Barb's Fabulous Food Diary!

Barb

Gold Member
Well here I am on the first day of my 13 week challenge to lose weight and feel healthier with an initial target of losing 10lbs in time for Christmas. Now i know that is a modest target but TBH I think better to set a low target and exceed it than a high one and not make it. I want success not failure, success will spur me on, failure will make me, well, fail!;)
So I have nice new Tigger notebook, set up with todays date and so far I have had my normal start to the day which is a cup of tea and 2 ginger biscuits. I intend to have an apple mid morning and make a big vat of home made soup, which will probably be my lunches for the next few days. Quite handy the weather turning colder, as I much prefer hot, tasty, healhty soups to cold salady type meals.:D
Haven't decided what's for dinner tonight but it will definately include lots of veggies and be something the whole family can enjoy. I can't be doing with lots of different meals for everyone!

I am also going to drink more (not wine you naughty people!), I am very lazy about drinking and I note what Mike says about water; he truly believes that people struggle to lose weight if they do not drink enough. So I will be pushing myself on that one.;)

Finally I feel calm and confident, is it because my new plan makes sense? Yes. Is it because I have had success in the past doing exactly this? Yes. Is it because the time feels right? Definately!:cool:

So, here I go then!
 
Good luck Barb! This plan sounds great (and very do-able!): I'll be following your progress with great interest.
 
Good on ya Barb. Behind you all the way :)
 
Thanks RD and Karion, always good to have your support.

Just made DH a plate of hot toast and marmalade, I had my apple! What a good Barb! I am going to make a cottage pie this evening; I always add lots of herbs and a dash of chili to make it extra tasty and I will serve it with mange tout, broccoli, mini corns and butternut squash. DH offered to take me out tonight but I didn't think that was a great idea, ought to get past day one I feel!
Anyway, feel happy, peak flow still a bit on the low side but I think one more day of resting should see an improvement.

Hope to get to Waitrose later if up to it as want to stock up on some healthy stuff.I realy like their low cal custard and I think that would be good for me to have with a banana for a treat - I would like to stay away from the chocolate stuff as once I start I tend to get carried away!

Really want to do the whole 5 a day thing too, so lots of targets to hit each day!
 
All sounds good Barb. Well done for resisting the toast & marmalade ... one of my favourite foods in all the world!
 
Barb, you've got all the right ideas. I realised just today that over the past 2 years I have lost approximately 20KG, (3 stone) by eating healthily and treating myself every now and again. I'm patting myself on the back for that as I know that when I do get to my goal weight, it will be so much easier to maintain as I already have pretty good habits (it just takes far too long to do it that way when you have as much as I do to lose!)

Good luck with it all, and just remember how much goodness you're sharing with your family too...the 5 a day thing really is so important!
 
Wow Paula, that really makes you think. It is very much what Karion often talks about a case of making sensible choices most of the time and you are living proof that it works!

With me a lot of my food is habit food; I make lunch and pick at the cheese/crisps while I do it. I have tea, I must have biscuits with it, I make dinner i must have a glass of wine and some peanuts whilst I do it. I don't actually need ANY of those extra cals, I just have them, I don't even acknowledge them going in. This is going to be the big thing for me to beat.
I have just had a lovely big bowl of homemade soup and nothing else!!! Normally I would have had crackers with it, why? Just because I always do. Normally I would have had something sweet to follow, why? Because that's what i normally do.

I feel good at the prospect of getting healthier too; my health has been less that brilliant over the years and with hitting the big 50 next November I realise that getting lighter and fitter is more important than ever. I am lazy about fruit and veg and water, so that has to be sorted too.

Are you following any sort of plan now Paula? I see your ticker is set with a loss and a goal and I just wondered if you have lost 3 stone on a healthy eating regime why you might change that?
 
