Weigh In Day Monday October 29

So I started this 3 weeks ago at 135.9 kilos. I lost 3.2 the first week and 0.4 the next. That left me at 132.3 kilos. I really want to get under a 130 so I can feel like the journey is underway. This morning, drum roll please, I weighed 131.2 kilos. Not as much as I would like but a loss of 1.1 will do. It will be at least another week before I am under 130, I will just have to be patient. 4.7 kilos over 3 weeks is good I guess but I was hoping to have lost over 5 by now. At least I am losing weight though. Leanne has had a small loss, followed by no loss, followed by a small gain. I think she is just about ready to give up and I can’t blame her. However Selfishly I hope she continues because with both of us doing it it makes it much easier to follow.

Today was the first time I have really struggled and failed on the eating front. I didn’t eat anything I shouldn’t but my portion sizes were to big today. I don’t know why I just felt hungrier than I have lately and lost my self control momentarily. I still ate a lot less than i would have before starting the program but I still feel guilty about it.

Oh well another week started let’s see if I can keep this up, I think I can but it is important I don’t take things as being easy because that’s when slip ups way more harmful than the one I had today are likely to occur.

The Weekend October 27 and 28

So here we are another weekend and as usual I was busy the whole weekend. I was running late to get to my junior cricket match on Saturday morning so I only had time to eat a little bit of bacon on my way out the door. Cricket finished at 11:30 and we went home to have something to eat before going out again. Lunch was left overs from Friday night, which I forgot to mention in my last post as I was to excited by Red Dead. My wife had made keto egg rolls, or what we would call spring rolls here in Australia. They weren’t really egg rolls as such, rather just the filling. It was delicious though and while the family sat around the dinner table on Friday night eating, we were brainstorming ideas to what we could actually fill with it to make them more like spring rolls. This has been one of the highlights of keto, coming up with some good ideas on how to make keto friendly recipes even better than what they are. Some of the ideas we had included lettuce wraps, egg wraps or experimenting with one of the many keto friendly pastry recipes that are on the net.

After lunch we went shopping for groceries and other things and were out all afternoon. I was quite hungry by the time we got home but enjoyed a nice snack of pork crackle chips which hit the spot.

On Saturday evenings at the moment Taylah is playing and umpiring netball so I dropped her off and went and visited Ben and his son Cooper. By the time we got home it was late and I was famished. Well what a treat we were in for. Leanne had taken something I said as a joke while shopping and ketoed the idea up for dinner. She made a keto friendly pie with zuchini chips and keto friendly gravy. It was amazing!!!! Every mouthful I sounded like Meg Ryan in that famous cafe scene in When Harry Met Sally. I almost blurted out better than sex at one stage but thought better of it.

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Pie Chips and gravy keto style

 

Sunday was spent in the western suburbs of Brisbane, about an hour and a half from where we live to watch Taylah play cricket. We packed our food for the day which include leftover Pie!!! We also had a salad, some boiled eggs and some pork crackle chips. The day went well right up to leaving time. On our way back to the car we walked past a young family enjoying Fish and Chips in the park. I noticed first and thought gee that would be nice but I had bad hey fever so I couldn’t smell it so no worries for me. Then Leanne walked past and she could smell it and I could almost see her knees buckling under the pressure. In the past this has been one of those times where we would fail together. I could tell by the tone of Leanne’s voice she wanted to cave and she wanted my approval. I stayed strong though and just said yeah it would be nice but oh well we can’t. In the past we would have enabled each other and failed. Now I am not blaming Leanne, although this time it was her weakness that was going to test us, plenty of times in the past it has been mine. I just hope when it is me she stays as steadfast as I was.

So we got home Sunday evening late and tired. Normally we would have toasted sandwiches as they are quick and easy. We can’t do that anymore so we cooked up some sausages and scrambled eggs and all were happy.

Weigh in time tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Friday October 26

Today was basically a write off for me. No I didn’t fail, I did all the right things as far as food goes today. However it was the last thing on my mind as something happened today I have been waiting years for. Now before explaining more I should let you know I will never win any awards for maturity level and I have no problem at all with that. This doesn’t mean I am not responsible, I certainly am. However at the heart of it I am a child who has never grown up and I don’t want to change that at all. I still act the adult when it matters, whether that is work, parenting or social interactions with other adults. When it doesn’t matter though I am still a teenage boy. I can hear a chorus of women out there saying aren’t all men? To be honest I think the majority are. The difference between myself and the most of the rest is I own it. I don’t deny the bleeding obvious. Constantly when reacting with my 16 year old daughter Taylah I am asking her to loosen up and behave more like my teenage daughter rather than my mother. These interactions normally finish with the statement that she is the second most mature person in the house after Mum and that its up for debate in what order myself, Caitlin 15 and Hayden 13 come in.

