Amy's weight loss diary

:D Our relationship is amazing, I'm so lucky. (And he says the same thing :) ) We're one of those sickening couples that never argues and is very much in love (I know it's still short term as serious relationships go, but I've had people say "you've been together (three months, six months, nine months, the better part of a year)- aren't you over that sickly lovey-dovey phase yet?!" And I can reply " :D Not by a long shot :D ") He has a plan for me too, and he won't tell me what it is (and for once, I can't guess! He's usually a little transparent but I haven't figured this out), but it doesn't involve food. I'll be making him sweet and sour chicken (with chicken breast, mixed sauteed veg, and Marks and Spencer sweet and sour sauce, which was my great discovery at the time), with "baked apple" for dessert (I may have mentioned it before- I used to make it when I was a kid when I wasn't allowed dessert. Take an apple, chop it up, add brown sugar and sultanas, cover, zap in microwave for a few minutes, serve with vanilla yoghurt or ice cream). I think the baked apple might be interesting with some cinnamon, and I might experiment a little with the sweet and sour, too (or at least use better veggies than I did last time!).

I know. I don't feel like I've been here very long at all. It's flown by.

I sort of take the semi-paternalistic view that I shouldn't talk about what I've been eating because I don't want to tempt people. But I suppose... I've put on 5kg. That's the ultimate in not tempting, isn't it- being where people don't want to be? I haven't been tracking at all in the time I've been back, so I can't do the usual tables and stuff, but I can tell what I've eaten today... if people really want to know. It's not good- the way I used to eat when I couldn't work out why I wasn't losing weight with a side of "sod it, I'm on holiday/ mum's spoiling me rotten".

I'm getting to a good stage with regards to food and stuff. I'm still eating it, but I'm ready to go back to the way things were. And not just because of the weight gain. When I arrived I thought "I haven't had this, or this, or that, or ooh, look at thing over there I want!" and went a bit crazy. Now... I've had pretty much everything I wanted, some of it's not as special as I remember, or some of it is but I've had too much of it- and I'm looking forward to getting back to my routine. (Possibly even do the unthinkable and buy stuff from an expat store if I really crave things)
 
I found these periods when things are not going according to plan, and setbacks and such just make you stronger on your weight loss and maintain program. So do'nt lose heart, this is good for you to experience. REally i found after surviving my binge period, that i felt much stronger and more committed than ever and i was able to stop the daily fantasising that i had been doing for about a month. It was good to move beyond that. so this weight gain is probably a boon rather than a problem. I mean you will probably go and spend time again with your mum down the track, you will be better prepared for her antics then.

I'm sure I'll be able to figure out how to take gym stuff and uni stuff with me day in day out, and it'll get me out of my flat more often)
Click to expand...

A bike with a couple of panniers and a lock would make this easy. Although i suppose its quite cold where you live and don't know if biking in any but summer time is suitable. What about a permanent locker at the gym.

I am curious to try the chilli on salmon dish. Salmon is such a delicate flavour that i wonder what it would do, not to mention the garlic. I think i will try it without garlic first, just chilli and salmon. It could be interesting, and with lemon of course.
 
Well, I'm back... sort of. Flight back didn't go to plan jet lag wise- I'd planned to sleep on the second (of three) legs because that was closer to night in the UK, but I didn't sleep very well because it was the middle of the day in Australia. Needless to say I'm exhausted and the thought of cooking as I normally would is a little too much to contemplate right now. On that basis (and the fact that today is a lot muddled up as I was in the air, changing time zones pretty rapidly, and scarcely in control of my food), diet starts tomorrow. But food so far... airline food (I'm not going to tell and you don't want to know), a cup of black cascara (an infusion made from the fruit related to the coffee bean, a present from my boyfriend), a few glasses of water, and two Weight Watchers pita breads (I don't have bread in the house and am not up to going shopping- my boyfriend did some shopping before I landed, but as I don't normally eat bread didn't get any) with half a tin of sardines with tomato sauce. Not sure what I want for dinner- sort of only eating because I have to, as my body clock is incredibly muddled. I registered I needed lunch- about 7 hours after breakfast on the plane- because I felt sick rather than hungry. I'm trying really hard to resist the urge to just go to bed and wake up on Sydney time (quite late in the evening in the UK).
 
Thanks :) Will get back to other people's diaries when I can concentrate on them properly, I'm really out of it right now.

