Day 202: Birthday net meet
Posted by Paola
I hosted this month’s net meet. It coincided with my birthday which I didn’t announce beforehand (but my observant Facebook contacts read about).
10:15am Cottage cheese with rye bread + strawberries + pint of fizzy squash
| 1 serving | calories | protein | carbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| strawberries | 29 | 0.6 | 7.0 |
| wholegrain rye bread | 95 | 3.0 | 19.2 |
| cottage cheese | 150 | 23.2 | 9.0 |
| Total | 274 | 27 | 35 |
3:30-6pm BBQ
We got a BBQ going. I provided all but the meat and fish, and had asked people to bring some drinks.
For myself, I bought fruit, veg and halloumi cheese to make kebabs. I made my beetroot and mozzarella salad plus a to-dress salad of lettuce, spinach, rocket, slivers of soft prunes, halved green grapes and small chunks of pear.
When chopping pineapple for kebabs, I realised I also had cheddar and could make one of my favourite snacks: pineapple and cheese on sticks. I photographed the plate to blog to let you know that I could have happily eaten the whole dish.
I didn’t bother documenting or counting calories. I’ll estimate 1,000 calories for lunch. (The skinny milk lolly was 94 calories.)
9pm Gin & tonic + crisps + dip + fruit
At the end of the meet, we were left with crisps, an unopened tomato dip and chocolates. I said I’d throw away the crisps and Anna asked, “what about the chocolate?” I said that Frank would eat them. Instead, having also found a bottle of Indian Tonic Water when we were clearing up later, Frank made us big gin & tonics which we sipped while watching the Daily Show and munching on the crisps and the dip. I then had the rest of the grapes and pear.
11pm Beetroot and mozzarella salad + baguette
| Day 202 | calories | protein | carbs | fat | fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 274 | 27 | 35 | 2 | 6 |
| Lunch* | 1,000 | ||||
| Snack* | 500 | ||||
| Dinner* | 250 | ||||
| Other drinks | 100 | ||||
| Total estimated | 2,124 | 27 | 35 | 2 | 6 |
| 40% | 53% | 7% | |||
| Allowance | 1,200 | 75 – 105g 25 – 35% |
120 – 165g 40 – 55% |
33 – 40g 25 – 30% |
|
Day 201: Ups and downs
Posted by Paola
10:30am Bran flakes with banana + squash
| 1 serving | calories | protein | carbs | fat | fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| semi-skimmed milk | 37 | 2.6 | 3.8 | 1.3 | 0.0 |
| banana | 53 | 0.7 | 13.5 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| bran flakes | 134 | 4.1 | 26.8 | 1.0 | 5.6 |
| Total | 223 | 7 | 44 | 2 | 7 |
2:30pm Beef with prunes and bread
Desperate combination of Tesco beef-style strips, soft prunes and torn bread heated up with balsamic and honey. Strange but nice!
| 255g serving | calories | protein | carbs | fat | fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| balsamic vinegar | 22 | 0.1 | 4.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| honey | 53 | 0.2 | 13.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| soft prunes | 59 | 1.0 | 13.4 | 0.2 | 3.1 |
| wholemeal bread | 74 | 3.6 | 13.2 | 0.8 | 2.8 |
| beef-style strips | 267 | 36.4 | 16.3 | 5.9 | 1.0 |
| Total | 475 | 41 | 61 | 7 | 7 |
5pm-ish Red pepper and cream cheese wrap + biscotti + tea @ Costa Coffee
The meal before the overdue food shop. I remember the wrap was 190 calories but forgot to ask for the packaging.
| 1 serving | calories | protein | carbs | fat | fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| almond biscotti | 165 | 3.8 | 22.8 | 6.3 | 1.3 |
| red pepper wrap | 190 | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Total | 355 | 4 | 23 | 6 | 1 |
I was in a great mood in the early evening but crashed later on and went to bed feeling very low. These mood swings are very annoying.
| Day 201 | calories | protein | carbs | fat | fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 223 | 7 | 44 | 2 | 7 |
| Lunch | 475 | 41 | 61 | 7 | 7 |
| Dinner | 355 | 4 | 23 | 6 | 1 |
| Other drinks | 100 | ||||
| Total | 1,153 | 52 | 127 | 16 | 15 |
| 24% | 59% | 16% | |||
| Allowance | 1,200 | 75 – 105g 25 – 35% |
120 – 165g 40 – 55% |
33 – 40g 25 – 30% |
|
Week 17 weigh in
Posted by Anna
Up 2lbs (1 kg) on last week and back to the weight I was 3 weeks ago.
