The Results Are In – Week 7

Posted February 24, 2014

Filed under My Progress

Weight loss: 0lb

Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Current weight: 12st 1lb

Weight loss since start: 5lb

Lbs to go to reach next target: 1.5lb

I was pretty pleased with staying the same this week as Id had a lazy week off work

What’s gone well?

I went to a new fitness class this week, a Zumba class that is on straight before the Body Pump class I normally go to on a Tuesday with Mr FFF. I enjoyed the class and I went on to complete the Body Pump class afterwards without too much difficulty. I’m planning on making this a part of my exercise routine from now on.

I went to my second parkrun on Saturday and managed to complete it 36 seconds faster than the previous week. I know it’s not a huge improvement but I wasn’t actively trying for a faster time this week as I was running with a friend who was taking part for the first time.

On Saturday night I faced a weight loss dilemma: whether to cook a nice, plan-friendly meal (which I couldn’t be bothered to do) or to order a takeaway. In the end, due to thinking carefully about where I want to be and the choices I need to make to get there, I decided I didn’t want to eat rubbish and opted for cooking.

What’s been difficult?

I’ve found it really hard to stay on track and not comfort eat this week. There were a number of factors involved in this such as being off work for half-term and eating out at an amazing restaurant for a friend’s birthday. But I’ve reminded myself not to use these factors as excuses – mainly I’ve wanted to relax a little, which is fine, I just have to accept that I’ve put achieving my goal back a little. The fact that I’d been off-track most off the week was also a big factor in helping me resolve my Saturday’s dilemma (see above).

The week ahead

I’m back at work so that should help me to stay on track in the day.

I’m aiming to do my double exercise class again on Tuesday night although I won’t be able to attend my normal Friday night Spinning class as I’m taking my mum out for her birthday. I’m looking forwarding to doing parkrun again at the weekend and I’m going to actively try for a quicker time.

Thanks for reading.

PS How do you stay on track when you are out of your normal routine?

The Results Are In – Week 6

Posted February 17, 2014

Filed under My Progress

Weight loss: +1lb

Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Current weight: 12st 1lb

Weight loss since start: 5lb

Lbs to go to reach next target: 1.5lb

So I have small gain this week but I’m not disheartened by it as I’ve had a lovely weekend of being wined and dined (or more accurately beered & takeaway-ed) and eating delicious chocolates for Valentine’s day; then I enjoyed a meal and drinks with my work colleagues on Saturday to celebrate surviving the Half-Term From Hell. So it could’ve been much worse.

What’s gone well?

I took part in my first parkrun event this week and I really enjoyed it. I was thoroughly impressed that, despite not running further than a mile in several years, I managed to run for the whole course and completed it in a respectable time.

What’s been difficult?

Loosening the Control Freak reigns was a little difficult this weekend. While I wanted to have a successful week weight-wise, I also wanted to let my hair down a bit with my colleagues. Although I don’t like to drink lots (I can’t cope with the hangovers these days), I find that, if I have a few drinks on a Saturday night, even if I stay within my points budget, I usually stay the same or have a slight gain at my Monday weigh in. In the end, I went out, ate a sensible meal, had a few drinks and really enjoyed myself. I reasoned that it was a one-off, and I’m in the right frame of mind at the moment not to let it completely throw me off track.

The week ahead

This week could be a tough one as I’m on holiday from school. I’ll be meeting up with a friend who is also a teacher so we always get together for lunch and a catch-up in the holidays. I’m also going to a really fancy restaurant on Thursday evening for a Friend’s birthday.

To help deal with this I’ll make sure I stay completely on plan for the lunch with a friend. At the meal I’ll probably go a little off plan but I will look at the menu beforehand so that I can make as wise a choice as possible. I’ll also make sure I stay completely on track for the rest of the week and I’m going to do an extra exercise class tomorrow to get some activity points in the bank.

I’m also really looking forward to taking part in parkrun again on Saturday. Who knows – I might even get a bit faster!

Thanks for reading.

PS How do you stay/get back on track following a slip up?

