Feeling Slimmer

Convinced myself I felt slimmer today, of course, I have no scales to verify this. Onwards and downwards.

Today I ate: -

• Scrambled egg with smoked salmon
• Pork mayonnaise, salad leaves
• Sausagemeat patties, asparagus, tomato and red onion sauce, blue cheese dressing
• Cheddar

Last Day of Term!

So the plan was to start a four day week today but I ended up going in to work this morning. D'oh! I've felt over-stretched for quite a long time and I think taking Fridays to sort out my home and do all my other jobs will help a lot. I am taking some time off over Easter and so I did need to go in today but hopefully after Easter break I can use Fridays as catch-up and life will be a little calmer. I believe it will help me not to stress eat so much.

Today I ate: -

• Sausage, half a tomato
• Vegetable soup with parmesan
• Steak Diane, char-grilled aubergines, salad leaves
• Cheddar
• Ham

Pig to Twig

29th March 2007

I have been checking out the pig2twig forum which India and Neris started up to support the Idiot-Proof Diet. It's extremely good. It answers lots of questions and offers great ideas.

Today I ate: -

• Miso soup and tofu
• Vegetable soup
• Smoked salmon and cream cheese
• 2 Frikadellan with melted cheese, salad leaves, mayo
• Ham and cream cheese roll-ups

Goodbye Scales

Couldn't cope with the scales so I took them to Beloved's office. I'll get them back after Easter. Feel better not having them in the house.

Today I ate: -

• Sausage, half a tomato
• Vegetable soup
• Taleggio
• Pork chop, Taleggio cream onion sauce, dressed salad leaves, slice of char-grilled courgette

Taleggio

Bought some fantastic Taleggio today, melt in the mouth with a scrumptious crust.

Today I ate: -

• Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon
• Vegetable soup with parmesan
• Taleggio
• Smoked sausage, tomato, pepper sauce with char-grilled aubergines

Slept In!

Woke up at 6am when Beloved was leaving for work, woke up again at 8am when the kids and I should have been leaving for school! Ran round like a mad thing and we drove to the Funfriends to pick up their middle child and he was ill! Dropped kids off at school in the car so I missed out on my run, had breakfast and now I'm at work. My 10.30am lady failed to attend. Aaaaargh!

I have decided to carry on with India and Neris's diet but cut down on the snacks.

Today I ate: -

• Miso soup with tofu
• Vegetable soup with parmesan
• Red pepper stuffed with spicy lamb, char-grilled courgettes, gem lettuce

Sunday Blues

Started feeling low half way through church service. Protein binge, but isn't that better than a carb binge?

Today I ate: -

• scrambled egg, avocado
• Avocado, blue cheese dressing, dressed salad leaves
• Brie
• Pepper soft cheese
• cheddar
• ham
• Roast cod with lime and cherry tomatoes, dressed salad leaves, fried portabello mushrooms

Swim

Today I went for a swim whilst Beloved entertained the kids. Do you know I have belonged to that gym for two years and I've never used the pool and it's fantastic!!! Lovely big changing rooms too with nice hot showers. My membership runs out in April and I decided not to renew as with my schedule it's so hard to get there. I bought an ipod with the renewal money instead as I am going to continue running and I like the music on when I run. Bought one of those cute arm ipod holder strap things.

Today I ate: -

• Avocado, smoked salmon, blue cheese dressing
• Chicken wrapped in bacon, dressed salad leaves
• Pepper soft cheese
• Char-grilled aubergines, smoked sausage in yellow pepper, dwarf leek and tomato sauce, salad leaves

Cracking Cheese Gromit!

Went to Lidl today to re-stock on the cheese, bought the faux Boursin, Brie and Parmesan. Definately feeling better not gorging on refined carbs!

Today I ate: -

• Sausage, mushrooms
• Roast butternut squash soup
• Double Gloucester
• Chicken wrapped in bacon, savoy cabbage, braised fennel, half a portabello mushroom
• Brie

Fishy Day

Stressed about not weighing myself. I have put the scales in one of the drawers under our bed, don't know if I'll be able to last until Sunday.

