A month or so into the healthy eating holiday non diet!

A surprising step onto the scales today shows no extra weight gain despite the cakes, pies, beers and pizza!! As much as I'm delighted to see this I currently feel like a bloated pig!! Oink oink.

I did my shopping online this week to make sure nothing naughty got into my cupboards, I do feel bad for the local veg shop on the high street but I'm sure I'll be back.

I've also been out on very early morning walks with the dog, before 7am even, in my toning trainers. Still bouncy but not sure they aid any kind of toning. I actually started a jog today (when no one was looking). I'm still in need of some fitness attire as getting up and trying to walk in jeans is no good, I've been wearing leggings for the last few days but then need to find something long enough to cover my arse.

In usual fashion I'm finding it hard to go to a sports shop and pick up some jogging bottoms or similar (the thought of this makes my face twist) I've been trying to hunt out some vintage joggers but I might give up on this as somebody else's sweat puts me off.. Urgh!! If anyone can recommend some thing I'm happy to listen?

I've spent the morning procrastinating really, I should be carrying out research for my final assignment however I've reached the stage where I'm scared to try hard in case I don't do well. So, my rubbish effort will mean that when I get my bad results I can say "oh I knew my work wasn't up to standard". Weird I know.

Anyhoo, yesterday's healthy options were:

Breakfast: scrambled egg on brown toast, no butter or spread. Coffee with skimmed milk.

Dinner: mackerel pate on brown toast, again no spread or butter.

Tea: fried chicken breast, (small amount of oil and lid on the frying pan, lemon juice squeezed in the last minute or so of cooking) with a brown pitta bread and piles of salad. I also made a garlic yoghurt dip and it was kinda like having a kebab. Tasty indeed.

During the day I also had a bag of quavers AND a penguin biscuit! I really should have only had one or the other!

But now I shall research....


Update: still not researching but I just reminded myself that I was 1 stone and 4 pounds heavier in 2009, almost to the day!! That's when I first started the healthy eating although I was very strict for the first few weeks and managed to lose a stone. I'm pleased I kept it off!! Pic below of the wii fit showing me I was on my way to being overweight.

Cream cakes and scones

Oh crap. Since I stopped writing down what I've been eating I have started on a slippery slope to naughty calorific piggy-ness. I have been quite good through the day, healthy omelettes, salad.... But followed by something naughty at night like pizza or fish fingers!!

Today was particularly bad.

I also need to go buy some good food. This morning I ate biscuits for breakfast then followed up with biscuits as a snack but only because I have nothing in at all to eat. All there was at work was biscuits.... And then I had an 11 o'clock meeting so I had to eat a biscuit to stop my tummy rumbling.

I had a healthy dinner, tuna pasta salad that I made last night.

BUT an afternoon meeting involved a plate of tiny cream cakes!! Eeeek!

I've had quorn spaghetti.... Uh oh see just realised I've had pasta twice today!! If I had written this down earlier I would have made something else.

Lesson learned: must keep up the food diary!!

I miss Sydney

There are days like this, when the sun filters through the blinds and warms my face, I miss Sydney. I only lived there for a few months but at the time it felt like home; I think I left part of me there because now and again I miss it so much. I miss my local Duffy Brothers store. I miss the coffee shop where I would stop and have warmed banana bread. I've tried to make banana bread myself but failed. Nowhere in Newcastle seems to have it (I haven't found anywhere yet) if you know of somewhere please let me know!!

I miss the sun of Sydney and miss sitting out on the balcony taking in the views of the city. I miss Betty's soup kitchen and I miss the noodle bars.

I didn't think that I could lose my heart to a city but I think I really did. I want to go back.


Picture below: nothing like proper banana bread! Soreen banana loaf with chocolate spread...... Naughty snack!
A pic of Gloria Jean's coffee shop ... A trip down memory lane via google maps!! If you zoom in enough you can almost see the banana bread in the counter!!

