TAKE 3 – DAY 010

 

Half a kilo down.  75.9kg.  Still not great, people.  And the scary thing is that we’re going on holiday in two days.  To start a holiday at this heaviness is not a good thing. I’m not exactly renowned for my moderation on vacay.  But hey, hopefully we’ll be doing lots of walking so at the very least I won’t put on TOO much more weight. Fuck!

BREAKFAST (13.83g):  Half a juice with avo, cuc, spinach and almonds.  Two espressos.  I’ve decided I will only do this juicing thing for brekky when I’m working a morning shift from now on.  The other days I will go back to eating eggs because they’re quite low carb.

MORNING SNACK (6.2g):  Two boiled eggs, some coconut yoghurt and four cups of filter coffee with a splash of milk.  Yep, four!!!!

LUNCH (13g):  Salad with roast pumpkin and beetroot, goats cheese, sunflower seeds, chickpeas and spinach.

DINNER (11.5g): Pan-fried chicken with broccoli and garlic sauce.

ALCOHOL (19.13g):  Half a bottle of white wine and a couple of glasses of rosé. Yes, I am incorrigible.

TOTAL CARBS: 63.83g

EXERCISE: Well, look.  I ran up and down the stairs all day at work today. Apparently I climbed 17 floors, so while that hardly constitutes exercise, at least I wasn’t a fucking couch potato, ermkay!!!!

TAKE 3 – DAY 009

Erm… 77.4kg.

OK, moving on.  Today’s carb count was a lot more respectable than the last couple of days.  Gotta keep the carbs away.

BREAKFAST (11.9g):  Half a juice with avo, cuc, spinach and almonds.  Two espressos.

MORNING SNACK (1.3g):  A boiled egg and a milky coffee and an espresso.

LUNCH (13g):  Salad with roast pumpkin and beetroot, goats cheese, sunflower seeds, chickpeas and spinach.

DINNER (5.45g): Lamb chops and rocket salad.

TOTAL CARBS: 31.65g

EXERCISE: Nope.  Very busy day.  That’s my excuse.  I know it’s a crap one, but there you go.

TAKE 3 – DAY 008

Blowout!

TAKE 3 – DAY 007

Blowout

TAKE 3 – DAY 006

I’ve crept up to 75.2kg today.  So I had alcohol last night.  Did I neglect to write that down?  Well, I still counted the wine carbs OK.  Oh, and did you know that whiskey doesn’t have any carbs at all.  Good to know, right?  Well, perhaps not.  Whiskey is nice, but I don’t feel nice the day after I’ve drunk it.  I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of booze I drink generally and mostly I’m doing OK, but sometimes I slide.  Last night, I slid.  But I still didn’t blow out the diet and that’s good.  Two hundred grams ain’t that bad, and hopefully tomorrow I’ll continue tracking down the scales.  Stand by for further developments.

BREAKFAST: (11.96g):  Half  juice with half an avo, cucumber, spinach, coco milk and I’ve popped in 1/4 cup of almonds.  I shared this with hubby so it’s not too bad.

MORNING SNACK (0.0g):  Two espressos.

LUNCH (8.6g):  A colleague of mine gave me some lovely smoked salmon that is cured without sugar, which is quite rare.  I decided to make scrambled eggs with it, keeping it simple and cooking it in butter with spring onions and a little sour cream. Classic, and delicious.

AFTERNOON SNACK (3.0g):  100g of coconut yoghurt.

DINNER (24.55g): White bean salad with tomatoes, Spanish onion, olives, parsley and chorizo served with oven grilled lamb chops.  Delicious.  Oh yeah, and half a bottle of chardonnay.  Not too carby friends.

White bean salad with chorizo

DESSERT (17g):  One frozen banana, whipped in a food processor.  Very carby, but not as carby as ice-cream.  And zero-carb whiskey.  But not as much as last night. Coz I’m in charge here today!

Look at this business!!  Can you believe this is banana and ONLY banana.  Ain’t nothing else in there but air, friends!!  And 17g of carbs, sure.  But apart from that, NOTHING BUT AIR!!!!

TOTAL CARBS: 73.36g

EXERCISE: No.  Stop hassling me.

TAKE 3 – DAY 005

Scales: 75.0kg.  Thank fuck for that.  But like I said, this is not the time to get complacent.  75kg used to be my trigger point for reigning it in.  I don’t want to settle at this weight.  It has to be my maximum.  And then ideally, I want to set my maximum even lower.

Alright, today’s meals are a bit topsy turvy because I worked a night shift last night, woke up late, had half a juice and then went out for lunch because I promised a colleague that we would try their new sushi restaurant.

Seeing how high the carb count is today, I’ll be very interested to see what the scales say tomorrow.  I still feel like I’m not totes out of control, but I’m not exactly in control either.

MORNING SNACK (7.8g):  Two espressos and half a NutriBullet juice with spinach, avo, cucumber and coconut milk.

