Cake

I'm really craving some cake! My teeth feel all weird and like they really want the sensation of biting into some cake, I can't concentrate on my work because I just want some cake!

I am resisting, though I wonder if I would still be resisting if I wasn't heading out for some dinner with my boyfriend tonight for our 4 year anniversary. Since it's a very special occasion I will be eating what I want and I will be attempting three courses! Of course I've already had a read over the menu and *think* I have decided! This is subject to change however... Starter I'm thinking duck pate with oatcakes, main course will be sea bass with new potatoes, spinach and fennel in a creamy mussel sauce, desert.... I'm torn! At the moment I'm leaning towards the coconut creme brulee or chocolate tart with vanilla marscapone... and I'm relying on my boyfriend ordering chocolate brownies or cake so I can have a bite!
Tomorrow is the worst day of month end in work so I'll be sticking to just the one glass of wine as all the month end action happens before 9.30am tomorrow.

I've been saving up the calories for tonight so it will still come within my calorie allowance for the week...excuse me while I go polish my halo.

Stress!

What a stressful day! I loathe month end.

I could go off on a huge work rant here but I've decided that work is only allowed to bother me when I'm there - I'm allowed a mini rant when I get home to let off steam then that's it over with.

Feeling stressed at work got me thinking about how often I hear/read people say how they love exercise or running for beating stress and I really wish it worked for me. When I'm stressed all I want to do is lie on the couch, watch trashy TV and eat toast.
Fortunately I went to the gym first and swapped proper healthy dinner for toast - I'm sure apricot jam must count towards my 5 a day....

Went for my usual gym workout this evening - stress may not drive me to exercise but at least I still wanted to go! I think I mostly enjoy it because I get to listen to dodgy music really loudly on my ipod and feel smug once I'm done!

These last two days I've fallen back into my annoying habit of eating really well during the day then losing the plot when I get home - still I'm only binging on toast and staying within my calorie allowance so it's not all bad. I mostly blame my bred addiction, I haven't had any for ages and it's been calling to me for days. I'm going to ignore it now and get back into proper dinners, starting with some homemade sweet potato and carrot soup, which I've still not made despite saying I was going to make it every day for the last 5 days....

Todays food:
Breakfast - 20g oats with 180ml skimmed milk, 1 tsp dark brown natural muscovado sugar and 1 tsp dried cherries
Morning Snack - 1 babybel light and 2 mandarins
Lunch - salad of 60g tuna, 110g low fat cottage cheese, 5g pine nuts, grated carrot and courgette and finely chopped yellow pepper, tomato and spring onion with loads of black pepper and fresh chives
Afternoon Snack - 100g low fat organic natural yogurt with 1 chopped plum and a banana before heading to the gym and a 1 scoop protein shake made with water after my workout
Dinner - 4 slices wholemeal toast with apricot jam....

Exercise:
Full boy weights and 10 mins HIIT on the bike

Now I'm going to take some advice from my cat and get on with some serious relaxing

The Actual Food - Breakfasts

So here's an idea of what I normally eat...

-Porridge! Most days I have porridge! Proper oats, none of this Oat So Simple of Ready Brek nonsense - Ready Brek was a truly awful experience, I have no idea what is in there but I never ever want to experience it again!
Anyway, I take my little tub of oats to work with me every day (usually 25g) and add 180-200ml skimmed milk and stick it in the microwave. Serve with 1 tsp natural organic dark brown muscovado sugar, sometimes nothing else but often add a teaspoon or two of dried fruit and/or some nuts and seeds mix.
I have also recently discovered Capella flavour drops with a zero calorie and totally yummy! Have been adding coconut or vanilla almond to my porridge.
I'm going to experiment with some Gordon Ramsey porridge ideas over the next few weeks as well to keep things interesting.

-Natural organic yogurt with chopped fresh fruit and maybe some nuts or capella drops too, my favorites are plain yogurt with chopped banana, chopped flaked almonds and banana nut crunch flavour drops or plain yogurt with 1tsp natural organic honey, flaked almonds and blueberries

-Eggs. I prefer having eggs at weekends when I have time to actually cook something, I'll either have them scrambled or poached with a slice of wholemeal seeded toast or I'll cook up a quick omelette, usually plain - my stomach doesn't like herbs or veg as morning foods. I'm going to order some liquid egg whites so I can start making omelette's with a couple of eggs and a couple of whites to fill me up more without adding too much fat or calories.
I may also add some bacon grilled on the George Foreman for a wee treat from time to time.

