Month: March 2012

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This evening I walked 5 miles

Today I walked 5 miles, at a moderate/brisk pace, non-stop.

It was the longest distance I have walked, without stopping, in the past 20 years and I did it without back pain, I did it with a smile on my face.

For anyone who is restricted by their weight and cannot exercise or walk without severe pain, you will understand about my milestone today. You will understand that being able to walk 5 miles is just about the best thing one could ever wish for.

I went to the track to try and walk 3 miles but when I reached 3 miles I wanted to get to 4 miles so I kept on walking and then at 28 laps, when I had walked 4 miles I wanted to walk 5 miles, so again I just kept going and when I got to 5 miles the “sports centre” was getting ready to shut up for the night so I stopped…

I’m feeling so shocked but elated tonight that I managed to walk that far, I really just want other people to know, who are restricted by their weight like I was, just how good this feels and all it took was 5 months of my life, losing 51 lbs and walking a little bit more every day.

Am VERY emotional about this tonight. I REALLY want you to know what it feels like.

Much love and hugs

C xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

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Good day- bad day

I’m being honest here…

Today has been a good day and a bad day. The good day being I am still very much in control of my eating and continue to lose weight every week, steadily. I also now notice, in photos, that my face is getting a little smaller, I am beginning to see bone structure on occasions and there are not quite so many chins.

Other good things about today have been that I have spent all afternoon moving. Em and I went to Miller Point Peace Park and walked the whole trail. Infact I was rather disappointed it seemed so short and it was over so quickly. This time last year, I attempted to hike the trail with my three children, but I gave up after the second marker as I was so out of shape.  I remember the back pain, it was brutal….

After the trail we went to the mall, Em enjoyed an iced coffee and I enjoyed a black tea and we carried our drinks into the book store with us and spent quite a long time browsing our favourite genre’s. Of course I headed straight to the cookbooks… I let my mind wander imagining how wonderful a lottery win would be so I could buy “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” and 101 other fabulous cookbooks I was busy salivating over. The assistants looked at me strangely as I took pictures of the books with my trusty iPod..

And another good thing about today, I finally fit into a bra I bought and had never worn before, simply because I could not squeeze my mountain of boob flesh into it. Hell I couldn’t even do the damn thing up..it was physically impossible. But today, just on the off chance miracles happen, I hauled it out (because it’s still a rather hefty bra) and tried it on before heading out. It fitted (with a little back fat over spill) and I nearly collapsed in shock. This particular harness had been collecting dust for 6 years!

So what was bad about today? I know this is pathetic, and really I don’t care that much as I am overwhelmingly happy that my health has increased in huge leaps and bounds, BUT, the word I have to share with you today is WRINKLES…

When I had a much fatter face, when I was 51 lbs heavier than I am today, everything was kind of swollen and filled out. There didn’t appear to be many lines or wrinkles and although I felt 75 due to my weight, I thought my skin had weathered fairly well. But now I’m noticing the wrinkles especially under my eyes. I moisturize and wish they’d go away but I guess they are just now here to stay. I’m kind of feeling sorry for myself that although finally I am making myself happier and healthier, my youth is now a thing of the past. How life passes us by so very quickly..

I’m sure I’ll get over it, accept it and embrace the new maturer me (but in my mind I’m still a care free, happy-go luck 16 year old).

Above all, I’m on a journey to claw back my quality of life so I can begin enjoying it again, so I can walk anywhere, have fun and every week, bit by bit, this is happening. I have a LOT to be very, very grateful for..

Who cares about a few extra wrinkles….

Thanks for listening

C xxxxxxx

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The story of “Keep Calm and Carry On”

“Keep Calm and Carry On” is still currently a huge internet meme..

But before it became a meme it was infact a WWII British propaganda poster, that had never been distributed during the war..

Wikipedia :

“The “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster was first commissioned in 1939 by England’s temporary Ministry of Information[1]. Similar to the previous two posters issued by the government, “Freedom Is In Peril. Defend It With All Your Might” (400,000 printed) and “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory” (800,000 printed), “Keep Calm and Carry On” was intended to be distributed in public places to strengthen morale in the event of wartime emergency, which was considered inevitable at the time.

 

 

Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO)[2] was charged with printing the posters, costing approximately £20,600 for printing and storage of 5,000,000 copies, with an additional fee of £225 for the artists who designed them; the designer of the poster remains unknown. These were kept in storage in case of a dire attack on the country, while the other two designs were circulated that September. Since there was not a large-scale attack or occupation, the design was never used. Most of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters were destroyed or lost in time, with the exception of 7: 6 found in 2009 that are in storage at the Imperial War Museum, and 1 that resides in a British book shop.”

