Hmph

I’ll just come right out and say that the phone interview didn’t go great and though I’ve not had any confirmation yet, I’m pretty sure I’m still unemployed.

Moving on.

Food today:

Breakfast: All bran with peaches and some spelt bread with LC and reduced sugar marmalade

Lunch: Home-made lasagne made with home-made lasagne sheets served with a ginormous salad. I think the lasagne actually improved while frozen!

Dinner: Vegetable soup with a side of grilled asparagus

Snacks: Cashew cookie Nak’d bar and a plate of 3 huge buckwheat pancakes! I was reading the lovely and supportive comments to my last post, and the suggestion that I allow myself something I really fancied seemed like an excellent idea! I had pulled a box of gluten-free pancake mix from the depth of a cupboard planning to have it for breakfast tomorrow, but somehow that seemed more appealing than my planned protein smoothie, so I went with it! (I didn’t expect them to be so big mind you…) Not the best pancakes ever, I prefer my cottage cheese griddle cakes, but very very filling. Served with a small amount of summer fruits heated in the microwave and a little maple syrup. It would have been better with a lot more maple syrup mind you….

I also had a mini babybel light for protein.

Weight today: 10 2.2lbs – I can’t help noticing a slow, slight, but undeniable creep up here, I’m about to have a beer as consolation for the interview, but I think I need a good day sometime this week…

One of those days…

I’m n0t a happy bunny right now, and can’t put my finger on why.

Yes, by back still feels like someone stuck a pickaxe between my shoulder blades and left it there – even with Ibuprofen.

Yes, I slept badly because I was uncomfortable and as a result my reduced caffeine has gone to hell – 3 coffees and a bottle of Pepsi Max so far!

Yes, its raining

And I feel like there isn’t enough food in the world to stop me feeling like pick-pick-picking all day.

On the other hand, I got a (dry) walk into town this morning and I just finished a very sweaty 40 minutes on the elliptical trainer. And I haven’t yet gone mad with the snacking. I’m actually feeling grumpy because I want to want to binge and I don’t.

I’m slightly crazy and very p*ssed off with myself. What the hell is wrong with me today???

A grey Monday

But I still went for a walk – and made it there and back without getting wet for a change! However on the way home I was carrying 22lbs of rucksack and that might have been a mistake given that I woke up with a bad back this morning. In fact I woke up in the night with an agonising pain in my left shoulder and upper back, had a nightmare trying to get back to sleep, and though the shoulder improved the back stayed painful. I had some shopping to do though, and then when I got to Waitrose I found they had some of M’s favourite wine in, so as always when they do I bought as much as I thought I could carry to stock up – and regretted it all the way home!

Food today:

Breakfast: the prettiest pinkest overnight oatbran yet (and very very good they were too!). I soaked the oatbran and whey in a mixture of Greek yoghurt and Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice. This seems like a waste as its very expensive stuff, but it tasted great, especially with some dried cherries mixed in as well!

Lunch: Dinner for lunch again today! I had an ‘Around the World in 80 meals’ moment – and today I went Vietnamese! A bit more exotic than last weeks Welsh effort! I made Chicken with Lemongrass, and it was a lot tastier than it looked! It was served with flat rice noodles and spinach – the spinach was Chinese-inspired, which I believe would really annoy the Vietnamese if they knew about it so keep it quiet! It was just stir-fried spinach with garlic & soy sauce, nothing fancy. The chicken looks kind of bland but was actually really good and will definitely be repeated – but next time I’ll make sure that I pair it up with a salad or stir fry of mixed vegetables, as the green stuff was definitely lacking!

Dinner: Vegetable soup with cold pizza! This has been in the freezer since I made it for M a few weeks ago, and in the spirit of using up stuff from the freezer I decided to dig it out. Yum! I thought about heating it up, but I don’t like microwave heated pizza and I didn’t think it was worth turning the electric oven on just for that.

