Finally, a blog again!

Sick babies are tiring! Blah! Computer problems are horrible. Blah! They conspired against my blogging.

This was taken on 14th June, 2011, in Sydney. Hopefully my face is starting to look a bit slimmer in photos??? I notice a difference, in the mirror, but photos always make one look fat! Stew says it's coming off all over, slowly but surely. If only the next 10kg would just fall off!!! LOL

Well, still just plodding away. Still doing the Sweet Poison journey. It's still around 10kg lost, which is around 73kg. Somedays, it's even been down to 72.7 etc Have never 'dieted' before - if you can call this dieting - so am most pleased that I've stuck to it for over 5 months. Am loving it, overall, and very glad that I read the books and had my life changed.

Since Easter, have had no chocolate. Only 'sins' I've done, since then, have been a crumpet with honey on it, around once a month. Yum! The honey just drizzles down through those little, wicked holes...Quick, stop me thinking about them!

My 42nd birthday is on August 9th. We've just booked into the Melba Brasserie at the Langham hotel in the city, on Southbank, here in 'sunny' old Melbourne. I love that place! [My friend got me onto it back in the 90s, when we lived on the Gold Coast. She took me to the Sheraton's Melba, there, and I was hooked. I digress...] Luckily, I hate their desserts and only go for their yummy mains. Their desserts are too fancy or horrible - like truffles - unless you count the plain old yummy ice cream with melted chocolate to drizzle over it.

However, I do want to have a few 'treats' that birthday week. Maybe ice cream, thickshake or something. I've already bought (last Sunday) the Cherry Ripe that I'll eat. It's up in the cupboard. Hubby was worried that I'd eat it ASAP but I am quite happy to wait. It's quite nice to plan the few things I'll allow myself. I guess, instead of doing the 'Party food is for parties', I will do a few things a few times a year.

I confess that I am looking forward to it! Bring on that birthday week! Shameful, I know. I really do miss chocolate, sometimes. Must have a big emotional attachment, or something. Silly to look forward to having poison, I know, but it's what keeps me going, sometimes. Knowing I can eat it, if I want to, but I choose not to and will only have it at certain times. Never knew I had willpower, til now!

If I feel disgusting after it, who know whether I will change my ideas of next 'splurging' at Christmas?

Survived bread fast

I did a 10 day bread fast. Well, it turned out being 11 days, but it officially wasn't meant to be. It was for religious/faith reasons in that I was doing it to honour God/seek His will and not to lose weight. [I can't fast the usual way as I'm breastfeeding and don't watch TV so can't do a TV fast etc A religious fast has to mean something to you and I love bread so that's why I chose it.] My sister told me I'd probably lose weight anyway but I tried not to focus on that.

Interestingly, it just stayed the same at first. Then, it got less but super slowly. [The weight , even before the bread fast, seemed to hover around 73.5 to just over 74 for ages, like a few weeks etc. Grrr!]

Anyway, to not eat bread for lunch, I frequently had that protein salad I mentioned in my last blog - small tin tuna, 2 chopped boiled eggs, whole egg mayo, chopped celery/capsicum/carrot etc It was very nice and very filling. Protein really does fill you up. A glass of milk, here and there. Handfuls of nuts and seeds etc

Today, the scale said 73.1kg so it's pretty much now 10kg, as I was 83kg when I started. That last kg went very ssssslllllooooowwwwwlllllyyyyy!!!! I know I need to cut portions to be smaller but we've had sick kids and lots of stress so I do what I can. My child health nurse told me that I look like I've lost lots of weight and appear more energetic.

The bread thing taught me a lot. I eat way too much bread sometimes, what with my daughter's job at Baker's Delight and all. However, I DID survive without it. I love bread so much that I didn't think it'd be possible. It's so yummy. Making the baby girls' lunches every day, out of bread, was hard! Also, it was my absolutely favourite bread twice last week. Oh dear! Those days were very hard. I now know that I can live without bread and the fast may have helped me cut down heaps. I hope, anyway. I want to eat it far less, overall. I was convicted of my greed for bread.

When I knew I wouldn't have time to make the tuna salad for lunch, I ate plain yogurt, diced pear & cinnamon etc for breakfast so I could have Sweet Poison muesli for lunch. Or things like that. Once, hubby made me some scrambled eggs with tuna and avocado.

Last week, I went to visit the Special Care Nursery where the baby spent 7 weeks and 1 day last year. One of the nurses said she thought I looked taller/slimmer when I told her that I'd lost 10kg. I had to laugh at the 'taller'. I wish!!! I still have about 10kg to go so it's looking like a long haul. However, I didn't go into this as a crash diet thing then move on so I'm going to keep on keeping on.

Had a dream last night that I ate some chocolate! Knew it was wrong but still did it. Was disappointed that I couldn't taste it. Now, I know why. It was just a dream!!! Mind you, I do sometimes think longingly of my b'day on Aug 9th and think how I'll eat some poisonous food then. That's my next allowed time. Pretty sick, huh!

Anybody reading this blog, please tell me if you do the 'party food is for parties' thing? I haven't, thus far, and have just avoided it all. I was scared to get re-addicted. When people say to me, "Oh, so you're never gonna have sugary food again?", I say, "Well, once I've lost all my weight, I may have some every few months or something. I haven't decided yet."

Saint Stewart would disagree with that. He is sooo good, on the whole. He's like, "Why eat something that gives you a headache and is poison etc" Mind you, it's only been chocolate that gives me headache, since I started this. When we've had the odd honey crumpet - my few sins, I confess - I've not got a headache.

Protein-y lunches

In trying to eat less bread, I am trying to think of bread-less lunches to eat. Now that the baby is older, it might be easier to make some lunches that take longer to make than just slapping a sandwich or two, together. (I was lucky to do that, some days, as she'd just cry the whole time, often)

Twice this week, I had a 'salad', consisting of:

1x95g tin Tuna (in springwater)
2 boiled eggs, diced
whole egg mayo
diced avocado, carrot, red capsicum and celery

It was absolutely delicious and very filling, so I didn't get hungry afterwards. I posted that I had that for lunch, on Facebook, and someone wrote, "All you need is bread to make it perfect lunch!" D'oh! LOL  Had to explain that I'm trying to avoid bread...

Even if I did have 2 sandwiches, I often felt like I could have more, afterwards. Protein really is more filling, as my sister kept telling me. Still, missing the bread though. Making the babies' sandwiches, makes me long for it, sometimes.

Another day, I had one of those Campbell pumpkin soup thingies that come in the Tetra Brick containers. That was a yummy lunch.

Any other suggestions?