Thank you to Melody Tolson who posted the fantastic “Keep Calm and Carry On” video link to my FACEBOOK wall yesterday…it is quite delightful.

Remember to enter our “Keep Calm and Carry On’ monthly giveaway for a beautiful “keep Calm” tea-towel. In just one day, 87 people have entered proving the popularity of this wonderful meme…

 

C xxxx

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The most minutes, win it!

Sweet potato, raw spinach and black beans for lunch today

It’s my lunch break here at work and I’m eating and I’m blogging. Women are the greatest multi-taskers don’t you find?

One of the things that struck me quite quickly when I started on this ration diet was that it takes a lot of time cooking from scratch but I’ve had 5 months this time around to get to grips with this challenge. Every morning (apart from weekends) I have a bowl of organic oats cooked in water with a piece of fruit. For lunch I have a big bowl of raw salad such as spinach and snow peas, maybe a tomato, some high protein beans like haricots and always a potato. In the evening I’ll often experiment with 1940s recipes from my books, and when I do, make extra portions, so I can either freeze them or enjoy a meal, later on in the week.

I feel SO GOOD eating this way and every day I can’t wait to eat my breakfast or my lunch!

In our kitchen at work today- our latest wellness initiative

Today at Lighthouse Media Group (where I work), a chart has appeared in the lunch room for our latest wellness initiative “the most minutes win it”. Every day for the next 30 days, participants have to record their daily exercise minutes on a chart and whoever has the most exercise minutes at the end of the month wins a prize. I am thinking a nice cruise to the Greek islands would be a jolly nice prize 😛

I think this is a GREAT idea! For those that are a little competitive or who simply need motivation to take daily exercise, it will undoubtedly help!

I’m off to a bad start as I didn’t walk yesterday but that little hidden, competitive gene, doesn’t like that, so I’ll be hitting the track later and will probably put on some music and enjoy dancing with my girls this evening.

And all this extra exercise means extra pounds off at the next weigh in

Well that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it!

C xxxxx
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Chocolate Biscuits & Chocolate Spread

Today my taste buds are all over the place..

Mid-morning for breakfast I had two slices of toast, no butter, topped with a huge plate of lightly sauted vegetables (crunchy) because I woke up this morning craving them.. and then for lunch I decided to satiate my cravings for chocolate by making a kids favourite during the war “chocolate biscuits”. I don’t actually crave many sweet things these days and my sugar ration is more than adequate, but I know now to let myself enjoy an occasional sweet treat 1940s style..

These biscuits (cookies) hit the spot, as did the chocolate spread filling, both made from authentic children’s choice recipes from a leaflet sold during the war by Cadbury’s for 1d. in aid of the Red Cross..

ENJOY!

Chocolate Biscuits

  • 1 tablespoon of syrup (golden, corn or maple)
  • 2 oz/ 1/4 cup margarine
  • 1 oz/ 1/8 cup of cocoa powder
  • 4 oz/ 1/2 cup plain flour (I found I used more)
  • 2 oz/ 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

  1. Melt margarine and syrup and vanilla essence in a pan and mix in cocoa powder until smooth
  2. Mix in the sugar then mix in the flour until smooth. Add more flour if required until you can handle like a dough
  3. Roll out and cut into squares and prick all over and place in an oven at 180 C for 10 minutes or more
  4. Sandwich together, when cool, with chocolate spread (see recipe below)

Makes around 8 sandwiched cookies

Chocolate spread

  • 1 oz cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons (2 tablespoons US) sugar
  • 1 dessertspoon flour (1 tablespoon US) flour
  • 1/2 cup milk

Method

  1. Mix dry ingredients
  2. Add the milk gradually and bring to the boil and lower heat
  3. Best until smooth and until mixture thickens
  4. Allow to cool
  5. Use in cookie recipe above
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What can a vegan or vegetarian eat on wartime rations?

Up until now I have been consuming no meat, cheese or dairy and instead using almond milk and taking a small nut ration and extra haricot beans to replace the meat and cheese. I did e-mail THE VEGAN SOCIETY regarding what vegans were given instead of milk, cheese and meat but as yet they have not replied. The Vegan Society formed in 1944..

Vegetarians received an extra ration of cheese instead of meat.

The only problem I am having during the 1940s Experiment, as a vegan, is that I cannot recreate some of the recipes. I could when I attempted to live on wartime rations in 2006 and again when I started this blog in 2009 but in this latest attempt at living 100% on wartime rations,  I have become vegan.

