It has been a turbulant week, in both work and the house.

The decorating continues, as I plan my trip to Togo in 2 weeks. The kitchen is a bombsite, with the backdoor being painted (not a wise choice is a Scottish Winter) and only skirtings remaining. But it was somewhat satifying the clean even the top on the upper kitchen units which, was, disgusting as never seen the day of light since moving in!

Getting there!

My new pans are easy to get too instead of being bundled into a cuoboard and a nightmare to rearage everytime used, which is actually making cooking much more enjoyable. Its the small things.

New shelves look good!

With all the decorating, I found myself with more cravings. I had some bars of chocolate which I had brought back frm Ghana, high in coco and honestly, quite delish. This became my go too at nights, in bed whilst watching TV before drifting off. This I know was not the best way to treat things, but thankfully it is all finished, now.

That said, I was very good the rest of the week with my diet, and continued to eat almost syn free daily, until bed time.

I was totally dreading weighin this morning, which just stressed me out. Stupid Chocolate!

Needless to say, I was very, very pleasently surprised! I now weight 310.4lb, so a total of 15lb since I started 2 weeks ago! Amazed and really, really happy.

15lb lost!

Planning my Work Trip

I am going to be in Togo for 5 weeks mid February, and given how I have significantly changed my lifestyle in the past 2 weeks to achieve this weight drop, I need to plan to continue. Normally I have a bag packed and ready to go with work clothes and my social clothes which I only travel with, ready and waiting.

But now I have to think about what I am going to take out with me, that will allow the changes I have made to continue and not become onerous. Thankfully I am in a company house and not a hotel, so a quick list of essentials for this change in how I cook is:

Non Stick Parcement Paper

Frylite

ORS tablets for when dehydrated and water just does not cut it

Although I need these, I know at the house there are no scales, the pans lost their non-stick coating a few years ago, and beer is actually cheaper than bottled water. I have never travelled with a pan before, or scales, and somehow find myself contimplating this. I will see closer to the time. Regarding the beer, well, I will just need to resist the cheap beer and social aspect of it. Social drinking with the expats is almost cultural for me, so this will be a sticking point.

I am trying to make a meal plan for my travel which will be possible and that I will stick too. Thankfully there is a load of free veg and fruit there, but some items like wholemeal bread, 0% yogurt, Pepsi Max and bacon are not readily available and will pose some challenges in the diet I have been using over the past 2 weeks. Fingers crossed I come up with something and stick to it.