Detoxing and revising my plan

I think I need to detox for a few days. I don't know about any of you, but this year Easter well and truly got me. I ate far too much food and far too many foods I knew I shouldn't. But then it was Easter, I was staying at Sam's mum's house, and it was the nearest thing to a holiday I'm likely to get this year. So I made the most of it.

And damn if the food wasn't tasty.

But it does mean that this week I really need to get back to my plan. Because next week comes my biggest challenge since I started this plan; its the Easter holidays and I'm at my parent's house for three weeks. Which means I have three weeks where I have a lot less control over what I'm eating. And the person in charge of my food doesn't have anywhere near an intimate knowledge of the rules I've set myself.

For the three weeks I'm at home, I think I'll have to have a special set of rules.

• I need to maintain control of my carbohydrate intake, whatever the meal. Part of the problem has always been the large portions of pasta and rice that get served up at home. I need to make sure I never eat more than I need.
• I'm going to try to eat lots more fruit and vegetables, because they're always readily available in my parent's house. Also they're good for me, and I've been meaning to up my fruit and veg intake.
• I'm going to ask my parent's to get in some all bran muesli type stuff. Having some for breakfast will ensure a good fibre intake, hopefully fill me up for a lot of the day, and will be packed full of vitamins and minerals.
• I'm going to take my Slimfast shakes with me, and maybe see if I can get some more. They make for good, quick lunches.
• I'm going to offer to walk the dog at least three times a week. That means that I'm still getting exercises and not sitting round on my bum all day revising.

There are probably other things I can implement to try to keep control of my health and stick to my plan while I'm at home, but that's all that comes to mind right now. If anyone has any ideas as to what else I can do, feel free to comment below.

My Latest Obsession: Tea

Today I thought I’d talk about my latest passion obsession; tea. While I’ve been quite a fan of the beverage for some time, my interests has exploded recently. It’s one of the things that makes me incredibly happy at the moment, and it’s pretty good for me as well, so I thought I would talk about it for a while.

My family are quite big tea drinkers; they get through a good six or seven (big) pots a day. And that’s a conservative estimate. Sometimes I thin they might almost single handedly keep their chosen tea suppliers in business if they had to. I can’t quite remember when I first made the transition from ‘kiddy’ drinks like fruit squash up to the more mature and adult cup of tea, but it was a good few years ago now. In any case, I quickly matched my family’s thirst for tea.

Whenever I’m at home I’m the first to ask if it’s cup of tea time, the first to finish the cup and ask for another one. But until about 6 months ago most of my tea drinking experience was limited to bog standard supermarket blends with lots of milk. I’d experimented with lemon tea, green tea, herbal teas and slimming teas, but I always came back to the blended English tea.

I blame my Student’s Union for starting my current obsession with tea. One of their freebie bags at Fresher’s Fayre had a tea sampler in it. One of the teabags was a Rooibos or redbush. I really liked it, so I bought a box.

A couple of months later I was searching for free tea samples on the internet, because, well, I’m a poor student and can’t afford to buy a whole box to try a new kind if tea. I spoke to a few friends who also got some samples for me. Next thing I knew I was buying tea from Twinings by the crate load.

I now own many different varieties of tea; Lapsang Souchong, Lady Gray, Ceylon, Darjeeling, Rooibos, Honeybush, green tea, vanilla flavoured, rose flavoured, camomile and more besides.

The great thing about drinking so much tea is that it’s weaned me off sugary coffee, carbonated drinks and fruit juices. Tea is essentially calorie free, which means that my waistline is benefitting from my obsession. I very rarely drank carbonated drinks, but I would start every day with a large glass of fresh fruit juice and spend most of the rest of the day drinking coffee with two sugars in. Now I start the day with a large mug of Lady Gray, and to be perfectly honest, I feel better for it.

There’s a lot of contention and controversy over the health benefits of tea. I tend to take the claims that it can protect you against cancer with a large pinch of salt, and it would be nice if green tea could burn fat for you. I think if that truly was the case then all my family would be stick thin. What is generally accepted is that tea is packed full of antioxidants in varying levels depending on whether you’re drinking black, green or white tea. The antioxidants mop up free radicals in your body, and help your natural enzymes do their job properly. These free radicals have been blamed for all sorts of diseases so drinking tea could be very good for your health.

