I Run

After the success of my scooter endeavours, if you overlook the hypoglycaemic episode, I finally decided that it was time to dig out the track suit bottoms, oversized top and trainers. 

Running was one of my favourite activities when I was in my twenties cough years ago so it seems logical to me to start this up again. 

So I made the decision yesterday that in the evening I'd start running and then I'd have one of those new Pizza Express home cook pizzas that only have 450 calories as a reward. 

Once I'd decided on this plan of action I couldn't wait to get started and spent most of the afternoon looking forward to my new adventure...flash forward to 1900hrs. 

I had made plans on what route to take quite a while ago as my trainer from my boxing days had given me the best advice about starting off running which was: never over do it to start off with or you'll not want to carry on and choose a route that is easy to expand upon in increments as you get fitter; I therefore chose Woolwich Common as my venue as it's riddled with paths and I had seen a nice little route on Google maps. 

After a warm up I walked to my starting point, started my new app MapMyRun and set off at a slow pace that I hoped would let me run the route without stopping or walking. 

The first thing I noticed was that my head seemed to be bouncing around quite a bit and my legs didn't feel very coordinated; luckily I soon forgot about that, unluckily this was because I'm not very fit and it felt like my nose was collapsing each time I breathed in! 

I was about half way round, I was coping, just, I was coaching myself in my head with "just keep going", "nearly there" and the like. I could now see how far I had left and used that as a marker and started almost saying to myself through the out breaths "keep going nearly there, nearly there". 

I'd done it, I stopped my app and looked at the results - 0.80 miles in 7 minutes and 47 seconds, it felt like I'd just finished a half marathon, sweating profusely, gasping for breath but happy that I'd achived my aims and had an app full of stats to look at; I think I will enjoy this rebirth into running once my fitness levels are a bit higher!

Diet Coke Strikes Back

After I broke the habit of Diet Coke I started to have a coffee in the morning and a coffee or tea in the afternoon and my main soft drink was sparkling mineral water. 

After a while this started to become a tad boring so I decided to look for a non cola caffeine free soda to have....the slippery slope had begun!!

Fruit "Zero" sodas have a fairly high calorie count of around 10 calories per 500ml so I didn't feel very happy about having those as a 500ml Diet Coke has just 2 calories; so began my new reading of labels in supermarkets quest. 

After some consideration I opted for Tesco Firey No Added Sugar Gingerbeer which weighed in at 1 calories per 330ml can and off I went. 

After drinking this for a few weeks my mind said to me "hey what's the problem, just have a can of Diet Coke a day", I duly complied and after only a few days this can became, two, became three, became four 500ml bottles....you get the picture, it was a Diet Coke relapse!

Lucky I've realised this in time and stopped again and as soon as the Gingerbeer is finished at home that will be cut out too, I'm considering adding fruit juice to my sparkling mineral water like you would with squash for a bit of variation. 

This little experience got me thinking firstly about Diet Coke and then Diet sodas in general and what exactly is so addictive about them, it can't be just caffeine as I found caffeine free Diet Coke just as addictive and also had problems with the Gingerbeer. 

So I did a bit of digging and found that it's an interesting combination of the caffeine, fake sugar and psychological addiction caused by the rituals and habits around drinking diet sodas. 

I can highly recommend reading this interesting CNN article on the subject:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/01/diet.soda.health/

Progress Report - Heath Update

Today I made my way with trepidation to the GP's surgery for an appointment with the practice's diabetes nurse, this was going to be when I learned the outcome of my blood tests. 

The first pleasing thing was that the nurse didn't recognise me as I saw a different one last time so I'd not seen her since February. The second pleasing thing was when she said that my non-fasting blood test results were those of a healthy person. 

I explained that I'd been having severe hypoglycaemic episodes, one recently where I nearly passed out and she told me that while it's unusual for the drug Metformin to cause hypo's it does do this with a small percentage of patients and I was obviously one of those patients so I was to stop taking Metformin with immediate effect. 

Next up my blood pressure was too low so in consultation with my GP she halved my Lisinopril tablets and told me to come back in two weeks for a re-test when the decision would be made as to whether I need to take them at all. 

I was then told that I don't need to test my bloods daily anymore, to just do it when or if I feel unwell, but I think that I will continue to do the regular tests for a while as quite frankly this has come as a shock to me after all these years of medication and testing, I thought that I'd be eased off of the regime gently if at all!

Of all the things that have happened to me over this journey since January 2014 this has had the most profound effect on me as it's quite literally life changing, I still can't quite believe that I'm in this situation now as I thought that my type 2 diabetes was with me for life...I've got another blood test in November to confirm that coming off of the diabetes medication was the right thing to do and I almost can't wait to find out what happens and at the same time I'm worried that something may go wrong.  

Exercise Day 01

I've been toying with the idea of starting to exercise for a fair while now and today after a bit too much pondering and consideration I opted for one of those urban scooters. 

After work I hopped onto the Jubilee line and went to Decathlon at Surrey Quays and acquired an Oxelo 7XL with duel suspension and oh boy am I glad I did as it's such a fun thing to ride and the suspension really does make a difference. 

After a quick text to my brother, who has the same scooter, I set off to meet him from work in Greenwich with the plan to scoot home to Woolwich Common from there along the Thames path. 

About half way between Greenwich and the O2 I hit my first glitch - I'd only eaten a 204 calorie lunch and that was six hours beforehand, thus I proceed to have the worst hypoglycaemic episode I've had since being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, my vision almost completely shut down in what I can best describe as a sparkling whiteout fashion. 

Since my weight loss I've got out of the habit of carrying sugary emergency food as my diabetes has been so much better, this turned out to be a major error today as I was in the middle of nowhere and on the brink of "falling over", I needed a sugary drink and food urgently!

I managed to stumble my way almost to some shops and despatched my brother on ahead with a crisp twenty pound note to purchase full fat coke and dairy milk chocolate, upon the coke and chocolate touching my tongue I was instatainiously back to normal; slightly annoyingly my first half a bar of chocolate in 200 days wasn't a thing to savour rather than my saviour, along with the quarter bottle of coke. 

So the moral of this story is: urban scooters are an amazingly fun form of exercise, but if you're planning a five mile plus stint on one make sure you've eaten enough calories, especially if you're on medication that's designed to drive you're blood sugar down when you don't really need to be taking it anymore!

At Last An Update!

Sorry for the silence on this blog of late, this has been due to work commitments being fairly high on my list of priorities: Imperial War Museum London to reopen

I've still been keeping to my weight loss regime (in the most part, see below) with some interesting things cropping up this weekend.

My current statistics are:

• Weight - 14 stone.
• Neck - 16.5".
• Waist - 34"

Starting statistics:

• Weight - 23 stone 4 pounds.
• Neck - 19.5".
• Waist - 52"

Difference:

• Weight - minus 9 stone 4 pounds.
• Neck - minus 3".
• Waist - minus 18".

Now as originally I had only planned to go down to 14 stone 7 pounds, I've obviously gone a way past this (before this weekend I was actually under 14 stone), but after doing some research I have decided that what flab I've got left isn't loose skin but is in fact subcutaneous fat:

Subcutaneous fat is the layer of subcutaneous tissue that is most widely distributed. It is composed of adipocytes, which are grouped together in lobules separated by connective tissue. The number of adipocytes varies among different areas of the body, while their size varies according to the body's nutritional state. It acts as padding and as an energy reserve, as well as providing some minor thermoregulation via insulation. Subcutaneous fat is found just beneath the skin, as opposed to visceral fat, which is found in the peritoneal cavity, and can be measured using body fat calipers to give a rough estimate of total body adiposity. It is thickest in the buttocks, palms, and soles. 

