Update

I had a further drop today, now I'm sitting at 49.0 kg. The scales flicked to 48.9 kg to a second and then settled on 49. I feel like I've been in control this week even though I was hit with some major sugar cravings thanks to TTOM. Some dessert tonight should help in that department.

We are having a soiree for Mal's birthday tonight and I will be having some cake and pumpkin pie. I managed to get through baking them without so much as a taste which is a pretty big deal for me. The rest of the food will consist of roast pork and lamb and veggies so nothing too bad there - I will just have to be conscious of amounts. Mal, the legend he is, has organised nibblies of veggie sticks and hommus (as well as other stuff for everyone else). He is such a sweetie!

Monday

I had the worst weekend with regard to diet and exercise. As mentioned before I had Thursday and Friday off work to look after the girls. Both days I struggled to get out of bed before 7:30 so any plans of morning exercise went out the window and then I just couldn't be bothered by the afternoon. We went to the movies on Friday to see Prince Caspian and indulged in some treats and it really didn't improve from there the whole weekend. My weight is up to 50 kg today which is close to my maintentance weight so its time to start paddling again.

The flip side to having a crappy food weekend was that I had a good social weekend. We had the usual suspects over for Friday arv drinks and nibblies which also included dessert. Saturday was spent with a quick workout at the gym and then home to continue with the veggie garden project. I went to a girlfriends place on Saturday night for a girl's night with, of course, lots of yummy food and then yesterday we went down to Awoonga Dam for a drive and ended up having lunch there. When I think about it I know I made pretty poor choices all weekend. I know I could have taken along a healthy option to my friends place but at the end of the day I didn't. I know I didn't need snacks at the movies or a serving of chips at the dam. It wouldn't have been so bad except that it was nearly an entire weekend of crap food. Time to dust myself off and strive to be better next weekend.

Out and About

I had to go out sampling today which made a nice change as I haven't done it in ages. We've had people dropping like flies for various reasons. The microbiologist had a heartattack the Saturday before last which was a shock as he is in his late 20's, eats pretty healthy and works out regularly (he had the attack after a gym workout). He was rushed down to Brisbane and will be off work for a few weeks. And then our lab assistant went out motorbike riding on the weekend and came off with the bike landing on her. According to her mother (who also works in our company) she is pretty bruised but is extremely lucky to not have broken anything (or worse). With 2 staff members down it meant that I needed to go out with our other lab tech sampling. At least its school holidays so my hours are a little more flexible. As we are either in the car or the boat I need to pack my meals for the day and eat on the run. So here is what my meals looked like today.

5:15 am breakfast - Vita brits with Protein Crunch and honey
5:45 am Green Tea on the way to work
10 am Cucumber, carrot, capsicum and mushrooms with ricotta dip. This is the first chance I get to eat all morning but I'm not feeling that hungry. It takes me about an hour to eat this as I'm in and out of the car getting samples.
1 pm - Chicken (BBQ'd chicken from the shops) and salad with balsamic vinegar
3 pm - Home from work. I still have an apple and a Slim Secrets bar left in my cooler so I have that and a coffee.
6 pm - Dinner. I'm not sure what hubby is cooking but apparently he bought me chicken breast on the way home which I'll have with veggies and will include some potato to up the carbs a little.

This looks very similar to what I ate leading up to my comp. Nice and easy to pack as well as eat.

Beef Stroganoff

I ripped this recipe off a Carnation Milk can. I have since lost the recipe so I'm only going by memory.

1 tin Carnation Lite Evaporated Milk
Beef (I usually use a tray of diced beef)
Plain flour
Pepper
Mushrooms
1 onion chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 sachet of tomato paste
1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard (or more if you want)

- cook the onion and garlic in a little oil
- mix the flour and pepper together
- coat the meat with the flour mix
- add to the pan and brown
- add the carnation milk, tomato paste, mustard and mushrooms and simmer until the sauce thickens.

I think they suggest serving with fettucine but I prefer brown rice and some veggies.

I've been baking

I had today off work as its a pupil free day. We went to the movies this morning to see "Horton Hears A Who" and then this afternoon did a little bit of baking. My eldest daughter suffers from constipation and there is not an awful lot you can give a 7 year old to treat it (apart from increasing water consumption and fibre). She loves muffins so I make her apple and prune muffins (I don't tell her there are prunes in it) and I find it helps her. The recipe includes oats and only a little bit of sugar so they aren't too bad. My other daughter doesn't like them so I split the basic muffin mixture and make half with banana. They are great lunch box snacks.

Good Intentions

Last night I thought to myself it was time to get motivated. I don't seem to have problems with exercise because its a habit but food is another issue. So last night I made myself a chicken and salad wrap to take to work fo lunch as well as some apricots and salada's and philly cheese for smoko. Unfortunately, today I remembered my wrap but forgot my morning tea. DOH! As I tend to get a bit shaky when my sugar levels get low I HAVE to have my smoko but silly me doesn't have an emergency stash at work so instead of a healthy meal I had coffee, a couple of candy canes and 2 ginger nut bickies. I guess I had a good lunch!

I woke up this morning quite tired. I'm not sure if its due to lack of sleep (the girl's haven't been sleeping well) or stress at work. I feel as though I am taking 2 steps forward and 3 back at moment at work as I am getting more samples than I can analyse in a day. I may have to do some O/T but I hate having my kids in daycare any longer than necessary.

I went for a run but had to walk part of the way and really struggled through my weights. On the bright side, I pushed myself through it when I could have given up. I'll take the dog for another walk this afternoon but if my walking partner decides to give it a miss (which is highly likely) I may go for a ride

So Over Food

I don't know what is going on with me at the moment but I am just so over thinking about and preparing food. I am sick to death of porridge for breaky. Lately all I have been having is protein shake as the idea of oats made my skin crawl. Its strange because I usually love porridge and Wheat Bix etc. Yesterday I tried brown rice with dried fruits (cranberries, apricots and prunes), sunflower seeds and yoghurt which was OK. Dinner is pretty much the same, I open the freezer and nothing really inspires me.

On the plus side, I have lost 1 kg and am losing a few mm from my tummy, hips and thighs.