Thursday 22 January 2015

I never expected this weight loss journey to be as simple as going from A to B but I seem to be detouring to every other letter from C to Z and I'm beginning to feel like a complete loser. Why on earth am I so flaky when it comes to weight Loss! I mean its hardly rocket science is it, I don't even have to stop eating all the things I love like chocolate etc, I simply have to stop eating it every day. So why the heck do I give in to temptation so easily?
Yesterday I did relatively good - a healthy breakfast and a healthy cooked meal at night but then I spotted 'master of taste American style brownie' ice cream in the freezer and I knew from that point I was fighting a losing battle. At first I just had a quarter of it and put it back ( a total first for me) and then later on I had a late bath to divert my mind from it. All was well - until I got out of the bath and in some weird automatic mode went and got the ice cream and finished it off in bed!!

Nutritional information for this ice cream informs me that I ate around 1000 calories and approx 68g of fat. Great.....just bloody great!
Note to self: when you next go food shopping do not convince yourself that you'll ration it this time - it hasn't happened the last 10 times and next time won't be any different.

While I'm whipping myself I may as well be honest and say that the 5/50 challenge was well and truly blown out of the water on roughly day 5. I can tell myself that it's down to lack of time but that's an outrageous over statement - it's easy to find time. I may as well just admit to myself that I'm either lazy or flaky or just not committed or even a combination of all three.
I love the idea of working out and I really want to start running again but getting the motivation to get going is proving ridiculously hard. Do they sell it in shops I wonder!!

Weight loss this week - 2lbs.

Tuesday 13 January 2015

Exercise - oh boy!

Week 1 weigh in - a measly 1lb lost. Yes, I know it's better than nothing or eek - 1lb on but I had hoped for maybe a tad more.
I guess I should have been ready for it though because we had a 2 day power cut due to atrocious storms and I have to admit that I ate whatever was easy to eat during a power cut - basically rubbish.
Combine rubbish eating with no exercise and I guess I should be grateful for the 1lb loss.

I have the exercise front under some sort of control now. I want to begin running but I need to build my lungs up to it after the chest infection so I've begun a 5/50 challenge that my sister drew my attention to.
It's basically a commitment to 5k of exercise a day for 50 days, this can be anything from walking, running, swimming, cycling etc or a combination of them.
5k is certainly a doable distance isn't it, my problem is going to be remembering to do it every day, I'm only on day 2 and I almost forgot today lol.
I'm also going to introduce a squat and a crunch challenge on Monday just to add some interest. The squat challenge I've chosen is this one


I figured this one would be less boring than the same old squat day in, day out. The technique for these squats is available here at 'Well-girl'.

The crunch challenge will be this one


Again, I thought this would be a bit different to the usual crunch or sit up and would also work on the waist which is always an issue for me.

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Self control

I was amazingly self controlled yesterday. I popped into town with my daughter and had to buy some mints for my other daughter as she's giving up smoking (much love to her) and I found myself face to face with chocolate bars. Initially I decided as I was hungry I'd buy a sandwich instead but they all looked so dry and fattening, it was at this point I then turned back to the chocolate, picked some up and tried to convince myself one little bar wouldn't hurt. But I didn't succumb 😃 I walked to the cashier to pay for the mints and nothing else. Thing is my daughter picked up a creme egg which made me suddenly want one and so I told my daughter to put another one on the counter but guess what, she'd picked up the last one so there was none left for me - there were loads of other flavour eggs but I don't like those so I choose to believe that someone was helping me  out 😀
Yesterday was a good day.
Until last night that is which I posted about yesterday and today I was still seething about the comments - to the point where I had to avoid certain people all morning because I didn't want to end up saying something that I would later regret.
I'm still disappointed by the comments and views that were expressed but I'm trying not to take them personally now and instead accept that some people have ignorant views and opinions.
Today has been a good day 😀

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious ignorance" - Martin Luther King.

Tuesday 6 January 2015

Weighing up the enemy

Please be patient as I vent my frustration.