I Only Perspire
Posted by Sylvia
I’ve continued my trend of moderating food and drink without tracking and without driving myself crazy. I didn’t walk yesterday but I have walked every other day, making a point of walking up the hill (steep, hot, definitely a cardio work-out) to try to mitigate the damage. We went to the village festival and although I had sausages and beer, I drank one diet coke for every beer I consumed. This had the unfortunate side-effect of keeping me happily awake until 4am but I still think the calories end up much less by this kind of balancing.
That said, I don’t really trust my weigh-in results. In fact, I waited a couple of days before updating to make sure it wasn’t just a blip or the scale being funky.
Last two weigh-ins were 75.8 and 76.1 so this would imply, even if the 76.1 was water retention, that I’m now actively losing weight at a very slow rate. However, based on my actual food intake (and I’m not taking the pills, no point if I’m not doing portion control), I don’t think that is right.
I’m not drinking anywhere near as much water and it’s VERY hot, so I think part of that may be dehydration. Only I could end up losing water weight by stopping a diet. *grumble*
However, it seems clear that I am definitely not GAINING weight so even if next week it shows 75.8 again, I’ll be happy. And if it shows 74.9, I’ll be ecstatic.
As long as it is hot, salads seem most appropriate anyway, so it’s not really that much of a hardship. :)
Edit: Cliff says it’s very noticeable that I’m eating much less than I was previous to the diet and that he’s not surprised that I’m still losing weight. Maybe I’m making better choices than I think I am. Things are calming down now so I might look at tracking next week, although just the fact that it’s not so busy means things will change.
Maybe I do more boredom eating than I realise.
Off the rails
Posted by Anna
Thursday turned out to be the precursor for a rather rapid slide downhill on Friday. I don’t really know what happened and can only speculate as to why. But yesterday I ate and ate and ate — not vast amounts, but just all the “wrong things” (i.e. stuff I’ve been avoiding on my diet). I can’t remember all that I ate and to be honest, can’t be bothered trying to figure out the calories of all the stuff I do remember eating. The 2500 on the table is an estimate. I don’t believe it was more than that, but it probably wasn’t much less.
Why did it happen? I’m not sure — I just know I had a real “I don’t care” attitude and because I wasn’t bothered, I didn’t self-regulate. One of my work-friends who I socialise with outside of work had a birthday and a group of us went to the park at lunchtime for a picnic. I took all the “right things” but others had brought biscuits, nuts and other treats and in the end, I just joined in. Also, it was the last day for one of the training team and in the afternoon we had a big send off for her, which included lots of the ubiquetous cake and savoury snacks and then repaired to the pub where more (fattening) snacks were on offer. When I got home around 9:30pm, I indulged in a couple of shortbread biscuits from one of the packs I have in my larder and *really* enjoyed them.
Some of the things I can speculate why I reached that place: 1. I’ve been in constant pain for weeks with my feet and it’s grinding me down. 2. My boss was being very difficult with me on Wednesday, leaving me feeling both uncomfortable and upset and I’ve felt miserable ever since. His utter lack of empathy or any degree of self-awareness makes it almost impossible to give him feedback on his behaviour, because he simply doesn’t get it (I tried). 3. One of the training team left on Friday just when I was getting very comfortable with her — she joined the team a year ago and I think saw me as a ‘threat’ so treated me accordingly. It took her a long time to realise I wasn’t and then change and the last few months have seen a very productive and satisfying professional relationship. 4. My weight went up the day after the weigh in (quite possibly water retention from my constantly swollen foot) and I felt as if everything I’m doing to try to lose weight has stopped making a difference. 5. I’m fed up with dieting and constantly having to figure out all the calories of every single thing I’ve eaten.
