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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 9 February 2006 02:47 pm |
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| Nothing particularly interesting happened on Wednesday. Today though (Thursday) my CD arrived. The eBay person forgot to mention that the reason it was so cheap was that he was illegaly copying it. It still plays though so now I can try to hypnotise myself. I am at work though so lying down in the dark is proving most difficult!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 10 February 2006 07:34 am |
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Thursday
Got myself a deep-fried chicken-and-vegetables samosa (East Indian dish) for just 20p. Healthwise deep-frying is on my avoid list. Calorie-wise I'm not worried as I'm eating it slowly (there's still 1/3 left).
I'm having a Wisdom tooth taken out today so I don't know how many hours I won't be able to eat due to (1) being busy with surgery (2) being unable to eat post-surgery. This will make it difficult to follow the eat-when-hungry plan. Perhaps I should eat-in-advance in the morning to prevent hunger later on in the day...
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 10 February 2006 07:34 am |
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Pirated CDs? Truly shameful.
You know I'll have to cooperate if Scotland Yard comes knocking at my door!
Peter
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 10 February 2006 10:55 am |
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| The guy is asking for eBay "feedback". I'm wondering just what to put. I have 80 characters to play with and I can do Positive/Neutral/Negative. What would you suggest?
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nevd
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 10 February 2006 02:43 pm |
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You could congratulate him on 'forging a new career for himself'???
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 12 February 2006 03:22 am |
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[1000 - 1570 kcal] Saturday 8.30-11.30pm
Just 8 days since my last binge, and what have we got? Another salsa outing, this time a pre-valentine party. There was a very large tin of "Quality Street" (individually wrapped chocolates - various types). Calorie info on the tin said that a serving of 4 chocolates averaged 157 calories. I lost count after 20 and I'm sure it was less than 40. I started off eating them slowly and savouring every bite. I wasn't even doing that towards the end! Just as well other people were also eating as I only stopped when the tin was finally empty. I think I can safely say that the hyponosis thing isn't working - well not yet anyway. I'll add that I was fully prepared, having consumed protein (chicken) and fibre (fruits, vegetables) beforehand. I wasn't craving chocolate - I wouldn't have gone out of my way to buy it then, and I wouldn't now. It was there, though.
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nevd
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 12 February 2006 02:07 pm |
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I think I can safely say that the hyponosis thing isn't working Or did you repeat: "I must eat lots of Quality Street; I must eat lots of Quality Street..."?
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 12 February 2006 09:15 pm |
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Quality Street: the only speaking/thinking part for me is to count down 300...299...298...297... with my concious mind as I allow myself to relax. I've actually listened to most of the material in non-relaxed mode as well (which is just as well, as one cannot recall it all when allowing onself to be in a trance) and it directs me towards exercise and eating healthy / nutritious / "whole" foods (though it assumes I know what this means, so tough lack for someone who doesn't)
Sunday 4pm - 7.40pm, 11.30-11.55pm, ???
15 varieties of cream cakes for total £0.90 outlay. Even more cakes with "Use By Feb 12th" stickers in ASDA (Wal-Mart)'s fridge today. Never had this many varieties at once in my home. Tried them all. Depressing and disappointing, isn't it ?! I'm not even particularly successful with my slow-eating skills - I seem to be wired the other way.
Last edited on 13 February 2006 02:03 am by Nir
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 16 February 2006 11:46 am |
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Cakes finished on Monday and been good since. Picture taken mid-December before the Christmas "food marathons", I'm bottom right in the white shirt.
