Plumfoodie's diary and ramblings

[CaliSweden]

Congratulations Plum on your weightloss and on your non-scale victories! You've been pushing hard on your exercise and eating and it's showing You're really inspiring me and making me try to stay as focused as possible while I'm on vacation.

 

[Plumfoodie]

Aw thank you Cali. I think it's great that you're maintaining your focus during time away from home, especially somewhere where there are a lot of tempting food choices and it can be difficult to find good foods sometimes.

TBH I enjoy the kettlebell exercise, before my health declined I always used to enjoy lifting free weights and so I am glad to have discovered that as long as I am careful and use low weights I can do some now. It is nice seeing that my body can still respond ok and to be able to feel some muscles getting stronger (and it's making my day to day life easier too, some things are not so much of a struggle and my lower back pain is a bit improved).

So usually (!) I don't have to force myself to do it. If anything I have to force myself not to do it more than twice a week to ensure I don't push myself too hard, heh. I do kettlebells on Monday and Thursday and really find myself wanting to do some on Saturday but resist!

And the food is not so difficult at the moment either. I do go through munchy phases but fortunately at the moment I seem to be finding it easy to stay mostly on track. I'm sure it won't last.

 

[Plumfoodie]

Dear Hotel Chocolat,

I realise you are a business and just trying to earn a crust like the rest of us.

However, please stop sending me emails full of lovely Easter chocolates. I know that you sell plenty of nice GI-friendly dark chocolates, but you also sell many, many caramel chocolate things, which are my nemesisisis. So cut it out, now, please?

Kthxbai!

(see? told you my non-munchy streak wouldn't last!)

 

[irish molly]

Well done Plum on another loss this week. The non scale victories are just as important. I often think emphasising things other than the scales can be just as encouraging to keep us on track.
I hope you can keep the munchies at bay!!

 

[Plumfoodie]

Thanks Molly. I'm doing ok so far! You're right, looking at the bigger picture is a big help sometimes.

 

[Plumfoodie]

Very excited this morning, of course it's not my 'official' weekly weigh-in, but the scale popped up a BMI of 24.9 today!!! I was slightly distracted from my happiness by a burst pipe under the bath but now that it's been fixed am feeling quite chuffed.

(for my signature goals, I tick them off even if I achieve them on a non-official weigh-in day - might be cheating but it works for me )

 

[CaliSweden]

Congratulations! I say it does count! That's really great Plum, you've worked really hard to reach this milestone!

 

[irish molly]

Great job Plum on reaching yet another milestone. It gives you such a buzz to tick another one off the list.
I think milestones are a great incentive for us to hang in there. When we look back it's great to see what we have achieved.

 

[Plumfoodie]

Aw thanks ladies.

 

[Plumfoodie]

+0.6 lb this week, but my muscle mass has gone up and fat has gone down, so that's ok.

Last night we baked many cakes for a charity cake stall today and I had a tiny piece each of brownie and coconut bar to check they were ok (maybe an inch by half an inch). And that was all I wanted! Which was amazing, frankly. Now all I have to do is resist the leftover corner pieces that are still lurking in the kitchen...

 

[irish molly]

I'm glad you don't mind the wee gain. It's nothing to worry about in the bigger scheme of things. Well done on improving the muscle mass. That's a big plus this week!

 

[slimming-girl]

Hi plum I noticed you posted on my sbd diary, I may bob onto this board and post because as you said low gi well done on the losses and well done on the muscle mass and fat percentage reduction x

 

[Plumfoodie]

Thanks Molly.

Hi slimming girl. I don't know if the mods will pay any attention to my suggestion that they move SBD to here, maybe if more people comment on my post in Technical Support?

I've decided I'm going to try a week of south beach phase 1; bit too busy at the moment to track calories so it may be easier. I'm really nervous though, I've been tracking so long that I don't think I trust myself not to over/under eat when I don't know exactly how much I'm eating. Bit of a leap of faith! It's still low GI, so the rational part of my brain knows it should be ok... but I'm still nervous about it! I'll assess on Thursday how it's going. Realistically I won't be tracking calories forever, so hopefully this will be a positive move.

 

[Plumfoodie]

Today's food:

(note I'm doing south beach diet phase 1 today, it's low GI but may have different guidelines than other plans)

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with wafer thin turkey, reduced fat cheddar and diced tomato/avocado

Snack: almonds, glass of milk

Lunch: salad nicoise (no potatoes)

Snack: cottage cheese, cherry tomatoes

Dinner: lamb, spinach and chickpea sautée with stuffed mushrooms

Pudding: ricotta dessert, if hungry

 

[Plumfoodie]

Today's SBD phase 1 plan:

Breakfast: omelette with chunky vegetable hash filling and a bit of reduced fat cheddar

Snack: yoghurt w/toasted almonds

Lunch: Cobb salad

Snack: hummus and veg sticks

Extra snack: babybel light

Dinner: two-bean chilli, salad

Pudding: warm milk with nutmeg

 

[irish molly]

Menus looking fab, Plum. Hopefully following a set meal plan will move the pounds a little faster. After all, these plans have been formulated for the weightloss phase so should give you good results.
Fingers crossed for a good week.

 

[Plumfoodie]

Thanks Molly! I'm enjoying it so far, I've always liked the SBD recipes. My main struggle is snacks but now that I've bought in the right things hopefully this will be easier. It would be easy to just eat more and more lowfat cheese, but sometimes I feel that I might turn into a Babybel if I eat another! Looking forward to phase 2 and re-introducing the low GI carbs and fruit but for the moment 2 weeks seems manageable.

As far as the weight is concerned, it would be nice to see a bit more loss, but I'm not sweating it at this point. Because my bodyfat % is so high I accept that I might see shrinkage in my measurements but no losses on the scale as I work to correct that. I'm glad I had already lost a fair bit before starting the exercise, though, as I would not have been so philosophical in the beginning! And at some point the weight should start going down again a bit.

I realised the other day that my motivations have shifted somewhat and now I'm more interested in health and feeling confident in how I look, rather than worrying about a set number on the scales. So being a bit smaller and a bit fitter balances out not necessarily being any lighter. For me it's a happier mindset.

 

[slimming-girl]

I have made the move to the board for the company had a nice 4 pound loss this week which i am pleased with, your meal palns look yummy x

 

[irish molly]

Oh Plum, I just love your attitude. I found the same solace once I realised that health and contentment with my reflection in the mirror far outweighs an obsession with reaching some figure on the scales.
Thanks for reminding us how important it is to have the right perspective .

 

[Malteaster]

I love the idea that what you look like, and feel good at is more important than the actual figure. It is not as if you go around with your weight written on your forehead.

My goals are just guidelines, when I can get into my size 12's comfortably then I will be happy.