Its been a while... again!

Whilst I haven't completely fallen off the wagon, I have been around the bend with all sorts of diet plans the last few months.  I began with Lite'n Easy, which was fine for a couple of weeks but became a bit bland - and I had surplus food in my freezer that I'm STILL trying to get through!

And then I tried Tony Ferguson...  that lasted 3 days.  I was SO hungry - and even though they say that you shouldn't' be, I was.  So - maybe I was doing something wrong.  Not sure.

And now, I'm back on Calorie King.  I think this is the best plan for me for the time being, just watching and recording calories.  Its given me an allowance of 1790 cals per day, which is enormous!  Though I'm certain I met that (and most likely surpassed it) yesterday with my cookie-addiction for the day.

Today is a new day though and I'm started on a good note with a piece of toast, topped with a boiled egg, and a bowl of yoghurt.  I did find something on CK that made me smile though...  I first opened my CK account back on the 11th of November, 09 - and whilst that is a LOOOONG time ago, my starting weight is over 10kg more than I am now - which means I've actually lost over 10kg lol.  Yes, its a crazy way of looking at it, but I think that by remember how much I HAVE achieved will spur me on to continue losing more weight. 

Now to stay on the bandwagon!  I'm currently 106kg - and I'd absolutely LOVE to get into double digits by the time hubby gets home in 6wks.  It is definitely attainable - I just have to push myself!

Hit the next 5kg threshold - wahooo!

The last week has been a real test for my diet - hubby was away all last week and so I had no one watching out for me - I was completely unaccountable!  It went okay.  I did splurge twice (unfortunately two days running!) but overall stayed reasonably committed.  I had decided that the shake diet wasn't for me - for the last 6 months or so I have been working hard to get rid of all products with 'numbers' and chemicals in them from our fridge and pantry; so to then switch to a programme that couldn't work WITHOUT these chemicals just felt really wrong.  So I've switched to Lite'n Easy instead.  They also do kids meals and with hubby going away for 12 weeks it will be really easy for me and convenient - plus no dishes at night and no trying to cook during arsenic hour!  Bonuses all round :)

My first order of Lite'n easy arrived on Friday and so I began on Saturday.  This week I only ordered Lunches and Dinners, but from next week I will order breakfasts as well.

So today is Monday and day 3 of Lite'n easy and I'm feeling really good.  The batteries in my digital scales died the other week, so I hadn't weighed in properly in almost a fortnight - so I bought some at the shops this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had shed not one, but two kilo's!  I have also officially dropped my first dress size which is fantastic!  I think I might go op-shopping tomorrow for some new jeans - my current ones (which might I add are only 1 month old!) are being held up by a scarf!  Not a good look haha.

Temptations at... farmers markets?

Today is day 3 and so far so good.  I might be having too many Jarrah Choc D'Lites, but I'm having them without milk so thats my justification and I'm sticking to it (and they're only 46cals WITH milk so it cant be too bad - right?)

We went to a farmers market this morning, one that we hadn't been to before and on the way I was so excited about taste testing lots of different home-made goodies that are locally made.  But of course when I got there I realised that you have to have carbs to taste test these things.  Bread with the olive oil, crackers with the chutneys, bikkies for the dips...  carb-carb-carb!  So - I amazed myself and I didnt taste at all :)  I looked, and I smelt and the aromas - wow - delicious!  I'm still amazed that I didnt succumb to actually tasting.

The diet is going well.  The shakes are mostly terrible, so I'm doing things with them.  Today I turned my lunch time shake into cookies which was easy and tasty.  I'm filling up on lots of allowable vege which is great, but I just have to learn some new easy, quick snack recipes.

For dinner I made these bread-like things called "oopsie bread."  They are amazing!  Egg, cream of tartar and philly cream cheese.  And thats it!  I didnt have any cream of tartar though, so I used lemon juice instead (twice quantity) and it was fantastic!  I filled it up with lettuce, tomato and the chicken&vege mince that I made the family for dinner.  Nom nom nom!!

This week is going to be hard.  Hubby is going away for the week, so I wont be accountable to anyone.  This will be my REAL test.  I'm thinking of seeing how it goes, and if I feel strong enough I'll continue with my current shakes plan - but if I dont feel up to it I might think about switching to Lite'n Easy instead.  But I'll see.

Another Day One

This morning, straight after I dropped the kidlets off to little school, off I trotted to the chemist to begin my new shakes-based diet.  I have NEVER done anything quite this drastic.  In fact, the last few months I've been endeavouring to remove all products with 'numbers' in them from my pantry - I'd say a good 90% of my pantry was numbers-free!  Until I bought the shakes.  Oh dear.

