1 month and 10kg down!

A few weeks ago I wrote a post titled "How to put on 10kg in 4 weeks".

Well tonight, I could in fact have called this post "How to lose 10kg in 4 weeks." 

Because I did it!  10.3kg in fact!

So I reset myself on Wednesday 8th February, and today being Wednesday 8th March is exactly 4 weeks and 1 month later!  (#datelover #geek)

This morning I weighed in with a loss of 1.9kg for the last week, which brings me to a loss of 10.3kg for the 4 weeks / month!

This past week has been the 'easiest' food wise.  Only in the sense that I haven't felt pangs to binge, and I haven't binged.  I was thinking this morning that maybe it has something to do with that whole "it takes 21 days to form a habit" thing.  Either way, it wasn't as hard as the previous 3 weeks.

I had my usual Saturday cal free day and went slightly to town with my favourite foods, and also had 2 ice blocks on Monday night.  Oh, and last Thursday night I had a family dinner and joined everyone in pre-dinner chips and dip, hoed into a large serving of my favourite family pasta dish, and then had apple

Thursday night pre-dinner snacks

crumble with ice cream, which I didn't even feel I needed, but just mindlessly had it...mmm I forgot about that night until I started writing this!

But I guess that's the point - I didn't feel I was doing the 'wrong' thing, I was just living normally, without a second thought.  And that's what I mean in that this week has been the 'easiest'.  I haven't overthought things, I've just had my planned meals and gotten on with it.  

Doing my (hated) meal prep has been the key - I haven't had too much room to reconsider things or be tempted to, I don't know, get takeaway sushi on the way home, just as an example....

I've been packing my lunch bag each night, grabbing it in the morning and defrosting dinners and smoothie bags during the day.

I have wasted three pieces of fish though, which is annoying, as it's really expensive and I took time (and a lot of whining and whingeing hatred) to prep those three pieces!  

...and apple crumble

One was because I lost my appetite briefly on Friday night (more on that later) - I cooked it up but just had ZERO desire to eat it once it was cooked.  I think I had two mouthfuls.  SO unlike me.

Another was because my oven broke a couple of nights ago.  The fish usually takes 15-20min to cook, and it was in there for 1 hour 20min and it still wasn't cooked the whole way through.  I took it out and thought it was okay, but in the end I didn't completely trust it, so erred on the side of food poisoning caution, and threw it out.

And the third was because I began defrosting the following nights fish before I realised that the oven was definitely broken.  I kept it in the fridge but I'm on Day 3 of no working oven, so into the bin it sadly went.

Seeing as my planned dinners all need my oven, and I'm eating at home every night this week is annoying, but hey, it's a pretty big first world problem, isn't it?  It should be fixed within a few days.

The first night I had the sweet potato chips that were (semi) cooking along with my fish for that 1 hour 20.  (And I topped my daily cals up with those two ice blocks I just mentioned haha).

Last night I used the microwave to defrost and heat up my second batch of protein pancakes for the day; and then tonight I had breaky for dinner - bacon and eggs on the stove.

Because I'm getting through my pancakes and fish quite quickly, I can see another meal prep being needed quite soon.

BUT!

This week I decided I want to buy a chest freezer.  It's something I've thought of over the years but never really felt it was really needed.  After last weeks prep though, I couldn't fit my meals in the freezer.  I'm VERY experienced at what I call 'freezer

Ha!  I'm not the only one according to Google images!

Jenga', but even I couldn't fit everything I made into the freezer.  As in, 10 containers had to go in my fridge temporarily.  I almost wasted food because of it, and I think I'm just finally sick of having things fly out at me whenever I open the freezer door, so I started researching freezers.

I'm really excited about it!  When I lost that 20kg in 12 weeks a few years ago, I remember Tim from 12WBT bowing to me on stage when I won Top Transformation.  He was so impressed that I had prepared 3 MONTHS of meals and food to see me through the round.

Looking back at it, I'd bow for myself if I wasn't lying on my bed with my laptop propped up on my thighs, typing away.  I can't believe I did that, but I did.  I remember people asking me at the time how huge my freezer was, assuming I had some type of Mary Poppins never-ending spaced freezer.  But really, it's just your average freezer.  It's a good size, don't get me wrong, but it's not anything out of the ordinary.

By the way - TRY THESE. My new favourite snack.

Anyway this thought has been going through my head all week and I've decided I want one!  It'll help me fit ALL of my prepped meals away, and also be able to stock up on things when they're on special.  At the moment I have to limit what I stock up on and I'd love to grab say a few bags of mixed berries if they're on special so that I can save money, rather than just buying one bag because that's all I can fit.

I'd also like to do a larger meal prep, maybe to give me meals to see me through one month.  

Let me rephrase that.  

I am planning to do a larger meal prep, maybe to give me meals to see me through one month.  I won't like it, I will hate it soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.  But when I spend say 4 hours prepping 2 weeks of meals, it wouldn't take me much longer to double the output.  The meal prep itself, cutting ingredients etc. takes up most of the time, so while I'm at it, I may as well make more quantities. (eg. 1x 6 hour prep = 4 weeks of meals instead of 2x 4 hour preps to give me the same amount).

Also, I'd only be hatin' one day a month (having to food prep, doing pained expressions on my Snapchat) rather than twice!

Protein pancake mixture

ANYWAY.  I have literally just rambled away tonight, with no real structure to this post - just telling you my thoughts and that I'm currently working on "Operation Find The Cheapest Freezer" in the background this week.  No more freezer Jenga!

Another extra freezer benefit and one I'm excited about, is that my beloved friend Courtney told me some life changing news this week: that it's possible to freeze green smoothies!  

I know!  This is as incredible as the "you can freeze feta" discovery I had earlier this year.  The feta discovery has changed my life and I believe this will too!  I have to speak to her more about it but what I know is that she's road tested it this week, freezing (blended) green smoothies in mason jars, and it's worked.😊

I've never been a fan of putting food in jars, only because they're glass, heavy, impractically sized, and I always think things will spill out of them.  However I can't

Prepped smoothie bags

judge until I try - and if this will allow me to skip the step of making my smoothie bags and actually allow me to MAKE my breakfasts during food prep instead of prepping them and then blending them up twice a week, then I am there!

Also, coincidentally, the last 2 days my green smoothies have leaked through my lunch bag.  Just a small amount has leaked out - the seals on the bottles I use aren't the greatest.  (By the way I'm so grateful that I found that plastic insert lunch bag!)  But yes - I will be stoked not to have my lunch floating in apple-y spinach liquid anymore!

While I ramble about my kitchen, this week I'm also going to do a big pantry clean out.  I might Snapchat about that because I can't be bothered to explain it - I think I'm over typing tonight :)

Sorry for the rambling but I just wanted to say hey, let you know that I hit the 10kg

Also, I've started doing this calendar!

mark,...and apparently blab about my kitchen...

Don't get too excited, because if you've followed me for any length of time, you'll know that I've lost 10kg before...many a time.  And put it on again...many a time.  But I won't give up, so hopefully this is me on my way to being at a comfortable weight again.

Next step is to start to reintegrate exercise again....but that is a story for a whole other blog post.😊

Sorry about the kitchen talk, chat later,
Love Kate xoxo

P.S. A milestone last week that I can't skip over - on the 1st March it was exactly 5 years since I quit smoking, and 1 year since I stopped drinking Diet Coke!