MrC's Two Week Refeed Plan / Diary

[MrC]

That Heinz Tomato thing isn't a piccalilli littleflower but it looks like a tomato based, spreadable Branston. I expect it to taste ok. In fact, most things should taste alright afterthree months on those TFR shakes!

That's not me, it's one of those modern women we hear about 'empowering' herself!!

I don't know why but I had a sneaky peek at the scales today. Erm . . . :bliss:

 

[LainaG]

I love tomatoes. I was thinking of adding them to my refeed but I was trying to stay clear of fruit until I was maintaining. I just figured that they are more 'fruity' then 'veggie' so I'm only having them on the chicken kebabs.

Saying that I was going to have piccalilli on my sandwiches but when I went shopping today I had a read of the labels and decided on this Heinz Tangy Tomato one as it was lowest in fat and calories: Heinz - Sauces - Spreads and Pickles - Heinz Tangy Tomato Pickle

I am steering clear of beetroot on the same basis, even though I have a craving for some.

Do you think the tomatoes could make you retain the water weight? I'm really craving them (and don't even mention the beetroot, I've been dreaming about beetroot ) and I was looking forward to eating them on Friday. I was thinking of roasting my peppers too for the salad as I'm not keen on eating them raw.

 

[MrC]

I don't know if I'm honest. I'm just being over-cautious I think. I've lost another 3lbs in four days of refeeding so it probably would have been ok to have some tomatoes and beetroot (in moderation) although the weight loss could just be a continuation from last week's TFR stint.

I have my first real carbs tonight in the form of baked potato wedges and I've decided to roast the pepper I was going to have with it. I'm not sure how it will turn out but as usual I'll post the results here.

The fact that you're taking it so seriously and doing your best to prepare yourself, Liana, I'm sure whatever way you go you'll be fine.

 

[Daisy1966]

You are doing a fantastic job there Mr C its great to follow someones re-feed in such detail.

 

[MrC]

Thanks Daisy. I'm having fun eating AND writing about it. It's like seconds!!

 

[MrC]

DAY 5

Breakfast was again a Summer Fruits shake.

I really enjoyed today's lunch. I had a can of tuna with finely chopped onion, ground black pepper, Tabasco sauce and white balsamic vinegar. I had sliced red pepper on the plate with it and have come to realise that it is the red pepper that is tainting the taste of the tuna for me. I therefore ate the red pepper first which was fine on its own then drank half a litre of water over ten minutes to clean my palate. I then had the tuna and it was lovely, so no tuna & peppers for me again.

Real carbs were on the menu for dinner tonight. I started off by slicing my vegetables and putting them in a plastic bag: 8oz potato cut lengthways into wedges, half a red pepper cut into into large chunks, a small onion quartered and three tiny carrots, whole. I then chopped up (almost minced) two cloves of garlic and put those in the bag too and shook it all up so the gerlic spread itself over everything else. After leaving it for half an hour I put a chicken breast on a baking tray and lightly sprinkled it with salt and black pepper. I turned out the vegeables onto a baking tray and put a chicken breast next to them. They all got very lightly sprinkled with some salt and paprika then went in the over on Gas 5 for 45 minutes.

(I really am concious of not putting that much salt on things - and although it seems like I am adding it to everything I really am using just a tiny flick of the mill.)

I really did enjoy my food today and tonight's dinner both filled me up and was by far the nicest thing I've had in months. All that food and not a drop of oil in sight.

One thing I have noticed though is that I'm getting just a little light-headed on occasion if I get up quickly. I did have this symptom during the first half of TFR but it disappeared during the last month or so. I think it's probably just down to my body having to readjust to the new food intake and I expect it to pass again soon.

 

[Tangled]

Really enjoy reading your refeed plan, and your meals sound scrummy! I'm a month or so off from refeeding but it's good to see how other people are managing.

By the way, maybe you should think about carrying around a "travel size" bottle of Tabasco sauce, so your never caught short!

