Another August Bank Holiday has come and gone, and yet another excuse to pig out and drink to high heaven all for the sake of a good time...... Or so you would have thought.
'Routine' was totally thrown out of the window with gay abandon, no CD, no (not so yet) friendly mirror, no consciously eating, no exercise and yes alcohol was involved every single day.
Sounds like I completely lost control of my senses doesn't it? And yet upon creeping onto those nasty scales hidden behind the TV just to 'check' the damage. Nothing. No change. They neither went up or down from the last time I hopped on. I'm still 6lbs down from starting weight!
How in the heck did I get away with it then!!? In order to see where it could have gone wrong, and didn't - Let's look at the evidence:
Saturday: Spent 4 hours doing garden things - mainly laying turf and digging flowers in my freshly dug boarder (looking fab!!). Had a chip butty for lunch (I don't think I have ever had a chip butty in my life, but just fancied one!). No butter on the bread, and the chips were dried cooked in the oven. After a nice relaxing soak in the bath, had a late dinner which consisted of a small minted lamb steak and roast potatoes (obviously craved the carbs that day), and a couple of glasses of whiskey and ginger ale
Sunday: Day at my mothers, who did the usual large array of food items for lunch - choice on the menu, marinated chicken, 2 lots of pork (medallions, and some flavoured variety), sausages (yes I know that's pork too!) potatoes, veg, etc etc. Before commencing the 'help yourself' buffet, I changed the size of my plate from the large dinner plate, to a large tea plate. I had 1 sausage, 1 pork thing and a spoonful of potatoes. My thinking was I'll have a small amount first, and if I was still hungry afterwards I'd go back for seconds. Had 1 glass of red wine with dinner, followed by about three glasses of water (not intentional, just after the wine and the pork just 'felt' like I needed water.
In the end, no I didn't have seconds. I didn't even feel like pudding either as I was full enough! For supper, again the usual buffet spread of cheese, ham, chicken, crisps, bread etc was offered. I chose a small bun first, cut a slice of cheese, then spilt that in half and put it on the bread (no butter). Also had a packet of crisps and a glass of red wine. When I finished the supper, I fancied some more, so had another small roll, but this time had a slice of ham cut into 2 and half the ham on each half of bread. Was quite full after that!!
Monday: second day of visiting, but this time other halfs side. Picked up his nan first, where we stopped for a cup of tea (1 sugar only, usually have 2), and a slice of batten burg. Made our way over to his mothers, dinner consisted of steamed carrots, green beans, potatoes, and 2 grilled pork. Ok, so I could have done without the 2nd piece of pork, but this is mother-in-laws for goodness sake! haven't quite worked out how to reduce portion sizes over there yet. Oh, and we had a small Gin & Tonic with dinner. For pudding, we had an oyster shell!! (oyster shell shaped wafer, end dipped in chocolate and coconut, inside was a little marsh mellow, you basically open it up, add a little ice cream, close it back up again and eat - a weekend full of firsts for me!).
For supper, mother-in-law also did a buffet 'help yourself' spread. Was a bit sneaky here, took 1 slice of bread, cut it into 4 slices so make essentially what was half a sandwich. Gave into temptation and had a another slice of bread and did the same thing. So what was that, basically a sandwich then! (again no butter). For pudding we had a Victoria sponge. Now I was again a little sneaky here, the way his dad managed to cut it meant there was one piece far smaller than the other three, so I grabbed that one up quick!
This may not make too much sense, but even though I had a devil may care attitude over my eating habits the pass few days, I was still unconsciously very much in control (so it would seem!!). I have navigated my way around this bank holiday and come out the other end victorious!!
Now I can get back on track (so to speak). Focus today is to get back on the treadmill, back in front of the mirror and back listening to the CD. According to the success journal I have a weigh in at the end of the week, and you know what, I know for a fact I'll be over that half a stone mark, that's just a foregone conclusion. What I'm interested in now is just how close to the stone mark I can make it? ooooooo exciting stuff!! :D
Showing posts with label serving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label serving. Show all posts
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Always read the label!
So it's lunchtime, and I had the usual pondering of 'what shall I have for lunch'. In the cupboard I spied a can of soup - yes that will do! That should be healthy enough. I thought I was having tomato soup, but it turned out to be mulligatawny when I actually opened the can - my fault entirely, should have read the label first.
As I was washing the can out to put into recycling, I noticed on the front it said 'low fat 105 calories per serving'. Well that can't be bad can it! For a very slight moment I began to feel quite proud of my lunch time choice. But then again, we are of course assuming that one can = one serving. Knowing that we all can be easily fooled if we are not careful with these things, I looked at the nutritional information on the back.
