Tag Archives: Weight loss

You Never Fail Until You Stop Trying

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Filed under All Things Weight Loss, My Progress
Women sifting peanut shells to make a living in The Gambia - image copyright Hayley Shortt 2014

Women sifting peanut shells to make a living in The Gambia – image copyright Hayley Shortt 2014

Last night I had my first weigh-in following my latest bout of not focusing on my weight loss.  I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it as I’d not been completely ‘back on track’ due to another busy week and weekend (Good Food Show and Father’s Day).  I had considered this when I wrote my last post pledging to get  back on track.  I did think that I could wait until this week to begin but I knew the chances were that doing that would lead to another 1-2lb creeping back on.  So I recommitted knowing that I’d have a week where it would be difficult to focus on healthy eating.

I stepped onto the scales expecting to have stayed the same or put on 1/2-1lb.  Imagine my delight when I found that I’d actually lost 1/2lb!!

I’m so glad I decided to refocus on my weight-loss despite knowing that it would be a challenging week to do so.  Although I didn’t completely stick to the plan it helped to have my weight-loss goal in mind as I made decisions about what to eat and drink throughout the week.

It reminded me of a motivational poster that I saw years ago which said “Putting off something easy makes it difficulty.  Putting off something difficult makes it impossible“.  This really resonates with me when it comes to my weight-loss and sticking to the Weight Watcher’s plan: I know it works when I stick to it and sticking to it is pretty easy when I get back on track.

So I’m going to be seizing the proverbial bull by its horns this week and getting my WW mojo back on track.

I must admit that I’d thought about giving up on this blog as I feel pretty foolish for having to write about getting back on track again for what feels like the umpteenth time this year!  But then I thought about the words of the late, great Albert Einstein who once said “You never fail until you stop trying.”

So, with that in mind, I’m setting the following two small goals:

Weekly goal – to stay on track this week leading to a loss at the scales next Monday

Medium-term goal – to lose 5lb in the next 5 weeks, at the end of which I’m off on holiday.

Thanks for reading.

PS For those of you short on time but eager to cook tasty, healthy food, look out for a review of a fresh food delivery service that I’m trialling next week…

 

 

I’m Still Fighting!

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Filed under All Things Weight Loss

Hi everyone!

For those of you who read my posts regularly, you may have noticed that I haven’t posted in a while (and thanks to those of you who’ve asked when you’ll see my next post).Exhibition Flyer

I’m still fighting the fat but I’ve been incredibly busy over the last couple of months.  I won’t bore you with the details of what I’ve been busy with (although if you enjoy photography you might want to take a look at one of the reasons – Spectrum: A photography exhibition hosted by myself and fellow students at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.  On until the 26th June).  However, my crammed schedule has meant that I:

a) Haven’t had any time for my blog; and

b) haven’t had as much time as I’d like/need to devote to my weight-loss.

 

As a result, my weight has remained pretty static – small losses and small gains – and currently stands at 12st 1.5lb following a fab Hen Weekend in Liverpool last weekend.

Two main things have spurred me on to restart my weight-loss efforts:

1) My leader has pointed out that it’s only 29 weeks until Christmas!  I vowed that this would be the year I’d finally get to goal so I really need to get a wriggle on.

2) In my Weight Watchers meeting, we have been developing our own visual representations of our weight-loss.  I’ve used glass candle holders and red glass beads.  The 2 smaller jars show the weight I have left to lose (22lb) and I’ll be moving a bead for each pound lost into the ‘lbs shed’ jar.  The larger jar holds a glass bead for each pound I’ve lost so far on my Weight Watchers Journey – 21lb.  I’m really looking forward to moving my first bead (or maybe even beads…) into the ‘lbs shed jar next week.Jars

I’ve got some more recipes ready to post in the next couple of weeks and I’ll also be writing a blog about getting my priorities straight (I may need your help and advice with that one!) so please keep an eye out for them.

Thanks for reading.

PS What visuals do you use to help record your weigh-loss?

The Results Are In – Week 15

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Weight loss:   +0.5lb

Image courtesy of jesadaphorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of jesadaphorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Current weight:    12st 0lb

Weight loss since start:  6.5lb

Lbs to go to reach next target:   3lb

 

So: I had another small gain this week.

