Monday 30 May 2016

Bother, bother, bother!

Put my FitBit on to charge and forgot to wear it for my walk so will have to guess.

Food Diary
Weetabix (getting predictable)
salad
spoonful coleslaw
grated (therefore less calories than a lump of) cheese 
about 12 cherry tomatoes (okay, maybe 20; they are very yummy.)
1 banana (I can't remember when I ate it but I'm sure I did)
salmon
4 sort of roasted potatoes
broccoli
2 glacier fruits
1 Murray mint

FitBit (at 10.17 pm)
1,926 steps + about 6,000 for walk + about 1,000 for other = 8,926
0.81 miles
1,268 calories



Sunday 29 May 2016

First Weigh Day

Weight 141.6 lbs
Fat  35.7%

A week ago I weighed 146 lbs so that's a loss of about 4.5 lbs, which is excellent! If I read the scales correctly that is. They're digital and something, possibly me dropping them, has made it difficult to read the numbers properly. And I blame that for the increase in body fat: 1.5% because that isn't logical.

Food Diary
Weetabix
Murray mint
banana
3 ryvita and butter
4 cherry tomatoes
banana
1 glacier fruit
2 slices pizza
2 spoonfuls coleslaw
1 orange

FitBit (at 8.36 pm)
10,820 steps
4.52 miles
1,705 calories



Saturday 28 May 2016

Why I'm not speaking to my FitBit

Must add my Food Diary for today before I accidentally 'forget' some of it. A bad day as we had barbecue with daughter and family and they'd been to the cinema and brought some popcorn home with them. And the children had pizza for lunch. Neither of which should affect my diary ...

Food Diary
Weetabix (so far so good)
2 bites of pizza
small bowl leftover chicken curry
half an apple leftover by GrandSon2
2 handfuls popcorn
about 10 cherry tomatoes
1 mini falafel
I arancini
ultimate beef burger
3 slices cheese
spoonful fried onion
salad
spoonful coleslaw
Diet coke
NO bread! Not as much as I would have eaten normally so good on that front.

I am not speaking to my FitBit. We took the grandchildren to the Marina for a walk this morning and then this afternoon I took GrandDaughter2 out in her pushchair for a walk. Coming back I thought, 'I must have nearly reached 10,000 steps,' but on looking at FitBit I discovered I'd only done 7,789. I carried on walking but counting my steps and when I'd done 100 I checked FitBit again: 7,818.

So according to FitBit I'd taken 70 fewer steps than I'd actually done! I blame it on the fact that I was pushing the pushchair so my arm wasn't swinging: it's possible to fool FitBit by just swinging your arm back and for without taking any steps.

So by my reckoning if that was the way it was working, in the afternoon, I must have actually walked about an another 4,000 steps. But I won't include those in my total. I won't lower myself to those levels. Not just yet anyway.

It's weigh day tomorrow so we'll see what we shall see.

FitBit (at 6.51 pm)
11,896 steps
4.97 miles
1,816 calories


Friday 27 May 2016

Forgot to add

Forgot to list yesterday's food and fitbit.

Food Diary
Weetabix
1 banana
chicken sandwich
1 blob of mayonnaise
5 cherry tomatoes
1 peach
2 glacier fruits
steak
salad
large blob mayonnaise
1 orange

FitBit (at 10.38 pm)
9,101 steps
3.82 miles
1,701 calories

And Friday's.
Food Diary
Weetabix
1 glacier fruit
stir fry veg and 3 ryvita
1 banana
1 Murray mint
handful Cheerios
chicken and spinach curry
rice
broccoli
1 orange

FitBit (at 8.46 pm)
11,947 steps
5 miles
1,764 calories

Thursday 26 May 2016

Because my husband loves me

Husband loves me very much.

I am very glad of that. The trouble is he loves my flab too.

Not too much of it, you understand, but enough to cuddle and get hold of. 'Women don't understand what men like,' he says. 

