The health kick

Day 37 and 104 kilos
Day 38 and 103 kilos

Dare I hope? Has my body adjusted to eating again? Do five (maybe six) smaller meals a day really work better than three larger ones? Has my body realised that it is getting more than it's daily requirement of nutrients and decided to switch off my fat storage facility? Well it's too early to call yet but the above data is looking promising - one kilo lost on each of the last two days - maybe it's too early to celebrate but in the words of that food-loving and over-excitable gourmet Homer Simpson - "WOOHOO!"

Jamie you should avert your eyes here - I don't want you to become sick with worry about my fruit intake and I'm about to give a rundown of yesterday's meals.

1. First breakfast at 8am - Star fruit and watermelon juice - two glasses. I won't be buying the star fruit again.
2. Second breakfast at 11am - a fresh honey mango - orgasmically good
3. First lunch at 1230pm - one cup of beef and chilli consomme
4. Second lunch at 2pm - another cup of beef and chilli consomme
5. Afternoon snack at 5pm - banana, mango and ice cream smoothie - the ultimate meal - words fail me - just heavenly.
6. Dinner at 9pm - I wasn't going to eat anything because I felt so stuffed after the mango smoothie but hunger hit me at 9pm and I enjoyed some of the fruit of my labours yesterday - two small bread rolls and half a ramekin of chicken liver pate and I may have had a small glass of port with it.

Does that or does that not look like a healthy days gorging to you? Net result one kilo lost - happy days. Now, fear not! I have no intention of giving you a running commentary  from here on, where I list out my daily meals but what I do want to do is juxtapose the above with what, on a bad friday, might have been going down my gullet around the middle of last year.

1. First breakfast 8am - 2 large cups of coffee with sweetener or sugar if none was available
2. Second breakfast 830am - 2 nutritious Marlboro lights or 1 cigarillo.
3. Third breakfast 9am - a large cup of sweetened milky coffee.
4. Fourth breakfast 11am - a large cup of sweetened milky coffee and 2 nutritious Marlboro lights or 1 cigarillo.
5. Lunch 1pm - plate of rice and gravy curry with Okra, fried fish, chicken in Oyster sauce and 2 nutritious Marlboro lights or 1 cigarillo (they weren't on the plate obviously).
6. Afternoon snack - a large cup of sweetened milky coffee and 2 nutritious Marlboro lights or 1 cigarillo.
7. Evening snack - 4 pints of Magners (no ice) with 4 shots of butterscotch snaps and half a packet of Marlboro lights.
8. Night time snack - between quarter and half a bottle of vodka with tonic or scotch and water and a full pack of Marlboro lights.
9. Late night meal 1130pm - a pair of Big Macs.

 Now although this would not be a typical day it could almost be a typical friday in days of yore. I need NO admonishments from Joanna in particular or anyone at Puttenham or Bagshot. Anyway the kernel of an idea might be forming in my head about how I managed to get up to 120 kilos.

I told you yesterday that I was going to make more beef and chilli consomme. Before I went to the supermarket I decided to make a few other things as well. It wasn't until I was in the queue and putting my intended purchases on the conveyor belt that I realised how different the contents of my shopping list were compared to say a month and a half ago. My basket was full of fruit and vegetables, pre-made stock, a pot of cream, 3 lean steaks, chicken livers, 1.5 kilos of lean ground beef, canned lychees, packs of unsalted butter and only a single piece of cheddar. It looked unbelievably healthy and when compared to all the processed and unhealthy crap that everyone else was buying I could feel a halo of sanctimonious smugness circling my brow. This sensation is only reinforced when I look in the fridge at the moment - it's rammed full of fruit and vegetables, half a gallon of my chilli and beef consomme (and I think that I've nailed it by the way), four ramekins of chicken liver pate, some of my demi-glace with which I intend to prepare grilled sirloin with Marchand de vin sauce tonight (don't I sound like the pretentious wanker?) and of course Jamie's pots of onion marmalade. This is a very different looking fridge to the one that I have peered into in the past. As mad as it may sound, my new found enthusism for cooking and food has, despite what Joanna has implied, started to ensure that I am now eating far more healthy fare. Not only am I enjoying the food, I'm loving the making of it.

At least most of the making of it. Whilst chopping an onion yesterday, to put in the chicken liver pate, I managed to slice off the skin on the end of my finger - that's chopping wound number 3 in the last couple of weeks. To irritate me even more, I had actually been back to youtube to improve my knife technique and I thought that I was doing it correctly. When I told the chief, who's up in KL, she laughed and reminded me of my preaching about her knife technique - again! Girls seem to have much longer memories than boys and never seem to tire of reminding one of past mistakes. Anyway there was a "spurt of blood" which could account for the nice pink interior of the pate.

I did do a short bike ride yesterday and the knee held up fine and so will be going out again today if this rain stops.