Week 23
Weight: 18st 5lb.
Loss this week: 2lb.
Total lost: 62.5lb
Ooooh half a pound away from my 4.5st award! So near yet so very far! I'm also starting to get a bit excited at the idea of weighing 17 something. Last time I knew I weighed 17 something I was about 8 months pregnant but we'll overlook that and treat it as something aspirational instead ;-) My last foray into Slimming World saw me get utterly totally and fatally stuck in the 18s, so a smooth run through this stone is a big psychological boost.
You know when you start a diet, it becomes all consuming? Every waking moment is filled with planning what you can eat, whether you have had all your allowance for the day, whether you have enough syns left for some dry crackers, that sort of thing? Well it occurred to me the other day that I'm not in that place anymore. I seem to have transitioned to a stage where it's just normal. I eat what I can eat, I don't worry about what I can't eat. If I'm out and about and need to grab food, I know what to look for to fit in with my day. It's just - normal is the only word I can find for it! It's nice. It means there's room in my brain for other stuff!
So. Big big week this week. It's my Race for Life on Saturday. How prepared am I? Well I'm currently coughing and sneezing into my Olbas Oil Tissues, and gasping for breath on the walk to the kitchen....eeeeeeeek! But I refuse to get stressed about this. No matter how I do, it's better than I would have dreamed of doing 12 months ago, or even 6 months ago. I'm going to go along, have a lovely walk, maybe jog a bit, and enjoy myself! And so far I have been sponsored to the tune of £70 so that feels a worthy enough sum to haul myself out of bed for!
And on Saturday afternoon, after the race, we are doing something really really exciting. I'll tell you about that another day :-))
Monday, 16 June 2008
Friday, 13 June 2008
At Last!!
Finally, after 22 weeks, 3 or 4 dress sizes, and over 60lb lost, someone has said "have you lost some weight?"!!
I know from my progress pics that I looks as though I've lost weight, so it isn't a case of me needing people to say it to make me feel good, luckily! But I'm just astonished that it took losing so very much to get any kind of reaction at all! I suppose the odd few stones on or off isn't so noticable when you are starting from a very heavy point. So presumably the next 4 stone off will provoke a bit more of a reaction.
If I feel this good now, imagine how I'm going to feel when the next 4 stones are gone!!
I know from my progress pics that I looks as though I've lost weight, so it isn't a case of me needing people to say it to make me feel good, luckily! But I'm just astonished that it took losing so very much to get any kind of reaction at all! I suppose the odd few stones on or off isn't so noticable when you are starting from a very heavy point. So presumably the next 4 stone off will provoke a bit more of a reaction.
If I feel this good now, imagine how I'm going to feel when the next 4 stones are gone!!
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Drink more Water
One of the changes I have made in my life is I drink more water. Lots and lots of water.
Now I could lecture you on why it's good for you and post lots of supporting scientific links. But I won't because I think this advert is more fun!
Drench ad
What more convincing can anyone need!
Now I could lecture you on why it's good for you and post lots of supporting scientific links. But I won't because I think this advert is more fun!
Drench ad
What more convincing can anyone need!
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Food, glorious food!
Week 22
Weight: 18st 7lb.
Loss this week: 3.5lb.
Total lost: 60.5lb
If the purpose of food is merely to fuel our body, how do we end up in a situation where we use it to celebrate, to commiserate, to party, to grieve, to show love, to mourn lost love, to accompany a film and to break up the bordeom of a long car journey?
Oh, just me? Oops!
No, I know it isn't just me because I've shared all the above food moments with friends and family.
On my travels around the blogosphere, I've seen a few comments that relate to the "Eat less calories, exercise more" school of thought and I've wondered how I can explain to such people why it just isn't that simple. OK yes, the actual equation is that simple, no question. But the cold mathematics of it all ignores the sheer overwhelming fact that in our society food is most certainly not merely fuel. Who hasn't eaten Ben & Jerry's straight from the tub when they've been dumped, or even done the dumping? (No, it is NOT just me, stop it!) My nana used to insist on feeding us a cheese sandwich, piece of cake and cup of tea in a china cup whenever we went round, regardless of the time of day, and whether or not we were hungry. Bless her, she made every single visit an occasion - and we only lived round the corner, so we visited a lot! So visiting my nana taught me to associate food with socialising, and comfort. My grandad was a wine buff and gourmet, and he taught me to love fine food and fine wine. It might be best if I don't tell you at what age my education began..... ;-)
My point, so laboriously made, is that to lose weight can never just be about eating less calories and exercising more because we are conditioned to see food in certain ways. Breaking associations and bad habits is what takes the hard work. And doing it without making ourselves and everyone around us utterly bloody miserable is a daily challenge that we should celebrate achieving.
