This diet is working so well.. I have put on weight! I think I need to make more of an effort. Instead of sitting chatting on the computer I could be out walking. Instead of hot chips I could be eating ... well something not laden with fat.

I have decided that I am not going to weigh myself any more because I can't deal with scales. I think electonic scales would be ok but my old scales are so hard to read. Measurements are the way to go. They are a more accurate reflection of weight loss anyway.

At least I am not giving up. I bought a new trackie today so I can walk without worry, my old ones were getting so baggy that I had to hold the waist half the time.

I got a t-shirt and matching trackie dacks at Big W for next to nix. I think Big W is much cheaper than K-Mart or Target although about equal to Best and Less. Anyway I wanted to get them on the small side because I figure that will motivate me to loss weight.

At the one and only Weight Watchers meeting I ever attended the leader talked about how you should buy clothes on the small side so you are motivated to fit into them rather than buying loose clothes that make you feel thinner than you are. She also said you should throw out your clothes as they become too loose. For a long time I resisted, thinking it was dodgy thinking, but I have finally twigged. While you have 'fat clothes' in your wardrobe, you have the thought in the back of your mind that your diet will fail and you will need them again.

A few months ago I cleaned the wardrobe out and threw out all those 'fat clothes' plus anything I owned that was just making up the numbers so to speak. Clothes that don't make you feel lovely and glamourous and goddess like are just a waste of space. I gave most of them away.

Of course, this was a big setback during those few weeks I needed to dress corporate for work. I only had one or two outfits left that fitted the dress code.

Now I just need to get off my arse and put on the trackies and walk. And not wear them as pyjamas.

I had a dinner party last night. Japanese style which is good and healthy on the most part although they do use a lot of sugar in things. I made the best pork dish. I don't usually eat pork but I got some of those extra lean pork stirfry strips and it was rather good. Easy as pie to make as well. This is the recipe:

1/2 kilo of pork strips
2 tbsp fresh grated ginger
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin

Mix the ingredients, except the pork of course, together. Marinate the pork for as long as you need to - at least 1/2 hour, then stir fry.

How easy is that? It is so yummy I think I will be making it again. I always thought Japanese food was really fiddly and time consuming but I made the pork, a chicken teriyaki, a pumpkin dish and some pickled vegetables in no time at all. It was a very impressive spread and I had it all really about 2 hours before the guests arrived.

Today has been good. I didn't eat too much. I had instant porridge with the old faithful fruit compote for brekkie. I have been really noticing the difference when I have a filling breakfast. Because I am working until 1.00, the first couple of (non-breakfast) days I was ravenous by the time I left work and would anything I could get my hands on (eg. potato cakes) but, after having oats or museli I can last until I have a healthy lunch. All those things people say about breakfasts are true.

Lunch, well I guess it wasn't 100% good but it was payday so I dropped into one of my favourite places in the world, the uberfantastico Lentil as Anything in St Kilda for a roti and dip platter and a chai tea. Yum, yum. I was going to say yum, yum, pig's bum but it would be more like yum, yum, organic non-animal product bum. It was truly worthwhile. The dips -- coriander pesto, a creamy tofu concoction and something truly sensational out of eggplants -- well what more can I say? The best. And the roti.. ok it is fried but it is good.

The cook wanted feedback on the chai. I had to tell him it could have done with a teensy bit more spice, and he said that the last person had said it was too spicy. I guess it is just personal taste. Have I said before how totally addicted to chai tea I am? It is 10/10. I am almost over my coffee addiction I love it so much.

After that I only had a couple of English muffins with vegemite and a teensy sliver of marg. I think that is all. Not such a bad day.

I also did my weights workout again today. 12 reps x 2 sets. Plus I did sit ups... I hate those things and it took me about 10 minutes to get back up off the floor. I got batteries for my walkman so I can go walking but, oh no, it was raining so I couldn't.

I have been quite good today, well apart from those yummy lollie snakes Andrew gave me. The rest of the day was good though.

I have made my walking tape but can't get batteries for my walkman until tomorrow, drat it. Then I can walk and walk.

Another bad day -- I started well with fruit for breakfast, no yoghurt or museli because I have run out of youhurt. That probably wasn't good because, by the time I knocked off work at 1.00, I was starving. I had to go to the dole office so I stopped off and got some spring rolls thinking I would have a long wait. Luckily the wait wasn't that long, but spring rolls. Ok, I got a potato cake as well and the girl accidentally gave me 2. Not good.

By the time I got home I had a killer headache. I curled up in bed until Andrew got home and he wanted to get chips so I got a small bag of chips too. Bad. Then I went to shop for cigarettes and got a Turkish Delight. So things just went from bad to worse.

I still had a bit of a headache so I did my weights workout. I have a set of pretty (pink, purple and green) handweights that I got from KMart. I just do the workout on the sheet that came with them. That cured the headache so I am going to try to do it more often. I think the headaches are caused by my bad computer posture so the workout stretches out those muscles. I even managed 2 sets, I have only done one before.

So, at least, I did one good thing today. Tomorrow I want to stop the badness.

Two days in and I have been so not good. It started with Andrew wanting chips for lunch. Yum, hot chips. We have the best chip shop in the world nearby and I couldn't resist. They were too good. I should have just had a few and left it at that but no, I had to have the whole bag. Then I had some lollie snakes. Bad, bad, bad.

Then tonight for dinner, yummy cheese platter. I had to be a polite dinner guest, didn't I? They were very low fat water crackers and I didn't have that much cheese, sticking more to the dip... hope it was low fat, think it was. And, oops, a bottle of chardonnay. It was only one teensy, weensy bottle... not my fault that other people want to drink red leaving me with a bottle to myself.