This made me feel a) a little bit annoyed at myself and b) a little bit silly. Why? Because, here I am, writing this weight-loss blog (which was supposed to keep me focused) and I haven’t lost any weight for 4 weeks and I’ve only lost 6.5lb since January!

I allowed myself to feel annoyed and silly for a few minutes, but I realise that if I dwell on these feelings, the effect on my mind-set is likely to be negative: I have definitely been guilty, several times, in the (recent) past of dealing with my disappointment at a weight gain by comfort eating. Because that makes such good sense: I feel rubbish for putting on weight so I eat loads of stuff that is guaranteed to make me put on yet more weight!

So, to combat this, I decided to remind myself of what I have achieved on my weight loss journey:

  • I have lost just over 2 stone since I first started my weight-loss journey
  • I have lost 11.5lb since Christmas (this is calculated from my weight at weigh in prior to my official Weight Watchers weigh in so, although I’m fairly confident in the reliability of the scales used, I’m not counting it as this year’s starting weight)
  • I used to wear size 18 jeans which were too tight and now I’m wearing size 14
  • I have dropped a dress size since Christmas
  • I haven’t given up on my goal

I don’t want to make excuses about why I gained last week, but I think it’s important to think about the reasons why I gained weight to make sure that this doesn’t become an upward trend.

I was still on holiday from work last week and, following a fairly busy first week, it was a quieter week. Therefore, I could’ve gone to the gym each day. Or at least once. But I didn’t. Why? Because I just felt like being lazy! Do I need to feel guilty about that? No. I work hard and I’m always on the go with various other commitments and projects so I think it’s important for my mental health and well-being to have some down-time from time to time.

I did cook a number of healthy meals and have stockpiled a load of portions of different soups (click here for my Spicy Chicken, Tomato & Chickpea Soup and Persian Beef Pilaf recipes)to keep me going for lunches at work over the next few weeks so that has helped with the damage limitation.

I did eat quite a lot of chocolate. It’s my biggest downfall. I love it. I need to think about how to incorporate a small amount of it into my diet without letting it get out of hand. To help with this I took advantage of the Weight Watchers bars being offer and have bought some of those. I’m planning on going back to the Simple Start plan this week and using the bars as one of my daily treats. I’ve put them right at the back of the cupboard so I don’t see them every time I open the cupboard. In fact, I think I’ll even get one out of the box when I’m making my dinner and have it on the side ready for my treat – then I don’t have to see the rest of the box when I’ve got my chocolate craving.

I’m 2 days in to my new week now and I’ve already taken a couple of positive steps towards achieving my goal of losing weight this week: I’ve stuck to the plan on both days, I went to the gym last night and I’ve bought a pedometer. I’m going to use it over the next couple of weeks to gauge the average number of steps I take each day. Then in a couple of weeks, I’ll try to up my average.

Looking back at my achievements so far, I think the last one is probably the most important. And that’s what I’ve got at the front of my mind this week as I get tempted to indulge in foods that aren’t going to help me to achieve my goal, or as I’m tempted to miss an exercise session: DON’T GIVE UP Fat-Fighter!

Thanks for reading.

What do you do when you feel like you’re stuck in a weight-loss rut?

 

The Results Are In – Week 14

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Filed under My Progress
Image courtesy of pakorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of pakorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Weight loss:   +0.5lb

Current weight:    11st 13.5lb

Weight loss since start:   7.0lb

Lbs to go to reach next target:   2.5lb

 

I realise that I’ve skipped straight from Week 12 to Week 14 but I’ve had a week away from the blog (and away from the plan) for Easter.

Following a gain on my last reported weigh-in, last week I stayed the same – which I was pretty pleased with after not really getting fully back on track and attending a friend’s birthday party on the Saturday night.

So, this week, I’ve had another small gain.  Previously this would have completely thrown me and I’d be well on my way to letting my weight creep all the way back up.  But not this time.

I knew I’d most likely put on as I’ve been on holiday from work, have eaten out nearly every day (and even twice on Saturday) and I’d eaten several hot cross buns and a couple of Easter eggs.  So prior to my weigh-in, I was pretty terrified that I was going to have crept (or leapt!) back over that 12st mark.  So worried was I about this that my intention was not to weigh.  I felt that seeing my weight back over 12st would dent my motivation.

