Posts Tagged ‘food’

I’m sitting in McDonalds at the moment!

Talk about a test of will power, the smell of fried food is overwhelming and I would love to scoff down a hash brown or two. The simple reason I am here is because they provide free wi-fi, so it is a chance to post the occasional blog.

I’ve just been out for a 50 minute walk along the beach and cliff faces at Mornington, a great way to start the day, and the good news is no blisters on the feet. But I have worked out I can walk about 50 minutes with no problems but if I push out to more than an hour I’ll have the same old problems, so I’ll top and tail the day with a few different walks of around 40-50 minutes.

Last night I went for a walk with my beautiful niece Gemma. It’s always amazing to spend time with nephews and nieces and just to marvel at the adults they have become from the beautiful little babies and todddlers we played with and spoilt. She’s a wonderful and strong woman and a credit to her mother’s sacrifice and struggle (as is Eve of course). I am looking forward to continuing the conversation on tonight’s walk and importantly seeing her spend time with my son and watching their bond grow and develop. One thing is forever .. family.

Sitting in McDonald’s drinking a bottle of water (I had to buy something to overcome the guilts of using their wi-fi) I remember in the late 90’s living in Sydney and catching the ferry to work every morning from Mosman to Circular Quay. There is a McDonalds prominently located between the wharf and the office in Pitt Street and I recall seeing people flocking in there for their breakfast. I could never understand the fast food brands, I was never a fan of McD, Red Rooster, KFC or any of the other corporate fast food joints. I was a more fish and chips sort of guy and that is definitely not a breakfast food, even for me.

One morning I decided to see if there was anything I’d like in McDonalds – error No.1.

I discovered the celebrated hash Brown (celebrated in my mind).

So I bought one, unsure whether I’d like them, added some salt and whammo what a good start to the day.

This soon become a morning ritual, but 2 Hash Browns soon turned to three, then to four, then to six. I’d hide down the corner of the store and eat them in case anyone from the office or that I knew would see me consuming what I knew to be a poor choice breakfast.

Six was about the maximum I thought I could eat, but sure enough it soon became eight Hash Browns for breakfast. I could see the look of surprise and disgust on some of the staff’s face as I ordered, they knew it was just for me, no matter how nonchalant I tried to be.

So there I was, in no time flat I went from 1 to 8 Hash Browns every morning. I was so hooked that when I went and got the newspaper on the weekends I’d nick down to the local McDonald’s and knock back another eight Hash Browns.

Today, I’d still like to have a Hash Brown or two, but the fact is one turns in to eight pretty quickly and the fact is while I like Hash Browns, Hash Brown’s don’t like me!

Hope everyone had great Christmas and New Year celebrations and got loads of cool stuff from Santa, family and friends.

I focused on health related gifts and received the Jane Kennedy cookbook “Fabulous Food minus the boombah”, the CSIRO total wellbing diet and an hilarious but confronting book “Skinny Bastard”, more on the latter soon.

I used some gift vouchers to get myself some kitchen bit and pieces during the Boxing Day sales and picked up a Food Processor, Slow Cooker and a big Casserole dish.

So the kitchen has the missing pieces, now to start cooking more and experimenting with different dishes and make 2010 a relative culinary delight. I have been able to get my son to start eating some different foods which will make it easier to experimenting with a wide range of tastes myself.

I need to ramp up the ‘Cooking with Al’ series, so all who have either shown interest, made a promise or have something to share, I’ll be calling upon you over the coming months to make it happen (you listening Richard?).

I’m knocking off for a couple of weeks holiday, not sure if I’ll be posting much while I’m gone as the only place with free wi-fi is McDonalds .. good marketing – bastards!

I still haven’t decided on New Year resolutions, or targets for the year but I’ll work that out over the coming weeks.

I’ve finally got around to editing the cooking lesson that Nick K gave me, showing me how to prepare and cook Chicken Cacciatore.

