A blip on the diet-dar.

            Anyone who reads this blog regularly will be expecting a calorie count for this week and here it is:

Monday: 65 calories remaining

Tuesday: 770 - Some calories remaining

Wednesday: -185 calories remaining

Thursday: 625 - Some calories remaining

Friday: +/-Some calories remaining

Saturday: +/-Some calories remaining

Sunday: +/-Some calories remaining

Total: Some calories

Weight: 239lbs.

            It wasn't my most observant week, food consumption-wise. I did 'watch' what I ate and try to keep calorie counts about what they should have been but after giving blood on Tuesday I was a bit out of it and then went for a walk with a friend across a nearby heath which made things worse. Granted, I didn't tell her I'd given blood until I started seeing spots so she really can't be blamed in any sense. We made it back to a nearby (ish) pub she'd recommended where they sold amazing burgers and I had to have at least one to survive. I did stop at one, but I don't know how many calories it was.

            And I ate all the chips that came with it. The salad too, but the chips are the disappointing part. I am excusing myself this because I had a lot of calories left over and needed more energy after giving blood.

            Wednesday I forgot exactly what happened, but I had Friday off and have been up and down to Brighton over the weekend, out in Guildford on Thursday with my brother and cousin, saw Iron Man 3 and basically enjoying myself. As I mentioned, I have been wary of my calorie intake but not monitoring it in what one of my friends called "the same totalitarian way you have done since you started dieting".

            You know who you are. The Secret Diet Police are tracking you down as we speak.

            Despite my laxness this week I still feel like I've kept on diet and on that front it was quite a good experiment in maintaining the diet without having diet plans ever-present and constantly checking calorie amounts against an online database. I think I succeeded and I have almost made it down below the 17stone mark - just 2 more pounds to go! I'm starting to real feel the weight loss now and a lot of people have mentioned that they've noticed it, which is always good motivation; thank you everyone for the continued encouragement and well wishes.

            Below are a couple of pictures of what I've been eating for entertainment and to show you can still eat big meals while caring for your calories. Hopefully it should show that I'm being careful and enjoying myself. A couple are even dishes of my own design, something I've not really experimented with since university. I've enjoyed getting back into thinking about my food and making my own meals so will be doing so more in the future. Eventually, it might be safe for me to cook dinner for other human beings.

 This is what I thought I would be eat when I started my diet. Thankfully I was incorrect.

 This was a full roast dinner I had at a family meal. I walked home afterwards, which helped, but even without that I would have been within my limit as I'd had a reserved lunch.

 This makes up most of my after gym meals; carbs, protein, comfort food, limited calories. And I even like it.

 I didn't eat all of the cheese. Or the crackers. I still ate too much of it and had to walk the long way home.

 This was  a quick meal I made before heading out to the pub. Filling and under 350 calories.

 

 Now my normal meal at the pub, I'm getting a little bored of the Wetherspoons chicken wrap. However, there is a whole menu for me to explore so I guess I could try other things.

 Stuffed pasta with a diced chorizo salad? Yeah, I made it myself. From pre-prepared stuffed pasta and pre-diced chorizo and a pack of salad. So really I put it together myself...

Monday Comes Around Too Soon....

            So it’s Wednesday and I have prepared my excuses for why I didn’t post an update on Monday:

1)    I was out of office all of Monday morning and had to catch up on work when I got back, so had no time.

2)    I gave blood yesterday (no net calorie loss) and was pretty lightheaded so had to focus pretty hard on work.

3)    I was saving Saturn from a natural disaster.

4)    A mixture of some or all of the above.

Pick and choose as you please. Whichever choice you make, my totals for last week are below.

Monday: 57 calories under.

Tuesday: 72 calories under.

Wednesday: 52 calories under.

Thursday: -325 calories under. (moving)

Friday: 5 calories under.

Saturday: -366 calories under.

Sunday: 1149 calories under. (gym)

Week Total: 639 calories under.

Weight: 243lbs.

