2nd day recording my eating habits!

Day 2 – recording what I eat

9:00am – 2 x croissants, pineapple, grapes and apple, pure apple juice 

2:00pm – 2 rounds of sandwiches with ham, mayo and tomato, packet of walkers crisps and a strawberry Muller light. Lemon cordial

4:00pm – Mars milkshake

9:00pm – Cheesy chips and battered sausage, pepsi max and an icecream

Well..lol as you can see a little better than yesterday! I think i did alright until dinner! What is very clear is that I have way too many takeaways! I think that’s where i need to begin on Monday, just eliminate them completely. I still don’t think that the times I’m eating are right. There is a massive gap between breakie and lunch, 5 hrs, that’s quite a while to go without any food. I need to have like, 6 smaller meals a day instead of two large ones. 

What else is quite clear from reviewing my diet, is that I’m not drinking nearly enough, this needs to be addressed. It could be the cause of my tiredness and water retention.

Medication and health

I almost forgot to take my meds yesterday because I have to take them in the morning and I take all my other meds in the evening before bed. So I have decided to take them at night only because it is important not to forget them. My diarrhea has stopped, but I am now constipated…lol can’t win can I!!!

I got a really early night sleep yesterday, went to bed at like 9:30pm, but unfortunately the insomnia hit and I was awake until about 3;30, tossing and turning. It is extremely frustrating because my eyes are stinging and I know I am exhausted but I just cannot sleep!

I took a nap at 11:00am and was able to sleep for an hour. It was a better time for me to nap and it worked a lot better than yesterday!

Once the children are back at school, Mike is gonna start taking me to the pool at least twice a week, because it is the only place where I can actually exercise almost pain free, and as an added bit of info, one of my friends informed me that they have steps going into the pool now instead of a ladder, which is way better for disabled people. I put on a article I found earlier about other exercises you can do when you are immobile, and they look quite fun! Can’t wait to give them a try!

Right I am off to bed to try and get some more sleep, or to just lay there mind-numbingly starring at the ceiling….whatever my crazy body decides to do!!

Big Love,

Em x

 

First day’s eating habits….honesty is the key!

Day 1 – Recording what I eat 

For the next four days I am gonna record exactly (no cheating) what I consume in a day. I am not dieting at this point, I want to see what I am eating so, 1) I can see where I am going wrong 2) so I can look back at it over time and see how much I have changed (hopefully the plan is for it to be inspirational, a wake up call if you like)

Breakfast

11:30am – Coffee with semi skimmed milk and two sugars, Bowl of frosties with semi skimmed milk.

12:30am – Milk Chocolate digestive and apple juice (Cordial)

4:00pm – Tesco’s box takeaways – curry for two. Half korma and half tikka massarla, rice, 2 onion barjee’s and a plain naan, Can of full fat coke

At 1pm I went to bed because I had a migraine, and the Levothyroxine is making me sleepy and dizzy, otherwise I would have had my lunch earlier.

It’s now 7:05pm and I have not had any tea. The children are eating now, but it’s really chaotic so Mike wont feed us until they are in bed.
9:30pm – foot long sub, tuna, salad and low fat mayo, bottle of diet cherry coke.

Immediatly, just from recording one day of food, I can see so many things wrong with my diet!

1) Breakfast was too late so it set the times wrong for the rest of the day.

2) Need to change to skimmed or 1% milk and switch my sugar to sweetener

3) High sugared cereal – need to switch to pure cereal e.g porridge or bran and add some fruit for sweetening

4) I physically stopped myself from eating more than one biscuit so I’m pleased with that 🙂

5) Unfortunately I fell ill at lunchtime, so had to go and lay down, which in turn threw the times off even more. I need to try and rest in between meals if I can

6) Takeaway box – so much wrong with that! I just shouldn’t have had it, very high in carbs and it was a huge portion – need to cut down on processed foods and large portions! To make matters worse I had a full fat coke. The worst drink out there! But it tastes so nice! – this is an area I can definitely change, I need to switch to diet drinks, high fat drinks are the devil when you are dieting!!!
My tea was ok, but I had it way too late, and ended up with awful interjestion 😦
 

Looking at this day, it is obvious why I feel so sluggish and why I put on so much weight so quickly, but like I said this is a positive thing, I’m being honest with myself and there are many ways, already, that I can turn this round!