As it turns out, a 400g can of soup is not classed as 'one serving', in fact in the small print, it stated 100g = 57 calories. That's 228 calories per can. Still, as lunch goes, 228 is not a bad number at all, you would get about that in a slim fast shake or bar. So really, despite my 'misjudgement' I think I got away with it - just.
But think about it. How many times have you just 'grabbed' something on the run. I did this exercise with my mother a few months ago. We were in Basingstoke in between jobs when both were hungry, and decided to grab something at the local garage.
Now, we are both aware that we both need to lose weight (I more than she it must be pointed out), so we both think we have a pretty good handle on what goes into our mouths. I can't remember now exactly what we had, but it went along the lines of pre packed sandwich, crisps and a drink each. I had water, mother had a banana milkshake.
We started talking about diets, and she couldn't understand why she wasn't losing weight. On her part she 'only had' xyz and from her talking, I couldn't understand either.
Getting down to the nitty gritty, I asked her to see how many calories were in her crisps. I then got her to do the same with her sandwich and then her milkshake. Upon adding it all together her total lunchtime calorie consumption came to over 900 calories (I think mine came to about 700). To say she was shocked was an understatement. I then suggested to she thought about what she had for breakfast, what snacks she had really had through out the day so far, and what she was planning on having for dinner, and it was very obvious that her overall calorie in take for that day would be more than the 'recommended'.
She was, and still is I am afraid in what I refer to as 'Calorie Denial'. Even today when we embarked upon the same conversation, she maintains she is 'doing her best', but admitted to buying a Marks & Spencers cheesecake, to which she had two slices. What wasn't said, and I got from my sister later was that this 'pudding' buying was a habit, not a one off occurrence, and she had been buying similar things over the past couple of weeks.
So if you are trying to lose weight yourself, I cannot stress enough how important it is to be so aware of what, and how much, is going into your mouth. There is a real need to be honest with yourself as it's always the 'little' things that you have forgotten you have eaten that will add up to one big fat you. Once you start reading labels, and actually appreciating how much fat / sugar etc you are putting into your body, I am willing to bet, if you are serious about losing weight, you will automatically start to change your eating habits for the better.
As I was washing the can out to put into recycling, I noticed on the front it said 'low fat 105 calories per serving'. Well that can't be bad can it! For a very slight moment I began to feel quite proud of my lunch time choice. But then again, we are of course assuming that one can = one serving. Knowing that we all can be easily fooled if we are not careful with these things, I looked at the nutritional information on the back.
As it turns out, a 400g can of soup is not classed as 'one serving', in fact in the small print, it stated 100g = 57 calories. That's 228 calories per can. Still, as lunch goes, 228 is not a bad number at all, you would get about that in a slim fast shake or bar. So really, despite my 'misjudgement' I think I got away with it - just.
But think about it. How many times have you just 'grabbed' something on the run. I did this exercise with my mother a few months ago. We were in Basingstoke in between jobs when both were hungry, and decided to grab something at the local garage.
Now, we are both aware that we both need to lose weight (I more than she it must be pointed out), so we both think we have a pretty good handle on what goes into our mouths. I can't remember now exactly what we had, but it went along the lines of pre packed sandwich, crisps and a drink each. I had water, mother had a banana milkshake.
We started talking about diets, and she couldn't understand why she wasn't losing weight. On her part she 'only had' xyz and from her talking, I couldn't understand either.
Getting down to the nitty gritty, I asked her to see how many calories were in her crisps. I then got her to do the same with her sandwich and then her milkshake. Upon adding it all together her total lunchtime calorie consumption came to over 900 calories (I think mine came to about 700). To say she was shocked was an understatement. I then suggested to she thought about what she had for breakfast, what snacks she had really had through out the day so far, and what she was planning on having for dinner, and it was very obvious that her overall calorie in take for that day would be more than the 'recommended'.
She was, and still is I am afraid in what I refer to as 'Calorie Denial'. Even today when we embarked upon the same conversation, she maintains she is 'doing her best', but admitted to buying a Marks & Spencers cheesecake, to which she had two slices. What wasn't said, and I got from my sister later was that this 'pudding' buying was a habit, not a one off occurrence, and she had been buying similar things over the past couple of weeks.
So if you are trying to lose weight yourself, I cannot stress enough how important it is to be so aware of what, and how much, is going into your mouth. There is a real need to be honest with yourself as it's always the 'little' things that you have forgotten you have eaten that will add up to one big fat you. Once you start reading labels, and actually appreciating how much fat / sugar etc you are putting into your body, I am willing to bet, if you are serious about losing weight, you will automatically start to change your eating habits for the better.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)