This is a perfect example of me not doing very well at self-monitoring my diet. I was treated to a meal on Thursday night by a friend whom I helped move in to their new flat, Saturday I drank more beer than I should have done and didn’t walk anywhere near enough as I could have and Sunday I panicked and over compensated – I missed breakfast, pushed myself at the gym and didn’t really eat enough to make up both of those actions. Having totalled it up, I’m glad it worked out this way after being concerned I’d blown my calorie limit. I was slightly aware Sunday was a mistake and ate a little more on Monday this week to compensate but not by much.

On the other hand, four days of the week were pretty damn optimal which I’m really impressed with – especially as I didn’t have to exercise to achieve it. I was starting to think that it might be worth going to the gym more regularly so that I can get a head start on shaping my body a little more but after a chat with my brother (who is much more up to date and savvy when it comes to this kind of thing) about it seems a better idea to lose the weight first and finish shaping my body that way before I try anything else. Having given it more thought these appeals to me not just because it means I can be a little more laid back about having an exercise regime but also because it makes sense; my main focus is weight loss and I shouldn’t lose sight of that.

Eventually I’ll be able to offer advice on how to do everything else is done via dieting and exercise but for now I’ll stick to weight loss. I’m still shedding pounds an am on target to be under 17 stone mid-May. I might throw a party to celebrate, after jogging around the block a few times to work back some pints.

      

P.S. A quick thank you to everyone who mentioned they read this blog in the last week, it's encouraging to know I'm not just scrawling this on the wall of the internet. Feel free to comment or drop questions if you feel the need. I have no qualifications as a dietian apart from doing it myself, but I am happy to offer what I can.

Step Away From the Slippery Slope

                So I failed on delivering that extra post that might have been slightly helpful/encouraging. Ooops. Busy week, new job, actually went to gym, illness, the lot. There are my excuses for not doing it. I will be trying to get it done this week but as Richard Nixon said, “No promises”. I also appreciate I missed my Monday post (again) and have no real excuse for that. So here it is now:

Monday: 172 calories (Gym)

Tuesday: 343 calories

Wednesday: -108 calories

Thursday: 214 calories

Friday: -761 calories

Saturday: -1100 calories

Sunday: 422 calories (Gym)

Weekly total: -818 calories (2 Gym)

Weight: 245lbs

                Now it may look like I had a depressive fit on Friday which carried over into Saturday – or that I simply gave up on the diet. Neither of those is true (although that is arguable in the case of Saturday, when I ordered a pizza at 2am to comfort myself during a Robot Wars drinking game which had gone horribly, horribly wrong). A birthday maybe? No, not one of them either. I just let myself go a bit and enjoyed myself. Really I should have prepared better and got some other food for myself in advance – Uncle Ben could have come to my rescue with some microwavable rice which would have cut my deficit down by about 1,000 calories and I would have been fine for the weekly total.

                Which just goes to show how easily a diet can be incorporated into one’s life; I had an absolute binge on Friday with friends eating roughly two chickens between us and a bunch of other not-very-diety things but if I’d been able to pick better contenders for Robot Wars on Saturday night and not had three of my picks drive themselves into the pit I wouldn’t have been over run by despair and ordered pizza and I’d still be within my weekly target. Crazy but true.

                I also got some encouraging words from my aunt about my diet when I spoke to her about it, which I didn’t expect as she’s usually quite emphatic about dieting and calories and all that jazz. She’s also a vegetarian of over three decades, so our diets aren’t exactly similar. I mentioned trying to reach vitamin targets and other nutritional goal and she commented that really when you change your diet drastically you shouldn’t try to cover too many targets or goals; my main goal is weight loss and calorie care and so while I can monitor vitamin and other nutrients I should focus on the main goal above these and avoid trying to change my diet still further to reach for other goals while I’m only in the process of chasing my first one. Which was good advice and helped me worry less about it, and stress reduction is always good.

                So there it is, my worst week diet-wise since I started! I’m not depressed or upset about it, although I will need to do a bit more gym work this week. Yes, this may in part be due to food-guilt (clearly evident from the gym visit on Sunday morning) but I do enjoy going to the gym so would like to go more anyway. I’ve told myself this so much now that I even kind of believe it.

