This is the Harlequin scarf finished. It is not that blue, I have buggered up the colour settings on my camera somewhere. Even editing cannot seem to dim this blue. It is lovely, heavy, drapey and soft. It is also a bit weird looking, I think, and not at all what I expected. Still, it is warm and Oliver likes it well enough to wear, and it only took a couple of evenings to knock out.
Now, today I arrive fresh from Sue's post on dieting. Yep, a yawntastic topic for most of us and usually one which I indulge in at least once a year.
This year, post Christmas, I have managed to hold my weight stable at around the 11 stone mark. This is a 'good' weight for me - a few pounds under this and I am at my best weight and have a goodly amount of space in my trousers. But I then find this a tricky state to maintain. Usually pigging is my undoing. And the copious amount of white wine I cannot seem to live without.
Thinking about giving up wine actually does send a frisson of fear through me. If this constitutes a drink problem, then I have one. I currently consume around three bottles per week. This is in the form of a couple of glasses per night, plus extra guzzling at the weekend. Yikes. A couple of years ago I topped out at four + per week, so goodness knows what state my liver is in. And goodness knows what the hell I was thinking then....
Anyhoo, having gotten a grip-ette on the situation and reduced my glass size I have decided to increase it again to 250ml, constituting a 'large' drink and will have one - yes, one - glass of wine of an evening. I have found myself a
Moving on, whilst on holiday last week I chanced upon this book in a fag-smoke filled grubby secondhand bookshop. Oh yes, I visit all the best places when en vacances. This book interests me. I have skim read it in my usual slapdash fashion, and it seems to be based on these principles:
- 'load' your day with carbs at the beginning of it, and not the end.
- walk, walk and walk some more.
- do the five tummy exercises from the book every day.
Oh yeah, I can do that. I think. I am not going at this all guns blazing, but I think adopting the principles seem sensible, do-able and I would benefit from them. When I first started reading about 'carb curfew' I did break out into a sweat. The idea of not eating carbs past 6pm makes me want to scream out loud. I loves me carbs. That's probably why my weight holds at around the 11 stone mark. 10 stone of it on my arse and thighs. I reason that this 'curfew' is for normal people who go to bed by 10pm, so I think I could shift this to at least 7 or 8pm, making it possible to get my evening meal in before I surrender the happiness of starchy comforting goo overnight. Also as I work late two evenings a week, I reckon that a carby snack of oaty flapjacky stuff whilst pounding the hospital corridors is also allowable.
I have given this a go for a few days, and I have to say, I do feel better in the morning for not having bloated on carbs up til bedtime the night before, and that flinging on my coat when the opportunity presents itself and dashing out to fast walk round the block to notch up a quick 3000 steps is a satisfying use of my time.
This book compares someone with a sedentary lifestyle (imagine stereotypical office worker) who visits the gym twice a week to alpha mum (a role I like to picture myself in) who dashes around doing housework, shopping etc blah blah. It's not really rocket science or a revelation, but the calories burnt by the regular exercising office worker is significantly less than your average burnt out housewife. I found that I can easily cover 5000 steps during a normal at home day around the house. And I live in a bungalow.
Also, through Oliver having diabetes, I know more about carbs and the way they work now. This is not revelationary news either, but when you eat them, your pancreas produces the necessary insulin to enable your body to make use of the glucose which is in all carbs. This process happens every time carbs are consumed. Therefore, logically, you will have glucose available for energy which if you don't use - will have to be stored. As...??? Wait for it......FAT!! Ta dah! It is the basic principle underpinning all 'diets' everywhere, the world over since the dawn of time - if you don't burn off the calories you consume - you will get fat.
Sometimes, it is hard to focus on this one, very simple, very logical idea. It gets lost in various guises and weight loss schemes. For any of this to work for me, I just need to keep my head in the game.
Enough already.
Thank goodness for you! I do get bored of people saying they drink lots and it turns out to be one 125ml glass four nights out of seven.
ReplyDeleteI did the Dryathlon alcohol-free January for Cancer Research, which was really hard but by the end I was cured! I could manage without alcohol forever! Two weeks in to February, and I'm back exactly where I was before I started...
oh you can be my new wino bestie then. A couple of years ago a went for the whole of April without alcohol - which was hard, but I did finally realised my world did not implode without alcohol. Still, I carried right on snifting the wine. Tsk.
DeleteJanice, I am much the same. If I go over 11st i am a great dieter, but if I am hovering around 10 and half I am a biscuit eater! I think the fast diet and the no cabs in eve idea is really good.. if only I could get a walk in.. I fear the day I reallise how unfit I actually am! The side of that volcano would definitely let me know! xxx and I'm with you on the wine...although on a goody two-shoes day soda stretches it well.. x
ReplyDeleteoh how I wonder how skinny I would look at ten and a half stone....
Deleteyes, I have tried some even lower alcohol wines in a bid to make an overall reduction SOMEWHERE, but so many of them taste like paint stripper and most unlike the loveliess of the grape that I have given up. Any less than a 11.5% is a bloody waste of time, and more than a 13% gives me a headache. Here's hoping that the one large glass psychologically does it.
ReplyDeleteInterested to see your Stylecraft Harlequin scarf results - it's lovely. I love the blueness! I bought the same yarn in "Cerise and Turquoise" - it's a bit disconcerting in places! Now as to the wine question.... I love my wine very much - Australian heavily-oaked Chardonnay for preference which sadly does not come in ever, as far as I know, at 11% or 12%! And I do not find my father's maxim "Enough is as good as a feast" very convincing! Problem is that I've found as I've got older I simply can't process the stuff like I could when younger - two large glasses every evening is enough to disturb my ability to sleep properly and gives me if not a full-scale headache then a cloudiness, not always but periodically, so I have had to cut back over the last couple of years or so. And rather like the fasting diet I find it easier to try and keep some days completely wine-free and not worry so much on the other days. I read somewhere that consultants are seeing more and more women with liver problems in their forties and fifties and that it's a good idea to give the liver a rest a few days a week. I fear this is sadly true! I do feel better physically without the wine and try to manage three or four days without it every week and not go overboard on the days I do have it. I have to say this approach does work, for me anyway. And it's a good way to cut out empty calories - really startling how many a glass of my greeny gold Chardonnay contains! One of life's great unfarinesses! Can't give up carbohydrates though! Me and my cake are inseparable and I'd give up almost anything else first! All grist to your mill, Janice and if you discover a miracle wine of 11-12% that can stand alongside a good Chardonnay please let me know! E x
ReplyDeleteha ha, will do. My current tipple of choice is cava, or prosecco, both of which float around the 11.5% mark. I don't know how well these will fare over a glass a night though, as the fizz will drop and I am dubious how nice it will stay! However, I'm with you on the chardonnay - rich, greeny gold lovely liquid. Yum. But like you, if I indulge a couple of glasses, I suffer a thick head too. Buggeration is what I say. Don't think I can handle the 13%-ers in my forties! (may give it a good go though, ha ha)
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