It’s a Start

This past Saturday was two weeks since I first weighed myself and realized what I was doing to myself.  I weighed myself again and found that I had lost two kilograms, which is four point four pounds.  So that was encouraging, it’s nice to see that the effort I’m putting into this new regime is working.  It’s the start of a long journey, and I hope I can keep it up.

A big part of my healthy eating is cooking my own meals, so I know exactly what I’m eating.  I was given a Jamie Oliver book for my Christmas, and I made my second meal from it this weekend.  Last week I made a beautiful curry from scratch.  This week I picked something that I knew would really stretch my skills.  I made Lasagne!  It was a lot of work, and involved a lot of cooking time, but I did it.  And it tasted great too!  I was most proud of the fact that it all stood up after cooking, and actually looked like a lasagne, and didn’t collapse out all over the plate.  It was soooooo goood!!!  I had a second portion of it tonight, and it was just as good second time around.

I need to look at the book, and see whats up next.  But I’ll need to be doing really well to beat my Lasagne!

Enter Kiltman

Today has been a long tough day. Didn’t get off to the best of starts with two very crowded trains, so I had people in my pocket all the way down here today. Doesn’t help with my mood much. I knew that it was going to be a Metallica day. Angry music for an angry person. Its been this way really since I came back after New Year. Not sure how much longer things can carry on this way. I’m going to explode, or blow up or something. I have some training days next week, which will hopefully help.

Home again to be by myself, find something healthy for tea, and attempt to entertain myself so my evening doesn’t drag along as badly as my day has.

I took a photo out my office window today, which shows that my window is really dirty, but also that I have a reasonable view. I have a window, which is more than most can say here.

View from the window

Frozen Raspberries

As part of my new healthy regime, I have taken to eating muesli for breakfast. I have a bowl of Quaker Oats muesli, topped with raspberries. Now, it is the raspberries that make the dish! I buy them frozen, and defrost them in the morning. It only takes thirty seconds in a cup of hot water, and they are edible. So, and handful of these on the top of my muesli, and I’m all set. I’ve even found myself craving these raspberries! I find this quite filling, and it certainly helps keep hunger more or less locked up until lunch.

I feel sorry for the poor humble raspberry. Overlooked for years as the red fruit of choice by the strawberry, it’s always been on the periphery of the fruit front for me. Now, it’s right at the top of the list! Hmmm, so good!

In the afternoons, I have a kiwi fruit. I eat it like a boiled egg, cutting the top off and eating with a spoon. No soldiers though!! I’m about ten days into my new regime, and so far, I’m finding it easy to stick with, and I do feel better for it

I had a first meeting last night with a personal trainer. I’ve tried to loose weight before myself with moderate success, but I’ve never been able to sustain it. The weight loss kind of hits a plateau, and no matter what I do, I can’t get it to go down any further. So then I kind of get disgruntled and loose a bit of interest. So I’m hoping that by getting someone involved that knows what they are doing that I can avoid this. And also if I have someone to report my progress to this should hopefully act as motivation

I got the Kiwi Fruit blues

I’m having one of my down days today. Everything seems to be bothering me today and getting me down. I’ve not felt like this for a few weeks, and this is definitely the first time this year. I had hoped that I’d kicked this, but here it is, still here.

Four days into my ‘healthy’ regime, and I already had my ‘bad’ day yesterday, mainly I think because Monday and Tuesday had left me so hungry. So today I brought into work a yogurt pot for mid morning, and a kiwi fruit for mid afternoon. Kiwi fruit sure don’t taste as good as a Galaxy Caramel Chocolate Bar.

I ate the kiwi fruit like a boiled egg, lobbed off the top and dug in with my spoon. Feels so strange. I’m going to have to get used to them I guess

I’ve got to like Green Tea over the last few weeks, so hopefully I can do the same with this fruit nonsense

And another thing, I think I need to stop being interested in and thinking about woman, they only make me depressed. From now on, it’s just me, the green tea, and the kiwi fruit

Patriots And Puccini

This past Friday was a good day. I successfully purchased two tickets to see the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play at Wembley, London, in October this year. I went to the NFL UK match this past year, and had a fantastic day out at what was my first official NFL game. I had been to Foxboro back in 1996 to see a preseason game of New England and my Redskins, but this real deal game was superb. So when I’d learnt that the Patriots were coming to London, I was delighted. Then I was anxious. I had missed out on the ticket lottery the first year, and then got lucky in the second year. And I really wanted to go. So the club seats went on sale for London, and I was lucky enough to get myself one! Being a Boston sports fan, and seeing the Rays triumph over the Red Sox in 08, I am hopeful to see the Patriots give the Buc’s a good old-fashioned thumping!

Saturday night was about as far removed from football as you could imagine. I went to a movie theater in Amsterdam to watch Opera. The Opera was La Rondine by Puccini, and was performed by the Metropolitan Opera in New York. They were having a Saturday matinee performance in New York, and this was being broadcast around the world. So some friends and I sat there on Saturday evening, and watched our very first opera. I really had no idea what to expect. I had no idea whether I would like it or not, I just saw it as a good opportunity to soak up some culture. As it happened, I really enjoyed it. The music was beautiful, the singing was amazing, and it was a really good show. What I think made it was the English subtitles at the bottom of the screen, which meant that if you weren’t an Italian speaker, you could still follow what was going on. It was a really nice story, and made for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. I might even go back and see opera again! So, if like me you are sitting out there being skeptical about opera, I really recommend that you give it a try, you might well be pleasantly surprised!

Post New Year Dip

I’ve finally made it to Friday afternoon.  After being off work for two weeks over Christmas and New Year, I always knew the first week back at work would be a struggle.  It does feel like it has been a very long week indeed.  As I look out my window, everything is still dusted in a coating of frost.  It’s been cold all week.  My trains have been late, or delayed all week.  So my commute has been longer, and I’ve spent several extra hours standing around in the cold this week.  I am learning to hate the Dutch train ’service’ more and more!

Hopefully things will look better next week!  I’m off to experience my first opera on Saturday night, so that promises to be interesting.  Just over an hour to go now before I can take off for the weekend, so it’s back to the Green Tea and a spot of Pearl Jam

Will all be fine in 2009?

Another year, another attempt to stick with the blogging about random incidents in my life.  This year shall be the year that I purchase my first apartment, and reach my target weight.  Anything else I shall aim to look upon as a bonus.  Bonus items will include improving my Dutch language skills, or improving my Tagalog skills so I can share all the jokes with my filipino friends.

Lets hope all is fine in 2009.  And if it’s not, we’ll do it all again in 2010

Have a good one