End of Part One

Week 52

Weight: 17st 12lb
Loss This Week: 4lb
Gain lost: 69.5lb

Week 52! Wow, that's a whole year of Slimming World! That's huge!

I can take on the world, and win!

I'm delighted with my loss this week, not least because the weekend was somewhat.....celebratory..... teehee! But I was good as gold for the first half of the week, and I did try to moderate myself even when I was swimming in alcohol. Honest!

Going back to my last entry, I did give the Extra Easy a go in the end, and I liked it! I'm definitely going with it this week, because I suspect it will actually be very beneficial. For example, I had a late lunch, more of a brunch, of egg, bacon, sausage, mushrooms and beans and I was just totally full for the rest of the day. I didn't need to snack at all, and I only needed a light meal later. So I ate lots less than usual. Which may be why it works.

I'm working on my "move more" resolution - my wonderful brother got us a Wii Fit for Christmas and I've been playing on it since yesterday. Initially I thought it seemed easy and doubted the possibility of actually improving my fitness. But a few goes on the hula hooping had me near collapsed so I've reviewed my opinion and fully expect to get very fit indeed! I have awesome balance apparently and am brilliant at the Yoga poses. Good to know :) (Rebecca thinks my little fat Mii is hilarious!)

I need to rest now. I've promised Rebecca I'll pull her to school on her sledge in the morning if it's still snowy. I need to get my strength up!

Extra Easy

Slimming World have pulled some witchcraft, and created a plan that lets you eat anything at all, in any quantity you like, and still lose weight. Well, anything except bread and cheese - you have to limit them. Other than that though, fill your boots!

OK, it's not quite that free! But reading it for the first time, that's the feeling you come away with!

It goes something like this:

You choose 1 Healthy Extra A (cheese or milk in the main) and 1 Healthy Extra B (breads, cereals etc) per day, and 5-15 syns. And eat as much as you like of lean meat, fish, eggs, fruit, veg, pasta, rice, pulses etc. Yes, on the same plate! You don't have to choose whether to have meat or rice with your curry, you can have both. As much as you want!

There has to be a catch, surely?

Is it one of those rigid, no good for nightworkers, 3 meals per day plans? Nope.
Can you only snack on carrot and celery? Nope.
Have we lost all the branded free foods then, that made life easy sometimes? No.
Aaaah, it must be a much more limited choice of food! Happily not! The sole proviso appears to be a recommendation that a third of your plate is filled with "superfree" food, essentially veg or fruit, although not exclusively.

I came away from class very excited about trying this! Chicken curry made with actual chicken? Jacket potato filled with tuna! Oh my word, I can make stew with potato in!!

However, haven't been able to do let myself do it. I've tried, but when I look at what I've eaten it's been fine for a green day, with (for example) tuna as a HEB. It's as though I've been given too big a gift. I've taken it out, looked and admired it, and put it reverentially back in the box.

It's nice to know it's there, it is going to come in handy on special occasions, meals out etc, but it's too good to use every day!

And So To 2009

Week 51

(Can't quite bring myself to type the stats...)

Did everyone have a lovely Christmas? We did. I'm now very ready to embark on healthy eating again! What I wish is that I could bottle how bad all the excessive eating actually makes me feel, to stop me making the same mistakes again - bloating, heartburn, clothes too tight, lethargic, and headaches, terrible headaches! I can feel every single one of the cough[7]cough pounds I gained in the last 2 weeks. No regrets though, it was Christmas and could have been a lot lot worse! It did bring home to me though how incredibly bad I would feel if I suddenly weighed what did this time last year - I wouldn't be able to move!

I found resisting blogging in the last couple of weeks harder than I expected. Several times I logged on and started writing some random entry, but then I would get called away and end up deleting what I had written. You didn't miss any great dieting revelations, I just had an urge to waffle!

A Nintendo Wii has entered our lives this Christmas - what a wonderful device that is! As yet we don't have Wii Fit, but we will! But even playing Wii Sports is working up quite a sweat, and my arms are killing me! And I'm getting a bit competitive on the tennis game - playing every point like I'm on the verge of winning Wimbledon ;)

So, on to the serious business of New Years Resolutions! I don't make many, I don't like setting myself up to fail! But here they are in all their glory:

1]Continue Slimming World with renewed vigour, aim to lose another 5 stone this year.
2]Spend less time online!
3]Exercise more, and train for the next Race for Life which I have promised to actually run this year, in support of Ted again, who is going through a truly terrible time at the moment. My heart goes out to Ted and his family.
4]Save some money (this is likely to be the one I fail on, something always comes up that takes anything I have managed to save!)

That's the lot!

My next entry will be about the brand new SW plan, Extra Easy. I want to try it before I give my opinion, but my first reaction is Wow!

Festive Tidings!

Week 49

Weight: 17st 8.5lb
Loss This Week: 5.5lb
Gain lost: 73lb

I toyed with not revealing the figures this week. Truth be told I tried to avoid seeing them myself, but the lovely lady on the scales made me look! I won't attempt to defend myself, I overate, and drank too much, but damn I had fun! Party season is upon us after all. I anticipate ongoing "problems" until Boxing Day, when I am back at work and the party is effectively over. I'm hoping I start 2009 still 5st lighter than I started 2008. If I do that I will be happy.