Today I ate: -

• Avocado, smoked salmon, blue cheese dressing
• Tuna mayo, dressed salad leaves
• Roast cod with chery tomatoes, dressed salad leaves
• Double Gloucester

Cold Turkey

I am going to try not to weigh myself for three days. That sounds a lot when I write it down as I compulsively weigh myself minimum twice a day. The low-carb thing is going fine. It is, however, expensive compared to low-fat/high-carb. When I overeat, either through greed or emotional eating, I most often consume refined carbs; cake, pastries, bread anything doughy. After a couple of low-carb days I have lost the bloaty feeling already. I am hoping going cold turkey (and you can eat unlimited cold turkey on this plan!) on the carbs will help me break the habit/addiction.

Today I ate: -

• Sausage and fried cauliflower mash cakes
• Roast butternut squash soup with parmesan
• Ham
• Tarragon chicken, stirfry cabbage and leeks, cauliflower mash
• Double Gloucester

Low-carb

So my sister bought me Neris and India's Idiot-proof diet for my birthday and I'm going to give it a go.

Today I ate: -

• Sausage and mushrooms
• Ham and cream cheese roll ups, salad leaves dressed with olive oil and lime
• Beef stew, cauliflower mash
• A load of double Gloucester cheese

Comuter Problems!

Funfriends are coming round to have a look at the laptop, hopefully then I'll be able to do a proper post.

Happy Birthday To Me!

It's my birthday and I'm 39 years old today! It's been a great day so far. The kids crawled in to bed with me to say happy birthday and Eldest gave me a purple plastic heart, which had obviously fallen off something, which was so sweet. My parents left me a "fish cake", a big cake made in the shape of a fish actually made from fish cake with tiger prawn scales. Apparently the kids help make it yesterday. My parents also got the kids to paint a big box and they filled it with baby vegetables, a luxurious organic veg box. Writingfriend got me the whole first series (23 episodes!!) of Little House on the Prairie on DVD. I cannot wait to watch this with the kids as it was one of my favourite shows when I was growing up and I love pioneer, homespun things. Beloved left a stack of presents, allsorts of my favourite things. The Funfriends dropped round a present which I didn't have time to open and I got some other gifts too! What a fabulous start to the day! I made Youngest a ham omelette and Eldest a turkey bacon sandwich as Dr Phil said you should give your kids protein before they go to school, it's brain food! Ran back from school drop-off (listened to Cat Stevens singing Morning has Broken and all felt right with the world)

I have just finished my CLAIT computer assessment, our invigilator put on a red nose for Comic Relief (I often share my birthday with Red Nose Day). I am having lunch at the college restaurant with my Mum, Readingfriend, Tidyfriend and Tidybaby. The restaurant is run by the catering students, the food is great and incredibly cheap which makes it one of our favourite lunch venues. The service is hilarious, if you ask one of the serving staff a question it throws them in to a tizzy and they always say "I'll just go and ask my manager". Last time our young waiter took our coffee order five times!

Today I ate: -

• Peanut butter on toast
• Mackeral fillets, mustard sauce, bubble and squeak, red cabbage, ratatouille, carrots
• Christmas pudding, custard
• Fish cake, veg

Fun with Vegetables!

Yesterday the kids and I had a Star Wars light sabre fight with the asparagus. Youngest had the great idea of holding two asparagus spears end to end to make a double ended sabre like the one Darth Maul fought with. Darth Sparagus!

More fun on the vegetable front this morning when my practice manager gave me a chocolate and beetroot birthday cake. Delicious, quite a sophisticated taste.

Today I ate: -

• Super high fibre cereal
• Chocolate and beetroot cake
• Thai salad (Moosewood Cookbook)
• Dolcelatte
• Peanut butter on toast
• Chip butty

Bootylicious

I ran (slow jogged!) the whole way home from school this morning. The weather is amazing, sunny and bright, and I had Destiny's Child belting out Bootylicious in my ear. Came home and did the 7 minute work-out. I can't do the full press-ups yet but I'm working on it and I finish them off on my knees. I guess one of my main problems has been inconsistency. Since I have had this blog I have

• Lost 12 pounds
• Gained 13 pounds
• Lost 6 pounds

See what I mean! I am really gung-ho for a time and then something happens, in this case it was Christmas, and I fall in to a very unhealthy lifestyle again.

Today I ate: -

• Super high fibre cereal
• Half a carton New Covent Garden smoked ham and lentil soup
• Meatballs in tomato and veg sauce, wholewheat spagetti with shredded cabbage and leek, asparagus

Don't Stop Me Now!