(source Wikipedia).

I came to this conclusion by the way this fat behaves around my mid rift and as it doesn't have the loose skin appearance. Because of this I've decided to try and get rid of the remaining fat by continuing to diet and taking more exercise.

One thing however was that my partner and I had decided to go for a slap up steak meal when I reached my target weight and as I was well under that target off we went to a rather nice brasserie at London Bridge on Friday night and I got in the supplies for a full fat English Breakfast for the Saturday morning.

This was going to be an interesting test as I'd not eaten such volumes or high amounts of calories since my birthday in April and it would be only the second time I'd eaten chips since January this year! So my main worries were:

1. Would this just trigger me off into old habits?
2. Would I put on a substantial amount of weight?
3. Sweet food, my greatest fear as I have a love of sweet food!

Currently I'm eating less than 1,380 calories a day to ensure that I continue to lose weight (thanks to MyFitnessPal for working all this out) but the amounts for my two super naughty but nice meals were:

• Calamari Rings - 328 calories.
• Tartar Sauce - 70 calories
• 15oz Ribeye Steak - 816 calories (I over estimated this a bit).
• French Fries 100g - 274 calories.
• Ketchup - 21 calories.
• 3 slices of sour dough bread - 263 calories.
• Butter - 72 calories.
• Diet Coke (yes the old fiend) 1 calorie.

So this works out at a whopping great 1,845 calories! So I basically slaughtered my goal for that day with a daily calorie total of 2,148 which is 760 calories over (but interestingly below the maintain weight goal for my current weight).

Move forward a day and it's brunch time which consisted of:

• 2 Richmond thick sausages - 250 calories.
• 2 rashers of Co-Op unsmoked rindless back bacon - 140 calories.
• 1 medium free range egg - 60 calories.
• 1 spray of 1cal oil to fry the egg in - 1 calorie.
• Half a tin of baked beans - 164 calories.
• 1 slice of malted Danish bread - 51 calories.
• Filter coffee - 6 calories.

So even though I used some of my portion cutting tricks and didn't have butter or margarine due to the baked beans this still worked out at 672 calories for this meal, and then add to this a Tapas based lunch of cooked meats, dips, pita bread etc. and you've got a daily total of 1,906 calories which was over my goal by 526 calories.

So I was interested to see what difference this would make to my weight this morning (Sunday) and as it turns out I'd put on 2 pounds, which wasn't as much as I thought; I'll carry on with the experiment by weighing myself tomorrow morning as well to see if there's an up or down movement in my weight as I've been back to my normal eating regime today which meant that I've eaten 1,122 calories in total.

So based on this experience I can conclude:

1. I managed to go back to the healthy options with no real issues after the treat days, I'm very happy with this.
2. I appear to put on and take off weight fairly easily, we'll see where I'm at tomorrow but I'm not overly stressed by the changed that occurred.
3. Sweet food wasn't an issue but this was because I was too frightened to touch it, just in case!!
4. The diet coke tasted not very nice at all, it was overly sweet and bitter, I take this as a good sign that I've broken that habit.

So all in all this was an interesting and pleasurable experience and has prepared me more for the ever nearing time when I have to eat more in order to sustain a healthy weight, because as regular readers will know this has caused me some worry in the past. 

Update Update

I've had a bit of a busy week work wise, sorry for the lack of blog updates. Normal service will resume shortly. 

Interesting State Of Mind

As you know from an earlier post I've now reached my target weight and my Body Mass Index is just, just, in the healthy range, while this has given me a good deal to be happy about it has also caused some interesting things to happen in my head.

I've decided to carry on losing weight and reassess my situation when I'm 14 stone as I still have a spare tyre that isn't just, well, stretched skin, it has some self supporting properties and I know that the BMI is not an exact science but I'd be happier if I was well into the healthy area.

This has got me thinking and analysing the situation as it would appear that my biggest concern is actually stopping the weight loss, I kind of get a buzz from it now and I look forward to the weigh ins and mapping my progress. As well as this I think that a major problem is worrying about the road ahead as I've lost weight before, although in an unsustainable crash diet way, and just put it all back on when I stopped the diet. Even though I feel that I really have changed the way I deal with food for the better and broken the bad habits with junk food I really do have a fear that I'm going to just lapse into my old ways and pile it all back on again at the drop of a hat.

Now this isn't a problem just yet as I'm still fairly chunky and I don't think I look overly thin, but it's something I need to keep a watchful eye on just in case I lose focus and actually end up unhealthily underweight. The actual act of eating isn't a problem at all as I still think about food and anticipate what I'm going to have and plan ahead,  I just really need to keep an eye on myself.

I think that one way to manage this is to take up some sort of physical exercise as this will tone up any unsightly lumps and bumps and also give me something else to get addicted to but the two problems I have here are getting myself motivated to start the exercise and what exercise I will do.

I have a history of playing competitive sports and have done: rugby, cricket, weight training, handball, basketball, netball, hockey, boxing, running and circuit training when I was younger. I had the idea of doing martial arts but looking at the local clubs it would appear that they are run by people who take themselves and their chosen form of martial arts a bit too seriously for my liking, so the other options are running, which I used to do and really enjoyed in my 20s or boxing which I also did in my 20s and really enjoyed so I'll have to do some research and see if there are any local clubs that do boxing for fitness as I'm well past the age of wanting to spar and the good thing is that I know from past experience that boxing training is one of the hardest forms of physical exercise I have ever undertaken.

Mission Complete(ish)

This morning I got onto the bathroom scales and, I'm happy to report, it said that I'm 14 stone 7 pounds, I'm at my target weight!

I still have a bit if a spare tyre so I'm going to carry on for a little while as it'd be nice for my BMI to be firmly in the healthy area rather than just on the boarder of unhealthy!

I suspect that I'm going to have to do the unthinkable and start running again!

Q&A

As promised tonight I will post the most frequent questions that I've been asked along with my answers. If you have any questions for me please feel free to ask or if you'd prefer to email me a question rather than have it on public display please feel free to do so: juptin@live.co.uk

Q: Why did you decide to lose weight?

A: I was on the verge of reaching 40 years old and I had spent most of my 30s in a very unhealthy state, I felt that the beginning of a new decade should be a beginning of a new life style, I'd had my indulgent decade and it was time to get healthy before my increasing age started to give me even more health problems than I already had.

Q: How did you manage to lose so much weight in a fairly short amount of time?

A: It was all about wanting to do it, really wanting to do it, because if you don't go into something like losing weight wanting to change yourself then you are destined to fail. I spent time before I started my new life style effectively reprogramming my mind to stop eating junk food, for instance I thought to myself over and over again "sugar is poison".

Q: How did you lose the weight? Did you go to the gym?

A: I'm allergic to exercise! What I've achieved has been down to a calorie controlled diet and the only real exercise I done is walked more than I used to. When I first started out in January 2014 I didn't really have a "way" of dieting, I just cut everything that was bad for me out, then later in January I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app onto my iPhone and something just clicked, it was the tool for me, it appealed to the way my listing mind works because of all of the statistics that it generates.

Q: Are you eating special food?

A: This one is a sort of yes / no answer as I've been eating from mainly the Sainsbury's and Tesco healthy food ranges, but I've also been eating "normal" food but I've been really concious of the calorie content of what I eat.

Q: Are you hungry, it must be difficult not eating properly?

A: I can honestly say that I've not been hungry as I changed my life style rather than going on a diet, so I've been having three meals a day with snacks but I've been focusing on what I eat. To start off with having smaller portions was a problem as I used to eat in large quantities, but once you start controlling your portions correctly your stomach capacity shrinks down and it takes less food to fill full, it was just a bit of a struggle to start off with.

