Huzzah! Never fear! I am still alive. I didn’t drop down dead from eating some chicken! It’s just all been a bit manic the last few days. Eating and keeping track of it is hard! Anyway, I guess the big news is that I’ve eaten several times now. As I mentioned in my last post, the management phase dictates that I have only 1 portion of protein for the first two days. So, Thursday was my last day at work last week but, for various reasons, I ended up working late! As a result my poached chicken had to wait. I guess it had been 4 and a half months so another hour or so wasn’t going to hurt! As Thursday was also my treadmill day I didn’t actually set out to cook it until about quarter to nine. I decided to poach the chicken breast for 20 minutes (about 180 calories worth) in some vegetable stock. Now I wasn’t expecting anything mind blowing but my god it was the best chicken I’ve ever eaten! I know this is going to sound obvious but it was so…..chickeney lol. It was also very filling and I have to say, using a knife and fork for the first time in 4 months was quite the challenge in itself! So my first eating experience went well and I went to bed feeling reasonably full for the first time in ages. On the emotional side of things I felt fine about it. I was worried for a time that there would be some fear or loathing of said chicken breast but to be honest, I think I was so ready to eat and had prepared for it so far in advance that it wasn’t really an issue. Last night for my protein only dinner I had a Salmon fillet steamed in the microwave. Wow is all I can say. It was really tasty. Nicest piece of fish I’ve ever had too. Hmmmmm, does anyone else sense a theme coming through here. I have to be honest though, the salmon didn’t like me very much but all seems to have calmed down now. I guess that’s to be expected. I remember having similar developments in the bowel department when my body was getting used to Lighterlife food packs. As Saturday was day 3 of RTM, I got to add some salad! So I picked up some ‘mixed baby leaf’ at food shopping and I’m planning to have half a pack (all 8 calories of it lol) with my protein for the foreseeable future. I’ve been adding a squeeze of lemon juice on it too. Ooooooooh, get me. There are some other salad /veg choices available and I may add some spring onion and cucumber from week 2 but I’m really trying to keep it simple. As for the protein choice over the weekend I had some cottage cheese on Saturday and Fresh prawns on Sunday. All went down well. Last night I was back on the chicken but I poached it with mustard and balsamic vinegar (as suggested in the RTM week 1 book). I guess it did taste a bit but the main difference was the outside of the chicken being a bit yellow lol. Anyway, another Salmon fillet tonight. I’ve had my recommended portion of oily fish already for the week but I have the salmon in the fridge and I need to use it. Salmon is quite high in calories (they’re good calories) so I think only once a week is the way forward. I’m considering some Tuna, Quorn etc in week 2 but I’m not going shopping until Saturday so it’s chicken, cottage cheese etc until then. I’ll cover the extra options in week 2 soon. So, all in all, food is going ok. I was surprised how unsurprised I was by it if that makes any sense. I guess I was more ready for the change than I thought.
My spreadsheet is now a thing of beauty. My meal planner is immense and includes all the fat, carb, sugar etc content of everything I’m eating. Something I’ve had to put some serious thought into is targets for eating. As the RTM books are rather vague on portion sizes etc, I’m going for a calorie based approach. As they also don’t tell you how to up your calorie intake, I’ve done some research and it seems a lot of people take the approach of increasing your calorie intake by 100 a day every week. I’m gonna go with this and see how I get on. So, as I was on 530 calories as day on 4 food packs, I’m increasing this to 630 or 4,410 a week. I’ve overshot this slightly in week one but that’s due to having Salmon twice this week. Also, as I’m now burning over 1000 calories a week on the treadmill, I’m not concerned. Fat content is also something I’m having to take a keen interest in. Apparently no more than 30% of your calorie intake should come from fat and no more than 10% should be saturated. The long and short of it is my max fat intake for week one should be 147g and max saturated fat should be 49g. I’m happy to report that I’m under this! I know this all sounds complicated but I figure it’s best to record as much information as possible in order to understand what is most relevant over time. Phew, that’s enough on that!
I also had another nice development on the scales this week. I’ve pretty much lost 8 stone now. I mean it’s touch and go but I’m probably only a pound away. As a result I’ve kinda come out of the closet lol. Not that I was particularly in it in the first place as close family, friends and colleagues have been in the know since day one. What I mean are things like that I’ve never told anyone about this blog since I started for example. Anyway, it’s all changed now and I’ve updated my Facebook profile with this web address and new pics to boot. To the outside eye I’m basically telling my achievement to anyone who will listen. This isn’t an attention seeking exercise or fishing for compliments. I just think that the more I get it out there, the more people are aware of how far I’ve come, the more determined I’ll be to keep it off and not go back to my old ways. My wife said to me last night that I should be keeping it off for myself and I am but, I figure every little helps! With all that said, let’s make things clear for any new readers (especially people I know!). I’ve just started eating again and am BELOW my target weight. The extra calories will make me ‘plump up’ a bit and I will put some weight back on. In actual fact, I plan to. I’ve had a couple of people comment that I look ill and lost too much. Whilst I don’t think I look ill, I’ll be quite happy to put half a stone or so on. It’s the reason I got to below my target weight (14 stone 7lbs, currently 13 stone 10). Anyway, I mentioned new pics. My LLC has emailed me all the pics. So here they are. My ultimate before and afters. There’s unlikely to be any other pics of me weighing less than I do here. So this is after 20 weeks of full abstinence without one single lapse and the better part of 8 stone lighter. The before pics still freak me out.
How mad are these pics! Cracks me up. Although the before ones are far from funny if you know what I mean. Anyway, first meeting of the dedicated RTM group tomorrow and weigh in. Check back soon for results!
G
