Diary Day 23 – December the 6th

Breakfast: banana toastie=3.1g, coffee=0g, small glass of orange juice=10g,

Lunch: 2 slices of fruit loaf=15.6g, jam=16g, butter=0.2g, coffee=0g

Snack: 1/4 of a toastie=2g

Dinner: Lasagne=8g, Garlic Bread=2g, Dry (ish) Wine=10g, mice pie=21g

Snack: hot chocolate=22g, marshmallows=29g, 1sl of toast=1.5g, jam=8g, butter=0.1g

Total=148.5 g of sugar

Saturday was another bad sugar day but a nice day! It started with a lie in and breakfast with mum. Then we spent the morning cleaning, rearranging furniture (mum and dad are beginning a big refurbish project of the house now that my sister and I have both moved out) and started to put some Christmas decorations up. I decided on fruit loaf for lunch because you know yesterday was bad so why not just continue and not give a fuck?! And then at about 2pm I began the tedious process of dying my hair (I had decided I wanted a nice rich even colour for Christmas). Left-before, Right-after.

Afterwards I grabbed a corner of my mums late lunch and got ready to go out. My friends boyfriend conducts the Northern Spirit Singers and it was their Christmas concert in the evening; so I was tagging along with my friend to join then choir for a meal before their concert. It was a lovely evening another friend came to and it was a nice catch up. I continued being naughty though by enjoying wine and my first mince pie of the year (although it was cold, so I should have just left it, for me mince pies need to be warm). Well the concert was brilliant and they were preforming in a church with beautiful acoustics and the variety of song choices was fab. My parents were going to come, but ended up staying home getting more cleaning and Christmas decorating done, their loss haha. The concert finished at 9pm ish and dad picked me up, when we got home we all sat do with a cuppa hot chocolate (and of course I gobbled marshmallows again), before retiring to bed with my book.

So it was a really lovely day but again I disregarded the sugar!!!!

Carina xo

Diary Day 22 – December the 5th

Breakfast: 1 sl of toast=0.5g, 1 banana=0g, 10g of butter=0.1g, sage tea=0g

Snack: 10 truffels=160g?, coffee=0g

Lunch: 2 sl of bread=1.6g, salami=0.5g, cheese=<0.1g, butter=0.1g, Echinacea & Lavender tea=0g

Tea: 2 sl of toast=3g, ham=0.5g, butter=0.2g, 2 poached eggs=1.2g, 1/4 spinach ravioli bake=10g, orange juice=22g

Snack: marshmallows=29g, 1sl of fruit loaf=7.8g, apricot jam=8g, butter=0.1g, tea=0g

Total=244.6g of sugar

Ok, erm, where to start my embarrassing weekend?! Breakfast was fine, but then I caved – I caved! When I got to work and put the truffles out for display I literally had a half hour battle inside my head whether or not to indulge, and guess which side won?! I think it would be helpful to know sugar content before I eat things sometimes, because my heart nearly jumped out of y chest when I googled truffles this morning (I mean the ones I had are handmade and not stuffed with chemical crap, however the sugar will still be pretty high-I just used figures from a Tesco truffle-but shit I wish I had never hand any now) and the problem I they are so addictive, you eat one you want 20 more! I didn’t at them all at once but over the course of the morning all the while having another debate as to whether I should admit to it on here, but I did say I would be honest so here is the sad truth haha!

It got busy enough, so we only had lunch sometime after 2pm. Lunch was fine, the usual staff lunch of homemade wholemeal bread with butter an assortment of meats and cheese and veg. I had an Echinacea tea instead of the usual lunchtime coffee however.

When we got home there was a lot of faffing about till we sat down for dinner. I wanted poached eggs on toast but then mum decided to make a risotto for her and dad and a ravioli style bake was put in the oven too, so whilst waiting for their dinner to cook I already started with half my poached egg with ham on toast dinner and then sat down with them for the other half and had some ravioli bake too, which wasn’t the best idea – more and more sugar, but I didn’t even care anymore. I poured dad a glass of orange juice for dinner and decided I really fancied some too, so that was another 22g!! I also sneaked a slice of fruit loaf with jam and butter after dinner, and I love my jam thick and crap is there lots of sugar in jam, but obviously there is! As for the fruit loaf of course I checked the sugar content before but I also just decided to ignore it because I just really fancied it!