The Results Are In – Week 5

Posted February 10, 2014

Filed under My Progress

Weight loss: 1lb

Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Current weight: 12st 0lb

Weight loss since start: 6lb

Lbs to go to reach next target: 0.5lb

I’m really pleased with this result and here’s why:

What’s gone well?

I coped really well with an unexpected mid-week meal out choosing a Filling &Healthy friendly steak and replacing the chips with jacket potato (read my post about this here).

Following my chocolate-free January, I’ve eaten some chocolate most days this week but I’ve not gone mad on it and I’ve pointed it all.

I went to an engagement party on Saturday but drove instead of drinking. I also ate before I went and although I was stood right next to the delicious smelling and looking Indian buffet all night – not one morsel of it passed my lips!

I stuck to my plan to deal with eating out yesterday by choosing a main and a desert from the ‘lighter choices’ section of the menu.

I tried on some trousers that were too tight for me at the beginning of January and they now fit so I’ll be wearing those at some point this week!

What’s been difficult?

My chocolate craving was back with a vengeance this week. However, I didn’t let this throw me off track. I simply reminded myself of my goals and my reasons for wanting to lose weight to help reign the craving in and I made sure I pointed everything.

The week ahead

I have a work’s night out on Saturday night where I intend to have a few drinks – following an extremely difficult half term, my team and I definitely need to let our hair down a little. However, I’m very conscious that I want to achieve my next goal of being under 12st at my weigh in next Monday. I know that if I drink too much it will:

a) Make me want to eat rubbish on Sunday

b) Make me not want to go to my box fit class on Sunday

c) Make my dehydrated body retain fluid prior to my weigh in on Monday evening.

So, I’m going to have a few drinks but I’m not going to get really drunk so that I can still stay on track. I’m also going to attend my first Park Run 5k race on Saturday morning to get a few extra activity points in the back. I might even go for a swim and a spa following my class on the Sunday.

Thanks for reading.

PS How do cope with a night on the tiles when staying on plan?

The Results Are In – Week 4

Posted February 3, 2014

Filed under My Progress

Weight loss: 1.5lb

Current weight: 12st 1lb

Weight loss since start: 5.5lb

Lbs to go to reach next target: 1.5lb

Waist: 33in (-3in)

Hips: 40in (-3in)

Bust: 39.5in (-2.5in)

Arms: 12in (-1in)

Thighs: 24in (-1in)

Wow! I’m so pleased with both my weight and inch loss this week. It was tough not to lose heart following last week’s 0.5lb gain, but I’m so glad that I made staying on track my focus. I’m really going to enjoy buying myself a bunch of flowers for exceeding the mini-goal I set last week (to lose 1lb).

Week 4 – 5.5lb/10.5in loss

I’m also looking forward to rewarding myself for exceeding my January goal of losing 4lb. I have actually changed my mind about my reward – I’m going to treat myself to a new CD instead of a back massage as I’m a bit pushed for time at the moment. I might make that a reward for achieving my 5% goal.

The next mini goal I’m going to set is to lose 1.5lb by 17^th February to get me down into the next stone bracket.

What’s gone well?

Despite my disappointment at last week’s weigh-in, I still managed to stick to the plan for the entire week. I rewarded myself for this with a nice relaxing bath on Friday evening.

I successfully completed Dry January and had 2 glasses of wine of Saturday night. I also successfully completed ‘Chocolate Free January’. I hadn’t planned to have any chocolate on Saturday but I did end up having some Cadbury Fingers in the afternoon but I dealt with this by pointing them using my weeklies. Simple.

I’ve found it easier to stay on top of my weeklies this week by tracking in advance the things I knew I’d be having that would need to come out of my weekly points (e.g. syrup with porridge each morning, 2 glasses of wine for Saturday). This has helped me to plan my treats and not be suddenly left with no weeklies for the weekend.

What’s been difficult?

The hardest thing for me this week was staying on track following last week’s disappointing gain. To deal with this I have constantly reminded myself of why I want to lose weight and have considered how bad I’d feel if I went off track and then ended up gaining even more.

