Eating out is not eating smart

Today’s daily food intake…

The last few days haven’t been the best for me. We went over our download limit for the month (thanks to some Skyping and Zumba downloading…) so I didn’t have any internet at home. I could plug my phone in and tether it to use some of my phone’s download limit, but it’s not the quickest, and I don’t get that much download so I had to conserve that as well.

The thing I learnt from the little experience is that a big part of being successful in eating right is the support that I get from forums, and now from Facebook. When I feel like eating something bad, or I have questions about how many calories might be in some food, I can just ask someone, and there is generally a quick response. Which really helps me.

Another thing I’ve learnt lately is that I cannot succeed if I don’t have a written menu down, and am not organised with my shopping. If I don’t have the correct food in the house, I make stupid choices.

Like on Saturday. Mick was working this weekend, and on the weekends he works, I normally bring him lunch and eat with him. I wasn’t organised this weekend and was out and about doing things, so when lunch time rolled around I thought oh hell, I need to quickly buy something to bring to Mick. My first thought was Subway. So in I went, and straight back out I went. The line was from the cash register, all the way back to the door. I didn’t have that much time to wait before his lunch break. So I stupidly went to Wendys and got a hotdog. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Did you know that in a standard Wendys hotdog there are 601 calories? That’s without adding any of the condiments. Holy shit. No wonder I put weight on, I used to eat these like they were going out of fashion.

Other bad choices over the weekend include:

  • full fat, homemade lasagna on Friday night (technically not my fault, we were out for dinner at a friends house – to be fair I only had a small slice and a lot of green salad)
  • Wendys hotdog for lunch on Saturday.
  • Sunday night dinner was going to be a roast, but we went to the beach and didn’t get home till late, so what did we do? Yep, went to the fish and chip shop – which was close – so we got a big pasta dish from the place next door instead.

Organisation and internet. These are definitely going to be the keys to my success. And maybe getting fast food places to put a ban on me entering their shops…

Started with a loss, ended with an aha moment

Today’s daily food intake…

Weigh in day
Previous weight: 111.1kg.
Today’s weight: 109.1kg.
2.0kg loss

I’ve learned a few of things today.

The first is that even though you might be hungry at breakfast time, don’t go overboard. Perhaps the cheese and Vegemite and butter was overdoing it. A little.

The second is that I need to learn to eat slower. I noticed while I was eating my lunch that I was eating as if there were a hundred hungry people behind me just waiting for me to put my fork down so they could grab it out of my hands and finish my lunch off. I don’t know why I eat so fast, but if I ate slower, I think I may actually eat less, because I’d give my body a chance to actually realise it’s full, before it gets over-full.

The third is that I can’t rely on Softball training on Wednesday afternoons to give me any kind of a work-out. Especially when only four people turn up and you don’t actually get to train. There is another day of exercise wasted – v. unimpressed about this too. I was planning on giving myself one day of rest over the weekend, but now I will have to make up the time that I missed out on today.

Last, but not least. When we go out for dinner I need to make smarter choices. Either that, or not go to pubs for dinner.

Tomorrow is going to be a very clean eating day for me I think. Might try and stay off the carbs (after breakfast, I need my carbs at breakfast), and stick to some lean protein and veg. Lot less calories tomorrow is a must.

Oh and one more thing that I just thought of – just because it’s weigh day and I lost weight, does not mean I should reward myself with food. (Let’s revisit that cheese and Vegemite thing…)

12WBT R1,2011 Day one and two

Yesterday was the kickoff of Round 1, 2011 of the 12 Week Body Transformation, so it was the first day of the next 12 weeks for me, concentrating on my healthy eating and exercising. I did quite well yesterday, except for a little slip up of a chocolate cupcake, which was for my birthday (which was on Sunday, yay for squeezing the day in before official kickoff). It’s the tradition at work, when it’s someone’s birthday, there is cake. I’m kind of guessing that it’s like that for a lot of workplaces, and ours is no different. But I ate well for the rest of the day and came home and did Zumba, so I felt accomplished.

