This is the time

I am still not balancing my priorities very well. Every night I am walking late. I want to put a bit more effort in to looking after things that need maintenance in my life instead of going crazy on projects. I don’t want to give them up – just be more balanced. I don’t want to get distracted enough to knock myself out of my weight loss groove.

I started making dinner tonight and it was one of our staple easy yum Friday night meals. Thai green chicken. Yet after I had tipped the tin of lite coconut milk into the frying pan I suddenly went “Oh oh. Coconut milk is not on my list.” So I checked the fat content and compared it to fats that are on my list. It has sooo much fat. My husband and I used to share a tin, and eat every bit. With the bit of oil I used first that equals 15 teaspoons of margarine just for my serve. 15 serves of fat – more than my maximum allowance for a whole day (which I don’t even use – usually I have about 5 at the most). Anyway I was thinking I was about to go off plan – but then I decided to just put my serve in a deep frying basket and let all the liquid drain off. It still tasted yummy. I don’t know how much fat was in it – too much for every day I expect – but I feel comfortable about it now.

Breakfast ~8:30 1 slice wholemeal toast, 1 tspn margarine, 1 tspn strawberry jam, 1 boiled egg, 1 C SoGood, 1/2 C tomato juice, 2 C coffee with 50ml Hi-Lo milk eachLunch ~ 2.00 Egg flip, tomato juice. 4 Premium crackers Dinner: 9:00 2 skinless chicken thighs, 1 zucchini, ½ can bamboo shoots, olive oil, lite coconut milk. 1 C basmati rice. Peach and mango, diet yoghurt. Exercise: 8:30 pm 30 min moderate/brisk paced walk. Water: 2250ml Bedtime: 11:20 (I promise I am NOT going to change that again to even later!!)
On plan:24 days Achieved food target: 22 days Exercised: 18 days All goals: 5 days.
 
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good job, but dont panic if you have a bad day. it will still be ok. Youre body shouldnt gain all that wait back quickly after you take the first bite over your allowance. But i guess its not good to use that as an excuse. good job stopping that from happening.

about walking... if youre not busy right when you wake up in the morning...tape up a sign near your bed telling you to eat breakfast then take a walk. even if its just for 10 minutes. And if you dont feel satisfied... then take another one at night when you do feel like you have time.
 
I have been talking about having a walk early in the day, but not getting to it. I actually enjoy my evening walks and even when I think I am starting too late I still go the whole way just because I like them and don't want to miss any. I keep retyping this sentence I'm on now because I keep wanting to turn it into a sentence that explains why I haven't started morning walks yet. There really is no reason I couldn't go for one today at least, now I have finished breakfast, and checked all the diaries, and am not required any where urgently. I will try that - one day at a time eh. Walk, washing, dishes, shower then shops.

I will put my walking sign on the computer. I won't miss it there!
 
Its ok if you want to take an evening walk. If you want to do mornings and nights, just alternate week by week or something. Post a sign (on the computer if you want) to make sure you take a walk. As long as you take one, youre doing great. good luck.
 
My aunt did all of her walking in the evening, and she still lost a sick amount of weight in a short time. The fact that you're doing it at all,is just great! Keep up the good work :)
 
Hi Felici!

I thought I'd return the kindness. You have alot of posts and I didn't read through the whole journal.

I too am carrying a bit too much weight on my 5' frame.
I too have tried and had success and then just stopped.
But I see you have been posting here for almost a month!! And with great friendships forming, you shouldn't have too much trouble sticking it out.

I am going to make your journal one of my daily reads.

Keep it up!
 
Hi jajochku. Nice to see you in my diary! :)

Thanks for all the encouragement guys.

I went for the morning walk!

I am happy with the evening ones. Even when I leave thinking I might just make it a quick one, once I get out the door I find myself heading out on the route I usually take and walking as long as normal. That walk matters enough to me now that I pretty much make sure I go regardless of whether it's convenient by then. I still want to add one first thing in the day to make sure I manage a minimum and make it even more of a priority I think. Also it would give me the opportunity to double my current exercise for most days.

