Eggs…variety!

23 Apr 2014


Eggs. I love eggs. They are bloody marvellous – a source of complete protein and full of vitamins and minerals!

As I was eating my eggs for breakfast, I remembered a discussion we had in group. Actually, this discussion took place exactly one year ago today!

My consultant had asked who remembered the old adverts about ‘going to work on an egg’…and my favourite lady in group piped up, “I tried to go to work on an egg – it didn’t work and I had to get the bus.” She is just so quick-witted and left us with visions of her sitting on an egg and rolling to work! And this was the vision I had as I ate my eggs this morning.

When I looked back at that blog post, it was quite interesting given my current predicament…trying to decide whether to make food changes or just persevere. We had talked about Slimming World ruts – or rather food ruts – and how we could change things up a little. You know that my breakfasts are very similar – porridge and a banana, or a banana…and now a couple of eggs – we discussed how this could hinder our weight loss. Yet I struggle to see how changing up breakfast could help…so I did a little digging!

Current advice tends to lean towards us having a diet that is similar on a daily basis. The thinking being that if you eat similar foods regularly, you are less likely to over consume – as it doesn’t taste new and exciting. This seems like a fair point, and I suppose that as long as you are covering your nutritional bases, then why not eat the same? Perhaps variety isn’t the spice of life! But what about boredom?

We all know that boredom can lead to snacking, and so if we eat the same foods – or similar foods – how likely are we to be able to stick to a healthy eating regime? The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published research that suggested, regardless of your weight, those with a varied diet consumed more calories. But what if that ‘Monday = chicken and veggies, Tuesday = salmon and sweet potato, Wednesday = chilli con carne, etc’ type of regime means that you start to wander due to boredom? Don’t ‘they’ say that familiarity breeds contempt?

Personally, I know how much damage boredom can do in my diet – many failed weight loss attempts can back me up with this! So I am going for the ‘eat with your eyes’ approach and I try to ensure that I have a variety of foods. I might stick to the same breakfasts, but I try to think of new meal ideas for lunch and dinner so that I stay interested. A boredom binge could see me munch through thousands of calories in one sitting…so I would far rather consume an extra couple of hundred calories a week through variety – and continue to lose weight – than get bored and throw in the towel.

I do have my favourites though, and I have a tendency to find a meal that I love – like the Asda meatfree burgers! – and I have them on a regular basis. But I am going to try and have a couple of new meals this week and see how things go. As I was making dinner last night, Mr WLB happened to comment that we could try something new…I am sure you can imagine my response. It was similar to the response I just gave him when he asked what choice of bread he should have with his takeaway curry…as I was about to start cooking my on-plan meal. It is a wonder that this boy is still alive given the food hell he puts me through at times. But as I have said before, he doesn’t need to lose weight and can eat what he wants…I don’t eat that sort of food anymore.

So whilst he gets on with scoffing his takeaway, I think I might have a look back at weeks with successful weight losses and see what I was eating. I am going to look back at last year and I think I’ll find it interesting to see the changes I have made…I used to eat a lot of cereal bars and sweetened yogurts…and my tastes have changed. I haven’t forced these changes and I can honestly say that I never thought that I would be someone who liked plain organic rice cakes…but I do! ;-)

Today has been good. It started with me in tears though after reading about Stephen Sutton, a 19 year old with terminal cancer. I sat in the car at the gym crying my eyes out – this guy is truly inspirational and has shown amazing strength…strength I cannot comprehend. I donated £5 by texting ‘Stephen’ to 70500 and you can also donate via his Just Giving page if you want to. His target was to raise £1m and last night his story was picked up by a few celebs on Twitter – which is where I saw it initially. Last night he was at £580k and I have just checked now…it’s at £1.3m. I am just so pleased that he knows he did it…he doesn’t have long left. So I gave a bit of money and headed up to my personal training session. After that though, I was a bit washed out. My trainer asked what was up and I said that I hadn’t slept well…but when I told him the story later on in the session he said, ‘Aw bless you…that’s probably why you weren’t yourself!’ I have a big heart and personal stories touch me. I used to be a bit hard-faced…I think it was a by-product of not dealing with emotions…and now I am an emotional wreck at times! I got on with my session – which was fab – and then headed off to catch up with an old friend of mine. She is a fellow ‘loser’ too and is trying to deal with emotions and self-esteem issues. Chatting with her made me realise how ingrained some of our problems are…they take a long time to deal with! I would love nothing more than to see her crack this weight loss…she is a fellow horse person too, in fact she used to let me ride her lovely horses, and it would be ace to see her aboard again looking happy! Tonight…well, tonight I am going to relax I think.

Breakfast: Eggs and banana.

20140423-180942.jpgLunch: Pasta, cottage cheese, and veggies.

20140423-181026.jpgDinner: Jacket sweet potato with cheese, Linda Mc sausages, and roasted veggies (2 x HEA and 2 x HEB).

20140423-194055.jpgSnack: Trek bar (11.5 syns).

20140423-184517.jpgA good food day. A couple of eggs and a banana set me up nicely for my workout. Lunch I had made to take with me when I met my friend and I scoffed that whilst waiting for her to arrive. It was just pasta with cottage cheese, mushrooms, carrots, green beans, and peas. To resist a takeaway I made a huge jacket sweet potato, some roasted veggies, Linda Mc sausages and loads of cheese. I had no bread or cereals or nuts in the house and so used my HEBs for cheese…which you can do on a Green day…and just had loads of it on my dinner. Not great I guess in terms of ‘health’…but on plan and a heck of a lot better than Mr WLBs dinner. And here is Mr WLBs dinner…

20140423-191447.jpgHe does make my life difficult at times…but I like to think of nights like these as character building strength testers! ;-)

Exercise: 10 minutes elliptical machine, and 60 minute PT.

Thank you for reading,

Weight Loss Bitch xxx

  

WeightLossBitch

On a health and fitness driven journey to lose over 32st / 448lbs / 203kgs – yes, it is a considerable amount – I am committed to losing my excess weight without the aid of weight loss surgery, diet pills, or quick fixes…as there aren’t any! Changing my eating habits and building up my fitness levels, along with addressing the ‘head issues’ will be crucial in order for me to achieve my goal. Living in England as a 31 year old super morbidly obese woman can be challenging to say the least. I have been shouted at in the street and verbally abused far too many times to mention; hence the name ‘Weight Loss Bitch’…the day I am just called a ‘bitch’ instead of a ‘fat bitch’ will be the day that I know I have cracked my weight loss! With many reasons to lose this weight I am documenting my journey for a number of reasons. Firstly, I would like to keep a record of the ups and downs, the highs and lows, and the challenges I face with such an enormous task to tackle. Secondly, I would also like to inspire and encourage other people who are in a similar situation and to show them that significant amounts of weight can be lost naturally…with a bit of motivation, hard work, dedication and will power. Thirdly, all of the blogging, Facebook-ing, Tweet-ing, Pinterest-ing and YouTube-ing keeps me occupied and keeps my fingers out of the fridge!

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