 

Snacks: All bran with peaches – even with the oatbran breakfast I still need the fibre boost! – and a plate of houmous (lemon & coriander flavour) with veggies to make up for the spars pickings at lunchtime. Very colourful, and it allowed me to pick at it for a while instead of going in search of extra food in a fit of Monday-itis.

I also ate a Spirulina ginseng ball on my way into town – very like the protein balls I showed before except for a slightly disconcerting green colour and slightly less nutty flavour.

Weight today: 10st 2.1lbs

Technorati Tags: Around the world in 80 meals

I hate it when the clocks go forward…

Why do we still bother with Daylight Saving anyway? I forgot to change our clocks, and when I got up – about 6am as I thought, I felt quietly happy that I had a nice relaxing Sunday ahead. Until I realised an hour had been stolen from me in the night!!!

Ah well, I guess I’ll just have to live with it…

So far today we’ve had no rain at all, amazingly. The forecast was dreadful, so I’m a lot happier that they were wrong – and hoping they’ll still be wrong during next week, when the snow and sleet are forecast to return…

I went out this morning, managed to incorporate a little running into my walk for a change. Less than previously, but its hardly surprising that my lack lustre lack of consistency isn’t building stamina. I think my shoulder’s OK again now though, so hopefully I’ll be able amp things up a bit this week – the body is willing, but the spirit is questionable! Food hasn’t been bad though, so that’s something!

Food today:

Breakfast: All bran with peaches and a low cal bacon sandwich – which was very yummy indeed I might add!

                                            

Lunch: Veggie soup and some of my ham & cheese spelt bread spread with LC. Laura, I would give you the recipe but unfortunately I took it from a cookery book and don’t think they’d like it! It came from the ‘Healthy Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day’ book, and I’d heartily recommend it to anybody who likes more interesting breads.

Dinner: Pork fillet medallions and onion browned in sunflower spray then braised in a gravy made with reduced salt gravy granules, liquid bouillon, and mango chutney. Served with dry roasted potatoes, steamed cauliflower, broccoli & peas.

Snacks: Protein smoothie; Greek yoghurt with honey, grapenuts, and rhubarb stewed with apple & ginger juice;

some more shared chocolates. And a new snack – an Energy bomb:

Kind of interesting, it won’t put Mars out of business but it was quite nice (no noticeable surge of energy to be honest!). I tried to break off a piece to show you the inside but it resisted!

Weight this morning: 10 st 2 lbs.

Saturday blah

Weird day today, I haven’t felt like pigging out, or like working out… but I did walk into Chepstow this morning, carrying a heavyish load each way, which was quite calorie-burning to judge from how little energy I had on the way home! I omitted my usual coffee in town, and I think I really felt the difference as I slogged across a big field along the way. Maybe I’ll retain the half-way caffeine boost and just cut back the rest of the time. That’s not going so well so far by the way – the day after I said I was doing that I had my usual 2 cups in the morning because I went on autopilot and forgot to switch to green tea, and although I didn’t have any coffee first thing yesterday I had a misto in Starbucks. Today I settled for one coffee and one tea pigs black tea with chocolate flakes – yum!

I had my last protein ball before I left on my walk, and didn’t eat anything  - or drink anything but water – till I got back. The protein ball was mainly ground nut in flavour by the way, if you don’t like that you won’t like the balls! I got back at lunchtime and didn’t have time to cook my dinner then, so I reverted to having my main meal in the evening instead.

Food today:

Breakfast: All bran with peaches and toast with LC and jam

Lunch: Vegetable soup with spelt bread. But I livened up the spelt bread a bit – when I took the dough out of the fridge to come to room temperature, I rolled it out flat, topped it with a bit of low fat mature cheese and wafer thin ham, then rolled it up and baked it in a loaf tin. I could have used more topping, but it was very tasty dipped into my soup. Followed by some fruit I bought in Cardiff yesterday.