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Be A Cow
Senior Member
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Posted: 16 February 2006 10:14 pm |
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| So . . . um, Nir, you're really quite skinny--how much more padding could you have gotten over Christmas?? (I know skinny is relative, and about how you personally view yourself, so I won't say anything else. Actually, I'm going to apologize, people always tell me I'm skinny---and I find it very irritating--so sorry :))
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 17 February 2006 01:03 am |
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I guess I put on 2 to 3 pounds over the holidays. My worst BMI in recent months was 22.2 - and even that is healthy. My concern is with trends: 4 months of regularly exercising, but overall impact was putting on 3 kilos and increasing from around 12% to around 15% in body fat (a trend which I decided I must reverse before I got any bigger). The trend to use any excuse (free food, cheap food, catered party, just feeling pekish) to eat unhealthy and to binge. My newly-found interest in cooking and the unhealthy calorie-dense direction it was taking me in. It helps to focus on what I eat rather than leave it to chance!
I think I'm mainly struggling with a mini-eating-disorder, which I am just-about controlling. One involving binge-eating and over-eating (which I had generally moved on to over-eating fruits and vegetables but that still has its problems). Ultimately I don't mind weighing more than I do right now, but it has to be muscle. I am making progress (I'm around 58 Kg at the moment, though the skinfold calipers are stuborn and still tell me I'm 15% body-fat - mind you the Tanita body fat analyser is kinder, now reporting 13%). If I get down to BMI 20.0 and still not down to 10%, I'll start to learn about body-building: taking in my maintenance calories or more and trying to build more muscle mass in order to eventually achieve my 10%-lean personal goal.
I took it easy on Wednesday and didn't exercise, but I've been on track since finishing my cakes on Monday. I'm back to gradually feeding in 80-90 grams of protein using protein-rich foods (tuna is a favourite at the moment) in an attempt to keep me on the straight and narrow.
My favourite class at the gym is Body Combat, but it may not be that effective! In one hour today I only burnt 240 calories, and only spent 7 minutes at a heart rate of more than 65% of max - quite pathetic for a cardio class. I did better on Tuesday (perhaps because I had already worked out for an hour and was more warmed-up) and burnt 440 calories. This heart-rate monitor is an eye-opener.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 20 February 2006 08:42 am |
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Wedding Show (no, I'm not getting married - actually I'm single): 8 chocolate pieces, various types, approx 40 calories a piece
Marks'n'Spensers: Apricot Tart (3 sample pieces)
ASDA Sunday afternoon shopping:
3 x large choclate chip cookies (half in freezer)
chocolate chip muffin (half in freezer)
steak and kidney pie (80% of pastry discarded)
strawberry cheesecake flavour Muller-Light yogurt
lemon cheesecake flavour Muller-Light yogurt
Judging by the quantity of fish, chicken, turkey, beef and (organic) pork I was buying, it is safe to say turning vegetarian is some way off. (a few hours later:) ever tried to cook large amounts of fish and meet and then portion it into 10g-of-protein bags? hint: portioning is the hard part! mind-numbing and time-consuming
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 21 February 2006 11:56 am |
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Monday after 9.30pm (400-500 calories?)
Freezing the left-over double-chocolate cookies and muffin in 25-calorie bags proved less effective, as it turns out they're very edible when cold - nicer one might say!. Cookies all scoffed down. Muffin at least I picked the chocolate chips out and threw some of the sponge away. There is a lesson there about keeping bad foods in the flat!
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nevd
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 21 February 2006 09:32 pm |
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There is a lesson there about keeping bad foods in the flat!
You do like to set yourself a challenge!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 22 February 2006 12:01 am |
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Tuesday
Oh dear. Large box of Yum-Yums (er, rectangular doughnuts I guess) for 35p instead of £1.99. Tried eating them slowly. Tried freezing them. Then popped my head out of the window to check for any  and threw the rest outside!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 22 February 2006 07:09 pm |
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Tuesday night
The Swiss-style Museli (356 kcal/100g, 1 kilo bag) had to go the way of the dougnuts after I was abusing it too much.
I'm now (Wednesday) on the dried fruit mix (mostly raisins and currants) - these lend themselves to be eaten more slowly. Also there's less than 500 kcal in the remainder of the bag so there's a limit to how much damage I can do myself here. I will not be buying more of this once its gone, though! Curiously, I can't decide which is more dangerous: the mix or some bananas I also have here. I find it hard to eat a banana slowly!
