The Year of the Gav - Day 8

Hey day a Weigh day!

Current weight 15st 6.
Lost 2lb!

Breakfast: Cereal and a black coffee

Lunch: You guessed it, simple salad with some tuna and The Sun crossword.

Dinner: mixed Mediterranean vegetables with a haddock fillet, creme fraiche and a wedge of lemon

Maybe it was down to the work that I had put in, maybe it was 30 minutes jogging I had just completed or maybe it's just your body's natural impulsion to fluctuate by a couple of pounds at different times of the day but at my first weigh in I had lost 2lbs. 

A step in the right direction. Monday weigh in: 15st 6 - lost 2 pounds. Not bad in a week. Might have been more if I had started jogging last week, as I thought I would, Oh! and I did have a massive slice of cheesecake!

I have started my running program again. I thought I might be able to jump right back into it, however the Wife suggested that I start from the beginning and see how it goes. She was correct, it was a bit harder than I had anticipated. I must admit I have missed running around the local park in the pouring rain. It was a good to get back being all sweaty and out of breath.

A positive step forward and encouraging enough to give it another week. Stick with it x

How are you getting on?

Much love

G x

The year of the Gav diet - Day 6 & 7

Somethings from the Weekend.

Food consumed Saturday: My Sisters house.1x Tuna & sweetcorn sandwich on a seedy loaf.(some crisps)
                        At Home: Mixed crackers and humus's plus lots of water and green tea
Food offered but rejected: Pink wafers and Chocolate chip digestives (Mum)

Food Consumed Sunday: Bowl of Cereal, coffee,
Dinner in a pub in Essex: A few olives & breads, King prawn salad (a few of Wife's chips!) Raspberry Sorbet with strawbs
Food rejected. Wife's greasy fish cake
Dinner at a friends house: Home-made pizza and incredible baked cheesecake (whoops!)
A couple of cans of fizzy pop whilst watching the Euro final with friends.

Okay, so Sunday does make good reading bu what a weekend though. I got to see most of my favourite people. Nephews and niece gave me a good work, trampoline in the back garden on Saturday & a fantastic family walk on Sunday. Sunday evening was a get together with the people I miss the most. 

Sunday's dinner was a lapse in concentration but a welcome distraction. I don't see my real friends very often and it was hard to say 'no'. Invited around to watch the football and to chinwag with friends.Our host had really gone to town. How can you refuse homemade pizza, 3 kinds and baked cheesecake, just for us!

Feeling good and having covered most of the A406, I head to bed. Very content with a good effort for my first week. Looking forward to tomorrows weigh in.

Goodnight xx

The year of the the Gav diet - day 5.

A night at the Opera.

Breakfast - Cereal!
Lunch - An early lunch today consisting of salad and chicken.
Dinner  - A three course extravaganza of food. Truffle infused Chicken, a Red Snapper main course and a dessert of some description.

My biggest challenge of the week, I am heading off to sample an evening out and its subsequent menu.
Not too elaborate but equally the menu doesn't feature on any diet that I come across. The only positive I can draw from this inevitable first blip is that, due to my first successful week of careful eating, this one meal balances up the calories that I haven't eaten.

Of to the Opera.......

Home from the Opera.
I feel that I have let myself down a little. Not only did I eat a three course, but I had two bread rolls. I have eaten any bread this week at all, then I spoil it with 2 rolls. I was offered a third roll but showed my resilient side by refusing it. On the positive side, I didn't eat all of the creamy desert, I didn't have 'more' when it was offered and I didn't have any carbonated sugary drinks.

So I have successfully eaten well for one 5 days

On Monday hear about my weekend, and find out if it all went pear shaped.

Be well, my people.

G x

The year of the Gav diet – June 28th – Day 4

 Lollipops and toilet stops

Food consumed:

Breakfast: 1 bowl of strawberry & nut cereal, black coffee.

Lunch: Another Chicken salad!

Dinner: left over Gok ingredients, wok’d up! Chicken ginger, spring onion & chilli

I’m not sure how much information you need, or even how much I’m willing to give but I have found myself visiting the WC more regularly since the diet began. Of course I’m drinking much more water than I used to. I’m sure the two are directly linked.

Today’s poison in the office was lollipops. Everyone was sucking them and slurping them and crunching them. Appatently they were left over from a promotional bags that were hanging around and they hve now all gone. Once more, I resisted all temptation. I'm not keeping score but 3-0 to me!

This challenge is more of a lifestyle choice than a diet. It’s actually been a lot easier than I thought, but I have only had to deal with it midweek. I still have my first hill to climb, the weekend. I have a visit to my Sisters house, there’s always food & drink aplenty, I have also been invited to a friend’s house for a party of sorts, I’m sure that’ll will include food, parties usually do. There is also the three course meal paid for by the company to contend with tonight.

I’m feeling a little better than I have done all week, so maybe jogging will start Saturday & Sunday.

Thanks for your time and interest thus far.

