Day 46 – Cruise PP

Morning weigh in: 94.8kgs

Daily GAIN: 0.1kgs /0.22lbs
Total loss: 5.1kgs /11.22lbs

Watercheck: 2.2l – tea, coffee, water and a sugarfree mojito

Breakfast

• mug of tea
• flaxseed & oatbran bread with extra light philly and vegemite

Lunch

• 2x baked salmon steaks with sweet chilli seasoning
• a few slices of pepperoni with cheese

Dinner

• Sirloin steak, with a bit of stirfried cabbage (nom!)

Exercise

• 20 mins cycling to and from work

I’m sorry I’ve not blogged for the past few days – rest assured this is not for any reason other than being super incredibly busy! My lovely parents arrived in town a couple of nights ago, and it’s been awesome having them stay, but has meant that my priority has been less on blogging and exercising, and more on hanging out with them. NOICE!

Tomorrow’s a very exciting day too – we’re picking up the keys to our new home! Can’t wait! Then the real effort begins – packing in earnest rather than packing a couple of boxes per evening, and then getting it all across to the new house. Eeek!

In other news, I found out yesterday that I didn’t get the job that I really wanted, the one I interviewed for on Tuesday. So disappointed. Apparently it was really close, but the other person had more management experience (I have no official management  experience, just lots of coaching, stepping up when required and general bossiness disguised as “being organised”.) I was really heartbroken, it was a really good interview, which I came out of super-enthused about the role and confident that I could help make a difference, while learning a bucket-load and being intellectually stimulated. They told me that I’d have been a really good fit for their team and if they had two roles, they’d have hired me too. And that they’re expanding rapidly so if another role comes up, they’ll keep me in mind. Small consolation though, with the Big “R” Word looming not far away. Miles to go though – I got another two job applications in today. Send me your best “you’re gonna find a job any second now” vibes, mmkay?

My family and friend, along with J, helped me drown my sorrows last night with a Chinese meal (much lower in carbs than the last one, and I had no rice at all).

Given this, the weigh-in this morning has remained remarkably steady, given the fact that I’ve not been exercising at all. But I’ve still not managed to get down past 94.7. Maybe tomorrow?

Day 216 – Cruise (PV)

Morning weigh-in 90.9kgs – Ripper!

• Daily LOSS 0.4kgs/ 0.88lbs
• Total lost 21.4kg/ 47.08lbs

Watercheck – 3l at least

Breakfast

• Oatbran Porridge
• 2x microwaved eggs
• 2x mugs of tea

Lunch

• Sirloin steak with half a grilled tomato, along with a rocket & parmesan salad from Gusto – lunch out with J

Dinner

• 2 packs of Sainsburys chicken satay kebab mini skewers
• a couple of slices of cheese
• 3 slices of ham

Exercise

• about 3 hours walking around town, at least 1 of which was very swift walking

Another whoosh today, not that I can expect this run to last now that J and I have started Cruising.  I’ve been fantasizing about vegetables this week, but in fact, I didn’t end up having much vege today at all – I was out in town all day and didn’t end up finishing making my pot of soup until midnight!

But another PP day tomorrow, I shall look forward to my soup on Tuesday.

I’m feeling a bit sheepish about all the cheese I ate tonight – I was in a cheesy mood.  Hey, at least it was cheese and not chocolate! 🙂

 

Cruise day 72 – PP

Morning weigh-in: 96.7kgs

• Daily GAIN 0.3kg/0.66lbs
• Total lost 15.6kg/34.32lbs

Watercheck –1.8l by 20.45am

Breakfast

• oatbran porridge
• 2x microwaved eggs
• 2 lean beef sausages
• cup of tea

Lunch

• Half chicken at Nandos

Dinner

• Burger pattie from a Well Hung and Tender burger (yum!)

Exercise

• 90 minutes fast paced walking into town, back from town, around the festival with Josh
• 7 minutes hard riding on my bike when I was about to be late for a show! (puff puff puff)
• UPDATE: After publishing this, I felt like I’d still not properly “connected” with my commitment through daily dedicated exercise, so I headed out and got a good 60 minute late-night walk around the Meadows.  So I’ve now done 150mins walking today!

As expected, a gain on the scales today – PV days after all that PP often have that reaction.  In fact, I’ll not be surprised if I have a similar mini plateau now like I did at the beginning of my diet, but I’m just gonna keep on plugging through it.

I went into town today to do a bit of clothes shopping – I’ve not bought any clothes since I started the Dukan Diet.  When I first started, I was a large size 22. I was starting to get to the stage when 24s might have been more appropriate (which was one of the reasons I had to do something about it all – I had to lose the weight!!)

