Day 7

I had a short changeover today, which means I finished work at 9:30 last night and started at 7AM today. Including getting out late, public transport, and giving a friend advice when I got home (at 11 PM), there was not much sleep to be had.
Fortunately, I repackaged and packed today's food ahead of time, so I only had to grab my bag and leave. I had breakfast (same as yesterday: 2 Weetbix, a handful of Coles' light muesli, a couple of spoonsful each of low fat yoghurt and stewed rhubarb/raspberries) when I got to work, then during my first break had a vegetable frittata and a toasted cheese sandwich on multigrain - it was supposed to come with mustard but that wasn't supplied, so I substituted some of the last of a caramelised onion relish from the fridge. At lunch I tasty Hoisin beef noodles, a fruit cup, dried apricots and a biscuit.
I went out for dinner with friends, and faced my first fully non-Lite'n'Easy meal (breakfast on Sunday was, except for the vodka/juice, the same as a provided breakfast would be). It was an Italian restaurant, and I didn't exactly fall wholly off the diet wagon but I certainly ate more than if I'd had the Lite'n'Easy meal in my freezer - delicious ravioli filled with pureed blue swimmer crab and prawn with vermouth and cream sauce, followed by just under half a shared chocolate mousse on a thin sponge. It was all delicious, I thoroughly enjoyed every mouthful, and though I was replete I didn't feel stuffed. I should have skipped the garlic pizza but stopped at one piece, and only drank water.
I'm weighing in tomorrow, so we'll see then how much damage dinner done. In any case I can't have gained. Surely. - Alex

Day 6

After all the activity of yesterday, I fell into a little decline today and just faffed around my apartment. But I'm six days in and still sticking with the program. Lunch today was a luncheon-meat version of smoked beef and an anemic tomato on a long grain roll, accompanied by a very juicy orange, followed by baked beans on a piece of soy and linseed bread, with snacks of roasted chick peas and an apricot muesli bar.
I think one of the best things I'm getting from Lite'n'Easy is a better sense of portion control, and it's certainly made it easier to stop eating regardless of whether or not I feel full - if the food's gone, that's it!
I'm already getting a little tired of the dreary tomatoes and the scarcity of salad - the couple of rolls I've had so far would have been enlivened by a small portion of baby spinach, and I don't think cherry and/or truss tomatoes would make a big difference to their bottom line but would add a lot to meal enjoyment. I'm not unhappy about buying extras myself, but that would mean letting the provided food go to waste.
That said, the Thai chicken salad with crispy noodles I had on Friday (day 1) was really delicious and satisfying. There's another salad coming up next week that I have high hopes for, and when I decide to come off Lite'n'Easy I think my salads are going to be more interesting than they used to be. - Alex

Day 5

I'd been a little concerned that a day away from the structure of work, particularly on top of lack of sleep, would wreak havoc, but I only ate my Lite'n'Easy provisions, except for breakfast.

I quite often have breakfast at Babble, in Prahran - they have a great porridge, with seeds and dried fruit, that I often order with a dollop of stewed fruit, which is usually a rhubarb/berry mix. Last week I finished off the last of a box of Creative Gourmet rhubarb, by stewing it and raspberries, with a little pear concentrate for sweetness. So I decided to pick up a bunch of rhubarb and make some more to go with breakfasts this week. It took three supermarkets before I found any (Coles, Safeway, IGA the winner), but was worth it. I felt quite accomplished and am looking forward to tucking in tomorrow before work.
Today's Lite'n'Easy lunch was smoked beef and tomato on grain roll, an orange, an apricot muesli bar, some roasted chick peas and baked beans on toast. Quite nice, but nothing amazing. The frozen lasagna for dinner, though, was quite delicious, and goes on the list of dinners I'll order again. - Alex

