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Days 47 & 48

Day 47: a busy Friday, devoid of much exercise but with a few more carbs and housework.

Left: wholemeal roll with peanut butter, salad leaves, edamame beans
Top right: pesto pasta with beans and walnuts
Bottom right: tofu and bean stir fry – I overestimated how much the brown rice would expand once I cooked it

Day 48: and a giant bee came into the kitchen while I was making meal 2 out of 3. It seemed to be in some distress, not flying around normally but buzzing about on the floor. I got a Tupperware container over it then a book under it, and PJ took it outside… somewhat astonished at just how huge it was when he lifted the container for it to fly away… maybe it was a Queen? Sorry, your majesty, if we were meant to give you some honey or something. I’m not that keen on bees – I mean I’m fine with them existing, I just don’t want them too near me. Bee lovers will be pleased to know that said bee flew up into the sky just fine upon release.

Left to right: DIY muesli and oranges, soya yogurt / teacake, apple, salad / tofu stir-fry

Edit: I checked pictures on the internet – Queen Bumble Bee: very unlikely to have done either of us a damage.

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Day 46

Day off! 3 mile walk this morning and a 2.8 mile walk this afternoon. A load of people in the park wondering why they were wearing coats and jackets because it’s so warm but keeping them on because it’s still March – including me. That amount of walking kind of took me most of my day off, and resulted in my right leg cramping up again, but it was worth it – I feel brilliant now, having had all that fresh air and endorphins. And it confirms the I idea I had that it’s perhaps that I don’t make enough time to exercise, rather than that I don’t like doing it. No beating self up though for not having made time every day yet – I walked 5 and a bit miles today; I’m a work in progress.

Today was a weigh day – 74.1kg which is just over half a kilo more than last week – I was warned, though, that it might start going up and down a bit. If my Gloji weight loss progress chart is going to start looking like a rollercoaster, then strap me in for the ride! 😄 
Can’t tell you what my waist measurement is because I don’t know where I put the tape measure. It is no longer in the sewing tin. Your suggestions as to what I might have done with it are welcome.

Top right: banana, pecans, amaranth, soya yogurt
Left: eggs and mayo, the rest of the tabbouleh, beans, pumpkin seeds, vegan cheese, celery, carrot, cucumber, tomatoes
Bottom right: a beautiful close up of the red onion, mushroom, and tarragon sauce I made to go with Quorn sausages, mash, and peas
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Day 45

The day of food made in an enormous hurry. At least I ate it all slowly! None of it was all that nice. I am not a huge fan of the chicken dipper – or indeed chicken in general; chicken is something that can be made bearable but the dipper doesn’t do that.

Day off tomorrow. Plan to do some nice things.
I also made PJ eat the last remaining lentil chips and… well, if you see my posting photos of them again, or mentioning them again, you are allowed to give me a stern look. I like them well enough, but they don’t seem to like me.

Bottom left: Leftovers of everything, on the premise that if I eat a lot at the start of the day, I’ll be less hungry later… which was incorrect
Right: An attempt at tomato soup with less time available than there should be for making soup. That’s basil and cashews you can see in there, not even chopped up.
Top left: Chicken dippers, because that’s what PJ was having. I made a salad to go with and had some ketchup and mayo, neither of which helped much.
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Day 44

I’ve had a nice day 😊 – at least it started being nice after I identified the reason I was being a bit random and not concentrating when on the phone to Wilma was that I hadn’t eaten breakfast. I had a breakfasty lunch (I’m working class, I’m not going to call it that other word), then something small a bit later on so I wouldn’t spoil my appetite for dinner. Result!

Did a different chairobics video today – noticed that some of the videos use weights and I own weights, so that might start happening further down the line. Also squeezed a walk in before it got dark, not too far this time. I went down the road to the shops that are a bit further away to source a bottle of Ginger Beer for PJ, and to pick up some veg for me. The shop I like to go to has a carousel of veg in the middle, it always looks so gorgeous and healthy. I think it’s a Nisa Local – they’re one of those independent shops that usually can be found near a Co-op, and which somehow manage to sell quite a lot of Co-op branded food.
*One quick read of the internet later* – Co-op bought out Nisa in 2018.

Left to right: bean and pasta pesto salad with an apple / banana and chocolate milkshake (soya milk, a banana, not much cocoa but it tasted amazing) / salmon stir fry with a load of veg and with brown rice noodles (which we buy from… the off licence!)

At dinner, PJ pointed out (again) that I eat a lot faster than he does. I’ll say “That was nice!” and he’ll say “It still is…” and he’ll show me that he’s eaten about a third of it in the time it took mine to completely disappear. Therefore, here is a message from our sponsors:

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Day 43

An hour of walking today, to the park, around the park, back from the park. Not a good foot pain day. Going to do either the Chairobics or the Pilates tomorrow, and a shorter walk.

Top right: apple, blueberries, amaranth, yogurt
Bottom left: Globe artichoke filled with chicken salad and mayo
Bottom right: I call this ‘Here is where I went wrong today’ because I felt crappy after
Top left: tin of soup with rocket and vegan camembert

Edited this post because it seemed a bit short and grumpy! I’ve actually had a really nice day. My walk around the park was lovely, if a bit limpy. I very much enjoyed globe artichoke for lunch – it took so long to make that I ended up practically throwing it at the plate to be able to eat it in time before I had a work call to make. Important lesson: eat some carbs at lunch then you might not buy lentil chips on the way back from the park.

