Reflections on the puddle of life

I may be in need of some moral support. Thanks to being nominated for an award at work, I'm now trying to slim into my black tie dress in time for the awards ceremony in February. I'm not overweight (my BMI is 22.5), but I'm just a weeny bit too big for my dress and I'm determined not to buy another dress for it to sit in my wardrobe never seeing the light of day for anything other than this one event. Actually, it's just my bum that's too big for the dress. Oh the curse of having a bottom like a well stuffed pillow

I hate the whole diet in January thing so the idea really rankles me, but then I've been trying to shift 4 lbs since about June last year and if I can't do it when the temperatures are sub-zero I've no chance. So bear with me, Lit-net, if I'm banging on about food in my blog this year.

In preparation, I decided to download a calorie counter-type tool for my iTouch. I did a search and found a free App which had reasonable reviews. Filled in my details and it then told me that I'd need to work on 1074 calories a day in order to lose 2 lbs per week. Now I'm no dietician, but I know that significantly undereating does not help with long term weight loss. Ridiculous. And despite my anti-regulation principles, I really think that diet advice should be regulated. People could really hurt themselves following advice which is, kindly speaking, total *BS*. Needless to say that App is going in the bin.

Another thing which I need to take into account is my kidney issue. I can't replace my carbohydrate intake with protein, as excess protein intake overworks the kidneys which is not good when you have impaired kidney function. So I need to approach this quite carefully.

A key part of my plan is the handy little bento box. I'm sure I've mentioned bento before, but in case you missed it bento is a Japanese lunchbox in which you place lots of little treats which make up a good lunch. Rough proportions would be 4 parts rice, to 2 parts protein, to 2 parts something else (veg, fruit, pickles). I'm aiming to generally skip the rice and replace with vegetables primarily because I'm yet to master Japanese rice! Bento boxes tend to be quite small (I have a two layer box and it still doesn't hold a great deal) so it's a great way to encourage portion size control. You can read more about bento at this super-ace site which has lots of free recipes and bento ideas: http://justbento.com/

Anywho, my plan is to eat often and small and I think that will help me to achieve my goal without putting my kidneys under too much strain or veering too far from my normal eating routine so that my body thinks it is starving. So for today the plan is:

Breakfast: yoghurt (I've had this already).

Mid-morning snack: fruit (kiwi, melon combo).

Lunch: bento consisting of teriyaki mackerel, mixed steamed vegetables, 1 tea egg (hard boiled egg marinaded in tea - I use Lapsong Souchong for it's smoky qualities).

Mid-afternoon snack: Twiglets or raisins.

Dinner: who knows!

Dinner is where all my good, hard work tends to fall down, as my husband cooks during the week. He's a pretty decent cook when he sets his mind to it, but his mind tends to wander towards pie and pie is a diet downfall! It's especially hard at this time of year, because the cold makes you want warm, stodgy, fat laden comfort food and what I'm asking for is anything but that, so we'll see how things get on. But I've given him some guidelines, for example there's no reason why he can't have pie but if he has pie he should do me a piece of fish, no chips (he also seems to have a leaning towards chips!) but rice instead or extra veg. For other meals he's under instructions to do me a smaller portion and that way all my hard work during the day isn't undone by his well intentioned efforts to look after me when I get home at night.

Exercise-wise I'm still on the bike every day and with the cold I'll be burning extra calories. It was -5.5C when I set off this morning, and the sky was crisp with stars and Saturn shone bright close to the moon. My hands were frozen despite the thermal gloves, but the cold aside it was a pleasant ride. The danger, however, is of slipping into bad habits for breakfast as the body craves something warm and tasty and a yoghurt, however nice, doesn't really fit that bill. I'd consider porridge if it didn't give me horrendous stomach cramps.

Anyway, that's enough jarring about food. If anyone has any sound advice, which won't break my kidneys any more than they already are, it would be greatly appreciated.