Category Archives: Food

Biccies for bfast

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Hobnobs – the biscuit – are made from oats so that makes them an excellent breakfast on a par with that staple porridge. Yes?

A real breakfast

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My fellow Automattician Mike has posted what he believes is the “Breakfast of champions“. I beg to differ because this is the finest of fine breakfast foods:

There’s fruit, some carbs, a little chocolate for that energy boost. There might even be a fibre in there somewhere. And it’s low fat, highly portable, no washing up and prep time is seconds. Healthy in a handy size.

Jaffa Cakes. You know it makes sense.

Doing the calorie thing

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When the Automattic bunch hit London I weighed 75kg, down from 100. Then I slowly stopped not eating very much and tried to restart sensibly. That lasted a day or two and I rediscovered just why I like cake so much, and cheesecake and cookies. I do all the shopping. I’d say to myself “Jacqui and the girls will like some doughnuts” knowing for a cast-iron fact that J would have 1 and I’d have the other 4 because the girls won’t eat them. Or I’d buy biscuits I liked and kid myself I’d only eat one. Or cake. No, And cake. I would deny what would happen while in the store and then do the bad eating when I got home. It’s really easy to do. I figured I was doing it soon enough though – that’s the key bit, putting the behaviours in order to see it for what it is not what you are pretending – and worked on getting the state of mind right to diet again. I also knew that as my daughter makes fabulous mince pies that it had to be after christmas. I have put on the odd ounce here and there. Yesterday I thought I’d give it a go and it was a breeze. Hardly are a thing.
You know when you don’t eat you get that weird swaying fainting feeling? I love that, it’s like a high. Well I got it yesterday and even though today I ate the same or less I didn’t get it which is both annoying (because I do like it) and good because it means my head is in the right place. 2 days of easy so I’m set for a good few weeks now.
And how good? Didn’t have a magnum yesterday or today. Lose weight faster without those added back in.

‘Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’ – Kate Moss

Damn right.

Wait a minute

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I used to smoke (quit ~2002), I used to drink (quit March 2003) and I’ve lost 40lbs+ since March (still going). It’s not willpower. Someone may say it is but I disagree, at least for me.
With each of the above I started by thinking – not talking, not reading – about the issue. I would weigh things up in some strange background thinking way and wait for the day when I would wake and just know it was the day to try (note ‘try’, not ‘I will’). This can take weeks but there is no rush. What will happen (or not) will happen (or not). The principle was the same for each once that day arrived – wait a minute.

Like most people I hate failure. Makes me feel bad and I usually indulge either in the behaviour I wanted to avoid or by spending money. When I am not in control failure could always happen – not me setting the goals. But with the above I am in total control and I need to not fail, I need to win or at best not lose but not failing is really important. It’s also important to never say never. I never said I would not smoke again, I never said I would not drink again. I just don’t want a drink now. That’s right now as I type this. I might in an hour and if I do have one that’s perfectly fine because I haven’t failed – I never said never. (There are exceptions such as eating at MacDonalds which really is a never ever again, nothing at all).

So with the food there is still cake in the house, milkshakes, biscuits, cheese and other foods I used to eat. There is alcohol too. So I come downstairs to make coffee and in the kitchen there is some cake open. If I want it I can have it – no-one would see but you can’t fool yourself can you?. But I want to lose weight so I don’t want it. But if I do want it, if I do want the taste and texture to eat, do want the pleasant aftertaste, the cloying sweetness then I tell myself to wait 1 minute. If I still want it I can have it. So if I do eat the cake I didn’t fail. In fact if I do I succeeded because I waited a minute. But what I did when I was drinking, smoking and now here is I congratulate myself for waiting and I try another minute. I don’t stand over it – I make the drink, tidy, check the TV if it’s on, read the post, might even talk to the wife but at some point it will be 2 minutes or more. Instead of celebrating I tend to wander off back to work. I won. I won because I am still on the diet and I won because I set some time goals and I hit them. No need to feel bad. It’s all good. It’s been a few months now since I had any cake and for most of the time I just ignore it now because I know I would hit the 2 minutes by which time I have not only won and I know I can win but that crucial moment of diet weakness has passed.
And when the weight does start to drop at a kilo a time – because setting a goal of more is a commitment to more time which increases the chance of fail which would be really bad – I am more motivated to get through those minutes when I can see, hear and desire the coffee cake that is being eaten by everyone else.

Eating a whole lot less food is important of course – I eat a whole stack less.

But in the end my weight loss is down to waiting a minute. 60 seconds to success.

One week

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It has been one week since I ate any chocolate, one week since I ate any cake and (bar a moment of weakness yesterday involving a few Hob Nobs) one week since I ate any biscuits. This is a major dietary event.
Partly through laziness, partly because J is never hungry so I never see the point of preparing food in the day for just me (which is still laziness but maybe sounds better) and partly because ‘food to go’ better suits me ( mood thing) I ate a lot of the above.