I suppose that's true. As I noted, it was men who grumbled at me last time I successfully lost weight. (I'm sure there are feminists out there objecting fiercely to my words but I am me and think and write like this and I am not above using my feminine wiles to get things done for me. But that's probably the subject for another post on another blog.)

I look in the mirror - on the rare occasions I dare - and I see my ugly white flabby belly and hips. I see nothing attractive at all. And I hate it. So when offered, for example, a piece of cake, I should have the incentive to say no ... but then I think, 'So what's a piece of cake? Husband loves me as I am,' and my hand reaches out and ...

Therein lies one of my problems.

Husband says, 'I will support you in your desire to lose weight because I know that being slimmer makes you more confident but I am happy with you as you are.'

Wonderful words, supportive, encouraging, loving. So why don't I settle for that? Rejoice and find confidence in my husband's love. 

A conundrum.



Wednesday 25 May 2016

Danger Day 1

GrandChildren with us for tea so that meant fighting the urge to eat leftover pizza - or even crusts. More or less stood firm and only ate 2 of the Giant Buttons they had for a treat.

My strength of will is partly due to the ulcer I have on the side of my tongue, making eating - and talking - painful. An aside: have you ever tried catching your tongue to put bonjela on it? Don't bother.

Not much exercise today plus my FitBit needed charging mid-day so poor scores but not too bad eating wise.

Food Diary
2 weetabix
1 murray mint
left-over roast veg and cheese
2 buttons
a few Cheerios
tiny bit of pizza cheese and crust
noodles
stir fry veg
stir fry prawns

FitBit (at 10.07 pm)
3,170 steps
1.33 miles
1,420 calories

Tuesday 24 May 2016

In which my resolve is tested

Uncle took us for lunch today before we went to an apartment viewing. I had decided before we went that I would have Caesar salad - but it wasn't on the menu. Nothing really healthy was so I settled for risotto. Yes, I shouldn't have eaten the garlic ciabatta but on the plus side I said no to dessert. Even though Uncle and Husband had it! Kudos to me.

And I had to have the 'free' salad bowl - because it was there - but resisted the coleslaw and potato salad although I did have one dollop of dressing.

Food Diary
2 weetabix etc
1 banana
mushroom risotto
garlic ciabatta
salad
date flapjack
1 banana

FitBit (at 7.10 pm)
12,526 steps
5.24 miles
1750 Calories

Monday 23 May 2016

Only day 2 and already I've lied

Well, not so much lied as omitted something. Nothing big, quite small actually. Small white cubes. Of sugar. I ate two yesterday.

I was reminded because I just ate two when I was ironing.

But how bad can two little sugar lumps be? Hang on ... 24 calories bad. (Thank you, google.) Which doesn't sound much does it? Really?

Yes, I know crunching sugar cubes is bad not only for my weight but my teeth and my diabetes risk I expect. And lying not counting them in my food diary is even worse. Okay, okay, I'll add them.

I bought them before Christmas for Uncle's 90th birthday tea party. I thought sugar cubes added a bit of class. (Proper posh, y'know.) And very few people took sugar with the result that I have three quarters of a box still in my pantry. I can't waste them. I could crush them all down I suppose. I wouldn't be tempted to eat a spoonful of sugar.

But I'm not alone. I met a friend in a coffee shop last week and though neither of us took sugar we still managed to chomp our way through half a sugar bowl's worth of cubes.

Now the Old Me would have said, 'I deserve a reward for my honesty: have a sugar cube,' but the New Me walks away, determinedly. With only a fleeting regretful glance.


Resisting the irrestible

I accidentally went to Sainsburys today. I had to take a friend to hospital and then I realised I didn't have any petrol so ... you get the picture.

I hadn't planned on going so didn't have my bags with me so tried to buy only things I definitely needed. Which turned out to require the purchase of 3 reusable bags anyway. But I'm rambling.

