Oh Sh*t. It's diet time.

Oh dear lord, where do I start. Well after looking 
at myself in the mirror (and picking myself up off 
the floor) I suppose by not bloody eating.

Yes, I'm in my forties and getting rather fat. 
Not, plump. Not chubby. Definitely not jolly. 


Fat  

F A T    

I cannot lie to myself any more. I'm large - very. I shall not embarrass myself or the world by revealing my weight, but suffice to say, if I was the correct weight for my height, I'd be too tall for this living room!

Actually, I can't reveal my weight because we don't have any scales. We do have some on order but they are yet to arrive. I'm still not sure if this is a good thing or not. I have measured myself in four areas. My neck, my chest, my belly and my so-called waist. These sahall be recorded and monitored regularly. 

Glands

People do go on and say "It's my glands." Well, I shall say it... "It's my gland". Not not my rectum sphincter being smaller than my mouth, but my thyroid gland.  You see, many years ago I suffered with an extreme over-active thyroid gland. On a good day my heart rate at rest was 120-130 bpm. That people, is fast. My metabolism, to say the least, was buggered. I could digest food (digesting is pushing it a bit) in 30 minutes. Terrible gut pains, always hungry, always thirsty, always hot and hardly ever slept - maybe 2 hours a night.

Well, 17 years ago I was meant to have a partial thyroidectomy.  I did, but the bit they left behind was damaged so it shut off and did not work. Nothing. Not a bean. I had it checked for months but still.... nothing. So, I don't have a thyroid any more. Therefore, I can take one look at a pie and put on 2 pounds!  I do take levothyroxine (225 ug per day) but even when eating normally I seem to gain weight so it's come to this!


Onto the diet thing.

So how am I going to do this? To be honest, probably a lot of trial and error, but if I don't try I won't know. Everyone has there own great plans to diet. Some diets work better on certain people than others. So, I've got my plan.

This one is lower fat and lower sugar diet. Also, I am reducing the amount of carbohydrates I eat. Yeah I know sugar = carbs but I don't mean it that way.

So what have I cut out? 

Chocolate and biscuits/cookies is easy as I don't hardly eat those. Crisps (or potato chips for our American friends) are out too. Gone are sugar loaded fizzy drinks - god I loved an ice cold Coke) and beer - aarrgghh... beer. Here's the killer..... cheese. Proper cheese, you know, gold old fashioned extra mature cheddar cheese. 

What else? 

Well I have cut out white bread completely. I now have wholemeal only, but this is restricted to no more than 2 thin slices 3 or 4 times a week.  Pasta is definitely off. I am trying to avoid white rice. If I do eat it, it will be of the long grain variety, but I shall try to be eating only wholegrain rice.  I know potatoes contain carbs but they're less than the other items mentioned.

Meats

I shall still be eating all my meats but they shall be heavily trimmed off excess fat. Meat is a great source of protein and that's one of my aims, More protein, less fat, less sugar, less carbs.

Of course, you can't lose weight effectively just by cutting down on the above. You need to exercise too.  Recently, some of my joints have become less effective than before and can become painful so I shall be taking care with this exercise lark! But I have ordered a bike roller so I can use my bike in all weathers. More on this in a later blog.

Less sugar.

Quite a difficult one as I love sweet drinks. But it has to end. I have replaced Coke, not with Coke Zero (or light) but with Pepsi Max. To be told the truth, if it's chilled it's not bad, not great, but not bad - honest.  Now I did try to remove all my sugar from my mugs of tea by using this wonder sweetener - Stevia. Go look it up. But nope, it leaves a nasty after taste on my palate. So, from two sugars in my tea to one. I shall be working on reducing that further at a later date. 

What am I eating?

Well, I plan to add to this blog my daily menu to record what I'm eating as I have have a terrible memory. Also, because of by some miracle of science I actually do loose weight then it may be of help to others who think they can't do it.

The menu will follow.... for now sleep time.  Chow..... oh god no, wrong one..that's meant to be ciao.