Hard yards

75.9kg 26th Oct
25th - 76.0kg

After three weeks around 76.4 I have dropped again. Not just yesterday but today as well. The graph tells the story for the past two months. The entries are weekly. The last entry is based on today's weight.
Yesterday I had:
sultana pikelets with jam for breakfast and snacks - 2655kJ
I didn't need all the milk for the pikelets so I made coffee for breakfast as well.
Lunch was 1/2 an avocado and tuna on two mountain breads 1338kJ
In the afternoon I made another small coffee - 165kJ
I had a yoghurt pop - 400kJ
At 4 o'clock I had avocado on mountain bread - 650kJ
At 5 o'clock I had 2 rice crackers with a bit of nutella and peanut butter and tea - 650kJ
A pear to finish - 290kJ

6148kJ for the day.
A bit over the top but I am still losing weight. I will try to get back down today.

banana for breakfast with tea - 365kJ
Lunch is out. About 3500kJ. This is some battered fish with salad and potato salad and a spoon of chefs specials then jelly and soft serve ice cream.
Dinner is avocado on mountain bread - 650kJ

This = 4515kJ
So I can fit in a coffee when I come back from lunch - 330kJ
A pear after dinner - 290kJ
New total = 5135kJ
It would be nice if this is the total for today but I still might have a cracker or extra pear in the afternoon before dinner. See how I go.

Plateau

76.1 22nd Oct
Every day til today has been 76.4

It is about time I started going down again. I am still on track for 72 at Christmas. I just have to stick to 5500 instead of going up to 5600, 5800, 6000 on some days. It is hard not to though when I get the urge to eat. My body fights any change in weight. It is always easy to lose that first 2 kg when you start because your body hasn't got used to the extra weight yet and gladly goes back to what it was used to. This is why I am not too concerned about losing it slowly. I am able to maintain the 5500 or less without too much pain so I don't stop losing it just comes off slowly.

Cravings

76.2kg 15th Oct

I did really well yesterday til I got to dinner time and I had to have two pieces of toast with peanut butter. I think of this as a wild break out but it only brought me up to 6200kJ for the day. I still lost weight for this morning's weigh in.
Today I thought I would have a big breakfast of banana pikelets. This means I have two snacks as well of two and a half pikelets each. With rice and sweet and sour chicken for lunch and rice and curried egg for dinner today's total is 4650kJ. I will use the rest to have a coffee or jam on my pikelets and I still have to eat the pears.
I put 76.2 in my graph and it is good to see the weight graph slide a bit closer to the goal graph with this new entry. My table is weekly weights for each Sunday. I can put in each day in the Sunday spot and see how I am going. It is the Sunday weight that counts so I am trying to get to 76. I have today and Saturday.
It is interesting how strong the urge is to eat more than you plan. I know the body likes the status quo and will try to keep a stasis with weight as it does with temperature. 1/2 a kilo a week is a pretty fast change for the body and I feel that it is nothing to do with will power when I have to eat more. But keeping around the 6000kJ mark even when we eat too much stops us from putting weight on.
We watched the show about the top three weight loss programs and the doctor interviewed said that 95% of people put their weight back on in 5 years. I feel like I can maintain this way of eating for ever. We haven't changed our shopping list, we still eat the same food as before but we count the kilojoules and plan. It is not a diet but it is a healthy eating plan. I will never put the weight back on again.

Slow and steady

76.4kg 14th Oct
12th and 13th were 76.7kg

I am back down to what I was last Sunday. I am hoping I can get down to 76 by this coming Sunday.
I have kept the count down just below 5500kJ for yesterday and the day before. It seems that once I have a few days of wanting to eat everything in sight I can manage quite easily to get it back to 5500 for a few days.
Today should be a 5300 day with sweet and sour chicken for lunch and avo bread for dinner and two pieces of fruit and some cake and chocolate and a cup of coffee. I may give in to the second cup of coffee and go to 5630 but I can probably manage with a cup of tea. I really want to get to 76 by Sunday.

Not too bad

76.4kg today. Same as yesterday.

Breakfast - toast with banana and honey and juice - 1715
Lunch - sausages and mash and beans and wine - 2150
coffee and chocolate and pear - 1080
Some marshmallows - 200
Dinner - avo and bread - 650
1/2 wine - 150
Pear 200
= 6145

Another big day. Surely I will put weight on tomorrow.

Making a graph

76.4 Sunday 10th Oct

I made a graph in Numbers of my weekly weights each Sunday. It looks excellent. A steady drop.

