Oh god, here we are, year 3. I've spent 18 months or so yo-yoing, but always managing to at least stay below 19st. And as I emerge bleary eyed and bloated from a lengthy Chrsitmas and New Year binge, I can only be thankful that I am still just about the right side of 19st.
So when I last wrote, I think I was doing OK, and I did OK right up till about 14th December, which was my first Christmas party night. And from that moment on, Muller Lights were swapped for mince pies, homemade soup became home baked cookies, and every day began with a "fresh start" and ended with a guiltily full belly and possibly a large glass of Baileys.
No matter, I am now back on it. I weighed in on Thursday and eventually got around to looking at the figures. I am now 18st 11.5lbs. And my blood pressure? Well it had been reasonably well controlled, and then in the week or so before Christmas I started feeling really unwell - headaches, throat pain, exhaustion. And so checked myself out agin and it was back in the 170/120 zone. When this had gone on for a few days I increased my own meds. It took about 5 days for that to really help but now I am again doing OK, but on double the dose I was on before. So I have an appointment with my GP on Tuesday to find out whether I should try to decrease again, or stay as I am. I wonder whether my weight gain is enough of a factor to have caused this?
Exercise at the moment is fun - we have about a ton of snow, like everyone else in the UK. My thighs ache with the effort of walking through it, or maybe it's the effort of staying upright? Or maybe it's the climbing to the top of big hills so we can sledge down? I wouldn't have dared sledge a couple of years ago so we can add that to the list of things I can do now that I couldn't do before! Also we have a new Wii game called Just Dance. It does what it says on the tin and is very energetic and addictive - no matter how exhausted I feel, I always want to do just 1 more dance. I've been working up quite a sweat in my front room. With the curtains tightly shut!
So, on to New years resolutions. Well, if I've learnt one thing, it's not to set myself up to fail, so with that in mind, I'm going to do this on a week by week, if not day by day basis. I can eat well for 1 day. I can eat well for a week. I make no promises about a month! So I hereby promise that this week I will give 100% effort to eating well, exercising often and losing weight.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Good Habits
Well after a week of being 100% on track, cooking everything from scratch, resisting all temptations and pitfalls, and standing at a party nibbling celery and cucumber, I gained a pound. Ain't dieting great?! But no matter, I will admit to a little despondency after weigh in on Monday, which led my hand to stray too the sweetie jar - a few times. But by Tuesday morning I was totally over that and back in the zone. I'm not going to get knocked off track by a measly 1 pound gain, nope, not me!
I was ranting recently that bad habits seem to form as if by an invisible force, and return in the blink of an eye, but good habits never ever seem to become actual habits and are shaken off just as quickly as the bad sneaks back in. But since I said all that, I've noticed a small but hopefully positive change. Cooking from scratch seems to have become very normal for me, and easy. I've never been a natural cook. I've enjoyed following recipes and trying new things but it has always taken a big effort. But for the last few weeks I've been knocking up pasta sauces, soups,curries, chillies etc without a second thought, substituting and altering ingredients according to availability and taste. In part this is attributable to planning and organisation, and also increased confidence. But also, I think, maybe, possibly, it's become a habit!
In other news, this seems to be the week when I get lots of free stuff! On Tuesday I was in town getting some materials for making Rebecca a fancy dress costume for Children in Need day at school. Part of her "look" was she wanted to wear glasses, and I wasn't happy to pay lots for them. So I went round all the opticians on the high street asking whether they had any old frames they were just going to be throwing out. Most just said no, without bothering to look. But the guy at Vision Express went to look and came back with a pair of Armani frames that they couldn't sell because of some tiny flaw that I can't see. And then he had some plain glass lenses put in for her, and charged me nothing at all, bless him. So big up for Vision Express, and if you see me in new glasses anytime soon I've probably pinched them from the dress up box....! Then, on the way home, we walked past the flower seller as he was packing up for the day and he thrust 2 big gorgeous bunches of flowers in my arms to take home, which really lifted my day I can tell you!
Yesterday I had my groceries delivered and was very disappointed by the short use by dates on the meat so rang to complain. Sainsburys refunded me the cost of the meat and asked me to please tell them if it happens again, so it would be churlish not to be happy with their customer service, and finally (so far!) thanks to Money Saving Expert, I was able to get a free album download (I got Robbie Williams new one, love it!) from Sky Songs.
Quite a haul, and most pleasing the week before pay day I'm sure you'll agree!
