Thursday 14 August 2014

So, I lost some weight, kinda.

I did. It's true. Around... Well, I don't actually know. between one stone and two. More importantly, I have lost fat and gained muscle – the weight loss is definitely fat. I have more core strength, more muscle through my shoulders, back and chest, and my body shape has changed a little bit.

If I'd quit beer, it would have changed a hell of a lot more, I suspect.

It's come about because of working with the coach in the US, who has put me on a schedule to inspire my body to burn more fat while exercising. It's also made me a faster runner, and in much better condition all round.

She also put me on to a book which might be a game changer for me - Grain Brain, which is by an American neurologist arguing that grains, carbs, gluten and sugar are what's killing our brain and its ability to function, and are as such responsible for the rise in many maladies and a factor in an incredible amount of things from depression to diabetes and more obvious ones. It's a fascinating  book but one that's taking me a while to read. I had flu recently (came on after a big weekend where I saw Pearl Jam, celebrated my 40th birthday, and watched the World Cup Final (on TV, obv). Oh, and received my decree absolute the same week. No wonder I got ill) and concentration has really been an issue for a month.

Anyway, while observing my own diet, I do eat quite healthily - lots of vegetables, good quality meat (mostly venison, which lives wild on nearby estates) - but what has alarmed me is not the amount of alcohol I consume, but the amount of sugar I was not recognising that is in the booze. I have never, ever craved alcohol; though recently, I noticed I have been craving sugar. When I stayed off beer for October, looking back I can see now that this was the month I rediscovered chocolate. If I don't have a drink of an evening now, I'll find chocolate or ice cream or something similar.

I'm a fuckin' addict.

But on the plus side, sugar consumption is a hell of a lot easier to handle than alcoholism. And with handling that, will come dramatic weight loss. Let's find out, shall we?

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Z looks at her ribs

Ironic that it's taken my husband's weight loss to give me xylophone ribs after all.

He's lost an alarming amount of weight this year.  He'd lost about a stone in the six or nine months before I last wrote, but in the last few months he dropped from about 10 1/2 stone to under 9 stone.  Since he'd been a normal, healthy weight at the start, the first 15 pounds made him pretty slim, but now he's gaunt and emaciated.  He's had tests - blood tests, a chest x-ray and an abdominal CT scan and nothing dreadful has shown up - I know they were looking for bowel cancer, but they didn't find it.  It doesn't mean that it's impossible he has a small tumour somewhere (nor that it's likely, on the other hand) but he hasn't got the major cancer that seemed to be indicated.  That's wonderful news, though there is plainly something wrong, we don't yet know what.

Anyway, it's not appetite inducing, finding myself the bigger eater of the two of us.  He does have a very good breakfast, but I've gone completely off breakfast over the past week and haven't been able to face anything most days.  I do eat lunch and dinner, but what I eat is rather random.  I might eat the same as he does, but I'm doing him whatever he fancies and, if I don't feel like it, I do something else for myself.  For a couple of days, I had a big globe artichoke for lunch - delicious, and I had it with butter,  but there's no substance to it.  I've also been eating quite a lot of Twiglets, which I love - I ate a 105g packet in a day and a half - but they were meal substitutes (at least one of the meals was breakfast).  I have been making and eating cake, because he can sometimes be tempted by cake or ice cream.

A few weeks ago, I found up a very old, red skirt that had been languishing in the back of a cupboard for years.  It is M&S, size 10 and must be quite 25 years old.  Size 10 then is smaller than a size 8 now - that is, the hips are about the same but the waist is smaller.  I tried it on last week and could barely do it up, though it fitted round the hips.

This morning, I weighed myself and found I'd lost a few pounds and was about 8 stone 4.  This surprised me, I would find it incredibly hard to lose about 5 pounds in a month, never mind a week.  But I'm never one to miss an opportunity, so I went to find the skirt (which I'd washed) and tried it on and the waist did up easily.  I ironed it and I'm wearing it now.  When I went to get the iron, I found a couple more skirts waiting to be ironed that I'd forgotten I had - I've been wondering why my summer wardrobe was so sparse.

So, I've hit a 25-ish year low.  Not for the right reasons and I don't necessarily want to be this low a weight - I'm not thin but I am slender and I feel that under 8 stone would be too thin.  I must try to keep eating a bit more - I think it's been worry, mostly, though.

Having said all that, I must do something about dinner.  I've got some salmon, left over from last night.  R wants it as it is, I might add a bit to an omelette - depends on how much he takes.  I've picked some spinach to go with it.  I was given a meringue filled with cream to bring home.  Random snacking suits me nicely right now.

Monday 7 April 2014

Z resists temptation

I weighed myself this morning and have recalculated my BMI at 21.5 (a healthy weight is said to be 18.5 - 25).  R's is 19.5, he having lost weight over the past three years or so.  I knew that he had, but it's over a stone - mind you, his appetite is smaller than it was.  He feels fine but I'll keep an eye on him.  

I'm in the happy position of being the weight I want to be and, at present, not watching what I eat at all.  I ate a bit of all four puddings on Saturday, for example, as well as a packet of crisps - actually, it's just as well I don't do that every day.  

In my 20s and 30s, I reckoned a weight of 8 stone 4 pounds was just right for me.  I'm just over 8 1/2 stone now, and wouldn't want to be too much less - it's very tempting for vanity to take over, but resisting temptation is a good thing, isn't it?

Thursday 20 March 2014

Cake Week

It's been a while, but there's not a lot to say.  I'm still about the same size, still quite happy about it and rarely weigh myself.  I eat what I want, but I don't overeat and I opt not to eat biscuits and suchlike regularly.

When I went to stay with my sister for a fortnight recently, I took a box of mini-bars of Green & Black's chocolate with me.  There were twelve bars in all, each weighing 15g, which is about half an ounce.  This sounds very little, but it's ok.  25g would probably be more satisfying, but this is enough.

For the first couple of nights, I ate a bar every evening and then I started to forget.  Tired, I decided to take a cup of coffee and some chocolate to have in the bath.  It wasn't until I was in bed that I remembered the chocolate and, next day, I found I hadn't even taken it to the bathroom but left it on the table.  I came home with several bars, one of which I've eaten (and my husband has eaten most of the rest, though there are a couple left).

This last week, I ate cake every day.  I was tired and stressed and in need of cosseting and - I had quite a lot of cake.  I only had a small slice every day - though I might have had two slices, once or twice, and by this week it had to stop.  It couldn't on Monday, because Hadrian and I made cakes and not eating them would have been quite out of the question, but on Tuesday I just looked at them longingly. By yesterday, I didn't particularly want them any more.

I did weigh myself before I started Cake Week, however.  If I'd put on weight, I'd have kept well away from temptation.