Day 9 – Where Did The Willpower Come From?

3 September 2008 at 9:54 pm (food diary)

Posted by Georgina

Okay, I’m guessing this isn’t going to last, but it’s amazing how much knowing that someone else will be reading what you’re eating makes you reign yourself in. Today wasn’t categorized so much by what I ate, but more what I didn’t when I had the opportunity to, if that makes any sense. So I’m proud of me.

Plus, it gives me another light calorie day which I’m hoping to keep up all week as I’m going for a meal and drinks out with friends on Saturday evening – something I haven’t done in about 6 months so I’m fully intending to take that night completely off dieting. So having a light week at least minimizes that impact. I hope.

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Breakfast BREAD White, Toasted 159
Butter salted 36
Cup of Tea 49
MARMALADE Orange, Shredless, Average 26
Total 270

I still need to work on my breakfasts. The main problem is I’ve got into a cycle of taking in a lot of cals the evening before so I’m not really hungry in the morning. Plus, I’m not really awake, so breakfast becomes what’s easy (in this case, what hubby happens to place in front of me). At least, though, I’m getting better at having something for breakfast, which is an improvement.

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Lunch Salad (tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, grapes and carrot) 18
Jacobs CRACKERS Cream 101
Butter salted 36
Cheese cheddar 40
Tesco DRESSING French 44
Tropicana SMOOTHIE – Strawberry & Banana 135
Total 374

A really nice lunch – I enjoyed every mouthful and felt pleasantly full at the end. Smoothies get a bad rep these days, but they feature a lot at lunchtime for me because a) I don’t really enjoy eating fruit and it’s an easy way to get some vitamins and b) I feel quite full, they satisfy my sweet tooth and I don’t end up reaching for snacks in the afternoon so much.

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Afternoon Tea Cup of Tea 49
Total 49

Look, no biscuits! But then it was swimming night, so early dinner.

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Dinner OIL Olive, Average 43
Sainsbury’s BREAD Garlic, Baguette 223
Homemade 15min Pasta Sauce 92
CONCHIGLIE Cooked, Average 228
Total 586

HOW MUCH FOR THREE PIECES OF GARLIC BREAD?!! Still… they were veeeery nice. Worth every last calorie.

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Late Latte (homemade) 161
Cadbury HOT CHOCOLATE Instant Break 119
Total 280

I used to buy a latte from the shop every week when my son went swimming, but they were expensive and the shop would randomly close early so I would miss out. Making it at home and transferring in a one-cup thermos is so much cheaper, and I made a smaller portion too so it was more diet friendly while still being a treat.

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Exercise Exercise Bike (30 mins) -313
Total -313

Other exercise I also did today but didn’t count (partially because it’s hard to work out the calories burned and partially because I feel they should be part of my “normal” activity levels): doing some heavy weeding of the patio area and using stairs instead of lifts and escalators while shopping in town.

So drumroll for the final scores on the doors…

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Breakfast Toast, marmalade and tea 270
Lunch Crackers, cheese, salad and smoothie 374
Afternoon Tea Cup of Tea 49
Dinner Pasta, pasta sauce and garlic bread 586
Late Latte and hot chocolate 280
Exercise Exercise Bike -313
Total 1,246

Woo hoo, go me! Best of all, I enjoyed everything I ate – had fairly healthy meals but still had treats thrown in and don’t feel particularly hungry or hard done by.

Things I didn’t eat today, but would have done normally: while in town I resisted Lakeland’s licorice and the lovely smell wafting from the bakers, I also didn’t have a packet of hula hoops to keep the kids company after swimming (the latter being a particularly herculean effort).

Dangerous waters lie ahead though. I’m currently making a plum crumble for tomorrow (I accidentally ordered 8 punnets of plums instead of 8 plums in the shopping and I’m trying to find uses for them – going to try my hand at plum jam I think) – I just worked out the calories assuming there’s 6 portions in there… 457 cals per portion… and that’s before custard. Noooooooooo……

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Seafood Curry Yum!