I worked a treat and is on the lunchtime rotation.

Ingredients;

• 8 skinless chicken thigh fillets
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes
• 2 onions
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Small amount of oil
• Small tub of kalamata olives
• Small bunch fresh basil
• Dried oregano
• 2 stock cubes (chicken is the preference but it won’t really matter).
• Whatever vegetables you like to eat on the side…

A few problems with lighting and camerawork, hopefully it adds to the charm

Chicken Cacciatore

Nick K came over and showed me how to cook an Italian classic, Chicken Cacciatore and I have finally got around to editing and posting it.

Here’s the recipe ingrediants.

8 skinless chicken thigh fillets
2 cans of diced tomatoes
2 onions
4 cloves of garlic
Small amount of oil
Small tub of kalamata olives
Small bunch fresh basil
Dried oregano
2 stock cubes (chicken is the preference but it won’t really matter).
Whatever vegetables you like to eat on the side…

Not the best week and half of weight loss, ok maybe weight loss is the wrong description as I went up a little, another wave in the pattern.

I am not too concerned though as I understand exactly what has been happening and how I have reacted to things around me.

As before when work intensity and demands increase I stop putting myself first and take the easy route to putting food in, this is especially apparent in the evenings, when I leave the office and head home only to crank up the computer and continue to work.

I feel back to the old pattern of eating takeaway almost every night until last weeks weigh in, and look at the impact it has had, during this period I was eating well at breakfast and lunch, but the evening meal is highlighted as having a massive impact.

My self justification has simply been that I am too busy to prep and cook a meal at home and it’s easier to grab something on the way home, eat and get back to the outstanding work that needs to be done. The reality is different, it’d be easier to prep and cook and not to mention cheaper as well.

I‘ve had a second thought as well. Some of you may know or realise that I shot an interview with Today Tonight that hasn’t aired as yet and I’ve been using the thought that when that airs people will see me buying takeaway and either pick me up on it or shoot be me crappy looks, so I’ll have to be good and restrict it back to Fat Food Fridays.

The real outcome / learning is that I am still battling to put me first when it comes to food and I need to get back to planning my meals better.

Instead of beating myself mercilessly for a bad week I am going to take a bit of advice from this quote and make sure the next few weeks really count: “Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past.” Tyron Edwards

It’s Christmas part season, but that is not causing any challenges as I really don’t drink anymore and so drinking water and watching everyone else get wasted is sort of an interesting sport (not in a mean way). With family functions I can plan an give myself some good options, and the family are right behind me so there’ll be no sneaking lollies or other goodies.

So here are last week’s results, the see-sawing continues, but at least I have definitely put he 40 kilos mark to rest forever and now the target is set at 50 kilos. I am still confident that if I eat well, almost regardless of the level of exercise I will drop weight consistently each week. It’s all about the food for me at the moment.

So a week where I gave all the previous weeks loss back, it’s been a common story, 2 steps forward and one step back, but it’s just part of the journey and it doesn’t mean I’ve failed, but just learnt a little bit more.

So I posted last week that the November 30 deadline wasn’t going to be the end of the challenge, I am going to keep going until I get to the outcome I am after, no matter how long it takes.

But the mind is a weird thing, I’ve really slacked off on the food side of things over the past week and a half, since the final weigh in of the fundraising challenge. But I am fining my body actually demanding healthy meals, I want a good serve of vegetables and so getting the program back on track isn’t tough, it’s all in the planning. A common theme has been when work get really busy I have fallen off the perch a little and so the next two weeks will be difficult on that front as will the start of next year with a fair bit of business travel over the Feb, march and April.

I’ve kept exercise up though over the last week or so doing Bikram Yoga on Sat, Sun, Wed, Thu, Sat and Mon . Just need to get back on the exercise bike which sits in the lounge room mocking me as I walk around it

Good news is that I have 3 weeks off after Christmas, so I’ll be able to really control the food intake (with the exception of Boxing Day) and up the ante on exercise and give me a great start to the New Year.

