Plumfoodie's diary and ramblings

[Plumfoodie]

This morning's weight was up 0.2lb from my last weigh-in two weeks ago. I'm happy with that in the circumstances!

EDIT: I just re-weighed myself (still haven't eaten anything today) and I think I misread the scale earlier (was pretty sleepy) as I'm 1.4lb lighter than I was then and as far as I know it's physically impossible to lose that much by sitting around for 4 hours! It might be naughty to use the second weight as my official one this week but I'm going to - if I have to suck it up next week with a smaller loss at my usual time then I will do so. EDIT AGAIN: I don't think it's too unrealistic as it's the same weight I had the day before yesterday at my usual time! So hopefully not too naughty!

Having a slow start to the day today. I know that all the advice is to eat something within an hour of waking up but I find this really difficult sometimes. I have to take some tablets first thing (the time doesn't need to be spot on, just 'in the morning', but it must be on an empty stomach) and am not supposed to eat anything for half an hour afterwards. Because they are unpleasant to take I put it off and put it off and before I know it it's 11 a.m. (if I'm at home and not at work). You'd think my stomach would grumble and remind me but it's never been too bothered about breakfast.

No idea of today's food yet, I'll update later when I've actually thought about it.

 

[CaliSweden]

Congratulations Plumfoodie on your weightloss! I think your second weight sounds correct, since there's no way you can lose that much weight in 4 hours, well unless you had to ummmmmm went to the restroom, and that'd have to be a REALLY BIG ONE. Sorry, it was the only thing I could think of logically for how you could lose that much weight in 4 hours >_<

In other words, you were most likely really newly awakened and misread the scale. I think you did amazingly this past week!

 

[Plumfoodie]

Hehe Cali you made me LOL. And thank you for the words of encouragement.

Food today has been a little bit on the light side, a small serving of yoghurt/seeds/All-Bran for lunch, small apple/almonds/mini babybel light for a snack, and probably one more tiny snack before dinner.

Dinner tonight I'm excited about, if we're going to cook a 'splurge' meal then we tend to do it on a Thursday since I have a whole week to make it up by my next weigh-in (although today it actually fits into my daily calories cos I haven't eaten much - usually I prefer to space my calories out more and not have so many at night!). We're going to make carrot & coriander fritters with halloumi and a lemony dressing, and I may have a small scoop of ice cream for afters. Haven't tried the fritters recipe before so really looking forward to them as the pic looks delicious! We'll of course make a few modifications in the name of healthiness - light halloumi is almost half the calories of regular and comes in a slightly smaller pack, and in our good nonstick pans we won't need 3 tbsp of oil to fry them!

Carrot and coriander fritters with halloumi and sweet lemon dressing recipe - Channel4 - 4Food

(as I look out the window at the clouds and drizzle I have to giggle a little at the thought that this recipe makes a 'summery supper for two'!)

 

[Plumfoodie]

Well, dinner last night was yummy with a capital YUM. I love halloumi and I don't feel too bad about the fritters as they used chickpea flour as a binder, which as far as I have been able to work out is low GI.

I seem to be having a grazing day today, all the same things I would normally have but nibbled here and there instead of in distinct meals.

On the topic of staying hydrated, I recently bought a new water filter jug as I was tired of buying bottles and the faucet-mount ones I have from the US don't fit our tap in the new house. This morning I went to get it all set up and unfortunately the jug has a leak in it; it is somehow dripping unfiltered water into the filtered water. I really hate having to send things back, it is such a pain!!!

 

[CaliSweden]

Cool I've never heard of chickpea flour before. I learn something new everyday Your food sounded yummy.

Did you come from the states originally? I noticed you mentioned the states twice now.

It's such a headache when something new doesn't work the way it's supposed to. It is very troublesome to send it back, but you paid good money for a product that should work. You should send it back to the company.

 

[Plumfoodie]

Chickpea flour is great, you can also use it to make healthier onion bhajis at home. Sometimes it is called gram flour or besan.

I grew up in Oregon and then moved to the UK 15 years ago and been here ever since apart from a year living in Canada (Toronto). I think I read that you are from California originally? Sweden must be a bit of a culture change.

Yes if the jug is broken then I will send it back, not happy about it though!!! I'm waiting to hear from the manufacturer if the leak is likely to be the jug or the cartridge as I don't want to unwrap another cartridge to try only to find that it's the jug's fault and I have to send it all back! Hmph! Where's quality control when you need it eh?

 

[Plumfoodie]

Cali, your signature just reminded me, I had a nonscale victory the other week. When I was packing for my trip I was just throwing things in and I didn't realise until later that I was happily wearing a pair of jeans in a size smaller than normal which I thought were still too small. Woo!

