Still On the Road

            I made a bacon pie yesterday. It started life as a chicken and asparagus pie but I was feeling a bit down and had bacon available. I had also skipped breakfast so didn’t have to feel guilty about it. It was glorious and wonderful and I will probably make another before the end of the week.

            Apart from making people want to eat bacon, I say this to demonstrate that dieting does not mean you have to cut out all of your vices and favourite foods. To be fair bacon isn’t that many calories in and of itself but I know people who think they can’t eat chocolate or cake or a list of other things that they love and would miss terribly. This makes the idea of dieting repugnant to them and so they don’t enjoy doing it, and probably stop doing it. However, I eat whatever I want as long as I can work it off later, or I can go without eating other stuff for awhile. Having said this I have a massive tube of Lindt Lindor on my desk at home that I don’t think I’ll ever finish as I can only have one a week – not because they are individually calorific but because it takes a great deal of willpower to stop at one rather than eating the entire tube in frenzy of gluttonous glee. I’d wake up after the sugar black-out surrounded by red Lindt wrappers the morning after the chocolate massacre and might breakdown in tears because of what I’d done/sugar-come-down.

         So while I know I keep saying ‘you can eat what you want’ there is a certain measure of control involved. If you slaughter your way through packets of chocolate continuously you will probably have to do so while using a treadmill. While I accept not everyone believes in a zero-point economy, I think most diets work on a zero- or negative-point system, in that you have to balance or under-pay the calorie side to make progress. This can entail quite a lot of work as you have to eat to live (obviously) and want to eat a satisfying amount. I have noticed I can no longer eat as much as I used to – although I gave it a good go at pizza hut on Friday – which is great because I have less of a desire to eat more and that helps a lot.

On the down side my stomach has apparently not communicated this effectively to my brain and as such I still order quite a lot, usually resulting in wasted money rather than me eating too much. Once I learn to master this balance I’ll be a lot better off health, weight and money wise but in the mean time I guess I’ll just have to keep learning. But that’s okay – I knew when I signed up for this that it would be a continuing mission to explore strange new ways of eating so I’m aware I need to be in it for the long run.

I’m now a spritely 228.5lbs as of this morning, meaning I’ve lost just under 30lbs in four months. Four months ago I would have said ‘yeah, I could do that’ but I wouldn’t have believed I would. I’m glad I have done, and more so that I’ve kept it off rather than slipped back into old habits. My goal is still 182lbs but that might change to more like 190 depending on how much I get into the gym. Either way, I won’t be so upset when people park badly in parking bays as I’ll be much more able to squeeze through the door with greater ease and grace. I already feel less like a geriatric elephant when I have to try, so that’s got to be a good sign.

Here's One I Left Out Earlier!

Hello! I am aware I have been rather lax over the last two weeks about this blog, but work started heating up and I had to do a bit more to stay on top of things and then I went to Barcelona for a long weekend. I had a fantastic time and didn’t worry too much about the diet – not just because I was on holiday but also because I walked about 6-8 miles a day due to underestimating distances. I blame the map not having a scale but hey. My weight currently sits at 233lbs, so I only put on two. While a little disappointed I’m also pretty happy I didn’t just bloat back out – I really did eat just about anything I wanted to out there so I got away fairly lightly, all things considered.

            I plan to be going back to the gym a lot more now. I used to go with a couple of friends but one of them had to focus on her thesis and the other didn’t really need to go as much as me, so didn’t. However, the first has finished her thesis and the second will probably come along if we’re going anyway so hoorah! Failing that, I’ll just gym by myself. I’ve decided to pack in more rowing and a little less treadmill-work as it’s better for my stomach muscles and upper body – nothing to do with the boating adventure I had in Barcelona whereby I and two friends set about trying to sink the other British tourists rowing around the lake – while also still being some cardio work. It burns less calories, apparently, and I know building muscle increases weight rather than decreases it but I’m primarily focused on losing shape more than anything so I’m okay with that. I’ll also be doing normal cardio as well, so that’s fine.

            My big dieting tip this post is be like Nike: Just do it. Over ate? Go exercise. Don’t make time – just do it. Walk instead of driving somewhere, a 10-20 minute jog around the block or jumping up and down to your favourite music continuously for a good ten minutes – knee jumps or jacks, whatever works. Just. Do. It. Otherwise you’ll never get it done and there is literally no time like the present.

            I know inertia is a massive force to have to counter act – both in the psychological sense and in the physics of the action – but it’s got to be done. That’s about 30% if the work right there. I was going to lie and say ‘half the work’ but that’s not really true. It’s an additional 60% physical exercise and 10% bloody-minded persistence. Kind of like a lot of things in life really. But I assure you doing things is the way the get things done. I also find it’s more fun which is always a bonus.

