I decided to take a different approach to this “regime”. (The word is in the news so much these days that it just seems to fall off my fingers onto the keyboard.)
Basically – I sat down and thought about what I wanted to eat every day that would still allow me to lose weight. That’s such a different starting point than sitting down and wondering what I should cut out of my diet every day.
I came up with this:
- breakfast – a big bowl of porridge, fruit and yogurt (porridge made with half a cup of oats and 2.5 cups of water.) Right now my fruit is tinned pumpkin heated up and stirred in with the yogurt. I’ll probably have blueberries next.
- lunch -cottage cheese and 4 slices and ryvita. I eat 150g of cc which is about a quarter of a large tub. Sometimes I nibble on a couple of the crackers about an hour before I eat the rest.
- snack – dried fruit. About 60 calories worth and, I’m afraid, for now I’m buying the over-packaged individual portions for some extra built-in self-control.
- I also build in 6 big mugs of coffee and/or tea per day – each with 1/3 cup 1% milk. I tried to have less milk but it tasted like a diet, so I got rid of a 100g yogurt snack and just enjoy my milky hot drinks.
- dinner – a big plate of vegetables and lean protein. I originally had thought about half the protein and a small portion of rice, but I’m happy with more chicken and no rice. (One less pot to wash.) These past couple of days have been chicken breast cut up with a green, red and yellow pepper, an onion and 2 carrots, all tossed in 2 tsp of olive oil and roasted in the over. I think the next 4 days will be a big pot of veggie chili.
- alcohol - In the absence of a commute, I do like a drink to signal that the working day is over. Wine is hard to control once that bottle is open so I’ve opted for a well tonicked G&T. I use a measure of gin and a 300ml bottle of Fever Tree naturally light tonic which is very tasty. It’s nice long grown-up tasting drink with only 1 unit of alcohol.
Once I figured out what I wanted to eat, it was easier to figure out what needed to be temporarily off the menu, namely:
- cheese
- peanut butter
- bananas
- wine
- all other forms of crackers and bread
With wine, the thought process was, “I want wine but can’t control it. What should I have instead?”
With all the others, I didn’t actually notice I wasn’t eating them because I started from “What do I want to eat every day?” and they didn’t feature on the list. Interesting. If I’d wanted to eat peanut butter every day, I would have made it work, but it didn’t even come to mind. Not just interesting – bloomin’ amazing.
Tomorrow: What happens on the days when I can’t just eat to my own selfish routine?
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