Q: What about beer, do you drink alcohol?

A: I've been teetotal for 14 years, this is through choice not because I had alcohol problems or for religious reasons just because from my mid teens I had been immersed in a culture of over drinking due to my rugby playing and my heady boozy weekends. I came to realise that I had done enough drinking to last me a life time, I'd had a lot of fun and now was the time to cut it out before I did actually start to have alcohol related problems, be it addiction or health issues. I feel that not drinking has given me an advantage in my transformation from a 23 stone 4 pound person to a 14 stone 7 pound person and if you really want to lose weight I feel that trying to cut out alcohol is a good place to start.

Q: Do you eat chocolate, cakes or sweets?

A: I have a very (very) sweet tooth and I knew straight away that I was just going to have to just cut it out of my life! The only time I have sweet food now is when I go out for a meal with my partner and we share a dessert. I literally cannot have sweet food in the house as I just can't trust myself at the moment!

Q: So how do you cope with no sweets or chocolate etc.?

A: I've replaced sweet food with a controlled amount of fruit, usually 100g of grapes or cherries and 100g of natural low fat yoghurt and I try not to have more that two portions of fruit a day as it still contains naturally occurring sugar. Also Hartley's no added sugar jelly pots are fantastic to cure the cravings and are less than 10 calories a pot.

Q: How do you feel, you must feel great?!

A: I do feel great!! I have more energy, feel more confident and the best thing is that I can have whatever clothes I like now, also having people comment about how great I look feels great too!

Q: You look like a different person, has anyone said that to you before?

A: Yes they have, I've had friends and family not recognise me and my neighbours who I talk to regularly not recognise me. Sometimes I look in the mirror or see a photograph of myself and I can't believe the difference myself.

Q: Have there been any drawbacks?

A: I wouldn't really call it a drawback but it's been slightly annoying having to replace my clothes so regularly, I've been through six generations of new clothes since January 2014 and it can get a bit expensive! One time I had worn a pair of jeans twice and they were so big that I had to replace them and drop them off to a charity shop, but on the other hand this is a really big morale booster too!

Q: I've been trying to loose weight myself without much luck, do you have any tips?

A: Personally I'd say look at what you are eating, identify what is causing you the problem, for example too much bread or a lot of cake and chocolate or too much beer and just cut it out completely. For myself abstinence has worked the best, it is hard but you see results quickly and you regain control of yourself.

Q: Are you ill?

A: No not at all!! In fact I'm healthier than I've been in a long time as my type 2 diabetes is going into remission.

Business Trip

I have to travel around a bit for my work and this always throws up the problem of evening meals and breakfast, it really stresses me out that I have to try to keep to my calorie goal while eating from a menu that is usually not aimed at dieters. 

The hotel I'm staying in this evening has a Beefeater next door (I can feel the anxiety rising!) and I had to undertake a considerable amount of research to find out what I could have, fortunately I had a two hour train trip to do this. 

Luckily the first thing I discovered is that Premier Inn has a data sheet online for all of the menu options for breakfast and shortly afterwards I found that the Beefeater website has an interactive menu that has a full breakdown of nutritional information for everything on it. Result! 

Using my new found knowledge I cobbled together the following dinner:

6oz Flat Iron Steak: 377 calories. 

I changed the fries with the steak for an extra salad: 39 calories. 

Chargrilled Flat Mushrooms: 145 calories. 

This is a total of 561 calories, which isn't much different from my home cooked dinners.

For dessert I bought from Sainsbury's

80g Pack Of Apple Slices: 44 calories. 

Total 0% Fat Free Greek Yoghurt 170g: 97 calories. 

So that's a grand total of 701 calories. To put that into perspective my home made dinner yesterday was a grand total of 703 calories, so I class this a small victory!

Breakfast however is a whole different ball game as I feel £8 for toast and coffee is a bit steep, so my hotel breakfast will be:

One slice of brown toast: 94 calories. 

One poached egg: 73 calories. 

Baked Beans (100g): 91 calories. 

Grilled Tomato: 10 calories. 

One Quorn Sausage: 95 calories. 

So the grand total is: 363 calories. Admittedly my usual breakfast is only 136 calories, but it doesn't cost £8!

Before & After Photos

Me in April 2012 and me on Saturday 5th July 2014. 

Me in May 2014 and me in May 2013.

Me in March 2013, me in May 2014 and me in July 2014. 

The full set. 

Ice Cream & Lollies

As the temperature has been rising of late I thought that a post on healthier ice cream and ice lollies may be useful. As with most of these "treat" type of foods they are only healthier if you moderate your intake of them, so strict portion control is a must.

The following are the best options I have found whilst out shopping, but I must admit that I very very rarely have them as I worry about triggering myself off on sweet food again

You should note that by their very nature ice cream products will be high in fat and lollies will be high in sugar, so I've also noted this in my list below:

• Tesco Goodness Rocket Lollies - 39 calories / 8.5g of sugar per lolly.

• Tesco Goodness Milk Flavoured Lollies - 41 calories / 6g of sugar per lolly.

• Tesco Healthy Living Caramel Iced Dessert Sundaes - 111 calories / 8.5g of sugar per sundae.

• Tesco Healthy Living Mint Iced Dessert Sundaes -  107 calories / 6g of sugar per sundae.

• Sainsbury's Be Good To Yourself Vanilla Ice Cream - 82 calories / 11g of sugar per eight of a tub.

• My Carte D'Or Caramel - 110 calories / 15g of sugar per half a tub.

• My Carte D'Or Cherry - 100 calories / 14g of sugar per half a tub.

• My Carte D'Or Chocolate - 110 calories / 12g of sugar per half a tub.

• Wall's Twister Ice Cream Mini Lolly - 44 calories / 7g of sugar per lolly.

• Sainsbury's Rainbow Ice Lollies - 37 calories / 8g of sugar per lolly.

• Wall's Mini Milk Strawberry & Chocolate Ice Cream Lollies - 30 calories / 4.5g of sugar per lolly.

Another option is frozen yoghurt and the best options I've found are 170ml tubs from Yoo Moo, they are however higher in calories than the above products, but conversely they are lower in fat. 

I urge caution when considering getting any of these products as they will be sitting in the freezer, you'll know that they are there and the temptation will be ever present; in my case when I know that these products are in the house it's almost like they are calling out to me for attention until I give up and eat them. The best option, in my opinion, is to consider making your own home made ice lollies using no added sugar  fruit squash.

The Healthier Cooked Breakfast

One of the joys of a Sunday morning for me was having a cooked breakfast and I thought that those days would be over when I started my new healthy living, but no, I discovered that there is still a way to enjoy this treat without going to over the top with the calories. Admittedly the more I got into the habit of losing weight and wanting to get to my target the more I decreased my intake of cooked breakfasts on a Sunday but it really was a help when I started off so I thought I'd share this with you.

A majority of the products used are from Sainsbury's so for ease I will link to all of the ingredients at Sainsbury's.

Oil: Frylight Sunflower Oil Spray- 1 calories per spray.

Bread: Warburtons White Bread, Medium Sliced 400g - 58 calories per slice.

Bacon: Sainsbury's Be Good To Yourself Smoked Bacon Medallions (also available unsmoked) - 33 calories per rasher.

Sausages: Be Good To Yourself Pork Sausages - 81 calories per sausage.

Baked Beans: Heinz Reduced Sugar & Salt Baked Beans Snap Pots - 147 calories per pot.

Eggs:  Free Range Woodland Large Eggs - 85 calories per egg.

