Current weight 12 stone 13 lbs…which is roughly 82.1 kg or 181 lbs
I started my vacation yesterday, by that I mean I am off work as I do not go away until tomorrow for a well needed break to catch up with friends and have a drink or two! June for me was the longest month of the year by a long shot and the gaining of 6lbs in the month has done nothing to improve my mood shall we say. My hayfever arrived the latest ever right in the last week…however, for the first time ever has continued into July and I took my last prescription tablet for it today as I didn’t think I would need them. At the moment I am feeling sorry for myself, perhaps not the time to write the blog hahaha.
So, below should be a breakdown of food spending for the month…this does not show the half of it but it does not scream healthy body healthy bank at all and next May I am going to prepare for June! Perhaps I need to take some leave during that time…unfortunately, a burst blister and other things meant the receipts are going to have to wait for another blog, sorry. I did, however, spend £359 roughly to give you an idea how bad the month was.
I have done some lovely cooking this week making a chickpea curry and dhal over the weekend, but will wait a few weeks to share those as they were being trialled before I took photos. I will aim to post next Tuesday also, but it may not happen purely as I do not return until around midnight on Tuesday, but if my friends have scales I shall weigh myself so the correct weight will be tracked, apart from drink I am hopeful temptations are removed…trying not to think about their online shop which they run from the house that has lots of yummy American snacks!
Current weight 12 stone 12 lbs…which is roughly 81.64 kg or 180 lbs
I have to firstly apologise as I know you all wait with baited breath for my blog (yes I am laughing whilst I type this) and it is the first Tuesday I have missed in 47 weeks and I have no real excuse, there were times yesterday when I was at a computer and could have written this, I was just so annoyed when I weighed myself I guess, and tired, and stressed and etc etc etc…
So what has changed for me you ask…well nothing, work is still busy, I am still not getting enough sleep and so am not making the best choices with food and I am counting down to being on leave next week, and yet circumstances may make my leave time just as stressful.
I guess I just need to keep going with the hope that things generally do sort themselves out, we know this, and Saturday, regardless of what has happened…will arrive and I will be on leave even if I have eaten my weight in crisps and chocolate by then!
So apologies again for not only a late blog, but also a very short blog.
Current weight 12 stone 11 lbs…which is roughly 81.18 kg or 179 lbs
So, the issues continue on again for another week! But it has been quite enlightening shall we say despite the fact in 3 weeks I have gained 4 lbs…
So last week I talked about stress and the impact it was having on my diet, and literally the following day last week I suddenly thought about sleep and how I had not been sleeping well, and the impact on that is quite marked. So, you do not sleep well, so you are tired (I fell asleep 3 times in front of the TV last week before 10pm). You are tired so you do not make your breakfast in advance, you haven’t planned or made lunch and your evening meal is an afterthought, snacks what are snacks…
So tiredness and craving the wrong type of foods is quite key. In addition June is a receipt keeping month, and wow, is all I can say having spent over £200 already on food this month and we are not 2 thirds in yet. So, a little bit of stress and tiredness can actually have quite a vast impact on things (and that is without mentioning the weight gain!)
So (fourth sentence starting with ‘so’ note) we can see what the issues are, and we know to a certain extent part of what was causing them, now it is how do we deal with this. I have been given a couple of suggestions, of what to eat and how to keep busy to avoid snacking, nothing seems to be helping. I also thought let us just ride this out until I am back to normal again, but, well, I feel perfectly normal (apart from wanting to eat constantly that is ha ha).
So (5th time) changes I am making. I starting this week am ensuring my breakfast is prepared every morning, and there is no excuse and no need to spend money I have everything needed for this already in the house, back to overnight oats for a while, keeps me full, and is relatively easy to make. If I forget, just use granola (already in the house) with the yogurt instead.
Lunch is a bit more difficult…after watching the documentary on sandwiches and how wraps were higher calories I went onto flatbread…which is now mouldy and out of date…am going back to wraps, they have been my staple for months, more calories or not! I have food in the cupboard to put in them, I need to find the drive to overcome being too tired, and remind myself healthy food will probably help me feel more awake! My current diet is perhaps partially to blame for making me feel tired…
Evening meals…well I still have a selection of pre-cooked in the freezer and the ingredients for another set of pre-cooked food, when I reach Saturday, I need to cook. I should say the past 2 weekends have just been somewhat busy, and as I have been tired when in the house cooking has really been low down on the mood scale! But I feel a veggie chilli with lentils is definitely on my menu now!
