212Degrees Diary

[212degrees]

First off, I've never posted a diary before so a little nervous actually! But since my willpower comes in spats maybe this will help me on my last bit!

I'm Low Carbing but not Atkins so please don't take anything I put here as gospel if your starting Atkins! I don't want to be your downfall!!!

Brief history of moi! Like many I've always struggled with my weight. Uni was my worst and I left there a huge 21st 4lbs?! Went back home for a year and didn't really do anything to help with my weight. Moved back to Southampton (where I had been to uni) and decided enough was enough. So I joined the Cambridge Diet and stuck to it, solidly, for 6 months and lost about 8 and a half stone.

Now since coming off I've wavered and had good times and bad times and have ended up about 3 stone from my goal weight. I know my body likes to cling on to carbs and I know I love meat and veg so low carb is the way forward for me!

So my goal is to hit as close to my target weight as possible by 6th June when I go to the Download Festival (rock on!!). I have also signed up to do the 5km Race for Life in July so fitness is a big part of my new lifestyle (or will be when it stops being a chore and becomes a routine!) I'm lucky that there's a gym at work so I go on my lunch breaks otherwise I genuinely don't know when I'd have the time or inclination! I'm also relying on My Fitness Pal to track everything and now I have bought some awesome retro kitchen scales all food is being weighed!!

I've also started to learn to cook more, suddenly realised I am in fact no longer a student (sob) but it does mean I can make more than just beer on cornflakes (I'm kidding). I also find I enjoy my food more and can track everything better when I make it myself so I'll usually be lurking on various recipe threads

I currently work 2 jobs (a stupid 60 hours a weeks yawn) but hopefully not for much longer. Unfortunately It means if I have an evening shift I have to leave my main awesome job and head straight to my significantly less awesome evening job which involves being sat in a bookies staring at an empty shop! This means no time for dinner til I get home at half 10. Not as much fun as you would think!

So, here goes!

Day 1:
B: Hickory Smoked Nuts & Seeds (Graze)
L: 100g iceberg lettuce, 4 slices ham, 10g mature cheddar, 2tbsp low fat mayo, jalapeños
Snack: 1 piece wholemeal bread, Boursin
T: homemade chicken casserole
Cadburys highlights dark hot chocolate (my little indulgence for the day and 3.7g carbs - totally worth it!)

Exercise:
30 mins treadmill, 5.8kph, steep incline.
(my legs ache a little!)

That's it for today. 34 minutes left at work and then I can go home to my yummy casserole and huggable boy! x

 

[Kat1e]

Hi 212, great to find your diary

You have just been amazing at your weight loss so far - actually probably a good thing to pause for a while in between your first major loss and now heading for goal. Evening work must make it quite tough - so good luck and feel free to use us to egg you on

 

[roosnanny]

hmmmm egggggssss.......sorry
i'm in a real foodie moodie today.
welcome,welcome to the diarys,glad you took the plunge.

 

[212degrees]

Thanks guys

So, Day 2 and i've found an awesome app for my iphone called Paprika Recipe Manager. Its awesome! You can input your own recipes, add them to your grocery list (which tells you what aisle it's likely to be in ie baking, dairy etc), download recipes from certain compatable sites directly into you manager, it even has a weekly meal planner which i intend to make good use of! Anyways, this no means i don't have to have hundreds of screenshots of recipes from these threads, i can just input it directly into this app so it's all nicely catalogued and can be search by either ingredient or recipe name (i like being organised).

First recipe in there and first attempt to do tonight, is the infamous Cheeseburger Pie.

So here's today's menu:

Day 1:
B: Nuts & Seeds (Graze)
L: 100g iceberg lettuce, 4 slices ham, 20g mature cheddar, 2tbsp low fat mayo
Snack: Sugar Free Jelly (made from powder)
T: Cheeseburger Pie (with added chillies)
Cadburys highlights dark hot chocolate

Exercise:
25 mins treadmill, 5.5kph, steep incline. 217calories burned.
(my legs ache a lot today! hence the 5 mins less)

 

[212degrees]

Happy Friday!

Such a busy day! Print deadlines and meetings all over the shop!!! Sadly no time for the gym today but i have been 3 times this week and intend to do some form of exercise at the weekend so not gonna beat myself up over (although, i wonder how many calories that would burn...)

Anyways, i actually have a whole weekend with no work at either job. THis is a rare and mildly disturbing event that i feel immense pressure to 'make it count' which generally ends up in minimal relaxing and lots of waking up stupidly early thinking i'm running late lol!

So i have plans in place to do some light charity shop shopping for new home bargains tomorrow and then friends coming round, and a long bath and ebay selling on sunday to a) help me unpack b) get rid of a load of stuff i never use c) earn a bit of cash and d) watch crappy TV i secretly love but can never watch sat on the sofa with my fella. Mega multi tasking!!! lol!

So menu of the day as follows:

B: 1 graze ginger and orange flapjack (can't resist those things!)
Sn: Sugar Free Jelly
L: 100g lettuce, 2 slices of ham, 20g cheese, 2 tbsp mayo
T: will be left over cheeseburger pie & salad
Sn: Highlights dark hot chocolate
Sn: peanut butter in some variety whilst watching films

No dedicated exercise today. but have achieved my aim of 3 workouts at the gym this week so i'm happy with that.

