Lynne - BIG Is there anything you can do for the stress - meditation or yoga, perhaps? Well done on losing that 2 inches off your waist - and good luck with the power lifting and swimming!!!!
I wasn't sure about that pizza thing - they seemed to be having toppings on which weren't on the list, but because it was on pizza it was OK.
I think mine would be:
1. Oats
2. Yoghurt
3. Cheese
4. Beans (if I had to specify a sort of bean I'd struggle, I might have to take up two choices with chickpeas and lentils. But if they can have different sorts of pizza as one choice, I'll have different sorts of beans as one choice)
5. Blueberries
6. Apples
7. Tomatoes
8. Rice
9. Spinach
10. Eggs
I wouldn't bother with the delivery option, I can't think of one that I'd prefer to what I could make for myself.
Now.... what would your lists have been like before you started eating healthily???
Mine would have been...
1. Cheese (it used to be an essential part of my daily diet rather than the occasional treat that it is nowadays).
2. Bread - white crusty, preferably warm.
3. Lurpak butter
4. Steak
5. Chunky oven chips
6. Jacket Spuds
7. Bacon
8. Salad leaves
9. Eggs
10. Red wine
Strange - it was harder to do the 'before' list than doing my current list.
I can't actually remember what I used to eat it was so long ago! There were a lot more ready meals than that (and I really need tomatoes as a sauce for the pasta), but I don't think it's too far off.
1) Chocolate
2) Cake
3) breaded chicken
4) CHIPS!
5) BREAD BREAD BREAD
6) Cheese
7) sausage rolls
8) Pizza
9) KFC
10 Cereal with milk (damn I ran out of numbers!!!!)
I guess my eating was more varied when I was overweight - like, there were so many different types of cake I could eat. Y'know carrot cake is healthy right? Oh and there's not enough room for Haagen Dazs belgian chocolate ice cream.
Re: the ice cream thing. I know for a lot of people they absolutely love ice cream and people whinge on about how great Ben and Jerry's is and I used to finish a whole tub in a day just because someone suggested that it's great and you need to eat ice cream when you're depressed (you know the cliche comfort eating). Well I've discovered that I don't actually like ice cream... It's too darn cold and you can't taste the flavours for the cold! So
And actually I could probably give or take a lot of things on that list now - even chocolate. If it's not in the house I don't want it. I got 3 boxes for my birthday and have just finished them... So I'm not buying any more and I probably won't crave it either
Thank you Sarah. I appreciate your encouragement and . I have tried yoga but it isn't my thing, I'm looking at other ways to help alleviate the stress. This year will be better than 2006.
I pretty much eat the same foods each week anyway, so the 10 foods I live off are:-
Lynne - just a thought - how about something like Frus's kickboxing? Punchbag in the garage?? Dartboard with picture of hated person's face on it?
About my 'before' foods.... I used to love cooking (still do) but the food was very different. Looking back at some of my grocery shopping lists they are really funny - every week I'd buy loads of butter, ghee, EV olive oil - nowadays I buy it less than once a month... if that. I used to think I was chosing the healthy option by putting butter instead of hydrogenated margarine in my cakes.
We never had a day that didn't involve meat/chicken in it somewhere. I used to look forward to spending every Friday baking for the week - pies, bread, an assortment of cakes EVERY week (all this just for the two of us)! I didn't used to buy the variety of veg and fruit that I do now so the old list was much shorter but the total cost was far more. It probably didn't help that I used to cook double quantity - I'd cook a recipe for 4 or 6 portions and DH and I would always eat the whole lot between us.
My diet is much more varied now than it was. For a start there are 7 different veggies in my box every week, and that's before I buy a couple of extra, some fruit, cheese, yoghurt, rice, pasta, porridge and all the other stuff I get through in a week. It used to be a lot more rigid. Special K and yoghurt for breakfast (I think that's what it was anyway, it took me a while to remember), a cheese sandwich, crisps and a flapjack or chocolate for lunch, a huge bowl of pasta or some chicken or a pizza or a ready meal in the evening, washed down with lots of wine and slabs of chocolate. It wouldn't necessarily be the same thing every night, but the same foods would come round more frequently than they do now. I experiment with new recipes a lot more now.
A sample day for me would have been a big hunk of bread with butter and honey (HUGE English Breakfast at the Cafe on the Park on DH's day off). Most days by lunchtime I was feeling guilty about the size of breakfast so I wouldn't have lunch - or maybe 'just' a slice of cake - so that by about 2.30 to 3pm I would get a problem with my blood sugars and then I'd stuff myself silly on sweet things... which meant that we didn't eat dinner until later - about 7pm and it would be typically be roast something or other, steak or maybe a home made pie with some roast parsnips & veg - then we always had a pudding, something like home made rice pud, bread and butter pudding or spotted dick & custard (always home made choc eclairs on Fridays!) - AND THEN I'd have cheese & biscuits at about 9.30.
See the pattern... always homemade - so I always thought it was wholesome.
Apple crumble & custard... one of my favourites. Yum!
The single hardest thing for me has been learning portion control. It just seems like everyone else's version of a 'portion' is a lot smaller than mine!
Lynne, well done on the two inches off of your waist... that's brilliant Don't worry about the body fat and stuff staying the same, remember that Oz man on Oprah says it's not the weight or anything else that's important for your health, it's your waist size. Well done on picking the right size swimming cossie too, do you have a local pool you can have a swim by you or have you got one at your gym or in your garden? Enjoy anyway, wherever it is, I love swimming and miss my pool
Sorry to hear that you've had such a hard time recently as well It is hard when you live in another country...but we're here for you if you need us anytime.
Sarah, I think you def need to keep Ellie, she sounded like a member of your family a week after she'd come to stay... I reckon by her original owner not mentioning it, means that you're her new Mummy. How did she do with the Christmas tree after all?
Shame about your anniversary cottage Bless MIL for her offer too, that's really sweet. I don't blame you for not wanting to put the boys and Ellie in kennels, I've had to do it twice with Pen and Lew and had no choice whatsoever as we knew no one and they couldn't stay with us on base when we moved and I was close to having a break down leaving them, the first woman they stayed with must have thought I was a raving lunatic.
Stop talking about puddings you lot cos I've got birds instant custard in the cupboard and they sell pies and stuff down the shops and I could buy them....STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!!! Please..........thank you.
Ok, must stop waffling for now, I've got a pot roast going and need to cook some seperate veg for the hungry hoards......see you all later, stay warm.
Is there anything you can do for the stress - meditation or yoga, perhaps? Well done on losing that 2 inches off your waist - and good luck with the power lifting and swimming!!!! 
Don't worry about the body fat and stuff staying the same, remember that Oz man on Oprah says it's not the weight or anything else that's important for your health, it's your waist size. Well done on picking the right size swimming cossie too, do you have a local pool you can have a swim by you or have you got one at your gym or in your garden? Enjoy anyway, wherever it is, I love swimming and miss my pool 