After tea we all snuggled up to watch Calendar Girls (great movie – I hadn’t seen it in ages either so it was nice not remembering everything). Before I went to bed with my book, I made myself a cup of camomile & honey tea and spotted some marshmallows in the cupboard and went for them pushing all thoughts of sugar content to the back of my mind, so having a look today and seeing the high sugar content makes me think was it really worth it???

And that’s not even it, just wait how the weekend continues!!! 😦

Carina xo

 

Diary Day 21 – December the 4th

Breakfast: Banana toastie=1.1g, coffee=0g

Snack: 2 pieces of 85% choc=2.6g, clementine=0g

Lunch: Nandos: humous with peri-peri drizzle=8.4g, butterfly chicken=0.2g, chips=1.3g, corn on the cob=0g, butter=0.2g, perinaise=5g, diet coke=0g, Fanta=13g

Dinner: clementine=og (the rest of my unfinished nandos)

Total= 31.8g of sugar

I had planned to be very good and try another early start today, although yesterdays earliness was unwanted, it does feel good when you have a productive morning. However I did not make it to uni for 8am like I wanted to, although I got in for 9am so still a good start. I got straight onto brewing a cup of coffee – the most important thing on a morning haha, and then went to get some blogging done.

At 12 I popped into town to get some echinacea tea and look for a dress for our art Christmas meal, there was a cute black dress I’d been eying up in Primark for a while, sadly they didn’t have it in my size, but I decided to try and squeeze into a 14 and it surprisingly just about fit, so I bought it. I was then persuaded to go to Nandos for lunch which was delish as usual, but left me stuffed (I couldn’t even finish and had to pack the rest up ha), the ketchup and mayo (I just logged it in as a tub of perinaise) and Fanta were the bad part though (you forget 200ml of Fanta is like 13g! oh dear) I should have left the starters too, but it was buy one get one free so I was easily pulled into splitting it with my friend Well, a trip to New Look commenced afterwards; I haven’t been to New Look in absolutely ages and tried quite a few dresses on in there too, I found two more dresses and a shirt, but the silky material of one was too easily snagable so I didn’t end up buying it. But now I have to very nice black dresses to choose from for my Christmas meal on Wednesday; we are all getting very excited for a nice night our together.

Anyhow, once back in uni I got on with some painting, starting my small canvas and a quick watercolour painting, before 5pm when I was off to choir for our last rehearsal before our christmas concert on Monday. It was a good rehearsal and afterwards I chilled in my studio for another hour, had a clementine and the rest of my Nandos and waited for my dad to pick me up and take me home for the weekend.

When I got home I had a cup of the Echinacea & Lavender tea I bought today (very yummy btw) and sat down to watch Shooter with dad. Tomorrow I’m at work, so sadly no lie in.

Carina xo

Diary Day 20 – December the 3rd

Breakfast: 1 banana=0g, 20g of crisps=0.5g

Snack: Bacon baguette= baguette=3g, bacon=0g, pear=0g, diet coke=og,

Lunch: Sausage and caramelised onion chutney panini= chutney=10g, sausage=0.5g, red currant jelly=8.9g, panini=2g,

Snack: diet pepsi=0g, clementine=0g, 2 crackers=0.2g

Dinner: fennel tea=0g, 2 pieces of 85% dark choc=2.6g, 70g of crisps=1.4, pineapple=0g, 100g of olives=0.3g

Total= 29.4g of sugar

Well what an eventful start to the day! For some reason our fire alarms went off at 4.30am this morning!!! As it is a mains wired alarm system and one where you can just take the batteries out, we didn’t know what to do, there is no panel to just switch them off sadly and we didn’t want to call 999. In the end we called a non-emergency police number who said we had to contact 999 for the fire brigade. Wahh scary, so two fire vans came and checked over out house to make sure there wasn’t any problems, but weren’t able to do anything about the alarm; we need to contact our land lord (for whom we do not have an emergency number btw in case people are wondering why we hadn’t already done this) and he needs to send out an electrician. So with no imminent stopping of the alarm, three of the four of us got ready to start our days. Sleep deprived we left the house at 6am and stumbled to the library to wait till our specific uni buildings opened, whilst waiting I got some blogging done and ate a banana and a handful of crisps.

At 8am my studio opened and I hurried over desperate to make a decent cup of coffee now that I had all the equipment. It was an exciting moment haha and the coffee tasted very good too!