Now this may not seem like a "full" a breakfast as you're used to but losing weight is all about portion control and giving and taking a bit in order to achieve your goals. One tip I have is think of how many of each item you'd like to have and reduce it by one, so for example I'd normally have three slices of toast, so I'd actually have two and so on. The more you get into the healthy way of living the more you'll find yourself able to cut this down even further, but it's a good starting point.

My healthier breakfast is:

• Two slices of toast: 116 calories.
• Two rashers of bacon: 66 calories.
• Three sprays of oil in a medium to small frying pan for the bacon: 3 calories.
• Two sausages, baked: 162 calories.
• One egg poached: 85 calories.
• One spray of oil in the egg poaching pod: 1 calories
• One baked bean snap pot: 147 calories.

This is a grand total of 580 calories

As I noted in an earlier post because I have beans I don't use margarine on the toast as you don't notice it's missing.

Now for comparison is an average cooked breakfast that I used to have using standard ingredients and the larger portions before I decided it was time to lose weight:

• Three slices of toast: 288 calories.
• Four rashers of bacon: 276 calories.
• Three sprays of oil for the bacon: 3 calories.
• Three Sausages, baked: 414 calories.
• Two fried eggs: 170 calories.
• Three sprays of oil for the eggs: 3 calories.
• One tin of baked beans: 328 calories.

This is a grand total of 1482 calories

Now when you consider that today all of my three meals and snacks totalled 1060 calories you may begin to understand where my weight problem stemmed from!

Dr. Oetker Pizza

Pizza is a perennial food favourite, even if it is just flash cheese on toast, but if you're not careful you can end up with a daily calorie limit busting plate full.

One thing to watch out for is that some brands of pizza will give you the calorie count for half a pizza, while others will give you the count for a quarter of a pizza, the latter is usually when it's got a high calorie count so that it doesn't look as disastrous on the box; so make sure you read the box carefully when making your selection.

My own personal favourite "home" pizza is the Dr Oetker Ristorante range of frozen pizzas as they have a fairly reasonable calorie count per half a pizza, I think this is mostly down to the thin base. Make sure you read the cooking instructions as this brand advises you to cook them on the lowest shelf of the oven and this really does make a difference to how the finished article turns out:

• Mozzarella: 437 calories per half a pizza.
• Pepperoni-Salame: 434 calories per half a pizza.
• Speciale: 420 calories per half a pizza.
• Funghi: 432 calories per half a pizza.
• Hawaii: 382 calories per half a pizza.
• Pollo: 378 calories per half a pizza.
• Limited Edition Spinaci: 430 calories per half a pizza.
• Quattro Formaggi: 458 calories per half a pizza.
• Margherita: 407 calories per half a pizza.

The one issue you may have is actually getting the pizza in half as if you cook the whole thing then the temptation is going to be to eat the whole thing or have pizza for lunch or dinner again the following day which isn't really a good plan if you're trying to eat a balanced diet. Snapping the frozen pizza in half is one, fairly vague way of doing it, sawing it in half with a bread knife is the better option, but the hands down winner is option three: get yourself a pizza buddy and cook the whole thing then cut it in half and have half each with a salad, doing this lets you have a treat without really cheating yourself as you don't have to take any special measures i.e. not eating properly for the rest of the day. Aim for your side salad to be between 62 and 80 calories and you're going to be OK, just don't be tempted to do it more than once a week! 

Medical Update

As I've been suffering from giddy spells where my vision seems to white out and I feel like I'm going to fall over I thought that a trip to see the diabetes nurse was in order as I had visions of my blood pressure being too low or other such horrors.

Luckily as it turns out it would appear that this has been caused by low blood sugar that stems from my weight loss impacting on my type 2 diabetes as when she took a blood sample it's glucose level was only 3.5 mmol/L  when it should be 4 to 7 mmol/L before meals or under 8.5 mmol/L two hours after a meal.

So the outcome of this was that once again my medication was reduced and I was also supplied with a new blood monitor. So now I have to regularly check my blood glucose level before a meal, after a meal and when I have one of the giddy spells. Also my cholesterol is low, which again is good news as it indicates that I may no longer need to be taking statin tablets; oh my blood pressure incidentally was OK.

The main thing is I now know exactly what is causing the issue and I can modify my eating to try and combat it, I'm going to transfer one of my evening snacks, most likely the low calories crisps, to the afternoon and hopefully when I have my next proper blood test later in the month everything will indicate that I'm in remission from type 2 diabetes and I'll be able to come off of medication altogether, having to stab myself with a self propelled needle a few times a day is a price I'm prepared to pay if this is the outcome.

Also the nurse took the details of the MyFitnessPal app off of me after I gave her a quick demo as she wants to loose a few extra pounds herself, she said that this will be her homework for tonight.

Diet Coke Update

It's my pleasure to announce that I'm now totally free of the near iron grip of Diet Coke, all of the cravings have gone and it's become like chocolate and jelly beans: consigned to the past, I don't even find myself thinking about it any more. Getting rid of Diet Coke from my life was one of the hardest things I've done; I have found that giving up junk food and diet soda was far more difficult that when I gave up smoking in my twenties, the good thing is that I'm sleeping much better and I'm really enjoying my single morning and afternoon black coffees and the caffeine hit from them is amazing!

Coffee Shops

Almost everyone likes a coffee at some point in the day and as with most things that are enjoyable if you're not careful you'll end up ingesting quite a few calories along the way. I've made one or two discoveries in my quest for low calorie products that still feel like a treat and some of them are hidden away on the menus as the companies like to push specific menu items that make them the most profit.

I use mainly Starbucks and Costa so I'll list my discoveries from them below, it's well worth doing some digging if you have your own favourite brand of takeaway coffee as the results can be pleasantly surprising; feel free to share you finds with me via the comments.

 Starbucks have a very useful datasheet of their products on their website, the following are my most used:

Hot Drinks:

• Short Skinny Latte: 67 calories.
• Tall Skinny Latte: 102 calories.
• Short Filter (no milk): 11 calories.
• Tall filter (no milk): 16 calories.
• Single Espresso: 6 calories.
• Double Espresso: 11 calories.
• Single Skinny Espresso Macchiato: 7 calories.
• Double Skinny Espresso Macchiato: 13 calories.
• Short Americano (no milk): 6 calories.
• Tall Americano (no milk): 11 calorie.
• Short Skinny Cappuccino: 55 calories.
• Tall Skinny Cappuccino: 70 calories.
• Skinny Flat White (short as standard): 67 calories.
• Short Skinny Caramel Macchiato: 97 calories.
• Short Chai Tea Latte: 103 calories.

Cold drinks:

• Tall Skinny Iced Latte: 63 calories.
• Tall Skinny Iced Cappuccino: 68 calories.
• Tall Iced Coffee (no milk): 3 calories.
• Tall Iced Americano (no milk): 11 calories.
• Tall Iced Caramel Macchiato: 124 calories.

Costa have pretty much the same data on their website which can be exported as a PDF, here are some of my top picks:

Hot Drinks:

• Primo Skinny Cappuccino: takeaway - 73 calories / have in - 63 calories.
• Medio Skinny Cappuccino: 94 calories.
• Primo Americano (no milk): 6 calories.
• Medio Americano (no milk): 8 calories.
• Primo Skinny Latte: takeaway - 79 calories / have in - 70 calories.
• Medio Skinny Latte: 109 calories.
• Skinny Flat White (Primo only): takeaway - 94 calories / have in - 80 calories.
• Primo Skinny Caffe Caramella: takeaway - 134 calories / have in - 112 calories.
• Single Espresso: 3 calories.
• Double Espresso: 6 calories.
• Skinny Primo Caramel latte: takeaway - 108 calories / have in - 98 calories.
• Cinnamon latte Primo Cinnamon latte: takeaway - 110 calories / have in -100 calories.

