I will start today by taking you through the things I have eaten.
Breakfast: a bowl of coco pops with semi-skimmed milk.
mid morning snack: toast and butter.
Random snack: 4 x bourbon biscuits (I was good, normally I'd eat half the packet)
lunch: 3 x cheese and piccalilli sandwiches and 2 x crisps.
mid afternoon snack: half a pack of caramel nibbles.
Dinner: Chinese takeaway. 2 x beer.
Pudding: magnum ice cream.
Random evening snack: twirl and 2 x Bourbon biscuits (with my tea).
Total calories for the day (if I don't have a double whisky too): 3627.
Calories for a male to maintain: 2500
Excess calories: 1127
A week's excess calories (if I continued eating the same way): 7889
It may seem that I have gone overboard today in order to show how many calories we could eat, but remembering my old life this was about a normal calorie intake. Obviously some days I would eat less and some days I would eat more, but the end of week total would be about right. In fact, there were some days where I did not stop eating or drinking and that excess calorie count would have far exceeded the 1127 that today threw up. It would especially go up on days where I had been drinking heavily the night before, maybe on a Friday, so that on Saturday I would simply sit in front of the television and eat. This, in turn, would expand my stomach so that it took me longer to feel full and so I would eat more. A vicious circle.
Obviously I will do this again tomorrow and it may be that I have less, as I wouldn't normally have a takeaway two days on the trot. Maybe it would be more as sometimes I would have a Macdonalds breakfast and freezer crap for dinner as well as a big lunch. Some days it would be the same. My lifestyle was as hectic as my life and healthy didn't even come in to the equation. In fact, I am pretty sure that I always convinced myself, during those times of really stuffing myself full of beer and crap, that I wasn't actually eating that much.
What I actually ate.
Brakfast: Cherry Yoghurt with strawberries and grapes.
lunch: mackerel in korma sauce and coleslaw salad with a round of seeded white bread and butter.
Mid-afternoon snack: Cherry yoghurt.
Dinner: Risotto, mushrooms, peas and green beans.
Pudding: Scoop of ice cream.
Snack: Whisky and a packet of crisps.
Total Calories: 1650
Exercises:
15,642 steps
25 minutes cardio
25 push ups
Quite a difference a day makes. I am not feeling hungry in any way and I do feel content in what I have eaten. However, I have noticed a trend to not fill up during the day so that I can have more snacks at night time and this is something that I have to stop. I may be eating healthily during the day but at night I am eating too much rubbish. This will end up with me eating too much fat or sugar and this will add weight on even if I am staying under calories.
So the experiment so far is certainly eye opening and is making me realise just how easy it is to put on weight very quickly if you aren't actually watching what you are eating and sometimes even if you are. We will see how many calories I would have really eaten by the end of the week. It certainly is a motivator to NOT go back to the way I was and having the possibility of being heavier than my heaviest weight of 14 stones and 7lbs. But I also have to remember what I have said I have eaten today so that I do not eat the same things. I can't eat something tomorrow that I ate completely today!
I am grateful that I am able to do this and begin to see where I was going wrong and also that I don't want to be there again.
Until tomorrow, stay safe and stay strong.
Thanks for reading.
Sean.
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