Weekend away

This weekend we left the kids with my Mum and went away to a hotel. I knew this would be a big test of my reformed eating, and I failed with flying colours. In the end I decided to not worry about it as I had the sense I was just going to ruin the weekend without achieving anything if I did. So I decided to settle for using it as a learning experience.

What have I learned? A few things.

1. Hotel breakfast buffets and newspapers are a dangerous combination. The buffet encourages too much food on the plate, the paper stops me eating conciously. Reading the paper is part of the pleasure of being away – with young children and a busy work life I never get to do it at home. So my lesson is that I have to recognise I probably won’t eat as conciously as I should, and therefore concentrate on what goes on the plate in the first place. This is the reverse to my usual aim, which is not to worry about what goes on the plate as I try to eat conciously and stop when no longer hungry.

2. Drinking makes me eat more. Hardly a revelation I guess, but worth reminding myself of this one.

3. I’m not sure I really enjoy drinking all that much any more, beyond a glass or two of wine with a meal. Maybe I should knock it on the head, I don’t think I’d miss it much.

4. Set menus in chinese restaurants – probably most restaurants – result in a ridiculously large amount of food being served. I was full enough to stop after the starters, but ploughed on through two more courses because I didn’t want to ruin the night by being a misery.

5. Despite anticipating it and telling myself not to in advance, I still grazed the danish pastries while at the breakfast  buffet filling my plate. Pathetic. Must do much better.

6. England may actually be worse at cricket than I am at eating sensibly.

Making headway

Today was good. I’m fairly sure my staple breakfast is key to everything. When I have a good start the rest of the day falls into place more. Today I had three light meals, did allow myself a slice of cake after one and a mini ice cream after dinner, but haven’t eaten anything at all between meals. Had a walk to the local town and back too, and for the first time I actually strode back up the hill to my house with some purpose. I attacked it. It’s no longer a challenge simply to put one foot in front of the other and make it to the top, I’ve moved on a stage. I’ve taken an important step towards my fitness challenge, and it feels really good.

I also weighed myself  for the first time this year. I wasn’t planning on doing this but I needed some confirmation of my progress after a couple of not so great days. I’ve lost about 15lbs since mid December, probably almost all this month. My bad breath problem seems to be under control too, don’t know if it’s the mouthwash or whether it’s just cleared up by itself.

I have another hypnotherapy session tomorrow, which I’m looking forward to. It’s not midnight yet and I’m leaving my tax return and all the other stuff I should have done by now and prioritising looking after myself. I’ll get the return done online tomorrow with any luck, and if I don’t I’ll just pay the fine.  Sorting my health out is more important, so I’m going to bed, not a little elated. Life is good.

Re-invigorating lifestyle changes

I think one of the biggest challenges anyone trying to lose weight or make other changes in their life faces is when, after an initial positive change, they start to drift back to their old ways and have to give the change a kick start. I’m at that point now. The last few days I’ve been getting progressively worse and am not following my new rules. Yesterday was a mess, only had one proper meal but grazed most of the afternoon on biscuits and odd sandwiches, whether hungry or not. I also failed to deliver on other initiatives I had planned – in particular I hardly left my desk all day apart from to get food, when the plan was to take regular breaks and walk round the garden or something.

Why?

The only explanation I have is bad habits. I had no strong cravings, I didn’t get into a battle of wills, I just lost focus and drifted back to my old ways. It is almost like a computer being re-booted, except slowly over a few days. The new lifestyle habits are evidently still only stored in my RAM, and the old habits are firmly etched on my hard drive. I need to find a way to delete them and “save” my new life. Possibly literally.

It’s frustrating to keep taking two steps forward and one back, but perhaps I need to focus on less things at once until I can make them habits.  I’ve been going to bed much too late, and some days this has impacted in the mornings in that I’ve had breakfast too late, or not at all. That’s not good.

Today I managed my stable porridge breakfast, so the day has already started better. I’m now going to mostly try and do the following

– take a break from my desk every 60-90 mins and go outside for 5 mins

– drink water if I’m tempted to eat between means, and if that doesn’t stop the urge, ask myself out loud if I am hungry, and if so whether what I’m about to eat is the best solution.

– go to bed before midnight

I’ve also become rather lax at listening to my hypnotherapy MP3, which I’m supposed to do at least twice a week. I’ll do that on my next break.

I’ve discovered Porridge!

Ok, not “discovered” in the sense that Fleming discovered penicillin, I do know it’s been around for a while. My Dad used to eat it now and again when I was a kid and it just looked like sludge to me. Tasted it once, hated it, and never tried again for probably 35 years or so.

However, porridge, I have learned in recent research, is made of complex carbohydrates which release their energy slowly and steadily. I’ve also discovered that most breakfast cereals, even those you wouldn’t think of as sweet like cornflakes, are around 30% sugar, and contain more calories per 100g than some brands of chocolate.   And with just a little something for flavour and sweetness, it really doesn’t taste too bad. I wouldn’t eat it for entertainment, but that’s not what breakfast is about, I’m either late for work or supervising children.

So I now have a new staple breakfast – porridge made with skimmed milk, with fruit of some description on top (this week it will be blueberries, which were half price), and a small glass of fresh orange. I plan to vary this by cooking the odd poached egg and maybe  a mini-English once in a while, when I’ve got time – but that isn’t likely to be on weekdays. I’m indulging myself by squeezing real oranges – they are so much nicer than the stuff out of cartons. And because they are expensive, and time consuming, I am drinking a small wine glass full  (2 large oranges) instead of the half pint or so I’d have out of a carton. I’m even enjoying this, and damn, I feel righteous. It works too, this slow release stuff, stops me getting hungry again for hours.  If I eat cornflakes for breakfast then get a train to work I usually want to buy something like a McMuffin or bacon roll at the station when I arrive.  A bowl of porridge sees me through to lunch no problem.