Saturday, October 28, 2006

65 hours without sugar

Going without sugar, bread and fried food seems to be going well at the moment. Apologies for the lack of postings, I really don't have much to say at the moment. Decided to have fruit these first few days because veges are too expensive. So yes, it's going well. Lowest weight in 30 days.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

25 hours without sugar

So far, it's been ok. I have had veges and whey powder which is a bit boring, but I am managing. So I'm doing ok. I think that I can do this, all I need is a little short-term motivation.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Sugar addiction

Recently, I have been trying to reduce the amount of sugar that I'm eating, with poor results. So I decide to not have a 'treat', and the next day, guess what? I'm having a treat again. A few days ago I had a craving for fudge, something I'm not a great consumer of, simply because someone mentioned it a while ago. It's crazy, and totally uncontrollable. I simply can't go more than about 72 hours without sugar.

The answer is to go cold turkey. No more Muffin Break. No more chocolate. No more sweets. The same goes for bread and fried food as well. How long? As long as possible. It's obvious that moderation is not suitable for me. So as of 7pm on Wednesday 25th, I'm off sugar, for as long as possible.

In order to help with this, here are the things I want to do for the first 3-5 days:
increase protein consumption to 5 units of protein a day instead of 3
reduce or stop consumption of high sugar fruit (oranges, mandarins, apples, pears etc)
try not to eat corn (within reason - if it's mixed in with frozen veges that's ok)
I will try to post here every 12 hours with my progress

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

96 days

Another ok day, bought the following food:
Total 9210kj
Whey powder 1500
Apples 4360
Cabbage 1100
Carrots 2250

Todays intake is roughly:
Total 6502
Apples 1308 4 of 5
Carrots 459 4 of 5
Frozen veges 845 4 of 4
Whey powder 1500
Apples 1090 1 of 4
Cabbage 550 1 of 2
Carrots 750 1 of 3

6502kj is just above what I'd like to be having. Average over the past 4 days is 8951kj, a bit on the high side, but this will drop as time goes on. Not sure what my weight is at the moment, reading this morning was 1kg less than yesterday, probably scale error, will find out in a few more readings.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

97 days

Had minimal cravings for sugar today, which is good. I hope that I can last until Friday for my next fix. Spent some money and kj on a fruit drink, not because I wanted it, but because I wanted the container. I needed to mix up the whey powder at the library, and had nothing to mix it in. Hence purchasing the drink.

Theoretical consumption:
Tuesday 17th October 5685kj
Apples 1308 3 of 5
Salada biscuits 750 3 of 3
Carrots 459 3 of 5
Frozen veges 845 3 of 4
Whey powder 1500
Fruit drink 823

Finally, I get less than my goal energy value. It will take a while to get the average below 6500 though.

Spending:
2323kj
Whey powder 1500
Fruit drink 823

Total spending = 26594 / 3 days = 8865kj. Still too high, but getting lower. I assume at this value, I am losing weight. By the way, I am lowest weight in about 1 day, maybe 2. Cool. In other words, my weight has peaked, and is slowly decreasing. There is a touch of sarcasm in those words.

Monday, October 16, 2006

98 days - sugar cravings

Today started off well, before I came to the realisation that I needed sugar. It's been 3 days, which is pretty short but I'm trying to wean myself off that evil drug, slowly. So I went and had a treat - coffee and slice. I'll see if I can manage 4 days from now.


Monday 16th October
9637 kilojoules
Coffee and slice 4000
Apples 1308 2 of 5
Salada biscuits 750 2 of 3
Cabbage 575 2 of 2
Carrots 459 2 of 5
Spinach 200 2 of 2
Frozen veges 845 2 of 4
Whey powder 1500

This is much higher than it should be, same as yesterday. That's because of the coffee and slice, of course.

Spending:

Monday 16th October
5200
Coffee and slice 4000
Spinach -300
Whey powder 1500

You may notice a few things. First, spinach is negative. Although it is very filling, I have realised that spinach is not really very tasty. So out it goes. Yes, I know that there are starving children in India (did your parents tell you this?). Whey powder is listed each day as being bought. That's because I bought about 45,000 kj of it a while back, that is bound to throw off any calculations short term, so it's easier to list it daily rather than when I buy it.

Total spending is 24,271 / 2 days = 12,135 which doesn't mean much at the moment. Give it a week or so and then it will mean something. I have to say that I really like not counting kilojoules. It makes it much, much easier.

