Tag Archives: Food Entry

Wednesday Food Fest:: Weighing and Measuring

Posted on by Renée
4

So, do you?

Or are you one of those free-for-all “that looks like 100g” kind of people?

I’ve tried to get by with that and let’s just say that eyeballing doesn’t work for me.

To put it this way – I pretty much weigh and measure EVERYTHING.

One of my favourite snacks, which could be easily just done by winging it, is my daily youghurt and fruit. But it’s not any old kind of plain sour yoghurt, no. It’s Bulgarian-style Yoghurt. Typically this would be made with fat creamy goat’s milk, but this one is made from cow’s. It’s not low-fat. It’s not non-fat. It’s 3.5% fat. I’m a true believer in everything in moderation, including fat. We need it. Think of your body like a car – you wouldn’t run your car without oil would you? I mean, you could, but eventually you are going to wreck the engine. Nothing wrong with a little bit of fat.

I have, pretty much every weekday, around 125g of this yoghurt, with typically 50 g of two types of fruit (sometimes I splurge and have three). I try to keep my fruit under 200g.

While it may seem a bit controlling, I like knowing just how much I’m eating and how that all fits into my daily nutrient and calorie levels.

mmm, yoghurt. can I have some too, Mom?


What do you do to keep things in check with the amount of food you eat?

The Last Foodie Friday of 2011

Posted on by Renée
7

We made it guys! WHOO!!

This week has not be stellar for me once again but we are not surprised by now. After all this is NOT A WEIGHT LOSS BLOG so no real reason to expect that I’m a green, mean, clean eating machine all the time, right? With the holidays coming to a close, finally the biscuits, cookies, chocolates, cakes, special breads, etc., will stop being put in my face until next year and I can at least go on with my life in the way I actually MEAN to go on.

Remember last year I did the 30 Day I’m Not Going to Eat Any Crap At Work Challenge? Well it’s time to have that challenge again. This is utterly ridiculous and not who I am.

It’s funny because we have stuff at home right now, chocolates that my husband bought, but the thing is, I don’t like them, so I don’t eat them. I don’t like half the shit I’m shoving in my face at work, but I’m still eating it. I’m not hungry, I’m eating it. I’m looking for stuff to shove down my neck. I know that it’s stress related.

But it’s amazing (here comes the broken record) that even though I know it doesn’t help I do it anyway. Really annoying. I can quit smoking, but I can’t stop shoving crappy things in my face?

Anywho. I had some really good stuff this week too though. I must be such a food/health dork because I just LOVE a great salad. I am definitely going to refocus and get my good food on next week and beyond :)

Thanks to Tracy, I had these Cheddar Snack-a-Jacks with lowfat Philadelphia and 4 slices total of chorizo for breakfast. In hind-sight, I agree that these are more a snack item and not breakfast as I was just too hungry too soon. Lesson learned.

Another breakfast: Green Eggs. I used spinach (frozen, thawed out from night before), spring onions and courgette (zucchini) with two eggs and two egg whites, about 10g of parmigiana and (sorry if this sounds weird) used the pan that had a wee bit of oil (< 1TBSP), garlic (whole clove), chilies and cumin fried in it the night before. This was delish and definitely more filling than the snack-a-jacks.

Curry (Dahl) – OH MY GOD this is insanely delicious and healthy, really! Lentils, tomatoes, chicken, spices… with basmati rice and the “topping” as mentioned above ^^^^

The topping, in the pan:

Wait that’s not food! (Nena, Kitty #2 hanging out)

Another breakfast: this was good, but only semi-filling. I had a couple weeks there where I was doing all right but lately (maybe again lack of good sleep) I’m hungry by the time I get to work. Again need to revamp and figure this out. Ah I’m in a constant state of reinvention, no?

