It is not easy to not plan or cook my meals myself, but I need to know how to live and lose weight like that, so I am not beating myself up about it, or about being less than perfectly exact when it comes to calorie counting while I am far from home.
The rest of Friday was very good, both eating- and exercise-wise. After lunch, I went to Starbucks and had tea. In the evening, I had one mojito before dinner. My boyfriend had two of them, but I paced myself. We ordered some focaccia bread at the bar, because we had to wait until our table was ready, and we were both quite hungry. They brought four small rolls, and I had just one (my boyfriend ate happily the other three), without dipping them in olive oil. In the seafood restaurant where we ended up going, I stayed away from the "hearty" dishes (such as fish pie or clam chowder) and had mussles in tomato and oregano instead. I've had better meals, but at least it was quite healthy. Breaking from habit, we did not order a bottle of wine, but had one glass each instead.
In terms of exercise, I walked a l-o-t on Friday. I counted around 8 miles minimum, which is much more than I normally walk. Most of it was brisk, too.
Saturday was another day with lots of walking, probably somewhere around 5-6 miles. We had a very late breakfast/lunch in a pub, where I ordered a small steak sandwich made with ciabatta bread, accompanied by a couple of salad leaves. My boyfriend had a pint of beer, I had coffee. Then we went shopping and walked for quite a bit before sitting down for a coffee break (well, he had coffee and a piece of shortbread, I had a cup of tea). In the late afternoon I met a friend of mine for a cocktail. I was really hungry by that time, so in addition to a cocktail I had a little bowl of cashews. Those were very rich, obviously, but I was really hungry and needed the energy after all the walking. After a long walk home, my boyfriend cooked dinner for me, which was three jumbo shrimps oven-roasted with a breadcrumb-lemon mix, followed by a pan-fried sea bass fillet on a bed of spinach, tomatoes and capers, served with potatoes which were oven-roasted with oil and milk. We had some prosecco (I had three glasses of that, ouch! :-)). The summary of the day was that I let myself go too long without a meal, so that attacking the cashews was inevitable, and that I also had more alcohol than normal. But, still, it could have been much worse, and I still behaved differently than I would have just a couple of weeks ago. For example, I did not have a drink after dinner (my boyfriend had three gin tonics while I collapsed on the couch fast asleep and very tired from all the walking), nor did I share a late-night snack with my boyfriend (who had cheese and crackers at some point while I was asleep). Dinner felt quite light, and when I dragged myself to bed (after the sleeping session on the couch), my stomach felt quasi-empty, which is always a good feeling when one goes to bed.
I did less well yesterday. The plan was to go have brunch in this really nice restaurant, but that went out of the window when they told us that they no longer did brunch. But we were already out of the house and hungry, so we went to this other place and ordered a full English breakfast. It was so greasy that I could feel my arteries clogging as I ate! I ended up only eating half of it, so I had two eggs, two slices of bacon with roasted tomatoes and mushrooms, and half a slice of toast. I left behind one and a half slices of toast (buttered, obviously), and two big sausages with beans and sauce on top. I was pretty full even after only eating half of what was in front of me.
We didn't really eat for the rest of the day, until dinner time, but didn't really move much either, so we were not very hungry. We expected people to come dine with us, and prepared a feast of roast chicken with roast vegetables (carrots and parsnips) and potatoes (oh my god, they were delicious!), stuffing, boiled broccoli and, of course, gravy. I had a regular portion and stayed away from seconds (well, maybe I grabbed a little more chicken). Also, I skipped dessert, while the others had rhubarb crumble. I had some white wine, I think around two to three glasses. I also had two gin tonics, one before and one after dinner. So, overall, I think I ate more than I should if I want to lose weight within a reasonable amount of time. But then, it was Sunday, I was with friends, and I did make an effort by skipping dessert, not taking seconds, and probably drinking less wine than I could have. I was full, but not stuffed, which is one level more (on the hunger scale) than I aim to be when I finish eating, but definitely not as bad as it could have been. I guess if I had to do it again, I would do away with the last gin tonic, probably have one less glass of wine, but, other than that, I wouldn't change anything else. I think I did my best given the circumstances, and I am allowing for this sort of social eating every once in a while.
Today is a new day and a new week, second week of counting calories. I started the day with some oatmeal with milk and some coffee. Now it's lunchtime and I'm quite hungry, so I think I will eat some of last night's chicken leftovers, and then get out of the house and go for a little walk and some grocery shopping. More tomorrow.
