Category: Challenges

Friday – tired and grumpy. Seems I wasn’t the only one to get tummy ache after last night. So maybe it wasn’t falling off the paleo-wagon that made me ill. Hmm?

After walking the length of campus and back again, I settled on chargrilled tuna steak, with roast sweet potato, butternut squash and some tomato and mozzarella salad for my lunch. Pretty good, but did hoover it. Really fancied a chocolate brownie after, but thought it better to wait an hour and see how lunch settled.

I did consider just having it, then not logging it here but that’s really not the point. I’m not writing this to impress other people with my will-power, and I don’t especially want their opinion or sarcastic, eye-rolling comments about “allergies” either. It’s for me to see how I feel when I make the effort to treat my body a little better. If I said I was just giving up fags or going veggie, people would say well done you! Giving up processed junk-food is apparently a bit of a joke.

So far, after 2 weeks, I’ve not always been very good at sticking to my plans and I’ve felt pretty rough afterwards, which is my own fault. Cause and effect 🙂 I don’t want to feel like a bloated, tired sad-sack of !*#@ so I’ll just have to try harder. Easier said than done when all I want to do tonight is eat pizza and chocolate! Yes, I am in a crappy mood.

Distracted myself my planning a dinner of yummy, snacky things that won’t leave me in pain. Nachos made with plantain chips with guacamole and salsa, lamb dosa with coconut and lime dip, and chocolate for dessert! Happy Chicken 🙂

Managed to knock up a ham and feta frittata before work so had that for lunch with fennel and apple slaw – unfortunately only got to eat about half of it due to work. Started to flag a bit mid-afternoon but had plans to go out for dinner with some colleagues so got a double espresso and bounced like Tigger for the rest of the day 🙂

Good, early dinner @ Giraffe. Decided to be sociable and share starters, which meant breaking my plan and having a bit of hummus and falafel. Made up for it with my main of jerk chicken with mashed sweet potatoes. Yum. Sadly by the time I got home had horrible stomach pain – I blame the hummus 🙁

Only lasted an hour or so, so will have to weigh up if I think it’s worth it next time.

Actually slept through last night, having been sent to bed at 10pm and was out cold within 15mins. Will attribute to the fact I was so very, very tired last night and not the vino. Still had to be forcibly removed from the duvet this morning.

Fruit and yogurt down before hitting the road with a beaker of tea and a HunnyBunnySnackPack™ full of protein-based food, along with a tuna niçoise salad for my lunch. Thanks B! Have I mentioned, I have the world’s most amazing husband? 🙂 On customer site all day for back to back meetings, with practically no wi-fi – shock horror. So much to do and feel like my hands have been cut off. Broke a heel on the way in and tights got laddered before my 1st coffee of the day. Boo hoo – poor me. Right, time to put on my Big Girl pants and get on with it!

 

Got one of my favourite paleo dinner scheduled tonight; meatballs and tomato sauce with courgette noodles. Going to be getting home very late so hoping the maid will have sorted it by the time I get back. Not even pencilling in a walk/ run – not going to happen today. Must start eating earlier in the evening, but not possible when I’m away at customer sites. Need sleep…. got a hectic weekend planned now, so no idea when I’m going to catch up!

Didn’t sleep well last night (fear of over-sleeping) and had huge cravings all day for snacks. Usual breakfast of fruit and yogurt, and a beaker of tea for the drive. Good sized lunch salad with coleslaw and roast chicken. Still felt half starved.

Decided to make myself choose ONE snack to pick up on the way home out of all the stuff I thought I wanted, which was a big old list! Would it be pork scratchings, or kabanos? Babybel cheeses or dark chocolate? Went for all of the above, but only had a little of each. The rest will be my provisions for tomorrow’s long drive 🙁

Nice filling dinner of sausages and red cabbage sauerkraut, and a couple of small glasses of wine while watching Ultimate Braai Master on TV. Completely knackered so can’t make me feel worse. Might actually help me sleep.

Back on the straight and narrow. Cooked breakfast at work (sausage, bacon and eggs) and a cup of tea. Had a meeting just before lunch so had an espresso to wake me up. Late lunch of mixed salad, coleslaw and leftover beef, pork and chorizo meatballs. Lush! Bit busy so didn’t get to leave my desk for lunch, but snuck in a 15 minute walk to the kitchen for a brew in the afternoon.

