Last day - thank goodness

Although we've had some nice food this week, I won't be sorry to come to the end of this first short term diet.  I'm so looking forward to my cappuccino and some cheese on toast tomorrow!  I think the cappuccino, cheese and dairy have been the hardest things to leave out, for me.  Husband has missed his nuts, seeds and raisins that he snacks on between meals, and thought the meals didn't really fill him up enough...by the time each meal is ready, he's starving.  Oh, and he's just said he really fancies a chip butty tomorrow (which is odd, as it's not something we have normally!).

Today's food:-

Breakfast - 2 soft boiled eggs with 1 slice dry toast

Lunch - Chicken salad

Dinner - Salmon baked in foil parcel with spinach, roasted Brussels, tinned chopped tomatoes and mushrooms.

The howling gale yesterday had more or less disappeared by 10 am - blue sky and a bit of sunshine appearing.  It was still windy and there was a further bit of rain early afternoon, but nothing near as bad as the early morning.  We got off pretty lightly - loads of stuff blown around in the garden (including the dustbin, which was half full, and the recycling bins), a fairly heavy wood companion seat  was blown over and a few tiles dislodged on the utility room roof, the polytunnel door got bent.  Other than that though, no real damage done. Today is going to be much nicer, so we're going to our favourite little town, Wells, this morning.  It's been ages since we had a browse round there.

Can't wait to see what the scales say tomorrow morning.

Day 4 - and awful weather

Thanks for comments again, and welcome to a couple of new followers (or old ones that have found me) - Julie Caisey and Susan Zarzycki.  

The headachey sort of bleurgh feelings have gone, so our systems must be coping better with what we're eating now - or rather, what we're leaving out.  We're really enjoying the meals, although we're both looking forward to the weekend and normal eating.  I'm also very keen to know how much weight we've lost - I shall be hugely disappointed if we haven't lost any, but am sure we will have.

So, today's food:-

Breakfast - Scrambled eggs and tinned tomatoes for me, dry fried fresh toms for husband.  Betty has scrambled egg too whenever we have it, she loves it.

Lunch - Chicken leg and salad again.

Dinner - Lamb leg steak roasted with roasted Brussels, green beans and Hispi  cabbage.  A plum or 2 for husband for afters.

Enough of diet food, let's talk about non diet stuff!  The weather has been pretty grim all week, with a lot of rain and wind, but through the night and this morning it's been truly awful, REALLY strong wind and rain, a proper howling gale out there.  Must have been bothering Betty too, as she got out of bed immediately I came downstairs - she doesn't usually, she's a proper teenager and likes a lie in.  A big gust of wind throwing something around in the garden had her rushing to the door and barking - I knew she wouldn't want to actually go out (she doesn't like bad weather either!), but opened the door just to show her there was nobody out there trying to break in.  The wind nearly smashed the door in my face, good job I was holding onto the handle firmly - Betty turned tail and ran away!  Some guard dog she is, it did make me laugh.

Thankfully, the forecast for tomorrow is much better, as we're going a bit stir crazy.  Definitely not going out today, other than dog walking when the wind has died down a bit, as it's meant to do soon apparently.

I'm going to make a big batch of pastry today and portion it up for the freezer, also some pizza dough.  Not sure though whether to freeze the pizza dough as is, or make up the bases then part cook and freeze them.  Will have a google and see what's best.**

Please take care if you're out and about today and have this awful weather.

**Edit - seems it's best if you let the pizza dough rise and then knock it back before freezing uncooked, just portion it up, wrap well and freeze for up to 3 months.

Diet Day 3 and some observations

Thank you for comments - Wherethejourneytakesme, thanks especially for your informative and helpful comments regarding calcium sources.

I'm sorry if anyone finds these diet food posts boring - it's a useful record for me of what we've eaten, as we intend to repeat this diet every few weeks for 5 days or so at a time.  Long term diets are just not sustainable for me, I get bored and can't be bothered to maintain them, I rebel against the restrictions.  Interestingly, though, I'm not having a problem with this one simply because I know it's very short term.  Well, I say I'm not having a problem....after some discussion, we've decided to make this 5 days instead of 7, we are both really missing some things - eg, coffee and tea with semi skimmed milk (a tiny splash of skimmed just doesn't taste the same).  I'm really craving cheese, husband misses his mixed nuts, seeds and raisins he has a handful of as a snack between meals.  We've not been tempted to stray and indulge in the forbidden, but might if it went on for 7 days, so the decision has been made to go back to normal eating on Saturday.  That doesn't mean we're going to go mad and eat tons of the forbidden stuff though.  I do love my frothy cappuccino I have 2 or sometimes 3 of a day, so it will just be nice to have one of those Saturday morning with a couple of slices of cheese on toast.

