Lose Weight and Gain Health

One of many things I am not eating at the moment is bread.  I wanted scrambled eggs today so what could I put them on if I couldn’t have toast?

Ta daa.  Sliced tomatoes. Breakfast doesn’t get much simpler than that!

149 calories. I had lunch in our local pub and restaurant – The Milkhouse.  I met Tanya and we had a chance for a good catch up.  I declined wine as I had a lot of work to do and had a coffee instead.  They do make good strong coffee. I went for one course and had steak.  It was served with Bearnaise sauce, big fat chips, sliced runner beans and a large mushroom.  I only ate the lean meat and about half the chips and Bearnaise sauce.  The beans were delicious and perfectly cooked.  I wished there had been a much bigger serving of the beans.  I am used to eating loads of veggies with a meal, rather then having them as a garnish.

The food was fine.  The steak was a little over cooked for my liking but the flavour was really good.  The company was excellent and I enjoyed sitting in the sunshine.

Hard to be certain but I think this meal had 902 calories.  

This evening I caught up on Facebook and was very sad to see this desperate news clip of a farmer battling to save his animals from flooded land in Somerset.

http://www.itv.com/news/west/update/2014-02-06/a-traumatic-day-for-farmer-james-winslade/

Most of the news stories about the flooding we have been enduring here in England, in some areas since Christmas, have focused on loss of property or who is to blame.  This story is about a farmer, whose land and animal feed is flooded and and as the flood water rises, his animals became threatened.  It is heart breaking to see.  But so good to be reminded about the struggles so many farmers face to produce the food we take for granted we can just stroll down the road and eat.  So I thought about that steak I enjoyed for lunch, which I could eat, thanks to farmers such as James Winslade.  I hope his business and all his animals survive.

I had an easy supper.  There was a portion of the quinoa and aduki beans with roasted vegetables in the fridge so I heated that up. 

433 calories.

Total daily calories are 1,516 so over my target but by no means a disaster.  Many people diet very successfully by sticking to 1,500 calories and as my upper level, I am not upset by having gone up to it.

When you are following a restrictive diet, as I am, you need to know what ingredients are in the food you eat.  When you buy food from a shop such as a supermarket, most ingredients have to be listed on the packet.  But when you eat in a restaurant, cafe or other food outlet, it can be really hard to find out.

One solution is to always prepare your own food but that is not always practical.   I did make breakfast to take to work today though.

Overnight oats.  40 g oats put in a pot with 200ml almond milk and 10 g chia seeds, mixed together and left in the fridge overnight.  When I was ready to eat it, I mashed in a banana. Yummy.  This is such an easy breakfast to prepare.

343 calories. Another solution to knowing what is in your food is to only eat in places that tell you.  Such as Leon.  Have a look at the nutrition data they provide here.  It is fantastic.  You can click on the meal to see a more detailed breakdown and they list ALL ingredients.  I wish it was mandatory for all food chains to do this.

I had a chicken noodle soup which was delicious and only 99 calories. Followed by a Chicken Superfood salad.  It was a shame I hadn’t checked the nutrition data in advance as I would have had this without the dressing which contains dairy.  However, I didn’t know when I ordered it and so I ate it and enjoyed it all. Chicken, quinoa, various green leaves, broccoli, tomatoes and seeds.  Quite excellent.

435 calories. I was too tired tonight to want to cook so I just had some nuts and grapes.  50 g mixed nuts and a large handful of grapes.

396 calories.

I managed to walk for half an hour today, which was a good effort considering the poor weather at lunch time.

Another day within calories and a newly discovered source of healthy foods.  I will read the nutrition data in advance next time though.

Sometimes meals do not turn out how we plan them.  To have three mishaps in a row is definitely unlucky!

Breakfast.  Looked good.  Blackberries and a banana blended with some almond milk

poured over oats and chia seeds.  By the time I had taken it to work it was a lovely consistency and flavour.  Such a shame the plastic under the blackberries had been put in the blender without me noticing and been blended so had to be extracted while I ate!

393 calories. I still felt hungry after breakfast so I popped out for a large tea and was told the soya milk in Starbucks had no added sugar.  It tasted sweet though and when I looked it up on-line, it does have sugar added.  I was really annoyed but at least now I know and won’t be going back.

I didn’t have time today for a walk and barely had time to pop to a local shop – Tossed.  I was too hungry to go for a salad and instead chose a Thai green chicken curry.  Unfortunately they gave me a ‘Hot Greek with Chicken’.  This tasted ok and was on a par calorie wise with the Thai curry I fancied but it had some haloumi on it and pesto, both of which are the forbidden dairy! So far today I have consumed sugar and dairy and had no time to exercise so I needed to do better for dinner.

545 calories. I had very few calories left over for supper so I made the Cauli-Power Alfredo sauce to serve with spinach and mushrooms.  I made a mistake though and used a food processor instead of the Vita Mix to blend it.  Instead of the lovely creamy and rich consistency I had enjoyed before, it was just finely chopped and ordinary.  Edible though and low calorie.

247 calories. I have done ok with calories today.  I went to weigh in feeling rather anxious.  Partly due to the excessive eating at the weekend but also because the 6 pound weight loss last week worried me.  It seemed too much and I was expecting an adjustment.

I gained 3 pounds.  So I was disappointed but I am sure it will soon be lost; I am feeling as determined as ever.

I liked this card I was given today 🙂

Tomorrow I am going to cook all my own meals so should manage to do better.

After a busy weekend I was too tired on Sunday evening to prepare food to take to work.  I resisted the temptation to grab an unhealthy breakfast and instead survived on black tea and coffee until lunch time when I walked a mile to the nearest pod to my office.  I wanted to go to pod because they tell you the calories in each meal and the nutrition breakdown.  The information they don’t provide though was if the food contains sugar.  However, 10/10 for pod.  I emailed one of their email addresses and my query was answered really quickly.  They are in the process of adding sugar to their nutritional profiles but the very helpful lady who answered my questions told me how much sugar was in the food I had eaten – very little 🙂

I went to the pod in More Place which is near London Bridge. From More Place you have a rather lovely view. This is City Hall, where the London Assembly and the Mayor of London have their offices.  City Hall is close to Tower Bridge. Which is next to the Tower of London. A little bit further West along the North side of the river is The City. Having not eaten any breakfast, I had 2 things for lunch.  The chicken Nori wrap which amazingly only had 187 calories, which seemed too low to me but I double checked with the man behind the counter who assured me that was correct! I really liked this.  It was absolutely delicious and I will be having this again. I also had a protein box which had smoked salmon mixed with dill and horseradish, boiled egg, ham and chicken with some chilli and sesame seeds.

342 calories. Lunch was good and kept me feeling full all afternoon.  At home I chopped up all these vegetables. Which I stir fried in coconut oil with 100g roast pork left over from yesterday’s lunch.

631 calories.

Plus soya milk in three cups of tea and my daily total was 1,230 calories.  I earnt 246 calories by walking 2 miles in 40 minutes  so ended the day within my allowance.  I am pleased about that as I was worried that my weekend of eating bad foods would have tipped me back in to the land of unhealthy eating.  Luckily not.