"Thar she blows!" screams Captain Ahab as he hobbles down the High Street on his wooden leg, harpoon in hand while I, puffing and panting, pray to the Pond Gods that a brisk walk is enough to escape the desires of Ahab to skewer the great white whale that I've become.
About four years ago, I set myself a goal of losing weight and joined the local council-run gym and, to be fair, was doing well until suddenly I started putting weight on!? What nobody had told me was: "Muscle is pretty heavy, Pete, and you're starting to build that." trouble was, by then, I'd convinced myself that I was wasting my time, not to mention money. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, and I've finally had enough of trousers with expanding waists. It's true what Ricky Gervais says, I am fat because I eat too much and so with that in mind I've decided to cut down and try and eat better although I've no intention of rejoining the gym just yet. I think my poor body is in for enough of a shock from the lack of cakes and biscuits without expecting it to do ten miles on a rowing machine.
I'd been looking at some products by a company called Huel that make healthy meals, drinks and snacks made from such things as oats, rice, peas, coconut and flaxseed and contains 26 types different of vitamins and minerals.
It looks like all the meals, apart from the snack bars, are powder-based, and I've started with two bags of the Banana flavoured shakes. They also have Vanilla, Salted Caramel, Chocolate, Berry, Coffee, Mint Chocolate flavours, as well as Original and Unflavoured & Unsweetened. Still, I suspect those last two are for people who are into self-abuse or wearing hair shirts and hemp sandals. Huel also do a range of meals titled Hot & Savoury these consist of Cajun Pasta, Mac & Cheeze, Thai Green Curry, Mexican Chili, Korma, Madras, Sweet & Sour and Tomato & Herb. Looking at the pictures, I haven't ordered any yet; they remind me of pot noodles, a powered based meal with dried vegetables, peppers, rice and pasta or noodles.
Simple Mistakes
The Banana powder I'm using as a replacement for lunch is 400 calories (100g) which is roughly two scoops. When I first got my two bags which came with a free shaker and two measuring spoons, I mixed it up correctly, but I only gave it a few shakes so that when I came to drink it at lunchtime, it was very watery and gritty. Given I'd never had this before, I figured, "This is how it is." but I was worried it wouldn't fill me up, and six hours without a snack is a long time to go for a man of my stature. Of course, guess who wasn't shaking it enough? Now I shake the damn thing like a complete lunatic, which produces a thick milkshake consistency. I read on the website forum that some people liquidise it, or maybe one of those electronic whisks would be good?
My second mistake was preparing it. The very first time, I put the water in first and then two scoops of powder, but the next day, for some weird reason, I thought it would be a good idea to put the powder in first. Bad Mistake! It left a congealed lump in the bottom when I thought I'd finished the shake, so it's definitely water first, then the powder. I will say there is a slightly gritty aftertaste when I've finished the shake; apparently, they can't grind the seeds etc., fine enough. The solution is to make the shake the night before if possible this gives it a chance to really soak. I make it up in the morning, and I have to say, I'm impressed, it fills me up, and I no longer need to pick at biscuits and fattening crap which is the bane of working at a desk all day. You should give it a go if you do and you use this link I can get £10 off my next order. 😉
I'm lucky enough to have the SAMSUNG Galaxy Watch4 Classic along with the Samsung Galaxy S21 phone so that I can monitor not only my steps but also my food intake; however, let me be crystal clear. Do not let any fitness app rule your life! it's a dangerous road to go down.
I'm using the Samsung Health app to give me a rough idea of the calories I'm consuming so I can make a conscious decision on whether or not to eat that slice of pizza. The other benefit is I can monitor my weight along the way. At the beginning of February, I weighed 236.5lbs I'd prefer to work in stones, but Samsung's app does pounds. It would seem that my new Healthy Eating regime is beginning to work as I weighed myself Saturday, and I weighed 231.0lbs, not much I know, but it's a start. Supposedly I should be between 8st 10lb and 11st 11lb; that's insane if you ask me. I've set a target of 168lbs (12 stone). It's going to take a while, I suspect? Especially as I'm not doing any workouts for the minute, I need to ease myself into it slowly. I walk my dog every morning and twice on the weekend; he does like to take me on a long walk, which gets my step count up.