Dinner: Chicken and pepper kebabs, marinated with BBQ sauce for an hour or so. With home made oven chips and salad

Snacks: Greek yoghurt with strawberries chopped & stewed in apple & ginger juice and grapenuts to make a kind of parfait;

2 slices of my Bara brith and the protein ball. Plus a few more of those lovely chocolates, again split with M.

Weight today: 10 st 2.1lbs – not bad after yesterday’s indulgences!!!

TGI Friday!!!

I threw away most of a pack of Spelt muesli crackers this morning. They weren’t as enjoyable as the last lot I got, but I was eating one this morning anyway, and it occurred to me that I’m one of those people who

1. Can’t stand to throw food away – even if I do understand intellectually that eating something I don’t enjoy is just as much of a waste - and
2. If something I eat doesn’t match up to my mental image of it, instead of saying ‘oh well, I guess I don’t like it any more’ thinks ‘maybe that was a bad bite / maybe I had a funny taste in my mouth’ – and carries on not really enjoying it, hoping it’ll live up to my expectations, and still consuming the calories.

So I threw them away while the one I was eating was still fresh in my mind. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect everything I eat to be some kind of gourmet delight, but I also don’t want to waste my limited calories on something or nothing. Now, if you don’t know me very well you might possibly interpret the above action as a sign that I’m in control, clued up, grown up, even moderate in my behaviour… maybe a little annoying…? NOT SO (well possibly annoying, but you’ll have to be the judge of that!)

After the above feat of intelligent and restrained thinking M and I went into Cardiff for a little window shopping. Well, mainly window shopping, we did get some coffee in Starbucks and I may have spent a ridiculous amount of money on not very much chocolate at Hotel Chocolat…

And we bought some ‘lunch’ at M&S which will be eaten for whichever meal seems appropriate when I’m willing to eat again (whenever that may be!)

We NEVER EVER go shopping or window shopping together as M is very attached to the whole online shopping concept, so while we were out anyway it seemed like a good idea to stay out for lunch. Just for a change, you know. Well. It was my idea, I cannot deny it or claim any resistance was shown, to go to TGI Fridays. OMG. This claims to be modelled on American diners I think, and while its about as authentic as a… as a… really fake thing, the portion sizes might just be genuinely inspired as claimed! I have no pictures as it was such an impulse I didn’t have my camera (or my mobile – whoops!) with me. So you’ll just have to imagine it…

Food today:

Breakfast: My breakfast looked like ass. Oatbran soaked overnight in a mixture of apple & ginger juice and Greek yoghurt, with protein powder and a chopped apple stirred in. God that looks disgusting!!!! It tasted better – slightly… The problem (aesthetically) is that instead of my usual whey I put hemp protein powder in – no-one told me that is was such a revolting colour!!! I’ll be saving that for use in smoothies from now on! Especially as it was also unflavoured…

 

Lunch: Starter – Bruschetta.  4 triangles of garlic toasted bread with a MOUNTAIN of chopped tomatoes, garlic and onions drizzled with olive oil. Lovely and fresh tasting, and M had one of the triangles of bread to help me out, but I could have been happy with half the portion (I picked it thinking it would be a lighter starter than their other offerings.)

Main course: Jack Daniels shrimp with fries and seasoned vegetables and a shared side of onion rings. I needed help with the shrimp, didn’t finish the fries, and even between us we only managed half the onion rings. I did eat all my broccoli, red peppers and green beans though! I think I can feel – and possibly hear – my arteries hardening as I type!!! It was very tasty, especially the Jack Daniels dip that accompanies the shrimp, but I would have preferred it if the breading on the shrimp had been much much lighter – halved at least, maybe even just a sprinkle instead of a full coating.  Still, moderation in all things, right – including moderation??? I will be drinking lots of fluids for the rest of the day in an attempt to flush the sodium out of my somewhat bloated body…

Dinner:  The snack I bought at M&S for lunch! At first sight this carton of soup (just add boiling water) had me thinking ‘pot noodle’ but I remembered that this method resembled that used at EAT for the wonderful soups I had in London (although they used boiling stock not just water) so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. I’ll be honest, if there’s an EAT next door to an M&S and I’m looking for lunch, I’ll be going to EAT… but for a not-too-expensive snacky meal, this one was quite tasty! And 305 calories, which isn’t bad!

