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.

Wednesday, 23 November 2011

Day Seventy Seven



My eye was almost back to normal this morning and so it was off to work, where I spent a busy morning working on boring spreadsheets and a slightly more relaxed afternoon talking to my boss. I think the swelling may have been caused by an allergy, possibly from a wasp sting, as the forefinger on my left hand is also very painful and swollen and has just started (after three days) showing the signs of a sting. 

Breakfast was oak smoked streaky bacon with buttery, peppery eggs and lunch was some of that rather delicious stew that I made on Sunday. Unfortunately with the stew being so high it didn’t leave me much in the way of carbs for dinner this evening, especially after a mug of tea with a friend of mine at lunchtime, but I had a raspberry protein milkshake and some prosciutto and Babybels anyway. Sadly, I was quite hungry this evening so ended up having some honey and mustard crusted ham as well, so my carbs for the day are somewhat over, although still not too bad.

I had to make my choices for the work’s Christmas lunch today, which was rather more difficult than usual. It soon became clear that any hope of sticking to the low carb way of eating was pretty much a non-starter, and whilst I could leave all the carby bits of my meal and not have dessert, I have no intention of doing that as it’s costing me so much money.

The starter wasn’t too bad, as all options were okay – garlic mushrooms (which I chose of course), prawn cocktail, and pate – however all come with some sort of bread. The mushrooms come with onion bread, which I’m hoping I won’t like very much and won’t feel the urge to scoff it all. The mains too weren’t as bad as they could have been - the obvious turkey dinner, a rib eye steak (my choice, as I’m not keen on turkey more than once a year), cod in a creamy white wine sauce and vegetable filo tart (which was a definite no in my opinion). All of these come with potatoes and vegetables, so once again a higher carb option than usual, but do-able for one day. The problem was the dessert. As I said having paid over £20 for the pleasure of spending an afternoon with my work colleagues I had no intention of missing out on the lovely sweet treat at the end – especially when everyone else would be eating it. But what to have? None of the choices were in any way carb-friendly or even heading towards carb-friendly. I spent two and a half hours agonizing over the choices, weighing up the merits of each one as I tried to decide which would be the better dessert. Eventually, and only because I had to hand in my choice, along with my money before going home, I ended up using a counting game to eliminate two of the puddings because I really couldn’t decide. The problem was that all three were so different, yet all potentially so tasty, that I couldn’t decide which one I was going to enjoy more. First to be eliminated was the intriguingly named winter spiced pannacotta, which was actually my least favourite choice as it comes with mandarin jelly and I’m not awfully keen on jelly. I kept having visions of the squares of jelly and blancmange they used to force us to eat at junior school and which used to make me throw up, so I wasn’t too sad to see that one go. And then the chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream was rejected, leaving me with the sticky toffee pudding with brandy sauce. We also get half a bottle of prosecco each, plus whatever else we drink while we’re there.

As with other occasions of this type, I’m going to go with the flow, enjoy the meal and not stress about it taking me off-track as that won’t help. Fortunately, it is two weeks before I go to Spain, so hopefully I should have a little time to stop any weight gain/stalling before Christmas.

I haven’t done a lot this evening as I’m feeling quite tired. This, I think, is due to an unexpected time of the month. Having not had a period since June, due, I’m guessing, to the increase in exercise and my change of eating habits (both of which can affect menstruation according to ever-helpful Google), I had absolutely no warning that this one was coming. Thus, even though I’ve been religiously taking my vitamins I’m feeling pretty washed out. The one good thing is that because of the lack of carbs I'm not feeling bloated, or particularly water retentive.

I’ve already decided that I’m not going to go to the gym in the morning because I can’t face another session without a swim and I wouldn’t feel comfortable going swimming at the moment. Also I think a sleep in will do me good. I may go on Friday if I’m feeling more like my old self, otherwise I shall schedule gym time into my weekend instead. However, I’m intending to give my Zumba dvds a dusting down and see if I can start getting on with them, so I won’t be completely exercise-free.   
       
Today’s exercise:  The walk to and from the bus stop at each end, and that's pretty much it
Carb's Eaten: 34.2G
Exercising to: Various IPod music
Weight Loss = 1 stone and 4 pounds
Inch Loss = 12.5 inches (I really must weigh myself again soon!)
Mood: Tired, achy and a bit blah


No comments:

Post a Comment