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Day 42

Didn’t sleep too well last night – if there’s one thing I need to change it is definitely getting that regular exercise in… because it will help me to sleep better. Then, a thing I want to do at the same time is to drink more water!
I’m not really winning as much as I could be winning here. I knew that with being a bit busier, I’d need to work on taking breaks to move more, but I just don’t think I’ve achieved it this week.

The one win thus far is that I think eating more healthily is coming a lot more naturally now. I expect there is room for improvement, though. I’m looking forward to getting my cholesterol tested at the end of all the 12 weeks of this course, also my HbA1c levels and whatever else they do in a Health Check. If I still need to make improvements to my diet after that then I’m at least one person who doesn’t need to pause to think if I get asked ‘What are your eating habits like at the moment?’.

Top left: A fruity teacake – it was lovely, I ate it slowly so as to keep enjoying it
Right: We get these veggie burgers that allegedly have a lot of protein in, PJ likes them. We had one each with carrot, tomatoes, beans, vegan feta, potato salad, olives, celery, and spring onion
Bottom left: Crayfish, rocket, walnuts, tomatoes, vegan feta – this took a long time to eat because crayfish are really, really chewy
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Day 41

Ah, the drama of finding out ones supermarket delivery got cancelled by mistake. It is pretty amazing to live with such great technology that I can type things onto my screen and have that result in a human turning up at the front door with a couple of crates of food – so I shouldn’t be surprised if, occasionally, that system fails. We got our food in the end, and even if the list of food we were given was for Mrs So-and-So for her cancelled order (they also didn’t have her meatballs this week!), the actual food was what we’d asked for. We also got a tenner in vouchers for the hold up and an apology every 3 seconds from the person on the phone.

I haven’t exercised at all today, but I did have a very nice chat with someone I’ve met through work (not my Gloji mentor) about exercising. They recommended finding a specific time of the day to exercise and being consistent with that time, also starting with it being one thing at a time. 😊

Top left: oats, apple, raisins, almonds, soya yogurt
Bottom left: satay chicken, load of veg, wild rice
Right: oatcakes with humous, vegan camembert, few olives and tomatoes
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Day 40

Very busy day – thank goodness for it being the weekend tomorrow. I ate breakfast at lunchtime, lunch at dinnertime, some of PJ’s popchips during Family Zoom Quiz and then… what am I meant to do now? Do I eat or not? I’m still a bit hungry but it seems ridiculously late to eat proper dinner. Must get up a bit earlier if I have an early start (like I did today) and make sure that breakfast happens when it’s supposed to.

Evening update: I got tense towards the end of the day possibly because I hadn’t had time for much of a break… and then going for a quick walk wasn’t quite enough to get me feeling calmer. Possibly eating 4 squares of that 100% chocolate earlier (not pictured) was a few squares too many – I’m reading up that dark chocolate contains a caffeine-like stimulant, not so good for prone-to-anxiety people. Although this could be me being in a bit of a Princess & The Pea situation with it… I ate a bit of chocolate, it’s not like I did speed!

Calmness resumed after a bit once all work/social things were done for the night. Funny that!

Anticlockwise from top left: Berries, amaranth, soya yogurt / the rest of the split pea soup with some beans in and some salad, vegan feta, and almonds on top / can of soup / some of PJ’s popchips

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Day 39

Wilma came back from her holiday this week, just in time to warn me about fluctuations and plateaus that might happen with my weight at this point in my Gloji journey. A very condensed version of that accounts for my weird experience of trying to weigh myself this morning for weigh day – that or the scales are broken. Here’s what happened:
I get on the scales, they say 71.1kg, I think ‘no that doesn’t look accurate’ and I get off them and get on again… the scales now say 72.5kg, I think ‘I’m still not sure that’s right’ and I get off them and get on again…
The scales say 73.4kg, I get off them and on again, 73.4kg, and again, 73.4kg, and once more for luck… 73.4kg.
I’m not sure what I weigh but I hope it’s 73.4kg because that’s what I recorded on the Gloji site today.

An hour of walking right at the start of the day. It’s now just gone 11 and I’m multi-tasking, in a Zoom meeting right now. I need to go get food now though because I’ve got another meeting at 12.

Evening update: Learning all about emotional eating and mindless eating, of which I have often done the latter, but never really the former because I tend to lose my appetite if I’m upset. Useful Gloji video with some good suggestions. I’m allergic to mindfulness (explanation skipped; short version: trauma) but the hunger scale idea is useful. Eat when you’re hungry, not ravenous. Stop when you’re satisfied, not stuffed. Slow down. Enjoy!

Top left: Poached eggs on asparagus, strawberries and walnuts (I wanted to make a milkshake but my soya milk had gone icky)
Right: Scampi, salad leaves, olives, vegan cheese, walnuts, tomatoes, mayo
Bottom left: I finally made, and did not burn, the split peas to make into split pea soup – there’s carrots, onion, garlic, and a potato in it too. I was going to make garlic bread (to see if bread is nicer toasted!) but it ended up being bruschetta
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Day 38

Day 37 went AWOL due to me being very busy – only one of my meals got its photo taken, and exercise didn’t really get a look in. Today has been more manageable; advance warning though, tomorrow might not be.

Top left: Apple, walnuts, oatcakes, vegan cheese spread (it’s nice, it’s a bit like cottage cheese without the lumps) / Bottom left: Stuffed vine leaves (out of a can), walnuts, vegan feta, olives, carrots, humous, corn on the cob, tomatoes / Right: salmon and ravioli (arrabiata), broccoli, tomatoes, orange pepper, vegan feta, sweet chilli sauce