Much better.

Today I ate well.

It was another busy day at the canteen. I took my trail mix and a protein shake.

The protein shake failed. The protein solidified in the bottom of the cup resembling clag.

Breakfast was a bacon and egg roll, which would be better if not served on a white roll.

So we can home and I wanted something for a late lunch. With a fridge full of delious fresh dips, carrot, beetroot, eggplant and hummus. I decided to cut up several vegetables and eat them with the dip. Yay, no over eating on the bread.

I felt heaps better, the food felt light and tasty.

Dinner was a small portion of pide, salad and vegetables. In total 4 serves of carb plus some sugar in the dips.

Not enough protein, but there was some in the nuts, hummus, and the pide (which contained cheese and meat)

At the end of the day I feel satisfied and healthy. Yesterdays fiasco processed and moved on from. No baklava either, even though there was plenty left.

Not feeling very strong right now.

I ate too much for dinner.

Tonight we got turkish takeaway, which should have been a meal that I enjoyed but didn't feel guilty about.

I made a quick decision when the food arrived that I should just let my hair down and enjoy myself.

Why does enjoying myself involve eating too much?

There were lots of things to choose from, lamb kofta, chicken kebabs, salad, beans, rice, potatoes, zuchini puffs, dips, pide, stuffed pide and balaklava. MMMM balaklava.

I piled up my plate with a desert spoonful of each dip, rice, chicken, kofta, zuchini puff, salad and beans.

My mistakes:

I ate too much. I put too much on my plate. Next time I will keep my serving to a normal size.

When choosing dip I didn't think about the amount of bread that I would need to go with it to eat it. Next time just have one flavor dip, or skip dip altogether. If I am having bread then I don't need rice. Way, way too many carbohydrates. I know better than this.

Do not eat the deep fried zuchini puff. Yes it is yummy, but it is full of saturated fats and carbohydrates. It wasn't more yummy than the other healthy options.

I also had baklava. Which I don't think was a mistake as such. I enjoyed the baklava. I just wish I hadn't eaten so much before then.

Things I did right:

I didn't eat the stuffed pide, which is basically as good for you as pizza is.

I ate a lot of vegetables, I didn't eat everything on my plate and noticed that I was feeling full.

I didn't eat any chocolate, but I nearly did. I was on a bit of a binge. When that happens it is a case of one in, all in. Except I wasn't enjoying the chocolate, so I stopped eating it.

The results:

I feel sick. I have indegestion. That is what happens when I overdose on carbs.

I feel a bit guilty, worried about if I have lost focus. Worried that I it will take me longer to lose the fat.

I must remember that sometimes it is ok to eat something a little unhealthy, but that doesn't mean I should just go all out.

The two above leave me thinking that it would be easy to throw it up. I really do feel ill. I do though know that isn't a healthy way to deal with overeating.

So what is a healthy way?

Learn from it. Plan for next time.

If I am going to allow myself a bit more leway on my diet I should decide on 1, possibly 2 special things, otherwise eat as much as I would normally. Keep the portions low. Remember bread and dip is filling and I don't like the feeling of eating that much bread in one sitting. Skip the dip, or limit myself to just one dip. Avoid the high carbohydrate things. Stick to the meat and vegetables.

I really hope it doesn't effect my progress, I suspect it won't. One meal in the overall scheme of things is nothing.

So I screwed up, lets hope I have learned from it and won't have it happen again.

Feed the premenstrual woman.

I am not sure if anyone reads this, but if they do they are probably quite grossed out with all the intimate detail. I just don't see the point blogging about changing the way I live, eat and exercise, if I am not talking about all the issues and for me these things are major factors.

No point pretending that it doesn't effect me, because it does. It won't help me to pretend I am able to just ignore it and I suspect it won't help the people who read the blog. (my apologies if you are male, but you might garnish something)

So plan cover all bases when menstruating has been going quite well.

Now I don't have regular, exactly 4 weeks apart periods. Mine are more like a ninja assasin ready to pounce when you least expect it. They like to either wait so long that you start to wonder if maybe you are pregnant or mix it up by coming a week early and ruining your new underwear. I have learnt though to look for the signs and have gotten pretty good at predicting when it is coming on.

This morning I woke up and because I was aware that any day now, my period was going to begin. I gave my body what I thought it might need to cope. ( At least I am in tune to my body, it did indeed begin today)

So breakkie, was my usual yoghurt and museli followed by a protein shake 2 vitamin C supplements and a coffee.

Vitamin C is essential for processing iron in food. No point having food high in iron if you aren't getting any vitamin C. Also, I remember reading a theory a long time a go that sugar cravings, might be your body wanting more vitamin C, because in nature all sources high in vitamin C usually contain sugar, oranges, apples, tomatos you get the drift.

Obviously, women need more iron when they menstruate. Could my sugar cravings be my body trying to prepare for my period? So I decided to test it and while the results may not be conclusive, if it works, it works.

The rest of my day was pretty much the same, except I did sit down to enjoy my 20grams of chocolate. That and a mandarin seems to have held the cravings at bay.

I haven't been drinking enough and I ran out of vegetables today. My children raided my vegetable supply last night. Who am I to stop them? So I had better go and chop beans to have with my dinner.

