The DietChef Thing: Day 14.

Hey everyone.

Well, here we are at the halfway point of my first 28 days. Today I had to fall off the wagon again, but as I didn't go over my calorie intake in doing so, I don't think it can count as a slip, it just meant I had to eat a meal not on the DietChef plan. I also made some real progress with DietChef's website, which I have found tricky.

Mr Migraine is still in my head when my eyes open this morning, murmuring old Italian love songs. I tell him to shut up and get out. He makes huge googoo eyes at me and tells me I don't really mean that, do I? I tell him I so do mean that and drag myself off to the bathroom. Karen takes me through the morning routine, and soon I'm tucked up in my sofa corner with a new breakfast to try, Original Granola today.

First Bite: yum! I really prefer Granola to Muisli, it's crunchier, more tasty and easier to chew. It's got a toasty, baked sweetness to it, I love it! A lovely hot cup of tea sets me up for the morning. I do my catch up and a couple of jobs and the day is off to a good start.

About mid-morning Mr Migraine ups the volume and starts giving me full-throated Roger Daltry impressions. I take off my headset, turn on a good TV drama on my little speaker and pray for deliverance. I fall asleep. Next thing I know, noble husband is gently waking me and telling me it's lunch time. I have grave doubts about this. Pea and Ham Soup. I hate peas, but these will be split peas, so perhaps it'll be all right.

It isn't. Even a tiny taste of the soup in the pan makes me heave. It's thick and sweet and somehow gritty. Now what am I going to do?

Then I remember my Graze Box. Those tiny little snacks are only 34g and all calorie rated, I can look them up on the website and know exactly how much I'm having so I won't go over my allowance. I rootle out the box, gosh, I did hide it well, my back and knees hate me by the time I find it. I get two snacks, I think I can have two without breaking the calorie bank.

I have pure hempseed flour pretzels which I dip into their pure peanut butter, no added oil or sugar, it's delicious and only 150 calories. The little breadsticks are crisp and slightly salted and well, peanut butter, what's not to love? Then I have a thing called strawberry cheesecake, again, not much more than 150 calories, this is little drops made of strawberry juice set to jelly, yogurt coated strawberry pieces, raw almonds and mini cocoa cookies. I have no words to tell you how good this is. From the dietary information I am seeing on the graze.com website, I'm thinking that, when I've done three months on the very strict 1200 calorie diet, I might be able to allow myself one of these small snacks extra per day, or four days a week, as long as the box lasts, for an afternoon treat. That will satisfy my craving for sweet things and also stop me getting that five O'clock hole. But that's a long way down the road yet. For now the two little snacks save me from slipping big time.

The afternoon proceeds. I spend more time on the Graze website, doing my research. While I'm in dietary research mode I get an Email from DietChef asking if I'd be kind enough to rate them on trustpilot.com. I saw a lot of reviews about them there when I was deciding to join. I decide that, if the form is accessible, I'll do it. I click the link I'd been given and sure enough, the form is extremely accessible and before long my review has been published and I have been thanked. One of the things I said was that, as a blind person, I had experienced some difficulties with the DietChef website, but that customer services has been very helpful to me. Customer services have, in fact, promised to edit my meals for me, though they usually never do this. But before I bother them with this I want to make one last effort to do it myself. The problem is, at the moment, that I can't even find out how to get back into my list of meals to change anything. Never mind, if at first you don't succeed and all that, let's have another go.

I log back in to my account and search. Sometimes you just can't see a thing for looking at it, or at least I can't. It takes me fifteen minutes of searching all over the place to discover I'd been on the right page and looking right at the link the whole time. Yes, Lulu, my little dim-witted, pea-brained peach blossom, change plan doesn't mean change to a new plan, it means change things in your plan. Once I'd clicked there, hey presto! There was the list of my meals. Editing them was tricky. There was the name, then there's a link that just says "Link" then a number, then a plus sign. Any meals you don't want, you click the unlabeled link until the number beside the meal reads 0. The meals you do want you click the plus sign to adjust the number to the number you want of them. You have to carefully go through every single meal in every single category, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack, to make sure everything you don't want has been zeroed out, and that you've got the right number of what you do want, that adds up to 28 items of each. Did I say it was tricky?

I think I get it right, because when I press the "Save changes" Button I don't get an error message. Let's just hope I get what I ordered! I'm vastly pleased at having mastered this though, because now if I ever want to ring the changes a bit, I can. No need to bother anyone.

By the time I'm done it's dinner time. An old friend tonight, wearing a new coat. Tuna Lasagna. Hope it's as yummy as it sounds! I heat it up, get my serving of nice crunchy greens hot and plate up. It all stays in one nice firm piece as it comes out of the tray, that's a good sign! Smells good too! I put it on the table and pull up a chair.

First bite: yum! Not quite as good as the beef, but nearly. I wish they'd keep the tuna in bigger pieces, it goes too bitty, but that's my only quibble. The sauce is rich and flavorsome, the cheese sauce is really delicious, the pasta just the right thickness and nicely cooked. The plate is almost sparkling by the time I've finished.

Not much happens in the evening. I tweet a bit, read a bit, listen to some radio, the same as usual. I think Mr Migraine got scared away by the threat of that soup, I'm Migraine free for the first time since, I think, Saturday. At nine I have my last cup of tea and a new snack, Oat Bar with Chocolate.

First Bite: Hmm. It's ok. I was expecting it to be dense and cake-like, but it's light and crumbly, a mixture of crunchy cereal and softer oats. It's very sweet, there's some kind of fruit which I'm not keen on, and the chocolate, whatever it is, is gritty and not very nice. I won't be getting this again.

So that's my day. Sharlice, my phone baby, is being extra and specially cranky tonight. It's time I put her and myself to bed. We're at the halfway point. I know I've made progress. I'm wearing a silver and mother of pearl ring that I absolutely couldn't get on to my finger two weeks ago. Now it fits me. Karen told me this morning that she can see I've lost some weight now, and she sees me every day. It's harder for someone who sees you every day to notice things like that. I can feel the changes in myself starting to happen. All I have to do is go on as I've begun. Let's hope I can do just that. Goodnight everyone.

Food eaten today.

Breakfast: Original Granola, plain, no fat yogurt.

Lunch: Graze Peanut Butter Dip and Hempseed Pretzels, Graze Strawberry Cheesecake Snack.

Dinner: Tuna Lasagne, serving of sliced spring greens.

Snack: Oat Bar with Chocolate.

Drinks: Tea, no milk or sugar.

Bad: yes, but no. Graze snacks remained within my calorie allowance, replacing soup I couldn't eat.

Are you hungry? no.

Mood: Relaxed.

Music: Bill Wheelan's River Dance, Lift The Wings.