Blame it on the Bread?

We all need it (food that is, not just bread). Quite a few of us over indulge, gain a few pounds, get a bit lazy, stop being conscious of what we're stuffing into our mouths day after day, week after week. I've been there. But that's changed. At the end of June I was noticing my weight was creeping upwards. I have some clothes which are a guide to my weight and they were starting to feel a bit on the tight side. What to wear in a morning was starting to be dictated by what wouldn't pinch round the waist later in the day. Now I'm not saying I was obese. But in my mind I know there's a top limit to what weight I feel comfortable with, and what weight is just downright stupid. I was there.

So, we made a conscious choice to cut out bread for one week and see what it did to the number shown on the scales. I'm not obsessed with numbers, but it's helpful for monitoring. I was shocked with my weight and knew there had to be some serious change. It was reaching a magic number I don't ever want to cross over. I'm getting to a stage where change has to happen or the weight will just continue to creep upwards, new clothes will be bought...in a larger size...and the downward spiral begins. So the non-bread eating was stage one of a mini-experiment.

The non-eating bread thing was a bit of a wake up. I hadn't realised just how much of the lovely fluffy stuff we were eating. At the time we were learning to make our own, Tim was having mixed results with his artisan bread - some excellent if odd-shaped loaves were being baked. So so tasty. And with fresh bread you have to have real butter. And homemade lemon curd and jam. So the calories, as well as carbs, were sky high. It seemed like a really difficult thing to cut out bread - what would we eat instead?

But, we survived the first week. A little weight was lost. Without too much thought we just continued with the non-baking of bread. We didn't buy any bread. Though we had the occasional bit while out, either with a meal or for a snack. I'm not one for total exclusion on diets, somehow it just doesn't seem healthy. But this was turning into a mental challenge to see how I could cope without bread, and what it would do to my weight.

So far so good. I lost a kilo or so in a month without really trying that hard.  It did coincide with me increasing my exercise, so the combination will have helped. I'd had an issue with my left ITB/knee which stopped me running, and rehab was taking time as I wanted it to heal properly. It was, and I was pleased I'd taken a month out to recover fully.

On 21 July we had an assessment at S&P gym - to work out what level of fitness and strength we had. Then from the following week we started on a 4 week foundation course, down at the gym twice a week. I was back running twice weekly as well, and doing recovery and rest days in betweeen.  For food, I needed to alter the way I ate if I wanted to achieve my goals - lose some weight and get leaner. To do that, putting it simply, I needed to cut out carbs, and increase protein. There's some other rules, like not eating cereal for breakfast, but that's one I'm still working on. I think my reduction of bread intake had been a good kick start to lowering carbs.  Essentially if I eat carbs I need to earn them. So on days I work out at the gym I can have some carbs - rest days = no carbs.

This is where it gets interesting because Tim is able to stuff his face with pasta 24/7 - he's got totally different goals to me. He's doing fell races, and he doesn't need or want to lose any weight. It proves interesting at meal times. Sometimes we'll have a dinner where I can just exclude the rice or potatos; other times we'll eat totally different things.

So what's easy?
Being able to eat loads of meat. I'm downing plenty of clean meat - roasted chicken, rump steaks for lunch, rump steak for dinner, tuna, makeral (omega-3 fish oil is essential). Knowing I'm eating a really healthy diet helps keep up the motivation. The fun of making salads interesting a tasty.

And what's difficult?
Snacking. Adjusting from my lifelong eating patterns of having pretty much whatever I want for a snack, to a few brazil nuts, a protein shake, some fruit. No flapjack. There's a tough one. I make it and it's really nice. I'll continue to make it - Tim can munch through the whole tray full. I'll have a tiny bit as and when I'm allowed (that is if there's any left).
Another tough one is dinner times, given that Tim can have what he likes its making dinner choices really hard. But we're managing. And we'll continue to evolve our food choices so it will get easier.
Hunger pangs - I feel like I'm living with the constant niggle of feeling hungry. To offset that I'm drinking loads more water. Don't get me wrong, I'm not starving myself. But I'm not giving in to the hunger between meals with silly choices - flapjack, a crafty slice of toast and lemon curd, a mouthful of pasta.

In general I'm liking what I'm eating. It's a clean diet and I'm seeing the results. I've dropped about 4 kilos in 7 weeks. As I said earlier - I've increased my exercise, sticking to a good weekly routine now for 6 weeks, so the loss is a combination of food, exercise and keeping the two consistant.

I'll reach my target weight with the amazing support of Tim, some wise words from Sean at S&P and a lot of determination. I'm liking my body a lot more now, and that can only get better.