Scrumbles' diary...life after losing a third of me...

[Scrumbles]

Feeling a lot better today, thanks

I am annoyed though, because late last night I had a couple of squares of chocolate and 2 G&T's . I didn't exceed my carb limit for the day nor even my loose calorie target, but I know that alcohol stalls me, so bang goes any weight loss this week. Oh well. Draw a line, move on.

B - same as every day (I really gotta think of something else, lol)

L - tuna with curried shallot and cabbage

S - greek yoghurt and a few strawberries,tea

D - broccoli with cheese sauce

 

[Scrumbles]

Well, I was wrong about the stall.

Hopped on the scales this morning and I'm down another 2lbs...yay! I suppose that was my TOTM water weight leaving me to reveal what I've actually lost over the last week.

So, 14 stone exactly. With almost 2 weeks of April left, I should be able to make it into the 13's by May, but you never can tell. I know from past experience that it gets tough from now on and my body will fight me every inch of the way to hang on to all that lovely wobble , so I can't bank on it.

I haven't eaten breakfast today as I just wasn't hungry enough this morning - happens quite a bit, actually. I'll probably have an early, large-ish lunch instead.

**************

So, I had breakfast at lunchtime, lunch late afternoon and dinner at 6.30pm (!)

B - usual!

L - steamed broccoli and cabbage with cheese sauce

D - smoked mackerel with salad and tomatoes

S - greek yoghurt with a few strawberries

 

[Scrumbles]

Hopped on the scales this morning half expecting that my 2lb loss from yesterday would have vanished, but I'm still 14 stone and holding, so hopefully this loss will stick.

B - usual, plus cheese

L - tuna with fried shallots and kale, tea

D - Atkins meatloaf with tomatoes and salad

S - greek yoghurt with strawberries, Edam

Haven't plugged this menu into FitDay yet, so it will probably change. Most of my menus end up changing when I realise I'm going to be over/under targets, or I just don't fancy what I've planned. Then sometimes I go to the fridge and see something I've forgotten that's about to go out of date, and I have to think again. I really envy people who are good at planning - not one of my skills I'm afraid!

 

[Scrumbles]

Woke up feeling really good this morning. I've been eating well, and now TOTM is pretty much over I'm back to my normal hunger levels and lack of cravings (haven't even thought about chocolate the past few days, even though I keep my G&B bars in the drawer where my cling film is, and I see them practically every day. When I'm not craving, they just don't register).

I guess I need to start thinking about exercise soon . I am running out of excuses, lol. I was always going to wait until I was a fair bit lighter than my starting weight before doing any exercise (beyond normal daily chores) because I didn't think it wise to put any more strain on my poor aching knees that were screaming at me just getting out of a chair, let alone doing anything much more strenuous. I told myself I'd wait until I got down into the 13's before attempting to exercise, but now I'm virtually there, I find I'm thinking "how about waiting for the 12's?"

I think I believed I'd get to a point where I suddenly felt light and springy enough to make the idea of exercise moderately appealing - or at least not totally repellent - but if that's true, I sure ain't there yet! We'll see.

B - omelette with shallots, red pepper and cheese (Wot....no scrambled eggs?!) Coffee with cream.

L - TBD

D - Atkins meatloaf with kale and (probably) carrots

S - Edam

 

[Scrumbles]

Having a very non-hungry day today for some reason. Think I'm going to be way short of my usual food intake, but I don't see the point of forcing myself to eat when I don't want to. I'll probably be hungrier tomorrow to make up for it.

I'm trying out my new slow-cooker for the first time today. It felt a bit weird frying up the stewing steak, onion and carrots at 10 o'clock this morning for a meal we'll be having at 7 o'clock tonight, but it's nice to know it's all done and dusted bar steaming a bit of broccoli and some potatoes for OH. I was winging it regarding the recipe, so I hope it tastes alright.

B - coffee with cream, 2 eggs scrambled in butter, 1 frankfurter

L - tea, skipped eating

S - cheddar and tomatoes

D - beef, onion and carrot stew with broccoli

Wish I knew why this site keeps booting me out all the time. If I take longer than about 5 minutes to post something, I get kicked off and have to log in again.

 

[Kat1e]

Hope your slow cooked meal was yummy

 

[Scrumbles]

^^^

It was, thanks! I think I'll try a beef curry next - I'm sure I've read that curries develop their flavours better with long cooking, so should be perfect for the slow-cooker (I hate cooking, but I love having new toys to play with!)

Didn't get around to recording yesterday's food here, but it wasn't anything special. I logged it on FitDay and hit my usual targets, so that was fine.

Had a couple of gins on Saturday night watching The Voice - think I need to nip that habit in the bud and go booze-free for a while. Habitual indulgences (of many kinds) are what led me to where I was (17 stone) so I need to keep an eye on that. Also, I really want to be solidly down into the 13's by the end of May, and I ain't gonna get there if I keep hampering myself with alcohol.

Yucky rainy day here in my corner of Hampshire . I know we need the rain but I could do with at least ONE day to get my washing out sometime - hate having towels hanging up indoors.

So, food:

B - coffee with cream, no food - was snacking late last night, so not hungry

L - mushroom soup with cheese

D - chilli chicken with steamed cabbage

S - greek yoghurt

Well, that's the plan, anyway!

 

[Scrumbles]

Didn't check in yesterday, but nothing unusual happened food-wise.

Weighed myself this morning and I'm still at 14 stone. This could be my first stall since I started the diet last November, but I'll keep doing what I'm doing for another couple of weeks before I decide whether it actually is a stall and needs addressing. I know from past experience that my road to goal always has interruptions, though generally at a lower weight than this - I suppose my "set points" will be higher now than they used to be since I was at my heaviest weight ever six months ago. I'm just glad I have everything logged in FitDay since mid-February so that I can look back and see what was working for me then; could be useful if I end up trying to troubleshoot a stall.