Today was different though. I haven’t really done much in the way of eating, and when I did, it was all good and healthy. Of course, I was totally stressed about a job interview that I was having. But then I got home after the interview and there was food in sight. And that food went straight into my mouth.

And now I want to cry, because I totally just sabotaged myself, and I know better than to use food as an excuse or to forget things. And I want to cry because the job interview just didn’t go well, which means that in a little over 6 weeks or so, I will have to go back to a job I hate doing, and earn about $15,000 less a year and I’m totally stressing myself out about it and all I feel right now is this overwhelming sense of despair and I don’t want to continue on with the program or anything else.

How does a person go from having such a fantastic weekend and birthday with wonderful friends to just wanting to crawl into a hole and forget herself? Here’s hoping tomorrow (and weigh day) are better.

12wbt day sixty four – I’m still alive

It’s true everyone, I am still alive and I am still eating healthy (mostly). Actually that’s a bit of a lie. I’ve not had the best week. I got another dose of the flu last week, and I tried to make the right decisions food wise, but I don’t think I really did. There was yoghurt – full fat and there were Subway cookies, 2 of them and god they were good.

Then we decided to go camping over the weekend, and can I say BRING ON THE CARBS. I made damper twice and loaded it up with cheese and it was delicious. The lamb stew in the camp oven was divine, and actually very healthy loaded up as it was with vegetables. The bacon and eggs for breakfast the next day was even better 🙂

On the exercise front, well it’s been a no show all week. Trying to get the energy just to breathe was hard enough without attempting exercise. But I went back to the gym last night and had a great workout in my BodyCombat class. No gym tonight unfortunately, but back again tomorrow night, skipping Thursday for the hairdressers, then back again on Friday night to get my personal program sorted out by a personal trainer – and I can’t wait for that 🙂

On other news, I have been busily working on a quilt for my impending niece or nephew. My little sister only has 6 weeks left before the bundle of joy arrives, so I really need to get a move on with it. I have the top of the quilt all pieced and sewn together, so now I just have to piece the back, baste it, quilt it and then bind it. So a fair bit to do still, while trying to incorporate work and the gym. I need a few extra hours (and the energy to go with them) in every day. Photos of the quilt shall follow.

Good luck with weigh day tomorrow everyone. I’m certainly not looking forward to it I know 🙁 such a bad stuff up week, but I own it. And it was still worth it for the fantastic weekend away camping.

12WBT day thirty five – Feels like starting again

After being on holidays and then being sick all last week, today felt like I was starting the 12 week challenge all over again. Back were the hunger pains, back was my continuous thinking about food and back was my obsessing about food and exercise. The weird thing is, while I was away on holidays and while I was sick, I wasn’t even hungry, I would eat my breakfast and that was it, there was no more thought about food until sometime in the afternoon when I would think it’s time for lunch. But now that I’m back at work, in the humdrum that is work life, I’m thinking all about food again. This isn’t a good thing. However, life goes on and I’m just happy that I got through the day and stuck within my calories and thought about doing exercise. Okay I didn’t do any, but I thought about it – a good start lol. So daily stats for today:

FoodCalories in
BPorridge with 2t brown sugar, ½ cup milk & medium apple 307
SBodywise bar121
LLeek and Potato soup213
SMedium orange68
DCajun chicken, sweet potato wedges and salsa300
Total1009

ExerciseCalories out

No exercise0
BMR1811
Total1811
Calories surplus/defecit-802

12WBT day thirty four – I had a burger today

Oh yes, it’s true everyone, today I had a burger. Once again we were out and about at lunch time, so we stopped in at a pub that we haven’t been to for a long time, and had a pub lunch, which for me consisted of Burger and chips (it also came with a beer, but I substituted the beer for a Coke Zero lol). And you know what? It was freakin awesome! Yep, it was bad food, but god did it taste good. I have to say that I’ve really enjoyed the food that we’ve been having on the 12WBT, but there is something very comforting in going back to good old pub food.

So having said how awesome it was, I should also say, I didn’t eat the whole thing. This burger was enormous! I don’t think I ate even half of it. I also only had a few sneaky chips that were served with the burger. And to be honest, I really didn’t enjoy the chips. All I could taste when I ate them was fishy oil and it made me feel sickly. But god, that burger. MMMMMM.