However I was really craving something decent to eat for breakfast, the cheapest is a tea cake, but I googled that and it was like 9g of sugar, so a no go. At 8.30 when the cafe opened I went to get a bacon baguette which I figured would have the least sugar; in the past I would have got ketchup, but alas none allowed today so it was 2 rashers of bacon and a baguette, still tasty and very filling though, just what I needed! Although it is sort of bad timing, because I’m not hungry at 12pm yet and I need to leave at 12.30pm for work, but as I don’t know when I’ll get break or how long my shift is, I feel like I should always eat something! Oh well I had a pear at 11ish and some diet coke to keep me going!

Work today was a bit of a longer shift and I did get a break at about 3pm; I debated and decided wether to get a toast or panini, I mean I had snacks in my bag, but I didn’t feel like olives or crisps, so I was naughty and gave into my craving of wanting to try the sausage and caramelised onion panini. It was super tasty but having just checked the sugar levels – omfg! shit! oops! I guess I sort of pushed the thought that chutney and red currant jelly are high in sugar out of my head! Not good, and it left me far too full, working with a full stomach is not nice I tell you.

Anyhow when I got back to uni at about 5ish, I sat down for a nice chit chat instead of work – oops, and snacked on some crackers, a clementine and some diet pepsis whilst talking. I got little done bore I left uni at 7pm.

My evening wasn’t very productive either, or it didn’t feel it anyway. I watched some Once Upon A Time and went through all my christmas presents, deciding who would get what, which is a difficult task haha, and starting to wrap them all up. Again I had such terrible cravings to stuff my face (what is it recently?! the first week was soo much easier!) but by keeping myself occupied I only snacked what was in my room, which was still too much, but I guess better than getting up to make a toastie or something too. It was a relaxed enough evening but all took far longer than I thought (I mean I’m still not finished yet!) and I just went straight to bed after as I was too tired to finish writing this blog post up so, sorry for it being late!

Carina xo

Potato & Butternut Soup

Ingredients (serves about 4) :

1/2 a butternut

6 decent sized potatoes

4 tomatoes

2 sticks of celery

1 onion

3 chicken stock cubes

salt, pepper, turmeric and a sprinkle of rosemary for seasoning

Coconut oil

 

How to:

1. Start by chopping up all your ingredients, the smaller the potato and butternut the quicker they will cook.
2. Use about 2 teaspoons of coconut oil and fry your onions till they turn a little brown
3. Add the celery and prepare your stock mix
4. Add the stock (use a good litre of water) and bring to boil
5. Next add the potatoes and butternut
6. Season with salt, pepper and turmeric (or add a little rosemary too if you fancy)
7. Just before the potatoes and butternut turn soft, add the tomatoes
8. Once soft take of heat and left cool a little before blending smooth, add more water if you prefer it runnier.
9. Enjoy 🙂

 

Diary Day 19 – December the 2nd

Breakfast: 1 banana=og

Snack: 35g of pretzels=o.8, 50g of olives=0.1g, clementine=0g, sage tea=0g,

Lunch: Ratatouille=og, diet pepsi=0g,

Snack: 150g of crisps=3.15g, coffee=og, 2 pieces of 85% dark choc=2.6g,

Dinner: Soup=0g

Total= 6.65g of sugar

A simple banana for breakfast, but unlike last time when I only had a banana, I was starving by the time I got my break at 10.30am. I had a clementine, some pretzels, olives (the slightly salted tortillas go better with the olives though haha) and a sage tea because it helps sore throats and I think I may be coming down with an infection, I hope it clears.

After work I got some more Christmas shopping done and headed to uni to eat the Ratatouille which had been in my fridge for a few days waiting to be eaten haha. It was very nice even without the veggie sausages I would usually eat with it. It did mostly fill me but as I’d just been shopping and had bought a bag of salt and vinegar crisps I ended up picking at them all day, not good I know. In the afternoon I fulfilled my coffee craving and enjoyed a bit of chocolate, before a short choir rehearsal at 6pm.

For once I had a very productive evening and after choir, rearranged my studio and got some new paintings started. I need to stay late in uni more often; once I’m alone blasting music in my ears and having a dance about haha it makes me feel motivated and get a lot more done!