 

 

Weekly Update 08/04/2013

            Okay diet fans, Monday has come around again and it’s time for another weekly update! Remember, -X is calories over and X alone is calories under.

Monday: N/A (Included last week)

Tuesday: -15 calories

Wednesday: -273 calories

Thursday: ???

Friday: 100-416 calories

Saturday: 116 calories

Sunday: 165 calories

Weight: 246lbs

There you have it, another week gone and I’m still on diet and losing weight. Yeah, it’s not completely regular this week but it averages around 150 a day, so 150 calories under dietary budget. BUT that’s okay, still enough to lose weight and not enough to cause problems. I might have panicked a little after Easter weekend indulgence but I seem to be back on (towards) the straight a narrow.

Thursday is a blip. I went to an all you can eat trans-world buffet restaurant for a birthday meal. I’m not really sure how much I ate, but it was over budget. Friday is a smaller blip; I went to a friend’s house and he had made chicken wings and I don’t really remember how many I ate – all I remember is that they were good and not breaded or battered. However, I had a much better idea of how many calories each contained so they were easier to track, hence the day has a value attached unlike Thursday.

So after four weeks of dieting I have lost a whole stone of weight! I’m starting to see where I’ve lost it too, which is even better. Whether or not other people are/can is a different matter, but they will eventually.

My target for the next four weeks is to lose at least 8 pounds. I’m setting the target slightly lower because I am aware that a lot of people who diet ‘bounce back’ after the first month, and that losing a stone a month is probably not the healthiest weight loss goal. Also, I’m worried people may not recognise me if I lose too much too fast and that will be problematic at work and family gatherings.

Later this week I will be putting up another advice post, if anyone cares, which will include recipes/ingredient lists for dishes I’ve been making myself that fulfil my hunger urges but also stay safely within diet boundaries while actually providing some nutritional worth. Pictures will be included. Exciting, right?

Surviving Dieting

            A lot of people have congratulated me on sticking to my diet and a couple of people have even asked how I’ve managed it. Short answer is that I’m not entirely sure; every time I walk past a drinks machine sporting a rainbow of colourful, vibrant labels and holding the promise of carbonated, sugary goodness I cry a little inside and I have the most intense craving for battered food. It’s so strong that I can’t trust myself with looking into my local chip shop and the guy who runs it, who I previously stopped and chatted to regularly, has asked my friends if he offended me somehow. At some stage I’m going to have to brave it and go in and explain, but I’m going to wait until my withdrawal has run its course.

            The simple answer to the question, “How do you maintain you diet restrictions?” is by constantly saying no to myself, but doing so with a positive attitude. I very quickly accepted the fact that for this to work, I was going to have to commit wholeheartedly and adapted my thinking to suit. I’ve spoken to a lot of people who feel they’re missing out or being cheated some how out of enjoying food because they are dieting, and I’m sure everyone’s heard someone who shared their sentiment. This dooms your diet to failure – maybe not immediately, maybe not even after a couple of months, but it will happen and your diet will be abandoned like a first born girl-child under Chinese single-child policy.

            So how have I managed not to lose hope yet? And why do I think I will keep to my diet when others might fail? Going back to the wonderfully politically-correct single-child policy metaphor, I have cut my girl-child’s hair and dressed her up in boy clothes. Translated, I turned the diet into something I wanted rather than something unwanted. This was not an easy process, I will freely admit, but I acknowledged the fact that sacrifices would have to be made if I wanted to avoiding needing to buy two tickets if I went on a plane. I think this is one of the most important stages of getting on the diet wagon (which has no sugar content and is constructed mainly from tofu) and, subsequently, one of the most difficult. As such I will try to (briefly) explain how I did not succumb to despair and leave my diet in a ditch somewhere.