The rest of Friday was very good, both eating- and exercise-wise. After lunch, I went to Starbucks and had tea. In the evening, I had one mojito before dinner. My boyfriend had two of them, but I paced myself. We ordered some focaccia bread at the bar, because we had to wait until our table was ready, and we were both quite hungry. They brought four small rolls, and I had just one (my boyfriend ate happily the other three), without dipping them in olive oil. In the seafood restaurant where we ended up going, I stayed away from the "hearty" dishes (such as fish pie or clam chowder) and had mussles in tomato and oregano instead. I've had better meals, but at least it was quite healthy. Breaking from habit, we did not order a bottle of wine, but had one glass each instead.
In terms of exercise, I walked a l-o-t on Friday. I counted around 8 miles minimum, which is much more than I normally walk. Most of it was brisk, too.
Saturday was another day with lots of walking, probably somewhere around 5-6 miles. We had a very late breakfast/lunch in a pub, where I ordered a small steak sandwich made with ciabatta bread, accompanied by a couple of salad leaves. My boyfriend had a pint of beer, I had coffee. Then we went shopping and walked for quite a bit before sitting down for a coffee break (well, he had coffee and a piece of shortbread, I had a cup of tea). In the late afternoon I met a friend of mine for a cocktail. I was really hungry by that time, so in addition to a cocktail I had a little bowl of cashews. Those were very rich, obviously, but I was really hungry and needed the energy after all the walking. After a long walk home, my boyfriend cooked dinner for me, which was three jumbo shrimps oven-roasted with a breadcrumb-lemon mix, followed by a pan-fried sea bass fillet on a bed of spinach, tomatoes and capers, served with potatoes which were oven-roasted with oil and milk. We had some prosecco (I had three glasses of that, ouch! :-)). The summary of the day was that I let myself go too long without a meal, so that attacking the cashews was inevitable, and that I also had more alcohol than normal. But, still, it could have been much worse, and I still behaved differently than I would have just a couple of weeks ago. For example, I did not have a drink after dinner (my boyfriend had three gin tonics while I collapsed on the couch fast asleep and very tired from all the walking), nor did I share a late-night snack with my boyfriend (who had cheese and crackers at some point while I was asleep). Dinner felt quite light, and when I dragged myself to bed (after the sleeping session on the couch), my stomach felt quasi-empty, which is always a good feeling when one goes to bed.
I did less well yesterday. The plan was to go have brunch in this really nice restaurant, but that went out of the window when they told us that they no longer did brunch. But we were already out of the house and hungry, so we went to this other place and ordered a full English breakfast. It was so greasy that I could feel my arteries clogging as I ate! I ended up only eating half of it, so I had two eggs, two slices of bacon with roasted tomatoes and mushrooms, and half a slice of toast. I left behind one and a half slices of toast (buttered, obviously), and two big sausages with beans and sauce on top. I was pretty full even after only eating half of what was in front of me.
We didn't really eat for the rest of the day, until dinner time, but didn't really move much either, so we were not very hungry. We expected people to come dine with us, and prepared a feast of roast chicken with roast vegetables (carrots and parsnips) and potatoes (oh my god, they were delicious!), stuffing, boiled broccoli and, of course, gravy. I had a regular portion and stayed away from seconds (well, maybe I grabbed a little more chicken). Also, I skipped dessert, while the others had rhubarb crumble. I had some white wine, I think around two to three glasses. I also had two gin tonics, one before and one after dinner. So, overall, I think I ate more than I should if I want to lose weight within a reasonable amount of time. But then, it was Sunday, I was with friends, and I did make an effort by skipping dessert, not taking seconds, and probably drinking less wine than I could have. I was full, but not stuffed, which is one level more (on the hunger scale) than I aim to be when I finish eating, but definitely not as bad as it could have been. I guess if I had to do it again, I would do away with the last gin tonic, probably have one less glass of wine, but, other than that, I wouldn't change anything else. I think I did my best given the circumstances, and I am allowing for this sort of social eating every once in a while.
Today is a new day and a new week, second week of counting calories. I started the day with some oatmeal with milk and some coffee. Now it's lunchtime and I'm quite hungry, so I think I will eat some of last night's chicken leftovers, and then get out of the house and go for a little walk and some grocery shopping. More tomorrow.
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