First July weigh in - More weight lost

Not only is it Friday, but I weigh less than I did a week ago

I’m aware that my weight loss blog is more of an Eastenders plot line at times than a healthy food blog, however I’ve noticed I tend to gravitate towards drama, preferring to be on the outskirts than have it in my life as a focal point. I think that’s why I like watching trashy TV such as ‘Geordie Shore’ and ‘The Valleys’ and all the incredibly factual and interesting Channel 5 documentaries, that obviously deal with profound social issues, e.g. ‘The woman who married the Eifel Tower’ in a caring and socially responsible manner (Take the last sentence with a very heavy dose of sarcasm!).  Tonight will be no different as I’m going to see my Drama friend, who will no doubt tell me about her latest man problem as well as how’s she getting on at her new job.

Despite my future being more secure, I didn’t sleep very well last night and I assume that’s because I knew I was in the office today, trying to find things to do for 8 hours. How people can deal with no being busy is beyond me, it seems like the most soul destroying thing ever, more so if you haven’t slept very well! Since I got the job offer my desire to step on the scales has subsided – almost as if I don’t need to control that aspect of my life as tightly as other parts of my life aren’t as chaotic as before. Nevertheless, I thought I’d step on the scales today and see what they said – Before I did, I had an internal dialogue with myself.

Your period was due yesterday, it’s not here yet which suggests you’ll still be more bloated and are retaining more water than usual

'What if I am? It’s not a big deal'

What will you do if you don’t see the number you want? Are you going to be upset?

'No, I won’t.. If the number isn’t what I want, I don’t care, I’ll carry on regardless.'

I think that’s the right attitude and one I’m still fighting – the ‘I’ll carry on regardless’ attitude as my body isn’t 100% predictable and this isn’t a diet, it’s a lifestyle change.

Crikey, that’s rather spiffing. I’m well happy with that! So, I’ve now gone from 99.9K to 91.0Kg which takes my total weight lost to 8.9Kg or 19.6lbs or… 1 stone and 5.6 lbs :-) That’s despite ‘red wine gate’ which proves once again, I need to try and relax my anxiety around binge eating and if it happens, accept it and just continue to make healthy choices the next day, and the day after that – It won’t undo all my hard work and it’s not the end of the world if I eat something unhealthy. I even had a pizza on Wednesday and a hot chocolate – and I’m still losing weight, so I definitely need to continue to try and sort my thinking out and not be too hard on myself.

So far today, work hasn’t been too bad as there doesn’t seem to be that many people in, which is good. A lot of the Senior people don’t seem to be around, so I’ve been left to my own devices and don’t have to appear busy or pretend that I’m actually doing work… At lunch time, my lovely work friend and I decided that rather than visit ASDA, we’d go even more crazy and try the nearest Co-op instead (Rock and Roll) so we headed out at midday and explored what healthy (and in her case, vegan) things we could find at the Co-op.

Well, my lovely friend was happy as they had her vegan 'Tuti Fruiti' doughnuts, so she grabbed some of them whilst I had a look at what I could find that was healthy. I have to say, I wasn't overly enthused with the healthy options when it came to lunch time. Out of all the sandwiches and wraps, there was a 'Beef burrito' wrap that seemed OK on the calorie and fat numbers, however it was tiny. Apart from that, I could have had a prawn mayonnaise sandwich, but, well.. I'm not overly keen on mayonnaise. 

Rather than default to my usual lunch time food and run to the houmous pots, I decided I'd go 'low carb' for a change and bought some meat and eggs. Unlike the other supermarkets - rather than just buy boiled eggs, the Co-op offered me two boiled eggs with some mustard mayonnaise on the side. Can't say I'm overly keen on that, but hey.. I didn't have to eat it :-)

Would I buy that again? If I had to shop at the Co-op, then maybe. I think the problem is, I don't usually shop at these shops, so knowing what they sell and being able to choose something quickly is much harder as I don't know what's healthy for me 'Off the top of my head'. I can't say I'd want to eat meat and boiled eggs every day, however - It's not the most healthy thing in the world and I actually prefer the idea of getting vitamins into my body - hence the raw pepper, the cucumber and tomato choices which I eat with houmous.