As I’m a clerk at my Weight Watchers meeting, I knew I needed to go to the meeting and eventually I woke up to the fact that ignoring my current weight would in all likelihood just do more damage.   I realised I couldn’t change the choices I’d made over the previous couple of weeks, but what I could do was to take control of my decisions over the coming week.  With this in mind, I made a plan of all my meals for the coming week, and went and bought all the ingredients needed.

I’ve also reset the mini-goal I’ve been working towards.  I was aiming to lose 4lbs in April but have actually put on 2.5lb.  If I stick rigidly to the plan there is a slight chance that I could achieve this by the first weigh-in in May but I think it’s better to keep things more realistic.  Therefore my aim is to lose the 2.5lb that I’ve put on by that point (2 weeks).  This is easily achievable, and if I manage to lose any more, then that will be a bonus.

As I’ve still got another week off work, I’m going to get ahead with some soup making as I know from previous experience that I lose weight successfully when I stick to having soup for my lunch.  So my plan is to make 4 different soups this week, and freeze portions for when I’m back at work.  I’ll be sharing the recipes on here over the course of the week so keep an eye out.

Thanks for reading.

 

The Results Are In – Week 13

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Filed under My Progress

Weight loss:   +2lb

Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Current weight:    11st 13lb

Weight loss since start:   7.5lb

Lbs to go to reach next target:   6lb

What’s gone well?

Despite the fact that I’ve had a small gain this week, I’m actually pleased with my mental reaction to it.  At weigh-ins past, when recording a gain, I would often get annoyed and feel fed-up.  It would seem as though I had completely let myself down and that I’d never get to my goal.  This week though, I’m feeling really positive.  I know that this week life got in the way of my weight loss this week but I’m determined not to go back into the 12 stone bracket so that’s going to help me to refocus this week.

What’s been difficult?

I’ve been incredibly busy with a whole host of commitments over the past week which has meant that I haven’t had chance to plan and shop for my meals for this week.  While I think this could be good due to me trying not to obsess over food, there is the danger that I will succumb to the call of the chocolate when I pop into the shops after work each night to get things for dinner.  However, I’m going to view this as a test of my will power and I don’t do failing at tests!  This strategy worked tonight so here’s hoping…

 

The week ahead

We’re going to a friend’s 40th birthday party on Saturday.  There’s a champagne reception and buffet.  As the location is about  an hour’s drive away I don’t know how close to the event I’m going to be able to eat or what the food will be like.  I’m going to save the majority of my weeklies as a buffer and make sure I’ve eaten plenty of filling and healthy foods (I’m thinking of making some kind of lentil soup for lunch and maybe a chicken curry for dinner) throughout the day so that I’m not starving.

I’m also going to alternate between alcohol and soft drinks as I hate feeling rough the morning after a party.

Thanks for reading.

 

Sensible Snacking

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Filed under All Things Weight Loss
This week's Graze box

This week’s Graze box

I’m sure I’m not alone in sometimes fancying a tasty little snack between meals.  Let’s face it, one of the reasons I began to put on weight was due to my love of snacking on cakes, chocolate bars and biscuits.  They’ve been one of the key things I’ve consciously cut down on to help me with my weight loss.  In fact, I’ve tried to cut right back on snacking altogether meaning that I focus on and enjoy my meals even more.

However, there are times when I just need a little something to keep me going or to enjoy as a treat.  A couple of years ago I stumbled over Graze boxes.  These are boxes of 4 treats that get posted to you.  There is a whole range of different types of snacks including fruit, nuts, olives, flapjacks, mini-cakes and even chocolate.  Each of the snacks has at least one nutritional benefit such as being high in fibre, being a source of vitamins and minerals or protein etc.

I order my box to arrive on a Tuesday as I find Tuesday to be the hardest day of the week plan-wise as it’s the beginning of my weight-loss week following my Monday night weigh-in and it gives me something to look forward to when I get in from work (you know what they say about simple things & simple minds!).  Once I’ve opened the box I get straight onto my Weight Watchers app to work out the PPV of each snack which I then write on the packaging along with the expiry date.  A lot of the range come in at 2 or 3 PP.  They then go into the kitchen cupboard ready for when I feel the need for a little something.

