DoingTheCaveman

Postcard from the Algarve II

Ha ha, still shy just a silhouette for now:)

At the same time as I had these holiday snaps developed I discovered an old undeveloped film and processed it at the same time. What a shock, they were taken of me a couple of years ago at *exactly* the same weight as I am presently.  The thing is in these photos are a complete contrast to my current photos, despite being the same weight.  I'll put them up sometime, but in the old snaps I look as if I was 3 stone heavier.

The holiday: Oh boy, I knew I'd arrived home when I took a walk on Friday and instead on a nice sedate stroll I was blasted right around the block. 

Anyway, It was fantastic escaping to the sun, particularly when we were heard that the UK was experiencing Easter snow!

Now I'm back and suffering the post holiday blues - if I could I'd jump on a plane and go back right now.  I'm completely in love with the Algarve.  At this time of the year Portugal is beautiful and lush - green meadows, orange groves, blossom. 

Anyway, we managed to explore most days including Lisbon, Gibralter and Seville, but unfortunately I didn't make it to The Alhambra.  We lost time on the holiday due to illness, I didn't want to go to navigate yet another big city and I didn't feel a rushed visit would do the trip justice.  Maybe next time I'll visit just Andalusia and dedicate more time to Granada and the Alhambra, and there *will* be a next time. 

As I mentioned above, unfortunately the trip was a marred by sickness. I've been poorly since Monday with fever and chesty cough, and am still feeling pretty rough.  I was embarrassed to cough on the flight all the way back, probably managing to spread it around to some other poor souls.  For relief I've had to succumb to taking the usual yucky syrupy medicine all week which, as you can imagine, I hate having to do so on my regime.

Oh yes, almost forgot, the diet and the fish challenge ....

Mañana ...

A Holiday postcard

Just a quick non-diet related post today with a few pics of my holiday (see photo album to the left).

Unfortunately Gibraltar turned out not to be the bargain shopping trip expected.  I had planned to purchase a camera, hence my pics are just disposable camera type:(

Photo of me tomorrow!

Ichthyophobia

Up up and away...

Yes I'm signing off for a couple of weeks.  In fact by the time I've scheduled this post to go up I'll be there,  Portugal.  Can't wait, I must be one of the last remaining Brits who's never been to Spain or Portugal.  We're going to Portugal, but close to the border of Spain and the plan is to keep away from the Costa's and to explore inland, both in Portugal and Spain.  Hopefully, it'll be an opportunity for plenty of walks and there should be some lovely spring flora and fauna.  We're also hoping to make our way to Lisbon & Seville, but the one place I'd really like to see is 'The Alhambra', Granada - that is a must.

With regards to my diet in the Algarve there really shouldn't be any excuse to go off the diet and we'll try to eat out where the locals do.  Most of the time we'll be self-catering anyway. 

Following last week's tight diet I want to stay quite close to this.  I'm going to continue to avoid nuts for the next couple of weeks, re-introducing fruit only. 

I've set myself a mini-holiday challenge.  I miss out on my Omegas -hugely - as I don't like or eat seafood (although I can cope with tuna or cod).  Once upon a time I couldn't even look or walk past the fish counter.   The Portuguese diet is traditionally rich in fish so my challenge is to expand my fish palette.  Because I've avoided fish for most of my life I don't really know if there's any fish out there I could like.  So, over the next couple of weeks I'm going to endeavour to try as many different varieties of fish as I can. *shudder*, *cringes*

Meaty week diary

Start weight = 13 stone 8 lb/87.5 kg

Finish weight = 13 stone 3 lb/83.8 kg

Well it's been a pretty unimaginative week in terms of food choices as you see with quite a bit of bacon (questionable paleo meat that I don't usually eat at all!) and probably far too many eggs.  However, it's had the result I was looking for and, finally, I'm off the 2 month plateau.  My blood sugars this week have been recording between 4 & 5 which is pretty low (that's good).

*** This week I had ***

Wednesday 5th March

• Breakfast - mushrooms, 2 rashers bacon, 1 egg.
• Lunch - Salad (2 spring onions, 2 eggs, 1/2 tin of tuna, handful of spinach)
• This was the first day of action, planned for the evening so finished what was left of my green smoothie (1 banana, several leaves of spring green cabbage, 1/2 mango)
• Evening meal - Absolutely huge piece of steak and palm sized serving of cabbage.

Thursday 6th March

Well what do you know this morning weighed 13 stone 6 lb.  Last night I had to retire early from a migraine and this is still lingering (?? ketosis).  I'm going to work on my fluid intake today which I often forget to keep up.

• Breakfast -   2 rashers bacon, 3 large mushrooms and 1 egg.
• Lunch -  Salad (2 spring onions, 2 eggs, 1/2 tin of tuna, handful of spinach, olive oil and lemon).
• Evening meal - liver and bacon, cabbage (palm sized portion).

Still have a headache and very tired all day.

Friday 7th March

• Breakfast cooked 1 egg omelet cooked in tsp coconut oil.
• Handful of cabbage  between lunch and dinner had 5 small lamb chops!!
• Scrounged half a segment of orange.

