Sarah's Management Thread (August 12th - November 5th 2007)

[Alan_99]

You absolutely right Sez this thread is full of tips and lessons. I see so many things that I went through during my RTM but I'm still getting helpful advice so Thank you Sarah your so very good at putting problems and their solutions into words that make sense.

Sarah my palate has definately changed for the better I have a list of things that I used to stear clear of but absolutley luv now including celery, stilton cheese and radish :-S, it's all very exciting. I have really turned to exercise and cycle everyday now and walk at least 4 times a week (2-4 miles brisk walk).

I have to admit there are times when I do over eat but I tend to stick with healthy choices and with the exercise I'm maintaining my weight nicely so far. I'm planning to maintain at my current weight of around 13 st 10 lb till the end of September before trying to drop to 13 st 7lb during October which I'm hoping will become my standard weight for the future.

Alan
x

 

[Cerulean]

Well - yesterday was a very very strange day. I didn't get a star for sticking to LL, but I do get a tick for working out why it happened. If anyone knows how to stop myself then - answers on a postcard, please.

Okay - so the scales were back to 9st 12 which is around the middle of my healthy BMI - but at this weight my bones become pronounced - more pronounced - the 10lbs I put back on and got rid of last week seems to give me something back - my vitality or something - under 10st I feel droopy and feeble.

Okay so here's the list

• I was tired - 3 nights in a row of 5 hours sleep = TIRED
• I was anxious as my boss had called a meeting* about something I had neglected for a few weeks = ANXIOUS
• The bus kept stopping at stops for 5 mins because the roads are so clear = ANXIOUS
• Seeing the veins on my face freaks me out = ANXIOUS
• Running late for work after spending too much time on the laptop meant that I ran out of the house without grabbing my lunch so I had left unprepared - ANXIOUS (M&S sells plenty of on plan things so I could have easily bought a substitute lunch - it just wasn't the one I would have had in mind) So my inner control freak would have been...er freaking.

My adult had a good old talk...no other voice surfaced with any sort of protestation, and I talked myself down from buying chocolate in one shop (but didn't feel any sort of triumph), only to go and buy chocolate at the snack machine.
Something wanted sugar and to break the diet for a day - thing is once I've gone into sugar binge I am unable to stop before bedtime. So I rode with it to see if I could. I tried everything at the beginning of the binge to stop it from happening and I didn't get upset or frustrated about it like I did last week - I just rode with it.

It comes from

• Tiredness
• Anxiety over my own self management
• Low blood sugar (I think my breakfast may have tipped me over the edge as this kicked in about an hour and 30 after eating)
• Looking at cookery websites (this had stopped naturally during the 4 star days - Thursday night I looked at pictures of French patisserie!)
• Getting close to creative goals - I seem to bring in the binge monster on days where I could spend my time more productively getting on with what I really want to do

The important thing to recognise is that unlike last Friday where the monster made me spiral into a haze of paranoia and inactivity, this week, the monster failed - I wrote half of my 100 things that make me happy list, wrote, went to an exhibition that really inspired me, spent quality time thinking and talking about art and laughing with a good friend, met up with friends at a pub outdoors(!!!) (FIRST TIME THIS SUMMER!!!) and I am awake an active at the planned time today. I have lots of activities planned for today, I am not going to mooch, and luckily my palate and body are so off sugar that I am determined to get three gold stars through the weekend and hope that I will be able to moderate these cravings from an on plan place when fruit makes a return tomorrow. (Funny how yesterday, fruit was off limits, but chocolate was so verboten that it was allowed - how weird is that?)

So there, Crazy Cake Queen!
I spoke to a friend yesterday who said

'When I was sort of anorexic (she lost several stone a few years ago by just going off eating for a few months and we still don't know why) and I got to (ha - get this!) being the size you are now, something would take over for a couple of days and make me eat everything - especially sugar. Then I would readjust and go back to controlled eating.'

This made me sort of happy because it ties in with the ghrelin gremlin theory...and also it means my friend who never makes judgement calls so I never really know what she's thinking - which is actually one of the reasons I like her so much - no personal comments which is how we like it - but getting feedback can be hard - I trust her quite a lot so her feedback is valuable - anyway - what she said is 'You are slim enough' without going 'I think you might have lost too much'

*As usual, I breezed the meeting got loads done and was generally perceived to be brilliant WHY DO I SELF SABOTAGE MYSELF OVER MY WORK???