 

[MrC]

HaHa. Tangled, I just typed up my Day 6 entry offline and I'm just about to load it and I laughed when I was wrtiting it because of the Tabasco sauce!! :drool:

The funny thing is, after having cooked chicken for lunch while out at Uni a couple of days ago I actually have a bottle in the glovebox in my car too!

Maybe I need to wean myself off it already.

 

[MrC]

DAY 6

Breakfast was Orange Creme today. It didn't expand as much as the maintenance shakes have been so I must shake harder next time!

Lunch was yet another slight deviation from the plan as I hadn't taken stock of my veggies properly and was without a pepper or cucumber. I therefore based lunch on last night's dinner but without the big ol' spuddy carb.

I have a pack of frozen skinless chicken breasts in the freezer and put one on a plate with a touch of salt and threw it in the oven on Gas 6 for 20 minutes. I then quartered a small onion and put that on the plate along with 3 small carrots and returned it to the oven. I didn't season the vegetables at all. Another 10 minutes later I put 4 small whole cloves of peeled garlic on the plate and let it all cook for another 20 minutes.

After transferring it to another plate I tucked in and have to say it was very enjoyable. Due to the fact that I had salted the chicken breast and let it cook so longin the oven, the outside (it was skinless remember) had started to bubble and crisp up and really did taste 'naughty'. The chicken breast itself was lovely and juicy and was the best piece of chicken I've had so far on the refeed.

My dinner was both a triumph, an almost, and a disaster! The cupboard was, as they say, bare (that was the disaster) and so the menu had to be altered tonight. Instead of the fish, vegetables and potatoes I had planned I concocted something I would like to call Creamy Crab Linguine, haha! It was nearly as good as I could have hoped (the almost) but it did allow me to experiment and get some ideas for a few of the other planned meals on my menu. The recipe kind of went like this:

I cooked 4oz (dry) of linguine and left it to drain while I prepared the sauce. The sauce was a finely chopped onion and two cloved of thinly sliced garlic which were dry fried in a non-stick pan along with finely chopped (pea sized) green beans. I then added some white balsamic vinegar to add a sweet tang along with some dried oregano. After a few minutes I added a tbsp of quark (I've described it below) which I stirred in. Once this had melted I added a tin of drained, shredded crab meat and stirred it all up. It was a little thick so I added some skimmed milk the thin it down along with some black pepper. I then added 4 oz (cooked) of the linguine which was about half of the original amount and stirred it in. The left over pasta went in the bin.

It wasn't that bad and although it wasn't Michelin quality I did enjoy it enough to get it all down (the triumph). It has to be said that 4 oz of cooked pasta is quite filling on the refeed.

I wish I had had some peas to put in the sauce and some lemon juice would really have give it a bit of a lift. I added a splash of Tabasco sauce (as usual!) and this perked it up a bit too. It's at least given me some ideas and let me know what the quark was like as I'd never used it before.

Although I still don't really know what it is, the quark actually looked like a very soft cheese in the tub. I tasted a little bit expecting maybe a yoghurty taste but it was more like sour cream. If I had to place it somewhere it would be between fromage-frais and creme-fraiche. It melted in the frying pan and because I had turned the heat down when I added it it didnt split on me. I can certainly make a nice sauce for my weekend kebab with it if I thin it down with some lemon juice or vinegar.

At the end of all that I can say that my dinner filled me up, wasn't bad and was fun to make.

Bread tomorrow . . .

 

[jo_loveluck]

just to let u know, quark is a cream cheese made with skimmed milk! x

 

[MrC]

Thanks for that jo. Does that mean I was kind of right? I'm so glad my middle name isn't 'Delia' else I'd be so ashamed!

 

[LainaG]

I don't know if I'm honest. I'm just being over-cautious I think. I've lost another 3lbs in four days of refeeding so it probably would have been ok to have some tomatoes and beetroot (in moderation)

I have my first real carbs tonight in the form of baked potato wedges and I've decided to roast the pepper I was going to have with it. I'm not sure how it will turn out but as usual I'll post the results here.