Cold drinks:

• Primo Skinny Iced Cappuccino: 65 calories.
• Primo Skinny Iced Latte: 98 calories.
• Primo Skinny Iced Caramel Latte: 95 calories.
• Primo Skinny Iced Cinnamon Latte: 97 calories.

So as you can see there are a number of interesting options open to you with these two brands, but I wouldn't suggest you have more than one a day as otherwise you'll be ramping up your calories via drinks!!

Sainsbury's Basics

Following on from yesterday's post, as promised, tonight is Sainsbury's Basics turn. The range is basically the same idea as Tesco and all the other main supermarkets' low cost own brand products and again there are some interesting options available here at a very reasonable price, once again I'll list the fat content as well as the calories if I think that it's a bit high.

•  Bolognese Pasta Bake 300g - 304 calories per pack.

• Cheese & Tomato 7'' Pizza - 374 calories per pack (12g).

• Chicken & Vegetable Pies x4 - 255 calories per pie (10g of fat).

•  Cottage Pie 300g - 227 calories per pack.

• Lasagne 300g - 279 calories per pack (9.7g of fat).

• Liver & Mash 300g - 249 calories per pack.

• Spaghetti Bolognese 300g - 266 calories per pack.

• Shepherds Pie 300g - 218 calories per pack.

• Sausages & Mash 300g - 290 calories (12g of fat).

• Chicken Steaks -  219 calories per steak (13g of fat).

• Cooked & Peeled Prawns 300g - 198 calories per pack.

• Green Pitted Olives 90g - 108 calories per pot (note the high salt content of 3.1g a pot).

• Black Pitted Olives 90g - 90 calories per pot (again this has a high level of salt at 2.14g a pot).

Special mention goes to the the lasagne and the olives which taste really good for their low calorie content, but beware that the portion sizes are quite small, although once you're up and running with your diet you'll not need such big portions any way.

Tesco Everyday Value Meals

One thing I've discovered on my supermarket travels is that the Sainsbury's Basics and Tesco Everyday Value ranges offer some interesting options for low calorie ready meals and small pizzas. On the whole these products aren't too bad, I can honestly say that I don't have them on a regular basis but they're good if you fancy something a bit different...oh and they're really cheap which is also good if you're on a budget.

I'll start with Tesco because the Sainsbury's website seems to be playing up at the time of writing; so I'll make them my next post if it's fixed in time.

As usual for ready meals I only use them if they're 500 calories or less per pack, also I'll list the fat content in brackets if it's quite high.

• Spaghetti Bolognese 400g - 428 calories per pack (14g of fat).

• Sausage & Mash 400g - 400 calories per pack (16.4g of fat).

• Fishermans Pie 400g - 325 calories per pack (10.9g of fat).

• Creamy Mushroom Chicken & Rice 400g - 472 calories per pack (13.2g of fat).

• Cottage Pie 400g - 314 calories per pack.

• Cheese & Tomato Pizza 150g - 423 calories per pizza.

• 4 Cheese & Tomato Pizza (frozen) - 409 calories per pizza

• 4 Chicken & Vegetable Pies (frozen) - 295 calories per pie (14.5g of fat).

• Chicken Curry (frozen) - 465 calories per pack (11.3g of fat).

• Toad In The Hole 250g (frozen) - 469 calories per pack (15.7g of fat).

• Macaroni Cheese 400g (frozen) - 440 calories (10.3g of fat).

• Chicken Hotpot 400g (frozen) - 318 calories per pack (10.4g of fat).

• Beef Lasagne 400g (frozen) - 460 calories per pack (15.8g of fat).

• Corned Beef Hash 400g (frozen) - 345 calories per pack.

So as you can see there are plenty of options in this range but two that I'll highlight are the frozen Corned Beef Hash which is really quite nice and very low in calories and also the frozen Beef Lasagne which doesn't taste too bad at all but has a really good calorie count for a lasagne, so it's great with a salad if you fancy something that feels a bit naughty! 

Margarine & Butter

I've spent quite a bit of time searching for the best replacement for margarine and butter (yes the excitement is never ending) and it's been a fairly interesting exercise. Due to my drastic cutting out of bread I have only been having two slices of a 400g loaf of bread for toast a day for breakfast, but the obsession with finding the best solution to non-dry toast became quite a pass time for me during my label reading in the supermarkets.

For reference 10g of butter or margarine is enough to lightly cover a single slice of bread. I will run through some of the products I've discovered over the past six months:

• Flora Buttery Light per 10g - 40 calories, 4.5g of fat.

• Flora Light per 10g - 28 calories, 3g of fat.

• Flora Lighter Than Light per 10g - 19 calories (on the tub it's listed as 20 calories), 4.5g of fat.

• Bertolli Light per 10g - 35 calories, 4g of fat.

• Clover Light per 10g - 45.4 calories, 4.9g of fat.

• Clover Lighter than Light per 10g - 35.5 calories, 3.8g of fat.

• I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light per 10g - 35 calories, 3.8g of fat.

• Lurpak Lightest Spreadable per 10g - 38 calories, 4g of fat.

So as you can see there are plenty of options open to you that are lower in calories than your average margarine or butter spread:

• Flora per 10g - 41 calories / 4.5g of fat.

• Clover per 10g - 64 calories / 7g of fat.

However after a recent discovery I've now stopped having margarine altogether and now use one 35g tub of Philadelphia Lightest** per two small slices toast as this works out at 34 calories per mini tub with 1g of fat which is less than two 10g servings of Flora Lighter Than Light and it doesn't contain any "bad" fats as the Flora product does.

Another top tip is to not have any butter or margarine spreads on your toast if you are having baked beans with it, once the beans are all over the toast you won't notice the missing spread, the same can be said of eggs as well. The same goes for sandwiches and rolls: if you're having a condiment in it, like for example light mayonnaise, will you actually notice there's not any butter or margarine spread in it? Not really.

**For some reason the Philadelphia official website nutritional information for Lightest Minitubs is blatantly wrong: if you change the drop down from "per 100g" to "per 35g" the site says it contains 38 calories per mini tub when you can clearly see in the photographic illustration that it's 34 calories per mini tub, so I've used a Tesco link for the product instead.

Mindset

I've delayed posting about food this evening as I had a number of people talk with me today about my mindset for my weight loss and I thought that this maybe useful information to share.

I feel that setting yourself up mentally before you embark on a diet is very important and the most important thing is that you actually want to make the change to your lifestyle as if you go into this journey half heartedly you will be setting yourself up for failure. I would advise thinking about the following well before you start your weight loss journey:

• What do you want to achieve?

• Why do you want to lose weight? 

• Identify to yourself what has been the cause of your weight problems in the past. 

• Think about how you will manage the way you think about food. 

• Prepare yourself for the pitfalls, for example if chips are your weakness then plan how you will deal the hurdles this will give you. 

• Identify to yourself what you can use to replace your favourite junk food and totally cut out that junk food. 

• What will your reward be when you reach your target weight? For example I'm going to treat myself to the first good leather jacket I will have had in years. 

• Try not to think of what you're doing as a diet as this implies that there will be an end to what you are doing. Try to think of it as a change of lifestyle and to this end make healthy changes that are sustainable. 

There have been occasions, especially when I first started out, where I've literally had to grit my teeth to get past the temptation to cave in and have sweets and chocolate, but once you've broken the habit it becomes much easier and now I don't even miss junk food and have no plans to start eating chocolate, sweets, cakes etc. again. 

Once you've been losing weight for a while you will also see other benefits such as your stomach capacity shrinking so that you don't feel hungry after smaller meals and also there are the medical benefits: my doctor's jaw hit the floor the last time I saw him as he couldn't believe what I'd achieved (which was a good feeling) and after some tests it looks like my type 2 diabetes will be in remission, I'll know for sure by the middle of next month, there is nothing more motivating than realising you're getting better. 