I was ranting recently that bad habits seem to form as if by an invisible force, and return in the blink of an eye, but good habits never ever seem to become actual habits and are shaken off just as quickly as the bad sneaks back in. But since I said all that, I've noticed a small but hopefully positive change. Cooking from scratch seems to have become very normal for me, and easy. I've never been a natural cook. I've enjoyed following recipes and trying new things but it has always taken a big effort. But for the last few weeks I've been knocking up pasta sauces, soups,curries, chillies etc without a second thought, substituting and altering ingredients according to availability and taste. In part this is attributable to planning and organisation, and also increased confidence. But also, I think, maybe, possibly, it's become a
In other news, this seems to be the week when I get lots of free stuff! On Tuesday I was in town getting some materials for making Rebecca a fancy dress costume for Children in Need day at school. Part of her "look" was she wanted to wear glasses, and I wasn't happy to pay lots for them. So I went round all the opticians on the high street asking whether they had any old frames they were just going to be throwing out. Most just said no, without bothering to look. But the guy at Vision Express went to look and came back with a pair of Armani frames that they couldn't sell because of some tiny flaw that I can't see. And then he had some plain glass lenses put in for her, and charged me nothing at all, bless him. So big up for Vision Express, and if you see me in new glasses anytime soon I've probably pinched them from the dress up box....! Then, on the way home, we walked past the flower seller as he was packing up for the day and he thrust 2 big gorgeous bunches of flowers in my arms to take home, which really lifted my day I can tell you!
Yesterday I had my groceries delivered and was very disappointed by the short use by dates on the meat so rang to complain. Sainsburys refunded me the cost of the meat and asked me to please tell them if it happens again, so it would be churlish not to be happy with their customer service, and finally (so far!) thanks to Money Saving Expert, I was able to get a free album download (I got Robbie Williams new one, love it!) from Sky Songs.
Quite a haul, and most pleasing the week before pay day I'm sure you'll agree!
Friday, 13 November 2009
Death by Chicken
It would have been astonishingly easy to fall off track yesterday. First of all I was seriously tired after having no sleep for over 24 hours. Plus I had a busy evening, with the "do your homework!" nagging which can go on for a long time, and looking after the 2 dogs and 2 hamsters, and I had to go to a meeting at school, and I had to get Rebecca to Cubs. All in all, the temptation to grab something quick and less than optimal was great.
But what stopped me was the fact that I am overly familiar with that slippery slope. It's not that a cheese sandwich would have exactly been the end of the world on it's own. It's the fact that the voice in my head would have said "ah well, you've had the sandwich, may as well have a glass of cider now. And you'd be wanting a bag of nuts with that. May as well get a bag of chips too. Ah what the hell, you've blown the week, may as well pig out till Monday night now!"
So instead of falling into that oft visited trap, I made plans involving left over chicken and some nice veg. But that nearly killed me. Reheated, the chicken was so dry that it lodged itself firmly in my throat and wouldn't move. For what felt like forever I couldn't breathe! So the chicken was binned and that left me using tonights planned meal instead - spag bol I'd made for the freezer.
I did have to settle my stressful evening with a nice cup of coffee and a fun size Milky Way before bed. Syns duly counted and still totally on plan despite the universe conspiring against me. If I can survive that, hell I can survive anything!
I'm off to make something to replace the spag bol now.
But what stopped me was the fact that I am overly familiar with that slippery slope. It's not that a cheese sandwich would have exactly been the end of the world on it's own. It's the fact that the voice in my head would have said "ah well, you've had the sandwich, may as well have a glass of cider now. And you'd be wanting a bag of nuts with that. May as well get a bag of chips too. Ah what the hell, you've blown the week, may as well pig out till Monday night now!"
So instead of falling into that oft visited trap, I made plans involving left over chicken and some nice veg. But that nearly killed me. Reheated, the chicken was so dry that it lodged itself firmly in my throat and wouldn't move. For what felt like forever I couldn't breathe! So the chicken was binned and that left me using tonights planned meal instead - spag bol I'd made for the freezer.
I did have to settle my stressful evening with a nice cup of coffee and a fun size Milky Way before bed. Syns duly counted and still totally on plan despite the universe conspiring against me. If I can survive that, hell I can survive anything!
I'm off to make something to replace the spag bol now.
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Hello Mojo!
Woot! Another pesky 3lbs shed, and I'm back where I was about 6 weeks ago! Let's ignore the fact that I'm still about a stone heavier than I was last winter, and my winter coat doesn't fit - minor details dear readers, minor details!
I need to share a wonderful winter warming recipe with you. Very healthy and possibly the nicest soup I've ever tasted. It was on the table at SW on Monday so I apologise for not knowing who to credit it to. Also, this is kind of a rough approximation of what it actually said, since I just jotted the outline, but it works!
Tomato and Pepper Soup
1 large onion
2 large red peppers
2 tins of tomatoes
1 teaspoon of chilli powder (I used more, adjust to personal taste!)