In any case, drinking tea is a great, low calorie way to get your recommended liquid level each day. And the advantage of my collection is I have so many varieties than I shouldn’t get bored. Boredom is the enemy when I comes to food and drink, because it means your start eating and drinking things that aren’t good for you, things that aren’t in your plan.

Captainraz’s guide to teas:

Lapsang Souchong: Very smokey flavoured tea. Definitely an acquired taste. Have to be in the right mood for this tea.

Lady Gray: light and refreshing with lots of bright citrus flavours. Not as heavy on the bergamot as her husband’s tea. Definitely an all day tea.

Redbush/Rooibos: Not actually made from the tea plant at all. Naturally sweet, a little bit smokey and completely caffeine free. More accessible than Lapsang and great as an iced tea.

Vanilla: From Twining’s international range. Good strong black tea with a vanilla taste that’s not overpowering. A good afternoon tea. The vanilla flavour gives it a sweetness so no sugar is needed.

Rose Garden: Got this free from Twinings. A very nice black tea delicately flavoured with rose petals. Very nice for relaxing.

Ceylon: Another light and refreshing cup of tea. One of my go to cups along with Lady Gray

Darjeeling: another refreshing cup. Not tried as much of this as some other teas. I should rectify that

Oolong: Somewhere between green tea and black tea. A light amber brew with a delicate but refreshing tastes.

White: Very delicate and almost flowery. Very easy to scald this tea. Water temperature needs to be about 80°C

Keemun: Very similar to oolong in my opinion. I really need to try more of those two.

Rooibos Vanilla and Strawberry: Much like the regular rooibos only fruity and sweet. From Twinings Calming range, and it really does calm.

Honeybush, Orange and Mandarin. Another tea from the moment of calm range, and these really do the job. Again not actually a tea, but a herbal brew. Naturally sweet with a good orange flavour. Tastes slightly of cinnamon even though there’s non in it.

Peppermint: sweet, minty and caffeine free. I find peppermint tea helps settle a gippy stomach.

Lipton’s Morocoo Tea: An interesting infusion of liquorice, cinnamon and mint flavours. Even Sam likes this one

Of course there are many more types of tea I’ve tried that aren’t on the list; and even more tea in the world that I haven’t tried. I do want to get my hands on Yunnan and Pu-Erh at some point, but that will have to wait until I have money (in abundance, Pu-Erh is really expensive).

As a diet aid, tea really has been indispensible for me. It’s a sugar free, low calorie, and means I don’t have to drink water all the time. It’s also full of antioxidants which may or may not have drastic health benefits.

In any case, tea in all its forms is a delicious beverage, that keeps me awake and refreshes my soul. And it does all this without adding to my waistline. Which is just fine by me.

Staying On The Healthy Eating Plan Despite Feeling Rubbish (Or At Least, Not Falling Off Too Much)

Its weekends like the one I’ve just had that make it exceedingly difficult to keep to any sort of healthy eating plan. When you’re full of cold, feeling miserable and trying to stop your body from doing all sorts of unpleasant things to you, the last thing you want to be doing is thinking about your next meal and how it fits in with your nice healthy diet.

In fact the last thing I wanted was food that fit into my nice healthy diet. I’m a chronic comfort eater, always have been, and feeling like death warmed up this weekend made me crave comfort foods. Except this time there was a subtle difference in what I was eating.

Where normally I’d reach for the chocolate and the cream cakes to cheer me up, this weekend I ate homemade savoury comfort foods. Homemade Chinese-style chicken noodle soup, made with homemade chicken stock. Turkey and bacon stew with pearl barley. Vegetable and sausage pizza, made carefully with about half the dough I normally use. And then I had a cheesecake, or rather, shared something that was supposed to be cheesecake with Sam.

FYI, if you have a cheesecake craving, Sainsbury’s packet mix cheesecake probably won’t hit the spot.

Anyway, even though I deviated slightly from my eating plan, I didn’t completely crash my diet car, if you see what I mean. And today, now I’m feeling a bit better (read, can actually breathe through both nostrils for the first time in four days) I picked myself off and got back on my plan, with a Slim Fast milkshake for breakfast.