I will get back ‘on the rails’ today.
| All | Far too much | 2,500 |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-total | 2,500 | |
| Total Calories | 2,500 | |
Day 200: A tale of two onions
Posted by Paola
11:50am Fried egg sandwich + frozen banana + tea + pint of fizzy squash
| 1 serving | calories | protein | carbs | fat | fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| spray rapeseed oil | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 |
| Heinz reduced ketchup | 8 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| extra-light soft cheese | 42 | 5.5 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 0.0 |
| large organic free-range egg | 93 | 7.8 | 0.0 | 6.8 | 0.1 |
| banana | 107 | 1.3 | 27.5 | 0.4 | 3.2 |
| wholemeal bread | 115 | 5.6 | 20.6 | 1.2 | 4.4 |
| Total | 369 | 20 | 51 | 11 | 8 |
2:45pm Frankfurters, onion and potatoes
I microwaved the onion for a minute with the sausages. Still, it’s an onion and my remaining veg.
| 1 serving | calories | protein | carbs | fat | fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| red onion | 47 | 1.0 | 11.2 | 0.1 | 1.6 |
| sweet chilli sauce | 49 | 0.2 | 12.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| potatoes | 90 | 2.0 | 20.7 | 0.1 | 1.9 |
| vegetarian frankfurters | 135 | 10.8 | 1.6 | 9.0 | 1.2 |
| Total | 320 | 14 | 46 | 9 | 5 |
5:45pm Creamy beef with onion and potatoes
Beef-style pieces from Tesco warmed with another whole onion and potatoes. I then added some soft (cream) cheese and horseradish. Quite nice.
| 1 serving | calories | protein | carbs | fat | fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| red chilli | 8 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| horseradish sauce | 24 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 1.4 | 0.5 |
| red onion | 42 | 0.9 | 10.1 | 0.1 | 1.4 |
| extra-light soft cheese | 49 | 6.4 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 0.0 |
| potatoes | 86 | 1.9 | 19.9 | 0.1 | 1.8 |
| beef-style strips | 205 | 28.0 | 12.5 | 4.5 | 0.8 |
| Total | 415 | 38 | 48 | 8 | 5 |
Afternoon drink: pint of fizzy squash
9:10pm Burger sandwich + pint of fizzy squash
| 1 serving | calories | protein | carbs | fat | fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pickled jalepeno | 3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| spray rapeseed oil | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 |
| hamisha cucumber | 5 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| Peppadew | 15 | 0.1 | 3.6 | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| extra-light soft cheese | 31 | 4.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.0 |
| wholemeal bread | 111 | 5.4 | 19.8 | 1.2 | 4.2 |
| Quorn quarter-pounder | 157 | 20.4 | 7.4 | 1.1 | 5.1 |
| Total | 327 | 30 | 33 | 4 | 10 |
I seem to have had one meal too many.
| Day 200 | calories | protein | carbs | fat | fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 369 | 20 | 51 | 11 | 8 |
| Lunch | 320 | 14 | 46 | 9 | 5 |
| Drunch | 415 | 38 | 48 | 8 | 5 |
| Dinner | 327 | 30 | 33 | 4 | 10 |
| Other drinks | 100 | ||||
| Total | 1,531 | 103 | 178 | 32 | 27 |
| 29% | 51% | 20% | |||
| Allowance | 1,200 | 75 – 105g 25 – 35% |
120 – 165g 40 – 55% |
33 – 40g 25 – 30% |
|
Malteser madness!
Posted by Anna
I don’t really know why I did it, but I opened a box of Maltesers which was sitting on my desk (the left over from some prizes we got for a course earlier in the week) and then took one at a time and sucked on it until it melted in my mouth. I grazed on quite a few of them over the course of the last 90 minutes of the day. I don’t really know why I did it, in the sense that I wasn’t hungry, I wasn’t feeling tired and I wasn’t feeling low/depressed.
Emma called me at work feeling very down so I treated her to a nice dinner out this evening. She likes Italian so we went to a restaurant that we’ve only been to a couple of times before and had delicious meals. My calorie count is an estimate — I left pasta on my plate, simply because my stomach has shrunk and I can’t eat as much as I used to. I didn’t have a starter or dessert.
I will be a good girl tomorrow. :-)
| Breakfast | Yoghurt | 75 |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-total | 75 | |
| Lunch | Salad | 80 |
| Cottage cheese | 208 | |
| Small bread roll | 150 | |
| Sub-total | 438 | |
| Dinner | Chicken & brocolli w/ pasta | 500 |
| Sub-total | 500 | |
| Snacks | Fresh pineapple | 85 |
| Maltesers | 300 | |
| Sub-total | 385 | |
| Drinks | 2 cups of tea + various 0 cal bevs | 20 |
| Sub-total | 20 | |
| Total Calories | 1,418 | |