That's why I keep trying to get to bed earlier too. Even last night I still was later than I planned and therefore didn't get up today till 8.00. Then by the time I started walking it was after 9.00 so it was really getting too hot before I finished.

I will try again for the 11.00 tonight!!
 
Today was busy. I did a fair amount of housework and quite a lot of shopping. I noticed that I expected not to find the shopping a trial or get muddled with it today. That is quite a change from when I started this diary. I don’t know if it’s to do with eating and exercising differently or not. I think it could be to some extent. I was a bit hungry while I was shopping. I think it was because I was overly careful about how much protein I had at lunch. I bought myself some veges as a snack. I had to wait a little while to eat but I felt ok about it. Other times I have been trying to lose weight I have welcomed feeling hungry as it’s definitely been associated with losing weight. This time I want to control it because I can see how it might be a way back to cravings or bad impulsive choices.

I didn’t end up doing the evening walk as early on my feet were pretty sore from shopping till 6:00 – and then the timing for dinner was awkward. Hopefully I have done enough of what I should do already so I can relax this evening without being late to bed. I will walk in the morning as we have a party at my sister’s tomorrow night. I've decided to try and make my day's post a bit earlier and put the night before's bedtime on it. That's the one I count towards achieving all goals or not that day any way. Maybe if I post here earlier it will help. LOL It's not like I was good at going to bed early before I joined this forum, but anyway - I'll give this a try.


Breakfast ~8:30 1 slice wholemeal toast, 1 tspn margarine, 1 tspn strawberry jam, 1 boiled egg, 1 C SoGood, 1 C coffee with 50ml Hi-Lo milk Lunch ~ 12.00 4 Premium crackers, a little low fat cottage cheese, a little lite hard cheese, cucumber, mushroom, snow peas, a nectarine. Snack: 5:00 2 Stalks celery, 2 mushrooms, 1 carrot. Dinner: 8:30 Grilled steak, (and pepper sauce, made with yoghurt) mashed potato, steamed cabbage, microwaved carrot. Apricot diet yoghurt. Nectarine. Exercise: 9:30 am 45 min moderate paced walk. Water: 2250ml
On plan:25 days Achieved food target: 23 days Exercised: 17 days All goals: 5 days.
 
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I'm here!!!

Felici -

Thank you for posting in my diary section. It does help to know that someone else reads it and responds!!! I thought I would return the favor! It sounds like you are doing so good! I am so happy for you! You are right about not letting yourself get hungry. That has been my downfall also. I find if I let myself get hungry I end up wanting things that are bad for me! It's so much easier to do it when you eat something healthy every 2 or 3 hours that way you never have a chance to get hungry! I love living life this way! I don't know why I didn't do it earlier! Lots of fruits and veggies for me too! You wouldn't believe the way I used to eat! I am sure a lot of people on here can relate! I am just so happy to have found this place and all of you to help me through it! It's nice just to know that someone else is trying too and that we all go through the same struggles in one form or another!

Keep up the great work! I am so proud of you!!!!

Julie
 
auntjuju said:
Felici -

I don't know why I didn't do it earlier!
Julie
Click to expand...

I really relate to your post. Also I was thinking that exact thing just a few days ago.


My plan for going to bed early did not have the results as I hoped. Posting on here a half an hour earlier than usual was helpful. However, when I got to bed, almost on time, I found my mind ticking over about Christmas. My get together with my sisters and brother and their families is tonight. Then I thought I had made a mistake in a post to another forum, and... came back to the computer. Well I accidentally logged on here instead. Wondered what mistake I had come to fix and saw auntjuju had been on after some day's absence. I could not resist that - how long could it take to read? Only I could not get to the end of her post. I read a bit and then blip! Internet explorer disappeared and I was back at the desktop. Funny. So I tried again and the same thing - I only got to read one sentence (and her post was FULL of news) - and IE disappeared again. Tried again, gone again. I tried to start Ewido anti-spy and it jammed up so looked in Task Manager and Internet Explorer is still running! Oh boy! Hijacker!

