Lunchboxing

My Actual Weekday Lunch Box

I've been a lunch-from-home gal for a few years now, but not every day. With the way I am currently eating, to loose weight gently, I am taking my lunch from home everyday. That way I commit to only eating what is in the lunch box, in any order I like. Once its gone, I'm done till I get home.

Lunch Boxes are easy to do. Truuuust me! Even if you work full time and you are allergic to planning like me!

1. Find a lunch box you really like.
   I use the tupperware one above because I love the size, shape and sections. Find one that fits your portions and foods you actually can be bothered to eat. ie.e don't buy a fancy salad bowl with dual layer freezeable cheese sections and 38 pieces of cutlery attached if you don't eat salad. Sounds like a no-brainer, but in the quest to want to be healthier, sometimes I buy things that I think will make me healthier by magically changing my life. Um. No. 
2. Do your main first.
   I have either a salad wrap with some shaved ham or chicken, or a large garden salad (I bring the dressing separate and add at the last minute, because I have issues). Your 'main' should include a serving of protein. Here is a random photo of healthy looking protein-rich foods:
3. One serve of fruit minimum.
   Whatever it takes, cut it up, buy it in little tubs, whatever floats your boat. Dried fruit doesn't count sorry. If you get hungry in the arvo have another fruit serve in your hand bag. Don't preach at me about the pitfalls of fruit sugar and having too much fruit. Let's face it, does anyone really eat too much fruit? I think not. Go for 2 a day. 
4. One extra serve of vegetables.
   In addition to whatever lettuce, beans, carrot etc that is on my wrap or in my salad, I include either a cut up carrot or cucumber, because I can munch on this in the arvo mindlessly and I feel full rather than peckish for that all-too-tricky-drive-home. That's already 2 out of your 5 recommended serves a day. 
5. Whole grains 
   If I have a sandwich for main, it will be on whole grain bread like 5 seeds etc. I have been eating whole grain for years after being diagnosed with PCOS and insulin resistance, as it is low-gi and easier on the pancreas. You gotta take care of your pancreas. Otherwise I include whole grain crackers - just 2 - don't go getting excited now and putting 38 crackers in your lunch box ok? 
6. Something with taste!I can't go without something tasty. I am a sauce girl ok? So the wrap will have a small serve of whole egg mayo (seriously, if you are going to have sauce don't pouncy around with the fat-free stuff - just have a small (1 teaspoon - yes, get one out and measure it ok? - you will guesstimate larger than a teaspoon - I promise you) amount of the good stuff and call it a day. Otherwise I might have a small tub of light cream cheese for cracker and vegie dipping purposes. Whatever. It can be a small piece of chocolate if you like, just don't add the whole block and don't eat the rest while you are packing your lunch. 

Ok, go find your lunch box and tomorrow I'll let you know how I fit in making lunch every day. 

Getting It Done Gently Week 5 Wrap-up

So I am half-way through my 10 week challenge to loose the excess weight I have been carrying.

I think I might need to extend this challenge!

Things are moving in the right direction though. I joined Weight Watchers a month ago and have been hard at work trying to figure out how many 'points' my food intake is each day. So far so good.

Last night's weigh was the true test - I had been struggling to get started with only small losses and even a tiny gain. I just wanted to loose one kg. Just one! I was thrilled when the lady told me I had lost 1.3kg!  [insert happy dance here]. This is possible! I can do this!

I have a bit more than 5 weeks to go on their plan (try 9!) so I weigh in each week and post my results. For some inspiration - why not check out The Imperfect Housewife's post on the same subject - what awesome work!

Getting It Done. Gently. Week 2 Wrap-up and Update

Current Weight: 78.2kg
Waist: 106cm

This week was not a good week. In fact, I think in some ways it was even worse than last week.

I found that without constant organisation in regards to planning out my food and having the right foods available, I started to crumble into my grab anything, eat too much, crave crappy food habits again. Add to that the fact I avoided the pool this week (two reasons; I killed my back again at work on Monday/Tuesday and by the time it was better I needed to shave my legs again... who could be bothered?), I'm surprised I managed to even maintain last week's work, let alone loose a tinsy tiny, not even really countable bit of weight.

So what is going wrong?

Well, things got busy last week, there was a few days of unexpected interruptions at work and the back pain interfered with my sleep, so things were harder. But reality is that I just stopped being consistent.  I have always struggled with self-control. Its the thing that drags me down.

There is a famous experiment where children were placed in a room with one marshmallow. They were told they could either eat that marshmallow now and get no more, or wait until the scientist came back and they would get two marshmallows.

I was the kid who would really stick it out, I mean really, til the almost bitter end... then I'd just eat the first marshmallow, because hey, "One marshmallow in the hand is worth two possible marshmallows when that guy comes back" ...right?

If there is anything that needs to improve in my weight loss system, its not my knowledge, or my understanding of how the body processes food, the value of good nutrition or the benefits of exercise... No, for me, its learning to say NO. Pure and simple, even when its just me saying it to myself in the grocery line. And not booking a 5pm physio instead of a 6:20pm one just on the off chance the fruit shop that sells the chocolate dipped strawberries would still be open!?! Who does that?

Self-control.  Prayin' for that!

Getting It Done. Gently. Week 1 Wrap-up

One week done and where are we at?

The Vital Stats
Weight: 78.8
Waist: 105
Weight lost: 1.5kg
Cm lost: +2!!

Like all new things, started with a bang. The first day was excellent, I was disciplined and focused. I went to the pool, worked hard, ate well and generally felt excellent ... and just a little bit smug.