Today's food:-

Breakfast - 1 slice dry toast with 2 poached eggs

Lunch - A roasted chicken leg with salad

Dinner - Cod baked in a foil parcel with lemon and herbs, roasted Brussels and courgettes, sprouting broccoli.

One thing we've found - not having butter (well, we have Bertolli olive spread) on toast when the toast is topped with tomatoes, eggs etc, is absolutely fine, we don't miss the spread at all, so will continue that even when not on the diet.  

The fresh fruit salad we had for breakfast yesterday - husband loved it, I quite liked it except that it was far too sweet for me, since I've been diabetic and cut out all sugary things, I really don't have a sweet tooth anymore.  Just the berries would have been ok, the plums and mango were definitely too sweet and made my tongue all tingly - a diabetic reaction I get from too much sugar.  I'll know in future.  

Day 2 and a fuzzy head

Thanks for the comments....Day 1 of the diet went surprisingly well, we enjoyed the food and didn't feel like we were missing out on anything, and certainly not starving.  The only thing I've noticed is that through the night and this morning I have brain fog, blocked sinuses and feel very headachey - possibly some withdrawal symptoms.  If so, it'll go soon.  I am prone to sinus trouble anyhow.

I'm finding it useful to involve husband in the meal preparations - he's interested and enthusiastic and thus more likely to stick to the diet.  Plus I get help with things like chopping veggies and can delegate some prep to him, win win!

With our roast chicken leg last night, I sliced and roasted half a cauliflower, sprinkled with a little paprika and sage.  It was blooming delicious, don't think I'll ever have plain boiled cauli ever again.  The 'gravy' made from the juice from the tin of tomatoes I had for breakfast, with some water, a chicken stock cube and some herbs added, then boiled and simmered until reduced and thickened a bit, was lovely.  Plenty of flavour and no carbs from added cornflour or gravy granules.

Today's food:-

Breakfast - Fresh fruit salad....homegrown strawberries and blueberries from the freezer, with chopped plums and a mango.

Lunch - Homemade chicken soup made with some frozen cooked chicken and stock, and fresh veggies - the other half of the cauli, a large leek from the garden, one carrot and some mushrooms.  As I'm not using anything to thicken the stock, I'll blitz the cauli and carrot into rice - they'll absorb liquid and give the appearance of thickening the soup.

Dinner - Some minute steak, cut into ribbons and flash fried with a spray of oil from a spray dispenser just so it doesn't stick, with a splash of red wine vinegar.  Served on a bed of spinach, tinned chopped tomatoes and mushrooms, with broccoli on the side.

My anxiety levels are a bit high at the moment, for whatever reason, I'm having to take more of the anxiety meds to control it.  I have been taking just 1 tab a day (I can take up to 3), but have increased it to 2.  Hopefully that will help.  Am still weeing for England now I'm taking the additional diabetes med, that must be helping me to lose weight!  And it means I get extra exercise running up and down stairs to the loo all the time....(well, not running, more like a faster climb than usual!).  It's a pity the previous tenant ripped out the downstairs cloakroom and turned it into a coal shed (Grrr.  I assume he must have got permission from the landlord, although I can't think why they thought it was a good idea!!).

Starting a new, short term diet

Thank you for the well wishes, we are both feeling much better now.  

I bought a new winter coat for a very good price online, however, when it arrived and I tried it on, I was disappointed to find I can't do it up.  I knew I'd put on weight over the past few weeks (and my weigh in along with the diabetes review confirmed it), but not being able to do up a coat in the size that fitted me before really brought it home to me.  With my new determined attitude though, I'm viewing it positively - I really like the coat (husband does too) so am keeping it....I'll just have to slim into it won't I?!

Since my diabetes review with the head nurse (I won't call her Nurse Huffy anymore as she really wasn't), I've been thinking about how to lose the extra weight, but without actually doing anything about it.  Well, once again Sue of A Challenging Year blog has come up trumps - she and her Lovely Hubby have just started a 7 day diet.  It's 7 days only because it's very drastic - it's a diet that was originally developed to enable people who need an operation to lose a lot of weight very quickly before the op, it's not meant to be followed indefinitely.  It's called The Chemical Diet - apparently it works by producing a chemical reaction between certain foods which enables the body to drop a lot of weight very quickly - I don't pretend to understand (or even believe!) that, but it's obvious that if you stick to the diet you WILL lose a fair bit of weight, simply because it's clearly quite low in calories and cuts out most carbs and fats.  