Anyway I got Ewido going but I CANNOT RELAX enough to go to sleep while my internet is broken! Not until I'm exhausted would that happen. I went back to bed but after forty minutes I'm still awake and I think maybe the computer is fixed and come back. It is only 60% done but it has found something it calls Hijacker. Agent.a Well that is kind of good but I need to know that it can get rid of it. I write a to do list for today. I start a new Christmas message. Finally Ewido finishes and Yay! it gets rid of the bug. By now I have that need to finish it thing going with my message so I'm another 10 minutes on that (feeling naughty about that bit). It is VERY late by the time I get to bed, to sleep.

This morning the shower noise woke me, I expected to just fall back asleep but then I see it is my son, not my husband. Why are you up so early? You had a late night. "I can't sleep" That is not good. That has my adrenalin moving already - but I want to go back to sleep. Might work. Then in comes my husband to the house from his early morning walk banging the door, radio blaring. Then it is the corellas screeching outside my open window. I give up. I am typing this with bug eyes. I will not get an early night tonight because we have this family party food challenge and tomorrow is the Christmas dinner food challenge!!

I have to say that getting off the computer a half hour before I want to be in bed is a good plan. I sure wish I had stuck to it!!! Oh well maybe I can power through all this Christmas preparation today and have a nanna nap this afternoon.

(Funny thing about that hijacking - it was just this site - I was ok at the other forum.)

Time for the morning walk.
 
I had a good walk. I had only planned to do my usual walk, but after I had been walking 5 minutes I noticed that I had actually started on the same one as yesterday - that is with an extra loop added at the beginning. So I guess that is my usual walk now! It was much nicer out at this time than later in the morning. There was a strong wind but it wasn't cold. No other dog walkers. I saw two people I knew from a little way off. One of my friends (the skinny one), jogging. A friendly neighbour walking quickly. Lots of birds. I like corella's much more when I see them outside than when I hear them while I'm in bed! I found out they must be the birds I can hear from a distance when they roost in the evening. The other day I startled the whole flock up from in the wattle which was quite amazing. When I counted them later on the electricity wires there were 70. Even 2 is too many if you are trying to sleep though! I'm feeling a lot more awake after the walk.

I will still try to catch up if I can because I know being tired is a potential catalyst to impulsive overeating for me. I even had a quick flash of the "what's in the pantry" urge late last night when I turned off the light in there that my son had left on.

Okay. Time for the shop now. I so did not want to go there today but I have forgotten to buy dill for my salad.
 
:) Merry Christmas to you too,and good job on the exercise! you're very consistent with it,and that's great!
 
i agree with Pinchy. You are really consistent. Where do you live? you always say it is warm. I live in Massachusetts. Its always cold this time of year here.
 
I live in the southern hemisphere. That's why it is warm, when you're cold. I live in Perth, Western Australia. It is a city, but far from any other cities in Australia because it's on the west coast. (There are 3 within a day's drive that call themselves cities, but are really just overgrown country towns). The climate is what they call mediterranean - a bit like California I think. It's hot, sometimes very hot, and dry in summer (which is now), and cool and wet (sometimes) in winter. We are about 20 minutes drive from the city centre and 10 minutes from the beach. We live in a suburb with lots of trees and parks, and little patches of bush left from when this area was first built on about 30 years ago.

As far as I can tell, when I get up in the morning it is early evening in America (though I know you have different time zones there from one place to another). When I am (supposed to be) going to bed it is morning for most people on here. Our days are ahead of yours - so Christmas Day will be finishing for me while yours is starting.