Current weight 12 stone 8.25 lbs…which is roughly 79.94 kg or 176.25 lbs
Oh dear. The past week has again not been great and I foresee the following week not being much better! For me the most frustrating thing is I know what the issue is but am struggling currently with a solution to it, is this now the reason why people put weight on, am I really at this moment in time powerless to prevent it. Being able to label the cause of it to be stress last week did not help me as I hoped it would. I am just very busy with work at the moment and although I am striving to relax and do the things to help me switch off, other things are slotting in and causing the stress to remain. Do I actually feel really stressed out? No, I don’t but I know that I am showing the symptoms here, and others could feel the same way and perhaps not need to eat…as eating does not really help in some respects, there is no ah that’s better, because it really isn’t!!! I still want chocolate and crisps.
But part of the purpose of the blog was to give me somewhere to think about me, so positives this week, because I think we can lose sight of them. So, most importantly I am still under 80 kgs. A minor positive but still one, to hold on to. Next, I have had my pre op appointment in the past 7 days and so should be having my foot surgery soon (although I do wonder if this fact is in itself causing stress!). Next I do like to cycle in the summer when I can (and my foot is happy with cycling thankfully) and last Sunday I managed 10 miles with an average cadence of 89, sorry some of you won’t know what that means, but basically I was managing to on average do 89 spins of the pedals every minute, my target set by a mate is over 90 and two weeks ago I was at 78 so I can pretty happy with myself there! Finally, I caught up with one of my old friends last weekend for dinner with her and her family, it is nice to switch off and see old friends we don’t see often enough, before we both had kids she and I used to go to the gym 6 days a week!!! Not sure I would want to do that now even if it made me super skinny ha ha, and no I do not belong to a gym before you ask.
So, plans for the week ahead? Watch those cravings and as they lessen know that things will get easier. Summer is coming, off on holidays at the beginning of July and time finally to really relax and do some great cooking! I did forget to share this last week, I like to look at my resting heart rate on my Fitbit and last month it was down to 63 as an average for the month, the lowest it has been in the 3 years I have owned this specific Fitbit. We won’t think about what June will be…
So, have a great 7 days everyone, and what happens over the next 7 days…happens, it can only get better, right?
Current weight 12 stone 7.5 lbs…which is roughly 79.61 kg or 175.5 lbs
As you can see I have gained 1/2 lb in the past week. The past week was interesting in that I had my first ‘attack’ for want of a better word of emotional eating for a very long time. Or what I suppose would be called emotional eating. I am not proud of this but last Thursday I ate 5 bars of chocolate. Yes that does say 5 about 1000 calories worth to be exact! There is no point in going on to the why, these things happen. I think the main thing is to not get too engrossed in it, the chocolate was very tasty I should add and I slept well that night, with the knowledge that something had made me blind to common sense really. But, time to see what strategies can be helpful not for if it happens again but for when, as life can be stressful at times and sometimes we find it easier than others to not react.
I did a quick search and found this which I find interesting as it clearly mentions an increase in cortisol causes you to crave salty, sweet, and fried foods, so now I know why sometimes I really want a cooked breakfast ha ha! But seriously, I was somewhat stressed that day and did reach for chocolate, am not totally convinced the advice it gives will solve things as actually no stress would be better, but I wonder what tricks we could use to help here? Something really sweet perhaps but not 1000 calories worth? I should add my stress over the last 8 or 9 months has reduced significantly, I swim a few times a week and now the sun is out I have started cycling, I do still truly miss my running, but will be having surgery in the coming months and will be able to return to that. I think being active is key to keeping stress down, and for a certain extent that treat doesn’t need to be there as I eat treats anyway during the week. We just need to be mindful of high levels and stress and how to manage them or accept the things we can’t control! (Yes, easier said than done, and this blog was actually partly started to help with switch off from work and the stresses of life and to a certain extent works.)
