Finally. It’s taken over a week but that whole kilo has just registered as gone and I’m now at 88kg. Yes!
Now I know I could have lost this sooner if not for water retention, but the good news is when I eventually get off the steroids – and I WILL – then after a few days my body will do a little catch up as it adjusts to no steroids and I’ll probably drop a few kilos almost overnight.
I’m both relieved it’s gone and a little hyped to know I can still lose weight due to good diet and exercise despite the steroids saying “Go on… One little pie and chips won’t hurt. You know it makes sense.”
Yeah. Well, I sort of agree Mr Steroid. Occasionally. Let’s say one treat day a week. But it’s not like I’ve gone insane on cutting back, I’ve just changed things down a little.
#1 – I don’t eat anything I feel like any more. I’ve done that for years and gradually seen the weight go on. Just a little bit of self discipline can work wonders when you’re ready in the heady. This disease has definitely made me ready in that place, and determined to achieve remission. I can do a little bit of dieting to get rid of some fat – fat which can adversely affect the immune system, which I find frustrating now I know that.
#2 – I found some things that fill me up and that don’t seem to get repetitive. In my case I’m lucky I can eat beans on toast and NEVER get tired of it. So I switched to wholemeal bread for my toast as it has more roughage and is harder for the body to digest. I have two slices with Lurpak spreadable as it’s not “whole” butter it’s cut with rapeseed oil, and then a third of a tin of baked beans on it.
Calories? Two slices of wholemeal bread at 95kcal each (white bread is about the same), and a third of tin of beans at about 105kcal bringing it to 295kcal the entire meal if you ignore the small amount of spread I put on. Let’s say 325kcal total. I’ll have that for breakfast with my prescription tablets or for an evening meal and feel fed for hours. I know that if I feel I have to eat anything else until my next meal then it’s usually not necessary and I can avoid it. A cup of coffee or a few sips of refridgerated tap water will abate any hunger pangs. And I ONLY eat now when I’m genuinely hungry, no fixed meal times.
I have two or maybe three meals per day depending on how I feel, but usually three. One of those is my “old faithful” above, then another will be a nice big bowel of porridge (very filling at 70g oats with water = 245kcals) or every other day I’ll have something more substantial like a piece of unbreaded cod fillet with some boiled (scrubbed not peeled) potatoes and a big pile of peas. I like peas almost as much as I like beans. Or I may have oven chips instead of boiled potatoes.
Another meal is half a tin of stewed steak from M&S (delicious), again with boiled potatoes and peas – it’s REALLY nice.
The other night I decided to have a bit of a blow out steak and chips, with pepper sauce, peas and tomatoes. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would and I struggled to eat it (but I did) as I think my stomach has shrunk a little now. And then a few nights before that I had a small steak pie and chips. Whereas in the past I would have eaten and really enjoyed it, I only found it okay and a little stodgy and when I looked I saw there were 400kcals in the pie. Maybe I won’t have that again for a while.
Other notes worth sharing are I keep a little stock of small apple pies in and if I feel like I need it after an evening meal, I’ll microwave one for 30 seconds so it’s nice and hot, and put some ice cream on it. No hard and fast rules on that, but I’d say maybe 2-3 times in 7 days. Or instead of the small apple pie, I might have a couple of fig rolls and do the same.
During the day or even at night after my meal I might decide to have a small bowl of fruit, and I’ve found that a jazz or gala apple washed and sliced and diced, and mixed in with a half inch thick circle slice from a honeydew melon (diced) is REALLY delicious and filling.
The real takeway (hmm, chinese lemon chicken) though is that I’m not being hard and fast with my diet. I’ve just found a few things I like that work for me and I’ve been cycling them. And then every so often, maybe once a week, I have something I really fancy.
Small changes and your body starts to adjust.
Finally, as well as the food I’ve described above, with my prescribed tablets I’ve also been taking a daily multivitamin (folic acid, B vits, C, and iron) to relace anything I might be missing from a more robust diet, and also a 2x day calcium and vit D tablet for bone protection from osteoporosis. Mix in at least a 30 minute walk each day, and I think I’m finally being sensible about food and exercise for the first time in my life.
It’s only taken a deadly autoimmune disease to get me on track.
