Don’t you just love the first of the month? A fresh start, a new beginning, new resolutions and in my case, a new diet. It’s also the month that has thousands of Australians taking up the FEB FAST Challenge. Which usually means giving up alcohol. (although you can choose to give up coffee, sugar, caffeine or even digital screens as alternatives.)
Fletch and a few of his Neighbours mates are taking up the alcohol option. He’s already had some generous donations pledged from some lovely friends. If you’d also like to show your support, here’s the link.
I’m not quite so brave. I am doing a pathetic half-arsed version of the challenge by ‘saying’ I’m doing Feb Fast without signing up… There’s a good reason for this but I don’t want to go into details. Suffice to say I might have to head overseas soon and if that happens, well, yes OF COURSE I’d be drinking! And I want a practice run before fully committing next year.
I’m curious to see how I’ll go. And Fletch. I’ve heard lots of good things, so I’m actually looking forward to it.
Apparently you lose weight (YES!) and generally achieve a bucket load more in life, so I’ll keep you posted and let you know.
God knows I need to kick start the diet thing again after falling off the wagon MASSIVELY over the Christmas break. Getting on the scales right now is downright scary.
Some of you might remember me banging on last year about a diet I put together myself because I wanted something that was realistic to manage, simple to implement and easy to stick to. I called it the FIT FIX Diet, and yep, it really worked. If you’d like an overview, you can refer back to this blog to see the food plan for the first three weeks.
This time I’m still going to stick to the FIT FIX Diet Plan rules with the extra kicker – NO ALCOHOL. Plus some strategies from a book I mentioned in the last Blog, called Willpower.
It’s worth a read. Although I do think there are some contradictions in the chapter about dieting. Basically, the authors say there’s no point attempting to take up special diets because they never work. But at the same time, they say certain ‘rules’ can be effective. Like no sugar. If sugar isn’t an option at all, then you don’t waste time and energy deciding whether to eat the stuff, you just say ‘no’ and be done with it.
But if you implement a new ‘rule’, then you are in effect, creating a new diet anyway, aren’t you? Hmmm…
The best tip though, is the ‘not now, but later’ theory. The idea is that you never say to yourself, ‘I can’t eat that yummy chocolate ice-cream tempting me from the freezer.’ What you are meant to say to yourself is, ‘I won’t eat that yummy chocolate ice-cream now, but I will have it in two hours.’ Or tomorrow.
And you probably never will eat it, but psychologically, you feel less deprived. Those who do this lose more weight and keep it off.
There are lots of fascinating stories about case studies and psychological tests on groups of people to support this theory, so I’m going to give it a go.
So there you have it. The new diet means no alcohol, sticking to the FIT FIX Diet Plan and using tips from the Willpower book. All sounds good, doesn’t it? But damn, I’m going to miss my chardonnay…
Are you giving up anything for February? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments section too.
Sometimes dieting sucks. Take yesterday for example. The planned JUICE FAST day as part of the FIT FIX Diet Plan. All good in theory, until I get to this wonderful charity event to play golf – the Token Blokes Day at the Heritage Country Golf Club in Chirnside, Victoria.
Felicity, Anthea, Helen and me at the Token Blokes Day
The brainchild of sports presenter Tiffany Cherry, the event was a triumph, serving to not only put the spotlight on women’s golf and encouraging more of us to pick up a club, but raised more than $40,000 for the Koala Kids Foundation, which helps children with cancer.
Tiffany Cherrry with tournament winner Shura Taft and Catherine Murphy
Once we’d finished playing, we headed inside where the champagne was flowing freely, alongside a vast array of pizza, souvlakis and hotdogs. See that mineral water on the table in the first photo? Yep, that’s mine. That, washed down my green juice which was lunch… Not NEARLY as much fun as hoeing into all the yummy stuff on offer, but it had to be done. Knowing I’m reporting what I eat in this Blog is great incentive for staying on the straight and narrow.
It was also tough at home when I cooked the kids an easy Pasta Bake for dinner with crispy golden cheese on top. Nothing smells as good as warm, melted cheese… I was looking forward to my chocolate almond drink for my ‘main meal’, but I still really wanted the Pasta Bake… I needed something to make me feel better after all this deprivation. The best advice I have for when you’re feeling the same is to focus on something else – like TEA.
Making a cuppa is a fabulously distracting ritual, plus there are now hundreds of new flavours to experiment with. It can take some time deciding which one to brew. Red berry flavoured teas are among my favourites. Hmmm – do I want the Temptation Summer Fruits or the Raspberry, Strawberry and Loganberry?
The other flavour that’s brilliant for squashing sugar cravings is the T2 brand of licorice tea, called ‘Licorice Legs’. It’s best to make a whole pot of this so you can just keep on pouring. Lots of sweet flavour minus the sugar.
With my current tea infatuation going on, you can imagine how excited I was to discover THIS brand in the supermarket on Sunday. CHOCOLATE TEA. Wow – my two favourites combined. It HAD to be a winner. Now was definitely the time to test it out.
Sadly, the flavour did not live up to its name. There’s barely a hint of chocolate in the mix, but loads of over-powering cinnamon going on. And something else that’s just weird… Not on my recommended list. Better off just making a hot chocolate with skim milk!
Now back to the food for the FIT FIX Diet Plan. I gave you the food lists for Monday and Tuesday yesterday, but not the recipes. So if you’re interested, here they are!
(BTW – a small omission on my part – I forgot to add ‘half an avocado’ to the beef salad for the lunch listed today. Oops, sorry…)
TUESDAY DINNER – Stir-fry garlic prawns and veggies
750g uncooked prawns
2 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons lemongrass (I prefer to use the paste in a tube for convenience)
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 teaspoon lemon rind
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon sambal oelek
I tablespoon peanut oil
I packet fresh baby sweetcorn, sliced
1 bunch broccolini chopped
(NB – for those, like me, also cooking for kids, add a batch of angel hair pasta that you can stir in AFTER serving your own meal, to give them what they want.)
Mix all the ingredients from mint down to sambal in a bowl and add the prawns to marinade for about half an hour.
Heat the oil in a pan and stir-fry the prawns until they change colour. Then add the chopped veggies and stir-fry until tender.
Always keep some Sambal Oelek in the fridge for when you don’t have fresh chilli on hand
1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 onions, slice
2 cloves crushed garlic
3 spring onions, sliced
1/2 red capsicum thinly sliced
2 red chillies, finely chopped
2 teaspoons cornflour
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 cup chicken stock
(NB – again, if cooking for a family, you may like to serve their meal on top of a bed of steamed rice.)
Heat oil in pan and add lamb strips. Stir-fry then set aside.
Stir-fry the onions, garlic, spring onions and chillies for 2 minutes.
Mix the cornflour, soy sauce and stock in a cup. Return lamb to the pan and add the cornflour mixture and cook for about 3 minutes, or until it thickens slightly, then serve.
That’s enough for today. Apart from saying that, yes, I am sticking to the food plans and so far, have not broken the ‘rules’ either. Well, apart from Saturday, but that’s the allowed DAY OFF, so I’m doing okay. And I’m still down to 68.4kg so it IS working! More food plans and recipes tomorrow. Happy eating!