The problem I have with Sainsburys - apart from the tendency to buy food just in case - possibly in case of an apocalypse if you look in my fridge after a shop - is their BOGOF offers or Special Prices! Which inevitably involve boxes of Maltesers or Cadburys Fingers. At least the ones I look out for spot do.

But today I didn't allow myself to look. 

So my shopping consisted of fish, meat, vegetables and fruit. All most awfully healthy.

And tonight I have Thrive circuit training. The sun is shining so Jules may well make us run up and down the drive to the hall. Have I mentioned that I hate running with a passion? (Except when I'm racing against children of course.) I do. I do. I do.

Sally commented on my first post, asking if I was using Fitbit's food diary. I hadn't been as I didn't know it existed but it's very clever, telling you how many calories in the food you've just eaten. As long as I don't lie to it too much I should be able to get a better grip on where my wobbles are.

P.S. Speaking of wobbles, I'll be dealing with those in a later post.

Food Diary
2 weetabix with semi-skimmed milk and 1 teaspoon sugar
2 glacier fruits
3 ryvita with butter and marmite
4 cherry tomatoes
1 banana
2 sugar lumps
2 slices toast, baked beans and cheese
1 orange

FitBit
9,371 steps
3.93 miles
1782 calories

Sunday 22 May 2016

And so it begins

One day in May six years ago I lumbered onto the bathroom scales ... and jumped off again in horror. Tentatively I stuck a toe on and braved it again. It hadn't been a mistake: I did weigh more than I had ever done in my life. And that includes pregnancy.

At 5' 4" and 10 st 11 lbs I was one and half stone over the recommended weight for my height. I decided that was enough and took myself off to the nearest Rosemary Conley class.

A few years earlier I'd joined Slimming World and followed quite successfully the red and green day diet but the idea of an exercise class combined with a weigh-in struck me as a good one so I signed up.

By February 2011, about nine months after starting, I was receiving my Two Stone badge and at 8 st 11 lbs weighed less than I had since being a teenager. And people had noticed. Men especially. Who told me to 'stop losing weight!' 'Women are supposed to have curves.'

Today I look like this.
At 10 st 6 lb (body fat 34.3%) I know I'm not enormous. I can still get into size 12 clothes (just about) and I'm comparatively fit (if you compare me to an unfit woman of my age), but I hate the sight of the flab around my belly and on my hips. What I should do, of course, is show you a photo of it but there are limits.

The Rosemary Conley class has ceased to be but I have all the books and know how much of what I should eat so, in theory, I should be able to go it alone. Which is what I've been saying each week over the last five years as my weight has very gradually edged up and up. The rate of increase has speeded up and I suspect that there isn't a maximum at which it will settle but that, one day, unless I do something now I'll realise that I'm 20 st and rising.

So, to the point of this blog. The incentive about going to a class is the public humiliation if you fail to lose or - horror - put on. Now I know it's all done privately and no-one is embarrassed by the teacher but you inevitably get into conversation comparing weight change with other members of the class so it is vaguely public. Or as public as you'll let it be. Doing it for yourself lacks that vital aspect.

So I came up with the idea of this blog. A flab and all expose of my progress as well as a look at my bad - and good - habits and how I can change my way of thinking. And a mini eating diary.

You'll notice that for dinner today I ate macaroni cheese. Now I know that's not a good way to start a diet but I've been craving it since reading about it in where the elite meet to eat and, also, we didn't have any other food in the house.


Food Diary
2 weetabix, semi-skimmed milk, 1 teaspoon sugar
1 glacier fruit (20 cals - I just checked)
2 boiled eggs, 2 ryvita liberally spread with butter
5 cherry tomatoes
6 raspberries, some cheese when grating
Macaroni cheese and salad
I'll probably - almost certainly - have a banana when watching Wallander later.

(If you read that diary carefully you may get an idea of some of my bad habits that I'll write about more fully in future.)

FitBit (at 20.35)
10,154 steps
4.25 miles
1,724 calories burned