Food. And Planning.

The latest WW cookbook "Secrets of Success - Our Slimmers Favourite Recipes".

I spent a few hours yesterday organising my week food-wise. Someone spoke up at my Weight Watchers meeting and said that tracking points and planning meals takes up so much time. She asked the group if anyone had any tips on how to 'lighten' the burden? It can't be denied, planning does take time - but planning is an investment. You put in, so you get back. I'm the first to admit I'm not a natural planner. These days I'm more inclined to plan a drive to Subway within the next half hour to spend $12 as opposed to buying ingredients for a hot dinner I have to cook myself. So, what happens on the weeks I don't plan meals and don't shop for the weekly meals at once? I may run out of money towards the end of the week because I've spent most of tomorrow's money today. We survive of course, I mean there's always a $5 large pizza or a $4 packet of mince to be bought somewhere. What else happens? I can guarantee we'll eat a lot of starches and next to no vegies. We consume a lot more saturated fats and more sugar too.

I fell out of the habit of eating well a couple of months ago. It followed a period of being forced to eat no fat or processed food because I had an infection in my gallbladder/bile duct area. The smallest amount of fat knocked me around severely with nausea and lethargy. So I lost 5 kilo's but then gained it back again as soon as my gallbladder could take a pounding again.

It's quite disheartening that I need to be ill these days to stick to healthy eating. It took me about 5 weeks to recover from the gallbladder thing, but that 5 weeks wasn't long enough for me to break my old habits. I've lost 40kg's twice in my life and the last time I lost 40kg's, I was ill and had some severe allergies all of a sudden which hung around for a season. It affected what I ate for about 6 months and I lost weight and broke bad habits. As I started to lose the weight and I had more time on my hands (as my meals were very basic, which free'd me up in the kitchen) - I started to take walks with my girl. It was easier to be active.

I have a consultation appointment next month where I'll find out what the bottom-line-dollar-figure would be (with that particular surgeon). But there are no plans to sign on the dotted line just yet. I'm going ahead with the consultation because I'm desperate and have been for a long time. My BMI is 44 (Morbidly obese, extremely high health risk). I have a number of health issues related to my weight and next year, I turn 40. Yes, I can hardly believe it.. ME, 40? Not only that.. but I also struggle when I'm out in public. For example, I find it extremely difficult to go to certain shopping area's near where I grew up. I so much don't want to bump into anyone from my past (neighbours, school days, whatever) - I just don't want anyone to see me because I'm embarrased. I struggle often to go to church because my weight is the tangible representation of my food-idol. And not all the time, but sometimes I won't go to my letterbox because to do so means that 5 households will potentially see me, senior citizens who constantly know what everyone at these units are doing. The lady next to me often runs out of her front door wanting to know facts that she can share with everyone else. She's the kind of person who looks at you while you're talking and her eyes travel all over your body. I struggle, getting blown back and forth between standing up and believing in myself to the time wasting, anonymous crevice of trying to hide myself from the world.

I want to be very careful not to sound like I'm advertising or promoting weight loss surgery. Gastric banding isn't a magic wand for weight loss (not a self-acting slimming device), it's a surgical weight loss tool -being a restrictive measure -and there are rules you need to comply to for it to work. In other words there are strict guidelines to adhere to for the banding to be effective. These guidelines are extreme and put you in starvation mode. If you don't adhere to them, then you can experience unpleasant side effects. I seem to respond well to severe, unpleasant, immediate side effects (like those associated with my illnesses in the past - they have been like a 'whip' that have lashed me into submission). Considering where I'm at, the risks associated with keyhole surgery and having a band implanted (which is reversible and can be removed), isn't near the risk my 51 excess kilograms represent.

Despite having this consultation booked, I am aware that I'm like a walking time-bomb and I still try most days to do the right thing. I have a fatty liver, so I do feel quite unwell at times because of the way I eat. Yesterday at Weight Watchers I decided to buy the latest cookbook with the aim of being inspired to eat well this coming week. Just one week. Another week. Another attempt. Instead of 'winging' our nightly meals, I decided to plan. I really enjoyed going through the book and picking out recipes even though yes, I do have other WW cookbooks here at home. The novelty of something new added inspiration. I have two pretty notebooks which I purchased from Angus and Robertson, 70% off, not knowing how or when I'd use them. I thought that planning my week deserved a pretty notebook, so I picked the red one and set about tracking. One page had a list of dinners for the week and on the reverse side of the page was a shopping list of all the items I needed to buy to make the meals. On the next page I put the numbers 1 to 23 down the side of the page (being my daily point allowance) and circled each number as I used my points. The rest of the page was for actually writing down what I ate.