Yes, I started CD 5 days ago. I wish that a healthy eating plan could have the almost instantaneous effect as CD! I need to lose about 6 stone (I was originally 9 stone overweight!) but I can't wait another 4-5 years to get there....!!!!
I have terrible back problems and I'm only 32! I need to be lighter more for my health than anything else, so I hope that CD can give me a big boost, then I can continue with my healthy eating for the rest of my life!! (That's the plan anyhow!)
 
Sounds good and as you say you know how to do the healthy eating stuff when you are down at the weight you want to be.
I suppose in order to get to my ideal weight I need to lose about 6 stone too but I am not really aiming for that. Initially I would be happy to drop one or two stone and then just keep on with the healthy eating and a bit more exercise so that the rest disappears slowly but surely.
I think losing weight for health reasons is a superb motivator and back pain is a darn good thing to get rid of if possible. I am also expecting losing weight to help my health, I know my joints have got too much weight on them and sooner or later I will suffer if i do nothing about it.

I really hope CD does it for you and that you then go back to your healthy balanced eating plan for life.
 
Hey Barb

Good luck with your new eating regime - sounds like a really healthy and sensible plan and one that you can do long-term.

xx
 
Thanks Jem, I think I am going to do just fine with this.

Todays food;

9am, tea and 2 ginger biscuits. 11am 1 apple. 1.15pm large bowl homemade soup. 3pm mini milk lolly.
4pm tea and 3 tea fingers. 6.30pm, medium portion of homemade cottage pie and veg, 3 large glasses red wine. Water throughout the day.

Pretty pleased with that really. Wine was a bit naughty but no chocolate or seriously naughty stuff, definately had my 5 a day and increased my water. So I declare day one a roaring success!

Also, decided to read from start to finish my food diary from 2002; amazing reading, I lost just over 4 stone in 12 months, being good, very good, bad and very bad!!! I focused on the healthy stuff as I am now and just kept going, even when I had meals out, holidays or whatever. If I had an indulgent day or two I just drew a line (literally!) under it and carried on carrying on. Really made me think, if I did that once I can do it again; it wasn't fast but it was effective and although in the 5 years since I have put 2 stone back, I have not put 4 stone back! So feeling encouraged and positive. Shows how worthwhile a diary is, even five years later, it's really inspired me!

More in the morning!
 
Really good sleep, bought a new bed and last night was our 1st night in it! Lovely and comfy.

Feeling very positive this morning, woke up thinking how well I did yesterday and actually how easy it was. The only time i could have slipped was in the evening when I fancied something sweet, but I decided to leave it till later and later never came!
So today I feel happy - I think it's that feeling you get when you have a job hanging over you and you know it has to be done but you keep putting it off. Then suddenly you decide to crack on with it and it's not as bad as you thought and you are chuffed to have made a start. IYKWIM!

Haven't planned food yet for today but started on my usual tea and 2 ginger biscuits and will probably have soup for lunch again. DH wants to go out tonight so I will err on the low cal side and volunteer to drive, prob solved!
 
Then suddenly you decide to crack on with it and it's not as bad as you thought and you are chuffed to have made a start. IYKWIM!

Hi Barb

I totally know what you mean by that - losing weight is as much about your mind as it is about your body IMHO.

very good luck - you sound like youre geared up to do it and your target is deffo achievable

x
 
Hmm, good day, bad evening! :eek:

Really focused all day;

9am tea and 2 ginger biscuits. 11am, 1 apple. 1.30pm 1 boiled egg and lightly (fat reduced) buttered toast. 3pm tea and 3 tea fingers. 5-7pm flipping hungry but nothing eaten.:cool:
7.30pm out 4 chinese, 2 duck pancakes, prawn curry and boiled rice, 1 bottle (yes, bottle) red wine. 1 apricot brandy.:eek:

Bugger, is this a disaster? Blowed if I know, good all day but, oh dear, the evening does not look good. Well could be worse I guess, was very good all day ! Just the evening which let me down.:cry:

Feel a bit tipsy, oh dear, Bad Barb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
No, alls well, have lost 3lbs already! Feel a little delicate this morning, serves me right, I know! Still, I was angelic all day and didn't go too mad on the chinese food front, it was just the vino really.

