend with 4 meals out!

Technorati Tags: Eating out

Catch up–Fri & Sat

2012-01-08T11:30:00.001Z

On Friday my brother came to visit us! The three of us went out to my favourite Indian restaurant for lunch, then he and I took at 3 mile post-lunch walk (on top of about 3.5 miles I’d walked earlier in the day) so although it wasn’t a very diet-y day, it was an active one – plus my lunch choices were mostly OK! It was a really nice relaxing day, and then he stayed overnight and the two of us went into London yesterday and walked for MILES!!! So far in fact that when he suggested finishing off by walking from Tower Bridge to Paddington I dug my (aching) heels in and insisted we went on the tube (which was no fun so I regretted that to a degree. Too many people, and really warm) We then all 3 went out for dinner as I’d been so busy planning where to go in London I’d forgotten to organise anything to eat afterwards!

We walked from Paddington to the Borough Market in Southwark, detouring to walk around Hyde Park and to hit Victoria for a very early & basic lunch. I really liked the market but it was absolutely jam packed by the time we got there, so next time I go I think I’ll tube it out there and walk back later on. As it was so crowded I took no photos at the market, but here are some from the walk…

ETA : I just looked through these photos and realised they look like I took them on about 3 different days because the sky looks so different in a lot of them. I didn’t cheat, they were all taken yesterday by moi, with help from: The Sky over London

Food Friday:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, gf flatbread, and mushrooms dry-fried with fresh baby spinach

Lunch: Salmon tikka starter

Chicken shashlik main course

Orange sorbet

Dinner: Salad with a slice of defrosted GF lentil loaf

Saturday:

Breakfast: No-oat cereal with berries

Lunch: Omelette with hash browns

Dinner: Clam chowder starter

Chicken with marsala main course:

NO DESSERT (even though the men did!!!)

And we then went home and watched Thor, and I didn’t eat any popcorn with it while my brother & husband did!

Weight Saturday: 161.5lbs. Didn’t weight this morning as I’m constipated – and have been for days now

Technorati Tags: London,walking,eating out

Day 4

2012-01-06T05:54:00.001Z

Day 4 really was a struggle. I didn’t binge, but came perilously close to it in the afternoon when I ate enough stuff that I shouldn’t have to have no appetite for or interest in eating dinner. I was stuck indoors until about 2:30 waiting for a delivery – you know how that frustrates me! – and didn’t train in the morning because I had a bunch of miscellaneous aches and pains that put me off. Then of course I didn’t want to answer the door red & sweaty or risk missing the delivery due to being in the shower. Not getting any exercise left me feeling restless and snacky, and my self-control was the first casualty

I did bake some gf bread, hoping for a distraction, but had an ache & pain in my arm so I had to use the kenwood chef to mix the dough, which wasn’t hands on enough to produce the effect I was looking for (though made damn good bread)

Food yesterday:

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs and a gf flatbread

Lunch: Spinach soup and GF beer bread. I added some turkey and mushrooms to the soup

Dinner/snacks: GF rice crackers, ham, Greek yoghurt, raisins, more Greek yoghurt, a slice of gf buckwheat sourdough bread, more raisins…

Weight: 161.25lbs

Technorati Tags: Struggling

Day 3

2012-01-05T08:20:00.001Z

Day 3 was another hard one. I trained in the morning, walked into town a couple of times, and then in the afternoon went into Maidenhead for a short exploratory visit, and walked around 4.5 miles in total. (I wasn’t hugely impressed with Maidenhead, though I liked the Clock Tower by the train station, but all I saw was the area immediately around the station, including the Nicholson Shopping Mall, and it was very cold, windy and intermittently raining, so I admit I wasn’t seeing it at its best. Plus I was a little sad to be buying some cheapish jeans in a larger size than I like just to be comfortable while I get the weight off)

Not a great deal of walking, but I felt quite giddy on the way home, and though I realise I’m not remotely over-training or under-eating I do think it’s possible I haven’t let my body readjust to both more intense training and lower calories / refined carbs quite enough! It made me snacky again, though I did try to choose my snacks wisely… after the feeling giddy thing I opened a big bag of sultanas and had a couple of small clumps, then reluctantly threw away the rest because I sensed a binge coming on… apart from that I snacked for protein.

Food on the 4th:

Breakfast: Oatbran with berries, soy milk, ground flaxseeds & vanilla whey

Lunch: Spinach soup & a flatbread again – only one portion left though! I do wonder if this is simply too small a lunch, at only 91 cals for the flatbread and 73 for the soup

Dinner: I defrosted a portion of turkey gumbo made god knows when, and had it with grilled broccoli & asparagus

Snacks: Bounce almond protein ball, roast turkey breast, Greek yoghurt with berries; extra Greek yoghurt at midnight because I was so hungry that, combined with the noise from the wind, I couldn’t sleep.

Weight this morning: 161.5 lbs

Technorati Tags: Back to basics

Day 2

2012-01-04T05:12:00.001Z

Day 2 was a bit tougher than Day 1 – I did feel hungry & snacky all the time (hardly surprising going from 12 meals a day to 5!!!) and several times I didn’t manage to stop myself because it was raining torrentially and I couldn’t bring myself to go out for a distracting walk. I did manage to resist eating really calorific snacks though, and the scales are down again this morning so I guess that was enough!

I trained before breakfast yesterday – the good old faithful elliptical walker – then took down my Christmas tree and hoovered up all the stray tinsel, so there was some good active stuff going on there. In the afternoon there was a break in the rain, but it didn’t look like it would last long so I settled for a quick dash into town for some big bottles of flavoured water (I drank 3.5 litres of water yesterday – much more than I have been forcing down!)

Food on the 3rd:

Breakfast: A big ‘green’ smoothie of berries, spinach, whey and banana (ok, it’s more sludge coloured than green, but that’s what happens when you add berries…)

Lunch: Was very green – spinach soup, to which I had added a tiny bit of stilton left over from Christmas

Dinner: A big-ass salad with basil tofu again (yesterday’s photo as today’s was so similar – minus the coleslaw on top)

Snacks: a jar of cockles; some raisins; a pot of Greek yoghurt with a tiny bit of honey; some roast turkey

Weight: 163.25

Technorati Tags: Back to basics

Day 1 proper

2012-01-03T05:36:00.001Z

I started yesterday with a session on the elliptical, followed by eating healthily all day (though allowing slightly more snacking than I want to continue on with because I’m cutting back so much from the last few weeks) and a nice approx. 4 mile walk in the afternoon. I was rewarded for being better by feeling worse – a slight head ache, a possible mild ear infection, tired and cranky. Withdrawal symptoms maybe?

Food yesterday:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with raspberries, blackberries & vanilla whey

Lunch: Spinach soup with a gf flatbread

Dinner: Monster salad with grilled basil tofu

Snacks: Some ham; a pint of skimmed milk; a pack of Biltong; a bag of dried apple crisps

Weight today: 165 lbs

Technorati Tags: Back to basics

Nearly Another Day 1

2012-01-02T06:44:00.001Z

I wanted to throw up when I weighed this morning. Ah well, at least some of that will be water retention and food waste, so I’m trying to stay positive!

Yesterday we had an absolutely amazing meal marred only by the fact that I forgot my camera – and then realized my mobile battery was so low that it had shut itself off!!! So no photos, but I still wanted to tell you about it because it was a great dining experience!

We went to The Hinds Head in Bray, a lovely gastropub owned by Heston Blumenthal. I’ve always been a bit dubious about his more ‘interesting’ cooking style, but its so close and he’s so famous that we couldn’t not try it! I made a booking in advance and put a note on the booking to say that one of us was gluten free, just to see what would happen.

They looked after me so well! The waiter asked who the gluten free diner was as soon as he came over, and they not only provided my own gluten free bread in place of the sourdough everyone else had, but he also took me through the menu telling me what could or could not be gf / made gf for me. I went for a roast pork main course, and left off the stuffing because it wasn’t gf; they also subbed a different gravy for me because the one the meal comes with is made with wheat flour. Every step of the way he was lovely – and so were the other wait staff we encountered there. By the time we left (about 2:15) the place was absolutely jammed with happy looking diners and I suspect it always is!

Oh yeah, Bray itself is really beautiful & quaint and all that. But you can’t be surprised I’d write more about the food…

Food on New Year’s Day:

Breakfast: Buckwheat & millet flakes with berries & vanilla rice milk – looks healthy, right? Plus some chocolate nuts & chocolate chocolates…

Lunch: Starter: Lemon Salad, Goat Curd, Cider Poached Pear and Walnuts

Main course: Roast pork with crackling, vegetables, and the best roast potatoes I ever had!!!

Dessert (yep, I did crowbar in a dessert!): Quaking pudding – a dessert that dates back to approx. 1700 apparently! We had no idea what that might be, but it turned out to be a lovely creamy custard flavoured with nutmeg, it was served unmoulded looking a bit like a cross between blancmange/jelly and custard, but surprised me by being served hot! It was light & delicious and automatically gluten free – how can that be bad???

Snacks: some chocolates & some raisins. But I didn’t have room for dinner so WTH.

I didn’t weigh yesterday but since I don’t want to type the numbers sooooo badly I’m going to anyway

Weight: 166.5 lbs.

Technorati Tags: Hauling myself back on the wagon,eating out

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-01T06:48:00.001Z

I’m not getting back to regular life until tomorrow as I still have some guests and a lunch reservation at a fancy restaurant, but tomorrow the diet starts again – and as hypocritical as this would sound if you knew how gratuitously evil I’ve been these holiday period, I can’t wait to start eating real nutritious food in amounts that don’t leave my stomach aching! I hope you’ve all been a lot more comfortable than me these last few days!

However, my main New Year’s resolution is to put that behind me, quit bashing myself, and just focus on doing what I know will work to help me lose the excess weight, fit back into my clothes, and start feeling more human and less like a huge distended stomach on legs…

Boxing Day wanderings

2011-12-27T11:02:00.001Z

My Christmas Walk–pretty pics!

2011-12-25T20:17:00.001Z

With my father-in-law, after lunch, we headed off to walk off some of the lunch – and more importantly, the pre-lunch choccies!!!

Happy Christmas!

2011-12-25T14:27:00.001Z

Have a good one everybody!

Friday we went to Reading…

2011-12-24T06:12:00.001Z

…To buy a last minute present. I fully expected it to be so maddening that we would turn around and catch the first train home again as soon as we had our gift, but in fact it didn’t get really annoying until practically lunchtime. We bought the gift in John Lewis (the first shop we tried – it was so easy and painless!) and then went into The Body Shop for a little splurge. We wandered around the town, got a Starbucks coffee, and killed the last half hour before lunch with a beer in Cafe Rouge. It was actually a really nice, relaxing morning and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

As usual I failed to show any awareness of the theory of moderation in the restaurant we went to for lunch (The London Street Brasserie) and that, combined with a burgeoning cold and an aching back laid me up for most of the afternoon. I did find the energy to bake myself a few GF mince pies (I bought Mr Kipling's for the gluten-eaters) and a base for a tart I’ll be serving on Christmas Day – evening buffet. I also chopped a bunch of dried fruit and added a little brandy for the GF Christmas cake I plan to bake today, I’ll post a picture later of the finished cake

Food Friday:

Breakfast: GF toast with scrambled eggs

Lunch: Lobster, new potato & tarragon salad

Lemon sole fillets, seared diver scallops, lime & crème fraiche spinach, spiced tomato & cumin dressing

Warm fig & almond tart, fig syrup & almond ice cream

and M ordered some petit fours for us to try

Dinner: Nowt, nothing, nada.

Technorati Tags: Eating out,shopping,baking

I baked on Thursday

2011-12-24T05:59:00.001Z

And I baked evil… yet beautiful!!! Last week I used this formula to come up with a GF all purpose flour mix that I could just weigh and bake like a normal person using normal flour (scroll half way down for the flour mix – below the section about the muffins). Then I looked for a recipe that appealed to me enough to give it a show – and found this (not-gf) recipe for Black Sticky gingerbread….