3 September 2008 at 5:52 pm (food diary)

Posted by Becky

Breakfast Pepper pizza slice 200
1/2 cappucino (skinny) 35
lunch Pesto and tomatoes on bread 250?
bite of Lucy’s dinner (sausage) 50?
Dinner Seafood Korma 386
Rice 81
1 glass white wine 78
Dessert Sainsbury’s Econo Choc-ice 68
Total Calories 1,148

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Shrinking people

3 September 2008 at 4:50 pm (thoughts)

Posted by Paola

I realised something recently: I’ve never known anyone who, over a period of months, has lost significant weight.

I have never seen someone in a state of physical transition in the same way I am going through. It must actually be a bit weird to see me decrease in size if you only see me a few times a year.

And then I got to thinking that I don’t actually know very many fat people. My mother is very big (at the end of my diet, she’ll be more than twice my weight) plus a woman and a couple of guys I know through work are big. I can’t think of anyone else.

In the same way that I walk into a room full of people and realise that I’m the only non-white person, I also invariably notice that I’m the only person who’s overweight and that has not been a nice feeling.

I reckon that there are some places in America that such a scenario would sound alien.

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Day 240: Sun-dried tomatoes

3 September 2008 at 12:52 am (food diary, photo)

Posted by Paola

1:45pm  Cottage cheese salad + apple + tea

No olive oil. I would never have imagined that I’d have a salad with no olive oil, but 5ml of oil isn’t discernible in my big salads and I’d rather use the 40+ calories elsewhere.

1 serving calories protein carbs fat fibre
spring onion 11 0.6 2.5 0.1 0.9
lemon juice 12 0.2 4.1 0.0 0.2
tomato 19 0.8 3.3 0.3 1.3
lettuce 21 1.1 2.4 0.7 1.3
sun-dried tomatoes 22 0.7 2.6 1.5 0.7
apple 32 0.0 8.9 0.0 2.0
Thin Crisp 42 1.4 8.2 0.3 2.5
cottage cheese 76 11.7 4.5 0.5 0.0
Total 235 17 36 3 9

It occurred to me to put my sun-dried tomatoes in the food processor to make them easier to sprinkle on my meals. The Julian Graves “health food” chain are the cheapest source of dried tomatoes that I know of – much cheaper than the small supermarket packets.

4:30pm  Beef, beans and tomatoes with dumplings + figs + pint of squash

452g serving calories protein carbs fat fibre
sun-dried tomatoes 20 0.7 2.3 1.3 0.7
extra virgin olive oil 25 0.0 0.0 2.7 0.0
fat-free yoghurt 36 6.2 2.1 0.1 0.0
soft figs 79 1.0 17.6 0.5 4.2
beans, beef and tomatoes w/dumplings 272 18.7 39.7 5.0 10.8
Total 431 27 62 10 16

6:30pm  Warmed apple + coffee

With Marcus, after trying an apple on my new cheese grater box from Ikea.

8:40pm  Braised cabbage with cottage cheese + frozen banana

322g serving calories protein carbs fat fibre
sun-dried tomatoes 20 0.7 2.3 1.3 0.7
honey 30 0.1 7.2 0.0 0.0
extra virgin olive oil 33 0.0 0.0 3.7 0.0
balsamic vinegar 34 0.1 7.4 0.0 0.0
cabbage 70 4.4 10.6 1.0 6.5
cottage cheese 72 11.1 4.3 0.5 0.0
banana 80 1.0 20.6 0.3 2.4
Total 339 17 52 7 9

The day’s totals:

Day 240 calories protein carbs fat fibre
Breakfast 235 17 36 3 9
Lunch 431 27 62 10 16
Snack 32 0 9 0 2
Dinner 339 17 52 7 9
Other drinks 100
Total 1,137 61 160 20 36
23% 60% 17%
Allowance 1,200 75 – 105g
25 – 35%		 120 – 165g
40 – 55%		 33 – 40g
25 – 30%

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