Thanks for the good lucks and messages on Facebook regarding getting stuck back into my health and weight loss battle.
I appreciate that I’ve been in this very same position sooo many times in the past several years that its impossible to count BUT I honestly just keep battling…chipping away, then gaining, brushing off the dust and getting back up again. The way I look at it is I am currently almost 100 lbs less than I was when I was super depressed and super morbidly obese. Am just 10 lbs off being out of the morbid obesity category too which will mean my BMI will be 39 (my BMI at its highest was 57).
I know there is a long way to go to get to a healthy weight. NHS says I should be no more than 11st 4 lbs which is 158 lbs but to be quite honest I’d be so very happy and thrilled to reach 12st 7lbs which is 175 lbs and maintain it with a healthy lifestyle.
Just in a happier place right now in all aspects of my life.
Am happy feeling healthier and working towards adding years to my life, LOVE being single and psychologically the depression has years gone. Being without a job right now has had some benefits too, the exhaustion has mostly lifted and I have time right now to focus on getting my health sorted.
I REALLY appreciate all your encouragement and am confident that this time next year won’t be talking about my weight all the time because I will have reached goal and will have learned how to control my urges.
Thanks so much again! Off to burn calories in the garden now!
C xxx
PS: Don’t forget to check out or enter this competition to win this BEAUTIFUL cottage! I’m dreaming of this golden ticket every single day! CLICK HERE
I HAD to try this recipe submitted by Marina Unger.. it is an authentic wartime root vegetable soup recipe and let me tell you, I had this for breakfast this morning and she is right…. it’s YUMMY!
Marina Unger-
Yummy and super easy, very filling soup recipe for you. Cooked it today to take the chill out of our rainy weather!
1 swede (turnip in North America), 2-3 carrots, 2-3 parsnips, half an onion, two potatoes, 1 litre stock, sprinkling of fresh parsley. Dice all veggies (peel the swede) and add to stock. Bring to a boil and cook until veggies are tender. Puree if desired (I did) and sprinkle with parsley before serving 🙂
I was looking for clean trousers in a rush, about to go and drive my son back to the city, when I came across a pair of jeans I bought a long time ago to “one day fit into”… The last time I had tried them on was back in January and I took photos. As hard as I tried I could not get them done up but decided this summer I’d try them on again to see if they would fit…
Last time I wore jeans was 20 years ago- Jess and I
Looking back in my trunk full of photos I could see the last time I wore jeans was when my eldest daughter Jess was just a little girl. Jess is now 23…
Seeing the jeans, earlier to day, I grabbed them, wanting to see out of curiosity how tight they would be now.
I pulled them up over my thighs and hips and pulled the waistband together and did the button up, simple as that. There was NO resistance. MY JEANS FIT! And with that I hopped in the car, drove Josh to the city and felt like a queen (albeit it a rather saggy tummied chubby one) walking around Sobey’s at Tantallon, picking up more healthy food for my cupboards.
And so I took some photos with my webcam and put them together with the ones I took back in January.
I may have a long way to go, BUT this afternoon I have simply shed a few tears, as for the first time in 20 years, I have worn jeans. I don’t know why that would have made me cry but it has.
Sitting here in my dishevelled kitchen I’m briefly thinking that maybe I should be scrubbing my cupboards like a good little 1940s housewife (I’ve noticed some suspicious solidified ikky drips) . Alas my brain is not wired in that way… I can always find other things to do, usually involving food or Facebook.
Today, while I write this, I am making several 1940s recipes including lentil sausages, cheese potatoes, farls, cheese and lentil pie and preparing a bag or organic kidney beans so I can cook those up tomorrow. In the 1940s with meat being in short supply, it was vital to get protein from beans and lentils as well as dark leafy green vegetables.. Beans and lentils are protein rich and there is as much protein in  4 oz of dried kidney beans as there is in a 4 oz steak!! (I just checked the nutritional information on my organic pack of kidney beans!)
I also scrubbed out my fridge yesterday (well maybe I am a closet housewife on occasions) and filled one of my shelves with fresh organic produce such as kale, spinach, celery, apples and some non-organic veg too (I should start growing a victory garden to offset the organic vegetable bill) … people ask me about the expense of eating so much fresh veg (a fair percentage of it organic). I have to say that I may spend a little more but there are many other areas I am saving in by eating based on a 1940s ration. It evens out and the way I look at it is so far, touch wood, I take no medications of any kind, and that saves money too!
But apart from today I’ve had a great couple of weeks! IÂ completed the “Relay for Life” walk for cancer on June 1st with my work colleagues and we walked from 7:30 pm until 3:30 am on and off. It was a great event, the first time I had been able to participate (thanks to losing weight I can now walk pain free and not get out of breath!), my son Josh came home again for a visit and …… (drum roll)
…..”a literary agent in New York, is going to sign ma blog!! Woo Hoo@!!!..”
That means I have to get my arse into gear, get the rest of that 100 lb lost by October 1st and the rest of the 100 recipes (35 lbs and 35 more recipes). Oh and of course over the summer we’ll be working on putting together a proposal to send to publishers (inc St Martin’s Press who e-mailed me initially) and then just keep our fingers crossed…
If I’m honest I’m overwhelmed with the thought of pulling this all together BUT this means so much to me, I am passionate about what I started and will finish. Am under no illusions that I’m a good writer but I know the premise of the 1940s Experiment is a good one and looking at it clinically, a marketable project. If my book gets published then I will have achieved what I wanted to do and that is to share the information and lifestyle changes I truly believe in….