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Be A Cow
Senior Member
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Posted: 22 February 2006 09:25 pm |
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Wow, you're on a roll :) As for the bananas . . . I go through periods where I do buy them, and then don't. The "don't" periods are usually brought about by frustration in the "do" periods where I realize once again how 1/2 of a banana is a serving, and throw out/waste many yucky looking leftover 1/2's, or over eat on 1 or 2 bananas one day :) As for raisens and trail mix, they're good, but definitly need more volume!! (for as calorie dense as they are anyway :))
Good luck getting back on :)
PS--How's the hypnosis going?? :)
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 23 February 2006 02:01 am |
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Ok, the raisins and the bananas are all gone. I've made a list of foods I have which are 200 kcal per 100g or more.
These are currently in the safe category (haven't abused them yet): Wheatabix, Ryvita, Popcorn, Oats. (frozen: 3 types of sliced bread, pita bread, muffins, crumpets). I think the common thread is that they are not sweet. I hope I don't slip up with any of these!
These are currently dubious: 'Angel Delight' powder (and I still have milk!). I'm planning to donate this asap.
Hypnosis: last time I heard this was Saturday, and I've slipped quite a lot since then so I listened to it twice this afternoon (Wednesday)! Maybe will make time to listen to CD more often now
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Eat2Live517
Member
| Joined: | 2 February 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 79 |
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Posted: 23 February 2006 03:37 am |
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| So does this hypnosis make you want to eat less??
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 23 February 2006 06:48 am |
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Eat2Live517 wrote: So does this hypnosis make you want to eat less??
Yes. The particular CD I'm listening to tries to reinforce eating less and feeling satisfied, allowing yourself to be ok with feeling a little hungry in order to be more in tune with your body and thus able to stop eating when you're full. To be emotionally happier and not to eat for emotional reasons - only start eating when truly hungry, eating slowly, stopping when no longer hungry. (Google for "I can make you thin" by "Paul McKenna" if interested.)
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 24 February 2006 08:50 am |
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Thursday
Didn't my gym have a monthly party a little while ago? has it really been a month already? This time it wasn't just fatty food - it was high in carbs as well: mini-pizzas made on top of half-bread-rolls, something else was crispy and deep-fried, tortialla chips, puff pastry sausage rolls, sandwiches. I caught myself going for seconds/thirds so I left at that point (15 minutes after the food was layed out) to avoid further problems. On my way out had to pick up another Pizza thing for the way home.
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nevd
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 24 February 2006 02:32 pm |
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Have you tried chewing on the hypnosis CD when you're tempted to eat no-nos?
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 25 February 2006 09:20 pm |
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nevd wrote: Have you tried chewing on the hypnosis CD when you're tempted to eat no-nos?
Very funny. I am now listening to the hypnosis CD while concious as well - as the background while doing the odd chore or light browsing.
Friday
Unscheduled 3-hour shopping trip to ASDA. Mum got countless trays - each with 6 flapjack slices, and a large apple pie and bananas. I got off quite lightly: 2 slices flapjacks, one quarter of a huge apple pie, 3 bananas. Drew a line under this and carried on with life.
Saturday
Marks&Spensers was evidently serving chocolate cake but when I got there at 12.45pm I was obviously just 10 minutes too late to enjoy anything but some crumbs. Didn't stop me from revisiting two hours later and walking away with 3 servings of ice cream layered chocolate cake. (small servings).
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 26 February 2006 09:11 am |
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| Nir, better stay in the UK. In the US ("land of plenty") we never run out of cake! :D
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 26 February 2006 09:12 am |
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Or cookies or ice cream or McDonald's or... Well, oil's a problem.
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nevd
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 26 February 2006 12:32 pm |
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Didn't stop me from revisiting two hours later and walking away with 3 servings of ice cream layered chocolate cake. (small servings).