To adapt it all I did was use an equal quantity of my mix (teff and buckwheat with a little amaranth and just a spoonful of hemp, plus tapioca & potato starch) instead of the plain flour and add a teaspoon of psyllium husk since for some reason that apparently helps with gf baking when you don’t want to use artificial gums. I had a smaller bundt pan than the recipe was originally designed for so I poured until the pan was 3/4 full, added 45g of chopped dates to the remaining batter, and made muffins as well

I didn’t ellipticize because I hurt myself a little bit with all the heavy backpacking, but I did manage 3 trips to town for more shopping so I wasn’t idle all day either!

I think it looks delicious…

and it tastes great too!

Food today:

Breakfast: melon medley & my homemade gf sourdough toast with Quark and jam

Lunch: It looks gross but tastes a bit better – use up the aging vegetables in the fridge soup

Dinner: Rocket salad

Lamb shank with garlic & parsley rice

Chocolate fudge cake, and no, its not GF

Technorati Tags: Baking,Eating out

So much fooooood….

2011-12-22T06:45:00.001Z

So, Wednesday was a big eating day, but I’m not bashing myself over it because it still fits within my new philosophy of letting the food take care of itself till the New Year!

Yesterday I wanted to go to Henley for some shopping I couldn’t get locally, but had to wait till I’d received an online Tesco order. I booked it between 10 and 12 hoping it would be early so of course it came about 11:30… Once I’d unpacked the bits that needed refrigeration / freezing I headed straight off for the train and was in Henley in time for lunch! I decided to take the suggestion offered a while back by Deniz, and try The Three Tuns.

After lunch I shopped, once again buying mostly booze (both to serve and to give as presents), and found myself loaded down so heavily that I really didn’t enjoy walking home from the train station one little bit. I do now have all I’m planning to buy though, so it was worth it I guess.

In the evening I actually proposed going out for dinner myself – I know! Weird! But I’ve spent a lot of time planning baking and cooking for Christmas and totally lost interest in doing it now… and in eating the healthy food that is all I now know how to cook! So we went out for a meal in a local Thai restaurant

Exercise yesterday: 40 mins ellipticizing pre-breakfast; 2.4 miles walking to and from town (some of it heavily laden) plus an unknown amount of walking around Henley

Food yesterday:

Breakfast: Spiced waffle with Greek yoghurt & flaxseeds

Lunch: Spicy roast vegetable soup (temperature-wise this wasn’t quite warm enough – but it was delicious)

And a butternut squash risotto with garlic & chilli oil – yum! The flavour of the squash was amazing and the occasion zing from the chilli-garlic oil added even more interest

Dinner: Chicken satay starter (forgot to photograph it)

Followed by Kaa Pad Prik (stir fried lamb with thai herbs & chilli) – we also split a portion of pad thai and some fried rice with eggs

Followed by a dessert of sponge (not gf – but that was the only gluten I ate), cream, chocolate sauce and big chunks of cinder toffee, which is one of the best ideas ever

Snacks: Protein bar; raisins; cooked chicken. And a gf breakfast muffin I made on my cookery course

Not weighing till after Christmas, so no weight to report

Technorati Tags: Eating out

Day 2

2011-12-21T05:44:00.001Z

Exercise today: 40 minutes on the elliptical walker (woke up groggy from taking an OTC sleep aid and really didn’t want to) before breakfast; 5 trips into town (total 5 miles, possibly a little more) to buy Christmas booze therefore very heavy rucksack on the return trips…

We went out for dinner again, to the best Indian restaurant in the town of Twyford – slightly unfortunately named the Gaylord Tandoori. There are 3 Indian restaurants in this town, and this one is hands down the best yet weirdly always empty, so the service is great too!

Food today:

Breakfast: Chicken sandwich made with a Dukan oat bran galette and a grilled chicken breast

Lunch: Rump steak with salad

Dinner: 3 course Indian meal

Starter: Shimla Mirch (red pepper stuffed with spiced lamb mince & roasted)

Handi Gosht (hot and spicy lamb curry) with lemon rice

Venus (chocolate & vanilla ice-cream and raspberry sauce)

Snacks: Ham; hard boiled egg; Greek yoghurt sprinkled with cinnamon; raisins

Weight: 159.2lbs

Technorati Tags: Eating out,exercise

New start #1,867,292,001…

2011-12-19T17:10:00.001Z

I trained at 6 this morning before I could find a reason not to… I do feel good for it! I keep repeating myself on here, but I’ll say it again… why do I keep forgetting how much better I feel after a workout? Sigh. I guess I’m a really really really really slow learner. This time I want to make exercise a habit, the way it used to be, then it won’t matter what I forget to remember…

Training was followed by a bit of housework, some shopping, more housework and preparing another batch of gluten free sourdough bread based on the recipe from my GF cookery course.

No inclination to binge whatsoever… yay!!!

Exercise today: 40 mins elliptical walker before breakfast!!!

Food today:

Breakfast: Oats with vanilla whey, blackberries, psyllium husks & chia seeds

Lunch: Soy mince, mixed bean stew stuffed in a courgette and baked, served with salad

Dinner: Slow cooker gumbo with a gf flatbread made with amaranth flour, otherwise following this recipe

Snacks: A small bag of dried apple ‘crisps’, a Greek yoghurt with defrosted summer fruits & flaxseeds; a protein shake made with decaf coffee

Weight: 160 lbs (I’m constipated – day 3 – and only have psyllium husks to help with that)

Technorati Tags: Back to basics

Moan moan moan

2011-12-18T16:15:00.001Z

I haven’t been posting again because I’ve been feeling a bit depressed lately. I’m depressed specifically because I’m not one stone (14lbs) over my ‘cut back now’ weight, and even further from my preferred weight. I haven’t been this heavy for at least 5 years.

I want to get back under control, but I’m trying to be realistic in my expectations given that Christmas is almost upon us and I have every one in my family visiting on several different dates in that period. I’m not going to be a party pooper and ruin Christmas for them, that wouldn’t be fair. And I do want to enjoy the entertaining myself, or that wouldn’t be fair to me, especially as I’m the one doing all the (food related) work! I have been feeling a little bit panicky and ‘helpless’ in the face of the holiday season, but thanks to the kind comments of Jess and dianeuk last time I posted, I’m starting to see how over-the-top that reaction is. I have some weight to lose, but I’ve done it before. I’ve had a stressful life-event in terms of moving house, and maybe haven’t handled it in the ideal way, but apart from some minor signs of not looking after myself properly, including the weight gain, I haven’t really suffered greatly and I’m certainly young enough and fit enough to start putting things right – right now!

I’m pledging to you & myself to at least use the elliptical walker every day, and weather permitting to get some fresh air and walking in every day if possible. I’m not stating a minimum time on the walker or a minimum distance to walk, but I will do that much. I’ll probably let my eating take care of itself till after Christmas (though hopefully getting more exercise will remove some of the desire to eat like a pig & waste the effort) because I want to ease up on myself a bit in terms of the expectations and the condemnations…

I’ve run out of laxatives (not that I took that many, but I was definitely taking them to try to ‘outrun’ the bingeing and I want to cut that out right now) and I’m not buying more. I’m cutting down on the booze except for when people are visiting, because it lowers my general mood & reduces my motivation to exercise while increasing my desire to eat lots. I think these are all manageable targets that shouldn’t trigger the crazy-Chrissie while making me a little healthier even if I’m heavier than I want to be. Oh yes, and I’ll try to post something every day, because although it drops by the wayside every time I start feeling bad, it helps when I do do it. Though I’m not promising the posts will be even a little bit worth reading….

For now I think it’s just more important to take care of the emotional / mental weight than the physical. We’ll see how long that lasts…

Weight: 159lbs

Technorati Tags: Bingeing,planning,pledges

I did it again…

2011-12-15T12:05:00.001Z

Disappeared for several days while eating like I’ve just been given a week to live (what? of course I’m going to pig myself stupid if that ever happens!!! I’m a binge-eater, remember???)

A couple of days I was just busy (still eating out loads, but also going to the cinema to see Puss in Boots 3D, having a visit from my lovely brother, going for 5 mile walks etc. And then there were the times I sat down at my PC, all set to write another ‘I overate but now I’m determined to start over’ post and just couldn’t face you all…

I am really sick of doing this. I’m not enjoying the meals out as much, and yesterday I binged on gf date & walnut slices (plus some other stuff) even though they weren’t that great. Walking home from dinner yesterday I was in physical pain from my ultra-stuffed stomach. Or maybe cramps from a laxative I’d already taken, I can’t even tell which.

I hate weighing myself right now, and am trying not to look in the mirror. I have cold sores all over my top lip, a sore throat, and I’m walking around in a mind fog 90% of the time. I have to stop this, but I really don’t seem to have any mojo left to work with.

AARRGGHHHHHHH

Technorati Tags: Binge eating,out of control

Reading again and another (healthyish) meal out

2011-12-10T05:47:00.001Z

Yep, we went into Reading for lunch & shopping again today. I wanted to get a ring re-sized, but they said it would take 4 weeks because of Christmas so I decided to take it back in the New Year instead. I also bought several sweater dresses, a ~~ton~~ bit of chocolate for Christmas from Hotel Chocolat, and then we went to Loch Fyne for lunch – love, love love!!! I’ve never enjoyed eating fish as much as I have since we moved here and found lots of restaurants that do it really well despite being miles and miles and miles from the sea!

After eating all that healthy fish (ignoring the butter and the few chips and the fact that it was three courses again) I decided to go for a walk when we got home. I headed off to explore a local garden centre that had a farm shop attached –and OMG it was amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a range of GF goodies under one roof – even in health food shops! As it was just a reconnaissance mission I didn’t have my ruck sack so I confined myself to buying a single bottle of GF beer that I hadn’t tried before, but I will be going back!!!

Food today:

Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled with soy milk & LF olive oil spread on 2 slices gf bread, with melon on the side

Lunch: Starter: sashimi quality smoked salmon with rocket, soy sauce & wasabi

Whole baked sea bass with coriander and chilli butter, served with tenderstem broccoli, fennel, and a side order of samphire (plus 5 of M’s chips)

Mango and passion fruit sorbet – best sorbet I’ve ever had!

Dinner: Slow cooker sweetcorn chowder

Snacks: A little more melon and one chocolate, plus a cafe misto at Starbucks

Weight: 157

Technorati Tags: Exploring,walking,shopping,eating out

Plodding along

2011-12-09T05:52:00.001Z

I plodded to Woodley today – about 5.5 miles round trip including exploring the town centre, so quite a good start on my ‘must walk more’ decision! Woodley is far from the most attractive place I’ve been to around here (no offence if you live there) but the town centre, though more functional than attractive, is quite functional indeed, with plenty of shops and banks and a Costa Coffee to let me reward myself for the outward walk! I hope to experiment with finding a more appealing walk to get there next time I go, as today I spent some time plodding along the A4 – noisy, smelly, not pretty…

The only half-way pretty picture from my walk… (notice it’s a grey and dismal day, so it could look a lot prettier!)

I’m still feeling quite calm at the moment food-wise with no particular desire to go nuts. I did have a treat on my walk, but that was partly down to needing to refuel & re-energise and partly because I have a problem with turning down appealing gluten free goodies – I have to buy them so that companies will see they need to keep providing them! I enjoyed it and have no regrets!

Food today:

Breakfast: Smoothie with berries, banana, mixed greens etc. topped with flaxseeds again

Lunch: The final helping of the bean soup, with 2 tiny slices of gf beer bread

Dinner: ~~Basil tofu & salad~~ We went out for dinner again, and I forgot my camera again…. but I did pick the lightest options available

Starter: Rocket salad with parmesan shavings & croutons (that I left) drizzled with a gorgeous balsamic dressing

Main: Pork fillet medallions (very lean!) cooked in cider with a tiny hint of honey and served with garlic mash & veg

Dessert: (it was a Christmas menu, 3 courses for £22 so I had to have dessert!!!) Lemon sorbet

Snacks: Costa latte (skim milk) and a slice of GF Christmas cake;

Weight: 157.5

Technorati Tags: Exploring,walking

Bad habits die hard

2011-12-07T17:32:00.001Z

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been heading to a mental place I don’t like much, where old habits that I thought were behind me have been sticking up their evil little heads…

Habits like not keeping a food diary, bingeing, and resorting to taking the odd laxative pill after a big food day. And yesterday after bingeing for a couple of hours mid-morning I spent 80 minutes on the elliptical walker even though I was getting numb and painful feet in an attempt to ‘out run’ the food I’d been eating. Then I ate some more. Then in the evening I went out for a meal to celebrate M getting an extension on his contract and ate as though I hadn’t eaten all day. And drank a bottle of wine.