Thanks for your encouragement Pinch and bmohearn. I have been glad to feel that I'm being pretty consistent. I think this forum helps a lot with staying on track. Also it helps me a lot that I try to not get really hungry, and eat balanced amounts of food. Strangely, I think my past failures are helping this time, as I have tried so many things that I found didn't work for me, so I know a lot about what I want to avoid. Maybe being a teacher for the past 5 years has helped me learn about nipping issues in the bud too. Anyway so far so good!

Last night we had a family thing at my sisters. I didn’t try and stay on plan for it – I didn’t measure how much protein I had, I didn’t have fat that I could trim off, but I went over on the fat I expect, and I let myself have dessert. I can remember times from long ago when I was on a diet at Christmas time and avoided dessert altogether on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and then felt really deprived and went berserk after that. I thought it would be okay to have a little bad sugar just for last night, and for Christmas Day lunch, which I will go to soon.

Last night was like a cold buffet. Anyway, I had a normal serve of complex carbohydrates, and salad plus prawns, turkey, duck, ham, chicken, – I just had a little of each. However friends of my sisters came carolling and took us away from the meal in the middle. Then their piano player :)eek: ?) didn’t turn up for ages so we had a big gap in the meal and I thought it would be best (and very nice) to have a bit extra of the meat and salad before we went on to dessert.

I think I went really well with the dessert. I had about half a plate of special fresh fruit (we have summer fruit here too). Also I had some cassata (a little slice and then I cut it in half), some chocolate cheesecake (cut very thin then cut in half) and a piece of chocolate covered macadamia nuts. It tasted fantastic! When I had that cheesecake I really felt like going back for seconds. That might be partly because I had been eating and going back for other stuff earlier, and didn’t have rigid plan for what to do. Anyway, I was pretty sure second helpings of dessert didn’t count as controlled. I definitely had in mind controlled indulgence! I don’t regret anything! I don’t feel deprived and I don’t feel guilty. Cool.

Breakfast ~8:30 1 slice wholemeal toast, 1 tspn margarine, 1 tspn strawberry jam, 1 boiled egg, 1 C SoGood, 1 C coffee with 50ml Hi-Lo milk Lunch ~ 12.00 4 Premium crackers, egg flip, glass of tomato juice (my lunch for rushing but not missing out.). Snack: 4:00 a little fruit while I was making the platter. Dinner: 7:00- 9:00 As above Exercise: 8:300 am 45 min moderate paced walk. Water: 3000ml Bedtime: 1:00
On plan:26 days Achieved food target: 23 days Exercised: 18 days All goals: 5 days.
 
it is ok to let yourself cheat every now and then. It really does keep you from breaking down and binging after not letting yourself have those desserts forever. You live in australia?? i have ALWAYS wanted to go there. It sounds beautiful. my family and i want to visit. Just i have a 3 year old sister, and we have to wait until she gets older. I was thinking about surprising my parents years away for their 20th anniversary and flying them there while i take care of my sister. Sorry... i'm about to get into a rambling session. lol. Merry Christmas.

one more nosey question... what is boxing day for? sorry if i'm bothering you.

I like the fact that you exercise daily...i couldnt do that. maybe everyother day... but everyday?? Good for you.
 
I like being asked questions. I don't mind. Don't you have Boxing Day in America? It is just the day after Christmas. It is a holiday like Christmas Day is. People give lots of reasons why it is called Boxing Day, some say it is to do with not opening presents (boxes) till that day some time in the past. I have never heard a really good explanation myself. What is it for? The Boxing Day test cricket match is on TV. (Not that I watch but some people think that is what the day is for.) Time to eat leftovers, play with your presents, recouperate after Christmas Day. Sometimes it's hard to fit all our family get togethers in to other days and we have one of the Christmas meals on Boxing Day.

Today was okay again I think. I never planned to walk today. It is too crowded a day. I did play soccer a little, cricket a little and dance a little. It was fun. I hope I didn't injure myself enough to make walking difficult!