I got home just before 10pm and annoyingly had to make a soup as the ingredients I’d bought were starting to get old; but I’m glad I made it in the end because it was very tasty and just what I needed to warm me up 🙂

Carina xo

 

Diary Day 17 – November the 30th

Breakfast: Cheese toastie=1.2g, coffee=0g, pineapple=0g

Snack: clementine=0g, coffee=og, 2 pieces of 85% choc=2.6g, 100g of crisps=01.2g

Dinner: Tuna toastie: 2 sl of bread=1g, tuna mayo=1g, 50g of olives=0.1g, fennel tea=0g

Total= 7.1g of sugar

Another late start to today and anther lazy sofa day – the best sort of day if you ask me haha. After a night out I usually crave a fatty breakfast and the closest I got to the bacon sarni I was craving was a cheese toastie which was very yummy and followed by the sweet fresh pineapple made a perfect breakfast.

I then put on some more Once Upon A Time (brilliant series by the way, if you haven’t seen it I recommended you give it a go!) and got some blogging done. At 3.30pm I started feeling hungry and so I made myself another cup of coffee and had some chocolate and a clementine, after which I got some more knitting done. When it got to 5pm I was feeling peckish again and I snacked on some crisps, because I had the big bag next to me I ate a rather large portion of 100g, oh well, still within my limit but it left me feeling full yet unsatisfied.

I like lazy days, but the further the day ambles along the more my mood gets worse because my conscience nags at me for not having got anything done, no uni work, no nothing. Then I just stumble along wondering what to do next, maybe put another movie in, but feel so tired I just watch instead of being productive at the same time!

I got my guitar out in the evening and strummed around a little, I only got it for my birthday in June by the way so I’m just learning the basics at the moment, trying to have some fun haha. I had been debating dinner all evening and when it got to about 9.30pm and I decided I would have something to eat and went for a tuna toastie – yumm; although I do need to start branching out, can’t always eat the same meals here or I’ll get sick of them too soon! Also I must confess I have had so many naughty craving thoughts in my head today, I mean the amount of times I wanted to scoff food down my throat and not write about it on here today – horrendous! But I resisted and for that I am proud of myself!

Carina xo

 

Diary Day 15 – November the 28th

Snack: 1 banana=0g, 30g of pretzels=0.8g,

Lunch: coffee=0g, 1 piece of 85% dark choc=0g, bag of salted popcorn=0.05g

Dinner: diet pepsi=0g, 2 tuna mayo toasties: 4 slices of tiger bread=2g, 50g of cheese=0.1g, tuna mayo (40g)=1g

Snack: fennel tea=0g, clementine=0g, 50g of crisps=1.2g

Total= 5.15g of sugar

Soooo, well this morning was eventful! I woke up at about 4am with serious stomach cramps and didn’t get back to sleep for at least an hour; I must have been shattered because next thing I know I wake and look at my phone to see it is 9.10am and there’s two missed calls and a text from my boss asking why am am not in work (I was supposed to start at 9am). So I rushed to get ready and hurried into work; as I was already late I did not have time for breakfast and because I missed the first hour of work I did not get a break either, meaning I was rather hungry when I got to uni. However, I didn’t really feel like proper food so I ate some pretzels and the banana I’d thrown in my bag for breakfast.

A little later I went to the computer room to get some online Christmas shopping done, haha. I still didn’t feel like proper food so I had some popcorn and 1 piece of 85% dark chocolate.

At 4.30pm I left for town with a friend to get a few bits and bobs and to book our table at revs for our fine art course Christmas meal. When I got home I made tuna mayo toasties for dinner, yum, and afterwards sat down for a movie night with my flat mate. We started off with Phantom of the Opera (one of my all time favorites), then Romeo and Juliet and now we’re on to Tarzan with a few snacks; it’s a long night haha. Then again this is how I will be spending the majority of my evenings the next couple of weeks haha because I have a lot of knitting to do. So I will say good-evening and get back to my knitting and Tarzan.

Carina xo

Diary Day 14 – November the 27th

Breakfast: 1 banana=0g, large americano=0g

Lunch: Wetherspoons Jacket potato with tuna mayo and salad (no dressing)=0.6g, tap water=0g

Snack: 35g of crisps=0.7g, 35g of olives=0.1g, 1 piece of 85% dark chocolate=1.3g