What I find really useful is that they are each individually portioned so it’s really easy to stay in control of what I eat.  I also love the fact that they’re made with proper ingredients rather than being full of rubbish.  I initially felt the boxes were a bit expensive at £3.49.  This works out at about 87p per snack.  However, when you consider that a bar of chocolate or bag of crisps costs in the region of 60p-70p, I think they’re actually pretty good value for money.  They also stop me going to the shops to buy chocolate where I’d no doubt end up with a bigger bar as they are better value!

If you want to know more about Graze boxes, click here to go to their website.  If you fancy trying them, you can use this code HAYLEY9ZB or click here to get your 1st, 5th & 10th boxes free and I’ll get £1 off my next box.

 

If you’ve come across any tasty, plan-friendly snacks, please let me know – I love trying new things.

 

This is not a sponsored post – it is purely driven by the fact that I opened my latest Graze box today and I thought people might be interested if they haven’t come across them before.  For more information regarding my product reviews, please see my disclaimer.

Rewards – What to Choose?

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Filed under All Things Weight Loss

I’ve written previously about rewarding myself for achieving my weight-loss goals and I’ve had some great responses from you about the kinds of things you like to reward yourself with.

Image courtesy of digital art / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of digital art / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Having taken a couple of weeks longer than planned to reach my latest goal, I’d actually forgotten what I decided on as my reward!  I’ve also previously decided on rewards that I then didn’t really fancy.  So I’ve decided to try something a bit different:  I’ve compiled 3 lists of rewards suitable for

1) Weekly Losses

2) Mini-Goals

3) Long-Term Goals. 

When I achieve any of these goals, I’ll simply choose a reward from the appropriate list.

 

Weekly Losses

  • flowers
  • listening to some music for 20mins (whilst doing nothing else)
  • home facial
  • home pedicure
  • home manicure
  • Yankee Candle (sampler size)
  • Lush bath bomb/bubble bar
  • Herbal teabags – standard

 

Mini-Goals

  • Earrings
  • Necklace
  • Herbal Teabags – Premium
  • Book
  • CD
  • Trip to cinema
  • Yankee Candle – small jar/tealights
  • New Top
  • Bag

 

Long-Term Goals

  • Shoes
  • Day Trip
  • Massage
  • Pandora Charm
  • Yankee Candle – large jar

Now, I just need to decide what to choose as my reward for finally achieving my ‘5% since January’ mini-goal…

The Results Are In – Week 12

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Filed under My Progress

Weight loss:    1.5lb5%

Current weight:    11st 11lb

Weight loss since start:    9.5lb

Lbs to go to reach next target:    0lb

What’s gone well?

I’m delighted to have finally reached (and actually exceeded) my “5% since January” goal and can now pick a treat off my list (more about this tomorrow).  My next small goal is my “10% since January” goal.  I need to lose another 8.5lb to reach this target and would like to do so by 2nd June.  However, that’s still a long way off so my next mini-goal is to lose 4lb by 28th April.

I was on the ball with tracking my weekly points this week which I think really helped with my weight loss.

I was really pleased with my exercise because, although I was unable to attend two of my usual classes, I went to my spinning class and actually stayed for a couple of extra tracks and I went back to parkrun and kept going even though my hip-flexor was niggling a little bit and the devil on my shoulder was more than ready to use this as an excuse to throw in the towel.

I think it’s been helpful to not be as focused on food: I’ve been cooking less recipes due to being extremely busy with work and trying to get a new business off the ground.  Instead I’ve been relying on simple foods such as jacket potatoes and beans on toast.  It’s actually been really liberating to realise that I can still lose weight despite not having time to devote to trying out new recipes all the time.

 

What’s been difficult?

It has been a little bit difficult to fit in all of my planned exercise due to other commitments this week.  However, I’m already not letting this throw me off course by making sure that I go to the classes I can get to and work a bit harder while I’m there.

 

The week ahead

I’m going out for a friend’s birthday on Saturday to Chiquitos.  I’ve been wanting to try this place for a long time as I really like Mexican food.  However I do know that the meals are quite high in PPVs.  But I’m simply going to plan ahead, save my weeklies to help cover it and limit myself on the cocktail front.

Thanks for reading.

PS Look out for my post on rewards that I’m finally going to get round to posting tomorrow!

The Results Are In – Week 11

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Filed under My Progress
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Weight loss:    0.5lb

Current weight:    11st 12.5lb

Weight loss since start:    8lb

Lbs to go to reach next target:    1lb

What’s gone well?

