Author: Wattle

For the next month or so when I am out walking I will pick up pretty yellow, orange, brown and maroon coloured leaves. I love this task.

In the first year I chose a small cane basket to display my autumn leaf collection in. Lined with a bright yellow paper serviette they looked great on the dining table. This year I have decided to use an inexpensive black coloured plate instead.

Sitting the plate on a yellow and white tea towel will make the leaves the stars of the room, having the effect of bringing autumn inside.

Who remembers the joys of being seated in a comfortable chair, reading an engaging book and there on the coffee table of course would be the inevitable packet of cigarettes with ashtray overflowing and naturally a wonderful range of chocolate ripes and potato crisps? Who recalls the mental bliss of the happy brain receptors, the cosy comfort feelings and the battery recharging effects of such a powerful combination?

What sort of a silly rhetorical question is that? The real question has to be how to forget?

How might one proceed to read a book after giving up cigarettes? With the greatest caution I suspect. Allowing some small tokens of chocolate ripes and potato crisps seems to me to be a good idea, to reduce the shock. Picking a book that has an interesting dust cover may also help.

This Aprilcot I think I am ready to attempt what still might be a quite difficult task, I will try to read a book. I have chosen “The Enchanted April” by Elizabeth von Arnim.

Eating enough protein food is really important. Eating enough protein food without eating the fat surrounding it is even more important still.

This does make the meal more expensive, there is no question about it. Trimming the lamb cutlets oneself means throwing the fat away. Alternatively, purchasing them already trimmed means the fat was still thrown away. The product just has a higher price to reflect that.

Consider this elegant arithmetic. The cost of a generous serve of trimmed protein roughly equals the cost of some (quite some!) serves of chocolate ripes and barbecue crisps. This month I can afford the trimmed protein.

Let us imagine we are the slender heroines or heroes of our own book. It is a fun game to play.

How busy we would be! The slender heroines and heroes in books always seem to be so busy don’t they, doing exciting things in each and every chapter. They are never lost for words, conversing with all and sundry, including the equally slender heroes and heroines. Not always, but mostly their confidence oozes from each page.

The author rarely, if ever, mentions the slender heroine or hero doing the dishes promptly after each meal or snack. I think it could be assumed, or implied that there would always be plenty of personal energy to do them and that the kitchen would have perfect temperature control, and perhaps even a dish washing machine.

What if our imagination doesn’t want to cooperate? That is alright, we are no worse off because of that. Perhaps it might cooperate at some future time.

Meanwhile, in the real physical world we can always be heroines or heroes of our own kitchen, ones who are gradually becoming more slender. Ones who do do the dishes promptly after each meal or snack, regardless of the difficulty of trying to find the personal energy, or whether the kitchen is too hot or freezing. A dish washing machine? I have difficulty imagining what having a dish washing machine would be like but it is fun trying.

The question I was wondering about a bit over a year ago was, “Would I eat less if my walking was reduced?” I had hoped the answer would be yes of course, because that would be the best answer. However,at best it was a hypothetical musing. Back then I didn’t anticipate finding out the answer any time soon.

Now I know. It is yes. The answer is yes!

This next bit is **NOT** recommended as a weight loss strategy… eating less because of going into hospital after fracturing ankle bones (and I do mean the plural, bones) resulting in six weeks of enforced bed rest is a huge no no…

I am so pleased to report that at least some of the good habits already developed, slowly and painstakingly devloped over years, such as drinking water with meals, really did help.

Could I (or anyone else) be blamed for thinking that it might also have something to do with not being able to get to a refrigerator? Sure that could also help a bit. After all the food which arrives on the tray is a very strict, the very definition of, portion control.

Portions of what? What was on the tray? Well I hoped I was making some weight friendly choices, like inclusion of a piece of fruit with each meal, and avoidance of too many desserts. At one stage I recall thinking I wish I could visit this restaurant more often because they had some particularly delicious crumbed fish on one of the trays.

A whole year and a bit has flown by since the last blog entry so it seems a good time to resume again, documenting each month’s eating theme and various activities and etceteras. Thankfully the walking has slowly returned to almost normal and with as much distance as before. What has changed is the walking path taken: the gravel lane has been removed from the route.