Thread: xX The Maintenance Diary of Emma-Jayne Xx Thin for Life! xX

Thank you! I think you're right about the waiting too long. Every meal fills me up, my porridge leaves me comfortably bloated in the mornings and I can't always eat it all. My lunch satisfies me, as do my dinners! So I think maybe it is too long. Unfortunately that's the timetable of my day. Breakfast about 8, fruit at 10:30, lunch at 12:30ish and then dinner about 6:30-7:30. The afternoons are sooooo long, no wonder I need a snack I guess. I sometimes have another peice of fruit about 3:30 if I have time. I'm going to play around with it a bit and maybe swap the fruit at 10:30 for a bigger snack at 3/4ish.

Sorry I'm really rambling! Off to the gym. Xx

Enjoy the gym.

Yes maybe introduce a snack of fruit in the afternoon, or a couple of brazil nuts, or a hard boiled egg or something, just a bit of protein might just tide you over till meal times.

All trial and error hun, you will tweak it to fit your lifestyle.

Hope you enjoy/ed the gym

I was going to suggest a boiled egg too ... it's all trial and error as Mary says.

I know exactly what you mean about the feeling of wanting to eat and eat and eat and I'm sorry to tell you that if you're feeling that now it WILL eventually happen. When it does though, you must remember that it's not the beginning of the end - it's just the end of the beginning.

Maintaining is a life-long effort. Sometimes we do better than others. Sometimes we can be great, be perfect, and sometimes nothing will satisfy us and we end up eating for England (or wherever). At those eating times we have to remember that nothing is permanent, nothing lasts forever, it WILL come to an end and you WILL be able to sort out the consequences of it.

Don't expect yourself to be perfect because if you do - when you're not, you'll feel like a failure and there's no way you're that. Accept that there will be ups and downs, highs and lows and that's perfectly normal.

Lecture over xx

Can't add more than what Jan & Mary has said, defo introduce some sort of snack in the afternoon. What sort of job do you do? Do you get an afternoon break at some point? If not then a snack when you get in before the gym would be best

Dinner sounds delish today! Love roasted veggies, especially courgette!

Hey your doing great, I'm loving your diary, I'm trying to get ideas of what's best to eat when coming of LT. A while for me yet another 4 stone x

Thanks everyone. Your post has been really helpful Jan! Puts things into perspective. I'm not expecting to never slip up as that would be very unrealistic, especially with christmas coming up! I don't think extra snacks will hurt now I am gyming it! It has been really good to read and remind myself that when it does happen it WON'T be the end of all my hard work. I will need to jump back on the next day.

Tanya, I am 6 months off becoming a qualified primary school teacher. Ahhhhh! I am on my final assessed teaching practice so I'm working school hours. I am also a care assistant for elderly and disabled people so I work every thursday night and every saturday. Eating times can be tough! Arriving at school around 8am, I get a break at 10:30 and then lunch is 12:10 until 1:30. The children go home at 3:25 and I'm usually still at school until at least 4:30-5. I've just realised that 12:30 until 5ish is about 5hours! Snack is definitely in order! Usually I'd have dinner when I get in at 5:30-6ish but I'm staying with my parents at the moment until me and the bf get a place and they eat at 7 so we all eat together. I may start cooking my own meals. Ooooh I'm excited to do some experimenting.

Thanks Lucie, you'll get there! Don't wish your time on TFR away as it's the best part beleive it or not haha. Xxx

I can't add much to what the others have said. I definitely agree on adding a little more to your snacks. Nuts or seeds are a good way of bulking up a fruit snack. 5or 6 almonds or walnuts or a dessert spoon of pumpkin seeds will bulk up a punnet of blueberries or two plums or a pear. I always carry a couple of Nakd bars which are unprocessed fruit bars. The 30g ones are a great snack and the larger 68g bar is a great emergency lunch option.
I find on GL that two fruit snacks is not always best. It's better to have one fruit snack and one savoury snack. A boiled egg, a baby bel cheese,peanut butter on two oatcakes, fish pâté on rye crackers, half an avocado, small mug of soup with no potato in it( tomato, onion, ) or a slice of oat bread.
So there's lots of options for filling snacks. Experiment till you find the balance that suits you.
You're doing great!