Back to what I was saying before I went off on a tangent to explain my childish behaviour. What happened today was the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, a video game I have been waiting years for. Yes, yes I hear you, you are 43 time to give up video games. Read above though I just wrote a whole paragraph as an excuse as to why I still can play video games. Now it has no relation to keto or weight loss directly, but indirectly  I was that happy and excited all day, not once did I have a craving for some naughty food. Now what I have taken a long way about saying here is finding something else in life to bring you joy will go a long way to helping to follow your eating plan of choice. I think it may have been Dr Phil I heard once say that bad habits are easier to give up if you replace them with habits that are healthier but still bring you enjoy. So I say to you whats a better habit? A couple of hours playing video games, or eating a large bag of potato chips?

Thursday October 25

Feeling a little better today, both physically and mentally. I am finding I am going longer between needing to eat and eating less when I do. I am really hoping that I see the results of this come in weigh in day.

Had an omelette for breakfast, chicken and salad for lunch and Roast chicken legs with a broccoli and cauliflower bake. To be honest it was nothing inspiring but it doesn’t seem to be bothering me, I seem to be eating more for nutrition rather than enjoyment.

Now I don’t want to be one of these people that say you should only eat for nutrition purposes. Food is meant to be enjoyed. Most celebrations we have are based around sharing food with family and friends. Whether it is birthday cake, christmas dinner or a family bbq, its all about sharing good food with loved ones. Food is definitely meant to be enjoyed. However everyday eating is certainly about nutrition. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it, it just means you need to find ways to make food delicious while sticking to whatever eating plan you are following. This sometimes means that some meals will not be as exciting as others, not that they are actually bad. This is how I felt about tonight’s dinner.

The weekend is almost here, always the hardest part of the week to avoid those tasty high carb foods we crave. I am confident though of another successful weekend.

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My beautiful wife and myself back when I was at my thinnest in my late 30s

Wednesday October 24

So on top of feeling a little depressed at the moment I am also feeling a little sick. Nothing major just a sore throat and a cough. I often wonder if being depressed somehow lowers my immune system making more susceptible to bugs. This is another one of those tests. Quite often when I am sick I look for comfort in food. I tell myself it doesn’t matter while I am sick. The problem is I am sick for a few days so I keep eating bad. Then even when I am feeling better I am in the habit of not eating good and it can continue on indefinitely.

I only ate twice today because I was feeling ill. I did manage to stick to the keto plan though so I was happy with that. I had my usual omelette for breakfast but it was closer to lunch time when I ate it. For dinner Leanne made this delicious meatloaf style dish that is wrapped in bacon. I wasn’t really feeling hungry but it tasted so good I cleaned my plate.

I was hoping to start doing even more exercise this week. Ben is working out of town so we can’t go for a walk, but I meant to do my own walking. I have opted out though due to not feeling well. To be honest I know this is a bit of a copout but to be honest I am not concerned yet because I am still doing so well on the food front.

Tuesday October 23

I am still feeling a little down after my weigh in yesterday. In fact if I am honest it is more than a little down but I am not sure I can lay all the blame at the feet of my weigh in results. A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with severe depression. Although there is several reasons as to why I was depressed one of them was my actual weight gain. Not only was it a problem it was also a catch 22 situation. You see the more depressed I got the more I ate. I tried to find any enjoyment from life by eating the types of foods I liked in abundance. It would work. The whole time I was eating these lovely tasting unhealthy foods I was in heaven, my troubles forgotten for the moment and not a care in the world. That is until I took that last bite. Then I would be worse than before I started. I would hate myself for being weak. I would admonish myself for believing that food held the secret to happiness. It doesn’t but that didn’t stop me from doing the same thing the next day. Of course the longer term result of this behaviour was to put on more weight, which would increase my level of depression which I would try to fix with another bout of bad eating. So I know through this journey there are going to be highs and lows. That is just natural. What I will have to be careful about is that the lows don’t send me into a downward spiral that undoes all of the good work I am doing and then some. I don’t really know how I will do this, but that it is important that I am constantly vigilant in being aware of it.