So going to have a fab day today, enjoying my food diary already as I can see what I have had accurately. Like yesterday, I would have just labelled the whole day as a disaster if I could not see how restrained i had been all day and although we went out for a meal I didn't go mad, even counted the prawn crackers so I could write them down.

Another dinner party tomorrow night, planning quite a sensible menu (to be revealed later!) and will really watch the amount I drink. Empty cals I can live without!( or can I? tee hee)
 
Well done Barb - that's great (and a real boost eh?) I bet it's restored your confidence in 'watching what you consume'.

Might be an idea to cut back on the grape juice though ... a potential trip-up area as a) contains stacks of empty cals and b) lessens your resolve. Hope you're not offended - it's just a suggestion :)

When embarking on a calorie reduced diet, make most the cals you CAN have good ones ;)
 
I could never be offended by you RD - especially when you are so right!! Damnit!!! Yeah the old vino is a bit of a prob because it definately does weaken the resolve and we are regular drinkers, so it is always around. Normally it would just be a glass or 2 with dinner but we went a bit mad last night. Don't even know why, just did.

I feel in control of everything else though and that is progress; I am not feeling all angry with myself for overdoing it as I know my food diary will show an OVERALL drop in cals and unhealthy stuff so that is so positive.

I think you and I are well on the way to achieving our goals Debbie; I know we have both been 'all round the houses' this year but we both seem to be back on plans we can live with. Spooky but great Huh?

I am really looking forward to your next weigh in as i think it's going to be really good. After the week you have had you have done fantastically to stick to CD, really, really, chuffed for you.

Love
 
Ok, here's where it all could have gone wrong! Got to work and a lovely box of choccie biscuits had been delivered by one of our stationery suppliers. Great, thinks Barb, just what I don't need. Then on came the hangover munchies. So I ate 3, yes 3 but THEN I told one of the staff to take them away and share or bin them, I didn't care which. Got home lunchtime, wrote down my 3 choccie biscuits and then had a medium bowl of homemade soup. Now if i hadn't known I was going to record those biscuits, 3 would probably have been 6, I would have got home feeling thoroughly disgusted with myself and eaten a sandwich and crisps and then probably had another choc bisc for good measure. See how I've turned the tables on myself, I now feel pleased with myself that I nipped a potential problem in the bud.

I can do this, I really can. I just have to write it down and if I don't want to write it down than I can't have it. End of. I could bear to write down 3 bisuits, I would have been ashamed to write down 6! I'm learning!!!!!!
 
Really pleased with yesterday. Got really nibbly at 5pm so had an apple and a packet of crisps (seperately, I'm not a weirdo you know!). Then made a steak kebabs and salad with oven chips. Had a small portion of everything, enjoyed it but was aware that a week ago I would have had more just because it was there. Left some steak for Ozzie, he was very pleased. Couple of glasses of wine with dinner then at 9pm a small dish of low cal ice cream. Interestingly a lot less than when cal counting, as I had what I wanted not what made 100cals worth; in fact I weighed it out of curiosity and I actually only had 46 cals worth. Made me think.
Looking forward to a good day today, feel back in control and realise thats what makes me happy. My food diary is really helping me keep track of myself and although we have a dinner party tonight I know I will fill in exactly what I have and that will not be too much of anything!!
 
All sounds good so far Barb. The good thing about recording what you eat is that, if you're failing to lose weight, you can tweak things. If it's just 'watch what you eat without recording' then it's easy to 'forget' the (for example) extra three biscuits or that packet of crisps eaten four days ago.

Then of course, comes the 'I can't lose weight - even on a diet' ... when in fact you've probably had hundreds more cals than you thought you had. I am, of course talking about 'you' generally ... not you personally :)

Keep up the fab work.
 
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