Day 7 & 8 and the first weigh in!

So for those of you who dont know (how could you not be keeping up with my Facebook page 'Jimbos Food page 'https://www.facebook.com/groups/185455448234743/202604673186487/), yesterday was my first weekly weigh in. At the start of the journey I weighed a very embarassing and unflattering 20 stone 6 lbs, or 286 lbs if you're from accross the pond, or 131 kilos if you're younger than me! I was weighed yesterday by Heather at the 'Beauty Box' just around the corner from the restaurant and I weighed in at 19 stone 13, or 279 lbs or 127 kilos. So a weight loss in week one of 7 lbs. I'm pleased with the result, although I know that initial weight loss is usually preety quick. The real test will come when I 'plateau'.

Yesterday was a difficult day for eating. I had my morning meal just after the weigh in (egg on toast)and about an hour after eating that I started to feel 'ill'. It was a sort of flu sensation....., aching muscles, lethargy etc and I just didnt want to eat. By midnight I was starving so I had some wholemeal toast with a little avocado spread on it. So probably too much bread and not enough variety and eating far too late at night, but days like these will happen over the course of a year. That is why it is important that this is not a quick fix, but a journey over a long period of time. I did not put on my excess weight over night and I will not lose it over night. There will be highs and lows and times where I will wonder if its all worth it. Then I remember my family... Of course its all worth it. Do my children want to grow up visiting my grave or do they want to grow up sharing their life with their Dad. Does my wife want to be widowed (probably sometimes!), but as I have no life insurance, I doubt it!

I am doing this first and foremost for me, but there are others I must consider. They will be my driving force when times get difficult.

So, on to today. Sunday lunch at the restaurant meant that breakfast was always going to be a boring quick fix as I am too busy to create anything 'interesting'. Yes, I know I could have got out of bed earlier, but to be honest, I couldnt be arsed! Wholemeal seeded toast did the trick. I was a little devil and had a smidgeon of butter as well. I recently read an article on margerine (thank you for the information Kerrigan), that really put me off the stuff for good! A smidgeon of butter once in a while is ok! At least its a natural product... No lunch today, but dinner was a rather splendid roast. I didnt go mad, just 1 cauliflower cheese floret, 3 small pieces of roast potato, lots of carrots and peas, 1 yorkshire pudding (gasp, shock, horror I hear you say) a little mash potato, 3 thin slices of lean rare roast beef and some gravy. Yum yum. It filled me up and now at midnight, I am still not hungry.

 I am going to try and get a little sleep tonight as last night was pretty restless so I will talk to you all tomorrow when my creative head is back in focus and I can hopefully capture your imagination with some recipies other than wholemeal toast, wholemeal toast with tomatoes, wholemeal toast with eggs, wholemeal toast with avocado etc!

Nite all, speak soon
I have three nights off now, so although I will be working during the day, I will be able to spend a little time on creating a few more interesting things to eat

Day 6! The first week is nearly over!

It was a bit of a strange eating day today. I didnt actually eat my first meal until about 3.30pm! I know the 'experts' out there will tell me what a bad boy I am for not having 'breakfast, the most important meal of the day', but if I can go without eating breakfast, then why should I have something? Surely this whole excercise is about cutting down on my food intake.......... I know about kick starting metabolism etc, but the bottom line for me is.......  If I burn off more calories than I eat, I will lose weight.

So, back to the important stuff. Todays lunch was a boring affair to those of you following this blog, but as I had only a short time between arriving home from work and going back to work, I opted fopr my 'go to' meal of toasted wholemeal bread topped with tomato and thinly sliced cured cheese. I enjoy it, its quick, its cheap and it does the job! Work has been pretty full on over this last week, so I havent really had the time I would have liked to dedicate making this journey a more 'interesting' one, but I will be endeavouring to create a few more diverse and interesting things to eat.

That brings us to dinner. Again the experts will tell me that 11.30 pm is too late to be eating my evening meal, but they dont run a restaurant. When I can eat at a reasonable hour, I will. When I can't, I will eat when I can. So for the 3rd time this week I had something with an Asian influence..... Don't worry, I am not going to spend the next 51 weeks eating only this type of food, but it has been convenient and calorifically low for me to do so. Tonight's culinary masterpiece was my take on an Aloo Gobi. I used the remainder of the cauliflower from earlier in the week, with some potato, onion tomatoes, spinach, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, ginger and a little water. I served it with some simply boiled basmati rice. It may not have looked that amazing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 Its just gone 1am, so I'm off now as I will be up early (again) for work. It is my weigh day tomorrow, so be sure to tune in tomorrow for the first weight loss news. See how positive I am, I know I have lost weight! If I haven't, I'm off to the kebab shop after work tomorrow night! (Only jesting).

Sleep well peeps, speak to you all tomorrow.........

Day 5. Not the best of days to be 'dieting', but I triumphed!

It was a difficult day today as I had to take my son to hospital this morning for an eye check and didnt have time to eat before we went. So it was hospital cafe food for breakfast! I maaged to walk past the sausage, egg, bacon, tortilla etc and plumped for the 'tostada con tomate' and a cup of coffee. I can only approximate the calories at about 250 as I am not completely sure of the tomato mixture, but it tasted incredibly bland, so I am assuming just tomato! The bit of baguette it came on was pretty small, so I think I have over estimated the calories, but I'd rather do that then underestimate.