Another symptom of my depression can be either sleeping to much or not enough (I know, how can it be both). I didn’t sleep well last night and I found myself sleeping on the couch on and off all day today. So I can see a pattern in my behaviour that could lead to trouble. However so far I am still being strong with my eating. In fact I would say its not even about being strong, I just don’t feel like eating for enjoyment at the moment. Last week a fast food ad on tv would drive me crazy wanting to eat something bad. This week though it isn’t bothering me. I think it has taken 2 weeks to convince my body that it doesn’t want that shit and that what it is being supplied is more than enough nutrition.

In fact the last two days I haven’t eaten very much at all. I think this had an affect on my appetite as by dinner time I was quite famished and feeling like something substantial. I was the only one home so I had to make dinner and I decided to make something keto friendly that we haven’t done yet. I decided to make steak and salad wraps using a keto friendly naan bread recipe. I dry rubbed the steak with a smokey flavoured spice mix and sliced it thinly after cooking. I made a simple salad dressed with what I call my big mac sauce (I simply mix mustard pickles with mayo until I get the right flavour). I served it with the naan bread and the meal was loved by all.

Link to the Naan bread recipe I used.

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Steak and salad Wraps with my famous big mac sauce

Weigh In Day Monday October 22

The most anticipated day of my week is here and I was once again excited as well as anxious about weighing in. Remember when I said last week any loss is a good result? Well I have changed my mind. I only lost 400 grams and I am really pissed off. I was hoping for 1.8kgs and didn’t even get close. The most annoying part was how well behaved I was on the weekend. I could have had lots of beer, I could have eaten lots of carbs, but I didn’t and now I feel like I may as well have.

So two weeks in and I have lost a total of 3.6 kgs. When you look at it like that it seems alright, even successful. This is the way I am going to have to look at it if I want to avoid despondency. Right at the moment though I am not feeling good about it. However an interesting aspect is that in the past I would have used this as an excuse to eat what I want, but at the moment I don’t feel like doing that. I am just concerned if the keto plan is the right plan for me. I will need to give it a lot more time before I make that decision though.

After doing some reading on the net, it appears that some people don’t lose weight straight away on keto. Apparently the reason given is that your body is repairing itself and rebuilding muscle. I don’t care. I know it seems silly that it is not important to me but lets face it, being healthy is a secondary bonus. The real reason we want to eat better is to lose weight so we can look better. Vanity is the driver in probably most of these situations rather than health.

 

Weekend October 20 and 21

I started Saturday with two small pieces of bacon and an egg. At ten I went to play golf which took a couple of hours. It was a handy bit of exercise at this stage of the journey and although it is only light exercise I was exhausted.

So the first big test of the day came up after the game, time for our lunch of steak burgers and beer. So I was very strong, and only ate steak, onion and salad, no bread rolls. Also I drank a zero sugar coke while playing and a powerade zero after the game.

The next big test was back at the coaches house. Beer, chips and dip flowing I was no chance of surviving this. However it turns out I was. I didn’t have one beer and I only had a tiny bit of scotch and I didn’t even want that, but my teammate had bought an expensive bottle and wouldn’t let me get away without tasting it. I had two sips and then gave it to Ben to finish. As far as the snacks go I only had a few pieces of Kabana  and some cheese cubes which kept me satisfied all afternoon.

By this stage I was quite pride of myself and was starting to think I was indestructible. The third and final test the pizza would not catch me out. Something incredible happen and this may sound like an unlikely story. We didn’t order pizza. Every year we order pizza but not this year. The only reason I could come up with is that because I hadn’t scoffed down all the snacks other people got enough to eat and so pizza wasn’t needed.

I was quite hungry by the time I got home at half past seven. Leanne wasn’t home as she had taken Taylah to netball. So I decided to cook pork chops and made an experimental paprika and mushroom sauce. It was delicious and satisfying.

Sunday I was on the road early. I once again had bacon and eggs. I was off to Ipswich with Taylah who was playing a match against Sandgate Redcliffe. I had store bought pork crackle chips for a snack and I had made a salad with pork for lunch. It was a shit of a day with the weather but I had no dramas food wise.

Back in Toowoomba we had roast pork for dinner with cauliflower bake and keto friendly gravy.  After dinner I had one of those little cheesecake fat bombs and I felt well nourished.

I am looking forward as well as apprehensive about the weigh in the morning. I know it is stating the obvious but I am really hoping for a good result.

Friday October 19

After a tough day yesterday I was hoping for an easier day to day. I started the day with some scrambled eggs. My usual morning snack of pork crackles followed and I had no issues until lunch.