 

[Cerulean]

A summery salad...I think this contains just about every single Week 2 vegetable with the exception of broccoli and courgette! I finally found anchovies in plain salt - one or two gave the salad an amazing kick. Also - I made a delicious dressing from white basalmic vinegar and whole grain mustard parsley and garlic.

These are the base ingredients for a mint and garlic dip I had with my vegetables earlier today.

I plan on freezing some no fat fromage frais with strawberries and sweetner tomorrow and topping a strawberry sugar free jelly with a few slices of real strawberries in it to make a delicious summery dessert.

I am so impressed that once you blend the basic ingredients for Week 2 and 3 together you have a wonderful array of choices - honestly - I think I could eat like this the whole time - clearly I do need more fibre and bulk in my diet on an ongoing basis...but at the moment I'm finding lowfat lowish carb/GI salad composition so simple, quick and easy that I'm almost annoyed that I will have to move on and start cooking my vegetables. Not that I have to per se - but - well - I had got myself into sucha food rut before LL - the only healthy meal I would make myself after a hard day at work was noodles in miso soup with pak choi and mushrooms...

 

[Cerulean]

Happiness is a warm pear

Day 15
After Friday's sudden off plan behaviour, I was anxious about how the weekend might pan out...it seems that I needn't have worried (too much)

Although the increased intake that adding fruit provides means that I can't dump the glycogen quite so swiftly as before, the added poundage makes no difference to my frame...and the addition of low GI fruit has meant that I am able to adjust my blood sugar when I get cravings. It's so much easier to manage cravings for chocolate when you have the sweet taste of a gorgeous pear on your tongue from 2 hours before. At the moment I am concentrating on staying within the permitted foods and not worrying so much about portion sizes - for me my RtM is about my relationship with food and no so much about weight. Week 3 asks you to start thinking about being a skilled weight holder. At the moment I am very skilled at gaining 7lbs and losing it again, no so good at the staying the same, however I suppose if you looked at me on a Sunday to Sunday basis I am holding within a few pounds. And if you look at my clothes I am definitely holding! So - we'll think about portion sizes and adapting my eating once I've can manage my eating episodes.

Of course one thing I haven't considered is that my body might have been protesting at being out of ketosis and yet still on a VLCD - for the last two weeks I have been following the sort of strict diet I have never been able to stick to for more than two and a half days. (Hence Wednesday syndrome?) maybe if I had eaten a little more...well - hindsight is all well and good - we'll see how this week goes.

I am a minute off running my first mile - I aim to do this tomorrow morning. I did 25 mins full pelt on the cross trainer first today so I think I've got the puff and stamina to get into that stride. It was great to kick the day off having burned off 450 calories.

 

[Mrs Lard]

Fabulous! Absolutely fabulous. Well done! Well done! Well done!

Very encouraging.

Mrs Lxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[Samantha]

Hi Sarah,

I wanted to say thank you for starting this thread. I am due to start management in a week and have been reading your diary with interest.

Your meals look amazing. Did you get the recipes from LL or have you made them up yourself?

Samantha

 

[Cerulean]

Hi Samantha - thanks!
The recipes have mainly been made by looking at the list of ingredients and thinking of classic recipes (mainly not ones that have cheese or flour in them as they are unadaptable at the moment!) - mainly middle eastern and asian cuisines are the best to adapt - but cajun spices kick a good punch and naturlly go well with celery. The smallest George Foreman grill is perfect for the one person portion sizes with the minimum of cleaning hassle - ans as I knew I would need lots of spices when I started RtM I bought a pot of something new and interesting (vinegars too) every week for the last few weeks of development so I didn't have to buy hundreds at once.

 

[Sez]

I knew I would need lots of spices when I started RtM I bought a pot of something new and interesting (vinegars too) every week for the last few weeks of development so I didn't have to buy hundreds at once.