However, under the influence I confessed the above to M, and as a result felt myself shift into a slightly better place – one where I wasn’t being secretive or ‘cheating’ - and therefore resisted the urge to take another laxative before bed.

And today I feel (fat but) almost normal. No urgency to pig out, no feeling helpless. And ready to try again.

So I’m going to draw a line under yesterday and try to forget it happened, apart from the good bits.

Also, it suddenly occurred to me that I’ve been rather stupid…. as you’ll recall if this isn’t the first post you’ve read, I used to live in Wales where a walk into town was a 4.5 mile round trip across fields, which I counted as my exercise per day. I seem to have been kidding myself that a walk into town here (which takes about 15 mins round trip at a distance of slightly less than a mile, on smooth level paths) is equally eligible to qualify as exercise for the day – I wish! Obviously this excludes the two much longer walks I’ve done since moving here, but now that I have reached this discovery I shall know either start training more in the gym, or start walking a lot further around the area!!! Guess which I like the sound of…

Food today:

Breakfast: Protein smoothie with frozen berries, banana, cucumber, a mixture of spinach, pak choi & cabbage, and a wedge of frozen grapefruit. Topped with whole flax seeds

Lunch: Prawn stir fry

Dinner: Bean soup

Snacks: Greek yoghurt with stewed rhubarb

Weight: Steered clear of the scales today

Technorati Tags: Confessions,back to basics

Tuesday

2011-12-06T14:16:00.001Z

Bingeing today and can’t seem to stop.

Damn

Weight: No idea, after last nights meal I didn’t weigh today

Technorati Tags: binge

Another new week–Monday

2011-12-06T07:33:00.001Z

I’ve had an odd day today. Feeling restless and wanting to nibble but with no clue on what. So I’ve tried the odd mouthful of the odd thing and then not bothered going back for more because it wasn’t what I wanted.

Feeling restless (and being seriously disorganised shopping-wise) also had me walking into town twice for something to do, the first time going the long way around to visit the doctor I’ve just registered with so I don’t run out of the ~~crazy meds~~ antidepressants (don’t go to the doctor on Monday if you can help it – the whole world gets sick / injured over the weekend and shows up at the surgery at 9am sharp) but at the same time I’ve been seriously lacking energy or the drive and oomph required to take myself out for a longer walk or into the gym for some more intensive exercise. Could be to do with TTOM I guess, or detoxing from some indulgence, or even, despite the love I have for living round here, a touch of homesickness creeping in (I do miss my favourite GSD, and haven’t yet made any new canine friends in this area).

Food:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs on gf toast

Lunch: Bean soup with a little gf bacon sandwich

Dinner: ~~Tandoori tofu with cauliflower curry fried ‘rice’~~ Three course Thai meal to celebrate M getting an extension on his contract… (excuse the crap photos, it was too dark really – why do so many restaurants do that????)

Snacks: Pumpkin flavoured 9 bar; melon; Alpro soy pudding topped with ground flaxseeds and Greek yoghurt;

nut butter

Weight: 156

Technorati Tags: Restless,unsettled

Sunday & back to it

2011-12-05T07:27:00.001Z

Only a pound heavier than yesterday despite all my indulgent (and delicious!) eating yesterday – I’m actually really pleased by that!

I didn’t go anywhere or do anything interesting – just a quiet day at home for a change!

Food:

Breakfast: 2 poached eggs on gf toast with dry fried mushrooms

Lunch: Slow cooker black (and in my case, pinto) bean soup with gf bread, cashew butter & jam

Dinner: Roast lamb with vegetables

Snacks: Greek yoghurt with honey;

dried fruit

Weight: 156.5

Technorati Tags: Back to basics

Saturday out

2011-12-04T07:30:00.001Z

We went into Reading on impulse yesterday. It was M’s idea; he’s suddenly developed much more of an interest in going out since we moved and he gained so many new fields to explore (not literally – he still isn’t a walker )

We caught the train in the morning (such a short train ride – I’ll be doing that more often & exploring much more of Reading! btw, Deniz, I really appreciate your suggestions since I moved to this area – do you know anywhere good in Reading to walk and explore?) and wandered around the Oracle shopping centre till lunchtime; then we followed a recommendation from one of his colleagues and had a wonderful lunch at The London Street Brasserie, followed by watching Tintin 3D at the cinema across the road. We haven’t been to the cinema since we saw Avatar in 3D years ago! It was a great day out and although I once again overindulged at lunch (and ate some salty popcorn at the cinema) I made up for it slightly by not bothering to eat at dinner time because I just wasn’t hungry. Almost like an intuitive eater, except that then I probably wouldn’t have had so much lunch…

Food:

Breakfast: Pumpkin oats with plain whey, raisins and lots of cinnamon

Lunch: Seared divers scallops with cauliflower puree and watercress & lemon truffle vinaigrette

Followed by an 8oz fillet steak served with field mushrooms, confit tomatoes (which I admit to not being fussed about – other than in pasta sauces I’m much keener on raw fresh tomatoes than cooked, however expertly), garlic & herb butter, and more watercress

To which we added sharing sides of field mushrooms with lemon & garlic, and chips (best chips I ever had!)

Followed by…. orange & Grand Marnier soufflé with melted chocolate sauce!!!

Snacks: Fage 0% Greek yoghurt with tropical fruit – new to the range and I really liked it – before we went out; popcorn at the cinema

Weight: 155.5

Technorati Tags: Out & About

Rolling along

2011-12-02T18:54:00.001Z

I expected to ache a bit today but I don’t, and I expected to be hungry all day because of the long hike yesterday but I wasn’t – thankfully!

Its been a gorgeous sunny frosty day today. I deliberately didn’t go for another long walk but just took an hour to stroll into town and browse the shops a bit while exploring another route into the town centre. It was quite relaxing and nice without any pressure on my (slightly) heavy legs!

Food today:

Breakfast: Vegetarian cooked breakfast! One scrambled egg, basil tofu, dry fried mushrooms & fried potatoes

Lunch: Soup again! Vegetable soup plus a little of the pumpkin soup from last night that I didn’t eat, mixed together to give a whole new flavour – with some gf beer bread

Dinner: Some kind of weird soy mince chilli that I found in the freezer and don’t even remember making…. stuffed into a butternut squash, roasted & served with salad & asparagus

Snacks: Alpro soy pudding, melon, Greek yoghurt with stewed rhubarb

Weight: 156.5 lbs

Technorati Tags: ON the wagon

Day 3 (or should that be Day 1 again)

2011-12-01T17:27:00.001Z

Vegetarian day today as I’ve not had a totally meat free day for ages. In fact so long I’m not sure I remember how… I defrosted a couple of portions of soup to cover lunch and dinner, had a portion of lentil meatless loaf I intended to have for dinner yesterday, and decided that if I felt like snacking on cold meat again I would replace it with basil tofu instead.

I also decided to go for a long walk today as I’ve felt slightly restricted all week by the awareness of the package deliveries hanging over my head. I had a little bit of shopping to do, but I’m feeling that I haven’t spent enough time exploring the area so far as well. It was a grey grotty day today after a really nice day yesterday, so not very inspiring, but needs must when you want a walk & are now looking for another job to trap you inside an office all day every (week)day…

I hit the road early and headed up the A4 to Sonning, then came home via Charvil. I liked Sonning, but like a lot of villages it seemed to me that there were lots of nice houses – really old & really new (plus some that were really new and trying to look really old – a pet hate of mine!) and no real infrastructure to support them… I might just have missed it, but I didn’t see so much as a village shop. The distance I covered was at least 7 miles, but I think I probably added another mile in exploring and back-tracking along the way. No wonder my legs are aching – and my feet hurt – I haven’t walked that far for months!

I did surprise myself on the way back… I popped into Waitrose for a few things and was starving by then, having walked all that way on oats & melon – but when I looked at the snacks aisle I DIDN’T FANCY CHOCOLATE, OR SWEETS – OR EVEN CRISPS!!! Call the newspapers – that must qualify as earthshattering news!!!

Food today:

Breakfast: Overnight oats blah blah blah all gone now and I’ll be having something different tomorrow

Lunch: Vegetable & aduki bean soup with gf bread used to make a basil tofu sandwich.

Dinner: Roast pumpkin & pepper–coconut soup with a portion of lentil loaf as topping for a salad

Snacks: Alpro soya chocolate pudding; melon medley; hard boiled egg

Weight: 158.25

Technorati Tags: Walks!

Day 2–confessions (already!!!)

2011-12-01T08:17:00.001Z

I took a day off the elliptical yesterday and went for a walk instead. I only did maybe 3 miles total, but it was quite a nice morning so it was good to get out.

Struggled a bit not to spend the whole day snacking…. not entirely successfully… so I was easy prey when M mentioned going out for dinner instead of going for the healthy dinner I had planned (but didn’t really fancy)

My somewhat late parcel finally arrived yesterday, after I got back. It was a Magimix food processor to replace the one I’ve had for about 10 years, which is an older model. The bowls and lid were all showing their age and I decided to buy a new one rather than replace the accessories and then possibly have the motor go a year or two down the line. The new one is shiny and beautiful and should be capable of blending soups without sending the puree pouring all over the work surface through the cracks in the lid as the last one had started doing…

I will do better today…

Food yesterday:

Breakfast: Overnight oats as yesterday (I made three portions up at once) but topped with flax seeds and a little fromage frais

Lunch: Baked potato filled with tinned tuna in tomato sauce, with salad

Dinner: Rocket & parmesan salad; sea bass fillet baked in foil (with garlic & chilli butter ) served with fried crushed baby potatoes and vegetables; a continental waffle (not gf) topped with melted chocolate and cream

I forgot my camera so I can’t molest you with close up food porn

Snacks: Pumpkin 9 bar; Curly Wurly bar; some dried fruit & cold meat.

Supper: 1 laxative pill

Weight: 157.1lbs

Technorati Tags: Falling off the wagon

Day 1 for real

2011-11-30T05:02:00.001Z

So, yesterday didn’t entirely go to plan, but now that almost none of my jeans fit me with any space for oxygen flow / blood flow I am absolutely determined that today really is the first day of getting back to normal. You will see that I weighed myself this morning despite being constipated and having eaten out last night – I was going to try to wait longer but changed my mind because I need to track results properly or I won’t know if I’m getting any…

Today I should have been getting some deliveries, so was stuck in all day. Whereas in Wales I often got deliveries reasonably early, here we seem to be on the end of the delivery routes, so that can be annoying / frustrating… especially when, as today, you’re expecting 2 packages and only one shows up.

As I didn’t expect to get any decent walking in today I trained on the walker again. It was harder work than it used to be so I do feel like its a better workout for me than it was before I took several weeks off!

In the absence of any good photos taken today, here are some taken on a recent visit (walked!) to Henley on Thames, one of my new favourite places to go!

Food today:

Breakfast: Overnight oats & oatbran with vanilla soy milk, plain whey and dried apple

Lunch: Vegetable & chicken soup with some home-made gf beer bread (the multi-coloured bits in the middle are sautéed red onions & walnuts that were spread over the raw dough and then rolled up inside it)

Dinner: Slow cooked beef (pot roasted in garlic beer with some leftover tomato & chilli pasta sauce) with vegetables

Snacks: Greek yoghurt with microwaved blueberries & flaxseeds

Melon; edamame beans; dried fruit; Alpro soya dark chocolate pudding

Weight: 160.4lbs

Technorati Tags: Back to basics

Day 0.5

2011-11-29T05:08:00.001Z

Of back to reality…

I managed to start the day off well with 40 mins on the walker and a healthy breakfast!

