Op-Demoob is on a roll - weight loss focus continues

Restless Midlifer Chronicles, part 2

‘Operation de-moob’ continues. As I considered my plan I looked for the areas I could tweak. Rather than being all or nothing, the sprout-sweater approach is to focus on one area or aspect at a time. One such area is mid-afternoon when working from home. Typically, that’s the time when energy and focus drop and the need for something to pick at beckons. Biscuits, if in the house, usually get it and five minutes later, with nothing but guilt and crumbs on the keyboard, I would regret it. This is one of the real challenges of healthier eating. Being saintly for the majority of the day can be un-done in a moment of so called weakness.

Permission To Be Human

That’s why I prefer to accept that I am not a robot, and am in fact a complicated human being. One that is motivated by long-term goals, yet often moved to action by short-term impulses.

So what could be a good alternative? Something simple, and low-friction, yet tasty. I reflected on things I have tried in the past and the soup-maker sprang to mind. There’s something really warm and comforting about nursing a mug of warm soup in one hand, whilst one-finger typing out email replies. Plus there’s the added bonus of feeling virtuous because I’ve added to my five-a-day.

The trouble is, I’m a one-recipe bloke when it comes to making soup. Simply chop up a bunch of veg, chuck in the soup-maker, add water, vegetable stock cubes and set it away. 25 mins later - a nice blended soup that I can drink from a mug. Lovely.

Only thing is, because of a lack of inspiration recipe-wise, boredom sets in. Let’s face it, we eat for many reasons and one for me is variety of taste.

Then I had a thought, ’surely there is a book out there of “soup-maker’ recipes?’ And, would you believe it, when I checked the Kindle store, there were quite a few. Renewing my Kindle Unlimited there and then, I downloaded a book and was immediately overwhelmed by the 100 recipes.

Where to start?

Ok, so the sprout-sweater approach would be to go small by adding constraint. I don’t need 100 recipes. I don’t even need ten, or seven, or five. I just need 3 new tasty and easy to prep recipes to give the variety needed. I delegated this job to Lesley. She would benefit by having a flask of soup to take to work for a healthy snack too and with the mission of picking 3 recipes, she quickly identified them - Leak and sweet potato; carrot and leek; and honey glazed parsnip and onion.

On Sunday afternoon, having included the ingredients in our weekly shop, we set about chopping all the veg and separating out by recipe. Then we sautéed off some onion, and oven roasted some parsnip and sweet potato pieces after sprinkling with honey, mixed herbs and a dose of olive oil. With the three recipes plus our original vegetable soup recipe we had a good range of choice for the week ahead.

Freezer bags came next - one for each recipe. We made larger bags up, so they could potentially make two lots of soup and stuck them in the freezer, keeping one portion out for Monday’s soup making.

Simple. And over the week, it was nothing to pop the kettle on, set up the soup-maker with ingredients and a couple of veg stock cubes and then set it away. 25 minutes later, lovely blended thick soup (I don’t go in for the unblended version. Too faffy and with a spoon being required it means it’s just not convenient for the mid-afternoon snack).

Once done, we decanted into a small flask for Lesley to take to work, and a larger one for the rest.

And, it worked really well. Last week, I actually looked forward to trying out a different soup and enjoyed that comforting feel of the warm mug in hand. There’s definitely something about sipping at soup from a mug on a crappy, rainy day.

As it turned out, there was enough left each day to put into a tub for fridge or freezer for another day. In fact, over the week, we accumulated several tubs, allowing one hour’s worth of batch-prepping to stretch across two weeks.

Bargain!

Win All Round

So, overall, I reckon, as well as adding in some much needed veg, I’ve saved a good few hundred calories in energy over the week. That certainly helps towards maintaining a nice deficit between energy in and out, and has helped manage my appetite leading up to the evening meal. Something which, a mitt-full of biscuits could never do.

So, my parting question to you is, what aspect of your day proves challenging in managing your appetite? Instead of trying to resist your way through it, what could you do to minimise the impact, or replace the behaviour? Focus on one small chunk of the day, or week. Nail that, then move on. Over time the impact can be significant.

Find Out More

In the meantime, check out the podcast to check out the episodes and if you want to learn more about the support I offer in relation to helping you achieve your health and weight loss goals sustainably, visit the Academy or learn more about my more intensive Re-Shape Accelerator programmes, designed to help you to get your health back on track and establish lifelong habits for a more fulfilling midlife.

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Dave

Dave Algeo, Restless Mid-Lifer
'It is never too late to get life back on your terms and have even bigger adventures!'
dave@restlessmidlifer.com

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