2 Hard boiled eggs, leftover rice and two small ripe tomatoes:

This week I also had, but did not photograph, leftover chili con carne with rice (yum), leftover Dahl (no chicken, no topping) and I had some leftover rice, steamed broccoli, chicken, courgette and red onion that I whipped up together for lunch yesterday.

With all the not so healthy choices (and chocolate/biscuit face shoving) there were some healthy ones in there too.

What did you eat this week? What was amazing and healthy? What could you improve upon? Did you also almost eat up a cute kitty cat?

Friday Foodie Post

Posted on by Renée
4

Yes I know it’s Saturday. What of it?

I planned again this week, though I have to say at some point I went off course and purposely at that.

Honestly all of this is just too, too much. I’m tired people. At some stage you have to Let Go and Move On.

That did not stop me from tasty eats though:

a delicious salad with Rio Mare Tuna in Oil (yes in oil) with steamed broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, 50g of jasmine rice:

Roasted vegetables, 100gr of Kamut and a 100g chicken breast, with some herbs and spices of course (with a few chunks of roasted garlic to boot!) – the colleagues were jealous!

I had eggs several times this week, a very easy, healthy and low-fat/calorie meal, in the train of course (here with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes and I think there was a laughing cow wedge melted within the whole thing)

Our seasonal drinks were just way too tempting to pass up; a tall (8oz) white mocha cranberry latte (made here with only 1 pump of white mocha instead of 3 and non-fat milk, but no I didn’t skimp on the whip!!)

Even today (I know, it’s Saturday and this is Friday Foodie Post) after the gym I had a salad with tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, Mediterranean corn (corn with black and green olives) and Rio Mare tuna:

So, I may not lose weight, even though the numbers say that I *should* but damn I eat well!

Planning Works

Posted on by Renée
3

But can be boring. I’ve got to really think hard and come up with some ideas for next week. I did what I set out to do (for the work week) as far as food goes. But by lunch time today I really thought “roasted veggies, again. whoop-dee-do”. Sure it’s not important to be excited about food all the time because food is sustenance and what you need to fuel and take care of your body. But damn I was EXCITED on Monday! Today, meh, not so much.

Breakfasts:
Oatmeal (Steel Cut Oats, Peanut Butter (lite), 1/2 a banana, cinnamon, 1 day I had 10g of Neal’s Yard Omega Seed Mix)

I already started with oatmeal a couple weeks ago. I think I like the Seven Grain Hot Cereal more, or maybe I just like that it takes less time to make it in the morning:

eggs with vegetables (bulky, filling)
Monday and Wednesday I had eggs with spinach and mini-mushrooms (2 eggs, 2 egg whites, 150g spinach and 100g mushrooms + Pam cooking spray)

Thursday I had the 2+2 with Kamut and black beans (OMG how delicious was that????)

Today I had it with asparagus, courgette (zucchini) and the rest of the mushrooms:

I have no problem eating just about anything in the morning. Seriously. But today it was a little bit difficult. Maybe it was just too much (I ate ALL in that photo). It was like 325grams of veg. But let me tell you I had no hunger issues WHAT SO EVER.

Lunch Monday, Weds and Friday was the roasted vegetables I mentioned last Sunday, plus the Kamut (100g each meal) that I cooked up and the 100 g chicken breasts I buy from the freezer section already cooked (so all I have to do is thaw and then “cook” in the morning with my own seasonings). In principle a great meal, maybe just not 3 times in a week. I meant to take a photo after I’d warmed it up at work but kept forgetting so you get a photo of it in it’s box ready to go to work with me.

Thursday I worked from home and whipped up this beauty from my freezer: shrimp, frozen veg (what a shock, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots…) and some noodles I had in the cupboard. A little bit of olive oil, some salt, pepper and Moroccan spices and voila

Dinner this week was not all that exciting. Twice I had soup and a sandwich. Once I had a Salad from the supermarket (to go – had it in the train). Once I had the pasta salad I tried last week and really liked (chicken, pesto, sundried tomatoes and peas):

I did that so that the hubs and I could run when I arrived home. The night I had the salad I had been out with a friend and again had my dinner in the train. A lot of train meals this week.

