5:2 My first frugal day

OK, I am going to admit to being 10st 7½lbs 41:35:40 and 37.4% fat.  So there we have it.  Fat content not good, weight borderline, measurements just ridiculous.  Oh, if you are comparing, I am 5’4”.

Put off breakfast until 9.30 and then had prunes and yogurt, (115 cals) rather than prunes cereal and soy milk which is what I usually have.  I made a big saucepan full of vegetable soup – onion, green and red peppers, celery, carrot, tinned chopped tomatoes, courgette and a small tin of baked beans including the juice.  Added bay leaf, pinch of garlic granules, cardoman and a teaspoon of Bovril and it worked out at 80 cals for a reasonable size bowl full so I had a slice of wholemeal bread with it to soak up the juice at the end which was another 70 cals.  I tried to eat it slowly – I do have a tendency to eat my food too fast and not chew it properly because of the arthritis in my TMJ

I’m quite good at calorie counting as it is how I lost weight some years ago ( I lost about 20 lbs then) and got to the point of being able to assess the calorie content of any plate of food at 20 paces!  This time I will admit to needing to lose a few pounds but only 7 or 8 really and it is to see the effect on my arthritis that I am doing it for although the weight loss will be a bonus.  It does also seem to be the case for a lot of people that they lose the weight where they need to lose it.

A few people have advised me to keep busy.  I remember now that when I used to play badminton I would feel very hungry when we started because I used to go straight from work, and by the time we had finished the hunger pangs had gone.  I think there is a physiological explanation for this – I’ll have to google it.

I have been drinking water with a dash of lemon juice when I start to feel light headed but I am now getting really woozy (about 2.30) so I may have to go and eat a banana in a while.  I am trying to distract myself with the promise of the banana in a minute.  Now it is 3.00 and I have eaten the banana.

I made turkey curry for this evenings meal, a big saucepan full again so that I have some portions to freeze.  I have separated out some veg to have with some rice rather than get an entirely different meal for myself, but I shall have to plan better in future.  That’s going to work out about 260 cals and I think it very likely that I will need to have some Horlicks or something before I go to bed, so will have gone way over 500 but then again I wasn’t expecting not to.  Quite pleased for my first attempt.  Psychologically it is much easier when you know you can stop counting again for a few days – not that I can go mad but I hope that all this is going to give me a bit more will power!