Day 17 – More Balance, but Still Hungry

11 September 2008 at 9:43 pm (food diary)

Posted by Georgina

I did a better job at spreading out the calories today. I have a rough plan in my head that I should have around 300 cals for breakfast, 500 for lunch and dinner and only 100 for snacks in the evening (unless I exercise, of course, and that ‘earns’ me more). I stuck to that fairly well today, but I still have the problem that I feel ravenously hungry, even directly after a meal. Perhaps it’s just my body adjusting – we’ll see.

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Breakfast Tesco BREAKFAST CEREAL Rice Snaps 76
Milk 3.7% fat 61
Cup of Tea 49
Fruit Bowl BARS School, Blackcurrant, Apple, & Pear 72
Total 258

The plan was to have some fruit when I arrived back from the school run. Almost – managed a fruit snack bar thing which we had left over from camping.

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Lunch Jacobs CRACKERS Cream 101
Butter salted 36
Cheese cheddar 60
Salad 18
Tesco DRESSING French 44
KP HULA HOOPS Original 77
Tropicana SMOOTHIE – Strawberry & Banana 135
Total 471

I am so utterly bored of sandwiches – was nice to have something different for a change. Even managed to allow some calories for a shared pack of hula hoops with my son!

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

Managed to avoid the biscuits with herculean effort.

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Dinner Pork loin chop, grilled 120
POTATOES New, Baby, Average 124
Cabbage savoy, steamed 8
Carrots, steamed 12
Bisto GRAVY Granules, Made Up 8
Apple Sauce 44
Homemade Plum Icecream 90
Askeys Luxury Fan Wafer 42
Total 448

Really enjoyed this dinner (although at the end of it, wished that I could eat it all again!). Made up for it by treating myself to a scoop of the plum icecream I made last week – which was absolutely delicious.

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Late WINE White, Dry 116
Cadbury HOT CHOCOLATE Instant Break 119
Total 235

Despite still being a bit hungry, I’m resisting trying to “fill up” the remaining calories and sipping my white wine slowly. I’m telling myself that this will get easier.

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Exercise Exercise Bike (warm up 5 mins) -53
Strength Training (20 mins) -135
Total -188

Am finding the strength training a little easier now – that means it’s probably time to increase reps/up the weights.

Aaaaaaaand the final total is:

Meal Food | Drink Calories
Breakfast Cereal, cup of tea and a fruit snack bar 258
Lunch Cheese, crackers, salad, crisps and a smoothie 471
Afternoon Tea Cup of Tea 49
Dinner Pork chop, new potatoes, steamed veg and a scoop of plum icecream with a wafer 448
Late Glass of white wine and a hot chocolate 235
Exercise Strength training -188
Total 1,273

Not bad. Not bad at all.

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Day 27: Its working!!

11 September 2008 at 6:07 am (food diary)

Posted by Ginni

This has been a real rough week for me, and whilst I was trying to stay on top of my diet, I have to admit there have been a few slip ups. I think by the end of this week, I would have masted the technique of this diet enough to start controlling and limiting the calories too. I will do that from this weekend which coincides with the end of the first month of being on this diet.

I had an appointment with the Cardiologist this morning, and he was very happy with the progress that I had made as my BP was 120/70 and that was without the tablets. So my tablets have been reduced again (yipppeeee) and if I continue at this rate for another 5 months and lose weight, I should be fine.  I was told today that my heart condition was no longer in danger as it was 4 weeks ago, and it was on the road to recovery.

In weight terms, I have lost 2 lbs this week (It would probably change by weighing in day, Monday).

Breaktfast: 10am

Tomato Sandwich (no butter or margarine) – low carb / low fat bread

Mid day

Tomato Sandwich (no butter or margarine) – low carb/ low fat bread

3pm lunch

Tomato, celery and feta cheese salad- with a drizzle of olive oil

Grilled chicken (1/2 breast)

Dinner 9pm

Egg Noodles with soya sauce, chilli sauce concoction

Low fat Hot Cocoa with sweetener (Real good quality cocoa which had 120 calories for 100gm and I used 2 tsp in my ultra-skimmed milk with 2 sweeteners)

I did have a small snack size Smarties with my son.