Good intentions to run again tonight, but it’s muggy outside and I’m feeling lazy. Not enough sleep. Proof that vino and bad food are not kind to me.

Kept myself occupied by chopping any stray veg I could find in the fridge and larder for a huge chicken stir-fry dinner.

This weekend all I can say is, oops. Didn’t have breakie on Saturday before going to meet a friend for shopping. Big mistake. Got to dizzy stage and rushed for a lunch including bread. Had a couple of coffees to keep me going and a lot of water too. Then went straight from town to meet the man for an early dinner. Too early even for an early dinner so went for a couple of drinks first; 2 small glasses of white wine. At dinner, had a rather nice glass of fizz as an aperitif and a small glass of red to go with my main course. Then another glass of fizz with my dessert. Then a cognac with coffee. Overall, not enough to prevent me from walking properly, and certainly a lot less that I would have previously put away on a night out, but eek did it hurt on Sunday morning. Probably not helped by the copious quantities of bread dunked in melted blue cheese (starter) and crepe with caramel icecream (dessert). Slow start on Sunday, and a need to do supermarket shopping, meant I missed breakfast again and was only fuelled by coffee. Tried to make up for it with a ‘clean’ lunch of herring, roast beetroot, and a fennel and apple salad. Felt a bit more perky after that and already had my running gear on ready for a light jog in the afternoon. Managed about 40 minutes of running/ walking. It hurt. A lot. This morning I still have sore joints and a banging headache. That’ll teach me.

Good, hearty dinner of bobotie and a pile of sautéed red cabbage, and in bed by 10:30 but didn’t sleep well. Think this experiment might be proving how easily I can break myself 🙁

 

No more than 1 latte a day =  Achieved

Go out for a run 3 times a week = 1

Limit alcohol to 7 units a week  = 13.5 units total (assuming Saturday night’s celebrating only hit 9 units)

Woke up early after a good night’s sleep, which is unusual for me. Maybe it was the wine and extra fat, in cheese format. Veg box arrived and contents as expected. Have most of the week’s menu planned and only a short shopping list to hunt and gather at the weekend. Will probably increase tonight after I’ve read my new book which arrived a day early. Yay! Fancy some new breakfast options but might have to get this book too.

Good start today with a positive meeting at work. Celebrated with a latte 🙂 Decided to make Friday a canteen day and not eat at my desk; good choice as got a really good chicken Caesar salad with anchovies. Lush. Trying to plan a night out with my immediate team, but it’s a bit of a minefield when it comes to food. Aiming for more of a pub-grub evening, for cost reasons, but that somewhat limits what I can eat. Might have to be ‘that person’ who orders a burger and leaves the bun. And the chips. And probably the franken-food burger too 🙁

Went for a 4km walk after work, with a pub stop midway 🙂 but managed to put together dinner when we got back; beef, pork and chorizo burgers with sweet potato wedges. Did have 2 glasses of wine at the pub tho, and another half glass with dinner, so not much left in credit for dinner out tomorrow night.

No more than 1 latte a day =  Achieved

Go out for a run 3 times a week = 0 (does a long walk count?)

Limit alcohol to 7 units a week  = 4.5 units total

New Paleo book due to be delivered at the weekend – bit excited 🙂 Also got a batch of biltong arriving so that’ll be nice. Having looked over the last week I’m making a few adjustments.

Things to do this week:

• Keep track of the amount of tea I’m drinking instead of the coffees. Have some nice ‘loose-leaf’ fruit infusions to drink at home, but it’s not ideal for taking to work. Will pick up the bagged version from Whittards when I go shopping on Saturday.
• Schedule to go out for a walk every day after work; that way I’ll be changed into gym gear anyway so no      excuse not to make it a run if I’m feeling good. Worst case scenario I only go for an hour’s walk.
• Keep up the alcohol avoidance. Hopefully going out for dinner at the weekend, so that’ll be more of a challenge 🙂
• Get some suitable snacks so  I’m not going hungry, or having to eat ‘bad’ stuff. In theory I shouldn’t  need to snack if I eat enough at meals, but until I get that balance I need something to keep me going.

