Diet Day 13

I'm counting this as day 13 of my diet, but many would say it was day one of a new diet. You see, there has been a big gap since my last post because I stopped dieting for a period of months. Yes, that's right months. It has been like two or three months since I last counted my calories. I'm not going to go into the reasons why I fell off the wagon. We all have different reasons at different times for throwing in the towel. Mine seemed like a good reason at the time but now I have thought better of it and am counting again.

It's the 15 April and my weight has gone up to a not too terrifying 85 kilos while I was off the count. I was eating entire packets of biscuits and bar after bar of chocolate, so I was terrified my weight would have gone up to 90 kilos, but no. I just put on a single kilo. I got lucky I guess. So another day started with a calorie budget of 1,600, and my usual good intentions.

Breakfast was something available here in Italy called a quadrottine, which is a very thin sandwich bread bun, for 115 calories. I spread two cheese triangles on this for 82 calories. I do like cheese triangles, they are something I ate in childhood and come with a huge jolt of nostalgia for me. I know they do not objectively taste 'good' but I love them. 115 plus 82 is 197, so I rounded that up to 200 calories.

That was so delicious that I had another one, taking me up to 400 calories.

A couple of hours later I had a mug of instant coffee an a chocolate chip cookie. The cookie was 95 calories and the coffee was 60 (I like it milky). That's 155 for the entire snack and drink combo, taking my running total to 555.

Then I had a nap, and I was hungry when I woke up, so I cooked penne and zucchini. My portion contained half an onion, 22 calories, a whole zuchinni, 33 calories, a table spoon of oil, 120 calories, and the pasta, a whopping 400 calories. I washed it down with a glass of orange juice, 111 calories, which meant the meal was 686 calories, and brought my running total to 1,241 calories.

That meal was a big hit to my calorie budget, but it was delicious. I was still hungry afterwards but I consoled myself with he thought it was already past eight in the evening and I had some calories left to see me through.

I had another thin toast bun and cheese triangles with cheese triangles for a mid evening snack, so that's another 200 calories. That brought my running total to 1,441.

Then I had another. My aim after all isn't o have fun, varied, and interesting food, it is to keep my calorie intake on target. My running total at eleven in the evening was taken to 1,641, just 41 calories over budget, and that is a number I can live with.

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A Message from the Author


If you are constantly losing the mental battle to steer clear of junk food, then the Mindset Diet may be for you. This is not a new diet, it is a whole new mindset. This book is packed with insights and tips to help you manage your weight and stay away from patterns of eating that promote weight gain. This is a back to basics approach, where you count your calories every day, but the latest insights into the psychology of appetite are combined to give you the best possible chance of losing weight.

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