The fact that you're taking it so seriously and doing your best to prepare yourself, Liana, I'm sure whatever way you go you'll be fine.

Hey Mr C congratulations on losing the extra 3lbs, I'm sure you're pleased with that. Also your potato wedges sounded lovely. I'll definitely be trying out that recipe myself

I've just had my last weigh in while doing TFR and I've lost another 4lbs so I'm now a little under my target weight to allow for a slight gain when introducing carbs again. I received my maintainence sample pack plus I got a few extra as I'm planning on using them for a few weeks while I find my feet with eating again. I'm also planning on hitting the supermarket after work to go buy some food for the first meal tomorrow night. I'm getting excited now (but still a bit nervous).

Did your pharmacist give you the calorie + fat content tables booklet? I think it will act as a good guidance on what's the best sort of food to go for. By checking out cheese section I now see what you mean about choosing to buy the quark rather than the creme fraiche - shocking

I will start up my own refeed diary once I have been shopping and I've planned my menus but I warn you I'm not very imaginative when it comes to food so you'll hardly be inspired. I am hoping this will change though

 

[MrC]

That's great going Laina you've done brilliantly. You lost more than I did and I was pleased with myself. Well done.

It'll be interesting to see what you make of the maintenance food but I liked them enough to decide that I'll be using them for breakfast for the next few weeks. They really do bloat me up which is good plus they are easy to make which is handy as I don't really have much of a kitchen at the moment.

The pharmacist did offer me some paperwork (he didn't say or really know what it was from what I could tell) but I just told him I didn't need it anyway. I am so down with the pharmacy that once I got the maintenance food I wanted out of there. I have enough to get me through refeed plus a few spares and I intend going to another pharmacy next week to order another two or three weeks worth. I have a decent grasp of what I should and shouldn't be eating anyway and anything I'm unsure about I will look-up online anyway. I'm ok with theory it's the practice where I struggle - I've been both a glutton and lacking willpower in the past. I'm positive that will change now.

I can't be too adventurous with my cooking right now because of the kitchen and the first few days of refeed are fairly plain and simple anyway. Thre's bound to be the odd thing you have on your refeed that'll get me thinking and even if I don't consider them this week they can help give me idea for later weeks - so get posting!

I'm off shopping too, to get a bag of fish and chips to take to my wife as she is on a polling station today and some more veggies and fish for mysef as I'm running low.

Good luck with the refeed tomorrow - I really do hope you enjoy it.

 

[jo_loveluck]

hi, just thought id tell you about be-yu, its the same kind of thing as liptrim but they have loads more choice and u can buy them direct from their website. i just got mine the other day and i plan on using them as maintenance for breakfast as they do porridge, plain or apple and cinnamon. and also bannana milk shake! they've got tones of other stuff too, bit more expensive than lipotrim but the reviews are great!!

 

[mary50]

Thanks for sharing about re-feed.I wish I was there already but after 6 weeks I still have 3 stone to lose. Fingers crossed I will do LT 100% on holiday. Hope to be able to log on to this site for support while I am in Turkey. Good luck everyone keep up the good work maryxx

 

[mary50]

Congratulations and very well done Mr C

 

[MrC]

Thanks for the heads up jo. I might take a look but I've really got into the LT maintenance shakes and so I'll stick with them for a bit. If I get bored though I know where to look.

Keep hanging in there Mary and you'll soon be on this part. Three stone isn't that much really, not when you've been going so well so far. If you do manage to stay 100% on you holiday then I will be more than just a little impressed. If you don't then do try and be sensible, alhtough make sure you enjoy Turkey, and get straight back to it on your return. Good luck.

 

[MrC]

Day 7

I'm just sitting down with a coffee with sweetener and skimmed milk in it as I write this. I didn't mention it in my diary but I've had one each evening for the last few days and have been looking at it as a bit of a treat. Before the diet I probably only had one coffee a month but I really look forward to them now. I don't think I'll have one every day and I certainly don't expect to be having several a day either.