I trust you used the M&S stairs and not the escalator to work some of it off?
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 26 February 2006 03:10 pm |
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| In our branch this department is on the ground floor. I do find myself taking the lift in the gym from time to time :). M&S didn't have any freebies to offer today, but I'm off to ASDA so who knows what'll happen!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 27 February 2006 01:04 am |
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Peter wrote: Nir, better stay in the UK. In the US ("land of plenty") we never run out of cake!
Free cake always runs out before paid-for cake.
Sunday afternoon
We found 12 cream cakes that should have been reduced, but the staff were making life difficult for us, so we left the store without them. I thought I was spared today's binge. I was wrong!
Had to go past mum's house and collected two Flap Jacks slices  . They are surprisingly nice when frozen! Then one of my purchases from the vegetables section turned out to be large mushrooms stuffed with cream cheese (350 calories!) oops (very nice though). Somewhere there I lost my discipline, and two x 400g punnets of grapes disappeared (480 calories altogether). It is just as well that the bananas I got are green.
I have two fridges: a small one and a large one. They are now both 90-95% full, including use of the doors. They contain a couple of bottles of diet cola, one carton of soya milk, a jar of mustard, a few pots of orange-flavour sugar-free jelly and a few 10g-of-protein portions defrosted overnight for tomorrow. Everything else is vegetables and fruit  . If I buy any more it'll have to go outside the fridge.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 1 March 2006 06:44 am |
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Tuesday 8.30pm
4 items for 65p (about $1)
- 220 calories: humous and peppers in flatbread wrap. Discarded some bread - still 150-odd calories
- 430 calories: chicken, bacon, pasta, ceaser dressing "salad". Washed dressing - still 200-odd calories
- 500 calories: "cottage pie" (minced beef and potatos). Discarded the potatoe, still 300-odd calories
- 1200 calories: Valentine's cake: sponge cake with icing. Ate over 75% - over 900 calories!!!
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sheltiemom
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 2 March 2006 05:19 pm |
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| A few days ago, I asked if anyone had ever used subliminal tapes for weight loss, and your name was mentioned. Any opinion?:P
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 2 March 2006 05:25 pm |
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| Yes, this overeating is a problem (despite the hypnosis - not because). Partly because I keep telling myself that I'm already pretty near to my goal weight and I can afford to make mistakes. Mind you, if I actually put on any weight rather than just slow down, I will take notice.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 3 March 2006 08:19 am |
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Thursday 9pm
Not a binge so much as a slightly ill-advised trip
Chicken/Sweetcorn/Pasta 'salad' (20p) total calories 146. divided into two portions. After a few mouthfulls realised the sauce was nothing special, the pasta wasn't amazing, I wasn't excited by the sweetcorn and there was hardly any chicken (9% by weight, according to ingredients). So picked what little chicken I could see and chucked the rest in the bin.
Boiled Fish Balls (30p). For something made from white fish it was surpringy high in calories (194 kcal per 100g). Packet was labelled 225g but content amounted to less than 150g. Divided into three portions, each marginally less than 10g protein - still didn't have my 8pm protein portion so I figured I could have it for 8pm, 10pm and 12am, displacing other protein (which can be eaten tomorrow). By the time I was eating the 2nd portion I knew what to do with it: chop into little bits and mix with 100g of salad, so as to not waste the flavour. Still 300 calories of misdirection (lean protein would have been less than 150 calories)
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 3 March 2006 04:57 pm |
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Friday - decided to start a food diary again, as I'm not sure how much non-protein I'm eating. Page has these sections:
- vegetables(1cup/100g servings)
- protein(10g = 45+ calorie servings, call them 50..75 average depending on mix)
- fruit(25cal servings)
- grain(25cal servings)
- water(1cup)
- non-water(specify details)
- other-food(specify details)
Each section has times when I helped myself to a portion - with more details for non-water drinks and other-food sections. Calorie target range is currently 1450-1650. I need to ensure I'm neither lower nor higher than the range - and ideally feed intake in gradually. I'm not a "meal" person - the protein will be rationed every 2 hours, drinks and other foods are when I feel like it.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 6 March 2006 12:52 am |
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Friday
the diary thing went quite well until around 9pm. I found myself in a Salsa party I wasn't expecting to go to. I did pack plenty of fruit and some protein portions, but ignored my own food in favour of Jelly Babies (easy-to-eat 99% sugar sweets) which were placed in small bowls every 2m around the perimeter of the room. I lost count after 10. Then I was in binge mode and when I came home (1am) made myself a couple of lots of "oat cookie doe" (rolled oats, bran, artificial sweetner, instant coffee, a little boiling water)
Saturday
all went well. In fact had to make sure I had the last few calories before going to bed (mostly fruit towards the end). Busy for part of the day pre-portioning various vegetables into 25-calorie servings in small plastic boxes in the fridge.
