Apologies for my Absence

In my little Profile paragraph, which appears in the right sidebar, I did write that I am still quite fragile and anyone who has read my Main Blog, from the beginning, will have a little insight into why I might have said that. Maybe then I was a bit too eager to race ahead with my Blogging when I decided to start this second Blog about my dieting progress on Stepping Out for a Bite.

I was inspired by Sue's How Low Can You Go Food Diary and Mrs Thrifty's New Beginnings With Food to try the Harcombe Diet  and like these two lovely ladies I wanted to be quite honest, if I didn't stick to the plan or didn't lose any weight. 

I should have been prepared, therefore, for the comments that I received in response, however I have to admit to being very upset by two in particular and apologies to my 4 Followers, I haven't been able to post on this Blog for sometime. However, I do recognise that I did set myself up to receive comments and to make myself "accountable" for my actions in regard to my Food Intake.

Therefore I would also like to apologise to both anonymous commenters for not publishing your comments. I can't find a way to reinstate the comments, which I deleted, and can only remember one of them verbatim, so Anonymous 1 here is your comment, "A few too many Oops moments, you'll never be anything but a heifer unless you change your attitude!". Anonymous 2, I don't want to paraphrase, but if you send your comment again I will post it and thank you both for trying to help me stick to my guns.

Whilst I am not necessarily any less fragile emotionally, I will be trying to add some posts on this Food Diary Blog for those who were kind enough to Follow me, but it will probably not be daily and is likely to only be a celebration of successes, rather than a no-holds barred account. I hope this is Ok.

Lots of Love Arwedd xx

Week 2 - Phase 2

Week 2 of the Harcombe Diet is about not combining Fat and Carbs in the same meal, but so far I have been really struggling to do this. Need to have a re-think.

Day 15 - Tuesday

Breakfast         Alpen and Milk

Lunch              Cup a soup and toast, yoghurt

Tea                  Sausages and Jacket Potato, cherry yoghurt

Snacks             Jaffa Cakes, tomatoes, pickled gherkins

Drinks              Green tea, orange squash

Day 14 - Monday

Breakfast         Alpen and milk (already broken the fat and carbs rule)

Lunch               Cup a soup and toasted weightwatchers bread, cherry yoghurt

Tea                   Bacon and Stir Fry Veg

Snacks            Apple, packet of crisps (oh dear)

Drinks            Green tea, Decaff coffee with milk

Day 13 - Sunday

Breakfast          None (still a bad habit).

Lunch               Prawn salad, cherry yoghurt

Tea                   Lamb Shank, roast potatoes and Veg

Snacks             Apple, 2 chocolate digestive biscuits (I see a weakness).

Day 11, 12 & 13 plus Saturday Weigh In

Weight Loss this week = 1lb

Day 13 - Saturday

Breakfast        None, sorry, I know that's not good

Lunch             Beautiful Lunch at Frugal Queens, Falfels, Ham Quiche, salad plus Cake (another oops)

Tea                 Ham in bread rolls, cherry tomatoes, packet of crisps

Day 12 - Friday

Breakfast         Bacon & Boiled eggs

Lunch              Salad

Tea                 Oh Disaster!! Number 1 Son and I ended up at MacDonalds for tea as we ran out of options due to circumstances. Chicken Burger

Snacks            Apple, cucumber, tomatoes

Drinks             Water, green tea, Cola

Day 11 - Thursday

Breakfast          Bacon & Boiled eggs

Lunch               Bacon salad plus Natural Live Yoghurt

Tea                   Tuna and Stir Fry Veg

Snacks             Apple and Celery

Drinks             Water & Green Tea

Day 10

Wednesday

Breakfast           Bacon and Boiled eggs

Lunch                Chicken salad, Cherry yoghurt

Tea                    The filling from the Chicken and mushroom pie the boys had with added courgette.

Drinks               Water, Green tea and a cup of decaff coffee with milk before bed (a cheat).

Snacks               Carrots, tomatoes, red pepper, cucumber, apple.

Cheats              2 squares very dark chocolate and a chocolate digestive. 

It seems as though my Day3 of this diet my cravings kick in, not good, as I'm rubbish at ignoring their call. I do feel better though for not having all the bread and pasta I was eating.

Day 9

Tuesday

Breakfast          Bacon and Eggs

Lunch               Chicken and Stir-Fry Veg, Fat Free Muller Light Cherry Yoghurt (a cheat)

Tea                   Pork Chop and Stir-Fry Veg, Cherry Yoghurt

Snacks             Apple (another cheat), Tomatoes, Celery, cucumber, ham slices

Drinks              Water

The Cherry Yoghurt and Apple are a cheat on the Harcombe Diet as you are not supposed to have any fruit in Phase 1 and only Natural Live Yoghurt. However, I am going to allow them all week as they are still healthy and they keep me off the Carbs which I am trying to avoid more. The lack of gluten is good for my stomach at the moment which doesn't feel so sluggish.

