So this is my new diet and fitness blog. The reasoning behind it is simple. I’m forty five years old, incredibly overweight and even more unfit. Having moved to working at home three days a week, my already sedentary lifestyle has become almost comatose. Sitting at the computer, moving only to visit the toilet or make a cup of tea does not make for a healthy lifestyle, especially when the only other exercise I now get (having stopped working in the pub where at least I was walking a lot) is the stroll to and from the bus stop on work days. It is abundantly clear that changes need to be made before I either turn into one of those people in the freaky dieting shows on the telly or die of some nasty weight/unfitness related illness.

To this end I have joined a gym to improve my fitness and am about to embark on the latest attempt to lose weight through a new eating regime (I don’t want to say the ‘D’ word as I think it’s rather negative). As I chronicle my journey to greater fitness, better health and weight loss there will be daily posts as I think this will help to keep me focussed and hopefully help me to stick to the plan during the bad times I know lie ahead. I intend it to be honest as I need to acknowledge my weaknesses and fails as well as my good progress, which could be painful, but will hopefully, eventually be cathartic and helpful.

Sunday, 11 September 2011

Day Four


It’s been another lazy day for me. A little housework mixed with a lot of TV watching and plenty of internet time. I did however manage to get my arse in gear long enough to finally get some cooking done and made the ‘Faux Shepherd’s Pie’ from the IPD book.

This tasty dish is made up of beef mince combined with onions, celery and mushrooms, topped by a ‘mash’ of cauliflower and broccoli, laced with cream and bacon pieces. The book actually uses only cauliflower, but I’ve always detested the stuff and found that mixing it with an equal portion of broccoli (which I love) hides the taste of it pretty well. It’s been ages since I last made this and I’d forgotten how good it tastes.


Unfortunately, when I added this recipe to my Fitday profile, using an old version, and having decided I was definitely going to have this for my dinner this evening I found myself having to cut back on the rest of the day’s food so I could stay within the 30 gram limit. This meant a brunch of smoked salmon and prawns (which I should have had with mayo to add some fat, but completely forgot) which hadn’t been my original plan at all.

During the time it took to bake the pie, I thought I’d recalculate the ingredients (as I have been with all my old Fitday figures) and discovered that I’d wildly miscalculated in the first place (or I’d used much higher carb ingredients). This has dropped my carb intake for the day to a seriously low figure, which has not been helped by a lack of appetite (caused by cooking) which meant I really couldn’t face having the mixed salad and blue cheese dressing with the pie, although that still wouldn’t have put me in the green zone. Even adding a late pudding (the cream, cocoa, sweetener mixture again) did little to raise the carb level leaving me well under the target (I could easily have a second portion of the pie and I’d still be well within the zone).  I’m not sure how this will affect my weight/inch loss yet, but as I have no appetite there’s nothing I can do about it now.

Back to the gym tomorrow, which I’ve actually been sort of missing, although not quite enough yet to get me in there at the weekend. I’m hoping for an early start, but also aware from the IPD book that tomorrow could be a bad day. Here’s hoping it isn’t!          

Today’s exercise: Same as yesterday - not much going on
Carb's Eaten: 14.7G
Exercising to: TV again, but this time the F1 GP and a lot of Jane Austen
Mood: Not Hungry!

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