Weigh in update

I have started back on my weight loss journey, again! I have gained back 1 1/2 stone which means my loss from January 2011 is back to 3 1/2 stone. I have been back on plan for a week and lost 2lbs, so officially 3 stone 9lbs down.

I was hoping it was going to be more and I'm not sure why it wasn't more than that. I ate really well all week, snacks were kept to a minimum and I had one cheat meal of Fish and Chips at the seaside, this in itself is not much to do any damage, just like one good meal a week would not see me lose any weight.

If you are a long time reader of my blog you will know that I do night shifts which can sometimes impact on my eating and weigh in results. Before having Charlotte I would turn my days upside down so breakfast was around 8pm, dinner time at 2am-3am and tea time was at 8am, however, I am unable to do this now. I have to be up a lot earlier in the day to look after Charlotte when Jonathan is in work, therefore, being up many more hours than I would be normally. I am currently on night 2 of 7 of trying to work out a new routine, I'm not completely sure of what I am going to do yet. However, on my desk a bag of fruit and a tub of salad are waiting to be eaten.

Weigh in 19/01/2012

Today's weigh in was good one I lost 2lbs :-) Which takes my total to 67lbs (4 stone 11lbs) which means I am 3lbs away from 5 stone (70lbs) loss, which I think is the first time the stones and lbs reach a milestone together.

This week has definitely been easier with tracking even if it was a little boring having to write everything down I also had moments of panic where I remembered I hadn't written down what I'd just had and made a mad dash for my little skanky playboy notepad!

I am now on my nights until next Wednesday morning at 7 am, i am currently just about to finish my 2nd night so five more to go :-( I usually have a good loss when I do nights as I struggle on my days off. I would really love 3lbs off but would be happy with 2lbs. My plan for the week is lots of walking around the sites that I look after and I am also going to make the Speed soup with some variation, it will probably end up with leek, carrot, onion, spring onion, baked beans, green lentils, tomatoes and mixed beans. This should keep me going until the end of my nights and means that I don't have to faff around before going to work making my breakfast and dinner at the same time.

Hope you are all doing well, as always anything you would like to see or suggest please leave me a comment :-)

My goals 2012

I know I have already mentioned a few of my New Year's resolutions in my Happy New Year post but last night when I couldn't sleep (thanks Miss Monthly!) I started to think of making goals which in part was inspired by my friend Bert who blogged about his 2012 goals. It got me thinking of the SMART objectives which I'm sure most people have done on some training course, if not it stands for Specific, Measureable, Achieveable, Realistic and Time so with this in mind I wrote down my goals which I will share with you.

1. To lose at least another 4 stone
2. Ride my bike regularly - I am aiming for twice a week
3. Get down to a size 16-18
4. Try new recipes and food

I feel that all these goals fit in with the SMART objective as I can measure each one, they are achieveable, realistic and have the time scale of 2012. The only one I am worried about is the size 16-18 as I am not sure how far away in weight I am from that size as I found that my dress size dropped quickly in the first couple of stones but in the last 2 1/2 it has hardly changed particularly on my bottom half where I carry most of my weight.

For my goals to work I really need to look at where I have been going right and where I have been going wrong. For a start I know my food is good I more often than not stick to plan and always have a range of healthy and filling foods in my kitchen cupboard. I have been going very wrong on the exercise front I took part in the Lifestyle Change Challenge last summer/autumn which is when most of my weight came off and actually I have lost much since I stopped regular exercise.

I think key to making goals work is not making them too unrealistic, I did this often in 2011 which left me not achieving many of the goals that I set myself which in turn leaves me feeling like I haven't achieved anything, which of course isn't true! So what are your goals? How do you plan on achieving them?

Christmas Target

I have been thinking about my Christmas target, originally I wanted to be at 6 stone (84lbs) loss for the year which would leave me to lose 23lbs in a little over 8 weeks.This is achievable but I put a lot of pressure on myself at the beginning of my journey to lose weight, if I remember correctly I wanted to have lost 8 stone by the end of this year which I am nowhere near, so taking this into consideration I am aiming to lose another stone before Christmas which would take my total loss to 5 stone 5lbs (75lbs).

I haven't got an elaborate plan to achieve this next target as it should be easily done, I am just going to continue to make good, home cooked and healthy food. I am however going to start exercising more as I need to start to tone up as I am losing because I have started to notice the lose skin which I know will happen but I want to try and make it not as bad as it would be without exercise. I hope that last bit made sense!


So what are everyone's Christmas targets? Anyone planning on doing anything extra to get to their targets?

Nearly weigh in

I am a couple of days away from weigh in this week and I think I have done well especially being on nights I haven't even had a 'day off' since last weeks weigh in so I am confident of getting my 4 stone and if I don't I shall have a tantrum as you know your never too old to throw one :)

I have done mainly green days this week with one extra easy day. I have been starting my days with scrambled egg, sliced mushrooms and two slices of wholemeal toast.