So. Hmmmm. What am I going to eat next week!!

What to do when you are not dieting

Posted on by Renée
2

I’m officially not dieting, though my brain is still in diet mentality. That’s years and years of conditioning. Like growing up Catholic and then giving it up, the rituals stay with you regardless of whether you want them there or not.

So I’m not dieting. What do I eat if I’m not dieting?

I feel like I’m eating a lot of food sometimes. I guess in some cases it’s ok, because we’re talking about a lot of fruit and vegetables for the most part. Yesterday I had:

Two Knackebrood crackers with filet americain
A Half a sandwich with smoked beef and mustard
A Half a sandwich with chicken and mustard
A Triple Grande One Pump Sugar Free Vanilla Non-Fat Latte
Two more Swedish crackers with 30g goats cheese and 40 g avocado
A Venti Herbal Tea
100g of rice, three tomatoes, oil, vinegar, shallot, cucumber, tuna
A Double Espresso
Steamed beans, sun-dried tomato,50g lean bacon, bit of onion and garlic, oil, vinegar, Italian cheese
A mini Nuts Bar
A Double Tall Non-Fat Latte
175g non-fat yoghurt with strawberries, blueberries, and one mandarin and about one Tbsp All-Bran
The other two half sandwiches from above
A grilled cheese sandwich with mayo and two slices of turkey salami
A couple of glugs of Diet Cassis soda (maybe one glass in total)

Yesterday I was hungry all day, but I’m certain it was lack of sleep that did it. I woke up at 3.30am and could not go back to sleep. I was definitely a wreck by the time I left work. I had the mini Nuts around 3pm, which makes sense – nearly 12 hours after I’d been awake and I was probably feeling like I needed sugar so I succumbed to my Nemesis, the Candy Jar (just one though, in fact, never even thought about it again after I’d had the one – which is a victory in my book!)

Today I am not as prepared food wise as I was yesterday, meaning, I have snacks but no lunch . They key here will be to just choose wisely and not overdo. What I have had or have with me are:

Two double espressos (what can I say? I love my coffee)
1 egg, 3 egg whites, mushrooms, spinach, olive oil, garlic, Italian Cheese (yummy breakfast)
Apple, Banana, Kiwi
Strawberries, blueberries, one mandarin (need to buy yoghurt)
Swedish Crackers
Goats Cheese and Avocado
Approx 100g cottage cheese, five green olives

I’ll need to get lunch at work – could be a sandwich or a salad, just depends on what’s available and what I’m feeling like. Hubs already has decided to make hamburgers for dinner (we do them ourselves from very lean beef, usually a ciabatta, cheese, sautéed onions and mushrooms).

Did check the scale this morning: Holiday gain was 900g, so far after a couple days back home, down 700g. Now I just need to get my running groove back. I have a 12K race next Sunday (*gulp*) and of course the Half-Marathon at the end-ish of April that I’m now officially totally unprepared for. Ah well, I’m sure I’ll get through it all.

************

Results since Re-Commitment

Posted on by Renée
8

I decided last Monday to recommit (Well I decided Sunday really) and start using my Weight Watchers ProPoints program again. I committed to logging in everything regardless of the numbers and the games they play with me. I’m not an angel, but as I mentioned before, I actually enjoy and do my best every day to eat healthily and mindfully. You may notice that there is not a lot of junk (until Friday *ahem*) either. You may also notice that I get all my fruit, vegetables, dairy (a little) and good fats in, every day (until Friday *ahem*). These are the pillars in which Weight Watchers calls the Fit Formulas – hydration, calcium, fruit and vegetables, and good fats.
*I realise that not everyone likes to read food journals and on top of that mine are in Dutch, but if you have the gumption to look, I’m also going to create a little list of the food translations.


