Say Cheese

Well, the past week and a half has been I think the hardest so far.  I have craved cheese non-stop.  Everything I cook and eat, I think “a bit of cheese would go lovely with this”.  Even as I bite into an apple I think “a nice cracker and bit of cheese would go down a treat with this”.  It’s got to the point that I am starting to see it everywhere, and I know it sounds strange but I also hear it everywhere.  Like when I go into a shop for a cup of tea, the person in front is ordering a cheese sandwich, the person in the street taking a picture of her family says “Say cheese” and it make my mouth water!  Boy I could have run to the shop to buy the biggest lump of cheese they had, and put it between two bits of bread and happily sat there eating it.  Even my little boy is pointing to the fridge and asking for cheese (he loves Babybel).  Before, when Cheese was not really a “no-no” I could quite easily go without, but now I am cutting it out altogether it’s the one thing I feel I cannot go without.  Its like chocolate for the sweet-eaters, you know you shouldn’t have it, but it makes you want it that little bit more.

It’s strange how our minds play tricks on us. It’s like my friend who hates Quorn  products.  Their view is “if it’s not meat why try to disguise it as meat???”, which is a fair point. When they cooked it and knew that it was not meat they could tell the difference but when their partner cooked it, they could not tell the difference and ate it!  Is it because you have a mental image of what the food should taste like and knowing full well its not exactly prepared as you would expect, your mind tells you “this is not right, you should not eat this, its disgusting”??? 

I personally found turning over to Soya based products very easy.  I cook it the same way as I would meat; it’s just healthier for me. :0)  Another thing that I have felt hard to stop using is oils and fats.  I love my toast in the morning with a little bit of butter on. I did change over to veggie spread but now I am trying to cut this out as well.  So I have taken to putting other things on my morning toast.  At the moment my favourite is hummus – it’s yum! It goes down very nicely with cucumber and tomato on. However, unfortunately as it’s shop-bought hummus it does have a lot of oil in and so too much is not as healthy as it seems.

I weighed myself this morning and I have lost 2lb since Tuesday which is good but this means I have the weekend to lose the remaining 3lb to reach my target of 5 lb this week.  So, over the weekend I am going to eat fruit for breakfast, salad for lunch and loads of salad or veg for dinner with a little bit of something else. My snacks are going to be just fruit. I am going to step up my exercise this weekend, and try and aim for at least ½ hour sessions a day.  I am looking forward to getting back to my weekly swim.  I love swimming, it takes my mind off a lot of things, and I feel sort of free when I am in the water  - I am a true water baby and I hope that my boys will be too.

It’s been a very emotional week for me this week, with one thing and another. And it’s been very hard for me not to do my usual “comfort eating” for hours on end, but I think I have done very well and avoided it. It’s a little disappointing that I have not lost more due to the hard work I have put in to avoid the “bad” foods, when I could have quite easily stuffed my face with KFC all day every day. It just goes to show that having a little target in mind does help with determination. Which will leave me with the task of finding another small but motivational target for next week? If I lose my final 3lb!