Day Ninety

So today was the long-awaited Christmas meal and to be honest it was a bit of a let-down. The day began well enough with breakfast of buttery boiled eggs and gluten free sausages (a very low carb option) but the hotly anticipated lunch turned out to be a bit of a damp squib.

For starters I had chosen garlic mushrooms with onion bread. The mushrooms were fine, although a tiny portion and I only had half of one of the two pieces of bread as they’d toasted and burnt it, so this dish didn’t really trouble me too hard in the carb stakes. For my main course I had gone for rib eye steak, which as it turned out, came only with half a tomato and a spoonful of watercress. There was supposed to be chips and vegetables, but as the people on my table who had the Christmas dinner had asked for more of their potatoes and vegetables because they didn’t have enough in the one bowl they were given to share, I and the other person who had steak weren’t given anything. I didn’t even get some of the other’s vegetables because they only brought out sprouts the second time (which I detest with a passion) and all the roast potatoes went before they realised we weren’t getting anything. So this too didn’t push the carbs up. But then I had dessert, sticky toffee pudding with a very small helping of brandy sauce (apparently). This obviously was stratospheric in terms of carbs, but did taste lovely – although after my long time without that sort of food it was incredibly sweet and I had trouble finishing it even though I was starving. To go with the meal I had a small glass of sparkling wine which was supposed to be Prosecco but was far too sweet and cloying and a small glass of Pinot Grigio as well as several large glasses of water. I also had a further small glass of wine in the pub after the meal was finished, but after the disappointment of the meal I was feeling rather flat so bowed out and made my way home.

For dinner I had a chocolate mint protein shake and some wafer thin ham and cheese as I really needed to eat something, but didn’t want to push the carbs too high. I've tried to log the meal using Marks and Spencer's sticky toffee pudding as a guide and the results are shown below. Interestingly, without the pudding my carb level would have been in the mid twenties which is pretty good, so not a bad outcome really, and certainly nowhere near as bad as it could have been if I'd had a full meal!

Today’s exercise:  Just the walking to and from work etc.

Carb's Eaten: 88.7G* 

Exercising to: Christmas music!

Weight Loss = 1 stone and 11 pounds

Inch Loss = 12.5 inches

Mood: Feeling flat and strangely disappointed

Day Eighty Nine

Woke up with a blocked yet snotty nose, sore throat and banging head but was determined to get to the gym as I haven’t been for so long. According to my foursquare this is my fourteenth week in a row there. Weigh in time this morning and I wasn’t too surprised that I didn’t lose any weight after last week’s huge loss. But at least I didn’t gain any either – so I think that’s a bonus.

The work out wasn’t as good as it could have been due to a lack of breath caused by my blocked sinuses and for some reason my heart rate was higher than normal, possibly because of the headache. I did still manage to get a fair bit done before having to call it a day though.

Breakfast was a chocolate mint protein shake with some prosciutto and cheese for lunch. Dinner was a full cooked breakfast, with bacon, gluten free sausages, scrambled egg, mushrooms and tomatoes - a super low carb treat which doesn’t take a lot of cooking, especially as I needed to cook the sausages for breakfast tomorrow anyway. Even with a glass of wine (I’ve had that bottle that I bought for Christmas tree putting up over the last three days while I’ve been making the angel) the carbs for the day are still under the minimum. Hopefully this gives me a little in reserve for tomorrow as it’s the office Christmas dinner and the pudding alone will be enough to blow my days carbs (yum yum)

Today’s exercise:  Bike = 10 mins; Stretching = 10 mins; Treadmill/weights = 10 mins; Cross Trainer = 5 mins;  Arm bike = 12 mins; Bike = 12 mins; Swimming = 20 lengths

Carb's Eaten: 17.9G

Exercising to: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J K Rowling read by StephenFry (UK Edition)/ Various swim tracks

Weight Loss = 1 stone and 11 pounds

Inch Loss = 12.5 inches

Mood: Cold and snuffly

Day Eighty Eight

Sorry, late again. Knitting has taken over my life!

Spent most of the day cleaning the house, trying to get a bit of space so I can get my Christmas decorations out. I was going to put up the Christmas tree, but as I hadn’t finished the angel I decided to complete him instead.

Breakfast was a protein shake, with a mushroom, cheese and tomato omelette for a brief lunch and for dinner I cooked the ham and cabbage casserole that I found the recipe for. As a twist I added some whole grain mustard to the sauce. It was delicious.

Finished with the knitting finally. Only the wings to make and my angel is finished. And then the Christmas tree can go up – and I can get back to cooking some food.

Today’s exercise:  Housework and knitting

Carb's Eaten: 26.3G

Exercising to: Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper (read by Alex Jennings)

Weight Loss = 1 stone and 11 pounds

Inch Loss = 12.5 inches

Mood: Sneezy

Day Eighty Seven

Grocery shopping today, and I bought an onion squash. No idea what I do with it until I look on the interwebs, but I’m guessing it must be pretty similar to butternut squash, pumpkin etc. so if worst comes to worst I’ll make soup with it.

I also got, from QVC, several packs of ready-diced meat of various types, each pack perfect for making a two meal stew. Once again I shall need to start trawling the web for recipes (or maybe I can look at my cookery books), but I’ve found one for gammon and cabbage which sounds pretty good so I’m going to give that a go tomorrow.