            So next time you’re walking back and think, “Man, I wish I could cover this last couple of hundred metres faster,” just do it. Break into a jog or a run. If anyone looks at you funny ignore them and just keep going. You’ll be past them soon enough and they’re rarely important enough to worry about anyway.

An End to Calorie Serfdom

I am abandoning the calorie counting! For the blog, at least. I’ve become increasingly busy at the moment and itemizing a roast dinner takes longer than eating it, which seems neither right nor fair. I’ll be keeping a count for myself, myfitnesspal not having failed me yet, but it’s not always possible to record everything while I’m on the go and I forget to do it later on.

More bad news; I am having some difficulty shifting weight. I know exactly why this is – going to Charlie Choys World Buffet once a week for three weeks certainly didn’t help, for example, and a couple of friends’ birthdays have meant I went back to beer for whole nights. These are easy enough problems to solve and I will be endeavouring to do so – less nights out in general seems to be the way forward. Here.

On the upside my weight is fairly stable at around 236lbs – 22lbs less than I was ten weeks ago – and it’s starting to really pay off. I’ve got back to the gym a couple of times a week and found I can do more for longer, which is a relief as I’m not sure how much longer my ego could hold up as I sweated to death while only manage a mildly-powerful walk on the treadmill. I’ve started rowing (on machines) as it works the stomach a lot more than running and is a change of activity which is always welcome. The rowing machines also point away from the televisions, which invariably display the horribly misnamed Britain’s Got Talent or some variety of soul-crushing soap-‘opera’. The characters featured are so selfish, stupid, short-sighted and/or horribly one-dimensional my brain hurts as they try to ‘entertain us’, and the soaps are pretty God-awful too. How can anyone find solace or amusement in them? It makes me lose faith in people. Emotional sadism must be rife in the general populace, or British humour has taken a turn for the worse. Either way, I will never be interested in a plot line which excuses inconsistencies in characters/behaviour so glaring wide that if a sheet was pulled across the gulf between them a small city of refugees could shelter under its voluminous expanse.

I’ve found getting more sleep actually does help me lower my food intake, although that could well be for psychological reasons rather than scientific ones. Eating out is a very bad idea, especially if its any sort of good food that you could eat and eat and eat and not care until you realise when you move it is not with the word ‘walk’ but with the word ‘roll’. Unfortunately, these are my very favourite places to eat out. I also need to buy more squash – while I am only drinking diet sodas I’m pretty sure it’s still not optimal for the diet and definitely not for my teeth. Unfortunately my brother is planning an Xbox game day and I can see that being a full-fat six to eight hour session of gluing my face to a screen and forgetting that I actually have legs or that there is a world outside the window. Maybe I could play while using the treadmill…

And Lo, Did The Calories Lay Siege

So from last week’s entry you might assume my diet has been going badly and I’m losing focus. Well, wait until you see what happened in the rest of last week.

Wednesday: -422 calories remaining

Thursday: 412 calories remaining

Friday: -1445 calories remaining

Saturday: -280 calories remaining

Sunday: 757 calories remaining

Total: -978 calories remaining

Weight: 232lbs

So fudge you, Liam, for having a birthday celebration that I enjoyed, and fudge you, Mod, for being a generous person and buying everyone pizza at about 3am. If you weren’t my friends my diet would be intact. However, I’d rather you were my friends and wouldn’t really blame anyone apart from myself for my calorie overdose.

Saturday was another birthday party but I left that early to prevent myself from gorging on the scrummy barbeque food and drinking even more. I still enjoyed it a little too much – 280 calories too much, the one burger I had while there or the two cans of Carlsberg – but the walk home helped.

Early on I knew I had to acknowledge that in only a very small number of circumstances could I accurately cite other people as being the reason I broke my diet; horses to water and all that. So, accepting that fact, I have to acknowledge the only way my diet will fail is if I let it. Which could, understandably, lead to a depressive stage wherein one thinks that any failure means a total one and there is no way to continue.

But thanks to a youth spent playing computer games I believe in extra lives! All through my formative years I would fail at something only to be given another chance at it and I would go back, stronger than before and armed with more knowledge, to conquer whatever level was ahead and achieve whatever goal I’d been set – and they were many and diverse. So it’s quite easy for me to pick myself up after a bad week like this one (for the diet) and go back to doing it properly. And to be fair, I’d rather enjoy these events when they come around than miss out because I feel I have to limit myself.

I like to think of myself as unlimited, and try to live that way. I even have card to prove it. And yes, my calorie intake is unlimited – but only if I accept my exercise limit is as well.

Some people may have noticed that my gym visits have dropped off recently. This is sad and I am looking to rectify it as soon as possible so I can eat more and be less hungry.

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.