I’m not going to apologise. I knew what I was doing when I ate it. I’m not going to make excuses. I probably could have found something healthier to eat for lunch (though having seen the pubs lunch menu I actually doubt that to be true), I’m going to say I had a burger and be proud that I didn’t eat the whole thing, that I only had a few chips and that I’m having a very lovely super healthy soup for dinner tonight to make up for it. I still fully embrace the 12WBT challenge, but I also have a life to live, and there are going to be times I am going to want to just let loose and enjoy eating “bad” foods. Today was one of those days. It won’t be the last time either I’m sure. But as for the rest of the day – super healthy all the way 🙂 Oats for brekkie and soup for dinner, with no snacks in between (who needs snacks after this burger):
Burger and Chips

12WBT days twenty five to twenty eight – Feeling like a failure

I have so many mixed emotions going on in my head right now I don’t know if I’m coming or going. I haven’t blogged for the last few days, because there wasn’t any point. I wasn’t going to be able to write how I had gotten in some great exercise, or how I had eaten fantastically. All I would have been able to say was that I was eating – crap food – but eating. Thrown in among it would be a bit of good food, and of course the thought that I should be eating this good food all the time. But even knowing that I should be eating healthier, and knowing that I can do it, that I have been doing it, the past week has just been hard and I admit that I have caved. Oh and let me not forget the no exercise bit. I didn’t do my mini milestone, and I haven’t done my fitness test. Those two things I can honestly put down to being sick, but it still doesn’t make me feel good that I’ve missed them.

I could make a lot of excuses, like how we have hardly been home, but out and about, coming and going at odd hours of the day. I could even use the excuse of how I have a raging cold, that is quickly turning into the flu, but the truth is, I was weak and I should have prepared better and not let the temptation get to me.

So that has brought back all my feelings of self doubt, feelings of failure, which is starting to affect me in my day to day life. I woke up this morning to go back to work for my first day after taking last week off, having the worst case of the flu. I have issues with my car not unlocking first thing in the morning, and of course, today was no different. I went outside to get in the car, and the doors wouldn’t open. I broke down. Just completely lost it. Sat there bawling my eyes out. So now I’m just trying to work out if my eating and lack of exercise is connected to these extreme emotions that I seem to be going through, or just because I’m sick.

I have decided though that I am going to use this last week as an example of how easy it is to get lulled into a false sense of security. That yes, there are going to be times in my life when I’m not going to be home to make dinner and get my proper food organised, but I’m going to have to make sure that I still try to make the correct choices wherever I am. It has also made me realise just how on the ball I’m going to have to be for the rest of my life. There aren’t any easy roads where I can sit down, munch on a bag of chips and not have it affect me in some way. Pity it’s taken a bad couple of weeks into such a great program for me to realise that huh?

So haven’t had dinner yet, and to be honest, not really sure that I will tonight. Not so hungry with all the mucus I have sitting in my head right now, but I shall put my daily stats up a little later.

12WBT days nineteen to twenty four – Hard times

Well how is everyone, I feel as if a part of my life has been missing over the last few days without my daily blogging and my daily intakes being written down. I’ve been off having a lovely time camping and spending time with my family during the school holidays. I would like to say that I have been eating fantastically and exercising like a mad woman, because for once I have so much time. But alas, neither of those things is true. I had everything planned out really well for camping, took my food with me, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to eat my own food. We went to stay with my in-laws who are living in their caravan while waiting for their house to be built, and I just assumed that they would have their microwave set up and that I would be able to reheat all my lovely “here’s one I prepared earlier food”, but nope, it wasn’t to be. So while I had fairly good choices for breakfast and lunch, my dinners were whatever anyone else had. Which, unfortunately, consisted of a lot of fried food. I was pretty upset with myself. So you would think I’d have been making some better choices now that we are back home, but I haven’t been making fantastic choices. I need to get myself organised again, before I stuff up all the good work that I have done so far. But I have to admit, that this week, I’m losing my motivation. I don’t want to stop the program, I don’t want to stop the change to my life, but this week is really testing me I have to admit 🙁

So weigh day was yesterday. I lost 1.3kg which I was extremely chuffed about. I haven’t done my measurements yet, I will be doing them tomorrow or Saturday, and as soon as I have done them, I will put them up here for the world to see. I also plan on getting back to my daily blog with my daily stats. As of tomorrow!!! It’s so great to be back, so how did you all do?