On the subject of parties, I loved dressing up for my work party - I was very comfortable with my choice of outfit, and the compliments flowed all night! People who I see all the time appeared to suddenly notice I'd lost weight. It goes to prove how unflattering a nurse's uniform is! I can't wait for next years now :-)

Apparently there is a shiny new Slimming World plan being revealed in January. I've seen a hint of it in the current magazine and I'm very excited to see the full details revealed, although I'm not sure quite how it will work, as the little I've seen has both red and green day components piled freely on one plate! My best guess is this means the food list is more limited, but until January I won't know!

I don't anticipate getting the chance to blog over the Christmas period so


See you on the other side!

On Resolutions.

Week 48

Weight: 17st 3lb
Loss This Week: 2lb
Total lost: 78.5lb

Phew, a loss! And actually a new low, by a whisker!

There's an interesting phenomenon occurring here, so far not mentioned. On the weeks I gain, Mark loses, and on the weeks I lose, Mark gains. What the hell is happening here? You'd think we'd be charting a similar course, but no, not at all! He has almost caught up with me now, but slipped back a bit this week. I imagine he can look forward to a healthy weight loss over Christmas and the New Year ;)

Is everyone all organised for Christmas? Presents bought and wrapped? Tree up? Cards posted? No, me neither. I've bought nearly all I'm buying but there's not a card written and not a fairy light to be seen. Happily I have a week off work next week so I can get it all done then. I don't like the decorations up too early anyway, they tend to get on my nerves fairly quickly - bah humbug!

Oh! Pedometer - what pedomoeter? ;)

OK I promised to walk how ever many steps, and last time it was mentioned I was trying it out to see how many steps I took on a normal day. It worked out pretty much as I expected, around the 7000 mark. But the following day I very rapidly racked up 99,999 steps, leaving me a tad suspicious that it wasn't very accurate. And there endeth that experiment. I like gadgets and figures and charts, but I can't cope with inaccuracy at all! If anyone wants a pedometer, let me know, there's one going dusty in my drawer.

What I need is a New Year, and some New Years Resolutions. I'm going to have a careful think about what they may be, and I will post them here when I've refined them. I'm happy to say that I pretty much achieved all I wanted to this year. OK I never made it to 15st by Christmas, but that hardly matters, I lost 5 1/2st over the course of the year, I did the Race for Life in June and already have my name down for the 2009 race, and I went rollerskating! I'm happy to see the year drawing to a close with that lot under my belt.

'Tis the Season to be....?

I'm so 100% on track this week that I feel quite excited about getting weighed! I actually feel slimmer and lighter too. Now I'm getting my hopes up, god forbid they are dashed on Monday! I swear if I don't lose this week, I'm defecting to Weight Watchers! (Only joking Heather ;) )

What I really really want to do soon is some more progress pics, and maybe even a "measure in"! I know I look different, and I want to share, those of you who are sticking with me while I get nowhere deserve to see something encouraging I reckon. My usual rule is progress pics every 2 stone, so I'm around half a stone off doing them. I don't know, what do you think? Should I do some if I lose weight this week? I'm tempted!

Is anyone else kind of dreading Christmas? It's all about food! No matter how much you don't want it to be, unless you lock yourself in a darkened room for a fortnight (minimum!) then it's all about damn food! And not in a good way! I know nobody forces me to eat, I know I can just say no. But that is a lot easier said than done at this time of year when there's nuts and chocolate just lying around, when mince pies lurk in cupboards to lure you in, when it's party season and the alcohol and nibbles are there just to get you started! God knows I don't want to weigh more in January than I do right now, but how I'm going to achieve that without going into hiding or getting very depressed I don't know! I'm not planning on buying all the usual trappings in, so I should be safe at home. But even work will be full of temptation! Does anyone have any foolproof strategies to get through this season? Tell me quick! There's less than a week to go till my first test!

And Again.

Week 47

Weight: 17st 5lb
Gain This Week: 1.5lb
Total lost: 76.5lb

I'm so frustrated, I could gnaw my own arm off ;-)

Actually I'm OK about this one, it's almost certainly attributable to the fact that I ate a late lunch while out with friends, before weigh in. If all things were equal (I would normally have just got out of bed after working a night shift and would be getting weighed on an empty stomach) I imagine it would have been a maintain, or close to it.

However I really really really do mean business this week! I have absolutely nothing standing in my way, possibly for the last time between now and Christmas. So I'm giving it 100%. I'm going to do a food diary which I haven't done for ages. That should keep me focused. And I already have my Quorn Curry on the go - smells wonderful!

Yesterday I was on a girlie shopping day - I needed something to wear for our work Christmas party, so we went to Stoke and I shopped at Matalan for the first time in my life. I was so impressed! I got a gorgeous gorgeous dress which is nothing to do with the party, but just because I love it, a lovely bright coloured top, a black velvety skirt, earrings, necklace, rings, xmas cards and presents, all for £70. I definitely need to shop there again!

Now the next burning question is can I get away with coloured tights in order to be "on trend" or should I just keep my legs encased in black and play it safe? Hmmmmm. Decisions decisions!