Project Excess Baggage – Week 1… The Plan

Firstly, thanks to everyone who reached out after last week’s post. Your encouragement and suggestions were gratefully received. But that’s the thing about posts like these—they encourage sharing, and that’s a good thing, right?

The Plan …

Back in 1995 Grant and I did one of those 21-day it’s-Venice-so-it-must-be-Monday bus tours around Europe. I was 28 and probably brought the average age down by a couple of decades. That, however, was by-the-by. The tour was going to all the cities these things usually go to and I was excited. Super excited. By day 2, though, I was feeling trapped and claustrophobic and ready to yell at the next person who gave me an instruction.

On the surface everything was as it should be – no hassles with trains or planes or luggage, everything taken care of. That, however, was the problem – there was no room to move. Sure, lunches and some dinners were our care, but other than that our days were mostly mapped out. ‘I’m sick of being told when I can go to the toilet,’ I said one time after queueing to use the loo at the designated loo stop.

Grant was suprisingly quick to work out that the toilets weren’t really the problem. ‘How about,’ he suggested, ‘we don’t do any of the optional tours unless they’re things we really want to do and they involve a meal.’

I jumped at the compromise and enjoyed the rest of the trip. Sure, there were some things we made our own way to when the rest of the group went in the bus, but it was important to me that we had the opportunity to research the places we were going to and make our own way there. I wanted the structure of the tour and the group, but the flexibility to do our own thing within that.

We had a few disapproving people who frowned every time we took off in an opposite direction to everyone else. But we also had others who looked as though they would also have liked to explore a tad more, and a growing group who’d gather around and want to know where we were heading or where we’d been.

I’ll always remember getting back on the bus (on time – I hate it when people are late) after a lunch stop in Pisa and everyone was complaining about the price and the quality of a soggy ham sandwich and coke and the queues at the toilets whereas we’d headed back a few blocks, found a restaurant full of locals, shared a pizza and a carafe of red wine and used the restaurant’s loos. We were full of smiles.

The memories we talk about from that tour are the times we found places under our own steam – the night we sat on a church step in Vienna and ate bratwurst and mustard in thick rye bread, washed down with beer; the day we got lost in the back streets of Paris and found our way back by heading for the Eiffel Tower, that pizza in Pisa.

What does this have to do with diets? Quite simply I like (and need) the structure of a plan but the flexibility to do my own thing within it.

While following a prescribed meal plan and shopping list would make things easier – and has been proven to work for others – I feel trapped, claustrophobic and rebel against the implied commitment. Having the flexibility to adapt my own recipes allows me to think I still have some creative control while still providing the accountability and the structure I need. While I’d probably lose more weight more quickly if I just shut up and did what I was told and ate what I was told to eat, the reality is I’d throw all my toys out of the cot and wouldn’t stick to it. This way, it becomes my plan, not someone else’s. If I fail, it’s not the plan’s fault, it’s mine. Plus, as I research as I go, I’m continually learning.

It’s why as much as I like the principles (and the recipe, excercise and mindfulness library is fantastic) of Dr Michael Mosely’s Fast 800 plan (and have read the science behind it) I’m not 100% following it. I’m using some of the recipes and some of the exercise modules, but for me there’s one problem I can’t get past.

While I can swap foods around within the plan, I can only do this for recipes within the plan. There’s no ability to log anything from outside the plan. It simply goes in as “Eating Out” with no calories attached to it. I emailed them and asked why and the response was a logical one – they preferred participants to stay within the plan until they learnt what they should be doing … or words to that effect.

The thing is, I’m more likely to stick to something if I have some creative freedom and feel as though I’m in control. I also learn more. But that’s just me.

Instead the program I’m “following” is the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet – and adapting recipes by other writers to fit this. This approach has worked for me in the past, so I’m using it again. Like the Fast 800 it’s based on a moderately low carbohydrate, moderately high protein Mediterranean-style diet that fits with my (mostly) low GI approach.

The Total Wellbeing Diet divides foods into categories (meat and protein, bread and cereals, vegetables, fruit, dairy, healthy fats and oils) against which you have a daily limit or, in the case of vegetables, target. These limits differ depending on the plan you’re on. Because Grant is diabetic and has to watch his cholesterol, I’m on that plan. I like to think of it as a daily budget which I can spend in any way I want.

There are also 7 indulgences you can have over the week. Knowing I have these in my back pocket keeps me sane. These are designed for the occasional treat and are (mostly) worth around 100 each – depending on the food. For example, 3 squares of dark chocolate is 1 indulgence, a 150ml glass of red wine is 1 indulgence, a teaspoon of butter is 1 indulgence. Processed meats such as bacon also fall under “indulgences”. The idea is to make you think twice before indulging.

It sounds complicated, but the app does the work and I can create “combos” within it which convert other recipes into the appropriate categories and nutrient breakdown.

How it’s going…

To be honest, our evening meals haven’t changed a lot, but my eating during the day has – quite markedly. I’m more careful about starchy carbs and limiting rice to ½ cup basmati – and then only if I haven’t already used up my 3 bread and cereal credits for the day.