Finally, Pixar has restored my faith in humanity (sorry this is not 1940s related but in a way it is)… remember those women during the war who went to work during WW2…yes those ones that picked up tools, built aircraft, worked in factories, worked on farms, worked agricultural machinery, rolled their sleeves up and did, what was perceived as a “mans job”…
They did those jobs and they did them well too…
Well PIXAR have finally brought to the front a princess character that doesn’t wear pink, or comb her hair all day under the sea, or pander to every whim of a handsome young man. She fights against societies expectations of her role, she breaks out of her confines by symbolically ripping the seams of her dress as she picks up the weapon of her choice, a long-bow, and proves her worth. She fights against what she perceives to be unfair expectations of her role as a traditional woman and a traditional princess…..
Yes, this is just a movie, but I am pleased to see a strong princess (Merida) not afraid to be herself, who realizes this importance…
I have a Merida… she is strong willed, she has strong beliefs, she is focused and determined on the things that are important to her and  I do believe she can do anything she wants to do in life… she is BRAVE
Hello my name is Carolyn Ekins. I am a single mother of three and I have been morbidly obese for several years.
My all time heaviest was 343 lbs. Last Christmas I weighed 330 lbs.
In August 2009 I weighed in at 315 lbs and vowed to change my eating habits forever in a year long 1940s Social Experiment based on the rationed diets of everyday folk living on the home-front during World War II. Â I truly believe by being as true as I can to living a year eating back to basics food, cooked from scratch and as little processed food as I can, I WILL become a healthier person. I aim to lose 100 lb in one year..
Four months into the 1940s Experiment I have lost almost 33 lbs and weighed in today at 282 lbs.
I don’t count calories, and if I am hungry I eat lots of food and my theory seems to be working- I do feel MUCH healthier from just a few months ago.
It hasn’t always been an easy journey and have slipped up a handful of times and sometimes eat way too much bread BUT I know I can make it.
100 Cooked and Photographed Wartime Recipes
100 Wartime Recipes will be recreated and photographed throughout the year of the 1940’s Experiment. I want this to be a record in photographs of a typical 1940’s rationing diet and to experience the tastes of the time using the ingredients available.
So far I have recreated nearly 30 recipes- 1 every 3 days!
Thank you for your support!
And thanks for all the support I have been getting from all the people who have read 23,000 pages of my blog since August 2009. Knowing people are reading and commenting keeps me going… it really does. I LOVE reading the comments and thoughts left on my blog!!
Despite a few glitches over Halloween (no matter how hard I try to convince myself there is no way they had funsize Kit Kats in the 1940s!) the scales this morning are showing another 2lb off!!!
I have now lost 35 lbs and am down to 280
This means I am on track (with a bit in hand) to lose 100lb in one year which was my goal when I started this blog 3 months ago. There will still be quite a bit of weight to lose beyond this but I am focussed on the 100lb goal- being 1/3rd of the way there already is very motivating..
My fears are that the next few months will be my danger period- typically this has alway been the time for me where everything goes wrong and the weight creeps on again. I can’t let this happen though……this is it. It’s my one shot…
Good luck to everyone who is struggling to do the same!
I can only see a subtle difference after losing 26 lbs but it’s a start…
When you blog about your weight-loss, especially when you have a LOT of weight to lose, I feel you probably have just about reached the end of the road. You no longer really care if people see your lumpy bits or what people think (although deep down inside you secretly do) but STILL it is painful to look at the photos you keep hidden….I have quite a few that I am still not brave enough to show just yet..
BUT part of my years journey, culinary experiment, awakening or whatever I deem to think of it as, is to record through photographs, thoughts, writing and video
a) What it’s like to live on a 1940’s WWII ration diet just like millions of people had to do not that long ago, and see if it improves my health AND recreate 100 wartime recipes!
b) The reality of facing ones own demons. What was the cause of a 160 lb weight gain? Can I change the eating habits that have caused this? What do people look like as they begin to lose weight? What thoughts run through your head? How do you cope with being a different person physically as you lose the weight?
As much as I find it difficult to share some of my photos and even some of my thoughts it really does also help me along the way…
There is a long journey ahead…
PS: CHECK BACK HERE TODAY:Pumpkin Soup, Apple Pie and Mock Banana Recipes (1940s style)
I am OVER THE MOON with another weight-loss this week despite shoveling it away during meal times!
I may cut back a little on bread next week simply because I am not sure whether the average 1940’s person would have eaten as much bread as I am doing! Eating more potatoes was encouraged instead…
Talking of bread I forgot to bring my lunch to work today so I am off to Tim’s to buy myself a carton of milk and a large freshly baked wholewheat bread roll with butter…
Dang it…Ok so I’ll start the bread thing tomorrow!
I seriously can’t believe that I’ve lost weight this week but am obviously pleasantly surprised..
Have enjoyed Fish & Chips and Rock Buns!
BUT I have changed my way of eating and I think that is a very important step in the right direction for me..
When I look back to when I was SLIM, I ate 3 to 4 good sized meals a day, strictly ate nothing inbetween meals except the occasional piece of fruit, ate little junk food and was quite active!
This is soooooo encouraging… I am on my way to wearing smaller knickers!
I was feeling my boobs the other night (you should try it- feels nice….I mean feel your own not mine!) and immediately underneath I felt a strange lump that had never been there before. I poked around a bit and was disturbed to find that the lump was quite large and bumpy. Fleetingly thoughts of the tragic kind entered my head but only for a few seconds as a few further harder prods confirmed to me that infact I was discovering my own ribcage!
It was like finding a fossil that had been hidden for millions of years (Ok so I am exaggerating) but nevertheless it felt pretty good to find out that I did indeed possess one.
Looks like I’ll be discovering all sorts of new lumps and bumps as the months pass by!
I am OVER THE MOON with another weight-loss this week despite shoveling it away during meal times!
The 1940's Experiment 