Day 21: Lunch

Chicken and bacon salad and a sparkling water.

Eaten out at Caffe Verdi, a local cafe.  It was very nice, think the chicken might have been salted which always makes it more tasty.  Had to eat out as we had nothing in and I was in a rush!

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 16: Breakfast

Sausage, bacon, egg, tomatoes and mushrooms.  Coffee with cream.

Don't know why, but I really felt I needed this!  Bought at my favourite local cafe, Garton's.  Good quality ingredients and always tastes good.  Breakfast of the champions!

Day 14: Lunch

Mixed Grill: 5oz rump steak, 5oz gammon steak, chicken breast, coleslaw, mushroom, tomato, peas.

We ate out at the Anchor in Liphook.  It's a fairly bog standard cheap pub grub offering, but was actually pleasantly surprised at the quality.  The dish actually came with chips and onion rings, and as usual a little ask was all it took to swap them, and this time I opted for coleslaw.  I didn't eat the sausage or the pineapple pictured either, they went to the girls.

Day 12: Out for coffee

Americano with cream.

If I'm out, this is now my staple wherever I am.  If you haven't yet switched, I urge you to, unless you're already an expresso drinker - I'm not quite that hardcore yet!  If you haven't read it already, search out my original post about coffee by using the "eating out" label in the sidebar.

Day 7: Out for Coffee

Americano with cream at Costa.


Was taken for a quick coffee in Costa by a client after her session today.  Steered clear of lattes and cappucinos, and asked for a coffee with cream.  Obviously not a popular request as she tried to top my coffee up with squirty cream!  It also always strikes me how big the servings have got now, I had a medium and it came in a soup bowl basically, whilst a large pretty much resembles a bucket!  Is this a symptom of Starbucks coming in and bringing with it American sizing?  It is just too much!  If I had have gone for a medium latte I would have consumed just over 202 kcals and just under 14.8 grams of sugar, as it was I had just over 104 kcals and only 2.3 grams of sugar.  Even more interesting though, and this is for everyone who tries to be virtuous with a skinny version of their favourite drink, is that if I had chosen a skinny latte I would have consumed 114 kcals and 16.4 grams of sugar.  When you think back to what I mentioned about the importance of insulin control to weight loss, then you can see why skinny drink variety not only doesn't help but actually worsens the scenario by increasing the glycaemic index and load of the drink.


Personally, I'm a big fan of visiting independent traders and finding a new experience, with the possibility of finding a real gem with amazing food and/or drink.  The excitement of the new experience is great, but admittedly it's tempered by the risk of finding an absolute dive with appalling food.  Living in a town like mine I also appreciate the fact that it is not just a carbon copy of every other town in the land, with chains dominating the high street.  Don't get me wrong, I don't actually have a bone to pick with many of the chains and I can also see the appeal, but if you value variety and the ability to develop a relationship with someone local who puts their life passion into their business venture, then you have to put your money where your mouth is and support them so they don't die out!  It is a risk, it doesn't offer the comforting consistency of a trusted national chain, but to my mind I think the rewards infinitely outweigh the risks.


That being said, I have to commend Costa on how good their nutritional website is, where I pulled the above data from.  It is very transparent, very easy to use and enables and encourages customers to take more control of their diet.  To my mind, that is a very good thing.

Day 5: Dinner and Drinks and a Technical Hitch

Unfortunately I have no pictures or Foursquare check in to show you from my consumption at my friends engagement party as my phone died whilst out for the evening!  So the above was a picture I pulled from their website.  The venue was called the Fulham Wine Rooms and it was a fantastic place if you like wines.  What the picture above shows is a set of fridges stocked with white, rose and red wines all kept at appropriate temperatures.  You can buy a card and an amount of credit and just help yourself to a glass, choosing a taster, a small or a large glass serving of the wine of your choice.  It is a great concept and a real winner in a group setting.


I ended up having six small (125ml) glasses of various red wines, all of which were good, and a couple excellent.  I had been desperately searching around beforehand for something half decent to eat as I'm no heavyweight when it comes to holding my drink!  Didn't manage to, but was really glad when I met the couple in question at the bar and we started ordering food from the menu.  It was a tapas style meal, and we had a selection of cured meats one of which was Iberico ham.  This ham, I'd had before in Seville, Spain and it is without a doubt the very best cured meat I have ever tasted.  If anyone knows of  one better I want to know as I need it in my life!  I also had whitebait fish, some sort of chilli spiced octopus, roasted and stuffed pimiento peppers, king prawns with chorizo, and I had one piece of garlic ciabatta.  The food was fantastic quality, and apart from the garlic bread, actually all within limits on a normal day.  I did ruin it on the train home however by buying a steak and ale pasty, which I'm disappointed with myself for!  It's a typical weakness for me; getting drunk = getting munchies = eating bad food!

Day 5: Drink - a lesson to be learned

This Is Water orange and lemon drink.


I was on my way into London for a friends engagement drinks, and decided to take a long walk from the train station to the venue.  It lasted about 40-50mins and it was quite a balmy afternoon in London.  I was a bit rushed as I wasn't sure where I was going and had cut it quite tight if I were to get lost.  On passing a Tesco's Local I nipped in to get a drink.  As it was a cheat day, I really fancied something refreshing and fruity.  I didn't go for any of the fruit juices as I could only see the cheap concentrated varieties, but in a moment of rushing and despite knowing better I picked this up as it looked good.  I paid for it and set off on my journey again.  Whilst drinking, I thought I'd read the nutrition label to see the calories I was taking in via this cheat drink.  160kcals roughly, isn't actually too bad, but I was really disappointed to see that sugar was added to the mix.  


It just goes to show, don't judge a product by it's packaging!  They know what they are doing and package a product to directly influence you in your decision making process.  Premium packaging often doesn't mean premium product and they will obviously always sell you the upside.  Although it tasted very nice, it's not something I'll be buying again.

Day 4: Eating Out

Today was always going to be that bit harder as I had a business meeting in Bristol.  I had never been before so was keen to explore, but really wanted to stick to my intentions.  I've dabbled with foursquare before, but will use it everytime I eat out, so you can see where it was and if you want to join me on there, I'll be writing reviews and recommendations.  Lunch, was on a river boat restaurant called Spyglass, and I was very impressed!  Dinner was at Jamie's Italian in Clifton, and this is now a franchise of restaurants by famous chef Jamie Oliver.  Again, it was another lovely meal.  I was very happy, and I didn't break my diet!