After a few weeks, my size 22 clothes started to fit a little better, and then eventually they became a bit baggy.  I started belting my tops in, wearing some particularly “skinny” tops (relatively speaking of course) but it’s now at the stage where a lot of my clothes are baggy – not all, but some.

So I decided to head into town and see which part of the rack I had to look at now for clothes.  It’s so confusing, like being in a foreign country looking for shoes, when you don’t know what size you are.  I ended up grabbing 22s, 20s and 18s of everything I wanted to try on – the lady in the dressing room looked at me a little strangely.

I’m pleased to say that the 20s fit perfectly, and the 18s are wearable, though perhaps a little snug.  I even squeezed into a size 16 dress that I’ve been drooling over for months now.  They only had one left in stock, on the sale rack, and it was a size 16.  It’s now sitting in my cupboard, incentive for me to get down to a size where I can wear it! 😉

So, I ended up coming home with a size 20 top for now, a cute size 18 ladies teeshirt (yay for two reasons – I’ve not looked good in a ladies tee for ages, and the print is a totally cute supergirl logo) and my size 16 dress, the one I’ve been drooling over.  The day I can fit into that size 16 dress comfortably is going to be a happy day.  I’ll even share a photo that day, perhaps! 🙂

Cruise day 66 – EEK!

Morning weigh-in: 97.8

• Daily GAIN 0.6kg/1.32lbs
• Total lost 14.5kg/31.9lbs

Watercheck – 1.8l by 23.20pm plus 3 small glasses of wine

Breakfast

• oatbran porridge
• 2x microwave eggs
• cup of tea

Lunch

• Chicken veggie stirfry with paprika, onion, cumin, chilli and whatever vege I could find in the fridge.  Not a huge success, but better than sandwiches…

Afternoon snack

• Oh noes! I had some shortbread biscuits. They got the better of me, and now Natalie (my workmate who’s very supportive of the diet) is going to know cause she reads this blog!

Dinner

• Haggis neeps & tatties, lamb burger with chips, cheese & crackers.  Shut up, I know.

Exercise

• 15 mins to work (left my bike there)

So, obviously not a great day, food-wise.  A bit of a carb-fest, actually.  And next to no exercise.

But on the plus side, I helped my boss celebrate her baby shower, we had a LOVELY dinner at Whighams wine bar, then I saw a live highschool production of Dr Horrible’s Singalong Blog.  Fantastic, in a really really awful way…

Here’s the story behind the shortbread biscuits:

I may have mentioned yesterday that today we were having a staff lunch and there would be sandwiches catered for us, so I brought my own lovely lunch instead (it was ok, but the recipe needs work).  What I didn’t count on was a) there being a lovely tray of baked goodies sitting on the table we were eating at, and b) having to sit there listening respectfully to my superiors, talking about things that I didn’t really know very much about – politics of the healthcare sector…  I’m an IT geek, not a politics geek.

So, these two factors added together meant that I spent about an hour, staring at the tray bakes.  My resolve is pretty good when I’m not exposed to bad stuff for very long.  I can see someone with an icecream go past and not cave.  I can walk past bad stuff in the supermarket, and so long as I keep walking, I’m fine.  But sitting there for an hour, with these baked yummies staring at me was just too much.

So, by the end of the meeting, I was hella cranky.  I think I took it out on Natalie a little bit.  Poor Natalie.  Say hi, commenters, to Natalie – my biggest diet ally. She bore my irritation today, which stemmed from a very emotional reaction to food which still exists in my mind.

Anyway. *sigh* There were some tray bakes left over after the meeting, and it was almost like I was doing to spite the part of me that was putting myself on a diet – I ate three biscuits.

Then later at dinner, I threw up my hands, stopped beating myself up and just decided to give myself a break for just one night – and just have some yummy food in a nice restaurant (a restaurant where there was no steak option – boo!)

Tomorrow, it’s back on the diet again.  I’m going to try to burn the excess carbs out of my system with a ride around town, perhaps up Arthurs Seat (a very big hill right in the middle of Edinburgh) and then we’re going for some hill-walking on Sunday.

Am fully prepared for a disappointing result on the scales tomorrow morning, but even if it just sets me back a week – what’s a week in the grand scheme of things?

Cruise day 60 – PP (though not really PP)

Morning weigh-in: 98.4

• Daily loss 0.1kg/0.22lbs
• Total lost 13.9kg/30.58lb

I’m not even going to go IN to what I ate today.  Suffice it to say, I fell off the wagon big time, but in a planned fashion – went to a party, had lots of G&Ts, ate carby food – 1 malteaser, TWO marshmallows, and maybe FIVE mini sausage rolls! EEK!

