Day 20: Lunch

Cheating Again!!!

Today was the 75th Birthday of my grandmother-in-law, and we had thrown a surprise party for her.  My plan was to be good yesterday so that I could cheat today, but as you've seen from yesterday's posts, that didn't quite work out.  My plan was then to try to be good today, but that soon went to pot too!  Unfortunately, where I was helping out with organising on the day, I didn't diligently take snaps of everything that passed my lips, in fact hardly anything, but I'll try to give you an honest account!

Above is an example of the sort of thing that was in abundance and I can safely say I will have eaten around 10 of these mini treats.  I also had a glass of champagne and 2 pints of sparkling elderflower cordial, but the rest of the time stuck with cups of tea (it was a very hot day, 28 degrees centigrade, and it was non stop!).

There was also buffet food, which I ended up having for both lunch and tea.  I honestly can't tell you why there's no snaps of this, looking back I can't remember!  Must try harder next time.  They say with food diary logging, like the apps on your phone that track calories etc, that it's not the things you track that do the damage, it's the things you decide not to, as it gives you free reign.  This is the case here too, and there's less excuse as a little photo with your phone is quick and easy.

The buffet I had was mainly coronation chicken, sausages, some quiche and salad.  I did manage to steer clear of the breads and pastas.  I figured if I was going to be naughty, I wouldn't be wasting it on those foods,  I'd save it for the amazing puddings on offer!  Speaking of those, I think I probably had 3 bowls of Eton Mess!  If you haven't heard of it, it's a simple but delicious dish; meringue, strawberries and whipped double cream.

We'll see tomorrow what the damage is in terms of results!

Day 19: Late Night Snack

Tea bread, butter and a cup of tea.

To finish off my cheat day in style I had a late night snack of my wife's homemade tea loaf which is made with All Bran breakfast cereal, tea bags and usual cake ingredients.  It is seriously nice, even more so with butter on!  This type of food is my biggest weakness.

Day 19: Dinner

Fish and chips!

Having had my best intentions scuppered at lunch, I decided that today would become a cheat day.  It has been exceedingly hot today, and whilst I love it, my wife and three girls were suffering so we decided to head to the beach!  We had lots of good and active fun running along the beach and swimming in the sea, but my middle daughter Jess has developed an obsession with chips and tomato ketchup at the seaside!  So seeing as she has me wrapped around her little finger, that's what you see us all eating here.  And very nice it was too!

Day 19: Lunch

CHEAT ALERT: Pork belly sandwich, with tortilla chips and a pint of bitter lemon and soda water.

Was out to lunch with my business partner in the training company we run.  He's moved into a new house in a new area so we checked out the local pub!  It has exceedingly nice food, but not a single item that fell in line with my diet aims, not even with some common substitutions like I had done before.  I therefore decided to hell with it and went for something that is one of my all time favourites; pork belly!  The whole thing was very nice indeed, good quality ingredients, even if it was white bread!  The pork had some almost chinese style herb and spice flavouring to it and was to die for!  I did resist the pint of beer that my partner had though!

Day 12: Breakfast

Sausages, fried eggs, beans and grilled tomatoes.

I had decided to let myself have a bit of a cheat breakfast as I hadn't really made much of my cheat day yesterday.  The last of the sausages you'll see in my diet for a while hopefully.  These are made at our local butchers and have 85% meat, so there's some rusk in there.  Beans are the Heinz variety, is there really any others out there that come close!?!

Day 11: Late night snack

Rice pudding!!

As I'd decided it was a cheat day, I had been missing my favourite pudding.  Unfortunately the only place left open was Tesco's and there own brand rice pudding just tasted synthetic, possibly more than usual as my tastes are definitely changing.  Ultimately it left me feeling unfulfilled, disappointed and regretting buying it!

Day 11: Dinner

Roast lamb, new potatoes, broccoli, carrots, Yorkshire puddings, and stock.  Accompanied by a glass of red wine.

Out at my father-in-laws for a big family dinner.  I decided at the start of this project that I wouldn't be precious about it.  Nobody like that person who is a pain in the arse to feed and makes a point of letting everyone else know what's wrong with there diet!  That and the fact that Yorkshire puddings are one of my favourite things ever - my willpower couldn't take it!

Today was another day without lunch.  I'd been helping my father-in-law on a big clear up project and had been doing heavy lifting on a field in the middle of nowhere all day, truly brutal work.  I had drunk 3-4 litres of water and still felt slightly dehydrated as it had been a hot day, and I had taken a couple of handfuls of mixed nuts to try to keep me going, which it did just fine.

With dinner, I toyed with being good, but eventually gave in!  Although the rest of my day hadn't been a cheat at all, I decided I would make this my treat day and go all out, hence potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and fruit salad for pudding.  After that there was also some vanilla ice cream that wasn't pictured.  All in all very enjoyable!