Of course, we are now, in 2012,  lucky to have many meat and cheese alternatives available to use, so I have decided to alleviate my culinary frustration and use some of the alternatives as part of my rations, for the next few months.

I’d like to share with you some of the alternatives I am or will be using as part of my “wartime rationing” allowance to allow me more wartime culinary creativity in my humble, messy, kitchen..

Weekly Vegan Alternatives

Margarine/Butter 6 oz/ 150 g (less than half a tub)
Organic Earth Balance– Soy, GMO free, margarine

Cooking Fat 4 oz/ 100 g
Earth Balance– Soy, GMO free

Cheese 4 oz/ 100 g (cheese ration varied from between 2 oz and 8 oz)
Daiya (the ONLY cheese tasting vegan cheese in my humble opinion- delicious! )

Milk 3 pints/ 1800 ml (sometimes dropping to 2 pints)
Almond Milk– Organic

Meat to the value of 1shilling and sixpence (today that would be like buying 1/2 lb of minced beef)
Yves– vegan minced beef alternative

Bacon & Ham 4 oz/ 100 g
Yves- Vegan bacon rashers

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I am not a processed foods lover even though the ingredients in most of these products are very natural, it is unlikely I will stick with the meat alternatives for very long HOWEVER it will be good to be able to start to re-create some of the dishes that used bacon or beef. The cheese and dairy alternatives though are a completely different kettle of fish.. I can see nothing in their ingredients list that alarms me infact all are pretty much organic and GMO  free. The DAIYA CHEDDAR CHEESE is particularly VERY IMPRESSIVE. It is the only hard or shredded vegan cheese I have ever tasted that tastes good! AND it actually melts just like the real thing. So thank you to my friend TONY LANTZ for putting me onto this vegan alternative.

I can’t tell you how wonderful it was yesterday to have my first cheese sandwich in 6 months..

Oh cheese- how I have missed you

C xxxx
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Inch by inch

GULP!

I don’t keep alcohol in the house, if I did I’d certainly be filling up on a few large medicinal single malts (black market) or at the very least a pint of Guinness before sharing with you the hideous reality of my measurements in inches. However, having now lost 51 lbs in 5 months exactly, and now that none of my measurements go beyond the length of the tape measure, I’d like to share them with you because I know there will be someone out there who will gain a little hope that shrinkage is possible, even when all seems hopeless….

At 299 lbs

Chest: 59.5 inches

Waist: 56.5 inches

Hips: 62 inches (the tape measure only goes up to 60 inches)

Thigh: 27.5 inches

Upper arm: 16.5 inches

B/P: 176/88 at rest

Pulse: 89 at rest

At 248 lbs

Chest: 50 inches

Waist: 45 inches

Hips: 53 inches

Thigh: 25.5 inches

Upper arm: 14 inches

B/P: 125/69 at rest

Pulse: 62 at rest

 

If my calculations are right that’s 9.5 inches from my chest, 11.5 inches from my waist, 9 inches from my hips, 2 inches from each thigh, and finally 2.5 inches from each upper arm. My heart now only has to pump 62 times a minute (27 times less than before) and my blood pressure is within a normal level.

This makes me MUCH healthier than I was 5 months ago.

YOU can do it too, you can, you really can!

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On that note I so very much want to share this video with you today. This young man has sunk to as low as anyone can feel about themselves and their life. It broke my heart listening to him and also broke my heart knowing that he will undoubtedly receive some hateful comments from ignorant, cruel people who have never, ever been in his situation..

I do hope he gets the help he needs..

Please can I ask you to share or leave a comment on his video

Thank you- C xxxx

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Ration Book Giveaway Winners!

Congratulations to the three winners! Please contact me with your full mailing address- I will also e-mail you too if I have not heard from you by Monday!

For anyone interested in owning some of your own I bought mine quite inexpensively from a little history store on eBay

Thank you for entering and for leaving some lovely comments.

Look out for the next monthly giveaways coming soon!

C xxxx

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Hungry for Change- Free World Premiere

Watch this. Please watch this…. Please watch this all on 21-31 March 2012.

This is what the 1940s Experiment is trying to prove… that obesity can be cured and health radically improved by eating simple wholefoods,  meat and dairy very sparingly, and eating vegetables and legumes abundantly.

A plant strong diet devoid of processed convenience food and drinks is the way we need to head to heal ourselves and our planet

C xxxxxxxx

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Draw for ration book giveaway

Will be taking place tonight on my return from work. All names have been printed out and they will all be cut and folded, placed in a bag and drawn on video so you can see its all above board and fair…

Yesterday was a difficult evening for me so I apologize I didn’t do this, but tonight it’s all go, go, go!

C xxxxxxxxx