I'm back.....

Long time no blogging - it is safe to say I have had a hectic few months hence the lack of posting but that is no excuse for my bad eating habits which have taken over again, so I have decided that I need to take control back and sort it out! 

So in the last few months since I posted the following has taken place:

• I have quit weight watchers - I really wasn't getting anywhere and I really didn't like the way I was feeling in respect of it, every time I put on a bit of weight I went off the rails and it was taking me a long time to get back on again, it was a cycle which wasn't doing my sanity any good at all!  So I decided to take a break from it, take the stress off, save some money which I seemed to be wasting on meetings and try to just eat healthy - I have joined My Fitness Pal so I can monitor and record what I eat and the cals, fat, etc and also record any exercise which I manage to do. 
• I had a major bad time at work and decided to start looking for another job - however while my attention was focused on looking for another job things took a turn for the better at work, a big project came my way (which I loved being part of) and the product is being launched in the next few weeks.  It has been stressful but in a good way and hopefully the next few months will continue to be busy in the same good way :o)  However, me and stress equals a lot of chocolate, and no matter what I do to try and stop myself eating it I still attack it.  I'm hoping my return to posting will help stop this.... fingers crossed!
• We moved!  We had a bad few months at the beginning of the year with our old landlady and it ended with her serving us notice, so we decided to move closer to Stew's work and have ended up in a lovely flat in Worcester Park, Surrey.  The move took place in August and the run up to it was stressful but we survived!  Its a major change from Catford (South East London), but a nice area and an easy commute for me to get to the City each day for work.  Plus its not too far away from my family (although its not a 5 minute walk anymore!)

So these are the major things which have happened to me during my break.  And although I have been trying to eat healthy for the last month or so I haven't lost any weight (but I also haven't put any on).  But with the work stress and the moving stress in June, July and August I did end up putting on around half a stone (last time I looked I was 12st 8lbs) - this is not good!!  So I am going to weigh myself tomorrow morning before work, record it on here and start recording my food diary as well in an attempt to keep me on track, make me accountable again and help me make some better choices with my food.  Thinking about it now, this week probably isn't the best of weeks as we have a busy weekend coming up but if I can stay on track for the main part of the week then that's a start!

WI – Wednesday 27th April 2011

In a word – disaster!  Scales showed a gain of 3lbs which takes me back up to 11st 11.5lbs which just sucks.

I walked out of WI and I was really p*ssed off, and I realised how much of a control freak I am with my food.  Let me break it down:

• If I had gained due to my own decision to not stick to the plan then I would have been slightly annoyed with myself but would have picked it back up from today (Thursday) – this is mainly due to it being my decision to eat the wrong foods, so no one else to blame apart from myself.
• As the mother-in-law has been with us since last Saturday (and not leaving us till this Saturday morning) I have basically been kicked out of my kitchen and we have had 4 meals out as well (including a mega Chinese meal, a café breakfast and an Indian meal).  I appreciate the reasons why she likes to indulge in these meals as she cannot get the same out in Cyprus (where she lives) and it is nice that she wants to do the cooking while me and Stew are at work – I don’t want to sound like a spoilt brat however I have not had much of a say in what we eat since Saturday and although I like the food I have eaten I now feel extremely blotted, I haven’t been to the loo properly for the last few days (sorry to share that!) and my skin is starting to suffer as I seem to be having a mini outbreak of spots.  I think the thing which has bugged me the most is that the meals we have had at home have not been in anyway WW friendly – yesterday for example was sheppard’s pie with the most mash potato and cheese on top I have ever seen, and I was presented with a huge plateful – I admit I didn’t help myself as I ate the whole thing but this was mainly down to me feeling ‘what’s the point’ and also not wanting her to feel that I didn’t like it and therefore throwing questions at me or trying to feed me up with chocolate or cake or something.  Tonight we have beef stroganoff made with lashings of cream and a huge mound of rice to go with it – potentially a pudding as well if Tesco’s was ventured to today, woop!
• Another thing I realised after WI was that I only really trust a few people to cook for me and actually take my considerations into account – these are Stew, my mum and my best friend Nikki – no one else seems to really take it seriously that I’m trying to make a permanent life-style change. 