Watching a programme tonight titled "weighing up the enemy" caused much controversy and disagreement in the SG household - dare I say voices were even raised (mainly mine lol).
This programme pits 2 contestants against each other to see who could lose the most weight, but the controversy began when ' plus size awards ' were shown and were followed by household comments of "what the fuck"?
It seems that a certain mentality of people believe that such awards glorify and promote being over weight. The fact that for decades ridiculously skinny people and often unhealthy sized women have been promoted in magazines, on cat walks, in films etc is somehow acceptable. Super skinny models are recognised for their beauty despite unhealthy eating habits being employed to keep them there, designers promote their clothing ranges that do not fit figures above a 14 and yet these guys find that acceptable- it was even suggested a couple of times that you never see ribby models!! WTF!
I'm not suggesting that those skinny models should not be recognised for their achievements but why shouldn't plus size models be shown the same respect? Marilyn Monroe was once considered to have the most enviable of figures, yet now she is considered 'plus size' - it's sad and ridiculous.
People need to understand how ridiculed and persecuted plus size women have been for so so long - clothes were not available off the rack and what was available wasn't cut to fit plus size women, so when designers decided to cash in on this niche in the market it was to be welcomed.
However it seems some people in this household believe that plus size models should not be recognised nor awarded because they believe it will encourage and/ or promote weight gain. They fail to see that it could actually empower women to feel good about themselves which in turn could actually encourage health and weight loss and they also fail to recognise that some people are overweight through medication or health issues and cannot help the way they look so I say why shouldn't they be given the same air time and acceptance as skinny models.
At one point I asked if they thought 2 ladies in wedding gowns looked nice - I thought they did and tbh they couldn't have been much bigger than a size 16/18 (my current size), to which the response was an emphatic "no, not that size"
I wonder if they realised that they were actually telling me that I too do not look nice!

Rant over!

Monday 5 January 2015

Monday weigh in.

Nothing like standing on the scales to bring you back into reality with all the finesse of a juggernaut hitting a tower block eh!
I had intended to take a photo of what the scales screamed out at me but I wasn't organised and left the camera downstairs so didn't have it to hand when I got up and weighed myself  (I only weigh myself first thing in a morning and it will only be once a week). I'll be more organised next week though and will begin weekly photos, I'm also trying to come up with some unusual way of photographing fat as it decreases.
So, what did those terrible scales say - well I weighed in at 218lbs. It's not my heaviest but I've certainly put alot back on since last year.

Start weight:   218lb
Current weight: 218lb
Goal weight :   160lb

58lbs is alot to lose when you look at it in one massive hit - which is what I would have done in the past - so I'm breaking it down into 7lb goals and once I achieve each goal I'll allow myself a non food treat (something I've never done in the past).

For visual motivation alongside photos which can take ages before showing a real difference I will be making myself a set of these



So how did Day 1 go? Initially not too bad. I'm following the slimming world plan and will mix that in with the 2 days of the fast diet once I'm fully aware of how to do it, so breakfast was literally a handful of Shreddies with SS milk. This small portion was a bit worrisome to begin with, I'd forgotten just how small a portion it is and portion size has alwasy been my main issue but I was quickly reminded just how filling small portions are IFF you picke the correct foods and Shreddies definitely fill me up
. Lunch was simply a Nature valley bar because I'd been busy outside and wasn't hungry but figured I should eat something
. Dinner was grilled Salmon with ric.
So all was well ...... until someone left some Bourbon biscuits in my line of sight and I'd dived into them before I even realised what I was doing - I swear the brain deliberately shuts down at these times to prevent you from recognising what you're doing and stopping it.
I'm not cursing myself though, it's not the end of the world and there's going to be many more days like this so I'll simply hope that todays activity burned off those biscuit calories and I'll drink loads more water to keep me feeling fuller too.

Saturday 3 January 2015

Over the next wee while I'll be redesigning and revamping my blog page. It's been in need of it for a while in order to bring it more up to date and to include some more interest. It's not a new year resolution thing - I have 3 blogs and they all need doing - but more that I've been neglecting this one of late. It seems I only blog when my healthy eating is going to plan and then when I slip a little I can't bring myself to publicly display it so I hide instead.
Well I can't afford to do that now! My latest blood test results showed an increase in my gamma? Levels and as this could eventually lead to type 2 diabetes I have to start taking my health seriously. This means I have to start being accountable for my weight and for the food I eat and with that in mind I will be posting my weight on my blog after weigh in on Monday morning - posting weight is something I have always refused to do.
I'm not going on any fad diet - I'll follow the slimming world healthy eating plan as I have all the gumph for it. I'm hoping to avoid needing to go to class as they're late evening and 15 miles away but if I cannot stick to it myself then I'll definitely be attending.
Exercise will definitely need looking at because I've done diddly squat for such a long time. I have a flare up of asthma at the moment due to a chest infection so I'll have to start out with simple walking but then I'll move on to either Insanity or the new Insanity Max:30.
I'm actually quite looking forward to this journey and I know my weakness will be sweet things when I'm watching tv so I've already begun to limit the time I watch tv and the ridiculous amount of time I spend on Facebook - I will set time aside for blogging and for Pinterest but fb really is going to be limited.
So with all that in mind I will post again here on Monday with my weigh in figures and take it from there.