Planned ahead today, packing carrot sticks and guacamole as mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks to keep me going, and filled a big water bottle so no excuses for a cuppa. Apart from my morning wake-up tea (which doesn’t count as it’s bought to me while I’m asleep and is required for me to complete basic functions) had just 1 cup of tea, but only after downing 2 litres of water.

Had a MASSIVE salad for lunch (thanks B!). A square of nice choccy would have been good, but that’s just me being greedy. Was fit to burst after all that.

Dinner is a pork and veg stir-fry; basically using up all the veg in the larder before next batch arrives tomorrow morning. Decided to treat myself to half a small glass of wine. Meh. Had a little blue cheese on pear slices to finish. Yum.

No more than 1 latte a day =  Achieved (espresso machine at work broken)

Go out for a run 3 times a week = 0

Limit alcohol to 7 units a week  = 0.75 units total

Not the best day. Got some fruit and yogurt down before hitting the motorway this morning with a beaker of tea. Stopped to get petrol and treated my car to an ‘Ultimate’ carwash – can’t say I see the difference between that and the results from the cheapy-basic wash but hey ho.  

Managed to avoid buying any provisions but didn’t pack any lunch, leaving myself at the mercy of the canteen.  I’ve heard they do ‘salad’ but I’ve yet to see it among the huge portions of stodge. Located it today – 2 soup bowls of potato salad, some sliced cucumber and tomato wedges. Lunch was a latte 🙁 Spent an enjoyable few minutes scouring a tannin-stained spoon as a distraction – at least I remembered to bring my own tea bags today. Don’t you just love the Civil Service?! 

Had to stop off for food on drive home; carrot sticks and guacamole, prawns and a bar of organic dark chocolate. Ooh, and some yummy ricotta and speck roll ups.

10k road race in Hampshire this evening (I wasn’t competing) so dinner was a nice quick spicy beef larb on lettuce cups, with sesame prawn skewers. Had some kabanos and a few veggie crisps with guacamole before dinner last night and felt a lot better for it, so think I may have been under-eating. Or maybe I’m just too used to being a piggy 🙂 Good enough excuse to have some more tonight. Home too late to go for a run, so didn’t. Found a beer in the fridge I’d saved from the weekend but just didn’t fancy it. 

 

No more than 1 latte a day =  Achieved 

Go out for a run 3 times a week = 2  (must try a different approach for this one) 

Limit alcohol to 7 units a week  = 4 units total (impressed – but didn’t have any wine) 

Meant to get an early night last night, but made mistake of staying up and watching a Rick Stein programme about German food 🙂 Roast ham hocks and sauerkraut looked mighty tasty. Will put on menu for next week, along with these tasty morsels I found on NomNom: Lamb dosa purses. Not quite sure how they are ‘dosa’ – look more like koftas or dolmdos to me, but who cares if they taste good!

Needed some new inspiration, so have ordered a Paleo book I’ve been meaning to get for ages. It covers Whole30 and I don’t think it’s padded out with fake-flour ‘paleo’ muffins and the like.

Going to pick up some snacks I can have during the week, to make sure I’m eating enough and to keep the cravings at bay while I’m travelling. Thinking some biltong will do the trick, but no decent biltong to be found in or local area. Tried the Unearthed version from Waitrose (too dry for me) and Sainsbury’s own (just tasteless). Will just have to get an order in from Uncle Larry.

11:00 and the latte called, but got caught up in work stuff (nothing exciting, just a sandwich delivery for a meeting – drama!) which meant I made it to lunchtime without coffee 🙂 Smoked mackerel and beetroot salad with dill mustard dressing. Yum. Treated myself to a post-lunch coffee after a long walk around campus searching (unsuccessfully) for a bar of dark chocolate.

 

Squeezed in a half hour of running before dinner; leftover cold chicken and roast beetroot with peas and beans, and roast sweet potato.

 

No more than 1 latte a day = Achieved

Go out for a run 3 times a week = 2

Limit alcohol to 7 units a week = 4 units total