B - coffee with cream, 2 eggs scrambled in butter, 1 frankfurter

L -

S -

D -

 

[Kat1e]

Good attitude - our bodies work in mysterious ways

 

[Scrumbles]

Good attitude - our bodies work in mysterious ways

They do indeed!

And I should learn a little more patience because I weighed in this morning aaaaaaaaaannnnnd......

195 lbs!!

I am not stalled and I am finally into the 13's! *does happy dance*

Of course, it might not stick immediately, but it's going the right way

Next target: get into the 180's. I might achieve that by the end of May if I have a bit of a whoosh, but if not, then hopefully by mid-June. There's no rush, so whatever. It goes when it goes.

Actually, if there's one positive I can take from having gotten so big it's that I have a long, long time to get used to this as my new way of eating. Giving up sugar and grains is a MASSIVE deal as far as I'm concerned - if I could live on doughnuts and get away with it, I absolutely would - and if I just had a stone to lose, I could see myself using Atkins as a quick fix only to go straight back to my carb-y ways again. As it is, I have probably over a year to grow into this way of eating and come to accept it, and I recognise that that's time I really need.

Not too sure what I'm eating today. I have smoked mackerel fillets in the fridge, or there's cold beef from last night's roast. Will probably have a cooked veggie sort of lunch then mackerel/beef with salad for dinner, plus snacks of meat and cheese. Might not sound a lot but it will add up to my usual targets of 1500-1600 calories, 25g carbs, 100g protein and 100g+ of fat...and I won't need to feel hungry, which is absolutely the best thing about this diet for me

 

[TahjmansMum]

Well done Scrumbles, dont forget to keep glugging away at the water. I have just had a coffee with a friend who could not believe I was eating pork scratchings on a diet!

 

[Scrumbles]

Thanks, TM! Now that you mention it, I have been a bit slack about drinking all my water lately...must do better!

Gotta say, I do get a certain amount of pleasure out of telling people I've lost over 3 stone in 5 months, then mentioning I had bacon and egg for breakfast

Best. Diet. Ever.

 

[Kat1e]

Thanks, TM! Now that you mention it, I have been a bit slack about drinking all my water lately...must do better!

Gotta say, I do get a certain amount of pleasure out of telling people I've lost over 3 stone in 5 months, then mentioning I had bacon and egg for breakfast

Best. Diet. Ever.

Agreed - times 10

 

[Scrumbles]

Feeling a bit wobbly today...don't really know why.

I seem to be craving wine this weekend, more for the taste of it rather than the buzz. Funny....I can go for the longest time without any booze and not even think about it, then I'll suddenly go through a phase when I really want a Saturday/Sunday vino. I suppose it's technically not off-limits, but my weight loss seems slow enough right now without hampering the fat-burning process. Oh well. If I can resist cake, bread, biscuits, pastry and all the other sweet carb-y stuff I used to guzzle, I can resist wine too.

B - coffee with cream, 2 eggs scrambled, 1 frankfurter (really must change this!)

L - mushroom soup and a peperami

D - cold roast beef and salad

S - cheese, tea

Oh, forgot to mention I got on the exercise bike today . Was knackered after 10 minutes, so that was all I did . Baby steps....

 

[Alpaca]

Really sorry you're a bit wobbly today - I hate days like that! Hope you're wobble-free soon! Hugs xx

 

[ladyfelsham]

Babysteps - that's the plan! You're doing great xxx

 

[Scrumbles]

Thanks, folks...I am through my wobble unscathed! I have 3 or 4 bottles of wine that have been sitting in the sideboard since Xmas, and they were calling my name bigtime, but I ignored them.

And today the sun is shining - such a relief after all the miserable weather we've had lately. I think that's been bringing me down a bit if I'm honest.

Will try to do a bit longer on the bike today - 10 minutes is kinda pathetic, I know . I might start doing some core exercises and weights soon as well - dunno what's come over me

B - same again (aargh!!!)

L - tuna with curried kale and shallots

D - not sure...fridge is getting a bit empty so may have to improvise!

 

[Alpaca]

Great return to focus ! And well done on not touching the wine!! Xx

 

[Scrumbles]

Thanks, Di! I don't really think about booze during the week, but weekends can be very dodgy!

Well, my food plan went out the window 'cos I was busy all through the time I would have cooked my lunch, and by the time I had time to do it, I couldn't be bothered . So it was a sort of "grazing" day until dinner when we had salmon with buttered carrots and broccoli. I had a mid-evening snack of prawns in mayo with a smidge of low-sugar ketchup, and I'm currently pondering on whether I'm hungry enough to want a bite or two of Edam (got a real thing about Edam at the moment, heaven knows why!), but I'll probably skip it.

Did 15 minutes of hard pedalling on the exercise bike this evening - more ambitious than yesterday, but not a lot, lol. I worked up a bit of a sweat though, so it's all good.

I'm glad to be able to get on it and do anything, to be honest. I was only thinking whilst I was pedalling away that this time last year I was starting to wheeze without even doing any physical activity: if I took a deep breath I could hear it rattling in my chest, and I had started to cough quite a lot for no apparent reason. When I thought about it, it was beginning to be a tad worrying...so I didn't think about it. I have absolutely no idea when those symptoms disappeared - I just woke up one day and realised my mystery cough and wheeze hadn't been in evidence for a while. Nice to think that after all I've put it through over the years, my body is still capable of healing, but it's definitely time I stopped pushing my luck!

 

[Alpaca]

Great need on the bike and the chest! My cardiovascular strength and stamina are certainly improving - it's a lovely feeling! X