Week 2 of my 8 Week Challenge

Instant gratification v Long term gratification.

Starting this week with a clean slate. Not thinking to much about last week. It was a huge effort and if I get to bogged down about the effort required I feel overwhelmed knowing there’s another 7 weeks to go. So I approach this week fresh and see how I go.

Ted and I had planned to go for a walk/run tonight but he unexpectedly got held up at work so I ended up doing a very late program workout. As a result it probably wasn’t my best effort but I still did it.

I enjoyed the menus porridge this morning because I like porridge’s. Last night I put all the dry ingredients in a small pot and the wet ingredients in a container in the fridge so all I had to do this morning before work was mix wet and dry and cook. Prefer to do porridge on the stove as I think you can control the consistency better.

For the broccoli salad I cooked the kale and broccoli last night. Toasted the flaked almonds and package the feta cheese, goji berries, avocado in little sbsock bags ready to put together at work. I made the dressing the night before ready to tip on today.

Carrot soup for tea was ok. 2 days, no meat. I’m looking forward to steak tomorrow night.

And I’m even more so looking forward to a strawberry milk smoothie for breakfast.

Day 2 Week 2

Today went well. I did a walk/run for exercise. When I exercise it feels under sufferance especially running. I feel physically awful doing it. It’s not enjoyable at all. That’s why I find exercise long term hard to sustain. I really dislike how it makes me physically feel. It never seems to feel easier.

It was so nice to have a strawberry smoothie today made with coconut milk. It’s been 9 days since I had a smoothie like this. I felt like I was in heaven. Lunch I forced down and tea was great. It tasted so good. A beautiful rib eye steak with roasted vegetables. Sweet potato, tomatoes, with a bit of spinach and Dijon mustard.

No snacks. I’m doing really well with the snacks. No alcohol but that’s never an issue with me.

Day 3 week 2

Today I reluctantly made my egg and salad breakfast. It’s not at all that I don’t enjoy eggs cooked like this or didn’t like it, but if I had choice I wouldn’t eat these foods for breakfast. I like muesli, porridge, birchers, smoothies and at a stretch toast.

Even when away and have an option of a buffet breakfast no matter where in the world, I will everyday choose those foods over eggs, bacon and vegetable variants. I guess it’s just personable choice.

I’m trying to change my habits as having those breakfasts I enjoy were part of the catalyst for starting to regain weight.

As I ate my spinach this morning I was thinking, if you eat 80% vegetables and salad and 20% everything else then you should be right. Is this the philosophy I need to adopt to maintain my now perimenopausal body I asked myself. Not to become disheartened I didn’t allow myself to dwell. I looked at the menu for lunch and it’s a warm veggie bowl. More vegetables.

I’m missing bread toasted with butter that melts into it, I’m missing fruit smoothies, I’m missing white potato’s.

The food yesterday was yum. I could eat that everyday!

Day 4 Week 2

Today I was out and about all afternoon. Normally today I would of gone to the Darling Cafe in South Yarra and grabbed myself some lunch. Instead I took a little nibble bag I made up of currents, raw cashews, almonds and goji berries. It got me through until I came home and had a really late lunch. I’ve had tea but I wasn’t really hungry.

I watched The programs nutritionists live video. It was great as always. So far I have stuck to the plan 100%. After 2.5 years on the program like she said new habits had crept in for me. Too many smoothies, eating 28 meals but ones I like which although healthy my macros were all out and not enough salads and vegetables.

I’m trying to create better habits again thus my reason for being so ridged at the moment.

I’m out on Sunday so my 100% will be thrown off but that’s ok. The more I stay on the plan the better results. And I really want results as I had started to regain ( about 1/2 of what I lost). I want to put the brakes on it. I never want to regain the full amount ever again. I felt awful at that weight. ( all up I lost 7.5kg). It was the heaviest I’d ever been.

I am already feeling the benefits after 11 days and can clearly see where I was going off track so that’s been a positive for me out of signing up for this challenge.

I was still eating a completely different diet to my pre 28 diet 2.5 years ago but as I said I had created NEW bad habits!

I think we all have to reboot at some stage, well at least me for sure.

This challenge has been exactly what I needed to refocus again.

Can’t believe how many salads and veggies I’m eating again!

Day 5 Week 2

Day 6 Week 2

So many veggies, a piece of toast with butter would have been great for lunch. And I’m not a fan of cumin. I know it’s great for polyphenols which are a superfood and play a role in weight regulation but I don’t like it & only tolerate it. I’m a bit the same with cinnamon another polyphenol

I am not enjoying this lunch.

I had beef wraps for tea which were nice enough. I’m wondering if I will ever get used to eating this many vegetables. Can I really live like this. Using vegetables to replace my traditional carbohydrates of bread, white potato – chips, and pasta! It’s been 2 weeks let’s see where my head space is in another 6 weeks if there’s been a shift in acceptance of so many vegetables in my diet.

Day 7 Week 2

Today I quickly made breakfast before heading out the door for the afternoon.

We have a 75th birthday to attend. It was a breakfast that was sourdough toast and I would of loved to relax and enjoy it. Instead like often I was rushing and eating it in the car. Time had gotten away from me.

I was prepared today to go with lunch and what was on offer at the function. I had the dessert. It was small but I think I really needed to do this to have the desire to go on with my abundance of low sugar, low carbohydrate meal plan. I needed to eat something pleasurable to me.

It’s about balance not deprivation. An all in all out approach is unsustainable. But for the next 8 weeks I’m committed to following the food plan 90-100%.

I want results and a half arsed effort will get half arsed results!

I have been doing a half arsed effort for a while and my results aren’t making me pleased or happy. In fact weight gain is the result. I want the gain to stop and by September 2019 I want to be back to a 75cm or better.

End of week 2!

I have made every meal accept today’s lunch because I was out.

This week the massive consumption of veggies was starting to weigh heavily on my enthusiasm. But to get results I believe following the plan 90% is necessary. And I am getting results. From about day 10 I was starting to feel better physically and felt my clothes are fitting a little bit more comfortably.

So I’m definitely getting results for my efforts.

As I believe an all in all out approach is unsustainable and this is about getting result but also sustainability I had a small dessert today. I think I needed this to give me the oomph to keep going. It’s not about food deprivation of everything you enjoy.

It’s been 2 weeks into the 8 week challenge and I am hoping by week 8 I hope to have reset some habits that I had let slip over the past twelve months. One is adding more veggies regularly back into my diet.

I don’t have scales as they are broken and as in some way annoying as that is because I can’t monitor progress in kilograms, I think it’s a good thing. If I weighed myself and I had done well on the scales it would of given me a false sense of reward. I would of probably lost a lot of my drive. By going more on my appearance in my knickers and bra and unwanted bulges I think this is a better method of achievement for me. I’m getting rewarded by physically feeling better and clothes fitting slightly looser but still encouraged to keep going by the given reality in the mirror. There is still work to be done and I think if I keep going I’m going to be happy by 8 weeks what I see.

Do bring on week 3!