I just think it's strange how my tastes have changed during my diet and I really am open to retrying things I'd previously dismissed before because I didn't like them. I'm actually one of those people that will try most things and certainly won't say I dislike something until I've actually had it. Today was one of thise days of rediscovery so on to the food log.

I had Summer Fruits for breakfast again and this definitely froths up more than the Orange Creme does. B-L-O-A-T-E-D.

Lunch required no cooking today - two slices of brown bread with a single slice of ham and bit of the Heinz Tangy Tomato Spread. I never would have thought a sandwich without butter or margarine could taste so nice. I throroughly enjoyed it and found it really filling. It wasn't so dry it was offputting but it was dry enough that it took some effort to swallow down which helped make it feel a lot bigger and heavier than it was. The fact that it took seconds to prepare and that it seemed like normal everyday food just added to the experience. I'm having the same for lunch tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it.

My dinner was another (I keep having these now) deviation from the plan. I still had the roast chicken breast as planned but I had a slight change in the 'mash' department. The chicken went in the oven for 40 minutes and while this was going on I diced some baby potatoes, leaving the skins on and started them boiling. I had intended to boil some carrots and mash them together with some quark but while I went shopping (more on that in a bit) I got tempted to try using swede instead. Now, swede is something I only ever have on Christmas Day and then it's 25% swede mashed with 75% butter, a load of pepper and more salt than can be considered health!. I diced the swede up too and got that boiling - I think they both took about 20 minutes or so to boil although I lost track when my mate came round just to tell me I looked like something from Bergen-Belsom and that I should eat!! Anyway, once cooked I mashed some of the swede and all the potatoes together with some pepper. I didn't add salt as I salted the boiling water and I didn't use quark either - still no added fat if I can help it. While I was mashing I cooked a couple of baby carrots and a few green beans in the microwave and I dished the lot up.

The chicken was again really nice as were the vegetables but what about this swede and potato mash? It was the best part and I want to do it again. Because I left the skins on the potatoes (they were apache potatoes so the skin is purple and yellow patches) this peeled off in the mashing process and added some nice texture to the mix. It wasn't smooth like creamed potatoes but it was more than soft enough and the little lumps in it made it really nice. Not like the lumps in creamy mash potato which frankly, puts me off. Dinner filled me up and was both a suprising and enjoyable.

I said I'd mention my shopping trip. I just couldn't believe what I bought as I was packing at the checkout. I hardly ever have fruit or vegetables but I have been running low of food the last few days so my shopping contents were:

Frozen white fish
Lemon
Lime
Lemon Juice
Tomatoes
Onions
Garlic
Chillies
Bell Peppers
Carrots
Cabbage
Green Beans
Swede
Cucumber
Frozen Petit Pois
Tic Tacs

I had to convince myself that this is actually what I wanted to buy as it just seemed so strange not to see a load of processed food, meats, desserts and pizzas. I was hoping people were eyeing up the conveyor so they would think 'health freak'!! LOL

So today I've embraced butterless sandwiches and swede 'n' potato mash and really enjoyed both of them. It looks like I have a lot of discovering left to do and I'm up for the challenge.

* Sorry for these posts getting longer and longer - it appears food now puts me into 'Drone Mode'.

 

[mary50]

What a great plan much better than any I have seen in the lipotrim leaflets.

 

[littleflower2]

MrC I haven't had bread at all in my refeed...i have totally forgotten all about it!!! I haven't had a diet coke either and 4 weeks ago i said this was the 1st thing i was going to have as soon as i came off the shakes!!!
But today i had sainsburys on the vine tomatoes! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG they were so good!! SOOOOOO GOOD!!!!! and a wee bit of salad cream too...i felt like a human being again!
On Sunday i am planning to be well hungover so i have bought steak pieces for a cassarole and i will def make you swede n potato mash with it.....jeez my mouth is watering already!!!! Can't wait!
All your ladies on here love your droning...so keep it up lol