Dinner: Homemade potato and leek soup=0g, 2 cheese toasties=2.5g

Snack: 35g of crisps=0.7g

Total= 5.9g of sugar

Thursdays, I like thursdays; they mean no work all day! It was such a miserable morning with the rain lashing at my windows, I just didn’t want to get up; I left getting ready as late as possible but did’t have time for breakfast then. When I got to uni for 10am, I took my breakfast (banana and coffee) into my lecture/group crit. These usually last about 2h ,so with only a banana in my belly I was pretty hungry and easily persuaded to go to Wetherspoons for lunch. I debated what to get and decided a jacket potato with tuna mayo would be the best, and it really wasn’t bad, the mayo was only 0.6g, I’m estimating about a 40g portion (probs even less, but better to big it up), and as I am not counting natural sugars the potato and salad had 0g and tuna has nothing either. So good to know 🙂

When we got back to uni it was time to stretch some canvases, which may sound fun but really is not as it kills your knuckles, mine are now red and sore haha. Anyway I had a break afterwards and ate some salt and vinegar crisps and olives. Before I went to choir at 5pm I had a square of chocolate and made a cup of green tea for rehearsal. We started on Christmas songs today which was quiet nice, although I’m still not sure I’m feeling Christmasy yet.

On my walk home from uni I somehow started to develop a bad mood haha I don’t know why, but I got home and felt very peckish. I warmed up some homemade leek and potato soup and really felt like a cheese toastie too; the toastie was delicious and I craved another so I made another

Now I’m sitting here with a cup of mango&strawberry tea to warm me up, I feel full which is good, but am still in a bad mood haha. It’s made me ponder on how much my mood and my eating patterns have correlated in he past. I have always thought I ate out of boredom, needing something to occupy my hands, as daft as it sounds, but when watching a movie or reading a book I’d always look for snacks to enjoy at the same time. Maybe my unease and need to feel fully occupied was a subconscious unhappiness? Who knows?! I guess it is something to be aware of though, to think about when I’m in moods and to not allow myself to indulge.

Carina xo

Diary Day 13 – November the 26th

Breakfast: 1 banana=0g, 1 packet of popcorn=<0.05g, large americano=og

Lunch: Homemade potato soup=0g, 35g of olives=0.1g, clementine=og

Snack: 1 piece of 85% dark chocolate=1.3g, green tea=0g

Tea: Revs Skinny chicken with salad (no dressing)=2g, mojito=0g,

Snack: 2 Jack Daniels and diet coke=0g

Total= 3.45g of sugar

When I woke up this morning I just really wasn’t feeling a cuppa and piece of toast, so I got ready and headed to uni. Instead of doing uni work I spent this morning catching up on all my missed blog posts, oops, haha. Between 10.30am and 11.30am I sipped at a large americano, ate my banana and nibbled at a bag of the salted popcorn I discovered yesterday. By the time it was 12 and I should have been thinking about eating a bite of lunch before work at 1pm, I just was not hungry yet. So at 12.30pm I left and took my soup with me to eat in my break at work.

As usual when I get to work on a wednesday its the busy lunch rush so it was straight on catching up the dishes for me, woo, I mean I totally love running up and down stairs with trays of heavy dishes By 3pm when I thought I might get my break it had quietened down so much I got sent home.

I went past the fruit and veg shop on my way back to uni to buy some clementines because the last time I’d got them they proved to be delicious and I just fancied some. Once back in uni I filled my now hungry stomach with warm soup. Daftly I also felt the need to eat the olives that I’d brought with me today; I didn’t want to take them home with me again so even though I did not really fancy them, I ate them anyway, stupid I know! At 4.30pm I sat down to do some more research and blogging with a cup of green tea and 2 pieces of 85% dark chocolate, but still full from the soup I could only manage 1 piece.

I arranged to go to the pub quiz with some friends, but as none of us had had dinner we spontaneously decided to go to revs. I ordered a skinny chicken burger like I did the other day, but I asked for no dressing on the salad, and as for drinks, you really can’t go to revs and not have a cocktail; so I had another look at the happy hour menu and picked he cocktail that seemed best. The classic mojito had no syrups or anything in it apart from pure sugar, so I asked them to not add the sugar, making it a delicious sin free cocktail 🙂 (well I’m guessing rum is like vodka and whisky with only trace amounts of sugar).

When we finished our scrumptious food we headed to the pub quiz where I got 2 JD and diet cokes (again JD only has traces of sugar and diet coke has 0g, so it was another sin free drink). I have just got home now and am very tiered but also feeling just a little peckish, but as I am going to bed asap and one shouldn’t eat after 3 hours before sleep, I won’t have anyhing.

So goodnight

Carina xo