Another good motivation is when you suddenly start needing new clothes regularly and when you can start buying the clothes you want whenever you want; I can still remember how happy it made me feel when I could buy a pair of jeans from Marks and Spencer.  

Diet Coke Update:

I'm very happy to report that as of today (day 06) my cravings for Diet Coke have ceased and I've had my first day of enjoying a mug of black coffee in the morning and one in the afternoon, getting the caffeine boost is a joy to behold! 

No Diet Coke Day 05

Today hasn't been too bad, the Diet Coke cravings are still there but I feel like I've reached a turning point, although my fizzy water intake is on the increase but I think this is just my body's reaction to the removal of Diet Coke.

It's been an interesting journey so far and quite different to the last time I gave up Diet Coke with the cravings and withdrawal symptoms being significantly higher. I do wonder though if it's because I am focusing on it more due to recording the process on this blog!

The stomach cramps have gone (thankfully) and I've just been getting a mild headache the comes and goes momentarily, so the physical side is much better today. 

Once I've cracked the Diet Coke habit I'm going to allow myself one mug of tea or coffee in the morning and one in the afternoon and if past experience is anything to go by I should get a caffeine hit off of those drinks, which was fantastic the last time I gave up the Diet Coke as my body was so full of caffeine I didn't really get any benefit from it as I was nearly ammune to the effects of caffeine. 

I don't really have any regrets about getting into this level of Diet Coke addiction as it was a conscious choice to use it for my own means, as the replacement for the junk food and also as my drink of choice as I know exactly how many calories are in it. 

As of tomorrow I'm going to revert back to posts on food with a brief Diet Coke update as a postscript as I think I'm pretty much there now...pending some caffeine based fake sugar brown water disaster!

No Diet Coke Day 04

So today was much better in terms of withdrawal symptoms (thankfully), I've still had twinges in my stomach and the urge for Diet Coke was still there so I've not quite broken the habit just yet, I still have a slightly fuzzy head and every now and then my mind wanders to thinking about fizzy drinks but I have managed to keep to the fizzy mineral water only regime.

I think that there must be something else in Diet Coke other than caffeine that is addictive as it has such a pull on me psychologically and there is definitely some sort of physical addiction going on.

In more positive news as of this morning I have lost exactly 8 stone, which is a milestone for me as I am getting close to where I want to be. I've lost the 8 stone (112 pounds) in 164 days and I can really say in all honesty that the biggest tool for me has been the MyFitnessPal app, if it wasn't for the easy logging of calories I don't think I'd be where I am today, also it's seemingly never ending supply of statistics is a real help as that sort of thing appeals to me.

As well as the app I think that my mind set has been a help as in late December 2013 when I decided to sort myself out and get into shape I took some time to prepare mentally and I also made the concious decision to just cut things out rather than adjust how much I had, being able to stick to this was a challenge but once I got going and started to see results fairly rapidly this helped tenfold.

I still haven't quite got my head around the fact that I'm going to be able to adjust up my food intake soon to maintain my weight, but I'm slowly working on it as I don't want to continue to lose weight. I've also been preparing myself in my mind to keep the weight off by convincing myself that this isn't a diet that I just turn off and go back to normal after I get to my target weight, that this is sustainable and this is why I've been very careful when it's suggested that I should have some form of celebratory meal when I'm done as I don't want to get a taste for old habits again.

No Diet Coke Day 03

Well today has been a real struggle as I've been really craving Diet Coke today and it's been very hard not to just cave in and have some, at one Point I nearly got myself a Diet Root Beer from one of those specialist sweet shops and just managed to realise what I was up to in time.

It's a strange feeling that's sort of enveloped my head with a kind of tingling sensation that's accompanied by the near constant thought of drinking Diet Coke, to the point that I've actually been drinking more of the fizzy water than usual. When I was in M&S earlier today picking up some multi packs of fizzy water and a couple of their 345 calorie individual pizzas the desire for Diet Coke was almost unbearable, I managed not to touch it in the display but I did have a browse of the non Diet Coke M&S low calories drinks which were all considerably higher in calories than Diet Coke so that put me off.

This is really quite a battle but I'm determined to win over and I'm very glad that I'm doing it now rather than when I get to my target weight as I think I'm in the right frame of mind to deal with this now and if past experience is anything to go by I should have three days of this left maximum and at least I've not had any of the super mood swings like I had last time I gave it up, it's just the withdrawal symptoms are much much more extreme this time for some reason.

So that's about all the news for today:

• Three days without Diet Coke.
• Head feels odd.
• Feeling then need to drink Diet Coke very badly.
• Stomach cramps and muscle twitches seemed to have passed.

Well I'll sign off for now, but hopefully this will be the worst day of it, I'll let you know tomorrow!

No Diet Coke Day 02

So far so good, I've resisted the charm of Diet Coke for another day, although I did have a small cup of black coffee at about 2pm so I can't claim to have been totally caffeine free today.

The withdrawal symptoms are kicking in now though, at present I have a slight headache, I've been having mild cramp like feelings in my stomach and a weird twitch in my right arm and my stomach has been making some very odd noises too.

The 500ml bottles of sparkling mineral water seem to be having the desired effect as they have the same amount of fluid and the fizzy sensation of the Diet Coke. The biggest struggle has really been at home as during the day I'm suitably distracted by work so I don't really have the time to think about Diet Coke, but at home it's like the old issue with junk food, it's there in the background calling out to me, but it is useful to know fro experience that this is just the dying screams of my addiction and it should only last a couple more days.

Far more useful have been the benefits so far like not feeling hyperactive all the time and wanting to sleep at a normal time instead of midnight, I've also managed to have a nap during the day yesterday which I haven't done for sometime.

In general I feel that breaking the Diet Coke habit is an import step to take before I reach my target weight as I want to be ready to go when I'm there, I want to live day to day as healthily as possible and stay in as good shape as possible.

The next step after breaking the Diet Coke habit will be the reintroduction of running into my life as this was something that I used to really enjoy in my teens and twenties but went by the wayside in my late twenties and all of my thirties due to shift working, but that has now changed as I'm back to working Monday to Friday nine to five, so there is no reason not to start again, I will of course keep you posted on this!

No Diet Coke Day 01

So my day started with the usual two small slices of toast and lightest Philadelphia 35g pot but (and this is a fairly big but) no Diet Coke and also no tea or coffee, in fact I had a 500ml bottle of sparkling mineral water and, well this was OK actually, there were no signs of distress or trepidation, so it was a good start.

I had to go to buy some clothes so off I went to Woolwich at 11:00am to pick something up at M&S and on the way I had another 500ml bottle of sparkling mineral water. Now to put this into context on a usual care free Diet Coke glugging day I would have had: one 330ml can for breakfast, one 330ml can between the tube station and work and I'd have picked up a six pack of 330ml cans at the same time for work. Then on the way home I'd have had (can you guess?) a 330ml can of diet coke on the way to the station; so that's nine 330ml cans of Diet Coke so far, but I would of been far from finished as once home it would have been a can of Diet Coke from the fridge as soon as I got in, a can of Diet Coke while cooking and a can of Diet Coke with my dinner, so that just left the other four cans of Diet Coke before bed time.

Now lets do the frighting thing and add all those up: 16 cans of Diet Coke a bloody day or 5.28 litres a day or 11.16 pints a day, what ever way you look at it that is a hell of a lot of Diet Coke. I imagine after a week of me not drinking it shares in Coca Cola will have plummeted!