To be honest, after WI I wasn’t surprised or shocked by my result, I hadn’t had the opportunity to stick to the plan and gave up writing down my food by Sunday night.

I know I will get back on track on Saturday and already have a mental list of food to get in the shopping, etc.  Even a BBQ at my mum’s on Sunday won’t put me off track as I’m going to be following the SF method and therefore can work my way round it :o)  I’m more concerned about Stew – he has been tracking his calories for the last 2 months and was close to his 1 stone loss mark!  The sad thing is he told his mum all about it and she didn’t seem interested (which upset me as I’m so proud of him!) and every meal he has been told ‘well its only a one off, don’t worry about it’ – helpful!  Safe to say this week has thrown him off completely, I just hope he can get back on track on Saturday as well (fingers and toes crossed!)  

Anyway, rant over (hopefully it is out of my system now!) – roll on Saturday (Zumba class in the morning to get me even more motivated!)

WI - Wednesday 6th April 2011

 

How slack have I been?!  This last week has just flown by and this is the first time I have managed to sit in front on my laptop for a fair amount of time.

Why are you so yummy!!

Well WI this week was bad but it was expected - went away at the weekend and didn't track the whole week, plus vast amounts of wine, chocolate and girly chats over the weekend meant a gain was inevitable!  I gained 1.5lbs this week which combined with my 0.5lb loss last week takes me back to 11st 13lbs - and I'm pretty happy with that (I did consume a huge amount of giant chocolate buttons over the week!!) 

But a new week is ahead of me and back to tracking which should is the main thing I need to do to stop me grazing.  Not got anything major planned this week apart from Saturday so I should able to stick to my points without any issues :o)

WI – Wednesday 9th March 2011

Well this is not a good result – 3lbs back on (over the course of 2 weeks) which brings me back to 12st – blergh!  I guess the good thing is I know why this has happened, a combination of overeating due to stress at work, eating more than usual during the day before WI and being due on this week which almost always leads me to retain water *sigh*

But the main factor – stress – is something I’m going to work on.  I had a long talk with Stew and my mum yesterday (not at the same time) about work and what was stressing me out and that really helped.  Plus I have made a decision that if things don’t improve over the next few months then I shall start looking for something else as to be honest this isn’t what I was lead to believe it would be.  Just making that decision has helped me and last night I actually slept better which means today I’m not as tired and therefore was able to resist the huge amount of cakes which were in the kitchen at work :o)

I’m off to a taster session of Tai Chi tonight with Stew, he has been going to the classes for just over a month and I really like the look of it.  Plus the taster session is free so that makes it even better!  In addition to this (if I decide to carry on after tonight) I think my Zumba, C25K and a few sessions of 30 Day Shred will be a nice combination of exercise and should hopefully mean I do not get bored! 

Speaking of 30 Day Shred – Oh My God!!  It is so tough, and to be honest I’m useless at push-ups and ab crunches, never been able to do them properly.  The rest of the level one workout though is good but difficult, I was really sweating at the end!  However I have not been able to do the continuous day after day which the DVD suggests you should do, I just can’t fit it in!  So I’m going to try and do it at least once a week at the weekends and try and build myself up to a second one during the week if I feel up to it :o) 

So in a nutshell, I’m feeling good about this week.  Only major event this week is my sisters birthday, we are heading out for Greek/Turkish type food – restaurant is called Mekan and the menu looks lush!  (Mekan Restaurant - Menu).  Still trying to decide what to have as my main course (we will be having mixed meze for starters), but I’m planning to have fruit and muesli for breakfast and stir fry for lunch so I should have plenty of points left for food, a few glasses of wine and possibly birthday cake – yummy!!

