Four weeks and four kilograms
In the last four weeks, I’ve lost four kilograms. So far so good, but I must remain diligent. My goal weight is 77 kg, so I have another six kilograms to go. My aim is to get slightly under that and then stabilise around the 77 kg mark. At 77 kg, I won’t huff and puff when walking around the lake, I’ll be able to tackle stairs more easily and I will be able to fit in my business shirts more easily.
After losing four kilograms, I’ve already noticed that my trousers are more comfortable; getting in and out of my car is more comfortable and I can wear a necktie more comfortably. Sleeping has also been easier, although; I’ve been experiencing the odd night of insomnia. I don’t know why. I’ve got a bit on my mind at the moment but nothing life-threatening.
It’s reassuring that I can tighten my belt without feeling uncomfortable all day. Wearing a suit is also much more comfortable sans four kilograms. This last week I needed to wear a suit to attend senate estimate hearings at Parliament House over two days. It’s been a long time since I felt comfortable wearing a suit.
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How am I losing weight? Four kilograms so far.
As I’ve written before I’m modifying a low carbohydrate way of living. No bread, no rice, no pasta, no added sugar to anything, but I’m still eating vegetables and fruit. For example, last Saturday I enjoyed nude wonton soup and then on Sunday had yuk biang.
The fruit is mainly for a dessert treat. Mangoes are a great treat at this time of year. I’ve also added some slices of pear to some of the salads I’ve been making.
How about exercise?
Yea, well, there hasn’t been a lot of that. I’ve been busy with work, and when I did this while living in Darwin, I began daily walks when I’d reached my goal weight as a means to stabilise. I hope to do the same now that the mornings are getting warmer.
Are there any new cooking ideas?
Well yes, there is, at least a couple of techniques I can easily describe.
Non-Asian stir-fry
The first is to stir-fry but not using Asian foods or ingredients. For example, I’m a fan of tightly shredded cabbage, sliced green beans, sweet corn, sliced asparagus, sliced bird’s eye chillies, tomatoes, sliced celery plus lots of chilli flakes. In a wok, I melt butter until it foams and then add the vegetables. I wait until the cabbage and tomato have softened and lost shape and then add a splash of cream and allow the liquid to reduce to a nice spicy sauce that coats all the vegetables. To this, I’ll serve it with whatever meat I’m preparing for that evening. Lately, it’s been chicken thighs roasted in a moderately hot (200 °C/400 °F) oven for one hour. When I have salmon, I dice it raw and add it at the end of stir frying my vegetables in the buttery cream sauce.
Microwave oven pressure cooking
You will have read previously that I’ve recently purchased some Tupperware®, included in my recent purchases is a Microwave Oven pressure cooker. I made a lamb forequarter curry in less than half an hour. Doing something similar without a pressure cooker would take hours of slow cooking to get the lamb forequarter meat soft enough to fall off the bone. You can find the recipe over at Yummy Lummy.
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What’s the next big challenge?
Tomorrow at work there is a Halloween bake-off. There will be lots of cakes and sweet treats. We have a regular bake-off event to raise money for charity and also for a work Christmas function. Tomorrow may have to be a ‘cheat day’.
Photograph gallery
Here’s a gallery of photographs, each has a caption. Click on one image to open the gallery through which you can scroll through all the photographs
Please feel free to check out all the photographs.
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So proud of you!! I, also, am slowing down my intake. Then, days like today happen, and I find myself staggering to the candy aisle. Reading your successes make mine seem not so nebulous!
I wanted to find your podcast last night when I had ‘free’ internet time, but got lost in the maze of sleeplessness. I do want to hear you speak on this subject-it happens to be close to where I live right now! (in case you wondered….)
Thanks Kris
I hope I will continue to lose weight
I wouldn’t get too excited about the podcast, it’s light and superficial
When the blog post goes live in about four and a half hours you can just listen on the website
I rarely do anything in depth and try to focus on things that a little quirky
I loved your RHPS get up
Aww, Thank you on the compliment and I’ll still want to listen.
NIce job! And I am liking the redesign of the blog. It is nice and clean.
Thanks and thanks. I like playing with the design. I can’t go back to the original now unless I launch from a back-up. One theme I tried corrupted the original code so when I try to load the original theme it is just gibberish on a page. Such is life when experimenting with WordPress.org 😃
Anyone that has blogged on WP long enough has gone through the upgrade troubles. I am just glad the last one I did didn’t cause much trouble.
It’s like an adventure and taking the wrong fork in the road 😂
Excellent achievement in four weeks Gary…really well done. No wonder you feel so good. I have just got two rescue dogs (so cute) with lots of energy and I jog with them every morning at 6am ( I know you are saying with the good weather you might get up early – do that its great) and then I take a very fast walk every night and have lost weight myself. So keep up the great work – as you say it’s so much better for us isn’t it – I love now after my weight loss I can walk up my twenty stairs in my town house without any trouble – and the fact I can jog with the little dogs is wonderful. Keep posting so I can hear about your achievements Gary – regards sue .
Thanks Sue, it’s the long game which is important. The short gains help but I need to stick at this.
Great to hear the road to getting healthy is going well. Steady goes 😃 I’m thinking of cutting down on carbs as well – they never fail to make me bloat. Had pasta tonight and it didn’t help I cooked too much and had to finish it all 😂 Maybe have one or two treats at the bakeoff tomorrow 😀
Thanks Mabel. Every now and then some pasta or rice or bread is fine, but like you, I was bloating.
Yep, tomorrow, I’ll indulge a little 😃😋
Have a couple of servings of sweets tomorrow then. Cheat day and enjoy. Maybe there will be cake 😃😃