Sept 8 - The Spice Of Life

"I do adore food. If I have any vice it's eating. If I was told I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, I could put up with sausage and mash forever." - Colin Baker 

  I love food and it's definitely a vice, perhaps not my only vice but it's right up there in the top three!  However unlike Colin Baker, I don't think I could eat only one food for the rest of my life.  Not in the sense he mentions anyway.   In order to eat healthily and enjoy your food you have got to have variety!  I will always need different colours, textures, food groups, flavours and visual appearances!
  Now true, routine helps me stay on track and I often have the same breakfast and the same lunch for a whole week, but any longer than a week with an identical meal and you soon find yourself wishing for more.  That's why my weekly planner is scheduling in a cooked breakfast on most Sundays.
  This week someone at work asked me if this was the most weight I'd ever lost before and it reminded me of the value of variety.  This is not the most weight I've ever lost, no.  I once lost 30kg using Optislim meal replacement shakes.  Of course, meal replacement diets are great if you need to lose weight rapidly for surgery etc. but they teach you exactly nothing about eating properly so I found the 30kg again as soon as I stopped using them.  What I also lost with the Optislim 'diet' was the will to live.
  Imagine you get up the first morning, wow, this is ok, chocolate milkshake for breakfast!  Then you have one for lunch, then you have one for dinner.  Then imagine doing it for three months... not so fun now!  I still don't drink chocolate milkshakes.  It's for this same reason that I have absolutely maintained that I am not giving up any particular food.
There is no such thing as a bad food, only unhealthy eating.
  I'm not going to think 'I can't have that' because that only increases the desire for that food and makes it my enemy.  All food is my friend, I just have to think about when I am eating what, and how much of it.  I've now learned that if I'm going to have a blow out that I need to prepare for them by eating healthily before and after.  I also have to ensure that each blow out doesn't then run on into days or weeks of unhealthy eating.
  At the moment, I am anticipating the varietal delight that tomorrow will bring.  I am going into the city to have High Tea with three other lovely ladies.  I am going to have tea, finger sandwiches and as many cakes as I feel like!  If I am hungry again by evening I will have a small healthy dinner and on Monday I will get back on the wagon and keep going.

  Captain Cupcake and I woke up around 9am and she got to try the yoghurt, berries and fibre toppers breakfast combo.  She left around 11am and I put on a load of laundry, got into my workout gear and on the cross-trainer.  I was feeling much better today after a good night's sleep so I went pretty quick today and got very sweaty indeed.  I even did the last minute running backwards which while easier muscularly, actually has you panting to keep up with the momentum of the pedals.
  After exercise I made and ate my lunch, had a long luxurious shower because hey, I'm the one paying the bills.  Then I hung out my laundry, changed my bed sheets and then sat down to potter about in my office which included printing a map of the three Mali's closest to tomorrow's high tea venue, I may or may not spot them depending on how stuffed I am, but I like to be prepared!
  Mr Smart came over about half past five and we walked down to the new Kebab Joint at the end of my street to get dinner.  Mr Smart groaned when I made him walk past it to the mailbox first to post my niece her belated birthday present.  We got our kebabs to go and were soon nestled in front of the TV ready to watch the second Lord of The Rings movie, The Two Towers.
  Just as the movie began, Mr Smart leaned in close to my ear and whispered in dramatic voiceover style, "Previously on Lord of The Rings..." I damn near peed myself laughing.  He may be a man of few words but they're always well chosen and perfectly timed.

  Today's food and exercise were:

• Breakfast was yoghurt, berries, muesli, a few slivered almonds and a sprinkling of sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
• Exercise was 42 minutes of cross-trainer.
• Lunch was a Mission Five Grain Wrap spread with Philadelphia Extra Light Spreadable Cream Cheese (about 30g)and a smear of Masterfoods Horseradish Cream then topped with 48g of shaved roast beef, strips of carrot, snow pea shoots and cucumber slices.  I like the flavour of the Five Grain wraps, but texturally the grains make the wraps more prone to breakage so I don't think I'll get them again.

• Dinner was a tasty lamb kebab from a new place just down the street from me that opened yesterday!  Not bad and I'm looking forward to trying there again.  They even do a Nutella Pizza!  I shall wait until Gub is home and the sisters three will have to try that one together!

  Hope you're all having lovely weekends too!
  Jess