1 tablespoon of sweetener
3/4 pint of stock
Frylight
Chop the onion and peppers (I did them chunky since they get blended anyway!) and gently fry them. Add the chilli powder and a bit of the stock if needed and fry for 3-4 minutes.
Chuck in the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 15 mins.
Blend, serve, go back for seconds!
I expect sales of red peppers and tinned tomatoes to go through the roof once you've tried this, it is perfect.
I need to share a wonderful winter warming recipe with you. Very healthy and possibly the nicest soup I've ever tasted. It was on the table at SW on Monday so I apologise for not knowing who to credit it to. Also, this is kind of a rough approximation of what it actually said, since I just jotted the outline, but it works!
Tomato and Pepper Soup
1 large onion
2 large red peppers
2 tins of tomatoes
1 teaspoon of chilli powder (I used more, adjust to personal taste!)
1 tablespoon of sweetener
3/4 pint of stock
Frylight
Chop the onion and peppers (I did them chunky since they get blended anyway!) and gently fry them. Add the chilli powder and a bit of the stock if needed and fry for 3-4 minutes.
Chuck in the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 15 mins.
Blend, serve, go back for seconds!
I expect sales of red peppers and tinned tomatoes to go through the roof once you've tried this, it is perfect.
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Just checking in quickly to let you know that I lost 5 fatty pounds (weigh in was Monday - I'm so slack at reporting in here!) and I remain fully fired up and 100% on track. What I'm loving is that I am feeling the excitement of losing weight again - it's felt like a dreary, if not agonising, chore for a long time if I'm honest. But now, nothing is more thrilling than seeing the numbers fall, feeling the clothes get a little looser, and nothing is more satisfying than knowing that I have all my meals planned, and if I go in the kitchen right now for a snack, there's a good choice of fruit, yoghurt, cereal bars or if I fancy something more substantial there's left over turkey chilli to keep me away from the bread bin!
My new discovery and possible saviour is online grocery shopping. I have thought about it before but always lacked the kind of organisation that gets the job done. But at the moment my car is off the road so I'm kind of dependent on Mark for being able to get the weekly shop done (I'm capable of walking to the corner shop for immediate essentials!) Anyway, on Tuesday, having planned my meals for the week and written a shopping list, I was aiming to get my hands on his car at around 5pm, but sadly it didn't happen and I had to rustle up a meal from what was in the cupboards (thank god for pasta!)
It then occured to me to consider having my shopping brought to me instead of me going to it! I logged onto mysupermarket.com which is a site I highly recommend, and whizzed through my list in no time. The website compares prices between the 4 main online supermarkets (Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys and Ocado), suggests swaps you can make for a cheaper product or a lower calorie product and shows all current discount codes available for each store. Once you have decided which store to use, it then transfers the contents of your trolley to that store's trolley with a nifty little gif showing that happening to keep me happy :) The next day a nice man carried all my shopping including 15kgs of dog food up the hill to my front door, where it took him a few moments to recover enough to speak. I know how he feels, and I'm glad that I have discovered I won't have to do it anymore!
On the writing front, I've written 3 chapters and am seriously behind schedule but haven't had much time to knuckle down to it really. I need to press on instead of rabbiting on here!
My new discovery and possible saviour is online grocery shopping. I have thought about it before but always lacked the kind of organisation that gets the job done. But at the moment my car is off the road so I'm kind of dependent on Mark for being able to get the weekly shop done (I'm capable of walking to the corner shop for immediate essentials!) Anyway, on Tuesday, having planned my meals for the week and written a shopping list, I was aiming to get my hands on his car at around 5pm, but sadly it didn't happen and I had to rustle up a meal from what was in the cupboards (thank god for pasta!)
It then occured to me to consider having my shopping brought to me instead of me going to it! I logged onto mysupermarket.com which is a site I highly recommend, and whizzed through my list in no time. The website compares prices between the 4 main online supermarkets (Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys and Ocado), suggests swaps you can make for a cheaper product or a lower calorie product and shows all current discount codes available for each store. Once you have decided which store to use, it then transfers the contents of your trolley to that store's trolley with a nifty little gif showing that happening to keep me happy :) The next day a nice man carried all my shopping including 15kgs of dog food up the hill to my front door, where it took him a few moments to recover enough to speak. I know how he feels, and I'm glad that I have discovered I won't have to do it anymore!
On the writing front, I've written 3 chapters and am seriously behind schedule but haven't had much time to knuckle down to it really. I need to press on instead of rabbiting on here!
Friday, 30 October 2009
All fired up!
Hello again! Sorry I fell off the radar after my last post - I hate blogging about failure, it makes me feel like I've let everyone down! Also I have been fairly busy, what with half term, a birthday trip to London and just real life in general.