Dinner has usually been a Batchelors Savoury Rice with chopped salad. I have really enjoyed the savoury rice especially mixed with the chopped salad and most of the time a tablespoon of Kraft Garlic and Herb salad dressing (1 syn) 

So far this week for tea I have had:

• Mash, beans and egg
• Mild cheese and broccoli pasta 'n' sauce with extra broccoli (0.5 syn)
• Jacket potato and beans
• Lamb chops and vegetables

My syns have mostly been spent on Velvet Crunch and simple strawberry yoghurt baseless cheesecake

I am so looking forward to finishing my night shifts I'm currently nearing the end of number 6 of 7 and I was much happier when I realised my next full set of nights isn't until January :-)

I have also been thinking about what I want to have lost by Christmas and how I am going to deal with Christmas as I usually eat far too much and actually enjoy it until the heartburn begins. I will do a post on my Christmas target and how I am going to plan for it after my birthday challenge ends in two weeks. 

Hope you are all well and being healthy. 

xx

A gain

So this week I had a gain of a lb and I am lucky it wasn't more than that, I am just so disappointed in myself after doing so well over the past few weeks. These past few weeks have been the best I've felt in a long time I've eaten well, moved more and people are noticing more that I have lost a lot of weight. I just don't understand why I messed up so much.

It means I now have 8lbs to lose in the three weeks leading up to my birthday and I hope I can make it, last week I was positive that I would get more than the 20lbs loss that I set myself to lose but now I'm going to be lucky to get the 8lbs. The next target I had was to lose 20lbs between October and Christmas which if all goes to plan I will have lost a total of 5 stone 11lbs (81lbs) I would ideally push this to a 6 stone loss (84lbs) so I best get my walking shoes on!

On Saturday my sister and couple of friends came round for munchies, X Factor and planning our car boot sale which we did on Sunday morning. We had pizza, wedges, crisps, dips, chocolate and wine, I felt so ill when I went to bed and actually had heart burn for the first time since Christmas. The rest of the week wasn't bad but wasn't great either I found myself gravitating towards easy meals like savoury rice and past 'n' sauce without even adding vegetables or a side salad I also didn't eat much fruit.

Exercise wise I did well I did a couple of walks one of 5K and one only 2K. On the 2K walk I was trying out my new app JogTracker which I love already. The app uses your phone's GPS and can record your walk/run/cycle in miles or kilometers as well as timing you. It also gives you an option to enter your weight and age so it can calculate how many calories you have burnt. If you choose to create an online account you can upload all your walks. I have an android phone does anyone else have any good fitness or weight loss apps that they enjoy using?

As mentioned above I did a car boot sale on Sunday with my sister and friend.We had a lot of my Gran's things to sell from when we cleared her flat out, me and my sister made £180 and my friend £25 so it was well worth it we still have a lot of things to sell so we are thinking of doing another ones in November/December to make some extra Christmas money.

So how is everyone else? Hope your weight loss is going well? I can't believe how quickly this year has gone, I can't wait to be able to review the year and see how much weight I have lost altogether. I asked on my last post for ideas on posts that people would like to see I didn't get any suggestions but I have been having a think and I am going to to a series of posts about my favourite slimming world meals, healthy extras and syns followed by a series of my favourite android apps.

Weigh in update 04/08/2011

I lost 1lb this week which takes me to 41lb lost (2stone 13lbs) so one away from the elusive 3 stone mark. This week was tough but mainly because I stepped on the stupid scales too much. I really should learn to weigh myself once a week and that's it.

All week my weight was either staying the same or going up so I was really worried about getting a gain so 1lb was a surprise, however, I did want to get 2lbs so I was at 3 stone loss.

Food wise has been really good this week I made all the right choices and really enjoyed some meals, recipes will be coming up soon. Speaking of recipes I was thinking of setting up a new blog with just recipes what does everyone think? I just thought it might be easier for those just interested in recipes and leave this blog for my thoughts, feelings, weigh-ins and non scale victories.

I am still exercising, I know shocker! It's week two of the Lifestyle Change Challenge and I'm loving it, will be finishing my video entry when I get home from work.

On a final note, hope everyone is well and weight loss is going perfectly. As always comments and suggestions welcome.

Weigh in Update

So, the last couple of weeks I have maintained, which is fine considering the bad choices that I have made whilst, being away. I knew June would be a busy one, below is how it started and how it finished.

1. 9th June I travelled to Derby to stay in hotel
2. 10th June Download Festival, just for the day and another night in a hotel.
3. 12th June Take That at City of Manchester Stadium
4. 13th June Ice Skating with friends followed by tea and drinks
5. 16th June travel to Wolverhampton for Whitesnake gig and night in hotel
6. 17th June travel from Wolverhampton to Somerset, another night in a hotel
7. 18th June my friend's wedding and another night in a hotel

I have had lots of fun and no gain, however, I'm sure I could have put more effort into the choices I made and I am now struggling to get back on track.

In my most recent video I talk about things in my life not being the way I want them to be and how I plan to change it. I have decided there is no point sitting here moaning and feeling down about things that I am able to change or at least give it my best shot to change.

I have decided the number one thing that makes me feel down is the fact that I hate my job and with the fact that the job market is crap at the moment I am going to look into courses to improve my employability starting with looking at counselling. I have also signed up with plenty of job websites so fingers crossed I can change my work life soon.

My weight is a constant battle and I have realised I have to stop messing around. I want to start a family and I am going to be turning 29 in October so I really need to get on with losing the weight to have the best possible chance of getting pregnant.

Yesterday I started a paper diary to record what I do and eat during the day including my thoughts and feelings. Each week I will be selecting some quotes out of it to share.