FAT-SCRAP TRIALS Day 8

Apple....
BREAKFAST: porridge with soya milk and spoonful of forest fruits
LUNCH: Oatcakes with tomato puree, avocado and cucumber
DINNER: Vegetable stir fry – cabbage, peppers, green beans, beansprouts, mushrooms, cashew nuts, soy sauce and some rice noodles. Orange.
SNACKS: Small handful of brazils and walnuts. 4 dried apricots.
EXERCISE: Exercise session with Sue and Pear, 45 minutes

A bit of a thoughtful day for me today....

Had an early start at 9am - a great gym session with Sue and Pear! Started off with our weekly weigh in and I was really pleased I had lost almost 3 lb. I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t admit I was a tiny bit disappointed that I had not done as well as Pear – her weight loss of nearly 6lb is an amazing achievement and I’m so proud of her! But I did start thinking had I done something wrong? Had I let Sue and Pear down? Sue was really quick to reassure me that I had done really well to stick to the eating plan and had done plenty of exercise. She suggested I maybe need to do some more cardio work this week so I’m really going to focus on that as last week had mainly been toning work. I worked hard in our gym session today; I’m so determined to do well.

Had a good afternoon out with my family and we took the friend we had staying with us back to the airport. As time was pushing on my husband suggested picking up pizzas on the way home. Normally I’d have jumped at the chance of a veggie pizza and garlic bread..maybe some breaded mushrooms.. but I was very good and didn’t have anything. When we returned home I cooked my stir fry as they all ate their pizza. As I watched them I noticed how colourless and artificial their food looked. I don’t think I’ve ever really ‘seen’ this before, I’ve always been in too much of a hurry to eat it!! I tried to imagine how I could make it better...a homemade pizza with a thin wholemeal base and loads of colourful vegetables on top seemed so much more appealing than their deep pan oily pepperoni one! I was really hungry by the time I ate my stir fry and I really enjoyed every mouthful with the knowledge that I was feeding my body something good!

Whilst working this evening I was prompted to look something up in one of my reference books. I came across an interesting page which suggested emotional sources of disease/conditions. Under the heading ‘overweight’ it said – ‘need for protection, insecurity’. Isn’t it funny how I opened that particular page in that book today.... I took quite a time to just sit and think about this and why I am overweight. Apart from the factors contributing to it like wrong choice of foods it made me consider that there are much deeper reasons too. It feels a little uncomfortable to delve deeper within myself for some answers here but it’s something I know I must do over the coming weeks if I’m really going to address this long term. I’m going to re-read a book Sue recommended to me last year – Eating in the Light of the Moon by Anita Johnston. It describes, through metaphors and storytelling, how women can transform their relationship with food. When I first read it I found some of the stories really poignant – they really hit a nerve. Now I feel ready to look at it again and I will record in my blog what I discover about myself.

Pear....
BREAKFAST: Bowl of porridge made with Soya milk and sprinkle of seeds
LUNCH: 3 rice cakes topped with mashed avocado and prawns
DINNER: Roast Chicken with roast potatoes, parsnip, broccoli, sprouts, green beans
SNACKS: Handful of nuts
EXERCISE: Gym session with Sue and Apple 45 mins

Well, here we are a week gone by already!! It only seems a few days ago we were at Sue’s for our weigh in and measurements, doesn’t time fly! I had a good sleep again (hooray!), lets hope my body is now toxin free and this is the way forward. I do however have a niggle of a headache whilst writing this, but I’m trying not to think about it!

Set off early (9am on a Sunday…come on…shouldn’t I still be tucked up in bed…but that’s commitment for you!) to Sue’s for our first week’s weigh in and gym session…I had a feeling Sue was going to put us through our paces….and oh yes she sure did, but I felt proud of myself after, even though I had to stop a few times, it was so much better than our first session. As you can see above, I had a fantastic first week weight loss, I was overjoyed especially as recently when I’ve tried to lose weight its only been a lb or 2 in the first week, but hey that was then and this is now! I really don’t want to get complacent though, and need to be just as careful on the choices I make this week. The rest of the day was cleaning the house and making a roast dinner for the family which was been good in keeping myself busy and therefore not had time to think about food…well except for dinner of course! My son asked me to make his favourite dessert…profiteroles, which I did and again didn’t have one!!!!

Me….
BREAKFAST: porridge and berries
LUNCH: small piece of steak, poached egg, spinach, satsuma, grapes
DINNER: roast chicken, roast potatoes, roast parsnip, carrots, broccoli, gravy (made with cornflour)
SNACKS: natural yogurt with almonds and bit of honey
EXERCISE: 45 mins workout with apple and pear (hard) 45 mins dog walk

Made a mental note to remind myself to cut down a bit on food intake today to compensate for yesterday but also aware that I would need fuelling after today's workout so had a smaller breakfast and then a substantially filling lunch, which I was really ready for!
I was pleased to get out for a walk straight after our workout as I got a good warm down after our intense workout..I say intense as, once again, we all worked at our own levels to achieve the same intensity of workout. I use the Perceived Rate of Exertion scale to monitor how hard each of us is working and encourage apple and pear to reach their own personal 8/9 out of 10 for short intervals. This will help them to get fitter and burn more calories when their body is at rest.

And of course, today was the weigh-in so we were all excited and apprehensive about that! I have given a lot of thought as to whether we should do a weekly weigh-in on this programme for several reasons. The scales can be instrumental in causing such strong reactions and emotions in individuals, so much so that they either become the motivator or the de-motivator..And I certainly didn’t want my “Fat-Scrappers” to become de-motivated! But, on the other hand, I am trying to run an honest and “real” trial here and as people are generally focused on “weight loss” and the number on the scales, I have decided to do the weekly weigh- ins. (At the beginning of the trial, we did a body composition analysis which will give us a more accurate interpretation of any body composition changes like body fat percentages, lean tissue percentages and water percentages, which I believe is a far better measurement of “weight loss”. We also took tape measurements. We will record all of these measurements at the end of the 4 weeks and compare the results. )

I will comment further on the weigh-ins below and for more details about the results you can go to the summary of the week one page by clicking below.

The FAT-SCRAP TRIALS Week one summary

The FAT-SCRAP TRIALS week 2