In other areas, although I have not added them yet to the recipes I tried 3 new recipes over the weekend, buttered chicken, chicken and broccoli bake and no bake peanut butter and chia granola bars. I was quite happy with all 3 recipes to be honest, the latter was too tasty and had to get it away from me into the freezer quickly before I ate it all! But am aiming over this month to add them all. I am working next weekend though so it may just not happen then.
Current weight 12 stone 7 lbs…which is roughly 79.38 kg or 175 lbs
Wow, despite a pretty sedentary day yesterday I lost 1.25 lbs! I can now utter the words 12 and a half stone and I feel good! So what changed? Well nothing really, I want to say, I had 2 cooked breakfasts and went to out to dinner, but my brain was very focussed I think over the past week on portion size, and leaving extra calories for the evening if needed.
I did nearly overdo that yesterday though, as I said I was somewhat sedentary and had scrambled egg with chorizo sausage with a wrap and hot sauce for breakfast and had garlic bread and hummus for lunch, but yes, I didn’t think about snacks and then around 5pm I really came over very hungry shall we say! I did then have a couple of snacks but first of all had a banana, but was surprised at how my blood sugar appeared to drop despite me being very inactive and I would have said I had eaten enough to sustain me, but obviously not.
I shall now of course start thinking about summer food and some new recipes to try over the coming weeks, and look forward to loosing another 2 lbs as that is then my 2 stone mark. I did say and still stand by this that I had quite happy with my size and weight now, and had you said what is your ideal weight I would have said 11 stone something but now at my age I am not too sure to be honest, I do not think I have the build to weigh that little. I look in the mirror and like what I see and do believe to a certain extent that should be what it is about. I say to a certain extent as an unhealthy weight is unhealthy regardless of how happy you are when you look in the mirror. So what do the ‘facts’ say? Well according to the NHS BMI Calculator? I am still overweight…they actually want me to lose another 9lbs…which, I do find quite interesting. Medical News, however, only wants me to lose 6lbs. So tw different websites gives different answers. I think I shall just see how my body feels over the next few month and work on new recipes!
Current weight 12 stone 8.25 lbs…which is roughly 79.94 kg or 176.25 lbs
Now I can’t lie, I am very happy to have maintained my weight this morning. Last Friday when I weighed myself I had gained 3 lbs since Tuesday morning and I was not happy, but also was aware why I had made the gain over a short period of time.
I can’t lie, this past week has been really tough and I don’t totally know why, wanting to eat food I wouldn’t normally eat was part of the issue and craving fizzy drinks really didn’t help. Work has not changed, however, some of my meal choices have. I was still eating within my calories but actually a couple of burgers with brioche buns and chips made at home, all calorie counted (well roughly) didn’t keep me full, or I should say leave me with the feeling of being full. I am going to spend a few weeks not eating red meats and staying away from actual bread. I say actual bread as I eat wraps and don’t view them as bread and they are something I eat all the time! But this sudden need to eat just literal came from nowhere, in the evening I am sat arguing with myself and wanting to snack, luckily there are no snacks in my house I can just eat, only healthy choices but it isn’t as straight forward as that as I want all the things that not only are high in sugar but also waste money.
Since last Friday I needed to use an immense amount of will power to not eat sugary food, but that is not how I wish to live my life, I want to be able to eat anything I want but stay within moderation for unhealthy food and expensive food. I like to go out for a meal now and again and it is easy to make the healthy choices as I enjoy eating them but this strong urge to overeat has just crept up on me from nowhere and wonder what others do or do people just give in? I should add I am very aware of the 80/20 rule which is why I actually go out for meals, and also I drink hot chocolate most days and let’s not forget Tuesday evenings I currently have chips from the chippie every week, so I am not craving treats as I have treats, but at the moment I want them all the time.
Finally, I was reading an interesting article the other day about how the healthy way to lose weight is to lose between 1/2 and 1 lb only a week and so I think although I have lost more some weeks I am following that rule which is good, but in addition it was interesting that it also suggested that once you plateaux that is stop losing weight, to take a break of 6 months before returning back to weight loss. This was to do with your body wanting to keep what it was currently getting it and allowing it to do that. Whilst I type this I have spent half and hour trying to find the article I should add to no avail sorry!