The diet turns into healthy eating

So, I've given up counting the days of my diet. My food diary for a month or so clearly shows the problems:

• weekends
• beers
• alcohol
• takeaways

The question is, what am I prepared to give up for the bikini body? The answer seems to be: not a lot. Between now and my holiday I'm going to concentrate on 'healthy eating' and I'm going to stop saying I'm on a diet. I'm not really giving anything up, just  concentrating on regular meals and portion control. There are some things that have been easy adjustments, some of them I will keep with:

• skimmed milk
• lean meat
• low fat everything (cheese, yogurt, salad cream etc)
• creme fresh for sauces
• portion sizes of carbs (50g rice or pasta, 100g potato, small brown buns)
• Eat breakfast every day!!
• fresh fruit and veg
• allowing a 100 cal ish snack

Hmmmmm that kinda still sounds like diet rules but I'm sticking with 'healthy eating'.

The scales today show no movement from the last weigh in, I'm hoping that maintaining the healthy eating will result in a gradual weight drop that lasts.

I'm also going to do more exercise.... this is my worst bit as I have every form of physical activity, I have no balance, co-ordination or motivation so this is an actual challenge.

I did buy some cheap tone up trainers so I can walk the dog and feel like I'm training (ha ha ha ha) I got some AVIA itrain. To review their effectiveness I guess will take a few more tries but so far (and from the second I tried them on) they are the most comfy trainers I've ever tried on. Admittedly, I haven't worn trainers from about five years. I find that walking in them is bouncy as the heel is soft and squishy, it makes me walk faster! I also noticed that I can feel a bit more of a muscle working in my legs, particularly the fronts of my thighs.... this could all be in my head but lets see.

I haven't done any yoga since my last blog post, maybe I'm going to have to schedule this into my life as its not working out right now (I'm too lazy). Walking the dog though has to happen twice a day so I can happily bounce around the streets in my training shoes without any extra effort!

Tea today, baked salmon with spinach, salsa and baked potato...... Followed by an apple and black currant FAB; only 90 cals!!

Day 29 holiday diet

Well, I started the day with some yoga again.... This is how every fitness attempt goes.. I will do the yoga for a week or so very enthusiastically but then will stop forever!!

Breakfast was a crumpet with one slice of lean bacon and some mushrooms.

Dinner: jacket potato with tuna and spinach, instead of dressing the tuns I had lime juice and chilli flakes.
I also discovered that I have been massively over eating on the carby potatoes at work!!! If I don't take dinner to work I'll buy a jacket potato from the canteen. Today I picked a potato that was smaller than I'd have from work and it was well over 200g! So I'd been eating those twice a week usually! I couldn't believe the size of a 120g potato! Much much smaller than one you would buy at a cafe.
I also had more tuna than I normally would, I thought some extra protein might be good for me.

Tea: no tea, was at the pub so drank beer and vodka but not both at once. Supper: dixy chicken and chips

Day 28 of the holiday diet

I started the day with some more yoga, I got a Geri halliwell DVD from eBay!! My arms feel like they are going to ache tomorrow!

Breakfast: scrambled egg on tiny toast again!

Dinner: Tuscan bean soup

Tea: delicious pizza at a lovely Italian restaurant! A beer and a cocktail!

Nectarine & apple

I did also have a fab delivery from O2 (in picture) as you can see I have some rugby pies and beers..... Will they last until the rugby??? oh dear it's fair to say that my diet has absolutely no urgency at all! Closer to holiday time I will be strict!

Day 27 of the holiday diet!

Today is college day, not work day, but lectures are over now I just have my dissertation to do. I have the motivation of Kevin the teenager. I am 31 and have so much work to get done for my course but I just dont wanna do it. I don't wanna do anything. I know my attitude stinks but what does one do to improve it? Har? I even have a teenage pimple on my wrinkly old face.

I have done 40 mins of yoga from the free daily yoga app, cos apparently people say that exercise makes you have more energy and feel better about yourself........ really? I'm not feeling it.

Breakfast: tiny brown toast with scrambled eggs, coffee (skimmed milk as ever)

For dinner I'm making some spicy sweet chilli soup cos that sounds healthy and 'good for you'.

Tea: quorn cottage pie that I made and froze last week. Had this with mushy peas!!