One of the side effects of this intoxicating level of fake sweetened brown drink was unsurprisingly needing to use the toilet rather a lot! Now today I've had three 500ml of sparkling mineral water, quite a difference I'm sure you'll agree, but also it counts towards my eight glasses of water a day, also of note is that I saved 16 calories from the Diet Coke! Just for the purposes of interest: if this had been normal Coke the calorie count would have been a mind bending 2,224 calories i.e. 704 calories more than I currently eat and drink a day.

I appear to have got away lightly so far, just a few twinges in the stomach but not the full blown withdrawal cramps just yet. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Diet Coke Be Gone

As I type this post I have just finished drinking the last Diet Coke I have in the house and I've decided that this will be the end of my Diet Coke drinking from now on.

Diet Coke has it's uses when dieting as it tastes like junk food but it's so low in calories (1 calorie a can) that officially it's calorie free and I like that you know exactly how many calories are in each drink, however it contains higher levels of caffeine than regular sugar filled coke unless you have the Coke Zero which has almost the same caffeine levels as regular coke, but for me Coke Zero doesn't have the same taste and appeal of plain old Diet Coke.

I can safely say that I'm addicted to diet coke as I've been having about ten cans a day and have it with every daily meal (yes that includes breakfast!) and drink it when I don't even feel thirsty! Now while I was dieting this was a happy state of affairs for me but as I draw near to my ideal weight I've decided to break the habit well in advance of the weight goal.

Luckily I have broken an addiction to Diet Coke before so I know what to expect: being a bit tetchy and mild stomach pains from the withdrawal symptoms, but once I've broken it I also know that if I restrict my caffeine intake post Diet Coke to one cup of tea or coffee in the morning and one cup of tea or coffee in the afternoon I really get to feel the boost from the caffeine, I presume that I don't get this when I'm drinking lots of Diet Coke because my body builds up a tolerance to it.

My replacement for Diet Coke will be sparkling mineral water as it gives the same sensation as fizzy soda but with an honest zero calories. Now I know that there is Caffeine Free Diet Coke but when I've had it in the past I have found it to be just as addictive as just plain old diet coke, also there are other low calories sodas available but I really just want to break the dependency on them.

So from now on I will keep you posted on my cold turkey from Diet Coke as well as my weight loss progress.

Sainsbury's My Goodness Range

Sainsbury's have a range of microwavable healthier food called My Goodness and it's a very good selection of varied and healthy food that I've been enjoying for both lunch and dinner since the start of my health drive. One of the most important things for any health drive, in my opinion, is a varied supply of tasty food as the last thing you need is to get bored eating the same thing day in day out.

Some of my favourite choices from this range are:

• Chilli Prawn Linguine Pasta: 391 calories. This has a nice level of spice and is really my favourite in this range, I can't recommend it highly enough and it has a fair amount spice for a ready meal.

• BBQ Chicken & Sweetcorn Rice: 401 calories. 

•  Spicy Pulled Pork & Sweet Potato Mash: 299 calories. This tastes absolutely lovely but it's not very filling and is more of  lunch item than a main meal.

• Chinese Chicken Chow Mein: 328 calories. This is another lunch item, it's very nice but just not filling enough.

• Thai Green Chicken Curry & Rice: 362 calories.

• Chicken & Prawn Singapore: 392 calories.

• Morrocan Spiced Pork: 322 calories.

• Ras El Hanout Chicken: 362 calories.

So as you can see there are some interesting options available here that are tailored towards a different taste than regular microwave meals and there are some salad style ones too!

Progress Update

Today is my 159th day of using MyFitnessPal and so far my progress had been:

Starting weight: 23 stone 4 pounds. 

Current weight: 15 stone 6 pounds. 

Difference: Minus 110 pounds. 

Starting Waist Measurement: 52 inches. 

Current Waist Measurement: 36 inches. 

Difference: Minus 16 inches. 

Starting Neck Measurement: 19.5 inches. 

Current Neck Measurement: 16.5 inches. 

Difference: Minus 3 inches. 

Also as of today I have eight cans of Diet Coke left in the fridge at home, once they're gone I'm giving it up which I have done before...but I know it's hard!

Clothing

One of the side effects of my health drive has been the regular need for new clothing but this is a double edged sword as on the one hand you really begin to see the fruits of your efforts, while on the other you end up spending a fair amount of cash on clothing that doesn't look far too baggy and also you will need to replace them quite quickly.

At the moment I'm just about to embark on purchasing my fifth generation of new clothes in 158 days but since the amazing discovery of Jeans for a fiver in Primark this has become less painful and at the end of the day my local Scope charity shop also benefits from my off casts so that's also good in my books.

Initially I tried to leave it as long as humanly possible before upgrading to new better fitting clothing but my advice is: do not do this, not only is it uncomfortable but you also end up spending fifty percent of your day hiking up your trousers as they feel like they are about to be around your ankles at any moment! But more importantly you are denying yourself the motivational realisation that your efforts are worthwhile and also with better fitting clothes comes another motivational incentive....people will tell you how well you look or ask if you're on a diet and this gives you the chance to talk about what you've been doing and from my experience people are genuinely interested in what you have to say.

Granted there are times when people worry that you are suffering form a medical condition, especially if you loose weight fairly rapidly, but as soon a they get talking to you and realise that you are well the conversation is usually positive.

As with most things in life talking is the best option as almost everyone has something in their life that they'd like to change and having the chance to discuss this and exchange ideas is a good motivation for both of you and you may also get tips on how to cope with something or one of you will introduce a fabulous new low calorie product to the other.

So if your friend is looking thinner don't worry about it, ask them about it, you'll be doing them a great favour in giving a self confidence boost and you'll be helping them on their journey to better health, they'll walk away afterwards with a spring in their step and you never know but you may have just saved them from giving up and going on a cupcake binge.

End Draws Near....?

As of writing this post I'm down to 15 stone 9 pounds and it has recently dawned on me that I'm drawing close to the point where I will need to increase my calorie intake and this has got me thinking about the future...post being morbidity obese.

The thing that worries me most is the increase of calories and the types of food that I will be eating, I've made a concious decision that I will not eat sweets, chocolate, biscuits, cakes etc. anymore as I seem to have self control issues around these food items and I am genuinely scared of what the repercussions may be if I start to eat them again, well at least in the short term. I plan to carry on with the tactic of eating sweet desserts after a meal out and sharing it with my partner.

So the tactics I've come up with are to eat pretty much what I'm having now but just replace the low calorie options with the "normal ones" so salad will become pasta salads with mayonnaise, healthy option microwave meals will become whatever type takes my fancy, low calories crisps will become regular crisps, but I'm going to keep to the no more than one bag of crisps a day rule. Another option is increasing portion sizes and reintroducing noodles or rice to stir fries!

If this all goes to plan I should be eating much in the same way as in the diet phase of my lifestyle change but having the right amount of calories so that I can maintain my weight rather than continue to loose it or the worst case scenario - putting it back on again.

Fortunately MyFitnessPal comes to the rescue here with it's maintain current weight option, I've checked what I'll need to be eating and it's over the average male calorie intake of 2500 a day and this is giving me some food for thought as it is now becoming apparent that my relationship with food has changed.

When I started my change of lifestyle I mentally reprogrammed myself in regard to how I look at food, I used to see food as a pleasure, something I enjoyed and it was there to be enjoyed with no questions asked but now I've come to view my everyday meals as fuel, it's what I need to function  much like a car needs petrol, the food that is for enjoying are the meals that either my partner or I cook for each other or when we go out for a meal and this attitude has paid dividends as I no longer just eat for the sake of it like I used to, I eat because I'm hungry and I've found that I am "listening" to what my body is telling me rather than just automatically eating "because it's there". Before this change I could have food in the cupboard or fridge and it would be almost literally calling my name, in the back of my mind I knew that the food was there, I knew it was nice and my mind wouldn't settle until I'd eaten it but now I can happily have things stored for days on end with no problems at all.