Day 4

Today was marked by my decision, after night duty, to buy a microwave. As I've mentioned previously, microwavability is a key component of many of Lite'n'Easy's meals, and I don't have one. Or didn't.
The problem with nights is that severe sleep debt makes decision making difficult - I can make clinical decisions easily, but dither over less important choices, like which three potential models on sale at Target would be best. There was a sale, which meant my choices were a $99 functional model with a heavy lifting (17-25k) warning, a reduced from $109 to $99 prettier model that was under 16k, and a really lovely silver and black Breville microwave reduced to $109 from $179.
I think you may already have guessed my choice. It didn't have any information about weight. I suspect it weighed more than I'll be losing between now and Christmas, because it got progressively heavier the further I had to carry it, and without a car that was a bit of a trek.
But now I have it! Of course, I then had to find somewhere in my already full kitchen to put it, which meant clearing off the top of the fridge (formerly used to house a big bowl of packets of nuts, dried fruit and seeds, a rolling pin too long for the drawers, and a roll each of foil and kitchen towel. The fridge has had a wobble for a while, so I decided to clear it out, defrost the freezer, clean the fridge, then tilt it so I could adjust the balance of the unit. Now I have a pretty microwave atop a clean, well-balanced fridge. And, because it's hard rubbish week, I continued the tidying theme by chucking my old computer monitor (bought when Windows ME was introduced) and attaching the flat version I bought two years ago.
I'm already regretting that I ordered next week's meals at the same time as this week's, instead of waiting to see what the program was like. Today was a little disappointing in comparison with previous days - I thought I'd be missing chocolate by now, so I chose the optional lunch over the popular/default version (savoury meatballs with salad and Moroccan relish, pear fruit cup, sultana & date cookie, corn fritters with spicy tomato salsa). I did that because the snacks were popcorn and a chocolate muesli bar, which were quite nice. But the tuna, tomato and mayonnaise on multigrain was a little unexciting, even though I substituted the insipid mass harvested tomato for the last of my pre-Lite'n'Easy cherry truss tomatoes.
On the plus side, I discovered that my life-long avoidance of chicken noodle soup has been unnecessary, because I enjoyed it a lot, and the apple crumple was quite delicious.
There's no question that my diet is more varied than usual, and with the exception of yesterday's vodka and juice, I haven't had so much as an extra apricot. I also haven't felt at all deprived, nor hungry. I suspect that I'll eventually find the dinners, despite the available, rotating range, hard to stomach because of the ever-present slightly watery frozen vegies, but so far it's all good, and I'm earmarking my favourites. So far I've been very taken with the battered fish (which comes with potato wedges, carrots, beans and corn), and the roast lamb. - Alex

Day 3

I countered a horrendous, absolutely appalling night with a double shot of vodka in my carrot, celery and apple juice during my weekly post-work breakfast catch up with my mother. Juice isn't a great option for anyone, given how many calories one can mindlessly consume and the pitiful amount of associated fibre. However, freshly squeezed (extracted?) vegie juice isn't quite as bad as fruit juice, and it's only a rare indulgence, so I'm cutting myself some slack. I accompanied it with poached eggs on multigrain muffins, and spinach.
My overnight meals were a salad and hot Tandoori chicken wrap with chutney, Hawaiian chicken with rice, and apple and sultana pancake and a choclate museli bar. Because I had breakfast before bed, I'll be having the fish, wedges and vegies dinner when I get to work, and I've got an apple to crunch while waiting for the tram. Still impressed with the meals - Alex

Day 2

I've already had my first temptation - chocolate at work from someone's birthday, combined with a fairly horrendous night. There are times, recent times, when over the ten hour shift I could have scoffed half a dozen of the delicious dessert chocolates, and half of the Cadbury family block and barely noticed.
Instead I I had Turkish meatballs with cous-cous, chicken pesto fettucini, an orange, an apple and cranberry muffin and a serving of corn chips with salsa. And an actual serving of corn chips, by the way, is not big but it was enough, particularly in conjunction with the rest of the food and in the absence of a tempting bag.
Still no exercise, but feeling virtuous, and replete. - Alex

Day one

I have to say that so far I'm far more impressed by the Lite'n'Easy meals than I expected - they're filling, generous and full of flavour. I didn't realise, until I got home after work and checked the menu guide more closely, that one of the bowls in the freezer was the designated day 1 snack (of week B in the spring menu). So in addition to my 2AM lunch of a warm Thai chicken salad with crispy noodles, black forest pears (stewed pears with bluberries), a cakey museli biscuit and Greek yoghurt with berries, I also had Meditteranian meatballs with pasta and melted cheese.
As I don't have a microwave I'll have the meatballs when I get to work, which is still day 1 - given my schedule I've decided to go with 24 hour days (00:00-23:59) rather than my usual accounting of a day starting anew when I wake up, regardless of the time that is.
There's a lot more variety in each weekly menu than I'd usually have, and although the menu rotates through three times I suspect I'm more likely to be excited about recognising favourites rather than groaning that it's week A again. I'm even wondering what meals I'll be missing out on once I transition off the program, which is a little sad!
Now for the downside - I haven't done any exercise, not just today but in ages. Not only am I heavier than I've ever been before, I'm also in poorer shape. I'm getting a little short of breath with relatively minimal exertion, compared to what I consider my baseline. I think I may be a little anemic, and intend to have some baseline bloods done (any day now...) but it's also general deconditioning.
So, out of hibernation and back into my life. The next few days are going to be entirely too ridiculous for exercise, but I'm on days starting Monday and will be doing my first workout in ages. Oh, and buying a microwave.
On Tuesday I'll also do a stretch program, either a class or DVD, so that I can walk to work on Wednesday without the shin splints that have started kicking in during the short stroll to my local library. - Alex