My fear this week was that after getting back under the 12st mark last week, I’d end up back in the 12st bracket this week which is what I did the last time I got under 12st despite vowing to never end up there again. So I’m delighted that this week I’ve actually managed to lose a little bit more.

I went to an unexpected party on Friday night but I’m really pleased with how I dealt with it.  I still went to my spinning class beforehand to get some activity points in the bag.  Then I ate my planned F&H dinner before we went.  I knew there’d be some kind of food there but I didn’t know what so I thought it best to play it safe.  I also bought a jar of peanut butter so that I could have a breakfast (peanut butter & banana on toast) the following day that I knew would hit the spot in terms of ‘the morning after the night before’ but without breaking the bank points-wise.

What’s been difficult?

I haven’t found anything to be particularly challenging this week.  If I’m really looking for something I suppose I’m not enjoying my spinning class as much as I used to due to a change of instructor.  I might go to the Body Balance class that is on after it instead as I think this will also help me to de-stress at the end of the working week.

 

The week ahead

Although I’m following the F&H plan at the moment, I’m not tracking what I spend my weekly points on.  I’ve been doing it mentally but I’m going to aim to track them properly this week.  I’ve also set my next goal which is to reach my 5% target by next week so tracking properly will really help me with this.

Thanks for reading.

PS Thanks for your suggestions about rewards, I’ll be writing a post based on these later in the week.

Even The Pros Struggle

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Filed under All Things Weight Loss

Two of my closest friends are personal trainers and they are two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.  Over the years as I have struggled with my weight, I have often felt inferior to them in terms of my body

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

image and my self-control and motivation around diet and exercise.  This is not in any way because of anything they have ever done or said: they have only ever been extremely supportive of me and have congratulated me on my successes.  I realise that what lies behind these feelings of inferiority is my own attitude towards myself and my weight-loss journey.

Imagine my delight then when on Saturday, just as my anxiety towards my Monday night weigh-in was starting to build, I read the following blog post by one of these friends:

 

A dieting downward spiral            

In our private FB coaching group our members post their meal plans,
food choices etc for accountability and support to keep on track
when they feel a little out of control.

Having a group of supportive people who have got your back when
things start to slip can really help, everybody who has ever been
successful with weight watchers or slimming world know this.  The
meetings can really work.

However, sometimes things do slip through no fault of our own,
we're not even really aware that we have made any changes at all.
 Until suddenly you wake up one morning and your clothes feel
tighter and you feel like shit.

You decide that you know what to do and you will get started
straight away.  A day in and you realise that you just haven't got
the energy or inclination to put the effort in to eating well and
making informed choices.

You simply can't be arsed with the effort of it all.

There are many reasons that this happens and I will cover in more
detail over the coming weeks.

One of the reasons is that you can lose sight of the goal or the
importance that looking or more importantly feeling good no longer
floats your boat.

Another is that when you get in to the shit food cycle, it is hard
to break free.  Essentially we are just big test tubes that walk
around and interact with each other.

Every item that you consume will create a chemical reaction in your
body, which in turn affects your bodies chemistry and more
importantly your brain chemistry.

Eating good quality food will reset it but you have to get through
those first few days of change.  When your brain chemistry is
running on crappy processed foods, it is more difficult to make
choices that will put you back on track.

And that's without even starting on the addictive nature of some
additives and ingredients in processed foods.

If you fall off track, don't beat yourself up about it, it doesn't
help you in anyway.  You just end up feeling shit and wanting to
punish yourself.

Do the best you can and surround yourself with like-minded people
(this can be on FB it doesn't have to be in person) who want to
support and help you in your quest for better health.

Darren "Mince is definitely not steak" Checkley

P.S.  Our next Achieve Bootcamp starts on Monday 31st March 2014.

P.P.S. I know I have sent this after my 8.30pm technology
water-shed but we have been out for dinner with friends and I
didn't want to miss a day :)

 

Reading this made me realise that I am not alone.  Many of us face these diet-demons and the difference between those who succeed and those who fail is that the successful people don’t let the demons win.

If you’d like to read more of Darren’s blogs about nutrition and exercise, you can find them here: http://archive.aweber.com/achievebootcamp/4lQLb/h/A_dieting_downward_spiral.htm

Here’s to fighting your demons!

 

 

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