Thanks Molly, some great ideas there! I will definitely give them a go. I like the sound of boiled egg on a couple of nairns oatcakes or something! I'm really into those oatcake biscuit things, sooo yummy. And theres so much you can put on them. Do you know if banana's are considered to be low/high gi/gl? I read somewhere about 'ripe' ones and 'too ripe' ones but it just confused me so I've steered clear of them. But I used to love banana on rivita when I was attempting to diet pre-lipotrim so I'm sure I'll love banana on oatcakes now as part of a healthy diet!

01/12/11 Food Diary

Breakfast: 45g All-Bran crunch, 100ml skimmed milk, blackberries

Snack: Plum

Lunch: Chicken breast, lettuce, 3 cherry tomatos, 1 tomato, cucumber, carrot

Snack: Pear, handful of carrot sticks, 2 nairns oatcakes with low fat/fat free cottage cheese

Dinner: 125g extra lean steak mince, passata, 1/4 red onion, approx 100g wholewheat low gi pasta (frozen from refeed week and re-heated as in a rush), handful of blueberries and fat free natural yoghurt

Drinks: 4L water, 1 peppermint tea, 3 green teas, 2 black coffees

I really missed my porridge this morning! I look forward to it, I just wanted to try something different and didn't have time to make it. But it's back to ol' faithful tomorrow. Especially as today's was half as nice but nearly twice the calories. Lunch was gorgeous, I gave myself a little bit more salad today to see if I felt fuller and I did. I didn't have the urge to eat anything else afterwards. Regret eating the pear and wish I'd just had the oatcakes. I swear it made me feel hungrier. So like Molly said, I am sticking to one fruit snack a day. I might get rid of my morning fruit because it's not long after breakfast and I don't really need it.

Went to the gym again this evening, did 30mins on the cross trainer, 15mins on the exercise bike and then some toning using weights for my thighs and abs. Feel brilliant for going.....In the rain! And I had work this evening so I didn't get there till 9. Hence the later post. Xx

Bananas are medium Gi. I get the fun size under ripe bananas, as they are smaller they are not too bad on the Gi scale.
If you want to bulk up your salads try blanching some fine beans and mangetout, then chop them and add to your salad. I find these make salads more filling.

Looks like another great day hun. Well done on going to the gym again

I find certain fruits make me hungry. Apples are the worst so I try and avoid them.

It's trial and error and it's good that you're recognising things that make u feel hungrier etc

02/12/11 Food Diary

Breakfast: 30g Porridge, water

Snack: Small Plum

Lunch: 2 slices weight watchers wholemeal bread, 1 cheese triangle, lettuce and cucumber (made into a sandwich) with 5 cherry tomatos and carrot sticks

Snack: Carrot sticks, 4 seafood sticks, 2 nairns oakcakes, clementine

Dinner: River cobbler, roasted aubergine, brocoli

Drinks: 3.5L water, 3 green teas, 2 black coffees

Exercise: 45min spin class

Enjoyed all my food today, I felt absolutely rough this morning and was sent home from school. Proabably just lack of sleep and stressful workload. But it meant I could have my food whenever I wanted which was brilliant! Snack at 12 and lunch at 2. Another snack at 4:30 and then dinner at 7:40 after the gym! Perfect, didn't feel the need for anything else at all.

HATED the spin class, I used to love it but a new guy does it now and it was dreadful. He turns the lights off and puts flashing disco lights on which is fun but you can't see your gears, rpm or burnt calories! It annoyed me very much but hey ho. I did it. I just won't go to his class again lol. Another thing that has annoyed me today is my digital kitchen scales have decided to turn themselves to oz instead of g and I can't for the life of me turn it back, GRRRR. So I don't know how I'm going to weigh my porridge out in the morning.

Moan over! Xx

Great menu again today. Shame you didnt enjoy the spin class much but atleast you still did it

Look up grams to oz convertor online and it'll tell you how many oz 30g is xxx

well done emma!! Ive bought myself a vibro plate, cant wait to start using that tomorrow!!

Food looking great. Shame about the spin class. By the way 30g is just over 1oz.

Thanks guys, I have bought a new £7.50 set of digital scales this morning haha! The other ones were rubbish anyway so I managed to weigh out my porridge oats this morning! Yay! I also bought some Nakd bars to have as an afternoon snack this week and see how I get on. Have no idea what to have for lunch or dinner today, need to get planning. Xx