Weigh-in
4 lbs lost since I started calorie counting again (this week).

Lunch
Liver sausage and cottage cheese salad sandwich

Snack
Half a cherry bakewell, shared with Rosie

Dinner
Veg and salad with leftover cheese and onion sandwich filling (330 calories for 93g!) + tangerine

Lunch
Cheese salad with carrots and Crackerbreads and fruit.

Dinner
I tried to go without a second meal. But I got really hungry about 10pm. I heated thinner tomatoes with chillies (and their seeds) and capers. The chillies add oomph but also make me slow down when I am eating.

Mouth hot and so then had an apple.

I seem to be doing alternate-day very low calories. I hope I can keep it up. Being hungry in the evening does make me feel self-righteous and so it does have some benefits. 😁

Lunch
Cottage cheese salad with cous cous.

Dinner
Pasta bake made with lean mince beef, meat-free mince, passatta, red peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic, chilli and a cheese sauce made with semi-skimmed milk and lighter cheddar cheese.

+ low-fat yoghurt and a tangerine

I am fast approaching the weight I was before I lost 70 lbs (32 kg) in 2008.

There are fewer clothes I can wear; I have a cupboard full of lovely skirts and blouses, new second-hand clothes I had to buy to replace my wardrobe.

I can’t do up the buttons of my jacket, let alone get into my winter coat.

Every day I say “tomorrow will be different.” But every day I relinquish control and then feel bad that I did.

Today is tomorrow.

I was able to lose 1.5 lbs a week on average in 2008 by staying under 1,200 calories a day. I know from recent attempts to reboot the diet, the max is now 1,000. *sigh*

I hope I have some company on this journey.

Lunch

Liver sausage and cheese salad. No oil. I switched to a dinner plate when I couldn’t get everything on the side plate. :-/

Lunch
Quorn ham and cottage cheese salad sandwich + cassava crisps + fruit

Dinner
While waiting for my first Toastmaster meeting as a member, I went to a corner shop with a budget of a £1. Tempted by a lamb samosa (just 20% meat) or 8 frankfurters, I went for a pack of Danish salami.

I asked the guy at the till if he had scissors to open the pack because I was going to eat the salami right then. He said “oh my gosh” so I explained it was my dinner. He asked if I wanted a bread roll with it. I said “sure”. He showed me a bag of crusty white rolls and said they were a little old but I could have all four for nothing. I took one only and thanked him.

+ a chocolate Digestive in the meeting break

After the meeting, I saw that the corner shop was still open. I went in and asked if he still had the three bread rolls because I would feed them to the birds. He gave them to me, saying “that’s the most amazing thing you can do.”

I was 20 mins early for my bus. I decided to walk to the next bus stop to pass the time. I was carrying a bag with three dry bread rolls. I ate most of them as I walked. But I did throw the last half away. So much for feeding the birds.

Lunch
Quorn ham and cottage cheese salad sandwich + cassava crisps – cup-a-soup + fruit

I’m still buying Quorn ham (meat-free) because it’s cheaper, tastier and less calorific than actual ham. Go figure.

Dinner
Roast chicken + half mini pizza base + veg + choc ice

Lunch
Quorn ham and cottage cheese salad sandwich + cassava crisps + fruit

Dinner
Tinned tomatoes with garlic, tuna, frozen veg, olive oil, Crackerbreads + frozen berries with fat-free yoghurt

Snack
Light Alpen cereal bar.

A week’s catch up with meal totals only. I took photos of all meals but there are too many too post.

My max calories should be 1,200 a day. However, I averaged 1,700/day in this week due to mega eating on Saturday (fish and chips) and Sunday (duck dinner with dessert).

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

The first day I found a blog by a 20something who’d been raised vegetarian but had just decided to eat meat. She said she found things disappointingly bland. A commenter pointed out that flavourings are much stronger than the real thing. So my fake meat, fake fish will have more favour. I’ve been warned.

So far I’ve had salmon paste (originally bought for snacks for Frank), tuna and a taste of haddock.

I’ve been more hungry between meals eating fish protein than before. So much for my theory that it’d be easier to diet with fish.

I’m going to eat meat discerning, going for quality rather than a cheap burger (although a Big Mac will be the exception). I’m looking forward to liver. I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to slice into a piece of flesh and eat it. I don’t want to be one of those squeamish hypocritical omnivores. I’d always said that if one is going to eat meat, nothing is off limits if it’s tasty.

It’s an interesting journey. I don’t know where I will end up.

Lunch
Tuna and cheese salad sandwich + cassava crisps + fruit

Dinner
Tomatoes, Quorn ham, cottage cheese, Crackerbreads + fruit

Snack
Porridge with fake butter and sultanas

Breakfast
Salmon paste salad sandwich + cassava crisps + fruit

Snack
Quorn ham, mini Babybel light, sandwich pickle

Lunch
Coconut bar, Snickers ice cream (~400 calories?)

Dinner
Baked beetroot, pickled peppers, vinegar, cottage cheese, Crackerbreads + fruit

At this point, I was already over 1,200 calories but then it was Eurovision.

Snacks
Champagne, mixed nuts

smh

I’ve been doing the ADF longer than Paola and am seeing a slow decline in my weight (about a pound ever couple of weeks) and like Paola, my weight appears to fluctuate up and down by up to a kilo when I when weighing daily.

While on the non-fast day you’re supposed to be able to eat ‘normally’ I can see how easy it is to binge out on the naughty stuff like cake, biscuits and chocolate. It’s a kind of reaction to eating so little the day before, but I’m finding as time goes on, that craving seems to be diminishing. Oddly, it wasn’t a fast day and I was so busy, I forgot to have lunch and didn’t miss it, so I made up my calories in nuts.

I’ve decided to plan on avoiding exceeding 1500 kcals on my non-fast day for a few weeks, starting next week (I’ve got a social event tomorrow so it won’t be possible) to see how that goes. I won’t count exactly, but after all this time I have a fair idea of the calorific value of most foods to be able to keep a rough tally! I’ll report back…