Snack: Greek yoghurt with honey and grape nuts plus the above mentioned spelt cracker; plus M & I split two of the chocolates from the selection box I bought.

Weight today: 10 st 1.5lbs

Protein Balls

Sorry guys, I assumed everyone else had seen protein balls before I even knew they existed!

I’m afraid they’re not nearly as intriguing as I may have made them sound… they’re just protein bars in a different shape!

I buy them at Whole Foods Market,(I’ve never seen them anywhere else so I assumed they were just emerging on this side of the pond) mainly because they tend to be based on all natural raw ingredients with lots of dried fruit, nuts and seeds blended together and shaped into… well, balls!

The main appeal for me is that they are an easily portable snack to take on walks unlike my protein smoothies and Greek yoghurt concoctions!

Welcome Gofer and anyone else who’s strayed this way from Lynn’s memorial blogroll. Even though you got here (indirectly) through a tragedy its nice to meet you!

Frustration 0 Chrissie 1

I was stuck indoors all morning waiting for a man to do a thing, and for once managed to resist the frustration eating. What a relief! I rock! Sorta. I did eat my snack early, but it helped me fight off the urge to keep eating later so that was OK with me! He arrived around 10, left just after 11 and I didn’t want to go for a walk without something to eat so I decided to have my dinner at lunch time again and then take a walk afterwards. This was a good idea in terms of not pigging out more, given that I was starving after the early snack, but a bad thing because it took longer than I wanted to cook it so I had to have a cracker to tide me over. Just one though!

On the whole I probably could have done without the protein ball I took on my walk, but everything else I was happy with, and that makes a nice change on a frustrating day. And even with that I’m well within calories for the day!

In other news, I have a telephone interview for a job next Tuesday. There certainly is no guarantee, and I’m not at my best over the phone, but wish me luck anyway! The job in question would require a bit of a daily commute and might give me some issues when it comes to fitting in training and healthy eating, but that’s real life isn’t it? So I’ll just have to suck it up like everyone else if I get the job! Even that hasn’t inspired me to hoover up the edible contents of my kitchen, so I’m reasonably happy today.

Food today:

Breakfast: All bran with peaches and a one LF sausage, one slice of bread sandwich

Lunch: Ready meal – fish pie – with green beans and peas

Dinner: Vegetable soup with a sliced bockwurst and kale added and nimble spread with lemon and coriander houmous

Snacks: Protein smoothie; protein ball; 1 muesli spelt Dr Karg cracker; 1 small slice Bara brith (told you I’d have to taste it – delicious by the way! Next time I’ll toast it & butter it);

Greek yoghurt with sliced strawberries and grapenuts

Weight today: 10st 2.4lbs

Water, water everywhere…

It has rained here ALL DAY. I mean that quite literally, it simply hasn’t stopped. This is why we live in Wales, for the great weather…

I headed out for a walk this morning, popping to the library to return some books (one rather overdue – whoops) thinking it was dry. As soon as I stepped out of the house I knew that wasn’t so, but it was such light rain I took a chance on it. It then gently drenched me the whole way there and the whole way back. But I still got my walk in, so the day wasn’t a dead loss!

I also got some baking in, and that’s never a dead loss! The first thing I baked was the spelt bread I mixed up yesterday. Overnight the dough had gone very wet and a bit sloppy so I wasn’t hoping for much – and as it came to room temperature before being baked it seemed to be spreading out to form a shapeless splat on the baking tray. Lovely! I kept folding it over on itself in the hope it would stick together into a more coherent mass! Luckily once it went into the oven it did manage to rise and solidify a bit – I would say coagulate, but that word brings unpleasant associations to mind – and eventually it ended up looking like quite a nice free form loaf. Doesn’t taste bad either!

