MrC's Maintenance Diary

[MrC]

I thought the catchy title would get you looking through the thread!

Today is the first day of my 'don't get fat again' regime after losing four stone in just over three months on TFR and my two week refeed. I want to keep a log of what I do and eat somewhere so that I can both see how I progress and also to help me focus and keep on track - this seems as good a place as any to do it.

Right now I don't have much of a plan other than sticking to maintenance shake breakfasts for the next few weeks and seeing how things go. I know I can count calories and I can get by on 1200 a day as I've done that before but I am hoping that if I can keep away from the unnecessary snaking and try to aim to be as low-fat as possible then I will be able to be a little more relaxed. I'm not the kind of person that enjoys weighing food but I do have a decent grasp of what is 'good food / bad food'.

I have upper and lower weight limits in my mind and I intend to keep myself within this range. Jumping on the scales each week will allow me to monitor that and I can decide what actions to take from there and if I need to cut right back for a couple of weeks then I will. No excuses - I am not getting fat again!

I also intend to get back to some level of fitness above 'couch potato'. Almost a year ago I ran three times a week (slowly ) and could manage six miles in one go. I intend to better that again soon as I'm four stone lighter now so I have no excuse not to speed up / go further. I'd like to do a half marathon this year so I need to get cracking - I've just been waiting until I'm back on to real food again.

I do want to adjust my diet to take into account the exercise I hope to be doing (I also want to start football again) and am quite interested and keen to look into the sports nutrition side of things. This ties in nicely with the fact I also want to cook a lot more meals from scratch and preparing food in new ways or with substitute ingredients could help keep me focussed while providing me with more of the 'good' and less of the 'bad'. We shall see.

Anyway, all suggestions, critisisms and most of all COMPLIMENTS will be more than welcome.

Fingers crossed.

 

[MrC]

DAY 1

No plan today just flying by the seat of my pants but I've managed to get by on 1250cals without too much trouble. I will need to decide how many cals I want to aim for as a rough guide but I don't intend to count them forever. I just think it will help for the next few weeks if I look at it a bit more closely.

I did no real exercise today other than some light DIY which didn't amount to much. It's just a sign of how inactive I've become.

Breakfast: Lipotrim Summer Fruits shake. I like the taste and they fill me up.

Lunch: 3 slices of wholemeal toast with a little low-fat spread. I also had a whole grapefruit, cold from the fridge, with less than a tsp of sugar sprinkled over it. I really enjoyed the grapefruit - I think I was a pre-teen the last time I had grapefruit like that.

Dinner: 3 taco trays with my own recipe chilli. It was really nice but could have done with a few more chilli peppers in it. My wife had it too and because she has the tastebuds of a 3yr old I could't pep it up too much.

I've written the recipe down so that I won't forget how to make it as I usually make something, thinks it's nice, then months later totally forget what I did. I even worked out the nutritional values so here it is if anyone else is stupid wnough to try it! The quantities of things like the beef and tinned ingredients are accurate but the 'splash' ingredients like wine and stock are estimated quantities. I know I've over estimated the wine as I was too scared to use it as my wife would have gone mad had I nicked her vino, lol.



MrC's Chilli (Serves 4)
Per portion: Calories - 428, Carbs - 36g, fat - 12g, protein - 38g

Ingredients:
500g Lean Minced Beef
2 Onions
2 Cloves Garlic
2 Green Chilli Peppers
1 Green Pepper
1tbsp Oil
2tbsp Red Balsamic Vinegar
2tsp Ground Cumin
2tsp Oregano
2tsp Smoked Paprika
2tsp Ground Black Pepper
1tbsp Tomato Puree
2tbsp Lemon Juice
4 Fresh Tomatoes
400g Can Chopped Tomatoes
400g Can Kidney Beans
200ml Beef Stock
200ml White Wine
200ml Semi-skimmed Milk
2tsp Chipotle Sauce

Method:

• Fry the onions, garlic, green pepper and chillis in 1tbsp oil.
• Once softened add the red balsamic vinegar and cook until this has burnt off.
• Add the spices: cumin, oregano, smoked paprika and ground black pepper and cook for a couple of minutes.
• Now put the lemon juice and tomato puree into the mix and cook until the tomato paste darkens.
• Add the minced beef and fry until this has cooked through.
• Next in goes the fresh chopped tomatoes, white wine and milk and cook this until it has reduced and stops looking milky.
• The tinned chopped tomatoes can now be added along with the beef stock and kidney beans.
• The chilli should be cooked until the kidney beans are soft.
• The chipotle sauce and further amounts of cumin, oregano and black pepper should now be used to adjust the seasoning and flavour of the chilli while it reduces to the desired consistency.

 

[eyesdontlie]

well done on your weight loss and your plan sounds fab i wish you every luck with your running my aim this year is to complete a half marathon toox

 

[JanD]

Wow! Well done on your loss and a good idea to stick around here to ensure keeping it off or at the very least keeping yourself accountable for what's going into your mouth!! I'm not a very good example at the moment but we all have our ups and downs. Just because I'm experiencing a down at the mo (or is it an 'up' as that's what the scales are doing?? ) doesn't mean i can't appreciate where other people are in their journeys.

I'm coming up to 3 years maintaining in June and though I'll be about a stone over target i STILL consider it maintaining as, to me, maintenance isn't a weight so much as an awareness ... okay a stone might be pushing it a bit but I WILL lose that. I really believe sticking around here is the key.