By Thursday I was eating chocolate honeycomb pieces and swearing I'd do better tomorrow!
Overall the week has been good - much better than an ordinarily week. But not perfect. Perfect would have been ordering salad instead of creamy chicken and avocado when out with the fabulous lozzz123 from  Science, Spouses and Silliness earlier this week (yes, sometimes bloggers do meet up in real life. And have Italian. Check her out, she is much funnier than me!). Perfect would have been saying no to the piece of chocolate birthday cake at work (which I did) and not eating it (which I didn't). But you know, you can't improve on perfection, so it's better not to start at the top. Right?

My waist measurement hasn't really improved - in fact I've gained. Which is a little weird, but really, all that crazy rich food I ate on holidays the week before had to go somewhere right? The weight is probably overstated a little, I have changed my water drinking habits significantly this week and my weight can change up to 2kg a day with water intake at the best of times. But its heading in the right direction!

It's a start. And one that I am pretty happy with. Work days are the easiest part as I pack my lunch and only eat what is in the box. I have even let myself eat it in whatever order and at whatever times I choose so I don't feel as though I'm being deprived. But if it's not in the box, I don't eat it (except for the cake). So it's portion control. With only a little bit of control.

The hardest part is the late afternoons. If I have eaten my lunch and 2 snacks already, then at 5pm I'm hungry. Slightly earlier dinner and switching to having my morning yogurt in the afternoon seems to have helped. And drinking more water instead of eating the second I feel hungry.

But hey, I've only been to Maccas once this week!

What do you do to help yourself break bad habits when it comes to food?

Getting it Done. Gently. The Starting Line

The Gritty Details

Start Weight: (gulp) 80.3kg
Waist: 103
Daily calorie target: 1200-1400cal
Daily exercise target: 30 minute moderate plus stretches

Right so there you have it, a very embarrassing look at, well me! And no, I'm not sticking my stomach out on purpose. The keen eye can probably see that my lower back and butt are underdeveloped from a muscular point of view - that's because of the pain I have all the time, I hold myself funny. So the muscles in my core are very weak at the moment too. With the physio's help we are trying to build this up.

There you have it. Let's see what 10 weeks of concentrating can do!!

Getting it done. Gently. Week 1

Today is it. Getting started.

Tonight I will post my measurements, and some completely embarrassing before pictures. Because my blog readers deserve a laugh :p

Before I rush off to work (and yes, it is 6:30am), I thought I'd leave you with my food plan for today, just so you can have a little peek at the torture healthy eating I will be putting myself through for the next 10 weeks.

Breakfast: 1-2 slices of grain and seed bread with natural peanut butter
Morning tea: 1/2 punnet of strawberries (which is like, 4 strawberries ya know).
lunch 100gm chicken and salad on wrap
Arvo tea: yogurt (deviating from the plan slightly here which is no dairy, but need to use up the yogurt
Dinner: 200gm steak with salad

Its not so bad really. It's just a lot less than I have been eating the last couple of weeks!

This afternoon it's off to the local pool for some walking laps. Surprisingly I'm not allowed to swim yet as my back can't handle the slight arching necessary to swim. Go figure. I'm allowed to backstroke but seriously, who backstrokes? I just run into things (walls, people, aqua aerobics classes...)

How's your Monday shaping up?

Loosing weight the gentle way

Spring is almost here and there is work to be done!
Not just any kind of work, weight loss work!

Currently my back is giving me serious issues. I have disc issues in L3, L4 and mainly L5/S1. For the last two months I have done no exercise at all other than those that my physio has recommended. It has not been good on the weight loss front. But I am determined to start august differently.

Want to join me?

I'm taking the next 10 weeks to kickstart my sluggish metabolism again. Working on the dietary recommendations from the dietician I saw last year, working with my physio to build my physical health and prevent further back damage.


I am very limited in what physical movement, but given that I haven't been doing everything that I could be to keep my body healthy food wise, there is lots to be done there.

So what is my plan?

I'm using calorie king's 10week calorie counter book. There is an online program www.calorie king.com.au where you can enter all your food online. I have used the online version before but found it too hard to remember what I'd eaten at the end of the day. The booklet set me back$4.95 and I can carry it everywhere. Bargain.

Week 1 I will not make drastic changes to my diet for week one. I will simply record what I would normally eat. This is an important step as I need to make sure that I have a clear picture of where the major problem areas and times of the day are for me so that I combat them effectively. This might seem like a strange way to start a health plan, but you can not fix what you do not understand.

I am aiming to do my pilates based physio stretches (20mins) each day and cycle for 10minutes a day for the first week as per the physio's recommendation. As my strength builds and pain subsides in my back, the physio will add more exercise to my routine. I will be allowed to start running again when I can arch backwards without pain (had no idea that you were supposed to be able to do that without pain!).

Each Monday I will update my blog with my fitness update and progress in exercises. If you want to join me you can link up to your blog or leave your stats in the comments section. We are going to make some gentle changes :) We are not going for crazy, hard to stick to diets, or out of control exercise plans. They can be great and they can work, but for me right now, I can't sit or stand for 10minutes wihtout pain, so let's start gentle. Attainable.

It doesn't matter what plan you use, as long as you are happy with the method and can commit to 10 weeks concentrating on sticking to it!

This Monday I will put up:
my start weight
My goal weight
My current measurements for bust, waist, hips, thighs and arms
Maybe even a 'before' photo!

Feel free to only write up what it is that you feel comfortable with.

It might be as simple as, I'm going to walk for 20minutes twice this week.

Have a think and on Monday, be ready to join me with your goals. We are going to make gentle changes that work!