Then I did some ‘Around the world’ baking – but I have to admit I cheated! Today’s around the world country was… Wales!!! I baked a famous Welsh teabread called Bara brith. Its kind of similar to a sweet raisin bread except that you use a mix of dried fruits and peel. I have eaten Bara brith before, several years ago while on holiday in North Wales, and its delicious. I can’t help noticing a mistake in the instructions that I should have picked up before mixing the batter – if you take 450g of flour, 360g (total) of dried fruit, 3 eggs, and all the other ingredients, is it realistic to believe it will all fit into a 500g loaf tin??? I think not… I ended up using a 1lb tin AND a 2lb tin (which is currently still baking). But the batter was very tasty… what? Of course I tried it – just checking it for ill effects, don’t you know! And the smell is delicious! I’ll be freezing most of it for my Mum, but we’ll have to check its OK first, of course!

 

Food today:

Breakfast: All bran with peaches and a soft boiled egg with toast soldiers

Lunch: I had my dinner at lunch time because I found myself picking again. I had a bison burger (no roll / bread) topped with some caramelised pepper and onion, served with home-made oven chips and a big salad. It was delicious! I followed it with a fruit jelly.

Dinner: Vegetable soup with a home-made roll (the last of my quinoa bread) spread with LC.

Snacks: I finished off the bite-size seeded spelt crackers; I had a protein smoothie; I accidentally bought a little pic ‘n’ mix at Tesco… oh yes, and you could count licking batter of the beater of my new Kenwood Chef Stand Mixer!!! Not literally – but not far off!!!

Weight today: 10st 3.25lbs.

Technorati Tags: Around the world in 80 meals

Small changes

I’m cutting back on coffee at the moment. Every so often I decide I’m too reliant on it for energy in the mornings and start replacing it with green tea then herbal tea. I usually give up on that when I go on holiday and realise that coffee (which I generally drink black unless I’m in holiday mode) is the only zero calorie drink available to me except water (I don’t really like water and struggle to drink it at the best of times). So today instead of 2-3 cups of coffee I had one coffee and 2 mugs of hot water with a slice of lemon in it, and so far I’m not much more tired than usual. I’ll see if I end up with a caffeine withdrawal headache and maybe add a cup of tea later if I need to.

I’m thinking that maybe I need to give my brain something more interesting than my caffeine and baking addictions to work on. I am considering doing an Open University module – Understanding Human Nutrition – that starts in May. If I get on OK with that, I would also be interested in modules on ‘Challenging Obesity’ and ‘Handling Diabetes’ after that. Has anyone ever done any distance learning courses? I’m a bit unsure if my self-discipline is up to motivating myself to do the assignments without someone standing over me. I suppose that would be the advantage of choosing just one fairly small module to start with – if I prove too lazy I won’t have wasted a great deal of time and money on it. The course fee includes all the reading materials and there’s no residential component so it would be totally portable if working away. The only problem is whether I’d have time if I got a local job and had to combine work, commute, training AND studying – but the course can be done in as short a time as 2 months or as long as 5 months, so if I picked the five month option I should still have time to do it at snail’s pace. Registration doesn’t close until May so I guess I have time to think about it a bit.

My pitiful 6 minutes on the rowing machine apparently was 6 minutes too long – I guess because I was tired I didn’t focus on form enough and my back and shoulders are aching today. I probably should have just stayed on the elliptical but switched to an easier program – I’ve never managed to hurt myself on the elliptical! Its not due to rain until lunch time today so I think I’ll focus on taking a walk this morning rather than doing the 30 day shred as I was planning to.

Feeling pissy today

Probably because its TOM – yay! Not.