Lunch was pretty similar as I had to grab something very quickly before going back to work so I had my 'turn to when I cant think of anything else meal' of wholemeal seeded toast with tomato and thinly sliced cured Spanish cheese. It filled the gap again and as I have stated before, actually tastes really nice.

We had a pretty busy evening at work and the temptations were everywhere! Extra chips lying around, creamy pasta sauces, Lauras home made ribs etc, but I stood firm! I took home a piece of tuna and had it with some of the no fat coleslaw I made earlier in the week, some salad and some cherry tomatoes with a bit of balsamic. Simples!

Off to watch 'Celebrity Juice ' now, so speak to you all again tomorrow. I notice that no one is actually 'following' my post. Its about time you did!

Day four, the journey continues......

 I managed to survive until my evening meal where I feasted upon a delicious curry made for me by my wife! She wasnt too pleased when as she started prepping, I asked her to start weighing all the ingredients. She did though and produced a sweet chicken and veg curry that I had 2 bowls of.

Well another successful day of watching what I eat. I had a different breakkie to my usual fayre that consisted of 'Bran flakes' followed by toast with banana! It made a nice change though.....


The recipies and calorific values of all the food I am eating can be found on my Facebook page 'Jimbos food page' https://www.facebook.com/groups/185455448234743/ Feel free to join my page where you can ask questions, chat with other like minded people or just share your thoughts. Its a bit of a laugh, but its also a serious food page. If you have any suggestions for me as to low calorie recipies I could try, or just share your own experience with weight loss, I'd love to hear from you.

Take care people and we'll talk tomorrow

Its Day 3! This diet so far has been an absolute culinary joy!

So my third day of 'dieting' is over and here I sit, not hungry, not pining for anything and feeling very chuffed with my efforts so far.

I made some pancakes this morning from a recipe given to me by a very nice lady called Julie, but decided to refrigerate them for a rainy day. Instead, I fancied a fried egg (dry fried with NO oil) and bacon (all fat trimmed) on a dry slice of toast. It did the job and kept me going until I got home, whereapon I feasted on a slice of wholemeal toast with some cured Spanish cheese. Again, it did the job and kept me hunger free! Dinner was a slightly more elaborate affair. I decided to use up the carrot, cabbage and asparagus I had left over from earlier in the week and make a Thai broth.

Made a broth with some chicken stock, chillies, ginger, coriander and reduced fat coconut milk and added cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots and asparagus. I'm not sure that you'll find asparagus in many a Thai cook book, but hey, I like it and I'm the one whose eating it!
 
 I managed to make some little spring rolls with some left over veg too. Didn't fry them, just ate them as they were with a little soy sauce dip. Pretty tasty. Oh well, eastenders is on now so I'm off to watch it. Speak to you all again tomorrow

Nite nite Foodies!

Day 2.......

Okay, so here we are, its day 2 and another successfull day methinks. I was a little hungry this mornig as I only had a coffee at about 10am and an apple about an hour later. I did however survive until lunch when I feasted upon a slice of brown, seeded toast topped with grated tomato mixed with olive oil and topped with two thin slices of cured Spanish cheese. I have to say it was pretty good! Not sure that it filled the gap completely, as I drank rather a lot of water afterwards and brought my evening meal a little further forward than I had planned!

I also experimented today by making some coleslaw, but used fat free yoghurt instead of mayo. It makes alot and the calories are really low. The recipe is on my Facebook page 'Jimbos food page'.

Dinner was pasta with a tomato sauce, black olives, french beans, white beans and a little shaved Parmesan. Quite enjoyed that too! I have to confess to washing it all down with a glass of red wine though. So altogether, including the wine, just over 900 calories. Added to the 150 calories from earlier and the apple and coffee, I have so far today amassed a total of 1150 calories. I may have a little something later as I have 750 calories to play with!


I'm going to make this a short post today as I have ridiculous amounts of things to do at home so remember to 'follow' the blog (you'll find the word 'follow' in the top left corner of the blog) and dont forget to click on all those interesting adverts!

Speak soon fellow foodies!

The first day is nearly over!

Well its 9.30pm and I'm not hungry! I'm normally wondering what I can munch on by now! Its been a pretty easy first day to be honest.

Breakfast was a rather boring affair consisting of a piece of dry toast with 2 scrambled eggs and a cup of tea, but it filled a hole. Although temptation was everywhere today as we were serving Sunday lunch in the restaurant, I managed not to succumb to them. The hardest part was not realising that subconsciously I just grab things like roast potatoes and shove them in my ever eager gob. Caught myself doing it 3 or 4 times today, but didnt actually eat anything! Go me!

I managed to stay relatively hunger free until about 7pm when I had chargrilled chicken, cous cous and asparagus.

Can you believe that before my dinner, I had to sit and watch my wife and son devouring a kebab each! The worst part was that I had gone and got them! Harrison (my son) only ate about half of his and on a 'normal day' I would have reached over and finished it whether hungry or not. Today was a different story though, I simply picked it up and put it in the bin. Very strangely for me it was easier to do than I had thought!

So I have added up all my calories and in total I have consumed a little over 600 today.I'm well chuffed with that. I have a day off work tomorrow so I am going to do a 'proper shop' and get all the things I need to keep me going for a while. I'll keep you all posted as to how I get on tomorrow.

Nite Foodies!