Just shows that I can do it. The old me would have seen this cold as an excuse to quit, to go back to accepting that I’m fat and being miserable about it. Not the new me. I have a target, a goal that I’m determined to reach. And even if I can’t quite get there, I’m determined to get as close as I can.

Food Week

This week has been a bit of a food week for me. I don’t mean that I’ve overindulged or broken my rules. I mean it in the way that I’ve been looking deeper into what I’m eating, and experiment with fresh and new recipes and ideas.

Monday evening was a turkey kebab on a bed of rice; Tuesday I satisfied my potato craving with a potato rosti (with bacon). Wednesday I made a chicken and mushroom pie, and I have to say it was a rousing success. It was my first attempt at short crust pastry (or any pastry at all) and it wasn’t a complete failure. There was even enough left for Thursday’s dinner as well! Friday was one of my awesome risottos, but Saturday was the pinnacle of my food week. I made a Thai inspired beef noodle salad, which was utterly yummy. I may post some recipes later. There may even be pictures.

In addition to this I was spontaneously taken out for lunch on Thursday. One of my friends had just finished a hospital treatment and wanted to celebrate, so his mum took myself and Sam to Frankie and Benny’s for lunch. In keeping with my food week I tried something I’d never had before; their Californian pizza, which was stuffed with yummy vegetables and goat’s cheese. And I was good and had water with that instead of coffee or fizzy drinks.

This explosion in my interest in food came about because another friend put me on to Tastespotting. Every spare moment I get I’ve been eagerly browsing that site for pictures, delicious recipes and new ideas. The best thing about it is that I’ve been able to sit and look at photos of food for hours on end and not feel tempted to snack. Somehow along the way I’ve managed to break the association between seeing food, wanting it and feeling hungry. Which is good, because it means I can research new tasty things without getting the urge to stuff my face with food.

A few other good things have come out my explorations on Tastespotting. I’ve been spending a lot of time over at this site, which discusses raw veganism. While there is no way I’d ever even consider going vegetarian, let alone any variation of vegan, this site ahs had a lot to offer me. I’ve realised it would be a good idea to incorporate more raw food into my diet, both the wean me away from having three cooked meals a day some days, and to increase my vegetable intake. Both of which are good things. I’ve even been tempted to make some of the vegan recipes, such as this yummy looking cheesecake. Making such treats with vegan recipes certainly makes them a lot healthier, as it would cut out all the unnecessary fat in dairy products.

Although cutting out meat from my diet is just not an option for me, this isn’t the first time I’ve been tempted by vegan recipes. I’ve been very tempted to make my own almond milk for some time now; I’m just waiting for the right time (and the right almonds). While I am open to alternative food lifestyles, and am willing to try out their recipes, there’s just no way I’d be willing to give up animal products or cooked meals. But just incorporating just a few of the ideas discussed over at rawmazing could have a drastic effect on my health, and hence my weight.

One of the other things I like about that site is the writer’s hatred of the word diet. She refuses to use phrases like “I need to lose weight” because they are demeaning. And I have to agree. My overall goal is to lose weight, because there is no doubt that I need to, but I’m going to try to be more positive about it. Instead of telling people I’m on a diet, or I’m trying to fat bust, I’m going to tell them that I’m making new lifestyle choices to improve my overall health. I think I can cope with a doctor telling me that his chart says I’m unhealthy if I know that I’m as healthy as I can get myself.

To this end I’ve been trying to increase the amount of exercise I’m doing. Wednesday evening I spontaneously started doing exercise, of my own free will, because I felt like it. I’ve managed to come up with a short 5 minute exercise routine that I can do at any time during the day. The routine (so far) consists of 10 push ups, 10 sit ups, 10 star jumps, 10 bendy down and touch my toes things, and 10 reps on my ‘weights’. Hopefully once I managed to get a decent sports bra I’ll be able to incorporate some skipping into this routine as well.

