Getting Back on Track

So this year has not gone to plan at all.  My health really scuppered any attempt to do anything.  It was my ears again.  Ear infections that didn't respond to antibiotics until they decided it was my sinuses...  Now I am using steroid nasal spray and it is a slow but positive progress.  My ear is still leaking but not in the way it was.  By far the worst ear infection I have had, except the one  where I burst my ear drum scuba diving.

Exercise has gone completely but I have got back to cooking Slimming World meals now.  The first week I was back on it I lost 4 pounds but last week I regained a pound and this week I am not sure I will be losing.  So I have to really look hard at what I am doing.  Yes, the lack of exercise makes a huge difference to my metabolism but I should be able to lose slowly through diet.  

So why am I not?

I have two trouble areas, snacks and breakfast.  I tend to pick up a handful of diet snack bars for breakfast.  They may only be 100 calories but when you have six of them and then have a few more throughout the day.  That is an issue.

When I was poorly, my IBS was triggered by the antibiotics and I had to stop eating veg and just eat stodgy carbs for a bit.  I also craved sugar and started eating the chocolate spread out of the jar with a spoon.  So in order to stop that, I had to not buy it.

If I am going to tackle my bad snack bar habit, that has gotten really out of hand, I have to stop cold turkey.  No snack bars in the house.  At least for a few weeks.  This will impact my husband as he eats them too, but to a lesser degree.  He can keep them in his work bag, or at work though.

I will still need some snacks but that actually isn't too much of an issue.  I have a few snacks I am less likely to binge on, at least so far.  First up is seaweed.  I love it.  Itsu do a sweet soy and sea salt flavour one that I love.  There is no bulk to it, so it isn't a filling snack, more of a I am bored and need a taste of something snack.  

On the sweet side, meringue nests are great.  They are mostly air but really hit that sweet spot.  I was eating one a day for a long time but I am not sure why I stopped.  I have never started bingeing them, so for now, they are safe.  Also...  I would never buy enough of them for it to get really out of hand.

Aldi do a lovely chocolate and caramel mouse desert.  Again I have never brought enough of them at a time for it to become a problem.  Not had them for a while.  I can just buy enough for one a day.

So I can have snacks without it getting out of hand.  I know I can do that.  Snack bars will leave a bigger hole in my diet though, that just snacks.  I really don't like breakfast that much.  I have never been a huge cereal person, probably because I don't like milk that much.  I want something that requires no effort for breakfast.  I want to just pick it up and eat it.  I don't have any history of good breakfast discipline.

I think the best breakfast habit I ever had when was when I was having miso and dumplings but that got really dull .  I completely overdid and I am not sure I could do it now.  I also have tried porridge for a bit too at various times.  It's OK but the problem is, I don't really like it that much.

What's clear is I need to tackle my breakfasts in the same way as my other meals.  Planning.  Targeted shopping.  Lots of variety to keep my interest up.  But unlike my other meals it needs to be low effort or pre-prepared.

My problems with breakfast don't really end there though...  I am not over keen on fruit.  I like the taste but the issues of ripeness and the texture of the skin are things i often find difficult.  I think actually that these issues are part of my being neurodivergent.  It's not uncommon.  Smoothies are great because you can make the fruit easier to eat.  The problem is that it then becomes more digestible and the sugars are more accessible without calories being burnt digesting it.  On the Slimming World plan, fruit is not free once you turn it into a puree or cook it.

Thing is, how much of an issue is that when compared with my snack bar habit?  I couldn't eat fruit everyday though.

Next up is bread, another breakfast staple.  I can have one Healthy Extra B a day for free, which for many high fibre breads is one slice.  So to actually have a decent sized breakfast, I would need to use syns again.  Same with porridge oats and cereals.  These things have to be controlled too, so weighing becomes a thing, which increases prep time, though I can do that in advance if I am prepared.

So basically....  there is no perfect breakfast for me.  I have never found something I can continuously eat every day that is truly healthy.  So it is going to need to be highly planned, very varied and prepped as much as possible in advance.

I need to really plan the heck out of this.  Look up recipes and ideas and just commit 100%.....  and eat all the snack bars already in the house.  This might take a while.  I can start breakfast in the meantime...  That should reduce the snack bars.

I really don't like breakfast though.