LUNCH (25.5g):  Samurai sushi.  We didn’t eat a lot but we had some prawn dumplings, some sashimi and a California roll.

DINNER (68.85g): Spinach and ricotta gnudi.  I HAD to practice this again before our dinner party and it’s high in carbs and thank fuck I did because I’m not sure it’s going to work.  Blow out, but at least I didn’t have Cheetos or Magnum ice-cream.

TOTAL CARBS: 102.15g

EXERCISE: Oh shit.  Nothing.  Again.  😦

 

TAKE 3 – DAY 004

75.8kg.  Better.  Still not good enough, though.  Gotta keep on track. Stay the course.  It’s just too easy for me to start losing a little weight and then get comfy with that and ease off.  But I seriously can’t afford to do that this time because of how high the scales have gone.  I hate being this heavy.  Hate it.  So…. gotta keep on track.  Stay the course.

MORNING SNACK (0.0g):  Two espressos.

LUNCH (20.59g):  I worked last night again so no brekky for me as I was sleeping it off.  Lunch was my regular juice with 1/2 avocado and the last of the strawbs.  I realised that without the almonds the juice is nowhere near as filling which is a problem.  Double the avocado = more carbs.  Oh well.

AFTERNOON SNACK (3.5g):  A hunk of cheese and some coconut yoghurt.  I love this yoghurt.  It’s super thick and creamy and very tasty and has only 3g carbs per 100g of yoghurt which is fantastic.

DINNER (9.63g):  Pan fried tuna with rocket salad dressed with olive oil and lemon juice.  Simple, yummy and low carbohydrate.  Oh yeah, and garlic sauce.  LOL! Cannot help myself.

MIDNIGHT SNACK (6.2g):  Same once again.  Two boiled eggs during my night shift. Two cups of herbal tea with a tiny bit of honey each.  A milky coffee and an espresso.

TOTAL CARBS: 39.92g

EXERCISE:  Well, I fucken lied didn’t I?!  I just can’t muster up the energy to exercise when I’m on three night shifts in a row.  I just can’t.  I got out of bed today, totally prepared to do them and I thought to myself, “I’m so shattered that I’ll just injure myself”.  So let’s call it making the right decision, OK?!  Sometimes you have to know when to say no.  I’ll get back into it.

TAKE 3 – DAY 003

The scales say 76.2kg.  I can’t exactly say I’m happy about that figure (I’m actually horrified), but I am happy about dropping 0.8kg since starting Take 3, and being 1.4kg lighter than a few days before.

MORNING SNACK (0.0g):  Two espressos.

LUNCH (17.64g):  I worked a night shift last night so I slept through breakfast.  For lunch I made my juice without almonds, but with strawberries and 3/4 cup of coconut milk instead of 1/2 cup.  I miss the almonds but it definitely reduces my carb count to leave them out.  Once I finish all the strawberries in the fridge I’ll have to make my way through the half watermelon in there (waste not, want not, bitches!). But once that’s gone, I’ll just go back to my regular spinach, avocado, cucumber concoction and then I might be able to reintroduce the almonds, though much fewer of them.

AFTERNOON SNACK (3.53g):  A big slice of cheese and some coconut yoghurt.  Yum!

DINNER (11.5g): Pan fried chicken breast seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and shichi-mi tōgarashi which is a very delicious Japanese seven spice powder.  YUM! Served with sautéed broccoli and garlic cream.  I’m not sure how many carbs the garlic cream has but I’ll estimate it around 5g.

MIDNIGHT SNACK (6.2g): Same as last night.  Two boiled eggs during my night shift.  Two cups of herbal tea with honey, though less honey than last night.  A milky coffee and an espresso.

TOTAL CARBS: 38.87g

EXERCISE:  Nothing today.  I’m sore from the last couple of days and I’m tired from my night shift, but I will do my knee exercises tomorrow.  Promise.

TAKE 3 – DAY 002

So it would seem that my biggest carbohydrate culprits right out of the box are the avocado, almonds and those wholewheat crackers.  I can easily halve the amount of avocado I eat per day from one whole avo to a half avo.  And I guess I’ll have to quit the cracker lunch and find something else to eat.  I used to do chicken salad and I can probably do that again but it’s such a fucken hassle to cook the chicken every couple of days.  But hey, what price health and weight loss, eh?

BREAKFAST (25.45g):  So I halved the amount of avocado in today’s juice and added some strawberries (just because they are sitting there in the fridge and I don’t want them going to waste).  Add the spinach, cucumber, almonds and coconut milk and the total is 25.45g which is actually more than yesterday.  For fuck’s sake.  The almonds are definitely killing me here.  I’ll have to drastically reduce the amount I eat.  Lesson learned.

MORNING SNACK (0.0g):  Three espressos.

LUNCH (4g):  Well, not exactly the healthiest of lunches but low carb so that makes me happy.  I had a big old hunk o’ cheese and some coconut yoghurt.