Week 4 – 5.5lb/10.5in loss

The week ahead

I’m going to the cinema and then out for a meal with friends on Sunday. As we’re going for a meal afterwards I’m not going to have any snacks at the cinema, just a diet drink. The meal is at Frankie & Benny’s so I’m going to choose a salad from their ‘Light Options’ menu and I might have some sorbet if people are ordering deserts.

Thanks for reading.

PS Other than the numbers on the scales, what do you use to measure your weight loss success?

The Results are in – Week 3

Posted January 27, 2014

Filed under My Progress

Weight loss: +0.5lb

Current weight: 12st 2.5lb

Weight loss since start: 4lb

Lbs to go to reach next target: 1lb

I must admit, when I stepped on the scales this week I was absolutely gutted. I’ve still stuck to the program, still not had any alcohol or chocolate and still kept up my new exercise routine. I honestly could have cried (although I’ve also had an extremely stressful time at work over the last few days so I am slightly emotional anyway).

However, I soon had a little chat with myself though and realised that only 2 weeks ago I was moaning that I’d ‘only’ lost 0.5lb. Therefore, it surely makes sense that I don’t give myself too hard a time about putting on this amount. It may well be due to some kind of natural fluctuation in my weight and I may well end up with a bigger loss next week.

Whatever the reason for it I’ve decided to view it as a positive and make sure that I’m concentrating on feeling ‘satisfied not stuffed’ this week and hopefully it will also motivate me not to go mad on alcohol and chocolate once I’m allowed them again on Saturday.

What’s gone well?

I said in last week’s post that there were a couple of moments when I’d felt like I couldn’t be bothered to go to my fitness classes. Well, I’m happy to report that this week it is beginning to feel like just part of my routine.

I’m also really pleased that I have managed another week without chocolate or alcohol. To be honest, I’m not even missing it. The only time when I did feel like a glass of wine was on Sunday when my dad came round for a meal for his birthday. I am looking forward to having a glass of wine or a cocktail next weekend, but I won’t be going crazy!

Me & Mr FFF went to the cinema on Saturday to watch The Wolfman of Wall Street (really good but really long film – 3hrs!). As I had plenty of weekly points available I did treat myself to 2 scoops of Ben and Jerry’s (1 FroYo & 1 ice-cream) and we shared some popcorn. However, the popcorn wasn’t that tasty so I didn’t eat much of it. I’ve never done this before – in the past I’d just munch my way through it anyway. But this time I thought ‘This really isn’t worth putting into my mouth’. So I didn’t. Simple.

What’s been difficult?

I’m starting to worry about whether I’ll be able to control my chocolate intake when I allow it back in to my diet next weekend. I’m not too bothered about the alcohol as I don’t drink much anyway. Chocolate however, is another story. I could quite happily scoff my way through a large bar of chocolate in about 20 minutes. I’ve also got a few chocolate gifts left over from Christmas in the back of one of my kitchen cupboards.

I’m planning on having a couple of drinks on Saturday evening but no chocolate. That way I’m not going to be treating myself to chocolate straight away on 1^st February. I might even lay off the chocolate for the rest of that week.

I’m also going to bag-up my Christmas chocolate into 3/4pp portions and keep them out of sight at the back of the cupboard.

The week ahead

I’m going out for dinner with my sister on Wednesday. I’ve had a look online at the menu for the restaurant we’re going to and there are at least 3 options I can have with a choice of veggies, salad and new potatoes.

I’m still going to have a nice relaxing bath tonight to unwind but I won’t use my Lush products as I didn’t lose this week. Instead, once I’ve stayed on track this week, I’m going to treat myself to a Lush bath on Saturday.

As I’ve already achieved my January target of losing 4lb, I’m going to set myself a mini-target of losing 1lb this week to help motivate me to stay on track. If When I achieve this goal I’m going to buy myself a bunch of flowers as a reward.

Thanks for reading.

PS What do you do to help you stay on track following a weight gain?

The Results Are In – Week 2

Posted January 20, 2014

Filed under My Progress

Weight loss: 4lbs

Current weight: 12st 2lbs

Weight loss since start: 4.5lbs

Lbs to go to reach next target: 0!