Current weight 12 stone 8.25 lbs…which is roughly 79.94 kg or 176.25 lbs
I can’t actually believe it is week 41 already, made me realise in 11 weeks I have actually been doing this for a whole year! Do you like how I start with that! And yes, as you can see I have broken through the barrier of the 80kgs!!! I actually was weighed at the doctor’s on Friday morning where they seemed to think I was 78kgs! Now as I was standing on the scale looking down at it I can guarantee I was so not 78kgs, interestingly though it did put me slightly under 80 which just means my scales are not the same. I trust my scales though so will stick with this record! On an even better level, back into an old pair of trousers as well…only one more item to go and then I am actually happy. It was never really about the numbers and when I look in the mirror I am very happy with what I see. I don’t really think I can afford to lose much more than 1/2 a stone now or will perhaps be too skinny, but again that is my view of how I look not the view of others.
This week I have a two things to share, firstly one of my followers sent me a picture of their cauliflower pakora!
So a shout out to Hazel for this. Her verdict was yummy! Please DM me if you make one of the items as I love to see how they turn out and if others love them as much as I do.
Secondly, linked to a while back I made a Traybake and I have to say it is the only time I made something that I really did not like and it put me off of trying chickpea for a while again in a sweet tasting snack, well until the past weekend! Yes, last Saturday I decided despite no one asking me, to try the Chocolate Chickpea Fudge and OMG how tasty is that. I had to actually freeze some of them to stop me eating the whole batch… I did, however, not take any images and so can’t add it to the list of snacks yet but for those who are willing to try here is the recipe (although apologies that you need to scroll for miles before you reach it, part of the reason I add the recipe myself on here to save you time!) The only change I made was that I used agave syrup instead of maple, but not only could you so could not taste the chickpea, it was divine!
Current weight 12 stone 9.25 lbs…which is roughly 80.4 kg or 177.25 lbs
A loss of 1.75lbs over the past week, and I am very happy with that. I am also feeling sorry for myself as I have a cold! But luckily it can’t be shared through the blog so I hope everyone else is feeling fine.
This will be a shorter blog than the last few as actually not much has occurred in the past week other than me discovering that a naan bread…when it comes in a pack of 2 (I must work out how to make these myself) are actually 2 portions to each slice of bread! Calorie counting is almost like an obsession at times I tell you, but the feature on myfitnesspal where you can scan a bar code is a really useful feature.
Finally, I found a recipe for Chocolate Chickpea Fudge…but can’t decide whether to try that or not, the last snack/dessert I made using chickpeas was not nice! Would be willing to make it if someone contacts me via here asking me to do so…(trying to work out if people can actually contact me if they want to.) Oh, and before I forget, I tried the pakoras from last week using feta cheese cubes instead of cauliflower, wow is all I can say, they were really tasty!
Current weight 12 stone 11 lbs…which is roughly 81.193 kg or 179 lbs
Well an interesting week in more ways than one where I have held my weight and am happy with that. I had a lovely 3 course meal out last Friday with a lovely glass of gin! But today I want to just talk about situations where you have no control and the implications of this.
Yesterday, I was at a work conference and when I walked in my heart sank as I saw there was soup, and sandwiches. For me that is not a particular good source of fuel, so I took 4 sandwiches that equates to 2 slices of bread and the mini cup of soup and then came the bread rolls…now I do not eat bread very often and swear once I start I find it hard to stop and so 4 mini bread rolls later…I say mini…I finally felt full. The issues here? Well I logged it in myfitnesspal to give me a rough guidance and it equated to about 950 calories!!! Now, for me I was disgusted as what a waste of calories as far as I am concerned, so I now feel for future meeting in that venue I will be taking my own lunch as it would be so much easier to control my appetite towards bread specifically and actually, I am not saying it is unhealthy but, it may not necessarily be what you or I actually wish to actually eat.
On a totally different matter, my resting heart rate over the past week has dropped fantastically, you may remember the rise before Christmas when I tried the cheaper fizzy drinks from Tesco, well now it is all the way down to 63! The lowest it has been since April 2017!
New recipes have been added, finally the Blueberry Oatmeal snack bars which I strongly recommend as not only are they easy to make, they taste so yummy and freeze well too! In addition I also tried a Cauliflower Pakora which I had as a lunch but make a good snack too! We won’t talk about the Goan curry I tried, other than to say, reading tbsp instead of tsp for tamarind was a mistake you never want to make!