 

[Kat1e]

Hi 212, happy friday indeed

Dont push yourslf to so much gym that you get put off - enjoy waht you do and enjoy when you rest. Unless it's dancing in which case you (well me) are required to do daily

 

[212degrees]

Thanks Kat1e, I actually enjoy the gym when I'm there Got a load of audio books that I've been meaning to read but never got round to do it gives a bit of mid-day escapism

 

[coffeelover]

Just found your diary 212. Wow you do work long hours.

Your menus look great.

You've done amazing. Hope your having a good weekend.

 

[212degrees]

Happy Sunday all!

Didn't update yesterday due to enjoying a day with my boy was still good though!

B: 3 eggs, scrambled with mushrooms
L: Roosters Takeaway, I had 6 Piri-piri chicken strips (just chicken in marinade) soooo good! Although I did nick a chip of my fella but that was just to taste test it was ok *ahem* lol!
D: not a proper meal, I wasn't hungry! We had friends round so bought crisps and dip for them but had celery, cucumber, pepper and carrot sticks on hand for me so success

No specific exercise but did spend a couple of hours wandering round town so I'll take that as my workout lol!

So far today, cooked a mega omelette for breakfast with pepperoni and cheese, so currently feeling very full and chilling watching tv before a day of unpacking (I moved house a month ago and it surprising how much I still have to unpack!) and setting up the wii so I can get my 'just dance' on planning on homemade burgers or chilli for tea, depending on the ingredients in the cupboard

Anyways, hope you're all having a good weekend! X

 

[Jim]

Hi 212 and welcome, sorry I'm a bit late to your diary but I've been busy. Good luck and I'll follow your diary with interest.

 

[roosnanny]

evening.

 

[212degrees]

Evening all!
Another Monday and another fun filled shift in the bookies! Woo I hear you cry

Anyways, another good day today in some ways, but bad in the fact I actually had nothing for breakfast and could not scavenge food anywhere. Well, it was pastry day at work do that was a no no, the evil pre-pay day monster have pretty much cleared the fridge and I ran out of time due to epic meeting scheduling that was required today. So I split my lunch and had some mid morning and the rest before I went to the gym so I wasn't burning off nothing. Filled up on water and didn't feel hungry so all was good. Unfortunately when I got home for the brief 20 minutes inbetween jobs this was spent charging round the house like a maniac trying desperately to find my current MOT certificate do I can tax my car on Wednesday so no prewarn snack for me. Have to ride myself over with green tea until I get home.

so, good for low carb. Bad for general eating but I do want to assure you (whoever maybe reading) this is not a normal day. I usually have my snacks or at least something in the fridge for these type of days.

B: 1/2 my lunch!
L: 100g little gem lettuce, 4 slices ham, 25g cheese, 1 tbsp mayo
T: I'm thinking tuna melt (without the bread) and salad. Or tuna fish cake and salad if I can't be bothered to go buy cheese on my way home from work.
Sn: sugar free jelly

Exercise:
25 minutes on the treadmill at 6kph on a steep incline. I started introducing weights into my gym routine today too, something I enjoy but also get a little nervous of due to it being so close to the 'Man-Zone' aka the free weights area. So they bench press the equivalent of a small herd of cattle while I'm struggling on the machines with the peg that alters the resistance lol! Oh well! It'll get better


On a side nite the burgers I made last night were so yummy! Mince, garlic, fresh chilli, Chilli powder and cumin mixed together with a boudin middle served with lettuce and BBQ sauce and topped with cheese. Nom! See pic

 

[slaj]

That looks very tasty!

 

[212degrees]

Thanks. Was a but much for me tbh but certainly enjoyed it!

Got my weigh in tomorrow so fingers crossed for a good loss! My work are running a 'Biggest Loser' competition at the moment (it started in January). Everyone who wanted to join put in £20 each and at the end of the contest, the 3 who have lost the biggest percentage will split the prize money. 4 weeks left and I'm joint 3rd at 2.9% lost. The two guys in the lead have massive losses of 12% and 6% which I don't think I'll beat but third would be good! So I weigh in at work every Tuesday. Be good to see the results of my week

 

[coffeelover]

Good luck for your weigh in 212. Great idea with the competition.

 

[roosnanny]

good luck.

 

[212degrees]

4lbs off! woohoo!

I'm a wee bit chuffed. And to celebrate, i'm gonna buy salmon! yup nothing says well doneas much as a healthy salmon baked in lemon and garlic and butter! might even push the boat out and get some spinach too! oooo and boursin mushrooms..... no longer will rewards be in the form of sweets and snacks, they will now be in the form of a decent meal or learning a new recipe

 

[coffeelover]

That's a great loss 212. Well done. Enjoy your salmon.

 

[Jim]

Morning 212, that looks a lovely burger, and well done on the loss, that's a great feeling isn't it.

 

[shellsmithcat]

Well done and great attitude xx

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