Wow! I’m so pleased I stuck with the program this week and achieved a great loss!

What’s gone well?

As I said in last week’s results post, I was disappointed at my weight-loss last week but I still rewarded myself with my Lush bath and reminded myself that a) it was still a loss that brought me one step closer to my target and b) I’ve made healthier choices with my food and exercise that have made me feel better in myself.

Having leftover portions of plan-friendly meals in the freezer definitely helped me to stay on track this week. Although I plan my meals a week in advance, for some reason I hadn’t included a meal for Friday night. I realised this on Thursday but was able to fall back on some leftover Moussaka after I’d been to my spinning class.

I’m also delighted that I’ve been able to maintain my ‘No chocolate or alcohol in January’ goal, even though the past two weeks at work have been pretty horrendous.

I’ve also made what I think is a big step for me in addressing my habit of comfort eating: I work with children and we all sit down to eat breakfast at 11am. The children have toast (white bread) with jam, marmalade or lemon curd. I’d been eating this in Week 1 and using my daily treats for it. However I replaced it with a banana this week to try to help increase my weight loss. On Friday, I felt very stressed and tired and I was going to have a slice. I was thinking ‘I’ve been good all week and it’s Friday. So I can treat myself and use my daily treats’. But then I recognised that this would not help me to break the comfort eating habit and that I need to stop seeing food as a reward. I ate my banana and I felt very virtuous!

What’s been difficult?

I have been slightly tempted to miss a couple of exercise classes this week with no other reason than at the time, I felt like I couldn’t be bothered. However, I reminded myself that sitting on the sofa won’t help to bring me closer to my goals and that once I’d completed the class I’d feel better. I managed to keep the motivation going but I know I’ll need to keep an eye on this over the next couple of weeks.

The week ahead

It’s my dad’s birthday this weekend and he’s coming round for dinner. I’m going to make some kind of beef casserole and I’ll have a look at my Filling & Healthy cookbook and recipe cards for a suitable desert. I think the hardest bit will be not having a nice glass of wine with my meal but I am determined to complete Dry January.

Thanks for reading.

PS How do you stay motivated to exercise?

The Results Are In – Week 1

Posted January 13, 2014

Filed under My Progress

Weight loss: 0.5lb

Current weight: 12st 6lb

Weight loss since start: 0.5lb

Lbs to go to reach next target: 3.5lb

I’ve got to admit that after a full week on Simple Start, with 3 gym sessions, no alcohol and no chocolate, I was hoping to lose about 2lb. However, as I’m always reminding the other members in my meeting when they’re happy with a small loss – it’s a step in the right direction and it all adds up in the end. Time to heed my own advice!

What’s gone well?

I’ve been really motivated this week and so I’ve found it pretty easy to stick to the plan. Even when I visited my Nan at the weekend and was faced with a table full of chocolate, chocolate biscuits and mince pies, I didn’t cave. This was helped by the fact that I’d planned ahead and taken some soup and an orange with me.

Panzanella with Bacon

I’ve been loving cooking and eating fantastic, flavoursome food including several new recipes from the Simple Start and Your Week materials. My favourite new recipe was the Panzanella which I added some bacon to for a protein boost after my box fit session on Sunday. I made extra so that my lunch for work on Monday was taken care of and added chicken and extra mixed salad leaves.

I’ve also enjoyed sharing a couple of my own recipes for Beef Rogan Josh and Cottage Pie with my followers.

I was delighted to find that one of my old favourite recipes fits perfectly into the Simple Start programme: Baked Sweet Potato with Spicy Mince and Beans (The Smart Cook p.88). I had some of this in the freezer and had it twice this week!

I’ve also managed to stick to my new fitness regime attending 3 classes over the course of the week : Body Pump, Spinning and Box Fit.

Baked Sweet Potato with Spicy Mince and Beans

What’s been difficult?