Continuing on a good theme, I then went for a small walk…

And though I ate a few extra bites here and there it was all fruit and plain meat…

Then M came home from work and everything went wrong (diet-wise)

Food today:

Breakfast: (forgot the photo!) A porridge of GF oats & oatbran made with soy milk, and with raisins, dried apple & cinnamon added plus a little whey protein powder.

Lunch: Home-made soup – roasted acorn squash and peppers with coconut milk and leeks, and a little gf brioche spread with low sugar jam

Dinner: Aubergine skins topped with a wonderfully zingy, tomatoey vegetarian concoction

Followed by Malabar sea bass (topped with masses of spicy spinach) and some cauliflower bhaji (which I forgot to photograph until I was on my third helping…)

Snacks: Melon medley; ham; dried apple; Greek yoghurt with stewed rhubarb

Weight: Haven’t started weighing myself yet, but will do in a couple of days

Technorati Tags: Eating out,back to basics

My birthday present

2011-11-27T07:54:00.001Z

One high point I definitely do want to fill in from my absence was a slightly belated 40th birthday present from my Dad & his wife, C. They offered to pay for me to do a gluten-free cookery course (few and far between in the UK, sadly) and I jumped on it! Of course, when I booked it for the 17th of November I didn’t realise that we would be completing the sale of our house on the 18th so that it would fall smack in the middle of our house move, but it was a very welcome distraction from all the stress of moving!

The course was being held at River Cottage of TV fame, and was being presented by a blogger I’ve been reading and admiring for quite a while – nutritionist, homeopath & amazing cook Naomi Devlin. We made a sourdough bread, breakfast banana muffins, the best brownies I ever had – gf or not gf – and some gf pastry for pissalidieres (caramelised onion & cheese tarts). It lasted a day, and included a wonderful gf lunch and an exciting ride on a trailer pulled by a tractor from the car park at the top of a steep hill, down the lane to the farm! The other participants were really nice, it was lovely to spend some time talking food with people who don’t get a glazed expression when I mention gluten (no blame to anyone else, but I appreciate that its not that interesting to people who happily devour bread, pizza and all its incarnations!!!)

River Cottage is lovely, and my only regret is not having the time to explore it a little more. I did take my camera along, so here are a few snaps to show you why it was one of the best days ever!

The scenery from the car park was beautiful, and so was the weather!

The. Best. Brownies. EVER. Sorry about the flash, it was getting a bit dark by this point…

And a wonderful lunch I didn’t have to be cautious of (or cook myself!)

Celeriac and parsnip soup with a walnut & parsley pesto

A gorgeous salad with leaves grown at River Cottage, roasted pumpkin and their own air-dried ham

Let’s pretend this was healthy, OK? See - fruit

Naomi was lovely, very informed and interesting but also funny, friendly and warm. It was great to meet someone I’ve read online, and also great to come away with a load of recipes I intend to reproduce at home!

I also made the not-entirely unexpected discovery that I really enjoy the whole cookery course thing, so I plan on looking for more, even if they aren’t gluten free, in the future!

Technorati Tags: River Cottage gluten free cookery course

Nearly ready

2011-11-27T07:32:00.001Z

To get back to real life now.

We’ve moved

For the last 2 weeks we have literally eaten out every. single. day. And we are today as well. But tomorrow I plan to get back into my kitchen, which I have really been missing, back on the scales – not missed them so much! And back to exercising and living my version of normal life.

Moving has been a great decision in many ways. M is home every night where before he worked away during the week. I can explore new areas, new towns, and soon I’ll be doing new epic walks. But. There’s something to be said for living in a rural area without many options for eating out, if you don’t want to be the size of a house by the end of the week. There are so many incredible places to eat here, and several really good ones are actually a (short) walk away – help me!!!

So, every meal out for the past two weeks has been at least 3 courses (sometimes with amuse bouche as well). When we’ve gone out for lunch I generally don’t have the ability to eat again that day, but when I’ve had to wait till dinner time because M was at work its been on top of a day’s worth of other food as well. Hmm.

I haven’t been photographing my food much, though I plan to start again. I won’t bother trying to fill in the gaps of what I’ve eaten and where I’ve been, but will probably try to touch on some of the high points as I go along.

For now, just a low point. When eating out this much you won’t necessarily be surprised to read that gluten played a part. I thought I wasn’t doing too badly with it – I had diarrhoea a few times, but that could also be done to vast quantities of sugar & fat, plus the sheer volume of food I’ve inflicted on my body – but a couple of days ago we went to a local Italian restaurant and I ordered a pizza. I then spent the rest of the day on the sofa waiting for my bloated stomach (I actually felt like the skin was stretching!) to explode killing all in the vicinity. So that won’t be happening again, and that’s a shame as it was delicious.

Still, if you’ve not abandoned me altogether, watch this space – I’ll be back!

Technorati Tags: off plan,over-eating,gluten intolerance

I'm not dead

2011-11-01T19:30:00.002Z

I will be back properly - when I get my brain back on straight.

As suggested by the lovely dianeuk, I've been trying not stress so much over the weight right now - I have to, because I've been bingeing / overeating pretty much since my last post. If I manage one OK day, I make up for it the next...

In approx. 2 weeks we're moving house, and I blame the stress - which has really ramped up lately - so I'm pinning my hopes to the theory that things will get easier after the move. We are moving from Wales into England, much much closer to London, so with luck I'll find something more interesting to blog about than the 'woe is me, I suck' theme I'm currently developing. Believe it or not, I'm not even photographing my food at the moment...

Stay Healthy
(unlike me)
Chrissie

I know how to do this…

2011-10-21T09:24:00.001+01:00

So why can’t I do it this time?

1) When maintaining I got used to more calories and snacks etc. that I want to keep eating

2) When I did it first time around I was less efficient at training in the ways I’m still training, but benefitting less from

3) I was younger last time round

4) I hadn’t had a few years to get sick of constantly watching what I eat

5) I was eating gluten – which made it easier to find very low cal snacks and include bread in my diet

6) I still half thought that getting to my target weight would be like a big life changing event rather than just the point at which I carried on doing the same things in every respect apart from eating a few more calories

7) I wasn’t inclined to binge

8) I was more unhappy with my body

9) I wasn’t as depressed – didn’t need meds, wasn’t as hard on myself when I screwed up

10) I wasn’t looking for a quick fix, jumping from one diet to another to another

Technorati Tags: Diet fail

Tuesday

2011-10-12T07:18:00.001+01:00

Well, I’m feeling happier food-wise but not so much weight-wise since giving up on the Dukan diet. I know I can expect a slight water retention ‘bounce’ through reintroducing carbs and it certainly didn’t stop me losing the bulk of my weight all those years ago so I’m trying to stay positive (or what passes for positive in my pessimistic little world!). It helps that I am so enjoying eating fruit and veg again!

Exercise yesterday consisted of a cool, very slightly damp walk into town with loaded rucksack, 3 chin ups (holy crap they still got harder than before) and 3 sets of press ups, totalling 68 across the day. I can slightly feel that today…

Food Tuesday:

Breakfast: Fauxtmeal with Greek yoghurt and frozen forest fruits – really (slightly surprisingly) good!

Lunch: Chunky vegetable soup with a sandwich made of the last oat bran galette from my last batch and some grilled veggies

Dinner: Prawns, salad, squash ‘fries’ and asparagus

Snacks: SF jelly, Greek yoghurt with honey, a slice of ostrich egg frittata,

dried cranberries and a little PB

Weight: 154.4

Technorati Tags: Weight frustration,Food,exercise

Monday recap

2011-10-11T06:56:00.001+01:00

Yesterday my Mum & her OH came to visit, hence the lack of post last night. We had a great day, lots of chatting, laughing, catching up… I ~~made her look at~~ showed her some holiday photos and gave her some post holiday giftlets and we went out to lunch… the only let down was the weather, strong cold winds and light drizzle stopped us going out for a walk.

Because of the visit I didn’t train yesterday apart from doing 20 press up and 3 chin ups before they got here. Because I’m still heavier than I was (of course) the chin ups were a bastard!!! Motivation to stick to the diet – reduce the weight being hauled up by my arms!!!

I also finished off my assignments for the OU course and submitted them. Ever since clicking the ‘Submit’ button I’ve been thinking of ways that I could have done them better… ah well, given how behind I got while stewing in my own depressed juices not doing any work on them, I’m just glad to have managed to do them at all, I may or may not have passed or done myself justice but not doing them would’ve guaranteed failure…

Food Monday:

Breakfast: Overnight oats (well, half an hour soaked oats really) made with GF muesli and skim milk then topped with Greek yoghurt & stewed rhubarb

Lunch: Rare rump steak with new potatoes (I turned down chips and jacket potato), mushrooms and peas (and I gave away my onion rings). I forgot my camera and the photo I took with my phone is so dark you can hardly tell there’s a table, much less a plate, much less any food on it… so you’ll just have to use your imagination!

Dinner: Chunky home-made chicken & vegetable soup with a last piece of Dukan bread

Snacks: One chocolate, a mini babybel and some honeydew melon

Weight: 157.25 (I know – but despite eating ALL weekend, I do know that’s not real weight!)

Technorati Tags: Back on the wagon,OU

Sunday

2011-10-09T17:35:00.001+01:00

On Friday, as I had a PP day again, I was really tired and lacking energy from lunchtime on. So yesterday I decided that was down to no / very few carbs for several days plus more exercise than recommended on PP days, and I declared yesterday a diet- and exercise- free day. Of course I did my best to undo the good I’d been doing with chocolate, pizza (not gf) and other bad stuff, but I do feel better today so maybe it was worth it… I actually did have a diet-friendly breakfast & lunch, it was the snacks and dinner that ~~let me down~~ proved too much for me.

Today I decided to go back to what makes me happy(er) –calorie counting, loads of veggies and salads, vegetarian meals if I want them. I feel fairly sure that I’ll change my mind again fairly soon, but hey – my body won’t have the time to figure out whether its feast, famine, or something in between… So today I’m eating like I just don’t give a crap, tomorrow I start over again again…

Food today:

Breakfast: Duck egg, chicken & bacon frittata (the bacon was a joint I slow cooked in diet coke, and really salty) with mushrooms

Lunch: Vegetable soup and a chicken sandwich made with Dukan bread I made yesterday (replacing the wheat bran with an extra teaspoon of oat bran) before making my decision, followed by a SF jelly

Dinner: Minted lamb shank with broccoli & cauliflower mash, green beans and carrots

Snacks: Greek yoghurt with rhubarb; raisins; 9 bars because I want them all gone. And I won’t be buying more…

Weight today: 156 lbs (but as I said, bulk of food, sugar and lots of salt yesterday – I didn’t eat enough calories to genuinely gain those lbs back)

Technorati Tags: Dukan diet struggles,confession,day off

Friday–PP day

2011-10-07T17:32:00.001+01:00

Today I walked to a local garden centre that has quite a good farm shop attached to it, looking for sources of protein less boring than the ones I generally ate.

I bought an ostrich egg…. it weighs 3.25 LBS. Yes, LBS.

Apparently an egg this size should feed 36-odd people. Lots of egg…

At first I planned to hard boil it because that would look really impressive… I’m hungry, have a slice of egg then… but according to Aldo Zilli that can make a tough egg (it would take a couple of hours to boil through) and that would be a waste of a £12 egg – so I’m going to try scrambling some and frittata-ing some, to make a less visually impressive but probably tastier feast!

It was quite a nice walk, no weight in the rucksack on the way out but its a hilly enough walk not to mind. It was mostly along poorly maintained tarmac lanes, with a couple of fields towards the end (and a few cowpats hidden in the grass ) I flushed a rabbit out of a tuft of long grass 8 inches in front of me too – gave that bunny quite the shock from the way it headed for the hills!