Still, I’m happy on one account – I got my brand new Kenwood Chef today (to replace the 30yr old one my Mum gave me and I killed). I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that I washed it as soon as it was unpacked, and used it as soon as it was dry… I mixed up the dough for another Artisan bread, this one 100% spelt bread, and after the 2 hr rise at room temperature it had risen at least 50% more than any other bread I’ve made from the book mixing by hand. It could be coincidence, but there are less ingredients that could help bread to rise in this recipe than any of the others I’ve tried – literally just wholemeal spelt flour, vital wheat gluten, yeast, salt, & water… so I’m pretty sure that it is the mixer I have to thank!

I didn’t go for a walk today, which no doubt is also responsible for the pissy mood. I was waiting in for the mixer, and then when it came it looked like rain, so I used the gym instead. As Roxie pointed out, just doing what doesn’t fill you with dread is as good a plan as any for getting some exercise! I did HIIT on the elliptical walker for 20 mins, then decided to add 20 mins on the rowing machine. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I worked so hard on the elliptical, I barely managed 6 minutes on the rower before giving up.  Funny thing is, I then read this post by Leslie of Something Brilliant is Brewing and realised I was also kind of embarrassed to only last 6 minutes myself – and there was no-one around at all to notice but me!!!

I then had my lunch and considered going out for that walk… I changed my clothes, got myself ready and came down to see rain. Bloody typical! So I resisted eating lots more stuff (at that point anyway) and resisted mixing up another dough (at that point, anyway…) and settled for chopping loads of veg for a vat of soup.

I still ate a little too much today, and I’m now cheering myself up with a pint of beer, but I didn’t go as crazy as I wanted to, and I’m not going to – even if I have to get into bed at 6pm (with a laptop) to avoid the kitchen!

Food today:

Breakfast: All bran with strawberries and a small bacon sandwich – low fat bacon of course!

Lunch: Soup with a small chicken breast and some spinach added and toast with LC followed by a fruit jelly

Dinner: Grilled haddock fillet (rubbed with a commercial blend of sea salt, lemon grass, dill and fennel seeds that I bought at a local farm shop – I wasn’t sure about it, but it was really nice) with stir fried vegetables (a frozen mix that I’m using up because they’re garbage!). I made a little flavouring for the vegetables by mixing together sriracha, oyster sauce and soy sauce, and stir fried the vegetables with garlic and ginger pastes.

Snacks: Greek Yoghurt with honey & grapenuts in the morning. A protein smoothie and a gingerbread Nak’d bar (that wasn’t planned, but a while after the smoothie I found myself feeling a bit low blood-sugary and the bar helped) and while messing around with the soup I ate quite a few bite sized seeded spelt crackers. The food calories came in under my target, but the beer soon sorted that out!

Weight today: 10st 2.25 lbs

Good Monday to you!

Eh, who am I kidding, even in the world of unemployment Mondays suck.  We did have a mostly dry morning here, and a little sunshine this afternoon, but in between, lots of lots of rain – noisy, grey, cold and depressing rain, and a real disappointment it was after yesterday!

I still got out in the fresh air for a Vitamin D fix though. I half walked, half ran into town before the rain started this morning, although the running portion was less fun and harder work than it was the last time I tried it, several weeks ago before getting sidetracked by carrying well loaded rucksacks on my walks. Ever tried to run with a rucksack full of bottles / root vegetables bouncing on your spine? Me neither, and I’ve no plans to try it!

This afternoon I was feeling energetic – no, that’s a lie, I was feeling weirdly sleep-deprivedly hyper, and also wanted to eat a lot – so I cycled 10 miles on an exercise bike. Once again felt the discomfort in the nether regions, but it made a nice change to do something different!

I’ve come to the conclusion that just because I’m rubbish at being consistent at any form of exercise except walking, it doesn’t mean I should avoid doing anything except walking! So I plan to do whatever appeals when it appeals, and hope that, however gradually, it does shock my body into becoming a bit fitter. I know its not scientific and doesn’t approach being a real exercise plan, but I just can’t feel motivated enough right now. I’m suffering from a well-known problem for people out of work for a while – the ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ syndrome, and its making me lazy.

Food today:

Breakfast: All bran with strawberries and a mini omelette consisting of one whole egg, some mushrooms and some onion.