Sunday
All went well until 3pm. ASDA again! This is quite a binge, the binge alone is easily my maintenance calories. I was (and am still) eating the other food though! Yes, I've got the hypnosis tape playing in the background while having my binge :D
- 3 cheese samples - maybe 100 calories
- yogurty all bran sample - around 85 calories
- one cream slice 300 calories
- 3.5 merignues 350 calories
- 2 banoffee pies (discarded 40 grams of pie crust) 350 calories
- 400g grapes 240 calories
- 340g thin ham & pineapple pizza perhaps 1000 calories? divided it into 8 slices and froze 6, but I'm gradually unfreezing and cooking them, one at a time, might finish the lot today!
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snussster
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 6 March 2006 01:24 am |
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Well Nir, if you're gonna do it, at least you do it right. I'm enjoying trying to imagine what a "cream slice" is, and I'm guessing a "banoffee pie" is a banana-coffee type of thing? Oooh, and then ham and pineapple pizza - yessireee!! Thanks for the vicarious life (as well as all the great help you offer).
As Scarlett O'hara says, "Tomorrow is another day..."
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Be A Cow
Senior Member
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Posted: 6 March 2006 08:35 pm |
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| Nir!!! What!! is a banoffee pie?? I have been wanting to know for a long time--they've been mentioned in two movies that I've seen and perhaps I'm stupid (and lazy not to just look it up on the net) but I don't know what that is . . . I'm immensely interested in all types of pie :)
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 7 March 2006 12:05 am |
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| banana-toffee. Actually I was able to eat the pie without knowing or caring :) but have now found this handy page http://www. banoffee.co.uk/banoffee/ where bizzarly a connection with Robinson College is revealed - the very Cambridge College where I was educated (1991-4). I was not a member of the Puddings Society though.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 7 March 2006 12:21 am |
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snussster wrote: I'm enjoying trying to imagine what a "cream slice" is
My previous binge (the one with 15 different types of cream-cake) was an eye-opener. I discovered my favourite fresh-cream cake is not at all my long-standing choice (coffee choux), but instead, this beast:
Layers of flakey pastry (puff pastry), fresh cream in between, lots of icing on top.
bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/berryfruitandfreshcr_67703.shtml
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Be A Cow
Senior Member
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Posted: 7 March 2006 01:24 am |
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| Wow . . . I wish we had cream cakes here. And banoffee pies. One of my friends (who was also curious) will be disappointed. She hates bananas :( Which is just wrong--but she has a strange relationship with fruit in general--she doesn't like it much. Anything ripe she calls pithy, and the only fruit I've actually seen her eat are strawberries, and canned pears (the pears were when we were little :)).
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 7 March 2006 10:20 am |
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The store-bought banoffee pie, of course, is unlikely to have seen a real banana - probably just banana flavouring.
