Consolidation CONSO COMPLETED, DIARY CLOSED

[robinhood]

Morning!

PP today

B - porridge
L - ham omelette, yogurt
D - chicken with onion/fromage blanc/curry sauce

It's so cold out. Reckon we'll be seeing snow before long.

 

[blodwen]

The pics of the snow on the news in north England is so pretty, I love snow!!

 

[jet1968]

hey laura hope ur ok !!!!

 

[Maintainer]

I'm torn between hoping for snow (pretty white fields) and dreading snow (nightmare on the roads!)... Where I'm going is forecast to be down to minus 13°C this weekend overnight... might I be sleeping in front of the log fire? Unfortunately the house is cold on arrival Friday evening!

 

[robinhood]

I DON'T want snow. I'm not a skier and although the kids love playing in it (and the younger two are having ski lessons this year - the eldest skis already with husband), the novelty wears off for me after the first snowfall.

We live on a slope so need to know about snow before it happens so we can put the cars on a flat road, then all the associated hassle of shovelling the snow, driving in it with the worry that you could slip off the road at any time, etc. As we live in a wee village in a very rural area, it's not easy (for the village employees) to get everyone snow-free so they can get their cars out either as we're pretty spread out (I'm lucky and live in the actual village, but lots don't and often can't get out for a few days).

So, snow - stay away! (last year was dreadful).

Onto me! I've lost weight again which I'm not majorly happy about. I've followed conso properly (bread or rice cake/cheese, fruit daily, carbs once a week and a celebration meal once a week) and even had a few cheats in there. So, for those who have done this before, do I increase fruit, cheese, carbs, celebration meals? Or all of these?

(That will teach me to say I found conso easy).

 

[kidsmademefat]

I have never even seen snow!!!!!!! I would so love to have a white christmas one year. And sorry no help on advice on what to increase

 

[Maintainer]

Are you still officially in the first half of your Conso Robin? (I know it's hard to calculate with the enforced break.) If you might be heading towards your second half, I'd add a second carb if you can - I know Anja sometimes has lentils or something like that. Perhaps that might be a good reintroduction. With Christmas on the horizon, you don't want to jump up to 2 x carbs and 2 x celebration meals yet, do you?

Perhaps give it another week and post some menus? The idea is to increase one's calories gradually to get a more "normal" calorie intake. In the first half of one's Conso, the calorie intake isn't particularly high over a given week.

 

[robinhood]

Still first half, Jo. I need to do conso for 95 days and am 6 weeks into it (or will be tomorrow) so that's 42 days, not quite half way yet.

Think I'll have an extra apple or something similar/day for this week and see how the scales are on Friday (by which time I'll be half way though and re-evaluate if necessary). Also will bulk up the soup with lentils or potatoes (not both!).

 

[m-mouse]

Hi Laura, I will will teh snow away for you - but it sounds as though maybe it is inevitable, if you're talking about skiing lessons! I love looking at it but I don't like driving in it. I'm afraid I haven't really got anything to offer on the conso question - not having been there - could you have an extra chunk of cheese or something? I'm not really sure of the rules and am scared of it really, but I have a long way to go so no point dwelling on it myself yet!

 

[robinhood]

Snow stopped, not very much after all, especially as the sun came out in the afternoon (but it stayed coooollllldddd). Cold again today but due to warm up tomorrow (and rain) so that's the end of the snow (for now) with a bit of luck.

PV conso with extra fruit and 1/2 carb portion (lentils)
B - porridge, apple
L - tuna 'mayonnaise', carrot, cauli, courgette to dip, tangerine
D - lentil and veg soup, roast chicken, green beans.
S - rice cake and cheese

No plans for this morning except homework which never got finished yesterday. Boring!

 

[robinhood]

Morning!

Cold out there, but a hint of sun so all is not lost.

PV Conso and gala meal!

B - porridge and tangerine
L - soya bolognaise sauce with carrot 'pasta' and parmesan cheese, apple
D - whisky and associated canapés, chicken curry with rice, banana
S - not expecting to need one!

 

[anjuschka]

Onto me! I've lost weight again which I'm not majorly happy about. I've followed conso properly (bread or rice cake/cheese, fruit daily, carbs once a week and a celebration meal once a week) and even had a few cheats in there. So, for those who have done this before, do I increase fruit, cheese, carbs, celebration meals? Or all of these?

(That will teach me to say I found conso easy).

Hi hope the snow is not bothering you too much - we've managed to avoid it so far !

