Success again

74.8kJ 25th November 2010
yesterday 74.9kJ

My weight has dropped nicely since I started the 12 14 12 12 plan. I was desperate to get my intake down from about 5700 to 5000kJ. I decided that four decent meals with 3 1/2 hours between them was a reasonable goal. 4 hours is too long and I feel miserable so I settled on 3 1/2. This timing also fitted in with when Neville wanted his lunch. I don't eat anything other than at those times and I try to get to the full kJ amount for each meal.
Today:
Rice cereal and milk - 1073 (7:30)
Steak(100g), beans, carrot, gravy - 1195 (11:00)
Mango, 1/2 large banana and large coffee - 1200 (14:30)
1 sausage, beans, carrot, sweet and sour sauce - 985 (18:00)

I found that the sausage dinner was plenty last night. I ate half a banana to get up the kJ count but felt over full.
I will see how I feel at lunch. Yesterday I had a small coffee and a 90kJ chocolate stick after the same steak lunch.
I have found that the cereal alone is enough for breakfast. I vary the menu with orange juice, 1 egg on toast and small cereal, two eggs on 1 slice of toast, pikelets with banana and jam and coffee. They all fit into 1200kJ.

Need a new habit

75.8kg Sunday 21st Nov
Monday I am back to 75.3. I have been getting out of the habit of being careful and justifying snacks for any reason.
I have found that my jobs schedule has been working really well and I have been getting a lot done that I used to think of and say I would do later. Breaking the housework and one off jobs down into set time slots seems to make doing them a lot easier.
Why not try the same system for meals? So now my plan is to have four meals a day at set times. I may look at the clock and wish it was time for afternoon snack but at least I am not in the kitchen looking in the fridge and pantry til I find something.
7:25 breakfast - 1200kJ
11:00 lunch - 1400kJ
2:30 afternoon tea - 1200kJ
6:00 dinner - 1200kJ

I find that I can swap lunch and afternoon tea to be morning tea then lunch if I want to go out for morning tea. I have only tried it for three days but it seems pretty easy to go 3 1/2 hours between meals and the 1200kJ is like a real meal or a hearty cake. I have my meat at lunch time and just veges and desert at dinner.
By the way the jobs schedule is:
7:30 - 9:30 (for summer)
3:00 - 4:00
I have a downloaded editable calendar month that I type in all the things I want to do into the time slots.

Continued weight loss

75.3 12th Nov

I have bounced around 75.5 - 75.8 for a few days. Today I am the lowest I have been for more than 12 months. I got to 72.5 in June last year. I feel a bit thinner. At 80kg I felt fat and uncomfortable.
I have been finding it difficult to get my kJ count down to 5000. I generally eat about 6000kJ a day. I still feel as though chocolate calls me when I don't really need it but as long as I still lose weight I'm not going to beat myself up about it.
My husband and I both keep track of what we eat and try to decide between treats rather than have them all. This way we don't feel deprived and still keep the kJ under control. Comparing this photo to my last photo ( Oct - Plateau) I think my thighs look a bit thinner.

Another loss

75.7kg 7th Nov
The last 4 weeks I have stuck at 76.4. All this week i was around 75.8. It seems now that I have really lost another 0.5kg. I have been craving sugar and looking for extra food this week. Even with a few days over 6000kJ I have managed to continue the losing trend. I didn't reach my two month goal but that is OK since I still lost some. I have just set my new goal start from 75.7kg for the next two months. The plateau is obvious when the results are graphed.

Meal size

75.8kg 3rd November

We went away Monday and stayed the night with friends. It was obvious they ate differently to us. A lot more on their plates and a huge icecream for dessert. We had the ice cream too and today I stayed the same and he lost a few points. We had Aldi milkyway chocolate snacks to eat on the road and a bottle of pepsi. We bought some raost chicken from Woolworths for lunch and ate it at a picnic table on the way home.
We both have a desire to eat a lot but it is controllable.