I'm blogging now as I don't know what I'm going to eat with my Drama Friend tonight. I don't know if we're going out or she's cooking, or what's happening - I'll update tomorrow with my food choices, however wherever we go, I'll do my best to make my choice a healthy and tasty one!

Protein pots are taking over the world

Oh my Goodness, 4 hours of driving to get home

I'm so tired! There were massive delays on all the roads I was driving on, and as I use my phone for Sat-Nav, I was petrified the battery was going to run out and I was going to be lost. Thankfully, I made it home with 7% to spare, but 4 hours of non-stop driving and bad period pains are not a fun thing at all.

Apart from the drive home, it's not been a bad day. I can't say my hotel was great as it was an odd time share, thus there wasn't a main building but loads of 'lodges' which meant there wasn't a main car park either. Having got back at 11:00pm last night and finding the main car park full, I decided to lovingly dump my car under a tree, on a grassy verge and hope that it wouldn't get clamped or the hotel get annoyed with me. Turns out, nothing happened to it - apart from a loving 'deposit' from a local bird as I realised this morning that I'd parked it under a rather large tree....

After waking up, I discovered that I had started my period (well done body, bang on time this month) and as I suffer quite bad cramps, would need to take some Ibruprofen in a couple of hours. I didn't want to take it on a (very) empty stomach, so decided to investigate the hotels breakfast offerings before heading off to the company event again. 

I used to be so self conscious, the thought of eating breakfast on my own in a strange restaurant would have scared me enough to go hungry, however as I used to be a Consultant, I got used to eating alone quite quickly so I just brought my phone with me so I could browse the Internet and got settled at a table after asking for a nice cup of tea. 

Despite not eating much yesterday, I didn't want to go crazy, nor start the day thinking 'I can eat more as there is a deficit of calories at the moment', so decided I'd go for a cooked breakfast, but moderate what I ate - therefore filling me up but not going crazy. Looking at my plate, I have to say, I'm quite chuffed that once again, I'm not making bad choices - I cut the fat off the bacon and chose a fried, rather than scrambled egg as I didn't know if they scrambled egg had been mixed with anything - butter, or cheese, for example. I also had some orange juice, but was careful only to have a small glass as I know that there are 'hidden' calories in juice and whilst it's healthy, it also contains a hell of a lot of fruit sugar.

I also didn't feel guilty - You don't usually equate 'cooked breakfast' with 'healthy' and I'm sure I could be even more healthy by eating fruit etc, but I want to be realistic and not deprive myself of everything - Plus, I was impressed I stayed away from the pastries section :-)

After a lovely breakfast, I checked out of the hotel, picked up my non-clamped car and headed off to the nearest Superstore to buy some supplies for two of my colleagues who are organising the event. In Berkshire, you don't really get such large Co-Op's, it's usually either Tescos, Sainsburys or ASDA that take up that space, however this was literally the biggest Co-Op I had ever seen and it was so clean, so tidy and everything was perfectly arranged on shelves... 

As well as buying copious amounts of orange juice and Mountain Dew for them, I picked myself up some lunch in the form of a protein pot - It had half an egg, some hot smoked salmon and some red quinoa in a vinaigerette - It's as if everyone is now doing these protein pots! I bought one from Marks and Spencers last week that contained eggs and spinach and it was the first time I had seen them, but they now seem to be taking over the world.

Despite everyone else eating burgers, hotdogs and all kinds of other things, I was quite happy with my find in the Co-Op, especially as I still had a full punnet of strawberries left from yesterday and a Bakewell Tart nakd bar in my handbag... Almost sounds like a proper meal :-)

After getting home from the nightmare journey, I discovered that amongst other tasty treats, Riverford had delivered me some really nice new potatoes, greens and carrots, so I roasted some potatoes with rosemary and steamed a couple of carrots and some greens. Thankfully, I had one Quorn mozzarella and pesto escalope left and as such, I didn't need to go out food shopping which I was so happy about, considering the last 4 hours :-)

Unfortunately, my hair appointment has been cancelled tomorrow due to the hair stylist being ill, so whilst that's a shame, I can't deny I'm looking forward to a massive lie in, a nice cup of tea and eating some kippers that I bought with my boyfriend in Northumberland - Maybe I can revisit our holiday, if only from the food I eat!