Monday, January 19, 2009

Day 9

Breakfast - raw muesli

Snack - chickpeas, plum

Lunch (Treat) - yum cha (again!)

Dinner - soup

Exercise - 1 hour walk

Day 8

Breakfast - avocado on toast

Lunch (Treat) - yum cha

Dinner - soup

No exercise today.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Second weigh-in

This morning I weigh 105kg! A loss of 3kg!

I'm quite pleased with how this week progressed. I did exercise nearly every day. I had raw muesli for breakfast every day, and while I'm sure it's good to vary what you eat, at least I managed to have a good breakfast every day. There was only one day when I wasn't prepared for lunch and so had to opt for something that doesn't really fit in with my eating plan. And I had a few more treats than I'd planned, but I didn't go crazy when I had them.

I've heard it's ideal to lose 0.5-1kg/week (and I've also heard that healthy weightloss is actually 1kg per month!) so it will be interesting to see how I much weight I lose next week if I continue to eat and exercise the same way. I do have a lot to lose, but I don't want to overdo it.

I tripped down my stairs last night and have a massive lump and bruise on my knee! :( But I think I'll still be able to manage exercising as I have been. I hope so!

Day 7

Exercise - 40 minute walk

Breakfast - raw muesli

Lunch - beef and barley soup

Treat - yogurt, lemon and raspberry anything cake. I baked this cake for some friends, and had 1.5 pieces with them.

Dinner - I ended up having dinner really late, and was going to go out to get junk food, but the thought of having to write that here meant that I changed my mind and just made some scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.

Treat - chocolate! I had a few small pieces of chocolate after dinner...

Day 6

Breakfast - raw muesli

Lunch - I wasn't prepared, so had lunch at a cafe. They had no salads, so I chose a fancy ham and cheese sandwich. :-/

Treat - half a melting moment type biscuit, flat white

Dinner - beef stir fry with onions, broccoli, cauliflower, celery and zucchini, and a Korean-style stir fry sauce (bottled)

No exercise today

Day 5

Well, not even a week and I've already fallen behind with my posting! I'll do a quick catch-up now.

Breakfast - raw muesli

Lunch - zucchini frittata and salad

Dinner - chilli crab with bread and butter

Exercise - 1.5 hour walk

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Day 4

Exercise - 40 minute walk

Breakfast - raw muesli

Lunch - Zucchini frittata, salad

Snack
- grapes, nuts and chickpeas

Treat - coffee and chocolate

I was feeling quite unwell after my coffee and chocolate! Maybe I've been over-doing it, or maybe I'm just coming down with something. :( So when I got home I didn't feel like dinner at all. I ended up eating some mango before I went to bed - not sure if that was a good idea or not. I feel like I'm coming down with a cold this morning...

Monday, January 12, 2009

Day 3

Breakfast - yep, raw muesli

Lunch - ate out today, but I had grilled fish and salad. And only a tiny bit of tartare sauce!

Snack - banana and macadamia nuts

Dinner - soup (same as last night); nectarine

Water - at least 2 litres

Exercise - I went to bed early last night but didn't sleep particularly well. I did manage to get up at the crack of dawn and went for a long walk - 1.5 hours! Then I went to my cross-training aerobics class this evening.

A good day!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Day 2

Upon rising - juice of 1/2 a lemon in warm water.

Breakfast - same as yesterday, raw muesli.

Lunch - multi-grain toast with avocado; salad - lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, macadamia nuts with dressing (mustard, balsamic, olive oil); a banana.

Dinner - soup (onions, beef, barley, tomatoes, sweet potato, silverbeet) and a nectarine.

Water - I didn't count, but at least a litre.

Exercise - once again, an hour of mowing.

First weigh-in

So my 'diet' started yesterday, and I'm mostly happy with my first day.

I weighed myself in the morning - 108kg! That puts me into the severely obese category according to this calculator . I need to lose more than 20kg to just be overweight! Scary stuff.

Of course I slept in and didn't get up at the crack of dawn to go for a walk - but I made up for it in the afternoon, and spent at least an hour mowing my lawn (I rather would've walked, but it needed to be done and there's still more to do - my garden is a jungle!).

For breakfast I had raw muesli (my recipe is below), based on the recipe from page 50 of Breakfast Lunch Tea. I adore this book, and have made heaps of things from it (the peanut butter choc chip biscuits are a fave!). From now on I'll just try the salad recipes and ignore the biscuits.

Lunch was grilled lamb cutlets with a tomato and steamed veges - corn, cauliflower, zucchini.

Then after lunch, my brother brought over some Chinese fried dumplings and meat buns! I had one of each... actually, I had two dumplings. But it's better than eating the whole batch, as I would've previously done. I told him I was trying to lose weight, so he took them away with him. (He's trying to lose weight too, but he just wanted a taste, hence bringing them over to my place... I think he was going to give the rest to a friend.)

Dinner was a small piece of steak with salad - lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, cucumber and red onion with a dressing of mustard, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper and a few slivered almonds scattered on top. I felt like something sweet after dinner so had another nectarine and banana. I'd really like to get out of the habit of eating anything after dinner. Or eating any snacks at all. But I think that will take a while. And while I love my organic boxes of fruit and vege, getting a whole heap of bananas means that you have a whole heap of bananas that ripen at the same time. I guess if I don't manage to eat them all before they go bad I can make a cake for a friend.

As well as my exercise and food, I want to get into the habit of recording how much water I drink. I'm not sure how much I had yesterday... and I haven't been keeping a record of today's intake either, but I think I've had more... I think I'll have to start writing it down.


Raw Muesli Recipe (adapted from Breakfast Lunch Tea)
- The night before, soak 1/2 cup oats in 1/4 cup fruit juice.
- In the morning, stir through 2 tablespoons of greek style yoghurt, 1 chopped nectarine and 1 chopped banana and a handful of macadamia nuts.
- I also sprinkled over a tablespoon of Brookfarm toasted macadamia muesli for added crunch.
- Delicious!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

CSA box

I want to get into the habit of menu planning, something I've never had any success with in the past. On Wednesdays I pick up my box of fruit and veg from my CSA.

In today's box I have:
- Bananas
- Nectarines
- Lemons
- Tomatoes
- Avocado
- Corn
- Silverbeet
- Cauliflower
- Mushrooms
- Cucumber
- Zucchini
- Potato
- Sweet Potatoes
- Onions
- Red Onions

I have a few good ideas about what to do with my latest box. My next guest arrives tomorrow, so I'll have to wait to see if any of my ideas come to fruition...

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Diet starts tomorrow!! (well, soon...)

Hello and welcome to my blog!

I've decided that in 2009, I will lose weight. And I will document my weight loss here.

I plan to do my own thing. It will involve eating stuff that everyone knows is good for you - vegetables, fruit, whole grains, fish, lean meat, nuts, low fat dairy, good fats - with a treat once or twice a week. I'll also be doing a lot of exercise! I hope to post daily about food and exercise.

I also plan to post recipes and useful links. And I suspect there'll be a few posts (rants?) about my thoughts and feelings about weight loss and body image.

I have a lot of weight to lose. I plan to weigh myself weekly and measure myself monthly. Despite the anonymity of the internet, I'm not sure how comfortable I feel about publishing these figures. But I'll decide once I've got some figures to report!

The festive season isn't quite over for me yet. I have international and interstate guests to entertain, and I suspect there will be a fair bit of over-indulging. Once they're gone I'll start posting in earnest (I hope!).

Stay tuned...