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I have to say I was already kind of annoyed Monday at the end of the day when my daily total was over my target of 29. I know that the weekly free points are there for that reason, but you have no idea how diligent I was, weighing and measuring everything, making sure I was using small amounts for flavor and not overdoing at dinner (and believe me, I WANTED to eat more of my dinner that I had made, but I did NOT). It’s really a mind game and I wish it would just stop, but… apparently Sadist-Brain is not ready to give that up yet.
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Tuesday was better at 29 points, though admittedly I was hungry when I went to bed and very hungry when I woke up Wednesday (Tuesday I did go to the gym, where I had a creepy/flattering gym-guy experience, my first ever!). Wednesday I was over 5 points, but I earned 4 with just doing my Cooper Test at lunch. Thursday I was over again at 34.5 points, but even then I am not sure if it’s correct as I kind of guessed my dinner (it was leftover homemade Indian chicken with spicy lentil sauce).
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And Friday. Well. It was a total wash. I woke up hungry and I had no plan or preparation. So I Planned to Fail.. Friday’s total is at 73.5 points.. Why? I woke up hungry, I didn’t eat enough breakfast so I got something at work… it was the day after Sint Maarten and someone had brought in candy (it’s like Halloween), so I helped myself to a Mini-Nuts. It was downhill from there really. Lunch was with my team and food was provided. Then I had the commute on the way home which was completely disrupted by an accident (so there was the stress of figuring out how I was going to get home). Oh don’t these excuses sound divine! And hey! There are two croissants in my bag! I’ll shove them down my throat! So once I was at home, hubs and the kids arrived, he was ready to cook the lean ground beef hamburgers that were on the plan and … they were still frozen. Can you imagine that someone, at some point said “Screw this, we’re getting pizza!” and then other had already logged on to the local pizza place’s website? None of which were me of course … *looks around nervously because she is a terrible liar*
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After all that I did see a change on the scale again (what’s new, updownupdownupdown) – Monday Morning was at 81.5KG, Saturday morning (even after pizza) was at 80.8KG which is a loss of 800gr or 1 3/4 pound. If you can’t get your head around metrics, it’s 178 lbs give or take.
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I did run last week and I did go to the gym once. I really wanted to go this weekend, and I thought I could go this morning early, but I had to stay home with my stepdaughter – my stepson had a swimming test that Hubs brought him to and since SD was still sleeping I couldn’t just leave her and have her wake up with no one in the house. (Wait. Does that sound like an excuse too?). I thought they would be back at 9 and they were back at 10. That means I stayed in bed until 10… the gym closes at 12 and I wasn’t exactly ready to go when I got out at 10…
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So here’s the deal for this new week (Weeks are Sat – Fri on the program)
1) Run – 15K is next Sunday. I’m crapping myself. Totally unprepared.
2) Gym – Twice
3) Yoga DVD (didn’t manage this on Thursday – was at work until 7pm)
4) Track everything
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Getting Le Crap Together

Posted on by Renée
12

Looks like I’ve finally reached the point where I’m sick enough of myself and my excuses to do something.

So, I have a plan for next week. Today is already pretty much over (not a license to eat like a person who doesn’t care about her body), we start over again tomorrow.

I have planned out our dinners. And I will plan my running and gym for next week too. Unless I am lying in the hospital on my last breath, I will be doing both this week.

If you hate food / food planning posts you can stop here and just go directly to the comments and tell me how cool I am.

Dinners Planned:
Sunday – Spaghetti with home made sauce and meatballs *we always make the sauce ourselves and the meatballs are from extra lean beef. We have a tradition of pasta on Sundays, generally when we have the kids (which is this weekend). The sauce is made up of only tomatoes, 1 TBSP of olive oil and fresh italian herbs. This is a fairly healthy dish. It’s the QUANTITY that I can shove down my gullet that gets to me every time.