-Cereal. If I'm in a hurry or can't be bothered I'll have a bowl or cornflakes or branflakes with skimmed milk - it's not the best breakfast but it's not the worst and I do enjoy cereal from time to time, especially crunch oaty clustery type cereal with some natural yogurt mixed in - but it tends to be a lot more calorific than cornflakes or porridge sadly.

If it's real special occasion like christmas or a birthday I will go for croissants or pain au chocolat - I don't deny myself anything!

Diet

As in the food I eat, not the "diet" I'm on.

I plan on sticking with eating this way, that's why I've not cut out anything, I'm just eating a lot more of the good stuff and a lot less of the junk. I eat loads of fresh fruit and veg (aim for more than 5 a day) and have cut chocolate back to being a once a week thing rather than an every day thing. I try to keep things as natural as possible and prefer to go for the organic options too. I'm thinking about what I'm eating and when I'm eating, if I'm "hungry" I'll have a think about whether I am actually hungry or just bored. I always have bottle of water to hand (aim for more than 2L a day) and I never have chocolate, sweets, cakes, crisps or other junk food in the house. I don't eat ready meals, take away or fast food (other than the very occasional Dominoes pizza!) I like my meals homemade, it's just as quick, it's easy, it's cheaper and I can have it exactly how I like it! Plus processed foods and takeaway no longer agree with me at all, it's like my body rejects them now...

I used to follow diets and I would tell myself it was just to "kickstart" things, if I had the quick results from 2 weeks of Special K it would encourage me to eat healthy from then on. Yeah right! I got bored bored bored and I binged!!
However I still keep my trusty Rosemary Conley book nearby and use at least 1 of her recipe's each week - the book does have a naffy diet plan but it does actually do a good job at encouraging healthy eating as a long term thing and most of her recipes get you cooking meals from scratch using good, healthy, wholesome ingredients.

I also plan a lot more now. When I do my weekly food shopping I'll get out the recipe books and pick a different selection of recipe's each week to build my shopping list around. Not having a car I use online shopping so once everything arrives I check the dates and plan which meals to have when.
I prepare tubs of food to take to work with me every evening, takes 10-20mins, I also weigh all my ingredients so I know just what I'm eating. I'll weight out some oats for my breakfast, salad and meat for my lunch, yogurt and fruit to snack on and make sure it's all ready to go before I head for bed.

I keep an online food diary to keep track of what's going in and what I'm burning off, I often fill this out in the evenings or as I eat my porridge at work to help me stick to the plan for the day, otherwise I really am prone to falling off the wagon and wondering down to Starbucks...
I enter everything I eat or drink and try to enter weights/quantities as accurately as I can, everything is split by meal and I get a daily calorie allowance based on my height, weight, lifestyle and how much weight I want to lose. Currently I have it set for 1.5lbs per week.

Stella stars over

Hmm, so I sort of abandoned this.... I was going to delete everything and start with a clean slate but decided to leave my first post from last time as I feel I've taken a different approach this time and have made permanent changes this time. And sadly have had to sell my bike, but I did sell it for the same price I bought it which means I can by myself something pretty! I have also bought a proper bike since which is much better to ride.

I've changed jobs, gyms and attitude since last time and I'm into my third week so thing seem to be going well. I have just hit the 1 stone weight loss mark this week which has given me even more motivation to continue!

My new job is great, but is too far away for cycling and I now get a lift in from a college so no more walking. And the office has an amazing canteen and a Starbucks - I'm doing pretty well at avoiding these, apart from the odd weak moment!

My gym membership deal was changed and where I was paying £25 a month I would have been paying something closer to £80 for exactly the same facilities so I canceled that immediately and spent about 6 months not exercising at all... probably had something to do with me putting on a stone since then!
I now use a different gym and workout with a friend, I'll call her D, what a difference it makes having someone to go with, plus she gives me a lift there and back so I have no excuses!