I had my normal breakfast. Lunch was turkey, a little Chinese duck, a very little Chinese pork - because it turned out too be too fatty for me. I mostly have been remembering to take the skin off all these things. Also I had a potato, a carrot, a piece of parsnip and some green beans. I figure that sort of fits into my plan though probably a bit too much fat. I had a glass of champagne - not on my normal plan but ok for Christmas Day. After a pretty long time we had a fruit platter and I don't think I ate more than one serve.
Then after another long time I was thinking that I really was getting hungry. I knew what the day was likely to be like with this group of people - fun, goes on until the night, but not much vegetables once lunch is over. My plan was to bring dip and veges and leave them in our esky until I needed them. I bought what I needed but forgot to get it ready this morning! So I wondered how I would go. Then I remembered - my emergency crackers in the glove box of our car - yes. That helped a lot. I had a couple with some more of the fruit. Another glass of champagne. Much later on we had leftover meat, and I added a couple more crackers and a piece of parsnip. Then we finally had some trifle. This was the dessert I knew I didn't want to miss out on - so once again I had a small serve. Loved it, felt a fleeting impulse to pigging out on it. The leftovers are at our house now, so I sort of could. Only I don't want to. I won't. In the morning I will sleep in, then I will have my normal breakfast and go back on my plan.

So overall it has been a nice Christmas. I feel like I was able to enjoy the special food while maintaining my attitude and feeling ready to carry on with my plan - no cravings at this stage!
 
Merry Christmas!!!!

Hi Felici!

Merry Christmas to you! I hope you have a wonderful Boxing Day also! I had never heard of that before!!! :)

Give your kids a big hug and say Merry Christmas all the way from Kansas USA!

Julie
 
I have wanted to put the plan I am (sort of) following on here for some time but it took me a lot of mucking around to figure out how. Chai cat was asking about a hypoglycaemic diet yesterday and so I have had another go, and think I have put it up in a way that makes it accessible. If anyone is ever wanting more info or can’t get it from the links I am always happy to try to get it to them.

I was given this 13 years ago when I had gestational diabetes. I found it pretty easy to follow, but I did have the help of a dietician to learn how to manage it, and at that time I was measuring my blood sugars all day so I could see that it was working for me and keeping them even. Because I was pregnant I was scrupulous to include everything, and yet never go over.

I really liked the original format I got it in because all the information fitted on a single A4 page and I just photocopied it and put one on the refrigerator, one in my bag, and one on file, so it was easy to check. I have already spent a lot of time trying to find a way to post that one page on the web so it is easy to read, but I couldn’t do it the way I wanted. However I have posted it below, and it should come up with an icon in the bottom right hand corner (square plus arrows), which will expand it enough to make it readable.



Also there is this – it is sideways but printable – it comes out a bit smaller than A4 size and readable.



Mostly if something isn’t on there at all it is because it is too high in fat, or too high in sugar, or both. Examples are avocado and nuts. Nuts are so good for you though that I may start substituting them for one of my protein serves. Based on the info I got recently from another dietician 1 serve of protein is about equal to 45 gm (1.6 oz) nuts/seeds, and 225 gm (8 oz) legumes (soya beans, baked beans, kidney beans chick peas, split peas or lentils). The legumes are tricky though because I was originally told that they have so much carbohydrate in them that they need to be counted as a carbohydrate. EDIT: Probably they count them as protein instead now because since I was given this program dieticians look at glycaemic index (GI)instead of starch. They still seem to keep everything else in the same categories though. Peas, corn, parsnips and potato are still complex carbohydrates.

I was taught that it is not so good to have fruit or milk as a snack by itself because though they are healthy and needed to balance your diet, they have a bit of sugar in them. It is better to add a serve of complex carbohydrates or vegetables to increase the level of fibre and slow down sugar absorption.

