There have been several hiccups in my healthy eating so far this year, but the following is a list of rules I’m trying to stick to. I’m not tempted to buy bad things, I’m only tempted to eat them if they’re in front of me…which is why the work meal out last week wasn’t conducive to my healthy eating!! But here are my guidelines…

1. No cereal other than muesli. Even supposedly healthy things like Special K and All Bran are packed full of sugar which will be converted into fat. Instead I have porridge (microwavable and filling), or fresh fruit with yoghurt. Yep, they have sugar, but not so much of the added kind.

2. Drinking lots of water. My body has become very in tune with feeling thirsty, which is something I’m not used to. Now I’ll get a dry throat and clearly think ‘I need some water’ rather than just ignoring it or thinking I’m hungry. I’m also drinking fruit juice, a mixture of my own blended fruits or shop-bought stuff not from concentrate. I’ll only have about one glass of juice a day though.

3. When I want chocolate or something warming, I have a hot chocolate or tomato soup. The soup is quite sweet, and I can barely ever finish a small mug of hot chocolate anyway so it’s not too bad.

4. Going by the sugar and salt content of food as well as fat, saturated fat and calories. Most of the packaged food I eat tends to be low-calorie anyway, but I’ve been watching out for the sugar and salt content of things more and it’s actually quite shocking.

5. Crisps (chips) are limited to about once a week instead of every day.

6. Lots more fresh veg, particularly salads and things like carrot sticks I can snack on at work.

7. Dividing plates up into ¼ protein, ¼ complex carbs and ½ veg/salad. I don’t tend to eat enough protein because I generally dislike it, so this helps ensure my meals are well-balanced overall.

8. Blended drinks – I love milkshakes, but instead I’m blending things like berries, banana and melon with some milk and a touch of milkshake powder. This also helps use up overripe fruit.

9. Being more veggie – this kind of links to my general dislike of protein, but I’ve been eating more veggie foods like meat-free sausages, Quorn balls etc., which are less fatty than meat and visually easier for me to cook.

10. Other food substitutes – roast potatoes instead of chips, bakes instead of cereal bars, homemade smoothies and milkshakes or fruit instead of dessert.

11. Waiting 20 minutes after eating – I’ve never really done this before but I’ve found it makes a big difference as to how much I actually eat, particularly as I eat bits and pieces when I’m feeling lazy.

12. The ‘No’s – I know a lot of people say not to cut things out completely because you’ll miss them, but these are the things I’ve avoiding: sweets, chocolate (except a kid’s sized bar every so often), red meat, fizzy drinks other than Apple Tiser, fried things, heavily processed non-veggie products, diet products with lots of bad ingredients and E numbers, foods with MSG, foods high in calories, fat, sugar and salt, white bread and pasta, coffee, tea, energy drinks.

13. Cooked veg is steamed in the microwave – quicker and healthier than boiling, roasting or frying.

14. Eating organic as much as possible – it just tastes nicer to me. And I’d prefer to give my body as little work as possible when it comes to toxins etc.

So what AM I eating? Well, here’s an example menu…

Breakfast: Fresh strawberries and melon

Mid-morning snack: Oatmeal and raisin bake

Lunch: Tuna sandwich with salad/peppers, fruit yoghurt, carrot sticks, small portion of soft cheese with crispy potato sticks

Mid-afternoon snack: Banana

Dinner: Fish with roast potatoes and at least three kinds of veg (usually a combination of the following: baby corn, peas, cabbage, green beans, sprouts, sugar snap peas, mange tout or broccoli).

I’m quite lucky in that I love almost every kind of veg. I’m not a massive fan of sweet potato, though I do like it cooked certain ways. The only vegetable I refuse to eat is ‘proper’ sweetcorn because I think it’s disgusting. My diet is still pretty heavy on the sugar, and I’m not sure what I else I can do about that really as I’ve always had a very sweet tooth. I have stopped eating desserts though and I have been generally careful whilst eating out as to what I’m choosing. I’ve also got fussier with picking what I eat rather than generally clearing my plate. For example, I ordered a chicken sandwich in a restaurant at the weekend and it came with orange plastic cheese and a burger bun, rather than the ciabatta I was expecting!! Needless to say I scraped the cheese and top part of the bun off and left them. I could see the grease on it, it was disgusting. Ick.

What are the healthy aspects of your diet? Do you find it hard to eat healthily or do you naturally like things that are good for you?

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Today marks the start of a new budget month for me, as I get paid today. Let’s just say that last month didn’t work out too well where budgeting is concerned! I spent about £150 at the weekend on food, going out, wii games and various other fun things, which means I spent about £500 on food and non-essentials for the month, and that’s with my dad spending about £100 on food shopping for me. Oops. This month will be a better month though!