Food today:

Breakfast: Oat bran galette with poached (hen) eggs and bacon

Lunch: Prawns & cockles followed by a couple of un-pictured seafood sticks & a babybel lite

Dinner: Venison rump steak (from the aforementioned farm shop – and absolutely delicious) & chicken leg

Snacks: Greek yoghurt; fromage frais with stewed rhubarb

Weight: 152.1 lbs

Technorati Tags: PP day,walking,exotic foods

Sun is back–and a Swan Whisperer

2011-10-06T18:09:00.001+01:00

Its a glorious sunny day today – but the temperature’s dropped about 10 degrees since Tuesday and there is a cold wind as well, so its finally feeling like autumn here. I think it must have rained half the night too, as the ground is finally feeling wet after a summer where the wetlands near us (remember my photos of the appearing/disappearing lake full of ducks, swans & geese from last year and the year before?) didn’t flood once.

On the subject of wild birds, as I was walking back from Caldicot today I met a rather anxious lady who was out walking her two dogs & her husband There’s a small pond in the ground of Caldicot castle where a pair of swans & their 7 cygnets have been living. To protect the swans (and the ducks, coots & moor hens that share the pond) from off-leash dogs the council put up a fence around the pond and tacked wire netting inside it as well, leaving 2 gates to allow people to walk through, sit by the pond etc. One of the cygnets had found its way out of the enclosure and the gate had closed behind it, so it was getting very agitated trying to get back through the fence and catching its neck on the wire netting. The husband of this lady had been unsuccessfully trying to get it back through the gate, and I went to see if I could help by opening the gate and holding it while he chased the cygnet. The poor thing was clearly sick of being chased by him and had started hissing and threatening him so after a couple of minutes he gave up. I stuck around just holding the gate open and encouraging the cygnet to go through while not chasing it (partly because I didn’t want to scare it, partly because I didn’t want to get attacked by it, and partly because the gate wouldn’t stay open on its own.) Anyway, long story short (I know, too late!!!) eventually the swan noticed the (gate) massive gap in the fence (far bigger than the gaps it had been trying to climb through between the rails) and got back into the enclosure with the rest of its family. I shut the gate behind it and hopefully it will have learnt its lesson. Everybody say aaah….

After my lunch I did a 40 min elliptical session. Doubling up is never not always easy at the best of times, but does feel harder on a super low carb diet. Not sure how long this Dukan thing is going to last… Still, I made it though I did need to turn the resistance down towards the end (and it wasn’t that high to start with…) so I’m glad I pushed myself a bit. Except afterwards I was STARVING

Food today:

Breakfast: Oat ban galette with quark and smoked salmon

Lunch: Tofu marinated overnight in Dijon mustard and thyme then grilled with asparagus – plus a couple of home-grown tomatoes

Dinner: Chicken marinated in Greek yoghurt and tandoori spices with a mixed salad, including a few more home-grown tomatoes. Look how many I have! And a similar amount has already been roasted & turned into a pasta sauce, with another lot given to our neighbours by my Mum’s OH while we were on holiday – and about the same again still on the (3) plants in the garden!

Snacks: Greek yoghurt; a hard-boiled duck egg with celery salt left over from my pack of quail’s eggs earlier in the week;

a pack of prawns as a post-training snack; and a cottage cheese (no nut) version of these ricotta cheese puffs (I added a few goji berries to each as they are tolerated on Dukan)

and a packet of wafer thin ham turned into crisps by baking it in the oven, just to tide me over until dinner time…

Weight 153.5 lbs

Technorati Tags: Dukan diet,exercise,Wildlife!

Wednesday ramblings

2011-10-05T17:36:00.001+01:00

I have not left the house today – no walking, no shopping, lots of looking out the window to frown at the grey skies / drizzle…

I have stuck to the diet completely so far and think I might make it all the way going to bed ASAP and possibly tying myself to the bed… wait, that didn’t come out right…

Exercise today: A dvd of yogalates – 2 workouts in total, both 40 minutes long. I didn’t feel as good while I was training as I do when I’m doing cardio, but it was the shortest 80 minutes I’ve spent training for a while so I shall try to do it again! It didn’t feel as energising as it was described by the presenter / coach (whatever you call them) lady, but it was relaxing and at times made my arms shake due to the resistance band kicking my ass!

Food today:

Breakfast: Cheesecake oat bran galette (galette topped with a mixture of cottage cheese, quark, almond extract & splenda thinned slightly with a few drops of skimmed milk & further topped with stewed rhubarb – and yes – I do know what a horrible colour the rhubarb is ) followed by a scrambled duck egg with smoked salmon

Lunch: Shirataki noodles stir fried with a very tiny bit of ginger, garlic, chilli, soy sauce & onion, with chicken breast & tofu – surprisingly tasty

Dinner: 2 course dinner today

Starter: sautéed seafood medley

Main course: Kangaroo kebabs

Snacks: Greek yoghurt with 1/2tsp of linseeds and a sprinkle of cinnamon; mini babybel

Weight: STILL 155 lbs (too much salt yesterday? Hopefully……)

Technorati Tags: Diukan diet,Weight frustration,Exercise

Plodding on

2011-10-04T17:52:00.001+01:00

PP day today. I don’t much care for pure protein days, they don’t give me much scope for my cooking imagination (such as it is) – I tend to feel more inspired by a rainbow of colours and a range of textures and flavours that meat alone (or meat and fish) can’t really provide… sigh. If my weight doesn’t start shifting faster (what? Yes, I know I’ve only been doing this a couple of days!!!!) I may lose interest altogether and go veggie for a week instead, at least that way my taste buds are more satisfied. God, back on the wagon five minutes and already I’m looking for another wagon to jump onto…. I’m the same in the supermarket queues too

Speaking of supermarkets, my only exercise today was a walk into town, though my rucksack was quite heavy and I was reminded of how much harder it is to walk up hills on uneven surfaces than to amble along city streets again. I have back ache now so either the bag was too heavy or I didn’t do a great job of distributing the weight properly – probably the latter. It was a lot cooler today, so it looks like the predicted break in the weather maybe about to happen…

Food today:

Breakfast: Oat bran galette, duck egg puff, LF bacon

Lunch: Prawns & Cockles followed by a sadly over-cooked Dukan vanilla egg custard

Dinner: Chicken breast smeared with quark and wrapped in LF wafer thin ham before being roasted – and some quail’s eggs because they’re cute and lovely.

Snacks: Greek yoghurt sprinkled with cinnamon; fromage frais with stewed rhubarb;

most of a pack of chicken breast slices

Weight 155lbs arrgghh

Technorati Tags: Dukan,diet impatience

Halifax N.S. & The Ten Best Tour

2011-10-03T18:50:00.001+01:00

Last time we visited Halifax it was cool, grey & drizzly. We did a city tour which involved staying firmly on the bus apart from a brewery tour (which was excellent) but the main memories I had of it were the weather and the beer. This time round we did a ‘Ten Best things to do in Halifax’ tour which included a visit to the famous Peggy’s Cove (beautiful and such a sunny day but OMG such a strong cold wind arrggh)

And a visit to the biggest cemetery containing the graves of the victims of the Titanic sinking

It was a great trip, and a really nice day. One the way back to the ship the bus just stopped in a traffic jam. Then, after the driver tried to restart it for about 15 minutes it started again to take us up to the citadel (this was our final photo-stop). I didn’t get off the bus there – until, as we were about to start back down it refused to start again and we had to transfer buses to get back to the ship in time for dinner. It was a 7 hour long trip I think – a long one anyway, because Peggy’s Cove is a fair drive from Halifax itself.

Food today:

Breakfast: Do I need to say it?

Lunch: Can’t even remember, I’m sure it was unhealthy and rushed… I didn’t take any pictures

Dinner: A large multi-course meal in the ship’s Specialty restaurant, for which passengers have to pay a $40 pp cover charge (all other food being included)

The pictures are dreadful because, like too many restaurants, it was really dark. I always wonder if they’re trying to hide something when they do that, don’t you???

I usually try to photograph the menu as an aide-memoire but failed this time. I know the amuse bouche (at the top) was a smoked salmon mousse and the dessert was a wonderful Grand Marnier soufflé. See, this is why I come down hard on myself when I over-indulge on holiday. This meal probably had enough calories for 3 adults, and I barely remember the food…. so how can I claim it was worth it????

Technorati Tags: Holiday,Halifax NS

Monday again

2011-10-03T18:15:00.001+01:00

Today was a protein & veg day – intended to be pure protein at first, but I really wanted some kind of vegetable! I’m finding it less satisfying being on the diet this time, I think because first time round I was already on a healthy-ish (bingeing excluded) diet with lower carbs before I started whereas this time I’ve jumped in there after 3 weeks of almost constant indulgence. I have been hungry quite a bit. I’m hoping I’ll adapt soon…

This afternoon I walked into town for some shopping. It was baking hot as I tramped across wide open fields with no shade at all – I drank half a litre of water in 5 minutes on the way back and still felt thirsty!

Happily my stomach is doing better today. Unhappily I have a mouth ulcer inside my front lip and its TOTM. Grrr. I guess I can’t blame over-indulging on holiday for the women’s stuff, but I choose to add the mouth ulcer to the list of things that happened because I was a complete pig. Over and over and over again….

Food today:

Breakfast: Smoked trout, poached eggs & LF bacon. The smoked trout was delicious!

Lunch: Dukan-compliant burgers – lean beef with a little onion, spices, and an oat bran gallette used as filler (thanks for that idea, dianeuk – until I read about your meat ball idea this truthfully didn’t occur to me!)

Dinner:Left over salmon from our last barbecue with grilled asparagus and quail’s eggs

Snacks: Fromage frais, Greek yoghurt, prawns & some mango that is definitely not on Dukan’s list of foods but did need eating up

Weight: 155 lbs

Technorati Tags: Dukan

Not the best start to a Sunday…

2011-10-02T17:17:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was a day of gorging again. My mother in law volunteered to bring nibbles for the afternoon & buy us a takeaway in the evening because she didn’t want me running around like a blue-arsed fly as usual when jet lagged. That was really sweet of her and I do appreciate it, but would possibly be feeling better today if I’d had some control over the food… of course, it could also be after effects of the holiday that have ensured the only exercise I’ve had today has been running up the stairs to get to the bathroom….

Yesterday’s weigh in said I had lost just over 2.5lbs (of water, I know…) over night. Today all but half a pound was back (before the diarrhoea kicked in) but that doesn’t worry me considering the maple syrup roasted peanuts, pretzels (both eaten plain and dipped into a melted Galaxy bar), marshmallows (ditto) and wasabi peas I ate. Not to mention the large takeaway at 7pm. But it will come off again just as easily I’m sure, and today was a very good Dukan Attack (pure protein) day!

Food today:

Breakfast: Slightly sweet vanilla oat bran galette with a pot of Greek yoghurt and a sprinkling of cinnamon

Lunch: Big ~~omelette~~ egg scramble of roast chicken, 1 whole egg, egg whites, tiny bit of onion and some herbes de Provence

Dinner: roast beef & horseradish sauce – very dry, poor piece of beef sadly

Snacks: A pack of prawns, some fromage frais and a small amount of ham

Bar Harbor & Ocean Trail Hike

2011-09-30T14:25:00.001+01:00

We did come to Bar Harbor before, and that time we did a coach trip around the town and into the Acadia National Park, then went whale watching in the afternoon (mostly basking sharks). This time we were a bit more active, doing a walk along a part of the Ocean Trail with a couple of guides, one botanist and one ornithologist. The walk was good, not quite as strenuous as I would have liked but beautiful scenery and quite good weather once the fog lifted

Food today:

Breakfast: Buffet

Lunch: Clam chowder

Lobster

and a beer float

and sour cream blueberry crumble ice-cream

Dinner:

Curried chicken salad

Cream of broccoli soup:

Blackened drum fish

and something with raspberry & chocolate

Technorati Tags: Holiday,Bar Harbor

Portland, Maine & Portland Highlights and the Victorian Mansion

2011-09-30T14:13:00.001+01:00

We haven’t been to Portland before so we picked a bus tour to see as much as we could. Its impossible to take good photos through the window of a moving bus, but I did take a few of the mansion

Food today:

Breakfast: multiple trips to the buffet:

The yoghurt and PB was mixed with the oat bran I’m supposed to take every day to keep myself moving along…

Poached egg on a slice of Canadian bacon

Lunch: Yep, you guessed it…

Dinner:

Shellfish & saffron risotto

Chicken broth

Cajun blackened rib eye steak

Technorati Tags: Holiday,Portland

Boston & The Freedom Walking Trail

2011-09-30T13:59:00.001+01:00

First stop on the cruise was Boston, we’ve been here before on another cruise years ago (but that was during the Big Dig and mostly what we saw was a massive traffic jam from the back of a bus). This time, we decided to do the Freedom Walking Trail so we could hear all about how horrible the evil British were to the colonists…

The tour was great – a beautiful sunny day, very warm and lovely. The tour was very interesting and the guide was good so we got to see a lot more of the city this time

Food today:

Breakfast: Buffet again

Lunch: Buffet again…

Dinner:

Shrimp cocktail:

Sweetcorn chowder with spicy chorizo:

Pan seared Aged Sirloin steak (ridiculously dark photo):

Chocolate mousse thing:

Technorati Tags: Holiday,Boston

Day 2 – at sea

2011-09-30T13:31:00.001+01:00

Still kept forgetting to take photos at first, but I promise I did start carrying my camera around eventually…

Weather was better! Sea was nice and smooth too, that’s the way I like it…

Food today:

Breakfast: Massive buffet

Lunch: Umm… massive buffet

Dinner: Pork chops

Cherries jubilee

Lots of exploring, eating, a bit of training, a nap…

Technorati Tags: Holidays

Traveling Days..