DINNER (35.0g): Spinach gnudi.  Now, I wouldn’t normally be cooking pasta when I’m avoiding carbs, but I just found out today that we’ll be cooking dinner for some friends in a couple of days (Warning! Warning! Blowout ahead!) and I want to practice these before the party.  So, I’m looking at some ricotta, flour (eeek!), Parmesan, lemon zest, egg, frozen spinach, mint and a dusting of semolina.  I boiled them first and then fried them in butter (Dr. Atkins would approve).  Delicious.

MIDNIGHT SNACK (9.95g): Two boiled eggs during my night shift.  Two cups of herbal tea with honey.  A milky coffee and an espresso.  Gotsta stay awake kids! The honey is what’s making this such a carby snack.  Each teaspoon has 4g.  Gah!  But herbal tea. And honey.  They go together.  I’ll stick with it for now and reassess if I have to.

TOTAL CARBS: 74.4g

EXERCISE:  My knee exercises which took me about 20 minutes and got my heart rate up to 140 BPM.

LOL.  So even after cutting out the wheat crackers and half an avocado I only ended up with 0.5g fewer carbs than yesterday.  I find that hilarious.  It’s helpful to count carbs in this way though and see exactly why I’ve been putting on weight.  I mean, this is me being good and it’s still shitloads of carbs.  The bastards are in everything.

TAKE 3 – DAY 001

You thought you’d got rid of me, hey?  Well, I’ve been here, waiting in the background, eating and drinking as though I’d been born with a healthy metabolism.  But guess what?  I was born with a fucking sluggish metabolism and it’s finally caught up with me.  To the point where I am desperate enough to think that writing this blog will help get me (and hey, ever the eternal optimist, keep me) on track.

So…..

…. I weighed in at 77.0kg today.  Yesterday was 77.5kg.  I don’t like weighing this much.  I feel like shit, I look like shit.  Time to reign it in.  I have actually been bingeing on food and alcohol so I need to stop eating crap, and start eating less.  I’ve had success before (though have I, really, had success before?) with Atkins, which as we all know limits carbs, and another diet called TLC which for me was about portion sizes.  I feel very comfortable with Atkins, even though I haven’t done it properly in years, so I’ll probably stick to that kind of a diet but also at the same time watching how much I’m actually eating.  I’d like to lose 10kg.

So kids, here we go.  Back on the fucken rollercoaster!

BREAKFAST (24.6g):  I’ve taken to juicing using a Nutribullet and I love it.  I juice together a cup of spinach (1.1g), half an avocado (10g), about 85g cucumber (3g), 1/4 cup of almonds (8g), 1/2 cup of coconut milk (2.5g) and water.  It’s delicious and filling.  But I just realised, writing down the carb values of all these ingredients that there are just too many damn carbs in there.  I’ll adjust accordingly.

MORNING SNACK (0.0g):  Two espressos.  Thankfully, carbohydrate free.

LUNCH (29.1g):  CACTAC at work as I am working an afternoon shift.  CACTAC comprises half an avocado (10g), two slices of tomato (1.5g), 85g cucumber (3g), 50g mozzarella cheese (1.6g) and four ProVita wholewheat crackers (13g).  Again, quite a few carbs if you’re counting them.  This was the lunch I ate on the TLC diet, but I may need to kick it to the kerb if I lean more towards Atkins.  It’s complicated.

AFTERNOON SNACK (7.0g):  Three milky coffees and a cup of tea with milk and honey.  I know, I know.  I’ve calculated that for each of my hot drinks I’m having about a tablespoon of milk which, according to the internet contains 0.75g carbs per tablespoon.  The honey I’ve calculated at 4g carbs.

DINNER (14.2g):  Dinner is at work.  I’ve bought a salad from the supermarket by a company called Appetite.  They are healthy and yummy though I’m not sure I’ll continue eating them.  The particular salad that I ate tonight has 13g carbs which isn’t awesome, but isn’t bad either.  If I do Atkins properly, I’ll have to stop eating them.  If I’m happy just reducing the amount of carbohydrates I’m eating, then I might be able to keep them.  The convenience factor is through the fucking roof.  The salad is made of roasted pumpkin, beetroot, goat’s cheese, chickpeas, rocket, walnuts, sunflower seeds and dressing.  Today I added two boiled eggs.  Pretty tasty.  And vegetarian too, which is nice.

TOTAL CARBS: 74.9g

EXERCISE:  I am not exercising at the moment which sucks.  Today I started doing my knee exercises again.  I tore some ligaments skiing at the start of the year and was doing some pretty intense physio to rehab it but then I stopped a couple of months ago.  I’ve decided to start doing them again with the intention of doing them every day.  I’ve also just signed up for a 25 class yoga package so I’m committed to getting involved with that too.  I actually miss cardio but it’s too hot to do it outside right now (45C anyone?) and we’re in a dispute with our gym so no cardio for me for a bit.  I’m looking forward to figuring it out though.  I miss the way it makes me feel strong and fit.