Even though I gained 400grams during the two weeks since I'd last been at WW, I knew it could have been a lot worse. When hubby and I went away I didn't really restrict myself much but I consciously made some positive choices at the Women's Conference. It wasn't because I was conscious of who was watching me eat. I felt no restriction as far as vanity or 'not sinning' goes because everyone ate heartily at the conference. Maybe I was Holy-Spirit-nudged without my knowledge? But I was aware that I was going to be sitting on my butt a lot over the conference weekend, whereas with hubby we walked most of the day, every day. I knew how bad I'd feel by eating what I wanted coupled with little or no activity. At WW yesterday I shared with the group some 'good choices' I made while I was at the conference. They were: Choosing a Tandoori Pizza for dinner instead of fried food options. The chicken on the pizza was breast meat and had no oil on it, it was only rubbed with spices (and there was only a small amount of cheese. It really was a light style pizza that was so tasty to eat and not heavy). But I left two pieces on my plate and let the waiter take the plate away! That's an achievement for me! I could have easily finished the lot.. but I recognised I was full and because I was away from home, the decision to not clean my plate up was somehow easier?

I was quite cross with the conference menu on the whole (as spoiled as that sounds). Supper on the first night (meaning the 8.30pm snack which came after my earlier pizza dinner that wasn't at the conference).. was Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Just what you want before bed. I had one doughnut, but didn't feel happy about eating it. I also refused offers of more doughnuts (boxes of them were being taken around by conference 'waiters'). The next day, morning tea was a giant Texas style muffin. Mine was 12 points (remember my daily points allowance is 23). I didn't finish my muffin, though I should have checked the point value before starting it. That was an achievement for me too, to discard the leftover muffin. If I hadn't of thrown it away, I would have eaten it. If I had of taken it back to my room thinking I would take it home to my daughter (it was so moist and oily, it would have kept well) - I would have eaten it. Lunch was baked buttery potatoes with oily bolognese, full fat grated cheese, mayonnaisey coleslaw (and some fatty looking shredded deli ham), full fat sour cream and garlic bread. Dessert was baskets off Cornetto's and strawberry 'Heaven' icecreams. I said no to icecreams, when the potential was there to eat more than one. Afternoon tea was a bit better in that we had more choice. Some fruit platters, dips, crackers, pinwheel sandwiches, zucchini slice, Choc Mint balls, sausage rolls (they went in a flash), vol-au-vants, nuts and various dessert slices.

So yeah, I recognise I could have eaten (but didn't) over 1,000 extra calories over the weekend quite easily. I came home Sunday afternoon and the out of control eating pretty much resumed straight away.So back to where I started this post. I planned a weeks worth of dinners yesterday and spent nearly two hours in Coles, buying most of the weekly food ingredients. I'll include some still photo's taken with my camcorder. It doesn't fare well with artificial lighting in the evenings but I'm grateful I can at least take photo's.
Note last nights soup (Thursday), I didn't want to put my girl off by the title, hence the abbreviation!

Last night we had: Basil and Zucchini Soup followed by a baked Chinese Chicken breast & Salad.
7 small zucchini's are cooked with olive oil, onion, garlic, fresh basil and chicken stock, then blended. Skim evaporated milk is stirred through at the end.

Only 1.5 points per serve! The red bowl below was a 'non-food reward' a couple of weeks ago. It was reduced to $2.99 at Coles.
We also had a 'Chinese Chicken' salad. I bought, what I thought was two very small chicken breasts (the WW e-tools online points tracker says 175gm of chicken breast qualifies as large). I marinated them with a store-bought Chinese marinade pouch which added 1 point per serve. (I only used half the pouch for 2 chicken breasts and have freezed the rest). I then threw half a cup of breadcrumbs into the bag the chicken was marinating in, shook the bag and put the chicken on an oven tray, sprayed it with olive oil spray and baked them.


The chicken looks darker than it actually was and the cooked meat was tender. 6.5 points.

I also made Pumpkin and Cumin Dip to have on hand for snacks and to spread on toast or English muffins.
1.5kg pumpkin, being 1.2kg, peeled/chopped weight. Twas a big job considering I made the soup and the chicken for dinner last night too (at the end of a long day).

Here it is in the tray with some olive oil spray before it goes into the oven to roast.

The roasted pumpkin was mashed with 'light crunchy peanut butter', cumin, chilli, coriander and salt. I won't be buying 'light' peanut butter again. I worked out the points value for 20gm of the light compared to 20gm of the 'You'll love Coles' brand and they were both 2 points per tablespoon even though the kilojoule and saturated fat grams differed. I usually buy what we like and what we can afford, ie. Kraft if it's on special, YLC and less often, Dick Smith. I don't like the 'Kraft Light' much as a spread, but it was fine in this lovely, sweet & spicy dip.

This morning I toasted an English Muffin, topped each with half a slice of Kraft 'Free' cheese (melted it quickly in the microwave). I then boiled two small free range eggs and mashed them with some prepared horseradish and WW sourcream to make 'Horseradish cream eggs'. 5 points.
Well, it's the start of the school holidays for my girl (which I completely forgot about if you can believe that?!). So that means I haven't budgeted properly for this coming week. (Sigh).. But tonight we had a "family movie night" planned so we're going to see "You Don't Mess With The Zohan".. I would hate to back out of it now, so we'll just go along and hopefully we'll be entertained and have a good night :)

P.S. 60 minutes program, Sunday night, June 29, channel 9 - "Medical Miracle" Story on lapband surgery and type 2 diabetes