Wednesday 16 September 2009

Changes


Today I ate and drank the following:
- 1 plum, 1 pear, 1 peach and red and green grapes for breakfast
- 1 plum, 1 pear, 1 apple, strawberries and 1 peach for my morning smoothie
- 1 goat's cheese sandwich with salad and (gasp!) skinny chips for lunch
- 1 cheese salad sandwich with kettle chips slightly salted crisps
- 1 melted cheese bagel
- 1 46g Aero bar

This is a lot of food for me at the moment but, on the way home when I was on the verge of feeling guilty, I realised that this was completely normal about a year ago. If anything, I would have classed it as a good day. After all, I had plenty of fruit, only 1 cheese bagel and 1 bar of chocolate. It's strange to think that my blowout day nowadays is what I've eaten today whereas if I'd written the list 18 months ago, it would have read as follows:

- 1 bombay potato wrap with kettle chips sea salt and cracked better crisps
- 1 all you can eat buffet (and when I go to an all you can eat buffet, it really is an all the food that I can fit into my stomach buffet)
- 1 piece of chocolate cake (or carrot cake in an attempt to be healthy)
- 1 plate of nachos with guacamole, salsa, sour cream and melted cheese (courtesy of my microwave)
- 1 packet of Maryland triple choc chip cookies
- 1 tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream

I kid you not. Now, this did not happen often but it did happen. I remember weeks where I had a tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream for dinner three nights in a row (this is three tubs, not restraining myself to finishing a tub in 3 sittings). And on one occasion I did have the ice cream as a chaser to a meal of nachos and a packet of cookies.

This is years of bad eating talking. When I was about 13, I used to go out for 'runs' i.e. leave the house with a book, pop by the local shop and spend 1/2 hour sitting on the grass reading and stuffing my face. During my year abroad, dinner would be either a plate of pasta with tomato sauce or a plate of nachos with salsa and melted cheese. Three years ago, there would be days where lunch would be Starbucks muffins, grabbed in 2 minutes on my way from one job to another.

No wonder I gained weight. No wonder I am fat right now. So, really, although I feel as if I ate like a pig today, I am making progress. With progress like this, who needs setbacks, right? ;-)

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