Monday
My food-diarising went well, and it had gone midnight and I only had 1275 calories. I had to force-feed myself up to 1650 before going to bed. Unfortunately I chose apples pears and oranges (at least half a kilo) - next time in this situation I'll pick something lighter like popcorn or other grain :)
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 8 March 2006 03:26 am |
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| Shame on you for posting such a picture!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 12 March 2006 10:42 am |
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I think I did OK on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Thursday
unusual day as had to eat all my calories by 7pm (fasting 7pm - Friday 10am for a blood test for cholesterol). The Bakery counter at Sainsbury's had cookie sample fragments in a tray (3 varieties). I helped myself to perhaps 300 calories. Sufficiently early in the day to stay within my allowance though.
Friday
Started eating at 10am after coming from the Doctor's surgery. The previous night picked up more cookie fragments at Sainsbury's (while fasting) and then unscheduled trip to ASDA (I was good: mum bought cookies, I just asked for one cookie of each of 2 types instead of buying myself a box. Those boxes were reduced from £2.00 to £0.05...). I had around 200 calories of cookies with me. First ate 100 calories. Then broke the other cookies away and only ate the chocolate bits (35 calories) throwing the rest away - preserved my calories for more nutritious choices. I was on track after that. But then at 11pm a fruit buffet was served at the salsa party. How much abuse can one do with a fruit binge? I gave up counting. At least 6 bananas, at least 4 apples, also pears, grapes, strawberries and melon. Who knows...
Saturday
Coming out of the gym in the afternoon, I was hunting for freebies at the shopping centre so sure enough I found them: 1) Fair Trade chocolate sample 2) Cappucino-flavour pepsi max (virtually no calories) 3) 2 Red wine mini-glass
4) best though was the cooking demonstration with sampling afterwards at the 'food hall' of Marks & Spensers department store. I had two samples of steak (fried with oil). The dessert was made with strawberries, cream, after eight chocolates and crushed meringues. I had 7 small helpings of that (counted as 300 calories).
I made sensible choices after that, though difficult to say if I stayed within my calories - might have gone over if I underestimated the samples!
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 13 March 2006 08:31 am |
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Nir wrote: But then at 11pm a fruit buffet was served at the salsa party. How much abuse can one do with a fruit binge? I gave up counting. At least 6 bananas, at least 4 apples, also pears, grapes, strawberries and melon. Who knows...
Next time you might try dancing!
Peter
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 13 March 2006 08:33 am |
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Oh, maybe I'm confused. Salsa the food or dance?
Peter
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 13 March 2006 11:31 am |
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Yes, Salsa the dance (see interests on my profile). Unfortunately I wasn't in the mood for dancing but had plenty of time to kill as my lift wasn't leaving for ages.
Sunday
another cream slice (300 calories). Buying two would have been easier (there's two in the packet) but sharing with mum is wiser (well, passing on the cake is wiser still :))
But then couldn't help but binge on some fruit - flimsy excuse was that it might have gone off, but it probably would have lasted a few more days. 510g raspberries (138 calories) and 1050g pineapple slices (375 calories), proving that in my hands fruit are just as abusable as cakes.
Went over my target calories, but stayed under my maintenance.
Monday
On the positive side, I'm exploring the maths of combining high-protein sources (like tinned tuna and soy protein isolate) with medium-protein sources (like Spinach, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, garden peas, Sainsbury's Basic chicken curry) so that, when eaten together I still get my 10g protein serving but more punch for my associated 25-calorie servings. Right now I'm eating 230g raw broccoli in lou of my 10g of protein - that's protein and fibre both taken care of!
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 14 March 2006 09:23 am |
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I was teasing. Over here we'd call that dry, British humor.
BTW, that's an unusual (and unusually healthy) buffet! My monkies would love the bananas!!