Day 8

Monday

Breakfast              4 rashers of bacon and 2 boiled eggs

Morning Snack     Celery sticks

Lunch                    Roasted Parsnip, red pepper, red onion, courgette, plus apple for pudding (cheat)

Afternoon Snack    4 slices of ham and cucumber

Tea                        Roasted Butternut squash, sweet potato, courgette and onion

Drinks                    Water and Green Tea

Day 7

Sunday (today)

Breakfast            None (naughty I know, but I knew what was coming later)

Lunch                  Family Barbecue - Beefburger, 3 sausages, 2 chicken drumsticks in marinade, new potatoes, salad with dressing, Eton Mess, Peach Flan and a scoop of Ice-cream. Glass of Wine and 2 glasses of Coca-cola. Then a few chocolate mints and Cadburys Heroes, well it would have been rude not to!

Tea                      Chicken and Bacon salad

Other drinks          Cup of Coffee with Milk, (very bad, my heart is already disliking it) and water.

Updated -

Late night snack    Apple and Cheese

Day 6

Saturday

Breakfast          Bacon

Lunch               Ham Salad and Fat Free Muller Light Yoghurt

Tea                   Potato Croquettes, tin of tuna and 2 poached eggs

Snack               Apples

Drinks               Green Tea and Water

Cheats              Mint Aero Bar (oops, I did it again!)

Day 3, 4 & 5

Day 3 - Wednesday

Breakfast      3 rashers of Bacon, 2 boiled eggs
Lunch            Seafood Salad
Tea               Tuna and Roasted courgette, carrots, onions, and parsnips.
Snacks          Celery, carrots, tomatoes
Drinks            Grren tea and Water

Day 4 - Thursday

Breakfast      2 rashers of Bacon, 1 Sausage, 2 Boiled Eggs
Lunch           Ham Salad
Tea               Bacon and Stir Fry Vegetables
Snacks         Carrots, tomatoes, cucumber sticks
Drinks           Green tea and water

Day 5 - Friday

Breakfast     3 rashers of Bacon, 2 Poached eggs
Lunch           Tuna salad
Tea                3 Salmon steaks and Stir Fry Vegetables
Snacks         Celery
Drinks          Green tea and Water
Cheats          2 Chocolate digestive biscuits (oops)

Health = Lots of terrible splitting headaches, think it might have been the caffeine withdrawal and bad nausea / motion sickness for all 3 days.

Weight Loss this week = 2 lbs

Day 2

Food for yesterday - Tuesday

Breakfast   3 rashers of bacon and 2 poached eggs

Lunch         Lovely Seafood salad / Natural Live Yoghurt

Tea            Tuna and Stir-fry vegetables

Snacks      Celery, carrots, more bacon rashers

Drinks       Green tea and water

Cheats - Day 2 and I cheated already, I had some cherry jam in with the Yoghurt as it was the only way I could eat it, but then I had 3 chocolate digestive biscuits at 23:00 aswell. Oh, and 2 slices of bread which I'm trying to avoid to have a break from gluten. However, I'm not going to let it get me down and make me abandon the whole thing, I just have to get straight back to it today.

Yesterday I did have a whacking headache all afternoon and into the evening. Not sure if that is the diet, caffeiene withdrawal or just co-incidental.

First Steps

The First Step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.

Despite the knowledge that there are a few who love me just as I am, I also know that I am not one of them. I know there are many who believe dieting and restrictive eating patterns are the worst things on earth and indeed it is true that negative views on body image can be very damaging. I hope I can accept and love people for what they are, fat, thin, short, tall, blonde, black, dyed and all, but whilst I love curves and would not want to be stick thin (there's not really a danger of that!), I am not happy the way I am. I am unfit and unhealthy, obese and uncomfortable.

I once had a colleague who described me, behind my back, as "She of the permanent diet, yet Evans wardrobe" and whilst it still hurts that she was mean enough to laugh with others at my expense, what hurts even more is that it was, and still is, true.

I haven't always been overweight. I can't claim to have been a chubby baby or a kid with puppy fat or an overweight teen, so it is at least one thing I can't blame my parents for. Whilst I really don't want to blame an individual, (other than myself), I'm afraid it did start with my first pregnancy. Until I conceived I was well within my healthy BMI range, but as soon as morning sickness hit, the only thing that seemed to settle my stomach was continually nibbling, mainly ginger biscuits. Unfortunately, I had morning sickness, morning, day and evening until 32 weeks the first time and until 38 weeks the second time, so there was an awful lot of nibbling going on. I have never been since, as low a weight as I was before then.

I know I comfort eat when I am stressed and low and in the past two years I have been at some of my lowest times ever, as you will see if you look at my main Blog over at Stepping Out in Faith. Having tried most diets out there, except the Cabbage Soup diet, I have enough problems in that direction without adding the effects of that to the mix aswell, I know I still have to keep trying if I am to improve my health and wellbeing. To that end today is yet again Day 1, and I'm praying for better results than I've had in the past.

Day 1

Breakfast       3 rashers of Bacon and 2 poached eggs

Lunch            Turkey Salad,

Dinner         Tuna and Stir fry vegetables

Snacks        Celery & Carrots

Drinks       4 mugs of green tea

Wish me Luck.

Arwedd xx