            I am quite a habitual gamer and I really enjoy problem solving and/or strategically planning my way through obstacles. So my first response to making the decision to go on a diet was to phrase it differently:

LEGENDARY CHADVENTURES:

Mission Slay Gregory

             A brief explanation of this title and why it helped. A while ago my youngest brother came home drunk and greeted me with, “All right bro? Good? Good. And how’s Gregory?” After a short but confused exchanged he explain that he had decided my stomach deserved its own name and he had chosen ‘Gregory’ because we didn’t know anyone by that name. The rest of the name appeals to my sense of the dramatic and my ego. I also liked the coining of ‘Chadventures’. This made the diet three important things – a challenge, fun and mine. The challenge made me approach it laterally and made it more interesting. By making it enjoyable – this blog, gym session jokes, outrageous descriptions the effects of eating certain foods, etc – I enjoy and don’t lament the things I deny myself (so much). By making it mine, I put myself in control of it. By making allowances here and there, such as aiming to balance each week rather than each day, not giving up all the foods I enjoy and allowing myself to exercise into more food, I keep control of the diet and it becomes part of my life rather than taking it over.

            And that is the central part of why I can keep motivated, I think – the diet isn’t everything in my life. It’s part of it, but it just means if I want a pub dinner I have to walk the mile or so there and back to make sure I can keep within my limit. I don’t have to give eating out or fast food a blanket ‘NO!’ when considering my options (although I pretty much have with fast food). If one day I go over my limit, or two or even three days I go over my limit the diet (and my life) haven’t fallen apart because a) I can still exercise to work it off later in the week, b) even if I don’t I can still go back to it and c) the diet is not my life. This allows me to escape depression when I, for example, go to Cornwall for a weekend and subsist on bacon and rum which clearly wasn’t a healthy diet. But I had written it off knowing I could get straight back into the exercise/diet regime when I got back, and I have.

            So mostly I keep motivated by being able to deal with failure. The other part of it is I really don’t want to be fat any more; this really strikes home when a friend dresses up as you by literally shoving a pillow under his shirt. So I keep motivated by dealing well with failure and not wanting to consist mainly of very saturated fat; a combination of self-disgust and indefatigable egotism. When I reach my goal all that will remain will be the latter, which I’m sure will be wonderful for everyone around me.

Fourth Weekly Update – Vacation Vacation

            Did everyone enjoy their Easter break? Four whole days of time away from the laborious labours of labour and labouring? I hope everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing break – I know I did and when you see the scores on the doors you’ll see I was slightly lax in keeping to my diet.

Monday: 0 calories [Gym]

Tuesday: 276 calories [Gym]

Wednesday: -92 calories [Gym]

Thursday: 0-350 calories

Friday: 9000+ calories

Saturday: 9000+ calories

Sunday: 9000+ calories

Monday: 9000+ calories

Weight: 251lbs

            Now, before I continue I want to make it clear I didn’t actually consume 36,000 calories over Easter weekend. I just have no idea of numbers as I didn’t record anything and nor was I making any particular effort to watch what I ate either. I went on a road trip with three friends to visit a fourth in Cornwall. It was a lot of fun, but after having 1400 calories for breakfast on Friday I stopped worrying about it and decided I was on holiday. Since we spent most the four days drinking various types of alcohol and eating enough bacon to necessitate the slaughter of a dozen pigs, I’m glad I stopped counting calories at all. All in all, I’m surprised I only put on 3-4lbs but pleasantly so.  

            I am back on the diet wagon now though, planning a gym visit tonight and recording my intake again. I’ve started having a slightly larger breakfast (400 cals from 180) in the hope of reducing my lunch time intake and not being so hungry for half the day. This makes my day time breakdown 400-500-770, much more balanced, and hopefully that’ll help me control how much I eat out of habit rather than by sheer force of will alone.

            This entry is a lot shorter than others because there’s not much to talk about as far as diet experimentation goes because the only change I made was to substitute most foods with bacon and I’m pretty sure rum has very little, if any, nutritional content. Also, I’m suffering under a four-day-delayed hang over and having to deal with impatient, ignorant spongers on the phone and I’m only just managing it so my concentration is a little frayed. For now I’ll wish you good day and good diet.