My lunch break at work has been shortened from 30mins to 20mins. I previously often relied on taking in and heating up leftover dinner for my lunches. I won’t have time for that now so I’m going to have to think about some cold meals I can take instead and how to factor in the time to make them in my already busy week.

By the time I’d finished work, been to my Spinning class, come home and eaten dinner on Friday, I really didn’t feel like sitting down to plan my meals for the following week and do my online shopping. I just wanted to flake out in front of the TV. However, I reminded myself that for me, planning ahead is crucial to staying on track. I did it and, though it wasn’t my favourite way of spending a Friday evening, at least it stopped me from having time to think about wanting a glass of wine!

The week ahead

I have a meeting to go to straight from work on Wednesday and then the photography course I’m doing has been moved from Thursday to Wednesday as well this week so Wednesday is going to be a particularly busy day. To help me survive it and stay on track, I’m going to order a baked potato with beans for my lunch at work and take a sandwich with me to eat when I get to college. I’ll also make sure I’ve got some extra fruit to snack on too.

I said last week that I thought it was important to reward myself for reaching my goals and that I was going to write a post about this. While I didn’t get chance to write about this last week, due to getting back into the swing of balancing work with eating properly and exercising, I have been thinking about this and will post about it tomorrow so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks for reading.

PS If you’ve got any tasty, easy, cold lunch ideas for me, please share!

Starting Statistics

Posted January 7, 2014

Filed under My Progress

I’ve been back in the fat-fighting frame of mind since 2^nd January now but I wanted to wait until I’d had my official weigh-in at my Weight Watchers meeting before posting my stats and targets.

Although I was actually looking forward to my first meeting of 2014, I was still (even after all my years of experience) a little bit apprehensive about getting on the scales and taking my current measurements. But I took the plunge and this is what I found:

Current weight: 12st 6.5lbs

Waist: 36in

Hips: 43in

Bust: 42in

Arms: 13in

Thighs: 25in

So now I know what I’m dealing with, these are my targets:

Goal	Amount to lose	Target Weight	Date to be achieved by
January Target	4lbs	12st 2.5lbs	03/02/14 (loss of 1lb/week for 4 weeks)
5% of current weight	9lbs	11st 11.5lbs	10/03/14 (loss of 1lb/week for 9 weeks)
10% of current weight	18lbs	11st 2.5lb	12/05/14 (loss of 1lb/week for 18 weeks)
Goal Weight	27.5lbs	10st 7lb	21/07/14 (loss of 1lb/week for 28 weeks)

I have based the dates for each of my targets on a weight loss of 1lb per week which falls well within the Weight Watchers plan’s recommendations (of between 05-2lb per week). I’m sure there will be some weeks when I do better but I want my targets to be realistic and achievable.

As I achieve each of my small targets I will be setting another one to help break my final goal down into more manageable chunks.

I was initially planning on my 5% being my first target. However, as I was writing this post and calculated when I would achieve this, I realised that’s quite a long way off. I’m hoping that setting a smaller goal for this month will be a good motivator in the meantime.

Here are my current pictures. I plan to update these and my measurements monthly.

I think it is important for me to reward myself with non-food incentives for reaching my goals so I’ll give some thought to what these could be and will post about them later on this week.

My Journey So Far

Posted January 2, 2014

Filed under My Progress

So I thought it might be an idea to share my where I’ve come from and where I’m hoping to get to.

As a teenager I was extremely slim. At one point I was probably actually underweight having developed some issues around food following the break-up of my parents’ marriage. At this time it felt like I didn’t have control over much that was happening in my life, but I had control over what I ate. A typical daily intake for me would be a small bowl of dry cereal, a dry bread roll or a bar of chocolate for lunch, followed by a small ready meal such as a frozen lasagne or packet of Super Noodles for dinner.

Paradoxically, I would also binge eat being easily capable of polishing off half a large pizza, a quarter of a cheesecake, 2 donuts and some chocolate on my weekly visits to my dad.

I continued this eating pattern until I was about 16 years old when I began to adopt a more healthy approach to my diet, eating, on the whole, 3 meals a day. I always made sure I chose low fat options, never chose creamy sauces or used butter and rarely ate chocolate or drank alcohol.