I’ve also been considering going to the gym once a week. I’ve looked around and have managed to find a gym that is fairly affordable, which I plan to check out in the next few weeks. I think that even an hour in the gym every week would have a dramatic impact on my health. And I absolutely adore the rowing machines, which is great cardio work out. If I can find exercises I enjoy, then it becomes less of a chore and I’m more likely to it. It’s just that most of the exercise people have tried to get me to do my whole life I’ve hated. I’m hoping to change that for good.

Back to the food, I’ve also been looking at creating more variety in the carbohydrates than I eat, in addition to cutting back on them. I’ve started eating more potatoes (as you may have guessed form my comments about craving them) and I’ve all but given up pasta. In it’s place I have bought some couscous, pearl barley and cracked bulgur wheat. I’m looking forward to trying out the latter two in recipes, since I’ve never cooked them before. I’m hoping to get one with the barley in particular, as it is ridiculously cheap, which will keep my bank balance happy as well as my waist.

I’ve also been taking measures to reduce the amount of oil I use when I’m cooking. Instead of just pouring an indeterminate amount into the pan I’m using, I’ve a acquired a silicon basting brush. This means I can coat the pan lightly and not use too much oil. When I finish the oil I currently have I plan to get one of those 1 calorie per spray things. But for now the basting brush works just fine, and things taste the same as they always did. It’s just I can stop worrying about adding unnecessary calories to my meals.

There is a small amount of bad news though. I did break my ‘no alcohol in the month of March’ rule. I blame it entirely on t being St Patrick’s day and ending up in a pub where they sell all my favourite alcohols. The resolution seems to have had some effect though I had a single bottle of Kopparberg and felt slightly nauseous. I’m hoping that this manages to curb my drinking without putting me off entirely. It would be a shame to have to go teetotal.

Well, I think that’s about it for now. The Easter holidays are looming, which hopefully will mean I have more time to post. I still owe you guys that BMI essay, and I have a few other blog ideas up my sleeve. Easter will bring its own challenges though, as I will be spending three weeks at home with a greatly reduced control over my food. My mother is mostly to blame for my addiction to large portions of carbs, but she’s aware of my rules and resolutions. We should be able to sort something out, which will probably involve me cooking. Not that I’m complaining, of course.

Full rawmazing rant about weight loss can be found here.

Further thoughts on raw food diets and weight loss can be found here.

An Even Quicker Update

Hot off the Press!

While eating lunch just moments ago, I well and truly realised something. I eat far too quickly. I guess I always have eaten quickly, but it really struck me today. My tomatoes on toast (which were very delicious by the way) were gone in a few scant minutes, and I'm left feeling like I've never eaten at all.

I'm thinking that this problem of eating quickly, combined with the not feeling full properly has contributed a lot to my overeating in the past. Hopefully recognising the problem will be half the battle and will help me stop.

For now I'm going to fill myself up on tea and water, because I'm not eating anything else until dinner time.

A Fairly Quick Update

Wow, haven’t updated this blog in a while. That’s mostly been because its mad deadline season at uni. I’m not going to apologise; this is my blog and I’ve been busy. This does mean that the BMI essay I’ve been getting excited about is on the back burner for now. Maybe I’ll write it over the Easter holiday. Here is, however, a quick update.

• There has been some more noticeable progress with the weight loss. I can now fasten buttons on my lab coat that I couldn’t before.
• I started taking multivitamins, at the behest of a friend’s mother, and I can honestly say I feel much better. It’s obvious that with my diet as limited as it was I wasn’t getting enough essential nutrients.
• I bought some slim fast shakes, and they’re not bad. I don’t normally like milkshakes, so I was surprised by how nice these were. I’m not following the plan or anything; they’re mostly to add some variety to breakfast and to fill in for lunch when I don’t know what to have.
• I’m considering getting some fibre supplements to take. With the change in the amount of carbohydrates in my diet (from stupidly large amounts to just under normal) it’s become obvious that fibre is slightly lacking in my diet.
• One thing I’ve started to notice is that I don’t seem to feel the full sensation properly. I’ve had really quite hearty meals that I’ve felt ravenous afterwards, even though I know I can’t possibly hungry. This might help to explain the overeating I’ve been very guilty of, and hopefully will allow me to avoid it in the future. If my iron will can’t combat it, I’m tempted to go to a doctor to get some appetite suppressing drugs.
• The whole exercise thing is going pretty well too. I’ve not really been doing much in the way of cardio workout, but I’ve been doing lots of walking. You wouldn’t believe how much exercise gets done when I’m running round the lab four afternoons a week. In addition to this walks around the local area are starting to happen more. Which is good because there are also lots of pretty places round here.
• I'm managed to stick to the alcohol promise I made myself, so far. Despite having a bit too much to drink at a party on Saturday, I didn't buy any of it myself. And I tried my best to balance the calories for the day so I wasn't too over my limits.

