My (new) fat year: week 1

Four years ago, when we were preparing to get married, the poet lost around 2 stone (24lb) and I lost about half a stone (7lb). At our first weigh-in of the new year last week, the poet had gained half a stone (7lb), and I had gained about a stone (14lb). 😳

Last Monday we switched, as far as we could, to a high-fibre diet. We still have some Christmas food left, but generally, the following has since been troughed* by the pair of us (we refuse to throw good food out, and instead decided to replace it when necessary with food that’s higher in fibre):

• Christmas cake
• mince pies
• Yule log
• sausage rolls
• mini cheesy biscuits
• pork pie
• various cheeses
• chocolates

Despite this, I’m delighted to report that the poet has lost 3lb, and I have lost 1¾lb. Not bad when you consider we’re still finishing Christmas. And weight-loss isn’t really the priority this time, either.

We sliced and froze the leftover turkey and a ham we slow-cooked. I think there is still one pack of turkey left, but we had all of the ham and bought another one at the weekend.

We still have:

• mini Twiglets
• cream crackers
• some Italian cake that was a gift (Panetonne?)
• a jumbo bag of mini cheesy biscuits we were given at the weekend
• half a family-sized pack of assorted biscuits

But I’m hoping my own weight-loss at least will be the same, if not better, by the end of this current week now that most of the goodies have gone.

We’re not counting calories or points or Syns. We’re not excluding any food groups or only eating certain food groups (apart from fibre where we can). But I am keeping a food and activity diary for now.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing some of our favourite recipes on here, adapted by the poet to suit our palate and my finnicky eating. I’ve not prepared anything yet, though, so I’m going to share instead my thoughts on breakfast.

Back in the dark ages, I couldn’t stomach anything to eat first thing in the morning, but by about 10:30 or 11am, I was generally starving hungry. As I worked in a local authority multi-storey building at the time, there was invariably a subsidised canteen in the basement, and so every day I’d buy bacon sarnies.

When I changed jobs and didn’t have a canteen to visit, and only expensive shops I couldn’t really afford (or justify spending so much on something I could eat at home), I trained myself to have breakfast before leaving the house.

I did such a good job, I’m now unable to leave the house unless I’ve had something to eat.

I’m a cereal (serial 😃) eater now. But one thing I could never face, however, was porridge … until the poet showed me how to make it with milk. I never knew you could make it with milk. I always thought you had to make it with water! No wonder I didn’t really like it.

If the poet is home for breakfast, sometimes he’ll have cereal with me and sometimes I’ll have toast or a fry-up with him. Generally, though, and because I bore easily, I try to cycle through the following during any one week now:

• 2 Weetabix + 1 banana, sliced
• 45g fruit wheats
• 40g branflakes + 15g sultanas
• 1 sachet instant porridge, usually with fruit (if the poet is making a porridge brekkie, he’ll make it with oats and fresh fruit and we’ll have yoghurt on it)
• 50g high-fruit muesli
• 30g low-sugar Cheerios (if the shop has them)

I also like Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes, but both are higher in sugar and lower in fibre, so they’re there – along with the Farley’s Rusks (yes, really) – for comfort or poorly eating. I don’t like Special K, Sugar Puffs or regular Shredded Wheat, although I do like mini Shredded Wheat (not Shreddies).

Starting the day with a big breakfast no longer seems to be the latest advice. But I, personally, really can’t face the day without eating something. The poet takes porridge pots to work, to which he just needs to add boiling water, or he’ll get something when he gets there. But if I have to leave the house too early to have breakfast, I usually have to take something with me to eat en route, whether that be a banana or a cereal bar or something else.

The cereal that I eat is often high in carbohydrates and sugars or sugar replacements. But as we’re not doing that kind of diet, we don’t really care about that now. We still have semi-skimmed milk, but that’s only because I prefer the taste to full-fat milk.

Generally, it’s been a good week. Today, though, because I’m still working on that hard edit, I’m starting to bore. And when I get bored, I start to nibble. I’m hoping a small bowl (40g) of mini cheesy biscuits and a small packet (also 40g) of marshmallow faces haven’t done very much damage.

Do you have any suggestions for what to eat on a high-fibre diet?

* past tense, verb, to eat greedily … apparently …