2011-09-30T13:26:00.001+01:00

Were crap (diet-wise) on the way to our holiday.

We flew out on Sept 10th, to join the ship in Newark on the 11th. I binged all morning the 10th before we drove to Heathrow. I get that way when I have a journey ahead of me…

On the plane, I’d asked for a gf meal (ironic given the way I ignored the whole subject on holiday) but they hadn’t packed it and there was literally nothing on board that didn’t have any gluten. Ah well, as I say, I can’t complain that much really….

Food on the 10th:

(just one photo of my lunch at Heathrow….)

And some afternoon tea because I can’t resist scones…

Then dinner on the plane:

We reached our hotel for the first night (in JFK) at about 9:30 so we didn’t do much of anything after check in or in the morning before getting a car out to the cruise port – Cape Liberty in New Jersey. That place seems very depressed, mostly closed down warehouses and things. Embarkation went very smoothly and we were on board by about 12:30.

The afternoon was spent on lunch, exploring and then unpacking when our cases arrived at the cabin. Lovely weather to start a cruise don’t you think?

Food today:

Breakfast: Was included at the hotel, and did not offer anything GF except plain fruit. But there was a waffle iron and a vat of batter beside it, so I made myself a waffle and had a load of other rubbish that I didn’t bother to photograph

Lunch: Still no picture, but I had a burger and fries

Dinner: Can’t remember because I didn’t have my camera

Technorati Tags: Holidays

Back from hols

2011-09-30T13:09:00.001+01:00

Weight: Very high. Very, very high.

11st 4lbs or 158 lbs. I would say I’m not disgusted because it includes water retention from the long haul flight yesterday, but you know that’s a lie… I’m back on the Dukan Attack today!

So, holidays… we went on a two week cruise from Newark to Boston, Portland & Bar Harbor in Maine, then into Canada to visit Halifax, Quebec, Charlottetown & Sydney. Followed by 4 nights in Manhattan because we couldn’t get the right flight home till then (oh no! Disaster!! I luurrve New York and haven’t been for about 7 years so the only down side was not long enough to do everything we wanted to do, though clearly (see above) I managed to cram in a lot of eating. A lot.

I think Dukan-ing for not quite long enough to get in the habit then falling face first into the cruise world of over-indulgence was too much for what passes for my self-control. I managed one day or maybe two of relative restraint, but it was offset by multiple days of bingeing in between. With huge amounts of gluten to upset my digestive system and trigger cravings all over the damn place as well. Still, its over now and the protein diet with oat bran Galette is back!

I will do some day by day posts about my wonderful holiday but this one is just an overview. First up, I trained every day but 2 on the cruise (ellipticizing in the gym) before breakfast most of the time, but a few times in the afternoon or mid-morning. So that was good.

In NY we stayed at a boutique hotel with no gym (though privileges for a gym two blocks away… yeah, we never made it through the door. Actually we never made it TO the door… however, we walked an estimated 5 – 9 miles a day while in town, from our hotel near Times Square to Greenwich Village, to Wall Street, and up past Central Park, during the day for exploration and trips and in the evening to go out for dinner, until even I was fed up of walking. So that was good.

I wanted to shop at Trader Joe’s / Whole Foods but rain out of time before I could get sorghum or sweet rice flour, both of which are used in a lot of gf recipes I have, neither of which I can find in the UK. So that was NOT good.

On our last night in NY we had an enormously expensive meal, with buckets of wine, and I got pissed. Then we got up at 4am for our flight home, and I still felt pissed. The a bit hung over. So that was NOT good.

Our flight got in 15 minutes early and we had a smooth drive home. We’d also had a wonderfully smooth no-crisis journey out, so that WAS good. And our house didn’t get burgled / burned down while we were away – so that WAS VERY good

I was up past midnight last night (UK time) and then got up at 6am this morning. If you can read any of the above, that’s quite good too…

I’ll be back shortly with more, especially updates on how well the Dukan diet can help after a 3 week food-fest. Except tomorrow I have in-laws visiting, so I can’t promise it will go that well then…

Stay Healthy

Chrissie

Technorati Tags: Holidays Bingeing Back to basics

Not a Dukan day

2011-09-08T18:32:00.001+01:00

I have a holiday com9ing up soon (which will cause me to disappear for a period of time that, as usual, I won’t talk about till its over because I’m paranoid about security. But that means definitely not dieting for x weeks, and because I don’t want my stomach screaming at me the minute I put some fruit in it I’m easing up on the Dukan thing in advance. Today I just added some fruit (and some sugar free jelly – what????) to the Dukan things that I would’ve eaten anyway. Fruit is wonderful. I love fruit.

I trained on the elliptical today, though it took till mid-afternoon to get the urge to do it. It’s rained off and on all day, so although I did set out for a walk into town I just couldn’t fancy it in that annoying light drizzly weather.

Food today:

Breakfast: Oat bran pancake with poached egg, bacon & melon. Aaaah, melon

Lunch: Chicken soup to which I’d added spinach and mushrooms and forgot to add asparagus – damn

Dinner: Chicken boti kebab and beef kaati kebab made by me from Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Bible, with salad (home-grown tomatoes!) and a dip of natural FF yoghurt & mint sauce.

Snacks: Hmm, lots. Greek yoghurt with rhubarb (which is a vegetable, so doesn’t count in the fruit amnesty); sugar free jelly; a bag of dried apple. A couple of BBQ’d sausages (very small thin ones) left over from last week. And some chicken. And some more yoghurt.

Weight: 143.25 lbs

Belated Wednesday

2011-09-08T08:02:00.001+01:00

I was going to post last night but finally got my ass together enough to finish an OU assignment and then crashed, so here I am later again…

Yesterday wasn’t a bad day all told. In the morning I managed a 40 min elliptical session. In the afternoon, I walked into town and came back with a ridiculously heavy rucksack that almost broke my back and ground my shoulders down to waist height. Then after dinner I did some chin ups – 5, rest, 5, rest, 3 – or more in one day than ever before!!! Not sure quite where that came from, but I was glad I did it!

And even more glad to get productive on the assignment that’s been hanging over me for months because of my normal procrastinating apathy combined with that spell of depression I whined about a while back (hard to focus on psychology reading when you feel like a case study )

Food today:

Breakfast: Oat bran pancake topped with bacon & egg scramble (both blurry and un-photogenic – good job you don’t come here for the food photography!!!)

Lunch: Chicken soup (with red chillies and gf soy sauce to try and kick it up a notch)

Dinner: Roast chicken & a hard boiled egg; an un-pictured sausage showed up there too as dessert

Weight yesterday: 143.5lbs

Belated Tuesday

2011-09-07T05:45:00.001+01:00

I visited my Mum yesterday for the day, and got back late enough not to feel like blogging – didn’t read any posts or write any, just fell into a long hot bath followed by bed!

I had a lovely very relaxed day, lots of conversation, no real exercise apart from a slow stroll around the town where I grew up, and a nice (totally not-Dukan) Chinese lunch! And I ate some carbs… but not very many. I was really surprised to learn that my Mum’s town, which is probably similar in size to Chepstow, but to be honest not quite as well-off, offers far more options in terms of health foods, deli-type foods and GF goodies than Chepstow – so now I might be able to get this stuff without always having to go online or trek into Cardiff!

Food yesterday:

Breakfast: Chicken soup & an oat bran pancake with an egg patty

Lunch: Chicken & Mushroom soup (much better than the home-made stuff I had for breakfast!)

Roast pork with mixed vegetables and boiled rice (only ate about half of the rice)

Dinner: Turkey breast slices & salad

Snacks: flapjack (small pieces of Mum’s home-made flapjack); chicken pieces, banana bread Nak’d bar

Weight today: 143.5 lbs

Hooked

2011-09-05T17:19:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was going to be my last Dukan day – I wanted a fast drop to a weight in my happy range before returning to what generally works for me longer term. But then I decided on just a few days more since I’m liking the trend in my weigh-ins and the diet is still not too uncomfortable to follow. Actually its a lot better than not too uncomfortable! I am currently smack in the middle of TTOM and not only is my weight still going down, but I’ve had no real cravings (I know I whinged a bit about wanting carbs last week but in truth that was still a world away from my normal cravings before which I am helpless)

I walked into town again this morning, in my Vibrams again. Jess – I really like them, though I haven’t ever tried running in them as I’m a coward, but they definitely couldn’t offer the kind of ankle support you get from trainers. Although some would say that’s the point… They take a bit of getting used to (I wore them around the house for a while before venturing out of doors) with the main issues being that they’re hard to get on until you’re used to them and it can feel at first like they are pinching the big toe if you’re not used to having anything in between the toes. I also have yoga socks with ‘fingers’ for the toes, and I think wearing them for a while made the adjustment easier. The only other problems are personal – I’m clumsy so I can state from experience that stubbing your toe in Vibrams is worse than in normal shoes, and stepping on a piece of sharp-edged gravel can be sore too! Having said that, walking on a gravelled surface has an almost massaging effect which I rather like, climbing up the steep embankment is easier because my feet can compensate for the uneven surface better, and its kind of amusing to glance down at your feet and realise that you’ve got a bunch of weeds and grass sticking out from between your toes (I admit I’m easily amused )

Food today:

Breakfast: Oat bran pancake ‘blini’ topped with fromage frais and smoked salmon

Snacks: Greek yoghurt with rhubarb and a pint of skimmed milk walking home from town

Lunch: 4 chicken thighs (skinless & boneless) slow cooked with garlic peri peri sauce (I know they look unappetising but they were good!)

Dinner: Impala fillet steak, scallops & prawns – surf & ~~turf~~ savannah deluxe!!!

Weight: 133.1 lbs

Stop start, stop start

2011-09-04T17:28:00.001+01:00

Blogging I mean…

Yesterday I had a fairly uneventful day, spent a lot of it planning a future holiday that you’ll no doubt hear about in time. After tearing my hair out online for hours, I didn’t have the energy to blog as well!

Exercise yesterday was just the standard trip to town. I went over the fields on the way out and came back along the embankment through the nettles. I did the same thing this morning, the only difference being that today I wore Vibrams fivefingers rather than normal walking boots. My feet got slightly damp but it felt pretty good to walk almost barefoot!

Food yesterday:

Breakfast: Strips of smoked mackerel (some plain, some flavoured with peri peri spices) and poached eggs

Lunch: leftover bbq

Dinner: Seafood platter – on the top, crayfish tails & cockles, underneath steamed white fish and a couple of thin slices of smoked salmon

Food today:

Breakfast: Hard boiled egg, sausage & LF bacon mixed into an egg ~~salad~~ mess with Quark and cottage cheese (no photo because because it looked disturbingly pre-ingested)

Lunch: A huge bowl of soup based on my homemade cream of mushroom soup, chicken stock, cauliflowers, green beans, spinach, asparagus & peppers with turkey breast.

