Onwards And Downwards Continues In September 2014

[ABAuntie]

Hello all,

Welcome to this month's Onwards & Downwards. We welcome anyone serious about losing weight and we offer support and kind thoughts - not magic fixes, just sensible help.

Yet again xstitcher has come to my recuse with ideas for a theme. So here are a few suggestions, obviously the interent is filled with all sorts of stuff so I have stuck with the diabetes.org site.

Here are some great suggestions for breakfast:

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Recipes/Healthier_all-day_breakfast/?nt=1

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Recipes/Plum-pancakes/?nt=1


a light lunch:

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Recipes/Baked-sweet-potato-with-chilli-fromage-frais-filing/?nt=1

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Recipes/Chinese_Steamed_Trout/?nt=1

and a main meal:

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Recipes/Pork_balls_with_tomato_sauce_and_spaghetti/?nt=1

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Recipes/White_bean_tuna_and_lemon_salad/?nt=1

the recipe chooser is really easy to use so why not have a look yourself :-)

Don't forget your weekly weigh on Wednesday and remember we don't judge!

Here is last months thread

[Old_Geezer]

Mine are all straight in the bin !

The GP weighed me yesterday, commented it was the same as last year. Sort of sums up this last year to me. It seems that for me and "normal but lowish energy" dietary habits, and the amount of exercise I'm comfortable with, my body has stuck where it is comfortable and I'm not so much.

[xstitcher]

Oh dear OG you sound a bit down in the dumps. Have you considered starting to walk at some point in the day? I'm only talking of a "little getting started walk". The thing is that you feel so good after. I absolutely HATE exercise but have found the little walks bearable and can see their good influence on my weigh ins".............just an idea OG.

[Old_Geezer]

You are probably right, although I do get about 48 minutes of walk to and fro from work each weekday. One issue is, I get back hungry & tired in the evening and the last thing on my mind is going for a walk :-) But in the (decades) past I used to get decent results from having them. All depends on whether my legs hold out, the calves do seem to give way when the mood takes them. I have no idea why.

[xstitcher]

Oh gosh then you do get your exercise coming and going to work. I can fully understand you coming home tired and hungry. Hmmmm how can we help OG ............ideas anyone????

[Old_Geezer]

Well I could give up seeing folk I know, then they can't feed me higher cal things nor encourage me to have a pint.

[xstitcher]

Aye that's the rub.

[Marijn]

Don't give up OG. I've put on the weight that I lost, but it's not all in vain because if I hadn't been watching my weight then I'd have put more on.

[Maydup]

Here OG, here's a huge portion of Positivity for supper.......or breakfast if you prefer.

The same as last year is a whole lot better than a stone heavier than last year. Well done for maintaining your weight, it is a far higher achievement than you are giving yourself credit for. I know first hand how hard it is to move on once you've plateaued. (Sp)? I'm struggling with it too.

Maybe its time to try one thing and one thing only to get going again? Unless you have tried already, I suggest cutting out bread. Its a tricky one, but very effective. What to have for lunch? Small jacket potato, egg and potato salad, cold meat and small salad or rice, fruit, soup, stew, left overs, let your imagination go.

I lost 3 stone once I cut out the bread, but I'm stuck again now. From tomorrow onwards I intend to get going and follow your example by walking for 48 minutes a day.

[Maydup]

....that'll be my new single and dramatic change in habit. Will you all keep reminding me pleeeease?!

[xstitcher]

Thanks so much for your large dose of positiveness Maydup.....Luv it! Your lunch suggestions were brilliant. Here is another lunch...tomatoes, lo fat cottage cheese and chicken drumsticks.
You can do a whole package of drumsticks and then freeze them..here is a fun recipe : 1 pkg chicken legs, 1 tub natural yogurt, spices of your choice. (I use a dollop of sambol olek) breadcrumbs.
Skin the drumsticks, mix your yogurt and spices and dip them in it and then roll them in bread crumbs? Put them on Greece proof paper on a shallow roasting pan and roast them for about 40 min.

[xstitcher]

Forgot to add that if you don't fancy sambol olek chilly sauce is also good.

