I’ve succumbed…. I’m always stalking other YouTube weight-loss diaries with morbid fascination and don’t feel quite so alone listening to how other people cope with losing large amounts of weight so I’ve decided to do a weekly diary of my own. It will help keep me focused…
It will also be quite fun to start sharing some of the great 1940s books, videos, food, fashions and ideas that stagnate in this little old brain of mine.
C xxxxxxxx
Lookin’ mighty fine!!!!! Don’t you worry, you will do it! And if perhaps you fall off the wagon and have a good roll in the hay then you just hop back on!
Oh Cathy- you ALWAYS say the right things 🙂 Thank you 🙂 xxxxxxxxxxx
You are just the sweetest thing!! I love being able to properly put a face and voice to the blog 🙂 It was great to finally “meet” you. This WILL be the time it stays off because I believe you have jumped the hardest hurdle. At Christmas, you had gained a bit of weight and your attitude was that it was okay, and you worked hard to get back down and then some! I think once a person realizes that if they bugger up a bit it doesn’t mean the end and having to start over again, they are more successful. Instead of just going hog wild, you continued marching on and I think that shows how far down the path of success you really are.
Awwwwww thank you Marina! I really do feel this is IT! Infact I know it is! I no longer hide anything… and accept failure and you are right… if you can keep getting back up and soldiering on it is absolutely the right attitude. Better to try and fail than never try at all… thanks so much xxxxxx
Oh Carolyn, what a sweet video! It is very nice to hear your voice and you know what, you sound exactly like how I thought you would. Congratulations on your weight loss.
Let me tell you why I started following your blog. It’s not as if I do not have weight loss issues of my own, God knows, but what really got me, was you desire to revisit the WWII food rationing period.
I am a nurse who chats with people all the time about different aspects of nutrition. I was looking around one day in the grocery store and began noticing people who paid for their food with food stamps. I saw that they really had no idea how to spend their food stamps wisely. It came to me in a flash, “Well hell, these people just don’t know how to cook!” That idea kept bugging me and bugging me. I decided I needed to do something about it.
I went to my local food bank and told them that I wanted to teach cooking classes for people on food stamps or those who received food from their charity. I just knew I could help them use their small ration in a better way to feed their families. They thought I was nuts at first. Finally, after much to do, I got a space at a local church who let us use their kitchen. I put up a flyer advertising the classes.
I got six women originally and then it just grew and grew. I now have a second class going for which I received a large donation from local people to help in the effort.
Since I am a hardcore hiistory buff, I looked to the past for time tested ideas on how to well on a budget. I had read about Wartime Loaf many moons before so I went looking for a recipe and …well..there you where. What can I say, it was fate.
Dear Mary- I can’t tell you how thrilled to read your comment!
All along I’ve been whittering on (to anyone who will listen) that TODAY we need people just like you to teach people how to cook with REAL FOOD! During Wartime Britain people were employed by the Ministry of Food to do just this… teach people how to cook nutritional recipes using their rations and what food would be available to them.
They taught people how to make their food stretch, how to ensure that their families were adequately nourished during the lean war years, how to cook and maintain the nutritional content of the food they were serving…
Today we are all about “quick food”.. food that has been tampered with and modified and preserved to within an inch of its life..we have acquired a taste and appetite for such doctored foods removed from their origins just about as far as they can be and accept them as “normal” in our every day lives.. I think we need to get back to treating these foods as an occasional convenience rather than a necessity.
I worry, really worry, about how food these days is killing us when infact it should be healing us
Eaten in its wholefood state it can cure us..
I think its AWESOME what you are doing! I’d love to see some photos!!!
C xxxxxx
Hey Carolyn
I’ve been following your recipes because I needed to economise and they’re great for that. I watched your video diary introduction out of interest (and I agree with the last comment that you’re just like I thought you’d be) but I’ve got a confession to make. I’ve just never really got it about people trying to lose weight because it’s not something I’ve ever really needed to do. But I can see you’ve done so well and you’re trying so hard that it’s made me much more sympathetic.
We’re all ( I know I am!) inclined to knock what we are. My teenage years were made miserable because I was thin and even now I’m amazed by the number of people who are quite happy to make comments about my size and shape when they would say nothing if I was overweight. I’m not skinny – though I am very tall and this creates a certain illusion. I certainly put on weight when I don’t have enough physical activity (which means I eat more of certain stuff too?) and I lose weight when I’m very active over long periods, or on my own. This last happens every so often and is happening now. I don’t think much about what I’m eating, though I don’t go for processed stuff anyway, but I’ve noticed that every time I’m on my own, my eating habits change and frankly, the weight falls off. It kind of happens without me noticing but here I am again, down two sizes, I feel great and have lots of energy so it’s obviously not doing me any harm. Maybe you do this already but this is what happens to me!
First, I start to eat strange things at different times of day! I won’t even go there but I eat more protein for breakfast, and I keep going really well during the day. Next, I find that I like milk and fat in the morning but don’t fancy it at all after midday – so I’m really eating veg and fruit and drinking water from midday on. And last, I often don’t bother to eat in the evening, and end up just having a drink. I wake up all ready for a four course breakfast and so I go on… It’s not very sociable but it sure knocks the weight off!
Good luck and keep up those recipes – I love them!
Hi Jane…… I’m rather obsessed with trying to lose weight as I am scared for my kids being left all alone if I was to die. The way I was going and struggling to just walk from the car to the house was finally enough to start doing something about it. My health was in a bad way..
YES “even now I’m amazed by the number of people who are quite happy to make comments about my size and shape when they would say nothing if I was overweight. ” that is unfair. Some people can be ignorant or unthoughtful..
Thanks for all your thoughts and for telling me about your activities and eating habits that lead to a natural weight loss- there are lessons to be learned from that I think! Eat earlier in the day and substantially and keep busy!!
Thanks for your comments Jane!
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Hi Carolyn
You’re doing awesomely and you’re definitely an inspiration to many people out there – keep on going!!! I’ve been a real fan of the blog for some months.
I probably have about 40 pounds to lose (42 to be exact) – I was doing well (using a varient on teachings compiled by Gaylord Hauser – a well known nutritionist who was around from the 1930s through to the 1980s) but have fallen off the wagon since going on holiday. Like you, I want to live a longer life and be there for my children, and partner, but at 48 I feel like little old woman at times. Can you provide us with a guide made up of the food you eat for the week? I’m really considering going vegan as I’m a real fruit and veg freak. Looking forward to hearing from you. Blessings, Bev
How lovely to hear your voice! You look great and you seem happy, which I think makes all the difference. If it helps to bolster your confidence, Bill Clinton is now a vegan, and thin for the first time in his life. And he says he really likes what he eats. So a little inspiration for the day.
Carolyn, I just found your blog and I’m so impressed! I’ve enjoyed reading it and wanted to thank you for sharing all of this info about 1940’s ration diets. Congratulations on your weight loss. My weight has always been a struggle and the older I get the harder it is. I find your upbeat posts an inspiration!
Do you by chance work in radio? Your voice is beautiful! You sound like a soothing talk show host on a women’s program.
Good luck!
Sarah H
What a great video and a great project! You’re such an inspiration. I can’t wait to follow your journey and to see you succeed…I know you will! Keep up the great work 🙂
Thank you so much!!! xxxxxx