I don't remember whether I've said this or not but my brother and I have now got a system going, put on more than 2kg and we pay the other person $50. That is a good motivator for me, but for him - he's allowed 4kg for Christmas, plus just had an overseas holiday where I said that he could put on 5kg, so he has yet to have any real success. So yes, he's 'allowed' 11kg this year.

Good news too, my girlfriend is sponsoring my weight loss with $5/kg. I'm doing the same for her. The issue isn't the money, I want her on my side when I start to seriously lose weight. Similarly, I want her to lose weight as her weight at the moment is far too high in health terms. I offered to sponsor her $30/kg but the condition was that if she put on weight, she had to pay it back, so she wasn't that keen. Similarly for me of course.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

99 days - I'm fed up with counting kilojoules

Yes, it's been a while. That's because I've had 2 assignments in my course that needed a lot of attention. So I've put on a bit of weight. Because my course came first, that wasn't really a problem. Now I'm back into the dieting thing.

About 2 weeks ago, I got totally fed up with counting kilojoules. I was constantly thinking about food, because I had to know exactly what I was eating, the weight of it and making sure that I didn't forget anything. Total pain.

The solution was simple, I've known about it for ages, but deferred trying it because it wasn't as useful as the normal method. Rather than count kilojoules of food that I've eaten, I count kilojoules of food that I buy. That means that it's a lot easier to keep records, but less feedback. For each day, I don't know exactly how much energy I've eaten.

So to solve that problem, I use an estimate of how much I've eaten based on what I've bought recently. A 2kg bag of apples might last 6 days, so I divide the energy of the apples over the 6 days. Similarly for other food, ie veges last a shorter time so the period of division is shorter. So everything I buy is divided up into a number of days so I roughly know what value of energy I'm eating.

So that's me for now. I've put on weight, but it's too early to see my exact weight, I need to have a few days of readings first.

Food bought or eaten today: (kilojoules)

Bought:

19071 kj total
Special K 936
Cabbage halves 1150
Salada biscuits 2250
Coffee 500
Apples 3kg 6540
Carrots 1.5kg 2295
Spinach 400
Frozen Veges 3380
Whey powder 1500
Fancy biscuit 120

Eaten:

7193 kj total
Special K 936
Whey powder 1500
Coffee 500 est
Apples 1308 1 of 5
Salada biscuits 750 1 of 3
Cabbage 575 1 of 2
Carrots 459 1 of 5
Spinach 200 1 of 2
Frozen veges 845 1 of 4
Fancy biscuit 120

today was a bit high in terms of energy, I'm looking at 6000-6500kj average.

Oh by the way, last night I went to a barbeque with my girlfriends family. I wasn't looking forward to it, for obvious reasons. Lots of food being offered, and feeling 'obligated' to eat something. Well, before we went I did eat something. Whey powder and an apple. That kept me full, and so at the barbeque I ate only cabbage. That's right. So I turned down beer, wine, chips, sausages, chicken on a long stick, slabs of meat of some description, pasta, bread, salad with lots of fatty dressing no doubt. I probably ate about 500kj, there was something on the cabbage but it didn't seem fatty to taste. What is surprising was that it was cold, and we were outside, so why the cold didn't stimulate my appetite, I don't know.

On the topic of going out when on a diet, if someone says "you don't need to go on a diet". What do you say? "Thanks". Then SHUT UP. Similarly, what do you say when someone says "why are you on a diet?". "Why not?". Put the pressure on them to reply to your question.

Similarly, if someone says why they are on a diet I try to remind myself to say "you don't need to justify why you're on a diet". Someone did that to me about 7 years ago, one of the most flattering and memorable things someone has said.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

100 days to go

I'm back after doing a really hard, long-winded assignment for me course. Yes, I've put on weight, but now I'm trying to take it off again! So the cycle repeats. I haven't put on much weight though. Probably only 500g or so. Anyway, I'm trying out the no sugar, bread or fried food diet. 6500kj intake, 3 units of protein, and exercise if needed.

Today I had the following:
Total energy 6513kj
Whey powder 1500
Carrots 1168
Apples 436
Pears 1694
Can of coke 639
Veges 1075

Bad food was the coke, because I am going off caffeine and didn't want a headache today. I'm phasing it out over a few days. A lot of what I ate today had lots of water in it, so I had a lot of bloating, especially later on in the day. Had to undo my jeans a few times, they were so tight.