Best of luck to you x

 

[irish molly]

Good to see you've started a thread here. I'm sure it will be as insightful as your refeed thread.
You already have a good plan in place for maintaining your losses. I agree with having a weekly weigh in and a preferred range to allow going up or down a few pounds. You're so right that if you make good food choices most of the time you can't go too far wrong.
I see you're watching calorie intake, so logging on myfitnesspal.com might help too, for a little while anyhow. Is 1250 cals not a little low for a guy??? Mfp will calculate your correct intake based on stats, activity levels etc., so maybe double check to see you are on the right track.
Good luck for the coming week.

 

[MrC]

You've got me worried now JanD. I was hoping that three years down the line I wouldn't even have to think about what I'm eating becasue it would have sorted itself out and I would have had a good routine. I anticipate weighing myself every week pretty much forever but I was hoping that and being familiar with what I can and can't eat would have made it almost foolproof without adding a stone on here or there.

Irish Molly, I agree that 1250 cals is very low and I want to be having more than that - I was just trying to highlight that I know I can live on 1200 because I've done it before. I think I'll be aiming around the 1700 mark for the next few weeks and see how I go from there. I'm also going to be looking for 'better value' for that food too although it will be a trade-off. When I was on 1200 cals I was having all processed junk foods but I was happy to wait for that kind of thing. If I use those calories wiser instead (lower fat for instance) then I should get more bulk for the same amount. It would have been a problem in the past because I needed pizzas/burgers, etc to satisfy myself mentally but now I'm eating things I wouldn't have done before and enjoying them. I think I can find a sensible middle ground somewhere.

Some things will remain such as my Diet Coke. It's a luxury that I'm not prepared to sacrifice although if I can halve my old intake to around 2-3litres a day then I'll be happy that I've cut down. I could eat 6-8 bags of crisps without even breathing and I intend to stay far away from those now. Most meals would see Hellman's 'Full on' Mayonnaise before ans I could never stomach the lower-fat versions. I made coleslaw a few days ago using a very low-fat mayo and I even watered that down with balsamic vinegar and lemon juice far more than I normally would. I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed it as much as my old coleslaw but it was more than acceptable and I consider the lower fat and calories a worthy trade-off.

I use the myfitnesspal Web site to work out the nutritional values of my recipes.

 

[MrC]

DAY 2

A bad day due to unforseen circumstances. It was low calorie but not particularly healthy food and there was no sensible staggering of meals during the day. It wasn't what I expect a normal day to be.

Breakfast - Summer Fuits maintenance shake.

Lunch - None.

Dinner - Supermarket bought Calzone @ 850cals. I had this at 10:30pm and I wasn't actually hungry. It did taste nice in tuth and those dormant 'junk food' tastebuds thought it was Xmas.

I didn't get much chance for drinking but probably had a litre of water and about half a litre of Diet Coke.

 

[MrC]

DAY 3

Breakfast: Cornmeal Porridge

Lunch: A sandwich of shop-bought coleslaw. No need for butter/margerine.

Dinner: Naan bread with my own recipe Lamb Keema. I also had a small frozen yoghurt for dessert.

Had about 2 litres of Diet Coke today. Right now (2:30 am) I'm drinking half a litre of water to satiate the sudden 'water urge' I've got.


Here is the Keema recipe, which is a bit higher in fat than I'd hoped (that's minced lamb for you I guess!):

MrC's Lamb Keema (serves 2)
Per portion: Calories - 450, Carbs - 32g, fat - 21g, protein - 32g

Ingredients:
250g Minced Lamb
1 Onion - Finely Diced
3 Cloves Garlic - Minced
2 Green Chilli Peppers - Finely Chopped
3tsp Ginger - Minced
1/2tsp Chilli Powder
1tsp Ground Tumeric
2tsp Garam Masala
1tsp Ground Fennel
1tsp Dried Fenugreek Leaves
6 Fresh Mint Leaves - Finely Chopped
2tbsp Tomato Puree
200ml Boiling Water
100g Frozen Peas
75ml Fat-free Natural Yoghurt

Method:

• Fry the lamb, onion, garlic, chilli peppers and ginger until the lamb is cooked through.
• Next add the chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala, ground fennel, fenugreek, and mint leaves.
• Fry for another minute before adding the tomato puree.
• After another minute or two the mixture will darken. At this point add the peas and some boiling water.
• Keep cooking the mixture until it reduced and agoes quite dry.
• Now turn down the heat and add the yoghurt.
• Cook on the low heat until the mix gets to the desired consistency and the yoghurt had fully incorporated.
• Serve with Indian bread such as chapatti or naan.

 

[irish molly]

I am loving your recipes! It sounds like you are well in the zone for maintaining. Well done. Keep inspiring others with your success!

 

[JanD]

Lol! Sorry to have got you worried!! I'm probably not a good example as I've been a yo yo dieter for 40 years - since I was about 16-17. I don't know what 'normal' is and I truly believe the younger/earlier you can get to grips with it the easier it is to make a life long change. Having said that I don't think a stone over the odds is tooooo untoward in the grand scheme of things - life happens (often while we're busy making other plans if you believe John Lennon ) I hope you're right and you'll be able to make it second nature

 

[irish molly]

Hope your maintenance is going well.

 

[Lisa 20 years dieting]

Hi mr c

Keep those recipes coming!! I,m keeping them all when I get to maintaining!!

Thanks