The biggest change has been in terms of portion drift and grazing. I’m tracking everything in these early weeks and this has helped me focus on what I’m doing. I pre-planned the week’s meals on Sunday and logged the calories and nutrients of each so I can’t be tempted by Grant’s requests for sausages (depending on the brand would cost 3 indulgence points) and mash (another indulgence point for the butter). I’ve also packaged up my lunch soup or salad each morning so I’m not tempted to make an extra trip to the fridge or reach for the bread, butter and cheese.

In the past I haven’t tracked it if I know I shouldn’t be eating it (yes, I know…) but having those indulgences has meant I can make informed decisions. As a result I’ve tracked the food without the guilt that usually sends me off the rails.

My Friday morning before writing group treat – a croissant – cost me 2.4 indulgences and was worth every one of them. I balanced this out with a veggie soup for lunch.

Even though I’d planned for Saturday to be a no tracking, no guilt day, this week I tracked the day and planned our “special” Saturday night to fit within the plan.

I also ate lunch out twice – both Vietnamese – which I was also able to track.

For the first time in many (many) years I can say hand on heart there was no sneaking, bingeing or calorie amnesia – and that is a bigger deal for me than you can imagine.

On the menu…

For breakfast I’ve been having either:

• a poached egg on a slice of rye sourdough and vegemite or
• 2 eggs scrambled with no toast.

Lunch has been a salad with either poached chicken or a tin of tuna, or a chicken, veg and barley soup from the freezer.

As for snacks, it’s been either an apple or a couple of rye cruskits with tahini and tomato.

On the dinner menu:

• Steak Diane from The Fast 800 plan with a salad on the side
• Angela Hartnett’s Creamy Chicken and Ginger Curry with a salad on the side

• A slightly modified version of Adam Liaw’s Pork Mince with Green Beans. (There’s a similar dish on The Fast 800 Plan.
• Recipe Tin Eats’ Indonesian-style Turmeric fish with a cherry tomatoes cheat’s sambal and cucumber.
• Destination Italy – broad bean crostini with mint and feta (on half a slice of toasted rye sourdough), followed by veal marsala, mushrooms and broccolini.
• Barbecued chicken thighs with salad.

I used all my indulgence “points” in:

• the 30ml of cream and teaspoon of butter in Monday’s Steak Diane and again in Saturday’s Veal with mushrooms – and the shot of marsala in Saturday night’s mushroom sauce.
• Full fat (instead of low fat) yoghurt in Tuesday’s curry – I far prefer the full-fat version.
• The dash of coconut milk that goes into making the Vietnamese pancake I had when out with a friend on Thursday.
• Butter on my sourdough with Sunday morning’s omelette – and the small amount of bacon in the omelette. (Grant makes me an omelette to have in bed every Sunday morning).
• the afore-mentioned croissant
• a couple of zero alcohol beers – these were 0.3 each – on Friday and Saturday

Anyways, it’s been a good week nutrition-wise.

Week 1 Results

At the start of the week I set myself the following goals – and, while it’s early days, I’m chuffed with how I went against them.

Nutrition:

• Get back to basics and track everything – and I mean everything. ✅
• Alcohol-free ✅

Exercise:

• > 70,000 steps for the week ✅
• 5 x 5 at 5 – the five at five is the almost five kms we walk at almost 5 am on the beach path. ✅
• 2 swims ✅
• 2 strength/resistance sessions ✅
• 1 yoga/flexibility session ✅

What I struggled with…

Hitting my 10,000 steps a day on those days when I had resistance sessions or swim sessions was hard and required me heading out for a shorter afternoon walk as well. On the upside, that involved some hills (the morning walk is mostly flat) and allowed me to listen to my favourite podcasts.

As I’ve stepped up the exercise my lower back pain has been dreadful – it’s felt like I have a vice around my back as I walk. It will get better as the weight comes off and my core and glutes get stronger. In the meantime I grit my teeth and pretend I can’t feel it.

I had lunch out with a friend on Thursday and chose the local Vietnamese where there was plenty to choose from that fitted into my plan. In the pic below is a Vietnamese rice flour pancake with grilled chicken and heaps of herby salad bits.

No alcohol

Even though I’ve been attempting to drink less during the week and had more alcohol-free days this year than in other years, I’ve struggled with the no alcohol thing. Really struggled.

I’ve never been one for sugary or flavoured soft drinks (or soda or pop), and drink mostly water or sparkling water anyway, so finding a substitution has been difficult. I’ve instead poured sparkling water into my wine glass and that has helped… a little.

Friday and Saturday night were the most difficult. They’re the nights I usually drink the most and will have wine while I’m cooking as well as over dinner (and more besides). This weekend I bought in some James Squires Zero beer and had one when I was cooking. It helped, but I suspect I’ll struggle with this aspect for some time. Grant suggested I relent and have a glass of red with dinner, but I know I wouldn’t be able to stop at that, so will keep aiming for an alcohol-free month and see how I feel after that.

Next week: More of the same!