My favourite weight-loss blogs

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Daily Diet Sheets

As I struggle to keep within my rations (the will is weak at the moment) and due to the wonderful encouragement I am receiving from people on a daily basis, I’d really like to share with you a daily record of EVERY morsel of food that passes these nostalgic lips from now until next Monday.

I’ll take a quick photo of my dinner plate each evening so you can see that it is not piled high with ‘Nachos and Cheese’ instead of 1940’s cuisine…. 🙂

Will post every evening. (starting Tuesday evening)

One day **MY KNICKERS** will be significantly smaller- I know it!

C xx

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Friday night is treat night…!

beerandeggI ALWAYS look forward to Friday nights. Before I started eating 1940’s style it was because Friday is treat night in our household and for me that would invariably mean PIZZA and VINO and a movie on the box (TV)..

Now as I am eating a 1940’s ration diet 100% of the time means my treats have to come from my weekly ration. Would I have some of my sweety/candy ration- after all I still have half a bag of toffee’s in my cupboard that have been there for a week (I amaze myself!), or would I cook some cakes or make some mock cream to spread on a scone with a big blob of strawberry jam on top?

NO….I tell you what I was looking forward to more than anything (yes- even more than the bottle of English Style beer I had with it) and that was a simple EGG! Seriously and absolutely…I mean it! Eggs were rationed strictly to one fresh shell egg per week per person,  during the 1940’s (you could get more by keeping your own chickens or by buying dried egg powder). Above all else I have found only having one egg per week the most difficult..

You see it is a big decision to make. By eating my one egg, for the rest of the week, I cannot use egg in any of my recipes. So having a freshly boiled egg mashed on top of three slices of hot buttery toast tonight, really was an extravagant treat!

And it tasted all the better for it!

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Week 4 weigh in…

carolyn2thumbIt’s still coming off! After the obligatory poop this morning (sorry for sharing that!) I weighed in at 296 lbs.

Most people would go into a dead faint if the scales groaned back at them with those numbers BUT NOT ME!

I started at 315 lbs ( 22 st 7 lbs) and am now down to 296 lbs ( 21st 2 lbs) in just 4 weeks so I’ve lost 19 lbs…I am very, very happy.

C xx

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5 dishes from 1 recipe – pancakes

pancakes1940

And after the curried carrots last night I was STILL hungry so I used my egg ration (1 egg per week) to make a batter which Marguerite Patten (she who knows ALL about 1940’s cuisine) tells me in her book, can be used for 5 different dishes..

So the batter was made up within seconds and just a minute or two later some wonderful mini pancakes found their way onto my plate and I still have enough batter left over for several more (or a batter pudding which I may try later today)

In ‘We’ll Eat Again’ it tells me that jam should be spread on the pancake and then rolled up- I did that with one and drizzled syrup on the other…..oh my gosh I had died and gone to heaven I swear.

Pancakes

  • 1 egg
  • 4 oz of wholewheat flour
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 pint of milk and water mixed

Mix dry ingredients together

Mix wet ingredients together

Add wet ingredients slowly to dry ingredients to make a stiff batter and then continue adding the rest, beating well until smooth

Add a little margarine into a pan until bubbling

Pour in batter and cook both sides until browned

Serve with jam, syrup or a sprinkling of sugar

Makes 6-10 pancakes

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Curried Carrots

curriedcarrots

When I saw the word CURRY leap out at me from a small book I was reading called ‘Ration Book Cookery’ I got all excited…

Curry is one of my favourite dishes, usually devoured by myself, laden with meat and cream, fresh veggies/spices or a mixture of dried ones, added carefully until the desired taste is achieved, and then sweetened slightly with a mango chutney. I am not a fan of Saffron rice but I do love to colour my rice with Turmeric and I like the bitterness this spice brings which compliments the slighty sweet curry and finally naan bread.

it did indeed taste like carrots, onions and curry powder mix

Curried carrots, despite the fact that the only ingredients seemed to be carrots, one onion and a curry powder mix (ikkk) was at least CURRY so I enthusiastically chopped and steamed the carrots, browned the onions and followed the rest of the directions.