I’m also failing on the weightloss front because after a good start, I’ve put on a pound. I think I got too complacent, because I had a big chicken meal on Friday and a pizza on Saturday. Plus, although I’ve completed 10/20 workouts on EA Active (woohoo!), I should be moving around more during the day, and at least be going for a walk every lunchtime. I think the problem is that saving money and losing weight are conflicting with each other quite a lot. If I want healthy options, they often cost more. If I don’t bring a sandwich for lunch so I have to walk to the shops and get one, then I’m spending more than making sandwiches at home and bringing them in. Those are just small examples, but they build up. I think the key is not giving up, and making changes I can stick to. So from today I’m going to be doing a 45 minute morning exercise routine, walking every lunchtime, and maybe doing some yoga or similar in the evening. I’m not giving up!
In the good news category, I signed up for organ donation, and I’m meeting up with a woman this weekend to talk about volunteering with a web and marketing project, so my charity work and good deed goals are succeeding at least.

I’ve also been doing a lot of work and planning for Blossom. I signed up for Remember The Milk, and I’ve already completed or mostly completed several tasks. I’ve installed plugins, added Gravatars to comments (though the comment boxes still need a bit of tweaking), created new email addresses and a feedback form (which I must remember to add to the sidebar) and added CommentLuv. It’s a nice way for me and visitors to keep track of what’s going on, and if you add me as a contact you can even add things to my list. That might not work out so well! But seriously, I’m looking a lot more into pages – what’s broken, what’s popular, what needs updating, so any feedback is good. I’ll be adding this page to the sidebar soon, but for now you can contact me here.

So yeah it’s crazy busy, and with adding other goals and projects into my life, I’m pretty much going to be busy constantly. But I feel very productive, if a little tired, and I don’t think I’ll get this time of my life again – young(ish)!, no one to support, no real restrictions or constraints – so I’m going to try and use it as well as I can.

In other news, and to explain this blog title, I was randomly Googling the other day when I came across a website I made in 2001. It’s so bad it’s hilarious! I look back and go ‘Aww’, and I have to laugh at the ‘blog’ entries, especially the one that talks about coloured scrollbars being ‘illegal’ lol!! And me with crappy frames all over the place as well. Still, I guess it shows how much I’ve learned over the past ten years?!

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So I decided to start looking at my eating again – I KNOW what I should be eating, and when, and how, but there is always someone buying biscuits or cakes of some sort in the office, and I get so bored!

Over the weekend I didn’t eat enough, I just didn’t feel like it. Yesterday I ate healthily, but today I had a bowl of cereal, 2 cereal bars, beans on toast, biscuits, and a packet of crisps. I got home from work and couldn’t be bothered cooking, was going to have cereal, but common sense took over. In the end I made 2 turkey salad multi-seed wraps, and had the with a bit of potato salad and carrot sticks. Dessert was a bowl of fresh watermelon, blueberries, and fruity yoghurt. I’ve decided that when I eat badly, I’m just going to pretend I didn’t and eat heathily the rest of the day, rather than carrying on eating badly or not eating at all.

I have started Christmas shopping due to finding a fantastic outlet village that sells all kinds of stuff, from designer clothes to chocolate, supposedly all super discounted. There’s a lot of crap, but there were also some great bargains. Some things I’ve ordered from work, however – the last staff order date for Christmas was yesterday, to ensure customers get their stuff on time. For Pom and Fuzz I’ve ordered a bubble machine that makes bacon and chicken flavoured bubbles, which should be entertaining for us as well as them 50% discount is not to be sniffed at.

I realised how much responsibility my job actually entails yesterday. Though I have backups if I need them, I am officially the only copywriter and editor for 10 catalogue websites. I estimate that’s around 15,000 products or so. The catalogues are also quite major – not like Argos or anything, but still pretty big. It’s not something I can see myself being involved with for the rest of my life, but I feel lucky. I could be doing a million and one worse jobs.

My ‘free’ time at the moment is being filled with review writing and survey taking in a last ditch attempt to earn more money for Christmas. I now have mobile broadband on my laptop – £15/month for 3GB/month – better than nothing, but yet another bill that’s going out when I’m supposed to be saving. I have decided though that I’m going to make at least £15/month from the Internet to even it out. I have been doing reviews and surveys on and off for a while, but now I’m almost going to ’schedule’ it in. I’ve had a £15 paypal cash out from one site, and by the end of this week I want to hit my £50 review cash out for 50,000 points: just 5,000 more to go.

I’ve also signed up to ipoints, and I’m not buying anything online without checking to see if it does cashback, or ipoints, or has a voucher code for it – or combines any of those things! I asked a guy at work how companies make money off cashback sites. They apparently give the cashback sites x amount for ’selling’ their products, and the cashback site passes some of this money onto the actual customer. Very simple, but effective for the consumer. So I’m making the most of it.

This VAT reduction thing is officially a nightmare for me – we have to change the prices of all our product,s which means I have to change the descriptions of the several thousand where prices are mentioned (not sure how many yet). As we are currently on a tight schedule to launch 5 full updates of products/websites to co-ordinate with the new New Year catalogues we’re sending out, this has not come at the best possible time. Oh well. I’m currently on track, if not ahead, so it’ll all be fine.

It’s my 22nd birthday in 15 days, and Christmas in a month. Can’t wait

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