What a great idea! True forethought and planning! I think I will have to go down this route too. I have already decided that to encourage my new found taste buds, I will start to order a Riverford veg & fruit box weekly, once I am at the dizzy heights of RtM. I have always loved veg etc, but allowed myself to become a lazy cook. You know the old scenario, working , cant be be bothered, grab something quick and (usually unhealthy). My new resolution, and perhaps a goal, will be to prep in advance, freeze if needed and encourage healthy eating throughout the family. Not an issue with OH and son, daughter will be a BIG problem!! She is the chicken nugget queen!! (No, I'm not that bad, I do make my own nuggets for her from chicken breast & breadcrumbs.....)

 

[Cerulean]

Day 15

If it's Week 3 then it's TOMATO TIME!

Hurray! Tomatoes are back back back!

So - scores on the doors are that I have managed a week of RtM with only one binge episode! Let's see if we can make it through an entire week now. It is now very very easy - I think one way I could have avoided Friday's binge was if I had made the cnscious decision to step RtM forward by a couple of days and just pick up a load of fruit to eat instead of chocolate. Fruit has the interesting effect of making me understand how my body reacts to sweetness - within about 30 mins of consuming it I crave something sweeter but cannot taste or register sweetness - and if I talk to myself and ask if I am hungry my body answers 'No! We're busy with the fruit - leave us alone, brain - we don't need anything else for a while, thanks for asking!'

On the bus yesterday my adult asked why i wanted to go and have a cake in a coffee shop and my direct answer was 'Because I want to feel connected and included' and that was a bit of a bingo moment - I had known consciously that that was why I buy food in some places, but getting my inner voice to own up to it was quite a big deal.

(To the tune of Raspberry Beret) Strawberry Icecream - the kind you make in a tupperware pot

Put 0% fromage frais in a freezer for an hour
Mash 2 strawberries with some powdered sweetener.

Get fromage frais out of freezer, whip up with fork to get rid of ice crystals, put back in freezer for an hour.

Repeat. - this time make two grooves in the mix and tip in the compote you made from the strawbs and sweetner (you can add vanilla and mint to taste to jazz it up a bit)

After one more hour get it out and leave for about 10 mins before eating.

YUM!

 

[Sez]

OMG!!! Tomatoes & icecream!!! I gotta get me some of that!!


Roll on RTM so I can use my Cerulean cook book!!



BTW, dumb question but..... can I save/bookmark a thread so I dont lose it!! I'm not sure how!!

 

[Cerulean]

Sez - I would love to get a Riverford box - their site is on my favourites list because their recipes are so good.

What I've noticed is that RtM helps you realise just how quickly and cheaply you can make yourself a healthy getting home from work dinner...rip back of leaves, grill/steam protein and make dressing/chop extra veggies - done in 5-10 mins! By introducing things slowly you don't get overwhelmed by choice and find tastes you never knew you had (I now know that if I want to binge, 100g cottage cheese come black pepper and a couple of chicory heads is the best way to go!). I honestly haven't noticed that my recipes have been 'healthy' I was always a big veggie fan too but could never be bothered with the prep but also knew that prepped veg you buy has already lost most of its nutritonal content so I would just get chips instead (hah!)

 

[Samantha]

Morning!

Have just checked out the Riverford Website and their recipes! Thanks for posting about it Sez and Sarah, I love it. Do either of you know what kind of times they deliver as I can't find anything on their site. I live in a small block of flats and if they left the vege and fruit lying about while I am at work I don't think it would be there when I got home LOL.

Sarah, your strawberry icecream had me drooling! Will have to start writing down all your recipes! I wish I could be that creative with my cooking.

Samantha

 

[Sez]

Morning!

Have just checked out the Riverford Website and their recipes! Thanks for posting about it Sez and Sarah, I love it. Do either of you know what kind of times they deliver as I can't find anything on their site. I live in a small block of flats and if they left the vege and fruit lying about while I am at work I don't think it would be there when I got home LOL.

Sarah, your strawberry icecream had me drooling! Will have to start writing down all your recipes! I wish I could be that creative with my cooking.

Samantha

I had a one off delivery a while ago, and they were happy for me to leave a cheque in a secure place, where they left the box for me. I am sure if you email them they will be happy to help.

The food was great quality and a really reasonable price. I am def going down that route once I am back in the land of real food!!

 

[Cerulean]

I can run a mile!

