Today is the day!

I climb onto my scale and take a deep breath, before I squint at the numbers. 1.1kg down. Yippee! “That’s not much,” my childish voice pipes up. But I squash it quickly. Not much? That’s two whole chickens, one under each arm. It’s also two bars of butter. It’s enough fish for a dinner for two! Okay, a small dinner for two then. Actually, it’s quite good. The average weight lose per week, is .5kg. I remember that from my Weighless days. I also remember that a big lunch bar is the equivalent of 24 slices of bread!

So, what’s next? Well for one thing, I’ve decided to change weigh day to Friday. Bare with me before you shake your head. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Just before the weekend begins is a good time to check in. It also means that the Sunday buffet has one more day to disappear. Friday it is.

Over the last four days, I’ve started to see a pattern developing. Remember Martha Beck’s 4 day win idea? It takes four days to establish a new habit? (Okay and then a few weeks to entrench it, of course.) Well here’s my new habit – and I like it.  A bowl of fruit salad for breakfast is staying. It suits me and has the added bonus of curbing my chocolate addiction. What fruits? Any three that I have in the kitchen. My favourite combo is, pawpaw (essential,) orange and pear.  Lovely Cape gooseberries also give a tang to the dish, so when they’re available, I add them. Apple, banana and mango are also amazing – when mangos appear in mid-summer. My top tip here? Eat your fruit – don’t drink it! Grapes, blueberries and raspberries are another excellent combo. The Banting crowd swear by berries. In fact berries are the only fruits they will consider in their diet. I like to have a variety, as it keeps my meals interesting.

I do drink water, coffee and tea – with a dash of milk in it, but I do not eat again, until lunch-time. My lunchtime meals consist of – a boiled egg, one slice of carb-clever toast and a small greek salad, or a grilled chicken breast (sprinkled with paprika,) broccoli and cauliflower and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese over it all. My third option is cold roast beef (or left-over lamb,) a squash filled with spinach and feta cheese and a slice of pure Rye bread.  Hot English mustard adds the zing to this offering.

At about 3.30 I have a serious snack attack.  If you don’t, then ignore my suggestion. If you do though, a handful of biltong or a few almonds and half an apple, do the trick. Woollies biltong sticks and a small tupperware container filled with almonds, are good things to have in your pantry.  Water, with added mint and lemon, also helps to fill you up, before dinner time.

Dinner time, is treat time. I pour myself a whisky and soda and enjoy it along with my piping hot dish of food. (A glass of wine is great, but sadly, my body rebels against the sulphur!) So what’s for supper?  A portion or two of protein in the form of red meat, chicken or fish and then three veg, (thanks mum!) I cook the protein anyway I feel like it and gently steam fresh vegetables, of three different colours.  Big tip here? No starch, apart from the whisky.  Cutting out starch at night really does help. You may have also noticed that starch only appears on my plate at lunchtime. I do not weigh anything at all – but I do consider a portion of food in terms of a fist size.

With this regime, I should be a skinnymalinks already right? But life gets in the way and I’m not one to be a party-pooper! If I follow this plan for five or six days (preferably six) out of the seven…then the results begin to show.

Oooh, before I forget, I’ve added a yoga pose – Salute to the Sun – to my morning regime, as well as a beach walk on most days.  This week, I plan to do the Salute three times every morning and step up the pace of my walk. Join me if you like 🙂

Do have a skinnymalinks week, this week and share your tips with us all!

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