I have seen a diet that was supposed to be suitable for diabetics and had smaller portions of protein and complex carbohydrates, and (for me) included only vegetables for the compulsory snacks. It is not suitable for ongoing use because the calories are too low. I wouldn’t bother with it as a starting diet because I wouldn’t want to take the risk of adding insufficient calories to the stress of starting my program. It is supposed to be suitable for diabetics. At 1100 calories a day I still think it was a poor choice for me to start on and I didn’t. I started with something very close to my old gestational diabetes diet. However as time has gone on I have found myself dropping the number of serves a bit, and leaving out some of the fat serves altogether. What I eat now is somewhere between the old plan and the 1100 cal. diet.



Compared with the original I add an extra ½ serve of protein at breakfast time and usually have about 1 ½ serves of protein at dinner. That feels more balanced for me. I think having a little protein at breakfast helps set me up for the day.

I try to have ½ a glass of tomato juice at breakfast and count it as a serve of vegetables. It probably doesn’t have enough fibre though. Not having proper veges then is just because I find it a bit of bother to prepare veges that seem breakfasty to me. Now that I’m more comfortable, I have also been a bit slack about getting all my fruit in. Hopefully the fact that I often have lots of extra free vegetables helps balance these omissions. I probably should make more effort. It would be easy to include a little tinned peaches on my morning weetbix.

When I started this time I was a bit over for carbohydrate on my breakfast, and had a serve of fat and a spoon of (not allowed) jam (jelly). After a while I cut out one serve of carbohydrate and just now I am trying with one less serve again, plus no fat and no jam.

These days I don't put all the snacks in because I feel like I can manage without them, but if someone was taking tablets for diabetes they should be included. I didn’t deliberately cut them out. I just quite often found that I wasn’t hungry and had forgotten to eat them and it was time for the next meal.

I also eat cottage cheese – that wasn’t on my plan because I was pregnant but is ok if you’re not pregnant.
If I have yogurt, I usually have a whole tub. I dislike doing half fruits and half tubs.

Most of the time I skip fat during the day but may have one serve at breakfast. I sometimes go a bit over at dinner time.
 
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I had decided to sleep in this morning so no early walk, but later I went for a short walk in a nearby bush reserve with my husband and our dog. It is a hot day. That was long enough for us all for then. I have started to really appreciate the dog as a walking companion. She is always eager to go and gives me lots of loving looks and is ready when I am. I think having a companion helps a lot but human companions are not always easy to come by and it is a lot harder to get the timing right with them!!

Dinner time was a bit confused. I didn’t realize the time and only ate some veges after I started feeling a bit light headed. Then my husband asked me to finish off making the meal he had started and I realized it was quite late already. I ate quickly and rushed out for my walk and didn’t have my yoghurt till later. I don’t think it’s a good idea rushing out like that. Either that or I’m not well, because I spent the second half of the walk hanging out to get home and go to the loo. It was nice and cool out though.

Weigh in tomorrow. I wonder how I'll go.


Breakfast ~8:30 2 weetbix., 1 C soya milk. 1 boiled egg, 1 C coffee with 50ml Hi-Lo milk ½ C tomato juice Lunch ~ 12.00 Chicken sandwich (2 slices wholemeal bread, 1 piece of chicken, 1 mushroom, ½ cucumber. ½ C grapes. Dinner: 6:00 1 carrot, 1 stick celery, 8 sugar snap peas. 7:30 Curried prawns. (Sauce drained) ~ 130 gm prawns, ¼ onion, ½ tomato. ? fat. 1 C basmati rice. About 1 ½ hrs later, 1 tub diet apricot yoghurt.Exercise: 10:30 am 20 min moderate pace. 8:15 pm 45 minute moderate paced walk. Water: 3000ml +Yesterday’s Bedtime: 12:00
On plan:28 days Achieved food target: 24 days Exercised: 19 days All goals: 5 days.
 
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