I remember laughing at Cher in Clueless, when she’s cataloguing her own dietary transgressions, and she says “THREE Chocolate Peanut M&Ms!” But now I understand her consternation and find myself saying the same thing! 😉

Not to worry, I’m planning a mini-attack to purge the excess carbs from my system, though my exercise may be lacking tomorrow, due to SORE feet from the heels I was wearing last night.

Oh! And I got a new haircut! Wanna see?

Of course, my eyelashes don’t always look that sultry – the theme for the party last night was “Showtime!” so falsies were in order.  I love falsies… 🙂

Cruise day 59 – PV

Morning weigh-in: 98.5

• Daily loss 0.7kg/1.54lbs
• Total lost 13.8kg/30.36lb

Watercheck – .8l by 21.00 – incl tea, diet coke and tapwater

Breakfast

• 2x microwaved egg
• oatbran porridge (reduced oatbran to compensate for muffins later)
• Pork meatball
• cup of tea

Lunch

• Salad with lettuce, 3 pork meatball chopped into pieces, peppers, tomato, radish, red onion & a low fat dressing.
• Chocolate oatbran muffin

Afternoon snack

• Mini babybel light x2

Dinner

• Cheeky glass of wine
• burger patty from an Edinburgh Well Hung and Tender burger (they gave me the burger bun, but I didn’t eat it – burger only)
• 7-8 gin and tonics

Exercise

• 25 min cycle to and from work
• 15 min cycle to and from a local supermarket to get some groceries at lunch time
• 1.5-2 hour walk around the festival including lots of dancing to a swing band in the Speigeltent

OMG! Looks like I got paid a visit by the Whoosh Fairy last night!  Aaaand we’re finally out of the 99s, hurrah! PLUS: I’m officially down 30 pounds. Yi-yeah!

It occurred to me last night, that I’ve not been getting a good night’s sleep for the past week – pretty much since my weight loss started to stagnate.  I’ve been in bed after midnight every night, and haven’t been waking up easily in the mornings. I’m sure I read somewhere that there’s a correlation (though not neccessarily causation) between obesity and getting a good night’s sleep.

So last night, I decided to get myself to bed good and early – I was in bed by 10.30, read for 20 mins, then put my head down and slept through till 7.30am.  And was rewarded with a 0.7kg drop in the morning.  Of course, this could have had something to do with the fact that I was hyper-diligent with the diet yesterday, and my whoosh came.

This evening, however, was a transgressionary evening.  The festival is on in Edinburgh, which requires some celebration at least.  I went with J and a friend to the Speigeltent, where we danced the night away to faaaahbulous swing music, and I may have drunk about 7 gin and tonics.  Diet tonic though.  Plus, gin has no carbs. That’s what I keep telling myself. And I offset the calories with all the dancing.

Yep. Uh-huh. 😉

Bedtime now, I fear. My brain is somewhat affected by the G&Ts, but I shan’t let it keep me from my obligatory blogging.

Oooh, last thing – tomorrow I’m rewarding my 30lbs loss with a new haircut from a really good hairdresser here in Edinburgh. Picture Joan from Mad Men – that’s the look I’m going for.  If you’re all very nice to me, I might even reward you with pics – including some before/after pics of me now, and me 30lbs ago… 😉 Tomorrow night is party night for a friend’s 30th, and the theme is corsets and boas. I think it’s corset time!! 🙂

Cruise day 52 – PV

Morning weigh-in: 99.9

• Daily GAIN 0.2kg/0.44lbs
• Total lost 12.4kg/27.28lb

Watercheck – 2.5l by 21.30

Breakfast

• 1x scrambled egg
• Oatbran porridge
• Mug of tea with milk

Lunch

• Chilli con carne – with the beans picked out. It’s been difficult this week to get pub foods which are Dukan Friendly – this may have been a bit high in fat too, but at least I wasn’t hungry for my First Aid assessment (which I passed! 🙂 )

Afternoon snack

• mini babybel light x1

Dinner

• Meal at a Chinese restaurant – no rice or carbs, and tried to go for the less fatty stuff

Exercise

• 20 mins cycling
• 15 min walk to cinema
• 33 min walk +3 minute run around the Meadows (though not till very late at night)

Lovely night out with the girls from work tonight – though nights like this always constitute another deviation from my normal routine.  I tried hard to steer clear of the non-allowed foods, but the Chinese we go to can be a bit fatty (though I had no rice at all.)

I managed again to resist the lure of the Evil Cinema Foods – Diet Coke all the way… 🙂

I should also mention here that the nature of the food available to me today meant that it had to be a PV day today.  I’ll do two PP days over the weekend to get myself back in my normal pattern again.