This is where the fear starts to creep in, I worry about the future, about whether I will be able to keep the weight off and if my relationship with food will just lapse back into the old ways; granted having these worries is a sign that I have an awareness of the situation and I'll most likely analyse what I'm eating more than I did before but the big question is....will I ever be able to break free from using the MyFitnessPal app? Only time will tell and I will continue to tell you what happens via this blog.

Chilled Ready Meals

On my travels I have read many things but my list of reading material now includes endless food packets for in my quest for low calorie meals I have spent many hours reading the boxes of many different products. There is nothing more exciting than finding a "normal" microwave meal that, in my books, is low in calories; just to be clear my definition of "low calories" is a microwave meal that is under 500 calories.

Finding these meals took me some time as to start with I was just buying ready meals from healthy ranges, it wasn't until I started to get bored of these meals that I spread my wings and discovered that in fact quite a few other options are open to you if you take the time to read the labels of products in the supermarkets, fortunately supermarket own brands tend to have nutritional information printed prominently on the front of their packaging with a traffic light system of Green = Low, Amber = Medium and Red = High.

I though it may be of interest to readers if I shared some of the meals I've found and it may save you a bit of in shop investigation time as well!

So lets get started with Tesco:

• Braised Beef & Mash: 438 calories
• Chicken & Mushroom with Rice: 475 calories
• Chicken & Redwine With Potatoes: 396 calories
• Tesco Chicken Gratin & Stuffing: 387 calories.
• Tesco Chicken Roast Dinner: 373 calories.
• Liver Bacon & Mash: 491 calories.
• Meatballs & Mash: 491 calories.
• Minced Beef & Mash: 392 calories.

These ready meals are usually in a multi buy offer which is very handy and a special mention goes out to the meatballs and mash as well as the Chicken Gratin & Stuffing which are two of my favourite ready meals as they taste fantastic and are filling.

Next up is Sainsbury's:

• Cauliflower Cheese: 332 calories.
• Classic Liver & Bacon With Mash: 497 calories.
• Sausage Pasta Bake: 497 calories.
• British Classic Minced Beef Hotpot: 471 calories.
• British Classic Lancashire Hotpot: 482 calories.
• Tomato & Mozzarella Pasta Bake: 495 calories.
• Spaghetti Meatballs: 458 calories.
• Chicken In White Wine With Mash: 493 calories.

Finally it's Morrisons turn:

• Italian Chicken Margherita Melt: 489 calories.
• Italian King Prawn Linguine: 440 calories.
• Liver & Bacon with Mash: 463 calories.
• Minced Lamb Hotpot: 367 calories.
• Braised Beef & Mash: 440 calories.
• Vegetable Moussaka: 401 calories.
• Vegetarian Sausages & Cheddar Mash: 488 calories
• Steak & Ale with Cheesy Mash: 406 calories.

The chilled ready meals that I've listed from Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons really are a god send as they make counting the calories much easier, add to this using the MyFitnessPal app and it truly does become a supermarket diet as you will always be drawn to items and products that have barcodes.

McDonald's

I thought that it would only be fair of me to do a post about McDonald's tonight after somewhat bad mouthing them in last night's post.

Much like Ed's Easy Diner McDonald's have some good information about nutrition in general and nutritional information of their food on the Understanding Nutrition section of their website which is in depth with sections on calories, protein, carbohydrates, fat, fibre, salt sugar, water and fruit & veg. There is also a meal builder on the website that calculates the nutritional information of menu items you add to it which is very useful for deciding what to have before you go to the restaurant

This is all very good, but it's unfortunate for the company that their image is that their food is unhealthy and most people think of it in this way. If I'm being honest since I started my new healthier lifestyle in January of 2014 I've not touched any of their food and this is because in my mind it's unhealthy and fattening but here are some of the options open to you if you're on a calorie controlled diet and you find yourself in McDonald's:

Main Menu:

• Hamburger: 250 calories.
• Cheese Burger: 295 calorie
• Classic Chicken Snack Wrap: 285 calories
• Peri Peri Snack Wrap: 285 calories
• Mayo Chicken: 315 calories
• Sweet Chilli Mayo Chicken: 340 calories 
• 6 Chicken Nuggets: 250 calories
• Grilled Chicken Salad Wrap: 330 calories
• Crispy Chicken Salad: 325 calories
• Grilled Chicken & Bacon Salad: 190 calories
• Grilled Chicken Salad: 140 calories
• Fillet O Fish: 335 calories
• Garden Side Salad: 20 calories
• Carrot Sticks: 34 calories
• Fruit Bag: 46 calories
• Small Fries: 230 calories

Breakfast Menu:

• Bacon & Egg Snack Wrap with Tomato Ketchup: 270 calories.
• Sausage & Egg Snack Wrap with Tomato Ketchup: 305 calories.
• Hash Brown (1): 145 calories.

So as you can see it's not all as bad as you think but it is certainly worth also bearing in mind that due to the way some of theses products are prepared they will be high in fat although I generally don't worry too much about how much fat, protein and carbohydrates I eat in a day as long as I'm under my calorie goal, so long as you're not eating high fat food on a regular basis you should be OK.

A good tip is to get yourself a Happy Meal, as you get one of the small burgers and chips with the added bonus of a toy!

As an example a meal of a cheese burger, small fries and carrot sticks would be 559 calories, which isn't as bad as you might think, the only issue is going to be that it's not really going to satisfy your hunger for very long and the fat content is high at 34% of a woman's daily recommended intake, but as I say this kind of meal shouldn't be a regular occurrence.

Ed's Easy Diner

If you have a craving for a burger then forget McDonald's and go for the more authentic Ed's Easy Diner which has some pleasantly surprising options if you're counting your calories and they are from the main menu not a special healthy options section.

You just have to do some preparation work beforehand using the oh so useful full nutritional information fact sheets available on their website HERE

I feel that I must mention how good Ed's nutritional information page is as it has a a explanation of how they layout the nutritional information, guidelines on the average recommended calorie intake for men, women and children as well as a link to more detailed information on the guidelines. They also have the following information which is taken directly form their page:

• No products used by Ed’s contain polyunsaturated fats (trans-fats) more than a naturally occurring trace amount

• Ed's chefs add no salt to any item during preparation or cooking, and we have reduced the salt levels in all items specifically made for Ed’s to the extent that we have signed the Department of Health’s Responsibility Deal for Salt

All in all I think that this company goes above and beyond the call of duty in this department and I hope that more companies will follow their lead.

So without further a do lets get started with the main menu some highlights are:

• The Classic: 404 calories. 

• Classic Hot Dog: 385 calories.

• Chilli Dog: 440 calories.

• Classic Chicken: 485 calories.

• Original Fried Chicken: 406 calories

• Cajun Vegetable Burger: 463 calories.

• Sweet Potato & Bean Burger: 498 calories.

• Ed's Chilli Bowl: 426 calories

• Sweet Potato Fries: 287 calories.

• Chicken Caesar Salad: 467 calories.

• Side Salad: 130 calories.

Unfortunately the desserts are off limits as they all have high calorie content, but after you've had some of the above treats this shouldn't be too much of an issue. While this may seem like a limited choice it's diverse and the food is really good, which is the main reason for having this type of food.

So an example meal of The Classic Hot Dog, Sweet Potato Fries and a Side Salad works out at 802 calories, although I must admit that I usually have the burger and the side salad only so that saves on a few calories and takes it down to 672 calories.