Monday – couscous, turkey medallions and vegetables * this is one of my healthier go-to dishes when I need to cook. Nothing is really “bad” in this dish. For the vegetables I use red, green and yellow paprika peppers, mushrooms and red onion. This will be sautéed in 1 TBSP coconut oil. Turkey to be marinated a wee bit in some sweet-soy sauce, some chili paste, salt, pepper, garlic.

Tuesday – White fish with rice and haricots verts * usually I use tilapia or pangasius (catfish I think in English). this is covered with 1 TBSP olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper, garlic and fresh basil. All that cooked in the pan for a couple of minutes, then a tin of tomato chunks, lemon juice and a wee bit of water is poured over the fish left to simmer for a few minutes. The beans are steamed in the rice cooker with the rice.

Wednesday – chicken stir fry with rice * pretty self explanatory. We buy a bag of stir fry veg to cook this quickly. There is some sweet-soy involved, and some chili paste.

Thursday – I’m not in control of Thursday as hubs is cooking for his study partner. It will be an Indian curry. Always made to adapt to our healthy eating epicness.

Friday – I’m out with friends, hubs is on his own. We’re going to a Burger Bar and then for drinks. For me it will not be an out of control evening because of the fact that I will be in Amsterdam and still have to travel back to Arnhem in the evening. Since our train station is a complete disaster I may even need to leave the city earlier than I normally do just to make it home with alternative transport.

I WILL RUN on these days:
Tuesday
Thursday
*quite possibly Friday with some colleagues at work during the day

I WILL go to the gym on these days:
Monday
Wednesday

I have an appt with my Dietitian on Wednesday and will prepare dinner AFTER I go to the gym. I will go to the gym DIRECTLY after the appointment. Luckily I am working from home that day so there is NO EXCUSE to not go.

I don’t generally need help with my daily food planning because I tend to rotate the same things. I make sure I get my veggies in by either already including them at breakfast, having a huge salad at lunch, or snacking on them throughout the day. Fruits are also a non issue – those are also always included throughout the day. I made a shopping list that hubs so wonderfully and willingly took with him to the supermarket. I made a huge pot of Spicy Carrot and other Vegetables soup (I had some veggies that were approaching the end of their life cycle so I threw them in) and will have that during the week in the afternoon (or at lunch) instead of cup-a-soup. I am also making some Kamut and that will be added to the soup for a source of protein and bulking up.

I am making some hummus also tomorrow and will have that for my sandwich portion of the lunch this week, along with avocado and sun-dried (not in oil) or even regular tomatoes.

Basically, I’m putting it out there and I’m doing it. No more excuses. Time to get my crap together and my ass in gear.

So Far September

Posted on by Renée
7

I did not mean to go this long without a post. In fact, I was writing up a post about my trip to Rome on my “regular” blog and I haven’t even finished that one yet. It’s been a little bit busy since I got back. My intention is always to post at least once a week to keep people interested, but also for myself so I don’t easily forget about my accomplishments.

A few things:

1) I wanted to set some September goals, but here we are at the 12th already! So basically my goals are:
a) complete 5K in Arnhem (Bridge to Bridge) – DONE (and kicked ass, thankyouverymuch)
b) complete 16K in Amsterdam on the 19th – bring it on
c) clock at least 85 KM this month running
d) go to the gym. really. just once.
e) write that letter to my grandmother

2) Our trip to Rome was AWESOME. I mean really and completely awesome. We did so many things and I haven’t even been able to sort through all the photos yet and put them online, but there are at least a few (nearly 100!) here if you want to have a look. I absolutely loved Rome and plan on going back. Oh and the food? OMG. Awesome. Seriously. I did not worry about eating while I was there. Pizza. Pasta. Ice Cream. My birthday weekend was definitely one of the best so far. The Highlight? Going running around the Colosseum. Epic. When was the last time YOU ran around the Colosseum in Rome?