Dinner is being prepared- have made it up as I've gone along. Aim for today isn't calorie counting- I've weighed nothing- but more healthy, hearty, home made, made with what I have to hand (my boyfriend's done some shopping for me), and not too hard (as I'm not up to it). It's two onions, two fat garlic cloves, and about eight sundried tomatoes (all pureed), 450g (approx- half the pack) lean beef mince, three tins chopped tomatoes, some tomato puree double concentrate (tomato paste in Australia), a tin of kidney beans, a zucchini, a capsicum, some Worcestershire sauce and some pepper. Obviously made for leftovers. Not sure what if anything I'll serve it with (I want to avoid pasta for diet reasons), but I think I've done ok given how awful I feel.
 
Oh, and my boyfriend bought me flowers again :) I foiled his plan though. He went out to get milk and asked if I wanted anything else, and I asked for something that I can only get from Tesco (well, can get from any big supermarket, but that's the only one at a reasonable distance). He'd planned to go into the village (turning the other way as you leave my place) and go to the expensive florist. But I am perfectly happy with Tesco flowers. (Hell, I'm happy enough with none at all, anything else is a bonus)
 
Thanks guys :)

Right- calorie counting. I'm working from the presumption that I'm 69kg (what my scales showed me this morning, in my pyjamas) and sedentary (for now, I hope to change that soon). On that basis I put numbers into my calorie calculator and got a maintenance aim, which I've reduced by 500, and then taken off 10% to allow me to "cheat" once in awhile (going out to eat with boyfriend, for example).

So far this morning I've had a bowl of porridge for just over 200 calories. I'm about to have cascara (coffee cherry tea- ) and I can't find anything reliable on how many calories are in it. On that basis I'm going to count it as coffee.

I will be back to other people's diaries, I promise. Right now I'm having a lot of trouble concentrating on things because I'm incredibly tired.
 
Now that the new forum is up (I'm not sure what I think of it yet, but it is what it is), here's my calories for yesterday. More or less ok going back into it, although I'm under 1200 (I went to bed just after 9pm, I'm incredibly jetlagged still), and my macros are nowhere near what I want (I've messed with them from my old system as I'm not doing any exercise at the moment and therefore not weight lifting- will re-adjust when I get back into the exercise).


I'm also not tracking water at the moment, can't be bothered.


Tuesday 16 August:


Breakfast and snack:


Sainsbury's porridge oats 36 g 128.2
Water, tap, drinking 258 g 0.0
Tesco frozen raspberries 80 g 21.6
0.1% milk 170 g 59.5
Spices, cinnamon, ground 0.7 g 1.7
Coffee, brewed from grounds, prepared with tap water 44 g 0.4
0.1% milk 50 g 17.5
Coffee, brewed from grounds, prepared with tap water 200 g 2.0
Gala apple 162 g 81.0


Subtotal: 311 calories, 13g protein, 56g carbs, 3g fat. 17/73/10


Lunch: Vegan stew 16 Aug 2011 (total 1880) 470 g 220.2

Subtotal: 220 calories, 13g protein, 46g carbs, 3g fat.


Total recipe (my first attempt at the stew my mum makes) contains:

Onions, raw 133 g 53.2
Spices, cumin seed 4 g 15.0
Spices, coriander seed 4 g 11.9
Celery, raw 274 g 43.8
Potatoes, raw, skin 343 g 198.9
dry brown lentils (cup=200g) 176 g 202.4
Carrots, raw 200 g 82.0
waitrose chopped tomatoes 400 g 84.0
Squash, summer, zucchini, includes skin, raw 287 g 48.8
Spices, chili powder 5 g 14.1
Trattoria Verdi tomato puree double concentrate 40 g 38.0
Flora Cuisine 14 g 88.7


Dinner: the salmon in this- http://64.13.249.109/au.com.freshfoodmums/recipes/10 plus some vegetables sauteed with garlic.


My boyfriend is over so for this it's half of the total of what I made.


Very Lazy Chilli 4 g 2.1
Very Lazy Garlic 7 g 6.9
Lemon juice, canned or bottled 20 g 4.2
Oil, olive, Extra Virgin 4.5 g 39.8
Honey 3.5 g 10.6
Salt, table 1 g 0.0
Fish, salmon, pink, raw 89.5 g 113.7
Tesco very fine green whole beans 60 g 16.2
Boiled potato with skin 206 g 148.3
Flora Cuisine 3 g 19.0


Subtotal: 360 calories, 23g protein, 43g carbs, 11g fat. 27/46/27


Plus... oh hell I forgot to add it- half of this- http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=256363517 (31.5 calories)


Dessert:


Got a delivery in including rhubarb, and the rhubarb has a short shelf life so they gave it to me for nothing. Decided to have a big serve rather than risk it going off.