I am still bloated, as no period. My broken nose is healing, still a bit painful and I have cold sores ‘all over’ my lips. I look like I have been punched !! I get cold sores when I am majorly stressed…. so, this Cardio appointment was fab in keeping me on track. I am really happy this diet is working and has helped improve my health in less than a month !!

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Recipe: mushroom (or anything) tart

11 September 2008 at 1:56 am (photo, recipe)

Posted by Paola

This recipe is adapted from Delia Smith’s tomato tart recipe which uses goats cheese in her vegetarian cookbook. I have used this basic approach to make apple tart.

Makes 12 portions.

Each portion of mushroom tart contains contains:

  • 173 calories
  • 5g protein
  • 13g carbohydrates
  • 10g fat
  • 1g fibre
 Each portion of tomato tart contains contains:

  • 165 calories
  • 4g protein
  • 12g carbohydrates
  • 10g fat
  • 1g fibre
 Each portion of apple tart contains contains:

  • 195 calories
  • 4g protein
  • 22g carbohydrates
  • 9g fat
  • 3g fibre

Ingredients
600g mushrooms (chestnut, flat, shiitake or a mixture) (about 4 punnets)
375g puff pastry, ready-rolled
205g Quark low-fat soft cheese
1-4 cloves of crushed garlic, to taste
5ml rapeseed oil
10ml olive oil
fresh thyme
salt & pepper

Optional additions
Chopped chilli

(For a luxury (read: more fattening) version, use 145g of goats cheese as well as the Quark. This will add around 260 calories in total, depending on the brand. I use Charvous.)

1) Take the pastry out of the fridge at least 15 minutes beforehand.

2) Set your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

3 Lightly grease a baking tray with rapeseed oil.

4) Cover the tray with the rolled puff pastry.

5) With a knife, score a line in the pastry one centimeter from the edge. This will rise and create a crusty frame.

6) In a bowl, mix the Quark with the crushed garlic, fresh thyme leaves and seasoning. Add chilli if using. Otherwise, if you’re making a sweet tart, add the sultanas now.

7) Spread the cheese mixture evenly over the pastry, keeping within the border.

8) Slice the vegetables or fruit that you will be using into 5mm slices.

9) Layer the veg/fruit onto the soft cheese mixture so that each slice mostly (80%) overlaps the other. There will be a lot of shrinkage during cooking.

10) For savoury tarts, drizzle with olive oil and thyme leaves. For sweet tarts, sprinkle with cinnamon.

11) Cook in the middle of the oven for up to 50 minutes. Check at 40 minutes. The pastry edge will turn golden and the vegetable or fruit will have shrunk. It’s cooked enough when the tart doesn’t look wet but the pastry isn’t burnt.

12) Leave to cool for 10 minutes before cutting – this standing time is important as the soft cheese will go from squidge to something you can slice.

To serve:
Serve with a green salad dressed in lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.

Tomato tart

12 servings calories protein carbs fat fibre
3 cloves of garlic 5 0.2 1.0
5ml rapeseed oil 26 2.9
10ml extra virgin olive oil 82 9.1
500g tomatoes 91 4.4 19.5 1.1 6.0
250g Quark low-fat soft cheese 173 30.0 10.3 0.5
375g puff pastry 1,601 18.8 108.8 100.5 5.3
Total 1,977 53 140 114 11
12% 31% 57%

Mushroom tart

12 servings calories protein carbs fat fibre
3 cloves of garlic 5 0.2 1.0
5ml rapeseed oil 26 2.9
10ml extra virgin olive oil 82 9.1
250g Quark low-fat soft cheese 173 30.0 10.3 0.5
600g mushrooms 192 15.0 30.0 1.2 9.0
375g puff pastry 1,601 18.8 108.8 100.5 5.3
Total 2,078 64 150 114 14
14% 32% 55%

Apple tart

12 servings calories protein carbs fat fibre
5ml rapeseed oil 26 2.9
20g sultanas 58 0.5 13.9 0.1 0.4
250g Quark low-fat soft cheese 173 30.0 10.3 0.5
6 apples 480 132.0 30.0
375g puff pastry 1,601 18.8 108.8 100.5 5.3
Total 2,338 49 265 104 36
9% 48% 43%

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Day 248: Letter of complaint

11 September 2008 at 12:46 am (food diary, photo)

Posted by Paola

Well, my mum had another fall during the night (not related to our otherwise successful solution for her to get in & out of bed). My day began with fraught phone calls and livid e-mail; it ended with a letter of complaint. I am trying very hard not to binge eat.