Something tells me that maybe its worth the sacrifice.  The kids wont be eating any more numbers, so thats something - right?

Anyway - I bought enough shakes, soups and bars to last a week.  I also had to get multi vitamins, fibre powder and chromium which apparently helps to boost the metabolism.  I hopped on the forum that is run by the manufacturer, and there seems to be a lot of positivity and optimism.  And HEAPS of recipe ideas with new ways to use the shakes which is great.

I had my weigh in and will do so every Friday.  This morning when I hopped on the scales at home (naked after emptying bladder) I weighed 108.1kg, but the scales at the chemist read 110kg.

I have some diet jelly in the fridge (can apparently have as much as I like!) and have sugar-free lollies at hand.

Here we go!

So I fell off the wagon... for 5 months...

And here I am - again.  Such a merry go round that this is.

This time I'm going to expect LESS of myself, and give LESS of myself.  I know that seems weird right.  And it probably is.  But unless I stop having such high expectations of myself then I'm continually going to disappoint myself.

I'm going to the chemist tomorrow to begin a shake diet.  I have never done one before.   I have always swore I WOULDN'T do one.  But here I am - desperate.  Plus husband is going away for a while and I think I need more help and support than I have been willing to admit.  I am a little concerned about what meals I will be cooking during husbands absence that will be suitable for both me and the kidlets to eat - guess I'll be doing a lot of bulk-cooking and bulk-freezing to make it easier on myself.

I also want to see a hypnotherapist.  Not to lose weight, but to deal with emotional eating problems.

Oh and I want to ban myself from going to that petrol station who gave me not one, but TWO free chocolate bars today (just for being a good customer - apparantly!)

I'm currently sitting on 107.7kg - so I'm at my goal weight that I set back in..  January?  Hmmm.  Nice that I finally reached the goal I suppose - but I do want to lose more than 1kg a month.  Shall weigh in tomorrow (no doubt I'll be more than that fully clothed) and begin my new shake diet (and maybe my new life) promptly.

Til then - here is fatty, signing out.

Banana & Sunflower seed Bread

This is delicious as a snack! The recipe makes 2 loaves (I use a wiltshire silicon loaf tray) and I get 10 slices from each loaf. I then wrap them individually and pop them in the freezer. Based on 20 slices, an individual slice is worth 148 calories - which while it seems a lot all at once, its very filling with good ingredients in it and I think its worth every calorie! When making this, dont over-think it too much. Throw in anything that you like (sunflower seeds, pepitas, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, stewed pears, stewed custard apple etc).

3 cups SR flour
1 cup Muesli/oats (rolled, porridge, bircher - anything works!)
1/2 cup currants (or sultanas if you dont have currants)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
2 eggs
2 tbsp honey
1 1/2 cups milk
2 bananas
1 stewed apple


1. Pre-heat oven to 180C
2. Stew apple, dust in some ground cinnamon while stewing and 1 tablespoon of honey
3. Mix up dry ingredients in 1 bowl (flour, oats, currants, sunflower seeds) and wet ingredients in another smaller bowl (bananas, eggs, milk, 1tbsp honey and stewed apple)
4. Make a well in dry ingredients and slowly add wet ingredients til just combined
5. Pour into loaf tray til its 2/3 full (allow for rising)
6. Bake at 180C for 15-25 mins (or til a fork comes out clean)


Slice and serve! This is quite a moist bread so nothing extra is needed. Best served warm, but fresh at room temperature is fine as well.

Breaking the Habit...

When your so used to munching, snacking and chewing, its so hard to just break the habit and. stop. Just. Stop.

But what if I dont have to stop? What if I can find an alternate way but 'better' way to continue what I'm doing? Baby-steps, right? Well, there is air-popped popcorn. Mmmm - yummmmm - popcoooooorn! Or, I could always just eat lettuce leaves all day and splurge on a massive piece of cake!!! Or, I could just eat sensibly and make sure that the cake that I'm eating is still within my calorie intake.

What is more important? Counting the calories or balancing my food? Is the kind of food I eat just as important as the amount of food? What is more important - quality or quantity?

For now, I think that quantity is more important. My meal sizes have been vastly over-sized for far too long, surely just eating LESS of the same food will automatically reduce my calorie-intake without even trying to change too much! Baby-steps, right??

So rather than filling up the dinner plate to overflowing, I'm going to concetrate on what I'm putting on my plate. I'm going to eat until I'm no longer hungry, rather than til the plate is empty. I'll attempt to reduce portion sizes first, and then I'll concentrate on quality.

Day 3 and doing okay.