We had a fabulous time in London. We went last weekend, hopped on a train at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning and returned home late Sunday evening. The hours between are a blur of tourism - open top bus tours, river cruise (my favourite bit!), London Eye, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, Science Museum, St Pauls Cathedral, London Monument, tubes, escalators, platforms, queues, taking photos, and we even managed to sleep a little bit too! We saw so much, yet left so much more to be seen next time. 2 days was just not enough for our wonderful capital city!
I gained a pound, but hey, we were on a tight budget, it was cheap chips and value butties all the way!
The happy news about dieting and stuff is that this week I am totally excited about it all over again. I had the good sense to stay to class on Monday, and accepted the Speed Food Challenge, which requires me to cook from scratch, keep a strict food diary and eat at least 5 speed foods every day. Speed foods are pretty much covered by most fruit and veg so it's not so hard, but it's some much needed structure that has me fully motivated and running with it again. I hope I can report an impressive loss on my next post!
I'm also a little bit excited about something else. For a long time I have had people telling me I should write. I've written work related articles that I have been advised to submit for publication, but never had the courage to do it. This blog is my first foray into writing for public consumption, and has generated many more comments from people who know me, urging me to try to write a book or a column. I'm still not brave enough to try that, but I have just signed up for NaNoWriMo which runs for the month of November. I basically have to produce a 50,000 word novel in a month! That's a little bit scary, but I enjoy stretching my brain, I enjoy writing, and hell, it's a month to find out whether I do in fact have a book in me!
I may not have time to eat, I may be reporting excellent weight losses for the next few weeks!
We had a fabulous time in London. We went last weekend, hopped on a train at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning and returned home late Sunday evening. The hours between are a blur of tourism - open top bus tours, river cruise (my favourite bit!), London Eye, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, Science Museum, St Pauls Cathedral, London Monument, tubes, escalators, platforms, queues, taking photos, and we even managed to sleep a little bit too! We saw so much, yet left so much more to be seen next time. 2 days was just not enough for our wonderful capital city!
I gained a pound, but hey, we were on a tight budget, it was cheap chips and value butties all the way!
The happy news about dieting and stuff is that this week I am totally excited about it all over again. I had the good sense to stay to class on Monday, and accepted the Speed Food Challenge, which requires me to cook from scratch, keep a strict food diary and eat at least 5 speed foods every day. Speed foods are pretty much covered by most fruit and veg so it's not so hard, but it's some much needed structure that has me fully motivated and running with it again. I hope I can report an impressive loss on my next post!
I'm also a little bit excited about something else. For a long time I have had people telling me I should write. I've written work related articles that I have been advised to submit for publication, but never had the courage to do it. This blog is my first foray into writing for public consumption, and has generated many more comments from people who know me, urging me to try to write a book or a column. I'm still not brave enough to try that, but I have just signed up for NaNoWriMo which runs for the month of November. I basically have to produce a 50,000 word novel in a month! That's a little bit scary, but I enjoy stretching my brain, I enjoy writing, and hell, it's a month to find out whether I do in fact have a book in me!
I may not have time to eat, I may be reporting excellent weight losses for the next few weeks!
Sunday, 11 October 2009
I need a map!
I fell off the rails last weekend, and now I can't even find the damn rails!
I knew I was going to have a bad weekend because I went with my friends to a hotel for a "girls night in" which lasted for approximately 24 hours, and never in all my life have I eaten or drunk so much. Ever! A wonderful time was had by all and I heartily recommend it, but it's bad for your health, no matter how much "use of the spa facilities" is allowed!
Then Monday rolled around and I couldn't face the scales. I swore to myself that I was just going to miss the weigh in, but I'd be back on the rails. But when I turned around, the rails were gone. I'd drifted so far off course that I didn't even know which way to go to find them. I still haven't found them and now I'm feeling sick at the the thought of weigh in tomorrow.
So if anyone has a map showing me the way back to the rails, I'm ready to climb back on. Google Earth is no help. Can anyone show me the way?
I knew I was going to have a bad weekend because I went with my friends to a hotel for a "girls night in" which lasted for approximately 24 hours, and never in all my life have I eaten or drunk so much. Ever! A wonderful time was had by all and I heartily recommend it, but it's bad for your health, no matter how much "use of the spa facilities" is allowed!
Then Monday rolled around and I couldn't face the scales. I swore to myself that I was just going to miss the weigh in, but I'd be back on the rails. But when I turned around, the rails were gone. I'd drifted so far off course that I didn't even know which way to go to find them. I still haven't found them and now I'm feeling sick at the the thought of weigh in tomorrow.
So if anyone has a map showing me the way back to the rails, I'm ready to climb back on. Google Earth is no help. Can anyone show me the way?
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