Rhubarb, raw 197.5 g 41.5
silver spoon caster sugar 35 g 140.0
Tesco light choices vaniletta 56 g 81.2


Subtotal: 262 calories, 3g protein, 55g carbs, 3g fat. 5/84/11


Total (minus the cabbage and leek mix): 1155 calories, 54g protein, 202g carbs, 21g fat. 655.8mg sodium (44% of allowance). Final split 18/66/16
 
How was your version of the vegan stew. I must say that name does not sound appetising. i know i've used the term lately myself but stew no longer sounds appetising. And vegan never did either. Nevermind...


Rhubarb when stewed keeps for long enough in the fridge.
 
The stew was ok- a little watery and the lentils were a bit hard, but I think that's because I was impatient to eat it and I used brown lentils (what I have) rather than red lentils, which break down easier. I'll continue to play with it. With the name, that's just for the purpose of having a name for my calorie counter. And I'm not terribly creative- so it's a stew that's suitable for vegans, therefore vegan stew, I guess.


The rhubarb I want to roast- http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1949/roasted-rhubarb I did it last night with a big portion (used one of the 400g packets between my boyfriend and I) and it was hardly a calorie allowance killer, so I think I'll do it again tonight. I used this recipe to cook some rhubarb for Mum and she approves (rhubarb is one of her favourite foods)
 
Oh, and my boyfriend's food diary started this morning :biggrin: He's not doing it like I am- only on paper and not as specific as I am (no weights and not calorie counting)- but he hasn't been losing weight for months and he's eating much better than he was, so hopefully he can take this to the doctor and say "I'm not eating (much) crap and haven't been for awhile- why am I obese class 2?!" I also hope that this exercise will help him become more mindful of what he's putting in his mouth.
 
Today's calories may not be so great. I have to use up some stuff (why, oh why, did I buy so much seafood? It has such a short shelf-life!) so will be having a big dinner. It's also a bit of an experiment (I'm marinating the trout in something I found through the power of Google- adapted amounts based on the salmon recipe I made yesterday; and I find myself out of tinned chopped tomatoes :eek: so I'm trying to make a sauce for the mussels with vegetable stock and tomato paste). Needless to say we will not be needing potatoes with dinner tonight!
 
Good lord. I've just worked out my calories for yesterday (I was exhausted so went to bed before working out what dinner was- in fact, my boyfriend and I went to bed, woke up a few hours later and I said "I prepared dinner, didn't I? We should eat that...").


I thought I'd be over. I don't know how I did it, but I'm stupidly under again.


Wednesday 17 August


Breakfast: an experiment with fromage frais rather than natural yoghurt with my porridge. Works well. The coffee is cascara.


Tesco frozen raspberries 51 g 13.8
Tesco garden fruit mix 31 g 10.5
Sainsbury's porridge oats 35 g 124.6
Water, tap, drinking 257 g 0.0
Tesco light fromage frais 118 g 54.3
Spices, cinnamon, ground 0.7 g 1.7
Coffee, brewed from grounds, prepared with tap water 949 g 9.5


Subtotal: 214 calories, 15g protein, 30g carbs, 3g fat. 28/58/14


Snacks and lunch:

Strawberries, raw 128 g 41.0
Gala apple 162 g 81.0
Vegan stew 16 Aug 2011 (total 1880) 470 g 220.2
Peaches, raw 114 g 44.5


Subtotal: 386 calories, 16g protein, 86g carbs, 4g fat. 13/77/9


Dinner:

Mussels 104 g 111.3

Tomato sauce for mussels 17 Aug 2011 (total weight 667) 33.35 g 5.9 (made this up, used it as a dipping sauce, my boyfriend and I went through about a tenth between us, so I've counted a twentieth)


Fish, trout, rainbow, wild, raw 113 g 134.5
Oil, olive, Extra Virgin 5 g 44.2
Very Lazy Garlic 12 g 11.8
Amoy reduced salt soy sauce 6.5 g 3.4
Lime juice, canned or bottled, unsweetened 16 g 3.4
Honey 5.5 g 16.7
Very Lazy Ginger 9 g 4.7
Leeks, (bulb and lower leaf-portion), raw 55 g 33.6
Carrots, raw 91 g 37.3
Squash, summer, zucchini, includes skin, raw 149 g 25.3
Frylight Sunflower Oil Spray (1 spray- 0.18) 1.08 g 5.9


Subtotal: 437 calories, 47g protein, 35g carbs, 13g fat. 42/30/28


Ingredients for tomato sauce for mussels:

Knorr reduced salt vegetable granules 11 g 34.9
Water, tap, drinking 566 g 0.0
Trattoria Verdi tomato puree double concentrate 76 g 72.2
Very Lazy Garlic 7 g 6.9
Very Lazy Chilli 7 g 3.6


Total: 1038 calories, 78g protein, 152g carbs, 21g fat. 1194.3mg sodium (80%).