The Year of the Gav Diet June 27th

Day 3 - Choc's & Goks' Wok

Breakfast: Cereal with nutty strawbs, semi skimmed milk and mug of coffee.
Lunch: Mixed salad with Tuna
Dinner: Stir fried vegetables with 1 medium sized Turkey breast.

They are really trying hard to promote and encourage healthy eating at work. There are posters up suggesting what you should eat and how to plate up a healthy meal. Today they placed a mountain of cookies, smack bang in front of these images. Yesterday chocolate birthday cake to tempt me and today cookies. I was in the canteen area at the time the doughy, chocolate chip bad boys arrived. I ran back downstairs to the sanctity of our office. Safe from temptation. Or so I thought.
Within minutes, a thoughtful colleague, bought down just about as many cookies as she could carry, placed them on the exact spot that the chocolate cake resided hours before.
I know that I have forced myself to face a food challenge each day but I didn't want to be literally facing a food challenge.


What will I be faced with tomorrow?  

Once again, I resisted temptation. I think that's 2-0 to me.

Encouraged by my tiny steps in the correct direction I thought I should cook dinner.
I had been flicking through my free HD channels when I came across Gok Wan cooks Chinese. He made it look very simple, very impressive and most of all very tasty. I thought I would give it a go.
Dinner consisted of a thinly sliced Turkey breast, mange tout, broccoli and baby corns. Add this to Gok's ideal mix of ginger, spring onion and garlic and it led to a quick tasty meal.
  
The diet is going really well and the choice of food is getting larger. 
Hopefully by the end of the first week I will back up to full strength and then then jogging starts again soon.


Hope to be running again soon.


Thanks for dropping in


Gav xx 

The year of the Gav diet – June 26th – Day 2

Day 2 - Play dates & Chocolate cakes

Food consumed:

2 bowls of dried strawberry & nut cereal and 1 x chicken salad plus copious amounts of Vanilla Red bush and water.

So far, on this new lifestyle diet, I have been unable to exercise. I genuinely want to, but my sinuses are all bunged and have been since our return from our holiday. I have been getting headaches, which is really unlike me. I am normally strong like bull! This maybe my body pre-empting its lack of fatty / processed food over the next 6 months and sulking like a child on the naughty step, or it could simply be a normal headache caused by coughing and spluttering so much.

Jogging and cycling have been put on hold, for now however there is one exercise which there is no escaping from. It comes in the form of entertaining two children and is called being an Uncle. Come the weekend I shall be throwing one in the air whilst recreating a famous lightsaber battle with the other. They will beat me, pull my hair, climb on me & literally drag me from room to room kicking and screaming. My favourite time, with some of my favourite people. I can’t wait. 

I’m beginning to think that this diet should be called ‘Cereal & Chicken Salad diet’ as that’s pretty much all I’ve eaten. I’m trying to stay away from any fried food, any fast food and basically anything unnatural. Although it’s still very early days, I feel I have been coping well. I am mentally focused and prepared for the challenges I will certainly face.

I have been faced with 1 challenge today and been handed 1 for the future.

First challenge: Working in an office environment has its perks and traditions. In the office today: a birthday, followed by a big triple chocolate cake at 11am. That cake stared at me from 11am until 5pm when it was finally boxed up and removed from the office. I win!

Second challenge: The Company have asked me to ‘look in’ on a competitor with a complimentary 3 course meal and evening out. I have been gluttonous for the past 10 years and no one had offered me a single thing. The very week I decide to diet and control my intake of calories this comes along. I have chosen the fish option for main course. This will be the most substantial meal I have all week. I shall let you know how I get on.

Time for my second bowl of cereal.

Be well x

The Year of the Gav diet - 25th June '12

Current weight: 15st8 (99kgs)

Food and drink for the day – 2 bowls of Nutty cereal semi skimmed milk and a black coffee (without sugar) and a Chicken Salad.

I have just returned from a week of doing very little and eating a lot, or as it is known holiday. After a week of over-eating and under doing its time to return to the real world. A literally exposing photograph of me and my belly on a beach kick starts my need/want to do something. Its six months until Christmas day and by then I hope to have lost 2 stone. I’m not joining a weight watching programme, or taking my consumption down to two shakes a day. I’m mealy watching what I eat and when I eat it. I have already cut out alcohol this year and that has been easy, apart from:
       1)      Dinner with friends on the Isle of Wight – tempted by Croatian Grappa

2)      After a long walk along the Wey a riverside pub in the sun – tempted by Honey Ale

3)      Toronto and friends – tempted by everything.

I figure that cutting out those tempting bad meals can only be positive for me. I have never enjoyed a pre-packed sandwich

I will also start to exercise more. Cycling and jogging mainly, add this to keeping up with my nephews and niece and it’s a pretty tough workout regime.

I’m hoping that writing everything down each day will help. It has certainly aided my focus previously.

Please feel free to offer words of encouragement along the way. Feel free to join in and let me know how you’re getting on.

It’s a simple equation really; Burn off more calories than you consume and you will lose weight, FACT!

Here goes