But not by eating cake. Obviously.
Weight: 18st 7lb.
Loss this week: 3.5lb.
Total lost: 60.5lb
If the purpose of food is merely to fuel our body, how do we end up in a situation where we use it to celebrate, to commiserate, to party, to grieve, to show love, to mourn lost love, to accompany a film and to break up the bordeom of a long car journey?
Oh, just me? Oops!
No, I know it isn't just me because I've shared all the above food moments with friends and family.
On my travels around the blogosphere, I've seen a few comments that relate to the "Eat less calories, exercise more" school of thought and I've wondered how I can explain to such people why it just isn't that simple. OK yes, the actual equation is that simple, no question. But the cold mathematics of it all ignores the sheer overwhelming fact that in our society food is most certainly not merely fuel. Who hasn't eaten Ben & Jerry's straight from the tub when they've been dumped, or even done the dumping? (No, it is NOT just me, stop it!) My nana used to insist on feeding us a cheese sandwich, piece of cake and cup of tea in a china cup whenever we went round, regardless of the time of day, and whether or not we were hungry. Bless her, she made every single visit an occasion - and we only lived round the corner, so we visited a lot! So visiting my nana taught me to associate food with socialising, and comfort. My grandad was a wine buff and gourmet, and he taught me to love fine food and fine wine. It might be best if I don't tell you at what age my education began..... ;-)
My point, so laboriously made, is that to lose weight can never just be about eating less calories and exercising more because we are conditioned to see food in certain ways. Breaking associations and bad habits is what takes the hard work. And doing it without making ourselves and everyone around us utterly bloody miserable is a daily challenge that we should celebrate achieving.
But not by eating cake. Obviously.
Saturday, 7 June 2008
Seven Deadly Sins
Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath Envy and Pride.
I'm guilty of 3 of them this week. Well, 3 I'll admit to anyway ;-)
I would love to be able to come here and say that losing our gorgeous dog earlier this week has had no effect on my healthy eating, but unfortunately I can't. It has affected me because I have been unable to be bothered cooking, then getting hungry and resorting to snacking. And my exercise routine has slipped too, which this close to my Race for Life is very very bad!
On the bright side, even though I've snacked instead of eating healthy meals, I do think it's been relatively controlled snacking - Weight Watchers crisps instead of Walkers, low syn crackers with legitimate cheese allowance, and I have had *some* fruit and veg! There was one day when I was greedy and gluttinous and ate for the sake of eating (I never should have bought those crumpets!) but if you subscribe to the idea that being "good" 80% of the time is enough, then I may still hope to see a loss on the scales on Monday. But the less healthy diet and the lack of exercise is affecting me badly because now I feel sluggish and sloth-like. The very idea of hopping on the treadmill this afternoon is filling me with horror! But I will do it because I really really need to!
On the subject of my Race, I am pretty much decided that I am going to walk most of it. I think I am trying to do too much too soon if I go beserk with the running. 60 seconds jogging pushes my heart rate into the "too fast" zone and it takes a good couple of minutes to recover. I'm still hauling the equivalent of an extra adult round in fat, so I do need to be a bit sensible about it! So my general plan is to jog for short bursts as and when I feel comfortable doing so, and try to keep enough energy in reserve to jog in the approach to, and across, the finish line.
Reading what amazing feats other people achieve, I feel like I'm making a big deal out of a mere 5K, but it's my first so I'm going to allow it!
Right, those other 4 deadly sins - Lust, wrath, envy, pride...well actually apart from one, they don't sound all that much fun!
I'm guilty of 3 of them this week. Well, 3 I'll admit to anyway ;-)
I would love to be able to come here and say that losing our gorgeous dog earlier this week has had no effect on my healthy eating, but unfortunately I can't. It has affected me because I have been unable to be bothered cooking, then getting hungry and resorting to snacking. And my exercise routine has slipped too, which this close to my Race for Life is very very bad!
On the bright side, even though I've snacked instead of eating healthy meals, I do think it's been relatively controlled snacking - Weight Watchers crisps instead of Walkers, low syn crackers with legitimate cheese allowance, and I have had *some* fruit and veg! There was one day when I was greedy and gluttinous and ate for the sake of eating (I never should have bought those crumpets!) but if you subscribe to the idea that being "good" 80% of the time is enough, then I may still hope to see a loss on the scales on Monday. But the less healthy diet and the lack of exercise is affecting me badly because now I feel sluggish and sloth-like. The very idea of hopping on the treadmill this afternoon is filling me with horror! But I will do it because I really really need to!