Dinner: Tofu, prawn & vegetable stir fry. Not great, which is a shame given how much I looked forward to it after all the recent meat!!!

Weight: 143.5 lbs

Hey

2011-09-03T06:27:00.001+01:00

Sorry, disappeared for days again…. no, not because I did a triple somersault dive off the wagon this time!

On Wednesday I spent the day shopping in Clifton, then did a river boat ferry trip in Bristol, followed by an evening with my Dad & his wife, and stayed the night there with no blogging access.

On Wednesday I walked for about 4 – 4.5 hrs, some of it carrying a couple of heavy shopping bags. I did flag a bit after that, and the ferry ride was as much for a rest as an experience (though I thoroughly enjoyed it). I felt after that that I had possibly overdone the un-carbed walking and that’s why I eased up and allowed some carbs on Thursday (see below) while taking a rest day.

Thursday was my (40th) birthday and I spent the day with my Mum & her OH, visiting Devizes on market day

then having lunch and in the evening had a takeaway with M. So yes, all right, on Thursday I did eat too much, and it wasn’t really Dukan-friendly either day. But no binges, I got back into it yesterday with a pure protein day, and I’m already ok with my weigh in this morning!

Food:

Wednesday:

Breakfast: You already saw the steak & eggs!

Lunch: Gourmet Burger Kitchen Lamb (not allowed on Dukan) burger with no bun and a salad. The burger was good but not as good as the Buffalo one; the salad was disappointing and limp. Ah well.

Dinner: Rotisserie chicken & salad

Snacks: I had to buy a yoghurt and add oat bran to it because after pre-making my oat bran pancake a day in advance I forgot to take it with me.

Thursday:

Breakfast: Oat bran mixed into Greek yoghurt with 2 packs of turkey breast

Lunch: Blackened tuna with salad and baked potato (just one of the butter pats)

When we got back from the lunch I baked a gluten free peach & blueberry crumble from Elana Amsterdam’s Cooking with Almond flour cook book; the topping is made with almond flour & grapeseed oil, it only had half a dozen ingredients and was dead simple to make & really delicious – but I forgot to take a picture. I had it with a tiny bit of Ambrosia low fat custard.

Dinner: Non-vegetarian set meal for 2 from our local Indian restaurant – a mini Tandoori grill, followed by pilau rice with lamb balti, bombay potatoes & chicken tikka masala.

Friday:

Breakfast: oat bran pancake used as wrap full of ham (the one I made to eat on Wednesday) and some chicken

Lunch: More chicken (I’ll start growing feathers soon!) in an omelette of one whole egg & a large helping of egg-white

Dinner: Dukan barbecue (all meat & fish, no salad!) Chicken skewers & 1 rump steak skewer; a biesbok fillet. I also had a naughty mini Bratwurst after taking this horribly unfocused picture – no, your eyes are not failing you, it really does look like that….

This morning’s weight: 144.25lbs

Quick & Dirty

2011-08-31T07:51:00.001+01:00

This post, I mean – don’t get all worked up!

I won’t have time to post later but I don’t want to miss a day after getting almost out of the habit of posting last week, so I’m here at hideous-a.m. just to cover breakfast and say hi.

And say I’m still craaaaving carbs, but happy with my weigh in so hoping the cravings don’t get any stronger.

Food today:

Breakfast: Steak & eggs!!! Never had that for breakfast before (M did on some of our US holidays, but it seemed a bit heavy for me in days when I allowed myself to eat gluten so had many more options than now, and days when I wasn’t trying to Dukan-it.

Enjoyed it – but didn’t find it as filling as the calories should make it, or maybe that’s my mental stomach saying it would’ve been better with some toast to dip in the eggs. Or breakfast potatoes or something.

Planned food for later:

Snack: oat bran pancake wrapped around ham & mustard. Greek yoghurt with rhubarb

Lunch: Don’t know. I’ll be out shopping in Clifton and haven’t yet figured out what will work – maybe just some cooked meat bought from somewhere if I’m strong enough, if not I’ll try to stick to meat + vegetables in a restaurant

Snack: might buy some cooked prawns

Dinner: No idea at all, again I’ll try to stick to meat & veg. I’ll fill you in tomorrow!

Weight: 144.4lbs

Give meeee carbs!!!

2011-08-30T19:01:00.001+01:00

OK, so I am missing the carbs today… I’ve had no energy all day and I’ve eaten tons of protein which hasn’t really satisfied the urges at all – but so far I’ve technically stuck to the diet again – just about. It’s a protein + veg day, as will tomorrow and Thursday be since I’m visiting family both days. I meant to train in the morning but didn’t find the motivation; instead I walked into town. Then I did eventually get on the elliptical mid-afternoon and though I lasted out the 40 minutes it felt damn hard, very long, and more like a morning pre-breakfast session than anything. I slept appallingly last night again (I keep having to get up for the loo in the night – this Dukan diet is very heavy on the water and other drinks!) and actually dozed off for 15 minutes this afternoon – it would have been longer but I got an email and my phone made an annoying noise that woke me up!

Now I’m off to watch TV on the sofa and hopefully not fall asleep again until a halfway respectable time!

Food today:

Breakfast: Tuna, peppers & onion egg scramble

Snacks: Greek yoghurt with rhubarb stewed in a can of diet seven up,

FF fromage frais, chicken slow cooked in tandoori marinade

Lunch: chicken slow cooked in tandoori marinade with fromage frais, cucumber & mint raita, oat bran pancake and home grown tomatoes

Snacks: more fromage frais and cottage cheese. Actually that’s not as bad as I thought. Unless I’m forgetting something….

Dinner: Soup. I made a cream of mushroom soup from this recipe a few weeks ago and froze it. I defrosted some, added extra chicken stock I made from the carcass of one of my recent chickens, a couple of chicken thighs, 1 LC triangle and a little bit of onion. When I reheated it at dinner time I added some asparagus. It was really tasty to be honest – not a bad combo at all!

Weight: 145.1lbs

Bank Holiday Monday

2011-08-29T17:21:00.001+01:00

Still going strong on the eating side, though I am starting to really really want something sweet / carby now… I’m having another pure protein day today and once again that leads to some rather weird combos of food…

I walked into town this morning. It was fairly cool and not too humid for a change, not that I would actually complain about the weather today while so many in the US are coping with worse weather than we ever get here in soggy Wales! I did find it quite hard going, maybe because I’ve had virtually no carbs since Friday night, and had to buy some Pepsi Max & a pack of cold meat for the energy to get home again, but I made it! On the way I was hacking down a load of nettles & brambles in an attempt to clear the embankment trail a bit, and got some kind of weird sting on one hand and 3 blisters from shears on the other… Karma for attacking the local plant life no doubt, but worth it since I hate nettles with a passion (especially nettles that are taller than me!)

M gave me some flowers as its my birthday on Thursday (OMG I’m going to be 40!!!!) and we won’t be spending the day together

Food today:

Breakfast: Oat bran pancake thingy (made with fromage frais today – I preferred yesterday’s, made with Quark) with two poached eggs again

Snacks: Greek yoghurt, chicken breast, a small pack of low fat ham

Lunch: a bowl of seafood selection (prawns, mussels & squid rings)

Snacks: Crab sticks

Dinner: Surf and….. more surf. Baked salmon fillet, seafood selection, Dukan’s oil free mayonnaise (one hard boiled egg, mashed with 2oz fat free fromage frais, 1/5 tsp Dijon mustard and seasoning) and gherkin slices as a garnish / condiment

Weight: 145.5lbs

Desperate measures

2011-08-28T17:49:00.001+01:00

After my extreme eating last week (sounds like a dangerous new sport for adrenalin junkies, doesn’t it?) I decided to go cold turkey on the carbs for a few days – to put it another way, I decided to spend a few days doing the Dukan Diet, starting with one day on Attack phase. I started yesterday, and while I can’t say I enjoyed it a great deal, it wasn’t as horrible as when I tried to go on the Atkins diet a good many years ago. I’m not going to show you lots of photos of yesterday’s food – they weren’t meals so much as random assortments of unconnected protein sources! It’s now day 2, he recommends that people with about 10 lbs to lose have one day on Attack before going into cruise phase (alternating pure protein and protein + vegetables days) so that’s me and I’m still feeling motivated so I’ll keep it up as well as I can!

Saturday:

Breakfast: 1 chicken breast, slow cooked ‘chicken adobo’ that I had cooked for dinner Friday but then didn’t eat (my dinner Friday was a small box of Belgian chocolates my now ex-boss gave me as a goodbye gift on my last day)

Snacks: Crab sticks, half a chicken adobo breast, 2 mini babybel cheeses and a pint of skimmed milk.

Lunch: A small jar of cockles, an egg white-crab meat omelette and some more crab sticks. Omelette was as bland as it looks, I needed the cockles (in vinegar) just to assure myself my taste buds didn’t all die… (I bought this small red plate to contrast with pale food for photos. This shows why I needed to… on my usual white side plates you’d have wondered if I was posting an ‘after’ picture of this meal!!!)

Snacks: Greek yoghurt and yet. more. crab sticks…

Dinner: The other half of the adobo breast, a chicken leg (no skin) that I’d cooked in my slow cooker, a hard boiled egg, a couple of spoonfuls of cottage cheese and a handful of prawns. Don’t you wish you could have joined me? Actually my husband did wish that, or so he claimed – but he’d already eaten an actual meal so didn’t get to!

Supper: crab stick & babybel cheese

Woo hoo – lets throw a dinner party!!!

Today’s food:

Breakfast: Dukan-mandated oatbran in the form of the oatbran galette (surprisingly good) with 2 poached eggs on it

Snacks: Chicken, Greek yoghurt

Lunch: Chicken egg white omelette

Snacks: Chicken and babybel cheese

Dinner: Slow cooked beef with asparagus & broccoli

On the plus side, my weight mid-bingefest on Thursday was 150lbs. Yesterday morning it was 149 lbs. Today it was 147.4lbs.

Well. Hi. Anybody still there?

2011-08-27T17:49:00.001+01:00

This has not been a good week. I trained every day except Monday, which was deliberate, but I have also spent the week gorging myself stupid on everything unhealthy imaginable. If I hadn't trained as well, I might have exploded myself.
The good thing about that is that I'm now sick to the back teeth of eating crap, and more than ready to stop this in its tracks. Again.
No surrender...

Another week done...

2011-08-19T17:23:00.003+01:00

I trained this morning, making 6 consecutive days (Monday counts, even if I didn't train till evening!) Its been a while since I've managed to be that consistent even for that long - maybe I'm coming back! I haven't done enough yoga but I have practiced squatting much more consistently so hopefully I'll start seeing some improvement there soon...

This morning was glorious, really beautiful apart from a little mist - and really cold! When I went out to my car it felt more like October than August! I like that kind of weather though (not quite as much as I did when I had more natural insulation...) - its so much more comfortable and refreshing than the hotter heavier weather we've been putting up with.
By lunchtime it had warmed up a lot. I took a short pleasure walk (no rucksack) and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think not walking most of this week gave it a bit more novelty value than usual!
I did a yoga session after work as well. I found it kind of boring at the time, but I did feel really relaxed and kind of zen afterwards so it was worth it in the end!

Food today:
Breakfast: overnight oats with dried fruit, fresh berries, Greek yoghurt & whey

Lunch: gf egg sandwich, an apple and some melon wedges

Dinner: breaded chicken with salad & roasted courgette 'fries' (that didn't actually 'fry'...) 'breaded' with almond flour

Snacks: granola bake & a small amount of dried fruit

Weight: 146.4 lbs

Stay Healthy
Chrissie

Rain, rain everywhere rain...

2011-08-18T18:18:00.003+01:00

This morning I woke at 3:30, fell asleep again and was woken by my alarm. I more or less fell out of bed and staggered to the bathroom making excuses to avoid training... then I somehow persuaded myself that it would be just about possible to last through 20 - 25 minutes and stuffed myself into training gear... when I hit the elliptical I found myself setting a 40 minute program, completing that, and following it with a couple of planks (hate!) and some (not many) practice squats, lunges and Arnold presses. However I think my body is unlikely to fall for that sort of trick again, it can be self destructive but isn't usually stupid... ; -)

No lunchtime walk due to the aforementioned rain. It's been really gloomy and dark all day, with that persistent kind of rain that looks like it could, if it chose, keep it up for days...