 

[CaliSweden]

Congratulations Plumfoodie for the smaller jeans! That's really sweet! Those nonscale victories are great. It helps us realize how far we've come

Oh cool you're originally from Oregon Sweden's a complete change from California. I really miss my warm weather and most of the year sun. I always thought I liked winter best, but now I know I like the warm weather best

 

[Plumfoodie]

Yes I know what you mean! I miss having different weather in the different seasons, in Central Oregon we always had a warm sunny summer and snowy winter (and great late summer thunderstorms) and I find that here there are so many days when you could look out the window and not really be sure what season it is! And I sure never had to take vitamin D before moving!

What part of CA are you from?

 

[CaliSweden]

Here it's mostly rain, rain, cold, cold, snow, cold, cold, rain, and well basically cold most of the year, with rain or snow. Winter is about half the year here, though the Swedes don't agree with me, but according to normal weather/temperature standards it is winter about half the year here >_<

I'm originally from the greater Los Angeles area

 

[Plumfoodie]

Ah cool. I don't know the area well (my sister lives down in Lompoc and I used to have friends in Santa Clara) but when I flew to/from Oregon I went through LAX and got outside for a few minutes to enjoy the sunshine and see the palm trees in the distance!

 

[CaliSweden]

I've been to Santa Clara and Lompoc before

Here's a funny question, have you noticed that your accent has changed, or that your vocabulary changed since living in England for so many years?

 

[Plumfoodie]

Yes, definitely, I think it's self-preservation. There are only so many times you can have someone ask you 'what?' or stare at you blankly before you start making small changes to adapt. But I still say 'tomato' the right way, a girl has to have principles.

My husband can always tell if I'm talking to my mom or an American friend (as opposed to someone here) if he overhears me on the phone as apparently it all goes back to normal Oregonian fairly rapidly.

 

[CaliSweden]

Hehe, same for me, even though I live in Sweden. We have a lot of UK shows here, all the American shows narrators are British over here. So it's funny because I've seen some of the shows back home, and they were Americans narrating them.

Also books, and things written in English are written in UK standard English here. I remember when I had to take my driver's exam here, they don't care how long you've been driving back home, it has to be EU or else you take it again. I decided to take the exam in English and bought an English book. At that time I lived in Sweden for only about a year so I wasn't too comfortable taking the exam in Swedish. But the book was almost like another language, since all the driving terms were in British English, I had to google some words to figure out what they were.

When I went to visit my parents, and there are alot of Americans where they live, I thought to myself wow they sure speak with a funny accent. Or hmmmm they sure are loud. Also a lot of times when I'd speak to someone, the person will say what is that to a word I used. I then realize I used a British term and not an American one. I became too Europeanized. I also felt more comfortable watching BBC, than the tv shows completely with American narrators.

Though when I talk on the phone to my family back home, I speak completely different than I do here. I speak with my fast California accent with a lot of slang

 

[Plumfoodie]

I had the same problem when I got my UK driving license! I actually took some lessons because they are a lot stricter here about some things. My American test did not include checkboxes for things like my hands remaining at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock at all times, even when going around corners.

And I know exactly what you mean about how... 'American' Americans can seem after you haven't lived there for awhile. The first time I went back for a visit I got totally freaked out by the friendly grocery store checkout lady who wanted to know all about how my day was going, I was thinking gosh how strange and nosy! And whenever I go back it takes me ages to remember that the correct American reply to 'thank you' is 'you're welcome' and not 'no - thank YOU!'. LOL If you said 'you're welcome' here you would probably get a tiny eyeroll!

But to be honest having lived here so long I don't really think about these things very much, only if I go back home for a visit.

 

[CaliSweden]

I always thought Brits were really friendly and talkative too, well at least the ones I've met here. At least Americans and people in UK say thank you or excuse me. There is huge lack of usage of the words thank you, you're welcome, and excuse me here. They really don't communicate as much as English speakers, so I guess it's just the culture here

 

[irish molly]

Ah ladies, if you want to get really confused with accents and how language is spoken you need to come to Ireland!!!
Enjoying " eavesdropping" on your lovely chat! Have a good evening.

 

[Plumfoodie]

I have found in the UK it can vary tremendously depending on where you are. One of the reasons I like living where I do now in the southwest is that people are usually friendly here, which has not been the case in other places in England! Years ago I lived in the southeast and was cycling one day when I hit a curb at a funny angle, which sent me flying into a shop window like a cartoon - I went *splat* and then slid down the glass to lie flat on my back on the sidewalk (I was ok but had the wind knocked out of me and was a bit stunned). Several people walked past me without saying anything at all and finally someone called over from the other side of the road to ask if I was ok. It still makes me laugh! I really can't picture that happening here in Devon.

Molly, I always love going to Ireland (not that I get to very often) - most people seem pretty warm and genuine even in Dublin.

 

[CaliSweden]

My guy has a hard time understanding Irish and Scottish accents, I have a much easier time understanding them. But there are times it makes think "what!?! what!?!"

Oh my I can't believe that noone even helped you, and only one person across the street said something. It sounds like the way it is here.

 

[Plumfoodie]

That's a shame, Cali. I think sometimes it's too easy for people to get wrapped up in their own little bubbles and not really think of the people around them in a compassionate way. We're all humans at the end of the day, all in it together!