I gave up smoking pretty easily. I suppose like most ex-smokers there is a brief urge here and there to engage in the behaviour but that passes easily because I am not around smokers at all. And if we do go out the non-smokingness of everywhere is excellent. I gave up drinking – or to put it more accurately “I don’t want one right now” which means I can have a drink whenever I want and I won’t fail anything. ‘Never’ isn’t always a great word. But I did leave the glass on the table and it’s been there a few years.

Smoke? None in the house, nothing to resist. Alcohol? Quite a bit probably. If I want to get smashed on the bottle of Tia Maria I can. There is other but it’s probably D’s and drinking that would be too risky. Having it about is part of the giving up.
Like so many people I can resist unopened sweets / chocolates / cake / biscuits. But crack that packet and the one becomes two which becomes empty.

“I don’t want one drink, I want ten drinks, and I don’t understand how others can settle for just one.” Leo McGarry. West Wing.

It has irked me that I could quit the smoke and the booze but not Mars bars (for example). Partly it’s because if I quit the sugar I’ll have to make more effort to eat (but I don’t – cornflakes are good 24/7) and partly because I need those sugar bursts (it’s a mood thing). But the irk is winning right now.

“I’m going to walk through the kitchen and not take a biscuit. Not take. Oh, packet is open…. want, don’t want.. hunger is good, meal will taste better..” and everything else people say. It worked but for those oh so lovely Hob Nobs. I mean, if you are going to fail do it with a quality crunch. But I know it was a minor fail, a failette.
Weighing myself? No, why would I do that? It’s a part of the reason but other reasons are higher up that scale – it’s that mood thing again. But I’m up for another day and hopefully I can string 7 of those into a row.

Phil Woolas

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Prince Charles must prove his claim that GM crops could cause a global environmental disaster, Environment Minister Phil Woolas has challenged. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the minister said it is now down to the opponents of genetically modified food to prove it is unsafe. BBC

Wrong. It has yet to be proven that GM crops cause no problems. It is not known to be safe, it is not known what the longer term consequences are. If you want to change the status quo you must be able to prove your action will be – in this case – positive. Prince Charles is absolutely right.

“But government ministers have a responsibility to base policy on science and I do strongly believe that we have a moral responsibility to the developing world to ask the question: can GM crops help?”

This has nothing whatsoever to do with the first statement by the minister. The first is arrogance about the consequence to people, the second is short-sighted. In fact both are short-sighted but the second has an extremely important difference – control.

Google ‘monsanto gene’. Farmers in the developing world could not grow the crops they needed. So Monsanto beat the other agribusinesses to the goal of GM seeds. These provided plants that could grow in the prevailing conditions. The farmers were happy, Monsanto got stupidly rich. Then the farmers realised that the GM plants had what some called a ‘terminator gene’. They died after a season or two – after all it would not have been good business if they lived forever would it? So the effect is that the farmers now have to buy from Monsanto who continue to get rich on the backs of the poor. The food in that country is dependent on a private company. They set the price, they control distribution, they can vary quality of the plant and it’s yield. That is a phenomenal amount of control. (Imagine if we in the UK were dependent on bread from the French….). So were the GM seeds good? Some would say Yes from the humanitarian view but others would say No because of the deliberate and calculating decision to use that ‘terminator gene’. So what is the Minister actually saying? He’s saying that he wants a seat on the board of some company when the Labour Govt are voted back to the wilderness inside the next 2 years.
Phil Woolas doesn’t care in the slightest way for any sort of consequences – most people wielding political power do not – but if you are going to not care do it from a point of principle and not a desire to fill your bank account.

And GM? I’m totally with Prince Charles. Don’t screw with Nature at that level.

Buy free range eggs dammit

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Needed some eggs while shopping. I ignored the own brand stuff as that will come from battery hens and instead selected a box of ‘Respectful’ eggs. It had rolling green hills, sunshine and a wind generator on the box picture. Their hens were ‘green’ because only renewable energy was used and the hens had some sort of ‘dust’ to use. But despite the nice picture, the nice font and all those ‘green’ words it did not specifically say how the hens lived. For all I knew they lived in hole in the ground or a cage they could not turn around in. So I put them back and bought some that did say the hens could wander outside all day. All that advertising for which they undoubtedly put the price up and all to shift their battery eggs. Shame some people will enrich them.

Noodle-not-tastic

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I have pretty much mastered this eating thing. Bar the very very occasional accident food makes the transition from receptacle to mouth smoothly and completely. I like it that way, my clothes like it that way.
Except with a Pot Noodle.
Every single time I eat one I end up with something on me somewhere. The PN I just ate (King, Chicken + Mushroom) has decorated me. I swear I ate it carefully. It’s right in the center of the t-shirt – no escaping this one. I can only think my technique is just all wrong. Maybe I should wear a bib. Or one of those napkins you are meant to tuck in. Getting dressed up for a Pot Noodle? Whatever next…. Posh Noodle?