On the subject of my Race, I am pretty much decided that I am going to walk most of it. I think I am trying to do too much too soon if I go beserk with the running. 60 seconds jogging pushes my heart rate into the "too fast" zone and it takes a good couple of minutes to recover. I'm still hauling the equivalent of an extra adult round in fat, so I do need to be a bit sensible about it! So my general plan is to jog for short bursts as and when I feel comfortable doing so, and try to keep enough energy in reserve to jog in the approach to, and across, the finish line.
Reading what amazing feats other people achieve, I feel like I'm making a big deal out of a mere 5K, but it's my first so I'm going to allow it!
Right, those other 4 deadly sins - Lust, wrath, envy, pride...well actually apart from one, they don't sound all that much fun!
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
RIP Georgia
Since this is my blog to use and abuse as I please, I'm posting an obituary to my dopey dog Georgia who was put to sleep this morning, age 16 1/2 years.
We got Georgia from a rescue centre when she was 8 weeks old so she's been part of our lives for a very long time. If we had visions of long walks with her we would have been disappointed - she has always been the laziest slowest dog in the world, too interested in sniffing the ground to be hassled with hurrying anywhere!
After a small blip in her health as a puppy, she has lived a very healthy life, up until 3 years ago when we thought she had suffered a stroke. It turned out not to be a stroke and she recovered somewhat after a course of steroids, but she was never really the same again. But she remained the most placid and licky dog in the universe.
We will miss her, even if I don't miss having to vacuum clumps of fur up several times a day!
Monday, 2 June 2008
Bakewell v Eat well!
Week 21
Weight: 18st 10.5lb.
Loss this week: 0.5lb.
Total lost: 57lb
Thanks for all the lovely comments on my progress pics. I should have mentioned on that post how many inches I have lost. I'll do it now instead!
In 20 weeks I lost 4st, 8 inches from my waist, 5 inches from my bust and 4.5 inches from my hips. Back in the Curves days I could have told you about arms and thighs and more. But I'm not tracking those measurements myself, it's not so easy to tell where to put the tape measure for accuracy!
I look as though I was a lazy blogger last week - it was just that we went away so no access to the WWW. We went camping with friends and stayed near Bakewell in Derbyshire, famous for it's tarts. Plus they have a shop that sells the best pasties in the universe - the only ones I have ever found that could hold a candle to my grandad's! So is it possible to eat well in Bakewell? Not unless you are going to be feeling a bit miserable I'd say. I freely admit to having 1 tart, 1 pasty, a fair bit of wine, "some" vodka and probably a few other bits I can't even remember! But I was conscious of not wanting to gain weight if I could help it so I didn't go stupid and I'm happy to see that pay off at the scales tonight. Only half a pound off, but a loss is a loss :-)
In other news, now Rebecca can ride her bike without stabilisers, I've hauled my bike out of the darkest recesses of the shed. I used to have her on the back of it but once she got too big for the seat I put it away and haven't seen it since! The poor bike has suffered for it's incarceration, but it's rideable and we have been out for a spin. Looking to the future, maybe we will tackle the Bikeathon next year - why not!
Weight: 18st 10.5lb.
Loss this week: 0.5lb.
Total lost: 57lb
Thanks for all the lovely comments on my progress pics. I should have mentioned on that post how many inches I have lost. I'll do it now instead!
In 20 weeks I lost 4st, 8 inches from my waist, 5 inches from my bust and 4.5 inches from my hips. Back in the Curves days I could have told you about arms and thighs and more. But I'm not tracking those measurements myself, it's not so easy to tell where to put the tape measure for accuracy!
I look as though I was a lazy blogger last week - it was just that we went away so no access to the WWW. We went camping with friends and stayed near Bakewell in Derbyshire, famous for it's tarts. Plus they have a shop that sells the best pasties in the universe - the only ones I have ever found that could hold a candle to my grandad's! So is it possible to eat well in Bakewell? Not unless you are going to be feeling a bit miserable I'd say. I freely admit to having 1 tart, 1 pasty, a fair bit of wine, "some" vodka and probably a few other bits I can't even remember! But I was conscious of not wanting to gain weight if I could help it so I didn't go stupid and I'm happy to see that pay off at the scales tonight. Only half a pound off, but a loss is a loss :-)
In other news, now Rebecca can ride her bike without stabilisers, I've hauled my bike out of the darkest recesses of the shed. I used to have her on the back of it but once she got too big for the seat I put it away and haven't seen it since! The poor bike has suffered for it's incarceration, but it's rideable and we have been out for a spin. Looking to the future, maybe we will tackle the Bikeathon next year - why not!
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