Feel exhausted from 3 day headache.

Saturday 8th March

Have woken feeling totally unrefreshed.  The headache is gone.

• Breakfast - handful of mushrooms, 2 egg omelet (+ half left over roasted onion which I guess could be a little sugary).
• Roast lamb and a handful of cabbage.
• Evening meal - Egg custard (3 eggs, agave, nutmeg and cream. Of course I don't usually eat dairy, bit more Atkins than paleo, plus I wasn't planning on anything sweetened).

I usually have a clear complexion and I've had a outbreak of spots under my chin and a painful one on my leg.  I know this can happen with a detox but I didn't think of this week as a detox.

Sunday 9th March

• Breakfast - the egg custard was lovely last night so had the same thing for breaky
• Lunch - Left over roast lamb & six brussel sprouts.
• Evening meal - Couple of slices of roast chicken, spring greens & brussel sprouts.

Monday 10th March

am weighed 13 stone 4 1/2 pounds

• Breakfast - mushrooms, 2 eggs, 2 rashers of bacon.
• Lunch - chicken wrapped in spinach leaves.
• Evening meal - More chicken on a plate of cabbage.  Mmmm

Spots disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared.

Tuesday 11th March

• Breakfast - mushrooms, 2 eggs, 2 rashers of bacon
• Lunch - Chicken (yes again) wrapped in spinach leaves.
• Evening meal 2 small lamb chops and loads of cabbage.

Wednesday 12th March

• Breakfast - None
• Lunch - 2 chicken drumsticks
• Evening meal - will be lamb & green vegetable.

I'm going to conclude the week with a piece of fruit.  Mmmmm, can't wait to devour an orange.

Bariatric surgery could be good for type II diabetics - not for me

Interesting, diabetes could be cured by bariatric surgery

Just a quickie, my thoughts on the above article.

I intended to post one day about bariatric surgery.  I did consider it briefly but eventually decided it wasn't for me. 

In relation to a potential diabetic cure personally I think that changing part of the anatomy in order to affect the sugar absoption issues, like pill popping, isn't addressing the underlying issue -- how the excess sugar got there in the first place. 

Note also that as the article says the gastric band doesn't cure diabetes it's the weight-loss that does that.

Clinical studies have shown that procedures that simply restrict the stomach's size (i.e., gastric banding) improve diabetes only by inducing massive weight loss.

Personally, when it I did toy with the idea of this surgery I decided that since it's basically about inducing someone to eat less I should be able to do this myself without having to take that incredibly brave decision to turn to irreversible surgery. 

It's interesting to see that surgery could in the future be offered to diabetics, although I hope that something so invasive wouldn't be dished out too hastily.   

I do recognise that surgery has to be done as a last resort but personally I've always hankered after a retreat from daily living  - a desert island or isolating experience with no phones, no shops.  Wouldn't this could have the same effect be far more enjoyable than painful surgery.

A meaty week

I've worked hard this week and was so disappointed this morning when I expectantly jumped on the scales and - once again - the dial just shoot round to exactly the same place.  I've taken on some more physical activities at work which has entailed quite a bit of moving and lifting, plus speed up the general pace of my life. I've been on the exercise bike for over an hour every night along with some bodyweight exercises and I feel that I'm long overdue some more weight loss.

Possible problems:  As I said the other day maybe I have been eating quite a bit of fruit.  Additionally, my diet over the last few weeks been more plant based, plus eggs, nuts and seeds - I'd cut back quite a bit on the meat. 

Action:  Next week I'm going to go to the opposite extreme, and just eat meat, maybe some eggs, mushrooms and maybe a little salad or greens, but otherwise no carbs, nightshades, nuts, seeds, or fruit all week.  This may make a difference next Wednesday.

February's progress

I've just arrived home and my face is tingling.

I walked along the seafront today and although it's a cold and windy day the sun was shinning.  When I had to turn back I didn't feel that I'd expended my excess energy so, following some inspiration from an individual this week, I decided to run.  Yes, as no one was around, wrapped up in my cashmere coat, scarf and gloves, I ran home.  It wan't a full out run but at a scouts pace.  I was surprised to find myself enjoying the experience, it's probably the first time as an adult I've run for the pure hell of it.  But, even this little run today, wiped out the bad memories of hockey and cross country running in the snow.

It also confirmed how far I still have to go and that I still have so much more weight than I can comfortably carry.

Anyway, back to the title of this entry - February's progress.  Apart from last week's diabetic news my weight's *still* the same.  Grrrrh.  To try and get the loss going again I'm going to try and step it up in March.  So, as well as endevouring to start exercising again, I'll be cutting back again on portion sizes and also cut on fruit sugars - I'll eat fruit if it's replacing a meal but otherwise I'm going to stop snacking on fruit.

Actually, It's a shame I don't have a camera at the moment since I'm sitting here lunching on a bright green concoction that I would previously have regarded with 'extreme' suspicion; a smoothie made from 200 gm spinach, 1 banana, 2 kiwi and 1/2 mango (4 portions).  Very tasty it is too.

Anyway to close, a good start to March and a plan.  Let's see it makes a difference and gets those scales moving down again.