3) I have been food tracking but once again the numbers are all over the place. It’s really, really frustrating. I am going to a Dietitian tomorrow, but honestly, it may be time to just accept that I may possibly weigh 80KG for the rest of my life. If I am hungry I’m going to eat. I refuse to walk around completely empty and light-headed, cranky and headachy, in the name of trying to drop a few kilos. Trust me I am not eating anything crazy. I always get my fruits and veggies in. I eat lean meats, fish, my dairy servings. How can you go wrong when you actually snack on roasted vegetables? What I really hate though? Is that people eat way worse than I do and they consistently lose weight. It feels very unfair. But I know. Mom always said “Life is not fair.”

4) In case I failed to mention it, I am doing two more races in November. One is nearly 10K and the other is 15K. They are both closer to home (compared to the 2 races I’ve done in Amsterdam and now 1 in my city) and they both include a buttload of hills. Next year I want to do more races, maybe a half and …

5) Hubs and I decided we are going to do the BERLIN Marathon next September. Berlin, people. Need I say more? It’s only one of my favourite cities in Europe and moreover an amazingly cool city to run in. Last June (2009) we were there for the second time and we’d already started the C25K, so we decided to do two of our runs that week in Tiergarten. Of course I could run a marathon in the Netherlands, but why not combine my passion for travel and running in the same trip? We are going to have to get on a training plan STAT.

For a little glimpse of what this Runner Girl eats:

Last weeks food also included: 2 cookies, 2 mini-Nuts, 2 home-made Curries (that Hubs tailors to my dietary needs)and a Mexican dinner including Mojitos (and beer and wine… oops). For the rest, I eat like those photos show you. I also ran 25KM this week (Sunday to Sunday). Last time I weighed, the result was 80.5KG, up a kilo from the last time I posted here (but down since I returned from Rome).

Ask me what’s in the photos, I love to talk about the kind of food I eat!

That’s my update for now, but I have a few other posts up my sleeve which I can hopefully get to this week as well.

The Hunger: Part Deux

Posted on by Pinky @lowfatpie
10

I wanted to follow up a bit on my post from yesterday. Coincidentally, I am listening to the Two Fit Chicks podcast where the first question that they are discussing is about Hunger during weight loss. It’s nice to know that there are others who struggle with this. Well, not “nice” but you know what I mean.

To clarify a few things: Normally, while following the Weight Watchers program I have very often had very different things to eat from day to day. This could be breakfasts of egg/egg white omelets with veggies, cereal and light soy milk, a piece of chicken from the dinner before to even soup. I don’t distinguish foods based on when we are supposed to eat them! Prior to probably 2 months ago I had a snack in between breakfast and lunch, generally only consisting of fruit. Lunches were always a combination of a carb/protein/veg; brown rice with shrimp, avocado, tomatoes and a dressing of Dijon mustard and lemon juice, or 100g of leftover penne pasta with some tuna, olives (exactly 5), tomatoes and a light dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. There would be snacks in the afternoon of fruit and yoghurt, and raw veggies (cucumbers, carrots, etc). Dinner is provided by the Hubs, but he is always thinking about my program and lets me know what’s in the meal if it’s a new recipe. Otherwise, it’s normally always a healthy combination again of carb/protein/veg.

There was nothing really wrong with what I was doing. I love food so I had no issue making up nice lunches and tasty snacks. There was and is pretty much still no junk in between (I made it out of my 2+ week chocolate frenzy finally). The only issue? I haven’t lost any weight since November (sorry for those who know this – I know I’m repeating myself, repeating myself).

So I went to 3FC to get some feedback and received the following:
I was eating too much fruit
Wasted calories from my daily latte
I needed to eat even more vegetables to fill up
I was eating too much in general
Too many carbs
I should try counting calories since it seemed WW wasn’t working for me.
Dinners were clearly going over my budget.