As for losing too much weight - I found the same and the first thing I did was have two fruit portions a day, quite soon in PhI. And then I took it as an excuse to add a little 'treat' into nearly each day - sometimes I take a biscuit into work, or have one in the evening, a choc digestive, or a few nutty bites etc... there was also that week when my parents had brought me a box of Belgian chocs and I had 3 every day...

I managed to STS for a couple of weeks, but when I had lost two weeks in a row again (below 62) I switched to phase two, possibly one week early. I've only been there for a few weeks now (lost count) and last weekend was a home-baking related 'disaster' so I was glad to have STS by Friday! However I tend to do 3 carb meals and one gala meal so far. And I now manage to have my carbs not always in the evening, being able to take carb meal leftovers into work etc. We'll see what the scales say this week.

Over time I have used the continued losses as excuses for 'permission' to be more lax: I use cornflour in sauces when needed, have spoonfuls of my kid's cereals, lick the spoon when cooking, accept the odd biscuit at work etc etc. Maybe it's not a bad thing to add a few carbs here and there. Today I had a forkful of baked beans , and a couple of chocolate wafers in the evening. But I really managed strict PV conso for the rest of today, no more biscuits at family snack time.

I have no specific solution for you, I think we all have to juggle the carbs and see at which point we manage to STS.

I attach my weight curve from about the 10.Sept when I started conso after passing the 64kg mark, and you can see how after a downward trend it now fluctuates much more as I try to find the right balance whilst eating more carbs from about the first week in November IIRC...

Ok - I've written a a novel again, better switch to my OWN DIARY

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

 

[robinhood]

Thank you, Anja, that's helpful. I have been having extra fruit since Friday and also use a bit of carbs in cooking (lentils or potato in soup). I know that I don't have the recommended amount of carbs when I have my starch day but I can't eat it all, so I think little and (more) often will be better for me and will fit in better with 'normal' eating.

I'll also see how the scales are on Friday - hopefully STS. Reassuring to know that it levels out though - I don't want to be lower than 63 kilos as I won't be able to maintain (63 kilos was the weight I stayed at easily, I dropped to 60 kilos after breastfeeding the eldest but the 3 extra kilos went straight back on once I'd stopped).

Anyway, today PV conso with extra fruit and a little potato!

B - porridge, apple
L - chicken, veg and potato soup, omelette and green beans, tangerine
D - beef and veg stew, bread and cheese

 

[Bubblemum]

Hope you manage to stabilize Laura x

 

[anjuschka]

Oh an another thing I did not spell out explicitly is that I now buy fruit yoghurt. Still the diet varieties but usually fruit, makes life more interesting. I still make & eat plenty of home made plain yoghurt and stick to that on PP days.

 

[robinhood]

Thanks Anja, but will stick with plain. We already have flavoured yogurt, fruit yogurt with 'bits', fruit yogurt without bits and our 0% and (sometimes) full-fat natural yogurt as well as 0% and 20% fromage blanc, so it's confusing enough. The kids would end up eating our yogurts!

Following your good example, I had a digestive biscuit with my cup of tea earlier - go me.

 

[anjuschka]

Aha I see the yoghurt problem We only have kids yoghurt/FF, clearly distinguishable, and my plain and diet varieties. DH is not much of a yoghurt eater in the first place...

I hope you enjoyed the biscuit! I allow myself one (one a day!) guilt-free in social situations such a meetings, fund-raising coffee mornings (we seem to get a lot of those) or colleague's birthdays / other celebrations. But this does not happen every day.

BTW: did you import and save the biscuits? Maybe you're like me with my stash of goodies from Belgium...

 

[robinhood]

I don't import the biscuits, no (but do have a stash of bovril, curry spice mix, etc that we take back with us. Kids also have some jelly in the cupboard). We can get McVities Digestives here now (and the supermarket has been doing their own version - well similar - for a while). I'm not really a biscuit person (apart from Digestives or a home-made piece of shortbread) so maybe it's a mixed blessing!

So, onto today.

PV conso with extra fruit and a little carbs

B - porridge, tangerine
L - tomato soup (with one large potato), smoked salmon scrambled eggs
D - chicken curry, rice cake and cheese
S - apple

 

[robinhood]

Random post to see if the photo works (been nosying at Cathy's diary and Jo had some tips)

Yippee, it works. (Random photo too).

 

[Maintainer]

Random? That's BEAUTIFUL!