For people that want to record what they are eating (to help be strict!)

[Mochagirl]

I agree that the diet is easier than I thought - especially for someone who's never dieted a day in her life! However, I am finding it harder and harder to fight the urge to snack in the late afternoon and evening. I'm used to grazing on food all day long, so having little meals and nothing in between (especially when those meals are boring) is tough. I just keep the ultimate goal in mind and try my best not to cheat. This week has been tough with my in-laws here, snacking all day and eating lots of taboo foods in front of me. Right at this moment my stomach is rumbling and I keep checking the clock to see if it's late enough for me to start cooking supper (not quite yet - it's only 4pm here).

I've already started counting down the days until I can test and hopefully get that BFP. I've been on the diet about 5 weeks now, and I am soooo ready to be done with it. I know if I don't get a BFP this month I'm going to be seriously depressed.

[zanacal]

Mochagirl, I often have my dinner at 4pm on this diet!

Here's me today:

Skimmed milk for coffees
Lunch: Cheese and cucumber sandwich, 2 caramel rice cakes
Dinner: Gluten free pasta, courgettes, leeks, mushrooms and cheese sauce
Supper: Weight Watchers individual victoria sponge cake

I managed to get a few more calories in today with having pasta for dinner (just under 1300) - I think I need that to be able to lose weight. I've dieted a lot over the years (I'm a serial yo-yoer!) and I know that not eating enough stops me from losing. Silly hey?!

[Mochagirl]

Another not-so-great day since I'm cooking for guests and can't get away with my normal, bland diet

Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: 1/2 piece leftover quiche from last night, strawberries, milk
Snack: peppermint tea, strawberries
Supper: Scallop chowder. I tried my best to make this as girl-friendly as possible: I used sodium-free chicken broth as the base and didn't add any extra salt, but I couldn't avoid the bacon and onions the recipe calls for. I tried to make sure my bowl had hardly any bacon or onions in it, and I also only took 3 scallops. I was able to keep the protein and sodium low enough with a small portion, but it was way too high in fat because of the bacon and the cream I used to make it. Everyone else had pie for dessert, and though I managed to avoid having any, I did end up eating 2 digestive biscuits when I was craving something sweet while cleaning up.

Snack: Strawberries

Calories: 1,039
Fat: 40.3g (really not happy with this)
Sodium: 911.7mg
Protein: 41.9g

I think I need to make sure I have a lower fat day tomorrow since I've had two high fat days in a row. The in-laws want us to go to brunch tomorrow morning, which I need to find a way to get out of since they'll definitely notice if I don't order any food. They're going to a play out of town tomorrow evening and I'm encouraging dh (who is going with them) to suggest they go there early and eat dinner there instead of here - that way I could have some plain pasta for dinner and get back on track with the diet. I'll be so relieved when they leave - it makes it so much harder to keep to the diet!

[zanacal]

I think you're doing great under the circumstances Mochagirl

Today I had:

Skimmed milk
Lunch: cheese slice and cucumber sandwich, 2 caramel rice cakes
Dinner: Rice with chopped cucumber, cherry tomatoes and pepper and light salad cream. WW individual victoria sponge cake.
Snack: 4 ryvita crackerbread with phili light with spring onion and black pepper, low fat rice pudding

About 1200 cals again, 40ish g protein and 900mg sodium.

Does anybody know if spring onions are ok? I'm sorry I can't think of the word used for them in the US - swish? I know onions are not ok but leeks are and they seem more like little leeks!

[zanacal]

Scallions!

[swish]

I wondered about spring onions too, I think they should be fine as you said they are very similar to leeks!! Today I had...
Breakfast Peppermint tea
Lunch Toast with jam, actimel and muller light yogurt
Snack green beans - yum, yum!!!
Dinner pasta with leeks, mushrooms, butter and Parmesan
A few sugar free sweets!!!
Hopefully I'm in the right amounts - I'm spreading my butter thinly on 2 pieces of toast and having a teaspoons worth with my pasta. Do you think that's too much? I've never worked out the fat and am wondering if it's ok - I feel like I'm stressing more about food as the attempt gets nearer!!!

[Mochagirl]

Zanacal and swish, sounds like you're both doing great. Swish - just for reference, according to FitDay, a pat of unsalted butter (which they define as a 1" square, 1/3" high) has 4 g of fat. I got a free pass today because I got out of brunch with the in-laws and they've decided to go out for dinner before the play they're seeing tonight. I'm trying to get back on track with the diet. So far today I had a slice of bread with unsalted butter and some strawberries, and I'm STARVING!! It's 3:30, and I need to try to hold out at least an hour and a half before supper or I'll be snacking all night, but the 200 calories I've has so far today just aren't cutting it.

I'm starting to obsess about fat too. Now that I finally have protein and sodium well under control, fat seems to be my big challenge. Even with the tiny amount of food I've had today, I'm up to 9g of fat (I blame the cappuccino I had with a friend this morning), which means I basically can't add any fat to my pasta tonight if I want to still keep my fatty parmesan, which is 10g of fat per serving. I'm not sure what to eat that won't push me over the 20g fat limit, especially when I'm so starved I'm contemplating eating a huge bowl of gluten free pasta. I know if I put tomato sauce on it I could get away with less parm, but I'm starting to worry I'm eating too many tomatoes now that I've finally started including them in my diet - I've had tomatoes in some form almost every day for the past several days. I think they're still on the 'include with moderation' list for the low everything diet, right?

[rainbowflower]

have you lovely ladies noticed a ph change since following the diet so well? just wondering how quickly supps/diet have an effect

[Mochagirl]

I don't test my ph, rainbowflower, but maybe someone else can help.

[purplepoet20]

What did I eat today... no comment!!!

Low on salt, sugar and protein at least