Secret eating is no secret ... YOU still know!

Are you  a secret eater?  I certainly was for years.  I knew I did it, but as nobody else saw it I told myself it didn't count and I would wonder why I found it hard to lose weight as much as everybody else did!!

As a teenager I would squirrel away bags of crisps to my bedroom and stuff my face, hiding the empty bags down the side of my bed ... my Mum always found them but it didn't stop me.  I even remember the embarrassment once of staying at my ex boyfriends house and when I thought everyone else was in bed sneaking into their kitchen and snuffling a couple of bags of crisps back to his bedroom (we weren't allowed to sleep in the same room!!) and eating them in the dark ... until he came creeping in and caught me, not giving me time to hide them... oh the shame!!!  I would then counteract it by taking laxatives when I was younger, convincing myself it was stopping what I was eating from 'settling' in my body!!! It was a form of bulimia in reality.

In later years, once married, going shopping and getting home before my husband, stuffing my face with goodies I had bought and stuffing the wrappings in the bottom of the bin so he didn't see them, and feeling pleased with myself for getting away with it!  But I wasn't ... it was showing all over my body, and I wasn't deceiving anybody else but myself!!

I don't know why I did it, why I had such an unhealthy relationship with food, why such an unhealthy obsession with crisps.  I always knew it was wrong, always, the guilt afterwards was consuming, and the laxatives would help ease the guilt a little, and then it would just repeat itself.  I wasn't unhappy, I have never been an unhappy person, I have had traumas as I have mentioned before but I have never been unhappy or felt like I had a whole to fill.  I never went without, we were always well fed.  My Mum did forget to dish up for me on a couple of occasions when we were younger,  I was the youngest of 4, we were all sat around the table, everyone else got theirs, I waited patiently, 'Where's mine Mum?'  Bless her, she was mortified, and in true Mum spirit gave me hers .... although I still tease her about it to this day, but I never, ever went without.  Maybe it was being the youngest, maybe it was the thought of perhaps missing out, always having to share, I really honestly don't know... but whatever it was, it isn't important, facing the fact that I was a secret eater, recognising it and finally putting a stop to it is what is important, and it is a battle I really hope I have finally won.

 

~BREAKFAST~

 

Porridge again this morning, but rather than made with water as I usually do I mad it with almond milk......... SO GOOD!!!!  I added chopped stem ginger and cinnamon as usual and topped with mango chunks and more cinnamon.

Fabulous start to the day!

~MID-MORNING SNACK~

Some oatcakes and low fat cottage cheese with pineapple this morning, love it! 

Cottage cheese is very high in protein and popular with strength-trainers and also beneficial for dieters. It actually contains a protein called casein, which your body digests at a slower rate to other proteins and therefore makes it more filling than other proteins too.  It also provides amino acids which your body uses to build muscle and other tissues.

It is also recommended you eat it before bed, the slow digestion and high level of satiety apparently encourages you to eat less in the morning!

~LUNCH~

As planned, today's lunch was a pot of the leftover baked risotto from last nights dinner .... and it was every bit as delicious as last night!!

~AFTERNOON SNACK~

 

Today's snack was inspired by the lovely Danni at Hungry Healthy Happy who posted her breakfast yesterday of grilled peaches topped with greek yogurt, sounded amazing.

I still had some low fat pineapple cottage cheese to be used up so grilled two peach halves sprinkled with cinnamon, topped with the cheese and sprinkled more cinnamon on top....
DELICIOUS!!

I followed this with a couple of squares of Green and Blacks dark chocolate, I always keep a bar in the fridge and a couple of squares every now and then hits the spot!!

 

~DINNER~

 

I bought a complete bargain the other day in the Supermarket, a HUGE joint of pork shoulder for £2.63!!!!  How fab is that!!!  I could have cut it in half and froze one and roasted the other, but I wanted to do something different with it.

So I cut of all the fat ... which drastically reduced the size, and cubed it up and made a Slow Cooked Oriental Pork Casserole.

To the left of this picture is the pork I was left with after removing all fat (to the right)!!!!!

So, I cubed the pork and put it in the slow cooker along with a couple of cloves of crushed garlic, a 2" piece of fresh ginger finely chopped, about 3 star anise, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, a good splash of soy sauce, a good splash of rice wine vinegar, a teaspoon of chinese five spice powder, a squeeze of honey, a few strips of orange zest and ... a good squeeze of wasabi paste!!  I was going to add chilli flakes but saw the tube of wasabi in my cupboard and decided to give that a go!  I let this cook on low for a couple of hours, then added a white onion quartered and separated into leaves and let it cook another couple of hours on low.

 

I served this with some baked sweet potato simply mashed and some steamed tender stem broccoli and sliced carrots.


Honestly, the flavour was amazing, the wasabi had mellowed but added a fantastic flavour, definitely a successful experiment!!!

~EXERCISE~

 

A swimming day today, and as usual I loved it.  The machines I really hate in the gym are the cardio machines and I do a couple under complete duress before my resistance training, but they bore me rigid, I wish they didn't but they so do.  I firmly believe you have to enjoy your exercise for it to be a success, so I much prefer to get my cardio from swimming.

Swimming is a great aerobic exercise by  making you repeatedly move your limbs and increasing your heart and breathing rates.  This improves the health of your heart and lungs, improves your immune function, keeps your arteries working efficiently and boosts your mood and stamina, as well as many other benefits.  Whilst it can help tone your muscles, and there is some resistance against the water, it doesn't provide enough resistance force to help build them like resistance training with weights does.  But combined with my resistance training every other day, everything is covered!

I am however going to look into weights that can be used around your ankles and wrist for swimming which offers a bit more resistance force.

Swam for just over an hour, then enjoyed a 10 minute session in the steam room, this is leaving my skin feeling so soft and smooth!

Swimming is not only a great exercise, it relaxes my mind too, I get completely absorbed in the rhythm of the water and I LOVE IT!!

Thanks again for reading
Jo
xx
J