Food today :

Breakfast: overnight oats with Greek yoghurt & Apple & peach baby food + a pack of melon

Lunch: salad with feta cheese & defrosted soy beans

Dinner: tofu veg soup with added extra veg and a gf roll with LC

Snacks: blueberries, Greek yoghurt with 4 dried apricots, and an apple

Weight: 146.6 lbs

Stay Healthy
Chrissie

Bleurgh

2011-08-17T18:10:00.001+01:00

I went to bed later than usual after visiting my dad yesterday and still woke about 3:30 am this morning :-( I did however train on the elliptical for 40 minutes before work, and I think it did as usual give me an energy boost that was much needed. I didn't have a proper walk at lunchtime due to working on an essay, and the gloomy grey day with intermittent rain didn't fill me with energy - though I was less depressed / frustrated than usual (even when trying to make a phone call and failing to get a signal - I'm in the middle of bloody Bristol for goodness sake, I should be choosing which really convenient tower to connect to, not trying to connect from apparently a mine shaft or something!
Food today :
Breakfast: waffle with Greek yoghurt & berries + post-training waffle with fromage frais & reduced sugar jam

Lunch: Salad with cold baked tofu and some melon chunks
Dinner: a Malaysian vegetable curry with cauliflower rice – yum! I made it overnight in the slow cooker using a jar of sauce and some coconut milk and it was very tasty indeed!

Snacks: fruit
Weight: 147.4 lbs. I have no words...

Late post for me!

2011-08-16T22:01:00.001+01:00

After I posted last night I came over all energetic and didn't even have time to read any blogs! After dinner, blogging & prepping lunch for today I watched some TV while doing the odd plank, squatting while holding onto the furniture etc. and then did 2 yoga routines totalling about 50 minutes, having already done some cardio and then housework when I first got home. I don't know where the surge of motivation came from, especially as I'd been feeling bad about the chocolate cake I got yesterday lunchtime when I finished eating it... normally I would either have done nothing (except possibly eating more) or tried to burn it off with about 3hrs cardio, but I think the yoga was a better idea!
40 minutes on the elliptical this morning before breakfast. I know I keep talking about getting back on track while doing the opposite, but I felt more like I used to - less like I had to force myself into the gym, more like I was expecting to go because that's what I do in the mornings - which felt particularly good after all my activities yesterday evening, which might have been expected to leave me a bit tired. I think I slept a bit better last night - still waking a few times, but maybe sleeping more deeply in between those times and falling asleep again more easily.

On the plus side, whatever the reason, I had little interest in sweet stuff today. Luckily the waffles at breakfast are not very sweet & the berries were actively tart so there was no early sugar rush to start to day off on the wrong path!

I didn't walk at lunchtime because I had an essay to work on.
This evening I visited my Dad after work, gave them some baking I wanted to get out of my freezer and had a good chat.

Food today
Breakfast: 2 almond flour waffles (one as a post training snack) with defrosted berries, a little honey, a little almond butter & Greek yoghurt. I wanted to see if the larger breakfast helped me control my snacking later. Did it work? Read on to find out.... (oh, the excitement!)

Lunch: salad with baked tofu, sweetcorn, a little leftover chicken, and sweetfire beetroot

Dinner: Beef stew with veg & new potatoes followed by a small piece of raspberry meringue

Snacks: fruit

Weight: 147.1lbs AGAIN damnit!!! I know its my own fault but that doesn't mean its not really really annoying!!!

Late bloomer

2011-08-15T18:11:00.001+01:00

Yesterday morning I had a depressing experience... M, who is very weight-lifting oriented when it comes to fitness, agreed to show me how to do some big compound lifts that I thought would be an efficient way to add weights to what passes for my exercise regime. I expected to be weak and girly in terms of the weight... I didn't expect to be so inflexible that I couldn't achieve a single squat without leaving my body exposed to the risk of injury. So I'm not doing squats or deadlifts, and I feel like Pinocchio's much older sister :-(. After that little failure I settled for looking up ways to improve my flexibility (any suggestions gratefully received) and hammering out 40 minutes on the elliptical (which went very well - frustration in apparently a great motivator for me) so is eating, so I did lots of nibbling on fruit after that too.
And there may have been some sulking. with a little booze, and not enough water. Because when you're depressed at a lack of fitness making yourself less fit is always sooo helpful...
Before the discovery that my body is the body of a 600 yr old mummy I did attempt some wobbly bench presses and dips, so to add injury to insult I'm actually aching a bit today across the chest, shoulders & upper back even though I did hardly anything.

Sigh.

Didn't train this morning... I did walk at lunchtime, but undid the good of that with a piece of chocolate cake. However I trained when I got home – 40 vigorous minutes on the elliptical walker.

Food Sunday:
Breakfast: almond flour pancakes from Elana Amsterdam's almond flour cookbook (except I added raisins & made them into waffles instead of pancakes) with LF Bacon and melon

Lunch: A big protein fruit smoothie

Dinner: Chicken roast dinner

Snacks: lots of fruit

Food today :
Breakfast: 1 almond flour waffle with Greek yoghurt, raspberries & melon chunks

Lunch: leafy salad with baked basil tofu & slice of chocolatey cake-type stuff

Dinner: Slow cooked chicken adobo over cauliflower rice. Not the prettiest meal I’ve ever taken a bad photo of, but very tasty! It was a little overcooked because not only did I have to kick it off early before heading out to work, but I also left it on Keep warm setting while I trained. If it was good after all that, the recipe is a keeper (which is lucky because I stuck 4 chicken breasts in a baggie with the marinade and froze them after they’d sat in it for an hour. I only cooked one today, so the others are still in the freezer)

Snacks: punnet of cherries; yoghurt with mango puree

Weight: 147.1lbs – I earned it, sadly. When I mentioned watching a movie on Saturday I failed to mention the pistachios & cashew nuts I ate while watching it… And after I posted I also ate a slice of orange flourless cake & a chunk of gf banana bread. Grrr

Saturdays are better than Fridays…

2011-08-13T18:02:00.001+01:00

How is everybody today? I’m feeling a bit better myself, despite not managing to train or walk today.

We watched The Girl Who Played with Fire this afternoon – great movie! I think after seeing the last one I’ll have to read the books, but I want to wait until then because I actually quite like having to try to figure out what’s going on while I watch (despite being a person who, when reading a physical book rather than an e-book, almost always reads the end before the middle…)

Food today: Quite a lot!

Breakfast: Peanut flour pancakes with yoghurt and smooth peanut butter

Lunch: Tofu-vegetable soup with 2 gf rolls – one plain, one made into a hard-boiled egg sandwich

Dinner: Socca pizza topped with vegetables, baked tofu & goat’s cheese; served with salad

Snacks: Rice pudding, pistachios & cashews, and dried fruit

Weight: 145.1lbs

I'm a slow learner...

2011-08-12T17:59:00.001+01:00

I trained this morning - 40mins ellipticizing and 4 pull ups! I seriously considered not bothering but talked myself around and once again was reminded that it does help my energy levels - why do I only remember that when I'm already training??? Like I said - slow learner!

It was day 1 of the Bristol Balloon Festival today. I was hoping for some interesting 'novelty' balloons but they were mostly standard shapes. Still something magical about seeing dozens of balloons floating silently over the river though...

Even with the above two positives to the start of the day, I still found myself feeling a bit down, pissy, snarly & edgy all morning. I don't know why, but at one point I found myself prowling through the canteen looking for something that would make me feel better, then finding a vending machine to continue the hunt... the weird/good thing was that for once I knew - body and brain - KNEW that nothing I saw there was going to make me feel better, so I didn't buy anything. The less good thing was that I didn't feel any better... at lunchtime I treated myself to a chocolate macaroon, which was absolutely wonderful! But didn't really take the edge of my mood. Of course you could argue that's a good thing - food is food, moods are moods, and its better not to treat one with the other, right?

Food today:
Breakfast: slow cooker rice pudding with defrosted summer berries & Greek yoghurt

Lunch: salad with sweetcorn, tofu and a gf roll with LC

Dinner: split pea & chorizo soup with a gf roll & a couple of gf crackers. And a small slice of absolutely not gf pizza stolen from my dearly beloved M…

Snacks: Greek yoghurt with honey & 2 plums

Weight: 145.5 lbs

Nearly the weekend…

2011-08-11T18:28:00.001+01:00

I didn't feel up to a morning training session today either, possibly because I worked quite hard on my intervals yesterday and wasn't rested enough, even after an embarrassingly early night last night. I also nibbled a bit after training yesterday (I think that explains my weigh in) because I was so hungry that it seemed to take too long just prepping & cooking my stir fry. I think I would've been better off if I'd had a mid-afternoon snack to fuel the training, but I don't really trust myself to be sure of actually DOING the training to be comfortable with doing that... dilemmas... if I did trust myself more I'd actually choose to switch to evening training as I do feel stronger that way... ah well, two weeks tomorrow my contract ends and I'll be free to train whenever I want for a little while!

I didn't get a proper walk at lunchtime either, as after a morning of heavy rain & winds it just wasn't appealing. So today is a rest day by default...

Food today :
Breakfast: protein muffin topped with Greek yoghurt & defrosted black forest fruit + a plum

Lunch: ham & hard boiled egg sandwiched in gf bread with a little side salad from the work canteen

Dinner: M&S gf breaded chicken breast with salad

Snacks: protein water; Greek yoghurt with honey

Weight: 146 lbs :-(

Wednesday working out

2011-08-10T19:03:00.001+01:00

I didn't train this morning after being woken by my alarm and feeling a bit foggy. It seems like that always happens the day after I make plans to improve my consistency or intensity of training, doesn't it?
I did walk at lunchtime - over to Broadmead to see how it was surviving the riots. I couldn't really see any signs of problems except one broken window (which was no worse than you'd see in many cities after a normal Friday night). As usual it looks like the media made a mountain out of a molehill here - don't get me wrong though, after seeing the coverage of less fortunate cities, I'm NOT complaining!

While I was out I bought a juice - celery, cucumber and spinach with added spirulina. It tasted... healthy. Worthy. Definitely not naughty... And it was green. Very.

After work I made up for missing this morning's training session. I started out planning a 25 minute interval program on the stationary bike, but when I finished that I felt like following it with a 20 minute interval program on the elliptical as well – so pleased with myself!!!

Food today :
Breakfast: microwave protein muffin with Greek yoghurt & home-made applesauce + 1 protein flour pancake before I headed to work, just because…

Lunch: Salad with cold baked tofu & feta and a small piece of flapjack

Dinner: seafood with stir-fried veg

Snacks: Bounce spirulina & ginseng energy boost ball; punnet of blueberries; dried & fresh fruit

Weight: 145.5 lbs

Tuesday

2011-08-09T18:20:00.001+01:00

25 minutes intervals on the elliptical this morning followed by 5 pull ups (they make me feel so strong! Apart from being able to do only 5, that is!) and a walk at lunch time. I know I’m doing less right now than I was, but I’m doing something and that is the most important thing I think. By only doing 25 minutes first thing I have time to grab a coffee before I start, which gives me a much needed energy boost at that time of the morning. My ideal would be getting up at a similar time, breakfasting and then training around 9 am, but work prevents that, so what can I do? Speaking of work, we were all ordered to leave the office by 5pm today in case of more rioting in Bristol. The last lot didn’t go anywhere near the office, so I think they’re over-reacting myself, but as I always leave at 4pm it made no difference to me!

Food today
Breakfast: protein muffin with homemade applesauce & Greek yoghurt

Lunch: salad with bbq tuna & feta cheese

Dinner: beef mince & pea madras with brown rice & salad, followed by the leftover rice pudding from last night. I’m going to make some more to have for breakfast for a change… but first, does anyone know if you can freeze rice pudding? If not I need to halve the quantities

Snacks: wasabi peas & dried fruit

Weight: don't know as I couldn't get to the scales this morning