Peter
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 15 March 2006 07:41 am |
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Monday was right on target
Tuesday
Restrained myself at the shop - didn't even go to the cakes area to see what bargains were available. At 10pm still had something like 700 calories to consume before the end of the day - and sure enough I did, 25-calorie portion at a time - using the opportunity to try (or re-try) as many things as I could think of. Took ages - completed my task at 0.30am
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 16 March 2006 11:31 am |
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Wednesday
Wasn't hungry for much of the day so just fed in my protein and some vegetables (mostly high-protein vegetables like spinach and broccoli) and still had 800-odd calories to play with.
On way home after my workout wasn't going to go via cake area, but they moved it around so it was near the checkout (actually one of the managers approached me and asked if I'd buy this pie if she reduced it to 20p for me...). I bought some marinated chicken breast with mango salsa, some pasta salad, a large apple-and-blackcurrant pie, 5 large oatmeal cookies, 5 large white-chocolate cookies.
When my neighbour got back, I approached him with "do you like cookies?". He got 4 out of 5 cookies of each type, and I cut myself 20% of the pie as a slice and gave him the rest. He's a star (and quite slim with it).
I had 25 calories of pie-filling and 25 calories of crust - and chucked the rest away.
The cookies were much more addictive - over the space of 45 minutes I was breaking them into 25-calorie portions (that's just 5 grams - I'm using accurate scales) and consumed them as slowly as I could. I had 16 portions (that's 80 grams and 400 calories) and discarded another 20 grams of cookies on the ground that they were too hard.
After all of that still had 50 calories to spend at the end of the day - and that mountain of popcorn neatly reminded me that there are always WISER  ways of spending one's calories!
The chicken was also delicious - I'm doing it in portions. One in the freezer and a couple more to be enjoyed on Thursday.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 28 March 2006 01:16 pm |
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- Friday the 10th of March (the fruit platter at the salsa party) was my last uncontrolled binge (the last time I stopped counting calories and started eating without control until the end of the day - and certainly going above both my daily target and my maintenance number), and Sunday the 12th of March was the last time I was eating my calories too quickly or going above my daily target. It was also the last time I visited ASDA so lets not pretend that I am "cured" - it is just currently impractical to get there of late.
Fear not for my fruit and veg supply though as I've got other sources. I have two fridges (a large larder-style fridge and a small fridge) and yet 48 of my apples are actually stored at a fridge in my mother's house, simply because my fridges are full to capacity. Last week I was able to buy 23 half-Swedes for £0.03 each (£0.69 altogether), for example :), those 48 apples were only £1.80, I recently snapped up 174 eggs for £2.90, that's how these things happen.
Shame on me, only last week have I started practicing what I preach and increased my calorie intake from 1450 to 1600. Basically 1450 was 15% less than my RMR adjusted with a sedentary (1.2) multiplier, wheras 1600 is 15% less than my RMR adjusted with a slightly more active (1.32) multiplier. Ironically I've become a little less active of late - over the last 5 days (Thursday through to Monday) I was only exercising on 1 day (Saturday), or indeed just 3 days over the last 7 days. I do plan to not let it drop below 3 days a week though. Whatever my calorie target, I always ensure I reach it (even if it means staying up a little later to eat towards it). As I get nearer to flipping from a fat loss objective to muscle gain objective I believe need to slowly increase my calories to maintenance and then take it over and above, so the increase is part of my plan.
Friday the 10th of March was the day I started jotting down what I eat again. I am using a sheet of paper (very portable). My system evolves on an almost continuous basis. Here is what it currently looks like:
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 28 March 2006 03:02 pm |
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[continued]
- PROTEIN(10g/50kcal): time portion was taken, together with a mnemonic (short phrase) to remind me what it was. Each portion must be around 10g of protein and can only be 50 calories. This means 80% of calories must come from protein. If I'm getting my protein from a "less efficient" source I log 50 calories against protein and the rest is logged in one of the other sections - for example if I use 75 calories of broccoli to get 10g of protein, that's one entry here and one entry under the VEG-25.
- VEG-25: time the 25-calorie portion of vegetables was eaten and brief mnemonic.
- FRUIT-25: time the 25-calorie portion of fruit was eaten and brief mnemonic.