My lunch was the leftover chicken and Zucchini from last night. I actually was home for lunch and when I went to eat it, it was really uninspiring. I wanted something else but I didn’t want to eat any carbs. So I found these two small pork steaks, seasoned them well and cooked them up. I ate them with a salad for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed them. I can’t stress enough how important it is (well at least for me) to season your meat before cooking. Salt and pepper are great but don’t be afraid to try different spices or herbs and find some combination of flavours that you really enjoy.

Leanne, Taylah and my youngest Hayden were off to cricket training in Ipswich this afternoon and Caitlin my middle child was staying at a friends. I was working so there was no one at home to prepare dinner. Before I dropped Caitlin off to her friends place I cooked some sausages to have with a salad later. I came home from work about a half hour before Leanne, Taylah and Hayden came home and made a salad. It was a decent enough dinner and I had no hunger pangs over the next few hours when I went back to work.

I am always talking about the tests that will keep coming and do I have a doozie tomorrow. I play touch football with a bunch of great guys and have for years. After the season we have an annual golf day. Anyone that has thrown an intercept that led to a try has to buy a carton of beer so normally unless you are the poor sucker/s that have thrown one the booze is free. I personally have never had to buy one. So we play a game of golf, have a BBQ lunch and a few beers at the course and head back to the skippers place to drink more beer, play some pool, have a bet on Caufield Cup day, order some pizza for dinner and hand out some awards (mainly joke ones as the major awards are done at the clubs official presentation). So I can avoid carbs at the barbie, I will just eat the steak with some salad. However it is going to be tough avoiding carbs with all that beer flowing and to eat pizza later in the night. That’s without even thinking of the snacks that will be put out like potato chips.

So I am undecided if I should abstain from beer altogether (probably the best option), just have one or two at the most or just making a night of it and getting back on the wagon the next day. I know what I should do but I can’t see me getting through this without a stuff-up.

Thursday October 18

Was up early this morning to go for a walk with Ben. We did the same route as last time and it took about 55 minutes. I am feeling really good after these walks and am looking forward to the day I am fit enough to run a distance again. This reminds me of how I started running the last time I lost weight. I had a treadmill at the time but it was broken so I came up with a novel idea. Our kitchen has what I guess you would call an island bench. I would run around this for 5 minutes at a time. I would slowly increase my time running and over several weeks I had built up to an hour running around my kitchen. By this stage my pace had increased and it was becoming increasingly difficult to run around in this small area. I bought a new treadmill and started running at about 8 km/hr for 5 kms and relatively quickly moved up to 10 km/hr at the same distance. Over some more time I started running faster and further. A friend of mine who is a big running fan talked me into going for a 5k run around our local cricket oval (500 metre laps). It was the toughest thing I had ever done, way tougher than on the treadmill at a faster pace. We did the run at about 11 km/hr which i felt like I was running extremely fast but was a slow jog for my friend. From there I started running outdoors by myself building up speed and distance until at my best I was running about a thousand kms a year. As I have said it is not my priority yet but I am looking forward to when it is.

The one thing I want to mention is if you are considering buying a treadmill, you must be serious about using it or you will find yourself with a very expensive clothes rack. That is seriously what most people I know who own a treadmill use it for. Having one is great though. If it was cold or wet or I wanted to watch some tv instead of going for a road run I would use my treadmill. Also I live in a very hilly area and running on treadmill is nice and flat (unless you change the incline which I rarely did).

After my walk I had an omelette for breakfast. I am not getting sick of them yet and mainly cause the ingredients used differs so each one is different. I had my usual pork crackle for my morning snack and then a possible disaster arose.

I was very busy with work and didn’t have time to eat until later in the afternoon. When I did eat my lunch of egg salad and lettuce I enjoyed it but I was still hungry. I showed great self-control but it was hard. I really struggled all for the rest of the day. I had to get petrol and while I am inside paying for it I am smelling pies and sausage rolls and I was trying to convince myself one won’t hurt. It was very difficult to control but I managed. My first real test and I have passed but it is only 11 days in. At least that was what the pessimistic side of me was thinking. I worked late and these cravings came on and off for the next four hours until I got home and ate my dinner. Smoky spiced chicken legs were for dinner with some salami and cheese baked zucchini. It was good the chicken was a little bland but I was that hungry I don’t think I noticed. A little later I had a cheesecake gatbomb and a peanut butter ball and was out of the danger zone.