After 38 days of recording everything I eat (you don't want to know why 38), I have consumed an average of 1634 calories a day, with an average daily "saving" of 933 calories, and have lost 6.5 kilos (almost exactly a stone). The rate of loss is definitely slowing, although it's hard to be precise. In fact, last week I spent almost a week in apparent stasis, before this morning losing an equally illusory 900g in a single day.
During this period I have consumed 105 different foodstuffs, including 15 different types of fruit and 18 different vegetables (types of vegetable that is, not 18 vegetables in total, which would just be poor).
I have also resurrected my training program, as a result of which I have now strained everything.
I'm eating properly and losing weight, anyway (apart from one ice cream binge), and I've learnt a lot. Here are my tips:
1. Weighing yourself once a day is enough.
2. The more pseudo-science you manage to shoehorn into the process, the greater the illusion of control.
3. It's surprising where the calories are. Lock your tahini in a safe and throw away the key. Also, there's a lot of calories in rice. If you have some beans and some grains together in lunch but not in dinner (or vice versa), then you get all the protein you need. Most of us eat too much grain, especially in the form of bread.
4. Don't imagine food is good for you just because it's sold in a wholefood shop. The slim hippies are the ones with a speed problem.
5. If you experience a craving for ice cream, just listen to Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony, an aural chocolate box which appears to stimulate the same part of the brain as raspberry ripple.
6. When stir-frying, use a water and oil mixture, which works just as well.
7. Good low-calorie foods: (obviously) all vegetables, but especially cauliflower (actually less then cucumber or celery, the supposed "negative calorie" foods) and tomato, which is less than virtuous root veg like onions or squashes. Fruit is also a very good bet - for pudding, fruit in yoghurt is pretty safe if you choose your yoghurt carefully. Peaches to my mind represent the best taste/calorie ratio, clocking in at 37kcal/100g.
6. If you want to make a sauce, reduce a tin of coconut milk (21 kcal/100g) to give it flavour and body. Passata is also a godsend, and the two go together well.
7. Chuck cucumber in soups, leave it to go soft for a while (it doesn't fall apart like you might think) and then liquidise it - again it helps to fill the soup out without adding calories.
8. Quorn, despite shock horror not being a mushroom, is good value at 103 kcal/100g.
9. Generally, though, vegan things are better (but don't let them know).
10. Tinned vegetable ravioli, at 82 kcal/100g, is the king of snacks. If you ate nothing but, you would probably lose weight.
11. Couscous seems to be the best grain (but it's still 350 kcal/100g when dry, so approx 120 when cooked).
12. Buy a bike.
It's a great relief not to have to weigh my food any more.
I'm hovering around some significant milestones at the moment. 90kg is a milestone in itself, but also 89.6kg marks the loss of a stone, and 88.9kg is 14 stone. This morning I was 89.5kg, so fingers crossed.