Must eat more.
 
Wow if nothing you are very planned out with everything! I don't even know if you would be interested in this or if you even own a ps3 and even if you don't my workout group would love to have you on fb! We just try to motivate each other but most of us have Active 2 for the ps3 you should look into it it's almost your whole routine! If you do give me a shout!
 
Thanks for that
smile.gif
No, I don't have a PS2 (I don't even have a TV!) and at the moment am not doing much in the way of exericse (I'm still a bit jetlagged and sorting out myself before I think about the gym again- but that's the route I want to take, as I live in a flat so exercising at home is somewhat out of the question).


I'm sorting through the stuff I brought from home, including a very large supply of Australian biscuits and lollies/ sweets/ candy. Very little of it is earmarked for me, but there will be some for me, and I will enjoy it (in moderation, within my calorie allowance). I'm trying to work out who of my friends (who requested things) gets what (I worked it out in Australia but put them all together in my suitcase- to avoid squashing them- and have now forgotten). Right at the moment I'm not even tempted by them (well, I'm tempted enough not to give them all away, but I'm not tempted enough to eat any of them at the moment... let alone gorge). I picked things with long used by dates so that I can make them last a long time.
 
I LOVE reading your posts! It's so funny because it is soooo me!! I keep some candy under the bed on my side just for a snack sometimes... I always look at it and want it but I keep myself from eating it..... most of the time. Always let yourself be indulgent or it will never work! Let's say Sunday we can eat some candy cuz I want some!!!!
 
AI'll see how I go :) At the moment, after six weeks not being at all control of my food, and being quite jet lagged (I only flew 11000 miles on Sunday/ Monday :willy_nilly: ), I'm just seeing how I go getting back on track. I'm trying not to think about eating badly at the moment. (The sweets I was talking about were what I brought back from Australia- they're presents for the most part. I can't get them in the UK, so I'm going to make them last... months if I can)

Binge day coming up- Monday after next my boyfriend and I will have been together for a whole entire year (which I know isn't a big deal... unless you're the ones in the relationship. Means a heck of a lot to us). At lunchtime, we're going to the pub where we met (or about lunchtime- I'm not actually sure they serve food), he's taking me to a super-secret present thingy (I don't think food related) after that, and then I'm cooking the first meal I ever made for him (nothing special and not diet friendly, but has sentimental value). I'm thinking about doing a mini high tea (scones, cream, and jam) before that, because I suspect the random I-really-can't-cook crap I made for him a bit over a year ago (when I really couldn't cook) is going to be underwhelming at best.

Yesterday's food diary- I went to visit a friend yesterday (and I unloaded a sizeable portion of the Australian goodies) and then crashed out at my boyfriend's place. The last three cups of tea were estimates. Dinner was an attempt to make a chicken stir fry without a recipe from scratch (I won't bother sharing the ingredients, it didn't work).

It's odd. The last few days I haven't been saying "right, I can eat x calories, therefore my meals should be size y", which is what I used to do, and yet I'm still way under target, which is something I normally struggle with.

Thursday 18 August

Breakfast and snack:

Sainsbury's porridge oats 40 g 142.4
Water, tap, drinking 264 g 0.0
Tesco frozen blueberries 80 g 25.6
Tesco light fromage frais 111 g 51.1
Spices, cinnamon, ground 0.5 g 1.2
Coffee, brewed from grounds, prepared with tap water 300 g 3.0
0.1% milk 50 g 17.5
Gala apple 172 g 86.0

Subtotal: 326 calories, 16g protein, 56g carbs, 3g fat. 20/69/11


Lunch and snacks
Vegan stew 16 Aug 2011 (total 1880) 470 g 220.2
herbal tea 200 g 4.0
Kallo Wholegrain rice cakes (10g- 1 cake) 20 g 58.0
Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average 97 g 17.5
Spices, pepper, black 0.5 g 1.3
Greengage 69 g 29.7

Subtotal: 330 calories, 15g protein, 70g carbs, 4g fat. 15/75/11

Dinner and after (tea and milk with tea is a guess)
chicken experiment 18 Aug 429.5 g 369.9
Tesco Basmati Rice 55 g 195.2
Water, tap, drinking 300 g 0.0
0.1% milk 200 g 70.0
herbal tea 200 g 4.0

Subtotal: 639 calories, 29g protein, 83g carbs, 20g fat. 19/52/29

Total: 1296 calories (87%), 61g protein, 210g carbs, 28g fat. 1206mg sodium (80%). Final split 18/62/20
 
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