- OTHER-25: time the 25-calorie portion of anything else (not protein, veg or fruit) was eaten and a brief mnemonic.
- 5: time the 5-calorie portion was eaten (fruit, veg or other) and brief mnemonic. Groups of 5 of these portions are bracketed to assist with counting 25-kcal portions for overall total.
- 10: time the 10-calorie portion was eaten (fruit, veg or other) and brief mnemonic. Alternate groups of 3 and 2 of these portions are bracketed to assist with counting 25-kcal portions for overall total.
Managing the system: A typical day has me awake from 6am till midnight, and I'm aiming to take in 100g of protein "directly" (that's 400 calories out of 1600, or 25%) and any other protein I ingest indirectly is a bonus - for example 5% of 1100 would be 13.75g, 10% would be 27.5g. Apples and Pears are only around 3% wheras grain is around 10% and many vegetables are 15% or over. Any veg that are 40% protein or above I usually use as part of my protein portion anyhow. To feed in my 100g of "direct" portion, I have 10 x 10g portions, aiming to have them at 6am, 8am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, 8pm, 10pm, 12am. I allow each portion to use up 50 calories so that's 500 calories accounted for.
Advanced protein calculations: When I use ultra-lean protein such as egg whites or tuna which are actually less than 50 calories I am able to optimise and use the extra few calories for something else (like a very small salad). If the something else I'm combining the very-lean-protein with itself has some protein, I can really optimise by solving a simultaneous equation so that the total calories from both foods is 50 and the total protein from both is 10g. I can even aim for a different amount (say 75 kcal or 100 kcal) and aim to get to 10g protein within that amount. I've developed a small computer program that works out all the details and really lets me stretch my portions. Ultimately if I'm eating a range of high-protein foods according to availability rather than by using my equations then I can add up protein and calories the "old-fashioned way".
The other part of the system is managing the non-protein calories. Aiming for a total of 1600 and allocating 500 to "protein portions" leaves 1100 for non-protein foods, that's 44 x 25-calorie portions over the 18 hours I'm awake. This breakdown encourages me to not eat more than 25 calories of any particular food at any one time - encouraging variety and avoiding over-eating and teaching me the VALUE-FOR-CALORIE (analogous to VALUE-FOR-MONEY: e.g. was this 25-calorie portion of cookie as "worth it" as this 25-calorie portion of Popcorn?). There is no perscription of when to eat as such as I'm trying to teach myself to ONLY EAT WHEN I AM HUNGRY (and then later on in the day, eat to ensure I've consumed my target calories or that I have enough glycogen for a forthcoming workout). At any point in the day I can give myself "license" to eat more by working out how much I "should have had" . At its simplest, after being awake for H hours, I could have had (H/18)*44, or H*2.44. However this makes me nervous as it does not "hold back" any calories in case they are needed later on in the day. Other possible allocation systems include 2 portions per hour for the first 10 hours, 3 per hour for the last 8 (2 x 10 + 3 x 8 = 44) or indeed 2 portions per hour for the first 14 hours and 4 per hour for the last 4 (2 x 14 + 4 x 4 = 44). I typically work this out just before going to the gym, or if I'm bored and thinking about food and wondering if I actually ought to eat.
My system seemed to fail me for 2 of the first 3 days I was using it, but today is the 19th day and overall it has been a success.
I try to carry my portable mini-scales (they're quite compact but only go up to 150g - mind you they are accurate to 0.1g so ideal for calorie-dense foods) with me when I'm out and about, so even if I get a food sample I can log it.
At the moment this system seems a tad complicated, almost as complicated as actually counting calories and protein/fat/carb breakdown - but it is a framework I can modify and perhaps simplify at a later date.
I'm currently spending more of my spare time learning cooking techniques new to me and trying out recipe variations. Previously extra time in the kitchen could translate into extra calories consumed, but I'm doing just fine at the moment.
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