Day Ninety Eight

I know, I’ve been a.w.o.l again. This was mainly due to a chest infection that left me feeling pretty crappy and made me disinclined to do anything much and everything I did do seemed to take three times as long, thus leaving little time for blogging. Suffice to say that with the exception of a couple of bottles of wine (an Italian Verdicchio and a Spanish rose Cava) which were supposed to help with wrapping the Christmas presents (I still have yet to start that task although the wine has gone) the food has been pretty much the usual fare – protein shakes, cheese, prosciutto and frozen meals with the odd bit of greenery thrown in for good measure. My weight hasn’t gone down any more, but then it hasn’t risen either, which is a good thing – in fact everything has been going along on a pretty even keel.

Until today.

Yesterday I got transfixed by a work colleague who was eating a bacon sandwich and although I kept trying to put it out of my mind the craving wouldn’t go away and I just knew I was going to fall.

Yes, I know that on the IPD I can eat bacon until it’s coming out of my ears, but this is different. I’m talking about a lovely greasy WHITE BREAD bacon sandwich with ketchup, which is something I haven’t had for over three months. By midnight last night I’d decided that I wasn’t going to make any breakfast for this morning, instead I was going to treat myself to the sandwich. Of course I wanted to control this so it didn’t turn into a complete disaster and so I took along lunch, although it happened to be the moussaka which is the highest carb meal I have: but maybe getting it all out of the way in one go is a good thing. For dinner tonight I had the picky stuff and a protein shake which are filling and very low carb.   

I had intended to visit the taxi stand, which does the best bacon rolls in London, but it was closed this morning and because I was unwilling to miss out on my cheat (and because I didn’t have anything else) I went instead to McDonalds, a place I haven’t visited in at least a year or so, and had a double sausage and egg muffin which tasted absolutely delicious. Interestingly though, it gave me indigestion after a couple of hours which is something I haven’t really had to deal with since I’ve got into low-carbing and it was an effective reminder of why I don’t want to start filling my body with carbs again.

Amazingly, when I looked up the nutritional value of the muffin it turned out to be less carbs than a bacon roll would have been, and at a fraction of the carbs that the sticky toffee pudding was last week, it wasn’t even enough to make me feel guilty about going to McDonalds. Although the end total for the day is rather scary, it wasn’t helped by having a couple of extra strong mints (to try and ease the indigestion) and a cup of tea that I had with a friend mid-morning (unfortunately our staff cafe doesn’t do rooibos and vanilla tea and I’m not keen on the fruit teas they serve).

But getting into work I was faced with another major temptation, this time in the form of a chocolate Yule Log. And on a day when I’d already cheated this was a serious temptation. I’m normally pretty good with Christmas food. I can ignore the mince pies, Christmas cake and Christmas pudding when they are passed around as I detest dried fruit and peel – but a chocolate Yule Log, especially when everyone else in the office is partaking, is a temptation too far.   

Now I think I’ve actually been doing really well on sticking to this way of eating, especially with the run up to Christmas. I’ve given away all fourteen pieces of my advent calendar chocolate, resisted all the other chocolates and goodies that have so far been brought into the office, haven’t succumbed to buying any of the festive fare that’s everywhere in the shops (I have a box of chocolates in the cupboard that are for Spain and I haven’t even once considered opening them) and even my works Christmas dinner wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it could have been. And so I had a piece of the Yule Log, although I did make sure it was a small piece and I logged it on my Fitday as if it was a full size piece.

Being serious I no longer think that I am going make my two stone target by Christmas as I only have one more weigh in before I go to Spain next week (and I have absolutely no intention of attempting to stick to low-carbing while I’m there as it will cause a lot of stress; and not just for me). As I seem to be plateauing at the moment, I think it’s unlikely that the three pounds that I need to shed to get to target is going to go, especially as I have a Christmas meal to attend with my best friend to make up for being away at Christmas on Friday and last minute drinks before I go away with other friends that I’ll miss over the holidays. I do still have another few sessions at the gym which will help. But experience has now taught me that toning up doesn’t mean losing weight and of course, I could be in the inch loss phase.

I’m not using this as an excuse to go mad and fall off the wagon, or as a justification for “cheating”. I’m merely expressing my current feelings about where I am with this way of eating. For once in my life I actually feel in control and I am happy to relax over the next few weeks and not worry too hard about what I eat and drink, knowing that once January comes I’ll be able to move back into low-carbing and with a new work out programme at the gym I’ll soon be back on track and hopefully moving onwards and downwards with my weight-loss.

Oh, and a couple of weeks on Phase One bootcamp probably wouldn’t go amiss either!    

By the way, if you want to see my finished Snape angel, you can check him out on my normal blog.

Today’s exercise:  A little more walking than normal as I had to track down McDonalds!

Carb's Eaten: 75.4

Exercising to: Christmas music all the way baby!

Weight Loss = 1 stone and 11 pounds

Inch Loss = 12.5 inches

Mood: Introspective