I'm also starting to feel quite a lot more positive about myself. This was helped immensely by the shedload of compliments I received at the party on Saturday, from someone I only met that night. So far, it seems like I'm well on my way o a healthier, happier me.

Interesting things I have found out tonight:

How to make ice cream out of bananas.

How to make an omelette without a frying pan.

And also a really awesome new recipe for potatoes that I can’t find the link for.

Coping With Bad News, and Making It Good

I did a bit of a naughty on Saturday. Well, I was out at a party eating and drinking to my heart’s content, but that’s not what I meant. While at said party I sneakily borrowed my friends scales (sorry Pinaz!) to get a ball park estimate of how much I weigh. Turns out I’m about 2 stone heavier than I thought I was, which was a bit of a blow to be perfectly honest.

All in all though, I feel I dealt with it very well. I didn’t let it ruin the party for me, and it didn’t get me down as much as news like this usually does. In fact, it strengthened my resolve to get to the size and shape I want to be, on my terms. According to the BMI scale, this 2 stone increase in weight means that I now classify as morbidly obese rather than just obsess. People who know me will probably agree that there is no way I look morbidly obese (remind me to write my essay on how rubbish the BMI scale is in the near future). And I’m not. The scale is wrong, but it’s what doctors use when deciding how healthy a person is.

My new long term goal is now this; if I go to a doctor after I’m at my ideal size and am told I could do with losing a bit of weight, I want to be in a position to ask the doctor where I lose this weight from. If my build is all muscle and bone, there is no way I should be able to be classed as obese, but that is a debate for another time.

This is accompanied by some good news though. I now have a pair of jeans that are almost too big for me. While this is jump-up-and-down-squealing good news, as it shows my plan is working, it also makes me a little sad. It means that fairly soon I’ll have to get rid of them and buy a new pair. I keep reading that a person losing weight is more likely to keep the weight off if they throw out all their oversize clothes. Less temptation to fall of the wagon and end up back in them I guess. While this does have its drawbacks in the form of spending money, it’s all in a good cause. And in theory I’m spending less money on food so should have more funds available for clothes that fit.

In other news, Sam and I finally managed to do the first of our planned weekly walks on Sunday. We walked to a local retail park to find the Toys’R’Us. We walked, and we found it. We were out about two hours in total. It was good fun, very bracing, and above all great exercise. I think I definitely got my 10,000 steps in for Sunday. We just need to find enough places to walk around to be able to do it every week,

For March I’ve decided to give up two things. The first is coffee; although I have gone down to skimmed milk and sweetener, I’ve still decided to give up coffee. On occasion I do still have sugar in it, which adds unnecessary calories. Also if I switch to herbal and flavoured teas, I eliminate the milk entirely as opposed to just most of the calories in milk. It also curbs my caffeine intake, which is good because there’s caffeine in my fat metaboliser pills, and talking additional caffeine can mess things up as far as they’re concerned. Caffeine can also cause problems with blood sugar, which has a knock on effect for the body’s ability to metabolise fat. I’m hoping that by really cutting back on my caffeine intake I’ll be able to maximise my fat loss.

The other thing I’m giving up is alcohol. Well, more or less. I’m going teetotal in the sense that I’m not buying any alcohol this month, whether I’m at the pub or at home. The reason I’m not going 100% teetotal is because I have a few beers in already, but that’s what I’ve got to last the month. Part of the reason I’m doing it is to see what kind of impact it has on my wallet, but I’m hoping it will also have a fairly drastic impact on my waistline too. I don’t think I’ll be able to give up alcohol for good, I like it too much for that. But hopefully a month of minimal alcohol drinking will pave the way for a compromise.