Oh well, tomorrow I will be better. It is good to learn to make a mistake and not lose all hope but keep on trying. Tomorrow will be lots of vegie soup and walking. I have done no exercise yet. Bad.

Oh my god, I have failed already. My food for today is...

Breakfast - skipped because I slept in and was running late for interview. also not hungry because up all night on the bloody internet setting up dieting blog and eating jam sandwiches. Oops.

Snack - a large chai latte with skim milk (yah for me, remembering to ask for skim milk although I don't know if it was really skim milk because the froth was a bit too thick and creamy for skim which tends not to froth well) and fruit toast. I just couldn't resist the fruit toast but I scraped about 1/2 teaspoon of butter over 2 thick slices so that was very good and noble of me. Also a chocolate frog. Bad, bad, bad.

Lunch - leftover chilli con carne (low fat of course) with unbuttered toast and a tiny grating of rather yummy high fat extra tasty vintage cheese. I firmly believe it is better to have a little bit of high fat and yummy tasting cheese that is 'screw your face up' tasty than loads of low fat plastic tasteless cheese.

That is it so far. I haven't been walking because it looks like rain. Really. Oh ok, it doesn't but I am a slack arse and want to go to the Myer Good Buy Warehouse and look for shoes rather than walk.

I have been thinking of borrowing my friend's bike while he is in Europe and try bike riding. I haven't ridden a bike for years but it could be fun.

I made my fruit compote today, ready for the week. This is the recipe...

3 apples, roughly peeled and quartered or eighthed. I used Granny Smiths but these aren't good because they mush up.

2 pears, peeled and quartered. You can eat one quarter while you are making it, that is good.

handful of dried apricots. Again eat a couple while you are cooking. Yum Yum.

handful of saltana

water

cinammon stick, cloves, lemongrass (from the jar in the fridge or fresh), ginger (again from the fridge or fresh), nutmeg, slivers of fresh orange rind.

Cook it all up until the fruit is soft. I also added the remains of a tin of plums -- the one plum left plus juice. That made it yummier and pink too.

Play some nice girlie music while chopping it all up. I use and recommend "Trailer Park" by Beth Orton. Then your whole house smells and sounds girlie. You can even wear an apron if you have one.

Might try this as well.

This looks good, though more fancy than my usual slapdash cooking style.

I guess it is good to try new things, rather than the usual stirfries and pastas every night. Maybe I will be less likely to order in pizza or something if I start making yummy things at home. I think half the reason that I never cook anything adventurous (ie. other than pasta or stirfry) is that when Andrew was young he would complain, scream, chuck major kiddie temper tantrum whenever I cooked anything new so I just stopped after a while. It wasn't worth the effort.

Then I spent about six years working full time while going to uni part time so I never wanted to spend much time in the kitchen. It was enough to throw some food on a plate and just eat it. Of course it was always easier just to order in. Plus I have always lived in places with really shitty kitchens. I have a nice kitchen now though, well ugly but big and very functional. I used to love cooking. I won prizes for cooking when I was in school. Maybe I should start getting back into it.

Friday:
Breakfast - museli, fruit compote & yoghurt
Lunch - jacket potato with leftover chili
Dinner - chicken and vegie stirfry with rice
Snacks - fruit, one skim milk chai tea at Borders in Carlton.

Saturday:
Breakfast - museli, fruit compote & yoghurt
Lunch - salad roll
Dinner - low fat meatloaf and vegetables (or maybe not as may be at Timmy's for dinner).
Maybe a glass or two of wine as well... think quality not quantity

Sunday:
Breakfast - museli, fruit compote & yoghurt
Lunch - soup and sandwich
Dinner - beef curry with rice

Monday:
Breakfast - museli, fruit compote & yoghurt
Lunch - soup and sandwich
Dinner - ... this is where I run out of ideas, maybe some kind of pasta?

Tuesday:
No idea, maybe the meatloaf if I don't have it on Saturday night. Maybe I will make the meatloaf Saturday and freeze it so that I have ready to go in case I am working next week. Could even make meatloaf and some rissoles for another night? Yeah, good idea.

Shopping:
Much fruit, lots of apples and some dried fruit for the compote
Vegies... some asian greens for stirfries, some soup vegies
batteries for walkman
Low fat treats, like rice crackers.
Jarrah chocolatte drink
Tins of tomatoes
Frozen vegies for when feeling slack
Low fat yogurt (jalna...yum), plain so can be used in other things besides breakfast.

To Do List:

Make a big pot of vegie and lentil soup on Saturday so it will do for lunches during the week.

Make meatloaf and maybe other weeknight meal on Saturday so prepared for during the week. Maybe make beef curry so it has time to get really yummy for Sunday, and make big lot so can have it during the week.

Look up new and exciting chicken recipes for Tuesday.

Make up fruit compote for the week. Don't eat it all while it is cooking.

Plan menus and shopping for Wednesday ... payday, yippee!

Weight ... ground zero (you don't think I am going to publish my actual weight here for the whole world to see, do you?)

1. Eat better.
This means healthy, low fat meals and healthy, low fat snacks. I don't really want to start measuring calories or fat so I think the best thing is to go by my own judgement and see if that works. If I don't succeed then I will try a more methodical approach. Part of this is about just being aware of what I am consuming, remembering to ask for things like low fat milk when I am eating out for example.

2. Drink more water
I always forget to drink water. I am going to get a water bottle and carry it around with me so I remember.

3. Exercise
I want to do 5 x 30 minutes walking this week and 3 x handweights. I am planning to head to the beach for some of the walking sessions to make them more fun. Yesterday and today I made a mix tape for my walkman full of inspiring music to walk to, lots of Shihad and Magic Dirt and other really rock stuff I mean, not crappy pop shit.