I can’t be perfect, no matter how much I’d like to think I can be, it’s just not possible. So the alternative is to be consistent, it’s what I do every day, not once and a while that will have the positive outcome, so I am going to stop beating myself up for eating poorly over the past 10 days and just get back to what I know works and I enjoy. I’ve got the rest of my life to get it right.

Found this online, this may have been handy a year ago, now it’s just an aid for poor decision making. Thought someone may like it!

Check out the full chart at BuzzFeed

Highlights and lowlights can come in close succession, one has a way of lifting high, while the other drags you down and suffocates the will.

The last few days have been absolutely fantastic, spending almost 5 days straight with my boy, being active, hanging out, talking, cooking, reading and making stuff up was just great. But the flip side is when he leaves and the house just seems so empty and barren and I don’t know what to do with myself. I have a large list of things that need to get done, but I just couldn’t be bothered with them, so procrastination takes over. It’s just a crap feeling and I am sick of it.

I just defeated McDonalds .. after having a bit of a run in (over what I still can’t figure out) with someone and after dropping D back at his Mum’s house I had that familiar feeling of just not giving toss, not caring, what did it matter, who really cares (hear the self pity kicking in?) to the point where I actually got in the car and drove to McDonalds.

200 metres short I stopped the car and asked myself did I really want to eat McDonalds and undo all the hard work I’ve done over the past 4-5 days, the exercise and the cooking? and did I really want to front up to weigh in on Thursday and have an average or poor result all because I ate McDonalds for feeling down.

I did the unbelievable … I started driving again and drove right by and went back home. Still feeling down, but better because I hadn’t buckled.

Well no I can’t!

This evening I had dinner with a former colleague and his ‘Love Partner’, having spoken a little on the phone and communicated via Facebook etc over the past 7 years it was great to see him face to face again. Shame Susan’s voice was lost, but Pete and I covered lots of ground. Always an interesting, challenging and interesting conversation.

The one thing that constantly amazes me is that other people see in me what I don’t see .. need to fix that up!

I ate well, bought dry roasted almonds instead of resorting to a chocolate bar, and ordered grilled fish with vegetables for dinner – tasty and healthy. Now to get on the bike while the washing gets done.

First day for quite a while where I have behaved with food for the entire day, so let’s call today Day 1 and make it all fresh and new again. Food – omelette for breakfast, curry with no rice for lunch and barramundi and vegies for dinner, followed by a little low carb chocolate. Drank loads of water and as a result am going to bathroom quite a bit, every ounce out is a good thing.

So here we are around 3/4 of the way through Saving Alan and it’s going to be a tight finish to make a 50 kilo loss before the end of November.

In the past two months I have been bouncing up and down in weight, not due to anything other than my commitment to eating well and exercising enough to move the weight, I have a good week followed by a bad week, I really need to put a good patch together again and average just on 1 kilo a week to reach my minimum goal.

Over the past 2 months I have only dropped 2.5 kilos total, an average of 0.31 kilos a week, which would mean only another 4 kilos for the rest of the project for a total loss of 42.6 kilos, short of my set goals, so I really need to step it up and focus more on eating well under all circumstances and making sure I increase the intensity of exercise as well.

Maybe I have been feeling a little satisfied that I have moved close to 40 kilos (25% of my body weight) and have mentally taken the foot off the accelerator.

But now is the time to give it one big hard push through to the end of November and see just how low I can go in that time frame. I am not sure if 60 kilos is possible, but 50 is achievable (another 11.5 kilos) and if I can average 1.25 kilos a week I’ll lose another 16.25 kilos for a total of 54.75.

Things have happened over the past weeks which saw me fall back to old habits and not care so much about me and the outcome, but I’ll write about that in the next few days, it’s no excuse, it’s just what I went through and how I reacted.

Here’s this weeks results.