Here’s my advice to you if you’re middle-aged (or younger) and over-weight: don’t make your weight define your life when you’re old and when you can only rely on the Health Service to care for you. Obese people can be mistreated by the medical establishment. If you are over-weight now – lose it. Really, you won’t want to be in your 70s and so heavy that it takes four ambulance medics and equipment to pick you up after you’ve fallen. Or so heavy that you have to walk with sticks and then only a few steps. Fine, break your leg from falling out of a plane, or maybe have your arm gnawed off by a wild bear. But if you’re gonna be disabled, in constant pain, with adult-onset diabetes and losing your sight when you’re old, don’t let it be because you over-ate or because you ate lots of crap. And then don’t continue to eat crap because your life is so shit that it’s the only ‘good’ thing left in your life.

1:45pm  Cottage cheese salad sandwich + tea

I went a tad over-board with the corn relish! I hope Thursday’s Abel & Cole box includes lettuce so that I can stop padding out my sandwiches with mushrooms.

1 serving calories protein carbs fat fibre
hamisha cucumber 3 0.2 0.5 0.1 0.2
lettuce 4 0.2 0.5 0.1 0.3
chestnut mushrooms 17 1.4 2.7 0.1 0.8
corn relish 61 0.5 14.0 0.1 0.0
cottage cheese 71 10.9 4.0 1.4 0.0
wholemeal bread 173 8.4 30.8 1.8 6.6
Total 329 22 53 4 8

5pm  Beans, corn and tomatoes with dumplings

465g serving calories protein carbs fat fibre
fat-free yoghurt 72 12.6 4.3 0.2 0.0
beans, corn and tomatoes w/dumplings 319 15.2 56.8 4.0 10.6
Total 391 28 61 4 11

Marcus (my 9 yr old pal from across the road) dropped by. He asked me why I was shaking. I’d been writing the letter of complaint. I made him coffee and me tea. We chatted about stuff and then he left, saying (for the first time in two years), “I’ll come by to see you tomorrow.” And I thought, great – roles reversed – I’m gonna be checked on by a 9 yr old! :-)

10pm  Beans, corn and tomatoes with dumplings and mushrooms + orange + pint of squash + figs

Made special with a large (6g) drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a Thin Crisp.

324g serving calories protein carbs fat fibre
fat-free yoghurt 3 0.6 0.2 0.0 0.0
Thin Crisp 19 0.7 3.8 0.1 1.1
chestnut mushrooms 37 2.9 5.8 0.2 1.7
extra virgin olive oil 49 0.0 0.0 5.5 0.0
orange 73 1.4 18.2 0.2 1.4
soft figs 77 0.9 17.2 0.5 4.1
beans, corn and tomatoes w/dumplings 222 10.6 39.6 2.8 7.4
Total 481 17 85 9 16

I later fancied some port or chocolate, neither of which was in the house. I had a couple of semi-dried figs instead.

There are some crumbs and a bit of chocolate biscuit in the cookie jar. It’d be so easy to eat them but too hard to document to make it worth it (I don’t wanna start missing stuff out from my food diary as I think it’ll be the start of a slippery slope). It has really helped me to have this food diary this week because I have wanted to comfort-eat a couple of times. I will continue to photograph and document resisted temptations!

Resisting temptation gives me a lot more satisfaction than giving in ever could.

Day 248 calories protein carbs fat fibre
Breakfast 329 22 53 4 8
Lunch 391 28 61 4 11
Dinner 481 17 85 9 16
Other drinks 100
Total 1,302 66 198 17 34
22% 65% 13%
Allowance 1,200 75 – 105g
25 – 35%		 120 – 165g
40 – 55%		 33 – 40g
25 – 30%

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