And just to share my moto for the week – ‘I hope to see less of you next week’ as said to me by my WW leader Karen – I have it on a post-it note on my desk at work to keep me going.

WI - Wednesday 2nd February 2011

WI did not go well again this week - even after I tracked everything and gained a few exercise points I still managed to gain another half pound which puts me up to 12st 1.5lbs :o(  I wasn't weighed by my leader Karen this week but was weighed by another lady who was helping out (as our group is still swamped with the post-Christmas weight loss rush) and she saw the disappointment on my face (couldn't hide it this week!) - she tried to make me feel better by saying I might not be eating enough, am I sure I'm weighing my portions, etc, etc, the only way she managed to move me on was to say I should fill in an extra tracker during the week and if I gain again next WI they can go through it with me to make sure I'm not missing anything - it is safe to say I'm still feeling low about it, have managed to demolish 100g of Dairy Milk with Caramel this evening (still pointed and written on my tracker), hoping I'll snap out of it tomorrow!

Anyway, on my way into work this morning I popped into Tesco as I needed something for breakfast (ran out of weetabix at home) and I saw this:

It appears Oat So Simple have released a non-microwave version which is fab for people like me who do not have a microwave at work (our kitchen is tiny!) - I got the golden syrup version and it worked out as 6pp for the pot.  All you need to do is add boiling water, stir, leave for a minute, stir again and then eat - it was ok, not as nice as when I have made it with the usual packets and semi-skimmed milk (the pot has skimmed milk powder as part of the dry mixture within the pot) but it did the job.  Rest of my food for today was:

Breakfast:

• Oat so Simple pot - golden syrup flavour - 6pp

Lunch:

• 2 M&S pita bread - 8pp
• 1/3 of a large tub of reduced fat hummus from M&S - 6pp

Dinner:

• M&S Simply Fuller Longer Paella - 12pp

Snacks:

• 1 apple - 0pp
• 1 chocolate mini bite - 3pp
• 1 chocolate and hazelnut wafer (Aldi) - 3pp
• 100g Dairy Milk with Caramel - 13pp

TOTAL - 51pp out of 29pp - 22 weekly points used

WI - Wednesday 26th January 2011

Well I was slightly surprised with a very small gain this week - put on half a pound which puts my current weight at 12st 1lb.  I'm not too sure why, I'm pretty sure I was within my points for the week but I had been having sandwiches for my lunches and bread does have a tendency to bloat me a bit.  Needless to say I was pretty down when I left my meeting last night and proceeded to get chicken satay and egg fried rice for my dinner along with a milkshake and some chocolate - comfort eating at its best!  

Anyway, I have drawn a line and am focused on doing well this week (easy to do as my points restart on a Thursday).  The only thing which I thought could jeopardise my week was a client lunch today (at Zizzi's) but that wasn't as bad as I thought - menu today was as follows:

Breakfast:

• Toast with jam - 7pp
• 1 banana - 0pp

Lunch:

• Bread board (I had a couple of piece of olive bread) - 6pp
• Strozzapreti Pesto Rosso (Pasta, spicy chicken with spring onions, crème fraîche and red pesto) - 17pp
• 2 vodka and diet cokes - 4pp

Dinner:

• 2 egg omelette with onion, mushroom and small amount of chorizo - 5pp

Snacks:

• 1 M&S white chocolate cookie (from a box selection) - 3pp
• 2 5ths of a 100g bar of Milky Bar - 6pp

TOTAL - 48pp out of 29pp -  19 weekly points used

I really thought lunch today would have been worse than it was, helped that no wine was ordered and no time for dessert :o)  19 points over is not bad in my opinion!

Anyway, I'm focused and ready to take on the week - hope your all good and ready for the week ahead

First WI of 2011

So first WI of 2011 took place this evening and I was surprised that I had only put on 3 and a half pounds, I was seriously expecting more!  This brings me back up to 12st 6lbs and means I can now focus on getting back on track.

Tomorrow is the first full day back on ProPoints, I already have a bag of clementines on my desk ready for snacking :o)