Determined to make the most of today (what with Time Management and listmaking being week 2's homework) I made a list. I hesitated about putting down running a mile as I started getting stitches yesterday (always the bane of my life when running at school) but, I wrote it down. And I am pleased to report that by a combination of tricking myself and hilariously getting Queen's Don't Stop Me Now on my iPod as I ran into my last 300 yards (it put me in such a good mood I ran to the end of the song which took me to 1.2 miles and an extra 3 minutes on yesterday's time - I even sprinted the last 2 minutes I was feeling so good so I know that there's more in the old girl yet - but I've learnt from past mistakes not to push it too hard too soon. Then I did 30 mins on the Cross Trainer taking my total gym session to over 500 calories. Which is just as well as I appear to be addicted to apples and pears! I wish the manual was a little more prescriptive about how much is unreasonable.

Today's lunch was 'Random Salad' much as I love my cheap greengrocer, his chicory and radishes weren't up to much, but are a third of the price of Waitroses...It's so strange looking in my fridge and seeing bowls full of chopped cucumer with fennel and lemon and mint and pots of yoghurt and dressing and jellies...it's almost like the old Sarah has moved out (my old fridge would have contained cheese, butter and M&S meals) my cooking for myself would have consisted of making my favourite noodle dish or some gooey pasta stuff. Funny that when I would have said I loved food, I was behaving like I was frightened of it. Now I'm enjoying knowing where to shop for the best of things - knowing that Holland and Barrett sell Quinoa cheaper than they have it in Morrisons. As for Morrisons - I won't buy meat there, but it's great for the jellies and low fat dairy.

No matter what the adverts and plaudits say, I'm still not convinced about their fish - it looks decidedly tired every day or time I've been. Anyway - yes - I'm not frightened of food any more it would seem and the fruit is helping to fill me up and it's the third day in a row since my binge which means that if I make it through tomorrow...well...that's 80/20 (8 days of RtM rules followed and 2 days of deviation).

Anyway - I am having a rest becaise I've been up since 6. I shall write a bit and then go out for a bike ride. I have ticked almost everything on my list off - so I shall just relax for the rest of the day.

 

[SharonA_1970]

Sarah would it be possible for you to put all your recipe ideas on one post somewhere please? You have some great ideas and I would love a copy of them all

 

[Cerulean]

Once I have a chance I will write them all up, but Minimins doesn't really give me a way of indexing them - they are all here, which was the idea behind this post! Also I'm a bit of a throw it all together cook so it's more about knowing what spices and herbs go with which salad veg etc - so I'll do a post on that shortly - thanks for reminding me I need to gather them in once place!

 

[Mrs Lard]

I see that Week 3 is TWO foodpacks!!! I just wanted to mark this momentous occasion by wishing you an excellent Week 3!

As Tony R would say, you have been outstanding!!!

Big kiss.

Mrs Lxxxxxxx

 

[Cerulean]

Yes! I'm a two pack a day girl now! The foodpacks feel like an afterthought at the moment! It's weird the highlight of my day no longer being my nutcrunch - I sort of nibble at it now thinking how dull and processed it is...

I am too full for my second FP today - I had to have both late last night as well...hmmm - well I have a busy few days at work and a lot of writing/painting to do at home this week, so I'm thinking that it will be easier to structure my days - all I wante dto do this weekend was get through it without repeating last week's behaviour - I have 3 gold stars for staying with the permitted foods - today's eating wasn't exactly on plan - all permitted of course but I was overeating without thinking, but for now, it's good enough for me and I'm finding that I do gorge myself on the new things when they first arrive, then I calm down when my brain realises that I can have as much of that food type as I want and that it's not being taken away from me.

Anyway, week 3 and 4 are about getting used to the fruit and a few extra veg. It's great to have quinoa back as well...

 

[SandraEG]

Regarding fruit and veg boxes - if getting them delivered while you're out is not a good option, Ocado deliver in the usual supermarket slots when you're home and they sell waitrose mixed organic boxes.

Obviously it's better to use a smaller supplier rather than a supermarket but I also have the issue of living in a flat and there being nowhere to leave items if you aren't home.

 

[Samantha]

Well done on the three stars Sarah :clap:

Oh good idea Sandra I never thought about that.

Samantha