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!

 

New Month Resolutions

I didn’t really make any New Year resolutions, well, I sort of had some in mind but for various reasons didn’t really apply myself and then suddenly it was February.  And now it’s March tomorrow, how did that happen?  Anyway, my friend Heather over at  Random Ramblings has been doing that 5:2 diet and yesterday when I saw her I was so impressed by how well she looks I decided that I have to try and get myself back on course for a healthy life style.  I don’t think I can manage the 500 calorie thing, my blood sugar drops too quickly and I feel really, and I mean REALLY rough if I don’t have enough to eat, so I am going to try and build up to it by having a couple of seriously frugal days a week and then try and be sensible the rest of the week without having to think too much about it.  I shall count the calories on the frugal days and see if, over time, it goes down.  Part of the discipline will be to report back here from time to time so watch this space and if you don’t see me, come and tell me off on Twitter (@Jaydubblah)

In other news, Heather came round to play yesterday and then we went out for lunch to a local hostelry and hubby came too.  And he enjoyed himself!  At long last we seem to have found somewhere that he could get into without too much trouble, it wasn’t too noisy, he was comfortable and he liked the food!   Well done Black Tiles

We all chose from the specials list.  Hubby had the fish.  It was a lovely piece of cod with a mashed potato cake and greens.  He likes his veg well cooked so didn’t eat much of the greens but he said the fish and potato were very good.  H had the tempura pork with rice and I had the sweet chilli chicken with noodles.  No one had room for pudding

Well, it’s 8:45 so I shall have my breakfast soon.  Wish me luck!