The other thing I bought is some wine. Tomorrow I am putting up my Christmas tree and this is always done with wine. It is a tradition I have no intention of breaking. It’ll put my carbs over the limit for the day again, but I’m really not bothered about that. Expect the same when I wrap my presents. This too is done with wine and is another tradition I’m not willing to break.

Breakfast was a chocolate mint protein shake (I’m definitely off raspberry atm) and I made myself cook a “proper” lunch with bacon wrapped, cream cheese stuffed chicken with buttered green vegetables. Dinner was another real meal (go me!) with salmon in a creamy lemon sauce with a mixed salad.       

I finally finished my knitting this evening. All I need now is to put it all together.

Today’s exercise:  Housework and Knitting

Carb's Eaten: 24.1G

Exercising to: Harry Potter 6 and 7 Pt 1

Weight Loss = 1 stone and 11 pounds

Inch Loss = 12.5 inches

Mood: Still tired for some reason

Day Eighty Six

You already know why I’m late posting this - knitting has taken over my life!

I missed the gym today as I was so tired I just couldn’t get up early enough to go. I’ve realised that being at home generally means that I tend to pick at food rather than having proper meals. On work days I have at least two proper meals because I take something pre-prepared for breakfast and lunch and usually have a cooked meal in the evening too. When I work at home I don’t want to waste my pre-prepared food and I generally can’t be bothered to cook, so I pick.

So breakfast/snacks were the usual prosciutto and cheese and chocolate mint protein shake followed a little later by some butternut squash soup. I did manage to produce a proper dinner with lamb chops served with salad, although I did break the IPD code and had no sauce or dressing on either, so instead I had some chocolate cream for dessert. Once again the carbs were a little lacking so I also had a Greek yoghurt.

Today’s exercise:  Is extreme knitting a sport?

Carb's Eaten: 29.4G

Exercising to: The first five Harry Potter films

Weight Loss = 1 stone and 11 pounds

Inch Loss = 12.5 inches

Mood: Frustrated (with my knitting)

Day Eighty Five

So first off today I had the shock of having to get up for work. Whilst I do tend to get up about the same time every day, regardless of working at home or in London, for some reason it always seems easier when I’m just going to the gym. Also because my brain is programmed to expect home-working on Thursdays it was a bit hard to get going.

I had ham, philly and avocado roll-ups for breakfast and, because I couldn’t be bothered to faff around sorting out last night and stop my knitting, some of the (still lovely) beef and butternut squash stew. Dinner was the rest of the lovely roast beef that I cooked on Sunday  and the ever present prosciutto and cheese (I’ve just realised today is a little beef heavy, but that’s the way it goes when I don’t plan in advance and get stuff defrosted). Unfortunately having the stew means that my carb count for the day is quite high, but after a few low days I think I can probably take the hit.

Today is also the first day of advent and thus it was time to open my chocolate advent calendar. Helpfully, Thornton’s have put all their nutritional information on the back. The whole thing comes to 89G of carbs, which isn’t bad for twenty eight pieces of chocolate. I’m guessing that the small calendar chocolates work out somewhere between ½ and 1 gram of carbs per portion (much less than extra strong mints or chewing gum), but I’ve decided that I’m not going to eat those and instead have the four larger pieces (three snowmen and a nameplate), which I shall have over Christmas. The advent calendar is currently at work – a good thing as it’s easier to give away the chocolates to others, the first having gone to my boss. When I finally take the calendar home I shall weigh the chocolate I’m going to eat so I know exactly how much it’s going to cost me.  

Today’s exercise:  Just the walking and stuff – I suppose I should Zumba, but I’ve got knitting to do!

Carb's Eaten: 31.8G

Exercising to: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling read by Stephen Fry (UK Edition)/ Various swim tracks

Weight Loss = 1 stone and 11 pounds

Inch Loss = 12.5 inches

Mood: Tired

Day Eighty Four

Sorry, knitting again!

Had a pretty good workout at the gym, although my right knee was starting to hurt by the time I came to the Arc trainer and so I only did five minutes on there, instead of the ten I should have done. Also, I wore one of the two new pairs of Sketchers tone-up trainers that I bought on Black Friday (they were a mega-bargain at £20 each) and they were hurting my feet by the end of the circuit. This is my own fault as I have a tendency to supinate and hence don’t always walk properly, especially with the toning trainers, which require a special way of walking, and my plantar fasciitis, caused by the underpronation doesn’t help.

Back home to a chocolate mint protein shake (I think I’m off raspberry ripple for a little while after yesterday’s blow out) and the ever-popular prosciutto and cheese. Amazingly for me when working at home I managed to force myself into the kitchen for both lunch and dinner and had chicken and bacon salad and pork stroganoff and buttered green vegetables respectively. I also had a Greek yoghurt which was a nice dessert.

And then it was back to the knitting – which although rather sedentary does burn about 120 calories an hour apparently (although probably not at the rate I knit).

  

Today’s exercise:  Bike = 10 mins; Stretching = 10 mins; Treadmill = 10 mins; Cross Trainer = 10 mins; Arm Bike = 12 mins; Bike = 10 mins; Arc Trainer = 5 mins; Bike = 10 mins; Swimming = 40 lengths

Carb's Eaten: 28.6G

Exercising to: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling read by Stephen Fry (UK Edition)/ Various swim tracks

Weight Loss = 1 stone and 11 pounds

Inch Loss = 12.5 inches

Mood: Calm