Friday again, time to weigh to see how my “food optimising” is going. Its not called a “diet”, not on Slimming World, its food optimising. Makes sense really once you start doing it and get a gist of how it all really works. Its still possible to eat most things, not really calorie counting and food measuring to make life awkward. Stick to the free foods and eat as much as you like it says. And yet, on the news the other night, a Doctor spoke of how He lost a stone and a half just by ensuring that He had 3 meals a day and the portions were no larger than what he could hold in his cupped hands. Wouldn’t want to measure a stew that way. But still, its confused me a bit now. Wonder what his meals consisted of? Clearly we all know that we need to eat healthily, I’m guessing burgers or battered fish with chips wasn’t on his menu every day, but i bet he indulged to a degree. Of course while on a food plan they will drum it into you never to eat that way, don’t enjoy anything other than pasta and rice for the rest of your days. That way they keep you on their plan, and therefore paying the weekly subs to go to a group.  Not me, far to tight, have done it with a little help from a friend and plenty of online searches. Don’t ever pay someone to tell you what to eat. For a start it only works if you are disciplined, no amount of people shouting in your lughole what you can and cannot eat will make the slightest difference if as soon as they are not watching, you have a cream cake stuffed in your mouth. So, i have to say that i have no problem with Slimming World’s formula, i just think it is designed to make you feel the need to rely on them. The usual money making machine. A bit like cars, in my Father’s younger days he could pretty much fix his car if it went wrong, but now he, and most other people, have to go to a garage to get it fixed due to the way they design things so that you cannot do it alone. Its repeat business for the car dealerships. And the cynic in me is starting to believe the diet professionals do exactly the same.

Only a small loss today. i stayed on plan, making sure i had only my allowed healthy extras, lost of free foods, and the correct amount of syns. That’s a strange one, its called “syns” in relation to “synergy”, as in the foods that help your body to react to the other foods in a good way and to ensure that you feel as though you can enjoy a snack, etc. So why make it sound as though its wrong? “sins”. It does actually detract from what it is, the concept telling you to eat the “syns”, the mind telling you “sins” are wrong. But even with sticking to plan my loss halved compared to the losses of the last couple of weigh ins. Could it be that due to the liquid intake, or lack thereof, the losses have slowed down? It will tell you anywhere you look that we should always take in enough fluids. Of course while the weather is hot like it was we all drink far more water and squash, but once it cools down a bit i am certainly guilty of drinking nowhere near enough. So this week i shall be testing a theory and ensuring i drink lots of fluids.

The other issue i found, scales. So many different options, i was using a wii fit until last week, but what i found was that whatever you use it needs to have stones, lbs and ounces. Do a conversion of 15 st 3 lbs, and you get 214.20 lbs. Now try 15 st 3 lbs and 9 ounces, and the result is 215.46 lbs. It doesn’t sound much, but believe me when you are trying to lose weight and are very conscious of the lbs, every ounce also counts. Just an observation.

I am doing an “August Challenge” on the dieting forum, set myself a target of losing 6 lbs in the month, and as of this morning i have reached target, 6.2 lbs, and 15 days still to go. Real big push now to try to reach some other targets i have set. I just hope it all still goes as well once i have lost a lot of my weight to lose and am getting close to where i want to be. Mind, if you go by BMI then i will still have another 2 stone to go from there to get to my ideal weight. Not that i believe their figures to be honest. I had a few people tell me i looked much healthier at 12 stone than i did at 10 stone. But i will make a decision on that once i get to target. Have set myself a goal for getting there by December 23rd. Just in time to scoff at Christmas. Yay.

Apart from that, i have cooked today, cottage pie for dinner tonight, a bolognaise to portion and freeze, and a chicken roasted and dismantled to create enough for 4 meals. Nothing like being organised. Not that it happens often. And its all healthy eating on the plan I’m on. No syns except for the gravy granules in the cottage pie. I can live with that. So i shall also enjoy a nice pudding. Yep, puddings are allowed. Think “quark”. Awesome stuff, had never heard of it until now, but it works for sweet and savoury. As a pudding i shall mix some with a toffee mullerlight, chop a banana into it, add some sweetener, and hey presto, a banoffee pudding. And actually is really nice. I’m certain there could be a market for this stuff on a pub menu somewhere? Hmmmm.

Well this has taken me all day so far, in between doing other things, so i think i shall leave it here. Maybe i will post again tomorrow.

 

 

 

  

Daz

Me, 43 y/o of the male species, currently residing back in the town of my incarnation after spending 20 years running around the Midlands area troubleshooting run down and/or bankrupt pubs. Single and stuck at my parents while waiting for the local authority to be really kind and give me a flat to live in. Seems they are not as quick with their thoughtfulness as one would hope. With so much time running pubs I have many an experience, long and tall tales to tell, stories of wonderful people, as well as some not so wonderful people. I still have a passion for real ales, in the art of keeping them, serving them, making sure they are at optimum level for the customer, and yes maybe drinking them, although now it is to a somewhat lesser extent. But more about that if someone wishes to ask, or maybe some of it will come into my blogs? One can never tell. I had finally come home after so long when the company I worked for decided they no longer had a pub for me to run when the last one I was in got sold to a local property developer. 2 days notice I had of becoming jobless and homeless. The traits of being a Managing trouble-shooter I’m afraid. So home I came, stopped at my best mates for a few weeks, left there and went to my parents. Travelled many a mile for interviews with pub companies and agencies, including almost 900 miles in 2 days for 2 such opportunities. That’s the love I have for staying in the pub trade. Alas it would seem that I also have far to much experience, a few Area Managers and company owners having an obvious disdain for the fact I knew more than them about the trade. Not that I was one to rub it in their faces, but I think it must have come across as I talked of what my past history entailed. Sunday 26th February 2012, I walked into one of the village pubs for a drink that had only reopened a few days before. Got chatting to the chap that was leasing it and by Monday lunch time I was the Manager. Result. Managing a pub I had known since childhood, knew most of the customers, and had a family name well connected to the area. Wish I had of gone in sooner, would have saved me a fortune in petrol. Less than 3 weeks later, Thursday 15th March 2012, the pub was doing good, lots to sort out to get it trading properly but the signs were very positive. Approx 6.30 – 7am while having a coffee and watching the news on telly the stroke happened. Put me on the floor, took my mobility, killed my speech, blurred my vision completely. Had to crawl down the stairs to let the ambulance crew in. So here we are, present day, lost my job, again, so homeless, and now unable to work, have ended up back at my parents. For ANYBODY that has a job where your home comes with it, buy something, even a caravan, but something, you never know when you will need it. It's now a while since it happened and all I have been left with of any inconvenience is vertigo, both the severe and BPPV varieties. That created a massive lack of mobility which in turn had me balloon by over 3 and a half stone. So here I am, grateful to be living, but determined to beat the vertigo, and to lose the fat. Follow my blog and join me on a journey that is actually enjoyable, in that it gives me a focus while I’m left as one of this Governmen'ts horrible statistics that they can't force back to work (yet). (Ooops, dont think me political, I am not, in any way shape or form, just as I don’t believe in God, but I do read the news about the state of current affairs.) Thanks for reading.