Off to the gym again tonight. Weights this time. It will be interesting to see if I have gotten any stronger. Might jump on the assisted chin up machine and see how hard it is.

No menstruation doesn't mean I stop exercising, in fact it usually helps with it a lot.

The daily grind.

No sooner do I wonder if my metabolism isn't speeding up because I am not getting hungry, that I get hit with the munchies something fierce.

We did takeaway again last night. I haven't been so well prepared in the dinner department. I am going shopping today to fix this problem.

Anyway, the takeaway was proper takeaway, hamburgers chips etc. I choose grilled fish and garden salad. It was super yummy. I did not have any chips.

Chips are so yummy. Their starchy goodness, the crisp fat covered outer followed by that mushy high GI centre. How do I not eat them?

I compromise, you want carbs body? OK, have carbs, but not chips.

So, no chips for me, instead I had 2 pieces of rye bread and cottage cheese. Filled me up fine.

Went to the gym, did weights. Came home and was hungry. Again!

At first I tried to ignore the hunger pangs, by drinking lots. Didn't work so I considered having a protein shake, which I decided I didn't need (extra protein that is).

Instead I settled for one handful of trail mix. I have been for a week or so having a smaller serve of trail mix to what I normally have, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a bit more. More importantly if it stopped me from feeling hungry then I wouldn't further over eat.

Worked a treat.

Was the shake a better option? Certainly the shake would have been great nutrionally and as I had just been at the gym doing weights the protien wouldn't have hurt. It did have slightly more calories than my trail mix, although I don't have an accurate measure of what my trail mix is because the ingredients keep varying. On my trial mix, it is usually at least 50% cashews or macadamias which are really good for you. While they are high in fat it is the same sort of fat as is found olive oil, the sort that helps your body fight cholesterol. Both are also high in anti oxidants and are a good source of protein. So while they aren't the losest calorie snack food, they do fill you up and provide you with lots of nutrients. More importantly, they are low in sugar/carbohydrate, which I think is a major culprit in my high body fat percentage.

The thing is I like to eat things. I use shakes because they are convenient. I have never found a meal replacement program to work well for me. After awhile I just miss eating, as opposed to feeling full. I have seen some people get great results, the best program seems to be herbalife if you are interested in trying something like that.

There is a link between chewing and lower appetite. Experts are now recommending that you chew gum to lower your appetite. I don't think this works for me. The artificial sweetener makes me want sweet things. On the other hand crunchy vegetables and chewing your food thoroughly all really do seem to help me.

Still feel happily on track. I am nervous about my period coming up soon. It will be interesting to see if it causes any changes.

The Gym work out 1

So we went to the gym. Hubby is feeling sick so he took it pretty easy.

We probably wouldn't have gone except we had to sign up today to get an offer where we don't have to pay the join up fee.

I need to change the mentality that just because Hubby isn't going I don't go. I like going with him, but it won't hurt to go occasionally with out him.

It is up to him if he goes when I can't.

I'm not a big believer in working out no matter what. You need to listen to your body, it will get stronger, faster and leaner without breaking it. A bit of pain, the sort where your lungs start to scream or your muscles start to shake is OK, but other pain is not. I often feel a bit sick if I work hard, also not a real problem.

Sharp shooting pain, like pulling a muscle is not good and can lead to long term problems, some times in other parts of your body.

I recommend stretching and massage. MMMM I love massage, but it can get expensive.

Tonight, I felt a bit sore, probably because I had been rock climbing with the kids during the day.

Now when I say I have been rock climbing, I only climbed twice myself. The rest of the time was spent spotting the kids, belaying them. Even so, I worked my muscles, especially my upper body as I have been feeling it ever since.

So, when I jumped on the treadmill like I normally do, my legs felt heavier than normal, tired. I didn't do level 9 for 13 minutes, instead I did it for 5, then dropped down to 8 for the rest of my run.

Next I jumped on the bike, 15 minutes, level 6, 95 rpm and I pushed my heart rate up to 160.

Still I didn't feel like I had worked that hard.

Next, my Nemesis, the rowing machine. I like this machine because I feel it works my entire body, but I am in no way good at it. 10 minutes on it, swapping from the normal grip to an underhand grip to work my biceps.

I still felt bad for not going hard on the treadmill. At this point though hubby had stopped, he was feeling ill and had a slight headache.

5 minutes on the elliptical machine, this time I pushed hard. level 6 again with a speed of 11 - 12, I felt my breathing become heavy, ragged. I kept going, my throat now hurts. I am not sure why but that happens when I work to my extremes.

2 minute cool down and a quick stretch. Mostly for the muscles that I worked while rock climbing.

I feel great now. I have achieved what I wanted to achieve. I did come home hungry, so I made myself some untoasted muesli and low fat yoghurt.

Diet could have been better today, but wasn't too bad. My only big mistake was my white bread toast, margarine and honey, for breakfast. I love it, but it is a lot of kilo joules. There are better breakfasts.

I had a double handful of trail mix for a snack, 1 mandarin, lean chicken and salad on wholemeal for dinner and a cheese and ham toastie for lunch.

3 cups of coffee, my usual daily intake, which I have no intention of changing. I love my coffee and always will.

Now time to relax.