The result? Ermmmm – it did indeed taste like carrots, onions and curry powder mix BUT hey I was hungry so I ate it and even had seconds.

I am, after-all, living in the 1940’s…… (at meal times anyway)

Curried Carrots

  • 1 lb carrots
  • 1 oz margarine or dripping
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 1-2 teaspoons curry powder
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1/2 pt stock or water
  • salt and pepper
  • teaspoon marmite and a teaspoon sugar (optional)

Chop and boil/steam carrots

Meanwhile melt fat in pan and add the chopped onion and fry for a few minutes

Add the curry powder and flour and fry for a few more minutes while stirring a little

Stir in the stock or water, bring to the boil, season.

Simmer gently for about 20 minutes then add in the cooked carrots

Cook for a further 10 minutes or so

Garnish with parsley and serve with a little rice

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Motivation – How much do you need to lose over 100 lbs?

wecandoitI have often wondered where people who lose a LOT of weight get their motivation from to keep on going..

Although currently I feel very motivated it takes a lot of daily effort to achieve this. The internet is a wonderful way to stay motivated and I spend an hour every evening like an obsessed crazy woman, stalking weight loss success stories, especially ones with before and after photos, to keep my mind focussed and determined.

Visualization is also a great way to place yourself into the future….I find this really helpful. I think of the things I will be able to do again that I cannot do now like hike, swim, jog, ride a horse & CROSS MY LEGS! And then there are the shallow things like wearing my hair back and having more choice to wear clothes that reflect my personality.

Finally I believe that in turn, these improvements will make me even happier. Shiny, happy smiling people  also have more chance of a snog. I’d quite like one of those….

C xx

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Week 2 Weigh In

Start weight 315 lbs ( 22st 7lb )

Week 2 weight 302 lbs (21st 8lbs )

Total weight loss 13 lb

I am quite beside myself…

Despite having a sleepless night or two over eating two 1/2 plate sized vegetable turnovers over two days and enjoying eggless sponge quite frequently I STILL lost 3lbs.

Some of my work colleagues found out about my crazy diet today.

Work Colleague: How much did you lose so far?

1940’s crazy person: Ermmm 13lbs in just two weeks..!

Work Colleague: BITCH!

Trust me- that was very, very funny!

So today I am happy (once again!)

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Why did I get so fat Mr. Darcy?

mrdarcyI keep asking this myself….WHY & HOW did this seemingly happen so quickly. WHY did I let myself become 315 lbs and HOW come I haven’t succeeded in doing something about it permanently? I suck!

But weight loss and weight gain is a very personal thing….it really isn’t all about the food, that just happens to be something we turn to for comfort or to take our anger out on. And of course some of us really do just like FOOD!

And in an earlier blog when I spoke about Belgian Chocolates and Mr Darcy there was an underlying association of indulgent food with SEX! (but I guessed you picked that up already) Both give you enormous pleasure, the element of surprise (you don’t really know what you are going to get until you lick away the outer layers), fills you up, leaves you feeling a little guilty but still wanting MORE…

So far, there has been no chocolate  or Mr. Darcy in my 1940’s diet.

Please keep me from temptation……just for now!

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Just over a day until first weigh in!

I ALMOST don’t want to write down what I have eaten this week….but I will (soon!)

Am a little apprehensive about weighing in on Wednesday morning simply because I feel like I have eaten really quite well and haven’t felt deprived. If anything it feels like I have eaten more than normal…

The two hardest aspects to this week so far have been

a) Not eating inbetween meals and rationing the food I have, to make it last all week

b) Not jumping on my weighing scales!!!

C xx

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Halfway through week 1..

It’s been an exciting week for me (in a geeky sort of historical foody way)..

The biggest challenge was on Friday after work. I had promised a chinese takeaway to the children and had to drive with the wonderfully smelling chinese cuisine wafting up my nostrils on the 30 minute journey home. 

Have eaten well so far this week- a little hungry inbetween meals sometimes but that is understandable seeing as I usually eat all day!

I wonder what the scales will show on Wednesday morning for end of week 1 weigh in?