12WBT day thirteen – crap day, very unhappy with myself

Today we had a family day. When I say family day, I mean Mick, myself and Brodie go out and do something. We only get Brodie to stay with us every six months and only for a couple of weeks during school holidays, so the time that we have together is always very special. When I started the 12 Week Body Transformation challenge I didn’t take into account that Brodie would be here only a couple of weeks into the challenge and that it was going to take some serious organising (which I think we all know I’m not the best at). So today we headed out for a day at our favourite small town, and headed up to one of our favourite national park areas where we know we can have an open fire and do some good old fashioned cooking outdoors. Of course on the way there, there is always the obligatory stop at our favourite small town bakery where they do “The Best” pies and pasties.

So what did I do today? I started the day off with a bowl of Rice Bubbles. Something low in calories that would fill the hole in my stomach (I’m still asking myself why did I pick Rice Bubbles of all things?) and then followed that up with a brunch of a homemade Cornish Pasty from the bakery. Then we finally got to our camping/open fire cooking place and I had a little lamb chop (all fat removed) and a bit of steak, all grilled over the open campfire. So much crap today. Finished off nicely with a Margherita Pizza for dinner, which is the only thing I’ve eaten today low in calories.

While I know that I’ve eaten pretty badly, there is a part of me that just wants to buck the system and say “So what”? I still want to be able to enjoy life, and I want to be able to have a bit of a treat every now and then, and I want our time with Brodie to be special and to do fun things together. So if that involves having a bloody pasty, then hell, why shouldn’t I? Do I really want my whole life to be about counting calories? Please don’t get me wrong. I am still 100% committed to doing the 12WBT and following the principles I learn(ed) for the rest of my life, but in amongst that, there has to be a bit of give and take for times when we want to just let loose and live a little. Admittedly I might have to let the living happen in another ten weeks or so, but I think then, maybe one day every now and then is surely not going to kill me right?

So without further ado and more complaining, daily stats for the day (beware they’re pretty poor):

FoodCalories in
B1 cup Rice Bubbles and 1/2 cup milk170
S1 Cornish pasty500
L30g Lamb and 130g Beef – grilled296
DMargherita pizza with mushrooms350
Total1316

ExerciseCalories out

No exercise today0
BMR1837
Total1837
Calories surplus/defecit-521

12WBT day twelve – Quite sore tonight

Had a great day, quite high in the calorie intake, but struggling already with Brodie being here and having an extra (and young) person to cook for and making sure that she gets all her daily requirements, while still trying to stay within my calorie range. We had a really big bike ride planned for today – pretty much the same one we did last week, with maybe an extra km or two tacked on. So I made sure I had a good lunch with the carbs to give me the energy for the afternoon. But 20 minutes into the ride Brodie had enough, and wanted to turn around and go home. We managed to drag it out for another 20 minutes or so, but that was it. So when we got home, I had to do a good workout with Zumba. I managed to burn up just over 900 calories though so that was good. Feeling quite sore tonight, which is also a good thing.

Not looking forward to tomorrow however as we are heading out for a day trip and food is going to be a bit of an issue, so am going to have to work out how to handle that. So stats for today:

FoodCalories in
B1 wholemeal muffin with 1t margarine & 1t vegemite160
L2 muffins, with cream cheese, chicken and salad565
S1 strawberry Forme satisfy yoghurt85
DBeef with creamy mushroom sauce & spinach with sweet potato435
Total1245

ExerciseCalories out

46.39 Bike ride. Avg HR 137 (71%), Max HR 162 (87%)431
49.20 Zumba Cardio Party. Avg HR 145 (78%), Max HR 161 (87%)504
BMR1837
Total2772
Calories surplus/defecit-1527