The weight started to creep on when I got together with my boyfriend. We would regularly go out drinking heavily at the weekend and get a pizza on the way home then have a McDonalds breakfast to help cure our hangovers the following morning.

When we moved in together, the scales crept up further. I cooked meals for us and dished up equal portions even though he had an active job and took part in martial arts while I worked in an office and did very little exercise. We also lived over the road from a convenience store and so it was all too easy to pop to the shop for a chocolate bar or a bottle of wine.

In 2004, I saw a picture of myself on holiday and I was stunned gobsmacked Although my clothes size had gradually increased from size 10/12 to size 18, I was shocked to at how big I looked. Coupled with this was the fact

that I was now struggling to do up my size 18 jeans. I vowed I wasn’t going to go up to the next size and decided to do something to tackle my weight.

The photo that made me realise I needed to do something about my weight.

I started off doing my own thing, doing a bit of exercise and going back to eating more healthily. I lost 6lbs but I was finding it difficult. Then one day I saw an advert for Weight Watchers on TV and thought it was worth a try. I phoned up to find my nearest meeting and found there was one nearby that night so I went and joined.

I was horrified when I stepped onto the scales and found I was heavier than my home scales told me. I’ll never forget seeing that figure – 13st 9lb. And I realised that, having already lost 6lbs, I would have been over 14st at my heaviest.

Initially I had great success and soon achieved my 10% target. Feeling confident that I had all the tools I needed, I stopped attending meetings and decided to go it alone. Before long I veered off track and put most of the weight back on. This led me into a cycle of re-joining, losing, stopping and gaining which lasted for a couple of years. I knew that when I stuck with the plan it worked but I just couldn’t find the motivation to keep going.

At about my slimmest since joining Weight Watchers

Two years after first joining, I’d been back at Weight Watchers for about 6 months. I’d lost some weight again and was feeling good. However, I was just about to give up work to go to Uni full time and I was facing having to stop my membership again as I wasn’t sure I’d be able to afford it. At this point my leader was looking for a clerk and so I on this role. I was able to attend meetings for free and being a clerk meant that I would attend every week, even if I’d had a ‘bad’ week.

I’ve attended consistently since that time and although my weight has fluctuated and I’ve still not yet got to my goal, I’ve never put all the weight back on.

In December of 2011, my boyfriend proposed. Of course I was excited to be marrying my soul mate but I was also excited that the wedding would give me the motivation I needed to finally get to goal. Or so I thought. In reality, between the proposal and the wedding I lost a grand total of 3 lbs!

So, that pretty much brings me up to date. We got married in August 2013 and although I had a great day and felt amazing, I am a little disappointed that I wasn’t at my goal weight for it. So I’ve decided to really go for it this year. No more messing about. No more excuses. I AM going to get to goal!

Thanks for reading.

My wedding but not at my goal weight.

Another New Year, Another New (Simple) Start

Posted January 1, 2014

Filed under My Progress

As is typical with the ending of one year and the beginning of another, I have been thinking about what I achieved during 2013, and what I would like to achieve in 2014.

In many ways, last year was a great year for me: I landed an exciting new job which has brought career development opportunities along with an improved work-life balance and I finally married my partner of 12 years.

While the wedding was fantastic, I must admit to being disappointed that I had failed to reach my target weight (or come anywhere close) in time for the big day. I still had a fantastic time, and I did feel every inch the blushing bride. But I wasn’t completely happy with how I looked.

So I have decided that this year, after almost 10 years as a (mainly) devoted follower of the Weight Watchers plan, I WILL reach my goal weight.

To help me do this I have decided to start this blog to document my progress and share with you some ProPoints friendly recipes along with my musings on the Weight Watchers plan and weight loss in general.

I’m going to try the new Simple Start programme for my first 2 full weeks back on track so I’ll post about my plans for that following my weigh-in on Monday. In the meantime I hope to post in more detail about the small, specific goals I’m going to set to help me on my journey. I might even get time to post a recipe or two before I have to head back to work on Monday.

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!