[Old_Geezer]

Thanks for the encouragement. I guess I'm just being daft because I don't have the worries others have, but for some time I've been a bit down over the stuff that isn't right in life and the lack of weight loss progress is fairly representative of things generally. Maybe I'm just having a late mid-life crisis :-)

For sure, 'looking at the glass half full', I can say I've not noticeably gained this year, but that wasn't the main aim. I stopped being obese last year, but seem destined to remain overweight.

Ah bread. That'd be a massive change for me, for two reasons. The lesser one being my woman bakes me bread each weekend. (And I found out after the first year that she only does it for me anyway; when I already had a breadmaker I no longer need to use, and assumed she'd got one for herself !) Whilst she might accept my rejection of the bread, even after we have just spent a fair bit on repairing the breadmaker, that brings me to the second "excuse". I reckon I'm probably addicted to bread. It is filling and I think it fair to say I crave it, well almost. I get through a loaf a week. Most days have a couple of slices, maybe three. And if I were to remove that the options would be to a) stick there with nothing aware I was hungry and wondering why I'm making myself miserable. Or b) finding a substitute, which I suspect would prove to be more calorie dense than the bread.

It would remove one of the breakfast options (toast) and the possible slice of bread with the lunchtime soup. And never sandwiches for tea. Nor a single piece to tied me over when I feel I need something quick.

Salad I can not stand. Well ok I like tomatoes, I can stand onion (but preferably with a strong cheese since onion doesn't taste that great on its own). Quality olives are nice, but leaves and roots, yuk. And don't ask me about cucumber, I simply don't know how folk stand it.

I had my small jacket potato (with baked beans & a tin of mackerel) for dinner last night. Those tins of fish can't half add up the calories !

Maybe I'll go out and buy a large bag of drumsticks then ;-) I'm unsure they are that low though, either. I'm always surprised at how many calories/fat I've consumed when I have a bit of chicken. Of course I don't think I could stand throwing the skin away, it's the most tasty bit, and so wasteful to do so. Hmmm maybe if I left out the salad I can have the chicken skin ?

[xstitcher]

Here's some new way of thinking about bread OG because I MUST eat bread or some other carb with every meal...it kind of acts as a blotter for blood sugar and does something to it to keep it down..well anyway all my bread and rolls are brown with lots of seeds and oats in them and I'm still able to loose weight.
Watch out for the olives, I love them too but only a few now and them because they are full of fat........think olive oil......but on the other hand it is good fat....like avocados.
Do enjoy your "woman's" homemade bread on the weekends but perhaps cut down a bit on it during the week.
Just going from obese to a bit overweight is a fantastic accomplishment so be proud and don't knock it. That is my goal too and although it is taking a while I'm well on my way. Don't say fat, say cuddly!

[xstitcher]

Just thought of this lunch suggestion for you OG. On a grainery or whole wheat cut in half bun mash up a sardine.....put a bit of lemon juice on it and a few daps of ketchup. On the daps put a half or whole olive. Do the same with the other half or freeze it, depending on its size. Eat as an open sandwich....perhaps a small bowl of soup beside it???

[Old_Geezer]

Thanks for the suggestion. Maybe good to vary the routine, weekday lunch these days tends to be a tin of soup. A third of the time plus a slice of bread. But afterwards I'm usually still peckish enough to get a couple of biscuits too. Maybe I ought to get more fruit in to have instead, but it just goes off. A sardine sandwich sounds nice, I'll have to tot up the calorie cost later.

Easing off on the bread during the week means I'd not get through the loaf, but I suppose I could put half in the freezer and try to make one last the fortnight. Unconvinced I'd not find a need for substitutes though. Perhaps I need a loaf slicer to create very thin slices each time :-)

[wendilla]

OG I buy the uncut loaves and the smaller sized ones as I can't get through a large slice loaf . I have an electric knife for slicing but if you have a cooks extra sharp knife. It will be ok . I do keep a large sliced loaf in freezer for emergencies .I have also changed to brown bread .

[Old_Geezer]

I have fairly sharp bread knives but there is always a side of the loaf one is not looking at and which will inevitably either reduce the width to zero about half way down, or double it up, when trying to cut thinly. I can minimise this by turning the loaf as I cut, but one can get some strange effects that way.

[wendilla]

OG a little bird told me about your deep fried batter on another thread . Lol naughty naughty

[xstitcher]

WHAT???

[Old_Geezer]

Those sort of things were from a long long time ago.