I am so motivated at the moment to eat healthily and exercise in spite, I might add, some serious discouragement. Let me share: -

1. I bought a new top with my Christmas vouchers and I wore it to church this Sunday. A lady approached me and said "That blouse is very slimming, isn't it". I translated this as "You are enormously fat, but the blouse covers up some of the blubber".
2. I went on a community visit at work and the elderly lady I was visiting said to me "You're not the lady who came before!". I said that I indeed did visit her before and she replied "Have you gained weight?".
3. We were watching the news tonight and there was an item reporting GPs "wasting" their time dealing with seriously overweight people. Youngest pointed at me and shouted "Like Mummy".

Well, they can say what they want, I'm on a roll (and it's not a cheese roll!). After reading Dietgirl's post on planks, we had a family plank session this evening. Youngest said the side plank was really easy, I looked up and he was just lying on his side!

Today I ate: -

• Super high fibre cereal
• Avocado and cherry tomato salad
• Banana
• Chillie, basmati rice, broccoli, peas
• Pineapple

School Run

Decided to do a literal school run this afternoon. Usually I run when I'm less likely to be seen but today I put on my running kit after work and set out. I have lost a lot of fitness since I used to run a few years ago. I got to the point where I could run a 5km fun run in a reasonable time. I thought the kids would go beserk when they found out we were walking home but I just didn't mention it and we were so involved with discussing Nintendogs that we were a fair way home before Eldest asked "Where's the car?". I answered "In our road!". We ran the last few blocks as we didn't want to miss Shaun the Sheep. We're big Aardman fans. It was really fun and I kept calling out the time. The kids run way better than me. Felt great when we got home and Shaun the Sheep was excellent.

Today I ate: -

• Rude Health organic museli
• Rest of the cream of chicken soup
• Clementine (or satsuma or maybe a tangerine, it was definately some kind of citrus fruit)
• Small portion of steak and kidney pudding, ratatouille, baby corn, mange tout
• Baked apple with sultanas, cream

Chariots of Fire

Watched Chariots of Fire this evening. Love that film, wasn't Eric Liddell just fantastic. I can remember watching it with my family when it first came out and my Dad leaning over at one of the most moving parts to tell me that the radiator in the Parisian hotel room was incorrect. They definately would not have had that radiator in Paris in 1924. He is a stickler for architectural accuracy, he always points out plastic guttering in period dramas.

Ended up not eating well today, although started out well. I always carb out on Sundays. I ate so much of the rye bread, one of Nigella's recipes, that I was totally stuffed and didn't eat my fruit and veg (although there was a load of leeks in the soup which was also one of Nigella's recipes, what would I do without her?).

Today I ate: -

• Quaker Oatso Simple
• Homemade cream of chicken soup
• Homemade Finnish rye bread, cheddar
• Ham and cheese muffin
• Houmus

Chicken and Mango Casserole

Borrowed Tana Ramsay's Family Kitchen from the library and I am making the chicken and mango casserole for dinner. Also making the kids the ham and cheese muffins for lunch. I am a terrible spoon-licker so I will have to avoid temptation or I will never look like the glamourous Mrs Ramsay!

Today I ate: -

• Super high fibre cereal
• Half a carton New Covent Garden lentil and smoked bacon soup
• Ham and cheese muffin
• Chicken and mango casserole, basmati rice, baby corn, carrots, peas

Date Night

Beloved and I are going on a date tonight. This is usually an excuse to eat vast quantities of high calorie food. I am going to make a sensible choice this time. It's good to get out, we have been so work orientated lately. Feels like we haven't looked up from the plough for a long time.

Today I ate: -

• High bran seed with cranberry bagel, honey
• Smoked mackeral salad
• Greek meze
• Strawberry cheescake

NB. The cheesecake was so not worth it, next time I shall ask if it's handmade.

Banana Bread Alert

A birthday at work today so I made Nigella's banana bread as I wanted to avoid the temptation of batter and frosting. As I was heating the sultanas with the dark rum the rum caught fire. I panicked and instead of covering the pan with a lid I tried to blow the fire out. The resulting mini-fireball burned off a small amount of my hair and about 15% of my left eyebrow. Baked goods are dangerous!

Today I ate: -

• Super high fibre cereal
• Half a carton New Covent Garden smoked haddock chowder
• Smoked mackeral salad
• Pineapple