Today has been a big day for eating. My count is over 7000kJ but less than 8000. Doesn't sound too good but it was rainy and dull and difficult to stay away from the kitchen.
What did I eat today:
Breakfast - toast, juice - 1400
Morning tea - coffee, oat slice - 1330
Lunch - mince and veges - 1010
Wine - 300
More coffee and half chocolate - 630
Dinner - 650
Wine - 150
Pear - 290
Marshmallows and cheesecake bites - 400
1/2 chocolate - 300
100 listed but can't remember what it was.
= 6560

I actually thought it was a lot more than this.

Oh well. Tomorrow is a new day. Maybe I just needed a bit of a splurge.

Too much to eat

76.4kg today Friday 8th Oct

I decided to save some of my prawns for dinner this time. Last time we had prawns I ate them all at lunch and felt way too full. I also felt the need for coffee and chocolate in the afternoon so my dilemma was how to keep the kJ under control. But by the time I ate the 6 prawns I had saved for dinner I didn't feel like anything else. I had my pear before bed and totalled about 5500kJ for the day.
Needless to say I was able to lose weight so I am now hoping that I can at least maintain the 76.4 til Sunday and that will mean I will have lost 0.5 kg in a week.
We have been counting kJ for about 6 weeks now and we are both finding it easier to judge and juggle to keep between 5000 and 6000kJ for the day. I know that I can keep this up until I get to my goal weight of 58 kg.
We have decided that we won't officially count on Christmas day and Boxing day because we want to have all those Christmassy things like cake, pudding, ice cream, chocolate, cocktails. I did a quick count of what all my wants would add up to and it came to about 14000kJ for one day. Funnily though when I looked over the list I was thinking 'How can I possibly find room for all this?'. So maybe it won't be such a big blowout after all. It is fun to look forward to a free day and imagine all the treats we can have. I don't have any desire to break out earlier because I really want to get down to 72kg by Christmas. I can remember winter 18 months ago I was 72kg and I felt great so that is what motivates me to get there again.

Still motivated

76.7 kg today Thursday
Sunday was 76.9
Monday 76.6
Tuesday 76.9
Wednesday 76.9

Somewhere I went up to 77.2 again which was frustrating. However, on Wednesday we went to lunch again and had jelly and icecream for desert and I just had to have a half piece of chocolate last night with my tea and I still lost.
Both of us are finding that we go up and down over the week like the stock market. We zig and zag but the trend is downward. Hopefully the stock market trend is upward! To balance out the lunch I had avocado on a mountain bread for dinner.
Today we got a free small slurpy with our fuel so we had half each and called it 300kJ each.
We are having prawns again today. The prawns and the sauce are 1300kJ. I should have some veges tonight but I don't feel like it. I will have two avo and mountain breads. Banana and mulberries round it out to 5600kJ for the day.

Another Week

76.9kg today. This weeks loss = 0.2kg
Another week has gone by. Last Sunday I was 77.1kg. I spent three days on 76.8 then went up to 77.2 and today I am down to 76.9. Losing the weight is a slow process to match the rate that I put it on, I suppose. 25kg in 25 years. I hope to lose it a bit faster than that. An average of 2 kg a month would make me happy. But it may be slower than that. I don't want too much pain. If I can lose it at any rate and eat what I have been it should be easy.

I prepared today's menu this morning, piling on what I thought was a lot of food and would surely put me over 5500kJ. But when I totaled it up it was fine.

1/4 rock melon - 165
Mulberry pie - 1200 and coffee - 330

two mountain breads and avocado - 2 x 650 with tuna - 403
coffee - 330 1/3 my banana ration - total banana ration 2 x 365

1/3 banana and tea
carrot and potat0 and sauce - 135 + 440 + 100 = 685
1/3 banana and tea

total = 5143kJ
There is room here for a wine 150kJ if I feel like it.

Making choices

76.8kg again today

I added a glass of wine after prawn lunch and then finished off a few tablespoons of left over mulberry sauce before dinner. I didn't feel like a big dinner so I left out the potato. This gave me kJ for a cup of coffee after dinner with my banana.

I am learning to consider what I am eating so it fits in the kJ count for the day. It is getting easier to swap things or halve things rather than eat everything. I feel as though I will be able to maintain this eating habit for a long time til I get to my goal weight of 60kg and then maintain order in my diet so that I do not put it on again.

We have a rock melon that we need to eat. A quarter slice will be about 250 kJ. This is no more than a banana or pear so we will be able to fit it into our kJ count quite easily as a fruit snack. It will mean leaving out other less useful snacks like wine or chocolate but they will wait for another day. We don't want to waste the rock melon.

I don't feel as though I am doing without anything I just juggle the items so I can eat things just for fun as well as nutrition.