One week in

So, as I mentioned, the working out just wasn’t enough for me and my drive for results. (I have a suspicion that this is also hindering me on my shawl, more on that shortly)
Well, I’ve been trying hard to eat sensibly, while still reducing the number of calories I’m eating – basically trying to be more aware of what it is I’m eating. There were two “challenges” last week in the form of the Department Night Out (more on that later) and movie night with friends. I fared better on one than the other.

So, how did I do last week?

Well, we worked out twice. I decided against working out with a hangover (remember the DNO?) so, I’ve stuck with “sedentary” for my formula, which kind of makes sense.

At my start-of-week weight, my maintenance calories was 1902
My average calories per day were 1379 (a deficit of 523 per day)
My lowest calorie day was Wednesday with 1165 calories consumed (approx)
My highest calorie day was Thursday with 1663 calories consumed (approx)

I tried seven new meals last week. I think that the carrot soup was the most successful, but it uses up a lot of carrots. I’m considering trying the same thing but with different veggies next time. Broccoli and chicken salad was also a success as a packed lunch. Brilliant!
One of the hardest things is making sure to have healthier snacks to eat when I’m feeling peckish. I’ve rediscovered my love for Granny Smith apples, which is rather nice.

So, what was it about Thursday that gave me that extra 300 or so calories? Well, if it hadn’t been for the Department Night Out I suspect I would have done much better.

I had my usual breakfast: Instant Oats made with 200ml skimmed milk and 40g of sultanas, I also had a cup of tea with a little semi skimmed milk. ~345 calories.
For lunch I was doing pretty well, I had salad with two hard boiled eggs, and 4 olives in oil. ~427 calories.
I also had a nectarine and one more cup of tea that day. ~ 51 calories.
Dinner is where I let myself down. It was a barbeque. There was free drink. I had some canapés (mostly with brie, cheese is my nemesis) which I’ve estimated at about 158 calories (yes, just for the canapés) I had one sausage and one burger (about 192 calories for both). I didn’t eat the salad, much coleslaw or the bun. I did have some sauce, but compared to what’s coming it is negligible.
I had three glasses of champagne (267 calories) and about 4 glasses of wine (356 calories) That’s one glass being 120ml.

So, it was the alcohol that did for me, I think.

As for the shawl? It’s progressing. Very. Slowly. It’s not the most exciting knit – it’s basically miles of stocking stitch, interspersed with really complicated counting rows. I have to be in the right frame of mind to do the counting rows, so it frequently stalls on those rows. I’m nervous about knitting it while doing other things because I don’t want to go wrong, even though it’s really simple! I love how it looks, and I’m sure it will be worth it in the end, I’m just glad I started nice and early, and that I’m not knitting the same thing for anyone else!
As I said above, I think that I want to see progress, and the shawl isn’t that kind of project. With it being semi-circular, the rows get so much wider that each row takes an age. I’m lucky to get one row done in my lunchbreak – and if I need to do something else, it’s not going to happen at all!