Lunch: Vegetable soup and a toasted LC and ham sandwich followed by a melon medley fruit salad and a sugar free jelly made with frozen summer berries in the bottom

 

Dinner: A chicken and mushroom lasagne portion from the freezer (made with my home-made pasta, if you remember!) with a big salad and s0me red pepper and onion slowly sauteed in olive oil a la The Hungry Yogini. Delicious!

Snacks: A protein smoothie, some Greek Yoghurt with honey & grapenuts, a couple of No-No crackers or 3 and a small number of bite-size Dr Karg seeded spelt crackers.

Weight today: 10st 3.4 lbs.

Sunny Sunday

What a beautiful day its been today, compared to yesterday! Sunshine virtually all day and I managed to get in a good walk this morning.

Spring has sprung is springing!

As I walked down one road, I bumped into a man walking his dog who pointed out a very unexpected sight in a nearby car park:

Not at the side of the road where you could easily picture the series of events, but in a small car park attached to some residences. Weird – and not something you see every day around here!

I walked about 5 miles, actually slightly uncomfortably warm as it was so mild today. I was originally planning a longer walk but cut it short due to the unpleasant sensation of sweat running down my back! (Ironically in the gym I love that feeling as it makes me feel like I’ve really worked out, but when I’m dressed in ‘real clothes’  - yuck!!!)

Food today has also been better:

Breakfast: Slow cooker steel-cut oats mixed with soya milk, raisins and vanilla whey and topped with a miniscule amount of peanut butter to finish off the jar this morning. I’ve never had steel-cut oats before and quite liked the chewiness they retained even after cooking for hours, but I think my heart still belongs to oatbran for its creaminess. They might grow on me though! Sorry for the bland photo!

Lunch: Vegetable soup and a mountain bread wrap containing Chavroux goat’s cheese, mixed salad leaves (cut from a box of ‘living salad’), tomatoes, cucumber and red onion. I topped the soup with a little nutritional yeast as an experiment, but didn’t feel it really added anything so I’ll save it for the popcorn for now

Dinner: Tofu marinated in hoisin-chilli marinade with vegetable fried noodles. It was going to be a fried rice till I realised I’d actually managed to run out of brown rice!

Snacks: Greek yoghurt with honey & grape nuts;  2 No-No crackers, some raisins, and a small bowl of all bran with peaches

Weight today: 10st 4.5 lbs of semi-digested pigging yesterday!

Lazy (Greedy) Saturday

Well, I decided not to bother going back to the proper eating until tomorrow as Sunday has always been the start of my week. Which is just as well because almost constant rain meant that I didn’t feel like walking; trying to finally ‘fix’ my shoulders meant I didn’t want to do anything that might require a bra, so I drove to Waitrose and didn’t otherwise leave the house. And I ate. A lot. Well, to be realistic and not hyper-critical, quite a lot, not full on past time binge a lot!

Food today:

Breakfast: All bran with peaches and a mountain bread wrap containing a sliced low fat sausage, spinach, onion & mushrooms sautéed together.

Lunch: A mug of vegetable soup and these crackers with Chavroux goat’s cheese * 6

 

Dinner: Meatloaf (not brilliant because I used too heavy a hand with the dried chilli flakes) with Waitrose Bubble & Squeak and steamed green beans, broccoli & cauliflower. Followed by a mini pot of Haagen Dazs Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream to accompany my favourite dessert wine, discovered on a past cruise and virtually impossible to find in the UK (excluding mail order) – but stocked in Whole Foods Market!

Is that a beautiful colour or what? Such a gorgeous wine! Its called Essensia, by Quady Vineyard in California, and its so full of peachy, orangey flavours – rather than just being ‘sweet’ like most dessert wines. Love it!

Snacks: Greek Yoghurt with honey & cereal; No No crackers – about 4 or 5; Peanut butter; Dried dates and prunes.

Weight today: A definitely dehydrated 10 st 2.5lbs