The actions I took from that advice:
I stopped eating so much fruit.
The only morning “snack” I’m having is now a double short non-fat latte (I was having a triple tall).
If I get really hungry I drink a large tea.
Afternoon snacks: try to hold out until I leave work (I would have PM snacks and then be hungry again on the train home, then I would eat more fruit)
Dinner – non-exercise days: weigh and measure everything and keep an eye on portions

I tried, very feebly admittedly, to count calories, but I don’t see the point really (ha-ha, the POINT, get it?) when it’s pretty much the same as Weight Watchers. If I know that I have a budget of 29 points and I want to keep 10-15 for dinner, then I split the rest out. Calorie counters do the same thing with their budget.

What my life looks like:

I get up latest 5.20 every weekday morning.
I eat breakfast (after coffee) at around 6 am. (Hunger level is pretty high)
I arrive at work at 8.50am
I have my only latte at 9am (I am generally hungry again at this point)
I may have a tea around 10.30 to tide me over until lunch.
I eat lunch 12 sharp (or I am a cranky mofo)
I leave work at 5pm, hungry
I eat my snacks on the train home I arrive home around 7pm. (at this point I am hungry again)
If I am running, I will have a snack like a peanut butter sandwich or PB and crackers. If I am going to the gym, I will eat dinner first.
After running, or just when I get home, dinner (between 7.30 – 8.30pm).
When I am preparing food and actually bringing stuff to the office, I will normally do this after dinner and before bed.
Bed between 10-10.30pm If I go to the gym, there is no food prep, though I may then get up at 4.30am to do it (depending on how tired I am).

I do think that part of my problem is that my waking hours are too long compared to my sleeping hours, but given my commute, there really is not much I can do about this (I think) I do not think that I have a super-fast metabolism, but I don’t know how to test that (if I did, would I still be fat???). In any case my metabolism is probably faster than it was a year ago, because I’m a lot more active.

Regardless, I have had this hunger problem for as long as I can remember! 10 years ago, 20 years ago, I remember always struggling with this! So I can pretty much eat what anyone would think would satisfy and I would still be hungry. What I have learned from all of this though is that just grabbing something doesn’t help either, so I won’t eat just anything.

Last week and this week I am pretty much eating a sandwich (2 pieces of multi-grain bread, 10gr of light mayonnaise and filet americain or chicken lunch meat) for breakfast, and for lunch 2 sandwiches (one with multi-grain bread, light cream cheese, 20g of lunch meat, and one with celery salad, mustard tomatoes). I have had a 0% fat yoghurt in the afternoon, some fruit and maybe some raw veggies if I’ve had time to prepare. That’s it. And guess what? That? Costs me almost my entire daily allowance on Weight Watchers. Clearly this will not work for me, so next week I’ll go back to planning and prepping and bringing lunches and snacks again. This sandwich thing is an attempt to eat like a typical Dutch person (though my toppings are probably not completely typical). This is exactly how my husband eats, though he has yoghurt in the morning and after lunch (what I’m doing today).

The question still remains: Why am I not losing weight when I eat varied and use my points in a more fulfilling way, fill up on veg, snack only on fruit, protein at every meal, only good carbs, etc? I am less hungry eating the way I was before, but a dull hunger is still there. Now I’m eating what I find to be very little in volume, and too much in points and I’m ravenous.

I would really love to know what it feels like to not have this empty feeling in my stomach and lightness in my head. I’m not making this shit up. As I type this, it’s 7.45am, I’m on the train to work and I am STARVING. I would like to fit properly into my size 42 jeans and possibly lose up to 12KG more. It will never happen though if I have to keep eating to feel like I’m not going to fall over or possibly eat off the nearest body part.

I hope that provides more information. I would love to hear more of your thoughts on this. All I know is, I can not continue this way – it’s not healthy and it’s not pleasant to feel like this all the time. A little bit of hunger is ok, I can accept that. I’ve been doing this a long time though, I am pretty sure my adjustment periods are way over by now.