Medication

I have been on the Levothyroxine for 4 days now. I have experienced a lot of side effects:

Worst – chest pain and increased heart rate

Diarrhea – not nice, but at the very least, the crap (lol) is leaving my body !

Leg and arm jerks – only for the first two days, it was very weird and mike found it quite funny

Big change in my mood – very short with everyone, smallest things are annoying me

Tired and dizzy

Hot sweats are worse – had them before because of other medication, but now much worse, hope this one settles down

But like I said the worst is the change in my heart rate and the chest pain. I am hoping it wont be for long, mike thinks I should get it seen too, but I dont really want to complain about it as I don’t want the Dr taking me off it… for some reason I am holding on to the fact that this medication, even if it takes a while, is gonna make me better. I’m not stupid, and if it ever became severe obviously I will go see my Dr, but for now I am just gonna monitor it, see how it goes…

Off to bed now for an early night,

Big love,

Em x

Diet Calculators!

Diet Calculators!

I went online last night to look for some kind of tool i could link to my blog, that would measure how many calories I would need to eat to loose weight, plus I wanted one that measured your BMI as well. I was pleased to find them both and more on this site! There is loads of calculators available and better still they are free! Here’s a list of the calculators:

CALCULATORS

• Ideal Calorie Needs
• Macro-Nutrient Ratios
• Muscle Gain Calculator
• Pregnancy Calories
• Breastfeeding Calories
• Calories in Food
• BMI
• Body Fat Calculator
• Calories Burned
• Ideal Body Weight
• Target Heart Rate
• Waist to Hip Ratio
• Unit Conversion

I think you can click on any of them and it will take you to the calculator of your choice!

To accurately determine your daily calorie amount: Enter your current weight, (weight is in lbs and so to calculate from stones you times 14 by however many stones you are, then add the remaining lbs to get the total) age, height, and gender into the calculator. Do your best estimate of how much exercise you are doing.

The results will show how many calories you may eat in order to maintain or lose weight.

But remember, as you lose weight you will need to recalculate based on your new weight.

These are my results:

Total Calories Including Exercise

Maintenance	2699 CALORIES/DAY
Fat Loss	2160 CALORIES/DAY
Extreme Fat Loss	1620 CALORIES/DAY

Your BMI is

61

Extremely Obese

The site heeds this warning to anyone who wants to loose weight, I total agree with is and will definitely be taking the advice:

‘Always try to aim for the “Fat Loss” daily calorie level. The “Extreme Fat Loss” level is effectively a rock bottom calorie level. Do not attempt to immediately drop your calories to this level hoping for the quick fix – this may ultimately backfire.

The Extreme Fat Loss level is listed to show the lowest calorie amount that could be considered. It should be seen as the exception rather than the rule.

It truly is better to burn the fat than to starve it.’

Try not to lower your calorie intake by more than 1000 calories below maintenance. Doing so may invoke the bodies starvation response, which can lead to the Yo-yo dieting effect.

Try to gradually lower calories. A sudden drop (such as 500 calories or more) can cause your metabolism to slow. Learn to eat slowly – research shows that faster eaters are heavier people.

What happens when calories are too low?

1) Muscle mass is broken down for energy (catabolism).
2) Metabolic rate will begin to drop (typically) after 3 days of very low calories – this is related to, and compounded by the loss of muscle mass.
3) With very low calories you risk sluggishness, nutritional deficiencies, fatigue, and often irritability. You are completely set-up for a regain in fat if you suddenly return to your previous eating patterns.

I had a little look at other things that were available to you on this page. It’s a really interesting and beneficial site, I am certain I will be referring back to this for help and a little guidance!

My results were quite shocking to be honest, but I knew I wouldn’t be happy with them, I had prepared myself a little!! Later I will write my first diary entry, oooohhh so exciting!!!

Remember, if you are following this diet with me, dont forget I am slowly weening myself off of certain foods and focusing on looking at my eating habits to try and break them!!!

Big love

Em x