Husband and I (he wants to lose about another stone) are keen to give it a go - the idea of doing a diet, even a drastic one, for just one week at a time is very appealing....if we lose even as much as half a stone (the diet claims to result in a loss of a whole stone, 14 pounds) that'll be a huge incentive and boost.  We can't do the diet as given, though, mainly because it contains a lot of grapefruit which neither of us can eat - husband isn't allowed it because of the statins he's on, I have a citrus allergy.  So, using the general idea of the diet, I sat and planned a week's diet, personalised for us.  We'll still only do it for 7 days, it wouldn't be sustainable for longer - we'd get bored, we'd start craving foods we weren't allowed, and as it cuts down drastically on certain food groups (dairy for one), it wouldn't deliver all essential nutrients for good health for a sustained period of time.

(Going off on a tangent for a moment, on the subject of dairy, how do vegetarians/vegans get enough calcium in their diet if they don't eat dairy?  Having never looked into it before, I really don't know, perhaps one of you can enlighten me).

So we're starting today.  We're allowing ourselves tea and coffee, preferably black, but with just a splash of skimmed milk if we really can't face black - better that than either refusing to drink it and having no hot drink option, or giving up at the first hurdle.  Lots of water (which I drink anyhow, although husband doesn't).  Absolutely no oil or spread or sauces of any kind, food to be flavoured with herbs and spices and moistened with a little vegetable stock if necessary.  No eating between meals (not that we do much of that).  

So here's what we're having today:-

Breakfast - 1 slice dry toast topped with grilled fresh tomatoes for husband, tinned toms for me (I don't like grilled fresh ones).  I'll keep the juice to use later.

Lunch - Tinned salmon on a bed of salad - lettuce, tomato, cucumber, sliced red pepper, sliced gherkins, watercress.  Dressed with a squirt of lemon juice and/or vinegar, mixed with the juices from the salmon tin.  I can take a tiny bit of citrus juice without it affecting me too much, I couldn't eat a whole fruit though or drink a glass of juice.

Dinner - Roast chicken leg with roasted cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli.  I'll mix the saved tomato juice with a splash of the green veg cooking water and use that as a sort of gravy, I'll add some herbs/spices and boil to thicken and concentrate it (no gravy granules or cornflour allowed to thicken it).

I'll make sure husband has plenty of veggies at lunch and dinner, he's a big eater and likes a good plateful.

I did wake up in the early hours and lie there wondering if we could do this....but it's only for 7 days and I do have the lovely new coat as motivation!  If it works out alright, we're thinking we'll do a 5 day version of it every 2 or 3 weeks.  Also, it'll be lovely to go back to the diabetes nurse for my review in 3 months time and show her I'm a stone or two lighter.

Steam rollered

Having gone back to bed this morning, I now don't feel too bad, just a bit like I've been run over by a steam roller. Husband is feeling much better so this virus, or whatever it is, is clearly a short-lived one, thank goodness.  

I did some baking this afternoon - well, I'd got pastry out of the freezer yesterday in order to make a few things for our (now postponed) dominoes night with our friends, so I needed to use it.  I'd also defrosted some sausages, intending to make sausage rolls - couldn't be arsed to do anything fiddly though, so made a large sausage tart.  I made up a small pack of sage & onion stuffing and mixed the skinned sausages in, along with a few squirts of tomato puree and some grated cheese.  Spread the base of the pastry with cranberry sauce then put the sausage mix on top.  

There was a bit of pastry left over, so I made a dozen mince pies with some of my homemade mincemeat.  

I also baked a trayful of jacket spuds whilst the oven was on, we'll have one with the tart, the others will be frozen individually wrapped.  Worn out now.

Thank you for comments on the last couple of posts.  Annabeth, I can't be bothered to ask the blog administrator to get rid of the post that had my blog link published in it - what's done is done.  But good point, I hadn't even considered the GDPR regulations - I just thought she had a cheek publishing the link without my permission (she didn't even ask).

The thermal face masks (2, so he's got one to wear whilst the other is being washed) came today, very speedy service.  He likes them, although they make him look like a mugger!  Good job we live in a tiny hamlet and everyone knows him, even with the mask on he'll be recognisable because of Betty, teehee.

The dreaded lurgy

Looks like both of us have got some kind of mild flu-like virus.  Husband went back to bed after breakfast yesterday, got up for lunch but didn't feel like eating it, then went to bed again.  We didn't eat much for dinner as neither of us felt like it, then had an early night.

I've been up since 03.30 with generalised aching and a thumping headache, the same symptoms husband had yesterday, am about to go to bed again.  We're supposed to be having friends round for our dominoes and pizza night, but will put it off till next week instead.

Oh, the new diabetes med is certainly making me wee....must have gone about a dozen times yesterday.  At this rate I'll be slim in no time!  (as if!).