Back to Black

No, sorry this isn’t an AC/DC post, that should read Back to Orlistat.

I had a week off, it was glorious, I ate too much, drank too much and generally made an idiot of myself, in the best possible way.

But now… I’m facing reality.

99.8kg. I weigh 99.8kg. It’s still a big number. It’s not as big as 114kg but it’s still pretty big. I still need to lose around 30% of my body weight but I’ve lost over 10% already 😁 Nutracheck reckons I’ll meet my next goal in January- it’s September now, that’s a long time. I’ve got Christmas, a whole month of birthdays, Halloween, at least three nights away… How the hell am I going to stay motivated?

Ok, lets take stock. 10% is an easy number to focus on, according to Heart UK “losing just 10% of your body weight will help lower your cholesterol and triglyceride levels, your blood pressure, and your risk of Type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer. “

So that’s good. I’m on blood pressure tablets, so that might help reduce my blood pressure – I could potentially lose the tablets, although that really is a thing that’s not properly recovered since my first pregnancy.

My clothes fit better, in some cases they’re far too big. I feel better in myself, although the fatigue isn’t abating as quickly as I’d like.

I’m trying to make some commitments, not to lose weight per se, but to improve my chances of living more healthily.

Ironically, using orlistat is making me change my diet in unusual ways. The drug works best when you have an intake of 30% fat and a total of 1500kcal a day. The way the tablets work, it’s pointless taking them if your diet is very low-fat as the drug has nothing to bind to. Counterintuitively, this has led me to increase my fat intake. After literally decades of low-fat foods, I’m now reaching for the ‘normal’ versions.

For example, through the week my breakfast usually consists of low-fat yogurt, oats and fruit left overnight. I have a love of berries, so I’ve started using frozen berries (cheaper and more variety) which defrost just in time for me to eat them(yum!). I now use ‘normal’ yogurt instead of the low/zero fat version, and I’ve started adding a tablespoon of dried fruits and seeds too. This brings my fat-free breakfast up to around the 15g of fat per meal I should be eating.

I should probably share my breakfast with you, I absolutely love this, but you can obviously vary it (ideas below) to suit your palate! Please remember that I don’t have any corporate sponsors, my recommendations are based purely on where I happen to have shopped!

Breakfast Oats

100g of Greek Yogurt

30g rolled oats

100g frozen mixed berries

15g (1tbsp) of dried fruit and seed mix.

Totals (approx) 400kcals, 16g fat. 54g carb, 31g sugar, 10g protein, 7g fibre. 1.3 portions of fruit and veg (if you’re counting your five-a-day)

Set-up costs:

500g porridge oats (65p – Sainsburys)

500g frozen berries (£2:10 – Asda)

1kg Greek yogurt (£2 – Sainsburys)

150g fruit and seed mix (75p Asda)

Total for five breakfasts (with leftovers for rolling stock): £5:50

Total per portion: 73p

Simply stick it all in a suitably sized container (mix if preferred) and leave overnight.

Variations –

• There are loads of different varieties of frozen fruit, so grab one that sounds good to you, go for it, you can also get cheaper bags than what I got – it’s just what was at the local supermarket.
• You could use muesli instead of oats and either cut of reduce the fruit and seed mix as you prefer.
• I prefer natural Greek yogurt, but you could change this to a flavoured one, use Skyr or unflavoured instead.
• You could also add spices such as cinnamon, ginger, allspice, or nutmeg for a bit more variety.

So, here’s to a tastier future, and hopefully this kickstarts my weight loss again, and I can start seeing even more benefits 🙂

As ever,

M x

P.S… If you enjoy my work, please consider buying me a coffee, I’d be most grateful and after the last few years, it might just motivate me to start growing my crafts again 🙂 Thank you so much xxx