MK – well done. Your 60 mile charity bike challenge is awesome. You are right about the difference it makes not having to drag the extra stones around.
Pod – hope you have a lovely holiday – and well done for the weight loss.
Theodora – great that you didn’t have any refined carbs. On maintenance it is absolutely fine to have more calories. I have been entering everything into fat secret while on maintenance – not to control how much I eat, but just to get an idea of how many calories keep me maintaining.
It is so interesting that I have a sort of natural cycle where I eat more calories for a few days – then have a few days when I just can’t eat as much. On those days I often have to add extra calories (cheese is helpful to up the calories) because I am worried I might start burning lean muscle mass. As long as I keep the carbs low I keep maintaining in a very narrow weight range. On the higher calorie days 9st 4lbs and the lower calorie days 9st 3.5lbs.
I thought that the carb monster was well and truly vanquished – but obviously not. We have a rule that if husband wants a sugary desert he serves himself. Yesterday he was tired so I went to the freezer and got out a tub of luxury ice cream made by a local farm. The carb monster leapt out – telling me that it was so unfair that I was depriving myself of the lovely ice cream.
I managed with great difficulty to avoid even a teaspoon of the ice cream because I know that just one teaspoon would have led to me secretly consuming the whole tub in the kitchen and then having to replace it secretly so that nobody is aware of the huge amount of ice cream I had consumed. I have done this so many times over the years.
In future husband gets his own ice cream no matter how tired he is. Carb monster retreated back to his corner defeated.
I had my 90% Lindt (2 squares) and all was well – but it was touch and go.