Sunday, December 18, 2011

Final stretch

Final step on the way to cheat day turned into a hurdle when we got invited out for pizza. In the new regime, I'm not knocking any opportunity like this, and happily took part, but it's not going to help any weight loss. Like a trooper, I still went through a normal cheat day though! I didn't lose any weight this week, nor did I put any on though. I actually was feeling a little slim late last week, but saw no actual loss. Saturday was a decent cheat day, but even cheat days I'm enjoying meat and veggie dishes now. I had 3 solid meals, plus the usual suspects of cheat food and beer. Sunday was going well, but we went out to carols, and I had some chocolate and beer. So far today looks like a better day, but will also have someone over for dinner, so I don't like my chances of having a sober Monday. But I really need to pull it back, as I had too much alcohol again on the weekend, and really need a quiet week in that area. Have decent meals planned this week, and some leftover roast meat, so should have a good chance at dieting well this week, then Christmas!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Hard week back

I'd hardly call this week a success. It must be the worst time of year to try anything around a diet, but especially now our kids are getting older, Christmas is a constant mess of party's and celebrations of some sort. Every night this last 2 weeks has been flat out either at home or out somewhere, and that won't change until around the 2nd week of January from what I can tell.

Breakfasts have been solid. I think this is a constant for me now, the morning routine is a solid one that I could continue for a long time I think. Lunch has also been pretty decent, except for one bought Chinese lunch, where I still threw out half the rice. Dinner has been mostly good, but the 2 nights out I had sausage rolls, and a couple of snacky thihngs, and home made burritos (not that nice either) and ham. Probably the worst I've had some snacks almost every day. Not heaps, mainly crackers, with some peanut butter, once cheese. Plus the snack food on Tuesday night when out, not 100% good this week. Still I'm happy to be doing the breakfast, and so far today looks like it will be quite solid. I guess tomorrow is a cheat day. I'll probably treat it like that, but I have to closely monitor the results of when I have a medium week like this and do the cheat day, because it may mean I start putting on weight. Either way I want to get back proper routine as soon as the silly season passes. Next week also might be a solid week, as we aren't going out as far as I can tell all week, and Christmas isn't until after cheat day next week. I'll aim for a solid week anyway.

Drinking is the biggest fail. Even after going out at night, not drinking out, I still managed 4 drinks (inc 2 generous bourbons) both those nights, and last night had 1.5 wines with dinner, 3 beers and 2 bourbons, which is way too much for a school night. Chrismtas and late Jan holidays will be tough for me to control too much, so I really want a solid week next week to give me a good start to Christmas. I'm aiming to be drink free early in the week, and 2 reds until Thursday night, the main point being not having the 3rd drink as that is always the turning point from controlled to out of control.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Cheat week.

It's obviously not part of any diet to cheat for a whole week, but I did that, plus a couple of days. The idea was really cheat long weekend, it's just the weekend never ended for the diet. Friend arrived from Perth, and we went out a few times over the weekend, so I wasn't looking to keep to my diet. By Monday I was supposed to have recovered though, but felt a little under the weather. Even a bad Monday wouldn't write off the rest of the week, only I didn't spend any time preparing anything Monday, and had the busiest week I've had in a long time, so all the sudden I'm eating toast and cereal for breakfast, rices and pastas for dinner, and snacked out a few times too. Probably as bad a week as it gets for me when you add in what we had over the weekend.

But my body is hurting. I'm not doubled over in pain, it's more subtle than that. More like my body is saying "why are you doing this to me?" Yep, I'm craving going back on the diet!!! And that is why this is so effective. Once the wife breaks her diet, it's goodbye for 3 months until she feels so guilty she has to start another diet. And it's always a new diet, that is usually taking the wrong approach. Her previous one she tried was pretty close to mine, but the promise of any sort of sweet food was many months away. That's a warrior that can last that long without a little cheat food, especially to people addicted to eating junk food. She, like probably 99% of people that try that, failed to keep going.

But in my case, I'm cheating again on Saturday, and probably won't have a perfect week before then either. My new start won't be the strictest, because I don't really have to lose much weight. The reason for the diet then, is because I trully believe things like bread, cereal, pasta and rice aren't quality foods to be filling up on, and in fact I think they promote snacks. But you need to ensure you get enough good food into you, and after losing those other foods I just mentioned, I may as well add in some 4 hour body foods and stick to the diet.

I heard another fanatical person talk about diet tips the other day, and again I agreed with some of what she said. She said just do the breakfast she advises, and already you will be way better off. That's how I started this diet, just breakfasts, because I wanted to shed cereal and toast as my breakfasts. It took 1.5 days until I was fully on the diet, because I loved how the good breakfast made me feel in the morning. so the breakfast is a strict diet meal for me still. I think after a big healthy breakfast, the rest of the day will usually be 4 hour diet, but if a meal comes up that isn't strict, I won't go way out of my way to avoid.

So I start again. I weighed myself right after my first diet breakfast Monday at about 101.5 kgs. I kind of expected 103 or something even more drastic after a long week of crap, but it doesn't suprise me heaps that I only went up that much. I guess I'm hoping to get that down to 100 kgs again by year end, but I'm not massively worried about that. What I really want is to keep to my diet through the holiday period, which is the toughest, with things booked nightly almost right through to Christmas (that's insanity for me), including our family hosting a decent sized Christmas. My first day back on was fine, normal breakfast, leftover roast and veggies lunch, and bolognese on cabbage (awesome replacement for pasta in a bolognese dish) with veggies. Had 2 reds, which is OK. Today will be tougher as I'm having a cheat meal at lunch with work, but will try to maximise the good foods for that anyway. The week is up and down from there with kids Christmas nights for the next 3 nights, but I'm hoping to sneak in some good meals before going out to those.

Wish me luck.